Chapter 8

"What are you doing here?" Cho said, her amazement apparent in her crystalline voice. "I didn't think-"

"Gaelen is my half-brother," Hermione explained with a great deal of chagrin. "We have the same mother."

Cho tried to smile at Hermione, but her smile faltered when she saw the look of pure animosity that Hermione shot her way. Gaelen noticed, and instantly took the defensive.

"You stay out of this Herm," he warned. "Cho and I are in love, and I don't care what you or anyone else says-"

"Cho?" Draco sputtered, entering the room.

Cho paled dramatically, which Hermione had thought impossible, her hands flying up to her face in shock, or horror, Hermione wasn't sure which.

"Cho?" Gaelen said, taking her hands in his strong grip. "What's wrong? It's just Hermione's friend from school."

Cho took her hands from his grasp, and watched Hermione and Draco with pleading eyes. Hermione and Draco were silent.

"Why doesn't anyone tell me anything?" Gaelen grumbled suddenly. "How come you all know each other, anyway?"


Dinner was a quiet affair, with Hermione's dad occasionally asking for the butter, or the salt, and the clanking of silverware on porcelain. Hermione's eyes remained fixed on her plate, and Draco found the backyard very interesting, and stared at the hydrangea plant fixatedly. Cho seemed very fascinated with the flower arrangement, and Ms. Granger was rather confused.


After dinner, Hermione and Draco held conference on her bed. Hermione rubbed the handmade quilt, worriedly, and then looked up at the solemn and taciturn Draco.

"Well, what do we do?" she asked, holding her elbows. "Gaelen clearly doesn't know that she goes to our school."

"She could tell everyone at school about us," Draco said, rubbing her shoulders. "And then we'd be in a lot of trouble then."

Hermione sighed tiredly and fell back onto the pillow with a thud. "My stupid, stupid, stupid brother. Why couldn't he have brought home another plastic fake blonde Barbie doll? That would have saved me so many problems."

Draco stroked his chin. "Well, this situation is comforting to me," he confessed.

"Why?" she asked, sitting up.

He grinned. "Well, it proves that my family is normal compared to muggle homes!"

Hermione socked him gently, and was about to start tickling him, because she knew that would totally break him up, when the door slowly swung open.

Hermione froze, and looked up to see Cho standing nervously in the doorway. She pulled her hands back to her elbows, and stared back up at the Ravenclaw girl insolently.

"I'm sorry, was I interrupting anything?" Cho said quietly, turning to leave.

"No, you weren't," Draco said suddenly, almost unable to keep a straight face. Hermione punched him. He gasped, and pretended to hit her back.

"I wanted to talk to you both," Cho said, turning back. "I mean, it's rather obvious that neither of you like me, but we're both in a difficult situation."

"Are we?" Hermione asked coolly. Draco shot her a nasty look.

"Yes, we are," Draco said with a polite nod.

"You both know that Hermione's brother has no idea that I'm a witch," Cho said slowly, as if she was having trouble admitting it to herself. "And the school has no idea that you two are friends."

"Are you blackmailing us?" Hermione asked dangerously. "Because I have no qualms about hexing you-"

Cho put out her hands as if to ward Hermione off.

"No! No!" she said nervously. "Nothing of the sort. I was just hoping we could meet a compromise. You don't tell Gaelen, and I won't tell anyone about your friendship."

"You're still blackmailing us," Hermione accused, and winced when Draco pinched her.

Draco nodded politely. "Of course, Cho. We had no intention of telling Gaelen."

Cho sighed a giant breath of relief. "That's good. I had no real intention of telling anyone about you two either, I was just hoping that it would act as incentive."

Draco smiled benignly, and waved gently as Cho backed out the door. Hermione glared at him as soon as the door was shut.

"Stop looking at me like that," Draco said, flopping down, nearly crushing one of her stuffed animals. "I did what I had to."

"I'm going to tell Gaelen," Hermione said fiercely. "Because I never agreed to your stupid little committee agreement!"

Draco sighed, and tossed a small stuffed koala at her. "Don't be ridiculous Hermione. You know that if you tell Gaelen about Cho being a witch, Cho could easily let it slip to one of her friends that she happened to see us at her muggle boyfriend's house, and then where would we be?"

"How do you know she won't tell everyone anyway?" Hermione hissed. "She's probably a back-stabbing little bitch like her friend Marietta, ready to betray at a moment's notice!"

Draco grabbed her hands, worried that she'd poke out her eye, or even his. "Whoa. A little pent up anger here, eh?"

"A little?" she spat. "A little? That little monster betrayed us to Umbridge fifth year!"

Draco's smile dropped. "You know that I'm sorry about that?"

Hermione glared at him. "Yeah right."

"You don't have to take your anger out on me," Draco said quietly, rubbing the back of her hands with his thumb. "I thought I'd made it all up to you."

She nodded and smiled at him shyly.

"You're right, everything before last year is over," she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out. "You've changed."

"You've changed," he repeated, running his hands lightly across her back. She placed her hands on his chest, and kissed him gently, her lips barely caressing his.

Suddenly the door slammed open.

Hermione threw herself backward, and started staring at her nails, recognizing her brother's trainers stalking across the door threshold, toward her.

"What are you two doing?" Gaelen demanded. "Please don't tell me you two were doing what I think you were doing?"

Hermione looked up at him innocently. "Doing what?"

"You got that right," Gaelen said, his bad temper infectious. "You two know my girlfriend from somewhere else."

They looked at each other. There was no denying it.

Hermione nodded.

"Where?" Gaelen said, suddenly exhausted. "I'm sorry to be so rude Hermione, but I really am in a rather sore mood. Cho is avoiding me, as if I've done something terribly wrong."

"I'm sorry, Gaelen," Hermione said, her annoyance with him evaporating. "We can't tell you."

Gaelen sighed, burying his face in his hand. "Fine. I'm sorry for disturbing your privacy." He walked from the room, his anger apparent in his quick and tense step.

"Whoa," Draco said blearily. "That boy needs to calm down."

Hermione shrugged, shoved Draco off the bed.

"Why don't I sleep on the bed," he said hopefully. "I promise, no monkey business."

She grinned, and tossed him a sleeping bag.


A/N: Yup yup. Write a review!