A/N: Well, I'm back. I had no intention to be away this long from any of my stories but severe writer's block coupled with work and a few family birthdays and I was not fit to write one end of Hogwarts to the other. Things are still a little slow this end but the ideas I managed to pop into this chapter would not be denied. Hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 7 – Slytherin?

"Minerva, I can't. I love you like a second mum and I love Hogwarts but you can't make me do this. Isn't it bad enough that you've stuck me next to Snape at the staff table for the last five years? Seriously? What did I ever do to you?"

The Headmistress snorted a little before sipping her tea.

"Hermione, it's lovely to see you, have a seat. Would you like tea?"

"Thank you. Two sugars please."

As Severus is your date for the Malfoy party tomorrow night, I would assume you wouldn't mind that position."

Hermione took a deep exasperated sigh and tried one more time.

"Please Minerva. Don't make me do this. And Severus is only my date because my first choice, which would be Draco is too low in my current estimation to be worthy. And I was only going to take him to annoy Lucius."

"You wanted to take Draco just to annoy Lucius? Come on now, Hermione. I know you would want to take him for other reasons. I was in the room when you confessed true feelings for him, remember?"

Minerva's face was a little more amused that Hermione felt she could stomach but she knew the Headmistress had a point.

"Fine. I wanted to take Draco as my date because I was hoping to drag him off to a dark nook or alcove somewhere in that delicious library of theirs but he just had to go and revert back to finding me repulsive. I was left with no other choice than to find a suitable replacement. And if I were to even consider doing what you're asking of me then it would be extremely disrespectful to my date; a date who is not a fan of being disrespected; in fact I wouldn't put it past him to take points from Gryffindor for my insolence in doing such a thing."

"Hermione, he would not do that and even if he did, you can take points from Slytherin and give points to Gryffindor so where's the harm? Not that I am condoning the idea of inciting a points war – he has played that game too well and for too long but I'm sure we could give him a run for his galleons. Also, it is no secret that over the last several years Lucius Malfoy has developed something of a… fascination with you. He is the wealthiest man in all of Wizarding Britain and it would be of a wonderful benefit to school if you could persuade him to…"

Minerva was cut off by a growl of frustration.

"Minerva…" Hermione ground out through clenched teeth, trying to hold her temper, "you expect me to prostitute myself for the sake of some books. I am quite the bibliophile as you know but I am not willing to allow Lucius Malfoy to get paw at me with his nasty elitist grabby hands. It's too much. And Draco would hate it."

"Exactly my dear. Think how much Draco would hate it. Are you not still mad at him?"

"That is very Slytherin of you Minerva." Hermione said with a sly smile; slightly warming up to the idea.

"Well I have not spent the last thirty years in the company of Severus Snape without learning a thing or two. Not to mention our dearly departed Albus who was possibly worse than all the Slytherins put together in his deviousness."

"Ahem." Came the gentle throat clearing of the large painting of Albus Dumbledore directly behind Minerva's chair. "I am here you know."

Both Hermione and Minerva looked up at the wizened old man in the portrait who held a mock look of offence but the ever constant twinkle in his eyes. Betraying his amusement.

"Yes you are Albus. Can you try to talk some sense into her about this? Hermione has always listened to you. Surely you can see the importance of an expansion to the library and the substantial collection from Malfoy's archive of tomes. Some of these books are priceless and I am hardly asking Hermione to bed the man; just to be less resistant to his advances."

"Minerva, surely you can understand Miss Granger's reticence."

"But this is for the library," Minerva screeched, losing her patience. "Hermione this is to enhance and improve your domain. We need the investment of the Malfoys to ensure this plan can go ahead. Lucius's interest in you is a blessing in this. Please, Hermione."

"I don't know if I can stomach it Minerva. Honestly. As attractive as he is to the eye, the man is a vile wretch and I am likely to vomit on his perfectly fine and ponsy silken robes if he even touches me. I'm going to have to take an anti-nausea potion just to greet him when I arrive. Never mind what being in that house still does to me. Oooo, that reminds me, I must ask Severus for a calming draught."

Minerva let out a dramatic sigh, exasperated.

"Fine, I see you are not going to be persuaded, even after everything I've done for you."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"So you're going to play the guilt-card with me now? Minerva how could you?"

"I would never use guilt, I'm a Gryffindor."

Hermione's eyebrows rose in a disbelieving look.

"Be brave, Hermione. You're a Gryffindor too. Despite where your heart lies."

"I'll think about it." Hermione huffed and with her patience entirely expired, she headed to the Great Hall for lunch.

Draco stood at the main workbench in his potions lab staring at the cauldron before him; it simmered with a completely translucent liquid and as he waited for the timer on his wand to count down he prepared the last ingredient to his latest alteration of it – edible gold. It was only for aesthetic; he usually used silver but this was for Hermione and so he decided conceding to a little Gryffindor pride might help his cause. Not that anything else had worked.

As his wand buzzed with the alert time to say the potion was complete, he doused the flame beneath his 'lucky' cauldron – anything that might help – and added the glittery gold. Now it just needed an hour to cool.

There's no way anything I say will get her back on side. She's barely even speaking to me. I wish she'd just look at me, smile at me, or even insult me. Something, anything to break that damn indifferent, emotionless stare she's adopted. It's like she's been taking lessons from Sev. Well, I have to try.

Draco reached his office desk and summoned parchment, ink and quill, trying to think what to write to the suddenly formidable and stoic owner of his heart. The only problem with thinking of her is that it triggered his new habit – replaying the scene that happened a week ago after receiving the damnable note from his Godfather.

He grabbed the note from the air as it flew out of the purple flames of internal mail and read the jagged, barely legible scrawl of his godfather and mentor.

"We have a problem." It read.

Unable to fathom how this plan had gone wrong so quickly, Draco floo'd straight to Severus's quarters to be briefed on what he was sure was the first of many 'problems'. And, damn what a problem.

"Ah, Draco, excellent. It seems our plan has something of a kink and will not be as simple as we first intended. Miss Granger seems to have, as usual, made our plans more difficult." He said, hiding his amusement that this development would actually add to the fun and games and may prove more helpful to Draco's cause.

"What's going on?" Draco asked, the slight panic coming through in his voice.

"I have just been paid a visit by your delectable Miss Granger. A visit in which I was issued a rather interesting request."

"What is it?" The panic morphing into frustration.

"It seems I have caught the eye of our young librarian and she has invited me to be her date to your father's party."

Draco stared unblinkingly for what felt like hours at his Godfather. It felt like he may have misheard.

Feeling that his godson may have become catatonic at this news, Severus cleared his throat.

"It seems that your mother personally invited Miss Granger after hearing about your current difficulties – no doubt to set up our plan and ensure her attendance."

Finally blinking and registering this was not a joke at the mention of the plan, Draco examined his thoughts on this latest development.

What is she thinking? I can understand mother getting her to the party but surely she realised asking her to come alone would incite the need to bring a date. This ruins everything. And Hermione? Why on earth would she pick Sev? That makes no sense at all, unless… is she trying to make me jealous? He is my mentor, my colleague and my Godfather… he's the closest thing to an uncle I have.

"Do you think she's trying to make me jealous?" He asked slowly.

"Is that the only reason you can think of for her to ask me? I know I am no spring chicken but perhaps she genuinely taken an interest in…"

"Oh please. You are not using this as an excuse to stroke your delicate ego. I assume you said yes."

Severus nodded.

"Of course I said yes, this will bring me closer to the workings of the plan as they play out so I may lend my assistance if need. Do not however presume that she has not considered the evening with me as something more than a stab at your ego. You should've seen the dress she was wearing as she came to my door – completely black, wrapping around those delicious little curves of hers and a line of buttons down one side. It was very reminiscent of my teaching robes, albeit much more revealing and you know what they say about imitation…"

"It is the sincerest form of flattery." Draco finished on a sigh. "Do you really think her interest in you is genuine?"

"It's hard to tell. There could be an element in making you jealous. She has form for that. Remember Viktor Krum and the Yule Ball when Weasley didn't ask her? Not to mention when she took Oliver Wood to the Potter wedding after that fight her and Weasley had that was all over the Prophet. It is possible that this is all a ruse but she was nervous about approaching me, which possibly indicates genuine interest and the fear of rejection. Of course it's me so the fear of rejection would be palpable regardless of genuine interest but…"

"The genuine interest is not reciprocated, though; is it, Sev?"

Severus thought for a moment, keeping his expression unreadable.

"I am undecided at present. We shall see how tomorrow evening plays out. It may not affect the plan at all. Your father will undoubtedly not care that she has chosen to attend with a date – that is only proper; he will still make his move. My reaction to his advances and your declaration will determine how sincere her interest is."

"And what reaction will that be?"

Severus's allowed a dark smile to curve at his lips.

"We'll see, Draco. We'll see."

Draco pulled himself from his memories and set to work on his letter… he knew this was the coward's way out but it was the only way he could get his side of things across. She'd taken to using an adapted version of Sev's muffliato spell on her own ears so that she couldn't hear anything he said. It was ingenious but bloody annoying.

He signed his letter 'All my love, D' with a kiss and made his way back to his way back to the lab with his letter in hand. He needed to use a droplet of the potion on the letter to prove to her that what he was saying was true. The rest was to be bottled up and sent as a peace offering and to help her at the party.

Hermione had skipped lunch in the Great Hall; she'd gone to breakfast so Minerva couldn't complain too much. As the last week had drawn on, she had become more and more nervous about this party. Of course she could handle herself but she was still freshly single and quite raw about the break up; Draco had been nothing but lovely which was annoying considering she missed him being an arse.

The Slytherin thing is such a turn on – all that sneering and smirking; the unfounded sense of superiority and smugness. Yum! Why did Draco have to get all noble on me –ugh, how disappointing. If I can't count on a Slytherin to take advantage of me, what hope do I have? Maybe Snape will try his luck… could I really do that? Draco would never forgive me. Same applies double for Lucius if I go a long with Minerva's silly ideas. Although… what I said to Draco is true; he is the original…

A flurry of indigo flames surged in the fireplace of her office. Hermione wasn't keen on the shade of royal purple usually used for internal mail so she'd charmed it to a much darker, much richer colour.

A small parcel flew toward her and she caught it with swift reflexes. I so could've been a seeker. If I had any interest in Quidditch that is. Not the point that I don't, I still could've.

She recognised Draco's handwriting immediately and sighed.

Coward. Well at least he's trying to make it up, even if it is via internal mail.

Unwrapping the parcel and found a phial of clear liquid flecked with gold glitter.

It wasn't a familiar potion, maybe something in the same family as liquid luck but the golden hue wasn't there, just those flecks. She checked the box and found a shrunken envelope.

Clever.

She waved her wand to enlarge in, took a deep breath and ripped the envelope open to read Draco's sorry excuses.

Dear Hermione,

I know you're probably rolling your eyes that I'm trying again but I have no intention of giving up. I miss you. You're a good friend and I honestly do care about you. I've told you already about why I turned you down that night but the thing is there was more to it than I told you. The thing is, I am more than interested in us pursuing our feelings for each other – unless you're still trying to turn my hair ginger, which was a low blow – and I want to spend some time with you once all this party stuff is out the way. I'm curious why you asked Sev to go with you; will you tell me?

About the potion I sent, I thought you might find it useful for tomorrow night – it's one of my own design; I created it to complete my Potions Mastery actually. It's a polygraph potion and enables the drinker to tell when someone is lying. You'll see the person's breath come out as yellow if they are. It allows you're brain to detect any altered body language, twitches, perspiration, and then allows your perception of those changes to be seen in the breath of who is lying.

It works with the written word too, see…

THE SKY IS GREEN.

Those above words should be glowing yellow. If not, well I've sent you a bad batch but hopefully it works and you can see that what I said at the beginning of the letter is true. I really do like you, Hermione; more than like. I look forward to seeing you at dinner and at the Manor tomorrow.

All my love

D

"Oh fuck. Now that's Slytherin. Way to make me feel guilty Draco." Hermione said to her empty office.

Well two can play the Slytherin game and if you want me as much as you say you do, you can prove it – and I can have some fun winding up the big bad Lucius Malfoy!

Smiling for the first time in almost two weeks, Hermione took a small sheet of thick indigo parchment (internal memo card), and pens a quick note to Minerva.

Hi Minnie

Ok, I'm in. You guilted me into it. But this is the last thing favour you can ask of me for... a year.

Love HG

With a flick of her wand, the memo was on its way to the Headmistress and Hermione felt better than she had in a long time.

The Lioness in the Snake Pit. Perhaps I could publish a short story; I've been wanting to get into children's literature.

A/N: Well there we have it… a little further on the road to where ever this is leading. I haven't a clue, just having fun with awkward situations. The party itself is two chapters away, not one. Dress shopping is very important to a girl and I think maybe another one-on-one style chat but who will I choose? Harry? Molly? Ginny? Severus?

Not sure how edgy my cliff hanger is, I'm out of practice but I would like to thank my wonderful friend, muse and sounding board, Dash, for supporting me through my lack of inspiration. :D