Over the next two months, Draco and Hermione fell into a routine. He would show up at her office at 1:00pm, make some snide remark about her research, and then they would go to the Archives or travel to the Hogwarts library or sometimes, go to speak to other researchers. At 5:00pm, Hermione would go and do her rounds while Draco ate dinner. They would get back together when she was done and continue to research until 8:00pm when Draco flooed home. Hermione managed to hide all of her episodes from Draco and continued the documentation of them every day. The two didn't get along per se, but Draco hadn't called Hermione a Mudblood since the first day and other than making disparaging remarks about the work she was doing, Hermione was surprised to find Draco incredibly helpful. He was good at research, Hermione mused. And good at analyzing information quickly. He constantly questioned her - not in a way that made her angry but in a way that made her think and she did the same to him. He wouldn't always reveal how or why he knew certain things about the curses but Hermione had learned that she could trust that what he was saying was true.

Draco on the other hand was astounded by how quickly he became invested in the work. Not in the topic itself, he still didn't care at all what happened to people after they'd been cursed, but he enjoyed the challenge of a seemingly unsolvable puzzle. Granger was significantly less annoying that he remembered in school and he begrudgingly admitted to himself that, for a Muggleborn, she truly was incredibly intelligent. He still hated her of course, and her stupid friends who would occasionally visit and glare at him from her office, but he found he didn't mind working with her as much as he thought he would. When he wasn't at work, he'd spend time with Blaise. Gina was always mysteriously absent when the two got together but that was just fine with Draco. He began renovations of the Manor and, with the Wizengamot's approval, began to try to rebuild Malfoy Enterprises. There was nearly nothing left of it but he still had the Malfoy wealth so he began to learn about the business his father had run in hopes of bringing it back to its former glory. Everything seemed to be going well for Draco and Hermione until one afternoon when a book written by a dark wizard sparked an argument between the pair.

"How can you sit here and tell me that the Cruciatus curse exists for a good reason?" Hermione cried from her side of the desk in the Archives where they'd been working.

"I didn't say it existed for a good reason," he answered. "I said it exists for useful reasons."

"That's the same thing," Hermione told him. "I can't understand why you would ever find something so horrible useful."

"Therein lies one of the many, many, many differences between us," he replied. "You see the curse exactly as you were taught to see it, a bad curse created by bad people used by those bad people against good people. You went through the same war I did, surely you don't really think it's that black and white."

"I don't think anything is that black and white," Hermione defended. "I'm just saying, there's a reason the Cruciatus is called an unforgivable. For one person to use it against another is exactly that, unforgivable, no matter what the reason why."

"But what if using the curse on someone could gain you information that could greatly help your side win a battle? Or win a war? People talk when they want the pain to stop," Draco replied. "It's a good way to get information out of someone who would otherwise be unwilling to give it up."

"There are other ways to get someone to talk," Hermione said firmly. "Torture like that is not the way!"

"It's a wonder your side won the war at all," Draco retorted. "Too meek and too good to use a little curse on the enemy."

"Our side won because good always wins," Hermione replied angrily. "Not that you'd know anything about being good."

"Oh resorted to personal attacks have we?" Draco answered gleefully. "I daresay this conversation all of a sudden got very personal. Too bad you're not smart enough to keep up with a Slytherin."

"Don't question my intelligence," Hermione said raising her voice. "And being from Slytherin house means next to nothing anymore. Surely you've been out in the world long enough to see that."

"Yes, I see the pathetic facsimile of a world we're living in," he retorted. "Purebloods pretending they give a damn about Muggleborns so they don't end up in Azkaban or shunned from society. They're forced to keep their beliefs to themselves because they aren't accepted in this "new wizard world" that we live in. Muggleborns and half-bloods walking around as if they have the right to even breathe the same air as a pureblood does. Oh how the tables have turned now that good has won."

"You know what, Draco? I've had enough," Hermione said, advancing around the table and standing directly in front of him. Her use of his first named stunned him into silence. "Yes that is the world that we live in. Blatant displays of hatred are no longer tolerated here. You have your beliefs, you keep them to yourself because what you believe is WRONG."

The lights began to flicker and the pages of the book began to turn as Hermione's control of her magic began to waiver.

"There is absolutely no difference at all between you or me or Harry or any other wizard in our world. Your perfect pureblood society is GONE."

At the word gone, several books flew off the shelves and one hit Draco in the head. The cut began to bleed down his face but he stood, immobile, listening to Hermione.

"You have a chance Draco, a real chance to make a life for yourself, independent of your father, independent of the Death Eaters, independent of all of the hate and prejudice that you were raised to believe was true but is just wrong. Voldemort is DEAD, he is dead and he is NEVER coming back. Get your head out of your ass and start thinking for yourself."

Draco stared down at Hermione, stunned by her speech. He then responded in the only way he knew how. "Well, well, well," Draco answered, sounding amused but trying to stem the bleeding from the cut on his head. "Poke Granger and she grows claws. It's almost as if you had a backbone."

"As if you'd know anything about a backbone, Malfoy," Hermione retorted. "All you know is how to follow orders from your Death Eater father and precious dark lord."

Draco's eyes narrowed at the mention of his father and Voldemort, "Careful, Granger," he said deathly quiet. "Don't talk about things you don't understand."

His tone alone sent shivers down Hermione's spine. But then, the shivers didn't stop. Hermione grabbed the doorway as she felt the attack coming on. She gripped it as she slid to the floor and Malfoy shot towards her in alarm.

"Granger? Granger?" he yelled at her. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

But she was shaking so badly she couldn't answer. She tried to tune him out, tried to focus on her breathing as the shaking wracked her entire body. She'd just had an episode this morning, they never happened more than once a day, she thought as the pain shot through her. She hadn't anticipated another so she didn't have any of the potion with her.

Malfoy stared at her, unsure of what to do. What he did know is that if something happened to Granger, he would be blamed and in that moment he realized, while he'd only had a few weeks of freedom away from Azkaban, he sure as hell didn't want to go back and the realization hit him like the Hogwarts Express. Certainly his feelings about blood status hadn't changed but as he stared at Granger's small body shaking on the office floor, he knew there was no way he could get blamed for this. Hermione's labored breathing brought him out of his thoughts and into the present. She was still shaking violently and he sure as hell wasn't going to touch her so he stepped over her body and walked down the hall.

"He's going to leave me here," Hermione thought, as she watched Draco step over her and walk out of her line of view. "If I could just, stop the…" but her body was shaken by a particularly bad shudder and she hit her head against the door jam and blacked out.

A/N: Well an argument between them was bound to happen, right? And what a better way for it to end with the power in Draco's hands and an unconscious Hermione! I love all the reviews, please keep them coming!