DISCLAIMER- not mine. Plot is, but nothing else. Song- Corey Taylor. Characters- JK Rowling. (DUH!)

a/n thanks to everyone who reviewed, even though it wasnt necessary, I do appreciate you taking them time to give your kind words.Ill update ASAP, but as mentioned, my arthritus hates me, so we'll just have to see.

Hermione woke to her alarm ringing loudly. She looked up at her clock, and realized that she really had to get ready. Her alarm had been going off for almost 10 minutes, and that simply wouldn't do.

She crawled out of bed, and headed to the shower. Despite the bath the night before, she felt that she needed to shower in the morning, if only to wake her up fully. She washer her hair, and the rest of her, and was out of the shower within 10 minutes. She walked back to her room to figure out what the hell to wear. She finally decided on a pair of dark jeans, kinda tight around her hips and butt, but looser around the feet, with a black tank top, and a black studded belt. She left her hair down, and put on some black eyeliner, light lip-gloss, and some gold eye shadow. She put her army boots on, grabbed her bag, and went out to her common room to wait for Draco.

She didn't have to wait long, he came out of his room within five minutes, wearing black loose fitting jeans, a black t-shirt and his hair was, for once, not slicked back. 'Damn' she thought ' he looks good. No wonder all the girls drool over him' She looked him over once more, before her common sense kicked in again 'Wait, this is effing Malfoy, hot, but he's still an asshole.' She shook her head, and waited for him to make it down his stairs.

"Good morning, ready to go?" Draco asked nicely, to both of their surprise. Draco recovered first, and started walking to the portrait door.

"Morning to you too Malfoy, and yes, I'm ready." Hermione said, following him out the door.

They walked to the Great Hall in silence, both lost in their own thoughts. They walked into the Great Hall to see Pansy and Blaise waiting for them.

'Hey, Draco, Hermione, we're over here!" Pansy almost yelled. Draco was the first to see her, and walked over to the Slytherin table. Hermione was a bit hesitant to follow. Shouldn't she sit at her table? Even if they were the only ones in there, she felt out of place, and like she was betraying her house.

"Hermione, its okay. There won't be anyone here for a while, and we'll be gone by then." Pansy said, seeing Hermione's hesitation. 'Ah, fuck it' Hermione thought 'what have I got to lose?'

She walked over to the Slytherin table, and sat down beside Pansy, across from Blaise and Draco. They all began to eat, and talk about the decorations for the ball. Hermione took some toast, buttered it, and began to eat, still feeling uncomfortable at a table that wasn't hers. No one else seemed to notice, and if they did, they hid it well.

Soon enough, breakfast was done, and the group was on their way to Hogsmeade. Hermione walked with Pansy and Blaise, while Draco walked slightly behind them, but still close enough to listen to the conversation. Not that there was much to listen to. The girls were just talking about school, and things that they wanted to get for the ball.

Draco tuned them out, not really caring about what was going on. He only came because he wanted to make sure that everything that was needed was got, and because he was head boy. He was expected to go. Not that he had a problem with Blaise and Pansy, since they were all friends before they even went to Hogwarts, but he wasn't sure about Hermione. She was a mudblood, and mudbloods were bad, weren't they? That's what Draco had been taught long ago by his father, but now he wasn't so sure. His father had been wrong about a lot of things, why not Muggle born?

"Draco? Earth to Draco?" Pansy was waving her hand in front of Draco's face.

"Huh? Oh, Sorry Pans, I was thinking. What were you saying?" Draco snapped back to reality, cursing himself for zoning out.

"I was asking you if you wanted to get the gravestones, or other things first Pansy said, somewhat impatiently.

"I think getting everything else first would make more sense, since we still don't know how many we need, or how much they are." Draco smirked.

"That makes sense. Okay, so, we'll get everything, and then we girls have to check out some costumes, as I'm sure that you do too, and we can go to the Three Broomsticks for lunch before seeing about the gravestones. Is that good with everyone?" Pansy asked, and seeing no complaints, walked down to Magical Supplies for every Occasion.

They were out again with tones of bags, and it only took 2 hours to get just about everything they needed. Pansy started walking towards Nightmare costumes to get, well, duh, costumes.

They spent quite a while in there, which worked out for everyone, since they all needed costumes. However, since this WAS a masquerade, no one knew what the others had gotten. Sally, the owner, had made quite sure of that when they told her what kind of ball it was. Sally made sure that none of them got the same outfit however, and that they all finished around the same time.

They all walked to the Three Broomsticks with their purchases in their hands. They managed to find a table for four, and sat down. They all got a hot butterbeer, and then decided on what to eat. Once they had ordered, they began to talk about the ball again.

"I think that we have everything we need." Hermione said, sipping her butterbeer.

"Well, everything but the tombstones." Blaise said, "Actually, I was thinking, since we are learning how to transfigure bigger things now, why don't we see if professor McGonagall can show us how to do it. Then we don't need to spend so much money, and we can just make more if we have more students then we had originally planned."

"That's a great idea!" Pansy exclaimed. 'It saves money, and really, it does make sense. We can also find out each students birth date, and put that on the stone, so that it seems more real."

"I like that idea Pansy" Draco smirked. "Do you think that we should randomly put death dates on it too, freak them all out?"

"Draco! I don't think so. It may be fun to see some of them squirm, but still, that isn't very nice" Blaise said.

"Alright, alright. I just thought it could be fun" Draco said, drinking some butterbeer.

At that time, their food came, and all chatting stopped. None of them had realized how hungry they were, and devoured their food. When they had all finished, they paid, and walked out of the restaurant, and headed towards the castle, still discussing ideas about the ball. Soon enough, they were back in the entrance of Hogwarts, and they all went to the Prefects meeting room, stopping at the owlery to message the other Prefects telling them to come see what they had got.

Once they were all there, Hermione and Draco told them what they had in mind for the decoration, and then explained how they were going to make the tombstones. Everyone was quite impressed with the idea, and readily agreed. Hermione offered to ask McGonagall about the transfiguration, and since everyone knew that she was the teacher's pet, they all agreed. Once everything was figured out, they all went their separate ways.

Hermione decided that the day had been very productive. She was on her way to the teacher's room, when she stopped suddenly with realization. Draco had been civil to her for the entire day. 'Wow' she thought 'that's so weird. Maybe he isn't feeling well' She continued on her way, still thinking about how odd that had been. She reached the staff room, and knocked on the door. Lucky for Hermione, Professor McGonagall answered the door.

"Hello Hermione, what can I do for you?" McGonagall smiled.

'Well, I was wondering if you could teach me how to transfigure rocks" Hermione said, and went on to explain the ball, and the tombstones.

"That's quite a lot you have planned, Mrs. Granger, but I think that I have just the spell for you. It isn't overly difficult, or at least, it wont be for you and Mr. Malfoy, as I assume that he'll be helping you. Come and see me after dinner tonight in my office with Mr. Malfoy, and Ill show you how to do it."

"Okay, thank you so much Professor McGonagall" Hermione beamed, and walked back to her dorm. She walked in, after saying the new password, raistlyn, to Crysania. The password came from the name of one of her favorite characters, raistlyn, in the Dragonlance series. Oddly enough, Draco knew that name, and told her that Dalamar was going to be the next password. She had thought it odd that he knew of the books, especially since they were Muggle written, but had been too surprised to say anything about the matter.

She saw Draco sitting, again, on HER couch reading a book. She walked over to him, and read the title of the book. 'The Soulforge'.

"Good choice of book" Hermione said, noticing that it was a Dragonlance book. By the looks of it, it was hers too.

Draco looked up, surprised to see her this close to him, since he hadn't even heard her come in. "Yes, well, I like them, even if they were written by a mudblood." Draco sneered.

Hermione's jaw clenched in anger, but that didn't stop her from telling him off.

'How DARE you!! You don't know who wrote them, how do you know they aren't witches too?? And to call them that, you disgust me Malfoy." Hermione seethed.

"I disgust YOU?" Draco sneered. 'I'm not the one with the filthy blood. I'm not the one who has to hang off Potty to try and get attention. I don't have to be the know it all suck up"

"EXCUSE ME???" Hermione shouted, "Look whose FUCKING talking!!! Mr. I have to be an asshole to everyone, caring only what kind of blood their parents have. I AM NOT MY PARENTS! I do NOT know everything, nor am I frigging PERFECT"

Draco seemed to be surprised not only at the outburst of the Head Girl, but also at the language. Hermione took a few deep breaths, her eyes closed, obviously trying to calm down.

'We have to meet Professor McGonagall in her office after dinner, so she can teach us the spell. And what in the hell are you doing on MY couch?" Hermione said, finally opening her eyes.

"I didn't realize that I was on your DIRTY couch. So sorry Granger" Draco sneered, obviously sarcastically.

"Well, get the fuck off, and while you're at it, you can stay away from everything that's mine' Hermione said "and that includes my book!" She snatched it away, and stormed up to her room.

Draco watched her go, and a new strange feeling swept over him. Was this what guilt felt like? He never felt guilty before, why would he feel it over her? He pushed the thoughts from his mind, and looked into the fire. His brain didn't seem to want to be stopped though, and thoughts of Hermione floated back to him. 'Man, she sure was pretty when she's pissed. Why did she take so much offense? I've said those things to her for the past 6 years, why is this one different?'

Draco continued to ponder Hermione, and life in general, when he decided that he wanted a shower before heading for dinner. He was just walking past her room when he heard something and stopped. He listened for that sound, and was not disappointed. It came again. He listened closely, so that he wouldn't miss anything.

"Wish I was, too dead to cry. My self-affliction fades."

She was singing, Draco realized. He got more comfortable, and listened to her. She certainly had one hell of a voice.

"Wish I was, too dead to care, if indeed I cared at all. Never had a voice to protest, so you fed me shit to digest. I wish I had a reason, my flaws are open season, for this I gave up trying, one good turn deserves my dying"

Draco could hear her voice changing. It sounded as if she were crying. That unfamiliar feeling of guilt came back even harder then before. Had he made her cry? He thought about the words she was singing, and he felt his heard go cold. She felt like he did. She knew what he was going through. He listened more, afraid to stay, but afraid to leave.

"Wish I dies, instead I lived, a zombie hides my face. Shell forgotten with its memories, diaries left, with cryptic entries.

You don't need to bother. I don't need to be here. I'll keep slipping farther. . But once I hold on.. Ill never live down my deceit."