Author's Note: Whoa! Thank you all for reviewing the sequel to A Different You, A Different Me. I am working on my Draco/Ginny fic as well so my uploading new chapters for Life Goes On might take a while. For those of you who are Draco/Ginny shippers as well, please feel free to read Fallen for You and let me know what you think. And also enjoy this second part of the Draco/Hermione love-hate saga...
Disclaimer: Ya'll already know what this stands for
Summary: Draco & Hermione were suppose to start their 7th year at Hogwarts as a couple, but due to a misunderstanding the previous year that dream soon crumbled and now they are to start their 7th year picking up the pieces of their tattered lives...
Setting: 7th Year
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III. the Lake
Hermione was walking briskly with her head bent, her arms wrapped tightly around her, and she was on autopilot as she headed straight towards the trees bordering the lake. Her first week back in school hasn't even passed and already she was seeking solace out by the lake. Usually she sought the lake's comely presence nearing the middle of the school year when things started to get too much for her to handle.
She must have been walking for about fifteen minutes when suddenly she collided with a hard wall of chest belonging to a stranger skulking in the dark like herself. It didn't help much either that the other person was wearing all black, a camouflaging with the inky darkness outside on this moonless night.
"Hey!" Hermione exclaimed when she stumbled backwards after the collision. She would've ended up with her rump on the ground if it hadn't been for her unseen assailant's fast reflexes. She felt her upper arms got caught in a powerful grip and she was pulled into the arms of the stranger.
"Next time you should look where you're going." advised the oh-so-familiar sexy voice that sent chills up Hermione's spine, making herself stiffen in the circle of his arms. "Good thing my reflexes are something to be reckon with, otherwise you would've ended up on the ground with a bruised arse." he said teasingly.
Hermione's breath got frozen in her throat when she felt one of Draco's hand skim up to her shoulders and gently move down her backside, pausing just above her butt cheeks before surprising her by copping a feel.
"Damn you!" she shrieked and quickly pulled away, her balled fists flying here and there, hitting Draco on the arms and shoulders. "Don't you dare touch me like that ever again!" she demanded, her eyes shooting daggers and steam coming out of her nose and ears as she glared at the last person she wanted to be alone with. She was still hurting after all this time from discovering that she was just another notch on his bedpost that he wanted to conquer. She could forgive him for anything and everything, but with what happened between them there was no way she would--or even could--forgive him.
Draco stepped back, his hands raised up in case Hermione decided to strike him again. "You never complained before when I did that to you." he reminded her.
His remark only intensified Hermione's anger and she angrily stalked away from him, shoving him hard before continuing on to the lakeshore where she would sit and kill time until it was time for her to go to bed.
~*~
Draco watched her walk away. She was heading towards the lakeshore he was sure. She often does that whenever something was bothering her. He remained rooted where she collided with him, crossing his arms over his chest and lounged against the sturdy tree he has been keeping company with the last quarter of an hour since he got to the lake.
After what happened between them Christmas Eve and the events of the morning after, Hermione became more and more distant around him until they started bickering over some petty things that no normal sane person would bicker about. It was during one of their numerous bickering that his memory slowly returned. He had always made fun of Hermione before, and he hated her so much because she was a Mudblood, but of course with the recent turn of events his feelings for Hermione changed. Because of her he learned to stand up against his father, fight what he believed was right for him, but Lucius would hear none of it.
"That damn Mudblood as addled your brain, lad!" Lucius snorted when Draco argued with his father nearing the end of summer. As usual Lucius wanted to throw him a special birthday party for his seventeenth birthday, but Draco didn't want to throw one.
He was hating Lucius more and more by the minute at that time. If it hadn't been for his father--and the threat of Hermione's life--hanging over his head, he would've come after Hermione the very same day she found the piece of parchment he had been reading before he headed for the Great Hall for dinner. He would've come up to her and explained the whole damn thing, tell her the truth that he didn't act because of what his father wrote but because it was what he felt.
He loves her, dammit! If before he just bedded women for the hell of it, this time around, when Hermione became his in every sense of the word, he knew there was no way he could just use her as another one of his sex toys.
~*~
Hermione couldn't help herself from taking a cursory glance over her shoulder every two seconds. She wanted to be sure Draco wasn't following her. It was sheer luck that she ran into him here of all places. But then again, why wouldn't she run into him here by the lake when last year they both admitted this was their favourite place for solace in all of Hogwarts?
"I thought the library is where you'll be found a lot considering it's such a quiet place." he told her teasingly that first night they sat out here together after they were released from the hospital wing.
"Well...I never told anyone about the lake because...well, simply because I don't want anybody else to know that aside from the library, the lake is the next peaceful place for me to hang out at--especially at night when everyone is busy doing homework." she smiled weakly.
Draco smiled back at her. It was one of his rare sweet smiles that he hardly show people.
Her heart clenched tightly in her chest as she remembered everything that happened between them last year. The easy camaraderie they mustered followed by their bickering in-between before she became his. The bickering wasn't new to her since they had been sniping at each other since their first year here at Hogwarts. IT was during one of their head-butting nearing the end of last year that she regained her memory about everything she knew about Draco Malfoy.
She hated him with a passion. He was an evil, vile man who hated her for being a Mudblood.
And yet she loves him with all her heart.
Hermione stopped near a tree and braced her hand against his trunk, catching her breath and stopping the tears she kept welled-up inside her for the last few months. After finding out Christmas morning that she meant nothing than just a one-night-stand to him she cried herself to sleep at night or whenever she was alone, but after a couple of months and she saw that Draco obviously moved on from her--he was often spotted with another girl draped all over him--she told herself that it was about damn time she moved on too.
She started patching things up with Ron. After their heated shouting-fest Christmas morning inside the Gryffindor common room when he, Harry, and Ginny caught her sneaking back after spending the night with Draco things became a bit strained between them. He was mad at her for acting so carelessly and she was mad him for being inconsiderate of her feelings. But they soon sorted things out and with the help of Harry, their trio became a solid wall of friendship once again. But this time around both Harry and Ron kept a close eye on her whenever Draco was around.
"Don't want to see you get hurt again, Herm." Harry told her reassuringly when, during Potions earlier, she was sandwiched between him and Ron as soon as Draco walked in and looked like he was headed to sit beside her.
She smiled at him then and wrapped her arms around his, giving it a tight squeeze. She stole a quick glance at Draco's way and saw his gray eyes shooting daggers at them.
Draco's reaction bothered her. At first she dismissed it as just some trick her eyes were playing on her, but every now and then she would glance his way and he would be watching her intensely, and she could feel her skin burn whenever he was watching her and she was either holding on to Harry or Ron.
Was he jealous?
He can't be! What right does he have to be jealous of her relation with her two guy friends? He wasn't her boyfriend. He relinquished the right to become her boyfriend when he agreed to become his father's puppet and did what he did to her.
~*~*~*~*~
to be continued...
A/N: *sighs in relief* Phew! And I thought I won't be able to finish this third chapter! *lol* But here it is, hope you enjoy it and don't forget to review!
Brookie: well yeah, I wanted some ideas in case I hit another writer's block concerning this story...hehehehe
CrystallineLily: don't you worry your pretty head off. I'll be finishing this the right way like in all good Disney movies where the hero & heroine live a happily-ever-after life *grins*
Loki: hmm...that sounds like a good idea. I've been thinking of ways to get Draco & Hermione get back together...but maybe not too soon...hehehe, knowing how I write my story, I make my hero & heroine suffer (i.e. part one of this saga *winks*)
Quistis88: *lol* I so totally agree! Of course Draco & Herm will end up together and Pansy will just be daydreaming about Draco
Crazykid2586: no problem about mentioning your story...and whoa! such nifty ideas! *grins* get Herm preggy, then she ups and leaves Draco until our poor, tortured hero realizes how much he really loves her...hey! I think I might be able to work it in to this fic! *lol* But we'll see
keresha: hehehe, I have to end A Different You, A Different Me the way I did because...well, because I have another idea for the sequel to that one & I just didn't want to drag the story of that first D/Hr fic of mine for so long...
Moonbeam: I will explain the reason why there is a big jump between the two stories as I go along with this fic. And I hope this 3rd chapter is interesting enough. I know I gave them both the habit of going to the lake and something interesting always ends up happening there when they're together...well, I think something interesting happened here as well, but oh well *grins*
song*breeze: Becki, dear, you'll get the juice later...and...uh...what juice are you talking about anyway?! *lol*