Disclaimer: I do not own anything. The story and the characters belong solely to J.K, Rowling. I'm just playing with them and making no profit from this.

Chapter 14

It was already the afternoon when Draco and Blaise arrive at Malfoy Manor. Draco is on edge and makes his way to the kitchen, where he can immediately feel she is. He had felt the pain shoot through her a few hours earlier.

Opening the kitchen door, he halts in surprise. Delicious smells are coming his way from inside the kitchen. Blaise stops behind him, too.

"Whoa! That smells good." He pushes Draco further into the kitchen. Pansy looks up from the plate she has just taken out of the oven. "Well it's about time you two got home," she greets them.

Hermione, who is peeling an apple, looks up to and a tentative smile spreads over her lips before she looks down again. If Draco hadn't been watching her he might have missed it.

"Pansy, since when do you cook? Or more, since when do you make edible food?" Blaise says, making his way to a plate on the kitchen table.

"Since Hermione is back." She hits his fingers. "No tasting! It's for tonight."

While they argue on, Draco makes his way to Hermione, who is chopping the apple in pieces for the dessert. Giving a sweet kiss on her temple, he greets her. "What are you making?" He nonchalantly wraps an arm around her waist.

"Apple crumble," she answers, putting a piece of apple in her mouth. Draco smiles at her actions. Almost everything made with apple would be a favorite of hers.

"Sounds delicious." He leans in behind her and kisses her neck.

"Stop it," she whispers to him, making sure Pansy and Blaise don't hear. They are still arguing playfully on the background.

"Why?" he says, stealing a piece of apple.

She turns her head around and smiles at him. "You make me lose my concentration."

Draco laughs and gives her one more kiss before he pushes himself away. Leaning against the kitchen counter next to her, he watches her put the apple pieces into a dish. He never imagined she would be a good cook but he did like the surprise of that.

Stealing another piece of apple he asks, "What happened this morning?" He tries to ask nonchalantly, but the question has been worrying him since he felt the pain shoot through her. He may have almost left his post if Blaise hadn't stopped him, saying Pansy was with her and Hermione would probably be fine.

"Can you pass me the cinnamon?" she asks, not answering the question. Draco looks behind him and finds the cinnamon, passing it to her while he keeps a hold of her hand. He refuses to let go of her until she looks up.

"I felt the pain shoot through you. What happened?" he asks, sincere when her bright blue eyes cast a look at his grey ones.

"A pan hit me in the head," she answers and he lets go of her arm.

He watches her sprinkle the cinnamon over the apples, waiting for more to come. Hermione looks up when he stays silent and notice his grey eyes pierce hers, waiting for more of an explanation.

"Pansy was trying to cook and she had enchanted the whole kitchen. Stuff was flying around everywhere. And the pan bumped my head. It's nothing to worry about," she explains while spreading the crumble evenly over the apples.

When Draco tries to say something, Hermione looks at him. "Nothing to worry about," she repeats, finishing the story.

Draco looks a bit surprised while he watches her turn away and put the dish in the oven.

Doesn't she understand yet that she means everything to him? That he's just being concerned? He's lost her once, he can't handle losing her twice.

XXXXX

Her heart is pounding in her ears as she walks further down the stairs, step by step. It is as if with each step she takes, her heart pounds in her ears. Her breathing is loud and harsh.

She had just never realized, while preparing the food and listening to Pansy planning the party, that she has to be there to. When Pansy had asked her what she was going to wear, she had been shocked into silence. Blaise had been staring at her with such an expression, she was bound to feel guilty thinking she didn't have to show up. Even Draco had looked hurt. So Hermione had stammered, trying to save herself at the last moment, that she didn't know yet. Pansy had ignored the whole thing and just taken her upstairs, helping her pick out her outfit. After Pansy left, Hermione had sat at her vanity, staring at herself for what felt like hours. Trying to place her feelings, trying to figure out why she even wanted to please Draco so much. Again, she cursed the bonding for it. She cursed the bonding for everything she had done the last two days. Talking, cooking, laughing, even enjoying being in Draco's arms when she should have been busy trying to find a way out of here. But for now, she only came up with nothing. It even scared her to think that a part of her doesn't even want to escape this place.

Coming to the final step, she takes a deep breath and then steps on the ground floor. No one is here, so no one can so her breathing deeply, in and out, trying to calm herself while holding herself steady at the staircase.

Laughter and music is waving to her from the open door to her left. The ballroom will probably be packed by now, judging from the loud noise. After all, she is already pretty late. It had taken a long time before she had dared to dress and even longer before she had found the nerve to open the door and go downstairs.

Gathering her courage and taking another deep breath, she makes her way to the open doors of the ballroom.

Hermione is wearing a beautiful blue dress, a shade darker then her eyes. It has a corset-like bodice and a flowing skirt. Pansy has helped her pin her blonde hair up with silver pins. It shows the silver mark on her neck. On her wrists dangle silver bracelets, matching the silver in her neck and hair.

Coming at the open doors she stalls, looking shocked at the huge room filled with people. Some are dancing in the middle of the ballroom, some are standing in little groups talking at the side line and others are at the banquet table on the other side of the room, enjoying the food she had prepared earlier that day. Everything seems so normal and so peaceful. She almost forgets there is a war raging on. Looking around at the amount of people, she had just never expected it to be such a huge crowd, and she doesn't notice Draco joining her side with two drinks in his hands.

"I was starting to wonder if you ever would show up," he whispers in her ear, startling her. "But I'm very glad you did," he adds, handing her over a drink.

"Of course you are. People might otherwise think you abducted me and are holding me here against my will," she says while glancing over the room again. She tries to find a familiar face, even though she knows it is useless.

While Draco, Blaise and Pansy have started referring to her as Hermione, there are still only a few people who know that she is Hermione Granger. Pansy had told her, while she was chatting away trying to find a dress for Hermione, that most people had only heard that she was the missing Naberrie daughter, finally returned from a safe place. Only the highly placed people knew she was actually an Order member, but even then, they didn't know who. So tonight she has to be Sophia Naberrie. Normally she would have fought against it, but somehow she doesn't tonight. It is Draco's birthday and she doesn't have a gift for him. Let this be his gift. That's what she had decided when she couldn't find an suitable explanation for herself.

"Love…" Draco starts with a sigh but before he could say anything more, Hermione turns and casts her bright blue eyes upon him. "Don't worry, I will behave tonight. It is your birthday after all so see it as a birthday present from me." She takes a sip of her drink. Draco takes one step closer to her, so that they are standing so close, they are almost touching. Absentmindedly, he rubs his thumb over the silver line on her neck. It spreads a tingling sensation throughout Hermione's body.

"You know I don't need anything from you."

His attention is torn away from Hermione when a tall, dark man appears. Hermione gladly turns her eyes away from Draco, when he finally releases the hold his grey eyes have on her, only to look up in a face she recognizes. Theodore Nott has always been a handsome guy, but in the years she hasn't seen him, he has become even more handsome. The roundness of his childhood has disappeared and left him with a face you might see in magazines. Somehow she knows it is the true face of a businessman and, of course, of a high society person, but all that is softened by the warm glow from his melting chocolate brown eyes.

"At last I get a look at your Sophia," he says, laughing with a drink in his hand. Hermione doesn't miss the part where he deliberately calls her 'your' Sophia. She can't help the warm glow that spreads through her because of it. Damn that Veela bond, she curses again. Draco answers Theo, but his words completely pass Hermione. Now he turns his melting brown eyes towards her bright blue ones. "I don't think anyone at the party looks as pretty as you do tonight, Sophia," he says, his eyes sincere.

"She is stealing away Draco's thunder," sounds a booming laugh behind her. Blaise has joined their little crowd with Pansy flanking his side. Pansy's smile to Hermione is so sincere that Hermione can't help but to smile back, not being able but to help feeling that Theo has done injustice with his phrase. Pansy has really outdone herself. Her muddy brown hair is lifted high in a sort of bun. Layer after layer of hair twists over each other, making it look spectacular and also rather complicated. The golden look of her gown brings out the warm brown in her eyes and matches her earrings.

When the men were talking, Pansy leans into her and Hermione quickly whispers, "How did you do you hair like that?"

Pansy looks quite shocked and tentatively touches her hair. "Magic," she whispered back.

"Of course. You have to teach me that spell some day. It's absolutely amazing." Somehow relieved, Pansy smiles back at her. "Really? Because I wasn't too sure about it." Hermione just nods back, her attention being brought back to the conversation because her name, or at least Sophia, has been said. Somehow in the time she is whispering to Pansy, she has become the center of attention. Or at least, Sophia Naberrie has. Hermione still doesn't feel like she is that girl, even though she now truly believes she was born as Sophia Naberrie. But she isn't that girl anymore. It will take a long time before Hermione will get used to her old self. If she ever does.
Taking a deep –silent- breath and mentally bracing herself, she puts a smile on her face and turns to the people talking to her. After all, this is Draco's birthday present. She is very aware of his protective hand around her back. She is also very aware it will stay there the whole night long. And even after that.

AN: Thanks to my beta Sarah Liz B, who I love for the work she is putting in this story to make it work. =)

I hope you guys liked it!