Sorry it too so long to update, but this is my longest chapter yet. Hope you like- no love it! R&R!

Chapter 6

"What!" cried both students, only now noticing the chain between them that had wrapped itself around their wrists.

"Sir, you can't be serious. Me? Him? Chained? Together? Forever? It's all too much." Hermione fainted after mumbling those last few words.

"Headmaster, for once I agree. You can't seriously believe me to survive while being chained to... well that!" Draco said, pointing disgustedly at Hermione who was crumpled at their feet.

"Mr. Malfoy," said Dumbledore calmly. "I'm sure that you must have known that you wouldn't just drink tea and be finished with it when you agreed to this project."

"I didn't agree to this. It was my mother who signed me up for this nonsense. And even so, why on earth is this necessary? Wait a moment, this is one of those inter-house relationships that you love to set up." spat Draco. "You've probably been savoring this moment since the very first time you set your filthy eyes on us. The day when you can finally shove us together permanently! You're lucky that you've got such a good excuse and that my family is desperate enough to even fathom helping her for any reason."

"Mr. Malfoy, I beg you to calm down. I assure you that this whole project is deeply necessary and that I have absolutely no idea of where you got the idea that I somehow made this whole thing up. But if ever you do find any evidence, be sure to contact me as soon as possible so that it may be cleared up."

Draco was about to speak but Dumbledore cut him off. "I'm sorry, I have a meeting with the Minister of Magic any minute now. Please bring Miss Granger to the Slytherin common room; she'll have to sleep in your dorm for the night. I would have ratherd you stay in the Gryffindor tower for safety reasons, but you would not know the password and quite a few Gryffindors would like to keep it that way. Not to worry, a room will be arranged by tomorrow. You are excused."

"But-"

"No buts Mr. Malfoy. Run along and take care Miss Granger. A dorm room full of seventh year Slytherin boys and her is bound to make a mess. Goodnight Mr. Malfoy."

Draco growled a whine of complaint but finished by picking up Hermione tossing her over his shoulder to carry her fireman style. But before he reached the door, the old Headmaster spoke up once again.

"Ah yes. Before I forget I must tell you this. For several reasons, I have chosen to keep the chain connecting the both of you a secret. Therefore, no one will be able to see it other than the three of us. Now you may leave before the Minister arrives." said Dumbledore before motioning for Draco to go.

"Are you sure there's nothing else? No last second plans to ruin my life that you should be informing me of?" asked Draco

After his Headmaster reluctantly shook his head, the blond left with Hermione draped over his shoulder, dead to the world.

Once he was in the dark, familiar, torch-lighten hallways, he felt calmer. He loved the familiarity. It was one place that never changed even with the war raging on. He was now able to think over the whole situation. Everything had just past by so quickly during the last few months. The memories of getting beaten by his father washed over him. Draco's denial to becoming a death-eater had always brought on the anger of Lucius Malfoy. These memories were followed by those of his mother's cries traveling through the Malfoy Manor at night. Though her bones would get scorched with the pain of the Crutiatus curse, she preferred it to letting anything happen to Draco. They were all each other had left.

Lucius' cruelty and freedom was finally put to an end when someone informed the Ministry of his last hidden location. He now had a life sentence to Azkaban. Draco and his mother did not know who had told the Ministry. All that they had received from their savior was a piece of parchment saying that said person was a family friend and that they had made sure of Lucius's imprisonment. The only problem was that the Malfoy family never had any real friends. There were the Parkinsons, but they wouldn't move a finger for anyone unless they got something of great value in return. And they would never do anything against Voldemort or a member of his inner circle.

There were also the Zabinis, but they were just as bad as the Parkinsons. Blaise was an exception. He had had an equally horrific childhood; sadly his father was still free. The two Slytherin boys had befriended one another as kids, being able to easily relate to each other's constant state of fear towards their fathers. They had decided to keep up a facade at school, but the reality of it began to waver as the years went by. At first it was to not bring up suspicion that they were any different than their families. Now none of them knew. None of them cared.

All pure-blood families are the same, thought Draco sourly. Excluding the Weasleys, that is.

Why were most pure-blooded families so obsessed with following old traditions and not aware that times have changed? Why wouldn't his family? Why wouldn't any other family? Most importantly, why could the Weasleys?

Draco secretly wished that his family could in any way resemble the happy red-head family. However, this was tightly blocked by the steel walls of his facade.

Sure, the twins would play terrible pranks with the rest of the family getting the worst of it. But in the end, the whole family would always end up laughing. Molly had a bad temper but would never, not in her wildest dreams, think about using violence on her family. Arthur was known as a lunatic, but that was only because he respected people for what they did and not for what their heritage was. Draco didn't really know Charlie and all he knew about Percy was that he used to be a Prefect so he must have been a good chap. Ginny was said to have dated every boy in Hogwarts who was either in her year or a year older. However, if ever you put down any of her brothers you were promised a week long visit to the hospital wing. Draco shuddered, remembering the bat-bogey curse she had hit him with years back.

And then there was Ronald Weasley. He was eternally made fun of because of his family's poverty and his apparent lack in brains. But where the bloke seemed to be lacking in intelligence he made up for with his obvious bravery and his pure heart. He would never let anything happen to his best mates, Potter and Granger. He adored the both of them as he did his family. Why wouldn't he, they loved him. And for that, Draco would always despise the redhead. He had EVERYTHING that truly mattered. He'd even had a few girlfriends. After he broke up with that Brown girl, Lavender was it, he and Granger had started going out. Rumor had it that they had broken up during the summer. Draco never thought that they were right for each other, but had dismissed the feeling.

Hermione stirred in her sleep then mumbled "Not the cucumber. Please, I beg you, go AWAY evil giant cucumber."

Draco chuckled but was reminded of his newest problem: Hermione Granger or, though he hated to admit it, future Malfoy. If it weren't for her, he might have had a less horrible childhood. His father would never accept for a mud-blood (which she actually never was) to get higher marks than him. And voilĂ , another reason for him to get tortured. Couldn't she simply be a bit less of an insufferable know-it-all? Was it really that important that she spend so much time on her homework? Did she have to do every extra project or homework given to the class by every teacher? No. Of course not. She just wanted to be the center of attention and the best at everything. It wasn't like her life had ever depended on it. His had! She just pissed him off so much. He felt like hexing someone and had to restrain himself not to do so to the unconscious witch over his shoulder. That would only result in the both of them getting projected against the wall because of that stupid chain.

"Malfoy?" said someone turning around a corner of the hall. Now HERE was the only living person that he despised more than Weasley or Granger. Other than his barbaric father, but that was a whole different level of hatred that was up there with Voldemort. The person walking through the safety of the shadows was no other than Harry freaking Potter. Now Him, he had no problem in hexing.

"What are you doing with my Girlfriend you bloody git?" yelled Potter, quickening his pace after having seen the lady in question draped over his enemy's shoulder motionless.

"Your girlfriend- Oh, you mean Granger?" said Draco. So Potter was interested in Granger was he? Well that just opened up a world of possible ways to torment the boy, with all thought of physical violence forgotten.

"By girlfriend, you do mean my fiancé, right?" started Draco with his trademark smirk setting into place. "The very same one that happens to be going to my dormitory with me. Oh, she just fainted in utter bliss when Dumbledore said that he would let us stay together as much as possible. She's adorable, isn't she?"

The devious blond watched as Potter's face paled considerably with shock then switched to scarlet with a new found rage.

Ah, now this was the only good reason for having Potter around. He was just so fragile. Now don't get Draco wrong, he didn't like Granger in the least. But if it meant getting THESE reactions out of Potter, hell, he'd kiss the girl.

He hurried on before Harry could have time to talk.

"Now personally," the sly Slytherin said. "I was thinking of waiting a few years before tying the knot but she just can't wait. She begged me over and over to be wed to me as soon as possible. We finally agreed on having the ceremony next summer, right after graduation so as not to have to deal with certain... problems." He looked the dark haired boy up and down, raising his eyebrows before finishing his statement.

Once again, the boy-who-lived-to-have-a-fit-over-an-engaged-girl was beyond furious. His hands were balled up into fists of rage, his knuckles a sickening bone white. Before the distraught boy could formulate a sentence through his boiling rage, Draco continued onward.

"So, I was talking to my bride-to-be the other day and she was telling me of your importance to her." At this, Harry's eyes lit up. "As a friend you dimwit. The point is, she needs you to understand the importance of our marriage and wants you to be her maid of honor. Don't ask me why she chose you, it's apparently a girl thing so you should understand. She knew you would say yes since you care so much about her happiness. Now I'd love to stay and chat some more but I've got to get back to my dorm with Granger- I mean future Malfoy. Have a good night. I know I'll be having one with this beauty beside me." said Draco sweetly and rushed to the dungeons, preferring to keep himself in one piece, leaving an infuriated but slightly bewildered Harry behind.

He couldn't help snickering the whole way to his dorm and once he closed the communal bedroom's door, he burst out laughing. All the boys in the room turned to stare at Draco because they all knew that when Draco Malfoy laughed like that it could only mean one thing. He had done something so devious, so purely evil, and so hilarious that they'd be talking about it all week. It was only then that they noticed the unmistakable bushy haired witch over his shoulder and identical evil smirks crossed their faces with all the possibilities of tonight's events swirling through their minds.

"Get ready for some fun boys." Draco said, equally smirking evilly as he walked up to his bed and carefully placed the inert body of Hermione Granger on his bed. "The Minister wants her to learn how to act as a pure-blood by a Slytherin, well that's exactly what we're going to do."

Thanks to all my readers and a SPECIAL thanks to all my reviewers: Luvluvv (oh brother, random but I still adore them); sweet-tang-honey (if you've been reading all these author's notes then you already know that I love you for your comments, but keep reviewing and I'll love you even more); Miss Crookshanks (Yay! So glad you love it and you DO read a lot according to your profile); .face (impatience isn't gonna get you anywhere but at least it shows that you like the story and I'm trying my best to update quick and this one's way longer so it should make up for how late it is); Shorty653 (glad you like it and the teachers are o.o.c. Please review again); numberedheartbeats17 (thanks! hope I hear from you again). I get loads of you READING my story or putting it on ALERT or adding it as a FAVORITE but I'd really love it if you could all REVIEW it as well. So now's your chance. Go on, try it. You know you want to.