Hermione woke with a painful twinge down her scalp and back, and the events of the previous night came flooding back immediately, along with a deep sense of dread. Much as she thought it was improbable when Harry first brought it up, his theory that Malfoy was a Death Eater was much more likely in light of her recent encounters with the suspect in question. 'I have to tell Harry,' Hermione thought, though she was dreading it, and not just because she hated to be proven wrong. Harry was growing more and more obsessed with Malfoy, and even if he was a Death Eater, Harry needed to focus on his work with Dumbledore to defeat Voldemort.

Besides, Hermione thought, carefully getting dressed to avoid tugging at her new cursed burn, the situation wasn't as straight-forward as it may have appeared at the start of September. She had come across Malfoy more over the past few weeks than the past five years, and all her old interactions with him had been short exchanges of insults and slurs. Now he was actually talking to her. Most important, though, were the constantly red eyes, the gaunt and sick appearance, and the paralysing panic attack she had witnessed.

Either Malfoy was having doubts about Voldemort's aims or methods, or he was in way over his head. From a pragmatic standpoint, it didn't matter which – if Malfoy was a Death Eater, he was an incredibly weak link in Voldemort's organisation. He was an asset with untold potential. Prophecy or not, destroying Voldemort was an almost impossible task. An opportunity to gain intelligence or maybe even turn a man in Voldemort's inner circle was the kind of miracle they needed to even have a chance of pulling this off.

On reflection, maybe telling Harry wasn't the right move – Hermione didn't trust him to trust her opinion on this, and it was too good an opportunity to blow in a fit of Harry's heroics. Professor Dumbledore seemed to be the most trustworthy and knowledgeable person to discuss potential turned Death Eaters with, so she'd have to wait until she was back at school.

The Hogwarts Express was leaving at 9am, and Harry and the others were heading to the Weasley household early in the morning as well, so after packing the last of her things for the holiday week Hermione headed downstairs to say goodbye. Her anger at Ron seemed a bit childish after the events of the past 12 hours, but as she walked into the common room she was greeted to the sight of Ron and Lavender trying to reach their tongues into each other's throats. Talking to Ron could happen after the holidays, Hermione decided, or at least when he stopped being so revolting and mean.

Harry saw her and immediately headed over, no doubt grateful to be rescued from the Ron and Lavender show. "Hi Hermione, I didn't see you…what happened to your head?"

"Oh, it's nothing, the hair straightening charm got away from me," Hermione lied, glad she had an easy excuse thanks to her efforts to dress up for Slughorn's party.

"How did you hide that last night?" Harry said, frowning.

"I had my hair up, remember?" Hermione hadn't counted on Harry's complete lack of interest in her appearance, but his lack of memory would help cement the lie as the truth. "You must have been popular at Slughorn's, I only saw you once."

"Yeah, McLaggen kept annoying me looking for you," Harry said, and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Ugh. Yeah, I went home early…don't tell Ron that," she added, narrowing her eyes at him. "Do you know when Professor Dumbledore will be back at Hogwarts?"

"No. I don't even know what he's doing," Harry said quietly, and Hermione grimaced.

"Well, you know in a general sense, right?" she replied, trying to be encouraging. "And he's telling you a lot in your lessons…I'm sure he'll let you know when he gets back."

She gave him a hug. "I've got to get going, or I'll miss the train. Have a good Christmas, Harry."

"Yeah, happy Christmas Hermione," he replied. She ducked out the portrait hole to get to the train, and escaped into the blissfully ignorant and comfortably electrified muggle world.

It seems like every fanfic I write is about enemies trying to turn each other haha. Thank you for reading, if you like the story so far or have any thoughts please leave a review!