"Good morning, Master Rocksplitter." Hermione stood. "I'll leave you with it, Harry, I have to meet Croaker, about the other pocket-spaces." She gave Harry a brief hug. "I'll try and pop in later this evening, but if I don't, I'll definitely be in, tomorrow evening." She turned the goblin. "Master Rocksplitter, please excuse me for delaying you." With that she left the room, heading for the DoM.

Hermione sighed, she wasn't looking forward to this meeting, not at all. The last two weeks had been hectic and stressful and to now have to sit through a meeting with Draco Malfoy was not something she was looking forward to.

The Ministry had finally decided to act in regard to the muggleborns and muggle-raised and Umbridge was very put out to discover that only a few of them were at the school and only one of them was she able to take into custody. The poor lass just wanted to go home, so having her core bound and her memories removed was a relief for her… and her family. The rest? Hermione had been given a heads-up by Croaker and managed to stash them all, in trunks that Croaker and his team had made for those going with Harry. Conditions were poor, but they had privacy, a bed, food and something to keep them occupied. The Unspeakables were still working on the hundred-acre pocket-space but so far, all their attempts had failed. The smaller spaces worked brilliantly, but the larger one, just wouldn't stabilise for some reason.

The refugees were all safely stashed in a trunk that was kept in Hermione's beaded bag. The werewolf bitten were all staying with Remus in one pocket-space that was about the size of the Great Hall, large but not huge, and each of them had their own tent. The muggleborn and raised were in a second space that was much the same, with the same conditions. They were all just waiting on the big space from Croaker and they could begin to put things where they needed to, in preparation to travel.

Harry's trunk was complete, all but that one space, Hermione had told him it was the one that was to be big enough to fly in, but that Croaker's team hadn't got it done, yet. She didn't tell him that it was because of stabilisation issues and not the time issues like he was thinking.

They were running out of time, down to just twenty-two days. Twenty-two days to finalise a lot of things. To erect the RB houses and community buildings, stock and furnish them, transfer the animals and their supplies, transfer the plants, transfer in all their personal purchases and all the little incidentals that filled the pages of Hermione's folder.

But right now, she had to deal with a Malfoy and that was one of her least favourite things.

She entered the classroom that Flitwick had refurnished and allocated to her and set her folder and bag down on the conference-type table. A tap at the door and when Hermione turned, Draco Malfoy stood in the doorway.

"Malfoy." She nodded, keeping it firmly in mind that she was in a school and hexing the blonde prat, would bring the Headmaster's wrath down on her.

"Granger." Draco was quiet, a lot quieter than she expected.

"Come in and sit down." Hermione waved to the table. "Anywhere is fine." Seconds passed as Malfoy did as she directed. "What is this meeting about?"

Malfoy looked at his hands, his fingers resting in his lap. It took a nearly a minute for him to speak. "It started… Initially, I asked for this meeting to apologise for my actions."

"But…?"

"But over the last two weeks that has changed." He sighed.

"In what way?" She asked.

"I… now…" Draco bit his lip and started again. "You are placing created-spaces in a trunk for Potter." It was not a question.

Hermione frowned. "What makes you so sure?"

"It's the only logical way for him to take everything you've acquired. Trunks with expanded space can only be so large, but created-spaces don't have the same limitations."

"And what are you going to do, if I confirm that?"

"I have access to a very large created-space, big enough to fit Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and a large chunk of the surrounding area, inside it."

"And…?"

"And I will give it to you, for Potter… in exchange for your… help." He had to force out the last five words.

"Our help? Why do you need our help?"

"My father…" Draco sighed and let his head fall forward. "He's angry…"

"At us?"

"No, at me…"

"Why?"

"I… turned away from his lord… I stood with the students of Hogwarts…"

"And he's angry about that?"

"Not just that." He took a deep breath. "In the courtyard, when the dark lord called for me, I didn't go, when my father called for me, I didn't go, but when my mother called, I went."

"I remember." Hermione nodded.

"She and I turned away and left. Father had to choose between his lord and his family. It was only later that he realised that mother had chosen between him and me, that she'd walked away from him. She chose me."

"And he doesn't like that?"

"No, not at all. We're locked in by the wards, only one of us can leave, one has to be inside the wards at all times. He's using us against each other, as surety for our good behaviour. I was late in returning home, the Monday a week after the battle. I was greeted by my mother's screams, he was using the cruciatus on her, when I tried to stop him, he cast it on me." Draco whispered, admitting weaknesses was not something he liked to do.

"Oh, god. Are you alright?" Hermione sat forward, quickly.

"Yes, thank you." Draco nodded. "Father gave us both small doses of a de-aging potion, just enough to revert us back to our condition of prior to his curses."

"I'm sorry, I'm not following." Hermione frowned again.

"De-aging potion, is as it sounds, a potion that de-ages someone, it removes days or hours that they'd lived from their bodies, making them younger."

"But the cruciatus also affects your mind and I wasn't aware that a de-aging potion could alter that?"

"A normal version, probably not, but father has a modified version that Severus made, it's a combination of de-aging potion and a stabilising potion. It has to be used sparingly, as it's completely irreversible but it will repair any damage done within a range of time. That time is determined by the dosage taken. He's only got so much of it left and the dark lord obliviated Severus, who was the only person to know the recipe."

"Oh, my. Just a moment." Hermione quickly made a note in the inside of her folder. "I'd like more information about that, but that can wait. Back to you and your father. He crucio-ed you and your mother, gave you both this de-aging potion and what next?"

"And that's been our life, ever since. Each day, I return home to her screams, am crucio-ed, potioned and each morning it starts over."

"And what do you want me to do?"

"Help me. Help me get my mother out. Help me get out. I've talked to her about it and we both agreed. You get us out, you can have the pocket-space." Draco said, bluntly.

"And where will you go?"

"Does it matter?" Draco shrugged.

"Yes. Getting you out, only to have your father track you down and drag you back. No, it has to be better than that."

"Father's got contacts all over the world, I… I'm not sure there is anywhere that we can go, where he won't eventually find us. But if you can get us out of the mansion, we stand a chance."

"Has you mother got any training, other than Hogwarts?"

"She's completed part of her potions' mastery, to the journeyman level. And is a fully certified healer…?" It came out as question.

Hermione sat up, her head lifting sharply. "Your mother's a healer? A fully qualified healer?"

"Yes." Draco answered and was nearly blinded by the brightness of Hermione's smile. She was no longer the bushy-haired bucktoothed know-it-all mudblood that he'd tried to get the better of, and failed, but a strong, intelligent and very pretty witch. Pretty? When had that changed and why hadn't Draco seen it before?

A smirk slid across Hermione's face, making Draco squirm in discomfort. "You want out, I can get you out, I can even get you somewhere that your father will never find you. But…"

"But…?"

"There's no way back."

"I… I don't… I don't understand…" Draco frowned, slightly.

"I want an oath, Malfoy… Draco… that what I tell you, you will not pass along to anyone, in any way, unless I give you permission to tell a specific person." Hermione leant forward, her hands on the table.

"An oath? Why?"

"The lives of nearly forty people would be forfeited, if this were to get out. No, I go no further without an oath."

"What type of oath?" Draco asked.

"You will swear on your life and magic that you will not pass this information along, nor will you discuss this information with anyone that I do not specifically name. The oath is only until the 19th of June, after that it won't matter anymore." Hermione said.

Draco tilted his head and thought about it. Was getting his mother and himself free of his father, worth it? He sighed. Yes, it was.

"I, Draconis Lucius Malfoy, do swear upon my life and magic that I shall not deliberately inform anyone of the information I am provided within this room, nor shall I speak of this matter to anyone not named by Hermione Granger, before the 19th of June, this year. As I swear, so shall it be." A glow of white light surrounded Draco, slowly fading away.

"Excellent. The students that Umbridge was trying to find, are being hidden in expanded trunks and as soon as the Unspeakables build me a one-hundred-acre pocket-space or you give me the one you mentioned, they'll be moving into it. The night before Harry enters the veil, I'll be putting that pocket-space in Harry's trunk. They'll be going with him… and so will I. At present we have over twenty-five people that will be going. Mostly students, but a few adults."

"And the Unspeakables really said that the veil will send him… somewhere else?" Draco asked.

"Yes."

"Do they know where?"

"Not exactly. The people who entered the veil never returned. But people have emerged from it. They just weren't from our world." Hermione told the blonde man.

"From our world?!" Draco gasped.

"Yes, our world. From what those people told the Unspeakables, they came from different places, maybe the one world, but certainly from different areas, possibly different countries. The problem is that from what they describe, their world or worlds are pre-industrial."

"Pre-industrial? And that means… what, exactly?"

"No factories, nothing mass produced." Hermione explained. "A lot like the wizarding world but without magic, they had to do everything by hand or using hand driven tools."

"And that's where they think Potter will go?"

"Yes."

"Will he still have access to his magic?"

"The Unspeakables believe so. Of the nine people that have emerged from the veil, seven of them either knew what a wizard was or knew one personally." Hermione answered.

"Well, that's something, I suppose." Draco sighed. "But what has where Potter's going got… to do… …." He trailed off as he figured it out. "You're suggesting mother and I join Potter."

"Not just Harry, but me and almost thirty others." She raised an eyebrow in challenge.

"You're putting thirty-odd people in a trunk and you want my mother and I to join you. A trunk that Potter is going to take with him, when he enters the veil." The blonde summarised.

"Yes." Hermione agreed, matter-of-factly.

"But how do you plan to get us both out of the mansion? And what of our possessions?"

"I'll provide each of you with a vault key and a trunk," knowing that the Malfoys wouldn't shop in the muggle world, she didn't mention a muggle credit-type card. "It's slightly expanded and has a number of pocket-spaces in it. A vault, a library, clothes storage, personal effect storage, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, laundry. A greenhouse, if you want it, a potions' lab, ingredient stores. All the comforts of home in a trunk. The only catch is, the house-elves say they can't go, something to do with being a self-cursed species. I'm not sure, but not one elf would consider it, not even the Black family elf that Harry inherited from his godfather." Hermione shook her head to drag her focus back to the question at hand. "Go shopping, get clothes, toiletries, books, everything you can think of, and don't forget the brooms. When you're happy that you've got everything, exchange the contents of the Malfoy vaults for gold ingots, jewellery and gems. Rocksplitter is handling most of the exchanges."

"You're giving us a vault key?" Draco gasped. "Are you mad? We could empty the vault!"

"Not a chance, not even you could do that." Hermione laughed.

"You're funding all of the… What are you calling those that are going?"

"They're calling themselves 'refugees', as they're seeking refuge in Harry's trunk."

"Refugees? Refugees… Huh. Not the most pleasant of names."

"You come up with something better and they might use it, at the moment, it's the best of a bad bunch." Hermione grimaced.

"Refugees, ugh." Draco screwed up his nose. "Refugees. You're funding the refugees? All of them?"

"Yes, Harry was left massive amounts of gold and property after the last war, but he wants nothing to do with it. He thinks he's leaving it to me. I've taken as much as I'm comfortable with and the rest is being used to fund the refugees and anything that's leftover… and I wouldn't be surprised to find that even then, we'll have spent less than half… Anything left will be exchanged for non-money valuables and divided up amongst us all."

"How much was there?" Draco's eyes widened. "If funding thirty people in a complete resettlement was only half, how much was the total?"

"I kept ʛ5 million for myself, put ʛ10 million in refugee accessible vault. So far we haven't spent it all." Hermione shrugged.

"ʛ15 million is half?" Draco was almost speechless.

"Pretty much."

"Oh, good grief." The wizard huffed. "You're funding us, and you plan to split any leftover between us all. Yeah, fine, we're… Huh… I was about to say we're in, but… how do we get out of the manor? We have to do that, before we can join you."

"Same way I got around in third year. A time turner. When you're both ready to go, your mother leaves the mansion at… let's say midday, meets me or Professor McGonagall, who's coming too. You wait a few minutes, maybe five or ten, find a remote part of the mansion where you won't be noticed, use the time turner to turn back to, say, eleven-thirty, leave the property and meet me and your mother. There'll be no alerts in the wards as the 'unturned' version of you is still present within the mansion, when your mother leaves." Hermione added the clarification.

"And father won't know what to do. He'll check the wards and they'll say that mother and I left at eleven-thirty and twelve o'clock, but the wards will still register me as being there when mother left, even though they also register me has having left a half hour before her." Draco smiled back. "Oh, very nice, very nice indeed." He tilted his head. "With a mind like yours, how did you avoid Slytherin?"

"Muggleborn. The hat said my mind belonged in Slytherin, but that the rest of me was a lion." Hermione gave him a cheeky grin.

"Oh, hell… I don't…" He sighed. "When? When does this have to happen by?"

"I want everyone but me and maybe three or four others, to be in the trunk ready to go, on the evening of the 15th of June. That gives you a little less than twenty days. Come and see me tomorrow afternoon, bring the pocket-space and I'll have the time turner and a schedule for you. McGonagall's teaching us all how to be animagi, you can slot into a session, whenever you've time. Use the time turner as much as you like to go shopping, same for your mother, but for Merlin's sake don't let your father find it."

"That would be a disaster in the offering." Draco agreed.

"Other than that, just touch base with me, McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey or George Weasley, every other day, please." Hermione requested.

"That I can do. Who am I permitted to tell and who may I discuss this with?"

"Ah. You can tell your mother and only her. To discuss this with? Myself, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Madam Pomfrey, Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley, George Weasley, Garrick Ollivander, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Fleur Delacour-Weasley, Lee Jordan, Oliver Wood, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. At this point. There are a few more, but until you move in with us, it's safer for you and them, if you don't know who they are, they're considered dead and we definitely don't want the Ministry to suspect that they're not. If there's someone that you think we should include tell me and we'll consider it."

"That's quite a… Gryffindor selection."

"In the ones not mentioned, we have lions, snakes, eagles and even a lone badger. We don't care what a person's house was, if they need help, we'll do our best to help them. Oh, and Ollivander will custom make wands for everyone, we want everyone to have preferably four wands, to have backups in case of breakages."

"Always a good idea." Draco nodded. "Any idea on how long we'll be inside Potter's trunk? God, that sounds so… wrong."

Hermione laughed. "I'm sure you're not the only to think that. We haven't really decided yet. We all feel he should be given some time to assess the situation before we spring out of the trunk at him, but how long is… we're divided. Some are saying hours, other days, while Bill and S- one of the assumed-dead people, think we should give him up to a month."

"How do you plan to get Potter to open the trunk? Or can you open it from the inside?"

"I figure a Patronus message is obvious. 'Open the bloody trunk, Harry', should do it." Hermione imitated a screeching Molly Weasley.

Draco burst into laughter. "Oh, I'd love to see his reaction."

"We're taking a pensieve…" Hermione said in a sing-song voice with a bright smile.