A/N:

Ahh! I can't explain how sorry I am that I haven't updated in SO long! =(((( Forgive me? I'm still working on writing this story, please don't think I've given up on it. I had horrible writer's block forever, and so I lost my motivation to try to work through it. I put the story down, and then when I finally picked it back up and looked at where I was stuck, it just clicked, and I somehow figured it out! And so I've been writing again alot.

That being said, please review and let me know what you think?

Chapter Three

When Hermione finally gained consciousness, she couldn't breathe. Her stomach and chest still felt constricted.

Gasping for breath, she sat up fast, causing a dizzy spell. She leaned over, throwing up, finally able to breathe.

"What happened?" She thought, looking around. Noticing the overturned furniture, she slowly started to remember the duel. She remembered the spell that Draco had put on her and looked down at herself.

Slowly, Hermione started unbuttoning her robe, and then untucked her shirt. Looking down at her stomach, she gasped. There were rings of bruises going across her stomach to her back. She hurriedly unbuttoned her shirt and saw that her chest was the same way.

"Oh, my God," She though. She felt her ribs, but none seemed to be broken.

"What kind of spell was that?" She said aloud to herself. The knowledge-loving part of her started to think about it.

After buttoning her shirt and putting her robe back on, Hermione stood up, surveying the damage. It actually almost didn't look any worse since it was an unused classroom used for storage space.

Sighing, she took her wand out and said, "Evanesco," pointing it at her mess on the floor.

Looking around the room, she started using household maintenance spells to put right the overturned furniture and put it against the wall, out of the way.

Hermione worked until she had finished her detention time. Holding back a yawn, she made her way to the seventh floor, to the Gryffindor common room. The portrait opened up to the password "Quidditch", and Hermione went up the stairs to the girl's dormitory, and almost crawled into bed. She was asleep before the pillow had compressed under her head.

The next morning when she woke up, Hermione was extremely sore. Her chest and stomach were so bruised and stiff; it felt like she had a cast on. She couldn't bend at the waist, which she found out when she dropped a pair of socks and she couldn't bend down to get them.

"Well, today's going to be fantastic," She thought. At least the patch on her eye was off. That was something to be happy about.

She had to walk slowly down the stairs to the Great Hall, wincing with every step. Finally, she made it.

Making her way to the Gryffindor table, she glanced over at the Slytherins. Draco was over there with his friends, but he was watching her make her way slowly and stiffly to where Ron and Harry were waiting for her.

Surprisingly, Draco didn't seem to be making any snide remarks about her to his friends or anything. All he did was watch her, as if he were studying her. He looked her up and down a few times, taking note of her stiff walk, and nodding to himself.

"What is he doing?" Hermione thought to herself as she sat down gently.

"What's wrong Hermione?" Ron asked, shaking Hermione out of her thoughts.

Hermione smiled at him. "It's nothing Ron, just lifted a lot of heavy things last night during detention."

"Didn't that git help you?" Ron asked.

"Not really," answered Hermione, thinking about what had really happened last night. All she could think about was the spell Draco had used on her and how strong it was. "Where did he learn that?" She thought to herself. They certainly hadn't learned that in a class; it was definitely Dark magic.

She wondered how it would feel to be that powerful while using the spell. "No need to wonder, why not just ask Malfoy." She thought sarcastically.

"Earth to Hermione." Harry said, waving his hand in front of her face. "It's time to go."

Hermione looked around, and sure enough, the Great Hall was emptying out. Ron and Harry were waiting on her.

They left and went to their classes. All day, Hermione had to force herself to focus on her work, a first for her. Good thing Harry and Ron never asked about her classes. They got cross-eyed as soon as she started talking.

The day still managed to fly by and Hermione found herself back in the classroom that was being used for their detention.

She looked around the room. "What a mess." She thought. Her mind drifted to her wand that was in her book bag. "Maybe I could just do some quick cleaning before Malfoy gets here." She thought.

Before thinking twice, she put her book bag down and grabbed her wand out of it.

"Tsk, tsk Granger."

Hermione whirled around, and saw Draco leaning against the doorframe, watching her.

He walked into the room. "Going to cheat? I ought to turn you in."

Hermione felt a shiver of panic go through her. How was she going to get out of this one?

"I wasn't going to use my wand, Malfoy." Hermione fibbed. "I was just going to practice some charms while I waited for you to finally get here."

Draco walked into the room and past Hermione. Sitting down in a chair, he gave Hermione a look as if to say, "I'm here now; get started."

Hermione let out a sigh of frustration. "Well, aren't you going to get up and help me?"

Draco scoffed. "This is House Elves work. I am not about to lower myself to that standard. I'm better than that." He started examining his nails.

"The hell you are." Thought Hermione, grabbing a dust cloth and cleaner for the windows.

Time passed in silence, Hermione scrubbing the grime off the windows, and Draco sitting in his chair, staring off into space.

Finally, Hermione couldn't stand it anymore. Feigning casualness, she asked, "What was that spell you used on me yesterday?"

Draco smirked. He had been waiting for her curiosity to win out and ask him. "Why should I tell you?"

Hermione gritted her teeth, and turned away from the window towards him. Of course, he would want her to suck up to him or something. "Because I had never heard of that spell before, and I was curious." She answered.

Draco looked over at her. "The spell is called Frendo Truncus. It means to squeeze the torso. You can guess at the effects of it." He said with sarcasm in his voice.

Hermione put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes. "You could've killed me, you know."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Don't be so dramatic, Granger. I am a master at that spell. I know when enough is enough."

Hermione continued to look at him. "So how did you learn the spell?" She asked.

Draco looked at her. "You don't even want to know."

Hermione answered, "I asked, didn't I?"

Draco looked thoughtful. "Fine. You really want to know?"

Hermione nodded

"My father taught it to me last year." He said, "Along with some other spells."

Hermione slowly nodded her head. "See? Wasn't so hard, was it?" She turned around and started washing the window again.

Draco sat there and waited.

"So…what other kinds of spells did you learn? Bad ones, like the Frendo Truncus one? Or normal spells too?" Hermione asked, trying to act innocent, but really brimming with curiosity.

Draco almost smiled, but didn't. The witch didn't know how to stop, did she? "Merlin, how did Potter and Weasley stand it?" He thought.

"My father's not all evil, you know." He said dryly. "He taught me other spells."

Hermione was still washing the window, rubbing the same circle repeatedly. "Like what?" She asked.

Draco stood up. "Stop rubbing the damn window, you're going to make it fall off."

Hermione blushed and dropped the rag. "Sorry. So where did you learn the spells?"

"My father found them in a book-"Draco started to explain.

Hermione perked up. "A book? Which one; can I find it here?"

Draco let out a sigh of impatience. "Don't worry Granger, the book is here in the library; but it's in the Restricted Section. So good luck getting a pass." He shrugged.

Hermione's face read disappointment. "Well, that sucks. I love learning new spells."

Draco almost started laughing at her reaction, but kept it in. "Better luck next time." Too bad she didn't know he had a copy of the book in his room. "Or it could be a good thing." He decided. He could just imagine the constant badgering if she knew he had it. He would never understand her love of learning.

Hermione went back to the window. Draco sat down, crossing his legs. He watched Hermione working. Then he let out a big sigh and got up, picking up a dust cloth and cleaner and going to the other side of the room to start on those windows.

Hermione's mouth gaped open. "Are you doing a House Elf's work Malfoy?"

"Don't act so surprised. I'm not going to sit here for three hours a night and not do anything. I'll go bloody mad otherwise." Draco said.

Hermione bit back a smile, but a hint of one was still on her face. "Impressive." Was all she said before going back to her window.

Draco, however, was not impressed. Nevertheless, it beat another three and a half weeks of sitting there. He would still let Hermione do most of the work though.

The rest of detention was spent with each of them doing their own work. The room was finally starting to come together and look like a classroom instead of a storage room.

Hermione kept sneaking glances over at Draco. She hadn't been kidding when she had said she was impressed. Of course, he was still an irritable prat, but it didn't mean he was completely hopeless.

The next few days flew by until it was finally Saturday. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting up in the common room.

Hermione was doing her Astronomy homework, while Harry and Ron were drawing pictures for their Care of Magical Creatures class. "I can not wait until these stupid detentions are done! With all the homework they're giving out this year, I feel like I'm falling behind!" Hermione exclaimed.

Ron rolled his eyes at her. "There's no way you'll fall behind Hermione. If anything, Harry and I will be the ones lagging."

Hermione smiled at him. "True enough." She continued to look at him after he had bent back down to his work. He really had grown up in the last year. The impending war with Voldemort had opened his eyes and made him mature.

Speaking of mature, Hermione's thoughts turned to Draco. He hadn't been a complete arse the past few days. That didn't mean he had turned into a saint, but he had been somewhat decent during the detentions they shared. He had even seemed to let down his guard a little when, last night, Hermione had been walking and stepped on a wet rag and had gone sliding, ending up falling down. That had gotten Draco to laugh.

At first, she had been mad, but then she had seen the humour in it too.

"Hermione? What are you smiling at?" Harry asked, waving a hand in front of her face.

Hermione jerked her head up, unaware that she had started smiling as she had thought about her fall in detention.

"Uh, nothing." Hermione answered, flustered. She started packing her books in her bag. "I'm going to go to the library for awhile."

Harry and Ron nodded and waved before going back to their drawings.

Hermione left the common room and went to McGonagall's office. It was the first part of the plan she had devised.

She knocked on the Professor's door and opened it when she heard an answer.

"Professor, I have a favour to ask of you. See, I need this book for a class, but the information I need is in a book in the Restricted Section of the library." Hermione explained. "I was wondering if you would write me a pass."

Professor McGonagall looked at Hermione. "I don't give these out lightly."

"Yes, I know Professor." Hermione said.

"In your case, however, I'll grant you a pass, since you've always been such a good student." McGonagall said, writing on a piece of parchment. She folded it and handed it to Hermione, who pocketed it.

"Thank you, Professor." Hermione said.

"No problem at all Miss Granger." Said McGonagall, as she went back to grading papers.

Hermione left and walked quickly to the library. She had been thinking about this for a few days. She wanted to know what kinds of spells there were in the book. Of course, this was nothing at all like Harry and the Potions book last year. Malfoy had said that there were good spells in the book too. Of course, Hermione wasn't sure what qualified as good for Malfoy.

Hermione reached the library and showed her pass to Madam Pince, who glared at it and walked her to the entrance of the Restricted Section.

She went inside and started searching the aisles. Draco had let slip the name of the book later that first day he mentioned it. It was called Moste Unusual Spelles.

Hermione looked up and down the aisles, searching for it. She wasn't sure which section it was in.

She turned a corner into a row of books that looked old and were covered with dust. She ran her finger along the shelf as she read the titles. Coming to the end, she finally found it.

She pulled it off the shelf, going to a nearby table to sit at while she looked at it. Opening it gently, as she didn't want to hurt the book, she opened to the first page.

Inside was the table of contents, listing every spell that was inside. Hermione quickly located the Frendo Truncus spell that Draco had used on her. She flipped to the page it was on, taking note of the intricacies of the spell. It was more complex than Hermione had thought. You had to exert the perfect amount of power in the spell in order to only squeeze the victim, and not break their ribcage, thus killing them.

Now, Hermione really was impressed with Malfoy. This spell took a lot of skill, a lot more than she had given him credit for.

She went back to the table of contents and looked over the rest of the spells. There were spells used for changing the appearance of a person, or there were more violent spells like the Frendo Truncus one.

Hermione skipped to the appearance changing spells, and started reading them. Noticing there was a spell to put a tail on someone, Hermione started giggling, imagining Malfoy with a ferret tail. It would be perfect!

She stood up, packing the book gently into her bag. Slinging it over her shoulder, she strolled through the Restricted Section and back into the general area of the library.

She smiled at Madam Pince and left, looking for an unused classroom so she could better study the book.

Hermione had to go all the way to the seventh floor before finding one. She entered it and put her book bag down, pulling the spell book out of it.

She was intrigued by the spell to add a tail to a person. It would be great revenge on Malfoy.

She read through the background of the spell, and then the instructions on how to perform it.

Hermione looked around, realizing she had nobody to practice on. "Hmm," she said. "What to do, what to do."

Finally, she thought of transfiguring a desk into a mannequin. After doing so, she practiced the wand movements one last time. With a flourish of her wand, she yelled the spell and incredibly, a tail appeared on the backside of the mannequin.

Hermione walked up to it and examined it. Not exactly a ferret, but it rather looked like a monkey's tail. Hermione giggled. Maybe the next detention on Monday wouldn't be so bad.

Later that evening, Hermione walked with Ron and Harry to the Great Hall for dinner. For the first time in a week, she didn't look over at the Slytherin table to see what stunt Draco was pulling as she walked by.

The three sat down in their spots and started putting food on their plates. Ginny came a few minutes later and sat down with them.

Hermione felt great. Having discovered the spell book, she felt on top of the world, as if she could do anything.

She gave in to curiosity and looked over to where Draco was sitting. He was sitting with his friends, talking about something to them.

Feeling Hermione's stare, he looked up at her. She gave him a huge grin, and winked saucily at him. Surprised, Draco dropped his fork.

Hermione fought to keep a laugh down. Oh, nobody could get her down now. Not with her new secret weapon.