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Chapter 28 -

Present Day -

Hermione sat on the couch, in what she now recognized as Blaise's apartment, and she put her head in her hands. "I can't believe any of this." She shook her head in disbelief.

Blaise sat next to her and said, "We have to turn this around, we have to make Goldstein pay."

"And I think I know how we can do that," Hermione said slowly, looking up at Blaise. "We have to make him think his plan is working. I have to drop out, so that he will give Ron the antidote, to save Percy, and so it will just be Malfoy running. That way, Percy will have no choice but to back Anthony. We have to give Anthony a false sense of security. He has to think he's still running the show, at least for now."

"That won't work, because Percy won't back him," Blaise said. He came and sat beside her, held her hand, and said, "A better plan would be to make him think that you and Draco are no longer together, let Draco win the election. He will think since you are no longer together, he will be able to make Draco take revenge against you by overturning all the things you and Percy accomplished while in office. You have to have a very public falling out with Draco, and let Anthony think that Draco is so angry with you, that he will undo the trade law if he's elected."

"I don't think Draco would do that, go along with that, I mean," Hermione said.

"He doesn't have to know that it's a ploy. I know Draco, if he thinks you are over him, and you leave him, he will be hurt enough to want to hurt you back. It would hurt you if he won the election, and overturned this law."

"He's not that malicious," Hermione said.

Blaise let out a little laugh and said, "But he is. He has waited so long for you; his emotions are in overdrive right now. If you turn against him now, his anger will be unmatched. He will want to get back at you."

"I won't hurt him like that. I've hurt him enough," Hermione said. "There has to be another way."

"Fine, you figure it out, but do it on your own. I have some of my own things to take care of; you should get back to Harry's or something. They are probably worried about you," Blaise said. He stood up and pulled her up as well. He kissed her cheek. "If you need me, let me know."

He disappeared and left her in his flat. She sat down to think some more. She knew that Blaise had a point. She needed to lure Anthony into thinking that she was no longer in love with Draco, and that she was going to drop out of the race. She also needed proof of his plot against the Minister. She knew what she had to do.

She apparated home, and then she called Anthony Goldstein.

Anthony came to her house immediately. She answered her door and ran into his arms. "Oh, Anthony, I've been so very stupid!" she cried as she threw her arms around him.

He patted her back and said, "You mean about the pictures, yes, I saw them."

"Blaise Zabini was just here," she lied, "and he told me that Draco Malfoy planted that photographer at Harry's. He has done all of this to discredit me! He has been playing dirty since the beginning, from the donation to St Mungos, to the reporter catching us at the theatre. He has been playing me for a fool. Blaise told me that Draco never cared for me. He's been using me all along."

She sat on her couch, and hung her head. He came and took her hand. "Oh, Hermione, I am so sorry," Anthony said. "He's done even more than that. He forced Ron and me to pretend that we were in a gay relationship together to embarrass and discredit you, as well."

Hermione wanted to slap him, but she feigned mocked disgust with Draco. "That bastard! But how did he do that?"

"Well, I have no proof, but I think he's behind the Minister's illness. You see, Percy is under the influence of a very slow acting poison, and Draco has the only known antidote, and he wanted us to help you lose, by breaking you emotionally and by hurting your reputation, and if we helped him do that, he said he would give the antidote to Percy to save his life."

"Really? How do you know that?' she asked. She hated Anthony Goldstein.

"The same way you know about him, from Zabini," he lied. He took her hand and said, "I wish I could have protected you better. Here is what I think you should do, drop out, while you still have some dignity left."

"But how will that help?" she asked. "Draco will be named Minister. I should stay in the race just to goad him. Then, become elected, and after my election, I should step down. I could name you my undersecretary, and when I step down, you can be named my successor." She thought of that off the cuff. "Even better, why don't you petition the people to write you in as a candidate?" Hermione thought if he did that, they would have more time to prove his guilt. In addition, if he thought things were finally going his way, maybe he would give the antidote to Ron to save Percy's life. She decided to add, "I think I can talk Percy into supporting this, if he's well enough."

He smiled. He had not thought of that. She continued, "I don't want to be Minister anyway. But, for this to work, we have to make sure that either I am elected, or you are, and after what happened with those picture, we might have some problems there."

"Leave everything to me. I can tell everyone that the picture of you and Draco was doctored, forged. I could even get the photographer to swear to it in a signed statement," he claimed. "You just sit tight here. Let me take care of it all." He left, happy and excited that things were going his way. Hermione was relieved that he was gone.

The only thing she had to do now was to figure out what she was going to do about Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, who at that moment had just apparated to her house.

Flashback:

"That was a close vote, Hermione," Percy said. "I can't believe we won the passing of the new trade law by a mere four votes."

"I can't believe that two of the four votes we won were from two people who originally supported Malfoy's side," Hermione said, as she sat down on the couch in Percy's office.

"He was there today, in the gallery, did you see him?" Percy asked. He sat in his chair, and rubbed his forehead.

"What's wrong Percy? Another headache?" she asked.

"Yes, worse than yesterday. It probably from hunger, but I cannot manage to eat a thing without throwing it back up, all I can manage is weak tea and biscuits. Maybe some more of that tea Anthony gave me will help. Will you brew me some more?" he asked.

She nodded and walked over to the small kitchenette that was off his office. She took the green tea infused with almonds, that Anthony had given the Minister, and put it in a tea strainer, and began to heat the water. She made the tea, and brought it to him. She noticed that she began to itch again. "I think I am allergic to this tea," Hermione said. She handed the cup to Percy.

"Why do you think that?" he asked.

"Well, the other day, after I made you two cups, I had a horrible reaction, hives, and at the time I didn't know what caused it, but today, after making this cup, I have developed hives again, look," and she pulled up her sleeves.

"Curious, I've never heard of anyone being allergic to tea," he said.

"Maybe I should take care of this, before it gets out of hand like before." She turned to leave and said, "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes, let me just drink my tea." She kissed his cheek and walked out the door.

After going back to St Mungos, and receiving almost complete relief from her symptoms, she went back to her office. As soon as she opened the door, she found Draco sitting at her desk.

"And what do I owe this displeasure?" she asked, but with a true smile.

"I wanted to come and congratulate you on your win, you know, the law, but you were gone. Where in the world did you go? You were gone forever," he said, standing.

"Curious thing, that," she said, shutting her office door. "I had to go back to St Mungos for hives again."

He frowned. "That is curious. Are you okay?" He stood up to meet her in the center of her office.

"Yes, they gave me a potion, but I still have a couple of hives," she said. She pulled up her sleeve to show a perfectly round hive on her arm, on the inside of her elbow.

He walked up to her, took her arm in both of his hands and while holding her arm with his hands around her elbow, he touched the small hive gently with his thumb. "Is it itchy?"

"No, but apparently it's highly contagious, but only if you touch it," she said. He withdrew his hands quickly and she laughed. "Now I know how to keep you from touching me! I just have to tell you I am contagious, however, I was joking this time."

He smirked and raised one eyebrow, "What a crafty little thing you are. I don't care if they are contagious, I too was joking when I let go of your arm so fast."

"No you weren't, you were afraid, just like a little girl," she mocked, "Oh, Granger is contagious, and I better not touch her! That is what you thought. Haven't you always thought that? I remember backstage at graduation you didn't want Mudblood germs. Oh, wait, no, I think I am the one that said that. I'm confused." She sat down at her desk.

"What are you rambling on about, Granger?" he asked, taking his familiar perch on top of her desk, by her chair. He looked down at her.

"Well, when you came backstage at graduation, drunk I might remind you, you said something about touching me, and I said you might get Mudblood germs, so don't touch me, and you touched me, like this," and she stood up and started to poke him all over his chest and arms with her finger, "and you said, 'touch, touch, touch'." He hit her hands away. She sat back down and said, "You don't recall that, do you?"

"I don't recall much of that night, I was dead drunk," he said.

"Boy, do I know it," she said.

"I'm not afraid to touch you now," he said.

"I think you are, or you wouldn't have dropped my arm like a hot potato the moment you thought I was contagious." She started to stand again, to walk away from the desk, but he pulled her toward him. He pulled up her sleeve. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Touching you. I have a point to get across. I'm not afraid of you, or your germs, even if you are contagious." He brought her arm up to his mouth, and placed a small kiss inside the crook of her arm, which sent shivers down her spine. "By the way, Granger, speaking of remembering things," he said, his hands still holding her arm, "Do you remember what you said to me when you were at St Mungos two nights ago?"

"Did I say that you were a right piece of work and a complete poof?" she asked.

"No, you said that about Goldstein," he said. He put his arms around her and pulled her close to his body. He was surprised she was so malleable today. She did not know why she was letting him do this either, except it felt somewhat nice. He said, "You said that I was dead gorgeous and that you couldn't live without me."

"Ha! I don't think so." She pushed away from his chest. "More likely I said you were a complete arse-hole." She sat back at her desk.

"No, you didn't say that, not that time, anyway. I'll tell you someday what you said. I should go, I have important work to do, unlike the piddling little work you do around here." He jumped off her desk, and said, "By the way, sunshine, you said you have a couple of hives left, where's the other ones?"

Her eyes narrowed to stare at him, and she said, "Someplace you will never see."

"Never? Don't count on that. You are such a funny little thing, Granger. You were so out of it the other night, on that medicine, if you recall, and you were completely naked with nothing on but a sheet. By the time I got you to St Mungos, I had a nice little peek at your bits, so I am sure I saw it all." He laughed, hoping she would believe his lie, and went to her door. He turned back and said, "And I plan on seeing it all again." That part wasn't a lie. He figured if she did not remember telling him that she loved him, she wouldn't remember if he had seen her naked or not. He turned to face her when he reached the door. She looked shocked. He smiled again and said, "Ta, Granger. I'll SEE you soon, I am sure."

Present Day:

Draco rushed up to her first and grabbed her in his strong embrace. He said, "Blaise just told us everything."

"Did he?" she asked. She looked over at Harry.

"We have got to find evidence against Goldstein," Harry said, going into full Auror mode.

"Well, I heard him admit everything, won't that help?" she asked.

Draco answered, "Its hearsay. Yours and Blaise's word against his. You should have recorded it or something."

"What do you think, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"I think you should leave the sleuthing to us Aurors, although I feel duty bound to let the Minister know what we suspect. I just don't want to have to do that, but the healers must be made aware of what's going on, in case they can help him. Still, I don't want Anthony to know we are onto him yet."

"Well, Anthony just left here," Hermione said, "And I think I have bought us some time with him. I told him that Draco and I had a falling out, and he told me that Draco was behind everything."

"That grotty little bastard!" Draco exclaimed. "Listen, the only thing I admit to is that Goldstein did suggest that I join the race, and while he pretended that he did it because he was looking out for all purebloods and because of this law, I knew I wanted to do it, at first anyway, to make you notice me. That's all; well no it's not, but never mind."

Hermione said, "No, tell me what else you were going to say."

Harry sat on the couch, to listen as well. "Fine, my true intentions, finally revealed to you. Here goes, I was named number one at University, but I gave it up for you. You already know that one. I was given the Ministry internship, but I gave it up for you. Percy Weasley, the moment Mr. Spine was fired, offered me the job as Undersecretary, but I told him to give it to you. I had the trade vote passed last year, even though I originally fought against it, and I did it for you. And my last great performance, the one I wanted to use to finally win you over, was that I was going to run against you and at the very end, give it up, for you. I have done all of that for you. I would do it again, except for the last one, because, by Merlin, I want the Minister position now."

She was flabbergasted by his admission. She felt like every accomplishment she had ever gotten was false. She looked at him in shock. "Well, guess what, Malfoy?" she asked, walking over to the hallway. "I was going to tell you that for my plan to bring Anthony to justice to work, we would have to act like we were no longer seeing each other, but since you've cleared up so much for me, made me see that nothing in my life matters, none of my rewards were my own, I think I really DON'T want to see you any longer." She turned to walk in her bedroom, but came back out to the living room, where Draco stood in shock, with Harry now right beside him.

"How dare you manipulate my life!" she said, pointing her finger at him.

"I did it because I loved you!" he shouted. "I had to make you finally see that!"

"Well, don't love me anymore, because it's boils down to the fact that my life is a bunch of lies. Not only has Anthony manipulated me for years, but now I find that you have as well! His betrayal has hurt me, but your lies have cut me to the quick. Leave my house, Draco Malfoy. I really don't want to see you right now." She ran to her bedroom and shut the door.

"What!" he turned and said to Harry. "I was finally honest with her and she acts like this!"

"How do you expect her to feel? Blaise was right, her self-respect is the most important thing to her, and you have stripped her of it. You have just told her that all her major accomplishments over the past seven years have been handed to her because of you. How do you think that would make someone feel?" Harry started to leave, but turned back and said, "I have more important things to worry about right now, besides you and your love life, like trying to save Percy's life, and trying to bring Goldstein to justice, but by all that is holy, Malfoy, you better make this up to her, somehow." Harry left.

Draco paced back and forth in her living room. Potter was right and so was Hermione. Nevertheless, he could not undo anything at the present. He did all of these things in the name of love, and he thought for selfless reasons, but that was not at all correct. He had ulterior motives for everything he had ever done. He was not selfless. He was selfish. Well, the best thing he could do at this time was to stop seeing Granger, stay in the election, and let one of them win on their own merit for a change. Either way, it was better than lying.

He walked to her bedroom door to tell her his decision. He knocked. She opened the door, and sat back on the bed.

"See that blue ribbon on that shelf, by that picture of my parents?" she asked. He walked into the bedroom and looked at the blue ribbon. She continued, "I won that at age nine for a science competition I was in, but now, I wonder, did you really win that and give it to me?"

She was bonkers. He said, "I didn't even know you at age nine."

She ignored him and said, "How about my full scholarship to University. Did you really pay for that?"

"Of course not, I didn't even know you got a full scholarship, and you know what Granger, you had a double major, so the fact that you came in second place, while working twice as hard, means more than my first place," he reasoned.

She stood up and pushed him. He fell backwards, stumbled, and hit the bookshelf. "Don't placate me now with your false words of my accomplishments!" She felt battered. This had been a terrible day, and it was getting worse.

He approached her slowly and said, "So, you can't think of one little thing you did on your own, without me handing it to you, because I could spout off probably over a hundred without taking a break to breathe."

She rubbed her eyes and fell back on the bed. "You have a point, but Draco, why give up everything for me? I wouldn't have wanted them that way, and also, I wouldn't have wanted you to give up things that were important to you."

He came to lie down beside her. He propped himself up on his side. He said, "That's it, exactly, Granger. None of this was important to me, until now, being Minister. I want this, and I do not want to roll over and just give it to you. I have finally realized that I can love you and have what I want."

She sat up and said, "Are you sure you really want this now, or are you just saying that because you know you already have me, so you won't need to give it up to prove anything to me."

"I haven't even begun to prove to you how much I love you, not by a long shot," he complained, "and frankly, Granger, I'm tired. I would have just said that I loved you a long time ago, if that would have been enough, but I tried that, and it never was."

"You never seriously tried," she reasoned. "Flippantly saying you loved me each time I said I hated you wasn't a serious way to convince me."

He sat up beside her. "Well, you wouldn't have seriously believed me, so I didn't seriously try, you are right. That doesn't mean I didn't love you."

"What are we going to do? I don't want to go back to hiding our relationship, but I told Anthony I was angry with you, and I didn't want to see you any longer," she said.

"Hell, you really were angry with me just a moment ago. You wanted to kick my arse to the curb," he reminded.

"I would do that if it would knock some sense into that blond head of yours," she said. She started to walk to the bedroom door. He grabbed her hand.

"Come here, Granger," he said. He pulled her to his lap. She closed her eyes and leaned her head on his shoulder. "If it will help bring down Goldstein, we should act like we hate each other again, even though neither of us really hated each other before, at least not for many years."

"I can't go back to hating you, because you are right, I don't even know if I remember how that felt," she said. She kissed his neck; her hands went to embrace both sides of his face. She stared at him for a while, and then kissed his mouth softly.

He continued to cradle her in his arms, and he leaned backwards and moved on top of her so that she was underneath him on the bed. He kissed her face and her eyes. His hand crept up under her blouse, to toy with the lace covering over one of her breasts. He kissed the mound over her clothing, and then brought his head up to her mouth and placed a long, lingering, seeking kiss on her lips, sucking on them coyly, toying with her tongue, raking his tongue around hers, and over her teeth. Her lips felt like velvet against his. He licked her lips as his hand crept down to bring her skirt upwards. He placed his hand on her thigh. He said, "You really do love me now, don't you? This won't break us apart, will it?"

"Goodness," she said, her voice quivering with anticipation at his touch. "I guess I am stuck with you now, so I should put you to good use."

"I can think how I can be of use," he said, with that ever-loving smirk everyone always wrote about, plastered on his face.

They soon were throwing their clothing everywhere. Passion filled the room, and hung heavy, like a perfume, which consumed their senses. He put his mouth to her nipples and began to suck, first one and then the other. He had a very talented mouth. She knew that for certain.

He traveled down her body, slowly. He rounded each nipple with a stroke of his tongue. He kissed his way down and around each mound, as his hands held her arms next to her body. She ached to touch him back, but at that instant, he wouldn't allow it.

He positioned himself between her thighs, which she tried to close out of reflex, but which he pried open. She squirmed on the bed, and he chuckled. He said, "I really think this is something I will enjoy giving you, and you won't complain about, too much."

"Shut up already," she said, as she stared down at him.

He gave her opening one long lick with his tongue. He rested his chin on her lower abdomen and said, "You always talk during sex, and now you won't let me talk?"

She was incredibly aroused. His hands held her hips, as she placed one leg over his shoulder. His fingers clamped down on her hard, to keep her from moving, as his talented tongue sent the most incredible sensation from her toes through her spine and out the top of her head. He licked and sucked, flicking her, and then nibbling, even as his blond silky hair tickled the insides of her thighs.

He stopped and said, "Is this something you really want? I don't want to be accused of giving you something that you do not feel you rightfully earned," he mocked. He went back to his task, as he finally found her most sensitive spot, and paid it the service it was due.

"Please, Malfoy, give it to me, already." She was drowning and he alone could bring her to the surface.

Without further ado, he stroked her until she was in a full climax. He climbed back up her body, as it wiggled out of control under him, and parting her lower lips with his hand, he entered her quick and effortlessly. His heart thumped so hard in his chest, he was sure she could hear it.

"This is for me, this time," he uttered. Even he didn't know how he managed to continue to speak. She cried out his name, and that alone, sent him over the edge sooner than he had wanted. As he deepened his strokes into her silky tight walls, teasing her with deep, forceful thrusts, he too screamed. He rocked his hips in a circular motion, each time, bringing pressure to her deep inside, as well as somehow, paying attention to the small pink membrane at her opening. He could not have formed another coherent word if he had tried. All he could do was scream out her name, as he brought her to a mutual release, that he was more than happy to share with her.

He remained on top of her for many minutes. She was too tired and spent to care. He finally rolled off her, and pulled her to him, in possessiveness which he had always felt toward her, but had never allowed himself to show. He said, "Are you mine?"

"I guess," she said in a sex-induced haze.

He kissed her hair and then looked at her and said, "When did you really love me, do you recall?"

"No," she said truthfully.

"I do," he said. He stroked her arm and said, "You first admitted it last year at St. Mungos, when I took you in for your hives."

Hermione shot up out of bed, with a renewed energy, scaring him so badly that he actually fell off the side of the bed, onto the floor. She leaned down, looked at him as he was splayed awkwardly on the floor, and said, "The tea! I think there might have been something with the tea Anthony gave Percy!" She threw her feet on the floor, and ran out of the room.

He frowned, as he lay naked on her floor. He said, "What does bloody tea have to do with her loving me?"

Chapter End Notes:

(Poll results: Hermione at 51 percent, Draco at 48 percent, with 274 individual votes!)