A/N: Sorry if you thought this took a while to get out, I had some indecisions over how to write it and whether or not to put the long-awaited-for kiss in this chapter. I hope you all like the result. I answered some of your questions at the bottom, by the way, so be sure to check there. And, Ginny's real name is Ginerva, so I don't want to hear people telling me otherwise. You can go to w w w . j k r o w l i n g . c o m and read it under the character's section (be sure to take out the spaces in the URL, but it wouldn't let me keep it otherwise).

CHAPTER 8: Back to square one…?

Sighing tremendously, Hermione pulled herself into bed just as soon as classes were over. She silently thanked whoever had made her schedule, because her last class on Monday was Ancient Runes, and neither Harry nor Ron took that class, so she was able to slip away without them being able to stop her. Nearly asleep already, she silently thanked herself for taking more classes than were required for her chosen profession—she wouldn't have much time to be spending with Harry and Ron even when the three of them had free periods together (which only happened on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, for though she had free periods on Tuesday and Friday afternoon as well, they were in classes then, though they had more free periods overall). That, at least, was a relief.

She was asleep less than a minute after her head hit the pillow, and did not wake even when Lavender and Parvati came in squealing and wanting all the juicy details about her and Ron now being boyfriend and girlfriend.

The next morning, Hermione yawned and stretched and pulled herself out of bed feeling enormously well rested. She was startled to realize she'd never changed out of Draco's clothes and hugged herself happily. Memories of Draco were good…but then she remembered Ginny, and the blackmail, and the fact that she now had a boyfriend…a boyfriend she didn't even like as more than a friend.

Hermione found herself silently hoping Draco would understand before she caught herself. Why would he even care if I've got a boyfriend? She thought, and was surprised to find how miserable this thought made her. She slogged her way down to breakfast to be greeted rather over-zealously by Ron. Choking down her discomfort at his nearness, she grinned back at him, happy as a new girlfriend should be.

Draco walked in late and when she caught his eye, a helpless gleam in hers, he just sneered at her and turned away. Yawning hugely to make an excuse for the tears in her eyes at his greeting, she turned back to her breakfast and managed to swallow a whole piece of toast before feeling thoroughly sick. She could tell that today would be hell, but maybe she could sneak in another nap after History of Magic. That was a free period that she shared with Harry and Ron, so it would be an excuse to not be hanging out with them and would also make her feel less sleepy, for though she'd woken up nice and well rested, being greeted by Malfoy like that made her already ache for sleep.

On the way to History of Magic, Ron slid his hand around hers, and she would have taken it back to do some paltry thing like rummage through her book bag for a book she was suddenly worried she'd forgotten or to tie her shoelace, but she caught sight of Ginny. The young redhead looked smug, with a sly smirk on her face that shouted louder than words that she had won. It made Hermione want to punch her, or at least hex her, but then she noticed Ron was asking her something and looking worriedly down at her. She gave him a reassuring smile and huddled up closer to him, surreptitiously casting Ginny a glance as they passed. The fifth year's smirk had merely broadened, and with a swish of her red hair, she swept off.

Feeling ready to vomit, Hermione looked up at Ron again, false contentment in her eyes. He smiled adoringly at her, and they continued down the hall.

History of Magic made Hermione want to fall asleep for the first time in her six years at Hogwarts that day. She wanted to drift off into the safe clutches of sleep, but knew she couldn't and focused even harder on her notes for the lesson. By the end of the lesson, she'd copied down everything Professor Binns had said in something very close to verbatim.

She yawned all the way up the stairs to the common room, unable to help herself. By the time they'd reached the seventh floor, Ron was only just beginning to notice how tired she looked. When he asked her about it, she said, "Yeah, I'm feeling really tired. I think I might go and take a nap before lunch." Smiling as if reluctant, she apologized about her sleepiness.

"Well, you could always come and sleep down here while me and Harry work on finishing that Defense Against the Dark Arts paper due after lunch," Ron hinted.

Pretending to not notice how much he wanted her to fall asleep on his shoulder, she shook her head, "no, thanks though, Ron." Yawning hugely again, she said, "I'll see you guys at lunch. Or maybe just in History of Magic again, if I'm too tired to go to lunch." Why they had History of Magic both before and after lunch on Tuesdays was beyond her, but for the moment, she was just pleased to have the break and free period and lunch in between.

Ron gaped at her. "She wasn't at dinner last night," Harry reminded him.

"Right," Ron said. "We finally have a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. So we have new schedules now. After lunch today we have double Defense Against the Dark arts. Here's your schedule," he passed her a crumpled piece of paper and she examined it. All her classes were the same, but her classes on Tuesday afternoon were moved to Wednesday afternoon, and DADA was moved to today. Ron kissed her before urging her to sleep well, and Harry echoed his suggestion as she walked up to the dormitory, where she fell into a fitful sleep after setting her alarm.

Hermione awoke miserably, her hair in a mess, her clothing rumpled, and in a bad mood. She was in no way prepared for her life to continue like this. Unfortunately, she thought, I don't have a choice. She dragged herself out of bed and snatched up her book bag. As she'd predicted, she'd ditched lunch and now needed to head all the way to Defense Against The Dark Arts within ten minutes. Not even bothering to fix her appearance, she pulled on her robe and hastily walked to class, arriving just in time.

She walked in and settled down next to Ron, who had saved her a seat. She looked up to the front of the room to examine their new teacher, who looked suspiciously like Oliver Wood, but older than Oliver could be. The young man (he couldn't have been over 22) looked up and smiled at the class. "Hello students," he said, and she glanced over at Lavender, who seemed to be drooling a little. "I'm Professor Wood. Some of you may have known my little brother Oliver, formerly captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team. I hear Mister Potter is captain now," he scanned the room and his eyes alit on Harry. "Congratulations."

Harry blushed slightly and muttered a thanks. Hermione wondered where she'd seen him before. He looked familiar, and she knew it wasn't just because he was Oliver's older brother. She stared at him hard before she remembered. She had seen him with Oliver at the Quidditch World Cup. She relaxed in her seat and listened to what he was saying, glad to have finally placed him.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was a happy affair, as all the Gryffindors were happy to have someone even slightly familiar as their teacher. They all went about their tasks eagerly, finding him just as interesting and as fun a teacher as Lupin was. Though he wasn't quite settled in yet, he already had several dark detectors like Moody had, and quite a few tanks of exciting creatures, a few pictures of his family on his desk, and even a cage of what looked like pixies. She grimaced and hoped he wouldn't make the same mistake Lockhart had.

By the time the double class was over, most of the Gryffindors stayed to talk to their new professor (particularly the female ones—their new professor did look rather dashing, she agreed inwardly), though Hermione and Harry and Ron went on their way. They headed up to Gryffindor tower to dispose of their books before dinner, and Ron tenderly held Hermione's hand all the way. When a staircase decided to move halfway up, he hastily (and being painful in his haste, though she didn't show it) stabilized the both of them, giving her a loving look. To all of this she just smiled weakly until a thought hit her.

She should use a cheering charm on herself. That way, no one would be able to tell that she really didn't like Ron all that much, because she would like everything. It was a perfect idea. She would do so as soon as she was in the relative safety of her dormitory.

So it was that she descended the stairs with a goofy grin on her face and rambling on about something incoherently. She smiled indulgently to Ron, who scooped her up into a hug and kissed her fiercely the second she came down. She giggled at him and let him lace their fingers together on their way to dinner.

She managed to keep back her gleeful muttering, but couldn't help looking and feeling excessively happy during dinner. She ate a hearty meal for the first time in a while, and even leaned on Ron's shoulder when she saw Ginny staring at her. By the end of dinner, though, the cheering charm was beginning to wear off, and her smile was slippery to hold onto. She was beginning to feel drained from the whole day, and found herself wishing her week would not be like this. She needed…she didn't know what she needed until she met pale gray eyes across the room.

She needed Draco. That was what she needed. Even as their eyes dropped from each other, she knew she needed him. He would listen to her, hold her, understand her… Without even trying, a smile wiggled onto her mouth as she thought indulgently of their next meeting. The only thing was finding some time, some place, where they could meet unseen and unheard.

Ron eased himself out from under her and cast a significant look at Harry that Hermione nearly missed and didn't understand at all. She quietly obeyed his pulling at her hand and followed him out of the Great Hall. Her face still held a gentle smile as he led her down into a hallway. His gaze upon her (which she hadn't noticed) became hungry, lustful.

A tendril of fear found pierced her heart when she saw that gaze. Not even bothering to pull her into a room, as soon as her eyes met his, he went wild. Ron slammed her back into a wall, and she coughed as her breath was ripped from her lungs. It actually reminded her of a similar situation at Malfoy Manor, except she'd been slammed into the wall so she wouldn't fall off, and she'd been willing. Pressing himself up against her, he began to kiss her intensely as his hands inched up her upper body.

Still coughing a little, she pushed him off of her, "Ron, no." Unfortunately, he must have misinterpreted her, because the cheering charm turned her voice high and playful, and the smile that played on her lips must not be helping him understand her words. Ron grinned wolfishly down at her, and she once again felt the sting of fear. He kissed her passionately again, and she tried to push him away, but whenever she got any space at all, he would just smile again at her (because she was smiling too) and dive in again.

But then suddenly the redhead's body wasn't pressed up against her, and she could breathe again. She took several desperate, gulping gasps before she even realized what was going on. A cloaked figure (she nearly snorted at how cliché that was) was holding Ron away from her, and Ron was looking up at him furiously. The figure inclined his (she assumed it was male) head to her before letting Ron go. Ron turned belligerent immediately, swinging high at the person. He ducked the blow and punched Ron before he even knew what was coming. The redhead stumbled backward under the force of the blow and tripped, laying sprawled on the floor and clutching his face in pain.

The figure walked over to her and a long finger caressed her face, making her shiver. "You disgust me," he murmured, and she despaired. It was Draco, she knew it. It was his voice, and though it wasn't his usual drawl (Ron would figure that out, thickheaded as he was), it was still him.

Before leaving, he turned to the boy gathering himself up from the floor. Precisely and clearly, he said, "If a girl says no, she means it. If you do that again, I will rip your heart out with my bare hands." Ron aimed to charge at him, but Hermione scurried over and put her hand on his shoulder to calm him. He shook it off but didn't follow Draco.

Hermione pulled her wand out of her pocket, only just remembering that it was there. She moved Ron's hands out of the way to see that his left eye was bruised near his nose, and his nose was broken again. Meeting his eyes, he looked just as bewildered as she felt. "Let's get you to Madam Pomfrey," she suggested and led him the way.


That night, the three friends sat in the common room. As Ginny was staring at her in annoyance, and seemed just ready to blurt out Hermione's secret, she leaned against Ron. Grinning, he wrapped his arm around her. Ginny smirked and returned to penning a letter, and Hermione turned her attention to Harry, who was gazing at her with a look she couldn't place. When their eyes met, he hastily looked away and continued his homework. Hermione asked Ron if he'd finished the History Of Magic essay due tomorrow.

"No, but me and Harry've got the whole morning free tomorrow, so I can finish it then," he said, stifling a yawn. It was getting kind of late, and so Hermione rose and bid her friends a goodnight. Smiling sneakily, Ginny did the same and followed her up.

Hermione turned at her door and glared at Ginny. "What is it now?" she snarled at the girl.

Ginny's eyes widened, feigning innocence. "Oh, Hermione, isn't it wonderful and you're dating my brother now?" she asked loudly, so that their voices would echo down into the common room for Harry and Ron to hear.

"Of course, Gin! He's wonderful," she said enthusiastically. "Well, goodnight," she opened the door to her room and then turned around and smacked Ginny as hard as she could, hoping it would sound like a door closing. It sort of did, and she was sure no one could tell the difference in the common room. She smirked at Ginny, knowing she wouldn't say anything. If Ginny said something they wouldn't believe her, and there was no way at all to prove it.

"Don't say you didn't deserve that, Gin," she said quietly before shutting her door silently.

Ignoring Lavender and Parvati's pleas for gossip, Hermione slipped into her PJs and fell into bed. However, sleep refused to kiss her with its calming presence. She sat and listened to Lavender and Parvati prattle on about pointless things for another half an hour before they went to sleep. She lay awake for nearly another two hours before coming to terms with the fact that she wasn't going to be sleeping any time soon. She squirmed out of bed and dressed silently, pulling on a dark cloak over that instead of a robe.

She was going to see Draco, and she was not going to take no for an answer. Creeping around the halls was becoming second nature to her by now, and so she slunk around corners until she reached the wall to get into Slytherin. She whispered the password and sidled into the near empty room. A couple of students were wearily finishing up essays but they were all too tired to pay attention to her as she edged up the stairs to the boy's dormitories.

She entered the cold room and picked out Draco's bed from memory. There was a soft murmur coming from behind the curtains, and she pulled them back a little. Draco lay fast asleep, though his blankets were rumpled, and his sheets twisted about him. "No," he muttered. "Why are you…like such a whore? Please…with Weasley? I could give you more than he ever could… Oh, Hermione," he breathed her name like it was velvet, and now she was apprehensive about waking him. She stood and looked down at him for at least another fifteen minutes, although time did not seem to matter at the moment. She pulled her hood back to get a better look at him.

His blonde hair was mussed, and her fingers itched to move a strand away from where it fell across his eye. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and the Dark Mark stood out against the pale skin of his left arm and the white sheets. He does have a rather beautiful body, she thought to herself. And he's really a wonderful person once you get to know him…" before she quite realized it, her fingers brushed away the hair that lay across his eye. He leaned into her touch, still asleep.

"Mmm…Hermione," he murmured, and he rolled over onto his side as he settled into a more restful sleep. Unwilling to wake him now, she carefully began to disentangle him from the sheets, which was a hard job considering she didn't want to wake him. That done, she pulled the comforter over him too and smiled at his prone body. On an impulse, she gathered her hair in one hand so it wouldn't fall on him and gently kissed him on the forehead. She turned to go.

"What are you doing here?" said a hard voice behind her. She stiffened and turned back to the bed she'd just abandoned, her eyes wide with fear.

"I—I came to talk to you," she said quietly. "But then, you were asleep," she explained hastily, "And I didn't want to wake you. I'm sorry," she said in a small voice. His pale gaze seemed to see right through her, and she gave a small, hopeful smile.

"Get out," he said.

"But…won't you at least come talk to me?" she said, hurt by the harshness of his tone.

"No. Leave now before I wake up everyone else in here," he growled menacingly.

"But," she said, tears filling her eyes at his betrayal.

"No. I said go," he said, his voice raising. Someone rolled over in his bed. She set her jaw and refused to cry.

"Fine, Malfoy," she said stiffly. But I will get you to talk to me, somehow, she vowed to herself as she turned on her heel and left, barely remembering to pull up her hood as she crossed through the common room. I don't want to be back at square one with you. That would make us enemies again, and I love you too much for that.


Draco leaned back in his bed, amazed at how hard it had been to turn her away. But…she had betrayed him by going to Weasley. No, she didn't betray me, he told himself. It's not like she promised me anything. She's free to go off and snog whoever she likes. He tried not to think about earlier that day.

Except that she didn't want to snog him, he thought restlessly. But then why would she be going out with him? He wondered. "I'm not jealous of him," he growled to the room. Not expecting an answer, he fell back into his bed and pulled his blankets up close to him, remembering how she'd smoothed them out over him when they'd been tangled. He'd woken up while she was halfway through the process, the constant small movements slowly waking him. At first he'd thought he was dreaming, but now he knew he wasn't.

He'd been dreaming before that though, he remembered. In his dream…well, actually, he thought, it was pretty accurate to the current situation. Sighing, he settled into his bed, and he couldn't stop the small smile that curved his mouth, and he couldn't help but feel her small kiss throbbing in his forehead. I could be a better boyfriend to her, he thought drowsily. Weasley doesn't—and probably won't ever—treat her right. No, she deserves far better than him.


Hermione wandered the halls aimlessly. But then she saw a small shadow duck behind a statue down a hall. She hid quickly, and saw the shadow run down the hall. Curious, and knowing she would manage nothing else this night if she didn't; she warily followed the small, cloaked person. Looking around, the person knocked on a door. It took Hermione a moment to realize where they were and where that door led to.

That was the door to Professor Wood's quarters. Looking confused, the handsome young man opened the door. Hermione nearly laughed at the look on his face, understanding completely: who expected visitors near 1 in the morning? However, her breath caught when the hood was pulled back and Ginny was standing there. "Hi. I know you probably won't recognize me, but we've been pen pals for nearly two years. It's me, Ginerva."

The professor looked taken aback. "Wait, you are Ginerva?" Grinning, Ginny nodded enthusiastically. "Oh…er…I wasn't expecting company, and the place is a bit of a mess, but would you like to come in?"

Ginny nodded, smiling sweetly at him, and as she checked that no one was in the hall, Hermione could see the adoring gleam in the young girl's eye. The door clicked shut, and she was tempted to put her ear up against it and listen in. But no, if anything was going to happen there, it wouldn't happen tonight, they'd only just met in person.

Hermione realized Ginny had probably seen him at the Quidditch World Cup as she had. Though it was a lot of guesswork, Hermione supposed that Gin had probably gotten a little crush on him when she'd seen him, even if he was 6 years older than her. Actually, she mused, it was probably closer to five. Shrugging, she stood to go.

Her attention fully encompassed by the small glimmer of hope that if something romantic came of Ginny and her pen pal, Hermione would have ideal blackmail information. Neither Harry nor Ron would approve of little Ginny having relations with a teacher, and if Harry and Ron couldn't daunt her, then she was sure Dumbledore finding out would. Smirking, she realized she would need to keep an eye on this.

"Now, what is a student doing out of bed at this time of morning?" a cold sneer said. She mentally weighed her chances of fleeing versus begging and realized he'd probably hex her before she got anywhere. She slowly turned to face Snape, her shoulders slumping.

"I'm sorry, Professor," she apologized, pulling down the hood of her cloak. "I couldn't sleep, so I thought a walk may help me clear my mind." She gave him a wry smile. "It didn't, but I was heading back up to bed anyway. I suppose I'm going to get detention for this, Professor?"

"Eager to get a detention, Miss Granger?" he smirked, and she opened her mouth to interrupt before an idea hit her. If she could get Malfoy in detention too, maybe they could serve it together…! Then he would be forced to listen to her! Snape continued, "Well, since you seem so eager, three weeks of detention. Every night. I will go and figure out what exactly you are to do. Now, off to bed, Miss Granger, before I give you even more detention." She turned to leave and hurried off. To her back, he called, "Oh, and seventy-five points off Gryffindor for being out late!"

Sighing, she determined to make up those points again in classes the rest of the week. But now she had several thoughts in her head, about Malfoy, about getting Draco in trouble so he'd serve detention with her, about Ginny, and then a few more about her own feelings for Draco. As she settled into bed, thinking about how she was never going to get to sleep with all these thoughts running around her head, a wave of exhaustion hit her, and before she knew it, she was asleep.

Though it seemed improbable, with the little amount of sleep she'd gotten, Hermione woke up feeling refreshed. She was ready to make some trouble today, and she would have plenty of fun doing it. She went down to breakfast, and ate for a while with Harry and Ron before suddenly "remembering" that she'd left her book upstairs. She hastily got up before she caught Ginny's pointed look. Feeling a surge of hatred for Ginny, she leaned down and pecked Ron's cheek before running up to Gryffindor tower.

She carefully went up into Harry and Ron's room, having made sure that Dean and Seamus and Neville were all at breakfast too, and she searched the room for a Filibuster Firework or some other item she could use to cause trouble. She came upon several dungbombs in Seamus's trunk, and she quickly cast the charm to duplicate some for herself. It didn't work. Growling in annoyance at the anti-multiplying charm on them, she just took several before slinking up to her room.

In her room she opened her trunk and took out several vials of polyjuice potion. She'd saved these from second year, not having a use for them, but unwilling to waste the potion that had taken her so long to make. Smirking, she stuffed them in her book bag. Now it was only a matter of time until she could pull off her trick.

Hermione went back down to the Great Hall and finished her breakfast before telling Ron and Harry she was off to the library to study. She trudged to the library and picked a book, settling down to read it until she had Arithmancy. Ron came in five minutes before she had to go and asked her to read over what he'd written for History Of Magic. She read what he had, which was all written messily and in large writing and quickly edited some of it before she ran out of time.

Wishing her to have a good time in Ancient Runes, Ron kissed her cheek as both a farewell and a thanks as she hurried out of the room. She ignored the fact that he got the class wrong, though it bristled at her that he was supposed to be her boyfriend and he was getting her schedule wrong already. For heaven's sake, she didn't have Ancient Runes again until Friday! Ah, well, she shrugged it off, At least he knows one of the classes I don't take with him.

So off she went to Arithmancy, and wondered during the whole class what Malfoy had been about last night. She was really hurt by him. Hermione had been hoping that he would understand, and knew he would. But instead, he'd thrown it in her face and kicked her out. She looked balefully at her note-filled paper and tried to figure out how to get some of his hair. She supposed she could go and take one from him during break, or while there were crowds flocking to the Great Hall for lunch or dinner.

Or I could wait until Friday and get it from him in Ancient Runes, on our way out. Though they did not sit next to each other, neither was near the door, so she may manage to pull it off so long as he didn't jump out of his seat and dash out the door the minute class was over.

So she settled herself to wait, and the rest of the week was rather routine, except for Ron trying to get her alone with him every second to snog her (which she managed to keep avoiding, by some miracle or another). When she ran into Draco once that week, all he did was sneer and glower at her, and she meekly backed down. He would hate her even more once she got him in trouble for something he didn't do, and she didn't want him to be any angrier with her than he already was.

Though, she didn't quite understand what she had done to make him so furious with her.

But finally Ancient Runes came and went, and Hermione dashed to the door. The other students crowded out around her, and Malfoy was about in the middle. She joined the small flurry of people and yanked out a couple of hairs, disappearing before he could even turn around. She triumphantly entered the nearest bathroom, taking out the vials she'd been carrying around all week. She put a hair in each of three vials (no knowing how long it may take to get caught and then get sentenced for trouble), and saved the other two for later use.

Beaming at the genius of her plan, she fairly waltzed down the halls to the Great Hall, and was too distracted to be disgusted by Ron's sloppy kiss.

The next few days, Hermione wore Draco's clothing beneath her school robe and a shrunken robe of his in her pocket. And finally, on Sunday evening, she spotted her chance. Draco was walking down a hall not far from the library hallway. Smirking, she cast a sleeping charm on him and stuffed him in an empty classroom, locking the door with a more complicated charm that wouldn't be taught until seventh year.

She put herself in an empty classroom and drank one of her three polyjuice potions, taking out one of the dungbombs from her pocket and pulling on Draco's stolen robe. Smirking exactly like him, she stalked the halls and then, when she knew Peeves was watching (though pretending like she hadn't seen him), she set off two dungbombs and tossed them over the rail of one of the staircases so that it would reek up the whole school.

"MALFOY!" Peeves squealed excitedly as she turned to run. Looking as guilty as a deer caught in the headlights, she glanced at Peeves before bolting. Peeves immediately went off to tell Filch, eager to get "Malfoy" in trouble. Just as she heard Filch coming chasing up a hidden staircase after her, she drank down another vial of polyjuice potion.

Still looking hideously guilty, she faced Filch and glared at him. "Malfoy, you just threw two dungbombs down the stairs. Oh, my, what wonderful trouble you're going to be in. Yes, yes, we'll have to talk to Professor Snape about this one…"

If judging by the smirk on his face was anything, if Filch got his way, she'd be looking at two months of detention for Draco. But, of course, Draco was also Professor Snape's favorite, so she may be able to get off with only one or two. She haughtily followed Filch down to his office and waited for Professor Snape.

Professor Snape came and she denied everything, but, of course, Peeves had seen her do it, so her word was worth nearly nothing, especially after they found the third dungbomb in her pocket. She lied and just sat there and denied everything. Once Draco found out he was in detention for this, he would do the same thing, so she needed to make the situation so that he would match her current story as much as possible. He would come down here and say he didn't do it, and he didn't ever remember throwing a couple dungbombs down the stairs. So that was her story, and she said that Peeves must have mis-seen what she did.

Draco got let off with a full week of detention. Grinning to herself (though turning it into a self-absorbed smirk), she went back to where she'd stashed Draco. Looking around to make sure that the coast was clear, she unlocked the door to the room and slipped inside. For a moment, she just gazed at him as he slept, but then she remembered that she had things to do, and waited for the polyjuice potion to wear off before she put on her own robe and shrank his down again. She dragged him out into the hall again.

Kneeling beside him, she used the countercharm to awaken him and stuffed her wand away quickly. Contorting her face to look worried, she leaned over him, exclaiming, "Draco, are you okay?"

Gripping his head, he slurred, "What happened?"

"I don't know, I think you just fainted! Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

"I think so." But then his gaze sharpened and he looked straight at her as if trying to decide something. "Granger, did you just call me Draco?"

Taken aback, she was about to deny it before she even thought about it. She had. Her eyes grew wide and she fell back onto her heels, looking scared. "I'm sorry," she said, not meeting his eyes, "I didn't mean to."

She should have denied it, could have. But she didn't, she just looked at him sadly as he walked away from her without another word.

But then she remembered that they both had detentions next week, and she smirked knowingly to herself. Ah, yes, that would be interesting. Very interesting.


Well I've seen your boyfriend and I don't think he treats you right

But that's none of my business is it?

—Fall Out Boy "Pretty In Punk"


Buffdogg2, Ginny doesn't have the Marauder's Map, she was just using it (sorry if that was unclear), and Hermione doesn't know she's been using it, nor, apparently, do Harry or Ron.

Alianne and anyone else who may have noticed, Thanks for noticing the lyrics at the end. I recently went Fall Out Boy crazy (I am now the proud owner of three of their CDs), and I noticed how well some of the lyrics seemed to fit with some of my chapters, so I just put them at the end to appease myself and maybe some readers who would understand. Yay!

Many of you asked why Ginny is being such a bitch. Well, the answer to this is both simple, and probably rather mean of me. I kinda distorted her character a bit (but we really didn't know much about her in the first place) to make some things happen to push Hermione/Draco further apart/closer together. She serves a twofold purpose as both a catalyst for their relationship and a deterrent for it. I tend to get really annoyed when everything goes perfect for them as a couple, because there would be a lot of obstacles for the two of them. They must overcome Ginny and just about everyone and everything else! And that's part of the fun of it, because without Ginny there, Draco wouldn't be jealous of Ron and brooding about why he was jealous, and Hermione wouldn't be so sure that she wanted only Draco to be that close to her, still wondering if it would matter were it anyone else.

Unfortunately, as this chapter turned out differently than I planned, I can't give you guys all the details yet, but there's really not much more to say. So that's that, and that's why Ginny's a bitch. (Another reason is that she's easy to manipulate. She's close to Harry/Ron and Hermione, but we really don't know much about her still, so I can make her whoever I want her to be. And, really, it's not so much that she's a bitch so much as it is that she wants her brother to be happy and doesn't care how many people she hurts to achieve that goal. And she may be bored, but I don't think that's really much of a factor…)