Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I don't intend to anytime soon (even if I wish I could . . .)

Author's Note: I'm SOOO sorry if this chapter really sucks, but I've been so busy and I'm just trying to get something out for now even though I only have three reviews for the last chapter. Please review!

Chapter 14 - Secrets Exposed

'So she's really Hermione Granger under cover . . . interesting . . . I knew something was off about her. The only question is: what am I going to do with this knowledge? I could report it since that's what I've been told to do . . . Or I could actually try to help her by hiding her identity from everyone else. I really need to think about this . . .'

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"Hey Draco?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah Phoenix?" he replied looking up from his work.

"Would you come with me? I wanted to show you something . . ." she said having just had an epiphany. "But you might want to change first."

Draco, noticing what she was wearing, went to his room to grab something similar. "All right, let's go then," he said and then began walking through the halls.

They walked up two flights of stairs and took an abrupt left down a corridor Draco had never noticed before, then they continued to the end of the corridor and stopped.

Draco noticed a grandfather clock that appeared not to work. 'Curious . . . there are no doors down this corridor . . .' "Uh, Phoenix . . . where exactly are we?"

Hermione took out her wand and changed the clock's time to 3:00 and then replied, "Follow me, we only have ten seconds . . ." She proceeded to the beginning of the now circular corridor where there was now a door on the right hand side just where the 3:00 spot would be on a clock.

After stepping through Hermione began explaining, "That corridor is a portal to twelve different rooms. Each room is designated for certain people. I happened to get one because I was getting to the point that I was going to punch somebody's bloody lights out . . . so naturally, Dumbledore saw fit to give me a place where I could relieve stress without trying to hurt other people."

Draco finally looked at the room they had just entered and realized that they were in fact standing in a gymnasium. "This is great Phoenix, no wonder you've been keeping in such great shape . . ."

Hermione stepped forward and said, "I figured that this might be able to help you . . . I've been trying to figure out ways to, and this quite literally just came to me. And hey, it's worth a shot right? Especially after I took all of your knives and stuff from you. I can tell you've been going nutters since then," she then turned around and looked at him.

"Thanks."

"Well, what are we standing around for? Let's get started shall we?"

Hermione began jogging the perimeter of the gym after setting her robes to the side and Draco quickly caught up to her.

"So who are the other people that have access to these rooms?" asked Draco.

"Well . . . Harry, Ron, and Ginny have the room for 5:00. Padmaand Parvati Patil have12:00 I think. Uhh . . . the Ravenclaw quidditch team practices in the 9:00 room when the field is unavailable. Other than that . . . I don't know."

"Oh." They ran for about seven minutes before Draco talked again, albeit rather winded, "How much longer are we running?"

Hermione looked down at her watch, "Oh, has it already been seven minutes? We'll stop once we get to the door. I make it a point to run at least two kilometers every day. Sometimes I forget to look at my watch though, but my kilometer is somewhere around three and a half minutes."

"Not bad . . ."

"Well, we're done," she said finally.

"Good, I haven't run like that in a long time," said Draco as they stretched out.

"That's a shame. Running is a really good stress reliever. My trainer back in Texas used to make me run as much as ten to twelve kilometers."

"Oh." After about a minute of silence he continued, "So how much do you normally work out?"

"Two hours on weekdays, three on weekends," she said standing and walking over to the supply room, followed immediately by Draco.

"Go ahead and work out on whatever you like. You can use anything you can find in here, just make sure to put it back where you got it when you're done." She grabbed her grips and headed out to the uneven parallel bars.

Draco watched her out of the corner of his eye from the punching bags. 'God, she's amazing. Who'd have thought beneath that tough exterior she was a gymnast.'

Hermione did her routine a few times and then went over to a little box that magically scored her routines each time and let her know what to work on. She then made her way to the balance beam and went through some drills before going through her routine.

Draco, by this time, had moved on to the free weights. He watched Hermione with pride all the while.

After about an hour, Hermione walked over to Draco. "Hey you want to help me? I need a sparring partner."

"Uh, sure."

They walked over to the sparring ring and began. And frankly, the match was even between the two of them. So Draco did something completely unexpected seeing that neither of them would win this challenge. He charged at her, grabbed her around the waist, and easily flung her over his shoulder.

"Hey! That's not fair Draco! Put me down!" she said laughingly.

Draco chuckled and set her down as he said, "You're no fun Phoenix . . ."

Hermione then tackled him to the ground straddling his hips and holding his arms down by his head.

"And you say I'm unfair!" said Draco in mock indignation.

Hermione tried to look at him sternly and then dissolved into a fit of laughter.

"What, may I ask, is so funny?" said a male voice from the doorway.

Hermione looked up to see none other than Blaise Zabini, her boyfriend of two and a half weeks. "Oh, hey Blaise. Just kicking Draco's butt and laughing at his sparring tactics," she said getting up and helping Draco up as well.

"I see . . ."

"So what's up Blaise?" asked Draco nonchalantly.

"Just here to work out. Don't mind me."

"Okay. Oh, hey Blaise, guess what?" called Hermione.

"What?" he yelled back as he ran around the gym just as they had.

"I got a 9.4 on bars today!"

"Really? That's great!" he said proudly.

Hermione, Draco, and Blaise continued to work out for forty-five more minutes and then they called it quits. After Draco left, Blaise called to Hermione.

"Hey Phoenix could I talk to you about something?"

"Sure Blaise what is it?" said Hermione as she joined him.

"I'm not exactly sure how to broach the subject . . ." he said honestly.

"You mean about what happened between Draco and I? Blaise, I'm really sorry about that, but he and I are -"

"-Just friends. I know. That's not what I wanted to talk to you about though . . ."

"Oh," she said relieved, "Then what is it?"

"Listen . . . I know your secret."

"What secret? I have loads of secrets, you know that . . ." she said fearing she already knew which secret he was talking about.

"You know which one I mean Hermione."

Hermione was about to respond but then she realized what he'd just said; even though she could say she was expecting it, she was in shock. "But, how?"

"Well, you remember when Lavender nearly divulged your secret like three and a half weeks ago? I was watching the whole thing."

"Oh . . . but there's something else isn't there?"

"Yeah. Well, you know how you were warned that some of the kids here had parents in the Black Widows? I'm one of them. And I was told to watch for you and report back to the inner circle if I found out anything -"

"Oh Blaise you can't!" Hermione lamented.

"Hermione, you don't honestly think that, me being your boyfriend and having known your identity since before that, that I would just give away your secret do you?"

"Blaise you're the best!" she exclaimed as she hugged him. "But why won't you be telling?"

"Truthfully? I hate Jack Willis . . . I hate what he's done to my family. I also hate what he did to you and your parents. No one deserves what you've had to go through. I don't want any trouble for you on my account. You're too sweet and kind for anyone to do that to you. I care too much to let anything else happen."

"Thank you so much," she said and then kissed him on the cheek as a friendly gesture. "Oh! Look at the time! I have loads of homework to get done! Goodbye Blaise," Hermione hurried back to the Ravenclaw Tower and did homework until about midnight.

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For the next three days Hermione, Draco, and Blaise repeated the workout pattern. Blaise always walked in on something similar happening between Draco and Hermione each time.

! Dec. 1 after work out !

"Hermione, we really need to talk."

Hermione could tell what was coming just by that phrase alone. "Yeah Blaise?"

"There's something that's been on my mind for three or so days now. Every single day I have walked in on you and Draco in what I could probably consider compromising positions. Now I know you two are just friends, but I can also see how much you two care for one another. I'm not jealous or anything . . . far from it actually . . . I'm very happy about the two of you having such a deep bond. And I know that you will deny all of this, but it has to be said. You're falling for him . . . you just don't see it yet . . . and I'll let you figure that out on your own. What I'm trying to say is that I think we need to break up. I want you to be truly happy with whoever you are with, and I can tell that we are just meant to be friends. That is, if you still want to be . . ." said Blaise rather quickly.

"Oh . . ." said Hermione trying to process all the words. She smiled, "Of course we can still be friends."

"Good, I was hoping you'd say that."

"And you're wrong . . . Draco and I are just friends . . . I'm not falling for him as you said."

But as Hermione fell asleep that night, she couldn't help thinking, 'Am I?'

Author's Note: Okay, I'm sorry if that really sucked, and that it was so short, but I just wanted to get something out for now. PLEASE REVIEW!