Author's Note: When I look back to when I first started this story, and how my original plan was to make it a two- or three-parter, and now here I am submitting Chapter Ten, I realize…I have such a hard time making a long story short. Lol

Thanks again for all the reviews!

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. If I was, I would not be writing a romance fic between Hermione and Draco. ;)

"I don't get it," Ginny said the next morning, sitting down on the edge of Hermione's bed. "First, you hated Malfoy. And then you loved him for about two days. Now you hate him again? What happened?"

Hermione, who had flung herself facedown on her bed, groaned into her pillow. She couldn't believe Ginny hadn't been told by Ron or Harry about the love potion, and she wasn't really anxious to tell the story all over again. Regardless, she began to recount the story in its entirety, from Malfoy joining her at The Three Broomsticks, all the way up to her bouncing the ring he gave her off the back of his head. When she was done, Ginny looked shocked.

"Ugh! My stupid brother and his stupid friend! How could they not have told me about this? And here I was, thinking that you were sincerely in love with Malfoy! I was worried about your sanity, Mione. I really was! If I had known it was just a love potion, I wouldn't have been so concerned! But, oh! I was actually starting to accept the fact you loved him! You two actually look quite cute together! But now you tell me that it was all just a farce? I can't believe this." Ginny took a deep breath, and shook her head sadly.

Hermione sat up. "I hate this, Gin. I mean…under the influence of the love potion, those feelings I had for Malfoy were so real. And I was so happy. And now…I'm not." She buried her face in her hands.

"Aww, sweetie," Ginny said, giving her friend a gentle pat on the head. "There, there. The last person in the world you want to get upset over is Draco Malfoy. He is a git, Hermione. A stupid git, that's all. Don't give him a second thought." She stood up from the bed. "Now we'd better get going down to breakfast."

"You go on ahead without me," Hermione said sullenly. "I'll catch up with you."

Ginny smiled. "Okay. I'm going to go find Ronald and Harry and yell at them."

Hermione smiled back. "Good idea, Gin. Give them hell."

"They won't know what hit them!" Ginny said gleefully and bounced out of the dorm.

Hermione's smile faded when she suddenly remembered what today was: detention day. Not only was she going to have to suffer through a long day of stares, snickers and whispers behind her back, but then she would have to proceed with spending the entire evening with Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. There was absolutely nothing fair about this.

After about ten more minutes of feeling sorry for herself, Hermione headed down to the Great Hall. However, on her way there, she was intercepted by none other than Blaise Zabini.

"Hey, Granger," he said smoothly, quickly following into stride beside her.

Hermione looked at him suspiciously. "Zabini."

"Nice weather we've been having, huh?" he asked.

Hermione abruptly stopped. "Zabini, we both know you do not want to talk to me about the weather. So please…just tell me what's on your mind. And quickly – I'm supposed to be meeting my friends for breakfast."

Blaise grinned. "You're right. I don't want to talk about the weather. I guess all I wanted to say was…Wow, you've got a mean right hook."

As much as she wanted to, Hermione could not prevent herself from smiling at this. "Yes. Well, what can I say? It tends to be a lot more powerful when a Slytherin is on the receiving end of it."

Blaise beamed. "I like your attitude, Granger, you know that? You've got spunk. I like that. I like it a lot."

Hermione stopped smiling. Blaise Zabini had just complimented her not once, but twice…and in a row. Something was wrong here. Something just wasn't quite right…

Unfortunately, she could not question him on his motives. As soon as the words had escaped his mouth, he turned around and left. But not without gently touching her shoulder first. Okay…that was weird. She shuddered then; at first she thought it was because a Slytherin had just willingly touched her, but then she realized it was because she could sense someone was staring at her. Turning around, she saw just who was looking at her so intently: Malfoy. And he did not look happy. But he, too, departed quickly, leaving Hermione wondering what the hell had just happened.

Classes flew by quickly that day, probably because Hermione hadn't wanted them to ever end. If classes don't end, I don't have to serve detention.

But they ended on the dot, and were followed by the evening feast, which Hermione had decided to skip, due to lack of appetite. Plus, she didn't want to risk any more run-ins with her detention mates. She would have enough of them later on. Instead, she decided to hide out in the common room, writing in her diary about how much of a ferret Malfoy is. She was so enthralled with what she was writing (a list of all the reasons she hated Malfoy), that she didn't even notice that a small group of people was standing directly in front of her.

"Erm…Mione?" came a small voice. Hermione jumped slightly and looked up to see Harry, Ron and Ginny standing in front of her. Ron cleared his throat. "We have something to say."

Ginny nodded and pushed him forward, before leaving the room to give them all privacy. Hermione knew that whatever Ron was about to say, he was being forced by Ginny to say it. "I know we've said this a couple of times already, but Harry and I…we're…well, we're sorry."

Hermione arched an eyebrow. "Sorry?"

"Yeah," Harry said. "For, erm, getting involved with this whole you and Malfoy thing. When we gave you that anti-potion…I mean, I hope you don't think that…that we were trying to take away your happiness…"

"Oh, you two," she said, clicking her tongue. She stood up and pulled them both into a group hug. "I know all of this already. I know you were just trying to help me. I know you were worried about me. And honestly, I would have done the same thing if one of you had fallen in love with Pansy Parkinson."

"Ew," Ron muttered, completely disgusted with the idea. "I'd rather eat slugs. And that's saying a lot, because I've actually eaten slugs before, and they are rather repulsive."

Hermione giggled, remembering that mishap in second year when Ron had meant to curse Malfoy for calling Hermione a "mudblood", but instead, the curse had backfired on him, causing him to cough up one slug after the other. She sighed. That had been yet another time her best friends had attempted to protect her from Malfoy. And that was all they had been trying to do this time – to protect her from the evil bully who liked to call her names.

It was in this moment that she realized what a jerk she had been. At the same time she was acting all lovey-dovey with Draco Malfoy, she had treated her best friends – who had only had her best interest at heart – unfairly. She hugged them tighter. "I apologize too."

Harry and Ron both pulled away from her with surprised looks on their faces. "Apologize to us?" Harry said. "Why?"

"Because! I should have listened to you both, when all you were trying to do was make me come to my senses. Instead, I was rude to you. There was no excuse for that."

"No excuse?" Harry exclaimed. "You were under the influence of a love potion, Hermione! You can't get a better excuse than that!"

"But still…I feel bad. Do you guys forgive me?"

"There's nothing to forgive!" Ron practically shouted. The two boys hugged her again.

"Oh no," she groaned, glancing over their shoulders at her watch. "I have to leave for detention."

"You should skip it!" Ron said. "You'll get more detention time for it, but at least you wouldn't have to be spending it with the ferret and his hussy."

For a brief second, Hermione actually considered it. But, hating to break the rules, she quickly decided against it. "No, I'll just go and get it over with. And hope I come out of it alive."

"We'll wait up for you," said Harry, giving her hand a comforting squeeze.

Hermione smiled. "Thanks."

Taking a deep breath, she said solemnly, "See you later," and waved to them as she adisappeared through the portrait hole.

Harry and Ron smiled and waved back, but as soon as she was gone, both of their smiles faded.

"Am I the only one who's feeling kind of guilty here?" Ron asked.

Harry sighed. "No. I feel guilty, too."

"Hermione's too nice for her own good. Apologizing to us when she's done absolutely nothing wrong!"

"And in the meantime, it's you and I who are doing everything wrong."

"You mean…" Ron's voice trailed off.

Harry nodded. "Yes, I'm talking about what that barmaid told us. You know, about how the fact that the stupid love potion worked means that Hermione and Malfoy having genuine feelings for one another. Maybe we should tell Hermione…"

"Why?" Ron exploded. "So that she and Malfoy can get back together and live happily ever after? Because we both know that a relationship between Hermione and Malfoy is dangerous and…and…just wrong."

"I know!" Harry exclaimed. "But we are hiding this information from our best friend, Ron! You heard Ginny! She said Hermione is not as happy now as she was with Malfoy! Ron, I think…I think we should tell her."

"Bollocks to that!" Ron cried. "I say we don't tell her! What she does not know won't hurt her!"

"But -"

"But nothing, Harry! We don't tell her, and that's that! Do you really want to end up Malfoy's best man at their wedding?"

Harry received a sudden mental picture of himself and Ron in dress robes at Hermione's wedding, trying very hard to restrain themselves from strangling Malfoy. As soon as the vision ended, he cleared his throat and said, "You're right. I think it's best she never find out the truth."

Ron nodded. "Agreed."

The two boys shook hands, and then proceeded to talk about Quidditch…never knowing that a certain redheaded girl named Ginny Weasley had been listening the whole time by the stairs to the girls' dormitory…

Draco had witnessed the little bit of interaction between Hermione and Blaise in the hall earlier that morning, and he didn't know what to make of it. But more importantly, he didn't know what to make of the way he felt about seeing their interaction. Part of him was repulsed. Why would anyone, especially a Slytherin,want to court someone as horrid as Hermione Granger? It made no sense. Yet, another part of him wanted to strangle Blaise Zabini. But then, he wasn't exactly sure why. All he knew was that he'd had all these strange feelings all day, whenever he would see Blaise and Hermione in the hallway together. Which was surprisingly quite often. Between classes, Blaise would approach her and say something to her. Sometimes, she would smile; other times she would look bemused. But every time, Blaise walked away from her looking as if he'd just caught the Snitch. And every time, Draco wanted to wipe that smug grin off his face…

"Drakiekins!" An annoying voice broke him out of his reverie. He groaned.

"What do you want, Pansy?"

"Well, I was hoping you would walk me to detention! You know, since we're both going." She flopped down on the couch beside him.

Classes had been over for a couple of hours, and detention would be starting fairly soon. He really would have rather been doing anything other than spending a whole evening with Pansy Parkinson and Hermione Granger.

"Sure, Pans," he said through clenched teeth.

"Yipee!" she squealed with glee, clapping her hands together. "Oh, detention is going to be so great! It will just be me and you…and the bushy-haired mudblood, of course. But at least we will have each other." She batted her eyelashes at him.

Suddenly, Draco felt ill. He stood up abruptly and said, "I'm leaving now. If you want to walk with me to detention, I suggest you follow me." Without looking at her once, he headed for the portrait hole. With any luck, Pansy would not be able to keep up with him, and lose her way to detention. And if he were the luckiest bloke in the world, Hermione Granger would get lost on the way too.

Somehow, though, he figured neither would have trouble finding their way.

Blaise practically skipped down the hallway. He was headed for detention, and he couldn't be more thrilled about it. Lost in his own little world, he almost missed the flash of red that had just sped by him. Almost.

He turned to see Ginny walking briskly down the hallway. Before he knew what he was doing, he called out, "Hey! Hey…" He grasped his memory, trying for the life of him to remember her name, but finally settled on just calling her, "You."

Ginny slowly came to a stop, not knowing for sure if Blaise Zabini had just spoken to her. Turning around and seeing him pointing his finger at her told her that he, in fact, was talking to her. "My name's Ginny," she informed him.

Blaise looked as though he couldn't care less. "Wonderful. Say…you're good friends with Granger, aren't you?"

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him. "Yeah…what of it?"

"Well, I was just wondering - if someone happened to be interested in her, how would he go about asking her ou -"

"Look," Ginny said, cutting him off. "I don't mean to be rude, but I just found out something very interesting, and I don't really think I should be giving you information about my best friend." With that, she turned back around and resumed walking briskly.

"Wait! Jenny!" Blaise called after her.

Ginny stopped again. "It's Ginny."

Blaise snorted. "As if it matters." He took a step toward her. "This thing you just found out…it wouldn't have anything to do with Granger and Malfoy, would it?"

Ginny's jaw dropped slightly. "As a matter of fact, yes. How did you know?"

Blaise gave her a cocky smile. "I'm really smart. That, and I'm a hell of a good guesser. Now tell me what's up."

"You expect me to tell you?" Ginny said incredulously, folding her arms across her chest. She glanced him over and said, "You're Malfoy's best friend, aren't you?"

Blaise held up his arms. "Guilty as charged."

Ginny giggled, but quickly realized that she shouldn't be giggling at something a Slytherin said, so she stopped. "Well…" Her eyes darted around the hallway, making sure they were alone. "I overheard a conversation my brother and Harry were having. About Hermione and Malfoy. You know most of the story, don't you? I mean, the real story?"

"Sure," Blaise said. "Draco played a prank on Granger."

"Wrong," Ginny said, shaking her head. "Somebody slipped them a love potion. And the reason why they hate each other again is because Harry and Ron found the anti-potion and fed it to them."

Blaise was taken aback. Aha! So it hadn't been a joke after all! He knew something was amiss this whole time, and now this Jenny girl had confirmed it. "Well isn't that interesting…"

"Mmhmm," Ginny agreed. "But that's not all."

"Oooh, there's more?"

"Yes. But…" She looked at him warily. "I don't think I should tell you. I mean, I'm not even supposed to know. Let alone someone I can't trust."

"Aw, Janie, you can trust me. Cross my heart." He drew an invisible X over his chest with his finger.

She should have known better, but she was just dying to tell someone. Before she could stop herself, she said, "According to what I overheard, that love potion that was given to our dear friends…somehow, the fact that it worked means that they actually do like each other. I don't really know what that means, or why it means it. All I know is that our best friends are in love with each other, and they're both in a huge state of denial."

Slowly, a grin began to form on Blaise's face until it was physically impossible to grin anymore. So…Draco likes Granger. Granger likes Draco. And neither wants to admit it. And here he was starting to think maybe his plan would turn out to be futile, when in fact it was going to be a lot more effective than he had ever imagined.

Oh, he couldn't wait to get to detention.