I can't think of any creative ways to say I'm not JK Rowling. (:

"I'm fine," mumbled Draco, not even bothering to swallow his biscuit, his eyes averting her stern gaze.

"No. You're not," she said as she crossed her arms.

He looked away and decided to keep his mouth shut. Tension was in the air; everyone pointedly stared at Hermione standing next to the Slytherin at their house table.

"Can we talk later?" he asked quietly. He could feel his fellow Slytherins stares, questioning why he wasn't insulting her crudely.

She raised her eyebrows at him, but figured it was a lost cause and strutted away.

After a night of a lot of solitary thinking and mulling over, Harry and Ron had rather different reactions to the situation.

Ron, after his breakup with Lavender and new found realization that he might just have a tiny-huge crush on Hermione, was infuriated with Draco. He was convinced that this was all a ploy of Draco's to get laid. Ron stabbed his pancakes and bacon as his conclusion jumped into his head yet again. Didn't he have enough Slytherin girls to shag with? Or was it not enough for him? His anger got even worse when he saw Hermione standing by Draco, and he felt the need to curse him in a place that would free him of thoughts of shagging for a very long time.

Harry was still convinced that he was a full fledged Death Eater, and if he couldn't convince Hermione otherwise...his fists clenched up at this. How could Hermione be such a brilliant witch yet not realize what was so obviously in front of her? He didn't know exactly why Draco would want to use her like this, but after all Draco was the biggest prat he'd ever known. Hermione was Harry's best friend, and he couldn't stand to see this.

Harry and Ron kept shooting glances over at Draco every thirty seconds or so. Finally, when he got up and started walking away, Ron and Harry exchanged a glance that told them that they were thinking the same thing. They hurried after Malfoy down a corridor. As soon as Ron spotted the back of his tailored suit, he darted after him, his shoes clunking loudly against the floor of the castle, giving Draco a seconds warning.

Ron grabbed him by the collar and picked him off the ground, slamming him against the wall while Harry took out his wand and forcefully pressed it against Draco's forehead. Draco scrunched his eyes shut and struggled against Ron's grasp, trying to kick either one of them but failing.

"I don't know what you want with Hermione, but you stay away from her you bloody bastard," Harry fumed.

"Oh, I know exactly what he wants with Hermione. He wants to get in her pants- that's what," yelled Ron.

As mad as Harry was, this sudden outburst from Ron still amused him. Is that really what he thought? Draco hated Hermione, and even the thought of talking to a mudblood, as he referred to her probably sickened him.

At that time, however, Harry being distracted by Ron's idiotic accusation, Draco had the opportunity to grab his wand from his pocket.

Stupefy, he thought twice in his head as he flicked the wand. The two were shot backwards into the opposite wall.

Petrificus totalus, he thought twice yet again. He smirked evilly as he saw the two with moronic expressions on their ignorant faces. He was just about to dig his heel into Harry's nose for the second time that year when he heard the click-clop of somebody's shoes.

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh when she saw the scene before her. The smirk was instantly wiped off from Draco's face when he saw her inflamed expression. He opened and closed his mouth to speak, no sound coming out, looking back and forth between Hermione and the boys.

"What the bloody hell did you do this time, Draco?" Hermione riled.

"I know this looks bad," said Draco, putting his hands out in front of him as if signaling her to stop. "but I can explain," he continued.

"Go on," she said coldly.

"I was minding my own business, heading to the dungeons, when these two imbeciles came running after me and attacked me. Potter was about to curse me and your little lover Ron decided to push me against the wall," Draco rambled. "That," he pointed to the unmoving boys slouched against the wall, "was self defense."

Hermione scowled and rolled her eyes. Then she started mumbling to herself about boys and violence as she pushed past Draco to perform the counter curses on her two friends.

Ron and Harry sat upright as Hermione kneeled next to them.

"Is it true that you attacked him for no reason?" she questioned them.

"No reason? It's about time that little prat got some sense beat into him," howled Harry.

Draco let out a soft chuckle. "Didn't seem to do a good job of that now, huh?" he taunted.

Harry and Ron were about to pounce on him, but Hermione held them back, much to Draco's amusement.

"So you did? You just went after him for no reason?" she asked again.

Nothing but silence followed her question, and Harry and Ron continued to glare at Draco while he grinned broadly back at them

"Yeah," Ron muttered, breaking the silence. "Yeah, we did attack him, but he bloody well deserved it."

Hermione stood up and smoothed her skirt out quickly before retorting. "You both think you're so much greater than him, and you know what, I used to think that you were completely right. But now…you're the ones who stalk him. You're the ones who attack him. He's left you alone all year. I'm not saying that he's a walk in the park; he's a complete arse most of the time too. I expected better from you two."

She finished her small speech, and gave a resentful look to Ron and Harry.

"C'mon, Draco. I need to talk to you," she said without a glance back.

Harry and Ron were beside themselves in shock, only managing to stare at one another in horror after they watched Malfoy sneer at them and go after Hermione.

Draco was elated. Disregarding the arse comment, which he knew he was quite a lot, she had stuck up for him. She had actually yelled at her two best friends for him, and he thought the 'Golden Trio' was inseparable. And there he was, causing a riff in their unbreakable bond.

Draco rounded the corner and found Hermione standing in front of a door that was just starting to form. He knew exactly what it was; the Room of Requirement. He hadn't been in it since his incident in the bathroom, and he never wanted to go back to the vanishing cabinets. Hermione motioned to him to follow her inside the door. He found himself in an average sized room, lit by a fireplace, making it nice and warm.

"They didn't hurt you did they?" she asked as she observed him.

Draco snorted. "No," and a cocky smile appeared across his face, causing Hermione to shake her head, trying to clear her mind of her silly thoughts.

"Good," she declared. "Well then, have you taken my suggestion into consideration?"

"You know that I have. And you know I don't want this. So you must know what my answer is."

"I was afraid that you might have changed your mind," a hint of a blush crept up on her pale cheeks.

"Don't tell me that you don't believe me," said Draco, becoming upset.

"If I didn't believe you I would not be alone in the Room of Requirement with you."

And there was that stunning smile again.

"So, you suppose I should go straight to Dumbledore?"

"Actually, I was hoping, that, maybe you could tell me first," she looked up at him, trying to read his expression.

"Tell you what?" he asked, confused.

"Well…what exactly do you, you know have to do?" she knew that this was a bad question to ask, she knew that he didn't want to answer, but she had to know the entire story.

Draco sighed and bowed his head. "He told me to kill Dumbledore. It's punishment for my dad. I've been trying to fix a pair of vanishing cabinets. One is in Borgin and Burkes, the other one is here, in the Room of Requirement. I was thinking that I could…" he sighed again but plucked up the courage to look at her before continuing "I was thinking that I could sneak Death Eaters in the castle."

Hermione didn't say anything for a few moments. Draco could never guess what her reaction to anything would be.

"Okay. Okay," she took a deep breath. "It's okay," she assured him, grabbing his right hand and squeezing it briefly.

"Then I know what we have to do first," she stated.

Still holding onto his hand, she led him out the door, pausing to stand outside it once more. She closed her eyes and walked by it three times. Draco followed her in yet another time when she went in again. This time, Draco really didn't want to be here. It was the same Room of Requirement that he had been spending countless hours wasting away only weeks ago.

"Where is it?" she asked gently.

"Follow me," Draco answered.

It didn't take long to reach it. Draco stared at it in disdain.

"Hmm…" Hermione eyed the beautifully carved cabinet. "So, since you've decided to leave the dark side, you won't need this anymore, right?"

"Of course not," answered Draco.

"And from the looks of it, this place has pretty much anything you can imagine?"

"Yeah, I guess so," said Draco.

"Accio baseball bats!" Hermione cried.

"What is a bat?" Draco queried.

"It's something they use for an American Muggle sport," she said as five different bats came flying toward her.

Draco certainly didn't know what she was getting at.

She picked the two biggest ones and gave one to Draco. "I thought we'd have a little fun with this," she grinned mischievously at him.

Draco stared in horror as Hermione raised the bat over her head and started to smash it into the cabinet, leaving big dents. She laughed and told Draco to join in. It took a while, but after beating it and cursing it to pieces, they were on the floor, laughing at nothing.

"I didn't know that would be that much fun," said Draco through his hearty laugh.

"Me neither," giggled Hermione.

They composed themselves and started off toward the door.

"That felt really good," confessed Draco.

"I knew it would. When I got angry when I was little, I used to beat my pillow senseless to let out my emotions," Hermione told him.

He chuckled as he imagined little Hermione pounding an innocent pillow, feathers coming out of it.

"Voldemort isn't going to know that you've turned against him is he?" Hermione asked, the fear evident in her voice.

"I was taught Occlumency this summer, and I'm rather good at it," Draco said with a cocky tone.

Hermione laughed. "Of course. You know what you have to do next don't you?"

"Dumbledore?" he asked.

"Dumbledore," she nodded her head in response.

Not my favorite chapter, but I thought it would be a good way for Draco to let out some of his frustration. Thank you once again to all of my lovely reviewers, and keep reviewing please (: