Broken Memories

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"Draco!" Pansy squealed as she grasped his arm and pulled him to stand next to her, clinging to him like a leach. "What are you doing helping the Mudblood?" She sneered down at Hermione.

Hermione only rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Draco narrowed his eyes at Hermione, "Returning the favor. Since she looked after me in the infirmary (even if it was under Professor Snape's request)." He started to turn away from her, the Slytherin's pulling and tugging him to class. "Don't think I owe you anything else Granger," he called from over his shoulder.

Hermione found herself smirking, in so many ways she could swear this was the real Draco Malfoy—and that there was no possible way he could suffer from memory loss. "Wouldn't even waste a second thought on it, Malfoy." She finished collecting her books and walked passed them, somewhat proud they hadn't been discovered. But she bit her lip nervously, concerning herself with the photo that had been taken in the moment their guard had been let down. Really if that picture did find itself on the front page of the school headlines tomorrow, then Draco's simple: "A favor for a favor," bit wouldn't stand a chance.

Hermione sighed slightly, noting that the invisibility cloak would probably be used again tonight, and mentally she made another note to hurt Harry and Ron. Really this whole plan was becoming more trouble than it was worth.

"You shouldn't have returned the favor." Pansy pursed her lips in a pout. "She could have done something awful to you and you might not have even known it!"

Draco kept his eyes on Hermione, "She wouldn't do that." His voice was almost harsh, and he suddenly realized he needed to at least pretend to hate Hermione.

The Slytherin girl wouldn't drop it though: "How would you know? What if she erased your memory?" Pansy's words were loud enough to reach Hermione's ears and she slouched suddenly.

Though she hadn't been responsible for his memory loss—she was to blame for keeping him from remembering his life.

Hermione found herself with goose-bumps and a sudden feeling of nausea swept over her as she concluded that Pansy was right about her; Draco shouldn't help her, let alone trust her.

"I don't want to talk about Granger anymore," Said Draco sounding bored. This time Pansy held her tongue, and walked with Draco to Transfiguration. Once in the classroom Draco remembered the professor from his first night in the hospital after his Quidditch accident.

"Welcome back Mr. Malfoy," said the elderly professor nodding in his direction.

"Thank you," He replied, taking a seat next to Pansy.

The dark haired girl raised an eyebrow, "What are you doing?"

Draco looked at her unsure of what she meant when Professor McGonagall informed him of his mistake: "That's not where I placed you on the sitting chart Mr. Malfoy."

Draco nodded, "Uh, Well—I thought Pansy could catch me up on some of the lessons I've been missing." He leaned back in his chair in a cool manner.

Professor McGonagall almost smiled, "That's a wise idea Mr. Malfoy."

Draco nodded, a smug look on his face, "Why thank you Professor."

She smirked, "However, since you are second in the class, I think you should be learning from the first in the class, Miss Granger."

Hermione practically jumped from her chair, "What?"

The Gryffindor professor moved to her desk, "Yes—now Mr. Malfoy please sit beside Miss Granger, and we'll get this class started."

Draco only grabbed his books and smirked at Hermione upon taking the seat next to her.

As Head Girl, Hermione felt she had the right to complain about the arrangement, but Professor McGonagall was a stubborn teacher and as the day went on, Hermione realized so was Professor Sprout, Flitwick, Trelawney, and surprisingly enough, even Professor Snape.

The one class Hermione did look forward to was Hagrid's class:

Care of Magical Creatures, for she knew he would never pair her with Malfoy.

It wasn't that she couldn't stand (the new) Draco Malfoy. It was just that being near him in public, with everyone watching, was making her nervous.

She thanked her luck for Hagrid making Ron, Malfoy's partner. "Fact is Ron, your brother works with creatures, so in order to catch up, Malfoy here would benefit most from learning from you."

Ron shrugged, taking it a lot calmer than Hermione, and asked Malfoy to open his book for a quick debriefing on the creature they would be handling today.

Harry leaned in to Hermione as Draco watched them from the corner of his eye. "How you holding up?" Whispered Harry.

Hermione felt her eyebrow twitch, "I feel like the Slytherin's are glaring me into a grave." Hermione perked her head up, hopeful, "Is it my imagination?"

Harry glanced behind her shoulders only to see the Slytherin's staring straight back at him, a few hushed words slipping between lips and ears. Harry looked back at Hermione, a calm look on his face, "It's your imagination," he lied.

Hermione felt her stomach relax for a moment, "Thank Merlin." She proceeded to focus her full attention on Hagird's lesson, but from time to time she caught herself stealing glimpses at Draco.

When his steel eyes caught hers, he smirked and she bit her lip and cursed at herself. She ordered herself not to look in his direction for the rest of the day.

There was no reason to feed his ego.

Yet as Pansy wrapped herself around the noble pale Slytherin, Hermione couldn't find herself the will power to remove her eyes from the scene. And his smirking steel eyes seemed to notice this, fore when he allowed Pansy to kiss him on the cheek, his eyes only on her.

She felt nervous again, and turned away immediately, displeased that something other than final exams could unnerve her.

The rest of the day dragged on, but with great relief, Hermione finally found herself beside her two best friends at Dinner. The Great hall especially noise, for the winter holiday was approaching, and many of the students were talking about what they would receive for Christmas.

"What's got you Hermione?" Asked Ron while he chewed his food with his mouth open.

Hermione swallowed her food, "That picture Colin Creevy took." Her face twisted as if she had eaten something rotten, "I would prefer not to see Malfoy and I on the cover of tomorrow school paper."

Harry nodded as he chewed his food and swallowed, "Perhaps I could talk him out of publishing it."

Hermione bit her lip, "That might work…"

Ron shook his head, "I don't get what you're so worked up about." He engulfed another piece of meat, "It's just Malfoy and you."

Hermione pushed her plate away from her, "And I don't want to get the Slytherin's suspecting us of something already."

Ron nearly choked on his food, "They're just Slytherins," he bellowed. "Blimy you act like they're as clever as the Ravenclaws."

"And you make them sound like trolls. You shouldn't underestimate them." Hermione's brown eyes drifted towards Pansy, who was attempting to feed Draco dessert. "I think Pansy has caught on to me."

Harry turned his green eyes to glance at Pansy, his digested food nearly returning to his clean plate at her actions, "She's probably just teasing you as she always does."

Ron nodded, "She's just jealous you spent a week alone with Malfoy."

"Looks like I won't need your invisibility cloak…" Hermione noticed Colin Creevy stand from his bench and take his exit from the Great Hall. Hermione followed the Gryffindors actions. "I'm going to get that picture."

Once she had excited the Hall, a rough hand pushed her against the stone wall. Gray eyes met brown. "Malfoy?" Her surprise went from her eyes to her words.

His eyes were narrowed at her, "Are you and Potter dating?"

This time Hermione's eyes nearly left her skull, "What?"

Draco rolled his eyes, seemingly annoyed as he repeated the question: "Are you and Harry Potter dating? Is that why you turned me down?"

Hermione shook her head, "No! Are you daft?"

Draco blushed, "You two are always beside each other, and I saw him whisper in your ear during the giant's class."

This time Hermione rolled her eyes, "We're friends."

Draco nodded, "We're friends and you hate to be that close to me."

Hermione opened her mouth, only for no words to make a sound.

Draco lowered his eyes, "So I'm correct that you hate to be close to me…"

"No-just scared," she admitted rather quickly.

Draco smirked in response to this.

Why he was smirking to the fact that she was scared—she couldn't guess! After all, this fool had kissed her and claimed to have feelings for her. Why should he want her to be afraid?

Hermione turned her gaze to the end of the hallway, only to notice that Colin was no longer in sight. "Now if you'll excuse me-" Before she could reply a green apple was forcefully shoved into her mouth by the arrogant Slytherin.

"Now," his grin was as big as ever as he turned to the hallway Colin had just disappeared down. "Let's get our picture back."

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Author: Sorry it took so long to update—I am quite ashamed of myself. In any case, I am not abandoning this fic. I wrote it before Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows, so no matter what the ending to the series, my story will proceed as planned. Thank you for reading, reviewing, and faving.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the characters. If I did, the series would be called Draco Malfoy, and it would be rated for Adults only…

Claimer: I own the plot…Don't take it and make me hurt you…