A/n: Hooray!
Ron came into Potion's class late the following morning. Hermione glanced at him reproachfully as he took his seat next to her. He grinned at her sheepishly, so absorbed by her eyes that he didn't even notice that Snape was giving him a detention for his tardiness.
"Do you understand Mr. Weasley?" Snape asked, glaring at Ron. "Tonight at 8pm in my office."
Ron simply nodded and waited for Snape to walk away before turning back to Hermione. "Harry's still in the hospital wing," he explained. "Madame Pomfrey says he needs a bit more rest. He'll be fine, but he lost a lot of blood, so she wants to keep a close eye on him for a couple more days."
"Oh my," Hermione said, her honey brown eyes wide. "I'm so glad he's going to be ok… did she say how many days he would have to stay?"
"Miss Granger, perhaps you would like to join Mr. Weasley in detention?" Snape suggested icily. "Seeing as you won't stop talking while I am trying to teach."
"I'm sorry professor, it's just that we're worried about Harry, you see-" Hermione began, looking up at Snape pleadingly.
"I do not care what it is that you are discussing," Snape cut in. "Mr. Potter will be fine, I am sure, regardless of whether you two discuss his health in my class. You will come to detention tonight at 8 as well."
"Yes Professor," Hermione sighed. She had already gotten more detentions in just a few weeks than she had in her entire time at Hogwarts, and that disturbed her. Ron grinned at her as if reading her thoughts. She glared at him, but she wasn't really upset. If she had to have a detention, at least it was with Ron.
"Today we're going to brew a simple sleeping draught," Snape was saying as he paced back and forth in front of the class. "Work in pairs, each of you will try the potion after it is completed. I will wake each of you up after you have taken it. You may choose your own partners except for Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley. Miss Granger, you will of course be working with the Head Boy. And Mr. Weasley… with Miss Parkinson, I think." He smiled at the pair of friends mischievously. "You may begin."
Ron grimaced at Hermione as he made his way to sit with Pansy, who was smiling at him with a mischievous glint in her eye. Hermione's face turned into a grimace and a look of disgust as Draco sat on the bench beside her.
Draco winked at her as he sat down. "How are you today, love?" he asked with a grin. "Did you miss me?"
"Draco, I'd love nothing more than to make our potion in silence, do you understand?" Hermione said coldly, staring him in the eyes.
"Why so angry, love?" Draco asked in surprise.
"Why am I so angry?" Hermione demanded. "I am angry because your friends attacked Harry in the hallway last night and now he is stuck in the hospital wing for a few days. And here you are, with the nerve to act like nothing is wrong, like you had nothing to do with it! Give me some bloody credit, Malfoy, I'm not an innocent little girl, I know you're up to something."
"Don't be ridiculous," Draco sneered. "Why the bloody hell would I go out of my way to make your life miserable?"
"I can think of a few reasons," Hermione mumbled. She had toned her anger down a bit, remembering slightly too late that she was supposed to be seducing him, not turning him away. It was too late to fix it right then, so she decided silence would be best. "Let's just get this over with."
They continued working on their potion in silence, although Draco took every opportunity to annoy her the entire time. He was continually leaning over her shoulder so close to her that whenever she turned around too quickly she would bump foreheads with him. Although it was painful, he found it extremely amusing, especially when Hermione glared at him, her cheeks blazing red.
"Everyone should now be finished with their potion," Snape announced. "One person try it now, and I will come around and wake you up."
Hermione lifted her tiny goblet of potion to her lips, eyeing Draco warily as she took a sip. If he messed anything up… were her last thoughts before everything went blank. She awoke to a pleased looking Snape standing over her with his wand out.
"This potion seems to be in order," Snape said with a respectful nod to Draco and Hermione. "You two may leave." He then moved over to where Ron was nodding off next to Pansy, who had a smug look on her face.
"Don't you have to try the potion too?" Hermione asked, confused.
"If he didn't say anything, I'm not going to," Draco answered, gesturing for her to walk in front of him. She looked at him, surprised at his chivalry. She understood the reason a moment later in the corridor when she felt Draco's hand collide sharply and painfully with her rear.
"Draco Malfoy, did you just spank me?" Hermione demanded, staring at him with a mixture of shock and amusement. She masked her enjoyment because she did rather enjoy it, to say the least.
"I believe I did, Hermione Granger," Draco said with a smirk. "What, pray tell, are you going to do about it?"
She only stared at him in disbelief. He smirked again and turned and walked off. He came to a dead stop moments later when a sharp pain coursed through his rear. He faced Hermione with a huge grin on his face.
"My my, Hermione," he said in amusement. "You've got a rather powerful arm there. I suppose it's from lifting all those books…I like it rough… Looks like being a bookworm pays off after all."
Hermione glared at him and walked away, flipping her long hair over her shoulder as she did so. When she was sure Draco couldn't hear her, she giggled to herself. Who would have thought she would have ever spanked Draco Malfoy?
She shook her head and continued back to her dormitory. When she got there she lay down on her couch and read a book, thinking of her upcoming detention with Ron later that night.
They had been through so much together over the years… her, Ron, and Harry. She cared about both of them more than she could say, but lately there had been something different about Ron. It was the way he touched her, smiled at her, and most especially that brief kiss from the other day.
They hadn't discussed it after it had happened, but Hermione desperately wanted to. She felt giddy at the thought of what had happened between them, and she had to admit she was interested in possibly sharing another kiss similar to the one from the night before, although perhaps a bit longer. At these thoughts a group of rowdy butterflies made their way into her stomach, fluttering around for several moments.
But then again, thoughts about Ron and their little kiss made Hermione think of Draco. Everything was so confusing because as soon as she found her feelings for Ron, her feelings for Draco never ceased but instead came back in full force. She didn't want to have feelings for Draco, she knew that to do so would ruin her plan, as well as put her heart on the line, and she was quite sure she wasn't ready to do that.
Several hours later she made her way to Snape's office once more for her detention. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Ron sitting in a chair in front of Snape's desk, staring dreamily off into space. She smiled at him and he gave her one of the biggest smiles she'd ever seen in return. She blushed and sat in the chair next to him.
"Tonight you two will be cleaning up the potion supplies closet," Snape said, a twisted grin on his face. "It will get a bit messy, but you won't be needing gloves."
Hermione stared at him in disbelief, receiving yet another crooked smile from Snape, who must have been feeling particularly malicious that evening. He shooed them out of his office, and once the door closed behind them Hermione turned to Ron, with anger etched on every line of her face.
"Can you believe him?" she raged. "No gloves even! Who knows what some of those ingredients could do to our skin! We're going to end up in the hospital wing with Harry! That'll be just wonderful, how on earth will I get all my homework done then?"
"You'll be alright, Hermione," Ron said consolingly, gazing dreamily at her once again. "I'll handle the ingredients we aren't sure of. After all, it's a beautiful evening, isn't it? We shouldn't let a little detention spoil it."
Hermione smiled shyly at him. They finally reached the supply closet, and he opened the door so they could go in. They were greeted by the awful stench of the ingredients, some of which Hermione preferred not to think about. The supply closet was lined with row after row of jars. Some of the labels were peeling, some were caked and dirty with dust. Others had never been opened, and some were so old that the glass had begun to decay because the contents inside had been sitting on the dark gloomy shelf for so long.
"You seem to be in a surprisingly good mood, Ron," Hermione began tentatively, as they sorted through the bottles of ingredients, checking to see if any were cracked or leaking. She looked up at him to see his reaction. "Is there any particular reason?"
"As a matter of fact there is," Ron said, putting down a large, leaking bottle of what looked like fish eyes. He looked Hermione directly in the eye with such an intense look that she turned away, intimidated and excited all at once.
"Hermione, have you ever met someone that just took your breath away?" Ron asked, still gazing into her eyes. She turned to meet his gaze, blushing profusely. "You know, someone you just feel like you can be yourself around… and maybe you didn't notice them for a while, but all of a sudden it just hits you like a broomstick, and you have to call yourself names for not noticing how beautiful they were before?"
"Something like that, yes," Hermione replied nervously. She couldn't believe this was happening! Ron felt the same way about her that she did about him… she was so excited, but now she was unsure of how to act.
"I've finally found someone," Ron said, grinning widely. "I just had to tell you. I couldn't wait to tell you. Hermione, you're going to be so happy."
"Oh, I am, Ron, I am!" Hermione giggled excitedly. She didn't know what to say, Ron was really going to finally confess his true feelings about her. She inhaled a deep breath and waited anxiously.
"I'm so glad!" Ron said, hugging her tight. He then held her at arms length and looked into her eyes warmly, his eyes never faltering, his blue eyes connecting with her honey brown ones. "Hermione… I'm in love with Pansy!"
Much much much thanks to my fantastic wonderful awesome beta Cheribi161! You are sooooooooo awesome! Everyone should go read her story, it's amazing… every chapter surprises me even more, she's a genius! And hilarious! Read it, you'll enjoy it!
mysteriouscharm: Aww, I'm sorry you think he's creepy! I suppose he does have a tendency towards "eekness" but he's still so cute. :-) I hope you liked this chapter! Thank you so much for reviewing:-)
cheribi161 (OMG my wonderful awesome cooltastic beta!): THAT IS SO AWESOME that we're each others betas hehehehehe! It's so awesome! You're the coolest beta ever, I'm so glad you agreed to help:-D:-D:-D It's always hard starting a story and putting it out there for people to read, but I'm SO glad you did because your story is awesome, and reading it totally makes my day EVERY day! You're awesome!
Moon Doll (my fantastic co-author!): Awww thanks so much! I really appreciate it:-) :-) I love your story too, I can't wait for more! You're are so fun:-)
Poetic-Flo16: Hahahaha cops is a fantastic show! So addicting… I swear one day I'm going to be on that show… I'll be watching myself in prison, laughing my ss off… hehe:ahem: I mean no… I'm a good girl… :cough cough: hehe! OH yeah dude, the whole bookcase/wall thing really… really… yeah, I like it hehe! OOooh I totally know what you mean about Ron/Rupert! So cute! His goofy little grin… eek, I love it:-) I just wanna eat him up! Hehehe… :-)
Pysco Faerie: I totally had an evil smile on my face when I was writing that chapter… this one as well… hehehe…. :-):-) You know me too well! Hahaha! thanks so much for reviewing:-)
pottergirl101: Oh my goodness! Ripping your hair out of your head doesn't sound very pleasant… so to keep you from doing that, here's another chapter, specially for you:-) hehe! I'm so glad you like it though:-) Thanks for reviewing! And I'll try and update quickly so you don't harm yourself! Hehe:-)
ThePinkSpider: Ohhh I'm so sorry! Thank you for telling me, I had no idea we weren't supposed to do that… I see other people do it all the time, so I didn't know. Ok, well I will most certainly not do that again! Hehe! Thank you very much for telling me, and being nice about it too:-) I'm glad you like my story! Thank you so much for the review:-)
gothicpagan: I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long for that chapter… I feel badly about it, sometimes I get so distracted… But I want to finish this story before I go back to school, so that means I'll be updating more frequently. I hope! Hehe:-) I am glad you like my story, that means so much to me! Haha Crabbe and Goyle are idiots… it's so much fun to make fun of them! And as of right now, I'm formulating a way for Hermione to kick Pansy's ass again… mwa ha ha ha:-) Hehe thanks so much for your review:-)
xxcutiepiexx: Awww happy birthday! I'm so glad my story got updated in time! Yay that's so exciting, did you have a good birthday:-) Hahahahaha awwwwww your poor friends! That's so funny, you left them to read the story? I feel so special:-):-) I hope they aren't mad anymore. :-) Hehe thanks so much for the review! I hope you had an absolutely fantastic birthday:-)
BoStOnChIcK: I'm glad you liked my chapter:-) :-) I hope you like this one too:-) Oohhhh that's so fantastic that you're a Boston fan! I love them so much too! I always argue with my friends because they're Oriole's fans (blah blah blah) and my brother's roommate is a Yankees fan (grrrrrr) so I always laugh at them when we kick their asses :-D But really, I'm a nice person… :ahem: hehe! I'll shut up now though… thank you so much for your review:-)
unnamed-x21: I'm so glad you like my story! That's so nice of you to say that its one of the best, oh my goodness you're so nice! Thank you so much! I really appreciate it! You're SO NICE oh my gosh I'm all fuzzy! Yay:-)
GangstaSeuss (the coolest name ever! Hehe!): Hahaha I'm glad you enjoyed the mental slapping:-) :-) I think I have a habit of writing that frequently but I usually take it out when I revise… I must have skipped one this time hehe! But if you liked it, then cool, I might not second guess myself next time:-) Hehe yay, that makes me happy:-) Hahahaha be careful, spinning in chairs can be dangerous! I usually fall off when I try… hehe… d'oh:-) Hehe I'm glad you like how many plots are going on! It's beginning to confuse me… hehe! Awwww silly house elves mixing up wine and grape juice again? They have a bad habit of doing that! I think we should say something about it… maybe… maybe Draco could have a chat with us… :-D Hehe thanks so much for your review! I adore you, you always make my day:-)
sarklover826: I'm glad you enjoyed reading it:-) I love Draco and Hermione together too, it's just so… not supposed to happen that its fantastic:-) They'd be so cute together… they'd never get bored, that's for sure! Hehe:-) Hehe, you have a point about the Harry/Pansy thing… I didn't even think about that! I dunno, I just have that little soft spot for Ron hehe:-) I may find someone for Harry… but he's kinda a background character in my story so I dunno yet… is that weird? That he's a background character? Hehe! I dunno:-) Thanks so much for your review:-)
foreverandever: Yeah, can you believe someone actually had the balls to say that? I was not happy… but hey, whatcha gonna do right:-) OOOH you guessed what Pansy's up to! Hooray! In honor of this, I will follow my in my beta's footsteps and give you a Virtual cookie! That's so cool, that makes me happy:-) :-) Have no fear, Hermione will put Pansy in her place. :-D Mwa ha ha ha… Thanks so much for your review!
You guys are amazing! Thank you so much!