The Dark Mark of Love

----- This is a role play I did with my friend Joanna [The Divine-Dragon, so half of the credit goes to her, and of course J.K.R. for her great characters. We do not own any of the characters, J.K.R. does. This is a Hermione x Draco story. It was an rp so it's a back and forth type. -----

Hermione awoke suddenly from her restless sleep. She couldn't remember what she had dreamed, or even if she dreamed, she just had this dark eerie feeling.
Sitting up she realized she had a headache, and for some reason her left arm hurt. Rubbing her arm just made the pain worse. Pulling up her sleeve, she saw it.

Somehow a dark mark had been cast on her arm. She gasped, realizing what this meant. She was now in the service of the Dark Lord, her worse enemy, the man or "thing" who killed Harry's parents.

How did this happen? She quickly covered the mark and jumped out of bed running down the stairs, skipping two at a time. She didn't even stop when Harry said good morning.

Looking like someone who just stepped out of a nightmare, Hermione ran down the corridors. "This better not of been one of his doings!" She muttered angrily to herself as she rounded the corner and smacked right into the person she had been looking for.

Picking herself up, she glared at him. "Malfoy!"

Draco was walking through the school with a smirk on his face. Beside him were his so called friends Crabbe and Goyle. They chuckled as he told them about what had what he had seen last night in Hogsmeade. "I always thought the Weasley's were inbred wonder if it's just the two of them or the whole family." He commented as he finished up his story about the Weasley twins.

A heavy sigh came from him as he tried not to laugh as they made their way to the Great Hall. Draco fell with a grunt as he fell to the ground. Looking up at who had ran into him and glared as he stood. "What do you want mudblood?" He sneered.

The collision made her fall back as well. She picked her self up off the ground, not even bothering to dust herself off. She glared at him with tears in her eyes as she jerked the left sleeve of her robes up.

She held out her left forearm for him to see, and said in a deadly tone. "Is this you doing!!?" Her tears started to flow faster as she quickly covered her arm back up.
"How could you!?" she sobbed..."I trusted you!" She pounded his chest with both of her fist.
"Why!? Why!?"

Draco blinked dumbly with a raised eyebrow at her and slowly pulled her away from her by the arms.
"What makes you think it was me Granger?" He asked as he gave her a are you insane look. He honestly had no idea what was going on or how the mark had even gotten on her. "Calm down and explain this to me slowly." Draco said as he let her go and took a step back.

He gave his friends a look that told them to get and he smirked as they took off towards the Great Hall. "Ok, now please explain." He said softly as he leaned against the cold stone wall of the castle.

She tried to wipe her tears away and looked up into his soft gray eyes. "I-I don't know how it h-happened. I just w-woke up, and it was t-there on my arm!"

Wails started to poor out of her mouth again, as she hid her face in her hands. "I-If it w-wasn't y-you t-then who was it?" she asked between her fingers.

"I d-don't r-remember h-having it b-before I w-went to b-bed."
She stammered between sobs.

"Don't look at me! I'm horrible! I don't know what to do!" She said turning her back to him.

"I see, so you don't know how it got there." Draco thought for a second and couldn't think of how it could have got there.

He sighed heavily as she began to cry. He couldn't stand it when girls cried. "I don't know, but it couldn't have been me, I wasn't even here." Draco answered her as he tried to cheer her up.

"No you don't, well ok you do, but that's only because you are crying your eyes out." He gently placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him.

"Look at me; I was in Hogsmeade most of the night even though I shouldn't have been out that late. I have no clue who it could have been though, but I'll try to find out for you." He said as his cold gray eyes softened for just a second as he spoke to her.

"But I need to know if you were around anyone suspicious yesterday Hermione."

She looked up into his eyes. They were so soft and kind. She couldn't tell why nobody else seemed think so. "I-I knew that. I don't know why I accused you."

Racking her mind she stood still for a bit trying to remember the day before. Biting her lip trying to refresh her mind she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Some boys from your house were picking fun of me yesterday. I-I think they know about...about us. They were really rude. I hexed one of them." She said looking down.

Draco smiled at her for a second but it quickly disappeared as a few Slytherins walked by.

"Yeah, so I'm not the one, and if I were you I'd blame me too." He said with a chuckle as he placed his hands back on her shoulders since he had removed them when his friends walked by.

Draco watched her face as she thought. He smiled a bit as he watched her bite her lip.

"Then there's our answer, now if you can tell me who you hexed then we really will have our answer." Draco sighed as he waited her answer; he hoped she could give him the name of the one she hexed.

She looked up at him her eyes a bit wider. She really didn't want to tell him who she had hexed. "I don't know if I should say it...you'd be furious..." She shook her head and went on.

"It was Goyle, I always though he was dumb, but he's a lot smarted then I took him for. He knows spells I know not, I don't know where he has been learning them, but he's pretty good at them. Since you went to Hogsmeade alone Crabbe and him found me sitting in the library. I was surprised to see them there because I figured they couldn't read that well. They cornered me as I left."

She looked up waiting for his expression to change to rage and misbelieve.

"I'm not mad at you but I am at those two." Draco said as he pulled her close. "They have no reason to mess with you, but I don't blame you for hexing them, and the Dark Lord isn't going to be pleased with the two of them." He said as he pulled away to hold her at arms length.

He sighed as he looked her in the eyes; his own softening as he did so. "Don't worry, I'll take care of them, when I'm through they won't even know what hit them. I'll make sure they are puking up slugs for a week."

Draco hoped Hermione would at least smile at that threat to his own friends.

She managed a weak smile. 'Thank you." she whispered and looked up and down the corridor. Nobody was coming so she stepped in closer and brushed her lips against his and turned of her heal and walked away. She had stopped crying on the outside but on the inside she felt like she was being ripped in two. She had a pain in her chest and a lump in her throat.

She trudged back to the common room with her head down, holding her arm as she walked. She didn't even look up when she gave the password to the Fat Lady and slouched into the room and flopped down in a chair next to the fire.

"Welcome." He said softly as she walked away. Draco slowly made his way to the Great Hall with a small yawn.

Back in the Gryffindor common room Harry and Ron were waiting for their friend to return. Both looked up when Hermione walked in.

"Hermione, Harry told me you just ran out of here looking upset earlier. What happened?" Ron asked as she sat down.

Hermione was starting into the fire when they addressed her. She looked up startled. "N-nothings wrong." she stammered as she hid her left arm in the cushions on the chair.

"Just a bad dream, I ran off to the library to look up what it meant. It meant nothing really. I was just being silly I guess."

"Are you sure?" Harry asked her as he gave her a worried look.

Ron sighed as he glanced at Harry before looking back at Hermione. "You had a bad dream? What was it about?" He asked softly as he kept his eyes on her.

Harry sighed softly as he hoped Hermione would explain her dream to them. He hoped they could help in some way, he knew she wasn't telling them something though.

Hermione looked up into the bright caring blue eyes of one of her best friends, Ronald Weasley. She knew Ron had feelings for her, and she felt ashamed that she could not return his feelings. She was just leading him astray. She had somebody else that neither he nor Harry knew about.

"I'm fine really. It just shook me up a bit. Had to do with the dark arts and You-Know-Who" She said shaking her head clear. "Maybe I'll feel better after some breakfast." She suggested getting to her feet.

Her two friends nodded at her reply.

"Ok, well you know me and Ron are here for you if you need anything." Harry said as he stood up. "I'm heading to get some breakfast." He said as he left Hermione and Ron alone.

"Hermione, are you sure you're ok?" Ron asked as Harry left. "You've been acting strange this year." He was worried about his friend, ever since they came back from summer holidays she had not been acting normal. "I'm worried about you Mione." He whispered softly to her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine...Just been worried about the out come of this war and all, plus were packed down with more work than ever before. I think I'm just stressing out. Nothing a few days of rest and good food won't fix." She patted Ron on the shoulder. "I'm going to get somewhat presentable before I go down for breakfast. I'll meet you there." She said turning on her heal marching off towards the Girls Dormitory.

She got up to the dorm and sat on her four-poster bed. She sat there for awhile before attempting to comb her hair, which of course was not going to happen. She sighed and pulled out her wand, gave it a funny little flick and her hair looked to be combed and straightened. She had leaned some new spells since her fourth year; she no longer had any need for Sleekeazy's Hair Potion. She would normally not fix her hair so nicely, but she wanted the attrition away from her left arm and to her head instead. She was afraid that someone would notice the mark on her arm.

After brushing her teeth and putting on some clean robes she picked up her bag and scurried down to the Great Hall. As she entered she glanced over towards the Slytherin table to sneak a loot at Draco before be settled into her spot between Ron and Harry.

Ron nodded as he watched her head upstairs with a sigh. He stood up and headed down for breakfast.

Draco sat there with a smirk on his face as he chuckled at his two 'friends' who had ended up in the hospital wing since they couldn't stop hurling slugs. He sent a quick smile to Hermione when she looked over at him as she sat down.

Blaise who had sat next to him caught the exchange and chuckled a bit only to stop as Draco glared at him.

Ron gave Hermione a smile as she sat down. "You look nice."

"What?" Hermione asked putting down her goblet of juice she was drinking and looked at him. "Oh thank you." she murmured, starting to butter a piece of toast.

"I hope we don't have a lot of school work today, I really need to catch up on the homework I already have. I've been falling behind. I know that's not like me, but after six years, I tired. They shouldn't give so much work."

She glanced over at the Slytherin table again, watching Draco as he talked with his fellow house mates, and nibbled his food. In the process she had buttered her finger.

Ron smiled at her and shook his head. "Just because you do you work like twice the speed of any other student here doesn't mean they'll give you a break." He said with a chuckle.

He raised an eyebrow as he noticed she had buttered her finger. "Umm, Hermione, you do know you just buttered your finger don't you?" He asked.

Draco turned his attention back to eating his breakfast and ignored Blaise. Every now and then he would cast glances towards Hermione.

Snapping out of her daze she looked at her thumb. "Oh! Opps..." she said sticking it in her mouth. "Ugh butter, it's only good on food." She blushed at looked at Ron 'What were you saying? I wasn't really listening. Sorry."

She nibbled at her toast and Ron jabbered away. Once in awhile she would catch a few words, but most of them were unheard, as her mind worked over time.

Harry shook his head as he watched his two friends. A sigh left him as he knew she wasn't really paying attention to Ron.

Draco chuckled slightly as he noticed Hermione and Ron talking. She was barely listening to the Weasley. He felt Blaise nudge him in the side and looked at him. "What?"

"Why do you keep looking over at the Gryffindors?" Blaise asked him in a casual voice.

"None of your business Zabini." He said as he looked at his food. "I would tell you if you needed to know."

Blaise growled a bit and slowly shook his head.

Hermione turned to Ron and Harry after finishing her toast. "I have to go to the library again..." She said getting up and slinging her bag over her shoulder. She didn't even bother finishing her food.

She had a lot of work that needed to be done, she was already behind in her Runes class, but she wouldn't admit that to Harry or Ron. Sighing as she walked out into the Entrance Hall on her way to the Library. Throwing her bag on the ground by a table she started looking for a Runeology book. Finding one she flopped down in a chair and opened it. She started to read it, but after awhile her eyes that were moving with the words just turned to staring eyes, as she was lost in thought.

Harry and Ron said bye to her as they exchanged glances.

Draco saw Hermione get up and leave and decided to follow her after a few minutes passed by. He stood and without saying goodbye he left the Great Hall and made his way to the library. Upon entering the library his eyes landed on Hermione who was buried nose deep into her book. He took a seat next to her and sat there quietly not wanting to disturb her.

Hermione snapped out of her daze and looked at him.
"Oh Draco I'm sorry, I didn't notice you were there, actually I haven't even noticed until now, I've been rereading the same sentence about five times. I don't think I can do this anymore, I'm far behind in Runes, which is a never. I'm going to run out of excuses soon."

She sighed shutting the book. "I just can't concentrate like I use to. I don't know what's wrong with me."

Draco gave her a small smile. "It's ok; I haven't been here too long." He said with a slight chuckle. He looked at the book she was reading and shook his head. "You do know you were reading that upside down don't you?" He asked her as he tried to keep himself from laughing. Draco reached for the book and gently flipped it before handing it back to her.

Hermione gave a small smile in return, and then blushed bright red at his comment. "N-No I didn't realize I was...I'm just so out of it. How long till Christmas Break? I really need a break."
She said sighing.

"T-Thanks." She murmured looking down at the book in her hands and tossed it aside. "Runes is the hardest class, I just can't keep up with it anymore. I wonder what McGonagall would said if I tried to drop it?" She sighed and put her head in her hand.

Draco smirked a bit as he watched her. He gently placed his hand on her back. "It's ok, Mione." He said in a gentle voice. "It's about a month and a half away until Christmas break." He replied slowly. He sighed as he noticed how stressed she seemed to be at the moment.

"I think she'd understand if you did, you're not expected to do all the classes in the school you know."

Draco rubbed her back hoping it help her relax somewhat. "You need to relax and well, try to have some fun instead of always studying."

Hermione smiled slight and took his other hand in hers. "A month and a half seems so long from now. But maybe I can get through it. School work is putting a lot of stress on me, and now this mark on my arm, it's not helping either."

She sighed and looked into his cold gray eyes, which always seemed to light up around her. "Sometimes I think I have to take all those classes to prove I can do it, and to prove to myself and to others. Especially you Slytherins, it's like I have to prove I'm not some stupid Mudblood. I can do everything a pureblood can, and sometimes more."

She held up a hand at his expression. "I'm not saying anything bad about you, even though I still remember those times when we didn't get along so well." She remembered their second year when called her a Mudblood and their third year when she smacked him, she remembered those times perfectly, just like it was yesterday.

Draco smiled sadly at her. "I know, I remember when we didn't get along either." He said with a smile. He could never forget those times between them, especially when she had hit him. "I'm sorry about all those times, Mione..." He said to her softly as he looked down at his feet. "I was so mean to you and never felt anything towards you but hate... it makes me feel like I don't deserve you..."

"Oh don't say that. We were both at fault." She softly smiled at him. "We were both horrible to each other, and all we had room for was hate. We never stopped and tried to get to know one another."

She leaned down and kissed his cheek. "But that's all in the past now, that was then and this is now. We started anew, only me and you. No one else knows, they wouldn't understand." She was thinking of how Harry and Ron would react if they knew about Draco and her. They would be furious, especially Ron. Ron would want to take it out on Draco. "They don't know you like I do."

Draco smiled a bit at her and nodded. "I know, and I don't want them to know me the way you do." He said softly s he returned the kiss on her cheek as well.

"If they knew me like you did, they would never leave me be." He said with a chuckle as he let out a soft sigh. "I still get the feeling that the two of them have a suspicion about us though. "Draco whispered softly as he leaned back in the chair he was sitting in.

"Do you think so?" she asked a bit worried. Hermione looked around and noticed that everybody that had been sitting in the library was gone.
She gasped and started shoving her books back into her bag. "Gonna be late." she said franticly. "I can't afford to be late!"

She stood up and slung her bag on her shoulder. "Come on, were going to be late for Defense Against the Dark Arts!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him up, making him fallow her.

Draco shrugged at her question. "I'm not sure, but…ack!" He was cut off as Hermione dragged him to his feet. "Whoa Mione, a little warning next time?" He asked as he gently squeezed her hand as he followed her to their first class.

The whole walk there he never let go of her hand since everyone else was already in class, so he saw no need to hide their affection. As they neared the classroom he gave her hand a gentle squeeze once again just before letting it go and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him.

----- Ok that's it for the first part, please review, I like to know what you think. Hopefully soon we'll have enough to make another chapter. Sorry this one was so long. - Kara -----