A week passed and Hermione noticed that Draco had been slightly more distant than usual. Periods where she caught him out not listening to her talk about the books that they had been reading, or her favourite muggle author, or even question 12 on their transfiguration homework. Not to mention that he had been difficult to find on more than one occasion and when she went to ask Harry if she could borrow his map to see if she could find him to follow up on some important heads business regarding patrols for that night and the rest of the week, she couldn't even find him. Instead, she had to make the decisions herself, owl the prefects in question and was left with a throbbing headache and was shaken with frustration and a hint of anger rising towards her pale man.

As she walked back towards her room after spending at least half and hour trying to locate Draco and then another 20 trying to locate Harry she decided to check some of the empty classrooms on the way between the gryffindor common room and her own quarters. On about the tenth door she walked into she opened the door to an obviously darkened room by magic. Lighting her wand she was affronted with Ronald Weasley balls deep in none other than Pansy Parkinson.

Hermione let out a screech that she couldn't hold back and suddenly two pairs of eyes shot over to her with equal looks of shock and embarrassment on their faces. Hermione blurted out a string of apologies, turned out the light at the end of her wand and rushed straight into the already closed door. Swearing agains she fumbled for the doorknob before successfully locating it and sprinting out of the room and down the stairs, not stopping until she reached her room.

She ran into the lounge and collapsed onto the couch, struggling to reach her breath, with a look of mortification on her face. She couldn't believe she had walked in on that. It would have been bad enough if it had been any other student but the fact it was her ex boyfriend and basically one of her best friends. "Fuck." She muttered, banging her palm on her forehead trying to get the image out of her mind.

"Well, you look like you saw a ghost." A voice drawled from by the fire, "Well, something equally as frightening for a witch or wizard. Voldemorts ghost, maybe."

"Oh bloody hell Draco," she said, having jumped at his voice not having expected him to be there. After all the fact that she couldn't find him was the reason she had to witness that just before. Suddenly realising that she was angry at him before all of that had occurred, she turned to him.

"And just where have you been?" She said, standing up, her chest heaving as she was still struggling to catch her breath from her sprint back over here.

"What do you mean, Granger? I've been around." He said, warily, watching her walk over to him.

"Oh. Around? You've been around, have you?" She said, trying to shove him in the shoulder but not even making him move. "I was looking for you, for ages, all over the bloody castle. And then, then I had to see that and ugh" She said, shuddering.

"What happened?" He asked, and she could tell by the look he tried to mask on his face he was worried the explanation would include more yelling.

"I saw Ronald bloody Weasley balls deep in Pansy! In a bloody classroom! With my eyes. And I'll never, ever unsee it. Ever." She said, using hand gestures for good measure.

Draco just stared at her for a moment until it clicked that she wasn't joking. Then he just laughed. Hermione stood there, one hand on her hip, waiting for his laughter to subside before speaking again.

"And what may I ask, is funny about that?"

"Wait," He said, the smirk wiped off his face completely. "You're not, er, upset about that are you? About Weasley and Pansy?"

"Godric, no. How many times do I have to tell people this. I'm over Ronald. I just really, really didn't need to see that. Really."

"Granger stop being such a prude."

"Excuse me Malfoy, I'm not a prude, I just I had to do all these things by myself because I couldn't find you, then when I needed you again I couldn't find you and whilst out looking for you I walk in on that. It is not by day. And I'm still mad at you. Where were you, and don't give me that crap 'around' business." She said, her temper rising like fire.

"Okay, Granger calm down." Draco said, trying to calm her.

"And don't tell me to calm down." She growled.

"What do you want me to say, Granger? I was actually just around. I was with Blaise,"

"Lies. I saw Blaise under a tree in the gardens with Luna lying in his lap. What are you hiding."

"If you wait, before you go jumping to conclusions, I was with Blaise earlier, but then Potter wanted to have a word so we went to the quidditch grounds shed to talk." He said, and Hermione could tell he was getting closer to the truth, but not quite on point.

"And what were you talking about, may I ask?" She said, biting her cheek to try and stop her from exploding.

"That would be none of you business, Granger." He said and she could feel the tenseness begin to radiate from him.

"Why's that?" She said, testing him.

"Because it isn't. Alright. Why would it be? I don't have to tell you all my conversations."

"But he's my best friend, and you're my-"

"Yes, Granger, what am I? I'm curious."

"Stop trying to divert me, what were you two talking about."

"Just because he's your best friend and we have whatever it is that's between us doesn't mean that you get to know everything either of us talk about, particularly when it comes to the conversations Scarhead and I happen to have together."

"I disagree, Malfoy, you are being sketchy about your details so why not just tell me. It can't be too bad."

"I never said it was bad to begin with, but I'm wondering why you're being so nosy. Just give it up."

"No." She said, folding her arms across her chest.

"You realise I'm not going to give up either." He said, resting a hand on her shoulder and looking her in the eyes."

They stood like that for awhile, until she created a plan in her mind. She moved into him, pulling him in closer to her and snaking her hands around his neck pulling him into a heated kiss. She kissed him fiercely, her body pressed firm against his, and he instinctively reacted to her taking charge. Growling with pleasure as her kisses reached his neck and across his collarbone that was exposed by the shirt he was wearing. Her hands snaked down to capture his bulge in his pants that was progressively coming to life as she continued to kiss him all over.

She brought her lips up to his ear, lightly biting on it, and a noise of pleasure escaped his lips as she did so. Again, she nibbled and sucked on his lobe, breathing heavily in his ear, she felt him stir in his pants. Whilst close to his ear she whispered.

"I've got something planned for you, something I want to try." She said, as seductively and with as much confidence and power as she could muster. And she felt him jolt against her, so she figured she was doing a good job and smiled to herself.

"What is it?" He groaned out, grinding himself against her.

"Oh, I don't want to say. I don't need to tell you." She said, suddenly taking three feet away from him.

"What?" He said, confused at the distance now between him, feeling like she was oceans away. She just smirked a smirk that rivalled his own and she felt ridiculously proud of her cunningness.

"You sneaky bint." He said, finally clicking what she was playing at. "Are you sure you weren't meant to be in Slytherin? You're a lot more cunning than you appear Granger, you would have made a good addition to Slytherin."

"I'll attempt to take that as a compliment Draco, but I told you I wouldn't give in. How does it feel not to know something. And I had something really, really good to tell you too. What a pity." She said, smirking as she turned around and walked with a sway to her bedroom. As she reached the door and opened she turned around to face him again. "I guess I'll just have to do it by myself for now. Unless you have something to tell me?"

"Shit." He mumbled as she closed the door to continue what had been happening out there on her own.

When did she get so clever, he inwardly thought. Of course, he knew she had always been clever but she hadn't known all of the buttons to press to rile him up. And rile him up she did. He was trying to work out what to do. If he went in there and told her the truth she wouldn't want to continue with what they were doing, she would go full on into planning mode. Plans that himself and Potter had already been sorting out.

And if he didn't go in there and tell her the truth she would be mad at him for quite sometime which would mean none of what was happening inside of that room would be happening for him for quite sometime. So he would use his own Slytherin ways to get around it. He would use a portion of what gets spoken about with Scarhead to his advantage. Her.

He almost ran to her door, knocked twice, and opened it up finding her sprawled across her bed in the most suggestive position that he could ever have imagined. He almost forgot why he was standing in her doorway. She looked over to him suggestively and winked.

"Well?" She said, her eyes glued to his own whilst her hands were busy doing other things. "Do you have something to tell me?"

"You." He managed to get out of his mouth, which had gone dry.

"Me?" She said breathlessly.

"Yes. You. We were talking about you."

"What about me?" She said, stopping what she was doing and moving to get up.

"No," he said. "Don't stop."

"Okay," She said smirking, returning to what she was doing, and between breaths she asked again "What about me?"

"Potter was warning me to treat you well, I assured him I was, and that you meant a lot to me and I don't intend to let you get hurt. By myself or others." He said, his words not even registering in his own brain, as it was too filled up with the beautiful image before him.

"Draco," She said, moving to the edge of the bed and kneeling. "That's so sweet of you to say."

"I meant it." He said, and suddenly he was being pulled down onto the bed by her dainty hands. His clothes slowly being shredded off to equal her nakedness. Their limbs entwined as they kissed, nibbled and loved each other.

They laid on her bed, still entwined with one another as they tried to catch their breaths.

"Well, that was definitely worth it." She said.

"Worth what? I'm the one who gave in." He said.

"Worth acting like a Slytherin." She said with a laugh.

"I think you loved it. You were a natural." He said beaming, as if her deviousness was an endearing quality and she just laughed.

They laid happily together for awhile, before they could hear a banging on the door. They were going to ignore it, before they could hear Ronald Weasleys loud voice booming through their walls. Suddenly, Hermione remembered why he would be demanding to speak to her.

"Please, please let me deal with this." Draco basically begged.

Hermione told herself she would only give in to this because he gave in earlier, however deep down she wanted Draco to stir him up a bit. Ron should have known better than to be doing something like that where anyone could have walked in. He was just lucky it was her and not someone like Filch. She laughed at that visual before turning back to Draco.

"Okay, go ahead. But don't wind him up too much."

"Please come down in one minute, and put on my shirt, please." He asked her kindly getting out of bed and throwing on some underwear and his pants as he walked out of the her room.

Hermione got up from the bed and put on his shirt as he asked, forgoing a bra completely to add to the situation. His shirt came down to the middle of her thighs so she also decided to just pull on some knickers and then sneak out of the room to hear their conversation.

She got to the lounge and could hear Draco mutter the password so the portrait would open and let in Ron.

"Malfoy move, where's Hermione?" Ron said, as the portrait opened.

"Where's your manners, Weasley." Draco said, buttoning up his pants, making the motion of doing so as obvious as he could.

"Malfoy why aren't you wearing a shirt?" he said, and his eyes travelled down to what his hands were doing, then back up to his head where he could see red marks along his neck and collarbone as well as very dishevelled platinum blonde hair. Weasleys eyes turned dark. "Where's Hermione, Malfoy?"

"Oh, I'm sure she'll be down in a minute, Weasley."

"What's that on your neck, Malfoy? It looks like a rash?"

"Oh, this?" he said, with mock surprise, bringing his fingertips up to brush the marks that Granger had left on him earlier "I think I must be allergic to you, Weasley. Why do you want to talk to Granger right now anyway?"

"That's none of your business." Ron said.

"Isn't it? Because last I heard you were balls deep in my closest friend. My friend whom I consider to be a sister." Draco said and watched as Rons face turned two shades darker than his hair. Draco saw him open his mouth to retaliate, but he was obviously distracted by something behind him.

Draco turned around to watch as Granger, dressed only in his shirt, walked towards them.

"Oh, Ronald, I see you're done doing Pansy then?" She said, smirking. "I do apologise for interrupting."

"What have you done to her." Ron yelled, lunging towards Draco who moved away in the nick of time.

"Ronald," Granger chastised, stepping between the two men. "Believe me, he's done nothing wrong."

"Hermione, why are you dressed like that?" Ron said, and Draco could have hit himself in the head with how stupid the redhead was. Although, if he was being completely honest he was sure that he was just in denial.

"I didn't realise I had to come to you for fashion advice, Ron. Besides, last I saw you weren't wearing a lot. So, I suppose I took your advise." She said, smirking, and Draco could see she was enjoying this far too much.

"Hermione, you don't have to do this. Are you upset about what you saw? I'm sorry Hermione, but you said you were over me, you told me I should move on. But you didn't have to throw yourself at Malfoy. He's a prick."

"I can assure you, Weasley, that I'm sure part of the reason she 'threw herself' at me, your words- not mine, had a whole lot to do with my prick."

"Draco!" Hermione said, trying to sound upset but he could tell she was secretly trying to stifle a laugh. "Ronald Bilius Weasley, I did not throw myself at Draco. I am not jealous, upset, or anything at all about what you were doing with Pansy. I was merely not expecting to walk into a classroom and see that. You should know better than doing something like that. What if it hadn't been me that walked in? What if it was McGonagall, or Filch even?"

"What I do in my time, and who I do it with, is my own business Hermione."

"And it's the same with me, so don't try and tell me what I'm doing is wrong. And before you try and deny it, I know that's what you were going to say so don't kid yourself Ronald. I have no problem with what you're doing with Pansy, so long as she doesn't get hurt, and that you don't do something stupid. Now I would appreciate it if you returned the favour by being okay with what goes on between Draco and I."

"So the two of you are…" Ron said.

"We haven't really talked much about it, Ron, but we're something."

"And you've…." Ron said, still having trouble putting the pieces together.

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes, yes we have."

"But you denied me, so many times. You're such a fucking tease Hermione, didn't you ever love me?"

"Ronald Weasley how fucking dare you," Hermione said, her face flushed with anger, as she glided towards Weasley. "Of course I loved you. You were the first person I ever loved. I loved you for years, years before you even realised it. You spent your time going after all these other girls whilst not even recognising what was under your nose. After what we went through in the war, I wasn't ready for the things that you tried to have me do. Yet you told me I was a prude, that I should be doing them if I loved you. You had me doubting myself, doubting my morals, so don't you try and make me out to be some kind of tease. If you had treated me better, like my own person, not some puppet you could control, things would have been very different. Draco is different, Ron, so different. I'm not saying you're a bad person, but you're not the person I'm meant to be with. So please. Get. Out. Because I can't even look at you right now." She said, turning away and finding Draco's bare chest to huddle in.

Draco put his arm around her, nestling her into him and just stared Weasley down, as he looked like a lost puppy not sure what to do. After a while he begun to turn to leave, realising there was nothing he could do to fix the problem now. Just before he left the portrait hole Draco spoke.

"And Weasley, if you ever, ever hurt Pansy, in any way you will regret it for the rest of your life. And I mean that." Draco said, threatening the redhead as he walked out of the door and slammed the portrait back into its place.

"I'm sorry he said those things to you." Draco said, kissing her forehead.

"It's okay. I'm happy I got to say the things that I did, they had been weighing me down for too long."

"You were bloody hot, you know, putting him in his place. I was quite turned on, you're a little sneaky woman you know that?" He said.

"I think you bring it out in me. I must admit, before he told me I was a tease, I really was enjoying myself riling him up. Maybe I would have made a good Slytherin." She said, smiling.

"The best." He said, kissing her on the nose and taking her by the hand as he lead her back to bed.

"You realise we have to do our homework now, we've put of potions for far too long and we've got to do a test tomorrow.

"If we get through half an hour can we have a break for some more fun things."

"That depends on what's more fun?" She said smirking as they made it to her room.

"Ron how did it go?" Said Pansy, who had stayed behind at the request of Ron, as the red hair walked over to her spot on the grass.

"Horrible." He grumbled. "Absolutely awful."

"Why? What happened?"

"Draco fucking Malfoy happened." Ron said, slumping down onto the ground and folding his arms, looking unhappy.

"What did he do? Ron, you know he doesn't mean to upset you, you just get riled up easy so he channels in on that."

"What did he do?" Ron said, his voice rising. "He fucked Hermione! That's what he did."

Pansy, having already known that news, stayed quite. Not really sure what to say.

"Well?" Ron asked, obviously expecting Pansy to be as appalled as he was. "Pansy, he fucked her. She was a Virgin!"

"Ron," Pansy said, suddenly feeling a little bit sad.

"Pansy, he defiled her! He tricked her into letting him do that to her, why would she let him Pansy? Why?"

"Ron! They bloody like each other, okay. He didn't trick her. She was very much willing."

"Wait," Ron said, turning white. "You knew? You knew, and you didn't think I should know."

"Actually, Ron, no I didn't think you should. Hermione told me, me, me! And she wanted me to keep it that way, so no, I didn't tell you. But before you go freaking out about that I want to ask you something." Pansy said, taking a big breath in. "Why do you care?"

"Why do I care? Why? She's my friend." Ron said, looking very confused.

"Really? Is that why, because it seems to be more, to me. I think maybe you're upset because Draco got to fuck her, and she didn't let you." Pansy said, deciding being direct was the best approach.

"What?" Ron said, and she could tell that he was trying hard to look shocked.

"Ron, really, you're not a very good liar. You're upset because when you were with her, no matter how much you begged, she wouldn't have sex with you. And now here she is, with Draco Malfoy, and you can't understand why she would do it with him." Pansy said, standing up. "Don't worry, I suppose I understand. But what I don't understand is why, when you have me, you feel it so strongly."

"Pansy, you're thinking I'm jealous, I'm not. I just," Ron said, struggling to find the words. "I'm just upset that she's making choices that aren't good for her."

"Ron, she's her own person. You have stop thinking that you need to make decisions for her, she's brilliant, she's going to make good decisions. And I know think that Draco is a bad one, but he really isn't, they're good for each other. You need to look passed what ever issues you have with him, and work through these issues you have about trying to control Hermione, and get over it."

"I am over it." Ron said.

"No, you've obviously not, and to be honest I'm a little bit sick of all these issues coming back to this issue that you have about Hermione and Draco. I'm going to go study, I'll talk to you later, I guess." Pansy said, as she walked back up to the castle, leaving Ron to mope under their tree.

Hey guys, it feels like all I do is apologize for such late updates lately. I really am sorry though. I've finished my course now, and i'm looking for better employment than what I've got at the moment so I do have a fair amount of free time, so I should (but please don't quote me on this) be able to update a little more now. I'm hoping at least twice a month. But we'll see. I've purchased a desk, and already I smashed out that chapter just before, so hopefully we'll have a many nights like that where I just get stuff done!

I really hope you like the chapter (let me know!), not too much happened really, but there's more planned for the next chapter so as soon as i've written it i'll upload it.

Love you guys! And for any one in Australia, happy Australia Day (or has the name changed now?) for tomorrow xx