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Hermione looked over her shoulder for what seemed like the hundredth time in fifteen minutes only to have Blaise squeeze her tighter to his side. She looked forward and scowled up at him and bit her lip when he simply smiled at her, making sure that Harry and Ron, who had followed them since the new 'couple' left the Heads' common room under the invisibility cloak, could see his action.

"Let's go to Hogsmeade this weekend. It's going to be a nice day, no rain," he said after they had walked the hallways in silence for a few minutes.

"I have homework," she replied quickly, too quickly, it seemed, for Blaise who shot her a warning look. ...she replied quickly. It seemed to be too quickly for Blaise, who shot her a warning look. Okay, I think this still sounds pretty awkward. But I can't come up with anything better. You may want to see if anyone else can.

"I'm sure you can make time," he coaxed with a lazy smile and a less-than-romantic squeeze.

She ground her teeth and stared straight ahead. He was infuriating.

"I'll keep you company in the common room after we get back."

"I do not need help with my homework, thank you very much," she huffed as she tried to shake his arm off

"I never said you did," he said tightly as he began to practically drag her down the hallway. "Besides, who said I was going to help?" he asked, wriggling his eyebrows.

"You're disgusting," she tsked with a roll of her eyes.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you didn't like me."

"If I knew better, I'd say I didn't either," she muttered as they got to the library doors.

"What was that, love?"

Hermione stopped dead and choked on the breath she had just drawn. 'Love'? He was taking this a bit too far for her.

"Will you let me...?" started Hermione just as Blaise said "I don't think that..." Blaise cut her off as he raised his voice. "we should tell anyone about us until next month. We should have some time together, just the two of us, before we share our relationship with our friends."

She felt her mouth drop but for the life of her couldn't close it. She heard a muffled oath from behind them and was tempted to turn around, but she found herself whisked into the library.

"Are you mad?" she demanded when the doors closed behind them.

"I was going to ask you the same thing!" Blaise countered, and Hermione noticed he had the nerve to look outraged at her.

"Me?" she asked, stunned, as she pulled herself away from him and stared at him wide-eyed.

"'I have homework'?" he asked in a voice that Hermione could only guess was supposed to sound like her. "What was that? If we're going to make them believe that we're going out you have to at least act like you can tolerate being in the same room as me!"

"I didn't know what I was agreeing to when I did. You can't actually expect me to go along with such an idiotic idea?" she asked as she made her way to the corner of the library farthest from the door.

"I think we've gone through this before, and I refuse to go over something that hasn't changed," he snapped as he followed her into the seldom seen aisle of the library.

"Do you honestly think your plan is going to work?" she said as a small dusty table came into view. She had used the table in her third year to hide the amount of homework she had from Harry and Ron. They would have just gone into the library and done a quick sweep and then left.

"Why wouldn't it work? You've had so many years of acting I don't think it will be hard to convince people that we're madly in love," he said defensively, his male pride stung, as he walked to the table and pulled out a chair for her to sit in.

"What do you mean 'years of acting'?" she growled at him as she yanked out the seat opposite of him.

He raised an eyebrow at her defiant move and took the seat himself. "You've been lying to teachers, and getting away with it I might add, for the past seven years. You even have Snape second guessing himself when he accuses you of something," he muttered with disgust evident in his voice.

"Fine, you've established that I can get people to believe me, but what about you?" she asked, a smile finally graced her lips as she asked a question he hadn't expected.

"What about me?" he asked with a shrug.

"Do you honestly think your friends aren't going to figure it out?" she asked slowly.

"I might have already talked it over with them," he threw out, a smug smile now on his face as he quickly regained control over the situation.

Hermione didn't have an answer for that and pursed her lips.

"I haven't," he said after she had focused her gaze on the wall just beyond his shoulder. "I don't speak much, so they won't say anything," he answered her honestly.

"Figures," she muttered darkly, which earned a chuckle from the Italian boy sitting across from her.

"And what, may I ask, is that supposed to mean?" he asked as a smile lingered on his face.

"The one time anti-social behavior has an actual advantage is now," she explained bitterly.

"You are a dramatic one, aren't you?" he asked with a sigh, as if she bored him.

"That wasn't dramatics; that was a valid thought."

He stared at her for a long second and then laughed quietly to himself. Hermione hoped his spurt of amusement was brought on because he realized how insane his plan was but as he sobered Hermione doubted that was the case.

"We could fool anyone," he said with a nod.

She looked at him in disbelief and rolled her eyes before asking, "Haven't you heard a word I've said?"

"I have, but I haven't heard a valid excuse."

"It's not an excuse, no one would believe us," she said, exasperated.

"Nothing is impossible, isn't that what you Gryffindors always say before doing something insanely stupid?" he asked with a thoughtful expression on his face. She almost expected him to tap his chin and then pull out his pipe for a smoke soon.

"Ha ha, that is not funny," she said with sarcasm heavy in her voice.

"See, that's the thing I don't get about Muggles. You laugh at something, but then claim it isn't funny in the next breath."

"Oh, is that the reason you don't like Muggles?" she asked flatly. "Because we have an odd sense of humor. Here I thought it was the pathetic coward you were devoted to who can't admit to being beaten."

"You know nothing about me and with whom my loyalties lie. It would be in your best interest to tread lightly where that matter is concerned," he said calmly but with a look in his eyes that made her fidget in her seat and break eye contact.

She looked down at the table before she looked towards the only way out of their corner, the aisle of untouched books. She shouldn't have said anything about Voldemort she knew it was childish, but she had been so sure she was right. He was always in or Malfoy's company and he had never been seen talking to Muggleborns so she had just assumed.

"I'm sorry; I just assu…"

"Assumed, I got that," he bit out moodily.

"I said I was sorry, there's no need to be upset about it," she shot back as she felt her remorse slip away.

"No need to get upset? You just accused me of being a Death Eater in training! If you said that to my face there's no guessing what you've said behind my back."

"I did not call you a Death Eater in training," she defended instantly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. What did you mean when you said that I devote my loyalty to…Him?" He Him?" he asked in mock confusion, aiming a glare at her as he finished his question.

That stopped her. She had meant just that, but she didn't want him to know that; he would use it against her and make her life hell, more so than he was trying to do now. He let out a disgusted sigh, pushed back from the table, and began to pace the small amount of floor in their corner. She watched as he muttered to himself and threw her glares every so often.

"Alright, maybe I jumped to conclusions," she ground out when he had been pacing and muttering for what seemed like hours.

"Maybe?" he asked with a raised eyebrow as he stopped and looked at her.

"Fine, I did jump to conclusions." She felt like the words were ripped out of her and regretted them almost instantly as a smug look came over his face.

"And you didn't burst into flames," he said in shock, although she suspected he wasn't entirely sincere; it might have been the roll of his eyes or overly dramatic gasp.

"That's not funny."

"It was a valid thought," he mimicked with a smirk.

You seem to bounce from emotion to emotions emotion rather quickly," she observed, shooting him a questioning look.

"You learn things in an infamous House," he said nonchalantly.

"I suppose you would."

"Just like Gryffindors have learned to cling to emotions as if they were lifeblood," he said as he pulled out the seat he had vacated earlier and sat down.

Hermione gasped at his comparison and opened her mouth to argue when he reached across the table and covered her mouth with his hand. She took a deep breath through her nose and instantly wished she hadn't. He smelled like the outdoors, not the sweaty 'I've-just-rolled-in-dirt' smell that always clung to Ron, but that of freshly cut grass or after a heavy rainstorm. . It reminded her of a picnic her father had planned as a surprise to for her mum in the middle of summer. They had gone out to the perfect spot and were in the middle of their lunch when it down-poured. They had raced to the car to wait out the rain, rolling down the windows and eating in the vehicle once it calmed down. It was one of the few memories she had of her childhood that didn't involve a new book or something new learned in a class. She furrowed her brow as she tried to figure out how he had picked up the sent.

"What?" he asked at her odd look.

"Nothing," she said as she pulled her head away from his hand. "Why did you do that?" she asked when her senses came back to her.

"You were going to go on a rant about how wrong I am and that Gryffindors don't show emotions anymore than anyone else in school. Then I would have brought up the firing of Trelawney," he explained with a certainty that annoyed her.

"I didn't care about that daffy woman getting let go," Hermione reminded him, although she was sure this was news to him.

"I didn't say you wore your emotions on your sleeve but your housemates went off the deep end if you didn't notice. Honestly, wearing all black then refusing to eat until she was re-instated. How is that not emotional?" he scoffed.

"Just because two people did that doesn't mean that they were 'taught' to be emotional," Hermione said defensively of her housemates, although Lavender's actions had caused Hermione to roll her eyes and ignore the girl.

"It was half of the lower years of Gryffindor that were recruited to the cause by that annoying chit Violet."

"Lavender," Hermione corrected while she hide a smile at the thought of what Lavender would do if she knew that Blaise, the hot boy in school (according to her, at least), didn't know her name.

"They're both flowers."

They talked for an hour, then Hermione decided it was time to go back to the Gryffindor common room.

"Hold on, I'll walk you," he ordered as he pushed his chair in and followed after her.

She had already made it halfway to the main section of the library when he caught up to her and grabbed her hand.

"Slow down," he said when she continued down the aisle at a steady pace.

"Maybe you should speed up."

She let out a frustrated sigh when he let go of her hand to grab her arm and bring her to a stop. He smiled at her when she turned around to glare at him and let his hand slide down her arm to take her hand.

"What?"

"You never answered me."

"Answered what?"

"We won't tell anyone for a month or two," he said with a lazy smile while he raised a hand and tugged a curl that fell into her face.

"Will you stop that?" she asked as she batted his hand away from her face.

"Fine, we'll talk about it this weekend," he sighed before he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers.

He raised his head up, gave her another smile, and walked away, into the library. She looked after him and followed suit after her cheeks cooled down and she was sure her legs would support her while she walked. 'It wasn't even a real kiss,' she thought with a tsk. 'Honestly'.

"Oh, hey, 'Mione," Ron said as he walked out of an aisle in front of her. He looked guilty, and because she had been given the look so many times before, she would bet he had watched what had just happened between Blaise and her.

"Ron," she said with a smile and a nod.

"So where were you? We've been looking all over for you," he asked with a nod to the aisle he'd just left.

"We?" she asked as she gave him an odd look.

"Harry and me," he clarified, waving Harry into out of the aisle.

Hermione gave them both suspicious looks as Harry came out of the aisle with a guilty look on his face. She watched as he slung a backpack over his shoulder and glared at Ron, who shrugged.

"What happened?" she asked as curiosity got the best of her.

"Nothing, why?" Ron asked dumbly.

"You've been looking for me all day, there has to be a reason," she explained slowly.

"Oh, um…" Ron looked at Harry for help.

"We…we wanted help with our potions work," Harry stuttered out while Ron nodded like a loon to confirm.

"We don't have potions work, there's a test on Thursday."

"Oh, that's right. See Harry, I told you we shouldn't have worried so much," Ron said with a pained laugh which looked like a grimace when he looked at Harry, who looked rather upset that Ron had said that.

"We have to go see about Quidditch practice," Harry said as an excuse before he grabbed Ron and dragged him out of the library.

"Quidditch practice, I doubt that," Hermione said to herself before she, too, made her way out of library.

The hallways were empty as she made her way to the Gryffindor common room. She sighed as the fat lady told her of the latest gossip and said the password four times before the woman finally took the hint and swung herself open. She walked in and said hello to Seamus and Dean, who were in a deep discussion about the newest WWW product that had just come out, before she walked to the stairwell and up to her room, which was thankfully empty. She went to her bookcase, slid out a paperback romance novel, her guilty pleasure, and jumped into bed to enjoy a bit of pleasure reading. Vane had just revealed his true self to Bride when she was interrupted by a tapping on the small window of her room.

"Damn it," Hermione said out loud before she marked her place and rolled off of her bed and dragged her feet to the window, ready to say a few choice words to the bird that was there when she was brought up short. "Aren't you a beautiful one?" she cooed as she held her hand out to pet the black raven that sat perched on her windowsill.

She had gotten Crookshanks only because her parent's had refused to allow her to have a raven. They had said it would cause unwanted questions in their neighborhood. The raven looked at her with black eyes and stuck out its leg to let her take the attached letter

"Thank you," she said with a smile as she gave the black bird one last stroke before it flew away.

She looked down at the letter and groaned as she saw the script and the color. Harry had written her...a howler.