A/N: After the last chapter I decided to change the story slightly. This chapter is one of the major changes I made that will affect the rest of the story. Hope you enjoy it. If not, let me know at the end. And thanks to everyone who has been reading this story. I'm keeping this short, so happy reading.

Forget Me Not

Chapter 6: Secrets and Speculations

A few weeks have passed since I told Harry and Ron about Draco. Since then Ron has decided to stop speaking to me and his mannerisms have changed drastically. He eats less, hardly talks or jokes around, never asks me questions concerning his schoolwork nor tries to convince me to start his papers, and he has stopped smiling all together. Every time I try to confront him and talk to him, he walks away without hesitation or offering any reason, and he only spends time with me when I happen to be with Harry. It hurt me deeply to see my usually carefree friend so… different.

"Hermione," I glanced over to my left and looked up at my best friend. Ron was still walking with his attention focused in front of us. I waited for him to continue, happy that he had decided to start speaking to me once again after a few weeks of the silent treatment. He seemed to have changed his mind about speaking to me. I sighed and continued my rounds in silence. At eleven, when our shift was over, he promptly left my side and headed back for our tower. I sighed again and frowned at his retreating back as he hurried further from me.

Later that night, I was supposed to meet Draco in the sixth floor corridor. I headed to our agreed destination and wondered who would arrive first. He turned out to be there first, but he wasn't alone. Lisa Turpin was there confronting him; I stayed a safe distance away and out of view.

"You fucking bastard!" she yelled at the Slytherin and kept her wand drawn. I noticed he had panic on his face as the thin, blonde female held her ground with a fierce attitude. "You have some nerve doing what you did, then turning around and acting like nothing happened. Now I catch you snogging Hermione Granger of all people!" He remained silent, but looked confused. "I bet you're shagging her now, too. Aren't you?" Draco shook his head vehemently; he was telling the truth, so why not? "I guess I was too emotional last time to properly hex you. Maybe I should turn you into a ferret and keep you in a cage until I come up with a suitable punishment." I didn't know the ferret incident was so popular. "I should have listened when they said you were nothing but good-for-nothing two-timer," she moved to flick her wrists, but I beat her to it.

"Petrificus totalus," I said and watched as she froze in place; Lisa fell harshly to the ground. I rushed over to Draco, and he relaxed before looking down at the petrified girl.

"I really piss off a lot of people…" he looked a little upset by the fact. I muttered a few more charms that put her to sleep and removed the body bind hex.

"Well, at least we know who hexed you. Now we just need to find out what she did."

"No, we don't," he urged strongly and pulled me into him. "I already told you that I don't want my memories back."

"But, Draco-"

"No, Hermione. I've made up my mind." I considered telling him about Snape then, but I didn't want him to be mad at me so I kept my mouth shut. "What are we going to do with her?" That was a good question; I shrugged. "So just leave her here?"

"I guess. She'll wake up soon and be fine." He looked worried, I touched his cheek. "Let's go." I pulled him away to spend some alone time with my secret boyfriend. After what we've done and would have done, I think it was safe to consider him such. Wonder if he considered the same?

As we traveled away from the Ravenclaw, I decided to go to the Room of Requirement that night. I was already feeling upset about Ron and the last thing I needed was Lisa coming after us again. At least that one place was safe from any intrusion. Draco was clearly confused as he watched me walk back and forth three times in the hall on the seventh floor. I noticed his eyes widen as the door appeared. I took his hand again and walked inside.

"What room is this?" he asked as he looked around.

Currently, it looked similar to the prefect's common room where all our meetings were held. I didn't have anything extravagant in mind, but I figured it was better than the large empty hall we used for DA's training. That was always the first thing to come to mind when I thought of this place.

"It's the Room of Requirement," I answered him before explaining further about it; he was intrigued.

We sat down on the sofa and he pulled me closer to him. Lately, I've been out of sorts since one of my best friends has been giving me the cold shoulder; Draco knew this and tried to comfort me. "Is he still not speaking to you?"

"He said my name today, but nothing else… and he still won't look at me." I felt his hand rubbing small circles over my back. I exhaled and buried my face into his chest. "I didn't think he would act like this, Draco. I thought for sure he'd go berserk and accuse you of lying about your curse and try to hex you or something. I didn't think he'd…" I felt the tear trickle down my cheek as my sobs cut off my words.

"Shh… don't cry, Hermione. And if it'll make you feel better, he did accuse me of lying and threatened me the other day. He doesn't speak to you, but he's constantly following me around. He may not be speaking to you, but I think he's worried about you."

"Draco…" I felt the pad of his thumb wipe away my falling tears.

"It'll all be all right, Hermione," he said soothingly before kissing my forehead.

I was thankful for having Draco (even if I only was able to be with him certain times of day and in secret) especially with Ron behaving how he was. It was nice having his presence there to comfort me. Harry tried when he was able, but most of the time he tried not to be involved one way or the other. He probably figured it was best for us to work things out ourselves. Neither of us knew what was going on inside of Ron's head and it was hard for him to open up to either one of us. Perhaps I was wrong, because he still spoke to Harry and he seemed to have a lot to say.

The evening after he said my name, we all went to the library at our usual time. For a while we worked without any talking or distractions until I decided to go get a few books for an Ancient Runes paper I had coming up. I told my best friends that I was leaving to retrieve the books for my project before I left our table. Not that much time passed between my departure and return, but somewhere in between the two, Ron must have thought I was going to be awhile. He began to speak to Harry so I decided to stay on the other side of one of the tall bookshelves.

"Harry, he's lying. I know he is," I heard Ron say on the other side of the bookshelf.

"Ron, we shouldn't talk about this here."

"I know, but I think you were right. Voldemort put Malfoy up to something all right. And I think he's trying to split us up. They know we're nothing without Hermione." I smiled to myself after hearing that. "I know that Ferret is just putting on this act to get to her. She's the only one kind enough to help someone with a problem, no matter the person."

"Hermione is smart enough to take care of herself and not be tricked by some simple ploy, Ron. I still don't trust him, but I don't think this is what Voldemort assigned him."

"But you can't rule it out."

"Maybe not, but it doesn't make sense. Why would he spend the first few months sneaking off to the Room of Requirement and then all of a sudden pretend to lose his memory?"

"His orders were changed," Ron said simply as if it was the most rational explanation. "They decided this plan was better."

"Maybe…" Harry sounded very pensive and I knew he was deeply considering Ron's speculation. "I don't know. Dumbledore wants us to watch him though. I get the feeling he knows something, but he doesn't want to tell me. I guess he has his reasons." There was a pause. "When are you going to start speaking to her again?" Harry asked seriously in a low tone that I'd never heard him use before; I wondered what expression donned his face.

There was a longer pause; "I don't know…" his voice was lowered. I leaned in closer to hear. "Harry, I think-" his words were cut short when two of the books I was carrying dropped to the ground. I quickly kneeled down and scrambled to pick them back up. Meanwhile the other two came toward me, most likely to investigate the sound.

"Hermione, are you all right?" Harry asked as he came forward and helped me pick up the books. Ron remained stoically still and watched the two of us fuss over the books.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I stepped on something and slipped. Next thing I know my books are falling," I lied, not wanting them to know I was eavesdropping on their conversation. Harry picked up all of the books and handed them to Ron before helping me up from off of the floor.

"Glad you're not hurt," I smiled at him and thanked him for his help before we all went back to our table to finish our work. Every once in a while I would glance up and wonder what Ron was about to say. Why did I have to choose that moment to make a commotion? I guess I'll just have to wait until he decides to speak to me again… if he ever does.

A/N: Not a lot of Dramione moments, but hoped you still enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reading.