Thanks to all my reviewers, they are all appreciated. Sorry for the wait in between chapters I was taking time to read updated fics.

Disclaimer: none of it's mine well except the plot

Chapter 5. A little help from Malfoy

"Mr Potter, what exactly were you thinking? First of all you destruct the Dungeons and then you deny it!" McGonagall had been shouting at Harry for the past 5 minutes. Taking advantage of his head of house catching her breath Harry butted in.

"Professor I swear I didn't do it. I was working out Quiddich schemes! I promise!"

"Potter, I hadn't finished, there is no reason to do that to a classroom, I know that you do not like Professor Snape, but what you did was unacceptable."

"Professor, do you honestly think that, had I done it, I would have been stupid enough to put it in my own cauldron?"

"I would've hoped not what with you being Head Boy, but the evidence has proved otherwise. Your cauldron clearly showed that it was the one that released the Firework Potter."

"But Professor I swear it wasn't me, I swear on being head boy!"

"Yes well you will be keeping your head boy position, but if you put another toe out of line you'll be out of there before you know it!"

"So, no punishment?" Harry was hopeful.

"Of course there is a punishment, don't be stupid you will receive a week of detention and 100 points from Gryffindor. My own house!" After a short pause she added "You may go now Potter but Professor Snape expects you in the dungeon at 8 o'clock sharp!"

Harry exited McGonagall's office and headed to Gryffindor Tower in search of Ron, Hermione and Ginny. As he walked through the portrait hole he couldn't hear anything. The sight that met his eyes astounded him, the common room was packed and as he walked across to his friends by the fire he became incredibly self conscious that everybody was looking at him.

"Um, what's going on?" Harry asked as quiet as he could. Hermione signalled that they should leave the common room. They went up to Ron's room.

"Oh thank god you're still here, what did McGonagall say?" Ginny rushed and threw herself into Harry's arms.

"Yeah I'm fine what was with everyone down there?"

"Oh everyone was really anxious about what McGonagall was going to do to you, we knew there would be a punishment but some people thought you were going to be expelled, pulling something like that Harry, you should know better, your head boy! Set an example!" Hermione took a deep breath.

"Hey don't you start accusing me of doing that to the Potions room, I had nothing to do with it! You should know Hermione, you were in our room!"

"Actually I wasn't, I was in the um library," Ginny gave Hermione a look that said 'Yeah, sure. We're talking later.'

"Oh yeah, well anyway I've got a week of detention with Snape and she took 100 points away. She was really angry. Oh and if I do anything wrong like even get a detention with someone else I'm not head boy anymore." Harry finished solemnly.

Ron hadn't been paying full attention up until this point. Just one detention and he would have someone back! The scheming started again.

"Anyway, I think I'm going to go and start on homework just to make sure I can't get a detention. No way am I losing this position to Malfoy."

"How'd you know it'd be Malfoy?" Ginny asked

"Guessed," Harry shrugged "He's smart and has power,"

The rest of the group had to agree. Soon after Hermione and Harry went back to their rooms, Harry to work Hermione to take a bath. On her way out of Ron's bedroom Hermione had whispered to Ginny that she would return later to talk about where she was last night. The night went on to be pretty uneventful until Harry went to his detention and Hermione went back to Gryffindor Tower to see Ginny.

Harry walked quickly down to his detention not wanting to be late for fear that Snape would use it against him. When he reached the dungeons Snape was waiting for him outside.

"Well, well Potter. Nasty little trick you pulled last night, and you thought you would get away with it? How did you manage to become Head Boy?" Snape's nose was as hooked as ever and spoke with great disgust as he addressed Harry. As much as Harry wanted to reply with a smartarse comeback he knew he had to bite his tongue if he wanted to survive his week of detentions. "Not so cunning are we Potter, anyway tonight you will be organizing the student store cupboard. It seems to have become very messy indeed over the past 10 years." Snape's lips curled into a smile as he said the last words. Harry knew that there was a high possibility that Snape had planted dead rats and the like in the cupboard just to get a small bit of revenge. "Get Moving Potter!"

The Potions master entered the potions room and walked up to his office. "I'll be able to hear you Potter so don't try anything. Expelliarmus. No magic Potter" and with that Snape swooped out of the room leaving Harry locked inside the potions room. Nothing much happened during his detention, he knew if he tried something he'd be punished severely. At 11 o'clock Snape re-entered the room from his study and growled at Harry that he should leave and come back tomorrow to continue.

Meanwhile…

As Hermione walked into the Tower she could hear shouts and screams, completely the opposite of what Harry heard earlier. McGonagall was standing in the middle of the common room having abuse shouted at her from all sides. People were clearly outraged that she even thought of taking away Harry's head boy badge. The head of their house was desperately trying to make herself heard. "I have to be fair Mr Finnegan, Yes of course I don't want to take away Mr Potter's head boy position Miss Patil," the comments went on and on.

Hermione tried looking for Ginny in amongst the crowd of Gryffindors but failed, she resorted to helping McGonagall out of the mass of students and returning to her bedroom, reluctant as she was.

Tomorrow was Saturday thought Hermione, the weekend, that should help the news blow over about Harry.

She was wrong. So wrong.

As Ron woke up the next morning thoughts of yesterday flooded his head. Oh and if I do anything wrong like even get a detention with someone else I'm not head boy anymore. That's what Harry had said. All he had to do was get Harry in a fight with Malfoy and he wasn't a loner anymore. WOOHOO! He was the only Gryffindor that was happy about Harry's situation. The Slytherins were also happy because they knew that if 'Potter' was knocked out of the top spot, it would be Malfoy who replaced him. And they thought it was funny to see 'the Golden Boy' in trouble so Malfoy and his cronies were out to create trouble as well. The odds were against Harry keeping his Head Boy position.

Ron and Ginny headed down to breakfast together and met Harry and Hermione in the Great Hall. Harry and Ginny greeted each other and Ron looked away pointedly. Ginny rolled her eyes at her brothers behaviour and Hermione laughed.

Draco spent all of breakfast staring straight at the 4 Gryffindors, hoping to annoy at least one of them enough to create a scene. Harry and Ron were discussing Quiddich loudly, arguing about some move or other. Ginny asked Hermione quietly so the boys would hear "Where were you last night?"

"I did come and try to find you, but when I went in people were ambushing McGonagall from all sides about Harry and I couldn't see you."

"Oh, I was there but I guess in that crowd it would have been hard to locate one person, even with my hair!" the two girls giggled quietly not wanting to attract the boys attention to their conversation. "Anyway, where were you Thursday night?"

"Oh, I was down by the lake, thinking." Hermione said sounding a little distant at the end."

"Mmhm about what?" Ginny asked with interest.

"Oh, no-one, I mean nothing." Hermione quickly corrected herself not wanting anyone to know she was thinking about a person.

"So it was boy," Ginny replied smirking. Hermione laughed at Ginny's ability to read her mind. "Who?"

"Well, I really shouldn't but ever since we had that discussion about him, I can't help but see what everyone sees."

"Who?" Ginny asked, this was getting really interesting. She nodded her head at Harry.

"Hell no, he's my best friend, besides he's yours."

"Good!" Then Ginny nodded her head at Ron. Hermione shook her head again.

"Who then, we haven't talked about any other boy's have we?" Hermione shook her head in the positive. "Oh dear lord it isn't Neville is it?" Ginny asked in a whispered shout.Hermione couldn't help but burst out in laughter. Harry and Ron looked over at the girls "What's going on with you two?" Ron asked bemused at Hermione's odd behaviour. "Oh nothing, Hermione just burst out in a fit of giggles, beats me why." This made Hermione laugh even more. "Come on Hermione, out we go. Fresh air should help!" Ginny pulled Hermione out through the entrance hall, 3 pairs of eyes were on them, a green pair, a blue pair (A/N: what colour are Ron's eyes?) and a grey pair.

As soon as Ginny got herself and Hermione through the doors she started laughing too. "Well done Hermione, what if they had heard?"

"Oh I don't know but they didn't, not when it's me or Quiddich!" The two girls walked down to the lake side and sat underneath the oak tree. Ginny still racking her brain about which other boy she had talked about with Hermione. After about 10 minutes of sitting there, the name popped into her mind.

"I kn-" Ginny started

"Hey, here's where you guys got to!" Harry and Ron and arrived. Ginny looked like she was about to explode. Hermione knew that she'd got it right by the way Ginny's eyes had widened before she started her sentence.

"Oh, hey you guys we were just about to come back up to the castle,"

On the way up to the castle Hermione gave Ginny a nod confirming Ginny's thoughts about Hermione's mystery guy. As they walked along the corridors back towards the Gryffindor common room, they heard a commotion going on around the corner. The Gryffindors sped up slightly and saw a large group of Slytherin's standing there.

"What's going on here then?" Harry tried to make his voice sound as important as possible. Malfoy emerged from the crowd and smirked as he saw Harry standing there. Great, here's where I become Head Boy.

"Oh look what we have here, Potty, Weasel, Weaselette and Mudblood!" A few select Slytherins had gathered around their leader seeing that something else was going on. Hermione and Ginny exchanged disgusted looks, knowing that Hermione had spent time thinking about him. "Bug off Malfoy, don't you have something better to be doing?"

"No, I have other things to be doing by all means, but better things no, the look on your face is priceless,"

"Drop it Malfoy, I'll take points away," Harry warned

"Oh no I'm so scared, off I run, Yeah right Potter,"

"Get Lost ferret boy," Ron contributed although this was really working out rather well for him.

"Hey weasel, how's life going, family still sleeping in the one room?"

"Malfoy, I'm going to give you 5 seconds to get out of here before I hex you into oblivion," Harry was pulling out his wand when everything went pear shaped.

"What's going on here then?" It was Snape. The scene through his eyes really didn't favour the Gryffindors. There were roughly 15 Slytherins and 4 Gryffindors. The Head students and their two friends. The Head Boy had his wand pointed directly at Malfoy. "Fighting Potter? I don't think so. Follow me."

"But Professor-"

"Do you really think I'm not going to report this?" Snape had cut across Harry. "Now come with me Potter and say goodbye to your badge," Malfoy laughed at his head of year and lead his house back to their common room having achieved their task.

Harry followed Snape helplessly and Hermione, Ron and Ginny made their way back to the Gryffindor Tower mainly complaining about Malfoy but each lost in a world of their own.

Hermione: I can't believe I ever thought of him in a good way, stupid little ferret. McGonagall better not make Malfoy head boy

Ginny: Hermione likes Malfoy? Wow didn't see that coming, he's such an ass though, oh well I know how appearance can get in the way of personality

Ron: This has got to get him put back in Gryffindor quarters, he said if he did one thing wrong, pulling his wand at Malfoy has gotta count. All it took was a little help from Malfoy

A/N Please please review!