Disclaimer: As if J.K. Rowling actually goes to some American school half filled with immature boys and egotistical girls. (I don't own her characters/ideas).

A/N: So. I'm really sorry. Like I always am. I'm sure you all hate me, and I'm even sorrier about that. Anyway, if you didn't guess, I'm busy with school, and SAT's, clubs, and all that jazz. Please, please forgive me! I hope you enjoy this update!

"'Well' what?" Pansy inquired.

Draco and Hermione stole a quick glance at each other.

"We must be more incoherent with our language," their eyes told each other.

"We asked you if you were well," Hermione smiled.

"Oh, most definitely!" Pansy exclaimed excitedly, "But of course, I'm a little stressed. Who wouldn't be when their 18th birthday is a month away?"

Draco's eyes widened, and Hermione nearly tripped.

"18th...birthday?" Hermione asked weakly.

"Yes. Why do you two look so shocked? We've been planning my celebration for two months!" Pansy reminded them, opening the door to the Great Hall.

"Breakfast!" Crabbe and Goyle interrupted, scurrying over to a table decked in green, red, blue, and gold tablecloths.

Hermione and Draco took a look around the dining area.

Why were there ten small tables, and why were they all decorated the same way?

Then the couple winced.

If they had to pretend they were together, they'd have to act through it the entire journey...whatever it was.

Draco and Hermione tenderly laced their fingers together and waited for a heated response from the many people that were staring at their frozen forms.

"Hey, you two! You're back! What'd you do? Get married without inviting us?" someone called out. There was a scattered heap of laughs.

"Well, that's not what we expected..." Draco muttered without moving his smiling lips.

Pansy left for a table full of Gryffindor girls as the two craned their heads to see who had made the joke.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, hugging her best friend, all the while wondering why the hell he was making jokes about her relationship with Draco in such a calm manner.

"Hey Hermione! I feel like I've aged ten years, and you look like you're still 17," Harry smiled. Harry directed his eyes at Draco.

"'Ey old chap!"

The blonde boy shifted his eyes in all directions toward his surroundings. He was frightened and definitely showing it.

"M-me?" he croaked weakly.

Harry laughed.

"Yes, you. What's wrong? Oh, I get it!"

"Get what?" Hermione and Draco inquired simultaneously.

"Gee. I was right. You two are a great couple. And don't worry, Malfoy. Hermione and I don't have feelings for each other anymore. We're only best friends, and besides...Ginny's terrific."

Harry turned his head in that dreamy way that only men in love do. He stared at Ginny with a content face, then sighed and snapped his attention back to the couple standing before him.

Hermione's face had distorted itself into a wide-eyed owl kind of look, and Draco had his head craned towards his partner, an evidently fake smile on his face, and a twitching right eye.

"You two doing okay?" Harry asked cautiously.

The handsome male wasn't sure what had triggered his friends' strange behavior, but he'd hex them and call some doctors if they began to foam at the mouth and claw at his head.

"Er...sure. Just remind me. When did we date? I...completely forgot. Refresh my memory, please," Hermione asked in choked words.

"Only last year. How can you not remember? We went crazy with ourselves...best year ever, our 7th," Harry replied, smirking at his recollection of events.

"Okay. Well, er. Cool. I think we'll go join Pansy," Draco said abruptly, hoping his desire to get away from Harry wasn't evident.

"Sure. I'll see you after classes anyway. Start thinking about alternate decorations for Pansy's party, all right? I'm not particularly keen on the girls' choice of pink streamers," Harry called, walking towards his beloved girlfriend.

As soon as Draco and Hermione out of earshot, Draco complained, "I can't act all buddy-buddy with him! It's too strange...abnormal!"

"DEAL with it! I'm the one who DATED my best friend! Oh god, I hope he didn't mean we had sex when we went "crazy" with ourselves."

She was cut off by a snort.

"Shut up, you dung-head," Hermione snapped, glaring at a chuckling Draco.

The two took their sweet time in walking towards Pansy's table, carefully planning out what they had to do to survive in this strange world.

"So...Maybe we're stuck in the future. Like, a time-turner spell, except backwards..." Hermione contemplated.

"Yeah, sure. Oh, wow. They have those expensive muggle malt balls!" Draco cried distractedly.

Hermione elbowed the boy.

"Ow," Draco grunted, "I agreed with you! What more do you want? Yeesh."

"Just shut up and act like you know what's going on."

"Mm."

Carefully planned Plan-A: commenced, Hermione thought.

"Hey, why do we have schedules? I thought we graduated," Draco commented almost a little too loudly, looking at middle-aged men and women pass out papers.

Plan-A: destroyed.

Back-up plan: run around in circles, screaming, "we're screwed!" may NOT begin.

Hermione huffed impatiently at Draco, whom was her biggest hindrance in their mission to get out of the estranged world.

Hermione and Draco took their seats between Pansy and some unfamiliar girl, and smiled.

"Great," Pansy muttered, brushing her hair away from her face and staring at her schedule, "I don't even have a half-hour block for break today."

She bit into her buttered toast, "What do you two have first class?"

"Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione read.

Pansy leaned over and read the rest of Hermione's schedule, then Draco's.

"Aw. You have the same classes the whole day! Well. At least we have our last class together. I'm off to my first. All the way in the other wing."

Pansy scurried off and disappeared behind the Great Hall's doors.

"Hm. I think she's lost weight. And she's not so sluttish anymore," Draco said thoughtfully.

Hermione instinctively swatted him on his arm.

"Your girlfriend is still here, honey," Hermione growled, still skimming her schedule.

"Yes ma'am," Draco replied sardonically before biting into a bagel.

"Oh Hermione, Draco!"

The two turned to see Pansy calling out to them.

"I forgot. After our Auror class, we're going to go up to our dorms to plan my party. I've told Harry and the others already," Pansy cried.

She began to run off again when she turned and waved her wand.

A piece of paper appeared before the couple's eyes.

"That's our dorm password. If you lose it, just wait until Harry gets to our dorm!"

Pansy ran off, leaving the confused pair alone with strangers.

"Oh dear. We're rooming with Pansy and Harry," Hermione said slowly.

"Attention Auror Trainees. Welcome to your first day. The rest of the staff and I are happy to see so many familiar faces in our Graduate's Hogwarts University. We'll have a terrific time, just like we had in Hogwarts. Beaxbatons and Durmstrangs, welcome back. To the rest of you, we are happy to teach you all!"

Hermione and Draco turned to see the one and only Dumbledore, twinkling eyes and all, smiling at the entire room.

"Auror School?"

Hermione and Draco looked at each other.

"So...is Voldemort still alive?" Draco asked.

"I don't know. I think I'm going to the library during our 3rd period block. I've got to see an updated version of Hogwarts: A History."

Draco nodded and got up from the table.

He awkwardly took Hermione's hand, and the two walked into the frightening, unpredictable world of an extension of Hogwarts that lay before them.

A/N: Okay. I started writing this, like, a MONTH ago, and I just finished. I don't know what happened. In honor of Thanksgiving (that passed forever ago...), I decided to post this. I'm sorry, again, for taking so long.

Also, I tried uploading the document and it just WOULDN'T do it. So here I am, 3 days later, finally getting this out. Sorry again! I hope you enjoyed it!

Reviews would be VERY MUCH appreciated! Thank youuuuu (especially to those who messaged before. And my regular reviewers: you're AWESOME)!