New Guy in the Club

AN: My computer was completely wiped out so I lost everything on it! That's why I had to post it late…at first. Then I've just been so busy that I haven't really had time. hmmm. Oh well, I'm itching to get started on this chapter so here it is:

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Chapter 12

Draco woke the next morning and found himself somewhere other than his room. At first he thought it was some crazy idea of Lucius's. He sat up to look around, but realized where he was when he saw Hermione asleep next to him. The events of the previous night flooded through his mind, and he ran his fingers through his messy blonde hair, unsettled that she had to go through that.

He stood, careful to not wake Hermione, and looked around him. It was Saturday so he didn't have school, but he had no idea what Hermione's family had planned. Or what would happen if her parents found me here Looking back towards Hermione, he noticed she looked a bit disturbed in her sleep. She began to toss and turn. Slowly, Draco walked over to her and softly shook her shoulder.

Hermione's movement ceased as she opened her eyes. After a few seconds to collect why he was there, she smiled. "Hey you," she said quietly. She winced as she pulled herself into a sitting position.

"Careful," he commented.

"Nice hair."

"Promise not to tell anyone?" asked Draco.

"I was serious." She looked up at him feeling very small and vulnerable. He began walking towards her when they heard footsteps. A voice could be heard through the door.

"Hermione! Get up for breakfast and be down in ten minutes!" called her mother. The sound of her footsteps receded as she went back down to the kitchen.

Draco looked at Hermione. "I should probably go before your parents find some guy you just met in you bedroom not fully awake and early in the morning."

"Right," she replied. "Um, let's see, how are we going to do this?" she asked more to herself than Draco.

"I could climb out the window. There are enough things along the way to make it down," he noted looking out the window. Hermione was about to object, but he was already making his way out the window.

Suddenly he stopped and looked up. He ran back over and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. "Just, be careful," he said. She looked up into his face and rose to kiss him. He deepened it and they moved backwards, but soon cut it off. "I have to go. But I'll see you Monday, I promise." Draco gave her one last kiss before going out the window.

Hermione sat bored in first hour as her teacher was explaining something that she already knew about a lesson that they had already been taught. She restlessly twiddled her pencil in her hand, just thinking randomly, oblivious to just about everything around her. A soft clatter was heard when she accidentally dropped it, though. As she bent down to get it, someone else grabbed it first and gave it to her. Hermione looked up to see whom it was and came face to face with Dean Thomas.

"You're back!" she exclaimed quietly, knowing the teacher couldn't hear her when she was in the back of the room.

"Yes I am, as I have been for the last five minutes. I guess that pencil is much more interesting, which I can really understand." She gave a small laugh.

"When did you get back?"

"Yesterday afternoon. I spent the whole day unpacking and couldn't call anybody. Not even Ginny," he added.

"Wow. So, how was it?" This was much more interesting than whatever the teacher was saying.

"A lot of…people. Well, I felt so small there and I couldn't understand half of the things people were saying at first. Of course, I caught on eventually to a bit of it, but it was still confusing as hell."

"OH!" said Hermione attracting attention of those around her. "Sorry," she apologized and let them get back to work. She turned back towards Dean. "Oh my god, how could I forget? There's a new guy here. He's so cool and actually pretty nice. His name's Draco Malfoy, you'll see him at lunch probably."

"Wow, how new is he?"

"Um, about a week." It feels like so much more, though she added to herself.

"And he's already at our table? Half the people that went all through elementary school with us took until about sixth or seventh grade to sit there and most didn't last long after that." He looked at her funny, thinking of something but brushed the thought away. "Oh yeah, what happened to you? You look like you fell down a staircase. And a big one at that."

Hermione had, in fact, gotten a lot better over the weekend. She still had faint marks where cuts were and the bruises had gone down greatly except for the one on her shoulder.

"Oh this?" she asked. "Well you're not far off. See, I dropped this full glass of water and when I was going to get a rag to clean it up I totally slipped in it and got pretty banged up. Cuts, blood…it wasn't a pretty sight."

"Ouch," he said. "That sounds like fun." He paused for a few seconds. "So what else happened while I wasn't around here? Anything even vaguely interesting?"

"Not really. A few things here and there but nothing far from the norm'." Then she remembered something. "Nice timing. Today's the only day this week! There's some teacher thing, I don't know, but I was thinking, since we haven't done it in a while, we should go to The Darkly Defensive for a day or two."

The Darkly Defensive was a fancy hotel just outside of town that Hermione, Ginny, Dean, and the others would go to every once in a while on weekends or breaks from school.

"That'd be great! What a perfect way to come back to town!"

The teachers voice then interrupted their conversation. "Ok class, over the break reread chapter eight and do the review section at the end of it. It will be due next Monday and the test will be the following Tuesday.

Draco made his way through the halls on his way to lunch, late. He knew that Harry, Dean, and Ron had already gotten to the lunchroom by now. Continuing through the waves of people, he saw a familiar person ahead of him, Hermione, but she didn't know he was there, having just come out of a classroom.

He snuck up behind her and then quickly swept her up into his arms.

"DRACO!" Hermione half yelled and half squealed. "Put me down this instant!" she commanded.

"I don't think so. Wow, you're light even with an armload of books added."

"What are you doing? Put me down!" She couldn't do much but hang on to his neck, though, so she didn't create any chance of falling.

"For a kiss," he said with a devilish smirk on his face. The hall was empty except for a few stragglers that no one cared about.

"What?" she asked incredulously.

"It's not like anyone will see. Come on."

"Put me down first," she said.

"No."

"Then you'll just have to carry me around all day," she said jokingly. She shifted positions to make herself more comfortable to emphasize her fake point.

"Fine, then. Where's your locker?"

"You're not serious!" She looked at him. "You're serious." He nodded once and then began walking in the general direction of her locker.

"What's your number?"

"635." To her surprise, he actually took her to it.

"What your combination?" She looked at him skeptically. She gave in and sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to get to it.

"Right 42, left 4, and right until it opens," she mumbled.

"Good girl. Wait, why do you get a two numbered one? Mine you have to stop at the third number!"

"Remember, you got here late in the year. I was early and got on of the first picks." He shifted her in his arms so he could free one and opened her locker, removing the weight of her books from her, also. After re-closing it, he began to go to the lunchroom.

"You know, a lot of people are going to talk if we walk in like this." She groaned, comfortable and beginning to get thoughts of a possible nap. Hermione looked up and gave him a small glare. Sighing, she pulled herself forward and gave him a tiny kiss and was set back to her feet.

"Now was that so hard?" Draco asked.

"Maybe. Besides, I was getting comfy," she complained.

"I noticed. But we need to go to lunch. I'm sure you're very much missed." He smiled at her.

"Oh yeah, Dean came back. You get to meet him," commented Hermione and she bounded off away from Draco, leaving him to catch up with her.

Ginny rolled over on her bed, when she remembered that she had to call Hermione. Groaning, she reached over to grab her phone. Punching her friend's speed dial, she listened to the sound of the telephone ring.

"Granger residence, Mark speaking."

"Hello Mr. Granger. This is Ginny. I was wondering if Hermione happened to be home, and if she was, I could talk to her?"

"No problem." Then Ginny heard Mark call out his daughter's name in a muffled voice. "One second," he told her.

"I've got it." Hermione's voice came over and her father hung up to leave the girls to talk. "Hey Gin, what's up?"

"Oh, not much, I called to talk about The Darkly Defensive. Are we still going to stay tomorrow and the next night?" she asked.

"Yeah, my parents said that I could. You?"

"So did mine. I asked everyone else, and Draco and Dean are the only ones that can also come. The only problem is: we can only get two rooms. Would you mind greatly if you had to share with Draco? Both rooms have two beds," Ginny added quickly.

"It's fine Ginny. Well I have to go now. I'll see you at Hogwarts later?"

"Of course! Love ya!"

Hermione smiled to herself. "Love ya too, Hun. Bye!" She hung up and set the phone down. For once, she wasn't looking forwards to going to Hogwarts. What she had been doing with Draco wasn't right, and she knew. Throughout the day, she had been thinking about what she was to do about this, and came to one answer, remembering what Ginny had told her so many times: "You're only with Harry if you want to be."

Hermione walked into Hogwarts wearing a simple black sweater and khaki jeans. She looked across the room and saw Harry, Draco, Ginny, Ron, and Dean talking, unaware that she had entered. Deciding to take advantage of that while she could, Hermione walked to the bar to get a drink. She had just begun to drink it, when Ginny noticed her. Excusing herself, Ginny made her way over to her friend.

"How long have you been here?" asked the red head

"Just a few. Let's go over by everyone else now," Hermione replied. They made their way across the room back to where the others were sitting. They greeted her and she sat down next to Harry. A slow song kicked in and Ginny and Dean left to dance. Hermione turned to Harry.

"Come on," she said pulling him with her to the dance floor. They walked over to the dance floor and began dancing, Hermione wishing she could stall more.

"Harry," she began, "we need to talk." Her voice wasn't much above a whisper.

"What about? Did I break some crazy impossible rule?" he joked.

"Actually, no. Um. God, I don't know how to put this so I'm just going to say it: We need to break up. It's no mystery that we're not exactly perfect for each other, or as some say "the one," but this just isn't working out…I'm sorry."

"Is this about Draco?" Harry asked slightly confused, slightly irritated.

"Don't bring him into this. And no, it goes back before Draco."

"So he does play a part in it, then. Fine, go off to your secret lover. I'm sure he'll be much better than me. He could even give you more better-than-thou lessons than you've already had…or wait, did you do that already?"

Hermione had a horrible hurt look on her face and tears were beginning to flood over her eyes. She tried to blink them away, and Harry saw this, but still continued.

"What else did you two do? Do I even want to know? Maybe I shouldn't hear about your escapades with other guys while you were dating me! Two years. What was I, something to pass the time? A little toy Daddy couldn't buy you? Well play time's over, honey. You're going to regret this for the rest of your pathetic life."

Tears were now slowly trickling down Hermione's face.

"You don't even know if I did anything with him. You just jump to conclusions." She inhaled sharply. "Maybe he was actually there for me, he comforted me because…oh wait, you don't know what happened to get me all banged up like this." She rolled up her sleeve revealing cuts and bruises, which had healed some, but were obviously bad enough to still be there. Her voice was steadily getting louder throughout this. "You don't give a damn, you let it go…Ron cared more than you did. How could you even call yourself a boyfriend?" she yelled at him. She dropped to a normal voice, raspy from tears. "You were never there. I was just a safety net for you." Her voice went to a whisper. "You don't need me. You'll be better off without me, can live your own life, go and find the perfect girlfriend. Goodbye."

She turned and walked to the bathroom, leaving Harry, possibly forever. She walked through the door and was surprised at what she saw.

Ginny looked up and wiped her eyes. She was in the corner of the bathroom when she saw Hermione enter. Though she tried to make a faint smile, she couldn't and let the tears run down her face.

"What happened to you?" asked Hermione, her voice full of concern. She walked over and sat next to her friend.

"Dean."

"Did he do something to you? He didn't hurt you or anything did he? I could…" Ginny cut her off.

"He broke up with me. Draco was right. He found some other girls there and said a girlfriend was just too restricting right now. I guess I was holding him back." She started crying again and realized for the first time that Hermione was also crying. "You don't have to cry about it, it's really not that big…you're not crying about it, are you?"

"I just broke it off with Harry. He didn't take it so well."

"That makes two of us then," commented Ginny. "At least you have Draco," she supplied. Even if she didn't have anyone, Ginny at least hoped her friend could still be happy. Waiting for a response, the red hair rested her head on her knees, tilting it so she could still see Hermione.

"Except for he's the reason that me and Harry are now…not me and Harry. But things have been going downhill for a while, haven't they?"

"Sure Hermione," replied Ginny with a small smile. "Sure."

The boys had all left Hogwarts within the ten minutes the girls were in the bathroom, and both of them left a few minutes after returning from it. Besides the girls, each person knew only of what they were there for, meaning Draco knew nothing.

Hermione got home and simply took a shower and then went to bed. She had noticed bruises fading and a few scars forming and was glad for at least some progress. Though she went to bed, she couldn't fall asleep. Remembering the Darkly Defensive, she wondered what would happen, if Dean would still come. She had it to look forward to also, though, being as she had now broken up with Harry, her and Draco wouldn't be wrong anymore.
The next thing Hermione knew, her alarm clock was going off, as she realized she must have slipped into a sleep in the middle of her thoughts. Reaching over, she turned it off and laid back down, staring at the ceiling. It was 10:00 and she needed to finish getting her stuff together so she could meet everyone at the hotel by noon.

She grabbed a few outfits and bikinis and threw them into a large bag. Once she was finished, she got dressed, wearing a simple red mini skirt and white tank top. Hermione walked over to her vanity and sat in the chair in front of it. She left her hair straight and down and took out her makeup bag. With her black retractable eyeliner, she outlined her eyelids. After putting on a gold dust-type of eye shadow and some mascara, she stood up and grabbed her purse and bag.

Mrs. Granger was sitting at the table when her daughter walked down the stairs, her things in hand.

"Going somewhere?" she asked Hermione.

"Darkly Defensive, remember? I'm going to be there today and tomorrow; I should be back Thursday." Her mother sighed deeply, but gave a murmur of approval before turning back to her newspaper. Hermione continued bringing her things out, deciding she would just walk to Ginny's house. Mr. Weasley was going to be driving them to the hotel, being as it was a bit too far for either of them to walk, especially with their belongings with them.

"Excuse me, but I believe there are two rooms reserved under the name of Dean Thomas," Dean prompted the woman standing behind the large desk of Darkly Defensive. He had arrived with Draco, who was standing next to him looking slightly bored with his surroundings. After Rome, I'm pretty much right there with you now, buddy Dean thought amusedly to himself.

"Here ya go," replied the woman handing each of them a key. She pointed down the hall to the right. "The elevators are down there. Have yourselves a nice stay," she remarked with an annoying tone of voice. The boys walked down to it and hit the button for the fifth floor. Upon arrival, the sought out their rooms.

"This one's mine," commented Draco, looking at his key's number. He opened the door and was somewhat amazed. While the rest of the hotel wasn't fantastic, the room had two queen sized beds, a small kitchen area, and an acceptable forest green color scheme. Opening up a door he found, he saw a bathroom with a large bathtub, but nothing too over the top so people would still go down to use the pool and hot tubs provided.

He walked back to the doorway of his room to bring his possessions in so he could begin to unpack and found Dean had already disappeared into his own room.

Not long after he began, he heard a high-pitched shriek coming from the hall, to which he left the door slightly ajar. Peering through the narrow gap, he saw Ginny's fiery red hair and he recognized the voice as hers.

"I can't believe I still have to room with you. What, did you plan this?"

"Yes, Ginny, I took that much time out of my own life to do this to you. Do you think I really have that much time on my hands."

"Oh, I'm sorry, you must have been too busy calling your little sluts from Rome because you can only get girls that don't have a clue what the hell you're saying."

"At least I get some," Dean smirked. He walked past the redhead. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go get some food." Ginny scowled at him and reluctantly disappeared into her room. Hermione had gone somewhere else, probably to scold Dean. Draco, clueless and curious, ventured into Ginny's room.

"What just happened? I thought you two were an item."

"Obviously not as of last night," said Ginny, her eyes watering. "He decided I was holding him back from the life he had in Rome." She looked down and whispered, "You were right. He did leave me for them."

He immediately realized what she was talking about. "Oh God, I'm sorry. I never meant to…" he sat down next to her and awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder, not knowing what else to do. As soon as his hand came in contact with her, though, she turned into him and began sobbing. Draco just sat there. He wasn't used to this kind of thing. Before he had always been for the most part a loner when it came to actual friends. And it wasn't like he did this kind of thing.

Ginny looked up at him through tear-filled eyes. "It's not your fault. You didn't know…well not really anyways. Maybe you did but," she paused, cutting herself off. "Just, thank you. For even sitting here for me. That's more than what I've had in a while." Draco just gave a bit of a nod. "I really haven't had anything in a while," she continued.

The next thing Draco knew, Ginny was kissing him. He didn't know that Hermione had been standing outside of the door, pitying her friend. Now there was no pity, just fury. She burst in to where they would actually notice her this time.

"That's it! I should have known better! Who was I kidding thinking that I could be with you…I mean look at you! It's obvious that you're not going to just settle down with one girl. But I thought I could trust you." She began backing out of the room, now crying. Ginny had stopped and just watched, but there was no sign of regret seen upon her face.

Draco quickly stood up to follow her. "I can explain, I really can."

"Of course you can explain, Malfoy. Just how you explained to Ginny that Dean was going to leave her after being in Rome. Did you set that up maybe? To get with her? Well guess what! I broke up with Harry last night for you. Harry! After two years, I broke it off for you. I'm through. I've had enough; I really can't take anymore. Too much has happened since you've gotten here."

Draco pushed her slightly so she was against the wall and he was in front of her. "Maybe I should be wondering what the hell I was thinking. Look at yourself, you're falling apart and going to the first thing that comes to your mind."

"Let me go," she said crying. "Please."

"Are you going to go call all your little friends? Tell on poor little Draco? Go ahead. I don't need you." He looked straight at her, but she just trembled.

"What the fuck do you want from me?" she managed to get out. "Tell me, but I'm sure I can't give that to you. I'm no good anymore. Not to anyone, they don't care." Hermione slipped out from his hold and ran into her room, locking Draco out.

"Hermione wait." There was no respond. He pounded on the door a few times. "Please Hermione, just open up." There was still just silence. "Fine, I'm going somewhere else. Call me when I'm allowed to feel again." He heard faint sobs still coming from inside but ignored them as he walked off.

There was a loud crash from inside the room, sounding as if a lot of metal hit the floor. A lot of metal…like… Draco ran back to the door realizing that it was the sound of the cutlery hitting the floor in a fury. He began pounding again in a mad frantic.

Author's Notes: Cliffy…Well I finally got this chapter up. It's definitely the longest yet. I'm not sure how it went, though, so PLEASE review. It's what keeps me going. I also know it's not a Saturday that I'm posting it on, but I'll shoot for next Saturday as my next update if I get enough support to keep me going. The 100 mark isn't too far, that'll be a big accomplishment for me.

Anyways, a quick thanks to those who did: Riley26, Lover del Dragon, dracoslover333, Samantha-Carlyn, ryanrocks, Meg, In Dreams, fictiongurl, and April Showers2 This fic might not have made it nearly this far without you!

Also, a point from Samantha-Carlyn: I did mention that Hermione's parents would be out of town. I'm really sorry about that, but as soon as I realized it, I went through and fixed it so it's all better now :)

Well, don't forget to review! I'm not sure how much longer the story will be, but don't worry; theres gonna be at least a few chapters left!