Hermione opened her eyes the next morning as the light shone through into her room. She sighed peacefully and snuggled closer to Draco. As she closed her eyes she heard a faint knocking. Her eyes fluttered open again and she listened for the noise that had awoken her. The only sound to reach her ears was the faint ticking of the bedside clock. She closed her eyes again and started to drift asleep. As her thoughts cleared out, leaving her to an empty void of sleep a voice rang out through the room.

"Get away from her, you filthy ferret!" Hermione's eyes opened at the sound of her best friend, Harry Potter's voice. A spell flew from the tip of his wand, landing square onto Draco. Draco's eyes flew open as he was propelled backward into the wall.

"What the bloody hell!" he screamed out as his head clashed with the stone wall.

"Stay away from her!" Hermione looked to her friends in confusion.

"Harry? Ron? What is the meaning of this?"

"How could you have trusted that filth, Mione?" Ron growled from beside Harry. "We tried to warn you that he was lying, that he could never change." Hermione looked back and forth between the three wizards. She raised an eyebrow in question as her two best friends glared with hatred at her boyfriend.

"What is wrong with you two? Have you both lost your minds?!?"

"We're just doing now what we should have done long ago. We tried to come after you, Mione, really we did. Dumbledore wouldn't let us out of his sight long enough to plan where the sodding jerk had taken you to." Harry growled between his teeth as pure venom dripped from his gaze at the young Malfoy. Blood dripped from a gash on Draco's head, red staining his perfect blonde hair. He carefully put a hand to his wound. Another spell released from Harry's wand slammed the blonde's head against the wall yet again. Hermione screamed and reached for Harry's wand.

"Stop!" Tears fell down her face as she watched her beloved cringe in pain. Hermione held Harry's wrist as he battled for control over his wand. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the slytherin reach behind his back, into his pocket. She turned back to Harry and grabbed his wand with her other hand too, struggling to keep his attention averted from her boyfriend. A flash of light crossed her sight. She released her hold on the wand to throw her hands to her face. A loud grunt echoed through the room. Hermione lowered her arms to see the savior of the wizarding world sprawled on the floor on the opposite wall. "Harry!" Hermione called out. Ron stood staring at his best friend, wide eyed and conscious of the fact that Harry's wand was now out of reach and one very irate Slytherin was armed.

"Will someone please explain to me why I was awoken to have my head bashed into the wall?" Draco more demanded than asked, his voice barely over a whisper but packed with enough anger and threat to sound like a roar. He scanned over the three Gryffindors, scrutinizing the two intruders. Ron stared, mouth agape and face white. Harry groaned and reached for his wand only to have Draco shoot another spell. "I demand answers now, Potter."

"We came for Hermione, we couldn't let you hurt her anymore. I wanted to act the moment we knew you were gone but Dumbledore held us here. I swear to God, Malfoy, I'll kill you." He growled.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?"

"I knew you couldn't be trusted, Malfoy. You're nothing but a clone of your father." he spat. Draco narrowed his eyes.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me." Draco raised his wand to cast yet another spell.

"NO! Can't you two just stop." Hermione called out, tears streaming her face. She walked over to Draco and put a hand on his wand.

"Get away from him, Hermione!"

"What are you talking about?"

"What is the meaning of this?" All four students turned to the doorway where the headmaster stood, anger burning in his eyes.

"How could you let that Deatheater back into Hogwarts?" Harry called out as he stood up, leaning against the wall, wand in hand.

"Deatheater?!" Hermione watched in horror as her boyfriend turned a shade of red to put even the Weasley's at shame. "Watch you mouth, Potter." he spat.

"Watch yourself, Malfoy. I know how you managed to seduce Hermione and drag her to the Dark Lord and you will pay for it now."

"Mr. Potter, in my office now, along with the rest of you." Ron gave his hand to Harry and pulled him to his feet. They followed the headmaster out the portrait opening, looking over their shoulders and glaring at the blonde. Hermione put an arm around Draco to steady him and slowly followed her two best friends. They made their way through the castle silently, glaring as often as possible. As they turned a corner Ron looked back to Draco. Draco glared at the Gryffindor. Ron stumbled as his foot hit a crack in the floor. With a look of horror and a sudden cry he fell face first onto the pavement. Draco snickered as Harry bent over and helped his now scraped up best friend to his feet. Ron glared at the Slytherin as he brushed his robes off.

"I've always heard that weasels weren't graceful." Draco smirked as Ron narrowed his eyes. Harry reached out and put a hand on Ron's arm.

"Come on, Ron, he's not worth it." Ron reluctantly turned around and quickly walked after the headmaster.

"Now, will someone kindly tell me what happened here?" Professor Dumbledore asked after the four students had seated themselves in his office.

"Well, you see,"

"That idiot attacked me!"

"We were just,"

"One at a time please." Dumbledore raised his hands up to signal silence. "Now, Miss Black, please give your side of the story."

"Thank you, sir. Well you see, I was awaken when Harry and Ron entered the room and well, cast a spell on Draco. Draco retaliated and then you intervened."

Dumbledore nodded, "Thank you, Miss Black. Mr. Malfoy?"

"I awoke to be slammed against a wall, for no apparent reason, by Potter." he drawled. Harry slammed his hand down onto the arm rest of his chair.

"I had a perfectly logical reason for what I did and you know it, Malfoy!"

"What the hell did I do to deserve that, Potter?"

"Please, please, calm down, gentlemen. Now, Mr. Potter, would you please give your side of the story?" Dumbledore asked, a tired expression in his eyes. Harry sent a hate filled glare at Draco one last time before launching into his story.

"Well, you see, Professor, when you sent us that owl saying that both Hermione and Malfoy had been returned we knew we had to come rescue Hermione."

"Rescue me? From what pray tell?"

"That filthy Deatheater. We knew the truth, Hermione, you don't have to cover for him anymore. We won't let him hurt you."

"Just what are you accusing me of, Potter?" Draco asked quietly, eyes narrowed.

"We know what you've been doing all this time, Malfoy." Harry spat. "Did you think you could honestly get away with it? No one curses our Mione, threatens her and then hurts her."

"Harry Potter! I am appalled, how could you say that? I've told you before that he hasn't done anything like that!" Hermione screeched, hurt in her eyes.

"Potter, you need to check yourself, majorly. I would never harm Hermione."

"How else can you explain how both of you managed to vanish with a Deatheater unless you had it planned?"

"Potter, you are a complete idiot. Why would I stage an attack and have myself beaten and cursed just to get at your friend when I could have easily put the Imperious spell on her myself if I am guilty of being a Deatheater?" Draco rubbed his forehead, obviously fighting a headache. "For the supposed savior of the world you sure are dense."

"Dense?!"

"Now, now." Dumbledore warns, a slight twinkle returning to his eye. "I think I see the problem here. Now, Harry, I assure you that Mr. Malfoy is not in leagues with the Deatheaters. Isn't this correct, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Of course it is, sir. I would never associate myself with that filth."

"You didn't seem to have a problem with it before. Always bending and kissing dear daddy's hem." Harry snarled. Draco narrowed his eyes.

"Don't you dare speak about what you don't know, Potter." Draco pushed himself up out of the chair and stalked over to the door, rigid with anger and hurt.

"Running away from the truth are we, Malfoy?"

"Shut the fuck up, Potter, before I beat Voldemort to your death." he growled as he flung the door open and started down the steps. Hermione turned to her best friend, tears in her eyes.

"How could you, Harry? I thought you were better than that." She turned her head down and chased after Draco.

AN omg... i am so sorry... please feel free to beat the crap out of me for taking so long. My life just went crazy and i haven't been able to write and i had a major writers block... :( yea, yea, i know its short... and it sucks really bad:S i would say this is one of my worst chapters but at least its something :S

alrity then, thank you to all my wonderful reviewers! love ya lots! I really appricate that you all are staying with me even tho im taking so long to update:S. i just have one person i need to answer this time,

Hi: i want to thank you for bringing up your points. I see where your coming from and i will try to sort that out for you now,

Why is it that Draco seems closer to Hermione than her best friends?

They are in love... I don't know about everyone else but I'm really close to my boyfriend, maybe not as close as I am to my bestfriend but deffinatly close. I understand what you mean and I think the best way I can describe it is, She's in love with him, he's in love with her, their personalities are very compatiable, and the prophesy is pulling them together in a way too:P

Do you really think Harry and ron would just sit around moping when Hermione had been kidnapped by death eaters?

Good point, no they would not. I purposely did not give out much info on what they were doing, perhaps that wasn't the smartest of things to do on my part shrugs Hopefully this chapter helped clear that up... they were in fact trying to help Hermione however, since she is the brains of the operation, they had a bit more trouble thinking clearly over the situation.

I don't think Harry or Ron would rest, let alone leave Hogwarts, until Hermione was safe again?

Once again correct. I'm quite sure they didn't rest and this ties in with my previous answer. Why they left Hogwarts? Dumbledore made them. If your best friend just up and is kidnapped, wouldn't your advisor send you home to your parents, or in Harry's case the people who acted most like your parents, for comfort? I perfectly understand what you are saying though and I agree with you, they wouldn't have left Hogwarts unless they were forced to.

Why didn't the Death eaters kidnap harry and Ron, too?

I never really said just where they were or if they even went at all. I left you to assume that they did and im sure they did go. However, when the deatheaters attacked, they only attacked in the one area, where Draco and Hermione were. I never said that Harry and Ron were anywhere near Draco and Hermione, nor that they had seen them anytime since leaving the castle.

Don't Harry and Ron seem just a little apathatic about Hermione?

I'll admitt it, yes they do. :S I'm hoping that this chapter has helped with that, I'm blaming it on the fact that they still don't trust Draco and therefore doubt Hermione's decission to be with him. shrugs

I hope that helped with some of the things that was bothering you, and i hope i didn't just make it worse:S

Please review and give me your opinions, flames are welcome and I love it when people tell me how to improve :D Once again I appoligize for the horribly long wait. I have no idea where I'm going with this story and I am open for suggestions on anything you want to see happen! Please, i beg of you to give me some ideas :P I'm going to start on chapter 18 right now as a matter of fact and i really hope to have it out next weekend... hopefully the dreaded writers block will be gone... and hopefully my boyfriend will shut up so i can finish this author's note:P

moseysdragon