Disclaimer: I do not own anything. The story and the characters belong solely to J.K, Rowling. I'm just playing with them and making no profit from this.

Chapter 16

Hermione watches Draco looking lost at the papers on his desk. She stands by the door for a little while longer and then closes it behind her. Draco has yet to show any sign of recognition, but she knows that he knows she is there. Even though he is so engrossed in his papers, a part of him will always be aware of where she is.

Leaning with her hands behind her back against the now closed door, she watches him. One of his hands is tangled in his blonde hair and his other is holding a quill.

After a few minutes of silence, his voice brings her back to the present.

"Is something the matter?" he asks, not looking up at her. A frown is creasing his brow now.

Hermione is a bit startled by the question. In the last week and a half she has been here, he has never asked her that, always reading her emotions and knowing what's wrong. But now he didn't seem able to decipher them. She can't blame him because neither does she. She is tired of her mixed feelings, one part loving him, for which she blamed the bond, and one part hating him for keeping her prisoner.

He looks up at her questioningly when she didn't answer. "Hermione?"

She bites on her lower lip and pushes herself away from the door, walking further into his study.

"Nothing, just bored I guess," she says when she stops at his desk, examining the little things lying there.

She hears him sigh and looks up. He has leaned back in his chair, his full attention now on his mate. "Your emotions are a mess."

She shrugs and walks around the desk. Draco pulls his chair away far enough and beckons her to sit on his lap, and she does so without any protest. He places his arms around her waist and takes one hand in his as she places an arm around his neck.

They stay quiet, Draco enjoying that Hermione is in his arms and how it calms him. Hermione pulls her arms away from him and began playing with her hair but she leans into him as if to make up for the loss of contact.

"Please, Hermione, just tell me what's on your mind, love. Your mess of emotions is giving me a headache," he all but begs, kissing her brow.

"You already had a headache, I bet, and I would blame the thing that's lying on your desk."

He chuckles at that and she continues twirling hair through her fingers. After a few seconds Hermione looks up; his grey eyes are watching her closely.

"Who are you to the Dark Lord? I know you're a Death Eater, just like Blaise. I saw the mark enough on your arm. But you're away a lot more than Blaise and now your looking into plans about a raid. Why do you have so much more authority?"

Draco's face turns grim. Why does she notice such things? He curses. Hermione instantly notices his change of mood.

"You don't have to know that," he says in a commanding tone. Hermione lets go of her hair and pushes his arms off her.

"How do you want me to trust you if all you do is keep secrets from me?" Annoyance is now an apparent emotion in her.

"That is the best way to keep you safe."

"Safe! I am nothing but safe, Draco Malfoy. Don't forget that I was abducted and I still am."

"Hermione, love, don't say that. You mean the world to me. I would never try to hurt you."

Annoyed, Hermione pushes herself away from his lap and stalks around the desk. Leaning with both hands on the desk she leans in to Draco, who still sitting in the chair, awestruck by her sudden outburst, which he hadn't felt coming.

"You can pamper me with beautiful clothes and expensive jewelry. I will still hate you. You can treat me like a queen all you want but I am a prisoner. Though a prisoner in a beautiful cage, who has anything her heart desires, I am still a captive and not a free person, not now, not ever, and I will always hate you for that."

Then she turns around and walks away, leaving him sitting there, hurt and alone.

XXX

Hermione stalks down the hall, not really knowing where she is going. She is so tired of Draco keeping vital secrets from her and she is so tired of herself. Even now, she is more frustrated with herself than with anyone else. She hates the fact that tears are streaming down her face and she hates the guilt that she feels for hurting him.

She has only rounded the corner, coming in the main hall, when an arm catches her around her waist. Of course, he's followed her and now he turns her around so she is facing him. Hermione immediately hides her face in her hands, not wanting him to see that she is crying. Draco will know, though. He always knows.

"Love, please calm down," his voice sounds worried as he pulls her hands away from her face. She can't see him. Her eyes are brimming with tears that have yet to fall. "It seems like all I seem to do lately is cry in front of you," she says in defeat, as he pulls her into his arms.

Draco sighs while stroking her hair, holding her close to him with his other hand. "You may never believe me. But I understand you."

Hermione looks up at him, bewilderment written all over her face.

Their quiet moment was ruined by the soft pop of Tinky appearing.

"Master," she said, her big eyes looking up at Draco. Before she can say anything else Draco nods and mutters, "Yes, I'm coming."

"Why don't you go for a stroll in the garden, Hermione? We'll talk later."

With that said, he turns around and stalks away, back to his office. Hermione wipes the last of her remaining tears away and watches him walk away in shock. She has never been dismissed at all by Draco, let alone so brutally.

However, curiosity gets the best of her and she follows him silently.

There is something he is hiding from her and, as she had been and is still Hermione Granger, she wants to know what it is.

At the door to his office, she stops and looks around, looking to see if anyone is around. When she sees that the coast is clear, she opens the door a little, just enough to hear the conversation.

"The only thing you were supposed to do was get your hands on that book, and you even failed to do that."

Hermione listens in shock at Draco's voice. It sounds so sinister, so dark; she has never heard him talk like that. She bites her lip and listens more closely to the answer.

"I know, my Lord, but there was a spy there. It was impossible for me to get the book."

The voice answering Draco trembles in fear.

"A spy?" Draco asks unbelievingly.

"Yes, my Lord."

"Do you have any idea who that spy might be?"

"I have an idea, my Lord."

"Well, good. You go after the spy, and take your man with you, and then you'll go after the book. The Dark Lord doesn't have to know of your failings. But do so again and I might have to report you. I can certainly tell you I will not be the one on the other end of his wand."

Hermione gasps at the threat and the authority in Draco's voice.

She hears the other man mumble something. She bends closer to the door in an attempt to hear what he is saying when she jumps back at the fury in Draco's voice.

"You don't have to question my order! The Dark Lord has chosen me as his heir and thereby left me in command of many things."

After that she hears the other man scream in agony. Draco must have hit him with a nonverbal curse.

Throwing a hand over her shocked mouth, she stumbles backwards, away from the door. Voldemort had chosen an heir? The Order doesn't even know that. This is horrible and very important information she has just discovered.

"Hermione?"

Shocked and surprised by her name, she twirls around, coming face-to-face with Blaise.

"Were you eavesdropping?"

She has never seen his face so serious before.

Still too shocked by her discovery, she is unable to speak so she shakes her head no. Seeing Hermione's pale features and big, shocked, bright blue eyes Blaise doesn't believe her for a second.

"What have you found out?" he asks.

Nothing, she just wants to say. But the commotion outside has drawn Draco's attention, who opens the door, surprised.

Before he can ask anything, Hermione finds her voice again.

"I can hardly believe any of this!" With that said, she turns around and runs away. She can't stand to look at their faces anymore.

"Hermione, stop!" Draco shouts after her, but she keeps on running.

She can't wrap her head around what she has just found out. Draco was the heir to Voldemort? So, if Harry ever succeeds in overruling Voldemort, he has already secured someone who will lead the Death Eaters after he is gone. The war won't end then, just like everyone hopes.

She doesn't know what that throbbing in her chest is. Her logic tells her it is hurt, her heart aching because she has been hurt. But that can't be right. Why should she feel like he hurt her? She doesn't care for him, does she?

She keeps on running over the grass, towards the lake she has found a few days ago, wondering if that is the same lake where Draco had supposedly ruined her book.

She drops down on the ground a few yards away from it and lets the heaviness of feeling so powerless sink in.

XXX

Soft footsteps sound behind her some time later. She can hear it isn't Draco, who would've run towards her. Hermione is relieved that it isn't Draco that has followed her, she is still trying to place that feeling of hurt.

She closes her eyes, wishing the tears to stop falling and takes a deep relaxing breath. Hermione can't place her feelings. Anger (which is obvious) and hurt are both mingling in with a very confusing feeling.

"If there is anyone who's missed you the most, it's Drake." She does look at Blaise when he goes to sit next to her. "I don't think he ever got over the fact you were dead."

She turns to him with an angry glint in her blue eyes, her anger flairing.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" She gets up and marches closer to the lake; with every stomp of her foot, a word escapes from her mouth. "I. Am. Not. Dead."

"Luckily," Blaise lounges back on his arms and watches over the furious girl.

"And of course he missed me. I'm the only reason he's alive. You would love someone for less," she says, turning her face back to Blaise, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"He never missed you because of that, Hermione. He missed you because he loved you and always had. Drake only learned about his heritage when he was ten years old, and he loved you even before that." Blaise is speaking calmly to her, the only way she will listen if she was mad. They all know this, it's also the reason Blaise is talking to her. Draco is far too temperamental.

"He hated me, Blaise," Hermione sighs, turning away from him and wrapping her arms around herself trying to ease the pain building in her chest. What is this? she wonders.

"He never hated you, Hermione."

Bewildered, she turns to him again. He sits there, leaning back on his arms, smiling at her. "He loved you. But it could never be, so he made you hate him and believe he hated you. You where like honey to bees for him. He couldn't stay away from you and couldn't stop talking about you. Of course, it was completely disguised as hatred. But I noticed it."

She blinks away the tears that are forming in her eyes and turns away from him again.

"It's quite obvious now why he couldn't stay away from you, isn't it, Hermione? Nor why you could stay away from him." Blaise adds, a hint of smile in his voice.

Hermione stays silent, looking over the lake with her arms wrapped around her, trying to blink away those damn tears. She shouldn't feel hurt (she has finally accepted it), she should feel angry and trying to plan a way to contact Harry. This was vital news the Order should know.

"I know you are slowly getting your memories back. But do you remember a little green music box, with silver decorations on the side?" Blaise breaks the silence after a while.

Her arms are still wrapped around her and tears stain her cheeks while she turns curiously to him, shaking her head 'no'.

"You were gone for a half year, with your parents to France."

"I've been to France?" With that one sentence, Blaise has gotten her to forget everything else.

"Come, sit with me and I'll tell you." She hesitates for just a moment and then walks over to him.

"Mais oui, mon cheri. Tu parle francais, tu sais? " Blaise says, looking at her with a smile.

"Blaise, c'est ridicule," she says, before suddenly realizing that she had understood him. Shock spreads through her. "Mais tu a raison! J'ai comprends toi. C'est incroyable."

A giddy smile spreads over Hermione's face, but it disappears again when Blaise pulls the little music box he'd mentioned earlier from out of his pocket. As if in a dream, she watches him open it and listens to the song she has always heard in her dreams.

"All my thoughts are with you forever until the day we will be back together. I will be waiting for you."

AN: The lyrics are from the song Bittersweet by Within Temptation. Which inspired this story.

Thanks to my lovely beta Sarah Liz B, who had no remarks for this chapter and said: "I have to say, Chapter 16 is my favourite chapter so far."

^^, I just have one extra commend. If it takes a long time before I put up a next chapter, don't hate me. I'm bussy studying for exams who are coming and still have to write what's coming next. But! mostly when I'm studying things pop up in my head and before I know it I'm writting on my story! =)

What do you guys think? =)