A/N: Sorry if this took a little longer than expected, but that's because I tutor a nine year old on Tuesdays and Thursdays and don't have much time to write on those days. Anyway, this is a jam-packed chapter…I thought of what would happen in the car, and I freaked out because I didn't have anything to write or type with. You guys are lucky I remembered. Don't forget to leave a review, and please take the time to go to my profile and vote for which story is your favorite so far. Thanks again to Cat! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter Eight

A month passed, and Halloween was approaching fast. Hermione was worried about Harry, but she liked the holiday as well. This year's October 31st would be the tenth anniversary of the day she became friends with Harry and Ron, and that was certainly something to celebrate.

Hermione was trying to figure out just how to recognize the anniversary. Harry wouldn't want too big of a fuss – he wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible, although he would never truly be off the Daily Prophet's radar. Ron probably wouldn't mind either way, but Hermione had to consider Harry and the others as well.

The tapping on the window was starting to get familiar. Hermione turned and, as expected, Draco's owl was outside with another message for her.

"Now what is it this time?" she asked herself with a small smile. She unrolled the bit of parchment and read.

Hermione,

Do I really need to sign these anymore? Anyways, if you can come, I'll be at the usual place at 12:30.

(Just in case) -DM

Hermione chuckled quietly and finished filling out a paper for a new student of hers before she went to find Gina. She was rising from her seat at the front desk when the door opened. All of the children were accounted for, so no one should have been entering at that time. Frowning, Hermione sat again.

"Is this the daycare for kids of witches and wizards?"

"Well, yes, but you should be more careful about what you say because sometimes Muggles come in and…" Hermione glanced up and her eyes widened in shock. "Blaise Zabini?"

"You sound so surprised, Ms. Granger," said Blaise, smiling. He had never been one of the worst Slytherins, and time had changed him, the way it had changed Draco.

"I didn't know you had a child."

Blaise rolled his eyes, but he didn't seem irritated or indignant, the way Hermione had thought he might.

"I admittedly made some stupid choices while we were going to school, but knocking some chit up was not one of them. This is my sister's kid Zane."

"It's very nice to meet you Zane," Hermione said as the little boy stepped forward. He had to be no older than six, and he hardly looked like his uncle. He had fair skin, big blue eyes and light brown hair. In short, he didn't seem like he could even be related to Blaise.

"So do I check in with you?"

"Yes. Here are some papers for you to fill out…and then you can either pay for an entire year at one time, or pay a little each month," Hermione told Blaise, handing him a clipboard and pen.

"And you started this all on your own?" Blaise asked. Hermione had to wonder how he got this information.

She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and shrugged. "With some help, Gina and I opened this place, yes." Hermione glanced at her watch and hollered for Gina, who usually took care of their students during lunch.

"What in the world are you shouting about?" The other woman rubbed her temples with her index fingers and glared at Hermione. "You do realize the kids can hear you, right? They were all wondering what was wrong."

Hermione waved her hand dismissively. "I have to go. Will you be alright on your own for a bit?"

"I'll be fine, Hermione. Now go. I know you're meeting Draco," Gina said, grinning wickedly. She had nothing against Ron, but she tended to lean towards Draco a little more.

Gina's eyes traveled from her coworker to Blaise, and her eyebrows lifted to her hairline. She looked at Hermione again, her entire being saying, Okay, you have Draco and Ron. Can I have this one?

Hermione snorted and turned away so Blaise wouldn't notice. But he did hear about her meeting with Draco.

"You're friends with him now?"

"Yes, actually," Hermione replied, lifting her chin up a notch. She wouldn't be extraordinarily surprised if Blaise was disbelieving about her having a friendly relationship with Draco. However decent he might be, Blaise was still one of the people who had made her life miserable while they were all at Hogwarts.

"You'll be good for him," Blaise said.

Hermione faltered. "Oh, alright then. I'd better go. I'll leave you two to sort things out. Gina will help you with anything." Still puzzled, she left the daycare and made sure no one was around, then apparated to an alley near the Muggle café, her and Draco's regular haunt.

Blaise had been polite. And he thought Hermione would be good for Draco. What did that mean?

Draco was kinder than he was previously. He knew more about Muggle technology and the world beyond the life of a sort of sheltered pureblood, which was more than Ron. Even if he didn't care about blood status, Ron was as ignorant as Draco had been, in a way.

Hermione glanced around the café and spotted a shock of pale blonde hair, and walked towards it.

"Hi," she said, sitting down across from Draco.

Draco nodded at her, obviously quite distracted. Hermione's eyebrows furrowed together, and she turned to see what Draco was looking at.

At first, Hermione was completely lost. Why was Draco taking such an interest in a couple having a splendid time two tables away? She was just going to ask him when she saw that the man had red hair.

Is that George? Fred, Percy, or Charlie? No, it can't be because it's-

Ron.

Hermione's eyes nearly bugged out of her head – at least, that's what Draco told her when she asked later on in the day.

"Hermione, are you…?" Draco trailed off, afraid that Hermione's emotions, whether they were rage and sadness, or just one of the two, would turn on him. He was a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor, and Hermione scared him when she was mad.

"I'm fine."

Even the daftest bloke could see that she wasn't. Hermione wasn't really one for crying, but Ron could break her down to that point, and Draco feared that he was seeing tears struggling to emerge.

"But…I think I'm going to go talk to him. Just talk," Hermione added when she saw Draco rise from his seat.

Draco shook his head stubbornly. "No, Hermione. If you're going to go over there, I'm going with you, if only to stop you from having a murder on your hands."

Hermione didn't like the idea, but she couldn't do much when Draco was in that mode of his, with that determination that could match the Chosen One, Harry Potter. She shrugged and walked over to her boyfriend, or soon to be ex-boyfriend, rather, unless Ron had a very good excuse for her not to kill him.

Oh, and he's cheating on me with Lavender Brown, no less! That's just the icing on top of the cake, Hermione thought dryly. She wasn't too upset. Disappointed and angry, maybe, but not devastated. She supposed that some part of her had suspected that Ron wasn't being entirely faithful, at one point. After all, he put food in front of everything, and suddenly he had stopped going to lunch with her. Now Hermione saw why.

"Ronald."

"Bloody-Hermione?"

"Who else do you know that calls you Ronald, aside from your mother?"

All color had drained from Ron's face. Hermione's arms were folded over her chest, and she didn't look like a force to be messed with.

"Hermione, it isn't what it looks like, honest!"

Lavender watched silently, which was the smartest thing she had ever done before, in Hermione's opinion, and Draco's, for that matter. Draco himself was biting down on his cheek, hard, to refrain from adding his own input, which included where Ron could stick his stupid, liar mouth.

"Really, Ron? Because it looks like you're cheating on me," Hermione said coldly. She looked at Lavender, who, to her credit, did not cringe, and Hermione's expression softened a bit. It wasn't Lavender's fault that Ron didn't know what he wanted.

"I'm sorry…should I…should I leave now?" Lavender asked timidly.

Hermione glanced at Draco, who got her meaning.

"No, Lavender, it's fine. Draco is going to talk to Ronald anyway," Hermione replied, pretending not to notice how panicked Ron appeared, and how calm Lavender seemed in comparison.

Draco looked at Hermione one last time, then led Ron out of the café and into the alley where Hermione apparated, so he could hex him without having to modify some Muggle memories. Meanwhile, Hermione sat down across from Lavender and began talking to the guilt-ridden woman.

"Listen, I really don't blame you. But I think you could do better than Ron. If you haven't noticed, he was sort of cheating on both of us," Hermione started, her tone matter-of-fact.

"Hermione, Ron loves you," Lavender said sadly. "He just…I don't know. He was using me for fun without any consequences. I'll back off, if you want. Stay away from you both."

"Oh, Lavender, it's not your fault," Hermione told her. "You can have Ron, but I doubt you'll want him after this."

Lavender traced the patterns on the table between them. "I still care about him. Maybe I can make him a better person. I should go now. Bye Hermione."

Hermione said goodbye to Lavender, who promptly left. Draco, seeing that the conversation was over, went back to Hermione with Ron in tow.

"'Mione, please, hear me out-"

"Ron, don't," Hermione said softly. She felt betrayed, by the one person who should have always stayed by her side.

Draco reached over and squeezed Hermione's shoulder. He wasn't good at being the comforting friend, the one who had the shoulder to cry on. But he would try his best for Hermione, the girl who Weasel would be lucky to talk to ever again.

Hermione took a sudden interest in her hands, which were clasped on her lap. She appreciated the effort it must have taken Draco to do what he did, but it seemed that when Lavender left, her strength and resolve had as well.

"Go, Weasley. And you best not show your face for a while."

Ron hesitated. He wanted to discuss things with Hermione, try to win her over again, and he wanted to beat Malfoy up too, for interfering in his business. But Hermione looked so disheartened that Ron had to walk away. He wasn't Harry. He didn't know how to deal with everything that was thrown at him, with perfect ease.

"Hermione?"

She patted Draco's hand, still on her shoulder. "Like I said, I'm alright. But that conversation with Lavender had to be the oddest thing I have ever experienced. We were never really nice to each other in school, and now we have something in common. We both got our hearts broken by Ron, not once, but twice."

"Well, at least you've never had to have 'the talk' with a house-elf before," Draco commented. Lunch forgotten, they headed back to Hermione and Gina's daycare. Neither was hungry anymore anyway.

"You're kidding," Hermione said, torn between laughing and being absolutely horrified. She ended up doing the former.

"I'm completely serious. I've actually had to do that. It had to be the worst experience in my entire life."

Hermione snorted and looked around to see how far they were from her daycare.

"It's strange. I just found out that my boyfriend was cheating on me, and here I am laughing about someone explaining the birds and the bees to a house-elf…"

Draco smiled at her. "That's a good thing, isn't it? It shows you don't dwell on the bad things in life." He didn't know why she used a term like "the birds and the bees", but Draco figured it was a Muggle thing, and he knew what Hermione meant.

Despite what he might think, Hermione thought that Draco was a great friend and was very good at cheering people up. Up until the time they reached the cottage-like building that was Mini Hogwarts, he kept her laughing, and he wouldn't have stopped, had he not seen Blaise with Gina.

"What the hell?" Draco said out loud.

Hermione grinned and grabbed Draco's hand, because he had stopped in the middle of the path leading up to the daycare.

"Come on, now. It's not such a big deal. At least they're not snogging," she pointed out, dragging Draco up to Gina and Blaise.

Draco looked even more shocked to hear that, but Hermione just chuckled and made him walk up to the entrance of the building. Gina and Blaise were certainly not latched on to each other…yet. In both Hermione's opinion and Draco's.

"Hi, Hermione! You're back awfully early," Gina remarked when she saw her friend. She blinked when Draco stepped up to Hermione's side. She had heard a lot about him, but she had never met him in person. Hermione had neglected to mention a few important details, like the fact that Draco was one of the sexiest men alive.

"Oh, something came up and…yeah…" Hermione finished weakly. She would let Gina know what happened later, because aside from Draco, she was Hermione's best friend. They were the two people who would choose sides, if they were told the right things.

Gina's eyebrows rose. She could only guess that the unhappy look on Hermione's face was because of someone close enough to her to actually have an effect on her, so it had to be one of the Weasleys, honorary or not, or Draco.

Blaise was keenly aware of the way Draco studied Hermione, like she was made of glass. In all the years he had known him, Blaise had never seen Draco look that way at anyone.

"Has Zane gotten used to things around here yet?" Hermione asked, remembering why Blaise there in the first place.

"Yeah, Gina's been a big help."

"I'm sure she has been," Draco muttered. Hermione shot him a look and hit his arm, none too lightly, but he could only smile at her.

"I'm sorry I left you here…um…by yourself with Blaise…" Hermione said. "I'll go check on the kids now."

She hadn't asked it of him, but Draco went to help Hermione. He wasn't sure if he was good with children – were they that different from house-elves? – but Hermione had just gone through a lot and he didn't want to let her out of his sight.

"She has got him whipped," Blaise commented once Hermione and Draco were gone.

Gina nodded. "Uh-huh. I wonder how long it'll take for them to realize that."

"Knowing those two? It'll probably be a very long time."

"Ron? What are you doing out here?" Harry asked when he saw his best mate walking back to his office.

Ron looked like a deer caught in headlights, although he wouldn't have been able to make sense of that simile had Harry said it aloud.

"I-I was in the loo," Ron stammered.

"There's a bathroom right near our offices though," Harry said, frowning. Ron was lying, that much was obvious. The question was, why?

"Oh, well, er, I forgot. So I went to the other one."

"O…kay…" Harry replied slowly. "We'd best get back to that paperwork, then."

"Wait, Harry. I need to tell you something."

And tell him something Ron did. Harry, like Hermione, couldn't get mad at Ron. The worst he could do was give him that look, the one a teacher gave a student who didn't do well on a test, or the way a parent looked at a daughter or son who misbehaved.

"I can't believe you would do that to Hermione."

Ron winced. It was the scene in the café all over again, in his mind.

"It wasn't on purpose, Harry, I swear it."

"Honestly, Ron. You can't exactly cheat on someone on accident," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "And Lavender Brown, really? You didn't learn your lesson the first time, back in sixth year?"

"I suppose not," Ron muttered. "But now Hermione and I are broken up, and I've no idea how to break the news to the family."

"Sorry, mate, but you're screwed."

A/N: This is a little shorter than most of my chapters, but I uploaded it before the weekend! It was a surprise to everyone, I think xD Anyway, go to my profile and vote for whichever story of mine you like the most. I love you all bunches for sticking with me this long, and I hope you can forgive me for putting my other stories on hold!

See that blue button? Click it. Now ;D