Authors note: Hi all… sorry this is late…. I wasn't going to post at all but I was having such a bad day that I need some friendly reviews to cheer me up! :-)

Why such a bad day, you ask? It started last night, with me cramming for today's exam (more about that in a second). So there I am, studying whilst listening to the cricket on the radio, and my team is doing really well, everyone has given up on the opposition. SO what do they do? Fight back! And worse – they win! Arggh! The worst thing is my favourite player missed a catch (an impossible catch) that would have probably won them the game! So I was somewhat annoyed by the time I went to sleep. I woke up this morning, all calm and motivated, and decided to read the newspaper to relax while I ate breakfast. What do I find out then? That my favourite player sustained a head injury during the aforementioned attempt at an impossible catch and is in doubt for this Friday's game. This Friday's game of course being the only one in my hometown; that I have tickets for and have been eagerly anticipating for ages! *sigh*

So I went off to university to do my exam and it was HORRIBLE! Truly *awful*. I considered suicide midway through, but it was an anatomy exam and frankly trying to clobber myself to death with a human brain was somewhat unappealing! ;-p And to make matters even worse, I have another exam tomorrow but I am too tired to study for it…

Oh well…. enough whinging… Next instalment will be posted Saturday evening, when I will rave about the cricket (and tell you if my favourite player played or not!).

Please review~! Flames will be used on my stupid exams!

Disclaimer: All I need to complete this great day is to be sued. Please don't. None of this is mine, except for the Lantern of Lurve…. If you want to borrow that, let me know!



Chapter Five – Surprises and a Certain Scaredy-Cat

"Miss Pansy Parkinson!"

The Great Hall went dead silent. 400 heads swivelled in the direction of the Slytherin table. The Slytherins themselves looked at Pansy as if she had grown an extra head. She looked a bit affronted at all the attention, then flashed a grin at Malfoy (who looked utterly disgusted) and stood up and nodded.

Ridiculously perky, that girl. Harry also was somewhat disgusted. Stop kidding yourself. You're just jealous because she's making eyes at Draco… You mean *Malfoy*

"Green-eyed monster, Harry?" A laughing Hermione brought Harry out of his internal debate.

Too bloody smart for her own good, that girl. I'm going to have to sit down and have a talk with her!

After the announcement of Pansy's name, a couple more names were announced, none of them Slytherins.

"I am afraid that there is but one more nominee remaining. This one person nominated many times, by different students, and I hope that that means that there will be furious bidding at the actual auction. Mr Harry Potter!"

Harry felt like a deer caught in headlights. Every eye in the Great Hall was upon him, and he wished more than anything that he could just say no and run away, but he had promised Dumbledore and he intended to keep that promise. Besides, he couldn't lose a bet to Seamus! He stood up slowly, grinned, and nodded his head. The Hall erupted in cheers and applause. Harry could see the scary upper year girl clapping enthusiastically, and he sat down abruptly, but not before poking his tongue out at one rather stunned Seamus Finnegan.

"Ah, you may very well say yes now, Harry Potter, but whether or not you have the guts to go through with it remains to be seen." As much as Harry hated to admit it, Seamus was right. He was scared of being up for auction, and he prayed that somehow he would find the courage to go through with it. The fact that he was now apparently the centrepiece of this auction was not helping. Somehow, Harry managed to make it through dinner, and back to the Gryffindor tower, without incident.

Hermione accosted him back in the common room. Ron had gone off to play a game of Wizard's Chess against Ginny. Ginny was still mad, and Ron figured him mum would be angry if she found out that her daughter murdered two of her sons, so Ron was doing his best to keep Ginny distracted until she calmed down to a safe level.

"Do you want to talk?" Hermione asked softly.

"Yeah… I think that might be a good idea…" They found a quiet corner of the common room and sat down.

"I take it you told Ron then?"

"What? Did he say something to you?"

"No… he was just looking at you oddly…"

"Oddly? Oh no! Oh…." Harry sighed deeply.

"No! Not checking you out! Don't worry! I think he was trying to see who you were checking out…who you were looking at, who was looking at you. That sort of thing…"

"Thank God! I was worried for a bit there! I mean Ron's my best friend and I wouldn't want to have to tell him that I'm not attracted to him… He's probably still thinking I am dating the twins! I mean how bizarre is that? Accusing me of dating BOTH twins… that's just…. icky."

Hermione smiled and nodded.

"Mione, did you just say who was looking at *me*? It wasn't that scary sixth year who asked me to the Yule Ball was it?"

"Who? I didn't notice her, sorry. The people I noticed were rather more…male…."

That piqued Harry's curiosity.

"Who? C'mon, tell me! Please!"

Hermione smiled smugly. "Not a chance, Harry Potter. You should be able to work it out for yourself. Certain people aren't good at subtly glancing at you. Instead they tend to stare openly when you are not looking. I would have thought that you would have noticed by now. Speaking of noticing things…. have you noticed that so many of our classmates have become far better looking in the past year?" Harry grinned. He had expected that sooner or later they would have this conversation, but he had not thought that Hermione would have been so up-front about it.

"Oh I know! Isn't it so distracting! Just when we need to study it's harder to pay attention in class… Anyone in particular?"

"Well, Justin Finch-Fletchley has definitely grown up over the summer…"

"Oh yeah! So has Seamus! Just don't let him know!" They both laughed. Just as they calmed themselves down, Seamus walked into the common room and headed towards them.

"Oi! What romantic rendezvous are you two having in this corner?"

"Nothing like that, I'm afraid, Seamus, just talking." replied Harry.

"About?" Seamus looked ecstatic at the thought that he might hear some juicy secret.

"Nothing. Just commenting on how some of the guys here at Hogwarts got much better looking over the holidays…" Harry explained. Seamus gave Harry an odd look, and then he grinned his trademark cheeky grin. Leaning down conspiratorially, he said softly, "Speaking of gorgeous guys, I saw Oliver Wood in Diagon Alley before school came back, and he is absolutely divine! I probably left a large pool of drool on the floor, I was staring so hard! Perhaps you could introduce me to your former captain, Harry? I'd be your friend forever!" Harry and Hermione laughed.

"Oliver Wood? Really? I'll have to check him out…" commented Hermione.

"Oliver? Ew! No! That'd be too weird for me… besides, I never got the impression that he was gay…"

"Oh no, Straight as a whistle. Shame, really…" And with that last remark, Seamus was off, gone to harass Neville and Dean, who were 'helping' Ron play his chess game.

"Well…" Hermione remarked.

"Is it just me or does an encounter with Seamus always leave you exhausted? Like it requires a lot of energy just to be near him?" Hermione nodded her agreement.

"So, to get back to the previous discussion, who have you been noticing, Harry?"

"Well as you said, Justin, Seamus, Terry Boot in Ravenclaw…" He trailed off, not wanting to reveal that he had been perving on a Slytherin.

"Okay, but if you had to say who you thought was the best looking guy in the school, who would it be?" Harry sighed. HE had to tell the truth. Hermione would know if he was lying, and besides, she was his best friend and could be trusted. Best to get this admission over as quickly as possible.

"Ohhh… I hate you! It would have to be…. undoubtedly…. Draco Malfoy."

"What? Malfoy! Ew!"

You did say best looking, not personality or anything! Besides, I've seen you check out Malfoy before! And you can't deny he's good looking…"

"Ok, you are right, he is good-looking, and we were basing it on looks and nothing else. And I have NOT been checking out Malfoy!"

"You have!"

"Okay, maybe once or twice," she conceded, "but nothing more!"

"Okay then, smarty-pants, who would you have said?"

Hermione blushed bright red. It was a common colour for the Weasleys, but not Hermione - Harry had never seen her blush like that before... Finally, she softly mumbled "Ron."

Harry beamed. "I knew it!"

A/N: Congratulations to whoever it was that guessed right! (Sorry, having trouble viewing my reviews at the moment…) And to whoever it was that suggested Draco would be up for auction – Do you really think a Malfoy would be up for auction? "Wait until my father hears about *this*!" Besides, it'd probably mess up his hair! *lol*