When Hermione woke up she knew that she wasn't in her bed. It was far less comfortable, much too small, and most importantly, Draco wasn't in it. She opened her eyes slowly, having to close them almost immediately because of how bright it was in the room. She tried raising her hands to cover her eyes, but they felt...weak. Weak as though she hadn't moved them in days.

She groaned.

"Hermione?"

That voice alone made Hermione open her eyes again. This time she turned her gaze in the direction Draco's voice came from and she found him. What confused her was why they weren't at home.

"Where are we?"

"St. Mungo's."

Hermione scrunched her brows in confusion. "St. Mungo's? Why? What happened?"

Draco took one of her hands and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Do you remember our honeymoon?"

Hermione smiled. "Of course. I could never forget that."

Draco took a deep sigh of relief at that. Healers had been worried about possible memory loss. If that had been her case then he honestly didn't know what he would do.

"What about after we got home?"

"Um… Well, you went off to put our things away. And I… I'm not sure what I did."

"You went into the owlery." Draco helped. "You started sorting through mail."

Did she? She supposed that was something she would do. She couldn't remember it, but she could at the very least imagine. She probably went in and sorted through a few things. Smiling at some, rolling her eyes at others –stupid reporters. Suddenly she gasped and stared at Draco with wide eyes.

"The painting! There was a painting!"

"Yes, there was." He nodded. "It was the frame, Hermione. The frame was cursed. You've been in here for four days."

Her mouth dropped. "Four days?"

"Four very long days, yes." Draco replied in a solemn voice. That's when Hermione truly noticed him. How tired he looked. How worn and...well…quite reminiscent of when she had seen him again at Hogwarts.

"Hermione, I'm sorry. I'm so-"

"No." Hermione said sternly. "Don't you dare do that. Don't. You are not responsible for what other people do whether it's to me or to someone else."

"But-"

"No, I said. You've come so far, Draco. I remember how broken you were. How...defeated you used to be. Don't let this one instance bring you back there."

Draco scoffed. "This 'one instance' isn't some little thing. How would you feel, Hermione, if it was me laying there?"

Hermione frowned at once.

"Exactly. You...you could've died. By all rights you should have. All other victims of cursed objects have died. Some right away and others over time."

"But I'm fine, see?" She said as she put a hand on his cheek. "Look at me. I'm okay. Although, it does beg the question as to why."

Draco closed his eyes and relished in her touch. Four days of unresponsiveness as he held her hands had been torturous.

"Don't go questioning good things, Hermione."

"I'm not questioning anything. Besides, the Auror in you will be jumping out at what I'm thinking of."

He squirmed on the inside at the word "Auror." Although Harry had done brilliantly (it was such a Slytherin thing to do, Draco couldn't help but be proud), Auror Warren still had to undergo a review with the Wizengamot before being officially sacked –if he got sacked at all. That meant he was technically still Auror Head, although he couldn't work, and that Draco was still suspended.

"If the proven track record of these victims are coma and death, then why am I still alive? What makes me so different?"

"I don't know. But I plan on finding out one way or another."

Hermione smiled at him. "I'll have to thank Auror Juno when I see her. I wouldn't think she'd let you on the case with the victim being me and all."

Draco kept his guilt from rising up to his face. To further help his cause he got up to get her Healer and let him know that she was awake so he could do a final round of assessments. He took the time to send an owl to her family and friends as well as his and his mother. Harry was the first one to arrive, but Draco wasn't surprised. St. Mungo's had been the one to contact him since he was the one working her case. Now that she was awake he would finally be able to ask her pertinent questions. However, most of those questions had been directed at him the day after her admittance.

Theo was a private person. Take in account all the work he did that required copious amounts of travel, it was hard to pin him down much less to get information on him. Draco was the Ministry's best bet in finding Theo, however, the blond hadn't been very cooperative. Not that they knew it. He had gotten lucky in the fact that Harry hadn't been the one to question him. It had been advised that he didn't seeing as he knew him and might ask leading questions or ones that didn't probe enough. It smelled of Auror Warren even though his hands weren't directly in this, but Draco was thankful regardless. He was able to easily navigate their inquiry by providing false help while keeping himself off their radar.

Well, off of the Ministry's radar. Harry, he was quite sure, didn't trust him not to do something lethal. And he was right. That's why Draco had yet to do anything to Theo –whose precise location he already knew after meticulous research. He had wanted to wait until everyone (especially Harry) would be distracted enough to not realize he was missing or concerned enough to go after him. Having Hermione awake after a four-day sleep was certainly distraction enough.

"I'm going to get a few things of hers from home." Draco said to Ginny. "Let Hermione know if she asks, will you?"

"Of course."

He walked off innocently, although his intentions were far from it.

"I'm sorry that my visit is more of a professional one." Harry frowned as he sat at Hermione's bedside. She shook her head at him and patted his hand.

"It's alright." She encouraged him. "You know I hold professionalism in high regard. So, ask what you need to."

"Okay," he took out a notepad and muggle pen for ease and got started. "Did anything seem strange to you when you got home?"

"No, nothing."

"What about when you went into your owlery? Malfoy said that the room felt off the moment he walked in there."

"Not surprised," Hermione surmised. "He's been working with dark objects for months now. He should be the first one to know when something's wrong where they're concerned. But me? The room was fine. Although…"

Harry picked up on her hesitance. "Although what?"

"The painting. I knew it was from Nott and under normal circumstances I wouldn't have opened it. He's not very likeable, so why would I? But I… I couldn't help it."

"What do you mean you couldn't help it?"

"Just as I said." Hermione shrugged. "Something about it drew me in. I wanted to open it. To touch it. Honestly, Harry, I wouldn't have done it otherwise."

"Huh. Sounds like an open bottle of Amortentia to me."

Hermione's face lit up at that. "With its impulsive characteristics I'd say so too. Very astute of you, Harry!"

Harry chuckled as his face reddened. "I tend to have my moments. I'll let the researcher working on this know as well as the DA Auror."

"Oh, is someone else on my case too?"

Harry's brows furrowed. "Someone else?"

"Yeah, you said the DA Auror instead of just Draco."

Harry kept his face as neutral as possible. "Right, yeah. Travers. He's on it too."

Hermione crinkled her face. "Had to be him, did it? I suppose I should keep my judgements to myself. Despite who he is as a person I hear he's good at his job so…"

"He is, I promise. So, I'm going to go and give them this information, alright?" Harry said as he stood. "I'll be back as soon as Auror duties are over."

Hermione grinned. "Auror duties are never over. But I appreciate it nonetheless."

Harry gave her a quick hug as a final farewell and left her room as calmly as possible. Contrary to his outward demeanor his mind was racing. Did Draco intentionally tell Hermione that he was on her case? Did she come to that conclusion on her own? If it was the latter, why didn't he correct her? If the former, why would he lie? It didn't sit well with him and neither did the fact that he couldn't find Draco.

"Have you seen Draco?" Blaise asked him. "Just got in and figured I'd see him, but he's not here."

"Oh, he should be here soon." Ginny said as she approached them. "He told me that he was heading home to grab a few things for Hermione. He's been gone a while so I suspect-"

"I'm heading to the Ministry." Harry said curtly. "I'll be back as soon as I'm done."

Ginny and Blaise were caught off guard by his abruptness, but Harry couldn't deal with them right now. Instead, he needed to quickly to do a Location Tracker on Draco's wand (illegal in most cases as it was a breach of privacy) in order to find him.

Draco had never been capable of murder. The mere thought of it tore at his conscience. It always had.

Until now.

Now he felt ready. Knowing that Theo –someone who was supposed to be his friend –had put his wife in the hospital and that she could've died, had sparked something in Draco that he thought had died long ago. It was a darkness that he thought he'd never see again, but one that he welcomed just for a moment. Long enough to give him a satisfaction that would let him sleep peacefully at night.

He was waiting in a dingy back alley. Theo was in a pub, but Draco couldn't afford to wait until he was finished getting drunk. Not if he wanted to get back to the hospital before anyone started to go looking for him.

And then that's when he smiled as the backdoor opened and out walked Theo arm-in-arm with a pretty witch that Draco knew would tickle his fancy. Once the door was closed and they were further enough away, he stepped out of the shadows.

Theo tilted his head to one side. "Draco?"

Draco said nothing. He flicked his wand once which tossed Theo into the brick wall next to him. He then raised his wand to the witch who was at his attention in a blink of an eye.

"You can go home." Draco ordered. "And then you can go to bed."

The witch immediately walked her way out of the alley. Draco hadn't cast that curse in years, but he was still happy to know that he was efficient at it. The blond turned his eyes on Theo who had stared at the exchange with a horrified expression.

"Draco… What are you doing?"

"Be quiet." He snapped before flicking his wand again. Theo was up from the floor and up against the wall –a Sticking Charm keeping him rooted. "Did you really think that you could try to kill my wife and get away with it? Have you lost your mind?"

"Kill your wife?" Theo repeated as he tried to struggle against the charm. "Draco, I didn't-"

"I said be quiet!"

Draco hit him with a non-verbal Silencing Charm. Although it would give him great joy to hear his screams, they were still in an alley and he didn't want to risk too much damage here. Just as he was about to give his wand some exercise, a voice he didn't expect broke the air.

"Malfoy, step away from him." Harry said. Draco didn't turn around, but he rolled his eyes anyway.

"Potter," he replied with annoyance lacing his tone. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"Well, if you dusted off your specs, you'd clearly see what I'm doing."

Harry scoffed. "Back to the old ways then, are we?"

Draco sneered, his gaze still trained on Theo. "What old ways?"

"You insulting me. You…" Harry glanced at Theo, clearly terrified, and sighed. "Hurting people."

"I haven't hurt him." Draco contradicted. "Yet."

"Malfoy, listen to me." Harry said as he slowly approached. "Don't do something that you're going to regret."

"Regret?" Draco asked. He even laughed a little. "Trust me, Potter, I wouldn't regret this."

"Yes, you would. Because you'd be arrested and convicted if you do. Do you get that? That means Azkaban, Malfoy. There'd be no talking on your behalf to get you off like last time. No more chances. No more future. No more Hermione."

Draco tensed at the mention of Hermione. Harry thought that to be a good sign and decided to continue.

"She thinks you've changed. But this? This clearly shows that you haven't. That somewhere underneath that fake façade of remorse you're still a dangerous Deatheater who should have gone to Azkaban."

Draco quickly whipped around with his wand raised. "That's not true."

"Take a good look at yourself and say that." Harry challenged. "Because it's exactly how you look right now. And it's exactly what everyone will think –including Hermione. You may not give a damn about everyone else, but I know that what she thinks about you means a great deal. Don't let this change her mind about you."

Draco tightened the grip on his wand as his heartrate accelerated. He was doing this for Hermione, but…she would hate this, wouldn't she? She would hate him. His mind went over to their earlier conversation and he frowned deeply. You've come so far, Draco. Considering the current circumstances, had he?

Draco had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't even realized that Harry had walked over and lowered his wand arm.

"I'll take him in."

"Okay,"

"And as far as we're both concerned, you were never here. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good." Harry patted his shoulder. "Now, go on. Get out of here. And don't forget to get those things for Hermione like you said you would."

Draco robotically nodded and prepared to disapparate. Before he did he could hear Harry muttering a Memory Charm –anything to make sure that "never here" bit held true.

Author's note: Draco…was angry, but that might be an understatement. If Theo wasn't Obliviated he would have to thank Harry a million times over.

-WP

Replies to Guests

Guest: Yup, quite. He would make Salazar proud :)

KangBoRam: About time right!? Well, according to this chapter he'll be on his way soon. Hopefully.