Disclaimer: I'm writing fanfics, therefore I am not JK Rowling, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter.

A/N: Sorry for the wait, I had a lot of writer's block issues for this chapter. On the other hand, I've been working a lot on stuff that's coming later. I even made a little timeline so I can try to make time run more smoothly from now on. I hope you like this chapter, and thank a lot to all my wonderfully patient readers and reviewers!

Sayaku-chan – Thank you! I'm thrilled to hear that you liked both fics so far. I would answer your questions, that that would give much too much away ;o) Anyway, I hope this update came fast enough to save your sanity! Thanks for the review!
Fire Angel – No worries, there's no reason to be ashamed, I'm just happy that you like both my fics so much :o) I hope you like this chapter, and thanks for the review!
jesska-14, Sunflower18 – Thanks for the reviews!
purple pixie – lol your review made me laugh, and yes I admit I did read the entire review instead of using that time to work on my fic, please forgive me. lol Anyway, thank you so much, I'm glad you like both my fics, and I'm sorry for the long wait.
Hermione Weasley192 – the reason time moves so fast honestly is only cause I was getting impatient, but now I have a timeline so I'll do my best to keep it under control and moving at a consistent pace from now on. I'm glad to see that you picked up on my little clue, so now you can speculate about what will happen later on. And in regards to your question about Blaise – I had always thought Blaise was a guy, but I read a few fics portraying him as a girl, so before writing this I double checked and there it says that Blaise is a guy. Thanks for asking about it though :o) I'm glad to hear that your exams are over, I hope you did well!
elektra30 – yeah, I think this fic is already longer (word wise) than the first one, and I see it having more chapters by the time it's done too, so we'll see how it turns out. I'm so happy that you enjoyed the emotions and the suspense, and I hope you like this chapter too! Thanks for the review (btw I haven't had a chance to read your latest chapter yet cause I've been working on this, but I should be able to read it tomorrow, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in your fic!)
torn to pieces – Thank you so much! It's awesome to hear that you like my writing style, and that you think I'm good. I hope you like this chapter!

Enough jibber jabber, on with the story :o)

Chapter 15: Rebellion and Confrontation

Crookshanks' behavior was no better the next morning, in fact, he only seemed all the more determined to get his claws on Draco. He nearly managed to escape passed Hermione when she opened the door to leave. He was so stealthy and persistent, in fact, that she nearly had to kick him to get him to back off. His behavior was especially unsettling because Hermione had expected him to calm down over the night. 'Maybe he really is after Draco for a serious reason.' The thought crossed her mind before she could stop it, and she didn't like it. It left her feeling very uneasy.

"You alright?" asked Draco from the chair he was sitting in. He stood up and moved towards her with a curious expression on his face.

She nodded, trying her best to ignore the sudden thought that Draco looked like a predator stalking towards its prey. "Yeah, I'm fine, it's just . . .well it's nothing." She muttered quickly, hoping that Draco wouldn't question her further.

Draco, raised his eyebrows, but Hermione could not see the deep concern from his eyes that she would have expected. He leaned in to kiss her. She kissed him back, and it felt like his kisses always did, the kind that made her melt no matter how she was feeling. He ended the kiss slowly, but continued to hold her close, "you would tell me if something was wrong right?"

Hermione looked deeply into his eyes, searching for the emotions she knew existed within him, but she could not find them, it made her nervous. Still, she put on a smile that she hoped was convincing, took his hand in hers, and walked with him to the Great Hall. She was much more wary and jumpy today than she had been the night before, although she did a very good job of hiding it. She didn't know it, but over the night while she was sleeping, her subconscious had been very active, forcing her to start seeing what Crookshanks was trying to tell her, forcing her to see what she had so far been adamantly refusing to see.

Once inside the Great Hall, she felt Draco squeeze her hand before letting go and walking over to the Slytherin table. Meanwhile, Hermione's legs carried her to the Gryffindor table in a daze.

"Hey," Harry, Ron, and Ginny said as Hermione sat down, but Hermione made no response. The other three Gryffindors looked curiously at each other.

"Hello! Earth to Hermione!" called Ginny, waving her hand in front of Hermione's face.

That finally snapped Hermione out of her trance, and she looked around as if to figure out where she was. "Oh, hey guys," she said as she began putting food on her plate.

"What's got you so distracted this morning?" asked Ginny. She was smiling as if she already knew what Hermione's answer would be, so she was genuinely surprised by the answer.

"Crookshanks," sighed Hermione.

All three Gryffindors looked at her with a bit of surprise. "Why, is there something wrong with him?" asked Harry.

"I don't know, he seems fine. It's just that lately he's been dead set on attacking Draco, he's been trying to tear him to shreds."

"I've always loved that cat!" exclaimed Ron.

Harry smiled and chuckled under his breath, Ginny rolled her eyes, and Hermione gave him a stern unappreciative look, but otherwise she chose not to comment.

"Just out of the blue, he started acting like this?" confirmed Ginny.

"Yeah," said Hermione. But in the back of her mind, she could feel an alarm bell go off, as if her subconscious trying to tell her something. Deep down she felt as if Crookshanks' change in behavior had been liked to some other event. But at the moment she couldn't recall when exactly he had started acting differently towards Draco, so she couldn't make a connection.

"How did Crookshanks act around him before?" asked Harry.

"Before he was fine, he used to really like Draco." Hermione answered with a shrug.

"Stupid cat," muttered Ron. Hermione rolled her eyes and huffed with annoyance while Harry and Ginny bit back their laughter. No one felt the necessity to point out to Ron the fact that a minute ago he had declared how much he loved Crookshanks.

"Maybe he's sick, have you thought about bringing him to Hagrid to check him out?" suggested Ginny.

"I did, Hagrid said he was fine," answered Hermione glumly. "Whatever," she said after a moment's silence. "I'm not going to worry about it, I'm sure it's nothing anyway," she lied.

Her friends, who were not aware of how drastic and sudden the change in Crookshanks had been, didn't give it a second thought. For Hermione on the other hand, even though she wasn't going to talk about it, didn't mean she was finished thinking about it. She was determined to get to the bottom of it and find out what had changed.

Towards the end of breakfast, Ginny got up to visit her Ravenclaw boyfriend and Harry and Ron began complaining to each other about the amount of homework professor Trelawny had assigned in divination. Hermione honestly couldn't understand why they complained, they made everything up anyway. She was half listening to them with amusement and half wanting to reprimand them for not appropriately applying themselves to their schoolwork when she saw something over at the Slytherin table. It wasn't anything big, or even noteworthy for that matter. In fact, other than Hermione, no one else in the Great Hall bothered to take any notice. But Hermione saw it, and it made her tense quite a bit.

Draco had gotten up presumably to go to class, and his old gang of Slytherins had followed. Crabbe and Goyle walked slightly behind him, flanking either side and looking like hulking bodyguards. Much to Hermione's displeasure, Pansy was walking next to him, though Hermione did notice that she was not hanging all over him as she once used to. Finally, Zabini was walking on Draco's other side, talking animatedly.

As she watched them walk across the hall, Hermione felt herself being taken back to the years before sixth year. Back to when Draco had been a muggle-born hating, insufferable git. It scared her a little; she hadn't seen the other Slytherins following Draco around like that all year. Sure, she knew he still did things with them, but for some reason, seeing them all together like they were, felt different. It felt threatening and intimidating. The sight brought an uneasy feeling to her stomach that she just could not shake.

Without even realizing it, she followed Harry and Ron when they got up to leave for Transfiguration. Her unease only increased when she walked into the classroom and found all the Slytherins huddled around the desk at which Draco, Zabini and Pansy were seated. It was then that Hermione realized that Pansy and Zabini must have broken up, because they were sitting on either side of Draco, rather than next to each other. The thought that Pansy was once again single brought a tight angry knot to her stomach. She glared at the Slytherin girl from her seat next to Harry at the front of the room. If something about Draco really had changed, Hermione had no doubt that Parkinson had something to do with it.

From across the room, it seemed as though Pansy could feel someone's furious eyes boring into her. She suddenly looked up and around until she met Hermione's glare. A devious smile spread across her pug like face. She then haughtily turned back to Draco and whispered something to him followed by a laugh, and a smug glance back at Hermione.

Hermione was seething, 'that stupid, that horrible, that . . .that . . .uuuugggghhhhh!' thought Hermione furiously. She couldn't even think of a word to express how angry she was. She was imagining what horrible hexes and curses she would like to throw at Pansy if she had the chance, when professor McGonagall interrupted her thoughts by starting class.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat, "if you would all take your seats, we can begin!" she ordered strictly. The Slytherins all moved to their desks and sat down with annoyed looks on their faces. It was as if they thought professor McGonagall was being rude by interrupting them to teach.

Throughout class, while she was transfiguring muggle chess pieces to move around like wizarding chessmen, Hermione kept glancing up towards the Slytherins. She did not like how Pansy was behaving. She was becoming flirtier as the class went on, and it was causing Hermione to fume. It was bothering her so much, that even Harry and Ron began to notice after a while. They kept looking between Hermione, the Slytherins, and each other, but neither of them knew what to do or say that would calm Hermione down.

On the Slytherin side, Draco was bored with transfiguring chessmen, so he had two of his fighting with each other across the table. Blaise was half concentrating on transfiguration, which he was rather lousy at, and watching what was going on next to him. It was making him nervous, if Parkinson kept it up, she was going to push Draco over the edge, and then there would be Hell to pay, and the plan would be ruined. Blaise could see it in Draco's eyes, the more Pansy flirted with him, and the more his eyes flickered. They flickered with rebellion; he was beginning to fight the curse. Blaise tried to send Pansy an inconspicuous signal to cut it out, but Pansy was never one to take a hint, particularly if it interfered with her flirting with Draco.

Pansy, who had been encouraged by Hermione's clear anger at the beginning of class, was completely ignoring her chess pieces and focusing only on Draco. She was giggling girlishly, which didn't suit her at all, and she was touching him a lot.

When Pansy had started flirting with him, there was a tiny voice in the back of Draco's mind protesting the attention. It shouted at him to make her stop, but it was so small and weak that its shouts were barely even a whisper to the rest of his empty mind. But the more she persisted the louder that whisper got, until it was actually registering in Draco's conscience. The added voice confused him as it fought for dominance against the louder and stronger snakelike voice that had been controlling him for over a month. Since he didn't know which to listen to, he continued to listen to the louder voice.

Pansy had her hand on his back, ". . . and I can't believe how Millicent did that can you Draco?" She didn't wait for a response, nor did she seem to expect one, instead, she continued babbling away.

The voice whispered louder and for the first time, Draco considered listening to it 'stop her!' it demanded.

Pansy was still talking but she moved her hand to Draco's thigh.

The voice shouted one word, but that was all Draco needed, 'HERMIONE!'

For a split second, his eyes flashed so that they were once again his own. For one solitary moment, he was in control of himself. "Back off Parkinson!" Draco roared, jumping up and smacking her hand away.

His eyes were flashing, and now even Pansy could see flickers of the real Draco in them. She quickly backed away, staring at him with fear. But it wasn't fear of Draco, what she was afraid of was how much trouble she would be in for triggering Draco to begin rebelling. Blaise held Draco back, but he did not bother to hide his furious glare at Pansy.

"What is going on here?" professor McGonagall marched over to the three Slytherins while the rest of the class watched on. "Mr. Malfoy, explain yourself."

But Draco's head was swirling with confusion again; the small voice that had penetrated through just a second ago had been once again bullied into submission by the power of the imperius curse. He looked around blankly, appearing as if he were lost.

"Professor, I think Draco might be need to go to the hospital wing, he wasn't feeling well earlier today, right Malfoy," he muttered to Draco.

"Oh, yeah, right, I have a horrible headache," echoed Draco as if her were a parrot simply repeating lines it had been trained to say.

Professor McGonagall looked down at them sternly, but allowed Blaise to lead Draco out of the room anyway. Hermione saw Blaise glare at Pansy as he passed, and Pansy looked terribly frightened. Like a child who had done something that they were specifically told not to do.

Blaise practically shoved Draco out of the room and into the hall. He dragged Draco by his robes through the halls until he was out of hearing range of McGonagall, he was actually relieved when Draco started protesting, and shoving back. Finally Draco freed himself, "get the fuck off me Zabini."

Blaise paid him no attention, "come on, we've got a letter to send."

"About what?" argued Draco. The confusion was now nearly gone from his head, and he once again felt the lightheaded emptiness consuming him. He was being commanded to act as he normally would, and that was exactly what he was doing.

Blaise never answered Draco's question, nor did he take Draco to the hospital wing, he instead brought him straight to the owlry. Once they were outside the door, Blaise stopped short, "you stay here, and don't move! Draco sneered at the audacity of Blaise daring to give him an order.

Blaise meanwhile stepped inside, presumably to write the letter. Draco, who was still not completely himself was looking around in a bit of a daze. Since he didn't have anywhere else to go, he waited outside for Blaise. As he waited, he thought. Something in him felt as though he shouldn't be obeying the voice in his head. But there was nothing else to follow, so he couldn't explain where the feeling was coming from.

He stopped thinking about it when Blaise returned a few minutes later. There was just enough time for the boys to return to class to pick up their bags before they had to go to Herbology. They moved swiftly through the halls, and Blaise prepped Draco on the way. "ok Malfoy, remember, we went to the hospital wing, you took a headache potion, and now you're feeling fine, got it?"

Draco snorted arrogantly, "what the fuck makes you think that I didn't already know that myself Zabini?"

Blaise breathed a little easier. The two Slytherins reentered the transfiguration room just as the bell rang, they pushed passed the exiting students to get their stuff, and then they joined the herd piling out of the room.

- - - -

Hermione frowned when Zabini made up that excuse about Draco not feeling well. Draco had felt perfectly fine this morning and she knew it. Something was definitely going on here. But at the same time, she had been happy to see Draco so adamantly shoo Pansy away . . .'about time' she had thought. She had sent Pansy a few smug glares while Draco was gone, but Pansy never once looked her way. She finally seemed to be attempting to work, but something was obviously on her mind.

Hermione knew something was going on now, she was sure of it, and she was no longer going to allow herself to deny it or ignore the signs. With her mind made up, she decided she would demand answers from Draco that night. And if he didn't giver her acceptable answers . . . then she didn't want to think about what she may have to do.

At the end of class, she was not able to get Draco's attention. But that didn't surprise her; it only served to solidify her decision to question him about it that night. For the rest of the day, she focused on her school work, not allowing thoughts of the confrontation to come to cloud her mind. Unlike most people, who get stressed out by schoolwork, Hermione found herself relaxed by it. Schoolwork was familiar; it was comfortable, schoolwork she could handle. All this drama with Draco on the other hand, . . . that was awkward and still rather unfamiliar territory.

Draco was not in the common room when Hermione got back after classes had ended. She went to her room and sat on her bed with Crookshanks in her lap. "There is something going on with Draco, isn't there?" she looked at him, and he stared right back at her. She frowned, and bit her lip nervously. She closed her eyes and tried to think back to when Crookshanks had started acting strangely. Her first guess was back when school started up again, but that didn't quite feel right because she had remembered a couple tense interactions between them over break.

'There has to be something that started it,' Hermione thought hard, racking her brain for something she was overlooking. Crookshanks was looking at her anxiously, but that did nothing to help her figure it out. As if he could read her mind, Crookshanks suddenly leapt off her lap to the floor. He stood by the side of the bed and put his paw on a book.

Hermione looked at him curiously, "Crookshanks," she laughed, "what are you doing?"

Crookshanks touched his nose to the book, looked up at her, and then touched his nose to the book again, as if to give her a clue.

Hermione looked closer at the book, "Don't tell me that you're going to try to ruin that for me too!" she said once she realized what book it was. She leaned over to pick it up. Crookshanks followed by leaping back onto the bed and settling himself next to her. "This is the book Draco got me for Christmas," she told him, "the one that has the story I started reading while we were in . . ." comprehension dawned on Hermione's face, "while we were in Hogsmeade! That's it! That's when you started attacking him, after he went to Hogsmeade with Zabini!"

Crookshanks meowed, as if to confirm what she had said.

Now Hermione's mind was racing. Had Zabini done something to him in Hogsmeade? Hermione wouldn't put it past him. But what could Zabini have possibly done to him that would change him so much? "Crookshanks, did Zabini do something to him?"

But Crookshanks just looked blankly back at her. She sighed dejectedly, 'what is going on?' she thought. The more she thought about it, the more worried she became. Draco hanging out with his old horrible gang of Slytherins, lying to professor McGonagall to get out of class, Crookshanks trying to tear him to pieces, it all pointed to something very bad.

But at the same time, Draco himself still acted the same; he looked and sounded the same. He had clearly been mad at Pansy for flirting with him the way she had been. The thoughts were so conflicting and confusing in her head that she just wanted to scream. 'Why does everything always have to be so complicated?' she asked herself desperately.

She then heard the click of the portrait door being opened and closed, and the soft sound of Draco's footsteps on the carpet. "Hermione?" he called.

- - - -

In a cold shadowy house not too far from Hogwarts, the Dark Lord sat in front of a dingy fireplace. Nagini, his giant snake was curled up in front of the dancing flames like a combination of both a pet dog and a small rug. The snake raised its head as it sensed something approaching. It directed its attention to the open window, where a light breeze was fluttering through the torn curtain. Lord Voldemort followed Nagini's gaze, and sure enough within seconds a large dominating looking screech owl landed on the arm of Voldemort's chair. "Now, who would be writing to Lord Voldemort?" he asked aloud as he untied the scroll from the owls' leg. The owl stood deathly still, and launched itself into the air as soon as it was free; it was as if it were terrified of the Dark magical aura surrounding the house, and in particularly the addressee of the letter.

"What have we got here?" Lord Voldemort asked rhetorically. Nagini directed her attention to her master, as if she could understand what the letter said.

Honorable Master,

He is beginning to fight it; I can see it in his eyes. He seemed to snap out of it for a split second today in class. It was Parkinson; she's pressing him too strong. I am concerned that we may have put too much faith in her ability to restrain herself until he is truly one of us. She is quickly growing impatient, but I will be sure to punish her for her mistake. Do not worry my Lord; I make sure that she does not jeopardize the plan again. But if it's not too bold, my Lord, I think that the sooner we complete the second half, the better, and I know that you are eager to continue with more important matters. I shall await your instructions, and until then I shall watch both him and Parkinson as closely as possible.

B. Zabini

Upon reading the letter, a loud hiss issued from Lord Voldemort's lips. Nagini picked her head up and looked upon her master with interest. Voldemort began speaking in the low hissing language of parseltounge, "It seems as though we have slightly underestimated the strength and will-power of the young Malfoy."

Nagini hissed angrily.

Voldemort chuckled, "do not fear my dear Nagini, you shall be dining on mudblood flesh very soon."

Nagini flicked her tongue in and out several times as if she could already taste the sweet warm crimson blood and the tender flesh that she was so looking forward to.

Lord Voldemort glanced at the letter in his hand. The young Death Eater was right; it would be unwise to risk further rebellion by waiting much longer. Voldemort stood and walked to the fireplace, he pointed his wand at the heart of the flames and muttered a spell. The spell worked on the same principal as floo powder. It used the floo network to link two or more separate fireplaces together temporarily. The spell was complicated to master, so most witches and wizards did not bother to learn it. Lord Voldemort however, found the spell much more preferable than sending himself spiraling through the dirty floo network.

A small circle swirled amidst the flames, gradually expanding until it revealed a room. The room was richly furnished with lavish and expensive furniture. Everything was bedecked with the finest emerald and black fabrics. The floor was highly polished, and every inch of it reeked of snobbish taste and extravagant wealth. "Lucius!" bellowed the Dark Lord.

Almost immediately, the small figure of Lucius Malfoy appeared in the center of the room, he was staring into the room at Lord Voldemort. "Lucius, if you would be so kind as to join me." If the Dark Lord's words were congenial, his tone certainly was not. The harsh iciness of his words caused Lucius to tense as if the Dark Lord were shouting. Without a word, and hardly a pause, he slowly stepped forward through the floo network and into his Masters' room. He wore an unreadable expression, trying not to show fear for this sudden meeting between the two men. The room, which had before been in the flames, seemingly melted away as Lucius stepped through. Lucius bowed deeply, awaiting orders from his Master.

"Lucius, can you assure me that the initiation grounds are secure for our use?"

"Yes Master, they are completely secure for us to use at anytime you choose," responded Lucius as coolly as possible.

"Excellent, then we are to proceed with the ceremony as soon as possible," announced the Dark Lord.

Lucius paused, "forgive me Master, but why the sudden rush?"

"Do you mean to question the authority of Lord Voldemort?" Voldemort hissed venomously.

Lucius cowered, "No Master! I would never dream of questioning you, I only wished to clarify the plan. Forgive me Master!" pleaded Lucius, bowing again.

Lord Voldemort sneered, "because your foolish son is beginning to resist the curse."

Lucius made no response.

"If all is secure, then you may go, I shall notify you once the time and date are set."

"Yes Master," Lucius bowed again, and then apparated out of the room with a pop.

Lord Voldemort's lips curled after Lucius left. He was tired of this childish plot, and was eager to see it over with. He waved his hands, and out of thin air, there appeared a sheaf of parchment and an eagle quill. He scratched out a letter, and with a wave of his wand, an eagle owl flew into his room and landed on the back of the armchair. Voldemort attached the letter to the owl, and sent it on its way to deliver Lord Voldemort's instructions.

- - - -

There was a knock on the door, "Hermione you here?" Draco asked softly as he inched Hermione's door open. Crookshanks immediately hissed and charged, "Crookshanks no!" yelled Hermione. She grabbed him, and carried him out to the common room before he could get a good swipe at Draco. She then returned to her original position on her bed, not looking at her boyfriend.

Draco watched as she removed Crookshanks from the room and sat on the bed, he then calmly sat down on the edge of the bed beside her. "Is everything alright?" Draco put his hand on her thigh as he asked. It was not a seductive gesture, just a comforting one. But with the thoughts of the discussion she intended to have with him in her head, the feel of his hand on her leg made her tense all the same. Draco how ever didn't appear to notice the effect it had on her.

"I've just been thinking about something," she said quietly with her head facing down.

"About what?" he asked, trying to catch her eye to get her complete attention.

"Well, it's more about who than what," she said evasively.

"Who? Has someone been causing problems for you? Wait, let me guess, is it Parkinson who was bothering you? After Blaise and I left transfiguration?" guessed Draco, with an angry look at the thought of Pansy.

"No . . . well yes, no. You're close though," said Hermione, trying to find a way to bring up the topic lightly. "Pansy was pissing me off, but not after you left."

"Was it what she was doing before I left?" clarified Draco.

"Yeah," answered Hermione bitterly. "But that's not what I was really thinking about, and she's not the one who's got me worried." She looked at Draco only to find him looking back at her with an expression of blank confusion.

Hermione sighed, deciding to just get on with it. "Draco, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but you're the one who's worrying me."

Draco opened and closed his mouth a couple times, his expression still surprisingly blank. Finally after he seemed to have worked out what to say, he spoke "pray tell what is the right way to take that when I wasn't even aware that I was doing anything wrong?"

"It's just, I've noticed some changes in you lately," said Hermione cautiously.

"Like what?" asked Draco defiantly.

"Today for example, why did you lie to professor McGonagall about having a headache to get out of class? Because I know that was a lie."

"Let's get something straight here," said Draco shortly, "I did not lie to McGonagall, Blaise did."

"But you went along with it, which in my opinion is just as bad!" challenged Hermione.

Draco huffed, "Interesting," he began sarcastically, "I was under the impression that you would appreciate my efforts to get away from Pansy no matter how I did it. However, now that I know you have a problem with it, the next time she decides to act like that in class, I'll just let her have at it. Would that make you happy?"

Draco's retort had felt like a slap in the face to Hermione, "No," she said with frustration, "that's not what I meant and you know it."

"Then what the hell did you mean?"

"I just meant that I don't like you lying!"

"Like I said before," said Draco stiffly, "I didn't lie to anyone."

"Fine! That's not even what this is really about anyway!" shouted Hermione angrily.

"What else then?" barked Draco with just as much aggravation as Hermione.

"Why have you been hanging out with you old gang so much lately?"

Draco jumped off the bed in a steadily increasing rage. "Shit Hermione! They're not a gang! They're my friends. And I never get on your case for hanging around Potter and the Weasel's so much!"

"Leave my friends out of this!" roared Hermione also leaping off the bed. She and Draco were now standing a few feet apart, and they were glaring daggers at each other. "And those idiots aren't your friends!" Hermione continued shouting, completely ignoring the way Draco balled up his fists, and furrowed his brow with rage. "You can't stand the way Pansy acts around you, and I can't even count the number of times you've told me how brainless and useless Crabbe and Goyle are! And Zabini . . ." Hermione stopped abruptly, what she wanted to say was that she didn't trust Zabini one bit. Yet, since she had no real concrete reasoning as to why, she hesitated.

"Well," said Draco, his voice filled with impatient annoyance.

Hermione ushered up her Gryffindor courage, looked Draco dead in the eye, and that was when she saw it clearly for the first time. His eyes should have been a dark violent gray, swirling with anger as they always did when he was angry. But now they were just gray, revealing no inner emotion at all, it was as if he was suddenly heartless, "I don't trust Zabini," she said decidedly.

Draco scoffed, "of course you don't!"

"I have my reasons!" yelled Hermione.

"Oh, well then" Draco's voice was a drawl dripping with sarcasm and mockery, "please, do share. What has evil Blaise Zabini done to earn Hermione's distrust?" he taunted. "This should be good," he added after a slight pause.

Hermione pursed her lips and tried not to look as hurt as she felt. The way he was speaking to her reminded her all too clearly of the way he had always spoken to her in their first five years of Hogwarts, when they had hated each other. She hated it, and it made her want to hate him all over again. "I don't trust him because the day Crookshanks started attacking you was the day you and Zabini went to Hogsmeade, "she paused, then spoke firmly and authoritatively "what did you two do there?" She sent him an accusing glare, not allowing him to break eye contact with her.

The voice inside Draco's head that had rebelled against the curse that morning flared up inside him again. "Tell her the truth!" is shouted desperately. But the voice was much weaker than it had been before. It was only loud enough to cause the faintest flicker in his eyes. But unlike before, when the voice had shouted, and then disappeared completely, this time the voice did not quiet down, and it did not go away. The voice was determined to be heard and obeyed, but it was not strong enough to overcome the Dark Lord's imperius curse. So it was the Dark Lord's voice that Draco obeyed when he spoke, "I told you, nothing happened, we went to Three Broomsticks, Zonko's, Honeydukes, all the places people normally go to when they go to Hogsmeade! For God's sake stop being paranoid!"

But this time, Hermione didn't buy it. This time she had seen the flicker in his eye, though she didn't know what it meant. She did however know one thing, "you're lying," she stated quietly, yet very firmly.

"I'm NOT fucking lying!" roared Draco.

"You are Draco! I can see it in your eyes!" screamed Hermione furiously, "Now tell me the truth!"

'Tell her! Tell her what really happened,' ordered Draco's voice.

'NO!' roared the more powerful snakelike voice. The battle going on between Draco's conscience and the imperius curse was raging far worse than his verbal battle with Hermione. The confusion was like a tornado in his brain. He couldn't decide which voice to listen to, and it was making him crazy. Yet in the end, the icy voice of evil overpowered his own voice, and he continued with the lie. "I am telling you the truth, you're just too damn stubborn to believe me because then you'd have to admit you were wrong!"

Hermione was horrified and speechless with the way he spoke. She pursed her lips, crossed her arms, and glared at Draco. "Get out," she said in a harsh whisper.

"What?" Draco said with disbelief.

"Get out!" she spoke louder and more demanding, pointing towards the door.

Draco looked furious, but even so, he stormed out of the room. But as soon as he did, Crookshanks, who had apparently been stalking the door for his chance, leapt up and sank his claws into Draco's chest, tearing through his shirt. Draco screamed out, more with rage than pain, he wrenched the cat off him, and threw him violently into Hermione's room. He then slammed her door with such a force that her furniture rattled, and the door nearly broke off its hinges.

Crookshanks arched his back and hissed violently at the door. But Hermione couldn't decide whether she wanted to scream or cry. She threw herself onto her bed, and screamed ferociously into her pillow so that the sound was muffled. With her rage somewhat released, the tears took their turn. The salty drops spread through her pillowcase, making it moist against her skin. She felt Crookshanks hop up next to her and rub his head against her in what she supposed was a comforting gesture. But it didn't help. She was so furious, that she didn't know what to do; and she quickly found that she couldn't sit still. She passed across her room quickly, breathing deeply with rage, her tears had quickly subsided leaving only her anger. After a while where she found herself unwilling to remain cooped up in her room all alone, and unwilling to even look at Draco let alone speak to Draco, she flung her door open so hard that it swung back on it's hinges and slammed shut after her. She shoved the portrait door open, and ignored the indignant shouts from the pictures occupants reprimanding her for opening their portrait too harshly.

Hermione stomped through the hall to the portrait of the Fat Lady, "peppermint imps!" she spat.

The portrait opened and Hermione stormed inside. She glanced around and spotted two redheads sitting by the fire. Without even looking at the other students inside, she charged straight over to the seating by the fire, and flung herself in an empty armchair. She glowered at the floor, still breathing angrily.

Ron, Harry and Ginny, abruptly stopped their conversation and stared at Hermione when she sat down. For a long moment they watched her and exchanged confused and wary looks with each other. But Hermione paid them no attention at all. Her mind was reeling, she was thinking about what Draco was lying about, how he could have spoken to her like he had, and what she was going to do about it now.

Finally after it became clear that Hermione was not going to talk, Harry spoke up, "hey Hermione," he said "wanna talk about it?" He didn't even bother asking if something was wrong since it was undeniably obvious to everyone that there was a problem.

Hermione huffed, but didn't say anything. She just frowned deeper. Her behavior was frightening her friends quite a bit. They had rarely seen Hermione lose her cool, but it seemed that every time she was angry like this there was only one person responsible.

"What did he do?" asked Ginny calmly. All four of the friends knew who 'he' was. And even Harry and Ron were interested to know what he had done this time.

"We had a huge fight," Hermione said flatly. Her friends were surprised to not hear any trace of sadness in her voice. It was very strange. "Anyway, I asked him why he's been hanging around with those ugly trolls he calls friends so much lately, and he never gave me a straight answer. I figured out that Crookshanks only started acting weird after Draco went with Zabini to Hogsmeade, so I asked him what they did there and he lied to me. I could see it in his eyes, he stood there and lied straight to my face, and then he denied it." Hermione shook her head, "I'm just so mad at him right now, I can't even tell you!"

"He didn't try to hurt you did he?" asked Ron worriedly. He and Harry were both looking anxiously at Hermione, they seemed to be much more concerned with Hermione's safety than with what was going on with Draco.

"Well," recalled Hermione, "Crookshanks attacked him pretty bad, so Draco threw him across the room, and then he practically broke the door off the wall because he slammed it so hard, but no he never even tried to hurt me."

Ron and Harry breathed a little easier after having their primary concern alleviated. "Still," said Ron, "if he was really that mad, then I wouldn't feel comfortable letting you go back there alone."

"Thanks," sighed Hermione, "I don't want to be there anyway, I think I would blow something up if I saw him again tonight anyway.

Ron laughed, "would that something be his head?" he asked hopefully.

Hermione let out a small but appreciative laugh at Ron's attempt to lighten the mood, "if I saw him now, then it just might be."

There was a heavy pause after that comment. Ginny was looking supportively at Hermione, though she was a bit shocked by Hermione's anger. Ron meanwhile was looking at her hopefully, "so," he said awkwardly. "Does that mean that you guys broke up?"

Hermione looked up quickly, she didn't focus on anything in particular, rather she seemed to be thinking hard. "I don't know," she finally said, "I guess we'll see about that tomorrow."

A/N: For anyone who's as much as an animal lover as I am, I would like you to know that Crookshanks was in no way harmed when Draco threw him across the room because he landed on the bed. Just thought I'd let everyone know that.

I hope everyone found that chapter to be worth the wait. I will do my best to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. In the meantime, reviews are always appreciated, you all are the best!