A/N: Wow, I posted the last chapter, and the next morning I woke up to an inbox full of notices of favourites and follows! You guys rock. Seriously. Hopefully that means you are all enjoying the story, but I'd love more reviews; they're great motivation to write faster.

Disclaimer: It's JKR's sandbox, I just like to play in it.

Sometimes it hits like a car crash
And it's too late to reverse
Sometimes you make me a better person
Sometimes you bring out the worst
Sometimes we get on like fire
Sometimes we're stubborn like rain
Just when I think it's over, over
You wave a white flag again

Ah, ah
We fall out then we fall back in
Ah, ah
We're always back where we begin

Natasha Bedingfield – A Little Too Much

"Excuse me?" he sputtered.

"I said, I was the woman he was dating while he was already engaged." A ghost of a smile appeared as she saw the shock on his face. "Go ahead, say it. It won't be anything I haven't heard before."

"You dated him while he was engaged? Are you serious?" He was utterly gobsmacked. To say that the woman before him had been surprising him all morning would be an understatement, but the biggest shock of all was finding out that she had been the other woman, for any man. He simply could not reconcile that image with the one he had of her as an idealistic little swot from Hogwarts.

"Quite serious. And I know how it sounds, but it's not what you think."

"You know how it sounds? You just told me you were dating him while he was engaged. He was cheating on his fiancée, with you. What else could it possibly be?"

"Technically, yes, all of that is true."

"Technically? Technically. Alright then, what am I missing?"

She took a deep breath. "What you're missing, Malfoy, is the fact that I never knew he was engaged. Not until Isabelle showed up instead of him on a date. You can imagine how that went."

"You were seeing him for a year and had no idea he was engaged?" he asked incredulously.

"Not a year. It was ten months." She smiled bitterly. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but I really didn't know."

"How is that possible?"

"Well, we started our relationship in Australia so it was just the two of us for the first, oh, five months we were together. Then when we came back, well, nothing really changed. Not until that night when Isabelle and I met for the first time."

He stared at her, still not understanding how she could have missed the fact that her boyfriend was engaged to someone else. As he mentally sorted through this new information the floo blazed to life behind them and Pansy, Blaise and Theo stepped out in quick succession.

"Hermione!" exclaimed Pansy. "Merlin, next time warn us that you're going home instead of just disappearing."

Draco narrowed his eyes when she referred to this as Hermione's home, then watched as Blaise exhaled in relief before striding over and gathering her up into his arms. She relaxed into his hold. "I'm fine, Blaise. Really. I just couldn't be there anymore. It was too much."

The dark skinned Italian closed his eyes as he gave her a quick squeeze then released her. "Okay." He quirked an eyebrow at her teasingly. "I guess we should have stayed in for brunch after all, hm?"

"Perhaps. Sorry for leaving like that. You didn't have to follow me."

"Of course we did," dismissed Pansy. "We were worried about you, especially once we realized Draco was gone too."

"Hey!" objected the blond.

"Not to worry Pans, Malfoy actually took rather good care of me," she said, sparing him a glance from the corner of her eye.

"Really now?" said Blaise, eyeing his old friend speculatively.

"Let's not make a big deal out of this," Draco grumbled.

"Are you sure you're okay, Hermione?" asked Theo.

"I'm fine," she assured them. "I am sorry I pulled you all away before we had a chance to eat, though."

"Oh, nothing to worry about on that score. Mipsy!" called Blaise.

A house elf blinked into the room at his summons, and Draco's eyes widened when he saw that she was wearing a crisp dress bearing the Zabini crest. "Master Blaise asks for Mipsy?"

"Yes. Could you go to Firesong, the new restaurant in Diagon Alley, and tell the maitre d' that you are there to collect the food they packed for the Zabini table? They should give you a bag to bring back here."

"Of course, Mipsy is happy to go!"

"Thank you Mipsy," spoke up Hermione just before the elf disappeared.

Draco turned a bewildered gaze on his childhood best friend, temporarily distracted from his curiosity about Hermione's history with Pucey. "You freed Mipsy? She's been bonded to your family since before you were born!"

"What? No, what would give you that idea?"

"The clothes, Blaise," said Hermione with a gentle smile.

"Oh, that. No, she's not a free elf. Mia tried when she first started spending more time here, but Mipsy was having none of it."

Hermione flushed as she remembered the lengthy scolding she received from the diminutive elf. "Yes, yes, I learned my lesson. The elves don't want to be freed when they are treated well and are properly bonded with their families."

"Will wonders never cease. You actually gave up on your ridiculous crusade."

"Not given up, exactly. More like my priorities for them have shifted. I still campaign for their rights, but the focus now is on fair treatment and a decent wage."

"You mean you finally listened to what people have been telling you all along. The elves, for the most part, don't want to be freed."

"For the most part, yes. But in some cases elves are still horribly mistreated by their families. Those elves should be freed!"

He noticed the heat rising in her tone and couldn't resist provoking her. "Elves do not need to be freed Granger. They need to be bonded to a family or individual for their magic to function properly."

"Not in all cases. You do remember Dobby, don't you? You know, the house elf your horrid Death Eater of a father abused?" she said snidely.

"Shut up, Granger," he snapped, dropping all traces of levity. "You shouldn't speak of things you don't understand."

She stilled at once. She was taken aback by the harshness in his voice, especially after they had been almost pleasant to each other for most of the morning and she had confided part of her past. She never meant to bring up his father. It was only that she was genuinely passionate about elfish welfare, and she sometimes spoke without thinking when riled. "I—I'm sorry, Malfoy. Truly."

"You should be," he sneered. "You know nothing of my family, mudblood."

She paled at his use of the slur, the fight draining from her completely, and he instantly regretted it. "Oh. I am sorry, Malfoy."

Blaise moved to her side, lifting one hand to her shoulder. "Mia. . ."

"No, no," she murmured. "It's fine. Would you excuse me, though?"

"What about brunch?" frowned Pansy.

"Go ahead and eat without me. I'll be fine, really," she added when she saw Blaise's look of concern. With that she turned and went upstairs, leaving Draco to shift uncomfortably under the weight of his friends' glares.

"What?"

"What do you mean, what?" Pansy hissed. "Why were you so hateful to her? You were getting on so well earlier!"

"Wait just a moment! She's the one who insulted my family, why aren't you jumping down her throat?" he exclaimed indignantly.

"She loses her head sometimes when it comes to her causes, that's all. I know you were never friends in school, but surely you remember that," said Blaise.

"And she should know that I do not react well to people saying anything about my family!" Draco retaliated, tiring of his friends' unrelenting defense of the Gryffindor. "Why is she the only one who gets a free pass?"

"She would never bring up something she knew would hurt someone under normal circumstances. Can you say the same thing?" Theo asked.

Pansy spoke up before Draco had a chance to respond. "I think we all know he has no such qualms."

"Which is why I want to make this clear from the outset." Blaise looked at Draco pointedly. "I know I said that you could stay here, and of course the offer remains open, but if you're going to live with me I will not tolerate you calling Hermione that disgusting word."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean it mate. You absolutely cannot throw around that kind of insult. I won't have it."

Draco fell silent as he looked around the room. He knew that he crossed a line with the mudblood remark, but he couldn't help feeling betrayed by his friends. Weren't they supposed to be on his side? Finally, he managed, "And her?"

"What about her?"

"Are you placing restrictions on her language as well, or am I just special because I'm your oldest friend?" he asked acidly.

Pansy winced. "Draco. . ."

"No, I want to know." He gazed steadily at Blaise. "If I have to refrain from calling her a mudblood, are you going to prevent her from making malicious comments about my family?"

"It's hardly the same thing."

"Why not?" he demanded. "I can't help the choices that my parents made any more than she can help that her parents are non-magical!" Later, he would recognize this as the point that he first acknowledged that he and Hermione were something resembling equal. In the heat of the moment, however, all he knew was that he was tired of being reprimanded by his friends.

Theo stared at him, brows furrowed. "Huh."

"What?"

"Nothing," said Theo thoughtfully. "I just never thought of things in that light."

"Of course not," muttered Draco derisively. "Why worry about the troubles of the big, bad, evil Slytherin prince, even when he was forced to that lifestyle, when there's a Gryffindor damsel in distress to coddle needlessly?"

Pansy choked, biting back her obvious amusement despite his anger. "I'm sorry, did you just refer to yourself as the Slytherin prince?"

"Oh, shut it Pansy. I know you're the one who coined that nickname, you know." He glowered at them defiantly before looking back at Blaise. "Well? Do you have an answer for me?"

"I suppose it's fair that if you're not allowed to bring up her blood status, she shouldn't be allowed to bring up your family background," mused the Italian. "I am quite serious though, Draco. No calling Hermione a mudblood under my roof."

"Fine," he conceded reluctantly. "As long as it goes both ways, I can live with that."

"Good." As Blaise nodded, his house elf popped back into the room bearing the promised food from the restaurant. "Oh, thank you Mipsy. Would you take this to the sunroom and set the table for four with everything we'll need?"

"Of course!" she said cheerily.

Draco watched the elf retreat to the bright room just off the other side of the kitchen. "So I can stay here, yes?"

"As long as you can stick to those guidelines."

"How often is she here, anyway?"

"Mia? I don't know, three or four nights a week usually. Sometimes more, sometimes less."

"Three or four nights a week but she doesn't live here? Why doesn't she stay at her own place?"

Blaise sighed, glancing at Pansy and Theo briefly before speaking. "It's really not my place to say. How much did she tell you before we tracked you down? It looked like you were in the middle of a conversation."

"She said that she and Pucey were dating for about ten months while he was engaged to Isabelle, but she never knew about the engagement. She mentioned something about Isabelle showing up to a date in Pucey's place, but didn't really elaborate."

"Really?" Pansy stared in surprise. "She told you that much?"

"Well, yes. It's not like she went into detail or anything. I barely know any more than I did before we left for brunch this morning."

"No, you don't understand," Theo shook his head. "She hates to talk about what happened. It took her months before she would really open up about it to us, and we were there when it was happening. The fact that she told you so much already. . ."

Draco frowned. "What?"

"It's unexpected, that's all."

The blond took a moment to digest this, not comfortable with the idea of being any sort of confidante to a woman that had been his childhood enemy. "I see." After a brief pause, he continued. "So, I'll need to watch my language three or four nights a week. I can live with that."

"Three or four—no, that's not what I meant." Blaise said, drawing his eyebrows together in slight confusion. "All the time, Draco, not just when she's around."

"What!"

"I said I wouldn't tolerate that language, and I meant exactly what I said. No derogatory references to Hermione's heritage. Ever."

Draco brought a hand to his face, pinching his nose. "Oh."

"Can you do that?"

"Fine." He exhaled long and slow. "As long as you mean for her to adhere to the rules all the time too."

"Yes, of course."

"Good. Now, shall we eat?" he gestured in the direction of the kitchen.

"Let's," said Pansy. Blaise and Theo started towards the sunroom but she lingered slightly behind them. "Draco. . . are you alright?"

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. It's just. . . I've never seen you get so worked up about your family before. Not once in all the years I've known you." She looked at him closely, watching his expression for signs of discontent.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it." She waited silently. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, irritation rising. Thinking about his relationship with his parents was the last thing he wanted to do now that he was back in England. "Really Pans. Leave it alone."

"Okay," she said. "Okay. But you know that I'm here if you need to talk, right? We all are."

"What, even Granger?" he snorted inelegantly.

She smiled. "You know, it wouldn't surprise me. She's the best person I know."

"Well, don't count on it. I doubt she wants to be my friend any more than I plan to be hers."

With that the pair of old friends left to go eat their brunch. As they walked into the kitchen neither noticed the brunette standing on the landing on the next floor. She stood silently, making her way back upstairs to think about everything she had heard.