After Harry had gotten over his initial shock, he sprinted all the way back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Hermione!" He shouted as he burst through the portrait whole. Several people turned to stare at him as he paused in the entrance, his gaze traveling around the room. He caught sight of Hermione's bushy brown hair whipping around the corner and up the girls staircase.

He immediately made for the stairs. He sprinted to them and jumped up the first three steps. He had taken one more step when there was a loud whistle and the stairs transformed into a giant slide. Harry lost his balance and fell, arms flailing, down the stairs, coming to land at the bottom in a heap.

He scowled at the slide that had appeared and pushed himself to his feet.

"Fucking founders," he cursed to himself.

"Language, Harry!" Hermione called down the stairs. Harry scowled up in the direction her voice had come from.

"Hermione, come down here!" Harry yelled up the stairs. When there was no answer, Harry looked again at the stairs, contemplating what could be done.

"Seamus, come here," he called. Seamus pulled himself out of the armchair he was in and came over to Harry, an interested look on his face.

"What do you need, Harry?" He asked.

"A lift," Harry said with a grin. Seamus gave him a confused look and Harry grinned at him.

"Huh?"

"Use a levitation charm," he told him. A look of comprehension dawned on Seamus' face and he preformed the levitation charm. Harry floated up the staircase until he found the correct dormitory. He stepped off on the landing and pushed open the door slowly.

He was surprised at the decor. He'd expected it to be covered in pink with frilly lace objects scattered around, much like Aunt Petunia's guest room. Instead it looked much the same to Harry's dorm although it seemed to be a bit neater than his and there were piles of books, no doubt Hermione's.

Hermione looked up as he entered and her mouth fell open.

"How did you get in here?" She asked in surprise. Harry shrugged.

"I'm resourceful." Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"So what do you want?" She asked as if he'd interrupted something terribly important.

"I want you to explain!" Harry exclaimed, thinking it had been obvious.

"Explain what?" Hermione asked innocently, turning back to the desk in the room.

"You know what. Don't play with me. I'm not Ron, I actually know what you're doing," Harry said, appealing to her rational side.

Hermione sighed and turned to face Harry, who stood firmly in the middle of the room, staring at her.

"Fine, Harry. I'll explain. Although I don't see why I'm the one who has to explain. I'm not the one who kept a secret from me for two months!"

"Yeah, well..." Harry said with no real explanation to give. Hermione gave him a knowing look and he scowled.

"Yes, anyway, today Pansy told me about your little game, well not all of it since she doesn't know it all, does she?" Harry shook his head no, wondering where she was going. "Right, so I of course figured it out. It was so obvious anyway. Pansy enlisted me to help her in her humiliation of you and Draco. I went along. It's best to indulge her at this point. Don't worry though, I think she'll be satisfied with the result, although I'll have to find a way to explain how the spell didn't stick with you."

Harry unconsciously ran a hand through his hair again, thinking back to the bright pink it had been.

"So there's your explanation Harry. I don't understand why you didn't feel you could tell me." Hermione looked slightly disappointed. Harry sighed and walked over to her bed and sat down on it.

"I just wasn't ready to tell that many people. Ron doesn't really know it all yet either. He just thinks I want to have some kind of power trip over Draco." Hermione nodded in understanding at her boyfriend's cluelessness.

"Well, that's Ron for you," she agreed. "So then you do love him?"

Harry looked taken aback.

"You know that?" He asked incredulously

"Of course I know that," Hermione said, waving her hand dismissively.

"How?"

"It's kind of obvious. I mean, why else would you go through so much trouble to get Draco to like you?" Harry had to admit that was a very logical way of putting it. He wished Ron could be this perceptive sometimes.

"I guess," Harry muttered. Hermione nodded.

"So who else knows? Besides Ron and Pansy, I mean," Hermione asked. Harry took a deep breath and let it out.

"Just Blaise."

"Blaise? Hmm, I guess that explains a few things," Hermione said.

"He's kind of helping me," Harry admitted.

"Aah," Hermione said as understanding dawned. "You had him tell me, didn't you?"

"Yeah, and he's been giving me information on what Draco says."

"How do you think it's going so far?" Hermione asked. Harry paused, thinking over what had happened lately.

"It's going. I'm not really sure. Draco seems to be changing, but I'm not sure if it's for the better."

"What are you going to do if this doesn't work?" Hermione asked seriously. Harry looked up at her, and his expression became worried.

"I don't know," he admitted quietly. Hermione gave him a sympathetic look. "I just hope it does."

"Well, we'll just have to make sure it does," Hermione said with a smile. Harry laughed at her cheeriness.

"Okay, Hermione," Harry said sarcastically with a grin. Hermione simply grinned back at him.

OoOoOoO

The next day at breakfast Harry came in and sat down as usual. He glanced around for Draco and found that he was not present. Harry wasn't surprised. Hermione had told him that the spell she and Pansy had used could only be taken off by the castor. As Hermione had been the one to cast it, she was less than willing to remove it right away.

After breakfast, Pansy came up behind Hermione and discreetly dragged her away. Hermione reappeared several minutes later, looking quite pleased with herself.

"Well, how did it go?" Harry asked nervously. Hermione smirked at him.

"She believed me. I told her I must have done yours wrong or that you found a way to fix it."

"She wasn't suspicious that you might have helped me?" Harry asked, unable to believe that Pansy could be so dense.

"Well, she's not really that intelligent and if you just use enough big words, she thinks you're telling the truth," Hermione told him with a shrug.

"Oh, like with Ron?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, kind of like that." Harry laughed at that and together they went on to lessons.

Harry didn't see Draco all day. He seemed to have holed himself up in his room. The first time Harry saw him that day was at dinner.

He walked into the room, a glare firmly implanted on his face as though daring anyone to say something. All the Slytherins looked as though they were to scared of his reaction to say anything. The other houses were not quite as sympathetic to his condition.

The Ravenclaws were quick to come up with a few choice nicknames that drove Draco to fury and cursed quite a few of them before landing himself in detention with Professor McGonagall. At one point Draco looked over at Harry and caught his eye. He scowled at his lack of pink hair and turned his attention away.

Harry then implored Hermione to remove the spell. She was hesitant at first, still kind of angry at Harry for keeping his secret, but at his pleading gave in. She promised to remove it soon.

OoOoOoO

Over the next few days, Harry found that Draco was avoiding him like the plague. His hair was back to normal now but he was no happier than he had been. Harry would walk into the Great Hall for breakfast and Draco would immediately hang his head and refused to look at him. Harry watched him curiously, not quite understanding.

He cornered Blaise a few days later, intent on finding a reason to the madness.

"Blaise, what the hell is going on with Draco?" He asked. Blaise sighed and wrenched his eyes away from Seamus who'd been passing by at the time.

"He's not exactly being vocal right now," Blaise drawled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked, confused. Blaise rolled his eyes in annoyance at the question.

"It means that he's not talking. No one knows what the problem is. He's just been shutting himself up in his room a lot."

"Well, you know what that means, don't you?" Harry asked. Blaise raised an eyebrow in question.

"No, what?"

"You need to find out," Harry said simply as though it was the most obvious thing. Blaise let out a derisive laugh.

"Right, and I'll get my head blown off in the process. Draco doesn't take kindly to people trying to derive his feelings. Besides, you haven't exactly been helping me. Why should I keep doing this?" Blaise asked pointedly.

"Fine, I'm sorry, okay? I'll work harder on Seamus." Blaise rolled his eyes in disbelief.

"Sure you will," he said and turned and walked away. Harry shook his head and sighed. He retreated back to the safety of Gryffindor Tower.

When he arrived in the common room, he saw Seamus sitting in an armchair by the fire talking to Dean. Harry hesitated, then made up his mind and went over to Seamus and Dean.

"Hey, can I join you?" Harry asked, plopping down in the remaining chair.

"Sure," Seamus said. They appeared to be trying to do the potion essay Snape had assigned last class. Harry sat and watched as they toiled through the essay. Eventually Dean threw down his quill in frustration and said he couldn't take it anymore. He packed up his things and left Harry and Seamus alone.

Seamus continued to work in silence for awhile until he too gave up. He set down his quill and lay back in the chair, closing his eyes. Harry sat staring at the fire wondering how to go about his end of the deal.

"Seamus?" Harry asked finally, deciding on a course of action.

"Yeah?" Seamus replied, opening his eyes and turning to Harry.

"You remember what you said about Blaise?"

"Which part?" Seamus asked cautiously.

"When you said you didn't want to try to get him yourself," Harry said.

"Yeah," Seamus agreed slowly, sensing a trap.

"Well, didn't you say a while ago that you had a project? What was that then?" Harry asked. Seamus let out a breath, relieved.

"Oh yeah, that. Well, my project was really just to see if I could get him to notice me. I never really thought past it, and when you asked me the other day I kind of freaked out. I mean, I do like him, it's just that I never thought that he would like me and I never got to the part in my plan to where if he actually wanted to do something. I never thought of it."

"Hmm," Harry said thoughtfully. It certainly explained the odd outburst. "Well, what if he does like you?"

"Like I said, I didn't think that far ahead," Seamus told Harry.

"Well, maybe you should," Harry said with a smile. He then got up from the chair and went up to the boy's dormitory, leaving Seamus staring into the fire, deep in thought.

In the dormitory he came upon Ron. He was sitting on his bed, his essay on his lap, his tongue poking out between his teeth as he tried to concentrate. He looked up as Harry entered then went back to the essay. Harry walked over to his bed and rummaged in his trunk.

Ron stared down at his essay, then looked up suddenly as though he'd realized something. He cocked his head to the side and then back. He looked down at his essay once more, then looked up again, this time at Harry. Harry gave him an odd look.

"What?" He asked. Ron didn't respond right away. He opened his mouth then closed it, then opened it again. Harry waited, wondering what was going on.

"Has anything happened with the plan lately?" Ron asked finally.

"No, why?" Harry asked, a bit confused. Ron shrugged.

"No reason, it's just seemed really quiet lately."

"I guess, but there's nothing to do really."

"Does Pansy know that we know?" Ron asked.

"I think she might," Harry said. Ron paused, thinking. Then his face lit up.

"But she doesn't know that we know that she knows we know!"

"Oh no."

"No, it's perfect!"

"What do you mean perfect? That doesn't even make any sense."

"Sure it does," Ron said excitedly.

"Wait, what are you trying to do? I don't understand," Harry said, trying to clarify. "Are you just bored and want to cause trouble?" Ron shifted guiltily on the bed and avoided Harry's eyes.

"Maybe..." Harry rolled his eyes. They didn't need any more trouble than they already had.

"No, Ron. We can't. We don't need to. If you're bored, go have fun with Hermione or something," Harry told him. Ron sighed laboriously.

"I guess. I just didn't want to do my potions essay." Harry laughed out loud at that and Ron grinned sheepishly.

"That's better," Harry said and picked up his potions essay, heading out to start working on his own.

OoOoOoO

Blaise held his breath as he slowly pushed open the door to Draco's private room in the Slytherin dungeons. Draco had been in an unfathomable mood lately. None of the Slytherins had summoned up the courage to find out what was wrong.

Blaise was not eager to take up the task but he'd made an agreement with Potter and he wasn't one to go back on his word.

"Draco?" He asked cautiously, once he had made it into the room fully without being blown up. Draco didn't respond.

He was lying on his back on the bed. He lay there staring at the ceiling. Blaise moved carefully into the room, unsure of what to do. He'd never seen Draco in this kind of mood. Usually he would have cursed him by now or at least given a snippy reply.

"Draco, are you okay?" Blaise asked slowly, fearing an explosion of sorts from the nature of that question. Draco finally turned his head to acknowledge Blaise. He scowled at him and rolled his eyes before turning his gaze back on the ceiling.

"Do I look okay?" He asked snidely. Blaise breathed a sigh of relief. Now this Draco was one he could handle.

"Not particularly," Blaise responded in an upbeat tone. "Is it because of Potter?"

"Yeah," Draco admitted grudgingly. "Oh, he annoys me so much!" Blaise nodded his head in agreement.

"I know the feeling," Blaise muttered.

"What?" Draco asked.

"Nothing," Blaise said quickly. "So what did he do this time?"

"Actually nothing. It's been quiet since the hair stunt, too quiet."

"You think he's planning to do more?"

"I don't know, and I really don't care."

"You don't care? What do you mean?" Blaise pushed.

"I mean, I really don't care. I'm done bothering with him." This alarmed Blaise.

"Done? Really?"

Draco sighed up at the ceiling. He'd been thinking about his situation for many days. He'd come to the conclusion that he did in fact have some kind of feelings for Harry, no matter how hard he denied it. He often fantasized about scenarios involving the two. Not all were sexual either. Many had a certain extent of emotions attached.

He had come to the conclusion that the only way to stop this was to finish with Potter. To not think about, talk to, or be around him anymore was the solution. The last few days had been very difficult. He'd found himself constantly wanting to look at him, to watch him.

He didn't want to be involved with Potter, he couldn't! What would people think? Well, not much really, except that it was Potter. He just didn't know what to do. He kind of wanted to get together with Potter, but he also didn't want to.

"Draco?" Blaise asked, drawing him out of his reflections. Draco sighed again and looked at his friend.

"Alright, Blaise, I'll tell you. But if you say anything to anyone, I will personally cut off your balls and feed them to the Giant Squid," Draco threatened. Blaise was far too used to these kinds of threats to care, but he agreed anyway.

"Okay, Draco," he said. Draco pushed himself up into a sitting position and proceeded to tell Blaise about his suspicions of his feelings and how he didn't know quite what he wanted. When he'd finished, Blaise sat thoughtfully.

"Well?" Draco prodded impatiently.

"Well," Blaise said, startled out of his thoughts, "sounds to me like you're falling for him." Draco scowled at this but Blaise continued. "And I don't think ignoring him will really work. He seems to be quite persistent."

"Unfortunately," Draco muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Seems like you'll just have to see what happens," Blaise told him.

"I guess," Draco muttered darkly. Blaise decided his part was done. He got up from the bed where he had been sitting and left through the door. His last glimpse was of Draco sighing rather loudly and lying back down on his bed once again.

Blaise walked confidently out into the common room, ignoring the many first years staring at him and marveling that he had survived Draco's room. He crossed the room and pushed the hidden entrance door open, thinking that he had much to tell Potter that night.

A/N: PLease read and review!