Hilo! The only thing I want to say is to Write-or-Wrong. Yes, eventually he will. But who's to know when?

Who Are You?

Chapter 6 : Night (simple, yet enexplainable)

When they made it back to the house, (Hermione and Draco walking a little farther apart) they found Tom had been dropped off by his carpool person. He was very pleased to meet Hermione, and while Meryl got some clothes for her to borrow, Tom and the boys went to the basement to find some candles. They had just come upstairs when Hermione came downstairs, clad in a long skirt (held up by a belt) and a large sweater.

"Ryan, Zach, go change into some dry clothes and put those in the dryer with Hermione's."

"Kay, mom. Come on Ryan." Hermione could hear him muttering to Draco about how stupid he was.

"Now then, Hermione would you like to call Mrs. Sena?"

"I thought the power was out."

"Oh, we have cell phone that still works dear, do you know the number?"

"Oh, yes. Thank you."

She dialed the number, and discovered it was dead. She was about to tell Meryl, when Zach handed her a small piece of paper. She saw Roxy's name and a cell phone number.

"Now, why in the world would you have this?"

"NO reason. Just call her."

Hermione silently smiled to herself, and dialed the number.

"Hello?"

"Hi. Roxy, it's me, Hermione. I'm over at Draco's house and – "

"Oh, do they like you?"

"Look, that's really not the issue – "

"But do they? It's important that – "

"Roxy! Yes, fine, they like me. Now, about the whole thunderstorm issue. Is your power out too?"

"Yes. Is yours?"

"Yes, and the car is in the garage, so they won't be able to drop me off. Is your car in the stuck in the garage, or would you be able to come and get me?"

"Yep, it's in the garage. How very unlucky of you. It looks as if you'll have to spend the night. Oh, what a bummer."

"Oh, please. Like you're not enjoying this. Don't even try to lie. Is your mum there?"

"Yes, but I don't really think she's able to talk right now." Hermione could hear her smiling through the phone.

"Roxy, don't you dare lie. Give the phone to your mum!"

"Oh, dear, there's a beep. Looks like I have to leave. See ya later!"

"No, Roxy, don't hang – " Hermione never finished her sentence because Roxy did, in fact, hang up. She turned around to face Meryl.

"Well, Roxy says their car is stuck in the garage too, and apparently Mrs. Sena was unavailable. I hope you don't mind."

"No, no it's fine dear. I'm sure I have a pair of pajamas you could fit in, though you're small. How old are you?"

"Oh, I'll be turning 17 in September."

"My goodness, 17! Speaking of birthdays, do you know when Ryan's is? I've been wondering for such a long time."

"Um, no I don't, I'm sorry. But I could find out for you."

"Would you dear, that would be wonderful."

"It would be my pleasure. I'll just have to write a letter."

"Yay! Then we can have a birthday party! Ooooh, what do you want Ryan?" cried Cecelia

"Ummm…"

"Oh, come on Cecelia, can you help me in the kitchen?"

"With what? Ask Zach or Ryan, I wanna play with Hermione." She whined.

"Now, now, Hermione is Ryan's friend, so come on. I'll call you for dinner in a minute."

With that, she left the three teenagers in the living room. Hermione and Draco just sort of stood there for a moment until Zach noticed they were unsure and suggested they just watch TV until dinnertime.

So, five minutes later when Meryl walked into the room, they were all sitting on the couch watching some guy named Dat Phan on Comedy Central. (A/N Dat Phan really is funny! Just HILARIOUS!) Soon they were all sitting around the table, enjoying the wonderful dinner that Meryl made. Hermione was next to Draco, with Zach and Cecelia sitting across from them, and the two grown-ups at the ends. Dinner was halfway through when Tom asked Hermione about school.

"Oh, I go to the same school as Draco, Hogwarts School of – " She was cut off, as Draco's hand was now covering her mouth. She made to remove it, while Meryl was scolding Draco for his rude behavior. However, before she could really do anything, he leaned in close and whispered,

"They don't know. I haven't told them." Hermione fought back the thought of how it sent shivers down her spine when his lips accidentally brushed against her ear. Finding she could not, she shook her head, trying to rid herself of the horribly misinformed thought. Hermione removed her hand, and whispered back.

"And why not? You've only had two weeks!"

"I was afraid, they're the only family I've ever known." She sighed, glanced at Tom and Meryl (who was quiet now), and stood up.

"If you will please excuse me, Draco has something he needs to discuss with you as a family. I'm quite full, Draco, I will be waiting in your room, as we need to talk as well." She shot him a small glare, and left the room, leaving everyone to stare at Draco.

Meanwhile, Hermione stopped off to see if her clothes had dried and as they were, she changed into them, leaving Meryl's clothes on her bed. She walked back into Draco's room and commenced looking around. Moving back to the concert passes, she found many of them were Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, Green Day, and one or two of Linkin Park. Glancing about, she realized he had many of those same CD's. She moved over to his dresser to discover many notes, paperclips, and what looked to be a couple of math pages. She picked it up and noticed a '59' written in big red letters. Suddenly she heard a small laugh from behind and spun around with a guilty look on her face.

"As you can see, I'm not the best at math."

She softly laughed and said, "Yeah, I've gathered that." He walked further into the room and sat on his bed.

"So you've told them?"

"Yeah."

"Well? How did they take it?"

"Tom is still in shock, Zach and Cecelia are thrilled, and Meryl left. I don't know what she could possibly think."

"Draco, look, I know it's hard, but it had to be done. You couldn't go your whole life pretending around them, and they do seem to really love you." She tried to make him feel better about it, but knew it was futile.

"Yeah I know. It's just…" There was a knock at the door.

"Come in." The door opened and Meryl was standing there. Hermione looked between the two of them, and decided to make a quick exit.

"Umm, I'll just be going."

"No, no dear stay, you're a part of this. Please, sit down." Hermione swallowed nervously and sat next to Draco on the bed.

"Now, Ryan first off, I want you to know that this changes nothing for the way I feel about you. I still love you very much, okay? (She continued at his nod and laughed nervously) Now I see why you were so adamant about going back to England for that school."

"Yeah."

"So, I take it that you're a witch, Hermione?"

"Umm, yes. If you have any questions at all, please, just ask. I'll answer as best I can. I know it must be a bit of a shock, I remember when my parents found out."

"I just have two questions. Is it possible that Tom and I meet this Professor Dumbledore?"

"Oh, yes of course. As soon as I get home I'll call Harry and have him send a letter."

"Could you call him on a cell phone?"

"I suppose." Meryl handed Hermione her cell phone. "Are you sure, it'll be quite expensive." At her nod, she dialed the number and waited.

"Hello, may I talk to Harry, please?" She was quiet for a moment. "This is Hermione Granger, look it'll be just a moment. Do I really have to call someone else?" She said with a hard edge to her voice. "Harry's muggle relatives don't like him, they're actually rather nasty to him." She said by way of explanation.

"Harry, yeah, hey. Listen could you do me a favor? Yes, thank you. I need you to write Dumbledore and ask him to apparate to 12134 Franklin road. No, doesn't matter what time it is…yes he'll know where it is…umm, just tell him it has to do with Ryan. Ok? Thanks a lot Harry, you have no idea what this means to me." She hung up and handed the phone back to Meryl. "Dumbledore will come if he can. What was the other question you wanted to ask?"

"Well you see, I heard about your argument with Ryan, and I was wondering, what is a 'deatheater'?"

DUN DUN DUN! Oh, what now? Hmmm… do you think I should end it here? Leave a cliffy for ya? I don't know. (Jeopardy theme song) All right, I guess I'll go on, I was just messin with ya. Well, here you go-

"What?"

"A deatheater. I'm going to assume that it's bad since you called him an evil bastard right afterward." She was smiling and Hermione was slowly going pale. She certainly didn't want to do this.

"You heard all of it? Was I really that loud?"

"Oh, yes. You sounded very angry."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize. It's just, well, Draco and I have a history together."

"Oh, how sweet!"

"No, no, not like that. We hated each other, we were bitter enemies."

"I see. And yet…here you are, helping him, tutoring him."

"Well, it's difficult." She said, hoping they would drop the subject. Draco smirked.

"Well we do have time, Hermione." She sent him a little glare, and Meryl spoke up.

"We are getting off subject. Hermione?"

"Well, maybe Draco would feel more comfortable explaining." She said, glancing at him.

"I can't. Don't know anything about it."

"What?" Hermione looked aghast.

"Dumbledore never said anything about it. Not once."

"He didn't?" She was shocked, and it came out rather weakly. This meant she had no choice but to tell them herself. And, as we already stated, she did not want to do that.

"Well, umm.. There's this guy, Voldemort. He's a really dark, evil wizard. And he has this terrifyingly absurd idea. He wants to get rid of all the muggle-borns and half-bloods, like Hitler with the Jewish people. And he has these followers, called Deatheaters. They have the Dark Mark – a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth – inside their left forearm. I called Draco this, because before he disappeared from Hogwarts, that was the path that he was going down."

Silence reigned in the room. For about 15 seconds.

"Ryan, following this madman you're talking about?"

"Well, there are other factors."

"Like what? God, I really was an evil bastard." Draco looked thoroughly disgusted with himself.

"Look, in primary school we learn that our personalities are shaped from three different factors. Our parents, our peers, and our environment. Your father, Lucius, is a Deatheater. (Seeing Draco's worried look, she quickly added the bit about him being in jail) With those beliefs, I'm sure you were raised to believe it too. Your environment was probably cold and uninviting. And then you were put into Slytherin, with other children like you. I'm not saying that you're blameless Draco, far from it, but haven't you ever heard the phrase "I blame my parents"? And besides, for whatever reason, you were given a second chance."

"I see. Well, I'll let you two talk."

"What about this dude, Lucius? He's a Deatheater!"

"What about it? As far as I'm concerned, he doesn't matter. You are who you are, and you are not him. I love you, and not even your blood could change that." She hugged him and left the room, shutting the door behind her. Leaving the two of them in his room, sitting on the bed, with only candles for light. Alone.

What will happen next! Who knows? I don't. Any suggestions? I have the main idea, but I don't know how I'll quite put it together. And sorry it took me so long to update, I've not been having a good week. Hopefully it'll be getting better though. Did you know we have four inches of snow in the morning, and the stupid Swanton School District didn't cancel! Can you believe that! I couldn't, until my mother came into the room to wake me up every five minutes. Very annoying. Have a nice day!Vamoose!BAM!ShwooshSwift arah