DISCLAIMER: I'm positive JK Rowling would be appalled at the way I use her characters…I own nothing that I speak of, except my plot

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When Draco awoke, he found the bed to be cold beside him. Hermione was gone. His first reaction was relief, as he had always avoided the morning before with other girls, but then he imagined waking up with Hermione and felt the closest he had ever come to rejection. She had left him, without a word or a sign. He sat up sharply, and felt anger flood his senses. He got up, and walked into the common room. Still, there was no sign of her. A scowl stained his marble face, and he got ready for the day while trying not to recognize the tight feeling in his stomach.

As he walked into the Great Hall, he scanned the tables for Hermione, but she was nowhere to be seen. Panic rising in his chest, he sprinted back to the Head's room, visions of his father hurting her playing frantically through his mind. He threw open her bedroom door, and found her curled up in a chair by her desk, a blanket wrapped around her and her eyes closed with sleep. He roughly shook her awake, and knelt down beside her.

"What are you doing in here?" Her eyes opened blearily, and then sharpened as she focused on his face.

"I…I didn't know what to do…if you would regret it." Draco felt a surprising amount of guilt build at her words, and knew it was because she thought he would hurt her, that even after last night she couldn't trust him completely.

"Of course I don't Hermione. I wouldn't have touched you if I would live to regret it."

Hermione smiled, and all of Draco's earlier feelings of rejection evaporated. It was the same smile she gave Weasley and Potter. She stood up, and visibly winced.

"Merlin, Hermione, what's wrong?"

"Oh, oh it's nothing…just…a little pain, that's all." Her cheeks flushed, and Draco felt like an incredible git. Pain was to be expected. She had been a virgin, until he had claimed her. The thought caused a hint of a smile on his face, and Hermione caught it and blushed harder.

"Listen, let me just get dressed, ok? I'll meet you the common room in about five minutes."

"Why do you have to meet me? I can stay."

"But…I'm changing."

Draco smirked, images of her naked body surfacing in his mind. "It's not like I haven't seen it all before…" He sat on her bed, an expectant look on his face.

Hermione looked furious at his lazy drawl, and appeared to be about to throw him out, before he intercepted her. "You can protest all you want, Granger…I'm staying."

Her eyes narrowed, and she spun around, still trying to hide her body with the sheet. He reached over and tugged it away, leaving her exposed for his pleasure.

"Draco Malfoy! You arrogant prat!" Draco only let his eyes roam even freer over her thin body in response, and she finally gave up, just grabbing the nearest clothes to her and throwing them on. He laughed, and took her in his arms, kissing away her frown of disapproval. She pulled away, but not maliciously, and they ventured into the common room.

"Thanks to you, we missed breakfast." Draco felt the repercussions already, and considered it his duty to whine about it until a solution was presented.

"Well, you are a Malfoy, aren't you? You did tell me once that Malfoys could get just about anything they wanted…" Hermione rolled her eyes at him, obviously amused by his blatant conceit.

"True. I'll have the house-elves bring us a nice meal of our very own." He shushed her protest, and soon they had heaping plates of everything from bacon to perfectly toasted English muffins in front of them. As they ate, they began to finally plan the Halloween Ball, which was less than a month away.

"There has to be a theme." Hermione, apparently temporarily forgetting her resistance to the house-elves' food, was eating hungrily, much to Draco's enjoyment.

"How about…costumes."

"Well, obviously, you idiot…I mean, a costume theme."

"Halloween costumes?" Hermione gave him the most patronizing look she was able to muster at this comment, and Draco only sneered in reply.

"How about…a Victorian theme?"

"Too typical, nearly everyone's dress robes look Victorian these days."

Hermione seemed ready to laugh at his knowledge of wizard fashion, but looked as if she knew that wasn't going to be productive to their planning. "Ok…movie characters?"

Draco looked blank at this suggestion, and Hermione quickly moved on, not wanting to explain the Muggle form of entertainment. "Famous couples?"

"Everyone has to show up with a date? Perfect! Now Potty and the Weasel won't be able to go!"

"Oh, shut up, Draco. You know perfectly well they will be able to find dates somewhere."

"Yeah, you'll probably end up with the Weasel anyhow."

"Draco, I thought we went over this already…"

"Well it's not like we can go together, now is it? That may seem a bit suspicious."

Hermione looked taken aback at this realization, and Draco recognized the look on her face as one she developed every time she was lost in thought. "Maybe…maybe we can."

"Have you gone bloody mad, Hermione? We can't just go out in the open!"

"We are both Heads! So we just tell everyone that Dumbledore thought it would be best as far as house unity goes."

"And Dumbledore?"

"Do you honestly think he doesn't know already?" Hermione glanced around the walls, looking at the portraits, who quickly looked away and pretended as if they had never noticed Hermione and Draco's relationship. "We're just lucky they aren't in your room…" Her cheeks got red again at the thought, and Draco laughed.

"Fine. So who do we go as?"

"Do you have any suggestions? I thought of the theme…"

"Ok, Sir Theron and Geraldine?" Hermione only looked confused at his suggestion, and he had to remind himself that she was a Mudbl…Muggle-born, and that she probably had no idea who the famous wizard couple was.

She rolled her eyes, and suggested Romeo and Juliet, to which Draco only shook his head. "Too overdone. Half the couples there are going to dress up as those two. Plus, I don't think it really brings the best foreshadowing for us."

"True." After a moment of silence, her eyes widened, and she muttered something under her breath.

"Excuse me?"

"This is the point of no return!" Draco's words came back to him, and he nearly blushed as he realized how utterly cheesy they must have sounded.

"It's wonderful, Draco!"

"What, exactly?"

"The Phantom of the Opera and Christine…its perfect."

Draco pondered this for a moment, and imagined Hermione in the corseted dress that Christine had been outfitted in. His mother had taken him to see the opera when he was younger, and although he had been outwardly resistant, the story had fascinated him.

"Fine. Just don't start singing opera…that may perturb a few people."

Hermione laughed, and kissed him. The day went on, and she was in his mind always. As he slipped into sleep that night, he felt his father try to get in, but he used her memory to block him. Then he dreamt.

A thousand rubies melting together
Life cannot go on forever
It flows, moving as one
The blood begins to seep, begins to run
Over pale skin it shines
A deed done in the dark, a soul free of its binds,
A dark stain creeping, drying
The life once so full of crying
Found a dark companion at last
Dark eyes full of secrets from the past
Coming with promises full of desire
With one soft touch her skin was on fire
She never could have guessed what lie inside
With every moan, every time she sighed
The demon's hunger swelled
Into the dark shadow the two figures began to meld
His burning kisses moving down her throat
Blood throbbing warm beneath her coat
Finally a bite laced with sweet sharp pain
Her mind exploded and left the land of the sane
Pleasure hit her like never before
Her ecstasy shook her down to the core
But soon the life began to fade
For the moments of happiness, moments of lust, the girl had fatally paid
But isn't that how bliss always ends
With the betrayal of love, darkness descends