(A/N: Hey everyone!! Wow, I'm really happy to be back and writing again I am so sorry I haven't updated for anyone who has been reading and/or enjoying my story. I feel so bad that I haven't updated since JUNE!! lol Thanx so much to people who have reviewed~~~~Rupert fan, RussellGrl15, Nat, Mione Weasley the original, Bruentte-Babe, and Ron Weasley2!! Please continue!! Now back to the fanfic. )

Last Resorts and Desperation

     As Harry, Ron, and Hermione returned to the common room after dinner, Harry and Ron sat down on the extremely comfortable, fluffy red armchairs in front of the fireplace to finish thinking about everything Dumbledore had said. Hermione, however, stormed in through the common room and went directly to her dormitory…apparently she and Harry were the only people who knew why she was probably feeling so down on herself now, because Ron just kept yapping away at various things as he usually did. The fact that Hermione had been totally ignored by Ron and was not even considered as an option to go to the Winter Ball with was quite upsetting, she now had no choice but to go with the one person she had loathed the past several years she attended Hogwarts. Harry figured there was nothing that could be done about the way Hermione was feeling, but he was acting irritably towards Ron, as he always had to go for that one particular person whom he had absolutely no chance with and then tried to use Hermione as a last resort. (Remember fourth year).

"So who do you think you'll be going with, Harry?" Ron asked slowly watching Hermione speed into her dormitory.

"Actually, I was thinking about asking your sister," Harry said in a matter-of-factly tone.

"That won't work…"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked worried.

"Well for one thing, I don't think George would want to go with you and second of all…" Ron humorously trailed off.

"Oh shut up," Harry said smiling, "no sorry I was sort of talking about the only other female in your family other than your mom."

"Yea I figured that…hey, do you know what's the matter with Hermione?" Ron asked, letting his curiosity get the best of him.

"Yea actually I do, but are you sure you really want to know? Considering the fact that you seem much more interested in Candy?" Harry said sarcastically and his temper coming back.

"What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean? Hermione's my friend of course I want to know what's wrong with her."

"Well that may be the case but I know exactly what you consider Hermione and 'your friend' would happen to be an understatement." Harry gave Ron a hard look and Ron looked a little flushed. Just then Ginny walked in with a few more Gryffindors and they all went up to their dormitories except for Ginny. She stayed in the common room sitting in the chair across from Harry trying to get into the conversation that Harry and Ron were having.

"How would you know what I feel for Hermione? You have no idea what goes on in my head and you especially don't know what I think about her besides the fact that I care about her obviously," Ron began to feel a little annoyed and took note of Ginny being in the room with them.

"Ginny," Harry said looking flustered, "would you please do me the favor of taking over the conversation and make Mr. emptiness over here aware of Hermione's presence and current status on this earth before I through my shoe at his face."

"This should be entertaining," Ginny said with a smirk on her face.

"Look Harry if you or anybody else doesn't even know what I feel for Hermione except for me, what makes you think Ginny's going to know?"

"Well for one thing I'm a girl and you're a guy so everything I think and say is basically going to be right and you're just there to listen and look pretty." Ron scowled.

"Well look don't get aggravated at me when you're the one she's liked for years and all you do is look and talk about other girls that want nothing to do with you. No offense Ron I think all those girls are shallow and the attraction is only physical. I know you love Hermione they way she loves you but you've just got to go the extra mile and show it, before she does something that we'll all regret." Ginny had a wise moment.

"Well why can she show it?!" Ron exclaimed as if his head was about to explode with all these things Ginny had just stated as if they were staring her straight in the face.

"Because you've got to give her a reason to," Harry and Ginny said in unison. They looked at each other and smiled.

"I have to talk with you guys more often," Ginny said still smiling.

"Alright," Ron said and paused, "tomorrow—I'll talk to her tomorrow."

*   *   *   *

     The next day, Hermione woke up to get ready to go down to breakfast in the Great Hall. She got out of bed and looked in the mirror and as she saw herself a single tear streamed out of one of her dark cinnamon colored eyes. She saw herself. Hermione Granger saw herself…the person that evidently no one else saw. Hermione felt horrible that Ron had gone for someone else when really the person he loved was right there in front of him. Hermione put on her Hogwarts robes, brushed her teeth, fixed up her hair, and put on some lip-gloss and walked out of the dormitory to go down stairs. As she walked down the stairs to go through the common room she saw Ron sitting in front of the fireplace where he had been sitting last night. He looked as if he was waiting for her but then Hermione, feeling her anger once again simply thought of course he's not waiting for me. Why should I care anyway? Watch him try to talk to me. He probably has no idea why I feel this way. She rolled her eyes and headed straight for the fat lady's portrait but before she could reach it…

"Hi Hermione."

"Hi Ron," Hermione sighed and wished Ron had not said anything.

"Um…how are you?" Ron asked trying to calm his nerves and look sympathetic at the same time.

"Fine," Hermione said monotonously. She walked out of the room just as Ron was going to say something. She didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to hear Ron say anything. She just wanted to get away, and find someone. Find the person who might not treat her as Ron had. As Hermione walked down the corridor she saw a flash of almost-white-blonde hair and started walking faster as she thought this was her chance to talk to Malfoy about going to the Winter Ball with her. As he turned the corner he glanced in her direction but kept walking until he was out of sight. So Hermione sped up and turned the corner, but as she did, she stopped abruptly for she almost collided into Malfoy. He was standing there leaning against the wall as if waiting for Hermione to turn the corner.

"Stalk much?" Malfoy asked Hermione sarcastically.

"Shut up and you know you enjoy it," Hermione rolled her eyes and was ashamed of herself for thinking that she should go with this sorry excuse for a human being.

"Only because it's you but don't get any ideas mudblood," Malfoy had a bored look on his face as he said this.

"Ok whatever Malfoy, I just wanted to ask you something," Hermione started getting a little hesitant and sorry for what she was about to do.

"Well you better hurry Granger my time for being as nice as I possibly can is running out and even if I had a life time supply of sympathy left in me I wouldn't waste it on listening to your sad story."

"You wouldn't even waste it on…a proposition?" Hermione smiled to herself and thought this is great…there's no way he's not going to want to know what I have in store for him. Draco's tedious facial expression now lit up with surprise and curiosity. Hermione took notice of the glint in his sparkling, silver-blue, stone-cold eyes.

"This is amusing…what exactly do you have in mind Granger?" Draco smiled.

"Sicko…not like that. Ok, here's the thing, I'm trying to get back at a certain…hmm…what's the word I'm looking for? Oh here we go…a certain oblivious bastard who thinks he's Mr. Macho when he really has no clue of what the consequences are of doing something so unpleasant. So I thought I'd come to you with my idea and thought you could be of some assistance in my little scheme." Hermione looked like she was going crazy talking to herself about her frustration with Ron even though she had not mentioned his name once. It was kind of alarming to Draco so he didn't give her much trouble.

"Um…ok sure why not? What do you want me to do? Remember I have only so much time left to be nice so hurry it up."

"Go to the Winter Ball with me" Hermione stated bluntly. An evil and disturbing smirk crept across Draco's face and said…

"So basically, you're pissed off at Weasley because he doesn't know how to be a man and confront you about the Winter Ball so he's just going to go for someone way out of his league and make an idiot fool out of himself…mind you, when he does that I'll be first in line there to laugh." Hermione blinked and nodded as if trying to keep what he had said from getting out and about the school. "Well I have to admit your desperation is quite humorous.

"Alright Granger, you've got yourself a date," Draco laughed, "Besides I'll get a kick out of seeing the look on Pansy's face when I turn up with you on my arm, not to mention a certain other person I've had my eye on. Well then, my time seems to be up so I'll be seeing you around I assume. Oh and one other thing," Draco said at the last minute before he walked away, "make sure you look drop-dead gorgeous, I've got a reputation to keep up you know." Draco winked and turned away. Hermione looked extremely agitated when he said this and decided to comment on something to him, as well.

"Sure, I'll look drop-dead but you had better watch you're back a couple days before the Winter Ball, "Hermione paused and raised her eyebrows and Draco turned around to look at her while she replied to his remark, "I might accidentally curse you to make your brain cells multiply…I've got a reputation of my own to keep up and going with you isn't going to do it. Oh yea…and I'm not going to say it won't hurt either." Hermione giggled as she saw the bizarre and frightened look on Draco's face and she turned and walked down the opposite way to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast, but as she walked away, she had not been aware of the one person who had been watching her talk to Draco, Ron.

*   *   *   *

     What is she doing, Ron thought. Ron spied on Hermione and Malfoy with such envy and with so much unbelievable anger inside of him he didn't know what to do. He was like a hawk in the sky circling its prey, waiting for just the right moment to swoop down to rip the poor defenseless animal to shreds before gobbling it up. Aside from his feelings for Hermione and his intense fury towards her now, he said absolutely nothing. He did, though, realize that he was not going to talk to her about the fact that he loved her with such a passion no one could fill in for her, and that he was going to persist with his hopes of taking Candy to the Winter Ball. As he watched Hermione leave Draco standing thunderstruck in the middle of the corridor, Ron figured she'd be going down to the Great Hall to make it in time for breakfast. So, Ron headed down to eat as well now that he had seen enough to assure him that he'd be making the right choice of not confronting Hermione. Ron walked down the staircase and past an empty classroom that he figured no one ever used considering how dusty it was and that there were no displays of any sort other than boring books, but as he walked past it he stopped for a moment. He slowly turned around and what he saw didn't appeal to him in any form or way. Ron stood before the old classroom dumbfounded and…

*   *   *   *

     Harry walked down to the common room after he had gotten dressed and started for the Great Hall. He walked down several staircases but was delayed as one staircase decided it wanted to move just before Harry could walk onto it, so he had to wait. After the slight intricacy he continued walking down to breakfast. He reached the Great Hall and saw neither Hermione nor Ron, so Harry decided he'd sit with Ginny, Seamus, Dean, and Neville. He sat down next to Seamus who was in front of Dean. Dean was sitting next to Ginny and on the other side of Ginny were a couple of her 4th year Gryffindor friends. On the opposite side of Dean was where Neville was seated. (Now that we know where everyone's at…)

"Hey guys," Harry said.

"Hi Harry," Everyone said together.

"Have any of you seen Ron or Hermione?" Harry asked. He knew that Hermione and Ron had both left before him to go down to the Great Hall but he had no idea where they could have been or what the hold up was. Maybe Ron actually had enough guts to talk with her, Harry thought.

"Nope, we haven't seen either of them, we all came down here together and didn't see them in the common room so…" Seamus trailed off.

"Harry?" Ginny smiled, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"For sure," Harry said," Maybe we actually got through to him last night so he figured he'd talk to Hermione before classes or something."

"It's about time," Ginny said rolling her eyes, remembering how chicken her brother had been acting towards the opposite sex. Harry figured he might as well go for it and said…

"Ginny, do you want to go to the ball with me?" Harry asked like he didn't really care that he should be embarrassed just about now.

"Yea, alright, I'd like that," Ginny smiled and they both bobbed their heads for a while as if they had no idea what to talk about next. After they both established the fact that they were going to the ball with each other and couldn't stop smiling, Hermione appeared through the doors to the Great Hall. Hermione walked over to where everyone was sitting and she sat down next to Harry after greeting Ginny, Seamus, Neville, and Dean.

"So…uh Hermione…how's it going?" Harry asked as if trying to pry the truth from her.

"Pretty good and you?" Hermione asked without looking at him. She just continued to pour her orange juice as if she didn't care whether Harry lived or died.

"I'm good," Harry said becoming anxious. Why was it that Hermione didn't seem interested in telling Harry what happened?

"So, where's Ron?" Ginny asked becoming suspicious that nothing happened.

"How should I know?" Hermione became a little agitated at all these questions and especially at the fact that they were asking about Ron. Oh no, Harry thought, he didn't do it, I can't believe him…

     Harry and Ginny both looked at each other, as they both knew that Ron was procrastinating just as they had all expected. As Hermione began to eat her scrambled eggs and sausage, Harry and Ginny tried to strike up a normal conversation to get her mind off of Ron because it was apparent that she was frustrated, but just then Ron burst into the Great Hall gasping for air as if he was running as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Hey look there's R-" Ginny was cut off by his sudden outburst.

"I NEED TO SEE PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE!" Ron yelled furiously at the top of his lungs. He was obviously panicking.

"Mr. Weasely what on earth is going on?" Professor McGonagall looked taken aback.

"JUST TELL ME WHERE HE IS I NEED TO SPEAK WITH HIM!" Ron looked extremely disturbed.

"Mr. Weasely please calm your nerve! I'm afraid Professor Dumbledore is not here. He should, as a matter-of-fact, be returning shortly, he made a trip to the Ministry of Magic. So, would you please be so kind as to tell me what is the matter?"

"Ron what's going on?" Harry asked trying to calm Ron

"It's Jake Thompson! He's dead." Ron said finally. Everyone in the entire hall looked up from their plate and Hermione's eyes widened. The silence that followed this statement pierced through the Great Hall as if no such silence was ever heard before, like the hawk had just swooped down and snapped the poor defenseless animal in half while the entire school sat and watched it squirm then cease, the lifeless body in the possession of a dangerous animal…

(A/N: Wow I finally finished my next chapter…lol…I really, really hope you all enjoyed it!!!! If you did can u pleeeaaazzz review it would mean a lot to me =0) thanx so much and let me know if you would really want me to continue writing my story because I'm not really sure…ehh ok then I'll update soon!! ~*~CrAzY~*~)