The next day Draco wasn't at breakfast. Hermione and Ginny giggled to themselves, feeling very proud. He was probobly too embaressed to show himself. But when it came time for Potions, whispers were begining to spread. Late last night a student had been rushed to the hospital wing. Snape had been up all night making a potion, and he was very crabby. People began to wonder if the student was Draco Malfoy, since he had not shown up for a single class.

Hermione chatted with her best friends while heading down to the dungeons. Harry and Ron were having a heated descussion about the upcoming Quidditch game when they were stopped by a crowd of kids waiting outside the potions classroom. The door was locked.

"Whats going on?" A Slytherin asked her friend.

"I don't know, I guess the professor isn't here yet." She responded.

Quick, heavy footsteps echoed off the stone walls, and Snapes tall figure came into veiw. He stood at teh top of the staircase and glanced over the kids, looking for someone.

"Class is canceled for today. One page essay on color changing potions." His eyes locked on the student he had been searching for. Hermione. "You -" he said, pointing at her. "You come with me." He turned around, his cloak flowing behind him, and left the way he came. Shooting a worried glance at ehr friends, Hermione ran after him.

The walked for quite a while, Snape's long stride making Hermion have to almost run to keep up with him. After a while Hermine realized they were headed to the hospital wing. About 100 feet from the hospital wing door, Snape stopped short. Hermione stopped quickly and looked at the ground. So far he had been compleatly silent. Was he going to say something now?

"I thought you were smarter than this, Granger." He said quietly.

Hermione didn't know what to say. Smarter than what? And this was so strange. Snape didn't scream, or take away points, or anything. He mostly looked... helpless. Scared.

"I'm sorry sir, but I don't understand." Hermione said quietly, still staring at the stone floor.

"You are the smartest student in the school. You want to know everything. You figure out everything. Didn't you think it was odd you were suddenly getting detentions? That Draco was watching over them? That all you had to do was make a potion for him?" Snape turned to her slowly. "I thought for sure you would look up the potion. Find out what was going on. Realize what you were doing. Find out why it was important. It was right in front of your face. Why? Why didn't you?"

"I... I don't know professor. I was just so mad at Malfoy. I don't know what is going on. He said that the potion was.. was for... um..." Hermione blushed.

"You don't have to say, he told me. Stupid boy."

Hermione was suprised. Snape just called Draco stupid! Everything was so weird. Why did everything have to be so confusing? "Please sir, tell me whats going on. What was the potion really for?"

Sanpe sighed. He looked so tired. Quickly he threw up a silencing spell around them.

"Young Malfoy does not have a normal family. I will let him explain the details, but he is in grave danger. The followers of the Dark Lord need a new leader, as I am sure you know. They want Draco. The Detraference Potion keeps him safe from their power. Without it..." Snape glanced over at the door. "Without it, the effects can be deadly."

Hermione was shocked. She had no idea what to say. They wanted Draco as their leader? Grave danger? And she had screwed it up so badly, just because she was mad at him. "May I-"

Snape cut her off. "It is not my buisness to tell you about his personal life. You should hear it from him. He is expecting you." Snape took down the silencing spell and walked back downstairs.

Hermione stared at the wooden door ahead of her. There were so many questions she had, yet she didn't know what to say. Slowly she comanded her feet to move, and she made her way to the door. Stepping into the room, she glanced around. A single bed on the far end had curtains pulled around it. She silently stepped into the curtains and glanced at the sleeping boy.

Even with how serious the situation was she couldn't supress a small giggle. A deep contrast to his platinum blonde hiar, his skin shone a radient purple. No wonder the essay tonight was on color changing potions. Ginny and Hermione had found the perfect potion - one to make his skin turn purple for a day. The boy stirred.

"Hermione?" Draco opened his eyes slowly.

"I'm here." She sat down in the chair next to his bed.

Draco grunted and sat up slowly. The blanket fell away to reveal his toned, smooth, purple chest. Somehow Hermione was still attracted.
"I supposed you want some explainations." Hermione nodded in responce. "Alright, where do I start?"

"Professor Snape said that your family was different. Start there."

Draco looked at her thoughtfully and nodded. "Alright, family it is. My father is a bastard, he always has been. I didn't realize it until our 4th year when Voldemort came back. I always looked up to him, and belived everything he said. But when the Dark Lord returned, I began to see what an asshole he really was. He would torcher people in our own basement. But I found out that my father had made a deal with Voldemort. My mother, Narcissa, actually dated Lupin for a while. She was Sirius's cousin and was good friends his friends. My father was jelous. He made a deal with Voldemort. If Voldemort would put an extreamly powerfull Imperius Curse on my mother, and make her belong to him, he would..."

Hermione watched as Draco breathed deeply. As his chest rose and fell, he closed his eyes. Obviously this still troubled him deeply. finally opening them again, he stared at his feet.

"He would give his first born son to Voldemort. The night I was born, that is just what he did. Voldemort made me his heir, and planned to raise me as such. But soon afterwords Potter sent him off into hideing. I was given back to my parents for them to raise me. When Voldemort came back, he said that I was weak, aand unfit to be his son. My father beat me nightly for it. But Voldemort wanted to use me for as spy in Hogwarts. I was supposed to relay information to him. Hoping to keep his interest elsewhere, I gave him little, almost useless facts, acting as if it was all that I could discover. I'm ashamed to say that I might have had a part in killing my mother's cousin. I didn't think it would mean anything to tell him that Sirus was Harry's godfather, and that Harry loved him. Once Sirus died, I tried my best to get out. Voldemort once again said that I was useless, and my father tried to teach me a lesson for it.

One evening he was beating me terribly, when my mother came into the room. Usually she just ignored it, but tonight she asked my father to stop. He screamed at her, and she took out her wand and killed him. When the ministry came, she told them that Death Eaters had entered her house and killed him. She said they had taken her wand and cast the spell to blame it on her. She said that I had fough the Death Eaters, and showed tem my bruises and cuts. They belived her, and let us go.

After that it seemed like Voldemort was far too concentrated on Potter to worry about me. He thought he could never die, and therefor an heir was usless. I lived in peace with my mother for some time after that."

"Why did your mother attack your father?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, sorry. The Imperius Curse faded after 18 years. I guess my father had forgotten that the curse was placed on her before I was born, because he was just planning to ask the Lord to renew it when I turned 18 and was made a Death Eater."

Hermione looked and the blonde (and purple) boy sitting in front of her. He suddenly didn't look like the asshole that he had always been, but instead like an innocent, scared little boy, needing love. Absent mindedly Hermione reached out and held his hand. "Please, go on."

Draco didn't react to her at all for a secound, then continued his story. "When the Dark Lord was defeated, the Death Eaters found me, and comanded me to become their leader, since I was the heir of Voldemort. They would not take no far an answer. They started to haunt my dreams and followed me everywhere. After a few months they became extreamly impatient. I went off to Hogwarts and they were unable to follow me anymore. But they put a curse on me. When they can find me, they put the fury of Voldemort on me. He would always beat his follers terribly if they did not comply with his commands. So every night I feel the wounds of hundreds of men being torchered. The more I ignore it, the worse it gets. The Detraference Potion makes it so they can not find me. There is just a haze whenever they look for me. for weeks now Snape has been brewing it for me, but people have begun to notice his nightly activites. He hoped that by transfering the job to you, you would figure out what was going on and make the potion instead. I kinda screwed that up though, by lieing to you like that."

"I'm so sorry I didn't look it up Draco. I can't belive what this did to you. I can't belive it. I just wanted to get back at you. Please forgive me,-"

Draco raised his hand to silence her. "No, please, it ok. It..." Draco stumbled over his words. "It was really, I mean, I shouldn't have, um, I just wanted to, you were looking at me and I, I dont know I just..." Draco looked up into Hermione's eyes. "I didn't want you to look at me like that."

Hermione didn't know what to think. A million things ran through her head at once. "Like how?"

"Like you are right now." Draco looked back down at his feet. "Like you care."

"But why?" Hermine asked.

"Because all I wanted to do was this." And for the second time this week, Draco kissed her. But instead of a rough, passionate kiss, this kiss was gentle and needy. Hermione found herself leaning into him, her lips softly brushing his. He licked her lips lightly, and she let him enter her mouth. Their tounges danced around each other as Draco pulled her onto the hospital bed next to him. He wrapped his arm around her back and pulled her close. She reached up to run her fingers through his hair, then trailed them down his back. Draco pulled away quickly, yelping in pain.

"What? What happened?" Hermione asked, worried. Why had he pulled away from the most magical thing that had ever happened to her? "Are you alright?"

Draco sat up slightly, and turned his back on her. 'He hatse me!' She tought immedietly. But then she saw his back. It had deep gashes all over it, some of them old, deep scars, and other new and blood red. She had touched a perticularily large one running from his shoulder blade to his lower back, then back up to his other shoulder blade to create a perfect "V". Hermione couldn't belive what she was seeing. He obviously not only felt the tourcher, but actually recived the wounds. All because she had been upset about something he said. Instictivly she reached and and hugged him, careful not to brush against his back at all. "I'm so sorry." She whispered. The purple skinned boy just held her back, held her so tightly that she thought he might never let go. They both drifted off to sleep in the hospital wing bed, holding each other like their lives depended on it.

Reveiw!

Please please reveiw! Good, bad, long or short, just please reveiw! I love all of you!

Dracolov, Sillylittlepinkbug, Agey, nitric-hamster, Snakeyes, apolitiner, oreo69not69, dracosbaby4eva, Mikasa Wormhole, Indyxx, Steffi-weffi16, AmericanGirl1114m reginatenae, and The Pirate Erin all rock! I love you all SO MUCH. I promise PROMISE after this final week in Colorado I will update SO MUCH faster. I just started this story before the busyest time in my summer. But soon school starts, and I will be home alot more!

ohhhhh the plot thickends... dude, she is kissing a purple kid.

Next Chapter: More romance and a centar plays a guessing game

Black satin boxers anyone? You know you want it...