All throughout the next week my mind kept straying back to that simple statement. It's good to see you smile. Only six little words, but my mind kept running over and over them. No matter how I tried to distract myself I kept circling back to those six words. I've always had an inquiring mind, but I'd never wanted to know the answer to a question more than I did then. Why was he so happy to see me smile? I had no idea but I headed off for our next meeting bound and determined to weasel it out of him.

As I crept through the halls I couldn't seem to shake the feeling that someone was following me. I felt the weight of someone's gaze on my back and came to a stop. Turning slowly to look in every direction I found myself completely alone. I told myself that I was being ridiculous. It was probably just Peeves trying to get me caught out of bed. With a determined shake of the head I kept walking, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched.

When I shut the door to the Room of Requirement behind me I let out a relieved breath I hadn't known I'd been holding. Taking a seat, I settled in to wait for Draco. I was there twenty minutes before it occurred to me that he was rather late. Of course, he'd been late before. This whole thing wasn't a completely exact science after all. Still, I was pretty sure that he'd never been this late before. I stood up and was headed to check out in the hall when it started.

An icy cold breeze ruffled over my skin and I hugged my arms tight against my body, shivering. Every instinct I had told me to run but it was as if my feet were rooted to the floor; I couldn't move. Then the voice came, speaking what I knew had to be Parseltongue. I shook my head and tried desperately to block out the voice. Terrified, I told myself it was nothing more than a scare tactic, but I knew better. In an instant everything got about ten times worse. The breeze turned to a violent wind, whipping my hair so hard around my face that it hurt and forcing me to my knees. Then the voice roaring in my ears raised to a fever pitch, screaming in my head so I could understand it now.

"Filthy! Dirty! Mudblood! Worthless! Slime! Filth! Dirt!"

"No!" I screamed. Then as suddenly as it had all began, the voice stopped, the wind ceased, and the room gradually filled with warmth again. I fell limply to the floor, wrapping my arms tight around my legs, rocking back and forth. Tears were streaming down my face when I felt a sharp blow to the back of my head and everything went dark.

I woke up to a pounding head and an aching body. With no idea how long I'd been wherever I was the only thing I could figure out was that judging by the light filtering in from the miniscule window it was sometime around mid-day. What day I had no clue. Though I already suspected it was futile I checked the door and the window, both were locked and charmed. My wand was missing, and without it I had absolutely no chance of escaping on my own. For what could have been hours I paced the length of the small cell, growing more and more agitated. I wanted answers. Then the door opened and I realized I was about to get them, and maybe I didn't really want them as much as I thought.

Two wizards I had never seen before entered, black robes swirling around their ankles. My instincts were firing at full force again and I backed up until I hit the wall.

The first man was tall and lanky, with a greasy look that reminded me uncomfortably of Professor Snape, only this man was a blonde. "Hello mudblood," he snarled.

The childish name calling put my back up and made me feel dangerously bold. "What do you want with me?" I demanded.

The second man was short and fat and regarded me cruelly before he backhanded me hard and sent me sprawling to the dirt floor. I cried out and he laughed loudly. "We ask the questions here.

It was absolutely absurd but the only thought that came to my mind was 'God get a better line.' Thankfully I had enough good sense not to say it. Instead I pulled myself with some difficulty onto my knees. "Fine," I spit out through gritted teeth.

"What are you doing snooping around Draco Malfoy?" the tall one asked me.

My mind started reeling. They knew that we had been meeting, but the way he phrased the question it seemed like they didn't suspect Draco of a thing. But what could I possibly tell them that would keep both me and Draco alive? Then it hit me. "Well we've sort of got a thing going on." The only response I got was another hard hit to the face. This time I was prepared and managed to keep myself upright. Now I was pissed. "Look it's not my fault if you don't believe me…"

"Lies!" the fat one yelled. "Draco Malfoy would never touch a dirty filthy blooded whore like you."

I took exception to the whore comment but I let it pass. "Okay so maybe it's one-sided. I'm obsessed, I can't help it." I did my best to look pathetic and cowered in the corner.

"No best friend of that brat Harry Potter would truly wish to be close to a Malfoy! You have been trying to learn the Dark Lord's secrets!" The Snape look alike was practically foaming at the mouth he was so enraged. I resisted the urge to smile; they had no idea just how close to the truth they were.

I shook my head. "No, I don't even talk to Harry anymore." The short one hit me again and this time I wasn't ready. I fell back hard, cracking my head against the stone wall. This was getting really old, really fast.

The tall guy bent down to my level and I pulled away, repulsed when he grabbed my face hard in his hand. "You are a liar, but we will get the truth out of you soon enough." His buddy hit me hard once more for good measure and then they left and locked and charmed the door.

I lay on the floor wrapped in a ball for a long while after that. The tears that poured from my eyes turned the dirt beneath me to mud and I was consumed by the throbbing pain in my face and body. After a while the world closed in black around me and I passed out.

The next few days of my life are something I never wish to speak of again. I have recounted the events of those days to one person only, and he is the only person besides me who will ever know the full details. Suffice it to say I learned to take a beating, and I never once revealed anything.

On what I estimated to be the fourth day of my captivity I was sleeping fitfully when a familiar voice intruded upon my dreams.

"Granger…"

I knew I'd heard the voice before, but half sleeping, half waking I couldn't put my finger on who it was.

"Granger…"

I was slowly struggling towards wakefulness when the voice became urgent and I didn't have a choice but to come fully awake.

"Hermione!"

I sat bolt up, eyes wide and looked around. I couldn't possibly be rescued, could I?

"Hermione I'm not any good to you with my ass in the air out here!"

"Draco?" I scrambled across the cell to a spot under the window where his voice seemed to be filtering in.

"Christ, you are alive." He sounded infinitely relieved. "Good, I need you to help me. I'm going to push on this stone. When you see it come loose from the wall I need you to pull."

I nodded. "Okay." I heard his breath laboring as he started to push the large stone at the bottom of the wall. Before long I saw if move away from the wall and grabbed ahold, pulling with all my might. Within moments we had it clear of the wall and Malfoy's hooded figure crawled through the hole. "What happens if you're recognized?" He shook his hood away from his head and my mouth fell open. "Well I guess you won't be will you?"

A spell had turned his trademark hair jet black and he gazed at me out of startlingly violet eyes. "If anyone caught a glimpse of what are usually my most distinguishing features they probably wouldn't have a clue."

We both stood and he ran his hands briskly over my body and face, cataloging my injuries. I winced as he came in contact with a particularly nasty bruise. "How did you get here?"

"A broom. I hate to ask but can you crawl out of here?"

I nodded. "It will hurt, but I can do it."

"Okay. We need to go now, or else they may come back and find us both here."

He helped me to kneel and I crawled out in front of him. Draco came behind me, moving backwards so that he could move the stone back, leaving no trace of our escape route. I crawled the short distance into the night and managed only to raise onto my knees. Breathing hard from the small amount of exertion I turned to see Draco back out of the building and breathe a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?"

"Claustrophobic," he said. "Out here is definitely better."

I watched as he slid another stone back into place and knew I was going to owe him a lot when all of this was over. He stood quickly and held out a hand. I accepted it gratefully, but when I tried to stand on my own I let out a little gasp as my legs came out from under me. He caught me easily before I hit the ground. With little other choice he picked me up and carried me to a broom he had waiting nearby. I wrapped my hands tight around the handle to steady myself while he got on in front of me.

"Wrap your arms around my waist, I don't want you falling off."

I felt all the blood drain from my face at the suggestion of falling from a moving broom but I did as he asked. When I had a firm hold he kicked off hard and we flew off. I felt my stomach drop as we gained altitude and speed and pressed my cheek against his back, my eyes squeezed shut. For a moment there I had forgotten how much I hated to fly.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Not really, no."

"I'd forgotten you don't like flying," he told me apologetically.

I nodded against his back. "Maybe if we keep talking it'll keep my mind off of it." Well that and never opening my eyes the entire trip.

"Okay."

"How did you find me?" I asked.

I felt him shrug. "I came for the meeting and you were gone. I went to Dumbledore seeing as you never shirk any kind of responsibility and we both suspected foul play. I managed to get it out of one of the Death Eaters eventually. We were lucky that I know my way around the building they were keeping you in."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

We spent the rest of the ride back to Hogwarts in companionable conversation. All I really wanted to do was rest but sleep would have meant falling from the broom, so I talked. In the hour it took to get back we talked about everything and nothing, whatever popped into our heads. We learned a lot about each others childhoods and ambitions, but I think we both breathed a sigh of relief when we finally touched down in the Forbidden Forest.

Draco hopped off easily but I was embarrassed to find that my legs wouldn't seem to work. He turned back to help me from the broom and I flushed. "I can't seem to make my body do what it needs to."

He nodded. It's understandable with everything you've been through. Here." Without a second thought he reached out and swung me into his arms. With one hand he reached into his cloak and pulled out a wrapped parcel. He fumbled one-handed with the string for a moment before I removed one of my arms from around his neck long enough to help him with it. What he unfurled from the paper was an invisibility cloak.

"My aren't we resourceful."

The smirk I'd grown so accustomed to over the years played at his mouth as he flung it over both of us. Even though it well past the time everyone should have been in bed we kept the cloak on through the halls in case we should run into anyone. Madame Pomfrey had been apprised of the situation but we had to wait until she was done with a tiny first year with a stomach ache before we could reveal ourselves. Finally Draco pulled the cloak off and set me down on a bed. The look on Madame Pomfrey's face was a little too surprised and I realized I must have been even worse than I thought.

Draco backed off as she went to work on me but as soon as she finished he stepped back up to the side of the bed. "I'm really sorry about all of this."

I shook my head. "I knew this was going to be dangerous when I took it on. It's not for you to feel sorry."

He shrugged. "Just the same. Get some rest."

He turned to leave but I caught his arm. "Do me a favor before you go?"

What he said then thrilled me down to my toes. "Anything."

"Change your hair and your eyes back? It's creepy, like you're you but not you."

He let out a rare and enchanting laugh then pointed his wand and a second later I was looking at striking blue eyes and white blonde hair. As if on a whim he bent and brushed a kiss against my hair. "Good night Hermione."

He walked out but I couldn't seem to find my voice for some time after. There was just something about him that consistently left me speechless.