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Chapter 9- The Plan
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Hermione sat in silence through the welcoming feast. Once the first years were sorted and everyone ate, a crowd began leaving for the dorms. Hermione sighed and tried to make her way to Ginny and Alex.
Ginny was permanently attached to Harry, and Alex…wait where was Alex? Hermione had just seen her a second ago, and now she had vanished. Confused she broke into Harry and Ginny's little interlude.
"Hey where did Alex go?" She asked.
Ginny tried her hardest not to glare. "I don't know."
Harry didn't look at her at all. "Maybe she's with Ron, he's gone too."
Hermione felt her heart break, Harry wouldn't even make eye contact with her, he looked like he didn't want to speak to her in the first place.
"Look, Harry…I…."
"Don't apologize Hermione. You're dating him, it's already done." Harry turned from her and began walking with Ginny a little faster than needed.
"But Harry! Wait!" Hermione called to him. He didn't slow. Great, just what she needed.
A cold hand snaked around her middle. She jumped and turned to face her offender.
Draco couldn't help but laugh.
"Did I scare you?" He snickered.
"Only enough to make me jump." She said breathlessly. "Don't do that!"
He laughed again. The sound was elegant to Hermione, it was entrancing. She shook her head.
"So what's Potter's deal?" He asked as he saw Harry peer over his shoulder.
"He's so mad at me he doesn't know what to do with himself. This whole thing has gone straight into the loo."
"Maybe in time." Draco shrugged. "He's the forgiving type I noticed."
"The forgiving type? How would you know?"
"I'm an observer." Draco said with a shrug.
"Why would you observe someone you hate?"
"Keep friends close, your enemies closer."
Hermione shifted uncomfortably.
"No worries," Draco said with a laugh. "I'm not planning anything diabolical at the moment, just going along for the ride."
Hermione's mouth twitched into a smile. "I appreciate it."
Draco waved her off. "I was too bored to pass the chance."
Hermione couldn't hold back her laugh.
Oddly enough Draco found the sound…musical. He shook his head. That was definitely not what he needed; falling for this girl was simply unacceptable. He looked at her closely. She wasn't so bad. A few make up lessons and a wardrobe change and she could actually be presentable. He chuckled a bit to himself. He couldn't be thinking of this, it wasn't like him. It really wasn't him like him to be doing what he was in general. The situation was definitely amusing him.
"Draco, I'm going to bed now." Hermione said as she began pulling away.
Instinctively Draco pulled her back into his arms. Both their eyes widened.
"I…uh…um…." Hermione stammered.
Suddenly they both realized their position and jumped apart. Hermione began smoothing her robes down and looking nervously around her. Draco looked behind him and ran a nervous hand through his hair.
"Uh…goodnight." He said quickly. Draco turned around and followed the remaining Slytherins toward their dorm.
Hermione stood there staring after him. That was beyond weird. She thought to herself.
Alex was confused as she followed Ron up to the library.
"Ron what's this about?" She finally asked.
"It's about Hermione." He said flatly. It wasn't an unkind statement, but it didn't sound too happy.
Finally they got to the library and snuck into corner where they couldn't be overheard.
"I like Hermione." He said bluntly.
Alex couldn't hold it back, she bit her bottom lip trying to keep the smile from coming but it didn't work, she laughed.
"What's so funny?" Ron's ears, once again, turned a shade of red.
"Am I the only one who knows what's going on?" Alex calmed her laughing. "This is sad."
"Then why are you laughing?"
"You like Hermione, Hermione likes Harry, Harry likes Ginny and Ginny…." Alex stopped herself short. The Hermione incident was already bad enough. "Ginny likes someone else."
Ron took in the situation. "So Hermione is dating Draco to get to Harry and Ginny is using Harry to get to someone else."
Alex nodded trying not to laugh again.
"Oh man that's one hell of a mess." Ron said, leaning back. They had sat on the floor for extra security.
"So what do we do about it knowing we are the only ones who know?" Alex smiled playfully.
"Kill Draco?" Ron suggested.
"As fun as that sounds, maybe we should just fight fire with fire."
"What are you suggesting?"
"We could pretend we're dating since it's apparently the new trend."
"That'd be…awkward."
"Why? It'd piss off Harry, it'd piss of Ginny, it'd definitely piss of Draco and Hermione would be just plain confused." Alex said with a giggle.
"True." Ron said thoughtfully. "Very true."
"So what do you say? Partner in crime?" Alex held out her hand in a handshake gesture.
Ron shrugged. "Partner in crime." He took her hand and shook it. This might be bad.
"Oy! Harry!" Seamus called as Harry and Ginny walked into the common room.
"Seamus, hi." Harry said happily.
"So Dean and I have been talking and we wanted to talk to you about your sister." Dean came up behind him.
"Yea, it's a little odd that she doesn't date much, don't you think?" Dean said as casually as he could.
Harry looked at them both oddly. "What do you mean?"
"We mean, we haven't really seen her with many guys, is that…normal?"
"Yea, you know Alex; she's one of the guys." Ginny said bluntly.
Seamus and Dean nodded and looked at each other.
"That's what we thought." Dean said as he turned around and walked off.
"Ok good night!" Seamus said with a smile. He followed Seamus up to their dorm.
As he disappeared up the stairs Harry looked at Ginny in question.
"Well that was odd." She said to him.
Harry nodded. "You could say that."
Just then Alex and Ron walked into the common room.
"Harry, there you are." Alex said as she walked over to them.
"I think Seamus likes you." Ginny said with a smile.
"Oh?" Alex looked at Ron. "Why do you think that?"
"He just came up and started asking questions about you. It was really weird." Harry responded.
"Oh, well. Not to hurt his feelings, but I'm not interested." Alex looked around. "Well, I'm going to bed it's been a long day. Goodnight."
"I never really thought about it until Seamus said something, but Alex really doesn't date much does she?" Harry mentioned softly.
Ron nodded. "Maybe that'll change this year." He tried not to laugh.
"Yea, maybe." Harry said as he watched the last couple of Gryffindors disappear.
The three broke apart, and the two boys went up to their dorm. Seamus and Dean were still awake, but Neville's snores could be softly heard coming from his bed.
"Seamus has something to tell you." Dean blurted as they walked into the room.
Seamus looked wildly over at Dean. "Now?"
"What?" Harry said with a laugh.
Seamus sighed. "Harry, I don't know how you will take this, but…." He stopped again.
"What?"
"Alex is a lesbian."
"What?" Harry and Ron screamed at the same time.
"Well think about it, she doesn't date guys, she's like one of the gang, you know?" Seamus looked around. "All the signs are there!"
Ron cracked up laughing. "That's impossible mate."
"Why? Who doesn't think so?" Dean said, sitting next to Seamus.
"I know so." Ron said, still laughing.
"Why, is she dating someone?" Harry asked curiously.
"Yea, me." Ron said as he got into bed.
Everyone but Ron stopped moving. The room was completely silent. Ron thought about what he had said too late.
"Oh…shit."
