AN - Hermione and Ron start off this chapter...so don't freak out.

Disclaimer - I don't own any of these characters. J.K. Rowling owns them. All I own is the plot.

-Aconitum

Chapter Three




"So..." said Ron rolling and tied up the most recent edition of the Daily Prophet for the morning owls.

"So..." repeated Hermione who was busy skimming over an article.

"So, uh...you wanna get something to eat?" he suggested as he finished rolling the morning papers and sat in a chair across from her.

"It's kinda' late to be getting food, don't you think?" She asked not even interested in the very idea.

" 'Mione, it's only quarter to nine."

"That's late to get food for me Ron." Hermione said in an unvarying tone.

Ron sighed and kept trying to think of something to say to break the uncomfortable silence that hung over them. Finally he came up with the most obvious thing to anyone:

"So uh...anything new in your life?"

Hermione looked up at him with a surveying look and eventually decided on something to say.

"Yes...actually...I'm dating someone."

"Again!?"

"Yes Ron...again. That usually happens when your ex keeps interfering with your personal life." She said with an imploring look at him. "Which is why" she continued as she gathered her things "I'm not telling you who it is."

Ron blushed. Everyone knew he hadn't taken the divorce well and that he was still very much in love with Hermione. "Well you know...I get over protective of the ones that I love." He said sheepishly. "Can't you at least give me a little hint?" he pleaded.

It was her turn to sigh as she thought of some impossible hint to give him.

"We all knew him back in Hogwarts."

"Harry." Ron said immediately.

"If it were Harry I would have told you so no."

She watched as Ron stood up in the middle of the small room and looked up at the ceiling while his fingers looked like they were counting and he mouthed unintelligible words.

"What house was he in?" he asked not even stopping his entertain act.

"Slytherin." She said automatically and then literally slapping her forehead.

Trying to keep his revolt down and any images that came with of his Hermione sleeping around with a filthy serpent down and out of his head he asked: "What does he do for a living."

She sighed once more.

"He's a teacher at Hogwarts."

"What class does he teach?" he asked eagerly regaining a normal standing position. He had to do a report there soon on Harry because he got a job there. 'Big whoop' Ron thought.

"That...I'm not telling you....because...."she trailed off

"Because....?"

"Because I think this relationship can work out if you don't intervene." and with that she left immediately, leaving behind a very confused Ron who was slowly drawing the wrong conclusion to Hermione's mystery man.

"Malfoy." he whispered with distaste.

"Draco-I'm-gonna-become-a-fucking-death-eater-Malfoy is screwing my Hermione!! THAT SON OF A BITCH!" For an hour he screamed obscenities before calming down some-what and conjuring up more conclusions. Maybe it was Crabbe? Goyle? Zambini?

"Well..." he said silently to himself "I could ask Harry if Draco is seeing anyone when I go up there for an interview on Saturday."

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Since their incident outside the Great Hall, each one had been trying to emphasize how much hatred they had for one another. Be it giving Draco a prolonged deep stare that contained what he hoped was hate or stabbing Harry with his fork under the table, they tried to show their abhorrence for one another. They didn't want to give away the fact that they had both been contemplating their own sexuality ever since the flagitious love letter.

It was Friday night and Harry had received a letter from both Ron and Hermione. Hermione had been going on about this wonderful guy she had met and was now shagging on a daily basis (although not worded quite that way) and how she thinks their relationship might work out if Ron doesn't know who it is. Ron's letter was mainly him complaining about Hermione's mystery man and at the very bottom was a vague reference to his interviewing him on Saturday...tomorrow actually.

Harry shook his head dreading for the day to come.

His interview with Ron came sooner than he would have liked. Ron after many years of friendship was still his undisputed best friend. But even still it didn't stop him from dreading his arrival.

Harry's P.O.V.

From the moment Ron arrived, he kept bitching about Hermione not trusting him with the identity of her new boyfriend.

"Well you can't really blame her Ron." I said.

"What's that supposed to mean? I only followed her on her first date after the divorce!"

"You mean you stalked all her dates, beat them to a bloody pulp, and would threaten them that if they ever set foot near Hermione ever again. That you would make Avada Kedavra seem like a gift."

"Well...I'm -"

" 'over-protective of the ones that I love' " I finished for him and gave him an un-amused stare.

For an hour we discussed why he shouldn't be trusted. Not so much as discussed as it was an argument. He was finally bored of me proving him wrong so he got down to why he was here...to interview me. He took out a piece of parchment and a bright red quick notes quill.

"Don't worry." Ron said catching my look. "It isn't like that acid green one Rita had." he told me as he balanced the quill on the parchment. "So...onto the first question: Why did you decide to teach Harry?"

"I had nothing better to do." I said looking at the red quill jot down that I love children and helping them learn would be a great experience.

"Did you pick Defense Against The Dark Arts because of your overwhelming experience in that field?"

"That and the fact that I wanted to see if I could last one year as a teacher for D.A.D.A." I finished with a smile.

"Does it bother you that your school boy enemy, Draco Malfoy, has also decided to teach here?"

Surprisingly...I hesitated before answering that question.

"No...it doesn't bother me that Malfoy teaches here." I must admit...seeing Ron look that shocked was amusing for a while...but it probably never would compete with the one that had crawled across my face. Utter shock and confused had settled on mine and that probably confused Ron even more.

The interview carried on very well and was over soon after the Malfoy question. Ron had a few minutes before he had to return to the Daily Prophet, so we walked around the hallways and talked for a bit. Namely about Hermione which ended when I suggested that he find someone else.

"You never know...it may make her envious." I said knowing that it would never work. From the letters she had written, this relationship seemed pretty serious.

"Yea maybe your right. It could work."

We continued our walk in silence until we saw Malfoy himself, staring out of one of the many windows that were on that floor. He was watching the kids on the Qudditch course flying around on broomsticks until Ron made a blatant insult that made Malfoy turn around. Being Malfoy he made a retort that I personally thought was lacking in his usual cynicism.

"Aw Potter, your big boyfriend is back at Hogwarts...I'll leave you two alone now."

What I thought was odd was that there was no smirk dancing on his face and the insult sounded like it was more serious than it was teasing.

Ron who was looking after him as he walked away asked me: "Is Malfoy seeing anyone?"

I raised an eyebrow at his question before answering.

"No...he's not."

Confusion clouded my thoughts as I saw a look of relief pass over his face and he said quickly that he would keep in touch and walked swiftly downstairs. He kept me wondering if he liked Malfoy. After a few minutes of standing there, I shook it off with "Nah...not after all these years." but I couldn't help myself, as I felt a little competitive thinking that Ron might like Malfoy.

Draco's P.O.V.

"Oh Harry." I breathed as I feel forward and onto his lips. A slight moan escaped my own as his tongue slipped past my own lips and caressed the roof of my mouth. It was then that our tongues intertwined and I felt hands that were not my own feeling their way below my belt. I showed no resistance nor did I want to. I wanted this for so long I heard myself thinking right before I woke up.

It wasn't the wake up I would have expected after a dream like that. I woke up lying on my side and thought why it had to end. Then I relished what my dream was and sat upright and forced myself to throw up. I was slightly disgusted but even more intrigued as where a dream like that might come from.

"Oh yea..." I muttered "The damn love letter." I wondered vaguely where it might have been before grabbing some parchment and a quill. I really didn't have an idea of what I was drawing before it was somewhat complete. It was the kiss that had been in my dream.

'No.' I thought 'It's a girl kissing a guy.' I tried to convince myself, as I was erased the lightning bolt mark from the guy's forehead and made, his hair slightly longer. I meant to throw the picture away but instead I put it on my night table. I finally noticed the owl sitting on my window sill with a letter clenched in it's beak. I tore the letter open and it was so bad that kissing Potter didn't seem so nauseous:

Drakie,

I'm coming up to Hogwarts to see you again. It's been too long.

xoxoxoxoxox

-Pansy

I ripped off a piece of the parchment from her letter and wrote:

OK

-DM

I wasn't going to do anything fancy for a girl that I absolutely hated. The idiot girl had mistaken my ignoring her for shyness and therefore made, what she would like to think of as the first move. I shook my head at the memory and then pushed it out of my head.

I got up and dressed before heading downstairs for a little walk. I stopped while watching a few fifth years fly around the Quidditch course. I wasn't really watching them, I was contemplating when Pansy might come to see me. Then I started arguing with myself about my sexuality until I heard a husky voice call me. "Come one! Come all! To see Malfoy - the amazing bouncing ferret." I turned around to look at Weasley and saw Ha- um...Potter. I said something about the two of them and walked off towards my room. I stopped thinking about Potter and tried to think of when Pansy would be making her appearance back into my life.