A/N: Okay, I knew it was going to take a while, but wow! Life has been really tough lately. I had two magazine articles due and had to do a rewrite on four chapters of my latest novel. (Rewrites stink, btw!) I wrote this chapter four times, it is too short and I'm still not happy with it. If I ever come back and rewrite, this one will get serious amounts of attention from me, but for now I'm going to let it stand so we can just move along.

Enough of this... more naked Draco! Okay, that's a lie... but it is time to turn up the heat on our Dramione. They've had too many plot related distractions and it is well past time they started seeing one another on an entirely new level.

ILYL! (I love you my lovelies!) Review? If I get enough, I'll post the next chapter tomorrow. (Oh, and to the guest reviewer who wondered why Snape would want to take Draco back into the fray, your answer is in this chapter.)

-Elvee

Snatch

Chapter Sixteen

"We feel free when we escape- even if it be from the frying pan into the fire."

-Eric Hoffer

Hermione fished in her beaded bag, pulling out a a lumpy roll of fabric. With a few curt movements, she untied the straps holding the fabric roll together and gave it a push unfurling the contents down the length of table. The flattened fabric gave a muffled clink as it revealed row after row of identical glass vials, each individually labeled and neatly stowed in fabric pockets.

One row of labels read like a who's-who of the Order: Harry Potter, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Albus Dumbledore, Mathalda Hopkirk, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall and Sirius Black. The next row held a similarly impressive list from the Ministry of Magic, including Rufus Scrimgeour, Cornelius Fudge, Delores Umbridge, Percy Weasley, Griselda Marchbanks, Bartimeous Crouch, Wilkie Twycross and Ludo Bagman. The final row of labeled vials held names like: Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Bellatrix LaStrange, Frederick Nott, Electo Carrow, Peter Pettigrew, Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle. There were literally hundreds of them. Tiny vials, each containing a few hairs. Across the bottom row were twelve individual doses of polyjuice potion just waiting the last ingredient – a hair. Draco and Snape both gaped at the four foot long display of Hermione's anal retentive preparation.

Hermione pulled out the vial labeled Bellatrix LaStrange and with a pair of tweezers very carefully extracted a single hair from the vial. She pulled a dose of polyjuice from the bag and thumbed open the stopper, only then noticing the looks of utter disbelief from the two men at the table. The hair hovering over the potion, she rolled her eyes at her audience, "What?"

Snape snapped his mouth shut, but didn't deign to reply. Draco smirked and shook his head.

"Ninety percent of the outcome of any engagement rests on the preparedness of..." She rolled her eyes and dumbed it down, "Proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance, ya?"

Draco held up both hands in supplication. "Whatever you say, Granger." He watched as she mixed the potion together and it turned a pustule yellow. They pulled a face at each other over the vial. "I don't care how brilliant your plan is, Granger. If it involves me drinking that, you better come up with something else."

"No." She forced herself to swallow and choked out, "That's my job."

Malfoy gave her a bracing slap on the shoulder, "Better you than me, Granger." She gave him the hairy eyeball. "Er... I mean, I know it's a great plan because you wouldn't drink that for nothing." He cleared his throat and pulled his hand away while it was still in one piece. "So, ah... What do you need me to do?"

Two hours later the laptop signaled an incoming call. As usual, Hermione answered the call by typing into the text-to-speech program, "Yes?" As she finished typing, she tossed back the polyjuice essence of Bellatrix LaStrange. She pressed her knuckles to her mouth in an effort not to gag as she struggled to force it down.

"It is done. Now where is my son?" Lucius hissed from the other end of the phone line.

Her hands shook violently as she typed while undergoing the change into Bellatrix LaStrange, "You are so very close, Lucius. Just one more little favor and your bloodline will be safe and sound."

"Enough! Where. Is. My. Son?" Hermione now completely resembled Bellatrix LaStrange and she could see the oddity of that fact echoed in the look that Malfoy gave her. The plan was to try to avoid hurting him, but it looked like Lucius was done playing nice.

Hermione opened the microphone and cast a silent stinging jinx. It wouldn't incapacitate Malfoy, or leave a scar, but it did hurt like hell. As predicted he gave a whimpering scream and glowered at her. She pulled the plug on the microphone and typed frantically, "We think you're getting a bit full of yourself, Lucius. Perhaps we should let him give you your next target."

Malfoy scooted closer to the microphone and grit his teeth. He took a deep breath and gave a curt nod. Hermione simultaneously plugged the microphone back in and cast several stinging jinxes across Malfoy's shoulders. "Father," He whimpered. "Father, please, just do as they say. I need you to...AH!" Hermione had cast another jinx. "Father you need to kill Dolohov and Electo Carrow! AH! Stop! I'm telling him!"

"Both of them? This is madness! I can't keep doing this. Someone is going to figure it out..."

Hermione rubbed her fingers over the live microphone to simulate a struggle, but left it plugged in. Her next words, hissed in Bellatrix's accented drawl, sounded strained and distant, like they were across the room, "I told you he was weak! I told you this was the only way to regain favor for your family in the eyes of the Dark Lord! Your father is a stone around your neck!" Sloppily she unplugged the microphone, making as much noise as she could.

"Draco! Was that Bellatrix?" Lucius's voice was a deadly purr.

"AH!" Malfoy screamed and hopped around in his seat, glaring at her as she stung his knee. "What? No! Father! No! AH!"Hermione shot another jinx, this one higher up the thigh, to interrupt his rhythm. It had to sound real and terrifying and like a heck of a lot more than a stinging jinx. "Please, you must concentrate, you need to kill Electo and Antonin. Please, for me! AH!" Hermione slapped her hands together near the laptop, resulting in a very convincing loud smack.

In the background as Malfoy was begging his father to cooperate, Hermione let a string of drivel about Lucius Malfoy weave through his words as background noise. Lucius was unworthy. The Dark Lord was waiting for Draco to take over his true place as the head of the Malfoy clan. How Draco should be grateful to her for dragging his family's name back out of the mud, even though it meant nothing to her.

"Bellatrix is behind this?" He roared. "I will rip her apart limb from limb..."

"AH! Please father! She has a mudblood, she's given her a fertility potion. Please, for the love of our house... AH! No, Aunt Bella, please!" Malfoy was definitely getting sick of being hit by stinging jinxes and swatted at her to tell her so, but it was absolutely essential they kept up the rouse.

Meanwhile, Lucius was incoherent with rage on the other end of the line.

Hermione severed the microphone connection and typed in the text-to-speech box, "You have seven days." As soon as the program read it out loud over the phone line, she disconnected the call.

Hermione winced and counted the stings on Malfoy's skin. "Are you okay?"

"Merlin, Granger! I thought you weren't going to torture me for real!"

She smirked and began applying an ointment to his stings. Malfoy groaned in relief. "Quit being such a baby!"

Snape stood and made his way over to Viktor's sick bed. "As much as I'd like to stay and watch this revolting semblance of a courtship, I'm afraid Mr. Krum and I must be going."

Hermione stiffened. "No one leaves until we know for certain Narcissa Malfoy is safe."

"Miss Granger, you need to make up your mind." Snape whirled on her in a huff, "First you say we must be gone by morning, now you say we cannot leave."

"Patience, Master Snape, you and I will have the distinct joy of never having to see one another again very soon. Until then, we wait. We all wait." A flicker of understanding passed between Hermione and her old professor. This was the moment of truth for Hermione to see if all of her best laid plans could withstand a direct assault by the Order and the Death Eaters. "We have very few secrets, you and I."

Malfoy looked between them, "What are you talking about Granger?"

It was easy to figure out Snape's motives. If he couldn't have Malfoy, he most certainly wanted his mother. Narcissa Malfoy was the person he'd made the Unbreakable Vow with, after all. After all of the posturing of the last few days, it wasn't hard to guess Snape didn't trust Hermione to keep him safe. It was also equally obvious he wasn't going to be able to take Malfoy without a fight, something she was sure Dumbledore would frown upon – at least at this point. If he couldn't protect Malfoy and honor the magical contract, he'd have to eliminate the contract. In the case of an Unbreakable Vow, that meant eliminating Narcissa Malfoy.

She'd anticipated as much. Malfoy's mother wasn't coming within a hundred kilometers of this cabin.

She pinned the potions master with a hard look, "It's his secret. Ask him." In reply, Snape glared at her. She went back to packing things into her beaded bag, moving on to the bookshelf.

Snape merely growled, "She doesn't know what she's talking about. If you can't keep up with the dance, Draco, sit down." Malfoy flushed, and turned away.

Hermione smirked and didn't even bother to look at him, "Liar."

"Enough!" Snape snapped.

Hermione sighed, "If you're going to be a bastard, Severus, why not own up to it?" She finished up the last of the packing and caught the venomous glare he shot back at her. "Tell him why I won't let you leave." No response. "Tell him why you want to take him back to the Manor." No response. "Tell him why you want his mother dead." That got a response. Malfoy drew in a hissed breath. "No interest in the truth?" She let her eyebrows raise and lower, in mock consideration, "Pity." She twitched her head at Malfoy, "He'll hate you before it's all over."

"Maybe he should." Snape spat back.

"Humanity at last?" She gave a barking laugh. "How very convenient!"

Malfot grasped her arm and spun her to face him. "Granger, what do you mean he wants my mother dead?"

"Simple, really. If you die, he dies. If she dies, you both live. Apparently, Master Snape is fond of two things: Unbreakable Vows and living." Malfoy tensed to launch himself across the table at his godfather. Hermione caught his shoulder. "Ease down. It's almost over."

…

The animosity sat in the room like an angry preacher, staring down any attempt to push it out the door until Dobby cracked into existence next to Hermione's chair. He was covered in blood, but still bowed low, "It is done, Mistress."

"She lives?" Hermione whispered, hoping against hope the blood on his jumper wasn't a harbinger for failure.

"Yes, Mistress, but she is not well."

"Fetch the healer and go. We'll follow when we can." Relief flooded her as she dismissed him. With a crack, the elf was gone. Malfoy was obviously confused, and Hermione hissed in his ear, "I couldn't take the risk of bringing her here. She's safe, Draco. I'll take you to her."

She placed the magic sink she and Malfoy had made earlier in the center of the table. Snape's eyes bulged. "I'm certain you know what this is. It's been charged with enough exploding hexes to blow this island off the map." She tapped it with her wand and it began to glow ominously. "You have three minutes to get Viktor to the edge of the wards."

Snape rushed to Viktor's bed and was struggling to help him stand. "Oh, and Snape, one last thing: you tell Dumbledore the Malfoys are now out of play. Any further threats to their safety and I take it personally."

Snape glared at her as he hefted Viktor over his shoulder. "You are a fool!"

Hermione checked her watch. "Two minutes and thirty seconds. I'd hurry if I were you." She put an arm around Malfoy's waist, pulling him roughly to her side.

He put his arms around her and looked down into her face. His face glowed with hope, "Thanks, Granger."

"It's not over yet, Malfoy. Now hold on." With that they twisted away.

They landed hard on an outcropping of rock overlooking the bay. The wind whipped at them. As soon as Hermione steadied her feet underneath her she pushed away from Malfoy, saying, "Strip."

"I thought we were going to my mother, Granger."

"Portkeys are being tracked, we have to get there the old fashioned way." She dug a set of muggle clothes out of her beaded bag for both of them. A fancy dress for her and a stylish suit for Malfoy. She pressed his clothes into his chest. "Put these on, we have to keep moving."

Too preoccupied changing, they both started as a tremendous explosion rocked the bay. Water launched itself hundreds of feet in the air and landed with a hiss. Hermione shoved her jeans and jacket into her beaded bag, and bent to stuff Malfoy's robes in as well. She draped a wrap over her indecently cut blue muggle dress.

Malfoy was wrestling with his tie. Hermione slapped his hands away and quickly tied it as he stuffed his arms into the jacket. She turned him around and gave him the once over. He looked pleasantly disheveled. Once he passed inspection, she pulled out a flask and took a good pull, gagging at the alcohol as she swished it around in her mouth, then swallowed.

She passed it to Malfoy and had him do the same. "Granger, what the..."

She held out her hands, palm up. "I need your magic, Malfoy." It wasn't like she didn't know what she was asking. Sharing magic was incredibly personal for witches and wizards. The bond it created was tantamount to mental sex.

He pulled his hands away and frowned, "What? Why?"

"We have a muggle hotel room waiting for us in Norway. It's on the edge of my apparition range, and with all the casting I did earlier today we might splinch. We can either share magic, or I can leave you here. Your choice." She shook her hands insistently. "Oh, com'on, Malfoy. It's not like you haven't shagged a million witches. If that didn't mean anything, why should this?"

She could see it went against his better judgment. "Fine." He slapped his hands into her palms and squeezed her fingers.

She could feel his magic winding up her arms, binding her ever closer to him. It was warm and soft, gentle and erotic. It called to her very essence like a siren. She couldn't see his magic, per se. She had no sense of where its edges lie, or how deep or wide it truly was. He was powerful beyond her wildest imaginings. As scary as that weould have been in any other circumstances, here it was comforting. It cocooned her in warmth and safety and a feeling of well being so strong, it was almost mesmerizing.

As she wondered at it, his magical essence wound up into her very core. Her golden magic met his silver and she lost herself in the joining. He was no longer separate from her, just as she was no longer separate from him. They were one being, one set of emotions, one yearning, one completion. It was the most intimate experience of her life, becoming one in magic with Draco bloody Malfoy. It took her breath as his magic filled her. Intimate hardly seemed adequate to describe it. Was this what it felt like to make love? To be so utterly full of another? To feel so indivisible, so unified, so... loved?

She broke the contact by snatching her hands away, gulping in the cool night air. "That..." She stuttered, refusing to make eye contact. "That should be enough."

He looked as startled as she felt. His own eyes were trying to read her in the dim moonlight. Even though she wasn't looking, she could feel him searching her face for something. "Granger, I..."

She roughly grabbed his waist and pulled him to her. "We don't have much time." With that she hugged him fiercely to her and turned on the spot.