Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter the world would be mine and everyone would bend to my will. But of course the absolute ruler has to be J.K. Rowling.

A/N: I hope you liked the last chapter and I hope you like this one, so I'm not going to keep you very long just wanted to say thanx for the reviews.

The hissing continued in the room as Travis and the other snake fought. With Draco and Hermione standing in the hall, her clinging to him as if it were a matter of life and death, it had attracted a relatively large scene. There were many students around them now and most of them guys seeing as how the girls had run off screaming about snakes. Minerva came bustling down the halls after a first year girl had run into her.

"What is the meaning of this? Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Granger?" she asked. "You should not be-" her last statement was cut short at the sight of the 'battle.' "Oh gracious me, someone run and get Professors Snape and Lupin." after minutes of no one moving she turned to the students. "NOW!" a few of them ran off in search of request. "Now you two tell me what is going on."

"Well you see-" they both started, but Draco shut up and let Hermione continue. "Well this is what happened. We had finished searching the south entrance like you told us and decided to take a break before coming to see you. Draco and Travis got into an argument. While we were sitting in Draco's room I asked them what they were fighting about and Travis told me he was a snake animagus. And of course I got upset and things were said about my mum. Well Draco and Travis got into it again. Travis asked if I wanted him to leave and I didn't so I told him he could have my room for his stay." she took a breath. "I went across the hall to get my clothes and when I came back Draco stayed over there for a second. I could hear him yelling. But anyways when he came over here he looked all freaked out. I heard a hissing sound behind me, and he ran back across the hall to get Travis. Travis turned into a snake and started fighting this one." she took one last breath before she started to cry.

"Shh… it's alright Hermione, everything will be ok." Draco soothed her.

Snape and Lupin came running and pushed their way through the crowd.

"What is it Minerva?" Snape asked.

"Yes. Have you found the snake?" Lupin added.

Minerva pointed to the room. The two snakes were still battling. "One of them is Travis, he saved his sisters life. The other is possibly the one that attacked Dumbledore. I need you two to separate them and trap the snake."

"How do we know which is Travis and which is not?" Draco asked.

Hermione lifted her head off his chest. "Well couldn't you just zap Travis back to his human state. Then you wouldn't have to worry about getting the wrong one."

"Good point. Lupin since you had so much luck turning Wormtail back why not try your luck at Travis." Snape said.

Lupin took out his wand and pointed at the fighting snakes. His first try hit the ground between them. The second must have hit the wrong snake since it didn't change. The third one, though, hit Travis. He turned back and quickly stepped away from the snake. Snape stepped in immediately and raised the snake with his wand making it float in mid-air.

"Well done. Now find some way to contain it. I suspect that you will do your work well." Minerva stated. The two professors nodded before walking off with the yellow and green stripped snake. She turned to Draco and Hermione. "You two follow me. We need to talk."

They did as they were told and followed her to Dumbledore's office. When they got in they took their seats in the chairs in front of the Headmaster's desk. McGonagall sat in front of them.

"Now I must ask. How could you be so ignorant to not see that when you were in the room prior to the attack? There must have been something."

"No ma'am. Everything was normal when we went in." Hermione answered. She turned to Draco. "I'm sorry to have caused the scene Professor, we didn't mean to alert the students. Honest." she finished looking at Minerva.

"I know. But now I will have to try and explain why there was a snake in Hogwarts and why Albus is not here, to hundreds of parents." she paused and looked at the two as if they were her students again. "What is wrong with you, Hermione? You used to be so brave, so determined, so hardworking. Where did it all go?"

"I'm not sure Minerva. Once I left Hogwarts everything went haywire. I lost touch with almost everyone, except Ginny, and I got into a horrible relationship." she paused and looked down at her still shaking hands. "I just don't know."

McGonagall nodded. "Draco, will you please go get her brother. We really need to straighten things out." he nodded and got up to leave. "Oh and make sure he is ok after that fight." he nodded and left. "Hermione I know it's hard when you find out you're someone else. I just wish you could have found out sooner. You know you are welcome here for as long as you want or you can go back to living the way you were. Well without Todd, that is."

Hermione half smiled as she waited for Draco to get back with Travis. It seemed to take forever, probably because she was worried about him and the fight with the snake. Minutes went by and then finally Draco came in with Travis, who had bandages in some places.

"I see you went to Madam Pomfrey." McGonagall gestured for him to sit down in the chair she had just conjured.

"Yes ma'am. I figured if I was going to keep the promise to my mum and dad then I'd have to stay alive and kicking to do so."

She smiled at him. "Travis I know you. And I know that you have a lot of good in you. But what I don't get is why you would come back. Is there something here for you that you left behind?"

"Yeah." everyone looked at him. "My sister. I couldn't just leave her. She doesn't know what's out there and waiting for her."

Hermione gave him a scared look. "What do you mean? What's looking for me?"

"There is someone out there who is just as powerful as the Dark Lord, but he never has shown up. Voldemort looked for him, mainly for help so he could defeat Harry but he never found him, thank Merlin." he paused. "Anyways, this guy, this monster, whatever you want to call him, wants you. He wants our power. And you're the one who carries it." she reached for the necklace around her neck. "Yes. Mum and Dad gave that to you when you were only a baby. He will stop at nothing to get it Herm, and once he does there is no telling what he'll do." Travis finished.

She looked to McGonagall. "So what? Am I going to go into hiding like you wanted Harry to do? Are you going to leave me with Travis, who was in Azkaban? No offense."

"None taken."

"You can't just let someone get away with this Minerva. You have to do something. You know that whoever wants this," she pointed to her necklace, "is the one who hurt Dumbledore." She turned to Travis. "Do you know who it is?"

"No I only heard Mum and Dad talk about it. Every once in a while they would remind me to watch over you."

Hermione stood up, tears in her eyes. "But you killed them. What good is your word to them, now? What good is their reminders to you now? I wish you wouldn't have ever told me any of this McGonagall, I wish I never was born. If it wasn't for me Dumbledore would be sitting there behind that desk, not you." she pointed at McGonagall. "I did nothing to deserve this. Look at my life. Look at everything that's gone wrong. First I get sent to this school, then you torment me every year," she pointed at Draco, "then the stupid war takes place, my parents die. Then I get out of here and lose contact with the only friends I had. Then one of the worst things happens, I date a totally jerk, who beats me almost every night. Well of course Dumbledore comes to my rescue. He sends me a message about a teaching assignment that I can have here. Knowing Draco was here and was a teacher. Dumbledore will never be done with his stupid interhouse relations. But it turned out good. Then I have to save my so called friend from Todd, murderous ex-boyfriend. Once that's over with and he's in jail. I leave and go on vacation, a good one might I add. Anyways when I come back Dumbledore's laying in a pool of blood and is unconscious. Now he's in St. Mungos Intensive Care ward and no one knows how to cure him. Meanwhile I almost get put in the same place as him because some freaking idiot who wants my families powers, which I had no idea I possessed." She took a deep breath.

"Are you done now, Hermione?" McGonagall asked. She nodded. "Good. Now I know that your life hasn't been all that you wanted but look where you are. You have a lot of money. You have good friends, and not because you have money, because you are a good friend. Ginny may have crossed the line but you can forgive her, just like you forgave Draco. I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life, Ms. Granger. I am only telling you what I already know."

Tears began to stream down Hermione's face and she collapsed on the floor. Draco knelt down beside her and began to comfort her. Travis just stared at her in shock of her outburst.

"Minerva." Draco said looking up from Hermione. "Can I just take her back to the room, she needs some sleep?"

"Yes." They all got up to leave. "I will see you in the morning. I am supposed to get an owl from St. Mungos." They nodded left.

"Hermione, I'm sorry I shouldn't have sent the letter to you." Travis said as they got into the hall.

She looked up at Travis. "Sent the letter? You sent the letter?"

"Yes. I took it from Mum and Dad that night, and kept it with me until I got out and then sent it to Dumbledore as they had wanted. But if I had known it would have caused you this much trouble I would have kept it."

"Sent it? Why you-" she lunged for him bringing him to the ground and hitting him in the face and anywhere else she could. "How dare you! You weren't in my life for 21 years and then you do this. How dare you!" she kept hitting him.

Finally Draco had seen enough as blood began to trickle out of Travis' nose. He pulled Hermione off of him. "Come on Hermione, he only did what your parent's wanted. It may not seem like the right thing to do right now, but sooner or later you'll be glad he sent the letter."

"Whatever. I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the room." she stormed off in the direction of the two rooms.

Draco bent down and helped Travis up. "Don't think that since the snake wasn't you, that I trust you now."

"Ok I won't, but thanks for getting her off me." he wiped some blood off his face. "Man I never knew a girl could throw such good punches."

Draco rubbed his own cheek. "Yeah well trust me, mine still hurts and it's been almost eight years since she punched me. Don't underestimate her, she can take care of herself."

They started walking in the same direction as Hermione. "Yeah I know, I watched her battle in the final battle. She was good."

"You were too. I guess it's just the Chantry blood." Draco smirked. "Well anyways see you in the morning." Draco opened his door. "Be good."

"You too." Travis said as he walked in Hermione's old room.

"You know me." Draco said and shut the door.

Hermione was in the bathroom taking a shower so Draco just fell back onto his bed and waited for her. The shower soon cut off and the bathroom door opened and Hermione walked out with just a towel wrapped around her.

"Oh I didn't hear you come in. Is my piss ant of a brother in my room, now?"

"Yes." he paused and looked her up and down. "You shouldn't be so hard on him, he was only doing what he thought was right."

"Yeah well what would have been right was not joining Voldemort." she sighed. "But the past is the past and you can't change that." She walked over to the bed and sat beside him. "You know… I could think of a few things that you have done that I should kick your arse for too."

He smirked. "Oh really and what is that?"

"This." She moved the towel a bit, making sure it still covered her for the most part, and showed him a scar on her stomach.

"When did I do that?" he touched it, making her jump just a little.

She eyed him suspiciously. "So you don't remember?" he shook his head. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. I don't know."

She sighed and covered it back up. "That happened during the last battle. You were standing far off and I was facing Crabbe, you shot it and it hit me."

A solemn look fell across his face. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It was your duty." she smiled. "Oh and I should probably kick your arse for this too." she pointed to a hickey on her neck from their vacation together.

"Hey now. That was all because we got into a moment. You can't tell me you didn't enjoy it. I know I sure did."

That's right they hadn't done it yet. Mister Slytherin Sex God wanted to take it slow remember. The vacation was just to relax Hermione's mind. Which it had but it had also given her a few hickeys in the process.

She moved closer. "Well maybe I think it's time we finished that moment."

He gave her a look. "Are you sure? I mean because if you're not ready, then neither am I."

She grabbed him and started kissing him. "Now does that answer your question?" he nodded and she started kissing him again.

He rolled her over and got on top of her. He moved from her lips to her neck, and started making a trail of hot kisses across her collar bone. She was unbuttoning his shirt as he did this and pulled it off throwing it on the floor. He yanked the towel off her and moved his hand slowly down her body sending chills down her spine. He stopped at her inner thigh and looked up at her, she nodded. He sat up and undid his pants and slid them off along with his boxers.

"Wait. Lock the door, just in case." he nodded and took out his wand from his night stand and locked the door.

He went back over to Hermione and started kissing her again she let out a cry of pleasure and arched her back against him.

Their love making lasted long into the night and almost all the way till morning.