ravioli and chocolate : It's right here. Lol.

Ashley: Lol. Yes it is. Draco is just her sweet 'ol friend. It's the way I like him, lol.

Phillyactress: Yeah he is, but that's why we all love him! (At least I do!) Lol. Of course I'll do that for you! I'll do you one better even…if you'll let me use Herbert…when you review tell me yes or no. : )

Disclaimer: I am not J.K.Rowling, and everything in here that you recognize is NOT mine. I'm just a poor college student who is sick of Spring Break…I know, bet you'd never hear that, lol.

A/N: Just in case you forgot, I said I was going to skip over her Christmas break, so we can get the ball rolling, lol. Also, when I say term, I'm making it the same as in college where we have first semester and so forth, just so you guys aren't confused. Thank You!

doublelily

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Things had never gone better.

The dance was a perfect way to end the first term, and everyone had a great time. Especially Hermione, she and Ron had gotten together during the dance, she became friends with Draco, and her and Harry had made up.

Her Christmas break was full of presents and family, and everything good that you could imagine, especially since Ron sent owls every other day. They had promised each other at the end of the dance that they would keep in touch, seeing as they didn't want to ruin their relationship so early in the game.

Hermione sat on her bed the night they came back from break thinking about how this new term was going to work out. She thought about how she was going to tell everyone that she and Ron were now (finally) going out. It was going to take some getting used to, but she figured they would work around that.

As she was thinking about the future, she heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Hermione asked quietly.

"It's me Ginny, can I come in?"

"Yeah sure, come on in" said Hermione. She got up off the bed and went to the door to meet Ginny. When Ginny came in, she looked distressed. She ran into Hermione's room and started searching around, looking for something.

"Hey…Ginny," Hermione said, "what's wrong?"

Ginny stopped searching for a moment, as if she just realized she was in Hermione's room. "Oh, Hermione, I was looking for Ron…"

"And he's in my closet?"

Ginny sighed, "Ok look…I couldn't find my ring that Harry gave me and I was just thinking I left it in here when we were getting ready for the dance."

Hermione opened her mouth in shock and said in mock-whisper, "Harry gave you a RING? Did he…you know…"

"What? Oh…NO! No of course not! It was just a ring that he gave me, but it means a lot you know," Ginny said, "it was what he gave me the night he asked me out. I CAN'T believe I lost it, oh what am I going to do?" Ginny looked exasperated and Hermione very well couldn't blame her, she would be the same way if she lost a ring Ron gave her. Hermione sat Ginny down on her bed and patted her back,

"It's ok Gin, we'll get the ring back don't worry. Why don't we go look outside ok?"

Ginny sniffed a little before answering Hermione.

"Ok, that sounds good, let's go now."

Hermione smiled at Ginny and gave her a hug,

"Ok, just let me go get my coat, I'll meet you outside ok?"

Ginny walked out of the room and shut the door behind her. Hermione went to go pick up her coat, but as she did she dropped her book. Bending over, she noticed something black underneath her bed. It was her potion.

She had forgotten all about it! It was ready too, all she would have to do is get dragon scales to add, and that could be done anytime now. But…would she need it? Everything was better than it had been, she had Ron. Pushing the cauldron back under the bed, she ran out of the room before she kept Ginny too long.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Three hours they looked, and they looked everywhere. Under the shrubs, by Hagrid's hut, and even in the Quidditch pitch, but still they couldn't find the ring. Finally, the girls decided to retreat, Ginny looking even more distressed than before. They said their goodbyes once in the Common Room, and Ginny went upstairs.

'I feel so bad,' Hermione thought, 'I hope Ginny finds that ring.'

"Now what are you doing up at this hour young lady?"

Hermione heard a voice behind her. She turned around and saw the one person she was hoping to see, it was Ron.

"Ron, hey," she said with this huge smile, "I was just with Ginny, she had lost something, as we were just taking a walk as we looked."

Ron walked over to the couch were Hermione was sitting, and sat down beside her. Putting his arm around her, he gave Hermione a quick peck on the cheek.

"Well," he said. "It's good to know that you want to takes walks with SOMEBODY in the Weasley family." Ron said jokingly, and put on a fake pout towards Hermione.

She looked at him for a second before replying.

"Oh Ron, you know I wouldn't just take walks with Ginny."

"You wouldn't" Ron asked, a bit of play in his voice.

"Oh no, I would also go with Fred and George. You know, I've heard they are excellent walking partners." Hermione said playfully.

"Goody," Ron said sarcastically, "so where does that leave me then?"

"Well," Hermione said and she scooted over closer to him, "I can think of…FAR better things to do with you." She whispered in his ear.

Ron grinned a little and looked at her.

"Yeah, like what. What could be better than walking, it's good for your health you know."

Hermione pulled his face close to hers. She looked into his eyes, smiled and then kissed him softly and quickly on the lips.

"I was thinking of that actually, BUT…if it's not better than walking…then I should really get to bed" Hermione said as she slowly started getting up.

Ron grabbed her arm and pulled her so that she was sitting on his lap, facing him. He sighed and then ran a hand through her hair, which then landed on her cheek. As he stroked her face he smiled an abnormally large smile.

"I'm so happy I fell for the beautiful one."

And with that, he pulled her close and kissed her on the lips. Hermione put her hands on the sides of his face, and slowly wrapped them around into his hair. Ron moved his hands to Hermione's back and played with her collar. They were in total bliss, each appreciating the others touches; and how it felt when their lips were together.

Ron separated from Hermione for just a second and said,

"I'm so glad we're together."

With saying that, he once again pulled her close and continued to kiss her until they both fell asleep right there, on the Common Room couch.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next day classes had started again. It was wonderful having a boyfriend that you could walk in the hallways with, and hold hands during lunch. It was the perfect start to a new school term if you would ask Hermione.

However, towards the end of the day, things started to take a turn for the worse. All the teachers so far had not given homework for the first day back, and one of Hermione's ink containers had spilt all over her.

The last class of the day was potions, which could itself be the very being of someone's breakdown.

"I hope everyone had a good break, because this last term will be exceedingly difficult." Said Snape, "we will finally see who are the ones who will make it anywhere in life after this class. The weaklings," with a turn towards Neville, "will barely make it through the school year after I'm done with them."

Neville gulped and looked towards Hermione,

'Help me' he mouthed.

"I'll try Neville, ask me after class." Hermione whispered.

"Miss Granger! Do you already think that you are worthy enough to interrupt the class? From what I can see, the "know-it-all" seems to be a bad influence on "hopeless cases.""

Hermione gasped, she had hardly made a sound and here Snape was, making fun of her. She lowered her head before anyone could see her cry silently. She glanced up carefully and saw that the Slytherins and even the Gryffindors were laughing at her. All except Ron, Harry and Draco; the latter who was smirking slightly so the other Slytherins wouldn't pick up from the dance.

The rest of class went very slow for Hermione and she was very grateful when they all headed back towards the Common Room. Ron suddenly stopped walked when Harry tapped him on the shoulder.

"Oh yeah that's right! Hey Hermione," Ron said, "Harry just reminded me that we have Quidditch practice now, I'll see you when were done ok?"

Hermione nodded and Ron kissed her on the cheek.

"Great," he said, "I'll see you later."

Hermione walked the rest of the way in silence and when she got to the Common Room, things just got worse.

She witnessed Seamus give a play by play of what happened in Snape's class to the Gryffindors who weren't in their year, and they all laughed.

She couldn't take anymore of it. Hermione turned right back around and headed straight to Hagrid's hut.

She pounded on the door for a full minute until Hagrid got to it.

"Who's there?" he asked.

"It's me, Hermione; I had a question for you." She said.

"All right' come in. Quickly mind you…" Hagrid said as he opened the door.

"Well now Hermione, wha' can I do for yeh?" Hagrid asked as he offered Hermione a seat next to fang, who seemed to be very interested in something crawling around on the floor.

"Well Hagrid…actually, I was wondering if you had any dragon scales?" she asked timidly.

"Dragon scales? Whatever for? You're not messin' aroun' with potions are yeh?" Hagrid asked. "Yeh know how I feel abou' you kids messin' with stuff that shouldn' be messed with."

Hermione sighed, and quickly thought of a way around this mess.

"Oh no Hagrid, I'm reading a book on dragons right now, Charlie…you know, Ron's older brother, gave it to me, and I wanted a reference to look at while I read about them. I've taken quite an interest in them you know." Hermione said sweetly, and finished with a smile.

Hagrid couldn't have been prouder.

"That's wha' I like to hear now. What kinds were yeh lookin' fer?"

"Oh it really doesn't matter; I figure any kind will be good enough to get an eye for." Hermione said.

"Well, in tha' case, I'll give yeh this here' pouch. Now, don' be askin' where I got these, cuz I can' tell yeh, understand?" Hagrid said suspiciously.

Hermione, who knew Hagrid well enough to know that he probably got these scales from some foreign dealer, just smiled and agreed.

"Good, now, yeh run off yeh hear. You shouldn' be out this late anyways. Always a pleasure Hermione, always a pleasure, yeh come back now." Said Hagrid as he shooed Hermione out the door.

"Thanks Hagrid, see you tomorrow!"

With that, Hermione ran back to the castle before Ron and Harry got back from practice. She had decided once and for all, that she was going to take this potion. She was getting sick of people calling her "know-it-alls"; she wanted to be normal like everyone else.

Once back in her room, she made sure Lavender and the gang was out of her way, which was easy because all she had to say was that Dean and Seamus were in the Common Room. Once that was taken care of, Hermione pulled out her cauldron and dropped the dragon scales into the potion. The potion hissed and started to smoke.

Hermione searched around in her trunk for a cup that she had thrown in there, in case for emergencies, and dipped it in her potion.

Taking one sniff, she closed her eyes in disgust and was about to drink it when a thought popped into her head.

'What would Ron do?'

'Probably nothing', she told herself, 'he even said last night he was happy he fell for the BEAUTIFUL one, I'm sure a slight change in personality won't matter a bit.'

With that last though, Hermione took a deep breath, and then quickly drank the cup full of potion.

Right away, the room started spinning and she felt dizzy. Running to the bathroom, Hermione threw up. She felt her head and she was warm, but after a couple minutes, everything had died down.

Feeling a little uncertain, she grabbed her book and read the side-effects. Everything that had happened to her was supposed to happen, and she immediately felt better. The book said that the full effect wouldn't take place for a while, so Hermione went downstairs to talk to Harry.

"Harry, can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked once she got downstairs.

"Sure Hermione, just wait one second ok?" said Harry as he concentrated extremely hard on the game of Wizard's Chess he was playing with Dean.

"Checkmate" Dean said.

Harry sighed, "Dammit", and got up to talk to Hermione.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked.

Hermione knew that Ginny was still upset over the lost ring, so she was going to smooth things over a bit, a friend helping a friend.

"Harry, listen…Ginny…" And she was interrupted.

"Oh jeeze, Ginny! Listen Hermione, don't tell Ginny if she asks, but…I took this ring I gave her right? I took it so that I could stud it…I …I wanted her to have something better. Is she looking for it?" Harry asked, concerned that Ginny was indeed searching for ring.

"Yes she is! She is scared out of her mind that she misplaced it, it means a great deal to her you know." Hermione said.

"Yeah, yeah..." said Harry with a guilty look on his face, "I promise that I'll give it back soon…I just, you know…"

Hermione smiled, she knew that Harry wanted everything to be perfect for his girlfriend, and was about to tell him that when Harry looked at her, scared out of his mind.

"Hermione….are you ok! You've gone all pale…and, HERMIONE!" Harry yelled.

Hermione had fainted and Harry had caught her in his arms.

"Somebody," Harry said, "go get Madam Pomfrey!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

A week later, Hermione woke up in the hospital wing. She looked over to her right and saw Madam Pomfrey holding her wrist, a glass of medicine on the table was half gone.

"Mmmm," Hermione had tried to talk.

"Shh now, don't strain yourself. We've been worried for you now. A week it's been since they've brought you in, a week! Now, sit up slowly and take this medicine." Madam Pomfrey said.

Hermione gasped and her mouth opened wide in shock.

"I've been here a week? But…what happened?" she asked.

"It was the Potter boy," Madam Pomfrey said, "he brought you in here. Evidently, you fainted on the spot; you've been pale as a ghost the entire time."

Hermione listened as she drank the medicine. Immediately she felt better.

"You can go now if you want, I just needed you to take that, to be sure that you'd be all right." Said Pomfrey.

"Thank you," said Hermione as she got up from bed, "for everything."

As Hermione walked back to the Common Room, she decided to take a little walk outside, thinking the fresh air would calm her better.

As she walked by the rose bushes, Hermione felt dizzy again and threw up. She was beginning to get scared and she ran to the portrait of the Fat Lady, said her password and ran inside.

Once there, she saw Harry. She ran over to thank him.

"Oh Harry," she said, "Thank you so much for everything. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Ummmm, ok….who are you?" Harry asked.

"What? Stop playing around, you know very well who I am." Hermione said and turned to Ginny.

"Ginny, you better tell Harry a thing or two before he looses his marbles" she said with a laugh.

Ginny just glared at Harry, and then…glared at Hermione.

"Listen YOU, I don't know who you are…but I want to thank you. I want to thank you for showing me that my boyfriend is a cheater!" said Ginny. Then she dashed up the girls stairs and was out of sight.

"Harry…" Hermione said, "What was that?"

"Listen…you've just ruined my relationship, and I don't even know you! I never helped you before…" Harry said and then ran out of the portrait hole.

'What is going on?' Hermione asked herself. She was very much upset that both Ginny and Harry yelled at her, and she ran up the stairs into her dorm and locked herself in the bathroom. She placed her head on the counter and cried, not knowing what was going on. When she looked up, she gasped and fell backwards, trying to get away from the counter. Slowly she got up and looked in the mirror again.

"Oh no…." she cried and touched her face.

Her hair was blonde and her beautiful brown eyes were now green. She didn't look like herself at all.

She was no longer Hermione!

XXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: Oh no! What happened to Hermione? This chapter was hard to write you guys, it took me over 5 tries to get what I wanted, lol. So I hope you all liked it! Lol. Ok, review review! I love hearing from you: ) Ok…do you guys prefer….hamburgers, hotdogs…or…neither! Lol.

(Phillyactress: if you didn't read your review reply…please do!)