Disclaimer: Not mine, never been mine. I'm not making a single knut.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER, YOU PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW!" Hermione yelled over the wind. Her resident kidnapper just ignored her and seemed to urge the Firebolt to go faster.

Just as she was starting to worry more about his sanity and their destination, she felt the broom tip down and reinforced her grip on Harry, squeezing her eyes closed tight. She felt them land and slowly opened her eyes.

They were still at Hogwarts. He had only flown her to the other side and landed in front of the Transfiguration courtyard. The flight that had seemed so fast to her really had been fast.

Jumping up off the broom, she turned around to face Harry who was looking around warily at the milling students, making them nervous and speed up. In one quick fluid movement, Hermione brought her hand up to smack her best friend across the face.

A mere inch or so from his cheek, however, Harry's hand shot up and grasped her wrist so tight it hurt. It seemed that whatever had gotten to Harry, his reflexes were coming back to him.

"Ow! Harry! Stop! What's your problem?" Hermione yelled, trying and failing to tug her wrist from his grasp. She brought her other hand up, but he just grabbed that as well.

Suddenly, he released her wrists, only to grasp her shoulders. His thumbs were digging painfully into the hollow of skin between the bones of her collarbone and shoulder, and she was sure she'd have bruises on the back of her shoulders from his fingers.

"WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING? WHAT HAPPENED TO BEING THE BRIGHTEST WITCH OF YOUR AGE?" Harry started shouting at her, shaking her slightly as he did so. "FOR BEING SO FUCKING SMART, YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOUR ASS KILLED!" The more he yelled the harder the shaking got, until her neck felt like it was snapping and she wondered if this was how whiplash feels.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THE USE OF US TRYING TO PROTECT YOU IF YOU'RE GOING TO RUN OFF? HUH? ANSWER ME!" he shouted. Hermione couldn't speak if she wanted to, unless she wanted to risk biting her tongue off.

All of a sudden, she heard an angry bellow from her left towards the entrance and Harry was flung backwards, away from Hermione, and letting go in the process so rapidly that she fell forward onto her knees.

Tears of anger, pain, and confusion were coursing down Hermione's face when a pair of strong arms lifted her up like she weighed nothing and cradled her against a hard chest.

"Levitate that inside and follow me. Down to my office; we'll enerverate him there," said a deep baritone, and Hermione looked up at Severus' face. He had a wild angry look in his eyes as he glanced over her, and then he swept away as she closed her eyes, silent tears still coming.

She heard footsteps following Snape as they made their way inside. She wondered how peculiar they must look; the dreaded Potions Master holding a seemingly unconscious Head Girl (with tear tracks) that he's supposedly seeing romantically followed by someone levitating a stunned Boy-Who-Lived. That was the only assumption she could come up with when he said "that."

Their footsteps were clacking on the stone of the dungeons when Hermione heard another familiar voice.

"Ah, Severus, you found them. Professor Weasley just informed me that Ms. Granger was taken from him by Harry. What happened?" Dumbledore said, sounding grave.

"I haven't the slightest, Headmaster. All we saw was Mister Potter here physically abusing Hermione," Snape answered snidely.

"How so?"

"He was shaking her like a doll; I'm surprised the girl doesn't have a broken neck."

She heard him murmur some words which must have dropped his wards and then they were all in. Snape laid her onto what felt like a soft couch, then got up and walked away. He was back moments later and she heard the clinking of bottles before she felt his rough, calloused hands brush the hair gently from her eyes.

"Hermione."

Opening her eyes a crack, she saw Snape's face level with her own.

"Severus," she replied, and the corners of his lips tipped up.

"Is there anything on you that hurts other than your neck?" he asked.

"My shoulders and my back; it's where he was grabbing."

"I'm going to need you to drink this potion. It should set right any bones or muscles that might've been jarred. After, we can get to healing the bruises," he said, and helped tip the potion into her mouth.

"Can you sit up?" he asked when the potion was downed.

Nodding slightly because of her sore neck, Hermione pushed herself into a sitting position and cried out in pain when her upper arms and shoulders protested in the weight she made them support. When she was fully up, Snape started rummaging through a case of potions as Draco stepped up to cast a medical scan on her.

"This is like déjà vu, except I believe I was doing this to you only two days ago," she murmured as he smirked. "When did you get out?"

"I busted free less than an hour ago. That's when this idiot"- he jerked his head towards the suspended Harry- "decided to go crazy."

"What happened to him?" Hermione asked in a hushed, disbelieving voice.

"Actually, Ms. Granger, we were hoping you would be able to tell us," said Dumbledore, peering at the still floating, and apparently unconscious or unawares, Harry.

"I don't know! He just…CRACKED! I was with Charlie out by the quidditch field, just talking, and then he was there. He swooped in, almost taking out a first year actually, and then just started…bitching at me. He said I should've told someone I went to Diagon Alley instead of just leaving, and then we started to argue about how he even knew where I was. I was getting rather upset, because he knew where I had been, yet I never told him. And if you had told him, Professor Dumbledore, I would assume that he wouldn't have been upset."

"Maybe we should let Harry tell us what happened," Dumbledore said, looking at Snape who rolled his eyes and pointed his wand at Harry. Her friend fell to the ground, and instantly sprang back up, eyes darting everywhere, pointing his fist around. He seemed to have momentarily forgotten he had been disarmed.

"Harry! Calm down," Dumbledore said in a serious, commanding voice. Slowly, the crazed light in Harry's eyes seemed to dim, and he staggered a bit as he lowered his empty hand, and fell into an armchair that Dumbledore had conjured behind him.

Draco stepped up automatically and started running a scan on him.

"He's exhausted!" Draco exclaimed as he concentrated on the results. "These vitals make it seem as if he hasn't slept in days."

"What's going on?" Harry asked groggily, looking at the occupants in the room tiredly. That is, of course, until his eyes fell on Hermione. At once, he was on his feet again.

"Headmaster! Someone was spying on Hermione!" Harry yelled, spinning to face Dumbledore.

"Harry, calm down. Sit, and tell us what happened," was all Dumbledore said, peering at Harry with a somewhat worried look. "Severus, get Mr. Potter a Pepper-up potion, will you?"

Harry sat and downed the small bottle in less than a second, eager to talk to Dumbledore.

"I went looking for Hermione, and when I found her, I felt it. I felt the spell. Someone was listening in on her. It had to have been the spy!"

"What do you mean you felt it, Potter?" Snape spat at Harry, a look of deep loathing on his face.

"I can't explain it, Professor; I can just feel when there's spells used around me. It came in handy during the years preceding the battle; I knew when people were trying to Disillusion themselves, or muffliato their conversations. And I KNOW I felt something out there. Someone was listening to Hermione and Charlie," Harry said.

"So why in the world would you attempt to attack Charlie?" Hermione said exasperatedly.

"I didn't attack him," Harry said, sounding defensive.

"You pointed your wand at his face, level with his eyes, and threatened him not to move, Harry. That's attempting to attack," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I had to be sure," he replied, somewhat still defensively, crossing his arms.

"Be sure of what, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

"That it wasn't Charlie! I mean, he runs off with her knowing she's in danger, not even bothering to take a second guard, and then unsheathes his wand. Which he did first, may I add," Harry said.

"Oh come off it! You think Charlie is the spy, working for Lucius? You really do need some sleep," she shot back.

"Who else was on the field, Harry?" Draco asked.

Refusing to look his direction, Harry replied, "I'm not sure; I had to get Hermione away from there, didn't I? I wanted to look, but her safety won out."

"Sure, you're all about her safety," Snape said derisively.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry shot back, standing up again.

"It means that you claim to care about your friend's 'safety', yet you abuse her like a drunken husband!" Snape snapped back at him.

"What the hell are you on about?" Harry started walking towards Snape, but Dumbledore placed a hand on his shoulder, restraining him.

"Severus…Harry...," Dumbledore said in a warning tone.

"No, Headmaster, I believe that Mister Potter here should see his handy work. Unfortunately, we've already healed her internally, so we can't show those scans. How about you look at your friend and see the bruises you left on her!" Snape nearly yelled.

Harry's eyes, wide with fear and apprehension, slowly slid to where Hermione sat. She pulled the sleeve from her shoulder down, and underneath were a medley of bruises dusting her skin.

Harry made an odd choking sound and walked slowly towards her. When he reached her side, he knelt in front of her and stared, transfixed, at the discolorations as if by staring at them he could make them disappear.

He slowly reached his hand out and, one by one, started to line his thumb and fingers up with the bruises. He only got two on, however, before he was pulled roughly to his feet and was slammed into a wall, an arm under his throat and grabbing his shirt to hold him up, and a wand pointed at his temple.

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" It was Snape.

"Severus!" Dumbledore yelled. "Put him DOWN!"

Snape, however, seemed to beyond reaching with words. As Harry slowly started to resemble a smurf in color, Snape pushed his wand harder against him.

"You will NEVER touch her again, do you understand?" Snape yelled.

Before Harry had a chance to attempt an answer, Snape's hands flew off of him as though shocked, and Harry fell, slumped, to the floor. Both Draco and Dumbledore had their wands pointed at Snape, and Dumbledore had an uncommonly stern look on.

"Severus…," he began, but Snape cut him off.

"I know, Headmaster. I apologize. However, I don't regret it."

Harry started coughing and Draco ran and knelt at his side as he started yet another scan. After a few moments, Harry stood up and looked at Dumbledore.

"I don't regret it either; I deserved that. No; I deserved worse," Harry said in a croaky, raw voice. He looked at Hermione and his eyes shone with unshed tears. "Hermione, I love you. I'm so, so, SO sorry. I don't even remember doing it. That's no excuse, I know. But it won't happen again."

"You better believe it won't!" Snape said, but was silenced by a look from the Headmaster.

Hermione just nodded. A small silence followed as everyone tried to organize their thoughts after the last event.

"Ok, so, we know the spy was outside. That doesn't surprise me, since we know they're at Hogwarts. But it makes me nervous that they were so close to Hermione. I think it was smart to get Hermione out of there, even if it was done in a slightly, uh, unconventional way," Draco finally said.

"I'd still like to know how Harry knew where I was, when obviously no one told him," Hermione said, slightly glaring at Harry.

A short silence followed her open question, with Harry looking around the room and Snape suddenly becoming interested in the vials he was still holding, until Draco stepped forward slightly and gave a soft cough.

"Well, I…uh…I know how he knew where you were. It's the same way that I knew where you were, that you were in trouble, and the reason I was ok with letting you walk back to the rooms last night by yourself," he said, cheek tops tinged slightly pink.

"And how, exactly, is that?" she asked.

"Well -don't get mad now- but I may have slipped a hidden tracking charm on you," he said sheepishly.

"You WHAT?"

"Might as well come completely clean, Draco," Snape muttered, and smacked the back of his head when he still refused to talk.

"Wait…you knew as well?" Hermione said accusingly, looking at Snape.

"Of course; I was one of the first that Draco told," Snape replied. "Well, other than Potter, who has the other one."

"The other what, exactly?" Hermione asked, voice slightly rising. Harry, Draco, and Snape's eyes all flashed to her necklace and back up.

"MY NECKLACE?" she screeched.

"Yes, and it was actually a smart idea and a complex spell, Hermione. Our bracelets are the receptors of it," Harry said, coming to the defense of Draco, who stood a little taller at this.

"Hermione, you told me I could!" Draco said to her.

"I did no such thing!"

"Yes! Yes you did! Before the masque, when you wanted Harry and me to leave you behind, you told me to put a tracking charm on you so I would know where you were! And, well, it got me thinking that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea, especially after you spent the night at Charlie's that time and we couldn't find you."

"I meant that as a joke, and only for that night!"

"Well, it was still a good idea, and I'm not going to apologize for it!"

"Well, you can damn well remove it now!"

"No." Draco crossed him arms, and shrugged.

"What do you mean 'no'?" Hermione said dangerously.

"I mean, no. I worked too hard on it. And you're blowing this out of proportion. You're getting worked into a huff because you think it's some invasion of your privacy. The only reason I care where you go is because there happens to be a mad man on the loose, and he just so happens to want you. I'm not sure if you forgot that while you got yourself riled up in your self-righteous speech. You may have forgotten that there's a guy who wants to kill you. And not just kill you, but brutally murder you during a vicious sacrifice," Draco spit at her, arms still crossed, eyes narrowed.

"Mr. Malfoy-," the Headmaster began in a soft voice but Snape cut him off.

"No, Albus; let Draco finish. I believe this is what Ms. Granger needs to hear."

It didn't seem to matter anyway, for it looked as if Draco had only paused to take a deep, steadying breath.

"You don't know what work I put into that charm. It's not a normal charm, Hermione. It can tell me where you are if I want to know, but it will also alert me if you're in danger. How do you think we found you so fast? The moment Harry had you on his broom I was alerted of a dramatic change. It alerts me if there are any mega changes. It told me today that you were going to Diagon Alley. It may very well save your life & you're mad I didn't tell you? Of course I didn't! Look how you're reacting! You do this about everything! Don't look at me like that! You did it with that stupid house elf campaign as well! You never stop to look at the big picture! This isn't your muggle world anymore, Hermione! We live differently here. Have you forgotten how horrible my dad is! Do you need to see some reminders?"

At this he pulled up his left shirt sleeve and stuck his arm viciously in Hermione's face. She visibly paled and winced, automatically recoiling from the ugly burn.

"Or maybe you should see these!" Draco Vanished his shirt with his wand and turned in front of Hermione. Here and there, all over his body, were deep, healed scars and marks, the worst on his back.

"This is what Lucius does Hermione; except for you it will be 100 times worse because you won't survive!"

"Ok, I get it, whatever," Hermione said quietly, looking anywhere but at Draco. The only eyes that were on Draco were a pair of brilliantly green ones, regarding the blonde in sadness.

"No, Hermione, you don't. If you got it, we wouldn't be having this argument. If you got it, you would be looking me in the eye. But you don't get it," Draco said in a low voice, visibly shaking slightly. "And I doubt you ever will. We're all committed to saving your life; why aren't you?"

For that, Hermione seemed to have no retort. Draco had managed what many would've loved to do for many years: render Hermione Granger speechless.

Draco transfigured a pencil from Snape's desk into a new shirt, and stalked out of the office. It was quiet for a few minutes while Snape mixed up a new potion and Dumbledore tapped each of Hermione's bruises with his wand, making them disappear.

"Potter," Snape said, and Harry's head snapped back to Snape's. Before that, Harry had been staring at the door that Draco walked out of. "Bring these two potions to my godson; Poppy gave them to him when he was released. He knows when to take them. And for god's sake, get some damned sleep."

"Yes, sir," Harry mumbled as he took the potions. He spared Hermione one last look and slight wave, and then he left.

"I should be going as well. Professor Weasley will want to know that Ms. Granger was not kidnapped very far," Dumbledore said as he finished Vanishing all traces of bruising from Hermione's skin.

For a few minutes after Dumbledore left, the room was quiet; the silence broken only by the tinkle of glass bottles as Snape cleaned up his potions and left to put them up. When he came back, he lit a fire in the fireplace and stood in front of it, seemingly deep in thought.

"How are you feeling?" he finally asked; his voice cut through the silence like a whip.

"Better. And worse, all at the same time," she said, looking down at her hands.

"Draco was right, you know," he told her, still staring into the fire.

"Yes, and I get that, but I still don't think I did anything wrong today. The headmaster knew where I was," she replied defiantly.

He spun around to face her, and regarded her for a few moments. She couldn't place the look in his eyes; it seemed foreign even to himself. "That's not the point. He's still correct, and although I would love to strangle Potter, he's also correct. You need to be more careful."

"I hate being locked up and watched constantly though," she half whined.

"I have no patience for whining, and I assure you that no one else will either. In fact, try to whine like that to your best friend. How long was Potter watched and locked away?"

She sat for a few moments and then rose to leave. "I should finish my Potions essay, and I have some more reading for Professor McGonagall as well. Thank you for today."

She was almost to the door when his voice cut out across the room again.

"You will not remove that necklace, understand?"

Hesitating slightly at the door, she turned her head halfway to glance at him and gave a sharp nod before leaving.

XXX

After spending a couple hours hidden away in the library reading, Hermione got back to the room to find Harry passed out on their commons room couch with his head in Draco's lap. Draco was stroking Harry's hair and there were dried tear tracks on both men's faces.

"Hey…," she half whispered.

He looked up and gave her a watery smile.

"Hey yourself," he said. Nodding in Harry's direction he said, "Don't worry about waking him. He's pretty much out. He hasn't been sleeping well."

"Did you find out what was up with him?"

"Yeah. He came to find me on Severus' orders to give me my medicine and we got to talking. Took a bit, but we got there. He was still on a adrenaline high from the Pepper-Up, and everything that happened seemed to have woken him up."

"So…what was his deal?" she asked.

Draco pursed his lips for a few moments in thought and brought both hands up and interlaced his fingers behind his head. Finally, he began to talk. "He hasn't been sleeping for a few days; since a day or so before we had the fight. Apparently, he has also gotten a few letters." At her alarmed expression, he continued before she could speak. "He doesn't know who they're from. The handwriting isn't familiar, and he never sees what bird delivers them. We think someone may have put a charm on the handwriting so it's untraceable. We aren't ruling out Lucius…but we're not ruling out anyone else either."

"What did they say that was so horrible they made him unable to sleep?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Draco's eyes cut to the table where a few pieces of parchment she hadn't noticed before were lying. Hesitating slightly, hands faintly trembling, she picked them up. There were three:

HP,

Who would've thought that the Boy-Who-Lived would live to be a fag…Is this really what people died for? Is that seed of a monster really that important to you?

Boy- Who- Lived,

You should be ashamed. You and that Death Eater's spawn should go drown yourselves. Maybe the water will wash away your filth and leave him dead, or maybe you'll both die. It's a win-win for the wizarding world.

The Gay One,

Maybe it's a good thing that your Weasley friend died. I think if The Dark Lord didn't finish him off, you would've when he found out. Heroes aren't faggots, Potter. You think anyone will listen to you when this gets out? And trust me, it will. It's going to fall on the shoulders of that mudblood friend of yours and your faggoty Death Eater progeny. You think you saved them during the war? What do you think will happen when this gets out? The world will blame them; the public always finds ways of blaming others. I, for one, think it will be an improvement. You'll soon be next, Potter. Good thing your parents got killed so they didn't have to do it themselves when they finally learned this.

Hermione just sat in stunned silence for a few minutes while digesting the words she just read. How dare someone make Harry feel this way? After all he's been through he deserves to choose whoever makes him happy! She voiced as much to Draco.

"Don't you think I told him the same thing?" he said vehemently.

"Of course you did; sorry. It just upsets me so much. That's ridiculous. And of course it's in true Harry fashion to ignore me and severe ties with you. To him this would be for the best so we don't get hurt. Oh Harry…" Hermione said, shaking her head sadly while staring at the raven haired boy.

"Yep. So we had a long talk about it. It basically turned into one big free-for-all confessional. I was actually starting to tell him what I told you in the hospital, but I stopped," he told her, looking at Harry once more.

"Why? I think he needed to hear that," she told him.

"I didn't have to tell him; he already knew. I told him I was going to start calling him Creeper from now on," he half laughed. At her confused expression, he elaborated. "He was there, in the hospital wing under his damned cloak almost the whole time."

"I thought I felt someone watching me when I woke up, but I just figured it was you!"

"Nope, that was Creeper here. Apparently, he went to go see you about 30 minutes after we fought and saw the room was empty and in pieces and there was blood. Naturally, he freaked out and thought something happened to you so he used his bracelet and saw you were in the hospital wing. He put his cloak on so he could run there without attracting too many stares and then he said that when he saw me laying there, his heart stopped. You guys were just barely finishing working on me so your attention was elsewhere. And he stayed…the whole night. And he heard us talk. Then, when you left, he stayed again. I remember thinking I was going to have a horrible night of sleep, but for some reason I was very calm." He smiled slightly.

"I saw him at breakfast and he looked horrible," she said, laughing a little.

"Yeah, he had just left. He figured it would be weird if he was absent and wanted everyone in the Hall to see him, alone, in case the letter sender was there. But when he left, he came straight back here. Except, I guess he left to go looking for you. He wondered why you weren't huddled by my sickbed. After walking around the entire grounds, he started getting edgy and finally remembered the bracelet I worked so hard on. He saw you were in Diagon Alley and freaked. I'm surprised he didn't try to fly there himself. You must've been just leaving, though, because it wasn't long before he had you in the air. He came running into the hospital wing blabbering about Charlie kidnapping you and spies everywhere," Draco said, rolling his eyes. "Poor guy really needed his rest."

"Wow, that's crazy. So did you both make up then?"

Draco smiled down at the head of hair he had resumed stroking. "Yeah, something like that. In exchange for his big secrets, I told him one of mine. And after that, it just snowballed and...you know…I think we're going to be ok."

"Do I get to know your secret?" Hermione asked too innocently.

Still smiling slightly, Draco regarded her for a few moments. "You might as well, since he does. It's not huge. I just finally told him about the task that I was assigned to make me leave Voldemort."

"Which was…?" Hermione said after he was silent for a few seconds.

"Harry." The name was simple, but said with so much passion behind it that it made Hermione almost jealous and longing for half of what he felt. "Voldemort wanted Harry. He wanted me to kidnap him and bring him to his feet. He thought he was giving me a treat; kept going through ideas of what I could do to him. He wanted him beat and broken when I finally delivered him. I guess he was tired of Harry always being able to escape. He wanted you and Ron dead, and he wanted me to almost kill Harry. And I knew, even then, that I couldn't."

"Oh, Draco…that's horrible. I'm sorry," Hermione said.

"Don't be; I'm not. It was my breaking point and I wish it would've come sooner. But I knew that I would rather die than to do that. After I left the meeting and was on my way to Hogwarts, I tried to tell myself the reason was because I knew if I did it, then I would be single-handedly giving Voldemort the tools to take over. Of course, when I got to Dumbledore and he put me under Veritaserum, it came out. Have you ever taken it? It's odd. You have no control over what you say and as you're saying shit, you hear yourself say it. It's a trip. You find out truths you've been burying for a long time. And I heard myself say that I couldn't hurt Harry and that I would rather die," he finished, shrugging.

They sat for a few more moments in silence before Hermione finally got up and headed to her room. As she got to her door, she paused and turned to look at Draco.

"Hey, Draco…," he turned he head sideways to look at her. "Thank you; for everything." She tried to put as much gratitude into her sentence that she could.

Draco gave her a beaming smile. "You're welcome, Hermione."