A/N – WOAH. OK…so I've kiiiinda been slacking off on the whole "updating" thing…but I do have some valid excuses! Firstly, I was on holiday in China/Belgium/Costa Rica and then…I kiiiind of got hit by a car . but I'm fine now Then I started year 12 (aka I'm now a Junior) and I get like…a LOT of work…not that I do any of it…but the fact that I know I NEED to do it means that I feel guilty putting my time into anything else…oh, and also I think I'm cursed. I've never written a story past 3 chapters…I'm writing this now in the hopes that this chapter will be my first (ever) Chapter 4 :D (don't get ahead of yourself Alex…)

Oh…and thanks to edwardsoneandonlylove for sending the message that kicked me back into writing XD even if this is now a few months after she sent it…the occasional continuation of reviews helped remind me not to give up on this

The next morning Professor Snape was back to his usual, merciless self. Hermione wouldn't say she was disappointed exactly…it would have been extremely disconcerting if he'd wandered into the great hall, knelt beside her at the breakfast table, and asked her if she felt any better, or how she'd slept the night before, not to mention the fact that every other Gryffindor would have stared wide-eyed. But she had to admit that it bothered her a little more than usual when she saw him fix his penetrating glare on a first year boy who had accidentally dropped a piece of toast in his pumpkin juice.

Now that she knew his secret (that he actually had the ability to be compassionate on rare occasions) she wondered why he wasn't pleasant all the time. Surely it was easier to relax his facial muscles every now and then instead of maintaining his icy scowl.

But, Hermione thought, she had no right to interfere. He had helped her and that was more than she'd ever thought possible. The previous night, having been dismissed by a rather embarrassed Professor Snape, Hermione had wandered back to the Gryffindor dormitories with a great weight lifted from her shoulders. Saying everything out loud had somehow made her feel better. She had felt guilty when she'd walked into the common room and found Lavender and Ginny asleep in the red armchairs waiting for her, but she doubted she would have been able to talk to them as easily as she had Professor Snape. Despite his reputation, Hermione couldn't help but think he was trustworthy. He was a teacher after all.

That morning, Hermione sat with Lavender and Ginny as usual, though both of them were slightly annoyed at having been left waiting all night and conversation was therefore scarce. Hermione was sorry they were upset, but found that she had more important things to worry about. She still wasn't sure where she stood with Ronald, and considering her behaviour the day before and the fact that half the school seemed to have heard about it, she wasn't exactly excited to find out, particularly not in an area as public as the Great Hall.

Gulping down the remainder of her pumpkin juice and shovelling half a muffin into her mouth, Hermione excused herself from the table, explaining that she had 'prefect stuff' to do. Lavender turned her head away dramatically, emitting a high pitched 'hmph', and Ginny just nodded solemnly. Neither of them had noticed Ron and Harry's entrance, and Hermione hoped to slip away before it became obvious that she was, in fact, trying to run away from an awkward encounter with Ron.

Hermione was no coward, (this she had proved on numerous occasions - it was difficult not to have your courage displayed to the world when you were best friends with one Harry James Potter) but she wasn't reckless either, and she knew that the extremely public scene which had been about to occur would have been of no help to anyone, let alone the situation itself…

What exactly the situation was, Hermione was no longer completely sure. It had been easier to understand her position when she knew what she wanted. Hermione was a girl…woman of goals and aspiration. She knew what she wanted out of life and worked hard to get it, but the current situation with Ron had robbed her of all reason and she could no longer figure out whether they were still friends let alone whether she wanted to face interrogation regarding her behaviour the previous day.

She knew just how shallow it sounded, but now that Ron had actually reciprocated her previous feelings somewhat, she no longer felt drawn to him. The best way Hermione could describe the situation to herself, was that she'd enjoyed trying to make him want her, it had been a challenge of sorts (which were hard to come by for a witch as bright as Hermione) to make herself beautiful and encourage his affection for her, but now that she'd, for all intents and purposes, "got him", the reality of forming an actual relationship with him had hit her, and the prospect didn't seem attractive at all. She felt horrible. She'd led him into believing she had real feelings for him, and in fact she'd thought she did have real feelings for him, but now, short of pretending to like him, all she could do was hang him out to dry.

As a woman who prided herself in her moral integrity, Hermione felt a strong wave of self loathing as she slipped from the Great Hall in an attempt to escape Ron and Harry. After all, they were the first people at Hogwarts to talk to her, her first best friends, but nonetheless she couldn't help the survival instinct inside her which was practically yelling at her to run away before she faced the mortifying confrontation with Ron that was sure to come. What with his newfound attitude, he was sure to give her a hard time.

However, this prediction proved to be entirely incorrect. Those at the Gryffindor breakfast table that morning were astounded at the change they saw in the second youngest Weasley. The man they had grown to admire as their ridiculously overconfident Casanova seemed to have been knocked down a peg by the Granger girl's rejection (the news of which had of course, by now, spread throughout the school).

He sat across the table from Lavender and Ginny, both of whom felt an internal dilemma as to whether or not they were speaking to him. On the one hand, they both, particularly Lavender, felt that it was of paramount importance to stick to the "girl code" (in other words, they were morally bound to ignore Ron until Hermione decided they were allowed to socialise with him again), on the other hand they both, particularly Lavender, felt more than a little annoyance at the fact that Hermione had left them waiting for her in the Gryffindor common room the previous night, and then arrived back refusing to tell them any of the juicy gossip.

After a long consultation the girls decided that they should be safe to talk to him, however by this point, Ron who, despite his grievances, still ate at the speed of lightning, had vanished, taking Harry with him.

Hermione, for the first time in her life, was skulking. Potions class was due to start in two minutes, and on any other day, Hermione would already have been sat at her desk, books open to the correct page, shaking her head in resignation at the fact that Harry and Ron were late again…but today was different. Her brain kept telling her to hurry up and get to the dungeons, but each and every time, her heart gave a little temper tantrum in retaliation, which meant that she stayed exactly where she was. She couldn't help it. Surely it was natural to feel nervous about talking to Ron?

"What is wrong with you?" Hermione scolded herself as the minute hand on the great clock moved one step closer to nine o'clock, and she finally kicked herself into action and ran towards the potions classroom.

She arrived precisely 36 seconds late and found to her horror that, for once, everyone else, including Harry and Ron, had already taken their seats and had begun writing notes. There was only one seat remaining and, of course, it was next to Ron. Hermione knew she should have foreseen this, after all, she sat next to Ron in every potions lesson and the spot had therefore become "hers", it was only natural that it was the only one left, but still, Hermione couldn't help but think if she'd been her usually punctual self she could have avoided having to sit next to him.

"Thank you for joining us Miss Granger," snarled the all-too-familiar voice of Professor Snape, "20 points from Gryffindor." Hermione couldn't say she was shocked, if anything she was relieved that despite their 'heart-to-heart' the night before Snape was the same as ever, but it still irked her that she'd lost points for her house. If it had been anyone else, every Gryffindor in the room would have scowled in their direction, but Hermione knew that ever since she'd joined the school, she'd singlehandedly been responsible for about half Gryffindor's house points every year, so no one could complain at her losing a few now.

Hermione, who had been frozen in the doorway for a few seconds, swiftly apologised to the potions master and took her seat. She reached into her bag, put her textbook on the desk, and then delved back in to get her quill and ink. By the time she'd found them and sat back up, her textbook was open to the correct page, and a blank piece of parchment lay neatly before her. Her eyes flicked to Ron. He was looking at the blackboard, but his eyes glanced at her for a second and he gave a small, sweet smile. Hermione felt a sudden rush of affection for him and felt an intense need to apologise for everything that had happened. Despite wanting so badly to avoid him before, now that she was forced to sit next to him, and he was being sweet, she suddenly felt guilty for the previous day. Conveniently, at this time Snape ordered everyone to put away their books, get out their cauldrons, and start preparing the necessary ingredients for a draft of the Everlasting Elixir.

Everyone stood up and began moving around the room, collecting cauldrons and raiding supply cupboards, Harry, too, seeing that Ron and Hermione wanted to talk to one another subtly slipped away, even though he had everything he need in place already.

"So…" Ron said awkwardly. Hermione took in his nervous facial expression and couldn't help but giggle with relief. It was obvious that he wasn't angry with her, and she felt a great weight lift off her shoulders at the thought. Upon seeing her laughing Ron smiled. She clearly wasn't scared of him, which had been his biggest fear, and the two of them smiled broadly at each other.

"I'm sorry." Ron said simply, and Hermione blushed, embarrassed that she'd made such a big deal out of something that was clearly nothing.

"No, no it's ok." She replied, avoided his eyes slightly despite their reconciliation. There was a moment of pause, and then Ron gently took her hand.

"So…where do we go from here?" he asked softly. Hermione looked up and saw how gently he was looking her…almost lovingly. She began to panic. She realised, with another wave of self loathing, that she'd continued leading him on, despite deciding that she didn't like him in that way at all. She felt pain rip through her heart at the thought of having to reject him again...

But once again, she was saved by the most unlikely person imaginable.

"Perhaps," Snape snarled loudly, immediately demanding the attention of the rowdy class, "Miss Granger, you would be able to stop talking and get on with the task? Or are you so confident in yourself that…" At this moment Snape, who hadn't realised what the hushed conversation had been about, noticed the Weasley boy beside Hermione, his hand still curled loosely around hers. Snape glanced down at her, making sure to maintain his usual curl of the lip, and noticed her panic-stricken face.

His mind cast back to all she had told him the night before, and he couldn't help but take action…he felt that, despite his intense reluctance to show her any more 'kindness' than he already had, he couldn't stand by and watch her suffering after making her feel like she could trust him the night before.

"Very well Miss Granger," he promptly snarled in his usual voice, "as you seem to find yourself incapable…" (Hermione flinched at the word) "…of concentrating when surrounded by these little friends of yours, perhaps you would be better off working with someone more…focussed." Snape glanced around the classroom. Several Gryffindor boys tried to catch his eye, more than happy to swap each other for the beautiful (not to mention intelligent) prefect, but his eyes slid to the right hand side of the room, where members of the Slytherin house had grown bored of watching their favourite teacher terrorise his student and had begun doodling magical cartoon strips.

His eyes stopped on Draco Malfoy, the only boy in the class whose aptitude for potions could almost match Hermione's.

"Mr Malfoy," he began, and every Slytherin in the room looked up, as if called by name, to hear what the Professor had to say to their leader, "I'm sure you wouldn't mind being separated from Mr Zabini?" Malfoy, who had missed everything that had been going on, glanced across the room suspiciously, taking note of the downcast faces of the Gryffindor boys.

"Good. You go with Mr Weasley here, Merlin knows he'd blow us all up if he didn't have someone of relative intelligence to guide him through the lesson. Miss Granger, I'm sure you'll find Blaise perfectly capable of keeping you focussed." The entire class fell still. Never in the history of potions class, had a Gryffindor and a Slytherin been forced to work together. Hermione's eyes were fixed on her soon-to-be partner.

She'd always found Blaise to be one of the more agreeable Slytherins, not that that was saying much, but as she glanced across the room at the tall green-robed boy she couldn't help but feel an inkling of dread. Nothing good could possibly come of this. She looked up at Snape with pleading eyes, but he wasn't one to go back on his decisions and with a rather large sense of satisfaction, he sent Hermione across the room, books in hand.

Every student's eyes were on her as she walked across the room, particularly those of Draco Malfoy, who thoroughly resented having to move himself and work with a blood-traitor for the sake of Little Miss Granger. As Hermione reached the desk, Draco picked up his books in an aggressive manor, and gave her a look which clearly said 'you'll regret this, mudblood.' Hermione couldn't help but shiver. Malfoy could never have scared her so easily before, but her encounter with Ron yesterday had shown her just how strong boys could really be. Not that she thought women to be weak, she knew full well that she could out-spell the platinum haired Slytherin easily…but when it came to brute force he had her covered.

She turned her eyes away from Draco and the distraught puppy-dog stare Ron was giving her, and turned her attention to her new partner and their bubbling cauldron. Blaise was busy stirring the concoction, and Hermione knew full well the importance of the ratio of clockwise to anticlockwise stirs needed to get the elixir perfect, and didn't want to disturb him whilst he counted them out.

She waited awkwardly next to him, until he, without having ever taken his eyes off what he was doing, silently handed her a strange-looking turnip to chop.

The lesson passed surprisingly well for Hermione. She found it invigorating to be partnered with someone who actually knew what they were doing, and she enjoyed working as a team with Blaise, in comparison to doing everything herself when paired with Ron. Together, she and Blaise successfully concocted a perfect Everlasting Elixir, and when Professor Snape told them so, Blaise gave her a somewhat constrained, but perfectly gentlemanly smile. He wasn't, Hermione had deduced, a man of many words, but nor had he attempted to punish her for separating him from Malfoy, for which Hermione was extremely thankful.

Ron, on the other hand, had not had a particularly pleasant hour. The enmity between he and Draco had increased tenfold ever since Ron had began to rival Malfoy's prestigious position as Hogwarts' Casanova, and Ron's horrific lack of skill in potions had only angered the Slytherin Prince, who held nothing back in criticism, further as he single handedly had to brew the elixir and try to ensure the classroom remained intact.

It was therefore safe to say, that both boys ended the lesson in a much worse mood than they'd started it.

As the students began to file out of the room, there was an awkward sort of exchange as Hermione and Draco crossed back to their respective 'sides'. Ron, Harry and Hermione left first as Hermione awkwardly tried to assure Ron that she was fine, leaving Blaise and Draco behind.

"This is ridiculous," Draco spat as soon as the Golden Trio were out of earshot, "what was Snape thinking putting me with Weasley? And you! With that filthy mudblood! Oh, someone's going to pay…"

"Actually," Blaise cut in, as cool as ever, "I found Miss Granger rather pleasant to work with. She was no bother at all." Draco gave him a pointed glare.

"There's no point sulking Draco," he continued, "you may not like her, but Hermione is a talented witch and you know it as well as I do." With anyone else Draco would have argued, but Blaise had an infuriating way of making sense sometimes.

"Fine." The blonde boy conceded, "But don't expect me to be nice to her." The other boy chuckled, Malfoy could be such a child sometimes.

"I wouldn't dream of it." He replied, gracefully leaving the room by the exit which would lead him back to the Slytherin common room. In the meanwhile, the Slytherin Prince was left standing alone in the potions classroom, brooding over everything that had just happened.

"My father will hear about this." he mumbled quietly to himself, still staring after the girl who was long gone.

Thanks for reading

P.S – I'm always happy to hear constructive criticism but do me a favour and tell me what it is you feel I need to change, otherwise I can't change anything! (For obvious reasons…) I know this chapter was relatively short considering my long absence…but hopefully I'll be able to update more regularly now that the difficult chapter is out the way

Thanks, Alexenzeru (P.P.S – feel free to review :P)