Disclaimer- This morning I looked in the mirror to check again. Nope, I wasn't blonde. Nope, I wasn't 30 years older. Nope, I wasn't British. Dang, I'm still not JK Rowling.

A/N- Hope you like!

And THANKS to all my reviewers, favoriters, and story alerters. You guys are the best. You make my day. (Especially reviewers. Hint hint.)

Chapter 9- At the Worst Times

The room was dark. Very dark. A blonde figure was stumbling to find the large chair in which his master sat.

"My Lord?"

"Hello Lucius." The unmistakably cold voice of Lord Voldemort rang throughout the room.

Lucius knelt before his master. "My Lord?" he repeated.

"I have called you here to discuss a few things alone. I have sent, as you may have noticed, the rest of the Death Eaters to the Zabini Ball. I presume that is where your son is?"

"Of course."

"Good. Now, it has been about two weeks since I sent the Mudblood to you. I told you that she was to be killed by Draco." He paused. "This deed is to be done soon."

Lucius opened his mouth, but Voldemort held up one pale finger, silencing him.

"Now, I am going to tell you something I have not yet told anyone: I have found the whereabouts of Potter. How? I put a charm on the horcrux that he found that would signal to me where he was when he destroyed it. Now, I couldn't just very well Apparate there, because he would leave, no? So I sent him a letter. This letter included everything he needed to know about his imprisoned friends. And I know Potter will respond to this letter.

"Potter is going to come here. I warned him that if he doesn't in the next 2 weeks, his friends are dead. Painfully murdered. And Potter's not going to ignore that. So when he comes, I will kill him. But before we have that fun, I want him to watch his friends get murdered. Because it's not like we were going to keep them alive anyway.

"So Draco is going to kill the Mudblood. He has always had cold feet when it comes to murder, and we are going to cure him of that. As quickly as possible. Understood Lucius?" Voldemort finished.

"Understood, my Lord."

"You are dismissed."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The next week was a bitter reminder for Hermione of the months that she and her two best friends had endured when looking for the other 7 horcruxes. Both her and Draco had tirelessly searched the entire forest for the pillow, and it seemed as if every day was another fruitless attempt. She was becoming discouraged. And it was difficult to become encouraged again when you're alone in the middle of the forest, looking for a missing pillow, and kicking random trees out of anger.

"Stupid…horcrux!" Hermione kicked another tree. She was tired of all of this. She had had enough stress, worry, and pain for a lifetime. But it seemed like all life did was give her exactly what she didn't want. She had dealt with that, all of that, until now.

Ever since their late night conversation, things had reached a climax of awkwardness between Hermione and Draco. They talked on and off, but Hermione had never before longed so much for a real conversation.

Not that she wanted to talk to Draco. But at the same time, she did. Lately, she'd been contradicting herself. She wouldn't ever admit it, but he was interesting to talk to. At the same time, however, he was quite infuriating to talk to. Sometimes he would want to argue, or vent, and sometimes he really seemed intelligent, like he had a heart. It was different than anything Hermione had seen from him at Hogwarts.

But then again, he was a Death Eater, albeit an ex-Death Eater, but one nevertheless. He had proved to her that he wasn't loyal to them, but something just kept whispering from the back of Hermione's mind, telling her that he wasn't who he said he was. Maybe it was because she didn't want to trust him. Something about him made her not want to trust in him, and she almost wanted to distance herself from him. Something made her scared to get too close. Something… And she didn't know what.

She was a raging mess of emotions. So she was kicking trees.

"Stupid… emotions…" she kicked another tall tree, and she could hear the hollow thump from within. Wait… A hollow thump?

Hermione walked up to the tree. It was tall, very old. She kicked it again. Yep, very hollow. This wasn't right. She ran her palm up and down the tree's wrinkled bark, looking for any little opening. Suddenly, her fingers caught on a small nook in the wood. She tugged, and a carved little door in the middle of the tree's trunk opened. There, inside the hollowed out trunk, was a tiny loveseat pillow.

Hermione gasped. It had seemed almost too easy, but she wasn't complaining. "DRACO!" she called. "DRACO, I FOUND IT!" She waited a moment, searching, in the dim forest light, for any sign of her blonde companion. Giving up, she turned back to the pillow. "Guess I'll just have to bring you back with me."

Just as she said this, she heard the crunching of leaves behind her.

"Draco, look I-" Hermione twirled around, only to stop dead in her words.

I wasn't Draco at all. It was a hooded man. A Death Eater.

It seemed like they always turned up at the worst times.

A/N- Hello! I hoped you liked this chapter, and I just want to apologize for the very cliché moment at the end of the last chapter. I couldn't help myself, I've never written that one before. Anyway…

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~Potato