A/N: Unarosaesunarosa! I totally love you! Thank you so much for all the reviewing and all the speculation! I actually use a lot of your ideas!

Disclaimer: Me and unarosaesunarosa share custody of Tom Felton. Whenever her boyfriend's around, I get him. Whenever my boyfriend's around, she gets him. =)

Chapter twelve: Gone

The Tower was demolished. Clothes, dishes, cushions, bed sheets, books, homework, everything was strewn all over the floor in the common room. Draco and Hermione gaped as they tried to navigate throughout the room. The couch had been completely overturned, and the coffee table was missing a leg. The kitchen area of the extravagant Tower had pots and pans littered across the linoleum tile, and broken glass glittered everywhere.

"Someone was in here," Hermione said quietly, picking up some of her clothes off the floor. Draco stayed silent, waving his wand to repair the broken leg of the table, and started sorting rolls of parchment on it.

"Draco," Hermione said again. He looked up at her slowly. "I think it was the same person I saw." She looked away quickly, as though his contradiction was expected. But none came. There was only silence. When she looked back up, Draco was looking at her curiously.

"Mia," Draco said tentatively, hoping she would keep her cool. "You're absolutely sure you saw someone?"

Hermione stared at him. "Yes."

She went to the couch and collapsed onto it, her dress riding up to about mid-thigh. Draco swallowed thickly and sat down next to her, and she immediately buried her head in his chest, her shoulder shaking with silent sobs. He wrapped an arm protectively around her shoulders and pulled her onto his lap. Her small arms wrapped themselves around his strong torso, and he stroked her hair softly as she cried.

"Mia," he said quietly. "I told you nothing was going to happen to you."She looked up at him, surprised. "So I'm going to take care of this."

"Draco, you can't!" Hermione protested, moving away. Draco's arms fell from around her. "You don't even know who did it!"

He raised a hand to her hair and brushed it absentmindedly. "It has to be my father,"

She stared again. Now that he had voiced his opinion, she knew he was right. No one else would be devious enough to spy on his own child. This was the same man that had no qualms about killing his wife and torturing his son. It was amazing how much conviction was in those six words. He said it like he wanted to kill him. And as soon as the thought entered her mind, she knew that's what he intended. He was going to kill his own father. And, as Hermione sat there and thought, maybe Lucius Malfoy did deserve the ironic undoing of his own son wielding his death. The thought made her slightly nauseous, but also slightly triumphant too.

"I'll go with you," she said, standing up to face him. He followed her movements, almost a head taller than she, and frowned down at her. There was uncertainty in his beautiful eyes, and a little bit of pride. He surveyed her own face hungrily, like he would never see it again.

"You can't come with me, Mia," he said gently. "He'll kill you. I can't let that happen."

"But I want to help!" she protested. The bracelet flared a little on her wrist, and she hurried to add, "I've been on loads of adventures with Harry and Ron, and I did fine there too!"

Malfoy was already shaking his head. "No, Mia. This is my father we're talking about. If a Muggle-born even sets foot in our home, he'll kill you." He ran his fingers through his hair, troubled. "I know you can handle this. I just don't want you to get hurt. Is that too much to ask?"

Hermione sat back down on the couch and listed while Draco rattled off another twenty or so reasons why Hermione was absolutely not going to come when he went to the Manor. She relented and assumed Malfoy was planning on going to the Manor during Christmas break. However, when she heard the common room door slam around midnight that night, she knew he had gone.

Soon the bracelet was tugging at her, urging her to find Malfoy. He was getting outside the bracelet's range. All she could feel was poorly disguised fear in small waves, until it was gone all together. Now her mind felt oddly empty, and she started pacing and talking aloud. She felt like a lunatic, but it distracted her from the hole in her chest.

"He's going to be ok. He's going to be fine. I've lost my sanity. Why did he have to leave?" she repeated the four sentences over and over again while she paced in her room until she started crying.

She wasn't sure why she was crying, but it had to do to with the wretched feeling in her chest, the place where the feelings from the ring used to be felt oddly empty. She sobbed, clutching at her chest hopelessly, trying to get back the security she felt when there was someone else's feelings there that kept her alert to her own.

She curled into a ball on the floor and her whole body shook with sobs until they suddenly stopped. She looked at the bracelet. She could feel small waves. Waves of something indiscernible, but it was bad. She could feel bad. As soon as the feelings became stronger, she started gasping. She couldn't breathe. She could feel pain. Mind-numbing, heart-wrenching physical pain.

And Malfoy stumbled into the room, his robes dripping something dark on the floor, and Hermione was on her feet, trying desperately to stay conscious, but for some reason she couldn't quite understand her vision was going dark and fuzzy around the edges. She swayed, but managed to stay on her feet until she could reach Draco and hug him close.

"What's wrong, Draco?" she asked hopelessly. "What did he do to you?"

Draco reached up and touched her face, leaving a streak of blood behind. There was a gash on his cheek but he was still perfect. He was still her Draco.

"He got to me, Mia," he whispered. "He knows. And he's going to get to you too." He staggered a little, and his breathing came in shorter breaths.

"Draco, he can't get me here," she said reassuringly. "I'll be ok, calm down. Breath for me, ok?"

Draco took a rattled breath, and his eyes rolled back in his head, and fell. Hermione felt the pain. All of the pain he had tried to keep hidden while conscious came at her like a steamroller and she fell to her knees with a piercing scream. How anyone could live through physical and emotional pain like this was beyond her, it was pure agony.

And before her vision went black, she saw the formidable figure of Professor McGonagall bending over her and Draco.

Draco awoke in the hospital wing and gasped loudly. His hands jumped to his chest as he struggled for breath. He looked down at his hands, and of course, the ring was gone. Hermione shot up next to him and reacted in much the same way, squeaking a little when she noticed the bracelet gone. Madam Pomfrey came around the curtain, looking hurried but calm, but stopped at the distressed sight of her two patients.

"Where are the ring and the bracelet?" Draco wheezed, his hands now on his throat.

"I believe I have what you're looking for," said a serene voice behind the curtain. And Dumbledore stepped around the curtain, holding the jewelry in his wizened hands. Hermione held out her hands for it instantly, tears running down her cheeks silently. Draco mirrored her, minus the tears.

Dumbledore kept his eyes on the jewelry, curious. "I would like to keep these for a little while to examine them," he said gently. "I would like to try to understand the magic that fuels them."

"Professor," Hermione whimpered. "Please. I need that bracelet." Dumbledore looked at her quizzically, and a few more tears ran down her cheeks. "Please."

He obliged, fastening the bracelet around her wrist and handing Draco the ring. The second the ring was secure, his burn mark on his palm burned fiercely, and she sobbed a little. He could feel her pain, and she could feel his. But the pain was so much better than feeling nothing.

"Curious," Dumbledore said, stroking his beard. "Very curious."