A/N: Thanks a bunch for the reviews as always. By now I should have reviewed everyone's story from chapter one (hopefully…). And let me just say that I know it's sort of confusing and I've left details out, but I realize that and everything's going to be revealed very soon. I promise.

And just pay attention to the way that they refer to each other changes. (Just as a little hint!)

Thanks to:

amanda-panda161: Thanks for the double review!

Pale-Spaz101: I know you're impatient, but all will be revealed very soon! (Explanations are great!)

Irishsodabread: Wow, thank you so much! You gave me a total boost of confidence in your review! You're definitely the greatest!

Gryffxchick: Thanks or the encouragement!

Lisi: I totally understand where you're coming from. I wanted this chapter to move really fast and for them to fall madly in love but that would just be weird. In this chapter there'll be a quick fit of kindness but them they kind of revert back to silently hating each other.

Amour-Lily: I'm hurrying as fast as I can! (And I think I might have read the second chapter of your story, but I can't remember yet.)

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Chapter 3- A truce?

The next few days passed rather uneventfully for us two, both of us unspeaking had calling a truce. We had actually managed to have a few civilized conversations, though they always seemed to be forced. We had talked a little bit about Hogwarts and what we were going to do when we graduated, but nothing past that and other necessary small talk.

So of course I still had many questions flying around in my head that I desperately needed to ask. But I was afraid. Afraid that I would no longer see the genuine smile on his face or hear him say my name. I liked this side of him. It seemed that once you got him alone and away from his peers he would open up and not be such an insufferable prat. And I found that I suddenly craved him companionship. Why I needed this so much, I don't know. I guess I just needed the companionship I was so used to having all of the time. Which led me to one of my most pressing questions:

Where were Ron and Harry? I simply could not understand why they had not dashed to my rescue. They had always been my heroes and, even if slightly overbearing, they had been my knights in shining armor. Of course it had always irked me that I had been the damsel in distress, but at least I had known they were there for me.

In our first year they had saved me from that troll (even though I could have saved myself, thank you very much). What had Draco done? Called me names. And as I looked back over every year, it had been the same. Harry and Ron were to ones to save and comfort me while Draco was the one that made me miserable.

Since when had those roles reversed?

Without them here or without even a letter of some sort I was feeling neglected and depressed. I guess Draco had finally realized it after a few days of slamming around the house moodily.

"What's wrong?" He finally asked as he stood in the doorway to my bedroom, looking at me sprawled across my bed in amusement.

I slowly turned my head around so I could focus on him clearly. "Where are Harry and Ron? Or any of my friends for that matter? I miss them and they suck for not writing to me. How could they just abandon me like that?"

"I knew it," he sighed as he sat down on the edge of my bed, "I told Dumbledore that it wasn't right, but he insisted it was for the best."

"What? What did Dumbledore do?" I had a feeling that whatever he was about to tell me would really piss me off.

Draco seemed to realize that as well. "Now don't hurt the messenger for the message, okay?" He waited for my impatient nod before he continued, "Dumbledore thought that after the attack we would be targets for further Death Eater attacks. So he decided to send us into hiding."

"So no one knows where we are?" I asked in disbelief.

"No one except for Dumbledore. In fact, I'm not even exactly sure where we are."

"So we can't get out of here on our own?"

He shook his head. "No way in hell." When he saw the look on my face he smiled and continued, "Believe me, I wasn't happy about it either, but he thought that it would be for the best if we went into hiding without telling anyone. It would reduce the chances of us being revealed."

"So basically he couldn't trust us with protecting ourselves?"

"Shut up Hermione. You have no idea how strong the Death Eaters are at this point. There was just no way that they would leave us alone and no way that we would be able to fend them off when they came after us."

"So we left everyone else behind to who knows what?" I felt like bursting into tears. I just couldn't imagine myself ever leaving my friends alone by my own free will. It hurt to know that I had deserted them.

"You did not desert them," he said as if reading my mind.

"But I did!" I was surprised to hear my voice crack and taste salt as my tears fell down my face.

"You didn't. Really, it was all my fault. I took you here while you were unconscious, so you really had no say." He moved closer to me and to my surprise laid down next to me. I noted he was careful not to actually touch me. I knew he had been uncomfortable about sharing his memories with me, but as they got stronger he got more and more wary of me.

I sighed and composed myself, forcing the tears to stop. "It wasn't your fault. It was for the best. It's just that I felt so hurt that they had never come to see me or sent anything. I thought that if I wasn't with them they didn't care. I was scared that they would forget me."

"They wouldn't forget you," Draco said with his classic smirk. "Your hair is so big that they'd never get it out of their minds."

I was hurt until I looked over at him and saw he was joking. "Shut up."

We stared at each other for a moment, I with a look of deep thinking and he with a face of intense concentration. Finally his face cleared as if he had decided something and he leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.

The kiss had quickly escalated into something far more, but he couldn't stop—he didn't want to stop. He roughly shoved his tongue into her mouth and ripped off the short skirt she was wearing. It barely even covered her anyway…

She struggled, but he was so much stronger. He smiled even as he trailed hard kisses down her neck. Luckily he had cast a silencing charm over her, she was screaming bloody murder, he was sure.

"What?" He sat straight up as he woke from his disturbing, yet pleasing, dream. He couldn't believe he had been snogging… the Mudblood. He was quite sure that he didn't like her, but her body was fantastic. He wouldn't mind getting in her pants.

He shivered with excitement at the idea. Getting Mudblood would be an exciting experience. He had another thrill shiver through his body as he thought of her screams when he took her unwillingly. The force and humiliation was possibly the best part of the whole thing.

Malfoy quickly drew back, cursing himself for allowing that memory to be shared. He glanced over at me, and winced at seeing the mixture of horror and revulsion on my face. He quickly tried to make amends. "That was a long time ago."

Ha. Like that would work you dirty little bastard.

"So? You wanted to rape me Malfoy," I managed to sputter out after recovering from the initial shock.

"Well I've changed!" He looked scared, but more than that, utterly pissed off.

"BUT YOU WANTED TO RAPE ME!" I knew I was way out of control, but I couldn't stop myself.

I sat up and pulled away from him, wrapping my arms around my legs. I shivered even though the room was almost stifling.

"Fine Mudblood. Believe what you want. I don't care what you think anyway."

If I had been thinking rationally at the time I would have realized that I could have forgiven him and made up, but I was too far gone. "Don't call me that you stuck up pureblood prude! And get out of my room!"

He stood up, menacing as he towered over me. I shuddered as I realized that he could easily do whatever he wanted to me. We were totally and utterly alone.

"No. You are going to calm down and listen to me, Mudblood."

"No I'm not. Get away from me."

"I will not!" His normally pale face was growing redder by the minute.

"I HATE YOU! I HOPE YOU DIE, NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!" I collapsed back on the bed and stared at the ceiling not crying even when he slammed the door shut.

I had never felt so betrayed in my life.

Sure there had been the time in third year where Ron hated me because of something he thought my cat did, but this was somehow different. Malfoy and I were all alone here and… and I hate to say it and become clichéd, but we had connected. In sharing his memories I had somehow become closer to him without realizing it. I recognized that it would be harder now, without even a dubious friend to spend time with.

---

"Hey." He ignored me. Completely ignored me. Inside I was seething, but outwardly I merely shrugged. "Fine, be a little baby."

That elicited a reaction. "Shut up Granger."

I said nothing, not willing to start another screaming match. Well, an argument where I ended up screaming at him.

Instead I grabbed some eggs from the pan and began to eat. Very quickly I found myself done and doing nothing but staring at the top of his head.

"Will you stop staring at me?" He snapped angrily.

"What date is it?" I asked suddenly.

He looked surprised, but replied, "June the seventeenth."

"What?" I could hear my voice go all high and squeaky. "Tomorrow's graduation!"

He shrugged, obviously not caring. "Like we can do anything. There's no way we can go."

I glared at him. Without anyone else to blame, he would have to be the butt of all my problems.

"Will you stop glaring at me? I haven't done a thing except had the urge to rape you in my fifth year. I'm sure every other guy in the school has wanted to as well. Especially Blaise after you turned him down."

I couldn't help it. I really tried, but it didn't work. I was furious at him, but I couldn't help it in the face of such absurdity.

I burst into giggles.

He looked up at me in surprise. "What the hell Granger? Have you gone nutty?"

"I can't believe you, King of Slytherin and all-around Muggle Hater, would want to touch me in any way. Especially back then when you still believed all that bull."

He smiled slowly as well, but it didn't reach his eyes. I knew he still didn't trust me to not freak out on him. "Yeah. I was horrified. I hated you so much."

"Me too. Well," I said, finally realizing the true extent of our relationship, "I really hated you until the day of the attack. That was the first time I saw you as Draco instead of Malfoy."

"Yeah, I guess that was the same for me too," he acknowledged. "Weird."

"Can you imagine how horrible everyone must have thought we were this year? I mean, their Head Girl and Boy actually got into a fist fight."

Malfoy cackled. It was an evil laugh, but at least it was real. "Yeah, that was awesome. You broke my nose."

I smiled fondly at the memory as I picked up my plate and placed it into the sink. As I washed it off I commented, "It wasn't just you. I was pretty horrible too."

"Granger?" I turned around to look at him and saw his face completely serious. "Can we be friends again?"

I seriously considered it, but I just wasn't comfortable with him anymore. I shook my head with a no. "I- I just can't. It's too weird for me… at the moment. But that doesn't mean I want to hate you," I amended quickly. "But will you just promise me that you won't start calling me m-mudblood anymore?"

"Yes. And promise you won't freak out at my impure thoughts?" The smirk on his face made me want to run and hide under my bed, but I repressed my shudder and nodded, a fake smile plastered on my face.

I knew he saw through it, but he was smart enough not to comment on it.

Suddenly I heard a tapping on the window.

"What's that?" I looked around and quickly located the source. An owl.

"I'll get it." He quickly stood and stalked by me.

"Will you get that damn owl boy?" As usual Draco's father would not use his real name. But he supposed it could be worse- he could be screaming at him.

"Yes father." He hurriedly walked over to the window and grabbed the small owl. "Hey Marvin." Untying the letter from the grey owl's leg he felt a surge of apprehension. Why, he could not say.

"Who is it from?" His father did not even bother looking up from his paper. Too bad. He would have laughed if he could have seen the look of terror on his son's face. Fear because of him.

"F-from Granger." He spat out the name as vehemently as possible, but his father still looked up with blazing eyes.

"Why," he asked slowly, enunciating every word with horrible precision, "are you receiving letters from that filthy excuse for a witch?"

"S-she just wanted to tell me that she made Head Girl and that I better not try anything or she'd hex me into the next millennium."

His father stood up so fast his chair fell over and skidded to a stop well out of range. He advanced slowly toward Draco. Even though he was dwarfed by a good much, he still made Draco feel like a little boy.

Quickly and without warning he grabbed the boy's head and smashed it into the table.

Draco tasted blood immediately, but the pain took its time. But when it hit, it hit hard.

He heard the sound of screaming as he stumbled out of the dining room. Perhaps it was him. Or maybe it was his mother. Who knew? After what seemed like an eternity he made it to the nearest bathroom. He could barely recognize himself.

What had once been smooth, pure skin was now red with blood and split open nearly to the bone. He winced and struggled to remain upright as he gingerly touched the welt on his forehead. It was horrific.

"Like what you see boy?" He whirled around to face his father. He would have said something horribly cruel, but the movement was too much for his throbbing head and he collapsed onto the floor.

He was able to hear, "Never again," from his father before he completely blacked out.

"I did that to you?" I had never felt such guilt in my life.

"Let's not talk about it." Later he had told me that had been the hardest memory to cope with. That had been his last interaction with his father before the fatal attack.

I nodded. "What does the owl say?" I asked, eager to change the subject. "Read for yourself."

Dear Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy,

I know you must be upset (and I sincerely regret) that you will miss your graduation from Hogwarts tomorrow. I do wish you to know that you will receive your diplomas tomorrow. You have been exempted from all of your N.E.W.T.s this year-"

"Oh no! All of that studying down the drain!"

"Shut up Granger."

"and must not worry about that. Your actions in the recent past have more than shown that you are fully capable. I also regret to tell you that you will be sorely missed as the valedictorians of the class.

"I wish you two the best of luck as you remain away from prying eyes. I hope that you two may settle your differences and come out of this experience unscathed. I thank you for seven wonderful years of service and devotion to your school. May the force be with you.

Albus Dumbledore"

Somehow Malfoy's arm had snaked around my waist without my knowledge as I had read the letter. I also realized that I was silently crying. But I was too happy to care.

Instead I wrapped my arms around his neck. I felt him tense under my touch, but I dismissed it. "Let's get over the last seven years and just celebrate right now. We've come to the end of that road. We can put this all behind us."

He grinned and quickly hugged me back before nearly dancing over to the Muggle fridge. "We're out of Hogwarts! We're out of Hogwarts," he chanted as he reached into the fridge and pulled something out.

Before I could see what it was he hid it behind his back.

"What do you have there?"

"Champagne!" He cried excitedly, too happy to be stupid old Malfoy anymore.

"Oh Gods, please don't let this be a repeat of our Yule Ball in sixth year," I cried dramatically.

"Hey! I'd have to drink a lot more than this to get me to do that again."

I grinned. "Pour me some and let's celebrate!"

He conjured two (thankfully small) champagne glasses on the table and poured the drink into them.

Still standing I grabbed the closest glass and held it aloft. "To Hogwarts and seven years well spent," I proclaimed grandly.

Draco picked up his glass as well. "To Hogwarts," he echoed.

We drained our glasses and they were quickly refilled.

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A/N: See, absolutely no love here! Though I am sad about that… But hopefully a night of drinking will bring them closer together. I mean, if that can't, what will? I would appreciate suggestions on how long I should wait for the to start falling for each other. I'm just so nervous about doing it because it's just so out of charactre for both of them. Any support/ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!