On a roll, on a roll, here we go!

Still don't own 'em... *sigh*

Chapter 4

Hermione led the way to Professor Dumbledore's office, her heart pounding violently in her chest as she walked. She couldn't believe it; Harry had been right the whole time. Of course, considering his unreasoning hatred for Malfoy, Harry had always assumed that the snarky blonde had been a willing, perhaps even eager, participant in whatever Death Eater mischief he had been up to. Hermione had never once believed that he had even taken on the Dark Mark but now, having been proven wrong, she at least felt vindicated in the knowledge that he had been coerced. She couldn't imagine the constant stress and fear that Malfoy had been living under these past several months, and the physical changes he had gone through made so much sense now; it also explained why she had noticed him looking more and more unhealthy with each passing day.

She strode up to the stone gargoyle that stood guard at the entrance to the Headmaster's Office. As a rule, students were not given the knowledge of how to get in unless they were summoned by the Headmaster or were escorted there by a member of the faculty. Luckily, thanks to Harry's meetings with Professor Dumbledore this year, Hermione knew the password:

"Ice Mice."

She heard Malfoy huff out a quiet scoff of amusement at the password and assumed that he had never visited the Headmaster's Office before, not had he known of Albus Dumbledore's penchant for setting his password after the names of his favorite sweets, both magical and Muggle. They watched as the gargoyle moved aside, then she and Malfoy stepped onto the spiral staircase that normally lay concealed behind and made their way up to the door of the office. Hermione looked at Malfoy, who was looking decidedly paler than he had been just a few moments before but who met her eyes and nodded, a steely look of determination set upon his finely boned face. She reached out and rapped her knuckles against the hard wood, watching as the heavy door swung slowly inward.

"Come in Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy."

They looked at one another in surprise before moving through the now open doorway. Professor Dumbledore sat behind his large desk, fingers steepled together as he peered at the two of them with vivid blue eyes over the tops of his half-moon spectacles. He motioned to the two chairs that were positioned in front of his desk and she and Malfoy both sat down.

"What a pleasant surprise to see you both here this afternoon! What can I do for the two of you?"

Hermione looked at Malfoy, who nodded. Taking a deep breath, she launched into an explanation of everything that he had shared with her today, making sure to stress the fact that he had been forced into the actions he had taken. Finally, after what felt like hours, her explanation was complete. She waited for Dumbledore to say something; she had expected some type of reaction, perhaps shock or resignation or even outrage. But the Headmaster merely continued to examine the two of them over the top of his spectacles. Unable to stand the silence any longer, she spoke again.

"So, what can we do, Headmaster? What I mean to say is, what can the Order do to help Malfoy and his mother?"

Between the three of them stretched yet another moment of silence… then another… then Professor Dumbledore finally began to speak.

"I think what we need most at this moment, Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy, is a solid plan of action. Would you both agree?" At Hermione's emphatic nod, he continued.

"Here is the plan I propose. Mister Malfoy," he said, turning his bright blue eyes now toward Malfoy, "you will continue to work on mending the Vanishing Cabinet. This will give us time, time that is sorely needed. Time that Voldemort," he ignored Malfoy's cringe at the name, "will assume you are using simply because you are not sure how to mend the Cabinet." Malfoy nodded, understanding the wisdom in his part of the plan thus far.

"As for the other part of this task you have been given, the part that includes me…well, unfortunately you will need to complete that task as well."

Hermione nearly fell out of her chair at the Headmaster's words. What was he saying? He couldn't actually be risking Malfoy's life, the integrity of his very soul, for the sake of a plan…could he? But when she looked at Dumbledore closely, she could see that he indeed appeared to be fully serious, and Hermione felt anger well up in her at the fact that the man that she had so deeply admired since she was eleven years old was carelessly playing with someone else's life in this way. And not just anyone's life, either: the life of a student who was under his care.

She looked over at Malfoy to see if he was handling this news and better than she was. He looked as if someone had petrified him; the look of horror that was frozen on his face clear was clear to see and expressed her own feelings more accurately than any words ever could.

"However," Dumbledore said, and Hermione felt hope soar inside her that he would offer a different solution, only for that hope to swiftly be dashed to pieces as he continued speaking, "considering you are no longer clandestinely attempting to murder me, I do believe we can dispense such reckless items as cursed jewelry. Wouldn't you agree, Mister Malfoy?"

For the first time since the two of them had entered the room, Professor Dumbledor's eyes appeared angry, hard, and cold as they watched Malfoy, softening only when the younger man nodded in agreement.

"When the time comes to act, Mister Malfoy, you will know."

Professor Dumbledore then wrote them both passes to take to their respective professors whose classes they had missed. Finally, he informed them both that, if they needed to make him aware of anything new, they knew where to find him and were always welcome at his door.

Shaken, Hermione rose to her feet and saw from the corner of her eye that Malfoy had done the same. They made their way out of the office and down the hallway before Hermione abruptly turned and stormed into an empty classroom, knowing from the sound of his footsteps on the stone floor that Malfoy was following her. With a sharp flick of her wand the doors were closed, and she muttered a quick Muffliato to ensure that they could not be overheard: then, she lost it.

"I cannot BELIEVE that THIS is his solution! I felt certain that he would come up with some kind of plan to free your mother and to get you both out from under the control of that…that…MONSTER! Instead, he tells you to do exactly what Voldemort told you to do? It's absolutely absurd!..."

Flinching at the name, Draco gradually tuned out Granger's words as he watched her, in her full-blown rage, pacing back and forth across the length of the small classroom. The air between them was practically sizzling with the force of her anger, crackling and snapping as the magic rolled off her in waves, unleashed by her unrestrained fury.

He was in quite a bit of shock himself, for several reasons. The first, of course, being that the Headmaster had not immediately tried to kill him upon finding out about his plans and actions thus far this year. In fact, the twinkling in his blue eyes and his placidly pleasant expression had given Draco the very distinct impression that the man had known about Draco's task from the very moment he had arrived at Hogwarts that September. The second reason for his shock stemmed from the fact that the wizard not only had no plans to stop Draco from completing his task but had in fact directed him to continue. So not only was he to continue to live under the Dark Lord's thumb; he was apparently still supposed to kill Albus Dumbledore 'when the time comes to act.'

The final reason for his shock, and the one that surprised him the most, was the tangible righteous indignation that was currently being plainly displayed by Granger. She was still pacing and muttering angrily, almost incoherently, to herself, and he was only able to catch a word or two here and there.

"Unacceptable… kind of a plan… absolute rubbish… can do better…"

Her ramblings nearly brought a smile to his face. That is, until her next words wiped all thoughts of smiling away.

"I suppose I will just have to help you fix that blasted cabinet."

She had ceased her pacing and was facing him now, hands on her hips and a determined look on her face. For a moment Draco was certain that he was hallucinating, until she lifted her hands in a motion that clearly said, Well? Let's get going!

Instant panic welled up inside of Draco. There was no way that she was going to be helping him mend that cabinet. At his point he was nearly certain that the damned thing might be broken beyond repair. But mostly, the thought of having to be stuck in the Room of Hidden Things for hours on end, day after day, perhaps for months on end, with her filled him with a feeling that he couldn't name but that felt very similar to dread.

He knew quite well about her reputation for trying to fix things that she deemed broken, and he was most certainly broken. What he did not want was her thinking that she could fix him. He was damaged, cracked and shattered beyond repair, and there was absolutely nothing she could do to make him into a better person. He did not her to make him into one of her little 'projects.' Apparently, he had taken too long to reply to her, because an annoyed look had spread over her face.

"Look Malfoy; two heads are better than one. At least if I'm helping you figure out how to mend the cabinet it'll take a little bit of the weight off of your shoulders. That way you can focus on your studies, and you can concentrate on getting healthy again."

Draco startled at her last statement. He hadn't realized that the stresses of his mission had become so apparent, but clearly, they had; at least to Granger, even if no one else had really noticed. He hadn't been eating as much as he should have been, choosing to spend most mealtimes in the Room of Hidden Things and showing his face in the Great Hall only when the hunger pains became too great to ignore. He also knew that his grades had be steadily slipping throughout this year, although he supposed it shouldn't have surprised him that Granger would have noticed the decline of his academic performance. He was always the closest to her in grades out of everyone in their year, and it did not shock him to learnt that she would have made it her business to know where she stood among her peers in every subject.

The thought of a consistently full belly, as well as the pride he had always taken in his academic prowess finally rearing its head at the thought of returning to his normal place among his classmates, made his decision for him.

"Alright, Granger. You win."

Draco watched as Granger took in another deep breath to continue belaboring her point before his words penetrated her brain. Her defensive posture immediately eased, and she sighed in what sounded to him like relief.

"Okay…okay, good. Well, we should meet up after dinner tonight to figure out a plan going forward, and I can start doing some research. We should meet somewhere that we won't run into anyone, so that nothing gets back to Voldemort…"

Draco shuddered once more at the mention of the Dark Lord's name but continued to listen as Granger began to rattle on once more. He couldn't believe that somehow the brains of the Golden Trio, Gryffindor's Princess herself, was going to be helping him mend the Vanishing Cabinet that would ultimately be used to let Death Eaters into the castle, and all to save his life and that of his mother. If someone had told him a year ago that the girl he had spent years bullying would now be trying to help save his life from a maniacal killer that wanted to see him dead and his family destroyed, he would have had them checked into St Mungo's to check for brain injuries. Yet here she was, planning and plotting ways for them to meet in secret, and all to keep him safe. It was…. surreal.

"Why are you helping me?"

The though spilled out of his mouth before he could even begin to try to hold it back, making her pause mid-sentence and stare at him solemnly for a moment before she replied.

"Because that is what friends do for one another, Malfoy. Although we have never been friends before, we've never even really been cordial to one another, times have changed and, like it or not, we are friends now…or at least, on the way to being friends. You need a friend right now to help you along this path on which you have found yourself. Since you can't turn to any of your real friends right now with what's going on, I'm going to be there to help you through it."

Draco was a bit stunned. He wasn't sure he like the idea of being friends with Granger, if he were being honest with himself. She was an annoying, know-it-all swot who seemed to always get into more than her fair share of trouble. But he did wonder what he had ever done to her to make her want to be the kind of friend who would help him through something like this; Salazar knew he had never done a single thing in his life to deserve it. His emotions must have been clear to see upon his face, because he watched a satisfied smirk spread across hers.

"Don't worry, Malfoy. You'll get used to it."

Song Inspiration: Breathe Me – Jasmine Thompson

Heyo! I am tweaking and updating this story as I go, as I do have it mostly written, but new things have come to me while adding it to the website. I'm hoping to keep getting regular updates up as frequently as possible, becuase this one is going to be a long one. I haven't quite decided yet, but I'm thinking I may even have to make this into two stories instead of one. We'll see how I feel as I go along.

Hope you are enjoying it so far!

sbz