(AN: sorry for the long update time i will try and give you one chapter a week from now on i cant thank my beta enough with out her the chapters would make no scenes. )

Chapter nine

Draco waited a minute before following Harry out into the main room. He hesitated when he saw that Hermione had not left with Harry. He walked over to her and held out the letter that Harry left sitting on the table.

"Did you know about this?" he said in a slightly hurt voice.

Hermione took the letter from Draco's shaking hands, reading it over. It was fromexplaining that Lucius Malfoy had been arrested on suspicion of performing an Unforgiveable Curse.

Hermione was thrilled that Draco would no longer be in danger from his own father, and would be able to return to the home from which he'd been exiled. She moved to hug him as a huge smile spread across her face, but he sidestepped her. Thrown off, Hermione's smile faltered, as she looked at him in confusion. "Did you know?" His voice was more serious now. "Did you know about my father? Did you know that your bloody boyfriend was going to make me sign a contract signing my life away to him?"

Shocked by the tone of his voice, she stepped back.

"No Draco, I didn't. If I had heard anything involving your family I would have told you. What contract? Harry would never do such a thing."

But Draco didn't look like he believed her in the least, and he gave her one vicious look before turning on his heel and stalking coldly from the room. He exited through a door that appeared near Sirius's empty portrait, not bothering to say another word to her. Hermione stood, staring at his retreating back for several seconds. She suddenly became aware that Sirius had reappeared in his frame, though she was sure he'd been listening just outside the frame.

"I bet you were listening." She said with a slight sniffle. She had just begun getting to know Draco and she was afraid she was already losing him.

"You know Hermione, when I was in Azkaban I didn't get many visitors. Only family could visit. My friends thought I was guilty of murder. My parents were dead, my brother dead as well. You wouldn't know it now but back in the day before Hogwarts the Black family children were pretty close." He said as if he were reliving a memory of better times.

"My brother and I were inseparable and we followed our cousins around. Bella was the oldest, and definitely the leader of the pack. Andromida and I were very close, similar personalities, you know. And then there was Narsissa. She was by far the most beautiful and sweetest of the three. Good hearted even through her Hogwarts years, granted she was a Slitherin. It was in my seventh year when we learned that Bella had joined the Death Eaters. It was Christmas break of the same year that Cissy was promised to Malfoy by my uncle. He was much older and she was in love with another boy, but none of that mattered because it was a magically binding contract that my uncle had signed and she had no choice. After their marriage she changed, she needed to, she became stony and serious and nothing like the girl I grew up with. Three years later I was arrested and not too long after Bella joined me. I spent eleven years down the hall from my cousin and I didn't hear a word from her." There was a hint of sadness in his voice.

"As the group of us got older we all split up I hadn't spoken to Bella in five years. She wasn't the girl I used to play with any more. She was deranged and obsessed with loyalty and power. She was beyond helping. It was Narsissa that got to me, she didn't marry Malfoy because she loved him she married him because her father made her."

"Narsissa visited once a month or so to bring Draco to see Bella on Lucius' request. He seemed to think that Draco should become acquainted with the top Death Eaters. She would always slip me a bit of chocolate. I saw Draco grow up, the older he got the more loyal to Lucius he became and somewhere around twelve he refused to look into my cell all together. Old magic families were taught that men deserved respect, even in Harry's family. Harry's grandmother, she would only talk when spoken too when in front of anyone pureblood outside of the family. But she was much like Molly when alone with James and her husband." he said with a slight smile wondering if anyone else had ever made the comparison.

"You see, Draco was born and bred to follow the Dark Lord and his father. He loved and respected his father and would never wish anything bad to happen to him regardless of how he had been treated."

"You need to respect that he loved his father even if you didn't," Sirius said in a soothing tone. He understood why Draco was upset. He had been in kind of the same kind of situation with his parents. He didn't believe in what they believed in but that didn't mean that he loved them any less, except maybe his mother.

"The most important thing is to make sure that he knows you didn't betray him."

"How?" she asked in defeat. "He's gone and run off."she asked in defeat.

"He will be back, he is probably just checking on Narsissa."

Hermione left after a few more minutes of talking to Sirius.

"When Hermione exited through the bookshelf, she was shocked and furious to see Harry and Ginny playing chess right there in the library. He was acting like nothing had happened, but Harry had known Hermione was still in there with Draco, and he knew she would be coming out soon. He had known where she was, and there were so many other places in the house where they could have played chess, Hermione could only conclude that Harry had wanted Ginny to see the room for some reason. The room was supposed to be a secret that Harry shared with her, but now he was setting up a situation where Ginny would almost have to discover the room."

Hermione stormed over to Harry opened her mouth to yell at him, but was interrupted by Ginny.

"Hermione what's wrong, and where did you come from?"

Hermione was speechless with rage. How could Harry have been so stupid as to play chess with Ginny right in front of the door to their room? She was so angry with Harry's blatant disregard for their secret that she didn't have the patience to explain the room to Ginny. In fact, she was feeling as though the younger girl didn't have a right to know it existed, and that perhaps she could stay in the dark about it until kingdom come.

"Ginny I think it best that you leave, I need to speak with Harry alone." He said this barely containing her anger. She did not break eye contact with Harry until the girl spoke up.

"But …. I … we are in the middle of a game." said the girl who clearly didn't like the fact that she was being forced to leave.

"We will pick up in as soon as we are done talking ill come get you." Harry felt bad Ginny and him were just becoming friendly again after their break up last March.

"Ginny, please." Harry said glancing back between Ginny and the still scowling Hermione.

Ginny pushed herself away from the chess board and began to sulk out of the room. She paused, glancing suspiciously between Hermione and the bookshelf from which she had so mysteriously emerged, and pressed her hand to it. The little redhead was visibly surprised to find that it was as firm and solid as any other bookcase she had ever felt. With a slight huff, she turned on her heel and stalked from the room.

Harry sat back down on the squishy couch and looked up at Hermione.

"You know Hermione, there was no need to be so mean to Ginny." He spoke wearily because he couldn't figure out in his head what had the girl so upset.

"And you," she said poking him in the chest "didn't have to be so mean to Draco."

"Malfoy? You're mad about Malfoy? And since when do you call him Draco?" He said, still not fully understanding why she was angry.

"Never you mind what I call him. You had no right to bombard him like that and make him sign that contract. You should have left a decision like that up to him instead of forcing him."

"The contract was the only way to make a person like him help us. Did you know Dumbledore had Snape sign a contract too at first." To Harry's astonishment she seemed to be getting more angry by the second. Harry stood up to face her.

"A PERSON LIKE HIM? YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM." She pushed him down and turned back towards the book case that held the entrance to the room.

About three feet from the door she turned back to Harry. "Regardless of who his father is no one deserves to find out about something like that by being forced to sign a stupid contract."

She went into the room hoping she would see Draco, but he wasn't there. He still hadn't come back from Malfoy manor. She seriously considered going in after him but she didn't think he wanted to see her, and moreover didn't think she would find herself welcome at the Malfoy Manor. Hermione shuddered when she thought of the "welcome" she would receive if anyone related to Lucius Malfoy recognized her as a Muggleborn witch. It would be even worse if she were identified as Harry Potter's best friend.

"She closed her eyes and imagined the silver and gold bedroom she had walked into that first night she visited Draco. She curled up in the big soft bed, determined to wait there until Draco got back from wherever he was. Before she knew it, Hermione had fallen asleep, surrounded by Draco's opulent bedcovers and the sweet scent on him.

The next morning she was awoken by a hand shaking her she smiled.

Draco's back.

He opened her eyes and saw not the grey eyes she had been hoping to see but dark green ones.

"What are you doing in here?" She said putting the pillow over her face.

"I came to check up on you, and apologize." He took a breath and continued.

"I am sorry that I didn't tell you before hand and I am sorry that he was forced to sign the contract. It is only legally binding for six months. But I am not sorry that his father got arrested and I am not sorry that Malfoy is going to be training me. We need all the help in the world to prepare for this war. Did you know that one of the charges against Malfoy is breaking into your house Hermione? Another was Ron's in the beginning of June. Lucius was captured when the alarms went off at the Lovegoods three days ago. He is trying to get everyone we know. He almost got you. He ruined your family. How can you be calling his son Draco and defending him like he is a friend?" Immediately Harry felt guilty no one had mentioned Hermione's parents since she had erased their memories. How could he have been so insensitive? He looked up at her, fully expecting her to be upset or crying, but she looked nervous.

"Harry I need to tell you something, A few days ago I came in here to get a book I forgot and I saw Draco duck into a room, I followed him in there and saw he was beaten up pretty badly …" she told her story leaving out the part where she ran her fingers over his chest and also the part where she kissed him.

"Since that day Draco and I have been …Civil. I come in and talk to him. He is actually completely different when you get to know him." She knew didn't want to make anything worse for Draco and she knew that if Harry knew about them now it would be good for no one.

"Hermione you should be more careful. He is the son of a Death Eater." He was more than a little skeptical about her story.

"Oh please Harry I know perfectly well who his father is and I happen to know he is nothing like his father."

"Ok Hermione we will see," He said hoping that she was right and that he was nothing like his father. Harry left the room and Hermione resumed sitting on Draco's bed she grabbed the book she was reading and waited for Draco to come back.

Hermione remained in Draco's bed for two days Despite Harry's repeated efforts to get her to emerge from the gold bedroom, Hermione stayed where she was, not responding to anything he said or did. Ron and Ginny had noticed Hermione's absence, and it was getting more difficult to dodge their questions as the hours went by. After all, she could only spend so much time in the bathroom.

After midnight of her second day of waiting, Hermione was genuinely worried about Draco. She hadn't seen or heard from him since he had stormed out, but he had never been gone for this long before.

Hermione made a decision she wasn't going to wait around for him to come back. She was going to go in after him. She was going to go into Malfoy manor and bring him back.

AN: this is the longest chapter so far ..... i hope you like it please review .... i live for reviews. happy reading