Chapter One

There was a knock at her door. She had completely zoned out and forgot who was coming. It was stupid for her to forget really because the person showing up today was the reason she had to make another batch of Tutela Velieris. She had been holed up in her potions lab, all day. After she had yelled a "come in" she continued on her potion. It had to be timed perfectly.

That is how Draco found her, bent over a cauldron counting seconds and stirring slowly. This gave him plenty of time to admire the beauty in front of him. He hadn't yet realized who it was standing in front of him. He was to focused on the amazing brunet in front of him. She wore tight black jeans, and a form fitting emerald tank top that showed just a hint of both cleavage and stomach. Her hair was in a messy half bun that looked both cute and relaxed at the same time and had long tendrils of amber hair falling and framing her face. She was about 5'6" and had a sleek form with curves in all the right places.

Hermione hadn't even looked up when they stepped in, but was putting the final touches on the potion. Three quarter turns in opposing directions starting clockwise at the part of the cauldron closest to the potion maker, then quickly drop in the four leaves of the mandrake and Walla, it was finished. She did this and whispered a perfect before looking up and coming face to face with her own beautiful nightmare, Draco Malfoy.

When Draco realized that it was Hermione's face attached to that perfect body he mentally kicked himself. Of course the girl in front of him had to be non other than the smart-ass mudblood herself.

"Malfoy"

"Granger"

"It's been a while Pureblood, where have you been? Out torturing innocent children?"

"For your information Mudblood, its been 1 year 8 months and 13 days since I was forced to flee Hogwarts, and since then I've been spending my time trying to stay alive."

"Unfortunately you seem to be good at that… anyway," she looked to Tonks who had brought Draco by," thank you for escorting the dragon to his new den, say high to Moony and little James for me will you?"

Tonks gave Hermione a hug "I will, James loves to hear from his aunt Hermione, and Remus can't stop singing your praises seeing how you keep sending him a perfect potion every time."

"All in a days work…"

Hermione smiled. James was the cutest little 2-month-old baby ever, and he was aptly named because even at such a young age he was already getting in trouble. Tonks smiled and bid goodbye, leaving Draco standing in the middle of the room not quite sure what he had signed up for.

Hermione dipped a ladle in her potion and poured two cups of it handing one to a silent Malfoy before downing it herself. She didn't offer any explanation just turned her back and started to bottle up the potion. It had to be taken every 12 hours to mask the magic to she always tried to keep plenty in stock. It was vital that the death eaters thought that they were just muggles.

She heard Draco clear his throat so she turned back around to see him starring at her in the most unusual way. His hair wasn't slicked back any more but was now short and kind of shaggy, it was almost exactly the way harry had worn it in fifth year, but of course Harry's hair was brown while Draco's was white. He had grown quite a bit, his shoulders had filled out, he stood at an impressive 6'3" and his body looked like it was all muscle. After that the next thing she noticed was that he hadn't touched his potion.

"Up… I know how much my ability to identify potions is revered but… what the hell is this and why am I drinking it?" he asked in the most high handed way possible.

"Its Tutela Velieris, Malfoy. It masks your magical abilities and if you don't down it soon you'll have Grayback and your father here in no time. I promise it's not poison." She replied clearly wishing it was poison, then she wouldn't have to deal with the most hansom evil man she knew.

He looked down wondering if he should trust her enough to drink it… she had, didn't she? He downed it after that thought. Granger hated him, but she wouldn't kill herself just to kill him, she wasn't that stupid.

"How do we know if it worked or not?"

Hermione had gone back to bottling the potion and without glancing at him, frankly because every time she did she got Goosebumps, she answered "we will know when Lucious doesn't come looking for his favorite son."

"Great…"

Hermione capped off the bottle in her hand and looked up, getting slightly mad at the fact that he doubted her potion making ability, usually that wouldn't have pissed her off enough but he was also just standing there while she bottled up the potion that would save his sorry behind time and again.

"You've always been an ungrateful little bugger. Why don't you get your high strung ass over here and help me with this…"

"Why don't you close your dirty bloody mouth and show me to my room"

"Why don't you crawl back to your daddy, he always fixes everything for you…"

At this he paused… is that what people thought of him. That he would do what ever he wanted and Daddy would just bail him out. He wished. Every time Father had to bail him out of anything it was at least a week in the dungeon to be practice for the new death eaters curses.

"You don't know anything about me, my life or my father"

"Grow up Draco everybody knows about your father, he is an evil horrible man who helps cover up all the blunders of his stupid son."

In a menacing voice Draco stood before her, shadowing her " I said shut your mouth granger"

"Go to hell Malfoy"

At this he turned and walked to the door on the opposite side of the room where he assumed the rest of the house was, he looked so beaten, and Hermione couldn't understand why, before leaving he turned back around, "I'm already there granger, I was there when that man who you says bails me out of everything, tortured and killed my mother while I was forced to watch. I was there when he told me that to become one of Voldemort's lackeys, I would have to kill my best friend's mother, in front of Blaise. And I'm there now, now that I know that the one thing standing between the dark lord and myself is a hot mudblood bookworm who is too busy saving muggles to realize that this is hell. So Hermione, welcome to hell." With this he slammed the door, and went off to find a room he could call his own.