Hi everyone! Ummm...sorry? I know, I know, it's been ages (over a month!) since I last updated, but I've been busy with school and other committments and such, so...Forgive me?

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, that would make me J.K Rowling. I can state with all honesty that I am not her. Plus, why on earth would Ms. Rowling be on , writing Dramione fics? She obviously preferred Ron and Hermione together, since they ended up that way in the books. =)

Loslote: Well thank you very much! I'm glad you liked the battle scene! =)

xoRetributionox: Thank you very much! My class actually turned out pretty well in the end. Yeah, you would think that they would wake up during the course of the fight...Well, maybe this chapter will explain things a little bit ;) Yeah...I think Harry's the one with the most experience with swords, and seeing as how he hasn't had to use one since "The Chamber of Secrets"...Thank you! =)

OBLuvr13: Thank you! I didn't update as soon as I would have liked, but hopefully this chapter will clear up some of your questions! =)

Ks21178: Thank you! I loved writing out that scene, so I'm really happy that it made you laugh! Hmmm...I can't promise that, since this is a T-rated fic, but I'll try to up the fire between them =)

And of course...A HUGE THANK YOU (plus virtual chocolate ice cream pie) to everyone who story alerted/favorited this story! I appreciate it so much!

Chapter Twenty-Five – The Tent Has Thin Walls

They landed with a hard thump on the grassy hill. The air was cold, the sky was dark, and the wind was howling ferociously, as if determined to rip the ground up.

"Ow," Draco moaned, rubbing his head. He felt something wet and gooey matted into his hair and when he pulled his hands away, he could just barely make out a dark substance.

At once Hermione as by his side, rummaging around in her bag, trying to get the Dittany out from the very bottom of the purse.

"I'm fine," he insisted, but she shook her head.

"Your head is bleeding. I doubt you're ready to go and play jump rope."

"That was a terrible analogy."

"Live with it and shut up," Hermione snapped. "And don't move, I need to clean the wound."

"Er…guys?" Ginny piped up. "Can we maybe do this inside, once we've got the wards up?"

"Oh…yeah…" Hermione pulled her wand back out from her jeans pocket.

Draco attempted to stand up, but Hermione pushed him back on the ground.

"You stay there," she ordered him. "You're injured, you shouldn't be moving."

"Were you this irritating last time I got hurt?" Draco muttered, but nonetheless he obeyed her and remained sitting on the ground, watching as the others performed the protective spells that would shield them from anyone, muggle or wizard, wandering up the hill.

Ten minutes later he was lying on his bunk as Hermione dabbed at his head with a warm wet cloth.

"How bad is it?" he asked warily.

"Not as bad as one might imagine," Hermione assured him. "The essence of Dittany should mend this easily, but you should still be careful for the next few days, make sure you don't overexert yourself."

"Does this count as overexerting?" Draco asked teasingly, sliding an arm around Hermione's waist.

She blushed. "No, I suppose not."

"What about this?" he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.

"Hey! No snogging in the bed area!" Harry called from where he was standing in the kitchen, making popcorn in a pan on the stove.

Draco and Hermione pulled away from each other and turned to glare at Harry as he shook the pan.

"I'm just saying, we don't need anything happening when we all have to sleep in the same tent," he said with a shrug.

Hermione brought Draco's hand up to her face. "Is my face hot? Its red isn't it? I'm blushing aren't I?"

Draco smirked. "Your face is redder than Ginny's hair."

"Hey!" Ginny cried and promptly threw a throw pillow from one of the couches in the sitting room straight into the boys' area.

Draco caught the pillow and set it aside before looking back at Hermione. "But it makes you look even more beautiful."

Hermione's face broke out into a wide smile and her face turned an even darker shade of red.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Draco shrugged and lay back down on his back. "It's the truth. You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."

"You didn't always use to feel that way," Hermione accused.

Now it was Draco's turn to blush. "Actually…I did…since fourth year…I remember seeing you walk through the Great Hall at the Yule Ball, and thinking how beautiful you were."

The corn in the pan was popping like crazy but Harry wasn't paying any attention. Both he and Ginny were just staring at the other couple, wide eyed and slack jawed.

Hermione smiled shyly. "Really? You really thought I was beautiful?"

"I did," Draco confirmed. "I still do."

Ginny shuffled sideways over to Harry and muttered in his ear, "You think he's going to be propose?"

"Odd time to propose, in a tent and with a minor concussion," Harry replied in a low voice.

Hermione suddenly got to her feet. "I should go and get that Dittany so that we can get your head healed properly. I'll be right back."

And she bustled out into the main part of the tent, where her bag was. Harry got a good look at her face. It was beet red, but she was smiling.

"What I would like to know," Ginny began as Hermione walked back over to the bunk Draco was lying in, "is who killed those Goblins, and why were the other Goblins kept alive? Ragnuk the – whatever the hell the number is – was still alive, but he would have been the one who technically owned the sword. Why didn't the death eaters kill him?"

"You know what's odd," Harry said as he poured the popcorn into one huge bowl and set it on the counter, "is that there was no dark mark over the Goblins' bodies, nothing to show that it was the work of the death eaters. They like people to know when they've murdered someone, it's their pride and joy. So why weren't there any signs that they had been there?"

"Maybe they weren't the ones to kill the Goblins," Ginny suggested, watching as Hermione dabbed the Dittany onto Draco's wound. "And how did the death eaters find us in the first place? Did any of us say his name?"

Everyone shook their heads, and Ginny continued on. "I think maybe we were set up, all of us. Someone murdered those four Goblins, let the death eaters know that we were there, and just sat and waited for us to kill each other."

"But who would do something like that?" Hermione called.

"Who has the most to gain?" Ginny asked quietly. "Who was still alive? Who knew we were there?"

"Ragnuk?"

"It makes sense, doesn't it? No matter what Bill says, there must be Goblins who support one side or the other. Ragnuk…maybe he doesn't even support a side, not if he's setting death eaters up…what if the death eaters were going after the sword as well? It was stolen from a vault in Gringotts after all, they must have noticed its missing by now…"

"But the sword in Gringotts…Ginny, it's a fake. Why would anyone steal it?"

"Unless they thought they were getting the real sword?" Draco suggested. "A rogue death eater perhaps? A greedy Goblin who is really, really stupid?"

"So someone stole the fake sword from the Lestrange's vault. Someone else, perhaps, heard that the sword had been stolen – Ragnuk perhaps, if he has family or friends at the bank, he would have heard about it. Or else all the Goblins heard, it must've been a scandal, since no one is ever supposed to be able to break in and out of Gringotts, much less steal something – and then along we come, looking for the real sword, but Ragnuk wants to keep the sword – it is one of the oldest pieces of Goblin craft that still exists, plus one of his ancestors made it – and he's probably heard how persistent we can be. He probably figures we'll be breaking into his flat, so he alerts the death eaters and kills four of his own so that it looks like a death eater attack. He probably thinks it would be the best of both worlds – if we survive, it would scare us enough to get us out of there and never come back, but if the death eaters win, then he'll still never have to worry about us…plus the death eaters would be run through with pitchforks once the Goblin community got hold of their alleged crime."

"But why he kill his own blood kin?" Harry asked. "That's going a bit far, even for a valuable sword."

"Goblins will do anything as long as it's in their own interest," Hermione replied with a shrug. "I'm sure his reasons justified what he had done."

"But what if they weren't his family?" Ginny spoke up. "What if they were just other Goblins, ones who Ragnuk didn't care about?"

Hermione bit her lip. "That does make sense…Goblins are smart, and tricky. I wouldn't put it past him to arrange this whole thing in just a few hours."

"So basically we were set up," Draco confirmed grimly. "We were used to eliminate the other party."

"That's truly evil." Hermione shuddered at the thought.

"Fantastic battle technique though," Draco whistled in appreciation.

"It worked beautifully," Harry agreed, nodding his head.

Hermione rubbed her eyes. "If you guys don't mind, I'm going to go take a shower and then to bed. I'm exhausted and I smell like death eater blood."

"Want some company?" Draco called after her, grinning cheekily.

She turned around, her cheeks tinged a slight pink. "For the shower or bed?"

"Both."

"Sorry, I prefer to do both alone," Hermione retorted, but she was smirking through her blush. She continued on towards the shower and Draco collapsed against his pillow, biting his cheek to try to curve the ridiculous grin that was spreading over his face.

"Remind me again why you two are always denying the sexual chemistry?" Ginny asked, coming over to sit on the end of Draco's mattress.

Harry joined her, carrying a bowl of popcorn. He held it out to Ginny and Draco and both took a handful.

"Excuse me?" Draco directed at Ginny.

"You two are always pretending you don't have sexual chemistry or tension, and I can't figure out why," Ginny explained through a mouthful of popcorn.

"I don't pretend, that's Hermione," Draco corrected.

"You haven't really been after them about that lately, anyway," Harry reminded Ginny. "You were only going on about that before they got together. Now she might not mind so much."

Ginny cocked her head to the side. "That's true. Maybe I'll tease her about that tomorrow."

"You better pray she doesn't hex you," Draco warned her.

"Funny, I would say the same thing to you," Ginny replied.

Draco stared at her, startled. "What – why?"

"Well, with all those innuendos you just sprouted in front of Harry and me…did you see her blush?"

Draco laid back down on his back, listening to the pounding of the shower behind the kitchen and trying to keep his mind focused on the conversation. "Yeah…it was bloody beautiful…"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "That wasn't the point you idiot. The point was that, incase you haven't been able to tell, Hermione is extremely private with her feelings and thoughts if they don't have anything to do with whatever book she's currently reading. Me teasing you guys about having sexual chemistry is pushing the limits enough, but those innuendos…get anymore suggestive and we're going to have to activate the sprinkler system, her face will be so hot. She just – be careful who you make the comments in front of because if anyone even considered the idea you two are sleeping together she won't be able to show her face in public ever again. Harry and I are fine, we'd know if you two were shagging – hell, we'd be able to hear you guys – but other people might not realize that you were just teasing – they might actually think you were serious."

Harry turned a snort of laughter into a cough.

Ginny turned her light brown eyes on him. "What?"

"Ginny, he was serious."

"Half-serious," Draco corrected. "Half-teasing."

"And Hermione knew it, I could tell by the look on her face. Do you really think he's going to make comments like that without some sort of hope behind them? Does anyone ever say stuff like that without secretly hoping that the other person will say yes?"

Ginny bit down on her lip, thinking. "I suppose you're right. But seriously, Draco, watch the suggestive comments."

"Do you really think I'm going to ask her if she wants to get naked over shrimp cocktails at your Auntie Muriel's one-hundred-and-ninth birthday party? Please Weasley, I was raised to be polite and tasteful in formal situations, I do have some idea of how to be tactful."

"See, now, that's just shocking."

Draco rolled his eyes, but his ears pricked up as the shower turned off. Hmmm…Quick, think of something else…

"Ginny, I think you've harassed Draco enough. He knows not to say something like that in front of mixed company, he's not stupid."

"I could beg to differ."

"Ginny, come on, let's go and keep watch."

Harry tugged at Ginny's elbow until she relented and walked out of the tent with him.

Draco closed his eyes, trying to block out thoughts of Hermione in the shower, naked…there wasn't enough privacy in the tent for thoughts like that to creep into his mind…

And then he heard the curtain pull back gently and Hermione's soft steps came towards him. The bed covers were folded back a bit and he felt a second body climb into bed with him, the scent of rose and jasmine shampoo wafting over him.

He turned his head to look at Hermione as she snuggled up to him, head on his chest, hand on his stomach. With some difficulty he managed to extract his arm from in-between them and wrapped it around her, pulling her in even closer. He kissed her gently on her temple and her eyes fluttered closed for just a few seconds.

"I heard Ginny giving you the talk while I was in the shower," she said quietly.

"How? The shower was running through most of it."

"Did you know Fred and George made waterproof extendable ears?"

"Sneak."

"I heard Ginny start in on you as I closed the bathroom door, and I had my bag in the bathroom with me. I thought I'd listen to the conversation."

"Did you enjoy it?"

"It was interesting. Ginny meant well, but she went about it wrong. I knew you would never say anything like that in front of anyone else; but in her defense, she grew up with Ron, who wouldn't have thought twice about saying that in mixed company."

"Does it bother you when I say stuff like that?"

Hermione tilted her head back so that she could look at him from where she was lying. "No."

And that was that. Draco listened as her breath began light and even and her body lost all tension. He closed his eyes and relaxed against her, falling asleep within a few minutes, sinking into rose and jasmine scented dreams.

Harry and Ginny sat outside, wands out but laying gently against their legs.

"Do you think I was too hard on Draco?" Ginny asked quietly.

Harry turned his almond-shaped emerald green eyes on her. "I think you did what you did was felt was right at the time. Besides, who wants to hear other people make suggestive comments and innuendos at other people? That's just disgusting. But he is a Slytherin after all."

Ginny snickered. "I guess you're right. And Hermione does tend to be a lot more private than everyone

else in this tent. But I suppose Draco already knows that."

"I imagine he's figured it out by now."

Ginny shifted a little uncomfortably. "Do you think they are doing anything without us knowing?"

"When would they get the time?"

"I dunno…now…? There are silencing charms after all."

Harry winced. "I can't see Hermione as agreeing to doing anything of that sort in the tent when we could walk in at any moment. Trust me Ginny, we'll have some idea of what's going on. Plus, Hermione would've probably told you by now."

"Yeah…I suppose…"

"Ginny? Was there – er – something you wanted to talk to me about?"

There was a pause, and then – "Nope, I'm good, thanks."

Sooo...things are getting a little interesting between all of them...Sorry if this chapter wasn't fantastic, it was more of a filler than anything else. But hopefully their conversation towards the beginning explained a few things. =)

So, let me know what you think about this chapter! I love hearing from you guys as much as I love chocolate ice cream pie (which is one of my favorite desserts of ALL TIME!)!

Lots and lots of love,

Science-Fantasy93 ;)