Here it goes, another day.

Merlin, what's wrong with her? What's with that sinking feeling that wants to push her down to the ground and make her decay there?

"...is all I'm saying. I mean, yeah, we had a very brief relationship, but he needs to let that go. I did. He just can't assume he's at liberty to sneak into my dormitory whenever he damn pleases."

Hearing Pansy Parkinson's voice enter her eardrums, causing the beginning pulsing-feeling of a headache coming on, Hermione knew there were too many things that were wrong with her. As she looked down at the marble floor, she saw long trousers and fine shoes rather than her stockings and small feet. She was wearing Slytherin robes with the smell of cool mint that wouldn't go away, and she was heading to the Great Hall with two Slytherins rather than Ron and Harry.

And, Merlin forbid, she forgets the fact that she's only coexisting with the snakes without any insults and duels is because she happens to be in the Slytherin Prince's body and they haven't the foggiest that it's really her.

"You need to set him straight," Pansy continued. "Show him how a proper man needs to behave after a break-up."

"How exactly can I help with that?" Rolling his eyes, Blaise Zabini gave Parkinson an annoyed look. "Theo does whatever he pleases, Pansy. And that includes you."

At the tactless pun, Parkinson frowned. "Look, I'm about one shove from murdering him, Blaise. If you want your friend to live for a few more years, I suggest you tell him to back off. You were never like this when you broke things off with Daphne."

"What happened between Daphne and me was different," Blaise snapped, now completely out of patience. "And maybe, Pans, if you quit going along with Nott's advances, he'd stop. You don't exactly seem reluctant to leave him behind when you kick the girls out of the room so you and him can have a few moments alone."

Parkinson witch snorted, but said nothing.

"Seems to me you might be in love with Theo."

As Parkinson's face twisted up in uncontrollable outrage and disgust, Hermione remembered something else that was wrong with her. It was matters of the heart. She felt things she should've not been feeling at all.

Even as she started shaking her borrowed-head, trying to make her brain stop from formulating the thoughts that have had her moping about the castle and the Slytherin dungeons, her problematic issues collided into her full speed as soon as Zabini, Parkinson, and she turned the corner of the corridor and saw a lone figure resting against the entrance wall of the Great Hall.

Someone was waiting for her.

Her borrowed-body felt like it was drenched in iced water. Malfoy's shoulders stiffened, his chest tightened, his heart slowed down, and then Hermione felt like the capacity to speak left his throat as a knot formed and took residence there.

Clearly not having the same problem as she was, the lonely witch waiting in the corridor pushed herself from the wall she was leaning against and took two careful and calculated steps to the three Slytherins. Her face was masked in absolutely nothing, but there was a glow to her brown eyes that could be identified as desperation.

"Malfoy," Hermione Granger had spoken in a low tone. "We need to talk."

Narrowing her eyes as the Mudblood Queen spoke to her friend in an almost ordering tone, Pansy sneered at her. "Draco doesn't talk to the likes of you, Granger. Now move out of the way before we make you."

Hermione Granger's eyes lost their previously undefined look to appear angered. "I—He talks to whoever he fucking pleases, Parkinson. Just because you trail after him like a lost puppy without an owner, and do anything he says, doesn't mean he does the same for you."

"Listen, you annoying little Mudblood—"

"Let it go, Parkinson," interrupting his housemate, Blaise pulled down the wand she had foolishly taken out to direct at Granger. "Now, let's go inside before you humiliate yourself. You know perfectly well that Granger can turn you into a tea-cozy with just a blink of an eye. You don't stand a chance in a duel with her."

With a curious glance, the Gryffindor's eyes watched as Zabini aimed an interesting smirk at her direction before dragging Pansy into the Great Hall to join the staff and students for the dinner they were late to. There had been a twinkle in his eye, like he knew something he wasn't letting on but caused him great amusement.

Feeling that little twinge of happiness because Blaise had indirectly stuck up for her, like there was a hope for a friendship there once she returned to her body, Hermione felt all the frozen rigidness return back to her when she was left alone with the person currently possessing her body.

Hating the fact that Malfoy could make her feel completely disoriented, thrown off from all her sensible feelings and determined thoughts, Hermione took in a deep inhale through her borrowed-nostrils. She collected her Gryffindor courage, and pulled on the best mask she'd learned to mold from her time as a Slytherin.

"If you're just going to stand there, Malfoy, then I suppose I should leave before I hurl up the bit I had for breakfast," even though she kept her tone neutral, her fingertips started tingling. She'd been steering clear from him because of this, because of these overwhelming emotions that stabbed at her.

Malfoy used his remembrance of no-emotion to mask Granger's face again. "I'm sure you're dying to go to the library, Granger, but we really need to talk."

Hermione frowned. "We really don't have anything to say to each other," her heart hurt as she said it. "Unless it's about how you're going to drag my body down to fight with the Death Eaters. Or, are you giving me a heads-up on how and when you're going to give up Harry's position in the castle?"

Holding Granger's tongue, Malfoy tightened her lips into a tight line. He refused to say anything for a few seconds, feeling that bubbling sense of anger starting to tickle his blood. He was waiting for Granger for a reason, and it wasn't to lash out at her and send all their progress down the loo.

"You are, aren't you?" she snorted; continuing to talk without getting the hint that Draco was doing all that Don't-Say-Anything-At-All-If-You-Don't-Have-Anything-Nice-To-Say rubbish she was always preaching about. "Honestly, I don't know if you have a conscience or you're here to ask for something."

Draco took a deep breath, deciding it was important to talk now before she ruined it and made him explode in a rage that could be deadly for both of them. "Granger—"

"Please don't, Malfoy," Hermione interrupted, a loud sigh passing her borrowed-mouth.

"Granger—"

"I thought we had something," she mumbled, aching from inside, deep where her soul was. "I guess...I guess I was wrong." She laughed, shaking that head of white-blonde hair that didn't belong to her. "God, I was so stupid. I...I just thought that maybe you'd seen reason...that you saw me as something else than that annoying Mudblood. But you didn't, did you? It's all right, I suppose. You can laugh at me, because I admit that was the most—"

"Stop talking!" Taking his turn to interrupt her now, Draco took heated steps at the girl possessing his body. And with her tiny and fragile hands he gripped his pale ones, applying pressure like if he assumed her body had developed extra strength from the previous night.

Hermione was startled, her pathetic rant halting itself as her own eyes—eyes that he controlled, eyes that he lived behind—were staring at her with so much intensity. She'd been feeling betrayed, hurt, angered, hatred at Malfoy, but with that look she forgot it all.

Turning the corner of the corridor, quietly and undetected as always, Aphrodite Venus stumbled upon the body-swapped students. The scene she walked into looked exactly the same from her distance; the same it had when she first cursed them so they'd walk in each others' shoes. Instead of there being complete anger, instead of there being complete hatred that was borderline from becoming a violent mess, there was something pure filling the air.

Even though they weren't in their rightful bodies, the boy and girl stared at each other with emotions that were too much for them to contain. They were emotions neither had ever felt before; they looked odd sparkling in their eyes. It was strong, intense, needy, and completely wrapped in fear.

This was the moment that was going to define everything, and Aphrodite Venus knew that. The one with the power to make it or break it was Draco Malfoy.

With a steady breath he didn't know he needed, Malfoy didn't let go of Hermione's borrowed-hands. "I do see you differently," he said thickly. "I...I think I lo—"

Loud blasts of glass shot around, coming from inside of the Great Hall that silenced whatever Draco had to say. Both Gryffindor and Slytherin looked at each other, something digging at their skin. As soon as they heard an ear-splitting scream they moved their feet and headed fast into the Great Hall once there was clattering of dishes and silverware. Panic burst out from the room, and most eyes were on Parvati Patil shrieking her lungs out while the rest hid underneath tables from the glass that had flown in their direction.

McGonagall and the other teachers had risen from their seats, inspecting for a threat.

As Parvati fell from her seat, palms pressed against her ears as she continued to scream and the Great Hall dimmed dramatically, Harry Potter was not the only one headed straight for her. Blaise had launched himself away from his seat at the Slytherin table, shaking off Nott's hold as his dark face filled with deep concern.

Before anything could happen, before Harry could reach his housemate, a voice slithered its way into everyone's ears. It clawed its way in, scraping and making them all feel violated and vulnerable.

"Give me Harry Potter..."

X

It all had happened so fast. One moment he was staring at Granger, looking deep into the reflection she was making his eyes glitter with, ready to say something he'd discovered deep within him, when time sped up and rushed by him. He remembered hearing glass break, Patil scream, the fear gripping everyone as the Dark Lord's voice penetrated every single mind that was in the Great Hall, and even the disastrous mess that Pansy had caused by initiating for someone to grab Potter and send him straight to the Dark Lord.

He had been glued to his borrowed feet, seeing Slytherin House be sent away; the Great Hall cleared from its younger students and only keeping those who were willing and wanting to fight. There were so many things tugging him back and forth that he didn't even realize when he'd lost sight of his own body and when Potter and the Weasel had gripped both of his borrowed-hands and started taking off with him.

"Stupefy!"

Being shoved into a wall, Weasley covering Granger's tiny body with his lanky one, Draco could only hear Potter shout a hex as the castle raged on with loud noises that had signaled the very war they'd been anticipating.

"We need to find the Horcrux!" The Boy Who Lived shouted, rushing off full speed as Ron pulled Hermione along. "I was talking to Luna and—"

"We're at bloody war, Harry!" Ron interrupted, his hand still clutching tightly onto Hermione's as they tried pushing through the mass of students. "Do you really think now is the time to listen to what Luna has to say? She's mental!"

With eyes completely wide, heart beating like it was about to burst out of Granger's chest by his own distressed emotions, Draco fell to the ground as giant spiders launched themselves in their direction. He fell on his borrowed-knees, marble and plaster digging into the skin and cutting it.

He was about to cower to a corner, his mind completely frazzled at everything, but Potter saved the moment once again with a jet of light shooting out his wand and stunning the engorged spiders that were seconds away from tearing off their heads.

More of the castle was blasted from its structure, sending dangerous shreds at whoever was around them. There was so much screaming; some for help, some of rage, and a lot of bravery.

"I've got to trust her, Ron!" Potter was shouting through the noise, leading the way again as they sprinted through main halls of Hogwarts. "This diadem of Ravenclaw has to be the Horcrux we're looking for! It has to! Nothing else fits!"

Screams, jets of light; it all took over Draco's senses as he tried to keep Granger's lungs full of oxygen as Potter and Weasley had him running at top speed. As he did so, he couldn't help but to let a piece of his distressed mind compliment and praise his Gryffindor Bookworm for keeping up with her git friends. She'd have to have had an excellent capacity to endure all this frustration and adrenaline after fighting with Potter for so long. She honestly was a warrior. She handled situations that would make anyone else seem weak and useless.

Dodging another aimed hex in their direction, Ron shoved his two friends to a corner and tried to buy a moment of secrecy. "Fine," he snapped at Potter. "Go and do what you need to. Now's not the time to doubt Luna, you're right. Hermione and me will go get the Basilisk fangs we've stored in one of the upper broomstick closets. We're going to need a way of destroying the Horcrux, right?"

Malfoy was shaking his borrowed-head, making Granger's features scowl dangerously as the two Gryffindor idiots were calling the shots of whatever suicide-mission they had planned. He was not about to go anywhere with the Weasel. He needed to run, to get out of the castle and find his parents...

He needed to find Granger.

He needed to escape these two gits and go and find the girl possessing his body. He had decided that he wanted to fight for her, that he wanted to fight right beside her. But what the hell was the purpose of that desire if she was off somewhere, suffering the degree of what it was to be him? What if she got hurt? He wasn't going to keep his silent vow to do the right thing if Granger was not around. He had no intention of aiding Potter if he couldn't have Granger with him.

"Here's the map. Use it to find me," shoving an old parchment at the Weasel, Draco watched angrily as Scarhead turned to him. Potter gripped both of his borrowed-shoulders, squeezing tightly. "Find your bravery," he said in a harsh whisper, a tone that should've been sweeter and encouraging when directed to his best friend. "I know it's there."

Through Granger's brown eyes, Draco let a flash of curiosity, shock, and questioning appear for a quick second as Potter's hold on 'Granger' was rough and frustrated. The Chosen One was staring at his alleged friend like he was angry, like he was ordering rather than trying to comfort.

Before he could even get to say anything to Potter, Weasley had ripped him away from the secluded wall and made him move fast down another corridor as they emerged into the battle; hexes and glass flying in all directions.

For a split second, Malfoy turned his borrowed-head to look over Granger's shoulder. He saw Potter staring after them; and with a firm gaze, the Boy Who Lived headed for a staircase on his own.

X

Oh God, it was much worse than what she could've thought of. She had assumed all the adventures with Harry and Ron, the fight at the Ministry, the battle at Hogwarts the night Dumbledore was killed, what her and her friends had experienced during their search for the first Horcruxes, or even getting tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange was horrible—but this took the title of horrifying experiences. How Hermione was going to be able to live with herself after this, she didn't know.

Things had moved so fast from the point she heard Parvati scream. McGonagall was shouting, students were rushing out the doors of the Great Hall, and she could spot Harry and Ron rush to where she was standing—but they hadn't grabbed her hands. They had taken Malfoy with them; Malfoy who was possessing her body and pretending to be the missing one-third of the Golden Trio. As Ron gripped the hand of who he thought was his friend, Harry had looked at 'Malfoy' with a saddened, worried, and brave glint in his eye. Before she could try to understand what that exactly meant, the figures of Harry, Ron and Hermione were off.

She'd had a good mind to go right after them, to reveal everything and assist Harry and Ron, to even help save Malfoy—or to plead with him to stay and not join the Death Eaters attacking the castle—but she remembered something important. As she had stood there, watching people flee, people aiming spells, the professors shouting instructions, familiar faces from the Order starting to appear, Hermione knew her time posing as the Slytherin Prince had a purpose in the end.

She had vowed to protect the innocent within the Slytherin House.

She had taken off in full speed, shouting shielding charms to whoever she could in the process; her borrowed-eyes scanned the castle's corridors  for those Slytherins who didn't want to be there. Sure, they had families on the other side of the battle, they had their bigoted views of the world, but that didn't mean they needed to die. They were children, after all. They all were.

It had taken her a few minutes to find them after she had dodged several bundles of walls and other things with a flick of her wand and her experience of escaping these mishaps in her adventures with Harry and Ron. She spotted Blaise, Parkinson, Nott, and Daphne among the throng of Slytherins like her focus had been a magnet and they were metal.

 Whipping out Malfoy's wand and pointing it directly to the cellar the Slytherins were locked behind, Hermione made the bars explode.

"Draco!" Pansy sighed with great relief, her black eyes shining with tears as the blonde Slytherin had come to the rescue.

Ignoring Parkinson, Hermione reached for Millicent Bulstrode and Gregory Goyle before any of the students could bolt out of their confinement and a giant unorganized mess occurred because of it. She gripped both of their wrists with the unbelievable strength Malfoy had in his body, making them look at her with intense fear as she stared at them dead in the eye. "Unseal one of the passages out of Hogwarts," she hissed at them. "You grab all the younger students that you can find, no matter what house they are in, and those who don't want to stay and fight, and you get them out! Understood?"

Millicent was about to say something, but Goyle stopped her in her tracks. He pulled his meaty arm away from who he thought was Malfoy, a serious look upon his face. "Don't get killed, Draco," he begged his old friend.

A little surprised by the almost soft voice that belonged to one of Malfoy's goons, Hermione nodded her borrowed-head and moved to the side, allowing Bulstrode and Goyle to exit out with the rest of the Slytherins who were in desperate need to flee.

Looking at those who remained, staring a little longer at Blaise specifically, Hermione took off running again. Now that she'd freed those who she needed to, she needed to find Harry, Ron and Malfoy. She needed to get to them, to assist them. She needed to help and end this once and for all.

At the top speed she had always been required to run with during the dangerous outings with Harry, Hermione dodged more spells and plasters of bricks and glass. She could hear footsteps right behind her, but she didn't turn to see that it was those Slytherins she had been forced to befriend as her time during Draco Malfoy.

She could hear them shooting off spells, screaming with complete fear and confusion. Most of them hadn't a clue where they were going, who they were fighting, or what they were going to do to survive all of this. They were mixed in now. If they attacked anyone inside the castle, anyone that they had called a classmate or a professor, chances were they were going to die before they could runaway. How were they supposed to do the right thing and not get hexed to their deaths by the Death Eaters and other dark creatures bombarding the castle?

It really was the survival of the fittest now.

"Astoria!"

Hermione whipped her borrowed-head right on time as Daphne's shout penetrated her hearing and took over the shouts, screams, and spells flying everywhere. She watched with a horrified expression as the youngest Greengrass sister was trying to battle off a Dementor that had snuck its way in. Astoria was failing greatly, wasting all her strength as she couldn't come up with anything to get rid of the creature trying to suck out her soul. Though she really didn't know a single thing about Astoria Greengrass, Hermione imagined the girl had horrors and despairs that could feed the Dementor attempting to devour her soul. Her mother's murder one of them.

Daphne fled from the group of her housemates, her dark eyes zeroed in on her sister and at the creature by a destroyed part of the courtyard now. She had dodged a hex that wasn't meant for her, crossing a duel that was against a member of the Light Side and one of the Dark. With nothing to defend herself either, Daphne launched herself over Astoria's unconscious body, acting like a shield.

Blaise, Pansy, and Theodore watched horrified. Two of their housemates, both Greengrass sisters were dying just a few yards away and they couldn't stop it. They didn't know how. Nothing could get rid of the Dementor but a powerful charm they hadn't mastered, that they hadn't known because they weren't required to by their Death Eater families.

As Hermione decided to send her acting to hell and save the girls she'd vowed to protect, someone else had shouted the charm that was needed.

"Expecto Patronum!"

A giant, glowing pitbull pushed by Hermione in its run. It growled menacingly, barking at the Dementor and made it flee hurriedly into the night sky, saving Astoria and Daphne as they wiggled weakly against the littered floor.

Not having to turn to see who it was, Hermione was still very surprised as she saw Dean Thomas make his Patronus disappear as he headed straight for the Greengrass sisters. "I'll get them," he shouted back at the people watching him curiously. "I'll lead them to safety!"

"Blaise!"

Once again, not having to turn, this time not surprised but completely overwhelmed by all her senses going off, Malfoy's heart beating so rapidly with adrenaline that was all Hermione's, Parvati appeared full-speed. She was quick to wrap her arms around Zabini, gripping him tightly as she shed thick tears of relief.

Squeezing her back with the same intensity, like he didn't see anyone else but the girl hugging him like her life depended on it, Blaise inhaled her essence. He whispered something, something that really couldn't be heard, but by the way his bright eyes shone, it was not hard to guess that it was sweet nothingness of reassurance and comfort.

Looking torn between being completely aghast and disgusted at Patil and Blaise, Pansy chose to let that one go as she turned to face her housemates and Thomas. "I'll take Astoria," she said in a rough tone, approaching the other shocking scene ahead of her. "But you take us straight to somewhere safe, Thomas," she added in a half-fearful half-ordering tone. "I'm not about to die here."

Telling Parkinson to cast a Shielding Charm over her and Astoria Greengrass in a hurry, Dean turned and called for Parvati, interrupting the moment between the two unknown lovers. "Find the others," he told her in a struggling voice. "Find Seamus, Lavender, Neville, Luna and the others. Fight with them, Parv. And...if I don't come back..."

"Stop," Parvati snapped at her friend, pulling herself away from Blaise. "You come straight back, do you hear me, Dean? We're not the D.A without you. Come back." And with a flicker of her dark eyes, she inspected the protecting and gentle hold her housemate had on the Slytherin witch in his arms. "If not for us, then for Daphne Greengrass."

Swallowing a knot of concern and vulnerable emotions, Hermione watched with a broken heart as Dean, Daphne, Parkinson and Astoria headed away; strong enchantments on them as they tried to re-enter the castle. She wanted to believe she was going to see them again, Dean and Daphne, but with everything the war was bringing at that exact moment, she couldn't help but to feel a tiny shred of her faith die.

"Are you not going?" Zabini's voice entered Hermione's borrowed-eardrums. "Follow after them, Theo. Try and save yourself for another day."

Nott's blank mask slipped off for a few seconds. His expression filled with disappointment, rage, and defeat. "Well, they left us here, didn't they?" he scoffed, touching a hand to his left arm where Hermione knew for a fact the dark mark was not on. "Mind as well fight with my best mate and his girlfriend than to die on my own. It's all the same, isn't it?"

Blaise's dark complexion was indifferent but his bright eyes gleamed with something. "No, it's not," he replied. "You're choosing the right side now, Theo."

"Yeah, well...I'm not as evil as people assume," and with a quick leer at Malfoy's direction, Theodore Nott twirled his wand in between his fingers and nudged his head at the direction of the ongoing battle.

And right as they were about to run, Parvati screamed, "Look! There goes Harry, Ron and Hermione!"

Not having to wait to hear the suggestion to follow the great Golden Trio, Hermione forced Malfoy's feet to start running. She had taken off with incredible speed once more, inhaling deep with her borrowed-nostrils; shooting off spells and protecting herself against anything coming her way.

She could see them, her two best friends and her Slytherin Prince dodging the stomps of a giant. She could see Harry's look of relief, like he'd found something he had been looking for and destroyed it. Ron was determined, one hand stuffing a Basilisk fang that wasn't missed by her in the distance. Malfoy was running just as fast with his two sworn enemies, but his eyes were distracted. He was scouting for something, blinking wildly at any figure that passed them by, student or Death Eater.

Right as Hermione knew he was looking for his parents and her, she stopped dead in her tracks as Malfoy's distraction caused him not to see the Death Eater that pointed his wand at him. The jet of light the Death Eater shot out of his wand wrapped around Malfoy entirely, making him fly back and hit a brick wall as Harry and Ron screamed bloody murder at the attacker.