Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue... so forth, and on with the fic! Chapter... 8! Hopefully I won't make it too depressing…

Chapter 8: Malfoy's Devious Plot

Hermione woke apprehensively the next day, fearful of what would happen to her and Harry. She rose, showered, and dressed mechanically, ignoring the pointless chatter of girls around her. She covered up the tired bags under her eyes where she had tossed and turned in fear all night with as much make up as possible.

Downstairs, she waited nervously for Harry and Ron to join her. Finally they both came down and picked up their books. Hermione stood, picking up her bags and walking silently with them to the Great Hall.

"What's wrong with the two of you this morning?" Ron asked them. He followed quietly behind them as they explained what had happened- leaving out the most intimate details.

"What do we do?" Hermione asked, her voice cracking as a tear slid silently down her cheek. "Merlin only knows what he's got planned for us."

"That's for sure. There's gonna be no easy way out of this one," Harry agreed, wiping Hermione's face with the sleeve of his robe.

They turned to enter the Great Hall, all three of them deep in thought.

"We'll think of something," Ron said hopefully. "We always manage to. Don't worry, 'mione, we'll get it figured out."

"Right," she replied, her voice listless. She looked over at Draco, who smiled at her and blew a kiss with a wink to her.

With a heavy heart, Hermione entered Charms- another class shared with Slytherins. The first thing she noticed was Pansy sobbing loudly in the corner of the room. No one seemed to be taking any notice of her, even the Slytherins. A panic flew into Hermione's chest, and she rushed over to Pansy.

"Pansy, oh Pansy, what's wrong?" she asked, pulling out a spare handkerchief and handing it to Pansy.

"Why-why do you care, Granger? I'm a pure-blood, and you're- you're a mudblood," she sniffled, taking the handkerchief cautiously.

"That doesn't matter," Hermione rolled her eyes. "I can still be nice to you."

"F-fine. It's Draco. I know you don't like him and all, but I do. I love him, and everything. We're supposed to get married the year we graduate, our parents decided that we would. Anyways," she sniffled, "he broke it off. He said that it wouldn't work, that I'm not... enough for him."

At that point, she broke off into hysterical sobs, covering her face with her hands, and ran out of the classroom.

Hermione stood and walked somberly to her desk at the front of the room. Draco came over to her almost instantly.

"I've figured out my perfect plan for you and Potty-boy," he smiled, taking her hand in his.

"Don't touch me," she hissed, pulling her hand from his. "And don't bring this up right now, we can talk later."

"No, we can't. I'm putting this plan into action, now."

He pulled her hair so that she was forced to turn her face to his. He kissed her lightly on the lips. She gasped and pulled back, picking up her bag and moving away quickly.

"Don't-" she huffed, practically screaming, "don't ever-ever-EVER-touch-me-again!!!"

She ran out of the classroom, following suit to Pansy, tears flowing freely down her face for the dozenth or more time that day. She knocked in to Harry, but kept running, her head down.

Harry tried to catch up to her, but she ran up to the Gryffindor tower and up into the Girl's Dormitories- a place where boys couldn't follow.

It was a place where, she hoped, she could keep out all of the pain: not only from Malfoy and his new plot, but the pain inside of herself, the pain of losing Harry, when she'd finally realized how to truly love him, and he'd loved her back...

Well, it ended up being a bit more dramatic than I thought it would end... anyways, ReViEw! I'll get the new chapter up as soon as possible, it might take a while, what with an extra lot goin' on right now... sayo! :3 mraw