A/N: Thanks to Riku's Heartless Angel, Pigwidgeon188, Dracoisahottie13, Luna Gypsy, and AlanPatty07.

Really, you know the drill. You listen to my bribes for reviews (It usually varies between a sock and a cookie) and then you possibly review.

Hermione's POV

There was a time, in pre-school I suppose, when there was no actual boundaries between males and females. It was the glorious time when I could actually play with a male Slytherin to-be and boss him around. Of course, then the males grew really, really tall. And big. And then that was when all that "put the blocks over there!" evaporated, when they started to smirk DOWN upon me. Ah... I still remember the days when we never had extreme thoughts about using revolvers on certain people.

On another point, most of them aren't as playful anymore, and they interpret every little thing, like a smile, into something much more. Although, I can't blame Malfoy for thinking my feelings for him were much more, because that hug yesterday was not exactly a friendly hug. And even if it were, we weren't quite on the brink of talking civilly to each other yet. As a matter of fact, I don't think anybody was at that point. Talking civilly comes after sex, and usually girls never get past the former.

Christ, I was talking in technicalities about Malfoy's love life.

I shook my head to clear my avid thoughts. Thinking about him would not help. I started to reach for my phone to call Ginny. Electronic objects were not allowed in Hogwarts, until Headmaster Rue changed the whole code around. She believed that "students have the right to communicate, therefore taking away their means of communication is unjust." And can you believe it, but then she gave us all cell phones. Well not actually cell phones, more like magical cell phones that were the size of your fingernail and attached to your ear. To activate them, you had to press a certain body part, for example your knee, to activate the dial tone. Then you would say the name of the person you want to call out loud, and immediately, your call is transmitted to the receiver of the call.

All very high tech and CIA-ish, if you ask me. But it comes in handy every once in a while. Although it does look quite strange to an outsider if you see what looks like some students mumbling to themselves about their new shoes or something or something like that. Like when I was walking through the halls today to breakfast, this second-year starts shrieking about how her grandmother was going insane. But, of course, it makes her look like SHE'S insane going off shrieking to random people about it. And also, might I mention, some of the perverted upper years chose to press their genitals, which, um... causes either some intense giggling or staring. Really, but you don't need to know that.

I pressed my elbow, an action very inconspicuous when you were folding your arms. "Ginny." I waited anxiously for her to pick up.

Her voice echoed back almost immediately. "Hello?"

"Ginny!!" I cried, relieved.

"Hermione, what happened? You sound a bit agitated."

"Are you busy?" I was tapping my foot, an annoying habit when I got impatient.

"No, actually I'm over at the pitch with Ronnie," There was a "don't call me that!" in the background. "And I was just heading back now. He just needed me to throw him a few balls to practice." She answered after she shushed him.

I grinned slightly. "Can we meet for a late lunch?"

"Sure, is Hogsmeade, okay? It's a weekend. I can be there in twenty minutes tops. How about the new place that opened up on the corner? I forget the name."

"Yes! Perfect, I'll meet you there in twenty minutes." I disconnected the call, and hopped about the dormitory looking for something to wear, eventually settling for just sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a pair of slippers. I grabbed my wallet and walked out the door. It was very common on weekend to see students dressed in their pajamas walking around, and in and out of the Hogsmeade cafés or shops. The air that hit my cheeks was refreshingly cool, but not so cold as yesterday when it was drizzling. The sun that peeked out slightly behind the clouds was pleasant and warm enough. I walked briskly to my destination, finally entering the cobblestone streets and swarms of students lounging lazily on benches.

I walked a few stores over to find the new brunch place, and settled in one of their outdoor tables, waiting for my friend. Five minutes later, Ginny arrived sweaty and a bit disheveled, looking like she only dressed for the sake of being civilized. She gestured a waiter over, and we ordered a salad for me, and a cappuccino for her. After he left, she gave me one of her wide, blue-eyed looks. "What's so URGENT that you called me about?"

I looked around cautiously first, to see if anyone was eavesdropping. I leaned in close to her, and whispered through gritted teeth, "I hugged MALFOY, yesterday. And it wasn't even the other way around!"

"It's not that bad, he's really, um... what's-the-word," She made imaginary circles in the air and looked up at the umbrella over our table. "Hot." She gave me an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I'm a bit out of it since Ronnie almost hit my nose with his broomstick when he TRIED to smack the ball back." She touched her nose, as if to convince herself it was still there. "Anyways, how was it?" She raised her eyebrows out of mild curiosity, not displaying the pity or excess of condolences I expected.

And WANTED.

The waiter arrived at the most inconvenient time and placed our order on the table. When he left, I sighed and started to munch gloomily on a tomato. "It was fine. But I really don't think it was all my fault because he hugged back too." Ginny, who was busy sipping her latte, started choking and sputtering. After a moment, her coughs subsided and she put her drink down and leaned towards me, almost nose to nose. "HE HUGGED BACK? HE NEVER HUGS BACK. DRA—"I clamped a hand over her mouth and looked around nervously, aware of the stares we were getting from Ginny's outburst. I shushed her.

She slowly leaned back into her seat and stared at me. "So, what did it feel like?"

"To be honest, disgus—"I got interrupted by her menacing glare.

"There is a reason why we say TO BE HONEST." Her look turned meaningful.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. It was okay."

"So that means you liked it." She seemed to think my words were codes in need of unscrambling. "But describe it. DETAILS, WOMAN."

I coughed and started speaking in a tone so low it was almost impossible for myself to hear. Amazingly, she seemed to pick out every word. "It was... warm..."

"A Slytherin is capable of being warm?" She smirked, but at my look for her interruption, she wrinkled her nose. "Sorry, go on. It's the nose thing that's messing with my mind."

"I liked it."

"A lot, I presume, from the way your acting." She said. I shrugged and started picking at my lettuce.

"I need to get my mind off him somehow, and that's where you come in. I have no ideas whatsoever. I have tried READING, but that actually doesn't work."

She clicked her tongue against the top of her mouth. "Of course that doesn't work! Reading about the Pythagorean Formula, or whatever you like to read, will just make your mind wander even more!"

There was a silence where she sat there pondering for a moment when she suddenly looked up; it was one of her looks that made people actually think that her hair was redder than usual and flying wildly around her head as if they had a mind of their own, while her blue eyes suddenly had much more clarity making it look like she had just figured out how to decode DNA. "BUT, What YOU need is someone to distract you."

"Someone." I echoed.

"Yes, like a new boyfriend. Ron and Harry won't do you any good of course. Because they're just too much like... THEMSELVES." She shook her head and sat there in the folds of her currently building ideas. "I can set you up with someone... you ARE very pretty." She pulled one of my curls, making them bounce, but before I could protest, she was already off running away with her thoughts.

"There's Parvati's brother, Payton, but he's already out of school, and learning about time traveling spells, or some other similar thing. OR, maybe the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, he DOES have nicely toned abs, but of course, he's a HUFFLEPUFF, so he must be even DIMMER than Trelawney." She rolled her eyes to herself. "The boy has to be in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, right?" Without waiting for an answer, she answered it herself." Of course though, you wouldn't want some idiot, or a male-bitch, am I right?" I snorted a bit while she continued. "Let's see, let's see..." There was a second pause when I tried to speak, but she took it up. "OH MY GOD! WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF IT BEFORE?"

"Well that took approximately two minutes." I said as I gave an apologetic look at the people sitting at the surrounding tables, who were probably getting annoyed at Ginny's random outbursts.

She ignored me and shrieked, "JESSE RALLISON!"

"Rallison?" I raised an eyebrow in question.

"I don't know if you heard of him, but he's the keeper for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. And he's really good, as a matter of fact. Not like RON and his broomstick." She said with a scowl, once again touching her nose. "He's GEORGOUS," She continued, "But there's one problem, he's a sixth year, a year younger than you. I don't know if that's a problem for you though, but he's as tall as Malfoy, so..."

She finally paused waiting for my reaction. I gave her an incredulous look. "I don't want to be SET UP!" I cried.

"Oh, come on! Just a trial run, it won't hurt. Just get to know him!"

I didn't even consider it before I shook my head.

"You're telling me your not willing to make a new friend."

"Friend? That's it?" I eyed her skeptically.

"Unless your willing to make it something more, than yes."

I changed the subject for a moment. "How do you know him?" I asked suspiciously. I secretly hoped Ginny was making machine guns, and he bought one, therefore giving me an excuse to get out of this.

"He's my partner for Potions." She explained. Damn.

After a pause without my response she said, "PLEASE Hermione, just once!"

"I don't know..." I led off.

"It's not like I'm asking you to have sex with him! Just talk, and if it doesn't work out and he happens to annoy the hell out of you, then leave! It's so simple!" She was getting all worked up over this, I could see.

After a few more minutes of her begging, I finally just gave in and threw up my hands in response. "OKAY, OKAY! Jesus!"

She grinned and rushed me to finish eating so we could meet him.

This was the last time I was ever eating lunch with her.

As we walked back to Hogwarts along the path, she checked her watch and noted, "He's probably at the pitch now, since I asked him to help Ron out with his blocking skills." After a few more minutes of wondering what I got myself into, and Ginny talking about something unheard under the turmoil of my thoughts, we arrived. The only reason I noticed this was because Ginny stuck two fingers into her mouth and whistled, shaking the ground.

At least that's how it felt like to me.

I turned to her, eyeing her cautiously. "Where did you learn to do THAT?"

She shook her head at me and smiled. "Trust me, when you live in a household of over five boys, you learn these things." Suddenly, two spots of color grew increasingly closer, and eventually close enough so I could make out their shapes. A second later, both males landed, one with amazing grace, and the other stumbling slightly into me before I could make out what the other one looked like.

"Ron!" Ginny chided, pulling him up.

I sighed at my friend's clumsiness, unaware of the second person, as I brushed the red hair out of his eyes in habit. "Honestly, I just slipped." He defended himself, messing his own hair back up, contradicting my own work. "I unmounted my broom perfectly FINE all the other times since I started playing the game."

Ginny sighed dramatically and suddenly turned towards the next person, making me suddenly realize his presence after that little dilemma concerning Ron. He was tall, not quite as tall as Ron, but definitely taller than me. Of course, I think every male who was a fourth year and up was taller than me. I took the opportunity to study him. He was actually as good-looking as Ginny gushed. He had an olive complexion along with thick, black, wavy hair that was sweaty from practice, and green eyes that seemed to sparkle at the moment much like Ginny's. The whole effect made him look completely different from Harry Potter in a very, very good way.

Mm... delish.

"Jesse, this is Hermione. Vice versa." I shook his hand, which he had held out and smiled at me.

"Don't you like his hair?" She asked, patting his head. "Although it's all sweaty at the moment." Ginny wrinkled her nose and wiped her hand on a bit of his shirt she tugged up, revealing his nicely toned stomach. I wondered if Ron would look like that if he played keeper long enough on the Gryfindor Quidditch team.

I almost snorted out loud. Right.

"Well, I'll leave you two to talk. Can I borrow your broom to help Ronnie practice? Yea, thanks." Ginny said, answering her own question, taking the broom out of his hand, and kicking off the ground before anyone could protest.

I looked at Ron who was shaking his head and mumbling about how cruel God was and that He had absolutely no mercy whatsoever by cursing him with such a horrid sister or something like that, adding a few curses here and there, as he kicked off to follow her in the air.

WELL... SOMEONE just bought themselves an express ticket to hell.

"How's Ron doing?" I asked casually eyeing the two specks circling around in the air. He, meaning "he" as in Jesse, turned to me and eyed me thoughtfully. "I think he's going to be pretty good with a little more practice... although I think he either has a problem with the nerves, or that whole hand-eye coordination thing of his is just messed up."

I laughed. "God, he's not THAT BAD."

"Yes, perhaps I'm exaggerating a bit just to make someone laugh." He cocked his head thoughtfully at me, a slight smile splayed on his lips. "Or maybe I AM telling the truth, because just five minutes ago, before Gin interrupted, he almost knocked me off my broom in an attempt to get back on his."

A ten-minute banter erupted, consisting of me defending my best friend, and Jesse over there, making him look worse and worse than he actually was. While we were at it, we entered Hogwarts' main entrance and into the Great Hall. Few occupants were still seated, although I did notice a flash of someone's trademark silver-blonde hair, but quickly tried to push that to the back of my mind. The headmaster was also sitting there reading what looked like a letter.

We seated at the Ravenclaw table, a few girls looking over at me strangely. This didn't bother me, because the fact that he was so easily talked to made me smile and relax in my new surroundings. As we started to change the topic to what interested us and other things, my mind started to wander to Malfoy. I snuck a few looks at him, noting his soft blonde hair that seemed messed up at the moment, perhaps from running his hand through it too many times. His dark eyes that were staring at the back of Jesse's head were clouded over.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

"What?" Jesse asked in confusion. "Did you say no?" As I started to explain myself, I shifted my full attention back to him. The fact that he was a sixth year didn't bother me the least. He was funny, nice, good-looking, and smart. Well at least I think he was smart, since he was in RAVENCLAW for god sakes, unless the Sorting Hat suddenly went insane and started putting random people in random houses.

But for some reason I doubted that.

The only problem with Jesse was that he was so easy to get along with. Which is not the problem, mind you. The problem was that he was starting to feel like a really good friend. A fake brother perhaps, like Ron and Harry. There were just no sparks.

Well, at least not yet.

Malfoy's POV

Who the FUCK was THAT?

Professor Rue's POV

I ignored the letter for a moment, and eyed the students over the paper. I had heard Hermione Granger and her new friend come in from the result of the muffled slam of the doors. As I watched their animated conversation grow, my eyes wandered over to the only Slytherin sitting over at their assigned dining table. He seemed to be multi-tasking between studying and trying to glare black holes at what looked like the back of the new boy's head.

I rubbed my temples, making circular motions. Soon, very soon I knew, a fight was going to have to be broken up, most likely between the two of them. And I also knew that my height and build was definitely not going to help physically pull them apart. Most possibly, I was going to have more injuries than both of them combined if I did anything of the sort.

Damn, where did I put that whistle?