Chapter Eleven

She stood looking blankly at her closed door for a moment.

Shock, disbelief, annoyance, all ran through her as she took a breath, unlatched the door and re-opened it. She had half hoped he would have disappeared and he would have been a figment of her over exhausted imagination but no, there he stood.

"Granger I-" Whatever Nott was going to say he never got to finish. Hermionie reached out and grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into her living room. Off balance and clearly surprised, Nott went stumbling past her to fall heavily to the floor as she leaned out to check that there was no one in the hallways, then closed and locked her door.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" She hissed as she whirled on him like an angry goose. He had the decency or perhaps the good sense to scuttle away as she advanced on him.

"Do you have any idea the panic you would cause if someone saw you here? At this time of night? At my flat?" She practically yelled at him.

"Not to mention the scandal if the papers got wind! Are you out of your mind?" His retreat was halted as his back hit her couch.

"Someone could have called the Aurors on you if they saw you coming into my building and how would you have explained yourself? Because I" She gestured to herself "have had just about enough of cleaning up your messes without having to come up with some bogus excuse on why you're" she poked him in the chest, probably a touch harder than she needed to "at MY flat. My flat that I never gave you my address to, in the middle of the night. Explain yourself. Now." She was breathing hard and Nott looked like he was on the end of one of Professor McGonagall's reprimands.

"You didn't get Blaise's note then?" He asked weakly.

They stared at each other for a long moment. Hermione had all but forgotten about the letter she had arrived home to almost three hours ago.

She marched over to the table and grabbed it and ripping it open, she scanned the letter.

"You came to my flat. At ten thirty in the evening. Risking your safety and my reputation… all because Zabini… had a theoretical question about potions?" She asked quietly in disbelief, her eyes narrowing as she read.

"Ah, see, there's a bit more to it than that." Nott seemed relieved she was no longer yelling at him half a foot from his face, and pulled himself up with the help of the couch back to his feet. "I'm here because we need your answer, if you'll help us or not."

"I have until tomorrow night to give my answer on that." Hermione pointed out though she was tempted to just tell him no out of spite. "You're not making any sense. What has that got to do with Zabini?"

"Yes, originally that was the plan." Nott ran a hand through his hair slicking it back nervously "But the situation has…evolved and I need your answer now."

Something in the tone of his voice made Hermione pause, no longer blind with rage and adrenaline she looked him over. He was visibly dishevelled, he was sweating and his shirt was buttoned wrong, his shoes didn't even match and there were dark stains on his coat.

"Nott, is that blood on you?" the rest of Hermione's temper extinguished as if someone had dumped cold water down her. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Instinctually she reached out to him to check if he was injured but he shook his head.

"I'm fine." He said shortly. "I need your answer though and I need it now Granger. Are you in or are you out?"

"That is a lot of blood on your coat." Hermione said nervously moving closer to him "Let me just see-" She reached to lift up his coat but he batted her hand away and grabbed her shoulders.

"Granger, we're running out of time. I need your answer and I need it now." His voice was deathly serious which somehow scared her more than the blood.

She bit her lip, trying to think. His hands tightened on her shoulders, not enough to hurt her but enough to convey his urgency.

In for a penny in for a pound. She hoped she was making the right choice as she nodded.

Nott's eyes closed and his shoulders slumped in relief. He tipped his forehead ever so slightly down to hers and whispered "Thank you" so softly she thought she imagined it, before he pulled away and headed towards the door.

"Wait, Nott. The blood- Where are you going? Let me help you." Hermione called after him.

"Come on Granger, I'll answer all your questions but we need to leave. If you've got it, grab a potion master's bag and supplies, any and all mediwizard remedies, books or whatever you've got." He ordered, grabbing her coat from the front door.

Hermione went into autopilot, the years of helping the boys at Hogwarts and their years on the run kicking in as she grabbed her expandable bag and went from room to room grabbing everything she could.

Nott helped her into her coat and turned to the door but she grabbed his arm "It's too risky to go out the main way. Follow me, we can take the back stairway, I have a key." Her landlord had given her the key to the maintenance stairway with a gruff 'just in case' the week she had moved in. She had honestly never thought she would need to use it. Nott gave her a curt nod and opened the door.

Hermione thought her heart might stop as they made their way past the four other doors on her floor and to the small utility door. She held her breath but the key turned silently and the door opened without a sound.

They hurried out into the chilly night air of the alley behind her building but before she could speak, Nott put a finger to his lips pointing to a rooftop patio across the alley where people were laughing and talking. They crept in the shadows to the edge of the alley where the wards from her building ended where Nott turned to her.

"I'm going to need you to trust me Granger." Nott whispered close to her ear. "Put your arms around me." She must have made a face because he gave a ghost of his normal mischievous smile. "Not like that Granger, we need to apparate and you don't know where we're going and even if you did the wards won't let you through without me."

"Where are we going?" She asked but he shook his head, telling her she knew he couldn't say. After a moment's hesitation she stepped closer to him and put her arms around his waist. She took the opportunity to slide her hands under his coat and along his sides, trying to inconspicuously feel for a gaping wound of some kind that would cause that kind of blood loss but his body under the coat, though soaked through with blood, seemed whole.

He shivered at her touch but stilled once her arms were fully around him. His own arms settled around her, holding her gingerly to him before they disappeared.

A/N: Well last weekend didn't go as I planned lol I'll try and make it up by posting several extra chapters between today and tomorrow 3