A/N - Yay! New chappie! All right, now for the reviews. Elfinmaiden (I'm not sure what alias you used to review the last chapter, but this is the one that I always remember), Hermione seems to be OOC because she's gushing about Kevin. As I have already said, Kevin is amazing and though Hermione might be a witch, she's only human. Anyone would gush about him!! dramaqueen, if I told you right now whether Draco was stalking her, it would ruin the whole thing. Why don't you just wait and watch? Don't worry, I will reveal it some time! About Mrs Granger, she doesn't think Kevin is not what he seems; she just said that people are not always what they seem, because Hermione hardly knows Kevin. Hermione seems like she's totally into Kevin and Mrs Granger doesn't want her to get hurt, so she advised her to be careful. If anyone has any more questions, please feel free to ask! Now for the chappie; R, enjoy & R!!!

Chapter 7 – Living Two Lives

Ring, ring. Ring, ring. Ring, ring. Ring, ring.

The phone went on ringing. Hermione tossed and turned trying to ignore it, but had to give in, finally.

"Hello?" she said in a sleepy, grumpy voice.

"Hi!" came Harry's voice.

"Harry? What time is it?" she asked.

"It's only eight o'clock, but I have something to tell you," he replied.

"Oh God, can't it wait?" she protested.

"No! It's important. Now listen," he said.

She sighed and resigned herself to the inevitable.

"See, I spoke to Ron yesterday after I spoke to you and I told him you were coming to stay for the weekend," he said. "He already seemed upset and seemed even worse when he realised that we were going to be having a good time together."

"Okay, Harry, get on with it!" she snapped.

"I am, I am," he replied, not perturbed in the least. "So, anyway, then he told me that there's a big quidditch game scheduled for Saturday and he's been wanting to see it, but tickets are really hard to get. He's been trying for a long time. Now finally his Dad's getting some and he said the three of us could go, since none of the others are free that day. Tell me now if you want to go, because I have to tell Mr. Weasley now."

Hermione made an irritated sound. "Whatever. I'll go."

"Great. I'll speak to you later then," said Harry.

"Yes, later, not at some unearthly hour," she replied.

He laughed. "Go back to sleep, lazy girl."

"Thank you."

"Bye!"

"Bye."

She hung up, pulled the pillows over herself and went back to sleep.

When Hermione woke up again it was ten o'clock and she was well rested. When she went down to breakfast her parents had already finished and were getting ready to leave for work. They bade her good morning and goodbye, as she sat down to a solitary breakfast. She scanned the newspaper headlines and, finding nothing to interest her, put it down and fiddled with her breakfast. She didn't feel very hungry, so she ate a little and left the rest. She was wondering what she had on her agenda for the day when Kevin and all of the events of the day before came back to her. She got a tingly feeling all over and butterflies in her stomach.

Then questions that she had been avoiding popped up in her head. The day before, when she had just met Kevin, she had only thought about how great and how amazing he was and how she wanted to be his girlfriend, but now, when she had nothing to do but to think, the inevitable fact of her being a witch popped up. How would she tell him? Should she tell him at all? But then, if they were going to have a relationship, she had to tell him; it would be wrong and virtually impossible to hide it. She wasn't ashamed of being a witch, but it did make having muggle relationships hard. She remembered talking to Professor McGonnagall about this the previous year. Professor McGonnagall had said, "In a real relationship there is always acceptance. If someone cannot accept another person for who they are, then there can be no real meaning to their relationship. You have to decide whether such relationships are worth having." Hermione had been a little sad, so Professor McGonnagall had also said, "Hermione, everything you need is here. This is your world." And Hermione knew she was right. She wished she could completely let go of the muggle side of her, but she knew that she was privileged to be able to experience both the muggle and the wizarding world. She also knew that her destiny was the wizarding one and she should enjoy the muggle one as long as she could. After all, she would sooner or later move to a wizarding part of London and get more involved in the protection of magical beasts. She knew the day would come when she would no longer have any connection to the muggle world, except for her parents.

All this had seemed so much more straightforward a year earlier when she had had nothing to give up. Still, she decided to leave the questions for later. After all, hadn't someone once said, "We should cross our bridges when we come to them"? She ignored the fact that she may already have come to her bridge.

She went up to her room and found the article she had been writing the day earlier. She was planning to send it to a magazine called 'The Miscellaneous Files – from housekeeping to broom racing', which had just been set up and was looking for young writers to voice their concerns about the world. Hermione had, of course, grabbed the opportunity to promote S.P.A.W., which stood for the Society for the Promotion of Animal Welfare. Though she had changed the name of her unofficial organisation to S.P.A.W., S.P.E.W. or the Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare, the organisation which had started it all, was a subdivision of it and she had been writing the article under this subdivision, so it was mainly about the ill treatment of house elves, but she had added a paragraph about the other beasts she wanted to protect and a plea for help to transform S.P.A.W. into an official, more active organisation. She was quite excited about this article, as she believed that a fresh new magazine like The Miscellaneous Files would have a greater circulation and more diverse readership than an older, established magazine. So she put her article neatly into an envelope and set off to post it.

Hermione didn't have an owl of her own, so she had to go to the 'Owl Office' to send her article. She drove Miss Watson's car to a slightly deserted area near her house, where there were a few old buildings that looked like no one had gone into them for years. She went to the oldest-looking one, which was very small, just one storey high, and had apparently been a salon in its Golden Days. She tapped six times on its dusty wooden door. The faded brass handle of the door suddenly turned into a bright gold and twisted as if someone was opening it. The door itself was transformed into a brand new, gleaming glass one and she pushed it open.

The building was much bigger from the inside that it had seemed on the outside. In fact, it was much too big not to have been made its size without magic. There was a long counter, with a blue and gold cloth on top of it, on which there was a clutter of parchments, quills, coins and many more things. A little way behind the counter there were numerous shelves on which there were owls of every size and colour, with numbers written below them. There were tiny, hyper ones who looked like they were just dying to fly away, there were huge, very dignified-looking ones, who watched the smaller ones with disgust, there were jet black owls and pure white ones, there were the strangest-looking owls of the strangest colours, like blue, yellow and red, then there were those who looked just like the nocturnal creatures we encounter in the muggle world. The owls seemed to be bound by some kind of magic not to fly away until one of the many clerks behind the counter called them. The clerks were dressed in blue and gold robes with the face of an owl on their chests. Then there were those in front of the counter; witches and wizards of all kinds, dressed in all types of robes and other strange clothing. There were one or two who looked like hags and there were some mysterious-looking creatures with veils covering their faces, whispering to the clerks.

After about ten minutes Hermione finally caught the attention of one of the clerks.

"Yes, Ma'am?" asked the clerk, a young man who spoke in a very business-like manner.

"I'd like to send this article to The Miscellaneous Files' office fast," she replied.

"All right, I think number 56 can take it," he replied, whistling to 'number 56', one of the tiny, hyper owls, who looked only too delighted to be given the task. It was very excited, but it had evidently been well trained, for it became still to allow the clerk to tie on the letter. As soon as the letter was tied and it had been given its instructions, it set off at an alarmingly fast pace.

"That'll be four sickles, Ma'am," said the clerk.

"All right," said Hermione, taking out the strange wizarding coins and paying the clerk.

She left the Owl Office and went back home. It was twelve noon when she reached, so she ate her lunch with Miss Watson and then went to her room to get ready for her date with Kevin.

Once that was done and there was still half an hour left for Kevin to come, she took out Most Amazing Spells and was reading it when there was a peck at the window. She looked up to see a handsome brown owl at the window and opened it to let it in. The owl had a letter and she wondered whom it could be from, since the owl was unfamiliar. The owl didn't wait for Owl Treats, but let Hermione untie the letter from its claws and then left. The letter had a strange seal on it, which, when Hermione looked at it closely, revealed the letters 'The House of Malfoy'. It was from Draco.

His handwriting was long and elegant, yet very manly. The short letter read:

'Hermione,

I'm really sorry about what happened that night in Diagon Alley. I had no idea you would be so upset. I'd like to make it up to you and to explain a few things. Have dinner with me. I'll pick you up at seven.

Draco'

Hermione was surprised, annoyed and curious when she read the letter. Surprised at the fact that Draco wanted to take her for dinner just to apologise, annoyed that he didn't ask her whether dinner was convenient for her and curious about how he was going to 'make it up to her' and what he wanted to explain to her. She also wondered how he knew where she lived, but she figured there could be many explanations for that and didn't dwell on it. Since she had no plans for dinner that night, she was free to eat with him and, though she was still a little annoyed, her curiosity got the better of her.

As she was thinking about Draco and everything to do with him, the bell rang and she ran downstairs. She had to stop thinking about Draco and focus on Kevin. For now.