Nichole walked out of Mystiques house and out into her grand backyard, which included a pond, flower garden, mini-Quidditch pitch (which her older brother designed and built after leaving Hogwarts), and a rose garden maze. Nichole decided the best way to blow off her steam was to wander through the maze for a bit, plus she loved the smell of roses.

As she wandered, thoughts of Christopher and Blake entered her mind; thanks to Mystique, she was questioning her intentions. Was Christopher really the better choice, when he really was only in town for a short while? Would Blake be a good choice to date when she had been friends with him for ages and didn't want to wreck what they had? Wouldn't it be better for her to just remain single and wait for the right guy to come along? One without complications?

Here Nichole laughed to herself, from what she has witnessed growing up, there was no such thing as a relationship without complications. Take Ron and Kayla for instance, Kayla was a muggle born and didn't know as much about the Wizarding world as Ron, so, even though she's spent years in it, he was still constantly explaining things to her. Even her mother and father's relationship wasn't without complications. Her mother had a past, and there was the fact that she hadn't told Draco he had a child. Plus, they were enemies in school. Even Ginny and Harry had complications, with Harry's work at the ministry and Ginny staying home with the boys; she had to worry not only about their needs, but that Harry would come home every night after work.

Nichole sat down on a beautiful stone bench in the maze. Snow slightly dusted the area, but the roses were bewitched to withstand the cold. She inhaled and closed her eyes, loving the smell. No, relationships were always complicated. But were they all as complicated as she was making out this to be? Shouldn't it be easy to choose between two guys?

Sighing, Nichole bent her head, placing it in both her hands, rubbing her forehead. She had no idea what she was going to do.

Hermione stared, open mouthed at Draco. "What did you just say?" she whispered hoarsely.

"I love you Hermione Granger," Draco repeated in a whisper. For a second Draco imagined her jumping up and down like an excited school girl being told she was loved for the first time; then he remembered that he isn't the first man to tell her he loved her. Waiting, Draco stared into Hermione's eyes.

"Draco," she finally said, "I can't help feeling your only saying this because your jealous; Jealous of Mathew."

"Hermione, I have never, in all my thirty two years of life, told a woman I loved her." He finally confessed, "I wouldn't be telling you this now if it wasn't true."

Hermione eyed him, still a little suspicious. "But why now then?" she asked.

Draco sighed; clearly this wasn't going how he had hoped it would. "For a while now I've wanted to tell you how I've felt, Hermione. I wasn't sure if it would be right, or how you would react. Tonight, with the appearance of Mathew, it showed me no time is ever right. He showed me just how important it was to tell you, because I don't want to lose you."

Hermione stared at him, and slowly the tears began to fall, "Oh Draco," she said as she flung her arms around his neck. "I love you as well,"

"Really?" Draco asked, slightly surprised as she clung tighter to his neck.

"Yes you idiot," she said as she pulled back, her eyes glistening with tears of joy. "Yes, really," she said smiling.

Draco, smiling widely, hugged her tightly.

They held each other tightly for a moment until Hermione leaned back slightly and whispered in his ear, "Stay the night tonight. With me."

Draco looked at her, a small smile playing at the corner or his mouth and nodded. Hermione smiled, grabbed his hand, and lead him inside.

Nichole sat out there for an hour and still she didn't know what to do, but she didn't have time to contemplate it any longer for Mystique and Bianca found her.

"We've been looking for you for over an hour! You know this maze way better than I do, and it's my house!" Mystique exclaimed as she sat down next to her friend.

"I love it in here," Nichole said, looking at the ground, the snow blowing by in little twisters. "It's quiet, peaceful, and a great place to think."

"We're sorry," Bianca said sitting on the other end of the bench.

"You didn't do anything Bianca," Nichole said glaring at Mystique.

"Oh yeah, blame it all on me, that's so nice," Mystique said.

"Um, it is your fault, thank you very much!" Nichole said, standing up angrily. "You have no idea the problems you have just caused me!"

"Poor little Nichole, always with the issues." Mystique said angrily, "If it's not something about your mother, it's your father, if it's not your father, it's your friends or school, there's always something for you to complain about!"

"Fuck you Mystique," Nichole snarled, "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Not everything is about you," Mystique said, "Life doesn't revolve around you, no matter how much you may want it to!"

Nichole grabbed her wand from her boot so fast Mystique barely had time to react. "Shut the fuck up Misty! You think you know me, but you honestly don't!"

"Go ahead, hex me." Mystique challenged, "You've already had a warning from the Ministry about using magic outside of school. Give them a reason to expel you."

Nichole glared at her and turned and walked out of the maze. Bianca looked from one friend to the other.

"Why did you have to go and piss her off like that?" she glared at Mystique, "Are you trying to lose your friend?"

"She's playing Blake like he's a toy; she doesn't even care about his feelings. She doesn't even realize Blake is in love with her. She'll crush him, destroy him, if she keeps playing him like this and suddenly show up with some random guy."

"I don't think that's true," Bianca said, "I mean, about her not caring. I think, deep down, she loves Blake as well, I think she's just worried about messing up her friendship with him that she's going towards a safe zone, an old friend, maybe he's an old lover, who knows. The point is, I think she's scared of ruining true love that she's falling into a safe relationship."

Mystique sighed, "Fuck Bianca, why do you have to make me guilty about yelling at her?" Bianca shrugged. "I should go get her before she leaves." She ran off, out of the maze. She found Nichole at the fireplace, a handful of floo powder in her hand.

"Wait," she said. Nichole glared at her. "Look, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you and said all that to you, ok? I'm sorry!"

Nichole sighed, "No, I'm sorry for getting mad. In a way you're right,"

"I am?" Mystique asked.

"Yeah, I mean, I do have feelings for Blake, but Christopher and I have history. He was my first love, although he doesn't know that. He had the biggest crush on me when we were younger and I rejected him as a friend, but secretly I loved him. I think he knew, but he would never admit it."

"But he's a muggle then isn't he?" Mystique asked, slightly horrified.

"Mystique, not all muggles are as bad as the Wizarding world had made them out to be! My mother is a muggle born! I grew up with muggles! My best friends are muggles!"

"I'm not you're best friend?" Mystique asked, looking slightly hurt.

"Of course you are," Nichole said rolling her eyes, "All four of you are, but I've got muggle friends as well, muggles I've known my whole life! Amanda and Christopher have been with me through everything, up until Hogwarts that is."

"They don't even know about Hogwarts, or magic, or even who you really are! Do they?" she asked as an after thought, a small look of horror on her face.

Nichole thought about tell her the truth, that they did in fact know who she really was, and that they were alright with it. But then she thought if she did that Mystique was sure to tell Bianca, and Blake and Gabe would find out, and then who knows what would happen?

"No, they don't," she lied with a sigh, "I want to tell them…"

"If you tell them you'd be breaking the law!" Mystique said, "You can't just share Wizarding secrets with strange muggles!"

"What about witches and wizards who marry muggles?"

"The witch or wizard in question has to tell the Ministry and register that muggle so that when magic is performed in the house the witch or wizard will not get in trouble. A magic folk that wants to marry a muggle and come clean, they go through a very lengthy process to do so."

"How do you know so much about it?" Nichole asked, curiously.

"My uncle works in the department. He was almost disowned by my father, but since he was my mother's brother and she said to let it be, he didn't."

Nichole sighed, "Please Mystique, I want you to meet my friends."

Mystique looked wary, "Muggles?"

"Yes muggles," Nichole said, "The two best friends I've known for ever, I want them to meet you, and they want to meet you as well! I'm always talking about my friends from school."

"Well, the party is tomorrow night," Mystique said, "Maybe, I can spend a day or two at your place after the party… and I can meet these muggles of yours."

"I want all of you to meet them," Nichole said, "Blake and Christopher would get on so well, I just know it!"

"Well they do have one thing in common," Mystique muttered, but Nichole didn't hear her.

"And Amanda is just awesome! She is so much fun, I know you would love her!"

"I'll speak to the guys tonight, they're coming to help decorate."

"Blake and Gabe? Decorate?"

Mystique laughed, "Well, they're mother is having tea with mine, so the excuse is they are going to help."

"And Blake's birthday is on New Years as well!" Nichole said, "He's coming of age!"

"Oh my god! I can't believe I forgot! What did you get him?"

Nichole laughed, "A gift box of George's newest products,"

"He'll love it!"

"I'll give it to him tomorrow," Nichole said, "I'm going to have to head home really quickly and grab it."

Bianca walked into the room, "Are you done killing each other?" She asked looking at her two friends.

"We could never kill each other," Nichole said, "We're best friends!"

"C'mon, we should get to bed. It's late," Mystique said. The others agreed and walked upstairs and to bed.

Hermione and Draco lay in bed, wrapped in each others arms. Hermione couldn't remember having such a loving experience with a man in a very long time. Her head was on his chest, her arm thrown across his stomach. Draco was running his fingers through her hair.

"I can't recall the last time I felt this close to a person," Hermione mumbled quietly.

"Neither can I, love," Draco said as he leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "That was wonderful,"

"It really was," Hermione said as she raised her head, her hair cascading down as she turned to face him. She leaned forwards and kissed him passionately before standing up, bringing the sheet with her, covering her body.

"I need to jump in the shower," she said as she started to walk towards it, dropping the sheet. She looked back at Draco who was watching her. "Care to join me?" she asked.

Draco grinned and jumped up. "Do you need to ask?"

A/N: I am sooooo sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter out! I've been extreamly busy with school this semester, and I tried, yet again, NaNoWriMo this year, only to fail miserably with 10500 words lol! BUT I have found time, finally, as the semester comes to an end tomorrow, to write this chapter! I hope none of you were disappointed and please feel free to review! I have 3 and a half weeks off school starting tomorrow at 11am, so I hope to have plenty of time to write!

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