Title: Firefly

Chapter Fifteen: No More Lies

Author: Kitty Malfoy

A/N: Oh! I just brainstormed a great idea only a few minutes ago! It'll be coming up in a later chapter, so let's hurry and get to that chapter before I forget it.

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Draco paced around his room before he finally stopped in front of his fireplace. A pinch or sand-like powder was dumped into his hand from a silver-gilded, clay box that had previously been resting atop the mantel. The orange flames flared out and turned an eerie blue when he threw the powder upon theme.

A moment passed.

"It's imperative that I speak with her." Draco demanded into the fire.

"I've already told you, she's not here." Ginny's voice was wavered and distorted through the flickering fire.

"Well please leave a message that I 'called'."

"I'll do that."

The fireplace connection ended and Ginny's face disappeared from the fire. With a frustrated shout he grabbed the powder box and flung it at the wall. Shattered earthenware and gray-brown dust rained down onto the plush, ivy-colored carpet unnoticed.

"Shit."

Draco collapsed angrily on his bed and buried his face in his hands. How could he have been so stupid? He let out an exhausted sigh and looked up. Sticking out form beneath his four-poster was his journal. Hesitating for a moment he reached down and picked it up. A long, tapering finger traced over the binding of the leather book before Draco began to flip through it.

-=-=-=-=-

Draco continued to bang on the Gryffindor portrait until it was finally opened.

"What do you want?" Harry demanded. Both Ron and Ginny flanked him and none looked too pleased with him. Not that anyone could blame them...

"I need to talk to Hermione."

"She's not here."

Harry tried to close the portrait, but Draco slammed it violently back open. He was not to be deterred, "Do you know where she is?"

"She's out." Ron glowered.

"Do you know when she'll be back?"

"Later. So-"

"Hermione!" Draco struggled to get past the trio and into the Gryffindor common room, "HERMIONE!" His shouting had drawn the attention of the Gryffindors.

I know she's in here...

Between Harry and Ron they managed to push Draco back and prevent him from barging in. "We already told you she's not here."

"Fine!" Draco ground out through clenched teeth, "Could you please see that she gets this."

He handed Ginny a brown-paper package tied up with thin twine. A small cream-colored envelope, unmarked by any writing was held beneath the strings as well. Ginny looked down at the parcel, scrutinizing it. Her finely arched eyebrows furrowed, and when she looked up at Draco her jade eyes were filled with question.

Their eyes locked and it felt to Draco as if Ginny was staring right through him as if trying to discern his "real" motives. His reflexes demanded that he smirk back, but he couldn't. As he stared morosely back at her, Ginny's eyes softened and "question" was replaced by "sympathy".

"I'll do that." She replied softly.

"Ginny." He fixed his eyes on her and spoke slowly, "It's really important."

"I understand. Good night." The portrait door closed shut with a barely audible "click".

Ginny looked at the package again and before Harry or Ron could even form a protest she ran up to Hermione's room.

*****

A knock on her door broke Hermione of her concentration and she dropped her quill on her bed. She shifted the heaps of parchments and tattered books in order to clear herself a path off her own bed. Her floor was even worse. The soft maroon shag was littered with inkbottles, curling parchments, clothes of every variety and a wide selection of miscellaneous magical items.

It took her a moment to wade through this mess, but she finally did reach her door and when her visitor was revealed to be Ginny she smiled. "Hey, Gin. 'Scuse the mess...I've been studying so much I haven't really had time to clean." At this she flushed in slight embarrassment which only increased when she realized that Ginny could probably see her personals strewn about the place.

She cleared her throat nervously, "S-So what did you need?" Hermione had just started gathering up her articles of clothing when she noticed the solemn look on her best friend's normally bright features. Without a word, Ginny held out the package to the brunette.

Despite the questioning look on Hermione's face, Ginny found it almost impossible to talk around the strange lump that had formed in her throat. She watched Hermione swallow and shift her load to one hand before reaching out to relieve Ginny of the object in her outstretched hand.

Tanned fingertips with gold polish grazed the edge of brown paper and the creamy envelope flashed a gold light. Both females' eyes widened as green ink bled onto the parchment spelling out Hermione's name in an all-too-familiar precise, cursive handwriting.

"He insisted I give it to you..." Ginny exclaimed as she relinquished the package.

Hermione couldn't keep her hands from shaking as she held tight to the object within them. She fingered the twine softly while she mechanically sat down upon her cluttered bedspread.

Ginny couldn't help her rapture and fascination in Hermione's reactions and emotions. Her eyes drank in her friend's every movement and every heartfelt sigh, and her mind tried to sort them as being depressed or frustrated ones. Her whole body itched to know exactly what Hermione was feeling - what was going through her mind.

She took a guilty sort of pleasure in watching over her friend's private moment while Hermione had no realization of her presence. The ripping of paper snapped Ginny back to the present and out of her mind's wonderings. Tan leather peeked out from the pile of torn packing paper and piqued Ginny's curiosity.

This isn't for anyone's eyes...

Hermione didn't even hear her door close as her hazel eyes stared intently at the letter she had unfolded from the envelope.

Dear Hermione-

Thank you for reading this letter. I don't know what I can possibly say to rectify the harm I have caused you. For once in my life I'm at a loss for words. The truth of the matter is that being with you was the only time I have ever been happy. My whole life has been a joke. I prided myself on taking joy in other's misery. Well, it finally backfired. I succeeded in hurting the first person I loved. I wish more than anything I could take it back, but I guess that's not possible.

Enclosed is my most prized possession...my journal. For a long time I considered it my trophy. A sordid collection of my conquests. If you really want to know the truth, then please read it. No more lies. Please give me another chance. I'm a wreck without you.

Laying the letter beside her Hermione pulled Draco's journal from amid the scraps of brown paper. She didn't know how long she sat there with her fingers resting idly on the clasp before she finally opened the well-worn cover and dived into the pages.

A picture of Pansy was splayed across the front page. Despite the Slytherin girl's sultry poses in the moving photograph the words etched around it were only cruel and insulting. In Draco's perfect cursive the pages told of Pansy's multiply magical "enhancements", and underlying drug problem, and detailed her on-going sex addiction.

"Pansy's back-stabbing world of 'friendship', " she murmured turning the page. She was oddly surprised to see her own picture pasted to the page. The picture had been taken without her knowledge and she was smiling and laughing at something off to the side of the camera. Her robes had been hanging over her arm and she was wearing the white blouse and gray pleated skirt uniform required at Hogwarts.

'The Bet' was scrawled above her picture along with a torn scrap of parchment. It was the parchment Pansy had shown Draco as proof of their bet the previous night. She continued to read - becoming enthralled by the things described within the journal's pages.

The candles illuminating her room burned away into giant pools of cooling wax while she read long into the night until finally snuffing themselves out as she closed the book.

With the book lying on her chest she meant only to rest her eyes but she was instantly fast asleep.

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R & R!

Woah! A lot of you reviewed the last chapter, and I hope I have as much this time! The next chappy should be up in a bit, considering I'm going to be locked in my room all day tomorrow because watching my family dance around celebrating Easter makes me kinda queasylike eating one-too-many Peeps™ (Btw, if you're wondering what the hell I'm talking aboutI'm Wiccan while the rest of my family is still Christian)

Kitty Malfoy

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