So, I'm assuming the general majority of readers liked my first chapter, since I didn't get any complaints, even if I only got a few reviews. So here's a new piece for you. I STILL DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. Depressing.
"'Ermione, I think you are overreacting," Fleur put in hastily. Hermione guessed that the pureblooded Delacour's were relatives of the Malfoy's, and even if distant, Fleur wasn't a fan of the idea of his death. She would especially hate murder in her own home.
"Why not? He's a fricking Death Eater; we've seen his Mark plenty of times. All he is is a waste of space, food and time to watch and keep under control. Don't tell me none of you thought about it even for a slight second. We've got an ocean outside to do the job." Many of the other guests of the cottage looked away guiltily, but Luna stepped forward.
"I didn't. He could be of some use, information or help or something. He was the only nice one back at the Manor, especially when we needed kindness." She grasped Dean's hand, which was shaking from a bad memory. "He's not a good Death Eater, is he, if he snuck us food and refused to kill Dumbledore?"
Dean added his own thoughts in, "He was the only one who wouldn't curse us. Even his mother cast a few nasty jinxes at us. Not as bad as that lunatic Lestrange woman or Malfoy Senior, but he kept his wand pointed away from us." The he was directed to Draco, who was keeping his eyes warily on Hermione. She was the one he didn't trust. Potty and Weasel hadn't had to deal with him calling them Mudblood like she had and he had felt her wrath before- sharply across his cheek.
"I'm going for a swim. I need to think." She announced to the group. "When I come back I'll decide." She disappeared up the stairs for a moment, then returned to the room. "Where's my wand?"
Harry glanced down. "The Death Eaters took them, remember? But we got these, pick one." He held out two wands, one hawthorn and one walnut. She took the smaller of the two; she could practically feel the hate radiating from the walnut. Draco twitched as she tested the hawthorn wand, which made her smirk.
"Filthy Mudblood's got your wand, huh. That'll eat away at your lack of a soul." He ignored her, so she disappeared back up the stairs and transfigured her clothes into a bikini and a sheet into a towel. She wrapped the towel around her upper half, but it stopped a quarter of the way down her thighs and showed too much leg for her.
She stomped back down to the front door, blissfully unaware of the male eyes that followed her legs, and walked down to the water. She dropped her towel, then waded in waist deep. The water wasn't cold; after all she'd gone swimming in the lake in the middle of winter with Krum. She needed to cool off anyways; it wouldn't do her good to make a rash decision about Malfoy.
Back inside, Potter had begun talking to the group. "She won't do it. So let's start working on patrols to watch him, where he'll stay and Hermione can brew some Veritaserum to question him. That ought to distract her for long enough." Draco rolled his eyes. He had his own opinions, but he'd rather see Granger's jaw hit the floor when he said them rather than just these idiots.
He didn't have to wait too long, as she was back in within ten minutes. She dried her hair off with the towel and he tried to avoid staring at her legs, which had a couple drops of water still glistening, and her stomach, both of which were tanned nicely. But he didn't manage to resist peeking towards her chest, where her swimsuit top wasn't leaving much to the imagination. Draco may have been a pureblood, but hell, he was a teenage boy first.
"I'm going to start by listing reasons why he doesn't deserve to live." Hermione started smugly. "One, he's a Death Eater. Two, he's been a jerk to us since first year. Three, he's a murderer. Maybe not Dumbledore, but I'm sure he had plenty of chances to redeem himself after that, killing little Muggles and more FILTHY MUDBLOODS for the ministry." She took a moment to compose herself, since she'd been shaking.
"Four, he gave us away back at the Manor-"
"No he didn't." Everyone's eyes snapped back to Draco who was speaking for the first time. "In fact, I specifically remember him saying 'I don't know' and 'I can't be sure.' As to claim one, what would you have done after your dear father told you if you didn't join up, your mother would be the Dark Lord's next target. Second, you weren't particularly kind in Hogwarts either. I offered my friendship to Potter when we first met and he declined. Third, I have never killed anything. Ever. Finally, you lot should hear me out before you go dumping bodies in the bloody ocean. Maybe the snake wasn't playing the hero and was being selfish, looking for an escape from the Dark Lord's clutches. Or for an escape from casting and receiving the Cruciatus curse and plenty of others."
Everyone fell silent at that. Hermione remembered that Draco had cast the Cruciatus on another Death Eater in one of Harry's dreams and se knew the Malfoy's weren't high up in Voldemort's ranks, after 5th year, but this? Hurting Draco must have been punishment to his parents, and like he'd said, Narcissa Malfoy's life would have been threatened to make sure he went through with Voldemort's plans. Luna, Fleur, Dean and Dobby all left the room at Harry's look, but since Bill was a member of the Order, he stayed. This affected any of the group's plans and he would need to report to them after.
"What do you want to do, Hermione?" Sure Harry was the face of the rebellion, the name everyone saw as the leader of the group, but everyone close to them knew that Hermione was in charge. She made the decisions, and Malfoy's fate would rest with her.
"We'll keep him. I think Luna was right to say we could get information from him. He might know where one of the you-know-what's is and we could put protection spells on him, I think I know one that would severely cripple him if he came near us with thoughts of harming us and it's pretty good. It doesn't work if he's not seriously planning on anything. We can do burning wand spells; if he puts his hand near them they'll give him serious burns. I'll be in charge of watching him."
"You guys can stay here. We're gonna send Luna back to her father; don't worry, we've put what's left of the house under a Fidelius Charm and Dean's going to Aunt Muriel's with Mr. Ollivander. She'll be a bitch about his blood status, but she won't do anything to him. She's one of us blood traitors. You and Malfoy can take the guest bedroom Mr. Ollivander's in, Hermione. Ron and Harry will be in the smaller one. You can put a Locking Charm on the room so Malfoy can only leave when one of us is with him."
"I'm not going to try anything stupid. The whole point of me jumping onboard your ship was to escape the Death Eaters."
Hermione gasped all of a sudden and pointed the wand at Draco. It was being temperamental, after all it was turned on its master, but it cast the spell for her. He was enveloped in a faint violet glow for a moment and she explained what she had done to the group; a variation of the Lip Locking Jinx. "His lips will freeze up if he try's to say You-Know-Who's name, so the Taboo can't be activated and bring every Death Eater here. They got past the spells on our tent last time, they might be able to get through the Fidelius and I wanted to be sure that didn't happen."
Draco sighed mentally. It would take a lot to get these bloody idiots to believe him. He could show them memories, but he highly doubted they had a Pensieve at hand. The Weasley's weren't known for their wealth. He would have to stick it out for a while until they formed some level of trust for him. If they ever did, he really couldn't blame them if they didn't. He had the Dark Mark burning on his left arm and that was reason enough.
Voila! Roughly three Microsoft-Word-sized pages of utter perfection. *Winks* Sort of like the writer, but not as good. Unfortunately I only have two reviews on my previous chapter and I was hoping for three to post this chapter, but even if I don't have that many I'm posting it this Thursday, the 3rd. I think. And for anyone who reads these little notes I want to recommend you to another author who's a really good friend of mine, and her stories get very few reviews. I kept promising to mention her in Unique, but that story's on hold so I'm saying it her: Go check out xFantasyLoverx, especially her HP story You're Mine. And while I'm on recommendations, From A Table Away by Sunny Sweeney and Hello World by Lady Antebellum. I cried during the Hello World video, and From A Table Away touches me cause it's about a cheater, and that brings up bad memories. I'd also like to say that I think this is the longest Author's Note I've done.