Draco hated every second of this. From the moment Hermione had suggested they trick the Room of Requirement into becoming the room of lost things, he'd known that something was bound to go wrong. He'd thought for sure the Carrows or someone else would come storming around the corner before they could even attempt it, but fifteen minutes later, the Room of Requirement was empty and Hermione tried to turn it into her supposed room of lost things.

"You can't be sure the diadem is even in there," Draco muttered, watching her pace in front of the room seven times. As the door appeared in front of them, Hermione turned and scowled at him.

"Until you have a better idea, this is what we're doing," she said. Without hesitating, she yanked open the door and stepped into the room.

Draco stood at her back as they stepped through the door and into a room so large Draco wondered if it ever ended. His wolf wanted to take her away from there immediately and he almost did, except Hermione was looking around in awe and he didn't want to be the one to pull her away from something she found so fascinating. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but feel antsy as the door shut behind them and he wondered just what hid in between the tall shelves and down the endless corridor.

"We shouldn't be here, Hermione," he grumbled, grabbing her hand tightly when she stepped forward. She glanced back at him shortly then back down the aisle of shelves.

"This is it, Draco," she told him, tugging on his hand. "This has to be where the diadem is hidden. The Room of Requirement wouldn't turn into this if it wasn't."

"How do you propose we find the diadem then?" he asked, trying not to snarl. His wolf hated to be there even though he still had one hand against the door and knew they could easily leave.

With a shrug, Hermione attempted to summon the diadem. Draco was unsurprised when nothing happened, but Hermione's shoulders deflated and he knew she'd been hoping that would work. If they couldn't summon it, it would take years to explore the room. They'd never find the diadem by the time they needed it and Voldemort would win.

"We won't find it like this, Hermione," Draco told her. He released the door so he could wrap both of his arms around Hermione. He turned her in his arms and looked down at her. "The diadem could be anywhere."

"We need to at least look," she replied, pulling away from him and starting down the long row of shelves.

Draco surged forward after her. He looked around the room warily, waiting for something to jinx or hex them, while Hermione scanned every shelf they passed. The ceiling was high and the shelves seemed to extend all the way to the top. Draco knew it was futile to look for the diadem with the shelves stacked so tall and the room endlessly long. Every little sound set him on edge and when one of the shelves behind them creaked, he'd had enough.

"We need to go, Hermione," he said, grabbing her arm. She tried to pull away, but Draco refused to let go of her. "The room has no end and Potter's going to face the Dark Lord any minute. Who knows how time passes in here."

"Just a few more minutes!" she begged, looking up at him desperately. "If we don't destroy it, there's no chance Harry can defeat You Know Who and where will we be then?"

Draco knew exactly where they'd be if Potter couldn't defeat the Dark Lord. Even if he hadn't been made such an obvious move to defect and help Potter, now that he was a werewolf, he'd still be on the lower end of Voldemort's new social order. His wolf snarled at the thought of what the Death Eaters would do with Hermione and he pulled her tight against his chest.

"Is there a spell we can cast to destroy it?" Draco asked her, looking down the corridor behind her. He could have sworn he heard something shift and he could feel his wolf straining toward the exit.

Hermione shook her head.

"Unless there's a curse that's been able to destroy magical objects in the past, I can't think of anything," she said. Draco frowned and further down the room, he heard something topple to the ground.

Tensing, Draco pulled Hermione closer and glanced toward the door. When had they walked so far away from it? It looked like a small hatch from where they stood now.

"We should go," he repeated quietly. He refrained from picking Hermione up and running toward the door even though his wolf urged him to.

Keeping a firm hold of her, they started back toward the door. They hadn't even passed one shelf when Draco picked up a familiar scent and stopped in his tracks. Hermione collided with his back and whined, asking him what was wrong before he could quiet her.

"There's someone else in here," he growled. He turned around and pulled her to his chest, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and using the other to hold out his wand. Hermione grabbed hold of his robes and wisely said nothing.

Something heavy shifted behind him and as Draco spun around to face the sound, he released Hermione. His eyes met Montague's and even as the cruciatus curse hit him in the chest, Draco sent sectumsempra at him. Montague dropped to one knee, yelling out in pain as his chest split open and blood soaked his robes. Draco grit his teeth as the cruciatus curse that hit him rippled through his body and disappeared. One of the perks of being a werewolf, he supposed.

He stalked toward Montague, kicking him onto his back and relishing in the scent of his blood. Montague coughed and gurgled, screaming some more as the gash in his chest spread further.

"I told you I'd kill you," Draco snarled. Montague tried to speak, but his words were unintelligible. Draco lifted his heel to bring down onto Montague's face, but a loud shout behind him caught his attention before he could.

He turned just in time to see a green jet of light hit the shelf above Hermione's head and Adrian Pucey fly backward at her hex. Hermione sent another spell at Pucey that had him curling in on himself, but that didn't stop Pucey from firing two rapid curses at her. Hermione dodged the first one, but her hastily cast shield splintered at the impact. The second one sailed toward her shoulder and Draco cast a shield at the last second that deflected it. Hermione's wide eyes met his but a second later, she was back to duelling Pucey just as angrily as before.

Draco joined in, sending every dark spell he could think of and wishing Pucey wasn't such a skilled duelist. As Pucey's back hit a shelf and Montague gurgled for the last time, Pucey's eyes darkened and he aimed his wand at Hermione. Draco roared as Fiendfyre left Pucey's wand and barreled toward Hermione. He blasted her off her feet and she hit the far shelf with a sickening thunk. Around them, green flames devoured the carpet and Pucey slipped away.

Panicking, Draco lifted Hermione into his arms and raced for the door. The Fiendfyre rose quickly and roared behind them as Draco ran. He could feel the room heating up behind him and even with his enhanced speed, he barely made it to the door before the Fiendfyre caught his robes.

With Hermione still in his arms, Draco pulled the door closed and raised his wand to cast every sealing spell, charm, and curse he could think of. While it was easy to believe the Room of Requirement would be able to keep the Feindfyre in, Draco didn't want to risk it. Pucey and Montague were both still in the room and Draco couldn't help but snarl happily at the thought of them burning. As far as he was concerned, they deserved their deaths and it was a much more merciful way to go than what he would have done to them had they made it out unharmed.

Hermione shifted in his arms and Draco's gaze darted down to make sure she was alright. The Fiendfyre hadn't touched them, but Hermione had hit the shelf pretty hard when he hexed her out of the way. Worried she was injured and he hadn't noticed at first, he looked over her quickly and ran his hands over her arms.

"Are you alright?" he asked, panicking as she brought a hand up to her head. Her fingers came away sticky with blood and Draco's wolf took over before he could stop it.

He couldn't even remember learning the spells, but somehow he managed to cast a diagnostic spell to determine just how hard she'd hit her head. A quick healing spell took care of the open wound on the back of her head and another, more advanced spell healed part of her concussion.

Hermione let him fuss over her. Her head hurt too much to really fight against him and he seemed to know what he was doing as he healed her head. As soon as her head stopped pounding and she felt like she could move without getting nauseous though, she grabbed Draco's flittering hands and stopped his fretting.

"I'm okay, Draco," she assured him, capturing one of his hands in both of hers.

His eyes were silver and they kept darting behind her to the door where the Fiendfyre still burned, but he didn't pull away from her. She hadn't expected him to anyway. She let go of his hands so she could gently cup his face and as soon as she did, his arms locked around her waist. His eyes stayed silver as he looked down at her.

"We have to go meet Harry," she told him gently, brushing his cheek with her thumb. "I'm certain the Fiendfyre took care of the diadem, but we have to be ready to fight. We can't do that if we don't know what he and McGonagall are planning."

"You won't fight," Draco told her, silver eyes narrowing. Hermione frowned.

"I will too," she argued. He opened his mouth to argue, but she covered it before he could. "If you think anything you say will convince me otherwise, Draco Malfoy, then you don't know me at all."

Draco glared at her for several long seconds before turning his head away from her. Her hand fell from his mouth as he looked at her once more, his eyes flickering between silver and grey.

"This is War, Hermione," he reminded her. "You could get hurt."

"I'm not worried," she said. His eyes narrowed further and Hermione glared in return. "You can either walk with me to find Harry and McGonagall or I'll leave you here and go myself, but we still have Nagini to kill and I can't do it on my own."

Draco stared at her long and hard. His eyes continued to flicker and Hermione almost held her breath as she waited for him to settle on a decision. Slowly, his eyes faded back to their normal grey. Even though he was still frowning and his entire body was tense, he nodded.

"If any one of them hurt you, I'll kill them all," he told her. Hermione just smiled before pulling his face down to hers and kissing him firmly. After all, she hadn't really expected anything else.