(A/N): yeah! Chapter five! – starts to sing – I gotta say, I know I said that I liked writing chapter four, but I LOVED writing this one! I can't wait for all of your reviews, and thanks a BUNCH to everyone who helped by answering my questions! (If you haven't answered them yet, I'd still like to know what you think! ;) ) Thank you again!

Artemis Virgin Goddess – hehehe… okay, okay – here's your update!

Raspberri13 – I'm glad you liked it! (I hope you like this one too!)

elektrikstorm – thanks for answering my questions! It really does help! PS – sorry about the cliff hangers… you know you love 'em ;) (PPS – I stole a line you gave me… I hope it's okay)

bloomsgrl – aww, thanks, I'm glad you liked it! And thanks for answering by the way!

meeka – hehehe – here's your update!

seamermaiden – thank you so much for helping by answering my questions! Hmm, Dumbledore… it's a good guess, but no, sorry ;) (read and find out!)

Disclaimer: I own solely the plot, new characters not belonging to JKR, and, of course, the characters mood-swings ;)

Hermione's crying subdued a little, and she allowed her head to lean back against the painting, making sure her hair didn't tickle the pear, and then sighed. When she had started to calm down and had gotten control over her tears she heard it. There was a soft padding sound coming from the side… almost as if they were footsteps… Hermione squinted her eyes, trying to see who it was, but, due to the small light of the candles, she was unable to see anything. Hermione suddenly panicked. Oh gods! she thought hysterically; please don't be a Slytherin… WHY can't I see them? Oh, NO! What if – what if it's another Demiguise? At this point Hermione was positively frantic, but then she heard something that confused her…

"Ouch! Stupid cat! You're lucky I don't just kick you now!" someone mumbled.

Hermione let out a small breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. Surely a Demiguise wouldn't talk, she mussed, then who's there…?

As if on cue, the footsteps and voice were joined by a body, when a young man took something off that looked slightly familiar…

Harry's cloak! Hermione nearly squeaked. Before she could think anything else, however, the person seemed to realize that he wasn't alone in the corridor. Hermione looked up to be met with a pair of surprised eyes.

"Err… hello…" the man trailed off, preferring to just look at the person in front of him. He noticed that she had long brown hair, full lips, and oh god, he thought, look at those eyes! He almost lost himself in her soft dark brown eyes. It took him a moment to realize that her eyes were slightly puffy; one was outlined with what looked to be the starting of a black eye, and there were tear trails running down her cheeks. When he looked closer, he saw some blood sliding down her face from a cut above her left eye, and her clothes were torn, and there was more blood seeping out from her legs. He could also see scratch marks through the many tears in the ripped robes.

"Oh my god! Are you alright?" he asked, concerned.

Hermione gave the man a slight nod before moaning from the pain of moving her head. She looked up again to realize that the man was on his knees and checking her over, trying to make sure nothing was broken. Hermione took the moment to look at the person. He had black hair that fell onto his shoulders, nicely tanned skin over, Hermione noticed, a slightly muscular body. He didn't appear to be a "macho man," but rather a person who kept in shape. When the man was done checking her arms and legs, he moved onto her head, and Hermione gasped. She was looking into a pair of the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen. They were brown, an almost hazel color, with what appeared to be small, golden flecks dotting them.

The man gave Hermione a small smile, and decided that she would live, but he wanted to get her to the Hospital Wing.

"Can you walk?" he asked her kindly. Hermione gave him a smile in return, and said she'd manage. The man stood up and gave her his hand and helped her up. When Hermione was finally standing, she took a shaky step forward, before fainting. The man caught her before she fell too far, and lifted her into his arms, and carried her the rest of the way to the Hospital Wing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hermione woke, to find herself in a white room full of white beds. Great, thought Hermione, I'm suffering from De-ja-vu! Hermione tried to sit up, but found that she was unable to, do to the amount of weight on her legs. Looking down for the first time, she was surprised to see a man sleeping with his head on her legs. She smiled slightly when she realized that he was the same man who had helped her last night…

The memory of what had happened last night came flooding back to her and Hermione suddenly felt sick. Malfoy, she spat to herself, oh, I will neuter that bastard! He kissed me! she realized, not helping the feeling in her stomach. Malfoy bloody kissed me! Oh my god… she thought bitterly, I've been tainted for life! Hermione leaned back down and gave out a groan of frustration, a little louder than she'd meant to.

Upon hearing something that sounded something like a cross between a moan and a snort, the man moved slightly. He had started to snuggle his head further down into what he thought was a pillow, when he abruptly remembered where he was. He sat straight up, and turned to find those beautiful eyes looking at him with… amusement?

"Sorry…" he mumbled, breaking eye contact with the girl.

"Don't worry about it," she replied sweetly, causing him to look back up. "I'd like to thank you… I… I… it means a lot to me… what you did…" she trailed off, hoping that he would understand how much it meant to her that he had 'saved' her, how even staying the night made her feel better.

He smiled down at the girl on the bed, (causing her stomach to flip – pleasantly this time) and replied: "it was nothing. I'm just glad that you're alright. You looked pretty beaten up, and you looked as if you had been crying…" he trailed off when he noticed her sparkling eyes darken. "Do you want to talk about it…?" he asked, almost cautiously, not sure how she would respond.

"I… yes, I mean not re… ugh!" Hermione huffed. She knew she would have to tell someone, she was covered in cuts and bruises, and he had already proven that he was trustworthy, but she still couldn't get the image of Malfoy kissing her out of her head. Unconsciously, Hermione brought her hand up to her mouth and tried to wipe away the remains of him. Hermione looked back up at the man, and realized why she felt she couldn't tell him.

"I don't know your name." she whispered, blushing slightly, while looking into those amazing eyes.

"Nor do I know yours," he replied with a smile on his lips. "I'll make a deal with you. You tell me your name, and I'll tell you mine."

Hermione smiled back at the man (I mean to say, who would could resist smiling back when smiled at like that?) and agreed to his offer. She then stuck out her hand and said: "Hermione Granger. I'm the transfer student from the Institute of Magic for Witches."

"Hermione Granger, hmm? It's a lovely name!" the man replied, making the girl blush a little more, and took her extended hand and gave it a shake while saying: "Sirius Black." (A/N: I thought of ending the chapter here, but I knew that I'd probably receive a death curse in someone's review, complaining about my evil cliff hangers, so I'd thought I'd be nice and continue – see, I DO have a heart! ;) )

Hermione quickly dropped his hand, and started to panic again. Sir-Sirius? He doesn't look like the Sirius I remember… what do I do? Hermione asked herself. Come on now, girl, get a grip! You knew you'd see him, just like you saw Lily! Calm down! Feeling slightly better, she looked up again at Sirius, only to see a confused look on his face.

Damn, he thought, it was going so well – what did I do? When he came out of his stupor, he noticed, with relief, that she was looking back at him with another smile, albeit, a rather shaky one.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said sincerely, "it's just that, I used to know someone named Sirius…" Hermione trailed off, feeling relieved that she hadn't really lied. I just didn't tell him the whole truth, she told herself.

"Oh!" Sirius tried, and failed, to hide the relief from his voice. "I thought I might have said something… you know… after what happened last night…" he trailed off, again, not knowing how she would react. He noticed that a flash of fear crossed her face, but what he didn't know was why. He had know idea that Hermione was wondering how much he knew of what had happened, and that she was rather ashamed of the way she had been weak enough to let Malfoy use her like that.

"No, it wasn't you," Hermione reassured Sirius quietly. "It's just… to be honest, I'd like to talk to the Head Master before I said anything…" Sirius felt a little disappointed that she felt that she couldn't tell him, but he had noticed that she had implied that she would tell him later. As long as she's okay, he thought, while giving Hermione a small nod, and assuring her that he understood.

"Would you like me to go and get him?" he asked.

"Could you?"

"Of course! Anything you need…" Sirius had to stop himself before he went too far. God, I haven't been with her for more than a few hours – most of which we were asleep – and I'm acting like a fool!

"Thank you, again. I really do appreciate it," Hermione told him as he was getting up to go find Dumbledore. He looked down to see a true smile on her face, causing almost the entire room to light up.

"It's no problem," he smiled back, "I'll be right back."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sirius had been gone for no more than a few minutes, when Hermione decided that she needed to go to the bathroom – and now that she had no more distractions, however pleasant they may be, she would use her time wisely.

Hermione got to her feet, slightly surprised to be wearing a night gown, a winced when she tried to use her legs. She took a deep breath and looked down to see how bad her legs were. Her left leg had four long parallel cuts, going from her thigh down to her ankle, and they were surrounded by dark, black and blue bruises. Her right leg was no better. It had many small cuts and scratches, almost zigzagging across, and it, too, had many dark colored bruises.

Feeling slightly sick again, Hermione gathered up all of her strength, and started the make her way over to the bathrooms. Once there, she had a hard time of opening up the door (who knew who much strength you needed to turn a door knob?) and was extremely grateful when it finally gave way.

She walked (or rather, stumbled) over to the mirrors to get a better look at her face. What she saw made her wince. Her right eye was surrounded by a large blue-ish – purple-ish circle, and her eyes were swollen. The cut above her left eye stretched from the center of her forehead down to the tip of her eyebrow. There were a few more cuts scattering her cheeks, and there was a single cut running from in-between her eyes down to the tip of her nose. Hermione thought she had never looked worse.

She looked away from the mirror to turn on the water in the sink, hoping to wash away some of the dried blood on her face. When her hand were wet, she looked back up into the mirror, only to meet another pair eyes.

She wasn't alone in the bathroom.

(A/N): yes, I know, ANOTHER cliff hanger, but it does make for interesting reviews (I'm still expecting that death curse, by the way…) So… any guesses as to who could be in the bathroom with Hermione? I'll give you a hint: in the Hospital Wing there are no separate bathrooms for men and women. Hmm… I wonder… (hehehe)

PS – wow, this is my longest chapter yet! Go me:D