Draco sat in his room well and truly baffled by the letter Hermione had sent him, was she really in love with him, was this some sick joke or was it a dare from her idiotic Gryffindor girl friends. It wouldn't be Harry or Ron because now, with Hermione and him sharing a dorm they actually started getting along and now they were quite good "acquaintances". Not that he would ever admit that to ANYBODY. Most of Slytherin was still really pissed off that Voldemort was dead, and them quite a lot of the rest were forced into being pissed off about it by their Deatheater relations. Draco on the other hand was pleased, he was going to be forced into Deatheaterdom whether he liked it or not and Harry- or Potter when he was around people who wanted to kill Har-Potter-had saved him from that.

He looked down at the letter again, it looked like Hermione's writing but it wasn't her style at all. She was into long detailed writings, at least from what he could tell from her essays that she made him "proof read" like they needed it at all, they were always perfect, but he supposed that Harry and Ron had done it and now, without them she needed somebody else to do it and he was all she had. Well at least living close to her.

With one last glance at the letter he got up and walked across the hall to go to Hermione's room, he wanted to ask her about the letter. When he opened the door, after a couple of minutes of summoning his courage he found the room empty, with a pile of scrunched up parchment on the desk.


Hermione sat by the Black (?) Lake watching the giant squid who was hanging about near the surface. The lake was her favourite place to hang out when she needed to think, and people had figured this out and tended to leave her alone when she was sitting under "her" tree. At least they generally left her there.

"Hermione?" said Ginny tentatively. "What is wrong, you were really happy this morning."

"Oh yeah I know…and then…and then I did something really stupid." Hermione replied, struggling to keep down tears, this morning had been great, the plan was in her head, foolproof.

"Um… well I guess you want some time alone…when you want I can give you some advice" Hermione smiled at this, Ginny was her advice machine. Ginny was more experienced in everything than herself even though she was a year younger than her.

When Ginny left Hermione returned to thinking the worst, there were some pretty bad letters that she didn't want him reading.

She sighed and sank back fighting the urge to hold up a white flag. Ginny was right, she did need advice… but nobody could give it to her, she would have to tell them about the Draco Thing first.


Draco looked at the papers on Hermione's desk. He looked at them and wondered if it would be okay to look at them, well he knew it was bad but his curiosity got the better of him and he headed forward and picked up the paper on top…and laughed outright. It was really un-Hermione-ish.

The others he looked at were completely Hermione though. Some of them were even in essay form.

Draco smiled trying to contain a whoop of joy and turned out of the room heading down to where he knew Hermione would be if she was worrying about the letter.


Hermione had hardly moved a muscle since Ginny left, she had just been completely absorbed by her misery. She was lying on the grass, in the shade of the tree, with her eyes closed. She would have been in that exact spot for about an hour, not taking notice of anything going on around her.

She jumped a mile when she felt somebody's lips on hers.

Her reflex was to push them away, and she did, opening her eyes to see a hurt Malfoy walking away, sad and slouched. Hermione nearly cried, this was not happening!


Okay so the chapter was shorter than the last but its not my fault!! This was oringinally meant to be a one shot but it isnt turning out as one...lolz

REVIEW!! PLEASE!!