AUTHOR'S NOTE: My thoughts have been literally everywhere with this story! I think I'm going to need two chapters to tie everything together before moving on with the story, so this chapter gives a little insight on Blaise, and basically has characters explaining stuff to each other and Hermione mulling things through. At least this'll give me room for a bit of fluff, lemony sweetness and humor next chapter. Enjoy, lovelies!

CHAPTER ELEVEN: MEMORY AT THE MALFOY MANOR

Hermione had gone to bed after her confession to Malfoy through the use of Veritaserum. Malfoy waited until she was asleep, then grabbing Harry's invisibility cloak, hurried to find him and Ron.

Malfoy searched the library, Entrance and Great Halls before finding the pair under a beech tree on the grounds. They stood up when they saw him walking towards them. None of them glanced around to see how it odd it would look at these three chatting together. Malfoy passed Harry his cloak.

"What the hell is going on?" Ron said urgently, but Malfoy hushed him. He indicated that they walk closer to the deserted lake. Harry and Ron nodded, and the wind grew still as they reached the water.

"She's alright," Malfoy said, looking at the calm lake. He heard Ron sigh in relief.

"She was put under the Imperius curse. By Blaise." Malfoy ignored their expressions of horror.

"He cornered her in the halls yesterday, and made her get the cloak. He forced her to write the letter to McGonagall and lie to anyone she saw. Blaise used the cloak to get Veritaserum from Snape, probably so that no one could get either of them to tell the truth-"

"What-but then- we have to tell someone-Dumbledore-"

"Hang on," Harry said slowly, "how do you know all of this?"

"I have a flask of my own Veritaserum," Malfoy said, still not looking at either of them.

"And I didn't get it by theft. I brewed it over the summer," he continued, as both had opened their mouths to retort accusations.

"We need to tell someone-"

"No," Malfoy said firmly, finally looking at them. "Let her rest, Granger should decide-"

"What? Bleeding, no, Malfoy," Ron snapped. "You're really going to defend Zabini? He used an Unforgiveable curse. Does that mean anything to you?"

"Of course it-"

"You didn't even know she had been Imperiused!" Ron yelled. A few birds nearby scattered to the sky. Ron's words seemed to echo in the blinding silence.

"Ron, I didn't know either," Harry said quietly.

"No, this prat doesn't get it," Ron said, pointing at Malfoy, "What Zabini did was illegal, he should be locked up in Azkaban-"

"Let Granger wake up so she can talk to us and to Blaise first," Malfoy interrupted. "How's she going to feel when she wakes up, has only our word to go off of, and Blaise has disappeared? What is that going to look like? She'll think-"

"She's not getting anywhere near that lunatic," Ron said heatedly, "and you-"

"You're not the only one who cares about her," Malfoy said angrily.

Ron snorted. "Oh, and I suppose you do?"

"All I'm saying is that Granger deserves to know what she wants to know," Malfoy said, his voice steady.

Harry thought for a moment. "Okay," he said. Ron's jaw dropped, but Malfoy showed no sign of hearing him.

"I'm going to tell her what happened when she wakes up," Malfoy said, putting his hands in his pockets, "and I'll tell her to come to dinner so she can speak with you two as well."

Harry nodded gratefully. Ron rubbed the bottom half of his face, still not entirely convinced.

"Alright," he finally said.

IIIII

Malfoy sat opposite the dimly lit fireplace in his silver armchair, waiting for Hermione to wake up and come down. His thoughts drifted to the summer, a week before making the Unbreakable Vow.

Malfoy and Blaise clinked glasses. They were drinking Firewhiskey in the empty Malfoy Manor. Seated at the large dining table made of dark wood, they were surrounded by scattered bottles and glasses. There was a glass ash tray on the table, and smoke drifted lazily from Blaise's mouth and nostrils. Malfoy made a mental note to ask his friend how he'd picked up the Muggle habit.

"Parvati Patil," Blaise slurred, and took a sip from his glass. Half the contents splashed down the front of his shirt.

Malfoy laughed. They were both drunk.

"Now that's actually interesting," Malfoy said, circling the tips of his glass with his fingers, "as I've had the matching set."

Blaise laughed loudly, "What? Padma, too?"

Malfoy raised his eyebrows and shrugged, and put his glass to his lips. When he had placed the glass back on the table, he saw his friend scrutinizing him, with something that looked like dislike.

"Yes?" Malfoy asked.

"Draco, dear friend," Blaise said smoothly, and Malfoy was impressed his voice did not waver from the liquor, "Do you remember a little chat we had a few years ago?"

Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "Regarding…"

"Regarding a little blonde I specifically told you not to touch," Blaise said. His voice was silky, but there was a dangerous undertone that Malfoy tried to manoeuver around.

"I think you should be a little more specif-"

"I think you should be a little more respectful of a friend's wishes," Blaise interrupted. His dark skin glowered, and Malfoy saw a flash in his eyes.

Malfoy was not quite bothered yet, however. "Regarding…" he asked again.

"Have you touched Lovegood?" The words had barely slipped out of Blaise's mouth when Draco began to laugh.

"You're still on about Loony? Merlin, Blaise, I thought you were serious for a moment." Draco grinned and looked down at his glass, "Well, I'm sorry mate, but that ship has sailed," he said, and continued grinning, bringing the glass to his mouth. Before the Firewhiskey touched his lips however, the glass Malfoy was holding broke in his hand.

"Blaise, the hell do you think-"

"You were warned," Blaise said slowly, and rolled his cigarette in the ash tray in front of him, "And now I'll warn you again: you touched what was mine, and now I will take what you wish was yours." He stood up and threw Malfoy a look of disgust before leaving through a fireplace of emerald flames.

Malfoy awoke from his reverie at the sight of the petite figure of Hermione by the door of her dormitory.

IIIII

After Hermione had been told everything by Malfoy, she sat quietly, her mind racing. She knew normally, under any circumstance, the first thing she would do would be to run to Professor McGonagall. For some reason however, she wanted to do the polar opposite, and she felt a force pulling her in the murky direction of revenge. Letting nothing slip yet, Hermione looked up at Malfoy.

"Did he-"

"No," Malfoy said. By the look they shared, Hermione knew Malfoy understood her question on whether Blaise had touched her. Malfoy had told her about the kiss, but she nodded absent mindedly about it. Her thoughts reeled to her conversation with Blaise before he had put the Imperius curse on her: "Shagging is not enough to break the vow." Hermione knew that Blaise meant she had to fall in love with Malfoy in order for him not to break the vow, but she had no idea of when this was supposed to occur by, or if Malfoy was aware she knew.

Malfoy alternatively, had told Hermione everything except that she had to fall in love with him, as well as that she too, would die, if he were to break the vow.

"So," he said firmly, "what should we do?"

"I don't know," Hermione sighed. "I don't think I want to go to a teacher yet…" she trailed off. Malfoy widened his eyes.

"I guess-could you just keep an eye on him? I'll tell Harry and Ron to do the same," she said, and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Malfoy felt an ache pound in his chest as he watched her.

"Of course," he said quietly. "Granger?"

"Yes?"

Malfoy held back what he wanted to say. "I told Weasley and Potter you'd come to dinner. They want to see you."

Hermione nodded and gave a small smile. Then she got up from her chair and leant in dangerously close to Malfoy. He was surprised, and felt a twitching in his pants.

"You are a sadistic, evil prat," Hermione whispered in his ear, "but thank-you, for saving me."

Malfoy looked into her eyes, and tried to decode her words, wondering which part of the sentence she meant more, when Hermione closed her eyes and brushed her lips against his. It was a gentle, sweet kiss, and the ache in Malfoy's stomach grew.

"Are you angry with me?" he asked, before he could help himself.

"I should be, but I'm not," Hermione said honestly, and left Malfoy alone in the common room.

IIIII

Hermione spent the next couple of days pushing the incident with Blaise out of her mind. She had many other things to stress about, and she had already been assured by Harry, Ron and Malfoy that they would be watching Blaise. It appeared to Hermione, however, that perhaps Malfoy had been doing more than merely watching Blaise, as the next time she saw him in Potions class, he walked in with a cut lip and two very swollen eyes.

Snape still seemed to believe Ron and Harry were responsible for stealing his Veritaserum, obvious when Snape took away 40 points for Gryffindor when Harry accidentally dropped a few lacewing flies on the floor. Malfoy didn't seem to be too perturbed by this, much to the dismay of Ron.

Hermione turned back to her potion, a remedy for dragon pox, and snuck a glance at Malfoy. He had tiny beads of sweat on his forehead as his cauldron projected heavy amounts of steam. Hermione bit her lip. Would it be so wrong to let herself fall for Malfoy? Yes, he was horrible to her for almost her whole life at Hogwarts, but that argument no longer tugged at her conscience anxiously. She wondered how things would've played out if the Unbreakable Vow had not been made.

A/N: Wahhh, not too impressed with this chapter, but this stuff had to be done! I hope you guys liked it regardless, haha. HOW DID YOU ALL FEEL ABOUT LUNA THOUGH. Or, I can always turn this into a Dramionaise...

Think I'm getting a little ahead of myself here.

I WILL MAKE THE NEXT CHAPTER FUNNY AND SMUTTY

JUST LOVE ME :'(