A/N: Alright, I'm back again with a stern resolution to finish this story in less than a few years! This story will be set… just before The Goblet of Fire because I don't want intricate themes of good and evil fighting taking precedence in this story. It's going to be a DM/HG, and mildly funny. Other minor evil characters may be chucked in, but I'll stick to real characters as much as I can because I hate Mary Sues (characters fan fiction writers invent and make sickeningly perfect etc).

Draco leant back in his favourite chair in the Slytherin common room and just looked at the idiot before him.

"So why'd you break the sink again, Goyle?" He asked the oaf before him.

"The tap wouldn't run." The boy managed. He scratched the side of his nose and something across the room managed to catch his attention.

"And your only solution was to smash the sink?" Draco demanded.

"Er- what?"

"You broke a sink, Goyle." Draco repeated, exasperation warring with boiling anger for effect.

"When?"

Draco's jaw, dropped as he realised he was fighting a losing battle; just his luck perhaps, that Crabbe and Goyle had found themselves in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom that day. They'd tried to use the one sink that never worked (perhaps because it was a portal which lead down to the dead Basilisk's chamber) and instead of leaving it and trying another sink, they'd broken it; conveniently ruining the opening to the portal.

"Are you going down to dinner, Draco?" Goyle asked.

"Why?" The young man in question demanded.

"Because it's quarter to and I'm hungry."

"Feel free to leave then!"

Draco ran a hand through his platinum hair and sighed. He'd wanted to go down into the Chamber of Secrets to check it out but now there was no way he could! Frankly, his father dealt in many illegal goods and Draco had figured there would be boundless of them down there. Just because goody-good Harry Potter hadn't bothered to check out any hidden nooks and crannies didn't mean they didn't exist. But now those two great oafs had mucked things up!

"What are you looking so anti about?" Blaise demanded as he crashed into a seat across from Draco. Draco peered out through his fingers to scowl even more so and managed to elicit a laugh from the dark haired boy.

"You know very well what I'm thinking about! I talked to you about it yesterday! M.A.G.I.C.A.L G.O.O.D.S! Magical goods! Illegal one's to be exact. God Blaise, were you born yesterday?"

"Are you done?"

"Why?"

"I have something to ask you."

"Yes?"

"You know Granger, right?"

"No Blaise, I've spent so many years at this school only to live in a self centered bubble; hell, I don't even notice people I go out of my way to insult daily."

"Well she's that on with the bushy hair who hangs out with-"

"I know who she is!"

"Oh, well, you know how she's in my Muggle Studies class?"

This was going nowhere. Draco sighed and rolled his eyes back, "get to the point Blaise!"

"I think I'm rather attracted to her."

"You think? Thank god you're not sure then."

"Hang on, I am sure though, Draco!" Blaise glared at him.

"You expect me to encourage this?" Draco demanded.

"Well the only reason I can see for you to not, is that you like her." Blaise executed with pristine logic.

"What? You- what?"

"I knew it, well, I'm going to get her in the end! What kind of friend are you?" He directed a surly glare at the white-haired boy and was off, out the portrait-hole for dinner. Draco blinked at the direction he'd gone then pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Oh well, at least it was an interesting start to the first term.

…

"What?" Hermione demanded, for the umpteenth time. Ron flushed red and babbled something under his breath and would've floundered if it wasn't for Harry.

"Ron found your notebook under the common room table." He said flippantly, and chucked the book in question upon the table they were seated at in the Great Hall. Hermione blinked at it and sat down, casting an odd look at Ron.

"'Cause I thought you'd miss it!" Ron blurted out. "Since you uh, use it, and uh, stuff."

"Well thanks Ron." Hermione smiled, and stowed it against the salt and pepper shakers. A familiar blonde boy entered the hall and Ron scowled.

"Bloody hell, even from a distance he's still a git."

"Oh can't you try to not fight with him for at least a week?" Hermione pleaded, not really paying attention however for at this instant she noticed a certain Zabini staring intently at her from across the room. "Do you see how he's looking at me?" She demanded, nudging Harry.

"Hmm?" The boy-who-lived asked, looking up as Zabini glanced away. He noticed nothing amiss and shrugged at her.

"So, uh, how were your holidays Hermione?" Ron asked, flushing bright red. She looked at him with a blank expression.

"They were fine. I was staying with you, remember?"

"Oh of course I do, I, uh, Harry?" Ron seemed desperate to salvage the conversation.

"What he meant was the week before you came to stay, Hermione." Harry piped up.

"Oh. Well, it was fine. I read mostly."

"Oh that sounds fun! Yeah…" Ron trailed off and looked across the room to see Blaise staring at something by him; he turned his head to follow the gaze and his own fell upon Hermione. "Hermione!"

"What?" She asked, looking up and seeing Blaise staring at her, dropped her napkin she'd been fiddling with and knocked Harry's elbow.

"What is up with you two today?" Harry demanded, glaring at his two friends before a realization hit him. "Oh… oh!"

"What?" Hermione demanded, tearing her suspicious gaze away from Zabini.

"I'm going to go sit with uh, Neville." Harry decided quickly, winking rather obviously at Ron. The red-haired boy went beetroot and muttered an oath at Harry but he didn't catch it, and Hermione glared at the Slytherin table.

"For someone who told me not to pick a fight with him, you seem to be glaring at Malfoy rather a lot." Ron complained. Hermione harrumphed.

"Well you saw for yourself that Blaise was staring at me. They're up to something, they must be!"

"Why is Harry staring at us?" Ron demanded.

…

"I mean, just look at the way the light falls on her hair." Blaise said in the exact same tone one would normally discuss Quidditch. "I mean, it's like Michael Angelo's paintings; she's so angel-like it scares me."

"You're going to make me throw up." Draco said sourly.

"But you have to admit her eyes, well, they seem to glow even from here.""If you ask me, I'd say she was glaring at you." Draco pointed out.

"She's so cute when she does that." Blaise popped a chunk of meat into his mouth and chewed slowly, watching Hermione as he did this. It seemed to unnerve her.

"Why don't you go out with Pansy?" Draco suggested. He immediately regretted uttering the name.

"Dracky-poo! I heard you talking about me!" A buxom blonde girl resembling a cherub, and not a very attractive one, squealed. She shoved a third year beside him roughly to the side and squeezed in next to Draco at the table and began to pile her golden plate up with an immense amount of food, pulling her sweater down to cover her plump stomach.

"Actually it was Blaise." Draco attempted to save the situation.

"No it wasn't, I'd recognise your voice anywhere. Have you been enjoying the first week of school? Pity we got paired with the Gryffindor's for most of our double classes! Potter's still as ugly as ever." She didn't notice Blaise choke on his steak and instead shoveled a mouthful of mashed spuds into her mouth. "And that Granger, god she's ugly, I mean, what is wrong with her hair?"

"What was that?" Blaise asked in a cool tone.

"Hmm?" Pansy asked, oblivious.

"What did you say about Hermione?"

"I can't remember." She flushed an unattractive shade of pink and Draco dove to save the situation once more.

"Blaise! Remember that thing I had to talk to you about? Yes, that one! Let's go!" He got up from the table and dragged the dark-haired boy off, ignoring Pansy's protests as he exited the Great Hall.

…

"And then I dove for the snitch and caught it! Though, it was just an apple because we didn't have the actual snitch, but dad was down below us making it swerve all over the place with his wand…" Ron barely paused for breath and Hermione idly considered propping her eyes open with her knife and fork. She'd heard this Quidditch story before; well, maybe not this one, but they didn't sound much different, and Ron wasn't showing any sign of stopping. Suddenly Harry plopped into a seat beside them at the Great Hall Gryffindor table.

"Are you going to eat that?" He asked Hermione, pointing to her black pudding. She pulled a face and shook her head no, so he stuck it in his mouth and swiftly became enthralled in Ron's Quidditch story. Hermione chose that point to leave.

She left the Great Hall with her eyes turned to the rest of her table so it was no surprise she ran straight into someone standing out in the corridor. She spun around in fright to see the last person she wanted to- perhaps because of his recent behaviour at dinner.

"Zabini!" Hermione squealed in fright, backing away slightly and immediately narrowing her eyes at the Slytherin boy, "what do you want?"

"Enjoy your dinner?" He asked, but in a completely nonchalant tone. She gaped at him and then the idea dawned on her,

"You poisoned it!"

"Did I?" He thought back and then shook his head. "No, you're mistaken. Enjoying your first week back?"

"Why?"

"Why not?" He seemed greatly taken aback by her unwillingness to participate in a conversation with him. Hermione began to back away to the staircase.

"I have to go…" She began,

"Wait,"

"No!" Hermione blurted, and took off in the opposite direction. Blaise watched her go with a pout and Draco doubled over in laughter in a nearby niche in the wall.

"Smooth Blaise, really smooth!" He called out to the scorned boy. Blaise made a rude sign at him and shook his hair back, mustering the remains of his dignity.

"Well you see you have competition, Draco." Blaise glared at him. "And if she is that unwilling to talk to me, a mere Slytherin, imagine what she will be like with you!"

"Are you saying that Granger is too much of a challenge for me?" The white-haired boy inquired with a raised eyebrow. His brain began to work overtime.

"No I'm not! I'm merely pointing out that I have a far bigger chance with her than you do! Just look at the facts!" Blaise stared into space for a moment and sighed. "She has the most beautiful lips. I must go and write down exactly how I feel about them." He set off in long strides down the corridor and Draco didn't know whether to laugh, or to cry that his best friend was acting like such a lunatic.

"Doesn't say I have a chance, well, I'll just show him…" He muttered under his breath, walking along the corridor leading to library and looking up as he heard soft footfalls. Hermione stopped short as she spotted him and scowled.

"Talking to yourself now, ferret?" She spat, and made to push past him but he moved into her path.

"That wasn't very nice Granger," a sneer spread over his face, "you should learn how to treat your-" he stopped short of saying superiors, "-people around you better." He finished with. She took a double take and then resumed her hostile demeanor.

"I don't know what you've got up your sleeve Malfoy but you best drop it now." She shoved past him and he turned to watch her go; scowling, but now determined to prove Blaise wrong.

…

Hermione walked into the library and angrily pulled a couple of books she needed from a shelf and sat down to study them intently. Soon however, her mind wandered off its task and she thought back to dinner and the odd behaviour of two resident Slytherins. They were obviously up to something, and she didn't like the smell of it.

"What're you up to 'Mione?" Harry asked, snapping her out of her reverie and crashing into a seat, Ron following close behind. She rolled her eyes at them and slammed her book shut, leaning towards them over it.

"Malfoy and Zabini are up to something. They both came up and tried to start talking to me about something before. Don't you think it seems like they're trying to get to you through me, Harry?"

"About what, though?"

"Well Dumbledore has been talking to you a lot lately, hasn't he?"

"Oh, but that's just general stuff, you know, about Sirius and… yeah."

"Oh well that doesn't explain anything. Ron? What do you think?" She turned to look at him expectantly and he flushed bright red. "Are you feeling okay Ron?"

"Mmm… uh, oh would you look at the time, I forgot… see you!" He got up from the table and vanished in a few seconds, leaving Harry and Hermione to gape at each other.

"Do you know what his problem is?" A bewildered Hermione demanded. Harry almost choked and shook his head no, and then glanced at the wind up clock on the other end of the library and also made his excuses to leave. An exasperated Hermione sighed, and reopened her book.

…

"Do you think she'd respond positively to flowers?" Blaise mused aloud to Draco that night in the common room. He hadn't seemed to grasp that your nemeses was the worst choice of person to discuss intimate matters with, but Blaise was a unique sort so Draco didn't find this bizarre. Draco shrugged and made a mental note to copy whatever the dark-haired boy tried.

"Have you done that Potion's essay?" He asked Blaise, receiving no answer whatsoever.

"Roses are nice, but they're old fashioned. What about sunflowers?"

"Did you do the essay?"

"Draco! I'm trying to make a decision here!" Blaise sighed and scribbled out a note in his diary and chewed the top of his quill. "Roses are attractive though. Oh! I could write a note!"

"Have you done the essay?" Draco asked once more.

"Yes! Now be quiet. Hmm… a dozen, or a single one?"

…

Hermione joined Ron and Harry at the Great Hall breakfast table the next morning and shook back her hair as she reached for the milk jug.

"Did you think of anything Draco might be wanting to know about?" She asked as she poured some over her cereal. Harry shook her head and she sighed, accidentally brushing her arm against Ron's and eliciting a gasp from the boy.

"Bloody hell Hermione!" He complained, flushing red and sliding away a bit. "Don't surprise me like that!"

"Oh, the mail's here." Harry noticed. Hermione ignored the flight of birds apart from reaching up to catch her Daily Prophet, so was completely caught unexpected when a single rose came and landed in her pumpkin juice. However, the rest of the table was also caught off-guard as a massive bouquet then fell upon her place-setting, slashing her cereal everywhere and covering her in a mess of pumpkin juice; completely smothering the single rose from view.

Hermione wiped a cornflake from her eye and blinked at the mess of flowers before her; the arrangement being rather pretty when you discounted the cereal coating a large portion of it.

"Who sent those?" Ron asked in an awe-filled tone. Hermione dug through it (receiving a few scratches from stray thorns) and finally emerged with a sopping wet card which read: The light shining on you reminds me of Michael Angelo's paintings. D.M

"Oh my god!" Hermione shrieked, leaping up from her seat and flinging the card upon the table. "That's from Malfoy!" She added in a hiss to Ron and Harry; they exchanged a meaningful look and then Harry levitated the flowers with his wand as Hermione attempted to clear the mess off the table; doing this she discovered the single rose which was a different type from the bouquet, and saw the additional card: Better than a sunflower? B.Z

"Who's that one from?" Harry asked, noticing the new rose. Hermione flushed red and waved the card before his face.

"This one is from Zabini!" She hissed. "Now do you believe they're up to something?"

…

Blaise let out an obvious sigh as he watched Hermione dash from the Great Hall with his single rose in her hand, and Potter and Weasley following with the levitating bouquet sent by Draco.

"Is it just me, or do Potter and Weasley look absolutely ridiculous today?" Draco mused, taking a swig of pumpkin juice.

"You don't understand Draco, it's the simple gestures that mean more; not simply smothering people with extravagant gestures." Blaise scowled. "That cereal went everywhere, and I was enjoying watching her eat it!"

"You're a git, you know that?" Draco shot at his friend, and slammed his goblet on the table. "Why isn't she falling for me?" He demanded.

"It's because you don't know how to seduce a lady!" Blaise informed him haughtily. Draco sighed and buried his head in his hands, because now this was getting too ridiculous for even him to appreciate.

…

Hermione held her hand up to cover the side of her face as she felt Zabini's gaze boring into her head once more during Muggle Studies.

"Who can name the product the Muggles invented which we would normally use a broomstick for today?" The teacher asked the sparse class. Hermione went to raise her hand but was cut off by the over-exuberant Zabini intent on impressing her.

"The train!" He informed the teacher with a bright smile, only to be rewarded with a shake of the head.

"The plane." Hermione called out, willing the Slytherin to disappear in a cloud of smoke. He failed to do so, and a scrunched up ball of paper hit her in the head, fell upon the floor looking a little dazed, and then sprouted wings once more and fluttered up upon her desk. She opened it (dreading what was inside) and out fell a little gold locket in the shape of a heart. Hermione's heart plummeted, did a little twirl, and then sat back down again in her stomach feeling twice its size. She glanced over at Zabini who was completely ignoring her, and then opened the locket to have an enormous swell of powder burst back into her face. She blinked, sneezed, and then her vision went pink and suddenly Zabini was before her looking incredibly pleased with himself.

"Zabini!" She cried in delight, ignoring the teacher who was annoyed with the interruption, and flung her arms around his neck, momentarily throttling him.

Little did she know she'd just been put under a love spell.

…

Draco walked past the library and then did a double take, going back to look and seeing Granger of all people, and Blaise locked in a passionate embrace. He scratched the side of his nose and mused for a moment, and then changed direction to go find Potter and Weasel; figuring that if he involved them in this bizarre turn of events that they might at least make it funnier to him.

He knocked rudely upon The Fat Lady's stomach, (he knew where the portrait hole was because Sirius Black had slashed her canvas a few years back, yet had failed to kill Potter, what a shame) ignoring her demands for a password and sneered at the person unfortunate enough to open the portal. It was the little Weasley, the one he didn't know the name of but had nearly been killed a few years back, and the one he instantly hated because she greeted him with a look as poignant as the one he was giving her.

"What do you want Malfoy?" She demanded, surprised in the very least to see him standing before her when her brother was within calling distance, and keen to smash the git before her.

"Is Weasel- er, your brother. Is he about?" Draco demanded, keeping the snooty tone at a bearable level. She looked down her nose at him. Him of all people!

"What do you want him for?" She asked. Draco could have screamed; instead, he smoothed out his features and merely scowled.

"I thought he and Potter would be interested to know that the Mud- Granger is in the library snogging Blaise Zabini." He spun on his heel and walked off, smothering a snort of laughter when the two people he'd just inquired after stumbled out the portrait hole and sprinted past him in the direction he'd hoped. This was going to be very amusing.

…

Hermione was wrenched away from the center of her pink little cloud as two bubbles of agitated mass intruded upon the perfect little scene. She titled her head to study them but her attention was drawn back to beautiful Blaise Zabini and she lost herself in the study of the light hitting the side of his face, and would have reached out to touch him if her arm hadn't been roughly grabbed. She found herself attached to a table by something she couldn't figured out… a sticking charm? And the next thing she knew the pink was seeping away from her gaze and she sneezed again; only to have it vanish completely. It took a few seconds for what had just happened to sink in.

"How dare you?" She yelled at Zabini; her fingers flying to her neck where the locket rested. Hermione wrenched it off and dropped it before him, and then reached for her wand and was about to curse him when-

"What is going on here?" A certain Professor Snape demanded, noticing Hermione's wand out, pointed at Zabini, and scowled at the unfortunate trio, for Ron and Harry had arrived and snapped Hermione out of the love spell. "Ten points from Gryffindor."

"But that's not fair!" Ron protested, only to be silence by a single look from the Potion's Professor. He scowled as the man walked off, and then turned to glare at Zabini. "If you touch her again, or curse her, or look at her… I'll curse you into a pile of jelly!"

"Jelly? What curse would turn me into jelly?" Zabini asked with a raised eyebrow. Harry resisted the urge to take a swing at him and moved swiftly to prevent Ron from doing so, and pulled him and Hermione away only to collide with Malfoy.

"What are you doing here Malfoy?" Harry demanded; narrowing his eyes in suspicion at the blonde boy before him. Malfoy tried his best to look innocent but failed horribly, and looked past them down the corridor.

"Is that? It is! Tata!" He grabbed Zabini by the scruff of the neck and took off, leaving the three to gape after him. Hermione rubbed her eyes as the humiliation sank in and bent down to retrieve the locket she'd torn off.

"Careful with that!" Harry warned, but she shook her head.

"It's just a gold locket. Look," she opened it and nothing came out, and she pocketed it. "Argh, I'm going to the infirmary. Bye."

As she walked off Ron turned to Harry with a confused look in his eye, "why did she keep that locket?"

…

Draco sat back at his desk that night and illuminated his journal with the tip of his wand as he poised his quill to write. Around him the other boys in his dormitory lay snoring and he tried to think of something to write and Hermione's face drifted into his mind.

…love spell went awry today after I let Potter and Weasel in on it. Granger snapped out of it quite livid. Fun gone out of competing with Blaise; ever since he was told never to go near Granger again he's been morose. Don't know why but the little Mudblood still interests me.

With this little confession noted down Draco pulled out a sheaf of parchment and called softly to his owl to wake up, ignoring the nip the little bugger took and his fingers, and began to write a short, to-the-point letter.

Granger,

You are attracted to me; this I've gathered. Kindly stop making eyes at me across the Great Hall at mealtimes.

D.M

With a smirk Draco sealed it with wax and gave it to his owl to deliver; knowing that Granger would be livid and his plan would be put into effect. He had put the idea in her mind with the note he was now sending, so over time she would be drawn to him. It was a matter of patience.

-

Hermione awoke to the sound of an owl banging away at her window and let it in with a sleepy yawn. She was soon woken up when it bit her hard on the finger, and as she sucked at the blood it hopped onto her pillow and tore away at the pillowcase, obviously waiting for an answer. She read it quickly and almost choked on her own tongue. Malfoy's handwriting gleamed at her off the page and she hurriedly pulled a sheaf of parchment from her own desk and quickly scribbled a reply.

Malfoy,

You are delusional; this I've gathered. Kindly stop sending me absurd letters in the middle of the night.

H.G

P.S.: You owl bit me! Teach it some manners!

…

The next morning Draco almost fell over the form of Blaise slumped at the bottom of the stairs. With Granger's letter in his hands he hadn't noticed the boy and bit his lip to prevent cursing over the new pain in his big toe, and hobbled over to a chair before he addressed him.

"Why are you at the bottom of the staircase Blaise?" He asked candidly, holding the letter loosely in his right hand. The dark-haired boy gave him a morose look and then hauled himself over to the chair opposite Draco before leaning forward with the air of a conspirator.

"I think I'm in love." He informed him in a breathless tone. "I can't eat, I can't sleep; well, I can, but that's beside the point. Have you seen Ginny Weasley lately?"

Draco racked his brain for an image to go with the name but failed miserably until he remembered Weasel's kid sister standing in the portrait hole the other day. He hated Ginny Weasley!

"You like Ginny Weasley." It was a statement, not a question. Blaise nodded seriously and then a dreamy cast overtook his eyes.

"Her hair, oh her hair is like red-gold. She's like a painting by Michael Angelo!"

Draco rolled his eyes skyward and unconsciously crumpled Hermione's letter. "You like that description don't you?" He tried to say without sounding exasperated. Blaise gave him a blank look. Draco gave up.

…

Hermione stood before the mirror and studied the gold locket about her neck and sighed. Malfoy's letter floated into her mind and she tried to dismiss it, but was he right? She had been staring at the table a lot, but perhaps she'd been glancing at him as well as Zabini. Ron had even commented that she'd been staring at Malfoy as well.

She liked Zabini's locket though.

The bathroom door opened and Lavender grinned brightly at her. "That's a pretty locket. Wasn't that the one Zabini gave you?" That did it.

"Actually, I was just thinking how much I hated it; here." She tore it off and dropped the jewellery in her dormitory mate's palm, and left the bathroom. Zabini was out of the question.

But Malfoy… hmm… Draco… Draco Malfoy… hmm…

…

"Hello Granger." Draco smirked as she rounded a corner of the library later on that afternoon. She didn't look surprised to see him, and instead fixed him with a smirk equal to his own.

"Hello Malfoy." She recognised the letter in his hand and was about to comment when he cut her off.

"This," he held it up to her, "must be wrong."

"It must?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "How so?"

"Because in this," he shook the letter so she'd take even more notice, "says I'm delusional."

"But you are." Hermione pointed out. "You think I like you."

"And you do." Draco put the letter in her hand and a peculiar look crossed over his face. "Hermione." He said her name like it was a chocolate he was tasting; slightly unnerving to her but nice too… somehow. She wasn't sure whether to run away from him or to continue the conversation. In the end he made up her mind for her, and wandered off.

…

Draco found himself writing in his journal again later on that night.

…gave her back her letter. Don't know what I was thinking, because I was civil to her and uttered her name for the first time I can remember. Am I losing my mind? I think I must be, because I keep thinking she is not someone I can even consider liking, yet somehow I seem to be. I don't like this.

Meanwhile Hermione was also scribbling in her diary.

…pasted in the letter I wrote to Draco and he returned to me. I don't know what is going on here but I seem to like the person I hate the most. How can you hate someone yet love (and I use the term love here loosely) them at the same time?

Draco almost shut his journal but added a few more lines.

…I feel as though I have accomplished something when I manage to have an entire conversation with her, without either of us uttering a derogatory term. Does this mean I am confusing satisfaction over that, with something like 'liking' someone?

Actually, scratch that; it's absurd.

Hermione looked out the window before adding closing remarks.

…but then again he told me to stop staring at him so he must not feel the same. So why am I giving the impossible any thought?

…

Potions class began with the usual dramatic entrance of Professor Snape, and somehow Hermione found herself paired with Crabbe of all people.

A/N: I'll add more later. Good things take time!