BZ/HG, DM/HP. So contains slash obviously. Written because I'm ill (when it's the end of term and I should be spending my time in a constant alcohol induced stupor) and can't sleep because the walls in my dorm room are ridiculously thin and my friend likes to watch repeats of Jeremy Kyle (British talk show for all you Americans etc) until the early hours of the morning. But I rather like it so decided to post it and see what you think. I'm also rather proud of the chapter length as I have the attention span of a retarded goldfish. I'll carry on writing and you can let me know if you want more of it posted. Feel free to make any comments you so wish. Romance, Humour and perhaps a tad bit of angst, but only a little, cause we like to be happy people, right?

I own nothing but some painkillers, Lemsip and flu tablets.

She raced ahead toward the finish line as she felt her newest opponent creep up behind her. She was sweating as her hair, which she had attempted to tame only this morning, reached a new level of bushiness seen only in her first two years of Hogwarts. The air was crackling with electricity as she saw Harry watch her from the sidelines with the look of growing amusement he always wore when she competed in the races. She was always the strongest contender in these races. That was until one young man had strolled calmly and collectively out of the woodwork and challenged her to her toughest competition yet. They had toiled to win, each winning some and losing some, until recently, when she had seemed to lose more then she had won. This was her moment of glory though and she felt a surge of adrenaline run through her as she reached the last leg of the race….

"Finished professor!"

Damn, she thought as she lay down her quill after finishing her last theory of transfiguration question, he had done it again. She shot a covert look out of the corner of her eye and was not surprised to see him simply hand his finished questions to Professor McGonagall and divert his attention to whispering the answers quietly to Malfoy as the blonde cheated his way through yet another theory mock exam. He did not even flicker an eyelid as she raised her hand to let the professor know she had finished, though she could swear he must feel it just like she did. The competition, the electricity, the last surge past the finish line, but no it seemed that Blaise Zabini, with all his fire and intelligence, was simply unaware of this one sided little race for glory. And that was it, that was the one thing that annoyed her most. Not the fact that at the present time he seemed to beat her at everything she did, but the fact that he was so arrogant as to ignore her as a challenge. Was she not clever enough, had she not proved time and time again that she was the smartest, most logical witch Hogwarts has ever seen! She slammed her fist on her desk so loud that those within a five metre vicinity turned to give her bewildered looks including Ron who of course was oblivious, until now, to her current state of anxiety. Harry on the other hand had a half amused, half knowing look in his eye that he had seemed to wear constantly since the start of sixth year.

It was something he had acquired over the summer, well, that and his new found knowledge that he was in fact gay. Yup gay, who would have thought it. Hermione had been the first to know of course, and even she was a little surprised. Harry had never been known for his impeccable dress sense or emotional sensitivity when it came to her moodier times of the month, but he had come back from his summer holidays with a new innate knowledge of exactly how to react when you were cramping, screaming or crying. Though of course Harry would always be Harry, and his new found homosexuality would never take away from his horrendous temper which still scared the most masculine of men when aroused, and his entire lack of fashion sense. Yes, gay or not, he was still her Harry. Ron of course was another matter. When Harry had eventually got round to telling him, after a great deal of prodding on her behalf, Ron had not spoken to Harry for a whole week. Then in truly great Ron fashion, he had barged into the common room, red about the ears, and declared that if any man hurt his Harry they would have him to answer to. After the laughter had died down, and after Ron had threatened violence on every person in the room, the two had made up with a 'manly' hug and a gruff apology from Ron.

Harry of course was now hot property, many men tried to take their chance, and the girls simply would not stop trying. Ron made it his business to look out for Harry and establish whether each prospective mate was good enough, which of course they were not. That, thankfully, allowed Hermione time to herself without having her 'two big brothers' around to scare off her own prospective partners, not of course that she was looking. When she was not completing homework, attending to prefect duties, or of course attending to Ron's homework, she was preoccupied by the tall brooding Italian who seemed to have been inadvertently going out of his way to make sure he remained the bane of her existence. Yes, this man was quite a mystery to Hermione. She looked over just in time to see him give Malfoy one of his rare half smiles, or perhaps smirk would be a better word, and run his hand through his black-blue curls that were just long enough to tease the nape of his neck and fall gracefully into his eyes. He was quiet in class, and only seemed to raise his hand to answer a question when he could be bothered. He seemed to talk only to Malfoy, heaven knows why, and Theodore Nott. It seemed that the three had become the trio of Slytherin, though they were certainly not as popular as their Gryffindor comparison. In fact Hermione had noticed that the three, who would take class, eat lunch and socialize only with each other, seemed to be breaking further and further away from their Slytherin counterparts. Malfoy of course, still walked his arrogant walk, and laughed quietly when others threw scathing remarks at Harry, though no insults had ever slipped from his own lips all year, and he had become nervous at times around his own house. Hermione of course had her hopes that perhaps Malfoy was slipping from the Slytherin grasp and heritage but he still seemed firmly rooted in his king of the world capacity around all other houses. Hermione, though she tried hard not to, still believed that perhaps a Malfoy, was always a Malfoy.

Just then she was awoke form her brooding on the trio by a light tap on her shoulder.

"Mione, class was dismissed five minutes ago and I'm starving so hurry the bloody hell up!"

"Wow Ron, your social etiquette astounds me" said an amused Harry from behind Ron. "Cant you see she was checking Malfoy out"

Hermione wasted no time in whacking Harry across the arm; she could not of course reach his head after his long overdue growth spurt, with an enormous book.

Ron scoffed.

"Like our Hermione would ever stoop that low", and then proceeded to barge past any lingerers to get out the classroom.

Hermione noticed the slightly abashed look on Harry's face before his eyes resumed his usual twinkle.

"What Harry? Someone struck a chord?" she said teasingly as he grinned and put his arm round her to lead her out the classroom.

"Now why on earth would you say that" he said before whispering, "astronomy tower tonight, 11 o'clock, I feel the need for one of our little chats".

Hermione nodded, and began to make her way out of the classroom. As she reached the last row of desks someone stepped out from behind a table and collided with her, causing her to drop her Harry-hitting book. As she bent down to get it her head crashed into Harry's who had immediately bent down to help. After a certain amount of ow'ing and fussing, Hermione stood up to find herself face to face with the brightest pair of indigo eyes she had ever had the pleasure of seeing. Her breath hitched in her chest as she realized the owner of these eyes was talking to her.

"Granger, you might want to be more careful, this thing is a danger to human beings"

His words, tinted with that slight Italian accent, rolled off his tongue like honey, and it took all her Gryffindor pride not to sigh aloud. An incredibly pathetic "yes…well…" made it off her tongue as Malfoy started to snicker in the background.

"Hey Blaise, you seem to have managed to make Granger all hot and flustered. Who would have thought, little miss know it all has the ability to get excited about something other than a book…."

"Malfoy"…Harry started toward him, but was interrupted by Zabini.

"Do excuse my friend Granger, it seems jealousy will cause him to lose all capacity for manners…"

He gave her a small nod of the head and swept out of the room, leaving both herself and Malfoy gasping like fish out of water.

"Yeah yeah Malfoy, we know, girl parts are disgusting" Nott said, interrupting the inarticulate fish impressions.

"NOTT…" Malfoy managed to choke out, his face turning the colour of a particularly juicy beetroot, as he gave Harry a worried look and headed after Zabini muttering something about the impossibility of finding decent henchmen these days. Nott gave them both one last amused look as he trotted after the blonde.

"Well that was…"

"Informative" finished Harry as his gaze still lingered on the door the slytherins had swept out of. Hermione smiled, she knew exactly what he was thinking, though she was not sure it was entirely the right thing to think. 'Oh well', she thought as a fresh wave of embarrassment ran to her already flushed cheeks at the thought of her encounter with her annoyingly calm competitor, they would talk that one over tonight.

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Dinner had been the usual affair. Ron scoffed down his meal with the table etiquette of a Blast Ended Screwt, as Hermione disciplined him on the need for manners, and Harry made furtive glances across the great hall. A small amount of homework was completed after dinner, along with a large amount of lounging on the boy's behalf, and the day was well behind them. Both Hermione and Harry made a particular show of going to bed early. None of which was of course noticed by Ron, who spent the majority of the time glancing across the room at Parvati's particularly short skirt.

By the time ten thirty came, Hermione found herself sitting impatiently on her bed, waiting for eleven to come around so she could meet both Harry and his invisibility cloak in the Gryffindor common room. She was used to these late night conversations with Harry, and of course the subject matter was usually the same. Malfoy. Always Malfoy. It seemed rather ironic to Hermione that Harry would begin to have a crush on his former enemy, but apparently he had begun to feel something for Malfoy in his fourth year. She had discouraged him at first of course. In fact she hadn't understood at all. I mean for heavens sake, the boy had spent half his life calling her foul names, but she had tried to be supportive of Harry and his new sexuality and so tried to be understanding. Malfoy was handsome; there was no doubt about that. Half the school considered him some sort of sex god. He had lost the slicked back look, and now his white blonde hair fell in his eyes, which were unusual in their colour, changing between cloudy to steely silver depending on his mood. He had also grown a great deal, much the same as Harry, Draco Malfoy was no longer a boy. Though damn it she could swear that she spent half her life talking about him. Now it turned out Malfoy was inclined towards his own sex she could see that those proportions would rocket. Oh well, she supposed she got something out of it too. She usually spent the latter part of their little talks ranting about Him. Just the thought of him got her all on edge. She ran her hands through her hair and flopped back down on her bed. All he seemed to do was make her feel insecure in the only thing she had on anybody else. I mean, it wasn't like she was a social butterfly, or some sort of outstanding beauty. She couldn't fly, play any sport, damn it she couldn't even cook (bar the usual beans on toast when her parents were at work).

She got up off her bed and walked over to the full length mirror some idiotic woman seemed to think was a must have in every girl's bedroom. As it happens, all it did was to make her feel worse. I mean, god what had she done in a past life to deserve this hair. Her hair, already decidedly curly and wild had taken on a whole new level of frizziness due to her stress induced attack on it. The only thing she liked was the colour. It was a deep chestnut, and the remnants of the summers honey coloured strands still hung about her hair when the autumn sunlight decided to show its face. Of course Ginny, who for some reason had turned into Lavender Brown's evil twin sister over the summer months, was constantly nagging at her for a few highlights here or a few highlights there. So far she had resisted the urge just to give in to Ginny and her incessant beautifying and she planned to keep it that way. I mean she might not be model material but at least she could say that she didn't have to spend an hour getting ready in the morning just to look alive!

After her not so satisfying reappraisal of herself she noticed that the clock had already struck eleven so she grabbed an old jumper knitted by Mrs Weasley and hurried down the spiral staircase leading from the girl's dormitories. She saw Harry waiting by the portrait hole; the common room was unusually empty.

"It was only that seventh year Lackley left" he said noticing her surprise. "For some reason when I sat next to him and complained that we had never become properly acquainted he seemed to get miraculously tired and retired to his dorm." He said grinning.

"Harry James Potter! I never knew you had it in you!"

"Well.." said Harry, "I don't suppose the hand on the knee helped to calm his nerves…"

She gave Harry a playful tap over the head, laughing; she knew quite well that Lackley was a boy who liked to parade his masculinity around Hogwarts.

"Hey" he said as they made there way out of the portrait hole, ignoring the Fat Lady's questions, "in civilised circles I believe that's called Harry abuse"

"Oh I see Mr Potter" she said in her best Snape impression, "they have made up an entirely new type of abuse just for the famous Harry Potter?"

"Why of course Miss Granger, one knows that everybody loves me!"

"Oh but do they now?" she teased "Last time I checked, a certain arrogant blonde had not started sending roses over breakfast…"

"Oh woe is me…" Harry said, but she could see the slightly hurt look as his green eyes took on a new brightness.

"I was only teasing" she started.

"Don't worry about Mione, we'll leave that until were in the tower yeah?"

"Sure" she said giving him an encouraging smile as they headed stealthily threw the winding halls of Hogwarts.

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"I don't know why I like him so much, I know it's wrong I just…." Harry trailed off.

It was two hours since they had reached the astronomy tower and they had been talking about Malfoy since. It had just been the usual. How wrong it was. How much he couldn't help himself. How his hair fell sexily across his eyes. And yet for some reason, Harry had not yet brought up today's revelation. Hermione had just listened to his melancholy monologue of the woes of Malfoy hoping that he would bring up the subject when he was ready. However Harry was not just waltzing round the subject, he was pirouetting. She sighed, and thought that perhaps now was the time to throw her tact out the window.

"Harry" she said tentatively, "about today…"

He sighed and ran his hands through his jet black mess of hair.

"Wondered how long of me rambling on it would take you to bring that one up. I, I just…I don't know."

"Don't know…"

"It makes it real" Harry said suddenly and rather loudly, making her jump slightly.

"But surely that's…"

"What? A good thing? That I now have even the slightest chance with a smarmy little sod whose father is number one to an arch enemy who spends his life trying to do me in? Yeah, I mean we could just send the wedding invitations out now…."

"There's no need to get cocky with me Harry…"

"I know I'm sorry Mione, it's just difficult."

"Look, I'm not exactly Malfoy's number one fan but for the life of me I just can't imagine him being evil. There's something in him, I don't exactly what it is or whether it would take a team of highly trained specialists to find it, but there's, there's just something!" she said, trying desperately to get her meaning across to the lovesick boy.

"He has been acting weird recently, and I guess Zabini and Nott are not the most atrocious of Slytherins he could have picked for friends…" he said thoughtfully

"Exactly" she said, "I mean he done away with his two moronic bodyguards didn't he? And that Parkinson idiot has stopped hanging off him at every given moment. I mean Zabini and Nott, though one of them is the single most annoying human being on the face of the planet, generally keep themselves to themselves. I mean when have you ever heard one of them insult other people…"

"And speaking of Zabini" Harry said interrupting her rant when her train of thought had just become coherent.

"What about the Pratt?" Hermione said confused.

"Pratt?" Harry said with a snigger, "you weren't calling him a Pratt today when he was picking up your book like the perfect gentleman."

"I think you will find, Harry, that he in fact insulted my book. Which you will find that I don't find terribly charming. In fact I don't think I like what you are insinuating Mr Potter."

"Well Miss Granger, I don't know what you are insinuating that I am insinuating"

"Well you will find that I am insinuating what you insinuated to be…oh Bugger off Harry I'm not even going there."

Harry stood up and started parading round the room giving mock bows and waves.

"Oh yes, I am the king of the witty banter! The king of the witty banter am I!"

"Oh put a sock in it Harry, I think even Ronald could beat you in the witty banter portion…"

"Yeah Potter, I think Grangers finally on to something there" Drawled a voice form near the darkened doorway.

"Malfoy" Harry said as he turned worriedly from his little victory jig. The look of surprise on his face was comical. "How long have you been there?"

"Just long enough to see your unfortunate excuse for a victory dance thank god." he said, beckoning someone into the room from behind him.

Harry had visibly relaxed upon hearing that Malfoy had not heard of his confessions of lust, but tensed up again as the someone Malfoy had beckoned into the tower turned out to be more of a couple of someone's. Hermione looked up to see both Zabini and Nott come forward from the doorway. Zabini looked as usual, calm and collected with a slight semblance of a smirk evident on his face. Nott looked interested, if not slightly worried at the hand Harry held around his wand.

"Well, as a prefect I think it's going to be difficult to not punish you for being out this late…" drawled Malfoy.

"An as a prefect I could very well do the same" she said, finally finding her voice.

"You're not on duty rounds Granger"

"And if I remember rightly Malfoy, neither are you" she said standing up to her full height and placing her hands on her hips.

For some reason this seemed to make Zabini smirk even more.

"Problem Zabini?" she said, getting increasingly annoyed at his superior demeanour, I mean at least Malfoy had the decency to look annoyed.

"Not at all Granger, not at all" he said giving her a mock bow.

She sniffed at his arrogance and turned to Malfoy.

"Loath as I am to admit it Malfoy, I feel we must come to an agreement"

Malfoy obviously didn't want to give up his chance that easily.

"And why the hell should I do that, I could always just go to sev…Professor Snape, who I am sure could patch up the whole incident nicely."

"Draco just let it go" said Zabini, but not quickly enough to dim Harry's anger.

"You think just because you're a slimy death eater in waiting you can…."

Malfoy looked like he was about to explode but his voice was low, and for the first time the glint in his eye looked dangerous.

"Do… not…call…me…that…"

"Why not Malfoy, daddy won't take you into the family business?"

Before Harry could finish Zabini's wand was trained between Harry's eyes. Hermione felt herself unable to make a move to even defend Harry. She knew Zabini was talented of course, but she had never expected him to be dangerous. And frankly, his whole presence emanated power.

"Listen Potter; do not talk about things you have no hope to even begin to comprehend. You have no idea who we are."

Even Harry looked scared. Zabini, who usually spent his time lounging behind a desk, had never seemed so tall. He was well built as well. Certainly Harry would have no chance of besting him physically. Of course, that would never shut Harry up in the long run.

"Than pray tell Zabini, who are you?"

Zabini's eyes narrowed. He had obviously not expected the question. This gave Hermione a chance to put her hand over Zabini's wand and slowly lower it to his side. He looked down at his lowered wand, and then stared at the hand on her arm like it was some sort of alien life form.

"Please…" she said training her gaze on him as their eyes met for the second time that day.

"Malfoy this doesn't need to happen" she said, unable to tear her gaze away from Zabini.

Zabini gave her a slight nod and turned to Malfoy.

"Draco, it's pointless to try…."

Malfoy looked at him with what looked suspiciously like hurt in his eyes. Hermione, and from the look on his face Harry, had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Though as this seemed to placate everyone somewhat she thought it in their best interests to keep her questions to herself.

Malfoy nodded as Nott placed a hand on the small of his back and led him toward the door in an unlikely display of affection. Zabini took one last fleeting look at Harry and then an uncomfortably lingering glance directly in to Hermione's eyes and turned to leave. The two Gryffindor's did not have a chance to let out the breath they didn't even realise they were holding before Malfoy turned sharply at the door and trained his eyes on Harry.

"I am NOT my father" he said in the same low tones as before, something incomprehensible brimming in his grey eyes.

Harry simply looked straight back at him, the silence was stifling. The moment was broken as Malfoy again turned sharply and left the tower followed by his two friends.

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