Thank you all for the kind reviews! Y'all don't know how much I appreciate it.

"Hey, Granger."

He could see her wince before turning around. It was rather uncalled for, he thought. After all, she had the unique opportunity to watch him emerge from his cocoon as a glorious butterfly, but with less feminine implications. Then again, given what he was planning...

He'd already been through American Surfer - "Malfoy, I swear I'll remove your kneecaps if you say 'Dude' one more time. And your accent is terrible." - Skater Punk - "Malfoy, no. Just...no." - and Indie Nerd - "Good God, Malfoy, do you know anything about music at all? You can't be indie with wizarding music, because wizarding music sucks."

"Malfoy, what do you want? I can't sit around forever waiting for you to talk."

"Um." It had taken him a while to reach this decision, because asking a native for tips on navigating her area of expertise was one thing, but enlisting her help in more general matters was another.

"Granger? What do you know about being gay?"

Half an hour later, he judged she was running out of steam. It was a good thing, too. He'd seen her mad enough to rant. He'd seen her mad enough to slap people. But he'd never seen her mad enough to transfigure her book into a whiteboard and make an outline. With bullet points. And a diagram. Entitled 'Homosexuality: Yet Another Victim of the Outdated Attitudes of the Wizarding World Today, or Why Draco Malfoy is a Complete and Utter Prat.'

He suspected she would have made buttons for him to distribute if she hadn't wanted to transfigure the book back afterwards.

And she seemed to be pausing, so he took desperate advantage of it to interject, "I'm sorry! Okay! Just give me something else to be tomorrow, then!"

"Fuck, Malfoy..."

She exhaled, flopping back into her chair, and the whiteboard folded up with a sad 'shklop.'

"Just be yourself, yeah?"

Draco fought hard to keep from rolling his eyes. Had she not been paying attention at all?

"Granger, I do not know who I am. I have been repressed since birth by the responsibility inherent in my bloodline and my only-child status."

Her left eye twitched, which he took to mean 'I do not feel up to delivering another large-scale lecture right now' and was inordinately grateful for.

She started, "The nature versus nurture debate..." then stopped and shook her head. "Never mind. You wouldn't understand most of the terms anyway. Look, I'll talk to you later. I've got homework now."

Heading out the door, he turned to say, "Tomorrow lunch in the library good?"

"There's so much wrong with that syntax I don't know where to start. But yeah, okay."

"It's a date, then!"

From the hall, he could hear her half-hearted yell. "No it's bloody not!"

The entire morning he'd felt at a bit of a loss as to his personality. He'd mostly been quiet and uncomfortable through breakfast and his classes. Thus, when lunchtime rolled around he'd barely taken the time to grab a bite before darting off to the library.

Hermione was already there - reading, of course. She looked up at his arrival. "Malfoy, when did I start sponsoring your crisis?"

"What? I don't know. Probably when you corrected my arithmancy homework."

"So it is my fault."

"Yeah, pretty much. So! Personality! Talk, woman!"

"I don't know why I do these things for you, I really don't, but I found a spell last night. It's supposed to reduce inhibitions."

He blinked. "It wouldn't by some chance be called 'alcohol,' would it?"

"No, you idiot. For one thing, it doesn't have any of the side effects; for another, it only affects those inhibitions cemented by your upbringing and society. That is, you'd act like you would if you didn't stop yourself."

A thought suddenly occurred to him, and he tensed a bit nervously. "Would I still, you know, be in control?"

"What? Um, sort of, I guess. Look, it's really obscure and borderline illegal and I had to work very hard to find it and I will stuff it down your ungrateful throat if I have to."

He cowered a bit. "Can...can I have till tomorrow to research it for myself?"

"Very bloody well. Here, take the book. Page 1673. And for Merlin's sake, don't say the name out loud."

In the safety of his room, he examined the book. The spell itself was fairly simple; only a few components needed to be in place before the incantation could be spoken.

Unfortunately, the effect it had was that he would act like a complete idiot for an hour.

Common uses for the spell included Forced Confession of Love (But That Never Works Out, So I Wouldn't Advise It Myself), Revealed Loyalties, and True Intentions, according to the footnote. So, how would he act?

Well, he didn't know. That was the point of this whole journey, wasn't it?

But was it worth it?

Get a fucking grip, he told himself. An hour of humiliation before Granger in exchange for a lifetime of self-fulfillment? Hesitation was not an option.

All the same, he fell asleep still trying to unknot the tangles in his mind.

You know, I really have no idea where this thing is going. But it should only be maybe one more chapter.

Oh, I have a question for whoever cares - should I update whenever I finish another chapter of something, or update at a fixed point in the week with whatever I have?