Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, therefore I do not own Harry Potter.

A/N: YAY! Lot's of reviews! Now was that so hard? I would like to thank all my reviewers for so kindly submitting their reviews, and as promised here is the latest chapter! Just some quick responces to some of the reviews first:

Kacie - Very true, Lucius should probably have to be much sneakier. However, I used 'poetic license' I guess you would say, and decided to overlook that problem. I hope that it doesn't bother you too much or ruin your enjoyment of the rest of the story.
TraptyetfreE - I know what you mean about Draco being a little mushy, it's very hard to write a romance story about a character like him, so I'll trye to make sure I keep him away from the mush as much as I can in the future.
Wildmage's Daughter - I was wondering when someone was going to tell me I was moving too fast because in all honesty if I were reviewing my story I would tell me that too! However if I moved at the pace I originally wanted, the story would never go anywhere! So I hope the speed doesn't bother you too much, and I'll try to make sure it doesn't continue moving too fast.
zuvalupa, HiphopSquirrel32, J.B, hersheys-kisses54, dragonblood, Paige23, Suzaku's Rose, Sweater Vest - I thank you all so much for your support, and I'm thrilled to hear you're all enjoying the story!

Enough talking, on with the story!

Chapter 13: Christmas

Hermione awoke really early Christmas morning still fuming at Ron. She completely ignored the pile of presents at the foot of her bed, dressed, and silently crept down to the only place in the castle where she now felt completely safe and happy, the private room in the library. She walked through the halls, half hoping to see Draco there, half dreading seeing him again, but when she opened the door and saw his white blond hair on the arm of the couch, any sense of dread melted away, and she smiled. 'He's okay,' she thought, 'and everything's going to be fine,'

Hermione walked over besides the couch and looked happily at Draco. Yet, when she looked closer, it appeared that he had been sleeping there all night because he was still wearing the same robes as yesterday. This worried Hermione slightly, especially when the noticed that, his skin appeared to have a bluish tinge again, only this time it was darker and more sickly than before. In fact the only sign of life seemed to be the slight rise and fall of his chest with each breath he took. She touched his face and jumped back with surprise, he was freezing! She searched again for the blankets, and covered him with all of them. The sun was now definitely shining through the window, and she didn't want to cause more problems with her friends, so she rushed back to her dormitory before any of them had awoken. Before leaving, she kissed Draco softly on his forehead, fear flowed through her as she felt how cold and lifeless his skin was. "I'll be back in a while," she whispered to him, though she doubted he could hear her.

Hermione half heartedly opened he gifts; she hesitated when she saw Ron's. She had a strong desire to throw it out the window, but instead she opened it. She scowled when she saw what it was, a crimson diary with a gold heart on it. Obviously he had hoped she would be impressed, and finally agree to go out with him, and he probably assumed that she would be filling its pages confessing love to him, but that was before last night.

She opened it, and inside was a message scrawled by Ron.

Hermione,
Merry Christmas! I hope you like this diary. I thought that you might like a book to write in instead of always reading them. Enjoy!
Love,
Ron

Hermione threw the book in her trunk absolutely disgusted with it. She then heard a knock at the door, and without waiting for a response, Ginny entered.

"Hey," greeted Ginny, trying to sound happy.

"Hey," replied Hermione, not bothering to try to sound at all cheerful.

"How are you?" asked Ginny.

"Pretty pissed," answered Hermione truthfully, "I got up really early, and went for a walk around the castle. Draco was passed out in the private room of the library, still wearing his clothes from yesterday, looking even worse than he did after the last time his father tortured him."

Ginny looked uneasy, "How could you tell?"

"Because he was cold as ice and his skin was blue, almost as if his father used a spell to freeze him to death or something."

"But it's cold outside, so that doesn't mean he was tortured," suggested Ginny.

"But it's not cold in the library, and I found him this morning, he shouldn't have been looking like that if he was naturally cold. Anyway, I'm gonna go back and check up on him after breakfast," finished Hermione resolutely.

"Do you want to wait for Harry and Ron, or do you just want to go now?"

"Let's go now; I don't think I can stand being around them at the moment, especially not Ron."

The girls went down to breakfast, Hermione forced herself to eat, and Ginny gave up attempting to distract Hermione. When Harry and Ron came in, Ginny looked imploringly at Hermione, but didn't attempt to make her stay. Hermione stood up, grabbing some extra pieces of toast for Draco, and walked silently past the boys. Ginny looked at them pityingly from the table, but Hermione avoided their eyes completely.

"Hermione, please talk to us!" pleaded Ron.

Hermione sped up her pace, and held her head up high; Ginny looked sadly to the floor, she hated seeing her friends fight. But she had to side with Hermione on this one, even if it was because of Malfoy.

In the library, Draco woke up with a splitting headache. He slowly got up, looked around trying to remember where he was and what had happened, but all he seemed to recall was intense pain that made him wish he were dead. He noticed the blankets all around him, 'Hermione must have been here,' he thought. The thought of Hermione brought a rush of memories to his head. And now that he was awake he seemed to have a plan fully formed in his mind, he didn't like it, but it was the only way to protect Hermione. The hard part was going to be keeping it all a secret from her.

Almost as if she were reading his thoughts, Hermione entered the private room. "Oh, good," she sighed, genuinely relieved, "you're alright," she smiled slightly, but the smile did not extend to her eyes, her eyes looked as if she were on the verge of tears. She sat down next to him and handed him the toast, "I thought you might like some breakfast."

"Thanks," said taking the toast, but not eating it, his gaze was on her, "is something wrong?"

Hermione paused, not meeting his gaze. Her hands fumbled around uncomfortably, and it was clear to Draco that something was really wrong. He lifted his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a one armed hug. Finally she spoke, "I was so worried about you last night when Dumbledore told us you were meeting your father," she began, tears streaming down her face, and the words spilling faster from her mouth the more she spoke. "And I couldn't concentrate on anything, so Ginny and I went to the common room because I needed to talk to someone, and I was telling her how worried I was about you, and Harry and Ron heard me, and they were furious," the tears were pouring down her face now, and breathing was becoming difficult. "And so now I'm not speaking to them, and they're probably still angry with me, and then I came here this morning and saw you practically frozen, and I'm just so confused and scared! And I don't know what to do!" She completely broke down and buried her head against Draco's chest once she finished.

Draco, pulled Hermione into a comforting hug, "Hey, hey, calm down, it's going to be fine." He rubbed her back and held her head comfortingly. He let her cry a little, then moved her so that she was looking at him, "trust me, everything will be fine." It killed him to say those words to her, knowing how much he was going to hurt her in just a few short weeks, but the fact that Potter and Weasley knew about their relationship was going to make it much easier for Hermione to hate him when he did have to break it off with her. For now though, he continued consoling her, and being the person he wanted to be for her. He lifted his hand to her cheek and wiped away a tear, her eyes looked up at him glistening from the tears, but he had suddenly stopped looking at her. His eyes were on the hand that had just touched her cheek, "that's it," he whispered more to himself than to Hermione.

"What?" she sobbed, completely perplexed.

Draco pulled her in to a tight hug, and stood her up smiling in triumph, "Hermione! Tears! Phoenix tears! They're the missing ingredient! It's so simple! They already have healing powers, the rest of these ingredients must just make them more powerful so the potion can be used even after the phoenix would be unable to cure the injuries!"

It took Hermione a moment to figure out what he was talking about, but gradually comprehension dawned on her face, "OH!! Of course!" She attempted to sound excited but at the same time she couldn't help but be a little frustrated. Here she was crying her eyes out, and he was thinking about the stupid potion.

"Looks like we'll have to somehow get Fawkes to lend us some tears when we're ready. Why don't we ask Dumbledore at dinner tonight if we can borrow Fawkes, just to make sure it's ok."

"Good idea," agreed Hermione.

"Speaking of dinner, I think I'm gonna go take a nap before I shower and stuff, cause I'm still exhausted."

"Ok, you do look kinda ill" said Hermione sounding slightly disappointed.

"Eh, I'll be fine," assured Draco, "But what about you? Are you going to be alright?"

His tone was suddenly serious and concerned, which made Hermione smile, "yeah, I'll be fine,"

"Good," Draco leaned down and kissed her, "see you at dinner."

Hermione spent the rest of the day studying, she began in the common room, but Harry and Ron kept casting her dirty disbelieving looks. Ginny implored Ron to leave Hermione alone, but eventually anger got the better of him and he made his way to her to confront her, "So how come you're not studying with dear darling Draco? Having a lovers' spat are you? " he said with cruel sarcasm.

"Shut up Ron," Hermione whispered threateningly, staring determinedly at the book she was reading.

"Hey Ron," interjected Harry, "why don't you come back over here and leave Hermione alone?"

"Thank you Harry," acknowledged Hermione, smiling at Harry.

"No!" shouted Ron defiantly, "I'm not going to ignore this until I understand what's going on?"

"What's so hard to understand!" shouted Hermione, "Draco has changed, and we're dating now, is that too difficult for your thick head to comprehend?"

"So are you going to be holding hands and making out at dinner? Or do you now consider him calling you a mudblood all the time a term of endearment now?" asked Ron disgustedly.

Hermione slammed her book closed and leapt to her feet, her eyes flashing and her face inches away from Ron's "For your information, he has not called me that all year! And just the way he looks at me makes me feel wonderful and beautiful and happier than I've ever been!" Hermione turned on her heel and stormed up to her dormitory.

Ron stared at her in disbelief, mouth open, but unable to utter a sound. Ginny and Harry spent the rest of the afternoon convincing Ron to not say anything to Hermione or Malfoy at dinner. Ron agreed to try to keep silent, but didn't make any promises.

Hermione and Ginny spent an hour getting ready for dinner, they put on semi fancy robes, and they both put their hair up in honor of the special occasion. Hermione normally wouldn't have dressed up at all even for Christmas dinner, but she had an odd desire to impress Draco. Ginny helped her put of make-up and the two girls had fun playing dress up until it was time to go.

The four Gryffindor's walked to the Great Hall together, Hermione refusing to look at Ron, and Ron constantly staring at Hermione hoping to catch her eye. Hermione's breath quickened as they neared the Great Hall, 'what if he had passed out or something while sleeping? What if Ron was right and in front of them he reverted back to his old self?' They were slightly late for dinner, and when they arrived Hermione's eyes quickly scanned the single table in the middle of the room for Draco, and her heart sank when she saw he wasn't there.

"Ah," greeted professor Dumbledore, ushering them forward, "the final members of our party are here, please, come take a seat."

Ginny met Hermione's eye because she too had noticed that Draco was missing, Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but professor Dumbledore spoke first, "Professor Snape, if you would kindly continue your discussion with Mr. Malfoy after dinner, then we can start."

"Of course headmaster," obliged professor Snape emerging from the shadows, "we just finished anyway."

"Excellent! Well then, if you two will both take your seats, we can pull the Christmas crackers and begin the feast!" announced professor Dumbledore.

Snape stalked across the room and took his seat. Draco followed striding confidently across the room and taking the seat next to Snape. Hermione's breath caught in her chest when she saw Draco, and even Ginny stopped and stared wide-eyed. He looked even more handsome than normal; he was wearing an emerald green turtle neck shirt with midnight black robes accented with the silver Slytherin serpent. His hair fell perfectly over his face, just slightly in front of his eyes. And his eyes, for some reason, they shown brighter than normal, as he sat down, he looked straight into Hermione's eyes and smiled ever so slightly so that it was barely noticeable. This took Hermione by such surprise that for a moment she was unable to move.

"Ahem," Dumbledore cleared his throat, "you may all sit down now." Hermione looked at him and flushed to see that he was looking at her with a slight smile on his face. She made to sit next to Draco, but Ron was quicker, and he was closer, and he pushed Harry into the seat next to Draco, and then took the seat next to Harry. He looked to Hermione, smiling smartly. Hermione frowned at him, and then looked to Ginny to sit next to him, and finally, Hermione seated herself in between Ginny and professor Vector. She was furious with Ron for purposely preventing her from sitting next to Draco, she could not concentrate on the conversation going on around her, so she just sat and stared at her food, eating it, but not really tasting it. She continued like that until she felt a peculiar sensation, it almost felt as if she was being watched. Sure enough, she looked up and across the table Draco's eyes were on her, he smiled slightly again when she looked at him. Hermione smiled back, blushed and quickly returned her attention to her plate.

This interaction did not go unnoticed, Ron's attention had been divided between staring at Hermione, and studying Malfoy, as though he thought Draco was going to jump up and curse Hermione in front of everyone. Ron's ears reddened and he gripped his knife angrily when he saw them smile at each other.

"Well," began Dumbledore, when they had all finished their deserts, "I hope everyone's stomachs are nice and full, and that you all had an enjoyable Christmas. Now, I think it is time to go."

Everyone began to stand up, when Draco spoke, "excuse me professor Dumbledore, but Hermione and I were wondering if we could have a word with you."

An awkward silence followed this statement, everyone was shocked to head Draco call Hermione by her first name. "Of course" answered professor Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling, "just step right over here."

"Should we wait for you?" asked Harry as Hermione walked toward Draco and professor Dumbledore.

"No, I'm fine," answered Hermione shortly.

Harry, Ron and Ginny began heading back to the common room, but Ron stopped. "I want to see what he does to her when we're not there. I'm gonna spy on them, you guys coming?"

"Ron no! If Hermione catches you she'll never forgive you!" argued Ginny.

"I don't care, I have to know, you coming Harry?"

"Yeah, I'm rather curious myself," answered Harry. The two boys hid in the shadows outside the Great Hall, prepared to follow Hermione and Draco when they emerged. Ginny shook her head, knowing that they were making a terrible mistake, and returned to the common room alone.

Ron and Harry didn't have to wait long, they had barely hidden themselves when Draco walked out and held the door for Hermione.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," said Hermione.

"Nonsense, I'll walk you back to your common room," offered Draco.

"But our common rooms are on the complete opposite sides of the castle," said Hermione.

"So? I want to," Draco said as he began to lead her in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.

Harry and Ron followed them silently from a safe distance, though Ron had to use ever ounce of self restraint he had not to charge at Draco when he saw that they were holding hands. "Wish we had some extendable ears to hear what they're saying," whispered Ron as they went.

Harry was relieved when they finally reached the common room, the walk had passed without incident, and now maybe Ron could calm down a little. Draco and Hermione stopped in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Hermione," Draco began softly, "I have something for you." From his pocket, he pulled out a piece of jewelry. From their hideout, Harry and Ron could see that it was a silver dragon on a long chain. Tiny glints of green sparkled in the light, and Harry guessed that it contained emeralds as well as silver.

Harry and Ron were disgusted, but Hermione gasped when she saw it, "Oh, Draco! It's beautiful!" She looked at it for a moment, then turned her attention back to Draco, "do you think you could put it on for me?"

Draco, smiled, "of course." He took the necklace as Hermione turned around. He clasped the necklace and whispered "Merry Christmas Hermione," then it happened, the thing that nearly made Ron snap. Draco clasped the necklace, whispered, then kissed Hermione on the neck. Hermione pulled away quickly and spun around, "Ha," whispered Ron, I knew she wouldn't let anything like that happen. I bet she'll give him a real telling off now!"

Hermione was looking at Draco wide-eyed "Draco! What if someone comes out and sees us?" she giggled with a smile on her face.

"Who cares?" asked Draco, his hands holding Hermione's waist "You said they already knew about us, so who cares if they see us kiss?"

Hermione looked at him slyly, "True, very true," then to Ron's horror, she leaned in and kissed Draco very seductively. Draco gladly deepened the kiss, and they only stopped when the need for air forced them to. The two bid each other goodnight, and Draco turned and began walking back to the Slytherin common room. Harry's jaw was on the ground, and Ron's face was white, and his gaze followed Draco with an expression beyond hatred. Hermione was safely in the common room when Ron jumped up and began rushing in the direction Draco went.

"Ron what . . ."

"He's going to wish her were never born when I'm through with him!" It didn't take long for Ron to reach Draco, and when he saw him, he ran up to him and punched him in the eye, the same place Lucius had hit him the day before. He had magically hidden the bruise, but the pain was still there. Draco, who had not been paying attention, howled in pain and fell to the floor dazed and dizzy.

"What the hell?" he asked in confusion.

Ron leapt on top of Malfoy and began punching him, Draco recovered enough sense to kick Ron off of him and grab his wand. He pointed it at Ron, but was not fast enough; Harry who had followed Ron through the halls rammed Draco to the ground at the sight of the wand. Draco's head slammed hard into the ground with a dangerous crack, causing him to bleed and lose all sense of reality. Ron took the opportunity to again begin hitting Draco "Don't you ever go near her again understand!" shouted Ron, throwing a new punch with each word.

Draco, who was bruised and bleeding from being attacked two on one, found new strength upon being reminded of Hermione. He began to fight back against both Harry and Ron. He kicked at them and punched back. But he just could not overcome the two raging Gryffindors. Ron socked him in the stomach, knocking the wind completely out of him.

"STOP!" Hermione cried in horror. "What the hell are you doing? Ginny go get a professor!"

The fighting stopped instantly at the sound of Hermione's voice. Harry and Ron were both sporting random bruises and cuts, but overall they were fine, Draco on the other hand lay on the floor gasping for breath. Both eyes were bruised, and blood was pouring from his nose. "Draco!" cried Hermione, falling to her knees next to him, "what did you do to him?" she asked Harry and Ron threateningly. Her eyes were tearing, and the two suddenly felt incredibly guilty for what they had done when they saw Hermione's face.

"There professor!" Ginny had arrived with professor McGonagall, who began jogging when she saw Draco crumpled up and injured on the floor.

"What happened here?" she asked, looking at the two Gryffindor's. They both avoided her eyes with guilty looks on their faces. "Very well then, Mr. Malfoy, would you care to explain what happened?" she turned her attention to Draco, but he had passed out, and Hermione was sobbing silently. "Oh dear, we must get him to the hospital wing immediately," said professor McGonagall. "Can you help me lift him Miss Granger?"

Hermione lifted Draco's head to stand him up as professor McGonagall cast the locomotor mortis charm on him, Hermione gasped. "Yes Miss Granger?" questioned professor McGonagall.

"He's bleeding!" Hermione showed her hand to professor McGonagall, it was covered in blood. Sure enough when they looked at Draco, blood was running from underneath his hair on the back of his head all the way down his robes, ending in a small puddle on the floor.

"My God!" cried professor McGonagall, as she began to rush him to the hospital wing at a run, "you all follow me!"

The students had to run to keep up with professor McGonagall, and they reached the hospital wing in no time, "Polly!" cried professor McGonagall, "we have a seriously injured student!"

Madam Pomfrey came bustling out of her office, and gasped when she saw Draco, who professor McGonagall was levitating onto one of the beds. "Looks like he's been through quite an ordeal," she said examining Draco's bruised face, when she saw that the back of his head was bleeding, she rushed to her office to get a healing potion.

It was then that professor McGonagall turned to Harry and Ron for the first time. She looked more livid than they had ever seen her, but this was not what hurt them the most. Their eyes were on Hermione, whose face was colorless, her hands were quivering, and silent tears were running down her cheeks. She was watching Draco from the corner of the room, she seemed afraid to get too close as if, if she stayed away his injuries would disappear. She was unconsciously holding the dragon pendant in her hand, it seemed to give her comfort.

Ginny was eyeing Hermione with apprehension, afraid to speak; she then turned to the boys who were awaiting their punishment. But professor McGonagall seemed too angry to speak, she sputtered for a moment then seemed to come into herself, "Never . . . . in all my years of teaching, have I seen such atrocious behavior from a Gryffindor! What on earth were you thinking attacking another student like that?" The boys remained silent, staring guiltily at the floor, Hermione however let out a sob when professor McGonagall finished. Ginny gave her a comforting hug, but that seemed to only cause Hermione to break down further. Professor McGonagall continued to stare at the boys, "well. . . ." When no response came, she turned to Hermione and Ginny, "Miss Weasley, perhaps you can tell me what happened."

"Well, I don't really know the whole story, by the time I got there, they were already beating him up," responded Ginny truthfully.

"I'll tell you what happened," raged Hermione, her anger shining through the tears streaming down her face. "These two morons decided to spy on Draco and I when we left the Great Hall, then after I was in the common room, they must have followed him and attacked him." Hermione purposely left out the part about the kiss, she did not feel comfortable talking about that sort of thing with a teacher yet.

Ron however, had no reservation bringing it up, "they were kissing each other professor!" he cried desperately.

Professor McGonagall could not hide her shock at this pronouncement; she looked to Hermione who was glaring lividly at Ron. Professor McGonagall did her best to regain her composure, "I do not recall that ever being a cause for starting a fight Mr. Weasley. Did he provoke you in any way that caused you two to fight him?"

Ron was looking incredulous at professor McGonagall, Harry meanwhile hung his head to the ground, "no professor, he didn't even know we were there till we attacked him."

"Very well then, 100 points from Gryffindor, and the two of you will begin the semester with a weeks worth of detention. Then we will see if I need to enforce further punishments. Now, you are to return to the common room and you will stay there until breakfast in the morning. Miss Granger, you may stay as long as Madame Pomfrey allows, and Miss Weasley, you may either remain with Miss Granger or return to the common room."

Harry, Ron, and professor McGonagall left, Ginny and Hermione remained in the hospital wing. Hermione slowly moved out of her corner to the side of Draco's bed. He was sleeping, and she was relieved to see that the bleeding had stopped, but his face was still all black and blue. It pained Hermione to think how much those bruises must hurt, and a surge of anger toward Ron and Harry boiled inside her, 'how could they? They were supposed to be her friends!'

Madame Pomfrey did not let the girls stay long; she informed Hermione that Draco would not awake for at least a day, though she agreed to allow Hermione to return the next day anyway.

I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter! Please send me a review to let me know!
I smile sweetly at everyone reading, hoping they'll send a review.