A/N: First, thank you a lot to murtagh799 for helping me out with some stuff in my story. I hope I can answer correctly to everything you asked me. Thank you a lot again for your kindness. :)

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU START READING: On the previous chapter, Ron is acting so strange and angry because of the locket. I think you're familiar with that, yes. I know my timeline isn't like the one in the book, so I'm only following Deathly Hallows's timeline in the barest sense. Anything else I forgot to explain, will be in the chapter (I hope. If you have any question about anything, please just ask me and I'll be more than available to answer you and hopefully help you out.)

I need a beta for the rest of the story, able to give a strict edit to my story and some help with plot, so if you're a beta and you're interested or if you know any dramione beta, send me a message.

Sorry for the grammar errors. Thank you so much for your attention.

April 25, 1998

"Hermione, I need you to understand this," Harry mutters at her, his big eyes shining behind his round glasses "I can't trust anyone else to stay with him. You're the only one that I can lean on and, trust me, if this wasn't important, I wouldn't ask you to do this. After all, I'm taking a big risk on this one, because you're the smartest-"

"What about Ron?" Hermione protests, crossing her arms against her chest, trying not to beat with her foot on the floor like only a child would do. Harry rolls his eyes and gives her a sideways look "Alright, fine. Maybe Ron isn't the best of our opitions. I'm sure that Malfoy would be dead before he even remembers anything."

Harry nods but Hermione isn't done yet "But you do have many other people that can stay with Malfoy. Like Luna and... Neville." At this, Harry chuckles, making Hermione chuckle too. She hides her face on her hand and closes her eyes "I don't really want to leave you two alone. I want to stay here."

"You're the only one that can deal with Malfoy. You punched him in the third year, Mione! I think you got this." Harry gives her a gentle smile, like he is begging her to relax. But it doesn't relax Hermione at all "And no, taking Malfoy with us on a Horcrux Hunt is out of the question!" warns her, when she opens her mouth.

"I can't leave you two alone!" Hermione continues protesting, and Harry hides his face on his hands "You will probably mess up without me! It's not like I'm being cocky, but that's the truth! You will take care of you? I need to stay here, Harry."

"I need you to go, Hermione. Please." Harry begs now "I need you, the only rational person here, to go far away from here with Malfoy and wait until his memory is back so that then we can have some information."

"What if his memory doesn't come back at all?" Hermione cries.

"It has to." He simply says.

Hermione is thinking about her last dialogue with Harry while Malfoy is standing by her side, protecting the house. Even now, Hermione doesn'r really know what compelled her to stay all alone with Draco Malfoy in a house in the middle of nowhere.

Maybe it was the way Harry begged her and told her that he really needed her to go. Or maybe was the hunger for information that was eating her inside out that made her accept such a ridiculous challenge like this one.

The only thing she knows is that she's here now, and she isn't going anywhere. Ron and Harry left for the Horcrux Hunt, because they can't just stop the world and stay with her and Malfoy until he gets his memory back. And that can take a few days - months, who knows? And it's not like Voldemort's going to wait until they have some information.

So, she was all alone and trying her best to not be mean to Malfoy. What can be, sometimes, a really hard task because he's a jackass and not even when half of his memory is gone, that can be changed.

"You have to do it better," Hermione groans and takes a few steps closer to Malfoy. She raises her left hand at the same height of her right hand, that is holding her wand "And say it clearly: Cave Inimicum"

"Cave Inimicum" Draco imitates Granger's gestures and small disturbances in the air around them appear, only to then vanish.

"Better. Now, let's try another spell." Hermione prepares to say the other spell, but Draco rolls his eyes "What? I thought you were the one that asked me to teach you some effective protection spells."

"But you can be a really bad teacher," Draco explains, with a forced smile on his face "You have to be kinder."

Hermione looks at him for a while, but then explodes in laughter "Oh, you were actually being serious?" She rolls her eyes "Stop being such a lazy arse and raise that wand of yours. Protego Totalum. Repeat it."

Draco rolls his eyes once more and raises his wand with one hand "Protego Totalum" another shield floats on the surrounding air and then disappears. When Hermione finishes teaching Draco a small amount of protection spells, they start to walk around the house murmuring the spells. It takes them half an hour to completely protect the whole house from outside.

"There's a small possibility that Voldemort will ever find us here, now. Not with all this protection spells." Hermione says, feeling relief slowly settling down in her heart. Draco nods his head and they stand outside for a while, looking at the trees and the mountains that surround the small cottage where they are standing, all full with snow.

"What do you think it's happening now?" Draco asks, his eyes looking into the trees like he is expecting something to come out of there.

Hermione shakes her head slowly and looks to their feet "I don't know. And I'm afraid to know." She sighs and turns to return to the house.

"Do you already know anything about... Potter and the other guy?" Draco says, saying their names as bitter as he could.

"Ron." Hermione turns around again and looks to the grey eyes of Malfoy, that now with the clarity of the snow, look even more pale "No. I've listened to the radio, but it seems that the war hasn't started yet. And I haven't heard their names either."

Draco nods his head and looks to her eyes. He can see clearly through them. He never noticed how easy it was to see through Granger's eyes. It was like she was an open book, where you could see right in her eyes the way she was feeling. On sensitive times as the ones they were going through, it was easy for anyone to be like Granger: an open book. And, by that, he means that it's easy to get hurt.

Hermione opens the door of the cottage and gets closer to the fireplace to warm up her hands. It was crazy how cold it was outside, but they couldn't chose any place near Hogwarts; it would make it too obvious and they would be caught in a matter of hours. And they could not get caught or return to Hogwarts until Draco gets his memory back or until Voldemort is defeated.

She looks through the window and sees Malfoy outside, down on his knees, touching the snow. She wonders how he feels to lose part of his memory, putting herself on his skin and she imagines if she woke up one day and some parts of her memory had been taken away. The first thing she feels is a big whole in her chest - she imagines that she would feel empty. So, Hermione guesses that's how Malfoy really feels, but doesn't want to admit. He's too proud, always was, always will be.

Hermione shakes her head, trying to make those thoughts about Malfoy go away from her head. She opens the door for the library and grabs the book she started reading yesterday, then goes back to the living room where she sits on the floor with her back leaning against the couch.

The warmth coming from the fireplace warms up her legs and, after a while, she's not shaking anymore.

After fifteen minutes, at least it seems like fifteen minutes for Hermione, she hears the door from the cottage open and closing right away. She hears Malfoy's footsteps behind her, and she tries her best to concentrate on the book. When she stops hearing the footsteps, the muscles on her body relax like his presence, somehow, made her feel tense.

Then, she feels something cold hitting her head and her whole body freezes. Hermione's eyes are opened wide "What the hell have you done?" She yells, when she hears Malfoy laughing behind her. She looks down to her book and she sees a small quantity of snow covering the pages "You threw snow at my head?!" She yells and gets up, shaking her hair.

"You looked just too bored, Granger. Just something to light up your spirit." He says, between laughs. Hermione narrows her eyes at him.

"I was not bored! I was reading a freaking book!" She yells again and throws the books at him "Maybe you should do that sometimes, because you seem to be the bored person here!"

"Yes, indeed, I was kind of bored and I thought that upsetting you was a great hobby." He shrugs and looks to the cover of the book "Guess I was right."

Hermione groans and rolls her eyes, opening the door of the house with strength and walking outside. She gathers as much snow as she can and get's back on the house, where Malfoy is waiting with his eyebrows narrowed.

"Oh, come on!" Draco lets the book fall to the floor and raises his hands in the air, in a defensive way "We both know that you can't do that. You'll just give up-" Hermione doesn't wait for Malfoy to end his sentence and throws the snow ball to his head.

"Now we're even!" Hermione shakes the snow from her hands and grabs the book that is now on the floor. She turns to go to the library when another ball of snow hits her back "Can you stop it?"

"I would, since I have no more snow here. But I accept a challenge." Draco smirks at her nodding his head towards the front door, and Hermione suddenly feels uncomfortable with his change of humor.

Hermione bites her lip, thinking twice about it. She should be listening to the radio, waiting for some news, not throwing snow balls at Malfoy. And she wasn't feeling very comfortable thinking about actually having a good time with the blonde guy in front of her - probably because she always thought that no one could have a good time with a grumpy and arrogant person like Draco Malfoy.

All that time that Hermione spent standing by the door of the library thinking about that, Draco gathered the small quantity of snow that was on the floor of the cottage and threw it against her chest.

"No, stop, stop!" Hermione yells shaking her head, calling herself stupid countless times in a row for even thinking about going outside with him "I need to go take a shower." Draco rolls his eyes. Of course the fun couldn't last longer with that one.

"But I need to take a shower too and since I'm the injured one here... I'll go first," He says and walks pass her to reach the doorknob from the bathroom.

"I said it first, so get off." She tries to push Malfoy and reach the doorknob "Seriously, Malfoy. I need to take a shower, I'm freezing."

"Well, save water and shower with me Granger. Wouldn't that be an interesting time?" Malfoy smirks at her and Hermione stops pushing him and walks away from the bathroom when she feels her face heating up.

"Alright, you go first. Just... Be quick!" Hermione mutters.

"Refusing my offer, Granger? Sure it would make you feel warmer-"

"Just get in there and be quick!" Hermione yells and rolls her eyes. Draco let's out another grin and enters the bathroom. After a few seconds, Hermione starts to hear the water running and she go stand by the fireplace.

"Sure you don't want to join?" Hermione hears his footsteps and turns around to yell at him, but her body froze. When she's able to move, she instantly turns around and covers her eyes with her hands.

"I can't believe that you are standing completely naked in the middle of the room!" She says when she's able to talk, not even trying to contain the shock in her voice.

"Forgot to bring a towel" Draco grinned and then opened the door to the bathroom again "I'm just going to say this one more time-"

"What are you still doing here? Just get into the freaking bathroom!" Hermione hissed between gritted teeth. But then she started hearing his footsteps towards her and, without looking to him, Hermione walked to the other side of the room "Don't you even dare to come near me when you're completely naked!"

"I'm just trying to convince you to change your mind. Last time, Granger." Draco says and he grins again when he sees her slamming her foot against the floor.

"Just go!" She yells and Draco walks towards the bathroom again and closes the door, grinning.

Hermione looks at herself in the mirror while pressing the towel against her wet hair and running her fingers through her curls. She could easily spot small dark circles under her eyes caused by the lack of sleep, due to her skin being so pale. But, somehow, it seemed like she was even paler than she already is and that's when Hermione understands that she needs to stop thinking so much about what's happening at Hogwarts - like it was such an easy thing to do when you're a person skilled on worrying about everything and getting your mind busy with a lot of things. In other words, it wasn't easy to relax when you're Hermione Granger.

But it's just who Hermione is. She always felt the need to worry; Harry and Ron are her best friends, but they can be very clumsy and Hermione feels like she needs to worry about them, because she only wants the best for them. And the only thing she wants is that all this mess ends quickly, so that she can rest and that everything can be alright. So that she can get back to her friends, see her parents again and feel... Normal again.

She looks away and leaves the bathroom, to find Malfoy by the fireplace without his shirt on "I thought I told you to wear some clothes around here-" Hermione scolded him.

"I need you to help me here" Draco points to his wound on the left side of his body, next to his stomach. Hermione nods her head and returns to the bathroom to grab her first aid box. She takes the bandages from his wound and grabs her wand "Vulnera Sanentur" she mutters and, again, his wound closes a bit more but not entirely. Hermione sees his stomach move as he grins "What?" she looks up.

"Nothing," he shakes his head and looks to the ceiling.

"I think you enjoy the fact that you have someone to take care of you way too much." Hermione mutters and puts a new layer of bandages over his wound.

"Don't feel too important, Granger" He says, in his hoarse voice "I always had elves to take care of me."

Hermione looks at him sideways when she stands up, after ending her job "And you think that's right?" She narrows her eyes at him, in a scolding way.

"Oh, right, I forgot that you are the major supporter of the elves's rights or something." He grins after ending his sentence and Hermione looks at him, with her hands on her waist, her eyes narrowed.

"You really don't have a heart, do you?" Hermione mutters in disbelief "I wish you were an elf so that you-" A band coming from outside makes Hermione and Draco look towards the windows "What was that?" Hermione mutters, grabbing her wand, just like Draco.

"I don't know." Silence settles across the room, but then another bang comes, following by more "Stay here." He says, heading to the door with his wand up.

"What?" Hermione walks towards him as fast as she can "Are you crazy? We don't know who's standing outside and you can get yourself killed. You are injured, you can't go-"

"Do you always talk that much?" Draco looks at her and Hermione feels her face heating up, just now realizing how close they were. She takes a few steps back, but she hits with her body against his again when there's another bang hitting against the left side of the house.

"Do you think they found us?" Hermione mutters, feeling her heart beating fast and her hands sweating. Inside her head, she's begging that it is just a storm; but a storm doesn't make this much noise. So, deep down, she knows they found them.

"Just... Stay here. I'll be back." Draco looks at her before opening the door and then closes it again. Then, there's blue and green lights appearing from the windows and noise; a lot of noise. Hermione takes a step towards the window, trying to see what is happening, but something hits the glass and breaks it. She covers her mouth when she lets out a scream.

With her hand shaking, Hermione grabs her wand and places her other hand on the doorknob. She closes her eyes and nods her head multiple times "You have to do this." Hermione opens the door and a jet of green light hits her in her chest and she falls on the floor "Malfoy?" She yells, feeling panic growing in her heart.

But he doesn't answer and Hermione forces herself to get up on her feet "Stupefy!" She shouts against a figure that is coming towards her and she hears it hit the ground, with a moan. Hermione steps outside and, between the jets of lights, she can see three figures standing up; one of them is Malfoy and she guesses that the two staying in front of him are Death Eaters, so is the one that Hermione had hit with the spell.

She doesn't let the panic grow anymore and starts running towards Malfoy "What are you doing here?" He yells at her, when he sees her by his side.

"Shut up!" She yells back and starts waving her wound and yelling spells to disarm the Death Eaters in front of them.

"I thought I told you to stay inside!" Malfoy kept yelling at her.

"Yeah, that would be such a great idea-Petrificus Totalus!" Another figure hits the ground and the jets of lights stop. Hermione and Draco narrow their eyes trying to figure out who the other person is, and then the person starts running "Let's go!" Hermione says but Draco stops her.

"Stay here and take care of the others" He says and then starts running towards the woods, in the same direction where the other person went. Hermione, breathlessly, pointed to the first figure she managed to shot down "Mobiliarbus" the body started to fly and stopped near Hermione's feet.

Then she looked to the woods, hoping to see Malfoy coming back. But she couldn't see and hear anything and her heart started to beat quickly against her chest, like it was about to hammer it's way out of her chest. What if Malfoy didn't come back? What if the Death Eater just killed him and left to give information of where Hermione was and more Death Eaters would come back and kill her?

She closed her eyes and pressed her hand against her chest "Steady." She demanded, but her heart didn't obey her. There she was, worrying too much again. Malfoy had received his Dark Mark on their sixth year and Hermione thinks that he can probably kill the Death Eater; but then she remembers that Malfoy doesn't have any memory about being a Death Eater or about Voldemort, and she starts worrying again.

It feels like her throat is starting to close and Hermione starts to feel anxious and having trouble breathing. She lets her body fall into the ground full of snow and hugs her legs against her chest "Everything's going to be alright." The thought of being alone was making her anxious and she could already feel her eyes getting wet. What if he doesn't come back? She kept thinking, with her chin leaning on her knees and staring into the trees, hoping to see the blonde hair of Malfoy appearing from there.

It's not like she is desperate for him to come back. Sure, he's a jackass. Sure, she hates him. But was hate above her fear of being alone with a forrest possibly full of Death Eaters by now?

Hermione might be the brightest witch of her age, but she has fears and one of them is being completely alone. And Malfoy is the only company she has now and the only person that can make her feel safe while they're on the middle of nowhere.

She came here to take care of Malfoy and, in some way, protect him. But she needed protection too and she felt insecure. Hermione felt like running towards that forrest looking for Draco freaking Malfoy.

He was the only one that could make her feel safe in that house, now.

Hi! Just one more thing. Hope you don't find it too weird the way their relationship progressed. Remember that they have been on that house for five days now, so it's normal that they start to get more confortable with their actions towards each other.