I Do Not Own Harry Potter.

Okay, here's the next chapter. I'm hoping to have the new chapter done and edited by the time I finish posting the ones before it.
Drop-Depp-Gorgeous: I'm glad that you're enjoying the fic. I hope you got my email about your questions. (and could you update your fics, I'm waiting to finish Not Like Other Girls)
jon3776: I'm not sure if I should say that I'm glad you're enjoying the story. You seem to be a bit ambivalent on it. :o) But it's okay. I'm glad that you can look past your what you don't like and see the plot that lies beneath. Don't worry; Harry and Snape will not become anything like friends and neither will Harry and Draco. They will have more of a tolerating relationship (which will be delved into in the sequel). Not too sure about the verbal smackdown, though. Professor Snape holds a lot of sway over Harry's future still and I'm not sure that Harry can say much to him until he graduates (something for me to think about while I write the sequel). I hope you keep reading. :o)
csferosha: Glad to see you're still hanging in there! Believe it or not, I was thinking of having Snape have a heart attack, but that would include him finding Harry and Eva doing a lot more than kissing and I just didn't think that would work, so I just stuck with the dream. Keep reviewing, I love your comments.
This Time Imperfect: I think you're one of the few people who like the idea of Draco helping Eva. I find that he's a lot like my own best friend. He might be all tough and macho on the outside (often bordering on horrible), but he's really okay in the end. Keep reviewing, I love your comments.
On with the show! Mattie :o)

Harry watched as Draco Malfoy approached the Gryffindor table the next morning. If it had been anybody else, Harry would not have given it a second thought, but Draco was not one to frequent Harry's house table. The blonde stopped in front of Harry.

"May I?" he asked, motioning that he wanted to sit down.

Harry cautiously nodded.

"Good morning, Miss Granger," Draco said to Hermione.

"It is a fine morning, isn't it Mr. Malfoy?" replied Hermione. She hoped that his presence at their table meant that Eva had found some way around her father's punishment. That girl could find a hole through a brick wall. "How is Eva?" she asked.

"She is the reason that I'm here, actually." He turned to Harry and in a very business-like voice said, "I have come up with a few ideas that might allow you and Miss Nocturino to continue to see each other. Maybe not romantically, but you'll be able to converse in an easy manner."

"Why would you want to help me, Malfoy?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Contrary to popular belief, I do have a heart and a great deal of it is in the hands of the young lady in question. I would like nothing better than to see you out of her life completely, but she seems to have formed an attachment to you and I would do anything to make sure she's happy."

"Even if it means disobeying your Head of House?" asked Ron. He'd been eyeing Draco with more than suspicion. His glare was openly hostile.

"Technically, none of us would be breaking any rules."

"What's the plan?" asked Hermione. Harry and Ron shot her seething glares. "What?! She's obviously thought up something and her plans are usually pretty good. I think it's that Slytherin mind of hers."

"Thank you," said Draco.

"You're welcome," replied Hermione.

Ron put his face in his hands. Hermione Granger, Gryffindor, was speaking civilly with Draco Malfoy, Slytherin. The world had to be coming to an end. Maybe I should call hell and see if it's frozen over, he thought.

"Would you like to hear what we came up with?" he asked. He saw all three nod. Harry a little more hesitantly than the other two. "Professor Snape said that she was not allowed to have any of her meals here, he never said anything about you lot going to our table to eat."

"But we'd get murdered if we went over there!" cried Ron.

"We thought of that," said Draco. "If you decide to go over there, Rave and I will sit at the end of the table, as far away from the rest of the Slytherins as possible. Rave's got her rooms to get away from any trouble and no one can try anything with me since I'm a prefect."

Hermione was beaming. "She's bloody brilliant!"

"I'd like to think that I rubbed off on her in the last fifteen years," said Draco.

"I'm sure you did," said Hermione. "And I'm sure she rubbed off on you, too," she added looking at him with appreciation.

Draco smiled and looked down at his hands. Was it getting warm? He cleared his throat and continued. "Professor Snape also said that she was not allowed inside the Gryffindor common room, but never specified that she was not allowed in your dormitories or that you lot were banned from her rooms. You can fly her into your rooms through a window or just go to her tower."

"That is so simple!" exclaimed Hermione. "Why hadn't I thought of it?"

"Slytherin mind, Miss Granger, it's a beautiful thing," drawled Draco. "Now, if you will excuse me, Rave wanted to know how this went as soon as possible. Would it be safe to tell her we will have company tonight in her rooms?"

Hermione was nodding her head enthusiastically, Ron and Harry thought about it before agreeing. Draco gave them a brief nod and returned to his table. Eva was waiting for him when he got there.

"What did they say? Are they going to come? Did they sound suspicious?" she asked him quickly.

Before answering, Draco shot the Slytherins a mean glare that stated quite clearly, he would have no disrespect towards him. "Yes, yes, and yes."

Eva was about to throw her arms around Draco, but he nodded his head slightly towards the Head Table. Professor Snape was watching them. He'd seen Draco go to the Gryffindor table and sensed there was something going on. Eva wiped the smile off her face and put a blank expression on, instead. She did not want anything to ruin her plans, even if it meant playing along with her father's game.

She left Draco at the table to finish his breakfast and went to the library. She had some research to do for some of her classes. She was in quite a spot trying to make up all the work she had missed. Eva was fortunate to be far enough ahead that falling behind in assignments was not a difficult thing to fix.

She was engrossed in a very interesting essay on the effects of being an animagus, when Pansy Parkinson parked herself on the opposite side of the table. The girl noisily took out her homework and set it, upside-down, in front of herself. Eva looked over the book to the parchment on the table. "It would be easier to write if you put the parchment the right-side up."

"You're going to do the essay for me," said Pansy.

Eva put the book down with a bang. "My father said I was to tutor you, not spoon feed you the answers, certainly not do your homework for you. Write the essay and then I will read it and tell you what needs to be changed."

"I don't know where to start," said Pansy in a whinging voice.

"Start anywhere. Start in the middle if that's where your mind is, just write something down and we'll go from there." Eva's tone was exasperated. She could not believe anyone in Slytherin could be as dense as Parkinson was. Well, there were Crabbe and Goyle, but at least they did their own work.

Eva watched as Pansy began her Arithmancy paper. She went back to her article when she saw that the girl was concentrating. She was almost done with her own essay when Pansy rammed her parchment under her nose. Eva balled her hands into a fist and tried to keep her temper. This is only temporary. It's just to see how much I'll take. He's just testing me. She repeated those lines to herself and calmed down a bit.

Eva snatched the parchment out of Pansy's hands and gave her a mean glare. Her father had said Eva was to help Pansy, he never said anything about being nice to her while she was doing it. Eva perused the paper and made a few comments on it. She was actually quite surprised at how much information Pansy had gotten correct. She handed the paper back.

"You've got the concepts correct for the larger part. Work on your opening paragraph a bit more and fix the things I've marked. You should do fine."

Pansy took the corrected paper. "Will you look at my Potions essay?"

Eva did not get the chance to answer before the paper was shoved under her nose. She sighed and picked up her quill. It was best to just help Pansy all at once and have the rest of the day to do her own work. Eva checked the essay and made a considerable number of marks on it.

"You should really spend some more time on this one. You've got your theories mixed-up and your list of ingredients should be ordered chronologically for brewing. You might want to talk to your Potions Partner for help."

Pansy took the essay and gaped at the amount of comments Eva had written. "You want me to re-write the whole thing?!"

"Only if you want a good grade," Eva replied. She'd gone back to her own essay and tried her best to ignore Pansy.

"Professor Snape never gave me anything below an 'A' on all my essays," Pansy said snootily.

"He probably didn't want you to know how stupid you really are," said Eva under her breath.

"What was that?"

"I said, he probably didn't want you to know how stupid you really are," Eva practically shouted.

"Did you just call me stupid?" Pansy asked in an indignant voice.

"Was it not clear enough for you, dearie?"

Pansy turned towards the students that were snickering at a nearby table and growled at them. "You'll pay for that comment, Nocturino."

"Please, put it on my bill," she replied smoothly before turning her attention back to her work.

Pansy left the library in search of Millicent Bullstrode. She'd not acted on her plan to have a little fun with the Weasley girl because it was no fun if Nocturino was not present to witness it.

She found Millicent in the Slytherin dungeons. She caught the girl's eye and motioned her to join Pansy in the dormitory.

"Are you ready?" asked Pansy as soon as the larger girl entered the room.

"I was hoping that's what you wanted to talk about." The second Slytherin girl sat down heavily on the bed next to Pansy.

"Remember, we need to make it look like an accident."

"We're still gonna scare her a bit first, right?"

"Of course, it's no fun unless she's scared. We begin tonight."

As much as Millicent was glad to help Pansy in her plan to hurt a Gryffindor, she had no illusions that the smile on Pansy's face meant anything but trouble.

Eva waited a bit impatiently for Harry, Hermione and Ron to visit her that night. Draco had already gotten there. He'd showed up with a bouquet of roses after he'd gone about his prefect duties. He now sat on the sofa, watching Eva try and perfect the tea service that was on the table.

After watching her move the teacups for the fifth time, he sighed out loud. "For Merlin's sake, Rave! It's just those bloody Gryffindors, not the bloody Minister of Magic!"

Eva looked at him properly abashed and tried her best to sit still. Draco had a hard time keeping down the laughter that was dying to get out. He watched Eva fidget in her chair and check the clock on the mantle every thirty seconds. He decided to try to help her pass the next ten minutes before they arrived in conversation.

"Do you really care about him?" Draco had been pondering upon that for weeks now. "I mean really and truly, Rave. Not just because he's the first guy after me that you've gotten to know."

Eva turned from watching the clock to look at Draco. "I really and truly care about him. And it's not just because he's the first guy since you; if that were true it'd be Neville I was fumbling over." Eva smiled at Draco's fake shudder. "I think I love him, Drake," she whispered.

"Love?" repeated Draco.

Eva just nodded and smiled. She heard a knock at her door and her heart skipped a beat. "That's them. Do I look all right?" she asked Draco as she smoothed her hair.

"You look gorgeous," he threw over his shoulder as he stood to let the Gryffindors in.

Harry looked about as nervous as Eva did, to Draco. He was wiping his palms on his robes when Draco opened the door for them. "Good evening. Do come in," he said and stood aside to allow them entrance. "May I take your robes?" he asked when they had entered.

Hermione smiled and took off her robe. Draco took it and hung it in the coat closet by the door. Harry and Ron gaped at him before handing over their own robes. They figured he was either under Imperio or he really did want to help Eva. After he finished with the robes he led them through the little Entrance Hall to where Eva was standing, waiting for them.

"Hello, Hermione," she nodded at the girl. "Ron," she gave him a small smile. "Harry," she nodded her head slightly and stared at him. It wasn't until Draco cleared his throat loudly that she snapped back to attention. "I'm sorry. Do sit down."

The five teens sat around the coffee table in front of the fire. The laughter that Draco had been suppressing finally burst out. The others just looked at him as if he'd gone mad. He was holding his stomach when he finally stopped. "I'm sorry. It's just that it's always great to see Eva so nervous; she always gets so formal, it's funny."

Eva looked at her guests and blushed. She did get formal when she was nervous, but she hoped it didn't put them off. "I'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable. I really do get formal when I'm nervous."

"Why are you nervous?" asked Hermione. "It's just us."

"How about we just forget that Harry and Eva like each other and just talk?" suggested Draco.

"Wonderful suggestion, Mr. Malfoy!" said Hermione.

"Thank you, Miss Granger," he replied with a nod in her direction.

Eva raised an eyebrow in Draco's direction. She'd not known that Hermione and he were on speaking terms, and such cordial speaking terms, indeed.

"How is Ginny?" asked Eva.

"She's fine," answered Ron.

"She's seeing Neville," supplied Hermione.

"Really?!" cried Eva. She pulled as much information out of Hermione as she could and felt much better after.

Harry had remained silent the whole time and Draco was giving him a look of consideration. He really didn't want to be in the same room with Harry Potter, but Eva was more important right now. "So, Harry, how have you been?"