Wow, it's been months since I updated. Sorry. I guess I'm just not into this story very much. I'm gonna try to wrap it up in the next two or three chapters, I think. I just don't have much of an interest for writing it.

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Draco rushed through the corridors, half blinded by the stinging tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

Please, not Hermione. Let her be okay! He thought as images of her mangled corpse sprang into his head.

At last he reached the huge entrance doors which he immediately opened and ran through. He rounded the corner of the castle just in time to run smack into Professor Dumbledore.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy. Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Dumbledore peered at Draco over the top of his half-moon spectacles.

"I...Hermione Granger just fell from the top of the Astronomy Tower!" Draco whimpered, unable to hide his emotions. Dumbledore's gaze intensified.

"Are you sure of this?" He asked, placing a hand on Draco's shoulder. Draco just nodded and looked down. "Come. We have to find her." And with that, Dumbledore turned and rushed down the corridor, robes billowing behind him like loose sails in the wind.

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Hermione sat under a large tree by the lake while Harry went and pilfered some breakfast for her. She was too shaken to brave the questions and contempt of Ron right now, so she promised Harry that when he returned she would tell him everything.

"Well, Mrs. Norris smelled the sausage and it was tricky business trying to convince Filtch that I wasn't up to no good with my pockets crammed with food, but here it is," Harry said, flourishing a rather soggy looking handkerchief which seemed to contain some rather runny looking eggs, smashed bacon, and breakfast sausage, all coated in what at one point was probably a biscuit. "Eh, sorry it doesn't look more appealing..." Harry began to apologize.

"Oh, it's fine," Hermione smiled, taking the handkerchief. She took out her wand, pointed it at the food, and said a small incantation. After a blue flash, the food was pretty enough for the Queen.

"So, a deal's a deal. What happened between you and Draco? Sure, he doesn't seem to be as cruel to you lately as he used to be, but I just figured that perhaps the ferret had found someone new to pick on." Harry grabbed a piece of bacon and began munching as he peered at Hermione over his glasses.

"Well, are you prepared to accept some rather strange, completely unrealistic circumstances?" Hermione questioned.

"Hermione, think about it. Until the age of eleven, I lived under the stairs in my aunt and uncle's house, where anything out of the ordinary was shunned and ignored. And then I got a letter saying that I was a wizard and a half-giant man carried me away on a flying motorbike to a school that teaches students how to perform every sort of magic. Suspending reason isn't terribly hard for me," Harry smiled.

Hermione chuckled, remembering her own disbelief when she got her Hogwarts letter. "Okay, Harry, here goes." And with that, she told him about everything that had happened in her coma, from Frankfurt and Elsa to meeting Dumbledore and having a building collapse on her in World War Two London.

When she finished, Harry was silent, apparently contemplating the grass around his ankles. Eventually he looked up. "That's a pretty fantastic story, Hermione. Someone should write it down. But as it stands, I suppose that I understand why you feel a connection with Malfoy. Honestly, if all I knew about him was what you just told me, I'd probably like him. Unfortunately, I don't. Maybe things will get better, though. Well, your secret is safe with me. I promise not to tell Ron, although you may want to soon before he starts getting more ideas about you and he together. Anyway, we should probably head back in. I could use your help with a Potions paper."

Hermione laughed, and when Harry stood up, he offered her his hand, pulled her to her feet, and they walked back to the castle.

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Draco and Dumbledore arrived at the base of the Astronomy Tower to be confronted with a rather unexpected situation. Instead of Hermione lying on the ground, either dead, unconcious, or roiling in pain, there was nothing, merely a grassy stretch of land sloping down to the Forbidden Forest, a few hundred feet away.

After a moment of speechless disbelief, Draco turned to Dumbledore. "Do you think someone already found her and took her to the hospital wing, Professor?"

Dumbledore scanned the ground, and his face gradually went from pinched and worried to a look of relief. "No, Draco, I don't believe she has been taken to the hospital wing," he began.

"You mean someone has taken her body to..." he trailed off, his mind wandering to the horrible things that lived in the Forbidden Forest, just a short distance away; an easy hiding place for any centaurs or ill-willed creatures.

"No, not at all. In fact, there are no signs of anyone falling around here. I don't believe Miss Granger ever made it to the ground, as a matter of fact. Draco, did you see Miss Granger fall?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well, yeah..." Draco thought of standing backwards while holding her slippery hands. And then the sensation of her nails in his flesh. Why did she have to do that?

"Did she fall from the window? That window, perhaps?" Dumbledore said, pointing up towards the top of the tower. Draco turned and looked. There was the window they had been at. And about ten feet under it was a fairly wide ledge.

Draco gasped. Of course! She had dropped onto the ledge! But where was she now?

"Thank you, Professor, I have some homework to attend to," Draco excused himself and darted off. Dumbledore just stood and chuckled.

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Harry and Hermione were sitting in the library working on their respective homework when Ron plopped down at the table with them.

"I just ran into that prick Malfoy. Literally. He ran straight into me. He seemed really flustered and surprisingly glad to see me, for some reason. Actually, he was asking if I'd seen you," Ron said, pointing to Hermione. "I told him that I hadn't and in case he'd forgotten, we'd be looking for you earlier this morning with no luck. Well, apparently Harry eventually found you. But I didn't know. Hey, where have you guys been, anyway?" Ron asked, suddenly curious.

Hermione just ignored him. "Oh no! I completely forgot! He thinks I just dropped out of a window in the tower!" she cried and ran off, leaving all of her belongings behind.

"Uh...am I missing something here? Because I have that feeling like when you read a book and accidentally turn two pages at once so you miss everything and are completely lost and confused. Know what I mean?" Ron said, turning to Harry with a questioning look. Harry just shook his head 'no' while avoiding eye contact and began scribbling notes furiously. Ron shrugged and began opening his own books.

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Okay, there it is. I have a few ideas in mind for the next chapter or two, and hopefully I can crank them out soon. Please review! I hope you'll forgive me for the delay.