Like Fire in the Dark

Draco followed Hermione to the private bathroom. She turned the faucet slightly on and washed her hands.

Draco entered the bathroom, leaned against a wall, facing Hermione, arms crossed with one leg over the other. "So, what did Potter say to you to make you so upset?"

Hermione turned around to face Draco. "He-…Harry said that all Ron's been talking about is Lavender lately." She kept her eyes to the floor. She didn't seem to be sad, but Draco sensed that she was only a little bit upset, but more likely to be irritated.

"So I've heard," replied Draco. "What not with him talking about her at every chance he gets, that stupid ginger."

"And Harry's right! Why would Ron become so interested in Lavender? The dimbo he briefly dated and ended up hating by the time they broke up." Hermione walked up to Draco. Since Draco was a few inches taller than her, she had to slightly look up at him. In a whisper, she asked, "You don't think he's under some sort of love potion, do you?"

Draco looked away, trying to ignore the fact that she was extremely close to him. "Course not. Love potions make you do a lot more moronic, stupid, and idiotic things. It also makes you look stupid. But, Weasley-" He stopped. Then said, chuckling, "But Weasley already does look stupid." When Hermione punched his on his shoulder, he quickly apologized and rubbed on the impacted area although being that it was Hermione's fist that hit him, it didn't hurt him too much. "Anyways, my point is that as stupid and idiotic Weasley is to me, I don't think he's stupid enough to take a love potion."

Hermione bit her lip. "Oh, but Ron is! I mean, he's not stupid, but he's been naïve enough to accidentally take a love potion! Last year with Romilda Vane! She spiked some chocolate candy and Ronald accidentally ate them!"

Draco rolled his eyes. "And where would Lavender find a pre-made love potion when the potion itself is rather difficult to make?"

Thinking for a moment, Hermione moved away from Draco and paced. Then, coming up with an idea, she put a finger in the air. " 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!' They've got love potions there."

Draco raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Those 'love potions' they sell shouldn't even be called a potion. They only last like what? Twenty-four hours?"

"But Lavender could be secretly giving Ro-"

Holding his hands up, Draco exclaimed, " Granger! Honestly, I think you should just talk to Ron. If he doesn't seem like he's under some spell, then he's most likely not." Then he smirked. "I can guarantee you that he's not, though."

Eyeing Draco, she slanted her mouth. "Right. Well for once, I think I'll actually listen to you. Merlin knows why." She held her hand out and said, "Thanks, Malfoy."

Ignoring the hand, Draco put his left arm around her and stuffed his right hand in his pocket, then began to lead both of them out the bathroom. "You're welcome." When they were outside, he let her go despite Hermione secretly liking his hold on her. Realizing this, she closed her eyes and shook her head quickly.

She turned to face him again and asked, "You're POSITIVE that he's not under a spell?"

"Absolutely positive," replied Draco, nodding.

Hermione slightly cocked her head to the right. "How? How can you be so positive?"

Shrugging, Draco replied, "Just take my word for it, 'Mione. I-"

Waving her hands in front of her, Hermione interrupted Draco. "You just called me ' 'Mione' '. There's something wrong with you isn't there?"

"What, we're not friends?" Draco said, sounding a bit taken back.

"NO!" Then when she saw Draco's reaction, she tried again. "I mean…it's not that we're not, it's just that we…we're good acquaintances and we're both Heads so we SHOULD have a good relationship anyways. So I guess…" Then she sighed giving up. "Yeah, I guess we are. But we're like level one friends. Just so you know."

Draco gave her the largest smile he's ever given to anyone. "Alright then. Go and talk to Weasley. I'll see you later, friend."

Rolling her eyes, Hermione replied, "Don't push it." Then the two of them departed. Draco went down to the Slytherin dungeons and Hermione went back to the Great Halls. Both had their own purposes.

"Blaise!" Draco called out initially when he entered the common room. Noticing Blaise wasn't in there, he barged in the boys' room. Good enough, Blaise was in there sitting at a desk, writing on a parchment with a quill, book open in front of him. When Blaise heard a noise behind him, he turned his head back.

"Oh, Draco. Lovely seeing you," he greeted.

"Granger's going to talk to Ron about his sudden…fondness of Lavender right now," Draco said, not bothering to greet Blaise back.

Raising himself from the chair, Blaise stood up, stretched for a second, walked to his bed, and laid down, with pillows supporting his back making it possible to be in a some-what sitting position. "Why worry? I thought you already moderated his memories that night."

"True," said Draco. "But what if…what if he somehow broke through the spell and…woke up?"

Blaise tsked and sighed. "Draco, obviously you didn't do enough research. Memory charms, whether they are used to moderate or simply erase a person's memory, cannot be broken so easily unless the victim is afflicted with some sort of pain."

Draco's ears perked up. "Wait. What do you mean it can't be broke unless some sort of pain is afflicted on the victim of the charm?"

Seemingly, Blaise did not seem to mind explaining. "Well, after the First Wizarding War, a few of Voldemort's so called 'loyal' servants 'Obliviated' themselves. Others moderated themselves. Why did they do this? Simple. Erasing their memories would mean no evidence for the Ministry of Magic to use against their claims of being under the Imperius Curse, because from known information, while being under the curse, you feel as though you're in limbo and feel a vague sense of happiness, filled with warm feelings. And since you're distracted by all those goodies, you're most likely not going to remember what you've done under the curse. Understand?"

When Draco nodded, Blaise continued. "Then somehow some person working for the Ministry figured out a way to break memory charms the Death Eaters casted on themselves. By inflicting pain or torture on the subject, you free them from the charm. It's not known how much pain inflicted would suffice the need to break it, but pain nonetheless."

Draco shoved his hands in his pocket and let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, so I'm in the clearing."

Blaise smirked, displaying the smile that made women drop as much as Draco's did. "That you are, mate."

Then Draco realized his second problem. "Blaise, I don't think it worked. I think Granger still…fancies Weasley." Clenching his fists in his pockets, Draco cursed.

Laughing, Blaise put a hand to his head. "Wooing Granger's turning out to be a lot more harder than you thought it'd be, it seems, eh mate?"

"Shut up," sneered Draco, but he knew it was true. It was a lot harder. Though the relationship between Hermione and Weasley were strained, he didn't fully cut off the emotional link. "I'm getting there. Today she just admitted we were friends. That's one step closer to the goal."

"Friends!" Blaise said in shock. "Sorry, Mate, but I didn't think you'd even get close to that title!"

Ron looked up from his conversation with other fellow Gryffindors to see Hermione standing in front of him with only the table in between them. "Oh…Hi Hermione."

"Ron, I need to talk to you," Hermione said quickly feeling uncomfortable with the few eyes staring at her.

"Um…sure, I guess," replied Ron. To the people he was talking to he said, "Hey guys, I've got to go for a while. Be right back." He left his seat and followed Hermione up one flight of stairs until they were on the first solid, non-moving platform. "So what'd you want to talk about?"

"I want to know why you haven't tried once to talk to me since that night! And what's really going on between you and Lavender?" Hermione had her arms crossed across her chest. To her, they felt like shields, shielding her from the inevitable.

"Well…" Ron scratched his head. "Lavender and I…we're seeing each other again."

"But I though you said you hated her last year," Hermione said. Her eyebrows scrunched together on her face.

"I-…I don't know what happened, Hermione. Honestly! It just…it just happened and I feel like this time it's different. I don't know why, it just does." Ron looked into Hermione's eyes and took her hands. "I'm sorry, Hermione. About…I mean, if I made you feel or think anything that wasn't there." When he saw Hermione purse her lips, he quickly added, "Don't blame or beat yourself up for anything at all, you hear me Hermione Jean Granger! I'm the jerk. I'm the…the ass that you call me sometimes, which may now be all the time. I'm the traitor that Malfoy says I am. Hermione, if you want, you could throw me off the stairs if you want. I won't blame you!"

"Here! See? See?" Ron was leaning half of his body over the stone railing. "Push me off if you'd like." He squeezed his eyes shut. Hermione was stunned and petrified. Ron actually thought she'd push him off!

"RONALD WEASLEY, YOU STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!" Hermione screeched out of pure terror. "Stop that before you kill yourself and I will really blame myself!" She grabbed his robes from the back and jerked him back, away from the railing. "I would never hate you enough to push you off to your demise, Ron." She hugged him. "I've known you for years and you're like a brother to me," she said, but was muffled by Ron's clothes. Then, her words rang in her ears. Brother. She considered Ron to be her brother!

Ron didn't notice and hugged Hermione back. "Good."

Draco was in his own room, reading a few pages of a charms book that needed to be read for the next charms class, until he heard thumps beating against his door. He set the book down, got up and opened the door. He opened it only to be faced with Hermione about to throw another pebble at his door.

Baffled, Draco asked, "Where the hell were you able to find rocks without going outside!"

Hermione shrugged." I don't know. I just found them lying around. Besides, Hogwarts is a castle, Malfoy, if you haven't noticed. It's made up stone and sometimes pieces of stones break off, making pebbles."

"I know there's a barrier outside my room that prevents you from entering, but why use pebbles to get my attention inside when you could've used magic. You know, something a normal magical person would do?" said Draco. Just when Hermione was going to answer, Draco quickly added in a not-so serious tone. "Oh, right! I forgot you've lived in the Muggle world all your life. I suppose it's only common. Is this the muggle's way of gaining someone's attention? Throwing rocks at their doors?"

Hermione stuck her tongue out. "Actually, your blind shot in the dark actually hit the target, Malfoy, except that we throw rocks at windows, not doors. It's something I've heard muggle teens do, though I don't know why."

"Of course," replied Draco. "So, how was the talk with Weasley? Was it pleasant? What happened?" He took a seat on the sofa, on the far left. Hermione did the same, but she sat on the far right side.

"Well, he said I could kill him if I wanted and that he wouldn't blame me," Hermione said looking up and bobbing her head as if to reminiscence the episode.

Interested, Draco raised an eyebrow. "And did you?" he asked, half serious.

"For the love of Merlin!" Hermione cried. "Simply, no! I love Ron too much to do that to him."

Draco's fists clenched dangerously, and his jaws set. In an annoyed, irritated and angry voice, Draco forced himself to ask. " 'Love him'? "

Hermione obviously didn't notice and nodded. "Yes. I've known Ron in all my years at Hogwarts. How can I not? But actually…" Her voice softened. "During out talk, I realized I only loved him a brother."

As fast as his anger came, it left. "Brother, huh?" When Hermione nodded, Draco felt….to some extent, happy! "That's suppose to be good, right?"

Hermione replied, "Yes, because now that I've finally realized how I really, REALLY feel about Ron, I can move on with no hard feelings of anything in tow."

Draco grinned to himself. "Well said, Granger." To Draco, those words were music to his ears. The future of this bet looked so clear. No more emotional obstacles about Hermione and Ron to overcome anymore. Now it was all an open field. Not only that, but it was now open game.

** A/N: WASSUP! For those of you who reviewed, THANKS SOOO MUCH :D

To Gellia: THANKS for the helpful review. I too have felt that Hermione's a bit of a passive character :( But you've dawned it on me, so in this chapter i tried to bring her out more -_- ALSO! YES! Blaise actually is in Harry Potter so he is NOT an original character of mine. I did not know anything about Blaise until a few days ago, i did some research for the story because i was a bit rusty because i havent picked up an HP book in 3 years. As i read, Blaise is actually the POLAR opposite of how i portray him! He's more of a closed-in chap, doesn't find any romantic interests in any girls, hangs out with Draco but doesn't so much hold him as all high and mighty like other slytherins do due to his father being in the trusty death eater circle. He's his own person, dedicated to his own views, well collected and not at all goofy-ish and, in my opinion, Australian like! I dont know why, but when i right the things blaise does and says, he reminds me of an Australian. AND like Draco, he favors blood purity -_- He's in the 6th movie. Doesn't have any lines but has appearances. Funny part was during Slughorns slug club dinner.

To Clover108: THANKS for the review and the idea! Actually, I already do have something very similar to that in the climax of the story. YES although i have no idea how I'll get to the climax, i HAVE the climax all planned out. All dramatic-like and what-not. Not TOO dramatic. OH NOES! haha :D And i would LOVe to reply to my reviewers but to reply you have to send a private message, i believe? it's not like on Deviantart where i can quickly reply to the commenter without going to another page then click back then click reply again. Also i cant reply to some of these review D: It doesnt have the 'reply back' button!

Please if you see any typos, tell me!

I should put the Disclaimers up.

HP (C) JK ROWLING

TOM FELTON (C) JADE OLIVIA GORDON! BUT YOU WAIT! YOU WAIT UNTIL I BECOME 18! I WILL FLY TO LONDON, SERENADE TOM FELTON AND IMPRESS HIM WITH MY LACROSSE SKILLZ!