Hermione couldn't stop smiling as she sighed the password "Oddments" to the Fat Lady. "Had a nice evening, did you, Hermione?" The painting asked her, and Hermione's grin only widened as she realized that anyone could see the afterglow that radiated from her.

"Not too bad." She said, coyly, sharing a smile with a girl surrounded by flowers in a painting just a few feet away.

"Now, just you mind yourself." The motherly woman scolded sweetly. Then she smiled, lifting a hand from where it normally rested on her silk wrapped waist, as if she could reach out of the painting to the girl. Hermione kept smiling like a fool, feeling as if her face might split open at any moment. The Fat Lady winked as she swung open. "You deserve a bit of fun the way you work yourself to death. Get some sleep, dear." Hermione scrambled through the portrait hole and stopped dead at the sight of Ron. He waited just inside and she could tell he was angry as he paced back and forth a few more times before he caught her trying to slip around him.

"Where were you?" He demanded.

"Why?" Hermione's voice was dull, the evening's magic was beginning to fade from her.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" He grabbed her forearm for emphasis and held even as she pulled back.

"Get off!" The girl glared up at him, "I already have one father, I don't need another."

Ron did not let go, "You weren't here, you weren't in the library… I've checked the Main Hall twice and been through all the grounds, except the Forbidden Forest—" even this angry, Ron's voice faltered at the thought of the Forest. Hermione took advantage of the pause.

"Look Ron, it's really not your business where I was. Back off." He only looked angrier as she pulled her arm from his. "I'm going to bed, I need some sleep." Hermione had only just begun to walk away when, in two quick strides, he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to a stop. He stared at her back.

"Where were you?"

"I told you, not your business." Hermione craned her neck trying to figure out what it was that was on her back. Ron obligingly brushed a hand through her hair and held it out in front of her, rubbing the moss, twig, and two willow leaves between his fingers. The look of realization that crossed Hermione's face did not escape his notice and he watched as she flinched, anticipating the explosion. And explode he did. "What have you been doing!" He stuttered slightly and his voice cracked as it hadn't in years. Hermione sighed, having no idea how to begin to explain to Ron that she had been quite happily socializing with Malfoy. More than socializing. Knowing that she couldn't tell him the truth, Hermione bit her lip and accepted that she would have to lie to him.

"I fell asleep." Even to Hermione herself the lie sounds pathetic and it was quite apparent that Ron could read straight through it, and his eyebrows shot up sardonically.

"Under the willow?"

"Yeah." Hermione tried to sound reassuring, but failed miserably.

"You were with someone, weren't you?" Ron demanded, grabbing his friend's arm as she tried to walk away. She recoiled, hating the aggressive, possessive side of the redhead that had previously only been seen around Krum. As he pulled her back to him, she lost her temper completely.

"I don't have to tell you anything!"

"Just tell me what this guy has that I don't!" He hissed at her, looking so impossibly angry that she quailed under his glare and clenched jaw, knowing that there was nothing that she could say to appease him. Instead, she tried to continue with denial.

"Ron, you're being ridiculous."

"Just answer me, girl!"

Hermione's feminist side flared up as he spat out the last word and her latest attempt to shake off his iron grasp failed. Instead she whirled around to face him, looking up defiantly. "I'm into him and he's into me. I don't like you that way, Ron. So get over it already!" Hermione's mouth fell open, unwilling to believe that she had just said that. Unfortunately, Ron opted to take advantage of her shock.

When he grabbed her, she was still too surprised to resist. He tucked her in his arms tightly and kissed her hard, his palms spread on her back. Hermione blinked at him with wide brown eyes, unable to believe what he was doing. The kiss was angry and, although Hermione had to admit to herself that he tasted good, the kiss didn't thrill her. It didn't send chills up her spine or make her body press against his of its own accord. She didn't feel her skin crawl and her hair stand on end as though she'd just touched something so electric that the thrills might never stop vibrating through her. Instead his kiss made her angry.

Only because he weakened his hold on her to form an iron lock on her lips was she able to shove him away. He opened his mouth to yell at her and then closed it. Hermione stood there, not moving from in front of him, looking and feeling angry and betrayed. He continued to open and close his mouth several times but couldn't force the words out. Ron left instead, leaving the girl alone by the embers of the common room fire.

Hermione exhaled sharply, not knowing whether to be relieved that she had no second thoughts about him and that he didn't find out about Draco, or still to be extremely pissed at him. In her mind she could see herself slapping him, kicking him, yelling him into oblivion, but she couldn't bring herself to hate him. Confused, only one thing was certain: her euphoria from Draco's kisses had definitely evaporated.

She walked up the stairs to her dorm room and deliberately ignored Lavender's gasp when she saw Hermione's slightly disheveled state. Instead, Hermione climbed into bed, still fully dressed and pulled the hangings tightly shut. She closed her eyes but it was a long time before she fell asleep.

Read and Review please! Thank you so much everyone – yes this was on as an interactive (it's really cool that you're reading it twice, Angels-Giggles!) As for Draco and his Death Eater tendencies… that's for Hermione to find out!