A/N: As I cannot reply to reviewer who goes by the name of 't' I shall do so quickly here. I hear ya and your bafflement of how Hermione couldn't hear Draco and Harry fighting. Long story short, she did, read on to find out!

Draco was snoring softly beside Hermione, his chest rising and falling slowly in sync with hers. She was trying not to fall asleep, instead attempting to piece together everything that had happened that evening. She hadn't registered that there was shouting for a while, not until she had stepped out of the shower and moved to put on the clothes that Draco had given her. She had thought for a second that Draco must had switched the TV on but then it clicked in her brain that Draco was one of the voices she was hearing. The other she couldn't make out, but it was strangely familiar. A tugging feeling had swirled in her stomach and she heard a loud crash, the noise so deafening that it made her entire body shake with panic. Were they being robbed? Was someone from the gang Draco had joined coming back to get him?

She had pulled the door open slightly and peaked out through the crack; eyes wide watching the scene unfold before her. The wall of the hotel was in bits, debris covering the floor and furniture around the two figures. Draco hadn't noticed her yet and was hid behind the sofa, clutching a long piece of wood in his hand, a few sparks of red blasting from the tip of it. Her gaze glided over to the other boy. Another face from her dreams. Dark messy hair and bright green eyes. Hermione's eyes continued searching for something that wasn't there. She knew that whatever was missing was supposed to be on his forehead. She frowned in confusion, trying to figure out what was missing. The boy was also holding a piece of wood and screamed something she didn't quite understand. A green light blasted from the stick. Hermione's hand flinched towards her hip, grabbing for something that wasn't there.

She needed to get in there. She needed to help Harry. She needed to protect Draco. Where was her wand? Where had she put it? Her hand had fumbled around her body more, searching desperately, her gaze still on Draco watching as he chucked the wine bottle at Harry.

The brown-haired man fell limp to the ground. Draco waved his wand and fixed the wall. He waved his wand and fixed the boy. Hermione felt all the heat rush from her body. He had a wand. They both had wands. They were both attacking each other with blasts of light and energy she had seen so many times in her dreams. She knew she should be scared but instead she felt strangely whole. Hermione secretly hoped they'd cast another spell so she could bask in the feeling of power surrounding her and pulsing through her veins. Harry caught her eyes as he stood and moved to leave, staring at Draco incredulously. Hermione flinched. Was Draco really going to let him leave? She recognised him. She'd dreamt about him. She knew his name. She had seen him so many times. She couldn't let him leave.

Without thinking she had propelled herself forward. She knew Draco would have been angry with her, and he was, but she felt like something was slowly clicking into place when she looked at the brown-haired boy. Harry. Harry Harry Harry.

Oh how she'd missed him, but she couldn't work out why.

And now, as she lay in Draco's bed, she wondered if he was keeping something from her. Something important. Hermione knew that sometimes her mind felt closed off from her. Sometimes she had flashes of places and people and as soon as she felt like she was making a grand discovery, she was locked out. She'd been perfectly content with not knowing. But then Draco had swanned into her life with his brilliance and energy and something in her mind clicked.

It happened every time she saw him. Her mind flickered through possible memories and then faltered slightly as if she were so close to remembering something but at the last moment shutting it away. Hermione wondered why her own mind was disappointing her like this. She had always been intelligent, been meant for something more than the life she was leading. Granted, she was content with it, but sometimes when she woke up in the morning she would reach over for a stick of wood that wasn't there.

She turned on to her side and analysed Draco, taking in the soft point of his nose and sharp angle of his cheek bones. She stared at his hair, still slicked back, and wondered why that reminded her of a smaller, angrier looking version of him comparing her blood to mud.

Mud. Mudblood. Dirty blood.

And then Hermione woke up not even realising at some point she'd fallen asleep. Not even realising that Harry had come to get her. Not remembering anything about wands or sparks of red and jets of green. Draco was peeking through one eye at her, the other still closed against the blaring sun streaming through the windows and it was if the rest of the night after her shower had never happened at all.

She shook off the feeling that something was wrong and smiled at him shyly. He grinned back and puckered his lips, waiting for her to kiss him. She rolled her eyes mumbling, 'Stupid ferret,' but obliged, pressing her lips against the sweet taste of his.

Hermione arrived at work slightly late that morning, face flushed, and apologies tumbling from her mouth she slipped through the door. Lisa winked at the girl and insisted she wanted all the details of the night before to which Hermione exclaimed there were none and headed over to the pile of books that needed returning to their rightful places.

She felt a pulling at the back of the head as a part of her whispered that there were details and attempted to draw her back into her frantic search. She braced her hand on the shelf in front of her, shaking her head as if it would dispel the thoughts. They quietened slightly and Hermione smiled, reaching to put a book back into place.

"Gawain, it's Draco. Just calling to see if we've had any leads on figuring out who is behind this?"

"Harry has brought in six people. Five of which we are ruling out from this case."

Draco frowned, confused, his pen had been poised ready to copy down information. He dropped it against the table and took a deep breath in to calm himself, "And why is this?"

"Coincidence," Gawain said, "We thought it was strange that there were five people on the list who already knew each other anyway. Two sets of siblings, Jenny and Jamie Ringer and Percy, Millie and Matthew Pinkleton. They were all having a pretend duel around the house, a spell went wrong and all of them went flying and were rendered unconscious. When they woke they were all confused, thinking they'd been kidnapped and 'escaped' to the nearest village. They'd originally set off together but split up after a few days. They had only been missing a week when Harry brought them in. Safe to say they were very thankful to have their memories returned to them, and it was all a big misunderstanding."

Draco felt himself getting angrier by the second – why had he not been informed of this, "And the sixth person Harry found?"

"Slightly different case here. Matilda's memories have been returned but she is still in St Mungo's. She won't speak to any of us, not even her friends or family. She says she wants to go home."

"So she's been mentally damaged, like Lockhart?" Draco questioned. The line went silent for a moment.

"No, she's in her right mind. We believe that she left of her own accord."

"Excuse me?" Draco's head snapped up, brows furrowed in confusion, "She left?" He picked up his pen again, jotting Matilda's name down alongside Hermione's and the seven others who were still missing. As Gawain began to speak again he scribbled down notes furiously.

"Ever since the war ended some muggle-born wizards and witches have opted to leave the community. We have a programme for this so that it's done in a way that keeps the person safe and gives them the option to return should they so wish. In some cases a wizard or witch's friends and family have gone looking for them, persuading the head of the department to find and return their missing loved one for them. We've had to fire and re-hire so many people for breaching their client's confidentiality. I suppose some magical folk have realised the flaws in this plan and have set out to rid themselves of the wizarding world in a way that is much more… final."

"But…" Draco's voice fell quiet for a moment as he tried to gather his thoughts, "Does Harry know about your theory?"

"No." Gawain replied, "I want to see what the others feel like when they're found and their memories are restored. Just because one person is unhappy they are magical again, doesn't mean they all will be."

"And you also don't wish to tell him that Hermione may have decided this path and inflicted her memory loss on herself."

"The war was very hard on everyone, but muggle-born's suffered the most. With everything Hermione has been through I wouldn't be surprised but then it could merely be a mistake. All of these names could just be coincidences. They might not even be linked. But then again, who knows?"

Draco desperately racked his brain for any proof this could be the reason Hermione was here. Maybe she had planned it all out. Said she was leaving for Australia and then performed a memory charm on herself once she'd gotten here. It was plausible but Draco couldn't help but feel like there was something he was missing. Hermione was incredible at memory charms and yet, despite her not remembering much now, she still seemed to slip up and recall events that she should have forgotten. That didn't seem like the work of someone who desperately wanted to leave the Wizarding world.

"Do we know of any Death Eater's – anyone roaming about the wizarding world that might have a motive to do this to muggle-borns?" Draco questioned, searching for a loop hole in Gawain's idea.

"Most of the Death Eater's from the war are either dead, in Azkaban, or were acquitted for their crimes."

"I want a list of all those who were not given sentences."

The list wasn't fairly long and consisted of Draco's immediately family, himself, his peers at school and a few of their family members. He crossed himself off the list, knowing he hadn't taken anyone's memories from them, but narrowed his eyes at the other names deep in thought.

Draco Malfoy had a lot of thinking to do.

Lisa had finally managed to corner Hermione at work just before closing time, begging her friend to fill her in on everything that had happened. Hermione reluctantly agreed and let Lisa drag her over to a spacious area in the shop that was covered in bean bags so people could relax and enjoy reading their book in peace. They both slouched into the make shift seats and Hermione sighed happily, wondering where to begin.

She nudged a piece of hair from her face, glancing at Lisa who was grinning madly at her, "Well we walked around for a bit. He wouldn't tell me where we were headed but we had a nice talk. I mainly asked about him. His school friends, what his life had been like as a kid, that sort of thing. Then we reached the park and he'd set up this lovely picnic-,"

Lisa snorted, "What a cliché."

"Do you want to hear what happened or not?" Hermione glared at her friend. Lisa nodded her head, chuckling still and Hermione rolled her eyes continuing on, "It was under the most beautiful willow tree. All he'd packed was ice cream and wine, but it just worked. It was so thought out and yet, so simple."

"Why ice cream?"

"It's what we had the first time he took me out. I had chocolate and mint, he had apple."

Lisa's mouth formed an 'o' shape, "Oh yes. I remember. Carry on."

"And I did the only thing that made sense of course. I attacked him with my ice cream." She smiled smugly, "He was covered in it. The look on his face. He looked so shocked, like he couldn't believe I'd done it. Then he grabbed me and kissed me and I was covered in ice cream and then-,"

Lisa's eyes were wide in disbelief, "THEN…" She squealed, waiting on what she thought was the juicy details.

"And then he apologised for being so improper and took me back to his hotel where I promptly fell asleep."

Hermione didn't think Lisa's jaw could drop anymore than it already had but somehow it did, "WHAT?! YOU WENT BACK TO HIS HOTEL AND NOTHING HAPPENED?! WHA-WHAT- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

Hermione laughed at her friend's reaction, shaking her head and waving her hand at her. She stood up from the bean bag and glanced over at the clock seeing that it was time to shut the shop. Hermione headed over to the till to cash up, leaving Lisa sputtering and flailing trying to jump up from her bean bag. Once the lights had been turned off and the door had been locked the two friends headed to the ice cream parlour for some vanilla ice cream cones and wandered down to the beach, enjoying the sea breeze as it whirled around their faces.

Lisa continued to babble on about how she couldn't believe Hermione had missed out on such an opportunity to learn about Draco more intimately. but Hermione had given her a small shy smile insisting that there would be many more dates in the future to learn about him in every way she wanted to. This was only the beginning of their adventure.

And boy was that an understatement.