Author's Note: Guess what? There is no way I am going to reach my goal of finishing this story before the release of HBP!
Thanks for all the reviews, you guys. hugs for everyone
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. In fact, I do not even own this story at all. I stole it from a chimp's laptop. So if you've been reading this story all along and thinking, "This is so lame – a chimp could have written it!" Well then…you were right all along.
When Blaise entered the common room later that night, Draco was staring at the wall. Entertaining the possibility that there was something interesting about the wall that only Draco could see, Blaise decided not to question him about it. Instead, he said, "Ouch, man. You've got a bruise on your head the size of England."
Turning his attention away from the wall, Draco responded with a death glare aimed at Blaise.
"Whoa," Blaise said, raising his arms in defense. "Why do I suddenly feel like you want to kill me?"
Draco softened his expression a bit. "I don't want to kill you," he mumbled. "I just want to hurt you a little."
"What?" Blaise said, leaning in closer.
"Nothing." Draco sighed and buried his head in his hands. One second later, though, he raised his head and said, "No, wait, I said I want to hurt you a little."
Blaise snorted and took a seat on the couch across from him. "Yeah, that's what I thought I had heard. And why do you want to hurt me so badly?"
"Because! You left during Quidditch practice to go make out with Granger. If snogging is more important to you than Quidditch, then why don't you just quit the team?"
Blaise narrowed his eyes at him. "So what bothers you more about that? The fact I took a two-minute break from practice, or the fact that I took a two-minute break to kiss Granger?"
"Forget it," Draco said. He stood up from the couch and swayed a little.
"Hey," Blaise said, quickly standing to help steady his friend. "Are you okay? What did Madame Pomfrey say about your injury?"
"She didn't say anything," Draco said lightly. "She wasn't even around when we got there. Granger iced it, that's all." He decided to leave out the part about kissing her afterwards.
Blaise actually looked a little concerned. "Well that was a nasty blow you received. You really need to get Pomfrey to look at it. We don't want to take any chances of you going into a coma."
Draco scoffed. "You sound just like Granger."
"Granger's a smart girl," Blaise said. And as an afterthought, he added, "Good kisser, too." He smiled and pretended not to notice the scowl Draco had given him.
"Now let's get you up to the hospital wing."
After dropping Draco off with Madame Pomfrey, Blaise had the sudden urge to find Hermione. He hadn't seen or spoken to her since their little kiss out on the Quidditch field, and he either wanted to talk to her about it, or maybe even pick up where they'd left off. So, he headed for the one place he knew she would be on a Saturday night: the library.
Sure enough, that is exactly where he found her. Only Granger would forego hanging out with her friends on a Saturday night to chill with some ancient, dusty books. She was sitting at a table over in the far corner, reading a book. It must not have been a very interesting one, though, because it appeared as though she was just staring blankly at the pages.
"Lost in a good book?" he said.
Hermione jumped at the sound of his voice, most likely not having expected anyone besides her to enter the library that late at night. "Blaise!" she exclaimed with a slight smile. "You scared me."
"I apologize," he said, pulling out a chair on the opposite side of the table and taking a seat. "What are you reading?" he asked, motioning to the book that lay out before her.
"Um…" She closed it to see what the title was. "Potions Through the Ages – A Guide to Nearly Every Potion Ever Made."
"Sounds fascinating. Reading about any good love potions?" Blaise grinned.
Hermione blushed and shoved the book aside. "Just doing some research," she mumbled. She stared down at her hands. "So…um…have you seen Malfoy yet?"
"Yup," Blaise replied, leaning back in his chair. "Just dropped him off in the hospital wing."
Hermione's eyes widened. "What's wrong?" she asked, most likely trying to hide the fact that she was worried.
Blaise shrugged. "He told me that he hadn't seen Madame Pomfrey, and I thought he should really get his head checked out, just to be on the safe side." He raised an eyebrow. "So if you two weren't busy having Draco's injury looked at, then what exactly were you two doing?"
Hermione blushed even harder this time, and cleared her throat. "Hm. Would you look at the time?" she said, beginning to gather up her things. "It's past my bedtime."
She started to get up from her chair, but Blaise stopped her by grabbing her wrist. "Wait," he said softly. "I came here to talk to you."
"Talk?" Hermione said nervously. "About what?"
"Oh, I don't know," Blaise replied. "I thought maybe we could talk about the weather…about how we can't seem to get a decent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher…about how annoying Pansy is…and then, if we have any time left, I thought maybe we could talk about how you kissed me earlier."
Hermione gulped. "Oh. You wanted to talk about that?"
"Yeah, Granger, I wanted to talk about that." Blaise sighed. Looking at Hermione right now, he realized that she was actually quite pretty…which was going to make this even harder for him to say. "Look, Granger, I like you. Probably a little more than I should, given the circumstances. But…I know why you kissed me earlier. You did it to make Draco jealous. And I have to say, I think it worked."
Hermione's heart skipped a beat. "What makes you say that?"
"Well, for one, Draco seems to hate my guts more than ever now." He chuckled. "Our friendship was pretty solid until you came into our lives."
Hermione blushed and opened her mouth to apologize, but Blaise continued before she could speak. "I'm joking," he said. "Well, actually, I'm not entirely joking. But either way, you don't have to apologize. It's Draco's fault for being such an ignorant bloke. And I suppose it's my fault as well, for trying to get him all riled up. He'll get over it. But let me ask you…on the Quidditch field…when you kissed me…did you…you know, feel anything? Or was it strictly business?"
He looked at her almost shyly, and Hermione couldn't help but think it was kind of cute. The second-most popular Slytherin (Draco being first, of course) at Hogwarts was asking the mudblood bookworm if she'd felt anything from the kiss they'd shared…as if maybe he was hoping she would say yes. And while her answer wasn't necessarily yes, it certainly wasn't no, either.
"It was a nice kiss, Blaise," she admitted, with a small smile.
Blaise grinned triumphantly. "Well, of course it was. I don't give bad kisses, Granger." He gazed into her eyes for a moment before saying softly, "But I'm not Draco, am I?"
"Hmm?" Hermione said, feigning confusion.
Blaise got up from his chair and walked around the table to take a seat next to Hermione. "Don't play dumb, Granger. I know you've got a thing for Draco. You can admit it to me – I won't tell anyone."
"I don't -" Hermione tried to protest, but was cut off by Blaise, who placed a hand on her shoulder and widened his grin.
"You do," he teased. "You totally do. It's so obvious. You're in love with Draco Malfoy."
Hermione blushed furiously. "Shh!" she hissed. "I am not in love with Malfoy."
"Yes, you are! You are, you are, you are," Blaise continued in a singsong voice.
"Shut up," she demanded, rolling her eyes.
"Fine," Blaise said. "I will shut up under one condition."
"Oh yeah?" Hermione said, raising an eyebrow. "And what's that?"
Blaise's smile faded slightly. He leaned in closer to her. "You give me one for the road," he said softly.
Before Hermione could inquire as to what he meant by that, he captured her lips with his own, picking up where they had left off earlier on the Quidditch field.
Hermione hated to admit that she somewhat enjoyed kissing Blaise. The only person she had to compare him to was Draco, but she could tell he was skilled and knew what he was doing. However, as much as she didn't mind kissing him, she just couldn't bring herself to feel anything. His kisses were sweet and nice…but they didn't make her feel all weak in the knees like Draco's.
Once again, their kiss was interrupted; this time, by the sound of the library door slamming shut. They instinctively jumped apart.
"What was that?" Hermione asked, looking toward the entrance to the library. Nobody was there.
"That was a kiss, Granger," Blaise said teasingly.
"I know that, Zabini. I was talking about the noise."
"And I knew that, Granger." Blaise chuckled. "It was probably just Peeves wrecking havoc or something."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Hermione sighed. Avoiding Blaise's gaze, she said, "Look…Blaise…I…"
"No need to say anything, Granger," Blaise said. He stood up from the table. "I know where your true feelings lie, and they are nowhere near me. That's okay – I accept that. I just…you know…"
"One for the road," Hermione said.
"You got it." He smiled and winked. "Well, I think I'll get going now. I'm glad we had this talk."
Hermione chuckled softly. "Goodnight, Blaise."
"Goodnight, Hermione." With that, Blaise made his exit, leaving Hermione alone to ponder.
She sighed and sat back in her chair. What she wanted to know was, if it was so obvious that she was in love with Draco…then why hadn't she noticed it yet?
Ten Minutes Earlier…
Draco emerged from the hospital wing completely cured. Madame Pomfrey had taken one look at him and scolded him for not having come in sooner. Under normal circumstances, he would have said something to the fact that he had come in sooner, and that she hadn't been there, like she should have been…and that his father could have her fired for that. But he really wasn't in the mood to be a jerk anymore tonight. Besides, he had a lot on his mind.
Like, for instance, Granger. Oh, how he hated it when she took up residence in his mind. Such a waste of thought. Yet, sometimes she was impossible to get out. He could understand why she was tonight. Probably had something to do with the fact that he had nearly snogged her brains out just a short while ago in the hospital wing. Ugh. Just thinking about it made him queasy. He needed to get something else on his mind; something that had absolutely nothing to do with the mudblood.
The library. He hadn't been to the library in a while. Perhaps he could find a good book to read. Oh, who was he kidding? He didn't want to read a book. Odds were good that Granger was there, and he knew it. So why did he suddenly want to go so bad? To tease her? Taunt her? Remind her of how bad a kisser she is? Draco smiled at the thought. Yes, that is exactly why he wanted to see Granger. He wanted to make her feel bad. Yes, that was the only reason. He certainly didn't want to see her because he couldn't get that kiss out of his mind! No way! That was not the reason at all!
Actually, that was the real reason, but there was no way he was ever going to admit that to anyone, not even to himself. And certainly not Granger, of all people.
So, instead of heading back to the common room, Draco headed straight for the library. On the way, he began to construct the perfect insults inside his head, to use on Granger. Some of them were pretty good, and he couldn't wait to use them on her. Of course, they all included the words "mudblood", "bushy-haired", "bookworm" and "insufferable know-it-all". In other words, they were not original at all. But that didn't matter to Draco, just so long as he could make her cry…or at least glare at him intensely.
By the time Draco had arrived at the library, he was feeling pretty optimistic. He really hoped that she was there, or else all this planning would go to waste. But of course she would be there. After all, it was a Saturday night, and if there was one place Granger loved to be on a Saturday night, it was the library.
Quietly, he pushed open the door. He had never really liked the library much during the day, but he liked it even less during the evening. For one thing, it was a lot darker, therefore not as nice for reading. Also, since nobody with even half a social life even thought to go to the library this late at night, it was always so empty and eerily quiet. At least, that's what Draco figured. He didn't really know for a fact, since he'd never made it a habit to hang out at the library…ever.
Sure enough, he was right, though. What he saw when the door opened was dim light and a lack of people. Except, of course, for Granger. Right away, Draco spotted her at a table over in the far corner. But she wasn't alone. Draco narrowed his eyes. Zabini was with her.
They were too far away to be able to hear their conversation, and he certainly did not want to move ahead any further, for fear that they might see him. So, he stood there watching them; annoyance starting to build up inside of him.
Zabini was leaning across the table, grinning at her and saying something. Whatever it was, Draco figured it was flirtatious. Stupid git. He'd flirt with just about anyone if he thought they'd fall for it. And judging from Granger's embarrassed expression, Draco figured she was about to break her neck when she landed on the ground. He mumbled a bad word under his breath.
This was a stupid idea, he decided. Surely there was something more entertaining to do on a Saturday night than stand there and watch his best friend put the moves on a mudblood. Perhaps he could go bang his head against the wall fifty times. That might be more fun. He took a step back, closer to the exit, but stopped when he saw Zabini get out of his chair and walk around the table. Oh hell. What was he doing now? He watched as Blaise put his hand on Granger's shoulder…as he leaned in closer and spoke to her…as he…kissed her.
Draco's breath caught in his throat. Zabini had just kissed Granger, and Granger was not pulling away. Was she? Draco squinted to see better. No – she wasn't pulling away. Rather, she was kissing him back! This was too much for Draco to handle. Really, watching purebloods make out with mudbloods was disgusting. Quickly, he turned on his heel, went out the door, and slammed it rather loudly (on accident of course, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was angry, because he wasn't at all).
"Stupid mudblood bitch," he muttered as he began his brisk walk to the Slytherin common room. "Filthy, stupid, whorish mudblood. Making out with a Slytherin. And in the library, no less. What would Scarhead and the Weasel say about that? They think you're so sweet and innocent. But no – you're just a filthy little mudblood whore, that's what you are." He continued to talk to himself, muttering insult after insult, directed at both Hermione and Blaise.
He could not believe he had just witnessed them…kissing. Granted, it shouldn't have come as a surprise, given the fact that he had just seen them kiss earlier. But…that was before Draco kissed her in the hospital wing. Wait…no…he didn't kiss her. It was the other way around. Or, well, okay, they actually had kissed each other at the same time. And kissed. And kissed. And kissed. And then…Oh Merlin. Draco suddenly found himself wanting to hit a wall with his fist. Or, Zabini's face. Either one would suffice, really.
Draco was too caught up in his anger to notice a group of Slytherin girls walking toward him, whispering and giggling amongst themselves, and he bumped right into them.
"Oh!" cried out the girl who'd received most of the bump. She stumbled a bit, but quickly regained her composer, seeing that it was Draco Malfoy who'd run into her. She flashed her pearly whites and said sweetly, "Pardon me!"
"Sorry," Draco mumbled. He glanced up at the girl. He recognized her as being one of the Fifth Years. Cute girl. Nice figure. Kind of dumb. Draco's type.
"Oh, don't apologize," the girl said. She held out her hand. "My name is Sadie."
Draco reluctantly took her hand and shook it. "I'm -"
"Draco Malfoy!" Sadie said enthusiastically. "Yeah, I know who you are. All the girls in this school know who you are." Her group of friends giggled.
A gaggle of giggling schoolgirls was the last thing Draco's temper needed right now. However, something about Sadie had a soothing effect on his mood. Perhaps it was her sparkling blue eyes, or the fact that a girl was acting interested in him instead making out with Zabini. Granger making out with Zabini. Damn. He couldn't get that picture out of his head.
"Are you okay?" Sadie asked. "You look…mad. Are you mad at us? We're sorry we bumped into you. We'll watch where we're going next time."
"No," Draco said quickly. "I'm not mad. I just…" His voice trailed off as he gazed into Sadie's blue orbs. Merlin, she was pretty. Certainly a lot prettier than Granger. And hotter, too. And overall better. Suddenly, he grinned. "Say, Sadie, what are you doing tomorrow?"
Sadie's eyes lit up. "Tomorrow?" she squeaked. "N-nothing! Why?"
Draco took a step closer to her. "I was thinking maybe you and I could take a trip down to Hogsmeade. Maybe get a drink. Get to know each other better. You know." He winked.
The girl looked like she was going to pass out from sheer joy. "Oh wow," she breathed. "Yes! Yes, absolutely! I would love to go to Hogsmeade with you!"
"Great," Draco said, giving her his most charming grin. "I'll meet you by the Great Hall around noon. Be there."
"I will!" Sadie exclaimed, jumping up and down.
As soon as Draco walked away, he could hear her friends all start to talk excitedly at once. He rolled his eyes. Girls.
A minute later, Draco found himself entering the common room. Nobody was there, not even Pansy. That was just as well - he wasn't looking forward to being alone with her; she would probably kill him. With a big sigh, he plopped down on the couch. He had just made a date with an underclassman that he didn't even know. From what he could tell, she was attractive, but probably gave Pansy a run for her money in the Lack of a Decent Personality category. So why had he done it? He normally didn't go asking girls out at random.
Granger. That's why. He admitted that he'd had a momentary lapse in judgment, earlier in the hospital wing. For one brief moment, he'd thought maybe…just maybe…there could have been some form of feelings there for her. But you know, he was glad he saw her and Blaise kissing in the library. It made him realize what a dolt he was being. Having feelings for Granger? That was just wrong and immoral and…probably illegal. He was actually glad she wanted to make out with Blaise. Really, he had been afraid that she would think their little kiss meant that he wanted to pursue a relationship with her (which he most certainly didn't). He wasn't sure, but he had a feeling that a lovelorn Granger would be hard to get rid of – even more so than Pansy.
Stop thinking of Granger, he ordered himself. So that's exactly what he did. Instead, he thought of that Fifth Year, what's-her-name, and smiled. He actually couldn't wait for their date tomorrow. He was pretty sure this girl was exactly what he needed to put this whole love potion fiasco - and Granger - behind him.
Author's Note #2: You know…I was planning on ending the story this chapter. But then I thought, how could I possibly drag this story out as long as I can? And then I came up with the answer: add another cliché to the story (new girl for Draco). I hope none of you are frustrated that yet another obstacle has gotten in their way. I guarantee that by Chapter Fifty, they will be happily together (just kidding – Chapter Forty-Nine). :D