Yes, I know it's been awhile, but at least this will make up for the cliffhanger from the last chapter.

Enjoy.

"Shit? Potter, what do you mean by that? What did you do?" Draco was in his face, ready to use every weapon in his arsenal to find out why Potter had reacted so vehemently.

Harry ran his fingers through his already messy hair. He looked ready to puke; Draco took a step back, not wanting to become his target. Ron came up on Harry's side and lowered him into a chair. It seemed Harry was only capable of muttering one-syllable words at the moment.

Draco took the chair opposite Harry and leaned his arms on his knees. "Potter, I have the ability to find out exactly what you meant by that utterance, but I will give you a chance to explain before I resort to that. Do you understand me?"

By now, the rest of the Aurors knew something was going on between Draco and their favorite Boy Wonder. They began to abandon their searches to move closer to the pending gossip. Draco growled and they stopped moving.

"It's my fault…" Harry whispered.

"What, Harry? What's your fault?" Ron asked, shaking his friend.

"Yes, Potter, do tell; I'm beginning to grow impatient," Draco drawled.

Harry shook his head, wiping his hands over his face. "I- we… I mean…" He moaned.

"If you vomit on my Persian carpet I will not be amused, Potter."

"Fred, George, and I were with Hermione when she woke up at St. Mungo's." He looked pointedly at Ron. "You weren't there. You had already taken back your ring and left her. We were there! We- We thought we were helping her… She was so thirsty and we were just sitting there. The Mediwitches said it wouldn't hurt anything if we gave her some of our blood."

The female Auror who had questioned Draco stepped forward. "So, you mean to say that you allowed her to drink from you? That… That is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard! Of all the unsafe, idiotic things you could have possibly done you… Do you realize that she could have killed you? She is one of them and you just threw all your judgment out the window!"

Harry allowed her words to simmer before he exploded. "Enough! Maria, you need to leave."

She looked back at him with outrage written across her face. When it was clear that Maria would not leave, another Auror stepped forward and escorted her out of the room. She glared daggers at Harry the entire time.

"Not to change the subject or anything, but what the hell was that, Harry?" Ron asked.

Harry rolled his eyes. "To put it politely, I... declined her advances a few weeks back… She's still a bit mad."

Ron stared off after her. "But… she just asked me to dinner…"

"Not that your tale isn't entertaining, Weasley, but I believe we have bigger things to discuss at the moment," Draco interrupted. "Now, Harry, I want to hear every detail of this."

"There's nothing to tell, really. I mean, Hermione was in pain – real pain – and the Mediwitches said that they could either get donor-blood for her or we could give some of our own. I mean, she's one of my best friends. What did you expect us to do? Sit there and watch her in agony while they went through all the proper channels to get her the blood she needed. So I gave her some of my blood and, when it became clear that just one person wasn't enough – at least, not without taking enough to kill me – Fred and George gave some of theirs." He pulled up his shirt-sleeve. "I still have the scar on my wrist."

Draco looked and saw what was clearly a scar resulting from the bite of a vampire; the two puncture marks were a lighter color than the rest of the man's skin. He was very familiar with them, having left similar behind on his own victims.

It seemed that now Draco had the chance to actually keep Hermione after all, but he still didn't know why she had lied to him. She had clearly said that she did not drink human blood the first time he had taken her out into the light, and she always drank from the Centaurs instead off joining him for dinner. There were numerous occasions over the past few weeks that they had discussed diets, but she had led him to believe that she was a 'virgin vampire.' It could be that, although there was no hope for her to turn back into a human, she would rather be without him in her life. It's not liked he blamed her for that, really, since he did have such an awful past, but he liked to think that he had the potential to make up for his mistakes.

He looked up to realize that Harry and Ron were talking to one another. Ron looked furious. "But you are my best friend, my partner. I can't believe you would go and do something like that behind my back, and then never even tell me, especially when it was my former fiancée involved. I can't believe you would break that trust to do something like this! Even when it was the three of us, you always chose her over me!"

Harry actually looked calm, which added great credit to his character. "Actually, Ron, I have chosen you over her far too many times. You forget that you left us, and more times than just once. I owe Hermione with my life several times over and much of the fault belongs to you. The only part about this I regret is that I took Hermione's humanity away from her! She- she has been a sister to me, and I repaid her by destroying her…" His green eyes flashed with danger. "You left her, Ron; left her when she needed you the most and you blame me for abandoning you? How dare you!"

"Harry…"

He held his wand in Ron's face. "Shut up! You know what… An Auror is supposed to be trustworthy and loyal; he's supposed to be there for his friends and allies. Give me your badge, Ron. Now!"

Ron's mouth was gaping. "But Harry, you can't do that!"

"I'm the Head-Auror, Ron, I can do whatever the hell I please. Give me your badge and I will get the council together to decide what's going to happen. Now get out!"

Ron threw his bag at Harry's feet and sulked over to the fireplace. Green flames erupted as he shouted his destination.

Harry slumped into the chair he had just jumped out of. The day was definitely taking its toll on him. Draco smirked, "You know, a vampire bit releases endorphins…"

Harry glared at him. "After everything I just heard, I won't be giving blood to anyone- no matter how close I am with them."

Draco nodded. "Good, that's what I was hoping you would say. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to have a talk with Hermione."

As always, please let me know what you thought.

And, I am not completely happy with this chapter title (or the title of the previous chapter), so if you have any ideas let me know.

Thanks for reading,

Audrey