[The Superior Quality: V i n t a g e]

**BOOK II**

Chapter 10:

"You have but one life.

It can fade in an instant.

Let it thrive on your pleasures,

for it is but a dream."

Troubles and Blindfolds; Secret Dreams

**~¤~**

No one hardly spoke during suppertime; most of the people in the room were still in shock by the sudden change of their plans. Draco sat in silence, watching others eat, and barely eating himself.

The Death Eaters berrated to themselves, over whether or not Voldemort was such a coward for not trying to defend his rule, yet they did not dare to try and challenge Hermione, for they were told she had powers that could bring their dreams of domination into reality. They did not want to say anything against her as new ruler, they only assumed their lord made his decision with good reason. With keen ears, Draco could hear some of their arguments, pondering at some of their words.

Lucius, on the other hand, was clearly making his disapproval of her as ruler very noticeably. Giving her glares, and not answering to her questions. Draco thought to himself if his father was really sure of what he was doing. Despite the fact that Draco did not know of her powers, he knew well enough that because Voldemort did not attack, and because no else tried anything at her, Hermione had something they did not.

Turning his head to her, he noticed that she was no longer eating, but jotting down a list in a small parchment on her hand. Muttering, she looked up to the ceiling, then back down to her paper, scratching her quill in a hurry. Curios, Draco spoke,

"What are you doing?" his voice in a whisper only she would be able to hear.

In between her muttering, Hermione managed to answer his question, "I'm working on my new plans." she said a little bit irritated.

Shaking his head, Draco thought to himself that even with the different Hermione, she was so much alike her old persona. Always going ahead in topics and classes, saving her free time for last. He snapped his thoughts shut as Hermione pulled her parchment in front of her face and beamed at with a successful smile. She let the parchment and quill go in mid-air, and they vanished before landing to the table; golden frecks of light trailing where they had once been.

"Easy enough." she said, particularly to nobody, "It'll last a day or two." She turned her head to her side at the sudden feeling that someone was watching her, "What?"

Seeing her face shift into an uncomfortable, questioning expression, it reminded him so much of the girl he knew for 7 years. Draco gave a smile, "Nothing." he replied, and turned back to his plate.

"Well... alright." Hermione said back, also facing back to her plate; her face showing disappointment. She wondered why he had been staring, and all she got was a simple 'nothing'.

Was he thinking of her?

Hermione denied the thought; he couldn't be thinking of her. She was 'her'.

She... was.

Maybe he misses her?

A silent scowl formed on her red lips, 'He can't miss that pathetic woman. She's hardly his type.'

Anger and jealousy started to form in her, and she noticed it.

'Over this?! This is goddamn ridiculous! Draco doesn't miss her! He can't!'

In her determination to prove her own thoughts, Hermione stood up suddenly, slamming her hands on the table, rattling the dishes.

"Supper is finished! Everyone back to their rooms!" her eyes strained open, revealing a pair of red-burning eyes, "Everyone will stay in their rooms for the rest of the night, and tomorrow we'll start our new plans." she demanded it, and the only thing everyone could do was approve with her.

As the Death Eaters stood up from their seats to walk out, Hermione grabbed a confused Draco up to his feet, "Let's go." she did not wait for his response, instead she began to literally pull him out of the hall, down the corridor, and into her room.

Lucius watched with sneering eyes as his boy was dragged down by the 'despicable' woman. Turning his eyes lazily at the Death Eaters following her feeble command, he gave a scoff and headed to Voldemort's office where he was called to go earlier.

§~*~§

Shoved to sit on the bed, Draco felt the pit of his stomach start to churn at the look Hermione was giving him now, although the look was more furiously determined than desire.

Upon pushing him to the bed, Hermione held her head and paced around the room, "All men are the same. This'll prove you'll never think of her!" she argued; Draco wasn't sure if she was talking to him or herself though.

Her frustrated face turned to him suddenly, "Who do you think I am, Draco?"

Draco, lost on what she was trying to point out, only answered her question with the simpliest answer, "You're Hermoine."

"Hermione? Hermione who?" she asked again, her voice guttural and harsh.

Watching her face fault her expression into something between pure white anger and self-dejection, Draco was more concerned with how he should answer now, rather than what's the deal with her. He waved a hand up, sputtering out words, "I.. You.. you are Hermione... What else do you want me to say?"

Grabbing hold of his arm once more, Hermione pulled him up and lead him to a wall hidden in back with black veils. She set him standing in front of it, and going over to it's sides, she pulled the veil out of the way, revealing a wall-size portrait.

Draco gazed at it, wide-eyed, and studied it's gruesome look and colors of dark hued red, browns, blacks, and grays. The picture resembled that of an abandoned psychotic's home. The walls it portrayed were dark shadowed and streaked with what looked like dried blood. The objects around were very eerie, sending chills down his back; there were large knives dangling from the walls, aged rope in the shape of nooses, and odd, broken down dolls with pins stuck in their eyes; blood oozed out slowly and it's faces formed expression of agony.

Blinking and turning away from the site of such an odd and frightening display, Draco moved his eyes to the floor of the portrait. His eyes trailing the cold-looking, gray floor, Draco noticed a large fireplace with no fire and picture frames on it's mantle. He wanted to come closer to the mantle (which was life-size if it would be real), but a movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention right away.

There sat a huddled woman, about in the same age as he; she too looked as if she was afraid of something. Her dark chestnut hair splayed around her head, her ragged and ripped dress exposed some of her skin, which looked awfully bruised. And through the the small crevice between her hidden face and her knees, Draco could she she was blindfolded with a piece of black cloth; streaks of dry tears were visible against her ashened face. He came closer to her, at the same time she huddled herself tighter by the wall. Draco knew he had seen her before from somewhere, but from where?

"Do you miss her?"

Draco turned to the woman who now stood behind him, "What?" he asked in ferment.

She pointed to the woman in the portrait in agitation, "Do you miss her?" she tried again.

Looking at the huddled woman again, he raised a brow when he suddenly knew who she was... but was it really her. He turned back to Hermione behind him and asked softly, "You don't mean...?"

She motioned her chin to her, "Do you miss Hermione?" she asked in the same volume as he.

"Hermione?" Draco repeated, turning his eyes back at the woman in the portrait (who was moving farther back against the wall). He was absolutely appalled, but at the same time perplexed. How could there be two Hermiones, and how could one of them be a portrait? Who was the real one then?

"If you mean the 'real Hermione' as the one you knew from school, then that would be her."

He turned to the Hermione who was now beside him, "Let me get this straight then. She is the real Hermione?" --he watched as she nodded her head to him-- "Then who are you?!" he felt his voice rise in anger.

"I am Hermione. Except more linked towards her ambition." she responded calmly, "We are the same.. in some ways."

Her response only obsecured him more, and she noticed it. She gave a sigh and stepped up closer to the portrait.

"You see, this is a sort of .. collage of what Hermione is." she explained, her face shifting down, "It's here to remind me of how much miserable her life was."

Draco eyed her with disconcern, feeling a whole different emotion to the woman with him, "I thought you were the same? You talk as if you aren't her."

"I'm not her." she hissed back, "We share almost the same mind, same wishes, and body but I am not her." she stated the last word as if it was acid on her tongue, "You know it as well I as I do."

Wanting to respond to that, Draco opened his mouth, "I knew it from the very beginning, but I wasn't expecting this. I wasn't expecting two Hermione's at once. You're saying you're Hermione's ambition, and you separated from her, right? So you did this, you were the one who turned her.. or you, into what you are now."

"What do you mean?" her face turned to him in displeasure, "Hermione did all of this, you idiot. I took over her from her own free will." she moved her hand towards the portrait, "And this is why she gave up to me. This represents her pathetic life, and all the shit she had to put through. You see that in the way back? There are two dead bodies in that other room, wrapped in white sheets with streaks of blood. Those are her parents; their lifeless bodies are in the dark and far away from her as possibel because it's something she wanted to forget. But she can't, as you can tell, because you can still see them from here.

"There (--she pointed to the fireplace--) books. Burned books, in ashes sit there. This is meant to reflect the discrimination she often gets in school about her and books, and how she hated being titled as 'the brain' in Hogwarts. You can see even if they are in ash form, they are still in the shapes of books, meaning this is another thing that was troubling her and never went away.

"Then the frames on the mantle." she pointed to them next, "Pictures of the people she encountered. Friends are boldly shown, but they've become insignificant to her that they've become merely pictures. Enemies, and people who contributed in her pain are faded in the pictures. Your's is up there, you know." she spoke to Draco, who had been intently following her through the speech. He turned his eyes at her, and she continued, "Well.. it used to be."

She continued on, "Anyways, over to her now." she pointed to the Hermione huddled extremely tight against the wall, "The shackles on her feet mean she can't ever run away from her life. This will be something she has to go through. All the while, the because of the blindfold over her eyes, she doesn't have to witness it any longer.

"Because the blindfold over her eyes.... I'm here." she added lastly,before moving her eyes away from the portrait.

Draco eyed the 'Hermione' who stood beside him, breathlessly trying to soak up the grim words she spoke. Reading her reaction to her speech, he knew she was telling the truth, "But... how did she get into the portrait?"

'Hermione' turned around, heading towards the bed, and sat down. She crossed her foot over the other and looked up at the ceiling, "It's easy. This portrait had always been in her mind. It was how she pictured her life to be, in there."

No longer paying attention to the 'Hermione' in the same room as him, Draco came closer to the Hermione in the portrait (she was scurrying away towards the back), "Can she talk?"

"No." the woman at the bed answered, "That's another thing... she won't talk. You can try and make her, but I don't know." Watching him talk carefully, trying to get her to respond to the Hermione in the portrait, her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach, realizing that he did miss her.

During her reaction, the Hermione in the portrait rushed away from Draco, and squeezed in the room in the back ; the room where her parent's dead bodies were at.

"Hermione, it's me!" Draco tried to call out, but he couldn't do a thing once she ran away, "It's me, Draco!" he tried again, but no luck. Suddenly the floating candles around him dimmed until darkness riffed all around. He turned to 'Hermione' on the bed, her eyes brightly showing as she sat under the sheets.

"I'm going to sleep." she said repulsivley, "I don't care what you do... just don't try to escape. I doubt you'd get far." she laid herself down and pulled the silk sheets above her head, "Don't wake me up, or I'll hex you for the whole night. And forget about 'playing', I'm suddenly uninterested."

He could hear the slight fury in her tone of voice; Was it something he did? Furthermore, he didn't really care how this Hermione thought because he knew she wasn't the real one, and the real one was still here in the world; only she's in a portrait. The black veil began to descend back down to cover the portrait. He watched it cover itself, hiding it from any eyes.

Walking towards the large bed, climbing between the sheets at the other side of 'Hermione', he took off his shoes and his black turtleneck sweater, and laid down. Silently planning his own motives, determined to make the Hermione in the portrait to talk to him, Draco swore himself he would find away to get her back.

His eyes suddenly casting to the woman to his right, her back towards him, Draco didn't expect to feel a little pity for her.

'Afterall... she is living off a wish, a hope... a dream.'

At the same time, 'Hermione' kept her eyes shut as the thoughts from Draco crept to her mind. Letting silent tears fall from her cheeks and down to her pillow, she pushed herself to fall asleep, so she wouldn't be able to hear Draco's thoughts; not letting the pain flow easily to her. As if she placed a small spell on herself, she found sleep soon after.

And in the portrait, a new picture appeared on the mantle. A blurred picture of a young man with silver hair and cunning smile.

'It's all a dream...'

§~*~§

¤Thanks to¤
from chapter 8-9

Midnight's Fear A.K.A. LOTR'S Number One Fan - Thank you! Yes.. grim will appear at most of the times here. Thanks for not complaining too, lol.
Libby - Well it's fanfiction :P it's meant to be a little bit unreal. As far as Voldemort and him not doing anything, I'll explain in the next chapter 'cause I'm too lazy to add it in this one hehe.. Thanks for th review!
Chibi-Crysti - I hope you didn't wait too long.. hehe, I don't want to upset you ^_^; lol, thanks!
Icy Stormz - Thanks so much! lol! Voldie! I call him that too! ^_^
fireblaze - No problem! Thanks for reading it and reviewing! I sent ya another notice!
K.A. Malfoy - You were being hard on yourself! You should never blame yourself like that >.; Anyways, (I'm sounding like a counselor! AH!!) lol, thanks for the review!
LilyAyl - Yes, I've seen Rini and the whole Dark Lady thing! I think Dark Lady was cool.. she was so much cooler than goody-goody Rini and the Sailor Scouts. :P. Anyways, you're so close on my plot! aaaaahhh!!! hehe thanks for the review!
PsychoAngel - :D thanks!! ::twists the fic some more:: Vwaaahahhahaha!
Skeyeta - Thank you for noticing my twist also! ::twists fic more:: Hehehe...
Shannon - I know! I've never really read one that had her turning over the dark side without being the reason of faking it or because she loves Draco so much that she would. Thank you!
porkypop - My favorite reviewer!!! Thanks so much for liking this sudden turn of events ^_^. I'm glad you still like reading it!!!
*ME* - Thankies! Yes, this is a bit different, and it'll get more different later.
Sucker For Romance - GASP!! I wrote more!!! lol thanks lots!!! ^__^
HottDramaGurl - LoL! Thanks so much!!! It's great you enjoy it!
Remus Gurl - xD lol! Read on and see what happens! Thanks for reviewing!
hopeless-romantic - Thanks!!! NC-17 coming up later ..hehehe BWHAHAHAHA!!!!! o.o
jade_wolf - LoL! I luv my story too *_*! Thanks for reviewing!
Fire Goddess - :D Yes but.. evil can be such a cruel word that you just have to use it!! LOL! Thanks lots! Update your fic soon!!!
kristina - It'll nevah be over! BWhahhahha!!! o.o;; thanks!
Lady Knight - Starwars! lol! Never placed it like that.. but thanks for reviewing!
Hermione - Who wouldn't like to see Hermione get in the bad side? :P She's cooler that way! lol thanks!
RebeccaSL8 - Nevah finished! hehe, thanks for the review! And I checked out your fic, iz cool! ^_^

Thanks also for the others who reviewed in chapters 7-5! I haven't seen much of those people again.. but that's ok! Thanks again!

A/N:
Thanks so much to the reviewers! I don't get much, but I still luv em to death!! ::hugs reviewers::
Anyways, little heartbreak here, and the relationship is going to deflate.. ::hears 'aaaawwwww!!!' from readers:: Don't worry! ^_^;; 'member, I promise slight fluff later? There's still hope!

Oh yeah, Hope that little portrait thingy didn't mix up anyone? ^_^;; It's a little.. rushed.

Another note:: NC-17 will come waaaaay later in the chapters! (well.. not really waaaaaaaay later)

Thanks a mucho!
~Strife21