Yes its me I have returned and within a WEEK - no you are not hallucinating ;))

This chapter is a little shorter than I usually write but it cut off nicely - chapter 31 is a longer one and will be posted pretty soon too!

Owards with this bit of filler before we ramp things up yet again! Don't worry drama is right around the corner.

Previously...

It had been several years since he had set foot in the place. Since the war actually, when support on the dastardly island had been needed more than ever before, loading up and imprisoning the hundreds of fiendish individuals captured after the fall of the Dark Lord.

He had used the borrowed identity card along with a few simple facial modifications to get past the guards at the entrance. It wasn't like security was particularly tight at Azkaban anyway – those who entered not in chains were few and far between.

He made his way down the dank stone corridor – if one could even call the ravaged stone pathway that – his heart pounding in his chest. This was a terrible idea. He had known that from the moment he had unfurled the first note. But curiosity had eventually gotten the better of him – he needed to know how the man was able to communicate with the outside, what he knew, if any of it was even real.

He rounded the corner after passing numerous empty cells, their occupants long gone, and came to a halt in front of the person he had been summoned to visit.

"Lestrange." He spoke, watching as the man masquerading as a pile of filthy rags shifted in the corner of his cell and shuffled into an upright position. "You wanted to speak with me."

Chapter 30: The Reveal

"Master Nott!" The toothless, malnourished creature that had once been recognisable as Rodolphus Lestrange crowed. "And here I thought you were so much better than the likes of us nowadays, did you receive my gifts? Is that why you have graced me with your presence?"

Theo sneered, lifting his hood away from his slightly altered face, realising there was little point in attempting anonymity any longer. It seemed there was little security bar the dementors circling the ceiling of Lestrange's cell, but he muttered a silencing charm to ensure they would not be overheard regardless.

"If by that you mean your chicken scratch, cryptic notes then yes." He spat, not wanting to give the twisted man the illusion of allegiance. He was here for information, nothing more.

"And the ring?" The Death Eater pushed, and Theo rolled his eyes, lifting his left hand and wiggling his fingers sarcastically.

The heavy, platinum signet ring glinted on his smallest finger. Theo had to admit, the ring had been a driving factor. He had remembered the trinkets from his upbringing in Pureblood society, hallmarks of the utmost wealth and status, the rings were family heirlooms and rare even in their elitist circles. The Lestrange crest etched on the inside of the band had finally convinced him that whoever was contacting him had something interesting to say, and it had seemed… wrong not to wear it. At least that was what he had told himself once he'd spotted the damned thing.

At first the appearance of it glinting on his hand had made him feel guilty, as though he were harbouring a dirty secret lover no one could know about. But over the past few days he had begun to almost covet it. He relished knowing something no one else did – and having such a rare and beautiful accessory to prove that.

"I'm here. It's time for you to tell me what you think you know, you suggested you had information on someone threatening the Malfoy family." He ordered, making sure to keep a distance from the haggard yet dangerous man before him, trying to keep his tone as neutral as possible so as to retain some sort of control over the situation.

Theo was confused when Lestrange chuckled softly. He was very different to his late wife, none of the screeching or terrifying manic energy. Rodolphus' laugh spoke of cold, calculated cruelty, his deep tone sending shivers down Theo's spine even with all the distance and the steel bars between them. Perhaps this man's madness was not as blatant as Bellatrix, but fear settled like a stone in his stomach as he met Rodolphus' shining dark eyes.

"But my dear boy, it is not what I know, but what I want. And I am sure you will be fascinated to hear what it is I want, for we both desire the same things."

Theo frowned and felt his lip begin to curl, offended at the very suggestion. He was about to turn to leave, but something told him to hold back.

"What would that be?" Theo spluttered, in a voice that felt somehow not his own.

Lestrange laughed once again, and the young man toyed with the treasure on his finger for comfort, allowing the motion to soothe his frayed nerves.

"Don't play coy with me Nott, you already know the answer to that, or else you never would have come."

Theo didn't respond, the nagging feeling of guilt and fear was ebbing back into his bloodstream. He never should have come; this entire endeavour was foolish. Draco had not reported or mentioned any threats to he or his mother, and if anything, such nefarious plans would most likely be directed by Lestrange himself. He had been a fool to want his curiosity sated, and yet... a nagging part of him knew that Lestrange was correct, at least partly. He hadn't come with completely innocent intentions.

And yet, he could not bring himself to just walk away. After a few minutes of quiet, the prisoner continued.

"Tell me, do you think that he is with her right now? Do you suppose he is sliding in between her filthy legs at this very moment?"

The younger wizard straightened his back and spat at the floor of the cell.

"You don't know what the fuck you're talking about, how could you?" He hissed, turning on his heel and making it only a few steps before Lestrange's cracked voice once again filled the dank walls.

"Don't be a fool Nott, you came here aware that I had information, why should my knowledge of two little highborn boys and their mudblooded pet also surprise you?" Theo carried on walking, trying to shut out the caterwauling. "He doesn't even care for her Theodore… he is doing this to spite you."

At this Theo froze. His mind was suddenly filled with vividly real images of the two of them together, scenes he knew had transpired between them and things that were probably going on behind his back, maybe even at that moment. The sick feeling in his chest was overwhelming, as though the embarrassment and hurt he had been stifling over the past month were trying to force its way out.

"I don't… he wouldn't…" He choked out, finding it suddenly impossible to cling to the logic he prized himself on. It was as though the rationality made him weaker, he could almost feel the raw power that the anger and resentment would afford him. He had been logical so far and what had it earnt him? He had never fought for her, never tried to force the two of them apart because he had truly believed the maturity would benefit him in the long run. But it hadn't.

"You know that there is nothing he would not do when it comes to betrayal Theodore." Rodolphus was speaking, and Theo realised blankly that he was far louder than before. He blinked a few times and noticed that he had moved back towards the cell, in fact far closer than he ever had been before, as though in a trance. "And that is where you and I share in our sufferings, you see, he has betrayed us both."

Theo wanted to argue, wanted to walk away and recall the pain that he and Draco had both gone through together – almost exclusively at the hands of men like the one sat before him. But he was also growing so impossibly weary holding out against the anger. It was as though it were magnified, had expanded without him noticing, and now it was becoming too difficult to hold the dam in place.

"Yes, he has. What would you have me do?"

"I just can't believe that you didn't tell me." Hermione spluttered, her eyes still flitting between the coded notes and the ominous picture of the tiny, blinded Draco floating about on his broom. "We have to do something about this."

Draco sighed and ran a hand through his hair, still avoiding her gaze.

"This was exactly why I didn't tell you Granger, I am already doing everything I possibly can to investigate this and prevent any harm from befalling myself or my mother." Or you he added silently, not wanting to breach that subject just yet.

Hermione clearly wasn't listening, and instead pointed towards the notes, clearly focused on investigating regardless of whether he wanted her help or not.

"The most recent one is rather obvious I suppose, memento mori – remember you will die." She shuddered, turning her attention to the other scraps of paper. "'The Daffodil wilts among Wiltshire Roses', is this a riddle of some sort? Do the flowers hold meaning?"

He sighed, realising that asking her to just stop and go up to bed with him would almost definitely be a fruitless exercise. He wouldn't be so distracted if she had thought to replace her damned top, but no, he was not only faced with a determined Hermione Granger but one who was sat cross legged before him in tight jeans and a green lace bra.

"Wiltshire roses refers to the gardens at the Manor," he began, but couldn't even finish his sentence before Hermione's jaw dropped as she put two and two together.

"Of course, Narcissus is the Latinate of daffodil… they're threatening your mother!" She gasped, pressing a hand to her flushed chest.

Draco struggled to lift his eyes to meet her own gaze which earned him a light slap on the shin, he sat back in his chair and groaned.

"Hermione didn't you listen to me? I have this under control, my mother is aware of everything and is well equipped to protect herself, you have no need to worry." Except for the fact that you being here, being close to me puts you in an amount of danger I don't even want to consider.

She glared at him, getting to her feet and putting her hands on her hips.

"Don't give me that bullshit! This is incredibly serious Draco, we need to alert the ministry and get both of your properties proper warding and physical protection."

He blinked at the expletive, the passion when she spoke. He was wrong for letting that excite him, of course she was worried about his wellbeing, it was Hermione fucking Granger, she would martyr herself over a house elf. It just felt strangely reassuring that she seemed so upset over the whole affair.

"The ministry can't do anything, and they wouldn't regardless I've told you what they think of my family. I spoke to them last week and they all but told me we will never receive protection again, actually. Hell if this person can go through with it that would probably solve a lot of problems for them." He muttered bitterly, flinching as she smacked him on the chest.

He was about to whine about her physically abusing him when he met her gaze and realised she was near to tears.

"Don't you dare speak like that Draco Malfoy, at least not to me. We can't possibly let them get away with that." She barked, still trying to hold onto a modicum of authority when she was stood topless, crying, his own blood dried on the finger she was pointing into his face accusingly. It would have been amusing if she didn't look so terrified.

Against his better judgement, Draco reached up and delicately brushed away the first droplet that had begun making its way down her soft cheek. She blinked in surprise at the intimacy, but didn't flinch away. They held each other's gaze for a long moment, the only movement between them the steady rise and fall of her chest as she tried to calm herself, and his hand softly stroking her face.

It was predictably she who broke the silence.

"What about the second note? 'Come quickly, tell no one', what did you do? Where were they calling you?"

He chewed his bottom lip in thought, letting his hand fall away from her face as he tried to quickly consider his options. He couldn't tell her the whole truth, not yet. To reveal that the single thing he feared most in the world was losing her would be too much. She had barely gotten used to sitting in a room with him and not scratching his eyes out – there was no way.

It was a matter of how much he could tell her, because of course now he was presented with an ideal opportunity to let her know that she was in danger. He felt a pang in his chest, real and physical as he realised what that meant. He needed to send her away, convince her that he was not a risk she could continue to take – there was also the possibility that once faced with the truth of the matter she wouldn't need convincing.

He had never truly realised that the pain of it, of caring so much, was real before.

"The note is in my mother's handwriting, it was delivered with my family's owl." He began carefully, staring into the waning embers of the fire as he spoke. "I of course went to the manor. There was nobody there when I arrived that I could see, but I knew something was wrong. A boggart had been loosed in the house and I… I can only assume the purpose of this was to gain an understanding of my deepest fears – something to use as leverage over me if the time came."

Hermione sucked in a breath, her golden brown eyes wide and still slightly sheened with tears.

"So you think there was someone there?"

Draco nodded, he had pieced this together shortly after the horrible evening they were discussing, when he had eventually calmed down.

"Yes, I can't think of any other reason to retrieve and free a Boggart in the house, perhaps simply as a scare tactic, but if I were as cautious and prepared as this individual I would have found some way to see what my deepest fears are and use them against me." He sighed, looking at her for the first time in several minutes. "I saw you, Hermione, you… and my mother, Theo, Pansy and Blaise. You were all dead and it was my fault."

He heard her gasp, her hands flew to her hair as they always did whenever she became alarmed or nervous, and she toyed with a strand as he continued.

"So I need you to leave this evening and not return." He said calmly, looking back down to his clasped hands in his lap. "You weren't close enough to be in any danger, not really before, but now."

He took in a shuddering breath.

"It killed me Hermione, I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you and it was because of me, or because I didn't warn you. This person isn't fucking around, you know that, you need to get out while you still can – while there's still a chance they won't think to associate you with me."

When he finally looked up, her eyes, though he would have thought it impossible, seemed even larger than before. He knew he looked pathetic, his own eyes basically imploring her to say something – anything. Anything that would make the situation easier.

She took another deep shuddering breath and closed her eyes, pressing two fingers to the bridge of her nose as if the information were physically paining her.

Hermione pressed down as though the action would remove some of the thoughts and feelings flitting ludicrously fast through her brain. He had seen her die? That was one of his greatest fears – for her to be dead because of him? She was struggling to comprehend what it all meant, he clearly thought of her on a par with some of his closest friends which was shocking, but it was also a fact that strangely comforted her despite the situation. He clearly wasn't trying to use her, at least not on purpose anyway.

When she finally opened her mouth to speak he tensed, as though bracing himself for an onslaught.

"I don't know how many times I will have to deal with this bloody self-sacrificial nonsense from you Draco Malfoy, but I will say I am losing my patience." She began, holding back a smirk as his mouth fell open in surprise. Not the response he had been expecting, then. "Of course I am not going to abandon you because of this, are you insane? If anything you need me more right now, I'm possibly one of the only people who has enough sway at the ministry to persuade them to fucking do something about this whole situation."

He tried to shutter himself, hold back from actually releasing a sigh of relief and letting her know just how much he did in fact need her. Emotional honesty was not something he particularly enjoyed displaying, and telling her what he had about the boggart had been enough for one evening.

"Right." He said stoically, avoiding her probing gaze. "So I suppose that means you're my body guard as well as my work partner? How will I survive?"

She blinked at his snarky comment, trying to get a handle on what she was feeling. She was still pretty pissed off with him for not saying anything about the threats, she was furious with the ministry for dismissing his apparent call for help, confused and… intrigued by his confession regarding the boggart, still on high alert after reading the evidence in the first place – it was all far too much – and now he was teasing her?

"And I suppose that this threat and your chauvinistic notions of 'protecting me' are the reasons you have avoided me for a week straight?" She settled on anger; it was easier to understand.

Draco groaned and got to his feet laboriously. So this was how the evening was going to pan out – he was disappointed but not particularly surprised. Why couldn't he have fallen for a boring, less argumentative witch?

"Listen Granger, I don't know if you've picked this up after working with me and schmoozing with my childhood friends who undoubtedly find me their favourite topic of conversation, but I don't do feelings, I don't do heart to hearts." He knew he was being antagonistic, could tell from the way her golden brown eyes seemed to alight with rage, but he couldn't understand why she had to make everything a point of conflict. "I made a call to keep you fucking alive, ok? I'm sorry that it didn't align with your lunch plans or whatever else you wanted me for this week."

Hermione growled and felt her hands curling into fists.

"This isn't about holding hands and skipping through a meadow together Malfoy," She spat, moving closer to him and pulling herself up onto her toes to combat the height difference. "It's about you being completely unable to talk about anything, even situations that involve other people. You can't keep shutting yourself off in the hopes that everyone else will just leave you alone to suffer. It doesn't work like that, people don't work like that, I don't work like that. You say that it would hurt you to lose me, you say that you want my forgiveness but it takes the smallest change and you're using it as an excuse to shut me out."

She could feel tears pricking the backs of her eyes as she spoke and took a deep breath to attempt to curb her emotions. He was just staring at her in that infuriating, unreadable way. She could sense anger burning under the surface, frustration with her as he stared combatively into her eyes. She was so tired of the way he seemed to move one step forwards and two steps back – spending more time with her, being intimate with her, to avoiding her for days on end to satisfy his need to self-flagellate.

They stood, locked in an unmoving staring match for what seemed like an age before eventually he broke.

"You're right." He said simply, breaking eye contact and rubbing a hand over his stubbled jaw, causing Hermione to almost lose her balance she was so shocked. "Oh come on Granger don't look as though I've just told you Longbottom and I are lovers, I can recognise the same unhelpful coping mechanisms I've been utilising for years."

She was still staring at him like a fish out of water, her warm eyes blinking as though he were a shifting image in the mirror of erised. Draco was about to decide that this reaction was perhaps worth the admittance of defeat before she found her voice once again.

"So you can recognise it but does that mean you'll stop? Can I trust that if you get into danger or something bad happens you won't just close off and,"

"Oh for fuck's sake Granger just shut up and kiss me." He interrupted, closing the short distance between them and gathering her into his arms before she could protest.

Hermione squeaked as he collided with her, his embrace determined yet passionate, leeching the logic from her brain with every caress. She allowed her eyes to close and entwined her fingers in his hair, pulling him flush against her still topless body as he groaned into her mouth.

Draco began fiddling with the zipper of her jeans, desperate to touch more of her silken skin. She pulled away from him and began hurriedly shimmying out of her trousers, nodding to him to do the same – of course he obliged.

"This doesn't mean we're done talking about this by the way. I don't just let things go because a pretty man kisses me." Hermione said sternly, her attempted serious tone marred by her slightly breathless state and the obvious lust in her eyes.

Draco grinned as he stepped out of his trousers and stepped towards her, his eyes languidly exploring every inch of her nearly naked form.

"I wouldn't expect any less, Miss Granger."

Turns out the evening would be ending in his bedroom after all.

Can't have things being easy now can we? Love a little lover's quarrel ;)

Oh dear Theo... getting mixed in with things he most definitely shouldn't be - to the lovely reviewer who said they were worried about him, you were correct to be! (Also sorry hehe)

Next time we will have a little more drama... starting to think of labelling this story an actual soap, but I love it ;)

Thanks for reading! 3