Stolen Innocence

Chapter Twenty-Three

It was nearly an hour and a half before Draco returned to the Heads' Quarters to find Hermione wrapped up in Harry's arms. He walked into the common room and froze, eyeing the two of them with a confused look on his face. Upon seeing his face, Hermione jumped up from Harry's arms, wiping her face on her sleeve to rid it of the tear stains.

"Draco, thank God you're back. I was so worried!" Hermione exclaimed, embracing him tightly. Draco returned the hug, holding onto her tightly.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," He reassured her as she stepped back. "Why's he here?" Draco nodded towards Harry who was sitting on the couch feeling awkward. Hermione looked back at him as if she'd forgotten he was there.

"Oh," She said, suddenly remembering the rivalry between the two. "Well, Harry finally came to his senses and realized what a git Ron is." She stated simply.

"Really?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow at the raven haired boy.

"Yeah, but I'd better be going," Harry said, standing up and turning to Hermione. "I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow." Hermione gave Harry a long hug, Draco glaring at him jealously. She then walked him to the door and saw him out. Aferwards she turned towards Draco and led him over to the couch to sit.

"So, tell me what happened." She told him, causing him to tear his eyes away from the door.

"Nothing really," Draco said. "Blaise was pissing me off, so I made sure he wouldn't do it again." Hermione gave him a look, knowing he was lying, but decided she shouldn't pry.

"What did McGonagall say?" She asked. When she'd seen the headmistress lead him out of the hall, she'd thought for sure he'd be expelled.

"Well, first she said she was going to remove me as Head Boy-" He began but was interupted my Hermione's gasp.

"She didn't!" She exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hands and staring at him. Draco rolled his eyes at her.

"Let me finish!" He scolded her, his smile betraying his tone. "Like I was saying, first she said she was going to remove me as Head Boy, but since no one else could do the job as well as me, she decided not to. Then she was going to suspend me from Quidditch, but the league isn't on this year because apparently it's 'too dangerous to have so many students out in the open' so that was off the table. So after a long bit of her pacing, she finally decided on a month's worth of Saturday detentions with Hagrid." Draco made a face at the mention of the half giant, earning himself a smack on the arm from Hermione.

"Well, that's not too bad!" She told him, actually quite surprised at the light punishment. "Pretty leaniant for McGonagall actually."

"Yeah, well, it is me," Draco replied with an arrogant smirk, causing Hermione to roll her eyes. "But what was happening with you at breakfast? You looked pretty upset."

"Oh nothing, really," Hermione lied. "Lavender being a little twit, that's all."

"I don't think I've ever heard you talk that way about someone before," Draco told her with a small smile. "I'm finally rubbing off on you."

"Yeah right!" She replied, hitting him again. Hermione then looked at the clock and suddenly stood up. "I have to get to the library before dinner, Professor Vector assigned an essay for Monday and I need some references." She told him, looking around for her bookbag.

"Why do you always have to finish assignments as soon as they're assigned?" Draco asked her as she began to search for her book bag.

"There's nothing wrong with finishing your work before you have to." Hermione replied, finding her bag and throwing it around her shoulder.

"Oh, come on, wait til the last minute," He told her. "Walk on the wild side for once."

"No!" She told him, trying to surpress a smile. "I'll be back in a few hours." Hermione then walked right out the door, set on finishing her essay before dinner.

When Hermione arrived at the library, she noticed many people stared and whispered as she walked by, but was determined to not let it both her. She simply bit her lip, held her head high, and made her way to the section of the library where she knew she'd find the book she needed.

After she found the book, Hermione took a seat at a table at the back of the library where she could do her homework in peace. Just as she opened the book, the person she least expected to find in the library walked in.

As Ron made his way towards the section nearest Hermione, she quickly propped her book up infront of her to hide her face. Luckily, Ron was with Lavender so he wasn't really paying attention. After the two were out of sight between the bookshelves, Hermione caught part of their conversation.

"Ron, you know I hate being in here, just tell me what's wrong!" Lavender said in a whiney voice as Hermiong strained her ears to hear.

"Why are you always on my bloody case about everything?" Ron replied, annoyance evident in his voice. Hermione smiled at the thought that he was miserable.

"Well, maybe if you opened up to me a little I wouldn't have to nag you constantly." Lavender told him. Through the bookshelf Hermione could see her with her hands on her hips while Ron paced back and fourth.

"You want me to open up to you?" Hermione heard Ron shout, causing her to flinch out of habit.

"Yes." Lavender answered in a small voice.

"That little bitch stole my best mate from me!" Ron said angrily. Hermione's mouth dropped open slightly, knowing who he was talking about.

"Are you serious?" Lavender answered in disbelief.

"Of course I'm bloody serious!" Ron told her. "Do you think I'd lie about something like this just for kicks?"

"Awe, baby," Lavender said in the type of voice you'd use around a child who had just skinned their knee. "Tell me what happened."

Hermione heard Ron take a deep breath to calm himself before talking. "I'm not really sure. I think she's been filling his head with lies, leading him to believe anything but the truth. He actually thinks Hermione and Malfoy are friends, like that foul ferrett is capable of friendship. Then he got all offended when I brought up the fact that the two of them are shagging and just stormed off. So now he's taking her side and he's dragging Ginny into it." Hermione couldn't believe her ears. Ron was actually trying to make her out as the bad guy!

"Well I believe you, baby. You don't need him." Lavender told him.

"I know you do, but still..." Ron trailed off. Suddenly Lavender let out something between a squeal and gasp, hurting Hermione's ears.

"Oh my, I forgot to tell you!" The girl exclaimed happily.

"Tell me what?" Ron asked in a curious voice.

"Well, at breakfast today, Romilda and I talked to Hermione..."

"And?" Ron inquired, suddenly interested.

"She practically told us her and Malfoy shagged!" Hermione's mouth dropped open in anger. She called that saying they'd shagged? How dim could you be?

"Really?"

"Yes, she was playing dumb, but I could tell by the look on her face," Lavender said. "She was practically undressing Malfoy with her eyes the whole time." Ron made a noise of disgust.

"I know! I guess you were right, she is a little tart," Lavender told him. "I've already told Romilda to let everyone know, gossip this good shouldn't be kept a secret."

"Hey, let's get out of here," Ron said. "This place just reaks of Hermione. I've got a bottle of firewhiskey stashed in my room just begging to be drank." Hermione heard Lavender give out a small giggle and watched as the two walked out of the library hand in hand as she stared after them.

Hermione felt tears begin to sting at her eyes. Everyone was going to think she was a tramp! How could this have happened? She knew she wasn't, but who would believe her? They were all going to think she and Draco were sleeping together, they'd laugh at her and whisper things behind her back. It was all Ron's fault! Why couldn't he have just let things be? She'd left him alone and been quite content doing so. So why did he have to be like this?

Not feeling up to doing homework anymore, Hermione packed up her things and half ran out of the library and up to the Heads' Quarters where Draco was sitting at the desk in common room writing something on a piece of parchment. When he saw Hermione's face, he immediately stopped what he was doing and ran over to her.

"What happened?" He asked, holding onto her arms lightly and giving her the once over to be sure she wasn't hurt. Hermione felt the tears begin to flow down her face, blurring her vision.

"Everyone thinks I'm a tart!" She managed to cry out. Draco then pulled her close, craddling her against his chest.

"How would you know?" He asked, his voice full of concern.

"B-because Lavender told everyone!" Hermione sobbed. Draco waited a bit for her to calm down, knowing nothing would do good when she was crying. He simply held her close until her body stopped shaking and the tears has lessened.

"Hermione, you have to listen to me," He told her, looking into her tear stained face. "You can't keep worrying about what everybody thinks. Hell, let them think what they want! I know the truth, and so do you. What does it matter what a couple of dipshits think anyway?"

"But they're going to think it's true!" Hermione half shouted. "Everyone will be talking about me, and calling me names and-"

"That's them!" Draco interupted. "You know you're not like that, and if people are dumb enough to think that you are, then they're not worth your time. You have to stop obsessing over what people think about you."

"But-" Hermione went to argue, but Draco placed a finger over her lips to silence her.

"Don't focus on the bad things people say about you. They're teenagers, they live off of rumours like that. There's always going to be something going around about someone, and three quarters of these rumours are exactly what they are, rumours. You'll drive yourself crazy if you live off what others think of you, take it from someone who knows." Hermione slowly nodded her head, realizing Draco was making sense. She knew their words hurt, a lot, but she couldn't control what others said. She knew who she was, and she was going to try her hardest to remember that.

Draco hugged her tight one last time, their bodies seemingly molding into each other. She could smell his cologne and the shampoo in his hair, the scents oddly comforting as he held her close. She burried her face into his muscular chest, inhaling deeply, willing the tears away. Hermione closed her eyes, letting the comfort Draco's embrace brought wash over her.

"You know," Hermione said after a while, her voice slightly hoarse from crying. "Sometimes I just wish I could be a bird, so then I could spread my wings and fly away. I could leave all this behind, the pain, the cruelty, this whole war. I could just fly off into the sunset and forget it all. That's silly, isn't it?" Draco gave a small chuckle, realizing he'd thought the same thing countless times before.

"No, actually, it's not." He told her, hugging her a little tighter, hoping to will all the pain away.

After a few minutes, Hermione suddenly became aware of how long he'd been holding her and self conciously stepped back, staring at her shoes. Draco seemed to have noticed too because he was also trying to look anywhere but at her. After a few awkward minutes, Hermione decided to talk and break the tension.

"So, umm..." She looked around for anything to talk about, her eyes laying on the piece of parchment on the desk. "What are you writing?"

Draco snapped out of his trance like state and looked over at the desk. "Oh, that. I was just writing a letter to my mother. I haven't spoke to her in a while so I figured she'd like to hear from me." He told her.

"Oh, sorry I disturbed you." Hermione replied, hanging her head slightly in guilt.

"No, that's okay," Draco said. "I can finish it later." A long pause followed, neither one sure what to talk about.

"Well, I guess I better get started on that essay." Hermione said after a while, sitting down on the couch and pulling out her books.

"Yeah, I guess I should finish writing this letter." Draco told her, sitting back down at the desk and picking up his quill.

The two worked in silence for a while, as they had countless times before, just enjoying a rare bit of peace. When Draco was finished writing the letter to his mother, he went down to the owlery to send it off with his eagle owl, returning a few minutes later to find Hermione with her nose burried in her book, furiously writing on a piece of parchment. He sat down beside her on the couch, reading over her shoulder quietly.

"I can't believe you can actually stand to take this class." Draco said after a while, causing Hermione to jump slightly.

"How can you not love Arithmacy?" Hermione asked, closing the book but keeping her finger on her page and looking at the blonde.

"Um, because it's extremely dull and complicated." Draco replied as Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Well I think it's fascinating," She told him. "I mean, how could the magical properties of numbers not be?" It was Draco's turn to roll his eyes this time.

"You know, sometimes I think you're way too smart to be sane." He told her with a small chuckle.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with expanding your mind," Hermione replied. "Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'knowledge is power'?" Draco gave out a very uncharacteristic snort.

"Sounds like something Dumbledore would've said," Draco said, standing up from the couch and checking his watch. "It's about time for lunch." Hermione checked her watch, realizing the time.

"Do we have to go to lunch?" She asked him, not very keen on going through a repeat of that morning.

"You don't want to either?" Draco asked her. Hermione shook her head in response. "Alright, but we do have to make an appearance at dinner. Dobby's getting pretty annoyed that I keep coming to the kitchen's for food."

Hermione looked at Draco with a shocked look on her face. "You've been bugging those poor slaves to get us food?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" He asked, confused.

"That is so cruel! Those poor things slave to make our food and clean up after us when we can easily do it ourselves and you're making them get our food because you'd rather have someone do it for you then do it yourself?" She said, her voice a little high in disbelief.

"Hey, don't go judging me!" Draco half shouted back at her, his short temper becoming evident. "Didn't you ever think those creatures are happy serving us?" Hermione threw her book aside and stood so she was more level with the blonde.

"Happy serving us? Are you serious?" She asked, matching his volume. "Do you actually think anyone can be happy waiting on someone hand and foot?"

"Yes, is that so impossible?" Draco said, getting more then a little annoyed at how opinionated Hermione was.

"How would you like having a master telling you what to do?" She shouted, immediately regretting it when she saw the look on Draco's face. His face had fallen and his eyes looked distant. His mouth was shut tight and he just kind of stared at Hermione for a moment, contemplating how to reply. When he did, his voice was much more calm, as if he'd lost all the fight in him.

"You have no clue how those things feel or how they think. Maybe you should take that into consideration before you start defending their rights." With that, Draco turned on his heel and walked up the staircase to his room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Hermione just stood there for a moment, her hand over her mouth. She couldn't believe she could be so insensitive and say something like that. She hadn't really meant to, it had just sort of slipped out before she could think about what she was saying.

Hermione paced around for a few minutes, her hands entangled in her hair. She didn't know what she should do, should she leave Draco be? Should she go talk to him? Should she just pretend like it didn't happen?

After some serious thinking, Hermione decided to go up there and talk to Draco. She ran quickly up the stairs and knocked lightly on the door but his room was silent. She knocked again a little bit harder, but she still got no response. Losing her patience, she slowly opened the door and peaked her head in.

The whole room was dark except for a small stream of light coming from the open door. She couldn't see anything but dark outlines, so she cautiously stepped inside with her arms out in front of her.

"Draco?" Hermione called out, careful not to trip over anything. She made her way over to where she knew the bed was and stopped in front of it. She could faintly see Draco's outline laying in the bed.

"Look, I'm really sorry," She began. "Sometimes I say things before I have a chance to think about what I'm saying. I didn't mean to upset you." She watched as Draco shifted in his bed so he could look at her through the darkness.

"You didn't upset me," He told her, his tone betraying his words. "Just leave me alone."

Hermione was about to turn away and leave, but decided against it and stood her ground.

"You can't tell me I didn't upset you after you stormed up to your room." She said, her hands on her hips.

"Go away." Was Draco's reply.

"Stop being so difficult!" Hermione told him, raising her voice slightly. Draco suddenly sat up and stared at her.

"I'm difficult?" He said, his voice a bit louder. "Were you not the one arguing with me over those bloody elves doing their jobs?"

"Don't you turn this on me! You're the one who's up here moping in your room like a little drama queen!" Hermione replied.

"You flipped out on me because I got an elf to bring me food!" Draco told her.

"That's because it's inhumane to force creatures to do our bidding when we are perfectly capable!" She half shouted at Draco's outline.

"But that's their job!" Draco shouted back. "Besides, there's nothing you can do to stop them, you can't control them and your certainly can't control me. They're happy with what they do, so get over it!" Hermione's mouth dropped open in shock, but she quickly recovered.

"Just because I care about the feelings of those poor creatures you think I'm trying to control them? And as for you, I don't give a flying broomstick what you do. You can jump off a cliff for all I care!" Hermione shouted before turning around and heading out the door. She could feel the tears stinging at her eyes, but she refused to let Draco watch her cry anymore. She slammed the door loudly behind her as she ran down the stairs and collapsed on the couch, letting the tears flow freely down her face.

Hermione hugged a pillow close to her chest as she cried. She wasn't too sure why she was so upset. Draco had been a lot worse to her over the year and she hadn't let it bother her. But for some reason, his words hurt now. Deep down, she knew her feelings for him had changed and turned into something more. But obviously his hadn't, and that hurt more then anything he could ever say to her.

To Be Continued...

Alright, it took a while but I finally got this chapter done. Hopefully it's long enough, I believe it is. Anywayss, thnxx goes out to:

-nadinetink, sorry it's taking so long for them to kiss. This story's probably gonna progress really slowly but I wanna build up their relationship first.

-catysmom, I'm sorry if what I said came across as a complaint, but it wasn't. It was merely a statement because I had realized that && didn't feel like replying the same way I always do.

-Karen, why thank youu. Yeah, it may take a while for the two of them to get closer, but it will happen eventually.

-princesspeach, oh, don't worry. Ron will get what's coming to him.

-Kay_Rage, happy to hear youu like it.

-AriaErna, here's your update.

-TiffANY, sorry about that. Sometimes my mind goes faster then my fingers can register. I'll try && watch that more closely.

-Cette Fille, well this chapter is the begining of her realizing her feelings. I'll be sure to go more indepth in future chapters.

-luvhp, I haven't figured that out either. I also have a lot of stories in my favourites folder, that's how I normally check && I end up checking everydayy.

-dee, np np, thnxx for the review.

-pickles87, I've somewhat written three quarters of this story, but it's all in pointform. I just carry around a little notebook everywhere with me so I can write whenever the mood catches me, so a lot of the story is written, but only in pointform.

-melanie, well, let me explain why I have the characters how they are. With Draco, it's basically he's finally matured a bit after being forecully thrown into the war. He also feels sorry for Hermione because he has witnessed verbal abuse between his parents. With Ron, it says a few times in the books that he wants to drink, I think in HBP they're all at the Three Broomsticks and he wants to order firewhiskey but Hermione won't let him. But, since in this story he is of age, he's legally allowed to drink && basically doesn't know when to stop. As well, he is also known for his short, bad temper. So, mixed with alcohol he becomes violent. And he's violent with Hermione because he is fed up with her always over shadowing him. With Harry, it's not so much that he believed Ron, but he refused to let himself believe that Ron could do such things, but he did suspect Hermione was right for a while which is why it didn't take much for him to realize the truth. And with Hermione, her self esteem is extremely low from Ron abusing her so much, so she's very vaulnerable and is basically just looking for someone she can feel safe with. No one else knew about the abuse, so after Draco found out and felt bad for her, it was like a relief that he knew and she realized she could confide in him. Hopefully that can clear some up because that is a long reply.

-myangel113, I'm happy to hear you like it so much. Hermione && Draco will eventually become intimate, but it is going to take some time. I'm going to try && work on my spelling && grammar as well.

-Lady Ryu, other people will begin to see how Ron has changed soon, many already have but just take it that he's still upset about his and Hermione's break up.

-Elanor, well I'm happy to hear youu like it so far.

-Eksie, I'm happy you like it so much. I have to say, I'm rather partial to fluff as well so I'm happy youu like it too.

Alright, so I'm starting a new job this Monday, so I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update, but I'm going to try to update at least every other week. I hope youu all like this chapter. Please read && review !

Much Love...
XXX
Xx-.k.a.y.y.-xX