Disclaimer- I STILL don't own it!

A/N- Sorry if this chapters sucks as far as believable dialogue.

Chapter 16- Reunited

He slowly brought the silvery metal down, about to strike, then-

Let it clatter to the ground.

Draco's eyes widened in panic as he watched the knife fall, almost in slow motion, to the ground. When it hit, there was a sound like a gunshot, it clanged so loud. Hermione literally leapt off Draco.

"Wha-"

But she didn't have enough time to even finish her exclamation as the double doors to the library swung open and banged on either side of the walls. Lucius Malfoy was standing dead center, eyes wide and crazed.

"Have you done it Draco? Have you killed the-" Draco watched as his father stopped mid-sentence when he saw Hermione standing there, very much alive.

Hermione looked confused. Her eyes darted from Draco's pained face, to Lucius's furious one, then finally to the knife on the ground. Then Lucius's words finally registered to her. "You… you were going to kill me!" A purely shocked and disbelieving face gaped at Draco. He shook his head furiously, not knowing what to say.

"Were!" Lucius spat. "But he didn't, the filthy coward!" Then, another slim figure walked out from behind him. Bellatrix.

"Ickle Draco didn't follow through… why am I not surprised? The Dark Lord won't be pleased…" she taunted.

Neither Hermione nor Draco was paying attention to their words. Hermione was trembling. "You were going to stab me! That knife… after everything you did… you were going to kill me." She whispered the last part like she couldn't believe it.

"Yes, Mudblood! He was going to kill you! You thought, for one moment, that he wouldn't? He's a Death Eater, you fool!" Bellatrix cackled.

"No! Hermione, I-" Draco tried to step near her, but she jerked farther away, cowering against a wall.

"Don't lie to me, Malfoy!" Draco was genuinely hurt by this. "I listened to you, I trusted you. And you were going to- to murder me, like any other muggle-born that you and your Death Eater friends find! I was nothing to you. I was dirt, just like the rest of my kind! And I can't believe I was…" she shook her head, not finishing her sentence.

Lucius frowned at her words. "You trusted my son? Draco, what has been going on between the two of you?"

Draco ignored him. "Hermione, I wouldn't kill you! They told me to, but I dropped the knife! I would never kill you, I couldn't…" He took one step closer to her, and she couldn't retreat any further, she was pressed against the wall.

Hermione was in a blind rage now. "You couldn't?" she shrieked. "Don't lie to me! Here: give me one good reason why you wouldn't, Draco. One good, believable reason why you wouldn't kill me!"

Draco didn't bother to register that his father and aunt were still in the room, and Lord Voldemort was probably waiting outside, that Harry Potter was somewhere in this house, that there were people in his dungeons, waiting to be released. He ignored all of that, and leaned in to Hermione. He grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and looked straight in her watering brown eyes. "One good reason?" he whispered. "Because I love you." And without waiting for a response, he leaned in and kissed her full on the lips.

Hermione didn't realize what was happening at first, all she could think of was that Draco was finally kissing her, and that this was what she had been waiting for for so long. Then it registered that this man had just tried to kill her, and she pushed him off. She didn't, however, make him let go of her waist.

"What the bloody hell was-" But she didn't have a chance to finish, as someone had just stepped into the room. Draco whipped his head around, and pulled out his wand, but not before the figure shot a spell at the two of them, blasting each to a separate side of the room. It was Voldemort.

"Well, wasn't that sweet?" He smiled in a sick way. "But I'm not a person for romantic moments. Incarcerous!" Thick ropes spiraled out of his wand and bound their way around Draco and Hermione, preventing them from further movement.

"Bella, take them down to the dungeons. Cell three. I will take them from there." Voldemort turned to Lucius, who was staring at his son in utter surprise, fury, and disgust. "Grab Dolohov. Tell him we need… heir production. He'll know what I mean."

Lucius bowed, sent his son one last disgusted glare, then scampered out of the room.

Bellatrix cackled as she pulled out her wand and jerked the two bound prisoners into the air. Then she snatched their wands. "I knew from the beginning you were just as filthy as her kind." She sneered. "I was just waiting for proof." And with that, she walked away, carefully bumping them into the wall as she exited.

Draco desperately tried to catch Hermione's eye as they floated along the hallway, slamming into things as they went by. With the few glances he could get, he noticed that her eyes were as big as rabbit's, she was obviously frightened. He didn't know why he wasn't- perhaps it was because he was currently being imprisoned by his own family- but even the fact that he might soon be killed didn't faze him. He had finally kissed Hermione. He had finally been able to tell her he loved her. And that was all that mattered.

After a long trip through the Manor, Bellatrix finally came to a halt in the dungeon. Draco's eyes watered at the stench, but Hermione was unfazed. After all, not too long ago, she was imprisoned in here herself.

"Well, into the cage you go!" Bellatrix jerked her wand forward, and both Hermione and Draco were slammed into the far wall. "Finite Incantatem." They dropped to the floor and were released from their bindings.

"Apparently, the Dark Lord will honor you with his presence shortly. Until then-" Bellatrix slammed the mesh caging door to their cell shut with a cackle.

Shaking his head clear, Draco looked around the cage and saw Hermione huddled in the opposite corner. Her chocolate brown eyes were like orbs in the dark, darting back and forth, scanning Draco's face, trying to decide what to make of him.

"Hermione?" He inched forward to her, and she recoiled.

"You tried to kill me," she whispered. "and then you kissed me. You almost stabbed me, and then you say you love me."

Draco nodded slowly.

"What am I to make of that?"

"I only meant the last two, Hermione. I didn't want to kill you. It wasn't my choice."

Hermione blinked twice, slowly. "I want to believe you."

"Hermione, if I honestly wanted to kill you, you'd be dead by now."

"Not necessarily. Everyone knows what a coward you are- that's the only reason I'm alive right now. You were too scared to kill me." Hermione spat.

Draco couldn't deny it- that hurt. But he knew she was wrong. "No. You're wrong. I've already told you the reason you're alive right now. Hermione, I love you."

And Hermione couldn't help it any longer. She threw herself at Draco, grabbed him around the neck, and kissed him again. It was similar to their first: rushed because of their situation, and expressing apology, but full of love nevertheless.

Hermione released him. He looked surprised, but was grinning widely. Hermione pulled him close and whispered in his ear. "I'm sorry. I wanted to believe you, but you know…"

"I don't blame you."

"I love you." This time, Draco leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, then buried his hands in her wavy hair.

Suddenly, the iron bars to their cell swung up and banged like a gunshot against the ceiling. The two broke apart.

"Well, we can't seem to just keep our hands off each other, now can we?" The pale face of Voldemort leered in the shadows. He was clutching a goblet in his hands, and stirring it with a small spoon. "That'll be taken care of soon enough."

Draco grabbed Hermione and placed himself in front of her, as if saying to take him rather than her. Voldemort merely laughed.

"Oh no, I won't be killing your Mudblood girlfriend anytime soon, Draco. Well, originally, that was my plan. I was going to painfully murder both of you." He looked wistfully as the ceiling, as if he were still longing to hear their pained screaming. "But then I came up with a better plan. I couldn't just waste you both away like that, especially when you could be so… useful. You see, I know things, Draco. For instance, I know that the Mudblood here was top in your class. And I know that you were trailing right behind her. I can't just throw away brains like that, now can I? I can appreciate brains like that."

He paused his little speech for a moment to stir his the contents of his goblet. "So I decided, before I kill you both, I'll make you useful to me. Fortunately for you, it means I can't kill you for nearly a year. But that can helped along- after all, we have magic, don't we?"

Draco gave Hermione a feverant look as Voldemort stirred his drink one more time before discarding the spoon. A puff of smoke came up from the goblet in a spiral. "It's done." He stalked into the cage, and walked up to Draco. Carefully, he plucked one fine blonde hair from his head and dropped it into the drink. Then he loomed before Hermione. She looked like prey caught in a corner by a predator. Voldemort shoved the goblet towards her.

"Drink!" he hissed.

Hermione didn't know what to do. Draco was sending her pleading looks, telling her to just do what he said. Voldemort was holding up the goblet, and he would kill her if she didn't drink it. Something inside her told her not to, because of course, this was the most evil wizard in the world, offering he a drink. But despite this, she knew there was no way out, so she grabbed the goblet and drank.

It was a nasty flavor at first, then it tasted like milk, then like bile. She scrunched up her face. She had never heard of this potion's odd mix before, despite all her studying. When she was done, she felt like a stone had been dropped in her stomach, and then it was gone. It was the strangest feeing.

"Well, I see no point of keeping you away from the others. It'll probably just give you one more reason to want to escape again. And that won't be good. Then I'll have to kill you." Voldemort put on a fake frown. "So, here." He raised his wand and dissolved the wall between Draco and Hermione and Ginny, Neville, Luna and Ron. They gasped.

"I'll just leave then- I'm not one for happy reunions." Voldemort left, slamming the door behind him.

"Hermione?" A voice rasped from across the room. "Is that you?"

"Ginny!" Hermione darted across the room and tackled the girl in a hug. "Oh, I thought I'd never see you again!"

Another much larger pair of arms wrapped around the girls. "Hermione…"

"Ron!" They stood there for a moment, before releasing each other.

"Hello Hermione." Luna said in a musical tone.

"Hi Luna! Neville!" Another two hugs.

Suddenly, Ron frowned. "Who's that?" He pointed to where Draco was waiting, leaning against the wall.

"It's me, Weasel- Draco Malfoy? Ring a bell?" Draco couldn't help but be rude. He knew that Ron had had a massive crush on Hermione back at school.

"You!" Ron snarled. He lunged forward, but was stopped by Hermione's gentle hand on his arm.

"Don't."

"Why not? That's Malfoy, Hermione, he works with the people who tried to kill us!" Ron was utterly confused.

"I know that, Ron." Hermione walked to Draco and grabbed his hand. "But he's changed. He's the reason I'm alive right now."

"And the reason you almost died." Draco added in an undertone.

"Shut up." She mumbled back. "I'm trying to make you sound nice."

Luna smiled at them. "Are you two dating?"

Hermione went bright red. Truth be told, she hadn't really thought about that.

"Dating?" Ron yelled. "Luna, what the hell gave you that idea?"

Luna shrugged gently. "Little things. Look- the way he holds her hand, they way they whisper to each other."

Draco looked smug. "Well, as a matter of fact Weasley, we are."

Hermione looked startled. "We are?"

"Well, we are now."

"Wait- what's going on here?" Ginny interrupted.

"Yeah, we're missing a lot." Neville said. He was pale.

Ron didn't say anything. He was too busy gaping. "Dating… him?"

"It's a rather long story. Why don't we sit down?" Hermione offered, waving her hand at the grimy ground. They followed her suggestion. "Well, it started with me being released from this place…"

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

Harry crouched even lower, back cramping from the uncomfortable position he was in, due to the fact he was currently in a tree.

Narcissa Malfoy's garden, now dying due to the lack of any care whatsoever, proved itself a wonderful hiding space as Harry plotted his next move. He had realized upon arriving at the Manor that he should have made a plan before coming. But it was too late for such things, so he was planning now.

He saw a quick way to the dungeons, but he needed to use magic to dig the tunnel. He saw a wonderful way to approach through the windows, but he needed to float. Of course, there was always the wonderful option of walking right through the front door, but that probably the best idea, considering Lord Voldemort would be waiting right behind it.

Although that could work… just walk right in. Not necessarily the front door, but there were many doors to the Manor- he just had to pick one.

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

"You nearly stabbed her?" Ginny shrieked. She had been huddled on the ground, along with the other three, listening to Draco and Hermione's story.

"Nearly! Nearly is the key word." Draco said. "But I didn't! So then my father bursts into the room, and sees that she's not dead."

"Then Bellatrix came. Well, I was, of course, upset that Draco had tried to kill me, so I confronted him. I asked for him to give me one good reason why he wouldn't kill me. And then… well, and then… he kissed me." She mumbled the last part, face gleaming bright red.

"He did!" Ginny squealed. Strangely, she wasn't upset about the new couple before her.

"Wait- what?" Ron yelled. "He did what?"

"I kissed her, Weasel! Get over it." Draco looked as smug as always. Hermione smacked his arm. "Stop it!"

"What next?" asked Luna.

Draco answered this time. "Well, Voldemort walked in."

"He did?" Neville said in astonishment. "You faced Voldemort?"

"Well, sort of. He just brought us here." Hermione said. "Then he gave me a potion."

"He did?" Ginny said feverently. "What was it?"

"That's the thing," Hermione said. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Ron said. "But you're Hermione Granger! Top of our class! You know everything!"

"I have no idea about this one though… I didn't exactly get to- "

"Merlin!" Hermione spun around. It was Draco. No one noticed when he had abandoned their conversation and began to trace his fingers across the wall.

"What?" Hermione rushed to his side, Ginny and Ron close behind.

"This cell… I know how to get out!"

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

A/N- Thanks for the reviews! Yes, there will be a sequel, and there is a title. Maybe I'll tell you a bit about it if you review… :) Thanks!

~Potato