A/N: You guys ROCK! Ummmmmm...now that you've proved you can handle ten reviews, can we try for fifteen? Pretty please? I'll be really happy... To answer a question that someone asked me, This takes place about halfway through sixth year. I am ignoring HBP completely, because I hated it.

Disclaimer

Chapter 12: Q & A

The next day I dragged Malfoy into my room as he was walking by on the way to his next class.

"What the hell was that, Potter? I'm going to be late for Transfiguration."

"You can be a little late. I wanted to ask you something before I go to see Dumbledore."

"Yeah? And you think that whatever this is, I'll know the answer?"

"Well, I'm positive that you'll at least know more than I do. What do you know about Daemons?"

He froze. "Why would you want to know anything about them?" He spat out the word 'them' as he used to do with my name.

"Because Hermione thinks that I'm one of them."

"You aren't."

"How would you know?"

"Because Daemons are violent, and predominantly evil, with a taste for blood."

I was willing to bet that this was why Ron had been scared.

"Okay...Aside from that, anything else you know about them?"

"Well, they have an extremely sensitive sense of smell, and they can hear about five times better than most humans. They also have some weak metamorphagus abilities, but they have to physically die before they come into any of their powers. They remain dead for two to three weeks before they reawaken, even though they never really come back to life-" He stopped. "Oh, shit."

"Yeah." Even though I hadn't told him everything about my heightened senses, he had a good enough idea to know that he was pretty much describing what had happened to me.

"Have you told anyone else?"

"Hermione was the one that figured it out, and we told Ron last night. We're going to tell Dumbledore after dinner."

"Don't."

"Why not?"

"Just trust me, that's the last thing you want to do. It's bad enough that you told the Weasel."

"Don't call him that." I said it out of reflex, then I thought about what he had just said. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that by now probably half of Gryffindor will have heard about how you're a Daemon."

"Ron won't tell them, and anyway, does it really matter?"

"Yes. The world is very prejudiced when it comes to...your...species." He sounded pained when he came to the part about 'my species'.

"How do you know so much about Daemons, anyway?"

"You forget who I work for. The Dark Lord made it a point to get the Daemons on his side in the last war. My father told me about them."

"Ah. Advantages of being a Death Eater's son, huh?"

"You could call it that."

"All right. I won't tell Dumbledore if you really think it would be a bad idea. I trust your judgement."

"Good. I'll see you later, ok?" If I didn't know better, I would have said he was nervous.

"Ok. Try not to get detention for McGonagall."

"I won't."

And with a final smirk, he left.

BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK

For the rest of my free period I talked to Hermione. Finally the tension between us started to really annoy me and I decided to confront her about the book.

"Hermione, what else was there about Daemons in that book?"

She fiddled with her quill nervously. "Nothing. Why do you ask?"

"Because you're lying. I can smell it." I decided to be completely honest with her.

Hermione looked at me with more than a little fear in her eyes. "It-it said..."

"That Daemons are bloodthirsty evil creatures that revel in the joy of the kill?"

"No!"

"You're lying again."

"O-okay, it said something like that..."

"Do you believe I'm like that?"

"Of course not, Harry! I just wasn't sure if-"

"Hermione, this is starting to get on my nerves. Tell me the truth or leave."

"What do you want me to say, Harry? That I'm scared to death of you?"

"Are you?"

"No-well-maybe-I mean-I don't know!"

I sat back and smiled. "That wasn't so hard, now was it? Telling the truth for once? Now, let me enlighten you. I am, as far as I can tell, one of these Daemon things. I might not be a pushover anymore, but that doesn't mean that I'm a bloodthirsty monster. I don't plan on killing you if you make me mad, and I don't want you to think that I would."

Hermione was fighting back tears. I almost felt sorry for her. Almost. Really, if she had absorbed anything she read in that book then she should have realized that she couldn't lie to me anymore. I awkwardly said goodbye and left her in the library cradling her Potions book.