Appearances Can Be Deceiving

Chapter 14: The End of it All

DISCLAIMER: i don't own the characters, i just like to manipulate them.

A/N - hey! the final chapter! Thanks to everyone who read/reviewed my story, hope you enjoyed it!

She had barely reached the bottom of the stairs to the common room when Draco was on his feet off the chair he'd been sitting on and was walking over to her, a smile on his face.

Despite what she now knew, that smile was still one of the most beautiful smiles she'd ever seen.

Damn that bastard!

"Morning Mione," he said happily to her, "sleep well?"

Hm, lets see…one of my best friends is in the hospital wing, where you put her, another is lying in the Room of Requirements, where you put him, unable to wake up, I think I'm starting to have feelings for Ron, and you very nearly made me fall in love with you. Oh yeah, and I haven't been shagging Harry Potter, I've been shagging Draco-fucking-Malfoy. With all that going round in my head how the hell do you think I slept?

"Yeah, I slept great, thanks hun," she smiled up at him. Resisting the urge to kick him in the balls and hex him into oblivion while he writhed in pain on the floor, she turned towards the cauldron in the corner. "I'll just put the boomslang skin and the unicorn tail hair in the potion, then I'll go see Ginny."

He was so arrogant about her feelings for him and her cluelessness about the fact that she knew exactly what was going on, that he simply returned to the sofa, with a "sure, Mione," leaving her to do it all herself.

She didn't mind though, as this meant he didn't notice when, after dropping the boomslang skin into the bubbling liquid, she held up the tail hair of a unicorn and looked at it.

Before slipping it into her pocket.

She kicked Ron out of the hospital wing. "Ron, you need to get some sleep. And have a shower. You kinda stink."

Tell me about it. Ginny mentally groaned.

"Oh, Ginny," Hermione sighed heavily once Ron had left, and took a seat beside her friend's bed, "I can't believe he did this too you."

Hang on! Does this mean that you know about Malfoy?

"I can't believe I was so stupid Gin, I can't believe he actually made me think he was Harry. I mean, I knew that Harry is totally infatuated with you. But I believed him anyway. And then you're back for, like, two days or something and you've already figured it out. I'm such an idiot."

Yeah, you are Hermione. But we love you anyway. Now if you could possibly figure out a way to get me out of this, then I think I might just be able to forgive you. Then we could go Ferret hunting together.

"Harry's locked in the Room of Requirement, I can't wake him up. Malfoy must have given him a sleeping potion or something. And I can't tell Ron anything because he's got you to think about and I would never forgive myself if he ended up in here too. It's all my fault. Everything's my fault. But don't worry, I'm going to sort the bastard out, Gin."

You're going to do something stupid aren't you Hermione? For God's sake woman, just don't do what he wants you to do! Revenge can wait until me and Harry are ok again, until then, just tell him you know what he's trying to do and just Don't. Do. It. How difficult is that to understand?

"Ginny, I have a feeling you can hear me. And just in case…you know…anything happens, then I want you to know that I'm really sorry. And I know Harry will blame himself – he always does – but let him know it's not his fault. Look after him for me. And look after Ron too, someone needs to make sure he does his homework – he's worse than a five year old."

She strode out of the hospital wing as quickly as possible trying to dry the endless tears with the sleeve of her robe as Ginny silently screamed for her to come back.

Hermione didn't see the finger of the red haired girl's right hand twitching on the bed.

The day and night passed in a haze. She didn't talk to anyone, she didn't eat, she hid out once again in her bedroom, just going over the plan in her head over and over again, like she had done a million times by now.

She slept fitfully, only managing a couple of hours at a time, before waking continuously, alternately shivering and sweating, until eventually the sun began its slow ascent of the sky.

Dressing, she waited for the shout that was bound to come any time soon.

"Mione. Are you up yet?"

There it was. He was awake. The potion was ready. It was time for the battle to begin.

She plastered a smile on her face and wandered down the stairs, a bounce in her step.

"Morning, Harry," she smiled sweetly, "it's a beautiful day isn't it?"

"Er, I guess…" What the hell is with her? Yesterday she couldn't speak to anyone, and today she's acting as though it's Christmas again. I'm really starting to hate women and their bloody mood swings.

"So, you wanted me?" She asked, looking up at him with clear brown eyes.

"Yeah, the potion's ready, I just wondered whether you wanted to come for a walk with me and we can test it out."

"I thought you and Seamus were going to test it out on Neville's toad first, when everyone else gets back."

"Well, I just wanted to see if we've made it right. What he doesn't know can't hurt him right? Besides I wanted a bit of alone time with you before everyone else gets back tomorrow."

How sickeningly sweet. "Yeah, sure, you sort out the potion and I'll just go get my cloak."

In twenty minutes time they were walking towards the Forbidden Forest.

"Harry? We're going completely the wrong way. The toads are usually around the lake."

"I know a place where there are loads of them, it's just a little way into the forest. Don't worry," he smiled down at her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "I'll protect you. You trust me don't you?"

She hesitated for the slightest second before replying, "sure, why wouldn't I?"

While Hermione and Draco were wandering the grounds, Ron was sitting beside his sister in the hospital wing, barely daring to believe what he was seeing.

Madam Pomfrey had said that she'd never seen anything like this happen so fast before, but here it was, right in front of him. He wished that Hermione was here to see this, but he couldn't find her anywhere.

Ginny was moving. A little bit at a time. At first it was her finger. Then her hand. Now she could move all but her mouth and eyes.

"Ginny," he was embarrassed that she could see him crying but he couldn't help it, he'd been so worried about her. There was more to being a big brother than just scaring away all her boyfriends, he was supposed to protect her and he'd failed. "Ginny, I knew you would wake up, you're too stubborn to just lie there."

She blinked.

He turned to shout Madam Pomfrey back but just as he opened his mouth a hoarse voice interrupted him.

"For God's sake Ron, don't just sit there crying, we have to go get Harry then stop Hermione from doing something even more stupid than falling for Malfoy."

"Wha…?" He stared back at the bed which his sister was quickly vacating. "Ginevra Weasley, everything else can wait, you get back in that bed now or I'll…wait, Hermione loves Malfoy?"

"Oh, Ron, I knew that the intelligence gene skipped you but you can't seriously have believed that Hermione could fall in love with Harry while we were away?" She grabbed his hand and started pulling him out of the hospital wing.

"Well…I…No, but what were you talking about when you said she fell for Malfoy?"

"Ok, short version," she stopped briefly in the middle of a deserted corridor and faced him. "Malfoy looks like Harry, he probably used Polyjuice Potion or something, he made Hermione fall in love with him so that she would do something for him, I'm not sure what yet. I found out it wasn't Harry and he cursed me. Hermione has also figured out that she's been sleeping with Draco and now she's got some sort of plan of revenge or something. Draco has locked the real Harry up in the Room of Requirements, which is where we're going now, to get him and hopefully find out where the hell Hermione and Draco are. Now we don't have any more time to waste, come on."

"That was the short version?" He grumbled quietly following her once more up to the Room of Requirement.

Ginny used the ever-useful Alohomora charm on the door and strode quickly into the room. She ran to the bed and, just like Hermione had done, started shaking Harry's sleeping body and shouting at him to wake up.

Suddenly something wet splashed on her.

"RON! You've just soaked me!" She shouted at her brother, who was standing behind her, holding a now empty glass of water.

"Sorry, but it usually works when he's having a nightmare or something. Or when I get bored because I'm awake and no-one else is," he snickered.

"This is no time to be laughing," Ginny looked about ready to hex him.

"Yeah, it is little sis," he replied, looking past her, to where Harry was now groaning and struggling to open his eyes.

"Harry!" Ginny squealed and threw herself on him in a hug.

"Nice to see you too, Ginny. Ron I can't believe you did that to me again. I told you I would jinx you the next time you did it."

"Works every time mate," Ron smiled, "but we have more important things to think about. Malfoy's running around in your body and we have no idea where he's taken Hermione."

Harry sat up, mindless of his dripping hair and clothes, and announced to a shocked Ron and Ginny.

"I know where they are."

Hermione gave an involuntary gasp as Draco led her into an eerily familiar clearing.

"It's gorgeous isn't it?" He asked her, misconstruing her gasp as awe.

Gorgeous wasn't actually the word Hermione would use to describe it, as she looked at the point where she'd seen Harry's bleeding body and had to fight to keep the look of revulsion off her face when she looked back into those emerald eyes beside her, "yeah, it's really…beautiful Harry."

"I knew you'd like it." He grabbed her hand and led her over to a tree stump below some bare branches and sat her down on it.

He turned and started walking away from her. Hermione heard him mutter something under his breath that she didn't catch and suddenly a cold wind whipped around her, causing the branches above her head to shake and creak. A sharp pain upon her cheek told her that one of the branches had dragged across her skin, narrowly missing her right eye.

She hissed as she felt blood start to trickle down. Suddenly Harry was beside her again.

"Here, Mione, let me get that for you." He didn't look at all concerned, rather he had a smirk on his face, one she was more used to seeing accompanied by platinum blonde hair and silver eyes.

He scooped a drop of blood onto his fingertip and accidentally-on-purpose dropped it into the vial he'd used to contain a small measure of the potion shed spent the last week brewing.

"Thanks so much for your help Draco, but I think I've got it." She wiped at her cheek with her sleeve.

It took a moment for her words to register. "You just called me Draco."

"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" She replied calmly before taking out her wand with a speed that surprised even herself and shouted "petrificus totalus" before he could respond.

He fell motionless back onto the grass, unfortunately not smashing the vial, which was still clutched in his stolen hand.

She strolled over to him. "Yeah, I finally figured it out you bastard." She kicked him in the stomach, watching in satisfaction as pain flashed in his eyes, even though it didn't register on his face.

"I know what the potion does," she kicked him in the ribs, smiling as she heard a loud crack, "I know what you were using me for," another kick in the stomach, "I know what you did to Harry," she kicked him in the head this time, "I know what you did to Ginny," she kicked his handsome face. All the way through this assault her voice had been low and even, but she finally reached her breaking point.

"You made me love you!" She screamed at him, "I let you touch me!" The body bind was wearing off when she kicked him in the balls so hard that he started whimpering and tears ran down his face. She carried on, kicking him everywhere she could as he rolled himself into a ball on the ground, trying to protect himself from her attack.

Eventually she stepped back and surveyed the huddling boy on the floor. Sometime during the kicking, the Polyjuice Potion had worn off and blood now congealed in a mass of blonde hair instead of black, grey eyes, not green, were squeezed shut as tears of pain and anger leaked from the closed lids.

"And now, I'm going to make sure you never do it again." Her calm demeanour had returned, she was almost serene as she raised her wand and pointed it at the pathetic wreck before her. "Goodbye Draco, darling, have fun in hell."

"Hermione, don't!" Someone grabbed her from behind and wrestled her wand from her grasp.

"Let go of me!" She screamed, fighting against the arms around her, "let me go now!"

Harry and Ginny came into view, Harry holding her wand, leaving her to assume that it was Ron's arms holding her.

"Hermione, he's not worth it, look, I'm alright, Ginny's alright, I think Ron's the best he's been in a while," he threw a sly glance at the red-head holding her, the meaning of which escaped Hermione.

"You don't know, Harry! You don't know what he did to me! What I let him do to me!"

"I do Hermione. These two told me. But if you used one of the Unforgivables on him – and don't even try to tell me you weren't going to, because I saw the look on your face – then everything you've worked so hard for will just have been wasted. All that studying for nothing!"

She gave a small laugh despite herself and stopped fighting so hard against Ron.

"Hermione, let's just take him back up to the castle, Dumbledore can deal with him, then you can…"

Harry's words faded to a gagging sound as a thin blade was drawn across his throat.

He collapsed to his knees as Ginny ran to him, only to be knocked back by a curse from Draco. She landed five feet away and lay still, gasping out breaths.

Ron had let Hermione go and reached for his own wand. He tried to push Hermione behind him to shield her while he shouted hexes at Draco, but Hermione didn't register any of this. Her eyes were focused on Harry, the pain in his eyes, his chest, struggling to rise and fall, trying desperately to keep breathing.

She didn't even notice when Ron shouted something to her, before collapsing to the floor himself.

Draco stalked towards her, his wand in one hand, the dripping knife in the other.

"You bitch!" He dropped the knife and punched her in the face so hard that it took a couple of seconds for her to register the fact that she was now lying on the floor looking up at his distorted face. Cuts and bruises marred the perfection she remembered of his face.

"I am going to make you so sorry you were even born, you pathetic little mudblood. The cruciatus curse is going to feel like a papercut. You will be begging for death long before I grant you it."

She said nothing, struggling to stand up. When she could stand without swaying too much she just looked him up and down.

"Draco, if you're as bad at spells as you are in bed then I'm not particularly worried."

He looked about ready to hit her again but he merely smiled and lifted the vial so that she could see it clearly.

"You should be." He sneered at her before drinking the potion in one go, before doubling up as pain ripped through him.

"What the hell? This isn't supposed to happen!" He roared his frustration at Hermione, who slowly pulled something from her pocket.

"Seems I'm not all that great at potions. Woops! I forgot to put the unicorn hair in. How clumsy of me," it was her turn to smile as a look of horror dawned on Draco's face, before he screamed impossibly loudly.

And disappeared.

"That is not fair!" Hermione screamed at nothing and no-one in particular, "I wanted to watch him die!"

"Hermione."

She suddenly came to herself as Ron's weak voice came from behind her.

"Ron…" she whirled round to see him standing up, albeit supporting himself on a tree, but standing nonetheless. "You're ok! Thank God."

"Don't worry about me Hermione, we've got to get Harry to the hospital wing, he doesn't look so good."

With a feeling of guilt that she'd been too intent on her own petty revenge to worry about her friends she turned to see Ginny bending over Harry's prone body.

"He's breathing, but barely," she told them, tears running down her face, "we need to get some help."

She couldn't believe it had been three days already. The school was full of people now, people who had no clue what had gone on during the holidays. All Dumbledore had told anyone who asked was that Draco Malfoy had mysteriously disappeared over the break and Harry had been hurt in a skiing accident.

Harry didn't even know how to ski.

Ginny and Hermione were making their way down to the hospital wing during lunch when a hand on her shoulder caused Hermione to turn.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Ron looked at her seriously for once.

"Sure you can," Ginny pushed Hermione in the back so that she almost fell into Ron, "I'll be in the hospital wing, take your time." She walked away with a sly grin on her face.

"That girl gets weirder every day…" Hermione mumbled, "so, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well," he said slowly, his ears turning red, "what happened made me think. I realised…that…I realised that…I really like you…and…maybe…sometime…if you wouldn't mind…"

As much fun as it was watching him stammer his way through trying to ask her out, Hermione decided to help him out a bit, otherwise they would be there till dinnertime.

"Ron, will you go out with me?"

"Sure!" He cried, a huge grin splitting his face.

"Great," she smiled back at him. "Now, come on, if we don't hurry, we're not going to have time to see Harry before transfiguration, and I told him that I would visit him."

Harry didn't seem to mind very much though, it took a moment for him to realise they'd entered the room, as he was a bit preoccupied with Ginny, and how fascinatingly tasty her lips were.

"Woops." Ginny giggled, breaking away from Harry as Hermione cleared her throat for the fifth time.

"Ron, before you do anything, remember that I'm in a hospital bed," Harry was looking at Ron with a fearful expression on his face.

"Me? Why would I do anything?" He was the picture of innocence as he strolled over to the bed, hand in hand with Hermione, and started opening one of Harry's many chocolate frogs, an old tradition of theirs. "All I'm going to say is…" He chewed the frog with a thoughtful look on his face. The rest of them looked at him apprehensively, wondering what threat he was going to come up with this time.

"It's about bloody time!"