A/N: Okay. I know that you guys are reading this. Thank you for those of you who reviewed. I love that you guys take the time. I'm writing this for you so REVIEW!! Ha ha. But really. The more reviews I recieve, the quicker I'll write for you. There's no point in me writing these fanfictions if nobody's reading them. Thank you for those of you who added this to your alert lists and other similar alerts. It makes me happy. I haven't had any particular problems with this story but I'm disappointed with the amount of reviews recieved on the others. Especially when I know people are reading them! Enjoy this chapter. Much love!

-Jessie

Disclaimer: I do not own the majority of the characters used in this story. All belong to J.K. Rowling. The plot is mine.

Because it Was Our Secret

Draco's POV:

On my way back to the common room I got a lot of strange looks from my peers. I must have looked ridiculous with only one button fastened under my collar. I fixed my tie and smirked at the girls passing by. What can I say? I can pull off any look. Ha ha. Eventually, of course, I ended up just taking off my shirt and wandering down the hall half nude because I decided I could pull that look off better because I didn't look like I'd just gotten attacked by a horny mob. I threw my ruined shirt over my shoulder and strutted into the dungeons where I found Blaise sitting on the leather couch rolling a joint. He was alone.

I rolled my eyes and walked up behind him quietly. When I was close enough I reached over the back of the couch and knocked the joint out of his hand right before he was going to lick it to seal the paper.

"Hey!" he yelled, spinning around to glare up at me. When he saw it was me he just sighed and knelt down to clean up the mess. "What was that for?" he asked. I chuckled and walked slowly around the couch, pausing to watch him charm whatever it was back onto the paper. He tucked his wand into his robes and licked it shut, twisting it at the ends before lighting up.

I sat down across from him, throwing my shirt on the glass table in front of me, and draped my arms athwart the top of the couch, cocking my head back.

"What have you been up to today?" I asked with a crooked little smile. He stared at me suspiciously and relaxed into the cushions behind him, looking me up and down.

"I should be asking you the same thing," he muttered. "What's happened to your shirt?"

I let my eyes fall upon the tattered piece of clothing for a moment before I snickered and also leaned back. "What's it to you?" I asked with my eyebrow cocked. It was my tone that informed him that I was not happy with him. My fellow Slytherins could never really tell when I was less than pleased because I chose to hide it. I liked the element of surprise. It made things extraordinarily more entertaining for me seeing as I found my life dreadfully boring. Which also may be the same reason why I chose to try out a muggle born witch… So forbidden…

"Alright…" Blaise began slowly. "What's the matter now? What did I do?"

"You know what I hate?" I asked completely disregarding the question. Blaise knew he had entered the Serpent Pit with me and he wasn't sure quite how to get out without being bitten. Usually people saw it coming but were too late in realizing to stop it. As I said, the element of surprise.

"Hmmm?" he asked taking a hit off his joint. He held it out to me and I took it, smelled it and then shook my head passing it back to him. I wasn't fond of Shell. It made me act aggressively and that was bad for someone who was already made up mostly of testosterone. I won't lie. I'm an asshole. Everyone knows one… That cocky bastard who you just want to punch in the face. That would be me… Except most people also want to snog the hell out of me right after. Ha!

"I hate liars," I said simply. "You know what I hate more than liars?" Blaise stayed silent, letting the smoke out of his lungs. He wouldn't look at me now. He was staring up at the ceiling and then he'd assess what was left of his joint and take another puff, letting the smoke out in little rings. "You don't know?" I asked him, raising my eyebrows and leaning forward slightly.

"No…enlighten me," he replied nonchalantly. I felt a small tinge of anger because I knew he was trying to frustrate me. He didn't want to come off defensive so he was trying not to care and be a smart ass about it.

"I hate bad liars," I drawled. "And you want to know what I hate even more than bad liars?"

"Apparently you hate everything Draco," Blaise said, finally meeting my gaze for the first time. I reached up and scratched my chest. I didn't blink and he finally decided to indulge me. "What do you hate even more than bad liars?" he asked in a bored fashion.

"I hate it when they're my friends," I replied. "Or my so called friends. You really can't trust anyone in this House now can you?" I stood and began to leave.

"Wait!" Blaise yelled, standing up. His reaction was slightly over-exaggerated and belligerent and I reckoned it was because the Shell was kicking in. "Draco! What do you mean by that? What have I lied to you about?"

"Oh!" I said, turning and advancing on him. "So you do catch on then?"

"What have I lied about?" he snapped.

"I think you know," I replied. "Please don't make me spell it out for you any more."

"Well. The way I see it Draco, is you can just say what I know you're dying to say and probably will say no matter what I tell you. You can save us both some time with that option. Or we can play it your way and be here all night," Blaise replied smartly.

"Wouldn't want to keep you away from Pansy," I shot back casually. He looked completely thrown off by that remark, which made me wonder if he was really that stupid. It also made me wonder what else he'd lied to me about.

"Pansy?" he asked trying to mask his surprise although his eyes said, 'How does he know?!' I gave him my shark tooth grin. I was about to sink my teeth in. "What's she got to do with this?"

"You told me you weren't banging her," I replied. "So if you're not banging her then what was that this afternoon?"

I didn't know it but Pansy was coming down the girl's dormitory steps at that moment and she paused, her eyes wide with her false realization. Could Draco Malfoy actually be jealous that she'd canoodled with his best friend?! I may have been jealous at first but I'd recently found someone who intrigued me far more than she did. And it was probably because I couldn't have her… Or shouldn't but would.

"Wha? How did you? When did you? How?" he asked, with his brow furrowed.

"I'm going to tell you mostly because you look incredibly unattractive when you're confused… I saw you two practically fall into that classroom when you were all over each other in the hallway. And then I heard her and I know what she sounds like, Blaise. I've been with her countless times. And I know she was with you. And you lied to me. And Pansy told me ages ago that you two had done that but I didn't believe her because we were fighting and I figured she was trying to get at me," I explained. "But apparently I can put more trust in her than I can in you. And that's sad because you can't trust that girl with anything."

I decided to take my leave right then. I didn't need an explanation. I just wanted him to know he'd been caught… As I saw it, I had far more important things to be thinking about. Like how I was going to see Granger again and how the two of us could make it as inconspicuous as possible. I knew dear ol' Ronnie was already on to us in a wild jealous way… He reminded me of that crazy ex boyfriend that would come gun down Granger on her wedding day because she wasn't marrying him… But I figured he'd probably get involved with somebody else and forget all about her. Or I hoped because if he didn't I would have to kill him… Mostly because people like that just piss me off.

I flopped onto my bed and rolled onto my back taking in the events of that day. That day that had started out so ordinary and ended so unexpectedly… Although the day itself wasn't quite over yet, but the fact that I was up in my room meant that it was for me. I'd found a lot of my days were ending in this early fashion and it made me feel like quite a loser. I was Draco Malfoy. And I had no life. Let's face it. Like a good little pureblood I was a natural over achiever and nerd. But I didn't run my mouth off about that. But seeing as I was a natural over achiever and nerd, that naturally meant that I'd already done all my homework. Wow. Go me.

So I went back to running through the events of my day and my scheming.

Flashback:

I looked up to find the librarian lady staring at us, clearly horrified with the events that were going on, on top of her table. Her hands were clamped over her mouth and I felt my pale cheeks flush as I quickly pulled my shirt shut. Something about an elderly woman seeing my body deeply disturbed me. Granger was below me with her legs still wrapped around my hips, with her hand thrown over her face. Oh Dear God… We gathered our things.

And then we were running…

I chuckled and let out a deep breath.

"Ooooh my," I murmured to myself smiling, the flush returning to my cheeks.

…I paused at the door because I felt like I needed to say something to the lady… That is a slightly inconsiderate thing to do. It's like having sex in your parents' bed… Just plain wrong. Unless you're trying to get back at them for something they'd done to you that was of equal or greater consequence.

End.

She'd been holding my hand and as we were turning into the hallway I spotted them. They would've seen us if I'd acted only a moment later than I did. The reason Blaise and Pansy hadn't seen us first was because they had been groping each other at the end of the hallway…

By the time the sun was setting I still hadn't thought up a good plan for the very near future. I just hoped Granger would understand my predicament as well as her own. This new development was bad. For both of us. Extremely bad. And if we were caught the end result could possibly and probably would be even worse. So that brought me to my other thoughts. Was it even worth it? The good part of me told me to avoid conflict and let it alone. Unfortunately for me the good part of me was incredibly small and in no way the majority of my character. Which you already know means that I was disregarding my first instinct. I did this often and it always got me into trouble…

So this had to remain our secret. Or it wouldn't happen at all. I didn't know where we were going and I didn't know that we were going there fast. All I knew was that it must not be known. The two of us could never be seen together again. Not after Weasley had seen us today.

Something about this made me sweat. And I loved it. It was like running your fingers through a flame. Usually you'd do it quickly to keep from getting burned. It appeared I was doing it slowly and it was starting to make me feel exceedingly toasty. Perhaps I wasn't smart enough to not get burned. But I would realize this much too late. Sometimes my big head got in the way of me seeing my demise coming… Ha. Perhaps that's a tad bit too dramatic. But it could put us both in a rather tight spot. I think I've made my point and I have a habit of rambling on.

Anyway. I sat up and quickly removed my slacks. I had too much adrenaline running through me to really get to sleep but I suppose I could get comfortable. And I was trying to avoid running into anyone I didn't want to see… My list, as I knew it was getting longer. It went like this:

1.Blaise (Mostly because he'd just so recently got on my shit list.)

2.Pansy (She was just a slut and an annoying one at that.)

3.Weasley (Because if I saw him right now I'd throw him down some stairs.)

4.Potter (Just because he was who he was. And I hated his glasses…)

5.The Librarian Lady (Because she'd seen my body and I hadn't been in the library enough times to even learn her name. And she had some damn good blackmail on me now.)

And that was pretty much the top five. The list went on for a good few feet because let's face it; I hate most people. But the ones after those five either didn't attend the same school as me… Like the muggles that lived a few miles from the Manor in a slightly smaller mansion… Oh how I hated them. They're son stole my pet lamb… But I suppose I'll tell you that story another time… Or they didn't matter enough for me to think about them much except for perhaps when I saw them. Granger was currently number six but I was thinking she probably wouldn't even be on the list for much longer. And that freaked me out.

I fell asleep just before midnight…

--

For the next few days Granger didn't exist to me and as I hoped, I didn't exist to her either. I didn't want her to take this wrong but you never do know with the female species. They take everything wrong and you usually don't figure out what the actual problem is until you've said twenty other things to make it worse. Who ever said that the male species was smart about these things should die.

So I strutted down the hallway, a true loner at the beginning of the week seeing as I didn't want to be around Blaise or Pansy and they happened to hang out with the majority of my group. And I didn't want to bring Crabbe and Goyle and the others into the drama because then it would get way bigger than it actually had to be and I'd end up fighting Blaise to settle it. This often happened in my House seeing as us male Slytherins knew no other way. That's how I became the Slytherin King because I'd been trained in several styles of fighting since I could walk and I hadn't lost a fight yet. I should've worn a sign that said Super Death Eater In Training! Because that's simply what I was. My views on this? I didn't think about it much at that point in time. I'd been taught the Death Eater ways since I could listen and as you know that started some time during my mother's pregnancy with me. Like I've said. I knew no other way. Things were what they were and I never thought I could possibly have the power to change it if I liked. Granger would teach me different. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So. As I was saying. I was strutting down the hallway, as I often did with my group trailing a little ways behind me. I wasn't actually aware of them there because I wasn't really paying much attention to that at the time. I was on my way to Professor Trelawney's class and this year we shared this class with the Gryffindors. Oh joy! I wondered if the Slytherins and Gryffindors had always been rivals. I had a good feeling that they had been… I know I probably heard that somewhere too. Probably from a Professor but I'd either been staring down someone's shirt, tormenting/throwing something at someone I didn't like, groping someone under the desk, and/or I was too high to remember. So pretty much doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing. I still marvel at the fact that I do well in school. Don't you?

I climbed the latter and when I entered the actual classroom I paused at the back of it to see who'd already made it in. I bet you can guess who I was looking for… But my Bushy Headed Beaver was no where to be found… But her two former best friends were… Ronald was glaring at me with an expression that read, 'Kill on Sight.' And Potter hadn't noticed me yet. Whatever. It was getting dreadfully easy to shrug those two off. They didn't interest me much anymore. I found I was content with not even seeing them but of course the fact that we lived under the same roof in a way, though it was in separate quarters, made this impossible. I was bound to run into them somewhere. Like in the classes we had together, which there was more than one and this made me not so happy. But what can you do?

I took a table at the top of the room and put my feet across one of the spare chairs and my bag on the other one. This was my way of letting EVERYONE know I didn't want ANYONE sitting with me… Ha ha. Right. I saw Blaise roll his eyes as he took a seat as far away from me as he could. Crabbe and Goyle sat with him and Pansy sat with a couple of her friends a couple tables down from me and to the right. I leaned back and brought my chin up with my regular bored expression plastered to my face.

"Can you believe him?" someone grumbled a little ways away. If my ears could've they would've perked up. "He's such a smug bastard and he's got all his little mates trained to not even sit with him. They fucking worship him. God knows why…"

I smirked letting my eyes trail to the Weasel King. Scarhead merely shrugged as another Gryffindor that wasn't Miss Granger occupied the third seat at their table. Obviously he couldn't be bothered with me. So our feelings for each other were mutual, as they always seemed to be…

So if things worked out my table would be the only one that had an open seat. That's assuming that everyone in our grade was present, which I knew all the Slytherins were. I didn't keep track of the Gryffindors though so I wasn't sure on their end. And our beloved little bookworm hadn't made her appearance yet. I was beginning to think she wasn't coming to this party.

And then at the last minute she strolled in, much to my surprise, wearing the same bored expression I had on. She scanned the tables and sighed when she realized there were none left. She hadn't spotted me yet. She seemed resigned to standing when our horrid sad excuse of a professor made it apparent that I was her only option. She looked up with her mouth open in disbelief and I smirked evilly down at her. I had to be in character…

"Bet you like that don't you?" Weasel-B snapped as she made her way towards me. She paused only briefly to squeeze Potter's shoulder in greeting and he responded by reaching up and touching her hand… My gray eyes narrowed into a cold stare. What the hell was that? And then I quickly wondered why I cared. She wasn't with me right? And that had seemed friendly enough in nature… They were best friends. I let it roll off my back when I realized she hadn't even looked at Ronald. I suppose that's because she had stuck with her decision and not reconciled with him as she had the first time they had a little tiff on the train.

She stopped next to my bag and stared down at it before she looked at me with her eyebrows raised. I lifted my hand in a gesture of good will and peace! Ha. Yeah right. But I did return her gaze before I reached over casually and plucked my bag out of the chair. She plopped into the seat and leaned back with a sigh. This was going to be a long hour. I sneered at the redhead a little ways away and he glared back at me as the Professor began to teach. It was time for me to zone out… But today was a little different.

"Do you hate this class as much as I do?" I muttered. Granger didn't respond right away but she tensed in her surprise. Maybe she had taken my sudden lack of interest in her wrong. But God. I thought she'd know what I was playing at. She was so smart. Then it occurred to me that she'd probably only had one boyfriend in her life and that was Ronnie down there pouting in the corner, which meant that she didn't have much experience with boys. Dear me! Had we found a subject that Miss Granger couldn't conquer with flying colors? Of course you could hardly call Ver-RON-ica a boy seeing as he never acted like one… So I didn't even consider him legitimate experience with the male species.

This time I looked directly at her, my cold gray gaze beating into her.

"That and more," was her short and quiet response. I grinned. How she intrigued me! I think we were on the same page… But only time would tell that.