Disclaimer: No, Harry Potter is not mine, stop asking! - Okay, nobody has asked it yet, but if you are going to do that, well don't! –

A/N: Okay, I'm not too proud for admitting that I did a hole in the water with this fan fiction. Anyway, here there's another chapter, if there's someone that reads this story well I hope that you will like it. Cheers!

To Halo of Darkness: Thanks again for the wonderful job that you are doing, for your speed and for being a very nice friend.

Wednesday

"Today, I'm going to succeed in my wonderful plan," said Hermione with a wild light in her eyes. She was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room with Harry and Ron. They were just back from lunch and seemed too full of food to do anything else than stare in front of them.

"What?" asked Harry, looking at her.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

"What plan?" asked Ron.

"My plan to – well – tame – well – my hair," she said, thinking fast.

"Interesting," said Harry, puzzled.

"Yeah, girl things; you wouldn't understand," she said bossily.

"What don't they understand?" asked Ginny, sitting down in an armchair next to them.

Hermione looked at her friend. "Will you please tell me why you always appear out of nowhere and want to know everything I'm saying?"

Ginny shrugged her shoulders and giggled. "I don't know, but it's funny, isn't it?"

"Oh, yeah of course," answered Hermione, unconvinced, "Anyway, I was just saying that today I'm going to tame my bushy hair and-"

"Wonderful, I can help you," said Ginny, clapping her hands.

Hermione looked at her horrified. "Don't you have any other friend to stay with?"

"How funny you are, Hermione," said Ginny, laughing.

"Yeah, I'm a funny girl," she said, turning slightly green, "Anyway, Ginny I was thinking that you don't have to help me if you don't-"

"Oh, but I would be delighted to help you," Ginny cut her off.

"Yeah, but if you have something else to-"

"Nothing to do."

"Someone else to see-"

"No one."

"Don't you have classes?"

"Nope."

"You don't have anybody to snog with?"

Ron almost choked and Harry looked at Hermione with his mouth half opened.

"No," Ginny answered simply.

"Ok, listen," snapped Hermione, closing the book that she was studying, "It's something that I have to do by myself. You know, if you or Lavender or Parvati always help me with my hair, I will never learn how to make it soft and shining."

Ginny seemed to think about what Hermione said. "Maybe I can tell you what you have to do and you can do it by yourself, and if you have problems I can help you."

"No, Ginny," said Hermione throwing her hands up in a very melodramatic gesture, "I know that you can understand me better than these two," she said, nodding towards Harry and Ron, "So please just let me do it by myself. If I will ever need your help, I swear that I'll call you."

"Oh, Hermione," said Ginny, hugging her, "Of course; sorry if I insisted. I just wanted to be sure that you knew that I was there for you."

"Oh, I know that you are always there," said Hermione, smiling. They hugged each other for a couple of minutes. Harry and Ron looked at them without a clue as to what was going on, but they weren't so keen on asking the girls.

"Well, I think that now I'll have to go," said Hermione, getting up.

"Ok, and if you need me, I'll be here," said Ginny, excited.

"Of course," said Hermione, heading towards the hole behind the Fat Lady.

"Hey, aren't you going to do it in your dorm?" asked Ginny, suspiciously. Hermione hurried off without a further word and disappeared behind the painting of the Fat Lady. She put a hand in her pocket and touched all the sweets that she had managed to find. Crabbe would be the happiest man on Earth. All she had to do now was find him.

'Of course,' she thought, patting her forehead, 'The Slytherin team has practise today.' She ran down the stairs towards the First Floor and exited the grounds. She could see some small green figures flying above the Quidditch Pitch. As she walked down towards them, she tried to think about a strategy for getting near Crabbe.

'Surely, Malfoy will be there, too. Nevertheless, I don't mind. I'll just watch the practise and then wait for Crabbe outside the Slytherin changing room, which is…,' Hermione looked at all the doors and found one with Slytherin's colours on it and a serpent, 'There. Heh, heh.'

Hermione sat down in the highest seats and looked at the Slytherins that were flying above her head. She was so keen on trying to distinguish Crabbe from the others that she didn't notice Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode come near her and sit down on each side of her.

"Well, well, well," sad Pansy, causing Hermione to jump in surprise, "What is a Gryffindor doing at the training of the Slytherin Quidditch team?"

"Nothing," said Hermione, trying to stand up. Both Millicent and Pansy seized her robes and pushed her back to her seat.

"Do you think that I'm stupid?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Pansy turned red. "How dare you?" she almost screamed. Over their heads, loads of broomsticks stopped and some heads turned towards the three of them.

"You asked and I answered," said Hermione quietly.

"You didn't answer correctly."

"Well, actually you asked me what I thought and I told you exactly what I – no, wait a minute, I didn't even answer. Why are you bothering me, then?" Pansy looked at her without understanding a single word of what Hermione was saying.

"Pansy, are you going to hex her?" asked Millicent.

"I don't know, did she say something bad?"

Millicent shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure – but, hey, who cares? She is a Gryffindor; let's hex her anyway."

Pansy seemed to enjoy her idea. "You are right, Millicent. What were you thinking about?" Hermione looked at Millicent; she wasn't sure that she could think.

"I don't know," she said.

"Never mind," said Pansy, pulling out her wand and pointing it at Hermione, "I think that everything will be fine with-"

"Look Parkinson, Malfoy is trying to talk to you," said Hermione, pointing her finger at Draco.

Pansy jumped to her feet and looked at him. "Drakey, I'm here," she screamed, waving her hands, but Draco couldn't care less.

"I don't think that he was going to talk to you," said Millicent, standing up too and looking at him.

"Of course he was," she snapped, "But now let's come back to our dear – where is she?" Pansy started to scream with anger, while Millicent looked around for Hermione.

"What are you screaming for? You are interrupting our training," said Draco, flying near them.

"Oh, Drakey," said Pansy, smiling, "It's not my fault. We were going to hex that filthy Mudblood Hermione Granger and Millicent just let her escape."

"That's not true; she told you that Malfoy was trying to capture your attention and you just lost your head," protested Millicent.

"What?" asked Draco.

"Why, you weren't trying to talk to me Drakey?"

Draco looked at her annoyed. "Of course I wasn't. I was trying to play. But what were you saying about Granger? Is she here?" Draco looked around himself.

"Well, actually she is not here anymore. You'll have to thank me, Drakey, because I freed you from her, and she won't bother you any further during your practise," said Pansy, proudly.

"Pansy, you are the only one here that bothers me," hissed Draco, while he flew away. Pansy decided that it was a surplus of love towards her that made Draco say those things. Therefore, she just sat back and waited for the training to be over. She kept her eyes on Draco for all the remains of the practice.

Draco, on the other hand, was looking for the Golden Snitch in a very singular way. He was looking at the grounds around the pitch instead of the air. If only Crabbe and Goyle would have been a little bit quicker, they could have understood that Draco wasn't looking for the Snitch at all; his only thought was to find Hermione and try to understand what she was doing there at that time. He already had an idea, but he wanted to know exactly what she had in mind.

"Malfoy, have you found the Snitch? We are all tired and want to go up the castle and have dinner," said Urquath.

"Yeah, well, you go, I've almost done with it," said Draco, flying near the ground.

Urquath shrugged his shoulders and made signs to the rest of the team to land and go in the changing room. Draco followed them with his eyes and waited until the last one entered the changing room, then he decided to fly outside the pitch still looking for Hermione. There she was, leaning against the wall near the Slytherin door, with something in her hands that Draco could not see from a distance. He opted to fly a little bit closer to her, but at that very moment, the door burst open and the players started to come out. They eyed Hermione rudely, but walked in front of her without making any strange comments. They knew that she was Head Girl after all. Crabbe was the last one to come out. Hermione stepped in his direction when she saw him. He was all sweaty and stank really badly. She did her best to not make a horrified face or put her hand to her nose.

"Hi, Vinc – Crabbe," she changed at the last minute. He looked at her, not really understanding neither why she was talking to him nor how she knew his name.

"I said 'hi'."

"I know, I heard that," he said, starting to walk.

"Well, shouldn't you answer to me?" asked Hermione, following him. He stopped and trying to think, something that was incredibly difficult for him. "I don't know," he said finally, "Why?"

"Because I said 'hi' and you should say 'hi' back to me."

"Really? Hi then," he said, walking again.

"You know, I've something for you," she said, smiling mischievously.

Crabbe stopped and turned his head towards her. "Really?"

"Of course; I would never lie to you."

Crabbe looked like he has been Confunded. "Really?" he asked again.

"Of course, look," she said, giving him all the Cauldron Cakes and Licorice Wands and Pumpkin Pasties that she had. Crabbe took them and started to put everything in his mouth.

"Do you like them?" asked Hermione, with a bright smile on her face.

He answered something like "Of course I do," or it could have been "I'll curse you," Hermione wasn't sure about it because he had his mouth full of Licorice Wands, but he headed for the castle singing 'Weasley is our king', so he couldn't have been unhappy at all.

"Oh, my gosh," said a voice over her head, "That was the most pathetic thing I've ever seen."

Hermione didn't even turn her head. "What are you talking about, Malfoy? I've managed to talk to him, and he was happy about my little present."

"Oh please, didn't you hear him? He said that he'll burn you," Draco said as landed down next to her.

"You were too far away. He said that he liked my present," said Hermione, looking at him fiercely.

"Did he thank you?"

Hermione glared at him. "He said 'hi'."

"Wow, that's great Granger. What is the next step? Teaching him to say 'mum' and 'dad'?"

"Oh yeah, Malfoy, you are always so funny," she said sharply, "And when are you going to talk to Luna?"

This seemed to shut Draco's mouth for a while. "That's slightly different, Granger. I simply don't want her around me too much," he answered as sharply as her, "I'm still trying to free myself from Pansy."

Hermione couldn't help smiling. "Oh poor little, Drakey," she said, imitating Pansy.

"Yeah, laugh if you want, but I'm telling you this, and you should mark my words, tomorrow I'm going to talk to Loony Lovegood," said Draco.

"Oh, my God, now I'm really scared; you are going to talk to Luna? That's terrible. How will I be able to do better than you?" she said, trying not to laugh.

"You said that she liked me-"

"I said that she thinks that you are a good-looking boy," pointed out Hermione.

"It's the same."

"It's not."

"Yesterday you weren't so sure, were you?"

"Shut up, she just said that you weren't all that bad, ok?"

Draco raised his eyebrows. "Okay, as you wish, but I can be very convincing, if I want to."

"Oh yeah, of course," she said. Then she noticed that a couple of figures were walking towards them from the Quidditch Pitch. Pansy and Millicent. She decided not to tell Draco that his favourite Slytherin girl was approaching him from the back, but rather to enjoy the scene of Pansy getting angry with him because he was talking to her.

"Listen, Malfoy it's up to you, after all," she said lazily, "You can choose what to do, and I've nothing to do with it. And I would thank you if you please stop bothering me about the way I'm approaching Crabbe, okay?"

Draco shrugged his shoulders, "Ok, when I'll win this bet you will-" But he didn't finish the sentence because Pansy Parkinson jumped on his back and threw her arms around his neck, screaming like a Banshee. Draco choked and fell on the ground, or, even better, he fell over Pansy.

Hermione started to giggle uncontrollably at the sight of Draco's face turning red because Pansy was almost going to suffocate him with her arms. As she headed for the castle, she heard Draco screaming something very unpleasant at Pansy. Hermione entered the Great Hall with a big smile still on her face and joined Harry, Ron and Ginny for dinner.

"Hermione," exclaimed Ginny when she saw her.

"What?"

"Your hair," she said feebly.

"What, do I have something on it?" asked Hermione, touching her head.

Ginny shook her head, "No, but you didn't succeed in taming it."

"Oh, yeah, well, it looks like I need you after all, Ginny," she said trying to smile.

"Oh yes, you really do," the younger Gryffindor said, clapping her hands.