Hey, guys!

I'm back with another chapter. Sorry it took so long! I was on vacation. Hopefully it's enough to satisfy your cravings! It's a bit cliffy, but still good (or at least I hope!) Enjoy!

Chapter 5: A Promise

Everyone has a secret.

But can they keep it?

No, they can't.

Secret, Maroon 5

The most shocking part of her detention assignment is that she thought she would have to actually come face to face with Malfoy. Hermione stood outside the double doors to the Hospital Wing, debating how much trouble she would get into if she skipped out on this detention. With all this Malfoy business, I guess I'm not really in a position to get myself in any more trouble. She sighed and finally pulled open the heavy wooden doors to reveal an abnormally full and bustling Hospital Wing.

"Oh, not another one!" Madam Pomfrey sighed in exasperation. She paused. "Oh, Hermione, dear. It's you. Good. Ah, Mr. Malfoy is at the back, behind the curtain. Thank you ever so much for helping, dear."

Hermione smiled with polite stiffness, thinking to herself, It's not as if I had the choice. She made her way with extreme reluctance towards the last bed draped in a stiff white curtain, observing, along the way, the many beds full of students suffering from ailments such as massive nosebleeds and uncontrollable vomiting. Hermione had a strange suspicion that this large invasion of sick students had something to do with Fred and George, whose business, she heard was quite profitable.

Without realizing it, she had come upon Draco's bed. She pulled back the curtain to reveal Draco sitting up right, reading The Daily Prophet.

"What the hell are you doing here, Granger?" was Draco's less-than-pleasant greeting from over the top of the newspaper.

"Oh, you didn't hear?" Hermione asked with sickly fake sweetness. "I'm to watch you for the remainder of the night."

"Har, har, Granger. You're hilarious, has anyone ever told you that?" Draco scoffed with sarcasm, returning to the Prophet.

"Believe me, I'm even less excited about it than you. You really think I would come here if I didn't have to?"

"This is ridiculous. Get out of here."

"I'd absolutely love to, but I'm afraid therein lies the problem. This is my detention assignment. I'll stay here for a while, leave, and we can all go home happy." She silently dared Draco to call over Madam Pomfrey. He gave her a hardened stare, deciding she was right. But he wasn't about to make it easy for her.

"What is it, exactly, that you are here to do? Surely, you weren't assigned the task of merely sitting at the foot of my bed," Draco said, flashing her a devilish grin that she didn't see until it was too late.

"I was told to take care of you until Madam Pomfrey is done handling the other students…." Hermione's voice faded, regretting speaking the words as soon as they escaped her lips.

"So you wouldn't mind fetching me a glass of water, would you? Better make it three ice cubes, while you're at it." Draco simply smiled, as if being on the receiving end of Hermione's deathly glare was nothing.

"As if I'd wait on you hand and foot," she muttered as she grudgingly got up and fulfilled Malfoy's beverage wishes. He grabbed the glass from her outstretched hand without so much as thanks. "You're nothing but a great big pill, you know that, Malfoy?"

"I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear that. Now, I believe for me to fully enjoy the cooling, soothing experience of my drink, a massage is most definitely in order."

For the second time that night, Hermione was found to have a look of disbelief on her face and no words came from her mouth. She quickly traded it for a look of confusion when Draco unexpectedly erupted with laughter. When he was finally able to talk, he burst out, "You should have seen your face!" He broke out in to a fresh round of sniggering. "I can't believe you were actually going to do it! As if I'd let you even so much as touch me! Yeah, right!"

"You are truly despicable, Malfoy!" She heaved a great sigh of frustration. "Why don't we just give this up?" Hermione questioned with forced tranquility. "I mean, I say hurtful things to you, you say cruel things to me, and it's all getting us nowhere. So, why don't we just make a truce? At least for tonight," she pleaded.

"Er, are you serious, Granger?" She nodded. "Well, I guess, maybe, but…no. It'd ruin me. And like I would want to have a conversation with you," he hurriedly added.

She had thought he would say that, so she was prepared with an offer he wouldn't be able to resist. "I bet you couldn't."

"You willing to put money where your mouth is?" he retorted, suddenly interested.

"Thirty Galleons worth."

"Fifty."

"Forty."

"Done." Before Draco knew what he was getting himself into, he had just agreed to have a civil conversation for about the first time in his life.

"Good. Well…" This is going to be harder than I thought, she thought to herself as he searched for a topic of conversation. "Oh! I have some prefect news for you-"

"Yippee," Malfoy interrupted her in monotone.

"-as I was saying, each prefect, if they are not traveling to Greece, is to be host to a Greek student-"

"So that's what all that rubbish in that whacked-out letter was!" he realized, interrupting Hermione once again.

Hermione was about to yell at him for his incessant disruptions, but decided that she wasn't ready to pay him forty Galleons just yet. "Can I have a look at your letter?" she asked instead.

"Sure, if you can decipher it," he replied, to which they both laughed. I had no idea that we could ever think the same joke was funny. Maybe this whole having a conversation business won't be so bad after all, he thought to himself as he handed her the letter.

She skimmed it over, reporting, "This Artemis guy sounds really cheeky. Good luck with him." She flashed him a smile- a genuine smile. Not many people had done that to him before.

"I don't think I ever could have understood what the bloke was saying. But, now that we are having this, er, civil conversation and all, can I ask you a question?"

Hermione was a bit taken aback. "As long as I can ask you one," she managed to finally say with an impish grin.

"Alright," Draco agreed, missing her facial expression and figuring her question couldn't be all that bad. "I've been wondering this for years: Why on earth do you hang out with Potter and Weasley? What's so great about Mr. Ego and his destitute sidekick?"

"Well, for starters, they were really the only people who recognized me for anything else than books. Since then, we've been through so much together. Plus, they're not half-bad people. They can really pull through sometimes, too."

"They just seemed to not exactly be the bunch of people you would hang out with. Don't you have any friends that are girls or anything?"

"Not so fast, mister," she caught him. "I still have to ask you my question."

"Oh, fine," Draco gave in, pouting, Hermione subconsciously finding it adorable. He got out of bed gingerly to change the large white bandage covering his abdomen.

"I, well, what I wanted to ask you was this," she said, trying not to make it blatantly obvious that she was staring at his body. "What exactly happened to you that night in the bathroom?"

The sudden change in the mood of the conversation left a heavy silence between the curtains surrounding the bed.

As Hermione looked at him with longing eyes, biting her lip in anticipation, Draco couldn't help but get turned on. At the same time he racked his brain for a false answer to her question. He felt a surge of trust, believing he could actually tell Hermione. It ached terribly to hold inside all the intense emotions, but he just couldn't tell her. He searched for an answer sufficient for her, which was hard, considering she was undoubtedly the smartest, quickest girl in their year.

Hermione sat at the foot of Draco's bed, waiting for a response. She suspected that it was a traumatic experience for him, and he may not like to recall it, so she wasn't really surprised that he was taking his time to reply. Her eyes traveled down from his furrowed brow, to his dazzlingly silver eyes, to his pointed yet attractive nose, lingering for a moment on his lips, finally stopping on his gorgeous, toned body once again.

She inhaled sharply in sheer amazement at what appeared before her. Hermione closed her eyes, afraid that if she were to continue to look, she might do something she might regret. Before she could open her eyes, she felt, like a jolt of electricity, the presence of someone else's lips on her own. She enjoyed it for a small second, until she realized who it was doing the kissing.

Her eyes flew open and she tried to pull herself away from Draco. "What d'you think you're do-?"

Draco cut her off, pressing his lips once again against hers. Doesn't she ever stop talking long enough to enjoy a good thing? he silently questioned. I hoped it wouldn't come to this, but it all came down to using my last resort. Besides, I've heard the Malfoy charm and sex appeal are inescapable and irresistible…

But the longer the kiss endured, the harder the two of them found it to keep their hands off of each other, whether they liked to admit it or not. There is something about forbidden and unexpected love that is extremely tempting, and neither of them could deny the chemistry they shared.

At the sound of a sharp cough from somewhere outside the curtains, Hermione was finally able to come to her sensed. Her brains had triumphed over her heart, but she had a feeling that they had only wont the first battle of a long war to come. She pulled away rather forcefully from Draco.

With the kiss ended, neither could look at the other, thought they both stole glances at one another. Draco's plan had succeeded: he had managed to make her forget that she had asked the question in the first place. He had, though, gotten something he hadn't bargained for: an amazing kiss. Of all of the girls he had ever been with, Draco had never felt that intensity or chemistry in the first kiss. He didn't understand how someone like Hermione Granger could possibly make him feel that way, but he sure wasn't going to complain about it.

The silence that settled over the room was slightly awkward, but neither of them wanted to ruin it by committing anything to words. After a few moments, the silence was broken by Madam Pomfrey, who popped her head through the curtains, announcing, "That's about all of them. You may go now, Hermione dear. Oh, and could you help Mister Malfoy put a new bandage on, dear?" she asked Hermione as she disappeared back through the curtain.

"It's okay," Draco finally said, "I can do the bandage." He grabbed her arm as she turned to leave. He spoke again, this time in a more threatening voice, "If you tell anyone, especially Potter or Weasley, about anything, you'll be very sorry."

She looked back at him nonchalantly, not in anyway afraid of his threat. Hermione looked into his eyes, and instead of seeing them cold and hard, she saw round, pleading eyes, silently hoping he could trust her. She released herself from his grip and gave him a small smile. Without saying another word, she parted the stiff white curtains and left the Hospital Wing, only willing herself to look back at his bed once…

Hermione managed to go a whole week without saying a word to anyone about what happened to her that night. The first few days, it was ever-present in her mind, but she managed to push it towards that back of her thoughts. She hadn't spoken a word to Draco about anything for the entire week, thought Hermione would try to catch his eye and give him a little smile when she could.

While she waited for Ron to come to her common room for some Transfiguration help, she buried herself in these thoughts, so she was surprised when she heard Glanmore Peakes having a rather loud conversation with Ron. She opened the back of the wizard's portrait to let Ron in and rescue him from some lecture or another.

"Thanks, 'Mione, I never thought he'd shut up!" Ron greeted her jovially as they made their way towards two squashy armchairs beside the fire. "Thanks a bunch for doing this. You didn't have to, you know."

"I am perfectly aware that I could be doing something entirely better," she said in a jesting manner. "Did you ask Harry if he wanted to come?"

"Yeah, he said something about doing something with Cho. I didn't ask for details."

Ron and Hermione laughed before she got down to business. "Today, we'll be turning these snails into candles. Oh, really Ron, it's not all that complicated!" Hermione said upon seeing the look Ron gave her. She placed a snail in front of each of them. With a swish and a flick of her wand, the snail in front of her became a shining candelabra, each wick alight, eight flickering flames dancing before her eyes. "Now you try," she instructed Ron.

All that resulted from Ron's spastic wand movements was a flaming snail, slowly roasting until Hermione returned it to its original form. As Ron tried to transfigure his snail to no avail multiple times, Hermione began to think about Draco. She longed to tell somebody, contemplating only for a moment to tell Ron before she shut down the idea completely.

Ron interrupted her musings, "I just can't get the hang of it. Show it to me again?"

She partially ignored his question. "Ron, what would you do if someone made you promise not to tell about something, but you thought that someone might be getting hurt?"

"Who's hurting you?" he automatically asked in a worried tone, abandoning his snail-shaped candle and focusing his attentions on Hermione.

"Oh, no, it's not me, I just, I can't tell you. I promised."

"Look, Hermione, whatever it is, you don't have to tell me, as long as you're not getting hurt. If you ever want to tell me, I'll be right here. But nobody had the right to make you promise to do anything. C'mere."

Hermione went over, sat next to Ron and enveloped him in a grateful hug. He's right, she told herself, I don't have to let him make me promise him anything. But at the same time, she knew she could never betray those eyes he gave her that night… those round, pleading eyes…

The next day in last period Potions, everybody was itching to get out the moment they walked through the door, but no one more so than Hermione and Draco. Any class they had to endure with each other present was a rather uncomfortable experience and it was hard to say who was more excited to finish the class and have a long weekend to spend in each other's absence.

Draco was thankful that he didn't to have to pair up with Hermione, but with Millicent Bulstrode absent, he was left with Pansy as his partner. He managed his best to get his potion done as quickly as possible without completely botching it and at the same time trying to keep Pansy from touching him.

"Hey, Drakie," Pansy said to Draco, causing him to roll his eyes. "I was wondering, sweetie," - he cringed at her disgusting term of endearment – "if we could go do something tomorrow?" she asked, stimulating Draco's upchuck reflex by batting her fake eyelashes.

"How many times have I ever answered 'yes' to that question?" he spat back in disgust, adding asphodel root to the bubbling acid-green potion.

"Well, never, bu-"

BOOM.

Neville and Hermione's potion exploded at the desk in front of Draco and Pansy, covering all four of them in a thick, blue substance, which also managed to splatter into Draco and Pansy's cauldron.

"Oh, Neville!" Hermione gasped as she zapped Scouring Charms at herself and the three others. "I told you not to add that yet! Oh, stop whimpering! I can probably fix it…" She hurriedly added an array of ingredients to the mixture, returning it to the hot pink it was supposed to be.

Draco's upchuck reflex was stimulated once again that day when he caught a whiff of his potion. He contorted his face into one of disgust; and soon, the whole rest of the class was either coughing, gagging, or sporting disgusted expressions.

"Be careful, Drakie," Ron started from the desk next to Draco, imitating Pansy. "Stand any closer to that cauldron and you'll regret getting a whiff of that," he said, gesturing toward Draco and Pansy's cauldron. "We wouldn't want you to faint or anything," he laughed along with Harry, joined by the sniggers of some fellow Gryffindors.

Draco was just about to retort with a rather nasty comment, but he suddenly was stuck by the full effect of what the words really meant. '…wouldn't want you to faint…' His eyes widened in shock. He actually believed that his heart stopped for a few seconds.

He turned to face Hermione, who previously had been listening to the conversation with one ear. She new stared back at him with eyes almost as wide as his. Draco tried to search them for traces of guilt, but couldn't concentrate on much of anything with his mind pulsing like it was.

Draco looked back and forth, from Ron to Hermione, in great disbelief. He couldn't imagine that she would tell him. Why would she? How could she? But then, isn't this what she always did: run off to tell her two asinine pals about everything?

He muttered something to Professor Snape about the Hospital Wing, rushing as quickly as possible from the dungeon classroom.

Hermione watched him go, knowing what he had just made of that whole situation. "Professor Snape, may I use the lavatory?"

"I suppose so," he snarled back reluctantly, "but be sure to get back ere in time to ass the next ingredient. Other wise, I will be forced to clean out you cauldron and dole out a zero to both you and Mr. Longbottom."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," she sucked up grudgingly, eager to catch up with Draco. Instead of turning left toward the bathrooms, she went right and fled up the stairs as fast as she could go.

Before she even came upon the Entrance Hall at the top of the stairs, her flight was interrupted when she caught her foot on something big and hard that blocked her path. She instantly felt a throbbing pain in her knee and checked to see if it was bleeding. She turned to inspect what it was that she tripped over and realized that thought she wasn't bleeding, the lump on the floor was. Upon realizing that she had tripped over a fallen body, she went around the front of the body, gasping as she confirmed her fears.

Draco lay, once again, in a bloody heap, ghastly white with Hermione as the only witness.

Good? I hope so! Please review, people! I really want to know how I can do better! I'll try to write A.S.A.P.! I will, thought be working on another little one shot idea I had, so it might be a bit delayed. Stay tuned though!!