A/N: What was supposed to be Chapter Ten will instead be published in a series of snapshots. These snapshots will cover Hermione and Draco's first month of married life together. Time will jump in unpredictable quantities and I ask you to bear with me. This is the only way I can think of getting the chapter out with relative speed, and to convince you all that I'm not dead. I'm not… technically.

SNAPSHOT TWO – Nighttime

"Fuck!"

A sudden movement beside her woke her. Hermione's eyes fluttered open slightly and she saw Draco sitting up in bed, his arm cradled to his chest.

"Malfoy?" she said blearily, squinting as the light from the lamp he switched on scorched her eyeballs. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He stumbled out of bed and tripped around in the dim light, groping for his shoes. He held his arm at an odd angle, pressed against his torso tightly. "Go back to bed."

"What's wrong?" She propped herself up on her elbow and frowned. Shoes, at this hour?

"Nothing's wrong." He dragged on his cloak, which he'd left hanging on the open closet door before bed, instead of putting away as usual. "Go back to bed."

"Where are you going?"

He looked at her, his face pale in the lamplight. "Nowhere. It's nothing to do with you."

"What's wrong with your arm?"

His eyes flashed; his jaw clenched tight. "Are you always such a pain in the arse, Granger, or is it just because it's two in the morning?"

"Malfoy, I –"

"You should shut up now. I'll be back later."

She saw the silver mask flash under the folds of his cloak, and understood. She felt cold. "Draco, you can't…"

"Can't what?" He looked away quickly, straightening his hood in the mirror rather than look at her.

"I…" She had no good excuse. Not really. "It's totally unreasonable. It's two in the morning."

"Goodbye." He wrenched the door open and slammed it shut behind him. The hall was silent for a moment. She expected to hear footsteps.

Then a beam of golden light slid through the keyhole and wound around the doorknob, splicing and layering until it formed a net of light that covered the whole door. The blinds on the windows all shuddered down and locked in place. The whole house shook for a moment, and then, finally, from the hall came the sharp crack of Disapperation.

Hermione didn't sleep that night. She didn't move from her spot in the bed, not even to turn out Draco's night lamp. She sat upright in bed, frozen, unable to move. Staring at the protection seal on the door. Her eyes, following the hands of the clock. Each second dragged, and made her jumpier. Her heart didn't move back down from its spot in her throat, where it beat too quickly.

Somewhere around six thirty, she heard the front door unlock downstairs. The blinds slithered back open to let cracks of dawn filter into the room and the ward on the door melted away where the thin sunlight touched them. Draco's feet sounded uneven on the stairs. Hermione lay down quickly and closed her eyes, trying to breathe more slowly.

He paused outside the door, and for a moment, she thought he wouldn't come in. Then the handle turned slowly, and he stood in the doorway for a long moment. She felt his eyes on her. She concentrated on breathing.

Draco let out a long, shaky breath and almost limped into the room. He let his cloak drop to the floor, and then ended up stepping on it as he kicked off his shoes. Giving a little start, he closed the door gently, and then turned back to face his little pile of clothes on the floor, running a pale hand through his hair, which was stark white in the weak light. He had soot smeared on his bone-pale cheek, and the sleeve of his shirt was torn.

She thought for a moment about getting up and going to him, but when he turned just so the light that fell across his face showed that his eyes were wild, his jaw taut and tense. She certainly wasn't going to go running to someone who looked so… haunted.

He slipped his nightshirt over his head, and then fell heavily into the bed. An unfamiliar arm snaked around her waist and pulled her into his chest. She was surprised by how solid and strong his arm was… He pressed his face into her hair and breathed deeply. He was shaking.

Every line of Draco's body was hard and tense. He smelled faintly smoke that she was sure wasn't from a campfire. He kept his arm tight around her until he started drifting off to sleep, when he relaxed and curled instinctively into her.

She somehow managed to fall asleep around seven in the morning, by which time her head was throbbing with fatigue and she had almost gotten used to the feeling of Draco's hot breath in her ear.

When she woke, Hermione woke again in an empty bed.

I apologize profusely for the length. It's been an absolutely crazy two weeks. Fortunately for you (and for me!!) by some fluke the French school system gives me ten days off at the end of October. For no apparent reason. So, I'm going to be trying to write a LOT these ten days. And you will thank me for it because afterward I have NaNoWriMo and, I'm sorry, I probably won't update for the entire month of November. Maybe another post tonight. Or tomorrow. We'll see. Also, mostly because I'm impatient, any errors are mine. I have made the executive decision not to beta the Snapshots. I apologize, and still give a huge shout out to Magdalene and Hilary, who are pretty fab.