Author's Note: The math midterm today was brutal! Nobody finished on time. But I guess that means the curve should be okay. Thank goodness…

Anyway, here's the next chapter!

Chapter 42

I yawn sleepily.

I struggle to stay awake, but I'm just so tired.

I've been at Draco's house for three days. He's been gone for all three of them. Last night and the night before, he came in late at night to check on me and to make sure that everything was all right. He looked so exhausted when he came in that I didn't have the heart to pop my question.

Or maybe I'm just such a coward that I still can't ask it.

I can get up and walk around now, but I can't Disapparate—I still don't have my wand. Last night, he promised that he would bring it back tonight, but he hasn't shown up yet.

I've improved quite a bit at wandless spells, though. Three days is a lot of time, and though I spent most of the first day in bed, I had Naree bring some small objects into the room so that I could practice levitating, throwing and summoning them.

But aside from practicing spells and reading, I haven't had much to do. It's boring. Last night, I asked if Draco would let Harry, Ron, and Blaise come to visit again, but he was very stubborn. I didn't even bother asking if he would let me leave.

I don't think I even want to leave. It's like a little heaven here. I can almost pretend that there isn't a war going on outside these walls, that Voldemort isn't out there destroying Muggle cities and killing thousands of people worldwide. Almost.

I sigh and roll onto my back, staring up at the ceiling.

When will Draco get here? I want to see him before I fall asleep.

The bedroom door opens a crack, letting in a sliver of light, and I decide on a whim to pretend to be asleep. I hope that he won't decide not to bother me—I actually do want to talk to him. Maybe if he doesn't look so tired, I'll get him to talk about his feelings.

Then I feel the bed dip under his weight as he sits next to me. I consider opening my eyes, but then his hand softly runs through my hair, and my curiosity is piqued. I keep my eyes shut and wait to see what else he'll do.

His hand rests on my cheek, cupping it gently, and my skin tingles. His thumb traces my eyebrow and then ghosts over my eyelid in a feather-light touch. Then his hand slips down my face slightly, and his lips press against my forehead.

My heart is pounding so loudly that I can't believe he hasn't heard it already.

Then I hear his whisper, almost inaudible.

"Good night, Granger."

As his hand slides away from my face, I open my eyes and grab it. He immediately tenses up, and I wonder if I shouldn't have done that.

"Draco…"

Before I can say anything else, there's a loud crack from outside, followed immediately by a crashing noise. Draco jerks his hand out of my grasp, and the lights turn on in the room.

Harry bursts in. "Malfoy, I need your help!"

Draco's on his feet already. "What is it?"

"Grimmauld Place—the Death Eaters got in. I don't have enough time to explain—come with me."

Draco frowns. "Go with you? How can I—"

I get out of bed quickly, alarmed. Death Eaters at Grimmauld Place?

"Draco, did you bring my wand?" I demand.

"You're not going," he says forcefully.

"You're not stopping me," I reply just as firmly. "Accio wand!"

My wand shoots out of an inner pocket of his robes, and he glares at me.

"We don't have time for this! Hermione, if you have to come, please be careful," Harry says.

Then he Disapparates. Before Draco can protest any further, I Disapparate as well. I appear on the doorstep of Grimmauld Place a moment later and race in the door. Spells are being fired in all directions, and it's hard to make sense of the chaos.

I dodge hexes and fire a few of my own at the numerous wearers of Death Eater masks that are in the hallway. Fred and Angelina are teamed up against a few Death Eaters at the stairs, and I hear sounds of the fight from the kitchen.

What happened? How did they get in?

Harry's thrown up a protective barrier around himself and a prone figure on the ground. Spells bounce off the shield harmlessly, and he gestures for me to enter.

"It's Ginny!" he calls out.

Of course he would forget all about a battle just for Ginny. I fire a Killing Curse at a Death Eater and Disarm another one before replying.

"Why can't you take her out of here?"

"I don't know where it's safe!" he shouts over the din.

Then Tonks barrels into me from the side, and a Killing Curse hits the wall behind where my head had been.

"You're welcome!" she says as she jumps back off me and jinxes an unsuspecting Death Eater.

I leap to my feet and back up against Tonks, cursing the Death Eaters nearest me.

"We were attacked at home!" Tonks informs me.

I'm shocked, and I want to ask more, but there's simply no time for explanations.

"McGonagall's?" I ask.

"Avada Kedavra!" she barks loudly. Then, "I don't know. I thought Harry went—"

She grunts, and in the same moment, I feel her weight thrown against me, and I go flying forward, right into the closest Death Eater. He's caught by surprise, and I Stun him before he can react. Tonks is off my back in an instant.

"—to check on McGonagall!" she finishes.

A Stunning Spell on its way to me rebounds and strikes the Death Eater who fired it, and I duck into Harry's protective space.

"Where are the others, and what happened to Ginny?"

"A lot of them Disapparated and came back—it's not safe!" he replies. "I think the ones who went to McGonagall's haven't come back though!"

I'm looking at Ginny. There doesn't seem to be any visible marks on her body, but her face is contorted in pain, and it almost hurts me to look at her.

"Take her to McGonagall's, then. I'll cover you—go!"

Harry lifts her in his arms and races out of the space that he'd cleared. Immediately a number of Killing Curses fly at his head, and I use several very powerful Shield Charms to absorb the ones that could have reached him.

Just as Harry's about to reach the door, a Death Eater slides into his way, but the man immediately crumples, and Harry jumps over his body. As soon as he's outside the boundary of the Disapparition Jinx, he disappears. Blaise steps over to the man he just Stunned and fires a Killing Curse to finish him off.

"Hermione, what are you doing here?" he demands, dealing out curses nonverbally.

Does he really need an answer to that question?

I subdue two more Death Eaters to make my way to Blaise. Then a Stunning Spell almost reaches me and is deflected to the side by my heart charm. Caught off guard by the spell's sudden change of direction, Blaise is hit and slumps to the ground. I race over to him and kneel beside him, the heart charm deflecting several spells that were aimed at him.

"McGonagall's is safe!" Harry calls out.

I hadn't even noticed his reappearance. I wave my wand, moving Blaise out the door, and step out after him. A Killing Curse comes straight at me, but before it can reach me, I feel the tight compression of Apparition.

Next thing I know, I'm standing in McGonagall's living room. It seems to be at least twice the size it was when I was last here and is completely devoid of furniture, filled instead with numerous stretchers.

"Hermione!"

I turn just in time to get a big hug from Ron. I pat his back and wait for him to release me.

"How did you get here?" Harry asks from behind me.

"I just came from Shell Cottage—brought Justin with me. Mum and Charlie are staying there in case anyone else tries to Apparate there."

"Are a lot of Death Eaters there?" I ask as I levitate the unconscious Blaise onto an unoccupied stretcher.

He shakes his head. "Not as many as they sent to Grimmauld Place."

"We should go back," I say. "To help."

"You most certainly will not," McGonagall says sternly.

I look over to see that she's appeared between two stretchers.

Then Ron gasps. "Ginny!"

He rushes a few stretchers over, and Harry follows.

"Ginny will be fine," I hear a familiar voice say—I glance over to see that Madam Pomfrey is working on the injured people in the stretchers.

"Why not?" I ask McGonagall.

"I have already gone to all of the fights, except for Grimmauld Place—that is my next destination," she says. "Everyone will be coming here as soon as possible. You have to keep an eye out—if any Death Eater has a grip on someone who is Apparating here, you will have to kill him immediately."

I nod. "Are you coming back?"

"No. After stopping at Grimmauld Place, I must contact Kingsley. Good luck, Miss Granger."

"You too, Professor."

She smiles grimly before Disapparating, and I'm left standing in the room, frowning. Why is it that Shacklebolt still hasn't come back?

But that's not the most pressing issue right now.

"What happened at Grimmauld Place?" I ask the boys.

I point my wand at Blaise. Rennervate. His eyes open almost instantly, and he jerks upright.

"Hermione, are you—where—"

"We're at McGonagall's," I tell him. Then I look back at Harry and Ron, who haven't responded to my question. "What happened at Grimmauld Place?" I repeat.

Harry looks at Ron and sighs. "I don't know," he says.

"Ron?"

Ron licks his lips quickly, and I know that he's nervous—after being friends with him for so long, I've picked up on his nervous habits.

"What did you do, Ron?"

"Yes, what did you do, Ron?" Blaise says.

"I just… I wasn't being careful. It was… it was stupid, really," Ron says, shuffling his feet.

"It was stupid, or you were stupid?"

"Blaise, not right now," I say. "Ron, explain."

He sighs but doesn't speak.

"Ronald Weasley, explain yourself," I say firmly.

Then the heart charm burns against my chest, and I turn away from the boys.

"Hermione?" Harry says questioningly.

They're distracted by a loud pop, and I glance over my shoulder to see that Fred and Angelina have appeared. Fred's leaning heavily against Angelina but protesting loudly.

"No—no—let me go back!"

As Angelina barks a heated response at Fred, I pull out the heart charm and flip it around to look at the back. Two words: Come Back. Oh god, Draco. I'd forgotten about him. Why didn't he come to Grimmauld Place with Harry and me?

But the answer is obvious. The place was crawling with Death Eaters. He couldn't have just shown up to help us.

I tuck the charm back under my clothing and turn back around to see that Harry, Ron and Angelina have wrestled Fred into a stretcher. His legs are bleeding heavily.

"Did Draco say anything?" Blaise asks as I move to help the others with Fred.

"What?"

"He showed us the necklace that he communicates with," Blaise says. "That means yours has to be a necklace too, doesn't it?"

I sigh. "He wants me to go back."

Ron immediately speaks up. "No, Hermione, you can't. You finally got out of there—you can't go right back."

I start to reply but get distracted by the commotion that Fred is causing.

"Just let me up! George is still—"

"Shut up, Fred!" Angelina says angrily. She points her wand at Fred and Stuns him. Then she Disapparates, most likely going back to Grimmauld Place to get George.

"Hermione, don't go back," Ron says.

"No, we should all go back," Blaise says.

"What?" Ron says.

"McGonagall's place… it won't fit all of the Order. We'll need all the space we can get, at least until we can set up new secure locations. Draco's place is safe," Blaise reasons.

"He's Malfoy."

"Yeah, that doesn't mean much to me, seeing as he's been my best mate for the bigger part of my life."

Harry nods. "It makes sense. We should—"

"Do you honestly think Malfoy would just open his home up to the Order?" Ron says. "We can't possibly use his place as a safe house. It's ridiculous."

"He's already let us in once," Blaise says. "We can convince him just to let in the people he's already taken there. It's not perfect, but that's four people that McGonagall won't have to worry about storing away."

"I don't want to leave without Ginny," Harry says.

He's standing by her stretcher, holding her hand.

The charm burns again, but I know that Draco can't have more to say to me than "come back".

Then there's a light pop from right behind me, and I turn around to see Mrs. Weasley, disheveled but otherwise perfectly fine.

"Mum!" Ron says.

"Where are Fred, George and Ginny?" Mrs. Weasley asks.

"George is still at Grimmauld Place," Harry says.

Mrs. Weasley's face blanches, but I grab her hand to stop her before she can Disapparate.

"I think Angelina's gone back to get him," I say.

"What?" Ron says, surprised.

The boys look around—for some reason, it seems like I was the only one who noticed her departure.

Then Charlie appears.

"Did you give up on Shell Cottage?" Harry asks.

"McGonagall said that she told everyone to come here, so we figured that no one else would be showing up there," Charlie says.

Mrs. Weasley has moved over to stand on the other side of Ginny's stretcher, watching her sadly.

I turn to Blaise, Harry and Ron.

"Let me go first, then. To ask if he'll let us stay," I say.

"Ask if Ginny can come," Harry says. "We can't take her there unless he tells her the location."

I nod.

"Are you all out of your minds?" Ron says. "This is Malfoy we're talking about."

Charlie frowns. "What are you four going on about?"

"It's… complicated," I say. "I'm leaving. You three explain to Charlie—and to Mrs. Weasley, all right?"

As I lift my wand to Disapparate, Ron grabs my arm and pulls it down.

"Don't, Hermione," he says.

"We're in the middle of a war, Ron. It's time we got past these silly differences and started working together. It's safe there, and if it's possible for us to stay there to make things easier here, I will try for it," I say. "Now let me go."

"But Hermione—"

"Let her go, Ron," Harry says.

Finally, reluctantly, he loosens his grip on my arm. I take a step back, away from him.

"See you soon," I say before Disapparating.