Born The Day You Kissed Me

Truth Be Told

A hint of a smile graced Hermione's face for the first time in days as she walked into the Great Hall. Magical snow floated down from the enchanted ceiling and the entire hall smelt of pumpkin juice and warm cinnamon. She instantly felt relaxed and when she sat down at the Gryffindor table between Ron and Ginny, she simply closed her eyes and breathed.

Ron, Ginny, and Harry exchanged grins at the content look on the Head Girl's face and they sat in a comfortable silence. Only when Dumbledore cleared his throat and said sonorous, did Hermione open her eyes.

Dumbledore gave his usual "welcome back" speech while including some additional notes for the upcoming term. When his speech ended, people began talking, but Dumbledore remained standing. He waited for a moment for people to quiet down when the students realized he wasn't finished talking.

"Let us all offer our condolences to Miss Hermione Granger, for over the holidays she experienced a great and sorrowful loss," Dumbledore said, silencing the room. He then proceeded to sit down.

Hermione could feel almost every eye in the hall on her, and she had to try very hard not to break down in tears. She appreciated Dumbledore's words, but she didn't like all the attention being directed at her like this. It only lasted for a moment, and the whispering around the room soon returned to the loud chatter of kids eating their meals and showing off their Christmas presents.

Draco had become very tense after hearing the headmaster's speech. He stared at his housemates as they stuffed their faces and conversed with one another. Their conversations wouldn't have interested him in the least if the word "Granger" and "Mudblood" weren't in every sentence. He finally turned to Pansy, dumbfounded.

"Pansy, what was Dumbledore talking about?" he inquired, ignoring the food in front of him.

"When?"

"Just now, about offering Granger condolences."

Pansy stared at him for a moment. "You mean you haven't heard? Gosh Draco, with a father as a Death Eater you'd think he'd tell you these things."

Draco's temper was flaring. "What things?" he asked raising his voice.

"Word has it that Death Eaters invaded her house over the Holiday's and killed her parents," she said standoffishly. "It's a shame they didn't kill her too."

Draco felt like all the blood was rushing to his head. He remembered Lucius saying that they were going to kill her parents when they kidnapped her so that they couldn't go to Dumbledore. "That scream," he whispered to himself.

"What?" Pansy asked. "What scream?"

Granger screamed because of her parents...she must have found them. They'd been too late. The Death Eaters had obviously beaten them to her house and killed her parents.

"Draco, are you okay? You're not acting like yourself," Pansy said while rubbing him on the back.

He shoved her hand away while he tried to piece everything together in his head. He attended to his Head Boy duties, but couldn't get his mind off her scream that reverberated through his mind repeatedly. He needed to talk to her...he felt foolish for not knowing about her parents. He had talked to her on the train and he hadn't even known....

* * *

Hermione, Ginny, Harry, and Ron were all sitting in Harry and Ron's dorm as the rest of the boys were entertaining themselves in the common room.

Hermione had decided she was ready to talk to them, and she didn't want any distractions. She asked them to hear her out, and to not judge too quickly for she knew that the boys wouldn't be thrilled to hear about Malfoy.

"We are ready to listen," Ginny said while the boys merely nodded their heads in agreement.

Hermione nodded her head and took a big breath. She began to tell them the whole story from the time she found Malfoy in her backyard, to accidentally porting themselves to the Manor, to the secret passageways, and about how Malfoy had overheard something about her parents being in danger.

"So Malfoy knew that they were coming to kill your parents?" Ron said without thinking.

Hermione shook her head back and forth quickly. "No, he said that they were in danger and that we had to get back to warn them. Well, I guess they beat us back. The strange part is...after I found my parents and was brought back by Lucius into my living room, Malfoy wasn't there. He'd disappeared."

Harry and Ron exchanged suspicious looks. "So he was working with Lucius," Ron proclaimed standing up.

"No, I don't think he was. Lucius told me that Malfoy had a task to bring me to the Manor, but he had me there. Why did he insist on coming to warn my parents and to bring me home if he'd already had me there? I was right under the Death Eaters noses...and he...he kept me safe...on many occasions," she said with an afterthought.

"No offense Hermione, but it sounds like cods-swallow to me," Ron said getting red in the face.

"Ron, will you get off it?" Ginny said swatting her brother on the arm. "I think Hermione has a point. Even if what Lucius said was true, about him having a task to bring Hermione to them, if he'd been serious about it than he would have kept her there," Ginny said. "I think you're right, I don't think he was working with Lucius."

Harry had been quite throughout the whole conversation and Hermione was beginning to get worried. "Harry, are you okay?" she asked, bringing him out of his reverie. He had a very pensive look on his face, and his hands were cupping his jaw bone casually.

"So, Malfoy was supposed to kidnap you and turn you over to Death Eaters. The part that I don't understand is why you aren't more upset about this. It almost sounds like you're defending him or something," Harry said.

"I know, I know. It sounds weird talking about Malfoy in a positive way too, but you have to trust me. If you were there, you'd think the same thing," she said crossing her legs.

"Well maybe we can be there. You used the Pensieve, didn't you? We could all just go in and see it for ourselves," Harry suggested.

Hermione nodded. Then she registered what he was saying. He wanted to go into her thoughts and see the whole situation for himself. But by seeing her thoughts he would also see every intimate encounter she'd shared with Malfoy. "No, no I don't think that's a good idea," she said standing up and fighting hard to control the blush that seemed to be spreading to her face. They looked to her awaiting an explanation. "Uh, maybe one day, but I'd rather not have to umm...relive it all so soon," she said shifting nervously.

Harry and Ron seemed to buy it, and she mentally sighed in extreme relief. However, Ginny seemed to be giving her a funny look. Hermione shrugged her shoulders innocently.

"So, why did Malfoy leave? Where did he go?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, I haven't talked to him since," she said looking away from them.

"I still don't like the slimy git," Ron said standing up again. "I don't like the way this sounds. One minute he's unconscious in your backyard, then he's helping you and being nice to you, then he tells you that your parents are in trouble, and then he just disappears? Tell me again why you don't think he was working with his crazy bastard of a father?"

"Ron, she's already explained what she thinks, and you would know that if you paid a speck of attention," Ginny said sounding aggravated.

"Well excuse me if I don't like the guy! He's been a complete arse our whole lives! What makes you think he's changed?" Ron yelled throwing his hands in the air.

"Because...well, there are a lot of reasons. You know that he's been better this year. We are actually civil to one another because of our duties as Head Boy and Head Girl. And he hasn't been harassing the two of you like he used to," Hermione said motioning to Harry and Ron. At Ron's eye roll, Hermione huffed and crossed her arms. "He has grown up. I suggest you look into it," Hermione said, her hands moving to her hips. She was getting annoyed with Ron's temper.

Ron rolled his eyes at her again, and stomped immaturely out of the room. "Exploding snaps is more fun anyways," they heard him mumble as he made to join Seamus, Neville, and Dean. Harry followed him out bidding goodnight to Ginny and Hermione.

Hermione shook her head, and turned to find Ginny staring at her with half a smile on her face.

"What?"

"So what's the real story Hermione? What's in that Pensieve that you're so desperate to keep from us?"

"Desperate?" Hermione said abashed. She scoffed and began to laugh. "Nothing! Why would you think--"

"You can cut the crap, I know there is something you're hiding from us," Ginny said giving her the you're-a-terrible-liar look.

"I'm not hiding anything!"

"Okay. So you wont mind if I go and have a look at this Pensieve of yours-"

Hermione jumped in front of her, "No!"

Ginny gave her the look again.

"Okay, okay, okay," Hermione said waving her hands in the air. She suddenly felt excited to talk to someone about the...feelings between her and Malfoy. She trusted Ginny with a secret, and she desperately needed some girl talk. Hermione grabbed Ginny's hand and whispered, "We can't talk about it here, lets go back to my room."

Ginny smiled in triumph. "Lead the way," she laughed.

* * *

Draco had been pacing around the common room that he and Hermione shared, and he spun around at the sounds of girls' voices coming through the portrait hole.

Ginny and Hermione froze midsentance. "Uhh, hi," Hermione said nervously. She hadn't expected him to be there. She gave Ginny a questioning glance, unsure of what to do.

"Awkward," Ginny whispered to Hermione to break the silence. "I...I think I'm gonna go and leave you two...to, uh...talk," Ginny said already stepping back into the corridor. "Hermione, we'll finish this later," Ginny said with a wink.

"Bye Gin," Hermione said shutting the door behind her. Her hands were sweating and slightly shaking. "Why am I so nervous?" she thought to herself while she turned around to face Malfoy.

"Can we talk?" Draco said stepping towards her.

She recoiled a little at his advance which slightly upset him. She stared at him for what seemed like minutes. The question that she'd been dying to have answered could finally slip free. Now all she had to do was work up the nerve to ask him.

Both waited for the other to begin, and the tension began to rise in the silence.

"Where did you go?" she said finally. "Why did you leave me?" A tear rolled down her face which surprised both of them.

Draco shuffled towards her slowly. "I didn't leave you," he said firmly. "I was taken away. My father was already at your house when we got there. You left to see what that noise had been, and he had two of his sidekicks apparate me back to the Manor right after you screamed for help," he spoke resolutely and he didn't break eye contact.

Hermione thought back to exactly what had made her scream and another tear graced her face. She could tell he was asking why she screamed, but was too afraid to ask. "I went to their bedroom, and I found them. They were already dead. McNair was there, and he said..." she shaking again at the memories. "He...he said I was next. I tried to fight, but he was too strong. I was screaming so loudly, only because I had no idea what else I could do," she said looking away from him and into the fire.

Hermione walked around him to lean against the back of the sofa. "Before I knew it, Lucius had come to get me. He brought me back to the front room where all the other Death Eaters were," she whispered. She turned around to face him. "I looked for you, but you weren't there. Lucius, he...he pushed me to the ground and told me that you'd had an assignment," her eyes were glued to his now. "An assignment to bring me back to the Manor. He said that you seduced me into believing you," she said wiping her face with quick movements. She did not want to cry in front of him.

Draco looked to the ground.

"Please tell me that's not true," she said, her voice now shaking. The thing that scared her most was that he might have been leading her on...that all the affection he'd shown her had been an act.

"It's not true," he said finally looking up to her.

Her heart seemed to soar at these words. "Just tell me truth, from the beginning," she said wiping her tears away in partial relief.

And he did. He told her everything that he remembered. That he remembered being summoned to his father's office and traveling somewhere, and that he didn't remember anything up until he'd woken up in her 'treehouse.' He told her that he'd over heard the Death Eater's plans and what his job had been. He told her he was supposed to kidnap her and use her as live bait, but since the Death Eaters didn't know where he was, they were going to capture her themselves and that they'd have to kill her parents so that they wouldn't go running to Dumbledore.

Hermione had had to sit down half way through the speech. "Live bait?" she whispered aloud.

"I didn't want anything to do with it. I don't want anything to do with them. Ever," he said determinedly. The look she was giving him was making him worry that she didn't believe him.

Hermione nodded her head. "Malfoy, I believe you. You had too many chances to turn me in at the Manor if you were seriously involved with the Death Eaters," she said, sensing his reservations.

Draco sighed loudly. "You don't know how relieved I am to hear you say that," he said leaning back into the couch beside her. "When I got back to the Manor, I was thrown in my room. This is the first day that I haven't been trapped in there. If it weren't for Tish, I'd probably be dead from starvation," he laughed.

"Wait, your father locked you in your room?"

"He has a bad temper," Draco joked. At her serious look he elaborated. "He was angry that I'd disappeared and didn't do what I was supposed to. I could tell you were safe only because he would have come and gloated to me that he'd accomplished something that I didn't....I had absolutely no idea what had happened after I was taken away until you just told me," Draco said shooting her a sideways glance.

He paused for a moment, admiring her soft features glowing in the light. He glanced into the fire, his expression becoming solemn.

"I also didn't know about your parents until tonight at the feast."

Hermione nodded her head slowly. The news traveled quickly during the feast and she could swear that half of the school had come to say they were sorry.

Hermione and Draco spent the next few hours lounging on the couch, talking quietly about nothing in particular. It was a comfortable, friendly atmosphere.

When they each decided it was time for sleep, they bid each other goodnight as friends.

Hermione shut her door and slumped against it. She for one wished that they could bid each other goodnight...as being more than friends.

Little did she know, Draco was slumped against his own door thinking the exact same thing.