Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I really appreciate it. I'm sorry I haven't been updating as much as I probably should, and from now on since I'm going back to school I won't be updating as much. I will update as much as humanly possible though. Thank you.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 4. They Know We Know
Hermione went down to breakfast early and sat with Ginny. She didn't say anything for a while because there weren't that many people in the Great Hall and she didn't want anyone to overhear the conversation. As more people filled the Great Hall she spoke quietly to Ginny.
"The boys know." Ginny stopped eating and looked at Hermione.
"Wait, they know we know?" Hermione nodded trying to look calm, but honestly, she knew they couldn't be caught.
"Jerks. Are you sure?" Ginny began eating slowly, trying to look casual, but she didn't think it was working.
"Last night Draco questioned me abut Friday Night Special." At least they knew the name now.
"How very Slytherin of him." Hermione smiled, yes, Draco Malfoy was the definition of Slytherin.
"I told him I couldn't say that I knew anything, but I'll ask around to see what other people knew."
"Nice."
"Thank you." The girls got quiet when Harry and Ron sat down. The latter of which looked very upset about something, and Hermione and Ginny were slightly worried. When Ron was upset, everyone paid for it. No one said anything, all were waiting for the moment they knew was coming.
"Why? That's all I bloody want to know!" Ron exploded hitting the table with his fist. Several all around the Great Hall looked at Ron; some saying he finally went mental, others wondering who angered him now.
"Mate, I don't know. Ask yourself." This seemed to have a calming affect on Ron, who was breathing deeply and noticeable relaxed.
"Sorry, mate. I'm sorry." This outburst could occurred on a deserted island with no regard for anyone else. So Harry was involved but not Ron? Interesting, and so very cunning.
"Well boys, Hermione and I must be off. Girl talk, you know." Ginny got up and pulled Hermione with her, quickly exiting the Great Hall, and traveling rapidly down a hallway.
"What, Gin?" Hermione couldn't fathom what had Ginny moving so quickly.
"I got a hunch." Ginny began walking up a staircase and then moved down a winding hallway.
"Mind sharing?" Ginny laughed. "Gin, we have to go to class in twenty minutes."
"I know, but I'm wondering what's in the Room of Requirements right now." Hermione quickened her pace.
The girls made it to the Room of Requirement and both thought of the Friday Night Special. The door opened and showed something the girls weren't expecting. It looked like a waiting room. The walls were white, with large dark colored furniture, and the lights turned low, at a romantic level. There was a podium that held papers, and had a return slot. Hermione and Ginny walked to one of the many doors lining the walls and opened it, expecting to find anything but the void space it held. Hermione continued to walk around the room and ended at the podium.
"You have to fill out a questionnaire, then whatever the girl's desires will appear." Ginny grabbed a sheet and then glanced at her watch.
"Mya, we gotta fly to class!" Hermione looked at her watch, and practically flew to the door.
"Head's common, after the last class!" Ginny nodded and race down another hallway. Hermione ran all the way down to the dungeons, never stopping, not even when she thought she was going to make it. When she could see the door, she slowed but kept a brisk pace. Hermione walked through the doors a second before Snape.
"Is there a reason that you are late, Head Girl?" Snape went to his desk and began rummaging for something.
"Head business." Hermione didn't even wait a beat. It was a ready excuse, and one that was fathomable.
"I wasn't aware there were any duties that you had to attend to this morning." She wasn't aware he knew when ever her and Head Boy had duties.
"Research." Snape didn't' push the subject since he wasn't entirely sure she was lying.
"Everyone will be making a Paradise Potion. It will allow you and your partner to see your future, your exact future, and it allows you to change some choices or creates choices so you can chose your 'paradise'. Of course, you should always be careful because what you think is paradise, may be torture. Now, does anyone know how long the Paradise Potion takes to brew?" Snape looked around the room, and there was Hermione with her hand raised, but not with the same vigor she used to use. Snape ignored her as usual and continued speaking. "It will take six months, which is why we start now, so you can allow for changes. Begin." Snape tapped the board and went to his desk.
"Herms, where were you?" Ron didn't even make an effort to do the work, but watched while Hermione got everything. How she hated that nickname.
"Ron, work on the potion."
"Hermione-"
"Weasley, you reminded me of something I forgot. 10 points from Griffindor. From now until the end of the school year, you will have new potion partners. Pick someone from another house, or I will chose for you. Oh, Head Boy and Head Girl, you work together, as is the custom at Hogwarts. Now begin. No outside chatter!" Everyone picked someone from the opposite class and began working quietly and impatiently together. The tension was thick everywhere.
Hermione and Draco began working silently and compatibly together. They never crowded on another, and almost anticipated the others next move. It looked well choreographed and showed how well they had mastered potions.
When they bell rang they were the only ones in the classroom that were surprised. They cleaned their area, put away all their ingredients and left as quietly as they had worked together, moving onto their next class. Snape had watched everyone from behind his desk and wrote his observations of the pairing, and the workmanship. Dumbledore would be pleased with the current events.
For Hermione her classes went by horribly slow. Even lunch took and eon of her time. So when the last bell of the day rang Hermione was the first one out the door and rushed to get to the Head's dorm. She found Ginny waiting for her on the couch.
"They thought of everything." Hermione pulled out her copy of the questionnaire. Your name, the name of the desired person, what setting you wanted, how you wanted the sex- it even went as far as to put choices that you could check off.
"They want to be thorough so the girl has a magical night living out her fantasies." Hermione had never thought that Draco could be so full of compassion, but obviously he had some stored away somewhere in his deeply covered heart.
"What's with the waiting room though? Do they really expect the girls to sit there and wait for 'their man' to get finished with another woman?"
"Way too many catfights." Hermione smiled at the thought of the boys trying to break up the girls fighting. No, the boys wouldn't want the girls fighting, because they could always turn. That's not what they wanted.
"Dinner's about to start." Hermione was broken out of her thoughts by Ginny, and the two make their way out of the room and nearly collided with Blaise and Draco in the hallway.
"Watch it, Granger!" Draco all but snarled at the look of surprise ob her face.
"Excuse me?"
"Suddenly dense? Watch. It." Hermione wasn't sure why Head Boy was angry, but he had no call taking it out on her.
"You almost ran into us!" Ginny wasn't about to let Hermione get talked to like that. They didn't have to stand there and take that crap, and she wasn't going to.
"Weaslette, now would not be a good time to speak, or are you as dense as Granger?" Ginny's face turned red with anger.
"Listen, you prick, I don't know what got jammed up your ass, but you need to get over it." Blaise was about to say something when Draco addressed Hermione.
"Granger, why do you have to be suck a mudblood?" Draco growled so fiercely that she was more taken aback by his tome than by his words, but when the shock vanished, the pain set in. Ginny's gasp was the only thing that could be heard for a moment. Hermione couldn't speak, his words had cut deeper than they had before, the insult more fierce this time.
"Why do you have to be such a Malfoy?" The words were whispered but she was on the verge of tears, so the insult stung more than a slap.
"If you only knew-"
"Blaise, now's not the time." Draco disappeared through the portrait. Blaise just couldn't let them think that they knew everything.
"You had no call to say that." Hermione was currently having trouble finding her voice so Ginny spoke for her.
"Run along to your master, bitch." Ginny grabbed Hermione's arm and steered her away from the dorm and to the nearest bathroom.
"Weaslette just called me a bitch." Blaise was furious and in shock as he entered the Head's dorm, and this was never a good combination for Slytherins.
"We can't tell them why we're mad without telling them we're behind everything. It doesn't matter that they already know. It's the principle! And that's all the more frustrating!" Draco ran his hands through his hair and sat down in a chair.
"The both have tempers that match our own. In the case of Girl Weasel, I'd say hers surpasses my own. I'd heard about her temper, and she lives up to it." Blaise shook his head. He was supposed to be concentration on being angry, not how good she looked mad. He was supposed to be pissed about them snooping around the Room of Requirements, not thinking of what she was doing right now.
"I crossed a line, Blaise. A line I'd promised myself I wouldn't cross. She got me so angry, and I couldn't yell at her legitimately, so I said the one thing to get her more upset than anything else I could have said. And she throws the fact that I'm a Malfoy in my face. I don't even believe that rubbish. I didn't even mean to say it." Draco remembered the emotions that had played on her face. The shock, the indignation, the pain, and how deeply wounded her eyes looked.
"She'll bounce back. She always does." Draco shook his head thinking of her eyes.
"Not this time. It was different somehow. It was worse this time." Blaise knew Draco was right but didn't know what to do or say to comfort him.
"Ask Potter."
"What?" Blaise hadn't meant to say it out loud. It was just a thought that popped into his head.
"Ask Potter what to do. Explain the situation, tell him whatever you fell necessary, and ask for his help." Draco thought it over and walked across the room to the desk and wrote a short note before tying it to a school owl with instructions not to some buck without a reply.
The girls still hadn't told them what was wrong. Harry knew something was wrong, he could tell by the way they walked, the ways they sat, they way they spoke. The girls had walls of protection around them. It was a sign of being hurt, but he didn't know how to break down the wall. Usually they told him what was wrong, it was what he was there for, to protect and serve and honor them, but this time they cut him out. That told him it was something to do with a boy, but both of them. Harry shook his head as Ron tried yet again to get around and through the wall. He was only making it worse.
An owl can barreling through the air and landed on Harry's shoulder. When the owl didn't fly off once he untied the letter, Harry understood he was supposed to reply.
Potter-
Normally I don't ask for help, but I need it now. I crossed a line, one I promised myself I wouldn't cross, and am now at a loss of what to do.
-Malfoy
Harry instantly understood. He pulled a quill out of his pocket and wrote a quick concise note on the back of the parchment and sent the owl on it's way with a small treat.
"What was that?" Ron had food swirling around in his mouth and Harry looked at his girls.
"Business."
Draco practically snatched the note the moment the owl reappeared.
Malfoy-
Apologize. Tell Zabani he should too.
-Potter
Draco handed the not to Blaise and thought of ways he could apologize. He had never done so before, but how hard could it be to say you were sorry for being incredibly stupid. Incredibly hard considering he didn't even know where to begin.
"Best be off then." Draco nodded absently as Blaise left the common room. It wasn't like he could just blurt out the apology, he had to make it mean something. He continued to think until he thought his head would explode.
Blaise walked the halls hoping he wasn't too late, and hoping she wasn't surrounded by the body guards that were always so near.
Harry saw Blaise and steered Ron slightly away, and down another hallway never breaking conversation, and silently wished Blaise luck.
"I pulled that wand out of my ass." Ginny was so caught up in her thoughts she didn't even realize that she was alone, until Blaise spoke and brought her out of her ravine.
"Good, but you're still a jerk." Blaise grinned and Ginny melted on the inside. No wonder he doesn't do anything but smirk and sneer, anything else and girls would throw themselves at him. Worse than they already do.
"You're not peaches all the time either." Ginny knew what he was talking about and nearly blushed.
"I'm sorry."
"I believe that was my line. You should be in bed, sixth year, before you get caught walking the halls at night, alone. You never know who might come upon you." Ginny smiled and wondered if he was talking about himself, at least on some level.
"Night." Ginny made her way to the Griffindor common room. Blaise waited until she was out of sight before replying.
"Good night, Ginny."
Hermione walked in expecting a fight and was pleasantly surprised to find the commons dark except the fire, and quiet except the breathing of Head Boy on the couch. Hermione made her way up the stairs and quietly shut the door to get ready for bed but stopped when she saw the note.
Head Girl-
I decided to prolong the fight, and sleep on the couch. Night.
-Head Boy
Hermione smiled and walked down to the commons wearing her small purple lingerie outfit that was a snug as a second skin. She watched Draco sleep for a minute before bending to kiss his forehead and spoke quietly to she didn't wake him.
"I'm sorry too, Draco. Ginny and I were only looking, but we shouldn't've been. Good night." Hermione kissed him again and quietly made her way up the stairs, leaving the door open. Draco opened his eyes the second she was at the top of the stairs. He'd been awake since she walked in the portrait.
"Good night, Hermione." That night, Draco's dreams were plagued with Hermione wearing that little number during classes.
AN: chapter 5 will be longer than any other chapter, and hopefully up soon.