Summary: Hermione and Snape find themselves the unwitting victims of a Gryffindor-Slytherin conspiracy.

Author's Notes: This is the product of several challenges I found on the main page at Whispers (). The purpose of the challenges was to defy the cliches of the SS/HG 'ship. I even made Draco friends with Harry, and since I always write Mr. Malfoy as a little shit, this made a nice change. I couldn't bring myself to make it slashy, but I left it open-ended so you can read whatever you want into it.

'Ships: SS/HG

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Harry Potter except a set of books, two movies, a laptop overfull of stories suffering from writer's block, and a definitely over-active imagination.

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The Conspiracy

By OcelotKitten

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To anyone who didn't know the details, the little group clustered in the remote corner of the library would have looked decidedly odd. The trio of Gryffindors alone weren't that odd, save that two of them had rarely voluntarily set foot in the library.

But, the presence of the lone Slytherin sitting with them was what would have given most people pause and made them wonder just what the hell was going on. As it was, students that would have approached Harry, Ginny or Ron under ordinary circumstances, made a practice of staying far away from Draco Malfoy, and that was perfect for the conspirators purposes.

Draco slouched back into his chair with indolent ease and drawled, "So, Weasley, this meeting was your idea. Spill it." Ron glared back at him, and Harry cast him a worried glance. He had assured Ron several times that Draco was on the side of good and that he was as committed to Voldemort's defeat as any of them.

But Ron still found it difficult to forgive the blond Slytherin for making the first six of their years at Hogwarts as difficult as he could. Draco knew it and relished taking every opportunity to get under Ron's skin.

Glancing at the library's main doors, Ron said, "All right, we only have a few minutes before Hermione gets here, so I'll make it quick. I'm sure you've all noticed how unhappy Hermione has been lately. Well, Ginny," he nodded in his sister's direction, "has told me that Hermione has a crush on someone, and we thought we could set her up with her crush."

Draco raised an eyebrow, "A crush? On who?"

Ron grinned wickedly, remembering his own reaction to the news, "You'll never believe it."

"Teacher or student?" Draco asked.

"Teacher."

"Not Dumbledore, I hope," Harry said with a shudder.

"Urgh, no!" Ron exclaimed with a shudder.

"Flitwick?"

"Nope."

"Binns?" Draco offered with a smirk.

"Well," Harry laughed, "as long as we're thinking along those lines, we might as well suggest Snape." Ron grinned and Harry froze. "You're not serious . . ." he said, aghast.

"Absolutely," Ginny said, "Hermione has a crush on Professor Snape."

"But . . . but . . . it's Snape!"

"So?" Ginny said, pointedly, "It's not like we're trying to set you up with him."

"True," Harry conceded as Draco sniggered.

"So," Harry said slowly, as Draco tried to control his snickering, "you're saying we get them together?"

"That's exactly what we're saying."

"But what about Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

"He's been taken care of, actually," Ginny said with a grin, "I asked him and Professor McGonagall first, since Hermione is a student after all. It took a little while to persuade him, but I was able to with McGonagall's help. In fact, once we were able to sway him, he was the one who gave me the idea of what to do."

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