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She reached out to playfully hit him on the arm, laughing.
"You can be so stuck up sometimes!"
"But you love me anyway." He said looking at her with a look that was half flirting half deadly serious.
She gave him a look that was half exasperated half agreeing with him.
"That's for me to know and you to guess at" she said standing up and running away from him, sending a look over her shoulder that was definitely flirting and sent shivers down his spine. Pulling himself to his feet he chased after her. He easily caught up with her and grabbed her around the waist, swinging her around in the air.
"Put me down Malfoy!" She screamed, faking anger.
"For a price." He said softly, "A kiss."
Hermione laughed and the sound was like music to his ears.
"Fine. Put me down first."
He did so gently placing her on her feet. They looked at each other, unspoken words hanging in the air. Draco stroked a piece of her hair behind her ear, running his hand down her back, Hermione shivered at his touch. He leaned in to kiss her-
Draco sat up straight in his bed in a cold sweat. He groaned, running his hand through his hair and checked the time. 2 am. Ever since Hermione had been captured he hadn't stopped thinking about her. During the day he was haunted with the paralysing fear that she was dead. The nights were worse. During the night he was plagued with dreams of them together. The very happiness of them was their most painful factor. He kept telling himself that he would know if she was dead. Today was the day they were going to try and find out where she was. There was so much that could go wrong with this plan, the main one being Ron. Draco didn't trust that he had enough backbone for it, or he would never have been able to be blackmailed by them in the first place. Surprisingly Harry seemed to share his opinion. He had never said it out loud of course but it was easy enough to see it written on his face. He knew Harry was still suspicious and confused about how he had seemingly gone from hating Hermione to well, caring about her. Just how deep these feelings went he wasn't sure. He had never felt like this before about anyone, examining those feelings when he didn't know if she was ok hurt too much, Over the past few days Draco had gained a much higher appreciation of Ginny. True she could still be incredibly annoying and stubborn but she was the one holding it all together. Her sarcasm and positivity was a much needed break from the tense atmosphere that existed whenever he and Ron were in the same room. He could see how much Harry relied on Ginny and to see the two of them together gave him hope. And today of all days he needed hope.
The hours passed so unbelievably slowly. He read through the plans, showered and then read through them again. What if something went wrong? Then the entire rescue plan could fail and then what would happen to her? He apparated over to Harry's flat and Ginny met him at the front door with a grim smile.
"She'll be ok." was all she said.
He nodded but said nothing. In the sitting room Harry sat on the sofa a slice of toast and a cold cup of coffee in front of him, his head in his hands. Ginny came and sat down next to him, unwrapping his hands from his hair and taking them in her own. She rested her head on his shoulder, her hair falling about them both. Draco wandered through to the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee, noticing the small bookshelf in the corner he flicked through the books. Finding one he smiled to himself, reading the title:
"The Lord of the Rings"
That was the book that Hermione had been reading when he had split coffee on her that day in the bookshop. He smiled fondly at the memory, before sitting down and opening the book on the first chapter. And just like she had all those weeks earlier Draco found himself transported away from the dark world he lived in. He didn't know how long he was in Middle Earth for but it didn't seem long at all to him when a voice entered his consciousness.
"It's time to go." said Ron.
Harry and Ginny stood behind him, expressions of grim determination on all of their faces. Draco stood up and joined them.
"We all know the plan. We all know the stakes. We need to work together for this to work so I need to know here and now if for better or worse, for just one night we will put away our differences." said Draco with a fierce look in his eyes.
Harry and Ginny immediately nodded and, a few moments later so did Ron.
"Good"
A few cracks later and the flat was empty.
They arrived moments later in a dark and really dodgy feeling street.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" asked Draco, looking around at the empty street.
"Funnily enough yes I am. The meetings in a warehouse a few streets over. You can sneak in through a back entrance and then caboom. Plan is all go." said Ron with a grimace.
"The meeting starts at 11. We'll wait till ten past to give them some time to lower their guards and then we will attack. But remember you mustn't kill or seriously injure anyone! We need them to talk." said Harry, "Ginny please please be careful. Remember our little baby, if anything happened to either of you I'd never forgive myself."
Ginny smiled and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as an answer. Ron looked at them all before giving a curt nod and walking away. Harry handed out the three invisibility robes that he had pilfered from the Auror departments supply at the ministry, which he was head of. The three of them slipped invisibly and quietly round to the back of the warehouse. Draco muttered a spell which caused the door to fall open without any squeaky noises that all doors seemed to have when it was most necessary for them to be quiet. The three squeezed through the small door and hid themselves around the back room of the warehouse and waited.
Ron stood in the middle of the warehouse, waiting. At 11 exactly he turned around and saw the black shapes materialise in the front of the warehouse. Fear ran down his back, turning all of his nerves to ice so he was paralysed.
"What do you want now? When will you let me go? I've done everything you've asked of me, even things which I hated." Ron begged them like a child.
The figures were cloaked in black and wore masks similar to the Death Eaters, they looked like how he had always imagined death to look like. They were laughing now, an eerie sound that resonated around the building.
"What was it that you hated most? Spilling all the secrets on the boy who lived and his besties? Becoming a thief? Or was it capturing the girl you loved?"
Ron's face turned ash.
"That one was my favourite. It was smart of her to make it you who finally caught the filthy mudblood. She certainly knows how to cause pain. I imagine all your little friends are devastated. Have you spilt the beans yet? I would have thought not. You're much to cowardly to face up to what you did. Indeed." Said the black figure with a high-pitched girly laugh, "That's how you got in this mess in the first place is it not?".
Somehow during this conversation when the figures had been circling around Ron they had ended up with their backs to the back of the warehouse where a door now fell open silently. Outside the thunder cracked and the wind blew. Suddenly a white streak came out of nowhere, striking one of the black figures to the ground. The one with the girly laugh turned round and began firing pink flashes of light everywhere. The figure stood in the middle of the rock laughing wildly as one of the flashes hit something. The invisibility cloak fell of revealing Ginny Weasley lying on the floor writhing in pain, clutching her stomach. Harry ran over with a cry of shock. A flash of white light flew out and hit the laughing black figure in the back. Draco threw of his cloak and waved his wand at the figures, ropes flew out and tied them up. He ran over and picked up their wands before running to Ginny where Harry had her cradled in his arms.
"This is all my fault" Harry cried, tears falling down his face.
Ron walked over to the black figures pulling of one of the masks, "Lavender?" He gasped in shock.