I'm so so so so so sorry for the extremely late update and the short chapter!

Tomorrow's is better I promise!

Once again, hello and welcome to new readers and thank you fo sticking with me for everyone else!

Please enjoy!

Umbridge became high inquisitor, Hermione and Harry started Dumbledore's Army and Malfoy become part of the Inquisitorial Squad. Blaise remained neutral to all the mess going on. Then finally after all the waiting, Hagrid returned. He had one fantastical tail to tell them. Except for Umbridge driving everyone nuts and putting Hermione in a foul mood, everything was fine and then it happened. Mr. Weasley was attacked just around Christmas. Once they got back, Harry's horrible Occlumency lessons began. Luckily for him, he wasn't alone.

Snape insisted that he would give Potter Occlumency lessons only if he had a suitable study partner like perhaps Miss Granger. McGonagall had given him the strangest look while Dumbledore had agreed without giving it a second thought. So the lessons began. Snape was merciless on both of them. After the first session he asked Hermione to stay back. Harry's head was about to explode so he just left. Hermione had just relived every memory of her and Draco in Italy. She was terrified.

Once harry had left Snape offered Hermione a chair

"Ms. Granger, do you think I brought you into this class just so that Mr. Potter has a study buddy?"

Hermione said nothing

"My godson, is very precious to me… In the near future he will have to make impossible decisions and face horrible trials. If you expect to be there for him through all of that then you need this skill. Without this, you are nothing but a liability to him…"

Snape then went to the bookshelf and pulled out a particularly thick volume. "Here…" he said handing it to her "I doubt the theory would do any good for Mr. Potter but I'm sure you will find things that might help… Same time next week…" he said dismissing her with a wave of his hand.

She nodded and began to leave when Snape said "Ms. Granger, Draco is a remarkable Occlumist. Maybe you should ask him for some help"

Her eyes went wide with surprise. From everything she knew about Snape, this was as close to a blessing as she was going to get. "Thank you… Thank you Professor" she managed to get out before she hurried out of there. She wanted to get to her diary as soon as possible

—

Studying for the OWLs, keeping up appearances as the inquisitorial squad and holding down a relationships simultaneously was exhausting. Draco was tired all the time, but every time he saw Hermione his exhaustion would disappear. It had been getting harder to meet since the DA had been using their usual spot. Then finally the mass breakout happened and she knew they had to talk. So one day after double potions Hermione hung back with the excuse of asking Snape something which both Harry and Ron thought was a death wish so they left.

As soon as the boys were out of sight, Hermione rushed deeper into the dungeons to an abandoned classroom. Draco was already there, he scooped her up and kissed her desperately. They would have continued making out but they were distracted by

"Hem Hem… " Blaise went in such a good impersonation of Umbridge that the both of them nearly had a heart attack.

"God Blaise!" Hermione said clutching her heart, Draco had gotten over the shock and was chuckling. He pulled her into a hug to clam her down

"I just wanted the both of you to know, Umbridge is going to be using Veritaserum to question students." Blaise said bored with them

"She can't do that…" Hermione said… "It's against the law!"

"Breath… Calm… Calm down…" Draco said holding on to her

"Yes well, the ministry of magic as you know is in the hands of a few influential people" Blaise said giving a pointed look to Draco "and said influential people are well, under the influence of the Dark Lord…. So law… goes out the window there…" Blaise said again matter of factly… "anyway… that was for you princess and as for you Draco… There are whispers that you're going soft, so find a way to antagonise 'her lot' a bit next time or take points off them publicly… Well, that's the update from your dear Zazu… I'm off.." Blaise said walking off…

"Did he just make a muggle movie reference?" Hermione asked suddenly shocked

"I did!" Came a voice from down the corridor

That made her smile a little. Draco looked at her seriously "I'm sorry…"

"Stop apologising" she said

"I know you hate it when I piss off your friends so I'm sorry…"

"I do hate it… but I also know why you have to do it…"

"How are your Occulmency lessons going?"

"Well I tried what you recommended, but I'm 'disappointing' still and Harry's 'Hopeless' so not so good I guess…"

"You need to calm down and practice those walls, you can't throw them up when your mind is attacked, they need to be up all the time…" Draco explained

"I know, I know, but with the DA thing and the studying and Harry's scar hurting all the time… I can't seem to find a minute to myself…"

They just stood there in each other's arms in silence. Draco leaning against the wall and her leaning against him….

"I'm scared Draco…"

"Don't be… I'm the one that has to go home to those deranged maniacs in a few months…"

Hermione held him tighter

"I'm scared for you…"

Draco smiled sadly….

"Don't be… I'll be fine…" It sounded more like he was reassuring himself instead of reassuring her

They stood there like that for bit and then Draco's stomach grumbled loudly. Hermione smiled "Let's get to lunch, before we're missed…"

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