A/N: Hello there. I'm glad this story has been so well received. The idea about the Prophet headlines was completely accidentally. Originally the story was going to have Hermione's journal entries, but I thought that the headlines would add something more to the story. Anyways, here's the next chapter. Anyone who wants to talk about the Deathly Hallows Part I movie please feel free to PM me. On with the story…

Oh and in case I didn't add this before, I don't own anything Harry Potter related. That's all JK, I'm just playing with them a little!

Chapter Five- Guard your homes, Death Eater to be released on 24-hour probation.

Despite numerous letters from readers, which we have diligently forwarded to the Minister of Magic and Head Auror, Lucius Malfoy will be released into the custody of his lawyer today to attend his late wife's funeral. One can only hope that Harry Potter realizes how dangerous this situation is, as it is clear that Miss Granger's personal feelings prevent her from being rational in this matter. See page four for Ron's Inner Pain, an article by Rita Skeeter.

It seemed Hermione was right in surmising that her presence would be needed to get the guards to do what she needed. When she arrived at fifteen minutes until ten, Lucius was still in his cell. "What I want to know if why you think you can ignore crystal clear instructions from the bloody Minister of Magic? Are you really as dumb as you look?" She had practically dragged the guard; today it was Brutus, down the cell block and stationed him in front of Lucius' door. "Open that bloody cell or so help me Merlin…"

"I'd do it if I were you," said a cool voice from across the cell block. Hermione looked over her shoulder to see Avery standing at the bars of his cell. "Morning Granger, pleasant day?"

"Go bugger yourself Avery," she hissed back and turned to see the guard opening the cell door. "Now you, yes Brutus you, go down to the bathing room and make sure there is hot water for him. I will be down shortly with him." The guard stood there watching her, a sneer on his face but fear in his eyes. "Now Brutus, before I have to call the Minister myself."

Looking thoroughly unhappy, Brutus stomped away from them. Hermione turned and walked into the cell to find Lucius sitting on his cot, his book lying forgotten beside him, and a smirk on his face. "Well done dear," he said.

"Don't call me dear," she responded. "We have very little time to get you ready. I still have to get ready when we return to my house."

"How will you shower and dress whilst magically handcuffed to me?" Lucius asked as they walked down the hall.

"Apparently the Minister had the same concerns about magically handcuffing you to me as you did. There will be a spell I will place on you before we leave that will make you unable to be further then 10 yards of me. I measured how far it would take for you to be outside the bathroom door while I was in the shower."

Hermione escorted Lucius to the bathing room, where she let him go in with another guard, Marcus, to watch over him. Standing outside the room, she wondered briefly what it would be like for Lucius to see the coffin his wife was being buried in. Draco had told her that his parent's marriage had not survived the horror that Voldemort had put them through during the final months of the second war. One had to wonder if Lucius had still loved his wife when he was taken to prison. "Granger," a spiteful female voice said from down the hall.

Hermione walked over to the cells, her sneakers making no sound on the harsh stone floor below her. She came to a stop in the middle of the minimal security ward, where they kept prisoners whose crimes were harsher than misuse of magic and less than murder. "Pansy," Hermione said as she faced the girl's cell.

The once, well if you could call them good, looks of Pansy's youth were gone. Harsh lines etched on her face, making the girl look years older than Hermione. Hermione remembered the newspaper article of the day they took Pansy away and the look of sadness on Draco's face as he stood and watched. "One Malfoy not enough for you Granger?"

"Excuse me?" Hermione leaned up against the wall opposite Pansy's cell, glancing every once in a while at the door to the bathing room. Brutus had come to stand next to her.

"I saw in the paper that you were with Draco, right under Lucius' nose. What did you do Granger, slip them a love potion?" Pansy smirked, the same smirk that Hermione remembered from school years.

"I see that prison hasn't even changed you," Hermione said. "Well don't worry Pans; you've got another five years to find that inner good person."

Pansy shrieked and came to the bars. "Fuck you Granger," Pansy shrieked. "You walk around here acting all self-righteous, but I know you. Remember, I was the one who found you…"

Hermione was in front of the cell in the next second, her hand wrapped around Pansy's neck. "You'll keep your fucking mouth shut Pansy," Hermione said.

"Oi," Brutus yelled but he didn't move to stop her.

Pansy smirked up at the brunette in front of her and whispered, "Scared Granger?"

"You wish Pansy," Hermione responded. She let her hand fall from Pansy's throat and she backed away from the cell. "No one would believe you anyway."

"The Prophet might," Pansy said. "I'd be careful if I were you Granger, the truth is bound to get out sometime."

Hermione heard the door open from the bathing room. With one last glaring look at Pansy, Hermione turned and walked away. Without looking up at Lucius she grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the exit. "Let's get the hell out of here," she whispered mostly to herself. Once they had cleared the exit, Lucius felt the familiar tug of Side-Along Apparition. Once they had settled, Hermione began walking towards the kitchen. There was a brief second for him to wonder when she would be magically handcuffed to him, then she stepped more than ten feet away from him. As if being pulled by a leash, Lucius jerkily followed her into the kitchen.

"Miss Granger!" He watched as the girl slammed a bottle of water on the counter. "Will you please explain what the bloody hell is wrong with you?"

She turned, fully expecting to tell the elder Malfoy to keep his nose out of her business, but the moment her eyes fell on him all current thought slipped away. The robes Draco had purchased for him were a deep inky black that seemed to absorb all the light in the room. He had washed and groomed his long blond hair so that it now laid down his back in silky waves like she remembered. It was longer now, half way down his back, and because of the lack of sunlight it had become more white than blonde. Washed of all the grim of prison and dressed back to his station, Hermione could only stared with her mouth gapped open at the man in front of her. "Bloody hell," she whispered.

Lucius chuckled, taking a step closer to the shocked girl. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, his lips inches from her flesh, "my dear, you are staring."

It seemed to snap Hermione out of her daze and she jumped back from him. "You clean up well," she said in a meek tone. She looked down at his feet and saw a thin red line of magical energy connecting his right ankle with her left ankle. "Oh, that must be the leash."

"Yes, I had the uncomfortable feeling of being dragged back to you when you walked too far away from me. What the hell happened to you while I was gone? Did those barbaric guards…"

"No one touched me Lucius," Hermione said. Although I'm fairly sure Pansy will have some light bruising. "I'm just in a hurry. Harry will be here in an hour. Come on, I have to shower."

The process itself wasn't that difficult. Hermione walked into the shower and Lucius sat in the chair Hermione had put up against the door. While she showered, applied makeup, and fixed her hair; Lucius took in her room. Very plain, he thought to himself. Although it's obvious that the boy Weasley lived here, gaudy Quidditch posters and clothes flung in the corner. No wonder she left him.

Finishing up the in the bathroom, Hermione stepped out and requested that they switch places so she could get dressed. Once she had finished dressing, she tapped on the door and Lucius walked back into the room. Turning to look at her, his jaw dropped at the sight. Hermione was wearing a black knee length skirt and a white silk blouse with a boat neckline, the sleeves were capped at her shoulder and three little pearl buttons were at the top. She topped the whole outfit off with a pair of high black pumps that included three little pearl buttons down the front and a red belt with a black buckle on her waist. Her hair was down, the soft brown curls flowing down past her shoulders and she had done her makeup light. She looks… beautiful. "Lucius," Hermione said, snapping her fingers in front of his face. He tore himself away from those perilously tall high heels and looked up at her. "Is the belt too much color for a funeral?"

"No," Lucius said softly. "I think Narcissa would have found your outfit…" stylish, intriguing, unbefitting for a Mudblood… what would my late wife had thought about this sassy little Muggleborn escorting me to her funeral? "Tasteful," he said out loud. "You look remarkable."

"Thank you," she said and a blush crept onto her cheeks. She tapped her left foot, a nervous habit he noticed she did when she was nervous, agitated, or angry. "Come on, we need to be in the living room with Harry arrives."

"So Potter is the escort?" Lucius sat down on the chair next to the fire and Hermione sat down on the couch, her legs crossed demurely at the ankles.

Hermione nodded and reached down to pick up the book on the coffee table. Lucius caught the title, Pride and Prejudice before she placed it on her lap and started reading it. Several moments paced before she said, "stop staring at me."

Lucius, who had indeed been staring at her, laughed softly. "How did you come by such a… extensive collection of shoes?"

Hermione closed her book and looked up at the man in front of her. "Of all the things you notice, my shoe collection is the one you ask about?"

"I like shoes," he said with a shrug. "Humor me will you?"

Hermione smiled and sat her book down on the table. "I like shopping."

"I wasn't aware you were doing well enough to afford an expensive habit like that. Those aren't exactly cheap shoes." He caught the slight frown that began to grace her face and quickly added, "You shop like I used to. And we all know I'm obscenely rich."

Hermione looked down at her shoes, the same shoes that had started this whole conversation. "Well, of course I received a huge payment from the Ministry for my role in the war. I donated most of it to charities, but I kept some. And then there's my salary which isn't exactly small, plus I have two remarkable shopping partners."

"My son must be one," Lucius said thoughtfully. "And the other must be Potter; I don't imagine the Weasley boy being much of a high-end shopper."

"Very astute of you Mister Malfoy," Hermione said. "Your son practically melted into a puddle when we went shopping in Paris last month. And Harry favors shopping in the States." She smirked as she heard a knock on the door. "And I have over two hundred pairs of shoes."

The look on his face amused her greatly as she walked the five feet to the front door. Opening it for Harry, she embraced him in a hug as he walked in the door. "There's been a problem," he said as he shut the door behind him. He followed Hermione into the living room and sat beside her on the couch. "Malfoy," he said in greeting.

Lucius nodded his head and looked away from Potter. Although Harry had spoken out for his wife and Draco, nothing could have kept Lucius out of jail, even though Harry didn't speak out for him. "What problem?" The question came from Hermione, giving Lucius an excuse to turn and look at her.

Harry frowned. "The Aurors have been stationed at the Malfoy Manor," he said. "The Minister felt that additional protection would help people feel less afraid of Lucius being out and about. However, that means…"

"Ron's there," Hermione finished for him, "Oh bugger," she added as she stood up. Walking to the kitchen, she reached the ten feet marker and Lucius stood up jerkily and was dragged towards her.

"Good to see the spell is working," Harry said as he watched Hermione make tea and Lucius stand there sulking. "But there is another problem that I haven't mentioned."

Hermione, steady working on making tea and mumbling incoherent things about her former flame, ignored Harry. Lucius looked over at the "Savior of the Wizarding World" and said, "Do tell Potter."

Harry shivered and stood up to full height. "Don't do that, it makes you eerily like your son. The other problem is in relation to the spell that has you two tethered together. It takes 24 hours to wear off."

Hermione picked up a mug of tea, handed it to Lucius, and then picked up hers and Harry's. She walked into the living room slowly, making sure that Lucius had time to follow her. As she sat down on the couch and Lucius sat down on the chair, Hermione turned to Harry. "I know that," she said. "I talked that little part over with the Ministry. The additional wards will be placed while we are gone to the funeral and will be dropped when I return from the jail tomorrow."

Harry nodded and accepted his tea. "Ron will…"

"Not be able to touch this place while the wards are up. We will only have to worry about him misbehaving at the funeral." Hermione turned to see a very confused Lucius attempting to follow their conversation. "Because the spell takes 24 hours to dissolve, and I adamantly refused to sleep in the jail, you will be staying here for the night."

"No," Lucius said quickly. Harry looked up at him with a confused expression. "I can't sleep here, the press would murder her."

"Oh he cares," a voice said from behind them. "Father, the press couldn't be as bad as it is today."

At Draco's voice, Hermione jumped up and went around pulling him in a hug. Forgetting about the spell, she also managed to shock Lucius enough that he fell out of the chair. "Oh dear," she said, "I'm so sorry Mister Malfoy."

Draco, who was laughing almost as hard as Harry, pulled Hermione close again. "I needed the laugh, thanks." He took the tea she still had in her hand and sipped on it. "The headlines today are terrible, but it seems that Rita Skeeter has decided to forgo your threats finally and join in the gossip. She's written an article that I think you should read." Draco handed her the paper and walked over, taking the chair next to his father's. "Hello father," Draco said.

"What's the article about?"

Harry moved over to Hermione, who was steady reading the paper. Neither one noticed the two blondes whispering in the corner. "What makes you so concerned? You aren't getting attached, are you?"

"I should be the one asking you that, son. Did you plan on informing me that you were moving her into my house?" Lucius sat his tea down on the table and turned his full attention to his son.

Draco smirked. "I knew she would tell you," he said softly. "She hates lying and secrets, a byproduct of the war I think. And as long as you remain in prison, the house is mine."

"She will get me out Draco," Lucius said. "She's got a fire that I haven't seen since…"

"Don't," he added. The last thing Draco needed to be reminded at the moment was how much like Narcissa Hermione was. "Mum isn't even in the ground."

"Your mother and I fell out of love a long time ago," Lucius said. "And I didn't say anything about a romantic interest in Mis… Hermione."

Draco's eyebrows rose at the informal name Lucius used. "You won't get close to her; I'll make sure of it. I won't let you hurt her like you did mum."

"I am not the same man I was son," Lucius said. "And you won't have to worry about anything like that unless I get out of jail."