A/N: Ok, I want to say two things. Happy Birthday to Ultimate Auror, and Thank you for being my BETA reader. Without you, this chapter would only have been mediocre. You're truely wondeful! And now on to the good stuff ;) Sway

Chapter 36

Two Hits

All of the blood in Hermione's head seemed to rush into her brain, causing her to feel light headed, and her yelling didn't help matters much. However, she wasn't at all concerned with that at the moment. What Ron had just said hit her like a ton of bricks. How could he say something like that to Draco, and in front of her? It wasn't his place to say such things. To beat it all though, none of the things he did say were true, not in Hermione's eyes. There wasn't anything Draco could have done to prevent what Snape did to her. In her mind, when someone did something to you, and they apologized, you were supposed to forgive them. Wasn't that what love is all about? Forgiveness.

"Hermione, you know it's true! He apologizes to you and you just forget all about it. It's his fault Snape did that to you, he could have done something… anything" Ron spat.

Draco simply stood, gawking at Ron, his mouth slightly open and his eyes shimmering in the fire light. He couldn't respond. He expected such comments, even had a few, but not from Ron. Not from someone he'd befriended someone that was Hermione's friend. Not only were his comments hurtful to Draco but to Hermione as well. And that was unacceptable.

Hermione, however, was becoming angry with him. She couldn't believe the words that just kept coming from his mouth. She had expected such things from Slytherin's but not from a Gryffindor, not from Ron. "Listen, Ronald, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. I do not appreciate you speaking about things which you do not understand."

"No, Hermione," He finally stood from his seat and took a few steps toward her and Draco, leaving still ten or so feet between them, "you listen. I know more about these things than I think you realize. Harry and Ginny can't see him for what he really is. But I do. He's nothing but the same slimy, foul, rotten, Slytherin Malfoy, he ever was. I tried to give him a chance, I tried for you, but I will not stand back and watch him ruin your life."

"Don't you pretend to know anything about what Draco and I have!" Her body shook as she shouted at him. "You were not there that day; you didn't go through those things. You think you know, but you have no idea what went on! And ruin my life. HA! How could he ruin my life? I had no meaning before I was with him. And now I do and you want to take that away from me? What kind of friend are you?"

Ron scoffed. "You're right, I wasn't there. If I had been, you wouldn't have been raped! I would have died to save you. I would have done anything. Can you not see that he's only with you because he had no one else? He has nothing, Hermione, nothing! You're just a trophy for him to show off, something he can play with until you the new wears off and he finds someone else to replace you. I am the kind of friend that points out things that are either too obvious for you to see, or those things you chose not to see. And you did mean something, you meant everything to me. But you were too involved with books and rules to see that."

Draco clicked his tongue against his teeth; he didn't know how much more of this bashing he could take from Ron without saying something. He didn't want to get involved in another row with a fellow student, but Ron was definitely pushing his buttons. He was sticking his two cents in where they didn't belong. He, Ron, had no right talking about Draco in such a manor, nor did he have the right to raise his voice at Hermione.

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest. "I meant something to you, huh? What? What did I mean to you Ronald? Tell me because I really don't know."

Ron's face softened. "You are everything to me. I love you Hermione."

Her eyes widened. "You love me? Ha ha, Ron. No, let me tell you what you love. You love the fact that you can push your homework off on me because you know I won't let you fail. You love it that I'm always there to get you out of sticky situations. I'm the one you ran to when you had problems with Harry or Lavander or anyone else. I'm the one you talked to about anything that ever bothered you. But what did you do for me? You brought me your problems and took nothing in return. You didn't care about anything I had to say, you didn't care how my day went. None of those things mattered to you because you knew I wouldn't make a big thing of it. But now! Now you want to destroy the one thing I have going for me. You want to tear Draco and me apart because you think you love me. You love the thought of being in love with me, nothing more. You love me because I take everything you give and never complain about it. That is what this is all about. You're not doing this because you love me; you're doing this because you don't want to be left out. I have Draco and Harry has Ginny but you don't have anyone. You're sad and lonely and that pisses you off. Don't pretend there is more to it than there really is. You hate him," she pointed over her shoulder at Draco, "simply because he has me and you do not."

Ron's face changed from that soft caring look to the same hard face he had first shown, though now it was a nice red shade. "Oh what do you know! I tell you that I love you and you tell me that I don't? What the hell is that? He's brain washed you. Hermione, look at all of the things he's done. Look at the facts. Okay, here's one. First, he tricks you into a secret relationship with him, despite the fact that Snape, for some unknown reason, has warned you to leave him be. Then you tell all of us, and we get mad. Don't you think he knew we would be mad about it? He was banking on the fact that we would all stop speaking to you. If that isn't enough, Snape touches you right before you meet him. Then he makes it all better. Because he promises you the moon and you believe him. Then you get your friends back but he keeps you from us. Okay, so after that sometime, he cons you into shagging him. He wanted to make sure you thought he cared about you. Right after that, sometime, Snape miraculously breaks into his dorm, through a spell which only one person had the password to, right in the middle of him shagging you. But it doesn't stop there. He sits there and does nothing while you are being beaten and raped."

He took a short breathing break in which time he decided to move his eves from Hermione's angered face to Draco's and back. He knew Draco was angry with him but couldn't figure out why he'd let him go on so long. Ron half expected Draco to attack him after his first comment, but he hadn't. Deciding he wouldn't have much more time before Hermione interrupted him, and he wanted to get this all off his chest, he continued.

"Then after you are raped and your mum and dad come here praising him for being such a hero, there's the trial and his constant attitude problem. There's the thing with Parkinson, which I believe was not a rumor. He apologized for all of it, and you forgive him. But after that, you find out he's gotten you pregnant. You're pregnant with his child which coincidently means he now knows you will not leave him regardless of the things he does. Okay, so as a show or to boost his hero status, he proposes to you, knowing damn well he doesn't plan on going through with it."

Hermione cleared her throat, attempting to interrupt Ron's rant, but he only spoke louder. He wasn't at all interested in what she had to say. He wanted to lay everything out on the table and so he would. She wasn't going to over rule him this time, as he saw it.

"He wants to be the hero! He wants the glory of doing the right thing. But then there are the events of today. Where again he's hurt you, as well as Harry and me, but since he apologized for it, it's okay. No hard feelings. And now I see you two coming in here all hunky dory and everything is alright. Every fucking thing is okay because he says he's sorry. He's SO BLOODY SORRY! He looks sorry to me. That damned smirk says it all."

Hermione hadn't noticed, because she was glaring at Ron the whole time he was speaking, but Draco's infamous smirk had etched it's self across his lips. She didn't know why the smirk was there, but what she did know was, it was never a good thing. As he smirked his eyes connected with hers, that cold silver shimmering. He licked his bottom lip and his smirk grew wider.

He tore his eyes from Hermione's and looked over at Ron. "You know, Weasley, you're pretty brave talking all of this rubbish. You've got to have a huge set of balls on you. I admire you for your forwardness. Really, I do."

"Piss off, Malfoy, I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to her." Ron scowled.

Draco's eyebrows jumped on his forehead and he bit down on his bottom lip all the while continuing to smirk. "You're right, but I am talking to you! And you will listen to what I have to say because I will only say this once."

Ron shifted his weight from his right foot to his left foot and cracked his knuckles. But he didn't have any snide remark to make. It seemed, he was going to let Draco speak, not that he really had a choice, unless he wanted to runaway or cover his ears with his hands and chant 'I can't hear you. La la la la, I can't hear you.'

Draco continued as he walked around from the back of the wheel chair and stood beside Hermione, his hands propped on his cane. When he spoke, his voice was not raised, it even held a sort of calm tone, one Hermione hadn't expected. "You know nothing of the things you spoke about just now. You know nothing about me or my intentions with Hermione. But I know all about your infatuation with my fiancé. I've known for sometime now and I was willing to look past all of that. I made friends with you and yours, I gave you all a chance and you are the one that fucked that up. You'll not get another chance with me. I only give one and well, you've botched that one. I never had a problem with Hermione talking with you or Harry and Ginny. She will, and can, do what she likes. Despite what you may think, I do not hold her as a piece of property that I own, she's my fiancé, not property to be bought and sold. I know I wasn't first to enter her life even then, it's not my place to tell her what to do. I, unlike you, let her do what she pleases. She is with me because she chooses to be. I told her when the whole thing with Snape began she could leave me if she wanted to. But she did not. Because she loves me. You do have another point, she is carrying my child. And she will marry me, she will have my child, and she will be my wife. All of these things, she will do because she wants too. I don't pretend to know everything about her, I learn something new everyday; I may never know everything there is to know, but it's more than obvious to me that you know little or nothing about the things you think you do."

Again Ron shifted his weight. His face still showed the same red coloration but instead of looking truly angry, he did look a bit dumbfounded. Apparently he'd expected Draco to raise his voice, even if only a little bit, but Draco's tone did not falter. "You done Malfoy?"

Draco chuckled for a second. "Yes, I believe I am."

"Good because I don't think I got a single word there. All I heard was blah blah blah; I'm a big rich prat, blah blah blah, look at the ugly bouncing ferret. I'm sorry but that annoying sound ferrets make, yeah, that's all you were doing."

Draco's smirk shrank only a fraction. He knew Ron would come off with something along the lines of what he'd said, he expected that. The jealousy he saw in Ron's eyes almost made him laugh. He'd tried to be civil with him, and Harry and Ginny, but it was evident, Ron hadn't ever wanted it that way. He had been trying to keep his temper in check, but Ron was making that difficult. It wasn't that he was angered by the things Ron said, it was more that he didn't like the way Ron spoke to Hermione. Draco could take being scrutinized, criticized, hell even insulted, but he didn't think she deserved it.

He assumed Ron liked him much more when they were constantly involved in a row of some sort. If a row was what he wanted, then by god, a row is what he would get.

"Okay, Weasley," he said taking a few steps closer to Ron, smirk still in place, "tell me what you want."

Ron raised his eye brows and followed suite, taking several steps closer to Draco. "You want to know what I want, do you? Alright Malfoy."

Without a second's more hesitation, Ron closed the gap between him and Draco and swung his right fist at Draco's face. Draco had seen it coming, he knew possibly before Ron did that he was going to be hit, but this was his once chance. It was Draco after all who asked what Ron wanted. And Ron was simply showing him. Ron's fist connected with the left side of Draco's face and knocked the blond off his feet. Just as Hermione heard that sickening smacking sound, she screamed. "Ronald!"

Ron didn't listen. As soon as Draco's back hit the floor, Ron was standing over him. He crouched down and grabbed Draco by the shirt, pulling him closer to his face. Blood dripped from the corner of Draco's mouth, still he smirked. The smirk maddened Ron; he never liked the damned smirk. Again, he swung his fist at Draco, hitting him at least three more times, in the same place. With every blow to Draco's face, Hermione screamed. She was frozen on the spot, too afraid she would get hurt but at the same time she wanted to do something. But she couldn't move, she was paralyzed with fear and anger. The only thing she could do was screaming, and that did draw some attention. Neville, Seamus, and Harry all three came running down the stairs from their dormitory once they heard Hermione's last scream. Because their dorm was closest to the common room, they heard the screams first and didn't hesitate to find out who they were coming from and why.

The three boys skidded to a halt beside Hermione, not seeming to see Ron sitting on top of Draco on the floor. Harry grabbed Hermione by the shoulders, "what's the matter?"

She couldn't answer; all she could do was stare in front of herself, at Ron and Draco. Harry felt someone pull on the back of his white t-shirt. "Harry." Neville squeaked.

Harry and Seamus saw why Hermione had screamed at the same time. "Bloody hell, Harry!" Seamus shouted.

"Ron!" Harry yelled as he crossed the room. "What the hell are you doing?"

Ron's answer came with two more punches into Draco's face. Harry quickly seized the back of Ron's shirt and pulled him off of Draco. Ron kicked and pulled, trying to get free of Harry's grip, but Harry wasn't letting go. Harry pulled Ron as far back as he could, pinning himself between his friend and the wall.

"Ron, calm down!" Harry shouted into his ear.

Ron didn't stop his moving. "Let go! Get off Harry! This isn't finished."

By this time, Neville had Hermione by the arm and was standing in front of her, trying to calm her down. She was crying uncontrollably and shaking. He sat her down in the wheel chair behind her, but stood where she couldn't look past him at Draco. He was fully aware that Draco's face was covered in blood and didn't think that was something Hermione needed to see. Seamus, once Ron was out of reach, raced across the room and knelt down beside Draco.

"You alright mate?" Seamus asked. He was surprised to see Draco was smirking.

Draco turned his battered face away from Seamus and coughed; he spat blood and replied, "Never better."

Seamus stood up, over Draco, and offered his hands. "Let me help you up."

Draco took the outstretched hands and pulled himself up. As he stood, Seamus bent down, picking Draco's cane up, and offered it to him. He took the cane, steadied himself with it and pulled the front of his shirt out of his pants and wiped his face. Blood soaked the material but continued to pour from his mouth, nose, and a cut near his eyebrow. Again, he coughed and spat blood on the carpet. Licking his lip through his smirk he looked behind Seamus at Harry, who was still struggling with Ron.

"Get off Harry!" Ron hollered.

"Calm the fuck down!" Harry yelled at the thrashing Ron.

Draco shook his head. "No, Harry, don't hold him back. Let him go."

Harry looked over Ron's shoulder at Draco's face. He couldn't believe the blond was actually smirking and had told him to let Ron lose. "Are you mental?"

Draco shook his head again and narrowed his eyes to slits as he continued to smirk. "No, I'm not mental, but he's not finished. I think it only right to let him have his fun."

Harry tightened his grip on Ron's chest. He wasn't sure what Draco was playing at but from the look on his face, it wasn't good. He glanced from Draco to Seamus then to Neville. Seamus didn't seem to know what was going on either, and that gave Harry a sense of security because he didn't want to be the only one that was confused.

Draco looked to his right at Seamus then behind Seamus at Neville. "Neville, mate, will you please take Hermione up to our room?"

Neville turned around, revealing a still crying and shaking Hermione, "Draco?"

"Neville, just take her to our room, please. She's seen enough." Draco answered.

Neville nodded and turned back to Hermione, "Come on, Hermione."

She tore her hands from Neville's and stood from her chair, "No!" Looking past him at Draco she cried, "Draco, don't! Let's just go to bed, please. My head hurts so much. Please just come to bed with me. Just leave this alone. You need to rest. Just look at you."

His smirk faded away as he stared into her dark brown eyes. He knew he should listen to her, he needed to go with her, but he couldn't do it. He wasn't going to let Harry be the one to stop this row. He wasn't backing down this time. His anger hadn't yet surfaced, it was there, but he was doing well with keeping it under control. Sure, he knew exactly how it looked when Ron was punching him, but the truth in the matter was he let Ron do it. He was letting Ron win, but that was all about to change.

"Mine. I will be up there in a moment. Now, please let Neville take you to our room. Don't worry about me. We boys just need to have a little talk, that's all. We're going to talk and when we're done, I will come up there, let you heal my face, clean me up, and we will go to sleep. I promise."

Hermione nodded through her sniffles. She could tell from his soft even tone that all hell was going to break lose the moment she left but she also knew it would be better if she wasn't there when it did. She didn't want to see her man fighting with her friend. She turned toward the stairs not waiting on Neville to walk with her.

Neville glanced over his shoulder at Draco, "What do you want me to do?"

Draco smiled. "Whatever you hear, don't let her come down here. Seamus, go with Neville and make sure Hermione doesn't come out."

Seamus silently agreed. Neville nodded in understanding and turned toward the stairs. Seamus followed after Neville only a few seconds later. Both boys remained silent as they walked up the stairs and into Hermione's open door. She'd arrived in her room before Neville and Seamus and decided not to close the portrait behind her. When they entered the dimly lit room, Hermione was laying on her bed with her back to them. They assumed she wanted to be left alone so they simply sealed the portrait hole and stood against the wall on either side of it.

"Harry, just let him go." Draco said coolly.

Harry shook his head. "No. No, Draco."

Ron yelled while still trying to free himself. "Do what he tells you to Harry. Let me go damn it! I'm going to tear him apart, just let me lose!"

Harry tightened his grip on Ron again, his hands were beginning to get sweaty and that wasn't good. "Ron you just need to calm down. And Draco, you need to go to sleep. Let's all just sleep this off."

"Harry…" Draco breathed.

"NO!" This time Harry shook his head so hard his glasses slid down on his nose, almost falling off.

"Harry, do it." Draco sighed

"Damn it! I said no!" Harry shouted.

"POTTER! LET HIM GO!" Draco yelled. He wasn't actually angry with Harry; he was just trying to stress his point. All he wanted Harry to do was let Ron go, but Harry was refusing. Why did he have to make things so hard? It wasn't like Draco wanted to kill Ron; he just wanted to settle things.

With the shock of being called by his last name, Harry's grip on Ron lessened only just a bit, but that was too much. Ron lunged himself out of Harry's arms, straight for Draco. In the fractions of seconds it too Draco to realize Harry no longer had a hold on Ron, the 'Malfoy smirk' instantly found its way back across his lips. As Ron lumbered toward him, he stood there, waiting. Harry, however, tried to catch Ron but was too slow. Just when Ron was within reach and had his fist drawn back to hit Draco, Draco hit him first. With one quick movement, Draco's right fist connected with the left side of Ron's face and sent him sailing to the floor some five feet or so to his right. Draco crouched over Ron's body and glared down at him, that same smirk still playing about on his lips.

"Listen to me," he placed his cane across Ron's throat, only applying a small bit of pressure. He didn't want to kill him; he only wanted to stress his point. "And listen well."

Ron struggled but found it useless. His hands were pinned to the sides of his throat by Draco's cane and his legs pinned by Draco's legs. He had no choice but to listen.

"Draco!" Harry huffed. He stood beside both of his friends only about two feet away, but remembering what happened the last time he tried to get Draco away from someone, he decided that wasn't the best idea. His nose hadn't yet been healed for ten hours and he didn't want it to be broken again.

Draco didn't look away from Ron when he spoke, he didn't want to lose eye contact. "I'm not going to hill him, Harry. I only wish to speak with him."

That was a relief. Harry didn't think he could take Draco, not because he was weaker, but because he didn't want to, well that and he was still very tired. He took this as a prime opportunity to back away from the two boys, just incase.

"As I was saying. You've had your fun. You've said all that you need to say. Now I'm going to tell you this. If you can not speak to Hermione in an appropriate manor, I suggest you don't speak to her at all. I will not sit back and watch you make her cry. I'm not telling you to stay away from her, because despite what you've done tonight, she is a forgiving woman and I know she will forgive you. Regardless of my feelings for you now, I will let you around her but only if you do not cause any more problems." Draco pushed down on his cane, stopping Ron's movements. "Try and pay attention, I know it's difficult for you, but do try. I have absolutely no problem with you being around Mine; just know I will always be there. If you raise your voice to her, if you make any type of asshole remark to her or to me, if you even look at me in a manor I find offensive, I will not hesitate in kicking your ass. Don't think you got lucky tonight, you did not. I let you get me down, I let you hit me, but that will not happen again. Are we clear?"

Ron nodded, well he tried to nod. It was rather difficult for him to move, given his current position. The pressure from Draco's cane was very uncomfortable, not to mention the fact that he was both infuriated that Draco had gotten him down, and at the same time, a bit scared of the calm Draco held. He thought several times that Draco may indeed try to kill him and Harry, being none the wiser, would let him.

"Very good." Draco took his cane from Ron's throat and stood slowly. Ron scrambled to his feet and took a few steps back from Draco, holding the left side of his face in his hand. He didn't dare to look back at Harry or even make eye contact with Draco.

Just when Harry thought Draco was going to walk away, he turned back to Ron. For a few seconds he just stared at the red haired boy, bleeding from his mouth. Then he closed the gap between them, despite the fact that Ron kept backing away.

"One more thing." Draco said.

Before Ron could open his mouth, or even properly process Draco's words, Draco's forehead smashed into Ron's face. Ron yelped in pain and clutched his nose with his hand. Draco shook his head several times, mentally kicking himself for causing more pain to his body. Harry tried to suppress the smile that was threatening to spread across his lips. It wasn't funny that his best mate had just had his nose broken, not at all. What was funny was that Draco not only broke his nose earlier in the day, but also he, Draco, almost played it off like he'd forgotten something. That was what made the whole situation funny.

Draco rubbed his forehead with his left hand, wiped the fresh blood from his face with his right and walked past Harry toward the stairs which lead to his and Hermione's room. "Good night, Harry." He called down the stairs.

"Night." Harry answered.

Draco muttered the password and stepped over the threshold into his and Hermione's room. He nodded to Neville and Seamus signaling for them to collect their friend. He knew Hermione would not be happy with him, but felt he did what had to be done. He knew he was right in his actions and didn't feel the least bit sorry for Ron. He, after all, was the one that sustained the most injury. Not only was his nose broken, but his lips were both busted, his bottom lip more so because his teeth had punctured through it, as well, he had a cut above his right eyebrow, not to mention all of the soreness and bruises.

Hermione arose from their bed minutes after Draco entered the bathroom. She walked in silently and stood in the doorway, holding her head in her hands. Draco took that as his signal to comfort her. He dropped the towel he'd been using to clean off the blood, and walked over to her, pulling her into his chest and wrapping both arms around her.

"What did you do to him?" Hermione cried into his chest.

"He'll be fine, Mine. I only talked to him. I didn't even get mad." He tried to comfort her.

"That's not what I asked you. Did you hit him?" She pulled away and searched his face with her eyes.

He wasn't about to lie to her. "Yes, but only twice."

A/N: Ok, as promised, I got my 12 reviews and here's the update. I do hope you all liked it. It's my absolute favorite so far. Let's hope the next one doesn't disappoint. Again, I'm asking for, this time, 13 reviews before I update again. I know you can all do it, if there are 300 and some odd people reading, surely 13 can review! (I do accept anon's as well so... no prob.) Sway