Ask and you shall receive! Another Draco POV, let's find out how he reacts to the news of the break-in at the Ministry of Magic. It's a short one, but I wanted to check in with our boy!

Chapter 10

Draco sat at the large table in Malfoy Manor's dining room with his mother and father, eating dinner. His mother insisted on keeping their routines as normal as possible, hence the absolute farce of eating dinner together as a family in the table. She was trying as hard as she could to pretend that their entire lives weren't absolutely wrecked, but Draco only had to look up at his father, seated at the head of the table, to be reminded that all of their lives were indeed, absolute and utter shit.

His father was now just a shell of the proud, noble man his son had once idolized. Draco wasn't even sure if the older wizard knew what was going on around him, most of the time. He didn't react to anything, his eyes constantly downcast and glassy. His once-immaculate hair was now constantly untidy and greasy, his cheeks had become hollow, and his skin was sallow and unhealthy looking. The worst thing in Draco's mind, though, wasn't the physical changes that the past year had wrought on the man; it was the fact that Lucius Malfoy had seemingly lost the will to live, or to do anything at all to protect his wife, his son, and his home.

Suddenly, the Manor and their uncomfortably silent dinner was interrupted by a cacophony of sound. Through the front doors burst several Death Eaters, including Yaxley, all shouting over one another angrily. It took a moment for their crazed words to take on any meaning, but once Draco had been able to finally decipher what they had been saying, he'd had to fight the urge to vomit.

"How in Salazar's name did they get in?"

"What did they want?"

"But where did they…?"

"Who knows why Potter…?"

"…a raid on the Ministry of Magic?!"

Draco could feel himself growing paler with every word that tumbled from their mouths, and it took every ounce of willpower that he possessed to keep his Occlumency walls up and impenetrable. But behind those walls, one thought bounced around in his mind.

'Is she safe? Is she safe? Is she safe?'

He knew that if Potter had been inside the Ministry of Magic, Hermione and Weasley had been right there with him. Just because these dolts hadn't mentioned her by name did not mean that she hadn't been there, it just meant that whatever she had done to disguise herself had been more effective than Potter's disguise.

'How could Potter put her in such a dangerous situation?' he thought angrily. He had written to the other wizard after Dumbledore's funeral and asked him, practically begged him, in fact, to watch her back while Draco could not. He had hoped that Potter would respect that request, if not for him then at least for Hermione's safety.

With an obscenely loud crack, Voldemort appeared in the center of the room. Draco and his parents shrank back against the walls, wanting to remain out of the man's line of vision. Even though they hadn't been involved in any way in Ministry security precautions, they all knew too well that being in the Dark Lord's line of fire when he was angry was the most foolish thing any of them could do.

This time, the Dark Lord wasn't just angry...he was enraged.

"You fools!" he hissed, slashing his wand in a downward strike through the air and bringing the seven other occupants of the room to their knees. Draco could hear the whimpers of pain that escaped from their mouths at the excruciating pain of the Dark Lord's spell. He held them there for what seemed like hours, yelling and screaming at them as he ranted over their failure to catch Harry Potter, their ineptitude that was clearly displayed by the Boy-Who-Lived being able to walk right into their midst.

Draco watched in horror as the ground beneath the Death Eaters began to grow slick and pink with blood that poured from the wounds that the Dark Lord inflicted upon them, slashing into their bodies in much the same way he had done to Draco the previous Christmas Eve. He, his mother, and his father all stayed as still as statues, frightened to so much as breath to deeply and risk the Dark Lord's wrath turning upon them, too.

When he had finally grown tired of punishing his followers, he sent them all to the Malfoy dungeons to rot for as long as he "deemed necessary" to teach them the error of their ways. With a glare at the three blondes that cowered in the corner of the room, he swept from the room with a swish of black robes, leaving behind puddles of red liquid on the floor at the entrance and the scent of blood that permeated the room.

When Draco was finally able to escape the madhouse that his home had become in the aftermath of The Golden Trio's actions, he immediately made his way to the relative safety of his room. The first thing he did after locking and warding his room was to grab hold of his necklace, wand clenched tightly in his other hand.

"I heard about the break-in at the Ministry of Magic," he said, tension clear to hear in his voice all though he kept the volume of his words low. "How could you three be so reckless…so foolish?! Please tell me you're safe, Hermione…" a pause, then he continued, pleading with her, "I need to know that you are safe."

He paced the room like a caged animal, praying to Salazar that she would get his message and respond to him quickly. He needed to know that she was okay, he wouldn't be able to bear the uncertainty of not knowing. Even now, all he could see in his mind's eye was her lying somewhere, injured or dying, with him not there to help her.

Thankfully, his silent prayers were answered. Within less than an hour he felt the charm at the end of his necklace grow warm against his chest. Whispering the incantation almost inaudibly, he sighed as the sound of her voice filled his ears for the first time since the wedding, over a month ago now.

"We are safe. I know it was a reckless thing to do. I wish I could tell you why we did it, but I...can't. I can only tell you that we had no other choice. Please trust me when I say that we had to do it… Ron got splinched when we were leaving, but he'll be okay… We are all okay, for now. I love you, Draco. Be safe…"

Draco sat down heavily on the edge of his bed. He could hear the sheer exhaustion in her voice and concern for her filled his mind. He prayed to whatever deities existed out there that they would keep Hermione safe, and that Potter and Weasley wouldn't get her into any more dangerous binds.

Song Inspiration: Dear God – Avenged Sevenfold