Disclaimer: I'm sorry to disappoint you all if you were beginning to think that I owned Harry Potter, but I must tell you that I obviously do not.

Well, I'm trying as fast as I can to type up the story as fast as I can, so you'll just have to bear with the speed I'm going at! And I hope that you guys think this is long enough, because this is about as long as I can do. Some of the transitions in this will be extremely weak, choppy, and crappy, but please don't flame me about it! Anyways, review and I'm more inclined to work faster (;D wink, wink, nudge, nudge!) Well, here is the next chapter, the one I think pretty much everyone has been waiting for.

Chapter 11 - Confrontations

Hermione watched Draco dejectedly walk away as Ron, Ginny, and Lavender all hastily made their way towards Hagrid's, pulling her along with them. She felt extremely guilty about leaving him there and told them as much.

"Don't worry Phoenix, he'll be fine," said Ron not really caring if he was or not.

Hermione didn't know if she agreed or not, but didn't push the topic of her other best friend's well being to his enemies. She sighed as they reached Hagrid's door.

Ron knocked and Hagrid's voice could be heard, "I'm comin', I'm comin'!"

He opened the door and saw the four on his doorstep. "Come in, how abou' a cuppa tea, any of yeh?"

As they walked in they all said something along the line of, "No thanks Hagrid."

"Take a seat," said Hagrid pouring himself a tankard of tea and sitting down to drink it. "What brings yeh out this way?"

"We haven't visited in a long time, we wondered how you were doing," said Ron.

"Yeah, we've only seen you during class time and we can't exactly have a friendly conversation during a class when you have to teach everyone at the same time," said Lavender.

"Tha's mighty nice of yer ter do," Hagrid looked between the four of them and saw that one person seemed to be missing, "Where's Harry if yeh don' mind me askin'?"

"Well . . . I guess you could say it's my fault he's not hear Hagrid, he and I don't get along very well," said Hermione sheepishly.

"Wha'? yeh don' get along? How's tha'?"

"Well, I kind of slapped him at the beginning year and called him a bunch of names, and was pretty rude to him, so I guess that didn't get me very many merit points with him," said Hermione nonchalantly.

"Yeh slapped him? I wouldn've imagined yeh doin tha' ter him, leas' ways, not with how long I've known yeh," said Hagrid almost having to cover his mouth to keep from saying anymore information.

Hermione's eyes tensed every so slightly, and if you hadn't paid them any attention, you would think that everything was perfectly normal about the prior statement.

But unfortunately all of them could feel the tenseness of the moment, but pushed it aside in their memory reserves to be investigated later.

Hagrid hurriedly thought of something to draw the attention away from that ever so slight slip-up he'd made to Hermione. "Right, well, err . . . how would you lot like ter see what we'll be workin' with next in class?"

"Sure Hagrid, that's a wonderful idea," said Hermione glad at the chance to remove room for questioning about their odd behaviour of the moment.

"Alrigh' follow me," said Hagrid leading them out to the pumpkin patch, which held a blue speckled bird eating a bug of some kind.

"That's a Jobberknoll, it's absolutely lovely!" squealed Lavender at the sight of the little blue bird.

"Tha's right, tricky ter find and catch, bu' well worth it. He loves the bugs, and now I don' have ter worry about repellin' them while he's here," said Hagrid beaming at the creature before them.

"How did you find it Hagrid? They're really uncommon in England," stated Hermione, whose curious side had taken over just then.

"I got lucky with this one. He jus' came inter the patch jus' this mornin', and hasn' left because of all the food he's got. He seems ter know tha' I won' hurt him, so he stayed. Bu' I also saw tha' his wing's injured, so we're goin' ter nurse it back ter health the muggle way and let it go."

"Oh that's wonderful Hagrid!" exclaimed Hermione in glee at the chance to help a lesser fortunate creature in need.

"Blimey, look at the time, you four better be off," said Hagrid.

They all nodded and began to walk towards the castle. There was a long pause in the conversation after that when Ron noticed something that seemed unusual about the bird when they had been there.

"He was awfully quiet wasn't he?" said Ron cluelessly.

Ginny burst out laughing at his revelation, "Ron you idiot! They don't make any noise until they die!"

Ron's cheeks tinged a light red at that, "Oh . . . right."

Hermione choked down a laugh at the look of embarrassment on his face.

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The healing of the Jobberknoll was very successful. It took a while before it would leave, almost a month precisely from the 1st of October, was when the bird flew away fully healed.

Hermione was very happy to see the bird free, but still couldn't help but feel sorry to see it go on October 29th during Care of Magical Creatures. She had grown rather fond of it, but so had just about everyone.

Hagrid seemed particularly devastated to watch the sweet little bird as it took flight during that Care of Magical Creatures class on that fateful 29th of October.

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The first quidditch game of the year was on the day of Halloween; Slytherin versus Hufflepuff, and of course, Slytherin won. Hermione was the only of her friends in the stands (Ron, Ginny, and Lavender) rooting for Slytherin, but she didn't mind.

"So, what do you guys want to do now?" asked Hermione as they walked leisurely along the grounds after lunch.

"Well, I think that there won't be anything particularly exciting to do around here, so why don't we go to Hogsmeade?" suggested Ron. Even though it was a school day, they were given the day off for some long deserved fun.

"That sounds fine," said Lavender passively.

The four approached Filch and he checked off their names for Hogsmeade and then they were on their way.

"The first thing I'm going to do is go to Honeydukes and get some more sweets," said Ginny.

"I agree! My reserves are running dangerously low," Lavender added like tragedy would strike the moment her sweets ran out.

"I'm going to Fred and George's shop first, then I'm going to Zonko's, I'll meet you guys at the Three Broomsticks later," said Ron.

Hermione's mind wandered to what she would do. She could go to Honeydukes with Ginny and Lavender, she could go with Ron to visit Fred and George at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and then to Zonko's, then to the Three Broomsticks, she could go to the book shop, or to visit Madame Rosemerta in the Three Broomsticks first, but what she really wanted to do was go back and check on Draco, who she knew was back at the school and was still denying any problems in his life. She had told him she would visit later, but she didn't want to be in Hogsmeade when she could just go straight there.

"Phoenix?" said Ron seeing her not quite there with them.

"Huh?" Hermione was broken out of her reverie.

"Where are you headed to?" he pressed.

"Oh! You know, I think I'll go with the girls for now. I should certainly stock up so I don't run out of things either," said Hermione making up an excuse, but thinking of the secret passage back to the school that she could sneak to from Honeydukes.

"All right, that's a good idea, I'll meet up with you guys later then," said Ron mysteriously happy about the sentiment, waving his goodbye as he made his way to the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes shop near the back of the Wizarding village.

Hermione, Ginny, and Lavender made their way inside of the sweets shop, which was unsurprisingly full of people.

The three of them made their way over to where just about every girl had congregated near at one point or another: the Chocolate Section, and Hermione had to admit, that she was tempted to get some things . . . after all, her secret stash truly was dwindling.

So after a minute debating about what she needed to resupply, she grabbed what she wanted and walked up to the register and paid.

She walked over to where Ginny and Lavender were still deciding what to buy. "Umm, hey girls. I think I'm going to go back to Hogwarts, I have some important stuff that I forgot to take care of," she said thinking of a quick excuse that wasn't a lie. And it wasn't a lie, she needed to check on Draco and make sure that he was okay, that was the top most priority to her, so that was definitely important . . . at least to her it was.

"Okay, Phoenix. We'll tell Ron where you are when we see him at the Three Broomsticks. See you later," said Ginny as she and Lavender went back to their shopping.

"Thanks, bye you guys!" said Hermione waving and discreetly making her way towards the back where the storage room was and slipped in unnoticed by all.

She pulled a couple of boxes out of the way to reveal the trap door that led back to Hogwarts. She lifted it and slid inside of the dark tunnel.

"Lumos," she whispered as she pulled out her wand and continued walking. She felt as though something was off as she continued the trek back towards the school.

That's when she heard something up ahead. "Knox," she whispered urgently and held in a sigh as the light flickered out immediately.

"Who's there?" called a voice she recognized, but couldn't place at the moment.

She saw a light along the wall and noticed that someone was coming towards her. "I'm only going to ask one more time, who's there?"

Hermione instantly remembered the only other person that could have known about this passage. "Potter?" she asked tentatively.

Her assumptions were confirmed then as he stepped in front of her and lowered his invisibility cloak and held the Marauder's Map firmly in his grip. "What are you doing here? How did you know about this place?"

"That's not important, but why would you be going through this way?" she said quickly wondering at his antics when it was perfectly safe and legal for him to take the road.

"I asked you first," he said authoritatively wondering still how she could have known about this secret passage, but shrugging it off for the time being.

"Because I didn't want to be bothered by anyone on the way back. Now tell me, why are you going this way?"

"Same reason," said Harry with a light smirk at the irony of their situation.

"Well, by no means let me stop you," said Hermione as she gestured to let him pass.

"Not so fast, you never answered my second question, I never found out how you found out about this secret passageway," he said crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow in question.

"And I can assure that I did answer it. I told you that it's not important," said Hermione smugly repeating his movements and crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

It was a silent battle to see who would back down first as they stared each other down and then Potter shook his head finding that he was growing bored of the mute feud.

"I'll let you go for now, but I swear I will find out," he said standing aside to let Hermione pass, then smirked and sarcastically added as an after thought, "Ladies first."

"Watch it Potter," said Hermione as she walked by, "I don't take too kindly to being mocked and insulted."

"And don't I know it?" he said mock seriously, rubbing his hand over the barely visible burn scar she had given him for show, and ducking just in time to miss her hand aiming for the back of his head.

"Get moving Potter, wouldn't want your fan club thinking you've gone missing or been kidnapped, it would start some nasty rumors you know . . ." said Hermione trailing off, turning around and walking off before he could come up with a come back.

She just realized, that despite the bantering, they had actually held a semi-civil conversation.

She shook the thought out of her head as soon as it came.

After she slid out of the statue and quickly closed it, she made her way towards the Head Common Room. She hoped he was there, because she wanted to put an end to this facade he was putting up. His behaviour had grown very unusual according to Padma who was becoming increasingly more and more worried about Draco as time passed.

Hermione said the password that Draco had told her (Leadership,) and stepped inside. There was no one in the room, but Hermione could hear water running in the distance and figured that Draco was in the shower. She saw his Philosophy book on the coffee table in front of the fireplace. She was very tempted to take another look at the book and see if Draco had written anything new since she'd read it at the beginning of the year on the train.

She sat down, then looked up at the bathroom door. 'Good, he's still in the shower,' she thought as she picked up the book and sat down on the couch. She sat there thinking about whether or not to open the book or just wait for Draco and confront him about it.

At that moment, she could hear the water turn off and so she just decided that she would wait for him to come down and confront him about what she had already read. She heard the door open and turned around quickly to be greeted by the sight of Draco with nothing on, but a towel around his waist, but noticed something looked off, but she couldn't quite place it.

She blushed, swallowed hard, and then looked down.

"Hey Phoenix I'll be down in a minute," he said noticing the girl on the dark leather couch below and continuing into his room.

"O - okay . . ." she said taking a deep breath. 'It's only Draco, Mione . . . in a towel . . . looking very good indeed . . . Shut up!' she silently berated herself for having the audacity to check out her best friend especially when she had a boyfriend.

About two minutes later, Draco came down in a pair ofblack jeansand awhite long sleeved turtleneck. (A/N: don't ask me why, but I seriously think he'd look SO good in a turtleneck!)

"Hey Draco," said Hermione, having finally gained her composure now that he was fully clothed.

"Hey, what's up?" he said.

"Nothing much, I told you I was going to come by, so I'm here," she explained distractedly.

"I can see that," he said taking a seat. He noticed the book resting on her lap and said, "I see that I've caught you with my book once again."

"It seems you have . . ." said Hermione wondering how to broach the subject of his notes in the section about pain. "But I wasn't reading it this time, just remembering something I'd read in it last time."

"You mean from the train ride?" asked Draco realizing that she wasn't going to leave him alone until she found out what he was hiding.

Hermione nodded.

Both of them took deep breaths realizing that something was about to happen that would bring their friendship closer or tear their friendship apart, and both could tell they were ultimately hoping for it to make them better friends rather than the latter option.

Draco closed his eyes and took in a decisive breath after the long pause, "What part were you reading?"

"Uhh . . . well, I uhh . . . I . . . read the uhh part about . . ." Hermione stammered now not quite sure if she wanted to reveal what knowledge she had previously indulged herself in during that train ride.

Draco came to her rescue quietly, "Pain? Don't worry about it . . . I had a feeling you would read it . . . I think that's probably why I left it in there."

"But . . . why me?"

Draco knealt in front of her and rolled up the sleeve of his white, long - sleeved shirt to reveal a neat column of cuts and scars about two centimeters in length each. They extended all the way up to his elbow, the ones closest to his wrist looked the freshest, like it had only been made within the last few days.

Hermione was horrified at what she was seeing. She looked into his eyes and saw that they were pleading for help, but quickly clouding over. She gingerly touched one of the scars near the center of his arm.

She was rendered speechless and only looked into his eyes questioningly.

He rolled down the sleeve and sat down next to her with his head in his hands. "This is what I've been hiding from you for two months, even longer for everyone else. You're the only person I trusted enough to show this to. I'm sorry to put this on you, but I need your help, I can't deal with this on my own anymore . . . It's gotten out of hand."

Hermione swallowed hard and looked down at her hands laying lifelessly on her lap, "Umm . . . yeah . . . yeah I'll help you . . . just let me know how and I'll do what I can."

"Thanks," he said with a small smile and he took her hand in his subconciously.

"Anytime," said Hermione feeling even more confused now about Draco Malfoy than she had at the beginning of the year and giving his hand a reassuring squeeze in return. They were spared the discomfort after a few moments of silence when the entrance opened and Padma walked into the room.

She smiled at the two knowingly at their close proximity. "Hey, Draco," she called out to him just as she was heading into her bedroom, "Dumbledore wanted to speak with you and I for a moment in his office. And Dallas, Ron asked if you'd come down to the Great Hall and have dinner with him or some such thing."

"Okay . . . thanks Padma," said Hermione standing along with Draco and exiting the room hastily.

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"Ron, Padma told me that you wanted to see me?" asked Hermione as she walked up behind him.

"Oh, yeah! Hey, come with me," he said taking her hand and leading her somewhere.

"Ron, where are we going?" asked Hermione hoping for some clue as to where they were going.

"I've got something that I wanted to show you, Phoenix," said Ron continuing to pull her along for some unknown reason.

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Harry wondered where Ron had gotten off to, he'd been acting really weird on his way back from Hogsmeade, and so he took out the Marauder's Map.

"I solemnly swear thatI am up to no good," he said as he tapped his wand to the parchment. He looked for Ron's mark, and saw something unusual about the room that it was in.

Quickly, Harry was seen making his way to the classroom where he saw Ron's name. He hadn't realized that Lavender and Ginny were following him to make sure that he didn't do something stupid.

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She'd realized that sometime during the month of October, Ron had been acting very curiously, like he too had seemed been hiding something from her. 'Why must everyone hide something from me, and then at a most inopportune time, tell me what it is?' she thought as Ron pulled her into an empty classroom.

"Ron, what is this all about?" asked Hermione, wondering why he would be wanting to take her to some abandoned classroom. She smirked at his nervous fidgeting, "Honestly Ron! If you wanted to snog me, you could've just done it anywhere . . ." Hermione knew that wasn't the reason, she'd told him right up front that she didn't believe in kissing on the lips unless they were in love, and he agreed quite readily.

Ron cheeks tinged with red, and he said indignantly, "I know Phoenix! But that isn't why I brought you up here!"

Hermione knew how he felt about affection, she had felt very much the same way, they had never even properly kissed in the whole two months they had been together, on the cheek . . . a fair few times; on the hand . . . once maybe twice, and that's what was so humorous to her.

She began to laugh, "Relax! I was only kidding Ron! I know you wouldn't want to take me here just to get a good snog," Ron's embarrassment was amusing to her especially when she remembered that it was the same way when she and Harry were together, not one single kiss anywhere except the cheek, and a few times on the hand, and he was still the very same way about it.

She immediately mellowed out though as she recalled the thought that she had just had . . . Harry . . . she needn't be wasting her thoughts on him. "What is it you have brought me here for then?"

"Oh, yeah, right . . . I wanted to give you something," said Ron rummaging through the cabinet for something. "Close your eyes and hold out your hands," he said as he saw what he'd been searching for.

Hermione complied and felt as something was put into her hands gently.

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Harry looked at the map yet again to make sure that his eyes were not deceiving him. And indeed he saw that they were not failing him as he had supposed.

'Just a bit further, and I will find out what exactly is going on here,' he thought to himself.

Ginny and Lavender were wondering what on earth was going on, but still followed quietly behind him.

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"Okay, open your eyes Phoenix," said Ron eager anticipation evident in his voice.

Hermione opened her eyes quickly to see something there she had not been expecting. "Oh Ron! How did you get this?" she asked as she held in her hands, a brand new broom, and not just any kind of broom . . . it was a Firebolt.

"Fred and George owed me a favor, and so I told them to pull some strings and get you one," said Ron proudly. "What do you think of it?"

"It's wonderful Ron! Thank you!"

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He heard a conversation taking place.

"It's wonderful Ron! Thank you!" called the female voice.

Harry took one more step and saw something he had been expecting even less.

Ginny and Lavender were even more curious now by the look on Harry's face and took the remaining steps to the door where they saw Phoenix and Ron, which really wasn't anything new to them. They immediately began to wonder if perhaps Harry had lost it.

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Phoenix pulled Ron into a hug.

"Hermione?" questioned a voice from the doorway.

Hermione instantly pulled away from Ron to look at the voice of the person who had just ruined her cover.

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Harry looked at the map one last time and could see beyond any shadow of a doubt, that this was no trick. Suddenly everything that had seemed entirely too strange about her behaviour this year made complete and total sense. Why she'd slapped him when there seemed to be no reasoning behind it, why she knew where everything seemed to be even though she played dumb every now and then, how she knew absolutely everyone already just as she had known them.

"Hermione?" he questioned to the figure hugging Ron.

As she pulled away rigid with shock, his question was answered.

"Hermione!" the other three shouted in total shock at the same time.

'What on earth is going on?' all four of them thought as they looked upon the girl who had been so deceptive and mysterious to them all . . .

A/N: That's all for now! If you want to see the next chapter soon, you're going to have to do it the old fashioned way . . . REVIEW!