A/N: I'm baaaaccckkk! Thanks to GypsyJade for the beta and the title! If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have been able to continue. Missed you guys muchly, hope you enjoy, much love!

"Well you are looking a right sight better, Dragon," Pansy was the only person left in the common room when he returned.

"Fantastic, naked frottage will do that for a bloke," He grinned a little as he sat in the chair opposite of her.

"So, I'm assuming the two of you made up then," She raised one neatly plucked eyebrow.

"Yeah, and he's asked me to go to Hogsmeade with them this weekend."

"Well, that's fairly public. Seriously? He went from not being able to date you because of Granger to announcing your relationship to the entire school?"

"I know, but I need this, Pansy. I need to know he's going to stand by me. Besides, I don't think we're going to be holding hands and making out or anything, but being seen together, acting civilly is a step in the right direction."

"What's a step in the right direction?" Blaise jumped over the back of the couch and landed beside Pansy.

"Draco and his new significant other are going on a date this weekend."

"I thought you were seeing someone, you're never around anymore. So, who's the lucky bloke?"

Pansy answered for him, "You'll just have to go with us and find out."

"You don't have to go with me, Pansy," He didn't want to have to worry about anyone in their house questioning her loyalties.

"Don't be ridiculous, Dragon. You said you're going with 'them', so I assume the two of you won't be alone. There is absolutely no way I'd let you face that by yourself. You should have someone with you to watch your back, that's where Blaise and I come in."

"Wait, Pansy Parkinson, are you asking me on a date?"

"We go to Hogsmeade together all the time, how is this any different?" She turned her full attention to Blaise, and Draco knew he'd been momentarily excluded from the conversation.

"Draco will be on a date, so I'm thinking going doubles. The only way I'll go is if it's a date," Draco knew differently, and he assumed Pansy did as well. Blaise never let her get out of his sight for long.

"Blaise-" She tried to sound galled, but Draco wasn't fooled. She enjoyed Blaise's attention.

"I mean it, Pansy. A real date, or nothing," He let his arm fall around her shoulders and Draco noticed that she didn't move away.

"You don't want to miss this, honey. It's going to be huge."

"I'm not going to, because you're going to ask me out and I'm going to say yes," He looked a little too sure and Draco was sure Pansy was going to put him in his place. He was wrong, maybe she was finally ready to give in.

"Fine, Blaise, would you please go out with me this weekend?" She sounded put out, but there was a tiny smile trying to break through.

"Absolutely, baby. I assume you'll be paying for my lunch? After all, you did ask…" Draco didn't think he had ever seen Blaise so happy.

Pansy snorted, "Don't even think about it, I asked you out and that is all I intend to do. Ladies do not pay for their own or anyone else's lunch," She stuck her noise in the air like a true aristocrat.

"Who says you're a lady?" Draco couldn't help but to defend Blaise, the boy didn't stand a chance on his own.

"You stay out of this, Dragon. You pay, Blaise. You've been after me for long enough that I don't think being required to pay for my lunch is going to send you running," Blaise shook his head but gave her a quick kiss on the temple.

"Will I get a goodnight kiss?"

"We'll see," Pansy stood and started toward the girls dorm.

"Don't play hard to get, Parkinson. We all know you're not," She just laughed at Draco's comment as she disappeared around the corner.

"So, who is it, Draco? I know it's a guy and she said it'd be huge, so I have to guess either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor," Draco gave Blaise a look that said, 'you are out of your mind' for even suggesting he'd date a Hufflepuff.

"Harry Potter," It really wasn't fair to make Blaise wait to find out with everyone else.

"No, really, who is it?"

"I just told you."

"You expect me to believe that you and Potter have put your differences aside and instead of fighting, now you're shagging?" Blaise was laughing as he said it.

"We're not shagging yet, but I have hopes that we might one day very soon," He didn't mind revealing every little detail to Pansy, but with Blaise he preferred to be a little vague.

"Bloody fucking hell, you're not kidding. Harry Potter? So, are you following your father's orders, or is this a way to piss him off?" Draco didn't answer and Blaise's eyes almost bulged out of his head.

"Oh no, no way. You actually care about him. I hate to say I told you so, but I did. All those times you told me 'Malfoy's don't love', I told you that was bullshit. What did I tell you? I told you you'd fall in love one of these days and have to eat those words," Blaise was looking entirely too smug.

"No, I believe you told me I'd fall for you."

"This is even better. This is going to cause such an uproar," Draco was preparing to let Blaise know that he didn't have to be a part of it when Blaise continued, "It's going to be fabulous."

X.X

Hermione and Ron were waiting for him on the couch when he returned. Well, Ron was waiting; Hermione was asleep on his shoulder. Harry couldn't help but smile.

"When are you two finally going to admit you belong together?"

"Shut up, she might hear you," Hermione was drooling on Ron's chest, there was no way she was hearing anything.

"She's asleep," Harry helpfully pointed out.

"I know… I'm just a little paranoid, ok? I don't think she knows what's going on between us just yet and she'll be upset if I realize it before her," Ron was looking at her as if she'd hung the moon.

"She'll be even more upset if she finds out you knew and didn't tell her, remember?" He did have recent first-hand experience with that.

"Yeah, but I don't want her to want me because I said she should, I want her to decide on her own," Ron was scared of rejection, that much was obvious.

"Ron, trust me on this, Hermione is one of the most hard-headed people I've ever known, yourself excluded, and she is not going to agree to something she doesn't want. Besides, asking her out on a date is hardly the same as demanding that she marry you. I say just go for it."

"Of course you do, you're not the one facing a friendless life if she says no," Ron reached down to brush a strand of hair off her forehead.

"Do you really think that? That we'd just stop being friends with you because you asked her out and she said no? No way, I mean look who I'm dating and I didn't lose the two of you," Ron's head jerked up.

"You bloody well almost lost her."

"Yeah, but that wasn't because of my dating habits, it was because of my stupidity. Luckily she knows me well enough to know that it only comes in short bouts," Hermione started to stir and Ron turned his attention to her.

"'Mione? You awake, love? Harry's here," Harry shook his head at the term of endearment. Ron was trying to build up his courage; there was no way he'd have called her that if she were fully awake.

"Harry? Harry! How did it go? Please tell me I didn't mess it all up? Is he going with us this weekend?" It was amazing to Harry that she could be so coherent having just woke up.

"Who's going with us? Malfoy? Harry, no! I mean, I love you and everything, and I'll be as supportive as I can, but I'm drawing the line at spending my free time with the git," Ron's mouth snapped shut at Hermione's reproachful glare.

"Then you can stay here, Ronald," As if the thought didn't bother her at all, she turned back to Harry, but there was a stormy look on her face.

"No, 'Mione, it's ok, really. I'll deal with it. I'll even play nice, ok?" If she didn't know how he felt about her, she was blind.

"Are you sure, we wouldn't want to put you out or anything," She was being sarcastic, but it was lost on Ron.

"No, it's fine, really. If Harry's going to be dating the gi-" Hermione gave him death glare "boy, then we should get to know him, yeah? So, can I go?"

"If you behave; we've caused enough trouble for Harry," Harry could see Ron itching to correct her, but he didn't dare.

"I'll be absolutely charming, I promise."

"Good. So, are you two coming out?"

"No, or I don't think so, I'm just going to follow his lead on that. I was thinking it would be easier to let everyone come to terms with our friendship first and go from there."

"You two are friends?" Ron laughed, but it really was a good question.

"I don't know, we kind of skipped that altogether."

"Yeah, mate, I noticed."

"Well, we'll work on that too, then. If no one knows that we're seeing each other, then we'll have no choice but to be friendly, right? Is it horrible that we're doing this backward?"

Hermione answered, "Considering the fact that it's you and Malfoy, I wouldn't have expected anything else."