Hermione was not allowed to leave the guest room for a full day according to Draco. While she found it irritating, Fleur found it amusing and made sure they both had plenty of food and pain relief potions. The second morning they had been there, Hermione got up before Draco and made her way downstairs just to be sure she'd be able to get up. Her arm still hurt, but the pain relief potion Bill had brewed helped.

"Good to see you're awake, Mione!" Harry said, hugging her tightly as she wandered into the kitchen.

"Finally escaped Malfoy?" Ron asked before taking a bite of his eggs. Hermione gave him a look and Harry sighed.

"Why can't you at least be nice to him, Ron?" Hermione asked. After all, she'd been friends with Draco since first starting at Hogwarts and Ron's continued hatred for him was well past annoying.

"He's a git and I don't trust him," Ron mumbled. Rather than entertain that old idea, Hermione turned to Harry and asked how he'd been.

"Well, I've been thinking about the Horcruxes," he said, shoveling a bite of eggs into his mouth. He chewed quickly as he said, "You Know Who trusts very few people so obviously he wouldn't just hand a Horcrux over to anyone."

"You think he gave it to someone?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded and reminded her how he'd given the ring to someone as well as the locket and the diary. "But Professor Quirrel was a Horcrux, wasn't he?"

"Yes, but I think he was destroyed entirely," Harry replied. "When we were at Malfoy Manor, I had a thought. You Know Who trusts Bellatrix enough to carry out things like hunting me down. That's a lot of trust right there."

"You think she might have a Horcrux," Hermione said. Harry nodded but before they could continue, Draco walked into the kitchen with a scowl. "Good morning," Hermione said. Draco continued to scowl but took the empty seat beside her.

"You left," he grumbled, serving himself a large helping of eggs and potatoes.

"Yes, well, I wanted to eat and you were still sleeping," Hermione told him. Across the table, Ron blanched but Hermione and Draco ignored him. "Draco, how much does You Know Who trust Bellatrix?"

Both Harry and Ron looked at Hermione with differing expressions. Ron looked annoyed that she was consulting Draco while Harry looked worried.

"She's his number one," Draco said, glaring at his plate at the thought. He straightened out suddenly and looked at Hermione. "Why? What are you talking about?"

Very quickly, Hermione explained to Draco just what Ron and Harry had been searching for since summer. She explained what Horcruxes were and their theory about what Voldemort had done. While it was clear he'd made many, they felt certain it was only a few more.

"We've already figured out what two others are likely to be," Harry offered. Draco eyed him curiously, but Harry was unfazed. "Something from Hufflepuff and possibly Ravenclaw's diadem. I've heard the diadem could only be at Hogwarts since no one has seen it in decades, but we're not sure about Hufflepuff."

"We have a theory though," Hermione offered, glancing at Harry. Draco nodded for her to continue. "Bellatrix is his highest trusted follower. It could be possible she's hiding a Horcrux."

"Where?" Draco asked before shoveling two large bites of his potatoes into his mouth.

"Gringotts," Hermione said. While she hadn't actually said it before, she felt certain that's where it would be. Anything of importance could be kept there and a Horcrux seemed like something she would want to keep there.

Draco glanced at her while Ron choked on his food, clearly not having put that together himself. Harry looked shocked as well, but she could tell he understood her reasoning.

"It's the only place she'd ever put something that valuable," Hermione told them. "The only trouble is, we can't get in."

Ron snorted but they were interrupted by Fleur asking if they were still hungry. There was still plenty of food on the table and while Draco had eaten a significant amount, Hermione thought they had enough. Fleur left with a smile and a wave. After a minute, they resumed their conversation.

"We'll never get it," Ron said. Hermione sighed but she knew Ron was probably right. "Gringotts has the best security in the world. We'd have to pass someone off as Bellatrix herself and even then, there are spells that remove magic."

"The goblins will only allow Bellatrix herself in," Draco said. "Even if we could pass someone off as her, no one else would be able to follow."

"Couldn't you?" Hermione asked. Draco frowned. "You're her nephew. We could say something about picking out a family heirloom and you could come with."

"I still have my cloak," Harry offered. Hermione's eyes lit up. It may be a bit of a stretch for it to cover both Harry and Ron, but if they could manage to polyjuice Hermione into Bellatrix, they could figure it out.

"If you have polyjuice on hand, I can get you a strand of Bellatrix's hair," Draco offered. That was better than Hermione had thought and she almost kissed him for it.

"I should have some in my bag," Hermione said. She raced off to the bedroom Fleur had let her rest in and grabbed her bag.

Since she couldn't store potions on her dresser at home, she'd taken to hiding them in her hip bag. She was certain she had polyjuice in there and when a black vial appeared in her hand, she knew she'd been successful.

As she raced back into the kitchen, she was already coming up with a plan for how they would break into Gringotts without getting caught. First, though, she had to send Draco back to Malfoy Manor to retrieve a sample of his aunt's DNA. Unfortunately, that was going to be a much bigger hassle than she had first thought.

* * * * *

While they waited for Draco to return, Harry filled her in on all that had happened during their hunt. Hermione listened to every word in case there was an idea that could help them in the future. At some point, the boys had found the sword of Gryffindor but it had disappeared after they'd used it. Harry had a running theory it was just a lucky time, but Hermione wasn't too sure. Too many things had been lucky while they were hunting and Hermione didn't want to discount the one way they had to destroy a Horcrux.

Ron was in the middle of explaining how they were planning to continue when Draco apparated into the kitchen. They all jumped and the boys immediately backed away at the sight of Draco's silver eyes. Hermione, however, raced forward to hug him tightly.

"What happened?" she asked, cupping his face and trying to soothe him. "What went wrong?"

"Greyback was there," he growled. His eyes flickered to Harry and Ron and his upper lip curled. He wrapped an arm around Hermione's waist and pulled her closer as he snarled at the other two.

"It's okay, Draco," Hermione murmured. She ran her hands over his chest in an attempt to distract him. Slowly, he looked away from Ron and Harry and back at her. "Come on, you're back at Shell Cottage and we're all safe."

Ever so slowly, Draco's eyes went back to grey and soon he was just panting heavily. His grip on her waist was still tight, but Hermione didn't mind.

"Did you get a sample of Bellatrix's DNA?" she asked, trying to distract him further. Draco nodded and held up a clump of hair he could have only gotten from ripping directly off Bellatrix's scalp. Hermione decided not to ask, however.

"I also got her wand," he told her, pulling a wand from his robe pocket and handing it to her as well. "She's not easy to surprise, but she wasn't expecting me to come back."

Hermione smiled at him and took a step back so she could uncork the polyjuice potion vial. She could feel everyone watch as she dropped a single strand of Bellatrix's hair into the potion and stuff the cork back in the top. She put both the vial and Bellatrix's wand back into her bag then turned around to look at Harry and Ron.

"I suppose we should come up with a real plan for breaking into Gringotts then," she said. They both glanced at Draco and nodded before joining her at the kitchen table.

It was quite obvious to Hermione that she and Draco would not be returning to Hogwarts. The Carrows were sure to turn her over to Voldemort as soon as she returned and Draco was as good as a blood traitor now. Neither of them were safe and they were more useful hunting down Horcruxes than hiding out from Death Eaters somewhere. Draco, of course, opposed the idea of joining the hunt only because he felt it might be too risky.

"You're welcome to hide out with the Order," Ron replied. Draco glared at him and let Hermione continue speaking.

When she announced she would be taking the potion as Bellatrix, it was clear Draco wanted to object. Unfortunately for him, she had a good argument in that neither Harry nor Ron would be able to act enough like a woman to pull it off and Draco needed to be himself to get in. After a long debate, they agreed to Hermione's idea.

"We'll leave in the morning," Hermione said. It was already early afternoon and she wanted to make sure they didn't rush into Gringotts unprepared. Besides, she needed to convince Draco to teach her how to behave more like his aunt which was a little harder than she expected. By the time night fell, she felt confident enough she could pull it off and fell asleep trying not to dream about what could go wrong.