Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other stuff that you have read in the J.K. Rowling books. Everything belongs to her :D

Warnings: None really for this chapter...clean! Well two cuss words...but ya know.

Author's Note: I wanted to get this posted before I go to my orthodontist appointment tomorrow. I'm trying to update every four days. I probably won't be able to keep it up, but who knows. I have faith in me! For those reviewers who left a question...Luna G: Yes, the title will have a factor later on in the story. :D You spotted the title give away kudos! Sakshi: oh no, no, no, no, I would never make Hermione evil. No worries. I will just make her...un-damsel-in-distress! Maybe...just a little more...shielded is all. Don't worry she won't be evil.

Secret Meetings

Blaise and Hermione continued to meet almost every night up in the astronomy tower, out on the balcony on nice nights, so they could look at the stars. Sometimes they did homework together. They were becoming friends at a very fast rate, and that scared Hermione.

Why Blaise has saved her life in the first place puzzled her. Why she even cared. Blaise had never said anything nice to Hermione ever, and now she confided in her when she needed someone to talk to. Blaise said it was because she could talk to Draco about girl things and she couldn't talk to Pansy because she was always hanging out with her boyfriend. Who her boyfriend was, Blaise wouldn't say. She said that it was personal and she was sworn to secrecy. Hermione respected her for that.

Hermione was confiding in Blaise too. Not only was she sharing secrets with her that she had never even thought about sharing with Ron or Harry, but she was actually enjoying it. Things that seemed laughable before were talked about with all caution thrown into the wind.

Blaise and Hermione's relationship brought new aspects out in Hermione. She wanted to be let loose. She didn't want to be the little damsel in distress like she had been when she was with Harry and Ron. She wanted to be able to stick up for herself. Blaise was teaching her how. It was a slow and painful process but it seemed to be working.

Blaise taught her how to hide her emotions from all of those but the select few who know how to read a person no matter what. Hermione no longer cared what people taunted about her. She would keep doing whatever she was doing and ignore them completely. Hermione could sense Blaise on the other side of the classroom or Great Hall smile when she did this.

The other aspect on being tougher was being able to fend for herself. Hermione had never really been a very physical person. She preferred to 'no touchie' rule and only hit someone when they deserved it. Even when they did deserve it though, she wasn't usually a wuss. She could punch and hit hard even before Blaise taught her how. So by the end, Hermione was a knock-out.

On one particular night it was raining very hard and Hermione and Blaise were forced to stay inside the Astronomy classroom. It was an old room, probably one of the oldest rooms in Hogwarts. No matter how many times the house elves cleaned it, it always seemed to be dusty and the door always squeaked. Hermione sat in a desk that had various scratching on it, doing her potions essay, or rather trying to. It was impossibly hard. Damn Snape! Blaise sat next to her in a desk in about the same condition reading over her charms essay.

Blaise slammed a fist down on the table almost making Hermione jump and sending dust particles into the air. Hermione watched the particles for a while and then focused on Blaise. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I can't do this! Why is the wingardium leviousa charm so damn important in the path of charms history?" She fumed not hiding her emotion like Hermione had been taught. She would have commented on it, but decided that now wasn't the time or the place for that.

Hermione remembered the time Ron and Harry had saved her life with the charm. Harry was being held upside down by the troll. Hermione had felt like her world had come crashing down and this was the end. But Ron shouted the incantation at the troll's club. Hermione had been so proud of him for saying it right. She smiled slightly at the thought.

"Now you're laughing at me!" Blaise said angrily.

"No I'm not! I'm just remembering something." Hermione tried to explain only ending up smiling wider at the look on Blaise's face.

"It's important because Melody Goshawk used it to help build Hogwarts. She built it with just a few bricks. From that one spell she rearranged the words to make more bricks and thus the castle was made." A voice said from somewhere in the room. Hermione swore she had heard that voice somewhere before, but couldn't place it.

Blaise laughed, while Hermione looked around for the owner of the voice. After a moment of looking around the room with her eyes she saw that Blaise was smiling the widest she had ever seen her smile. "What?" she asked indigently.

"Pansy has an invisibility cloak." When Blaise had said that Pansy appeared from out of no where a small smile on her face.

Pansy was also very pretty. She had very short auburn hair that ended at her chin. Here eyes were bright blue and she was very small and petite. Although, Hermione thought that she could smack her pretty hard if she wanted to, she doubted now that she would be able to. Pansy had an air around her that seemed to say, "Stay away from me!" Pansy wasn't a girl to mess around with and Hermione knew it well.

"Blaise, what in the hell are you doing here?" Pansy hissed.

Blaise looked at Hermione and back to Pansy, flinching slightly. "Well...there's something I've been meaning to tell you."

"I can see that now," Pansy said snottily looking at Hermione. Hermione stood up straight trying to be the bigger person. Pansy snorted and rounded on Blaise again. "Explain yourself."

Blaise plunged into the story about how Hermione and her had become fast friends. Pansy would roll her eyes every once in a while and cluck her tongue in disgust. When she had finished the story Pansy stood deathly still for a few moments and then walked over to Hermione seizing her up with her eyes.

Hermione didn't back down. In fact she met the gaze with a gaze of her own. Even though Blaise had told her this instruction countless times before she knew by instinct not to back down. Backing down would be letting her have an easy victory. Hermione wasn't about to let that happen. Pansy circled around to see if Hermione would back down. When she was back in front of Hermione again she half smiled.

"I read you wrong, Granger," she said laughing a little.

"How so?" Hermione asked crossing her arms over her chest. Blaise knew this was a gesture clearly showing that she was uncomfortable but Pansy didn't seem to notice.

"I would have thought that you would have told in the first place." Hermione's eyes flashed with red anger and Pansy's mouth twitched into something that was threatening to become a smile. "When you didn't I would have thought for sure that you would back down, but you didn't. That takes guts."

Slowly, Hermione's anger ebbed away. "According to Blaise, I don't have guts," Hermione joked slightly.

Pansy smiled, her perfect white teeth showing. "Blaise is the one without guts," she said sticking her tongue out playfully at Blaise. Blaise lunged forward to attack her, an evil smile on her face. Pansy laughed and ran away running through desks to avoid her. They were both laughing hysterically when they had finished chasing each other. Throughout the chase Hermione watched in fascination.

Blaise and Pansy were normal teenage girls. They had the same problems Hermione did. Heck, they had the same problems Lavender, Parvati, and Padama had! Once you dug past the surface you got to know the real them and appreciated who they really were. Hermione silently thanked her lucky stars for this blessing in disguise. "You two are different than what I expected you to be," she said when they sat down.

"And the same with you." Pansy said. "I never though I would be friends with someone who was a friend with Hermione Bookworm 'Traitor' Granger," she said using the air quotes on traitor.

Hermione flinched at the word traitor. "I'm not a traitor!" she said calmly, but with force.

"I can see that now," Pansy smiled.

So from then on their secret meetings now included Pansy. Pansy was reluctant at first. She didn't want to get caught. Blaise was at the point now that she didn't care too much. Hermione was grateful to have her life somewhat back on track. She now had two friends. Life seemed...normal.

"You know what?" Blaise said one evening dropping her quill and shutting her book. Pansy looked up at her with a raised eyebrow forgetting about her book for a moment. Hermione rolled over so that she wasn't looking at the stars but at her face. "We should tell, Draco."

Pansy dropped her book. Hermione sat up straight looking at her like she had grown another head. "You're mental," Pansy said picking her book up and dusting it off.

"But if we both misjudged Hermione, then maybe he did too." Blaise argued back.

"Uh, no! We might be misjudged by everyone and seem very mean on the outside, but Draco is mean!" Pansy stated.

"Plus, you guys never hated me as much as Malfoy does," Hermione added.

They looked at her for a moment with raised eyebrows and laughing eyes. "Ok maybe you did." Hermione said sheepishly.

"Seriously, Blaise that would be the death of all of us. If Draco found out that we were friends with Hermione first he would kill her, and then us," Pansy stated with wide eyes.

But Blaise didn't seem convinced. "We know him better than that, though. He would accept it. He doesn't care what we do, just as long as he doesn't have to do it too. Besides, I'm sick of hiding it. I want to hang out with Hermione in class! Don't you?"

"Well," Pansy began. She looked into Blaise's big puppy dog eyes and gave in. "Of course I do! But telling Draco right now might not be a good idea. Just wait a while more?" It ended as a question, but Pansy was trying to make it a statement.

"No, I don't want to hide it anymore. We tell him now."

Everything was deathly quite for what seemed like hours. Blaise looked at Pansy with wide puppy-dog eyes. Hermione sat back and wanted Pansy to shout, "No! Never! We shall never tell him!" Her hopes were shattered when Pansy sighed. "Fine," she said.

"Do I get a say in this?" Hermione asked knowing the answer.

"No," they answered together.

"But Malfoy is my sworn enemy. We haven't ever said anything civil toward each other. I'm sure he hates me with every fiber of his being. I'm positive that he does, actually," Hermione said desperately.

"That may be. But we'll give it a try anyway," Blaise said. The clock chimed twelve and Blaise and Pansy packed their things. "Tomorrow night we'll see how things work out." Pansy said passing Hermione. They left Hermione on the balcony worrying about what tomorrow would be like.

Authors Note: Well, there goes chapter three! Wow, it seems like it should be longer to me. :P oh well! By the way, thanks to everyone who reviewed! I love the reviews. They give me fuel! Sorry no review topic. I'm so tired. I can't pick one! Its 12:31 and I need to go to sleep. G'night!

PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!