Jekyll and Hyde or Beauty and the Beast

A/N: I\'m sorry it\'s been so long since i posted guys. i know there is no real excuse other than I HAVE NO BLOODY INTERNET *sobs uncontrolably then pulls self together and sighs* I should have it back soon and will do my best to post more. Love you all!



Disclaimer: I don\'t own shit, so don\'t blame me lol



Chapter 5: Bang Bang Bang



It was late when Draco finally came in, it was obvious that he had expected Hermione to be in bed. He hadn\'t however expected her to be disillusioned and sitting at his desk. Draco walked past her quickly and went up the few steps to his door, after lowering his wards he opened the door and Hermione quickly ran in after him, circling around to the other side of his bed she stood against the wall beside his bathroom door.



Draco pulled off his outer school robe and sat on the end of the bed. She had been successful in not being seen, but she would have to be careful to avoid detection, but suddenly Hermione was unsure if that was what was she wanted. Here in his room with the door closed the Malfoy mask had dropped. Sadness seemed to pour over him, and the arrogant ass seemed to just melt away and what was left was someone who was just as sad and pathetic as Hermione had been. His head now in his hands, Draco seemed like such a small boy, so broken, so lost.



Suddenly feeling as if she was invading something private, like she was somewhere she should not be, but there was no way for Hermione to leave. She let out a low, quick breath before taking a small step forward; Draco lifted his head from his hands, his eyes moved towards Hermione, locking onto her. Hermione knew she was busted at that moment, but he didn\'t say anything to her. Draco stood, his wand now in hand he flicked it at Hermione removing all traces of her disillusion.



"Why are you here Hermione?" He asked not looking towards her.



"I-er, I um, wanted to be here waiting to ask you why you told Ginny all that you told her. It was never your place to tell anyone anything thing about me." She said softly, although her anger was rising.



"How is it not my place when I was in the relationship just as much as you were? If you could have heard the things that they were saying about you, Hermione! If I didn\'t tell them what we were and what really happened between you and Weasley, they would have hated you for years. The damage to your reputation would have been irreparable, and despite the now lack of a relationship between us, refuse to allow that to happen," He sighed loudly and walked to the mantle, leaning against it with both palms. "I did nothing more than divulge information to Ginerva Weasley that I thought would not only save you a lot of pain but a great deal of headache on both our parts."



When he turned to look at her Hermione had her arms wrapped around herself; a pregnant silence hung in the air between them. It was full of things that should have been said but words that would never be spoken between them. When finally she spoke, her voice was no more than a whisper.



"If I remember correctly Draco, It was you, and not I that wanted to keep our relationship secret. If I remember correctly you told me it was to save me from your father and Voldermort; you told me multiple times that if we were seen together then you would not be able to save me from what would come. However, if memory serves, when I was tortured by your Aunt you did nothing to save me at all did you?" She didn\'t scream, she didn\'t cry, and her voice never rose higher than a loud whisper. Showing that not only was she detached from the situation, but she seemed to not care anymore as well.



"I saved you from more than you know, and I will bear the scars of that night for the rest of my life. My \'betrayal\' was not taken lightly by the Dark Lord, nor was it forgiven. I did what I could to save you. Had I outright told them that I loved you, they would have killed you and my entire family for allowing such a thing to happen. Well, probably not Bella, but she and the dark Lord had an odd…. Connection anyway."



Hermione nodded and sighed, knowing full well that he was right. "This cannot continue Draco, you and I both know this. All we are doing is making ourselves miserable, and this is no way for us to live. We cannot undo what has been done, nor can we forgive what has happened. Perhaps we can find a way to be friends though? Put to end our long war and find some way to be happy, if not as friends than acquaintances?"



Draco looked for a moment at a picture of them that graced his mantle. It had been taken by a charmed camera, they sat on a couch from his private rooms; Hermione curled up in Draco\'s lap asleep and wearing his jumper, and Draco with his eyes half closed and lips pressed to her head. It was during Christmas break of fifth year. He lifted it slowly and tossed the picture (frame and all) into the fire below before sitting on the edge of the bed.



"You will get your wish Granger, but we won\'t be friends; no, not friends, something different. Will be happy for one another as we move on and marry. Smile politely and ask how the other is doing when we see each other in public, and do our duties and survivors of the war. We will never be friends, Granger, simply because If I see you I will never be able to let you go," and with a flick of her hand Hermione Granger was expelled from the room.



Xoxoxoxoxox



Will this night ever fucking end? Hermione asked herself. Never had she ever been involved in anything so damned tedious. Ginny and the girls had come to help her get ready for the ball; they helped her into her dress, helped her with her makeup, and helped her put the tonic into her hair. By the end of it Hermione was ready to scream. Thankfully, when they reached the Great Hall they had all gone their separate ways leaving Hermione to enter on her own.



The dress she wore was Ice blue in color, with silver adorning the strap of the one shoulder gown and a split that went up to her left thigh, transfigured silver jewelry clung to her ears, neck and wrist, but her hair was the most noticeable change. Her wild mane of chestnut brown hair had been tamed into mid-back length curls. They framed her face softly and teased the skin of her back. The back of the gown was almost scandalous leaving almost the entire back open for viewing except for a few small slivers which were covered by strips of fabric, the same light blue, but silver ivy was entwined with it.



She felt a bit like Cinderella to be honest, all dressed up and suddenly everyone was noticing her, talking to her, and she was asked to dance five times before she even reached the wall where she was supposed to stand for her patrols, although her main objective was supposed to be keeping the punch from getting spiked. It was nothing special it was a task she had seen all of her professors do it over her years at Hogwarts, but she never knew it was such a hard task.



Within in the first hour or so Hermione had blocked at least three sets of fourth years, a second year (which shocked her to the roots of her hair), and was handed a goblet of potion laced wine by Blaise Zambini; thank the stars she had learned from the war and sniffed everything that someone have her. Her wand which she had stashed in a garter of her exposed leg had been pulled out and Blaise had gone flying across the room. It had made a group of boys, whom had come to the party pre-partied, uproariously laugh, and Madame Hooch who was deep in her cups at this point fall out of her chair.



Luckily for Hermione, Professor Flitwick had taken over her duty and she was assigned the honor of helping Madame Hooch to her rooms. This seemed like it would be an easy enough task, but before Hermione could cast the simple Moblicorpous on her, Rolanda Hooch made it to her feet and began to dance wildly. Her hips and body were gyrating with the music that was pumping from the charmed speakers. Hermione sighed and did what she could.



Hopping in front of the woman, Hermione began to copy her movements. Thrusting her arse here and there, shaking her chest arms flung high she spun in circle. By the end of the song both women were in a pile of laughter, as were a few bystanders, any by the time that the music started pumping an upbeat song again, Hermione had the older woman already on the moving stair case.



Multiple times Hermione had to stop and adjust how the woman was leaning on her shoulders; she drunkenly sang a song and hummed to herself almost ignoring Hermione\'s presence. It didn\'t bother Hermione in the least though, it made the trip much more peaceful. Hermione knew well where Madame Hooch\'s room\'s were, it was no true secret for she had parties for the Quidditch teams yearly after the Quidditch cup had been handed out.



Turning left on the fourth floor she took a small side hallway that ended at a large black wooden door, it was then and there that she realized that she didn\'t know the password to the door.



Fuck.



Sighing to herself Hermione sat the woman on the bench that was nearby and shook her shoulder some attempting to sober up the woman just a little. "Madame Hooch, how can I get you into your rooms?" She repeated the question multiple times and even snapped her fingers in front of the woman\'s face, but it was useless. She stamped her foot in frustration and pulled her wand from the garter once again and checked to see if Hermione had put up any wards.



Shit. Damn, fuck, fuck, FUCK!



They were extremely complex. Leaning forward Hermione smacked her forehead against the solid wood. Once, twice and a third time before stamping her high-heeled foot once more, groaning loudly as pain shot up her leg.



DAMNIT!



Hermione heard a noise behind her that sounded a bit like a snore, but more like sighing hiccup; turning quickly she saw a now sleeping Rolanda Hooch drooling onto her robes. Placing her head in her hands Hermione groaned and set about undoing the complicated wards. It seemed to be an almost impossible task until an idea came to Hermione.



"DOBBY!," Hermione yelled for the house elf loudly and he appeared to her just moments later.



"Hullo, friend of Harry Potter!" he offered her a small smile but seemed to be a little put out.



"Lovely to see you too Dobby." She said with a roll of her eyes. "I need to get Madame Hooch back into her rooms, but at the moment, she is incapacitated, would you be so kind as to let us in her rooms so I can put her to bed? It seems that she drank most of the wine that Dumbledore gave her tonight."



"Yes. Miss!" Dobby walked to Madame Hooch, and as expected, checked to make sure that it was indeed her before grabbing Hermione and in a blink of an eye they were in her rooms, the woman was in her bed and Dobby had Hermione back in the corridor before, well before you could say Quidditch.



"I brings her tea in the morning." He said solemnly, Hermione only nodded and patted him on the head before moving towards the stair case.



Having been relieved of her duties Hermione decided to not go back to the ball, even though all of her so called friends were there, there was nothing to really keep her or her attentions there. Especially when NEWTs work was calling her name.



Turning to go into the third floor corridor she hear someone calling after her.



"Granger! Oi, Granger wait up!" Sighing Hermione turned to face Draco.



"What is it Draco?" annoyance was clear in her voice but she didn\'t care, she didn\'t want to go back to a party full of superficial people, she wanted to go lay on her bed, and study.



"McGonagall sent me to come find you, told me to not let you hide yourself away tonight. I\'m supposed to make sure you dance all night and not let you leave the ball. Personally, could care less what you do, but we all must do as we are told, are we not?" He gave that rakish shrug that she loved so very much. "So are you coming, or shall I tell her I couldn\'t find you?"



Sighing Hermione ran a hand through her hair, and for once it didn\'t end up caught in a mass of tangles. "I\'ll come with you, might as well make it seem like we get along, even if we are forced to do so. Although, you don\'t have to dance with me Draco, I can probably get one of the Gryffindor boys to dance with me. Shaemus has been eyeing me all night anyway...," She stopped abruptly as Draco\'s laughter filled the air.



"You think I\'m going to dance with you? Merlin, no! I was going to Imperio you so you would do it, but I suppose your way would work better wouldn\'t it?" He shot her a glance then winked at her. "Granger, I\'m not going to make you do anything that you don\'t want to do! However, if you would at least give me one dance, I would appreciate it," He took her hand into his for a moment and squeezed. "For old time\'s sake?"



She nodded her agreement and they headed back down the stairs, even though Hermione knew she would have gone to bed in the wee hours of the morning, she would have rather studied then lost in Draco\'s grey eyes. As he held her close Hermione felt herself relax more and more; when the night finally ended Hermione and Draco stood in the middle of the Great Hall, dancing in a small circle still. Professor Flitwick broke their little bubble though and sent them off to bed, off to reality, off to remember what had been, and what would never be again.



When Hermione was finally snuggled deep into her blankets, her door warded, and a muffilato cast she cried. She didn\'t cry for what she had lost, nor did she cry for she didn\'t have. Hermione Jean Granger cried for something that she wanted more than anything else in the world but would never be able to call hers.