Author's Note- Hi everyone! I'm back! I'd like to say a quick "thank you" to all of you for your patience while I dealt with some family matters. It was a very tough time for my family and I'm pleased to say that things are much better now! So, thank you so much for allowing me the time to be with my family. And now, I hope you enjoy Chapter 11! Please don't forget to leave a review if you have the time! I love hearing what y'all think! - Much love, Sarah

Chapter Eleven

"Draco… Dra… DRACO!" Hermione called, running to catch up with him.

"Hermione, I said I'd handle this."

She caught up to him and grabbed his arm. "I'm not going to just stand by and do nothing while you play 'hero', Malfoy!" Hermione snapped, pulling him to a stop.

Draco glared at her, shaking his arm free. "You don't have a choice, Granger."

"Don't you get all high and mighty with me, Malfoy," Hermione retorted, "I'm not a damsel in distress that needs a knight in shining armor to rescue her! I can handle Pansy Parkinson."

Draco huffed slightly and let out a bitter chuckle. "Trust me when I say that anything you do to Pansy isn't going to make a difference," he said, "She won't listen to anyone but me."

"Why you arrogant litt…"

"Will you two stop bickering?!" Blaise nearly shouted, "It's not going to solve anything."

"No, that's my wand's job," Draco stated coldly. He turned and continued toward the mansion.

"What exactly are you going to do?" Blaise questioned.

"I'm going to put Pansy in her place, once and for all," Draco replied, flicking his wand at the large oak doors of the Grand Ballroom, causing them to open with such force that they shook the room a bit when they hit the wall.

His eyes blazed with anger as he surveyed the room. He couldn't believe the damage Pansy had caused, not all by herself, but caused all the same by her initiative. Glass wine goblets lay shattered on the tables and floor, desserts that should have been in the guests stomachs were, instead, all over them, tables were overturned, Hermione's presents had been smashed and scattered all over the room… It was a total disaster zone. Practically roaring with anger, Draco pointed his wand at the ceiling and shouted, "Finite Incantatem Totalus!"

At once, all of the many spells effects vanished and everyone turned their heads toward the caster of the Finishing Spell. Draco's face was livid as he settled his gaze on Pansy, who was flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. Everyone remained silent as the angry white-blond haired Slytherin slowly made his way to the center of the room; toward Pansy.

Hermione gasped at the damage that had been done and angrily pulled out her wand. "YOU!" she shouted, stepping forward and pointing her wand at Pansy.

Blaise grabbed hold of her upper arms and pulled her back against his chest. "Let Draco deal with her," he said cautiously into her ear.

"Let me go, Blaise!" Hermione said, tugging her arms in an attempt to loosen his grip, "She's ruined enough of my life, I'm not going to let her ruin the rest of this night!"

Blaise didn't relent. His grip remained tight on her arms; he didn't want to risk her slipping away. However, he didn't take into account that she was still holding onto her wand. A bright purple flash of light flew past Draco's arm and hit Pansy directly in the chest.

Pansy staggered back a bit and clutched her chest tightly. She seemed to be trying to catch her breath with the way she was heaving. She then looked up and pointed her wand at Hermione. A jet of bright pink light shot out of her wand and soared toward Hermione.

Draco quickly blocked the spell and shot a Stunning Spell at Pansy with such vigor that she flew back several feet and hit the floor with a thud. He strode over to her and revived her, keeping his wand pointed at her as she woke. "I could have sworn I told you not to disrespect my fiancée, Parkinson."

Pansy stood up and glared at him. "How the hell can you tell me not to disrespect her when you don't even like her?" she questioned angrily.

"What I feel is my business."

Pansy took several steps toward him, her dark eyes narrowing on him. "You've spent years calling her names and doing what you could to humiliate her and her stupid friends, on purpose, and suddenly you're all noble? I don't believe you."

"You know just as well as I do that my family has a reputation to uphold and I've been given orders to respect my fiancée no matter what my feelings for her might be."

Hermione pulled herself from Blaise's grip and took several steps forward. "You bastard!" she said, pointing her wand at Draco. "I should have known this was all a show for your father."

Pansy smirked as she slowly stood up. "You didn't honestly think he cared about you, did you?"

"What I think is none of your business!" Hermione snapped.

Blaise stepped forward and wrapped his arm around Hermione's shoulders. "Pansy, you've gone too far!" he said angrily, his eyes narrowed her.

"I've gone too far? Oh please, it's not like I did anything to make you angry, Blaise," she said flippantly, "I've only done what any Slytherin would have done to protect the people she cares about."

"You ruined my birthday party, you attacked my sister…"

"I defended myself," Pansy argued, "and what's rightfully mine!"

"What's rightfully yo…?" Hermione began.

"You destroyed my family's personal belongings… oh no, that doesn't make me angry in the least," Blaise interrupted with an angry sarcasm Hermione had never heard from him before.

Pansy let out a bored yawn. "Please, this is nothing. A simple Repairing Spell will fix it," she said. "You can't honestly expect me to believe that she's really a blood relative of yours. She's smart enough to brew Polyjuice potion and cast a Memory Charm on everyone she knows to make them beli…"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You've already tried that lame excuse for an explanation."

Blaise gave Pansy a look of angry confusion. "So not only do you attack my sister, but you accuse her of modifying people's memories to make them believe she's…"

"To make them believe she's a part of your family and to get at me," Draco finished. "It's a ridiculous theory and one that I've already made clear was not possible."

"Why, because she's a Gryffindor goody goody?"

Draco turned on her, gritting his teeth. "Because she's above such trickery," he said. "She wouldn't do something like that."

"Draco, she's been after you since day one!" Pansy said. "Can't you see that? She wants to keep us apart because she's jealous of what we have."

"There's nothing between us, Pansy," Draco stated, "How many times do I have to explain that to you? Maybe you're in need of a Wit-sharpening Potion."

Pansy stepped close to Draco and gently lowered his arm. "Come on, Draco," she whispered in his ear, "why play this game? You know I can give you…"

"Get out."

Pansy glared at Hermione, who was glaring fiercely at her, and smirked. "What makes you think you can throw me out?" she said with an evil giggle, wrapping her arms around Draco's waist, "You have no power here."

"I disagree, Pansy," Hermione said, "You see, this is the Zabini Mansion and I just so happen to be a Zabini. Now, get out of my house!"

Pansy looked up at Draco pleadingly. "Draco, you're not just going to let her do this, are you?"

Draco forcefully removed her arms from around his body and sneered. "Let me make something perfectly clear," he whispered menacingly, "from now on, anything you say or do against my fiancée will be seen as a personal attack toward me. I've accepted my betrothal to Hermione and, whether you like it or not, you will accept it. Now get out."

Pansy's lip trembled as she continued to look at Draco. "Draco, please…"

She froze at the icy glare he directed at her. She had seen that look many times before, but it had always been aimed at someone else, never her. It chilled her to have him looking at her in such a way. She sniffed pathetically and left the room.

The whole room stood silent as the occupants watched the Slytherin Princess being told off by the Gryffindor Bookworm and the Slytherin Prince. No one had ever thought it possible that Draco would ever yell at Pansy for something like this; especially Hermione. Though no one knew what Draco had just whispered to Pansy, they knew it had to have been something horrible for the Ice Queen to be reduced to tears.

Just as Pansy left the Grand Ball Room, staring harshly at Hermione of course, Draco turned and focused his attention on Crabbe and Goyle. "What the bloody hell were you two thinking?"

Unable to come up with a response, the two goons just shrugged. "You two had better thank your lucky stars that Hermione's too angry at Pansy to do anything to you," Draco told them, "You know she'd hex you faster than a Bludger to the head."

"Who's to say I won't?"

The three young men turned and looked at the angry Hermione, who was now standing just a few feet away from them. "Hermione, I'm handling this," Draco told her.

Hermione shook her head. "No, you're not," she stated, "This is my house, the attack was aimed at me… I'll handle this!"

"Hermione…"

"Don't argue with me, Malfoy!" she snapped, "Remember our agreement?"

Draco nodded.

"Well, this is what I call, provocation," Hermione stated, gesturing at the mess around them. She focused her gaze on Crabbe and Goyle. "You and your friends aren't going to do anymore damage tonight."

"Blaise, do something," Goyle stammered.

Blaise shook his head and stepped up next to his sister. "You seriously think I'm going to help you after the two of you helped Pansy trash my birthday party? I don't think so."

"Draco?" Crabbe pleaded.

Draco walked over and stood by Blaise and Hermione. "You two should have thought about this before you went along with Pansy's little tantrum." He said.

"That 'tantrum' was anything but 'little', and if you get any closer to me I'll curse you," Hermione hissed at him. "As for the two of you, the next time you decide to act on someone else's bidding, I'd think about the possible consequences… if it doesn't make your brains explode, that is."

Unable to say anything else, Hermione turned and walked out of the room, brushing angry tears from her cheeks as she went. Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Luna all followed after her. "Hermione!" Ginny called.

Hermione stopped dead in her tracks at the sound of Ginny's voice and turned to face her friends, her green eyes still blazing with anger. "Hermione, are you all right?" Ron questioned.

"No… I'm not," Hermione stated, "Pansy Parkinson ruined what was supposed to be a very important, and very fun evening for Blaise and me, my own fiancé is only treating me nicely because his father told him to, and on top of all that, I'm still trying to make sense of the past twenty-four hours… Does that sound 'all right' to you, Ron?"

"Hermione, come on, it isn't Ron's fault that this happened," Luna said kindly.

Hermione took a deep breath and rubbed her forehead in frustration. She knew that Luna was right; Ron didn't deserve her snippy comments. "I'm sorry, Ron," she said, "I didn't mean to take out my anger at Pansy on you."

Ron gave a noncommittal shrug and said, "It's all right."

"No, it's really not," Hermione stated, "You didn't deserve me snapping at you like that."

"Just forget about it," he said, running a hand through his hair with a small smile.

"I can't believe that Pansy Parkinson!" Ginny said bitterly, "Does she ever give up?"

Harry gave a small laugh. "Did you see her face after Malfoy told her off?" he asked, "She looked like she was ready to either cry, or punch someone."

"Yeah," said Ron, laughing as well.

Luna silently watched Hermione as Ron and Harry continued to joke around about Pansy. She could sense that something was bothering the raven-haired beauty but she had the feeling that she might not want to talk about it. She also had the feeling that more talk of Pansy would only anger her so she decided to change the subject. "Hermione, I saw your parents a bit ago," she said, "How are they?"

Hermione gave her a small smile of thanks. "They're doing well," she said, "In fact; I'd like you to meet them, Luna."

"Oh I'd like that very much," Luna said.

"Hermione?"

Hermione turned at the sound of her mother's voice.

"Hermione, you should be enjoying the party not gallivanting around in the halls," Mrs. Zabini said, glancing at Harry and the others in slight disgust due to the amount of food that covered their clothes.

"Well, yes, I should be but…" Hermione began.

"But the enjoyment was cut short by a Pansy Parkinson tantrum," said Blaise, coming down the hall with Draco at his side.

Mrs. Zabini frowned and silently cast a Cleaning Charm on Harry, Ron, Luna, and Ginny. "What happened?" she asked finally.

Blaise quickly recounted the events of moments ago, his mother all the while growing angry at the young Slytherin girl. "How utterly disrespectful," she said once Blaise had finished. "I'll be speaking to her father about this and she'll no longer be allowed in this house!"

"You might want to think about adding Crabbe and Goyle to that list, as well," Blaise added.

"Your father would do much worse if he were to hear about this," Mrs. Zabini seethed. "All of Hermione's gifts smashed… the nerve of them!"

"Mrs. Zabini, if you please, I've taken care of it," Draco said. "Pansy won't be making any more trouble tonight; I've kicked her out on Hermione's behalf. Crabbe and Goyle, too."

Hermione gave a small huff, rolling her eyes as she folded her arms across her chest. "Don't pretend you did that for me!" she snapped.

"Hermione, that's no way to speak to your fiancé!" Mrs. Zabini scolded gently.

"Well, I'm not going to apologize," Hermione said. She then turned to her friends and said, "Come on, I'll show you my room."

Hermione turned on her heels and stormed down the corridor, followed quickly by Harry, Luna, and Ginny. Ron remained briefly to glare at Draco and said, "You really don't deserve her." He too then turned and hurried to catch up with Hermione and the others.

"Hermione!" Mrs. Zabini called after her.

"Let her go, Mum," Blaise said. "She's had a very rough night."

She watched her daughter disappear around the corner and sighed sadly. When it came to Blaise, she always knew what to say, or do, when he was upset. Hermione was a completely different story. She had no idea how to sooth her own daughter and it saddened her greatly. She hoped that, with time, she would come to learn how to comfort and console her.

With a deep breath, she turned and looked at Draco. "I'm sorry she snapped at you, Draco, dear."

"In all honesty, Mrs. Zabini, I deserved it," Draco told her.

Mrs. Zabini gave him a kind smile and patted his cheek. "Well, I guess I should go and make sure things get cleaned up. Draco, dear, thank you for defending Hermione against Pansy, I'm sure she's grateful."

Draco nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. "It, uh… It was nothing."

Mrs. Zabini smiled. "You always were a modest boy. Blaise, do try and see if you can get Hermione to come back down?"

"I think I'll let her cool off first," Blaise whispered as his mother headed off to the Grand Ballroom.

Draco gave Blaise an apologetic look. "Listen, Blaise, I want to apologize for what I said in the ballroom. About Hermione, I mean," he said.

Before he could say anymore, Blaise held up his hand and shook his head. "Don't," he said a bit harshly. "You told me yourself last night that you were going to continue pretending to hate her in public. You defended her, yes, but you made it clear to everyone in that room that it was only because you're under orders to respect her."

Draco made to speak but Blaise shook his head again. "I'm not going to lie and tell you that I'm not angry about what you said, because I am. However, that's between you and Hermione so I'm not going to give you a lecture; I'm sure Hermione will do that herself. I will say this though: If you're so keen on keeping people in the dark about your true feelings for Hermione… and I'm assuming you really do care for her… you might want to let Hermione in on that secret, or you'll have her wrath to deal with every time you open your mouth in public."

Draco rubbed his forehead and sighed. "If I tell her, she won't react naturally," he said. "You know what a horrible liar she is."

"I'm sure she could pretend to hate you just like you're pretending to hate her," Blaise almost spat. "She's not a dunce, you know."

"I know she's not a dunce, Blaise," Draco said a bit angrily, "but you can't stand there and tell me she'd be accepting of my plan to keep up the insults and hatred. And don't act like you know her any better than I do; you're only just getting to know her, too."

"True, but she deserves the truth and you know it."

With nothing more to say, Blaise turned and headed back to the Grand Ball Room, leaving Draco alone with his thoughts. His mind raced with thoughts of everything that had happened over the past half hour. His heart ached at the thought of how badly he had hurt Hermione. It had been written all over her face when she had looked at him just moments ago. He had seen that look out of her enough over the years to know it, even if she had been trying to mask it with her anger.

Draco knew without a doubt that Hermione deserved a better fiancé than himself. That had been evident from the first time he'd met her. She was too good, too pure, for someone like him. There was a darkness in him that couldn't be lightened, no matter how much white one added to the black. In his opinion, he'd always be gray.

Besides, he didn't think there was anything he could say, or do, that would ever make up for all of insults and harsh words he'd spat at her over the years. Despite his father's orders, he still wasn't sure what to make of this situation, or his feelings for Hermione. She intrigued him, to say the least, but would he ever love her? He doubted it. Then again; he hadn't spent enough time with her to honestly say he knew anything about her. Until he knew if she cared for him, he couldn't allow himself to open up and let her in. For all he knew; she could only like what was on the surface, his appearance, like Pansy.

At least with Astoria he didn't have to worry about such things; she had a wealthy family of her own. His looks and money didn't matter to her. He never had to guess what she was thinking, either. She never kept her thoughts from him.

He sighed and ran his hands over his face. Regardless of how easy things with Astoria were for him, he was a Malfoy, and that meant upholding the family name and honor. He knew that no matter what his feelings, he'd marry Hermione out of duty. Of course; that depended on whether, or not, Hermione agreed. And I don't see that happening unless I talk to her, he thought.

He had a feeling that after the night's events, Hermione might refuse his invitation to dinner in Hogsmeade. She could be quite stubborn when she wanted to be. He knew he needed to try to make amends, though. He needed to find some way for her to let him in. There'd be no chance of them getting to know each other if he didn't.

It was well after midnight by the time all of the guests, except the Malfoys, had left. Hermione, being tired and not wanting to be around Draco, had politely excused herself and gone to her room. After changing into a pair of brand new pajamas, she selected one of her school books and sat in the armchair near the fireplace.

When ten minutes had gone by and she hadn't gotten past the first paragraph, she closed the book with a loud sigh. She set the book aside and pulled her legs up, resting her chin on her knees. It had been several hours since her argument with Draco but her anger had not yet subsided; not to mention the hurt she felt.

A tear slid down her cheek and she quickly brushed it away. It was all so overwhelming. Finding out about her "adoption", her betrothal to Malfoy, the Blood Transmogrification Spell… She had an exceptional brain, but she felt as if she were drowning in an unfathomable sea of the unknown and the few things she did know, she was having difficulty making sense of; Draco being at the top of that list.

In the almost seven years she had known him, Draco had been cruel, belittling, and basically down right evil. But in the past two days she had seen a different side of him that she had never expected. He had been sweet, polite, kind even and in a few seconds he had ripped every little spark of hope she had allowed herself to feel.

She shook her head and chuckled softly. You should have known better, she thought bitterly. She stood and walked over to her desk. The letter from Draco was still lying where she had left it, neatly stuffed in its envelope and waiting for a reply. She picked it up and carefully placed it in the jeweled box Blaise had gotten her. She was too angry to write him back just then. It was also pointless, in her opinion, considering he was downstairs with her family.

Or, at least, that's what she had thought.

Draco was, in fact, standing outside of Hermione's room debating on whether, or not, he should knock on the door to talk to her. He knew she was severely angry with him and quite frankly, he didn't blame her. He had said some pretty harsh things about her earlier that evening and she had every right to be pissed.

Knowing that he needed to make amends with her in order to get her to accept his invitation for dinner in Hogsmeade, he raised a hand and knocked on the door. Seconds later, Hermione's soft voice could be heard through the door. "Come in."

Draco took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped into the room, fully prepared to accept any lecture or hex that came his way. He saw Hermione sitting at her desk, her hair still hanging in neat curls down her back and dressed in deep green silk pajamas. When she turned to see who was visiting her, Draco couldn't help being awestruck. Even with her green eyes narrowed at him she was a beautiful sight to behold.

The smile on Hermione's face quickly faded when she realized exactly who had come calling. Her eyes narrowed slightly and her fingers twitched toward the wand lying on her desk. She resisted the urge to pick it up and hex him right then by standing and folding her arms across her chest. "You've got some nerve coming here," she said.

"I needed to see you," Draco said cautiously, "To talk to you."

"I think you've said quite enough for tonight; don't you?" she questioned, arching an eyebrow.

"Hermione…"

"Don't you 'Hermione' me," she spat. "You utterly humiliated me today when you publicly announced your orders to respect me no matter what your feelings for me may be."

"Hermione, I'm sor…"

Hermione shook her head, disbelieving that he was the least bit sorry. "Please don't insult my intelligence by telling me you're sorry. Besides, I'm not in the mood to hear it," she said, too angry and hurt to accept any form of apology.

"Well, you should, because I am."

"Save it," she said, walking over to her school trunk and retrieving her Arithmancy book. Pointing to the door, she said, "We're done here. You know where the door is; you can see yourself out." She then climbed onto her bed and attempted to ignore him.

Draco was not one that would be ignored. He wasn't going to leave without her hearing him out. He walked over to her and took the book from her hands. "Hermione, will you stop and let me apologize?"

She looked up at him. "Why should I?"

"Because I care about you!" Draco blurted without thinking.

Hermione moved away from him and got off the bed. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard come out of your mouth," she said, crossing the room.

She really had no destination in mind, she just needed to get away from him. His confession, if that's what it could be called, made her nervous. He made her nervous.

He furrowed his brow. He hadn't meant to say those words. Truthfully, he hadn't known what to say. Those words had just slipped out. Now that he'd said them, though, he found that he felt a modicum of truth in them. "I defended you tonight!" He argued.

"You defended me out of fear for your father, not out of respect, or care, for me." Hermione stated. "You wouldn't have done anything of the sort had your father not ordered you to do so."

Draco moved to the bedroom door and closed it with a loud bang. "Yes I would have!" he practically screamed. It was a good thing Hermione lived in such a large house because that meant it was less likely that they would be overheard. "Please, you have to trust me!"

"Trust you?" Hermione shot at him. She picked her wand up and aimed it at his chest. "Tell me, Draco, how am I supposed to trust you when all you've done is humiliate and belittle me for the past seven years?"

"Hermione, you're right; I've never given you a reason to trust me," he began, holding up his hands in submission and walking toward her. "And you have every right to be angry with me…"

"You're damn right I do!" Hermione nearly screamed, keeping her wand on him. "Yes, you defended me, and I thank you for that… but you did it for the wrong reason."

At that moment, no words could describe how beautiful Hermione looked to him with her lips poked out angrily at him. His mouth suddenly felt dry. He licked his lips and cleared his throat as he fought to keep his thoughts from going in such an unexpected way.

He took a deep breath and closed the distance between them. He wasn't exactly sure how he managed it without a hex being shot at him, but he knocked Hermione's wand out of her hand and it went rolling across the floor. He took her hands and squeezed them gently. Taking another deep breath, he said, "I'm sorry for the things I said tonight. That being said; I can't change overnight."

"I know you…"

Draco held up a hand to silence her. "I've made a commitment to this… whatever we have… and I'm going to stick with it, but I need you to be patient with me," he stated, lifting her chin so he could see her face better, "Can you do that?"

Hermione stared at him silently for several minutes. Finally, she nodded. "Yes, I can do that."

He continued to hold her chin as he looked over her features. He'd spent a lot of time staring at her throughout the night, her new features intrigued him, but he hadn't really had the chance to look for long while being so close.

There were still traces of the "old" Hermione in the general structure of her face, but the "new" Hermione was definitely a sight to behold. Her darker features matched the regal way she had always carried herself, a trait that she had obviously inherited from Mr. Zabini. The gentleness in her expression, and the way her eyes sparkled when she laughed were mirrors of Mrs. Zabini. She was an unexpected vision unlike anything he had seen.

He was mesmerized by her beauty. So much so that his stare became almost trance like. His eyes were drawn down to her lips as she bit down on the bottom one. He licked his lips, swallowing hard. "Hermione," he whispered, lowering his head.