Hello everyone. I hope all of you are doing great. Lots of drama in this chapter. You guys have given me a lot of love and support thank you a lot. So not to disappoint you anymore here is chapter 12.

P.S. Harry Potter and friends are J.K Rowling's babies.

Enjoy, and,, please please please review.

Chapter 12

Everything seemed so surreal. One minute you are expecting something and next you are thrown up against the wall. Draco tried to figure out every possible reason as to why Hermione had acted the way she did. He wanted to figure out what had gone wrong, which was the reason he didn't end up going back to his house last night. There was another reason why he didn't go to his house, what would he tell his mates? Before Goyle and Nott would have had laughed at his condition but now it is a different story. And there was Blaise; he especially didn't want Blaise to know because he has the tendency to make matter worse than it usually is. Let's say Blaise has the power to crumple his reputation to pieces and stomp all over it. He had got to save his reputation; he has got to talk to Hermione Granger.

It was one hour before noon, and yet there weren't very many students in the Hall for breakfast. Blaise Zabini was having a blast. Today he not only can prove that purebloods are better than mudbloods, he can also tell everyone that the Slytherins are smarter than Gryffindors (including with Miss Hermione the-smartest-witch-of-our-age-and-Hogwarts-know-it -all Granger). "What did I tell you guys, Draco would do it, didn't I? He is the only one who will save our dignity." He was on and on about the bets.

The other boys were just staring at him trying not to laugh "should we tell him?" hissed Goyle.

"No, why spoil the fun? Let's wait till the end." Nott whispered back.

"Hey guys, did you see. The Pothead and the Weasel are not with Granger. That means the plan went just fine. Draco is not here yet and she is not here yet. OH! I am having so much fun right now." chimed Blaise

Pansy was listening and was glaring at Blaise the whole time. She looked at Goyle and Nott and gave them a knowing smile.

After calming Hermione down and sending her off to Gryffindor house, she had come down to her house searching for Draco. She didn't find him there but instead saw Nott and Goyle worried sick for Hermione. To make them feel better she had told them the whole story. She also told them not to tell anyone. Now she was here in the Great Hall for the showdown and glaring at Blaise.

At the precise moment, Hermione walked in. She had all washed up and looked clean. She looked stronger than before. All the crying might had made her stronger, there was not a single amount of fear and hurt in her eyes. She gave a smile which didn't reach her eyes.

As she was walking towards the Gryffindor table Blaise yelled "hey Granger how was last night? Did you guys have fun? I bet you did, huh? I know you did because it is Draco." He laughed but Hermione kept walking towards her table as if she didn't hear a thing. Pansy and other two looked at each other and shook their heads.

Then Draco walks in all cleaned up. It made Blaise's day. It was like Christmas had come earlier than usual. He stands up and walks over to his friend who was rooted to the entrance and was now staring at a certain bushy brown head at the Gryffindor table.

"Dracccoooo, my man… You know from today I will formally announce that you are the Great Lord. I knew you could do it. I knew you could place the mudblood in her right place. Come on lets grab our winnings." Saying this Blaise grab Draco by his elbow and moved towards their table. Draco looked reluctant.

"Ok, mates, hand over the winnings. We won, what did I tell you? He would do it. He could make the mudblood sleep with him." He was talking loudly so that everybody could hear it.

"Are you sure about that?" asked Nott. This made Draco look at his friend. "Are you sure he won fair and square?" he asked again.

"Of course. Didn't you see they came almost at the same time? Both of them all cleaned up." answered Blaise.

"That doesn't prove anything." said Pansy, now coming closer to the boys and trying to intervene.

Draco wants to stop now. He doesn't want this to go further anymore. He just wants to take Hermione to the corner and ask her about last night and, after making everything clear, kiss her senseless. But one can only hope right?

"Tell you what boys, let us all go to the source herself and ask her the question." Pansy suggested.

"Yeah, good idea." Both Nott and Goyle agreed and stood up.

"Yeah, why not? I just wanted to see the mudblood flare-up and make a fool out of herself." agreed Blaise.

"NO, stop." Draco said with a panic in his voice

"Why Draco? Don't you want to win? Or is there something going on?" asked Pansy with a challenge.

"N-nn-oo. There is nothing going on." stuttered Draco

"Ya I will guarantee that. Let's go." Blaise said

Draco was unwilling to go but Blaise grabbed him by his elbow and took him towards the Gryffindor table.

Everybody from the table looked up to the five Slytherins and was very quiet. To end the silence, Pansy asked "Hermione, Draco here is saying that last night after the party you went with him to sleep with him. Is that true?"

"Oh! Did he now?" Hermione asked in a very slow voice and raised her eyebrows

"I didn't say anything. Nor I am saying anything, Blaise is assuming things" said Draco trying to make things better.

"Well ya, It was me who is saying but I know what happened." Said Blaise

"Well! It is good to assume Zabini but did you ask your friend about it though?" asked Hermione

Draco didn't want to stay here any longer, he sighed "Look Hermione I….?"

He was about to say something but Hermione raised her hand to make him stop "Call me Granger or mudblood. My friends call me Hermione." she said

Draco was really confused and for some reason hurt. He stared at Hermione to understand what was going on with her but he couldn't tell anything. For it looked like she had closed herself up for every emotion. She used to smile gracefully but now her smile doesn't even reach her eyes. He really needed to talk to her. "Ok Granger, could we talk first, alone."

"She isn't going anywhere ferret." gritted Ron

"I wasn't talking to you, Weasel." Draco was getting really angry now. Why isn't she letting him in? What had happened? Did she find out? But he didn't have to wait very long for the answer.

"Aaaawwwwww, look at Zabini. He looks so happy right now. Hey Hermione do you want to burst his bubble or should I?" asked Ginny

"What do you mean by 'burst my bubble'? What is going on?" asked Blaise

Draco looked away from Hermione to everyone around him, and asked "what are you guys on about?"

"You see Mr. Malfoy, Ginny challenged me. She said I was good for nothing except for studying and logics, that I wasn't able to flirt with any boys. So you see I accepted the challenge saying that I can not only flirt with a boy but will make him say that he loves me. Then she chose which guy I was going to seduce… At first I thought it was going to be hard but later I found it was rather easy. I thought you would resent me when I came closer to you. But to my great surprise, you were willingly coming on to me. I thought it would take longer than a given time to make you say you loved me but you see it didn't take that long at all, because you said those words to me last night."

Draco clutched his hand on the table because he was unable to breathe. He was dizzy yet he didn't want anybody seeing him get weak. He stared at Hermione for the longest time, he wanted to gather all the information she was giving him. She was talking but he didn't understand anything she said because that's not what she had felt last night. His touch, his kiss, everything he did last night was nothing to her? And at that precise moment he understood, he actually loves her and whatever he did or said to her came from his heart. Now she is sitting there gloriously and telling him that what he had said meant nothing to her, which pained him. This pain hurt more than the physical pain he had felt during the torture given by the Dark Lord. He wanted to figure out what was happening. So he kept quiet and just stared at her.

"You said you loved her?" asked Blaise a bit taken back by the statement.

"Oh if you don't believe her, you take her memory, or even his memory, throw it in the pensive and see for yourself what happened last night. I was there in the invisibility cloak. So you can even see mine." lied Ginny

This made Draco snap but still he didn't stir. He kept looking at Hermione. She on the other hand wanted to shut herself out of any emotion but because of his gaze she was beginning to crumble. She stood up and said "oh it has become such a crowd here. Ginny actually I am gonna go now. Give me the winnings later ok. I am going to do the rounds."

She grabbed her stuff, excused herself and ran away before she gave herself into Draco's gaze. All her friends were having so much fun including Pansy, Goyle, and Nott (they were asking Blaise for money because they won against him and Draco).

Draco had something else in his mind right now. He wasn't listening to all the rumbles that were going around him. Right now he doesn't care at all. He had been watching her and was trying to figure out what she was saying.

Then he finally understood everything.

She might have said something else in front of everyone, but Draco knew for sure that Hermione Granger was lying. For some odd reason he knew her perfectly well and to his astonishment he was happy about it.

I know this is a short chapter but other ones are long enough. It took me long enough to update this because i was really busy. So i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as i enjoyed writing it. so please please review a lot. love you all