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Chapter 2, Danger:

It had been a week since the incident in the alley. Draco had been reading the paper every morning to see if there was news about the man that Hermione had killed. There wasn't. That was odd. If the man truly were an Auror, and a Ministry employee, surely there would be a full-blown investigation. Maybe Granger lied to him. Maybe the man wasn't an Auror. What purpose would have been served by her lying? Maybe the man lied to Granger. Maybe he wasn't an Auror, and he just wanted her to think he was. Again, this didn't make sense to Draco either. She was smart. Surely, she would have checked out the man's story before agreeing to meet with him.

Draco was again reading his morning paper, looking for news of that night, when he heard a knock on the door. It shook him to his core. A knock on the door to the normal witch or wizard would just mean that they had a visitor. However, for Draco, it meant something more sinister, he was sure. The reason he came to that conclusion was that in the fifteen months he had lived at his present residence, he had never had one visitor. Not once. He had people over to visit, but always invited, or they came to his flat with him. No one uninvited had ever knocked on his door.

He rose from his chair at the dining room table and started toward the door. He always kept his wand on him. Even at home. He pulled it out of his robe and went to the door. He heard the knocking again. He felt stupid, but he wasn't about to just open the door, so he said, "Who is it?

"Malfoy?" said a female voice, "Let me in. It's Hermione Granger."

No way. Granger was the last person he expected or even wanted to see. Though that last part wasn't completely true…he thought he might want to see her again, he still didn't expect that he would. He said, "Tell me something only Hermione Granger would know," to make sure it was really her.

"Okay," she stated, "You're the world's biggest git."

Very funny. Any one could have said that, he thought. "I said tell me something only Hermione Granger would know," he said annoyed.

"Just let me in you stupid prat," she seethed.

It was Granger, all right. Malfoy opened the door, and she rushed in, and looked behind her shoulder as she entered. This made him nervous, so he put his head out of the doorway to look in the hall as well. He wasn't sure why. He came back in and shut his door. "What are you doing here?" he asked her.

"I really need to talk to you. It's very important." She seemed nervous. She invited herself to sit on his couch.

"Let me go put some clothes on, and I'll be right back," he answered. He came back in the room roughly twenty minutes later.

"It took you long enough," Hermione barked.

"Well, I'm sorry. I didn't know I was on a timetable. I had to shower before I got dressed. Do you mind?" he said rhetorically. He didn't really care if she minded or not. "Now, what are you doing here? I thought we agreed that we wouldn't see each other again."

"I know, but things have gotten a bit stickier," she began.

"I don't want to hear another word unless you promise me you'll tell me everything, Granger," Malfoy said as he sat next to her on the couch.

"That's why I'm here," she said. Then she looked around, as if to check that they were alone.

"What are you doing, Granger?" he asked her.

"Are we alone?" she asked.

"It's 8:00 o'clock in the morning. We're alone." He rolled his eyes.

"Right, well, I work for a newspaper called 'The Wizard Times' have you heard of it before?" she began.

Of course, he had heard of it. He even had a subscription. He didn't remember ever seeing her name on any of the articles. He sat there without answering her question and she must have finally realized that he wanted her to continue.

"Well," she said, "I was writing an article about a rogue group of Muggle born witches and wizards that have taken to calling themselves, "The Mud Ones". The Ministry deems them terrorist, even though their ideology thus far has been all talk, no action. They haven't really done anything to harm anyone. Mostly, they're just about exposing the prejudices and hate mongering of pureblood elitist and former Death Eaters."

She stopped for a moment, then continued, "A man named Kevin Riley came to me, knowing that I was Muggle born, and said he had information of this group, and that he knew of a plan that they had to, and I quote, 'rid the world of all former Death Eaters and their heirs.' Therefore, I wrote the article, with the information I was given, and before it was published, the man I killed contacted me. He told me he was an Auror named Rubin Meyers and he demanded I give him the name of my source, which, I refused."

"Why would this Kevin Riley fellow give you this information?" Draco asked her. "Did you even ask him how he knew of their plan?"

"I assumed he was part of their organization, and he either was having second thoughts about taking their cause to a more serious juncture, or that he was perhaps feeding me false information, to some how discredit The Mud Ones. Either way, my publishers and I decided it was enough to go on and I wrote the story."

"I subscribe to that newspaper. I haven't seen such a story appear," Draco told her.

"Why, of course you haven't. It just so happened that before we could publish the article, the Ministry contacted us, they demanded all of my information, and they forced the magazine to squelch the article. Then, just two months later, that Meyers fellow contacted me, and demanded the name of my source."

"Why didn't you just give him the name?" Draco asked.

"Because, as a journalist, I have to protect my sources," she told him, "But that's the thing Malfoy; I have since found out that Rubin Meyer wasn't even an Auror. He didn't work for the Ministry at all. That wasn't even his real name. Harry just told me yesterday that the Ministry was trying to find the name of my source, to see if there was any validity to the fact that they wanted to find and kill former Death Eaters. He asked me please to come in for questioning. I told him that I had already been asked to come in weeks ago by an Auror named Ruben Meyers. That's when Harry told me that there was no Auror working at the Ministry by that name."

This was getting too confusing, Draco thought. "Wwho was that man that we killed in the alley? Do you know?"

"Yes, I now know who he was and you know too, and by the way, 'we' didn't kill him, I did," she said.

"I never saw that man before that night," Draco explained, ignoring the fact that she changed his 'we' to an 'I'.

Hermione moved closer to Draco on the couch, and took a file out of her satchel. "Harry snuck this out of the Ministry for me. It's a file on the man I killed. His real name was Terrence Dolohov. Does that name ring a bell?" she quizzed.

Of course, that name rang a bell. Antonio Dolohov was the name of a very well known Death Eater. In fact, that was the name of the Death Eater that cursed Hermione at the Department of Mysteries their fifth year at school.

Hermione continued, "His father, as we know, was killed in the war. Terrence Dolohov apparently disappeared shortly after the war and no one knew where he was. The Ministry started a file on him, and he was still being sought for questioning, but the Ministry never found him."

Draco pondered this for a moment, and asked, "How did Potter know this was the same man that was posing as an Auror. Does he know that the man's dead? Does he know that we killed him?"

"First, I will say this only once more, I killed him; you had nothing to do with it," she said in a steady voice, "Second, I went back to the alley that night and his body was still there. I contacted Harry and told him that we had met earlier in the evening and that he demanded I answer his questions, and that I ran from him, and later found him in the alley."

"And Potter believed that?" Draco asked incredulously.

"Well, he didn't see any reason for me to lie to him," she explained. "That's when he told me that this man wasn't an Auror. He told me when he found out who he really was he would let me know. A few days later he gave me this file."

Draco stood up and spoke, "All of this is interesting enough, Granger, but what does this have to do with me?"

"I'm getting to that," she said, standing also. She walked up to him, and took out a small envelope, which was also in her satchel. "I got this last night. You'd better take a look."

Draco opened the envelope and took out a piece of parchment. It said:

H.G.,

I have more information for you, if you want to know. Let me say that first, I know what you did. I know you killed a man and all because you were protecting me. I can't tell you how terrible I feel that you had to risk your life, and take a life to protect mine. If you meet me tonight, I'll tell you how I know about this.

Let me also tell you that the man you killed was not an Auror. He was a known Death Eater, and his name was on the list of people that THE MUD ONES were planning on executing. This makes me believe that he somehow found out about their plans, and was hoping you would led him to the organization, so he could stop them, or kill them first.

The next bit of info I need to tell you is this, stay away from Draco Malfoy. I know that he was in the alley with you that night. Again, I'll tell you how I know all of this tonight. However, please, stay away from him. He's also on the list. You're in danger from both sides if you continue to associate with him.

Please, meet me tonight, in the same place as last time, 10pm sharp.

K.R.

"What does this mean? I'm on what kind of list?" Draco asked.

"I can only hypothesize, but I think it means that you're on the list of people that this terrorist group wants to see dead," she said hesitantly, "Also, do you realize that if someone saw us in that alley, that we're in a lot of trouble? What if they tell the Ministry? On the other hand, what if some former Death Eater finds out that we killed one of their chums. I think we're in serious trouble, Malfoy." Hermione finished.

Draco started pacing around the room. He yelled, "Well, isn't that just great. I've spent the last five years of my life trying to prove to everyone that I've reformed, and that I no longer have any ties to the Dark Lord, and then this stupid little group, the muddy ones, or whatever their stupid name is, comes along and they want to off me anyway. What the hell? Does the Ministry know about this? Are they doing anything about this?"

"Well, I told Harry that my source contacted me again, and that they're aware that the man found dead in the alley was a Death Eater, and that he was one of their targets. I also told him that I had information that you were also a target, but I couldn't very well show him this letter, could I? Then everyone would know that I killed a man." She sat back down and put her head in her hands. Draco thought for a moment she was going to cry, but instead she raised her head and said, "That's why I have to meet him tonight. I feel obligated. I have to find out what he knows about the plot to kill you and the others."

"What do you want from me?" Draco implored. "Are you merely here to tell me my life's in danger, or do you want something more from me?"

"I want you to come with me tonight to meet Kevin," she told him.

"NO BLOODY WAY, GRANGER!" he yelled, "I've been trying to avoid scandal and danger for five years now. I'm not about to go play the bloody hero with you tonight. Get Potter to go with you. That's more up his alley."

"But, I can't tell Harry about the note! I told you that!" she yelled back.

Draco walked to his door and said, "Get the hell out of my apartment, Granger."

She walked over to him and said, "What about everything I told you?'

"Yes, yes, it was all informative, if not a little farfetched. You don't even know if the information this fellow is giving you in credible. In any case, I'm not getting any more involved in this than I already am," Draco opened the door and said, "Now, keep your promise from the other night and don't ever come see me again. Get out."

Hermione looked at him as if he had physically hit her. She couldn't believe him. "Very well, Malfoy, but please, keep your eyes open and try to stay safe. I'll go meet Kevin on my own tonight." She walked over to the couch and picked up her satchel, and left Draco's apartment.

Draco slammed the door behind her, for affect, and then walked over to his couch and plopped down on it. This was all too much to take it. Was any of this real? It seemed so improbable. If Draco was in any danger, he wasn't going to be a sitting duck and let the bastards come and get him. It was time he reinforced his security on his flat and his person, he decided.

He got up off the couch, and looked at the door. He hoped she would be all right tonight. If she was smart, she wouldn't even bother to go. While Draco knew that she was certainly smart, that didn't mean that she would be rational and think of the consequences. He thought again that he hoped she will be all right tonight, he really did.

(Coming up in Chapter 3, Hermione shows up at Malfoy's flat again, but this time under completely different circumstances.)