A/N: This is the last installment of my little Springfest story-I hope you like it!
A big thanks to MrBenzedrine for helping me make the story so much better C:
XxX

Chapter 5

She dreamt of delicate silver entwined with startling blue sapphires.

How pretty!

Sparkling diamonds and wise eagles and bright blue gems.

She dreamed of chambers and slumbering basilisks. Of rooms stocked with everything and nothing, except the one thing that she needed most.

Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.

Hermione bolted upright. She glanced with wild eyes, before recognizing she was lying on the common room sofa - naked - save for a blanket thrown haphazardly on her. Merlin, but she wasn't even in bed. And - dear God - the things she had allowed to transpire between them that night! She should be ashamed…

...But she wasn't.

As hard as she tried, she could summon no shame in her actions.

She'd slept with Draco, and the decision had been a conscious one. He was the enemy, the only enemy to have stayed consistent during her whole school career, the terrorizer of her friends and of herself, yet she could not be bothered to be chagrined by this as she knew she should. She had needed him, and he had needed her.

The night had been...

...Glorious.

There was no denying it. Her thighs tingled at the memory, her abdominal walls aching, but still sparked in excitement at the recollection.

Well, damn.

They'd both agreed to a one-time thing. That was all they needed, they were sure. Only, Hermione was horrified to realize that simply wasn't all she needed. The creature who was far more primitive than her stretched lazily, righteous fury mingled with jealousy flaring at the possibility of ending - of sharing - Draco with anybody else.

You'd better get bloody over it, she advised sternly, wrapping the blanket around her chest and dragging herself to the lavatory. It was a one time thing never to be repeated—that's what we both agreed on. She needed a shower badly. She'd slept against the roughened fabric of the sofa with no clothes on. Had he been the one to toss her the blanket? Something fluttered in her chest at the thought. Forget about it—it's time to focus on the damn diadem. I need to get it before…

Before the next prank she was forced to endure didn't turn lethal.

She turned on all the faucets in the sprawling tub, selecting several bubble concoctions. This could be the last opportunity she had to take a proper bath, and she might as well savor it. She wondered if Draco was in his room, but, instinctively, she knew he wasn't. It was almost like she could sense him, or sense his magic, at least.

It was late on a Saturday, and so long as she was careful, she might avoid everyone and afford herself some precious time.

Damn, how she regretted not taking Harry's Invisibility Cloak.

It didn't matter. She would find it - she would shove it into her bag - and she would leave without looking back.

~oOo*oOo~

Draco moved robotically through the day.

Anymore, he was hardpressed to assimilate with the others. He didn't know what had changed - Merlin, but he was there king! - yet his heart wasn't into it. He could manage passably, just saying enough to keep the attention away from him, but he didn't want to.

Today was worse than the other days—far worse.

He couldn't get her off of his mind.

The…

He couldn't even say it anymore.

It was like the word stayed lodged in his mind. He'd awoke clinging to her, and damn if his fingers wouldn't uncurl from around her waist. It was all so barmy. It was supposed to have gotten better, but it only seemed, somehow, worse.

"They took that Hufflepuff Mudblood," Daphne's shrilling voice cut through his silent musings. "Saw him dragged away from the Great Hall at lunch."

It was enough.

Draco didn't bother telling his friends where he was going. His feet took him to the Head's Common Room to where he had left her, where he had thrown a blanket over her, for Salazar's sake. He couldn't get there fast enough. He had to see.

The-Boy-Wonder and the Weasel really were pathetic—and they were to be humanity's last hope? They had not taken care of Granger; they had left her to the wolves. And it's for the best, he inwardly consoled himself. This needs to happen - what other opportunity is there? No one can stand against the Dark Lord, certainly not Potter. There's no room for Granger in this world.

His heart stilted in his chest when he crawled through the portrait hole and found an empty common room. He didn't know what it meant. He knew instantly that she wasn't tucked away in her bedroom, either—he could sense it if she had been.

Surely she wasn't traversing around the castle. He'd hoped she would know she was in danger. They both had rounds tonight...would she be there? Draco wasn't sure if he wanted her to be or not.

~oOo*oOo~

Her bag slapped against her leg as she walked, and she hoped no one could hear it. Her Disillutionment Charm was strong, but was it enough to conceal her from some of the most powerful wizards in the wizarding world. She needed the damned Cloak.

Well…

Harry and Ron probably needed it more.

What would they say when she found them? Would they be happy? Surely they would be glad to see she'd brought them a horcrux. Hopefully they knew of a way to destroy it. Hermione had a hankering about the basilisk fang lying temptingly in the Chamber, but there wasn't time. She couldn't get the book to translate open in Parsaltongue, not when it had already started, not when they were taking people.

She should have really tried to bring others with her, but others would have just bogged her down. Her thinking had shifted somewhat since enduring the school year from Hell. She was a bit more reluctant to run into danger for others.

Hermione pulled her the hood of her jumper close around her face, clenching her jaw and her wand for good measure as she reached the Defense classroom. She was almost there - right where she needed to be - she could take the passage the one-eyed witch statue guarded and end up in the cellar of Honeydukes, far away from the cursed castle she was beginning to loathe, but that's when she sensed it.

A presence not her own.

But one distinctly familiar.

His wand was lit as he drew nearer, and she pressed her back against the stone wall, hoping to sink into it. Was he looking for her? Had they sent him after her? Even worse, had he found the note? Each option seemed more dangerous than the last. She really shouldn't have written the note.

He kept walking, not even glancing her way, and Hermione thought that maybe her Disillutionment Charm was holding up better than she could have anticipated. He walked right past her. She could feel the air around her shift as he passed by. He was going to keep walking, and she was going to make it to safety. She was eighteen and she could Apparate out of this nightmare and never turn back.

His voice was so low, she had to strain to hear it.

"Safe travels, Granger."

The realization that he knew she was there - knew the whole time and didn't try to restrain her - sent her heart to flutter rapidly in her chest.

He could have easily turned her in—it would have probably bode well for him. But he hadn't, and that had been the third time.

The relief of his well-aimed curse.

The hospital wing trip.

Now this.

Her brain spun with the implication of it all.

Perhaps her intuition had led her true when she left the note.

~oOo*oOo~

The week went on as it always was.

Draco might have initially felt the difference - felt the loss - but he was a survivor and a Malfoy and someone that always did what he had to, what he was expected to. He forced himself to forget, compartmentalized it away, convinced himself it had been a delusion, whatever he needed to say to get by.

This was how the world was—silly hopes got you nowhere.

The world was wicked and cruel and dangerous, and he simply needed to be all that and more to survive. There was no getting around it. Hope was for the weak, and the weak would soon be eradicated from the planet, no matter what sweetness they could bring. It would all be a distant memory...soon they wouldn't exist.

But then he made the discovery.

A note tied to his Firebolt, of all things.

He stared at the parchment for a good five minutes before he dared open it.

D,

I left something of value there. I couldn't get to it. A fang hidden in the depths of the castle. You can get to it through Myrtle's lavatory—you know the place? You must tell it to 'open' as only a snake can.

Get it and bring it to me?

Only if you want to.

You said there were shades of grey and that can mean many things.

My heart tells me it means we have a chance.

Get the weapon and leave the school. Send me a Patronus, and I'll find you. I know you can't wield one now, but if you were able to, I would know you could be trusted. I have faith you can do it. Your Patronus will know how to find me.

I hope you decide to.

Once was not enough.

H.

~oOo*oOo~