Okay so you probably have realized that I didn't want to update till I had read the book. Although it didn't really matter to this story as I has already disregarded the sixth but I still felt I should wait in case I was taking some characters in the complete wrong direction. To me, all characters in fanfiction still need to reflect the original characteristics that they have been given, kind of ironic since this is a Dramione huh. But still I stick by it. But the main reason I wanted to see where the Seventh was going is coming up in the next few chapters when the sinister part of the story comes in. You didn't think that it was going to be all butterflies and pumpkin juice now did you? No its about to get serious, well sort of.

So after much consideration I have decided to stick to the original plan with a few minor tweaks. Although in an ideal world I would change the beginning and have the story start when the Trio return to do their final year after the war so they can get their N.E.W.T's. I think it would fit in nicely but alas it can not. Maybe in years to come I will go back and rewrite it. But i doubt it.

Anyways! I hope you still are enjoying my story and don't forget to leave a review, they make all the difference.

Oh the pain! The torturous pain! Draco woke up and as soon as he had tried to move a splitting headache rushed through his mind. It was like someone had taken a knife and split his head in two. He slowly forced his eyes open and found that the light from the window was blinding him completely. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and rubbed the back of his head trying to ease the pain.

"What did I do last night?" Draco thought to himself. He could not remember much of the night before. Flashes of it spun in his head.

The fight with Hermione.

The makeover in the girl's room.

The punch. All seven glasses of it.

Dancing on the table.

Walking back to the common room.

Dancing on the table. Again.

Falling off the table.

Landing on Hermione.

Kissing Hermione...

"OH. MY. GOD." Draco remembered that piece of last night vividly. He put his head in his hands. How could he do something so stupid. He didn't have feelings for her. He would rather kiss Hagrid.

But if he had to guess he'd probably say that she was a better kisser than Hagrid. Much better. Arr why was he thinking these things. And what had happened after that?

You threw up.

"Oh, that's right. Well at least I had the right reaction from kissing her." He told himself.

No you didn't, you enjoyed it. His mind replied.

"Oh shut up." Draco said out loud.

Draco winced as he got out of bed. He noticed he was in his pajamas instead of the red dress.

"Well I guess I must have passed out too," He said to himself. He walked out of his room and peered into the common room looking for any signs of Hermione. He could see none so made a dash for the door. He was almost there when the door opened and the one person he really did not want to see was on the other side.

"Oh, hey," It seemed Hermione was feeling just as awkward about the whole thing as well.

"Hey, I'm going to breakfast," Draco passed her without making eye contact. He really didn't want to deal with the awkwardness.

Hermione's heart was racing a mile a minute. She could tell after that awkward encounter that Draco did remember the night before. She groaned and collapsed on the couch putting her head in her hands. What the hell were they going to do? As if it wasn't weird enough between them, being in each others bodies and all, but now they had to throw kissing into the equation.

"I'll have to pretend it never happened," Hermione told herself, "It would just be too awkward if we actually discussed it."

But something deep down, in the tips of her toes, was telling her she didn't want to ignore it.

Draco walked into the great hall and made his way to the Gryffindor table. By now it had become a habit to go there instead of the Slytherin, it felt normal. But this morning Draco picked up a different vibe as soon as he sat down. He looked up at the other people sitting there and was shocked to notice that most of them were staring back at him and whispering to the person next to them. It seemed Draco's little show the night before had created quite a stir within the house. The head girl did after all dance on a table.

Draco grumbled and looked down at his plate while eating so he could avoid the annoying stares. He didn't look up again until he heard a familiar voices.

"Hey 'Mione," Harry greeted her as he sat down opposite Draco. Ron sat down next to Harry but strangely didn't greet Draco. He seemed nervous for some reason.

Draco didn't have time to think about it though as Ginny slid into the seat next to her.

"So how are we feeling this morning?" She joked as she hit Draco playfully in the arm.

""We are feeling like crap," Draco replied bitterly.

"I bet, how much did you drink last night?" Ginny started buttering her toast.

"Too much." Draco's mind returned to the disturbing events of the night before.

Ginny and Harry laughed a little at his pain. Ron strangely remained quiet. Draco didn't really care though and decided he really wasn't up for the company of other people. He got up to leave.

"Wait," Ron said a little too loudly which made Draco wince in pain. Ginny and Harry looked at Ron oddly, they too had picked up on the strange behavior. Ron ignored them and walked up to where Draco was waiting for him next to the door.

"What is it, Ron?" Draco really wasn't in the mood.

Suddenly Ron lost the power to speak. He had something to say but just didn't know how to say it. Finally he found the words, "Um I was just wondering if you want to do rounds together tonight?" He asked awkwardly.

"Sure." Draco said roughly, his hangover getting the better of him. He would have said anything to get rid of Ron at that moment.

"Great!" Ron's face broke out into a smile.

Draco grumbled a goodbye and trudged towards the common room. He was not having a good day.

Little did he know it was going to get worse. Much worse.

For the rest of the day Hermione and Draco avoided each other. Luckily both had mountains of work to do so Draco went to the library to study while Hermione stayed in the common room. Neither knew how long they would be avoiding each other but both knew that it could not last forever. Sooner or later they would have to deal with the matter. The only other time they crossed paths was in the common room when Hermione was going to quiddich practice and Draco was heading off to do rounds with Ron.

Again neither could make eye contact and very few words passed between them. It also served to put Draco in an even worse mood when he met Ron to do rounds.

Luckily for him it seemed Ron was still suffering from the case of nervousness he had that morning.

They started walking down the halls of the third level silently so both were preoccupied with their own thoughts.

It wasn't until they were walking down the corridor on the second floor did Ron decide to speak. Unfortunately his nerves didn't permit for him to form a complete coherent sentence.

"We friends long time," Blubbered Ron. He had thought about this conversation countless times and he had to stop to remind himself to think before opening his mouth.

"Pardon?" Draco's mind had been somewhere else and he wasn't sure if Ron had actually had verbal vomit or if his fatigue was getting the better of him. Draco continued walking without looking at a now flustered Ron.

Ron took a deep breath and told himself to calm down. "Umm, I mean, you know, we hang out all the time." For some reason the conversation from sixth year when Hermione awkwardly asked him to Slughorn's party filtered into his mind.

"Yes." Draco rubbed his temple, missing the silence between them from only a few moments ago.

"And, well we always hand out with Harry, like all together," Ron sucked in his breath and prepared. If Draco was bothered enough to turn and actually look at Ron at that moment he would have probably thought he was having some sort of panic attack, "And I was thinking that, maybe someday we could just hang out together, without Harry."

Draco scoffed, "What you sick of him or something." He realized after he said it, it was a very un-Hermionish statement. Fortunately Ron was too pre-occupied to notice.

"No," Ron's brow furrowed. He had thought of all the reactions he might have gotten from Hermione once he had suggested this from her laughing in his face to swooning in his arms but not once did he think that she wouldn't realize he was asking her out. He had thought that after the party and the dancing that something had changed but maybe he was wrong. Well he was too far in now to back out. "I was just thinking we could, you know spend some time alone." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground.

Draco was incredibly confused, "What do you mean, we're alone now." 'Idiot' he added in his head.

Ron squeezed his eyes shut. 'For a smart girl she can be incredibly vague sometimes.'

"No I mean alone in like Hogsmede or something." Ron again returned his focus on the ground in front of him. They were now nearing the corridor which led to the Head's common room.

Draco's headache was returning rapidly. He still hadn't cottoned on. "But we are usually alone at Hogsmede too, cause Harry's always off snogging Ginny at that bloody tea shop." again a very un-Hermioneish statement.

Ron couldn't believe it. It was like she genuinely had no idea what he was asking. He thought he couldn't have been plainer if he had spelled it out. He groaned in frustration and took hold of Draco's wrist forcing him to look at his face.

Draco was finding Ron's behavior very strange and rather annoying but when Ron grabbed his hand he had had just about enough. Draco was just about to tell him off when Ron raised his free hand and stopped the sentence leaving his lips.

"Hermione, will you go to Hogsmede with me, alone, together," He realized the last part of question hadn't made sense, "On a date." He added before holding his breath and looking away.

Draco's mind took a couple of seconds to realize what Ron had just said, after that he did not know weather to laugh or vomit. He was being asked out by Ronald Weasley, on a date. It was the most surreal moment of his entire life. It was even more surreal than kissing himself.

'No, you kissed Hermione.' His mind chimed in. Great, that was the one memory he did not want to think about at that moment. He frowned.

Ron had returned his gaze to Draco so he could see any signs of whether his heart was about to get stepped on. And there it was, a frown. His whole being deflated a couple of inches. He took a step back and went on the defensive, "Forget I said anything."

Draco was snapped back to the present. Although he was thoroughly grossed out by the visual images he had just gotten and there was a small feeling in the pit of his stomach that was telling him to crush all of Ron's hopes of being with Hermione, another, much more powerful voice was telling him that if he didn't handle this problem the right way and do a bit of damage control he could come under speculation from other people who knew about Ron and Hermione's 'issues' as he liked to think of them.

Luckily for Draco he had had a lot of experience with turning down girls or breaking up with them. Although the lines that he fed them were utter horse crap, he usually was able to get out of the situation without them thinking he was a complete asshole or at least without them hexing him. And hey, if it was good enough for a dopey Hufflepuff girl it was good enough for a dimwitted Weasley.

"Look Ron," Draco started in his best Hermione voice. "I just don't think now is the best time for us to be getting involved. I mean with NEWT's this year and all my Head's duties I really don't have time to think about that kind of thing." Draco sympathetically patted Ron's shoulder, who seemed to ease considerably when he realized he was not going to laugh in his face.

"And anyway," Draco continued, "I would hate to have something happen when we have such a good friendship now." He was surprised he could come up with such good lines. He mentally patted himself on the back.

Ron looked up and smiled but disappointment was etched in his eyes, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Harry might feel a bit weirded out by it too." He tried to laugh but it came out hollow.

Draco didn't know why but for some reason he was saddened by the sight in front of him. Could it be possible that he felt sorry for the stupid git. He couldn't possible be starting to consider Ron as a friend. He shivered at the thought.

The two of them reached the door to the common room. "Well thanks for doing rounds with me." Ron said awkwardly as they stepped into the room. "Oh, I was also wondering if I could borrow your potions book. Neville covered mine in puss from that cactus so now the pages stick together." He tried to make the mood light again but failed somewhat.

Draco smiled at the sad attempt but went along with it anyway. "One second, it's in my room." Draco went to retrieve it. When he passed Hermione's room he suddenly realized that she wasn't back yet and even though training finished over half an hour ago. Although a million reasons of why she wasn't back ran though his mind, including the most obvious one, that she was still avoiding him, a streak of panic ran though him.

The panic grew substantially when he saw his room. The window was wide open and things were strewn all over the floor. Someone had been in there without him knowing. And if it was the someone that he thought it was Hermione was in a lot of danger, and she had no idea.

With the potion book completely forgotten, Draco ran from the room and back in the common room in a frantic manner. Ron was surprised to see him come in at such a fast pace.

"What's happened, What's wrong?" Ron asked clearly shocked at his state.

"Malfoy, trouble, quiddich," it was Draco's turn to not be able to form complete sentences.

"I know he's rubbish isn't he." And it was Ron's turn to completely miss the point.

Draco shook his head and took hold of the front of Ron's shirt forcing him to concentrate. "No Draco is in trouble at the quiddich pitch. We need to help him, he's in grave danger, now." Draco was becoming more panicky by the second.

Ron was suddenly serious as he took hold of Draco's hands forcing him to calm down, "Hermione whats going on? What trouble?"

"I can't explain right now." Draco realized he was just wasting time by talking to Ron. He had to get down there now before it was to late. He broke away from Ron and ran out the room with his wand in his hand, heading for the quiddich pitch. He knew then that if something happened to Hermione he would never be able to forgive himself.

Ron watched Draco leave in daze. What had just happened? And when had Hermione started caring what happened to Malfoy? Something strange was up and he needed to find out what it was. Ron ran out of the common room and went to find Harry and then they would go and find out what this trouble Malfoy had gotten himself into and more to the point why Hermione of all people was the one getting him out of it.

Hermione grumbled as she packed up her quiddich things. It had not been an easy practice. It seemed that her wondering mind, which always seemed to wonder back to the events of the night before, caused a severe lack of concentration which in turn resulted in her not seeing a bludger which landed squarely in her left shoulder.

She massaged it with her spare hand. She had to admit though, quiddich was getting easier. She still didn't enjoy the whole being so high that if you were to fall you would make an interesting splat mark on the ground below, but she had become more confident at flying. She had also found an ingenious way of avoiding awkward conversations and sights in the locker room. She would always make up an excuse for her to go to the supply closet. After a sufficient amount of time she would emerge and just catch the guys in time for them to leave for dinner and leave her in peace while she changed from training. She found that she was taking a little extra time today which she figured had something to do with the fact that she was still avoiding a certain someone that she lived with. She looked down at her watch and saw that he was probably getting back from doing rounds with ron right about now. But alas this could not go on forever so with a sigh she started to gather the last of her gear and head out the door.

As she left she noticed how dark it had gotten. Winter was definitely upon them and Hermione pulled her coat trying to keep the wind out as she trudged past looming trees up to the castle. But for some reason she didn't feel like she was alone, like someone was watching her. She quickened her pace and looked straight ahead. There was a rustle from the leaves beside her and she swore she saw something move. Her hand traveled down to her pocket as she fingered her wand.

And then she heard it. The most bone chilling voice which she could identify even before turning around. As soon as she head it she was rooted to the spot in fear. It belonged to the one person she never wanted to see again, the one person who made her breath hitch in her throat and body to shake uncontrollably.

"Draco."

And they were standing right behind her.