Pansy was actually feeling excited for the alcohol run. She knew she was a prefect, but she loved nothing more than partying and with alcohol, came partying.

She waited at the base of the marble stairs in the entrance hall, where they had agreed to meet. Either the twins and Ron were late or they had set her up and ditched her. She was expecting the latter. Which was why she was astonished when they all showed up together, five minutes after six.

"Where were you?" Pansy asked them.

"Sorry we're late. Filch decided he wanted to shout at us for something we did ages ago." The twins looked disgruntled, Ron just looked tired.

"You guys have a plan?" Ron asked his brothers.

"Not really." Fred shrugged.

"Do you at least know where we're going to steal the alcohol from?" he asked.

The twins shrugged.

Pansy stared at the pair of them incredulously, "I thought you guys were supposed to be adept at this kind of thing?"

"Well, we are. But we thought it was time we passed on our skills to -"

The twins looked them both up and down critically.

"-you two."

"So aren't you supposed to teach us how it's done?" asked Pansy sardonically.

"Well, that's the thing." said Fred. "You won't learn if we just tell you how to do it. Which is why we're not going to. You'll have to figure it out for yourself. Hurry up, the party starts at eight. And people will be awfully disappointed if there's no alcohol..." he finished ominously.

They jogged up the steps of the Great Hall, ignoring their protests.

"So what are we going to do?" Ron turned to Pansy.

She scowled at him, " why do I have to come up with the plans? Can't you just figure one out for yourself. How much did Granger spoonfeed you?"

He scowled back at her, his ears slowly turning red. "She didn't spoonfeed me anything, she just helped me out a lot."

"Too bad I'm not like that." Pansy snapped. "Let's just figure something out together and get this over with."

"Let's find somewhere private to talk about this first."

They entered the first unused classroom they saw, locking the door behind them.

"Right, let's brainstorm."

"We could ask one of the houselves for alcohol." Ron suggested. "They work in the kitchen and they're normally happy to give you anything you ask for."

Pansy shook her head, "They work for Dumbledore and won't give us anything that's against the school rules. Do you know how to transfigure water into wine?"

"No but we could learn." Ron said, looking hopeful.

"In two hours? And have enough wine for around twenty people?"

"You're right. That won't work."

"But we only need one bottle." Pansy gasped. "And then we can replicate them. The replication spell isn't that hard."

Ron's face lit up, before falling. "We still haven't got a bottle of wine to replicate. Although...I've heard Slughorn has a stache of oak matured mead..."

"Weasley you're a genius. See, you don't need to depend of Granger to figure everything out for you. You're perfectly capable yourself."

Ron's face turned a little red at the compliment although he tried hard to keep the pleased expression off his face.

"Now all we need is a distraction..." Pansy said thoughtfully.

Twenty minutes later Ron was poised in front of Slughorn's door, ready to knock. If Slughorn answered, Ron would take a puking pastille and tell Slughorn that he had accidentally drunk an old potion and he needed an antidote. Since Ron would be unable to name the potion, Slughorn wouldn't be able to make an antidote and would insist on accompanying him to the hospital wing while Pansy would duplicate the alcohol and steal it.

Fortunately, they never had to use the back up plan because Slughorn never answered the door.

"Alohomora." he whispered, pointing his wand at the door and it swung checked that the coast was clear before signalling to Pansy who was waiting for his signal and they entered the room together, shutting the door behind them.

"Quick, we don't have long." Pansy hissed and they began searching for Slughorn's firewhisky or mead as fast as they could.

"Accio alco-" Ron began but Pansy clapped her hands over his mouth.

"The bottles might smash, we have to do this manually." She told him and they began seaching through his desk.

"Did you hear something?" Ron suddenly asked, becoming as still as a statue.

"No... Just hurry up. We can't be caught going through a teacher's things."

"Got it!" Ron exclaimed triumphantly, watching Pansy replicate it. The spell seemed familiar to her, she performed it with ease.

"Let's go." They hurried to the door with the bottle of mead clutched in Ron's hands.

They had barely left the classroom when they heard Slughorn's jovial voice, he was talking to another student in the next froze, they had no where to hide the bottle.

They looked at each other frantically, they had seconds to act before Slughorn rounded the corner and caught them lurking outside his office with a stolen bottle of alcohol.

Pansy acted without thinking. She pushed Ron back against the wall, and pressed herself against him. The bottle was between them, hidden by their cloaks. She kissed him, tangling her fingers in his hair.

Ron seemed to be in shock because he didn't respond and stood there silently. At least until she tugged on his hair hard and he started kissing her back.

Slughorn didn't even glance at them for more than a second before striding into his office. Pansy stopped kissing him the moment Slughorn had gone and wiped her mouth. She glanced at Ron, his eyes seemed to have glazed over a little bit.

"Wh- why did you do that?" Ron finally asked her.

"Firstly because couples kissing all around Hogwarts are really common so no one spares them a glance. Secondly, because no one stares at or examines kissing teenagers and he wouldn't look close enough to see the bottle wedged between us. Now close your mouth, it's like you've never been kissed before."

They headed back to the Gryffindor common room to replicate the bottle. Neither of them spoke, Ron because he was still in shock. And Pansy because she had felt a tiny fizzle of electricity when she kissed Ron, and she had never, ever felt that with Draco.

Draco wasn't sure he could look at Hermione in the face again. He was more than embarrassed, he was worried. She had seen one of his worst fears, and she might try using it against him. Although... he had seen her's too, so that put them on equal footing.

He needn't have worried about her trying to talk to him though, she seemed just as eager to avoid him over the next few days as she was. She would eat at the Slytherin table in the mornings with her head hidden behind the Daily Prophet and ignore everyone around her, and she'd sit as far from him as she could during classes.

Draco had no problem with this, except for the fact that Proffessor Snape had noticed that they were avoiding each other even more than usual (Draco wasn't even bothering to tease her in class) and had decided to torture them by making them spend even more time together.

"Is this even a job for Prefects though?" Hermione asked suddenly, breaking the wall of stony silence that they had maintained for over a week. She wiped the sweat off her forehead.

Snape had assigned them the additional duty of drawing out route maps for each of the first year Slytherins so that they wouldn't be late to any more classes and lose house points, as well as organizing the auditions for the second year's dueling club.

Draco merely grunted in response, causing Hermione to glare at him.

"Why is it always either boiling hot or freezing cold down here?" Hermione asked, mainly to break the silence. "It's ridiculous." She tugged off her jumper and her shirt was pulled up slightly with it, exposing a small bit of pale skin.

Draco looked away hurriedly before she saw him looking. Something seemed to be caught in his throat and he had to clear his throat before speaking.

"What's the Gryffindor common room like then?" He wasn't actually interested in her answer, he was just trying to hide the fact that his cheeks felt like they were on fire.

Her face lit up at the question. "All the wall hangings and curtains are red and gold and the sofa's there are much comfier and Ron, Harry and I always sit in our favourite sofa in front of the fire, except when I'm doing homework." She said the entire thing at once without taking a single breath in between.

Draco had decided that he couldn't go without mentioning it any longer.

"Look, about that boggart-"

"It's fine." she cut him off. "I don't want to talk about it either, I knew how hard your father was on you anyway."

Draco's defences kicked in. "Why are you so scared of failing though?" He asked, ruder than he had meant to.

"It's absolutely none of your business." She stood up, gathering her papers. "I'll have these ready for you by tomorrow evening, you don't need to worry about it."

She stood up to leave, "Wait. Give me half, Snape gave the job to both of us, not just you."

Hermione looked utterly taken aback as she handed him half of the papers and Draco couldn't help but feel surprised at her reaction. Did Weasley not help her with the Prefect duties at all? Did Hermione like being self sufficient or was she just used to being let down by others until she had come to reply og herself for her needs?

Draco watched her head back up the stairs to the girls dormitory. He decided then and there that he had a new mission. He would unravel the mystery that was the mudblood he had been trying to hate since the day he met her.

A/N: I'm really sorry about the delay, I had a Harry Potter quiz to prepare for ( I came second!) and my college semester is starting :( Next ch will be better, promise.