I know everyone hates these things on top of the story, but I can't help it. I just wanted to do something I love doing. THANKYOU everyone for reviewing. I absolutely love reviews and reading them so please review. Also, thank you s'moreo1235 for suggesting a Ravenclaw Peeta. ENJOY!

Chapter 4

Hermione lay back down in bed, despite Lavender Brown tugging at her to get up. "No," she moaned. "Tell me how they went later, I'm tired." It was the Quidditch trials for Gryffindor that Saturday. Hermione was very tired though, she was staying in bed with a thumping head ache.

Harry and Ron both made the team. Harry as Seeker, and Ron as Keeper. Ginny was a Chaser, and Dean Thomas was too. Neville had tried out, but his luck on broomsticks wasn't good. He was still lying in a bed in the Hospital Wing the next day. The Beaters were, much to Ginny's disgust (although they were the only people who tried out), Colin Creevey and his best friend, Nick Hardinson. The other two Chasers were Teresa Fribby and George Pattinson. Hermione didn't really care who else was on the team, as long as they could actually fly and catch/throw/hit a ball.

She noticed in Transfiguration that Malfoy had stopped calling her a Mudblood. He seemed to look at her a lot without meaning to, now that Hermione knew his secret. She noticed that he was walking in the hall when Harry confronted her.

"Hermione, we haven't talked in weeks." Hermione noticed that he put emphasis on the word 'weeks'. "I trust you know I meant to stun Ron, not you." Yes, I know. She thought. But stunning Ron is just as bad. She nudged past him and Ran up to Malfoy. She noticed that everyone was staring their way; every single body had stopped moving to watch the outcome. Hermione alone knew that he would react as though she were a friend.

"What do I do?" she asked him. "Malfoy, he thinks… help me. What do I say?" she looked into his eyes. "Please, help me." Malfoy nodded as if he was in a trance, but snapped out of it by speaking. He started hissing at her.

"Um, Hermione?" he hissed to her, only her. The feeling was strange. He wasn't taunting or teasing her in front of everyone. He was talking to her as if they were alone, alone but friends. Not duelling partners. "Everyone's staring at us." She almost nodded to say it was fine, but didn't.

"Draco?" Hermione whipped her head around to see who it was. It was Pansy Parkinson. "What are you doing with that Mudblood?" Hermione flinched. She hated being called that. She wasn't any less magical for being Muggle-born. If anything, she was gifted. To her surprise, Malfoy defended her. He turned away from her for a second.

"Don't call her that!" he yelled at Pansy. The look she gave him was almost laugh-worthy. It was a mixture of confusion, anger and curiosity. Malfoy turned back to her, and she looked back at him. "Hermione." He said sternly. "Nudge past him and say 'but I bet you still think the same about me and Malfoy'." She nodded, drinking in his advice like Pumpkin Juice. "I say things like that. When they get to the person, they start believing you." He did something as if to say 'look into my eyes and keep doing so', and she stared into his sweet, baby-blue eyes. They were quite pretty, when you looked right into them. "Trust me." The weird thing was that she did trust him. She trusted him a lot. She nodded. She did something that made Harry and Ron gasp. She felt like the rest of the people did as well. Hermione hugged him.

"Thank you, Malfoy." She said after she pulled away from him.

"You know, you can call me Draco if you want." He said, and she smiled.

"Whatever you say, Draco." And he smiled back. She rushed off to Potions quickly, to avoid having to speak to Harry or Ron. She nearly collapsed in fits of giggles and uncontrollable laughter, but managed to compose herself. The shocked faces surrounding them were horrendous.

She didn't see Draco in Potions; though she was one hundred per cent sure he took it. Ron hadn't been there either, and she sensed trouble. At lunch, Ron was fine and eating as much as usual. He was just a bit shaken up. Harry had moved halfway up the table, closer to them. He was chatting to Dean and Seamus, and they looked her way a few times. Malfoy, however, was not even at lunch. She asked Ron about it, but he had claimed he had no clue. "It's just… you both weren't at Potions class today, and this morning… I didn't know where you were, so I went to him for help. He's the plotting genius." Ron nodded.

Hermione took herself to the Hospital Wing during her only free period after lunch. She had so many classes that she only had one free period-it was essential. "Who do you want to see today, Miss Granger?"

"Draco Malfoy." She answered confidently, but when Madame Pomfrey showed her where he was, she whimpered at the sight of him. His leg had a bandage around his left leg, but it was stained with blood. His teeth were the size of a Beaver's, and boils were all over his skin. "Draco!" she cried as she rushed to his side.

"I had to treat his leg first, but there were many other students with injuries that couldn't wait much longer."

"Draco," Hermione repeated. "Are you alright?" Nothing. "He isn't…?" Madame Pomfrey shook her head.

"It's just a sleeping potion. He should wake in…" she checked her watch. "Two minutes." Hermione nodded, prepared to wait. Besides, he would be thrilled to wake with her at his side.

"Poor Draco." She sighed. "Did he say who did it?" she asked Madame Pomfrey, who nodded.

"Mr Malfoy here has taken quite a beating." She said. "Ronald Weasley put him in a full body-bind, and then he cursed Mr Malfoy quite a few times. He made a killer python that bit into his leg, you know. His leg was scary when he first came." Draco groaned and opened his eyes.

"Hermione!" he gasped. "It was Weasley. You can't trust him anymore. He-!"

"Shh, Draco." Hermione said, stroking his hair. "I know, but the most important thing is that you're okay." She was sure that if the time was different, under different circumstances, he would have fainted. She smiled at him, and he tried to smile, but it resulted in a cry from Draco, and Hermione clutched his arm and held on.

She went to dinner to get Draco something to eat, but went to the common room first to grab her jumper. She was just leaving when she heard someone whisper "Petrificus Totalus!" And dropped to the ground in her own full body-bind. "Get her!" whispered the same voice, and she realised that it was Ron. She wanted to know what was going on. Harry came into her view. Dean and Seamus followed, and the three of them carried her into the boys' dormitory, where Ron was already waiting. Dean and Seamus rocked her into a standing position, before Ron said "Relashio." She was about to move when Harry's wand met her chin. It distracted her for a millisecond, but the millisecond Seamus needed to slip a rope around her hands.

"What is going on?" she asked. That must have been their cue, because Harry and Ron started firing curses at her. Dean and Seamus pulled out their wands and levitated her after two minutes of straight curses and harmful things like kicks to her leg. One was a silencing charm, so her screams were invisible. Dean and Seamus had not pulled out their wands to curse her. They levitated her and used magic to send her to the Hospital Wing, with a note saying all four of them had found her on the ground in one of the corridors.

Because she was silenced, Hermione couldn't tell Madame Pomfrey the truth. She was put in a bed beside Draco, and Madame Pomfrey put Hermione's bed-side table on the other side of her bed, so she could move the beds closer together. Draco reached out for her hand, and Hermione took it. They looked at each other, holding hands, for a while. They only stopped when Madame Pomfrey realised that they couldn't fall asleep on their own, and gave them each a sleeping potion.

"Goodnight, Hermione." Said Draco sleepily. Hermione smiled to return the favour, with the same sleepy feeling she knew Draco had. She also knew that in her sleeping potion was the remedy for the silencing charm, and that she could say good morning to Draco properly when they woke.

"Hermione?" Draco asked sleepily. She opened her eyes, to see Draco's face watching her like a hawk.

"Morning Draco." She said, and yawned. She saw Draco's cheeky smile and frowned. "What's so funny?"

"Your teeth. They look funny when you yawn."

"You can't say anything! Yours are just as bad." She said, and giggled. Draco's face turned serious.

"Who did it?" he asked. "It was Weasley." He said, before she could say anything. "And Thomas, Finnigan and Potter." Hermione just nodded. "How did they do it? I bet you didn't go down without a fight."

"I did." Hermione said sadly. Draco put on his fabulous shocked face. "I had just put my jumper on, when I heard someone whisper Petrificus Totalus. Then I was on my back and Dean and Seamus carried me up to the boys' dorm, Harry did too." She crinkled her nose in disgust. "They are so messy!" she could tell Draco was holding in a laugh. "They stood me up and Ron released me, but before I could move, Harry's wand was under my chin. That second of distraction was all they needed. My arms were tied together before I could do anything. Then I asked what was going on." Hermione sighed. "It was their cue to curse me. It hurt. And it still does a bit, even with the pain relief tablets." Draco reached his hand out to the other side of his bed, and his hand came back with a pair of round glasses.

"Where did you get Harry's glasses?" She asked in confusion.

"They're mine. Weasley did a pretty effective job with an eyesight curse, everything's blurry. Even you, sadly." Draco placed the glasses over his eyes. "Oh, geez. You looked so much less hurt when you were blurry!" he exclaimed. He reached a hand out to touch Hermione's face. "Are you okay?" he asked. Hermione nodded and closed her eyes. But she felt something inside her head. Something was coming. She had to warn Draco. She looked at him and couldn't help herself. She giggled for at least three minutes straight. Draco chuckled a few times during those minutes, trying to shut her up. Finally, Hermione stopped, going all serious.

"Draco," she said sternly. "Something's going to happen any minute now. I don't know what, but I just know." She looked into his eyes, and he looked into hers. "Trust me." Draco nodded, and he grabbed her, pulling her and her bed as close as possible. They held each other's arms in a brace, but they did not expect what came.

Madame Pomfrey had many children limping into the Hospital Wing. All the students had been bashed on some body part, by what had to be something large. There were groans and moans, and all the beds were filled. But there was one more student that needed a bed. Draco and Hermione both knew what that meant. They shook their heads as if to say 'don't pick us, please don't pick us'. But Madame Pomfrey said that because they were older, they had to do it. Hermione reluctantly got into Draco's bed, and he made space for her. Madame Pomfrey moved her bed away from them, putting the bed-side table where it was originally.

Hermione and Draco grabbed each other and screamed as a giant's hammer smashed the wall behind them, and it took another swing.

"Draco!" Hermione yelled.

"Hermione!" Draco yelled back.

The giant had split their bed in half, one of them on either side.