Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns HP.

Chapter 19 - Patrol, Patrol

"Hermione!" someone yelled at her the moment she entered the Great Hall. With her eyes still tinted red from forlorn tears she tried to hide behind her hair when she moved towards the Gryffindor table.

"Hermione, here sit with me." Ginny scooted further away and patted the seat next to her. Hermione swung her legs over the bench and sat down on her designated spot. "I'm sorry we left before you got there yesterday. Must have been a long class, 'cause we really did wait!"

"It's okay, Ginny." she gave her friend a weak smile.

"We had loads of fun though. The octopus even splatted water- do you want the marmalade? Here- with one of his tentacles! It was epic."

"Thanks." She answered and grabbed the marmalade carefully out of Ginny's rough hands. "I bet it was."

"We're thinking of going again some time next week, depending on the weather. You need to come with then." and with that statement there was nothing to argue with. Ginny had that way about her. Goal-oriented and headstrong. Yet so many emotions in one person. Still, it almost seemed like only one thought and feeling could be focused on at a time. This reminded Hermione of Tinkerbell from Peter Pan.

A strange silence fell upon the group and Hermione looked up, in worry they were staring at her. Upon seeing their eyes she checked over her shoulder to see what everyone were staring at.

Behind her a tall blonde stood patently. She should have noticed by the smell.

"Granger."

"Malfoy" she breathed.

Draco's eyebrows rose for just a second before his face returned to oozing it's usual cool nonchalance. "We have to do clean up later. Someone cancelled." Hermione opened her mouth to ask who, but was cut off before a word could leave her lips.

"Since we have patrol tonight I would suggest we do the clean up during lunch, if you don't mind."

Hermione shook her head, slightly surprised. "Of course, not at all." she mumbled.

A slight nod was shared before he turned and left with long strides. A man on a mission.

Hermione looked down at her watch and realized why Malfoy was taking such fast steps. "I really have to get going! It's already 9.20 and I have to get all the way to the sixth floor corridor. Why could I not wake up on time." she had not noticed how she had begun to mumble as she was collecting her books. Grabbing her half-eaten toast she waved the others off before rushing out the big doors.

This is when Roger Davies finally spoke up. "Was it only me who found that very odd?"

"No, that was pretty weird"

Ancient Studies flew by, although being a double hour. Hermione loved every minute and was soaking up all bits of information given to her.

The lesson might have been long, but worth every minute. One week in and they were already relating magic to ancient Egypt. Hermione immediately thought of ways to connect her ancient studies class with ancient runes. She knew it had been a good choice to begin with, just not how good!

Advanced Arithmancy would also come in handy as it was referring to old times as well.

Walking from class Hermione actually felt pretty good. This was an odd feeling as of late. She was refusing to blame her mental instability on post traumatic stress, and was pushing through the days as if nothing had happened. But everything had happened, no matter if they were here or not. Things were so very different. People were different.

A cold hand touched her shoulder and she wanted to scream in fright. Both jumped from each other, wide eyes open. With what felt like minutes they both settled down and came to a normal breathing.

Draco cleared his throat while brushing his blazer flat. "So" he started awkwardly "Are you okay?" He glanced up at her while carrying on pretending to carefully straighten his clothes out.

"I am" she nodded weakly with her eyes now closed.

"Would you care to walk with me to our clean up spot?" Malfoy asked her and stood up straight.

As they were walking in silence Hermione noticed the comfort Malfoy provided. Without uttering a word it still felt as if they had held a long conversation. A personal and deep conversation. There was an understanding of sorts. A relatable sort of pain and inner struggle, that brought them calmness.

They must have been walking for at least ten minutes when Hermione realized she had not even asked where the clean up spot was. She had blatantly trusted Malfoy to lead the way, without feeling an ounce of worry.

"You will get wrinkles if you keep furrowing your brow that way."

Hermione looked up at the man beside him. He was resting his hands in his slacks, looking straight ahead as if he hadn't said a word.

"I was just thinking."

Draco clucked his tongue. "When are you not." He opened a door for her and held it so with his long arm. "If I remember correctly this used to be the muggle studies teachers room."

Hermione was at a loss of words. There was only gravel and broken shatters of wood spattered around the room.

"Should we mend or scour?" Hermione still had not taken her eyes off of the broken walls in the room.

"I feel as if the ones who destroyed this room might have used some stronger spells than bombardo to get it this wrecked..."

"Death eaters" Hermione whispered.

Draco flinched. He felt as if his lungs had shriveled up and died. The pain was heart wrenching. Out of everyone he had asumed Granger not to be one of those practicing their prejudices. Although she was the only one who deserved to.

Draco poked his tongue into his cheek before speaking. "I can do this alone if you want me to."

They finally looked at each other.

"Now, why would you do that?" She almost looked angry.

"I just figured you might want someone who caused this to clean it up. Or something of that sort." Draco was walking into the dark room, its naked walls failing to reflect any light.

"Don't be silly." She walked through the litter to stand in front of him. In annoyance she leaned closer. "You are no more of a death eater than I am."

Draco felt the need to grab on the her, grasp on to the single person who uttered such thoughts. Yet he refrained. Instead he pursed his lips at the small witch standing much too close to him.

"I say we go for the mending charm. I do not wish to rid of any bits or pieces that might actually be a part of something mendable. If we do it together it might be possible to gather pieces from further away. I've read about it and..."

"Yes. Let us begin."

Hermione looked at him with annoyance hanging in her eyes. "Remember to emphasize the 'pah'. On three." She grabbed hold of her wand as did Malfoy. "One." She looked around the room and at the seemingly impossible task at hand. "Two." This time she chose to look at Malfoy, who was deeply focused. His moth in a thin line, and eyes slightly more alight. "Three."

They cast the charm in perfect unison: "Reparo!" and provided the most glorious triangular hand motions.

Pieces from every corner of the room immediately started moving about. At first slowly, as if they were just waking up from a long, comfortable slumber. Soon the whole room was filled with rocks, litter and shatters, that harmoniously fell into place with each other. It was quite beautiful to watch, Hermione noted.

When the room no longer consisted of construction chaos, the two watched the room for any final pieces that hadn't made it to their rightful place. Hermione was the first to notice the pieces of gravel still littered under their shoes. They cracked and almost whistled as they were trying to move out from under Malfoy's dress shoes.

Hermione spared no moment and put her hand on his chest to forcefully push him off the poor little pieces.

Feeling as though he had been shot in the chest Draco grabbed on to whoever was causing him pain.

Hermione swallowed hard whilst looking into the big, frightened, grey eyes. She noted the cation she would have to take for him to relax. Looking into his eyes, as if to insure him that everything was okay, she finally spoke. "The gravel is trapped under your shoes." She stated slowly, not breaking eye contact.

Draco took a breath, and then another one. Not until his breathing was calm, and he could reflect on her warmth did he let go of her wrists. Only then did he take a step back to let the pieces of rock hurry out from under his shoes. They flew right into place at the caste walls.

The room was still dirty, but relatively intact. It didn't reflect death and sorrow anymore. In fact it had even taken up some of the sunlight and was now reflecting it off of its walls of stone.

Hermione smiled at the sight and whispered a 'scourgify'. With a smooth S of her wand the remaining dust on the floor disappeared. A small wooden desk was overlooking the window. There were a few missing shards of glass they would have to replace later. Luckily it was still late summer, and the winds didn't bother them much here on the second floor. Hermione made a mental note to have the windows fixed by October. The caste was cold during the winters even before the war. She could only imagine what it would be like this year.

"One room down." Malfoy sighed. "Too many to go. I don't know if we will be able to get off the writing on this wall though." He reached up to touch the red letters painted onto the newly healed wall.

"I didn't even notice." She had been so caught up in the transformation of the room she had missed the blatantly obvious message written across the rocks. "It must have been here for a while." She went to touch the letters but couldn't quite reach that high.

"They feel colder then the rest of the wall" he informed her when he noticed her frustration.

"In what way?"

"Temperature."

"Interesting" she mumbled. "'Malum Sanguinem'"

"What does it mean?" He glanced over at the woman with all the answers, since there was no doubt in his mind she would know the translation.

"It's Latin. It means bad blood."

Draco dismissed the idea to comfort her. It was not the words in themselves, but all they represented. Not that she seemed to need any sort of comfort. In fact she had not even flinched when she first saw the letters, although she most likely knew immediately what they meant. Could it be that she was so used to these prejudices being thrown at her and other muggleborns that she had stopped reacting. Because, what good did it do to react.

Draco refused to remember all the times he had tormented her with such words, and worse yet. He refused to remember how he had despised her for her origin and blood. He refused to remember how he hated himself for feeling less than someone who was supposed to be less than him. He refused to remember. Yet he did.

"It's okay Malfoy, it doesn't bother me anymore."

Malfoy looked down at her with big eyes. Had she read his mind without noticing, probed at his memories? Seen the torment he felt for having used such antics?

He swallowed harshly. "I have class to attend." And with that he left the room. He could not describe why he couldn't stay, he simply wasn't able to.

Arriving just as class began he slithered gracefully into a chair at the back. His mind was forcefully numb as he was trying to hate himself less than what he deserved.

Muggle Music class was surprisingly fun as opposed to muggle studies. He enjoyed the history relating back to magical music history; How intertwined they actually were. Yet he couldn't help but feel as if magical music was a little bit behind. They had stopped developing as the muggles had. Sure, they had many more advancements on instruments and uses for them, but it still didn't quite beat the authenticity in the sound when it was played by hand. Of course he would never admit to such a thing.

They were not many in this particular class, especially not from his house. Having started the day with muggle studies he felt rather relieved to have it followed with muggle music. Too bad it was on a Friday; it seemed to spur the Slytherin's into drinking quite substantially more, since they were given 'a reason'. Draco himself was rather pleased with it being Friday. All that was left before he could hide away from the world was patrol.

Granger.

He sighed internally. After being left in that room in such a cold heartedly manner he imagined her not to be too happy with him. At all.

The very moment Mrs. Ajar dismissed the class he slanted out of the class room.

The very face his mind was caught up on was now staring directly back at him. Surprisingly she didn't look angry, but not happy either.

"Granger." He greeted coolly when he reached her. She didn't budge, so he stopped in front of her.

"I see you are taking Muggle Music."

Draco simply rose an eyebrow.

She turned slightly and started walking a few small steps, as if asking him to walk with her. He complied. For he was thankful she wasn't yelling at him.

Yet.

She felt so calm, as if her energy was simply circling her in relaxing motions. It eased his discomfort.

Hermione watched him in the corner of her eye as they were walking. His shoulders slowly dropped and she found herself smiling slightly. "I just wanted to ask you what time we should patrol. Our schedule says to go at 10pm, but I know the Slytherins tend to host parties around that time. I don't mind having it a little early."

Draco stopped, disbelief written all over his face. "You think I go to those things?"

"Forgive me, mr. high and mighty, for believing you are a normal human being."

He rolled his eyes and continued walking. "I think you have misunderstood my whole situation."

"Why don't you explain then." She replied in annoyance, trying to keep up with his quick steps.

It took a while before Draco could explain, and only because he didn't know how someone could have missed it to begin with.

"They don't exactly like me."

"By 'they' you mean the Slytherins?"

He pursed his lips. "Obviously."

Hermione couldn't help but think of the significant resemblance between him and his godfather. She shrugged. "Why?"

"For being the brightest witch of our age you really are daft."

She huffed and fisted her hands next to her body. However, she did not wish to sidetrack him, no matter it being his intention or not.

"I'm a coward. I might be a Slytherin, but so are they. We tend to not trust anyone as it is. Given my history you can figure out the rest."

"That's a very vague answer." But an answer nonetheless, she thought. "So, 10pm then? Great hall?"

He nodded, and in a swish of a moment she was gone, having turned a corner and down the stairs.

At least she didn't leave him in a state he had left her.

"Hermy!"

"Davies, if you call me Hermy again I will punch you." She pursed her lips at the boy.

Roger Davies laughed and reached out his hand and ruffled her hair. Her curly mess fell in tassels over her cheeks. Intent on taming them back to its usual mane she patted her hair harshly. An internal battle tumulted inside of her. Let it go, she told herself, after which she leaned her head back to let the sun lick her face. Breathe in, breathe out.

"For real though, aren't you gonna swim?"

"No thank you, I am quite happy without the risk of getting grabbed by the giant squid. Or worse, a Grindylow."

"You're so boring, ya know that?" Roger Davies laughingly left her view.

Hermione closed her eyes and sighed as they were all running down into the water. "So I've been told." She mumbled to herself.

Hermione met Malfoy's eyes right as she rounded the corner. She had opted to be ten minutes early, but seemed to have walked faster yet.

"You are early." She stated.

"So are you." He replied.

Without another word they walked in unison to the left side of the castle. Hermione felt slighty confused, for it was almost as if they had decided beforehand which way to go. It was simply comfortable.

Walking in comfortable silence did not feel odd unless he thought about it. Draco felt pretty sure Granger probably did though, because why wouldn't she. She had every reason to hate him, despise him even, hence why he could not blame her for her discomfort.

This is why Draco felt guilty. Out of everyone he was the last person to be allowed to feel comfortable next to her. Yet there was no denying that he did.

Selfish, he thought to himself, that's what I am.

Granger suddenly broke him out of his thoughts by grabbing his wrist, stopping him dead in his tracks. The warmth from her hand could only be compared to an electric current flowing through his very being.

"Did you hear that?" She breathed, eyes wide and searching the perimeters.

Draco wanted to end the electric touch as fast as possible, but managed to softly rid her grip around him. Finally free he could breathe again.

"No, what was the sound like?" He asked, a little too loud for her liking it seemed, because she turned and hushed at him. Her lips touched her finger gently as she squinted her eyes at him.

He held his hands up and mouthed a quick "sorry".

And that's when he heard it too, a sound so quiet yet loud at the same time. Draco looked over at Granger who was pointing towards a particularly broken, torn down wall. As she moved closer to it all he wanted was to grab her and run in the opposite direction. How in the name of Salazar could she even consider examining this... sound?

"Stop being such a Gryffindor. Let's leave." Draco hissed at her, refusing to take another step in her direction.

Without turning to look at him she tiptoed towards the wall. "Stop being a Slytherin for a second and help me look for its origin. I think it's emanating from here." Hermione stroke the wall.

Without thinking he had moved up close behind her and whispered harshly at her. "Let us go. Now, Granger."

And there it was again, surrounding them. A sound so different neither of them could place it.

The moment Draco noticed the light suddenly growing in the air he didn't think but rather acted. In a moments time she had grabbed Granger, not giving a fuck about the pain, and dragged her to the other side of the hall. Now, as they were rushing down the stairs he realized he was still tinged with pain. Their feet moved quickly over the many steps leading them away from the emerging light.

Once far away Draco looked over his shoulder; Nothing was following them.

"What the hell was that!"

Hermione, having struggled to keep up with the long legged man, had not yet caught her breath. Instead she merely shook her head.

They were leaning against the wall, still catching their breaths.

"You need to" she took another heavy breath. "tell me what you saw."

Draco could only shake his head. Would she believe him if he told her the truth? He could picture the scenario in his head; "I saw a bright light growing bigger and bigger right in front of you. What do you mean? No I'm not crazy. Huh? You think so?" No, he rather that didn't happen.

"Please Malfoy."

The pleading voice left him completely defenseless.

"I saw something, a light."

"A light." She repeated, contemplating.

"You don't believe me."

She blatantly ignored him. She was used to Ron's constant self esteem issues, but it turned out this man had them too. "What sort of light?" She asked him instead, in a matter of fact sort of manner.

Draco looked astonished, at her normality and genuine question. A desire to actually know, and not just dismiss. "Eh, growing. By the wall, by you."

"Did you feel threatened or sensed any sort of darkness? Was the light absorbing the darkness, I mean?"

"No, nothing of that sort."

Hermione, who could breathe normally now moved to stand closer to the stairs. It was almost like she could sense the light when she thought of it, with every step she took in its direction. "Do you know what it could have been?"

Draco was still leaning his head back against the wall, and closed his eyes. He didn't want to think about it. "No clue."

He could sense her moving about in front of him, eventually he peeped one eye open to check what she was doing. Granger was taking one step closer and one step away from the stairs, back and forth. She seemed to be checking something either on the floor or inside her, because she stopped after every step with a deep furrow to her brow.

"You're doing it again."

She had been deep in thought, so deep she had forgotten her surroundings. Or put them aside, is more the way she thought of it. It was a way to completely focus of whatever task she was battling. Complete focus. And now he had broken it.

Hermione stopped and blinked at him for a few seconds. "It feels warmer inside and colder on the outside, when I step closer."

Draco blinked back. What was he supposed to make of that? Instead of contemplating reasons he tried whatever it was she was doing.

At first he did not feel anything. So, he tried taking a few steps in both directions, and slowly he started noticing a slight temperature difference. "I think I feel it too." He mumbled. Mostly to himself. "But only the cold."

Hermione furrowed her brow. "You do not feel the internal warmth?"

He tried it a few more time, then came to a halt and looked at her. "No."

She nodded slowly and mumbled, "Maybe we should finish our patrol." When Hermione started walking Draco followed. Soon they fell into a similar kind of comfortable silence again. This time around, though, they were both deep in thought.

When the hallways were deemed clear of horny teenagers, they directed their steps towards their dorm.

These sounds must be connected to the light, Hermione thought as they walked. She scolded herself for not having seen it. It all sounded a lot like how her parents would describe dying and coming to heaven. The mere thought made her shiver.

"Are you cold?" He blurted out before he could think.

Hermione looked up at him. Their legs were moving together. Right - left, right - left. Her short legs managed to keep a constant pace without no struggle. "A little." she lied.

Malfoy stopped to stand in front of her. She could feel his warmth radiating from his chest. She had always imagined him as cold blooded, as it seemed to fit. However, here he was all warmth and intensity. He eyed her carefully before taking his wand out.

He mumbled and waved the complicated motions to create the hot air to steam out of his wand. Directing it at her sleeves Hermione felt them getting warm. She almost feared she would break out sweating and be caught red-handed. Holding her breath seemed to help.

"I would do you chest, but I have a slight notion it would not be appreciated if I pointed a wand at your chest." He spoke lowly, for he was so close. Still, he had yet to meet her eyes.

Hermione mumbled in response, looking at her chest. "This is fine, thank you."

Draco nodded at the witch and went through their entrance and began the short distance to his room in darkness.

"Malfoy."

He turned around and finally met her gaze. Her shape barely visible in the consuming shadows.

"For what it's worth, I don't think you are a coward."

Hermione thought maybe he hadn't heard her, because he didn't respond. Still, she stayed quiet.

When she finally thought about giving up and heading to her room she heard him speak through the silence.

"Then you're the only one."

AN: Hello lovelies,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I have been busy working lately, and must apologize for the delayed chapter. I wrote this during my latest night shifts at the hospital. I have recieved such wonderful reviews, and that has really helped me to keeping it updated! I hope you enjoyed it! There will be more very soon. How soon would you prefer?

Love!