"What was the meeting about?" Hermione whispered groggily from the couch in the common room several hours later.

Harry and Ron were asleep on the floor by the fire, insisting they stay the night to make sure everything was okay when Draco came back. They looked so deep in sleep at that moment, Hermione didn't see any reason why they couldn't just sleep over in the common room tonight. On the other hand, she couldn't sleep at all until Draco came home and she knew he was safe. She felt a weight lift from her chest when she heard the common room door fall shut and a glimmer of soft blonde hair come toward her in the dark.

"Not tonight Hermione, please." Draco said tiredly as his face became visible in the dying fire's light and he pulled his cloak off.

"Yes, tonight! Draco you can't just not tell me!" Hermione was suddenly awake, moving quickly off the couch to protest. Her swiftness in motion caused a head rush and she quickly feel back over onto the couch, pressing a hand to her head. Draco was by her side almost immediately.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah…I think so. I just…I feel dizzy. I think my body is still recovering from the horcrux debacle."

Draco closed his eyes and listened to the soft beat of her heart. His Veela senses were mentally prowling her body for any signs of distress. She seemed to just be exhausted.

"Let me take you to bed." Before Hermione could protest, Draco swiftly picked her up off the couch and carried her through the common room and up into her bedroom.

"Draco you must tell me what happened tonight," She reached her hand up to touch his face in a concerned manner and Draco nearly stopped in his tracks at her kind gesture. She had been much more affectionate with him over the past week, ever since they had sort of unofficially been 'together'. Draco knew his feelings were much deeper for Hermione's than her own, and so he was pleasantly surprised when she made a move to be affectionate.

"Hermione I promise I'll tell you everything tomorrow," He said reassuringly, placing her down in her bed and pulling the covers back.

"You promise?"

"Of course. First thing, we'll have breakfast with Potter and Weasley, and I will fill you all in on every detail. It's just been…a long night. Speaking of Potter and Weasley, should I send them back to the Gryffindor tower?"

"I don't see why they can't just stay where they are. They looked so tired, we all were I guess. After we talked and ate they just passed out."

"That's fine with me. Just wanted to make sure it was okay with you." Draco said kissing her forehead from above. "As long as Weasley's obnoxious snores don't wake us up."

"Can't I just have a bit of the information now?" She asked, ignoring his jab at Ron. She tried to give herself puppy dog eyes as she slid the covers over herself and Draco sat on the bed beside her.

"You're relentless!" Draco exclaimed, but his face soon softened. "You're lucky I think so highly of you. Alright I'll tell you one thing."

Hermione sat up excitedly.

"You probably don't know this, but I'm Voldemort's spy inside of Hogwarts."

"I didn't know that officially, but I concluded as much."

"Of course you did, you're very smart." Draco said naturally.

Hermione blushed, but urged him to continue with a squeeze of his arm.

"Well he has decided to increase my responsibilities to include more hands on observing and reporting."

"Like what?" Hermione asked, suddenly nervous. She didn't like the idea of Draco getting his hands dirty.

"Well quite a bit actually, but I'll fill you all in on that tomorrow once we've had some rest."

"Oh you're so unfair."

"What! I did tell you a little bit didn't I? Just as I had promised."

"Oh all right."

"You need more rest. You've missed two entire class days already, tomorrow is Thursday. We'll discuss everything in the common room tomorrow morning before our first class."

"Maybe after classes tomorrow we can talk about…destroying that horcrux. I mean we haven't really talked about it yet, and…well I just feel like we should."

"Fair enough." Draco said, leaning down and kissing her forehead. He stood and began walking toward her door on his way out."We can talk about that after classes then. But first you need to sleep."

"Are you leaving?" Hermione asked sitting up from her pillows, a nervous flutter in her stomach.

"Of course. You need to rest."

"Oh."

"What's wrong?" Draco asked.

"Nothing," Hermione said pulling the sheets up to her face shyly. "I just thought you might stay tonight. I mean I know we've only slept in the same bed twice now…but I was kind of getting used to it."

"Oh," Draco said a smirk playing across his face and his heart thudding more rapidly. He never expected her to want to continue their sleeping arrangements. The first time they slept in the same room was only a few nights ago, and he had just been done being tortured.

"I mean only if you want to." Hermione said hurriedly, feeling embarrassed. She didn't think she'd ever ask Draco Malfoy to spend the night in her bed, but the past two months had stirred up such a whirlwind of emotions about him.

"I do. If you do." Draco felt a smile find itself to his face.

Hermione nodded once and moved over to the right side of the bed to make room for Draco.

He quietly came back over to the bed after extinguishing the candles in her room. In the darkness Hermione could see his shadow pulling off his shirt, shoes, and socks leaving only his dark slacks.

He slid in quietly next to her and cautiously pulled her body in closer to his, waiting for Hermione to protest. When she didn't, he let out a content sigh letting his Veela genes feel natural with his mate at his side. It was the first time in awhile that he had actually felt the Veela in him be attracted to Hermione being closer. So far in the school year too much craziness had happened to let himself just feel her as his own as he had done nearly all summer she was away from him.

If he allowed himself to think about his feelings hard enough, he didn't think that much of what he felt for Hermione was developed due to the Veela part of him. His Veela genes allowed him to see Hermione for more than the mudblood he always just assumed she was. Now he was in love with her not only because instinct told him to be, but because of her laugh, and her smile. The determination she carried with her, and her ability to feel passionate about things. Draco would give anything to feel just as passionately about one single thing as she did about several. The only thing that he felt passionately about was her, and that was only a recent development. Before her there had been nothing he cared about other than his own selfish survival. Now it was her survival that consumed him, and he'd do anything for her to keep living.

"What are you thinking about?" Hermione asked him softly.

Draco breathed in the scent of her hair, and let the vanilla twilight wash over him. He held her closer, daring himself to forget just for tonight Voldemort's plan for her. He wanted to stay in this blissful moment forever.

"Sleep." Draco lied.

"That sounds nice." Hermione mused, curling herself deeper into Draco's arms, her breathing slowing down into a soft pattern.

Draco closed his eyes against her, but couldn't sleep until the early hours of the next morning.

….

….

….

In the morning, Hermione felt Draco's absence before she saw it. The bed was cold, and the balcony door was left a crack open, letting in the chilly November mist. She yawned and pulled the covers back before getting up to close the door to the outside world. She took a peak outside, and a gloomy mist was pulling itself over the grounds of Hogwarts. Hermione thought that snow as bound to come soon.

She decided to forego a shower after a quick look in the mirror seeing that her hair was satisfactory. She quickly pulled on her school uniform before heading down to the common room.

She opened her door a crack and her nose caught a scent of bacon and coffee. Hermione smiled at the three boys, lounging around the common room area. Harry and Ron were lazily sprawled on the couch, each with a piece of toast in their hand. Draco was sitting on the other sofa to the side of them sipping what she assumed was tea, an already read Daily Prophet down at his side. She noticed the dark bags beginning to form under the skin of his pale eyes.

"Morning Hermione." Ron said after swallowing a large piece of his toast. "Your floor is amazing."

"What?" She asked groggily, rubbing sleep out of her eyes as she walked down the few steps from her room to the common area.

"Harry and I slept like babies on the floor. I think you have more expensive carpet in the heads dorm. I couldn't get away with that good of a nights sleep on the Gryffindor common room floor I'll tell you that."

"You talk like you sleep on floors often Weasley. Is that a common thing for you?"

"Watch it." Hermione said, before Ron could get a word in edge wise. "No insults before I've had my tea."

Draco smirked knowingly at her as she moved quickly across the room to sit on the floor in front of the fire place. On the small table in front of her, a nice array of breakfast assortments was spread out. She grabbed a mug, a tea bag, and poured herself hot water over it before breaking the good time with her serious questions.

"So now can you please tell us what happened last night?" Hermione asked eagerly.

"And ruin a perfectly good morning!" Draco said looking offended.

"You promised!" Hermione slammed her mug down on the table, looking angrily at Draco.

"Hermione, he's joking." Harry said rolling his eyes at her. "He was actually already filling us in before you came down."

"You have?" Hermione asked accusingly. She hated feeling left out.

"Only a little." Draco said comfortingly. "I was just telling them that I was given more hands on duties at Hogwarts, but I haven't gone into details yet. I do believe I told you the same thing last night, so really they were the ones that were left out."

"Oh." Hermione said feeling a bit childish as she reached out to grab her own slice of toast. "Well do go on."

"Right, so Voldemort has infiltrated the ministry…obviously. As of yet, he hasn't been able to touch Hogwarts. There are too many ancient spells and rules set upon the building. For instance, you cannot expel a student without proper cause, professors are still bound upon taking a job that they will not put students in mortal danger. Obviously mortal danger is a very fine line basically meaning they can't kill you as you know by Severus' actions toward you last year Potter."

"Where is he anyway?" Harry asked, trying to sound nonchalant, but Hermione could see the knuckles in his hands turning white.

"Voldemort has something planned for him once his next plan comes through at Hogwarts. I wouldn't be surprised if you and Severus met again sometime soon."

Harry acknowledged the statement with a nod.

"So what is your new 'hands on' job then?" Ron asked with a mouthful of food.

"It's stupid really. I haven't come to make sense of it yet." Draco said placing his mug down on the table and rubbing his hands through his blond hair. "He wants me to do patrolling."

"But we already do patrolling, with head duties." Hermione said.

"I know, and the weird thing is he knows this too. But there are certain areas he wants me to guard more closely."

"What areas?" Harry asked moving to a more upright position.

"Three really. One is the Gryffindor tower, obviously to keep an eye on you Potter. The other is McGonagall's head office, and I assume that is because of the sword that destroys horcruxes. It's locked in the office and only the current headmistress can see to it. He said that he doesn't want Potter getting his hands on it obviously. He did say thought that I wouldn't have to patrol that for long, which is a bit scary because I think that means he is planning on overthrowing McGonagall as headmistress."

"What! How?" Hermione asked a bit fearfully.

"I'll get to that in a second." Draco said grimly. "The other place he wants me to guard, and this is the one I don't understand at all, is the entrance to the Ravenclaw dorm."

"The Ravenclaw dorm? Didn't expect that." Ron said, his eyebrows knit up trying to understand.

"I don't either, but there has to be reason for it. We all need to keep thinking outside the box with this."

"I agree." Harry said wiping bits of crumbs off his school uniform. "So how is he planning on overthrowing McGonagall? There's got to be some sort of Hogwarts' magic stuff to keep him from doing that."

"Not really. But there is a strong resistance here at Hogwarts' among the faculty and the upper students, except Slytherin of course. It would be suicide to Voldemort's physical body to just come into Hogwarts and kill McGonagall or Potter. He wouldn't risk it after only just regaining his physical self. It could set him back years. Besides his body would be damaged if not permanently ruined instantly if he succeeded in killing either of you, just from the sheer resistance from the people of Hogwarts. But there are other ways. I'm not sure of his exact plans, but I know it has something to do with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts job."

"What does the new DADA professor have to do with anything?" Hermione asked, suddenly not hungry anymore. "McGonagall has been teaching that class all year so far. Why would she hire someone now?"

"She wouldn't. But she might…against her will." Draco said darkly. "Voldemort planned on Amycus Carrow being 'interviewed' for the position today."

"When you say interviewed you mean…" Harry began hesitantly.

"I mean that Amycus is going to blackmail her somehow, make it so she can't refuse. McGonagall has too much of a conscious to even consider the idea of refusing him once he's threatening students."

"That's horrible!" Hermione said covering her hands to her mouth. She remembered Amycus Carrow's face from the daily prophet pictures when there was the mass breakout in Azkaban. He was explained in the prophet as being of average height, but his face was still sadistically scary. He had a lopsided leer that nearly jumped out of the pages at a person and begged for them to scream in pain for his own sick pleasure.

"That's not the worse part." Draco said quietly.

The tone of his voice caught Hermione's attention at once. He seemed nervous, scared almost. It wasn't a tone his voice usually took, Draco usually hid feelings like this from his exterior, and now it seemed like he couldn't even try to hide how he was feeling about this 'worse part'.

"What is it?" Hermione asked quietly, her entire body flushing. She could feel her heart beat quickly in her chest in the silence of the room. "Draco, tell us."

"Voldemort he…he asked me about you."

"About Hermione?" Harry asked confused. "Why would he ask about her? I didn't even know she was on his radar."

"I didn't either." Draco said swallowing heavily.

Hermione seemed to lose the ability to speak. It was as if she was watching the three boys have a conversation without her. Draco was refusing to look at her.

"What does he want with her?" Ron asked defensively from the couch, temporarily forgetting about the food in front of him, completely focused on Draco's words.

"He asked what I knew about her. I lied really. Just said she was friends with you and Potter, things he already knew. I told him Hermione was smart, brilliant really. And strong too, very strong willed. It sort of confirmed what he already knew, but he needed me to confirm it before he could act on it."

"Why would it matter if I'm smart or strong willed? What does that have to do with anything?" Hermione asked tonelessly from the floor, staring straight ahead into a tiny hole in the couch.

"He knows you are best friends with Harry, and Voldemort realizes that a lot of the brains of the entire operation of team harry comes from you. He wants to take that part down."

"He wants to take Hermione down?" Ron exclaimed angrily.

"Yes. But he can't just waltz in here and take her away. It's too messy. There's too much to lose. He would like Hermione out of the way to weaken your 'team' and to make Potter more emotionally vulnerable. This is where Amycus comes in. Amycus has two jobs. Make life for McGonagall hell so that it will be easier given enough time to take her down as headmistress, and two to break Hermione Granger."

A silence filled the room after he spoke Hermione's name. She had never had an out of body experience before, but this must have been what it felt like. She was dazed, still staring at the tiny imperfect hole on the couch as if it were the most important thing in the world. She knew her and Draco were too star-crossed to be true. He gave her hope when he said he'd switch sides for her, so that they could trust each other and he could take care of her. But now there were too many odds stacked against them. She didn't feel like crying or screaming, or trying to figure it out. Of course she'd hold out as long as she could with Amycus, but she was only so strong.

"How?" Harry asked quietly. "How is he planning on breaking her?"

Hermione heard Draco inhale a shaky breath.

"He's going to make her life hell. He's going to make Hermione snap. If she doesn't snap, his actions toward her are bound to make one of you two snap….or myself. And once that happens there are all sort of things Amycus can do. Cruciatus, Imperious, any horrible spell really. The goal is to somehow directly or indirectly cause Potter emotional, physical abuse. As far as Voldemort and myself know, Hogwarts professors are put under magical oath. They cannot end the life of a student or they will die. Voldemort needs professors in the school in order to infiltrate it and get to you Potter. They may not be able to kill you directly, but they can drive you into madness, cause you to leave the safety of the grounds to protect your friends, make you vulnerable, hurt your friends. The options are limitless."

Hermione tore he eyes away quickly from the hole as if snapping out of a nightmare. Her eyes instantly moved to Draco and as if he felt them move to him he turned to meet hers as well.

Hermione could feel her hands shaking and her heart sinking further into her own chest.

Draco's face was moved into a pained expression that she had never seen before, even after she witnessed the aftermath of his torture. He had never looked so hurt and helpless, his eye color swirling from a gray to an intense silver, Veela traits screaming to protect her in any way possible.

Hermione could deal with Amycus, the physical pain, the emotional pain. He could fail her, he could taunt her, torture her, and she would put up with it all. But in a way Voldemort was a genius, and he knew she was strong. Voldemort knew she could put up with anything Amycus could give her. But the genius of Voldemort was that he knew her friends wouldn't be able to put up with it, especially Harry.

But one thing Voldemort didn't count on was one of his own, sworn by Veela blood to protect her from harm would be interfering every step of the way. They would all have to be strong. They would all have to fight their instincts to protest, to help, to interfere.

"When's the next DADA class?" Ron asked

"In four days. Monday." Harry answered

Draco Malfoy was going to have to fight every burning bone in his body to not break every bone in Amycus'.