No, you're not seeing things, I've actually updated, this time the chaps beta'd

I still don't own anything.

Thank you to lyrabelaqua for being my beta.

I've been busy writting another story, the sequel to Just for over the Holidays called Love for Life, and got side tracked. I hope ya'll like the chapter.

Thanks to any and everyone who's updated. I wouldn't be writting this story as long as I have unless I knew some one was there reading. You guys rock harder then class of 2005. (If you've seen my profile you'll understand.)

Alright, have at it what you will.

Here. A little sympathy for you to waste on me
I know you're faking it but that's okay
And I don't want to drag it out
Don't want to bring you down
I never wanted it to end this way

Even if I wanted to
I don't think that I'd get to you
There's nothing I can say to you to make you feel alive again

Here. A little jealousy
I hope you think of me
Hope you wonder where I sleep at night
Cause I feel like I'm inside out
You got me upside down
Maybe I was holding on too tight

So don't just say goodbye to me
Just turn your back away and leave
And if you're lucky I will be your last regret, your only friend

I guess that this is over now
I guess it's called the falling out

Yellowcard- Inside Out

Ron stormed back to the Gryffindor common room and threw himself into the nearest chair.

"I can't believe the nerve of that girl! I was trying to help her! Why can't she understand that?" he mumbled to himself, unaware of the glances he received in the process.

"Ron, what's wrong?" he heard, the voice coming from beside him.

"Hermione. She just kicked me out of her common room to spend time with Malfoy. MALFOY! She started yelling about how I chose everything over her. Can you believe that?" he asked as he looked up to find Harry looking back at him.

"She said what?" Harry asked, looking as confused as Ron felt.

"She said I never picked her over anything! I never picked anything over her, Harry." he whined to his friend, who was rolling his eyes.

"Well, Ron, think about it... Last year you took Lavender to Hogesmeade when we went to celebrate Hermione's birthday, after we already told her that it was just going to be us."

"I did not! I told her we were going to go to Hogesmeade to celebrate Hermione's birthday and that she should come. I didn't ask her out, I just told her she could come." Ron protested.

"Ron, you made out with her the whole time you were around us. You didn't even stay with Hermione and me, you took Lavender to the café and we didn't see you until it was time to go back." Harry tried to explain to him.

"We did not make out the whole time, and I spent time with you!" Ron defended himself.

"I'm not here to fight with you, Ron, I'm just saying that I see Hermione's side of the argument too."

Ron stared into the fireplace and watched as the flames of the fire flicked high then low on the stone walls surrounding it.

"Harry, I've liked Hermione for three years and then Malfoy comes along and ruins it. He's up to something. He has to be. He hasn't called her Mudblood in long time. I think he's trying to win her over so she could spy on you." Ron voiced his opinion after, in Harry's opinion, a short silence.

"Ron! This is Hermione we're talking about. She's a big girl now and can take care of herself."

Once again Ron sat in silence and stared into the fire. Now Harry was siding with... those two. What was this school coming to?

"She's obviously not old enough to take care of herself if she's out with ferret face."

"Ron, maybe he's changed. You don't know."

"She blew us off to spend time with him. If really changed he would have insisted that she spend time with us. Malfoy knew, he knew, that I asked her to go and he goes and asks her to go with him...and she said yes! She's just as bad as he is!" Ron complained.

"Ron, you know it was for head duties." Harry sighed.

"Then how do you explain them holding hands and going into the Three Broomsticks- they were sitting too close to be talking about Head stuff."

"Well... did you ask her?" Harry asked while looking up at the ceiling.

"No... but do you honestly think she's going to tell us the truth?" Ron shot back, unwilling to hear any other side but his own.

"Ron, listen to yourself. Do you think that if Hermione was turning her back on us that you going and yelling at her would do any good?"

"She knows how I am! She's used to how I act." Ron instantly reacted: "She shouldn't have even taken the Head girl position when she found out that the Death-Eater-in-training was Head boy."

"Ron!"

"No, think about it, Harry. She says she hates the git, but then she's all friendly with him when school starts up."

Harry stopped listening to Ron after that. He knew that Ron was mad; he understood that, he was too, but Ron was taking it to a whole new level.

"Ron, I think you need to chill out for a little bit." Harry advised.

"Harry, have you heard a word I've said?" Ron demanded.

"Ron, Hermione should be able to make her own decisions."

Ron stared in disbelief at his friend. Here he was worried sick about Hermione and Harry had gone off his rocker. Of course she should make her own decisions, but if they weren't good for her she should be warned. Malfoy was up to something, he was sure of it. He just didn't know what. Maybe Ginny could find out.

"Where's Gin, Harry?" He asked in a casual voice.

"She won't go along with you, Ron." Harry said in a flat voice.

Damn it all to hell. "I don't know what you're talking about." He tried to say innocently, although after all the years of his mother's fierce glares he was sure it wouldn't work.

"I've known you for almost seven years, mate. I know when you're planning something and, unfortunately, I've even be able to guess what you're planning." Harry stated wearily.

"You do not know me that well. And what do you mean about that unfortunately bit?"

"Nothing, Ron. I was just stating fact."

Ron stared hard at his best friend for a split second before hauling himself out of the chair and going to the portrait hole.

"Where are you going?" He heard Harry ask from his chair.

"You're the one that can read my bloody mind, you tell me." He answered sarcastically before pushing the door open and starting his search for the youngest Weasley offspring.

Ginny sat in the library researching the latest Astronomy lesson. Firenze was nice and all but he was a very weird sort: never bit the bullet, as she'd heard Hermione say countless times.

"Ginny?" She looked up to see her goofy brother Ron staring at all of the books that she had laid out on the table in front of her. "Bloody hell, Gin. You're turning into Hermione."

"Ron, don't be an idiot. I happen to have common sense; just because I want to succeed in life after school doesn't make me a bookworm." She defended herself instantly.

"What's been going on with Hermione lately?" He asked, skipping the chit chat as usual.

"Hermione... I don't know, I haven't talked to her in a couple weeks, since before school started maybe." she answered truthfully.

"You talk to her every day at breakfast and dinner." her somewhat slow brother pointed out.

"Well she won't tell me what's going on in her life over morning eggs, will she?" Ginny answered with an eye roll. "Honestly, Ron. You think that we have anp, or whatever Hermione talks about all the time when she talks about Dumbledore." She muttered.

"Ginny..." Ron whined to her.

"Go bother Harry, Ron. I'm busy." She said with a wave of her hand towards the door of the library.

"But Gin, she's spending time with Malfoy."

"He's Head boy, Ron. She has to spend time with him. She'll lose her position if she doesn't." she explained patiently.

"She chose him over me and Harry!"

"Well, it maybe wasn't the best choice for her to make, but you have to admit that you do that a lot to her as well."

"Why does everyone keep saying that? I haven't done anything to her! She kicked me out of her common room today. Did you know that?"

"She what?" That got Ginny's attention. Hermione might be stressed but she'd never do something like that.

"She kicked me out. Told me to come back when I thought about what she said. A load of rubbish." He explained with hope in his voice.

"What are you sounding all hopeful for? It doesn't sound like youll be getting an invitation to the Heads dorm soon." Ginny snapped at her brother, upset with both him and Hermione now.

"I wasn't sounding hopeful. I was just telling you." he sulked.

"Fine, you've told me. What do you want me to do about it?" she asked with a cringe.

"Just talk to her. Why are you looking at me like that for? I didn't ask you to kiss her or anything." Ron answered sounding offended.

"I'll see what I can do." she supplied when he stood there and stared at her.

"Make her see, Gin." she urged before he turned around and left the library.

"Great," Ginny muttered to herself when she was alone, "Now I have to face Malfoy."

Draco stood in the door of Hermione's room, watching her even breathing. She'd passed out almost an hour ago and she hadn't woken up once. He stepped in to go try to wake her when the door of the common room was pounded on. Sighing, he turned and opened the door to walk into the common room.

"What have you done to Hermione?" He heard screeched when he closed the door behind him.

"Bloody hell, how many are there?" He muttered to himself before meeting the eyes of the Weasley who stood in the middle of his common room.

"Well, get it out? What did you do to Hermione?" The loud and obnoxious red-head demanded when he didn't answer.

"That's none of your damn business." he snapped.

"It bloody well is my business. It's my best friend we're talking about."

"You haven't even seen her all year." Draco reminded the girl, who had started hyperventilating halfway through his explanation.

"That's not true!" The girl, Ginny he thought, defended.

"Seeing her for an hour total a day doesn't count as quality time." He said smugly.

"I..."

"I didn't do anything to your precious Hermione. Your brother upset her so much she passed out. You should be having this rant with him."

"Ron doesn't know any better. You know exactly what you're doing, Malfoy."

"I don't know what you think you know about me, but you're wrong." Draco explained with a bored tone.

"Just leave Hermione alone. She needs us. You don't understand. It's hard enough that she's a muggle but then you have to go and pretend to actually like her... you're disgusting."

"I don't know who said I liked her, so you might want to consider your sources. Didn't you hear me when I said your supposed best friend passed out?" He asked when the Weasel in front of him basically blew off the statement to defend her brother.

"Oh...where is she?"

"In her room, genius." He said as he pointed behind him with a thumb.

"What the hell were you doing in her room?" The annoying girl demanded.

Draco thought about it and didn't think that exposing that he'd set Hermione in there gently should be on his list of things to blurt out to people.

"If Dumbledore walked in here and saw her lying on the floor, I would have gotten in trouble, not that it's any of your business." He explained with a sneer.

"Don't touch her again, Malfoy."

"I wouldn't dream of it." He answered with narrowed eyes. "How did you get in here?" He asked after silence dominated most of the conversation, if that's what you could call it.

"The door was open a little bit." She said quickly... too quickly for Draco's liking.

"Then why were you pounding on it? It would have closed. I thought that your brother, Weasel, got all of the stupidity, obviously I was wrong." Draco countered smoothly, finding joy in the fact that he'd caught the girl in a lie.

"I don't have to tell you anything." She said defiantly, sticking her chin out. As if, Draco thought, that would make her look any more threatening.

"Fine, I'll just go to Dumbledore and tell him you broke into the Heads dorm. Let's go together, shall we? It'll save him time in rounding you up."

The girl lost all color in her face. She opened her mouth stupidly looking, if possible, more like her brother with each growing second.

"Go away, Weasley. I have better things to do then watch your intake of air." He commanded, waving his hand towards the door of the common room.

"Not until I see Hermione."

"Fine, go see your best friend." He said with a roll of his eyes.

He sat on the couch and watched as she tried to open the door. She glanced over to him and then yanked on the door.

"Why won't this bloody door open, Ferret?" She asked as she whipped around to glare at him.

"Password protected." He said slowly, as if explaining to a five year old.

He watched in amusement as the girl started naming all of the names of Gryffindor, then their Head of House, then Dumbledore and on and on. He started laughing when she kicked the door. She looked ready to throw a curse at him until the door opened and Hermione stepped out.

"Draco?" She called before she looked around the room.

"Hermione? Why are you calling Malfoy Draco?"

Hermione looked to her right to the red-head and her eyes widened.

"We're Heads. It wouldn't be mature of me to talk to him like I was a first year." she covered smoothly. Just because they were almost friends didn't mean she could advertise to people.

"But...Ron said you kicked him out."

"I don't need this right now, Gin. You know how he is. I tried to talk and he just kept cutting me off and then whenever I could get a word in edge wise he ignored it." the frazzled looking Head girl explained with a sigh.

"Ron might be a loud mouth, but he cares about you. Why would you do something like that Hermione?" the equally frazzled looking Gryffindor asked with a hurt expression on her face.

"I had to. I opened the door and he just started yelling at me. I couldn't do anything about it. He needs to think about things before I can talk to him again. Maybe I could talk to Harry and he could talk to Ron."

"I cant believe you Hermione! You turned your back on us as soon as you got your Head girl badge. You're just like Percy."

"Ginny!"

"No! I'm saying what everyone else is thinking. You're selfish, Hermione Granger. Whenever someone tries to help you, you make them feel bad! I'm sick of it. I'm with Ron, you did choose Malfoy over us."

With that said Ginny turned around and left the common room, leaving a stunned Hermione and Draco in her wake.

Ginny stormed through the Gryffindor common room with a look of murder on her face.

"Gin, what's up?" Harry asked, his eyes glancing around the common room for supporters in case she blew up at him.

"Hermione." She spit out with more venom then Harry thought she was possible of.

"Wha...you talked to Ron."

"Yes, I talked to Ron. I went over to her dorm to talk to her because I couldn't go on what Ron said."

Harry nodded his head in agreement with the bit of information. Ron was known to blow his temper and get facts slightly bent.

"And do you know what? He was right about her. She even told me she kicked him out, saying how he didn't listen to her at all. How dare she choose that ferret over us."

Harry watched with wide eyes as Ginny paced back and forth in front of the fire, the whole time berating Hermione.

"Ginny, are you sure?" He asked when she stopped to take a breath.

"Of course I'm sure. As far as I'm concerned, Hermione is just as bad as Malfoy. Do you know she's even calling him Draco now. And when I went in he was coming out of her room. He said Ron made Hermione pass out, a load of rubbish. Like any one would believe that. Ron wouldn't stress out Hermione that much. Shes known him for seven years, we'd have seen her pass out by now." Ginny explained.

"Fine, I'll go talk to her." Harry said with a sigh as he pushed himself up and out of the chair.

"Yeah, good luck with that." Ginny offered with sarcasm heavy in her voice.

"Thanks."