A/N: Thank you so much for the lovely reviews ;) I'm glad there appear to be quite a few people following the story each week, so I hope you continue to read and enjoy! If you want to ask any questions or would like a response to your review, please let me know. I don't usually respond to them, but I would be happy to if you indicate that you would like a reply.

As always, thank you to my Beta Lun 27. I'm very grateful that you take the time to check things over when I fix them even though I know your schedule is hectic!

Also, apologies for the slight cliff hanger… perhaps I can be persuaded to update through the week if you really want me to…

Chapter 7

Harry and Ron were quiet. She had just confirmed what they already knew to be true and her pained admission hung in the air like a foul smell.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Harry said. Ginny looked up at him, face contorted in disappointment.

"I was ashamed, because I liked it and hated myself for that. I couldn't bear for the two of you looking at me like you are right now."

"How could you enjoy it?" Ron muttered to the ground, she could tell it was rhetorical, but the potion forced her to answer anyway.

"He's very good at it." Hermione didn't have the mental energy to feel suitably embarrassed at her blunt revelation, but she noticed both Ron and Harry were suddenly red-faced and clearing their throats uncomfortably.

"Okay, that's quite enough, are you two satisfied? Hand over the blasted antidote right now Ronald Weasley or I swear I'll hex your bollocks off." Ginny pointed her wand at Ron's crotch to demonstrate the seriousness of her threat.

Ron tossed it to Ginny who handed it to Hermione. She downed the potion immediately.

"Has Malfoy had the antidote?" she asked, her voice still thick with tears.

The Gryffindor boys flinched at the mention of his name.

Harry responded, "The cowardly git left right after you, so I doubt it."

"I have to get it to him before anyone gets chatty with him. Have you got another vial?"

Ron nodded, though he didn't look pleased that it was going to be used for helping Malfoy. She asked Harry for the map, knowing that's what they used to track her down.

"Should you be going near him, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"I'll bring Ginny with me; she's been acting as our buffer."

"Clearly not a very good one," Ron mumbled under his breath, earning him a swift elbow to the ribs from his sister.

Harry shook his head. "No, we're all coming with you."

Hermione thought about telling them that under no circumstances would they be coming with her. The last thing she needed right now was a potentially violent altercation between her two best friends and the enemy she was sleeping with. But then she considered that shutting them out again, when they were surprisingly still willing to speak to her, would do nothing except drive more of a wedge between them.

With a resigned sigh, she agreed. They were walking back to the castle and poring over the map when Ron said, "His name isn't anywhere. Where the bloody hell is the sod?"

Why does he keep going back there?

"I know where he is."

They made it to the seventh-floor corridor and Hermione instructed the other three to step back so she could make the room they needed appear.

She opened the door and walked in first, spying Malfoy visibly perturbed. He was sitting with his head in his hands, grasping his hair in bunches. He had rolled up his sleeves, loosened his tie, and the first few buttons on his shirt were undone. She ignored the pang of attraction that struck her at the sight of him looking so deliciously rumpled and tried unsuccessfully to stem the flow of memories that spilled forth of their bodies entwined on the bed he now sat on.

Malfoy looked up as he heard them approach. He tilted his head back and laughed derisively.

The room felt so much smaller with other people in there. Ron came to stand next to her, Harry flanked her on the other side. Ginny stood directly behind them. Harry then took a step forward and began to fiddle with the bottom edge of the bedsheet with his brow furrowed, appearing overall uncomfortable and perhaps a little curious.

Hermione couldn't help but wish that her friends would spontaneously evaporate so that she could be alone with him. In their room. Having other people in here felt… wrong. Like they were intruding on something meant just for them.

"Right, here we go. Is this the Gryffindors' payback? Are you sure you wouldn't prefer more of an audience?"

Ron wasn't really paying attention to Malfoy. Instead, he was looking around the room with his nose wrinkled. He asked, "Is this where you shagged?"

"Yes," answered Malfoy. His eyes widened in surprise at the word that had tumbled out of him.

Harry stepped back and quickly lifted his hand off the bed, wiping it on his robes with thinly veiled revulsion.

"I thought you could resist the effects of the serum with occlumency," Hermione muttered, embarrassed yet again that her friends were privy to details of what had happened between her and Malfoy, or more where it happened.

Draco rolled his eyes. "I'm tired, Granger. Occlumency takes a lot out of a wizard."

Ron snapped forward and grabbed Draco by his shirt and yanked him up off the bed. "Did you do this to her? Make her want you?"

"No. Get your dirty ginger fingers off my shirt, Weasley." Draco pushed the words through gritted teeth and looked like he was using every ounce of patience he had left to not shove Ron hard into the bookcase behind him.

"Stop it! This isn't helping!" she said, moving forward so Ron would have to meet her eyes. His gaze was narrowed, and his lips were distorted into an expression of barely suppressed rage.

"Ron, no more questions. Give him the antidote now," Hermione practically growled.

Ron didn't heed her command. "Did you know Pansy was going to do that?"

"Did I know that Pansy was going to draw Snape out of the classroom and then publicly out that Granger and I have been shagging each other senseless? No, I did not, you daft imbecile."

"A simple 'no' was all that question asked for, Malfoy," Ginny chimed in from her spot near the door.

"You're the ones who stormed in here to take advantage of my current state and interrogate me, so I'll answer how I damn well please, thanks Red."

"Actually," Hermione countered, "we came to give you the antidote so that nobody else could extract information out of you, despite what Ron has currently taken upon himself to do." She glared at the scowling ginger wizard.

Ron tossed the small blue vial onto the sheets for Malfoy to collect. He shook his head, disbelief still very evident in his expression. "I still can't believe that you and Malfoy have been shagging for weeks and we had no idea."

"Actually, we only shagged once. The other times were just some very impressive snogging and one time I had my hand in Granger's knickers, but you dolts interrupted us."

"That wasn't even a question, Malfoy. You didn't have to respond to that!" Hermione cried in indignation.

Malfoy finally drank the antidote and smirked at her mercilessly. "I know."

"Okay, I think we had better go since Malfoy isn't a secret-spilling fountain anymore," Harry said.

Was that all he had to say? Was this all the Chosen One had to offer?

Hermione didn't expect or want him to respond as Ron had, but she had expected… something. More. Even disappointment or disgust would have been better. At least it would have been real. So far, he seemed to have gone into crisis mode, treating her like a soldier that had made the wrong move in battle. He hadn't once expressed how he was feeling, and she found it hard to believe that he wasn't feeling anything at all.

It unsettled her to be in the dark about what was going through his head.

Harry turned his attention onto her. "Hermione, we probably need to go talk about what we're going to do about this."

Right. I guess he fancies himself in charge now. Not bloody likely.

XXX

Hermione's mind was screaming that she was supposed to be in her next class at this moment. Their interaction with Malfoy meant that they had missed lunch, but her three companions deemed this issue to be of urgent importance and wouldn't hear of her postponing the conversation.

She was in the middle of updating the boys about what little she had determined so far about the magic controlling them when Ron interrupted her with a sudden, unexpected question.

"Does Nott know? Is that why he's been openly gawking at you like you're some rare breed of magical creature?"

"Yes, he's been helping with trying to manage us as well."

Hermione saw Ron putting all the little pieces together like a puzzle in his head. She could imagine that he was feeling even more hurt that someone else, especially a Slytherin, knew before he did.

"When are we going to tell Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

Never, please.

"Well, if he hasn't already overheard what I'm sure are many conversations currently happening amongst the student population of Hogwarts, then as soon as Malfoy has had a chance to determine what he's going to do about his parents. For both our sakes."

Hermione knew Harry wouldn't love the idea of keeping this from Dumbledore, but she hoped that he could understand that once the Hogwarts staff were made aware of what was going on, a lot of choices would be out of their control. She and Malfoy would be at the mercy of whatever course of action Dumbledore and their parents deemed appropriate and she wasn't quite ready to lose what little power she had left over this situation. What if they made her leave Hogwarts? Or more likely, what if they made him? Neither option sat right with her, despite everything Malfoy had done in the past, this particular situation wasn't his fault so she didn't feel like he should be punished for it.

She hesitated to bring up the next topic of discussion but thought it necessary given that things were all out in the open now.

"I think we should talk about what you want to know should it happen again." At Harry and Ron's horrified looks she continued, "Make no mistake, I am going to do all I can to prevent it, but if everything that's happened so far is any indication, I'm afraid that it's a very real possibility." She was just trying to be practical and forward-thinking. At least Harry had finally expressed an emotion.

Hermione pushed on through the uncomfortable silence. "If it happens again. Do you want me to tell you or would prefer to remain oblivious?"

Ron didn't need much time to make his decision. "I don't want to know."

Harry nodded, a little pale, in agreement with Ron. "Yes, I rather think I'd like to be kept in the dark somewhat."

"Well, I for one want to be filled in as soon as possible," Ginny said.

The youngest Weasley shrugged at Ron and Harry's expressions of disbelief. "What? She'll need someone she can talk to about her conflicting feelings of satisfaction and self-loathing."

XXX

Hermione had managed to sneak back to the dormitory undetected after her conversation with the boys. She hid there for the rest of day and went to sleep early so she wouldn't have to endure the inquisition from her roommates. But now it was morning, and despite knowing exactly what would be waiting for her when she woke up, her high-achieving nature simply wouldn't allow for her to miss classes today.

She stretched her arms out above her head and opened her eyes to the scene of two waiting witches peering down at her from her bedside. Hermione let out a little yelp of surprise at the girls crowding around her.

"I told you that you were going to frighten her," Ginny chastised them from across the room, pulling a jumper over her head.

Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil continued to look at her as if she were an interesting – yet dangerous – exhibit at the zoo.

"Is it true, Hermione? Did you have sex with Draco Malfoy?" Lavender asked, her voice getting progressively higher-pitched throughout her question.

Parvati didn't leave any room for her answer, not that she knew what she was going to say anyway. "What's it like shagging a Death Eater?"

Ginny cut in, "Ladies, she's just woken up."

The girls protested as Ginny shooed them out of the room.

The journey to breakfast wasn't any better, whispers, blatant pointing, and stares followed her all the way to the Great Hall.

"Just ignore them," Ginny advised, wrapping an arm around her comfortingly.

Easy for her to say. Nobody was talking about her sleeping with Hogwarts' public enemy number one.

Hermione sat down next to Harry and Ron — despite still feeling hurt by their decidedly un-Gryffindor-like actions yesterday — to eat her breakfast and get to class early. She could have skipped breakfast and perhaps classes all together for a while, but experience told her that things would only be worse if she didn't face the music sooner rather than later. With any luck she'd be yesterday's news by Christmas.

A few gasps echoed down the table and when she looked at Harry and Ron, they were glaring at something behind her. Ron was gripping his knife far too tightly.

She turned around and there was Malfoy, apparently indifferent to all the attention they were getting.

"Malfoy," she hissed, "Please refrain from approaching me in public, I've been accosted enough as it is this morning."

He ignored her request while dropping a small piece of parchment on the table in front of her.

"Snape wants to see us."

Oh Merlin, did he know?

After he had dropped that bomb, Draco left the hall without another word. Hermione picked up the parchment he had handed her and read:

Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy,

I request your presence in my office before your lessons today to discuss your noticeable absence from my class when I returned yesterday and then there is the question of the missing vials of Veritaserum antidote.

I look forward to your explanation.

Professor Snape.

Harry and Ron were reading over her shoulder.

"You can't go to that meeting alone with Malfoy!" Harry cried.

Hermione groaned with the impending dread of what was going to be discussed in this meeting. Though, she was relieved that Harry didn't seem to be harbouring any unresolved feelings of betrayal towards her. He was back to being a protective big brother.

"Well, I can't very well bring one of you with me, can I? How strange would that look?" she countered.

The boys continued to argue, and Hermione put up her hand to stop their protest.

"It will be fine, it's not like anything is going to happen with Snape sitting right there." She shuddered at the thought of feeling randy for Draco in front of the professor.

Hermione promised them that she would fill them in at lunch and exited the hall. Malfoy had been waiting for her outside and joined her in step towards the dungeon to face what could be their undoing.

"We can't tell Snape it was Pansy," Draco stated.

"Why not?" Hermione demanded crossly. "She bloody deserves whatever punishment she has coming, why are you trying to protect her?"

"I'm not," Malfoy insisted through his clenched jaw, trying to rein in his temper. "We can't tell Snape, because then he'll question Pansy and she'll tell him everything."

Hermione thought about this. It was true that she didn't think Pansy would have any qualms about outing her and Draco to staff if it would get the attention off her own indiscretion.

"We shouldn't be walking together," Hermione realised, noticing the attention they attracted as they walked down the corridors.

Draco ignored her observation. "This is what she was banking on. She knew we wouldn't snitch on her because then we'd put ourselves in the firing line."

"What about the other Gryffindor students in the class?"

He laughed mockingly at this. "You Gryffindorks are so bloody loyal, they wouldn't out you if it meant betraying one of their own. No matter how barmy they probably think you are for shagging me."

Hermione cast him a despairing look in response to his crass words.

They had reached Snape's office in the dungeons.

"Drink this," he demanded, offering her a small vial of something swirling ominously and vaguely grey in colour.

She looked up at him, ready to explain all the reasons why she would never drink something he offered to her, but he saw her poised to refuse and added, "Just drink it, Granger, if I was going to poison you, I wouldn't be doing it outside Snape's office."

True.

She swigged the contents of the vial. It tasted like burnt herbs.

Draco rapt his knuckles on the office door and Hermione felt her heart beginning to race nervously.

What was in that potion?

"You may enter," Snape drawled.

They walked in and took their seats in front of the discerning Potions Master. He regarded them with an analysing gaze and Hermione tried not to squirm in her seat.

"Would you both be able to explain to me why you were absent after I returned from dealing with the Cornish Pixies in the hallway and two vials of antidote were missing from my locked cabinet?"

Straight to the point then.

He searched their faces for anything that would betray the truth. "Your classmates were disappointingly unhelpful when I questioned them about it."

Malfoy decided to answer for them. "Sir, a fellow student vanished our antidotes as soon as you left the room and proceeded to humiliate us in front of the class by asking us questions that would force us to reveal private information." He had clearly rehearsed this explanation several times in his head.

Snape nodded and leant forward in his chair. "I thought as much. And who, pray tell, was this student?"

"We can't tell you that sir, respectfully."

Snape arched his brows in surprise that a student from his own house declined to answer his question.

"And why would that be, Mister Malfoy?"

"Because if we tell you who it was then you would be obligated to question and punish the student. Who would — in retaliation — reveal the personal information we were forced to give up under Veritaserum."

Snape put his hands together and sat back at his chair, mulling over their predicament.

"This information is so humiliating that you don't want Hogwarts staff to be made aware of it?"

Hermione knew he was curious about what this information could be.

"It's just personal information, sir, which we are entitled to keep private from our teachers," Draco replied.

"I see. Do you feel the same, Miss Granger? Are you happy for the perpetrator to go unpunished in order to protect your secrets?"

Hermione swallowed hard and nodded her agreement. She was strangely mute, but Malfoy seemed to have it under control.

"Your potion was successful?" Mild interest was evident in his tone.

They both nodded again, unsure of where this was going.

"Well then, I suppose I should give you an O for your assessment."

Hermione tried not to let out the little squeal of glee that threatened to burst forth at this news.

"As well as three weeks detention for failing to cooperate in an incident investigation."

Her face fell. Hermione internally groaned at the prospect of having done anything to warrant detention as well as the thought of having to do them with the Slytherin duo.

Snape dismissed them quickly after that and they made the walk back down the corridor to their respective classes.

"Did he try to use his legilimency on you?" Hermione broke the silence first, careful to keep her voice low.

Draco nodded stiffly. "He did, but he didn't see anything important. It was close though, he's very strong. If we were in there a minute longer, we would have been made."

Thank god Snape didn't see the highlight reel of what Draco and I do in the dark.

"That potion you gave me was designed to keep him out of my head?"

Draco gave her another quick nod.

"Why didn't you use one?"

"If he hit a brick wall with both of us, he would know for sure that whatever we were hiding involved the two of us together. Right now, he's just guessing. I fed him some altered memories of the event. He probably didn't buy it though."

"Right. You've put a lot of thought into this."

"Don't sound so surprised, Granger."

They had reached the end of the corridor and proceeded to peel off in opposite directions without another word spoken.

XXX

Detention was held every Tuesday night in the dungeons. The only meager silver lining she could find was a little relief that the year that was Umbridge had long since passed. There wouldn't be any spelled quills etching admonishments into her hand so she would probably just be bored out of her mind for two hours. She hoped she would be bored out of her mind.

"I feel like you and Malfoy doing detention together is just asking for trouble," Ron said.

Harry added, "At least let me watch over you under the invisibility cloak."

Hermione had just started to feel guilty about how much time and energy her friends were putting into her problems and at the same time, she hadn't totally forgiven the pair for agreeing to interrogate her under the serum. She was feeling like she had betrayed them when she offered the opportunity, but a big part of her hoped that they would decline. They were clearly trying to make it up to her. There was wrongdoing on both sides, and it had crumbled the usually stable foundation their relationship stood on.

"You have nothing to worry about. We'll be supervised by Snape for Merlin's sake. I can't think of anything that's more of a mood killer."

No, she could handle something as simple as attending detention without ending up naked.

She pushed around the remnants of her dinner, nerves swarming in her belly. She couldn't stomach another bite. Hermione said goodnight to her friends and tried not to dwell too long on the deep valleys of concern and guilt scratched over each of their faces as she walked away.

On the familiar route to the dungeons, she pondered whether or not this spell or prophecy or whatever it was could be kept at bay by practicing willpower. Perhaps she could try something like exposure therapy to build a tolerance to the stimuli and thereby build a resistance to its effects. Though she didn't relish having to explain and convince Malfoy to try muggle forms of psychotherapy, it was something to consider should they be unable to figure this out soon.

They still had most of the school year left and she would not be leaving without her N.E. .

Hermione pushed her ruminations to the back of her mind as she reached the Potions classroom, quickly downing another Legilimency blocking potion before she walked in. She would probably have to ask Draco for a healthy stash so she could down one before each detention and Potions class.

Snape and Malfoy were already there, neither speaking, apparently waiting for her arrival.

"Lovely of you to join us, Ms Granger," Snape drawled. "Your detention this evening will be to clean all the cauldrons from our Veritaserum assignment. The muggle way." Hermione glanced at Draco, but his deceptively neutral expression didn't falter. "You'll be happy to know that there is not a single drop of Veritaserum left in this room, nor is the antidote."

It did calm Hermione slightly to know that there was at least one weapon that could be used against her removed from the equation. Now she just needed Malfoy to leave and she would have a perfectly tolerable detention.

"Everything you need is in the sinks." He gestured vaguely to the back of the room. "I'll be back in two hours to inspect your handiwork before dismissing you."

An invisible hand clenched around Hermione's throat.

"S-Sir, you're going to leave us unsupervised?" she squeaked, failing to hide her apprehension.

Snape turned back to look at her with a level of irritation only Hermione could provoke.

"Ms Granger, am I to expect that you and Mr Malfoy might play out your own wizarding war here tonight?" His left eyebrow shot up, challenging her to argue.

"N-No, sir. I suppose not," was the best she could come up with. She felt her cheeks heat with frustration that she couldn't come up with a good enough reason for him to stay.

Hermione wasn't sure if it concerned her or comforted her to know that Snape had some unfounded certainty about them not posing a danger to one another.

Why isn't Malfoy saying anything?

"The war is over. Try to act like it. The room is spelled to block magic for the next two hours."

Hermione saw Malfoy raise his wand and try to cast a minor spell, then grumble something unintelligible under his breath when nothing happened.

"So, you have no choice but to clean the cauldrons by hand." Snape walked to the threshold of the classroom and turned to fix them with a pitiless expression. "I suppose you can feel better knowing that you won't be on the receiving end of any nasty hexes. Your only option will be good old-fashioned fisticuffs and if it resorts to that I will be bitterly disappointed in the pair of you."

Snape strode out of the lab without waiting for any further arguments against him leaving, she noticed Draco was slowly backing away from her to the far side of the room. That was probably a smart move.

Hermione whipped her head around to face him. "And where were you during that conversation, huh?" she demanded whilst also walking backward to plant herself safely on the opposite side of the room.

He groaned and rubbed his temples. "I know Snape, Granger. He was trying to work out what we were hiding. I was a tad preoccupied keeping him out of my bloody head."

She closed her mouth after a half-formed reply died on her lips and she settled for a very exasperated sigh.

"Can't you get a message to your whipping boys or Red?" Malfoy asked, she could hear the slight undertone of panic edging his words.

"No magic, remember?"

They stood there, trying not to look each other in the eyes, both feeling the tell-tale pull of magic pressuring them to close the gap.

"We had better get busy then," Hermione declared with determination and she pulled a dirty cauldron in front of her like a shield.

Malfoy's eyes widened slightly, and she realised the double meaning behind her words.

"Cleaning! Busy cleaning," she clarified with her hands shaking over the wired brush she had found.

She heard Malfoy clear his throat, trying to shake his discomfort. "Right, well I'll do the ones over here then."

There were twelve cauldrons altogether placed around the outer workbenches of the room. They hadn't discussed what would happen once they met in the middle. The only sounds that could be heard for the next hour was the splashing of water and vigorous scrubbing, Draco would occasionally curse under his breath. After he cursed for the fourth time, Hermione looked up to see what he was swearing at. She noticed he was only up to his second cauldron whereas she was up to her fourth.

She sighed in exasperation. "For Merlin's sake Malfoy, you really can tell that you've never cleaned a thing in your privileged life."

"That's what house elves are for, Granger," he snapped.

She chose not to take the bait, despite every inch of her bursting to tell him what she thought of their forced labour. "At this rate, we aren't going to be finished by the time Snape returns to check on us and I wouldn't be surprised if he tacked another detention on if he finds our progress lacking."

A smirk pulled up on the edges of his mouth. "By all means Granger, do them all yourself. You're much better at this than I am. I'm sure it'll be quicker without me." His mocking tone boiled her blood as he gestured for her to take over.

Her eyes narrowed in annoyance. He wouldn't be getting out of this that easily. Hermione walked over to the cauldron he was "cleaning" and plucked the brush out of his hand.

"Nice try, Malfoy. Look – this is how you do it." She dipped the brush into the warm soapy water and began methodically scrubbing down and up the inside of the cauldron.

He hadn't yet made a movement or sound, so she looked up.

"Come on —"

Oh shit.

Malfoy was staring down at her, his gaze smoky and blackened. He was clenching and unclenching his hands and the tell-tale muscle of barely contained restraint was twitching in his jaw.

"Walk. Away," he gritted out between clenched teeth.

I shouldn't have come this close to him.

Hermione plopped the brush into the soapy cauldron and willed her feet to move.

"S-Sorry, I wasn't thinking." She managed to raise a shaky foot to step back but couldn't summon the willpower needed to run clear across the room. His arm shot out to loop around her waist and pull her forward.

Hermione lurched into his arms in a most ungraceful fashion and she gripped him by the shoulders to steady her balance. Before she could make even a futile attempt to stop the trajectory they were on, his lips were on hers and all she could think about was how right it felt to have him kissing her again.