A/N: Sorry for the delay. Power was out all day yesterday and it went out while I was typing this and I lost it. So I had to retype it all and is the reason why it is late.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 20

The next morning Hermione woke up screaming with tears rolling down her face. She had a terrible nightmare involving Draco. She hugged her knees to her chest and cried. Draco felt something was wrong and came running into her room. He sat on her bed and wrapped his arms around her. He tried to calm her down but it didn't work. The nightmare only kept replaying in her mind.

Hermione was standing in the middle of the Great Hall. There were people all around, surrounding her and Draco. The only person she was focusing on was Draco who was angry and staring directly at her.

"You are a pathetic Mudblood! I can't believe I ever fell for you. Why don't you just be with you blood traitor and leave me alone. I never want to see you face again!"

The scene around them changed to their common room. "Why are you doing this, Draco?" Hermione begged as she began to cry. "I thought I meant something to you."

"You never meant anything to me. I never had any real feelings for you. It was only Nero wanting Cassandra. How could I ever want someone like you?"

And that's all it was. Soon, Hermione pushed it to the back of her mind behind a locked door. She wiped away her tears and looked at Draco. But he didn't appear the same anymore after that.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine", she answered as she pulled out of his arms and walked into her bathroom.

Draco sat on her bed trying to figure out what he had done wrong for her to act like that toward him. Hermione stayed in the shower for a long time. She stood in the warm water trying to make sense of the dream. She decided it was nothing more than a simple nightmare and she shouldn't worry about it. Finally, Hermione stepped out of the shower and dried herself off. She walked over to the mirror and wiped away the fogginess from the steam. She spell dried her hair and stared at her image. She hated the way her hair looked and wished it would be easier to manage.

As she gazed at her reflection, she imagined her hair pin straight. And before her eyes it happened. She touched her hair and pulled it in front of her face to see if it really happened. Her hair was straight! She looked back into the mirror and imagined it short and green. It happened. Hermione couldn't believe she was a Metamorphagus. She continued to play around with her new power trying different styles and colors. She temporarily forgot about her nightmare and enjoyed herself. Before she reentered her bedroom, she settled on her curly hair but they were softer and better looking.

As she walked back into her room, Draco wasn't in there. He left to give her some privacy. Hermione proceeded to dress in her school uniform then left. Draco was sitting on the couch already dressed and ready to go.

"Hey, Mione, do you feel any better?" he asked.

When she looked at him, the image of him yelling at her flashed in her mind. "Um, yea, I'm better."

Draco looked at her and noticed her hair, "You hair looks beautiful. What did you do?"

"Oh, I am now a Metamorphagus", she replied with a smile.

Draco jumped off the couch, "Really? That's amazing! It just happened?"

"Yes", she replied.

For some reason, she felt uncomfortable being around Draco. She didn't know why but the nightmare really affected her. "Ok, let's go to breakfast." Maybe being temporarily away from Draco might help. Hermione led the way out of the dorm and Draco followed behind. He noticed a change in Hermione and wanted to know what was wrong. But he could tell she was in no mood to talk and didn't want to push her right now.

Hermione took her seat next to Harry at the Gryffindor table. Ron was seated a few people away next to Seamus which made her feel a little better. As Hermione began filling up her plate, Harry leaned over to her.

"Ron has been acting odd lately. He's been asking about you", whispered Harry.

"I've noticed. He came up to me after Potions yesterday and asked me if I was seeing anyone", Hermione replied.

"Do you think he knows?"

"I don't think so…or he doesn't know I'm with him."

Hermione had so much on her mind at that moment. First, there was the dream with Draco. Then there was Ron who was starting to catch on. Hermione had a feeling this wasn't going to end well. Hermione didn't know what to do. For the rest of the day, she didn't speak much to anyone not even to answer questions and she especially didn't speak to Draco. He kept trying to talk to her mentally but she kept shutting him out and locking her mind to him. This was starting to irritate Draco. He and Hermione shared everything with each other but not she was shutting him out.

During classes, Draco noticed Ron was staring at Hermione a lot and had this strange look in his eyes. It made Draco uncomfortable and he didn't like it. He wanted to go up and say something to him but he couldn't without raising questions. He hated keeping their relationship a secret.

After classes were finished for the day, Draco was determined to get Hermione to talk to him. When they entered the common room, Hermione started going straight to her bedroom when Draco stopped her.

"Hermione wait, can we talk?" he asked/

Hermione turned around to face him, "About what?"

"I just want to know what's been going on with you today. You've barely said a word all day and you've shut me out completely."

"I told you this morning I was fine", she replied.

"I saw Ron starring at you a lot during classes today. Is there anything going on that I should know about?" he asked crossing his arms across his chest.

"No Draco, because there is nothing going on between me and Ron, you don't need to worry about him", Hermione said defensively.

"I didn't say anything was going on between the two of you! I was wondering if he was up to something", Draco replied raising his tone a little.

"Don't raise you tone at me, Draco Malfoy!" Hermione snapped.

Draco rolled his eyes, "I wasn't trying to but you're being a little aggravating right now. You've ignored me all day and now I can't even have a proper conversation with you!"

Hermione tossed her book bag onto the couch as she started walking back to the portrait door, "I'm sorry I can't give you all of my attention to you, Draco. I'll see you later, if I come back." And then she was gone.

Draco stood in the middle of the room dumbfound, trying to figure out what had just happened. Hermione walked down the corridor fuming. She had no particular place in mind of where she was going but she just wanted to get away from him for the moment. As she walked, she couldn't really understand why she was so made at him but she wasn't going back there, at least not right now. Hermione didn't pay much attention to where she was walking and ended up outside of the Gryffindor Tower. She gave The Fat Lady the password and entered. When she walked into the common room, she didn't see any of her friends except for Ron. Reluctantly, she walked over to him and asked him where Harry and Ginny were.

"They're out on the Quidditch field", he replied.

Hermione nodded her head and left. She walked to the Entrance Hall to go down to the field. But once she was outside, she decided not to go bother them. Instead, she made her way to the lake to be alone. She sat by the edge of the lake and starred into it. An idea soon popped into her mind. She glanced around the grounds and saw no one around. She closed her eyes and turned into an otter. She opened her eyes and jumped into the water. She swam around and felt so free. As she glided through the water, Hermione felt no worries at all.

She remained swimming in the lake for a couple of hours. Hermione came back to land when the sun started to set. When she changed back to her human form, she was completely soaked from hear to toe. She pulled out her wand and dried herself off, but there was a faint smell of lake on her. Hermione walked back to the castle and heard everyone in the Great Hall for dinner. She was starving from the swim and entered the hall. She glanced over at the Slytherin table and saw Draco. She quickly looked away as she sat down with her friends.

"Everything alright, Mione?" Harry asked.

"Yep fine, perfectly fine", she replied without looking at him. Now wasn't the time to share everything with him Harry.

Hermione kept to herself all throughout dinner. She decided to return to her bedroom that night because she needed to wash the lake residue off her body. When Hermione entered the common room, Draco wasn't in there. She walked up to her room and straight into her bathroom without caring. Hermione stepped into the shower and cleaned her body off. When she stepped put, she glanced over to the large bath tub in the corner of the room she had never used all year. She walked over o it, turning on the water and adding scented bubbles before climbing in. She sank into the warm water and never wanted to leave it.

Draco sat on his bed wondering what he could do to fix what happened. They had their first fight. He was at a total lost of what to do. He needed someone to talk to. But instead of going to Snape, he grabbed some parchment and quill. He wrote a brief explanation of what had happened leaving out Hermione's name. When he was finished, he rolled it up and left his room to go to the owlery.

Soon after he left, Hermione finally left her bathroom refreshed. She slipped into her pajamas. She sat on her bed combing her hair when she thought about going and trying to talk to Draco. She finished her hair and left her room. Hermione stood in front of his door for a moment before knocking. She waited in silence before knocking again. "Draco, I just want to talk to you about what happened today. Could you please open the door?" When she still heard nothing, she returned to her room angry at him for ignoring her.

Draco finally reached the owlery and called his owl. A horned owl flew down and landed in front of him. "Take this letter to my mother", he ordered placing the letter in its beak. The owl stretched its wings and flew off through the open window. Once it was gone, Draco left himself to return to his room. As he entered the common room and walked up the stairs, he glanced over at Hermione's door. He walked over to it to knock but stopped himself. She probably didn't even come back after dinner of if she had, she wouldn't open the door. So, he turned away and went into his room instead. Hermione was too busy crying to hear him enter. Both of them had an uneasy night, barely seeing any sleep.

A little after ten, Ron waited in an empty classroom. He glanced at his watch. Just then, someone entered the room.

"What do you want, Weasley?" a girl asked.

"Parkinson, glad you agreed to meet me", he responded.

"You said it was about my Draco and how I could get him back. But what's in it for you?" Pansy asked stepping toward him.

"I want Hermione back."

"They're together?" she asked shocked.

"Yes, but don't tell anyone or this won't work. This stays between you and me."

"Alright then, what's the plan?"

Ron smiled at her and began.

A/N: There was going to be more in this chapter but I changed it to be a cliff hanger instead. :] Look for the next chapter early next week.