Chapter Four

For my eyes only

So I sneak out to the garden to see you

We keep quiet 'cause we're dead if they knew

So close your eyes

Escape this town for a little while

Hermione,

Meet me my the lake tonight 10pm

Love always R

Hermione was unsure why Hermione signed his name with the letter "R" when she knew perfectly well who he was. She imagined it had something to do with Harry and Ron, for despite being on the side of light and spending more and more time with Hermione he had still made it perfectly clear that he was not their biggest fan. Hermione knew what they would think if they found out that Hermione and Draco were dating.

It was because of that letter that Hermione found herself under Harry's invisibility cloak that evening under a cold and starry sky. She walked down the snowy frozen steps of the entrance hall into the night's sky. She passed around the edge of the astronomy tower and thought she saw Ron and Lavender, she smiled although she had begrudged them at first as they like all her other schoolmates had neatly paired off. But of all her friends she knew they had suffered more than most. Lavender had last year in a skirmish with Voldemort been badly burnt by a curse that still had not been identified. Her left arm had suffered so badly it had eventually only been able to be repaired by muggle skin grafts and she still had nasty scars down her arm.

Hermione passed by Hagrid's hut and smiled at a loud giantish snore she heard. She then rushed on to the lake and sat under a large oak three there.

"Hermione?" Draco's voice asked but she couldn't see him.

"Yes," she replied whipping the invisibility cloak off. Draco upon seeing her stepped from mid-air. Hermione couldn't help herself she rushed to him wrapping her arms around him and kissing him softly on the lips.

"Come on," he smiled grabbing her hand and pulling her under the branches of the large tree. "I want to show you something." He pointed his wand to the ground and whispered "maleficarum." It sounded to Hermione more like a password than a spell or charm but she could not be sure. She almost screamed as a second later the ground below them gave way and the pair found themselves standing in a chamber about two meters down on springy moss that had probably meant they didn't have any broken bones. Draco helped Hermione up and led her down a flight of stairs to the left. Hermione was unsure where Draco was leading her but she trusted him more than anyone else on earth. As they came down the stairs into a much larger chamber Hermione gasped. There was a glass wall in front of them that looked straight into the lake. It was like being in an aquarium except the fish looked just as surprised to see them as Hermione did. She could see merpeople through the moonlight that filtered through the water, fish and possibly a hint of a grindylow. The couple did not speak for what seemed like an age. Hermione looked into the glass in awe wondering a hundred different questions. Whilst Draco looked at Hermione he saw her face so illuminated in happiness he whished that he had shown her this place ages ago.

"Do you think Dumbledore knows about this place?" Hermione asked eventually.

"Little escapes him," Draco replied.

"It's wonderful how do you know about it?"

"My father told me about it." He looked downcast and Hermione regretted asking the question.

"Draco?" she asked softly "what is wrong with your mother?"

"Very old magic," Draco replied after an almost deafening silence. "When two people have an arranged marriage in the pureblood tradition a spell is cast on them so that if they leave each others side for long periods or if the woman touches another man she is not related to a slow painful curse begins that slowly kills her. Once it has started there is no return. My mother will die soon and there is no cure." He said this so stoically Hermione could tell that there was such an underlying raw emotion that if he had stopped for a second then all that emotion would have been let out. As it was he remained composed and it was only when Hermione kissed his head did he allow a single tear out dripping down his chin and onto the earth floor.

The next day in charms Hermione could not help but find that her eyelids seemed to be made of lead and her head full of fluff. Professor Flitwick had seemed terribly shocked that she hadn't had her hand up for his questions and Professor Vector almost had heart palpitations when she got a question wrong. The reason was that she had returned to the castle early in the morning as was about as bad on a couple of hours sleep as Draco was at 6 a.m.

"Harry?" Ginny asked later that day as the fire roared in the grate in the Gryffindor common room and they where the only two left awake. The likelihood was that it was actually early the next day but neither were keeping track.

"Umm," Harry asked in a half bothered way, he was not intentionally being rude to his girlfriend but he was tired and Professor Snape had set the seventh years a particularly long and nasty essay about love potions most of what Harry had written so far he didn't understand.

"Do you think that at some point you, Ron and Hermione should spend some time together? I know you two have girlfriends and as your girlfriends I do like spending time with you but I do think you have been neglecting your friendship with Hermione." Harry put down his quill and parchment listening to Ginny for the first time. "You two have barely had a decent conversation with her since term started I know you've been stressed you have exams to complete, Voldemort. But you don't have to neglect your friends they have, and will be the ones who help you through this." There was an incredibly long pause and Harry considered what his girlfriend had said in her own bluntly honest way.

"I know," he said quietly. Ginny looked at him shocked. She had expected different, flat denial, an outburst or an excuse but certainly not acceptance.

"I know," he repeated "it's just…"

"Voldemort," Harry said.

"How can I be expected to think of anything else school, friends," he smiled "even you at times."