"I gather I'll be something clever. Maybe an eagle, or a phoenix." Blaise rattled off he assisted Hermione in repotting the mandrake. The leaves would be ready to cut by the full moon for them to start preparing. "Goyle will likely be a rock. Oi!-"

Hermione hit his arm, Blaise had been practically shouting over their earmuffs. The greenhouse was locked and silenced, but she started feeling bad for Goyle when the boys always ganged up on him.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you all ended up being snakes." Hermione joked in return.

"Rather not. The Dark Lord would try to take me home with him."

Hermione laughed and sprinkled that last of the soil over her mandrake before removing her earmuffs. "Do you think he'd make you sleep at the foot of his bed?"

"Goyle swore he used to have Nagini cuddle up beside him." He said raising both brows.

"Foul. How would he even know that?"

"We just went over this, Granger. Goyle doesn't know anything." Blaise helped himself to a jar of prepared bud and started rolling it in parchment. "The Dark Lord doesn't even sleep, but it paints quite the picture."

Hermione hopped up on the table to sit. She was to call Neddy when she was ready to go back to the room, but she and Blaise finished early so she figured they could spare a few minutes.

He had come by that morning right before Neddy and Hermione left for the greenhouse. Her notes from studying and preparing for their animagus training were scattered across the table, and it only took a moment for Blaise to deduct what she and Draco were working on and demanded to be included. The other boys wanted to partake in acquiring the skill as well. Especially since Hermione would be handling most of the arduous preparations.

"I know that look, it used to terrify me during class. What is going on up there?" Blaise wanted to know and gestured towards her head.

"I was wondering if I could ask for your help with something?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"A fun something?" Blaise mused with a raised brow and Hermione shook her head.

She called Neddy and had her take them to the quidditch pitch. No one was allowed out there, but she still put protective enchantments up quickly to conceal them, and another to warn if anyone got nearby.

"Are you sure about this, Granger?" Blaise and Hermione nodded. He took out his wand and a galleon and quickly transformed it into a large spider. He levitated it in the air between them before looking back at her. "I am assuming you don't like spiders?"

"Not particularly."

The corner of Blaise's mouth turned up and looked at her sympathetically. "This is never going to work."

"Then you're a poor teacher." Hermione argued back.

"Have it your way, then." Blaise said walking over to stand beside Hermione instead of in front of her. "You have to picture it first. Picture it in a way that makes you want it. Convince your mind that it is the only thing you want, or need, so that when you cast it sparks joy."

Hermione took in a sharp breath, nodding slightly before lifting her wand to the transfigured spider.

"Avada Kedavra."

"Granger?"

Draco whispered to her as Hermione was on the cusp of sleep. She hummed in response, nudging his chest slightly where she laid her head to confirm she was awake.

"I don't know how I am going to survive without you."

Hermione tightened her arm that surrounded him. "Me either. But it is only three days-"

"Shh!"

Hermione chuckled, "Sorry forgot."

"I'll let it go this once," he spoke at a normal volume before he pulled her up to kiss her. Hermione kissed him back lazily, becoming more awake but still satiated from the activities minutes before. "Are we mad?"

"No more than anyone else." Hermione rested her head on the pillow next to him. "I used to find it odd that people would seek romantic relationships during the war. Look at Neville and Harry, they had to live their entire lives without their parents during Voldemort's first rise to power."

Draco's eyes flicked down at her words, and she wondered if her comment made him think of his own mother. "But it's nearly twenty years later and it's still going. I think it is rather comforting that life doesn't stop."

Draco was still looking down, lost in thought, and Hermione scooted a little closer. "Do you know how Harry survived? When Voldemort tried to kill him that night in Godric's Hallow?"

"Chosen one," he answered shortly.

"No, it's how he became the chosen one. It was his mother, she sacrificed herself for him." Hermione was gentle with her words, and Draco's eyes shot to hers.

"What do you mean?"

"It's a different kind of magic. One Voldemort would never know or be capable of performing. It caused his curse to rebound."

Draco took a deep breath, still troubled at the topic but now also looking pensive on the mechanics of what she was saying.

"Harry's mother was a muggleborn right?" He asked her and she nodded. "Like you."

"I am a muggleborn, yes." She confirmed with a smile.

His grin finally returned. "It's sort of remarkable when you think about it."

"What? The magic or muggleborns?"

"They're one in the same, are they not? When we went to the barn the first time, you mentioned having a kind of magic I wouldn't understand." Hermione was surprised he had retained her comment, she meant hardly anything by it other than to tease him. "You know what I think?"

"What?" she laughed.

"I think you were made for me. Probably why you got your magic in the first place," Draco joked. Hermione scoffed and tried to push away to look at him, but he just held her tighter. "I don't think our paths would ever have crossed if you'd been a muggle. And Merlin knows the sacred twenty-eight was long overdue for some genetic diversity."

Hermione's stomach dropped.

"What is it?" He asked, his playful mood changing as the color drained from her face.

She sat up suddenly, covering her mouth with her hand as she tried to breathe through the sickening feeling.

"Hermione love, you're worrying me," he said, sitting up beside her and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"We- I didn't think about that." Her voice was shaking as she rushed out the words.

"About being with me?"

"About having children with you!" She snapped, panic really started to take over and she ran towards the study. "What day is it?"

"Three days before Halloween. And what the fuck is wrong with having children with me?!" He asked angrily, stalking after her.

"You can't be serious? I can't even walk off the grounds and you think it's a good idea to add a baby into this?" Hermione grabbed her planner from her beaded bag and looked over the month. Draco appeared significantly calmer, and even a little of what she suspected was amusement.

"Hermione Jean Granger, are you under the impression that we have spent the last week shagging completely unprotected?" He laughed out the last few words and Hermione exhaled, flopping on her back on the couch.

"My heart," she whined.

"Irresponsible."

"It hurts," She exaggerated, putting a hand on her chest. He lifted her legs and draped them over him as he sat down.

"I just assumed you would know. I can't sire children out of wedlock. It's an inherited trait for as long as the Malfoy family has existed. Most old wizarding families have them." Hermione finally looked at him again and he looked less smug but still amused. "I suppose it is technically a curse, but it is rather effective."

"We probably should have discussed it before…"

"You should have discussed it. I knew it was fine- ouch!" Hermione started kicking him until he restrained her legs.

"Can we go back to bed now?" He asked, leaning his head on the back of the couch. Hermione stretched out her arms, and Draco scooped her up the next moment to walk them back to their bedroom.

When Draco woke her in the morning it was still dark. His trip to Vienna would be the first he would go on in weeks, and the first of many to come according to the orders he received from Lucius.

"Your contact that got the hairs from the Order members," Hermione began, snapping the clasp closed and handing it to him. "Are you sure you can trust them?"

Draco looked away as he shrank his trunk and put it in his robes pocket. "Yes."

"Will you tell me who it is?"

He swallowed, looking at her for a moment before looking away. "I can't. The more people that know the higher the risk."

"I understand that thought process with the others, but I don't think it should apply to me." She said firmly. When he neglected to say anything, she persisted. "Is it someone we went to school with?"

"No."

"Do I know them?"

"Hermione. Please." He said wearily. He moved her face gently and looked at her beseechingly.

"Okay." There was no reason she couldn't be trusted; she was an Order member herself.

Anthony was her only direct line of communication with the Order and he was adamant to keep his involvement a secret. If Draco's contact was caught working as a middleman, their death would be inevitable. After what happened with Katie, she could understand their apprehension to people knowing their involvement.

Draco kissed her, holding her face with both hands, and accepting her invitation when she parted her lips for his tongue.

"When do you have to leave again?" she breathed against his ear as she kissed his sensitive skin.

"In six minutes." He groaned.

"Plenty of time," she said, opening his robes and wrapping his hand around his middle underneath them. "What will we do with the other three?"

"Such a rude girl." Draco said, picking her up and setting her on their small dinner table by the window. "However, will I teach you proper manners?"

Draco sucked air in through his teeth when Hermione stuck her hand down the front of his trousers to grab him. "I've never said anything nearly as rude as you have to me."

He reared his head back; brows narrowed but still visibly amused. "Now you're just being mean."

"I don't mean to," she leaned forward and kissed him. "I just have to deflect to stop myself from saying the nice, though very pathetic, things I want to say all the time."

"I like hearing nice things," he whispered against her mouth. "Care to share one now?"

Hermione hummed as Draco kissed the sides of her mouth, deliberately missing the pads of her lips. "I think I may adore you a little."

She nearly regretted admitting the words aloud. But they were true, and Draco hardly got told enough how lovely he was. Draco made quick work of taking off her knickers. She started to remove the black jumper she was wearing but he moved her hands to keep it on. He tested her with his fingers and found her gloriously wet before driving his cock between her legs, burying the entirety of himself in one thrust.

Hermione gasped at the intrusion and Draco took the opportunity to taste her mouth. She braced her hands behind her on the table and tried to angle her hips to give him greater access.

He slid his hand between them, drawing circles in tandem with his hips snapping. She let her head fall back and he started kissing her neck and tried not to focus on how awful the next seventy-two hours would be without him.

"The day we first had dinner together, my father lectured me on proper courtship and formal dinners." He said in her ear. "You were the first person I thought of. The only person. How I had you here all that time and never took advantage of it to dine you properly."

Hermione kissed down his neck, feeling herself get closer and relishing in the fact that Draco had been thinking of her for months as she had thought of him. "Is this what he meant?"

"Not a bloody chance," he huffed with a laugh before grabbing her face to kiss her soundly. "But I would need much more than six minutes to dine you properly."

At the conclusion of his sentence, he started increasing his pace, and Hermione found she enjoyed the sound of their bodies connected with each other.

"Don't go," she moaned, her thoughts escaping her lips as Draco already had her nearly finished. The arousal and need in her voice made it hard to recognized as her own. "Please, don't go."

"Fuck, Hermione. Don't do that to me." His voice hitched on his words and she could tell he was getting closer too.

Hermione came only a few moments before he did, and he held her tightly against him until she got her breathing back under control.

"Time?" she mumbled, face still pressed in the crook of his neck and shoulder.

"Five passed," he whispered back, stroking her hair.

"You're late." Hermione pulled back quickly, her throat feeling tighter knowing this moment they were so close, and he was about to be so far away.

"Had to prove you wrong, didn't I?" He said with a small smile that she tried to return.

"Just one more thing." He grabbed the hem of her jumper and pulled it over her head. "Forgot to pack this."

The Carrows had proven loyal to Voldemort. Fatally so. The group therefore decided they would be the first. It took her only one try to learn to cast it wordlessly. There were hardly any spells that she needed to say the incantation for. Even the imperious curse proved to be easy enough once she got the hang of it.

The Carrows were in the drawing room, seated in chairs in front of the fireplace. Hermione cast the spell immediately, and once she was sure it took effect, she wordlessly cast its twin to test it.

It worked perfectly.

Invisible to anyone else in the room, fluorescent orange smoke appeared floating off the Carrows robes. Hermione gave them the look over once more, and silently hoped it would be the last time.

Hermione retreated into the library, walking into an alcove to look over the map again. Anthony was in one of the sitting rooms with Flint and Daphne, and Hermione pulled out a piece of parchment to deliver to him this evening and wrote down one word.

Rome. Carrows.

A two-word death sentence.

Hermione should feel more upset about setting someone up to die, but she just folded the paper into a smaller square and passed it along.

The boys came upstairs to keep her company and drink most of Draco's expensive liquor. Theo and Goyle were sharing about their time trying to maneuver their way through muggle Manchester.

"Why would you two steal a car anyways?" asked Hermione.

"Expect us to take the bus, do you?" Goyle mused.

"Goyle had his eye on a couple birds and tried to impress them by running them over." Theo continued laughing.

Goyle shrugged. "They shouldn't make the pedals so sensitive."

"Muggle girls?!" Hermione shouted out without thinking at Goyle.

"I was only looking, Granger. I am spoken for after all." Goyle said slyly. "You miss a lot when you just apparate everywhere. We wanted to see the city a bit before the Dark Lord turns it into ash."

"We won't let that happen." Hermione insisted.

Blaise walked back from the piano where he had been testing his skills from his childhood lessons. The group had changed their seating arrangement so that the only seat left was next to Theo.

"Has Marietta arrived yet?" Goyle asked, and Hermione located her on the map. "I better be off, then. She'll be cross with me if I don't finally look over our robes for the Ball."

"Can't go running when called like a dog every time," Theo teased.

"I wouldn't have to if she was allowed to come up here," He shot back as he stood. "And that is rather ridiculous coming from you, always staring at Zabini like a lost puppy. Merlin knows how you two got away with it for so long."

"Our friends are rather daft." Blaise offered neutrally while Theo both looked and leaned away from him.

"Enough you two," Hermione laughed. "I'm sorry Goyle, but I've trusted Marietta with secrets in the past, and it did not work out too well for us."

"Or her face." Theo chimed in, making Blaise grin.

Goyle scrunched up his nose, no doubt remembering when the jinxed DA signup sheet made his fiancé break out in pimples, with the word 'sneak' written across her forehead.

"He is right, you know. You are being rather hypocritical." Hermione said once Goyle closed the door behind him.

"I do not look like a lost puppy."

"I suppose neither of you run to the other when called as well?" Hermione challenged and Theo finally turned fully to look at Blaise.

"Told you they use the map to snoop on us."

"No one is snooping on you," Hermione countered.

Not intentionally.

"You are free to be yourselves here. You don't have to run off, or wait until someone's back is turned, to get within two feet of each other," she said gently.

"Old habits, I suppose." Blaise finally spoke first, and Theo looked at him. Blaise gave the smallest grin in return before addressing Hermione again. "And on the topic of hypocrisy, no one is more prude or unforthcoming than Malfoy."

Hermione's face deadpanned. "I know what you're doing."

"I take full credit for his improved moods." Blaise now smiled devilishly, and Theo smiled around his glass as he took another sip.

"You speak as if it was a group effort," she laughed.

"Oh, come on, give us something. We are starved for entertainment." Theo pleaded.

"I don't understand why you all care so much." Hermione said incredulously.

"You've never been in a boy's dormitory," Blaise shrugged. "More specifically, you've never been in our dormitory when Malfoy would go off on one of his abstinence, purity rants."

"I beg your pardon? I was certainly on the receiving end of Malfoy's various purity rants during school." Hermione countered.

"And now you're on the receiving end of Malfoy's…?"

Theo choked on his drink and for the first time, she saw Blaise genuinely laugh as his partner finally cracked at one of his comments. Blaise scooted a bit closer patting Theo on the back as he finished coughing.

"Zabini," he said incredulously at Blaise, as he wiped his eyes.

"Too far?"

"No finesse." Theo shook his head and looked back at Hermione. Blaise leaned back as well, but kept his arm where it was resting on the couch around Theo.

Theo got his voice back before speaking again. "You don't have to share if you don't want to, pet. But just so you know, you are safe to speak freely with us as well. Unbreakable vow level safety in fact."

Hermione smiled at Theo's comment and was grateful to have found friendships with them during her time there. Even if it was vastly different than the ones she was used to.

"Honestly, I hardly even think about things in the moment… They just sort of happen." Hermione felt embarrassed at her words, but they were true and someone ought to know how happy Draco makes her.

"See, I told you. Never needed our counsel to begin with." Blaise for once took pity on her and did not poke fun.

Hermione thought for a moment, the energy getting too effusive and not wanting to drag down the mood of the room. "Well... I supposed I did use one piece of your advice."

"Brilliant!" Theo nearly shouted and threw his head back, his hair brushing Blaise's arm in a way that Hermione suspected wasn't unintentional.

"Well?" Blaise urged.

Hermione took a deep breath, she was sure her smile was more unsure than that of the boys across from her. "The… messy thing."

Blaise and Theo froze. Theo's eyes shifted to Blaise who gave the smallest shakes of his head.

"Messy thing?" Blaise's face was the epitome of innocence. "I honestly don't recall that one."

Hermione crossed her arms, now determined to prove she wasn't making it up. "You said to get his, thing, wet with my mouth."

Theo's hand flew over his mouth, and Blaise held his lips between his teeth, eyes closed, while he thought of the right thing to say.

"Granger, I'm going to need you to tell me exactly what you did."

"The, you know, spit thing." Hermione said, getting embarrassed.

"You spit on Malfoy's knob?!" Theo shouted out leaning forward and Blaise grabbed his shoulder to shove him back.

"YOU TOLD ME TO!" Hermione yelled back but also started to laugh along with Theo who had lost it completely.

"I meant a more direct application." Blaise explained. Surprisingly without any mockery.

"Oh-oh…"

That thought didn't even cross her mind. Was that what Draco was expecting her to do? Hermione had woken up before Draco one morning to find him hard against her and started to stroke him with her hand once his eyes were open. Remembering how easily her hand glided over him in the shower, and how she interpreted Blaise's vague tips, she let saliva drip down and coat him as she continued to move her hand up and down his length.

"Well… Draco seemed to like it enough." She reasoned with herself.

"I bet he did!" Theo exclaimed through his chuckles and Blaise cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"Granger, it's fine. What you did- well, it's actually quite lovely in fact." He shrugged to Theo who nodded as confirmation. "Just a bit…"

"Kinky?" Theo offered.

"More so than what you actually meant?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"Well, that is a bit more intimate." Blaise said. "Again, sounds like you are doing plenty fine on your own. Just keep doing what you like."

Hermione nodded. She expected to feel more embarrassed, but she really did feel safe speaking with the boys. Their teasing and jokes were all done in fun, and she definitely needed someone to talk these things over with.

"Just one more thing." Theo said before Blaise could move on. "What did you think we meant about the bit on-"

"No!" Blaise and Hermione shouted at the same time, and then all three of the trio lost it into a fit of laughter.

Blaise joined Goyle and Hermione on their morning training. He insisted that he was more than capable of performing a fully corporeal patronus, but he refused to demonstrate. At the end of their training, Goyle and Zabini worked with her on perfecting the unforgivables.

Goyle was helping her get in the mindset for the cruciatus curse. The unforgivable being the hardest for her to cast, likely due to her own experience on the other end.

"The longer you have them at the end of your wand, the longer you have on the giving end of the curse yourself. If you know the person well, you can also focus on how it is better you than someone worse hitting them with the curse. But that mindset won't work on a transfigured bug I'm afraid."

Hermione nodded, taking a hard swallow before turning back to Blaise.

Blaise smirked. "Don't worry, Granger, I am tougher than I look."

"Crucio."

Nothing.

"Ah come on, Granger. Don't you care about me?" Blaise goaded her.

"If you don't hit him this time, I will." Goyle spoke behind her, and Hermione flinched at the coldness in his voice.

She planted her feet and fixed her hold towards Blaise again. "Crucio!"

Blaise flinched slightly but recovered after a few seconds. He shook his head at her, and then she saw another wand point at him from over her shoulder.

"Crucio!" Goyle snarled and Blaise collapsed to the ground instantly, writhing and grunting in pain as he tried to fight against the effects of the curse.

Without thinking, Hermione wandlessly disarmed Goyle and shot her hand in the air to catch it.

"I see you have been training with Malfoy as well," Blaise said from the ground.

Hermione was in fact the one to disarm Dolohov the day he was torturing Theo, not Draco. But she couldn't share that fact with them without also revealing how she's been walking around undetected.

"Are you alright?" She asked him, and a moment later Goyle ripped his wand out of her hand. He pointed it back at Blaise who was still doubled over.

"Do it now, or I'll hit him again!" He shouted at her.

"Stop it Goyle!" Yelled Hermione back.

"Do it, Granger. Goyle's casts are stronger, they hurt me far worse."

Goyle took a step forward. "Three seconds!"

"I can't!" She cried.

"DO IT, GRANGER!" Blaise screamed from his spot on the ground.

"CRUCIO!"

Blaise cried out but was able to brace an arm on the ground so that he didn't fall over completely once Hermione's curse hit him. The cast ended after a few moments, and the effects were only a fraction of what Goyle's had been, but she had done it.

Hermione dropped her wand on the ground as she ran to Blaise, falling to her knees in front of him and pulling him into her arms. He rested his head on her shoulder, letting the last of the shakes exit his body.

"Excellent, Granger!" Goyle sang cheerfully behind him. "Bloody hell, it took me weeks to get any effect, Malfoy was nearly driven to madness in my training. You really are brilliant."

She felt his hand on her shoulder, but she just kept her hold on Blaise tight as he leaned his weight against her.

"I'd say she'd have it down after a couple more days. You're a bit terrifying, Hermione." Blaise spoke hoarsely with a laugh and tried to pull back.

She should have known the curse would be too much for her. But it wasn't until she felt the curse festering in her and out the tip of her wand that she understood the true horror behind it. It was terrible.

"Let it out," Blaise whispered softly to her. "The first one's always the hardest."

"We need to keep going," Goyle reminded Blaise and she felt him nod.

"Give her a minute."

Hermione pulled back, her knees against Blaise's where they both sat on the ground.

"You-you've had to do this training? To each other?" Hermione looked at both boys who solemnly nodded. "Does it get easier?"

"No." Blaise said sharply, standing and pulling Hermione up with him. "But you get used to it."

Blaise put a hand on Hermione's shoulder and turned her around to face Goyle. "Summon your wand, it's Goyle's turn."

Her wand flew into her waiting hand, and she raised it to the ready, this time pointed at Goyle. She tried to steady the tip, but it was visibly shaking for all to see.

"On second thought, let's move onto the killing curse." Blaise instructed Goyle from behind her and Hermione gasped.

Goyle was transfiguring a galleon into a beetle, levitating it in the air before walking over to stand next to Hermione and Blaise. Hermione exhaled with relief before casting a green light towards the enchanted item.