Chapter 6

Hermione stared at Ginny in shock. Her head was spinning with the information Ginny had just reminded her of.

"Oliver Wood is a pureblood." Ginny had said, as they all sat around in Harry's kitchen. James was running around the table trying to catch Kreacher, so he could have a biscuit the elf had on a plate. He had just turned a year old, and poor old Kreacher wasn't so great at dealing with children anymore, though he seemed to enjoy playing with James sometimes.

Hermione still hadn't been able to form a response. Could her former love be an option? It was easy to love Oliver, as they had gotten on so well. He fit right in with the Weasley's and the Potter's. He was gorgeous, clearly. A sweet lover. He had been the whole package, and yet she had thrown him away.

"Gin have you gone nuts? After what I did to Oliver Wood, and the Puddlemere team, I could never face him again." She finally said, her initial warmth toward the idea fading. He would never want anything to do with her, and she had heard he was finally spotted with a new lady. Though Witch Weekly had called her a rebound, she wouldn't dare have the nerve to approach him.

"Hermione, he was so sickly in love with you. That kind of love does not fade. Just look at what Harry and I endured, but we came out on top. And I could never imagining trying to fall in love with another man. No one could ever live up to him." Ginny took her hands in between hers, and frowned at her best friend. "Just think about it okay?" She murmured, kissing Hermione on the forehead, before swiping James up off the floor.

Hermione watched her walk out, and sighed deeply. Kreacher appeared in front of her, a glass of red wine in his hand.

"The Mistress is distressed." He said, watching her take a long sip of it. "Can Kreacher help? He heard Mistress Ginny talking about the nice Oliver Wood. Perhaps I could write him a letter for you? Or even better, Kreacher will just go get Mr. Oliver Wood!" He said, smiling wide at her.

Hermione almost choked on her wine when he said that.

"Kreacher, honestly we really mustn't bother Mr. Wood. He has found a new girl to love, which means he no longer wants to be with me." She mumbled the last part, deflating at the thought.

Kreacher frowned at the mistress and sighed, patting her hand.

"It's okay Miss. If you won't let Kreacher do that for you, would you please let Kreacher hold a nice dinner party for the Mistress? All your friends being around will make you feel better." He asked, looking up at her hopefully.

Hermione sighed deeply, her eyes softening at Kreacher's facial expression. She knew the elf enjoyed to help people, and decided not to deny him this small thing. Plus he was right. All her friends would make her feel much better.

"Fine Kreacher. But, Ginny and Harry have to give their approval first." She muttered, standing and walking over to the fire place. "Come and visit me with an answer." She said, before flooing her way home.

Draco stared at his mother in horror, as she ranted and raved about him being melded with a muggle born. She was swearing as she talked about how it only happened between purebloods, and he must be mistaken.

"Do you know what this will do to your father? As if Azkaban wasn't already a terrible fate, this news will ruin him!" She turned to him with a harsh look. "You will not do this to the family line Draco." She slammed her hand on the dining room table, leveling him with a cold stare. "And that is final."

Draco glared after her as she stormed away. He knew she had no real control over his inheritance, as he was the man of the house, so she didn't scare him one bit. He was hoping his mother would offer some insight, if she knew whether or not it was breakable without the complications of love and other silly fantasies. But how upset she had become showed Draco exactly what he needed to see. It was permanent, and it wasn't going away.

Draco had not loved a women in his entire life. He wined them, dined them, and then took them home. He never saw a girl more than three times. He kept himself guarded, and protected from the rest of the world. Nobody knew the true Draco Malfoy. He was afraid of commitment, and afraid someday a demon from his past would come back to haunt him, and destroy any family he had created. He knew he was not a good person, who didn't deserve anything like love. And he also knew that he would be punished if he tried to enjoy his life after the things he had done.

In fact, that's why he had become a therawizard. He wanted to help people in every way possible. He wanted to make up for his misdeeds. Fate showed how much it cared. Draco was now supposed to fall in love with a witch who didn't like him to save her, essentially. It was the worlds biggest test, and he was going to fail it.

After a night a tossing and turning, Hermione had enough. She threw her covers off, and slipped into her robe, yawning loudly. Her mind had been going a hundred miles a minute all night. She hated the fact that she couldn't seem to come up with any reasonable way to handle this without involving a man who had bullied her over half of her life, or the man whose heart she had broken and left behind.

She was beginning to think that maybe she really didn't deserve her magic after all. In fact, it seemed like fate was trying its hardest to take it away.

While Malfoy may have changed, it didn't change the fact that he was Malfoy. They had never gotten along. She went to see him as a last resort solution, trusting the reviews from the people raving in the magazines and the paper. And the worst part was that he delivered. He had given her a reason why and a solution. Unfortunately, the solution was not the correct one for her.

Putting her kettle on to warm, she noticed a piece of paper folded over on the table. She picked it up, and chuckled at its content.

Mistress Hermione,

You are formerly invited to a dinner party tonight hosted by the Potter family. You attendance is a must.

Love- The Potter's and Kreacher

Kreacher had moved awfully quickly, she mused. It hadn't even been twelve hours. Perhaps she would go and spend the day with Ginny and James. Ginny would be grateful not to have to take James to Harpies practice with her, and then Ginny could dress Hermione and make her look proper for the dinner party, which was ridiculous because it was only the Weasley's and a few close friends. The dinner parties tended to make her sad, as so many treasured faces were always missing. Fred was especially missed, and not by anyone more than George. After two years George finally pulled himself together enough to continue with their business. They opened three new locations, and George ended up marrying Angelina Johnson. They had twin boys who were almost two. One was named Fred respectively, and the other they called Frank. Even as toddlers they showed promise that they would be just like their father, and their late uncle.

When she had dropped by some time ago to deliver dinner to the boys while Angelina was out of town, she had caught George crying quietly next to his twins cribs, a picture of him and Fred clutched in his hand. Hermione had started crying herself at the scene and tried to turn away before he noticed her, but he already had and he crushed her in a hug so fierce she could swear his sorrows were her own.

After that, George and Hermione had a close relationship. He was a wonderful brother, even if he and Ronald hadn't worked out. He had been through a lot of sleepless nights with Hermione, Angelina sitting beside them on the couch in his living room, sipping a cup of tea while Hermione cried endlessly.

Harry and Ron were always so busy with their auror jobs she had space for a new friend in her life, and George just fit the bill. She was endlessly grateful to him, and Angelina. She was hoping they would offer some insight to her troubles tonight at the dinner party. They always looked in from an outsiders position, so their opinions and thoughts were never biased.

Turning to take the kettle off the stove she was startled by the sound of the floo. Peeking her head around the corner of the door, she was even more surprised to see a shock of blonde hair, and a weary face with bags under his eyes. She had completely forgotten Draco's warning yesterday that he would be back this morning.

Taking a deep, calming breath she stepped out of the kitchen.

"Malfoy. I would say good morning, but it's barely morning, so what are you doing here?" She asked bluntly, staring him down.

"I figured you'd be up." He said with a shrug, stepping towards her and the kitchen. "I know I didn't sleep a wink last night, and I thought it probably meant you didn't either." His eyes settled on the kettle that was whistling on the stove.

Hermione sighed, and turned back to the kettle. "I suppose I should have expected you anyhow." She muttered, taking out a skillet and a bowl to fix them some breakfast. "I guess we better get this talking stuff over with."

Draco grunted his agreement, and slumped down into one of her dining room chairs.

"Lord Granger, with all that war heroine money you couldn't be bothered to buy some decently comfortable furniture?" He muttered, flicking his wand to cushion the chair he was sitting in.

She shot him a fierce glare, before turning back to her task.

"Some people don't spend money on whatever they can, Malfoy. I'm saving my money, for when I come across a home I'd really like to buy. Besides, I am currently jobless thanks to my no magic so it would not be practical for me to spend a large amount of money on something as silly as cushioned chairs."

Draco sighed exasperatedly at her attitude. Here in her kitchen, he remembered how she annoyed him so. Magic melded or not, she was bloody annoying. She thought she knew everything, and she would argue until she turned blue in the face to prove a point. This was another reason he didn't date. Women always wanted to fight.

"Granger, I was asking a question. Lets not argue, okay? We have a lot to talk about, and I have things to do today." He sneered at the end and it reminded Hermione of all the reasons this was ridiculous.

He may be gorgeous, smart, and charismatic, but he wasn't kind and she was. She hated how he treated people. She hated that he thought his blood made him a better wizard than she a witch.

She bit her lip at that thought. He hadn't said one derogatory, prejudice thing and she supposed she should give him the benefit of the doubt where that was concerned. She glanced at him, seen how exhausted he looked, and decided maybe he was just grumpy from lack of sleep.

"Fine Malfoy. Let's talk. Where do you want to begin?" She asked, pushing the eggs around the pan.

"We need to begin with social calls. I don't know much about this whole magic melding thing, but I do know in the old stories, once a meld began it was incredibly difficult to be away from one's partner for any large amount of time. We'll probably need to see each other about three times a week." He stated, pulling out an old weathered journal and flipping through it.

"What is that?" She demanded, turning completely from the stove to look over what he was reading.

"It's a journal from a melded couple. They wrote about all their experiences from the very beginning. Here it explains how his parents refused to let him out of the marriage contract, and the spell that was used to carve into his magical core. He writes about the first time he helped her perform magic, the first pain of being away from each other, the way his soul sang in glee when they were together… and then it goes to where they finally gave in, fell in love, and melded forever." Malfoy explained, running his fingers over the words on the pages.

"How about a journal to explain how to undo this Malfoy? We don't want to fall in love. I'm in love with someone else!" Hermione cried, aggravated by the way he was treating this. It wasn't happening, and he needed to get that through his head. "I don't like you Draco Malfoy, and you don't like me, so lets not pretend this is even an option." She growled, slamming her hand on the counter for effect.

Draco stood up from his seat, snapping the journal shut and glaring at the annoying know it all.

"You know what Granger? Fine. You're right. I can't help you, I can't fix you, and I can't stand you. You go around bossing everyone about, you think you're right about everything, and here I am trying to help you! Well forget that idea, because I have absolutely no reason to help someone so selfish and especially not a muggle born!" He roared, slamming the book on the table, before turning around and marching strait to her floo. "Malfoy Manor." He hollered, turning away in a huff of green.

Hermione stared after him in shock. Malfoy had just called her selfish and a mud.. She stopped her train of thought. He had said muggle born. Not the other foul word. Sure, he said he had no reason to help her because she was a muggle born, but if Draco Malfoy was still the same man, he would have said it. Had he honestly been trying to be kind to her? She wasn't sure, just like she wasn't sure why she was feeling remorse over screaming at him. She hadn't meant to… she just wanted him to quit pretending this was all fine, and they could ride off into the sunset. But maybe he wasn't acting that way. Maybe he was just dealing with it like a mature adult, since as far as he knew there was no way to fix it.

She flipped the stove off, and went to look out the window. Diagon Alley was already bustling, with Hogwarts due to go back to school in just a week. She sighed, and supposed she should…

"Granger, I'm sorry." Malfoy's voice coming from behind her and it made her jump. "I shouldn't have said muggle born… everything else was true but that. I owe the muggleborns a lot more than I'd like to admit." His look truly was sorrowful, and Hermione softened immediately.

"I'm sorry I screamed at you." She muttered, grabbing two plates out of the cabinet. "Breakfast?" She offered, scooping out some eggs.

"Sure." He mumbled, looking surprised as he took back his seat from earlier.

She placed a plate in front of him, along with a glass of orange juice and sat across from him.

"Maybe this would be easier, if you explain why you're trying to follow through with this. I mean honestly Malfoy, you don't expect us to work out do you?" She asked, taking a bite of her breakfast.

"No Granger, I don't. But I do know we're both going to be miserable if we don't at least work side by side on cracking this thing, and getting us off the hook." He was tapping his fork against his plate lightly as he was deep in thought.

Hermione knew there had to be some way out. She couldn't be forced to this fate, and she knew Draco didn't want to be either.

"How do you know another pureblood won't work?" She wondered, scrunching her eyes at him.

"I don't for sure. I just didn't want you to snog the Weasel and end up stabbing me with the meld or something." He smirked at her annoyed look, taking a sip of his orange juice. "Why? Are you thinking about calling up old Oliver?" His smirk reminded Hermione of the Cheshire cat from the muggle move Alice in Wonderland and she wrinkled her nose at him.

"No. Absolutely not. Not that it's any of your business." She got up out of her chair, and walked around the table to pick up his dishes. Her arm accidently brushed his, and she felt it. Her magic was singing in glee at being free, even if only for a moment. She closed her eyes against the power she felt seeping in from him, and almost collapsed from the way her whole body relaxed. She couldn't remember why she was denying him access to her soul, until he suddenly jerked away.

"Granger…" He whispered, his throat tight and his face screwed up in pain. "We can't touch. It brainwashes you." He said, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

She felt like she was walking through a waterfall of fire, but when she ignored it she could see past the pain. He was right. She could think rationally again, and remembered the reasons she was fighting this. Her magic deflated inside of her like a balloon. Her emotions sagged with it. That had felt so amazing, and she would bond her soul to his forever, if only he wasn't Draco Malfoy. He was not the right man for her and she knew that.

"Sorry Malfoy. I'll be extra careful from now on…" She mumbled, flashing him a shy look. She wondered what it felt like to him. Even if she was brainwashed, that was something she'd like to relish again one day. She had never felt someone so intimately and it felt amazing.

Thinking about it made her stomach twist up all funny, and she couldn't help but be surprised by the feeling. She was beginning to think maybe it didn't matter that it was Draco anymore… Maybe she could learn to love him. He was her perfect match after all.

Even if she was brainwashed, she made a quick decision and stuck to it.

"Hey Malfoy, would you like to attend a dinner party tonight?"

A/N:: Hey guys! Two chapters in one week! That's amazing for me. Hello to all our new followers! Hope you're enjoying my story.

Leave a review and let me know.

-xo