Hermione folded up the parchment she wrote the new "note" that contained the invitation to "Ron" to meet her once again, same time, same place.

It said:

"Dear Ron,

Could we meet again, same time, in the Common Room next week? I think we need to talk about you know what.

Yours always, no matter what,

Hermione"

Simple and straight to the point, thought Hermione with a satisfied grin, and not the least bit suspicious. I hope. Tucking the letter into her book bag, she ran off for the first class of the day. She'd have to wait for Transfiguration class at 3 to set their plan in motion.

She met Ron and Harry for lunch at the Gryffindor table as she usually did. As she sat on the bench twirling the spaghetti with her fork, she noticed Draco sitting with his friends, but he wasn't smiling or talking with them. Pansy kept trying to include him in the conversation, batting her eyelashes and flipping her hair, but Draco didn't seem to notice. After a while, she gave up, and he was left to himself. He seemed to spend a lot of time gazing at the table adorned with red-and-gold ties that had been hastily untied and taken off for the lunch hour.

"Hey, Granger, someone's staring at you." Dean Thomas snickered and pointed over at Draco. The Slytherin noticed and looked away quickly, his face flushing. "I think someone may be crushing hard on you." Dean sneered.

"Excuse me, don't talk about guys crushing on my girlfriend, thank you very much!" Ron said, slamming his plate on the table.

"Probably especially since it's Draco," whispered Seamus, and he and Dean laughed under their breath.

"What?" Ron demanded, looking at the boys suspiciously.

"Nothing, Ron." Both of them said simultaneously.

Hermione turned her attention away from the guys' conversation and continued to watch Draco. His green tie hung loosely from his collar, and his bleach blonde hair hung in front of his face as he slowly placed bite after bite into his mouth.

Even if his father is a racist bigot, he did teach his son manners at least, Hermione thought. Her lips began to tingle a little bit, remembering the kiss that she and Draco had shared in the library when he came to tell her about the court case. Was that real? Did he feel anything more than she did? Was this a game for him? Was he the one trying to hurt Ron? She thought about it. They had been mortal enemies ever since they started at Hogwarts. Why should she expect him to change almost overnight? Their conversations had been so wonderful, but he had specifically told her that he wasn't her friend.

Will I use the information you give me to ruin your life? Yes, I probably will.

Those were the words he told her when he asked her to tell him her problems. He knew how much Ron wanted to have sex with her, and how much she was refusing. He knew all about her pitiful little life.

"I am such an idiot!" Hermione cursed out loud.

"Hermione? Are you ok?" Ron looked at her with concern. Hermione stood up with her plate.

"I'm fine. I have to go get ready for class." Ron shrugged and let her be.

Draco noticed Hermione leaving the dining hall hurriedly. Excusing himself from the table, he didn't even bother to take his plate to the kitchen before chasing Hermione down the hall.

"Hermione, wait!" Draco stopped to catch his breath. He was really out of shape, despite playing Quidditch. Studying for midterms had caused him to lay off practicing for a few weeks.

"Why should I, Draco?" Hermione spun around fifty feet away from the Slytherin boy, shouting down the hallway. "I should have known that you didn't really like me! I should have known this was all some stupid trick to get inside our circle and hurt us all. I should - I should have known." She fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands.

Draco recovered and ran the rest of the distance between him and Hermione. "What the deuce are you talking about? What makes you think that I was the one to pretend to be Ron? If I was the one to do the awful deed, why would I call him out on it, without finding out if he had an alibi? Why wouldn't I just try to convince you to hate him? If I was the one to have done it, and didn't really care about you, I wouldn't have said anything. I would have probably just whispered it around the school and allowed people to form their own, hateful opinions about it and allowed Ron to become so outcast that he'd probably leave Hogwarts on his own. That's how I would've done it."

Hermione looked up at Draco, who was sitting next to her on the hallway floor. The cobblestones were hard and actually rather uncomfortable. She shifted her weight and ended up leaning against his chest. "I-I don't know what to say. I'm sorry, Draco. I don't know what made me think it was you. I guess I'm just so upset by all that is happening, I-I have no excuse, really." Tears streamed down her face.

"There, there, don't cry," Draco cooed as he wiped the tears away. He lifted her chin with his hand. "Listen, I totally understand why you'd think it was me. I get it. But let's just go to Transfiguration, wait for the person to meet you again, and then we will have our second Ronald, ok?" He smiled encouragingly.

Hermione smiled back, and sighed, "Ok, Draco, let's do this." Draco helped her to her feet, and they walked away to pass the time until class with McGonagall began.