Hello my lovely readers! It has been 3 years since I last updated this story and I want to apologize. I let this story get pushed to the wayside in lieu of other stories. But now I'm picking it back up and will be taking turns between this one and 'Saving My Destined One'.

Two points that I have to point out, is how adorable is a slightly grumpy Draco? :) And the other thing is that I find it awesome that my name is in the Harry Potter books! Leanne (my real name is spelled different though) is not a really common name, so I find it cool! Anyway, on to the story, I hope you enjoy it! It's starting to get more drama-filled and slightly darker.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, as cool as that would be… :)

The sun was shining brightly when Hermione woke up the next day. Trying to sit up she found a pair of strong arms wrapped around her, preventing her from moving. Resigning herself to staying in bed, she studied Draco. In sleep he was so relaxed and innocent and not to mention his eyelashes! As a girl she was incredibly drawn to and jealous of them. Smiling, she was content to watch him until he woke up. As that thought entered her mind, the boy in question started stirring. One eye popped open and he took in the sight of his girlfriend gazing at him.

"You know, as much as I enjoy that you enjoy looking at me, it's kind of embarrassing," Draco mumbled, turning his face into the pillow.

Hermione chuckled, "Then wake up sleepyhead!"

He scowled and tried to pull the comforter over his head, "I don't want to, it's too bloody early!"

"It's 8 o'clock."

"It's still too early," Draco replied his voice muffled from under the comforter.

She smiled at his antics, "I'm guessing you're not a morning person, are you?"

"What made you get that idea?"

"Well then I guess you need a reason to like mornings," Hermione replied as she grabbed the comforter and pulled it off his head. Before he had a chance to grab the blanket and yank it back, she leaned down and gave him a gentle kiss. As she started to pull back, Draco grabbed her and pulled her back to him and kissed her again. After a few minutes, he let her pull back, smiling at her flushed cheeks.

"If that's how mornings start, then I'm sure I'd like them a whole lot more," he said, grinning up at her, "Anyway, we should probably get up, I couldn't go back to sleep after something like that."

With another kiss, Hermione left his room to get dressed in her own. Smiling happily, she thought about how different he was from how she thought he had been. She had never been so happy to be wrong in her life. When she was done getting dressed, she met Draco in their common room.

"Shall we go? I want to eat breakfast before the trip to Hogsmeade."

The pair made their way to breakfast, making it there before many other students.

"Do you want to sit at my table with me?" Draco asked hesitantly.

"Sure!"

As they were eating, Ron and Harry came down and noticed that their best friend was sitting elsewhere. Stuffing food in his mouth, Ron mumbled, "It feels like we're losing her to Malfoy, doesn't it?"

"Don't worry Ron, she's not going to forget us just because she dating the ferret," Harry replied, trying to be the sensible one.

"If you say so," Ron said skeptically as the two of them watched the couple leave.

Draco and Hermione stopped by their rooms to get their things for their trip to Hogsmeade. As Draco was getting his things, he heard a tapping at the window. He opened it and his family's owl, Ignatius flew in and held out his leg to Draco. He took the note and Ignatius flew back out. Opening the note, he read:

Shrieking Shack at noon, don't be late!

There was no signature, but Draco didn't need one to know that it was from his father. His father didn't waste time on being polite; instead he preferred to get straight to the point. Rereading the note, Draco sighed, he had been looking to his first Hogsmeade visit with Hermione. As he grabbed his things and met up with Hermione, all he could think of was how he was dreading meeting with his father and telling him how he hadn't been working on the mission.

Noticing his silence, Hermione asked, "Are you okay?"

Her question breaking him out of his thoughts, Draco smiled, "Yea, I'm okay, just thinking."

"Good," she replied, grabbing his hand and dragging him out the carriages that would take them to Hogsmeade.

The first place they went to was Honeydukes, where Hermione learned of Draco's secret sweet tooth. His favorites were anything with chocolate, which made her laugh, since she had never pegged him for a chocoholic.

"How many packages of chocolate frogs are you buying," Hermione asked laughingly, as she watched him drop a bunch of chocolate frogs on top of the growing pile of sweets.

Giving her a look, Draco replied, "One can never have enough chocolate, my dear."

Her reply was to shake her head and laugh, as he finally stopped his stockpile and paid for it. After the clerk had bagged it up, the pair left lugging the large bag along with them.

As they were walking through the town, Draco spotted a new shop called Magic Trinkets that sold jewelry. He yanked on Hermione's arm and dragged her into the shop.

"May I help you?" A shopkeeper asked, walking over to the pair.

Draco set his bag of chocolate down and replied, "Yes, I want to get my girlfriend something."

Hermione blushed at his words…it was still so strange to hear him telling other people that they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

"I understand, we have many rings, necklaces and bracelets," the shopkeeper prattled on, removing items from the display cases and setting them on the counter. But Draco's eyes were drawn to a silver heart shaped locket with etched intertwining hearts with the word "Forever" etched across the hearts.

"That one," he said, point to the locket, "and please engrave our names on the inside, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy."

"Right away sir," the shopkeeper replied, hurrying away to do what he had been asked.

In a few moments, the shopkeeper came back with the locket and Draco paid for it and thanked the shopkeeper. Turning to Hermione, he gestured for her to turn around. After he had fastened in, he gently removed her hair from the circle of the necklace and brushing her hair aside he placed a quick kiss on the back of her neck.

"Um, Draco…" Hermione's voice was shy and when he turned her around her face was bright red.

Chuckling a bit at her innocent reaction, Draco gave her a quick peck on the cheek, "Let's get out of here and get something to eat."

The two made their way to The Three Broomsticks and settled at a table. After they had ordered two butterbeers and their lunch, Draco excused himself to use the restroom.

Draco snuck out of the restroom and cast a Disillusionment charm on himself, which allowed him to sneak out of The Three Broomsticks without Hermione seeing him. He felt bad for lying to Hermione, but he couldn't exactly tell her where he was going.

He made it to the Shrieking Shack at exactly noon and true to his word, his father was there.

"How is the mission you were assigned to complete going?" Lucius Malfoy drawled, without even so much as a greeting for his son.

Draco fidgeted, "It's been unsuccessful, father, Dumbledore is a hard wizard to get close to."

"I see…and your lack," Lucius paused, "couldn't possibly be because of the filthy Mudblood you have associated yourself with, now could it?"

"Don't call her that!" Draco snarled.

Drawing out his wand, Lucius caressed it, "Well well well, it looks like you have it bad, Draco. I shall have to teach you a lesson on cavorting with Mudbloods! Crucio!"

He fell to the ground and Draco gritted his teeth as the curse overtook him in an effort to not make a sound. But soon the pain became so unbearable and he cried out, his body thrashing around uncontrollably. The pain eased and Draco drew in a shaky breath, but his father wasn't finished.

"Crucio! Mudbloods are not worth our time, you have a mission and this filthy girl is distracting you from it! I would spend more time focusing on what you are supposed to be doing or else the girl may find something worse than torture happening to her."

Lucius stopped the curse and stood over Draco as he took shallow breaths and tried to recover from the Unforgivable curse. Reaching into his pocket with his gloved hand, Lucius pulled out a necklace. Pointing his wand at it and the necklace was wrapped in a paper and tied with a string.

"Since you claim Dumbledore is such a difficult man to get close to, you are to find different tactics," Lucius said, "Find a way to get this to Dumbledore and you'll prove that you aren't a total waste of my time."

Lucius tossed the package at Draco and left. The blond haired boy picked it up, his hand shaking; he really didn't want to do this. But what choice did he have? He would do anything to keep Hermione from getting hurt, even if it meant destroying any chance he had of being happy with her.

Casting another Disillusionment charm on himself, he made his way back to The Three Broomsticks. Still under the charm, he made his way close to Madame Rosmerta and whispered, "Imperio!"

Making his way to the back, he bade the woman to follow. Once they were away from prying eyes, he gave her the package and commanded her to pass it on to one of the Gryffindor students to give to Dumbledore. His part of the plan accomplished, he made his way to the restroom and canceled the Disillusionment charm. Before making his way back out to the table, Draco cast a quick cleaning spell on himself, and made his way back to Hermione.

"What took you so long? I was worried!" Hermione exclaimed as she saw Draco and ran up and gave him a hug.

Draco hugged her back, feeling guilty and lied again, "I was feeling a bit peaky, I think we should go back to the castle and have Madame Pompfrey give me a stomachache cure."

"Okay," she replied concerned, but didn't say anymore. Following him out, Hermione was behind him when she heard a commotion. Katie Bell was suspended in the air, her arms outstretched and her mouth open in a scream. Her friend Leanne was crying, trying to pull her cursed friend down. Suddenly Katie collapsed to the ground, her body twitching uncontrollably.

"Move it," the rough voice of Hagrid bellowed, pushing through the crowd of onlookers. Carefully, he wrapped the necklace in the packaging and put it in his pocket. Then gathering the convulsing girl in his arms, he made his way to the castle.

Draco watched the scene in mute horror, things weren't supposed to have worked out like this. As Hermione and Draco made their way to the castle, he felt sick to his stomach and didn't have to lie about not feeling well. But instead of going to the hospital wing, Draco made his way to his room claiming that all he needed to do was lie down for a bit. Once behind closed doors, he cast a locking spell on his door, a silencing charm and broke down.

On the other side of the door, Hermione stood in anxious concern for her boyfriend. Something had changed today and she wasn't sure what it was exactly, but it was causing Draco worry and pain. Or maybe she had misread it and he really wasn't feeling well and she should leave him alone for now. Sighing, she decided to trust him and hoped he felt better quickly. Making her way to her own room, Hermione closed the door and started studying. It was the only thing that could distract her from the current situation and even then it didn't completely take her mind away from the present.

Oh and just if anyone is wondering and hasn't read the revised Author Note in chapter 2, this story takes place in the seventh year but has the plot lines from both the Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows. So please let me know what you think, especially how my writing is since I might have improved or changed styles since last updating. Thanks!