Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling does.

Warning: I do believe my story might end up being a wee bit dark.

A/N: Thank you everyone for the kind reviews. They made me smile. Thank you in advance for reading. I hope you enjoy this chapter, too!

Chapter 2

Alarmed, Hermione turned around and looked nervously from side to side for any sort of possibility to escape. Draco peered down to the splattered mess that lay at his feet. He incautiously withdrew his boot from the corpse, and proceeded to scrape off the gory remains that stubbornly clung to the sole. His lowered gaze began to slowly lift and finally settled on the closed door, then on the girl. Taking a bold step forward, Draco uttered a small gasp. His heart began to beat wildly as his body became engulfed by a bizarre coldness that nearly brought him to his knees. Never is his life had he experienced anything like it. The strange feeling was frighteningly indescribable.

Across the room, in front of the door, Hermione stopped her frantic search to openly gawk the wizard's bewildered expression. Malfoy's eyes were huge. She nearly gulped. What the blazes could he, out of all the seemingly fearless individuals in existence, be scared of?

Her tawny eyes widened in horror as the blood that once decorated the wall behind Malfoy started to slither down in small red streaks. Trembling violently, she pressed her back against the door. It looked as if the wall was weeping. The descending streams kept moving forward and soon grew in width as they attracted and absorbed any drop of blood that had originated from the blond boy's wounds. Eventually the scarlet streams reached the min's mangled body, yet carefully avoided it and continued on their path.

Draco remained frozen as chaos raged inside him, until a wet sound from behind brought him out of his stupor. He tried to turn around, but could not. It felt as though an unseen force was keeping him still as a statue, only his eyes held mobility. Draco's pulse raced as he heard the odd sound behind him getting louder and closer. His anxiousness was now so severe that he nearly missed how Hermione's distressed shuddering had ceased as well.

He followed her wary gaze and looked down at his injured chest and arm in alarm as the blood that once covered his wounds started trickling down his body in little rivulets, leaving smoothly healed ivory skin behind.

Hermione could only stare at the sticky fluid that kept slowly approaching in her direction. The multiple streams of blood finally connected together to create a long and thin river that came to a small halt in front of her. She didn't know what to make of it. Before she could come up with a theory it started to move again, but this time at an accelerated pace.

Draco's gaze hardened considerably as he saw his precious blood so close to the mudblood, yet bewilderment crept into his grey eyes once again as he watched the blood slowly crawl up the girl's leg.

Hermione silently screamed as she felt his blood somehow skim over her heavy layers of clothing, and gain access to her uncovered skin that lay underneath. She could feel the blood heading towards her arm that was almost numb again with the pain of her mysterious injury that turned out to be an extremely deep slash.

The unmoving wizard watched in disdain as the scarlet stream started to seep onto the mudblood's bloodied and wounded arm. He couldn't stand the sight of his pure blood intertwining with hers, let alone watching it enter into her contaminated veins. The blood pouring into Hermione's wound rapidly dwindled. As soon as the blood vanished into her bloodstream, she and Draco both visibly sagged. Whatever enthrallment they were under had come to an end.

Swallowing hard, Draco fought off the urge to vomit. In a twisted way, he was inside her. His pale hand crept down to his now healed chest and arm. He took a step towards the demure girl that was also marveling at the unmarred skin of her own arm.

"What did you do to me?" he bit out between clenched teeth.

Hermione jolted at the sound of his angry voice.

Slowly, carefully, she peered at his face. He clenched his jaw at her lack of a reply. To her astonishment she didn't outright cry or scream, but then again the intensity of his glare frightened her so much that she highly doubted her dry mouth could produce a noise. Surely, he wouldn't blame this weird phenomenon on her.

Draco, after seeing her silent expression, tried once more. "Mudblood, I asked you a question. Why did you steal my blood?" he snapped. Her delicate chin rose in an attempt to hide her fear when he began to advance towards her, but he saw right through it.

"Yes, Mudblood, you should be afraid, stealing something so pure will cost you," he insulted.

Once she heard those vaguely familiar words, memories of what he had nearly done earlier flooded to her.

Her instincts kicked in. She reached out blindly behind her and released a sigh of relief when the door opened.

Draco inwardly swore. His concentration was so diverted when the mudblood was stealing his blood that he forgot to renew the enchantment on the damn door.

She bolted. Her heart pounded as she ran as fast as her legs could take her down the darkened hallway. The wispy strands of her disheveled brown hair were whipping at her face, but she didn't care. She just needed to get away from him. Her frazzled mind tried to retrace her steps. She momentarily thought about staying completely still and blending into the shadows, but she knew he would find her.

He was gaining on her.

She was getting tired.

Hermione knew he almost had her, with his long athletic strides easily catching up to her, when she saw the shinning outline of something up in front of her vision.

She narrowly avoided it by lightly jumping over it.

Draco was absolutely livid. How dare the little mudblood run from her punishment? Smiling at her foolish belief that she could outrun him, he pushed harder. He almost had her. He reached out to take hold of her shoulder when she jumped.

A crashing sound behind Hermione only fueled her resolve.

She didn't bother to look back as she reached the stairs that would lead her to freedom. She only stopped running when she reached her dorm room.

Paranoia gripped at her as she burst into her dorm gasping for air, and recklessly threw herself face first on one of the couches in the living room, forgetting about everything except for the wizard that was after her.

Luna Lovegood's dirty blonde head went up in alerted surprise, she regarded her roommate with wide blue eyes.

Oblivious of her companion's presence, Hermione carefully listened for the sound of pursuit, but heard nothing aside from the sound of her own ragged breathing. Then a minute later, an inquiring voice.

"Hermione?"

Hermione didn't answer.

Luna was shocked at her friend's abrupt arrival because she thought her timid friend was already sleeping in her room. Earlier, when she had knocked to see if she wanted to study together, she had received no reply and assumed she had fallen asleep.

"Hermione?" repeated Luna as she reached out to touch her friend's thin arm. Before she could make contact, Hermione spun around to face her.

Luna's breath caught in her throat as she took in her friend's appearance.

"I know, I know. I look terrible, but I fell asleep in the library, again," nervously lied the brunette. Instinctively her hand hand went to her hair. Luna raised a dubious eyebrow, but remained silent.

Hermione hoped her friend wouldn't interrogate her. She feared that she might break down and actually confide in her. If she did, Hermione feared Draco might harm her, too.

"What are you doing up so late?" inquired Hermione in an attempt to diffuse her friend's curiosity. She inwardly cringed at how forced her voice sounded, but luckily for her, Luna did not seem to notice.

Luna stifled a yawn, before her dark blue eyes glittered with fire as she glared down at the book in her hands. "Studying for tomorrow's bloody test. That teacher from Deadly and Rare Magical creatures in hell-bent on making us fail with the massive multitude of tests she constantly gives us. It's unnecessary! I never ever pay attention in that ghastly class, so now I have to review and study the damn creatures all over again," replied Luna in an tired voice.

Even though she'd been through hell and felt like passing out at the mention of the dreaded class, Hermione couldn't help but faintly smile at her friend's sleepy tirade. Luna looked like an innocent, sweet, and caring girl, but Hermione knew better. Luna spoke her mind, swore like a sailor when irritated, and was inclined towards tomboyish mannerisms, yet she favored the color pink and had a hidden love for fashion. In essence, she was a walking and breathing contradiction.

"Listen, I don't want to be rude, but why do you... look the way you do?" questioned Luna. She had never before seen her friend look so different.

The brunette felt her smile slide off her face. She didn't like the way the blonde looked at her then, a certain assessing gaze that made her feel far too exposed.

"I've already told you! I fell asleep," protested Hermione in a shrill voice. She didn't want Luna to know the truth. If anything happened to her dear friend, Hermione would never forgive herself.

"Relax, will you? I'm only curious. It's not every day that you wear makeup. No need to get sentimental," Luna countered.

Tentatively, Hermione lightly brushed her fingertips on her face.

"I'm not wearing any," said the petite girl.

Luna's eyebrows shot upwards. "Right. Then I suppose your hideous bruise simply vanished to leave you with velvet looking skin? Not to mention your hair. C'mon Hermione! At least tell me who he is. I can keep a secret," said the blonde with a mischievous wink.

"Are you mad? I wasn't out with a wizard. You know that I don't go on dates. Besides, I think I would know if I had put on some makeup. Leave my hair out of it. You know that I can't tame it," added Hermione in a slightly confused voice.

"Uh huh. I've never seen your hair look better. You know what? I give up. Clearly you're in denial and don't want to tell me about your date. Or maybe you hit your head a hell of a lot harder than we originally thought," said Luna in an impatient voice and shrugged her shoulders pretending not to care about Hermione's feelings. For so long Luna had hoped that her friend would overcome her shyness and finally gather the courage to go on a date with someone, but she wasn't counting on the fact that her roommate would withhold that information from her.

Hermione deeply frowned, got up, and then went to her room without saying a word.

"Yeah, Goodnight to you too," muttered Luna to herself as she leaned back on the couch. She felt guilty for hurting Hermione's feelings, but sometimes Hermione's lack of trust hurt her feelings more than anything. She shook her head and resumed reading about the min.

Hermione locked her door. She didn't even bother with washing her face that night. Exhaustion and a plethora of other emotions caught up with her when she collapsed into her bed. She dreamt of blood.

. . .

Draco Malfoy scowled at the inanimate object that had caused him to lose his balance and land hard on his back. Time went by as he simply lay there for a long moment in silence. He cursed his long legs as they finally untangled from whatever it was that had caused his thwarting fall. Of course he didn't immediately get up.

First he had to assess the damage done to his body. He heard the girl flee down the stairs, and let out an aggravated sigh.

Unlike most wizards, he didn't heal properly.

When he was a small child, any sort of small cut or scrape would produce vast amounts of blood. In addition, any sort of pressure would cause him to develop nasty bruises. He was incredibly sensitive to pain, but he never let it show. As he aged, his condition only worsened. Being the arrogant and stubborn boy he was, he never let his condition detain him from doing anything he wanted, despite his grandparents' pleas. He was an accomplished athlete, but he very rarely was physically injured mainly due to his natural grace and his cautious behavior. He couldn't even remember when he had last taken such a fall.

The corners of his lips lifted in a wicked smile as he came up with ways to make the tiny girl pay for causing his ungraceful incident.

The smile faded from his face as he suddenly realized that nothing hurt.

Draco leapt up, his heart pounding. Why wasn't he in pain? It was weird that he felt perfectly fine.

Looking down at his feet, he finally took notice of the object that caused his fall.

He leaned down to retrieve it.

His necklace. It made sense; after all, he had a strong tendency of getting what he wanted. He started making his way back to his private dorm room without a backwards glance, ignoring the fact that he still felt no pain.

An hour later and dressed for bed, Draco now stood in front of his bed, mentally estimating how much of his medicine he would have to ingest to acquire some sort of relief from the daily pain he felt.

Straightening his broad shoulders, he realized that the nocturnal pulsating his body was accustomed to feeling was still absent. His muscles were not twitching with discomfort and his back still felt fine.

His figure began swaying with fatigue before he could fully assess his body with his own eyes. Collapsing into bed, his pale eyes lazily looked over to the medicinal potion on his nightstand, reaching out with an unsteady hand, his vision began to viciously blur as his body grew heavier, and most annoyingly, useless.

For the remainder of the night, dreams of blood plagued his mind, until a loud voice pierced the deep layers of his sleep.

. . .

"Draco! You either open up or I swear you will die an excruciating death if you're not dead already," threatened a muffled voice.

"Really, Theo? That's your brilliant plan to get him out of his bedroom. How tactful," replied another deep voice.

"Well, Blaise, instead of taking the initiative, should I be coming up with possible murder scenes like you have been doing all bloody day?" asked Theo dryly.

"Fine, when we go in and you see his dead body that was clearly eviscerated by a serial killer don't come crying to me," said Blaise.

Heavy eyelids started fluttering at the constant racket. Draco groaned and turned over in his bed trying to drone out Theo's and Blaise's bickering with his silk pillow. It was useless; he knew they wouldn't leave until he got out of bed.

"I'm going," said the blond boy in a groggy voice. He got out of bed without bothering to put on a shirt and went to open his bedroom door to his friends.

"Ah, your majesty, I trust you slept well?" snickered Blaise.

"I did, my loyal peasant," replied Draco in a sleepy voice while yawning.

Theo burst out laughing, "Hey, Blaise, he doesn't seem to be missing any vital organs."

Blaise playfully glared at Theo and then focused his attention back to the tired blond.

The carefree air cleared as Blaise suddenly pulled Draco towards him.

"Although, his scars seem to be missing..." whispered Blaise in astonishment, as his eyes traveled over Draco's exposed upper body.

Theo also got closer to inspect the unblemished body.

"How?" questioned Theo in an unbelieving voice.

Draco ran to the nearest mirror and peered closely at his semi-naked body. His scars that he had developed due to his condition and fearless attitude were completely gone, but how? Only Theo and Blaise knew about his condition and scars, along with his grandparents. They also knew Draco never fully exposed his lean, muscled body for that very reason.

"It's just a spell I'm trying out. I just didn't think it'd actually work," lied Draco. He was nervous, but his face remained stoic as he kept looking at his reflection.

His friends nodded and laughed for thinking that Draco's permanently marred body could suddenly rid itself of its scars.

They never paused to think that such appearance altering spells didn't work inside the school.

In the mirror, Draco cast a quick glance at a bright orange cloud that hung in the sky. It oddly reminded him of the creature he'd killed last night. He turned around to look at the charmed open window.

Theo's hazel eyes followed Draco's grey gaze.

"Weird, huh?" he indicated towards the window. "Apparently when a min dies a cloud in the sky remains orange in color for three days," added Theo.

Blaise grimaced.

"Theo don't remind me of mins. You know, I could have gotten a perfect grade on today's test if it weren't for the min essay questions at the end. I'm glad someone killed it. I'd personally thank them if I knew them. I didn't like how its creepy eyes always followed me in class,"admitted Blaise.

"Besides could you imagine if it somehow transformed and two people had to seal it? I'd feel bad for them," added the Italian, with an exaggerated shudder.

Draco's eye hardened as he recalled last night's event. All traces of sleep gone from the silvery depths. He feigned ignorance, "Someone killed the min?" he questioned in a voice that was calm and collected, but obviously curious.

"Yeah, apparently mins are usually killed out of fear. That's why they're so rare. People fear the blood bonds that they can potentially create. The new instructor of Deadly and Rare Magical creatures thinks that's why her min was murdered. You're lucky you slept all day. Everyone kept talking about it in classes. It was very annoying," Blaise responded.

"How does she know it was her min and not a random one?" asked Draco.

"Well, that's the thing. Nobody can prove anything," answered Blaise.

"What do you mean?" retorted Draco.

His silvery gaze looked back and forth between the two Slytherins.

Theo chuckled and replied, " You really don't pay attention in that class do, you? The dead body of a min dissolves into mist within half an hour. The teachers don't have a body for evidence, but a min hasn't been spotted in this region of the world since the early 1500's. They're exceptionally rare. Anyway, I think I got a good grade-"

Before Theo could continue, Blaise cut in smoothly, "Yeah, yeah. Save it for the witches you deceive into believing you're brilliant, but since you think you did so well... What did you answer for the legend essay question? I just couldn't remember the legend about the blood bonds. It's not even in the book, how could she have expected us to remember by her repeating it to us only once?" asked Blaise in an angry voice.

Theo slightly shook his head. "Well, I left that one blank. I couldn't remember either," replied the hazel-eyed boy as he ran his fingers through his light brown hair. A gesture he only made when embarrassed or agitated.

Draco rolled his eyes and inwardly scowled at them for not being able to supply him with valuable information.

"Speaking of witches, I haven't seen the mudblood all day. I even asked Luna, but she wasn't very forthcoming," said Blaise.

Theo's hazel eyes snapped up to Blaise's blue gaze at the mention of the blonde girl's name. His eyes were flashing with irritation.

"You talked to that her?" hissed Theo. His expression was full of contempt and his eyes went hard with unpleasant memories.

"I did. I was merely curious. Don't worry Theo, by the way she glares at you, I'm sure she hates you, too. However, I need to find the mudblood because I have a bet to win," replied the Italian with a smile as he began to walk towards the door.

The blond started pacing. He needed answers about the blood bonds.

Theo smirked at Blaise's retreating form and said, "Blaise, I'm sure Skylar Montgomery would have a better chance at getting a go at the virginal mudblood than you."

Blaise stopped in his tracks and glanced back with a devious smirk on his face.

"Mate, are you jealous that he probably answered the blood bond legend essay question that you couldn't? After all, you're supposedly so 'knowledgeable' about legends," taunted the cheeky wizard. He then took off with those parting words, leaving behind an outraged Theo.

"Drake, I'm going to shower. I'll meet you at dinner?" asked Theo in a barely contained voice as he ran after Blaise.

Draco merely nodded his head; he was too immersed in his thoughts about a certain nerd named Skylar Montgomery.

After his two friends were finally gone, he went to shower.

. . .

A frail boy with severely crooked teeth, big bushy eyebrows, and oily red hair was happily walking towards the Great Hall. The merry bounce of his walk was due to his test grade. Not even the gloomy and poorly lit corridor could dampen his mood. He loved the new Deadly and Rare Magical creatures course that was integrated into their daily classes and it reflected in his grade.

Many wizards and the occasional witch mocked him for studying so hard, but he found it ironic that in the end they always tried to bribe him for answers or tutoring lessons.

Unfortunately for him, the wizard that was looking for him had no intention of bribing or paying him for lessons.

Draco's eyes gleamed when he saw the skinny boy finally walk past him.

"Montgomery," he addressed as he emerged from the shadows.

The redhead turned and audibly gulped as the sound of the velvety smooth voice.

"Malfoy," he replied in a terrified whisper.

The reputation of Draco Malfoy was very well known.

Skylar remained as still and quiet as ever.

"Would you please step into my office," ordered Draco as he gestured to a closet door.

"That's not an office, though," said Skylar with wide eyes

Draco clenched his jaw.

"Are you rejecting my kind offer?' asked Draco in a dangerous voice.

"No! Of course not," Skylar hastily denied as he made his way into the so called office.

Once both boys were comfortable in the spacious closet, Draco ordered the oily boy to tell him all he knew about blood bonds formed by mins.

. . .

Hermoine Granger woke up with a start. She looked around to see if Malfoy was somehow hiding in the shadows of her room. She leaned back into her pillows once she realized how paranoid she was being. Her stomach growled. She looked at the clock and decided to take a quick shower before she headed down to the Great Hall for dinner.

She reasoned in her head that Malfoy wouldn't attack her out in public. All she needed to do was to surround herself by people and avoid him.

As Hermione let the water run down her body, she couldn't help but notice that her body seemed a lot more soft. She shook her head in denial, maybe she had hit her head too hard.

Without bothering to check her face or clothing in the mirror, she walked out of her dorm.

Once Hermione sat down at the Hufflepuff table, she started to fret that maybe she had a smudge on her face or a hole in her clothes. A lot of wizards were staring at her.

She abruptly left the table and decided to return to her dorm room. The stares and whispers were making her extremely uncomfortable. Hermione never did see how a wizard stood up from his table and silently followed her.

Before Hermione made it back to her destination, she felt a pair of strong arms come around her from behind. It happened so fast that she didn't have time to react.

The stranger threw her over his broad shoulder and proceeded to quickly carry her down a spiral staircase.

She couldn't see much, and couldn't really scream because each jolt robbed her of air.

By the time he came to a halt, she was breathless. He opened a door with his wand, while still carrying the limp girl with one arm.

He kicked open another door with his foot. He forcibly threw her onto what she assumed to be a bed. It was hard to see with no light. As if somehow reading her mind, her aggressor turned on the light.

"Take off your clothes," he demanded