A/N: Everything you don't recognize belongs to me and the rest belongs to J.K and her genius mind

Here is chapter 11...pls...tell me about the errors I probably missed them out...thanks so much...

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CHAPTER 11 (REVEALED)

In order to keep her mind off of the fact that she was pretty much harboring a criminal, Hermione focused on her studies even more than usual. Ginny helped her excuse herself if she needed to see Draco, still, people wondered where she was . Consequently, she could only meet Draco on the weekends, and that was hard enough.

Hermione missed him. Not just because she didn't get to see him often, but she missed her naïve image of him. Dreams that made her smile returned to the nightmares she hated. Only now, he actually killed her. It was getting harder to look him in the eye and smile.

But she still felt she'd made the right choice. She loved Draco, surely people could understand that. Well, Ron and Harry probably wouldn't. Since Ron's…attack, Harry had been ranting about Malfoy even more. Hermione really tried not to think about the mark on Draco's arm that proved he'd been behind it. It hardly ever worked.

After a particularly gruesome dream, she woke up in a cold sweat only to see Draco staring at her. She nearly fell off the bed. His face immediately looked concerned. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing," she lied and pulled the blanket up to her chin. She tried to smile, but it came out as more of a wince.

He arched an eyebrow; he knew she was lying. He'd seen the terror in her eyes when she'd seen him. Why did he continuously have this effect on her? When he pushed a lock of hair from her face, he felt her whole body tense momentarily. "Hermione," he breathed.

"It was just a dream," she admitted nervously.

"From the look in your eyes I'd say it was more than just a dream. Was it about me?"

Hermione shook her head too quickly. "No. I don't want to talk about it."

Draco propped himself onto his elbow. "It was about me."

"I don't want to talk about it!" she reiterated firmly.

"What did I do? Did I hurt you?"

Hermione sat up indignantly and yelled, "Can't you take a bleeding hint?"

"You looked terrified! Shouldn't I be concerned?"

He had her there. "Yes, but you should also respect the fact that I don't want to talk about it! Oh, wait, I forgot, Malfoys don't respect anything but themselves!"

Draco wasn't stupid; he knew people said such things about him. Only, when Hermione said it, it actually hurt. A very tense silence ensued between them until Hermione turned away. After a few agonizing moments, Draco gently kissed her shoulder and whispered, "I'm sorry."

Hermione closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "You killed me," she finally whispered.

"What?"

"In the dream, you killed me."

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

"Harry, you've got to come to the meetings again; Slughorn is driving the rest of us mad!" Hermione sighed in exasperation.

"You could just not go," suggested Ron from his seat next to Harry.

"I got the information I needed; why should I go?"

Her brow furrowed and she looked to Ron for support, but he was busy snoging with Lavender. Unfortunately, she immediately realized it She crossed her arms. "Fine."

As she sat through the meeting, she wished she hadn't gone either. Professor Slughorn kept looking at the door, hoping Harry would walk through it. Consequently, she was thoroughly irked by the time he let them out, fifteen minutes late. She was meeting Draco and she wasn't happy that she was going to be late.

When she finally arrived in the room, it was obvious that Draco wasn't happy either.

"You're late, I was beginning to think you weren't coming." Draco had really been afraid she wouldn't come. After the week he'd had, he really needed to see her.

"Slughorn kept us forever. He was convinced that Harry was coming this time." She rolled her eyes at the same time as Draco.

"Slug club," he muttered bitterly under his breath.

"You're not still upset about that are you?" Hermione fell back into the chair and shook her head.

"It's bullshit!"

Hermione looked at him with chastising eyes. "It's not as if he hasn't invited you because you're a bad wizard."

"My father was in it, so why in the hell hasn't he invited me?" he ranted.

Hermione had had enough. "Maybe because your father is an infamous Death Eater," she yelled. "And I dare say you are one yourself!" Hermione covered her mouth when she realized what she said.

Draco wheeled around; his gray eyes a storm of anger and fear. "How dare you!" he exploded.

She jumped out of her chair. "How dare me? How dare you!" she spat back. "Did you think I wouldn't find out? Did you think I couldn't see it on your arm? Staring me in the face? Reminding me of what I'm doing?"

Draco couldn't speak. His brain kicked into autopilot and he raced from the room. She knew. Before he even realized what he was doing, he was on the sixth floor, heading toward the boy's lavatory. When pushed through the door, he had to hold onto a sink to keep from collapsing to the floor. She knew. His knuckles were ghostly white as he clutched the porcelain surface.

"Draco?" cooed an unearthly voice behind him. "What's wrong?"

He closed his eyes in a vain effort to hold in the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes. "Not now, Myrtle," he managed to choke.

"Now, now, what is it?" she tried again.

His breath caught in his throat; even if he wanted to he couldn't have explained the situation. He was too shocked to speak. She knew. Why hadn't she told him? Why hadn't she left him, or at least yelled at him? Furthermore, why hadn't she told anyone else? "She knows, I can't do it."

"Don't," she crooned. "Don't…tell me what's wrong…I can help you…"

"No." Draco's body began to shake. "No one can help me. I can't do it…. And if I don't …he'll kill me." The tears he'd been holding in now poured out of his eyes like a flood. An inexplicable fear and hopelessness gripped him; there was no way out, he finally understood that. He gasped, trying to get oxygen through his constricted throat. He looked in the mirror. "Shit."

There behind him stood Harry Potter, the loath Boy Who Lived. He wheeled around and automatically pulled out his wand. Just because he loved Hermione didn't mean he didn't wish for the demise of the famous Harry Potter. He cast his hexes but Harry blocked them several times.

Myrtle screamed, something behind him exploded and Draco decided these childish hexes would never work. "Cruci–"

Harry had a wild look in his eyes. "SECTUMSEMPRA!"

No words could describe the pain that ripped through Draco's body. His skin was literally sliced by an unseen force. The floor around him was covered in his blood, just like his whole body. Harry kneeled at his side but he couldn't find his wand to get him back.

Then Snape came out of nowhere and performed the counter-curse on him. He helped Draco to his feet and guided him out of the bathroom after telling Harry to wait for him there. Snape took him to the hospital and explained what had happened to Madam Pomfrey in whispers.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Hermione listened in horror as Harry described what had happened. Draco was in the hospital recovering from the incident, and she couldn't go visit him because that would raise too much suspicion. "I told you that book was no good," she said, desperately trying to hold in what she really wanted to say. She really wanted to scream at him, and the fact that he'd gotten detention was no consolation.

She didn't see him in the Great Hall for two days, but he looked fine when he returned. For a week she went to their usual meeting places…but he was never there.

Tears stained her pillow every night. When she sat a few feet away from him, and he refused to meet her gaze, she could barely hold in her emotions. Ginny was too much of a stereotype when it comes to Malfoy, so there was no use talking to her. No one could understand her case.

As she worked in the library, Madrid approached her table

"Hi Hermione! What's up? Haven't seen you lately."

"Hi Madrid! I'm fine" she lied. "You?"

"Oh…..I'm fine too, just stressed out…so what's that you're working on?"

"Oh I'm just reading in advance, nothing unusual." Hermione was getting uncomfortable by the minute. "Listen, a-about th-"

"It's ok! Forget it" Madrid knew what Hermione was talking about. "You're only human. You can't keep you're emotions locked up, or else you'd explode." Madrid smiled.

"So I've been told." Hermione returned the smile. "I heard that you've been doing some tutoring?" Hermione wanted to change the subject.

"Oh…yeah, Blaise Zabini."

"Really…? How's it going so far?"

"A great pain in the behind…."

The two girls laughed, their conversation took Hermione's mind off Draco, besides, she needed a brake, even thought it was just for a moment

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Draco slammed his textbook shut, causing several people in the Slytherin common room to look over at him. But they all went back to their work after one challenging look from him. His book didn't have the information he needed for his essay; he needed to go to the library and get another resource. The only problem was he knew that Hermione would be there and he couldn't face her.

But she knew before, his brain stubbornly reminded him, and you love her. True, he loved her, and since he'd come to the morbid realization that he probably wouldn't be alive much longer, he knew he should spend as much time with her as he possibly could. But the question that continually haunted him was does she love me? Sure, he'd seen what he thought was love in her eyes, but she'd never said it.

Besides, he almost put an unforgivable curse on her best friend. Granted, he was the one who'd ended up getting painfully shredded, but he'd still had the malicious intent against Potter, and something told him that Potter wouldn't fail to mention that.

He suddenly felt a new surge of malice against Potter. Now he wanted to work on his task; anything to bring the famous Harry Potter down. It no longer had anything to do with the Dark Lord or his family; it was personal. Only Draco, with the selfish Malfoy qualities that had been instilled in him since his birth, failed to realize that the task that he'd been given wasn't personal; his task, if completed successfully, would have an effect on the whole world, and a very negative effect on the woman he loved.

But these thoughts never crossed his mind as he left the Slytherin common room and took his familiar short cut to the Room and Requirement. He tried not to think about the fact that he normally took this route when he was going there to be with Hermione.

Yet, whom should he find walking down the corridor toward him?

Hermione stopped as she noticed him, head down, not immediately realizing that she was there. When he looked up even from where she stood five feet way she could see the dark circles under his fierce eyes that were akin to her own. Apparently she wasn't the only one who was miserable and frustrated at the world.

They stood at a short distance for sometime, just staring at each other in the blaring silence. Hermione was the first to speak. "Why are you avoiding me?"

All thoughts of his task and revenge left him when he saw the raw pain in her chocolate eyes. Without a word to her, he paced in front of the room until the door appeared and he pulled her inside. She made no protests to speak of, though there were many in her mind. She was just happy that she was with him again. Draco, on the other hand, was dreading the looming conversation.

Draco paced in frustration in front of Hermione as she watched in silence. "How–" he finally tried. "How can you even look at me when you know who I truly am? I can barely look at myself!"

Deep concern never left her eyes as she approached him and forced him to look her in the eye. "That…thing on your arm isn't who you truly are, and your shame proves that."

He closed his eyes and wondered how his vile skin wasn't burning someone so innocent. "How long have you known?" Draco opened his eyes when she didn't answer. "How long?" he reiterated.

"Remember when I came to the bath?"

His eyes widened. "You've known since then?"

"Actually the day before."

He backed away in near shock. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell anyone else?"

Hermione's brow furrowed. "Look what happened when you found out. "

She had a point; he hadn't handled that well.

"And I couldn't tell anyone else because you'd get sent to Azkaban with your father." The tears she'd been attempting to hold in now slid down her face. "I mean, how would I live with myself knowing I did that to you?" Of course, she thought, how am I going to live with myself knowing that I let whatever he's going to do happen? But she didn't say it.

Unbeknownst to her, Draco was thinking along those same lines. How would he live with himself after he fulfilled his task? He hadn't been cut out to be a Death Eater; he had something that the rest of them lacked: a conscience.

"I love you," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "Merlin knows I shouldn't, but I do."

A/N: I'm sorry if my chapters are short, I don't know why...but yeah...still hope you look it..and thanks for all that reviewed I appreciate it...Pls continue reading and keep those reviews coming..thanks...