So very sorry about the delay!

By dinner, Hermione was on the end of her tether. People accusing her of endangering lives, belittling her for her affiliation with Draco, and generally making school miserable, had constantly interrupted her first week of classes. Blaise had fielded disrupting students when he was around, but mostly she had been on her own with Harry, who was dividing his time between her and Ron.

She pushed her empty plate away with a sigh. "This is impossible."

Blaise shrugged, cutting his ham pensively. "I hardly see that. I thought today went well."

"Have you noticed how radioactive we are?"

"Radioactive?"

She gestured around them. There were several spaces between them and the other students at their table. He chewed his ham slowly, aggravating her to the point that she chucked a biscuit at him.

"That's mature," he muttered, setting down his silverware to fix her with a dark look. "Getting upset is not going to help anyone, especially Draco."

"What do you want me to do, Blaise? They keep saying all of these things-"

"And the great Hermione Granger cares what people say?" He chuckled darkly. "The girl who wore her muggle heritage like a badge of honor when it could get her killed is suddenly letting a few dirty words get her riled up? Draco would be so disappointed."

She scowled at him but found no reply. She noticed him glance over at the Ravenclaw table and smiled.

"You're cute."

"Do not start, Granger."

"I'm just saying. You were all over Draco about me and you're-"

"What, Granger?" His eyes narrowed. "What exactly am I doing?"

She shrugged. "Absolutely nothing."

His face returned to its former barely pleasant self and he picked up his silverware. "That's what I thought. Besides, talking about my own preferences hardly solves your abundance of issues."

Harry came over, sitting down beside her. "I heard you and Celeste got into it."

"That little tart-"

"Granger, what did we just talk about?" Blaise muttered. "Lord, you have issues with listening."

"Hermione, you can't be getting into rows with Celeste every time she says something unbecoming."

"She called me a whore."

"Then you tell one of us and we'll handle her."

"I can handle myself!"

"Your wand still hasn't come yet. She could seriously hurt you."

Hermione shook her head. "I'm so sick of this! Celeste is being a royal bint, Nott's being a prat, and Draco…he is still gone and nobody will tell me where he is!"

Blaise stood abruptly. "I do not have time for you anymore. Your self-pity is deplorable, Granger. If you are going to wallow in your misery, then fine. This is one trip to hell I will not be signing on to. Potter, as much as I hate to give advice, I suggest you do the same."

She watched him walk away with some trepidation. "Have I really been that insufferable, Harry?"

"You're in a bad place. It's understandable."

"Me being in a bad place is what got me into this mess in the first place." She sighed. "I'm so sorry, Harry. For all of this. You shouldn't be involved-"

"I think I said the same thing to you last year," he said with a smile. "Don't worry. This will blow over and people will lose interest. Then everything will go back to normal."

"I hope so, Harry. I am so sick of losing my appetite."

He hugged her tightly. "It will be okay. I promise."

An owl swooped in, landing in front of the Headmistress. She took the proffered letter and read its contents with an ever-deepening frown. Gesturing for Professor Slughorn to follow, she left the Great Hall in a hurry. Students started murmuring amongst themselves, craning their necks to look into the Entrance Hall. McGonagall and Slughorn were in a severe conversation, McGonagall having shown Slughorn the letter. Slughorn seemed to be suggesting something to which McGonagall agreed, but she gestured to the letter and then into the Great Hall with a dark look. Their conversation was cut short by Hagrid coming in from outside. He gestured to something outside and the three went out. Immediately every student rushed to the windows, peering out to see what was going on. A carriage sat at the base of the stairs and two Ministry officials stood outside it. McGonagall had the same worried look on her face as she spoke with them. One of them shrugged and opened the door of the carriage.

"No bloody way!"

"I can't believe it!"

"They can't have!"

Hermione had remained seated with Harry, but at the uproar from those at the windows, she hurried over to an empty windowpane. She gasped and rushed out.

"Draco!"

He smiled as she came running down the stairs. Slughorn intercepted her, however, and herded her back into the Entrance Hall.

"Now, now, Miss Granger. I would not get in the middle of that."

"But he's come back, hasn't he? Headmistress will let him back in, right?"

Slughorn shrugged. "I can't say. The Ministry would like our esteemed Headmistress to expel Mr. Malfoy."

"Expel him?"

Harry came out into the hall, frowning. "What's going on, Hermione?"

"I don't know. Professor thinks they're trying to convince the Headmistress to expel Draco."

They waited by the door with Professor Slughorn, watching as McGonagall argued with the two officials. Draco leaned against the carriage, looking increasingly agitated with the way the conversation was going. After a few minutes, he said something that got him dark looks from all the adults. McGonagall gestured up the stairs and the officials nodded. One of them took hold of Draco, leading him up to the Entrance Hall.

"Draco, are you alright?" Hermione asked as soon as he came in.

"Miss Granger, please return to the Great Hall," McGonagall said. "Professor Slughorn, please make sure Miss Granger and Mr. Potter remain in the Great Hall."

"But-"

"It's alright, Hermione," Draco called over his shoulder. "These pricks can't hold me much longer."

She frowned as Slughorn herded her and Harry back into the Great Hall. "Professor-"

"We really must let the Headmistress deal with this," he said. He noticed the eyes of the student body on them and sighed. "Really, this is not appropriate. Please return to your dinners!"

Blaise appeared around the corner to find Hermione pacing in front of the empty Potions classroom. Harry pushed away from the wall.

"Have you heard anything?"

"No. Slughorn is surprisingly useless in terms of information."

Hermione shook her head. "They wouldn't bring him here if they planned on expelling him."

"Granger, there is a process to being expelled from Hogwarts," Blaise pointed out. "You do, in fact, have to meet with the Headmaster or Headmistress for a formal expulsion. I thought you would have read Hogwarts, A History."

The hard glare she gave him made him smile. "That's what I was looking for. You see, moping doesn't become you."

"Have you been pining for me, Granger?"

She almost knocked Blaise over in her haste to get to Draco, who laughed at Blaise's annoyed look. He embraced her for a couple minutes before holding her out at arm's length.

"You look like hell," he said and she touched his face. It was sallow and sunken, and by the way he was standing she could tell he was a little underweight.

"So do you. What did they do to you?"

He shrugged dismissively. "That Harker bloke liked to talk a lot. Bit of a prat, if you ask me. And nobody in the Ministry seems to know what the words 'I do not recall' mean when strung together."

"Draco!"

He kissed her, grinning. "You taste like you haven't been eating."

She hit him hard. "You idiot, you've been missing for weeks and you want to talk about me?"

His eyebrow rose. "They didn't tell you where I was?" When she shook her head, his face darkened considerably and he looked up at Blaise and Harry. "What the hell is she talking about?"

"Weasleys kept their mouths shut on that," Blaise said. "Then they didn't know, either."

"Potter-"

"They didn't tell us anything, Malfoy. Mr. Weasley said that they stopped telling him anything."

"They weren't telling him anything from the beginning!" Draco shook his head angrily. "That bastard Harker, if I get my hands on him…They had me in the Ministry building the whole damn time. They were supposed to tell you where I was!"

"What did they do to you, Draco?"

"Nothing serious," he muttered, rubbing his face. "They just questioned me."

"The entire time?"

At her disbelieving look, he smiled. "If you think I am going to tell you everything that happened to me-"

"Draco!"

"Granger, there are some things that I just will not tell you. This is one of them."

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Who cares what they did to you. Are you expelled?"

Draco frowned at this. "I'm on probation. McGonagall pulled that out of her hat after they wouldn't let the expulsion thing go."

Hermione sighed in relief and hugged him again. "I'm just glad you're back."

"Yeah, now we can let this whole thing go," Blaise muttered. "Your girl here went completely mental since you've been gone. Maybe she'll mellow out."

Draco smirked at Hermione's blush. "Nice to know I was missed so much."

Huffing, she shoved him away. "I see you're back to your old self."

Harry approached. "What about Easter?"

All eyes were on Draco, who shook his head. "I don't know. Every time I asked, they shoved me into a cell. So I stopped asking."

Hermione took his hand, pulling him away from the others. She led him to a quiet corridor before throwing her arms around his neck, kissing him passionately. He grinned, moving his hands to her hips as they backed into the wall.

"If I had known this was all it took to get you hot, I would have disappeared earlier," he murmured into her lips. She broke away, glaring.

"Why do you have to ruin everything?"

He dipped his head, kissing her neck. "I have been detained in a Ministry cell for weeks. I don't have time for…What happened to your neck?"

She reached up and gasped, pulling away. "Nothing."

"Hermione-"

"It was just Nott-NO!" She grabbed him before he could get too far. "Draco, you are on probation! You go start something with Nott and they will definitely expel you!"

"I plan on finishing him."

"Draco, please." She pulled him to a stop. "It doesn't matter because he's leaving me alone."

"Look what he did to your throat!"

She smiled, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I missed you," she whispered, burying her face in his chest. "Can we just…stay here for a while?"

"Why, so you can keep me from giving Nott a well deserved kick up the arse?"

"I don't feel so discombobulated when you're here."

He tilted her chin up so that he could look at her. "Discombobulated?"

Her lips brushed his. "Even when you're being a jerk, you make sense. Right now, nothing much is making sense to me. I need you to make sense."

Hermione's warm welcome was the only welcome Draco's return to Hogwarts saw. His presence was met with intense ridicule by the student body and outright opposition in the form of hundreds of owls descending upon the staff table the next morning. Officer Harker and his partner returned as well with the same proposition to McGonagall, but the Headmistress held her ground. She sent letters back to parents as well as gave a brief statement assuring everyone that there was no more danger and that Draco Malfoy had never been formally charged with anything, so there was nothing to suspect him of. Not that anyone listened to that last part. As to Easter's whereabouts, it was anyone's guess. The Daily Prophet had some comments from Ministry officials, all of them saying that the creature was no longer an issue. The Quibbler made insinuations of a cover-up, not that many people listened. But it was quite clear to everyone that the beast was no longer an issue, not like Draco.

Because of the angry feedback, McGonagall moved Draco to an empty classroom on the fourth floor, allowing Blaise to join him. The situation afforded the boys the privacy they needed to meet with Hermione, Harry, and Luna uninterrupted. Hermione and Luna were there mostly on weekends while Harry came during the week only if Hermione was present. And things started going back to normal for Hermione.

One night after dinner found Hermione and Luna doing homework in the makeshift room. Blaise and Draco had finished their work and were busy arguing over something the girls found inconsequential. Luna put the finishing touches on her essay and then got up onto Blaise's bed, pulling out the new edition of the Quibbler.

"Blaise, look. My father's printed a photo of the Snorkack."

Hermione rolled her eyes while Blaise sat down beside Luna, taking the magazine. "Lovegood, this is a gazelle."

"No, Father is fairly certain it's a Snorkack. He plans on making an expedition sometime soon and I would like to join him."

Blaise turned the magazine upside-down. "It's a gazelle."

She shrugged and took the magazine back. "There is little in here of you, Malfoy. I think Father has gotten tired of the letters he receives about you. Oh, look. Blaise, this is what I told you about yesterday."

He frowned at the page. "Lovegood, I am telling you. It is a gazelle."

Hermione smiled as Draco sat beside her. "They're…strangely adorable," she whispered.

"Don't let him hear that," he said. "They think nobody can see them."

"Luna does."

"And Blaise is surprisingly blind when it comes to her."

"We're not deaf," Blaise snapped.

The two boys were arguing again and Hermione was about to put up her homework in resignation when an all-too-familiar scream ripped through their nice little world. Blaise had his wand out immediately, as did Hermione. Draco had not been allowed to get a new wand, but that did not stop him from going to the door with Blaise.

"Lovegood, Granger, stay here," Blaise ordered before he and Draco left. Another scream was all the girls needed to rush after them. The boys had already disappeared from sight, so the girls started off down the corridor, listening intently.

"Maybe it was from the floor above or below," Luna said quietly. "It may not have come from this level."

"It could just be Peeves, too," Hermione suggested without much conviction. "He has been trying to scare the first years."

"Yes, I am quite sure it is nothing."

"Me, too."

They came around the corner and froze, both gripped with such terror that neither could move. With its back turned to them crouched a great black shadow, visible only by the shiny scars that ran along its body and the long thin tail that snapped back and forth, cracking the air more rapidly than one could keep up with. The girls' fortune was not good, as it turned to face them as soon as they stopped. Hermione's heart skipped several beats.

From the beast's mouth hung Celeste by her side, only recognizable by her frozen face of terror. The rest of her was a mutilated mess of torn limbs, disemboweled abdomen, and slashed arteries squirting still warm blood about the corridor like sprinklers.

Easter dropped the half-eaten body, eyes glowing bright as he leaned back on his haunches. Hermione broke from her paralysis and grabbed Luna's arm before breaking into a sprint. The boys slid into view and the girls dropped to the ground just as Blaise whipped out his wand.

"Avada Kadavra!"

Hermione and Luna rolled over to see the giant feline tumble as the green jet of light struck it in the face. Draco darted forward, grabbing both girls by the back of their robes.

"Get your arses up!"

They moved just in time to avoid being lacerated by the wicked claws that lashed out. It hissed, half its face singed and smoking horribly. The tail cracked twice above its head before shooting out towards them. Blaise cursed it again, driving it back into the shadows. With a last snarl, it disappeared.

Hermione and Luna got to their feet, eyes glued on the now very quiet corridor. Blaise moved forward, checking out the area while Draco made sure the girls were unharmed. Luna swayed a little before doubling over, becoming very sick all over the floor. Hermione stumbled to the wall, retching and sobbing all at once. Draco could hear footsteps and knew they were about to have a lot of company.

"We have to move," he said to Blaise. "We cannot be here."

Blaise nodded and Draco could tell the boy was about to vomit. He was on the verge as well. Actually…

Blaise's lip curled in disgust as Draco emptied his stomach. "Get yourself together," he snarled before collecting Luna and taking off down the corridor. Hermione stumbled over to Draco and together they hurried after the other two. She glanced over her shoulder at the terrible remains.

"Oh God, Draco."

"Come on, Hermione."

"Draco, she's dead."

"We don't have time!"

"Oh my God, she's dead!"