A/N Do not expect updates to be this frequent; there is no way I can get updates out as fast as this one! It's only because I had already written this one, so enjoy it. :D Thanks for all the reviews so far; more are always appreciated.

Chapter 1

Trust

Hermione looked around furtively, not daring to move until she was certain that there was no one in close proximity to her. She had taken the invisibility cloak with her. Harry had gladly lent it to her for the next few days, hoping it would keep her safe. She hoped it wouldn't take too long to get back to Grimmauld Place; she couldn't Apparate from Azkaban because it was too easily traced. So unless there was a floo in Azkaban, she and Malfoy would be walking for about a day before she could Apparate back to headquarters.

Hermione swept the invisibility cloak over her head and started walking towards the enormous lake upon which Azkaban lay. There was a great expanse of water before her, so she had to conjure a boat. She knew that Remus and Kingsly had taken care of the human guards, so all she had to worry about were the Dementors. She thought that she would use a Patronus like the one they had seen Umbridge use in the Ministry; she just hoped that she could keep her happy thought lucid long enough to get herself and Malfoy out of the tower. It is a tower… Hermione thought, squinting up at Azkaban. She could already start to feel the chills of the Dementors, so after making the boat invisible and pushing off from the shore, Hermione cast the spell to conjure her wandering Patronus. "Expecto Patronum Maximus," she whispered. She smiled when she saw her otter appear, swimming through the air; she had expected to have to try the spell a few times before she got it right. She hoped no one spotted it from inside Azkaban; she couldn't risk having her cover blown now, not when she was only a few feet away from the tower itself. In the distance, Hermione could spot the Cliffs of Dover; it was unmistakably so, as no other cliffs would shine out in such darkness and gloom as those of Dover would.

At last, Hermione reached the shore. If that was what it could be called; there were small black rocks polluting space between the water and the tower. Hermione hoped that Remus had everyone taken care of; she could take care of the Dementors, but she wasn't so sure about the Death Eaters; it was taking all her efforts to keep her Patronus swimming around her. She looked at it fondly, trying, yet again, to see herself in the otter. She supposed she was good at swimming; she had been on a team before Hogwarts. What else were otters known for? Being clever? Hermione thought. I suppose so; they are rather good at getting themselves out of trouble… She silently reprimanded herself; this was no time to be distracted; her well-being, along with Malfoy's depended on her concentration. She wondered how Malfoy would approach her. Would he be relieved? Hopefully he wouldn't go into hysterics… Perhaps he'd still be his loathful self… Hermione noticed that her Patronus was starting to fade. She quickly concentrated on a happy memory, and, like a picture dipped in acetic acid, it glowed brighter. She laid her hand on the great entrance and pushed. The heavy door opened silently. Hermione only opened it far enough to let herself through, and then she closed it again, silently thanking Remus for keeping the guards preoccupied.

Pulling the invisibility cloak tighter, Hermione made her way around the prison. She noticed a lack of chains throughout the filthy prison. She peered into each cell, the gloom pressing down on her like something tangible. She didn't spot him on the first floor, so she found the stairs and started up them as quickly as she could; she knew that the Order could only keep the guards quiet for so long. After a flight of windy stairs, Hermione found another corridor with more cells. Malfoy was in the second cell. She gasped as soon as she laid eyes on him. He was curled up in a corner, like the rest of the prisoners, but, unexpectedly, he was crying. Hermione was frozen; she had never imagined that Draco Malfoy could ever cry. What had happened to him? He looked like he had lost half his body weight, and he wasn't very heavy to begin with. As soon as the gasp left her lips, Malfoy looked up in her direction.

"'Ello?" he questioned softly. "If you're here to torture me, they've done that earlier t—today." Hermione couldn't believe it; she actually felt pity for this boy— this thing crumpled on the floor.

"Alohamora!" she whispered, surprised that the lock clicked on her first try. She was convinced that she'd have to either steal the keys or blast the door open. She stepped inside Malfoy's cell. Malfoy crawled away from her, until her Patronus finally approached him.

"Who are you?" he breathed. Hermione didn't answer; she simply pulled the invisibility cloak off. "Granger?" Malfoy gasped. Hermione put a finger to her lips. She was still concentrating on her happy memory, the gloom now poking her in all directions like daggers.

"Listen to me," she commanded, her voice low. "I will take you away from here, but you must do as I say. If you do not comply, I will obliviate you and you will remember nothing of my being here, understood?" Malfoy nodded once, his eyes wide and bright. "Good," Hermione said, giving Malfoy the traces of a smile. "Do you agree to leave Voldemort and his followers and join the Order of the Phoenix?" A nod. "Alright. That's all I can do for now; I don't have any Verateserum on me, so we'll have to wait until we get back to headquarters…" Hermione muttered. "Where's your wand?" she asked Malfoy.

"Over there," Malfoy said, pointing. "They keep it where we can see it, but can't get to it."

"I see," Hermione said, frowning at Malfoy. She could only imagine what he had gone through; he had been in this hell-hole for almost three months. Ever since Dumbledore's death. Hermione turned her thoughts away; she had to concentrate on happy thoughts now; she was almost out. She motioned for Malfoy to follow her. They left the cell, and Hermione draped the invisibility cloak over both of them. Hermione found Malfoy's wand with all the others on a shelf. She took it and placed it in her pocket. "You'll get it back, in time," she told Malfoy. He nodded stiffly.

Suddenly, as she turned around, Hermione saw a swarm of Dementors heading towards them. She connected the dots immediately. It was an alarm. The wand she had picked up had sent a signal to the Dementors and now they were swarming. She panicked. And without a sound, her otter disappeared. "No!" she whispered furiously.

"Why are they all swarming like that?" Malfoy asked, still disoriented. Hermione did not answer him.

"Expecto Patronum Maximus," she whispered, panicking at this point. The Dementors continued advancing. "Expecto Patronum Maximus," she said, more desperately this time. A wisp of smoke escaped from her wand. "No, no, no…" she muttered, on the brink of hysteria. A thought entered her mind; did he know? No, I'll just have to trust him for now. He's on the verge of fainting; I don't think he's capable of much lucid thought.

"Expecto Patronum Maximus!" Malfoy yelled, his hand on Hermione's wand. Hermione snatched her wand out of his reach.

"What are you doing?!" she exclaimed.

"Saving our skins," Malfoy responded. Sure enough, Malfoy's dragon Patronus shot out of the wand and chased down most of the Death Eaters. "Run!" he yelled. Hermione did not need to be told twice. She grabbed Malfoy's arm and bolted for the door.

Malfoy somehow managed to keep up with Hermione until they reached the shore. Hermione tossed the cloak off of them and tied it around her waist. She didn't have time to conjure up another boat, so she decided that she would just have to swim across. "Can you swim?" she asked Draco hurriedly.

"No," he responded, his eyes suspicious.

"Wonderful; just hold on to me, alright?" she said testily. This was not at all going the way she had planned it. She quickly cast the bubble-head charm on both of them so that they would be able to breathe under water, and, just as she saw the Dementors making their way towards them, she stepped into the water, vanishing under its depths.

Hermione was a strong swimmer, but she'd never tried swimming with someone holding on to her, or with an invisibility cloak tied around her waist. She did the best that she could, but they were slow, and she got tired quickly. She motioned for Draco to let go of her arm and put his arms around her waist instead, but that didn't really help either.

Hermione went as quickly as she could, but it still took her half an hour to get them both to the shore. As soon as she realized that she had reached the shore, she stood up, and, dripping wet and freezing, she untied the heavy invisibility cloak. She turned to help Malfoy out of the water, when she saw that he was close to fainting. "Granger— I... don't think… that was the best… plan," he said, his voice quaking with the effort of speaking.

"Malfoy, Malfoy look at me," Hermione said sharply. She could not lug him all the way back to where she had stored her bag. "You just need to stay awake for a few more minutes, and then you can go to sleep, understood?" Malfoy nodded. "Good." She motioned for him to follow her and headed off into the patch of woods that lay beyond the lake. They trekked for a good fifteen minutes before Hermione found the hollow in which she had left her bag. She could see that if Draco didn't get in a bed that instant, he would almost definitely faint, so she found a relatively bare patch and pitched the tent muttering "Erecto." She took Malfoy inside the tent and, after drying him off with her wand, she led him to his bed. "Now you can go to sleep," she said. He turned to look at her. His eyes were haunting. Malfoy looked as if he were an inferi; his cheeks were sunken and his face was as pale as cookie dough.

He said something that Hermione did not expect. "Thank you," he said to her.

"You're welcome," Hermione said automatically, without thinking. Malfoy turned down the covers and Hermione left him so that he could have a little privacy, something he was sure he had been deprived up since he had been put in Azkaban. This was strange. It was scary. Draco Malfoy was thanking her. And he was scared. And he had been crying. Hermione shook her head and tried not to think about what Malfoy had to go through in Azkaban

A/N Quick note; the water wouldn't be that cold because it is about September in the world of Deceit and Honesty, so the water would be slightly warmer than usual. Don't expect regular updates; I'm actually not solid with my plot yet, so I may take a while. Thanks to all my reviewers! Bisous ~ the shattered star