"Water balloons?"

"Check."

"Sacks for sack race?"

"Check."

"Eggs and spoons?"

"Check and check."

"Quidditch balls from Madam Hooch?"

"Check."

"Ok. And how's the food coming?"

Ginny looked up from the list that she had been double checking with Hermione. "The house elves have been working all morning on it and it will be transported out to the picnic tables when ready," she assured.

Hermione smacked her forehead. "That reminds me- whipped cream and tins?"

"Check. Calm down, Hermione, everything is in place and ready to go. Everyone's got their stations to start with and everyone's prepared," she said calmly. Hermione visibly relaxed. "It's going to go great."

"I know, I know. I guess I'm just a little on edge," she admitted.

"How are you?" Ginny asked cautiously. "I mean, now that you and Ron-"

"I'm fine," Hermione said quickly. "I wasn't as into the relationship as he was and that's not fair to him. I'm just going to focus on preparing for NEWTs and my duties as Head Girl…"

"Alright," Ginny replied. "Let me know if you need to talk."

"I will."

Just then, Draco came ambling down the hill towards them, where they had set up all the activities for the day. He was wearing a tight white t shirt and black jeans. His hair was as neat and slick as ever. The t shirt, Hermione couldn't help but notice, eccentuated the boy's large abs. She had to tear away her eyes in order to keep away unwanted and unnecessary thoughts. Hermione was wearing a pair of jean shorts and an old navy blue t shirt that sported the name of her family's dentistry in white lettering. She had thrown her hair up in a messy bun that she now realized self consciously might look like she had just woken up. Fiddling with it, she pretended not to notice when Draco arrived beside her.

"When do we start?" He asked plainly.

"Excited for the field day after all, Malfoy?" Ginny teased, looking over her clipboard.

"More like excited to get it over with," he muttered, but glanced over Hermione's shoulder at her clipboard. "You're going to do the explaining, right?"

"Yes, all you have to do is cooperate," she answered cooly. He didn't say anything else.

As the time on Hermione's small wristwatch reached 10 'o clock, the students of Hogwarts filed out onto the lawn. The prefects joined Hermione, Draco and Ginny in their circle for a minute to receive their clipboards before heading to their first station. Hermione used her wand to amplify her voice.

"Good morning everyone! Would you please proceed to the first and second picnic tables to receive the number for the group you will be moving with! Stick with your partner! If you don't have one yet, please see Ginny Weasley, who is standing by the Gamekeeper's hut!" Doing as told, the students and even some teachers began to crowd in front of the picnic tables. It took a while, but eventually everyone had a partner and an event to start with. The prefects, a pair of which were stationed at each event, made sure that everyone was accounted for and then gave Hermione a thumbs up. Hermione did the same with the group that had approached her and Draco. Looking around, she was pleased to find Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore were placed into her group. In addition, Ron, Harry and their partners had ended up one group over. She heaved a sigh of relief before making a second announcement.

"Each group will be directed by a set of prefects, so please follow all of their instructions. At the end of each of your events, winners will receive points marked by your prefects. The pair with the most points at the end of today will receive two tickets each-" she held the tickets in the air high above her head- "to the 423rd Quidditch World Cup!"

There was a loud thunder of applause as the students became excited. They hadn't realized that there would be such a big prize to aim for. Hermione was suddenly very grateful that Draco had supplied her the tickets without her even asking him for anything. "Play fair and play well! Prefects, begin!"

With that, she returned her voice to normal and turned to the group she had been given. Most of them, she noted, looked excited to begin. This was either because they were missing class or because there was such a big prize at stake. Professor McGonagall gave Hermione a quick smile before she began explaining the event.

"Ok, Group 1! The first event you will be doing today is one that you can't use your wands for, so please place them all in the basket over here," Hermione told them with dignity. They did as told, some more reluctantly than others. "The first event is called an egg and spoon race. One partner in each pair will stand behind this golden line here-" Hermione gestured to the floating golden line that hovered just above the grass- "with a spoon in one hand and an egg balanced atop it. Your job is carry that egg in the spoon to your partner, who will be behind the second line over there-" another gesture- "waiting to take it from you. They then have to run all the way back with it and be the first to cross the line. I'll give a quick demonstration."

Hermione picked up an egg from the carton that lay beside her feet and a spoon. She balanced the egg on it, ushered Draco to step back a bit, then walked to him carefully with the egg. He then took the spoon from her wordlessly and walked back to the group with it.

"Simple, really," he said, taking the egg off the spoon and replacing it in the carton.

"Questions?" Hermione asked, rushing back over. Several people had raised an eyebrow at the strange game, but no one spoke up. "Alright, one partner grab an egg and spoon and everyone line up!" She announced, stepping out of the way and retrieving her clipboard from the grass.

As she blew the whistle and the game began, Draco glanced around to see if he could spot Ron. He noticed him in the next group over, giving their backs a hardened stare. Smirking, Draco hovered his palm just over Hermione's back, making it appear to Ron that he had actually placed his hand on her. Ron's face turned bright red and it looked as if he would've run over if the prefect leading his group hadn't yelled at him to pay attention. With a last huff and death glare at Draco, Ron turned away, though he glanced over his shoulder often at them.

On the field in front of them, Dumbledore had hiked up the bottom of his robes and was making haste towards McGonagall. Neville was doing surprisingly well, and he was actually one of the ones in the lead. Several people had already dropped and broken their eggs and we're heading back to the start line frantically to grab new ones. At the front of the group was a burly looking Hufflepuff, who was clutching the spoon pretty close to his body to maintain as much control of it as possible. Soon, they began to cross the line on the other side, quickly handing off their spoons and eggs to their partners.

McGonagall was taking much more time than her partner, causing Dumbledore to yell out words of encouragement ("You can speed up, Minerva!"). Several other partners were also being a bit more cautious, resulting in quite a lot of hollering. The partner of the burly Hufflepuff, however, had managed to keep the lead that her teammate had began with. In the end, Hermione gave points accordingly to the top five teams, which actually included Luna and Neville.

Glancing around to see who else had finished their event, Hermione made eye contact with Kyle Thornside. The two groups switched places and Hermione began explaining a sac race, which turned out to be quite a fun event to watch. People were tripping left and right, and Professor Dumbledore was actually attempting to waddle with it on. Some started out jumping with the sacs immediately, while others had to find out the hard way that that was the best way to go about it.

Next, they ended up on the miniature Quidditch pitch that had been set up. Since Quidditch required teams of more than two, pairs were put in bigger groups to play the game and points were given to all the members of the winning team. Since Hermione didn't really have any experience on a broomstick, she was thankful that she didn't have to show her group how to play it. Standing beside the mini pitch, Hermione glanced around at other groups. At the whipped cream contest, Hagrid's face was buried in a tin. When his head popped up, Hermione laughed to see that most of it had actually gotten in his beard.

Hearing Hermione laugh, Draco glanced sideways at her. He had been focusing his attention on Ron, who was trying his hardest not to focus on him. He had just been thinking to himself how fun the confrontation would be latter when her laugh actually startled him. He noticed that she was laughing at that silly oaf of a teacher, Hagrid. As he turned back to his thoughts, he couldn't help but realize that the field day wasn't half as bad as he thought it would be. There was a Ravenclaw girl in another group that kept glaring at him for blowing her off, but he hardly noticed. As soon as Ron glanced back over at the pair, Draco moved until he was quite close to Hermione, reading the clipboard over her shoulder and pretending to check the point standings. She hardly noticed, still watching Hagrid. Ron visibly narrowed his eyes, but Draco took his time in moving away.

One thing that he hadn't expected was how nice Hermione would smell. It wasn't as if she was loaded up with some perfume- it was the natural smell of her that drew him in. Her shampoo, probably. It was almost intoxicating, but Draco managed to slide away.

Next, however, was the water balloon tossed, which Hermione informed him that they would be doing alongside the group. After she had lined everyone up and passed out the water balloons, Hermione explained that after each toss, the thrower took a step back. With a small toss, Hermione threw a small orange balloon to Draco, who caught it with ease. She then took a small step back. He tossed it back to her, trying to be as careful as he could.

Left and right, balloons started popping, wetting several unlucky partners. Dumbledore actually ended up dosing McGonagall with a rather large one, but rather than being scornful she started laughing at her own misfortune. Draco turned his attention back to his own balloon. If Granger gets me wet…

Suddenly, the water balloon that he tossed exploded on the front of Hermione's t shirt. He expected her to look irritated, but instead she, like McGonagall, began laughing. Draco couldn't imagine what was funny about getting wet, but he allowed himself a small smirk at the situation.

Looking around again as she dried in the sun, Hermione noticed that most of the pairs in other groups were working pretty well together. She watched, astonished, as a Slytherin that was tied to a Hufflepuff actually high fived. There were several small quarrels for the prefects to break up, but overall everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

There were several other games to play, such as a three-legged race and an ultimate frisbee match, which took the group a while to get used to the rules. As the three legged race was about to begin, Hermione had asked Draco if he wanted to do it with her, since to her it looked like quite a lot of fun. He had been about to decline when he saw that once again Weasley was watching him very closely. With a mischievous smile, he agreed and allowed her bare leg to be bound his. The two then hopped and struggled down the field with the rest of the pairs, trying desperately not to fall over.

"It's a pattern, Draco!" Hermione called out as he once again almost tripped her.

He was so surprised at being called by his first name that a second later, the pair tripped and actually did fall. Draco landed on top of the girl uncomfortably, who immediately began blushing profusely. Draco smirked. "Blushing, Granger? Bit more attracted to me than you thought?"

With a heavy eye roll, Hermione heaved him off of her and her face quickly returned to normal. The two took a break on the grass during the frisbee match, then rejoined the activities for a competition that involved using wands. One partner, Hermione explained, was to keep the other aloft while racing through an obstacle course of cones, heavy tires, and small walls that they had to hurdle over. The trick was to keep the focus on the partner that was up in the air while still making it through the course.

"I am not letting you carry me as you run through this thing," Draco announced poignantly.

Hermione sighed heavily, surrendering to his stubbornness. "Fine. Lift me. But drop me and I'll hex you," she warned without a hint of sarcasm.

Concentrating, Draco used his wand to lift her into the air and keep her aloft as he moved through the course. "Slow down, you're going to lose focus," she warned him as he started to get confident with his control.

"Calm down, I'm not dropping your whinny ass," he replied, trying to focus on the task at hand. To Hermione's relief, he made it to the end of the course before he set her down safely. Poor Neville and Luna had not done nearly as well, and a group of first years were still having trouble starting the race. McGonagall was taking her time, carrying Dumbledore over one of the hurdles.

"I know we're old, Minerva, but that doesn't mean we have to take our time," the headmaster commented from above. McGonagall rolled her eyes heavily.

"Maybe I should have taken my time picking a partner," she muttered.

There was only one event left, and it was the whipped cream pie tin contest. The contestants each received a pie tin filled with whipped cream, which they had to lick clean with no help from their hands. All they could use was their mouth and face to maneuver their tongues around the tin. In addition, both partners had to finish before they could be officially done.

"For the record, I'm not doing this," Draco muttered to Hermione.

She eyed him mischievously. "Why? Afraid of getting a little dirty?"

"Not afraid," he replied quickly. "Extremely disinterested." He watched the other contestants cover their faces with the whipped cream. A Gryffindor second year managed to get quite a bit of it in his hair, which Draco grimaced at. He couldn't imagine getting his perfect hair messed up. That is, he couldn't have imagined it, at least until Hermione Granger decided to splatter him in the face with a tin of whipped cream.

He was utterly stunned, not sure what to do. "Revenge for getting me wet earlier," she told him, laughing hysterically.

Wiping whipped cream from his eyes, he stared at her until she stopped laughing, a little uncomfortable. That was when he smashed one into her face. After the initial shock, she was laughing again. Draco couldn't help but smile a little too, despite the fact that he was now a mess. "Never try to one up me," he told her, trying to sound stern but failing. As they both wiped off their faces with towels that Hermione made appear with her wand, the other groups were just finishing up.

"All right, everyone," Hermione called out to them. "We'll be having lunch once the other groups finish with their last games. The prefects will be totaling the scores and figuring out a winner!" At this, there was a round of applause around the whipped cream covered picnic tables. She gave them all towels and released them, allowing them to chat and joke around with each other.

Soon, all the groups had finished and the prefects were meeting with Hermione and Draco in a circle as they tried to determine which team had earned the most points. The students were well into their barbecue style lunch when they finally figured it out and prepared to announce the winner.

Hermione used her voice amplifying spell to once again grab the attention of the entire student body. "Attention! After much calculation, we have found our winner of today's events!"

Waiting until everyone was silent, Hermione looked out onto all of the students who were eating their lunch. Many had actually chosen to sit with the partners they had competed with, which told her that their experiment had been a success. Having their attention, Hermione lifted a sheet of paper in front of her face.

"With a total of 37 points, the winning team is Alexander Loufler from Hufflepuff and Julia Soresay from Ravenclaw!" There was a polite round of applause as the victor pair rose to receive their prize tickets. As she approached the front, Julia avoided eye contact with Hermione. Hermione then announced the second place winners, which included the burly Hufflepuff from Hermione's group, and the third place, which was the surprise pairing of Madam Hooch and the Arithmancy teacher. Each of those pairs received gift cards to Honeydukes in Hogsmeade.

"Quite surprised Potter didn't manage to nab this victory," Draco muttered beside Hermione.

"He came in fourth," Hermione shot back without turning to look at him. "Can't win all the time, you know."

After all the commotion had come back on, the prefects found seats to join in on the food. Hermione and Draco separated wordlessly and Hermione cautiously decided to seat herself next to Ginny at Harry and Ron's table. She had only just sat down when Ron stood up, muttering about having to use the lav.

Harry looked quite uncomfortable and hardly made eye contact with Hermione. "I understand," Hermione said to him quietly. "You're his best friend, you need to be on his side right now."

Looking very relieved that Hermione understood his predicament, Harry continued to eat again. "I hope this blows over soon so we can all be friends again," he admitted.

"Me too," said Hermione, her gaze falling on Ron's retreating back.

At another picnic table on the field, Draco seated himself beside Blaise, who threw him an odd look. "Why'd you partner with the Gryffindor? I got you a perfectly good partner," he said with a furrowed brow.

Draco explained how Granger and the Weasel had split, and he had been aggravating her ex all day by simply being near her.

Blaise's frown changed to a grin. "Ah, there's the Draco I know. I was so confused. So glad that Potthead didn't nab that victory."

Nodding, Draco slipped into his own thoughts. Today actually hadn't been that bad. It might even have been… fun. At least, getting to annoy Weasley from afar was definitely an important highlight. And being partners with Hermione hadn't been nearly as bad as he thought it would be- though she did smack him with a tin of whipped cream.

But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it had only made him angry for a second or two. He had gotten her right back, and they had- wait, she had- laughed about it. Then there was the time when they fell, because she had the audacity to call him by his first name. The way she had said it played over in his head. So quickly, like she hadn't even considered what she was saying. So naturally.

Did he like that, being on a familiar basis with her?

Draco shook his head. He needed to stop thinking like that. For seven years, they had been enemies. They couldn't change that now, even though a very, very small part of him sort of wanted to.

Ok, maybe a medium sized part. But the rest of his head overtook that, squashing away the idea. Trying to distract himself, Draco tuned into the conversation that Blaise was now having with a fellow Slytherin at their table. He refused to let himself think about Hermione Granger for the rest of lunch.

After lunch, a tug of war match was set up and a new set of water balloons was out for the students to have a free for all for the rest of the afternoon. Some students, it turned out, had enjoyed ultimate frisbee so much that they went right back to playing that. Professor McGonagall approached Hermione, who was now sitting alone at a picnic table, watching everyone enjoy themselves.

"Excellent work, Ms. Granger. I've never seen so much unity between houses in all my years of teaching at Hogwarts," McGonagall admitted with admiration. "I can't wait to see what else you plan this year. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I think the staff agrees that you're the best Head Girl we've had in a long time," she added with a wink before strolling off towards the castle.

Smiling to herself, Hermione looked out over the students. She noticed that on the mini Quidditch pitch, several Slytherins had started up a small game amongst themselves. Her eyes landed on Draco, who was flying while laughing with Blaise Zabini. She couldn't help but think about how different he had acted that day. He hardly said anything degrading at all and had even smiled a little after she smashed him with the pie tin. Actually smiled.

And it hadn't been one of his smirks or evil grins or whatever. It had been a real smile, like the one he now shared with his friend as the raced around on broomsticks.

Maybe she had been right before, when she had thought that maybe Draco had really changed. If he had, maybe the last seven years were behind them. Maybe they could move forward and be something other than enemies.

As she allowed herself to think that something else might be possible, she watched him swoop and dip on his broomstick. With a smile on his face and his hair blowing in the wind, she couldn't help but notice how attractive he actually was. Once she got past the nasty comments and the constant scowling, he was actually really handsome.

For once, Hermione didn't mind letting herself think that. For once, she allowed herself to think that she might be, even just slightly, attracted to Draco Malfoy.


Super extra long, hope you all love me for it! Also also also- Hermione might be attracted to him?! -E