Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, except Prof. Rosenthal and Phroupoeyz. I do own the plot and I own this computer that I'm typing on.

A/N: I'm sorry that I did not update while I was in Florida, but I could not get online, and I'm sorry that I didn't update before I left, but understandably, I had a lot of stuff to do before we left.

While I was in Florida, Amber and I worked on our new story which we will update on our name, ShiverBoo soon. It is going to be called 'The Pageant.'

Chapter 22

Ron and Confessions

Ron was standing around the corner from Hermione and Draco and he was thinking; he had them cornered; he could do whatever he wanted to them now. He could hex them, or even kill them.

As he was thinking about this, he heard Hermione say a spell. He went to grab for his wand, because he thought that she had seen him and said the spell to him, but he realized that he didn't have a wand anymore, they had snapped it when he got expelled.

He waited a little while longer to listen to the couple and was angered when they were kissing again.

He turned around to walk away, looking at the ground, and ran straight into someone.

"RON?" Harry asked, with a very confused Blaise next to him, "what are you doing here?"

"I…I was just…er…shopping," Ron said slowly.

Hermione had heard Harry's shout and came around the corner with Draco following.

"Ron?" Hermione asked, confused, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, it is a free country; I can be here all I want," Ron said smugly.

"No Ron, I mean here, at this place, at this moment."

"I was just shopping, and I saw this wall and I decided to jump over it," he lied.

"Ron, you're lying, don't even think that you can lie to me. Now I ask you again, why the fuck are you here?"

"Why the fuck do you think I'm here, Hermione, I wanted to see you."

"Well, I don't want to see you, why would you do this? You're following me, I could feel it."

"Hermione, we need to talk about this is private," he said grabbing Hermione's arm. Hermione got a pissed expression on her face and pulled her arm away.

"No, Ronald Weasley, I remember what happened the last time we needed to 'talk about things in private.' Do you think that I'm going to fall for that again?"

"Hermione, I need to talk to you, away from them," Ron said in a hushed voice.

"No, Ron, if you have anything to say to me, then you can say it in front of all of them, you are never going to get me alone again."

"Hermione," Ron pleaded.

"No Ron, now either say what you have to say or leave," Hermione crossed her arms and looked at Ron expectantly.

"I am not leaving until I can talk to you!" he yelled.

"Then talk, I'm not stopping you."

Ron grabbed her arm again and squeezed hard, but released when Draco's fist came in contact with his nose.

Ron held his hand up to his nose and saw that it was bleeding; it hurt and felt like it was broken.

"What the fuck?" he screamed.

"Ron, leave, before I will be forced to hurt you," Hermione said.

"Bitch," he muttered before turning to leave.

Hermione watched him leave. When he was gone, she let out a huge sigh, and then sat down abruptly on the ground, covering her face in her hands.

The other three boys looked at her, and then Draco kneeled down, shaking out his bruising hand and looking at her with sympathy.

"Hermione, its ok," he said softly.

"Thank you, it was just…so hard. I didn't think I could ever talk to him again." Tears were flowing down her cheeks.

"Hermione, you were strong, that's all that's important," he said, pulling her close to him and kissing her.

"I just…I never wanted to talk to him again." Harry got down too and pulled Hermione away from Draco for a hug.

"Hermione, you were brave for standing up to him, I'm proud of you," Harry was saying.

Blaise was looking down on them, wondering what the hell was going on.

"I'm confused," Blaise said.

Draco looked at him, and then looked at Hermione, who nodded her head. Draco got up and pulled Blaise down the alley and around the corner.

They emerged a few minutes later. Hermione's eyes had pretty much cleared of tears, and she was standing again, but she was almost sent on the ground again by the huge hug that Blaise was giving her.

"I know that you don't care, Granger, but I'm sorry," Blaise said.

"Thanks Blaise, it means a lot to me," Hermione said, barely breathing because it was such a tight hug.

Harry suddenly got a smile on his face and then shouted, "GROUP HUG."

Hermione smiled as Harry also joined in the hugging, but Draco stayed away.

"Come on Draco, you can hug her too," Blaise said.

"I'll hug her, but not with you two there, I already feel like you're turning me gay," Draco smirked.

"Fine," Blaise said, releasing Hermione, "You can hug your girlfriend all you want now."

"Ok," Draco said, grabbing up Hermione in a tight embrace and kissing her.

"I said hugging, not kissing. If you two keep kissing then Harry and I are going to start making out," Blaise said happily.

Hermione and Draco broke their kiss regretfully.

"Fine, you have it your way. We will leave you two to snog then," Draco said, as he led Hermione away from the other couple.

Draco took Hermione away from Honeydukes and to the outskirts of town. He wanted to talk to her, which he had barely any time to do anymore, since there were no more late night snogs and neither of them was in the hospital wing for a long time.

He sat her down on a rock and looked at her.

"What?" She asked.

"Hermione, have you figured out what you're going to do about, you know?"

"I'm still not exactly sure yet, I need to owl my parents first. I'm afraid of their reaction though, I don't know if I want to know what they are going to say about me."

"You need to figure this out soon though, don't you?"

"Yeah, well, I figured that I will probably be leaving by Christmas, for the rest of the year."

"That's probably the best thing to do, but you need an excuse, you need a reason to leave, you can't just tell everyone that you are leaving to go have a baby."

"I know Draco, its still really hard for me to believe that I have a child inside me at this very moment. It's weird to think about, and besides me getting sick every day, I don't really notice it. I just want to have a normal life again; I don't know what to do about this yet."

"I can't imagine anything that you are going through, and believe me; I have as much sympathy as I can possibly muster, without actually having to go through it my self, for you. I love you Hermione, and I know that you are going to be able to get through this, because you're strong, probably the strongest person I have ever met, including myself."

Hermione sat stunned, had all of that just come out of Draco Malfoy's mouth?

"And I know you think I'm crazy, but I really think that you don't deserve this, you are too good of a person to have something this horrible happen to you." Draco was kneeling and looking at her in the eyes. Russet met silver.

"Draco, you have such a way with words," Hermione smiled.

"I try."

"I love you."

"I love you too, Hermione, and I hope it stays that way. Forever," Draco said softly.

Hermione pulled him to her and gave him a forceful kiss. He was way too romantic to be a Malfoy. He was acting so out of character. She broke their kiss.

"Draco, what makes you act so different around me now?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you have always been mean to me, and you have always acted like an ass. Then all of a sudden we make a stupid bet in a bathroom and then you act completely different, even being nice to Harry."

Draco contemplated telling her about his bet with Blaise, but then figured that it would be better if she didn't know, it would be better if she knew the truth, the real truth.

"Well, I had wanted to kiss you forever, and I mean forever. I've liked you for a lot longer than just this year. It's been quite a few years now. Even when you hit me in third year, it just made me have more respect for you, because you would stand up for yourself.

"I acted like an ass to you because I knew that I could never have you. At first I was mean to Potter because he refused my friendship. And Weasley, well that was apparent as to his heritage and mine. But after second year, I was even meaner to them because you were always around them, you would spend more time with them than anyone else. The thing that I hated the most is that they took complete advantage of you, only using you for homework help and your smarts; they didn't truly respect you for what you really were. You are the most perfect person that I have ever met, and it makes me feel great that I finally have you, and hopefully it will stay that way for a long time, because I know how to respect you. I'm not going to use you, Hermione, no matter what anyone says," he finished with barely a breath in his body, he had been waiting to tell her that for the longest time.

All Hermione could do was look at him, searching his voice for any lying, but deep down she knew that that had all come from his heart. None of it had been bullshit, and she was glad.

"That is probably the most romantic thing that I have ever heard in my entire life. I never knew that you had it in you to even talk like that."

"Yeah, well…"

"Draco, why do you have to be so perfect?"

"Huh?"

"You are perfect, you are the only person who understands how I feel, I can't believe that it would be you of all people, but I'm glad it is, at this moment I really hope that my dreams are what Dumbledore thinks they are, because I would love to have that future with you Draco. I want to have those two beautiful children and live happily ever after. But there are just so many things that I have to go through first to get to that point, including having this kid. But I know that I can do that, because I need to, and I can do anything that I put my mind to, and this is one of those things."

"Hermione you just need to be strong and you can get through anything," Draco said.

"I know, and I will be able to get through this, and I'm glad that I have the support of the two people I love most in this world, besides my parents."

"Who's the other one?" he asked smugly.

"Harry of course."

"I thought we talked about him. He is no good for you, Hermione."

"Draco, Harry is and will always be my best friend. He has never done anything wrong to me and I don't care if he needs a little help from me once in a while, because he is a great wizard, and I have a deep respect for him. He has been through more hardships that any of us could ever know. You still have your parents, he doesn't, he barely even knew his parents. And then last year his godfather died, leaving him with no one on this earth. I would like to be one of the people that actually care about him, because no one else seems to."

"Who was his godfather?"

"Why should I tell you?" She asked defensively.

"I don't know, it was just a question. I was just wondering. It doesn't matter though, if you don't want to tell me."

"Well, for that you have to ask Harry, because I don't know if he wants everyone knowing that. You two should talk more, now that I'm yours, and he is dating your best friend, you guys could get along a little more."

"Yeah, except that if I started being friends with Harry Potter, my father would most definitely find out, then I would be dead. It's bad enough that I'm dating you, even talking to you, but I can sort that out for now. If I ever was caught having civilized conversation with Potter though, I would be done for, the death eaters would come to kill me tomorrow."

"Why do you have to live by their rules? It's not like they own your life."

"Actually they do, my father promised me to it when I was born. I was born to be a death eater."

"Draco, you cant, I wont let you."

"I don't want to be, but I am afraid of the consequences if I tell them no, I think about it all the time, and the more I think about it, the more I think that if I refuse they will just kill me and call it an accident."

"Draco, just don't worry about that yet, we have time. Maybe we can rid the world of Voldemort and the death eaters before you have to become one, it would be a miracle, but there is always a possibility, however slim it may be."

"Maybe," he said gently, knowing that his destiny would be impossible to avoid.

A/N: Ok, so I'm not really sure if that is a cliffhanger, but I don think it is. If it is at all possible, I will update while I'm gone.

And please read my other stories under the name ShiverBoo, 'Luck of the Irish' is really funny, and 'The Pageant,' has the first chapter posted.

Hugs and kisses

Brittany