Hermione held her breath as the man walked past her. He raised his wand at one corner of the room and said "Homenum Revelio" but nothing happened. He moved around the room some more, before standing right in front of Hermione, she held her wand tightly and braced herself for a duel.

"Homenum Rev..." he started to say again.

"Dolohov! What do you think you're doing here?" Narcissa Malfoy's high pitched sound demanded.

"I thought I heard something in here." He answered her distractedly, still looking around him.

"That's not possible. Because I remember clearly stating that nobody is allowed into this room. A statement you seem to carelessly ignore." she grimaced at the man.

"I wasn't prying, Narcissa. I told you I heard something." he insisted.

"I don't care what you were doing; you are not doing it any longer. And what you heard was probably one of the house elves." she dismissed him nonchalantly.

Without further argument the man left the room and Narcissa closed the door behind him. She scanned the room then her eyes rested at the pictures Hermione was examining earlier. Her gaze lingered on them and she walked in their direction. Holding the last picture in her hand, her expression softened before she put it down carefully. "Sonus Opertus" she whispered, pointing her wand at the door.

"Reveal yourself." she ordered quietly.

Hermione hesitated for a minute before taking off the cloak. Narcissa looked directly at her, or rather glared.

"You foolish, foolish girl!" Narcissa scolded her. "What do you think you're doing? Have you any idea what could have happened if that man had seen you? Not just to you, to all of us. Do you realize the danger you're putting Draco through? Or don't you care?" she shook with fury.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something but Narcissa went on "Didn't he tell you not to leave the room unaccompanied?"

"I don't take orders from Malf..your son." Hermione retorted.

"Malfoy_" Narcissa stressed the name "_is risking his life by bringing you back here in such bad timing." she fumed at her.

"Will you stop yelling at me!" Hermione said. "Look, I probably shouldn't have said what I said earlier. But when you make it very clear that you can't stand my existence from the first moment you see me. Then you can hardly blame me for reacting accordingly." Hermione explained. "I know you hate me and I know it's because of my...my..blood status. But I'd really appreciate it if you don't make it so obvious. Because I believe we'll have to deal with each other a lot more in the future." she tried to rationalize with the older witch.

"Your blood status!" Narcissa scoffed "Your. Blood. Status." she punctuated her words.

"Do you really think that matters to me anymore? Do you think that makes any difference now?" she looked at Hermione incredulously. "There's one thing that matters to me and that's my son's life." she admitted."Do you want to know why I hate you, as you choose to phrase it?" she raised her eyebrow quizzically at Hermione who just nodded at her faintly.

"Because, Hermione Granger, my son had spent the past two years of his life surrounded by Death Eaters. Yet, I believe you have the worst influence on him so far." she hissed at her.

The two witches stood there silently. Hermione wanted to ask Narcissa why she thought so but she knew her question would be pointless. Narcissa Malfoy looked like she was minutes away from exploding. She turned her back to Hermione and stood very still for a moment. When she turned around to face her, her expression was blank and her once furious glare was now a distant gaze. Hermione found herself once again musing at how fast Narcissa Malfoy turned from flaming hot to icy cold.

"Put that thing on and follow me." Narcissa dictated as she walked towards the door and held the knob. She looked over her shoulder to make sure Hermione was fully hidden under the cloak.
But before Narcissa could turn the knob, the door opened almost hitting her and Bellatrix walked into the room. Hermione felt a shiver run through her body as Bellatrix looked directly at her direction.

"Cissy! Where have you been? I've been looking allover the place for you." Bellatrix whined.

"Does nobody respect my privacy in this house anymore!" Narcissa exclaimed. "You could have knocked, Bella." she rebuked her sister.

"I did and nobody answered me." Bellatrix replied with a dismissive shrug.

"But I can see why you didn't answer, you're busy watching those baby pictures...again" she mocked, picking up one of the frames and toying with it carelessly.

"Put that back." Narcissa ordered sternly and Bellatrix obliged, almost throwing the frame back in its place.

"You know, Cissy. You don't really need those pictures. You have the real person." Bellatrix remarked, matter-of-factly.

"Yes, but for how long." Narcissa replied bitterly.

"Oh please! Not that rubbish again." Bellatrix waved her hand in the air impatiently.

"But isn't it true? Don't I watch him every time he leaves the house, and wonder whether or not he will be coming back?" Narcissa pursued.

"Your son is safe as long as he carries whatever tasks assigned to him by the Dark Lord." Bellatrix informed coldly

"But what if he dies during one of those tasks? What if he had died last year at Hogwarts?" Narcissa countered.

"But he didn't." Bellatrix replied nonchalantly.

"Why were you looking for me?" Narcissa said after a long pause, infuriated by how futile her conversation with her sister was.

"I was going to ask you about Draco's arm." Bellatrix replied "How long would it be before he can resume the search?" she added.

"The wound is grave.." Narcissa started to say.

"How long, Narcissa?" Bellatrix interrupted her sternly.

"I don't know." Narcissa scowled at her sister.

"Fine_" Bellatrix huffed "_when he wakes up, tell him I want to see him." she added and -without waiting for her sister to reply- left the room.

"Let's go." Narcissa Malfoy ordered as she once again stood by the door.

"Alright" Hermione whispered as she stood behind her and together they left the room and headed back to Malfoy's room.

Hermione expected a second round with Narcissa as they walked into Malfoy's room. But she seemed to go back to the point where she pretended Hermione didn't exist. She stood by the side of the bed watching her son. She sat down carefully next to him and wiped some sweat off his forehead with the back of her hand. Then she started to trace the wound on his arm with her fingers. He let out a small whimper of pain when she touched his arm. Removing her hand abruptly she whispered "It's okay" as she smoothed back his hair.

Hermione felt like she was intruding on them. She tried to look away or pretend not to notice them but she couldn't. She was seeing two Malfoys from a whole new angle and she couldn't help but stare. After a while, Narcissa Malfoy stood up and left the room.

Hermione watched Malfoy's sleeping frame while his mother's words echoed in her head. "You have the worst influence on him so far". What did she mean by that? Her son was finally doing something right and instead of being thankful, she regards it as bad influence! But Narcissa Malfoy wasn't in this for the sake of right and wrong, Hermione thought. She said it herself that it didn't matter for her anymore, she only wanted to secure her son's safety. And he was trying to do the same for her.
Then why was she making it sound like Hermione's fault when her son was doing all this for her in the first place?

Hermione was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice Malfoy had woken up.

"It's really unwise to keep staring at me like that." he advised as he looked back at her, braced up on one elbow.

"I wasn't staring at you." Hermione scoffed at him.

"I believe you were." Malfoy smirked at her.

"I was distracted." she explained.

"By looking at me." he retorted.

"I went out." she changed the subject and barely bit back her laugh when Malfoy jumped out of the bed.

"Didn't I tell you not to?" he glared at her.

"Did you really expect me to simply obey your orders?" Hermione asked.

"Those weren't orders for the sake of orders. They were orders for the sake of your safety and mine." he replied dryly.

"They're still orders. And you'd do well to remember that I don't take orders from anybody." Hermione reminded him. He looked at her and let out an exasperated sigh.

"I..um...saw your mother." Hermione informed.

"Let me guess, you resumed the fight you started earlier." He twisted his mouth in disapproval.

"Not exactly but...she's not particularly fond of me."

"Or you of her."

"But I don't hate her."

"Neither does she."

"Actually, I believe she does."

"Hate is a strong word."

"You used to hate me before...or you still do. I'm not sure."

Malfoy fell silent for a while before shaking his head "I'm not going to dignify this with an answer." he replied as he went to the adjoined bathroom and closed the door behind him.

"So, was your little escapade fruitful?" Malfoy asked as he emerged from the bathroom.

"Not really. Everybody seemed to gather in the drawing room and they hardly ever left it." Hermione replied.

"They usually don't." he informed, "Have you seen...my aunt?" he asked carefully.

"Yes." Hermione replied.

Malfoy's eyes widened as he asked her "Did she see you?"

"Of course, then she invited me up to her room for some tea. But I had to excuse myself because I wasn't feeling well. She's great at making small talk, I have to admit." Hermione said putting on her most serious expression.

"Sarcasm doesn't become you, Granger." he smirked at her.

"How do you expect me to answer such a stupid question, then?" she challenged.

"What you told my mother, about something in the Lestrange Vault that you're looking for, was it true?" he changed the subject, his tone more serious now.

"Yes, why would I lie." Hermione replied simply.

"Well, you seemed so reluctant to tell me when I asked. Because, as you said, you couldn't trust me enough." he accused.

"I didn't say that, Harry did." Hermione defended herself.

"And you agreed with him." Malfoy countered. "Anyway, that doesn't matter. Tell me more about that thing you're looking for." he added.

"Well, we don't really know what it could be but it's something really valuable. When Bellatrix thought we had broken into her vault she panicked and she kept asking me what else we have taken from her vault. That means she's hiding something in there and we just need to make sure if it was still there. She might have removed it to a safer place. It would be dangerous to take such a risk when we aren't sure we'll find what we're looking for." Hermione explained.

"What do you mean by valuable? Because I don't think you mean expensive." he inquired.

"I mean it's a valuable...weapon."

"Like a...sword or something?"

"No, I meant it could be used as a weapon. It's very important for...you-know-who and...it could be used against him."Hermione stopped abruptly, afraid that she had said too much.

"Hmm...alright."Malfoy mumbled as he stared down at his hands. Thinking deeply about something. After a while, he stood up and headed to the door "This time when I say don't get out I really mean don't get out and it's not an order, consider it...a suggestion." he urged as he tucked his shirt in his trousers.

"Where are you going?" Hermione looked at him in confusion.

"Granger, if I get killed for this, I hope you live with the guilt forever." He ran his fingers through his hair before closing the door behind him.