"Hermione? Are you okay?" Draco's voice echoed in her mind, but she couldn't move.

Her head was still inches away from the cup, and her mind was willing her to focus on the sound of the heart beat. She read in one of Dumbledore's books on horcruxes that this was a sure sign of finding one. When Voldemort split parts of his soul into seven pieces, one of those living pieces was placed inside the cup. The idea of being so close to a piece of Voldemort chilled Hermione to the bone, as if the dark lord was in the room with them right now.

What really frightened her now, was that she was focusing so intently on the heartbeat she could tell that it was quickening, moving about more frantically than before when she first hear it. The thought caused her own heart to leap as she realized that the piece inside knew it was in danger. It knew it had been found, and its heart beat was racing in fear.

"Hermione what has been messing with my emotions? You just said you knew." Draco's voice was losing its quiver as he regained his normal state of mind. Instead of sounding afraid of himself his tone suggested curiosity. "What's a horcrux?"

Hermione felt him move from the floor where he was leaning against the side of the bed, to her own side, placing his hand gently on her lower back.

"Hermione…" He said again, this time more cautiously.

But Hermione was in a trance. She was so in tuned to the heart beat that she felt sickened when she realized that her heart beat was beating at the same pace as Voldemort's. Hermione sat up on her knees and reached her arm out, stretching her finger tips to lightly brush the cup. Something was pulling her to it, and she felt that if she didn't grasp the object she would lose the strange connection.

"Stop!" Draco shouted suddenly, pushing her arm out the way.

As if she had been slapped in the face, Hermione jerked her head around coming face to face with Draco.

"What are you doing Hermione?" He asked stunned.

"I…I don't know." She said uncertainly, gazing at her hands in awe.

"You're scaring me. I can feel your emotions, they're not normal. They're unlike anything I've ever felt from you."

It was true that Hermione had never experienced what she was going through now. Her heart was racing a mile a minute, palms sweaty, heart racing. This wasn't the kind of adrenaline rush she normally got with these symptoms, usually associated with some crazy adventure her, Harry, and Ron were on. This was different. This felt more dangerous and foreboding than ever before, but what scared her most was that she was pulled to it. Something was pulling her toward the cup, and it wasn't for a good reason. The cup was tempting her, and the horcrux inside of it was messing with her emotions. Now she understood why Draco was acting the way he had been. The cup was dangerous.

"Hermione, I need you to talk to me. I just freaked out on you for no reason, like I was in a trance. And now…now you're acting strange. What did you find out? Is it this cup?"

Draco was reaching out to grab it again and now it was Hermione's turn to save him.

"Draco don't." She said quickly and quietly.

He stopped reaching toward it and stood up. He shook one of his pillow cases off the pillow on his bed and then came back on the ground where Hermione and the cup were. He swiftly used the case to pick up the cup and place it inside the fabric. When it was securely inside he went over to his closet and threw it up on the top shelf out of sight.

Hermione wasn't sure how to feel about that action. She had found the horcrux, and the next logical step was to destroy it. Now it was in the back of Draco's closet. She wasn't sure if her actions just now were causing good reactions. Maybe she should have acted like she hadn't found anything.

Draco walked back over to her and picked her up softly. He walked out of his room and into her bedroom. As he set her down on her bed and joined her there, Hermione resting her head on his shoulder, she wondered if she trusted Draco enough to tell him the truth. He would never put her in danger, this was true. However, the cup wasn't exactly dangerous to her, only if she was placed too near it as Draco had been the last few times. So if Hermione explained to Draco what a horcrux was and she wanted to destroy it, would he let her?

He obviously didn't know what it was, although clearly he was asked to guard it for Voldemort and make sure nothing happened to it. Draco clearly thought it was just some stupid antique, I mean after all, he was taking his hot tea in it for months. But if the horcrux couldn't harm Hermione directly, she doubted that Draco would hand it over.

She could ask Draco to give it to her to destroy it, saying that she'd never speak to him again if he did not. But that would make her as lowly as a death eater. Sure, Draco would most likely give it to her, but Hermione knew it would be wrong, and judging by her conversation with Harry earlier that day he would find it wrong as well. So what did she do next? She liked Draco, and she didn't want to start off this new found relationship…if that's what it was…on lies.

"Hermione, is there something you want to tell me about the cup?" Draco lightly pushed her off of him and turned her body to face him. They were sitting cross legged together on her bed, facing each other with solemn looks on each of their faces.

"Yes." Hermione said quietly, glancing at her hands as the wringed in her lap. "I'm just not sure if I can."

"I see." Draco said moving a bit further away from her.

"Draco…look, I like you. I like you a lot. I don't want to lie to you, and I'm not going to. But, I might not be able to always give you the full truth. I think both of us would be crossing some serious ethical boundaries if I was to tell you."

"Well, this was bound to happen one day, Juliet."

"Who?" Hermione said looking up.

"Oh come on. Romeo and Juliet, you can't tell me you've never heard of the play before."

"Of course I have! I just…well I assumed you hadn't."

"Really Hermione? I mean after all Shakespeare was one of the greatest wizards who ever lived."

"He was not! He was a muggle." Hermione said a smile of disbelief on her face.

"No way. There is just no way that someone like Shakespeare would have been a muggle. He had to have been a wizard in hiding, unable to live in the wizarding world that was basically nonexistent at the time for fear of prosecution. He probably just wanted a normal life, so he pretended to be a muggle and wrote some classic plays while trying integrating into society. Eventually he integrated quite well…because he was a wizard."

"You're a liar." Hermione said smiling at him in disbelief. "You just like Shakespeare and you don't want to like a muggle."

"Okay, Juliet, whatever you say."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" She asked curiously.

"Well, you've read the play. We're star crossed lovers. Instead of the Capulet's and the Montague's we've got The Order and The Death Eaters. We're doomed from the start." He said finishing sadly.

Hermione reached over and grabbed his hands squeezing them lightly.

"Don't say that." She spoke quietly.

"One of us is going end up betraying the other in the end."

"I thought this was Romeo and Juliet…not Julius Caesar."

"Et Tu Brute?" Draco asked her mockingly.

"Seriously, Draco!" She couldn't believe this pureblood wizard loved Shakespeare.

"Hermione, it's inevitable, we're not on the same side." He said, serious once more. "I can't ask you to give up your beliefs and morals to fight with me for something you don't believe in, even if it makes you safer. It will make you become another person, and not the one that I care for."

"And I can't ask you to give up yours."

"But I would Hermione. If you asked me to I would."

"Really?"

"Of course. If we were fighting on the same side it'd be a thousand times easier to keep you safe. I don't know if I can give up everything I know to join The Order though…"

"And I wouldn't ask you to!" Hermione said, feeling guilty for her idea of doing just that earlier when she was with Harry.

"So what do we do?"

"I don't know." Hermione said quietly, feeling her voice on the edge of a breakdown.

She stood up off the bed and walked over to face the windowed doors. A moment later she could hear the bed groan and footsteps coming to her. She felt Draco push his body into hers from behind, and he wrapped his arms comfortingly around her body. His head bend into the crook of her neck where he placed a soft kiss.

"I feel like I've been kissing you for years. It comes so naturally." Draco signed behind her. "I'll always protect you Hermione, if we're on the same side or not."

With those words Hermione broke down and fell into Draco, tears pouring from her eyes. She held onto him tightly grasping the sleeves of his shirt, knowing that his words were truth.

"Shh…it's okay." He whispered, stroking her hair gently. "You don't have to tell me anything about the cup. If you want we can treat what we have in these quarters as a separate thing. Devoid of any outside issues. In this living space I'm just Draco, and you're just Hermione."

"And when the day of battle comes? Then what? Draco we can't just hide from the real world in here. It will eventually push itself in."

"Maybe we should go to bed, and in the morning we can talk about it if you still want to."

Hermione glanced over at her bed; it looked so promising of warmth and comfort.

"Will you stay with me tonight?" She asked, feeling stupid as she did.

"Of course." He answered without hesitation as he led her over to the bed and pushed the sheets aside.

Hermione slipped in and relaxed at once, and a few moments later she felt even more peaceful as Draco came in next to her and wrapped his arms around her waist securely. They lay in the darkness for a bit longer in silence, worries on both their minds.

"I want that cup Draco." Hermione said quietly.

"I know. I can tell." He said squeezing her reassuringly.

"You should really stay away from it. Don't touch it, or use it anymore. Can you promise me that?"

"I figured out that much on my own. I already planned on not touching it again until I'm ordered to bring it back, and I figured you already worked it out that the cup isn't mine."

"Yes. I know he gave it to you to guard from people like me."

"I can't give it to you. He'd kill me."

"I know."

"So where does that leave us?" Draco asked holding her tightly.

"It leaves us like Romeo and Juliet. Star crossed lovers who are completely and utterly screwed."

….

….

….

In the morning, Hermione woke to her alarm to find Draco already gone. It was Monday, which meant classes started in just over an hour. She tipped toed out of her room though the common room and over to Draco's door. She found his entrance shut, and when she reached to open the door she found it was locked.

"And so 'situation hopeless' begins." She muttered quietly to herself as she turned back into her room to change.

She should have figured as much. Hermione knew, that Draco knew, that she saw where he put the cup and now he needed to keep her out of the room, and keep her from taking it. They were back to being enemies. Last night's sleep over was almost a farewell party. Hermione fought back tears as she pulled on her school uniform and grabbed her book bag from the closet, heading down to the great hall for breakfast.

Harry wasn't at the Gryffindor table when she arrived, and Draco was also nowhere to be found at his table. Hermione sighed, and went to go sit down next to Ron, planning on ignoring him fully.

She sat down and poured herself some cereal.

"You look tired." Ron said from next to her.

"I am. A bit." She said stiffly. She had thought she made it clear to Ron that she needed some space.

"Look I haven't forgotten what you said, but I need to ask you a question."

"What is it?" She asked turning toward him, the edge in his voice worried her.

"Have you seen Harry?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well he wasn't there when I woke up, and now he's not here. I'm just confused I guess."

"That makes two of us that woke up that way then." She muttered, reminding herself of the cold empty bed she just left.

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Let's not get worried yet. I have Artithmacy first, and you're supposed to have a free period right?"

"Yeah." Ron said as he shoved a sausage link down his throat.

"Okay, well look around for him since you have the time. Check the grounds and the library, and then when we get to potions later if you still haven't found him we can start to panic."

"Right." Ron said getting up. He was determined to keep his promise to Hermione, and he knew if he stayed at the table any longer he would just end up apologizing over and over.

Hermione watched him go and was pleased with their conversation. Ron was finally giving her the space she needed, and she felt that reconnecting her friendship with him would occur in the near future.

Hermione finished her breakfast and slung her bag over her shoulder. She was anxious to see Draco in Artithmacy. She just needed to look at his face once. One look would be all she needed to curb her fears about his feelings toward her ever since she refused to tell him about the cup.

But Draco was missing in Artithmacy as well. Hermione sat through the entire lesson and for once didn't make a single note on the lecture. Where could he be? Maybe he was in his room, and he locked himself up. Or worse, maybe he was hurt. Hermione went through horrible situation after horrible situation in her head throughout the lesson. When the bell rang she nearly flew out of her seat and rushed down into the dungeons. Ron was waiting outside for what she assumed was her.

"No sign of him anywhere Mione."

Hermione bit her lip. Now she had two missing people to deal with. Snape was already inside the dungeon and he hadn't seen the two of them yet. Hermione stole a quick glance inside and neither Harry nor Draco were inside.

She took a deep breath.

"I'm about to ask you to do something with me that is very anti-Hermione."

"Skive the lesson?"

Hermione nodded in affirmation, and turned to walk back up the way they came. She couldn't concentrate in the classroom anyway with both Harry and Draco missing.

She and Ron checked anywhere they could think of. They even started asking portraits if they'd seen Harry. When Ron rushed ahead of her she held back for a second longer to ask the portraits if they'd seen Draco too. She was worried about both of them equally, but she couldn't voice her concerns about Draco to Ron yet. He wouldn't have understood.

Eventually they heard the lunch bell ring, and Ron began complaining of his hunger. He and Hermione went down to the great hall once more just in case Harry had shown up for that meal. Both boys were nowhere in sight. Hermione sat in silence and fear as Ron ate. When he was done she suggested they go up to her room and see if Harry was there.

"But he doesn't know your password." Ron said as they headed up the stairs.

Hermione had forgotten that she excluded Ron from that privilege and in turn kept it a secret that she told Harry.

"He might be waiting outside of the portrait, and if not I need to grab a cloak so we can go out and check the grounds again."

"Alright." Ron as always was oblivious to her lies.

They reached her floor and went off in the direction of the empty corridor which led to her portrait entrance. Hermione was acutely aware that the last time Ron and her were alone walking this path he had tried to ask her out and she refused. She wondered if it was a good idea to be alone with him up here. She reasoned that if anything happened inside, and if Draco was in his room he'd help her out…wouldn't he? Hermione felt another heart string pull inside of her at the idea that Draco might be done with her. Maybe there was just too much conflict now, and he had decided to give up his Veela mate for his own beliefs. The idea hurt Hermione more than she ever thought it could. She quietly whispered the password when they reached the entrance and she pushed the door aside hearing Ron shut it behind her.

Harry was sitting on their couch using his wand to clean himself up. Relief washed through her, quickly replaced by curiosity.

"Are you okay? Where have you been? And what are you doing in here? Why are you all dirty! Harry what's going on?"

"Which question do you want me to answer first Hermione? You just asked a ton." He said smiling up at her, dark muddy smudges on his face.

"Let's start with why you're covered in dirt mate." Ron said from behind her just as stunned.

"I've been in the chamber of secrets."

"What! Harry, why?"

As Harry was about to answer, the door to Draco's room opened and he entered the common room with the horcrux wrapped in his pillow case.

"She thinks this is it." Draco said to Harry. He was about to take a step out of his room when he saw Hermione and Ron by the entrance.

"Oh…hi."

A/N: Please Review!