(Hey all! It's me again. Apologies to ChinaDollMaiden, because I feel like I was just pointing out a little mistake, and not taking in her actual review. She also has an awesome name! And thanks also to Weasley-Basher, you cheered me up :D Ron is a bit of a prat but we all love him really…don't we? also to Dreadfuldelights and Abbygreeneyes. So, now the stress is really kicking in for Hermione, how's she gonna take it? Will more people find out? There's only one way to find out…FIGHT! Oh wait, sorry, that's Harry Hill. DAMN I MISSED IT! Anyway, enjoy! DSOTM94)

"Harry, Ron, may I be allowed a short, violent outburst?" I asked calmly.

Ron started to say something that sounded like a yes, but I shouted, "DAMN!"

"Hermione, you've been so stressed lately!" Harry said, concerned.

"Is it…er…'that time of the month'?" Ron asked awkwardly.

Actually it was, but I wasn't about to let him know that. I sighed and said, "I'm just…stressed. Because of everything. You know. Exams and stuff. I am human, you know."

They nodded, and I found some scrap parchment, scribbled a note to the one person I could wholly trust, and sent it off with a school owl.

I sat in the late January air, it was a Sunday and I felt it. Glumly, I waited for ages until I heard the steps and the breath, and Draco Malfoy, my sort-of boyfriend (I still couldn't get used to it, after all, we had to meet in secret, and everyone was doing last minute homework now) came and sat with me behind the tree.

"Okay, I've got one." He says, putting on a false cheerful smile.

I didn't look up.

"A family of tomatoes are walking down the street and the littlest tomato is struggling to keep up, and the dad tomato says-"

"Ketchup." I said to my knees.

"Oh, you've heard it then?"

I didn't reply.

"I've been working hard you know, I even looked at a few Muggle jokes for you." He persists, like it was torture to do so.

I raised my eyebrows. "Go on then." I mutter.

"Okay, Three blokes go into a pub. Well, I say three; could be four or five."

I stared. "Could be nine or ten, doesn't matter." He continued. "Could have been fifteen, twenty - fifty. Round it up. Hundred. Let's go mad, eh - two-fifty. Tell you what, double it up - five hundred. Thousand! Oh, I've gone mad!"

What fresh hell?

"Two thousand! Five thousand!"

Then Draco began to adopt an auctioneer persona. "Anyone? Five thousand, six thou, six thousand, ten thousand! Small town in Hertfordshire goes into a pub! Fifteen thousand blokes! Alright, let's go - population of Rotterdam. The Hague. Whole of Northern Holland. Mainland U.K. Let's go all the way to the top - Europe, alright? Whole of Europe goes - I say Europe. Could be Eurasia. Not the band, obviously, that's just two of them."

I decided not to ask how he'd heard of the band. "Alright, continents - North America! Plus South America! Plus Antarctica - that's just eight blokes in a weather station. Not a good example. Alright, make it a lot simpler, all the blokes on the planet go into the pub, right? And the first bloke goes up to the bar and he says 'I'll get these in.' What an idiot."

I kept my head down.

"Okay, I'm sure I'll regret in many years asking this, but the way you worded that letter made it seem like a walk to the gallows. This had better be worth it. What's the matter?"

"I don't know. I don't even remember. It's just one of those girl moments where we get depressed for absolutely no reason whatsoever."

"So let me get this correct – you set a crazy owl on me and have me dragged away from my mates so I can cater to your completely irrational female emotional crisis? Let me guess, it's some biological whim?" It never ceased to amaze me how callous his words could be with his hands treating me so tenderly. "Explain to me at what point you thought this was a good idea."

I sat back to glare at him. "Oh I don't know, I guess I was just thinking that my boyfriend should be there for me when something's wrong."

"There is nothing wrong!" he cried, throwing his arms over his head in exasperation.

"Yes there is!"

"What?"

"I don't know!" I yelled, chest heaving with laboured breaths.

He stared for a minute before shaking his head in obvious bafflement. "I will never understand women."

I sniffed quietly, desperately trying to hold back my tears. He hated it when I cried. "Could you just…you know…be here for me?"

He sighed. "I don't know how to…" he scrunched up his features in distaste, "comfort you if you don't give me some sort of reason."

It was a whole month now, and he still acted like he was brand new to all of this. "I'm just not feeling well, alright? And like I just said, all you have to do is be here for me." What seemed like a full minute passed in which neither of us moved. Finally, growing impatient, I demanded, "Well?"

Draco put his hands up defensively. "What? You said be here. I'm here."

"Well you've got to do something!"

"You're being contradictory, I hope you know."

"Draco…."

"Alright, alright. Well…I s'pose we could go to my dorm and…you know…."

"Oh honestly, Draco, I can't even think about that right now." Unable to hold back the tears any longer, I wiped at them furiously and stood up. "I'm gonna go."

He scrambled to his feet and followed me, grabbing my right wrist and spinning me around to face him. "Hey, Granger, c'mon. Seriously, what's wrong?"

If I was looking at those eyes for much longer I'd collapse.

I whispered, "You don't know me at all."

"Hermione!" He caught up and matched my quick strides easily. "What do you mean? Is that why you were upset to begin with? Me?"

I came to a sudden halt and spun on him. "No, I already told you, I was just depressed for no reason! I sort of depended on you to lend just a smidgen of comfort, but obviously you have no clue about me and are completely incapable of that kind of caring, so why don't you just get back to your mates!"

"What do you mean I don't know you?" he demanded, once more following after me.

"I mean just what I said! You don't get me at all!" I took a deep breath, the truth of what I'd just said sinking in. "So…so maybe we should just forget this whole relationship thing."

He suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me right up against his chest. My heart was thudding heavily with anticipation, although I would have denied it at the time. "Now you listen here, bookworm, I know you better than you think. I know when you're happy, your eyes get all soft and light, but when you're angry like now, they get little specks in them, and when you're turned on they're practically black, and it means you really want to have sex with me, but you're terrified that will change everything.. I know that when you bite your lip in the middle you're nervous, when you bite it to the left you're embarrassed, but when you bite it to the right you're thinking about something, usually something dirty."

"I am n – !"

He cut me off, smirking a little. "I also know you hate it when I catch you thinking about something dirty. I know you secretly love wearing green because it reminds you of me, but you'd never admit it. I know that right before you fall asleep you make toss and turn a million times, before going into the same position you always do, with one hand under the pillow and usually on your left side, facing me when we're in the Room. I know that when you're in a bad mood you like to take your anger out on other people. Usually on me."

"That's not tru – "

He interrupted again. "You know it is. In fact, the first time we kissed is because I was just trying to shut you up because you were irritated and trying to act all superior because of it."

I blushed, biting my lip – on the left – and looked away.

"I know you secretly can't stand Lavender," he smirked when I faked a look of surprised innocence, "and I know that when we share a bed, you bloody love it."

Now I glared at him, the smug, completely correct bastard that he was. "Prat."

He chuckled and inched just a bit closer, his voice lowering. "I know that you like to threaten to break this off all the time, like it would be just as easy as all that, but I also know you could never walk away unless you had damn good reason to."

"I could if I had to," I whispered.

"Like I said, only if you had damn good reason."

He nodded. "I also know that when you're depressed you want nothing more than a clump of grapes, and I know that only red ones that aren't too cold but not too soft will do, as long as there's some chocolate cake as well." As a bowl of the mentioned food materialized.

I looked up at him and wavered between lingering annoyance and intense love. After a few seconds' indecision, I decided it really was impossible to stay mad at a guy who could say all that and then offer up a plate of chocolate heaven, along with grapes so I could taste the juice. Smiling softly, I nicked the food and went for the chocolate first.

"How did you know?"

He shrugged. "I could tell from the note you'd want them, so I got some sorted, ready to Summon."

I snorted, but didn't say anything.

He arched an eyebrow. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"It's delicious."

Draco rolled his eyes. "I spend the past five minutes spouting Shakespearean crap like some gay boy and that's all you can manage?"

A slow, mischievous grin appeared on my face. "Well…I suppose we could go to your dorm after all…." Then I bit my lip – on the right.

Both of his eyebrows went up. "Why, my little bookworm, are you seducing me?"

"I don't know. I guess you'll have to wait and see, won't you?"

He smirked and pulled me against him with an arm around my waist. "Your eyes are almost black."

I threw his smirk right back at him. "So are yours."

"I take it you're no longer depressed?"

"Nope."

He regarded me skeptically. "Just like that?"

"Well…" she glanced down at the nearly empty plate. "I have had like five or six bunches of grapes, and two giant slices of cake already."

He shook his head. "That has to be some kind of record. No way you'll ever be up to certain…ah, activities…after all that."

I laughed and put both arms around his neck. "Oh, Draco, you don't know me at all."

And so, he pulled me along and my heart thudding faster than ever, we made our way towards his Slytherin bedroom.

(Wow! I didn't expect that to happen! So, will Hermione do the deed? Does she trust Draco enough? Let's see what happens…DSOTM94)