AN: Yeeeah, it's been a while.

Please welcome me back with showers of reviews. XD

CHAPTER SIX

That week could very well have been the longest seven days of my life. While my schedule seemed to be on turbo-speed, my mind was drifting slowly through a play-by-play encounter of the events of the months before. And for some reason, I found myself looking over at Malfoy more often than not. It was like I was looking for something in his icy eyes, something I knew could be found if he just let somebody in. It was increasingly difficult to keep focused in class; it was all beginning to seem like a dream to me, one that you wake up from and try desperately to remember, to grasp the details, to figure out the point.

I was far from the point when my thoughts were jolted back into a harsh rapping noise on my desk.

Professor Snape's lips curled into a twisted smile. Something about his burning eyes, though, told me that he was not quite beside himself with amusement.

"Miss Granger," he drawled, snickering quietly but never shifting his gaze. "I was wondering if you could enlighten us."

Though the room was deadly quiet, I could see several Gryffindors at the far end of the room, feeding me answers and mouthing undistinguishable things, but Professor Snape gave them a deadly glare. I searched wildly around the room for a clue as to what Snape had been talking about, but I was hopelessly lost.

I fell silent in defeat. Professor Snape had humiliated me, and caught me off guard in his class for the third time that week.

"I suggest," he spat at me, grabbing hold of my desk furiously and causing me to lean back in my chair, that you pay more attention in my class, Miss Granger. That's three times this week. One more disruption to this class and you're being sent straight to the Headmaster's office."

I nodded, feeling like I would burst into tears if I had to endure his cold stare for another moment. Right then, he turned his head to the class and said, "Will anyone kindly inform Miss Granger what page we were on?"

Several people snickered. But I didn't think it was funny at all. I was on the verge of tears, when a shy voice spoke up from the other side of the room.

"We were on page 438," said Malfoy.

Snape looked at him sharply, and he was silent along with the rest of the room.

When nobody spoke, Malfoy continued.

"We were learning about augmentation potions." He said boldly, rather loudly, fully aware that the whole class was watching him, hoping to intimidate them out of doing so. He never once looked at me, though.

Professor Snape looked quickly at me and then, "Thank you, Mister Malfoy. Miss Granger, you heard me. And I would advise that you pay extra attention to this lesson, because I'm assigning you three rolls of parchment on the importance of paying attention in class, on my desk, tomorrow afternoon, no more, no less."

He turned swiftly and began telling the class in an irritated voice to turn the page and read about the making of augmentation potions.

If it weren't for the other, slightly less amusing things on my mind, I would have thought Snape's attempt to discourage me was funny. I actually found writing Snape's essay fun, because he and I both were fully aware that this was a subject I usually had no problems with. But for some reason, lately that hadn't been the case. However many times I tried to swallow that lump in my throat, it wouldn't budge. My stomach was doing somersaults all that week. Something was bothering me; so much so that it almost made me sick a couple of times.

It seemed like the more I tried to brush it away, the harder reality came down upon me, and it just made me feel even sicker. I was beginning to worry myself, and my friends. Harry had said, "It's just the aftershock of the whole thing. It's normal that it'd hit you so hard." And Ron had said, "It's all bloody Malfoy's fault. He makes me sick, too."

It had been several days since I had seen Malfoy anywhere around the school. The last time I'd seen him or heard him speak was in Potions class. Not that I'd been wondering or anything, but I figured he had gone home to pack his things for Durmstrang. And then a terrible image of Lucius Malfoy torturing his son for being expelled, popped into my mind.

My eyes shot open (I hadn't even known they were closed) and I desperately tried to forget what I had just imagined. He deserved whatever his Father did to him, anyway. But I knew what I was saying was wrong. I still felt strange about the whole idea of getting someone expelled, anyway. Sort of guilty.

I got up from my chair and left the common room. I decided to take a walk outside the castle, in hopes of revitalizing myself in the cold night air, and clearing my mind of all things stressful. I hadn't had such a good idea in weeks, I thought to myself.

But of course, as I should have known, the right to privacy was just not an option here at Hogwarts. And who should be the one to violate that right but the King of Violators himself.

(AN: Anybody get that joke? Please tell me somebody got that joke.)

Fear flooded me, and I thought of running the other way. But he was already approaching me with that swift and cocky walk of his. I stood still as a statue, watching him come closer, and closer…

And just as I screwed up my face in disgust to say something really nasty to him, he walked right by me, and left me standing in the moonlight, looking back at his vanishing figure.

The next morning in the Gryffindor common room, there was a group of 7th year boys watching a Muggle news report on a small television. They were all laughing at the Muggles who were desperately trying to calm viewers down about the reported "flock of owls soaring over the cities, dropping bits through the streets that exploded when they hit the ground".

"I'll bet it was your brothers, Ron," Harry said, smiling broadly.

Ron blushed. "They did say they were planning something big for Friday the 13th," he said, grinning, but slightly worried-looking. "You don't think they'll get caught, do you?"

"Fred and George?" Harry glanced at the television. "Not a chance."

I walked over to the group and glimpsed at the television. "What have they done now?"

Ron looked over at me. "'Mione! How come you're up so early? Breakfast doesn't start for two hours!"

"I could say the same to you," I said.

"We were at Quidditch Practice," Harry said, yawning and clutching his broom for support. "We've been up since four."

"Angelina's a mad woman," Ron said, nodding.

I laughed. "Well, you guys woke me up, if you want to know the truth," I said, looking at the television. "How did you guys get a muggle television, anyway?"

"So that's what they call it," Ron said curiously. "A fourth year brought it in, a muggleborn, his parents sent it to him last Christmas so he could watch his muggle shows, or something."

"Ah," I said politely, staring at the television, but not listening to it either. "Well I think I'll go."

"Where?" said Harry. "Like I said, breakfast doesn't start…"

"I'm just taking a walk," I said with finality, giving him a quick smile to assure him I wasn't angry, before closing the portrait hole.

Throughout the day, the stories coming from the muggle television, which kept most of the Gryffindors in all that Saturday, got progressively more extreme. It sounded like Fred and George to me. I had nothing to do except walk around the castle, every once in a while dropping in to the common room to ask about the Muggles. I felt bad for them, sort of. They really had no idea what Friday the 13th meant – a Wizard's April Fools Day. To them, it was a day of horrible misfortune, bad luck and rubbish like that - but it was silly, really. There might have been one black cat that passed by someone on the day of his death 50 years ago, but that's all.

So deep in thought, I accidentally bumped into a large object in my way: my senses came rushing back to me. Stepping back and coming into focus on what was in front of me felt like opening my eyes.

But it was just the fountain. I knelt down to look into it, and the water shone like gold. Knuts and Sickles were sprinkled all around it, every ignored wish and whim sitting at the very bottom. The fountain bathed in sunlight waiting for hopeful witches and wizards to foolishly toss their devotion into the water, 'til it sank and settled among the others, where it would surely live on much longer than they.

And suddenly a voice called from behind me.

"Granger?"

My heart froze, and I spent a little too much time deciding whether to turn around. I found myself face-to-face with Draco.

My eyes turned hard and I turned away. "What do you want with me?"

I could feel my insides doing acrobatics.

"It's not like that," He said viciously.

I whipped around.

"Then what DO you want?"

I realized I was close to tears, so I quickly turned away. All of my words seemed to fall flat on the floor. Everything I said felt wrong, and stupid, and I could never bring myself to tell him all the things I thought about telling him. When I saw him, everything in my head would go blank for a moment, my stomach would drop to the floor and my feet would glue themselves to the ground. I couldn't struggle or resist him in any way. I could only stand and watch from the sidelines as he did whatever he felt like doing to me, and I had no say. I was a pushover, I was worthless and helpless, and I hated myself for it. But I hated him even more.

I turned around.

He was my weakness. My greatest fear. My breaking point…

And I grabbed him and kissed him.

Draco stumbled back in surprise and grabbed hold of my waist, pulling the both of us down onto the grass, wrapped up in a sweet and passionate embrace. I felt weightless and extremely short of breath. His strong and protective arms were probably the only thing keeping me up: He floated me. Draco kissed me harder. His lips pressed down on mine and curved into a roguish smile as he pulled me closer to him. His long and delicate fingers finding pleasure and interest in playing with the back of my t-shirt, he held me tightly as if afraid I would be gone when he looked up.

I felt safe and warm. He was in me and above me and beside me and all around me. Goosebumps traveled up my body and tickled the back of my ears.

He then kissed me softly and looked up. Before either of us could realize what we were doing, he took my hands in his and began kissing my neck. Trailing kisses down my arms and fingertips slowly and adoringly, he lingered for a moment and held my face in his hands, squeezing my waist tightly. His lips were soft and sweet and as he slid his hands down my back, he pulled me even more dangerously close to him.

We broke off breathing heavily and looking anywhere but into each other's eyes. Draco took a deep breath and brought his mouth right up to my ears.

"Gra – Her – Hermione," he breathed. "He's got me."

I sat up and looked straight into his eyes.

"Who?"

Draco remained silent for a moment and then, for the first time, a genuine expression of fear crossed his face, if only for a second.

"Him. He's got me. He's controlling me. It explains the diary and the – and the time-turner, and the…the party…" He looked around wildly and spoke in a whisper as if he knew he had little time to speak. "It's why I haven't been myself lately –"

I was horrified. I wanted to pull back but I didn't want to believe it.

He looked back at me piteously, but his expression faltered and changed almost instantly. He pulled back violently and staggered with a horrible pretense of malice written over his obvious fear.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

I started. I became instantly defensive.

"What's wrong with ME?" My voice began to quaver and I regained composure quickly so as not to let Malfoy interrupt. "What's wrong with YOU? You've been taking advantage of me this whole time. I understand now. I wondered what was more important to you! I can't believe I thought, for a minute, that you had changed. That you were any different. You're just another faithful servant to the Dark Lord. I can't be a part of your plan," I pointed my wand threateningly at him.

"You can't come near me. You ca – you can't come anywhere near me. I can't believe I trusted you. You're horrib –"

I had been so passionately into my speech that I hadn't noticed that Draco had made his way closer to me. Before I could finish my sentence he grabbed me again with a hungry look in his eyes and swept me up in his arms. His lips were an inch from mine when I returned his exciting looks with glares and pulled back aggressively.

"Leave me alone." I said. "Just, get the hell away from me."

I looked at him once more and ran off, tears filling my eyes and from the blurry corner of my eye I saw him fall to the ground in defeat. My heart sunk and I stopped, but I didn't turn around. I kept running straight in the direction of the castle.