Chapter Eighteen:

New Alliances

In the darkness of the Dungeons, the artistic features of Draco's face now showed more by the fading candle light that was the only light in the room. Hermione had not noticed these features before, but suddenly caught on. What had gone on in the last couple of minutes, in the dark, had been very confusing to her. She had come here to talk, that was it, but she became aware of the fact that things were getting very far out of hand. Draco, in Hermione's opinion, seemed to be chasing something that was impossible to obtain: her.

"Draco," Hermione said gently. "What is it that you want?" She asked.

"I can't answer that," he stated. "You don't love me, Hermione, so it wouldn't matter at all anyway."

"Of course I don't love you, Draco." She said dumbly. "I love Harry more than anything, and I don't wish to leave him alone when I know he needs me. I will not stop loving him, for I can't stop. He is everything to me." She explained.

"I know I can not compare after all the torment I have cost you in the past." He said sadly. "I simply wished."

Hermione listened closely to his words. She felt her stomach turn over and twist into uncomfortable knots as her heart tore from every angle. These saying he said broke her heart, but the truth was she didn't love him at all. She did though, want his acceptance as a friend though, and then he had blew it out of proportion. In a split second he had started to lean down, hoping to steal just one last kiss from her lips, but when there were centimeters apart she drew away quickly. She took a step backwards, confused beyond all reasons.

"No, Draco," Hermione said flatly. "It's not fair. We are mere friends and that is all we'll ever be. We can't do this Draco, don't you see? I'd be destroying everything. I shouldn't even be here. This is betrayal to my love to Harry and nothing can change that." She said sadly. "I have wasted months worried about Harry and worried about you… I'm running out of time to enjoy my self and read in the gardens like I used to." She explained.

"But I don't understand something," he said sadly. "You kissed me, but why would you do that if you didn't love me?" He wondered. "I just don't understand."

Hermione paused without a word in her head. She had no idea what to say, or even think for that matter. She stood; looking like a burning flat iron has struck her across the face, when she had not seen this question coming. She barely breathed, fearing to say the wrong things and upsetting him. She had to face him at one point, though. The problem was she just could not look at his face without with out it tormenting her for hours after saying such things. She took a deep breath, held it for what felt like forever, and quietly let it out.

"I wasn't thinking," she said uneasily as her throat became dry and she began to gulp more now then recently.

"Bloody hell," he cursed. "You seemed to be completely in control and sober at the time it happened… a little after was the other way around though." He said, mumbling the last bit.

"Look, Draco," she said angrily. "I made a mistake. People do that. No one is perfect, and I am sick and tired from blaming myself so much!"

"You shouldn't blame yourself for anything, Hermione." He said calmly. "But you also shouldn't have attempted to drink your pain away either. It doesn't solve anything!" He insisted.

"It seemed like the only opportunity at the time!" She swore. "It seemed like the only way out, and I admit I am stupid, but I can't change what I have done." She cried. "Things just happen."

"There's always another opportunity, Hermione, if you think it out clearly." He said categorically. "You are smart, but you love the attention, and love making people pity and feel sorry for you." He said childishly.

"No I don't!' She yelled. "How can you think something like that?" She demanded. "You don't know me at all." She said angrily. "You're not who I thought you were… its good you're leaving. Good riddance!" She yelled.

"That's the point, Hermione!" Draco yelled back. "I don't know what to think anymore! I just think it, and I can't help myself from thinking it…. It just happens!" He said angrily. "Is that a CRIME now?"

"Draco, I can't make myself love you." She said flatly. "You're trying to make me love you, but I won't even dare try and love you because I don't want you." She growled. "Sweet words can't just make me fall for you. You can't just say a few loving words to me and expect me to be all 'Draco I love you!!' It doesn't work like that!" She explained. "I love Harry, I need him. Not only because I love him, but because without him I am nothing. I am weak."

"So basically you love him for his bravery?" Draco asked irritably. "One little smooch and you'll be rushed down into the world of the fames." He added. "Do you love him, or his fame? Oh wait, don't answer that. It must be fame."

Hermione's mouth hurt like she had been trying to eat steel. She crushed her teeth together so hard that her jaw was becoming tired. She stepped forward, anger running through her like a pack of angry wolves, as it cursed her veins. She felt her blood begin to boil with every word that he rudely spoke. She became unsettled and disturbed by his words. She stepped forward again, growling with silent balls of anger erupting within her throat, as she swung her hand at him. It flatly crashed against his face as he recoiled away, covering his bright, burning, red cheek with is own hand as she cried.

"Never," She said angrily. "I would never love someone for fame, you foul mouth pig!"

"Then why won't you love me?" He asked, practically forgetting she hit him. "I'm not famous."

"I already told you!" She said furiously. "I can't make myself love you, I either do or I don't. It's that simple! I JUST DON'T LOVE YOU!"

"But, I," He started. "I am fascinated with you. I love you, Hermione. Why can't you understand?"

"Malfoy," She replied acidly. "Me? Not understand? You're a Slytherin, a Death Eater, a PURE blood. I am none of those, it doesn't and it will never work between us. Why can't you understand that?"

He gave her a few moments to calm down, and she had rendered him speechless. She was right, and he realized it. He couldn't make her do anything that she didn't want to, but he wanted to try so badly. He didn't want to go down without at least one attempt to win her over. There they were, the game terms again, and he stood back and realized that through chess game terms were the only way to look over the situation. Draco was not even close to a gentleman, in Hermione's opinion. He was more of a monster.

"Potter," He stated sadly. "Is one hell of a lucky then, obviously, I have lost this battle." He groaned.

"It's not a battle!" She said instantly. "I am not an object up for grabs. Love isn't a game!"

"I know," he stated. "But, what if I changed? Then where would it be? Where would we be?" He asked.

"If you ever do completely change, let me know, and we can be friend, but until then I do not wish to see you." She said, finally turning for the door.

"Hermione, wait." He said.

"No." She said, turning back and looking appalled. "I'm sick of waiting!" She began to yell louder this time. "I waited for Harry to get out of prison, I waited for someone else to come save me from Ron as he was in prison, I waited for Harry and I to be alone once again, I waited over and over again… I will not stand here and wait for you to convince me we're in love." She spat like acid. "I hate you." She turned once again.

"Her-" He started.

"I'm going to the gardens to read. Leave me be!" She said gravely. "I don't wish to see you again. We've cause enough chaos."

"But-" He stopped once again.

By the time he had gone to respond, she was out the door and gone. He stared at the space where her footprints led out and he look down on them, heartbroken. She seemed so angry with him, when it was not only his fault, but hers too. She seemed to blame him for everything, well, not everything. She did say 'we' as in both Draco and she caused the chaos of their marriage. Draco had only one thing to do now: fix the problem before it could get any worse

Harry sat upon the bed in the Head Boy room, where he now intended on staying and not returning to the Gryffindor Common Room. He sat there, in silence, as he looked over what had just happened and suddenly he felt lost within the world itself. Why had she done this? Why had he not run after her after she had done so? His head pounded as the past events flooded his mine with impure thoughts and confusion on how to fix what had been broken. He flopped over on the other side of the bed and stood, walking towards the sliding door, and onto the balcony.

Harry rested his arms against the ice cold cement balcony and smelled the wind that struck him at full force. He could taste freedom in the back of his throat, but something about the past situation made him feel like this place was not home. It was dressed like home, but the Hermione that he knew and fell in love with would never had let herself fall for someone like Malfoy. It all seemed surreal and somehow staged as if this were a plan, but not even he could think of something as low as that. He was weak, and his weakness was beginning to drive him mad.

He took one last inhale and then looked down. He spotted her, sitting in the garden, crying upon a book, and felt his heart rip in two. Why had he not said something to her instead of just letting her walk out of his life like nothing ever happened? He needed her, more than anything, and it was she that stripped him of his innocence back at the burrow, and never regretted it. Not once. He worried over her for endless hours, hoping she was well and okay and she never once wrote to him again after two weeks were gone. He saw his letters on the stand next to her bed, all unopened.

He looked down on her still, and how beautiful her hair blew in the wind. How sweetly she attempted to read but everything that was going on gently flowed from her regretful tears. He sighed and knew what had to be done; he had to speak with her, for he did not blame her at all. He never wanted her to get hurt, and by saying that he meant physically or mentally, but now it seemed she had been hurt by a little of both. He was one reason why she was so broken hearted, and it was he that only had the power to put things back to the way they were and the way it was meant to be.

"Potter," Harry jumped a bit and turned around to see who had addressed him.

"Malfoy?" Harry asked, surprised. "What are you doing here? I thought you were leaving."

"Not till morning, but…" He stopped. "I came here to fix something."

"Fix something?" Harry wondered, and then remembered the past principals that had happened so quickly. "Fix what happened while I was gone, right?"

"Exactly," He said angrily. "Look, Potter, nothing will ever change that fact that I hate you, but that creature down there crying, well, I have a different look of her." He explained.

"You're in love with her." He said emotionlessly. "I know."

"Bloody hell, Potter," Draco spat. "Of course I love her! But that won't change the fact that she loves you more than anything in the world." He said sadly.

"How do you know this?" He wondered.

"I know this because after you fought, she came to me. I tried my hardest to win her heart and I failed. She told me she loves you and no one else. Now that poor heartbroken girl cries down there because she is worried you no longer love her for what we had done. Honestly, though, Potter it isn't as bad as it may come out to be." He explained. "We did nothing but kiss and it was only because I confused her into doing so."

"Why would you do something like that?" He asked, disgusted. "You knew she was engaged to me, didn't you?"

"Actually, I didn't know until after we did it." He said, looking at his shoes. "Funny, she never did wear a ring."

"Well…" Harry said, starting to lose focus. "I imagine she didn't want to lose it." He stated immediately.

"Potter, it was her perfect fit. She couldn't have lost it unless she took it off and threw it into the woods or the lake. Other than that, she would have lost it faster by leaving it where she left it." He said. "I saw it on her nightstand a few nights ago, I was wondering if that was her ring, but I didn't ask. Didn't figure it polite."

"Since when are you polite, Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Just because I'm a Slytherin doesn't mean I didn't learn manners. Frankly, I no longer wish to be a Slytherin, and that wonderful woman down there showed me how much better it was without evil in the world. Her, so pure and precise, and yet she won the heart of you, a fame sucking sponge."

"You're entitled to your opinion." He said angrily. "Though, it doesn't matter how hard you try, you'll still always be a snake." He said vehemently.

"Touché," Draco spoke suddenly. "Oh yes, I was supposed to be helping your relationship, how terrible of me to forget." He said. "Okay, well, here's the problem: I may be in love with her, but she pretty much has herself wrapped up in you. She does not wish to see me again, nor do I blame her." He said truthfully.

"I would have no control over it, but I wish she wouldn't see you either." Harry mumbled and then looked back up. "Anyway, go on." He insisted.

"Well," Draco continued, throwing him a heated glare. "I tried my hardest, but all she does it want things to go back to the way they used to be. All she wants is me to disappear, you and her to love one another again, for Weasley to come back into your trio and be how you guys were supposed to be." He stated. "Problem is I can't handle these lies anymore."

"Lies?" Harry wondered.

"You know," Draco said acidly. "It's funny how a stupid guy like you could end up with such a smart girl like her. She knows the truth, why don't you know yet?" He asked, irritated with himself. "I can't deal with this pretend-to-be-in-love bullocks. I hate that mudblood, I would never love her, and this is all a plan." He smirked. "Basically, when you find out the cold hard truth, you'll come after me, and of course, Potter, I will be waiting. I, though, will only merely look at you and laugh about how one small prank may have ruined your entire life." He laughed.

"You know the puzzles that I've been attempting to solve, don't you?" Harry asked angrily. "Who is the Minister of Magic? Why does no one know his name? Why does no one see him?" He asked angrily. "Tell me Malfoy, and never call her a mudblood again!" He demanded.

"Haha, but she is one, and no, figure it out yourself. No one knows his name because he doesn't want them to, and no one knows of his face because he masks it in public with another's." Draco said shortly. "You'll figure out sooner or later who it is, because your blood will soon be spilt upon his hands."

"Who is it?" Harry threatened. "Who is doing this?"

"Someone," Draco started. "You know quite well. Now, I must go finish the task I have been given." He said happily. "Oh, but don't worry, I don't need your help with it yet."

"Another plot to kill me, Malfoy? You really are running out of boring plans." He assured.

"Well, if Weasley hadn't been discovered then you would have been in jail longer, but because that clever witch remembered how to look into one's mind, you were put off the hook. I've run out of time, but I always have a secondary plan." He laughed evilly. "And, also, the mudblood will get what's coming to her also."

Author's Notes

Okay, here's the scoop: I caught mono. I have nothing to do but sleep all day and I am terribly sick, so please bear with my awful chapters. Second thing: I realize that this chapter is 90 percent talking and horrific (as in badly written), but I did promise a chapter, so to my reviewers I ask you if I should re-write this and replace it next week or is it good enough to move forward on? I want this story to be perfect, but I did make a promise and promises come before perfection. You guys are my wonderwall. Thank you, to all of you.

Airalynn

To My Reviewers

MoogleX – Don't worry, clearly, she does love Harry. See, no villain turns good; there is always a glitch in their reasons. Obviously, Draco is hiding something from you, and I, the writer, am the only one that knows what it is. Hahaha, lol, tune in. You'll see more, but I swear no more Draco/Hermione action.

toga party – That sounds extremely painful! OWWWW! Haha, I couldn't even imagine. But yes, I am back on task with this story! You must be real excited about that! Haha, now all I have to figure out is where to end it. I promise you, though, that I will not abandon it again. Someone has already stolen this story, and I do not intend on letting it happen again. By the way, can you do me a favor? Someone flamed my last chapter (his name is dark), you want to tell them off in your next review? I seriously have nothing to say to them. Thank you!

dark – MY REVIEWERS SAY IT ALL. --- Flamer

sakura-sweeti – Total cliffy just ended, you waited two whole days gasp have you survived? Haha, just kidding. I can't believe you like this story enough to print it off, most people read mine then read my sisters and then come back to me and basically tell me to kill myself because I'm not good enough. Yeah, real torture it is, haha. Like toga, I'll ask you for a favor too. A guy named "dark" flamed my last chapter. If you have anything to say to them about it, please do so… I'm too sick to say anything mean right now, like you probably read before: I have mono and I'm too weak to do anything. Thank you, though, for supporting me.

Atelophobia – Bai, you are nuts… haha. My story is really that bad? Lol… worse this is I can totally tell the pain you are going through. Lyke oh my gawd. Haha, I love it.

That's it! Hope you had a great weekend everyone!!!

Airalynn

UPDATED: (SUNDAY) MARCH 25, 2007

"The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say." Me