I hope you enjoy chapter 2! Let me know if you are enjoying it, or any suggestions or questions you might have!

-a-


If looks could kill, then Draco would already be six feet under. Harry tried to close the last few steps between himself and Hermione, but Draco and the entire group of Slytherins wouldn't allow it. Crabbe and Goyle did the only helpful thing they knew to do and placed their obese bodies between Harry and his intended target.

Draco's smirk faltered and he turned toward Hermione, "Love, why don't you go with Pansy, while I have a conversation with Potter, here?" Hermione, looking immensely confused and slightly put out from being so out of the loop, her eyes shifting between the infuriated Harry and the slightly defensive Draco, hopped off of the concrete planter. "Alright."

Draco squeezed Hermione's hand softly before Pansy linked arms with her and walked off towards the Great Hall, talking quietly with her newfound friend.

Harry's eyes reluctantly left the retreating back of Hermione, and the hatred that had early consumed his face, returned. "What are you playing at, Malfoy?" Harry, again, forced through clenched teeth.

"What ever do you mean, Potter?" Draco said in mock confusion, pushing Crabbe and Goyle out of his way so he could sneer in Harry's face.

Flashback (August 3, 1996) 2p.m.

Lucius Malfoy heard a tapping on the window of his study. He lazily flicked his wand at the window as he downed the finger of firewhiskey he had just poured himself. The eagle owl crossed the room and landed on the perch sitting next to his mahogany desk and thrust its' leg out. Lucius removed the letter and package attached to the owl, and scanned the letter quickly.

"Draco!" Lucius shouted urgently, after pointing his wand at himself to enhance the volume of his voice to reach Draco in his wing of the house.

A few minutes passed, and Draco found his father with a piece of parchment, furiously scribbling away. "You called, father?" Draco drawled as he sauntered the rest of the way into his father's study.

"Yes. I have your first mission for our Dark Lord." Lucius smiled, as if he were passing along a wonderful announcement of the greatest fortune. "It involves the mudblood."

The slight crease on his forehead was the only sign that Draco was worried about what his father and the Dark Lord were going to expect from him for his first task. Draco had known for a while that he was going to be inducted into the ranks soon, and that he would first have to prove himself. However, he hadn't expected for it to happen so quickly. "What will my mission be? I thought you already took care of the mudblood." Draco asked, trying to infuse as much excitement as he could into the question.

Lucius cut his eyes at his son and glared, not enjoying the reminder of his failure when it came to destroying the girl. "Yes, well, apparently she isn't dead. Pity. Now, our Dark Lord has formed another plan that will ensure the Light has no fighting chance and that Potter remains miserable until his untimely death." Lucius' eyes filled with a malevolent type of joy, as he all but cackled in excitement. He poured himself another tumbler of the amber liquid, and then poured one for Draco, as well. "You are going to make her fall for you."

Draco, who had taken a sip of the liquid fire, spewed whiskey all over his father's face. "I'm to do what?!"

Lucius glared at his son as he conjured a green, silk handkerchief and mopped the liquid off his face. "You will use this, and you will convince her that she has been in love with you since your fourth year."

Draco looked down at the thick leather journal and flicked through the pages, elegant script looping across each page. He traced his finger over the inscription on the journal cover: Hermione Jean Granger.

"Win her over, by any means necessary. Do. Not. Let. Us. Down..."

End Flashback

"Why in the hell would you want Hermione to think she was yours?" Harry growled. His words cut though Malfoy's momentary daze at the memory.

"Well, there are quite a few benefits. For one, I get to see you suffer." Malfoy paused for a second and then added, "That actually could be enough in itself!" Malfoy chuckled menacingly, and his friends followed suit.

By this time Harry had pulled out his wand, and shoved it to Malfoy's throat, having closed the few steps that had separated them.

"Ah ah ah, Potter," Malfoy said softly, absolutely no fear could be traced in his voice. "You won't want to do anything to hurt me."

Harry scoffed, shoving the tip of his want harder into Malfoy's throat. "And, why not? I can see plenty of reasons why I want to hurt you."

"But not at the risk of angering our dearest Granger. As of right now, I have successfully convinced her that she has been dating me since fourth year, and that her dearest friends are in this group, right here. I have also managed to convince her that you are the one that has been treating her like the mudblood she is, for all of these years. Anything you do to hurt me will only hurt her in the process, and it will only reinforce how horrible of a person you truly are in her eyes. And, we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

When the other Slytherins realized that Harry wasn't backing down at Malfoy's threat, they all turned their wands on him, but faltered slightly when they heard a commotion coming from the direction where the two girls had previously disappeared.

Quite a few voices were yelling Harry's name, desperately trying to find him. The first to be seen was Ron, followed by Ginny and Neville, and being trailed by a few other Gryffindors. Ron, being oblivious to the duel that was moments before sure to ensue, ran up to Harry, panting. "Mate! It's 'Mione! She's awake, and she… She's with Parkins-" Ron cut off as he finally saw Harry's hand closed tightly around the collar o Malfoy''s shirt and his wand trained on Malfoy's throat, along with another dozen wands pointed directly at Harry.

Malfoy took this moment of confusion to free himself from Harry's grasp, roughly ripping Harry's fingers off his collar. He straightened his shirt and tie, and backed away, putting a few feet of distance between the two.

Harry looked at Ron with uneasiness and spoke through clenched teeth, "I know. Our wonderful friend, Draco, was there when she woke up. Apparently she lost a lot of memories… And her new boyfriend, here, filled her in." Harry waved his hand towards Malfoy to identify who he was speaking about.

"Boyfriend?" Ron mumbled before the realization of Harry's statement hit him. He lunged towards Malfoy, but Harry gripped him by his arm, as a dozen wands pointed directly at Ron.

Malfoy smirked again, "Come on, guys. I think I am done with this conversation. I'm sure Mia is missing me. " Malfoy's cronies laughed as they all turned and headed off toward the Great Hall.

Harry, Ron, and the rest of the Gryffindor's stared after them in disbelief as the conversation sank in. Ginny was the first to break the silence. "Harry, how did this happen?"

Harry began to explain about Malfoy being there when Hermione woke up, about the diary that he invented, and all of the other lies that Hermione believed to be true.

"But why would he want her to think she was his girlfriend? There has to be a reason behind it..." Neville blurted out, looking around the group for some type of answer.

"Think about it…" Ron began speaking through clenched teeth, surprising everyone with his sudden incite on a conversation that had to do with more than food or quidditch. "Hermione is the smartest witch of our year, if not the smartest person to ever walk the halls of Hogwarts. If we were in his place, wouldn't we want to do the same? Gain whatever upperhand we could in fighting you-know-who. He just manipulated her into thinking she was in love with him. Which means that he might have just managed to turn her to their side of the war…"

Dean spoke up this time, "So... Basically, we are screwed."

Harry's eyes had been glazed over in thought since Malfoy left. They cleared and a look of determination spread over his features. "No, we aren't." Everyone turned his or her attention to Harry. "She is still our Hermione. Just because Malfoy changed her idea about some facts, it doesn't mean he made her a different person. We will win her back."

Ron didn't look convinced as he said, "And, how do you propose we do that? He's already fed her all of these lies. She probably won't want to be anywhere near us!"

"Don't you remember first year?" Seamus asked in a contemplative voice. "We treated her horribly in the beginning, but that didn't stop her from wanting to be friends with us."

Harry nodded in agreement. "And, this time we are the ones trying to win her over. We just have to make the effort and in the meantime pray that her memories come back."

Ginny placed a hand on Harry's clenched fist that rested at his side, and smiled a reassuring smile. "You're right, Harry. We'll get 'Mione back."