22. Insanity Issues

Disclaimer: None of it is mine…or except Ella! But sadly, I don't own anything else.

A/N: Thank you for all your reviews, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you (think that's enough?) thank you thank you thank you thank you and finally…THANK YOU!

I really wish I could give everyone a personal reply to their reviews in each chapter, but I simply can't because I'm so unorganised and lazy! But I read every one and they make me feel warm inside!

And I always forget to thank my betas, so thank you guys so much! I love you!

'We're going out for the day' Malfoy stated as he strode back into his bedroom. Both Hermione and Ella looked up quizzically at him as he threw himself onto the bed next to them with very little elegance.

'Where are we going?' Ella said excitedly crawling over to her father and poking him.

'Why are we going?' Hermione said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.

'Well, I think we need to spend more time as a family… far, far away from here'

'It's a school day Draco, we can't just up and leave and I need to talk to you anyway' Her eyes flicked to Ella 'Alone'

'We can talk later' He said, shooting Ella a smile. 'So where do you wanna go, Ella?' He said, tickling her lightly.

'Hogsmeade?' She suggested lightly.

'That's way too close' He said, glancing over at Hermione.

'I'm not missing any lessons. I refuse to bunk off, Draco' She said raising her voice.

'For once, change your priorities' He snapped. Hermione's eyes narrowed in anger as she clenched her fists and calmed herself.

'Ella, can you give your mum and dad a moment alone for a second?' She said with a smile towards her daughter. Ella sat there looking between her mother and father, her eyes stopped on her father as she looked at him expectantly.

'Yeah, give us a moment' Malfoy said, seeing she was waiting for him to tell her what to do. She jumped off the bed and scurried off into her room.

'She's such a daddy's girl' Hermione said sighing as she ran her fingers through her hair. 'So, what the hell happened with your dad and why do you want us to run off?'

'He…' Malfoy moved to lie on his stomach as he wrapped an arm around Hermione's stomach. 'He threatened me. Which didn't come as a shock at all. He wants me to stop..well..whatever we have going on here. If we don't, he'll hurt Ella and if we still don't give in, he'll take you'

Hermione felt his arm tighten around her waist as she bit her bottom lip nervously.

'So you thought we'd leave the country?' She said, raising an amused eyebrow.

'Only for the day, I just want to spend some time with you and Ella. We can't do that here, my dad's got people watching us' He said, moving over to gentle nuzzle her neck.

'Great, just great' Hermione said sarcastically as she distractedly kissed his cheek. Malfoy moved onto his side and gave her a suggestive look.

'How long do you reckon we have before Ella comes to find us?' He said, a small smirk on his lips as he leaned further over Hermione.

'Not long' She said, smiling at him as he moved a strand of her hair out of her face. He leaned over and captured her lips slowly and gently as he moved his body on top of hers. Hermione groaned quietly into his mouth as she felt his hand sneak its way under her school shirt.

'D-draco, what if Ella walks in?' She said as he undid her top completely and threw it onto the floor.

'She won't and if she does, we'll finish this later. I promise' He said quietly as he admired her exposed skin and gently kissed up her neck as she felt Hermione's hands find the zip on his trousers and tug down.

'Mummy?' Ella squeaked from the doorframe as she looked at her parents in confusion.

'Oh god' Hermione said, using Draco's body to cover herself up. 'This couldn't get any worse' She muttered as she looked on the floor in search of her shirt.

'Hermione' Her eyes widened at Ron's voice as he came around the doorframe to see what Ella was staring at. He blinked stupidly for 3 seconds at the position his best friend and Malfoy were in before launching himself onto the bed to tackle Malfoy to the ground as Hermione quickly put her shirt back on.

'Ron! Get off him!' She yelled as she grabbed the back of his shoulder and hauled him away from Malfoy.

Ron panted lightly as he glared at Malfoy. 'What are you doing? He was taking advantage of you!' He yelled angrily as he pointed to Malfoy who was picking himself up off the floor and adjusting his clothes.

'What's all the yelling about guys?' Harry said cheerily as he came into the room to join everybody else. He paused and looked around, 'what's going on?'

'Malfoy' He spat, pointing his finger 'was taking advantage of our best friend!' Ron shouted dramatically, waiting for an explosion from Harry. He waited…and waited and Harry remained calm.

'He wasn't taking advantage, Ron. We've been…errr… close for a while now' Hermione said, suddenly finding the floorboards highly interesting.

Harry started to look amused as he watched Ron turn red. 'This is not the sort of thing we can discuss in front of a child' He said crouching down to a very confused Ella. 'Why don't you go into your room for a second?' He said giving her a friendly grin.

'I'm always being sent to my room when I'm not even being bad!' She said as tears welled in her eyes.

'You haven't been bad, sweetness' Malfoy said softly, crouching down next to her and giving her quick kiss on her forehead. 'We just need to talk about something, ok?' Ella still didn't look happy but she turned round with a pout and walked back into her room.

'What the hell is going on?' Ron shouted when the door closed. He looked at Harry, then at Hermione and finally at Malfoy. 'You two are…together?' He said almost hysterically.

'Err yeah' Hermione said shifting.

Ron turned to Harry with his eyes wide and expecting some kind of reaction again.

'What have you to say to that, Harry? Should we curse him?'

'I already knew' Harry didn't think Ron could get redder with rage, he was wrong.

'You…you…' He whispered incredulously. '…KNEW!' He ended shouting and punching the nearest bedpost.

Hermione moved toward him nervsouly. 'Ron, calm down ok?' She pleaded as Ron held his now throbbing hand.

'Calm down? Calm bloody down!' He said gesturing to Hermione and Malfoy. 'That is wrong!'

'I've already tried to get through to them' Harry said wearily as he sat down on their bed and rubbed his temples.

'Oh you're not off the hook either, Harry. You didn't tell me? I'm your best friend!'

'You've just proved why I didn't tell you. You freak out' Harry said, as he looked at Ron with a small frown.

Ron looked silently at all of them looking very much betrayed before turning and walking out of the room. They all remained in silence until Malfoy spoke up. 'Well, that went well don't you think?'

Both Hermione and Harry shot daggers at him.

'Do you think I should go after him?'

'Yes' 'No' Harry and Malfoy said simultaneously.

'Draco, what if he tells someone what he saw and they tell your dad!' She suddenly said, her eyes begging his.

'He wouldn't dare open his mouth' Malfoy said looking over at Harry who was shaking his head and looked slightly confused.

'I'm going to go and find Ron. It's a nice day, take Ella out to the lake for now. I'll join you later' She said putting on her robes and walking out of the door with Harry in tow.

'Where would he have gone?' Hermione said as they moved down the hall at a fast pace.

'Throw himself off the astronomy tower perhaps?' Harry said dryly.

'Don't say things like that'

'I don't think you realise how much he liked you'

'He'll get over it' She said coldly.

'He'll get over it? What's happened to you Herms? You've become so distant to us now that you have Malfoy as a sex buddy'

'Not that it's any of your business, but nothings happened'

'Not from lack of trying on Malfoy's part though, am I right?' He said, casting a sidelong glace at her.

Hermione gave him a quick look before spotting the redhead sitting at the lunch table, stabbing a bit of chicken to death.

'Ron' She said softly sitting down next to him as he continued to use his knife to cut apart and stab the bit of chicken. She layed her hand gently on his shoulder but he shoved it off violently.

'For the past 5 minutes, I've pretending this bit of chicken is Malfoy' He said in an unwavering voice. He picked up the bit of chicken in his hands and ripped it apart viciously before throwing it across the hall.

'Did that help?' Harry said as some Ravenclaws turned around to flick bits of chicken off of their clothing.

'I'd feel better if I was doing it to the real thing' He snapped dangerously as he held the knife tightly in his hand.

'Look, I'm really sorry Ron. I wish you hadn't found out that way'

'No, you probably wish I'd never found out at all' He said as he fiddled with his food on his plate. 'Do you even like him?'

'What? Of course I do!'

'Ok then' He said quietly. 'What is it that he's got that I haven't?'

'Money, looks, a generally amazing personality?' A voice drawled from behind them. They all swivelled round to see Malfoy walking up to them with Ella wrapped securely around his neck.

'Sod off, Malfoy' Harry said, seeing Ron clench his fists.

Ella leaned down and patted Ron's head gently. 'Don't worry Weasley, whenever I'm upset, I cry or take revenge' She said innocently to him. Malfoy was resisting the urge to say 'that's my girl' as Harry, Hermione and Ron all looked up at her in something akin to fear.

Ron then laughed and stood up as he faced Ella. 'Thank you, you're very right. But I generally don't cry so that leaves me with...' He looked up to Malfoy and smirked, 'revenge.'

'Look, fighting will get you no where' Hermione said, putting herself in between Malfoy and Ron who both looked ready to kill.

'Dad would win' Ella chipped in to Malfoy's amusement.

'You are setting such a bad example' Hermione hissed in Malfoy's ear.

'Fine, we'll go.' He said staring at Ron who was close to hyperventilating. Just to make it worse, he leaned it to press his lips gently against Hermione's and pulled back. 'See you later, gorgeous'

Now in hindsight, Malfoy probably would probably have pinpointed the decision to kiss her in front of other students as the worst decision ever. But he had done it and now many Slytherins who were closely connected to Lucius Malfoy were giving him evil smirks as many left the table to send letters to their fathers who would in turn contact Lucius Malfoy.

'But, if you do it a lot, won't it kill?' Ella asked innocently as she leant her head on his chest.

'Well, yes I suppose' He said, stroking her blonde hair gently.

'Have you ever used it?' She said, as she played with some grass.

'No, I haven't'

'Granddad has' She stated with a smile. Draco got up a little so he could clearly see his daughter.

'How-when-what' He rambled. 'I mean, how do you know that?'

'He told me once. He said he regretted it though'

'I bet' Malfoy muttered sarcastically. He blinked in the sunlight as he saw a figure moving towards them, the closer it got, the more he recognised the body of Hermione.

'Hey' He said with a smile as she looked down on him. He took in her appearance and noticed she wasn't wearing the same thing she was when he had left her. 'You changed?'

'Err yeah' Hermione said looking down at her clothes strangely.

'Everything alright?' He said, noting her behaviour was also different.

'Yeah, I'm just going to take a walk with Ella' She said looking down at the child who was looking up at her suspiciously.

'I'll come with you' He said, making a move to get up.

'No, don't worry. I wanna spend some alone time with her' She said as she took Ella's hand and strode away without another word. Ella cast her father a fearful look over her shoulder as she was pulled along by Hermione.

'That was odd' he said staring at the retreating figure. 'Ah well' He said, as he lay back down to have a sleep. He was about to drift off slowly when he heard someone sit down beside him and he opened his eyes to see Hermione looking at him with a smile.

'Hey' he said sitting up and taking her in. 'That was quick, wait, you changed again?' He said, brow furrowed as he took in her appearance

'Huh?' She said in complete confusion.

'You changed back into your original clothing' He stated as he saw her eyes give him a very pitying look.

'Are you ok?' she said putting her hand to his brow and giving it a kiss.

'Yeah. Anyway, that was a very quick walk, where's Ella?' He said surveying the surrounding area.

'She was with you' Hermione said, as if it were obvious.

'What? No, about 10 minutes ago you came and said you wanted to take her for a walk'

Hermione's eyes widened. 'No I didn't. I've been with Harry and Ron the whole time'

Malfoy got up suddenly as fear gripped him. 'Ok someone that looked like you took our daughter' he said in panic as he scanned the grounds.

'Please tell me you're joking' Hermione said, her voice shaking as the fear from his eyes was now reflected in hers.

'I was wondering why you, well whoever it was, was acting so strangely' He said as he started walking towards the castle with his wand out.

'Who the hell would want to take Ella?' She cried as she tried to keep up with his fast pace.

He stopped and looked at her sadly. 'My father'

A/N I re-read this and then re-wrote this chapter…4 times and then decided if I don't put it up now, well I never ever will! It's not my best, I know it but take pity on the girl who just sat through a 3 hour philosophy exam eh? Love you guys! Anyone want a crumpet? You get one if you review grins