A/N-Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who reviewed. I'm glad you all are enjoying the story so far! Sry it took me so long to update, I was planning on doing it Saturday but the weekend got hectic. Anyways, here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer-I don't own anything but the plot.

"Granger! How long has it been? 7 years? Wow…I guess time changes a lot of things." responded the woman hatefully smirking at her.

"What are you talking about?" angrily spat Hermione.

"Hey Hermione, watch the attitude. There is no need for you to get angry. If anyone gets the right to then it should be me. I don't like getting lied to Hermione, and Pansy here tells me that you have a lot of explaining to do."

Chapter 5- The Interrogation

"Oh she does, does she?" Hermione was panicking inside, but she knew she had to hide it. She had to lie about everything…she had to do it for Draco. But, she also knew that this would be much harder trying to convince Pansy; so she just had to try to ignore her.

"So…you and Blaise, huh?" Pansy stated, beginning the first round of the interrogating session.

"Yes, me and Blaise. I hope you do not have a problem with us like you did with Draco and me." Hermione sneered before she realized what she said. (So much for ignoring her)

"So you did date Draco?" Aleesa cut in.

"Well, yes" Hermione answered, turning herself towards her, "But that ended a while ago."

"Yeah right it never ended" sighed Pansy rolling her eyes.

"How would you know? You don't know me to anything about our relationship." spat Hermione facing front again.

"You know, this is sounding a lot more serious than you made it sound before Hermione. Before you said it was strictly platonic-"

"Platonic? Ha! Platonic my ass. She and Draco were crazy about each other."

"Are-" Hermione corrected Pansy under her breath.

"What was that mudblood?"

"Mudblood? Pansy I would have thought you matured at least a bit. Clearly you have not-"

"Mudblood? Wait you're not even pure blooded?" Aleesa asked confused.

"No, I'm not." Hermione answered insulted.

"Okay now I don't believe either of you. Draco would never date a muggle born."

"Yes well that's what I thought too, but she did something to him. It isn't his fault."

The anger in Hermione could clearly be seen by the glare in her eyes and the constant tapping of her right foot. She almost had accidentally told them the truth about her and Draco after Hogwarts out of frustration. But, as hard as it was, she ignored her feelings, stopped her tapping, and spoke in a relatively calm voice.

"I never did anything to Draco. He decided to be with me all on his own. Nevertheless, we separated. If Draco getting married is not our relationship ending, then I don't know what is."

With every word she said, the reality of each one hurt more than the last. The only thing keeping her from crying was the hope of getting her fiancée back.

After a moment of silence, Aleesa spoke, "Well, she has a point. We are getting married and he has never mentioned her." She then stopped, laughed to herself, and then added as an afterthought, "and he sure as hell is not slacking in bed…so no, nothing is wrong."

Pansy and Aleesa broke into a fit of laughter as Hermione did not move in her seat. He promised there would never be another woman he ever loved, or made love to, Hermione thought. Even though tears were not falling, Aleesa and Pansy could see her world was crashing, and it made them happy.

"Jealous?" Aleesa asked simply.

"It would seem so." chimed Pansy. "You alright hun?" she scoffed.

"Pansy, call me hun again and you'll wish you hadn't"

"Ooh! I never knew Granger was bold enough to give a threat." Pansy asked smirking.

"Ooh! And I never knew that Pansy was smart enough to compose a sentence." mocked Hermione.

"Alright ladies. We are adults and we should not insult each other, or result to childish manors."

Both Hermione and Aleesa and Pansy glared at each other once more, and then sat back in their seats.

"Aleesa, I already upset you once today and I am not intending on doing it again. I lied to you earlier because I did not want Draco and me to be a topic for discussion. Honestly, we are only friends and I'm happy with Blaise-" Hermione was soon cut off by an obnoxious Pansy next to her. She was sitting back in her chair and was clapping her hands together slowly.

"Wow Granger….that was really… good. You almost had her. No wonder people say you're the smartest witch, you talk your way out of everything."

"I don't have time for this." said Hermione getting restless.

"Do you always run away from your problems Granger?"

"Are you always in the middle of someone else's?"

"Fine, leave. But I'm going to figure you out."

"Don't bother Pansy. Goodbye Aleesa and thank you for dinner." Hermione put some money on the table, got up, and left. Once out of the door, she apparated to the chapel leaving two non-trusting and even less convinced women at the table.

"I don't believe her at all" said Pansy taking a sip of her water.

"That was pretty apparent Pansy."

"You shouldn't either."

"I don't"

"Good."

"But I don't think she's entirely lying either."

"Aleesa, she's not dating Blaise." she sighed, tired of repeating herself. "She came today for Draco."

"I know that's what you think…but I want proof."

"You need proof? You can't just trust me?"

"It's nothing personal Pans, it's just how I do things."

"Well…let me know if I can help."

"You can help me. Give me information, not a bias opinion, just the facts."

"I can do that" said Pansy with a smirk.

"I'm listening…"said Aleesa leaning in…

"Well get comfortable, we're gonna be here a while. Let's start with her and Harry Potter…"

Hermione arrived back at the chapel at around quarter to ten in a state of desperation. She needed to talk to Draco and also tell Blaise what happened at dinner. She apparated into the main hall in the chapel, praying they were here instead of at the manor…she wasn't sure if she was ready to go back. In the hall, there were no lamps on, but out of the darkness she saw a tiny light escaping from the bottom of a door. As she approached it, she also heard voices and instinctively recognized them as Draco and Blaise's as she would Harry and Ron's. Hermione lent up against the door and pressed her ear to it; she knew she shouldn't listen but went against her better judgment.

"Yeah she's beautiful…she's also smart, powerful…she's definitely a Malfoy…she has the smirk, the attitude, the arrogance, and everything…"

Hermione knew Draco was speaking of Aleesa…

"But-" Blaise started,

"But she 'isn't Hermione', I know Blaise. I heard you the last 7 times. And don't you think I know that?"

"I think you know that, but I don't think you realize that."

"What? That made no sense"

"Yes it does. Mate, you're not realizing what you have here. I mean, from what it looks like to me is that you dumpedthe best person in your life7 years ago, and now she's back again! That has to mean something."

"It's not the first time she came back." Draco said under his breath.

Draco don't! Hermione thought outside the door.

"What? Wait-"

"Don't bother…drop it"

"But-"

"Blaise shut up! Look, I know what you're trying to do, and believe me I want to go back to her, more than anything…but I can't. If I don't get married to Aleesa, Hermione will probably get hurt again from my father-"

"What do you mean again?"

"It happened that night at manor-"

"You're talking about the night when you two broke up"

"Yeah…well sort of. See, we never really broke up…neither of us wanted to…but then my father…" Draco was struggling to get there right words out. He wasn't ready to tell Blaise the whole truth yet. "He was there that night…and-"

'Draco stop! He's not supposed to know- no one is' and at the fear of Draco spilling their secret, Hermione opened the door and smiled innocently at the two men. Draco immediately stopped talking the moment she entered…

"I have to talk to you Hermione." said Blaise erupting the silence.

"Alright but I have to speak with you also."

Blaise nodded, got off the couch he was sitting on and walked to Hermione. He gave her a kiss on the cheek (strictly good-natured) and exited after whispering "Just, let him talk for a while."

Hermione agreed and walked from the door to the chair opposite Draco. "So, you wanted to talk?"

"Yes- I did."

"Did?"

"Well…I did before. But now, I think it's better if I don't see you. Well-I don't mean it as it sounds, it's just that every time I do see you, I want to give this wedding band to you, and that's a problem." He said while twirling Aleesa's wedding band in-between his fingers.

"Draco…this-"

"Hermione can you please just stop talking…for once? I want you to listen to me."

Hermione was about to protest, but then remembered what Blaise said and noted the anguish in his voice. Her eyes sent him the message to continue.

"Hermione, I love you, always will, and you know that. And I'll probably regret saying this…but I need you. You know that so don't act surprised." He added after seeing the expression on her face change. "But, we can't. We tried it before…you were almost killed…I don't know if I can live with that again. And I know we tried after we graduated-"

"And that worked until you announced your engagement to her." Hermione interrupted.

"I didn't have a choice!"

"Wait…it was arranged?" she asked confused.

"Yes-" he said as if it was the dumbest question on earth. "You think I would leave you willingly?"

"How come I never knew this before?"

"I assumed you knew."

"Don't ever assume Draco, it makes an ass out of you and me."

"What the hell is that some sort of muggle saying-?"

"And did you protest!"

"What? Hermione-"

"No Draco. I want to know if you said anything about it."

"Excuse me?" Draco was quickly angered because he thought Hermione should be more understanding knowing it was already planned. "Hermione it was arranged. A-R-R-A-"

"I know how to spell it Draco!"

"Well what do you mean 'did I say anything about it'?"

"I mean did you tell them you were involved? I would have rather you cheated on me…but to know it was arranged? You could have said "No thanks- I have someone else'"

"Hermione are you serious! It's not that easy!"

"You're not 17 anymore Draco-!"

"And neither are you! I mean- for God's sake what would you want me to say?"

"Draco! You also fell in love with her! It's not like it's arranged and she's you're friend...it's that you replaced me!"

The two angrily fell silent; her words impacting them both. They looked down at the floor and talked quietly.

"Did you know her?"

"Yes" he sighed.

"Did you know this was going to happen?"

"Eventually."

"So you led me on?" she asked getting angry again.

"No. I just never told you."

"So you lied?"

"Hermione!" Draco then ran over to her, roughly picked her up, and tensely started kissing her to shut her up. He tasted the tears spilling down her cheeks and he softened the kiss, now holding and placing his lips upon hers lovingly. He gently pulled back and the two stared at each other, still in the current position, unaware of their surroundings. They had waited to hold each other again for so long and now this small kiss was the deciding factor in Draco's mind. Just as he was about to lean back in, Blaise opened the door...

"Hermione are you com-" he noticed the two's position "-ing…Okay. Never mind. Carry on!"

"No, it's okay Blaise. I'm coming."

Hermione looked at Draco once more and turned to follow Blaise out the door. Blaise waited until she exited to mouth the words 'Sorry' and followed behind her.

Draco watched them leave and then sat back down in his chair. He ran his fingers through his blonde hair and sarcastically said, "Thanks a lot, Blaise." before falling in his chair into an uneasy sleep.