DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter. Unfortunately.

Thank you so much for the reviews!

Draco woke up in the hospital wing with a start. In his dream, he had been running his fingers down Hermione's neck, feeling the blood pump within them…

Madam Poppy snapped him out of his dazed state by shoving a green, slimy liquid in his face. "Here, take this. It will help the pain in your mind."

He forced the sickly sweet medicine down, and the annoying nurse smiled a little and told him he could leave when he felt ready. He nodded curtly, and she turned from him and walked briskly away.

As he stood up, he felt some of the strength return to his limbs. At this he grinned, at last he would be able to be back to his normal life. Suddenly, the conversation with Dumbledore came back to him, and he almost lost his balance again. He knew now that the Headmaster had been right – he was being foolish. If he ever wanted to separate himself from his father, he must stay in his position, even if it was with a Mudblood.

A Mudblood who had probably saved his life…

The irritating thought came out of nowhere, and Draco grimaced. Now he was in debt to the whiny girl. He rolled his eyes, and a picture of him ravaging the little body formed in his mind. "That would pay her back quite nicely," he smirked. However, at the same time, a sense of doubt crossed over him, a sense that he didn't really want to hurt Granger. The troubled him, and he shoved the notion away.

As he headed back to his apartments, he carefully avoided anywhere his gang of Slytherin friends might be. The thought of Pansy's shrieking voice did nothing to help his pounding head, and in person it would probably split him in two.

He entered the common room, and frowned as he saw the portrait that hid the passageway to Hermione's room wide open. He glanced inside, and saw Ron sitting next to the girl, who was tucked in her large dark red and gold bed. Something in him was stirred up more than usual at the sight of the redhead, and he sneered at the couple, "Welll…isn't this adorable? I think I'm going to throw up now…"

Ron and Hermione's heads snapped to look him, and he saw wrath in the boy's eyes as he sprung up from the bed and towards Draco. "YOU! YOUR FUCKING FATHER AND YOU! HOW DARE YOU EVEN LOOK AT HERMIONE!"

Draco was taken aback by the outrage apparent in Ron's voice, and took a step back, a confused look flickering over his face. "I have no idea what you are talking about, you Weasel."

"DON'T LIE TO ME! I KNOW YOU WERE PART OF THIS!"

"Ron, cut it out. He was in the hospital wing, remember? Malfoy, your father is in Dumbledore's office. He came to see you." Hermione's face had been partially hidden, but as she spoke, Draco saw a dark bruise marring her face.

"Did he do that? What happened?" Draco's voice rose a little. He told himself that it wasn't because of the bruise, but only stemmed from the fact that his father was here.

"Your father assaulted Hermione, Ferret, that's what happened." Ron's face had lost some of the furious color in it, and he walked back to the girl's bed. He laid his hand on her shoulder, and she sat up a little and leaned into his chest. Draco turned from the sight, and half-dazed, walked back into the room. Before he left, he took a last glace at the couple, and met eyes with Hermione, who was staring at his back.

He left again, and walked up to Dumbledore's office. He paused outside of the door, and then gently pushed it open. To his surprise, only the Headmaster was inside, leaning his head slightly on his pale hand.

"I hope you weren't hoping to see your father Draco, he just left, accompanied by the Aurors sent to escort him back to your Manor. You have heard what he did, I presume?"

"He assaulted Granger?"

"More specifically, he tried to…well he was being verbally suggestive…and when she resisted, he hit her hard enough to knock her unconscious."

Draco's mouth fell slightly open, and his stomach turned over. His father had come onto Hermione? He had always known Lucius was an evil git…but that went beyond even his most feared expectations. If she hadn't made him mad enough to stop…he couldn't bring himself to think of the horrible things she would have been forced to do.

Dumbledore looked over his spectacles at the boy, and quietly said, "I know it is hard to think of a family member committing these kind of acts, Mr. Malfoy…I assure you, he will be held accountable. As to your position as Head Boy…"

"Can I stay where I am? Please?" Draco felt the words slipping out of his mouth before he could stop them. Malfoys never asked please. Never. But here, in front of Dumbledore, the word came out easily.

The old man looked at the younger one with a slight smile and nodded. "Of course you may, young man. Now, you better get going. You and Ms. Granger have a lot of time lost, and that will need to be taken care of. It is Monday night you know, and if you remember my instructions, that is the allotted social time for the two of you."

Draco started to complain at this, but remembered that he only held onto his position because of a favor, and was determined to earn it again. He left the office quickly, and went back down to his living quarters.

When he walked in, Ron was gone and Hermione was sitting in front of the fire in a large chair, gazing into it and cradling herself. He went and sat on the couch that he had become accustomed to, and joined her in staring at the dancing flames. The light transformed every surface, and spread warmth out to him, enfolding him and taking away the day's troubles.

"How do you live with him?" The voice was soft, and Draco could hear the tentativeness in it. He didn't answer for a long time, and he could almost feel her draw back into herself.

"It's not like I have a choice, Granger. He's my father." He looked over at the girl, and saw her glance at him with eyes full of sympathy. "I don't need that from you. I don't need your pity."

"Fine. I'm sorry." Her words were clipped now, and he almost felt bad for ending the short-lived, almost friendly, feeling between them.

He sighed and looked back to the fire. "It's Monday night you know, our 'bonding' night."

"I don't want to bond with you, Malfoy." She started to stand up and leave, but Draco swiftly stood up and grabbed her arm. He saw fear flash through her eyes, and a mixture of pride and guilt at being able to cause such a reaction spread through him.

"Listen, I don't particularly want to bond with you either, but we have to if we are going to make this work. Personally, I doubt I will ever be able to get along with you, but unless I want to be completely miserable this year, I'm going to at least make a bit of an effort. If you don't want to, whatever. Dumbledore's trusting us with this, and unless you want to make a total arse of yourself, we have to get things done."

"Since when have you cared at all what Dumbledore thinks? You are destined for greatness already, remember? You're the son of the most influential Death Eater still alive. I'm sure it won't take much to climb to outstanding ranks with your 'Dark Lord'."

At this, Draco let go of the girl's arm and turned his back on her. "Oh, you know me so well, Mudblood. Sure, let me just go and kill your little Potter right now. I'm sure Voldemort will be so pleased with me as I grovel before him with the body."

He spun around again, facing Hermione, his eyes flashing. "For your information, I will never lower myself to being a Death Eater. They say you are the brightest witch of our time. Maybe you should think about what you say before you spit it out."

At this, he turned and slowly crossed the floor to his room. As he turned to close the portrait, he got another look at the girl, still standing where he has left her.

He smirked; glad that he had gotten under her skin, but as he got undressed for bed, a peculiar feeling arose in him that resembled more hurt than anything else. He knew that most of the school had him written off as Voldemort's eventual slave, but coming from her it was different. She was more on the same plane of thought as him than the rest of the school, and her accusations cut him deeper than he would have ever expected.

As he stripped off his robe, the locket he had stolen from Granger slipped out and coiled up on the floor. He picked it up, examining it closer. On the shimmering front, a heart was engraved in the otherwise clear surface, and a tiny rose outlined the clasp. He gingerly opened it, and in it were two pictures, one on each side. The one on the left was Weasly looking as stupid as ever, Draco thought to himself with a sneer. On the right was Granger, and his picture made his stomach tighten with an emotion he couldn't identify. She was smiling, and he realized that her teeth were actually remarkably straight…the buck-toothed little girl was gone, and a pretty young girl had taken her place, even though she took some examination to find. Draco didn't think he had ever seen Hermione smile – every time she looked at him she had either hate or pity in her gaze.

As he looked at the locket, with the two pictures side-by-side, Draco felt anger well up inside of him. He didn't know why…he couldn't be jealous, she was just a Mudblood. He told himself this over and over, but when the feeling didn't go away, he threw the locket ferociously into a corner, where it hit the wall and split into two halves. He stood, trembling, for a moment more, and then crawled into bed.

Please, please review!