CHAPTER 46.

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"Why isn't he speaking to me Blaise?" Hermione pleaded in a whisper.

Blaise gave her an extremely pitying look and looked around. He was walking his way back to the Slytherin dungeons when Hermione had discreetly run behind him and caught up with him. No one was around. He sighed.

"Gran.. Hermione ... I really don't know. Why don't you ask him?" Blaise asked wearily.

"He won't even look at me Blaise. How am I supposed to even question him?" She shot back. "We didn't speak the whole summer after deciding to do so but now that we can meet in school, he won't even look at me."

Her eyes had started glistening and the mere fact that she had almost stalked Blaise and sought him to demand an explanation about Draco's behaviour showed that she was desperate. She didn't know what to make out about Blaise knowing her's and Draco's secret so she had ignored it. But now that Draco was behaving like an idiot, she couldn't help but go to the one person who knew about them.

Blaise looked at her with pity. Of course he knew what was wrong with Draco. He was his closest friend. Also news like his never stayed a secret in the pureblood society that were a part of. He totally understood Draco's reasons for avoiding Hermione. He didn't know what his mission was because that was strictly only between the inner circle death eaters, but he knew he had been inducted as one and that itself was enough for him to want to stay away from Hermione for her own good.

"Look Hermione, I don't know what to tell you. He's not telling me anything either." Blaise said truthfully. Draco hadn't wanted to speak about it to Blaise but it was obvious to Blaise why he was deliberately shunning her. He hadn't decided yet whether he approved of Draco's thoughtfulness or thought he was being an idiot.

"Will you ask him please?" Hermione pleaded hopefully. "Just ask him to meet me once. I want to know what I did wrong. Just please; please tell him I'm sorry. Whatever it is."

Blaise shut his eyes feeling guilty. Technically he had said no lies but he knew that Draco was not upset with Hermione. Nor had she done anything to antagonize him. But all these weeks of avoiding had caused her to think she had been in the wrong. She looked so distraught and helpless. If he told her, she would be rid of her worry and she could emotionally support Draco as well. But if she didn't do that and ran about telling Potter about him being a death eater then it would all fail. Blaise was unconvinced that Hermione would ever do something like that. But still he had to explore all scenarios. In the end, in spite of Hermione's grief stricken face, he decided that it wasn't his secret to tell and if he did he would be betraying Draco irreversibly.

"I've already tried speaking with him about you." He said tiredly. Her eyes shone momentarily.

"Have you? Really?" She asked giddily.

"I found it odd. I tried asking." He emphasized on the word tried. "But he just won't say anything. He doesn't want to talk to me about it."

"Oh." Her face fell. "But can you try again? Please just once?"

"Hermione ..."

"Please Blaise. You know I care about him. I know something is wrong." She said. "I know we've only just started speaking with each other, but the fact that you called me that day says something doesn't it? We could be friends even. Please help me figure out what's bothering Draco?"

Blaise momentarily wondered if Hermione should have been sorted in slytherin for manipulation. She seemed good at it. But one look at her face and her eyes, he realised that she was being genuine. She hadn't wanted to coerce him, but she was desperate. For some contact, for anything that would get Draco to talk to her.

"Fine." He relented. "I'll try. But I can't promise you anything."

Hermione's eyes lit up with partial hope and Blaise started realising for the first time what his mate Draco must have seen in her. She was tirelessly pushy, selfless, caring and loyal to a fault. She accepted him with all his flaws and when he stopped talking to her and ignoring her, instead of feeling snubbed like other girls would, she held her head high and even though others would deem her pleading less than dignified, she wanted to cross the distance and figure out what had gone wrong. And for once she didn't think that Draco could be the reason. She was worried that she had done or said something that had caused him to bottle up. Of course he didn't know if anything like that had actually happened. But he knew the look he saw in Draco's eyes when he saw Hermione from far or near or when he even thought of her.

It was the same look that she held in her eyes for Draco. And Blaise knew one thing: people that looked at each other that way never let each other go unless it was absolutely necessary. Blaise was sure that Draco's sudden change towards Hermione was nothing to do with her. If anything, he was trying to protect her. Do the right thing. And maybe somewhere down the line, even though he knew that if Hermione learned of this she would scoff and yell at him for doing it but that was only because she was on the other side. The annoyingly courageous and stupidly bold side that was so righteous that they didn't actually ever understand the real depth of danger they were in. Sure, they would be ready to sacrifice their lives for the greater good and weren't into self preservation like the slytherins were; but that's exactly why Draco would have to keep his distance. To prevent her from doing something stupidly rash that could cost her her life.

"Thank you Blaise." She said earnestly. "You have no idea how much this means to me."

Blaise grunted irritated and left her standing in the dungeon corridor. Bloody sunny, optimistic Gryffindor disposition! He almost wanted to run back and knock some sense into her about the imminent danger and reality. But he couldn't. It wasn't his place. He didn't want to interfere in Draco's scheme of things.

Days went into weeks and although Blaise had tried talking to Draco about Hermione, he was unsuccessful on most occasions. But Hermione continued to pester both Blaise and Draco. Blaise eventually got fed up and demanded he know what the real story was or he would go to Hermione and tell her that Draco was pretending to not talk to her. This made Draco confide in Blaise. Although he didn't exactly tell him what his mission was, Blaise finally knew the reason behind Draco's sudden change. And he was right in his assumptions.

Now the only catch was to somehow get rid of Hermione and her relentless questions. Draco had resorted to name calling and insults all over again but the stubborn little know-it-all refused to accept that he could be behaving in such a way in earnest. She was convinced there was something going on and she continued in her pursuit to sway Draco from his ridiculous behaviour.

On top of it all Harry was convinced that Draco was behaving weirdly and was a death eater. Which Hermione found utterly ridiculous. Of course she knew that he hated the pureblood ideology and the mere idea of Voldemort's beliefs but Harry didn't know that and he was hell bent on Draco being a death eater. Granted that he was being rather odd, with respect to Hermione; not in general.

But the last straw was when Harry attacked Draco with Sectumsempra in the bathroom. Hermione lost her cool and snapped at Harry and refused to speak with him. She was worried sick about Draco and would sneak into the infirmary when everyone was asleep to be with him. Draco of course was sleeping to notice her there but even if he would have seen her, he would have not acknowledged her.

Ron didn't understand why Hermione was so upset over Harry using the curse on Malfoy of all the people, but he surprisingly understood that she was going through a dull phase; even though he didn't know why. Harry was too busy with the Half blood prince's book and Hermione was upset about something. That just left Ron to support her.

Hermione was glad to have Ron's support even though she couldn't confide in him about Draco. Surprisingly, Ron and Blaise had taken over Harry and Draco's role. Even though she didn't believe Draco had started hating her, his ignoring of her was getting to her and she was beginning to get worried and jumpy.

She had realised that maybe he was behaving this way because his father was back and she had even tried telling him to go to Dumbledore for help. But he had just insulted her again and left.

Christmas came and went and Lucius was extremely angry with Draco for the lack of progress in his mission. He decided that he needed some leverage to speed up his work. On magically searching his room, he found the two way diary. It was an old Malfoy diary and thus it was easy for him to unlock it.

The contents of the diary shocked him. And there wasn't much that could raise Lucius Malfoy's eyebrows. But the words exchanged between his son, his own son, his blood and heir and the filthy mudblood were enough to shock his existence and send his blood boiling.

He slammed the diary shut and summoned for his son from Hogwarts. He was staying there to complete his mission but this was important. Lucius had to meet his son and confront him.

"You called Father?" Draco said as soon as he entered his father's library.

Lucius swirled his chair to face him. "I heard of another failed attempt on your part Draco." He said caustically.

Draco gulped. The poisoned mead that he had half-heartedly planted for Dumbledore had somehow reached the Weasel and he was currently in the hospital because of that. One more reason for him to be away from Hermione. He didn't deserve her. He had almost killed one of her best friends and if she ever came to know that, she would stop following him around and trying to get him to speak with her. She was better off without him.

He had promised himself that he would place distance between them. For her safety. He wasn't the person she expected him to be nor could he ever become one. The person she had expressed her love to, wasn't the same Draco Malfoy anymore. Now he was Draco Malfoy, death eater; ordered to kill the greatest wizard of the time. And Hermione could never love someone like that.

"Father I ..." Draco started.

"Enough." Lucius roared. "I am tired of your excuses Draco. The Dark Lord hasn't shown any impatience yet, but that is because he is expecting you to fail. But I, on the other hand, expect you to fulfil your commitment. And I won't stop at anything."

Draco didn't wish to, but something compelled him to look at his father's eyes as he said this. He saw complete seriousness and a deadly madness in them.

"I leave you no choice son. Your attempts on Dumbledore's life are laughable. Perhaps I should raise the stakes for you to start putting some more effort into your task." Lucius said. "Perhaps, let's say that every time you fail, I will play a little game of my own. A game on the life of a certain little mudblood we know. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Draco's eyes widened and all pretence left him as he unbelievingly looked at the monster that stood before him.

Lucius stood idly by, playing with Draco's diary in his hands, the mad glint still in his eye.

"Father..." Draco's voice trembled.

"I don't want to hear of it. You have heard what I had to say. The rest is up to you." Lucius said as he left his library and his son.

Draco reached Hogwarts and made his way towards a door he never thought he would never knock on.

"Aah Mr. Malfoy. Welcome. Finally. I was beginning to wonder if you were coming at all."

"You ... You knew I'd come?" Draco asked surprised.

"I had an inkling, yes." He said. "And let me tell you that I'm glad you're here."

"I need help." Draco blurted out.

"We all do, Mr. Malfoy. We all do." He said. "And at Hogwarts, help is always given to those who deserve it."

"I don't deserve it." Draco said convinced. "But I can't do this ... She needs to be kept safe."

Professor Dumbledore turned around, offering him a lemon drop, motioned for him to sit down. "Tell me everything."

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I'll try to put up the next one as soon as I can.

Till then, happy reading!

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