New chapter! Special thanks go to 4littlemckay, boothaddict77, LovelyAshes and Leah227 for your reviews - feedback is always appreciated. Don't be alarmed if there's a wait between the next few chapters, all my relatives are descending on my house at once and so I'm not sure when I'll have much time to put up the next one. Hope you enjoy it!

Hermione sat outside the hospital wing, clutching a steaming mug of tea in her hands. Madam Pomfrey had insisted that she took it, even though she hadn't wanted to. The thought of eating or drinking anything just made her feel sick, but the nurse had insisted.

Draco was lying in one of the beds on the other side of the doors. She'd sat with him for a while, but it hadn't made her feel any better. His face was grey and every time he took a breath she could hear him wheezing. His parents had been called, and a few hours ago she'd seen them push through the doors, their faces white and anxious. She'd left the hospital wing almost as soon as they came in; she knew they wouldn't want her there while they took care of their son. Harry, Ron and the rest of the Aurors were still being debriefed by Habernathy, and so she was alone in the corridor with only her cup of tea for company.

Footsteps echoed down the far end of the corridor and Hermione's head snapped up. A small, dark-haired girl was walking towards the hospital wing. Hermione went back to staring at her tea, expecting the girl to pass her by, but she stopped right in front of her, an anxious expression on her face.

"Um, Hermione? Can I talk to you?"

Hermione looked up. The girl looked young – she couldn't have been more than fourteen – and incredibly nervous. She was wringing her hands and there was sweat sticking to her forehead. Hermione barely had time to register her Slytherin tie before she recognised her: it was Persephone Khong.

She smiled, and patted the chair next to her. Persephone sat down, fiddling relentlessly with the end of her tie.

"There's a lot of rumours going round," she said, speaking into her green and silver tie, "about what happened last night. People are saying Malfoy rescued you from a werewolf. Apparently he punched it so hard he made its ears bleed."

Hermione couldn't hold back a snort of laughter. "Well, that last part certainly isn't true. Punching werewolves is never a good idea."

"What about the rest of it?"

Hermione nodded.

"Really? You're not just saying that?"

Hermione frowned. Persephone looked distraught. Her dark eyes were wide, her cheeks were pale and she could see the sweat glistening on the palms of the Slytherin girl's hands.

"Persephone, what's wrong?"

Persephone's mouth twisted.

"I've done something really bad. I…I've been sending cursed letters to Draco Malfoy."

Hermione's mouth fell open. Persephone burst into tears.

"Why?"

"I saw you fighting," Persephone wailed, "and he was following you around everywhere and I thought…after what happened to my family…I thought he was threatening you or something and so I sent him the letters so he'd stay away from you but I didn't know he was your friend, I swear, I thought he was going to…"

She dissolved into tears again, sobbing into the palms of her hands. Hermione patted her awkwardly on the shoulder, her mind whirling. Persephone Khong had sent the cursed letters…now she thought about it, it made perfect sense. She certainly had a motive, and as a Slytherin it would have been easy to have slipped the letters into Draco's bag…

"Look," said Hermione, once Persephone's wails had faded into slightly damp-sounding hiccups, "I know you had good intentions, but those letters were a step too far. We're going to have to go to McGonagall about this – oh, don't cry, I'll come with you."

"I just…I just wanted to help you!" Persephone sobbed, dissolving into tears again, and Hermione forced her untouched cup of tea into her hands.

"Here," she said, "you need this more than I do. Drink up, and then go and have a lie down. We'll go and see McGonagall this evening. I'll see you in the Entrance Hall at eight, shall I?"

Persephone nodded and, still hiccupping, made her way down the corridor, clutching Hermione's mug of tea. Hermione leant back in her chair and sighed.

The afternoon sun was just beginning to fall through the window. Hermione still hadn't been allowed into the hospital wing yet, and the late night was finally taking its toll. Her eyelids were drooping and her head was slowly sinking down onto her chest when she felt someone easing into the chair beside her. She flinched awake, and saw Ron sitting in the chair next to her.

He smiled at her. "You all right?"

She stretched and nodded. "Just about. Pretty tired, but there's no damage done. I'll be OK."

Ron jerked his head back towards the hospital wing. "What about him?"

Colour flooded into Hermione's cheeks. Her hands clenched in her lap.

"I'm not sure. I haven't heard anything."

Ron settled back in his chair. "I see."

For a moment they stared across the corridor. Ron stretched out his long legs and she stared into her hands.

"You know, Malfoy almost got himself arrested. He really pissed off my superior."

"Really? How?"

"He was trying to persuade him to put him on your Auror retrieval team. To be honest, he's lucky Habernathy didn't drag him off to Azkaban after he snuck into the forest."

She said nothing.

"Hermione, I think he fancies you."

Hermione's hands slipped right off her knees. She sat bolt upright, all her tiredness forgotten. "Really? What did he say?"

Ron raised his eyebrows. "Why are you so interested?"

She went scarlet. Ron let out a long, low whistle.

"Malfoy? Really?"

She nodded.

"You aren't together, are you?"

"No, no. We haven't…no."

"But you're going to?"

She stared into her hands again. "If he's all right."

Ron shook his head. "Malfoy. You and Malfoy. Are you serious?"

She nodded.

"But he's a dick!"

"He isn't, not now. You'd be surprised how much he's changed since you were at school. He's…different now."

Ron raised his eyebrows. "Well, he'd bloody better be. You can date whoever you want, Hermione, but if he's still treating you the way he used to you'd need your head examined."

She smiled. "I know."

He sighed. He scooped up his travelling cloak from under his chair and stood up, stretching his long arms over his head.

"Look, just be careful, all right? And if he ever calls you Mudblood again, I want you to promise me you'll hex him until there's tentacles coming out his ears."

She grinned. "I promise."