Author's Note: I have returned with another installment to Whispers. I just went to an anime con on the weekend and while not only did I return broke but I came back with some souvenirs that happened to include the Gensomaden Saiyuki box set of DVD's. And I happen to like episodes 40 and 41 the best. This story is based off of Goku's pestering of Konzen to give him a name.

Summary: -Draco/Hermione- To fear a person is to fear the name and vice-versa.

Disclaimer: Seeing as I just spent my hard earned money at an anime con, I clearly have no rights to Harry Potter (or Saiyuki) because if I did, I wouldn't be complaining about my lack of money.

Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.

Those words became something like a mantra to me. I chose to use names so that I would not fear the thing that owned the name. I was not a coward who chose to give some sort of fearful reverence to a fool who thought himself above others. I would not bow down to a man who was nothing more than a coward himself. I chose to use that name so that I could be strong. I didn't want to be a coward.

One day, as I sat by the lake catching up on my reading, I was joined by the one person who could make my blood boil with so much as a glance. He took a seat beside me and I studiously ignored him. I didn't know why he was here and I didn't care; I wanted to read. Yet his very presence irritated me. Why did he have to interrupt my lovely afternoon by the lake?

"Go away," I said coldly without looking at him.

"I have as much right to be here as you," he said with a shrug. Oh, how he reveled in my discomfort! He glanced sideways at me. "Why are you being so cold to me anyway? I thought we were…friends."

Friends.

That is not the word I would have chosen to describe us. Yet it was an uncomfortable compromise of what we were becoming now and what we had been. We were not quite enemies anymore (at least, not in private) but we were not really chummy with each other either. We did not go for one another's throats but we didn't interfere with anyone else who did. 'Friends' was an uncomfortable compromise between the things we were and had been because we didn't know quite what we were now.

"You thought wrongly then didn't you?" I replied icily. "Is there something you want?"

"Not really…I just thought I'd like to sit here by the lake."

I didn't respond right away. "Why'd you come without your little Death Eater friends?" I asked spitefully. I knew his face had flushed without even looking. "You're never without them."

"I didn't want them to blight this lovely scenery," he said coolly.

"Oh, so they're a blight on this world now are they? And what does that make you? Are you a blight as well? And what of your so-called Dark Lord Voldemort? Is he a blight too?"

I was deliberately goading him and I knew it was not a very smart move. He stiffened with every sentence and for a moment I thought he was going to yell at me if not hex me straight into next week. Still, I couldn't stop my bitterness from poking forth into my words which were now being thrown at him since he was conveniently sitting here too.

"There's no reason to get so angry," he said. He was doing an admirable job at keeping his temper but I wondered for how long that would last. He stretched out on the grass and folded his arms across his chest. "Just because I think my 'little Death Eater friends' as you put it," he said slowly, "Would mar this lovely scenery does not mean it would be ruined with the Dark Lord here."

"He's just like them," I spat, "Except worse."

Draco looked over at me. His long and pale face was completely expressionless although his voice was kept carefully neutral. "It is a matter of perspective. I think the Dark Lord could do wonders for this world while you think he is a stain on it."

I closed my book with a snap. He pretended not to notice that and that made me even angrier. My eyes blazed at him yet his eyes were amused. "This conversation is over. I don't care if you think Voldemort would make this scenery nicer; you are just as misguided as he is." I stood to leave.

"Why do you use his name?"

That question caught me off guard and I paused mid-step. I didn't glance at him when I replied. "I use his name because I'm not afraid of him. He holds no power over me."

Draco sat up and peered at me curiously. "Are you so sure of that?"

I turned slowly and glared at him. I hated myself for thinking he looked quite handsome with the way the sun hit him. "I am one hundred percent certain of that."

"For someone as smart as you, you're actually quite stupid." Draco stood up and held up a hand to forestall my protests. "Think about it Hermione. This isn't a matter of fearing him or revering him or anything like it. You use his name because you want to feel in control; you are afraid of him and that fear scares you. To have control over the fear he inspires in you, you use his name. By using his name in defiance to gain control over your fear he himself holds power over you without doing anything at all."

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself," I said automatically.

"Stop lying to yourself." Draco said impatiently. "You fear his name. You fear the Dark Lord and honestly, you're right to fear him. I fear him. Everyone fears him. There is nothing wrong with fear even if it is of a name."

"I am not afraid of a coward," I said but my voice trembled slightly. Draco advanced on me and I took an automatic step backwards.

"Do you know why we have names?" he asked. His voice was low and soft, giving the illusion of safety. I bit my lip and hugged my book to my chest as though it could protect me from what he was saying.

"We have names because…they are ways of telling each other apart. They allow us to respond to someone specific." I wasn't sure where he was going with this.

"Those are some reasons we have names but they are not the reason we are given names. Surely you know why we are given names at birth. It's not a very difficult thing to answer. Do tell me why." His eyes were sharp and I had to force myself to stand my ground. When I remained silent he sighed and answered his own question. "We are given names because someone loved us. Someone in the world cared for us enough to give us a name."

I said nothing in response to this so he continued.

"What we do with our names is up to us. We can make our name into one to be feared; one that parents invoke to frighten their children or one that demands reverence for fear of punishment. We can make our name into a beloved one where no one fears to speak to us or speak of us."

"What are you trying to say?" I demanded. "Are you trying to tell me that I fear a name and a person?"

"The two are interlinked," he said coolly, "To fear a person is to fear the name and vice-versa. People are not things," he added slyly. "Names give people power; how we use the power of our name is up to us."

"So what you're saying is that Voldemort was loved enough by someone that they gave him his name. Then, as he grew, he used the power of his name to fashion it into something everyone would fear and revere at the same time?" This was all so confusing because now everything was interlaced with each other. I knew that he had hated his name; is that why he changed it into what it is now? By changing his name into something fearful he was able to come as far as he had in his attempts to purify the Wizarding world and gain superiority over Muggles.

Everything was interlaced.

"That is exactly what I am saying. You catch on pretty quickly," he said admirably. He advanced on me again until we stood nose to nose. His breath was warm and his voice was soft. "It's perfectly fine to fear him and his name. I fear him too."

And then he leaned forward to kiss me softly.