Hello there! A little geography perhaps? I'm on the bus right now. I guess I had an idea and thank God I brought my laptop to uni today otherwise I would have long forgotten by the time I get home as to what my idea actually was. I do that a lot. I'm working on it, guys. Haha.

So, like most authors on this site (though not ALL as some are just kids experimenting with language, expression and imagination), I want to encourage you all to leave a review. Not for the sake of my story having a million reviews; no, that's not it at all. As a person posting on here, I only write for myself (sorry, it's selfish but it's true), but my story is up here because I want to hear general feedback on what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong and what I can do to get better. I'm really far from being the authors I look up to (seriously, if Hemingway were still alive, he'd have a restraining order out against me already) and any pointers would seriously be incredibly appreciated and helpful. So I hope you get what I'm trying to say.

Thanks for sticking with me.

Okay, I'll stop with the talking now and hope you enjoy this chapter!

Love, Starky

Disclaimer: If this were mine, I would definitely make Hermione and Draco get together in the real books. But sadly it's not and they're, apparently, destined to be enemies forever.

Chapter Ten

"Blaise, how do you know that you're in love with Ginny?"

His friend's eyebrows shot up into his dark fringe. "Are you in love?"

Draco rolled his eyes and then proceeded to give his friend an impatient look. "Of course I'm not. I'm looking out for you here; how are you sure that what you have is love and not some form of animalistic lust?"

Blaise rolled his eyes back at him. "Of course, I'd almost forgotten. Draco Malfoy doesn't know how to love."

He made a flicking motion in the air with his hand, as if brushing away the comment. "It doesn't matter if I do or not. The main point is how do you know?"

Blaise sighed, sinking lower into the couch, a look on his face that showed that his mind had clearly just deserted him. "It's the feeling that you want that person. And only them. Everything else just loses purpose without her. And then there are the little things. Like, Ginny, when she gets angry, her face turns a horrible shade of red."

"And that's endearing? That's what you call love? Anger?" Draco was obviously confused.

"No, it's more than that. It's that frustrated look on her face when she can't figure out how to turn an oven on."

"Anger and stupidity is what has attracted you to this girl?"

Blaise laughed and Draco continued. "And I'm sure there are a thousand people who can do that."

Blaise sighed, knowing his friend just didn't get it. "It's not that there are others who can do it. It's that only you love it when she does it."

Blaise was right; Draco didn't get it. He knew perfectly well that Hermione knew how to preheat an oven.

"When you know, you just know."

Hermione frowned. None of the romance novels she'd devoured as a girl has prepared her for this.

"What?"

"You'll just know. Trust me."

Hermione regarded her fearfully. "But how do you know?" It wasn't explained in any books and there was no spell that could reveal the truth about this. Unless, a little Veritaserum and-

"Hermione?" Ginny asked, her brown eyes worried. "You're not in love with Malfoy are you?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, no, Ginny! Of course not!" he voice quavered and unfortunately for her, Ginny heard.

"You are."

It took her exactly five and a half seconds to break down. "Oh my God, I am! What am I going to do now?!"

Ginny's eyes rounded comically. "Well, it's not bad."

"Not bad?!" Hermione exploded, "It's the end of my life! I can't be in love with someone like that! He throws his belongings everywhere! He has no sense of humility and his favourite past-time is making fun of those who are less fortunate or wealthy than he is!"

"No need to be so dramatic, Hermione. People change."

Hermione turned to look at her. "Do you really think Malfoy is capable of that?"

Storming around the bedroom, Hermione huffed and glared at everything. The table got a sharp smack to its top, Hermione bringing her hands down forcefully and angrily.

"Dammit!" she cursed at Crookshanks who'd just slinked into the room. "I'm in love with the insufferable git! Love! Me! With him!"

Crookshanks gave her a blank look but she wasn't really expecting too much sympathy from a cat who hated the man in question.

"Well, damned if I'm going to lose this to him!" she huffed again, slinking into a chair. Crookshanks leapt up onto her lap, glaring at her.

"What are you glaring at me for?"

The cat gave her a look that clearly showed its opinion of her mental capacity.

Hermione gently smoothed away from fur from his head. "Crookshanks, what have you got against him?"

Cats don't talk back, silly.

"The cat is a menace. But I'm sure he won't talk back."

She didn't even need to turn around to figure out who it was. "Malfoy, I happen to take my cat's opinion of others quite seriously, thank you."

She turned to look at him. He was leaning against the doorway, his hands in his pockets and a bemused smirk planted on his face.

"Plus, I'm sure you've talked to pets and inanimate objects before."

"It's more of a commoner's thing to do, isn't it? For those people who have no other friends."

She glared at him. "Are you saying I have no friends?"

She knew he was baiting her and she let him, driving her anger towards him in waves.

He merely smirked and raised his shoulders in a shrug. "Do you, Hermione?"

Suddenly, she was out of her seat and trying to leave the room. "Malfoy," she pushed him out of the way, making him stumble slightly. "I do have friends. And unlike you, I didn't have to buy them."

The shocked expression didn't leave his face until she'd rounded the corner and down the large staircase.

He shook his head at himself. Just when he'd thought they'd reached a bit of a standstill point in their relationship, he had to reinforce her hatred in him! He'd never-

He'd never what though? Get the girl? Malfoy's never got the girl; the girl got the Malfoy. He'd been taught to believe that he was a necessity and a commodity within society; that whoever married him should be elated to monstrous proportions.

And yet, Granger wasn't elated. Sure, they'd held hands in their sleep and had a few drunken nights but that was absolutely no reason to think that she reciprocated his feelings.

And was he sure he was in love with her? It seemed that Blaise's explanation did absolutely nothing to aid him in his quest for knowledge of romance. Of course he could read a book on the subject but it was too tender and sensitive of a topic to gain information from books on.

Besides, that was Hermione's style. Not his.

The orange fluff ball stalked past him, throwing him a look of extreme contempt.

Why he ought to...

That night, it was Draco's turn to pull the disappearing act.

By twelve that night, Hermione had been tossing and turning for one whole hour, wondering when she'd hear his footsteps in the hall and the creak of the door opening.

It had seemed strange that all of a sudden, like that tonne of proverbial bricks, everything had come crashing down onto her head. And it hurt. It hurt a lot.

Like anytime head injuries were sustained, there was a prolonged period of extreme uncertainly and confusion where the individual stumbled about in bewilderment until the headache cleared and it would all become known.

Unfortunately for Hermione, the tonne of bricks had created a haze that she couldn't find the exit to.

So she was in love. It was simple. Tell him.

No! Her inner ego burst forth, its timing completely inappropriate. Why should you be the one to tell him? He should be grovelling to you, already! The mighty Hermione-

Shut up, please.

Her ego wound itself tightly up into a little ball, preparing itself for the next time it would be utilised.

She knew which room was his. When they're first lived together in the manor, his had been the one he's stayed in, seven doors down and across the hall from hers.

But since the night they'd returned from the Hell-Honeymoon, the door had been locked.

No matter how many pushes, shoves, kicks and spells were thrown at it; the door remained stubbornly and resolvedly shut.

But tonight, it seemed that the door had finally been penetrated, a small crack opened that displayed its defeat.

Pushing the creak-less door open slightly, she tentatively poked her head around. The curtains were drawn and a bright candle flickered alone on the table. Papers, quills and a certain Draco Malfoy were sprawled over the table, the latter with his left cheek pressed against a few sheets of parchment that required his attention and signature.

Hermione allowed herself a small smile of amusement– the Great Malfoy is human after all! –and crept into the room softly.

His breathing was bordering on hilarious and comical snoring and each breath sounded like it was making it worse.

The smile was back, this time threatening to spill into the realm of full blown guffaws if she didn't think about something else.

He looked like a small child, his almost snores loud and his arms spread all over the table.

She should definitely wake him and make him sleep in a normal bed.

But she found herself tracing his face with her gaze, trying to commit everything to memory just as it was; she wasn't sure when she'd next get the opportunity to see him so still and up close again.

Hermione prided herself on punctuation and being early. And yet, every day, when she'd open her eyes, he was gone, disappeared into the bathroom or already having floo-ed to work.

His eyelashes crinkled against his cheek, a hitch rose in his throat and he sighed, loudly.

That was it. Hermione let herself laugh freely and loudly, throwing care to the wind to be lifted, along with her mood and brick induced coma.

Malfoy, hearing the noisy laughter, stirred and both of his eyes opened a crack, to take in the sight of a woman, bent over in laughter, her hair wild and her face red.

"Whassa matter?" he asked, the sleep keeping a hold on his mind for that extra few moments.

"You – You – " she tried to choke out. "You are hilarious when you're sleeping!"

"Hilarious? I most certainly am not!" His left cheek retained some marks from the edge of the papers, pressed into his face and Hermione found that as another reason to allow laughter to control her body.

Her lungs and stomach ached and she felt small tears well in her eyes. She couldn't stop, no matter how much she wanted to at that moment and the furious expression on his face didn't help put an end to her loud chortling.

Finally, after an exorbitant amount of time, she stopped laughing, a few more chuckles escaping before silence rang in the room obnoxiously.

"Find something funny, Granger?"

She shot him a large beam. "You sleep like a baby."

"You'll be pleased to note that I sleep like any other adult on the planet, soundly and peacefully."

"I'm surprised you even know what peacefully means."

He rolled his eyes. After a few paused moments, he narrowed his eyes at her. "Did you come looking for me?"

Feeling something overcome her– was it her inner wild child? Her long lost and forgotten sense of 'fun'? –she deliberately moved closer towards him, leaning against the table, mere centimetres from him.

"I did. Is that a problem?" Good God, she was flirting with him!

Thankfully he was too obtuse to notice in his present state of mind.

"No, not at all. Let's go to bed."

Picking up his wand, he stretched his hands over his head to pull out the kinks and stood, giving her a sleepy look.

She wasn't about to point out that his bed, in the very room, was there for him if he needed it and lead him out of his own bedroom and into hers.

The bed was welcoming after her midnight prowl and sleep was almost instantaneous.

But only after she allowed him to slip his hand into hers, letting out a few more giggles.

"It's not funny. I sleep like an adult."

"Hermione, have you seen Ginny?"

"Oi, Malfoy, where's Blaise? He's not at home."

"So you've lost your best friend." The smirk in the tone was hard to miss.

A frown followed by a similar smirk. "So have you, may I point out."

"They are together, I presume."

"And they've been getting very upset over the fact that the ministry won't allow them to unite in magical matrimony."

"I see. You're obviously thinking what I'm thinking."

"Yes, of course. But where?"

"My money is on Vegas; cheap, easy and legally binding."

"Is it magically binding?"

"Yes, the ministry recognises them."

"Then that's it; they've eloped."

"Should we go and find them?"

"No need, I can assure you that my best friend is extremely forward thinking and will arrive back home, significant other in tow."

"Forward thinking? I think not." A loud scoff followed by a roll of the eyes.

"Well, I'm sure more so than yours."

"Ginny?" Hermione cracked an eye open, staring into the darkness. "Where are you?"

The owl had come late, three days after Ginny's disappearance. Mrs. Weasley had almost suffered a heart attack, followed by monstrous amounts of cooking and cleaning, when she's found Ginny's letter of apology. She calmed when Ginny sent an own two days later, explaining her situation and plan of action.

But now, Hermione stood alone on a large spread of grass, behind all the trees, at a park near the Zabini mansion, waiting for her friend to show.

She'd ran out of the house as soon as she'd gotten Ginny's owl, explaining time and place, without a word, past the house elf at the door and out of the intimidating iron gates.

Apparating to the park, her disappointment rose as she found Ginny absent. After waiting what seemed like half an hour, Ginny still strangely not in attendance, Hermione was about to apparate back to Malfoy Manor when a small squeak from behind her caused her to brandish her wand menacingly in front of her.

"Who's there?" her voice betrayed no sign of her inner fear even though she felt like apparating home.

Another squeak and Hermione muttered "Lumos", her wand lighting up. The glow illuminated onto three bodies, one struggling.

"Astoria?"

The blonde gave a scoff. "Yes," she hissed. "I'm glad you recognised me. After you stole my husband and everything."

"He's not your husband," Hermione tried to gently explain, noticing her sister, Daphne holding a struggling body. "Please let Ginny go."

Astoria narrowed her eyes, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think so. Not until after you give him back!"

Hermione tried to reason. "Look, Astoria, you know the magical law, we can't divorce until-"

Daphne smirked, her eyes darting between her sister and Hermione.

"Yes, I know the ridiculous law. Now, what do I need to do to your little friend to get you to agree to a little premature divorce?"

Ginny narrowed her eyes, a completely murderous look on her face. The cloth around her mouth prevented what Hermione was sure would be extremely colourful language erupting.

A moment of silence and Ginny brought her foot down heavily onto Astoria's dainty heels.

"Ow!"

Hermione took her chance to stupefy Daphne and yell, a little too loudly, "Exepelliarmus!" Astoria's wand flew towards Hermione who caught it and held it tightly.

"Astoria, he's not mine to steal."

The fury in the look she threw Hermione was enough to unnerve her slightly. "He belongs with me, not you. Ever since Hogwarts, it was obvious. Me. Not you; no, it was never meant to be you."

Hermione allowed herself a small frown. "And there's a clear difference between me and you?"

Astoria threw her eyes heavenward, "Granger, does the term Pureblood mean anything to you?"

"I can assure you that it does not. Now, please untie my friend and get away from me."

Ginny was struggling against her and the eyes of the blonde narrowed calculatingly before she pushed Ginny towards Hermione.

Hermione gave her a tired look before untying Ginny with a flick of her wand.

As soon as the cloth was removed from Ginny's mouth, the redhead frowned, and exploded. "What the hell do you think you're doing, you crazed woman?! Hermione is ten times the person that you are and if you think that Malfoy will leave her from you then you have another think coming!" Ginny dug for her wand and before she could mutter any spells, Astoria grabbed Daphne's arm and apparated them both away.

"What the bloody hell was that?!"

Hermione stared at the spot they'd been just a few moments ago. "What were they planning to do? Astoria's a Slytherin but I know that even she wouldn't harm you."

"She's not tough enough for that, Hermione. Her mental capacity is too small."

"Ginny, she's not stupid. Just jealous."

"Trust you to say that."

Hermione sighed, pulling Ginny through the cluster of trees and into the lit up park. "Now tell me, was it Vegas? I have a lot riding on it."

Ginny looked completely aghast. "Did you not realise what just happened? Astoria Greengrass crazily accosted you and demanded you return what isn't hers. Doesn't that make you a little mad?"

Hermione laughed at that, loud and humorously. "Ginny, she's hardly worth the trouble."

Ginny frowned for a bit more until she blinked twice and beamed. "For your information, it was Paris."

Hermione's shocked expression didn't leave her face for a good ten minutes. "No! I've always harboured a secret fantasy to get married in Paris!"

Ginny giggled. "Well, Paris for Husband Number Two then?"

When she arrived home after making sure Ginny wasn't abducted again, Hermione was confronted at the front door by a distressed looking Draco.

"And where have you been?"

Hermione threw him a two raised eyebrows. "I was out. And what are you, my babysitter?"

"No Hermione, I'm your significant other and therefore, when you disappear without a word, I am entitled to become worried."

"There was no need. Ginny sent me an owl."

"And?"

"Paris."

"NO! I was so sure it was Vegas!"

"She's lucky. The next husband I find, I'm making him propose to me in Paris."

Draco looked slightly amused. "Oh yes, the poor lovesick fool."

"At least he won't be with me for money," she flashed a smile and ducked around him to retreat to her room.

Later that night, she was reading a book in front of the open window, the breeze causing her pages to flip gently.

"So I guess you won the bet."

Hermione smirked; she did and now she was able to claim her prize.

Swivelling to face him, she raised an eyebrow. "Are you ready?"

"Malfoy's are always prepared."

She completely expected that. "I know."

"I think they would've opted for the Vegas option really, it's fast and quick."

"Malfoy, I really think they have a bit more class than that."

"Care to make this interesting?"

"I always am." She winked! At him! Winked!

"Alright then, if you're right and they choose a different destination, then you'll get to ask me anything with my promise that I will answer completely truthfully."

"Completely?"

"Absolutely."

"So, what is the question, Hermione?"

She stood and moved as close to him as she dared. "Malfoy."

"Yes?"

"What are your feelings towards me?"

His throat closed and his heart began a rapid tap dance in his ribcage, trying to dance itself out.

Of everything she could have picked, she chose this?

"I-" he began.

"I think that you-"

Her eyes were expectant, rounded and extremely curious as if they were just asking "Yes?" at him.

"I think that you are the best thing to happen to me in a while."

Thanks for reading! I'm posting this up in the uni library, it's 11 in the morning and I never usually post this early (or late, wherever you are!) so I'm feeling quite good on the inside. So, I have these terrible things called exams coming up soon so please don't hang for an update soon; I'm totally slack and uni is kicking my ass so it may be a while; sorry! But please hang in there with me.

Anyway, as I said, please leave some comments and general feedback on this story and tell me what I'm doing right or wrong, it'd be excellent!

So I thank you all again for reading and until next time, I hope you all have a good one. (Actually, I have no idea what this means, maybe it's Aussie lingo but someone's been saying it to me a lot and therefore, I'm wishing you all a good "one").

Love; Starky

P.S I've started watching The Vampire Diaries. Help, I'm in love with Damon but he's a complete dickhead. Is this normal? Are you team Stefan or do you, like me, have a huge soft spot for the asshole-ish Damon? ;)

Tiadorable: Whoa dudes! Thanks so much for the beta-ing! Owe you big time!

Mentarisenja: I'm so glad you're back! Thanks for reviewing and I hope to hear more from you soon! ;)

Gwens_Faith: Exactly! I hate it when people hide things from me and no doubt, they'll both hate it too. ;)

Jenny Brooks: Thanks! Hope you liked this chapter too!

Catastrophecolly: Thanks! I'm really glad that you like it. Hope to hear from you again! ;)

2angelwings: Thanks so much! I know there's not much winning in this chapter but never fear, I have something planned for next! =D

Mysecretisfatallygorgeous: Guiding Light is good. But I'm totally addicted to Unnatural Selection right now. That song is totally my ringtone. Now, I just have to find a way to see them at BDO this year in Sydney. They're headlining and that makes me unable to sleep. In the best way! Thanks for the review! ;)

JillianUnleashed: Thanks so much for always having incredibly wonderful advice! And rest assured that it's all been taken into account and it makes for some wonderful inspirational tips when writers block targets me. I hope you enjoyed this one as half of it was from your idea! Thanks a million! Love, Starky ;)

padfootsgrl79: Haha, hi5! Though, there might be a wait for the next chapter. Hope you still hang around for it. ;)

Ihatetosayitoldyouso: Haha! I hope you liked this chapter too! ;)

FaithfulHPReader: Hooray for twitter! Thanks for your reviews!!

twilight chick 4 eva: Thanks for that review! It was like a little ray of sunshine that beamed right into my drab and rainy Sydney day.

mommylee963: Thanks for that great review! Haha, the designer will defs be hanging around more often.

MaLFoyMaiDeN: Hey! I was getting sad that you weren't reviewing anymore! I thought it was something wrong with my story =( But I'm really glad that you are back and that you reviewed every single chapter again. You have no idea, I got back from a terrible day at uni and saw those and seriously, it was a GREAT feeling. Hope to hear more from you! ;)

Jazii26: I'm really glad you liked it and hope to hear from you again!