A/N: Wow! Have those reviews been pouring in. All one of them. Yay. Thanks to that person that reviewed, I really appreciate it. This is probably my longest chapter yet…so please R/R! And have a Happy Thanksgiving!

"How's your boy doing, Lucius?" a toneless voice inquired.

"He is doing fine, Sir, but he's been rebelling against me since last year My Lord."

"Do you think he'll follow in your footsteps? And how exactly is he rebelling?"

"He…well it's embarrassing to say…. He claims he's in love. In love with a Mudblood."

"Which Mudblood?" the other man's eyes flashed a deeper shade of red.

"Granger, Sir. Hermione Granger."

"Isn't she one of Potter's friends?"

"Yes, Sir."

"You told me he hated Potter and his friends."

"He does, or did, Sir. Something changed. She bewitched him, I'm sure of it. She's the top of her year, could have whipped a love potion in a second."

"Well, your son should stay away from her. Talk to him, Lucius. You've been to soft. Make it clear he has to stay away from the dirty little Mudblood, or his little girlfriend might get hurt."

"Yes Sir. That shall be done."

Draco's eyes snapped open. He lay awake in his four posters, his breathing heavy. He had been having a nightmare about Hermione. He had had it previously. All though he never actually saw her, all he saw was darkness, and could hear Hermione screaming, but he was unable to help her. Opening the green curtains, he reached over to the side of his table, and drank from his glass of water. Goyle's snored could he heard in the bed next to his. He sat up as he drank, then placed the cup back, closing his curtains and curling up in his bed, his gray eyes still wide open.

"I have to apologize to her." He whispered to himself. "It's hard going a few days without speaking to her, how can I survive a whole week? Or even a month?" He closed his eyes and remembered the day a year ago in Flourish and Blotts. It flashed across his eyes. His father insulting her, Hermione being so brave and standing up for herself, then her slapping his father, and his own smirk at it. Then his father going to curse her, and him stopping him on pure instinct. He remembered how good it was to see Hermione slap his father. Before they had gone to Diagon Alley, his father had been so mad at him. He remembered it vividly.

"Draco! You clumsy fool. Why can't you perform a simple decapitating spell?" His father had been so angry and frustrated with him that he had hit him with his walking stick in the arm, hard enough to cause Draco to stumble and fall.

Draco touched his arm. A year later, the mere memory of it hurt him. He had learned at an early age to get things right the first time or face the consequences.

And at Flourish and Blotts, his father had never insulted a person Draco's age before and Draco had just thought he went to far. Then after school had started, his father had sent him a letter. Apparently McGonagall had wrote to Lucius, telling him that Draco's grades were dropping in Transfiguration. Sadly, it had been right before Christmas and Draco was forced to go home. It caused him bruises on his arm and back.

But of course Crabbe and Goyle knew nothing about it. He had told no one, and had been hiding it since his 2nd year, and he wasn't going to stop now. No one was ever suppose to find out. That all changed in his fifth year. It was after Christmas break. He had to go to the nurse, because a bruise was turning slightly green, and it pained him more than the others. Pomfrey kept asking questions, but all he said was that he had forgotten about one of the disappearing staircases and had tripped and fallen. By the look of her face, she hadn't bought it, but she hadn't commented either. It might have been fate that he had chosen that time to go, because someone else had gone to see Pomfrey as well.

Hermione had poison ivy and Pomfrey had given her a potion that would make it disappear within a few minuets. She had just finished it off when Draco had walked in and sat in the bed next to hers. Suddenly an owl arrived for Pomfrey, calling her to a staff meeting. She said she'd be back in about 30 minuets and that they could both wait. After she left, Hermione spoke.

"Malfoy, I've been wanting to talk to you."

"What is it Granger? Can't you see I'm not in the mood to talk?"

"Well then, you'll have to get in the mood because I'm talking to you anyway." Draco scowled at that but didn't respond.

"Why did you help me?"

"Help you? When did I help you?"

"At Flourish and Blotts. You pulled me out of the way before your father cursed me. Why did you do it? I thought you hated me?"

Draco didn't respond. He had been thinking about that to. 5 months had gone by and he was still asking himself why. "I don't know Granger. Maybe I was feeling giving that day."

"Draco Malfoy feeling giving? I doubt it. What made you change your mind about me?" Hermione questioned.

"It wasn't about you. It was really not letting my father push someone else around. Had it been someone else, I would have done the exact same thing." He snapped.

"Would you? Really? Didn't you once wish me dead? Why couldn't you just let your father finished me off, once and for all. Then the Mudblood you hate so much would be gone."

"Listen Granger. I don't want to discuss this with you. I don't even want to be seen talking to you, so leave me be." Draco spat out, trying to get his point across. Hermione stayed silent for a few moments before she spoke again.

"How'd you really get that bruise?" She stood up from the bed she was sitting at and sat next to Draco. He didn't move away or tell her to leave, but just stared at her with an icy look before responding.

"You heard what I told Pomfrey. I fell." Draco was holding the arm where his bruise was, his robe sleeve up.

"Did you really?" Hermione said before she reached over and lifted his other sleeve. Other bruises were on that arm, some smaller and one a tad bit bigger. "No staircase or Bludger or anything else could have caused that. Anything but a human hand." She moved her finger around one of the bruises as Draco flinched and moved his arm away from her, pulling down his sleeve.

"What are you implying Granger?"

"You always have to visit the hospital wing after coming home. Then you actually stand up for me against your own father. I'm not stupid Malfoy. I think I've figured it all out." She said everything slowly, as if she was still piecing together the pieces.

"How's your relationship with your father?"

Draco froze slightly, his misty gray eyes locked on her brown ones. 'Can I trust her?' he thought to himself. He sighed deeply and looked away from her, down at his lap.

"It's horrible. He hates me. I hate him. It's the only thing we agree on. Hating each other. I used to want to be like him. He has such a high position in this world, but no one likes him. I sometimes think my own mother can't stand him. In Flourish and Blotts, he had stepped too far. I meant everything I said when I told him he had no right to talk to you that way. It only pissed me off more when he tried to curse you. He hits me when he's angry. He needs someone to take it out on, and sadly, I'm always that person. I used to want to carry on the family honor, but not anymore." He stopped and looked up at her. "Why am I telling you this? I've never even told Crabbe or Goyle."

"I'm glad you told me. Forgive me for saying this, but your father's a horrible man. He's a Death Eater isn't he? Fudge may not believe Harry, but I do."

Draco nodded. "He's in You-Know-Who's inner circle. He wants me to follow in his footsteps, but I don't want to anymore. I will never have the Dark Mark tattooed on me. I refuse it."

Hermione looked at him, in disbelief. "You've really changed, haven't you Draco?"

Draco looked stunned for a second at her using his first name, but he nodded anyway.

"You've changed for the better."

Closing his eyes again, Draco smiled to himself. 'She's always understood me. I can trust her with anything and everything, and I'm not going to lose that. She's the only one that really cares about me.' And thinking that, he fell asleep once more.