This is a non-canon story. Different couples, different situations, etc. I am changing a lot from the book and doing it my own way. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it. If you do like it, then please, leave me some reviews because I love reading about what people think of my stories.

Disclaimer – I own nothing except my own ideas. Everything else belongs to Rowling.

Chapter 6

Harry Potter wasn't as oblivious as most people believed him to be. Yes, he was the famed boy who lived. Yes, he wasn't as intelligent as Hermione. Yes, he wasn't as outgoing at Ron. But, he was very good at observing things around him. It's how he figured out that someone was after the sorcerer's stone in the first place during his first year. So, he knew a lot more than he would ever acknowledge. But what he was currently observing, he was surprised that Hermione wasn't noticing herself.

"What did you give him, Parkinson?" Harry narrowed his eyes at her.

Pansy shot Harry a glare as Draco moved her to stand behind him. Hermione's eyes finally narrowed in on Draco's and she saw what Harry had been noticing. Draco's eyes seemed to be glazed over as if he was in a permanent daze.

"What did you give him, Pansy?" Hermione snapped.

"She didn't give me anything!" Draco retorted. "I love her!"

"Love potion." Hermione sighed in relief.

"Come on, Hermione, let's leave them to it." Harry tried to grab her hand, but Hermione pulled away from him.

"You know it's against school rules and illegal to give someone a love potion!" Hermione shrieked at Pansy, causing Harry to stare at her in shock.

"Why does it matter to you?' Pansy raised an eyebrow. "This is Draco, your enemy. What does it matter what happens to him?"

"Because it's wrong either way!" Hermione grabbed Draco by the hand and tried drag him away, but he wouldn't budge. Hermione huffed out in frustration and narrowed her eyes at Pansy. "Either you help me get him to Professor Snape's lab, or I go right now and tell Dumbledore what you've done. I wonder what the consequences are for giving someone an illegal potion?"

Pansy's face paled dramatically at the thought of what the consequences would be. She knew the first thing would probably be expulsion. She would be the laughing stock of the Pure Blood families if that happened to her. A pang of anger flashed across her mind at her reasons for doing this. Her father had insisted that she try to seduce Draco into falling in love with her, so that they would unite the two families after their 7th year graduation. She had been against it at first, but after studying Draco's fine features, she admitted that her attraction to him was more that she had ever considered before. She had been observing him and deduced that his passions were solely based on succeeding academically. Thus, her attraction to him grew even more. She wasn't a very smart witch, so she needed to have someone with extreme intelligence at her side to balance things out. Draco was, therefore, the perfect candidate.

She had paid a 7th year Slytherin to make the potion for her, and then easily slipped it into his drink after the first dance. His response had been strange because he seemed to have struggled with accepting the potion in his system; as if refusing to let the potion change his mind about her. But, you can't change it once it's inside of you, and so he caved and professed his love to her. Everything had gone smoothly after, until fucking Granger showed up. She wanted to hex the hell out of Granger for barging into the bathroom, but the shocked look on Granger's face was enough to make the situation seem comical to her. It was just Granger after all.

But now, she was threatening to go to the Headmaster, and Pansy couldn't afford to get into trouble. She would instantly be disowned.

"Alright." Pansy growled. "Draco, let's go with her to see Professor Snape's labs."

"Anything you want, my dear Pansy." Draco said seductively as he turned to look at her. "I'll follow you anywhere."

Harry frowned, trying not to throw up as he stared at Hermione curiously. He wondered briefly why she was even trying to help Malfoy, but quickly decided that it was because she WAS Hermione. She always did the right thing. He sighed to himself and began to follow the group out of the bathroom.

"Harry, go back to Ron." Hermione said with a bit of harshness in her tone. "I can handle this."

He gave her an unsure look, but the glare he received in return caused him to relent immediately. He gave her a quick nod and turned to go find Ron. Hermione hurriedly made her way down to the dungeons. She knew that Professor Snape wouldn't return to his rooms until the dance was over, so that gave her a good 3 hours to prepare the antidote potion, or rather … a good three hours to search through Professor Snape's cupboards for the antidote.

They were lucky enough to not be spotted by anyone on their way down to the dungeons. The music from the Great Hall seemed to be echoing throughout the castle, but the second they stepped into the potions classroom, the music disappeared. Hermione turned slowly to face Pansy and Draco.

"You should wait outside and be the look out in case Professor Snape decides to leave the ball early." Hermione suggested to Pansy.

"You want me to leave you in here with Draco?" Pansy raised an eyebrow.

"I can handle Malfoy." Hermione straightened her shoulders.

"You're funeral, mudblood." Pansy sniggered and quickly stepped out of the classroom as Hermione locked the door behind her.

"You really don't need to do anything." Draco's voice met her ears. "Pansy and I are perfectly happy."

Although she knew it was the potion talking, she couldn't stop the hurtful feeling that stabbed through her heart. She sighed to herself and walked into Professor Snape's private store room and began slowly looking through all the vials of potions. She was instantly impressed by the number of already made potions he had at his disposal. She found the clear potion easily and was grateful that Professor Snape was organized enough to label each of his potions.

She quickly returned to the classroom and found Draco sitting atop a desk, very regally, and unlike the Draco she had grown to know. It hit her then that, maybe … deep down inside … he wouldn't accept her feelings for him. He might laugh at her, or let her down easily. Maybe friendship was the only thing they were able to have because that was all he was capable of giving without lowering himself.

She shook her head quickly, knowing that her thoughts were ridiculous and were the results of the situation she was in right now. She knew that Draco wasn't like this at all. But doubt was there … and until it was gone … she could never trust him fully with her feelings.

"Are you done?" Draco called over to her. "I'm pretty sure Pansy is probably waiting for me."

Hermione cleared her throat and walked up to him, handing him the vial. She watched him closely as he uncapped it and downed the entire bottle. After a few minutes, his eyes slowly returned to normal from its glossy state and she waited until confusion hit them.

"What the hell happened?" Draco wondered.

"Pansy Parkinson slipped a love potion into whatever you were drinking." Hermione murmured softly.

"She did … what!?" Draco roared. "That … that … bitch!"

"I see you're better now, so I'll leave you to deal with her." Hermione whispered.

"Hermione." Draco reached out and grabbed her hand as she walked past him. "What else happened?"

"Nothing." Hermione refused to look him in the eye, proving that she was lying.

"Why are you lying to me?" Draco demanded as he tightened his hold on her wrist. "What else happened? Tell me, please? If something happened without my knowing … or worse … my consent … I deserve to know!"

"I found the two of you, making out, in the girl's bathroom." Hermione revealed. "And I'm positive that if I … if I hadn't walked in … you two would have … consummated … your union."

Draco stared into her eyes and there was no mistaking the hurt that was portrayed in them. She was hurt. And he had done it. No … Pansy had done it. He was going to kill her. But, as he stared at her hurt expression, what he remembered from the ball came rushing back to him. Her walking in on the arms of that oaf, Krum. Her dancing with Krum. Her smiling at Krum.

"Ah, well, thank you for … the antidote." Draco drawled out. "I'm sorry for keeping you away from Krum. I'm sure your Bulgarian is probably looking for you. He probably wants to do the same thing Pansy tried to do with - "

A hard slap crossed his face before he could finish his last thought, and he instantly regretted the words that had come out of his mouth. He watched her as she stormed out of the room, tears falling from her eyes. He couldn't have felt like a bigger asshole than in that moment. He knew what he had to do. He needed to explain himself. He needed to … tell her his feelings.

"Hermione! Wait!" Draco yelled as he sprinted after her.

Pansy grabbed onto the sleeve of his dress robes as she saw him run past her. She held her grip and pulled him to face her, with anger in her eyes.

"Why are you going after the mudblood?" she snapped.

"Because I have to." Draco snatched his arm out of her grip. "Go back to the common room, and don't ever speak to me again. Or else, I will report what you did to your father and the Headmaster."

Pansy stepped back in both shock and anger. She narrowed her eyes as she watched him run after the Granger girl, vowing to figure out what was really going on.

Draco could feel Pansy's eyes on the back of his head as he ran, but the only thing he needed to figure out was where Hermione had gone. He checked the Great Hall first, only to find that everyone else was there except Hermione. He spotted Potter trying to talk to Weasley, who seemed to not want to hear what he was saying. He saw Krum talking to his friends, but Hermione wasn't anywhere near him.

He needed to think of where she would run off to. He knew she wouldn't go to the Gryffindor Common Room, because she wouldn't want anyone to ask her why she was crying. He gasped out loud as the answer dawned on him. He turned and quickly made his way out of the Great Hall, ignoring Harry staring at him curiously.

He ran as fast as he could through the castle towards the Transfiguration courtyard. He passed the courtyard and went towards the Astronomy Tower. He knew how much Hermione loved to stare at the stars. It was always soothing to her.

He climbed the stairs, practically out of the breath by now, but the need to see her urged him on. He came to a stop, at the top of the tower as he found her staring out at the skies. The moonlight made her look ethereal to him and he couldn't help but stare at her beauty for a few minutes.

"Leave me alone, Malfoy." Hermione spat out without turning around.

"Hermione … please …" Draco began as he stepped closer towards her.

"Go away." Hermione spun around and pointed her wand at him. "I should have known better than to think you could be anything else but your father's son!"

Draco stumbled back slightly, as those words washed over him like a Cruciatus curse. He had to keep going though. She needed to know the truth.

"Hermione … I'm sorry for what I said." Draco said gently. "You know me better than anyone. You know how my … temper … gets."

"You've never taken your anger out on me!" Hermione snapped. "So I guess I'm not as important as I thought I was."

"No, you're not." Draco sighed and took a step towards her, but she refused to lower her wand. 'You're more important than you think. More than you will ever know. It killed me tonight to see you on the arms of Krum … hell … on the arms of any other guy."

"Stop." Hermione said softly.

"It made me so jealous … so fucking jealous." Draco growled as the image of her dancing with Krum entered his mind again. "I don't want you dancing with anyone."

"Why?" Hermione felt her grip on her wand slipping a bit as she listened to him.

"Because you should only be dancing with me." Draco admitted as he stared deeply into her eyes.

A/N

I hope you all had a good week. Thank you for all the love, all the favoriting, and all the reviews. Can't wait to see what you guys think of this one.