Note: Just wanted to warn you that there is some slight language used in this chapter. Thanks to those who have been kind enough to review the story! Enjoy.

Chapter 29

10:05 a.m., Slytherin Common Room, Hogwarts(Saturday)

"I'm sorry that I got you a detention," Vixen apologized as she walked over to Draco. He gave her a small smile.

"We both got a detention. But don't worry about it. It could be a lot worse," he told her. She nodded but she still felt bad.

"Why don't we go and get dressed. I'll meet you back here alright?" Draco suggested. Vixen gathered a few items of clothing in her arms and left the Slytherin House to go and get changed.

Draco sighed and ran a hand over his face slowly. He needed to be more careful when he was in the Slytherin House. The entire incident that had just taken place could have easily been avoided. He mentally scolded himself for compromising his reputation as he climbed the stairs that led to his bedroom. He opened the door and entered slowly, sighing out of relief when he noticed the room was empty.

He walked over to his closet area that had his white button up shirts and black slacks neatly hung inside. He scrunched his nose up at the ordinary and plain clothing. He wasn't even sure why he dressed the way he did. He then remembered his father telling him that it wasn't appropriate for a Malfoy to dress down. A Malfoy should always dress better than everybody else because they were better than everybody else.

Scowling as he thought of his father Draco angrily pushed the hanging clothes to one end of the closet. His scowl faded when he noticed an average black t-shirt hanging up in the closet. He quickly took off his day old shirt and put on the t-shirt. It was nice not having sleeves clinging to his arms for once. Ignoring his black slacks that were in his line of vision he grabbed a pair of jeans and put them on.

He turned and caught a glimpse of his reflection in a full length mirror that was built into the closet wall. He looked like an average teenager for once. He shook his head when he realized that he would never have dressed this way if Vixen hadn't been brought to Hogwarts. He pursed his lips together and stood silently as he thought about her.

Vixen was the most complex young woman that he had ever met. He thought back to the first night that she was brought into the Great Hall. The young girl had scared the hell out of him that night. Oh how he hated her and her attitude. He smiled as he recalled the numerous instances where they would insult one another. Those were the days that he would have never thought of her as anything more than a pathetic muggle. Those were the days when he would have been fine with killing her.

Draco clenched his fists at his sides as he stood staring at his reflection in the mirror. He looked himself over in disgust. Who in the hell did he think he was? He was nothing more than a skinny, blonde, arrogant prat that hid behind his family name. So he was a Malfoy, big fucking deal. That didn't give him any right to decide anybodies fate. How dare he go around every day acting as if he was entitled to everything. As he stared himself down he realized that he had to have been the most horrible person in the world. No, he couldn't be compared to a person. He was a monster.

Before he could comprehend what he was doing Draco pulled back his fist and slammed it against the glass of the mirror. It cracked beneath his fist on impact, shattering. Breathing heavily he pulled his hand back and let it fall to his side. Blood dripped off of his knuckles that were splintered with glass shards. He scoffed and shook his head slowly from side to side.

"I hate you," Draco thought to himself. The once proud, confident, self-proclaimed Slytherin Prince, now hated everything about himself.

Meanwhile…

10:11 a.m., Hallway, Hogwarts(Saturday)

Vixen had just exited the girls bathroom after getting changed for the day. After the incident this morning she decided to dress down making sure not to draw anymore attention to herself. She pulled her platinum hair back and tied it into a messy ponytail as she walked through the busy hall. Her ripped up jeans fit her tightly and dragged behind her green Converse as she walked. She kept her hands in the pocket of her gray pull-over hoodie as she passed the Hogwarts students.

Vixen glued her eyes to the shinning floor as she let her mind wander. There was something going on with Draco, that she was sure of. After the incident about the letter from his father she made sure to try and figure things out. She knew that Hermione hadn't magically opened the letter for her. She had to have changed what was within it. True, Vixen wasn't very familiar with Lucius Malfoy but she did know that an abusive person would not end a letter by saying "Love". Sadly enough, she knew that from first hand experience.

There was something written in that letter that she wasn't supposed to know about. Of course she wasn't going to let anybody think that she knew any of this. Sometimes it was smarter to play dumb. She snapped out of her thoughts when she caught the reflection of an unhappy Hermione standing in front of her. Vixen looked up at her to see that her arms were crossed.

"You slept with him?" Hermione unhappily asked Vixen with her eyes slightly narrowed. Vixen narrowed her eyes now.

"It's not what you think," Vixen started to explain. Hermione scoffed.

"Please. I heard that you admitted to seducing him and the two of you were found all cuddled up together this morning. I also heard that Draco wasn't fully clothed," Hermione added. Vixen shook her head at the accusation.

"Hermione, nothing happened," Vixen told her. Her expression showed that she didn't believe her.

"Right. Kind of like how there was nothing going on between the two of you but then I catch you snogging in the hallway?" Hermione told her. Vixen shook her head angrily as tears started forming in her eyes.

"If you don't believe me then you don't believe me. If you honestly believe that I'm that kind of girl then we obviously weren't as good of friends as I thought we were," Vixen angrily said before walking away from Hermione. Tears started falling out of her eyes and she couldn't help but let out a few sobs.

She was so upset and angry that she didn't notice that she had passed Luna and Rylen. Luna watched her walk off into the distance quietly. Rylen could tell that Luna wasn't happy about this and he slowly shook his head from side to side. The two approached Hermione now.

"Hello Hermione," Luna said in her small voice. Hermione gave her a small smile.

"Hello Luna. Hello Rylen," she replied.

"She didn't sleep with him," Luna calmly said. Hermione raised an eyebrow at her.

"She was trying to explain the real story to you but you kept ignoring her. You know when you lie your pupils grow slightly larger. I couldn't help but notice that hers stayed the same size. I don't think it's a good idea to take a Slytherin students story to heart. They tend to embellish quite a bit," Luna said calmly with a blank face. Hermione frowned to herself.

"You're right, Luna. I can't believe I just did that to Vixen. I need to go apologize," Hermione said sadly before running off in the direction that Vixen had gone in. Rylen sighed and looked down at Luna.

10:23 a.m., Slytherin Common Room, Hogwarts(Saturday)

Draco sat quietly in the Slytherin House living area with his hand wrapped up in a white towel waiting for Vixen to return. He couldn't stop his leg from shaking as he waited for her. He looked up when he heard someone enter the room. He furrowed his brow when he noticed that it was Vixen and that she was crying. He remained seated as she made her way over to him.

"Do you know what people think happened between us?" she angrily told him with tears still in her eyes. Draco remained silent.

"People think that we slept together. Even Hermione wouldn't believe me when I tried to tell her the truth. You know the worst part of this entire thing? It's all my fault!" she continued to tell him. He remained quiet as he stared at her.

"It's all because I said I seduced you. Draco, I just didn't want you to get in trouble because of me. But now people are going to think worse of me than they already do!" she cried angrily. Draco stopped shaking his leg.

"Draco, why aren't you saying anything?" she asked him sadly. Draco slowly stood up from his seat now as he kept the white towel wrapped around his bleeding hand.

"What's wrong with your hand?" Vixen asked him between sobs. He let out a pained sigh.

"Vixen, I need to tell you something. I've been putting this off for far too long now," he told her as he forced himself to hold back his own tears. Vixen sniffeld.

"What is it?" she asked as she wiped her hand over her cheeks. Draco opened his mouth but someone else's voice was heard.

"Hey Vix, Hermione wants to talk to you," Jacob said as he walked into the room. Draco swallowed hard, wishing that Jacob would leave.

"What about?" she asked him.

"Something about apologizing," he told her before walking upstairs toward the boys' bedroom. Vixen felt a small smile cross her lips.

"Draco, can you tell me later? This is really important," she asked him. Draco felt his stomach drop.

"Yeah…no problem," he quietly said. She nodded before leaving the room.

Draco stood alone in the middle of the room holding his wrapped up hand silently. He sat down quickly and held his head in his uninjured hand.

10:31 a.m., Hallway, Hogwarts(Saturday)

Vixen exited the Slytherin House only to find Hermione waiting for her in the hallway. Hermione sighed before frowning when she noticed Vixen cross her arms over her chest. The girls stared one another down briefly until Hermione broke the silence.

"I'm sorry. I should have given you the chance to explain yourself," Hermione quietly said. Vixen kept her arms crossed.

"I can't believe you would even think that I would do something like that," Vixen confessed slowly shaking her head back and forth. Hermione sighed sadly.

"There is no excuse for my behavior earlier. I don't really know what I can say to make things right between us," Hermione admitted as she looked to Vixen for a response. Vixen slowly unfolded her arms.

"Hermione, you need to trust me. I was okay with everyone telling me to stay away from Draco. I was a little less okay with Harry letting me fall to what could have been my death over winning a Quidditch game, but yet I got over it. When you accused me of doing…that with Draco on my first night of staying in the Slytherin House it really hurt me. But it's not the worst thing that could have happened between you and I," Vixen told her as a small smile appeared on her face. Hermione returned the smile.

"So, friends then?" Hermione asked. Vixen walked over to her.

"Of course," she told her. The girls shared a happy laugh before hugging one another.

"Damn, muggle girl gets around!" Theodore Nott said while walking past the two girls surrounded by a group of Slytherin boys. The girls released one another and glared at the boy.

The group of boys laughed as they continued on their way. Vixen looked to Hermione with her eyebrow raised. A smirk crept upon Hermione's face as she nodded at Vixen and pulled her wand out of her pocket. Vixen crossed her arms and smiled proudly as she turned to look at the group of Slytherin boys.

"Hey Nott!" Hermione yelled. Theodore turned around with a grin on his face that faded when he noticed Hermione pointing her wand at him.

"Stupify!" Hermione yelled. Theodore was quickly sent flying across the hall screaming as his friends ran after him.

Vixen laughed and grabbed onto Hermione's arm. The girls laughed at the incident that had just taken place together. When she was able to catch her breath Vixen released Hermione's arm and composed herself.

"Think you're going to get in trouble for that?" Vixen asked pointing to the spot that Theodore used to be standing in. Hermione shrugged.

"Nott is a pig. I'm sure I can slide by with a warning," Hermione replied. Vixen nodded.

"Shoot, I have to get back inside. Draco needed to talk to me and it seemed important," Vixen told Hermione.

"That's alright. Before you go I wanted to tell you that we are going to Hogsmeade to shop for our gowns on Monday," Hermione informed Vixen. She nodded in understanding.

"Sounds great. See you later," Vixen said before turning to walk back into the Slytherin House. Hermione waved after her before leaving for her own House.

Vixen walked slowly through the tunnel way with her Converse squeaking with every step she took. From the living area she could hear frustrated groans and aggravated sighs making her feel a little uneasy. She slowly poked her head around the corner of the tunnel into the living area to see Draco. She smiled a small smile as she stepped into the room and made her way over to him.

He had his wounded hand resting on the top of the glass living area table with his wand placed in his left hand. He seemed to be having trouble keeping his hand still as he pointed his wand at his bleeding hand. Vixen sat on the floor next to the table while she rolled the sleeves of her hooded sweatshirt up to her elbows. She then reached over and lightly gripped Draco's left hand in hers. He looked at her with confusion in his eyes.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"Helping you keep your hand steady. Now go ahead. I think you're looking for Ferula," she told him calmly. He raised his eyebrows when he noticed she had gotten the spell name correct.

"Ferula," Draco said clearly. Bandages flew out of his wand and neatly wrapped his hand.

He held his now bandaged hand up in front of his face, examining each side of it. He then placed his hand back on the arm of the chair he was sitting in and looked down at Vixen who was smiling up at him. He sighed lightly before giving her a small smile back.

"How exactly did you know that spell?" he asked her. She turned her head slightly, sending a few loose strands of her bangs falling into her eyes.

"I heard Madam Pomfrey use it that day you took me to the Hospital Wing," she answered while rolling her sleeves back down. Draco nodded as he remembered that day in full detail.

"You've got quite the memory," he told her as he sunk back into the chair.

"What happened to your hand Draco?" Vixen finally asked as she sat staring at his

bandaged hand. He remained silent.

"I tripped on my way into my closet and ended up smashing a mirror," he lied. Vixen raised an eyebrow at him.

"So you fell into a mirror…with your fist?" she asked him slightly unsure of his explanation. He smirked at her.

"Well I had to try and catch myself from falling somehow, didn't I?" he said back to her. Vixen decided to drop the subject.

"So, what was it you needed to tell me?" she asked before getting off of the floor and sitting on the couch. Draco froze.

Earlier he had gathered up the courage to completely lay everything out on the table for Vixen. He was going to tell her the entire truth about everything that had been going on. He was tired of hiding everything from her. But now, she was smiling at him. She was waiting patiently for an answer from him. Her day had already spun out of control and he didn't want to contribute to it. Draco took a deep breath before answering her.

"I've been putting this off for far too long Vixen. I should have told you this a long time ago," he started as he closed his eyes shut tight.

"Alright, I'm listening," Vixen told him while nodding her head slowly. Draco's heart began to beat faster.

"I want you to be my date for this ball," he blurted out. His eyes shot open and he

looked at Vixen.

To his surprise she was grinning from ear to ear. She had her hands clasped together tightly and she had started to laugh. Within seconds she had left her seat and tackled him farther into his seat. She hugged him tightly around the neck as she squirmed to remain in the seat and on top of him. Draco couldn't help but laugh slightly.

"You mean it! You really mean it!" Vixen happily asked squeezing him tighter. Draco grabbed her around the stomach and stopped her squirming.

"Of course I mean it," he told her. Vixen couldn't help smiling.

"I'm going to go to a real dance! I even have a date!" she happily exclaimed. Draco hugged her tighter.

Draco's guilt set in quicker than ever. He knew that Vixen deserved to know the truth and he scolded himself for losing the nerve to tell her about everything. However, he did manage to make her day slightly better and he even got her to agree to be his date for the ball. Yes, these were good and notable things but his guilt refused to subside.