A/N: Hey guys! I am so sorry that this chapter took so long, but I've been busy. However, I made it my GOAL to finish another chapter during Spring Break and finally stopped being lazy and typed it all out. So, I hope you enjoy it! Please review because I really do enjoy getting feedback, I really do take the advice to heart and try to improve on anything that you guys comment on. Other than that, I will desperately try to get another chapter in asap! :)

His head throbbed as he groaned and tried to lift himself up onto his shoulders

His head throbbed as he groaned and tried to lift himself up onto his shoulders. Memories of the night before returned with painful stabs at his consciousness. He had been at the bar, drinking…there had been a girl…Draco stopped. It was all too painful. He realized with a sickening feeling where he was and how he had gotten there, and he hated himself for it. A part of him was still clinging to the hope that this was all a dream, one that he would wake up from at any moment.

It wasn't a dream.

He groaned again, half out of pain, and half out of anguish. He despised himself. He was a selfish, weak bastard who only cared about himself. He didn't deserve to be happy, and he certainly didn't deserve Ginny. How could he have cheated on her, the best thing that had ever happened to him?

The very thought made him sick to his stomach. Wait…literally?

With a sudden jolt, he frantically leaned over the bed and vomited into the wastebasket. He was trembling and sweating.

'I need to get out of here,' he thought wildly.

He struggled to scramble out of the bed and to put on his boxers and jeans. As he hurriedly lifted his clothes into his arms, the bathroom door opened and he turned to see Rhea in the doorway, fully dressed. She smiled when she saw him, undisturbed by his slightly mad image.

"I have to get out of her," he said, breathing heavily. "I've made a terrible mistake."

He turned and reached for the doorknob but his vision was slightly blurry. He had experienced hangovers before, and pretty severe ones too, but this? Something was not right.

Well, a lot of things weren't right about this situation but Draco knew that alcohol alone count not have affected him as severely as this. He looked up at Rhea while trying to keep his balance.

"What did you do to me?" he asked shakily. "I need… to get out of here!"

Though his focus was blurry, and he could barely see straight, he made a lunge for the door. Just as he yanked it open, a thrilling realization went through him.

'My wand!'

The thought barely left his mind when he was hit in the back with a stunning spell.

Lying face down on the floor, unable to move a muscle, he felt Rhea lean over him. She tickled his face with a tip of a wand…not his wand, and whispered softly,

"I don't think so baby. I think that you and I need to have a little talk."

Draco's brain couldn't process exactly what was happening to him and he soon gave up trying to fight the spell, allowing his senses to overcome him.

--

"Malini, Rhea!"

Rhea's heat throbbed painfully in her chest as Professor McGonagall called out her name. She inched forward until she was standing in front of the stool, eyes cast down. Slowly, she reached in front of her and took the Sorting Hat in her hands. She quickly pressed it onto her head and waited.

After a breath of a moment…

"Ravenclaw!"

Relief flooded through her. Both of her parents had been in Ravenclaw, Daddy would be especially proud. She returned the Sorting Hat to its stool and took a quick look around her, at all of the smiling faces clapping for her.

She glowed with happiness.

As she made her way to the Ravenclaw table, she spotted the boy who had been sorted just before her. Malfoy, Draco had been sent to the Slytherin table. He saw her looking and caught her eye.

In that one, suspended moment, they both smiled, then looked away. He went back to eating and Rhea sat down at her table.

It wasn't until she realized that she'd been holding her breath, did she exhale and her heart slowed its heartbeat.

--

Rhea didn't know what it was that drew her to him. He was good looking, yes. Athletic, yes. Popular, yes. Smart? Yes! But what about everything else? He was arrogant, snobbish, cocky, and worst of all, he demeaned others. Especially Harry, whom Rhea had nothing against and liked very much.

She despised herself for liking him yet she couldn't rid herself of the feeling. They weren't friends, not really. (how could she have been?) She'd talked to him a few times in some of the classes that they shared, but never more than a few sentences. He'd always been curt with his answers, although never rude. Rhea suspected that the fact that he even acknowledged her was because he knew her blood status: pure blood.

He knew her name at least, and that gave her some hope. He'd returned a book she'd dropped in the hallway once you see, and hadn't even needed to call out the name. To this day, she wondered why he had done it. As far as she knew, he'd never done anything to help anyone else… and for a while she had thought that she was special to him.

Though the small gesture may have gone unnoticed by most people, Rhea had seen the slight red tint in his face as he had returned it. He hadn't meant to be nice…it had just, slipped.

That's what intrigued her most about him. He was like a puzzle, with layers and layers of complex feelings that you just couldn't make out beneath his polished exterior. Oh how she tried to penetrate that barrier, with her eyes alone she often sought him out and made it a game to try and find out how he was actually feeling. She wasn't obsessed…but her impulses always made her look back. Draco Malfoy, he had her and he didn't even know it.

She had a gut feeling deep inside that he wasn't as mean and heartless as he seemed, that it was all an act. And even though she knew there was probably no chance of anything happening between them, she harboured her crush, stowing it away somewhere no one could see it.

But the few times she caught his rare smile? Her resolve to forget about him broke down so fast it was hard to know if it had even been put up in the first place.

Years passed and Rhea's feelings only grew stronger, yet she became better at hiding them and keeping them stowed away, even from herself.

Besides, she had other things to worry about other than Draco Malfoy. Quidditch (she was chaser on the Ravenclaw team), her studies, her family, and most importantly, herself.

She was in her 6th year at Hogwarts, and things hadn't been going so well. Voldemort had returned, her father was constantly working himself to death at the ministry, and her mother was at home, worrying herself sick over her only daughter. Mrs. Malini hadn't wanted Rhea to return to the school at all now that times were so dangerous but Rhea had point blank refused and was determined to have as good a year as possible considering the circumstances.

'This year,' she thought to herself, 'is my year. Self improvement is what I want to strive for.'

Rhea wasn't ugly, nor was she pretty. She was just, plain. She'd never cared for makeup or looking good; she was too busy for artificial things like that. She focused on being healthy and her studies, and with Quidditch training was far more fit and in shape than many of the girls that she knew. She had a nice figure, and pretty features, but she was never one to show them off. She had a good many friends, but didn't really consider herself popular.

This year, she wanted to 'clean up' and maybe experiment with things she hadn't done before. She wasn't exactly a tomboy or anti social either. She wore her hair down, she shaved her legs and she did think of boys in that way… she just wasn't there yet, at her prime.

Her year then, started off great. She started wearing makeup, grew out her hair and took a stab at dating. Her circle of friends grew and she really started to become comfortable with her own body and with whom she was turning out to be.

Everything was going great, but she no longer saw him anymore. Draco was becoming harder and harder to spot, the only times she saw him was at meals and in classes, yet he always seemed tired and extremely distant, even from across the Great Hall. He didn't flash her anymore of their secret smiles, in fact, he hadn't looked at her once all year, and she hated him for it.

Couldn't he see how beautiful she was becoming? Couldn't he see what she so desperately wanted him to notice?

After a while, Rhea gave up trying to get his attention. She had worked hard for the new her, and she wasn't going to let some guy ruin it for her, especially not Draco Malfoy.

--

Rhea's life turned upside down that year. One moment she was happy, and everything was going right, the next… it was all gone.

Her father had been killed.

In a surprise attack by the Death Eaters, he father had been hit with the Avada Kedavra curse while on a mission for the ministry. He was a ministry official, there was no doubt why they'd attacked. It was only after Rhea had been taken out of Hogwarts by her mother did she find out who had killed her father.

The news hit her hard and sobs racked her heart, every fiber of her being. She swore that she would avenge her late father.

Lucius Malfoy would be on the receiving end.

--

Lights popped on and off in front of his eyes.

'This is really getting to be too much,' Draco thought. 'I just want it all to stop.'

A/N: I know what you're thinking. Karma my friend, karma. But I still love him :)

He opened his eyes slowly and blinked, trying to get everything back in focus. He was in the same room, half dressed and… tied to a chair.

He looked down and saw that his arms and legs were bound tightly. He wasn't gagged and could look around freely. He froze when he came upon Rhea, sitting on the bed reading The Daily Prophet. She must have sensed him glaring because she peeked over the paper and when she saw that he was awake, silently folded it and set it aside.

"Ah, you're awake!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

Draco coughed, not fully trusting himself to speak. He still felt sluggish, but not as bad as before. His throat hurt and his voice came out raspy.

"Who are you?" he asked hoarsely.

Rhea regarded him coolly for a moment before answering, and Draco could have sworn that a hurt look crossed her features.

"Wow," she said sarcastically, her voice brittle. "I know you were drunk last night, and that today you're recovering from the drugs that I gave you, but honestly Draco, are guys really that shallow or is that just you?"

He was too stunned to speak. Did he know her? Wait, she'd drugged him?

Relief flooded him for a moment as he considered the possibility that it hadn't been all him as he'd crawled into her bed, that he wasn't such a bad guy after all. Then Ginny's face swam into view and he visibly shrank from the shame of his actions once again.

He regained his composure and looked back up at Rhea, who was watching him closely. He shook his head.

"No," he said. "I don't know who you are. And I'm not shallow," he added, almost as an afterthought.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, obviously disappointed. "Why would you," she said icily, "the last time you looked at me I didn't look anything like I do now."

Draco frowned, confused. Rhea was obviously getting impatient with him.

"Uh! You're such a, a jerk!" she yelled, at a lack for a more colourful word.

"I spent 6 years dogging for you Draco, and you never noticed! You were such an ass, and yet I still thought that there was some good in you. Maybe this will jog your memory. 3rd year, I had just watched Hermione Granger punch you and your nose was bleeding. Your idiot friends had already run off and you didn't know the spell to stop the flow. I saw you struggling to clean up the blood when –"

"When you came out from behind the pillar, scared me half to death and fixed my nose with that stupid spell I couldn't remember," Draco cut her off, suddenly remembering. "I was so mad; I made you swear that you wouldn't tell anyone what you'd seen. You practically ran away from me.

"Rhea," he repeated softly, more to himself than to her. "You were sorted right after me…Malini? And every time I saw you, you always smiled at me so I just, well …"

"Smiled." Rhea finished for him. "You always smiled back," she said softly, looking right at him.

"I fell for you the moment I saw you, I made every excuse to be near you, to talk to you, and yet it was never enough." She looked sad.

"Yeah, well…I was a jerk, like you said. I didn't care about anyone except myself, always caught up in my own thoughts." Draco mumbled, not knowing exactly what to say. I mean, here was a girl who had supposedly had a crush on him for 6 years, and had then proceeded to drugging him and tying him up. Some way to show your affection, he though savagely.

"You made an exception for Ginny," she said, so quietly that Draco almost couldn't hear. He decided to ignore the comment, pretending that he hadn't heard.

"You were on the Quidditch team, weren't you? Ravenclaw right?"

Rhea smiled slightly, but it was still sad.

"So I wasn't completely invisible after all," she said.

"You look different," Draco stammered.

Even after he had been drugged, and had just cheated on his girlfriend with this woman, he couldn't help but admit that she was beautiful, and to be astonished at this turn of events. Then he came back to reality and felt his anger and frustration build up.

"But why are you doing this to me?" he demanded angrily. "I'm sorry that I didn't notice you more at school, but what the hell is going on here?"

Rhea glared at him steadily and any affection that she had had for him was lost. It was time for business. Draco squirmed under her gaze.

"We both know there's more to it than that," she said quietly.

"What then?" he demanded, getting really angry now. She had no right to do this to him, not after all that he had been through. He was done getting screwed over.

"You intoxicated me, led me here under false pretences, practically forced me to spend the night with you-"

"Spare me the lecture Draco," Rhea snapped, cutting in. "I know what I did, I know what I'm doing and I for one, can justify my actions. You, on the other hand, didn't seem so reluctant shoving your tongue down my throat. If you must know, all I had planned was to lead you here and feed you another dose to knock you out. Thanks to you though, my night was a little more interesting. What can I say?" she teased, leaning in towards him, their faces inches apart.

"You're great in bed, even when you're half out of it." She smirked. "Ginny's a lucky girl."

Draco felt tears sting his eyes and he looked down. He had no way to tell if she was telling the truth or not…but he remembered last night and how he had longed for the affection. She was right; he was going to have to live with what he'd done.

When he could finally look up again, she had reseated herself on the bed.

"Just tell me why I'm here," he said in a hollow voice, a sob choked in his throat.

"You're here because of your father," she replied, hate etched in every word.

"I am not my father," Draco growled indignantly. "And whatever he did to you, I had nothing to do with it."

"Somehow," she said, her voice hard. "I doubt that. I mean, you did let all of those Death Eaters into Hogwarts, you let Snape kill Dumbledore, and let's not forget trying to become Voldemort's new pet. The way I see it, the world would be better off without you, Ginny as well."

"You don't understand," Draco pleaded, slightly panicked. The need to prove himself intensified. "I didn't want to do, any of that stuff! I know what I did was wrong, I tried to kill myself over it. I know that I can't make up for all the people that I hurt but I have changed, you have to believe me!"

"How am I supposed to trust you?!" Rhea practically screamed, hysterical.

"Lucius killed my father Draco, in cold blood! My father did nothing, NOTHING wrong, and he was killed. And it was YOUR father who killed him! And you didn't give a shit, or even notice when I left Hogwarts!"

Draco was too stunned to speak. What could he say to make her understand that he was not responsible for his father's actions? How could he make up for all of those years ignoring her?

"I'm sorry," was all that he could say.

"You don't understand," Rhea continued, tears streaming down her face as she paced in front of him. "Do you have any idea what it feels like; losing someone you really love, for no good reason? And it had to be your father, of all people! My mother is a wreck, and it's been nearly a year. She hardly gets out of bed, and it's MY responsibility to look after her. I can't leave her, and I can't return to Hogwarts. After all you've done, you're still back at school, no worries about money, you have Ginny, you have your education, you have your LIFE back! Me, I'm stuck here, alone. No school, no family, nothing! Because of you and your family, my whole life has been ruined!"

She started to sob and Draco could say nothing. He understood was it felt like to need revenge… and with his father gone Draco was the only one Rhea could get back at. And unintentionally or not, he had hurt her as well.

"Rhea, listen," he pleaded. "I can't stay here. There are people looking for me, there are Death Eater's on the loose, Ginny is waiting for me! Just tell me what you want, what you need, and I'll try my hardest to give it to you. I'm sorry for what's happened to you, but I can't change the past."

She looked up at him through tear stained eyes.

"I want my father back," she said through gritted teeth. "I want my life back!"

They looked at one another for a moment before Draco spoke again.

"We both know this isn't the way you'll get your life back," he said softly.

She looked at him briefly, then lay her head down and sob. After a few minutes, she gathered herself and without a word flicked her wand and freed Draco from his bindings.

"Go," she said, not looking at him. "I'm sorry," she sobbed, stammering. "Turn me over, I don't care. I have nothing left to lose."

Draco got up, rubbing his wrists. But instead of moving towards the door, he moved closer to her and sat with her on the bed, holding her gently as she cried into his chest. When she had calmed down, they talked for a long time.

She told him how she really did live there and although she was too young to work and hadn't finished her education, she worked for her aunt's witch salon not too far from there to support her mother. She told Draco that her mother lived alone in a small town and that Rhea hadn't been able to find a job in that area to stay closer to her. She told him how she frequently visited the pub she had found him in and that when she'd seen him, all of her anger, frustration and hopelessness had propelled her to act as irrationally as she had.

She had excelled in Potions while she had been at school and when she wasn't working she often made potions as a hobby, hoping to get a job as a medi witch in the near future. She kept some of them for emergencies and sometimes used some of them in her aunt's salon. She admitted to using a diluted version of Veritaserum, a small dose of a lust/love potion (although enough to influence a part of his behaviour, she assured him), and of course the potion meant to knock Draco out and keep him unconscious. (She had only fed him that dose the next morning; he had been drunk enough the night before that he hadn't needed it).

Although the whole situation was extremely frustrating for Draco, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her. He knew what it felt like when you thought you had run out of options when everything seemed hopeless and you no longer cared about the consequences.

Before he left, Rhea apologized again for 'taking advantage of him', she was truly sorry and felt guilty about possibly ruining things for him and Ginny, especially after Draco had poured his heart out to her in the pub. Draco winced. He had no idea how he was going to tell Ginny about all of this… or Remus who was sure to kill him the moment he saw him.

Instead he said, "I'm sorry about your father, and about everything else. But maybe we can put it all behind us and, I don't know…" His voice died out. He wasn't sure whether they could ever be friends… but he didn't rule it out, for her sake and when he looked at her, she looked almost hopeful but didn't expect him to finish his sentence.

He opened the front door to leave and looked back when he felt her hand on his arm.

"Draco," she said softly, sadness etched in every line of her face. She looked distraught. Her eyes were red and her body sagged with the invisible weight of stress and depression. She looked a million years away from the radiant young woman he had seen last night.

"I'm really sorry, about everything. But in a way…" she seemed to lose her confidence, than regained it and quickly went on. "I had to, you know? For me, for my mother, I couldn't just do nothing. I swore when Dadddy died that I'd…losing him was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. It's just been so hard, you understand don't you?"

She looked so defeated that Draco couldn't help himself. He leaned in and kissed her cheek. "You'll be okay," he whispered. "I know you will."

He didn't know if he was saying that to comfort her, or himself.

With that, he turned abruptly and left Rhea crying silently on her doorstep.

--

"DRACO! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?! YOU HAVE SOME NERVE, AND SOME EXPLAINING TO DO!"

Draco sighed. He knew that this would be coming.

Lupin was livid. I mean, wolfish livid. As soon as he had seen that Draco was in no harm, Draco had reason to actually be a bit frightened. It was just coming up to 11 a.m. and Remus did have a good reason to be angry, and worried. In the past few weeks that Draco had been with him, they had developed a kind of father/son relationship. But more on that later.

"Do you have any idea what we've been going through here?" Lupin demanded. "I said 3 a.m.! 3 A.M.! Do you even know what a curfew is?! I sent out people to search for you, we've been up all night-"

"Remus," Draco cut in. "I know, and I'm sorry. But you have no idea what I've been through."

As soon as Remus had calmed down a bit, Draco sat him down and told him everything…leaving out minor details and claiming that he had been unconscious the entire night. Ahem.

Lupin was so shocked that for a minute, he could barely speak. When he could at last form words, the first thing he said hit Draco where it hurt, right in the ego.

"Is it really that easy to kidnap you?" he asked incredulously.

Draco didn't speak, just looked down at his shoes. Remus sighed.

"Thank Merlin she didn't decide to permanently disable you," he said, smiling slightly. "Then we would've had a problem. On the other hand, if she's that gifted at making Potions and is looking for a more rewarding career than at her aunt's salon…I wonder if she would consider working with us. A young witch, someone the Death Eater's don't recognize…it would be dangerous yes, but you said yourself that she has nothing left to lose…" and so it went, Remus talking more to himself than to Draco.

Draco smiled slightly but his heart still hurt. He may not have been himself completely but last night, his actions had definitely spoken louder than words. He hung his head as Lupin went to summon the other who had gone out looking for him. What was he going to do? What could he do?