Hehe! Apparently I've been misspelling 'Hermione'! .; Thanks to laura-the-llama for pointing that out! I've fixed it in this chapter! Also, these first few chapters are just kinda setting up the story. The big chapter comes next! And then the story will start to unfold! Well, enjoy for now!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me!

The Game

Chapter 4: Pretending

Draco walked into the Great Hall for breakfast one morning later that week. He found his friends and sat down with them.

"Morning." He greeted, as he began to pile food onto his plate.

"Good morning, Draco." Pansy smiled from across the table.

"Hey, Draco." Blaise said. "How's life in the Head dorms?"

Draco swallowed his food before replying. "So far, not too bad. Really nice actually. You guys should come and check them out sometime."

"And Granger? How has she been?" Pansy asked.

"We haven't fought since we got here. I guess that's a good start. But she doesn't seem like her normal self any more, which is perfectly understandable. But I suppose things are looking good for this year." Draco informed his friends.

"Yeah, I hope you're right. Draco," Pansy paused, her face showing how nervous she was feeling. "I hope you're not mad, but I thought it would be okay. I've started speaking normally around other people. I just, well, after this summer I'm just so tired of pretending. I can't take it anymore. I want to be me. And this is our last year. I just want to experience it while being the real me."

Draco was silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts on the matter. "You're absolutely right, Pansy. I'm sick of pretending as well. I think it's time to show the world who we really are, to stand up for ourselves and against our parents."

The air around them seemed to suddenly get lighter. It was like, all of a sudden, they had become different people. Crabbe and Goyle lost their dumb and confused look, and Blaise sat up straighter and smiled, as did Pansy. Draco looked around at his friends and couldn't help but smile as well. He was proud to call them his friends. They had stuck with him, pretended to be something they weren't, without complaint. It was time that they left the world of deceit and become what they were meant to be.

They returned to their food once more and continued their meal in silence. Just before they finished Pansy saw Ron and Harry leaving the Gryffindor table in a hurry with grim faces.

"Wonder where they're off to?" She asked.

Draco turned to look. "Dunno."

"Where's Granger?" Blaise asked.

"Probably overslept again." Draco informed. "Maybe they've gone to wake her. Wouldn't want to be late to Potions."

Harry and Ron had sat at the Gryffindor table looking at the empty chair in front of them. They had shared a look and stood up to leave the Great Hall. Hermione had told them where to find the Head dorms and they went in search of their friend.

Hermione opened the portrait door and looked out. "Oh, hi guys. I'm still getting ready. You can come in and wait for me if you want." She gestured for them to come into the Common Room. They followed her in.

"Are you going to eat breakfast, Hermione?" Harry was the first to ask.

"Well, I probably won't have time to stop by the Great Hall. Class with Snape will be Hell if we're late. But it's okay. I can wait till lunch." Hermione said, as she went about the room gathering her school things.

"Did you even eat anything yesterday?" Ron asked. "You left lunch without eating anything and you weren't even at breakfast or dinner!"

"You guys are overreacting. Don't worry about me. We're going to be late for Potions if you don't let me finish getting ready!" With that she stomped off to her room to get the last of her things.

Classes went by that day like they had all week: long, and boring. Hermione felt like she wasn't even in the room during classes. She was zoning off and not paying attention. She was in her room now, attempting to do the homework that had been assigned, but she wasn't getting very far.

"Hermione?" Draco called through the door.

Hermione blinked and shook her head. "Yeah?" She answered, her mind barely registering the fact that Draco had called her by her first name.

He opened the door and leaned against the doorframe. "We need to put a schedule together for the prefects for the next meeting. I'm free right now, so if you're not too busy maybe we can get it over with?" He asked.

"Sure. I need a break anyway. Do you want to just work on it in here? I've got everything we need here anyway."

"Okay." Draco stepped into her room and conjured up a chair for himself. "How's your hand doing?" He asked, taking a seat.

Hermione blushed. "Oh, it's fine." She gathered some parchment, a quill and some ink and pulled out the list of prefects. "Let's do this then, shall we?"

It was Friday evening and Hermione and Draco found themselves sitting in an empty classroom where they would be holding the prefect meeting. They had walked down together after dinner. Neither of them said a thing.

After a few minutes of silence Draco spoke up. "What really happened to your hand?"

Hermione didn't answer right away as the anger boiled up inside of her. "Why do you want to know anyway? It was just an accident! I don't know what the big deal is!" She snapped.

"Can't I be concerned? And didn't you tell me that you didn't know how it happened?" He fired back.

"Well, maybe it was just something dumb and I was embarrassed to say anything. And what gives you the right to be concerned for me? For six years you hate me, are mean to me and call me names and now it's like you want to be friends or something! I just don't get it!"

"The me you've seen for the past six years wasn't the real me." Draco informed.

Hermione stared. "What? I don't understand."

"And they say you're the smart one. That was me pretending to be who I am supposed to be. But this is my last year at Hogwarts. I wanted to experience it as the me who I want to be." Draco said.

"But why? Why pretend?" Hermione asked.

"Have you met my Father? Have you me the Dark Lord! Those are people you just don't mess with, Hermione! If you're eleven years old and you had a choice: obey or be killed, which would you choose? At eleven you don't really want to die, so you just obey."

"What about your friends, then? Won't they tell your Father?"

"No, they've been pretending too. But not anymore. You'll see. They get to be themselves this year."

The conversation ended as the first couple of prefects entered the classroom. Once everyone was present the Head Boy and Girl began the meeting.

Draco spoke as Hermione got up to pass out papers to the students. "Hermione is passing out your patrolling schedule. Please make sure you know when, where, and with whom you are patrolling with. You cannot get reassigned unless it is a real emergency. The fact that you hate your patrolling partner is not a real emergency. So, if you don't like them too bad. I suggest you learn to like them. Hermione and I worked very hard on putting that together, so it stays the way it is."

"Thank you, Draco." Hermione said, sitting back down next to him. "Now for the fun part: the school dances. We thought that we'd have one for Halloween of course, and Christmas. We are also going to have a Valentine's Ball and two end of the year dances: one for the graduating 7th years and one for the rest of the students. This is how they are going to be done. The 5th year prefect will be responsible for the Halloween Ball. You have the creative freedom to do what you want within school rules. Same goes for the 6th years who will be in charge of the Yule Ball and the 7th years who will be in charge of the Valentine's Ball. The 5th and 6th years will do their end of the year dance and the 7th years theirs. Draco and I will be available to help if you have a problem. You will be responsible for getting together and planning everything. I think it might be wise to select a leader in the group to keep everything in order. Draco, have I covered everything?" Hermione asked, turning to Draco.

"I believe so, but I think they should tell us their plan once they've got it all together just to be sure." He suggested.

"That's a good idea. Does anyone have any questions?"

A 5th year prefect raised her hand and they spent the rest of the meeting asking and answering questions.

They ended the meeting and everyone left. Hermione and Draco were the last to leave. They walked back to their Common Room together.

"Well, good night." Draco said, outside of Hermione's room.

"Yeah, good night." She replied, and walked into her room, closing the door behind her.

Draco went to his room and collapsed on his bed, face down. He didn't fall asleep for a long time, but he didn't bother to move, not even to change out of his school robe.

Hermione leaned against the door she had just closed and sighed. Then she walked to her dresser and opened the bottom drawer. She pulled the knife from its box and held it in front of her.

"Maybe this time we won't be interrupted." She said, as she lowered it to her wrist once more. She just watched as blood pooled in a line down her wrist.

Shorter than my other chapters but not too bad I guess. More later. Until then, review!