Hello All!
This is my first shot at a fanfiction so I hope that if you continue to read this story, that you will like it. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW. I am a first time writer
and would enjoy any feedback anyone can give me. Oh and if someone would like to Beta this story, I have no objections to that either. Just message me.
Now onto the story.

P.S. I do not own Harry Potter, if I did do you really think that I would be writing for free? Uh no.

Chapter One

Hermione Granger stood next to her partner of almost a year and sighed. She hated patrolling the corridors of the Ministry of Magic; it brought back painful memories that plagued her nightmares. She silently thanked Merlin that in a few months she would be an official Auror and not have to do anymore grunt work.

Hermione was in her last few months of Auror training. It was the middle of March, and May couldn't come any sooner. The war had been over for almost three years, and Voldemort was dead. Many of the friends she had considered her family died in the final battle, and the castle had been destroyed.

Several weeks after the Final Battle, Hermione and Harry went to Australia, to retrieve her parents. Ron stayed with his family to mourn the loss of his brother Fred. The family as a whole needed time to heal. Hermione's parents were furious when she gave back them back their memories. David and Elizabeth Granger were none too pleased to hear about all the danger that Hermione had been put in the past year, but were happy to have their daughter back.

Hermione and Harry helped them move back to England, where they started up their old dentistry and began to move on in the next chapter of their lives. Seeing David and Elizabeth start up their careers again, made Harry and Hermione think about their own. Harry wanted to become an Auror and he convinced Hermione to do it as well. However, she wanted to go back to Hogwarts to finish her schooling and take her N.E.W.T.S.

Harry rolled his eyes and gave her a smile, saying that she was the only person he knew that would rather go back to school and earn her marks rather than just accept the honorary ones she was given. He supported her decision and together they said goodbye to her parents and returned to Hogwarts to help with the rebuilding.

When they arrived at Hogwarts they were given a warm welcome and began work on the castle immediately. There were many volunteers and together they made it to where Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was fully functional by that coming September. Hermione's seventh and final year at Hogwarts was the easiest and by far the dullest she had. Hermione graduated top of her class, and had the highest marks of the past twenty years.

After she graduated she moved in with Harry at Grimmauld Place. Harry insisted that she move in with him, instead of getting her own flat. Harry told her that she was the sister he never had, and that he would be more than happy living with her. With the help of Hermione's parents, Hermione moved into Grimmauld Place and has been happy ever since.

Hermione was broken out of her thoughts by a pale hand waving in front of her face. Her partner must have been speaking, but she was too involved in her thoughts to listen.

"Earth to Granger!" he said, obviously annoyed at her lack of focus.

Hermione glanced up to see the annoyance written across her partners' face. "Did you say something?"

"Yes I did. I was asking you whether or not we are supposed to patrol down in Sector G, or not. But, the first time I asked this question all I was answered with was a blank stare and a little bit of drool dripping from the corner of your mouth. So Granger, if you're not too busy lost in space, join us down here on Earth." He said with his trademark smirk.

Drool? She quickly wiped her mouth, which made the tall man to the side of her let out a small chuckle. She narrowed her eyes at him, knowing that there was no drool he was just trying to bait her like he always did. She crossed her arms and answered his question.

"First off, yes we are suppose to patrol Sector G, but Kingsley said to be careful. There are broken time turners, prophecies, and other dark items in there. We are to simply walk down the rows and make sure everything is in order and leave. There are too may items we could accidentally bump into or set off that it isn't safe to stay too long in that room. And secondly…" she uncrossed her arms and smacked him across the chest " I DO NOT DROOL!"

She was met with a pained laugh and a smile. " Now, now, Granger there's no need to get your knickers in a twist. I was just having some fun with you." His eyes glittering with mischief.

"My knickers are perfectly fine, thank you. Now come on, I hate being here at this ungodly hour and as soon as we go patrol down there we can go home." She said with a look of longing on her face. She just wanted to crawl into her bed and sleep.

"Ungodly hour indeed. Why doesn't the Ministry put someone else on the night shift? We're Aurors in training, shouldn't we be getting all the sleep we can? Especially with all the drills we run on a daily basis. We both could use some sleep, but oh no. We have to patrol an area that hasn't seen any action in fifty years. I don't know about you, but I need my beauty sleep. Do you think I just wake up looking this handsome?" He said waggling his eyebrows at her as they began to walk down the partially lit corridor towards the stairs.

Hermione had to stifle a laugh, she knew from the beginning of their friendship and partnership that he was a serial narcissist. He was well aware of his dashing good looks and if given the opportunity to point them out he would go on for days.

"You mean to tell me that the great Draco Malfoy doesn't wake up looking like this?" she turned and waved a hand in front of his body " and to think this whole time we have been friends I thought you just woke up that way. Life as I know has stopped making sense!" She whispered with mock horror as Draco turned to scowl at his partner.

Yes it was the infamous Draco Malfoy who had become a close friend and her Auror partner for almost two years. However, this change from enemies to allies did not just happen overnight. When Hermione and Harry returned to England they were summoned to appear at several Death Eater trials, the Malfoy families being one of them. Only Lucius and Draco were charged, since Narcissa saved Harry's life she was given immunity.

The trial began with Lucius recounting just how Voldemort became part of his family's life. Lucius told of how his own Grandfather harbored no prejudiced against witches and wizards who weren't pureblooded. His Grandfather felt that it was the magic within witches and wizards is what made them superior, not blood. These views were passed down to Lucius's father Abraxas, but they were not easily maintained.

Lucius told of how Abraxas was forced into servitude by threats against his family and himself. Tom Riddle needed the Malfoy's influence to get other pureblooded families on his side and to gain their financial support. Abraxas was given the choice of serving the Dark Lord as a faithful Death Eater or be condemned to death along with his mother and father.

Abraxas was left no other option but to join the Dark Lord and uptake a two-faced persona. In the public eye he was a cold-hearted Death Eater, but at home he treated his wife with respect and gave all the love he had to his son. However, as Lucius grew older, Abraxas had to teach him how to wear two masks like he did. Lucius was taught occumulency and other skills to keep up the charade of loyal Death Eater until the snake bastard could be defeated for good.

After Lucius' wedding to Narcissa, Abraxas and his wife contracted Dragon-Pox and died shortly after, leaving Lucius to serve the Dark Lord in Abraxas' place. Lucius was only faithful to the Dark Lord to keep his family safe; he kept up the same two-faced persona as his father and became one of the Dark Lords most trusted advisors. Lucius also had to pass down his fathers' teachings to his own son, so that he too could keep the family safe by wearing two masks.

Lucius then relayed every event occurring between Draco's first year of Hogwarts to the Final Battle, which included the Department of Mysteries incident, going and leaving Azkaban, Draco's mission to kill Dumbledore, the Golden Trio being taken to Malfoy Manor, and the frantic search for Draco at the Final Battle.

When Lucius spoke, there was shame and remorse evident in his tone of voice. He was already under veritaserum, which meant that his emotions were not an act. He apologized profusely to the court and even catching Hermione's gaze as he apologized for being powerless to the Dark Lords whims. He had a persona to convey and could not afford to slip up in the slightest or it could have meant the death of his family.

After hours of deliberation, Lucius Malfoy was sentenced to five years of house arrest instead of twenty years in Azkaban. Lucius had many houses and was allowed to visit any of them but not without an owling an Auror first. Lucius was thankful to the courts, and embraced his son and wife upon hearing the news of not being sent to Azkaban.

After hearing Lucius speak and having him sentenced, the court decided just to sentence Draco to help with the rebuilding of Hogwarts and to also finish his education there. Which is where Hermione and Draco's friendship began.

One rainy day found Hermione in the Hogwarts library repairing shelves and books when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to find grey eyes piercing her own. Draco Malfoy stood before her in a dark blue crew neck, muggle jeans paired with dragonhyde boots. She was shocked to see the Malfoy heir in such muggle attire. Draco raised an eyebrow and smirked as she assessed him and she blushed when she realized what she was doing and quickly asked him what he wanted.

Draco asked politely if he could speak to her, she nodded and they proceeded to sit at the first available table in the library. Draco seemed to be nervous but quickly shook off the feeling as he started to apologize for everything that happened between them in the course of the seven years that they had known each other. This also meant trying to apologize for what happened at Malfoy Manor, but he was silenced by Hermione's eyes beginning to tear up and she asked for him to please never bring the incident up again. He changed the subject by thanking her for saving him in the Room of Requirement, when she could have left him for dead.

Draco told Hermione that he had always admired her for her tenacity for learning and her ability to pick up things quickly. However, there were spies for Voldemort everywhere, so he had to be cruel to her and call her a mudblood against his will. He had to wear two-faces just like his father and his grandfather. It made Hermione sad that he had to live two lives for so long and was never allowed to freely express his own opinions. After listening to Draco talk and seeing that he was genuinely sorry for his actions, is when Hermione forgave him. He was flabbergasted at her readiness to forgive him so easily. She simply told him that the war was over, and people needed to move on including the two of them.

That night in the library Hermione gave Draco a second chance and he readily took it. Draco and Hermione became close friends over the course of the rebuilding of Hogwarts and during the school year. They found that they both had a love of books, and a love of learning new things. Together they learned wandless magic, non-verbal spells, and Draco taught Hermione a bit of Occumulency. They bonded over the long nights in the library, classes spent together, and their thirst for conquering new magic.

Hermione's other friends were skeptical of Malfoy's intentions towards Hermione at first, but over the course of time their skeptics of Malfoy became a thing of the past. They might never like him as much as Hermione, but they tolerated him for their Hermione's sake. Harry and Ron were the worst in believing that Malfoy had no ulterior motive to being Hermione's friend. What they weren't expecting was when Draco wrote them both letters of apology. Harry and Ron were still weary after reading their letters but decided that Hermione had never been wrong before and decided to trust her judgment.

Hermione and Draco's relationship was nothing more than friendship. Over the course of their friendship they became more like brother and sister rather than lovers. They cared for one another like normal brothers and sisters would, and loved each other in a sibling manner. Hermione considered Harry as a brother and happily accepted Draco as her other brother as well. Draco was happy to have a sister, even if she wasn't blood related.

It was their sibling relationship that drove Draco to become an Auror with Hermione. Draco would take over the family business from Lucius when he retired, but Draco wanted to do something with more adventure until then. Draco and Hermione began their training together and were paired as partners after being matched through the Auror Partner compatibility test. They were relieved that they ended up getting each other and began working hard to complete their training.

So now here the were, almost three years of friendship later, walking down the stairs to inspect their last sector before they could finally go home. They reached the end of the stairs, and Draco opened the door for Hermione, she thanked him and walked on through. Hermione and Draco took a quick look around the large room. It was covered in dust, and many magical objects that the two had never seen before.

"Okay Granger, how do you want to patrol the room? I take the left you take the right or would you rather stick together? Keep in mind if we stay together, it will take longer to get home." Draco said.

"I think we should stick together, we're stronger as a team. I know that means taking longer in this room, but I'd rather be safe than sorry." She said while digging through her old beaded bag to find her wand. She never left home without her old beaded bag anymore, always preparing for the worst. She encompassed the phrase 'constant vigilance'.

"Alright then, lets get to patrolling. Wand at the ready Granger." He said with a focused look on his face as they raised their wands and began to walk.

Together they stalked the room looking around for any sign of wrongdoing. They passed several shelves upon shelves of magical objects. The room was eerie with silence, and it was beginning to give Hermione a bad feeling. She knew Draco was feeling the same way, his jaw was strained and there was a look in his eyes that told her he knew something was rotten in the state of Denmark.

After thirty minutes of patrolling, they rounded their final corner and heard voices. Hermione's heart rate began to soar, but before she could react any further, Draco yanked her into the shadows. Hermione cast a silent spell so that they could hear what the voices were saying as they inched closer to them while remaining unseen.

"These things don't even work! Why are we wasting our time with ones that don't work? What are you expecting someone to fix one of these? The minute we take one of these to anyone they would call the Ministry, and I am not going back to Azkaban. One trip was enough for a lifetime." A man harshly whispered to the other dark figure.

"One of these has to work, they cannot all be broken. I mean there has to be at least ten, and they are all different. Maybe whoever was in charge of looking at them just didn't know what they were doing. We are going to take them and then try them all. We have been waiting for two years to do this. I will not leave empty handed." Another man whispered.

Hermione and Draco were getting closer to the two figures, and were straining their eyes to see just what had these two men in such a snit. The items they were looking over were in a big glass case among all the shelves. A single light shown down upon the case, and as Hermione grew closer she had to raise a hand to her mouth to cover gasp of shock. The two men were looking at several time-turners.

Hermione and Draco shared a look of horror. What were these two men wanting with the time-turners and why were they so determined to get their hands on a working one? Hermione was trying to think of some type of plan, but more whispering from the two mystery men interrupted her thoughts.

"Come on lets just grab them all! We need to get out of here before someone sees us! "One of the men whispered.

"Okay, okay. This better be worth it! I will kill anyone who tries to take me back to Azkaban. I won't go!" The other one replied.

"Going back to warn the Dark Lord of what's to come is worth it you twit! Can you imagine the wealth we'll have when we help the greatest wizard of all time win the war! Think of all the power and status we will obtain. This could be the single most important thing of our lives. Now lets go!" He popped the glass and began to scoop the time-turners into a bag.

Hermione took Draco's free hand and gave it a squeeze, signaling that it was time to make their presence known. They walked out of the shadows, and stopped a few feet in front of the men in question.

"Stop what you're doing, drop your wands, and no one gets hurt." Draco yelled. He was standing with his wand at the ready, and his eyes hard with anger. Hermione mirrored his stance and trained her wand at the man directly across from her.

The two men turned around to face Draco and Hermione. In the pale light, it was still too dark to make out their faces for certain, but wasn't dark enough that they couldn't make out their tall bodies. However, Hermione and Draco must have been too easy to recognize as the man across from Draco raised his own wand and began to speak.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Potter's mudblood and little Malfoy. It's been a long while since I've had a good kill, but unfortunately we have to run. So we'll settle for making sure you both are never born. Goodbye and good riddance." The men turned to run, but Draco and Hermione were quicker. They began casting spells at the men in hopes of stopping them, and the men didn't make it very far before they turned around and began to fight.

Both wand and wandless magic was being thrown across the small space between the four duelers. Neither was making any headway, as the four people were great duelers. The fight went on, and Hermione was beginning to sweat. She finally caught a break when she managed to stun the man with the bag of time-turners. She ran to get the bag that had fallen, while he was incapacitated. As she ran, Draco and the other man were still fiercely dueling. Hermione picked up the bag, but when she did a time-turner fell out. Without thinking she put it around her neck for safekeeping, hid the bag underneath a shelf, and ran to help her partner.

Hermione dashed back to Draco's side and began casting as many spells that she could think of, to stop the man. It was only when Draco and Hermione cast the same spell at the same that the man fell back onto the floor. With both wands still trained on the man, Draco began to walk forward so that he could apprehend him. What the two partners were not counting on was the man sitting up, and pointing his wand at Draco.

"Avada …. " but before the man could even begin to say Kedavra, Hermione was on the move. As if moving in slow motion, Hermione moved to shove Draco out of the way and cast a protection spell. The spells collided and sent Hermione flying into the glass case that once held the time-turners. Hermione felt the shards of glass rip through her skin, and instantly felt pain. Suddenly there was a bright light, but the pain was too great for Hermione to comprehend what was happening. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw to keep from screaming in agony.

"HERMIONE!" Draco yelled, but it was too late for her. Draco's voice was the last thing she heard before the pain overcame her and her world went dark.

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