Disclaimer: Not even the plot and certainly not Harry Potter and Co. belong to me. One belongs to Minami Kanan, and the other to J.K. Rowling. OoOoOo! I forgot; I do have a brand on Sam Logerdoz, that hot gay guy that he is. Drool

The hands before him were pale due to lack of sunlight. The blue and purple veins were easily distinguishable in the translucent skin. He looked up to the cracked mirror. The bruise had finally diminished to a yellow-brownish color. He stood up and watched fascinated as he took off his shirt. There was a bruise around his ribs, all of them sticking out painfully due to malnutrition. He poked them. It seemed as he was just watching himself poke. The pain was just a small pinch compared to what it actually was. He traced the mirror cracks, looking on as blood dripped from his finger. The pain… for the first time in numerous days, he felt alive. It might not have been the best feeling, but it was still something different from the monotonous depression. As if in a trance, he scraped off one of the many pieces from the carpet. Some people had a cuddly bear for comfort, he had pain. At least now he could pay for his sins.

-+-

"Malfoy?" Hermione incredulously asked. Draco Malfoy looked like a whole new person with his black jeans and his hair in messy locks that fell to the side of face. Now she knew what Lavender and Parvati meant when they said that Malfoy was hot.

'Don't judge a book by its cover, Hermione. It could be a glamour for all we know,' her inner self warned her.

She arranged her face in a pleasant smile and graciously said, "Draco Malfoy, huh? You seem oddly familiar. But tell me; is Sam right in telling me that you'll help me with my technique?"

Shock coursed through her body as she heard an equally smooth and cool voice respond, "Let's see how your technique is before correcting it."

And that's how Hermione ended up in Draco Malfoy's arms while he whispered seductively in her ear. Of course, he was actually showing her the correct movements while giving her some pointers, but to an outsider's view it certainly looked romantic.

Draco's arm slid over hers and her heartbeat fluttered faster. The feeling of being in someone's arms, even if it was her enemy, gave her a small comfort that made her lips dry. She licked off her lips as his body moved closer to hers and guided her arms to show her how to throw the ball. She didn't know why, but she dropped the ball in the gutter and then looked to Draco pathetically. He sighed and went to her again.

"Now, pay attention. The movements have to be like this," and once again his smooth pale arms held her while his body moved closer. He directed her arms and she once again leaned in to his embrace.

'It is actually quite pleasant,' Hermione found herself thinking as she knocked down 8 pins, an all time high for her.

Draco turned around to the other people of the group. "So who's up for a game of bowling?" Loud cheers greeted this request.

-+-

The ladies were invited to go first and so Draco rested in the sofa as he vaguely listened to the talking buzzing around him. One of the guys clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks for ridding us of Hermione."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not that she's not fun, but everyone knows that the only person that really wants her here is Sam." Draco looked around to see why Sam wasn't defending his friend. Oh yeah, the ladies went first to bowl, and that meant that he was bowling with them.

"Naah, she got a hot bod, but she just isn't our type of girl," someone else replied to the statement.

"And what is your type of girl then?" Draco asked vaguely while he stared at Hermione bowling. '8 pins down, two to go,' he noted as Hermione's ball blasted some pins away.

"You know the one I'm talking about… Those oblivious girls with the great bod… A doll to… play with. Hermione is definitely not that."

Draco listened to them drone on and on about their sex lives with irritation. He didn't exactly know why, but who were they to insult Her-Granger! That was his job. Besides, What was so wrong with being intelligent? Was sex all they could think about?

When the last girl was playing, one of them leaned over and asked, "Do you think you could occupy Hermione? We want to leave and have some real fun."

-+-

Hermione clapped with the rest of them as… Dania? got a strike. But a loud noise interrupted everyone's congratulations for Dania. Her hands automatically went to her mouth as she gasped. Dra-Malfoy was standing with his fist raised as he looked in anger at a guy with a bloody nose on the floor. He hissed something to him in to which he spat at in return. More guys began to advance towards him threateningly. She hurriedly went to Dra-Malfoy to make him stop.

"Malfoy!" His surname came out easier with her disgust. "What are you doing?"

"I'm protecting your honor, my fair lady," he replied cheekily.

A resounding slap echoed across the now silent bowling alley. "HOW DA-" Hermione broke off her tirade when she noticed that everyone was looking at her and softened her voice to a deadly (Snape-like) whisper. "How dare you be cheeky with me? Here you are suddenly with your smarmy smirk and your goddamn bowling technique and you embarrass me in front of my friends," she whispered furiously, her face close to his so that he could understand every vehemently hissed word.

"Is that your idea of friends? They were goddamn insulting you with every breath they had!" he whispered back.

"And why would you care? You do exactly the same thing!"

Draco noticed all the eyes on them and then roughly said, "Come on," before he pulled her by the arm to the toilets.

AN: Ok, here are the parts from L'Àmour À Tout Prix: the bowling, the guys that talk shitty about Hermione, Draco punching the guy that said all those nasty things, and them going to the toilet. I'm not too sure what happened in the toilet since I don't have the manga (I read it when I borrowed it) and I'm checking up on it now. Wish me luck, and remember, review!