Draco Malfoy didn't know where Snape had brought him. They had gone in to winding path and at the end he was standing in front of a house which had magically (well, obviously) appeared. It said 'Number 12, Grimmauld Place'. The name was vaguely familiar and so was the silver serpent knocker. Draco glanced at Snape who looked somewhat irritated. Snape swiftly tapped his wand complicatedly and the door creaked open.

"Draco…..What are you gong to do when Christmas Holidays come? Will you be staying at Hogwarts?"

"No, I thought of ….. Getting ready"

"Getting ready?"

"I thought of joining the Order."

"Oh, Draco…that'll be really risky."

"If Snape can do it, I can manage"

Christmas Holidays had come too soon for his liking. Things had being tough the past few days. He had avoided the whole lot of Slytherins when they had come to question his "unusual" behavior last month. He had ignored them, and made them quite angry. Now Pansy hardly looked at him. That was quite fine. He had never found it comfortable when she practically licked his shoes. Crabbe and Goyle were probably told not to follow him by Nott. Nott was definitely mad. Blaise was a mystery. Sometimes he would smile or grin when one of them saw Potter mess in potions. He would sometimes come in the verge of talking but always stopped himself.

No slytherin was fond of the girlfriend Malfoy loved. They would be even more vicious to Hermione and Malfoy would end up sometimes in detention for hexing them. Malfoy often received glares or suspicious looks from the Gryffindors. Sometimes there were notes from them. "Get away from Hermione." "Touch Hermione again and we'll break you." "We'll find out what you're up to. So watch it." Malfoy had refrained from telling the anonymous notes to Hermione until somehow it one day slipped off his mouth. He hadn't seen Hermione go that mad before. She had stormed out of the library and when she came back she had looked triumphant. Malfoy didn't know what she did but after that day there were no notes. Ron had often tried to do something to Malfoy but it ended after Malfoy succeeded in hexing him once during prefect duties and threatened him that he'd be sorry if he tried to get in Draco's way. The wimp had not bothered him ever since. Malfoy sometimes wondered how Ron made it to Gryffindor. He could have done in Hufflepuff.

Draco terribly missed Hermione the first few days he had been at Snape's gloomy house. He hadn't cared what the others thought of him when he was at Hogwarts because there was always Hermione. She would give him the gentle smile and chat away, bicker him probably about completing homework, take a walk holding hands in to the twilight and give a sweet kiss on his cheek before they departed to their dorms each night after supper, despite the huge audience, the glaring Gryffindors, Slytherins who swore and the very bemused Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. When they were together, nobody else mattered, just them. That was weeks ago.

But suddenly things started to get hard between them the more the Christmas Holidays had started to approach. Things sometimes got tense between them. Draco would sometimes feel annoyed the way Hermione always pressured him. Hermione felt worried sick about what might happen to Draco that she got alarmed at every little thing. She wasn't happy when Draco had tried to hide the incident when the Slytherins had ambushed him and hexed him so bad that he had to go to the hospital wing. She ranted often that Draco suddenly felt an old anger build inside him towards the girl. He felt even more frustrated when he learnt that Ron and Hermione had patched their fight up. Seeing Hermione talking to the ginger friend, laughing her infectious laugh at weasel's jokes made Malfoy bitter. They would often argue about it. He regretted it now. He regretted glaring at her back after she had lectured the consequences of his carelessness. He regretted ending the kiss Hermione gave at king cross station a bit too abruptly and avoided to look at her eyes because he knew she was hurt. He regretted not going after her when she had left wordlessly after she realized that he didn't want to do anything with her. But now it was all wrong. He did want everything to do with her. He missed her so much that he couldn't help cry. Silver would always come back with his letters to her, his scrawl saying "I Love You". They looked liked they had never being opened when they returned back to him. His silver blue eyes would spill tears on the parchment.

Now Snape had brought him to a strangely familiar place, probably a lot farther away from Hermione. Draco felt bitter. Why did he even bother to live? He had heard nothing from his parents. For all he knew he could die tomorrow or the next minute after Voldermort realizing the change of sides. He had heard nothing from Hermione. Where was she? Where did she say she was going to? Oh, yeah, to the weasley's. Draco couldn't help but scowl.

Snape gestured Draco to go inside. Malfoy dragged his trunk and the cage with silver in it and entered the dark house. It looked like it had not being lived in for sometime.

"Go on." Snape grunted, closing the door behind him.

Draco, still not sure what the place was, went towards a door, he noticed, slightly ajar and light streamed out from it. But before he could get to it the door banged wide open. Draco had to squint a bit to see who it was. Mousy hair, short, her face heart shaped, the woman looked quite familiar to Draco. Then another figure appeared behind her. Draco recognized him instantly. The werewolf Lupin. Another figure made his way limping in front of the familiar woman. Draco couldn't help taking a hasty step back as he saw the other defense against the dark art teacher. Well, it was not exactly him, since the teacher who had turned him a ferret was actually a bloody death eater. But yet, Draco was nervous as Mad-Eye Moody frowned at Draco.

"You sure?" Mad-eye growled, looking at Snape suspiciously.

"Dumbledore's orders." Snape said pulling out a parchment and handed it to Mad-eye. Lupin and Moody shared a glance after they read the parchment.

"Legit enough." Remus Lupin declared. The woman with the mousy hair looked at him skeptically.

"Let me see." Her voice was a bit familiar.

"I assure you that it is quite, as lupin says, legit." Snape said icily.

Suddenly a voice belonging from neither people of the group present floated from somewhere.

"Draco?"

Draco wasn't sure if he could believe his ears as he turned towards the source of the voice, who was descending down the stairs. He couldn't believe he was seeing her. He let go his trunk and took an unsure step forward.

Hermione Granger ran straight to Draco and flung her arms around him in to a hug. Draco wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close as he could, as he snuggled in to the soft beautiful mass of hair. It smelt just the way it smelt that night at the room of requirement. Suddenly he felt a rush of warmth through him as he felt her body press against his and suddenly he was so happy. He couldn't believe that he was actually holding her now and that she was right in front of him, with her arms around him instead of weasley's as he had feared. Draco gently withdrew from her to look at her beautiful brown eyes which shown and realized how much he missed them. Hermione smiled and gently nudged her nose against his.

Snape cleared his throat. Apparently he didn't want to witness there mushy re-union again. Nope, he would like to definitely pass that one.

Hermione went pink as she realized the adults nearby and made a quick little gap between Draco and her. But she kept her hand folded on his. "Hello, Professor." Hermione greeted the cranky Defense against the dark arts teacher, now feeling not much of a despise after learning the important role he played with Dumbledore. Snape just gave a curt nod and turned his eyes at Mad-Eye.

"See?"

"Hmmmm… I would be careful if I were you, Ms. Granger." Moody growled. He never spoke normaly, just growled or grunted.

"I trust him, so does Dumbledore." Hermione said boldly.

"Ha, I've heard that before, lady." Moody said staring at Snape who avoided looking at the swirling eye.

"I think we'd better have a talk." Lupin suggested.

"Well, Draco can put his trunks first. And I suppose Hermione can show him around. I guess he'll be staying around here for a while now." The mousy haired woman said.

"Yeah, he'd better stick here though, now that he came." Moody growled again.

"Oh, he will."

"Don't you have a lot of faith in him, Nymphadora."

Then did Draco realize who the mousy haired woman was. His cousin. He remembered how when he was little she had entertained him with her hair and the faces she made. Their parents weren't fond of the bond they made when they were younger but it was a time it couldn't be avoided. But as time came they grew apart, and Draco was fed with different ideas. But he still remembered how much of a delighted toddler Draco had being when he saw the green hair of the teenage Tonks turn to red.

"C'mon, Draco." Hermione said, as she took the cage with the beautiful owl in it. Draco followed her avoiding to look at Moody. Somehow he made Draco nervous. Hermione took him up a flight of stairs. She then led him to a room at the farthest corner.

"Well, here's your room." She announced.

Draco looked around. The whole bedroom looked a bit faded as if it had never seen a ray of sunshine. There was a bed at a corner. And the other end there was a wardrobe. In another corner there was a separate bathroom.

"Where's your room?" Draco asked automatically. Then he blushed and he saw Hermione giggle. Draco couldn't help smile at the sound of it.

"It's two bedrooms away."

"Two bedrooms away? That's really far."

"Don't worry. I'll drop by a lot."

Draco grabbed her hand and pulled her in to a gentle hug. Now he wanted most was to keep her close. "I'm sorry." He whispered. He didn't say for what he was sorry for but Hermione knew. She cupped his face and looked at him in the eyes. She gently brought her lips to his. "I love you." She murmured. Draco kissed her back. He felt complete.