Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. All credit must be given to J.K.

The Cradle Will Fall

Chapter 9

"Hermione." Draco raised his hand over the rowdy crowd in the hall, trying to catch her attention. She looked up and spotted a pale hand beckoning to her. She knew who it was immediately and pushed her way through the crowd.

"Hey. I've been looking for you." He looked relaxed.

"Where's Danny?" Hermione remembered Draco volunteering to watch him during her Ancient Runes class. She was supposed to be meeting with McGonagall, but for some reason she couldn't find her.

"Professor McGonagall wanted to watch him." Draco thought it was peculiar that she had knocked on Hermione's common room door so she could take Daniel. 'Why did she knock? She knows the password.' Draco shrugged, figuring she was trying to be polite.

"That's nice of her, but did she forget that I needed to meet with her?" Hermione's shoulders seemed to loosen up when he had told her. She was glad she didn't have to worry about Daniel. But still, she wondered why McGonagall would watch him if she had things to do.

"Let's get out of here." Draco led her out the front doors and down the castle stairs. Hermione was puzzled by this, but allowed him to lead her all the way around to the castle towards the back, where the grounds ended in a very high cliff. Draco walked over to the edge of the cliff, making her uneasy.

"Draco, I don't think you should be doing that." He didn't respond. Instead, he kept his head low, as if he was searching for something. And he was. Seconds later he had uncovered a rusted, large handle from under the snow. He pulled with all his strength, finally getting it to slowly creak open.

"What is it?" Hermione looked at the hole in the ground and was surprised when he had grabbed her wrist and pulled her down into it with him.

"I have a class right now." She was slightly concerned but grinned anyway. They were walking down a dark stairway, and, oddly enough, as they went further down, it seemed to get warmer.

"Don't worry about it. Just skip with me this one time." She laughed and squeezed his hand. For a second, an image of Harry proposing the same thing popped into her mind, but it was soon forgotten when they reached the bottom.

There was a pool of hot, steaming water in the middle of the room. Draco let go of her hand and had immediately removed his school robes, and within seconds was nude and into the pool. Hermione could feel herself blush but immediately shook it off.

"Come on, the water's great." His hair was wet and hung to the side of his face, revealing his striking blue eyes. He beckoned her to join him. She felt a little embarrassed momentarily, but he gave her a large toothy grin that allowed her to relax.

She hesitated at first. She had never really been comfortable naked with anyone. Except Harry, that is. When she had removed her school robe, Draco gave her a wider grin, encouraging her to continue.

When she was completely nude, she kneeled at the side of the pool, attempting to slowly slide into the water. She was caught completely off guard, though, when Draco had taken a hold of her wrist and pulled her in.

"Draco!" She pushed the wet hair out of her face and glared at him. He didn't mind though, for he found it very amusing. He apologized, though. Draco pulled Hermione to him, her breasts pushed firmly against his chest. She felt safe then, forgetting there was ever a Voldemort and Death Eaters. She set her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Draco ran his fingers across Hermione's back, pulling her out of her reverie. She remembered something from earlier that week, though, and immediately pulled apart from Draco.

"Draco?" He looked down at her and gave her a questioning look. "Do you know Blaise Zabini?" Draco's eyebrows flew up at the name. He was surprised she would bring him up right now and gave a half laugh.

"Yeah. He's in Slytherin. A seventh year." Draco looked to the side as he thought about him. "And we're somehow related. One of his mother's husbands is connected to my mother's side of the family. Complicated and unimportant. Why?" He said it as an afterthought, but this was cause enough for Hermione to push him farther away from her.

"What? Why does it matter?" Draco was puzzled and began to reach for her. When he had extended his arm, though, she had grabbed his wrist and held it tight in her hand.

"What's that, Draco?" Hermione stared at him with a blank face, apparently angry about what she had found. She held his wrist with her right hand and pointed to the Death Mark with her left.

"It's nothing." He pulled away quickly. "It's common, especially if your parents are associated with the Death Eaters. That's part of my past, though." He was out of breath by now. He didn't care. As long as he was providing a sufficient explanation for the mark. She seemed to accept it though, for she had once again set her head on his shoulder.

"Hermione?" Draco frowned when he realized she was crying, no, sobbing into his shoulder.

"Was it you, then? You were the one who raped me." She closed her eyes, not wanting to look at him. She dug her nails into his shoulder, not wanting to face the facts. If what he said were true, then it would make sense that Daniel had gotten his blue eyes from someone in Draco's family.

"What?" Draco's frown deepened as he thought back. Back a year and a half. He remembered Blaise telling him he had done something. 'Have fun last night? You're a real gentleman, you know that? I guess a score is a score.' Blaise winked but Draco had no clue what he was talking about. He had been too smashed to remember anything. 'Yeah.' Draco shook the memory from his mind.

"I don't know." He felt Hermione's nails dig deeper into his back, but continued, "I don't know what happened that night. All I remember is getting really drunk after a quidditch game. Blaise said I had had sex with someone. I didn't think it had been forced." Draco pressed Hermione to his chest, a little frightened by his new discovery. Hermione couldn't explain it, but she didn't want to pull away. Her senses told her to jump out of the pool and to run—run far away from Draco Malfoy as possible, but she didn't. She understood. She didn't see how it was possible, but she understood.

"I love you." Hermione slowly smiled and looked at Draco, waiting for a response. She watched as his mouth fell open and slowly took form of a smile.

"And it's funny, really," He pressed his forehead to hers, "Because I love you." The two laughed silently. Draco leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her softly but firmly. He wrapped his arms around her waist and looked into her eyes.

Hermione smiled and Draco nodded. He hoisted her up, setting her on the edge of the pool. He then pulled himself up and continued kissing her, moving his kisses down her body.

Hermione squeezed Draco's hand as they sneaked back into the castle. The two were trying to be as devious as possible, but with their hands locked and both with soaking wet hair, anyone could have guessed what they had been up to.

They were walking up the marble stairs, confident they had gotten away with skipping class, when McGonagall had called to them from below.

"Where have you two been?" She was at the foot of the stairs, tapping her foot impatiently with her hands on her hips. Her stern look could have brought Lucius himself to tears.

"I was looking for you, Professor." Hermione released her grip from Draco and walked down to her. Draco was quick to follow.

"I was told you took Danny with you. You wanted to watch him." Draco nodded at what Hermione was saying. McGonagall frowned, though.

"I did now such thing." Draco's face drained of color then and his mouth fell open.

"What do you mean? You knocked on the door, remember?" Draco laughed nervously, hoping the professor was joking.

"Mister Malfoy, stop this right now! You know I have classes to teach all day long. Breakfast, lunch, right now, and dinner is the only time I have for free time. And during my free time I had meetings scheduled with students, one of which was supposed to be attended by you, Miss Granger." Both Draco and Hermione paled. It was Hermione's biggest fear.

"Well, someone who looked exactly like you, professor, knocked on the common room door a couple hours ago and claimed they wanted to watch Daniel." Draco said in a monotonous voice, a sickening feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. He had an idea of who had taken him.

"I'm sure you're mistaken, Mister Malfoy. It must have been someone else. No worries, though. I'm sure he'll turn up somewhere." Hermione was shocked by her complete lack of concern.

"Now get back to class." McGonagall turned to leave.

"We have to find him." Draco said this quickly, the fear in his eyes very apparent now. Hermione nodded, trusting his instincts.

"I'm going to sprint up to my common room for some things." Hermione nodded and tried swallowing, but her mouth was too dry. She watched as Draco ran quickly up the stairs and around the corner. 'If he's afraid, I don't know how I'm supposed to feel right now.'