ready to be pelted with random objects I am sooo sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I was busy, and then I had a writer's block issue with how to start this chapter. But, I got through it! Enjoy!

The Moonlight Glares

Disclaimer: I don't own any of JK Rowling's wonderful world or characters.

Chapter 9

The mug of hot coca steamed in Hermione's hands as she brought it to her lips. The warm chocolate felt good running down her throat. She set the mug down to see Ron, Harry, Ginny, Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looking at her with concern.

Hermione tried to give a weak smile to the group, and it seemed to pacify at least Molly, Percy, Arthur, Bill and Charlie Weasley, who one by one excused themselves to return to their own activities. Mrs. Weasley, of course, did not leave before giving Hermione a very large hug.

Hermione stared into the coca for a moment more before Ron spoke.

"Hermione. . ."

Her head snapped up, but as she met his eyes, he seemed to loose words. She turned to Harry to find him staring directly at her. After a moment, he spoke.

"Hermione, we need to know what happened back there. A simple story will work. We just don't want to jump to conclusions." Harry's green eyes pierced into hers, and Hermione felt herself spill out slowly, but steadily, the last few weeks' events. Everything from the time her parents told her she was adopted right down to the last few hours. Of course, Harry and Ron already knew most of this stuff, but, a story could never be complete without a beginning.

It wasn't until about half an hour later that Hermione got to the difficult part.

"We were walking out of the restaurant, is all, and suddenly Malfoy pulled me aside, down an alley, said it was a shortcut. He stopped for a moment to open the brick wall, and somehow I fell and he caught me. That's really how it finished, because you guys came the next second."

"Wow," said Ginny, leaning back in her chair, "So he's living at your house this whole week?"

Ron cast shut-up-you're-being-rude look at his sister.

"So that's why you wanted us to come visit this weekend," Harry said, stretching, "Didn't want to have to spend it with ferret boy?" Harry grinned and Hermione felt a small blush rise to her cheeks.

"But, I did also invite you just because I wanted to spend time with all of you!" Hermione protested.

"Why couldn't you spend the rest of the summer with us instead of one weekend?" Ginny inquired, faking a pout.

Harry winked at Ginny across the table, "You could spend time with all of us here, 'Mione."

"Yeah Hermione, the Burrow's always got room!" Ron exclaimed, not noticing his best friend hitting on his sister.

Hermione felt a sad smile touch her lips, "That would be great, but, despite Malfoy, I do want to spend more time with Elizabeth and Anna, and that requires being at the Lane Mansion." Hermione stood up and a clock chimed one in the morning not far away.

"Merlin! Elizabeth will be panicked!" Hermione hastily grabbed her purse and near ran over to the fireplace. "Sorry guys, I've got to get home."

Harry smiled, "Just watch for the ferret. If he gives you any trouble, owl us. Otherwise, we'll be there Friday evening."

Ginny nodded vigorously, and Ron looked (surprisingly) pensive.

"Bye!" Hermione said, before throwing a handful of powder into the fire, stepping in, and yelling "Lane Mansion." She disappeared in a matter of seconds.

Harry's mask dropped as soon as she was out of sight, and he put his arm around Ginny.

"I'm worried about her." Harry said aloud, his face etched with creases of concern.

"Me too." said Ginny, leaning on Harry's shoulder.

Ron was still paralyzed in the spot. After a moment or two, he seemed to come back to life. "Malfoy won't touch her, will he?"

Harry's face darkened, "If he does he's dead."

Quite a ways across Britain, Hermione stepped out of the fireplace Draco had come through that morning. She sputtered a bit from the ash and slowly made her way through the empty house to her bedroom. She didn't even bother to change into pajamas, but rather crawled into bed, pulled the sheet over her, and went to sleep, completely missing the note that lay on her bedside table.

The next morning found Elizabeth sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. As she flipped through the Ministry's section, Draco came down the stairs. Elizabeth looked up as Draco made his was to the cupboard.

"Good morning, Draco," Elizabeth said, "You're up later than usual."

"Morning Aunt Elizabeth," Draco said, before making his way over to the table with a bowl of cereal.

Elizabeth folded her paper and looked at her nephew. "Did you have a good night last night?" she asked

"Er . . . yeah, fine," Draco said, still focusing on his cereal.

"Anna told me you and Hermione went to Le Petit Chat."

"Uh-huh," At this point Draco grabbed the orange juice from across the table and poured himself a glass.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, "I never knew you and Hermione were close. I always got the impression she didn't like you."

Draco looked up and stared at Elizabeth for a moment before responding, "We're not. Maybe the part Anna forgot to mention is that we had reservations for all four of us, but Anna and Phe decided they wanted pizza instead, and abandoned us."

A small smile crept to Elizabeth's face, "Oh, what a shame." Elizabeth's eyes, however were twinkling as she opened the paper again, and Draco couldn't help thinking how much she seemed to be exactly like her younger daughter.

The morning came far too brightly for Hermione. When she opened her eyes, she was forced to squint at the amount of light coming through the enormous windows of her room. Vaguely wondering why the curtains hadn't been closer, Hermione got up slowly and worked her way over to the bathroom. She opened the door to see a smiling Mel standing there.

"You look like you had a long night," Mel said, smirking.

Hermione looked down to see her robes from last night still on and cringed as she remembered last night. "Not now, Mel. Please can I just have a bath? And please can I wear normal clothes?"

Mel pursed her lips, "Fine. But I want to know everything later. And, you'll have to wear robes for this afternoon. Your grandmother is visiting."

Hermione groaned and started to slip out of her robes as the bath filled.

Draco, meanwhile, had found his was to the library. He sat at a desk with a quill in his hand and a sheet of paper in front of him. All it said thus far was Dear Blaise, I hope your life is less complicated than mine. Granger IS here, and it's not pretty. That is, the situation, not the girl. I'm pretty sure Anna has been plotting. Again.

Draco was hesitant to continue this letter, and it showed in the way he was refusing to put his quill on the paper. How was he supposed to tell about it? There's always the part where Blaise could laugh his head off. After a moment, Draco scratched out the part about Anna's plotting and just wrote. Come visit if you can. Anna and Phe are up to the usual ruckus. He signed the letter and folded it before leaving to go to the owlery

Hermione, getting out of the steaming bath, wrapped a towel around herself and walked over to the mirror. At least she looked at bit better that she had when she'd gotten in. Hermione giggled as she remembered the state of her face before she had gotten into the tub- makeup had all run and smudges, mascara leaving black and eyeshadow leaving blue, in addition to her hair having been a complete gorgeous bushy mess.

Hermione laughed again at the thought of it, and ran a comb through her hair before going over to her chair and slipping on some jeans and a T-shirt. As she exited the room, Mel popped up in front of her.

"Alright you need to tell me what happened last night, Hermione!"

Hermione groaned, "It wasn't that exciting. We went out to dinner, and on the way back I bumped into Harry and Ron, and I went back to the Burrow with them for awhile."

Hermione honestly didn't want to spill her guts to Mel, who, though nice, was still a bit of a stranger. Hermione made her way to her nightstand and was going to grab a book when she noticed a letter sitting next to it. In green ink, it had the words Dear Hermione written on it.

Hermione picked up the letter and looked at it quizzically while Mel peered over her shoulder. Hermione glanced at Mel once, who shrugged, and then opened it.

My dear Hermione,

I figured you would sleep late this morning, and I'd be gone by the time you came down to eat.

It has come to my attention that you went out last night to dinner with young Mr. Malfoy. I realized, of course, that I haven't talked to you yet about the standards for dating the pure-blooded society has. Thus, I felt it wise to inform you.

Dating in the pure-blood society today is much stricter than that of the muggles you are used to being with. It is a formal affair, including tea, dining, parties and balls, none of the muggle movie-going or walking around the mall.

Of course, the couple is expected to introduce each other to their parents before they are allowed to go out together, but considering we are already acquainted with the Malfoys, you have done nothing wrong.

Oh, and Mr. Malfoy is quite a catch ,handsome, rich and polite. I am glad you have such good taste in men, so I don't have to lecture you about that too. Mr. Lane and I will be back late tonight again, make sure Anna and Phe are taken care of before you and Mr. Malfoy do anything.

Your affectionate mother,

Elizabeth Lane

P.S. Oh, I got an owl from Molly Weasley today; your friends will be coming Friday evening right before dinner.

Hermione stared at the letter open-mouthed. Elizabeth thought what! Mel, who had been reading over her shoulder, was giggling hysterically.

"I wonder if your mother has ever seen the two of you together. . ." Mel said, gasping for air, "You're like fire and ice. . ." with that she went off into more giggles and walked out of the room.

Hermione's face burned as she tucked the letter back into her nightstand drawer, grabbed her book, and made her way down the stairs. She was thinking so much, she didn't notice Draco walking up the stairs and bumped straight into him. They both went toppling down the staircase and landed with a thud on the landing.

Hermione shot up like a rocket after they had landed, mumbled a sorry, and speed off to the kitchen. Draco raised an eyebrow at her disappearance and continued to the owlery. Anna and Phe, who had been watching the whole encounter from a floor up giggled.

"Can you believe we've gotten this far?" Phe said, wide-eyed.

Anna's eyes twinled, "Amazingly yes. And it's only Tuesday." Anna whipped around and began walking off, and a confused Phe twirled around in place before running to catch up.

The usual random author rants, thanks sooo much to everyone who put me on their alert and/or favorites list! It encourages me when I have writer's block!

Also, thanks to reviewers:Addicted2Love, deadgirlythings, as-sin-wati, malfoylover1, Ar-Narwen, millennia2, Jade Symphony, nelleta, Marauders.Love.Pranks, SimplyElven, Rebellion Author, NoDayButToday076, Gaara-total hottie Xesha-just a name, Natural-181, Airlady, Cal8907, urusaikuroichocolat, The Future Mrs. Thomas Andrew Felton, purple-dragon-eater, DragonOfWinter, TaurusGirl, yenyen, readingisfun, 1madcat

And, props to the question-answerers: Addicted2Love, deadgirlythings, Ar-Narwen, millennia2, nelleta, Marauders.Love.Pranks, urusaikuroichocolat, DragonOfWinter, 1madcat, hellsinggurl

Last (but not least) the next question: What is the major difference between the 3rd triwizard task in the book and the movie? (if you don't get this, i think you need to re-read GOF)

and, reprised from chapter one, since no one answered: What does the Sorting Hat say about each of the four houses in Sorcerer's Stone?

Thanks for reading!