Draco watched Hermione walk up the stairs, a terrible feeling in his stomach. He had never meant to make her cry. He was just so jealous of Viktor. For as long as Draco could remember, he'd been practically at war with himself because of the love he felt for the curly-haired girl he now shared living quarters with. But he'd known that the image of his family preceded him and as long as she knew what his father was, she would never want him. So, he chose to live up to the image, by being as cruel to her as he possibly could.

He was, genuinely, not a very nice guy, because that was all he knew growing up. But Hermione did something to him, made him want to change. To be…good. Whether that meant losing his family and his friends or not.

He hadn't meant to kiss her earlier on the train. He hadn't been thinking. All he saw when she screamed at him was her lips, so naturally, he kissed them.

"Fuck…" He sighed, sitting down in one of the two overstuffed armchairs. "Now she's definitely not going to want to talk to me."

Hermione lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling, replaying the kiss over and over again in her head. The more she thought about it, the less disgusted she was and the more she wished that she hadn't pushed him away.

"Snap out of it Hermione, he's just playing with you." She muttered to herself. After the disastrous events of the summer, she had sworn to lock her heart away forever. There was no way she was going to go through all that pain all over again. No way she was going to let some guy into her heart, just so he could rip it up and stomp all over it when the next hot piece of ass came along.

She stood up and walked over to the full length mirror that stood next to her bed. She looked herself up and down. She'd lost a lot of weight since everything with Viktor had happened. For weeks, the thought of food had made her ill. Even now, she could barely stomach more than a little. Tonight at the feast had been the most she'd eaten in a long time, for appearance's sake.

Hermione had changed her wardrobe entirely, in an attempt to emulate Fleur, hoping it might have some kind of effect on Viktor…and nothing. He had eyes for no one but Fleur, who was messing with him and every other guy she could find. Shaking her head, she changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed.

The next morning, Hermione woke slowly. The sun was peeping through the gaps in the curtains over her window and, behind the curtains, something was rapping softly on the panes of glass. Hermione threw the covers off and lazily made her way over to the window. She threw open the curtains to find Hedwig hopping on the ledge, a roll of parchment tied to her leg. Quickly opening the window, she offered her arm to Hedwig, who gently hopped on, sticking out the leg with parchment attached to it. Hermione quickly took the parchment off.

"I don't have anything to feed you with, so you'd better hurry back to Harry." Hermione smiled as Hedwig hooted a good-bye and took flight back out the window. She unrolled the parchment and sat on her bed to read it.

Hermione

Are you all right? He hasn't hurt you has he? If he has, me and Ron will KILL him! If you're not too tired, we're waiting for you down by the lake.

Harry

Hermione dressed quickly and rushed down to the common room. The fire was out and the room was freezing. Draco was asleep in one of the armchairs, obviously frozen, as he was shivering in his sleep. She was about to just leave and let him be cold ("He's an asshole, he deserves to be uncomfortable once in his life.") but thought better of it and picked up the blanket hanging over the back of the sofa and spread it over him. He murmured something in his sleep, then was silent.

Hermione continued out the door and down the stairs. Once she reached the hall, she broke into a run, which she kept up until she was a few yards from the lake. Harry and Ron were laying on the shore, obviously sleeping. Hermione stifled a giggle, then walked to the lake, cupping some water in her hands and then tossing it at the two sleeping boys, who awoke with a start.

"What the…Hermione!" Harry shouted, agitated. Ron had an extremely confused look on his face.

"Good morning boys!" Hermione laughed as she sat between them.

"Yeah." Harry muttered, wiping the droplets of water from his clothes.

"What'd you guys want to meet down here for?"

"Harry had a dream last night." Ron said as he wiped the sleep from his eyes."

Hermione turned and stared at Harry. "What happened?"

"I saw Voldemort." Ron flinched at the name Harry spoke. "Growing in strength again. He's ready to embrace new members, and he's already got a few selected. Including our Head Boy. Once he has Malfoy in his army, we're done for."

Hermione bit her lip. "That's not good."

"No, it most certainly is not." Ron was now attempting to stay awake by propping his still-drooping head up on his hands. He yawned widely as he began to speak again. "But how can we stop him?"

"I doubt we can." Harry sighed.

Hermione shook her head. "Let's not jump to conclusions. We can always figure out something."

"Yeah, like kill 'im." Ron was now slumped forward, half-asleep.

"No. No killing. There's got to be a way." Hermione was afraid to tell her two best friends that she would play a role in this way that would save Malfoy.

"He's to stubborn. His whole life he's been taught to be evil. How are we supposed to change that?" Harry looked genuinely confused.

Hermione shrugged. "Be nice? Remember the immortal words of the Beatles? 'All you need is love.'"

"Why the hell would we listen to bugs?"

Hermione and Harry laughed as Ron stared between the two of them.

"It's a Muggle music group from the 60's, Ron." Hermione said, still laughing.

"Oh."

Hermione sighed. "Breakfast starts soon. We should head back." She began to rise, but Harry caught her arm.

"Wait. There was something else. But it was something that already happened." He paused. "It was Malfoy, and his father. They were fighting. Malfoy didn't want to do something, but his father wanted him to…and his father stabbed him…told him to rethink the offer…or else."

Hermione stood up straight, and stared back at the school. "His father…stabbed him? Because of something he didn't want to do?"

Harry nodded.

"Maybe he's not as far gone as everyone thinks."

"What are you talking about?" Harry stared at her.

"Nothing. I'll talk to you about it later." Hermione looked down at the comatose Ron. "As for now, we need to work on getting Sleeping Beauty to breakfast."

Harry laughed and stood. The two attempted to rouse the sleeping Ron, who simply swatted at them and told them to "sod off." Finally the two grabbed his arms and began to drag him back towards the school. When they were half way there, Ron stumbled to his feet and began to lazily walk behind them. By the time they reached the Great Hall, he was completely awake.

They sat down in their usual places and the two boys loaded their plates with food. Hermione took small servings of everything and basically nibbled at it all. She glanced over at the Slytherin table and saw Draco was not there. She frowned, then went back to her plate. A few minutes later, she glanced up again and saw Draco slowly making his way to his seat. He had a cocky smirk on his face as he sat down and looked over all the members of his house. He turned and caught Hermione staring at him and started for a moment, a strange look on his face, which quickly turned into a sneer.

Hermione shook her head. "What classes do we have today?" She asked, turning to face Harry and Ron, who were working on their second plate of food.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions, so we're basically free until after lunch." Harry responded through a mouthful of food.

Hermione nodded. " I wonder who our new DADA teacher is."

The two boys shrugged, obviously more interested in the food in front of them. After Hermione had pushed the food on her plate around a bit more, she announced she was going back to her room to sleep a little bit, then stood and left.

As she walked up the stairs to the House, she heard footsteps behind her. Glancing over her shoulder she saw Draco slowly making his way up as well.

"Morning Malfoy."

"Morning Granger."

"How are you? You looked pretty cold earlier."

"Fine, thanks for the blanket."

"No problem." Hermione said as she pushed the door open and headed for the stairs that led to her room. "I guess I'll talk to you later."

Draco nodded, then went towards his own room. Flopping down on his bed, he tried to fall asleep, but found he couldn't. The pain in his side had started again and it was all he could do not to scream with the pain. He stood again, and lifted his shirt, looking down at the scar on his stomach. The wound had healed as soon as the family doctor had looked at it, but the pain would be there for a long time.

"I can't become a Death Eater…" Draco said softly "…But there's no one to help me."

In her own room Hermione was having difficulties getting any rest. The description of Harry's dream ran circles through her mind. There was a small twinge of fear as she thought about the chilling words Harry had spoken. "…we're done for." After all the battles they had fought with Voldemort and his army, they couldn't lose now. But she couldn't see how the addition of Malfoy would have such a great effect on the strength of Voldemort's army. After trying fruitlessly for some time to fall asleep, she finally gave up and decided to go take a bath.

She was walking through the common room, towel over her shoulder, when Malfoy stumbled down the stairs from his room. He was clutching his side, where Hermione guessed the stab had been made. She rushed over to him and helped him sit down on the sofa.

"What's wrong?" She asked knowing better than to reveal that she knew exactly what was wrong.

"Nothing." Malfoy said through gritted teeth.

"Bullshit." Hermione said as she sat down next to him. "You better start talking or we're going straight to Madame Pomfrey."

The threat worked. Malfoy glared at her for a moment. "I got stabbed over the summer, the wound's gone, but the pain is still there, and will be for some time."

"And who stabbed you?"

Malfoy remained silent.

"Well, I certainly hope Madame Pomfrey has an open hospital bed!"

Malfoy "My father…happy now?"

"Not happy, but satisfied." Hermione sighed. "Don't worry, I'm not going to ask why."

"No, you had to know everything else, why not ask about that too?" Malfoy said almost viciously.

"Why don't you tell me then?" Hermione said quietly.

"My father wants me to be a Death Eater. It's not what I want. It's not for me, but anything Father wants, Father gets. I have no say in my own life. On my eighteenth birthday, I have to go through the ceremony of becoming a Death Eater, whether I'm willing or not."

"When's your birthday?"

"June 15th." Malfoy said softly.

"Gives us some time." Hermione said thoughtfully.

"Us?"

"I'm going to help you Malfoy, whether you like it or not, I just won't use physical force on you, unless it's to push you around a bit."

"I don't need your help, Granger!" Malfoy hissed, as he stood, still gripping his side. Hermione jumped up next to him.

"Oh, I think you do!" She said forcefully. "Who's going to help you? Your Slytherin friends? Oh, they'll help you all right! Right into Voldemort's hands!"

"What do you know about my friends?" Malfoy shouted.

"I know that in the two days we've been here, they haven't said one word to you, probably because they're all for being Death Eaters and they know you aren't!" Hermione shouted back.

Malfoy just rolled his eyes and looked away.

"Am I right?" Hermione said, crossing her arms.

Malfoy just shook his head and started walking away. As he reached the door to his bathroom, he glanced over his shoulder. "And how do you propose to help me, Granger?"

"I'll think of something."

Please R/R!