It was so gentle. Draco couldn't move in case he broke this moment. He had never felt like this before. So happy. So free. He forgot about his father's death. He forgot about everything. All that mattered was that he was kissing, oh so tenderly, the girl the loved.

Then there was a loud noise and the house began to shake. The girl in his arms leapt up like she had just woken up from a sleep. It took Draco a minute to realise what was going on. He looked then at his father's body and everything came back to him.

Voices were in the house now. People were in. The security had gone now that Lucius was dead, of course. Draco realised all the paintings around him were empty. The news must have spread that Draco had killed Lucius. The house and all the security and everything wouldn't obey him, of course, because he killed their master.

Now, people were in the house. The slaves were probably running for freedom.

Footsteps. Coming closer. And a voice yelling, "Hermione! Hermione, are you here? Hermione!!!"

The voice that belonged to Potter.

*

"Har-" Hermione began but before any sound could erupt from her mouth, a cold strong hand clamped around her mouth.

Struggling, she tried to bite and scratch Malfoy's hand at the same time.

Why wouldn't he let her go?

But, of course, he wanted to keep her here. He wanted to keep her here because he loved her.

It only now occurred to Hermione how dangerous it was to have Malfoy love her. She was his slave. Malfoy was unstable. Hermione had never realised how twisted the situation was. Of course she hadn't known then, about Malfoy's feelings.

Harry's voice was fading away. The footsteps were retreating.

No!

She tried to scream but it was so muffled. Hermione knew Harry would never hear her through the thick stone door.

She bit deep into Malfoy's hand now.

"Would you stop?" he hissed. "You're staying here, whether you like it or not. I have nothing left."

"I don't care," came her muffled response. "Let me go!"

"I'm not letting you go anywhere."

"You're hurting me!" she cried.

"I'll fix that in a minute. Actually, what am I thinking? Silencio." Hermione knew that Malfoy had placed a silencing charm on the room. "And Colloportus." He locked the door.

Then, finally, he let her go. She sank to the ground, clutching her stomach. Her vision swam. She looked up at Malfoy, blinking to try clear her vision. Hermione knew she was in a state of shock. By the looks of her stomach, it should have been a hell of a lot more painful then it was.

"Let me out!" she snarled at him, even though her voice was so weak.

"I think I can stop the bleeding on this and take away a bit of the pain. Obviously, I can't fix it totally but I can give it a good shot," Malfoy said, clearly ignoring her, examining her.

"Harry!" She screamed, knowing it was useless. "In here, Harry!"

Malfoy was doing a complex wand waving and, looking down Hermione realised he had actually done some good to her stomach. Her head didn't seem to throb so much either.

She settled down suddenly and looked at him properly. How could he love her? He was Malfoy! He had just killed his father for torturing her! This was totally unbelievable!

He was looking at her too, staring intently. It unnerved Hermione. His face was totally expressionless. It was scary to know that some kind of love for Hermione had built up in that cold mind of his. Hermione didn't understand it, and frankly, she didn't really want to.

"Please, Malfoy! Draco! Please! Let me out! I don't belong here! I don't want to be here!" she pleaded. If Malfoy had the capacity to love, it meant he was human. He had to leave her go.

"And why would I leave you go, Granger?" he questioned stonily.

"Because, well, because," she hesitated then continued, "Because you love me." She looked at him as if waiting for him to laugh or begin mocking her. He didn't. Instead he leaned back, face still expressionless, and smirked.

There was a silence.

"But you still haven't answered my question. Why would I want to leave you go?"

She stood up from the ground, still trembling.

"It's because I love you, that I want to keep you here. Don't you understand? I love you. And now you belong to me. I think that works out quite well. Why would I want to change that?"

He paused, looked at her again and smiled, "I'm quite happy the way things are."

She was so totally confused. How could this possibly work out for him? Obviously his mind just didn't work the same than hers. It scared her, how he could think so differently.

After all, hadn't somebody said that love was the most dangerous thing of all. Even Laura had said it, "Lust. Obsession and jealousy. It's not a pretty picture."

"Oh, by the way, they're going to think you're dead. The slaves will tell Potter and co. that I was looking for you and my father had most probably taken you," Malfoy continued.

Hermione looked away from him, refusing to let him see the tears rolling down her cheeks. He saw them and said, in his sneering voice, "But why are you so sad?"

"I want to get out of here."

"I know, but I'm not allowing you to. And you have to obey me, remember?"

"No, I mean, out of this room, away from that," she gestured towards Lucius's body.

Malfoy glanced at it. "Okay."

He didn't let her move far, in fear of Harry still hanging around. They moved to the next room, which Malfoy cast a silencing charm on and locked the door.

They sat for a few minutes in silence. Hermione didn't want to think about anything, but funnily enough, she thought about everything.

"So, Is it everytime I kill somebody I get a kiss off you or just a family member?" Malfoy said.

Hermione turned to him sharply. "You evil bastard," she cried.

"Because there's a lot of people I can kill, but I only have my mother left, who I will kill shortly, in my family."

"Just leave me go!" Hermione wished desperately for a wand.

"Just relax," he said. "You're getting yourself worked up."

"How can I relax when you're here? Pointing that," she gestured at his wand, "At my face?"

He lowered his wand. "You're acting like I would hurt you."

"Yes, I am, aren't I?" she said sarcastically. "I wonder why?" She was still shaking terribly. Nothing made sense to her anymore.

"Hey, you're the one that kissed me," he said with his usual smirk.

"Well, you saved me from your father. You killed your father. I was grateful."

"So will you kiss me again then?"

She whirled around to face him. "You're weird, Malfoy. Keep away from me."

"You're my personal slave. I command you to kiss me." He advanced on her.

She backed away worriedly.

He pushed her back into the wall then, pinning her by her arms and kissed her. Hermione was too shocked and weak to push him away. She wasn't stupid either. She knew part of her was enjoying this. But she also knew this was wrong, and against all her beliefs.

For God's Sake, Hermione, he's a murderer.

She was tempted to kiss him back. His body was so close to hers.

He killed Justin!

The thought of Justin brought back memories. She began squirming and pushing. Malfoy didn't budge.

She fought until she got one hand free. Angrily, she scratched him with her long nails down his face. Startled, he pulled back. Hermione saw a long line down his face, looking a lot like scratch Crookshanks would have done. She felt oddly satisfied.

"Don't you ever do that again," she said breathlessly.

"I'll do whatever I want, slave," he replied angrily. He put a hand to his face and when he withdrew it, there was blood on it.

"Love's a dangerous thing, Granger."

"You don't love me," she said in her old know-it-all voice, "It's a crush, Malfoy. You're just a confused little boy."

"So, I just killed my father for no reason? For a crush?" He yelled. He kicked the trunk nearest him, suddenly furious. Then the anger drained away as quickly as it came. "This is real, Granger. I feel it. I can't get you out of my head. And I've tried, I really have. I can't escape from it. And neither can you."

"So that's why you killed Justin? You were jealous?"

"Yes," he said. "I didn't want to do it. But I had to."

"You didn't have to kill Justin. Nobody made you, Malfoy."

"You made me."

That was the exact minute Hermione made her plan. She moved closer to him then, as if to kiss him. A flicker of a smile played on his lips. His eyes were set on her. Her heart was pounding suddenly. Catching Malfoy off guard, she kicked him right were she knew it hurt all men.

He seemed flabbergasted.

She pulled his wand off him. He was so surprised that he didn't even try stop her. Raising the wand, she shrieked, "Impedimenta."

Malfoy was blasted off his feet. Hermione took this second to run for the door. "Alohomora." The door slid open and she dashed out.

She had only run this fast once in her life. That one time, she had been caught. She hoped she had better luck this time. She was running down the gloomy hallway, out of Lucius's secret chambers. She was in the main hall now. She could see two heads, a dark head and a bright red head. Her voice made no noise as she screamed except a hoarse choking sound.

She was free! She was free!

"Hermione!" Came a scream from behind her. Malfoy must have Apparated. It only barely registered with her that Malfoy had called her Hermione.

"Harry!" She screamed again. More noise came out of her mouth this time. The dark head looked up and saw her.

Harry was up in the stairs in the blink of an eye, with Ron trailing behind him. Then Malfoy and Harry faced each other with Hermione in the middle.

They both smirked at each other and rose their wands.