Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Many of you are saddened by the upcoming separation, but I assure you that it's full steam ahead now, so there's no time to mourn! As always, JKR can speak Mermish!

...

Draco felt groggy and drained when he was awoken by a hammering on the front door. He blearily raised his head and his arm jerked from where it was draped weightlessly across the pillow. His heart stammered back to life as he sat up. His body was cold, covered only by a thin sheet, and the warmth next to him had dissipated, since Hermione was nowhere to be seen.

He winced when he realised that he must have overslept; it was unusual for him not to be woken when she stirred, but he had been physically exhausted from lack of sleep. They had woken each other up twice during the night, desperate to make the most of their time together before they might be parted or until they were facing the unknown. He still felt shivers crawl down his spine when he remembered the feeling of Hermione's warm mouth wrapped around him in the dark, her exploration curious and so very innocent.

Shaking his head so as not to be drawn back into the tantalising memories, he jumped out of bed as the knock sounded louder again. Draco threw on a pair of pants and a t-shirt and made his way out into the living room. Hermione was there, nursing a coffee in her hands and watching him with a faint smile of affection at his sleep-tousled state. She had clearly had a shower already, as her hair was damp and tied firmly into a plait draped over one shoulder, and she was dressed in practical, tight-fitting clothes. She looked ready for action.

"You should have woken me," he murmured hoarsely, walking towards the door. Hermione smirked and shook her head.

"But you looked so adorable."

Draco glared at her, trying to look dignified in his messy state and probably failing. He reached for the door to let Blaise in, trying not to show his surprise at how quickly his friend had returned. Because he had certainly come back to them much sooner than he thought he would.

Blaise strode into the room with a grin.

"Good morning. Hermione you look lovely as usual. Draco…well…I'm sure you'll tidy up."

"Fuck you, Blaise."

"Language, Draco," his friend scolded with an impish smile.

Hermione took a couple of eager steps forward, waving a little to get both of their attention.

"Well?" she asked, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet, "What did you find out?"

"Okay, darling, I've got a variety of good and bad news. So why don't we sit down with a cup of Draco's delicious muggle coffee and talk about it."

"Alright, come into the kitchen," she agreed with a sigh.

The three of them wandered in there, Draco still trying self-consciously to pat down his hair, as the curly haired girl set about making three steaming cappuccinos. He felt himself already waking up and becoming more alert just from the smell of the beans grinding. The two boys settled into the stools at the centre counter, while Hermione leaned against the bench behind her, seemingly relaxed, but Draco could recognise the signs of tension and excitement in the set of her shoulders and the tight purse of her lips.

"Well," Blaise began after a couple of quick sips of his coffee, "Let's start with the bad news. You were absolutely spot on about You-Know-Who's reaction to this Gringotts breakout. Whatever they did in there, it got him mad. I mean crazy mad. A couple of my friends have relatives who are in the inner circle, and they've all been relocated to the Hogsmeade area."

"Hogsmeade?" Draco asked with a frown.

"Yeh, apparently they're searching the area around the castle wards. He's obsessed with it. But he's gone off somewhere else and ordered them to stay there without him as a matter of some urgency."

"Why would he be so focused on Hogwarts?" he asked, but when he turned to Hermione, she was frowning intently and staring at a spot on the wall. Her brows were drawn in close together with that distinctive crease in her skin and her mouth had dropped open slackly.

"There's one in the castle…" she whispered to herself, and she seemed to be holding her breath as her eyes widened in realisation.

"What?"

Hermione's head shot up to meet his stare, as if she only just remembered they were still in the room with her.

"Nothing…" she shook her head slightly, snapping out of whatever deep thought she had been having, "so what else did you find out? Wasn't there good news too?"

"Well my other contacts, on your side, have told me that your friends have also arrived at the castle. Padma Patil said that the alert has gone out to the Order of the Phoenix to rally there."

Hermione went pale and stood up straight, pushing off the counter with a hopeful smile.

"So Harry and Ron made it inside the castle?"

"Apparently."

She let out a sigh of relief, before looking Blaise up and down appraisingly.

"You really do have impressive contacts. Ones who seem eager to spill their secrets to you."

"I'm quite persuasive," he replied with a cheeky wink, and Hermione laughed. She clapped her hands together happily.

"Alright, so we can just go to Hogsmeade and find a way into the castle to meet up with them!"

Blaise shook his head.

"It won't be that easy. The place is crawling with Death Eaters, so it's going to be difficult to get near it."

"Well then we need to draw them away somehow…"

He drained his coffee and slapped the cup onto the counter.

"I can go a step better."

"What?"

He smirked a bit triumphantly and leaned forwards.

"I can get a message back inside and let them know you're coming so they can open the secret entrance. Padma said it would take you straight from the village into the heart of the castle."

"That's great!"

"So the only difficult part is going to be getting past the Death Eaters."

Draco frowned and leaned forward as well.

"I can help there. If I come with you I can distract them if needed."

Hermione gave him a warm smile. She clearly looked pleased that they would be able to stick together a little bit longer.

"Thank you."

Draco held her gaze a second longer before he turned back to his friend, who was looking pretty smug right now.

"So what's your plan then, Blaise? You going to return to Europe?"

Blaise shook his head, the corner of his lip twitching upwards into a smile.

"No, I think I might come with you, if that's ok."

"What? I thought you didn't want to get involved."

The wavy haired Slythering shrugged, trying his best to look nonchalant, but not really succeeding.

"Yes, well…if this is going down at Hogwarts then I should be there."

When Draco and Hermione both exchanged a confused look, he grimaced and continued.

"Look…half the kids in Slytherin are just like me. They don't want to be a part of this. They don't have any ties to the Death Eaters, but that won't matter to anyone else – on either side. So who's going to take care of them?"

Draco's mouth curled up into a slow smile as he watched his best friend squirm nervously in his chair. Hermione was also looking at him with wide, surprised eyes that conveyed a well of emotions, but mostly compassion.

"Blaise…that's very noble of you," he said quietly.

"Yeh, well…just don't go on about it alright?"

"You always were a much better prefect than me," he admitted with a sheepish smile. Hermione snorted and nodded in agreement. Blaise blushed a bit, and kept his eyes downcast.

"It's just not fair to them. They deserve to have someone sticking up for them, and helping them get to safety if things turn ugly."

"Wow…" he said, giving a low whistle.

"Shut up," Blaise sneered, glaring at him, "and besides, if I stay here I might get a front row seat to the inevitable drama when you two both come out."

Hermione chuckled.

"I'll keep that in mind," she said sarcastically.

Draco finished off the rest of his coffee and jumped to his feet.

"Well that's it then," he said in a slightly awed voice, unable to really believe that things were happening so fast, "I'd better just go have a quick shower and get dressed while you arrange things with your "contact". Then we can go."

"Sounds like a plan," Blaise said, making his way quickly through the kitchen towards the door, "I'll be back in about an hour."

"Thank you again, Blaise," Hermione said with a smile so bright she could have lit up the entire room. Blaise just nodded once and left the house, his crack of apparition reverberating back across the hillside.

"One hour," she echoed numbly as she turned back to face him, and Draco smiled reassuringly, even though it seemed a bit shaky at the edges.

"One hour," he agreed.

….

Hermione and Draco were clenching their hands together tightly as they followed Blaise out of the cottage later. They were dressed in sturdy, practical clothes, and both were holding their wands tightly like a vice by their sides, preparing to apparate.

Before they vanished, Draco glanced across and watched as Hermione turned to look back on the sleepy little cottage nestled into the trees of the hillside woodlands, winter having given way to a stunning array of spring blossoms that hugged the little house like a blanket of spring. There was a look of anguish on her face as her eyes roved over the cottage, taking in every last detail hungrily. Draco smiled sadly and squeezed her hand in his. She turned to meet his gaze and returned the smile, sniffling slightly as she huddled closer to him.

"I'm going to miss our little home," she said in a low murmur, too soft for Blaise to overhear them, "I was very happy here, probably too much considering there was a war going on."

Draco felt that warmth tug at his chest, that feeling he recognised as the overwhelming pain he got when he was confronted by the weight of his love for her. It made him feel delighted and terrified all in one gasp of air.

"You made me happy here, too," he responded quietly, and she smiled and leaned over hurriedly while Blaise wasn't paying attention and placed a chaste kiss on his lower lip.

"I'm glad," she said, before their little party of three stopped by some rocks and Blaise spun back to face them.

"Okay, now try your best to land there accurately, because if you overstep the destination then you might stumble on some Death Eaters. They've been wandering the village all day."

Hermione nodded, and Draco gave her hand a last little stroke with his thumb before they dropped their hold. Then the three of them raised their arms and disapparated all at once. He felt his stomach lurch unpleasantly as his vision funnelled and stretched around him in a split second. A shooting sensation of nausea gripped his gut and it felt like the ground had fallen out from under him. Then his body jolted back into awareness as he appeared inside the dingy old front room of the Hog's Head pub. It was empty except for the three of them standing huddled in the corner of the room all trying to catch their breath. Blaise raised a finger to his lips to gesture for silence, before he beckoned them across the room towards a door. The wooden floorboards and beams above were all a little creaky, and the place had a dusty, dishevelled appearance about it. Although it was the middle of the afternoon, there was little to no light coming in, and it appeared as though up here towards the north of Scotland that the snow was still blowing in occasionally to blanket out the sun.

When his friend opened up a doorway for them, the three crept inside and down a winding, rickety stairway that eventually led into a basement. There was no sign of the grumpy pub owner who Draco knew from a couple of sneaky visits with his friends could be extremely strict about the rules. He assumed that Blaise had warned him about their arrival and he had decided to stay right away from them.

Blaise walked up to the single painting that was on the wall; a quaint little pastoral portrait of a young girl.

"It's time to fetch them," he whispered to the girl, and she just smiled sort of vaguely and walked back into the frame until she was nothing more than a black speck, leaving behind her empty, desolate fields.

"I think that was Arianna Dumbledore," Hermione whispered.

"Huh?" he asked in confusion, not sure why she was struck by this sudden idea. But she just shook her head curtly.

"Never mind," she replied quietly.

There was a louder creaking sound from above which might have just been the usual wear and tear of the pub, but all three of them looked up with wide, fearful eyes as though they were caught out after curfew. Nothing else suspicious could be heard, but Draco still took a couple of steps up from the basement partially into the stairwell to keep an ear out for anything approaching.

"She's coming back," Blaise muttered, and the three of them watched in mild surprise as the girl from the portrait returned slowly, with what seemed like two other figures. When she reached the centre of the frame again, she smiled almost sadly and pushed forwards. As she did, the picture groaned and creaked off the wall, revealing a gap that led to a hollow space beyond.

They peered cautiously at the space, and as they did a pair of hands pushed the hole wider revealing two dark figures.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped with a little squealing sound to her voice.

And sure enough as the painting was pushed back, the bespectacled, scruffy haired figure of Harry bloody Potter clambered down into the room. The moment his feet touched the ground, his mouth dropped open at the sight of Hermione, and the two of them threw their arms around each other. Harry had a wide, disbelieving smile on his face as he held her tightly, and Draco felt a clench of envy in his chest at their natural closeness. She drew back from him as the other figure climbed down, with a shock of orange hair and a stupid grin on his face. The three of them all embraced each other. They held on tightly for a few moments just absorbing the happiness of finding themselves together again. Draco hated the way Weasley's arm wrapped around Hermione's waste possessively.

"Mione! What are you doing here? How did you escape?"

""We thought you were still trapped somewhere with the Malfoys."

"I can't believe you escaped Gringotts on a dragon!"

The three of them were babbling at each other for a few seconds, then when they realised that none of them were answering their rapid questions, they burst into amused, joyful laughter, still sort of clinging to each other.

"What happened?" Potter said at last, and it was only then that the boys raised their eyes to the rest of the room. They both looked directly at Blaise, and he gave them a cheeky smile in return, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Zabini?" Weasley asked in confusion, glaring a bit doubtfully at the Slytherin boy who was looking for all the world like he was going to really enjoy this. Then Draco realised that they hadn't seen him yet, because he was concealed partially in the staircase, so he took the couple of steps down and into the room, where the faint yellow light from a candle bracket revealed his features and his distinctive blonde hair.

Potter was the first to react, and it seemed as though everyone in the room was surprised by how quickly the boy who lived acted. He had always been good at DADA, but the speed with which he flicked his wand was still shocked Draco.

"Expelliarmus," he shouted, and Draco felt his wand propelled out from his hand with a sting of magic, as Potter caught it and continued to point his own wand at his chest.

Hermione made a noise of dismay and stepped in front of him, blocking him from any further spells Potter might cast, and Weasley as well who had by now finally managed to clamber for his own wand stupidly in his back pocket.

"No, Harry. Don't!" she said frantically, keeping her voice low enough so that they wouldn't be heard. It didn't matter because he knew Blaise had placed a silencing charm on the room as soon as they'd entered, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Potter stared at her with wide, worried eyes, his gaze flicking over to Draco against the wall once or twice before he turned back to his curly haired friend.

"Hermione, what the hell is that evil git doing here?"

His witch sighed and raised her hands with palms open in a placating gesture.

"It's alright, Harry. He's not going to harm us."

"Have you lost your mind? He's a Death Eater!"

Draco pursed his lips, trying not to retort with any harsh words of his own. He figured it was best to let Hermione tackle her two friends, because his involvement was likely to just cause more problems.

"Harry, listen to me-"

"Get away from him, Hermione. He might hurt you."

"He won't. Draco is the one who got me out of the manor-"

That turned out to be a big mistake, because while Potter just looked stunned and vaguely suspicious, the weasel pushed forwards with a flustered, red face, his expression belligerently furious.

"Draco? Why are you calling him Draco?"

Hermione let out a heavy breath. She basically ignored the freckled git's interruption in favour of looking the Boy-Who-Lived in the eye with as much sincerity as she could. Draco knew that look very well, and how intimidating it could be.

"Harry. Please lower your wand. Draco is the reason I'm alive."

"So he's led you to believe," the dark haired boy said in a low, angry voice.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" she retorted, clearly getting frustrated.

"No, of course not. But there's no way I'm going to trust him."

Hermione was starting to really cross. Draco could feel the tingle of anger ripple across her magic, and she practically stomped her foot.

"Harry Potter, lower your damn wand!"

The Boy-Who-Lived looked shocked, but he slowly did as she said, even though his glare did not dissipate. The Weasel king on the other hand, was still shaking his wand angrily, his face flushed and humiliated from being ignored.

"No way! She's under the imperius or something, Harry! Let's tie him up and stun him or wipe his memory."

Blaise smirked gleefully and took that moment to chime in.

"This is everything I hoped it would be."

Draco gave him a warning look, just as Hermione snorted, though she didn't move or turn her stare away from Potter, who she was staring down intently.

"Can you please just let me explain? I promise I'm not under any kind of spell or potion or influence."

Potter looked a bit lost for a while, clearly thinking things through and watching the witch with hooded eyes until finally he nodded slowly.

"Okay. But first… who did I think cast that patronus at the end of third year?"

Hermione took a deep breath, smiling sadly.

"Your dad," she said softly, and the messy haired wizard nodded with a grimace.

"Good. At least I know it's really you."

Hermione's smile widened and she looked grateful when Potter gave the ginger haired moron a glare that seemed to convince him to lower his wand too, though he did it very reluctantly. Potter then took hold of Hermione's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Alright then. Tell me what happened."

Hermione breathed in deeply and shot a glance towards the Slytherin boys. She smiled reassuringly at Draco before she began.

"After your escape at the manor distracted everyone, Draco managed to get me out of there using his own house elf, and he did it without blowing his cover. I was taken back to another property that he owns where he healed me and I've been staying there ever since. I had no idea how to find you and Ron, and it took a long time to get better… but finally Blaise here was able to track down some information and he brought us here." She said all this very quickly, and Draco couldn't help but smirk at her totally inadequate summary of events. It really gave very little away, but that was probably for the best. Potter frowned, but his anger was continuing to fade with every moment of Hermione's explanation. He obviously had a lot of faith in his friend.

"And how do you know that Malfoy isn't just tricking you at You-Know-Who's request?"

"Standing right here," he piped in with a sneer.

"That's the problem," Potter retorted bitingly.

Hermione squeezed her friend's hand to win his attention back, stepping close to get her point across.

"Harry, I've been living with him now for almost three months. I know he's not still fighting for their side. Not really. He's willing to help us."

Potter's brows shot up on his forehead then, and he looked past her and straight at Draco. He swallowed and stepped forwards a little.

"Is this true?" Potter asked him seriously, and he paused for a moment before nodding.

"Hermione and I have already organised a way of communicating. I have one of her galleons from your little club in fifth year. We can both send and receive messages."

Weasley had had enough at this point. He clearly didn't like the way Potter seemed to be caving. He made an outraged scoffing sound and made a threatening step towards them, looming over Hermione.

"This is insane. The stupid ferret is just trying to spy on us!"

"No, Ron" Hermione pleaded, "Please, just trust me on this."

"He must have done something to you, or tricked you."

Draco rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Weasley. I'm a good actor, but not that good. And Hermione isn't easily fooled."

Potter narrowed his eyes then, and Draco shut his mouth so that he didn't give away too much.

"I think if you're waiting for them to hold your hand and sing kumbaya, then you could be waiting a while," Blaise said with a smirk. Hermione just groaned and stomped her foot again.

"It doesn't matter if you don't trust him yet. You should trust me. And Draco. Saved. My. Life," she said each word with deliberate emphasis, "I am indebted to him and I believe in him. So just…stop being so bloody annoying and grow up!"

There was a brief pause of surprise, before Potter started to chuckle.

"Alright, Hermione… wow. I really missed you," he smiled and gave her a quick hug, "I'm not going to pretend I like it, but you've never let me down before."

"Huh, maybe I was wrong," Blaise said in surprise, "I'll bring my guitar."

Ron was enraged not only by the way that the other Slytherin was making light of things, but also at the fact that everyone in the room seemed to be calming down when he was still furious at Draco's presence.

"This is unbelievable-"

"SHHH." Blasé shushed everyone with a gesture of his hands, his amused expression sobering in an instant as he looked towards the ceiling. "No more time to argue with you, Weasel-face," he whispered, "we've got company nearby."

Hermione's eyes widened as she spun around and caught Draco's gaze. They shared a look of anguish that conveyed a hundred different thoughts and wishes, knowing what was coming.

"What is it?" Potter murmured.

"Death Eaters."

Blaise hurried towards the portrait, opening it again to reveal the passage.

"We need to go," he said urgently.

"Wait…no-" Hermione began, staring at Draco fearfully. He took a couple of steps towards her, his heart pounding as his skin broke out into a sudden cold sweat.

"It's okay," he murmured reassuringly, "We already talked about this. I've got to go. It will give you time to get through the passage without them tracking you."

"But…" her eyes flickered around the room. Blaise was smiling slightly but trying to pretend he was staring at something on the wall. Potter was looking at them with a mixture of horror and confusion. Weasley looked livid.

"What are you going to do?" Potter asked suspiciously.

"Distract them," he answered simply.

Draco knew that it was probably not a good idea to show any affection in front of her already irate friends, but there was certainly a possibility that this could be the last time he saw her. If things didn't go well for him then this would be their final goodbye. So, uncaring about their audience, he took hold of her face and pulled her to him to kiss her hard and passionately. He held the kiss for only a couple of seconds, short enough that Weasley couldn't react badly by punching him or anything. Then he parted from her. They leaned their foreheads against each other as they took a couple of quick panting breaths to recover, before he drew away. As he did, Potter quickly shoved a wand at him, his face still looking dumbfounded. The wood felt different in his hand, but he was in too much of a hurry to really notice.

"We have to leave now," Blaise repeated. Draco's eyes darted to his friend and he gave him a serious look.

"Take care of her," he muttered.

"I will," the other Slytherin promised, giving Draco one final nod of assurance.

"I love you," he said to her as he backed away, "Don't forget to keep in touch," he tapped his hand on his pocket where the coin was hidden. Hermione opened her mouth to reply, but with the opening of a door above, he was already spinning away quickly, his heart thudding with worry that they could be found. As he started to sweep up the round staircase, he heard Weasley spluttering incoherently in total shock and horror, and he couldn't stop himself from smiling briefly in victory.

Then his heart plummeted as he realised that he may have just walked away from Hermione forever, depending on what happened next. He closed his eyes and whispered a silent plea that she would be safe. Now it was time to face his greatest fear and play the role of Death Eater for hopefully the last time.

...

Thanks for reading. Oh no, what would Hermione have said if he hadn't left so soon? Reviews are inspiration!