Chapter 10: Cheating

In Hermione's opinion, the next couple of weeks went great. Every day, Ron got a little more mad, and Hermione was satisfied with her revenge. Draco continued to kiss her at every chance that they had. Hermione was in love and she was happy.

The Thanksgiving feast went great, and both her and Draco had started planning the Winter Ball, and they were almost done.

It was the 3rd of December, and Hermione was enjoying her Friday afternoon. She was taking a walk around the school grounds when she heard someone screaming. She quickly ran to help the students and find out what was happening. When she reached the source of the scream she saw a group of First Years standing at the tip of a wand. The wand belonged to a student with a mask. Behind him were a few more students with masks. The looked like they were in seventh year. She took a closer look and saw that all of the students were in Slytherin.

She tried to see who they were without revealing her presence. What she saw frightened her. The ring leader of the group of seventh years had an unmistakable shade of blond hair. Hermione only knew one person with that color hair, but she didn't want to believe it. The person with the wand spoke.

"Puny little kids. You would be the best message to that wretched Headmistress. CRUCIO!"

The kids fell to the ground screaming in pain. Hermione was in shock. That was definitely Draco's voice. Hermione had to get someone to help them. She quickly ran back to the school to get help. She called Madame Pomfry and Professor McGonagall and the three of them went down to the place where the students were tortured.

"Oh my! Who could have done this?"

Madame Pomfry exclaimed as she got to business helping the students.

"Hermione, did you see who did it?"

Hermione didn't want to admit what she saw. As much as she had to believe her eyes, she knew that Draco wouldn't do something like that. She decided to fudge the truth a little, and ask Draco in the afternoon.

"Professor, All I saw was a group of Slytherins. They had masks. The leader spoke but I didn't recognize his voice."

This instance was really messing with her head. She needed to do something to clear her head. She needed to talk to Draco.

"Professor McGonagall, I'm a little tired. I think I'm going to retire to my room earlier today."

"I understand Hermione. Go."

Hermione quickly went to the Head Dorms and waited for Draco. Her head was in such a mess. Why would Draco do something like that? He had changed. He was never that person.

Hermione shook her head. How do I know it was Draco? I know him well enough. It wasn't him. This will all blow over soon.

Hermione's troubled thoughts kept her up for a while, but eventually she got too tired, and sleep overtook her.

She got up early in the morning and looked around. Everything was in the same way that it always was. Draco didn't show up all night. He wasn't there now. Hermione was worried. Where could he be?

She got up and got ready. Maybe he would be in the Great Hall for breakfast. She went down and glanced over at the Slytherin table. Draco wasn't there. Hermione was starting to get desperate. Where was he?!

She quickly ate her breakfast and tried to leave the Hall before the rest of her friends came in. As she walked out, Ginny saw her.

"Where are you going Hermione?"

"Um.. I have to go somewhere. Bye!"

Hermione quickly ran away. She didn't want to talk to anyone just yet. Her mind was racing, and nothing was going to be okay until she talked to her boyfriend. She looked around for a while, but her stomach started grumbling too much for her to look properly.

She ate lunch alone and continued searching.

She looked around for a few more hours, but couldn't find him anywhere. Where did he go?

She took a break for dinner, but as she was walking down to the Great Hall, she saw the same group of masked Slytherins threatening a couple second years.

"Voldemort will rise again. He is our leader."

Hermione didn't want to believe it, but she could recognize Draco's voice when she heard it.

Draco was changed. He never actually liked Voldemort right? She found herself doubting her own thoughts. There was no other student in the school that looked or sounded like that. It was Draco. Her head pounded. This was too much for her.

OK, so as much as she hated it, she got a straight idea on something.

She looked back to what happened. The second years looked so scared, but the Slytherins were nowhere to be seen. They must have slipped away while she was stuck in the hurricane of her own thoughts. She would deal with them later. First she had to help the second years.

"Hey guys."

The second years looked at her and sighed in relief.

"Those guys were threatening us."

"I know. But they can't do anything to you. The school will protect you. So you go on and have fun."

"Okay."

They walked away, leaving Hermione to her thoughts. They were safe, so Hermione could go back to internally debating her previous topic. Even if it was Draco, why? He said that he never actually liked Voldemort. He was forced to become a Death Eater. He looked like he was in so much pain from his time there. No, he was in so much pain. Was he really lying? Why would he like about something that big? What would he get from that? Hermione tried to figure out what was happening, but her heart wouldn't let her believe that Draco was secretly a bad guy. More than any of that, if Draco was lying, then their entire relationship was a lie. The very thought of it messed her head up more than everything else combined. She needed to clear her head.

By then it was past dinner time, so she just decided to eat in the Head Dorms. When she went up she saw that the dorm room looked the exact same as when she had left in the morning. Draco didn't come back today either. Hermione was starting to get extremely worried. What was going on? She wasn't sure about anything but she hoped that this wasn't true. Her troubled thoughts went on long through the night, and eventually she fell asleep.

She got up really late the next morning. By then she missed breakfast, and it was basically lunch time. She was forming bad sleeping habits, but it didn't really matter. The previous day's events were still fresh in her mind. She decided that she would ask Blaise and Pansy if Draco was with them. If he wasn't then she would go to Professor McGonagall and tell her about Draco. She decided that she would eat lunch and then go down to the Slytherin Dorms and talk to Pansy.

She got ready and went down to eat lunch. It was a little early so nobody was there. Hermione quickly finished up her food and started to walk down to the dungeons. She was worried about what she was going to learn. The gloomy feeling that the dungeons had weren't making things any better. She was almost to the dungeons, but when she turned the corner, she found a scene that she never could have prepared herself for. She saw Draco kissing a girl that Hermione remembered as Daphne's sister, Astoria. Astoria was one of the Slytherins that Draco said were bad. She guessed that he lied about that too. What didn't he lie about? Was everything just a lie?

Hermione could feel herself break. She was looking confirmation and it was staring her in the face. She coughed to get their attention. Draco looked towards her and she could see a smirk cover his face.

"Oh Granger. Hello."

He called her Granger. It wasn't even Hermione anymore. She didn't even know how to respond to him. She had so many questions, and she wanted so many answers.

"Why?"

Draco looked like he flinched a little from all the emotion that Hermione put into that one question. Was that remorse in his eyes? His face immediately shifted back to his cocky little self.

"Did you think I was actually changed? Did you think that I loved you? Who would love a filthy mudblood like you?"

That word had never hurt Hermione as much as it did now.

"Yes. I thought you changed. I thought you actually loved me."

"Oh my! The brightest witch of her generation got something wrong. You were wrong. I still think Voldemort is right, and I certainly never cared about you."

"I loved you. I cared for you. And what did you do? You broke me. You cold hearted git!"

"What else did you expect from me? I'm a Malfoy. I would never taint myself with vermin like you."

"Well then I guess that's goodbye Malfoy."

It hurt her to call him Malfoy, but it was had to be done. She had to break all her ties with him, and she had to tell Professor McGonagall about him.

"Why would I care about your goodbyes?"

Astoria had a bored look in her eyes.

"Come on Draco. This Bitch isn't worth your time."

"True."

Hermione was hurt. How could Draco says those things about her? How could he lie for so long?

Tears threatened to fall out of her eyes and Hermione turned around. She was about to walk away when two people can running towards her and the couple behind her.

"Stop!"

Hermione tried to see who it was, and the identity of the running people shocked her.

I know this chapter came as a shock. PLOT TWIST! I wanted to try writing cliffhangers, so this chapter was a little short. I'll try to get the next one out soon.

Huge HP Fan: Oh, I forgot that Lavender died in the seventh book. Just pretend that she didn't. I tried to follow the story to the best of my ability, but I guess I missed a few things. Also, I write all of this on the bus to school. I don't really have a lot of time at home. I try to avoid grammatically and typing errors, but sometimes they happen. I'll try to do better starting with the next chapter ;-)