CHAPTER17

Draco was walking through the empty Diagon Alley back to the Leakey Cauldron. He spent the whole day with Pansy, which was not too bad. Well, better than spending the day alone and besides they had fun, if you know what I mean. As a true gentleman he walked Pansy to the place where she was suppose to meet with her parents and went 'home' him self. He wasn't in a hurry even though it was getting dark, like it was said before, he was afraid of nothing, after all Draco was a son of a Deatheater. He walked slowly, lost in his own thoughts when suddenly he was interrupted by a girl's frightened scream that came from a dark alley ahead of him. He reached the alley in a matter of seconds and saw a man holding a girl, who was probably unconscious judging by the limpness of her body. The man tried to rob her, as it seemed, because he was rummaging through her backpack. Draco took his wand out and said in a stern fearless voice, "Let her go…"

The wizard, startled by Draco's sudden appearance, he didn't see him coming, flinched uneasily. He looked quite terrified. He slowly put the unconscious girl to the ground and fled into the shadows.

Draco crouched beside the girl. Even though there was little light coming from the main alley, he recognized her. "Granger has a hunch for getting in trouble", he thought with a smirk, "but as easily getting out of it… well, at least when she is conscious". Draco sighted. He couldn't just leave her here even though his Slytherin senses told him to. He sighed again because he had no other option than to carry her. He put his arms around Hermione and raised her. To his surprise she was fairly light. Or was he that strong? He reckoned that it was both and didn't think about it anymore. He was thinking about Granger. She looked really pretty with her eyes closed and a slightly open mouth, with her chest rising and falling lightly as she breathed. Draco shook his head. "Madness", he thought, "How can Mudblood be pretty?" "But she is…" answered a small voice in his head.

By that time Draco reached the Leakey Cauldron. He prayed that no one would see him like that with Granger in his arms. He cracked the pub door slightly open and looked inside. There were only a few people left in the hall and they were half drunk already. So he tiptoed to the stairs unnoticed. He had no trouble reaching their corridor. But there was one more difficulty. "And how am I suppose to open the door", he thought helplessly. He struggled with taking out his key for about ten minutes: first he tried to hold Hermione with one hand, obviously it didn't work out. Then he tried putting the girl on his raised knee; that failed as well. Then he had a brilliant idea, well, it seemed so. Draco decided that Hermione had nothing to lose and simply put her on the floor, thinking that she lay on the street pavement and the carpeted floor of the corridor wasn't a big loss to that. He took out the key and checked the door numbers. This time the left one was number 12 he made a mental note to ask about the thing with doors in the morning. He opened the door and carried the girl inside. She stirred in his arms, which indicated that she was going to come to her senses in a moment or two. Draco put her on her bed and kneeled to look her in the face.

Hermione's eyes opened. First they had an unfocused misty look in them but then they observed Malfoy's face and widened a bit. Hermione gasped and set up causing Draco to jump away just in time because there was a possibility of there foreheads crushing together.

"Oh my gosh, Malfoy! What are you doing here? What am I doing here?" said Hermione starting to remember the events that occurred before she passed out.

"You have a habit of getting in trouble", said Malfoy, surprisingly he didn't smirk, "Did you learn that from Potter and Weasley?"

"Don't start", said Hermione wearily, her head was killing her, she wasn't in mood or state to fight with Malfoy.

Malfoy saw the tired expression on her face and all he said was, "Well, you might at least thank me for saving you from the guy".

"Can I thank you tomorrow? Now I am not really in the mood", she said, indicating the door with her eyes.

Draco saw what she was hinting on and said, "Okay, then", and walked out, closing the door behind himself and leaving Hermione sitting on the bed. As he opened his room and headed to the bathroom he was thinking, "The nerve of that Mudblood! Saving her… and why did I need to do that? Should have left her there… Fat chance she'll thank me tomorrow! Why did I even bother? And why do I need her thanks?"

But when he got in his bed Draco immediately dozed off, forgetting all about Granger, the wizard trying to rob her, and Pansy. He was off to his peaceful deep sleep dreaming.

Hermione on the other hand, after taking a long hot bath, lay awake, thinking about the vision that came to her. Was it true? Was the man going to be killed? These questions were moving in her head and she was thinking about them until she finally fell asleep.