A/N: Hello everyone. I'm soooo very sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. I thought it had posted on two different occasions when I clicked post new chapter, however, each time I've come back, I've found it didn't post at all. I will have a second chapter posted quickly because of the long wait for this one.

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, I loved them all, as per usual. Did anything think Severus wouldn't be curious about what had happened after hearing Hermione say she wanted nothing more to do with Lucius? Especially after Lucius called in a favor to win her affections? Well...here is the start of that. Enjoy!

Special Thanks: To my beta, TabiPrewett, for looking this over and checking for any errors I might have made. I greatly appreciate all you've done for me on this story.

Chapter 27

It had been a few days since Severus had healed Hermione, and he had still been contemplating her words. Something didn't add up. If Lucius has been trying so hard to make amends, why did it seem like Hermione almost hated him now? What really happened after I left the night Hermione was drugged?

As with any puzzle, it stayed in the dark man's mind, demanding a way to be solved. Severus tried to go about his day, but he finally couldn't take the constant buzzing in his brain. With a sigh, he tossed in floo powder and called out Malfoy Manor.

Snape arrived in the sitting room, calling out to Toddle immediately and asked the wrinkled thing where his master was. Toddle told Severus that Lucius was in his office.

Severus nodded and quickly strode to where he knew his answers awaited him, but he was stopped by Draco coming down the stairs towards him. Draco looked mad as hell too.

"What are you so angry about, Draco?" Severus asked.

Draco looked to his godfather. "Granger. Bloody stupid twat."

Severus raised his brow in surprise. He knew the boy and Hermione had become friends, and to hear him speak so horribly about her shocked him. "Draco! You should show more respect for your friends."

Draco shrugged, not the least bit concerned over his godfather's chiding words. "So, should she."

"What exactly has she done for you to be so cross with her?" Severus asked.

Draco scowled. "Nothing I care to talk about. What are you doing here?"

Severus frowned. "Don't change the subject, I don't know why you're mad at her, but I doubt she's done anything all that bad. Why not talk to her about it?"

Draco sighed. "I might, but the damn useless hag hasn't been at work at all in almost two weeks. Her desk is about to crumble to the floor under the weight of work that's waiting on her, and she has decided to ignore it, I guess."

Severus hadn't known this, but if Hermione was ditching work, there must be a reason for it. "Did you even stop to think that maybe something's wrong and she might need a friend?"

Draco scoffed. "She won't find one in me. Besides, she has friends at Potter's house."

Severus rolled his eyes. "Last time she went there I had to heal her afterward."

Draco frowned. "Why?"

Severus shrugged, seeming not to really care, but watching the boy to see his reaction. "She got in a fight and her face was bleeding when she came to see me."

Suddenly, Draco's eyes blazed. "What did that wanker, Weasley, do to her?"

Severus smirked. "I thought you were angry with her and you weren't her friend anymore."

Draco glared hard at his godfather. "What happened? Why was she bleeding?" Hermione's skill with a wand was almost infamous. The young blond knew first hand how good with her wand she really was. He still found himself checking on occasion to make sure that the tail she'd given him ages ago was really gone.

Severus sighed. "Apparently, she and Miss Brown got into a brawl, where Miss Brown used her claws, while Hermione used her fists."

Draco's glare softened. "Is she alright?"

Severus nodded, not needing clarification on whom Draco was asking about. "I healed her without any scaring being left behind, but after we spoke more, I found out she's quite angry with your father. That's why I'm here."

Whatever softening Draco might have had vanished as his eyes burned again in anger. "I'm well aware of that."

Severus quirked his brow. "Is that why you're angry with her?"

Draco's jaw clenched. "Partly."

Having had enough, Severus sighed again. "You're obviously not going to tell me why you're angry, so why not go talk to the witch?"

Draco glared. "I already said that she hasn't been at work. I don't know where she lives now, so I can't apparate to her either."

"Did you try to floo?" Severus asked. "I would assume since the two of you were friends, she would have added you…unless said friendship ended before she thought to do so."

Draco went to growl, but stopped, closing his eyes as he thought about what an idiot he was for not thinking about that on his own. Though, in his defense he'd been angry, and he didn't think his best when he was angry.

Severus bit back a smirk at seeing his godson's annoyance at not having thought of that himself. "I'll take it that you had not thought of that. Might I suggest you do so now? She still might need a friend."

Draco's eyes narrowed. "Then, she better hope that one shows up after me."

Severus snagged the boys arm before he could storm off. "Do I need to remind you to keep your hands and wand to yourself?"

The young man rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to strike her, neither physically, nor magically. Even I know better than that. Father would kill me, especially these days." Not to mention, Draco was painfully aware of Hermione being a very skilled marksman with her spells. If it came to a duel, Draco was fairly confident he'd end up being the losing party. Not that he'd ever admit such a thing to anyone, let alone the witch he was miffed at the moment. Draco had his pride after all.

Severus wasn't sure what his god son's words meant, but watched the young man walk away towards the sitting room while thinking that if Draco did lose his temper, Severus just might have to do some healing again, and not to Hermione. Draco had been tutored by the finest dueling wizards in Britain, but Hermione had been a know-it-all swot during her school years. Tenacity to prove one's self would triumph any day over entitled brats who were too spoiled to truly give it his all during his lessons. Draco relied heavily on his family name to get him out of trouble so he hadn't practiced until his skills were razor sharp. Hermione knew she only had her wits and her skill to survive on, so she'd toiled away hour after hour until those skills were perfect.

Of the two, Draco would end up on the losing side of things, and knowing Hermione would never cause any real harm, Severus smirked at what might come of it, meaning the entertainment it would inevitably bring him to hear the tale of Draco getting his arse handed to him by a girl half his size, and shrugged the whole mess off. He had bigger fish to fry right now, Snape decided, before continuing on in his search for Lucius.

Draco paced for quite a while in the main sitting room, trying to think of how best to say what he wanted to say to Hermione when he saw her. So far everything he'd come up with either sounded lame or would get him hexed before he found out what he wanted to know. Finally, still not having a clue as to what he'd say to her, he gave up and tried to floo to her home.

Draco was surprised as hell when he landed in her darkened living room, he hadn't actually expected it to work. He'd figured she'd at least have wards up. It took his eyes a moment to adjust in the dimly lit room, and when they did, he realized she was sitting on her sofa, her head turned and facing a window that showed a park. She didn't even bother turning to look in his direction when he arrived.

Though after a moment, Hermione heaved a sigh before she spoke softly. "Ginny, not again, I'm not up for any more cheering up sessions from you. Please go away."

Draco glared at her. "I'm not here to cheer you up, Granger." He expected her to whip around and gape at him, but she still didn't move. She only closed her eyes and sighed once more.

"What do you want, Draco?" Her voice tired and weary, as her eyes opened and she stayed facing the window.

"I want to talk to you?" He said.

She scoffed lightly. "Since when?"

The young aristocrat glared more. "Since now."

Hermione shifted slightly, still looking outside her window. "You know, I thought we were friends, Draco. Friends don't abandon other friends without a reason. You're angry with me, though I haven't a clue why, and you didn't even have the curtsey to tell me why either."

Draco laughed scornfully. "Like you give a damn about our friendship."

Hermione's head turned to him finally. "I do care about it, or at least I did. You're the one who tossed our friendship away like it meant nothing."

Draco moved closer to her, and tired of staring at her in the dark, he used his wand to bring the lights on. Her face was pale and sad, but he didn't care right then, he was livid. "You tossed it away the moment you started screwing my father!" He yelled at her.

Hermione's eyes closed again, a slight wince on her face before she opened her eyes to glare at him. "You were pissed off and not talking to me long before I ran downstairs the last time I was at your house. Don't try to pretend that you were fine with me before then."

"I knew before you ran downstairs missing your shirt and obviously coming from my father's bedroom." Draco growled at her.

The glare left her eyes. "You knew? How?" She'd done her best to keep it a secret. Draco had already been acting strange when Lucius started trying to shag her in every room, any chance he got.

He scoffed at her. "You might have kept your secret if you hadn't forgotten the silencing spell on my father's room. I came up to speak to you after you told me you were going to move. I was going to see if you'd stay, but you...were otherwise occupied. Rather vocally too. I'd always heard my father was good in bed, I just didn't really want to hear first-hand how good. Especially from you of all people." The young man sneered as Hermione's head dropped to look at her hands in her lap.

Draco shook his head before giving her a disgusted look. "All those times I was in your office laughing about the damn rumors. You were probably silently laughing at me. Tell me Granger, are the rumors true? Do you like it when my father ties you up?"

Hermione's head snapped up. "It wasn't like that. Any of it." Granted, Lucius had convinced her to allow him to bind her wrists…and more than once too...but that hadn't happened when the rumors started.

Draco grimaced. "Spare me the details, I don't want to know what you did with him."

Hermione stood. "No, I mean...him and I even starting...it wasn't like that. I never laughed at you either. I felt terrible and I hadn't even slept with him yet. Even before the rumors started I felt guilty and...when the rumors started I hadn't..." She sighed. "Lucius said what he did to Ron to make Lavender stop with her hateful remarks to me that night. None of it was true."

Draco frowned. "You expect me to believe that?"

She nodded. "Yes, because it's true. I had kissed him on accident...after the incident in his office. I didn't mean to, I was trying to kiss his cheek in thanks for helping me. He just...turned his head at the wrong time."

Draco frowned more, this wasn't going the way he'd expected it to, and what she was telling him was confusing him more than clearing things up. "Then, why did you feel guilty if you hadn't done anything?"

Hermione looked up at him. "Because I liked it. Your dad proved it the next morning that I liked it, after I told him that we should just forget it, when...he kissed me again. I felt so guilty that I almost couldn't go shopping with you. All while we were looking for a dress, all I kept thinking about, was that it was your dad that I'd kissed and because of who he was to you, it was wrong of me to have allowed it to happen at all."

She swallowed. "The night of the party...Lavender spiked my drink." Draco nodded not getting how this played in. "She used a lusting potion, and I...I didn't have any control and I couldn't stop myself."

Draco's lip curled. "Got a taste, so you went back for more, did you?" Hermione sighed in defeat and he went on. "I can forgive a potion that didn't give you any choices. That wasn't your fault, but you weren't under a potion the night I heard you two going at it."

Hermione gritted her teeth. "It wasn't like that. We didn't have sex that night with the potion. I wanted to, and Lucius had to fight me off."

Draco snorted in disbelief at hearing that, but she went on. "He stopped me, fed me a sleeping draught and that was it. The next morning...I was so embarrassed, and he was sweet about it, but I still felt bad about it because I knew it was your dad."

Draco frowned and threw up his hands in frustration, confused even more now. "If you felt so bad about it, why'd you shag him later?"

Hermione sighed. "Your father was kind the night of the party before the damn potion. He stayed by my side, he danced with me, made me feel special, made sure that if I was uncomfortable in any conversation, he'd end it and move us away. He was slowly showing me a side I never knew he had. A girl can only take so much romance and kindness before...she gives in. I was attracted to him, but he was your dad and I shouldn't have...I'm so sorry, Draco. I didn't tell you...because I didn't want to lose your friendship. I had thought I'd found something special with how he treated me."

Draco's jaw started ticking. "You've heard what's said about him, hell, even I've seen him work. He's always kind and attentive when he's trying to seduce a woman. He'll buy them pretty gifts and takes them to romantic restaurants. What makes you think you were so bloody different that it became okay to sleep with him?"

Hermione shook her head sadly. "I know I wasn't any different." She said quietly.

Draco was confused again. "What?" That wasn't what he'd been expecting her to say at all. He'd expected excuses for what she'd done, not for her to agree with him.

Hermione shrugged. "I wasn't different, he just showed me what I wanted to see, so he could get what he wanted. I have no excuses for what I did, Draco, other than being stupid enough to fall for it. I only hope that one day you can forgive me."

Draco cocked his head to the side. "Why do say it like that?"

Hermione frowned. "Because I don't want to lose your friendship. So, I hope you'll forgive me one day."

Draco shook his head. "No, why do you say he showed you everything, only so he could get what he wanted. You left and didn't come back. You bailed on him after a...lover's quarrel or whatever."

Hermione laughed, though it held no humor. "A lover's quarrel? That's rich."

Draco glared. "Then, what was it?"

Hermione's temper flared, and she moved until they were standing toe to toe, her eyes burning and her nostril flaring with the rage at what Lucius had done burning bright enough to temporarily distract her from her sadness. The curly-haired witch was angry as hell at Lucius, but inevitably her anger, that surfaced now and again, would fizzle out, and all that would be left behind is the deep despair she'd been wallowing in for the last two weeks. "I'm not someone who wants to be paid for sex."

Draco frowned, backing away a few steps. "What does that mean?" He didn't like Hermione when she was this mad, because he usually got hexed when she was. Granted, he normally made a snide comment or two to earn said hex, but that wasn't the point.

Hermione growled. "It means that after he was gone for weeks, weeks where he didn't try to contact me at all, I finally went to see him, when I knew he'd been back for at least a week and still hadn't contacted me once. Next thing I know, he is giving me some rare book to excuse his absence and lack of consideration, and then expects me to thank him properly. By properly, I mean..."

Draco cut her off. "I get it." He ran his fingers through his hair as she crossed her arms, making a glittering around her neck draw his gaze. He saw the amethyst necklace his father gave her.

He cocked his head again, curious. "So, my father gives you another gift, like all his other women, and you get mad over the last one. Angry that it was a book and not jewelry this time?"

Hermione threw up her hands in frustration. "He never gave me any other gifts. I wouldn't let him buy me anything. I didn't...I didn't know that was how he saw me. The moment I knew I was just some convenient chit for him to shag, I left. I didn't even put my shirt back on, which shows how much I wanted away from him after that. I didn't take the book he gave me either. I left it, because at that point, I didn't want anything from him."

Her full statement made Draco realize that she really didn't know about the necklace. The one he saw peeking from her shirt even now. Draco had been angry thinking that his father had lied about that too, lied about why he gave it to her for Christmas. It had made him wonder if she was lying to make herself look good and had been shagging him the whole time.

Now, hearing the venom in her voice, and seeing the anger in her eyes, he knew she was telling the truth. The anguish of her next words making him positive about it too.

"Draco, I'm so sorry. Had I known what I was to him...I would never have betrayed you. Not if it was going to just be some sad and silly fling that didn't mean anything to him. I didn't think it was only sex to him, I thought he was different than he turned out to be, and I thought he cared for me in some small way. I thought..." Hermione trailed off as a fresh tear ran down her cheek.

Draco sighed, he'd seen all of this enough times with his father's other women to know what happened. Though her reaction wasn't what he was used to seeing. The women his father usually dallied with were usually just angry at the loss of Lucius Malfoy's pocketbook. Hermione wasn't someone who cared about money, nor was her sadness about the loss of the Malfoy wealth.

The young blond man saw something too in her eyes when she'd spoken, it had him frowning even more as what it meant sunk in. "You're in love with him." Draco said, surprised at the realization. His anger fading at last now that he understood everything, at least from her point of view he did.

Her eyes met his, tears filling them again. "It doesn't matter." The rage she'd felt moments ago vanishing leaving her feeling drained and depressed once more.

Realizing too, that she didn't deny it, Draco saw the sadness in her eyes once more and he quickly moved the few steps back to her. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her like the friend she'd been to him for so long now. "I'm sorry, Hermione." He meant it too, he was sorry for how he'd treated her. For being so angry that he didn't stop and think about the fact that Hermione wasn't the type of person to betray a friend for any reason.

Hermione slipped her arms around him as well. "It's not your fault, I knew what he was like. I'd heard about how he swiftly moved on from one woman to the next, growing tired quickly and wanting something new. It's why I wanted to move. I was afraid if I stayed, I'd fall for him, but I just...hadn't admitted to myself yet that I already had."

Draco frowned. "Is that what happened that night? Did you tell him you loved him before you left?"

Hermione moved away from him, shaking her head. "No, I...I hadn't told him yet before he...he said those horrible things to me. I wouldn't have told him how I felt either, had I known. I know the L word usually makes him end things quicker."

She sighed. "I didn't expect this thing with him to last forever...but I never dreamed he'd end up being so cruel, which is funny considering our past history. I never thought he was anything, but cruel before getting to know him, and now...I think I was correct with my first assumption."

Draco frowned, his father was many things, he'd seen his father be cruel on numerous occasions in the past, but...his father was kind as well. He'd seen that his father had a heart and was never overly cruel unless he didn't have a choice. It was learning that about him that made Draco respect him so much.

Hearing what he did to Hermione, Draco sighed. His father had never been that needlessly cruel to anyone, and never to the women he had taken as lovers either. If his father broke things off, he did it as easily as possible for all involved.

Even when the women were furious at him leaving, he was still gracious with them, but it didn't seem like he'd been that way with Hermione. It made Draco ashamed of his father. Made him angry at knowing what his father had done to his friend.

Draco had specifically told his father not to try making Hermione into one of his mistresses and he'd done it anyway, and he'd treated her worse than any others in his past. Even his own mother. Lucius had been angry at Narcissa for cheating on him, but even to her he'd been amiable about how they parted.

Draco saw Hermione's hand push her hair off her shoulder, the action making the necklace shift. His eyes on it, it made him frown more. Why would Father do something so generous, like giving Hermione that gift and letting her believe it was from Severus, so she'd feel better after what Weasley had done, if he was just going to be so hateful later?

It made Draco wonder why his father had really been so vicious in how he handled Hermione. It seemed as if his father had only done this to her after she'd mentioned leaving. Is it possible Father did care about her leaving his home? Does Father actually care for Hermione? It would explain why his father had been acting so short tempered and rude for the last two weeks.

Draco had never heard of his father caring deeply for any woman, not even Narcissa The young man knew their marriage wasn't a love match. He'd seen how they barely tolerated each other at times before their divorce.

Draco didn't know, but he intended to find out. "Hermione, can I borrow the necklace that Severus gave to you?"

Hermione frowned at him, the question odd and out of place with everything they'd discussed. "Why?"

Draco sighed. "I just want to borrow it. Come on, I loaned you the hair comb and earrings you wore to the party. I'll bring it back when I'm done with it."

Hermione didn't understand, but she nodded slowly. "Alright, but just...be careful with it. It's special. It made me feel special when...when I was alone during the holidays."

When Draco said he'd take care of it, Hermione unclasped it and handed it to him. Still not understanding why he wanted it, but he wasn't telling her either.

Draco pocketed the necklace. "I have to go, but I'll come back again soon."

Hermione nodded and watched him step into the floo, glad they'd spoken and seemed to work things out. She was still sorry for what had caused the problem to begin with, sorry that she'd slept with his father when she knew she shouldn't have.

When Draco was gone, she moved back to the sofa, using her wand to turn it so it faced the window fully. Then, she stretched out on top of the cushions and continued to simply gaze out the window. The lights still on, but dimmer now with her wand waving again, before she simply lay there quietly. Not having the energy or the desire to do anything else with her sadness.

A/N: I said it was just the start...Snape ran into Draco first...what was I supposed to do? Okay, so we had it out with Draco, and how many guessed he knew as long as he did? Who knew that was why he was so angry with her? More coming soon. Take care and please leave me your thoughts.