A/N: It's been I think about three years since I last updated this story. I apologise. I will continue to write it and update it and hopefully finish it before I'm thirty! Please tell me what you think about this chapter as I lost the storyline I was working on and I'm writing it again from scratch. I sort of know where I was going though, heh.

Draco watched Hermione sleep in his bed from the doorway. At least the bath seemed to have calmed her down and the food put a little colour back in her cheeks. He thought they would have an argument about who was sleeping on the bed and who was on the sofa, but Hermione just seemed completely drained, almost ghost-like, and went to sleep in his bed without even a second word.

He was still conflicted. He wanted to kill them for this. Dean, Alfie, Crabbe and Goyle. All of them. He didn't know whether he was going to be able to let her out of this room, whether she could be out of his sight from now until this stupid spell had been broken. That powerfully possessive feeling he had when he saw her with Alfie had multiplied and stuck, to the point that he was standing in the doorway watching her sleep, his more gentlemanly attitudes not actually allowing him into the room.

He hated himself too, because if this had happened only a few weeks ago, he would have probably found it funny. It sickened him, but he couldn't deny it. She would have been the target for so many jokes that he would have snickered about behind her back and rude comments he would have said to her face.

But that was…but it was all because he liked her? Or was that the spell? He left her asleep there, and walked downstairs, warming himself by the fire. His thoughts had made him feel cold. He put his feelings to one side; this wasn't going to help the situation. When he was sure that Hermione was asleep he closed and silenced the door to his room, and then lifted the silencing charms from the main door. It was a lot quieter, but when he pressed his ear to the door he could hear shuffling, like someone was keeping watch on both doors. He silenced them again and re-opened the bedroom door for when Hermione awoke.

Right, so there was a locket, and they had to find the locket to get the spell reversed and, well Pansy would have the locket. So first things first they needed to get to Pansy. Except now that everyone was trying to rape Hermione and probably going to try and kill him, so going out anywhere visible was probably a bad idea. The cloak was in Hermione's room, so that was probably the first port of call.

Draco didn't know how many people would be flooding Hermione's room, but he had to try and get that cloak, it would be the only way to Pansy.

He lifted the silence charm on the door to the secret passage once again and listened. He was pretty sure there were two people there, but it sounded like they were getting pretty tired. He kept hearing yawning, and then someone spoke.

"I don't think she's coming out." That was Crabbe. Maybe some good luck for once.

"I'm hungry." Goyle. Draco grinned. He took the blocking charm off of the door and swept out.

"What are you two idiots doing here?" He asked them coldly, putting the blocking and silence charm back on the door as he went through. "You're taking orders from a Gryffindor now?"

"You're sleeping with one." Crabbe said petulantly. Draco glared at him.

"How dare you." He hissed. "You know you're not allowed to talk about girls around me." He wrinkled his nose. "It's disgusting, thinking of you talking about a girl." It was working, they were confused, and he was treating them like he always had done, they were listening. "Go to the Great Hall and eat breakfast. I've got no need for you here." He dismissed them with a sniff. They looked at each other and shrugged, heading off down the passage. He waited for them to get a little ahead of him, hoping that their overriding desire to stuff themselves would take president over any other desire as it always had done. After a few minutes he started to follow.

Crabbe and Goyle were talking about what they were going to have for breakfast all the way through the passage, and were still discussing honey vs. jam when they got into Hermione's room. He heard them decide to try both at once on toast and go onto discussing muffins vs. bagels as they left heading towards the hall. Draco shook his head. Hermione's living room was deserted, and the cloak was still on the back of the sofa. He lifted it carefully and then he heard a noise upstairs. He walked upstairs to find Dean Thomas in Hermione's bedroom, lying on her bed. Her underwear drawer was open, and Draco's stomach twisted at the sick lengths this boy was going to. He carefully put the cloak down and cracked his knuckles. Spell or no spell, he was going to sort this out. Now.

***

Hermione woke up from a dreamless sleep feeling refreshed. She wasn't in her own bed, but it only took her a few minutes to gather up the information that retraced her steps to this point. She was wearing Draco's oversized T-shirt, and their scents were mingled in the fabric. She brought it up to her nose and inhaled deeply, taking comfort in the familiar smell. She felt safe here, and she sorely needed to feel safe at the moment. Was this a new phase of the spell? Would it just escalate until they had killed her or themselves? Would Draco escalate too? Would he be trying to rape her soon?

She got up and examined her robe. Her wand was back in her room, so she couldn't fix it. The T-Shirt went down to her knees, but she slipped on the dressing gown that Draco had left her too, just in case he was starting to be affected. She didn't want to give him any temptation, and also…it was weird being all unclothed near Draco. She wasn't sure about him yet. Was he affected by the spell? She hoped not, because she was starting to feel…no. She shook her head. There was no way she'd go down that road. If she started to feel for him and then they reversed the spell and he went back to…she wouldn't tolerate it. She would just have to keep him at a little bit of a distance.

There were no noises anywhere, and Hermione began to wonder where he was. Swaddled in the robe, she picked her way carefully down the stairs, the living room was empty and the door to the bathroom was open, revealing there was no Draco in there.

Where was he? Panic started to grip her again. Did they get in? Were they hurting him? Just as the thoughts passed through her brain, Draco came in through the secret door, holding the cloak, her wand and a change of clothes, nursing a split lip.

"I suggest you don't go out there." He told her when he saw she was awake, casting the blocking charm on the door. "They're still angry."

"Draco, what happened?" She ran over to examine his lip.

"I ran into an old friend." He said darkly.

"Where?" She asked, were they still in her room?

"Your underwear drawer." Draco told her. "Don't worry, it was a lucky shot for him, he came off a lot worse, that violent raping bastard." He muttered under his breath as she touched his lip and he winced. "I brought you some stuff, I didn't think you'd want to be in my T-shirt forever, and I saw your wand on your bedside table." He dumped all the stuff on the sofa.

"I'll get you some ice. I'm not as good as Madame Pomfrey at healing things." She took up her wand and went into the bathroom, freezing some tap water, wrapping it in a hand towel and bringing it back. He was sitting on the sofa. She sat next to him, drawing her legs underneath her and dabbing his lip. It was swollen, and she saw that a dark bruise was starting to colour around his eye. She switched to dabbing that and he sighed.

"Yeah, well, he came off a lot worse." He assured her. "Who knew that muggle born could throw a punch."

"Hey I'm a muggle born." She reminded him gently, although she noticed he refrained from using the word 'mudblood' so she let him off. He was trying.

"You alright?" He asked, watching her with soft eyes.

"Yeah." She mumbled, looking away from him and down to the floor. After a second she hopped off the sofa. "So I'll go and change and we can come up with a plan."

***

Draco pressed the ice to his face whilst she was gone. His face hurt a lot. That bastard Thomas could hit hard, but it was more than that. He was crazed, insane and that lent him strength. Draco had bested him, and he'd probably beaten him for a little longer then was necessary, but he did clear him out of Hermione's room and put the security on her door. He'd known how to change passwords since the third year, and he knew Hermione's old password, so it had been easy. No more late night visitors, he'd also reinforced the door to make it really safe.

So, now they had two safe rooms and a corridor between them. They had a locket that was STILL in the Slytherin common room, but at least they had the cloak. This was good, this was better. Hermione seemed better today, which was good because it broke his heart seeing her so broken.

She came back in the skirt and spaghetti strap top he'd picked out. She smiled at him.

"You pick clothes well." She told him.

"Yeah, well, they were on top." He told her grumpily. She did look nice, nicer than her usual jeans and a jumper. He regretted those clothes now, he wished he'd picked out something frumpier. Oh well, he'd just have to deal with it.

"What's the plan?" She flopped back down on the sofa next to him.

"I guess I've got to go back and talk to Pansy." Draco said.

"Under the cloak we go." Hermione said. "Let's just get this done."

"You aren't coming." Draco blinked. "I'm doing this myself."

"I'm not staying here on my own." Hermione scoffed. "We're going together or not at all, they might break those doors down and then where will I be? Knee deep in psycho boys trying to rape me."

"You're right." Draco realised that he really couldn't let her out of his sight again. "Let's go so we can finish this and get back to our normal lives." He didn't know whether he would be able to, even if he went back to hating her…he'd still have the memories. Without looking at her, he pulled the cloak over both of them.