A/N: Yay! Chapter 5 is up! Sorry it's been a couple of days. I had a Lacrosse tournament that I went to with my team this weekend. A long ten hour drive, it made my butt hurt. Good news! We won two out of the four games! Bad news…. I'm suppperrrr sore! My legs are killing me. I hope you all had a good Valentine's Day and spent it with someone you loved. I recently broke up with my boyfriend, so I'm lucky that I was preoccupied this Saturday and that I had my team by my side. I also had a Psychology test this morning. So sorry! I hope you can forgive me. I hope you like this chapter! Don't forget to review! They seriously make me super happy! (:

I don't own anything but the plot. JK Rowling owns the character and anything else that seems familiar.

Chapter 5:

Over the course of the next few days, it seemed like Granger was getting weaker and weaker. Draco still heard her screaming at night, and each time he went to wake her up, he would sneer at her and tell her to be quiet.

Whenever he would grab her arms though, he noticed how frail she was, and it was almost like he could snap her bones in half if he tried hard enough. He knew that Blaise couldn't stop staring at her too, and he also knew how worried he was about her.

It was during potions class, that he thought that he would finally be able to get some answers out of her.

"Alright class, settle down. Now, today and over the course of the next few days we will be brewing Veritasierum. I'm going to put you in partners and you can both brew it together. When it is all finished, you will be testing it on each other." Professor Slughorn said smiling around at everyone.

"Partners are as follows: Potter/Parkinson, Weasley/Goyle, Longbottom/Zabini," Draco gave Blaise a sympathetic look. "Granger/Malfoy" Draco raised his eyebrows in surprise before looking at Granger and seeing her shoulders slump.

Now I'll be able to find out what happened to her with this. He looked up and found Granger sitting next to him, having already gotten the ingredients.

"Ready to make this potion Granger?" He asked her, before looking at her. She looked over at him before shrugging her shoulders. "I guess." She whispered, before she started working on the ingredients.

Draco sighed and rubbed his face. This is going to be a long week.

HGHGHGHGHGHGHG

Hermione stiffened slightly when she heard what potion they were going to be brewing. She really didn't want to work in partners, for fear of someone finding out her secret. She just hoped she wasn't with anybody she disliked.

She always felt tired these days. Most of the time she just wanted to give up. Sleeping was hard for her most of the time now. She had large dark bags under her eyes, she was extremely pale, and her bones were starting to show.

She was listening to people get paired off, when she heard her name. Stiffening, she looked over to her partner and noticed him staring at her, with a glazed look in his eyes.

Malfoy was acting different these days. Him and Zabini both were. They didn't throw snarky remarks at her anymore, and Malfoy always made if a point to wake her up after her nightmares. Even his sneers didn't reach his eyes anymore.

She got up to the collect the ingredients, before bringing them back to the table that she was sharing with Malfoy.

"Ready to make this potion Granger?" He asked her. She looked over at him and shrugged. "I guess."

She then started chopping up her ingredients, before hearing him sigh. She felt and saw him staring at her out of the corner of her eye.

This is going to be a long week.

Finally when the period ended she quickly put her cauldron aside and grabbed her things. Without saying a single word to Malfoy she walked out of the room and down to the Great Hall for lunch.

She took one step in, before deciding that she didn't want to be there, before walking back to the entrance hall and out the double doors leading outside.

Walking over to the black lake, she found a tree, before sitting on the grass, and bringing her knees up to her chest, laying her head on them.

She was tired. She was tired of trying to survive. She didn't want to try anymore. Trying for something that she didn't want, only made her want to cry because she knew that no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't going to get anywhere, it was just going to leave her hurting.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't hear footsteps behind her, nor did she see a person sit next to her.

Only when she heard that person clear their throats, did she turn her head slightly to the right. Her eyes grew wide when she saw the person sitting next to her.

"Luna?"

The pretty blonde girl looked at Hermione and smiled. "Hello Hermione."

Hermione looked over at Luna, a wondering look on her face. Luna was a pretty sixth year. She had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a very friend face.

"Hi Luna, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked, looking at her slightly.

"Well I've been meaning to talk to you since the beginning of September, but I just never got around to it. You look very thin Hermione. Have you been eating? Or have the bumbling zindingers been flying around you?"

Hermione has long since given up at trying to figure out what Luna was saying and she just shook her head. "I just haven't been hungry Luna. I'm fine though." She smiled at the younger girl.

Luna looked at Hermione before shaking her head slightly. "I know that Harry and Ron haven't been the nicest of people to you Hermione. And I know that Ginny is spreading rumors about you. That's why the Gryffindors don't like you right?"

Hermione looked up at Luna and nodded her head. "Yes. They all hate me for something that I haven't done. I don't know how to make them believe me."

"Ginny has always been a very rude person. I've never liked her much." Luna said, looking over at Hermione. "Don't worry Hermione. The boys will come around. Until then, you have me." Luna smiled at her, again.

She looked over at Luna, a shocked look on her face. "You don't believe the rumors Luna?" She asked, still giving the younger girl an astonished look.

"Of course not. Like I said. I never really liked Ginny. She always had the Rapid Warblers flying around her head. Those are bad you know."

Hermione smiled over at Luna before nodding her head. "Thank you Luna. That means a lot to me."

"You're welcome Hermione." Luna then stood up and stretched slightly before smiling again. "Well I have to go to class, but I'll see you later okay?" She smiled one last time at Hermione before turning around and walking back towards the school.

Hermione watched Luna walking away, before smiling slightly and turning back to face the black lake. She like Luna, even though some of the things she said were a little crazy sometimes.

She looked up at the sky and noticed that it looked like it was going to rain, she stood up before stretching slightly and walked back towards the castle.

She didn't realize how late it actually was, and when she finally walked into the castle, she heard noise in the Great Hall and realized that it was now dinner time.

She wasn't the least bit hungry and decided to walk back to her room and skip dinner.

Walking to her portrait, she gave the password before walking in. She stopped when she realized that Malfoy and Zabini were both in the room and looking at her.

She fidgeted slightly at their stare, as she pulled down the sleeve of her shirt, making sure that her cuts were covered and that they weren't showing.

"Granger, aren't you going to eat?" Malfoy asked her, looking over at her.

"I'm not hungry Malfoy."

"You need to eat Granger. You're looking too skinny." He said to her, looking at how thin she looked.

Hermione gave him an affronted look, before snapping at him. "Look Malfoy, it's really none of your business whether I eat dinner or not okay?! So just piss off and leave me alone."

With that she walked past him and up to her room, slamming the door behind him. She collapsed on her bed, not realizing how tired she really was, before closing her eyes and falling asleep.

DMDMDMDMDMDMDM

Draco looked over at Blaise, who raised his eyebrows at him. "Well that was expected. Of course she was going to blow up like that," he muttered.

Blaise looked at him and nodded. "Yeah. Mate she looked extremely sick."

"I know! But I don't know what's wrong. I won't know what's wrong until we finish the potion and test it on each other." Draco said, before sitting down.

"Wait… You're going to ask Granger some personal questions? Are you sure that's a good idea Draco?" His friend asked, also staring into the fire, a pensive look on his face.

"I have to. She won't tell me what's wrong if I don't. She may hate me for the rest of my life, hell she already does, so what do I have to lose?" He asked, once again looking at his friend.

"I have no idea, but you better hope that something good will come out of this and nothing bad."

"What more bad could happen to Granger? Everyone in this school hates her because of those rumors that Weaselette is telling them. Well except for Loony Lovegood. I saw her talking to Granger this afternoon." Draco said.

Blaise looked up at his friend, and raised one of his eyebrows. "Really? Loony Lovegood? Talking to Granger?" Draco nodded his head.

"Let's just hope she doesn't hate Granger either." Draco said before sighing.

"I don't even know why I want to find out. I don't even like Granger and I could care less about her! Well.. I don't want her to die, but that's besides the point." He said before shaking his head.

"Well… All we have to do it wait until tomorrow, and see what happens with the potion man. Are you ready for the outcome?" Blaise asked.

Draco shook his head before sighing again. "Not even a little bit."

They both sat there on the couch, thinking about the possibility of the outcome that was going to happen in tomorrow's potion class.