As Draco pulled back away from Hermione, he looked down at her to see her reaction and was surprised by what he saw. There was a twinkle in her eyes, instead of the fury and anger he had expected. Her mouth had taken the shape of a big smile. But, what surprised him more was what she said to him.

Instead of the rude remarks he had expected to hear from her she said, "Draco, do you really mean what you just said? Because if you don't mean something, don't say it."

"Yes, Hermione. I mean it. I have honestly fell in love with you," he told her. He was absolutely sure that he and Hermione were meant to be.

"Okay. Then, I'm going to relieve you of this burden. Ron's kiss meant nothing," she said. By now, her hands had moved up to his chest. "Yes, he does like me, but Ron is like a brother to me. Actually, I'm afraid I might've fallen for you, too." She giggled slightly at the thought of this.

He looked down at her like he'd just won the Quidditch World Cup. But, to him, she was much better. He needed to ask her, but not yet. Enough had happened for tonight. He stood, faked a yawn, and said, "Well, tonight has been full of surprises. I'd say all of this excitement has made me tired. How 'bout we go to bed and possibly talk about this some more in the morning?"

"Alright. Actually, I'm pretty tired myself." She stood up on her tip toes and gave him a peck on the cheek, "Good night, Draco."

As she turned around and walked back into her room, Draco laid back on the couch and smiled. Soon, he got up and went into his room to go to bed. He laid his head down on his pillow and closed his eyes. And the minute he did, he saw her smiling back at him.

000

The next morning, Hermione woke up feeling completely fresh. There, in the back of her head, were still memories of the night before. As she got ready, those same memories played back through her mind. She questioned herself: how she was going to be able to concentrate on her weekend with Harry and Ron with those memories still in her head? She just shrugged and went down stairs to meet them in the Great Hall.

…...

"Come on Ron. Hermione is going to be wondering where we are." Harry told his best friend, sounding rather annoyed.

Ron was still in bed, his head underneath the covers. "Just a few more minutes, Harry. We don't have to go now. She can't possibly be up yet," Ron mumbled.

"Have you forgotten? This is Hermione we're talking about. Of course she could be up by now," Harry said.

Ron sighed, "Alright, alright. I'm getting up." Ron pulled the covers from his head and went to his trunk to find something to wear.

"I'll go wait in the common room." Harry said as he walked toward the door, "Could you please hurry this time Ron? I told Hermione we'd meet her for breakfast, not lunch."

At this, Ron threw his pillow at Harry's face, "I wish you'd stop bringing that up!"

Harry laughed, threw the pillow back and left their dormitory.

After Ron was finished getting dressed, he patted his mop of hair down and left the dormitory as well.

When he got down there, Harry jumped up and started to run out of the common room, "Last one there spends the day with Snape!" Harry yelled back.

"Yeah, you'll think," Ron said and he took off chasing after Harry.

…...

As Hermione made her way down the marble staircase, she could hear voices coming from the Entrance Hall.

"Ron! Stop it!" came Harry's voice, followed by Ron's laughter.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she saw Ron with his arm around Harry's head, rubbing the top of his head with his knuckles. Hermione let out a long sigh, "Don't you two ever grow up?"

"No." Harry and Ron said in unison.

Hermione laughed slightly and separated them. As they walked into the Great Hall, they saw that there was almost no one in there, which was normal for the weekends. Most of Hogwarts students went to Hogsmeade and ate at The Three Broomsticks. After they got done eating breakfast, they made their way to Hogsmeade for a day of fun.

When they got there, the first place they went was The Shrieking Shack. Every year since Lupin, their Defense against the Dark Arts teacher from 3rd year, resigned, he'd been staying there and they always visited him when they went to Hogsmeade. At The Shrieking Shack, Hermione told him how she had become Head Girl, Harry told him how he had caught this snitch in their last Quidditch match, and Ron told him how he had become the captain of the Gryffindor team. He, of course, congratulated them all and told them how he had been doing lately. Afterwards, the three of them left and went straight to The Three Broomsticks. There, Ron ordered them a round of butter beers while Harry and Hermione went back to their usual table.

After a while, Hermione noticed that someone was watching them, but when she looked up, she saw no one. Then, while she was pretending to be listening to her two friends, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Draco staring at her more than them. "Um...I'll be back. Don't you two go off and be getting into trouble," she told them with a giggled. She then got up, and started to walk over to Draco's table, but when she saw who he was sitting with, she stopped dead. Smiling, across the table, was Pansy Parkinson, whose hands were cupped with Draco's. At this, Hermione gasped and slowly started to walk backwards out of the pub. Draco apparently heard her and turned around. When he saw Hermione walking away from him, he tried to get up and go after her, but Pansy wouldn't let go of his hands. Soon, Hermione turned around and ran out of the pub, tears forming in her eyes.

…...

As he sat there, staring at his butter beer, he tried to think of what he was going to say. Soon, he saw someone sit down across from him. He looked up and saw Pansy Parkinson, his ex-girlfriend, looking at him curiously.

"Is something bothering you, Malfoy?" she asked, with her head tilted.

'Maybe she can help me,' he thought. "Yes, but I'll only tell you if you promise not to say a word," he threatened.

"Alright. I promise," she replied.

"Ok. I...uh...want to ask Hermione..." he began.

"Herm-!" she said loudly.

Draco put his hand over her mouth, shook his head at her, and looked back at Hermione's table. He looked back at her, "I want to ask Hermione to be my girlfriend, but I don't know how to ask her."

Pansy gave him a funny look and removed his hands, "What do you mean you don't know how to ask her? You knew how to ask me."

"Um...actually, I had Crabbe and Goyle help me," he confessed.

"Oh my gosh, Malfoy. Alright. You can practice on me. Now, where and when did you want to ask her?" she asked.

"Um...well...I was going to ask her under the apple tree by the lake," he told her.

"Ok. Now, take my hands, pretend that I'm Hermione, and ask me," she told him.

He looked around again, turned back around, took Pansy's hands, and began to speak, "Hermione...I've been thinking about what happened last night and..." he looked around back at her, "And I've been trying to ask you something very important since then..." he turned back around at Pansy, "So...um...I was wondering…wondering if...you'd like to be my girlfriend?"

"Aww...Malfoy. You'll do great. As long as you don't stutter like you just did, I can't see why she wouldn't say yes," Pansy said, smiling.

Draco was feeling better now that he thought he might have a chance. All of a sudden, he heard someone gasp behind him. He turned around to see who it was and when he saw Hermione walking backwards away from him, he stood up, but Pansy still had a hold of his hands. He saw her run out of the shop, "Pansy, let go! I need to go find her," he yelled. She let go of his hands and he took off running after her.

When he got outside, he looked around and saw her running toward the end of Hogsmeade. He hastened his pace so he could catch her before she went too far and got lost. Finally, just before she left Hogsmeade, he caught her. He jumped in front of her, causing her to hit him and fall backwards. He knelt down in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Hermione, I don't know what you heard, but I can explain..." he said.

She was sobbing, "I thought you meant what you said!" she screamed, then paused. "I can't believe I actually believed you," she said in a low voice and tried to stand up, but he forced her back down. This caused her to shake with fear.

"Hermione! I did mean what I said! It's just Pansy was helping me figure out how to ask you...!" he began.

Hermione sniffed and gave him a confused look, "Ask me what, Draco?" she asked.

His eyes widened at what he had just revealed and he looked to the ground.

She tilted his head up to look at her, "Draco...what is it?"

He reached into his pocket, took out the tiny box from his pocket, opened it, and showed her what was inside.

Her eyes widened when she saw what the little box contained. Inside was a golden ring that had a small, heart-shaped, sapphire in it. She removed it from the box, looked on the inside, and saw 'HG' and 'DM' engraved on the band. She looked up at him, surprised, "Draco...wha-what is this?" she asked.

He took it from her, put it on her left ring finger, "Hermione...ever since last night, I haven't been able to get you off of my mind. I've been thinking and there's something I need to ask you," he paused, "See this is what Pansy was helping me with. She was helping me figure out what to say when I asked you if you would be my girlfriend." He watched her and saw her eyes travel back-and-forth from him to the ring he had given her.

She stood up, turned around, walked away from him, and stopped. "Umm...Hermione?" he said, sounding confused.

She turned back around, smiled at him, and nodded her head.

His eyes widened slightly when he saw this. He rushed over to her, picked her up, and twirled her around in the air. Then, as he placed her back on the ground, he lowered his head and kissed her gently.