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Chapter 5 - Caught in the Act

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On that fateful morning in question, Hermione had felt something wrong. She knew something was not going to go well today, although, she had already felt that was every morning because she had to go and see the Malfoy's everyday -- today was just worse. As much as she hated to admit it, her opinions of Draco had changed, even if ever so slightly. That didn't necessarily mean it was for the better or anything, just changed slightly. Her opinion of Lucius had changed as well. It turns out that he is even more of a conniving bastard than she previously determined him. He thrashed about everywhere and it was difficult to even keep an eye on him, because even though he was on the second floor, he almost always kept his drapes drawn shut. She could still hear him, but most of the time, the only reason he even came into his room was to sleep and change clothes.

She had heard quite a number of fights between not only Draco and Lucius, but Lucius and Narcissa. She, as everyone knew, was a death eater as well and was just as faithful as Lucius was -- just... she didn't want her family to fall apart. She had married out of social standing, for everyone knew Lucius was more connected than the Minister of Magic himself. Her mother had been ecstatic at the marraige ("Finally, my Narcissa will be in the upper standards...") but her father had seemed less than pleased ("Dont you think you should think about loving someone before you..."). Narcissa didn't love, not then, or at least not for Lucius. She didn't feel like she could have gotten a better deal -- only until later did she realize that thinking of a marraige as a good business investment was probably not one of her better judgement calls. However, she had given birth to Draco, something she always wanted, a child to call her own. Sure, she was almost as demonic as the Dark Lord himself, but that didn't stop her womanly instincts taking a hold once in a while. Lucius had been delerious with happiness -- an heir! An heir! Of course, he would have to whip him into shape if he was ever to be presentable. Now, however, they were getting into more and more fights, mostly about petty things. Never did he use the Cruciatus curse on her as he would do to Draco quite frequently, he would never lay a hand on her, just berate her mentally. She knew almost as much as he in the area of the Dark Arts and although he did not think she would use them on him, he remained ever cautious.

Meanwhile, her assesment had changed of Draco for much different reasons. Noting the first time he played the violin, she had been dumbfounded and captivated. A soft side, if even so miniscule -- that is, before he knocked out his own father. The journal he had kept wasn't always concealed by his hand, and sometimes she could read some of the things he wrote. She felt bad for reading some of his more personal things, but, that was what she was there for and she was going to do it, by God, she followed the rules! More than often, he wrote about what a tyrant his father was, other times about the war and confusion. Of course there were the semi-frequent times he wrote about his friends (Crabb, Goyle, Pansy, Zambini) or about "kicking the shit out of one of the house elves" as he so graphically put it. Two times, she saw him writing poetry, something she never would have guessed about him. They were both sorrowful and grief-stricken... mostly about death, and himself. They were so eloquently written that she never would have guessed that he had written either of them and if someone would have told her that he had, she would have laughed ... for hours.

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Hermione once again, read and studied all day and periodically would go and glance at the faux-window in her room. Not once did it change for the better -- if anything, it got worse. When Lupin returned, she got up from the couch in the reading room and set off again for her shift.

When Hermione reached the Malfoy manor, she glided smoothly past many of the windows. Not once did she spot Lucius or Narcissa, and she couldn't hear them in their room. Not that she didn't expect this -- Lupin had told her that he overheard them talking about some huge soiree at the Zambini manor. She made her was towards Draco's room and peered in, like she had done for the past two weeks. There was Draco, sitting at his desk, writing something on a piece of parchment. Unfortunatly for Hermione, she couldn't read anything he wrote over there because the desk was in the inner portion of the rrom, the opposite from the windows. Hermione cursed under her breath and waited. When he finished, he brought it to his large owl, which clutched it with its talons, nipped him regally (if thats possible), and soared to the window. Draco walked over to the exact window Hermione was at, and opened it to allow him (or her) to leave. For a moment, he looked straight at her, and she panicked to make sure he could see nothing. When he closed the door, he strode over to a large bookshelf and grabbed a large book that seemed to be disintegrating in his hands. He sat in a large comfortable chair opposite Hermione and began to read from it.

Hermione moved closer to the window so she could make out the title of the book -- leave it to Hermione to want to know something like that. She was now almost nose to nose with the window and she could almost make out the title when...

Knock knock knock.

For a split second, Draco looked straight out the window she was hovering by, then closed his book and set it on the sidetable and walked to the door.

"Come in, hurry it up" she heard him drawl. The door opened to reveal the same house elf as before, carrying a tray of steak, other assorted foods, and several pills. Draco snatched up the pills and the glass of water and swallowed each one in quick succession. He put the water back on the tray and turned away from the elf.

"No, I'm not hungry. You can do something for me, however. I'm getting stuffy in here, make your damn self useful and open the windows."

"Yes master." The tray in the elf's hands magically disappeared as it walked over to the first window on Hermione's right and unlatched it. She was startled at first, but realized this really did nothing, as he still couldn't see her. Draco walked back over towards his chair and picked up his book and began to read, once again. Kito finally finished with all the windows and asked Draco if there was anything else he needed. When he threw a shoe at the poor elf, it figured that was a 'no' and darted swiftly from the room. Hermione was debating on whether or not to send a secret jinx towards him for this fowl behaivor when a large red jet of light came flying swiftly at her. Before she could respond, the light collided with her and she felt herself go limp.

Draco stood up, pocketed his wand and left his room, walked down two flights of stairs and out the entrance doors. He rounded the side of the house and saw a single foot lying in the grass right below his window and a large rug planted in the bushes. He knew they had to have been under a invisibility cloak, he wasn't stupid -- so, he grabbed the rug and performed a hovering charm on the unconcious body and floated it through the front doors and up the two flights of stairs. He made sure to bump the body's head on every step he passed. When he reached his room he floated the body to the middle of his room, dropped the body unceremoniously on the ground as well as the rug, and then went to lock every door and window. When he was sure there was noone else getting in or out of this room, he cast a binding spell on the body so that they couldn't move when he woke them up. He then cast 'Ennervate' on them and pulled back the cloak to reveal...

"Granger! What the hell?"

"Oh my god, you're going to torture me until I die, this is it, this is really it! I didn't even get to say goodbye to..." Hermione started frantically.

"Why were you hovering outside my window!"

"How did you find out? I was bloody invisible!"

"I'm asking the questions here! Answer me mudblood! Why were you outside my window!"

"I'm not telling you! Are you insane! I'm going to die anyways, just get it over with!" she announced dramatically.

"I'm not going to kill you... yet. Answer the bloody question or I'll get the veritarserum!" he threatened.

"Let me go!" she cried.

"Alright that is it." He walked away for a moment, fiddled around with something behind her in which she couldn't see because she couldnt turn her head that far and she couldnt move the rest of her body. It felt as though she were bound in tight ropes. When he returned she tried to bite his ankle wildly but missed and was almost stepped on instead.

"You need to learn some manners, open your mouth!" When she didn't he cast a spell on her where she couldn't close it. He dropped a few drops of clear liquid into her mouth and undid the spell. He set the rest of the contents on his desk and turned to watch his magic.

"I'm not going to tell you Malfoy, I would never... Lupin sent me. I'm supposed to watch you and your parents because they are known deatheaters. Everyone knows you were going to kill Dumbledore, but chickened out, so we all know you're a deatheater too, just a bad one. There are others being watched as well. I'm supposed to document anything of importance that I witness here in case it can help us." Hermione's mind pleaded with her to stop talking but her own mouth betrayed her. "We've found out about several meetings and ...let me go!" The veritarserum he had used wasn't meant to be longlasting but he got what he wanted -- he knew about the Order of the Phoenix from his father. "How did you find me? That's the least you can do before you kill me," she spat.

"No, the least I can do is rape and torture you until you beg for the escape of death. No worries in that department though, I wouldn't touch you with a 20 foot pole and say Goyle did it. Torture... maybe..." he finished looking thoughtful.

"Fine, then do it. Torture and kill me, let's get it over with," she said, her famous Gyrffindor temper getting the better of her, even in her time of peril. He walked away from her then, opened the window and strode back over to her. He cast an unbinding spell on her, but she still lay there, whether it be in shock or what, if he noticed, he didn't show it.

"Get out," he said pointedly.

"W-what?" She asked, still laying there motionless. "Why are you letting me go?" This was fishy. Very fishy.

"Get up. I figure if I let you go, you won't be dirtying up my room with your mudbloodness, and I know you won't be stupid, or brave -- depending how you look at it, to come back. You'd be too scared anyways," he said striding over to his chair and settling himself in. "Go on, get out!"

Hermione got up, tentatively, very aware that he had a wand stashed somewhere in his pocket. Now that she could move though, she grabbed the rug in one hand, never letting her eyes leave Malfoy. She had one hand in her pocket, grasping her wand very tightly. She backed away from Malfoy, slowly dragging the rug and put one foot out the window. She was surprised he let her keep the invisibility cloak, but never the less she threw it over herself and tossed the rug out the window where it swayed gently. She mounted it, still watching him -- he never looked up. Not once. She jumped the rest of the way on the rug and flew off toward the cabin, taking more glances behind her to assure he wasn't watching her -- he wasn't.

She wondered why he let her go, was he going to tell his father? Surely he would... And what about her being too afraid to come back? She would have none of this. She wondered what Lupin would think when he told her all of this. She stopped in mid air, over the stream. Was she going to tell him? Did he really need to know she messed up? What was she thinking, of course she did.

When she got back to the Cabin she looked at the clock. 2:03 AM, Lupin would still be asleep. She walked into his room and yelled his name, he woke up so suddenly that his head almost collided with her when he sat straight up. She backed away and he apologized -- he told her to wait out in the kitchen for him.

When he arrived, Hermione made him sit down and told him everything that happened. She expected him to call off the entire mission, making her feel bad about getting caught and the like. Instead, he looked up solemnly, but determined.

"We have to go back.. you know that right? I'm not so sure if Draco will tell his father, I mean, look at the relationship he has with the man. I would bet it's a 50/50. He hates us, but he also hates his father, I suppose it depends on what side he really is on. Either way, we have to go back, we need this information, beleive it or not, it has helped the Order. We'll just have to be more careful next time." Lupin went to get up and took the rug from her. "I'll start my shift early, I beleive." He walked out the front door, leaving a confused Hermione behind.

She wasn't sure whether to feel angry and embarrassed that she had gotten caught and STILL had to see the Malfoy's everyday, or releived that now she could still prove herself to the order AND to Malfoy. How dare he think she wasnt brave enough to return! She would show him! With that, she walked into her room, not bothering to notice the hurricane like storm in her mock-window and fell into a troubled sleep.