Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for all of the reviews! Both Caliko and justafan had some very good suggestions as to what I should have happen in this chapter, and they were fairly similar to what I had already had in mind. However, their suggestions did help me along a bit, so thank you! Also, thank you to Muses' Advocate for your review – it's really nice to know that a non-Hermione/Draco shipper is actually reading this story. :) And to answer your question – yes, this really is my first stab at this. ;)

Ronald Weasley's face had turned three different shades of red, one light shade of purple, and an attractive shade of blue before he finally realized he had stopped breathing. This realization then resulted in him taking one big breath before sputtering, "HermionewhatareyoudoingwhythebloodyhellareyoukissingMalfoyareyouinsane!"

Not understanding a word he had said, Hermione just blinked and shifted her gaze to Harry, who stood perfectly still, looking as though he had just been petrified.

Well, this certainly wasn't what she had expected.

"Hermione," Harry croaked. "Bloody hell…kissing…ferret…what…why…"

Draco, clearly amused, tilted his head and stared at Harry. "You certainly do have a way with words, Potter."

Harry blinked as though Draco's words had pulled him out of his daze. He glared at the blonde boy in front of him. "What the hell have you done to her?" he demanded.

Draco grinned. "Nothing." He glanced at Hermione and winked. "Yet."

At his words, Hermione blushed, and Ron lunged himself at Draco, but was quickly pulled away by Harry. "Ron, we can't kill him until after he tells us what he's done to Mione."

"He hasn't done anything to me!" Hermione said, shaking her head.

Draco nodded in agreement, casually slipping an arm around her waist. "She's right, I haven't. I would never do anything to hurt Hermione," he said sincerely.

Hearing Draco speak so sweetly about Hermione, and seeing him willingly touch her was enough to convince Harry that this was all just a bad dream. Malfoy would never be nice to a "mudblood". Never. So yeah. That's what this is. A nightmare. Harry glanced down at himself, half-expecting to see that he was naked, making this horrifying nightmare complete. But he was still fully clothed. And deep down, he knew this was no nightmare. At least, not in the literal sense.

"Harry. Ron. Draco and I…we…" Hermione glanced up at Draco and smiled. "We're in love, apparently."

"YOU'RE IN WHAT?" yelled Ron. He was turning purple again. "HERMIONEYOUHAVEGONECOMPLETELYMADTHISISMALFOYWEARETALKINGABOUTHERE!"

"Cripes, Weasley," Draco drawled. "What is wrong with you?"

"What is wrong with me? What is wrong with ME? I want to know what is wrong with Hermione! I want to know why she was willingly kissing you, and I want to know why you have your arm around her right now!"

"Are you hard of hearing, you stupid git? Hermione has already told you that she and I are in love. Does that answer your questions?"

Ron opened his mouth to yell some more, but Harry grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the two lovebirds. Once they were out of earshot of Hermione and Draco, Harry whispered, "Something is terribly wrong."

"Gee, you think?" Ron rolled his eyes.

"We need to do something," Harry continued. "Malfoy has obviously put some sort of sick love spell on Hermione. I don't know what kind of game he thinks he is playing, but we have to end it. Right now."

Ron nodded. "Sounds like a bloody wonderful idea, Harry. But how do you suppose we do that? Mione is practically attached to him right now." He glanced over to see his best friend once again making out with his worst enemy. He was suddenly overcome with a wave of nausea.

Harry was looking slightly ill himself. "We'll have to use magic."

"Use magic? On Hermione?" Ron narrowed his eyes. "She would never forgive us."

"Oh please, Ron. Once she realizes what Malfoy has done to her, the fact that we used magic on her will be the least of her worries."

"This is true." Ron sighed. He pulled out his wand, knowing what they were going to have to do. "You take Hermione. Leave the ferret to me."

Harry nodded. They walked back over to Hermione and Draco, who now seemed to be whispering sweet nothings to each other. Draco apparently said something funny, because Hermione was giggling like a schoolgirl. A strange feeling came over Harry as he watched her. He had never seen her this happy before, and she was absolutely glowing. For a brief moment, he felt bad about what he and Ron were about to do. But only for a brief moment. This is for her own good, he assured himself.

Hermione glanced up at her best friends with a huge grin. "I know this is a shock for you guys. But…you are happy for me…right?"

She sounded so hopeful. So hopeful, that Harry had to force himself to lie. "Yes, Mione. We're thrilled for you."

Hermione squealed with delight. She tore herself away from Draco and threw her arms around Harry. Over her shoulder, he nodded over to Ron. Ron took this as a signal, and gave Harry a slight nod back. While Hermione was distracted, he pulled out his wand and pointed it at Draco. "Stupefy!"

Draco didn't even know what hit him. As he crumpled to the ground, unconscious, Hermione gasped and she pushed away from Harry. "Draco!" she cried. She rushed over and knelt down beside him. She glared up at Ron. "Ronald Weasley! Why the hell did you do that?"

"I had to, Hermione" was his only answer.

Tears began to form in her eyes. So they weren't happy for her after all! Apparently, it was quite the opposite. "No, you didn't have to, Ron." She glanced over at Harry for support, and was shocked to see that he was pointing his wand directly at her. Her eyes widened in shock.

"Forgive me, Hermione," he whispered. He closed his eyes and yelled, "Stupefy!" When he opened them back up, he saw his best friend lying unconsciously on the ground next to Malfoy. "This should buy us some time," he mumbled.

"So what are we going to do now?" Ron asked.

Harry walked over to Hermione's body and gently picked her up in his arms. "We're going back to Hogwarts. I'll bring Hermione to the common room. You bring Malfoy and drop him off in front of Slytherin's common room. And tomorrow we will go to Dumbledore, and hopefully he'll be able to help us."

Ron gave Harry an incredulous look. "You expect me to carry that git all the way back to school?"

Harry shook his head. "You'll have to levitate him back, and pray that no one sees you."

"Oh yeah? And what if somebody does?"

"I dunno…" Harry thought for a few seconds. "If you get caught by someone, just tell them that you encountered Malfoy passed out drunk in Hogsmeade. They'll believe that. Just tell them that you wanted to ensure that he made it back to school safely."

"And you think they will believe that?" Ron said with a snicker.

"They'll have to," Harry said. He glanced down at the unconscious girl in his arms. "Don't worry Hermione. We'll find out what that prat did to you, and we will make him pay. I promise."

Hermione moaned as she began to wake up from her dreamless sleep. A hand gently placed itself over hers, and she smiled. "Draco?"

Slowly, she opened her eyes, expecting to see the sexy Slytherin hunk hovered over her. Instead, she saw…Harry. "Oh," she mumbled, not bothering to hide her disappointment. "It's you."

Harry decided not to take offense. "Yes, Hermione. It's me."

"Harry, what's going on?" Carefully, she lifted herself up. She looked around and realized she was in the Gryffindor common room, and Harry had placed her on the couch. "Where's Draco? Is he okay?"

"He's fine," Harry assured her. "Hermione, I need you to listen to me. I think Malfoy has cast some sort of love spell on you."

"Why would he do that?" Hermione asked, genuinely perplexed. "I already love him"

Harry shook his head. He was getting a headache. "No, Hermione. You only think you love him because of the spell."

"What spell? Harry, I don't understand."

This is going to be a long evening, Harry thought to himself. Luckily, Ron chose this particular time to enter the portrait hole. "Ron, thank God you're here. I trust you disposed of Malfoy properly?"

"No, Harry, I didn't bury him alive. I just dropped him off in front of the Slytherin common room, like you told me to." He grinned at his own joke, much to Hermione's chagrin.

"Did anyone catch you?" Harry asked.

"Thankfully, no. When we arrived at the common room, I just sort of dropped him onto the floor. I'm sure either Crabbe or Goyle has found him by now. Or maybe even Parkinson -"

"Well," Hermione said suddenly, getting up. "It has been real fun chatting with the both of you. But if you will please excuse me, I'm going to go make sure Draco is okay."

Harry jumped up and stepped in front of Hermione, to prevent her from going any furthur. "I'm sorry, Mione, but we can't let you see Malfoy. Not until we get this whole mess straightened out."

Hermione gaped at him. "You're all mad! You can't expect to keep me here all night! You two will have to go to sleep eventually."

"She's right, Harry," Ron admitted.

"Not if we sleep in shifts," Harry said smugly.

"Oh, good idea!" said Ron.

"No!" cried Hermione. "Bad idea! I thought you guys were my friends!"

"We are your friends, Hermione," Harry said with a sigh. "That is why you just have to trust us when we tell you that you need to stay away from Malfoy. Trust me, when this is all over, you will be thanking us."

"Yeah, what he said," chimed in Ron. "Besides, I just left Malfoy a few minutes ago, and he was still sleeping like a baby, so going to see him would be pretty pointless. He's most likely knocked out for the rest of the evening."

Hermione frowned. This was so unfair.

"Okay," Harry said to Ron, "who wants to take the first watch?"

"I will," Ron volunteered. "I'm not all that tired anymore. I just know that if I close my eyes, all I will see are horrible visions of Hermione making out with a ferret."

"Hey!" Hermione cried out defensively. "You two don't need to baby-sit me, you know. You keep telling me to trust you. Why won't you trust me?"

"Because people under spells can't be trusted, Mione." Harry leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead. "We will get this all straightened out tomorrow, and we will get you back to normal."

Hermione was about to deny for the one-hundredth time that she was under any sort of spell, but figured she might as well save her breath. She knew he wouldn't believe her, anyway.

She flopped down on the couch after Harry left. Ron was staring at her from across the room, arms folded over his chest.

"You might as well go to bed too, Mione. Get your beauty rest."

Hermione glared at him. "Sod off, Ron. I'm not tired either." She grabbed some random book off the table in front of her and pretended to read it.

Ten minutes later, Ron was still watching her. I need to get out of here, she thought. She quickly tried to come up with a viable excuse to warrant wandering the halls late at night. I'll just tell him I left a very important book in the library. She knew that excuse wouldn't work, but she was more than willing to try it anyway. So, she stood up from the couch and began towards the portrait hole.

"Well, I'm just going to -"

"No, you're not," Ron said simply.

"But I have to -"

"No, you don't."

"Ronald Weasley!" she cried, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. "Why are you doing this to me? I finally find someone to love, who loves me back, and you are trying to take that away from me!"

"Hermione," Ron said softly, "you are not in love with Malfoy. And he is not in love with you."

"You don't have any idea what you are talking about, Ron. No idea whatsoever." She shook her head sadly. She decided she would give up trying to argue her case. She was tired after all, and she just wanted to get this night over with so that she could see Draco bright and early in the morning. She brushed past Ron, but then suddenly stopped and added, "I have never felt this happy before in my life, Ron. Never."

Ron frowned as he watched Hermione disappear from the common room. He and Harry had been so quick to assume that Malfoy had hexed Hermione, that he had never stopped and wondered…what if this wasn't some sort of a spell? What if their best friend had really fallen for the enemy? He shook his head in denial. No way. It would never happen. Malfoy is the scum of the earth, and Hermione knows it. And if she has forgotten, well then Harry and Ron were just going to have to remind her. They were not going to lose her to Draco Malfoy.

A/N: Hm…I know that this chapter didn't have too much of a Hermione/Draco thing going on, but I promise the next chapter will!