Note 1: This fic has with this chapter surpassed 100,000 words. In comparison, all of Silencio was about 85,000 words. Oh yes, this is a mammoth. And no, that's no reason to speed it up. ;)

Note 2: It has been my habit to answer every single review I got, but I can't do that anymore. I simply do not have the time or the energy. It takes me HOURS to reply to all reviews after a chapter and with the increased stress of school and sickness and fatigue of pregnancy, I'm calling an end to it. I may resume it later when I have more energy and less school. I'm only letting you know here, so you won't think I'm ignoring you individually. I'm not. I'll still be reading what you have to say and perhaps responding to a few.


Draco quickly checked that Hermione wasn't within viewing distance. There was a bookcase between them – good! She might still not have seen. And she couldn't have heard. He carefully moved the bag to his other shoulder.

"It's nothing," he said to Theo. "Just a scratch I got yesterday when I fell off my broom. Must have ripped it open with my carelessness."

Anger flashed in Theo's eyes. "Don't treat me like I'm stupid, Draco. I know what this is. You never fell off your broom. Did you really think I wouldn't figure it out?"

Draco lowered his eyes. "It's not what you think," he muttered.

"I think that friends are supposed to be honest with each other, and I think you should go to the hospital wing."

"I can't," Draco said miserably. "They'll know and I can't allow that. I can take care of it myself."

"Don't be daft," Theo scoffed. "It'll get infected and if it ever heals, it will certainly scar. Go to the hospital wing, or I'll report my findings to Dumbledore himself."

Draco looked up again. "I can't," he stubbornly said. "You want honesty? I should have known she was a sitting duck out there, but I hadn't thought of it. It's nothing more than that, I swear, and the wound will be fine. Just… leave me alone."

Theo's face was stony. "I don't know if you manage to convince yourself of that, but the fact of the matter stands – you need to go to the hospital wing and if you don't, I'll certainly make sure that your bet is brought out into the open."

Draco had lost. He knew it and Theo knew it. He lifted his good arm and ran his hand through his hair, thinking frantically. "Just don't tell Granger," he finally said. "She doesn't need to know."

She wouldn't bloody care, anyway.

Theo gazed at him thoughtfully. "You know, normally when you make any sort of sacrifice, big or small, you want the whole world to know it. And now you're trying to hide it from everyone?"

Draco gritted his teeth. "Give me a break, Theo. I'm bleeding here!"

"Exactly. Why don't you let her know that she owes you one? I'm sure she'd be grateful."

"Don't be daft," Draco growled. "She'd only realize just how hurt she got and you heard her. She already blames me."

"Or maybe she'd forgive you."

Draco felt a jolt go through him. Forgiveness. He looked away. "Of course she wouldn't. She would never forgive me. Excuse me, I have a wound to take care of." He hurriedly walked away, cursing Theo for saying all the wrong things.


Hermione was frowning at her table. Malfoy had been acting so strange today. First, he'd been teasing her, and then, suddenly, he'd stormed off. But not before looking at her as if… Her frown deepened. As if she'd hurt him. As if he was somehow deeply disappointed with her. As if she was supposed to know something. She couldn't figure out what it was that she was supposed to know and ended up deciding she was imagining things.

Besides, it had been his fault. He'd forced her out against her will, just to make her sulking fun for him. He must have known she would be targeted. She briefly considered if it was a way for him to circumvent the violence clause, but she had to discard it… sort of. He had never seemed like he wanted her to be physically hurt before. Except the time he'd forced her to kneel – that had been sort of painful. And when he made her stand for hours on end… that could be painful, too. Could he really be this underhanded? Could he really want to hurt her this badly?

Theo came back and sat down on the chair that Draco had vacated. She looked at him questioningly. "What was that all about?"

Theo hesitated for a brief second. "It was nothing. He'd asked to borrow some notes from me, and I couldn't find them."

She raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't find your notes?"

He shrugged. "They were from last year. I might have left them at home."

There was an awkward silence, where Hermione absent-mindedly doodled with her finger on the table, and Theo pensively looked at her.

"What do you make of his behavior?" Theo suddenly asked.

This time Hermione shrugged. "He's a strange one, very emotional at times. I don't make much of it, really."

Theo looked as if he wanted to say something, but then he just shook his head and sighed. "It would be better for all if this month was soon over."

"Tell me about it," Hermione muttered. "I can soon take up permanent residence at the hospital wing."

Again Theo looked a bit indecisive. "You do… realize… that he didn't mean for you to get harmed?"

"Didn't he?" she bitterly asked. "Maybe he should have thought of that before he put me out there for his friends to do target practice on."

"Be fair, Hermione," Theo quietly said. "Draco is very confused at the moment. He might make some bad decisions, but he tries."

"He tries to do what exactly? And what does he have to be confused about?" She shook her head. "No, I don't buy it."

"He tries to…" Again Theo paused. "He tries to become a better person. But some things are so deeply rooted in him that he finds it difficult to make the change. Take you, for instance. You're a Muggleborn. He's been taught that you are inferior to him in every way, yet he's finding that this is not the case. It confuses him and makes him… react."

"Lashing out from confusion is ok if you're two," Hermione pointed out. "What if that piece of wood hadn't gone through my shoulder? What if it had been something vital?"

"He wouldn't have been able to live with himself," Theo simply said. "It was an accident on his part. If you want to blame anyone, blame the person who aimed the Bludger at you, not Draco."

Hermione scowled. "Why are you suddenly such a champion of Malfoy? I thought you were mad at him."

"I am," he coolly said. "More than you know, actually. But it's plain that he's trying. He's going against his own nature to try and repair what he broke. I have to acknowledge that."

That was an odd way of referring to the fact that Malfoy had tried to sabotage her relationship with Theo and had kissed her. Hermione frowned in thought. What exactly did he break? Her relationship with Theo? His own relationship with Theo?

"So… what?" she asked, slightly confused. "He says that we can see each other if we want – after he was the one to put restrictions on it – and then it's all good?"

"Trust me, he's doing more than that," Theo assured her, "which is why I can't wait until he takes that bracelet off you. He's doing too much for my peace of mind."

"… What?" Hermione was feeling more than a little lost.

He gave her a small smile. "Never mind. It's not important. I have to go." He got up but stopped to look down at her as he was walking past her. "Chin up. Eight more days." He bent to swiftly brush his lips against hers, and then he was gone. Hermione was left with confusion and rather warm cheeks.


Before going to the hospital wing, Draco decided he needed backup and went to find Blaise. Blaise had a way with women – any women, really – and if Madam Pomfrey asked too many questions, he might be able to smooth-talk her into forgetting them. Might. It was Draco's last hope.

"You know, I'm beginning to lose count of how many favors you owe me," Blaise grumpily said, as Draco all but dragged him with him.

"A lot. I know," Draco assured him. "I'll repay you, I promise."

Blaise suddenly stopped walking and looked around nervously. "Could… Could you repay me a bit today?"

A bit confused with his friend's fidgeting, Draco blinked. "Sure, what do you need?"

"I need…" Blaise swallowed. "Please don't say anything about it, but I need you to deliver a message… to Tracey."

"It shouldn't be that difficult to send her an owl. You hardly need me to do that."

Blaise avoided his eyes. "She doesn't read my owls. You would need to corner her and make her listen. I've tried but… she hates me. I can't make her listen. Maybe you could. I don't know what else…" His voice trailed off and he was staring hard at the floor, his jaw set and a faint blush to his cheeks. He clearly found asking humiliating.

"No worries, mate," Draco heard himself say. "I'll talk to her later."

"Thanks," Blaise quietly said. "It'll reset the score."

Draco shrugged. "Who's keeping score?" He put an arm behind Blaise's back and propelled him forwards. "Just make sure that Madam Pomfrey doesn't suspect anything."

"You know," Blaise observed, "you're awfully set on keeping Granger in that bracelet."

"Don't go there," Draco advised.

"At all costs."

"You really don't want to go there."

"Even though you've hardly been bothering her since you kissed her."

"I bother her every day!"

"No… you hang out with her every day."

Draco briefly closed his eyes. He had to go there. "It's not like that."

"For your sake, I hope it's not," Blaise softly said.

They had reached their destination and Draco breathed a sigh of relief. He could live very comfortably without ever having this conversation.


Having Blaise on his side turned out to be every bit as beneficial as Draco had hoped.

Before going in, Blaise made sure that he wasn't wearing any of the things identifying him as Slytherin. When Draco gave him a puzzled look, Blaise just shrugged. "Prejudice, mate. Don't underestimate it."

Draco hardly saw the point, since Pomfrey would recognize him as being Slytherin, but whatever Blaise was doing, it seemed to be working well enough. When the elderly woman saw the wound, she hesitated and gave Draco a piercing glance, making him extremely nervous, but Blaise just mumbled something to her, and her face softened.

After this she just fussed over Draco like some mother hen, cleaning and closing his wound, and telling him to drink his potions and rest his arm for a day or so, before sending them on their way.

"What did you tell her?" Draco asked after they had left the hospital wing. "It worked brilliantly. I don't think she'll report any of it."

Blaise shot him a quick glance. "That's what matters, isn't it?"

Something about the cautious tone of the other boy's voice alarmed Draco. "What did you say?"

"You'll just get mad."

"I won't get mad."

"Yeah, you will."

"What did you say?"

Blaise sighed. "I said she was your girlfriend."

"What?" Draco was confused. "Who?"

"Granger. I said you had performed a spell to take her wound because she was your girlfriend, and that you didn't want anyone to know because of your obvious differences."

Draco stopped dead in his tracks. "You said she was my… was that really necessary?"

"I told you you'd get mad."

"I'm not mad."

"Right, that's why you're not looking as if you want to hit me."

Draco looked down at his clenched fists and forced them to unclench. "I just can't afford for rumors like that to get out. Theo would never forgive me."

"Where have you been this past week, Draco? That's what most people already think."

"That's ridiculous!"

"You were asking for it. You spread those rumors that she was chasing you – which nobody believed, by the way – and then you spend so much time with her, protect her when others bother her, and kiss her in public."

Draco's eyes widened. "That's not what's been happening! I mean, some of it, yes, but…"

Blaise shrugged. "Hey, if you say it's nothing, I'll believe you. But it got you off the hook, didn't it?"

It had gotten him off the hook, yes. But how was he supposed to get out of this mess? Draco glanced at the ring. It was such a burden and a curse, yet… he couldn't find the will to want to free himself from it.

He was so screwed.


"Hey, Davis, can I talk to you for a minute?"

The girl wrinkled her nose. "No, Malfoy, you cannot."

She tried walking around him, but he'd pretty much been expecting this move, so he just grabbed her around the waist and propelled her into the nearby classroom, ignoring her indignant shriek. A small group of fifth year girls standing nearby looked up at the commotion, but he just smirked and winked at them before following Tracey into the classroom. They would of course get the wrong idea, but at least they weren't likely to come check what was going on. Well, not unless she decided to scream.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she growled at him.

Draco's eyebrows shot up. Tracey Davis had always been this timid little mouse, tiptoeing around the fringes of Slytherin society. As unremarkable in her behavior as she was in her looks, he'd barely ever looked at her twice or spoken to her. That Blaise would have chosen to care for her like this was strange to say the least. Even stranger was the way she had taken to snubbing him. After all, Blaise was a prime catch. He was rich, good-looking, and he had a mix of ruthlessness and charm that girls seemed to like.

He took a step towards her, and she immediately took a step back. "One step closer and I'll scream. I don't know what Zabini told you, but he was lying. Let me go."

Draco blinked and frowned. What the hell did she think he was going to do? And what the hell did she think Blaise would have said of her? Did she know his friend so little? "I think you misunderstand," he coldly said. "Blaise asked me to talk to you."

"What?" she asked, edging around a table. "He's out of options, so he resorts to bullying?"

Draco clenched his teeth. As far as he was concerned, Blaise was better off without this bitch. "Well, you refuse to listen to him, don't you? I can't say I understand why he'd bother, but he thought you might want to listen to someone else."

"I don't understand why you bother. Aren't you happy that the purity of Zabini's blood was saved from the taint of me?"

"I'm ecstatic," he drily said, "but this isn't about me. I'm doing a friend a favor."

"Then speak," she said, crossing her arms across her chest.

He took a deep breath, fighting down his own anger and annoyance. He owed it to Blaise to try and do this right. "You have to know that he didn't mean what he said that night…"

"The hell he didn't!" she immediately said. "For months, I was good enough to sneak around with, but he was never going to make it into more than that. His ego just can't take that I dumped him first."

Draco slowly shook his head. "It's just not true, Davis. He's… He's not himself."

"Yeah?" Tracey asked, her cheeks flushed slightly with anger, and her eyes shinier than they had been before. "Well, good! I hope this new Blaise is better than the old one."

She made a dash for the door, but he caught her arm as she moved past him. "Just talk to him," he said. "Give him a chance to explain himself. It wasn't easy for him to ask me to talk to you. And letting me know how he feels about you isn't exactly sneaking around."

She snorted and pulled her arm free. "You knew all along. I saw the way you looked at me and the way you were giving him a hard time." Her eyes glittered angrily. "But don't worry. I'll talk to him. I think it's time he knows exactly how I feel about him."

After she was gone, Draco stood looking at the door, feeling like he'd just failed the last of his friends.


Up next...

"What was that?" he asked, sounding alarmed.

"What was what?" she asked, feigning ignorance.

His eyes narrowed. "Why did it hurt?"

She felt herself blush. "I don't know, don't you ever get random pains? It's nothing."