Did y'all miss me? Because I missed you. A lot. I know I promised that I'd post one by January but I kept putting it off because even though applications were done, I still had SO MUCH WORK TO DO. Anyway, somehow January turned into April but then I had to visit colleges on both the west and east coasts (I got into my top choice! Yayy, three cheers for moi!) And then April became July, and so HERE I AM WITH A BRAND NEW CHAPTER! *massive applause and standing ovation* I'm really sorry though, I'm really super uber sorry for the lateness! If none of my original readers are still following this, I completely understand.

OMG. I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVEN'T MENTIONED IT YET. I WENT TO THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER. IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE. The lines were ridonks long but completely worth it! BUTTERBEER TASTES HEAVENLY. Good thing I didn't go on opening day, I heard someone people waited over SIX HOURS to get in!

Anyway, enough of my blathering. Back to the story, I'd like to thank each and every one of the reviewers who so kindly commented on this story. Honestly speaking, you're probably the reason why this chapter is coming out in July rather than October. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

ENJOY!

Weeks passed in an ominous crawl. The Carrows were torturing students (as usual), Ron was being a prat (as usual), Harry was stuck in the middle of his two feuding friends (as usual), and Malfoy stopped insulting Hermione (as usu…wait what?).

It's true, Malfoy stopped harassing Hermione at every turn; instead he took up a new hobby: ignoring her. Ever since their last meeting, the only words Malfoy spoke to Hermione were all about their Head duties. Confused, Hermione attempted to start conversations only to be rudely and brusquely shut down.

"Stupid ferret, thinks he's above everyone else. Don't know why I bothered in the first place. Stupid, arrogant, conceited prick!" Hermione muttered under her breath as she angrily stomped through the halls to Gryffindor tower after yet another rude brush-off involving rather colorful language. By the time she had finished her rant, Hermione had arrived at the tower.

"Wanglewort," she snapped.

"Well, I never!" the Fat Lady huffed, but she still opened the passageway to the tower.

Upon seeing Hermione's mutinous face enter the common room, Ginny decided to skip the pleasantries and directly asked, "What's got your knickers in a twist?"

"The ferret. What else?"

"Oh. Well, I thought it'd be something about Ro—but yeah, Malfoy. He's a real right git Hermione, you should know that by now. What'd he do this time?"

"He's just so…so…so impossible!" Hermione growled, reliving the arguments she had with him in her mind. "I can't deal with him all alone in the Head room. I just can't stand it anymore!"

"Malfoy's never going to change. Don't let him get to you. You're stronger than that," Ginny soothingly said.

"Ugh, I know. I'm just extremely frustrated. "I mean, now that I'm no longer speaking to Harry and Ron…I'm kind of lonely," Hermione confessed.

Reaching over to Hermione, Ginny said, "Oh Hermione, I'll always be here whenever you need me. You know you can talk to me about whatever." Here she paused a little before taking a deep breath and continuing. "What Harry and Ron did was absolutely moronic. There's no excusing their actions, but…they really miss you Hermione. They really do."

Hermione scoffed, "Miss me? No, they miss the work that I allow them to copy off of. Their grades are probably suffering without me. Serves them right."

"You know that's not true. They respect and love you so much!"

"Rubbish! If they did supposedly respect me, they would never have betrayed me. Now, if you're insistent on continuing this topic, I think I'll just leave. I came to alleviate my headache, not exacerbate it."

The red-haired girl agreed, albeit reluctantly, and launched into a full scale description of the Quidditch teams that are definitely in the running for the World Cup. Seeing that Hermione wasn't that interested, Ginny smoothly switched over to describing Lavender and Parvati's crazy antics, getting the brunette laughing in no time.

Hermione returned in much better spirits than she had been in for the past month. She blew past the shared common room in which Malfoy was holding court with Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum, a simpering Pansy, and a bemused Blaise. Ignoring the dirty looks that Pansy threw at her, Hermione climbed up the stairs to contentedly submerge herself wholeheartedly back into her studies.

Hermione raced through the forest, her white satin nightgown flying behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she located the ever nearing figure chasing after her. Hermione's laugh tinkled through the fresh bright air surrounding her as she continued to gaily run.

"You can't run foreverrrr Hermione!" called a playful, deep voice.

"I will until you catch me!" Hermione responded.

All of a sudden , something knocked into her sides, picked her up and swung her around.

"Gotcha," the man whispered into her ear as he gently set her down.

Hermione laughed and smiled while turning around to gaze into Malfoy's silver swirled eyes. Eyes that began turning blood red. The angles on Malfoy's face suddenly seemed sharper and harsher, creating the silhouette of a haunting, dark creature. He pointed a finger at Hermione and repeated, "Gotcha!" This time the teasing smirk was gone, replaced by a cold and calculated sneer. Hands decorated with luminous scales reached out towards Hermione who hurriedly backed into the trees, eyes widening with horror at the grotesque image in front of her. Her breaths came out in a disjointed rhythm as she slowly pieced together the clues.

"You're—you're a…a Death Eater," she gasped.

"Don't say that," Malfoy's deformed figure snapped.

"You…death…Death Eater," Hermione repeated again to herself.

"You shouldn't have said that" he said as he smiled darkly.

Hermione felt a warm, not unpleasant sensation in the valley of her breasts which suddenly turned into a searing, scorching stroke of fire ripping through her collarbone. Hermione shrieked and rubbed her hands frantically across her chest as if moving the fire away from her body.

"No…STOP, IT BURNS! PLEASE, STOP!"

"Then apologize."

"No, please, please…" her cries becoming nonsensical as the hot sensation continued to ominously pulse.

Hermione shot up, legs tangled in her bedsheets, sweaty and thoroughly perplexed with a tinge of fear. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand while the other palm unconsciously folded over to calm her pounding heart. With a start, Hermione realized the Order of the Phoenix medallion was burning into her skin, leaving it pink and fleshy. It was obvious that it had been heating for some time now.

Attack now. Portkey Pass: lemontart

Hermione immediately jumped up from her bed and rant to her closet, mind racing with the possibilities. All thoughts of her dream disappearing in the heat of the moment. Pulling out her wand, she tapped the medallion and thought, lemontart.

The familiar vortex feeling transported her into a scene of chaos. Hermione snapped her head left and right trying to identify familiar faces through the streaking spells and the clouding dust. Red, green, and black spells flew across the café, apparently the location of the attack.

"Hermione! Hermione!" Hermione whipped around looking for the voice and breathed a sigh of relief. Harry as leaning against and overturned table a few yards away, bruises and blood blooming on his arms, legs, and face. Hermione began running to Harry when a particularly nasty cutting spell sliced her left forearm. Hermione whipped around, yelling "STUPEFY" which hit a masked Death Eater in the chest. She ducked and weaved across the room, all the while firing spells at the Death Eaters.

Breathing heavily, Hermione finally darted to Harry's side by an overturned table.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked, frantically fixing Harry's bruises and broken bones. "When did this happen? What happened?"

"Death Eaters attacked café. We were tipped off." Harry said in short breaths.

"By the spy?" Hermione asked in a hushed voice as she looked behind her shoulders at the scene.

Harry nodded.

Hermione continued, "But why? Why this café? I know this is a Muggle café and they might have been attacking for sport, but still, it makes no sense! "

"I know, but now's not the time to think—" Harry was cut off.

"This had to have been planned. There's something going on here, something important that we're not catching. Something—"

"Hermione. There are Death Eaters shooting at us with killing curses. Now is NOT the time to be thinking about that!" Harry yelled, exasperated.

Startled out of her rant, Hermione refocused. "Alright. Sorry. On 'go' you move left, I'll move right. Ready?" she asked. "GO!"

Hermione launched herself back into the fight where she fired spell after spell after spell at the masked Dark wizards. Sometime during her attacks, Hermione was momentarily distracted by a flash of platinum white but was unable to pursue it when a curse hit her back, violently slamming her against the wall ahead of her.

"Hermione!" a voice yelled amidst the chaos. With a groan, Hermione struggled to her feet, swaying gently. She was, however, pushed back down by a strong hand immediately. The pain in the small of her back made her collapse down. Ron's worried and soot-covered face appeared.

"Are you alright?" he asked worriedly.

Hermione groaned a yes as she stretched out her back.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Ron, I'm –watch out!" Hermione pushed Ron aside just as a particularly nasty hex flew between the pair. Hermione immediately took off, continuing her tirade of curses, bravely ignoring the painful darts shooting up her spine.

"CRUCIO!" a Death Eater fired at her.

"Protego! Expelliarmus!" Hermione screamed, but the disarming spell missed, cracking the mask in two. The Death Eater smashed the broken mask onto the floor revealing the snarling face of Yaxley.

"CRUCIO!"

"Stupefy! Stupefy!"

"Impedimenta! REDUCTO!"

"Petrificus totalus! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

Hermione and the death eater skillfully dodged each curse. The dance continued between the two of them, circling each other like hyenas, until the tall lumbering Death Eater turned on his heel and ran through the door into the kitchen. Hermione quickly gave chase.

Spells ricocheted off the shiny metal pots creating an extremely dangerous zone. Hermione ducked right in time as Yaxley hurled a legion of knives at her.

"PROTEGO!" she yelled. The knives dropped harmlessly to the floor and Hermione quickly took off after Yaxley once more. He ran through the open door at the end of the kitchen giving way to another small hallway. She stopped abruptly as she whipped her head sided to side, staring down the dark, empty corridor.

Where did he go?

She crept along the wall, wand the ready. Hermione reached the end of the hallway and saw a door to her right. She turned the knob slowly and pushed it open to see…just a closet of brooms and mops. Hermione's shoulders slumped and her grip on her wand slackened in disappointment.

How could I have lost him? He was right there! Where could he have possibly gone?

Hermione started closing the door when the hairs on the back of her neck started prickling. She paused, listening for any footsteps or breathing but she didn't hear anything. Still, the feeling that someone was watching her didn't leave her. She turned away from the closet and started jogging down the hallway back to the café where most of the fighting was still taking place. She reached the door to the kitchen and pulled.

The door was locked.

"Alohamora," Hermione tried, but the door remained stubbornly close. She rattled the door knob violently while pounding on it.

"Little girl, little girl," Yaxley's mocking voice said out of the darkness. "Awww, are you thcared thweetie? Do you want your widdle mummy to save you from the baaaad guy? She won't be able to do anything for you. You're stuck…with me. Expelliarmus!"

Hermione felt her wand flying into the darkness. "Where are you," she asked while edging around the hallway, sticking to the wall. "Show yourself!"

"Well, if you insist," said Yaxley, nonchalantly.

"Boo!" he whispered in Hermione's ear. Hermione jumped around, coming face to face with Yaxley. Her eyes widened as she started walking backwards, Yaxley closing in on her.

"What? Nothing to say, you filthy Mudblood?"

Hermione defiantly lifted up her head, looking straight into his eyes and said, "I don't speak to cowards." And then she spit in his face.

Yaxley cackled, wiping her saliva off with his bare fingers.

"I guess then I'm a coward who's about to kill you."

Hermione squeezed her eyes shut. The world buzzed around her ears, sensations numbing. She heard nothing but the slow, pounding beat of her heart.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

A shock of blinding green light flashed, illuminating the dark corridor.

A heavy object slumped into Hermione's confused form. Her eyes shot open, reality crashing back. She pushed the immobile corpse off her, eyes widening to see Yaxley's dead figure.

Wh-Wh-What just happened?

Suddenly, a noise alerted Hermione of the person half in the corridor, half in the kitchen, the door lying splintered on the ground. She only caught a glimpse of the back of the wizard's robes and a brief wisp of platinum hair, as he ran back into the kitchen.

"M-Malfoy?" Hermione whispered.

She stood there, in the middle of the hallway, for a moment, in complete disbelief and confusion. Had it been him, or just an Order member? Shaking these thoughts away from her, Hermione decided to return back to the fight, promising to go over the little details again once the battle was over.

"Hermione! Where've you been? They all disapparated at the same time awhile ago!" Harry exclaimed, while rushing over to her. Hermione looked at the surroundings—overturned tables, pieces of chairs, splintered glass, debris and bodies littering the café floor. She turned away, bringing her mind back to Harry's words.

"What do you mean? The Death Eaters retreated?" Hermione asked, shaking her head. "That's—that's not like them."

"I know. I think—I think they were looking for something here and they found it."

"What do you mean? How do you know?"

"I—I heard two of them talking to each other. I was on the floor behind the counter so they couldn't see me. But they said something like, 'They've got it. Let's go.' And then they disapparated. But what is "it"?" Harry said frustratingly, pushing his hair back. "What do they have now? What do they have that we don't have?"

"I don't know, Harry. I don't know," Hermione murmured. The two of them stared out at the Order members cleaning up the site in silence for a few moments.

Harry's voice broke through, "Anyway, where were you? You were fighting Yaxley and then you disappeared. What happened? You aren't hurt are you?"

"No, I'm fine Harry. I was fighting Yaxley and he—he cornered me but—but he got killed."

Harry looked at Hermione's face in disbelief. "You killed him?"

"No! No…I didn't. But someone else did."

"What? Who?"

"I don't …I couldn't see his face."

"That's a bit strange. But still, I'm glad that that person came when he did." Harry reached out to Hermione, placing both hands on either sidearm. "I know that what I did was really wrong, and there's no way that I can ever excuse myself of what I did to you, but for what it's worth, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you Hermione. I don't know what I'd do without you." Harry looked earnestly miserable and genuine.

"It's alright Harry. I already forgave you. Life is too short to hold meaningless grudges." The two shared a hug before Hermione continued, "Now let's help the rest of the Order clean up this battlefield." With a sad smile, Hermione and Harry started clearing the café of the debris.

Hermione trudged up the stairs to the Head apartment, mind overflowing with tumultuous thoughts of the battle, her mysterious savior, Dawlish and the 7 young Order members lost in combat, the secret weapon the Death Eaters now possess, Voldemort's game, and her parents.

Whispering the password, Hermione entered the Head room. She saw Malfoy who froze on the staircase to his bedroom, holding a soot covered, torn black robe. The moonlight reflected off of his platinum hair, casting a sort of ethereal, yet eerie silhouette on the stairs.

Malfoy started turning his head around before deciding not to and climbed the rest of the way up. He paused as he approached the door, as if he wanted to say something. Hermione unfroze and hesitantly said, "If…if you were the one who saved me tonight, I…I just…thank you." She lifted her brown eyes to Malfoy's face, startled when his steely eyes gazed back at her, before turning back around.

Without another word, Malfoy pushed open his door and walked in.

Well, my little chickadees, what did you think? I won't know unless you…that'ssssss right, REVIEW! Any criticisms, praises, predictions, compliments, spelling errors, grammatical errors, or random tidbits about your life are welcome!

But in all seriousness my darlings, please review! The number of story alerts does NOT directly correlate to the number of reviews I've gotten. I know that reviews are sometimes a burden, but just know that I read and value each one of the comments I receive. Everything you guys have to say, I take under consideration. You guys help me develop into a writer. If you didn't like it, TELL me why. If you liked it, TELL me why. If you're indifferent about it, TELL me why. The moral of this ramble is simply…REVIEW! YAY FOR REVIEWS!

Now as for updating, I'm hoping I'll be able to post in about 2-3 weeks-ish. I have some free time but since it's the summer before I'm off to college and I've been working my arse off during high school, I've just been spending my time bumming around, being the lazy sloth that I am. But keep checking back!

THANKS FOR READING LOVES!