A/N: I'm so sorry I haven't updated, I hope a lot of you noticed that I never take this long! I actually gave up the internet connection on the comp I write on to another comp so I can only post when I steal back the internet for a bit. I'll try to steal it back more often till all the files on that comp are posted. In the meantime, please let me know what you think of this chapter!

… … …

Hermione's stomach grumbled intensely as she creaked open the door to Lucius's office. Narcissa wasn't kidding about not giving her breakfast, but Hermione wasn't surprised. Her impression of the Malfoys as pure evil still held strong and it was one of the many things that fueled her dedication to spying. However, her most prevalent motivation was the incident with Blaise, a strong reminder of her desire to see that the Death Eaters get what they deserve.

She wanted to go home so badly, and she wanted to go home under the conditions that the Malfoys and all the other Death Eaters were going to Azkaban. She was ready to put forth her best work.

Very little of the mid-morning sunlight crept through the thick burgundy drapes over the floor to ceiling windows as Hermione made her way silently to the hidden files she had previously discovered.

She wrote down the location of the letters and papers as well as what they were about. She felt compelled to copy down the names being used in the forged papers, as well as the cryptic initials used signifying who it is to and who it is from.

Once again Hermione accidentally looked at the shelves filled with dark magic. They seemed to be earnestly whispering her name, pulling her to them. She scowled at them, snapped her journal closed and hurried out of the office.

The staircase was so long and curved that Hermione kept her eyes on the floor as she quickly walked down it, not wanting to trip. When her feet hit the marble floor she rose her head up only to be looking Draco right in the face.

Her chest immediately filled with dread upon seeing him waiting there at the stoop of the stairs, not only because encounters with Draco like this one always resulted in harsh name calling and bullying as of late, but because it was very suspicious indeed that he would find her there.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked harshly much like Hermione thought he would.

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me mudblood," he barked, getting his "mudblood" in quite early that day.

"I was looking for Lucius," said Hermione.

"Bullshit," he said, "You know he's not here, he said yesterday he'd be gone all day, and you hate talking to him."

"Well it slipped my mind... besides, maybe I like annoying him. There's little I can do in the horrid place besides make his life as unpleasant as I am able."

Hermione attempted to slip by him and leave the entrance hall but Draco stepped with her, speaking icily into her ear, "Slipped your mind did it? You know who else was forgetful? That idiot Longbottom. Perhaps you shouldn't go around declaring yourself a genius if you're on the same level as that git."

"Don't you ever call Neville an idiot again!" Hermione barked, "And I've never declared myself a..." 'Oh what am I doing?' Hermione thought to herself, 'I will not stand here and be apart of his bullshit, arguing is what he wants!'

Draco's face contorted into satisfaction as he watched Hermione's cheeks heat up with anger. Disappointment came soon after as she finally managed to slip past him and hurried down the hall.

Feeling slightly silly and immature, he began to follow her, but his desire to be by her-er... get a rise out of her clouded his common sense.

"Don't you have anything better to do than follow me?" Hermione spat angrily when Draco didn't stop trailing her by the time she reached the library.

"Well actually I was invited to Cyrus's for some lunch and shopping by some old Slytherins."

"Why don't you go then and leave me alone!"

"Because I didn't very well want my lunch spoiled by the retelling of yours and Blaise's shag last night."

"What?" uttered Hermione, filling with a variety of emotions. Shock, complete embarrassment and finally anger at the mere memory of what actually happened and the totally incorrect insinuation of what Draco hinted happened.

"There were enough sluts in that group you know, Pansy's got it covered. And now there's you, as if I don't have to hear disgusting things often enough, thanks a lot," Draco said with much fire.

Hermione very mad now, that Draco would think such things and call her a slut, but she was also confused... Even if that's what he really believed to have happened, why would he care so much? "The only sluts in that group are you and all your other pathetic friends with their penises for brains!" she said firmly and stormed off, eager to get far away from him she was so fuming.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded to know, still following her.

She slipped into a door, "Leave me alone!" she screamed, finding herself in the ballroom Draco had turned into his gym.

"Get out!" she screamed again when he followed her in. Reliving the horrible ordeal with him of all people was making her terribly upset, and she felt herself approaching her wits end.

"It's my house," Draco smirked, "This is my room!"

"What do you want?" said Hermione, running out of patience.

"For you to admit you're a whore," he said harshly.

Finally she couldn't take it anymore. Hermione picked up a basketball and hurled it at Draco with all her might! To her dismay, he caught it. She screamed in frustration. "What's it to you what I do with my life?" she cried.

Draco took a shot at the hoop, hoping it would fall on her head since she was standing right under it, but she dodged out of the way and caught it on its first bounce.

She was disappointed in her own immaturity... that she had actually thrown the ball at him out of anger. She decided to keep the ball and to not again sink to his level.

"If I can't be with any girls then you sure as hell can't be with any boys," Draco finally answered, "My friends to say the least!"

Hermione finally decided to set the record straight, "First of all, I WASN'T with any boys! Your so-called "friend" attacked me in the fucking pool house you stupid git!"

Draco furrowed his brow. Instantly her story did seem a lot more plausible than what he had so hastily assumed. Of course Blaise had come onto her... she was beautiful and he was a scoundrel... it would've been so out of character for Hermione to want Blaise.

He felt so stupid for jumping to conclusions that were so opposite of their personalities. He had been wrong... had called the poor innocent victim of a sexual assault a whore, how can a person feel more terrible? Oh of all the people to be wrong with... she'd never let him forget it if he apologized... the embarrassment would never go away... He got angrier, not wanting her to make him out to be the fool. 'Don't let her know you feel bad...' he thought, 'don't let her know your sorry... she can't know you even care, just be cool Drac...'

"You're lying," he said, shaking his head.

But Hermione had already seen the realization on his face.

"No I'm not," she told him smugly, knowing he knew now he had been wrong. She checked the ball at him firmly and pulled down the waistband of her skirt a bit. Four bruised marks were visible on her hip from where a hand had dug into her flesh, trying to pull her in.

Draco stared at her exposed curvy hip. It would have been quite a seductive sight, had not her creamy skin been black and blue. Hermione looked at Draco stare at where she had directed his eyes. "Why the fuck would I want a Slytherin anyway?" she added in bitter triumph and turned to go.

She knew she shouldn't, that she should just let it drop, but she couldn't resist, "If you had gone to Cyrus today," she turned back and said, "and that pig Blaise was there, you would've notice he'd be having a difficult time eating. I nearly bit his tongue off. So if you and Lucius don't want an incident at the wedding, you'll do well to keep him the hell away from me."

Draco glared at her, he shook his head, pissed and embarrassed. 'Psssh,' Draco was telling himself, 'Psssh,' again, 'who cares if I was wrong in accusing her of being a whore... it's just Hermione... I'm not ashamed... I'm not embarrassed...I don't even care...'

Was she still looking at him?

'Act cool," he thought, 'You don't care Drac'.'

"Brushing off" the incident he took a shot with the ball to the hoop... much to his surprise he missed.

Hermione caught the rebound with ease and scoffed a bit.

"Oh like you could do better!" he said, very angry now, and extremely defensive. His distress must have been obvious.

Hermione scowled at him and took a shot. She cursed out loud when she missed as well. The ball bounced away to Draco.

"I thought as much..." said Draco cruelly, dribbling confidently.

Hermione began to walk straight towards him, and Draco didn't know what to make of it. She looked him sternly in the eyes without falter. He watched her approach with defensive curiosity.

Suddenly he no longer had the ball and she was the one dribbling it. Draco had hardly felt it happen.

"I never played offense," spat Hermione in her defense, "I was always a guard."

Draco swatted his hand at her, trying angrily to get the ball back. He was unsuccessful as she turned in a circle. Hermione smiled coyly.

Draco was frustrated. He was excellent at shooting, but since he always played alone, he knew nothing about stealing, blocking, or sneaky plays.

He tired once again to get the ball but Hermione did another circle, he tried to go around her but she glided away from him, her elbows out and her feet quick to move.

Draco, getting more embarrassed and therefore angry, scowled. "Doesn't matter one bit," he said smugly, "I bet you couldn't even make it from this line."

Hermione, slightly nervous, stepped on the line and attempted anyway. She missed. She had always been a horrible shot.

Draco's smug smirk returned as the ball came to his hands again.

Hermione cocked her head at him. He knew she was going to try and take it again. He was ready, he was watching her, he was dribbling carefully, he was-

"Fuck," he spat.

She had taken it again.

She dribbled it down and shot from the side, miraculously making it that time.

"My ball" she said smirking boastfully, taking his place at the free throw line. He was facing her, he was going to get the ball from her this time... he was going to steal it like she had... he was going to take it right from her... he- he let her slip right past him! By the time he turned around she was at the hoop again, attempting the same side shot, but missed that time.

"My ball," Draco growled firmly.

And thus continued Draco's first game of one-on-one. Although Draco was a marvelous shot, Hermione was marvelous defense. Quite an interesting side turning game resulted, for every time Draco got the ball Hermione got it back and usually missed. However, every now and then she made it. But at the same time, every once in awhile Draco would get past Hermione and get a shot, and he was also learning to steal the ball remarkably fast.

The more he picked up the more he practiced the techniques aggressively against Hermione, but she continued to challenge him.

It was unclear when it dawned on both of them that they were laughing and having fun during their competitive and intensely physical competition.

"Who is winning?" asked Hermione suddenly, "I haven't been keeping track."

"I am," said Draco after a short pause.

Hermione laughed, "Believable," she quipped sarcastically.

He looked at her menacingly, "Next point wins."

"Right then," said Hermione, facing him as he dribbled, ready to take the ball from him.

Draco forced her half way to the hoop with his new skills, but Hermione managed to steal it last minute, take it to the hoop and... miss. Draco got the rebound; Hermione scowled as he took his stance and threw the ball up. To her surprise, and his, it hit the rim and bounced off.

"Ooooh," cried Hermione, smiling at the opportunity to narrowly win as they both took off running down the floor, both desperate to get the ball.

They dived at the same time and hit the hard floor with a thud. Four scrambling arms reached for the ball, causing it to pop up into the air and bounce a few feet away. They began crawling towards it on their bellies. Finally Draco had enough sense to push himself up and run after it. Hermione desperately grabbed onto his ankles to stop him.

"Foul! Foul!" Draco called out laughing, trying to pry her away. He stumbled over and fell on his butt.

Hermione popped up and went after the ball. Draco was up again soon after. Hermione bent over to pick up the ball but turned only to have Draco plow right into her.

She fell backwards onto her elbows, which would have been painful had Draco not wrapped his arms around her to slow the fall and soften the blow. But, doing so meant going down with her and they both collapsed onto the ground.

Immediately they both started laughing. Draco stopped first, having finally noticed he was on top of her, his body between her spread legs. He propped himself up on his arms and Hermione propped herself up on her elbows. She wasn't fully aware of the position yet and turned to see where the ball had bounced off too. Craning her neck resulted into her chest pressing into Draco's

Feeling his hard broad chest meet her breasts, Hermione turned her head back, only to find Draco looking down at her, starting at her neck and mouth. He pulled his focus out to her whole face.

Her attention was drawn to his surprisingly perfect lips due to his mouth being slightly open, he was gently catching his breath. However this did nothing for his heartbeat, which she could feel was hard and fast.

The realization of the fun they just had, as well as the undeniably pleasant sensation of having someone so factually attractive between her legs and the unsinking feeling that he didn't want to move troubled Hermione.

"Why are you so mean to me?" she finally asked softly. It had taken all she could muster to work up the guts to ask.

Draco looked her in the eyes... not knowing what to say.

Hermione's stomach growled.

"You haven't eaten anything all day," Draco said, mostly to himself, "Go get some lunch.

He got up off her and exited the gym leaving her there on the floor with her unanswered question.

Hermione didn't see Draco again for the rest of the day, and she wasn't quite sure how she felt about that.

To distract herself from either thinking of Draco, which was just plain odd, or being bored, she put on some Coldplay and went through some of the things Lucius had given her for being good at the engagement party.

She played solitaire with a deck of cards and then painted a small picture of a beautiful smoky white horse galloping along the shore of the creek, behind him a bluff and array of leaves changing throughout a beautiful spectrum of color. Only much to her dismay, solitaire made her lonely, and painting made her long desperately for home.

She did the only thing she could think of to speed her progress of getting out of there. She went over her journal for hours, adding some more details here and there of what she wanted to hand over to the Order, wondering when and how they'd make contact again.

Plaguing her mind for rhyme or reason to any of her findings made Hermione very tired and she felt particularly alone that evening. She decided to get into her covers with Crookshanks and hopefully just drift into a peaceful nights sleep for once...

… … …

..."Don't worry, I von't," he uttered, playing with her words

Hermione became furious; he knew exactly what he was doing. She was unwilling and yet he refused to stop. Men like this made her sick, and she had an undeniable urge to set him straight.

She knew she was NOT supposed to harm him, just get the key, get the papers... and any items of manufacture... "Whatever that means..." Hermione remembered thinking, but if Harry can blatantly disobey orders, then why couldn't she? ...

Ivan let out a high-pitched surprised gasp as he felt the sharp sting of Hermione's slap. Hermione could see the anger flush on his face and frustration in his eyes.

Hermione let out a similar surprised gasp when Ivan had taken her by complete surprise and slapped her back. Not only did he slap her harder but then he continued to try and remove her shirt.

Hermione was shouting and trying to wiggle free from beneath him quite profusely now. Ivan tried to pin her deeper into the sofa, while Hermione tried to beat on him with her fists despite her lack of room to gain any momentum to her swings.

"HARRY!" she screamed.

"Who is Harry!" Ivan asked angrily. He ripped her shirt open. Finally Hermione wiggled her leg in between his and kneed him right in the groin.

He cried out in pain and rolled off of Hermione and the sofa, crashing into an all glass coffee table. The commotion was so loud; someone should have definitely heard it.

Free from his grasp, Hermione rushed to the door and listened against it, to see if anyone was coming.

She heard him approach too late. She turned to face Ivan, who had gotten up and staggered over. He cornered her at the door only to slap her again. Apparently he wasn't done, nor giving up. He had a few cuts, but pain couldn't stop his anger.

"HARRY!" Hermione screamed again, "HARRY HELP ME!"

Next she was punched in the face, and then, the gut. The pain silenced her and she motionlessly clutched herself for a moment, desperate to regain her focus. She choked for air, frantically trying to gather back the wind that had been knocked out of her. She began to murmur protests.

"Shut up," said Ivan, now focused on getting her bra off.

Slowly coming out of her pain induced daze, Hermione grabbed tufts of Ivan's hair from the side of his head and cracked his forehead down onto her own.

While he was doubling back, clutching his forehead, Hermione slid away against the wall but Ivan was unrelenting. He lumbered towards her, grunting in anger and agony, attempting to grab her again, resulting in a violent dance between the two of them throughout the room, screaming and crashing into shelves and tables adorned with expensive decorations and artifacts, some falling to the ground and shattering.

Hermione finally fell to the ground. Ivan rolled her over onto her back and straddled her. He slapped her once more. Hermione, terrified and in pain, finally just started to cry, no longer struggling against him. Ivan sighed with satisfaction and scooted up Hermione's skirt.

To Hermione's disgust he undid his pants, but only to stick his own hand down there. Hermione had enough sense to know what she was in for, Ivan was thinking that he had beaten her. But while the pig had his eyes closed tightly as he pleasured himself before turning on Hermione, Hermione looked about the destruction they had created on the floor. A vase was near her, and she acted fast.

The vase broke into pieces on Ivan's head. His head then rolled about awkwardly on his shoulders before he finally dropped to the floor.

Hermione squirmed out from beneath him, still afraid someone would come because of the crashing noise. She looked around frantically for her top... for the key... for Harry to come... for anyone to come. She didn't know what to do first!

"Focus Hermione!" she told herself, as she staggered about the room, dazed and winded by pain and fear.

Ivan began to stir.

"You've got to be kidding me!" thought Hermione, "This guy won't stop!"

Her wand! Where had it gone? She dashed over to her purse and began rummaging through it... "Where is it!" she thought anxiously, digging through the objects in the bag...

"Don't move," said Ivan's furious yet slurred voice. Hermione felt the unmistakable point of a wand in her back.

"My father vill hov you killed for this you stupid bitch," he said.

Hermione's instinct and adrenaline took over next when she whipped herself around, grabbed the hand Ivan was holding his wand with and twisted it back towards himself while at the same time pointing her own wand that she had just barely grasped at him with her other hand as well.

"STUPIFY!"

They both had screamed it at once.

And both wands shot into Ivan.

Finally, finally, she appeared to have stopped him from continuing to pursue her as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, leaving nothing but the whites to be seen and he stopped moving. His mouth gaped open, filling with drool as his bottom lip quivered.

She breathed in utter relief as he went limp with unconsciousness and he slumped to the floor like dead weight. She looked at his body as his foot twitched uncontrollably and knew the Order would be furious with her, but what did she care? Her body still ached from the pain he had inflicted upon her, her heart still racing from her level of fear.

"Harry?" she tried once again, knowing it was in vain, tears falling silently down her cheeks ...