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

Chapter eight

"Malfoy" Harry said dumbly as he and Hermione sat down.

"Uh yeah…" Hermione grinned sheepishly. "He's the monarch of Denmark"

"Great!" Harry said with much fake enthusiasm.

Frederick and Jamie-Lyn entered the room together and came straight over to their table.

"Oh, Draco!" Jamie-Lyn gasped when she noticed Malfoy's name card for the chair between her and Hermione. Harry's nose wrinkled in disgust.

The tables were almost full when Hermione heard her mother gasp two table's away.

"Narcissa came!" Clarisse said to Alfred. A few people who had heard looked curiously towards the door. Narcissa and Draco Malfoy had just arrived and Narcissa's appearance had sparked much whispering amongst the adults.

Hermione knew for a fact that, because Narcissa was so powerful, she only went to very selective parties. It was considered an honour to have her there.

Narcissa weaved her way elegantly through the tables, nodding and smiling to various people until she reached the table where Hermione's mother and father were seated.

"Thank you for coming, Narcissa!" Clarisse bubbled as the Malfoy woman sat down beside her.

"It was my pleasure, Clarisse" Narcissa said warmly, smoothing a hand over her beautiful pink gown.

Hermione stopped listening to their conversation as she felt Draco sit down beside her.

"Evening, Potter" Malfoy said coolly, a smirk rising to his lips.

"Malfoy" Harry replied tersely.

"Your Harry Potter?" Jamie-Lyn said rudely, her eyes widening as she stared at his scar. Frederick was staring at him curiously as well.

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Harry raised an eyebrow as both turned away blushing.

Halfway through her spicy chicken, Hermione began to feel thirsty. She eyed her glass of champagne uneasily. Despite the fact that she was getting an abortion, her body was still screaming for her not to drink it.

She suddenly felt Malfoy's hand slide across her thigh and she leant closer to him so he could speak.

"If you don't want to drink it, stroke the base of the glass three times and it will turn to water."

Hermione, slightly confused, did as he instructed. It didn't change. She gave him an inquiring glance and he gestured for her to drink it. She took a tentative sip and realised that it had indeed turned to water. She gave Malfoy a fleetingly grateful look before continuing with her meal.

When the meal was over the tables and chairs were magicked away and the band struck up a merry dancing tune. Hermione, feeling slightly queasy after her spicy food, avoided the males who wanted to dance and sought out her friends.

"Hermione, why is Malfoy in your house?" Ron stated rudely the moment she and Harry joined their small group.

"Harry will explain" Hermione said with a small laugh. She was watching Lavender who was staring at Malfoy, quite starry-eyed.

Malfoy was standing on the other side of the room with two other boys Hermione had never seen before. There was also a shy looking redheaded girl standing not far from them by herself. Hermione realised with a start that she must be new and had only recently had her coming forth party.

"I'll be back soon" Hermione muttered to her friends and made her way across the room.

"Hi!" she said to the new girl who jumped at being addressed so freely. "I'm Hermione. Who are you?"

"Oh!" the girl blushed and shook Hermione's extended hand enthusiastically. "My name is Harriett. I, uh, come from Madagascar."

"Wow!" Hermione grinned as the girl blushed. "So you've only just found out you were a princess?"

"Only last week. How did you know?"

"I only found out over the summer that I was a princess. Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

"Whose this, Hermione?" Jamie-Lyn joined them and looked over Harriett with a superior smirk.

"This is Harriett. She's from Madagascar"

"Oh…" Jamie-Lyn smiled politely before leaning over to whisper in Hermione's ear. "She's a bit strange looking, isn't she?"

"Shut up, Jamie-Lyn!" Hermione said a little to loudly. A few people, including Malfoy and the people around him, looked over in confusion.

"Excuse me?" Jamie-Lyn pulled her head back and stared at Hermione in horror.

"I said shut up! What gives you the right to talk about people like that?"

"What gives you the right to speak to me like that?"

"Oh you…" Hermione raised a hand to slap her but Malfoy blocked her.

"Don't," he warned as Hermione tried to get at Jamie-Lyn with her other hand. Her sleeve fell back, exposing her scar for a brief second before it jerked back into place as she tried, this time more forcefully, to attack the other girl.

"Stop, Granger!"

At the unceremonious use of her last name, Hermione turned to look at Malfoy and found that he was staring at her arm. Though it wasn't showing now, Hermione knew- deep down inside- that Malfoy had see the scar. She let her arm drop to her side as Jamie-Lyn fled and she tried, without success, to tug free of the blonde boy.

"Come with me" he growled and pulled her out of the room.

Malfoy took her to a secluded part of the garden and demanded that she pull up her sleeve and show him the scar.

For a long time he simply stared, white faced, at the clean pink line on her outstretched forearm. Hermione kept her eyes averted and tried not to think about the scared look on Malfoy's face. Finally he raised a shaking hand and traced the length of the scar with a cold finger. Hermione bit her lip as hot tears stung her eyes and cheeks. Malfoy traced the scar again.

"Why did you do it?" he whispered finally and Hermione uttered a dry sob.

"It was only once…" she bought her eyes back to meet his. "I just…"

"Was it because of me?"

Hermione closed her eyes and bit her lip. Malfoy squeezed her hand.

"Maybe… I'm not sure. I just felt so guilty and miserable and now… I feel dirty and even guiltier. I'm so sorry. It won't happen again… I promise…"

"It's not your fault"

"I wished I'd never found out that I was a stupid princess! I wouldn't have tried to impress my stupid parents by taking stupid lessons and getting involved in stupid you!" she stamped her foot in frustration before Malfoy swept her up in a warm embrace. She tried to resist but only ended up crying softly on his shoulder.

Suddenly someone grabbed Draco and pulled him back. Hermione was about to reflexively jump forward to help when a pair of rough arms closed around her body. She tried to scream but a gloved fist was jammed into her mouth.

She watched in silent horror as Malfoy struggled with two huge men, dressed in full black, as they took a firm hold on each of his arms and positioned him between them.

Another man stepped out of the shadows and stood, arms crossed and smirking in front of the defenceless Malfoy.

"You're a bastard, Frederick." Malfoy spat. "Let her go. She doesn't need to see…"

Frederick laughed heartily.

"No… I think she does…"

And before either of them knew it, the prince had slammed a lethal fist into the side of Malfoy's head. Hermione's eyes widened in pure, blood chilling, terror.

Frederick continued to pummel Malfoy, all the while laughing and shouting things to Hermione like: "he's not so brave now…" and "I've won you back! He really is weak…"

Malfoy took the entire beating in complete silence. He barely even flinched.

Frederick must have been getting frustrated with this lack of enthusiasm because he suddenly grabbed Malfoy by the head and sent a knee into his stomach. Malfoy slumped over motionless.

He's dead, Hermione's mind screamed, he's dead, they've killed him, he's dead…

Frederick seemed to be thinking the same thing because he dusted his hands off and turned away.

"Weak" Malfoy muttered. Frederick, suddenly enraged, scrabbled around on the ground before straightening up with a decent sized chunk of wood in his quivering hand and raised it above his head, ready to strike.

Malfoy lifted his eyes to the chunk of wood with an insane smile playing across his lips.

"You going to kill me, Freddie?" he asked in a mocking kind of voice. "Just to prove a point?" his eyes flickered to Hermione and she could have sworn he winked before Frederick lunged at him, slamming the wood across his skull.

Hermione's captive's hold tightened suddenly before he fell away from her all together.

Charlie caught her before she fell and she was able to see more clearly. Her captive was unconscious on the ground, as were both of Malfoy's. Frederick, on the other hand, was being held in a death grip with a knife to his throat by the grey haired assassin, Bruce. The other two assassins, Mark and Anik, were bent over Malfoy.

Hermione slipped from her bodyguards grip and ran to the blonde boy.

Malfoy was lying unconscious on his back in the snow.

"Malfoy?" Hermione whispered, letting a hand hover over a bloody graze on his hairline.

"Ah whisperin' wont wake him, Princess" Mark shook his head sadly and Hermione got the sudden idea that he was about to tell her that Malfoy was dead. Instead he slammed a fist into Malfoy's gut.

Hermione let out a small scream as Malfoy groaned and rolled onto his side.

"Jesus mate!" he spluttered as Mark and Anik pulled him into a sitting position. "You could have used your wand!"

"That wont make you a man!" Mark laughed.

"People are coming to help" Hermione whispered.

"Shit" Malfoy got unsteadily to his feet and swayed for a moment before Mark grabbed him by the upper arm and held him steady.

"What about this dick?" Bruce asked, shunting a whimpering Frederick forward.

"Kill-" Malfoy started before glancing at a horrified Hermione and sighing. "Just knock him out"

Bruce slammed the hilt of the knife across Frederick's skull and let him drop to the ground.

"Lets go" Anik and Mark grabbed Malfoy and, with Bruce a few steps behind, the three of them ran off in the direction of the castle grounds. Hermione made to follow but Charlie grabbed her and dragged her off in a different direction.

"Shouldn't we wait?" Hermione asked, looking back at the limp bodies of Frederick and his sidekicks.

"Nah" Charlie shook his head and pulled her onwards "you don't want to be stuck at a scene like that. Malfoy doesn't want to be answering questions again…"

"But wont Frederick tell them what happened?"

"Nah. He'll lie. He can't tell them the truth without bringing you into it and he'd also have to tell them that he led the attack."

"Why would he attack Malfoy though?"

"Them two have been fighting since they were young. Then, when they got into their teens they started fighting over girls. Of course, Malfoy being more desirable, usually won the girls heart so Frederick would try and win them back by bashing Malfoy. Now, even though Malfoy is a good deal younger, he's got an iron fist and can fight as if he grew up on the streets. Bruce, his main bodyguard, taught him everything he knew. Freddie knew that if he confronted Malfoy alone he would be beaten so that's why he had Malfoy held down. Weak as hell if you ask me but that's how they work. So anyway…" Charlie stopped Hermione as they reached a side door. "Are you ok? That bloke had you in a pretty hard grip"

"I'm fine" Hermione muttered, glancing down to the gardens where the fight had been. There was a large group of people standing around the fallen bodies. "Where did Malfoy go, though?"

"I presume to fix himself up. Don't worry he'll come back. I suggest you go back inside and stick close to your friends."

I get knocked down
But I get up again
you're never going to keep me down

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