The following night Hermione found herself alone with Draco in the west wing tower. All day Ginny had been throwing her looks and sending her notes asking if she had asked Draco about getting herself, Blaise, Hermione, and Draco together again. But until now she hadn't had anytime alone with him. She glanced up and looked over at Draco. He was bent over his books taking notes, his face was set in concentration and his hair glowed in the light of the candles. Hermione bit her lip nervously and stared back down at her paper. She new Draco didn't have a good time when they all went to Hogsmeade together. She figured he wouldn't be too keen on the four of them getting together again, but she had promised Ginny that she would try.

So, taking a deep breath, she cleared her throat and waited. However, Draco didn't look up. "Umm Draco?" She said meekly. Draco glanced over at her and raised his eyebrows in question. Hermione looked down nervously at her hands. "Well umm, I know you didn't have much fun at Hogsmeade but Ginny and Blaise really did; and umm I was wondering what you would think about all of us getting together and doing something again?"

Draco sat up straight against his chair and crossed his arms over his chest and arched one of his eyebrows. Hermione looked away quickly and Draco couldn't help but smirk a little. "Why the sudden desire to get to know Blaise? You never showed much of an interest before."

"Well…" She didn't know what to say. It was true she had never expressed an interest to get to know Blaise and she didn't know how he would feel about Ginny being interested in him so she wasn't sure if she should tell him the truth.

"This wouldn't have to do with a young Weasley would it?" Hermione quickly looked up in surprised and Draco smiled at her deer caught in the head lights look. "Well I guess that answers that."

"How did you know?"

Draco shrugged his shoulder, "I know everything," he said mockingly.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "No really, how did you know?"

"After Hogsmeade, with them taking off together, it was kind of obvious."

Hermione just watched him, waiting for some sort of sign. He seemed very passive about the whole thing but she knew that could just be a mask. When nothing in his stance changed she sighed and sat back in her seat. "So what do you think then? Can the four of us do something together, maybe this weekend?"

Draco was silent for a minute and Hermione was sure he was going to just stand up and leave. However, Draco eventually shrugged and said, "I guess that wouldn't be too horrible."

Hermione was shocked. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well you didn't have any fun at all when we were at Hogsmeade."

"That's not true." He said quietly.

"Really? You weren't all broody and quite? Because I remember that's exactly how you were and I also remember you saying that you wanted to go back to the castle."

"At first that was true," he said in a low even voice. "But after that I had a good time with you."

Hermione blushed and she didn't know why. Maybe it was the rumble of his low voice or maybe it was the way he looked into her eyes when he said it, maybe it was because she… Hermione cleared her throat and nervously pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "That was after they left though. This time it would be the four of us together the whole time."

Draco looked at her curiously for a second, he caught her reaction to his words but he couldn't figure out why exactly she reacted that way, then he looked into the fire. "It'll be fine." Hermione was surprised at how accommodating he was being about all of this. Draco glanced back at her and read all that in her face and he let out a heavy sigh. "Look don't say anything to you little friend but Blaise might be interested in her. So I can deal with a couple awkward hours if it will help him out."

Hermione let a slow smile cross her lips. "You're a really good friend, you know that?"

"Don't get used to it." He smirked playfully.

"Right, wouldn't want it to go to my head." Hermione teased back with a grin.

Their playful mood slowly started to shift. They were smiling at each other with their eyes locked and then the mood in the room started to change and they both felt it. They both slowly lost their smiles but kept their eyes locked on each other. They didn't know what it was but something was building up between them, some kind of desperate heat in their bodies that neither one had ever felt before, and it was about to spill over. Right when they felt like something was about to happen the fire cracked and the trance was broken. They both looked away from the other and shifted slightly in their seats.

Draco was the first to speak, "Should we all get together Friday then?"

His question put her mind back in gear and she answered him in a voice that sounded both dazed and unsure. "Yes Friday is good."

"Did you girls have an idea of what you wanted to do exactly?"

"I thing Ginny was talking about just meeting up here." She gestured around the room.

"Time?"

"Not sure, I'll have to ask Ginny what she wants to do."

Draco nodded his head and started to gather his books. "Well it's late; I'm going to head out."

"Right." Hermione responded still in a half daze.

When she didn't make a move to gather her things Draco stopped at the door. "You should get going too. It's still not safe for you to be wandering the castle alone, not until we figure out who sent you out into the forest."

"I'll leave five minutes after you, like always."

Draco nodded in approval, "Good night then."

"Night." She responded a few seconds too late because he was already out the door.

And that was that. They were under an unspoken agreement not to mention that intense moment they had. That was ok with Hermione; she wouldn't have any idea what to say about it, she didn't even know what it was that had happened. Lying in bed that night, staring at the ceiling, she knew that wasn't entirely true. She had an idea of what it was that had past between them, it happened once before in Hogsmeade after they left the joke shop and Draco ran the back of his fingers across her cheek, it wasn't as intense as it was tonight but it was the same feeling. She had an idea but she refused to put a name to it. She knew the moment she did nothing would be the same. So she forced it to the back of her mind and wouldn't let her thoughts touch on it.

The next morning Hermione found Ginny waiting for her in the common room. "You're up early." She stated as she plopped down across from Ginny.

"Sodidyouaskhim?" Ginny blurted out.

"Ginny it's early; you're going to have to slow down."

"Did you ask him?" Ginny ask impatiently. Hermione smiled and nodded. Ginny waited and when Hermione didn't go on she said "And?" impatiently.

"And he said they'd see us on Friday, though you have to pick a time."

Ginny let out a squeal and bounced up and threw her arms around Hermione quickly before bouncing back up again. "Thank you so much! I have so much to do now."

"Do?"

"Well yes. I need to figure out what we are all going to do in the tower all night. It will definitely work against me if there is any awkward silences or if he gets bored."

Hermione just shook her head and laughed at her friend's slightly manic behavior.

Later that day, after classes, Hermione was in the library and spotted Zack at the end of the aisle of books she just turned into. She smiled at him as he spotted her as well and walked over to her. "Hey Zack, how are you?"

"Alright, you?"

"Fine." She smiled.

"I'm actually glad I ran into you. We haven't hung out in awhile."

"I know, I'm sorry about that."

"Well you can make it up to me by coming out with me and some of my mates Friday night." He smiled charmingly down at her. "We're going to have a little party in an empty class room, should be a good time."

"Sorry Zack but I can't"

Zack lost his smile. "Oh?"

"Yes, you see I already have plans for Friday night."

"Why do I get the feeling that you're just trying to get out of it?"

"No that's not it at all, I really do have plans."

But he ignored her words. "You seem to always be busy now a days. Is it because of the way I feel about you? Does it make you feel uncomfortable to be around me? Because you said we could still be friends and I would rather have you as a friend than not have you at all."

"Zack really, I'm not purposely avoiding you."

"Right." He didn't sound like he believed her at all.

"It's the truth. I still think of you as a friend and if it was up to me I would hang out with you on Friday but I just can't"

"You can't change your own plans? Is it something very important then?"

"Well it's not an emergency or anything like that." She said awkwardly.

He watched her as understanding came to his face. "You have plans with Malfoy then?"

"Well yes-"

Zack shook his head in disgust. "You seem to always be with him. I guess he out ranks the rest of us in your life huh?"

"It's not like that at all."

"Then ditch him. It's just one night. Come on Hermione it will be fun and it's been so long since we did anything together. We're still friends right?"

"Of course we are. You are one of the few people I'm still able to call a friend. There's no way I would just stop being your friend after you stuck by me despite what everyone else was saying about me. But I can't ditch out Friday night." Hermione felt like she had to explain to him because it was obvious to her that she had really hurt his feelings. "It's not really for me that I'm going out or else I would go with you. A friend of mine likes a friend of Draco's and we're giving them a chance to get to know each other." Zack smiled tightly and said he understood. "How about we do something on Saturday, all day if you want to?"

Zack smiled down at her, "It's a date."

"Good. Then I'll talk to you later and we'll make plans ok?'

"Alright." His smile warmed. They said their goodbyes and as soon as Hermione turned her back he quickly lost the smile and scowled darkly after her. He had to do something. He could tell she was getting closer to Malfoy and he had to put a stop to that.