a/n: Sorry about the wait...thanks everyone for the reviews from last chapter, hope you all like this one!
Disclaimer: JK owns anything you recognise from the books.
Chapter Two - Apart
The next day, Hermion was walking with Harry and Ron to Charms class when she saw Draco coming towards them. A jolt of happiness shot thorugh her, followed by the awful realisation that they weren't together anymore. She had to turn away from Harry and Ron, hiding the tears in her glassy eyes. When Draco reached them, he brushed past Hermione, letting his hand slide over hers. Again Hermione felt the electricity when he touched her, but knew that if they were going to make a clean break, she couldn't hold out for inconspicuous meetings in the halls. So from then on, the next few weeks were hell on earth. Draco was insistent on their separation so Hermione had to deal with seeing him in the halls pretending she didn't exist, and she had to pretend right back. Each morning Hermione got up earlier and earlier, obsessively applying concealement charms on the increasingly dark circles under her eyes. In classes she had to force herself to answer questions, and talkhappily with Harry and Ron. No-one knew she was dating anyone, so they couldn't know they had broken up. Despite the generous use of magic, Hermione's face still looked pinched and pale, although Hermione explained this to Harry and Ron as something to do with a 'girl issue' and they didn't press it. Ginny couldn't be fobbed off with such a wimpy excuse, she knew there was nothing in a female's biology which caused her to be unhappy 24/7, but fortunately, she wasn't in any classes with Hermione, and spent most of her free time with Harry.
Draco was having just as hard a time coping at Hermione. He was forcing himself not to contact Hermione via the locket until after he had gone away, afraid that if he spoke to her every night, he would slip up during the day, thinking that they were still together. Once they were apart it would be safe to talk, since it wasn't like they would see each other the next day.
They were only alone together once before the start of the Christmas holidays. Hermione had been called to the trophy room to oversee two first year students on detention. When she walked in, she was surprised to see Draco standing nervously in the middle of the room.
"There is no detention," Draco started, "and I know I already said goodbye. I just wanted to see you once more before I went. I know it's stupid, and it's going to make it all the much harder to leave, but I can't go without hugging you once more, without kissing you again." Hermione stepped up to him, insanely happy they were together and alone, but ready to curl up in a ball and cry for a week at the same time. Draco pulled her into his arms, smelling her hair, rubbing her back, holding her close. Hermione melted into the hug, but it didn't last long. Draco pulled back after a minute, kissed her once on the mouth, then broke contact altogether.
"I'll never be able to leave if I've got you like that."
Hermione's throat constricted, not letting her choke out that she didn't care if he couldn't leave, she would be perfectly happy if he just stayed with her forever, that she loved him. Instead, what came out was:
"I want you to know, that if Voldemort hurts you in anyway I will kill him. Don't give me that crap about Harry being the only one who can kill him. He hurts you and he will have to answer to me. I am the best goddamn witch that has ever been to this school, and he should be afraid."
Draco laughed, real amusement on his face for the first time in weeks.
"I'd let him know, but that wouldn't really work...hey Dark Lord, my muggle born girlfriend says if you hurt me she'll come and get you. Hermione, I love you. I'm sure I'll be fine, but I also have no doubt that if it came to that, you'd win against him, hands down."
"You're placating me, but I'll take what I can get. I love you." Draco nodded, smiled and walked out of the room, leaving Hermoine to curl up in a ball, the brief happiness dissapearing in the wake of Draco's departure, leaving only depression behind. Hermione stayed sitting alone in the trophy room for a good hour and a half, glad that at least Harry and Ron expected her to be gone for a while. She didn't cry, instead sat on the cold stone floor in the dimming light thinking about Draco. Her mind kept wandering to the day they'd gone to the Shreiking Shack together, slept together for the first time, then actually fallen asleep on the dilapidated old couch. Draco had woken up at five the next morning, and they'd had to hurry back to the castle before anyone woke up. The problem was, neither one could stop giggling, smiling, touching each other...just a quick hand hold, Draco stroking Hermione's hair, Hermione tugging Draco's cloak further over his shoulders. By the time they made it up to the Castle, the Gryffindor Quidditch team were already practicing, and a few early risers were up and about. Hermione had grabbed some toast from the Great Hall, and wandered down to the quidditch pitch, pretending she had just woken up and come to visit.
Sitting on the Trophy Room floor, something Draco had said kept coming back to her. A very simple statement, but one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to her. Hermione, you are the nicest thing to ever come into my life. I love you. It had been the morning after, when they woke in the Shack together, Draco had woken her, then whispered this to her, as if someone else was listening. It was the first time he had ever said I love you to her, and, the first time he had ever said I love you to someone who wasn't a family member.
Draco had left the Trophy Room, gone to Dumbledore's office where he was briefed on what to tell Voldemort about the Order, briefed on contact methods, SOS signals etc...then it was into the carriages and down to Hogsmeade with everyone else who was going home for the holidays. When they arrived at Hogsmeade, all the other students boarded the train, while Snape quietly took Draco aside and told him to wait until he came back. Snape supervised the boarding of the train, then came back for Draco. They apparated to the outskirts of the Riddle House grounds, where the garden morphed into overgrown woods. As soon as they had arrived, Draco took one look at the house, and threw up in the bushes. Snape hesitantly patted him on the back, then asked as he straightened up,
"You ok? You're going to be fine. These holidays, all you'll have is some extra training, most probably with me, and briefing sessions. You won't be getting the mark because it'd be to obvious at school."
"And I don't want it."
"Draco, I don't think anyone in that house beside you and I cares about what you want. You have to be careful in there. Pretend that you're looking forward to getting the mark after graduation. Remember, your life dream is to serve our Lord."
"My life dream. Got it." Draco and Snape walked slowly through the overgrown garden to the house. To an outsider, the Riddle House would appear to be completely abandoned, big padlocks on the doors, a garden growing out of control, boarded up windows. Since the caretaker had vanished a few years, everyone from the village gave the house a wide berth, worried that whatever got Frank would get them too. Snape led Draco around to the back door, opened it with his wand and stepped inside into the gloom.
"Lumos". Draco lit his wand tip as Snape shut and locked the door behind them. Draco waved his wand in an arc, illuminating the room as he went. The back door had lead them into a small coat room, a single gumboot lying abandoned on the boot rack.
"Upstairs. You wont be seeing anyone tonight. It's too late, too much to talk about. Tomorrow morning you will meet with the inner circle, and tomorrow afternoon, you'll have your first audience with the Dark Lord. I'm to show you to your room." Snape lead the way upstairs, and down a long gloomy corridor. A few doors had light seeping under the door, sounds of people moving about within.
It was almost midnight by the time Draco was alone in his room. Despite the fact that he wasn't going to meet anyone until the next day, his father and friends of his father had come to congratulate him. Draco stayed wide awake until the last light had ben shut off and the house was completely dark. He took out his wand and pointed at the fourth finger of his right hand. A gold signet ring appeared, engraved with intertwining letters: HD. He whispered a complex spell and the top of the ring went dark.
Hermoine was jolted from her sleep when the invisible locket around her neck grew warm and began to vibrate. She fumbled for her wand, closing the curtains around her bed, and casting a silencing charm. She opened the locket and saw Draco's face had replaced the photo of the two of them. As Hermione opened the locket, her face came into view in Draco's ring. He hurriedly performed a silencing charm, combining it with an add on spell which meant that anyone listening at the door would hear someone breathing deeply, occasionally snoring.
"Hey," Draco said softly to Hermione, smiling at seeing her face.
"Hi," Hermione didn't know what to say.
"How have you been?"
"Ok I suppose, not great. But you know."
"Yeah I do know. I am so sorry Hermione, I just knew that if I talked to you, or contacted you I would have broken, I wouldn't have been able to leave, or alternatively I would have done something incredibly stupid like kissed you in the middle of the Great Hall at breakfast. Now that I'm gone I won't be able to slip up. It's not like I'm going to see you hanging around the gardens here or anything."
"Where's here? Where did Snape take you?"
"Some big old house, really creepy. It's all boarded up, the garden is all overgrown, I don't think it's near any wizarding things, it's quite deserted, I think there might be a small muggle village somewhere around here."
"Creepy. What's going to happen to you? Will you have to get...the mark?" Even though her face was tiny, Draco could see she looked incredibly worried.
"No. They decided it would be too obvious at school, I'm supposed to get it after graduation."
"But you won't will you? I mean, that would tie you to Voldemort."
"Not if I can help it. Maybe by then Harry'll have finished him up."
"Maybe." Hermione couldn't speak much. It was a combination of being able to just have a conversation with Draco, and the deadening feeling of worry in her stomach. It was hard enough to see him without bursting into tears.
"I can't talk much tonight," Draco broke the silence, "I have to get up really early for a meeting with the inner circle. Probably not the best idea for me to be too tired to concentrate."
"Good luck, be careful tomorrow. I love you."
"Love you too." Draco had purpously left out that he would be meeting Voldemort as early as the next day. She would only worry more all day, I'll tell her tomorrow night, Draco thought as he closed the connection and vanished the ring.
Back at Hogwarts, Hermione let a couple of tears spill over her cheeks as the photo of the two of them appeared again in the locket. She closed it up, let it vanish again, undid the spells around her bed and tried to sleep. Tried to sleep, ended up using her wand to perform a complex version of a dreamless sleep spell, and finally drifted off. Hermione woke with a jolt the next morning, sunshine streaming in through the window. She dazed groggily around the dormitory, seeing that Lavendar and Pavarti's beds were already empty. It took her about five minutes to stand up straight, and dress, end eventually Hermione wandered down the stairs, still partly asleep. The Gryffindor common room was almost empty, save for Harry, Ron and Ginny who were curled up together in front of the fire.
"Hey guys," Hermione said, as she wandered over, yawning over her words.
"We were wondering when you'd be getting up. It's past eleven," Ginny said.
"I've been so tired lately, it's nice to be able to sleep in without worrying about class or anything."
"Yeah you've looked a little flat lately. What's up?" Harry asked.
"Just more work this year than I expected. Trying to get it all done sometimes eats into sleeping time you know? It'd be nice to still have that time-turner. I could work all night and still get a whole night's sleep."
"We haven't been getting that much work," Ron commented, "you must be overdoing it a little. I saw that esay you handed into Snape yesterday. It must've been a whole roll of parchment longer than he asked, and he asked for two rolls!"
"I like to be thorough. Anyone up for heading down to the kitchens? I'm starving." Hermione still felt guilty at lying to her best friends about her relationship with Draco, yet at the same time was glad to have such an easy excuse in her school work. Ron and Harry jumped to their feet, and led the way with Hermione and Ginny trailing behind.
"You sure it's just work Hermione? You've never been this stressed out before. And what is this mysterious 'girl problem' I heard about. Harry muttered something about 'women's issues' the other day."
"Well work and a combination of bad PMS. Nothing to worry about." Hermione tried (and almost succeeded) to carry off being 'light and breezy'. Ginny wasn't convinced, but held her tongue and didn't say anything more. All day the four just hung around the castle grounds together, having a snow fight, sitting by the lake talking, just relaxing. Well everyone except Hermione. All day long she felt like there was a ball of lead in her stomach. Despite being hungry, she could only manage to eat a few bites at lunch time, feeling that if she ate anything else she would be sick. Harry, Ron and Ginny all noticed that something was wrong, but Hermione continued to plead work stress, so they said nothing. That night, Hermione lay awake, waiting for Draco to contact her. She dozed off at around midnight, but woke immediately when the locket grew warm against her skin. She whipped her wand out from under her pillow, cast her silencing charms, and opened the locket.
"You're awake, I was just going to leave you a message. How are you?" Draco was happy to be able to talk to Hermione. It was around three in the morning, he had had to wait for the celebrations to die down.
"I'm fine. How was today? How come it's so late...was there someone up until now or something?"
"Celebrations. Sorry about that. Today was...overwhelming. This morning I had my meeting with the inner circle, where I had to make a report on what Dumbledore had been talking to me about, and then I was prepped for this afternoon when I had my first audience with Voldemort." Hermione gasped, "You met Voldemort today? You didn't tell me you were meeting him."
"I know, you would have worried all day."
"I worried all day anyway."
"Well everything was fine. I told them what Dumbledore said to tell, then had to tell Voldemort the same stuff again. Then because things had gone well for me, there was a big celebration, which basically meant everyone got drunk and took ages to go to bed."
"I can't believe you had to report to him on your first day..."
"I know, I hardly slept at all last night thinking about it."
"Draco, I'm really scared for you. I can't stop thinking that something awful is going to happen."
"Thanks for the encouragement! Hermione, you've got to stop worrying, you're going to drive yourself insane, and then where would we be? Nothing is going to happen to me these holidays. I'm only here for ten days, and I've got Snape looking out for me."
"I- It'll just be better when you're back here. I mean, I know we wont be able to talk anymore, but I cant stand the thought of you out there. I just need you to be back here, safe."
"Hermione love, no-one's going to be safe until Potter does the hero thing. But until then, I promise you that I'm not going to let anything happen to me if I know that you're still there for me."
Hermione still had an awful sense of foreboding hanging over her head, but tried to smile for Draco all the same. Suddenly, the Draco looked alarmed and he looked up at something Hermione couldn't see. Someone's voice came through the connection clear as a bell,
"What the fuck is going on here Draco?" Then Draco's voice was muttering the charm which ended the connection, and everything went blank.
a/n: hope you liked it...will update soon, please review!