Narcissa Malfoy slightly brushed her son's shoulder as she walked through the door, closing it behind her. Her eyes scanned the room before resting on Hermione.

"Ms. Granger, I hope you found your stay rather...convenient." Naracissa greeted nonchalantly.
Hermione's mouth fell open and she glanced at Malfoy, he was just standing there impassively, and then it dawned on her, Narcissa Malfoy knew she was there, all along.

"You...you knew I was here?" Hermione whispered in a barely audible voice.

"If that's how you usually speak then I have no idea how anybody ever understands what you're saying." the older witch remarked, raising her hand to slightly touch her collarbones with the tips of her fingers.

Clearing her throat, Hermione repeated, louder this time. "You knew I was here all along?"

"This is my house. If I don't know who stays in it, what sort of woman does that make me?" Narcissa statedmatter-of-factly, turning to face her son before Hermione got any chance to ask further questions.

Narcissa Malfoy had a fictitious air of frigidness about her, Hermione thought. Immaculately displayed, but unreal.

"I would have sent one of the house elves but they're all too busy, Bella had them searching for Travers's wand. That idiot already lost it two times before!" Narcissa ranted "Anyhow, we need to talk, I'll be in my chamber." she left the room without a backward glance.

"I didn't know your mother knew I was here." Hermione said

"That much is obvious_" Draco stated "_but what difference does it make?" he asked.

"You never told me." she replied "You never asked, and it doesn't matter. I have to go." and with that, he walked out of the room, leaving Hermione alone...again.

After what seemed like hours he finally returned.

"What took you so long?" Hermione demanded.

"Long? It has hardly been an hour!" he looked at her incredulously.

She frowned..had it really been such a short while?

"That wand you gave me, is this the wand they're looking for?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Of course not, have you fell and hit your head while I was away?" Draco scoffed.

Hermione wanted to say something back, but the last thing she felt like was fighting, she felt so drained, the anxiety was consuming her and her inability to suppress her dark thoughts frustrated her. She just wanted someone to tell her it was going to be fine, she missed her mother like never before. Looking out the window, she had contradicting feelings, she dreaded the dusk, but she couldn't wait for it to come.

She heard Malfoy move but she didn't turn around to look, then he was standing next to her, his arm slightly brushing hers.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly, looking out the window rather than at her.

"I'm worried sick, that's what's wrong." she replied, her tone sounded too aggressive to her own ears.

"Well, it would be foolish if you're not, but I think everything is going to be alright. I've planned for this carefully." he assured.

"Every plan is prone to unplanned events." she countered.

"Mine is not." he contradicted arrogantly. Hermione was so tempted to slap all the haughtiness out of him but she decided against it.

"Where are we going to go?" she asked "Isle of Wight." he informed, and Hermione recognized the place, she had never been there, though.

"Why are we going there?"

"I have a safe place there which we'll stay at. I have no idea where Potter or any of your...friends are. And I don't think you have any idea, either. You'll try to owl them from there and if that fails we'll have to start looking for them ourselves. But I don't think we will have to do that, there must be at least one of them that the owls could reach." he explained grimly and she could tell he wasn't sure of his last statement.

Hermione sat on the bed idly, fighting off a panic attack as Malfoy left the room to check where everybody was. He came back saying everybody was either asleep or busy. He took out his broomstick and a childish grin lit up his face as he held it out. She gaped at him.

"Why are you grinning?" she frowned at him.

"It had been so long since I flew" he explained. Hermione shot him an incredulous look in return.

The broomstick was hovering next to Malfoy and he mounted it gracefully before looking back at Hermione who just stood there beside him, not willing to move. He gave her an impatient look before tugging at her hand.

"Come on!" he urged.
Hermione didn't like this, she didn't like it one tiny bit. She had to use Malfoy's shoulders for balance, keeping contact to the minimum proved to be hard when they were sharing a broomstick, she decided grimly. He turned his head to look back at her, a disbelieving look on his face.

"Really?" he asked.

"What?" she frowned at him.

"You'll fall off before I even make it through the window, do you even realize how hard it is to fly through a window?"

"No, obviously not." she replied indignantly

"Hold tight Granger, because I swear if you fall off.."

"You won't even look back at me, I know! You've made it clear more than once." Hermione interrupted him irritably. Clutching his shoulders, she pushed him forward forcefully on purpose, "Let's go." she ordered. He turned around to glare at her and started to say something but abruptly looked forward instead.

Hermione closed her eyes and tried not to think about her surroundings, she didn't like heights, never felt comfortable flying, she didn't like Malfoy or feel comfortable around him either. When she opened her eyes, there was no difference; she could hardly see anything, it was so dark and foggy.

"How can you see?" she asked in bewilderment.

"I've flown here so many times; I've memorized the place by heart now." he explained.

Looking back, she realized the Manor was out of sight, now more comfortable, she sighed with relief. The hard part was over, now they only needed to stay alive until the reached their destination. Hermione distracted herself by looking at the landscape beneath her, they were flying on a lower height now and she could see the land clearly. It wasn't long before Malfoy finally spoke

"We're almost there, this is the Isle of Wight." he turned around a little to talk to her, pointing at a small island.

It looked quiet, few houses and buildings were gathered at the center of the island, she could see a port as well, but as they flew forward, buildings decreased until nothing was in sight except the green landscape, then she saw it. At the end of the island was a cliff, on top of it lied a mansion, notably smaller than the Malfoy Manor but nevertheless equally prestigious, only this one had a less...sinister air about it.

"We're here." Malfoy announced as they gradually descended, when Hermione's legs finally touched the ground she finally felt safe for the first time in days.

Hermione moved forward but then stopped suddenly, remembering something. "Is it protected?" she asked.

"Of course if is." he confirmed. One hand holding the broomstick, the other held up his wand "Partis Temporus" he spoke and a thin transparent gate appeared in front of them momentarily before crumbling like dust.

Walking through the door, Hermione gasped at her surroundings, the place looked beautiful. The walls were stark white with silver ornaments framing every wall. To her left was an oval glass dinning table surrounded with white black dinning chairs. And to the left was a fireplace with a sofa and some armchairs around it. There was a huge book case that covered the wall's length, next to it was a closed room, probably a study, Hermione guessed. At the far corner of the room there were black stairs and a narrow door beneath those stairs. There wasn't a single painting on any of the walls, she noticed.

She stood there absorbing the details of the place when she heard Malfoy move behind her "Welcome to Draco Malfoy's mansion." he greeted quietly.