Draco had spent three years and then some under harsh gazes and loud whispers following him. Hermione had spent two weeks under such pressures and now she had a deeper appreciation of his strength.

He had been right. People did not receive them well. Hermione found people staring at her often. Many gave her disapproving looks as she passed. Someone had even dared to approach her and ask in a whisper, "If you need help, just let me know."

Draco wasn't faring much better. In fact, just as he had predicted, he had people accusing him of foul play. He had gotten cornered shortly after Ginny's outburst in the library and had been demanded to tell his attacker what he'd done to her. Much to Hermione's pleasure, he hadn't reacted. He hadn't pulled out his wand. He hadn't even slurred an insult. He had merely stared him down, daring for him to make a move. She couldn't have been happier for that well-perfected Malfoy sneer and sinister disposition.

As for Ginny, she was perhaps the hardest obstacle to face through all of this. It was absolutely nerve-wracking sharing a room with someone who wasn't speaking to you. The maneuvering around so as to avoid each other. The obvious tactics to avoid one another's gaze. And then when they had to speak to each other? The crispness of Ginny's voice ate at Hermione's heart something wicked.

When two weeks approached three the brunette decided that this simply couldn't go on. Ginny had made it a habit to come back to their room late when Hermione was sure to be asleep. This time she came back and found her friend wide awake, sitting on her bed rather than her own. Ginny scowled.

"What are you doing?"

"We need to talk, Ginny."

Ginny crossed her arms. "We've talked enough."

"No, we've yelled enough." Hermione countered. She sighed as she stood and anxiously wrung her hands together. "I don't want to fight with you. And I'm not asking you to forgive me either –at least not for everything."

Ginny watched her as Hermione went to sit on her own bed.

"Sit? Please?"

There was this saddened, embarrassed, pitiful look about her that Ginny just couldn't ignore. Against her better judgement she did sit, but kept her angry pose with her arms.

"I'm not going to apologize for seeing Malfoy,-"

Ginny snorted.

"-but I will apologize for lying to you about it." Hermione continued. "I shouldn't have, but Malfoy convinced me that it was for the best. At least for the meantime."

"See? Even he thinks the two of you together are a disaster."

"He thinks we'll have trouble, not that we're a disaster."

Ginny bit her bottom lip as her arms finally fell at her sides. "Then why go through it? Why put yourself through all of that especially when you broke off a relationship with a stable guy last year?"

Hermione leaned back in surprise. "I thought you said you were okay with what happened with me and Ron. That you understood?"

"I did! I mean, I do, but…to know that you and Malfoy have been…together, it's just… I don't understand the attraction. How could you possibly go from a Grade A citizen to an utter failure of a human being?"

"Because that 'utter failure of a human being' was left behind when he walked away from the war. Malfoy isn't who he used to be. That mystery guy from the ball? The one that I gushed over? That's who he is and who he's been ever since that night I was with him."

Ginny took a deep breath and ran her hands up her arms. "I don't know about this, Hermione. This could end very badly for you. You say he's a good person; and I guess I have to trust you on that because you never do anything without thinking it through. But that doesn't change the fact that he's got friends and family who hate you and who hate people like you. His reputation might ruin yours simply because of who he is. Is Malfoy really worth all of that?"

Hermione nodded. "He is."

The room got quiet then. Ginny was staring at her feet while Hermione was staring right at her. Seconds turned to minutes. Several long minutes. The silence was becoming unbearable the longer it went on and Hermione just had to open her mouth before she went crazy.

"Ginny," she began. "Please say something."

The redhead parted her lips.

Hermione held her breath.

Ginny spoke.

"The sex must be better than you described."

Hermione blinked. Ginny sat there, a small mischievous smirk on her face. Hermione laughed. She laughed hard and she laughed loudly as Ginny got up and wrapped her arms around her to give her a hug.

"I'm still mad at you."

"I know."

"So you owe me."

"Name it."

Ginny pulled back from her and widened her smirk into a full grin. "Details. Right now."

The next two weeks were a stark contrast compared to the other two. Yes, people were still looking at her funny. Yes, there were still whispers. But at least Ginny was talking to her again. It made things just that much more bearable. What topped it off was that Ginny hadn't tried to tell neither Harry nor Ron what had happened. "Tried" because Harry was currently on assignment somewhere undisclosed where owls may be hard to reach. As for Ron, no matter how angry Ginny had been at Hermione for keeping her in the dark, there was no way she could unleash her brother on her like that. The brunette had counted that as a blessing and was thanking her lucky stars at that.

Although, she still feared that a mob would somehow form on the Hogwarts grounds demanding Draco's head on a platter. Surely the students here had gossiped through letters to people outside of the school, hadn't they? Surely there was some word on the "monstrosity" that was happening on the historic school's property?

Ginny had helped to soothe her fears on that one. With her connections to the Daily Prophet she ensured Hermione that the only reason no atrocious articles had been written was because Rita Skeeter –the bug that she was –and other reporters like her now knew better than to sprout stories based off of rumors. Especially if they wanted to avoid any backlash from the defamed subjects of their writing, or worse, a Ministry reprimand. And who could deny that the relationship of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy sounded nothing short of a fable?

Hermione was adding the turnout to her lit of blessings.

And then there were NEWTs. Last week she had finally taken them along with Draco and other students. The exam had been challenging, she had to admit, but as she read over her scores that came back in record time, she was grinning from ear to ear.

"All Outstandings!" Hermione announced merrily as she walked out to meet Draco on the grounds. "I have to admit, I was a bit nervous there. I could've sworn I would've only gotten an Exceeds Expectations in Advanced Arithmacy. What about you?"

Draco didn't say anything. He just handed her his letter and continued to stare at the grass. Hermione began to frown. How could she have been so oblivious? Here she was, yammering away about how well she did on her NEWTs and she completely missed the signs. His slumped shoulders, his creased brow, his clasped lips. Merlin, this was terrible.

Hermione took a deep breath as she brought her eyes to his scores.

"Wait a minute…" she breathed as her heartrate accelerated. "Advanced Potion Making, Outstanding…Upper Level Charms, Exceeds Expectations…Advanced Transfiguration, Outstanding… Malfoy, this is amazing! You arse, you made me think you did horribly!"

Draco smiled broadly as he stood and took Hermione in his arms. "Well, of course. That was the point."

Hermione laughed as she hugged him. "Honestly, Malfoy, this is exceptional. And fantastic job with Advanced Transfiguration considering you hardly touched the book to study for it."

Draco fought the rouge in his cheeks. He had meant what he said about never studying transfiguration ever again.

"The Auror Training Program doesn't begin until July, but you should put in your application as soon as possible." Hermione said as their hug ended and she gave him back his NEWTs results. "Do you know which Division you want to specialize in?"

Draco fidgeted. "One, although I'm not sure how that one might blow over."

Hermione's curiosity was piqued. "Which one?"

"…Dark Arts Division…"

"Oh," Hermione said quietly. No, that might not blow over well at all, would it? The Malfoy name alone made people hesitate. But to put both it and the Dark Arts together? It was a potential recipe for disaster.

"It's a bad idea, I know." Draco said, reading it all over her face. "But I know a bit too much on the subject and I figured…you know…that I'd might as well put it to good use."

Hermione slowly nodded. "I can understand that. And it's not a bad idea. Risky, perhaps, but not bad."

"Risky because the Ministry will turn me away?"

"Risky because people tend to be such a gossipy bunch. As for the Ministry, they can't turn you away because your scores are exactly what the Auror Department requires of every trainee."

"And when they learn of what Division I want? What? They'll welcome me with cookies and a hug?"

Hermione laughed a little. "I wouldn't say that, but Auror Training is two-fold. The general training is the whole month of July, while divisional training is in August. You'll make it into general training long before they find out your choice of Division. And when they do," she added quickly before Draco could interrupt, "they can't stop you from continuing."

"Such faith in your precious Ministry, I see." Draco said with a reluctant sigh. Hermione nodded as she closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I helped rebuild that Ministry. I have faith in every facet of it. And besides, if it somehow doesn't work out, the position of rich, arrogant arse is still available, isn't it?"

Draco smirked. "And you'd be okay with that?"

"So long as the negatives are at a bare minimum, yes."

"They'll be a zero when I'm with you." Draco promised. He rested his forehead against hers as he so often did. And then he got lost. Lost in the way her fingers grazed the back of his neck. In the way she smelled of vanilla. In the way she tickled his lips with her breath just before she leaned up to kiss him. She was addicting, to say the least, and the best drug he could ever lose himself to.

"What the hell?"

Draco felt Hermione stiffen in his arms. He himself lifted his lips away from hers so that he could see over her head.

His sneer was automatic.

"Weasley,"

Author's note: And the drama continues! At least Hermione and Ginny are on good terms again. But now Ron's seen them first hand. Yeah…not good.

I'd like to take this time to thank Neakco so very much for bringing up the idea of Ron visiting. I had had a different vision in mind, but this worked out better :). I'd also like to thank SmileSimplify bringing up the power of the information grapevine and newspapers finding out. I do have something of that nature planned out, but I didn't want it to happen now, hence reporters being more careful with rumors that they hear :).

Also, please do me (and yourselves) a favor and check out LightofEvolution's High on Magic. If you want an interesting and different take on Dramione then please give it a shot :D

Thanks for reading guys!

-WP