On a street named Whitmore in downtown London, there is music playing. It's coming, rather loudly, out of a third story window. Inside two girls are dancing around the living room in their pj's. There are sleeping bags on the floor, popcorn everywhere, and butter beer bottles scattered across the room. Near the television set lies several dvd's. Random movies, which makes it appear the two girls were up all night having a small movie party. The music stops and they each take a seat at the table in the near by kitchen.

" coffee?" Hermione asked Ginny.

" Oh jeez, yes please! If you expect me to go shopping with you today i will NEED some sort of propellent!" Ginny said, laughing.

The Daily Prophet sits in the middle of the table, untouched. As Hermione comes back to the table with the coffee cups and the kettle, Ginny grabs for the newspaper, reading the front page.

" Nothing again today" She says, throwing it back down on the table top.

Suddenly their conversation is cut in half by an owl at the window.

" Odd, i wonder who that could be" Hermione said, looking at Ginny as she shrugged back at her.

She crosses the room to the window , takes the letter, and giving the owl a point of toast from the table. Hermione opens the letter and begins to read, first to herself, then out loud amongst the strangeness of it all.

" My dearest ones.

I'm arriving at 1:15 today. Get dressed, I know you two had your

movie night last night and have probably just gotten up. I have company with me.

love-

Harry Potter

- Read page 6 of the Prophet, mostly because you need to, partially because

I know you haven't! "

Quickly Hermione joined Ginny at the table and flipped open the paper to page 6, to the Draco article. They sat there in almost complete silence for some time. They seemed to reread it several times. All they could must to say was " ohh!" and " what?". Hermione sat back in her chair, exhaling loudly. Looking at the clock it was 1.

" He'll be here soon, we should probably do as he says" She said to Ginny, who was still rereading the story for the 9th time.

They both rose and dressed quickly. Still in their rooms they heard the POP when Harry apparated just out side their door. There was a knock at the door

" Hey guys, i know you're here, let me in" Harry's voice came loudly from the other side of the door.

Ginny came running into the living room, just as Hermione exited her bedroom. Flinging the door open she jumped into Harry's arms, giving him a loving kiss and squeezing tightly.

As they entered the flat ginny turned to Harry and said " so, who's this guest?" putting her hands on her hips and looking around.

There was a gasp from Ginny, Hermione couldn't see past her to see what she was looking at. Stepping closer she heard Ginny say " holy shit, seriously?" Ginny stepped to the side and there he was. Looking quite handsome actually. Hermione could do nothing but stare at him. Unsure of what to make of him, memories of years past flooding her mind. She hated Draco Malfoy, and she always will. There was an awkward silence in the room for several long minutes.

Finally Ginny spoke, " So um,..yes, won't you come in!" closing the door behind her. They stepped into the living room, and she felt to cut the tension again." so HI! We've never been formally introduced. I'm Ginny."

Draco smiled and put out his hand, but ginny walked over and gave him a hug instead. Harry laughed at the face Draco made, Ginny pulled away, " what is it?"

Draco looked down at his feet, " oh it's..no,..it's nothing, no one's done that to me in a long time. I mean Crabbe and Goyle weren't exactly huggers."

Harry laughed, patting him on the back , " get used to it mate, we're hugging people "

Ginny and Draco laughed along with Harry, Hermione however turned on the spot and sat on the couch , arms crossed. Ginny walked over the fridge to get a few more butter beers, while Draco turned to Harry. " That was a little odd right?" he asked, a little confused.

" don't let it get to ya" Harry said, reassuringly," she's quick to trust and accept my judgement.She'll be ok with you, it's Hermione I'm worried about" He continued, looking over at her.

Sitting around the living room, Harry broke the silence once more. " We need to have everyone's cooperation in this" He said, throwing the red leather bound folder with the gold etching on it, on to the table.

" I've looked through this quite a bit, it's still kinda confusing, but I think we get the just of it" He ended, nodding at Draco, who nodded back.

" So what does it say" Ginny asked, leaning it to look better at the inscribed cover.

" Some, well..most of it, is in another language we can't understand. Voldemort used it with his death eaters as a secret code. That way only some of his most important minions knew what was going on, and those um, less important ones, could be easily disposed of." Draco started, glancing at Hermione and trying to smile at her.

Damnit how he wanted to smile at her.

He continued, "What we can figure out, is that Voldemort found a way of power transfer. Yes!" He said, pointing at Ginny as she made a face of understand " He knew how to transfer his power. When Harry killed Voldemort, every inch of power went from him, into one of his lower death eaters. Now we assume he originally was going to give it to Bellatrix. He loved her, in his way, but he would have needed a back up. And who was his right hand man...my father."

Hermione sat there, staring at Draco. She had seen him try to smile at her, and she felt so confused by all of this, then she spoke.

" But he's been arrested." she said dryly.

" Well, yes, he was, but I mean come on Hermione, " Harry was now addressing her, " Do you really think, with powers like that, even Azkaban will hold him for long? We think he's still there, bidding his time, figuring it all out. Or hell, maybe he doesn't even know yet. I can imagine not even trusting Lucius with this information."

Again they sat there in silence. Everyone going over their own thoughts. Harry and Ginny quickly rose when there was another POP out side the door.

" Must be Ron, I filled him in, we went there first. Didn't want him showing up here, wanting to beat the puss outta Draco." Harry said, putting his arm around Ginny, as they walked to the door.

Hermione didn't move. She just sat there, staring at him. And he stared right back. Like two poker players, not moving, not speaking, barely blinking. Finally she turned away from him, a tear coming down her cheek. Draco quickly leaped out of his seat and sat beside her. Taking her arm, rubbing his thumb back and forth on it, in comfort.

" I know this has to be extremely confusing for you. I know it is for me. But you need to know this, I don't care if you are going to ignore me. I'm sorry Hermione. More than you will ever know. And even if you don't want to look at me, talk to me that's fine. but I need you to know, I will NEVER hurt you again." He rose, and walked away, not even bothering to turn back.

Hermione could do nothing but look at the back of him, wondering whether or not she could even remotely trust him. She sat there watching as her friends talked and laughed with Draco, like he'd been one of them all along. One thing was for certain, she couldn't keep her eyes off of him.

Dusk came quickly, it seemed, that night.They all had been sitting around telling stories for so long they lost complete track of the time. Many times Draco felt the need to apologize profusely, and many times he was told his apology was already accepted and there was no need for dramatics anymore.

" So.." Ron yawned,.." who's hungry besides me? Anyone?" He stretched his arms as he looked around the room.

" You guys, wait a minute, if Lucius can escape at anytime, we're really not safe anymore." Hermione finally said something.

Standing up, she walked over to the group, who all stopped their joyful conversation to listen to her. " I can't handle another year of running around from place to place, sleeping in a damn tent everynight" she continued.

They all looked at eachother, then down at the floor, trying to come up with any sort of idea of a safe place.

" Well, we um..." Draco started," we can go to the manor. It's empty right now, and rather large with just me and my house elf staff there."

" Oh yeah! that's exactly where we want to go to hide from Lucius Malfoy, his own house!" Ron said, laughing loudly.

" You don't understand, I banished him from the family, i exiled him, he can't come back. Him nor my mother. And I have already had Harry help me charm the place over to protect it from other death eaters. It should be pretty well safe" Draco said firmly, looking at Harry for agreement.

" Yeah, actually" Harry paused in thought, " He's right, that would be the best place. Scary as it may sound, I think this is the best idea we've got, even if it's temporary."

Ginny looked up, " you're right. Harry's right. We know he is. And even if we're not fully ready to trust Draco, we know enough to trust Harry.I say we pack and go now, while time is on our side."

Ginny turned on her heel and headed for her room.Hermione on the other hand slowly walked, staring at her feet, towards her room, and quietly shut the door behind her.

" She'll be ok, I promise. It's just gonna take some time." Ron said, placing his hand on Draco's shoulder.

He turned and they both realized how uncomfortable this was and Ron edged backwards, " I'll go get packed up and meet back here in what, 20 minutes?" He said, looking at Harry

" Sounds good." Harry said back to him.

And with that, Ron was gone. Draco had an odd look on his face, glancing in the direction of Hermione's door.

" Really, she's gonna be ok." Harry said, getting Draco's attention.

He turned to Harry, a sad look across his eyes. " My reasons are my own.." He murmured to himself.

" What? what was that?" Harry said, straining to hear him.

" oh nothing" Draco said, " Hey I'll go on ahead and let the staff know to prepare some of the rooms. Should I have them make a room for Ginny and Hermione together, you know, maybe it'll make her feel better?" He asked Harry.

" Sure" Harry said with a smile, " I think that's a great idea!" Draco smiled and in a second, he was gone. On the other side of the room Hermione was peaking through the crack in the door. As she closed the door to resume packing, she smiled.

A/N Sorry if this chapter seems short. I have completely 15 pages already, and I was trying to stop this chapter at a good part. - Dazen