A/N: Since Death Hallows is out in about… hmm, 2 hours, I highly doubt anyone will be interested in reading this over that. Including myself.

That being said: To carefully word this as I don't want to do any HBP spoilers (seriously though, like anyone reading this hasn't read every book in the series at least 50 times) I do want you to take notice of the time stamp, since this chapter includes my personal prediction of the true allegiance of a certain character PRIOR to the release of book 7. I can't believe some of my friends still don't fully agree with me, even after hours of debate, so this will be the official record of my awesome I-told-you-so-ness.

I'd also like to thank anyone who was kind enough to read this, always makes the effort worth it.

And to those who so generously reviewed, I really truly do appreciate knowing how the story is perceived.

Thanks a million to Dagers87 and AncoraImparo from the always interesting DMF, who lit a fire under my ass to write again with this awesome challenge and for keeping me perverted.

And thank you to my wonderful beta, Azalea Alatus, who understands the use of dashes far better than I ever could and goes the extra mile just because she's that nice.

… … …

"Draco," a feminine voice whispered softly. He felt sharp jabs on his shoulder, "It's time to wake up," she went on.

Draco murmured, pushing the poking fingers away.

"Wake up!" she yelled in his ear.

He popped up with sleepy eyes. Hermione was kneeling next to him.

"Hey," she said awkwardly.

Draco said nothing. His fatigue was washing away quickly.

"The Weasley's are okay," she added brightly, "I flooed McGonagall. Fred did it on accident, but he's fine. The others weren't even in the building…"

Irritated confusion etched across his face as he pushed himself up. She had been in his floo powder? Who the hell did she think she was?

But Draco's outrage was subdued by an unseeingly troublesome question.

"So when exactly is this bank break in?" she asked innocently while rising with him, her hands locked behind her back.

With sudden severity Draco recalled with a perfect recollection all the unfortunate conclusions he had come to. He looked pressingly up at the small bathroom window, wondering just how long he had been out.

His stomach lurched at the sight of the golden dusty light shining through. It was now sunset. He had spent the whole day on his bathroom floor.

How he had fallen asleep he didn't really care about at the moment; not with her pressing question asked so naively; not with so much time already lost. Yet for a brief moment he wished he could collapse again and sleep through all of what would unavoidably be coming next, but he knew—knew that with the whole day wasted away, Death Eaters due to arrive any moment and Hermione looking at him expectantly—that if it had ever been the time, now was the time to step up and be a decent man.

Despite his mouth suddenly turning bone-dry, Draco tried to initiate the news he'd be breaking to Hermione, "They're not letting you go," he said bluntly, tightening his whole body to keep it from shaking, "I've been ordered to kill you when they bring you back."

But Hermione's expression remained just as unperturbed and expectant, "Yes," she acknowledged calmly, "but what time did they say they were coming?"

Draco blinked forcefully a few times. Was he perhaps still sleeping? Did he not speak correctly?

"Did you not hear what I just said?" he inquired impatiently.

"Yes, she answered, "But I really need to know how much time we have—"

"Hermione, you are not going to be let go," he said loudly, enunciating each word, "you're going to die," he went on, a waver in his voice slightly detectable now.

"Please Malfoy," said Hermione, probably sensing his mounting distress, "take it easy. We both know you're not going to kill anybody."

Draco's throat plummeted even further into his stomach. He couldn't imagine anything worse; yet she was still going to make it all the more difficult. He could feel his heart cracking down the middle.

"Granger, this is no time for your smart mouth," he finally managed to say, determined to shut out any sign of actual concern as he spoke, "I'm really trying to give you a little dignity here. If it happens their way all your little friends will know you went out like a fool, helping us out."

"So you're going to kill me right now?" Hermione asked with strange coolness, predicting his next words, "Stage a fight to the death or something?—and what about you? When they arrive it will be hard for me to help them with Gringotts if I'm dead; won't they be furious?"

Draco hadn't thought of that. Just like every other half formed idea he managed, there was no good ending.

"Maybe I'll leave," he thought out loud in a half-whisper, "Maybe I'll run away," he added with more vigor, self-encouragement rising from the realization that his Father could care less about him already, something that would only grow worse once the Dark Lord didn't get into Gringotts, "Make my own way…" he drifted off, imaging a life were he truly had no one.

Hermione's expression switched from condescending to oddly warm, "I wish you could Malfoy," she said softly, "but if it really were that easy you would've done it ages ago. You know he can find you anywhere with that thing," she nodded towards his left forearm.

Draco drew his wrist into his stomach, shielding the hideous snake with his other hand. All her numerous ways of pointing out flaws in his desperate schemes…

"That's why we need to get to Lupin as fast as we can," she said matter-of-factly, "Snape can create a diversion, buy us some time to get it removed…"

Draco stopped staring at his clutched tattoo, and looked into her serious and earnest face with a furrowed brow. What does she think she's saying?

"Snape?" he asked in agitation, "Why would Snape allow me…?"

"Draco," said Hermione hastily with a desperate look in her delicate brown eyes, "I need you to listen to me very carefully, we're running out of time. Snape is not a Death Eater. He's a member of the Order of the Phoenix."

She had exceeded, for a small moment, in tying his insides up in knots, only to be overcome with surprise and pity for her. "Are you completely mental? Snape betrayed your Order," he said guiltily, bewildered she could be so delusional.

"No, he didn't," Hermione insisted.

"Hermione, he killed Dumbledore," Draco said, growing angrier by the second. It was horribly ridiculous; on top of everything else he did not need to feel like he was telling a little child there was no such thing as Santa Claus.

But Hermione was shaking her head, taking one hand out from behind her back and placing it over her own heart, "No Draco, he obeyed Dumbledore," she urged. "You're not the only one he made an unbreakable vow to. Before Dumbledore died, he made sure to leave his pensive, along with the memory of the plan, and Snape promising to go through with it, to Harry.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Draco spat, growing mad with anxiety as they continued putting off what was really important. Who knew when the Death Eaters would be there.

But Hermione continued with strong conviction, "Dumbledore sacrificed himself. The whole thing was an elaborate charade."

"No, no that can't be…" stuttered Draco, "I was going to kill him, he couldn't have known that it was going to work out the way it did."

"Apparently, he did," she said with a hint of the same surprise Draco was feeling just then in her tone, "He had a very different take on who you really were; and so do I."

The air in Draco's lungs suddenly felt very wet and heavy. She couldn't possibly know what she was talking about… Yet she was looking at him most sincerely.

"With a father like Lucius and an aunt like Bellatrix…" she said quietly, as if telling a tale so sad she couldn't look at her listener, "It's not your fault the rubbish you were taught. How could you have known any better as a child? And I watched you. I watched you struggle all year. You didn't want to do any of it. It was destroying you," she went on emphatically, "I knew where you were going in the Room of Requirement long before Harry figured it out, and Myrtle told me about you in the bathroom crying long before Harry found you…"

Draco tensed, ready to deny such a humiliating accusation, but Hermione's pleading expression steadied him as she pressed on, determined to speak, "But I never said anything, even when he asked me about it. I didn't help him at all, even though I suspected something terrible must be going on. I wanted you to have time to decide to go to Dumbledore…" she was talking fast now, it was obvious recalling these events were very painful for her, "But it didn't work out that way. You were too damn clever, you actually figured out how to fix that damn cabinet. You got caught up in the excitement. You were in way over your head. But Dumbledore knew you wouldn't actually do it. That's why Snape had to be right on your tail all the time. To step up and do it when you would choose not to."

Draco didn't notice exactly when it was that his whole body changed. He could melt into the floor, he felt so heavy and sad. Everything she said to him… It was so heartbreakingly wonderful to be understood. His lower jaw hung idly, he was so stunned someone knew what was happening to him, that he hadn't been alone during that god awful year, not really.

"But why would Dumbledore let anyone kill him at all?" Draco finally thought to ask through his dumfounding shock.

Hermione looked away for a moment, her eyes glassing over with tears from thinking about it. "To motivate Harry," she finally choked out, "To give him that one last reason to finish this once and for all."

Draco didn't think he could handle anymore of this strange and outrageous information.

"You have to understand," Hermione said, clearing her voice and continuing firmly, "in the end he truly does have to go it alone. But that doesn't mean the Order can't help him in the meantime. Because of Dumbledore's plan, Voldemort confides everything in Snape, he is his most loyal as he is the one who rid him of Dumbledore. He has made him Secret Keeper of all the Horcrux locations.

"And because of the passion Harry has found in himself to finally rid the world of that Monster; his magic is stronger than ever. And he has taught us that same new magic… Magic more powerful than anything you've ever seen," she added, staring intently into Draco's eyes.

Draco furrowed his brow. She spoke of it with such reverence, as if she truly knew that this "new magic" was what was going to save them all…

"It's right here, "she whispered, tracing her fingertip lightly down his forehead with the hand she had been resting on her chest, "in your mind."

She had drawn a lighting bolt.

"And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal," Draco whispered in complete awe, pieces of a gruesome puzzle starting to fall eerily into place, "But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not."

"Muggle doctors believe that's the area of the brain in charge of emotion," she said with a small smile, "It's where you love. And we can do amazing things when we concentrate with it."

Draco was deathly still. Could he really believe all this?

"I wasn't lying when I said Lupin can remove the Dark Mark," Hermione told him gently, "And I can get into your hideouts, I could probably even penetrate through Goblin enchantments if I really wanted. And you should've seen the Reducto jinx McGonagall used on that vanishing cabinet," she went on with a small, tired laugh, "Let's just say no one will get into Hogwarts through it ever again. And Snape?" she chimed, "He was already one of the most gifted Occulmens of all time. That's how he has been able to deceive Voldemort for so long. But now his legilimency…" She shook her head with what almost seemed like disapproval, "He can penetrate deep into you mind without you even knowing."

Draco suddenly tensed all over, too astonished to accept what he was finally figuring out, "You got caught on purpose…" he whispered. "You and Snape," he went on breathlessly, "He knew… he knew I wouldn't be able to hurt you. He knew that I wanted to…" Draco trailed off.

His cheeks, which were for the briefest moment pink with embarrassment now flashed red with anger, recalling all those times Snape stared at him in that horrible uncomfortable way. All those times… reading his mind. Occulmency lessons with his Aunt rendered completely useless. He had seen everything; every fantasy about Hermione.

Hermione's mouth turned up into a smile that was a beautiful mix of shyness and triumph as Draco expression revealed he had finally figured it out.

Snape knew she'd be the perfect candidate to send to his flat. He knew he dreamed about her every night. That it was her alone that could get under his skin.

Draco wanted to explode with rage. He had never felt so violated. Those were his most private thoughts. And Snape just took them. Took them and used them against him—and her too. She played him. Like a little toy. And he had fallen perfectly for their little game.

She brought him to the very brink of his sanity, rendering him emotionally incapacitated. She weakened him, forced him into a corner to fret and cry in the agony of his dilemma of killing her.

He was now certain that having to take care of her, possibly torture her, tie her to the bed, growing attached to the seductive temptation of her very presence, was all ingeniously intentional. Everything became so painfully obvious. He was distinctly aware now that Snape knew all along he would request that she be used then released, and knew that by twisting the idea he would declare war on his character and prolong her stay. And of course, how could he be so stupid! Catching her in his medicine cabinet… Hermione tampered with his potion ingredients, drugging him to sleep.

A question still itched at all his thoughts—why… for what exactly? So she could roam freely about the hideout…

Only Snape could get into his flat.

"Oh God," Draco thought in horror, his heart stopping in his chest.

She knew what was here. That's why Snape set it up for her to come. So that she could-

Hermione, finally revealing what Draco hadn't even noticed she was hiding throughout the course of their conversation, withdrew her other hand from behind her back, forcing him to realize what it was.

"Harry also taught us how to kill Voldemort's soul with a single curse," she explained.

Hufflepuff's cup.

The handles were melted down, the whole thing was charred in black ash. He could tell just by looking at it that it possessed an eerie stillness now. It emitted no energy. It was like a black hole. There was obviously no piece of soul contained within it.

"In a box labeled "light bulbs" in the closet?" she questioned humorously, "The old "hidden in plain sight" tactic? Couldn't believe it really… took me forever to find it. Combed the entire flat looking for traces of magical concealment. Took me all day."

But Draco's mouth just hung open in surreal shock as she spoke. She had destroyed it. It was dead.

A feeling he never felt before came crawling up him. Hope. Hope that the Dark Lord could actually be defeated. That it wasn't impossible. That he could be free from the creditor to whom he was so indebted. Her and her people were that much closer to meeting a mortal Voldemort. With this alleged new magic, perhaps when the "Chosen One" did meet him… perhaps he really could win…

Then suddenly panic clenched his chest, squeezing tightly and showing no sign of release.

The worst possible thing that could happen had happened.

The Dark Lord was more vulnerable than before. Draco failed to guard the Horcrux, his only job. The Death Eaters were going to kill him for this. His own Father would surely volunteer to do it himself.

"What have you done?" he finally screamed, "Why did you do that? They're going to torture me until I beg for death!

"Then come with me, Draco. Right now. To Order Headquarters," Hermione pleaded

Draco could not believe what was happening, "Are you crazy? I'm no safer with the Order than I am with Death Eaters!" he screamed while shaking.

"No!" she yelled back, "No, that's not true. You need to calm down."

"I've got to get out of here," Draco concluded manically, looking hysterically around the room, "I've got to leave now. I'm a dead man."

"Draco, please," Hermione tried to plead, "You know you can't run from them alone."

"You're right," he uttered, freezing in his place, "there's nothing I can do. No where I can go." His eyes turned foggy, and his voice was hollow, "…I should just off myself…"

"Draco!" Hermione screamed in shock, "Stop! That's ridiculous, don't talk like that."

"No, no," repeated Draco, eyes now wide and erratic, "It's not ridiculous," he insisted crazily, "You don't get it. You have no idea what it's like. It's the best way… most painless… doesn't give them the satisfaction-

Hermione, dropping the now worthless cup, advanced upon Draco, engulfing his broad shaking figure with her arms and kissed him firmly, pacifying his tremors with her soothing lips.

"There is something you can do, somewhere you can go," she whispered against his mouth. "With us, you can start helping us now."

Her attempt worked, in a way. Her intoxicating kiss, bewitching words... He did feel calmer. But he resented it.

"Please," he practically begged, taking her arms and pushing them off his shoulders and back down to her sides, "Just stop. Stop giving me your kisses. Stop giving me your delusions. You're just making things worse. Wake up Hermione, I can't go with you. Potter will never trust me, he'll never allow me. And it's his bloody Order."

"No it's not," she said, "its Dumbledore's! And Dumbledore was going to show you mercy. Give you a second chance. That's what he wanted, that's what he believed in. And that's what I believe in. And that's what Harry believes in too, no matter how difficult.

"You'll show him how helpful you can be," she went on insistently, "I see it in your eyes. You want him gone. He may not have done it the same way he did it to Harry, but he took away your chances of a normal happy family too."

Instantly he felt stung, and for the second time that night Draco's eyes flooded with tears. He was desperate not to let them drop. But her words, they rang through him like a massive bell, and she said them so bravely. Words he never dared admit to himself but always felt. His deepest, darkest secrets.

Yes, he wanted to be a great and powerful wizard, rightfully respected and honored. He was Slytherin through and through. But he never wanted to earn that through someone like Voldemort. To have to have the protection and helping along from such a soulless snake.

He wanted to earn it himself; without murdering his way to the top. He wanted to be able to walk freely among the crowds, not have people scream and run because the Dark Lord's pawn was among them. Yes he wanted people to be impressed by him, but not terrified of him.

He didn't want to be alone. He wanted people around. People who would be properly proud of him. Like friends. Or family. He wanted a family. A real one. And Voldemort took that away when he tempted his Dad. His Father made it official when he chose to give in.

And she knew all this. She knew him most deeply, most intimately. And she didn't find him sad and pathetic. She still wanted him to take her hand. She wanted him to join her.

Perhaps with her, perhaps after leaving his Father and the rest of the Death Eaters, he could finally become great on his own.

He looked deep into her brown eyes, radiating genuine honesty. Then down to her soft pink lips. Lips she had just kissed him with. So it all had been real… He was relieved. But thrown back into bitter anger at the thought of being played with like a doll.

He couldn't possibly know then just how much he would end up changing because of the simple decision he made, to tap the books to open the front door, but his pride would never falter.

"I never would've guessed you could do such a thing," he told her chidingly.

"What?" asked Hermione.

"Play with me like that," he said sharply.

Hermione smiled shyly, "I'm sorry," she said, "But you have to understand, it was the only way to get through to someone as hard headed as you."

Draco glared at her half-heartedly, "Just as long as we room next to Weasley," he said while turning the knob and pulling the door.

"Ron?" asked Hermione, "Why?"

"So he can hear you screaming my name," he finished with a smirk.

Hermione said nothing, merely glaring back at him. Then she walked right out the front door, just like she told him she would.

…End…