A/N: right. Chapter four. I don't own Harry Potter. And most of my couples are finalized! If you want to know ahead of time, then here they are: SS/DM, HP/RW, GW/AD, and I'll add on later. Tee hee hee, and the count-down to The Dance begins! I'm such a weird loser.

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::FEBRUARY FIFTH, TUESDAY; JUST BEFORE LUNCH; NEW SCHEDULES WERE GIVEN OUT ON MONDAY AT BREAKFAST; D.A.D.A. WITH THE SLYTHERINS::

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"You've all passed the magical creatures unit!" Professor Lupin said brightly as the bell rang and they all settled down for class. He seemed to, like every other teacher they'd encountered so far, be trying to pretend the announcement before hadn't been made. "So today we're going to start work on Patronouses. I want you to pair up, now - five minutes to do so, go on."

There was a great scrambling around, scraping of chairs, and fluttering of papers along with the voices of the class while everybody partnered up. Harry and Ron, as usual, didn't even bother to stand as they were already sitting next to each other.

Hermione, sadly enough, got paired up with a Slytherin girl, Parkinson.

She wasn't the only one; there were a few Gryffindors and Slytherins together who looked like they'd rather not be within the same proximity as each other, but Remus Lupin didn't seem to notice this as he wrote something down on his desk, took out his wand, and waited patiently for the noise level to go down.

"Face each other - that's it, pull out your wands, and think of something happy - this is a spell to ward of Dementors, perhaps the only one. Right, everybody ready? Now repeat after me: /Expecto Patronum/!"

"Expecto Patronum!" the class echoed, many of the mispronouncing it, the others producing absolutely nothing. A few (including Hermione, Parkinson, Harry, and various other Slytherins) didn't even open their mouths.

"Not bad for a first try, this is a very complex spell," Lupin said indifferently when everybody gave up and looked to him for support. He went on more about the history of the spell, blah, blah, blah, then repeated it slowly.

"EX-PEC-TO PA-TRON-UM,"

Everybody chorused this, separating the syllables just like Remus had. He grimaced slightly before giving a somewhat encouraging smile. "Say it faster, more connected,"

About ten minutes of nothing other than voices and wand waving happened, and Harry finally raised his wand and cried the incantation, all eyes locking on the silvery white stag as it leap a ways then vanished into a faded mist.

There was some applause at that, and things got somewhat more interesting; such as, some students were now producing wispy silvery stuff, and thus got more excited. With Remus J. Lupin encouraging them, it wasn't long until all of the girls had managed to get some light silver mist.

Hermione shivered to know what they were thinking about.

The real fun didn't start until after class, though.

Three girls, two Slytherins and a Gryffindor, waited for the rest of the class to file out (obviously hoping to catch a moment alone with the professor).

Feeling a wave of pity for their Defense teacher, Hermione also held back, but instead of waiting for every student to be gone, she stepped up in front of Lupin and said (slightly louder, over the din),

"Professor, I'm really worried about something!"

"What's that?" he asked, thankfully not noticing the three other students who were giving Hermione death glares.

"It's about my Vampire essay - I don't think I got enough information down on it!" some liar. Hermione made a mental note to ask Ron and Harry how they did it so well. She followed Lupin back to his desk, throwing a pointed look over her shoulder at the other three girls. "Have you graded the essays yet?" she finished finally.

"Not quite," he said, smiling at her. "Don't worry Hermione, I'm sure you did great, you always do."

"Oh," Hermione said, trying to sound relieved. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the three girls had left. Mentally, she smirked.

"Oh. Well," she said at last, "Erm, is there anything I can do to help you out?"

Lupin, who was busy writing something, glanced up at her and smiled again.

"Yes, actually. Could you take this to Professor McGonagall?" he folded up whatever it was he had been writing and handed it to Hermione. She took it with a bright grin.

"Sure! Do you know where she is?"

"I'd check her classroom first, but if she isn't there then she's probably down at lunch. Thank you for being such a help, 'Mione!"

'Mione' was a nickname Sirius had dubbed Hermione, and it had rather stuck. Hermione would have laughed at how the others in the room looked quite pissed off that she had a 'pet name' from guess-who. Except, they had left.

"No problem at all!" Hermione turned around, and went out of the classroom, and about halfway to the transfiguration classroom, she realized she was being followed. Hermione stopped and turned around, raising her eyebrows.

"What?" she asked testily.

"'mione'? did you pay him to call you that?" the girl asked haughtily, looking quite pissed.

Hermione burst out laughing.

"It's not funny!" another girl snapped. "How dare you try to seduce him, in the middle of the day-"

"I wasn't seducing him!" Hermione's smile had been rather fixed. "I'm helping him with a little something! And as nasty as that sounds, it isn't sexual."

"Oh yeah?" yet another thundered. "If you don't play by the rules, 'mione', you'll be sorry!"

"Don't call me that!"

"What? 'mione'? Why not, don't like it when it comes from a /girl/'s mouth?" a seventh year taunted.

Hermione didn't answer, however, and Professor McGonagall appeared.

"What's going on?" the black-haired witch snapped.

"Professor Lupin wanted my to deliver this to you," Hermione said automatically. She held out the note, and McGonagall took it.

"Ah, yes. Thank you, Miss Granger. Five points to Gryffindor. Now, the rest of you OUT TO LUNCH!"

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AFTER CLASSES/DINNER

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All the Gryffindors were betting on who would go out with which teacher. They were pooling the money in a large bag that Dean had, and Fred and George were writing down on parchment persons' bets.

"Right!" George called brightly. "So, all bests placed on Hooch? Next we have... Lupin!" this time even more female voices rang out.

Harry and Ron looked to Hermione and gave her identical grins.

"What do you think, 'Mione?" Harry asked in a low voice. "Poor guy, why don't you end his misery now and just ask him out?"

"Yeah, and if it's any concern to you, you'd both make such a cute couple," Ron added.

Hermione shook her head.

"I've got a bad enough record as a teachers pet, I think I'll go alone or with another student."

"But," Ron pleaded.

"Oy! OY!" Harry called out. "Thirty sickles says Lupin and Granger!"

"HAH!" Lee shouted. "I say thirty sickles to Granger and McGonagall!"

"TWENTY SICKLES SAYS GRANGER AND SNAPE!!"

Hermione fell off her chair as even more voices rang out, all betting on which teacher she went out with. She waited patiently for the noise to each the max level, then stood up and cried: "THREE GALLEONS SAYS I GO WITH ANOTHER STUDENT!"

"YOU'RE ON!" practically everybody else cried back, and even more chaos ensued.

And the bets for every teacher were made (with a very, very long list for Lupin).

Ginny was the only one that didn't make a bet. She already had a date!