Love and Hate

By Tennisplaya278

I've thought it through and my worst brings out the best in you.
- A Decade Under the Influence; Taking Back Sunday-

-Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own Harry Potter and neither do you. Bananas are yellow, tomatoes are red, stop reading this and read my story instead!-

"Where am I?"

Both pairs of eyes turned to look as their Potion's Master sat up groggily. Their hands reached inside their pockets, ready to reach for their wands but just as Draco was about to mutter a spell Snape fell backwards and was unconscious again. They lowered their wands and tried to figure out what to do.

A very familiar silence crept upon them all and predictably, it was broken by Narcissa, the mirror. If their was one thing that Hermione had learned during the past day was that Draco had a very talkative mother.

"Now that was certainly interesting."

Apparently Draco had just about enough of his mother's nonsense and picked up the nearby box and threw it toward the mirror. Unfortunately for his mother, the box hit the mirror in the center and the whole thing began to shatter. There was a distant shriek from his bathroom which meant that she had gotten away safely.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione noticed that Draco had sighed and was going to pick up the box and repair the mirror. Then she watched as he stopped suddenly as if something he had been searching for all his life was right in front of his eyes. Little did she know…

It was not what he had been searching for or even hoping to find. In fact, he had never even seen or heard about it his entire life.

On the shelf was a golden chain attached to what was unmistakably a key. It too was gold and there were rubies engraved into it. He flipped it over and etched on the other side was, GP. Curiously, he showed it to Hermione who frowned.

"Well, nobody makes a key that doesn't open something. That would be such a waste of time." Her frown deepened. "GP? What could possibly that mean?"

She pocketed it and brushed it off, saying that getting out was more important than anything else. With her wand, she magicked up his map of Malfoy Manor to study it. Together, they filled in the missing blanks until the map was completed.

By then it was very late and both were exhausted from the long day. Draco conjured up some blankets and a pillow and began to head for the couch to sleep on it. Hermione on the other hand, insisted that he sleep on the bed and she would sleep on the couch. In the end, Hermione was on the bed and Draco was on the couch.

"Good night Hermione."

"Night Draco."

"Sweet dreams."

"You too."

The lights went out and both fell into a dreamless sleep, content with where they were and who they were with.

&&&

Sometime during the night, Hermione woke up and realized that maybe a few charms on his room would be a bit helpful. Thus, a silencing, locking and a few other charms were cast and the room was as safe as it could get. Unless of course, Lucius would resort to the Dark Arts. Then, and only then, would they be in trouble.

Narcissa figured it out and the next day, a shriek woke them up. Apparently, Narcissa had decided to tune up her singing voice. Unfortunately for them, she didn't have a particularly good voice and it turned into a loud cry. She kept shouting and yelling until Draco finally had to threaten her again with the same box.

Draco walked over to the bed in which Hermione was resting and peered at her face. She was frowning but it wasn't unusual. Her face seemed to have been permanent grimace on it.

His arms gently shook her awake and she groggily nodded her head before her eyes opened. She squinted at him and blinked. Groaning, she stood up.

"What time is it?"

"5:30."

Hermione groaned again but smiled afterwards. "So I believe it's time to get out of this house? I'm missing Hogwarts terribly and I'm sure Ron and Harry are a bit worried. And I'm so far behind on my homework and – Oh! We have that test in transfiguration…"

He smiled at her awkwardly before summoning up his map. Together, they began to work on it and by seven, it was near completion. The only things missing were the dungeons and a room that neither Draco or Narcissa had ever entered.

Lucius' study.

Within that room were where death eater meetings would occur and at regular occasions torture was heard. Then a cruel laughter rang out from it. Each and every time Draco passed it, a tingle ran down his spine and he would run up the stairs very quickly. Once or twice, he dared to stand there for a little longer just to hear what was going on.

Draco did know one thing for a fact about that room. It had a large fireplace, perfect for floo-ing a group of people at once. It was also the only fireplace not monitored in the house. That was the room they needed to get to.

As he told Hermione about the room, her forehead creased. She picked up the mysterious key and opened the door. She silently told Draco to pick up Snape. It proved to be a problem when Snape collapsed onto the floor, still out cold.

However, just as she was about to walk over, Snape's eyes fluttered open. For the first time, he allowed emotions to be shown in those cold black eyes and both could tell he was confused, even a little scared. They shushed him before motioning him to follow out the door.

Once outside, they initiated the invisibility charm onto the group and gripped hands. Hermione led the way, every once in a while glancing at the map that was tucked inside her pocket.

They ran down the stairs, almost tripping a few times until finally they were in front of the study once again. Hermione pulled out the map and studied it. Draco felt her squeeze his palm.

Lucius was in his study and he wasn't alone.

-Author's Note-

I have a lot of announcements to make so if you'd like to just review, go ahead and skip this.

1.) Firstly, sorry I haven't updated in ages (as KittyOfWonder has kindly reminded me). As I was writing this chapter, I noticed that I was getting really bad. My sentences were repetitive, my words were boring, and just the overall story-erg. So for the next week, I'll be going through the story, changing a couple of chapters here and there. If you'd like, you can go back and re-read the chapters. Most will be completed by next Friday.

2.) I'm going to create a weekly update. Every Friday, I'll be updating whatever I have finished. Sometime it'll be long, othertimes just a couple hundred words. Either way, I am absolutly not going to do what I have done for the past month and not update for months at a time.

3.) Love and Hate will also be entered in , a audition only. So, wish me luck!

4.) This story is getting finished rather quickly. No questions have been brought up about when this story will finish but I think there will be at least 3 more chapters. I'm also toying with the idea of a sequel? We'll see.

And lastly a big, big, BIG thank you to anyone who has EVER reviewed for this story. I've missed them these past few months. Some of the ones right off the top of my head are KittyOfWonder, CCBChunks (Hermione is the phoenix. She's an animagus. And yes, Draco would be more skeptical, hence why I'm going back to change a few chapters.) and Jomai. You guys have been reviewing right from the start. My love to you.