A/N - Okay, I'm really sorry for leaving you all with so many questions in the last chapter! My bad! Now, to answer my friend's questions: Kevin accepts all that about the wizarding world for two reasons - a) he's in love with Hermione and when you're in love with somebody, you normally believe stuff they tell you. b) she told him everything that had happened, Voldemort, Harry, blah blah, and it's kind of hard to make up all that stuff, so it was easy to believe. And how are Kevin and Hermione acting? They haven't known each other very long, but they're not doing anything they shouldn't be doing. After all, they are going out. Now that that's done, this chapter brings in a little hope for all those who were hassled about it seeming like Hermione and Draco were going there seperate ways. Geez, people, don't get upset! It's just a sort of climax, not the ending! I won't guarantee that they get together or anything, but let's wait and watch. My story does not end here.

And I need a favour from all you reviewers; I'm so busy writing my story that I haven't found any good ones to read on the site. Can anyone recommend anything really good? Preferably something about Draco/Hermione or just Draco or Sirius or something. I'd really appreciate it.

Chapter 11 – Coming Clean

Hermione dropped the letter right there. Then she picked it up and read it again. No, it wasn't possible. There must be some mistake...yet she knew it was true and there was no mistaking it. It was there in big bold letters and she should have known anyway. But what she couldn't understand was why Draco hadn't wanted to talk about Marissa. If he was marrying her, there was no secret about it. As one of his best friends, Hermione had every right to know.

She couldn't ignore the deep disappointment that was tugging at her or the big lump that was forming in her throat, both of which had nothing to do with the fact that Draco hadn't told her. Tears welled up in her eyes and she felt angry with herself. Hermione! Get a grip! You've just found out what a great guy Kevin is; you should be happy! How does it matter what Draco does? So she dried her tears and forced herself to think about Kevin. The picture of his face faded away and it was replaced by the cold hard stare of Draco Malfoy. She snapped out of her musings abruptly. Why did that particular expression come to mind? She hadn't seen that expression on his face since sixth year, at least, not directed towards her. But somehow her mind was already convincing her that Draco had not changed...that he was still that sneering, sinister Slytherin who had called her 'mudblood' and put hexes on her and her friends. Obviously he hadn't told her; he only did what suited him. He had probably become friends with her only because it had suited his purpose at that time. He was just a cold, selfish person, with no real feeling for anyone.

A part of her knew that all this was not true, that Draco had changed, and so she didn't completely believe it, but she still felt he was quite mean and she decided, in her anger, to associate with him as little as possible. The part of her that still had some sense left reminded her that she always made hasty decisions in her anger and they always melted away when she cooled down, but she ignored that. As always, she felt that this time her decision was final.

She went down for dinner in a militant mood, determined not to think about Draco and determined to keep talking about Kevin and all his virtues, which, it cannot be denied, were many. The result was that her parents thought she was getting too involved with Kevin and were getting seriously worried until Hermione realised what was happening and reassured them that she wasn't only focussed on Kevin. After that, she stuck to neutral topics, much to her parents' relief.

She went to bed early, claiming she had a headache and tried very hard to stop her mind's chattering and actually go to sleep. It took her a long time and, when she was almost asleep and no longer keeping track of all her thoughts, she murmured, "If only..." and fell asleep.

She woke up the next morning with the firm resolution of reading all the sheets of parchment which the envelope had contained and actually succeeded in doing so. The engagement was for the coming Sunday and she realised she would have to go from Harry's house. She wondered what Harry would think of it and decided they had fought for too long and called him up.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Harry, this is Hermione," she said a little tentatively, not knowing how he would react.

"Oh, Hermione. Hi," he replied.

She was relieved. Though he didn't sound too enthusiastic, he didn't sound angry either and she knew it was only a small step now to bring him around totally.

"Listen, I am so sorry about what I said the other day...it just came out. I was in a bad mood and you know how when I'm in a bad mood I always look at everything as a tragedy?"

"Hmmm..."

"I didn't mean it. I know how it must have sounded, but trust me, I didn't mean it."

"It's okay, Hermione. It's just not nice to be compared to Malfoy all the time."

"I don't compare you to him all the time!"

"Well, in very subtle ways, you do, and it's just unpleasant, that's all."

Hermione was shocked. Had she made it so obvious that she liked him? "Listen, can we put this behind us? I'm really sorry. I have no idea why you think I compare you to Draco, but that was never my intention. Now will you please forgive me?"

"'Course, Herms. You know I'll always get over it, no matter how angry I get," he replied.

"I know! You're so good to me!"

"Nothing more than you deserve. Now I wanted to ask you, what's this about Malfoy getting married?"

Once again she was taken aback. "How do you know about his marriage?"

"Well, I had to find out through the invitation, since you never bothered to tell me. Really, Hermione, I do think you could've told us this."

"I...didn't know myself..." she felt ashamed. It was so horrible of Draco not to tell her.

"Oh, come on, don't say that. How could you not know? Malfoy follows you like a dog. It's not possible he didn't tell you."

"Firstly, he does not follow me like a dog!" she exclaimed. "Secondly, no...he didn't tell me. I got to know through the invitation, too."

I suppose the sadness in her voice made Harry realise she was telling the truth. He seemed shocked, too. "But, Herms, why...? Did you two have a fight?"

"No! I don't know why...I met Marissa once...that day when I was waiting for you at Plusha's? Well, Draco was waiting for her and I met her then. But Draco never spoke of her and even when I asked him about her he didn't seem to want to say much..."

"That's terrible. You must be really upset."

How right he was! She should have counted on Harry to understand. Only he didn't know that she had other reasons to be upset, too. Or did he?

"Herms, can I ask you something? Promise you won't get mad?"

"What?"

"Do you like Draco? I mean, are you in love with him?"

A dead silence followed. A thousand thoughts rushed through Hermione's head. She thought about protesting, about saying that she only liked him as a friend and that she was going out with Kevin, but she decided to tell the truth. "Yes, Harry, I do. I mean, I don't know whether I'm in love with him...I just...I really, really like him. But it's no use now. He's marrying that Marissa girl and I'm going out with someone else, so..."

"Wait a minute! Whom're you going out with?"

"Kevin! Didn't I tell you?" she asked, surprised. How could it have slipped her mind?

"No, you never told me," replied Harry, sounding annoyed.

"Oh, well," and she told him everything. She told him all about Draco, her attraction towards him, his strange behaviour, then about meeting Kevin and being infatuated with him and everything else that had followed, till that day. She told him things she had been afraid to admit to herself even and it was a great relief to actually be able to pour out all those feelings, honestly and freely, to someone. It must have done some good, because she felt a lot better after telling Harry. Unlike what she had thought, he listened patiently and attentively, not interrupting a single time and not wondering at her behaviour at all. He seemed to perfectly understand the conflict she was going through.

Once she finished telling him, he said, "I had always suspected it, but I had no idea it was so complicated. Poor you, Herms, it must be really tough."

She sighed. "It is, Harry, it is. I just can't understand him...Draco, I mean. Kevin is very easy to understand and I feel a little guilty, considering how I'm always obsessing over Draco. Is something wrong with me?"

"Of course not! You're just being a normal teenage girl and I'm glad that you finally are. The only thing is that your situation is very complicated and I'm not really the person to deal with such situations, but I do know just the person who is. Why don't you come over and I'll introduce you?" he asked.

"Ummm...Harry I don't mind telling you, but I don't know whether I want to discuss this with anyone else," she replied.

"Come on, Hermione, can't you see? You can't go on living like this. You like Kevin, but you're in love with Draco and, as you already mentioned, that's not fair to Kevin at all. Do you want to be so unfair towards him?" asked Harry.

He chose all the right words and Hermione could think of no suitable protest, so she said, "Oh, all right, but this person...who is it?"

"Ah, that's a surprise. You'll see. Come over at around twelve? We can have lunch together."

"Okay. See you."

"Bye!"

She put the phone down. Just when she had thought things were settling down and she was ready to give up Draco, Harry came in and made her pour out her heart to him. She supposed that things were never going to really settle down until...what? What could anyone say or do that would make things okay? She couldn't stop liking Draco, she was sure of it, but if he started liking her and broke off his engagement, there would be Kevin to think about. It would be unfair to him. But wouldn't it be even more unfair to date him when she wanted to be with someone else? Anyway, there was no point thinking about such a scenario. Draco didn't like her and he certainly wasn't about to break off his engagement for her.

She sighed. Everything that was happening and everything she was thinking was so unlike her. She was not like other girls; she did not obsess over boys. During her 'growing pretty' phase at Hogwarts, a lot of boys had asked her out and she had enjoyed the attention (she was only human) but she hadn't thought too many of them were worth going out with. She had gone out with a Roger Kline from Hufflepuff for a while, but things hadn't worked out and they had mutually agreed to break up. Then she had gone out with Seamus from their house for a week until she realised that he wasn't the kind of guy she liked and she broke up with him. After that, she hadn't really dated anyone and she had enjoyed her single status. It was only when Draco had become Head Boy and she had gotten to know him that she really liked anyone and wanted to go out with someone. Somehow, ever since Draco had come into her life, it had been turned upside-down.

She got dressed and went down for breakfast. She ate with her parents, talking normally to them for the first time in the past few days. After that, she read for a while and found some really interesting information about unicorns, which she wrote down in the form of an article and she was just deciding where to send it when she realised that it was eleven-thirty and she would have to hurry to get to Harry's place in time. She took a taxi, because she wouldn't have been able to take Miss Watson's car into Diagon Alley and didn't want to leave it unattended for what could be a very long time.

Hermione reached Harry's place on time and he was waiting for her by the street. He greeted her affectionately and took her upstairs. She had to catch her breath when he opened the door to his apartment; it had been completely transformed. The previously bleak and bare floors had bright blue, orange, green and yellow rugs on them, the white walls were covered in striped wallpaper, display ornaments and delicate pottery were placed everywhere, and big, comfortable, pretty furniture covered the entire apartment.

"Oh, Harry, it's beautiful! But how...?" she asked, wondering how Harry could have such amazing aesthetic sense.

"I didn't do it," he replied. Hermione was just going to ask who had done it, when a soft, female voice called from the kitchen-cum-dining area, "Has she come yet?"

Harry grinned and replied, "Yes, come and meet her."

Hermione was shocked and very curious. A young girl of about sixteen entered the room. She was very, very lovely. She had beautiful white skin with the slightest rose tint to it, big, searching dark eyes, the smallest and prettiest little nose, and bow-shaped red lips. Thick, wavy auburn hair fell till her slender waist and her exquisite face had a shy expression on it. "Hello..." she said in the same soft voice. Hermione's mouth was slightly open. The girl was like a red-haired angel.

"Hermione, I want you to meet Laetitia. I had met her in Diagon Alley a year ago and we met again at Plusha's recently. I had promised her last year that I would let her help me with my apartment when I moved in and when she realised I had no idea of how to do it up whatsoever, she did the whole thing," said Harry.

"H-hi," Hermione managed to say. Laetitia smiled, her beautiful face lighting up and turning even more wonderful. "You've certainly done a good job here..."

"Have I?" she asked, eagerly. "I thought it was pretty good and Harry said it was wonderful, but I really wanted your opinion on it. Harry's told me so much about you..." Her face was once more marvellously shy.

"I think it's beautiful," replied Hermione, smiling. "And I'm very glad you did it, because I can just imagine what it would look like if Harry had done it up!"

Laetitia laughed and the shyness seemed to escape her. When she spoke next it was in a more mature, but still very lovely, tone. "I know! Harry has good taste, but he's not really interested in things like this. I'm glad I could help him out. How could the poor thing have lived in it the way it was? The walls, the floor..." and she started off on a long explanation of exactly what had been wrong with the apartment. By the time she had finished, Hermione could see exactly what had attracted Harry to her. It was not just her beauty that was so captivating; it was her charm and her innocent, child-like manner. She was so young and full of life, yet very mature in her own way. Hermione felt she was just the girl for Harry. He would never tire of her; it was clear in the way he looked at her, his eyes full of admiration, adoration and love. Hermione was very satisfied.

It was Laetitia that Harry had wanted Hermione to talk to. It was clear from the wise, knowing look in her dark eyes when Hermione told her about her situation that she was experienced in matters of the heart and would advise Hermione correctly.

"Your problem really has a very simple solution," she said, when Hermione had finished telling her.

"It does?" both Harry and Hermione asked, surprised.

"Yes," she looked at them both as if the answer was obvious. "Of course Hermione fell in love with Draco; he is perfect for her. And of course she likes Kevin; he is perfect for anyone. But though Kevin is perfect for anyone, he is not perfect for Hermione. Hermione needs someone like Draco and that is very clear. So all she has to do is leave Kevin and tell Draco how she feels."

"But it's not that simple..." began Hermione, but Laetitia interrupted her impatiently.

"Of course it is simple. You are making it difficult for yourself. However, I cannot make your decisions for you, so you will have to think about it. I know it might be a tough decision."

"Well, I'll think about it..." replied Hermione. She decided to change the topic and was very relieved when Harry said, "It's one-thirty. Let's go for lunch."