It was just my luck that this lesson of Care of Magical Creatures happened to be with the Slytherins.

'We're going to be looking at some more Unicorns,' declared Hagrid, leading the way as we tromped outside to a grassy courtyard.

We huddled around the gate were they where. Normally I would have been very interested, but I was squashed between Dean and Harry and I was finding it difficult to breathe easily. Not to mention Malfoy was desperately trying to catch my attention.

'Now unicorns,' started Hagrid. 'Are very rare – '

Malfoy abandoned trying to get my attention, and he and his cronies were pushing themselves through the crowd towards me. Alarmed, I tried to wriggle through people in the opposite direction. I wasn't having much luck.

'Sorry, Neville, got to get past– '

I felt a familiar hand pull me backwards and Malfoy's voice in my ear.

'Granger,' he said. 'Look, we've got to talk.'

With a flush of embarrassment, I noticed Parvati watching us with hard eyes.

'I saw it all,' I whispered back. 'You promised, Malfoy. I meant what I said before.'

'It wasn't like that,' he pleaded. 'Please, Hermione, don't be like that...'

Something was wrong about that sentence, and it struck me a few seconds later.

He had called me Hermione. Not Granger, as he was wont to do, but Hermione.

That wasn't enough to move me.

'Come off it, Malfoy,' I hissed. 'I am so pissed off at you. You think just because of your stained sir name you think you can torture anyone you please. You made a promise Malfoy, which you broke. I can't trust you anymore... I wouldn't be surprised, actually, if you went now and shagged Pansy.'

The grip on my arm tightened, and I felt lips near my neck.

'No, Hermione. Look I'm sorry. I forgot what I was doing there for a moment, it won't happen again. Please give me another chance, I like you too much to let you go.'

I was aware that more than half the class chose to watch Malfoy and me than Hagrid.

'What's going on?' called Hagrid, finally noticing.

'Granger's pissed at her boyfriend,' cried Pansy spitefully, who had never fully forgiven me for 'stealing' her to-be-boyfriend away from her.

'Shut up, bitch. He's not my boyfriend - ' I snapped, my temper getting the best of me.

Hagrid sighed. 'Hermione, ten points from Gryffindor. Pansy, ten from Slytherin. Draco, separate yourself from Hermione.'

He clutched me possessively. 'Professor – ' he still said it in a spiteful way! ' – look, I won't talk to her again.'

'No, I'll go,' I volunteering, wrenching myself away from him, and strolling to the opposite side of the fence.

'Let's continue then, shall we?' said Hagrid. 'The unicorn's horn is hunted all over the globe – '

Our next class was Transfiguration, and it was not a happy one.

Malfoy was angry at me for embarrassing him in front of the Slytherins, and I was angry at him for breaking his promise. We sent each other glares from across the classroom, causing me to not been able to answer one of McGonagall's questions for I hadn't been listening.

Pansy took this opportunity to try and win Malfoy back. From the beginning of the lesson to the end, she had latched herself to Malfoy like a leech, giggling loudly and gushing when she spoke to him. It was enough to make me sick.

She shot me a triumphant look, but I couldn't figure out why. She had not won Malfoy yet. I was pleased to see he was quite exasperated at her.

'He's mine now, Mudblood,' she mouthed at me.

A boil of anger erupted in my stomach. It was because she called me a Mudblood. That, and maybe just a tiny bit because Malfoy was mine...

Determined not to let her get to me, I simply averted my eyes to McGonagall.

Malfoy then chose the opportune moment to send me another death look, so I sent him one back.

'Miss Granger,' said McGonagall suddenly. I froze.

'Um, yes, Professor?'

'Detention.'

I gaped at her. 'You're not serious, Professor!'

I was aware that the whole class was staring at me or Professor McGonagall, flabbergasted.

'Unfortunately, I am. And also one for you, two Mr. Malfoy.'

'What?' he yelped. 'Why?'

'You and Miss Granger have not been paying the slightest bit of attention to my class since the moment it began. So I'll want to see you again tonight, seven thirty, in my office.'

I gulped. McGonagall had actually given me a detention!

After dinner, Ron, Harry, Ginny and I parted and we each walked off to our common rooms.

Malfoy was already there, sitting by the fire. I sent him another death glare.

'Thanks a lot,' I snapped. 'Now we have detention!'

'It's not my fault! If you hadn't completely embarrassed me – '

'If you had actually kept your promises – '

'They started it, and you should have known – '

'Shut up! It was not my fault, you were the one who kept giving me angry looks – '

'It was not my fault – '

' – and you let Pansy slobber over you like that, it was sick – '

'I did not want her doing that – '

' – see, I told you you'd be shagging her next!'

'You're wrong!' he stood up, staring at me angrily, his blue eyes icy. 'Look, I like you okay, I did not want Pansy doing that, okay?'

There was a long silence, in which I surveyed him through skeptical eyes, trying to see if he was for real.

He sat down roughly, his eyes still radiating anger.

'I'll see at seven thirty then, okay?'

I nodded. 'Yeah, okay,' I said sarcastically, finally deciding that I was still angry at him. 'I hope you have fun cleaning the windows in the hospital wing, because I overhead McGonagall telling Flitwick that's what we'll be doing.'

After exchanging one last death glare, I went to my room.

Seven thirty came too fast for me. Dressed in some of my older muggle clothing (I was still sure we would be cleaning the windows) I found Malfoy waiting for me.

'You didn't have to wait, you know,' I told him.

He shrugged. 'Well, we have to talk.'

I didn't like the sound of that. With an alarmed look, I quickly darted out of the common room and sprinted down the stairs as fast as I could to McGonagall's lair. Cowardly, I know, but it was one of the only ways to avoid Malfoy. Well, for now.

McGonagall was sitting at her desk, and gave me a reproving look.

'Never thought I'd be giving you detention, Miss Granger.'

I stared at my toes, silently.

'I heard that you were going out with Draco.'

My head shot up so fast I cricked my neck. Was McGonagall going to talk to me about my love life... or, god help me, give me advice? Or maybe she'd heard about Umbrige and was offering me a way out of this?

It was nothing of the sort.

'I just wanted to say that, however unexpected the news was, I feel that you made a good choice.'

'But – ' I said slowly, still hardly believing I was talking to McGonagall about this, 'He – he bullies little kids!'

She shrugged. 'It certainly encourages a relationship between Slytherin and Gryffindor. But what was with the glares in my Transfiguration class?' she lowered her eyes at me. 'As much as it encourages inter-house unity, I must ask you to keep relationships out of my classroom.'

While I was goggling at her, Malfoy sauntered in.

'Excellent,' said McGonagall in a way which suggested that it was not the slightest bit 'excellent' at all, 'We shall continue with this detention. I want you each to write, I will keep my relationship out of the classroom as many times as you can until eight o'clock. I want it written at least one hundred times and every word spelt correctly.' She handed us some parchment and a feather-pen. 'Chose a desk. I have very important business to attend to, but I will be back at eight o'clock and expect to see the sentence written one hundred times. I will be checking. Good luck.' And with that, she strolled out.

Well, I thought. At least it wasn't cleaning the windows.

I looked at Malfoy. 'So, where you going to sit?'

He smiled at me. 'Next to wherever you're sitting.' With another silky smile he came next to me.

'Hermione,' he said, fingering a curl of my hair lovingly, gazing deeply into my eyes. 'Look, you've gotta see that I'd do anything for you, but Potter and Weasly are my enemies... and it's hard not to... tease them. But I'll try harder, I promise, just swear you'll forgive me.'

I felt myself softening. His gentle eyes bored into mine, and his soft words played in my head. I gulped. I had, after all, swore that I would be angry at him if he did it again, and he did... I was so, so close to forgiving him, only a splinter inside of my now was still angry at him. I was always too soft for my own good...

He knew it, too. 'C'mon, Hermione,' he whispered, his arm sliding around my waist, pulling my closer to him. 'I swear I won't provoke them or anything. I'll ignore them. I'll do whatever you want...'

I was fighting desperately against the flow of forgiveness threatening to wash over me. Finally, I broke.

'Alright, then,' I said, twirling my arms around his neck as I kissed him.

He kissed me back, harder, his hand lost deep in my hair.

When we came up for air, his eyes were darker with lust and he had backed me up against the wall.

'There's a Hogsmeade trip this weekend,' he said, brushing his lips against mine tantalizingly. 'You'll go with me, won't you?'

I groaned. 'I'm sorry, I already promised Ginny I'd go with her, and I've had to put her off for ages.'

He didn't care. 'Put her off this time.'

'I can't, I've promised – '

'Hermione, cupcake, please don't make me sink low enough for the Umbrige threat.'

I bit my lip. 'Please, Malfoy, listen to me, it's really important to her – '

'I don't care, it's really important to me.'

'I swear I'll go with you to the next one. I'll do anything else you want, but last time she was really upset.'

'Hermione, I want to go with you to this one.'

'Malfoy, please, I'll do anything else you want. Anything.'

Well, almost anything.

He looked thoughtful. 'Do one thing for me, and promise to go with me next time.'

'Fine,' I said, relieved that Ginny would not be disappointed again. 'What?'

'The Slytherins are not convinced that you like me... especially Pansy, naturally, so I want you to eat breakfast tomorrow at the Slytherin table, and maybe kiss me a few times so they're convinced.'

At first I wasn't sure I'd heard him right. I paused, letting it sink in.

It was hard. Doing that, or letting Ginny down again... I bit my lip again.

'Deal,' I said. 'I'll sit with you. No funny buisness though.'

A/N: Thank you too everyone who's reviewed!
Sheilalein: Umbrige in lingerie!! The horror! You've given me nightmares now! lol. They're not really dating, Malfoy just likes to think so. Well, in a way they kinda are. It's complicated.

Ayamme13: Yeah, he really should. But he likes teasing them, and he will as long as he think Hermione isn't around. It's rather like a bad habit.

Many thanks to; QueEnfullofDraMa, hpfanatic, shexy-cleva-yollop, Koi Megami, polly, runnerchick102, Titansgirl27, daydreamer102938, Ayamme13, crazy-inu-chick, oreo69not96, Silent-Serpent, shortie522, MusicalBeans, Zvezdana, pink-neon, da-lil-one114 and cowgirl4u2009 for reviewing! I'm sorry about the long update I have been mucho busy. The next installment should be here soon, hopefully. So please review and tell me what you think!