Anything you recognize doesn't belong to me. The rest is mine though.

"Harry, Ron?" asked Hermione, peeking her head through the portrait hole to the Gryffindor common room, making sure they were there. They looked to her and she continued speaking. "I need to talk to you."

"Um, okay," said Harry in confusion. What could she possible have to talk to them about?

Hermione glanced around the crowded room and added, "In private. Could you come with me?" She led them to her common room, where Draco and Ginny were waiting.

"Malfoy, get away from her," demanded Harry the moment he saw the two of them chatting together.

"Harry, please, this isn't about me. Sit down," said Ginny, motioning to the couch. "You too Ron." They complied and Hermione began.

"Guys I'm," she glanced to Draco for support and he nodded. "Okay, both of you have probably realized that I'm hiding something from you," they both nodded, "and I'm sure you're both probably wondering what it is." A brief moment of silence followed while Hermione thought about the best way to phrase her next words. She decided to just blurt them out.

"I'm in love with Draco!" Shocked silence followed.

"So you like…Malfoy," concluded Harry in disbelief.

"We're dating," Hermione replied. "We've been going out for a few months. I didn't tell you guys because I thought you'd hate me for it."

"No-" began Harry, but Ron's tamper had already flared.

"Speak for yourself Harry." He turned to Hermione, his words venomous. "So you mean to tell me that all this time, you've been going out with Malfoy?! What, I'm not good enough for you, but you date this scum?"

"Oh please Ron, it's not like I chose who to fall in love with," she spat back. "I don't have any more choice in who I fall in love with than you have in who I decide to date!"

"No Hermione. I mean, Krum was bad enough, but this-" he scoffed "-this tops it all. Have you forgotten about all the terrible things he's put you through for the past six years?"

"Have you noticed that he's stopped?"

"Let me guess," continued Ron, "you just forgave him, didn't you? I can't believe that out of all the people you could have, you choose Malfoy. Or maybe you're not in love with him at all. Maybe you just want me to hate you, so you have a reason not to date me. You must really hate me."

"Ron, stop it! You're not being fair!" exclaimed Ginny in an attempt to help.

"And you!" he reeled on Ginny. "You knew! You're my family Ginny! You're supposed to tell me when my best friend is dating the scum of the earth!"

"This is why she didn't tell you Weasley," said Draco scathingly. "You're so damn possessive. You have to yell at her for your own mistake. It's not her fault that she fell in love with someone else because you were too much of a coward to tell her how you felt sooner."

"Well," retorted Ron hotly, "she's only dating Voldemort's right hand man's son. I'll bet you're just using her to get information about Harry! Tell me Malfoy, did you threaten her, or her parents?"

The sound of Hermione's hand across Ron's face echoed around the room, followed by pure silence. Ron stared at her in shock. Never before in his life had he imagined that Hermione Granger would slap him with such sincerity, least of all in defense of Draco Malfoy.

There was anger clear in her eyes, and she stood there. Tightlipped and prepared to renounce him.

"Ronald Weasley, I have heard enough," she said evenly, her voice dangerously low and angry. "I will not stand here and listen to you insult the man that I love merely because I didn't choose you. You can't always get your way. Get used to it. I am so sick of your jealousy, and I have heard enough of it.

"What gives you the right to act like this?" she asked, not providing him time to reply. "If you cared Ron, you wouldn't have said anything that just came out of your mouth. If you loved me, you would be happy that I'm happy. You would support my choices, even if one of them isn't you.

"And since you seem to have forgotten, my father has been dead for two years," she said evenly as she stepped closer to him, and for the first time since they had begun to argue, their eyes actually met.

What he saw in her almost eyes surprised him because it wasn't merely anger, but pain and betrayal were present as well. And for the briefest moment, Ron felt a pang of guilt, he felt regret. Was he really hurting the person that he had sworn to protect?

No, he thought grimly, she did this to herself. He was the one who should feel betrayed. After all, she was the one who was sneaking around with the enemy.

"I didn't say you had to like it," said Hermione, her voice like ice, "but I am in love with Draco Malfoy. You can either accept that fact, or you can leave. Your choice."

As if he were waiting for those words, Ron turned on his heel and walked out of the room, slamming the portrait behind him, Hermione allowed herself to fall in a slump on the couch, her head falling into her hands.

"I've just lost one of my best friends," she whispered helplessly. "He hates me."

"No," said Harry gently as he sat beside her, "never that. Ron could never hate you. It's just that infamous Weasley temper."

"But Harry, he was so angry," she choked through a sob. "I've never seen him so angry."

"Don't worry Hermione," said Ginny softly. "He'll come around."

"You two will be arguing over how he can eat so much in no time at all," said Draco, hoping to ease her suffering in any way that he could. "I know that he really does care for you, he's just upset that he missed his chance with you."

"How can you know that?"

"Us rivals always know each other," he said smugly, drawing a smile from her."

"It's true," contributed Harry. "You should've seen the way I glared at guys who were after Ginny. I can't believe you didn't notice." Draco turned to him and nodded.

"It must be a man thing," he said, deepening his voice to demonstrate his meaning. This drew a laugh from Hermione, not because they had made her understand that Ron didn't hate her, but because their attempt was so wretchedly awful that it was amusing.

"There," said Ginny, "that's what we like to see. Don't pay any attention to him. He's just an arse sometimes. I mean, if you think that was bad, you should've seen him when he thought Dean and I had sex, which was absurd." Hermione laughed again and looked to Harry.

"So you're okay with this?"

"I don't care for Malfoy, I'll be the first to admit that," came his reply. "But he makes you happy, which is enough for me. I just want what's best for you, and of that happens to be Malfoy, I can live with it."

"Thank you Harry."

"I'm going to go talk some sense into that moron while he's still hot headed," he said. "The idiot needs to think before he allows ridiculous words to exit his mouth." He then walked out of the room.

"I'm going to follow him," decided Ginny. "Because knowing my brother and knowing Harry, Harry just might decide to beat some sense into him."

"Don't want that," murmured Hermione.

"No," replied Ginny with a smile. "I want to help. And in case you were wondering Mione, since someone was bound to cross that rather large rift between Gryffindor and Slytherin, I'm glad that it was my friend who made history."

This drew one more smile from Hermione before Ginny exited the room as well, leaving Hermione and Draco alone, with the exception of Hermione's troubled thoughts.

Was she really doing the right thing? All the secrets in her life seemed to be tearing her away from the ones she cared for most.

Hermione, what happened?" asked Melissa in confusion. "You were doing to well last week. Now you can't even lift a box!"

"I'm sorry, okay?" she exclaimed angrily. "Today wasn't exactly the best day of my life."

What happened? Hermione, who had learned that occlumency worked wonderfully when it came to Jake's extra power, blocked him out.

"Okay, this is good." Hermione looked strangely at her. "Not that you had a bad day," she said. "It's good because we can work with this. It's a lesson that can only be learned in these conditions. You are going to have to use your powers under extreme stress. Now is the perfect time to learn how to do that. All you have to do is channel your emotions into what you're trying to do."

"Okay," replied Hermione, "how?"

"Just let it go," replied Jake. "Don't think about anything except your task." Hermione nodded and closed her eyes.

She allowed her pain and anger to flow through her and she lost track of time and task. All she wanted was to be protected from the hurtful words of others. She wanted the pain and suffering to end. She lost herself in her emotions and didn't notice when Melissa called out to her, telling her to stop. She only snapped back into reality when she heard Melissa's scream as a surge of her own power left her.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Jake kneeling over Melissa's limp form near the wall across the room, which was in complete disarray. Fear gripped her heart as she ran to them. Jake glanced for a brief moment at Hermione before answering her unasked question.

"She'll be fine." Hermione was shocked by Jake's calm demeanor. "It's nothing I can't handle." Hermione watched as Jake placed his hand on Mel's forehead and closed his eyes. Hermione thought she saw a dim green light before hearing Mel groan in pain, though it was a welcome sound compared to her previous silence. Her head rolled to the side and her eyes opened slowly.

"Jake?" Her voice was thick and groggy.

"Shh," he soothed, "I know it still hurts."

"What did I do?" Horror struck Hermione's voice as she spoke; she'd done all of this?

"Don't worry about it Hermione," said Jake, his voice understanding. "We knew when we asked you to do this that this could happen. It's the reason why I'm here. Because I can heal, remember?"

She did remember. She also remembered that he couldn't save her. He must have noticed her silence because he spoke sympathetically to her.

"You don't know how much I wish I could save you Hermione. I really wish that I could."

"No, I understand," replied Hermione with a shake of her head, "At least you can save Mel if my powers throw her against a stone wall again."

"Stop blaming yourself," she heard Mel say. "I'm fine now; it's just a little headache. I'm glad we did this." She stood, ignoring the disapproving look displayed on Jake's features. "You have potential, a lot of it."

"I think that's an understatement," mumbled Jake.

"What are you talking about? All I did was hurt Mel and mess up a room!"

"But it was the way you did it that was amazing," replied Melissa. "I've never seen anything like it. It was like there was the shield, a barrier around you. You didn't seem to notice when I told you that you could stop, so I went to you. That was stupidity on my part. When I reached to touch you though, I was thrown into that wall over there."

"I made the rock softer for you," said Jake. "I didn't have time to do much though."

"There wasn't time to do much of anything," muttered Mel before continuing. "Anyways, this is good news. Usually, according to my research, an elemental is either offensive or defensive. Like Jake and I for example. I'm offensive, because my power hurts, but Jake, since he has to power to heal and form a protective shield, is mostly defensive. You on the other hand, are both offensive and defensive. The barrier that was just around you was perfect, but it also had a great attack power. Your attack power just has to be developed."

"So what now?"

"We'll just have to work on your control," replied Mel. Hermione agreed and suggested they clean up the room. She had work to do.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter:) Drop me a review letting me know what you though =D