Disclaimer: obviously not mine. Why would it be on a fan fiction site?

I'd like to make a note to one of my reviewers… Then Kat Said … I was actually online the other day when you were reviewing each chapter and putting the song in your review. I'm glad you like my choice of song and I was so amused to see your reviews. Keep it up!

Chapter seven

"What file?" Hermione asked, following Malfoy as he took a small path that led from the beach to the garden.

"Mum had one of her girly get togethers the other day" he explained. "You know, chicks only. Well Jamie-Lyn and her mother showed and I found Jamie-Lyn going through my study. I didn't see her take anything but when I checked the next day one of my important files was gone…are you ok?"

Hermione had suddenly grabbed a nearby tree and vomited beside it.

"Morning sickness" she managed to gasp as Malfoy held her hair and rubbed her back.

"Morning sickness" he repeated incredulously, "morning sickness in the middle of the night?"

"It can come at any time" she informed him, wiping her mouth. "Its just more common in the morning."

"Right" they went inside and Hermione was able to get hold of some water while Malfoy got a beer. He was just about to ask her of her decision when he was called away by Jamie-Lyn. Hermione was grateful fore this, as she still hadn't decided.

It was almost midnight when Hermione left the patio and once more headed to the beach. She wandered slowly down to the moonlit ocean, hypnotized by its constant beauty and movement. She carefully slipped off her shoes and began wading into the ice-cold water.

She stopped when she was about waist deep and let the little waves swell around her.

"Granger, what the hell are you doing?" Malfoy was standing on the beach holding two beers, staring at her with a hint of amusement spread across his face, luminous by the full moon.

"Just thinking" Hermione called back. She heard Malfoy laugh behind her and suddenly there was a loud splash before she found him standing beside her.

"What are you thinking about?"

"The what if's"

Malfoy laughed again before offering her one of his beers.

"No thanks" she brushed him off politely and continued to stare out to sea.

"Why not?"

"My maternal instinct is telling me not too."

"Oh" was all he said, taking a swig of the other, already opened, beer.

The band on the patio stopped playing.

"It's time for the big countdown!" the lead singer said and the guests cheered. Hermione didn't even turn to watch.

"Let's go! Ten, nine, eight…" Malfoy moved closer to Hermione. "Seven, six, five…"his body brushed against hers. "Four, three, two…" he slipped an arm around her waist and held her close. "One! Happy new years!"

"I'll do it" Hermione said determinedly as the crowd on dry land broke into raucous cheers and applause. "I'll get the abortion but…"

Before she could finish, or before Malfoy could say anything, a particularly large wave swell out of nowhere and swept them both of their feet. As Hermione slipped under the suddenly unsettled surface, she felt Malfoy lose contact with her. She rolled around on the bottom of the ocean for a few moments before the water became calm enough for her to resurface.

When she did she found herself face to face with another large wave. She ducked under the water again as it broke over the top of her. She propelled herself forward through the curl of the wave.

The first thing she heard when she resurfaced was a string of violent cursing. She looked around and saw the silhouette of Draco's body rise from the water ten feet to her left.

Spitting out a mouthful of the salty substance, Hermione half swam, half waded her way towards the boy through the turbulent waves and white water.

"What happened?" she gasped, grabbing his arm as another wave hit.

"I spilt my beer!" he whined.

"What about the other one?"

"Oh right" his face suddenly brightened as he pulled the unopened bottle from beneath the surface. He opened it and took a swig.

"The tide's coming in," Hermione said. The waves were getting bigger.

"Right" he said and turned. They struggled back to the beach where Charlie and Bruce were waiting for them.

"Are you ok?" Charlie asked, helping Hermione out of her heavily soaked jumper and giving her his leather jacket.

"I'm fine"

Malfoy was talking quietly with the assassin a few feet away. After a few moments he nodded and Bruce apparated. Malfoy came back to Hermione and her bodyguard.

"Jamie-Lyn has the Study on the second floor locked with magic and heaps of security. It needs three people to lift the guard while a fourth goes in. I'm going to do that while the boys keep watch outside. I was wondering if I could borrow Charlie to keep an eye out in the hall."

"Sure" Charlie nodded and he and Hermione followed Malfoy to the subjected study. Charlie stopped at the end of the hall while Hermione continued to follow Malfoy to a door about halfway along.

"Put these on" he muttered, handing her a pair of black leather gloves before putting some on himself. He waited a moment before touching the door to make sure the guard had been lifted. He then pulled out a pocketknife and inserted into the lock. It clicked and the door swung silently open.

Nothing looked out of shape in the little study and Malfoy immediately set out to find a fault.

Hermione picked up a few papers on the desk and riffled through them. She then turned to Malfoy who had an ear pressed to the wall and was hitting it with his knuckles.

"About the abortion…" she started. He moved to another part of the wall. "I can't just go to any old clinic. If someone sees me then it'll be all over the papers and I don't even want my parents to know."

"Pomfrey will do it"

"She's a school nurse. What would she know about abortions?"

"Well I know for a fact that Pansy went and saw her a few months ago."

"You got Pansy pregnant too?"

"Ugh, no! That's disgusting! She wouldn't tell us who the father was which makes us think that it was either Crabbe, Goyle or a Gryffindor."

He reached a portrait of a sailing ship and carefully eased it off the wall.

Hermione watched in amazement as he ran his hands over the wall behind it before pulling out his pocketknife again and sliding it in an invisible crack. There was a soft click and a small door swung open, revealing a small vault. Malfoy fiddled with the combination for a moment before letting out a triumphant laugh and pulling the vault open. Inside was the file Malfoy had been looking for, a wad of cash and a gold ring.

Malfoy took the file, closed the safe and put the portrait back on the wall. He then ushered Hermione out of the room and back to Charlie.

Hermione was happy to finally go home. Clarisse and Alfred wanted to stay a little longer so Hermione took the helicopter home with Charlie and Her parents would apparate later.

There were no social events planned for the next two weeks and Hermione was grateful for this because she was feeling guilty and miserable.

It was the first Friday of January when Hermione found herself sitting in a steaming hot bath full of lavender bubbles. She was thinking about, as she did with all her spare time of late, what life would be like if she kept the baby. If it was a girl she could raise her as a perfect lady, take her shopping and comfort her when she was having boy troubles. If it was a boy she could buy him a car, invite his girlfriend to dinner, tolerate his heavy metal music. Maybe one day she could settle down with a husband and have more children.

A tear trickled down her cheek and she wiped it away hastily and looked around the large bathroom for something to distract her. Something silver on the bench caught her eye and she got out of the bath to get it. It was a pair of nail scissors. She picked them up and got back in the bath.

Looking down at her nails, she realised that they didn't need cutting. Her eyes travelled up her palm and over her wrist. They then fell on the scissors in her other hand. With a slight feeling of resentment towards herself, she opened the blades and pressed one against her wrist. She pushed down on it until it broke the skin then she dragged it an inch or two along her arm. A trail of blood followed it and Hermione, suddenly realising what she had done, tossed the scissors across the bathroom and slipped her lower arm under the water. The cut stung and she began to cry as the water slowly turned crimson.

What had she done? Should she call for help? If she didn't would she die?

Before she could panic the blood flowing from the wound slowly faded away. She got out of the red blood bath and wrapped a white towel around herself. She then grabbed a small hand towel and pressed it over the cut. Now that the blood was gone she began to think logically. She collected the scissors and rinsed them under a tap, she scrubbed the blood droplets from the floor and bottom of the bathtub and finally she got a bandage and wrapped it clumsily around her arm. She then disposed of her blood soaked hand towel and got dressed to go down to dinner.

When she entered the dining hall she was careful to make sure her arm was well covered with her sleeve and she smiled brightly at her parents.

"We're having a get together on the last week of your holidays" Clarisse informed her as Hermione began picking at her food. "It's for our magical friends. Maybe you'd like to invite some of your friends from school?"

"Yeah ok" Hermione mumbled. Clarisse summoned a butler forward to take the names of her friends.

"Parvati, Lavender, Ron and…"

"Whoa. We need last names to" Alfred laughed.

"Oh right. Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, Ronald Weasley, Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter"

"Harry Potter!" Clarisse' face lit up with a smile.

"Yes… Harry is one of my best friends. And I'll ask you not to go prying into his life."

"Of course not."

On the day of the get together Hermione had just clarified a dress arrangement with Gail over the phone when Kellie came to find her and told her that Clarisse was waiting for her in the parlour.

"Right-o" she muttered and went off in search of her mother.

Clarisse was having her nails filed and hair done by Joe and his assistants. She beckoned for Hermione to sit down and waited until she had done so before she spoke.

"We haven't had much time to catch up this Christmas" she began cheerily. "So lets talk. Tell me, is there any boys you like? I noticed that you spend a lot of time with Draco Malfoy. Are you two dating?"

"What? No. He's just… nicer than the other boys."

"You know… if you did decide to date him, or take it further into marriage, you have my, and your fathers, blessings. Draco Malfoy is extremely powerful and the lucky woman who ends up with him is guaranteed to be set for life."

"That's nice. Copper streaks this time, Joe" Joe had finished with Clarisse' hair and had moved onto Hermione.

"Well I still have a few things to get down around the place. What time are your friends coming? I hope you organised their dresses and suits."

"Yes I have. They should be… well here they are now."

Hermione's small group of friends entered the parlour, staring around at the architecture and expensive furniture in awe.

"Hey Herm!" Ginny squealed. Hermione smiled and waved them over. She couldn't stand up to hug them because Joe was finishing putting the foils in her hair.

"Was your trip alright?" she asked as they crowded around.

"It was great!" Ron said, looking upon his friend enviously "I've never been in a metal bird before!"

"It's called a jet, Ron." Hermione sighed. Joe let her get up after running his fingers through her hair a few times.

"Are these girls getting done?" Joe gestured to Lavender, Parvati and Ginny.

"Course they are" Hermione grinned as Parvati squealed in delight and took the chair in front of Joe.

"I'll wash those out in half an hour, dear" Samantha pointed at Hermione's head.

"Thanks" Hermione nodded and left them to it. She took Harry and Ron up to her room.

"God this is twice as big as my entire house!" Ron moaned as Hermione called Kellie.

"Yes miss?"

"Are the guest rooms ready?"

"Yes. Would you like me to show the boys to theirs?"

"Nah I'll do it." As Hermione led her two oldest friends along the corridor, she realised that she was being a bit hostile towards them. Harry noticed this to and he took the opportunity to speak to her while Ron was lagging behind, looking in all the rooms.

"Are you ok, Herm? You seem a bit depressed"

"I'm fine" she smiled at him and pushed open the door to Ron's room. "I just had a late night."

"Holy shit!" Ron had caught up to them and was staring into his room as if he was dreaming and if he stepped inside it would vanish.

"In you go" Hermione shoved him in and led Harry to the next room. She followed him inside and watched as he explored the room.

"Harry… can I show you something?"

"Sure"

Hesitantly, she pulled up her sleeve of the arm with the cut on it. It had healed sufficiently over the last two weeks and was now a thin pink scar. Harry stared at it then paled slightly.

"You've been cutting yourself."

"Only once. I wasn't my right self."

"So why are you showing me?"

"I have to show someone. I feel so guilty bottling it up."

Harry sat down beside her and pulled her sleeve back down. Ron came racing into the room with a look of pure delight on his face.

"You have a pool! Can I go swimming?"

"Sure" Hermione laughed as he ran out again.

"I better go with him and make sure he doesn't drown" Harry muttered. Harry grabbed a pair of board shorts from his bag and followed Ron out.

Hermione decided to go back downstairs to the parlour and watch the girls get their hair done.

Parvati had picked a design out of her magazine and now had several layers of soft curls with the front part of her hair tied back. Lavender was going a bit more wild with her hair curled then straight purple, green and black extensions. Ginny was simply having her hair straightened with razor layers around the bottom, making it flick out elegantly. Hermione thought that she looked the best though she didn't say anything.

"Come and sit here, sweetie," Samantha said to Hermione when she had finished Ginny's hair.

Hermione and Ginny swapped seats and Samantha began washing the foils out of the princess' hair.

Clarisse made her entrance an hour later, just as Hermione was finishing getting her eyelashes tinted.

"Your dresses have arrived!" she smiled radiantly and Hermione's friends faltered slightly.

"Thanks mum" Hermione said dully.

It was getting dark, Hermione noticed, as she led her female friends to their rooms to deposit their things before taking them back to her room.

Gail was waiting there with four newly made dresses. Ginny's was a nice, loose and strapless dress made of pale blue Egyptian fabric. Parvati's was the same except yellow and a little tighter. Lavender's was extremely tight and only went to her knees. It was green with off the shoulder sleeves. Hermione's was quite plain. It had long loose sleeves (to hide her scar), and was purple.

Gail took her time fitting the girls into their dresses and shoes. The party was only a casual get together so there was no rush.

Hermione was the first ready so she wandered out of the room to see how Harry and Ron were fairing. They were both in Harry's room, dressed in their suits ready to go. Ron looked slightly ridiculous in his suit with its red tie to match his hair while Harry looked quite handsome with a green tie.

"Ok everyone will probably be poking at you, Harry" Hermione said strictly as she straightened Ron's jacket absentmindedly. He was looking at her and blushing, making him look even more ludicrous.

"It'll be fine, Herm"

"Yeah, as long as Malfoy isn't there to ruin it" Ron added with a smirk.

"Uh huh" Hermione glanced out the window towards the front of the castle where Limo's containing various noble witches and wizards were arriving. Hermione had never told her friends that Malfoy was a monarch so they were in for a rude surprise when he showed up tonight.

"We're ready!" The other three girls came into the room followed by Gail who took one look at Ron's tie and whipped out her wand to change it to purple. Hermione was quite shocked. She'd never have guessed that Gail was a witch.

"Lets go then!" Hermione grinned slyly when she noticed Harry and Parvati watching each other. She'd come to the conclusion a while ago that they liked each other. Especially after they took the love potion together.

The group went downstairs together, laughing and joking like they did any old time. Hermione even felt her spirits rising. She shouldn't be moping! She had her friends here!

The crystal floor of the main room had been enchanted to reflect the sky outside and it was a clear, starry night. Ten small round Tables without legs were levitating in the room with five chairs around each and a name card. A band was playing over to the side of the room like always except this time they were playing gentle a gentle beat that fitted in well with the laid back atmosphere. The band members were sitting cross-legged, floating a few feet above the stage.

The guests were slowly coming into the main room, commenting on the nice set up and wandering through the tables searching for their places to sit.

Hermione and her friends were sitting at different tables.

Ron and Lavender where at a table with Hermione's friend Tamara and two other boys who looked fourteen or fifteen, Parvati and Ginny were sitting with Lilly and Fredericks cousin Nigel and another, older looking girl while Harry had been seated with Hermione, Malfoy, Frederick and Jamie-Lyn.

Here I am, once again
I'm torn into pieces
Can't deny it, can't pretend
Just thought you were the one
Broken up, deep inside
But you won't get to see the tears I cry
Behind these hazel eyes

Thanks so much for the reviews! So anyways… I know this story is quite popular. More popular than I thought it would be because this is just a little something I wrote while I had writers block in my other stories. While you wait for me to update this one why don't you read some of my other stories? … Hint, Hint