(a/n) Thanks for the reviews!! J Although I'd like more, here's another chapter for those who are reading and reviewing. This was seriously a hard and long chapter to write. It isn't exactly how I pictured it, but whatever J Read and Review because without your reviews, I don't know what you guys are thinking ;)

Realizations and Statements

Draco Malfoy lay in bed with an arm draped over his eyes; it was far too early, in his opinion, to be awake. Although his mind climbed further and further back into consciousness, he lay there unmoving, willing himself back to sleep. But as he lay in bed, his whole body tensed and jolted awake when he felt a smooth, delicate hand brush it's fingers up and down his arm. He pulled his arm quickly off of his face and sat bolt-right up in bed.

"What the hell," snarled Draco through narrowed eyes. "Get off my bed! NOW!" He enunciated each word with such spite that his face twisted in anger. "Lillyana, off. NOW!" He pointed his arm toward the door in a swift, forceful motion.

The Italian girl slunk off the bed in the opposite direction as Draco. "I- Draco, I-" but she couldn't find words.

"Whas goin' on?" Blaise asked sleepily from his pillow.

"Nothing," breathed Draco. "I was just leaving." After shooting Ana a look of death, he stormed out of the room, not even bothering to put on a shirt.

The head boy stomped angrily through the halls until he finally reached the headmistress's office. Just as he was about to say the password, the entryway opened and McGonagall herself stepped through.

"Oh, Mr. Malfoy," she said in surprise. "What are you doing here at this hour? And without a shirt on?" The old woman questioned, averting her gaze from Draco's half naked body.

"I need to talk to you, professor."

"Ok, well, as we walk then; I need to get to the Great Hall." Draco turned on his heel and matched his stride to the headmistress. "Well, go on then," she urged.

"Professor, I'd like to change my sleeping arrangements…" Draco stated.

"Is that so?"

"Yes. You see, my staying with the Slytherins is causing problems," he said smoothly. "I fear that I am no longer welcomed by or welcoming toward several housemates."

"And where do you propose I move you?" McGonagall asked without slowing her pace.

"The head's room, professor." He smiled at her, trying to work his infamous charm.

"And Miss Granger? It's her common room as well, Mr. Malfoy." The gray-haired woman pointed out.

"Yes, however the common area won't be affected by my dorming in a different room." He said, practicing his charisma skills. "And she wouldn't care anyway; she's basically glued to the Gryffindor tower." He concluded.

"I supposed you're right about that," McGonagall said as the two went down the final staircase and into the Great Hall. "I guess we can do a trial. However, if it doesn't work for any reason, I will revoke this privilege!"

"Thank you, professor! Thank you!"

"Now, there are a few things," she said as she came to a halt, " that we need to discuss. First off, the same rules apply; still no more than ten people in the room at a time, no changing the security without discussing it with Miss Granger. Second, this is not to say that you are removed from any responsibility or affiliation with your house, understood?" Draco nodded once. "Okay, and remember: this is a trial. Temporary as of now. When you go into the common room, you will see two doors next to the dining table. The one on the left will now say "Head Boy" and the one on the right, "Head Girl." I assume you to be smart enough to know which is yours. Now, I must be going. Good day, Mr. Malfoy." And with that, the older witch walked away.

Draco raced down to the dungeons and into the Slytherin common room. He then sprinted to the boy's dormitory and began shoveling his belongings into his trunk. Barely five minutes later, Draco bewitched his trunk and began the journey to his new dormitory.

After arriving, Draco went directly into his room. He stood at the door and observed. Against one wall was a four-post queen size bed made of a dark wood and a matching armoire on another wall. The linens on the bed were silver with green stitching. A third wall housed multiple windows along with a desk and bookshelf. He smirked at his new home and began unpacking.

Hermione squirmed slightly as Ron uncoordinatedly kissed her neck. She shifted again, almost in pain by his kiss, as his lips traveled across her collar bone. Finally, she put her hands in his hair and pulled him back to her face level.

"Mmm," he moaned against her lips. Hermione playfully bit Ron's lower lip, slowly inching her body away from the red head.

Ron smiled at her and moved his hand to her belt buckle. Hermione shrugged his hand off. "Not a good time of the month," she confessed.

Ron exhaled sharply and backed away from his girlfriend. He clenched his jaw and blinked rapidly as Hermione too sat up. "Hermione, we haven't had sex in weeks," Ron said in a frustrated tone.

Hermione was taken aback, "I can't help when my period comes, Ronald."

"You're holding out on me, La- lately. I need a release sometimes." He whined.

"I don't know what you want me to say…" Hermione replied, getting off the bed and straightening her jeans and t-shirt. "I'm a girl, Ron. Girls get periods. I don't want to have sex on my period… that's disgusting."

"Some girls take a pill for that problem," Ron spat.

"Then find a girl that does that. Don't try and make me feel bad about not having sex with you. You shouldn't be trying to pressure me into having sex! You should be understanding; I'm your girlfriend." The petite girl shouted.

Hermione then shot Ron the evilest look she could muster and stormed from the room, slamming the door behind her.

The Head Girl fumed her way out of the boys dormitory, the common room, and Gryffindor tower before her breathing even resembled a normal speed. She finally unclenched her fists and took a deep breath trying to calm herself down.

She stood outside the portrait of the Fat Lady trying to decide where she should go now.

As she began walking again, a slender red-headed girl ran right into her.

"Oh, Hermione, I'm sorry," Ginny Weasley said as a blush crept up her neck and onto her face. "I uh, I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going…"

"Ginny, were you just with Harry?" Hermione said through a giggle.

"Wha-what?" The younger girl blushed a deeper shade of scarlet. "Um, yeah, how'd you know?"

"Ginny… your buttons are all wrong," Hermione said pointing to the sixth years blouse. Ginny giggled and began fixing her error.

"So, you wanna come eat with me? I was just heading to lunch," Ginny said as she fixed her buttons.

"Oh, sorry, Gin, I'm eating with Ana today."

"Oh, no big deal!" Ginny finished her buttons, said goodbye and continued on her way to the Great Hall.

Hermione took a second to compose herself before she headed down to the Great Hall to eat with her Slytherin friend.

She reached the hall just as Ana did, so the two walked in together and took a seat at the far end of the Gryffindor table.

"So," Ana said as she scooped mashed potatoes onto her plate, "tonight is another Quidditch."

"Yeah, it is." Hermione said uninterested as she put salad onto her own plate. "And we're sitting with Gryffindor." She said with finality in her voice.

"How fair is that!?" Ana half shouted. "Gryffindor isn't even playing, Slytherin is!" Ana set her spoon down on the table with a bit of force. "We didn't sit with Slytherin last match because Gryffindor was playing. Now we should sit with Slytherin because we are playing," the Italian turned in her seat and looked at the Gryffindor.

"Ana, I'm the seventh year, and I say we sit with Gryffindor." Hermione set down her form as well and turned toward the other girl.

"I'm not hungry," Ana pouted as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Fine, then let's go. That doesn't change where we're sitting tonight, Ana." Hermione stood and began walking toward the door followed closely by Ana.

"Hermione, that's not faiiiiir," she groaned. "And Slytherin is have a party after, if we don't sit with them we can't plan about it… Hermione come on, please."

"Ana, Gryffindor is a little more excepting toward outsiders. How do you think the Slytherins would respond if a…. mudblood… sat with them during a Quidditch match?" Hermione responded calmly.

"If you're with me, they won't say anything, I promise."

Hermione had stopped walking so Ana turned the end of her sentence into a plea- it appeared the Head Girl was being swayed. "Is that a yes?" She waited a minute but the older girl never responded. "Hermione?" Ana then looked passed Hermione to see why she had come to a halt.

There, against the wall, was none other than Ron Weasley, leaning forward against Lavender Brown.

Hermione stared in shock as she watched her boyfriend kiss and grope another girl.

"Well, Ana, it looks like we will be sitting with Slytherin at the match tonight," Hermione said through silent tears. She shook her head and began walking passed the sight she wished she'd never seen.

Ana staying in her place one moment longer, glaring at the boy that just realized he'd been caught.

"Hermione, wait!" He shouted after her. He let Lavender go and ran after his crying girlfriend. "Hermione, baby, please," he pled when he finally got next to her.

"Don't call me baby," Hermione spat, her tears flowing even stronger now.

"Hermione, I'm sorry, it… You told me to find someone…" The red head ran his hands through his tousled hair.

Hermione stopped in her tracks. "AND YOU TOOK ME SERIOUSLY!?" She screamed. "Go away, Ronald, I don't even want to look at you right now."

"I didn't mean to say that I took you seriously," Ron said in a whisper.

"Obviously you did mean to say that: you were just making out with Lavender Brown!"

"It's not like it's the fi- Hermione, seriously…"

"Don't 'Hermione, seriously' me, Ron. I'm not stupid. I know what you were trying to say. Leave me alone, I never want to talk to you again!!"

"Hermione, please, no," He begged.

"How long, Ron? How long has this been going on?"

"Hermione…"

"HOW LONG!?"

"Since…" He sighed as if he were being tortured, "the beginning of term… I- Hermione I'm so sorry." Tears spilled over the boy's eyes.

"Ha," Hermione shook her head, "that explains why you were so affectionate. Why you always called me baby. You didn't want to mix up our names, did you?" Hermione sniffled and wiped at the stream of tears. "It explains a lot." She began walking again, trying to get away from the boy that broke her heart.

"We can work this out," Ron sobbed. "We, we can get through this, Hermione. We can." He called from behind her.

Hermione stopped walking and turned towards him. Ana stood several feet behind him watching as two hearts broke. "And you think I want to do that? You think I want to be with someone that I loved with my entire being, but they cheated on me? You think I want to work this out?! You're sadly mistaken. It's over, Ronald. Over." Hermione continued to sob as she tore passed the boy and toward Ana. Ana greeted the brunette with open arms and hugged her and ran her hands over Hermione's hair as she cried.

"It's okay, Hermione. He's not worth it, you're okay," the Italian cooed. Ana shot Ron a look that could have killed. Ron froze in his place and turned around, he walked away toward the Gryffindor tower, never looking back.

After several minutes Hermione sobs had disappeared and her tears had almost dried.

"Hermione, you should go to bed or something, you look exhausted," Ana said with hesitation.

"Ha," Hermione scoffed, "go to bed where? The Gryffindor tower? I don't think so…" The ran her hands through her hair and rubbed at her eyes.

"Hermione, that's it! You don't have to go to the Gryffindor tower! Go to the Heads Common Room!" Ana said with a lifted spirit.

"Ana, I can't sleep on a couch. Besides, Malfoy would probably be there. I couldn't sleep with the possibility of him coming in, he'd probably jinx me in my sleep!" Hermione said with a hint of a smile.

"Talk to McGonagall, I'm sure there are dorms attached." Ana smiled.

"Seriously, I doubt she'll let me." Hermione said skeptically.

"Well, it's either try and maybe be turned down, or just settle for going to see that scum in the Gryffindor tower… your choice." The Slytherin said casually.

"I guess I could ask. No point in not trying, right?"

"Right."

"Come on, come with me," Hermione said as she began walking toward the Headmistresses office.

Once they arrived Hermione said the password and entered.

"Hello Miss Granger, how may I help you?" Professor McGonagall asked with a tender voice.

"Well…." Hermione hesitated and Ana poked her in the ribs for encouragement.. "Well, professor, I was wondering…." She paused and ran a hand through her hair. "You see today I caught Ron Weasley, my ex-boyfriend, cheating on me with Lavender Brown, ma'am. And I couldn't stand to live or even go in the Gryffindor tower right now. I was wondering if I could move into the Heads Common Room, professor." Hermione said in with breath, so quickly that the Headmistress waited a second until she totally comprehended what the Head Girl had said.

"Miss Granger, of you course you can, but-"

"Thank you so much, professor! You won't regret it! I won't break any of the rules, and I won't do anything to make you rethink this," Hermione said with a smile on her face.

"I believe you, Miss Granger, you're an excellent student. But-"

"Well I should move my stuff in now, shouldn't I?" Hermione asked, no longer looking at professor McGonagall but at Ana instead.

"Miss Granger, you should know that-"

"I know, it is a privilege, I won't misbehave," Hermione said as she turned toward the door. "Thank you again, professor."

"Miss Granger, I'm trying to tell you-" Hermione had already left the office, the door shut behind her. "Trying to tell you Mr. Malfoy already moved in," the headmistress huffed. She shook her head, it was Hermione's own fault that she wouldn't listen…

"Hey, Caleb," Draco said as he walked toward the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, "wanna come help me get ready for tonight?" He asked as he approached Caleb Bones.

"Uh, yeah, sure. What do we gotta do?" Caleb asked as he stood from his spot at the table and began following Draco out of the hall.

"A lot. We have all booze and bud, but we need to set up the lights and the tables, move the furniture around, and place out all the alcohol." Draco said, mentally going through a check list.

"And this is going to take all the way until the match tonight?" Caleb questioned as the two Slytherins made their way to the dungeons.

"Well, no. But I don't want to be in here when Blaise or Ana comes in. So we do it now, get it done with, and then we're all set for the post-game festivities." The infamous Malfoy smirk spread across his face. "Okay, so, let's get to work."

The two boys worked quickly and silently as they prepared the Slytherin common room for the party it would host tonight. The couches and arm chairs were pushed against one wall, several small tables were set up against the opposite wall, and several flashing and colored lights were scattered throughout the room.

"Where are we going to put all the booze?" Caleb asked once all the furniture was arranged.

"…On the tables? Where else would we put it?" Draco retorted. He took a deep breath and then began again. "We're going to put the hard liquor over here, the medium stuff here, and the girly drinks there," the Head Boy said, motioning to a different table with each grouping. "Notice the girly drinks are closest to the boys dorm," he said with a wink.

After about an hour and a half, the Slytherin common room was completely ready to host a very large, very rowdy party. Draco looked the room over one more time and then patted Caleb on the back.

"Good job, man. This is going to be a good party, I can feel it." He smiled a crooked smile and then left the dungeons.

Draco didn't know where else to go since the common room no longer welcomed him and his friends no longer acted like his friends, so Draco went to the only place he could: the heads common room.

As he walked in, he was met by the sound of sniffling and sobbing.

"What are you doing, mudblood?" He spat the Head Girl. Hermione was laying on the couch with puffy red eyes and a tear stained face.

"I'm crying, ferret, what does it look like?" She snapped.

"What happened to you?" He asked, a hint of revulsion in his voice. He made a face that could only be described as disgust.

"Ron cheated on me with Lavender Brown. Right in front of my eyes…" She whispered through another sob. "He's been cheating on me since the beginning of term," she sobbed.

"Just because I happened to be standing here when you were crying, and I happened to ask- without any real interest mind you- what was wrong, doesn't mean I don't hate you, okay?" He barked. "Deal with it in your own common room, don't bring your filthy love problems here, no one here cares."

"First of all, you disgusting, heartless ferret, this is my common room; I moved into the dorms in here. Secondly, don't tell me you hate me and that you don't care what happens to me." Draco scoffed so she continued to explain. "Sure, you hate me, duh, that's obvious. But the thing is, and maybe you don't even notice, but you do care. Hate is not apathy. It is not indifference. Hate is a very passionate emotion, Malfoy. You care what happens to me because, whether it's good or bad, it affects you. If it's bad, you get to torment me, make fun of me, torture me. If it's good, you get to find a way to make it seem horrible, to make me feel bad. So don't tell me you don't care, Malfoy! One day you're going to realize just because you hate me, doesn't mean that you care any less about me. You still talk about me the same amount anyways. So get the fuck off your high horse and realize your own feelings. If you really feel hate toward me, you should probably know what hating someone entails." Hermione screamed at the Head Boy, her tears never forgetting to fall.

"You really view the world through tinted eyes, Granger." Draco shouted back at her. "Hate is hate. Obviously if I hate you, I'm not going to care why you're crying."

"My eyes aren't tinted, yours are just shut. Open your goddamn eyes!" She screeched as she stormed into her new bedroom and slammed the door.

Hermione followed Ana as they descended the Quidditch stands. She listened as the Slytherins talked excitedly amongst each other about winning the match against Ravenclaw, the party, and who's having sex with who. She tried to keep to herself and not look anyone in the eye for fear that all hell would break loose when a Gryffindor sat in the Slytherin section. Luckily, she made it out alive.

As the first year and seventh year made their way back to the castle Hermione did everything she could to keep her mind off of Ron and the other Gryffindors.

"Hey, Hermione, you going to drink tonight?" Ana asked, also trying to distract the Head Girl.

"I don't know… I still feel bad doing it, I mean, I'm Head Girl, ya know?" Hermione responded, mentally weighing her options.

"Yeah, but," Ana said with a smirk, "the best way to get over a boy is to drink him away."

The two laughed as they entered the dungeons.

The second they were in the dungeons, loud, thumping bass could be hear. As they got closer to the Slytherin common room, the thumping got louder and louder and eventually several words could be picked out from the jumble.

Ana said the password and the two girls entered the wall of loud music and flashing lights. Other than those lights, the common room was dark, a nightclub-esque environment.. The music was clearly rap, but Hermione had never heard it before, so she decided it had to be wizard-rap which, to her, was just plain funny.

"Take your coat off, stay awhile," Ana said as she took off her own coat and set it on a arm chair that was apparently the designated spot.

Hermione took off her coat and looked around the room self consciously.

"Drinks! Let's go get some!" Ana announced. She grabbed Hermione's hand and began pulling her through the growing crowd of people toward the drink table.

Hermione began to stop when she saw a table of an assortment of different colored drinks. "Let's have some of these," she suggested.

"Ha-ha, oh Hermione, no way. Those are the girly drinks." Ana laughed.

"And? We are girls ya know."

"Yes, but we want to get you drunk, remember?"

Hermione caved in and allowed Ana to drag to the table of hard liquor.

Draco walked into the common room with the rest of the Quidditch team nearly forty-five minutes after the match. Freshly showered and in clean clothes, he began scanning the room for hopefuls.

He noticed Ana was preoccupied with Hermione and, after the initial shock of seeing her, silently thanked the Head Girl for keeping Ana way from him.

After scanning the room and finding several girls that might suffice, he made his was to the drinks table. He bee lined straight for the hard liquor and picked up a bottle of vodka.

Several shots later he was approached by Pansy Parkinson.

"What do you want, Pansy?" He asked in a bored voice.

"You," she replied in her best impression of seductive- it wasn't.

"Stop, I'm trying to enjoy my victory party," he said, downing another shot.

"So enjoy it with me, upstairs," she purred less than an inch from his ear.

"No, Pansy. I never wanna see you naked again, capisce?" He said with a slight drawl.

"That's a lie, you'll come crawling back." She said with a wink

"No, no I won't. I'm very much done with you. And FYI, you aren't even that good in bed." He said before he downed another shot and walked away, leaving Pansy standing with her mouth hanging open.

He then made his way into the far corner of the room where a distinct aroma filled the air. Once he got there, he saw Caleb was also in the corner.

"Caleb, you get high?" Draco questioned.

"There's a first time for everything," Caleb replied. With each word a slither of smoke spilled from his mouth.

"Ha, you devil," Draco laughed. "Pass that here." Draco took a couple hits off of the joint and then went back toward the other end of the room where Hermione and Ana were sitting on a couch laughing hysterically.

"Here, have one more," Ana slurred to Hermione.

"I think I had enough," Hermione slurred back.

"Come on, one more won't hurt you," the younger girl encouraged.

"Okay, one more," Hermione said before she took one more shot of fire whiskey.

"See, you don't need Ron, do you? You got me, you got our friend whiskey, fire whiskey," Ana said with one cocked eyebrow. "You're pretty much set for life," she laughed.

"And besides," Hermione said through heavy slurs, "Ron wasn't even good in bed! I at least deserve that. Lavender can have fun with it." The two girls burst into laughter.

"WAIT!" Ana almost shouted. "You and Ron had SEX!?"

Hermione wasn't even embarrassed, that's how she knew she was drunk. "Well, I'm not some saint, Ana. I'm a seventeen year old girl, I have hormones." She said very seriously.

"I can't take you seriously through your slur. You're so drunk, Hermione." Ana said through a fit of giggles. Hermione glared at the Italian for half a minute and then smiled. "Why was Ron bad? Small penis?" Ana asked, nodding her head.

Just as Hermione was about to answer she felt a third body sit down on the couch. Since she was turned toward Ana she couldn't tell who it was. Well, until she heard the voice.

"Of course Weasel has a small dick, and probably doesn't last long either," Draco drawled, trying to annoy Hermione.

"Very true on both accounts," Hermione laughed as she turned toward the blonde.

Draco leaned back in surprise. "So you had sex with him?" He slurred.

"What, does everyone think I'm some saint? I'm seventeen for Pete's sake, I HAVE HORMONES!" She shouted.

Draco slowly nodded his head in acceptance, "Very reasonable… but seriously, Granger, you continue to surprise me."

"Yeah, I've been told something like that before," Hermione giggled. "But in all seriousness," she tried to straighten her body, but instead got herself into a very awkward, very uncomfortable position, "I don't even know if you can consider it sex. He was horrid. Sometimes even just him kissing me was painful." She cringed and shifter her weight again. But this time her weight shifted right off the couch. She opened her eyes really wide but then just shrugged her shoulders and folded her legs under her. "I had bruises on my collar bone, and let's just say it's not a hickey. And I didn't even know that kind of thing was possible," she added from the floor.

"You are a mess, Hermione," Ana stated. "You need to go back to your room!"

Ana laughed even harder as she watched Hermione attempt to stand.

"Draco, really, you need to help her I think."

"Fine, fine. We're going to the same place anyway." Draco said as he stood from the couch and placed a hand under Hermione's elbow and helped lift her to a standing position. "Can you walk?"

She laughed and nodded. "I'm not a child, I can do it myself."

The Head Boy and Girl then left the Slytherin common room and began heading home.

They walked in silence until the third floor.

"Granger, um, thanks for keeping Ana away from me tonight," Draco said quietly.

Hermione didn't respond at first, she was in such shock that Draco Malfoy had just thanked her.

"Um, I didn't really mean to do it, but you're welcome." She said with a shrug. "I don't think I like when you're drunk." She added as they approached the fourth floor platform.

"Why?" The Slytherin questioned with fake hurt.

"You seem….nice or something. Thoughtful."

"Well, you know what they say."

"What? What do they say?" Hermione asked, confused by Draco's response.

"They say 'a drunk mind speaks a sober heart.'" He said with a shrug. "I guess when some people are sober, they just aren't good at communicating their thoughts."

Hermione made a face and then looked at him as they approached the portrait hole. "Last time I saw you drunk, you called me a mudblood." Hurt flashed for a brief second across her eyes.

"That doesn't count. I had thrown up, therefore I wasn't drunk anymore," he said, pointing his finger at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She said as they entered the Heads common room.

"It's doesn't mean anything in specific. Stop trying to read into things that are just blunt statements. You're going to drive yourself crazy overanalyzing things." He said as he leaned against the back of the couch.

"Oh, I already do," Hermione quickly said. She took a deep breath. "That's why I hang out with the people I do: they pretty much always do the predictable thing, ya know? There isn't really much they do that is up for interpretation. That's why the Ron thing hit me so hard. He did do things that, looking back, were so obvious he was cheating on me, but since he was so… safe… before, I didn't notice." She shrugged again. "Maybe that's why I hate everything about you," she confessed, "because you baffle me with everything you do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Hermione smiled and, imitating Draco's earlier words, said "It's just a blunt statement."

And with the she turned and walked into her dormitory.