Disclaimer: Sry, I forgot these the last two chapters, but do you really think that if I owned the characters I would be sitting in a suburban city in lower Michigan. NO! I would be in England in a mansion, writing the next Harry Potter book instead of a fanfiction. (Summary: I don't own the characters, just the plot.)

A/N: ICYCOOL, I completely agree on the Eminem/Draco thing, I was looking on Google of pictures of Tom Felton and there are a few when he is wearing a white baseball cap and he looks exactly like Eminem, its sort of creepy.

To all else, I hope you like this chappie, it is one of my better ones.

Enjoy!

Chapter 25

Contemplation and Death Eaters

It had been a month since Halloween and it was the beginning of December. Hermione was sitting in a chair by the fireplace in the common room, just thinking.

After deciding finally that she couldn't let Draco take her in the middle of the dance at Halloween, she realized more than ever that she wanted him. She noticed that her body would betray her mind when ever he was close to her, whenever he would kiss her, whenever he would touch her. She wanted more, she just didn't know how to ask for it.

She was hoping that he would make the first move by now, but he seemed always to stop himself as she would get more and more aroused, she wanted him to take things further, they had been together for two months. Lavender and Parvati thought that they had already had sex, but that's just because Hermione had been blushing from what Ginny had said in her ear when they asked the question. She told them the truth and they thought that she was lying.

However, she thought that maybe two months was a little fast. She tried to wait longer, but every time he got close to her she felt as though her body was trying to make up her mind for her, pulling itself ever closer to him, trying to make as much contact as possible.

Why did she have to fall for the biggest git of all time? Even though he was nicer toward her of course, he was still the same deep down, he had been raised that way and he could never change. She knew that deep down, even though he said he would, if his father was to ask him to be a death eater, he could not refuse him. He would do what his father bade him do, there was no way that anyone could change that, not even her.

She wanted more than ever for that not to be true, but it was. He may love her, but even though he could not admit it, he loved his father more. She didn't blame him, she loved her parents more than him, so he really wouldn't be able to change that.

This is the one thing that worried her. If his father was to call on him, he would be gone, out of her life forever. She could not bear for that to happen. So she wanted to make their time together as much as it could be.

She could not bear to think about them not being together, she wanted it to be true that her dreams were the future, but then she got to thinking that maybe they weren't true, maybe it was just a dream, a stupid little girl's dream. Maybe they were just her fantasies that she wished to be true but never really would be.

After she had been raped, she just wanted to find solace in anyone, and he happened to be the one that was there for her. What if it had been someone else? What if it hadn't been Draco in the bathroom to comfort her? Why was he so nice to her? Why was he with her anyway? What did she do for him that no one else did?

She started thinking about what Blaise had said at the party, he had said something about his bet. Had he made a bet with Draco? Was that why he had been there for her? Was that why he was being so nice to her, telling her that he loved her when he really didn't?

She wanted to know the extent of this bet, what it included and why. Was he only doing it to sleep with her? Was he just going to get her into bed and then leave her. If that was the extent of this, then she came to realize that that would make him the lowest form of life on this earth. Not even for just lying to her, but also to make her fall in love with him for being nice to her after something so horrible had happened to her. If he could do that and be nice just so that he could later get her to bed, then he was no better than his father. In fact, he was worse.

She needed to know right now what that bet was about, and she was going to get it from him at this very moment.

Hermione got up off the couch in the common room and made her way down to the Slytherin dungeons.

0000

Draco,

I need you to come home immediately. You will leave as soon as possible, take only what you need. I will send someone to fetch you.

Father.

That's all that it had said. And Draco knew that it was time. He had to leave to do the bidding of the dark lord, he was no longer a student at Hogwarts, he was going to become a death eater.

He realized that this was probably the last time he would see anyone here at the school, and that included his love, his Hermione. He had to at least say goodbye to her.

He left the Slytherin common room and walked swiftly to hers.

0000

When Hermione arrived at the Slytherin common room doors, she knocked. There poked a small red headed girl out of the opening.

"May I help you?" she asked in a malicious voice.

"Yes, I'm looking for Draco. I need to talk to him," Hermione said in a similar tone.

"He's not here, he just left in fact, was in a great rush too."

"Ugh…Damn it," she paused and composed herself. "Fine, thank you."

"No problem," she said, closing the entrance.

"Where would he go?" Hermione asked herself.

She walked down to the library to see if he would be there.

0000

When Draco arrived at the painting of the fat lady, he was informed also that Hermione had left.

"Well, why does she have to leave right when I need her the most?"

"I don't know, but I can take a message you know."

"You can?"

"Yes, tell me what you need to tell her and I'll make sure she knows."

"Ok, fine. Just tell her that I'm leaving and that I won't be back for a long time, and tell her that I love her and that I will miss her a lot. I'll write whenever I can find a chance."

"Where are you going?"

"That's none of your business."

"'twas only a question."

"Well, I have to go."

"Goodbye dear, I hope to speak with you again soon."

"Sure. Bye," Draco scoffed. He went back to his dorms to pack his stuff. He didn't want to go, but knew that he could not stop it from happening, it was the one thing that he didn't want to do, he had nightmares about it happening. He only wished that he could say goodbye to her before he left.

0000

When he arrived back at his room, there was another note on his bed.

This note is a portkey, it will leave at precisely 10:30. Be ready.

Draco looked at the time. It was 10 o'clock. He had to pack quickly then. He only wished that he had more time, he decided that he could leave her a note, send it to her with his owl, Nikolai.

He sat down at his desk, ignoring the fact that he still needed to get his stuff together, it didn't matter right now, he had stuff at his house. He didn't need this stuff anymore.

He grabbed a piece of parchment and scribbled a note to his beloved. He only hoped that she would forgive him. After all, it was not his choice to leave at such an inconvenient time.

He sent the letter away with Nikolai and got to work on his packing. Grabbing up his belongings and throwing it all in his trunk, he looked at the clock, he had ten minutes. Why did his father want him now, what had changed so suddenly that he had to leave at this moment?

Oh well, there was no point on trying to figure out his father, there was no way that he could change it, and now that it was the moment, he knew that he couldn't do anything to stop what was going to happen to him. He would become a servant of the dark lord. He would become a death eater, the one thing that he had been trying to avoid his entire life. He knew that he wasn't strong enough to withstand his father and Voldemort himself, he could not stand up to them.

This made him feel weak, but he knew that it was true, no matter how strong he tried to be. Even in his dreams he had succumbed to the power of persuasion, and torture.

This was officially the worst day of his life.

0000

Hermione was running her fingers over the bindings of the books, she tried to make it look as though she was looking for a book, but she was doing some considerable thinking. She wanted to know what was going to happen between her and Draco, if he was only doing this for a bet, and if he actually loved her enough to be with her.

But if he was doing it for a bet then it would make perfect sense. Why else would he want to kiss her in the first place, for it was his side of the deal, not hers. He was the one who had initiated it, he had been the one to set everything into motion.

The more she thought about it, the more it made perfect sense, and the more depressed she became, walking aimlessly around the library, lightly touching her finger tips over the books.

But why else would he want to be with her? She wondered why a pureblood like him would ever even consider someone so much lower than him, someone of her status, a mudblood. Why would he even think about her as more than filth? Is that why he was acting the way he was acting? She really needed to talk to him. She wanted to talk to him and see if this is really what was going on. She needed to know.

She heard the fluttering of wings behind her as a dark black owl landed on her arm that she instinctively put out. She took the letter from it and it flew off.

Dearest,

I'm truly sorry, I am leaving. My father has called me and I must go. I'm sorry I didn't get to say a proper good bye to you. The fat lady will have a message for you when you go back to the Gryffindor common room, if you aren't already there. I love you and always will. I will write you when I can find the freedom to do so. I know that this day was not supposed to come so quickly, but I must go. I hope you can still love me when I become what I am destined to become, for I will always love you.

Yours always,

Draco.

Hermione started crying. He left, he was gone. Away from her. Forever. Why did this have to happen now? Why did he have to have this destiny that would always be in the way of their relationship, why did there have to be such a big obstacle in the way of love (if that's what it was to him). She felt like she could hear him speaking the words, saying them to her, and to her, in her head, he sounded sincere. She wanted to believe that he loved her the way that she loved him.

She decided to write him a letter, even though she knew that she probably shouldn't, knowing that he would probably be scolded. She just needed him to know that everything was alright.

She walked back up to the Gryffindor tower to ask Harry permission of his owl.

0000

She sent off the note with Hedwig. She just wanted him to know that she was still there for him in his darkest time. Even if he did not love her, she still loved him, whether he liked it or not.

She walked back up the stairs to her room, it was late and she wanted to sleep. She would miss Draco immensely, but what could she do? She would be leaving in a little less than a month, going home to stay with her parents for the rest of the school year. She had explained to them everything and they said that she could come home. She loved them and thanked them so much for understanding that this was all beyond her control.

She started to change into her pajamas and Lavender came in the room.

"Oh, Hermione, you're still up."

"Yeah," she said as if it was blatantly obvious.

"Well, I was going to…er…its ok, I'll be back later."

"Ok," Hermione said slowly.

Lavender left the room. Hermione finished getting dressed and laid down in her bed to drift off into an uneasy sleep.

0000

CRASH!

"Oh, yes, she is coming with us. She will make the perfect gift for him. He can torture her all he wants. You know he's been doing it for years already."

"Yeah, maybe after he's done with her, we can have her; she is a pretty little thing."

"Lucius said to get her and go, we can't wake anybody up."

"Well, lets get a move on then."

Hermione woke, she sat bolt upright in her bed. She didn't know what to do; she had heard voices, though she couldn't tell if they were real or in her dreams.

She looked across the room to find Lavender and Parvati also sitting up in their beds, they both had scared expressions on their faces. All of a sudden she felt an arm around her head and the texture of a cloth over her mouth and nose.

The last thing she tasted was chloroform…

A/N: Ooh, Evil Cliffy, sry! I love doing that. I will try to update soon, because I have to finish writing and posting this story before the sixth book comes out, which gives me approximately three months. I hope I can do that, especially because I am working on chapter 37 right now and it's only Christmas, ahhh. But there is a lot of plot between here and there. A lot of stuff goes on, as you can tell from above.

Also, I hope that you like how this story is going, I know that was sort of a strange twist, and it will get weirder in the next chapter. And I don't think you know what Hermione's note to Draco said until chapter 27, but that's okay. I'm just telling you this now though, what it says is very important…Duh Duh Duh Dum! (Sry! I feel like being random today.)

Oh, and the name Nikolai for the owl came from my friend. I was going to put him in another story of mine, I was going to make his name something else, but then he's like, "No, I want my name to be Boris." And I couldn't let him have a name like Boris, so we settled on Nikolai. But then I quit writing that story and Nikolai in that no longer exists. Oh and my friends actual name is Dimitry, (he's Russian if you couldn't tell). I use his name for something else too, I am writing another story and I use the name Olegevich Dimitrov, which is basically his first name and middle name switched around. Because his middle name is Olegevich. But now I am rambling on about my stupid Russian crush. Damn it. (Dimitry, if you are ever reading this then you are first of all a hypocrite, second, get over yourself and ask me out already! And Arik if you read this, YES I like DIMITRY, NOT YOU! And Dan broke up with me, you arse!) Stupid Russian immigrants ruining our lives…

Sry, I'm done. Really long authors note that had nothing to do with anything, but I hope you don't think I'm too crazy, because it's 11 o'clock and I really need to finish my homework and go to sleep.

Love you all

Brittany