At dinner that night, everyone witnessed Hermione coming into the room, looking like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards, with tearstreaks on her face, and sit down between Harry and Ron, a position she hadnt taken up in months. The boys, sensing her distress, were kind and supportive, even though they hadnt the foggiest idea what had upset her, seeing as merely two hours before she had been furious enough to reduce Neville to a trembling mess. Speaking of Neville, Hermione apologised profusely, and he accepted it, saying everyone was under a lot of stress.

He wasn't kidding. Hermione was considering hurting someone. This arrangement sucked.

But the real spectacle of the evening was Ginny running into the room, shrieking with laughter, until of course Draco caught her and kissed her soundly, which effectively shut her up. Hermione burst into fresh tears, and Ginny looked uneasily over at her until Draco kissed her again.

Ron was too busy comforting Hermione to do much more than glare at his sister and her new 'boyfriend'.

And on the subject of boyfriends, Blaise was fucking furious.

Not only did he have to suffer Draco reaming him out for being male, for god's sakes, he had to witness Draco kissing the girl that was as close to being his girlfriend as Pansy was to being his cousin.

The pureblood gene pool could use a heavy dose of chlorine, in his opinion.

It was a wonder more purebloods didn't have twelve fingers, cleft lips and ingrown toenails. Although, if he was to think about it properly, he wouldn't know if they had ingrown toenails. He had better things to do then inspect their feet. He repressed a shudder.

Gross.

But what was almost equally as gross was the show Weasley and Draco were putting on right now. Pansy was going to be so mad.

After all, once Lucius killed Hermione, Draco would be free.

But Miss Virginia Emily Weasley was as pureblood as they come.

Which was to say, she was his cousin, many times removed.

Strictly speaking, she was a good match for Draco, despite her lack of money. She was beautiful, smart, funny, sneaky, a great actress…what more could the future richest pureblood wizard need?

Actress. Sneaky.

Blaise narrowed his eyes. He wouldn't put it past any of them for Draco to pretend to go off Hermione and onto Ginny, in the forlorn hope it was save the mudblood's life. After all, Ginny was Hermione's best friend. And anyone with eyes, although it seemed inbreeding had removed lateral thinking from the Slytherin table, could see that Hermione was either in love with him or in lust.

And while Draco was very good looking, he was a twat unless you loved him.

He and Blaise were direct cousins. Blaise knew him well.

He thought Draco was, quite frankly, a twat.

But if they were really acting, then the mudblood was an excellent actress as well. Because those tears looked very real. And they were obviously enough to convince Potter and Weasley.

Hmm.

This was certainly something to think about.

After he got Ginny back.

&

A few days later, Hermione was in the library, working on homework. However, her mind was somewhat distracted by the small issue of Draco and Ginny. Despite the show put on throughout school – the disgustingly realistic one in which Ginny and Draco played tonsil hockey during almost every bit of spare time they had, much to the chagrine of the teachers, in the Heads common room it was different. Ginny sat much separated from Hermione and Draco, although they didn't sit together either.

This plan, while it seemed to be working – i.e. Pansy's glares were now directed at Ginny – had put a barrier between them all. Ginny desperately didn't want to get between Draco and Hermione, who she thought of as the cutest thing in the entire school, Hermione was rather suspicious that Draco and Ginny enjoyed the plan more than they ought to, and Draco was annoyed at the world in general. At himself for enjoying kissing Ginny, at Hermione for suspecting he was enjoying himself, and at Ginny for being enjoyable. He just couldn't win.

Hermione hummed to herself slightly as she rose from her chair to get yet another book. Her hair swung around her shoulders and she smiled slightly. She liked having waist length straight hair. Today it was black that shimmered blue-purple under the light. She wore a short black pleated skirt, purple fishnets, black knee-high boots with a three-inch stiletto heel and an off-shoulder black peasant top that laced up the front with gauzy purple sleeves.

She saw the book she wanted, high up on the shelf that was just in her reach, and went for it. Only to have someone close in behind her, and prevent her reaching hand from pulling the book down. Whoever it was who was pressed behind her, it was male - that much was clear from the body and the position. No straight girl would get that close to another girl. Not that Hogwarts didn't have its share of lesbians…it was just that the person behind her was most definitely male. His other hand rested possessively on her hip, and she could feel his breath on her ear. She looked up at the hand that covered hers. It was mostly relaxed, meaning that he was tall, to. He had olive skin, long fingers and nice nails. The olive skin proved that it wasn't Draco, who was usually as pale as a sheet. However, the guy behind her was Slytherin, as demonstrated by the green and pale grey strip around the wrist of his jumper.

"Need some help, Hermione?" A voice purred in her ear. Hermione quashed the urge to panic, to jump and to demand who was behind her.

Be cool. Amelie warned.

Being.

"I can reach the book fine." Hermione replied though she somewhat suspected that wasn't quite what he was talking about.

"I have a propostition for you." She felt cool lips on her bared shoulder, and smirked. If this was how he wanted to play it, then she could probably manage.

"Oh really?" she asked, shifting her hips slightly, enough to get the reward of a sharply indrawn breath. He chuckled, his thumb sliding under her top and running smoothly against her skin.

"Really. We appear to have a bit of a problem."

"And what would that be?" Hermione asked coyly. He brought his hand down from hers, running it lightly down her arm, over her shoulder, and along her side before coming to rest on her hip.

"Malfoy and Miss Weasley." Hermione stiffened slightly, and he smirked against her shoulder. His kisses started heading towards her neck, and she tipped her head slightly to the side to expose more skin.

"What about them?" she asked breathily

It's Zabini. Amelie worked out. Slytherin, tall, sexy, after Ginny.

Gotcha.

"They just don't work well together." Zabini said, nipping at her earlobe. Hermione barely suppressed a groan. "There's a family feud been going on between those two for centuries. So I have a proposition."

"Which would be?" Hermione glanced back over shoulder and saw Zabini's dark green eyes staring at her.

"You and I hook up long enough to make them jealous. They split, you get Malfoy, I get Weasley." He said flatly.

"I thought the Slytherins hated the idea of me and Malfoy." Hermione pointed out. Zabini curled his lip.

"Better you than Weasley. It almost makes him look like he's going over to Dumbledore."

"So what does it look like when he's with me?" Hermione twisted under his hands so she faced him, and he backed her into the bookcase.

"Like he's playing with a pet mudblood." Zabini said cruelly.

"I'm no one's pet." Hermione replied softly, resting her hands on his shoulders.

"We'll see about that." He replied, then leaned forward and kissed her.

It was very different from kissing Draco. Kissing Draco was exhilerating, captivating, and very addictive. Kissing Zabini was a dominance competition, and it was sexy, mean, wrong and burning.

In the back of her mind, Hermione could almost feel the pheonix, and feel Amelie fighting it down. Her arms twisted around Zabini's neck as he crushed her against the bookcase, the spines of the books pressing cruelly into her back as her tongue and Zabini's fought against each other. Hermione drew back slightly, gasping.

"Shouldn't we save it for when we have an audience?" She whispered harshly.

"Who's saying we don't?" Zabini's entire hands were under her shirt now, his skin cool against hers. He kissed her, hard, and before Hermione had even gotten her breath, he let her go, walking off into the library. Hermione grabbed the book she had been after and shoved it in her bag, gathering her stuff together and heading quickly back to the Heads suite. Studying in the library today would fail, and as Amelie was rather fond of saying, "If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried."

Hermione could so live with that.

The Heads suite seemed empty, or at least, there was no one in the common room and Draco's door was shut. This was kinda unusual, but not completely unheard of. Hermione let her into her room and dumped her stuff on the desk, trying to sort out what she was doing. But Zabini's kiss would not let her alone.

She had enjoyed it…but not because it was loving or kind, or anything like that. She had enjoyed it because it had been raw and powerful and-

The pheonix responded to him. That was a large part of why you liked it so much. Amelie said with a shrug. That and the fact he is hot and was totally turning you on.

But, Draco-

Is currently pretending to be dating your best friend. Technically, it's perfectly fair that you date Zabini. And anyway, it would be a good cover up for you and Draco.

Yeah, I can get murdered for dating Zabini instead of Draco. I'd prefer to date Draco.

Maybe, although I think this is getting more complicated than it needs to be.

Speaking of complicated, we still need to sort out the yule ball.

Yeah, let's just organise this thing and take all the fun out of it!

Don't be absurd – it wont be any fun unless we have certain things like decorations and band sorted.

If you say so. Hermione turned around to dump a armful of books on the bed to get them out of her way and saw Draco leaning nonchalantly back against the headboard on her bed. She dropped the books with a shriek of surprise.

Smooth.

"Draco!" she gasped, her hands going to her wildly beating heart. "What the – how? Why? Where? Who? Oh shit." Rubbing her temples, she stepped over the books and sank onto the bed next to him.

"We need to talk." He said. Hermione sat properly on the bed and pulled her feet closer to her so she could unzip her boots, and then chuck them to the floor. She then lay back beside him, closing her eyes and resting her hands on her stomach.

"I'm listening." She said. "I only look like I'm asleep."

"What was going on between you and Zabini?" Draco said bluntly. Hermione's eyes flew open.

"What did you see?"

"You and him seeming to be thoroughly enjoying yourselves in the library." Draco said. His tone and expression were nonchalant, although his eyes were a steady icy grey. A sure sign he was most definitely not happy.

"Oh, that." Hermione closed her eyes, and felt Draco lean over her.

"What do you mean, 'oh, that'?" he demanded, his anger seeping into his voice.

"Zabini came to offer me a proposition." Hermione said simply. She knew it was selfish and mean, but she was rather enjoying the fact that Draco was actually jealous because she had talked to Zabini in the library.

You did rather more than talk, as I recall. Amelie said dryly.

"Did he now." Hermione opened his eyes and saw Draco staring down at her with an intense expression. It almost scared her, in a good way.

"He did." Hermione smirked. She could see Draco struggling to retain his composure.

"And what was this proposition?"

"Since he lost Ginny to you, you lost me to him." Hermione said, shrugging slightly. His eyes widened slightly, and his lips pressed together in a thin line.

"I didn't lose you to anyone." He hissed, leaning over her so their faces were inches apart.

"Zabini doesn't know that. And if anything, it looks rather good for me to be dating him. Enforces the idea that we've split up."

"We were never together in the first place."

Hermione squirmed, and Draco stilled her by grasping her hip. "I know that." She said, wincing as his hand tightened. "Draco, you're hurting me." His hand did not release.

"You realise that Zabini does not believe for a second that we've split up. And that since he lives to annoy me, he will find kissing you senseless in front of me very amusing."

"He can't kiss me senseless." Hermione said carelessly. "He's not very good at kissing me."

Yeah, uh-huh. Because that is so true. Amelie said sarcastically.

It is true. If it wasn't, then I'd prefer kissing Zabini to Draco. Which I don't.

Get Draco mad enough and you'll find out just how different they are.

"Oh really? Funny. He's rumoured to be on the top three in the entire school." Draco said icily, sinking to his elbow beside her, propped on his hand that rested heavily on her hip.

"With you and who else?" Hermione asked curiously.

"That's beside the point, Hermione." Draco said darkly.

"What do you want me to say?" Hermione asked.

That was mean. He can't say what he wants to say without sounding desperate for you.

Let's see how desperate he is. Draco stared at her for a moment, before sinking down completely so his lips met hers.

She could feel almost the entire length of him along her side, and the weight of him across her chest as his hands framed her face. She wriggled beneath him, and heard him groan in reponse. The kiss was ruined in some ways because of his need to prove him better than Zabini. In doing so, he was kissing more like Zabini, with the dominance battle, although with less of the cold indifference. The fire of the pheonix roared through her, making her whimper against his mouth. He pulled back.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked, breathily heavily. Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him back down to her, shaking her head.

"You aren't hurting me." She said, just before their mouths met again. His hand slid down from her jaw along her side, resting against her breast. She arched up into him, needing him against her.

Then they heard the door open.

"Guys!"

Draco and Hermione broke apart instantly, shifting from each other on instinct. Ginny stood in the doorway wearing black satin trousers and a dark green asymetrical top. She laughed as she saw the expression on their faces.

"There is no need to look guilty!" she said, when she calmed down enough to be able to speak. "It's not like me and Draco are actually dating. Though if I heard the rumours right, you and Blaise are getting it on. Why wasn't I told?"

"She didn't think you were in for threesomes." Draco said dryly. Hermione snorted. Ginny grinned.

"Could be interesting. That's not why I came though, although if you want to date Blaise secretly, don't make out in the library where a certain Miss Lavender Brown can see you. It'll be all over the school by dinner. Speaking of which, or not so, are you actually dating him?"

"He wants you back. I'm a means to the end." Hermione said airily.

"So what, he's going to make Draco painfully jealous by practically undressing you in public and then Draco will break with me to go back to you? Thus leaving me single for his occaisional attentions? Puh-lease. He has totally underestimated our love for each other, hasn't he Drakie?"

"Definitely pumpkin." Draco said with a smirk. Ginny narrowed her eyes at him.

"Anyway." Hermione interrupted.

"Oh, yeah. Anyway." Ginny bounced onto the bed, and Hermione and Draco exchanged worried looks. "Yule ball. We need to sort it out."

"Yeah, let's organise this thing and take all the fun out of it." Hermione said, rolling her eyes and ignoring Amelie as she protested the piracy.

"Cute Hermione. Make it up all yourself?" Draco asked.

No!

"Lesser artists borrow. Great artists steal." Hermione said primly.

"That's a no, then. Amelie?" Draco guessed.

"Yeah. She was being a smartass earlier."

"When isnt she?" Ginny asked. "A bit of focus, people. What are we going to do about it?"

"Ginny, I thought I was Head Girl." Hermione complained. Ginny nodded happily.

"You're Head Girl, and you're Head Boy." She said, pointing to each of them respectively.

"So what does that make you, irritating?" Draco asked.

"That's no way to speak to your girlfriend. That makes me Head Sixth Year, the new official post which will disappear as soon as I reach seventh year. And for the record, I really don't want to be Head Girl."

"Head Sixth Year." Hermione mused.

"Yeah, why don't you just move in?" Draco said scathingly.

"She practically has, Draco." Hermione reminded him.

"Got that job done, then." Draco muttered.

"People! Look, we need a band, and I think Blaise's band will fill the slot."

"You want Deflowering Venus on stage?" Draco asked incredulously. Hermione choked on the name.

"All they need is a singer, which they can accomplish by Hermione singing when Blaise is around. Subtly of course. If she's singing with them it'll definitely look like they're dating. Plus it'll deal with the band part. Decorations as per normal – i.e. trees, baubles, candles etc etc. Formal wear, muggle or wizard, not fancy dress." Ginny drew a deep breath.

"Wow." Hermione said eventually.

"And you two'll still be contributing because Hermione'll be singing, and Draco will be…"

"Playing drums if Malvennen doesn't get his act together." Draco said darkly.

"You play drums? I never knew." Hermione said.

"In the Room of Requirement. I didn't think you'd appreciate the noise." Hermione shrugged, then nodded thoughtfully.

"You're right. I wouldn't get anything done."

"No, you really wouldn't."

"So it's settled then?" Ginny asked, semi-desperately. For Head students, Draco and Hermione had next to no focus at all.

"It's great, Ginny. But you might want to back off on the planning genius unless you want to bag Head Girl next year." Draco warned.

"Nah. Head Sixth Year is enough for me." Ginny said cheerfully.

"The position that doesn't exist is stressful. Hmm." Draco said sarcastically.

"I don't know…she is doing all the work." Hermione pointed out.

"Well then. Ginny, you are the best Head Sixth Year I have ever seen." Draco pronounced.

"I'm the only Head Sixth Year you've ever seen."

"And your point would be what, precisely?" Draco asked with narrowed eyes.

"Nothing, nothing at all." Ginny sang out, then promptly burst into giggles.

"Girls." Draco muttered, looking confused. And then he wandered out.

&