The Easter Holiday was one that was largely ignored by the populace of Hogwarts. It was essentially a long weekend, usually used to catch up on homework or study for exams. It ran from Thursday to Monday, with classes resuming on Tuesday. Generally, only a handful of students in the entire school went home, mostly Irish students and Muggleborns.

Hermione was one of those students today, riding to King's Cross on a mostly empty train. She wandered the train, looking for where to sit, when she saw Draco Malfoy in one of the compartments, reading a book.

She paused.

They would like to help you, if you have the strength to ask...

Luna's words echoing in her mind, Hermione made her decision, rapping smartly on the door. Draco looked surprised, but he sat up and gestured to come in, and Hermione did so, pleased.

"Going home for the holiday?" Hermione asked, taking a seat.

"Yeah," Draco said. He made a face. "My father wants to ask me some questions about how everything's going at the school, with Dumbledore gone and the Heir still out there. It's faster in person than if he interrogates me over owl."

Hermione laughed, and Draco relaxed slightly.

"And you?" he asked. "Do you celebrate this… the egg thing?"

"Easter?" Hermione asked, amused. "Not particularly. But I had an errand in Diagon Alley to run, and this was a convenient opportunity to take advantage of."

Draco looked relieved at her answer, probably because he wouldn't have to try and talk about 'the egg thing' further, and a smile played around Hermione's lips in amusement as she wondered just what purebloods actually thought of Easter.

"How have you been doing?" Draco asked her. "You've been really busy since the holidays."

"Everyone's been busy," Hermione protested. "And everyone's so restricted because of the Heir…"

"Still," Draco said. "You seem busier than most."

Hermione hesitated, considering Draco.

"I've been trying to figure it out," she admitted. "I want to catch the Heir, and I want to slay the monster."

Draco gasped.

"Do you really?" he demanded. "Slay the monster? First of all, you're Slytherin, so you shouldn't be slaying Slytherin's monster, and second, you're not some bloody Gryffindor to go charging after—"

"Do I look like a bloody Gryffindor?" Hermione snapped. "What makes you think I'd do this like a Gryffindor would at all?"

Draco fell silent at that, looking at Hermione with scrutiny.

"A monster is attacking Hogwarts," she said patiently. "Slytherin's monster or not, students aren't safe unless that stops."

"It's only attacking Muggle-borns," Draco protested. "If the Muggle-borns all left, the attacks would stop."

"And what about Lilian Travers?" Hermione said sharply. "She wasn't a Muggle-born."

"My father's been investigating her family tree," Draco said earnestly, "and it seems like it isn't quite so pure as we all thought. I'm sure the Heir had a reason – he probably didn't like the deception of her pretending to be a pureblood in his House."

Hermione scowled.

"Regardless," she said. "The monster needs to be stopped, Draco. We can't all keep going like this, and if it's not caught by the end of the year, I bet a lot of students won't come back next year."

"Only the Muggle-borns," Draco dismissed. "Anyone with a brain will see—"

"I won't be coming back," Hermione warned. "I'm not about to stay at a school where people are being attacked when I could just transfer to Beauxbatons."

Draco froze.

"But—you're New Blood," he protested. "You wouldn't be in any danger from the Heir."

"And what if I'm collateral damage, Draco?" Hermione said testily. "A monster running around is not exactly a careful, discerning tool to use."

Draco looked highly conflicted and torn. Hermione made a face.

"We'll agree to disagree for now then, alright?" she said. "Regardless, I intend to carry on with my plan. But to do that, I need your help."

"My help?" Draco's eyes lit up. "How can I help, Hermione?"

He looked eager to hear how he could help her, even though a moment ago he'd been entirely set against her plans. Hermione wondered if there was some societal implication to a wizard helping a witch, and if she was treading in something she didn't entirely understand.

"Does your family have any contacts in the media?" Hermione asked. "Is there a reporter your family goes to often to make statements, one who you think would be able to be worked with well?"

Draco considered.

"Probably. I think so?" he said. "I can ask this weekend, anyway. Why?"

"I'm going to want a reporter to interview me after I defeat the monster," Hermione said, giving Draco a smirk. "And I'm going to want one I can trust to portray me in the best light possible."

Draco slowly started to smirk back.

"A Slytherin second-year saving the school when the Headmaster couldn't," he said slyly. "The story practically writes itself, doesn't it?"

"That's what I'm hoping," Hermione admitted. "But if you could get a couple names this weekend from your father? Without saying why? And then we could arrange for the reporter to just so happen to be up at the village or around the school when I defeat the monster..."

"If you defeat the monster," Draco reminded her. "You could still change your mind and just not."

Hermione bit her lip to stop from lashing out.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she focused on what she wanted to do – persuade Draco she was doing what was necessary, not that blood prejudice was wrong (that would take hours, if not days). Her goal in in mind, she slowly counted to ten and evened her breathing before she opened her eyes. She looked up at Draco through her lashes, her eyes meeting his, and she heard his quick intake of breath.

"If the monster's not caught, Draco, my parents will transfer me," Hermione said quietly, looking away. "I'd have to leave Hogwarts…"

She kept her gaze vulnerable, anguished, letting conflict write itself across her face. Draco looked torn himself, unsure.

"And I don't want to," she said softly. She raised her eyes to his, his pupils widening in silver eyes, and she held the eye contact for a long moment. "I don't want to have to leave you."

It was interesting to watch – Hermione could practically see his breath catch in his throat, the flaring of his pupils, hear his breathing change. Draco didn't blush, not like her, but he reached out and took her hand.

"I don't want you to leave either," he told her, his eyes earnest.

Hermione bit her lip and looked away.

"But with the monster," she said, letting her voice waver. "It's not like I'll have a choice…"

"You can't…" Draco's voice sounded anguished.

Draco closed his eyes and pushed his fists into them, rubbing hard for a moment. His face was torn, one of distress and torment, and Hermione was surprised to see him so upset at the thought of her leaving Hogwarts. Draco agonized over something for a long moment, before seeming to make a decision sitting up, straight and looking determined.

"If the monster needs to be defeated in order for you to stay," Draco told her, his voice firm, "then I will help you defeat the monster."

A flash of satisfaction went through Hermione at his words.

He had actually agreed.

He would help her.

She was careful to keep the thrill of success and her immediate glee off her face.

"Will you really?" she asked softly. "Even knowing it might be dangerous?"

Draco puffed himself up even more at that.

"It would be an honor to be at your side," he told her. "To help you, to protect you, however. I would willingly face danger at your side."

That sounded like flowery language to Hermione, which rang mental alarm bells. She remembered Blaise almost making an Oath of Fealty, as well as Susan's casual Debt Binding, and Hermione was careful to just gift Draco a soft smile in response.

"I'm glad, Draco," she said. She tried to give him a hopeful, heartfelt look, and Draco's eyes widened slightly, so she thought maybe it had worked. "I'm so glad we can trust each other."

Draco looked touched, proud, and important, settling himself down on the bench, and Hermione had to refrain from scoffing inside her head. He looked so pleased that she'd said she trusted him – did he really think she trusted him to act in anything but his own self-interest, like any other Slytherin would?

"I'll speak to my father about a reporter," Draco reassured her as she stood up, excusing herself. "I'll let you know when we return to school."

"Excellent," Hermione said, smiling. "Thank you, Draco."

She lingered in the doorway a moment, maintaining eye contact, before leaving his compartment and shutting the door firmly behind her. She took a moment to collect herself in the hall, taking a deep, patient breath, before blowing it out all at once. She headed off down the train corridor, passing empty compartment after empty compartment - if she sat alone, someone else might come talk to her, and Hermione found she didn't really want to have to deal with Draco or anyone else.

It was several compartments before Hermione finally saw a Ravenclaw prefect, one reading contentedly in solitude. She opened the door, and the Ravenclaw's eyes flickered up from her book to Hermione, before widening in recognition.

"You're Jade's little snake," she said. "The one with the aggressive boy problem, who we taught that night."

"Oh! Yes, I'm Hermione," Hermione reintroduced herself, dipping a short curtsy. "And you're… Milan, right?"

"Milan Bexley." The girl grinned at her and offered her a slight bow, as best she could do sitting down. "Glad to see you're doing well, Hermione."

Hermione groaned threw herself into a seat, thunking her head back against the seat behind her.

"Am I?" she groaned. "Am I, though?"

"Apparently not," Milan laughed. "You seem like you're in a bit of a strop."

Hermione sighed.

"Slytherin is hard, sometimes," she complained. "Sometimes I hate it, playing these manipulative games with people who are trying to manipulate me just the same. Sometimes I just want to go and do a thing, not convince other people of why it needs done."

Milan looked amused.

"Jade complains of the same thing," she said, eyes twinkling. "Though she mostly complains about people trying to bribe her or position her like a chess piece, not having to manipulate others." Milan grinned. "Are you up to no good, little snake?"

"I tried to manipulate a boy who I think might fancy me," Hermione admitted, "so he would go along with what I wanted."

"Did you now?" Milan's face was carefully neutral. "Why?"

"I needed to." Hermione remembered Draco's face sneering from minutes early, his lips protesting it's only Muggleborns… "I was trying to persuade him that Slytherin's monster needed caught, but he wouldn't listen, he didn't see a problem with the attacks, because it's only going after—"

"Say no more," Milan said, her voice hard. Hermione looked up, and Milan's eyes had gone fierce.

She leaned forward, and Hermione found herself leaning forward too.

"Hermione, listen," Milan said, her eyes intent on her. "You cannot feel any mercy for whatever you must do in the face of blood purists. If you must rip their hearts out and crush them beneath your boots, do it without guilt. They would literally rip the hearts from muggles and do the same. They are not reasonable people, and they are not good. Never feel guilty about needing to manipulate the evil in order to do what is right for the world."

Hermione's eyes were wide.

"Have you had to do that?" she asked, awed.

Milan shrugged airily.

"Remember Julian, the boy I said grabbed me in the hall?" she said. "The one who presumed that he could do whatever he wanted to me because of my blood?" Her eyes darkened. "Poor Julian. He had to leave Hogwarts, you know. Somehow his wand hand got horribly broken and damaged, and he had to leave school for good and get a private tutor to help him with physical and magical therapy."

The vengeance in her eyes was fiery with anger, and Hermione found her respect for Milan going up significantly.

"Good for you," Hermione told her fiercely. "I hope I have the strength to do the same as you if I need to."

Milan looked surprised by that, her anger leaving her eyes, before giving Hermione a bemused smile.

"You're odd for a little snake, aren't you?" she said. She grinned. "I can't wait to see what becomes of you."