AN: Once again, I don't own this stuff. This disclaimer will aply to any future chapters.

Updates galore!:) By the way to answer the question "what is mono", it is a nasty sickness you get from kissing or exchanging saliva. You get really tired and can't do anything. It sucks when you have it.

Chapter V

Draco and I were in our common room, it was Halloween, after the feast. It had been a month since that trip to Hogsmeade with Ron, who had tried more romantic stuff since, but I always found a way to avoid whatever it was.

Draco, however was a different story. We studied together, but always ended up kissing. I loved kissing Draco, it was so wonderful. I always felt a strange feeling in my chest when I was near him. Guilt would always set in after I spent any time with Draco and enjoyed myself; I was supposed to like Ron. I always told myself that he was just a friend, which was true. To him, though, I was more.

It was no different tonight. I stood with my back pressed against the wall while Draco kissed me. He had his hands in my thick brown hair as he kissed my neck.

As I stood there, I started to wonder how I could have forgotten all those times Draco had been so mean to me. As I had so many times before, I wonder, was Draco mean or was this person standing in front of me, the real Draco?

"Draco," I said.

"Yes," He answered, taking his mouth away from my neck for a second to respond.

"Why are you not mean to me?"

"What do you mean," He answered, a little breathless, but continued to kiss.

"I mean you used to be terrible, now you aren't, but that is only when we are alone. It is very confusing," I said. Draco pulled away from me and looked at me for a couple long seconds. I could tell something was wrong, he wore a very troubled expression as he looked at me, almost as if he was arguing with himself, but about what? Then, suddenly, without a word, Draco walked up the stairs and into his room.

I mentally kicked myself for ending that, even though I hadn't meant to. I went to my room and got ready for bed. Before getting into bed, I looked at myself in the mirror next to my dresser. As I examined myself, I saw a red mark on my neck that was around where Draco had been kissing.

I immediately felt a wave of horror crash through me, I had a hicky and Ron would know he hadn't given it to me! And we had classes to go to tomorrow. All I would do was hope I went away before then.

I hardly slept that night; I kept thinking about my twisted life. I was "dating" Ron, but then making out with Draco. Wasn't that cheating on Ron? Or was it cheating on Draco? Or was it both?

I rolled over and looked at my clock; it was 2 in the morning! I had to get some sleep so, finally, I stopped thinking about everything.

I didn't remember fall asleep, but when I woke up, I remembered everything else. I sat up and looked at my clock, 8:15, 45 minutes until classes start. I hopped out of bed and started to get ready.

When I was done, I looked at myself in the mirror, I had regular black robes on, my favorite brown, leather boots, and some make up on, most of which was covering the red splotch on my neck. Under all the make up, the red was barely noticeable, I would be fine.

I slipped my compact in my pocket just in case, and tore down stairs. As I was running, I resolved to talk to Draco about his vampire-like habits, and by talk, I meant yell. Right now though, I had to get to class.

My first class on Mondays was charms. We spent the whole class learning appearing charms. I mastered this charm on the third try. So far, Ron hadn't noticed anything on my neck.

Herbology was next. Professor Sprout was very excited; we were going to start learning about Ink Pansies.

"Now class," Professor Sprout began, "Choose a partner to work with I chose Neville before Ron could get to me that's it now, quickly! All right, let's begin. We are going to be repotting these pansies. Now you don't need your gloves today. You will have to be careful not to touch the blossom at all, you will be squirted with ink. Now class, get started, remember to grasp the stem firmly. That's it now."

Neville and I got to work. We put some dirt in the empty pot, then started trying to pull the flower out of its current pot.
"Now these flowers can be stubborn; you will have to pull hard class. That's it Potter, use those muscles."

"This plant won't come out," I said gasping as I pulled the stem and Neville pulled the pot. I was really working hard. That plant didn't want to come out.

"Almost… got… it," Neville replied, also straining himself.

Then, in one horrific moment, my sweaty palms slipped on the plant's stem, sliding all the ways up to the blossom. The next this I knew, I was on the ground, covered in red ink.

"I warned you of that," Professor Sprout said, as some pupils giggled. "Easy fix though, simple cleaning charm will do the trick. Come on, stand up." Ron moved to help me up, I accepted his offered hand and stood up. Professor Sprout preformed the charm, then moved away to help another student.

"You gotta be careful with these," Ron whispered in my ear. "My mum had one once, she got rid of it when it squirted her while she was all dressed up in her nicest dress." I nodded, a little amused. Then Ron added "What's that on your neck?"

"What," I asked, terrified. My hand flew to my neck, covering the redness. The cleaning charm must have washed the make up off.

"That red mark on your neck, what is it? Is it a bug bite," Ron asked, obviously very clueless.

"Yes, it is," I replied, relieved. "There's a nasty spider in my room to quick to kill."

"I hate spiders," Ron said, disgusted.

"So do I," I moved away to help Neville with our repotting.

I avoided Ron the rest of the day. If he got another look at my neck, he would have figured out my "spider bite," was no spider bite at all.

That night after dinner, I entered the common room and sat down next to Draco at the wooden table. I waited for him to look up at me, but he did not. So finally I spoke.

"Draco," I began. He still did not look up, nor did he respond. "Draco," I repeated. This time, the only response was a grunt, but seeing I had to be satisfied with that, I continued. "Look what you gave me," I said pointing to the fading red mark on my neck. I was a little angry and it showed.

"Uh," Draco said. "I didn't mean to?" This comment was meant as a statement but came out as a question; Draco was afraid of how mad I was getting.

"I am sure you did not mean to," I said calmly. Then, starting to sound angry again, I said, "but you see this I punctuated the "this" by pointing to my neck almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Umm," Draco said, looking around nervously.

"I hid it with make-up, but it got washed off with a cleaning charm in Herbology after I got drenched in that ink. You're lucky Ron was thick enough to believe it was a spider-bite." I paused my berating for a second to catch my breath. In that little span of time, Draco started to laugh. I glared at him, but he only kept laughing. He held his sides and shook with laughter.

"You know, you're really funny when your made," Draco said when the laughter had subsided. I shook my head, rolled my eyes, and smiled a bit. My mom had always had the same reaction when I was little and threw temper tantrums. "I am sorry," Draco said, interrupting my thoughts. I looked at him and knew he really was sorry. I kissed his lips to tell him I accepted his apology. Smiling sweetly, I got up to read in the cozy red arm chair by the crackling fire.