A/N: okay here's chapter 3 and I've decided to put Draco as Amanda's cousin.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the characters, if you ever read dreadful sorry I'm going to combine the two so I don't own the plot either…

Fall to Pieces

Chapter 3

"I came back to wait for your lesson to end so you and Hob could meet. I thought you would like Hob, but I didn't expect you'd totally fall for him like this!" Amanda said with a big smile on her face.

Hermione laughed it off. "Head over heels, but you know what a klutz I am.". She glanced up at the boy…not a man as she had first thought. His sheer bulk had misled her, but she saw now he was probably her own age. He was built like a quidditch player, tall, stocky, and solid. His hair was brown and curly, His face seemed for a moment just as familiar. Where have I seen before?

There was a sudden rush of wind and, oddly, a smell of salt as if an ocean breeze had somehow traveled far inland, wafting across the Ohio valley. "Hob…" She breathed the name softly, holding out her hand to him.

Amanda snorted. "Not Bob! I told you, it's Draco." Hermione looked at Amanda with a confused look. Amanda laughed. "You need formal introductions or something? Okay. Hermione this is my cousin Draco Malfoy. Draco, this vision of grace is the best friend I was telling you about, Hermione Granger."

Hermione pulled her hand back and glared at Draco. However, when she first saw him, he looked different but now that she is looking at him, he was the same pureblood slytherin that she knew from Hogwarts

What's wrong with me?

His gray eyes met her brown ones, and her stomach felt hollow. "I'm so sorry." She whispered. She couldn't believe she just said that. Why was she sorry?

The salt wind receded. Amanda stared at her, incredulous. There was an uncomfortable silence. Then Draco reached down and picked up Hermione backpack. "Here you go."

She glared at him slung the pack over her shoulder. "Thanks." Hermione stood there awkwardly. "Sorry…I mean, I was just in a hurry." The inexplicable guilty, hollow shame…the same feeling in the pit of her stomach that she'd felt in the headmistress's office…was gone, and now she felt like a complete idiot. I could die! wasn't plowing into him bad enough? Do I have to sound like an idiot, too?

Amanda began chattering about her weekend plans. "I want Draco to meet everybody." she said, "but he have to wait till later because our whole family's going to Lake Pymatuning for the weekend. But when we get back, I'm going to have a party. Draco's probably going to be here the whole summer, isn't that great?"

Hermione couldn't help to think 'Greaaaaaat,' sacristy. Having regained her composure, she gave Amanda her most dazzling smile. 'If Draco is going to pretend to be nice I could do the same and she's my best friend'.

"Listen, I've got to get home." Now she was eager to get away. "I'll see you guys when you get back from Lake Pymatuning. Bye, Amanda. Bye, Hob."

'Oh, I've done it again. "I mean Mal…Draco." Face flaming, Hermione flapped a hand at them and took of at a run across the lawn in front of the school. She could feel Malfoy's eyes watching her. She didn't slow down till she reached Mill Road, then she walked her long…legged lope down the big hill to Route 21.

Hermione didn't notice her mothers red sports car until her mother tooted the horn and pulled up to the curb. Hermione looked up, startled. Her pale cheeks flushed as she approached the car.

"I left the office early today." Jenny told her daughter in greeting. "So I thought I'd wait at the school till your swim lesson ended and give you a lift. But you're early today, too."

"Coach Hawthrone let me out early." The lie slipped out effortlessly. Hermione slid into the front seat and snapped her seatbelt. She glanced nervously at jenny, who was dressed immaculately in cool beige linen, her brown hair moussed into careful disarray. Jenny always looked radiant. "I think Coach Hawthrone had a dentist appointment," Hermione improvised, then felt a flash of anger at herself for lying.

Why can't I tell my mom the truth? I'm never going to swim, and that's that.

Hermione's mother was a partner in downtown law firm. She was very successful and enjoyed both her high…powered job and the fact that she was one of the very few women in her firm who had risen so fast and so far. She used her maiden name, Hayes, and was pleased that her secretary was a man. Her hours were usually long, and she brought casework home every night. She often left the house early in the morning, even before Hermione finished breakfast, and returned home around six in the evening. It was Hermione's job to get their dinner started. The two of them would chat over dinner and then do the dishes together.

Hermione wedged one foot at the side of the dashboard and glanced over at her mother. "So how come you left early?"

"I'm going to dinner with a new lawyer at the firm. So I just told my secretary to divert all my calls and decided I'd come home early to get ready."
"Must be a very important new lawyer. Is it a man?"

"Yes," Jenny kept her eyes on the road.

Hermione looked at her mother and tried to smile naturally. "Rich and handsome?"

Jenny raised her eyebrow. "this is strictly a business dinner." Then she glanced over at Hermione and grinned. "I know you. You're wondering when I'll run off with Mr. Right, aren't you? Well. I promise I'll let you know when I find him." The grin turned into a smirk. "But don't you think one puppy…dog…eyed parent…in…love at the time is enough."

Hermione ignored this reference to her recently remarried father. Her mother was always laughing at her father.

Jenny stopped the car at a light. "So? How was it today?"

"What?" I made a fool of myself, that how it was. And not just at the pool.

"Your lesson, of course. How did it go?"

"Fine I guess." I cant believe I thought Malfoy was someone else.

Jenny accelerated smoothly. "You got in the water, I hope?"

"Of course, Mom." Why did I call him that bizarre name?

"Did you even get your hair wet?"

Hermione frowned at her mother. "Of course! I even dried my hair afterward, just like a good sensible girl."

"All right." Jenny turned off Route 21 and drove around the bend into Valley. "I'm glad there's progress. Really , I wish you'd told me years ago that you couldn't swim. I would have sworn you could. I mean, we never went swimming together, but I just assumed…Well, we've been all through that. What really gets me is the lie. Forgery, Hermione! Really! And you with a mother in criminal law. " She pulled the car into their driveway and cut the engine. "If you're worried about something, I wish you'd talk to me about it. That's the way people solve their problems in this world. By talking things over and formulating solutions."

"You make everything into a business meeting." Immediately Hermione regretted her sharp tone. Her mother was only trying to help her.

Hermione escaped to her room and lay on the bed and burrowed her head into her pillow. Thank God it was Friday. No swim lessons tomorrow. Maybe she'd see Michael…go to a film or something Saturday night, if her mother let her go. She need to do something fun.

I need to feel Hob's arms around me again….

She sat up abruptly. Across the room on her desk lay the most recent letter from her father, still unanswered. Maybe I should just go to Maine after all.

The phone on her bedside table jangled now, but even as she rolled over to answer it, the ringing stopped, her mother must of picked it up.

Then she heard footsteps running up the stairs. There was a perfunctory tap on the door before Jenny threw it open. She stood there hands on her hips. "You lied to me, Hermione! Again!"

"What do you mean?" But of course she knew.

"That was Coach Hawthrone on the phone." Jenny came into the room and sank into Hermione's bed. "She said you have refused all week to do anything more then get your feet wet."

"That's not true…I've gone up to my thighs." Hermione's stomach contracted at the memory.

"Your thighs!" Jenny face was flushed.

Hermione took a deep breath. She knew this would happen sooner or later. "I did get in at the shallow end, but that's all I've been able to manage." She shrugged , glancing up at jenny. "Look, I'm sorry."

"You should be ashamed of such silliness. Its infantile. You cant keep on this way."

Hermione covered her face with her hands. "I cant!" She had to take a stand this time. "You and Coach Hawthrone and Mrs. Higley don't understand. You cant make me! I cant even make myself!" Hermione dropped her head so her mother wouldn't see she was trying not to cry.

Jenny frowned. "Now look, pull yourself together. Stop acting like some hysterical child. I had no idea you had become this…weak."

Hermione cheeks were wet. There was a humming in her ears. 'look." she said very quietly. "I just have this feeling that I'll die if I go into the water. I know I will."

Jenny brushed her hair out of her eyes and glanced at her wristwatch. "Look, enough of this. Your dinner will be ready in a minute, and I've got to get going." She stood up. "Come down and eat."

Hermione bit her lip. She took a deep breath and forced the usual calm to come back over her. The tuneless humming in her ears faded away. She was in control again. "Okay, Mom." she said stoically.

Jenny stepped into the hall, then turned back. "But Hermione?"

"What?"

"No more lies. I don't like you hiding things from me. I want you back to normal."

Hermione flopped into her bed and lay back on the pillows, feeling battered. But as soon as she closed her eyes, Draco Malfoy face swam before her, his puzzled gray eyes watching her. She sat up abruptly, covering her ears to stop the sudden humming.

Back to normal? But how?

A/N: Please review!