Here's the chapter I promised yesturday, I hope you guys like it ^_^

Enjoy!

Chapter X- Enchanted Carnival

"You wanna play Dolls?" the blond child in pigtails asked.

They were currently at breakfast. Thankfully, Lucius wasn't there due to a business conference in Germany and will be staying there for a week, along with Narcissa. Hermione was glad she wouldn't have to deal with him, too. Last night, had been horrible. Pansy and Blaise still hated her, but Hermione didn't worry because she felt the same way they did. What did worry her, though, was that they might try turn Serena against her. That would be an easy task because Serena loved her godparents and she would trust them over Hermione any day.

"Granger, Serena asked you a question." Malfoy said from behind the Daily Prophet.

"Oh yes, sorry," Hermione smiled at Serena, "I would love to play dolls with you." she had found that interacting with Serena was easier when they did something the child enjoyed.

Serena beamed and clapped her hands, "Yay, you can use my Pretty Purple Sparkly Princess doll." she said and was about to take a bite of her toast, when her eyes grew wide with interest. "May I see that, Daddy?" she said pointing at the Daily Prophet.

Malfoy gave his daughter and confused look, but nonetheless gave it to her. Was his daughter interested on what was going on in wizarding world?

"We have to go!" the child squealed loud, causing both adults to jump in their seats. "Daddy, please?" Serena said, batting her eyelashes.

"To where?" Malfoy asked.

"Here." Serena said pointing at the paper in front her.

"Darling, I can't see what you're looking at if you don't show me the paper." Malfoy said, patiently.

"Here, Daddy," Serena said as she got off her seat and went to show it to her dad.

"A carnival?" Malfoy said, raising an eyebrow.

"Not just any carnival, Daddy," Serena giggled at her dad's ignorance, "It's The Enchanted Carnival." she said in awe.

"I don't trust those places." Malfoy said, putting the paper down and taking a sip of his coffee.

"But, Daddy." the six year old whined.

"Serena, no." he said, sternly.

"Oh, come on Malfoy." said Hermione, setting her mug down, "It's just a carnival and it has great reviews. Plus, Serena needs to go out more." yes, that was true. Serena spent most of her time at the Manor. It would do her good to go our for a bit.

"How do you know?"

"It's an annual carnival, Malfoy," Hermione stared at him quizzically. Didn't he go out at all? "I've also read about it." she said.

"Should've known." Malfoy said, rolling his eyes.

"Come on, Daddy." Serena pleaded, "Pleeeaaasee." the child batted her eyelashes repeatedly and smiled sweetly at her father. She knew he couldn't say no to that face, the Serena Face.

"Anyone who's someone is going." Hermione said, nonchalantly, hoping he would take the bate. She really wanted to go as well. Hermione knew that was childish, but she wanted to go out, at least for a little while. She was getting tired of being cooped up in the Manor and doing the same things over and over, every day.

Malfoy stayed silent for a minute. It seemed as if he was contemplating what she had said. If Hermione was right, Malfoy still cared about his reputation and being recognized as someone in society.

"Fine." Malfoy said, grudgingly. "We'll go."

"Yay!" Serena squealed. "This is going to be so fun!"

Hermione smiled, glad that Malfoy had fallen for her trick. He was too easily manipulated when it had something to do with his pride and reputation.

oOo

"I'm going to ride all the rides and buy a lot of chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and chocolate wands and…" Serena stopped her excited rant, looked up at her nanny and asked, "Will you get on the rides with me?"

"Of course I will." Hermione smiled at her charge.

Serena had been going on and on about what she was going to do and buy while at the carnival. Hermione practically knew what the child was going to say every time she spoke. She was happy to see the Serena act like a six year old. Since her very first day at the Manor as a nanny, Hermione had always interacted with a girl who seemed to be older than what she appeared to be, but that was because of all of the unexpressed anger Serena held in.

Hermione tied a red ribbon into a bow on Serena's blond curly hair and couldn't help, but admire how much the child looked like her father. The eyes and curls were the only thing that made her Astoria's daughter, but everything else was Malfoy. They were beautiful…well, just Serena not Malfoy.

"There," Hermione said, as she tilted the bow to the side, "Ready?"

Serena nodded, a wide smile playing on her face. She was really excited to go to The Enchanted Carnival. She's been to several, but only with Pansy and Blaise. Her dad was always too busy to take her and thanks to her nanny they were all going, together.

When they both descended to the living room, Malfoy was already there, waiting. Hermione couldn't help, but admire the way he looked. He was wearing a dark green button up dress shirt and some nicely fitted black slacks. His hair was just the same way it was in when they were in fourth year, except a tad longer, but not too long. When he turned around, that angel hair of his waved in the air and Hermione wished she could feel the texture of it.

No! What am I thinking. The brunette witch mind slapped her forehead. Since when did Malfoy start looking the way he did now? Since that great dream of yours. A greedy voice in her head said. It had been the worst dream ever, her and Malfoy…kissing. She didn't remember the dream clearly, but the one thing that she couldn't seem to forget was his lips upon hers. Hermione shook her head and instead of looking at Malfoy she directed her attention to the fireplace and mentally cursed her now warm cheeks.

"Do we Floo or Apparate?" Malfoy asked, with a smirk on his face. He had caught the young witch ogling him and blushing.

Hermione looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. Was this his first time going to a carnival. Unbelievable. "We Apparate, Malfoy." she was about to make a smartass comment, but refrained, knowing that'll put him in a foul mood. Merlin, Hermione knew too much about him. She didn't like that one bit, it made her uncomfortable.

Malfoy nodded and picked his daughter into his arms, he knew she was scared of Apparating. "Meet you there." was all he said before he vanished with a pop.

Hermione sighed. What was going on in her head? It was that stupid dream that had her like this. It was just a dream. I hate Malfoy. She thought and felt much better. She did hate that evil git and that wouldn't change. Ever. Hermione took a deep breath, she really wanted to enjoy this with Serena, and then Disapparated.

"See, nothing happened." Draaco said. He was kneeling in front of a teary Serena. "Granger! What took you so long. You scared Serena." he said, a very deep frown on his forehead. Draco despised anything or anyone that made his daughter cry and Granger was one of them.

"I thought you got lost in a world far away." Serena sobbed. She was terrified of Apparating. Serena was always told to keep her eyes closed while they traveled that way, but one time, out of curiosity she opened her eyes and everything seemed too confusing and scary for her. Now, she referred to it as a different world.

"Sorry, I thought I forgot something." Hermione said as a lame excuse. Had she really taken that long thinking about Malfoy? Not good. "I'm right here, though." she said to Serena in a soothing voice. Hermione's heart fluttered. Serena had actually been worrying about her… and even cried. This cleared Hermione's mind of any thoughts about the horrific dream and proposed herself to have fun with Serena.

"Okay," Serena hiccupped, "Can we go play games now?"

Hermione nodded and grabbed Serena's hand. It felt natural to do that now.

The three waited in line at the entrance to get admitted. Hermione was willing to pay for her own admittance, but Malfoy had refused, exclaiming that he would because it was his daughter who'd invited her to the carnival. Hermione couldn't believed that even for that they had gotten into an argument. In the end, Malfoy had his way and now walked with a triumphant smirk on his face. Hermione was extremely tempted to wipe it off his face with a nice hex.

"Oooh!" Serena gushed, "Look at that!" she pointed at one of the rides.

Hermione looked at what the blond child was staring at and gulped. It looked like a rollercoaster from one of theme parks her parents used to take her when she was young. She didn't really like the fast speed and up's and down's it did. Hermione specially hated heights and that thing went pretty high.

"You don't want to play a game instead?" Hermione said, cringing at the sound of screaming people. They were probably having fun, but not for Hermione.

"Scared, Granger." Malfoy smirked. He could tell that she was by the way her eyes scanned the ride.

"You wished." Hermione retorted. She wasn't going to let him know that she was terrified.

"Fine, then I guess there's no problem if we rode it." he said stepping towards the clerk and handing him three tickets.

"Yay! This I going to be so much fun." Serena said as she pulled on her nanny's hand.

Hermione groaned. Why did he have to be such a git? Oh yeah because he was Draco-freaking-Malfoy.

She slowly followed Serena and helped get in her seat. Each row in the cart was for three people, so Hermione and Malfoy sat on the side seats and Serena in the middle.

"You better hold on tight, Granger." were the last words Malfoy said before the ride began to move.

…

"Can we do that again?" Serena squealed as Hermione unbuckled her from the seat.

"I don't think your dad would want to." Hermione couldn't hold back her laughter.

At the beginning when the cart began to move, Malfoy was calm, but once it started going faster and up and down, he was screaming his guts out. He was literally yelling, I'm going to die! which had Hermione laughing through out the whole ride. After it was over, Malfoy had yanked his seatbelt off and ran somewhere. Where was he now?

"Serena, did you see where your dad ran off to?" Hermione said, scanning the crowd. Then she heard a series of cursing words and knew that it was him.

"Bloody hell." Malfoy said, leaning over a rubbish bin.

Hermione laughed some more, Malfoy had underestimated her. She may be scared of the big rides, but she could handle them. On the other hand, Malfoy couldn't.

"Was that too much for you, Malfoy?" Hermione smirked.

"Shut it, Granger." he grumbled. The good thing was that he hadn't eaten anything before coming to this abominable place.

Malfoy straightened himself, and nearly toppled over - apparently still dizzy from the ride - but Hermione instinctively wrapped one arm around his waist, trying to hold his heavy form up.

It was instant. This reminded both of them of the night Malfoy had arrived to the Manor injured. Hermione's immediate reaction was to pull away, but she didn't, afraid that if she did he would fall.

"I'm fine." Draco grunted and slightly pushed her away. He didn't like it. Not one bit. It seemed that every time Granger touched him, something in him stirred and made him feel something. Something he refused to even think about.

"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" Serena squealed. "Look over there!" she jumped and pointed towards the source of her excitement.

Hermione took her gaze off Malfoy and directed it to where Serena signaled. Malfoy seemed to have been thinking about something that had changed his mood. Hermione ignored it thinking it was her comment that ignited that.

"I want it." Serena said, a big smile flashing her two caretakers.

"You want it. You got it." Malfoy said, like if it was as simple as that.

The three made their way towards a nice looking game booth where there were several kids already playing there. It had several stuffed animals floating on the ceiling and moving targets on the wall. Malfoy gave the booth owner a ticket and encouraged Serena to play the game. The game was fairly easy…for Hermione. The kids were given fake wands that shot sparks if they flicked it the right way. Those sparks had to hit at least five moving targets in order for them to get a prize; the stuffed animal.

Hermione and Malfoy stepped back and let Serena play. Each time the little girl hit a target, she would jump up and clap her hands. Serena concentrated on the last target, flicked the wand and as the sparks flew to her objective target, it moved and missed.

"Hey, that's unfair!" Malfoy yelled.

He'd seen the damn booth owner use his wand to move Serena's target and he wasn't the only one.

"You tricky git!" Hermione screeched. Did that man think that she wasn't going to see what he did. She had analyzed where the sparks where going to hit and it would have been the target if the man hadn't cheated.

"I don't know what you mean," the man said in a oblivious way, "Your daughter lost the game."

Hermione felt Malfoy tense beside her and as quick as flash, he ran up to the man.

"You cheating bastard." he growled as he harshly grabbed the clerk's shirt by the collar. "My daughter didn't lose." how dare that nobody say that about his Serena. She was a Malfoy and Malfoys never lost. Especially at something as easy as this garbage.

"Malfoy, let him go!" Hermione screeched as she ran to him and tried to pry his hands off the man's neck. The owner of the booth sneakily brought his wand up to Malfoy's head, but not sneaky enough for Hermione. "Expelliarnus!" the brunette witch yelled and caught the man's wand. She looked around and saw that people were beginning to notice. "Malfoy, let him go." she repeated, sternly and placed a gentle hand on Malfoy's arm.

Hermione looked down to check on Serena and was taken by surprised. The small blond child had her arms crossed across her chest and a proud smirk stretched on her angelic face. Serena was enjoying this.

"Why should I, Granger." he responded, harshly tugging at the man's shirt collar.

"Malfoy, please." she said, tightening her hold on his arm. The last thing she wanted was for Aurors to appear and make an even bigger scene.

Draco could feel Granger's hand on his arm and truth to be told it made him feel less angry. He was still beyond furious with the stupid bastard who dared call his daughter a loser, but he could control his anger now. He heard Granger plead again and it irritated him to no end. Why must every plea Granger did remind him of the night he stupidly decided to save her freaking life? It was as if a bucket of cold water fell directly over his head when she spoke like that. He didn't like it, but Draco reasoned that this wasn't the proper place to show the git that Malfoy's didn't lose.

Draco groaned, he was going to do it. He was going to let go off the stupid bastard and it was all for Granger.

"Fine." he said, gritting his teeth and harshly released the man's shirt.

Hermione let out a sigh of relief. It wouldn't look good if Malfoy started a brawl over a game. What was he thinking? He's a grown man with a daughter, not a teenager that fights over a lost game.

"Can I have my price, now?" Serena chirped, clearly happy that her daddy scared that dumb man.

"Yes, here you go." the man said, grudgingly as he massaged his neck and then handed Serena a pink stuffed dragon. "Stupid little brat." the man whispered in a low voice, thinking that no one heard him.

Hermione's ears rang and before anyone had time to see what had happened, her hand connect with the man's nose, hard, causing a nasty crunching noise. Hermione didn't know if it had been her hand or the man's nose that had broken, or maybe both.

Draco let out a laugh. Did Granger just punch a civilian? Oh yes, she did. He knew how that felt, being at the receiving end years ago. That's what that piece of scum deserved for calling his daughter a stupid little brat. One, Serena was not stupid and second Serena wasn't a brat…she misbehaved, but never a brat.

"Ah! Lady!" the man yelped as his hands flew to his now bloody nose. "Why'd you do that for?"

Hermione frowned at the man, but was satisfied with the damage she'd cause. There was a sudden pang of pain on her right hand, the one that had successfully broken the man's nose, "Ouch," she clutched her hand to her chest, "You know why." Hermione glared at the man and tossed him his wand she had taken earlier. Now, it was his fault that her hand hurted like hell. She should hex him for that.

"Hermione!" an extremely familiar voice screeched, "Did you just hit the guy?"

Hermione turned to face the source of the voice, already knowing to whom it belonged to, Ron. Luna was next to him, with the same dreamy expression that has never changed. She didn't seem mad at Hermione, but Ron was another story. He was furious.

Draco tensed on the spot. Did he really have to be here, while he was enjoying watching Granger beat the living hell out of a git? He didn't want to deal with Weasley at all, so he took Serena's hand and was about to walk away, but Granger just stood there.

"I…I…he…" Hermione fell as if her heart had dropped to her stomach as she locked eyes with Ron. They were full of resent and some other emotion she couldn't depict.

"Hermione?" it was Harry.

Hermione let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and smiled a small smile. Harry was the only one that wasn't mad at her or so she hoped. "Harry." was all she could say when she noticed Ginny walk up to them, holding James' hand. The red head didn't look very happy.

"Told you he was a bad influence on her." Ron sneered and glared daggers at Malfoy.

Draco held in his frustration. He wasn't about to show his bad side in front of his daughter.

"Or he probably brainwashed her." Ginny added, with the same look her brother had.

Now this was angering Draco even more. He really wanted to leave before he did something he regretted later, but Granger just stood there. Frozen. What was her problem? Didn't she get along with her supposed friends? Or did they turn on her when they found out she was his daughter's nanny. Now, that was interesting. He could use this to his advantage.

"There was no brainwashing from my part," Draco smirked, "She just grew bored with your pathetic company." oh yes, this would definitely get to Weasley.

"Malfoy!" Hermione said, snapping out of her daze. Even if her friends were mad at her, even if they felt that she betrayed them and even if they hated her, she would always stand up for them.

"What? I'm just saying the plain truth," Malfoy sneered at her, "Look at them, Granger. A. Pathetic. Crowd." he said, slowly.

Just like Draco had predicted, Weasley charged at him, but was stopped by Potter. He was too easily angered and always gave in to his emotions too easily. Draco smirked at the scene. "You truly are pathetic, Weasley." he would never get tired of saying that.

"Stop it!" Hermione yelled. She was literally caught in between, if she sided with Malfoy, Ron and Ginny would think that she's turned her back on them and if she sided with her friends then Serena would go back to hating her.

"You stay out if!" Ron yelled at Hermione as Harry tried to pull him back, "This is all your fault!"

"Ron-"

"We're leaving." Malfoy interrupted, in a cold tone.

"But…wait." Hermione mumbled. Maybe she could fix things with them right now. Maybe everything could be like it was before. Maybe they'll forgive her.

"Just go." Ron growled.

Hermione's eyes began to brim with tears. Ron has never acted like that with her, his blue eyes filled with hatred and resent. It hurt her more than anything in the world that she couldn't leave without trying to fix things between them.

Draco could tell, by Granger's hallow stare, that Weasley was hurting her and he didn't feel comfortable allowing this to go on any further, "This isn't worth it." he said, grabbing Granger's arm and pulling her away from the red-headed git.

Draco tugged at her arm, but she didn't move, it was as if she had become a statue, holding her hand to her chest. He saw her teary eyes and that did it. First of all, Draco wasn't good with crying women. Second, he didn't know how to deal with a crying Granger. Third, he felt something inside of him turn and twist at the sight of her unshed tears.

Wrapping his free arm around Granger's waist, he stared directly at Weasley's eyes and said, "You'll regret this." he then pressed the Granger and Serena to him and Disapparated.

Tah-Dah!

So what did you guys think, eh?

I know, things seem to be getting worse and worse for Hermione, but don't worry this all part of my master plan...muahahahaha.

Thank you for reading and reviewing...and for forgiving me for the late update. Everything between Draco and Hermione is still moving slow, but that's because I don't want Draco to be all fluffy. Things should be getting better for them although there will be obstacles along the way. Serena is definately taking a liking to Hermione, so at least something is going good for her. As for Ron and Ginny...well they are going to realize how wrong they were later on in the story so don't worry about them either ;-). Please let me know what you thought about this chapter and thanks for the support :-D.

*Oh, and sorry if there's any mistakes. I just finished a load of homework and I'm tired. Thanks.

Hoping to hear from you guys,

-Jacquesthevamp