Okay guys! Those of you who are reading "Solitude", you are probably grumbling about how I should be fixing that one and completing it. Well, tough shit. Ahahaha I had this idea pop in to my head and I wanted to see where it would take me. Now, I know it's a bit like the fanfiction "Linked" which I lovelovelove, but in my story the plot line is different. Now, I'll write a summary at the beginning of this chapter, and no for any of the other ones. If I get any negative feedback saying,"SOME1 ALREADY HAD THIS IDEA!23" I will promptly ignore it. My story is different, end of story.

Summary: One Potions class, Neville creates a catastrophe and Draco Malfoy and Hermione are left in the destruction. They had been creating a Veritaserum in that class, and Draco's perfect potion spills all over him and Hermione Granger. Later throughout the hectic year and when Draco can hear Hermione's dark secrets and vice versa, they realize that if Veritaserum is absorbed through the skin, the side effects reveal that these secret confessions won't be stopping anytime soon. Can Draco and Hermione escape the truth?

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, all rights reserved to J.K Rowling, I only own the plot of this story.

Draco Malfoy was a bad person, really.

He practiced his family values and beliefs regularly. In fact, there was hardly a day you wouldn't hear him calling someone a mudblood, or flaunting his wealth like some sort of ostentatious vulture that preyed on weak humans. Of course, he preferred the ones that were already dead; rotting corpses. Yes, he loved to prey on Hermione Granger. One glance at her, and he saw nothing. She was a shell casing with empty innards and lonely thoughts that were left in her body to make sure she still functioned.

Sometimes he would even watch her. She was a machine that shot out excuses at random. After a while, they all started sounding the same. "I've got to go to library, study for OWLs." or, "I've got to ask McGonagall about the latest Transfiguration essay." Pothead and Weasel would only nod, and forget about her. She would leave. The deadly routine was intact and Draco Malfoy could only stare.

In Potions, he watched her stir her cauldron slowly with a glazed over expression, and he couldn't help but wonder if she was Imperiused, following some sort of deathly cycle that would somehow make her wind up all alone. As soon as the curse was lifted she would realize what had happened and it would kill her. Being alone can feel worse than dying. Draco concluded, and he went back to his potion.

"Mr. Malfoy." Professor Slughorn called out, and Draco resisted every urge in his body to throw the scalding potion at the bumbling buffoon.

"Yes, Professor?" He gritted in between his teeth, and Professor Slughorn smiled nervously.

"Your potion, Mr. Malfoy. You brewed a perfect potion. I would like to show it to the class." Draco blinked at the man a couple times, surprised by the wave of pride that surged through him. Draco nodded feebly at the man and Professor Slughorn pocketed a vial.

"This students, is a very hard potion to make, and Draco Malfoy was the only one in the entire class who brewed a perfect one. Let's give him a round of applause." Blaise thumped him hard on the back next to him and whispered something snarky that made Draco smirk.

"Look at Granger." He whispered, and Draco did just that to see the blank look on her face had resided. One of fury and disappointment had crawled its way on to her face, and she was clenching her fists to keep from hurling them at his face. Draco's smirk widened.

"Shall we test this veritaserum?" Professor Slughorn looked pointedly at him, but Draco shook his head. Sometimes the truth is not so good, and he preferred he didn't hear it. Professor clonked over to Ron Weasley, and the boy's face blushed crimson as he took the potion and swigged a bit of it.

"Tell us a fact about yourself." Professor offered, and before Ron could contain it, he started speaking.

"I love Lavender Brown." The room was completely silent, and Blaise Zabini stumbled next to him, and Draco absently caught his forearm. They both chanced a look at Hermione Granger to see her face was contorted in to one of heartbreak and pain, but it only lasted a fleeting second. She was back to a rotting carcass in mere seconds. Everyone's attention soon turned to a giggling and squealing girl who had thrown her arms around Ron Weasley's neck and was currently kissing the life out of him.

"That will be enough, Miss Brown." Professor Slughorn muttered, and she merely pulled her lips away from him and shimmied herself in between Ron and Harry, who was staring dumbfounded at the new couple.

"Even Granger is better than that priss." Blaise Zabini mumbled, and Draco raised an eyebrow; he would have to agree. But being Draco Malfoy, that wasn't happening.

"Wow Blaise, your insults have been improving by the day." He replied sarcastically and Blaise shrugged.

"Joke all you want. But I'm righ-"

"GET DOWN!" Neville Longbottom shrilly shouted, and everyone ducked. Knowing Neville and his chemistry with potions, he was overdue for an explosion. Draco heard a loud boom, and someone clatter on top of him. The table wiggled, and Draco's potion clattered off of it and on to him and the person who was currently on top of him. His skin began to burn and itch and he wanted to rip all of it off.

"Geroff me, Blaise!" He shouted, but Blaise was poking him from behind, trying to pull him up through the smoke. Draco looked down to the person on top of him, but he couldn't figure out who it was. Coughing and spluttering, he managed to make out a mass of brown curls, and his heart clonked to the bottom of his stomach. He pushed the girl off of him, and Blaise was finally able to pull him up and start to drag him out of the room. Draco watched everyone clamber around the girl in the middle of the floor, like she wasn't there and he could only watch with horror.

"Draco, w-what the h-hell?" Blaise asked weakly, but he followed Draco's troubled gaze to the witch on the ground.

"Everyone's going to leave her here." He could only mutter, his eyes watering against the toxic fumes and his lungs screaming in protest.

"Bloody hell. Come on, let's pick her up and drag her out of here." Blaise proposed, grabbing one of her arms and wrapping it around his shoulders. Draco took the other arm hesitantly and they stumbled around the classroom, feeling around for the exit. They felt a flaming hot handle of the door, and Draco hissed in pain, before pulling his sweater down over his hands and twisting the doorknob until they had reached the outside.

"You mean to tell me there are still children trapped in there? They could be dying! Unconscious-" Headmistress McGonagall's voice faltered as she watched the three students stumble out of the room weakly, voices hoarse from coughing their lungs out. One was unconscious.

"Mr. Malfoy? Mr. Zabini?" she asked incredulously and all the students lined along the walls craned their necks to see what was going on. Ron Weasley's face went beet red.

"Get off of her!" He barked, and Zabini managed a weak roll of his eyes.

"We weren't the o-ones who l-left h-her t-t-" He couldn't finish his sentence and he collapsed to the ground in a fit of coughs, and he managed to spit up blood. Draco was now holding all of the dead weight of Hermione Granger, and he knelt to the ground, laying her out.

"Levicorpus." He muttered and she rose in to the air, like she was lying on some sort of invisible bed. Draco clutched his rib cage and wheezed weakly, staring at the levitating body of Hermione Granger. He watched her chest rise and fall with difficulty and it almost seemed to calm him. Knowing he had the ability to save someone, to be able to make good decisions.

"Failure." He heard his father's voice echo in his ear, and he disagreed. Not this time... not this time.

I've got no one. No one will save me this time, and I'm not surprised. Draco Malfoy jumped at the foreign voice in his head, and his lungs scolded him for his sudden movements.

"Hospital W-Wing?" He could only voice, the rims of his eyes going black, and his vision getting blurry. He looked through the tunnel to see himself being lifted in to the air, and down the hallway. He hoped his prayers were answered, and he hoped the voice in his head wasn't who he thought it was.

Certainly not. Certainly not Hermione Granger.

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Draco woke to a painful throbbing in his ribs, and he weakly tried to sit up.

"Not so fast, Mr. Malfoy. You've got Carbon Monoxide poisoning from breathing in too much smoke. You're lucky you got here in time." She put a vial on the table top next to him, and he looked at her expectantly.

"Pain-relief potion. I'm afraid since the fire was caused by a potion, you'll just have to wait until the damage goes away. Also, you had a nasty burn on your hand; the scarring will not go away. Same reason as the former. I'll be checking on you soon, Mr. Malfoy." The medi-witch looked across the room the girl who still lay unconscious on the bed sheets.

" Headmistress told me what you did for her. She probably would have died if you boys didn't help her." She raised her eyebrows pointedly, like she expected Draco to be affected by her words. He merely turned away and gulped down the disgusting potion, willing the pain to subside. The medi-witch sighed and toddled away. Draco whipped his head around to Blaise, who was busy flipping through his potions book.

"Did you hear that, Blaise?" Draco hissed, and Blaise raised an eyebrow, urging him on. "We saved her life. We have some sort of hero complex now." Blaise couldn't help but laugh.

"You're a bloody twat; we could never have a hero complex." Blaise put his head back and winced as he tried to shimmy down in to a comfortable position. "Although, I wouldn't be surprised if she came over and thanked us." Draco grimaced at the thought, and shook his head.

"I doubt it. Have you seen her lately? She's like one of those muggle robots." Blaise grumbled and answer and sighed in pain. Draco was in a fair amount of pain too, his pain relieving potion could only take away so much. Draco closed his eyes and stared at the empty darkness of his eyelids, would his mother be told of this accident? He supposed so. It's not every day you get stuck in the hospital wing, and for a fairly long time. How long does it take to get rid of Carbon Monoxide poisoning? Draco thought, but his thoughts drifted away when he heard yelling from outside the door.

"You're going to let her in, but not us? We are her best friends!"

"Only immediate family, Mr. Weasley." He heard Headmistress' voice drone from outside the door, and the door creaked open.

"Oh, my boys." He heard the familiar voice of his mother sweep across the room. He felt a warm hand on his cheek, and he cracked one eye open to see his mother standing over him with a worried look.

"Hey mum." Draco heard Blaise say, and he rolled his eyes. Over the years his mother had grown to care for Blaise like another one of her children, and he gladly accepted her coddling. His own mother was often out of the country, searching for rich wizards to court.

"Oh Blaise, look at you. Poor thing." She clucked her tongue and ran a hand through his hair, while Blaise nodded dramatically.

"I even burnt my arm. It'll scar." He said solemnly and Draco snorted. His mother raised an eyebrow mischievously and squeezed his cheeks.

"Is ickle Drake jealous his mummy is talking to Blaisy?" Draco scowled and Blaise laughed as loudly as a person can with Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Sitting on the chair in between the two beds she crossed her legs and glanced at them both.

"Madame Pomfrey told me you guys only have to stay here for a few more hours, until the oxygen is back in your lungs." She flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulder, "I also heard that you were saving some girl? Why the hell would you put your lives at risk like that?" She asked, and both Draco and Blaise scratched the back of their heads nervously.

"Her friends just left her-"

"We couldn't just leave her there." Draco and Blaise said at the same time, both unable to explain why they saved her. It had been hard to watch in the first place, but to have her thoughts lingering around in your head was bloody freaky. Draco clamped his mouth shut.

"Well I just had to make sure you boys were okay. I'll be seeing you both for Christmas?" She asked and both boys nodded. Patting each of their hands she floated out of the room, and out of Hogwarts. Draco groaned and clutched his forehead, squeezing his eyes shut.

"I've got a headache now, bloody hell." He grumbled, and Blaise grunted, opening his potion book again.

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Hermione woke up, and she wondered why. It seemed like just minutes ago she felt herself dying, and now she was awake, sitting up in a hospital bed having some revolting liquid being shoved down her throat. Thinking hard back to the events that had happened merely an hour ago, she felt her stomach churn and bile rise in her throat. Lavender Brown? Why her? Why? She knew she had been detached lately, and she wouldn't dare tell anyone why, but she thought her friends and her now ex-boyfriend would understand. They should have. After seven years of life together she would have at the least expected someone to pick up on her pain. She thought back to the end of the war, and all the cheering. She remembered kissing Ron, she remembered leaving that night, to the Australian Ministry, ready to take her parents' home. She remembered how he whispered his consolations on her parents deaths, how they had died in a tragic death eater raid. She remembered everything, and her friends couldn't even manage to remember her existence. Salty tears threatened to escape, and she hissed at the pain it brought.

Closing her eyes, she wondered who had saved her life. Certainly not Harry or Ronald, they had probably forgotten about her. Then who? Who would save her.

Looking across the Hospital wing, she saw none other than Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini bickering over some sort of Transfiguration theory.

They saved me? This time she couldn't keep the bile down, and she wretched over in to a waste bin, puking up blood, and moaning as the painful tears finally spilled from her eyes. Placing the palms over her eye sockets and rubbing her burning eyes, she couldn't keep down the strangled cries that spewed from her mouth.

"It's alright dear, let it all out." She heard Madame Pomfrey coo next to her, and she could only obey.

"Hermione is that you? Is the ferret bothering you? We are coming in!" With a newfound rage inside of her, she grasped a vase from her bedside table despite Madame Pomfrey's cries of protest, and launched it at the door. Ron had to duck in order to miss it, and he stared at her incredulously. Draco and Blaise were watching the scene in front of them nervously.

"GET AWAY!" She screamed, her lungs boiling angrily. Her throat felt like it was being ripped raw, and collapsed back on the bed after a long exhausting shouting match.

"Leave Ronald. I don't want to deal with you right now." She grumbled, turning away from him in her bed. She didn't hate him, no matter how much she screamed that she did, and she believed that if she had opened up to her friends they probably would have comforted her with open arms. But it was too late, and now they were left confused in her wake. They were only trying to help her.

"Hermione?" Harry asked, and she shut her eyes.

"You too." She mumbled and she heard quiet shuffling and the door finally closed.

"Wow." Draco breathed, and Hermione could say she agreed. Wow.

Shifting in to a conflicted dream, she heard an ominous whisper in her ear.

My Dark Mark itches.

Hermione paled. No, it can't be.

Certainly not. Certainly not Draco Malfoy.

AHH DO YOU LIKE IT? As always, the tenth reviewer gets the next chapter dedicated to them! And if I get a nice review I might just feature you at my end author's note ;) Read and Review, Rest and Relax. Enjoy! If you have any ideas PM me, that will get you a nice feature too! And if this story gets popular you can bet your asses that I'll definitely look at some story edits! My tumblr is vintage-weasley, follow me or tag me in an edit