"Do you really reckon those two actually went all ninja on everyone?" Theo asked, throwing himself down on the sofa. This conversation had been going on for days, and Theo had seemingly decided that he was in awe of Hermione and Neville much to the others distaste. "That is definitely some sort of Mortal Kombat shit, do you reckon they would teach us?"

Draco had had just about enough of Theo and his ramblings, and was cursing the moment he allowed that bloody television into his home. He had made them watch that movie three times, and decided "Oh look its Draco" was funny to say every time someone ended up on the ground.

He needed a drink, or five.

"Theo I don't know how many times you need to be reminded there were no traces of magic at any of the scenes, you've literally just came back from a meeting in which you were told this." Blaise sounded almost as fed up as Draco felt with the constant onslaught of Gryffindor related questions. "You know it had to be them" He walked over to the table and held up the pack of playing cards sitting on it.

"I'm in." Pansy said, pulling up another chair at the table. Draco brushed the remaining ash of his robes, sealed the fireplace and joined too.

They had just arrived back from yet another ridiculously long meeting with Voldemort, a horrid feat in itself, made only worse by the fact it had been held in Dracos ancestral home. He had almost occluded himself into a coma trying to block out the images of what had happened in that drawing room, not just to his family, not just to all the prisoners that had ever set foot in the manor, but also one of the people Theo insisted on marvelling about. Draco rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes trying to find some relief from the pressure building behind them.

"We have to tell them." He mumbled, even the idea of reaching out made him feel uneasy. He knew Snape was right, that if anyone could help them end this all it would be the Golden Girl and her two new sidekicks, but it didn't make it any easier of a pill to swallow.

They couldn't sit on the knowledge that Death eaters had plans to one of the Order's safe houses and expect Hermione and Neville to trust them. Not that he didn't believe that if given the chance one of them would happily Avada him, but if this was going to work they had to find some level ground. After all, there was being stubborn, and then there was inviting said Avada to be cast at them if the other group ever found out they had withheld information like this simply because he wanted to avoid the headache from meeting with them and telling them.

"That's what I was thinking, we can't sit on this information but we also can't be too close to it all. There is far too much talk at the moment about spies and it would be a suicide mission if we were involved. Nothing needs to change in that regard, we just pass the information to them instead of Snape." Blaise said while dealing out the cards, he spoke so casually you would think they were discussing the most recent Quidditch match rather than divulging information to the other side.

Pansy was extremely quiet while they spoke. Draco knew she had seen faces tonight that always made unwelcome memories come back to her. During the first month of her being marked he had needed to help her out of panic attacks every time they returned from meetings, but she was slowly building her walls and blocking out a bit more of her trauma every time she went to one. Pansy and he may not have ever worked out as a couple, but the love and admiration he held for her was unconditional. She was one of the strongest women he had ever met and loyal to a fault, something he valued more than ever now since it reminded him so much of his mother.

Draco placed his hand on top of Pansy's on the table and gave it a gentle squeeze, she met his gaze and pulled her lips into a thin smile. "Time to end this?"

"Time to end this," She replied, then turned towards Theo "send them a message."

Honestly if Hermione had to sit through one more Order meeting and listen to how the "light" would conquer the dark even if they did absolutely nothing she was going to lose it. Did they really believe that some day they'd just wake up and they would have suddenly won? She couldn't understand how so many people had lost so much yet could remain so naive.

Lupin had been a favourite Professor to her, a dear friend during the start of the war, and had become almost family during the early days of the war, but now she could barely look at him without feeling angry. How could a man that had been dealt so many unfair hands honestly believe that good always won, his whole life should have been proof enough that that wasn't how it worked.

Hermione and Neville normally went out to train after these meetings to burn off some steam, but today they'd arranged to meet Luna to work on some more research. It had been a long time since Hermione had had the luxury of enjoying research, and all she wanted to do was find an outlet for her frustration.

"Personally I think it will be helpful to have a new set of eyes on all of this, a change is as good as a rest as they say" Luna said, absentmindedly twirling a lock of her hair while she flipped through a book.

"Luna we have been over this already, we aren't going to let those snakes near any of this. Snape has clearly lost his mind, we can't trust them. If they get caught you know they will sell us and all our research out to save their own asses!" Hermione's voice went up an octave out of sheer frustration at the repetition of this conversation.

She noticed Neville give a slight shake of his head at her, she knew he didn't like it when she got snappy with Luna but sometimes she just couldn't help it. Luna was a dear friend, but her constant optimism grated on Hermione.

"I have to agree with Hermione," Neville said while lifting another stack of papers in front of himself on the table "I don't think we can really show them any of this when it could be what changes the tides in the war. We don't know what their motive is, but my guess is it's not a sudden morale compass."

"I don't know, there was a distinct lack of wrackspurts around them at our meeting. I think their minds are very clear on their decisions." Luna didn't even look up from her work while she said this, and the seriousness in which she talked about these made up creatures always took Hermione by surprise.

Neville and Luna continued to debate whether or not trusting the Slytherins with information on their research was a good idea or not, meanwhile Hermione tried to zone out from the conversation. She had had just about enough of talking about that lot since their meeting, and she wished she could go back to the blissful ignorance as to where their intell came from. As if living through a war wasn't bad enough, she was now expected to work with, and trust, her childhood bully and his friends. Over her dead body, or theirs, which she would be happy to help make happen.

"What do you think Hermione?" Nevilles voice broke her from her thoughts.

"Sorry what?" She felt a slight heat to her cheeks at being caught out not listening to what they were discussing.

"We were saying we will hold off on telling them about the research for a while? If Snape wants to cut out being the middle man he doesn't need to know we haven't told them about it. We can wait until Charlie gets back and get his input as well before we do anything."

"Yea sure, sounds good." She smiled at Neville and then Luna before drifting back out of the conversation again. Try as she might, all the runes laid out in front of her jumbled together and made no sense. Puzzle solving and studying had translated to strategy and planning over the course of the war, and sitting here looking at all of these books and research made her feel restless. She should be out there doing something, not stuck in here going round in circles over a magic lost to time. Luna and Neville had far more hope than she did that this would work, maybe if they could get even a small breakthrough in translating everything she wouldn't feel like it was so pointless. Instead they spent every day scouring through things she knew did not hold the answers to all the questions surrounding Neville's plant and Luna's stories.

"Still don't think they will end up helping us at all, it feels like one big trap." She mumbled, "I can guarantee you that they won't change my mind on that. There is no version of reality where I can work with, or trust, the lot of them."

Neville gave her an understanding nod, she was aware of how strongly he felt about this but also that he didn't like to seem like they were ganging up on Luna. Not that Luna ever showed any discomfort, or even acknowledged when someone was going against what she was saying. Hermione wasn't entirely sure Luna even realised when others were speaking the majority of the time. In fact this moment was a perfect example of this as Luna stood from the table and tidied up all the books infront of her.

"I think we should leave it here for today, too many wrackspurts hovering around to think clearly." She said, then turned and almost skipped out of the room blonde hair bouncing behind her.

Just as Hermione and Neville watched the door close behind her a beeping noise came from Hermione's bag. She rummaged through it and pulled out the mobile phone Snape had provided and seen the notification on the screen. Neville leaned over to see, eyebrow raised in questioning as she pulled up the message;

4pm tomorrow

same place

new info

Hermione glanced over at Neville who looked like he would sooner do anything else than meet with the Slytherin gang, he sighed as he stood from his chair. "Guess we will get to figure them out sooner rather than later then."

Hermione gave a grunt of agreement and laid her head on the desk, she really didn't want to have to lay eyes on any of them ever again. She might just stay in their little hideout for the rest of her days and forget about the outside world all together.