Author's Note: Hey, all! Long time no see much?? My laptop recently crashed, and on it all my documents were lost. I had this story pre-written, but all those files were lost, so now I have to continue from scratch, and that's why the update took so long. Things will e out faster if I had reviews! It adds fuel to my engine! With out further ado, here is the latest chapter of Girl With The Red Ribbon.

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"Miss Brightman, can you please answer my question?" Professor McGonagall asked slightly agitated, for Elly had not been focused the entire lesson.

"The reasons for the Americans dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were definitely just. It was either that or have the allied troops suffer some three million more causalities!"

The eyes of the sixth years in McGonagall's Transfiguration class turned to Elly. They were probably wondering when they were going to send her off to the insane asylum.

"This isn't AP American history is it…?"

"This is Transfiguration, Elly. And uh…you're in England," Ron said from her left side.

Elly flushed with embarrassment. Leave it up to her to make a fool of herself in front of her classmates. That was to be expected of her, though. But today, the pupils of Hogwarts were all over her today, because today was the first day where she was not attached to the notorious Draco Malfoy. For the past two weeks, they had been handcuffed together for 'quality bonding reasons,' according to Dumbledore. Well quality bonding her ass. It was probably Snape's idea of kinky adolescent bondage. But the real issue to Elly was how the hell she survived those two weeks. Actually, she was exaggerating. It wasn't THAT bad, according to her standards of bad. It definitely could have been worse. She could have been handcuffed to Snape, per say. At least Draco had no problems with personal hygiene. It was an overstatement to say that things were chummy between Elly hand Draco. In truth, she had never felt more awkward around him. The day that they were initially cuffed, he had kissed her. Not that him kissing her was anything new, but something about that kiss didn't sit right with her. Deep down in her subconscious she knew what it was. She had enjoyed it.

"Ten points from Ravenclaw," McGonagall said tersely. "Hopefully the deduction will teach you to pay attention more."

"Sauced," Harry smirked from Elly's right side.

Elly stifled a laugh. She was slowly beginning to Americanize Harry and Ron.

The bell soon rang, signaling the end of class. Elly got up and gathered her things. Just when she thought she was free, she heard McGonagall's stern voice calling her. Elly begrudgingly walked over to the strict woman. "Professor, I'm sorry that I haven't been paying the attention that your lessons deserve. I just have so much on my mind right now, it's hard to concentrate on anything else," Elly tried to butter her up.

"I'm sorry, Brightman, but boy problems are not an excuse to be slacking on your studies, or in the classroom."

"What makes you think it's a guy problem?" Elly nervously bit her lip. McGonagall nailed it dead on, it was a guy problem.

"Your relationship with Mr. Malfoy is quite a spectacle. There is some debate amongst the faculty that it is better than watching a soap opera!" McGonagall grinned.

Elly was officially sauced. "It is..?" She almost whimpered.

"It is indeed. But please, do keep your personal life and studies separate. I dare not say how it will affect your N.E.W.T scores. That is all," McGonagall dismissed her.

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Elly ended up near the Slytherin dungeons and lauighed at the irony. Just then, she realized how messed up things really were. There were three things Elly was sure of. One, she absolutely despised Draco Malfoy. Two, Elly liked, not loved, Draco Malfoy, and tree, she didn't know what the hell she was going to do about it. "Well this just flat out sucks!" She groaned aloud.

"Is there anything I can do to ease the pain of it all?" Came a silky voice.

There was no need for Elly to turn around to see who it belonged too. She knew that voice all too well, along with the arrogant smirk that came with it. "Where have you been for the past couple of days?" she asked quietly.

"Let's just call it hibernation," Draco said vaguely.

"Okay, how was your 'hibernation', big bear?"

He scratched the back of his neck, "It was good, I had the opportunity to think some stuff over, you know?"

"What did you think over?"

"Something along the lines of us."

"That's a dangerous topic, Draco, sure you want to go there?" Elly raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I was thinking, and I was feeling quite philosophical and crap, about who we are."

Elly couldn't help but snicker, which earned her a glare from Draco. "Sorry, Rousseau, please continue."

"We're like a twisted version of Romeo and Juliet. We hate each other instead of our parents. We have so much potential together, but we can't make it work because we're so different. But at the same time I think that's what makes us so perfect for each other, Elle. I know you're thinking that what I'm saying is complete bullshit, but look me in the eyes when I say it's not. Don't deny that we don't have anything. It's common sense. It's as simple as 1 plus 1. In this case, one plus one equals us. You're the ying to my yang. The cheese to my macaroni."

"Did you just say I was the cheese to your macaroni?"

"I know Juno's your favorite movie, and that you think Paulie Bleaker is your soul mate."

"You know I love awkward guys, Draco."

"Well we're awkward together. You know, if somebody told me last year that I would be completely infatuated with an American, outrageous, silly, weird, smartass Ravenclaw named Elly I wouldn't have believed them. I would have said, 'go check yourself into a mental institution.' But it seems that fate had you in store for me, and for once I'm not complaining."

Elly sniffled. She couldn't believe she was actually crying over Draco's speech. It was everything she had ever wanted to hear from a guy, other than the part where they turn around and say, "oh yeah, I'm also really Orlando Bloom."

"Are you crying?" Draco walked over to her and wiped the stray tears off her face with his thumbs.

"How do I know you're not shitting me?" She asked quickly pulling away from his embrace.

"Elly, I can assure you that no guy would stay in their room for three days straight planning out what to say to a girl if they didn't mean it."

"Guys say a lot of things. Some guys will go as far as tattooing themselves to get in a girl's pants."

"Well I'm not like any other guy."

Elly wanted to believe him so badly it hurt. "So where does this leave us?" She finally said.

"I'm willing to try if you are."

Elly reached into her pocket, and handed him something. "Only if you use these."

"Condoms?"

"Oh come on, they're strawberry scented!" She said playfully.

Draco only rolled his eyes as he bent down to kiss her. He was stopped short when a stunning curse it him square in the back.

"Don't listen to him, Elly!" came the hard voice of none other than Ron Weasley.

A/N: I know you all love cliffhangers! Well Merry Chrismukkah to all! 