Disclaimer: Oh, yes, I know that I write wonderfully well and that it looks really like I'm J.K. Rowling, but – no please don't throw that chair at me… I was just joking!

A/N: Hey, guys! How are you? As you can see I don't really know what to write in this Author's Note, so I'll just tell you to enjoy the chapter! Oh, yes, just one thing: I think that the end of this chapter is a little too much fluffy, and not enough funny… So I don't like it very much, but maybe you were waiting for that, weren't you? LOL!

To Halo of Darkness: "Halo of Darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again…" ! Sorry, but I really wanted to write this stupid thing! Eh, eh. Thanks for correcting my chapter!

Saturday

"Harry, I can't believe that we are not going to Hogsmeade today," said Ron, sitting down next to Harry at the Gryffindor table.

"Ron, I've already told you that we need to practice and Hogsmeade is not-"

"A safe place in a moment like this," Ron finished for him with a sigh, "I know, I know."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Well, if you know, why do you keep on complaining?"

"It's just that I really, really, really wanted to go to Zonkos," said Ron.

"Oh, Ron, give up that, Harry won't let us go to Hogsmeade," said Ginny, sitting down in front of Harry.

"See? Your sister is more intelligent," said Harry, nodding. Ron sighed.

"It's just that Harry wants to protect the people that he loves," said Ginny, smiling.

"That means that you also love Jack Sloper and Andrew Kirke?" asked Ron, surprised.

"It means you and me, idiot," Ginny said, sighing.

"Ginny, don't call Ron an idiot," Harry said laughing.

"What is he then?"

"Never mind," said Harry, quickly.

"Well, anyway, I'm sorry to tell you that you won't have all your friends here tomorrow," said Ginny, starting to giggle.

"No?"

"No. Hermione is going to Hogsmeade."

"Well, when she will know that none of us is going, she won't go, either," said Harry, smiling.

"Oh, no, no. She already knows that and she is going anyway. And she won't be alone," said Ginny, giggling.

"You mean that Hermione is going with somebody?" asked Ron, quickly.

"Yep."

"A boy?" he asked, weakly.

Ginny looked at him. "Maybe."

"Oh, come on Ginny, who is he?" asked Harry, interested.

"I don't know," she said.

"You lie," snapped Ron.

"I don't. I don't know who she is going with," Ginny answered, rudely.

"But you are her best friend. You should know that," said Harry.

Ginny glared at both of them. "Well, I should, but I don't know. She didn't tell me."

"Why?"

"She said that she wasn't sure with whom she was going because she hasn't yet asked him. But that was yesterday."

"Well, ask her today," said Ron, quickly, "By the way, where is Hermione? She won't have lunch?"

"She said that she has planned to eat a lot in Honeydukes," said Ginny shrugging her shoulders, "Oh, but I would give anything to know who she is going with and to watch Draco and Luna together in Hogsmeade," she added, glancing at the Slytherin table on the other side of the Great Hall. Draco was eating his scrambled eggs and regularly glancing at the Ravenclaw table until a quite unpleasant figure stepped in front of him.

"I've just hexed a girl who was saying that you are going to Hogsmeade with Loony Lovegood. Did I do a good job, Drakey?" she asked, smiling.

Draco rolled his eyes. "No, you didn't, because I'm really going with her."

"What?" asked Pansy, looking at him with her eyes wide open, "But, Drakey, what about us?"

"Us? Pansy, there hasn't been an 'us' since our fourth year," said Draco.

"But I wanted to go to Hogsmeade with you," she protested.

"I'm sorry – no, wait I'm not," said Draco, thoughtfully.

"You are evil. You don't care about my feelings," said Pansy, with tears in her eyes.

Draco sighed and looked around. There were too many people around, so he couldn't hex Pansy. Then, he suddenly had an idea.

"You know, Pansy, you are right," he said, trying to sound convincing, "I'm really evil. But, I did all this for a friend."

Pansy wept away the tears from her eyes. "A friend?" she asked, suspiciously.

Draco nodded and signalled for her to lean down. Pansy bent towards him.

"You know, I promised not to tell you, but now I really think that you should know," he whispered into her ear, "There is a boy that wanted to ask you out for this afternoon, but he couldn't find the courage, so I didn't want to ask you out before he did."

Pansy squealed in excitement. "Who is he?"

Draco looked quickly at the Slytherin table, "Blaise," he said, "No, no, don't look at him. He will know that we are talking about him."

Pansy looked back at Draco. "Really?" she asked, brightly.

"Really," said Draco, pleased with himself, "I think that maybe you should go there and talk to him first. Maybe you can even invite him. I think that he will be utterly happy."

Pansy straightened and passed a hand through her hair. "How do I look like?" she asked Draco, distractedly.

"Perfect," he lied, "Oh, Pansy, don't tell him that I told you that, ok?"

Pansy looked at him and smiled. "Don't worry, Drakey."

"Great," he said while she walked away and sat down next to Blaise.

He thought that he was a genius and regretted not to have thought of something like that earlier. Blaise's expression was starting to become slightly horrified as Pansy kept on talking to him. Goyle, who was sitting next to him, was enjoying the scene. He searched for Crabbe, but he found him all alone many seats away from the rest of the group. He was playing with his food, which was unlike him. Draco knew that there was something strange in his comportment. He stood up, walked past Pansy, Blaise and Goyle and sat down next to Crabbe. "You are not eating?" Draco asked, quite surprised.

Crabbe jumped and jerked his head towards Draco. "I-I'm not hungry."

Draco looked at him with his mouth wide open. "What?"

"I've planned to eat a lot in Hogsmeade this afternoon, so I don't want to-"

"Oh, right, about Hogsmeade," said Draco, interrupting him, "Are you planning to go there with somebody? Goyle? Blaise? A girl?"

Crabbe choked, "I-I don't know," he said, slowly.

"Oh, don't tell me that you are going there all alone," said Draco, teasingly. Crabbe shook his head. "Who are you going there with, then?"

"If I tell you, you'll make fun of me," he said, lowering his voice.

Draco rolled his eyes. "I won't."

"You swear?"

"I swear."

"And you won't tell anybody?"

"I won't tell anybody," he said, impatiently.

"I'm going with Hermione Granger," said Crabbe in a barely audible whisper.

Draco couldn't believe his ears; Hermione really did it. "W-what? H-how?"

Crabbe nodded. "She asked me yesterday. Well, it more looked like blackmail than a date at the beginning, but she said that she will buy me everything I want in Honeydukes, so I think that now it's a date."

Draco looked at him, even more surprised. "You can say the word 'blackmail'?" Crabbe nodded again. "Cool, but now if you will excuse me, I have to look for somebody," Draco said, standing up and walking towards the door without a word further.

Hermione didn't show up for lunch. He thought he knew why; she didn't want to meet her friends. Then, she would have to explain why she was going to Hogsmeade with Crabbe and so on. But, he knew where she was.

He walked until the third floor and, almost running, he reached the Library. When he rushed inside, Madam Pince glared at him but said nothing. He found Hermione sitting at the first table all alone with lots of books open in front of her.

"I don't know if it's ok that you blackmailed Crabbe into going out with you," he said, sitting in front of her.

Hermione didn't even look at him. "Luckily, he didn't have to tell it to anybody. Anyway, I haven't blackmailed him."

"He said that at the beginning, you did."

"Well, but now, it's not blackmail anymore. He is happy to come to Hogsmeade with me," she said.

"Oh, yes, when I saw him at lunch, he was the happiest boy on Earth," Draco joked.

"What's the problem, Malfoy?" she snapped, looking at him, "I asked him out and I didn't use magic. You didn't talk about blackmailing and stuff like that when I asked you the rules." Draco mentally kicked himself for his stupidity. "If you are jealous, it's not my fault," added Hermione, trying to hide a smile.

"Jealous? Of Crabbe? Please, don't make me laugh," he said, uncomfortably.

Hermione looked at him maliciously. "Then why do you keep on bothering me about him?"

"I-I wanted to be sure that you haven't broken any rules," he said, looking everywhere but at her.

"I haven't. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go on studying," she said, lowering her eyes to the Transfiguration book.

"Oh, sure," he snapped, standing up, "See you in Hogsmeade, then."

"See you," said Hermione while he was walking out of the Library. When he disappeared outside the door, she sighed. It was almost one P.M. She still had a couple of hours to study before meeting Crabbe.

But, after only an hour and half, she stormed out of the library and headed for the Gryffindor girls dorm where she got ready. She was sure that Crabbe would have noticed her only if she was covered with Licorice Wands, so she didn't spend too much time in choosing her clothes. Hermione wore a pair of jeans, a sweater and a long coat. She found herself walking down the grounds of Hogwarts 20 minutes earlier than she should have. When she passed near the Quidditch Pitch, she heard Harry screaming at Ron. She smiled.

When the gate of Hogwarts came into sight, she saw, with great surprise that Crabbe stood there waiting for her. "You are early," she said, when she approached him.

"I was hungry," he said simply.

"Should we go, then?" she asked, sighing. Crabbe nodded and made his way towards Hogsmeade without waiting for her. Hermione followed him without saying anything. They walked down the hill and reached the first houses of the village.

"Where do you want to go?" Hermione asked him.

He looked at her as if she was from another planet. "Honeydukes, of course," he said.

"Of course," she muttered.

The walked to the main street of the village. Luckily, it was cold that day and there were not so many people around. Everybody seemed to be inside a warm shop. When they passed in front of the Three Broomsticks, Hermione looked inside distractedly and what she saw left her unexpectedly happy.

Draco was sitting at a round table drinking his Butterbeer and looking quite unhappy. At his side, Luna was talking with Padma Patil, who was holding hands with Michael Corner, who was looking at Su Li, who was in deep conversation with Lisa Turpin, who sat next to Mandy Brocklehurst, who was snogging with Stewart Ackerley, who was next to Anthony Goldstein, who was trying to capture Orla Quirke's attention. Orla Quike was, with Draco's great displeasure, looking at him in adoration.

Hermione smiled. That was even better than she would have expected.

"What are you looking at?" asked Crabbe, rudely.

"Look," she said pointing at Draco trough the window, "It looks like our little Head Boy isn't enjoying his visit to Hogsmeade," she said, laughing.

Crabbe smirked. "Yeah, that's funny," he said, looking at him, too, "Let's go now; I'm starving."

They walked to Honeydukes. When they entered, Crabbe looked like a child at Christmas morning. "You wait here," he said to Hermione, "When I'll choose all the things that I want you'll pay them for me," he said walking in the direction of a shelf full of Chocolate Frogs.

Hermione nodded and sat down on a pink chair in front of a pile of Pumpkin Pasties. She decided to buy one of them, just for calming her hunger.

When finally Crabbe walked towards her, she really hoped that the money that she had with her would have been enough. He was barely visible under a mountain of sweets of all sorts.

"I'm ready," he said from behind the mass.

Hermione gulped, "Ok," she said in a high tone of voice.

She bought everything, and, astonishingly, she received a couple of Knuts in change.

"Now we can sit down and you can watch me while I eat my sweets," said Crabbe, trying to put all the bonbons in his pockets.

"Yeah, but let's go out," said Hermione, watching a group of Gryffindors that entered the shop, "There are too many people here."

"I want to stay here," protested Crabbe.

Hermione picked up a bunch of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and waved them in front of Crabbe. "If you don't follow me out, I won't give these back to you," she said, fiercely.

Crabbe glared at her. "Ok, but don't joke on these things," he said, seriously. Hermione sighed and exited the shop with Crabbe behind her. "Where do you want to go?"

"Somewhere where nobody can find us," she said looking around.

"And where I can sit down, because I hate to eat on my feet," said Crabbe.

"This way, then," said Hermione, passing by the last houses of the village.

They were walking some feet away from each other, so that, if somebody saw them, they wouldn't have seemed to be together. But when they passed by Parvati and Lavender, the girls started to giggle. Hermione sighed and walked faster.

"Where are we going?" asked Crabbe, starting to sweat.

"You'll see."

They reached a small clearing. The Shrieking Shack was visible in the distance. A big rock could serve as a seat.

"Here you are," said Hermione, sitting down and patting the space next to her.

Crabbe rolled his eyes. He would have been happier to sit in the warmth of Honeydukes on a soft armchair but he sat down anyway because Hermione still held his in her hand. "Can I have them back, now?"

Hermione sighed and threw the sweets into his arms. He took them and started to eat in silence. It looked like he could have gone on eating forever, he started with sweet fruits, then sugary ones, and finally, he attacked the chocolate.

Hermione looked at him with her mouth wide open. That boy must have had a stomach big as a trunk.

At that very time, Hermione's stomach rumbled. She hadn't eaten since that very morning and that Pumpkin Pasty wasn't exactly a meal. With her great surprise, Crabbe handed her a Chocolate Frog.

"What? For me?" she asked, looking at him.

"I don't want you to die of hunger," he said, quickly.

"Thank you," she said, smiling. He didn't answer. "What are we gonna do now?" she asked him when she finished the Chocolate Frog.

"I don't know," said Crabbe, uncertainly, but he seriously hoped that she wouldn't suggest something like a walk.

"We can talk," she proposed.

"Hmmm, ok," he said. After all, it wasn't very bad; he just had to nod and say yes when she stopped to talk. He didn't even have to listen to her.

"I know that you are taking Herbology, this year," she said. Crabbe nodded. "Have you already done the last homework?" she asked him, "What do you think? I mean, come on, how can Professor Sprout ask something like that? I mean, even first years know that Hellebore is used for potions against evil spells and for invisibility."

Crabbe nodded, not even knowing what a Hellebore was. "No, seriously, why have you invited me today?" he asked, cutting off Hermione while she was talking about the proprieties of all the plants that she knew.

Hermione looked at him taken back. "What?"

"It looks almost like everybody is out of his mind," he said, matter-of-factly, "First Malfoy invites Loony Lovegood out, then you invite me."

"Well, I invited you because I like you," she lied, feeling rather guilty.

Crabbe looked at her, his face as red as Ron's hair. Either he was embarrassed, or he was having indigestion.

"You know, I've liked you for a lot since-"

Crabbe fell to the ground on his knees and brought his hands to his stomach, yelling in pain. Hermione sighed. He was actually having indigestion. She kneeled down next to him and pointed her wand to his stomach, murmuring a simple spell. He recovered almost immediately; Hermione helped him to get to his feet.

"How do you feel? You might have eaten too many-"

But, she was cut off once more. This time, Crabbe was pressing his lips against hers and hugging her. They were so sugary that she felt the urge to throw up what she had eaten, but tried to resist. She closed her eyes and imagined that she was kissing Draco. Luckily, she had quite a lot of imagination.

She was starting to think that Crabbe would never let her go when she heard someone screaming. A second later Crabbe was levitating upside down in front of her. She turned quickly towards the source of the scream and saw that Draco was standing some feet away from them with his wand pointed at Crabbe. "Malfoy! What do you think you are doing?" asked Hermione with her hands on her hips.

Draco looked at her with an upset expression on his face. "He was kissing you," he whispered.

"Let him down, now," she snapped.

"He was kissing you," repeated Draco.

"I know that," she said, waving a hand in front of him, "Now let him down!"

"Why?" asked Draco.

"Because he will throw up all the sweets that he had eaten and that won't be a nice show," said Hermione, matter-of-factly.

"No," said Draco, angrily, "Why was he kissing you?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Let him down," she said calmly, stepping towards him.

Draco rolled his eyes and broke the connection, causing Crabbe to fall on the ground.

"Ouch," he said when he bounced on the ground with his stomach.

Hermione kneeled down next to him. "Are you ok?" she asked Crabbe, helping him to stand up. He nodded glancing at Draco with a fearful look. "It's better if you go back to Hogwarts and maybe pay a visit to Madam Pomfrey," suggested Hermione. Crabbe nodded again and sprinted away followed by the murderous glare of Draco. When he disappeared behind the trees, Hermione turned her head towards Draco, looking simply furious. "What's your problem?"

"What's my problem? What's your problem, you mean," he snapped back.

"Excuse me?"

"I thought that you would at least thank me."

"Thank you?" Hermione was bemused.

"Crabbe was kissing you. I did you a favour," he said, bitterly.

"Shouldn't you be with Luna?" asked Hermione, suddenly.

Draco glared at her. "I was tired of all those Ravenclaws and went out for a walk and I have to say that I did the right thing."

"No, you didn't."

"Granger, if you have not yet noticed, Vincent Crabbe was kissing you."

"Oh, really, Malfoy? Luckily, you pointed it out. I didn't notice that," she said, sarcastically.

"How could you have-?"

"Aren't you forgetting something? We made a bet; remember that? – Oh wait," she said, realising something, "You dumped Luna and, naturally, you are not going to win, but you don't want me to win as well."

"What?" Draco looked at her taken back. It wasn't the real reason for what he did. He had just seen Crabbe kissing Hermione and he felt terribly bad, without even knowing why. "I didn't dump Luna. I temporarily left her in the Three Broomsticks," he said, sharply.

"Yeah of course," said Hermione, raising her eyebrows again.

"But that's not the matter – you were kissing Crabbe," he repeated, indignantly.

"You chose him for me," screamed Hermione.

"How can you kiss him?" asked Draco, ignoring her.

"You really want to know?" said Hermione glaring at him. Draco nodded. "While he was kissing me, I was imagining kissing you," she said, storming away towards the castle, leaving a stunned Draco behind her.