Hey sorry this chapter was up so late, things have been really bust at the moment and right now is not the best of times. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

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Chapter Seven

Perfect Liar

Day Seven

The fire in the Gryffindor common room was slowly starting to die and only a few embers remained in the much used fire, the sun had long gone down and while many students were already tucked away in bed two boys remained there, sitting in the two chairs closest to the fire like always. The only difference from most night's was the third person missing from the trio and her lack of presence seemed to be weighting on both of their minds.

She had promised this morning that she was going to be here and even though it was late and all hope was almost lost of her not showing they carried on sitting there, looking into the fire and wishing that they were wrong in thinking that she had forgotten them once again.

Harry and Ron had always be good friends since there first day at the school and while it had taken them some time to warm to Hermione Granger it still felt like something was wrong when she was not there, they had been best friends for a long time and they did every thing least they used to.

A loud chime was suddenly echoing through the castle and it sounded louder then it ever had done before, ringing through their minds and screaming the time to them. Harry sighed and turned to Ron to find that he had the same look on his face as his friend: defeat.

It was one o'clock in the morning and both of them knew that Hermione was not going to be showing up any time soon like she had promised.

"Maybe she forgot?" Ron suggest quietly but they both knew that it was a lie and even if it was not it seemed to be all she was doing lately.

"Yeah" Harry muttered "Maybe she did"

As one they both stood up and walked to their room just as the last light from the fire flickered off, that night, as they laid in bed they tried to push the truth of their now failing friendship the the back of their minds. It did not feel like Hermione had just forgotten to meet felt like she had forgotten them.

---*---

Hermione Granger rolled over and groaned softly, there was a small pain still left in her back and it seemed that rolling over had been a very bad idea. Memories of the day before came rushing back and she sighed, even after thinking about it for hours on end she was still no closer to knowing what she should do then she had been the night before. He had saved her and she had no idea why, had she been right in thinking that there was something in him other then hate?She had never thought much of Theo and Blaise but their behaviour last night had still shocked her, while they had not come across as the most open of people she was pained to see that they could hurt someone so freely and no feel a piece of remorse for it after. Hermione laid in bed for another half an hour while she thought ever thing through and there was a small voice in the back of her mind, telling her that she had forgotten something.

Against her better judgement Hermione pulled her bed covers from her protesting body and sat up, she knew that if she did not get up now then she never would. Her room was empty and her eyes widened as she realised that it was half ten already, the other girls would be down at breakfast by now. She quickly made her way around the room to collect her things, she never slept late even on the weekend and she felt slightly annoyed that no one had thought to wake her. It was not in till she had fully dressed, brushed her hair and teeth that her body froze in horror as she realised what she had forgotten.

Harry and Ron.

Her jacket laid forgotten on her bed as she ran out of her room and pulled her shoes onto her feet, she could not believe that she had done this again. They had said that she was always busy and her promise to spend last night with them seemed to make up for it, she did not even want to think about how they must be feeling now, how mad that they were going to be at her.

She finally came to a halt at the bottom of the stairs and looked around, Harry and Ron would always wait for her in the mornings before going down…her heart sank and she looked around the room and saw many faces but none that belonged to the two people that she wanted to see. Her eyes rested on Seamus and Dean and she sighed before making her way over to them, it seemed odd that she had never really spoken to them when they shared a room with Harry and Ron.

Dean was laughing at something that Seamus had just said but stopped when he noticed Hermione walking over to them, his expression changed to cold one and she almost stopped walking from the shock of it, they had never really spoken and therefore she had no idea why he was being so cold.

"Hey" she said in a bright voice when she reached them but their expressions remained indifferent.

"Hello" Dean said coldly but Seamus said nothing and merely looked around the common room like she had not spoken "is there something that we can help you with?"

"Er-yes" Hermione replied as she attempted to sound calm, she needed to know where Harry and Ron too much to risk losing her temper "I was wondering if you have been Harry and Ron this morning, they normally-"

"They went down to breakfast" Dean quickly replied.

"Oh right, well that's odd because-"

"Why?" Seamus snapped "because you finally started thinking about them for a change?"

Hermione recoiled from his harsh tone and frowned.

"I always think about then, thank you" she said in a cold tone.

"Oh really?" Seamus asked with a slight sneer on his face "well from the way that they were talking last night you would think that you never saw them, let alone that you are meant to be their best friend"

Her heart sank and she closed her eyes for a second before finally asking in a shacking voice:

"They talked about me?"

"Yeah, they did" Dean replied and suddenly Hermione knew what the cold look was for, it seemed that her friends had been talking about her absence away from them more then she had thought, her and Ron had had many fights before and even Harry and herself had been known to fall out from time to time but she had a horrible feeling that this was something completely different.

"Okay" Hermione said as she walked away and to the door of the common room "thank you"

Hermione added before walking out but Hermione had the feeling that they were no longer listening to her.

---*---

"Malfoy!"

Draco turned around at the sound of his voice being called and tried to hide the look of satisfaction from his face as Hermione walked closer, he had a feeling that she would be seeing him soon. She came to a stop in front of him and he smirked at the look on her face, the closer she had been getting to him the more unsure she looked with every step.

"Is there something I can help you with?" he finally asked when she remained silent.

"Yes" she replied while taking a deep breath "I just wanted to say…well thank you. It was good of you to do what you did the other day. You know saving me and everything, I really thought they were going to hurt me and they did kind of, my back has been hurting but well…" Hermione came to a sudden stop and she felt her cheeks grow warmer as she realised that she had been talking non stop, what was wrong with her? "well thank you"

Draco smiled while trying to hold back another smirk, he found that he liked Granger when she blushed, it was very unlike her.

"Think nothing of it" he answered causally "I could not simply leave you there"

Hermione opened her mouth to remind him that he could of but soon shut it, there was no use in fighting the point, it would only annoy him.

"Well I was thinking that I could buy you a drink the next time we go to the village, next weekend, as a thank you" Hermione said before she could stop herself, she had no idea where the idea had came from and she suddenly wished that the floor would swallow her whole, asking him out had not been part of the plan. "If you don't want to then I would understand" she quickly added.

Draco let out the breath that he did not know he had been holding and tried to think of something to say, he could not remember the last time that he had been speechless because of something that someone had said to him. When he had come up with this plan he did not even think that he would have to be seen with Granger out side of the school…if news got back to his father about this then there would be hell to pay, even if the whole thing was a lie or not. Was making an idiot of Granger worth it? He watched her nervous expression for a moment longer before he knew the answer, anything would be worth it to see Granger in some form of pain.

"I would love to" he replied while trying to stop himself from cringing, there was something about this that seemed so wrong.

Her cheeks turned impossibly red and she nodded.

"Good well…I'll talk to you closer to the time then?"

Draco simply nodded, he did not trust himself to speak right now or he might find a way to get out of this. The things that he did to keep his family name in place.

She smiled weakly before turning back around and walking to the Great Hall, she did not even want to think about what she had just done. Her mind wondered back to Harry and Ron and she frowned, even if they did make up today then she had no idea what they were going to do of they ever found out that she had a date with Draco Malfoy.

Her heart started beating faster and she wondered whole she got herself into these things.

A date.

With Draco Malfoy.

Something was wrong with the world.

---*---

Pansy pretended to look down at her own notes while darting her gaze to the folder that Ginny was leaning over every few seconds. Getting the folder like Draco had asked was going to be harder than she first thought as it appeared that the little red head never left it's side for even a second. If Pansy had not been planning on stealing it then she may of felt slightly insulted, while Ginny had no idea that Pansy was planning against then it would seem that she did not trust her as much as she would of liked as well.

True to her word Hermione had not shown up this morning and the two girls could only guess the reason behind it, she had not been joking when she said that she would not return in till they had stopped fighting and while they had no desire to be good friends the weight of not having Hermione there seemed to be weighing over them greatly, she always seemed to know what to do and both of them felt slightly lost with out her there to guide them. This whole thing had been her idea after all, not theirs.

For the first time Ginny did not bother to ask who Pansy has picked for the project and for this she was thankful because in truth she had still not picked someone, granted there were plenty of people for her to pick but none that she wanted to name as the perfect guy. In fact to her not one of them was even close to the kind of person that she thought was perfect, she could see deep dark hair, a mysterious smirk and the darkest eyes, like a tunnel that had the brightest light at the end of it.

Pansy sighed in annoyance and Ginny shot her a glance that she ignored before carrying on with her work, she need to stop thinking about him, he was not perfect.

Bt maybe that's not what she wanted, maybe she wanted someone who had things wrong with them, things that she could love him for.

Pansy looked at the clock and bit her lip, she only has five minutes left before she missed her chance again. She picked up her pen and looked at the ink for a second before dipping it into the ink tub with more force then needed, the tub wobbled slightly before Pansy gave it one more quick push and if fell to the table. Ginny let out a small yell of shock as the ink flew every were and small pieces landed on her face and notebook.

"You did that on purpose!" she yelled angrily.

"I did not" Pansy lied easily "It slipped, quick get a cloth, everything will be ruined"

Ginny sighed in defeat as she realised that Pansy was right and just like the black haired girl had hoped she would ran to the side table in order to get a fresh cloth, her mind was so set on her spoiled work that using magic did not even come to mind. With a true smirk that she had not used in some time Pansy picked up her bag and quickly picked out another folder that was the same shade of pink as Ginny's, she knew that she did not have much time ahead of her before Ginny returned and noticed something was different. With quicker reflexes then she knew she had she muttered a small spell and sighed in relief as words started to flow onto the pages of her folder, within seconds the job was done and with a small snap the folder closed and was placed back into her bag.

"Well?" Ginny asked in anger as she ran back to the table and started to mope up the ink "are you not going to help me?"

"Of course" Pansy smirked as she got up to get a cloth of her own "I owe you a thank you anyway" she muttered to herself in satisfaction, she would not have to face Draco's anger again tonight.

---*---

"Well?" Draco asked as soon as Pansy stepped in the common room "did you get it?"

Without a word and no expression she reached into her bag and pulled out the folder that she had been waiting for while trying not to show how pleased she was with herself. The feeling of stealing was not something that she was enjoying but the knowledge of knowing that they would be leaving her alone tonight was the only thing that she needed to make her feel better about the whole thing. As she handed it over she kept her eyes low and tried not to look at the two people sitting with him, the feeling of their betrayal was still stinging too much.

"Well done" Draco muttered and Pansy held back a scowl at the thought of being talked to like a dog, she wondered slightly if he had ever had a piece of respect for her. "I'm pleased" he added when she did not move and she realised that it was her queue to leave.

"Good" she muttered quietly. And then it happened, she had been free to walk away, to go to bed and hide under the covers from the people who used to be her friends.

But she had to open her mouth.

"What are you going to do to them?"

Draco had already turned away from Pansy and he seemed to freeze at the sound of her voice, he was as shocked as she was that she had spoken. He turned slowly to look at her and Blaise and Theo shared an unreadable glance at one another, she did not even want to think about what that meant, she did not even think that she could move from the stare Draco was giving her. There was something about it that seemed so…dark.

She did not like it.

"Who?" Draco asked with a small laugh "Granger and Weasley?

Pansy lowered her head and nodded to the floor, she hated the fact that she had been reduced to this. Once upon a time there was a black haired and strong minded girl who took no trouble from any one and could make people freeze in terror just from one look and yet here she was; looking down at the floor and shaking like some small little girl and being bullied by the people that she once thought had been her friends.

She suddenly wondered where everything had gone wrong in her life.

"Yeah" she muttered when he did not say anything "it doesn't matter really, it's not like I care or anything. They are nothing to me, I was just wondering if they are in any danger or-"

"If you do not care for them then I don't see that this has anything to do with you or why you would wish to know" he replied coldly as he turned away from her once more "in fact I don't think its any of your business"

Pansy was used to Draco's cold tone but it still felt like something was holding tightly around her heart every time, there was an edge to it thought, something that she had never felt before now.

It was not in till she was laying in bed that night and looking up at the ceiling that she realised what that horrible feeling was: fear.

Fear for the two people she hated and what she had done to them.

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