A/N: Awesome reviews! Definitely loved them-you guys all make me so happy! So big thank you to everyone. : ) Also!Paprika90asked me if you guys were ever going to find out what happened 'that night' at Malfoy Manor, or why they broke up and YES I promise you will (it's going to be great!). I'm considering writing personal replies to everyone for each chapter because your reviews are great (and a lot make me laugh like alleymack and Scorpio 1118). It would probably also be more convenient if someone had a question or something. Or- you guys could e-mail me with any complaints/concerns/questions….or whatever. alright I'm rambling so on with the story!

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the great J.K….I just own the plot

Draco watched them leave and then sat back down in his chair. He ran his fingers through his blonde hair and sarcastically said, "Thanks a lot, Blaise." before falling in his chair into an uneasy sleep.

Chapter 6: Aleesa's spy

Blaise took Hermione down the hallway and into the next room over. He knew Draco would be falling asleep, but he decided to put silencing spells on the room just incase. He slightly felt guilty; like he was going behind Draco's back. But, he knew it was for Draco's own good.

"Why are you silencing the room?" Hermione asked while taking a seat on the nearest sofa.

"So he doesn't hear us" Blaise replied anxiously.

"He won't. He's exhausted. Relax and come sit down."

Reluctantly, Blaise put away his wand and sat down facing her.

"Alright so what are we going to do?" she rushed.

"Wait, I thought you didn't weren't so sure about doing this." He said a little taken aback at her haste.

"Oh no…you're backing out on me?" Hermione asked, totally misinterpreting his question.

"No, no, no. I'm not backing out. It's just that earlier today in the hall you weren't this excited. Why the sudden change of attitude?"

"Well, I got to know Aleesa better… and she learned more about me too. Let's just say it didn't go as planned."

"What do you mean?"

"Well she is a little intimidating-"

"Yeah I know. I've been tolerating her for almost a year now-"

"Oh you poor thing-"

"-and I'm still not totally comfortable around her…and that's saying something cause I'm never uncomfortable around women. You know what's worse? I think she's just in this marriage for the money and title."

"WHAT!" Hermione said outraged. "She marrying him to just be 'Mrs. Draco Malfoy' and have all the riches with it! Why if she isn't the dirtiest, most disgusting little-"

"I know. It's even more annoying because Draco doesn't see it…well no man would…it took me this long to figure out. Ithink she went into the relationship thinking like that, but then they might have actually fallen in love. But now after seeing you as a threat, her mind went back to her original pursuit."

Blaise could see the sadness and betrayal in Hermione's eyes; it's almost as if he was telling Draco all of this…like they were a part of each other.

"But don't worry…"he said reassuringly "…She'll be out of the picture in a while."

"Good."

"So, you met her tonight?"

"Yes. We had dinner."

"How'd that go?"

"Er- not so well. Someone…sort of…showed up."

"What do you mean…showed up? Who?" Blaise asked, praying his ears were mistaken.

"I mean, she ate with us-"

"Who is she?" asked Blaise who's patience was wearing thin.

"-well actually she wasn't really thinking about eating…her mentality was more like 'let's see how many questions I can ask the mudblood in 10 minut-'"she said aloud to herself.

"Hermione!"

"Sorry. It…was Pansy."

Blaise sat staring at Hermione, as if waiting to hear the punch line to a corny joke that never came. He took a deep breath and lent into the chair to face Hermione better. "I'm sorry- I thought you just said Pansy."

"I did" she said looking down.

"As in…Parkinson?"

"How many Pansy's do you know?"

"Shit!" Blaise cursed as if he finally just comprehended what she was saying. He didn't hate Pansy; they were friends. But, Blaise knew as well as anyone that if Pansy knew what they were planning, it would be over before it even started.

"And she knows."

"She knows? Shit!"

"Well I covered it the best I could!"

"Hermione you've 'covered' a lot in these past 6 hours and soon, it's gonna become obvious that you're lying!"

"I'm aware of that Blaise!" Honestly! Hermione thought, I'm not an idiot!

"I bet Pansy's telling her allllllllllllllll about you and Draco-"

"Was that necessary?" He's overreacting.

"-and now we're screwed."

"No we're not, not yet."

"What do you mean 'not yet'?"

"Well… don't you have a plan? Don't make me do all the work here."

"You? You're not the one who had to beat it into Drake's head over again the fact he still loves you-"

"At least he's your best friend! You're not the one had to deal with the spiteful ex-girlfriend and the pissed off fiancée."

"Good point."

Blaise thought to himself and then said "Okay. Here's the deal. Aleesa has her own business over in Paris and she's leaving for a few days to set up some new marketing project or whatever- but, the point is…she won't be here. I'm not exactly sure how long she'll be, but I'll find a way to keep her over there longer. What you really need now Hermione is time."

00000000000000000000000000000000

It was now close to midnight and Aleesa and Pansy just asked for the check. In the past hour, Pansy made sure to tell Aleesa everything she knew about Hermione since she arrived at Hogwarts; how she was a know-it-all bookworm and was the 'Heroic Gryffindor' who helped her best friend Harry Potter defeat the Dark Lord on countless occasions. It was all. so. sickening. She then proceeded to tell her how she made Head Girl 7th year (no surprise), and how her and Draco shared a head dorm. At the time, Draco was in his old malicious ways and was dating Miss. Parkinson herself, so Pansy did not leave out any information on how the 'mudblood bitch' was heartless and took her love away. From then on went every detail of what she thought was their relationship, all up until that particular night. Aleesa definitely heard more than she wanted to, and was now positively sure that Hermione still loved him…and maybe he still felt the same. Still, she had no proof that Hermione wasn't with Blaise, so she did not rule that possibility out just yet.

"And then after that, I hadn't seen her until today."

"There were no signs of them together after school?"

"No, none that I could tell. Although, he did stay single until he met you."

"7 years? Strange…"

"Yes, very unlike Draco."

"Was everything to your enjoyment madams?" the waiter interrupted them from their thoughts.

"Yes." They replied in unison.

"Excellent. Here is your check."

"Thank you." Aleesa said taking the slip of paper out of his fingers. "Listen, Pans…" she started not looking at Pansy her but signing her signature the paper. "I'm going out of town for the week and I need you to do something for me."

"Like spy work?"

"Umm, sure. Call it whatever you want but, I just need you to be alert for me. I want you to watch them. Like I said before, no bias opinions, act as if you were seeing the three of them for the first time…almost as an innocent bystander. Then, observe them, and see who acts more like a couple, Draco and Hermione or Blaise and Hermione. I need you to be my eyes and ears…and don't. get. caught."

"Hmmm…what's in it for me?"

"Can't this act of kindness for a friend be enough?" said Aleesa mockingly. "No? Okay maybe this too-" she said as she dropped a bag of 50 Galleons on the table.

"Sure, I'll see what I can do." Said Pansy with a smirk.

Aleesa returned the expression as she got up and walked from the table out the door. Pansy looked after her until she left and then looked at the money in front of her.

"Ahh revenge is sweet Granger…revenge is sweet. I think coming back just might have been the biggest mistake you've ever made."

00000000000000000000000000

The next day Hermione woke up on the couch with a blanket over her and a pillow underneath her head. She sat up and looked across from her and saw Blaise sprawled out on the cushiony armchair and smiled at how innocent he looked. Ha. Innocent. She whispered "Thanks Blaise" after assuming he had put the blankets on her the night before, but was surprised to hear Draco's voice behind her…

"Nope, that would be me." whispered Draco smiling at her.

"Oh, thank you. Good morning" she smiled back.

"How'd dinner go last night?"

"Oh, you heard about that?"

"No I assumed. I know, I know." Draco corrected himself after remembering Hermione's warning yesterday on 'assuming'.

Hermione giggled "Well, it was…interesting."

"Hmm. Actually, never mind. I don't want to know."

"Good choice. I don't really want to relive it."

"That bad?"

"Yes" she sighed and put her head underneath her pillow. Draco snorted at this and looked around. He then laughed at the fact they were still in that chapel.

"Wow you'd think we never heard of houses."

"Honestly." She smiled. "So, what did you and Blaise talk about last night?"

"What did you and Blaise talk about last night?"

She raised an eyebrow "I asked you first."

"And I asked you second." He smirked.

"Stuff."

"As did we."

They both fell silent. It was too early to play games and it also wasn't the time. Talking again like they used to made it seem for that moment that nothing had changed. It was just like their pointless conversations they had in Draco's bed the next morning, right before classes; it was like a habit. And they were both silently grateful that they were that comfortable with each other. This way, they didn't have to talk about anything that was important… it's like they escaped reality and made it acceptable that they completely withheld their conversation on the kiss. Life at the moment was okay…

And then came Aleesa.

"Good morning everyone!" she said cheerfully, though it was clear something was behind that plastered smile. Her high pitched welcome woke Blaise up, and seeing her he rolled his eyes and threw a pillow over his ears.

"I can't believe you all were here! I was looking everywhere for you. Why weren't you people at home?"

"It got late last night and we fell asleep." answered Draco.

"Ooooh. Okay. Well…I'm leaving in a few minutes so I wanted to say bye to everyone."

Aleesa walked quickly over to Blaise and took the pillow out of his hands and then whacked him with it.

"Good-BYE Blaise." she said annoyed.

"Uh-huh." He retorted.

"Ugh."

She then turned to Hermione and smiled lightly. "Hope to see you when I get back. I'd love to talk again sometime."

"Sure…"she replied a little confused. God it is way too early for her.

She then walked over to Draco, wrapped her arms around him and gave him a long, seductive kiss. When she pulled away, Draco almost gasped from loss of oxygen and looked over at Hermione. She stood agape and looked at Aleesa who just stood there…grinning evilly. Draco definitely wasn't expecting that, and strangely, he did not want it. He felt like he just cheated on Hermione when he looked back at her, but what did she want him to do? He couldn't have pushed his fiancée away.

"Alright! That was fun. Bye love." She blew a kiss at him, grabbed her bags, and the apparated out of there. A heavy silence filled the room.

"Hermione I'm sorry about that-"

"Draco-do you want to go get some coffee?"

"Sure."

000000000000000000000000000

Hermione and Draco walked into a muggle coffee shop on a corner and took a seat near the window. It was 8:45 am on a Saturday morning, so they were the only ones in there. Both of them thought to put their kiss, Aleesa, the wedding, and their relationship on hold for one meal, and just be with each other. For a while they were laughing and talking like a couple or old friends would do; not paying attention to anyone but themselves. Too bad they weren't, because maybe then they would have seen Pansy walk by the window, who had just seen them. She ran down the street and found any empty bench. Reaching bellow her purse she pulled out a little book that looked like a mini notepad. In it, she had two columns, Draco and Hermione, and Blaise and Hermione. Under the first column, she put a tally mark and wrote 'Coffee Shop' next to it and closed it with a smile on her face.