A/N: Thanks for all the good reviews! There's a bit more swearing than usual in this chapter, so just a small warning. Here it is:
Hermione and Draco were patrolling the fifth-floor corridors, holding hands.
"You know what?" Hermione asked, grinning.
"What?" Malfoy asked.
"Patrolling has become one of my favourite things to do." Her cheeks turned red as she said that.
Malfoy smirked. "Of course it is." He said as they turned a corner. "Do you know what my favourite thing to do is?"
"Hm... I'm not sure. Enlighten me." Hermione replied, knowing very well what Malfoy was going to do.
He pulled Hermione behind a statue and they began kissing. After a few moments, Malfoy pulled back.
"What?" Hermione asked a bit flustered.
"I forgot the Veritaserum! If we're going to get him, we need it now." He swiftly turned from Hermione and ran in the direction of their dorms. "I'll be back soon. Watch out!" He called from behind him.
She sighed. This was the first time she had been in the castle by herself. She began walking down the corridor, straining her ears for any sound.
Where are you Creevey? I know you're here...
She turned a corner, and was approaching a large tapestry. She gripped her wand tightly and tried to walk past the tapestry as fast as she could with out making much noise.
She barely took three steps when somebody jumped from behind the tapestry. Hermione lifter her wand to hex the person, but he was faster.
Bingo!
"Petrificus Totalus!" Said the voice. Hermione froze, and fell on the floor with a thud. The person stood above her. It was Colin Creevey. He had a mad, triumphant look on his face.
"Your boyfriend isn't very bright, is he?" Colin asked, looking positively ecstatic. "He should know better than to leave you alone."
Hermione looked at him with frightened eyes.
"I know very well what you and your little boyfriend are up to." He snorted. "But it didn't work, did it? I got you, Hermione Granger, 'smartest with of her age', trapped." He laughed maniacally.
OK Draco, now!
Creevey bent over to pick up her wand when a voice came from behind them.
"Stupefy!" Malfoy said as he came walking out from the shadows. Colin toppled over, unconscious.
"Finite Incantatem." He said, pointing his wand at Hermione. He helped her up. "You alright?"
"Yes." She said rubbing her back. "I didn't know getting petrified could hurt so much though."
Malfoy looked at the heap on the floor with hate.
"Our rounds are over." He said. "We'll take him to our common room." he levitated Colin, and began manoeuvring him to their dorms. Hermione followed Malfoy and the floating Creevey, happy their plan worked.
They reached the portrait hole and Malfoy said the password. The warlock looked at them in shock. "What are you doing? Take that boy to the Hospital Wing!" He said, the Goblin nodding at his side.
Malfoy pointed his wand at the warlock, causing Colin to crash onto the floor. "Let us in. I said the password."
"I will have to tell the Headmaster about this!" The warlock said, jumping from his armchair.
"You will do no such thing!" Malfoy said in a low whisper, making the warlock falter. "You will let us in, and you will tell nobody of this. Do you want to end up like the Fat Lady when Sirius Black attacked her?"
The warlock looked at Malfoy fearfully, and opened the portrait hole. Colin was back in the air with a swish of Malfoy's wand, and Hermione followed them in, giving the warlock an apologetic look.
"Lets get this over with." Malfoy said, obviously irritated. He put Colin on a chair (rather roughly Hermione noticed) and bound him with magical ropes.
He sat down on the couch and rubbed his temples tiredly. Hermione sat next to him, sighing.
"It's almost over Draco." She said.
He turned to her. "Thank Merlin. I don't think I can deal with this fiasco any longer."
He took the bottle of Veritaserum from his pocket, and poured a few drops down Colin's throat. Colin began sputtering, and he regained consciousness.
"Wha-" He said, looking around the room. After a few moments he realized where he was. "Shit!" he swore. "How the bloody hell did this happen?" He struggled against the tight ropes.
Malfoy smirked evilly. "It seems Hermione's boyfriend isn't so stupid after all Creevey." He began pacing around Colin. Hermione couldn't help but notice how Slytherin he looked at that moment.
Colin looked at Malfoy with a deep loathing. "Well, you're not getting anything out of me Malfoy. And when I get out of here, you're gonna pay!"
Malfoy laughed at his words. "What are you going to do? Call your little friends to beat me up? Oh wait. That's right, you have no friends!"
"Fuck you." Creevey said in a low voice. Malfoy took his wand out in a flash, and pointed it at Colin's heart.
"Want to run that by me again?" He sneered. Hermione got up, and pushed Malfoy away. He straightened his robes and sat down.
"Creev-" Hermione began.
"I'm not saying anything!" He practically yelled.
"Well, you have no freaking choice, alright?!" Hermione yelled. Colin faltered. Her eyes gleamed with anger.
"You are going to answer all my questions whether you like it or not! First of all, you are under the influence of Veritaserum, and secondly, I can jinx you back to your ancestor's grave, you got that?" Colin said nothing.
"First off," she said, running a hand through her messy hair, "why me Colin, why me? I mean, you could choose anybody else, but me?"
Colin's face suddenly became expressionless, and he began talking as though he were a robot. "At first, I would obsess over Harry, and his fame. But Potter shunned me away. I always saw you, kind to everybody you met, and very kind to younger students." He took a shaky breath. "I thought that you would like me, pity me even. So I gave it a chance."
Hermione scolded herself.
"OK... why did you send me letters? And why did you give them to Draco?"
"I sent you letters because by sending them to you, I made myself feel better. Like there was something going on. I also sent them because I knew he-" he glared in Malfoy's direction and Malfoy promptly flicked him off, "might say something about it. You know how ridiculous this bloody school gets when it comes to rumours. I could have used it to my advantage."
"And the letter about the Hospital Wing? What the hell was that for?" Hermione asked, her face pink.
Colin smiled. "I know very well you didn't visit me, but I just sent it so that he would read it." He tilted his head in Malfoy's direction. Hermione took a calming breath, and leaned against the table.
Out of curiosity she asked, "On that day you got hurt, the day the Slytherins were having Quidditch try-outs – why were you there? I mean, not many people, especially Gryffindors, would hang around there at the time."
Colin really looked as though he wanted to vomit. It was obvious he didn't want to answer that particular question, but the Veritaserum forced him to.
"I – I knew that Potter and Weasley were in the Great Hall, and you weren't there. It could only mean you were in your room." His haste to answer the question made Hermione even more curious. "And, well, even though the Slytherins were practising at the time, I decided to take a broom and-"
Hermione knew what he was going to say. She didn't even pay attention to Colin's stuttering. She had an excellent view of the Quidditch pitch, and somehow he knew that. He had taken the broom to fly up, and spy on her.
Merlin Hermione, why didn't you see this before? When Ginny told you, it should've been obvious from the start!
She looked at Colin with hate. Malfoy spoke up. "Hermione, I was the one who hit Creevey in the head with the bludger." She turned to him. "I saw him flying, but I didn't know what he was doing. I just thought Potter had sent him to spy on us." He sighed. "And he had his camera around his neck."
Hermione turned to Colin. "That explains how you got those pictures of me... And the others, I suppose you were spying on me behind statues and tapestires."
"Yes." Colin said.
This just made Hermione angrier. "And that envelope full of pictures? Were you making a scrapbook?" She yelled.
Colin's face was expressionless. "I had been taking pictures of you, but I had no intention of showing them to anybody."
"Well what made you send them to Draco?" She asked heatedly.
"There was one night when you two were patrolling, a while ago now that I think of it, where you were about to kiss him. This was very shocking for me because one would never think that Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger would have feelings other than hate towards each other."
He took a deep breath.
"This depressed me deeply, and that is when I began to obsess over you Hermione." He looked up at her, his face pale, and he grinned. "I knew that somehow I would have to get you back, to be mine, but I couldn't think of anything. Then one night I decided that I could send the pictures to Malfoy, along with the rest of your things. Make him feel that you're to much trouble for him. I mean what kind of guy would like to date a girl with a stalker? I mean, a stalker who harasses the boyfriend as well?"
Hermione was having a hard time catching on. "You mean, you were trying to scare him out of being with me?"
"If you want to say it like that, then yes." Colin said.
Malfoy stood up. "If you didn't notice Creevey, your abnormal behaviours has caused Hermione and I to get together."
"Of course I noticed that you imbecile!" Colin said heatedly. "That is why I had to come up with another plan to keep you two apart. It was a brilliant plan, and it would've worked if I had the right people doing it..." He trailed off.
"That brings us to our next topic of discussion," Hermione said sourly. "The Room of Requirement. Your brother. And Alex Cardin." Colin squirmed against the ropes. "Care to explain?"
"That was my brilliant plan." Colin said bitterly. "My brother was merely a distraction-"
"But why did you choose to beat him up? Your own brother?" Hermione cut in.
"Because who else would I find? He was the only one who would do it for me. I told him he would be doing me a favour, and that if he didn't do it, I would be expelled from school."
Draco snorted from his corner, and muttered something that sounded like 'pathetic'.
Colin ignored him. "Alex Cardin is in my year and I have a few classes with him. I know that he has a poor family, so I offered to give him some money."
"In exchange to beat up your own brother." Hermione said. Colin nodded.
"He was uneasy about hurting my brother, in case he would get expelled. I persuaded him, and I even got him to get someone else to help with the plan."
"So who was the boy who actually stupefyed me and put me in the Room of Requirement?" Hermione asked.
"A boy from Hufflepuff. Yes, I know shocking," he added at the look on Hermione's face.
What is this world coming to? Hufflepuffs being violent??
"But what was the whole point of trapping me? That only made me hate you more." She said pointedly.
Colin sighed angrily. "I specifically had it so that the person who kidnapped you was not me. So even if you had some suspicions about me doing it, you couldn't confirm it. The boy was to trap you somewhere discreet, and he did. What he didn't do was keep a watch on you twenty-four-seven, and he didn't even put a fucking locking charm on the door!"
Hermione backed away, and she felt Draco's hand on her back.
"The whole point was so that you were kidnapped by an unknown person, and that I would find you and rescue you." Colin finished.
"What? You thought that by rescuing me, I would like you?" She said, shocked.
"Yes." Colin said simply. "And that's why I had Cardin pretend to be you. I was the one stealing the ingredients for Polyjuice Potion from Snape. I had made the potion with great difficulty, but I made it nonetheless. I gave the potion to Cardin with the hair I had gotten from you."
"And what were your instructions to him?" Hermione asked.
"I told him that he – you – was to break up with pretty boy-" He shot Malfoy a nasty look, "-and to ignore him as much as possible. Make him feel unwanted. This tied in perfectly with my plan because if Malfoy was being mean to you, I would be the person whose shoulder you could cry on. Not only would I have saved you from the Room of Requirement, but I would be there to comfort you as well."
Hermione didn't say anything. All the information was overwhelming. He did all that, just to be with her? He had some kind of mental disorder.
"But as I had already said, I hadn't chosen the right people for my plan, so it failed."
"So that's why you beat up Cardin. Out of frustration." She said.
"Yes. I wasn't getting much sleep, and I was failing a lot of my exams. When he told me he had failed to do what I wanted him to, I snapped."
"Is that all?" Malfoy said in an annoyed voice.
Colin opened his mouth to yell something, but Hermione pointed her wand at him, and he went unconscious once again.
"After all this, I'm not going to regret what we're going to do to him." She told Draco. He kissed her, and they got up, ready to end everything.
A/N: I'm sooooo sorry for the long update, but this chapter was the hardest chapter to write, because I had to take account of everything that had happened so far in the story. The next chapter will be the last chapter. And it will probably be shorter than this chapter.
Thanks so much for reading, I'll update soon.