A/N: All right. Thank you to Arunei and Midnight Angels for your wonderful much wanted reviews. Here is another chapter. Hope you guys enjoy it:D

Chapter Eighteen

Can't We Get Rid of Him?

Ron and Hermione entered the Great Hall shortly after everyone else did. Hermione sent Draco death glares as they walked by and he merely let a slow smirk appear on his lips. So maybe this was his way of getting revenge on the trio all at once. Hermione didn't know; she just wished there was a way to reverse what had happened that fateful night at the Slytherin party.

Harry sat shoveling mashed potatoes into his mouth, and when he looked up at Hermione, he grunted. She pulled her hair back out of her face and sat down across from him. She took in the appearance of her two best friends and found her breath was taken away when she looked at them. How could such a curse bring such beauty?

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. Harry looked up at her with a puzzled expression etched on his pale features. "None of this would've ever happened if I would've just fought him on it. If I would've just tried-"

"Yes it would have," Ron interrupted. "I told him no, and he just kept pushing me and filling my head with all of these thoughts. And finally before I even had a chance, it just happened."

"And I'm sorry Harry, for not having better control over myself," she finished. Harry shook his head.

"Don't Herm," was all he said before he went back to shoveling mashed potatoes in his mouth.

"Why is that the only thing you're eating?" Ron asked.

"Because my teeth are sore," Harry said.

Hermione sighed and rested her chin on the palm of her hand.

"At least we don't have to worry about losing control around Ron," Harry went on. "I wouldn't want to be the one who ended up turning him."

He looked up at Malfoy who was sitting between Crabbe and Goyle.

"You know it's strange," Harry went on. "I don't think Malfoy needs those two anymore."

Both of his friends turned to look at him.

"No, but I think they really do like him," Hermione said with a shrug. "I don't know why."

"Or he scares them half to death," Ron muttered. He seemed a bit bad tempered. He'd tried to eat a taco but found he couldn't do it. It lay crunched on his plate, as he picked the meat out of it.

"So what's the story on the new girl?" Harry asked. He had spotted Jesamya Richards leaving the great hall.

"Jesamya?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, her," Harry nodded, returning to his dinner.

"I don't really know too much about her," Hermione said. "She's usually pretty quiet when I'm around. I just know that she's from a vampire coven, sent here to learn new skills on top of her natural vampiric ones. Or so she says. And apparently she has a nice butt because all you boys keep staring at it when she's around."

"No we don't!" Ron said a little too defensively as he always did when he got caught staring a little too much at girls.

"Oh stop Ron, we all know you like looking at girls from behind!" Hermione teased, bumping against him. Ron blushed.

"You would too if you were a man…" he whispered.

"Ah, but I'm not," Hermione said. Harry grinned at them. They fell silent just staring at each other in wonder. How had this happened in so little time? Harry didn't understand it and he was sure Hermione didn't either. Ron didn't really seem to be thinking about it. He seemed happier now than he had been earlier that day. Maybe it was because he felt like part of the group again.

"Do you suppose we can lose Malfoy?" he asked thoughtfully after a few moments.

"What do you mean?" Hermione inquired. He shrugged.

"I mean do you think there's any possible way we can just stop talking to him," Harry said.

"Of course there is," Ron muttered. "We just ignore him and pretend he doesn't exist like we always have! Nobody says we have to be around him constantly just because he's responsible for the majority of us, if not all, even though he didn't turn you Harry."

"I-" Hermione began. "I don't know how well that will work. Don't you remember what Jesamya said? About how we're all bonded together now? What if we try and find that we can't get rid of him? Then what?"

"There shouldn't be a then what," Harry said. "If he's unwanted, he's unwanted."

"Am I?" Draco asked. He sat down between Hermione and Ron giving Ron a gleeful look, as he saw the Weasley turn beet red with anger.

"Dear Lord, why did you sneak up on us like that?" Hermione cried. They were getting some strange looks from the Gryffindors. Malfoy waved at the girls and blew kisses. Some blushed, other's just glared at him, including Ginny Weasley. He didn't care.

"I couldn't help but over hear your conversation," Draco said. "You want to get rid of me?"

"You're not the most pleasant person to be around," Harry said.

"I should say that same about you," Malfoy replied. "But you must know something before you decide to cast me out, which I don't mind at all."

"Right," Hermione said rolling her eyes.

"I don't," he said. "Anyways. Jesamya has just told me that we are to go to Elder's coven tonight to get initiated. Didn't you know? We have to get a tattoo, sort of like Voldemort's mark on our chests right in the middle, here," he said pointing to himself.

"So now you mean to tell me that we have to join a cult?" Ron snarled in his ear.

"Don't breathe on me Weasley, and no, it's not a cult. It's a coven," Draco snapped. "And don't worry we're fighting for a good cause. Your cause, actually, Potter. The one where we kill Voldemort. But first the plan is, we kill all of his followers first. And then we kill Voldemort."

"I never thought I'd hear you say that," Harry muttered bewildered. Draco smirked.

"The Dark Lord won't have me," he said. "Therefore I'm going to have him. In a terrible, horrible, violent way." Draco had a hungry look in his eyes.

"How do you know he won't have you?" Ron asked.

"Because a rival coven recruited me," Draco replied simply.

Now the Gryffindors were beginning to whisper all around them.

"What are they doing talking to him," someone said at the end of the table.

"Well, time flies when I'm talking to the three stooges," Malfoy said with a smirk. "Meet me by the lake at twelve o'clock tonight. Well actually in the morning but you know what I mean. Jesamya said it's for your own safety to become part of a coven. She said that other vampire covens target loners because they don't want any strays running around."

"It seems almost as if he wants to be around us," Ron whispered to Hermione.

"Whispering doesn't help Weasel!" Malfoy shouted. He then chuckled to himself and left the Great Hall.

"It sort of does," Harry said.

"The only reason he likes being around us is because he knows we can't stand him," Hermione said. "He does it to bug us. Just like always, only this time he's gone to great lengths to make us miserable."

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Jesamya sat alone by the lake, watching the squid swimming around near the bottom. She was startled when she was pushed in. She went under the dark water, and it was cool against her skin. She swam to the surface and found Draco standing at the edge smiling evilly down at her. She held out her hand.

"Help me out!" she said, trying to get her hair out of her face. He crossed his arms stubbornly and shook his head.

"No," he said, his smile growing ear to ear.

"Why not!" she asked, glaring up at him.

"Because you'll just pull me in with you," he replied. She huffed and swam to the edge and climbed out.

"See that wasn't so hard," he replied.

"Yeah but it wouldn't have been so hard for you to be a gentleman and pull me out either," she said, looking up at him.

"Just like it wouldn't be that hard for you to pull me in with you," Draco said plainly.

Without warning Jesamya shot out her hands, and without touching him made him fall into the lake. When he surfaced he glared at her.

"That was a cheap shot," he said, slicking his hair off of his forehead. She giggled. Draco was a quick learner though, and she was immediately floating in the air, floating towards the water.

"Put me down!" she said, even though her smile contradicted her serious tone.

"Nope," he said. And he dropped her in again. When she resurfaced it was right in front of him.

"That wasn't very nice," she said.

"Nope, but like you said, I'm not a very nice person," he replied. She nodded.

"I do remember telling you that," she said.

"So, this mark of your coven that you have," Draco said. "Can I see it?"

"No!" Jesamya said.

"Why not?" he asked. She sighed and pulled her shirt down ever so slightly, only letting him see the top. Draco reached over and pulled her blouse down further to take a look at the whole thing. She flushed and quickly pulled her shirt back up.

"It's not that bad," Draco said.

"No, but it's in a private spot," she said, her cheeks still rosy.

"Why are you blushing?" he asked, grabbing her and dunking her under the water. She quickly came up and he was laughing as she sputtered.

"You sure don't know how to treat women do you?" she asked. Draco didn't know why but he loved it when she got red in the face.

"So!" came a voice from behind them. "What are you two doing out here?"

It was Pansy. She was glaring down suspiciously at the two of them, her jealousy flaring up like a puffer fish. After all, it wasn't exactly a pretty picture for her to see Jesamya and the boy she was absolutely in love with, playing in the water together. It also didn't help that Draco had had his arms around Jesamya when she came out. He let go of her and smiled.

"We had a slight disagreement," he said simply.

A/N: All right. Lots of stuff I still have to write about. I can't help but feel like these last chapters are going by slowly. Oh well, go ahead and review. Luv to all of my kind reviewers:D