I sat down next to Ron and across from Harry. They didn't seem unmoved by my presence. 'Good for them,' I thought. I decided to actually make a conversation. "So, are you guys still in love?"

"No. Thank Merlin," Harry laughed.

"Nope," Ron said, smiling.

"Good," I said. I knew they never were and it was just the potion, but, hey, you can't blame a girl for trying, can you? I laughed silently to myself.

"What about you Hermione?" Harry asked. "Were you in love with someone?"

"As a cause of the potion, yes. Nothing more." I smiled.

"Who was it?" Ron asked.

"A person," I answered.

"Oh, c'mon, Mione!" Harry whimpered. "Tell us! We told you ours."

"Yeah! We promise we won't tell!" Ron added.

I didn't know what to do. If I told them, they'd be disgusted and appalled that I, "filthy, Mudblood" Hermione Granger, had kissed the pain-in-the-ass Draco Malfoy. But what made it worse, was that it was my first kiss. And it was a good one, too...What was I saying? It was horrible! No, it was worse than horrible! It was...a word worse than horrible!

Then again, if I didn't tell them, then they'd just beg me to tell them and they'd have other people in their minds, Malfoy not even in the top 100. But then, that would be considered lying, wouldn't it? Yes it would. Besides, these are my friends, my best friends that I'm talking about. Truth? Just not to tell? Curse my conscience.

"Okay, um, it was..." I refused to finish my sentence. I looked up and saw the Slytherin table. I saw Draco Malfoy. He saw me. I looked away. "Malfoy."

"Malfoy?" they both exclaimed.

"Well," I began. "You guys fell in love with your partners, didn't you? So it should seem perfectly normal."

"Hermione," Ron started. "Think about what you just said. It isn't normal to fall in love with a Malfoy!"

"Well it isn't normal to fall in love with a Parkinson, now is it? You fell in love with a pug-faced, cheerleader wannabe! I fell in love with a jerk- face. See the difference?" I quickly retorted.

Ron said nothing. Neither did Harry. We finished our supper in silence.

{that evening}

I left the Great Hall early in attempts to meet up with my other best friend, Nikole Piper (AN: Nikole Piper is another character from one of my stories. "Dragon Blade."). She often left the Great Hall early to change out of her robes and go outside and slay the evil demon-y things. You know, vampires, unicorn slayers, trolls, werewolves, etc.

"Pixie dust," I told the painting; she opened.

The common room was warm, the air a little heavy. I looked toward the fire, and I remembered the house elves and how they work so hard. I remembered the campaign I held a few years ago. S.P.E.W. I hardly even remember what those letters stood for.

"Nikole?" I called out.

"Yeah?" came the faint answer.

"Are you dressing out?" I asked.

"Yup."

"Oh. Okay."

"Why?" Nikole asked, trotting down the stairs, removing her hair from its regular ponytail.

"Nothing. I just hoped we could talk. Do you have time?" I asked.

"Sure. I have ten minutes."

"You have an appointment with the vampires?"

"Hey, what can I say? They booked me."

We both laughed at the thought.

"So," I began, not even close to nervous. "Did you hear what happened in Potions today?"

"With the love potions? Yeah, I heard." Nikole sat down next to me on the couch.

Nikole was born in the US and didn't have an English accent as the rest of us. A fellow fifth year as myself, she didn't have to take Potions because she knew the whole book we used; that's 'cause she helped write it.

"Well," I started. "We all fell in love with our partners and..." my voice trailed off.

"Your partner was..." Nikole tried to fill in the blanks.

"Draco Malfoy."

"Ew."

"I know. Anyways, after class-we were still going through the side effects- and Malfoy pinned me against the wall and he kissed me."

"Gross." Nikole didn't smile. Although she was the most humorous and most friendly person in Gryffindor, nonetheless the rest of Hogwarts, she knew when to be serious. And I loved her (as a friend) for that.

"And I liked it."

"Oh. Um, was it your first kiss?"

"Yeah."

"Did you kiss him back?"

"I think that's what I did." The kiss was still vivid in my head, but what I did to retaliate was fading. "Have you ever kissed someone?"

"Yes. I have."

"May I ask who?"

I saw her blush. And I really wanted to know. "Please tell me," I begged.

"Alright," she answered, still blushing. "But don't tell him I told you, okay?"

I nodded.

She cleared her throat. "Harry."

I laughed and gasped all at the same time. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

"When was this?"

"A few weeks ago."

I squealed in delight once more.

"Anyway, let's talk about you and Malfoy."

"Right," I answered, holding back the giggles and squeals.

"So what do you want to do about it?"

"I dunno," I replied.

"Hey, look, I've got to go, okay? Can we talk about this later?"

"Sure."

"Okay. See ya," Nikole called back, exiting through the painting.

"Bye," I mumbled, more to myself than anyone else.

A few minutes later

After a few minutes of just sitting there, I decided to head back downstairs. I exited the same way as Nikole and walked slowly to the Great Hall. Someone pushed me against the wall, my hands pinned up against my head. And, again, it was Malfoy.