A/N:

**Many points to Cassie Claire, who started me writing this story in the first place. Love her stuff, can't wait for DV Chapter 11 (hint hint)

**Points to D for proofreading and pointing out my subtle plot-flaws. Read her stories: she writes as DracoDew17.

**THANKS TO: Hermione18, maxziod, DracoDew17 (always and several times), Sila-Chan, f0xyness39, Ashby, and heavengurl899. ::squeals:: I LOVE reviews

 A special loving hug goes to: maxziod, f0xyness39, and OF COURSE, DracoDew17, for their multiple reviews

}}}You are reviewers I hold dear to my heart!{{{

**To all readers: enjoy! For all those who like interim chapters with exciting things to come, this one's for you! ::wink:: And many, many points to all who review with constructive criticism…

Disclaimer:

HARRY'S MINE!!!  MINEMINEMINEMINEMINE!

::snaps out of daydream::

Dammit! I love you, JK, but I want Harry. And unfortunately, he still belongs to you. As do all characters in this story (excepting the soon-to-be important sister of Lavendar.)

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(Things are Changing) Round Here

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Round Here

We're carving out our names

-Counting Crows

Hermione walked home that night, whistling. It seemed impossible to her that Draco Malfoy had actually apologized to her, much less that he wanted to be friends. She laughed aloud at the thought that the two of them could be friends. Ron would never allow it and Harry would probably never speak to her again. That sobered her immediately. Ron and Harry. What would they say if she told them about this afternoon?

She smiled. They would laugh and ask her if she'd been at McGonagall's rum.

But who could she tell? She knew she couldn't keep all this to herself. GINNY. Gin would understand. Ginny had been in love with Harry as far back as Hermione could remember, and knew hopeless relationships when she saw them .She would understand perfectly.

Although I don't think of Malfoy like Ginny thinks of Harry, she thought. But he was handsome. And charming. And intelligent. In fact, the only thing about him that Hermione could honestly say bothered her was the fact that he was a Slytherin.

Hermione found herself at the bottom of the stairs leading to the front doors of the castle. She ascended them quickly and entered the castle in a cloud of snowflakes. She shut the door softly behind her.

Draco Malfoy, by sheer coincidence, was at the top of the steps leading up from the Great Hall. He saw her come in.

The pure white of the snow contrasted with her honey-golden colored hair, which had been arranged into carefully controlled curls for several years. Her almond-shaped amber eyes glowed with the weather, which had also beat color into her cheeks. He had never seen her look more beautiful.

Wait- Am I thinking of Granger? Bucktoothed, bushy-haired Mudblood that she is? Then he realized that the only thing he could honestly say that bothered him about her was that she was a Gryffindor.

Hermione shook the snow from her hair and struggled to take off her wrappings. She couldn't quite- get- the- coat- off. Suddenly, a strong hand gripped the back of her coat and helped her take it off. Then the hand reached around and unwound her scarf.

Hermione turned to see Draco Malfoy hanging up her jacket and brushing the flakes of snow from her scarf.

"Wha- Malfoy?" she spluttered.

"Hullo, Granger," he turned and smiled at her.

Hermione, still red with cold, looked up at him and genuinely smiled.

Harry Potter, coming out of the Great Hall, saw Malfoy standing there, smirking at a very red-faced Hermione.

"Oh- Draco," she said pleasantly surprised. "Thank you."

"Not at all a problem, Hermione," he replied. "Are you just off work now?"

"Yes," she replied faintly, wondering where her voice had gone.

Draco smiled kindly. Kindly? he thought, what the hell is wrong with me? I'm not kind! I'm handsome, charming, well-dressed, brilliant, and graceful… oh yes. But hardly ever kind.

"Coming to dinner then?" He reached out to trail a finger down her face, gently. He couldn't help himself; she looked so stunning, with the faint brush of red across her cheeks and her hair falling around her shoulders.

What on earth has come over me? he thought.

What on earth has come over him? Then she realized that she didn't care why he was being so wonderful, but she was glad he was.

Harry Potter, coming out of the Great Hall, saw Draco Malfoy raise his hand to Hermione.

And in a flash, he was across the room.

He grabbed Malfoy's outstretched hand, twisted it around Malfoy's back, and forced the silver-haired boy to his knees.

"If you even think about touching her again, you filthy bastard, I'll rip your heart out through your nostrils and shove it back up your ass," he snarled. His voice contained such a level of animosity that Hermione was frightened.

Malfoy actually laughed.  "Potter," he said coolly, "Let go of my arm."

"Not until I think you understand that I'll beat you over the head with your own kidneys if you hurt Hermione," Harry growled.

"Harry, honestly," said Hermione exasperatedly. "He wasn't hurting me, he was--."

But Malfoy cut her off. "I'll tell you once more, Potter, to let go of my arm, and then you will see why no one fights with me." The threat was cold as ice.

Harry snorted. "You're not in any position to do anythi—argh!"

The "argh" came from Malfoy twisting out of Harry's grasp and putting him in a headlock.

"Draco!" exclaimed Hermione, surprised. She was actually quite glad he had turned the tables on Harry. Now maybe Harry would listen.

"Potter," said Malfoy smoothly, "You are an insufferable git. But on Hermione's behalf, we'll overlook it just this once. Mind your own business once in a while, Potter, and then maybe you won't get yourself in such trouble."

He released Harry.

Harry turned and attempted to head butt Draco, but Hermione's voice rang out clearly: "Petrificus Totalus!"

Harry froze in the full body-bind.

"Harry, you nutter, listen to me," Hermione said, sighing. "Draco wasn't trying to hurt me."

"Draco--!" sputtered Harry indignantly. Since when were Hermione and Malfoy on a first-name basis?

Hermione explained the situation calmly as Malfoy looked on, smirking all the while.

Harry so desperately wanted to wipe the smirk off his smarmy little rat-face.

Hermione so desperately wanted Harry to understand. She wanted them to get along. And she knew that he wasn't even trying. She could feel herself getting more hysterical by the moment. But she would remain composed in front of Draco.

Draco so desperately wanted to give Potter a swift kick in the pants. What a git! He'd only touched her cheek for God's sake!

"—and although I appreciate that you protect me, Harry, you ought not to jump to conclusions. He was just helping me with my coat. Honestly,—" she said, growing more and more irritated. "Are you even listening?"

Harry glared at her. "All I saw, Hermione, was Malfoy reaching up to hit you."

"Oh, Harry—,"sighed Hermione. He was hopeless.

"He doesn't seem to be listening, Hermione," drawled Draco. His eyes danced at her. She smiled slightly at him. "Perhaps we should leave him like this while we go to dinner. Let him cool off, you know."

Hermione, as much as she wanted her best friend to at least make an effort to be civil, particularly because Draco was, replied laughingly, "I think that's a wonderful idea, Draco."

"After you," he said, graciously, sweeping his arm toward the door.

He followed her into the Great Hall, leaving Harry to the mercy of the two Ravenclaws that just happened to be passing by on their way to dinner. Harry called to them, but they gave him strange looks and went quickly into the Hall. Well, what could he expect from second years. The only other people in the castle were Ron, Ginny, Lavandar Brown and her younger sister, and Parvati Patil. And he happened to know that Ron was out at Fred and George's joke shop. Lavendar's sister was already in the Great Hall, Harry knew, because he had just dropped of his Care of Magical Creatures notes for her. Lavendar and Parvati were in Hogsmeade, he remembered, so that left…

Virginia Elisabeth Weasley descended the stairs to the Great Hall gracefully. Her Muggle clothes told Harry that she had been out that day. She wore jeans and a light green sweater that framed her irritatingly perfect figure well. She was stunningly beautiful. Harry, unable to move (or do anything else, really), took the time to appreciate the subtlety of the gold in her hair and the velvet darkness of her eyes.

Gin had been trying to cure herself of the devastatingly handsome Gryffindor Seeker since the day she met him. She had been devastated in her third year when Harry had briefly dated Cho Chang and she had realized the she mustn't be his type if he liked girls like that. She wanted so much to be calm and composed, mature and sophisticated like Cho seemed to be. And try though she might, Harry knew her too well to be impressed by her and she knew it. She sighed out of disappointment in herself. She would never and could never be what he wanted.

Her heart jumped when she saw him lying on the ground apparently frozen. Oh, Harry- she cried silently, What's happened?

She rushed down the stairs to his side.  "Why, Harry, what on earth--," she began.

He interrupted her. "Hermione's taken up Draco Malfoy as her new pity-project and I thought he was hitting her when in fact he was just trying to seduce her and she Body-Bound me because she was so embarrassed," Harry summarized. Gin's hands flew to her mouth in surprise.

"What?" said Ginny, taken aback completely. Hermione-- Malfoy— hitting-- Harry Body Bound? Malfoy seducing her???

Harry explained, at length, the situation and Ginny immediately felt pity for her best friend. Everyone knew Draco Malfoy was a difficult person to get along with, although he was the most handsome boy in the castle (after Harry, of course.) And that they were in rival Houses did not make Hermione's situation easier in the slightest. She didn't think for a moment that her best friend was involved in a pity project of any sort. Hermione was 17, after all.

Ginny realized that Harry was still motionless on the floor. She murmured the counter-curse and helped Harry to his feet.

He noticed how slender and elegant her hands were. And how her silky golden-red hair fell into her deep eyes.

Harry had a hard time swallowing as he stood there, looking into Gin's eyes, his voice gone.

Ginny looked back into the emerald green eyes she had adored for so long, scared by the intensity she saw there. His midnight bangs, sharply cut, casually brushed across his forehead. She opened her mouth to say something, but he put his hand over it.

He had no idea what had come over him. He'd always thought Ginny was beautiful, but ever since he'd dated Cho, she'd been remote towards him. At the time, he'd been glad she'd gotten over her school-girl crush. But over the last two years, it had come to bother him some that she was never even platonically affectionate towards him, as Hermione was. But he had never felt like this about her. Perhaps it was the effects of the Body-Bind. Perhaps his mind was still numb with shock at Hermione's actions and he wasn't thinking, but he did it all the same.

He drew her to him, slowly, cautiously. His hand left her mouth and slid around her waist.

And he kissed her.

Several things happened at once.

Hermione and Draco emerged from the Great Hall.

Ron, Parvati, and Lavendar came in, snow billowing around them.

"Harry!!"

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A/N:  okeyday, everybody, i know i kinda left it in an odd spot, but it's late and I have a chemistry test tomorrow L so I'll leave you with these tidbits to think about:

Who said "Harry!"? Was it Ginny, mad at him for kissing her? Was it Ron, who can't believe his eyes? Was it Hermione, slightly shocked and very pleased? Is it Lavendar, who was Harry's last girlfriend? (oops, let THAT slip. oh well. )

UP NEXT: Lavendar's sister gets some lines (yes, she becomes quite important), Draco kisses somebody (but not who you think), Parvati reveals something, and Hermione gets a letter.

Stay tuned for further developments!