Hahaha ok yeah I know that last one sucked, sorry guys… that's a 'my bad'. :-) Ok well I hope this one's better, I'm working extra hard on it. Of course… that might make it worse. Maybe I should stop thinking so hard…

Disclaimer: if you think I own anything more than the plot, you are sadly mistaken. Along with me… so don't feel too bad.

Hermione was sick of crying. That's all she had been doing in her spare time the last few days, to be perfectly honest. She knew how she felt about Draco, and she knew that he must have some sort of feelings for her too, with the way he kept throwing her around and all. She was almost positive that people didn't just do that.

Of course, she reminded herself, it is Draco.

She leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. What was the point, honestly? If all he was going to do was mess around with her head, why did she even care? He wouldn't talk to her about it, which must mean he was hiding something from her.

Maybe it was about his father. She could imagine how upset he would be… Draco had always been such a pussy when it came to his father. (a/n: haha I give total credit to DrAcO'sblackrose for that… sorry, I couldn't resist, it was just classic when you said it! And so true!)

While she was lost in thought, Ron walked up to her with a huge grin on his face. Noticing him only when he stood directly in front of her, Hermione smiled up at him, quickly brushing away a tiny tear.

"Hey you," she said, reaching out her hand so he would help her up. He did so, and pulled her into a hug.

"What's the matter, love?" he asked into her hair.

"I don't want to talk about it," Hermione answered, pulling away. "Let's go do something… anything… just, let's get out of the castle."

"Whatever you say, Hermione darling," he smiled and held out his arm to her. She took it and smiled up at him gratefully.

Not long afterwards the two of them were curled up together by the lake. Ron had arranged for the house elves to bring them a picnic basket full of Hermione's favorite foods. She had almost burst into tears at the sight of it, and for a moment Ron was quite baffled as to what he had done wrong.

"Oh Ron, it's beautiful," Hermione sniffled. She latched onto Ron, almost knocking him over. He laughed softly and hugged her close.

"Come on, let's sit down," he said, stroking her hair gently. The two of them leaned up against the tree, Hermione's head resting on Ron's firm chest.

"This was so sweet of you, Ron," Hermione said quietly. "But… how did you know I would need you right then?"

Ron flushed a bright scarlet, and was very glad that Hermione wasn't looking at him. "I, er…" he mumbled. "I guess it was just instinct."

"Well whatever it was, I'm glad you planned this," she said, snuggling up closer to him.

Ron sighed to himself, feeling slightly guilty about what he was doing. But was it really that wrong? He was in love with Hermione, he always had been, so what was so wrong with trying to show her that? It wasn't like he was going to ditch her all the time like Draco was doing. He was her friend, and he cared about her.

Of course he knew Draco cared about her too… words like "I love you" don't just come out of the git's mouth every day. In Ron's opinion though, Draco had a terrible way of showing his love. Sure, throwing a girl against a wall implies passion, but the moment you walk away with some other girl, or start insulting her again, you lose everything you'd gained.

Ron didn't have that to worry about. He and Hermione had plenty of arguments during their friendship but they both knew that they would make it through. There was a special bond between them that Hermione and Draco would never have. That thought comforted him immensely, although he did realize that things don't always work out the way a person plans or expects.

But he was damned well going to try and make it go his way.

Which is why he had arranged the picnic in the first place. It had been simple good luck on his part that Hermione was actually in the mood to get away from everyone else. He was, of course, sorry that she was sad, and extremely angry at Draco for making her upset, but he had to admit it was beneficial to him.

Ron was planning on taking it slow with Hermione. There would be no wall throwing in his near future. Or… that was the plan, anyway. He did have to admit that being so close to Hermione was intoxicating, and it was taking a lot out of him to keep himself from snogging her right there and then.

While the two of them were enjoying each other's company by the lake, our attractive Draco Malfoy was having his own little internal conflict in his room. He lay sprawled out on his bed staring up at the ceiling. (a/n: hottttttttt who doesn't just want to jump on top of him when he's lying there all vulnerable? I know I would love to… hehe… ok on with the story)

He was angry at himself for letting what his father would think bother him. It wasn't any of his father's business, to be perfectly honest. All of this pureblood bullshit was really starting to piss him off. Yes, wonderful, everyone in his family was a witch or wizard, never married a muggle… good for bloody them, but what the hell did that have to do with him?

Love was a choice, and he refused to let blood influence his affection for Hermione. Hermione was the most talented witch he had ever met. She was beautiful and charming, and he had always known it, regardless of how hard he had tried to fight it.

He decided he must go and tell her how he felt, and apologize for being an asshole. He had just reached the door when he remembered his wand, which he had set by the window earlier. He snatched it up and happened to glance outside, and the sight he saw made him go straight back to bed again.

Hermione and Ron, cuddled up together by the lake. That was not something he was going to interfere with. But he would most certainly be having a long talk with the Weasel later that evening.

He smirked to himself. Yes… he would enjoy a nice heart-to-heart with the filthy wizard.

Pansy reclined in a plush chair in the Slytherin common room. She was not in the mood for the sexual comments she was receiving from the Slytherin males around her. She rolled her eyes and waved one of them away as he had started making his way over. Looking only slightly dejected, he shrugged and walked over to Millicent Bulstrode instead.

What in the name of hell was Draco thinking, turning her down because of a filthy mudblood? That was the most insulting thing he had ever done, and she was not happy. No one turned Pansy down… it just didn't happen. Men fawned over her, and it was extremely unlike her to have tried seducing Draco in the first place.

In the past it had always been him coming to her for pleasure, but lately it had been different. She had always known that Draco had some sort of odd fascination with Granger but until recently she had been able to keep his mind off of her. She supposed she had been slacking off a bit lately, taking for granted that he would always come to her, being as she was the most eligible and sought after pureblood at Hogwarts. She shook her head sadly. Honestly, she couldn't leave him alone for an instant…

Harry, while all of this was going on, sat alone in the common room, deciding that he was quite sick of all the drama. It was time for something other than chaos to happen. There were too many love triangles… Ron, Hermione, and Draco… and of course Pansy, Draco, and Hermione… it was just too much.

What, he wondered, could he do to lighten the situation up a bit? Finally he decided that the only solution was a good old-fashioned party. Add a dash of firewhiskey and the Weasley twins and any situation will improve. Harry smiled at his own brilliance and owled Fred and George at once, demanding they find a way into Hogwarts to join him and the other Gryffindors for a little late night chaos.

They were all there when Hermione and Ron returned from their lakeside picnic, which had lasted the entire day. They seemed to have lost track of time, and it was slightly past curfew when they returned to the common room which was now packed with extremely drunk Gryffindors, and even more drunk former Gryffindors, including Fred, George, Oliver Wood, and Lee Jordan.

"Wow," Ron said in amazement as he looked at the insanity around him. "What the hell happened?"

Fred and George had charmed a stage into the middle of the common room and were now singing, very drunkenly, "We Belong Together" by Mariah Carey, much to the amusement of the crowd of students around them. Lee threw a bowl of chocolate pudding at the twins as they hit one of the higher notes, however he was so drunk that the pudding completely missed Fred and George and hit Hermione instead.

"Oh that's wonderful," Hermione said, scraping some off her arm with a finger and licking it clean. "Pudding. Fantastic. This matches my robes so well."

Ron tried to hold back his laughter with no luck at all. He let out a huge snort and Hermione glared at him.

"Think it's funny, do you?" she asked menacingly, although a tiny smile played at the edge of her lips. "Let's see how you like it."

She scraped a handful off of herself and pushed it into Ron's shocked face. She smirked at him and he was about to return the favor with some peanut butter he had happened upon when Fred rushed over with two drinks.

"Drink, dammit!" he said, his words slurred. "You guys need to… party with… us."

"Yeah, ok Fred," Ron said, grinning, and took the drinks from his brother. "Why don't you go sing us another song, you and George really have something going there…"

"I might just do that little bro," Fred said, eyes wide. "You… are a fantastic person… I thank you… and now I must go speak to the lady young lovely in the corner… the… lovely lady young… the… aw hell, that brunette girl…"

"Her name is Lavender, Fred, you know that," Hermione said with a smile. Fred waved his hand dismissively as he stumbled across the room to an even more giggly than usual Lavender Brown.

"Oh wow," Hermione laughed, looking at Ron in amazement. "I have never seen Fred drunk. It's quite a sight."

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "But, where were we…"

"Don't even think about getting me messier than I already am," Hermione giggled, taking a giant swig of her drink. "In fact, I should go up and change."

"Tell you what," Ron said, smiling fondly at her. "Let's get incredibly drunk and then we'll talk about getting you out of those clothes."

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, choking on her drink.

He grinned at her. "Ahh, I'm just kidding," he said. He took a sip of his own drink as well. "But seriously."

Hermione giggled again. "All right, you win," she said. "I'll hang out here for a while before I go change."

"Well, if you're going to stick around," he said slowly, the fire whiskey beginning to take effect. "We really should do something about that pudding, shouldn't we…"

He leaned over and was about to lick some of the pudding of Hermione's neck when Harry stumbled over.

"There you guys are!" he practically shouted, obviously no longer able to control the volume of his own voice. "We've been looking for you!"

"What for, Harry darling?" Hermione asked, greatly amused. She had never seen so many drunk people all in one place, especially her friends, and now that she was a bit tipsy herself, everything seemed even more hilarious.

"Drink!" Harry shouted again. "Drink more… drinking is good for you…"

He walked away, mumbling about the pleasures of fire whiskey.

"Well that was insightful," Ron mumbled. "And very poorly timed."

"We could always try again," Hermione said, smiling drunkenly at a surprised looking Ron.

"Hermione last time we got drunk you had to hex me so I stopped trying to take your clothes off," Ron said in a surprisingly insightful moment, considering his current intoxicated state.

Hermione giggled. "That was last time…"

Ok so I finally have some direction in this story and I want to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to Cheribi161 for that… I didn't put it in this chapter, because I didn't get your review until after I had finished it, but next chapter most definitely because you are a GENIUS. Seriously, I think you need to write stories too because… when I read your review… it was brilliant! You're like… a wealth of ideas! A genius, I tell you, genius! And you get fulllllllll credit for giving my story direction! You… are my hero.

Oh and don't worry, steamy snogging sessions are on the way too. And not just with Ron and Hermione, don't worry… Mwa ha ha ha!

Poetic-Flo16: Ahh I don't know, maybe it's my computer, but I couldn't get the link:-( Could you try one more time? If it doesn't work then I might be able to search for it… sometimes my computer does… uh… really strange things that make no sense to me whatsoever! It really frightens me, I think it's alive or something… but anyway hehe, yeah try one more time and I'll let you know if it works. I'm excited, I could totally use some lyrics to get this story going again, it's kind of running into a wall. :-) Thanks for your review:-)

DrAcO'sblackrose: haha I love how you phrased that! He is a pussy when it comes to his father, I hope you don't mind me putting that into the story. :-) It was just too funny! But I totally agree with you, Hermione and Draco are so adorable together… but I'm sooooooo in love with Ron too, hehe, he's such a darling! But you're right, he'll always be there for her no matter what. They fight all the time, that's part of their magic. :-) Hehe thanks for the review:-)

hit-it-raw: hahahahahhahahahaha thank you soooooo much I'm really glad you can be so honest with me. :-) Yes, I do apologize about the ending, I was not at all happy with it myself… it felt kind of rushed. Then again, it was 1:30 in the morning… but that's no excuse. :-) It's just further proof of why I should go to bed instead of writing in the middle of the night:-) I'll try to tone down the Draco/Lucius thing a bit too. Thanks for your review:-)

foreverandever: hahaha yeah, you might want to check on the whole computer in prison thing before you kill Pansy… :-) Of course, you could simply hire an assassin…. Then you wouldn't get in trouble, and the problem would still be solved:-) And actually that is a good question… where the hell do rich, pureblood bitches live? Seriously, where do they all go after school… "ponders" hrm… hehe :-) Oh and I will most definitely be nice to Ron, he is too adorable, and the thought of him getting hurt (fictional or not…) really breaks my heart. I'll find a nice girl for him… I want him to be happy. :-) And oooooh I agree, Lucius is hot too! I don't know what it is about him but he's really… wow. He may be an ass, but he's a hot one. :-) Hehee thanks again for reviewing:-)

mysteriouscharm: hehe yes, they are most definitely the cutest couples ever… it's just so hard to choose:-) Thank you so much for your review:-)

gothicpagan: haha yeah I know what you mean:-) And thank you so much for the compliment! I'm glad you like it so much! You're so awesome! Thank you!

cheribi161: once again THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU you really are a genius oh my GOODNESS your review seriously made me stop for a good five minutes and just… blink… at my computer screen. I was amazed… seriously, you have brilliant ideas, you really should write stories! Thank you sooooo much you really are brilliant! And of course, I give you full credit for the ideas! Anyone with brains like that deserves to be known for it!

strawberryblueberrykitten: hahaha Draco is so yummy… I adore him so much. :-) Sometimes he comes to visit me... yeah ok he doesn't but I can dream…:-) ohmygoodness I can't wait for the new movie to come out I'm so incredibly excited! Is this really the one where he gets turned into a ferret? Haha that's going to be classic:-) Double the cuteness, double the fun:-) Hehe thanks so much for your review:-)