Several days after Ella became part of the gang, Hermione and Ron went off to the library leaving Draco and Ella alone in the common room and Blaise and Lavender off doing God knows what. In the common room, Draco was sitting calmly on the couch watching as Ella paced back and forth. After she darted back and forth over the gold and silver plush carpet for a good five minutes, randomly stopping to tug on her hair and growl, Draco lost his patience. He stood up and walked up to her. He grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the eye. "What is going on with you?!" She looked at him for a minute before her bottom lip started to tremble and her eyes started to fill with tears. "Draco…I lied you to you all before…" She trailed off and looked down at her hands. Draco's arms fell to his sides. He looked at her, a mix of anger and hurt in his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, you know when I came to you crying the other day? And I told you it was because I was being teased?"

Draco narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "Yesss…"

"Well, I only said that because I knew you'd believe me. You know how sensitive I am and I knew you'd buy it."

"Oh geez…what really happened el?"

"Draco you know how much I love you right? You're my dearest friend and it kills me to see you upset. Well…it's Pansy…"

"What about her?"

"She really doesn't like that you are so happy with Hermione. She was really looking forward to you two breaking up and you coming back to her. Now you guys are so happy and we all know it's going to be a long time. But…Oh Draco…" She let out a quiet sob. Draco put his arm around her, "What is it?" She took a deep breath and spoke.

"…she's going to tell Hermione."

……………………………………………….

Hermione and Ron had been in the library studying for their potions' exam for quite some time when a loud sound echoed through the library. Hermione burst into laughter and had to cough to cover it up. She looked up at Ron who was blushing a color similar to his hair. He was throwing her a glare, but his bright blue eyes were dancing with laughter. Hermione smiled at him, "Hungry are we Ronald?" He gave her a look, "Nooooo, my stomach just does that when it's bored," he replied sarcastically. Hermione laughed at him and stopped when she looked at her watch. "Wow, we've nearly missed all of dinner, no wonder your stomach's throwing such a fit. Come on or there'll be no more food." With a wave of their wands, their stuff was packed neatly in their bags. They picked up them up and rushed out of the library, being sure to stop when they passes Madam Pince's desk, only to start running full speed again once they were sure they were out of site.

Hermione and Ron burst through the doors to the Great hall, laughing hysterically. On their way, they had nearly had run directly into Filch and had to literally leap into an empty classroom to avoid him. They had tumbled through the door, landing in a tangle of legs and arms with papers flying everywhere from the bags that had flown with them. They had lain there laughing for quite a few minutes before they finally stopped enough to where they were again capable of movement. They stumbled into the great hall but stopped abruptly when they saw Goyle clumsily dumping something into Harry's drink while Harry was distracted with some random Hufflepuff. Goyle waddled away and Harry turned back to the table. He grabbed his goblet and brought it to his lips. "Harry NO!"

Hermione ran towards him and ripped the goblet from his fingers clutching it to her chest. Harry glared at her, "What the hell Granger! Give me my drink!" Hermione had a determined look on her face.

"No way Harry." Harry just gave her a look, "And why not? Look, I know you hate me… but really, taking my drink?"

Hermione couldn't help but laugh a bit. "Oh yes Harry, I've been plotting against you and now my evil plan is unfolding. First, I steal your drink." Harry actually smiled, and then he put his hand over his heart and put a look of mock pain on his face.

"NO! Not my drink! ANYthing but my drink!" Hermione laughed at him. She then remembered why she came over in the first place.

"Look, Harry, when I came in, I saw Goyle pouring something in your drink. A potion... or something…" Harry gave her a disbelieving look. "I only had my back turned for like 2 minutes! I would have noticed."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Harry, you and I both know that 2 minutes is more than enough time to spike a drink."

Harry raised his eyebrow at her, "Right, because you're 'spiked' so many drinks." Hermione smirked, "Maybe. Anyways, just let me get this one tested, we both know that as soon as I get relatively far away, a new goblet will come. One not so contaminated." Harry growled under his breath.

"It's not contaminated!" Hermione huffed.

"YES it is! We saw him doing it! Isn't that right Ron?" She looked over at Ron whose head was turned the towards slytherin table, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Ron!"

His head snapped back to the situation and looked at them in confusion, "Wait...whaa?" Hermione glared, "Didn't we see Goyle messing with Harry's drink."

Ron looked at her, "Yes, why?" Hermione rolled her eyes. "Because Mr. Potter here refuses to believe it."

Ron looked at Harry, "its true mate."

Harry sighed in exasperation and dropped his hand to his sides, "Fine fine, whatever you say bookworm." Hermione spun around to him and smiled…he had called her bookworm. He hadn't called her that since this summer. Not since before he had begun to change. She flashed him a smile and hurried up to the head table, being sure not to spill as she went. Hermione slid to a stop in front of her potions master.

"Hello Professor!" She said in an out of breath voice. Snape looked up from his food and gave her a small smile, "Good evening Miss Granger."

Hermione smiled and launched into the story about the potion in the goblet. By the end of the story Snape had taken the goblet and was stirring it with his finger. He pulled his finger out and looked at it closely.

"I see…well, follow me Miss Granger. Weasley, go get potter and bring him down to my office." Ron nodded his head and headed back to the Gryffindor table. Hermione followed her professor towards the entrance of the Great Hall, excited to find out what had been going on, yet apprehending the results. At then end of the Gryffindor table, Snape stopped and spun towards it. He crossed his arms and looked expectantly at Ron, who at the moment had a firm hold on Harry's arm and was attempting to pull Harry out of his seat. Harry had his head propped up on his palm, his elbow on the table, and his fingers drumming the side of his jaw. His other arm was currently in Ron's possession. Ron Weasley had both hands wrapped around his wrist and was pulling away with all his might. Harry didn't budge, and was actually looking rather bored.

Snape walked up to Harry, "Come, Potter," he said, pointing to the floor in front of him. "I won't, and nothing you say will make me." Harry said smirking, folding his arms over his chest. "This could've been very easy for you, but you had to be difficult didn't you," he growled, and walked up to his head table. A few words were exchanged between himself and Dumbledore and after, Dumbledore, eyes twinkling, smiled and nodded. Harry watched this whole ordeal with his eyes narrowed in suspicion. 'What has Dumbledore given him permission to do?!....BLOODY HELL!' Harry's eyes widened when he saw Snape reach in his robes, pull out his wand, and point it right at him.

Harry started to stand up and run towards the door. Snape had plenty of reason to attack him, and he wasn't going to risk it. He was getting out of there. So he ran as fast as he could. Suddenly, he felt the floor leave the area below his feat. He didn't care, he'd still make it. He shut his eyes tight and ran with all his might. After running for a few seconds, and never making it to the door he opened his eyes. "AAHHH!" Harry was floating several feet above the ground. For the past few seconds, he had been running in mid air, never making any progress. The entire hall watched as Snape twirled his wand, causing Harry now to be hanging upside down. Snape smirked as he saw Harry's robe start to slip down. 'Now he knows how I felt.' He thought bitterly. Then Snape remembered the humiliation he felt, and all the taunting he had to endure, and quickly righted Harry. Hermione was laughing even though she felt bad, but she assumed no one noticed her quiet laughter, being that the entire hall was in an uproar.

Snape, however, calmly walked through the excited students, towards the trio, then past the trio. Hermione and Ron followed him, knowing he was going to his office. Once they were out the door, they looked back to see a furious Harry floating behind, still trying with all his might to run in the opposite direction.

Once they reached the dungeons, Hermione and Ron stood with a few feet between them. Snape adjusted his wand so that it was pointing directly in between then broke the charm. Harry floated down in between them and they both immediately seized his arms. Harry rolled his eyes, "Honestly, you think I'm going to run. There's two very qualified people here who could easily put me back under that spell and one, "he glanced at Snape, "who wouldn't hesitate to put a shrinking spell on me and step on me. Or, of course, he could do it the easy way and just grab a convenient jar and throw it at me. Of course, he's already used that option, now hasn't he?" Snape smirked reveling on the wonderful memory, then frowned when he remembered the reason for the jar throwing. He then remembered their reason for coming down here. He set the goblet on the table and turned around. He then continued to pull out a testing vial, dip it in the goblet, and pull out another cauldron. He poured another potion into the cauldron, and then poured the sample from the goblet into it. The cauldron sizzled and smoked, then turned an amazing pink color. Snape stared at the new substance before turning back to the Gryffindors. "Have a seat." With a flick of his wand, three green and silver plush chairs appeared below them, which they, reluctantly of course, sat in. Each giving Snape a glare for his choice of colors.

Snape then launched into an explanation that would explain everything that had occurred in the past few months. "Mr. Potter, your drinks have been spiked with anger potions. The potion causes any anger in the person to become unfathomable. Now, was there anything that happened that may have made you angry with Miss Granger?" Hermione looked at her hands while Harry replied, "Yeah, I told her I loved her, and she didn't feel the same way." Ron and Hermione expected him to be angry, but instead, he looked hurt. Snape nodded, "So Potter was angry with Miss Granger, and when he was given the potion the anger became much stronger than it originally was. You have to give the person the anger potion each night at a specific time. If one dose is not given, the person immediately returns to normal. You may have noticed that Potter was acting more normal at dinner once you took his glass. Now, there are two possibilities here. One, he could have no recollection at all of his rash actions, or two, he could have seen everything he was doing, but not been able to stop himself. Potter, one or two." Harry's eyes were glazed over and he was frowning. He looked at his hands when he replied with a "two" but Hermione still saw the tear slide down his cheek. So he had seen himself assaulting her, but he couldn't stop himself. Hermione slid her chair closer to his and hesitantly put her hand on his shoulder, "It's ok Harry, don't beat yourself up over this. It's not like you could've stopped yourself." Harry stood up quickly causing Hermione to quickly pull her hand back.

"DON'T TELL ME IT'S OK!!! Do you have any idea how it feels to have your heart shattered by your best friend?! Then when you finally start to calm down, having to watch yourself beat her, then attempt to rape her?! You can't tell me it's ok! I had to watch! Watch, Hermione, as I slapped you, nearly punched you, attempted to crucio you, than try to rape you! My heart was already broken at that point, but seeing you like that, just crushed me even more. Oh God, Hermione I am SO sorry! I tried to stop myself! Really, I did, but it didn't do anything. I'm so sorry." Harry then collapsed to his knees and put his face in his hands. Hermione had tears streaming down her face and lightly fell to her knees beside him. She wrapped her arms around him and just held him. He was shaking lightly, but no tears were falling. Hermione pulled back and lifted his chin with her hands so that their eyes met. "Harry, I forgive you. You couldn't stop yourself and I won't just sit and watch you blame yourself for something you couldn't prevent." Harry nodded very slightly and stood back up. He held a hand out to Hermione, who took it and stood up. Ron was smiling and stood up too. He moved right in between them and wrapped his arms around both of them. Harry and Hermione both laughed and hugged him back. And Snape just stood and watched as the Golden trio shared a group hug. Then mentally kicked himself again for the smile he couldn't prevent from sneaking onto his face.

That weekend everyone was making plans for the upcoming weeks. They had the full week free of classes. The teachers said that they thought a break was necessary. The students were all very skeptical of this being that they had never gotten a break before. So, Draco and Hermione were sitting in the common room discussing options for the week because, obviously, they would spend the whole week together. Hermione already had an idea but was unsure of whether or not to propose it because knowing Draco, he'd object immediately. But, hey, it was worth a shot.

"Draco?" He had been sitting with his head in his hands, obviously deep in thought. Now he was looking at her with hope in his grey eyes. He was clearly hoping that he didn't have to think any longer because he had made it perfectly clear countless times that thinking was definitely not high on his priority list.

"Yeah?"

"I think I have an idea…"

Draco sat up quickly and leaned forward, "what is it?!"

"Well, I was thinking that maybe…you can come to my house for the week…the only problem is is that you'll be spending the week with muggles, no magic, and no talk of magic." She finished and braced herself for his explosion of reasons why that would never happen and what his house would do to him if they found out, but it never came. Instead, he sighed, slouched down and closed his eyes. Once again, to his dismay, deep in thought. Finally, after several minutes, he took a deep breath and replied. "I can handle that…"

The next day, Draco was upstairs sleeping in while everyone was down at breakfast. He was having a lovely dream about him and Hermione. And being that he's a teenage boy, you can only imagine what was going on. He was enjoying himself very much when he was rudely awakened by someone pounding on the portrait. He put his pillow over his head, wishing the pounding to stop and the dream to continue…no such luck. The pounding just kept coming, getting faster and louder, so finally he gave up and rolled out of bed grumbling about how it was just getting good.

He stomped to the door planning on telling the person just how rude they were for waking him up at this sick hour and how about how he was thoroughly enjoying a lovely dream. He opened the door and was about to begin rambling when he was met with a frantic blonde for the second time in a short while. He sighed, "What now Ella?" She pushed him inside roughly and started explaining herself.

"Ok, so I was sitting in breakfast, but Blaise and I were with the Gryffindors again today and we were just talking, right? Well, anyways, we were just sitting there chatting it up when none other than Miss Pansy Parkinson herself waltzes up to our table with a look on her face that made it look like she was about to be killed. She honestly looked like she was about to explode. Anyhow, she stopped in front of Hermione and put her hand on her shoulder. Then, she was all, "Oh. My. Gosh. Hermione, you'll never guess what I just found out!!! Follow me! You have to hear this!" Then, she grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her out of the hall. See, now I knew her plans, so obviously, I followed them. She pulled Hermione into an empty classroom and locked the door behind her. Alohamora didn't even work! Oh, and…"

But she didn't get to finish. As Draco had already pushed past her and was running down the hall as fast as his legs would carry him. He ran past the great hall, checking every empty classroom as he went. All empty… He then came to the only closed door and, stopping a second to catch his breath, put his ear up to the door to listen in.

"So, anyways, after that, I walked in on him making out Parvati Patil!!"

"NO WAY! Are you kidding me?!"

"Not at all. Every bit is true…"

"Wow… I never would have thought he would do this. I thought he was so much better than that. I must say, I'm kind of disappointed."

Now, this just plain confused him. She had just been told that he was cheating on her and she was 'kind of disappointed'?? 'What the bloody hell is going on here?...oh, forget it.. I'm goin in…' The, he started banging on the door. "Hermione? Hermione! Are you in there?!" After a few seconds of banging the door opened and a smirking Pansy Parkinson gave him a small wink before brushing past him and disappearing down the hall. He watched her leave, then slowly turned back and looked in the room. Hermione was sitting, back to him, staring at her hands. He cautiously walked in and towards her. He finally reached her and lightly put his hand on her shoulder. She jumped when he touched her and spun around. But, her face was perfectly calm, not at all upset. "OH! Hey, Draco. When'd you wake up?"

"Just now…What were you doing talking to pansy?" Hermione stood up and faced him. Suddenly, her once blank expression turned to one of pain. Her smile slowly fading to a frown, her eyes glazing over.

"I just found out about a couple…soon to be separated," she said haughtily, folding her arms.

Draco took a step back; she was intimidating for a little person. "Uhhh, who's the lucky couple?" He asked, making a weak attempt at a joke…smiling awkwardly.

She stepped towards him, "Oh, you know the guy very well. Known him your whole life I'm sure."

Once again, Draco took a step back, he was sure to keep at least a few feet from her. He knew she was little, but he knew from experience her punches were hard. "So, does this guy have a name?"

"Oh, he's got a name…Does the name Eric Martinez ring a bell?" Draco let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

His buddy Eric had been going out with Millicent Bullstrode all year. They were a very, in Hermione's words 'meant-to-be' sort of couple, and supposedly now he had cheated on her. 'Oooo big deal... I care oh-so much.' He thought, rolling his eyes. "Uh, did Eric do something?" He asked, playing dumb.

"Oh he did something alright. He cheated, that's right, cheated on Millicent. They were SO meant-to-be, and then he has to run off and make out with Parvati Patil….boys…" Draco's eyes widened, "Hey now! There are some good guys out there…you know… the gorgeous ones with the silky hair…piercing eyes…great bodies…you know, the ones that just make you melt…" Draco smirked.

Hermione smiled, "You're right. Where is Ron anyways?"

Draco's jaw dropped, "All right, I see how it is. I'll go find him for you…and I'll just go and find Parvati. I mean, if she split up Eric and Millicent, she's got to be good for something!" He said, walking towards the door.

Now it was Hermione's turn to drop her jaw. She ran up behind him and jumped on his back, "Oh no you don't!" Draco stumbled forward, and then leaned forward, his hands on his knees. "Easy there Mione, I'd like to have the ability to walk in the future…"

Hermione gasped, "JERK!" She slapped him upside the head and squealed as he pulled her around so she was on his front. He just smiled innocently.

She smiled back and spoke, "You are so lucky you're cute Draco Malfoy…"

Draco smirked, "Yeah, I know."

Hermione slid down his legs and stood, "You're so cocky…" She then went up on her tip toes, gave him a quick peck on the cheek, then lowered herself to her own level, smiling as he laced his fingers with her own and led her back to the Great hall for breakfast.

AN: SOOO Sorry for the long wait everyone!!! I PROMISE it wont be as long next time.. I had basketball and stuff going on and I had absolutely NO free time! But now bball's done and now I have alllll day… so I'll be updating pretty often from now on… reviews are appreciated… much loveeeee

Marianne