Disclaimer: I don't own this stuff. Obviously.

Chapter Seven: Cheaters

Hermione and Ginny were in the dressing room changing out of their formal gowns. Hermione assumed that Ginny still didn't know that Draco was a judge for the beauty pageant and she thought that it was her duty as a friend to fill her in.

"Hey Ginny. You'll never guess who is judging the pageant," Hermione teased her friend.

"Umm.. who?" Ginny inquired.

"Draco."

"Oh, yeah," Ginny dismissed the statement as if it were nothing. She continued to change and was oblivious to Hermione's dumfounded stare.

"What do you mean, "Oh, yeah"? Aren't you surprised to know? Or did you see him out on the runway too?"

"Blaise told me earlier. I thought I told you… Must have forgotten. Hmm, oh well," Ginny explained.

Hermione scoffed at her best friend's forgetfulness as she went back to changing. Being married to Draco and having him judge her may come in handy. She wondered what score he had given her. She would have to ask him about it later on today, that way she would know about how well she did before the actual scores were posted.

As they hung their dresses up on a clothing rack and headed for the door, someone calling Hermione's name caused them to stop and turn. Luci was walking directly towards Hermione and Ginny with a smile plastered across her face.

"I'll let you talk to her, Hermione. Meet ya' in the room later?" Ginny asked, already turning to leave.

"Yeah, Ginny. I'll see you later," she called after her friend. Then, turning to Luci, "What are you so happy about?"

Luci just smiled even wider. "I just think I did very well today," she said, "accidentally forgetting" to mention the fact that she had done a few of the judges "favors" the previous night to ensure her good standing. Twelfth wasn't bad, but she expected to get much higher scores in the future. She expected to win.

"Well, I'm glad you are doing well," Hermione said, smiling kindly to her friend. Luci decided that now would be a good time to tell Hermione about her plan.

"You're doing well too, I noticed. How do you manage that?" Luci asked.

"What do you mean? I just do my best, which isn't that hard when all I have to do is walk down a runway, smile, and look pretty," Hermione said laughingly.

"So you don't use any outside influence?" Luci asked, unable to believe that Hermione was doing better without cheating.

"You mean cheating?" Hermione asked, appalled. "Of course I don't cheat!"

"Would you like to?" Luci asked slyly. Before Hermione could object she was already explaining her potential. "If you are doing this well without the judges favor, think of how well you could do with their favor. Now don't look at me like that, Hermione," she said innocently. "I'm just trying to help you to see what great potential you have. If you were to use some of it, you might score just a little bit higher! And we could even work as a team."

"Luci! I can't believe you would ever think about cheating! Or ask me to join you! Seriously, you're doing fine right now and you're not cheating! Why bother?" When Luci bit her lip coyly and looked off to the left Hermione knew that she already was using her sex appeal. "Luci! You're already cheating! Oh my god! Why?"

"I get higher scores. Plain and simple. But I get your point. You don't want to cheat. That's fine with me but I expect you to keep this a secret."

"I can't just sit by and watch you cheat, Luci."

"Well, you're going to have to. Otherwise, I may just have to tell everyone that you are married to a judge. That ought to count for some level of cheating. His scorings may be biased," Luci threatened with a sneer.

Hermione loved being in the pageant and didn't want to do anything that would risk her participation. She bit her lip nervously and debated internally what to do. Cheating was wrong, and she was innocent, but would others see it that way?

"Fine," she consented. "Your little cheating thing is secret. But don't expect me to ever talk to you again, Luci," she said darkly.

"Oh I wouldn't have wasted your breath Malfoy. I don't want you to ever talk to me again. You're not helping me, so I couldn't care less about you."

Hermione watched as Luci turned and walked out of sight. "So much for a new friend," she muttered to herself. She turned back and made her way up to her room.

"You were right Ginny," Hermione confessed as she opened up the door to the hotel room. "Luci wasn't as nice and friendly as I thought."

When no one responded Hermione looked around again. "Ginny?" she called into the empty room. Hermione walked over to the counter and found a note from her friend.

Went out to lunch with Blaise. Be back later!

Hermione shook her head sadly at the note in front of her. Ginny was getting into deep water, she just wished she knew how deep. Ginny surely wouldn't do anything with Blaise like that… but then again, Hermione hadn't thought Ginny capable of breaking Oliver's heart like that either. Of course, Oliver didn't know as of yet, and what you don't know can't hurt you… right?

Hermione sat down on the bed and sighed deeply. Where were things headed with Draco and her? Recently things had been going really great between the two of them. They were snogging every time they could, and there had been almost no hostilities. It was amazing how easily they got along after everything that had happened between them at Hogwarts.

Hermione thought about when she would see him again. She was surprised that he hadn't come up after the pageant but had assumed that he probably had his own life. She was also surprised to realize that she actually did look forward to the time they were spending together. Sure, she hadn't been looking for a serious relationship when she came to Vegas but if Ginny could have a fling and not look back on it then so could she!

Except this wasn't just a fling. They were married and stuck with each other for the rest of their lives. Hermione groaned at the thought. She needed something to relieve her stress. She looked around the room until her eyes fell on her sketch book. She had set it aside as she unpacked and she could only trust that Ginny hadn't gone through it.

She picked it up and then sat back down on the bed. She propped her knees up and opened the book on them. She leafed through the pages of drawings and stopped when she found the single drawing that she had of Draco. He had been sleeping on their couch in the Head Rooms and Hermione had pretended to do her homework. In reality she had been drawing him as he laid there. She looked at the picture with admiration. It was of a time before he had used her; before she had let him.

She was just about to reach for a pencil and finish her latest picture—one of Ginger and Brad—when suddenly there was a knock on the door. Hermione closed the book and set it down on bed. She got up and opened the door to reveal Draco.

"Speak of the devil," she muttered under her breath as she turned around.

"What?" he asked defensively to her retreating figure as he shut the door behind him. He walked quickly over to Hermione and tried to reach out and grab her. Instead, his knees were smacked with the mini-refrigerator door. He let out a small grunt of pain but Hermione ignored it as she pulled out two cokes. She handed one to him as she passed by him once again, this time sitting down in a chair in the living room.

When he just stood there she looked at him expectantly. "What?" he asked, slightly confused about her behavior.

"What do you want?" she asked him. "You show up here… I expected you wanted something."

Draco looked at her suspiciously. "What's wrong with me just coming over for no reason? Blaise is out with Ginny, so I figured I'd hang out with you for a while."

"Whatever," she said as she sat back, sipping her coke.

"What is wrong with you?" he asked angrily as he put his still un-open coke on the table and sat down in the chair next to hers. "We were getting along fine yesterday! And you smiled at me during the pageant."

"I was smiling at everyone, Malfoy!" she said snidely. She was ashamed to admit that even she had no idea why she was acting this way. She just couldn't let herself resign over to him so easily. She had had no business snogging with him. He couldn't be trusted.

He shook his head sadly. "So we're back to last names?" he said confused.

"I don't know." She put her coke down on the table and brushed her hair behind her ear. She rested her head in her palm and closed her eyes. After a few deep breaths she opened them again and saw Draco kneeling in front of her. "What do you want?"

"I want to apologize formally. Right now. And I want to explain why I did everything I did two years ago."

"Draco…" Hermione started. "I don't think I want to know."

"If you don't know how I feel, and if I don't know how you feel we're not going to get anywhere. This is a wizarding marriage Hermione. There is no way out of it. Sure, we could go our separate ways, but neither one of us could be unfaithful or ever be truly happy with another person ever again! I don't want to live that kind of a life. Do you?" he asked her although he already knew the answer.

"No." She took a deep breath and then told him to go on.

Draco moved back and sat down in the chair next to her. He turned it so that he was in front of her and they were looking directly at each other. He started with the most direct approach he could think of. "Two years ago Blaise dared me to get you in bed."

"Blaise?" she asked astounded. And she had thought him a nice guy… for a Slytherin.

"Don't judge him just yet. Listen to the story." He cleared his throat before continuing. "So I took the bet. I knew I could do it if I had enough time. And with time… well you know that part. Anyway, after I had won you over I told Blaise that I had won and he only smiled at me. I remember asking him what was so goddamn funny, but he just said "Did you really win though?" I didn't know what he had meant until that night after dinner. At dinner, I'm sure you remember, is when the entire school caught wind of what had gone on."

"Of course I remember," she said shortly. "I ran out of there sobbing when I heard about the bet and that the entire school knew. I bet that's something new to you," she said, implying a second meaning in the word bet.

Draco ignored the innuendo. "Not really," he said to Hermione's surprise. "I watched you running and I felt something I had never felt before. Guilt. I really felt sorry that I had done that to you when you had done nothing but trust."

"Don't give yourself too much credit on the trust thing. I only trusted you as one should trust a Slytherin," she said with a small smile.

"And how is that?"

"Carefully. I really wanted to let you know all of me, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. That night was the first time I was honestly glad that I hadn't."

Draco laughed but continued on. "Well anyway, after dinner that night I walked into the common room and went to your room. I had expected you to be awake—ready to kill me—but you were lying on your bed, sleeping. I walked into your room and kneeled down by the bedside and brushed the hair out of your face. I felt a horrible pang of guilt when I saw the tear streaks across your face.

"Your eyelids fluttered a few times so I thought you might be coming around and I knew I only had a second or such to do what I had to do. I leaned over and whispered something that I had wanted to say for a long time and now I find that I want to say it again," he noticed that his lips were dry and took a second to lick them. He glanced at Hermione whose face was turned in the other direction. She was blinking back tears and he knew he had to finish the story rather than tell her what he had said. "I kissed your forehead and left you alone. For the rest of the year you ignored me. I couldn't ever blame you, but I didn't see that there was much I could do to win you back."

Hermione hastily brought a hand across her eye and turned back to Draco. "So how is this not Blaise's fault?" she asked, desperate to get off the topic of the aftermath.

"I talked to him about it a few days later and he explained to me why he had made the bet. He had known that we were meant for each other by the way we fought. I guess he saw a spark that neither of us did because we were to busy hating. Your friends didn't see it because they didn't want to, and mine for the same reason. Only Blaise did because he has never cared much for house rivalry. He made the bet, a badly worded bet I may add, so that we would hook up. He didn't foresee the negative effects it would have on you. And me."

He looked at Hermione again. "Hermione… what I whispered to you… that night in your room…"

"Don't worry about it, Draco."

"No, I'm going to worry about it until you know. We can't be married and hate each other. You need to know how I feel and I need to admit it out loud!"

"Draco—" she warned. She stood up and started to leave the room. Anything to get away from what he was about to say.

"Hermione, I love you," he said softly to her retreating figure.

Hermione stopped and shook her head in dismay, groaning. She turned back to him with tears threatening to break. "No you don't Draco. You barely know me!"

"I know enough," he said as he got up and moved to her. She backed up a step but he reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders. He pulled her closer and looked down into her eyes. "I don't expect you to feel the same way about me, Hermione. I did a lot of things and I know that's going to take a while to forgive, but I wanted you to know. I needed you to know."

Before Hermione could answer him he had kissed her. When he moved away she looked down at the ground nervously.

"Draco… I… I don't know—"

But he obviously didn't want her to worry about it at the moment. "Let's go out for lunch, shall we?" he asked.

Hermione looked at him with an annoyed expression on her face. "Where?"

"I know the perfect place. It's a small coffee shop downstairs."

"All right," she sighed reluctantly. "I'll go. Give me a chance to get ready."

"I'll be right here," he stated as she turned to the bathroom. When she was in the bathroom changing Draco looked around the hotel room. When he was near her bed he noticed the sketchbook that Hermione had tossed aside when he had arrived. He picked it up and started flipping through the pages.

He could tell that each one took a while to create and he admired her patience with each piece of art. When he came to the one of him he stopped. He stared at the picture and saw the detail that Hermione had paid to every little bit of the picture. He blinked a few times before continuing. Suddenly, the pages were dominated with a picture of her and some guy. He had long, light hair that hung loosely around his face. None of the pictures of the guy had any facial features at all besides for the hair. He couldn't imagine why they were all only half finished, but he kept looking at them. Soon he noticed a small label at the bottom of each one. He focused his eyes on the small writing and saw "Ginger and Brad".

He was slightly discomforted that he knew of neither name, but assumed that Ginger was just a nickname for her. Now, if only he had an idea of who this Brad guy was…

"I'm ready!" he heard a feminine voice say from near the bathroom. He quickly tossed the book back onto the bed and turned around. Hermione had simply applied new makeup that gave her a more natural look than the flashy one from the pageant. She had taken her hair out of the bun from earlier and replaced it with a simple ponytail.

"You look great," Draco said honestly. Hermione didn't need much alteration to her looks to look stunning.

Hermione shifted her eyes to either side of Draco and blushed. "Whatever," she laughed softly, rolling her eyes. "C'mon. I'm hungry," she said while ushering Draco out of the hotel room. She grabbed her key card off of the desk and followed Draco outside. Hermione started for the stairs but Draco grabbed her and pulled her to the elevator.

"Draco, it's much faster to just walk down the stairs. We're only on the second floor!"

"I know, but the elevator is much more private," he said with a smirk.

After much protesting from Hermione they got to the elevator and Draco punched in the top button.

"Draco!" Hermione scolded him. "That was the 'up' button!"

"I know," he said again. When the elevator arrived they got inside and Draco pressed in the button for the top floor marked '22'. No sooner had the elevator doors shut when Draco had Hermione pressed up against the back of the elevator.

Before he could do anything Hermione shook her head. "I'm not snogging you on the elevator, Draco," she stated.

"That's all right," was his shocking reply.

"It… It is?" Hermione asked him, surprised.

"Yeah. You don't have to. I'll do all the work, but I bet that you'll join in sooner or later," he said with a smirk. In less then a second he was kissing her and in less than five she was kissing back. Suddenly they felt the elevator stop and Draco pulled away. The doors started to open on floor 15 but he closed the doors before they had barely cracked open. As the elevator started to move again, he went back to Hermione.

They continued undisturbed until they had gone all the way up. Draco pulled back reluctantly and sent the elevator back down to the ground floor. For the next 22 floors, Hermione and Draco continued their activities. They both stopped however, when the elevator reached the ground floor and then they exited. Draco led her into the small café and they sat at a small table for two. They ordered coffee while they waited for their food and while they drank they talked. Draco was just telling her about his potions business when their food arrived. They both ate and their talk was minimized.

When they finished Draco paid the bill and led Hermione out by the arm. He escorted her outside the main doors of the hotel and held onto her as he called a taxi.

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked with fake anger as she tried to pull away from him.

"Shopping," he said simply as the cab pulled up and they got inside. He gave the driver directions to where he wanted to go—a place Hermione had never heard of—and then sat back in his seat. He turned to the girl in the car and looked at her with an amused expression.

"What's so funny?" she asked him after a minute.

"I was just thinking about how an hour or so ago you didn't want anything to do with me, and then fifteen minutes later we were snogging in the back of an elevator. Now you're pretending that you don't want anything to do with me…again. I was wondering if in fifteen minutes I would get to kiss you…again," he said with a smile on his face.

"That all depends on how you act!" she said. "You can be quite decent most of the time. When you try that is."

They sat in silence for most of the ten minute ride over to the shopping area Draco had sent the driver to. When they got out Draco flipped the man the fare and the cab sped off. Draco led Hermione into a large building that she assumed was a shopping mall.

For the next two hours Draco dragged Hermione around the mall—insistent on being with her. He watched her carefully as she looked at different things, and anything that she looked truly interested in he took from her and purchased to the Malfoy account that he had inherited after his father died. She tried to stop him from buying her everything—insisting that she had money of her own to spend—but it was all futile efforts. He kept reminding her that she was a Malfoy now too, so his money was hers.

When they entered a book-shop, Hermione was instantly captivated by the wide selection. Draco got her attention for a half-a-second, just long enough to inform her that he was going to go pick something up at a different store. Hermione nodded in response and quickly went back to examining the shelves.

When Draco returned Hermione agreed that she was ready to go.

"Did you want to get anything from here, bookworm?" he asked her with a smile.

"I already bought what I wanted, you rich prat!" she joked, holding up a paper bag filled with books. Then she motioned to the bag Draco was holding. "What's in there?" she asked, trying to peer into it.

Draco moved the bag to behind his back. "Nothing," he replied with a smirk as Hermione glared at him. "Come on," he ushered her to the exit. "We need to get back so that we can change."

"Change? Why do we need to change?"

"I'm taking you out to dinner," he said as if it was obvious.

"But you already took me out to lunch and shopping!" she exclaimed, surprised by his sudden interest in being around her.

"I know," he said calmly. Hermione waited for him to continue with an explanation, but he seemed to not have anything else to say.

"Where are we going that I need to change?" she asked him, eager to find out where they were headed.

"It's a surprise," was his answer.

No matter how much Hermione badgered him he remained silent the entire way back to the hotel. She continued to try to peek in the bag, but was just as successful in that. When they arrived he escorted her to her room and then handed her the bag.

"Now you can see what's in it. Put it on for dinner tonight," he said as he turned to leave.

Hermione opened the bag and looked at it's contents. Her eyes widened at the expensive material and she gasped as she saw a small necklace box on top of the outfit. She went into the bathroom and put on her new dress. When she left the bathroom Draco was standing in her living room wearing a suit. "I'm ready," she called.

Draco turned around and looked at Hermione. Suddenly Draco's mouth was quite dry again.

Hermione was wearing a dark emerald green dress that reached her upper thigh only. It had no sleeves and she had a small matching dress scarf wrapped around her neck. Her hair was done up in a half ponytail and its casual look created a wonderful contrast with the cocktail dress. Draco's gaze shifted downwards as he examined her shapely curves and long legs. The entire outfit ended with a pair of dark green satin dress sandals.

As he brought his eyes back to hers he couldn't help but notice the beautifully simple emerald hanging on a silver chain around her neck. He smiled at her appearance after his thorough check was completed.

"So I pass?" she asked sarcastically.

"With flying colors," he said offering her his arm. She took it and they left.

"How did you get in there?" she asked, motioning to the door behind them.

"I'm a wizard. Muggle locks mean nothing to me," he said, stating the obvious.

"Of course," she replied laughing.

Draco led her out of the hotel and soon they were across the street at the Luxor Hotel. He escorted her into a find dining restaurant inside that was made to look like the tomb of King Tut. They ordered their dinner from a server named Neo, and Hermione laughed at the symbolism between the old Greek names of Neo and herself. When Draco looked confused she tried to explain.

"Oh, come on! You've never heard of Neoptolemous?" she asked in disbelief.

"Sorry, but no."

"Oh, you're hopeless!" she sighed, leaning back in her chair.

When their meals arrived they ate slowly and discussed a variety of subjects. Hermione felt herself growing closer to her husband every second. Then she discovered that Draco had taken her out all day simply to be with her. She tried to shrug it off, but an uncomfortable feeling seemed to surround her as he told her this. Sure, she was enjoying his company, but he had told her that he loved her just today. He had already hurt her too much for her to feel the same way… yet. He hadn't had to deal with the horrible feeling that she had endured now for two years.

She looked down and saw that he was holding her right hand in his left. As she looked at the gold band around his finger, she pulled her hand back into her lap. When Neo came back around, Draco ordered a bottle of the house wine to ease the newfound tension at the table.

By the end of dinner the bottle of wine was nearly empty. Hermione had had most of it, and was now extremely tipsy while Draco tried to keep her steady enough to get into the cab. She was giddy the entire way back to the hotel and when they got to the door of her room she started laughing uncontrollably.

"What's so funny," Draco asked.

When Hermione calmed a bit she managed to say, "I left my key inside. Whoops!"

"Well I'm sure that Ginny is back by now. I'll just knock on the door and she'll let you in," he said, raising his hand to pound on the door.

Hermione pulled his hand down. "Don't worry about it. I'll sleep at your palce!" she said as she tried to move away from him.

"I don't think that's the best idea," he said, spinning her back into his arms.

"We're married! We're supposed to live with each other. What's one night?" she asked, trying to reason with him.

"I'm not taking you to my room," he said sternly, watching her pout. He knocked on the door and was surprised when no one answered. Ginny must be with Blaise still, he thought to himself as he helped Hermione away from the door.

"Fine, Hermione," he consented. "You can crash at my place… for tonight."

"Yaay!" she laughed as Draco smiled at her childishness.

When they reached his room, Draco laid his wife down on the bed. He was moving back away from her when she grabbed his tie and pulled him close.

"Draco," she whispered, suddenly sounding serious. "I don't just want to sleep tonight," she said in a way that sounded more like a demand than a statement.

"You're drunk, Hermione," he said, pulling back away from her. She yanked forward and brought his lips to hers. When he pulled away she looked into his eyes. "Not drunk enough to not know what I want."

"I'm sorry, Hermione," he said, a curl appearing in his lip. "I may go after married girls, but I don't take advantage of them when they are drunk," he said, mimicking Blaise's statement earlier that week. "I have respect for women. Isn't that a shocker?"

"Oh bugger off!" she yelled, pushing him away.

Hermione flipped away and curled up on the bed, asleep in a second. Draco changed from out of his clothes and laid down on the couch. In a few minutes he too was asleep.

A/N: So sorry for the update lateness! We've had this chapter done for a while, we just haven't nad achance to put it up! Hope you like it!

SilverShiver wrote this one BTW.

Luv Ya. Oh, and thanks in advanced for the reviews.