"So that's the way it happened, eh?" Blaise secured his place on the single chair in his bedroom, while Draco lay comfortably on Blaise's bed, loading a 40-caliber handgun idly. "Your father just -whoosh -stripped you of all your powers? Just like that?"

"Yeah." Draco's voice drolled through the room. "Just like that. Whoosh."

"So how did you meet all these other people?"

"I'd rather not go into it..." Draco finished loading the gun and cocked it, pointing it up towards the ceiling.

"What's that?" Blaise asked, pointing to the gun. "Some kind of muggle thing?"

"Its a gun. -And yes, it is a muggle thing." He clicked the safety on. "Its ten times more primitive than magic and ten times more deadly."

"You kill people? With that thing?" Blaise began to laugh. "That's a riot, Malfoy. A real hoot."

"Ha ha ha." Draco laughed mockingly. He rolled over, sat up, thought 'what in the bloody hell am I doing here anyways?' and hoisted himself up off the bed. "If you'll excuse me..." With the gun still loaded in his hand, he aimed it a foot away from Blaise's head and pulled the trigger.

"Oh shit!" Blaise screamed as the bullet chucked out of the gun and whizzed past his head. BOOM. CRACK. The wall did not survive the blow; a tiny hole in the wall was very prominent. "What the Hell... Shit Malfoy! Christ! Have some common sense, will you?"

It didn't take long for Hermione to run up the stairs in a matter of seconds.

"What! Draco? What's all the ruckus about?" She gasped. "Why do you have that thing out?" She pointed to the gun. "You're supposed to have that thing hidden away in the house."

"I'm sorry, it was happy to see you," Draco smirked, referring to a gun of his own. Hermione shook her head in disgust and took the gun out of his hand, then unloaded it.

"Sometimes you can be so daft..." She made her way into Draco's room and put the gun underneath the bed with haste.

"Playing hard to get never works -you remember that, Blaise..." He left Blaise shivering and frightened beyond all possible. Draco strolled out of Blaise's room and back into his own to get a good look at Hermione's skirt as she bent over.

"What are you staring at?" She turned with a swift motion towards him. "I know you're staring at me."

"Do you remember the first time we saw each other... you know. After the war?" The door made a click sound as it was shut.

"Is that what this is about?" Hermione shifted her weight to her hips, resting her hands on them as if they were a support system. "Look, Draco, I thought you didn't like to talk about that stuff..."

"I don't. But I want to." Crossing the room, he laid down on the bed. "Do you remember?"

"I remember how pale you were..."

"It had been two months without my powers. I thought I'd never get out of the slump I was in... Living on the streets -me – a Malfoy of all people! And there you were, coming out of that bookstore with an arm load of books."

"I was researching spells for my work..."

"And you were wearing a short, red skirt." He reached for her hand, grasped it, and pulled her on the bed with him. She ended up straddling him on accident. "I remember that. -Do you remember what I said to you?"

"'Hey watch where you're going.'" Hermione stated.

"No, after that."

Hermione shook her head.

"I said, and I remember this word for word, 'God Granger, either this is the muggle in me talking or I'm crazy but -what happened?'"

"Excuse me?" Hermione spun around in the middle of the street, books in her arms and a slight glare on her face. "I don't know who you think you are bu-- Malfoy?" Her face contorted into something from a glare to a repulsed state. "Wha-What?"

"What happened?" He continued, his dark circles under his eyes making him appear stronger and deadlier than he really was. "You look... good."

"We haven't heard hide nor hair from you in years and that's all you can seem to say is 'you look good.' You two timing good for nothing... I oughtta..." She shoved her books in his hands without warning and began rummaging through her pockets to find something... "Where is it..."

"If you're looking for your wand, I might warn you, its not decent to use a wand on a muggle. Aren't there rules against that?" He smirked. The sentence caught her dead on, making her stop what she was doing to look up at the slender blond before her. Still carrying her books in his arms, he continued, "I mean... look... sorry about Potter and all..." He put the books back in her hands softly. "I mean... I do owe him my life."

"What happened to you?" Hermione tilted her head. "Where's the meanness, the attitude, the... sarcasm! -And what's all this talk about being a muggle?"

"Sure are a lot of questions for such a small girl... must be the bitch inside of you." He laughed whole heartedly, the first time in a long time. "See, I still have my attitude."

"I... I don't get it... you... what... muggle?" It finally registered. "How? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"I wish," Draco examined her eyes for a minute. "You're really pretty, you know that?"

"I... excuse me?" Hermione began to shake from frustration. "Wait – this is all a little too much."

"Try being a squib for a while and then tell me that. -I know this might seem kind of forward, but... would you like to... I don't know... go get some coffee or something?"

"Malfoy... I..." Hermione seemed very confused as she shook her head. "I-"

"Hey, Hermione!" Came a voice that matched a man with red hair and freckles who was strolling up behind her. "You got what you needed?" Ron Weasley gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Hermione?"

"Yeah, those were the days when I didn't know you belonged to a greasy haired git like him," Draco put his hands behind his head as he recalled the depressing thought. "Tell me, Hermione, when he's fucking you it doesn't feel as good as when I'm inside of you, does it?"

"Draco!" Hermione put her hand over his mouth. "Shh... someone could hear you..."

"Goo-," Draco said through a muffling hand, "I 'ope 'ey oo'"

"What?" Hermione pulled her hand away.

"I hope they do." He said. "I'm sick of hiding this." For once the cowardly snake had grown the courage of a lion. "I want people to see us together. I want people to know that your favorite position is not cowgirl-"

"-Draco!-"

"-But when you're laying flat on your stomach." He leaned up and captured her lips in a delicate kiss. "You can't sit there and tell me Weasley does it for you like I do." Stubbornness shrouded his eyes.

"You know we cant be anything more than what we are." She sounded stubborn as well.

"Why not?" His voice was almost pleading -almost. "Lets give up this charade. We know we'll never be able to find Potter... in all honesty, Weasley is right. He probably is dead." Quickly, he placed a finger on her lips to silence her protests. "Ah, ah, ah. Just hear me out. The Willow, and all its inhabitance, is dying. If we stay here, you know my father is going to find us eventually. Look at what this place has done to you..." His finger traced along her bottom lip, down the smooth length over her neck, and to her cleavage. "You used to be so happy... its sucking the life right out of you."

"How can you say The Willow is dying?" Hermione looked cautiously to him.

"Because we're dying." Draco cupped her chin. "Weasley doesn't do it for you like I do, Granger, and you know it. I know I could be better than him -hands down – if you'd just give me the chance. -How many of us were there before? Twenty? Now there's only six... and with Blaise it makes seven. Don't you see? He's picking us off one by one and its all to get to me."

"By 'he' you mean-"

"I mean the damn man who gave me life."

Hermione sighed. "I'm not giving up on Harry. That's why we came here in the first place. This place was one of the few places that we could research what Lucius is up to without anyone finding out. We're this close-" She put her finger and thumb an inch apart, "-To finding out the mystery behind it all, and you just want to throw in the towel and run off together?"

"..." Draco pondered. "Yep, I guess that's what I'm saying." His hand snaked its way up her back, underneath the cotton material of her shirt, where he traced small swirls on her fair skin. "Come on." He whispered delicately. "Imagine it." Then he leaned up, so that his breath caught in her ear, "You and me, together, away from it all. You in a French Maid's outfit as I-" He clawed her back suddenly, "-Fucked you hard over a veranda... Your breasts spilling out into the cold air... one of my hands on your stomach, the other fisted through your brown hair as you screamed..." His hand that clawed her back gripped her backside naughtily. "Doesn't that sound better than anything Weasley could offer?"

It took Hermione to snap back to her senses. "I-I... Your father would always haunt us." She lay her head on his chest.

There was a burning question looming inside of Draco's brain, so hard in the interior it almost screamed to be released. "...Is that the reason, then? Is that why you stay with him?" And so he did release it.

"I'm not going to answer you." She said, tracing her finger along his arm. But for Draco, that was all the answer that he needed.