Disclaimer: Well, I asked Santa for Harry Potter for Christmas… but he didn't come through. It's truly sad. He wrote me a letter back about how stealing is bad and not very in the spirit of giving… -sigh- So Harry Potter is still JKR's.

A/N: And again with the revamping… There's just so much bad… Thank you all for reading! I especially love your reviews. They really make me feel all happy and giddy.

Why was I even here? Why did I let Emily drag me to this ridiculous party? I was supposed to be enjoying a day with my old friend before ditching her early and heading to the Burrow. I was not supposed to be here with Draco Malfoy. He was not part of my summer plans.

But now that I was here, since I couldn't convince Emily to leave, I had to stay. To figure out what he was up to. For a moment I felt like Harry – illogically suspicious – but then I rationalized that this was completely valid because Malfoy was hanging around Muggles, seemingly of his own volition. He must have something planned. Something… nefarious.

I tried to keep an eye on him without actually looking at him. After the horrifying insinuations he'd made about what happened in that godforsaken wardrobe, I couldn't meet his eye.

That was ridiculous.

Nothing happened.

Blinking away the memory of him pressing me into the side of the wardrobe with his body, his hands forcing my arms to either side of my head, I corrected myself. Not what he was insinuating at least.

I took a deep breath, willing myself to refocus as I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I found myself looking into those grey eyes.

He was looking at me.

I turned away.

Something in his eyes made my heart jump. There was a shine, no, a darkness, that I had never seen in anyone's eyes before. Not directed towards me. Was it determination? It didn't quite look like hatred or disgust; I've seen those emotions in those eyes before. Breathing faster, my neck bent, my eyes darted from my feet to his form for just a split second. He was still looking at me.

The conversation continued around us, but I had no idea what was being said. The buzz of words blended with the pulsing music, churning even my thoughts into incomprehensible noise.

Again I closed my eyes, counting slowly in my head to steady my breathing, demanding myself to relax and think things over calmly and rationally. But that was a bad idea. Once I forced the anger away, I realized how exceedingly awkward this situation was. How was I supposed to act all normal with Emily when I was around Draco Malfoy?

Even thinking about it crunched eyebrows. If I had spoken the words, I'm sure they would have sounded more foreign from my lips than a dead language.

"– Hermione?"

"What?" I felt like I had just stumbled, lost my footing, even though both feet were firmly on the carpet. My head shot up and I looked at Emily, but she hadn't been the one to say my name. The tall boy next to her was. Eric. Right.

"Oh, no, she's leaving town in a few days," Emily answered for me. I hadn't heard the question, but from the slight downturn to her lips, I guessed it was about me spending more time with them.

"What if we went tomorrow morning?" he suggested instead. "That okay with everyone?"

Two boys and a girl that I didn't know nodded, agreeing to the change in date. Then Malfoy nodded as well, voicing his agreement, and I realized that he was part of the plans, too. I shot him a look, eyes narrowing as I tilted my head.

"Would that work for you, Hermione?" Eric asked. By his side, Emily's expression had turned hopeful. It wasn't her pleading that made me agree though. It was the simple fact that Malfoy was going and I had to figure out why.

"Yes, I'll be there."

"I'm sooo glad you decided to come with us!" Emily squealed as we walked towards the park the next morning. Well, late morning. After staying up so late last night, everyone agreed to sleep in and catch one of the later showings. For that, I was grateful. I had spent most of the previous night tossing and turning, unable to sleep properly with all the disturbing thoughts attacking my brain.

"Yeah, it's nice to see you again, Hermione," Lina added. The tall, short-haired girl looked completely different than I remembered from primary school, but I still felt a little guilty at not recognizing her last night at the party. She had joined me and Emily a few times over the years to hang out, but we weren't very close. And two summers ago – when I had last saw her – her long black hair had fallen straight past her butt, brushing against her thighs as she walked.

"You too," I replied, pretty sure that I meant it.

"I wish you both could stay longer. Who am I going to talk to when both of you go away?" Emily whined, a pout pulling at her lips.

"At least you'll have the guys," Lina pointed out, drawing all of our attention over to the boys that were already at the park, playing a game of two-on-two basketball. She called out to them and waved, jogging over and stealing the ball with a grin.

"What are their names again?" I asked, speaking quietly and leaning closer to Emily. I had met all of them at the party last night, but the details were a little fuzzy. Like names.

"Ty is the green shirt, Eric is in the grey shirt, Draco is in the blue shirt, and Hansen is the black one," Emily whispered back, gesturing to each boy as she said his name. I flinched when she pointed to the Slytherin and said his given name, not needing the reminder. "Draco was the one whose birthday it was yesterday. You know, for the party."

"I remember," I murmured. As if he had heard our quiet words across the large distance between us, the blond boy turned and stilled. Why had he been staring at me? It unnerved me. I looked away, feeling for the security of my wand tucked into the secret pocket of my bag. Although I knew using magic would get me in trouble, I felt better having it with me always. Just in case. And with Malfoy here, who knows if I'll actually need it.

Risking another glance, I noted that he wasn't staring at me anymore. He had gone back to playing the game. With the knowledge that I wouldn't have to meet his eyes, I took the time to study him.

He was just like I remembered: Draco Malfoy, Slytherin, stuck-up, arrogant, cowardly prat who strived to make life miserable for everyone he didn't like, including me. And now he was here, promising to ruin my entire summer with his mysterious plans involving these suspecting Muggles. Every inch of him filled me with disgust, from his signature blindingly blond hair to the grossly sweaty t-shirt and shorts that looked so unnatural on the boy I was accustomed to seeing in black school robes. It was strange. When had I ever seen Draco Malfoy wear any color at all (excluding his house-colored ties and Quidditch robes, that is), much less light blue? And I really didn't need to be exposed to his pale legs, lean muscles or no.

Why did the world hate me?

My mind still reeled with a righteous anger at the world and fate when Emily poked me in the arm.

"You all right?" she questioned, giving me a curious look.

"Yeah," I answered after a beat, putting up a painted smile. In all reality, I fought the deep urge to yell at the slime in front of me, or storm off, or demand he leave, or pout at the unfairness of it all.

Then another thought hit my brain. If I had brought my wand with me amongst my Muggle friends, surely a pureblood would do the same. Malfoy wasn't an idiot (well, he was, but he had a brain and all). I couldn't imagine he ever parted with his wand.

But where did he store it? Being female really helped with the issue of carrying things around – bags and purses were popular and widely available. But not only did guys not bring along bags (though that mental image of Malfoy hanging a guy purse over his shoulder threatened to fold me in half with the giggles), Malfoy wasn't holding anything. My eyes darted to his person, searching for a possible hiding spot.

"So, after last night, what do you think?" Emily questioned, nudging my arm as we walked.

"Of what?" I replied distractedly, still focusing on Malfoy's figure in front of me. His light blue t-shirt had short sleeves, so probably not there. Those shorts were a bit baggy, with plenty of room to hide a wand in a large pocket. Guy pants always seemed to have bigger pockets than girl pants. Like with my jeans. I couldn't even fit my whole hand in my pocket! But I was getting off topic.

"Of Eric," Emily explained, tone telling me it should have been obvious.

"Oh," I responded, still not paying attention, tilting my head to the side as I examined Malfoy's pants. It didn't look like he had a wand in either pocket. "He seems nice."

"I'm glad you approve. Though what exactly happened last night in that wardrobe with Draco?" Emily asked, voice insinuating something I did not want to think about when within any distance of Draco Malfoy, much less this close. Sure enough, when I spun to face her, she had a sly, teasing, inappropriate expression plastered on.

"What? Nothing!" I protested, glancing back to the group of people in front of us to make sure they hadn't heard me before quieting my voice and continuing. "I wasn't even thinking about that!"

"Oh, please," she retorted, not believing me for a moment. "You were just checking Draco out two seconds ago."

Resisting the temptation to mock puking, my face still contorted with disgust as I insisted, "I was not!"

"You were, too," she sang with twinkling eyes and a broad smile. "And I saw your face when you stumbled out of those doors. Something happened."

"Was not," I repeated stubbornly. Because I wasn't. I was just looking for his wand!

Okay… that sounded really weird.

"And besides, I didn't stumble out. He pushed me out," I explained, fingers curling into fists at the memory.

"Eventually I will get the details from you, Hermione Granger," she promised as she walked backwards before turning around and running ahead of me, dropping an arm over Eric's and shoulders. Sighing, I was determined to forget about the past few minutes. I really didn't need Emily's embarrassing and awkward (and mistaken) opinions about last night to pop up when Malfoy was actually listening.

But maybe I shouldn't think about Malfoy's wand anymore or whether or not he was keeping it in his pa—

Yeah, I wasn't going to even think about that anymore. I didn't care anyway. Malfoy could keep his wand all to hims—

Okay, not thinking about anything that has to do with Malfoy. Or wands. Or pants.

Oh, Merlin.

When Emily and I reached the court, the others had stopped playing to greet us. Somehow I ended up standing right next to the ferret himself.

"Nice to see you again," he said, meeting my eyes, and I knew from the expression on his face that he didn't mean it.

"Yeah," I replied, and I could feel my cheeks heat up. Hopefully the others would assume the color grew from me just being shy, but I prayed Malfoy would think it was anger. Not… embarrassment about thinking about his wand. I stood staring at my hands, trying to force my breathing to settle, to relax, to slow down to a normal pace. Glancing back up at Malfoy, I spotted the smirk across his face and immediately clamped my jaw tightly shut, trying desperately to keep any words inside. The others exchanged pleasantries, but I could only nod whenever addressed.

"Does the arrival of these girlies mean our game is over?" Malfoy asked, trying to act casual.

"I was just in the middle of beating all of your asses," Lina pointed out, crossing her arms as she smirked. I rose my eyebrows in doubt. While Lina was rather tall, Emily and I were not. She and three of the other boys were a good head taller than both of us, and besides, I didn't particularly want to get upfront and personal with Malfoy while trying to steal the ball or block him from passing. I may not have played the game in a long time, but I remembered that personal space flew out the window on the court.

"I'm not big on basketball," I said instead, trying to sound casual. I definitely was not thinking about last night, when personal space had also been out the window, in that ridiculous wardrobe. Nope. No thoughts about Malfoy and his hands and his body… With a huffcurses and hexes to throw at him in case he attacked any of us. Magical Laws be damned.

"We can always do something else," Eric suggested. "We can always finish our game later, right?"

"Yeah, of course," Malfoy replied, speaking for the rest of the guys, and I'd never been so grateful to hear that wanker say anything in my entire life. Despite my gratitude, I glared at him, but he ignored me. I was going to have to get him alone soon. To figure out just what was going on here. My eyes squeezed shut, fingernails digging into my palms.

"… don't you, Mia?" Em asked. Opening my eyes, I twisted my head and blinked a couple of times as I looked at my long-time friend.

"Sounds great," I agreed, not wanting to sound like an idiot in front of Mal– in front of the others.

"If we're going to be waltzing around town," Eric began, swaying to the side to avoid the attack of Emily's elbow to his side for the way he described her plans, "we probably should ditch the basketballs somewhere."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Emily agreed as I nodded my head, wanting to keep up the act that I knew what was going on. "We could drop it off at someone's house."

"Who lives closest?" Malfoy asked, voice still sounding a bit weird without the venom.

"My house, I think," Eric suggested. "But I don't know where Hermione lives."

Not wanting to let Malfoy know where my house was at (I certainly did not want that information in the hands of a Slytherin), I looked towards Emily, who knew the location of both homes.

"Eric's is closer," she confirmed. Only after we headed down the path did I realize that Malfoy had slyly avoided discussing where he lived. Well, well… the snake has some smarts.

Speaking of snakes, the Slytherin sent me a strange glance, raising his eyebrows swiftly while tilting his head ever so slightly, before strolling ahead of me to walk next to Eric. Immediately, my guard shot up, hand finding the tell-tale bump of my concealed wand on the top of my bag as my mind tried to figured out if that look had been Malfoy threatening me or not.