Hermione had started to notice the others all reading the prophet quite thoroughly in recent weeks. To be fair, they weren't just distrustful people, she had a seen a few things that looked suspicious but she knew that they just had post-Voldemort paranoia. These things happened a lot before he returned to power and probably even before he rose to power the first time.

Things like trading banned goods were definitely not uncommon but Harry had mentioned it a few weeks earlier after having seen it in the paper. Ginny saw an article on the mysterious disappearances and re-appearances of some witches and wizards. Hermione had read something two days ago saying that they were having slight problems with the floo powder network and that was probably accountable for that.

All in all, everything seems to be easily explainable in the long run but they couldn't shake that bad feeling. Why were those aurors attacked?

Hermione put down her copy of the prophet and took a spoonful of cereal into her mouth. Dean and Seamus were arguing over the semantics of something in their magical theory class, though it could have been anything. The two of them argue more than anyone else she knew.

Neville and Ron were discussing Quiddich and Ginny was listening in. Harry was reading one of his textbooks. Hermione looked over to see that it was for Arithmancy.

"I didn't know that you took Arithmancy Harry." He looked up and closed his book.

"I thought I should branch out and take something that most people avoid, you know, give myself a bit of a competitive edge when it comes to work but it's absolutely doing my head in. There's only a month until exams and I just don't know if I'm going to pass it." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, clearly tired from study.

"Well, the last few weeks have seemed to go by very quickly, I don't remember all the other years going by this fast." Hermione sighed.

"Maybe it's because this has actually been a relatively normal year." Harry said.

"Is that a bad thing?" Hermione smiled.

"Well, if you'd have asked me that question two years ago I would have absolutely begged for a normal school year, but this time it's getting closer and closer to exams and I'm starting to think that they aren't going to be cancelled this year." Hermione let out a laugh that echoed in the hall and Harry joined her with his head leaning on his arms and his shoulders shaking.

Draco smiled when he heard the loud outburst from the other side of the hall. There was no mistaking that sound. His eyes darted up to see her smiling and laughing with Potter. Draco's face turned to a grimace and if his face hadn't flushed red with anger it would have been green with jealousy.

He swallowed his feelings and just sighed, going back to eating his breakfast.

"What's wrong with you? You look like someone's just come and ruined your day." Pansy said, looking over at him.

"Nothing." He grumbled.

He hadn't seen Hermione much lately, she told him it was because she needed time to properly study and that he was quite possibly the biggest distraction she had ever had to deal with. She seemed quite happy to spend time with Potter and Weaselby and the others. He couldn't let himself get angry though.

"Is it the little mudblood over there?"

His head shot up and gave Pansy a confused look. "What?"

"Laughing like everything is so perfect. I couldn't think of anything worse than being what she is. Doesn't she just infuriate you?" Pansy glared over at Hermione.

Draco nodded. While he agreed with that last part it was probably in a different context to Pansy's.

"I can't wait to get my hands on her when they finally get here." She whispered with a cruel gleam in her eyes.

"No!" Draco hissed.

Pansy looked up at him curiously. "What did you just say?"

He hadn't meant for it to come out, it had just slipped. "I just meant that you can't call the… mudblood, that's not fair." He hated those words coming out of his mouth but he knew that he had to say them.

She grinned. "Well we'll just have to see who gets there first."

Pansy had stopped receiving information from the group. She hadn't heard anything for over a week now. The last thing that she was told was to send the samples for the polyjuice with their next communication. So it wouldn't be long after that.

He didn't know what to do anymore. He had no idea what they would do to him if he betrayed the cause again and he couldn't risk losing Hermione yet by telling her.

The odds of her staying with someone like him, who conspired against her and kissed his ex and slept in her bed, were not in his favour. Why did he have to be this person?

Why couldn't he have been someone else, almost anyone else would do.

His eyes darted up to her table, she was talking with Potter and Weasley and he felt that jealous wave of anger wash over him again.

He would never admit to himself that he wanted to be like them, to have a group of… of actual friends to spend his time with, people who weren't consumed with more rage and vengeance than he was. Maybe then he wouldn't have turned out this way.

No, he probably would have still become himself; his father is a very controlling man. Well, was.

That still doesn't solve his problem. What was he going to do?

"Honestly I don't know." Luna said

"Oh come on, you have to have something planned for next year." Hermione said as they took a walk through the grounds.

"We'll just send owls to one another and I'll see him on the break for Christmas." Luna shrugged.

"You and Neville are far too casual." Hermione laughed.

"Well there's hardly anything else we can do is there? I just hope he can make up his mind as to what he's going to do, he's hopeless like that." Luna smiled.

"Well I don't know what Draco's going to do; I don't even know how to break it to the others that we're together."

"Do you have to?"

Hermione looked over at her, "what? Of course I do, they're my friends."

"Then they should understand."

"You know what they're like." Hermione looked down at her feet.

"So don't tell them."

"You're going in circles with this." She sighed.

"Maybe we should talk about something else. What are you going to do next year?" Luna asked.

"I still have no idea, it seems so strange having to make a choice that will shape the rest of your life. I mean, up until now it's just been go to school and that was that. Now it's actually up to me. At least you know what you want to do." Hermione sighed.

"Some people know what they want to do their whole lives, the rest just start with something and figure it out along the way. Either way it's an adventure." Luna said.

Hermione smiled and told herself that she would have to start thinking about it in that way. If life was something you could test, Luna would probably get top marks for understanding it.

Oh well, there wasn't much more she could do to stop it. There wasn't much time left.

Over the next two weeks they saw one another twice outside of classes. Hermione was stressing out about getting everything done. Draco suggested she use her time turner to give her a whole lot of extra time to study but she scolded him and gave him the old 'bad things happen to wizards who mess with time' speech.

To be fair, he wasn't missing her quite as much because he was being forced into even more study than he could handle. McGonagall was really pushing him to work harder in transfiguration, which he had only taken to fill the spot, so his time was well thought out. The rest of the time he spent alone tormented over what he needed to do.

He didn't know what they expected of him and he most definitely wanted to tell Hermione about it, he just couldn't bear to lose her, but wouldn't he lose her anyway?

It was all too much.

He was going to see her that afternoon, with ten days until the exams would be over. They started in a few days and he was beginning to push the thoughts of the impending fight to the back of his mind.

"So you only have charms left to prep for?" She asked as they lay on the floor, cheeks pressed together.

This had become their general position for talking; he would never say just how much he loved to do it.

"Can you please stop asking me about exams?" He groaned.

"These are the last few weeks of our lives that we'll spend here; don't you want to make sure you take it all in? Do everything you can to get good marks for the future?" She said.

"Do they even matter once we leave? And the only thing I want to remember is this room." He said and she smiled to herself.

"So we're still going to see one another once the year is finished aren't we?" She asked.

"Well, yeah, if you want to." He mumbled.

"Do you?"

"Of course I do."

"Well why couldn't you say that?"

"Well I don't know what you want do I?"

"I want it to be like it was, on the break, when you came to my house and we didn't have to hide anymore, I mean I know you went home but for half that time it was wonderful." She leant her face against his and he couldn't help but picture himself at Pansy's and he squeezed his eyes shut trying to get that image out.

It wasn't working, all he could picture was him kissing her in her room and he hated it. He didn't want to feel guilty like this.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Draco, are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." He stood up and walked over to the couch.

"Did, did you not like what I was saying?"

"No, no, I did, I just… it was just… nothing." He said.

"What is it? You know you can tell me anything." She walked over to him but he pulled away from her.

"Look I really have to go, I forgot about something that I had to study and I've just remembered it so…" He grabbed his things and walked towards the door.

"Draco wait!" She called as he left the room without any real goodbye.

She couldn't understand it. What just happened? He had just got up and left without any explanation what-so-ever. She knew the study thing was a lie, he rarely wanted to study and the look on his face was not from leaving out a few study notes.

He had been getting stranger and stranger lately.

Maybe it was because of the exams. That was the only possible explanation she could think of, but it didn't seem likely. Well, that was the only thing she had to go on and what reason did she have not to trust him?

Draco walked briskly down the halls, breathing heavily and loosening his tie because it suddenly felt too tight. He could feel the sweat peaking on his forehead and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. The guilt was crushing him. How would he explain it all to her? How would he get through his exams? What the hell was he going to do?

Exams drew closer and Draco grew even more terrified of what was to come. He was almost frantic. Pansy had started to give him strange looks now, even more so than usual and Hermione kept gazing at him from across rooms with doe eyes and a worried expression. He wasn't doing wither of them any favours by avoiding her. This would really be screwing with her study.

He had to do it; he had to tell her about Pansy.

He thought about how he could do it, how he could tell her.

It seemed silly for him to preoccupy himself with the fact that he had kissed Pansy when the reason that he was staying with her was probably more important. Somehow that fact always got caught in his throat.

He paced the room of requirement with just one more day until the start of the biggest exams of his life. Why was he doing this? Why was he going to do this? Maybe she would understand, but she couldn't understand unless he told her the part about Kresta's tea, and he couldn't tell her that unless he told her the rest of the ugly mess. He wasn't going to do that, not before exams, not before he knew that she was in definite danger.

For all he knew they could be out of here before the polyjuice was even ready. He hoped for that every day. Kissing Pansy was something she might be able to redeem him of but plotting against her? That was something that she could never forgive. He just knew it.

He had sent her a note asking her to meet him after dinner. He hadn't eaten because he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to keep anything down. The anger he had for himself was brimming at this point and he couldn't handle it. He kicked the chair and the couch as he passed it with his pacing.

He was so nervous that when he heard the door click open he thought his heart might just pound out of his chest.

Hermione took one look at him and saw the distress he was in.

"Draco! What's wrong?" She ran to him and tried to reach out and touch him but he leapt back.

"Don't!" He said.

"Draco please, you're scaring me. What is it?" He could see the worry in her eyes and he looked away feeling wracked with guilt.

"I need to tell you something." He choked.

"Oh…Okay. What's going on?" She sat on the edge of the couch as he paced back an fourth.

She had no idea what had got him so worked up, she just wanted to hold him and calm him down.

"I wasn't where I said I was… on the break." He blurted.

Her brow furrowed. "You mean… you weren't at home?"

"No. I was…" He stopped pacing and panted a little. "I was at Pansy's." He said flatly and she took a sharp intake of breath.

He didn't say anything; he just let her absorb it.

"I thought you couldn't stand her." She said with bitterness to her words that made Draco's stomach turn.

"I can't but she came to my house to get me and-"

"And you're incapable of saying no?"

"Yes… I mean no! I don't…" He tried to find a good excuse but nothing seemed to be good enough.

"I take it that you're telling me because you did more than just see her behind my back." The pain had started to spread across her face and she wasn't meeting his eyes.

He sighed and hung his head.

"Right." She said with one look at him. "Did you kiss her?" She asked and Draco looked up and nodded, his face showing the agony inside him at telling her. "Did you sleep with her?" She almost spat the words and Draco shook his head.

"No, of course not… I, well we slept in the same bed but I was at one end and she-"

"So you can see how sleeping with her is bad but kissing her is on a whole other level? Why did you do it Draco? Do you want me to be like her? Because if that's the case then you might as well go back to her because I would never sink to her level." Tears spilled from her eyes and she shook her head. "I thought you didn't want to be that person anymore."

"I don't…"

"So why did you let her get to you? Why did you have to wait all this time to tell me? And right before exams? I can't believe you would do that!" She stood up and scoffed as she walked towards the door.

"Wait, please! There's something else…" he grabbed her arm to try and stop her from leaving but she snatched it away.

"No! I don't want to hear anything else you have to say! I have exams to prepare for and you have just made it a thousand times worse!" she stormed to the door.

"Please I need to tell you that-"

"I said no! Please don't try to talk to me anymore, I have work to do." As she opened the door and slammed it back he started to say what he had to but it was too late.

"You're in danger." He said softly to the empty room.

So that was it, that was how it was going to end for them?

He was definitely going to speak to her again; he would just have to wait until after her exams were over. He's done enough damage as it is.