Author's Note: Forgive me! I'm sorry for the late update, after those six quick ones. This Thanksgiving week has already started getting busy, and not to mention trying to get Christmas shopping done, before things get crazy... Anywho, here's chapter seven and I hope it's okay! I'm not exactly proud of it. I have chapter eight planned and ready to write, but if it's not up soon, it's because I've gotten busy. Thank you for all the reviews! Remember to view the poll! And you can choose two ships! If you don't want to select at the poll, you can even put it in the review. Here's the ships: Hermione/Remus, Hermione/Theo, Hermione Lucius, Hermione/Rabastan, another Hermione/Draco, and Hermione/Fenrir.

Chapter 7

August 30th, 1996

Pansy's birthday went according to plan. Draco and Blaise had distracted the raven haired birthday girl long enough for Hermione and Theo to decorate the dank dungeons where the Slytherin common room was. With green and silver decorations everywhere, a small table served as a refreshment stand with a simple cake that read 'Happy Birthday Pansy' on it, and a bowl of punch with five glasses.

The surprise had been a big one, as Pansy had felt the birthday wishes that morning had been well enough, this little party with just the five of them was the icing on the cake. Presents had been opened. A book from Hermione, a journal from Theo, a necklace from Blaise, and a cat from Draco. When all but a couple crumbs were left of the cake, Blaise shot up from his seat next to Pansy who looked at him while she stroked her new black kitty's head.

"Music," he declared and whipped out his wand. The Weird Sisters echoed throughout the room and Blaise turned dramatically towards Pansy. "My lady," he said with a low bow, holding his hand out for her to take in a gesture which mocked all the gentlemen of the world.

Pansy rolled her eyes, but played along with a blush along her cheeks as she handed Draco her cat, Knox. "Good sir," she said, taking Blaise's hand in her own and allowing him to lift her to her feet, before he swooped her into his arms and they began to dance.

Hermione's small smile appeared on her face at the sight of them and before she knew it, Theo got to his feet and walked towards her. She looked past him to the blond, and noticed those gray eyes watching the tawny haired boy walking towards her, then they shifted to her. She turned away and instead looked to Theo's beaming face. She took the hand he held out to her, and let Theo twirl her around the room. He got a few rare laughs when he dipped her or spun her around over dramatically, getting her dizzy and making the room blur around her.

And the night continued on. Hermione dancing with Theo or Blaise, and Pansy having a turn with all the boys. They would break once and a while for a breather or a glass of punch, which Hermione could have sworn didn't taste right, but everyone told her it was fine. Then they'd get up again and dance some more.

Hermione noticed the prickling feeling of someone watching her each time she danced with Theo, and when she gathered all of her Gryffindor courage to chance a look, she found those gray eyes looking back. Haunted and exciting, sensual and scary... Those damn eyes...

It seemed like hours upon hours of them dancing and drinking. And after a while Hermione admitted the punch was rather yummy, the slight burn now only a harmless tickle down her throat and her head so fuzzy, she was glad she was always steadied by the arms of one of the boys.

Being in the arms of Blaise Zabini, she looked on in amusement at the passed out form of Theo. His face planted in the cushions on the couch, with his rump in the air and Knox laying along his back. She felt the rumble of Blaise's laughter. "That boy cannot hold his liquor," he shook his head before suddenly declaring, "Switch!" and moving off, taking Pansy from Draco. The Slytherin princess laughed and melted into her boyfriends arms almost immediately (her shyness seeming to have just disappeared), leaving Hermione and Malfoy to stand there uncomfortably.

The minutes ticked by slowly, she could see Pansy and Blaise twirling around them out of her blurred peripheral vision, while she got sucked into his spell. She couldn't make up her mind as to whether or not dancing with the git was a good idea, her conscious fighting with that other part of her mind that taunted her to take the risk.. And being in the state she was in didn't help the situation any better.

All day they'd been rather cordial, mainly for Pansy's sake, so what could it hurt? Her step forward was a move her mind hadn't permitted yet, and the next one hadn't gotten permission either. With their eyes locked, she placed her hands on his shoulders, at least keeping them at arms length, and his hands came to her waist. She gasped when he pulled her close, their front touching and her mind attacked with those horrid memories. No, this was too close. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest, her eyes shut tight to help her rid the images that came from such close contact. She felt him moving them across the floor, while her mind flashed through the incident at such a fast pace it left her trembling.

She had to get away, they were too close, it was too much.

She pushed him away and ran. Her feet carried her far from the Slytherin common room, her mind so muddled she got herself lost too many times to count. When she finally threw herself onto her mattress in Gryffindor tower she cried into her pillow. How could she ever move on? How could she ever have a proper relationship with anybody without thinking about that vile, disgusting man's touch?

Would she ever be free of it? Of him?

Jumping up she started hitting her pillow and screaming at it. "How could you? How could you do this to me? I hate you! I HATE YOU!" Her screams carried on until her body grew tired and she slumped forward into a pile of sobs. "I hate you... Hate you.. You've broken me..." She cried herself to sleep, her pillow tight in her grasp, tear stained.

/-/-/-/

August 31st, 1996

Even in sleep she hadn't been able to rid herself of the images. She didn't blame Malfoy, it was her own mind reacting badly. She didn't go down for breakfast, nor lunch. Pansy had visited her, wondering if everything was alright. But, it seemed Hermione had once again gone mute. She couldn't talk, she just... She had nothing to say. She shrugged and rolled over onto her side while Pansy laid next to her, avoiding touch at all costs when Hermione flinched from all movement.

"It's okay, Hermione," Pansy said quietly. "I'm just going to stay for a while," like people had feared when Hermione had first come to the castle that summer, Pansy was afraid Hermione might harm herself. If only she knew what was wrong...

When Hermione was alone again, she cried. She had been so determined.. Tried not to allow it to interfere with her getting close to the Slytherin boys, but it seemed it did when she was having particular feelings for one of them. Feelings that were so obscured.. He was such a git, he said horrible things... But his eyes, they always got to her every time she looked into them. She been in such turmoil, that fact she'd gotten smashed at Pansy's party never even registered.

She finally left the tower around eleven at night, her coat wrapped tightly around her as she made her way out to the lake. It was cold at this time, her nose red and getting chapped from the wind. She sat in the damp grass, wrapping her arms around her legs as she watched the ripples in the murky waters, seeing the Giant Squid's tentacles curling up the shores, looking for food that might have washed up. The night looked how she felt; depressed and full of gloom.

"What are you doing out this late?" Came that smooth voice, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin. She turned her head and looked at the profile of his handsomely aristocratic face. Oh boy, would Harry and Ron have a fit at that thought. When she didn't answer him, he took that as his cue to continue. "Would have thought you'd keep that bushy hair of yours nice and warm up in your tower."

"What happened to you that made you such a dick?" she asked rather bluntly. Making his eyebrows raise considerably, as he never really heard her swear much. As rare as it was, he found it delightful every time.

"What happened to you that had me running your bloody body all the way to the hospital wing?" Her face pinched with pure and utter incredulity at his question, while she sharply turned her head to him.

She truly was scared of that question. She told her story once, she wasn't going to tell it again. The details were too graphic, too much of a horror to relay once again. And why should she tell him? He was nothing to her. She liked his eyes? So what? She wasn't going to get into that. Not again, never again..

She looked back out to the lake, closing her eyes for a couple moments to calm herself, before she bowed her head, resting her cheek on one of her knees. She was tired, but couldn't sleep. She'd slept all day, go figure. She felt the space on her right grow warmer, and she didn't have to look to know Draco Malfoy was sitting next to her.

"School's starting tomorrow," he stated the obvious and she didn't mind the change in subject. It was one of the things that worried Hermione. What would her two best friends say to her befriending Slytherins? That was if they didn't go back to treating her like scum for show. "Pansy fears you'll pretend to hate her," at that, Hermione opened her eyes to look at him. Watching as he stared straight ahead at the lake. "Will you? When Potter and Weasel come back? Are you going to join in their rants and raves of how we're all Death Eater's in the making? Will you turn your back of them? Theo? Pansy? Blaise?"

Hermione didn't answer. She watched him as he shook his head with a scoff, most likely thinking she would. That her silence was answer enough. "The real question is, Malfoy, will they turn their backs on me?"

He slowly turned his head to look at her, that beautifully pale face of his clear of any emotions he might be feeling, masking him from view. "You mean, will you once again become a lowly mudblood who is beneath them?"

She nodded, her cheek scraping against her jean clad knee, not at all surprised by his term. She really didn't mind it. It didn't hurt to hear it anymore. She knew real pain, and that small slight was nothing. "No," he told her. "They're not going to turn their backs on you."

Her body grew warmer at that knowledge, to know she'd still have the other three as friends. She only hoped Harry and Ron could accept it. "And you?" she asked, her eyes not leaving his face, to enthralled by his eyes, by his cheekbones, by his chin...

"We're not friends, you and I," he stated, and that was true. Malfoy would never be her friend, no matter his reform to the light side. She'd most likely make friends with all the other Slytherins and become Mrs. Snape before she was ever friends with Draco Malfoy. And she wouldn't go that far just to be his friend. "But, that doesn't mean I hate you, Granger."

With that, they both let the silence reign over them. The only noise was the splashes of that pesky squid trying to get himself some dinner.

/-/-/-/

Draco watched as her eyes fluttered close after the silence engulfed the space around them. He notice the shape of her jaw, the softness of her nose, the thickness of her eyelashes... Her eyebrows were bushy, but just like her hair he found it completely complimented her rather than making her look ratty. She looked like a cute bookworm snuggled up in her coat.

Cute bookworm?

Great, now he was thinking of her as cute. That's all he needed to make him fall harder. First he was only interestingly worried of her well being. He'd seen her at what was most likely her worst and he never wanted to see that again. And now... Well, his mother once told him boys tease the girls they like. That at one point, his father had been such a boy. Teasing her in school, then they ended up getting married.

His mother had once said her and Lucius had been madly in love. But, over time, the man she fell in love with died, and all that was left behind was a man obsessed with power.

Draco wasn't in love. He found the Granger girl interesting and he might like her, but not love.

Not yet.