Heh... it took me WAY less time to update this time! Here's the chapter, revealing who was the darn editor! Unfortunately, it's not Luna. X) Oh well. Well, read and enjoy! I've been planning to get this up for a long time, except that there were darn errors every single time, until now. So... sorry for the delay...

'Padma Patil? Why the heck is she the one spreading rumours?' Blaise said, shocked. 'I thought she was just some Ravenclaw chick in the background…'

'Padma? Why are you doing this?'

Padma was shaking, then burst into tears. 'It's not fair! Like, how come Viktor likes you? If he likes bookworms, why doesn't he like me instead? And no, at the Yule Ball, instead of going with someone worth it, I had your darn friend Ron Weasley! At least Parvati had Harry instead…'

'You mean you like Krum? The big, ugly, grouchy git?' Malfoy said. 'Well, it's nothing to be worked up about…'

'Watch your mouth, Malfoy, or I'll tell Viktor,' Blaise threatened.

'Ooh, having a threesome with a staff member, now, Zabini?' Malfoy replied mockingly.

Blaise turned towards Hermione. 'You know, Malfoy's neck is the easiest for me to strangle in years! Also, I still have a stash of them Weasley twin's potion…'

Malfoy refrained from saying anything, and Hermione wasn't listening.

'Why, though? It's only Viktor, and we're not… in a relationship or anything…'

Padma sniffed. 'I know… but… it's not fair! And you always get the highest marks, too! And you're friends with Harry! How come you get everything?'

Malfoy butted in. 'No, she hasn't got a pure-blooded heritage, and I have to admit that Mudblood does get the highest mark, but you don't see me being rude to her!'

'Apart from insulting me and my friends for the five years we've been in Hogwarts…' Hermione mumbled. Malfoy scoffed.

'So that's the person Pansy said had silky hair… Wait, Patil, you do have shiny hair…'

Padma stared at him, before sobbing harder than ever. 'I'm so sorry… I don't know what I was thinking when I did it… I never knew how nice both of you are… (Malfoy scowled since he didn't like being ignored, as Padma sniffed again) You even said my hair was silky and shiny… Now it's too late… But Malfoy encouraged me… and… and…'

Hermione and Blaise glared at Malfoy. 'Merlin, you really are a traitor…' they both said at the same time.

'I didn't encourage her! I only offered to give her an interview if she was really planning to write something like that!' Malfoy defended.

'That's the same as encouraging, moron!' Blaise said. 'But Patil, er, Padma, it's no biggie, we know you didn't mean any harm…'

'B-but… I did mean to do harm… Lots of harm…'

'Well… you weren't in your right mind, then…' Hermione tried to sooth the sobbing girl. 'It's okay… they'll stop giving me the silent treatment soon…' she said unsurely. The others weren't so sure about that, either.

'Uh… I better be going now…' Malfoy said, and zoomed out of the Ravenclaw common room.

(Blaise's POV)

Today's Thursday, a few days after a shocking discovery.

It was marvellous. We found out the Padma Patil was writing the Zabini-Granger Times, and that she was deranged in the head when she did it. Absolutely excellent.

Of course, I was being sarcastic. But today, I have a big, daring plan that will change things back to normal, and stop people from thinking that I'm going out with Granger. Plus, it'll make them talk to her again.

Just yesterday, I saw her talking to Lavender Brown about… that's right, I have no idea. I wonder, what did they talk about?

(Hermione was talking to Lavender about who wrote those nasty articles, plus the fact that Blaise knows, too, and Lavender went on about how sexy Blaise was, and that she'd ask him to the ball)

Who cares, it's probably not about me, anyway…

I met up with Brown, who blushed for some unknown reason, and yet accepted my request. I asked her to get Granger. People were staring, because they'd have thought I stopped going to the Gryffindor Common Room, much less ask for Granger, because of my allegedly broken heart.

'Why did you ask Lavender to get me? Why not go to my dormitory straight away?'

'Yeah, I'd totally do that, after the many times I've seen Malcolm Baddock slide down the what-used-to-be-stairs to the girl's dormitory until he finally figured out how…'

'I don't want to know,' Hermione commented.

'Anyway, I saw you talking to Brown, so I thought she must be one of the few people who still talks to you. Does that mean she's your best friend now?'

'Well, not exactly…' she replied.

'I have something to tell you,' I started. 'Go to lunch today, and you won't regret it.'

I know for a fact that she stopped going to lunch after the latest article by Padma Patil was published, and got the house-elves to deliver it to the dormitory (or so I've heard Potter say). Does that mean she stopped with her rumoured elf-welfare-concerned society?

I certainly hope so. I don't want her storming into my house and blackmailing me to give them clothes. I shuddered at the thought.

'Why?'

'Just do it, okay? If you don't, my planning will go down the drain…' I replied.

'You planned something?' Granger asked.

'Can you stop asking questions? Well, I better go now, I see Theo eavesdropping…'

Theo stood there, and asked me, 'How's Granger? I can't believe that people with believe the Zabini-Granger crap…'

'Would you believe me if I said Gr-Hermione was innocent?' I questioned.

Theo laughed. 'You think I'm some jerk who wouldn't trust my best friend? And hey, I think Hermione could be trusted, too. And don't worry, Derek, or as we call him now, Romeo, Xerxes, and so on are on your side.'

At times like this, I didn't regret being friends with these particular people.

The dreaded (or not) moment arrived for me to help Granger out with her sticky situation. I entered the hall and saw that Granger was indeed having lunch next to Theo and Potter, and the other people's stares.

I climbed on the Slytherin table, and I could've been shaking so badly. Now, all the stares were towards me.

'Mr Zabini, it's unacceptable to–' Umbridge started to fake-sweetly say, before I cleared my throat.

'Well… guys… Granger and I have hidden a minor fact away from you… You see, the truth is… we're not going out. Never did, never even thought about doing it… So we both lied to all of you guys, and we're truly sorry.'

Granger, blushing, climbed onto the table, too. 'We are, seriously. We only did it because… well… we… uh… want the Slytherins and Gryffindors to stay as friends! We thought that if they stopped SGU and stuff, the two houses would be enemies again!' she improvised, leaving out the fact that we pretended so SGU won't keep pissing us off.

Suddenly, the Gryffindors and Slytherins laughed, and Parvati Patil climbed on the table as well. While the other staffs, even McGonagall merely chuckled, Snape and Umbridge looked most displeased.

'What are you talking about? We only did that because, thanks to you guys, us Gryffindors, and Slytherins,' she said, looking at the people with green on their robes, 'finally realised how much we got in common! (Snape made a disgusted face at this) We just wanted to thank you both by, well, encouraging your relationship…'

A few shouts of "You tell 'em!" and "Yeah, that's right!" were heard.

'Oh well, that means we have to find another Slytherin-Gryffindor couple then! Any ideas, Theodore?' Patil said, and batted her eyelashes at my best friend, who turned as red as the Hogwarts Express.

By the end of lunch, everything was better for Granger, and dozens of people apologised to her. By the time that the whole apologising frenzy was over, Granger approached me.

'Um… thanks… a lot… But how can you be that daring?' Granger said. 'I thought that was meant to be a Gryffindor trait…'

'Well, I enjoy being in Slytherin, enough, thank you very much,' I replied.

'Uh… it was very nice of you to continue to pretend to go out with me…'

'Er… same here, thanks…' I said nervously.

Without anything else to say, she walked away, and waved. I waved back.

'I can't believe you,' Theo commented, with an angry tone in his voice.

'Why?'

'You never told me both of you weren't going out! Not a single of us knew!' Theo answered. Derek and Xerxes nodded.

'Look, I can understand if you guys are mad with me, but–'

Before I could finish, they all burst out laughing.

'Are you serious? How can we get angry at you for such a trivial thing like that?'

I stuttered. 'Well... I... But-'

Derek punched me playfully on the arm, and then we headed towards the Dungeons for another excellent lesson of Potions.

(Hermione's POV)

Potions, was as usual, boring. Except it was better, what with Ron talking to me again. Of course, Zabini's friends are still sitting with us, because Derek Dunston had become such a good friend of Harry's. Oh, and Zabini is still here, too, even though he didn't seem to like Ron much.

Ron asked for me earlier to wait for him, because he wanted to say something to me. So I did.

Outside the classroom, he cleared his throat. 'Uh… Hermione… remember last year, when you said that if I'm worried with you going with other people, I should ask you first?'

'Um… yeah…' I said, having a sheer idea of where this is going.

'Well… so I decided to ask you way earlier than anyone else who might want to ask you… Heck, it could be Krum…'

'Ron, didn't you read the notice properly? It said staff members aren't allowed to take students…'

Ron flushed. 'Well, whatever. Anyway, um, Hermione… can I go to the ball with, erm, you?'

I wasn't sure, because I know, deep, deep inside, I have imagined Zabini to take me. But that was back in our pretend-to-go-out-and-make-an-impression days, so he probably wouldn't even want to take me... And Iam pretty desperate… And I was the one who suggested to Ron to ask me…

'Well… uh…'