Chapter Twenty Three

January came and left as quickly as a wink, Draco slightly repairing his mistakes by keeping a low profile from the girls he had broken so easily. February was now in for the beating.

Hermione woke up to the warm sun and looked over at Jessie and Blair giggling as they talked. Jessie lifted her head and looked at Hermione in the bed. "She's awake!" She exclaimed. Blair sat up and smiled at Hermione. Hermione grinned tiredly and then asked, "How long have you been up?"

"Forever!" The other two girls said in unison.

Blair looked up to see, smell and feel steam, skulking out from under the bathroom door into Hermione's room. Jessie looked back and noticed the door was slightly open. She got up, tiptoeing towards the door but as soon as she got close to it, it slammed in her face. "Fuck!" She whispered.

Hermione jumped out of the bed and ran out into the common room. When Blair and Jessie slept in Hermione's quarters, Draco usually made breakfast, got ready for the day and snuck out while he still could. It looked like he wasn't going to be so sneaky about it today.

Blair was recovering from the atrocious crime that Draco committed and finally starting to appreciate Harry for what he could give to her. Jessie had finally decided to get over the asshole she once fell in love with and go out with Ron. But Hermione was a completely different story.

Every time she saw Draco, warmth in her cheeks seemed to make her dizzy. The pain existed in her heart. It was almost like listening to a bee buzzing right in your ear; you want it to stop so badly, but how to make it stop is uncertain. Wait for it to fly out of your ear or kill it right there, with the blood to remind you it was there. With all the memories to remind you love had once been there. Maybe the bee was still there though; maybe it wasn't too late to let it fly away.

The door opened and out came Draco, his hair a wet mess. He was wearing a green polo and khaki pants. Hermione grabbed a piece of a pancake off of Blair's plate and let it soak into her mouth. It tasted marvelous.

"Delicious…as always." Hermione said. Draco looked over and nodded, forcing a grin. She sighed quietly and watched him walk over to the book case. He had a big test that day for N.E.W.T.s and wanted to get everything perfect. Not for anyone else but himself; him and has family hadn't talked sense Christmas Eve.

"Blair, shouldn't you be down in the Great Hall or something?" Draco asked, looking at a book he had pulled out of the book case.

Blair bit into a piece of bacon and giggled. "I don't have to judge anyone today, Draco. Why, are you trying to get rid of me?"

"No, I was just checking." Jessie burst out laughing, orange juice spraying out from her mouth. Draco looked back at Jessie with the you-are-one-crazy-muffin look.

"Oh my God! I have a N.E.W.T. today!" Jessie yelled, still laughing. She popped out of the chair and then ran into Hermione's room to get her stuff. She quickly slipped on her house colors, grabbed an apple and ran out of the room. Blair smiled at Hermione.

"I finished my N.E.W.T.s yesterday." Hermione bragged a bit, finishing off a strawberry. "I had the D.A.D.A. one. It was quite easy, might I add." Blair smirked and then got up feeling so out of place. It was the first time in a while any of them had communicated with Draco.

"I better get going; some students asked me if I would go running with them to relieve their stress." Blair exclaimed, walking into Hermione's room. Hermione glanced over at Draco who was still looking through the book. It was a Herbology book; that subject was never his best. But it was Hermione's…

Blair came out of Hermione's room fully dressed in a black pleated skirt with a yellow turtleneck and black Miu Miu clogs. Her hair didn't look greasy or stringy, and her face looked flawless. Blair Conwell looked good in anything at anytime. She didn't belong at Hogwarts teaching kids; she belonged in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. She walked towards the door and then stopped. "Stop by before lunch if you wanna go running." She said, winked and then left.

Draco walked over to the table, biting his finger and still looking at his book. "What's the connection between the Rules of the Daffodil Love and Herbology?" He asked still looking at the book.

"The author who wrote it was a Herbology professor and some of the plants that Jake talked about were Herbology plants. It also talked about how to treat them and some of the plants you actually have to put emotion into caring for them. It was mostly about relationships…" Draco slowly lifted his head and looked at her. "Between life and nature." Hermione finished. She felt like a twit; not only did she mention about caring for something, she mentioned relationships. It was a tender subject for the two nowadays.

Draco slammed the book close and stared at her. "I should get going." He grabbed a few books that were sitting on the couch, his wand and a few other things and then headed for the portrait hole. Hermione sprinted towards him, not knowing how to stop herself.

She grabbed Draco by the arm and turned him around. "You don't have to." Draco pulled his arm away.

"I've gotta, Granger." He reached the end of the hole before she stomped her foot. He stopped feeling slightly bad. Feeling like she might cry…like she always did for stupid reasons.

"So that's where we're at again; Malfoy and Granger? You don't have one single bit of our love left in your heart? Not one single care in the world for me?" Draco smirked. She was always wanting things for herself…she wanted everything to revolve around her lately. Little Miss Perfect bitch.

He headed out of the portrait hole and into the hall where students where flocking down to meet there peers and professors to show how bad or good they did. Hermione ran through the portrait hole right before it closed and grabbed onto Draco's arm. He turned around dropping his books. "Would you leave me alone?" He yelled. Every stopped and looked. "You're the last person I want to be seen with." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Funny, you didn't seem to care when I was your girlfriend!" She yelled out so everyone could here. He pushed her away and began to pick up his books. She dove under him and grabbed a book.

"What the bloody hell are you doing, Granger?"

"Helping you fail your Herbology N.E.W.T.!" She continued yelling as she ripped the pages out of the book and then threw it past some 2nd years head's. She tore out another book from his arms and then threw it over the railing of the stair well. He dropped the last book and then grabbed her by the arm.

"As much as I was in love with you and still am…I don't want to go through the hell you put me through. Becoming friends with my exgirlfriend…wrong move! Breaking up with me…strike-fucking-two." He said his last words quietly but everyone could still hear him. "Wanting me after and telling me now…STRIKE THREE AND YOU'RE OUT! You sweep me off my feet, Granger and then treat my heart like a piece of crap!"

"You're the one who cheated on me! And it wasn't my fault that you didn't want to show me off in the first place at that stupid Halloween Ball and then Jessie took me in as a friend. Sorry if I needed comfort! Sorry if you turned into a druggie! Sorry if I broke your heart! In fact, I'd rather break your heart than have you break mine!"

She snapped out of his clutch and then kicked his last book between the railing poles. He grabbed her by the arms and pressed her against the railing. "Don't ever touch my stuff again, Granger!" She didn't show a sign of fear and that's what Draco hated most about her. She was never scared of his strength, but was always aware of it.

"Get your hands off of Miss Granger, this instant, Mr. Malfoy!" They both looked over to see Professor Dumbledore and Fudge, the Minister at the Ministry of Magic. There was also another young man with short, cotton blonde hair that was spike. He was wearing big, bulky shoes and khaki pants. He was also wearing a gray sweat-shirt that had the letters CVA printed on it.

Hermione looked at Draco and winked. "The Minister is here, Malfoy. Don't make yourself look like an ass." He backed off and walked passed the Minister, Dumbledore and the other kid and then turned around to flip Hermione the bird.

The Minister and the boy approached Hermione. She smiled at them as they greeted her. "Good Morning, Miss Granger. Uhm, I have many things to talk to you about but I can see that you haven't changed out of your bed clothes, so if you don't mind-" She nodded and then ran through the portrait hole thinking of how adorable that the guy was.

She changed into her school uniform skirt and a red turtle neck with her loafers. She looked sort of like Blair but she had to represent her school in front of the Minister. And the other guy.

She skipped out of the school with them to talk a walk through the gardens to chat about the Minister Job in America. "As you may have gotten the letter in December, so did this young fellow. You two are the only two students who got the offer seeing as you are the brightest, most academic students in the world right now. But I'm waging that your wondering what his name is where he's from." They stopped in front of the Japanese Maple and sat down on a bench. "Hermione Granger meet your new competition; Benjamin Bisson from Wolf Head Academy. The one in America, I'm sure you've heard of it before." Oh she had heard of it before. Draco was always talking about how the students there got to play Muggle sports and do many more things than they got to go. They had a lot more privileges there. She heard it was in Colorado, but wasn't sure.

"As of right now, he has a higher grade standard than you do but once we get the N.E.W.T. standards in we will see about it."

"Well, I'm not even really sure I want to take the job…I've got a lot here." Yeah, right. She had awkward friends and an asshole of a boyfriend. Well he wasn't really her boyfriend at that moment, but they would be soon. And her friends weren't really awkward, but they weren't the people that other people would expect her to be seen with.

"We understand that. Benjamin has a lot of things going for him as well." The Minister stopped talking and let Benjamin take over.

"I don't know if I really want a place in Wizarding stuff. I go to Carrabassett Valley Academy or CVA in the winter to take up snowboarding. I came in 2 at Nationals last year out of 1,300 other people." Adorable hair, hot smile, sexy style and athletic? Sketch.

"But considering you two are the most valuable 17 year olds in the world right now and the fact that we need new, young ideas to keep America's ministry up and running…I believe you can keep it going. And if you both get the same standards and both want the job, I could recommend that both of you be the Minister." He smiled at them as Hermione looked down at Benjamin's black shoes. They had 'DC' outlined in white thread. He caught her looking and got her attention by stretching his legs. He was tanner then Draco, but not too tan. She looked up at him and winked. This was the perfect way to get back at Draco for totally alienating her in front of everyone.

The glory of revenge.

The Minister laughed in his jolly fat tone and then got up. "Well I will let you two have you time to chat while I go find Albus." He left them and Hermione giggled. Benjamin smiled at her showing off his perfect teeth. This boy had to be flawless. He was nice, hot and ADORABLE!

§¤§

Hermione walked into the Great Hall with Benjamin behind her. "This is the cafeteria." She said with a smirk. Everyone looked at them, rumors once again floating in the air. Draco looked over from where he was standing which were only a few yards away. He was with all his guy friends like Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle.

"And is that the dick wad that almost pushed you over the railing?" He asked looking over at Draco.

"I think that describes him." She looked over and saw Ron feeding Jessie applesauce or something. They disgusted her sometimes. Harry had even started reading because that 'Slytherin Slut' as he liked to call her, stole his best friend. Hermione walked over and sat next to him. Benjamin stood at the table and nodded in disappointment. All of her friends looked pathetic in some way or another.

"Oh guys, this is Benjamin Bisson. He's been offered the spot too." They all looked up as disappointment drifted onto their faces. She had to interrupt their "good, memory making times" just to introduce some adorable blonde boy with a CVA sweat shirt on. Interesting, but not enough to hold their attention.

"I'm Ginny," Hermione looked over at the snobby 6th year that she hadn't talked to in forever because Ginny hated Hermione for kissing Draco in a Beauty and the Beast type dress. Benjamin looked over and grinned. All he seemed to see was a red head with freckles that spread all over her face. He thought she was gorgeous.

"Sit down, Benjamin." Hermione demanded. He looked at her like he was kind of confused.

"Actually… I have to go eat with the Minister. But I'll see you later…" Hermione stood up and looked around.

"Tonight maybe?"

"Maybe, but I'd have to sneak out. I can't be out of my room after dark and its getting dark right about now." He said quietly.

"Will you?" He thought about it looking around the place and settled his gaze on Draco.

"Yeah, up in the library."

"That's 3rd year stuff, meet me near the lake."

"I have no fucking clue how to get down there; I only know where the library is because my room is right across from it." He said becoming very confused and kind of upset. Hermione thought it was kind of cute.

"There's a back door out of the library just walk until you think you're in some woods. You can't miss it and if you do…well turn around." Hermione said smiling. He smirked and nodded.

"See you tonight then." Hermione smiled and watched him walk off. She sighed and looked at Draco. She winked at him and he just glared at her. He got up and walked over.

"What the fuck is your problem? Do you want me or not?" He asked quietly, but everyone was still watching them like it was a movie, and everyone was praying that she would get slapped because they needed to be together and she didn't need to be with Benjamin Bisson.

"Draco, you already blew it." He slapped her.

"Fuck that, I didn't blow anything! You were the one who tore up my N.E.W.T. book and made me pretty much fail my Herbology one."

"Don't ever touch me again!" She screamed and pushed him by the shoulders.

"I'll touch you if I want to!" He yelled grabbing her by the arm, pulling her close and holding her chin in his hand. She remembered when he first said those words to her and she fell in love with those words. But she didn't want them now. She didn't want to fall in love with them anymore because they were violent.

"Get off of me!" She shrieked trying to pull away but tripping over his foot and falling to the ground. She looked up, her head throbbing in pain. Her friends were getting up to see if she was alright…in fact, everyone was getting up.

Harry got in front of Draco and pushed him away from Hermione. "Stay away from her Malfoy; she tried to get you back but you didn't want her."

"I've wanted her the whole time, Potter and this is NONE of your fucking business so I suggest you back off." Harry glared at him and reached out a hand for Hermione to grab and pull herself up.

"It was my business from the start." He said, whisking past Draco with Hermione at his side. He took her up to her dorm and sat her down on the couch. He needed to talk to her about something.

"Hermione, I know this isn't the right time…I know you have a lot of things on your mind…but I have to tell you." She looked up at Harry. She didn't object because her head hurt too much to even talk. "I think something's happened with Blair…I think…I think she might be pregnant." Hermione's eyes widened. "With Draco's baby,"