A/N: Another chapter!

Chapter 10 - Revenge

Hermione and Draco enjoyed two weeks of dating with no offensive actions from the orange carrot tops, or other Gryffindor students. While Draco didn't think much of it, Hermione knew the whole thing was far from over.

Draco, being the sneaky Slytherin that he was, managed to sneak in and out of the Hospital Wing to steal a potion to help with the morning sickness and that made Hermione's days considerably better.

Hermione lived in almost constant fear of retaliation in the form of Ron and Ginny. Harry had told her that they were spending their time huddled together with Lavender and a few other Gryffindors in a corner of the common room, and they were also spending an abnormally large amount of time in the library. They spent more time in there than Hermione of late, as she did most of her studying with Draco in the Room of Requirement.

This fact alone was enough to capture her attention because Ron was never one for studying. In the past he had regarded each minute spent in the library as one of pure torture and a waste of time. While Ginny actually did her homework instead of copying someone else's, she wasn't one to spend hours in the library on a regular basis.

While Draco passed this new obsession of Ron and Ginny's as "finally realized that without you, they're too dumb to pass their exams," as "carrots aren't known for their intelligence, and neither are weasels." Of course, being seventh years, failing their exams meant failing life, because without N.E.W.T.s it would be nearly impossible to find a good job or any job at all.

Halloween had long since passed. Hermione had been expecting some sort of revenge on Halloween night, but there had been nothing out of the ordinary except Harry's absence from the castle. He had been granted permission to visit his parents' graves and had travelled to Godric's Hollow accompanied by the transfiguration professor. Hermione had been thrilled when Harry had told her he was allowed to go. After all, the last time they had been there, there hadn't exactly been time for him to do anything and they had nearly been killed by Voldemort's snake.

Thinking about Harry's parents eventually led Hermione back to thinking about her own parents, who were possibly safe, and possibly dead. She had sunk back into her depression for a week or so, until Draco noticed her cutting herself again and talked her back into the real world.

Hermione awoke one morning, applied the usual glamour charm that hid the small bump on her stomach. As she dressed, she vaguely recalled that that day was supposed to be one of some importance.

She pushed it from her mind as she grabbed her book bag and headed to the Great Hall. She sat with Draco at the Slytherin table. Neither looked up when the mail arrived, as neither had anyone who would bother writing to them. They did, however, look up when letters started falling into their food and owls carrying letters addressed to them landed in front of them. Just when they thought there weren't any more owls coming to them, another round arrived, dropping red enveloped Howlers. This time, Draco looked at the owls instead of the letters they were delivering. He noted that they were all school owls.

Hermione reached for her wand to banish the Howlers, only when she finished the spell, the Howlers remained. They began to screech their messages one by one, for the whole hall to hear.

"The third member of the Golden Trio is a slut."

"Malfoy is a Death Eater."

"They're going to become the next Dark Lords."

"Malfoy used the imperious on Granger to get her to go out with him."

"She's paying him with something more than money to get him to go out with her."

Hermione cast a silencing spell. The volume of the Howler's screeches increased. Whoever did this did a lot of research, Hermione thought, the voices aren't recognizable and they resisted my spells. Draco was thinking along the same lines. He looked around the Hall, spotting gigglers at all tables.

However, the smug looks of success were plastered all over Ron, Ginny and Lavender's faces, giving them away. McGonagall seemed to have noticed this as well, as she stood glaring at the Gryffindor table. Whilst the Howlers were spouting off their offensive messages, Hermione and Draco burned the regular envelopes. By the time their places were cleared, the last Howler was shrieking its last words. Nearly everyone in the hall was laughing hysterically, and Hermione and Draco tried their best to ignore it.

The headmistress tapped her spoon against her water goblet to get everyone's attention. She announced,

"Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy, please see me outside the Hall. Weasley, yes both of you, and Miss Brown, your presence is also required."

Hermione and Draco got up without complaint and followed the headmistress into the Entrance Hall.

"Do you two have anything to say about that?" she asked them.

"Uhm, not really," Hermione said, but her voice was drowned out by Draco.

"Those blasted weasels seem to be opposed to my dating Hermione. Weasley seems to think Hermione was his, the bloody idiot."

"Language, Malfoy," McGonagall barked, as she turned to Ron, Ginny and Lavender, who had just loudly announced their presence.

"Silence," she barked at them.

"Have they done anything else I should be aware of?" she said to Malfoy.

"They tried to pick a fight at breakfast the other day when they found out about us."

"It's not over. No matter what you do to them Professor, they're going to keep coming after me," Hermione said, slightly ashamed of how childish her voice sounded.

"Very well, they will be appropriately punished. You may return to breakfast." Hermione and Draco returned to breakfast, leaving the three Gryffindors to face the wrath of the angry McGonagall.

As they sat finishing their breakfast, Draco broached a touchy subject.

"You're going to have to talk to her soon."

"I know. I don't want too, not after all the things I said to her earlier in the year."

"Try apologizing. Then tell her. She won't kill you."

"I think she already knows. I've caught her looking at me oddly in class, almost like she knows."

Professor McGonagall returned to her office after issuing two weeks of detention with Filch to each of the masterminds behind the hate mail. She sighed, as she really hated taking points from her own house, but this time it was really necessary. She hoped Hermione was wrong in saying it wasn't over, but the logical part of her knew that it was wishful thinking.

She wondered when Hermione was going to confront her. She wondered who the father was. She wondered if Ron knew. Most of all, she wondered how she was going to react when she was told, even though she already knew. Would she allow Granger to remain at school, or would she be forced to expel her?

A/N: Please review! & feel free to PM for an email address if you want to argue HP... (or discuss, that's good too)