Draco's POV

Draco had spent the rest of the night pacing his bedroom floor. He was restless with worry. And over Granger no less. He pondered over what had happened. She passed out on him, big deal? So why was it bothering him so much? And to make matters worse, he CARRIED her to the Infirmary, not charmed her so he wouldn't get any of her Mudblood filth on him, but had actually touched her. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of these thoughts. He had seen plenty of people pass out, even die, but it had never effected him. Until now. He sat on the edge of his bed, running his hand through his thick silky hair. He felt a major headache coming on. He lay back in bed and gave out an exasperated groan. This year was not going as he had planned at all. He thought back to Hermione laying in the hospital bed, all alone, without her cronies there to protect her. Potty and Weasel would be sure to be upset over this. Especially since they knew nothing of it yet. He had never seen one of the three hurt without the other two there beside them. He knew Hermione would want them to be there in the morning. He also realized that he was the only other person that knew where she was. Seeing as how there was no chance of sleep at that moment he stood up and crossed over to the door of his bedroom. He truly must be losing his mind if he was really going to do what he had just thought about doing. 'I can't believe I'm going to the Gryffindor common room.' He left his own chamber and started down the hall. Always ducking into the dark crevices so as to not be noticed by any patrolling teachers. He drifted into thoughts filled with Hermione and soon lost track of where he was.

He looked up when he heard someone screaming. He was standing face to face with the Fat Lady whom was making quite a bit of noise. He briefly caught the word "trespasser" before he was overwhelmed with his headache returning full blast. He cupped his head in his hands and started walking back and forth to take his mind off the pain. It had just started to subside when the portrait finally shut up and swung open. It revealed a very angry looking redhead with his hair standing in all directs and a slightly pissed off looking raven haired boy who's hair looked like it always did. 'Must not even try to brush it in the morning' Draco mused to himself.

"Draco Malfoy? What are you doing here?" Potter spat at him.

"Granger's in the Infirmary. Don't bother trying to see her tonight, Pomfrey is guarding her like a damn watchdog." Without any farther information he swung around, his robes billowing behind him much in the fashion that Professor Snape had mastered, and stalked back down the corridor.

He collapsed onto the couch when he entered the common room, hands cupped once again over his head. He was terribly exhausted, having now lost two nights worth of sleep. He had to try to get to bed, he could at least sleep for a few of the remaining morning hours before classes started. 'That girl is going to be the death of me.' he thought as he slowly stood up and walked, stiffly, into his room.

He walked over to the edge of his bed and slowly stripped down to his silky black boxers, never once letting go of his wand. He sighed as he realized just how tired he was. He crawled under the silk sheets covering his bed and had no sooner placed his wand under his pillow than he was surrounded by a deep, dreamless sleep.

He woke the next morning, listening for the sounds of Hermione getting ready for classes. He sat up in bed, slightly disturbed at the disappearance of the noise when suddenly he remembered the night before. He would have the place to himself this morning. He slowly got up and stretched, then grabbed his wand from under his pillow. He headed off into the shower, wearing nothing but his boxers since he knew he would be alone. As he stood in the shower, relaxing as the cool water rushed over him, he found that he wondered how Hermione was doing. He lathered his hair in the many potions that he used to keep it looking spectacular before rinsing all traces of the potions down the drain. He stepped out and wrapped a large black towel around his waist and dried his hair with the touch of his wand. He left the bathroom in search of his clothing. He put on a tight black muggle short sleeve shirt with a pair of black denim jeans under his robes. He walked over to his mirror and combed through his already perfect looking hair.

"You look gorgeous, Draco, dear." the mirror told him as he smirked at it. Sometimes it paid to have an enchanted mirror. "You can easily have any girl in this pathetic school you want." And then again, sometimes it didn't. 'Yea, I can have any girl I want except one. But I don't want her, do I?' He waltzed out the door and into the common room, disturbed by his thoughts of late. He walked over to the bookcase without realizing it and picked up the book that had caused so much trouble the night before. He glanced down at the title, Destinies of a Kind. No doubt some sappy love novel. He placed it back unto the shelf and walked out to breakfast, the whole time his mind pestering him about Hermione.

He entered the Great Hall and took a look around. Potter and Weasley had yet to show up meaning that they were probably with Hermione. He felt a twinge of jealousy spark up but quickly extinguished it, ashamed and shocked that he would be jealous of Potter and the Weasel for yet another reason. He walked over to the Slytherin table and sat down next to Blaise. Pansy glared at him from across the table but quickly retreated when the glare was returned. He had just grabbed his plate when the doors swung open to reveal non other than Potter and Weasley. The two were laughing so obviously Hermione was doing alright. Draco let out a low sigh which acquired him a odd look from Blaise. He glared at Blaise causing him to drop his gaze back to his plate. He watched as Harry and Ron seated themselves at the Gryffindor table and started to engorge themselves. Draco also went back to his plate, but had lost his appetite. He discreetly watched The-Boy-Who-Lived and his hot tempered friend until they had finished their meal. He watched them stand to leave for their next class. As they walked out the door Draco excused himself and set out after them. He closed the door behind him and looked around the hallway for them. He caught sight of them at the far end of the hall. He briskly walked after them, trying to figure out what he was doing and why. He caught up with them sooner than he expected. They turned to glare at him.

"Resorted to stalking us, Malfoy?" Harry raised his eyebrow with this comment.

"You wish, Potty. I was uh," He started to say but found he couldn't quite find the words.

"Having speech problems, ferret face?" Ron saw his opportunity to try to lash out at him.

"I was just wondering how that Mudblood was doing. She is headgirl after all and I'm suppose to check on her." he smirked at them.

"DON'T YOU EVER CALL HER THAT AGAIN, MALFOY!" Ron erupted on Draco, throwing himself at him. Harry rushed in and tried to hold Ron down.

"Watch your tongue, Malfoy. It'll get you into more trouble than you can imagine. I'm only holding Ron back now because for some reason you chose to help Hermione last night. Call her that again and you won't be so lucky."

Draco just smirked at the two boys, Harry sitting on top of a furious Ron. He turned around and walked to his next class, History of Magic with Ravenclaw. 'Well, this should be a good chance to catch up on my sleep.' he thought.

Hermione's POV

The morning dragged on, with nothing to do but sit in bed and stress over the classes she was missing. No doubt that Harry and Ron probably didn't take notes so she was sure she would have to ask around for a reliable person. She watched the clock tick by, painfully slow. Finally Pomfrey came over to release her. She ran down to the Great Hall, anxious to meet back up with her friends. They hugged her as she sat down between the two.

"How you feel, Mione?"

"I feel just fine! I don't see why I had to miss all my classes. I'll never catch up!" she sighed with frustration.

"It's ok, Mione. We didn't do much of anything. And if I know you half as well as I think I do then I'm sure you are months ahead of us." Harry gave her a reassuring smile before embracing her in another hug. They ate their lunch, catching Hermione up on all the stuff she had missed. The afternoon classes seemed to fly by. Hermione noticed that once again Draco seemed to look her way more often than normal. For some reason she liked it. She was all to eager to get away from the classroom though. She walked with Harry and Ron to the library where they worked on their homework, or at least she did. They seemed to intent on staring out the window or doing anything that wasn't constructive.

"Hermione, it's dinner time and I'm starving!" Ron complained loudly, getting a disapproving look from the librarian. Hermione stood from her seat and closed her book with a loud slam that echoed through the room causing the librarian to once again glare at them

"Ok, Ron, since the only thing ever on your mind is food and I know I won't get anywhere with you if your hungry, let's go." She exited the library followed by the rest of the golden trio. They walked into the Great Hall and took their usual seats at the table. Once they had gotten settled Ron and Harry dug in full force. Hermione gazed over the tables and noticed Draco sitting by Zabini again. A loud fluttering of wings came from the window, drawing all the students attention to it. A huge black eagle stepped through the window and took flight into the room. He circled the Slytherin table once before dropping down in front of Malfoy. With a stone face he took the letter and quickly stood up and left. The majestic bird gracefully flew back out the way he had entered. Hermione watched this display with great interest. Everyone in the school knew whom the bird belonged to, Lucius Malfoy. What worried Hermione was the fact that Draco seemed to flee when he received the note. She excused herself from dinner and left to her common room, leaving behind two very confused best friends.

She quickly walked through the hallways toward her dorm. When she got to the portrait she gasped out "together" and rushed through the opening. There sitting on the couch facing the fire was Draco. He held the open letter in his hand but was instead staring deep into the golden flames. He didn't notice Hermione come in so he remained sitting like that. She carefully walked over to where he was and sat down next to him. Placing a hand on his shoulder she spoke, "Are you alright, Draco?"

His head snapped up and he turned toward Hermione, aghast to find that he had been watched. "Don't you ever touch me again!" he screamed at her before quickly standing up. He walked closer to the fire so that it was a miracle that his robes hadn't caught fire. Hermione stood up and followed him, always staying just behind him.

"It's from your father isn't it?" she asked. He didn't speak this time but instead simply nodded his head.

"Everyone thinks I'm to be the next great Death Eater. That my life is just perfect. Everyone assumes that I want to follow in my oh so powerful father's footsteps. Well, they don't shit about me!" he gripped his fist so tight that his knuckles turned white and Hermione suspected that his nails had broken skin.

"You mean you aren't a Death Eater?" she inquired. She was completely shocked by this revelation. He was right in that every student and most of the faculty thought him to already be one. It only made sense that he would follow Lucius and worship the Dark Lord. But yet here he was, denying all of it.

"Of course not! I refuse to bow down to a creature that remains in hiding from a mere boy. My father thinks he is so honorable, kissing the hems of that lowlife. I'll never be like him." he shook his head in disgust. "But it looks as though I don't have much of a choice." he turned to walk away but was stopped when Hermione placed her hand on his shoulder once again. This time he didn't shrug her away but instead just stood there looking at the floor.

"What do you mean you don't have a choice? Of course you do. You can fight for the light!"

"Oh like that's going to happen. Just because I don't want to aid the dark doesn't mean I'm going to help Perfect Potter." he sneered at the mention of his name. "Besides, I'm suppose to meet with Voldemort next month. I can't see how I can get out of it. If I don't show, my father will not hesitate to kill me." he started to walk away from Hermione again but she interrupted him.

"Surely your father will not hurt you." she stated in disbelief.

He turned around faster than she thought humanly possible. "Can I trust you?" he asked, completely throwing her off guard. She stared at him in confusion before finally uttering,

"Of course." He took her by the wrist and dragged her into his bedroom. Thoughts filled her mind of all the horrible things he could possibly do to her. She wondered if the rumors of him having taken almost every girl in the school besides the Gryffindors were true. He pulled her over to his bed and threw her down on it. She started to get up but as he walked away she found she was fascinated in what he would do next. He walked over to his dresser and pulled open the top left hand door. He pulled out a small shining silver bowl. It was inlaid with a deep crimson dragon with a emerald eye. He set it on the table and placed his wand to his head, carefully extracting his thoughts and placing the swirling silver liquid into the bowl. Hermione watched in fascination. She had only seen pictures of these rare artifacts, never a real pensieve. He turned to her after he placed the last thought into the bowl.

"Come here, Hermione."

AN

oooo.... cliffie.... i know.... im so mean :P but dont worry ill update again soon... hopefully tomorrow :D

thanks again for all the reveiws!!! u all r way too nice! i think im gonna try to bring in the prophecy in the next few chaps so hang in thr! im just waitin for the perfect time... THANKS AGAIN!!! mosey'sdragon

AN since u all seem to like mine u need to check out my bff's!!! Harry Potter and the Year of Revelations by Lizziegurl14 it is ginny/harry and is really really awesum!