Disclaimer: I don't understand it, no matter what I offer J.K.R just won't give me Draco it's not fair I tell you! NOT FAIR! I mean she owns Harry, Ron and Hermione too, I mean isn't that enough? LoL she owns it all grrrr...

Author's Note: Hmmm...ok I REALLY hope this fic is making sense LOL I knoowww it's taking a while to get to the fluff but that whole Slythindor subplot kinda set everything back a bit since the first two chapters were mainly on that. Do you guys like it better like this? Like really kinda realistic and slowww? Cuz I was trying not to go for oh I've always liked Hermione or she got this huge makeover you know what I'm saying? Try to review and tell me your opinions kk? Thx!!

Slythindor

Ch. 9: Forest Flusters and Hogsmeade Hijinks

They both looked up and found Hagrid towering over them with a threatening expression on his face toward Draco. Before he knew it Draco was being lifted right off Hermione.

"What's this dirty git done to yeh Hermione, are you alright?"

Hermione blushed as she got up quickly, "Yah I'm fine Hagrid, Malfoy just tripped on that tree root there and fell over me. See his shoe's still caught under it," she said as she dusted herself off and tried her best to convince Hagrid of the truth, as it was a very embarrassing situation.

"Where are you holding me from back there? Unhand me you monstrous oaf!"

Hagrid dropped him face first onto the floor. Draco groaned and Hermione, to Hagrid's surprise, rushed over.

"Hagrid! His ribs are broken!" she said with a trace of worry in her voice.

"What? How? An' what's he doin' here anyway?"

Hermione thought quickly for an explanation, but not being able to think of one, she changed the subject.

"Wait, what happened with you after the smoke Hagrid? I couldn't see you and I ran and ended up here," she explained and it was generally true.

"Well I'm jus' sorry Hermione, nobody told me until recently, but it wasn't even real jus' some illusion!"

"Yah, we found out the hard way, but wait do you know the way out of here?"

"Of course I do, and I'd been worried sick an' so has everyone else. People have been out lookin' for yeh since last night. Now come on."

Draco scowled at him as he got up and pulled his shoe from under the root. They started walking for about a half an hour in an unusually straight path. Eventually they caught a glimpse of the castle and they all heaved a sigh of relief. As they entered it, everyone was having lunch in the Great Hall and they hadn't realized until then how incredibly hungry they were. Hermione thanked Hagrid with Draco giving him a disdainful look and they left to go to their common room.

"You know Malfoy, getting stuck with you hadn't been as awful as I'd thought it would be," she said grinning.

"Wish I could the same for you Granger," he muttered and she gave him a scornful look but not seeming surprised.

Suddenly as they reached the end of the tunneled hall leading to their common room they met Dumbledore and Madame Pompfrey.

"Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy we're glad to have you back safely. I understand your circumstances in being in the Forest Ms. Granger, but I believe Mr. Malfoy has a bit of explaining to do," Dumbledore said in a very pleasant voice but he was cut off by Madam Pompfrey.

"I'll have to take Mr. Malfoy though Headmaster; Hagrid tells me he's been injured," she said as she grabbed him. He looked horrified as she started to drag him away.

"Yes, yes that's fine Poppy but Mr. Malfoy and I will have a little talk later," he said smiling at them as they left through a nearby doorway, "I'm sure you have things to do Ms. Granger so I'll leave you now."

She hesitating thinking about what she was about to do but she couldn't hold it in, "Headmaster wait! Malfoy didn't do anything wrong, I found him walking along near Hagrid's hut after the smoke started up and he got caught in it too. We both just got lost in the forest from the hand chasing us."

"And his broken ribs?"

"Well...when we were running we couldn't really see where we were going and we went tumbling down the end of this hill and I managed to get away with some cuts and bruises but Draco got hurt," she said with her heart racing. She had never lied to a faculty member before and especially the Headmaster.

"Ah...Alright then, thank you for clearing that up Ms. Granger, I did find it odd that he was missing also. I'll have to speak to him later about it. I'm afraid I have an appointment with someone now so I'll leave you to hurry back before lunch ends."

Hermione returned to her dormitory with guilt weighing down her conscience but she knew that she did the right thing. She took a quick shower and then headed to the Great Hall. But then as soon as she touched the handle to open the door she remembered something. Dumbledore had said he was going to talk to Malfoy later, which means he'll probably ask him about what happened! She had to tell Malfoy everything before Dumbledore got to him. She looked at the Great Hall door not wanting anything more than to go in and sit and eat with her friends but she turned around and headed for the hospital wing. She went in when she got there, trying not to get caught by Madame Pomprey, but she was never good at things like that.

"Miss Granger I'm so glad you came," Madam Pompfrey said beaming as she popped out from behind a corner, "I wanted to compliment you on the nice job you did with Mr. Malfoy. His ribs are healing safely now thanks to your excellent job! If you want to see him he's in the room around the corner."

Hermione smiled nervously and made her way to the room. She knocked on the door and heard a muffled "what now" from inside. She opened the door and saw a very miserable Draco sitting up in the bed.

"Haven't I gotten enough of you already? I know you can't resist me but you're making it incredibly obvious," he said smirking.

She glared at him, "Just shut up I don't have time for this, I told Dumbledore a little story about what happened to you yesterday and when he comes you better be repeating it," she said in her usual bossy tone. She told him what she said to Dumbledore quickly while he listened with a questioning look on his face.

"He'll probably stop by in a little while," she said as she got up and glanced at her watch, "Great I'll only have time to literally grab a sandwich and run to class, and it's Potions too!" She rushed to leave but as she was almost out the door Draco voiced a question that he had while she was explaining all this.

"Why'd you do it Granger?"

She froze as she was in the doorway and without turning around she answered him, "I didn't feel that you should be punished for what your father did," she said softly then left, with him giving her an appreciative glance that she would never see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oooh what about this one 'Mione?" Ginny gushed at a beautiful Victorian dress at Madame Malkan's on Saturday.

Hermione took a feathered fan off the shelf and in her most Victorian voice said, "Why I think it'll be very becoming on you my dear."

They both giggled and marveled at the dress that Ginny had chosen. It was a satin light green dress with frills detailing the arms, waist, along the neckline, and the bottom. It was tight at the top and the sleeves were a little puffed, but the bottom was huge and inflated like all the rest of the dresses of that era. The store was extremely crowded as all the themed dresses and accessories were there.

"Now help me find one before all the nice ones are gone!" Hermione said as she shuffled through all the dresses. She turned around to go to the next aisle but then gasped as she saw the most gorgeous dress she had ever seen on one of the mannequins.

"Oh Ginny look!" she exclaimed as she looked at it in awe. It was a silk gown of a beige color and it had red roses rimming the bottom and the neckline. It was off the shoulders in the way that the sleeves were pushed down and there were frills all along the top, and there were rose designs all over the enlarged bottom and the top corset.

"Hermione it's gorgeous! But oh my god, isn't a little pricey..." Ginny said looking at the price tag.

"200 Galleons! That's crazy!" she exclaimed disappointedly.

"Crazy for a poor mudblood," Pansy hissed as she came from behind them, "I'll buy it; this would look absolutely gorgeous on me, wouldn't it Blaise?"

"Absolutely," she said venomously as she looked at a heartbroken Hermione.

"OH MY GOD! Is that Draco Malfoy standing over there?" Ginny shouted and she and Hermione started cracking up when Pansy and Blaise went into an absolute frenzy looking around and fixing their hair and crying "where? where? where?"

"Ha ha nice one Ginny, come on let's find me another dress."

They looked around for a while more but it had gotten too late. All the really nice dresses were gone and Hermione was stuck with a very plain velvety maroon dress.

"Awww come on 'Mione it's pretty and look we can accessorize," Ginny said grabbing a maroon head band with a matching colored feather sticking out, "See this is pretty and oh this choker is adorable." She stopped talking though as she saw Draco Malfoy coming up to them.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Ginny spat at him.

Hermione noticed that he seemed to be annoyed that Ginny was there, but was surprised when he spat out an excuse for approaching them, "Just checking what everyone's wearing so as to stay as far as possible from deprived Weasleys," he retorted glancing at Ginny, "and not to mention mudbloods," he said smirking at Hermione.

"FINE! Show him what you're wearing Ginny and here's what I'm wearing," she said menacingly while holding out her dress, "So stay the hell away from me!"

"Oh and by the way Crabbe and Goyle were asking about you over by there," Ginny said pointing to the corner where they left Pansy and Blaise. They watched him go over and as they heard the screeching and after taking a quick glance over at Draco's horror-stricken face they headed toward the mask store.

"Hey Harry!" Ginny greeted him slightly blushing as they entered Moderna's Masks.

"Hey, do you like my mask?" he said holding up a bloody faced one.

"Uhh...Harry I think we're supposed to pick from the section labeled 'Masquerade Masks' not 'Horror'"

"Awww," said Ron from behind him, " 'Cause I was having quite a bit of fun with this one," and as he turned around Hermione screamed, as it was a mask of Viktor Krum.

"Why you wicked...gimme that!" she said grabbing it from his hands and throwing it. Only Ginny knew what had happened with Viktor Krum. The summer of fourth year she saw a picture of him at an Honorary Quidditch ceremony in the newspaper hand in hand with his blonde and robust date. She hadn't gotten very upset though since they weren't in any sort of relationship or anything but she was still mad. They walked over to the Masquerade section and it didn't take them long to pick out masks. They were the kind that wrapped around your eyes and nose but left the mouth bare. Harry got an eagle one, Ron got a lion, and Ginny and Hermione got feathery ones matching their dresses. They were glittered with pretty designs on them and they were simply gorgeous.

"I don't know about you guys, but everyone else has been going bonkers trying to find out what everyone is wearing. We'd better do that ourselves before I end up dancing with Millicent Bullstrode and Hermione with Goyle!"

Hermione gave him a disgusted look, "Nah, he'll be too busy dancing with Malfoy," she said and they all laughed. "That's against the rules though Ron, you know that!"

"Oh stop being such a spoilsport. Come on, I saw the Slytherins filing into that creepy pub around the corner."

They made their way to the dungeon-like pub and sat down. They ordered some butterbeer (which turned out tasting more like beer than butter) and started looking around. The Slytherins were showing off their dresses and suits to their friends and soon they knew what practically everyone was wearing...except Draco.

They had even seen Pansy showing off her gorgeous new dress with Hermione looking on contemptuously. Soon she became very uneasy as people started to notice their presence and there were many spells being cast already around the pub by mischievous Slytherins.

"Uhh...guys I think we should leave now, people are starting to notice us," Hermione said nervously. She had a tendency to fiddle with her watch when she was uneasy and before she knew it, she accidentally unfastened it. It had fallen under the table and she crawled down to get it.

"You're just imagining things and besides we don't know what Malfoy's wearing! He'll probably show up in a few minutes," Ron said trying to put her at ease but not noticing that she was under the table, "Do you want to take the risk of..." Ron stopped talking all of a sudden and froze. The same thing seemed to have happened to everyone in the pub...except Hermione. She was still fidgeting under the table. As soon as she had her watch though she came back up and to her alarm everything was completely still as if it was a picture. Things were stuck up in mid-air as they were being thrown and the drinks were frozen as they were being poured. She looked at her friends with alarm and waved her hand over their eyes and poked them to see if they were still conscious. They didn't move a muscle though and she became panicked. 'No wait, whoever did this has to be in here, AND they have to be the only person moving,' she thought as she walked around trying to catch someone stirring. Everyone was as motionless as a statue though with various crazy expressions on their faces and in the middle of several outrageous motions. 'Hmmm I wonder...' She had an idea. She walked around and smacked or pushed everyone in the pub to see if they were frozen or not. She was of course, enjoying it immensely.

"Take that Pansy! I'd have looked 10 times better in that dress! If it wasn't so pretty I'd rip it into a million pieces you mindless obsessive psycho, I'll get you back for that just don't be surprised if your precious Draco Doll is missing it's head! I'm sure you think your precious little Draco is going to absolutely fawn over you at the ball but he'd more likely fawn over me than YOU!" she said aloud but as she did she heard a quiet shuffling in the darkest corner of the pub. She snapped her head in that direction a little embarrassed at her little rant but she slowly made her way over there. The pub was dimly lit to begin with so when she got to the corner she could hardly see a thing.

"Lumos!" she said but as soon as she did she screamed and stepped back. Malfoy had appeared suddenly standing directly in front of her, "Oh God Malfoy, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Fawning over you huh?" he said ignoring her and smirking widely.

"I was being SARCASTIC!"

"Mm hmm."

"I WAS!" she said shouting now, "And what did you do all this for anyway?"

"I was bored," he said plainly shrugging his shoulders, "And how are you moving? Do mudbloods have some sort of immunity or something?"

"NO I was under the table you prat! Now undo the spell I'm getting rather sick of this!"

He scoffed, "You seemed to be enjoying yourself quite a bit a minute ago, I didn't know you could be so abusive Granger," he said smirking her in that way that annoyed her immensely, "Pansy's going to wake up completely sore, not to mention deaf. She must have really ticked you off. Something about a dress it seems?"

"It's nothing that concerns you Malfoy, now undo the spell already!"

He continued ignoring her, "Now don't ruin my fun Granger, it's bad enough having to sneak in here after barely escaping my favorite Slytherin girls," he said with an annoyed look in their direction, "Try not to be a bother while I create a little havoc will you?"

He started walking around laying drink pitchers sideways, placing people's fingers up their nose, or some guys hands on very inappropriate spots on their female friends...

"Malfoy stop that!" Hermione scolded as she went around undoing all this, as it was going to have very chaotic results when the spell was undone. She walked a few table behind him fixing everything as he messed it up.

He sighed, "Next time try not to be licking your friends legs under the table when I'm doing a spell will you?"

"You're disgusting! Augh cut it out!" she shouted as she squeamishly pulled a guys sleeve to tug his hand out of his pants.

"Do you always have to hang around with the rest of your loser friends? I couldn't even get a word in at the store before without the mini weasel interrogating me," he said as he removed some guy's expensive watch and put it on his hand, "What's a Rolex?" he asked admiring it on his wrist.

"It's a muggle watch," she answered as she grabbed his hand and unfastened it, "You had something to say to me?"

He held her hand still; "I had to tell you about Dumbledore's little visit the other day, he knows about my father and the death eaters. He knows what happened," he said gravely, fixedly looking at a scratch on Hermione's hand that he was holding and unconsciously stroking it with his thumb.

"What?" she said slightly in alarm and not noticing that he was still holding her hand, "How?"

"Remember the man I was supposed to kill? He got away and had a little chat with Dumbledore about me, and he saw the whole thing between my father and I. He knows everything."

"Oh my God, what are you going to do? And...why are you telling me this?" she said with an anxious tone in her voice.

"Seems like you would have wanted to know as Dumbledore obviously knows about your little tall tale," he said as he removed his gaze from her hand to her eyes.

"I don't care about that anymore," she said firmly as she looked away from him, "I did the right thing; it's your father that deserved the blame."

"I don't understand you Granger, why do you even care?" he said with a mounting degree of frustration, "Why did you involve yourself in the first place?"

She shrugged, "I don't know why I did anything in the beginning," she began resolutely then looked back into his eyes, "But I know now that you're not like them." His eyes were intense but warm now and she found their dense grayness intoxicating. She noticed his hair wasn't slicked back today but loosely framing his face and she remembered that she had told him that she liked it that way.

He noticed her looking at his hair, "You like it like this huh?" he asked faintly amused. She blushed slightly and he saw her warm brown eyes glow in a way that made him look at her differently. He saw a level of trust that he'd never seen anyone look at him with before.

"I really could care less how you wear your hair," she said catching herself as she had made it too apparent that she noticed. She looked away from him and it almost pained him, as he was growing accustomed to this odd sense of security he felt around her. She was the only person that understood him now. He didn't have to be the son of a death eater around her and she saw him for who he really was. But what he didn't understand was why HE didn't even know who he was. He knew though that she was the only person that could help him discover it. Before he knew what he was doing he found his hand had moved up to her face. He took her chin in his hand and turned her to face him. It surprised her and she found herself looking away again, not trusting herself to handle the tension she was feeling.

"Why won't you look at me?" he whispered. At that, she found herself weakening and couldn't help looking into his eyes again. She noticed then his hand holding hers and she felt unaware of the frozen room around her. She felt him tighten his grip and saw him lean in as she felt her eyes begin to close.

Draco lost himself in the moment but all of a sudden he looked over her shoulder and saw Harry and Ron and everything came crashing down on him. She was a mudblood for God's sake and a Gryffindor at that. And he was of the purest wizard blood as well as a Slytherin. He felt himself snap out of it and let go of her hand. Her eyes snapped open in surprise but she too felt aware of what she was doing immediately and felt a deep sense of anger at herself for allowing this to happen. He couldn't take the tension anymore so he did what he always did towards mudbloods. Become a malicious jerk.

His eyes turned cold and bitter, "What? Did you think I was going to kiss you Granger?"

She felt fury build up inside of her and she shoved him away from her as hard as she could. He fell right on top of Pansy's table, knocking over everything on it. Hermione took out her wand and placed it harshly onto his neck.

"Undo the spell...RIGHT NOW!" she bellowed threateningly. He had no choice but to mutter the counter spell.

The entire room came back to life and Hermione stormed away but not before taking a glimpse of the suit that had been lying on the chair where he was sitting before. It was all black with a tail on the jacket and even the cummerbund was black as well. She resolved to stay as far away from him as physically possible at the ball with them being in the same room. She returned to the table where her friends were sitting.

"Let's go NOW."

"But don't you want to..." Harry wasn't able to finish.

"NOW!"

"Fine, fine jeez I'd have thought you'd like to watch Pansy devour Malfoy."

Hermione apparently hadn't noticed the screams as the cups and pitchers on Pansy's table spilled as the room unfroze. And to top it off Malfoy was on top of the table to Pansy's delight. She had grabbed him now but Hermione could hardly see her. She was blinded with anger and if looks could kill, the look she was giving Malfoy would have chopped him into mincemeat.

"Yah guys let's leave, this place has been creeping me out from the beginning and I think this butterbeer is literally buttered beer!" Ginny exclaimed with some of the Slytherins giving her a thanks-for-stating-the- obvious look.

"Yah and I think Ron's had a few too many." Harry said looking worriedly at Ron whose eyes were half closed and was gulping down the rest of his cup.

"Oh God! Am I never going to get out of here?!" shrieked Hermione to everyone's surprise. Harry shot Ginny a what's-with-HER look. She shrugged back as they both tried to get Ron up. They helped him out of his chair and he was worse than expected. He was as unstable as Neville in Potions class except he had this crazed grin on his face. He was stumbling out of the pub except to their horror he stopped at Pansy's table.

"You're purty," he said with a shy giggle but then he starting laughing wildly. People started to notice the commotion and taunts came from all directions. Even Draco was giving him a look as he was struggling to get out of Pansy's grasp.

"The freckled carrot would much rather be in this position, wouldn't you Weasley?"

"Suuuure," he said with Hermione looking on, completely mortified.

"Look at the drunk Gryffindor!" Goyle bellowed as everyone starting laughing hysterically and pointing. They rushed out of the pub as quickly as possible, which was quite difficult as Ron started making kissy faces at Pansy. Hermione grabbed his arm and literally dragged him toward the door. Draco was screaming at this point.

"Bad Touches! Bad Touches!" he screeched as Pansy and the rest of the girls were swarming him. They didn't think his new hairstyle was too bad either. Hermione made sure to look back at him as she left and as she saw his eyes pleading for help she grinned in her OWN evil way and left him there to be illegally fondled (in ways that can't be explained in this PG-13 fic). And hoping that maybe HE'LL see what it feels like to be toyed with...literally. She got Ron out with one final tug and as she closed the door she smiled as she heard another of Draco's violated screams echoing from inside the pub.





o0o0o0o the tension is on the riiiiise LoL done with another chappie yay and hopefully the next one will be the ball but of course with my psychotic tendency to stall things we'll see oh and REVIEW PPLLEEASSE!!!

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Okkaayyy I need help hahaha is there some form of therapy for this? I'll start an RA- Reviewoholics Anonymous hahaha anyone interested? LoL just review so I don't go COMPLETELY bonkers cuz I'm totally almost there hahaha

***ok btw you all hafta read The Mistake They Can't Deny and I'm With You by SweetWater they're SOOO good and LyraAdriana caught a lil mistake of mine-yes Hermione could have used the "point me" spell to get out of the forest I stand corrected but you know they were both in the forest and we totally needed some D/Hr alone time so I decided to let them get lost a while n all that u know LoL ok then till next chapter cya and REVIEW!!!! Haha I'm sorry I'm so bossy bad me LoL

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