The following morning Draco made his way to the Great Hall for breakfast at a leisurely pace. He was in no rush to once again face his classmates but at least he felt better. It had been all he could do to get to sleep the night before, but surprisingly when he woke up the sharp pains in his abdominal had been replaces with a dull ache and even that had diminished by the end of his morning shower. He still felt a little off, though he couldn't describe how, but at least he felt a little more in control and like he could hold his breakfast down.

With only a moment of hesitation, Draco pushed open the door to the Great Hall and walked in. Several heads turned to give him a cold look. Draco was not surprised and pretending as if he hadn't noticed, turned quickly to head to the Slytherin table.

"Draco! Over here!"

Looking up, Draco caught sight of Ben waving to him from the Gryffindor table. With an amused smile on his face he headed to where his little brother sat, again a little too close to the Golden Trio for his liking.

"How was your first night," Draco asked Ben as he reached him, but didn't sit down in the space the boy had left for him.

Ben shrugged and smiled, "It was ok. It kinda felt like I was at a big overnight party. Sit down and have breakfast with us."

"Sorry Ben, I think a snake taking two meals in the lion's den in less than twenty-four hours is asking a bit much for some people to tolerate," Draco replied. Out of the corner of his eye he could just see Weasley nodding and heard him grumble, "Damn right."

"Have dinner with us again then?" Harper asked.

"We'll see, but how about after class we meet in the Courtyard and you two can tell me about your first day?"

The two first years nodded in agreement and Draco was just about to go find his own seat when he heard the flapping of wings that announced that arrival of the morning post. Rather than risk getting hit in the head by falling parcels he stayed where he was next to the Gryffindor table. He was a little surprised when he felt a wing graze his ear as one owl settled on his shoulder, but he had to fight to keep from grinning like a fool when he recognized it as Ian's owl, Archimedes.

"Ohhhh, Draco has a looooove letter!" Ben said rather loudly, causing both him and Harper to erupt in laughter.

Draco could feel his face heat up and could just imagine how red his face must look to all the people who had turned around to stare, yet the Slytherin couldn't bring himself to be upset as he took the letter from Archimedes. "Hush you," Draco said to the two giggling first years.

"Well lets hear it, what does Pookie have to say?" Ben went on with an impish grin on his face.

"Nothing that you were meant to hear, now watch out or I'll tell your brother you called him that," Draco teased. It was only a moment later that he realized he had just outed himself and his relationship to Harper. Draco could see it on her face the moment she realized the meaning behind what he had said. "Shh," He said. "It's a secret." Still looking stunned, Harper nodded.

"Don't worry," Ben told Draco, giving him a serious look and the Slytherin knew that Ben would make sure his friend didn't spill the beans to their parents.

Draco nodded and then smiled, "Well then, I'm going back to my table to have my breakfast and read my letter."

Not really paying attention, Draco began to walk away with what he knew was a silly grin on his face as he held his letter. He had only taken two or three steps when he was suddenly pulled out of his happy state by a sharp shove in the side that sent him staggering into the back of a Ravenclaw. It took him a moment to stand himself back up to face his attacker. He turned around half expecting to find Weasley seething over something or other, but was absolutely shocked to find that it was Hermione Granger standing behind him with fire in her eyes and Potter holding her in place by her arm.

"Great example to set for your first year 'brother' Malfoy!" Granger spat. "You just go on and enjoy your little flings and walk away. You don't care about anybody but yourself do you, you bloody bastard!"

Both Potter and Weasley were urging her to calm down, but at the same time they were also shooting Draco looks of loathing. Draco gapped at the furious Gryffindors. "What are you talking about?" He finally sputtered out in frustration.

"Malfoy," a voice spoke from behind him. It was Black, "Take your seat and I don't want to see you anywhere but your own table from now on."

Still reeling from the outburst that seemed so out of character for Granger, Draco just nodded. He found that he was feeling ill all over again as he sat down next to Blaise who was watching him closely, though Draco barely noticed him. Not feeling like eating, he reached for Ian's letter, which had only gotten slightly creased during the excitement. Hoping that whatever his lover had to say would lighten his mood, he unrolled the parchment and looked down at the sharp lines of Ian's handwriting.

Draco smiled through the odd feeling in his gut as he read about how Ian missed him already and promising to come out on the first Hogsmead weekend. At the bottom of the parchment a small circle the shape of a button was attached to the paper. Draco had to look twice to realize it was a CD that had been shrunk. Below it, it said, "Just me messing around on my guitar." To his embarrassment, the backs of his eyes pricked and he had to reign in his emotions.

Over the summer they had often just sat around and talked while Ian and sometimes Draco would play softly and unthinkingly on the guitar. Every once in a while they would come up with something interesting that they would work with until it became an entire piece. In Draco's opinion, some of their best stuff came about that way. He vowed he would listen to the CD at the first opportunity, even if he had to shut himself behind his bed curtains so no body could see him cry like a baby. Why did he have to be here again?

Draco carefully refolded the letter and sat it next to him on the table. He could see Black sitting and talking with the Golden Trio. Every once in a while one of them would look over at him and a couple times he saw them gesturing up at Dumbledore. Great. He could hardly wait to see what they had in store for him.

"How am I ever going to survive a year of this?" Draco asked aloud and was surprised when someone actually answered.

"I don't know mate," Blaise spoke up from beside him, "but you might want to eat your breakfast. I have a feeling your going to need all your strength for this one."

Draco paused for a moment, " Why do I get the feeling you know what's going on?"

"And you still don't?"

"No! And I get the feeling I'm the only one!"

Blaise looked at him intently, as if assessing how truthful he was being, "Well, I'll tell you, but first I have to ask you one question, ok?"

"Fine!" Draco said in frustration, as he made himself reach for his pumpkin juice and take a sip despite the rolling of his stomach.

"When did you and Pansy hook up?"

Draco was just swallowing as he fully registered what Blaise had said. The juice promptly forced its way back up and it was all Draco could do to keep it from spraying it all over the table. As it was, he was coughing to clear the wayward juice out of his airway.

"What?!" he finally managed to rasp out.

"I take it then that you and Pansy never had sex?"

"No!"

Blaise looked him straight in the eye, "You really, REALLY need to talk to Pansy."

Draco nodded, "Where is she?"

"She's in the bathroom, puking," Blaise answered idly moved his own food around on his plate, "its called morning sickness."

Draco's knuckled turned white as he gripped the edge of the table. He felt faint and like he might go do some puking of his own. A hand gripped his shoulder. He looked up at Blaise's concerned face.

"Malfoy," he said in alarm, "you aren't going to pass out on me are you?"

Draco shook his friend off, but wasn't really paying attention. It all made sense now. Everyone thought that he had knocked Pansy up and then left her to deal with it by herself. That was why Ben had gotten so angry the night before when he had overheard the Gryffindors talking about it. Ben knew where he had been all summer. That also explained why he was pure evil to the entire female population and why Granger had attacked him after Ben announced to the entire Hall that he had gotten a love letter. Not only did he apparently fuck Pansy and leave her to clean up the mess, but he had moved on to someone else. Perfect.

Draco stood shakily. "I have to get out of here," he told his friend.

Blaise nodded, "I'll see if I can find out anything else."

With unsteady steps, he walked toward the door but before he could reach it Black was once again right next to him, "I'm going to talk to Dumbledore and you can expect that you and Miss Parkinson will be asked to meet in his office after classes. Is that clear?"

Draco merely nodded before pushing his way out of the room, his mind too preoccupied to be annoyed at Black's behavior towards him. Right now, he needed to find Pansy and ask her what the hell was going on. Was she really pregnant? Was she really telling people it was his? Just thinking about it made him ill.

Blaise had said that Pansy was in the bathroom. Hoping he had been correct, Draco made his way to the girls bathroom just off the main corridor. At first he thought he would wait for a girl to walk by and as her to check for him, but after waiting only a moment of waiting anger began to replace his initial shock. He pushed the bathroom door open a crack, "Pansy, if you're in there I think its about time you came out and explained yourself."

Draco was surprised at the amount of anger in his own voice as he practically spat out the words. He was about to try again a bit more softly when suddenly the door was jerked from his hand and thrown open. In front of him stood Granger looking madder then she had that day third year when she had slapped him.

"It seems to me Malfoy, that you are the one with some explaining to do, you disgusting pig!"

Draco felt himself taking a step back as she got closer and closer, "I'm just trying to figure out what's going on Granger, this doesn't concern you!"

Granger looked even more pissed than before, "Well I am making it my concern! I might not have gotten along with Pansy but she is my fellow classmate and a fellow woman. I can't understand what she was doing with someone like you in the first place Malfoy, but believe me, I am making it my business to make sure you get your just deserts this time. Lets just wait and see what Daddy says when he finds out. I may be a 'mudblood' as you call me but I do know that a man abandoning his child, even one created out of wedlock is highly frowned upon in the Wizarding World. I'll be there in Dumbledore's office this afternoon. I can't wait to see you try and talk yourself out of this one."

With that Granger turned on her heal and marched back into the bathroom, not giving him a second look. Draco was left pale and shaking after the verbal assault. It was obvious Granger had made Pansy into one of her pet project, just like that S.P.E.W. campaign of hers in second year. No doubt this one was mostly driven by her hate for him. If Draco knew one thing about Hermione Granger it was that she was determined and Draco was feeling suffocated as he tried to think of how he could convince Dumbledore and everyone else this afternoon that he had nothing to do with Pansy's pregnancy if she was indeed pregnant.

Draco suddenly felt exhausted and cold. He didn't want to be here. Not bothering to look at his watch, which was pointing to "Potions - running late!" he made his way back to the Slytherin dormitory where he went to his bed, only pausing to get the CD player Ian had given him from his trunk. He crawled under the covers, pulling the curtains shut after him, and enlarged the CD he had received that morning. Draco found that if he lay on his back his stomach didn't churn as much, so that's how he stayed. Within minutes he was drifting off to sleep to the sound of Ian's strumming and he could almost imagine that it was still summer and that he had never come back to this hell called Hogwarts.