Hey guys. Whew, I'm busy at the moment! Not only are exams going on I am also moving house! Yowch. Anyways, I hope those of you who got a sneak-peak of this chapter liked it and I think I shall be doing it for this chapter as well, so motivation to review! Some people thought that it was rather out of character for Hermione to be so upset about a boy, but I would like to point out that it isn't just her confusion over her feelings for Draco; it's also the guilt of having to lie to him and the pressure of the mission. Just thought I'd clear up any confusion there. I didn't get any complaints about shorter chapters, so I shall continue doing that. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! PS, I own nothing.
"Repeat after me. Right arm camera, left arm notice-me-not capsules, right thigh medicine, waist sleeping-draught, hips throwing knives, right shoulder phone."
Hermione sighed, "Right arm camera, left arm notice-me-not capsules, right thigh medicine, waist sleeping-draught, hips throwing knives, right shoulder phone. Is all of this really necessary? What will I even do with a phone?" Hermione asked, gesturing to the millions of leather belts and straps adorning her body.
"It's untraceable and you press one for me, two for Ron and three for every landline in the Manor. You never know, it could be useful. And anyway, what's the point in being a spy if you don't get to wear the cool stuff?" Ginny asked.
Hermione raised her eyebrows, "Oh I don't know, maybe getting top secret information for the good of the country to take down an evil empire?"
Ginny rolled her eyes, "Always so pragmatic."
"All this stuff is hardly practical, Ginny. What do I do if I run into Lucius?"
"Pretend Draco has a fetish for bondage."
"Ginnny!"
"Alright, keep your knickers on, I was joking! Just use our super spy skills and don't get caught."
Hermione massaged her temples, "I cannot believe I am about to do this. I know we've done practices, but this is a real deal. I can't slip up."
You'll be fine; I think it's super exciting! But seriously, our lives are like that Godfather movie or something. The Malfoys are practically mafia."
Shaking her head, Hermione did a final run-over of the plan in her mind. It was to first find a set of spare keys and infiltrate Lucius' office. After that search for an entrance to the underground lab, but that wasn't a priority. She would have her hands full trying to find the keys anyway. She just sincerely hoped Lucius wouldn't walk in on her rifling through his drawers. That would make for an interesting conversation.
"Okay, I think you are good to go! Just remember your training and you'll be fine. Oh, watch out for cameras as well. And remember this is a surveillance mission, don't try and interfere with anything just yet." Ginny said, shoving Hermione out of the door. Hermione briefly considered having a massive panic attack, but decided it wasn't at all practical. Giving Ginny one last watery smile, she silently sped off down the corridors towards Lucius' office.
She walked soundlessly yet speedily, muffling her footsteps just as she'd been trained. Her heart was in her throat the entire time; she was so paranoid that she would get caught. This was Harry's field, not hers. She felt much more comfortable sitting behind a desk analysing facts. At least when it came down to storming the manor and destroying the lab, she wouldn't actually have to take part. Hell, she would be as many miles away as possible.
The real danger of what she was doing hit her like a steam train. She knew the manor, knew the amount of guards, knew the maze-like layout. Harry would be lucky to get through the front door. There was a very high possibility that they could all die, and Hermione focused on muffling her footsteps even more as if it would decrease the likelihood of her being captured in the future.
She suddenly stopped dead and her mind went back to an earlier thought. The amount of guards; where were all the guards? Usually there were a few patrolling the halls, she had fully expected to have had to take out a few. She had no time to ponder the whereabouts of all the guards as she heard voices rapidly approaching from around the corner.
Looking around desperately around for a hiding spot she instinctively leapt behind the thick curtains of one of the windows. The voices came closer and she held her breath, until she realised it was only Blaise and Draco. She strained her ears to catch snippets of their conversation.
"I don't understand it mate. You kissed her, and then you ran. Why the hell did you do that?" Blaise's voice sounded angry.
"I don't know, okay? I just panicked and ran." Draco sounded irritated.
"She probably thinks you regret kissing her. I would talk to her soon unless you want to lose her."
"Who says I want to keep her? She's a boring, frizzy-haired bookworm. What the hell would anybody see in her?"
Hermione felt like she had been shot. She had known that there was a strong possibility that Draco wasn't attracted to her, but she had thought that they were friends.
Blaise sighed, "You are a bloody prick, you know that? Hermione is interesting, intelligent, friendly, pretty and her hair is much better than yours when you've just got out of bed. Why do you keep denying that you like her? This is exactly why I kissed her, to show you that you do like her. Why did you punch me if you don't like her?"
"Because I do bloody like her!" Draco yelled, "What do you want me to tell you, that she's the most amazing girl I've ever met? That I want to spend all day debating with her and getting to know her, and then I want to spend all night showing her exactly how much I like her? That she was the best kiss of my life and I would move mountains to get another? Is that what you want me to tell you?"
"It's not me you should be telling." Blaise said quietly, almost too quietly for Hermione to hear. They were walking away from her quite rapidly and she strained to hear Draco's response.
"Fuck off, Zabini."
Hermione blinked, her mind trying to process what had just happened. Apparently, Draco did like her. She had to refrain herself from jumping for joy. She tucked everything she had just heard away in her mind for later analysis with Ginny. Right know she had a mission to complete.
Double checking the hallway was clear; Hermione hurried the rest of the way to Lucius' office.
"Come on, where are you?" Hermione muttered as she poked around Lucius' private sitting room that was situated right next to his office.
She had checked his office for spare keys, but it had been a dead end. She was now thoroughly investigating his store of whiskey for any keys but coming up blank.
Sighing, she sat down on the table in the middle of the room with a huff, but suddenly went rigid when she heard a slight rattling sound. She pushed the table experimentally, and it gave another small rattle. Overjoyed at her good fortune, Hermione dove under the tablecloth and started inspecting the legs.
She tapped along the wood of each one, looking for any hidden compartments. When she heard a slightly hollow sound, she pushed experimentally and a little compartment popped out. Sure enough there was a small metal key inside it. Grabbing it, Hermione made to move from out under the table when she heard someone enter the room.
"Why is it late? It should have been here fifteen minutes ago!" Lucius snarled, and Hermione sighed realising he hadn't noticed her presence.
Because of the tablecloth she wasn't visible unless someone bent down, but she had been caught at an awkward and slightly painful position and she couldn't move. She had to simply wait and pray that Lucius would be quick.
"Do you have any idea how important this shipment is? It will almost definitely be targeted for its content and you are telling me that the transportation got held up? If it is not here in less than two minutes, not only your job will be at stake, do you hear me?" Lucius snapped into the phone, whilst pacing across the room.
He reminded Hermione of an angry tiger, stalking its prey. She just hoped that it wasn't her.
"Good, I have multiple security men waiting to escort it into the compound. The code is Viper6239, don't get it wrong." Lucius ended the call strode over to the door.
He was just about to open it when he stopped, turning around to survey the room. He cautiously walked forward towards the table she was hiding underneath.
The footsteps drew nearer and nearer, and Hermione dared not even breathe. He paused; his leather boots barely an inch from her face.
Fear thrummed through her, poisoning her veins. She briefly pondered why the sound of blood always increased tenfold when one was under immense pressure, but her thoughts were soon dominated by trying to map out an escape route. It was impossible, there wasn't one. The slightest movement on her part and she would be discovered.
She suddenly caught sight of one of the 'notice-me-not' capsules was sliding out of its socket on the belt around her waist.
She couldn't move to try and stop it, she could only watch in desperate fear as it slid completely free and fell to the floor with a quiet thunk. It might have been as loud as a bomb, as far as Hermione was concerned.
Lucius stiffened, and Hermione held her breath as he slowly bent down, praying on every God she knew for a miracle.
Desperately, she sifted through the memories of her lessons at a hundred miles an hour for something, anything, that could help her to get out of this situation.
"Pretend Draco has a fetish for bondage."
"Use your equipment."
"Knock him out."
"Pretend you are sleepwalking."
"Run as fast as you can."
"Distract him."
"Lie."
"Pretend that you are unconscious."
"Set off an alarm."
Her mind latched onto three things, "Use your equipment" "Distract him" "Set off an alarm".
The pieces clicked together like a jigsaw puzzle inside her mind and just as she saw the white-blond hair of Lucius fall into view she reached to her shoulder and clicked three on her phone. Instantly the phone on Lucius' desk started ringing.
She had to stop herself bursting into tears from relief when Lucius straightened up and walked over to the desk to pick up the phone. She risked peeking out and saw his back was turned, so she silently grabbed the fallen capsule, slid out from under the table and crept out of the open door.
She soundlessly walked to a safe distance and slumped against a wall, stifling a giggle when she heard Lucius' angry voice coming out of her phone. Turning it off, she looked triumphantly at the key in her hand. She also made a mental note of the code Lucius had given the person on the other end of the phone, Viper6239. She would see if it worked on his computer later.
Deciding she didn't want to go back to her room quite just yet despite her brush with Lucius, Hermione crept back towards his office. She could still hear him pacing in his personal living room, so she went inside the office and wedged herself behind a bookshelf. Because of the positioning of it she would be impossible to see unless Lucius managed to squeeze himself between the bookshelf and a file-X cabinet. Hermione doubted that he would be able to.
Because he was still up, she decided to wait until he left and then wait another half hour before she started prowling about his office.
One hour later Hermione pulled herself out into the office, looking around the room for anything suspicious. Seeing nothing, she went over to his desk with the key firmly gripped inside her hand.
She inspected the top of his desk again, but once more only found boring business matters and the strange piece of paper with 25th December, 8 written on it.
Trying the drawers, the key only opened the top right one. Pulling it open, there were seven keys inside it on a metal hoop. Hermione did a little dance and quickly took a photo of the positioning of the keys before pulling them out.
Opening the rest of the drawers, Hermione found one filled with fake identities, one filled with bank notes and one filled with burner phones and a gun. Taking photos of everything, Hermione moved onto the file-X cabinet.
Starting at the bottom, she found a drawer full of various drugs and hexes that the Slytherins used. She carefully photographed all of them and moved to the next drawer. Finding it empty, she moved onto the next one.
The second drawer from the top was virtually empty save a list of contacts. Whilst she photographed it, Hermione wondered where the majority off his documents were. She hadn't seen any floor plans, documents from illegal purchases or contact lists. Either he had another place where he kept his documents or he stored them all on his computer. It seemed that his bloody laptop was the key to everything.
Sighing, Hermione opened the top drawer. It was filled with folders of staff working at the manor. It looked to be just the cleaners and cooks and gardeners, but there was also one on her.
Taking note of its positioning, Hermione opened it up and eagerly looked over Lucius' elegant script. There was a photo of her from the first day she had arrived. She didn't remember anyone taking a photo, but she guessed it was to be expected. Underneath it there was a typical fact file on her.
Name: Hermione Rivers
Age: 18
DoB: Sep. 15
Sex: Female
Staff No: 0073
Occupation: Tutor to Draco
Notes: Intelligent, plucky, insightful. Could be a valuable asset. Likes animals. Brave in the face of danger. However, has morals and strong opinions. Could be a setback. Knows karate. Speaks six languages. Strong facial likeness to 0285. Will investigate further.
Hermione frowned; she didn't understand half of it. Did he mean she could be a valuable asset to teaching Draco? This seemed like the logical answer, but a niggling thought at the back of her mind told her that there was something else going on here. If Hermione was taught anything as a spy; it was that you should never ignore a gut feeling. Especially when an international drug-lord and top member of the largest criminal group in the world thinks that you could be a setback to something.
She also wanted to know who on earth '0285' was, and why Lucius thought that she looked like them. There was only that one piece of paper in the file and it didn't provide her with any more information. Huffing, she photographed it and set it back inside the cabinet.
After she had carefully replaced the keys and sprinkled some 'notice-me-not' on everything, she set about trying to find a secret entrance to the underground lab.
It didn't take her long; after noticing the fireplace stuck out far too much and hadn't been used in years she decided she was on the right track.
Climbing inside the fireplace, which was spacious enough for a full-grown man, she started poking the walls to try and find something. Her fingers came across a switch and she flicked it, causing a small keypad to be revealed.
It was a standard four-digit code and Hermione instantly recognised it as one of the ones that alerted the owner if there had been any false attempts. She would need the actual code to gain entrance and no doubt that was stored on Lucius' computer.
She could see the first digit was six from the slight wear on the button, but it was impossible to tell what came after that.
Sighing, she flicked the switch and climbed out of the fireplace. She had a lot to ponder and work out, but for now she just wanted to go to sleep. That near-discovery had taken its toll on her energy levels and she just wanted to go to sleep.
Slipping back to her room, she kicked off her gear and hid it under the bed, mindful not to wake Ginny, and swiftly snuggled down into the covers and went to sleep.
The next morning fund Hermione regaling Ginny with her tales of the night before. Ginny had listened to her, awe-struck, with a mesmerized expression on her face.
"Holy hell, Hermione! I would never have thought to use the phone to distract Lucius; I would have sat there trembling like a rabbit. Or I would have punched him out. Either way, that was so clever of you! No wonder they chose you for this mission, in the end it comes down to how well you deal with situations like that. Strategy over Bokator any day." Ginny grinned.
"Do you even know how to do Bokator?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, martial arts are my speciality. I know every form of martial arts on this planet. Don't you know how to do Bokator?"
"No, I only know the big five: judo, karate, kung fu, tae kwon do and muay thai."
Ginny nodded, "I can see why they didn't waste their time teaching you obscure martial arts when they were feeding you amazing brain instead! Seriously Hermione, when I go back later I shall be sure to tell everyone with ears!"
Hermione groaned but secretly revelled in Ginny's praise, "Please don't, knowing the way rumours spread it will end up as something like I decapitated Lucius with a mobile phone disguised as a table."
Ginny giggled and grabbed the camera from under the bed, "Probably. Let's see what you got, then."
Hermione spent the next half hour telling Ginny all the important bits from the mission, such as the codes she overheard, the position of the secret door and Lucius' odd notes on her. When Ginny heard about those, she frowned.
"You're right; I think there is something fishy going on there. The answers will all be on the laptop, of course. I wish we could just get that damn password!"
Hermione wished the same, and she promised herself that she would dedicate the next few weeks into discovering the passcode. It wouldn't be easy, she knew. But if there was one thing she was known for, it was her stubbornness.
It was her stubbornness that would also drive her to find out Draco's true feelings towards her. Of course, she could use a little bit of help from Ginny.
"By the way, Ginny, I overheard Blaise and Draco talking about me. Basically, Blaise was asking why Draco ran after he kissed me, Draco said I was a boring frizzy-haired bookworm that no one could ever fancy, Blaise said he didn't believe Draco actually thought that, Draco got mad and yelled about how he actually really likes me and he would move mountains to kiss me again and Blaise said that he should be telling me this."
Ginny stared at her with an open mouth for a few seconds, before pouncing on her and shaking her.
"You talked about boring codes and paperwork when there was this little piece of information you needed to share with me?!" Ginny yelled, "Why the hell didn't you wake me up last night and tell me about it straight away? This is major news!"
Hermione cringed and gently pushed Ginny off of her. "I didn't know it was that important." She muttered, instantly regretting it when she saw a look of pure rage pass across Ginny's features.
"Hermione Jean Granger, when a boy admits he would move mountains just for another kiss from you, you bloody well tell your best friend so that she can inform you exactly how to act and what to say so you don't look like an idiot! I swear you skipped the teenage years completely and went straight to adulthood; you have no idea how to be a normal teenage girl!" Ginny ranted.
Hermione grinned, "You wouldn't love me if I were a normal teenage girl."
Ginny's face softened and she sat herself down next to Hermione. "I know, but still. I'm leaving tonight and I need to make sure you won't mess things up with Draco because you misread the signals. Whilst the mission is very important, Hermione, I value your happiness far above it and I genuinely think Draco has the ability to make you happy."
Hermione sighed deeply, "We're on opposite sides of a war, Ginny, both of us fighting for opposite things. Do you think anybody at all would accept our relationship if they knew who I really was? Do you think Draco would? I'm hardwired to be a strategic, ruthless assassin and I don't think that is what he needs."
Ginny rubbed her arms soothingly, "In the end Hermione, so is he. Just remember that."
Hermione gave her a small smile and got up and walked over to the door, "I have to go tutor him now. You coming?"
Nodding Ginny got up and followed her out of the room.
On the way there, Blaise appeared around a corner and grabbed Ginny, smirking down at her as he did. "There is no way we are sitting through a French lesson on your last day here. Come on; let's take the horses around for a spin. Is that alright with you, Hermione?"
Pushing down her fear at being alone with Draco, Hermione plastered on a fake smile, "Of course, you two go and have fun."
Blaise grinned and pulled her in for a hug, whispering quietly in her ear, "He's an idiot, but he's the best idiot I know. Just give him a chance."
Hermione smiled genuinely at him. Behind all their squabbling, Blaise and Draco loved each other like brothers and defended each other until the bitter end.
Taking a deep breath, Hermione turned from the couple and walked towards the library, mentally preparing herself. She knew she couldn't reveal that she had heard anything Draco had said the night before, as she wasn't actually supposed to know. She just hoped she was good enough an actress to pull it off.
Walking into the library, Hermione scanned the room for Draco. He wasn't sitting at their normal table, so Hermione assumed that he was browsing books.
She walked towards a large bookshelf and was just about to go around the corner when she was suddenly spun around and a hard body was pressing her into the bookshelf. She looked up and saw the beautiful silvery pools of Draco' eyes staring down at her, his mouth pulled into his infamous smirk.
"Hello, love." He murmured, tracing circles into her arms with his thumbs. "Alone at last, did you like my way of getting rid of Blaise and that annoying red-head you call a best friend?"
Hermione glared up at him, causing his smirk to deepen, "That was you? I thought Blaise wanted to spend time with Ginny as it was her last day."
"Trust me, love. Blaise had no complaints."
Hermione scowled at him, ignoring the part of her brain that was ecstatic over his new nickname for her.
He chuckled, the vibrations rolling into Hermione's chest, "You do look adorable when you scowl, but I much prefer it when you are smiling. Won't you smile for me, Hermione?"
Under the full weight of his seductive charms, Hermione was finding it harder and harder to stay angry with him, but she persevered. "Why should I smile when you ran away after kissing me? Am I really that bad of a kisser?"
Draco chuckled again and his hand left her arm to gently caress her face, pushing stray curls of hair out of her eyes. "Quite the opposite, I assure you. I meant what I said; Blaise's efforts to make me jealous did work and I find myself no longer able to deny my attraction towards you. Though if I am being truly honest with myself my feelings for you surpassed mere attraction two weeks ago. The only question is; are you attracted to me?"
Hermione debated denying her own feeling towards him, but when she was the raw, boyish hope in his eyes she found she could no longer try and hide it from herself either. "Yes," she whispered, "I feel so happy that you-" she was cut off by Draco crashing his lips into hers.
This kiss was everything; all of their emotions, all of their feelings mixing together. Draco showed her how much he cared about her through tenderly cupping her face with one hand and the back of her neck with the other, caressing and stroking her hair lovingly. He showed her how much he desired her through his hard body pressing into her, his knee nudging her legs apart and his growing erection poking into her stomach.
Hermione showed him everything, how much she cared about him, her anger and sadness when he ran away from her and her happiness that he came back to her. The kiss left her dizzy and weak in the knees, and as she felt the adoring way Draco worshipped her lips, she considered that she might actually be falling for him.
There you go! Loads of drama in that chapter! Please remember to review and you shall get a sneak-peak. I really hope you enjoyed and I shall see you all again soon;)
GoldieXx