Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling.

I sat in my den, a book in front of me though I wasn't really reading it. It was hard to pay attention to much now a day.

It had been a week and a half since I had gone to Samantha's bakery and she had sent me away with no regrets. I didn't go by her house anymore and I didn't go by the school. Of course, not seeing Sam meant there was no more Ben and my house seemed incredibly too quite. . . .

I wondered often what they were both up to . . . I was sure Sam was making sure Ben got all of his homework done.

But mostly I wondered if Sam missed me. I was pretty sure she didn't because she had said as much at her bakery but . . . a guy could hope, I guess.

My doorbell rang and I got up slowly, reluctantly. I was sure it was Mrs. Sandspot dropping by to tell me to 'mow the lawn' or to 'wash my front porch'. She was always dropping by to tell me what to do.

Merlin a man couldn't get any peace. I pulled open my door, sighing, "I've already done it twice this week, Mrs. Sandspot. If I cut my lawn anymore there won't be any grass left."

"I don't care about your lawn."

I looked up to see Samantha staring at me, a frown on her face and her arms crossed. I was so shocked to actually see her that I couldn't even form a stupid sentence let alone a coherent one. "Er, hi," I finally managed to say.

"You know, if you're going to chase after a girl, it might do you good not to quit when she's about to change her mind," she said, still frowning.

I was about to reply when I realized I had barely understood what she just say. "Er, huh?"

She rolled her eyes before saying, "Well aren't you going to invite me in?"

Still too shocked for words, I stepped back and let her in. She walked past, glancing around the place. I closed the door and said, "Might care to explain to me what's going on?"

Samantha turned to face me. "Might care to explain to me why you lied?"

Sighing, I moved over to the couch, motioning for her to sit with me but she didn't. Sighing again I said, "I wasn't exactly the nicest person in school, even if the Slytherin house loved me. I called people names, looked down on people who were actually better than me in every way possible, and boasted about my name for almost the whole of Hogwarts to hear. It was . . . satisfying to know that people looked up to me and were jealous of me because of who I was. But mostly, it satisfied my father and I wanted him to be proud of me. Sure he was somewhat of a bastard but he was still my dad. And so when I had the chance to become a Death Eater and to carry out the biggest mission of all time, I pounced on it. But I realized I would have to actually kill someone and . . . I was scared out of my mind. And then, to make matters worse the bastard blackmailed me with my family's life.

"I didn't kill him though. It was actually going as planned; I had let the Death Eaters into the castle and then kill Professor Dumbledore. He . . . he told me there was a better way, that he'd help me and keep my family safe. I didn't have to be what Voldemort wanted me to become. And then Snape appeared out of nowhere and did it himself. Come to find out though, Dumbledore told Snape to kill him because he was going to die anyway. Dumbledore didn't want me to have to live with death on my shoulders. He even wrote letters for me so that I wouldn't end up in jail after the war was over. It was so strange that this man cared about my wellbeing when I had always hated him . . . well, not intentionally."

I leaned forward, putting my head in my hands. "I moved here because even though my name was cleared, I couldn't escape the people who hated me because of my family and what they thought had happened. I lied to you because I didn't want you to hate me either, even if you had just been a Muggle and didn't even know about the name Draco Malfoy. I wanted – I needed a fresh start and you gave it to me, really."

There was silence for a moment before I felt rather than saw Samantha sit down beside me. "I wouldn't have hated you," she said softly.

"You sure?" I asked looking up at her. "It didn't sound like you liked me to much at dinner."

"You'll have to understand that all I heard about my 'future fiancé' was that he was a spoiled, arrogant, Muggle-hating jerk, the Death Eater who brought about the murder of one of the greatest wizards of our time. You'll forgive me if I was just a tad bit turned off by that."

A slight smile came to face as I looked back to my hands. "If I had told you who I was that first day I met you, what would you have done?"

"Probably acted the same way I did a couple of weeks ago. But I wouldn't have hated you . . . I would have been weary, yes, and I probably would have been over the next day to find out what your intentions were in a Muggle neighborhood, my wand in hand, of course. But I don't think I would have hated you because the truth is very important to me." She sighed, brushing her hair back from her face. "I shouldn't have gotten so mad at you though. It's not like I haven't had my share of lies . . . my – Alexander broke up with me because I didn't tell him I was a witch until after I was pregnant. He promised he would stay and the next morning when I woke up, he was gone. . . . Since then it's been hard for me to really trust anyone, but I shouldn't have taken my frustration out on you."

I smiled lightly at her, sitting up straight. "So you don't hate me?"

"I find it unreasonably hard to hate you for some unknown reason," she said, rolling her eyes again. "I find it even harder to just dislike you. And so, if it's harder to dislike you, than it must be torture to hate you. So no, Draco, I don't hate you, not in the slightest."

"That's good to know. . . ." I gazed at her for a moment. "So what do we do now?"

"I suppose we start from the beginning." She held out her hand but before I could take it she snatched it away. "But don't you dare lie to me anymore Draco Malfoy. You know, unless it's something like the 'dear, I didn't actually go to the Quidditch game with the guys, I went to buy you this ring' kind of lie."

I grinned. "It's a deal."

She put her hand out again. "Hello. I'm Samantha Justins. Welcome to the neighborhood."

I shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Draco Malfoy."

A/N: So I'm so sad because I've only got one chapter left. I decided to wait and update today so I could get back on track because I'm sure you noticed I was falling behind. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next chapter.