Chapter 19 - Things of Value

Draco wasn't prepared for an otter to swim almost directly at him and out of nowhere, but once he realized just what it was, he relaxed a little and listened to Hermione's message asking where he was and what was happening. Smirking a little in flattered bemusement at how concerned she was for him when there was really no need, Draco was just about to take out his wand to send back a brief reply when suddenly he felt the current of the waters shift behind him. Draco turned around to see what it was, but obviously it was too dark to really see anything, as the shift came from somewhere below him.

Since leaving the gates of the merpeople village, Draco had angled himself upwards towards the surface, just so that he'd be closer to oxygen if the gillyweed wore off before he got to shore and so that the lighting would be better and he wouldn't have to clutch his wand in his teeth again. When he had left, he'd estimated that he had about fifteen minutes of time before the effects of the gillyweed wore off, and since it only took about ten minutes or so to cover the distance he needed, he was in no particular hurry. With the waters around him better lit than before and there being no need to exert himself levitating anything behind him—he carried the sheath in one of his hands, as it was light enough to carry and didn't impede his swimming process—Draco had almost begun to feel at ease; but now that he felt that shift, he became wary. Something had most definitely been behind him, and though Draco had no thoughts for what it might be, he wasn't going to stick around and find out.

With a burst of speed, he spam forward, angling himself closer and closer to the surface. Almost as if to triumphantly prove him wrong on his timing, he began to feel a tingling in his toes, which was a bad sign considering that he shouldn't even have toes. The gillyweed was starting to wear off, leaving him with maybe two minutes maximum before his gills were gone, but he didn't spare a moment to glance down and check.

If he had, he might have noticed Hermione's second otter swim by him, delivering yet another message, more panicked this time, in asking where he was.

And also, he might have seen the two leering faces of the merpeople right on his tail—or lack of a tail, rather.

Not that it would have mattered what he saw, as a fraction of a second later he felt their webbed hands wrapping around his ankles. Having the advantage of the environment and their own natural speed underwater, the merpeople had attacked Draco from far below, swimming through the currents faster than the Golden Snitch during a Quidditch match.

Feeling himself suddenly jerked downwards, Draco quickly took out his wand and sent a stunning spell into the face of one of the merpeople. It reared back with a savage roar, giving Draco enough leverage to free his foot and directly kick the face of his other attacker. Both beasts screeched in anger and swam away from him, but it was only to regroup and counterattack.

In the struggle, Draco had stopped swimming upwards, the surface maybe about twenty feet above him and just within reach. By the time he got the merpeople off him and got moving again though, he realized with the horror that the gillyweed had fully worn off and he couldn't breathe!

His panic was instantaneous, but so was his instinct for survival. His wand in hand, Draco quickly conjured up an air bubble, expanding it so that it fit around his entire head. It would give him limited oxygen, but just enough to get him to the surface.

Unfortunately, the merpeople were already attacking again, five of them this time. Two mimicked their actions from before and aimed for his legs, whereas the other three circled him, spears in hand. Draco sent stunning spells left and right to get them away from him, but five against one was hardly a fair fight and he could feel himself being dragged down.

Sheath in hand, he angled it downwards and struck it almost directly into the eye of one of the merpeople holding his feet, and this time the merperson let go of him right away and shrank into the darkness, a streak of red pouring out into the water from its eye. The other merperson clutching his leg shrieked in fury and clawed at him, drawing blood from deep gashes in Draco's legs that had him screaming inside his air bubble.

Meanwhile, the merpeople with spears were reaching for his arms, hands outstretched for the sheath and his wand, the only defenses he had. Gritting his teeth, Draco cast an "Exumai" spell that repelled all of the merpeople off him a short distance, but it was only enough to give him time to swim to the surface, his head breaking the water for a second before he was pulled back down again.

Being so close to Hogwarts after so long and in such different circumstances brought about a flood of mixed feelings in Hermione, but she didn't waste any time dwelling on any of them. Charging forward, the Invisibility Cloak fluttering with her every movement and possibly giving away her position to any nearby onlooker, she reached the edge of the lake just outside the barrier surrounding the castle. She sensed it more than actually saw it, and instinctively backed away once she felt herself getting close.

Looking around frantically as she approached the lakefront, she spotted something dark hidden near the base of a willow tree over the water, and upon coming closer, wand drawn, she saw that it was the robes of a student from Hogwarts—a Slytherin. Draco.

He must still be underwater, she noted, though this did not sit well with her at all. Hadn't the full hour passed by now already? Surely it must have, though it was hard to tell since it had felt like an eternity since Draco had sent her that update patronus. Hadn't he received her own recent patronuses though? Even being underwater wouldn't deter them and they were set to find a witch or wizard no matter where they were if it was to deliver a message. So then why didn't he answer?

Calling out for Draco was obviously a stupid idea, as Hermione couldn't risk anyone else hearing her if they were nearby, and already she was putting herself in enough danger just being there when it might not be necessary. For all she knew, Draco was on his way here now, or maybe he had had to get out of the lake at a different place? This seemed to be where he had entered it, after all...

Suddenly, from out in the waters, Hermione heard a splash , and looking up she saw Draco's head break the surface of the water for literally an instant, before he gave a garbled scream and was suddenly dragged back down.

Her heart pounding in her chest, Hermione threw off the Invisibility Cloak and, taking out her wand, uttered her first spell, "Ventus tria!"

An enormously strong gust of wind shot out from her wand in front of her, where Hermione pointed it at the water and paved a path for herself. Dashing forward, she stopped when the banks of the shore abruptly ended, meaning there were deeper waters ahead. It didn't matter though; Hermione was close enough.

Maintaining the wind spell with her mind, Hermione shot out an orb of light into the water, illuminating almost the entire immediate area. Peering down below, she saw Draco surrounded by at least eight different merpeople, all of them straining against his body, two pointing spears at his neck and holding him almost immobile, the hasty air bubble around Draco's head wavering with every one of their jerky, violent movements.

Hardly one to question her instincts, Hermione focused her energy into a mass-levitation spell, bringing all eight merpeople and Draco out of the water. Feeling themselves being lifted, the merpeople emitted loud shrieks, to which Hermione quickly cast a silencing charm on all of them to prevent further noise. In the panic, one of them stabbed his spear at Draco, popping his air bubble and also spearing his shoulder in the process.

Draco couldn't hold in his yell as he felt the sharp edge of it dig into his muscle and bone.

Quickly, Hermione sent out eight nonverbal hexes at once, each of them striking a merperson on some surface of their flailing bodies. Once they let go of Draco, they fell back down in the water, all the while Hermione focused her attentions on her friend alone. Amidst the shrieks that echoed from beneath the waters once Hermione focused on levitating Draco to shore, one of the merpeople still waiting below managed to crawl close to where Hermione was standing and made a grab for her leg. It shrieked something at her as its torso extended above the water, its arms wrapped around her legs enough to trip her off balance.

The shock of the moment broke Hermione's concentration on all of her spells and besides dropping Draco somewhere behind her with an audible thump, there was a rush of water over her feet and all the way up to her thighs as the wind spell was broken. The merperson, now fully submerged, wrapped his arms more tightly around Hermione's legs and waist, pulling her under. Hermione barely emitted a gasp of surprise before she felt her mouth filling with water. She struggled to find some purchase and aim her wand at the beast's face, but a quick bite to her thigh distracted her through a haze of sudden pain. Instinct alone had her kicking her legs desperately to get away.

Suddenly, Hermione felt a hand grasping the back of her collar, and through the haze of losing oxygen spotted a wand right next to her face and pointing at the merperson below her. A spell shot out of it, something that made bloody gashes appear all over the merperson's body and painted the water around her red, but she didn't register almost any of it as the merperson finally let go of her legs and allowed Hermione to be dragged out of the water.

Woozy but not unconscious, Hermione struggled to the shore alongside her saviour, grabbing Harry's Invisibility Cloak as she was half-dragged away from the edge. Once under the shade of the willow tree, she looked up and saw a pained, bloody Draco in front of her as he hastily put on his robes, panting and looking paler than usual, but still alive.

Both of them breathing heavily and without a word, Hermione clutched Draco's arm and then disapparated them both away from the Black Lake.

Inside Draco's lakehouse was where they ended up, crashing in an uncomfortable heap right by the doorway to the terrace. Draco thankfully landed on the shoulder that wasn't a mass of pain with a deep gash right in the middle, but his entire body still ached painfully with any movement. Hermione lay sprawled on her stomach beside him, half-breathing and half-coughing as she cleared the water from her lungs. Neither of them said anything, the adrenaline of the last few minutes still leaving their systems, but both were aware of the sordid reality that they had just barely escaped with their lives and that it was a bloody Merlin-sent miracle that no one from Hogwarts had been there to catch them in the act.

Well, for Hermione this was a big relief anyway, as she had no idea how Draco might feel about it. In any case, this much was clear: she had been this close to not making it back to Harry again.

But still, even with bloodied legs, aching lungs, and an otherwise exhausted body and mind, she couldn't regret going. Because, as was clearer by the minute, Draco would have died if she hadn't been there.

There was no room in either of their minds to pretend that the young Malfoy would have found a way out of it. He had been outnumbered, was outmaneuvered outside his natural element, and ultimately wouldn't have made it if Hermione hadn't shown up when she did. In a corner of his mind, Draco had time enough to wonder whether the merpeople had actually been trying to kill him or instead just get the sheath back, but no matter their intention he would have ended up dead from the lack of air alone. More than anything, the active violence and aggression of the merpeople only seemed to be incurred once he had sent spells shooting at them.

Not that there was another way to react when they were trying to drag him down, though.

Putting all that and everything else besides at the back of his mind, Draco slowed his breathing enough to speak as he stared at Hermione, looking quite pale and pained herself. "You...why did you...?"

Hermione let out a raspy laugh and coughed out some more water. "Why don't you...just...thank me already?"

Then, surprising both of them, Hermione dropped the wand she had been clutching so tightly in her hand and reached out to touch Draco's cheek. He stilled under it, his eyes on her face as she shifted closer to him until there was barely any space left between them. "I couldn't...of course I couldn't let you die."

Exhaling a breath of relief and disbelief all at once, Draco reached out with his good arm and wrapped it around Hermione's shoulders, dragging her closer until she was right against him, his cheek on her forehead and her entire body tucked around him. "I'm going to owe you for this one, Granger," he breathed.

Blinking rapidly and ignoring the much-needed heat that had risen in her cheeks, Hermione lay perfectly still, her heart beating faster for reasons that had nothing to do with what had just happened at the lake. "We're friends, Draco—you don't owe me anything," she whispered. Then, considering, she added, "Except of course the promise that you'll never do anything like that again."

Draco emitted a low chuckle at that, hissing in pain at the movement that coursed across his torso and therefore his shoulder. Inching away from him, Hermione stared in horror at the bloody, meaty hole that was just there, then carefully eased herself up onto a sitting position.

"Stay still," she instructed Draco first thing. Then, reaching for her wand, she hovered over him. "Is there any Dittany in the house?"

Draco managed to nod slowly before passing out from the pain, which was all Hermione needed to spring into action and Accio the Dittany. Hurtling through the air towards them a moment later, Hermione quickly uncorked the bottle and poured some over Draco's wound. As had been the case with Ron's splinch wound weeks earlier, the effects of the restorative herb were almost immediate, and in the matter of a few minutes, it had sealed and was slowly rebuilding muscle and tissue beneath the skin. Of course, Draco's wound was much deeper and seemed to reach down almost to the bone, so it would take longer to heal, but the principle was the exact same. Soon, the swelling would go down and within a few days Draco's shoulder should be back to normal. If Madame Pomfrey had been on hand, she could take a more thorough look and make sure that there were no lingering effects that Dittany couldn't cure, but he could always go to the hospital wing once he got back to Hogwarts.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Hermione sat back and leaned against the wall to wait, finally at ease. Well, mostly. There was still a lot that she had to say and scold Draco on, but that could wait until later when they were both feeling more up to it.

As for Draco, once the Dittany had done most of its immediate work, he regained consciousness and was able to sit up as well. He placed himself right beside Hermione, grabbing hold of her hand and holding on tightly. Hermione returned the squeeze and felt herself warming yet again at the intense look Draco gave her, but not enough to forget that she was supposed to be mad at him.

"You're bloody mental," she accused with no real bite, nodding down to the sheath that he had somehow kept ahold of in all of the commotion and even brought along with them once they apparated. "I can't believe you thought this would be worth it."

"I got it and that's what counts," Draco countered, though his expression remained gentle. "I had to get it for a reason, and though I don't know what that is, it has to be worth it. I wouldn't have been sent otherwise."

Hermione shook her head slowly. "Not at the cost of your life, Draco..."

"But it wasn't at the cost of my life, thanks to you," he reminded her. "I got it. It's over, Hermione. It's all over. After this, I only have the unicorn blood left to get and then I'm done—I'll have done something."

He sounded so sure and so determined, so...like her and Harry, that Hermione just couldn't fault him for that. Nor could she criticize him and state that she wouldn't have done the same thing in his place because...who knew whether or not she would have? Perhaps, taking it all in all, it was better just to leave it behind them and be grateful that it was over.

And speaking of which...

The thought coming to her at once, Hermione reached for her wand and summoned her patronus. "Harry, I'm alright," she recited without preamble. The rest of her message was brief and nonspecific, but enough to make Harry understand that they were still uncompromised for now, and that Hermione just needed an hour or two more before she came back to him. Given Draco's state and her own state, she was in no fit condition to apparate again so soon, let alone give explanations that were due. For now, she just needed to rest and...

And be with Draco to assure herself that he was alright. That stint of his in the water with the merpeople had scared her more than she would ever admit and also confirmed, more or less, what she had suspected ever since she first found herself against this crazy idea:

She cared a lot more for Draco Malfoy than she had previously thought. Seeing him struggling in the water and then being dragged under had twisted her gut worse than she could remember since...probably since back in fifth year when she'd thought that she and all of her friends were goners back at the Department of Mysteries. And then when one of the merpeople had actually stabbed him and brought on that scream of pain, Hermione felt as if she were being stabbed just as badly, the sensation akin to physical pain. At that moment, she had almost lost her focus, reigning it in only by sheer determination and the thought that she couldn't, couldn't let anything happen to him.

Now, reflecting on it all and looking at the wizard beside her, Hermione concluded to the truest extent possible that she did care for Draco, and that nothing in the world compromised her trust of him now. Not right now perhaps, but soon, she was prepared and going to tell him everything.

Merlin, what things had come to! That didn't make them any less real though...

As for Draco, apart from the realization of how close he had been to literal death, he was also just bloody amazed at what Hermione had done for him. Not just in saving him in itself, but also at the risk she had taken by coming so close to Hogwarts at such a time; if what he did was mental, then what she did was doubly so. And yet, she hadn't hesitated to do it, coming after him barely after his hour had been up and he hadn't been able to answer her patronuses. Nor had she made any indication that she regretted doing so. Draco was beyond grateful for it, he was...he was almost in complete disbelief about it.

"I don't know anyone who would have done what you did for me," he breathed, unaware until he said it that he was speaking his thoughts aloud.

This brought Hermione's gaze over to him, now just as intense as his own. "I wish you did," she murmured. "This is what real friends are supposed to do for each other."

Draco supposed that was true and had no doubt that Hermione knew that from continuous experiences with Potter, and yet...

To his life and all he had ever known, it was something entirely new. For all that his family prized many things like cleverness and prowess, loyalty and binding together in friendship weren't things that had been emphasized in his childhood; after this though, he was never going to doubt the value of them again.

"Thank you." It was perhaps the first time in his life that he had ever offered thanks to anyone, but it felt right that it should be Hermione; apart from Severus and his mother, she was the one to do the most for him, the only one to show that she cared...

And there was no doubt in Draco's mind as he looked down at her that the feeling was reciprocal. He too cared for her, and had gotten the sense of that as urgently as his panic for her when he had seen her dragged under the water. His shoulder had been throbbing painfully and he had even been getting a bit woozy from the blood loss of it, but there was no denying the adrenaline pumping through his system then. Wading right back into the water where he had almost lost his own life, Draco had blindly reached out for Hermione and, once having gotten a hold of her collar, had immediately ducked his head underwater enough to locate the merperson dragging her down, and then swiftly send a Sectumsempra their way. Dragging Hermione out of the water and getting the hell out of there had seemed almost easy after that, all the while Draco was in a sort of half-daze...

None of that compared to looking at her now though, and wishing...wanting...

Merlin, she's so close...

"Anytime," Hermione replied in answer to his earlier thanks, breaking the "spell" that Draco was under, lost in thought. "But let's not make this a repeat incident, okay?" And, with just a smile to soften that comment, all tension between them was dissolved and they could both relax, setting aside thoughts and worries of everything that had happened to them and simply being. Draco was reminded again of how young they were, how inexperienced, and how so much of both their lives was unfair. After everything was over though, then...

But there was no use in thinking that far ahead, much as Draco wanted to. The here and now was important enough to hold his attention, and so to bring himself back to reality he asked the next question: "However did you get Potter and Weasley to agree to let you go?"

"I couldn't be stopped," Hermione said. "And Harry saw how worried I was, so—"

"You were worried?" Draco had known that she was, of course, but it wouldn't hurt to hear it again. Something in his ego practically purred in satisfaction to hear her say it.

"Of course I was!" Hermione shot him an insulted glare. "You know I have been ever since—"

"What about Weasley?" Draco interrupted, lifting a curious eyebrow. "What did he say?"

Hermione froze, realizing that now, and in fact for quite a few times before in their past conversations, she had been referring only to Harry. Until now, Draco hadn't commented on it, probably because he didn't notice, but now he had. As for what Hermione was going to say, well...she had decided to be honest with him, so...

"Um, actually, a few weeks ago, Ron left." Saying it out loud like this for the first time made it seem so final, even though of course time had passed and it was final. She hadn't been holding on to much hope before this, but even so...it was harder to admit that she'd thought and still ached more than it should. Some of the details, like Ron's harsh words and hateful looks, had faded away with time from her memory, but this only served to replace Ron's image with how she had known him before in school: goofy, dependent, lovable. She and Harry both thought of him from time to time, but neither of them would admit just when.

Admitting it to Draco now felt right though, and quite frankly outdated; if anything, Draco was helping them instead of Ron now, so he deserved to know.

As for how Draco took to the news, he was admittedly more than a little surprised, as anyone else would have been. From the outside, Potter, Weasley, and Hermione had been the perfect trio, close friends and by all accounts practically came as a package deal. When one was nearby, the other two were sure to be as well, and they always had each others' backs and best interests at heart. But to hear that Weasley had just up and abandoned Hermione and Potter was almost inconceivable. Unless...

"Why?" Draco asked.

Hermione looked up at him and saw the thoughts swimming behind his eyes: that somehow this was his fault, though he would never say so aloud. As such, Hermione didn't contradict him directly on it, but she wouldn't accept him making the connection either; in her book, Draco had nothing to do with Ron's departure so much as being the final drop in a cup already overflowing with bad feelings between them, and especially since Ron hadn't even known that it was Draco whom she was meeting, the Slytherin couldn't be held accountable.

"It's been a long time in coming," she said. "Even before he stormed out of the camp and left us when he did, he and Harry were at each other's throats for weeks on end. Like I said before, for a while it seemed like we were getting nowhere in our mission, and that frustrated Ron as much as it did Harry and I. He also wasn't as capable as us at living out in the wilderness and he also had his family to think of, so in the end it was all too much."

What Hermione said made sense to Draco, but at the same time sounded like hollow excuses for Weasley's behaviour. These all seemed like small things when pitted against a friendship that had held solid even when they'd literally been surrounded by death eaters on all sides and fighting for their lives; so what had changed to make Weasley take such a desperate action as abandoning his friends? It was...beyond disappointing and quite frankly inexplicable.

But Draco had enough sense to see that it pained Hermione to talk about and so he wasn't going to press her for more details. Releasing his hold on her hand, he slowly reached out and placed his arm around her shoulders in another half-hug yet again, this time shifting her closer and silently encouraging her to put her head on his good shoulder, which, after a moment's hesitation, she did. After a few minutes of silence just sitting like that and holding onto her for comfort—though whether hers or his wasn't certain—Draco realized that he should probably say something, but since words on the subject of Weasley were perfectly beyond him, he opted for something else.

"How's it going on your mission, by the way? Since the last time I gave you that book on Grindelwald and all..."

"Oh! Right, I have to return that!" Hermione exclaimed. But, hearing Draco's indifferent chuckle and feeling the rumble of his laughter against the shoulder she was currently leaning against, she realized for the first time that he in fact didn't care when or if she returned the books she was borrowing. Merlin, how embarrassing and unnecessary to have her insist on it then...

"Well, the book does mention a lot of details about him, considerably more than the previous book did, only..." And here she scrunched up her brow, her further frustration making itself known. "I don't think it or, in fact, any book has what we're looking for. I think I already mentioned how the details we're looking for are wand-related?"—Draco nodded—"And so I've been looking for details on that, but it's surprisingly vague." She sighed heavily. "Another dead end I'm afraid, though with your help I've managed to prolong it quite a bit. I still haven't mentioned to Harry how hopeless it all is, as he keeps having those same visions over and over again on You-Know-Who's actions..."

Draco was more than a little curious on those said actions himself as no one knew what the Dark Lord was up to even among his own followers, but he wasn't going to ask Hermione for details on what were ultimately Potter's visions. Already, she had shared with him more than he had expected, and it was enough for the moment just to talk to her, just to hold her and feel at peace.

Or, as close to it as he could come in a war-torn world, anyway.

"It's too bad I couldn't be of more help," he muttered, in another one of his half-apologies. They were becoming more constant, Hermione didn't fail to note, but now wasn't the time to tease him about it as he had her before. Instead, Hermione accepted it as is, and looked up at Draco to give him an encouraging smile.

"We still got further than we would have without you," she said, really meaning it. After all, take it all in all, at least now they knew a great deal more on who Grindelwald was, and that it made sense in more ways than one for Voldemort to be so interested in another dark wizard. Also, the book had mentioned that Grindelwald was currently in prison, so if Voldemort was looking to meet him personally, he would have a hard time of breaking in, nevermind the fact that he had already been out of Britain for quite a while. Everything helped at this point, no matter how small, and Hermione didn't want Draco to underestimate his usefulness to her.

And he practically saved my life today too, Hermione reflected, greatly warmed that, through that action alone Draco had proven himself a true friend and that she quite literally could trust him with her life. Merlin, if only they had more time and could have met on different terms sooner...

"I'm such an arse!" Draco exclaimed suddenly, surprising Hermione so that she pulled away from him and gave him a quizzical look.

"What is it?"

"Your leg! Where that thing bit you!" Draco exclaimed. "It must hurt like hell and we haven't even—"

"Oh?" Hermione couldn't help but giggle at that. "Draco, I applied Dittany to that already."

Draco blinked uncertainly. "What? When?"

"You...erm..." Hermione tried hard to keep a straight face. "You sort of blacked out for a moment earlier, only a moment. After seeing to your wounds, I also applied Dittany to my own."

Draco stared her down silently, mortified and chagrined that he had actually fainted from pain...but then, if there was anyone this had to happen in front of, he preferred it be Hermione; even now, she wasn't judging this from him as a sign of weakness or the like, but rather treating it as a matter of course. It didn't make him feel inferior in any way, but instead grateful for Hermione's help in the matter. He had already thanked her once though, and Draco Malfoy wasn't one to overdo it on that score.

Glancing at his wounded shoulder, where Hermione had had to tear into the cloth of his robe to apply Dittany properly, he thought that no, it wasn't bad at all that it was Hermione who had seen him so weak and unguarded. If it was her, then...

"Is there anything that you and Potter need that I could help you with?" he asked, his voice low.

Hermione blinked as she considered the offer, not sure what to make of it all of a sudden. "You mean—"

"I mean that if there's anything I could get you, for starters," Draco cut in. "You're out in the wilderness all the time and can't venture into the nearest town to buy what you need. I can. You have no way of keeping contact with anyone else or even know what's going on. I do. There are any number of ways that things are more difficult for you than they have to be now, and..." He shrugged with his good shoulder. "I already told you that I'd help you. Just name it, Hermione."

Biting her lower lip in concentration, Hermione reflected that there was in fact something that both she and Harry desperately needed that Draco could help with, but...could she ask him? What he was offering would be the necessary essentials for their continued survival, but ultimately they were non-specific and...what Hermione wanted to ask Draco probably hadn't been what he had in mind when making her the offer yet again.

Just ask, Hermione. You'll never know unless you tell him, she urged herself. And while this would involve revealing more or less everything that until now she had been keeping secret from him—from everyone—it might be the best chance she had of convincing him to try it. If she thought it would be as dangerous for him as what he had attempted today with the merpeople, of course she wouldn't suggest it; but, as things stood, Hermione was confident in his abilities if not her own to pull this off.

"Draco, there...there is something, but it's complicated..." she began.

Draco nodded. "Whatever it is, Hermione."

He sounded so sincere, willing and ready to do what she would ask of him; Hermione only hoped that she judged him correctly and nothing would go wrong with what she was about to say.

"I need you to...to maybe steal something from Bellatrix."

A/N: CLIFFY! I wish I could promise that there will be less of these in the future, but, let's face it, they are a staple of the fanfiction tradition. If you come across a fanfiction that contains both intense action and yet no cliffhangers, then by all means consider that an anomaly of the rule!

Ahem, but, in all honestly, considering that the follow-up discussion of these two will be a long and important one, I wasn't going to cram everything into one chapter. Already in this chapter I have attacks by merpeople, fantastic feats of magic, and its fair share of, ahem, physical contact between Draco and Hermione, so...I think there's enough, yes?

Look forward to the next chapter coming soon, and until then, please do follow-favourite-review as always! Take care, everyone!