Author's note: Today's chapter brought to you by inspirations of Soap & skin - me and the devil. Another haunting melody for you guys. I really wanted to drive it home for you guys that when Hermione lost the baby that was when she cracked. That was when she didn't care about 'moral choices' anymore. When she worked under Snape he was the one who first put it in her head that the Order might not be the force of good she thought they were. She was disillusioned by that point, but she wasn't bad. She was trying to convince Harry to see that the Order was faulted for a long time, and by the time she lost the baby she had mostly already given up on convincing him. I have decided this piece needs more than 5 chapters to properly be told. For now i'm thinking 10 in total. I already know how i want everything to end and 5 just wasn't going to cut it. I just wrote the next few thousand words of this fic, and ouchie. This chapter is mostly angsty backstory, but i warn you there's a scene coming probably chapter 7 or 8; my best friend who reads these before i actually publish said she's sending me her therapy bill. Laughs in anguish i caused myself. Hugs and kisses. Hope you all enjoy!

.

.

.

An owl delivered a parcel earlier, to her hideaway. Owl magic was a conundrum all it's own. One could send an owl to anyone anywhere in the world, but the birds magic was untrackable. If it was Hermione would already have found and disposed of Harry.

Be patient she reminded herself.

Be patient she said as her manicured nails dug, and ripped into the copy of the daily prophet the owl brought. Harry had ripped the front page from the rest, to send to her. The front page had a picture of her on it, from her last year at Hogwarts. She looked doe eyed, and terribly young in her school robes. 'Hermione Malfoy missing: reward offered by Order of the Phoenix for her safe return.' It read.

Hermione scoffed. Of course Kingsley would spin it all that way. He couldn't let the wizarding world know what she was really doing, that she wasn't with the Order anymore. Or what had happened to Ron, and Draco. Of course Kingsley probably loved how this had turned out for him, he got to be rid of her and Draco in one go. The reward offered wasn't for her safe return, it was for her head. If someone managed to bring her into the Order they'd probably just be killed or obliviated for their effort. Then Kingsley could maintain to the public and to Harry she was never found. She knew the paper was from Harry, she knew his handwriting after all. He wrote over top her face. 'Kingsley wants to talk.' Then a word Hermione had not seen or thought of in a long while. 'Carnegie.' Harry's pen had bled, and the end of the word was smeared. She turned the paper over and a date was written on the back. '8/1'. Hermione doubted Harry would even be there, even so it was clearly a trap, and she wasn't going to go.

Kingsley deserved every bad thing Hermione ever did to him in her opinion. When Colin passed the buck and told her it was Kingsley who picked her for sacrifice she had lamented over what to do with the Order's leader. Quickly she realized he didn't deserve peace even more so than Colin. Death for Kingsley was to kind- and Hermione was no murderer after all. What she did for Neville, and Luna was a kindness. Even for Colin it was a kindness, the Order got to believe the best of him after his death didn't they? For Kingsley Hermione decided he would live a long, long life in which he could reflect upon his grievous mistakes.

In the weeks following Colin's death Hermione used her polyjuice. She borrowed several faces, a different one for each mission Kingsley went on. That way no one could ever point a finger at a singular person for the things she did- or the things she allowed to befall Kingsley. On one mission Hermione borrowed Dean Thomas's face, she side stepped a curse instead of blocking it. It burned and horribly disfigured Kingsley's left side. Dean had no recollection of the events. The healers called it PTSD from what he witnessed. Potions were unable to correct the grotesque looking skin on Kingsley's body but he was strong enough to continue his work. Another time Hermione borrowed the face of Charlie Weasley. She led Kingsley into an area she knew was crawling with a pair of Death eaters, she nicked his wand before they left for the mission then she hid under Harry's cloak to enjoy the show. He lost his right hand, and left leg that time. No one was ever able to explain why Kingsley demanded Charlie had been with him, because Charlie had several witnesses to account for his whereabouts across the country. Hermione started the helpful rumor that Kingsley was getting on in years, and could it be his mind was already going? With each mission she borrowed a friendly face, something awful befell Kingsley as Hermione wanted it to. Currently he was a husk of a man, whose every movement caused him pain.

Kingsley never had the proof, but she knew he knew it was her. His eyes would linger on her a little to long when he'd see her, and once he'd gripped his cane so tightly she saw blood trickle down from his hand.

"Are you quite sure there isn't a mission i could take, or anything i could help you with Kingsley?" Her voice sickly sweet with glee.

"Quite sure there isn't." He grumbled not even meeting her eye.

She laughed when Ron asked her why Kingsley always acted so strangely around her.

"He's practically senile, Ron. Honestly they might want to start thinking about replacing him soon." Hermione said thoughtfully knowing full well several seasoned Order members were standing behind her. She'd been laying the seeds of doubt in Kingsley's ability as a leader carefully. "Plus how capable can a man really be with only 1 arm and 1 leg?"

She practically skipped home to Draco that day.

A week later Kingsley had been asked to step down as the official Order leader. He still held power and titles among them, but he wasn't completely in charge anymore now he had others to answer to.

She stared at the paper, and she kept rereading the same word. Carnegie. Carnegie.

Carnegie had been back before all the awfulness that befell Hermione with her parents, and the baby. But it was still both a place of horror, and wonder to her. She lost more than one kind of innocence there. Bad things had happened there, but also good. It left Hermione to feel conflicted when it came to Carnegie.

It was to bad Hermione was not yet in possession of Ginny's remains. If she managed to get them Harry would be there at Carnegie she had no doubt he would come to retrieve them.

She had an idea of how to lull Nagini from Voldemort's side. She was the thing he cared about more than anything else, and Hermione was almost in possession of something Nagini would care more for than her master. It just hadn't finished brewing yet, but soon the maledictus would be hitched to Hermione's side.

As it stood she had nothing to lure Harry out, so she shredded the paper, stuffed it back in the envelope, and sent the owl on it's way. Let them draw their conclusions as they would.

Looking at that picture from her younger days made her feel suddenly nostalgic.

There was a photo Hermione had taken herself, back when Draco first joined the Order.

Her parents had given her one of those old fashioned polaroid cameras at Christmas. She had liked it very much, especially when Harry mentioned how jealous Colin would be when he saw it.

The photo showed Draco with Ron, and Harry reluctantly beside him. Draco smiled nervously at the camera. His eyes portrayed that of a rabid animal desperate for a way out. Ron looked like he was smelling a pile of dung, and not one of the most well manicured men in brittain. Harry looked quite like he wanted the floor to swallow him up.

It was Hermione's most prized possession. 'The 3 most important men in my life.' She had remarked when she put the photo in a frame and hung it in the home she and Draco bought.

Hermione was the only reason Ron and Harry warmed up to Draco of course, but they all became friends to. In their own ways. Draco was the only one who could give Ron a run for his money over a game of wizards chess. Harry took ages before he was willing to admit Draco was as good as him on a broom, but he did.

The Golden trio who walked the halls of Hogwarts would have all dropped dead if someone told them Draco would be taken quickly into their circle when he joined the Order. She wished she could go back to that, and stay there in that time where Draco was new and things weren't so dismal.

Time was funny. It faded so very quickly when good things were happening. Stopping time was like holding a fistful of sand, you could hold it sure, but bits of it fell between your fingers whether you liked it or not.

Time stopped for no one.

Not for Voldemort.

Nor Harry Potter.

Especially not for a mudblood with a proverbial chip on her shoulder.

Hermione had only been trying out her new camera, she had been snapping photos with it all day, she was obsessed with getting the lighting just right. It didn't matter how she angled the thing though, each photo came out worse than the last. They were blurry, and badly lit, Hermione trashed an entire roll of film.

"Are you done, messing around yet?" Ron had sulkily asked while Crookshanks swatted at his cloak from under the bed. "Fred and George will have eaten the lot if we don't get a move on."

The Golden trio had been staying at Grimmauld Place for a few days while the Order figured out where to send them. Molly Weasley had taken up the position of feeding the 50 odd or so people who came and went at all hours of the days on Kingsley's bidding.

Ron was in a hurry as always, to have his dinner. "Go on down without me." She told him as her fingers wrenched the camera apart to add fresh film to it.

"What's so special about that thing anyway? It prints muggle pictures, yeah?"

"Yes. It is a muggle camera."

She set the cameras sight on Ron, and clicked. The picture was dull, and Hermione let it fall to the floor without bothering to scoop it up.

"Rubbish then." Ron's arms crossed. "The pictures don't even move."

Hermione sighed. It wasn't the first time, and it wouldn't be the last time that Ron got under her skin. He didn't of course actually mean it, he was ignorant. Ron didn't share the fascination his father did for muggle objects, it was disappointing really. She knew it annoyed Harry often to. He never reacted when Ron spewed thoughtless little remarks about 'muggle objects and being outdated' however Hermione saw the annoyance in Harry's eyes.

Ron was an open book- easy to read- easier to close. Harry had been a more challenging person to learn the habits and thoughts of. Harry was guarded. If Ron was an open book- Harry was a book locked away within a vault, with enchantments all over it to protect it. Harry had taken Hermione a couple of years to understand fully. Growing up the way he did, it wasn't that all surprising the way that he shut almost everyone out.

"Leave her alone, Ron." Harry spoke up from underneath the pile of covers on the other side of the bed Ron sat on. Harry sat up with the bed sheets still wrapped around his shoulders. He rubbed his eyes sleepily, and grabbed his glasses from the bedside. "I think the camera is really cool." Harry winked at her, and she stuck her tongue out at Ron who only rolled his eyes.

"Kiss up." Ron called Harry. "You know you are always taking Hermione's side?"

"Do not."

"Do so."

"Ron, settle down we will get something in your stomach post haste- i'm giving up on this for now." She sat the camera down with theatrical grace.

Perhaps Ron was right, the camera was rubbish she recalled thinking.

"I'm not always thinking of food you know." Ron said just to be contrary.

"Hah." Harry rolled out of bed, and yanked on what Hermione suspected was a 3 day old tshirt from the floor. "Good one."

"I'm serious, sure i'm hungry right now but that's not all i'm after downstairs."

Hermione smiled at him fakely, he was so petulant sometimes she wanted to hex him.

"Really?"

"Really." Ron put his hands behind his head carelessly. Then in a sing song voice he told them what his dad had sworn him to secrecy over only hours before. "Dad says there's a new member joining the Order. Tonight."

Hermione didn't care, they got new members all the time it seemed.

"So?"

"This new member well-" Ron's voice got low and conspiratorial. Harry shared a quick look with her as if to say just indulge him. "he's from the other side, apparently."

Hermione sucked in a sharp intake of breath. A death eater? Joining their ranks. That was actually suddenly very interesting to her.

Harry who was pulling a pair of trousers on by then stopped dead- in his movements, only one leg was through the pants and he let them drop to the floor around his ankles.

"Who is it?"

Ron had their full attention now.

"Dad didn't even know." He smirked at them. "Could be anyone."

Hermione briefly fantasized about Bellatrix lestrange sauntering over, picnic basket in hand, to have dinner with the Order members tonight. It was laughable. So no. It could not be just anyone.

"They'll be our age." Hermione told them both with confidence.

"-Makes you say that?" Harry asked jumping up and down to pull his pants back up.

"The Order wouldn't take a fully grown Death eater, don't you think? What would be the point?" Hermione knew for certain that was the case. If an adult like Bellatrix showed up on the Order's doorstep asking to switch sides- the Order would hex first and ask questions later. They would not offer someone with Bellatrix's past a second chance. The Order, or Kingsley wouldn't risk it. Since Snape had become her mentor he had taken Hermione into some sort of confidence. He told her exactly what kind of man he believed Kingsley to be. She believed Snape, because she wasn't naive. If Dumbledore taught them nothing else, it was that a man in power doesn't necessarily have to be good.

"Anyone can be redeemed." Harry said watching her with a slight bit of puzzlement in his brow. It got quiet as the room filled with a level of tension Hermione could feel deep in her bones.

Ron whistled. "Think that's the first i've heard you disagree with her in months."

She wondered what was going on in Harry's head. How did he feel about the Order these days?

"Ron, go on down to dinner." Harry said quietly, and Hermione knew they were about to either have a very long talk about redemption and forgiveness or- more likely it was going to be a brief spat. "Save me a seat." Harry smiled weakly and he sat back on the bed.

Ron looked between his 2 best friends uneasily. For a moment Hermione thought he might not go. That he might insist on playing referee. Then Percy's voice carried up the stairs, letting everyone know dinner was almost ready.

"Right." Ron looked back at Harry- not at her, she ignored the sting that caused her.

They listened to Ron's footsteps as they descended heavily down the stairs. Hermione didn't know what Harry expected her to say so she didn't say anything.

"I've heard you saying stuff like that alot lately." Harry palmed his thighs, it was a nervous habit of his.

"Have you?"

"I'm not sure Snape is the best company for you to keep anymore."

"That so?" She scoffed.

"Do even hear yourself these days?" Harry tossed his hands up. "You act like the Order is against us."

"-and you act like none of them would betray us if they got the chance!" She pointed her finger right in his face. She and Harry never used to fight. Since leaving Hogwarts they fight more often than she cared to admit. "Not every Order member is a friend Harry. Some of them are only out for themselves. Wake up, and smell the pumpkin juice."

"Who's told you that i wonder?" He demanded unkindly, and he stood up from the bed so her pointed finger was no longer in his face but pushing against the middle of his chest. "Snape? You're listening to Snape now? What's he ever been good for, except harrassing 12 year olds?"

"He's good for plenty." She defended. Spells, and potions- and information Hermione would never have been privy to without his thoughtful warnings. "At least he's honest about the way things work around here."

Harry might operate under the belief everyone deserved a second chance but that was not how the Order operated in reality. Harry was blind or choosing to be. Harry had seen the prisoners the Order brought through Grimmauld just like she had. Did he honestly think they were keeping them? Feeding them? Housing them? Just because they never actually laid eyes on their corpses didn't make them any less dead.

"The way things work around here? -and tell me how do things work around here." He gave her an imperious look like he couldn't believe they were having to have this discussion.

"Why should i bother?" Hermione asked in a contemptuous tone, right out of the Severus Snape playbook. "It's like i'm talking to a child."

Harry looked at her like she'd struck him, and she might as well have, it probably would have hurt him less.

They stared each other down, it was a test to see who might back down this time. Typically it was Harry. That time however Ginny barged into the room.

"Have you heard?!" Her red curls bounced elegantly framing her face as she shook with excitement or surprise. "Have you seen?"

Ginny was entirely unaware of the pissing match she had just broken up. Harry, and Hermione jumped apart. Hermione let the fake smile she curtailed especially for moments such as that, grace her face. Harry eyeballed her over Ginny's shoulder still ill at ease.

"Seen what?" Hermione hoped her voice was calm.

"The new Order member, you won't believe it- I can't believe it- i think-" Ginny was pulling at her hair, Harry's hand shot up to stop her with a half smile.

"Let's go see then."

Harry avoided Hermione's eye as the 3 of them descended the stairs. When they got to the bottom of the stairs it was uncannily quiet in the Grimmauld Place dining room. There was only 1 voice, Arthur Weasley.

Harry finally met her gaze again as his hand hovered over the door to the dining room. He was unsure, and Hermione let their differences of opinion go for the time being. There were moments when Harry needed her, and this was one of them for some reason. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and gave him a genuine smile for once.

Harry pushed the door open, and she wasn't sure if was her own gasp or his but someone gasped.

Arthur stopped speaking, and all eyes in the room full of Order members were suddenly on the 3 of them at the door.

Ron was standing behind his father with his fists balled up, and a look of pure hatred marring his face. Hermione watched as Harry's face morphed and mirrored Ron's. She wondered what was on her own face. Shock probably.

She felt like time had slowed. Like that moment stretched out like the dark tunnel of some bridge. It went on, and on.

Draco Malfoy sat beside Arthur Weasley. His back was tense, and his jaw rigid. His brow furrowed intensely when he saw the 3 members entering.

Draco glanced at Arthur, and Arthur gave him what Hermione could only call an encouraging nod towards Harry.

Draco stood from the table, and Hermione was still reeling from the shock of his being there. Because of all the people to join the Order, how was it Draco Malfoy?

Draco extended one long arm to Harry his palm curtly offered.

"Some wizarding families really are better than others, Potter." Draco's gray eyes flitted towards Ron and his dad. "I'm the one who made friends with the wrong sort. I don't want to be that guy anymore. I was hoping you might help me there?"

Harry didn't immediately take his hand, instead he looked around the room as if he was waiting for Fred or George to jump out and scream 'Got ya!'

"Sure." Harry said quite unsurely, and Hermione elbowed him. He took Draco's hand and they shook.

The significance of the moment was grand.

With his hand still in Harry's, Draco looked at her like he never had before. With a curious fascination.

"Granger." Rolled off his tongue, and she felt a blooming warmth creep into her. "Good to see you."

Harry dropped his hand with a slight scowl, and Draco smirked which made Hermione laugh.

That night Draco told the Order members gathered in clipped bits how he found himself in the Order. Draco had seen his mother tortured once, and his allegiance changed irrevocably. The Order would provide for his mother, and himself so long as their absences among Voldemort's men continued. Narcissa was taken into the Order's protection, but Lucius was left to fend for himself. Draco didn't want a thing to do with him. Snape apparently who was his godfather had vouched for Draco. Hermione knew her friends had the same thought as her when it came to that information. It explained so much when it came to the preferential treatment Draco had in school.

-and was Draco's introduction to the Order of the Phoenix. The only people he knew in the entirety of the room had been 3 people he relentlessly tormented for years at school. She half expected a food fight or spells to break out with every passing second while they had dinner. Later Hermione realized just how alone Draco must have felt at dinner. He had no friend or family to speak of, it was just him there.

The dinner was painfully awkward most of it passing with Ron's ridiculously loud chewing, and forks clacking against plates as the only noise in the room.

Hermione overheard Ginny, who was annoyed with Ron's chewing, whisper to him. "Hope the baby Death Eater hasn't put anything in your food." Ron hiccuped nervously as he was reminded of the time Draco nearly killed him with poison. Ron wasn't hungry after that.

Dinner ended, and Molly suggested Draco accompany the trio and Ginny upstairs to the room they were all sharing- because for the time being Draco would be sharing it as well. 'Make nice.' Molly hissed at Ron as they passed her on the stairs.

Draco transfigured a ratty old comforter, and a bookshelf into a bed for himself, and shoved it in the back corner of the room as far away from the rest of them as possible.

Hermione wondered what Harry and Ron would have to say about the nights events once Draco wasn't around to overhear. She was looking forward to reminding Harry of his earlier claim that everyone was redeemable.

They were all getting ready for bed, and Hermione picked the polaroid camera back up from where she abandoned it earlier.

Hermione heard Ron whisper to Harry about taking turns to sleep, so they could keep an eye on Malfoy. Hermione wasn't worried about him attacking them though. Snape would never have vouched for him if there was even a chance he would pose a danger to any of them. Snape distrusted the Order, but he wanted them to come out on top in this war. Hermione had not shared with Harry what Snape had told her about his mother, because he had asked her not to. It was what made her certain of Snape's loyalty to the Order though. The love he had for a muggleborn girl nearly 2 decades ago had transcended into his life's work. Voldemort did not understand love, and it would be his downfall. Or at least she hoped.

"What's that Ginny asked?" And Hermione in an effort to show her pointed the camera at the side of the room with the boys.

"Smile." Hermione said as she clicked the button. The camera spat the image out, and Hermione was delighted to see that 1 image at least had finally come out perfectly.

It felt like the start of something new, and fresh when she slid beneath the covers of the bunk bed she and Ginny shared.

Draco's joining of the Order could only be good news Hermione had decided. If Voldemort wasn't able to keep his most loyal families in line, what hope did he have really? There could be others in the future she realized. Others like Draco might defect, and with every person that left Voldemort's side that made the Order stronger. Didn't it?

Hermione never hated Draco, or at least she never hated him the way she thought he did her. She mostly felt sorry for him. He never really had a choice in the war did he? His father had been a supporter of Voldemort before he was ever even born. Draco's upbringing had been decided before he was ever even thought of.

Hermione couldn't sleep that night, and she took a book down to the sitting room like she did when her mind wouldn't quiet. She got a whole chapter behind her when Malfoy appeared at the door with a copy of one of her books in hand.

"Couldn't sleep." He said. "Borrowed this, do you mind?"

"It's fine." She flipped the page of her book, and if she was honest she flipped several more without having read a word on the pages. She was to busy watching Draco Malfoy. He sat across from her in a lumpy arm chair the color of dirt. He was regal, and refined and even when he was relaxed you could tell he came from money.

"Severus told me he's been working with you." Draco kept looking down at the book in his lap, Hermione eyed him over hers.

"He has."

"He said you brew a mean polyjuice."

"I do." She wasn't bragging it was fact. Hermione's polyjuice lasted longer, and better than anyone else's. She never skimped on her brewing times, and only used the freshest ingredients. She flipped another page that had gone unread.

"I've got some ideas for polyjuice, that i think will help the Order."

"Have you told Kingsley?"

He looked at her then. "Not yet."

"Good. You shouldn't. You should tell Bill."

"Bill that's..."

"Ron's older brother, the one with the scars." Hermione dragged her hand across her face to demonstrate the lines the scars made across Bill's face.

"Why should i tell Bill? Kingsley's your leader i was told."

"Yeah. He is." Hermione shrugged, and folded the book closed. "He won't listen to you, even if your idea was a sure fire way to kill Voldemort. Instead he'd bury it, and he'd bury you."

Malfoy looked confused.

"Kingsley isn't in the business of second chances, not really. Sure he gives that impression but it's fake. You shouldn't make waves here, it wouldn't go over well, they'll kill you the moment you displease Kingsley, and you wouldn't be the first." Severus had told her about his almost execution. How Kingsley made it look, and everyone believed it was an accident. Snape knew better though. It was why he was so reclusive, and careful around the Order. Hermione had been the only student Snape had been willing to accept, because Hermione was the only one Kingsley hadn't put up to it. If Hermione had to guess Kingsley wanted his own man close to Severus to finish what he couldn't. Every death eater, as far as Hermione knew, that had ever set foot in Order safe houses never left them. Kingsley might allow Draco to their side, but it wasn't so he could help their cause it was merely to take him away from Voldemort. If Kingsley thought Draco meant to rise to high within them, he'd be snubbed out.

"Severus never said anything like-"

"Of course not. Would you have signed up with us had you known the truth?" The truth being their side was no better off than Voldemort's side. It was a game of politics, and ambition. Kingsley didn't actually care how many soldiers they lost so long as he could come out on top in the end. The difference in Voldemort and Kingsley were their prejudices. Voldemort hated the muggleborns, and Kingsley hated the Death eaters.

"So the Orders just a sham?" He looked deflated.

"No not entirely." She tutted. "The Order is doing good, but along the way there's been some bad mixed in. I like to think of it as the lesser of 2 evils."

"How can Potter stand for this? He's supposed to be the moral compass of the world, he's always pointing to good."

"Simple. Harry sees what he wants to see."

"Haven't you told him, why haven't you told him about the way Kingsley runs things?"

"You think I haven't tried? I have several times. In fact i tried again right before you turned up tonight. Harry is impossible when he decides something, and he's decided the Order of the Phoenix is wholly good. It's what he believes, it's why he fights. I tell him he's to trusting, and he says i'm to cynical."

"How can you stand for this?"

"It's just the way things are now. People rise up and die willingly when Kingsley gives the order, i count myself grateful when those that die aren't people i care for. For me Voldemort's side is certain death, at least here in the Order i have a chance. My parents have a chance, if the Order comes out on top."

"I hate to agree with Potter, but that is rather cynical of you. Why do you care enough to warn me then Granger? Potter sure, he's your best mate. He's worth the danger it puts you in when you talk out against the Order. But why me? Why bother warning me?"

"I don't know." Hermione tapped her fingers against the book on her clutched hand. "I really don't."

"You must be mad then." He leaned back in the armchair and it squeaked. "Absolutely barking mad."

"Probably." She allowed. "Probably why I don't doubt that your polyjuice plan is a good one."

Draco was the only one who had ever bested her in their schoolwork. It only ever happened 3 times in all 7 years, but Hermione remembered each time vividly. He was intelligent and Hermione valued that quite alot.

"Ron likes chocolate, especially pudding. Ginny hates waking up in the morning so i'd avoid her at breakfast. Don't mention Peter Pettigrew or Dumbledore when you're around Harry."

Draco raised a brow at her comically.

"Are you giving me advice on how to get in good with your friends?"

"I suppose i am."

"I'm unsure of what exactly i've said to be in your good graces, but i am glad to be here all the same."

Hermione wasn't sure either but what she knew was that under no circumstances did she want Draco Malfoy to die.

"I thought this all would be alot more awkward than it has been." He flourished his hand motioning around the room. "Especially with you."Especially with a muggleborn, she thinks he meant.

Hermione pushed back the unruly curls at the nape of her neck. "It probably should be. Aren't you afraid to catch a disease by sharing the same air as me?"

He chuckled low. "I like to think i've grown since you saw me last. I'm not that prat that thought your blood was dirty."

"Prove it." She blurted out before the implication was clear to even her.

"You're different than you were at school. I'd have liked this version of Hermione Granger, Gryffindor or not."He ran a hand through blonde locks. "Mad, but brilliant. Sharp, and precise. All worthy attributes in my book."

"Maybe i've grown to."

"Maybe you were always like this? Wouldn't be the first time the bloody hat made a mistake. You should have gone to Slytherin, if you had then i-" He did not finish that train of thought.

Silver eyes roved over her with the scrutiny of a fine piece of art homed inside the louvre. He watched her for a few beats, the inner makings of his head tumbling so harshly she could practically hear it. He was deciding something.

He got up and tossed the book behind him, it landed in the arm chair with a plop. He stood over her and she felt that warmth again.

"Stand up, Granger." Draco Malfoy commanded, her palms grew sweaty in anticipation as he watched her. They were chest to chest, almost touching hut not quite. Gentle fingers tilted her chin up she felt his breath fan across the top of her mouth. "Can i?" His eyes darted down to her lips in questioning.

She had barely nodded when she felt the cold press of his lips against hers. It was unexpected. Her mind blanked, and from that moment forward nothing in existence would ever be as important to her as Draco Malfoy.

"If the Order cannot be trusted, well i suppose we're both in need of allies then aren't we? Swear you'll watch my back, and i'll watch yours Granger."

"I swear." She breathed her head still spinning as she struggled to believe the events as they unfolded in front of her very eyes.

"I always had a soft spot for you back at school, even if i never showed it." He confessed, then he pulled away and brushed her curls behind her ear. "You should know though, I'm no saint, darling. I've done terrible things, and i'll probably continue to." His forehead rested against hers suddenly.

"-and i'm barking mad." Her fingertips traced the lines of his lips, remembering the dip, and the swell of them. She knew then what he'd been deciding. He'd decided on her, for whatever reasons she wouldn't know for a long time. "A match made in heaven, some might say."

"Or hell." Draco said darkly his eyes burning straight through her.

When Hermione thought back on it, it really wasn't as unexpected as she first believed when they kissed that night. Hadn't they been dancing around one another for years? Enemies to lovers and all that. If Draco had truly ever wanted her dead he had plenty of opportunities in the years they were acquainted. In the beginning Hermione didn't dwell much on what Draco wanted of her, she was just glad to indulge in something- someone that made her feel good instead of the usual impending sense of doom she got with every rising of the sun. She didn't want to rock the boat. So she told herself it was a passing fancy or his own self preservation on his part- anything she could come up with to deny the truth. The truth being how deeply in love with her Draco already was.

She didn't want to fall in love or be loved by anyone. She told Harry more times than she could count how idiotic it was for him to be with Ginny while the war raged. The more people you loved, the more you had to lose she believed. What would she do if something ever happened to Draco she wondered, when she realized it was to late and she was gone for him. The darkest part of her answered that question. She would burn the entire world if Draco died, and she'd burn everyone left to.

It took months before Harry, and Ron allowed Draco's presence without a wand ready at their side or distrusting glances his way. It was not until Draco killed that death eater at Carnegie to save Ron, that Draco was allowed into their circle. In all those months if Harry knew she'd already been carrying on with Draco in the dark hours of night at Grimwalud place he never did say. Harry saw only what he wanted to after all.

That was just one of many of the deep fissures in her relationship with Harry. She hadn't lied to him about Draco exactly, she had simply omitted. But what was omittance if not deception in shiny gift wrap?