Author Note: Hey guys, here's your next chapter. I've managed to finish this now, so I can update a bit more regularly, although the more you review, the faster I update. And yes, I am bribing you. :) Enjoy.

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"Hey there." Harry knocked gently on her open door and stuck his head through. "How're you feeling?" Hermione looked up from the blueprints she was studying with a smile.

"Come on in." She said, gesturing with her wand and clearing a space on her bed for Harry to sit. "I'm fine."

"People don't know whether to say you were captured or whether you deserted."

"If I'd deserted do you think I would have come home?" Hermione asked, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms, brown eyes fixed on him. He shifted.

"We know you were captured, 'Mione." He said reassuringly. "It's just the people who don't know you who are saying that."

"I was grabbed and side-apparated out." Hermione said truthfully. "But it wasn't much of a prison and I escaped." It was something she'd said repeatedly to everyone who asked. And it was the truth, which always helped. Even under veritaserum, that would be what she would say. Not that she expected it to come to that.

"It's strange, that they didn't up their security for someone like you." Harry commented. Hermione sighed.

"It was a rookie. Alone. Trying for his bit of glory." Hermione was lying now, and was careful to keep it short.

"What happened to him?" Harry asked. Hermione looked at him coldly and he sighed.

"It's one of the things I admire most." He said quietly. "That you find killing so hard. I find it far too easy. So easy it scares me." Hermione smiled sadly but couldn't answer. There was nothing for her to say. Harry cleared his throat and rose. "Anyway. I just came to see if you were okay."

"And to question me about my capture." Hermione filled in the words he wouldn't say. "Don't be ashamed that you trust me, Harry, and that you still have to ask. I understand. I don't blame you for your questions." Harry laid a hand on her shoulder, dropping a kiss onto the crown of her head.

"I wish I could hide you away." He said softly, his fingers trailing through her hair. "I wish I could lock you safe in a tower until this was over and you could come out and save the world." She smiled up at him, her mind back in the tower with Malfoy.

"If you tried it I would have to hurt you." She said teasingly.

"God, I know. You would put me in St Mungos for weeks!" He smiled sadly. "But I can't help but think it would be worth it." He shook his head, clearing his throat again and she caught his hand in hers.

"I love that you wish you could." She said softly. "I love that it scares you, how you can kill." She smiled. "And I love you, my dearest friend."

"Good." He grinned, and the moment was broken. "Because I'm counting on that love to stop you killing me when I tell you that Moody has left you out of our next attack plan."

"The wanker!" Hermione hissed. "He thinks I'm a traitor?"

"He thinks everyone is a traitor." Harry said soothingly. "Including, occasionally, himself."

"He has good reason for that." Hermione retorted angrily. "Damn the man!"

"All the way to hell and back." Harry agreed. Hermione sighed, her anger gone as fleetingly as it had come. "Are you mad?"

"At him, definitely. Not at you." She shook her head, squeezing his hand. "Be safe, all right? Don't bring back any bodybags."

"Nobody dares to die, Hermione. They all know you'll follow them there and shred them." Harry grinned, and kissed her forehead. "Don't kill Moody while I'm gone."

"No promises." She said, lips twitching as she resisted a smile. Harry nodded and slipped his hand from hers, striding resolutely to the door. He turned.

"And Hermione?" She looked up with a smile.

"I love you too." She nodded, and watched as he vanished from sight. She waited until even his footprints were gone, then rose. She hesitated a second, then crossed to her jewelery box. She lifted the two shelves out and revealed a black velvet jewelery bag. She unburied it from the other necklaces and pulled it out, tucking it into her pocket without even looking at the contents. Then she sat on her bed and waited.

About three minutes later the grandfather clock on the landing tolled one in the morning, and with a determined swallow, Hermione disapparated.

She landed precariously on the railing of the balcony of a third floor bedroom of Malfoy manor and wobbled dangerously for a second for jumping gently to the ground, bending her knees and taking the shock up her legs so her landing didn't make too much noise. Then she slipped into the shadow of a tall potted plant and waited.

This was dangerous. Incredibly so. If anyone knew she had come here willingly, she'd probably be locked up, especially considering the ongoing investigation into her 'capture'. But she had no intention of actually meeting the man; there was a four minute gap in about five minutes where the wards went down so the Deatheaters could apparate away. In that time, Hermione would slip into the bedroom, leave the necklace, slip out and apparate home. No one would know she was there but Malfoy, and that would only be guesswork. She didn't want to keep the necklace…it was far too much of a giveaway. Even without knowing its origins, anyone seeing a silver and green snake pendant in a Order of the Phoenix safehouse would assume traitor. And chances were they'd be right. And at the moment, Hermione had more than enough suspicion on her name without someone looking for evidence and finding it.

This was the safest way.

Despite the logic of that argument, however, Hermione was undergoing this particular mission with considerable reluctance. She had no idea why, but she wanted to keep the necklace. It was only her logic and sense of self-preservation that prevented her from changing her mind and apparating home again.

There. The telltale wave of goosebumps that swept down her arms alerted her that the wards were down. Hermione quickly set to work, picking the lock on the balcony door and slipping silently inside, a black shadow in a dark room, stepping softly over carpeted floorboards to the dresser and gently laying the pendant there in its little velvet bag. She turned and headed for the balcony.

"Freeze."

Obligingly, she froze, cursing her stupidity. Why didn't she just chuck the damned necklace in the lake? It would have served Malfoy right, seeing as it was his fault she'd been left with it in the first place.

"What have we here?" Hermione cringed. This was embarrassing. She did not want to be caught here, not by him and especially not by anyone else. A heavy hand on her shoulder made her turn, lifting her chin as his wand dug into her neck. Her wand was tucked into her pocket. She had been careless, reckless. Unprepared for the eventuality that he would walk in on her. She had assumed he would see his guests off.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"Granger!" He sounded surprised, and his eyes narrowed. "What the fuck are you doing here?" With a gesture the wards went back up, making Hermione shiver. "Where are your friends?"

"I'm alone." She answered, her voice pitched low and quiet to keep it steady.

"I don't believe you." He sneered.

"I came to return the necklace." She elaborated. "I couldn't keep it. I'm already under suspicion of being a traitor after the night in the Tower." His expression didn't change. "It's on the dresser." She pointed past him.

"Accio necklace." He said, eyes still on her. The necklace whizzed towards him and he caught it lightning-quick, a throwback to his Seeker days. He passed it to her. "Open it." He ordered. She did so blindly, her eyes locked on him. She'd been taught that even the most unreadable person could often be read through their eyes, but it didn't look as though Malfoy was one of those people. His eyes were crystalline and hard, completely unreadable.

Finally she undid the tie to the bag and emptied the necklace into her hand. She slowly raised her hand so the pendant swung slightly beside her face.

"It's just the necklace." She whispered. "I brought it back to you. That's it. I swear." She hesitated. "Malfoy, I swear it."

"Keep it." He said abruptly, dropping his wand and turning away. Hermione hesitated, then lowered it gently onto the table beside them before turning to the window. He stopped at the click of the pendant on wood. "Didn't you hear me? I told you to keep it."

"And I told you I couldn't." Hermione shook her head, not looking back at him. She reached for the door handle, but his hand grasped hers, pinning it to the brass handle.

"Couldn't or wouldn't?" He asked quietly, his voice frighteningly close to her ear.

"Both." She looked up and met his gaze. "I told you. They already think I'm a traitor because of that night. Having a snake pendant in my room…they'd slam me in Azkaban before I'd had a chance to say anything."

"Even the Golden Girl?"

"Even the Golden Girl." She shook her head. "Why do you think I'm not working tonight? I'm off the active roster until they think they can trust me again."

"So you're not working?" He raised an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"I told you, no!" She shook her head. "I should have just chucked the damn thing in the lake."

"You should have." He agreed.

"But it was yours. And it was hers. And I didn't feel I had the right." She held his gaze stubbornly, and then he laughed.

"You and your morals, Granger. First you'll only kill someone to their face, and then you won't chuck a necklace in a lake! Your morals will get you killed someday."

"They might get me killed tonight." She said flatly, "Unless I'm back soon. Let me go, Malfoy." He smiled slowly, and Hermione braced herself. She knew that smile.

"Don't you want to know why?" He asked softly. Hermione frowned, well aware she was walking straight into his trap.

"Why what?" She asked. His smile widened.

"Why I gave it to you. Why you're not dead. Why I didn't kill you the moment we escaped that tower." Hermione lifted her chin.

"I hadn't thought about it." She said flatly.

"Liar." He said with a small laugh. "I bet you've thought of almost nothing else in the week since."

"Not true." Hermione argued. She sighed. "But I did wonder. Although I think I worked out some of it for myself."

"Like what?"

"Like you and the woman were lovers in some alternate future. That something happened and she came back to change the future, then put herself to sleep until the point where her future was completely unviable and she ceased to exist."

"Very clever."

"It's not a hard scenario to imagine." Hermione shook her head.

"What, that someone loved me enough to come back and change the future or that that kind of travel is possible?"

"I know its possible." Hermione shook her head. "An utter bastard you may be, Malfoy, but it's not completely inconceivable that someone might love you."

"That's encouraging." Malfoy agreed, releasing her. He stepped back. "I won't stop you leaving." Hermione nodded, but she still didn't move.

"Who was she?" Hermione asked quietly. "I know you said you'd only tell me if I wanted to know and I'm not sure I do, but…I need to know, I think."

"Are you sure?" Draco asked, and Hermione was surprised by the seriousness of his tone, and more than a little suspicious. "I can't take it back, once I've said it. And you'll know, for better or worse."

"Come on, Malfoy, how bad could it be?" Hermione asked, laughing awkwardly. He looked at her seriously, and her laughter died out. "Tell me."

"It was you."

Hermione stared. Malfoy didn't say anything further, just stood and waited her out, grey eyes fixed on her, watching the expressions cross her face. First, confusion, as she got her head around what he had just said. Then disbelief, followed swiftly by anger and denial. Her eyes narrowed, and she turned, heading for the balcony. Malfoy grabbed her arm and though she tried to shake him off, he held fast in a grip that would probably bruise.

"I'm not lying to you." He said flatly. She glared up at him.

"I didn't say you were." She snapped.

"You didn't have to." He shrugged but didn't release her arm. "I told you you didn't want to know. I warned you."

"Oh, cut the bullshit out, Malfoy." She sneered. "I don't know what game you're playing but you're even more talented than I thought. I won't underestimate you again."

"I don't doubt it." He replied, silver eyes still boring into hers.

"Let me go." She said softly, her body suddenly relaxing, the angry tension draining from her. "Just…lower the wards and let me go."

"Why?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. She looked at him steadily.

"Why not?"

And though there was a hundred reasons why he should keep her there, force her to stay, he raised the wards.

And she was gone.

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Taking the necklace back had possibly been one of the worse ideas Hermione had ever had. Not that she'd had an awful lot of bad ones, or bad ones that she'd actually acted on, but that particular idea, where she snuck into his house, left the necklace, then left again…

That needed a whole new spectrum to cope with how bad an idea it was. Because now, while suspicion was fading and it appeared no one had noticed her little jaunt to the Malfoy Manor, she had Malfoy's voice in her head, saying again and again 'it was you', like she cared that in an alternate timeline she had loved him enough to sacrifice herself to save his life, and going back that far in time was damned dangerous so clearly she must have been insane anyway, which explained everything, actually.

Despite the obvious logic of the situation, and her determination to forget the whole unfortunate encounter, her mind refused to be convinced. It returned again and again to their conversation, but more than that, it returned to the memory of the Tower, of the look in his eyes when he realised where he was, when he told her about the Woman.

It was a look Hermione didn't much want to think about, or consider in any meaningful way.

"Hermione!" Harry burst into her room and she jumped, turning to look at him. He was fresh back from the raid, still bedraggled and muddy and he had a fresh scrape along his cheekbone. He waved her off as she rose to look at it, and when she was satisfied it was just a scrape, she sat back down.

"Harry. It went well, then?" She raised an eyebrow and Harry grinned wider.

"It was fantastic!" He said with unbridled enthusiasm. "They didn't even know what hit them! They were all coming out, laughing and joking and completely unprepared, and suddenly we were there and bam! They were all laid out like pretty maids all in a row." He grinned at her and she smiled back, or at least tried to. It was at moments like this that she felt farthest from her friends. Even when she accompanied them on the raid, the rush of adrenaline that kept the boys talking about it like a Quidditch victory party died out quicker in her, leaving her drained and saddened. She knew well that Deatheaters had spouses and children and friends.

The only thing separating her from Pansy Parkinson was a set of ideals and a sense of style.

A sobering thought.

"Are you alright, Hermione?" Harry asked, frowning. "You're really quiet."

"Hard to speak when I can't get a word in edgeways!" Hermione joked, though she saw Harry wasn't convinced.

"Oh, 'Mione, I'm sorry." He rose and hugged her. "I just wanted to see you, I knew you'd be worried, sat here all night wondering if we'd managed to get ourselves killed this time. I wasn't thinking, telling you what we did."

"I'm a grown woman, Harry, and I've killed my fair share." Hermione pulled back, straightening her shirt. "You don't need to worry about me."

"I don't worry." He winked. "Much. I just know you don't like to hear about them."

"Thank you for the thought, at least." Hermione said wryly. "And I am glad you're home. I do worry." Even if I was too busy breaking into our enemies home to return his necklace which belonged to his lover in a alternate future which happens to be me in both futures which is ridiculous because I don't love him now and good god how could I ever? He tortured us for years, and he's a git and annoying, and I know full well he'd kill us all given half the chance and you'd kill him give a quarter of the chance and god only knows what you'd do to me if you found out I'd so much as spoken to him in a way that didn't insult his mother and god I went to his house and god how he looked at me-

"Hermione!" The sharpness in his tone indicated it was not the first time Harry had tried to regain her attention.

"I'm sorry, Harry, I'm just really tired." Hermione said, looking up to meet his gaze. He unlike Draco, showed his emotions in his eyes and she knew he didn't believe her.

But he let it drop.

"Alright. Get some sleep, 'Mione, I think Moody is thinking about letting you back on the active roster sometime soon, we missed a few Deatheaters that I know you'd have taken care of if you'd been out tonight so he'll probably choose practicality over paranoia and put you back up."

"That's good." Hermione nodded. "Honestly, you'd think I was Pansy Parkinson, the looks he's been giving me."

"Not a chance, sweetheart." He said with a grin, leaning in to kiss her cheek before heading for the door. "You actually have a dress sense." Hermione laughed and Harry bowed theatrically before vanishing out her door.

Hermione's laughter faded and she sank onto the bed. She had to get Malfoy out of her head, she had to-

"Oh, and by the way, Ron says hi, he's going to be with Charlie for a week looking into potential weapons." Harry popped his head around the door again. He frowned when he saw her. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Fine, Harry." She reassured him. "Just tired."

"Alright. Well, sleep tight, 'Mione."

"You too." Hermione watched him disappear again and as soon as the door closed she rose and locked it, preventing any more surprise visits. She started getting ready for bed, even though dawn was approaching quickly this late in the summer, and resolved to put Malfoy out of her mind and to return to her work. She had some research projects going on, things that could turn the tide of the war, if she could just figure them out.

That was the important thing, more than anything else. Ending this war so the dying could stop.

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