Hermione pressed her lips together, mind spinning with all the new information. "No, no. I'll just… head back to mine. My room, that is."

She forced a smile at Boppy as she exited, turning left and falling into her bedroom to lean back on the door. It was larger than Draco's. She followed the frame separating her sleeping area from her living space. These had been two rooms, and someone had knocked down the wall between.

She blinked, rearranging the ideas in her mind.

There was a drawer in Draco Malfoy's bedroom that contained a shoebox. Inside that shoebox was a picture of her.

A newspaper article, she corrected. From almost a year ago. Marking her as a wanted woman.

Combing her mind for what she remembered of that article, she looked out the large windows to the pond. Lupin had told them about the Muggle-Born Registration Commission last year, before they went Horcrux hunting. This article had announced her importance. It had told the world that she was wanted — that whoever procured her would be held in high regard, possibly even paid handsomely.

And Draco Malfoy had a copy of it hidden away in his room, in a location one would keep trinkets or fond old memories.

She felt the cool wood of the door against her back, her heated skin calming. Counting her fingers, counting her breaths, counting the trees she could see in the distance. She pushed aside the anxiety of being caught snooping. She pushed aside the concern over a door beyond which Narcissa and Lucius were standing guard over their son.

She pushed aside the feeling of familiarity. The memory of cutting out an article in the Prophet featuring his smirk and grey eyes, bright in the black and white print, and tucking it into her Hogwarts trunk.

Because this was war. And war had no room for her childish fantasies.

So, what would the Malfoys gain by buying her at the Auction? She was valuable, of course. To both sides and for different reasons. Her purpose had been served for the Death Eaters: entertainment, humiliation, a symbol of hope reduced to a whore. But to the Order… she still was incredibly valuable. Was it possible the Malfoys were prepared to play both sides of this war?

Narcissa's kindness, Lucius's information, Draco's concern for her.

They wanted her to learn Occlumency. They wanted her alive, unharmed, and untouched. They wanted her to play a part when Voldemort visited.

But they weren't playing both sides, she reminded herself. Lucius Malfoy had just killed dozens at Dover Castle, including Charlie. Shaking her head, and knocking her skull back against the door, she refocused. She tried to think how Lucius Malfoy thinks.

If the Death Eaters fell, and the Order rose up again, would she be expected to testify to their treatment of her?

Her face in print, tucked away into a drawer, like it was a prized possession. Even now, she was tucked away in a suite in a fortress, safe as a picture in a drawer.