Note: this chapter is unusually long. In fact, it is my longest yet. Venus Aeternus, I tried really hard to make it longer because you kept asking for longer chapter. So, here is the outcome of my labor. Lol. Avapouchi-I had to agree with you. She did recover too quickly. I didn't mean for that to happen and it was my mistake. Sorry for that slipup. Tom Felton's babe- I am really contemplating that whole idea about keeping the family name. In fact after you mentioned it the first time, I really wished I had thought of that point before I had gotten as far as I had. At the point I had been at, I didn't feel like I should just add a boy, but I'm really thinking about bringing in a baby. Haspi- no I don't want it to be any of the unforgivables. I don't really talk about what it is in this chapter. I know I said I was going to get a little more in depth. But I most likely will get to that in the next chapter.

Liam doesn't make an appearance in this one either. I am sorry, BUT he is coming back, as is the topic of the necklace. If at any point in this chapter I say the ring instead of necklace. I am sorry; I just watched the movie, The Ring.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Except Neva, Ravyn, Haley, Liam, Chloe, and any other characters that don't make appearance in the book which belongs to J.K Rowling. Which we all know. I was just telling since this is a Disclaimer. But, I do own the plot. It is mine.

                                                     Chapter Seventeen:

                                                      Castles in the sky

~The power of anger can rage inside until it tears you apart but the power of a smile, especially yours can heal a frozen heart.~

Hermione sat staring out her window. Lightning snakes its way across the sky followed closely by echoing thunder. Everything hit her at once, the death of her parents, the issue of the necklace, Draco's ever constant changing mind. It was so depressing, but of course the rain also added to her depression.

The soft pitter-patter of the rain hitting the window pane was the only noise that filled the room. Hermione watched the rain course down the glass in rivulets. The room still faintly smelled of Lavender's perfume. Distant dreams and angels kisses. Strawberries and sweet sugar.

Lavender was so carefree. Even when she thought was alone, she never seemed depressed. Hermione had perfected the art of hiding her emotions from other. It was a weakness. An Achilles heel. To have a weakness was giving anybody the ability to destroy you. So, everything that affected her. Her parents death, the feeling of her friends abandonment, Draco…

It all stayed bottled up inside. Well, that is, until she was alone. Then, she let it flow freely. Her emotions came to the surface, all released from their hiding places. She did this to save herself. To have weakness is to perish.

She wondered if the world would care. Would anybody notice? Would it matter? Would it make a difference? Did her life affect anybody around her?

She rolled over on her side, feeling the soft material of her downy comforter under her hand. Life was one big conundrum. Its puzzling ways still too complicated for Hermione to understand. Its twist and turns that it throws at you, either causing you to trip and fall or to excel and fly.

It was one or the other, this Hermione knew by experience.

She stood, rising to her feet and looked out the window once again. Her eyes settled on the ground far below. It was still raining; it was coming down in a steady fall. The thundering, though, had stopped.

Hermione got a sudden urge to go down to the castle grounds.

~

She slowly walked across the grounds, towards the lake. She had found out from Harry that the lake held many wonders it did not show from the surface. It hid so many mysteries, just like her. The rain continued to fall, splashing into the lake creating small craters that would appear for just a second and be gone just as quick.

The air smelled of rain and the sky was still grey as if it mourned along with her. The rain resembled its tears. She felt each one as it traced its way down her face, across her cheek. The wind whispered in her ear, just an echo of memories untold. (Don't ask. I just felt like putting it.)

She lowered herself to the ground. She placed her hands in her lap, folded. She looked as if she was prepared to start class, not just to sit out in the rain.

She wished everything could just…. go right. That her parents could be alive, that Draco would just stop being a prick, they would find the necklace and Draco wouldn't give it to his father. If only… but it was all just castles in the sky. Pure dreams.

It was near the end of February and still they hadn't found the necklace. School was almost over. They only had a few months. Final exams would be coming up, OWLS and whatnot. Hermione was beginning to doubt whether they would find it. All they knew was that it was a Ravenclaw who was bidding his time just right. She didn't even know if Draco had gotten the picture or if he had gotten the list of Ravenclaw's who stayed. Both were very important.

She wondered if Liam had any part to play in this whole fete. Was he the bad guy? Was he possibly the one carrying the necklace? It was possible even though he had made it clear that he most likely worshiped Lord Voldemort. He could be holding onto it until it was time. Till Voldemort decided that all good should perish.

Her track of thought changed, if all good was to perish would Malfoy still be here? It was quite off topic, she knew. It was just that the question popped randomly into her head, unbidden. She had been thinking of him more often then not. It was unusual. She had thought of him more in the past week than in the whole seven years she had been coming to Hogwarts.

She had to admit that he was alluring, desirable even. What Hermione wondered, though, was: was it possible to like him? Malfoy, Draco, the most cunning person in Hogwarts. Whom she had once described as 'Hogwarts evil' and that was still no lie.

Her thoughts continued to race as rain poured from the sky, soaking her.

"What are you doing, Mudblood?"

Hermione's eyes shot open from surprise, but she recognized the voice instantly. It was Malfoy's. Hermione stood, turning around to face him. Her hair fell limply into her face, where it plastered itself. Her brown eyes locked onto his, "I am doing what I wish to do and that is no concern of yours," she spat out.

"Really now," Draco nodded. "No concern of mine is it? That is quite fine with me. Besides, the ways a Mudblood passes her time is none of my interest."

"What is wrong with you? I mean you go from hating me, to being one of my best friends, to this. What is this enmity you have towards me? Have I wronged you in some way? Because if I have I think you should tell me what I have done to deserve this once again. It only seems fair--"

"Just stop. You want to know what you have done? You have breathed. Your presence annoys me. I don't know why I put up with it for however long or even why I danced with you out of free will, but I will tell you now… never again."

Hermione was on the verge of tears. Never had she heard such words come from a person who at one time, if only for a short amount of time, she had considered a friend. Of course, it was her fault. How could she be so blind as to trust so willingly? It was not like her.

She looked up at him, her eyes falling on his. And she noticed, for the second time that his eyes were not his. She faintly remembered thinking this before. Yes, when she had first learned of his change and he had called her a Mudblood and… God forbid, kissed Pansy, but all that was beside the point.

His eyes were not his! How absurd it sounded. His normal liquid silver was a dark, a slate grey. "What's wrong with your eyes?" she inquired. 

"My eyes are fine!" he snapped. "I am fine!"

"I don't think you are, Malfoy? What are you?" she moved as if to go around him, "What has gotten a hold of you?"

"Nothing, I am me!"

"Really," Hermione nodded. "Then why get so defensive? If you are you it shouldn't matter that I am wondering what is wrong with you."

Malfoy didn't respond to that. He kept quiet and watched her with his dark eyes as if he was going to grab her and kill her.

"I thought I could change you, Malfoy. I will admit to that," Hermione's voice was still a whisper, caught and carried away by the wind. The rain continued to fall masking each other, or at least Draco from seeing the tears that fell down Hermione's cheeks. She seemed to be crying quite a lot this school year.

"You can't change me. Why would you even try?" His lips were drawn into a sinister smirk.

"I don't know," she answered honestly, a small smile appeared and disappeared just as fleetingly. Stepping forward, she placed one hand on the right side of his cheek, rising on tiptoes, she whispered, "but I did try." Then, she placed a soft, brief kiss on kiss lips. Dropping back to her normal height, she ran off, again, without looking at his reaction.

Draco's look was disgusted… at first. But the more he thought about it, the more his 'inner self' wanted back out. He wanted this curse gone. He fell to his knees, grey eyes scanning the lake. Rain fell more dangerously. Thunder rumbled with fury buried deep within.

Draco looked up at the sky, its swirling masses of puff of clouds which matched his eyes so continentally. Memories whisked through his mind. Each brought on by a specific attribute of the evening so far.

The dance they shared out by the weeping willow was a memory that came to him because of the rain. He could remember the feel of her wrapped in his arms. The sweet vanilla smell of her hair as it mixed with the smell of the night and the falling rain. The way the moonlight danced across her features and sent tiny sliver of silver through her hair. The wind blew the long tendrils of willow around, entwining them together, and brushing them along Hermione and Draco as if the vines wished to dance with them.

Another moment, the second dance they shared; this one at the ball. The music had floated melodiously through the air as they swayed. The soft feather-like snow drops (What would you call them? They aren't snowflakes) fell from the enchanted sky, to land upon them. Small white balls decorated Hermione's hair, cursed so they wouldn't melt.

Finally, the last moment that entered his head was when he was trying to analyze Hermione and his 'problems' about the good and the bad. How Hermione was enough to keep him on the good side, but the dark offered so much more. So many more illusions. So many more hidden secrets. And yet, one girl, one woman held enough power to keep him from going to them. How?

And that question will for ever haunt him, he decided, as he looked up at the sky. His liquid silver eyes straying across the rain clouds, only to land on one rainbow that stretched its way out of the darkest depths of the cloud.

One solitary hope…

~

Haley and Chloe stared at their father, eyes wide and mouths gaping. The wind slowly blew across the patio, ruffling all of their hair. "Wow, that's all I have to say," and Haley sat back in her chair.

"Really moving, dad," Chloe simpered at her father.

Hermione smiled affectionately at Draco, and mouthed, 'I love you.'

"My father was cruel and I am glad you two do not have to meet him anytime soon. He was a reason I didn't know if I would make it as a father. I overcame that, of course. I personally think I make a wonderful father."

Chloe laughed, "Oh, of course you do, dad. I don't know why you ever doubted." She rose from her chair and sat on his lap, placing a kiss on his cheek.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he questioned, smiling.

"Oh, nothing," Chloe shook her head.

Haley laughed, "You are truly a great father, dad."

"I'm great? I am not wonderful, excellent or maybe even magnificent? I think I am truly hurt."

"I was trying to give you a compliment, dad, and you took it the wrong way," Haley eyed her father.

Chloe moved off of her father's lap, picking up her cat of the ground, collapsing back into her chair. "Well, you know dad." She ran her hand along the cat's back, brushing the white fur.

"How's Neva's paw?" Haley questioned Chloe.

"It's fine, still healing though." Neva, Chloe's cat, had been attacked by a dog when it escaped in the parking lot at the train station. It had stayed by Chloe's leg until a dog raced up, scaring it away.

"I wonder where Ravyn is." Haley looked around. Ravyn was Haley's cat. It was as black as night and usually only liked Haley. It had a select few it grew onto, but none of those select few where sitting with Haley now.

"She's probably just scampering around," Hermione stated as she stood from her seat. "I'm going to go get a drink. Anybody want anything?"

"No thank you," was Draco's response.

"Lemonade," Haley chimed up.

"Water," Chloe.

"Why don't you all start with out me. I will be right back."

Draco nodded, "well, as I told, your mother was enough to keep me good or well, bring me back. I went to Dumbledore not long after that…"

       ~ You were the first guy I ever cried over, but the last I will forget. ~

~When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.~

Note: so, how was that chapter? I think it deserves some credit. Lol, anyway, please tell me what you think.

I would like to ask kindly for 350. Please.

Everyone, have a nice day. Heck, have a nice week.

Here's a quote I found, doesn't really match the story but… you know.

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast-you also miss the sense of where you are going and why." ~ Eddie Cantor

So, everybody, slow down…