She shouldn't be so shocked, Hermione thought. Ginny and she had already discussed that Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini were up to something nasty. But she still fell hard. As a girl who prided herself greatly on her sound judgment and intellect, Hermione was ashamed that her mind had become so muddled. She was good at figuring things out, and even when Ginny and she had somewhat done so, when she was with Draco most of it went out the window. Perhaps it was just hormones and an attractive boy. Perhaps any decent looking boy who kissed her and told her sweet things would have the same effect on her.

Or perhaps not. Perhaps there was something more to Draco Malfoy that made her so childish and stupid.

Hermione went quietly back to her dorm room and slipped under the covers. She found it hard to sleep, but this type of sleeplessness was different from what had gotten her out of bed. The opposite, in fact. She would have laughed at the irony if she weren't crying quiet tears.

"Natalie here has something to say to you," said Ginger to the confused Vivian. Natalie stumbled forward, but Ginny could tell that Natalie wasn't as drunk as she was pretending to be. She was using alcohol as an excuse for the bravery that she now had.

"Okay?" Vivian narrowed her eyes.

Natalie took a deep breath. "I fancy you," she said breathlessly, "and I would be the happiest girl if you fancied me too."

Vivian's eyes widened. "What? You're gay?"

The girls hadn't considered, in their drunk debauchery, that Vivian didn't know this already. The girls also hadn't considered whether Vivian even liked girls. And Vivian soon brought up another thing the girls hadn't considered:

"What's up with the crowd here?" she said. "Can we go somewhere private to talk?"

Natalie looked like she was about to cry. "I...poured out my heart for you," she said with a shaky voice. "And..."

"Oh, no, no," Vivian said quickly. "I'm gay too, and I fancy you."

The girl had a face of steel. She didn't even blush as she took Natalie's hand. She looked around at the shocked girls. "Well, we're gonna go and talk...good night, ladies."

And the two went off, leaving the girls stunned and speechless.

"That was not even close to the exciting lesbian sex I was expecting," said Ginger disappointedly at last. "The night's ruined."

"It's not ruined!" said Ginny. "Natalie confessed her crush and it worked out for the best!"

"I don't know, I was expecting a bit more excitement, too," said Grace.

"Do you guys want to go hide our panties around the castle?" asked Ginger. "I mean, I feel like I gotta accomplish something tonight."

Hermione woke up with a pounding headache and a note under her door. It felt like a punch to the chest to see that it was from Draco.

Good morning. Brunch at the lawn by the Forest. See you there.

She sighed. She didn't know if she could face him so soon when he was there to only sweet talk her further.

In all honesty, she was scared that it would work. Despite that she knew all of this and it broke her heart to know it, she was scared that he could muddle her head and mess with her heart all over again. She wished she had an owl so she could just use it to tell Draco she wasn't coming. Crookshanks purred by the window, neither knowing nor caring that Hermione was lamenting his being a cat.

Ginny woke with a pounding headache. The hangover was insane, and it was also slightly alarming to wake up without her panties on. It was not as alarming however as waking up in an unfamiliar bedroom decked out in black and green. She was in a Slytherin's dorm room.

"Holy shit," she breathed. Was she in Blaise Zabini's room? "Fuck, fuck, fuck." How drunk had she gotten? She searched the floor for her panties but could not find it, much to her dismay. Wrapping a sheet around her waist she dragged herself to one of the drawers and pulled it open. Luckily it was full of panties-

"Wait, what?" she said to herself, holding the lacy purple cheekini panty in her hand. Why were there all sorts of girls' panties in Blaise Zabini's room? Was he a pervert? And why did he have such fantastic collection?

"Good morning," came a familiar voice from the doorway. Ginny jolted up and turned around quickly.

"Hi, boo," said Ginger, holding a large coffee mug and wearing a sheer gown that did nothing to hide her bubble gum pink bra and matching g-string.

"Oh, this is your room?" Ginny asked with a sigh of relief. "I thought I was in-"-she caught herself just in time-"-a boy's room!"

"Nope, this is my room," Ginger said, walking in and plopping down on the bed. "You got really drunk and I didn't know the Gryffindor password."

"Thank Merlin," Ginny said. "I thought something had happened."

Ginger took a sip of her mug. "Oh, something happened all right."

"What?"

"I mean, nothing too crazy," Ginger assured her. "Just a little messing around. Do you not remember? Should I be feeling hurt right now?"

Ginny thought hard. She didn't remember much after Ginger's suggestion that they all take off their panties and hide them in random places...and then a scene passed through her head, as if remembering a dream. She had definitely had a pair of lips on her nipple and a finger up her pussy at some point, but neither was Ginger's...or even one person's, she remembered with horror. It appeared the accomplishment of a new couple between Natalie and Vivian had excited the girls up quite a bit and they had gone a bit wild.

"Dear Merlin," Ginny breathed. "How many of us-"

There came a huge yawn. Ginny jumped. A head of hair emerged from under the bed. It was Riley, completely naked except for her socks. It was also then that Ginny finally noticed those sprawled on a couch in the corner of a room: Grace and another girl named Lauren from last night were fast asleep on top of each other, both of them naked from the waist down. Grace had her bra on while Lauren only wore her school neck tie. She noticed that Lauren's right butt cheek was quite pink.

"Yeah, you did that," Ginger said as Ginny's eyes lingered there. "You are a feisty little freak!"

"And..." Ginny said slowly. "Oh Merlin, with you I-" Ginny's face burned as she remembered where on and in Ginger's body Ginny's tongue had been.

"Feisty little freak," Ginger said again with a wink.

Draco was lying on a blanket under the shade of a large tree, his hands under his head and his eyes closed. A light breeze would sometimes gently blow against his pale golden locks, making him look even more dazzling than usual. He had a basket nearby which Hermione was fairly certain he had asked some house elves to put together for the two of them.

"Hey," she said.

He fluttered his eyes open and squinted them in the light. "Oh," he said, and he quickly got up. "Hi." His bright smile dazed her for a second, and she immediately hated herself for it.

"Hi, how are you," she said.

"I'm good now that you are here," he said with a grin. "Although, I did wake up to a pair of panties pushed under my door."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What?"

He looked a bit taken aback. "Oh, I thought they were yours-"

"-what!? No!" Her face became bright red.

"I mean, I just assumed it was you," Draco said. He looked a bit apologetic although smiling. "I couldn't think of anyone else who'd do that nowadays."

"Nowadays?"

"Well, it did happen fairly often a while back. But not recently. I'd made sure of that." He stood up and walked over to her. He reached for her hands. "I've really only had eyes for you recently, Granger."

She tugged her hands away. "We need to talk."

"Oh?"

"I...I overheard something last night."

He looked troubled at once. "What did you hear?"

"It was Goyle...and Crabbe-"

"-wait, Hermione, let me-"

"-let me finish," she said in a voice she hoped sounded as cold as she intended. "And it's not like I hadn't suspected you were up to something. From the day I woke up next to you, you've messed with me."

"That's not true," Draco said quickly. He had the audacity to look hurt, Hermione thought. "I mean, yes, I admit, it started like that, but now-"

"How will I know, Draco?" said Hermione, exasperated. "How will I ever be able to tell?"

He reached for her hands again and held them firmly. "I'll tell you everything. The truth."

"How am I going to be able to trust what you say?"

"Well, hear me out first," he said. He cleared his throat. "I'm not proud of what I did."

"Now that sounds like you," said Hermione bitterly.

"I made a bet," he began slowly. "With someone. It was that I could have any girl I wanted."

"You disgust me."

"I disgust myself," said Draco. "But that's what happened. And they said I could never have you. You know...given our history. And I thought I might as well make you flustered, make you think we had something other than pure hatred toward one another, to give you that new perspective. And you must admit, it worked."

She was disgusted at herself for nodding at this. It was true. It was like how guys got out of the fabled "friendship zone"; here, Draco had pushed himself out of the enemy zone and into a zone of mysterious sexual tension.

"And I thought I could sweet talk you into really falling for me."

"This isn't a bit different from what I heard from Goyle and Crabbe," Hermione said.

"Yes, but I'm not done," he continued. "But then, in doing all of that, I grew to fancy you." He bit his lower lip. "I'm not going to pretend that I didn't fall for my own trick. It's possible that all of this developed within the acting, and there was a moment where it was a gray area. I couldn't tell if it was acting or real. But now, it's become real." He sighed and chuckled to himself. "And while I pride myself in not letting emotions take over me, my gut instinct right now is to act on this, however fake the beginning may have been. I've always thought you attractive, very much against my will. I'm not proposing to you, Granger. All I'm saying is that there is something here, and something in me tells me to forget the bet and act on this. Give it a whirl. See where it goes."

"I'd always be wondering if I'm still on the bet," Hermione said. "You expect me to live with that? What were the terms, exactly, of this bet?"

Draco sighed. "As with most things that go on around here, there was little to no structure. It was more a dare than a bet, I suppose. That I could make you fall for me."

She bit her lip.

He studied her expression carefully.

"Did I, Hermione?"