Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter and its original characters. – this is pretending that some things-like malfoy trying to kill Dumbledore and Dumbledore dying and such did not happen in HBP

The bass beat in the club coursed through Hermione Granger's ear as she scanned the dance floor from her seat at the bar. She flicked her long hair over her shoulder, smirking at how much she had changed over the summer. She was the mousy, know-it-all no more. She had lost her fragile look and was now lean and dangerous looking. Her once bushy, uncontrollable brown locks were now black and choppy, falling around her face at its now chin length messy style. She wore dark make up, bringing out her gorgeous hazel eyes. Her clothing was quite a bit different as well, she wore a dark red tight shirt, which ended right above her pierced belly button and had ripped sleeves that went just past her shoulders, and black pants that were a bit baggy and had tons of straps and pockets.

It was her last night of living in the muggle world for the summer, and she decided to have a bit of fun at a club she had heard about. She would be heading for the Hogwarts Express in the morning, most likely thanking Merlin for the invention of a hangover potion.

Many guys had asked her to dance, and she had agreed to a few, but none of them were really up to her standards. Taking a sip from her Smirnoff, she glanced up and almost choked. Draco Malfoy was sitting next to her. She snuck a furtive glance at him. He looked quite good, baggy jeans hanging loosely off his hips, and a black wife beater tank hugging his obviously muscular chest. The dark colors made his skin look like it was glowing, and his blonde hair stuck out even more. She felt her chest clench when he captured her eyes with silver-blue eyes.

"Care to dance?" he asked her. 'Shit,' she thought, he obviously didn't know who she was.

"Are you sure, you might not want to dance with someone like me, do you even know me?" She asked him. She saw mischief in his eyes and the oh-so-famous Malfoy smirk. He leaned forwards and murmured in her ear.

"I know more about you than you think, Granger." Hermione shivered as his lips brushed over her ear. He smirked at her confusion. " You didn't answer me, would you like to dance?"

"If you think you can keep up." She winked, and led him to the dance floor, to the direct middle of the floor. She stopped and turned to him, hearing the song change to a medium beat and her heart pumped in the same rhythm. Taking a deep breath, she snaked her right arm around his neck, and started to dance with him. He was rather polite at first, just placing one hand on the curve of her waist but when the beat started getting quicker, he reached out with his other hand and grabbed her hip, pulling her against him, dancing more quickly and slowly. They spun around the middle of the dance floor, people moving out of their way. Hermione was very impressed, she had to admit. Out of all of her dance partners that night, he had been the most efficient. Hermione turned around, pressing her back against his chest and snaking her arms up around his neck behind her. He leaned down and kissed a trail from her ear to the base of her neck, making her skin feel as if it were on fire wherever he touched her. They both lost their minds in the music, moving together beat by beat in perfect unison. After a while, Hermione looked up into smoky grey eyes, and all of a sudden the realization of who she was actually dancing with kicked in. She leaned up and murmured in Draco's ear.

"I'm going to the restroom." And she just silently walked away. She got into the-thankfully empty-bathroom and leaned her forehead against the wall. She had never danced like that with a guy before, sure she had danced but not so close and so sensual as she had with Malfoy, and it was freaking the shit out of her. She had been hurt before, the summer before 6th year. A boy in her home town had taken interest in her, they started dating, and he tried to get more and more intimate. He tried to push her too far one day, and she got scared and left. The next day she saw him walking down the street with a skimpily dressed girl hanging off from his arm, and Hermione didn't come out of her room for a week. But Hermione saw something different when she looked in his eyes…she saw change. The arrogant boy whose father owned the world was not there anymore, she saw empty spots that she longed to fill. Hermione composed herself to go back out into the club. Opening the door, she swayed her hips to the beat as she walked across the dance floor towards the bar. About halfway across the floor, she felt someone grab her by the waist and she was pulled towards a definitely male body.

"Hey gorgeous, let's head out back with a few of my friends, shall we?" Hermione looked up to see an obviously drunk man leering down at her, and 3 other men grinning wickedly behind him.

"Uhm, I'd rather not. Thanks for the invite though." Hermione replied quickly and tried to pull away.

"That wasn't a real question, you're coming with us." He tightened his grip on her and guided her towards the back exit, where smokers sometimes took a break. His cronies still grinning stupidly following behind them. There was no one out back, unfortunately. They went on the far side of a dumpster and the man pushed her against the wall. Hermione, finally coming to her senses lifted her right leg, nailing the nasty guy right in the groin. He fell away, but as Hermione moved away, two of the cronies moved in and pinned her to the wall on either side. The man she kneed recovered and stood back up.

"You little bitch! Time to be put in your place, whore." He advanced on her, pushing her shirt up. Hermione squirmed and yelled, trying to get away from him to no avail. He started hitting her every time she moved, and the men on her sides tightened their grip, creating bruises on her arms. The first man advanced on her again, lifting up her shirt and playing with her breasts, pressing his hips into hers and Hermione gulped, feeling his manhood pressing against her stomach. This is not how she wanted this to happen. She faintly heard the back door open…

Draco walked to the bar and ordered himself a drink. He had changed quite a bit from his old arrogant self indeed. The previous summer, he had seen endless torture and distress, and did not want to be the cause of that. He had watched his father torture and kill an innocent muggle child and felt something snap inside of him. He went to Dumbledore and started acting as a double agent. His father had been killed only a little ways into the summer and Draco inherited everything, then fled to the Malfoy manor, placing Dumbledore as secret keeper and only showing himself in the muggle world.

He had no idea what had possessed him to make him want to dance with Granger. But the way her body felt against his when they were dancing was enough of a reason for him, he didn't have to live up to pureblood standards anymore, thank god. He knew who she was right off, when she stopped showing up at Order meetings this summer, Dumbledore sent Draco to watch her since he was getting comfortable in Muggle London. Draco had learned so much about her by just watching her. She had become so depressed because the war has already cost her so much. She had seen some of her friends killed, her parents had been killed at work. She had lost so much. She was now staying with her aunt and uncle. Which were luckily more loving than Harry's.

Draco looked across the dance floor and wondered why Hermione was taking so long. He scanned as much as he could from his seat, and then got up and looked closer from the little balcony piece that the bar was on. Directly across from him, he saw the back door shutting, and got a horrible feeling in his gut. He didn't think Hermione would go out there voluntarily, but he was fairly sure that she was out there. It took him a while to make his way across the floor, seeing as there were so many people on it. Eventually, though, he reached the door and pulled it open. He heard a familiar voice pleading no and screaming. He ran to the other side of the dumpster, and nailed the cronie who was just looking on laughing, leaving him sprawled across the ground. He then went for the leader who was too drunk to notice Draco was behind him, and shoved him to the side, kicking him as he fell. The two blokes who were pinning Hermione to the wall grabbed her tighter and tried to shield her and keep her. Draco could just see Hermione's tear streaked, freaked out face. He bashed one of the guy's heads on the wall, dropping him and punched the other one in the gut. Not being supported anymore, Hermione fell to the ground. Draco knelt down next to her and pulled her to him. She put her arms around his waist, clutching his shirt, and buried her face in his shirt sobbing.

"Shhh, baby it's okay," he tried soothing her. He didn't know how long he sat there with her. Eventually, her hold on his shirt relaxed. Draco looked down and she was fast asleep. She looked so beautiful, despite the mess she was in. Not being able to resist the urge, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. He scooped her up in his arms, glanced around and saw the drunk bastards were all passed out and apparated to the manor.

Bright sunlight hit Hermione's face early the next morning. She tried to roll over and face away from the sun, but found that she was being held in place by a set of pale masculine arms wrapped around her. Immediately she panicked, and tried to pull away, but a familiar voice in her ear stopped her.

"Easy Hermione, it's just me." Draco said softly in her ear, and relaxed his hold on her. Hermione rolled over to face him, blushing when she realized that he had no shirt on, but she was still in her clothes from the night before.

"Draco? What the hell….. - oh shit." All too quickly, the memories of the night before came flooding back to her. She looked down, not able to meet his gaze. "Erm, thank you. For last night-I mean-helping me and all." She told him quietly.

Draco looked down at Hermione's sweet face. She looked so meek and volunerable, he had never seen her like this before. The Gryffindor princess was always strong and radiant, quite different from the young woman he now pulled closer to him in a hug.

"Any time, love." He murmured into the top of her head. All of a sudden, Hermione sat bolt upright.

"Shit! I've gotta get home! I've got to finish packing! The train leaves in…." Hermione glanced at her watch, "barely and hour!" Hermione rolled off the side of the bed, and glanced around for her shoes, hastily putting them on. Draco laughed as she struggled to put them on. "Thank you again Draco." Hermione looked up at him and blushed. "I suppose I'll be seeing you in a few hours." She started walking towards a door to the right hand side of the room. Draco stood up, leaning against his bedpost.

"Granger."

"Yes?"

"That's my closet. Hallway's this way." Draco pointed toward a door to the right.

"Oh! Right then." Hermione turned around, Draco intercepted her in the middle of the room.

"Erm, Hermione. Would you like to call a truce for the year? For arguments' sake? And, well, I'm kind of part of the Order now and-" Draco was silenced as Hermione reached up with her right arm, placing it on his neck, and pulling his head towards her own, brushing her lips over his.

"Yes Draco, I think that would be quite…nice." She said breathlessly, smiling. "But, I must be going. See you in an hour or so!" Hermione walked out to the hallway and proceeded to exit the house, leaving a very happy Draco behind.

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