I forgot the disclaimer on the last chapter, I don't own these characters.

Chapter Two-

Hermione was pacing. What on earth had she possibly been thinking when she had agreed to go out with Malfoy. MALFOY! Sure, she had enjoyed herself at the club, but was a few hours of talking supposed to make up for the fact that he had made most of her young life miserable? The inner struggle that she was faced with was more like a battle. Hermione had grown up, she too had been affected by the war, but she hadn't really changed too much. She still possessed that unquenchable thirst for knowledge and fiery Gryffindor spirit. Smiling internally, she pushed the thought of standing him up out of her head. Hermione wasn't the spiteful type, no matter how funny the thought was. What she couldn't understand was why Draco was so interested in her now. This was the question that kept running through her head, wasn't this the same guy who had wished death upon her numerous times? Wasn't this the guy who at one point found her mere existence an atrocity? Was she really expected to forgive him? It was different for Harry, and even for Ron, they pain Malfoy had caused her was something that neither of them could truly understand. Their reasons for disliking Malfoy had been different than her own; her reasons were on a much deeper, personal level.

Still, Hermione had always prided her ability to be the bigger person, and if Malfoy really was the person than everyone claimed he was, why shouldn't she give him a chance? She slowly calmed as logic took over. Of course these feeling would rise in her, she hadn't seen this guy in five years, none of which had been particularly friendly. She had never had the opportunity for closure. Well now was the perfect chance. If anything it would be good to know that she had forgiven and that these feelings could finally be laid to rest.

As always, as soon as one internal conflict was solved, another quickly presented itself. Hermione only had a few hours to get ready for this date and had no idea what to wear. She had been on plenty of dates, but she had never really gone out of her way to impress someone. Not that she wanted to go out of her way to impress Draco, but something in her wanted to look just right for this evening, and nothing she had was going to suffice. She headed over her fireplace and grabbed some floo powder.

"Ginny Longbottom's" she yelled.

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It wasn't until her fifth year that Ginny had begun to really notice Neville Longbottom. After the battle at the department of mysteries, she had begun to see him in a new light. They had started talking after that and soon discovered that they had a lot in common. Neville was sweet and gentle, and as he got older, it became more and more apparent as to why he had been sorted into Gryffindor. It was only natural that the two fell for each other and everyone was happy for them, even Ron. Outsiders always said that they had found the companionship in each other that they couldn't get from the golden trio. Yes they were all close and after the DoM, they had grown even closer, but no one had ever really cracked through the impenetrable force that was the golden trio's friendship. Not that anyone complained, Neville and Ginny were happy together.

During the final battle, Neville succeeded in avenging his parents. He had managed to subdue LaStrange, but not before she hit him with a curse he had not heard of before. After being thoroughly checked out by Pomphrey, he was sent on his way with presumably nothing wrong with him. It wasn't until after their honeymoon one year later that him and Ginny begun to notice that something was wrong. No matter what he tried, Neville seemed to get more exhausted by the day, and he started to have random bouts of pain. Ginny apperated them to St. Mungo's after a particularly bad evening and it was then that they found out about the curse that LaStrange had used. Hermione had been on the research team that handled his case and had insisted that she be the one to tell her dear friends what they had found out.

"It's called Adsterno Acuo Cacoethes, it's a powerful dark spell that lies dormant in the victim for an undeterminable amount of time…there is no counter curse. I am so sorry."

The curse was something like a cancer and would slowly spread throughout his body until it eventually killed him. There was nothing that could be done, but Hermione had promised the young couple that she would work diligently to find a counter-curse. Neville had been given four months, at best, to live. However, he was a very determined young man, and he was determined to be there to look upon his unborn child's face. It was only the week before that they had learned Ginny was pregnant. He surprised them all, well all of them except Ginny, and was he there for the birth of his son Franklin William Longbottom (the Wesley's had lost Bill in the war). It was shortly after little Frank celebrated his first birthday that Neville finally succumbed to the curse, but he had died a happy and content man. He had loved his wife with all of his heart, he had a beautiful young son, and he had triumphed over evil despite the consequences.

Many wondered how it was that Ginny was holding up, she almost seemed to be in denial. Ron worried that she would be overwhelmed with the death of her husband and suddenly having to raise a child on her own and attempted to get her to move in with him or at least back to the burrow. Ginny had just insisted that she would be fine and that she was not moving out of her home. About a week after the funeral, LaStrange was administered the dementor's kiss. Hermione escorted a silent Ginny home after the ordeal. Hermione let her only female friend rest in the living room while she tidied up, Molly had young Frank for the weekend, she was about to leave when…

"It didn't help" Ginny mumbled.

"What did you say honey?"

"I said it didn't help, I thought…I thought that watching her today, that it would help, but it didn't. He's still gone, he's still not coming back, he's not coming back." The look of realization that crossed Ginny's face as she said those words showed that the reality of her situation had hit her and she broke down. Ginny cried for many things that night, for the loss of her husband, for the years he would miss with their child, for the loss of her brothers, for Harry, and for herself. She cried and Hermione held her in her arms and cried with her. The two sat in the living room holding each other for what seemed like hours until the tears came no more. Hermione helped Ginny to her room and waited until the redhead was asleep before apperating home exhausted.

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"Oh my, you startled me Hermione" Ginny gasped. After Neville's death the two had become even closer and hung out on a regular basis. Not ready to even face the possibility of dating herself, she instead became involved in Hermione's love life or lack of. It made her feel nice to help out her friend, she had begun to worry that Hermione might never find someone. When Fred and George had informed her that Hermione had accepted a date with Draco Malfoy, she had nearly choked on her pumpkin juice. Those were the last two names one expected to hear in the same sentence, especially a sentence including the word date.

"Ginny, you have got to help me, I have got two hours until this miserable date and I am a wreck. I have no idea what to wear, I don't even want to talk about my hair, and I can't for the life of me figure out why I am so nervous. Why the hell am I so nervous?"

"Come on let's get you fixed up, everything is going to be fine, just calm down before you wake Frank" Ginny said as she led a nervous Hermione to her room. "Now first things first, what to wear…"

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Draco sat in his office with Justin Cropper. Justin, as he preferred to be called, was a few years older than Draco and was his closest friend. The two had met shortly after Draco had learned that the Ministry only left him pretty much penniless and he was deserted by his childhood friends. Justin had let Draco rent a room from him and it was then that he had learned that Justin had been in Ravenclaw and had graduated a few years ahead of Draco. Justin never looked down on Draco and soon became a trusted confidant. Draco was free to be himself, even if he didn't quite know who that was yet. He had been surprised upon finding out that Justin was a muggle born, he had figured he was at least a half blood. Justin had always been so kind to him, maybe the way he had been raised was wrong. It was Justin's friendship and patience that helped Draco change the way he thought, and over the years, the old Draco had pretty much disappeared as the new Draco emerged.

It was this new Draco that was ranting to his friend seated in his office just a few hours before his date with Hermione. The new Draco was nervous that Hermione would never truly accept him, he had done too much to her in the past and no one was that forgiving. She was going to stand him up, he just knew it and he deserved it. And if she actually showed up, what was he going to do? Hermione was the one woman he knew would never fall for his charms, what was he supposed to talk about. Maybe he should just cancel.

"That is non-sense Draco. One, if she didn't want to go, she wouldn't have said yes, Hermione doesn't strike me as the type to back out of something. Two, IF she changes her mind, than obviously it wasn't meant to be and it's her loss."

"Her loss?" Replied Draco with a bewildered look upon his face.

"Yes, her loss, it means she gets to miss out on the opportunity to really know you" Justin said playing to Draco's ego, some things never change.

"It is her loss isn't it," he said taking the bait, "I am a great person and I HAVE changed, if she doesn't see that, then she can sod off." Draco apperated to his home to get himself ready for his date.