Thank you for all your lovely feedback. We fan fiction writers would be nothing without our reviewers.

I'm so tired. I really shouldn't be doing this in the middle of the night, heeh.


Attempting to avoid Draco was unequivocally Hermione's favorite new pastime, she decided. It could be no more than an attempt, however, since he lamentably could summon her at will. Yet, for most of Tuesday, she managed to not lay eyes on him and that had to count as some sort of a victory. Instead, she almost desperately latched on to her friends, hoping to get as much quality time with them as possible, before Draco began wreaking havoc. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that they'd forgive her once she got the bracelet off and explained matters to them – which no power on earth could stop her from doing – but until then, it could be a lonely few weeks if the evil git managed to drive a wedge between them.

She refused to think about what would happen to the fragile romantic interest that Ron had in her. If he was the one, then it would all work out. At least that was what she tried to tell herself.

Time was, however, a cruel mistress, and no matter how much Hermione fought it, it was soon time for her to go to the dungeons. To say that she didn't want to would be an understatement. She soon realized that she'd do just about anything barring jumping from the Astronomy Tower – because that really would be messy – to avoid it.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do, and at three thirty p.m. she went on her way.

She wasn't even allowed the respite of the walk down. On the fifth floor, she made a brief stop to return a book to the library and that was long enough for him to see her. She should really campaign for separate House Libraries.

"Ahh, Granger," he cheerfully said, as if he hadn't threatened to destroy her world just hours ago. "Going down, I presume?"

She gave a terse nod.

"Good, good," he mumbled. "Here, you can carry these for me." He piled a stack of very hefty volumes on her.

Hermione groaned at the thought of carrying all this extra weight six floors down. Well, at least it wasn't six floors up.

Draco now had his hands free and he folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't pretend you don't like it, Granger. This is your normal state, if I'm not much mistaken."

She scowled at him, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of a reply.

"Well, don't just stand here," he said, when it became apparent that she wasn't going to respond. "Move! Oh, and don't drop any of them, Madam Pince gets so disagreeable, when you dent her precious books."

Hermione indulged in some very graphic, violent fantasies.

He made her follow him all the way down, walking at a sedate pace. She wasn't sure whether it was to prolong her discomfort with the books or to prolong her discomfort with the stares from the occasional student they came across. It was probably both.

Finally, they reached the Slytherin common room and Hermione thought that now she was home free. Just a few more steps and she would be relieved of her burden.

No such luck.

As soon as they were inside, Draco's eyes fell on his girlfriend, who was holding court in a corner of the room. He looked thoughtful for a moment, before turning to Hermione.

"Wait here," he said, leaving her to concentrate on not allowing her arms to give out, while he went to talk to the girl, who, in Hermione's opinion, was the biggest bitch at Hogwarts.

Merlin, how she hated both of them.

Having nothing else to do, except not dropping the books, Hermione watched as Draco went up behind Pansy and bent to kiss her on the cheek, earning him a dazzling smile. She wanted to puke. Draco glanced back at her, and she made an effort to quickly remove her look of disgust, but got the distinct feeling that she had failed. Oh, bother. He wasn't exactly the forgiving kind. He whispered something in Pansy's ear and her head whipped around to pin Hermione with a stare, before she got up from her chair and walked towards her. Oh, bother.

Malfoy was, of course, grinning.

"I don't understand, though," Hermione heard Pansy say as she drew nearer, "why she's doing this. Couldn't she just renege?"

She doesn't know? Draco shot Hermione a warning glance as her mouth fell open.

"She's a Gryffindor and a Mudblood," he mumbled, sliding his arms around Pansy from behind. "Who knows what goes on inside their heads?"

"True," Pansy said, looking thoughtful. "Still, are you sure that those rumors you're spreading aren't truth?"

Hermione snorted and Draco chuckled. "Does she look love struck to you, love?"

Pansy narrowed her eyes and examined Hermione carefully. Hermione tried her best to return the look, but her arms really were starting to give out now. "I guess not…" Pansy mumbled after a moment. "And it would really only make it more fun if she were. I mean, imagine a Mudblood panting after a Malfoy."

This time, Draco outright laughed. Hermione didn't appreciate the humor, so she just glared at both of them, trying to readjust the books that were threatening to slip from her hands.

The movement revealed the bracelet to Pansy, who gasped and, breaking Draco's hold, took a few steps forward to grab Hermione's wrist. The books all fell to the floor with a large clatter and Hermione winced. It was Pansy's fault, of course, but she wouldn't be the one to pay for it.

Still holding Hermione's wrist, Pansy turned to face a suddenly serious looking Draco.

"You lied to me!" she whispered, making Hermione aware of the sudden tension.

"Not exactly…" Draco ventured, looking very uncomfortable.

"You gave her this?" Pansy screeched. "HER?" She let go of Hermione's wrist as if burned.

"I didn't gi—"

"Take it off her!"

Wait… what? Pansy was championing her? That made no sense. Pansy should be thrilled that she was enslaved like this.

Draco adopted a stubborn stance, his eyes growing cold. "No!"

"So, that's it then?" Pansy railed. "You care more about some Mudblood than me? Your girlfriend of the past four years?"

Draco winced slightly, which Hermione found peculiar. She also noticed that the common room was suddenly deserted.

"I don't bloody care about her," he growled. "If you took a moment to calm down and think, you'd know that!"

"Then why won't you take it off her?" Pansy asked, choking on tears.

Draco sighed and closed his eyes. "It's my only guarantee that she'll do what I say. It's only for a month."

"She's wearing it for a month?" Pansy whispered, the tears now openly sliding down her cheeks.

"Pansy…" Draco began.

"When were you planning on telling me?" Pansy asked, her voice regaining some of its strength.

Draco ran a hand through his hair, looking thoroughly harassed. "I didn't actually think you'd know what it was."

"So that makes it ok!? You never planned on telling me, did you?"

The guilty look on Draco's face seemed to be answer enough.

Pansy brushed at her tears. "That's… that's just… I never actually believed that any of what they said about you was true," she quietly said. "But it seems I don't really know you that well, do I?"

Draco looked as if someone had punched him. "Come on, Pans, that's not fair!"

"And this is?" She gesticulated towards Hermione and Draco's eyes shifted and widened slightly. He seemed to have forgotten that she was standing right there.

"Go to my room. NOW!" he snarled, and Hermione fled.


Draco's head ached and he felt rotten. Pansy had been alternating between yelling and crying, sometimes doing both at once, until she'd finally stormed off to her dormitory. He didn't feel like going to his room and having to look at the cause of the fight right now, so he was sitting in the common room, staring at the fire. The Mudblood had heard too much. He really hated the way she always seemed to be privy to his personal matters, and he couldn't for the life of him figure out just how much she'd learned and what she could deduce from that. Fortunately, her confusion was too apparent for her to actually know anything pertinent.

He'd known that Pansy would be upset if she knew about the bracelet, but he hadn't thought that she'd actually already know about it and recognize it. He should have figured. She had probably known everything there was to know about the Malfoys since she laid her eyes on him back in third year.

He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye but ignored it.

"I heard you and Pansy had a fight," Blaise conversationally said.

Draco groaned. "Not now, Blaise, please!"

"I wasn't going to," Blaise quietly said.

Draco glanced at his friend. No, not even Blaise was that tactless. "She recognized the bracelet," he said, not feeling the need to clarify.

Blaise simply nodded. "I thought it looked a bit fancy for an enslaving device," he said. "How did she take it?"

"How do you think she took it?" Draco exploded, but then almost immediately held up a hand to prevent Blaise from responding. "I'm sorry, I… Not very well. But I didn't think she'd know, and it's only temporary, you know?"

"And, I take it that you're not going to stop, even for this?"

Draco didn't reply but merely shot him a dark look.

"All right, all right," Blaise said, holding up his hands in surrender. "You know I had to ask."

"It's just for a month," Draco muttered. "Why can't Pansy see that?"

"I don't think it makes a lot of difference for how long it is… Imagine telling her that you're sleeping with another girl – Granger, no less – but it's just for a month."

Draco's head jerked to the side to pin Blaise with a glare. "It is not like that at all!"

"Maybe not to you, but I'm betting that's how it feels to Pansy."

Draco rubbed his eyes wearily. The lack of sleep was beginning to get to him. "I'm going to bed," he mumbled, getting up from his seat.

"It's just barely six o'clock!"

"Yes, well, that's plenty of time for the day to get worse, isn't it? I prefer to be asleep."

"But what about your girlfriend?" Blaise insisted. "Don't you need to patch things up?"

Draco shook his head. He was feeling exhausted beyond belief. "I'll talk to her tomorrow, but I won't change my mind."

"You know, there are more important things than getting even…"

"What do you want me to respond to that, Blaise?" Draco asked. "That Pansy isn't one of them?"

Blaise's lips tightened in a frown. "It's fair enough if she isn't, Draco, but why the Hell do you keep stringing her along if that's the case?"

Draco shrugged. "It seems that she wants me to, doesn't it? And if she'd just get over that I'm using the bracelet to control Granger for a bit, there really wouldn't be a problem."

Blaise looked away. "I like Pansy," he softly said. "As a friend. I don't like the way you're treating her."

If only he knew… but Draco wasn't about to enlighten him. "I like Pansy too," he said.

"As a friend?" Blaise quietly asked. Or something more?

Draco didn't respond to that but went to his room instead.


Hermione shifted uncomfortably, eyeing the empty chair. It was really petty of him to have her just stand around like this for hours. Her thighs and the back of her calves had begun to ache after the first half-hour, and now her back was objecting as well. She stretched in an effort to soothe the pains, but it didn't help much. She might have been able to endure the discomfort better if she hadn't been so bloody bored. Even just looking at other people, when she'd been standing in the Slytherin common room the other day, had been more interesting.

Her initial glee that Malfoy and Parkinson were having a fight had long since ebbed. After all, it was hard to be gleeful about someone else being as obviously hurt as Parkinson had been. Hermione didn't really understand the reason, though. It had something to do with the bracelet and something that Malfoy had obviously neglected to tell her. It was really fancy and all that, to be sure. He'd even made a point out of telling her that. But could that really be the reason in itself? That he had used a fancy bracelet to enslave her? No, it didn't seem likely; something was missing and she was reluctant to make guesses.

The door finally opened to admit Malfoy and Hermione snapped to attention, wondering what he was going to do. From the look of him earlier, he was blaming the whole incident on her, and he would be about to punish her severely.

Hermione would never admit to being scared, but she was definitely feeling nervous.

When his eyes fell on her, they didn't look malicious, though. They just looked tired.

"Oh, you," he said with a sigh. "Great."

Hermione's eyebrows went up. This was how he greeted her after having ordered her to wait here for him?

"The bracelet," she said. "There's something you haven't told me."

One side of his mouth quirked a little in amusement. "There are a lot of things I haven't told you."

"Tell me!" she demanded, knowing she was being foolhardy at best.

"No," he mumbled with a yawn. "I don't think I will."

"Perhaps Pansy will tell me, then," she said.

This got a reaction out of him. He whipped to attention and sneered. "You'll leave Pansy alone, you cold-hearted bitch. Don't you think you upset her enough, already?"

Hermione met his glare head-on. "I didn't upset her," she said. "You did."

His eyes darkened and she took an involuntary step backwards.

"You listen to me carefully, Granger," he hissed. "You don't want to make me mad. You won't like me when I'm mad. So from now on, you will avoid all mention of Pansy and you will do everything to stay out of her way. If I hear that you upset her in any way, I will do everything in my considerable power to make you wish that you were never born. Am I making myself clear?"

Hermione slowly nodded. His words had quite the opposite effect of what was intended, though. They didn't scare her. They almost made her feel… compassion. She had never known that Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson actually cared about each other as normal human beings. Somehow, she felt reassured in that knowledge.

"Get out!" he growled. "Get your repulsive Mudblood arse out of my room!"

All Hermione's sympathy died. He didn't deserve it. As she left, she fervently hoped that Pansy would dump him and give him a taste of a little thing called hurt.


Let's play "Who says?"... and no, I won't tell you...

"You don't give yourself enough credit. You are clever and brave and loyal, you have integrity and a kind heart, and you're pretty. You're just not accustomed to allowing people to see the real you and allowing them to like you. Rejection is so much easier to handle when there never was a chance of acceptance, isn't it?"

Hermione gaped at him. Did all those compliments just come from him? Him?