Chapter Eight

Third Person POV

"Drake! Are you even listening to me?" Pansy asked, clutching tighter at Draco's arm. Draco had to keep from rolling his eyes, but was having a hard time not pushing her away. He'd never been very fond of the brunette, but now it just seemed worse. He tore his eyes away from the waves of red hair and threw a glance at the brunette. "Of course, Pans." he lied and she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and a pout coming across her pug face. "Oh really? Then what did I just say?" she asked and Draco couldn't help but roll his eyes now.

"I don't know, Pans. You keep going on about pointless bullshit." he snapped and stood up, causing multiple Slytherins to look at him in surprise and shock. Pansy looked at him with wide eyes and mouth agape. "Drake! What's the matter with you? You haven't been right since we got back from break!" she said, clearly not happy with Draco's tone. Draco rolled his eyes again and stormed out of the hall, ignoring the whispers he heard about the Slytherin prince and princess getting into a lovers quarrel.

He quickly made his way to the Head tower, needing to get Pansy's offending scent off of him.

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Taylor's POV

"How about we head back the Head tower and I'll help you with your Astronomy homework?" Heromine asked and I nodded. "That would be wonderful. Astronomy's never been my best subject." I said, giving Heromine a thankful smile. She smiled back and laughed. "Don't worry, that's why Neville going to be joining us." she said as Neville came up next to us. "My only good subject is Herbology." he said, giving me a sheepish smile. "That's okay. I was never very good at Herbology. I can never remember all the names." I laughed and he smiled more confident smile.

"I could help you if you'd like." he said and I laughed. "That'd be great, Neville. Thanks." I said and Heromine laughed. "It's good to see you're making friends." she said and dragged us both to the Head tower.

Heromine opened the door for us and led us into the common room.

Half an hour later, while we were working on short answers, I had to stop what I was doing when I felt my body start to tingle. It was the same feeling I'd gotten when that Draco guy had helped me to Potions. It wasn't a bad feeling, but I didn't know what it was and that's what worried me. Looking up, I saw the same blonde from earlier staring at me from one of the bedroom doors. When my eyes locked with his grey ones, it felt as if he was looking into my soul.

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Third Person POV

What was she doing here?! He had been hoping to get away from her long enough to figure out his plan. "Uh, you okay, Draco?" he heard Granger ask and he tore his eyes away from her light blue ones. He looked to Granger and nodded. "I'm fine." he said before looking back to Taylor and giving her a small smile. She smiled back and, before he did something stupid, he turned and went back into his room. He knew he shouldn't have been listening, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Sitting against the door, he pressed his ear to the door and listened to the three Gryffindor's conversation.

"It's odd seeing Malfoy act so...not vile." he heard Longbottom whisper, trying to keep his voice down so the Slytherin couldn't hear him, but with his new advanced hearing he could hear everything they were saying and ended up rolling his eyes. "I know what you mean. He seems really off this year. Maybe his dad getting locked in Azkaban was good for him." Granger said back. "Why was his dad sent to Azkaban?" Taylor asked and he felt his heart stop.

He knew she'd find out about his past eventually, but he didn't want her to have a bad view of him before he at least got the chance to let her know him for who he was, not who his father had moulded him to be. Granger had been right, though. Ever since his father had been gone, things had been easier at home. But that didn't change what he'd done in the past just for his father's approval.

"You really didn't get wind of what was going on up here, did you?" Granger said and then he heard the bookworms book shut. "Lucius Malfoy was one of Voldemort's biggest supporters. He got lucky though, his wife convinced the family to switch sides at the last minute and Dumbledore was able to get Lucius' sentence shortened to twenty years instead of life." Granger explained.

"Mrs. Malfoy and Draco kept to themselves over the summer. No one heard from them till the beginning of the school year when Dumbledore made Draco Head Boy." Longbottom added. What they left out, since no one knew, was that his mother and himself kept quiet because Narcissa had told Draco about his Veela heritage. Not to mention she was worried about how his father would react, knowing that his only son was being subjected to 'a life ran by fate' as his father put it when he did find out.

"But why is Draco being held accountable for what his father did?" Taylor asked and Draco had to clench his hands to keep himself from going out there, kicking the other two out, and explaining everything himself. "Well, when Lucius failed in one of Voldemort's orders, Voldemort decided to make the elder Malfoy suffer by having Draco recruited as a Death Eater and gave him a 'special' mission. He was supposed to kill Dumbledore or he and his family would be killed for disloyalty." Longbottom answered.

"We got lucky though. Draco wasn't able to do it, so Snape stepped in and, under orders from the Headmaster himself, 'killed' Dumbledore. What we didn't know at the time though was it was nothing but a Death Eater that was caught and was put under the Imperius Curse and Polyjuice potion. I know it sounds terrible, but both sides did terrible things for their own definition of the greater good." Granger explained further.

Draco got up from where he was sitting on the ground, not wanting to listen anymore, and went over to the small desk under the only window in his room. He needed to write his mother and let her know he'd found his mate. He knew she'd probably already heard from Snape, but he wanted her to hear about Taylor in his own words. Once he was done, he tied the letter to his hawk owl's leg and opened the window so he could take off.

Before he left his room, he pressed his ear to the door, listening for more voices, but it was oddly quiet. Opening the door, he only saw Granger sitting in one of the chairs next to the fireplace with a fairly large book in her lap. Walking over, he sat down in the chair across from her and looked at her, thinking of his next move. "Can I help you, Malfoy?" she asked a few minutes later, clearly annoyed that he was interrupting her. "This isn't something I want to do, especially with you, Granger, but...you might be the only one who'll keep an open mind and help me." he said and Granger raised an eyebrow at him.

A/N: Just a quick FYI, I'm changing the name of this story to Benedictio Draconis. It means Dragon's Blessing in Latin. Exchange Student was a temporary title until I found something I liked more. Anyway, don't forget to leave a review. I want to know what you think!