When I was six, I wandered away from my parents in the supermarket. I had forgotten to grab something that I desperately wanted from the candy aisle, so while my parents were busy trying to pick out a breakfast cereal that was both healthy and would satisfy my sweet tooth, I went two aisles over to grab a package of Swedish Fish and then found a Nancy Drew book and sat, snacking and reading. My name was called over the intercom, there was a storewide search complete with police officers, and when I was done reading (Nancy Drew got the bad guy in the end), I wandered over to the checkout where my parents were waiting. My mother cried for an hour and slept in my room for a week, and my dad... well, he bought me the Nancy Drew book. Actually, he bought me a lot of Nancy Drew books.

I missed the return to Hogsmeade and spent the entire night shacked up in a room with a very naked Draco, and no one even noticed the Head Girl and Head Boy were missing. I had previously considered Hogwarts students to an intelligent, rather observant lot. As Harry and Ron waved me over to sit by them for lunch, I was positive that I was mistaken. Taking one last peak behind me, unsure what I was expecting to see, I stalked past the many hungry Gryffindors and found my sit next to Ginny. "Good morning." I greeted everyone, trying to act normally.

"Morning, 'Mione." Harry greeted me in response, gingerly sneaking a glance in Ginny's direction when he thought she wasn't looking. I resisted the urge to smile at him, quite badly I might add, and grimaced at Ron to Harry's left, who barely managed to spit out a 'morning' sleepily as he practically shoveled food into his mouth.

"Morning?" Ginny asked me, her brow furrowed in confusion. "'Mione, its half past noon." I froze, panic rising in my chest. Half past noon... Half past noon... Half past noon? Had I really slept that long?

"Half past noon?" Ron asked, clearly as confused as I was. "You mean this isn't the breakfast feast?" I stared at him for a long moment. Only Ronald could ask such a question. Wait, didn't I just... Ginny scowled at him.

"No, Ron. It's lunch. You only think that it's breakfast because you just got up ten minutes ago." Ginny replied. Ron looked offended at Ginny's words.

"Hey, I needed that sleep. It was a really late night, you know." Ron defended himself.

"Oh? And what were you doing up so late?" Ginny asked. I didn't know whether to be happy that the attention was off me, or frustrated beyond comprehension that only one of my friends had noticed that I hadn't returned to Hogwarts with the rest of them. I grabbed a small slice of sandwich off the table in front of me and picked at it, trying to feel hungry, as I listened to them. Harry and Ron shared a quick glance at each other.

"Studying." Ron said with a rather superior expression as Harry grinned. I frowned at the two.

"Studying what?" I asked. "It's the half term. There's been no school for a week." Now Ron looked offended at me. He leaned back a little and folded his arms across his chest, pouting at me.

"Can't a bloke care about his schooling?" Ron asked. "Maybe I want to do better. Maybe I want to get higher grades. Maybe I want to know all the answers."

"Maybe he was in the library all night, snogging with Pavarti." Harry said, grinning madly as Ron glared at him and turned a bright red. Ginny and I laughed, and for a brief moment, it was as though everything were normal. Harry continued to eye Ginny secretly, though I knew that everyone at the table saw Harry sneaking glances at her at one time or another. Ronald went back to stuffing his mouth with food. And, after a quiet meal, in which I ate practically nothing and managed to swallow the slightest bit of pumpkin juice, I excused myself to head to my room.

I had not experienced a hangover before, but at that moment, I was stalwartly determined to never experience one again. I rubbed my head as I neared the doors to the great hall, wishing that the pounding headache would subside, if only for a moment. Maybe I was getting a migraine. In any case, I blamed the throbbing in my head from the firewhiskey that Malfoy had probably given me for not paying any attention as to where I was going. I shouldn't have been so surprised when I collided with something warm and rather tall. I stumbled backwards a few steps but managed to keep my footing, my eyes looking up to the same bright blue that I'd met that morning.

"Granger." Draco greeted me with a sneer.

"Ferret." I replied, trying to sound indifferent instead of deep in shock. I wasn't sure if I was succeeding, but I had a pretty good idea that I wasn't. He glared down at me, eyes dark and furious.

"Don't call me that." Draco growled through clenched teeth.

"I'll call you whatever I like." I snapped. He leaned forward and looked like he was about to say something, before suddenly breaking out into a grin once again.

"Fine." he said. "Then call me Studmuffin." That same indignation that I'd felt that morning was beginning to come back.

"Are you insane?" I asked, lowering my voice so only the two of us could hear. "I'm not going to call you Studmuffin." I stated.

"Why not?" he asked. "You seemed rather keen on the expression last night." he said, placing a special emphasis on the words 'last night'. I felt my cheeks grow hot as I glared up at his amused face with a thoroughly scandalized expression.

"You're lying." I accused. "You're making that up. I would never call anyone Studmuffin, especially not you." I hoped, anyway. He let out a low chuckle for a moment.

"Oh, you called me Studmuffin, alright." he said, happy at my discomfort. He leaned down, inches from my face. "Actually, you screamed it." he whispered.

"You're a dirty weasel!" I yelled, grabbing the attention of most everyone in the great hall. I supposed I couldn't blame them. It wasn't every day that you saw the Head Girl and Head Boy arguing and calling each other names. At least, not before this year.

"If I were you," he said, looked disgusted at the thought. "I would be nicer to me." He brushed past me easily enough and found himself a seat at the Slytherin table beside Blaise Zabini and his two brainless henchmen.

I hoped that he was back to normal and would go back to calling me a filthy mudblood, and making me want to viciously hurt him. Of course, then I realized that he would probably announce to the entire Hogwarts student body that something, though I had yet to figure out what that was, had happened, and go into all sorts of details that I would be in no position to deny. I would have tried to appeal to his conscience; you know, if he had one. As it was, he had towered over with a rather wide, rather lecherous grin that seemed to show off his canines menacingly.

"Asshole." I growled, staring at him for a long moment. Despite myself, I couldn't help but his perfect posture as he sat, making loud remarks and lewd jokes and laughing like an idiot. It wasn't until Blaise Zabini glanced across the room and saw me that I turned quickly, brushing my hair behind my ear, and hurried up to my room for a long bath and a fresh pair of underwear.

I wasn't exactly inexperienced. Viktor and I had been dating since fourth year. I'd gone out to visit him a lot during the summers, and even once or twice during the winter and spring breaks. We hadn't gone all the way – I wasn't really ready for that – but we'd certainly shared enough kisses to be considered intimate. Besides, Viktor wasn't much into kissing, so the subject had rarely come up. However, the soreness I felt in my thighs was definitely telling me a different story about last night, and I was left with my imagination to figure out exactly what had happened. I was none too happy about the situation, as anyone could imagine.

I pulled a pair of pants and a t-shirt out of my trunk, sliding them on. I had discarded the clothes I was wearing earlier in a pile by the door the second I'd entered the room, deciding that I would burn them later. Now, though, I gazed at them in retrospect, thinking that was perhaps a bit excessive and a good cleaning would probably do the trick. I might never find the matching panties for my bra, though.

I sighed as I pulled my hair back in a low ponytail, trying to focus my thoughts anywhere but on Draco 'Studmuffin' Malfoy.

I fell back on my bed, enjoying the soft sheets and the faint smell of jasmine and lavender perfume that Ron had given me for my fifteen birthday as an 'I love you, but let's be friends' gift. I'd been initially very confused, but then I'd learned that he'd actually stolen it from his mother, and it made a bit more sense. I could only hope that he didn't try that move with Pavarti. She probably wouldn't take it quite as easily as I had. It was really very funny, how things turn out. It was also funny how very sore I was.

I closed my eyes, happy to have even a few moments of peace. It was a rarity as Head Girl. The pounding in my head had seemed to cease and my eyes grew heavy. I didn't try to fight the irresistible need for sleep that washed over me like a drug.

I woke to the sound of desperate knocking against my door and a voice that I recognized as Ginny calling my name. Yawning sleepily, I sat up and slid off the bed, glancing back momentarily at the sound of something sliding off and hitting the floor. I frowned as I noticed a crumpled envelope and made a mental note to look. I walked over to the door and opened it, surprised when Ginny burst in and stormed across my room, yelling.

Ginny frowned at me. "Harry's a lousy git!" she declared, falling down on my bed. I sighed, walking over and sitting beside her.

"Okay, what did he do now?" I asked. "You guys seemed like you were getting along." She sat up and glared at me.

"Does it matter?" she asked. I laughed.

"Yes, it kind of does." I answered her. She huffed and fell back on my bed. I waited for her to say something for a long moment before sighing. "Come on, Ginny. What's going on?" She groaned before sitting up and grimacing at me.

"I..." she stumbled on her words. "I have a confession to make." she told me seriously. I gazed at her in confusion, waiting for her to continue. What could she possibly have to say? "I'm dating Harry Potter." Oh yeah, that was surprising. I only saw that about two miles and a third world country away. "Well?" Ginny asked, waiting for my response.

"I'm waiting to hear the problem." I told her.

"You have nothing to say about me dating Harry?" she asked me in disbelief. I sighed.

"Gin, we've been waiting for it to happen." I told her. "Half of Hogwarts has bets on when you guys finally go public." I left out the bet about finding them making out in one of the school's various broom closets. Neither bet had yet to be settled, as far as I knew.

"Everybody?" she asked.

"Everybody." I confirmed. She gave me a look of apprehension.

"Ron knows?" she asked, almost in a whimper. I almost burst into laughter. Ron was clueless. I would've thought that he'd been hexed had I not known him for so long.

"Well, of course Ronald doesn't know anything." I told her and she gave me an immediate look of relief with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. I frowned. "Ginny, what's going on?" She looked around for a moment, as if someone could be listening to us, before leaning forward and whispering to me.

"So, Harry and I have been dating for a few months now..." she whispered.

"A few months? You got together over the summer?" I asked her. I thought Harry spent the summer with Lupin and Tonks. She practically started crying at that point.

"No, we didn't!" she yelled, jumping off my bed. "In fact, we haven't been together at all!" I gazed up at her, my face distorted in confusion.

"But you two have been making eyes at each other ever since we got here." I said. "You've been together almost every second." She gave me a very grave expression.

"That's not the kind of together I'm talking about." she said. I stared at her, trying to comprehend what she was saying and failing to do so. She rolled her eyes at my baffled look and groaned.

"Huh?" I asked.

"SEX, Hermione. I'm talking about sex!" Ginny screamed and I jumped. Sex. Right. Sex... yeah. Sex?

"Wait, so you're saying that Harry is a git because..." Ginny looked at me impatiently.

"It's been three months, Hermione. That is not normal." she said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. It occurred to me to ask her exactly how she knew that that wasn't normal, but I changed my mind quickly. I didn't think that I wanted to know her frame of reference. She sighed and fell back on my bed, and I was stuck standing and staring at her uncomfortably. Ginny, Ron's baby sister, was dating my best friend. She was sitting in my room, talking about having sex with my best friend. I could feel that headache coming back - and I thought 'Studmuffin' Malfoy was the worst of my problems.

"Look, 'Mione, I know this is an... awkward position to put you in, but you're my best friend, and I just... I need my best friend." Ginny said. What was I supposed to say to that? No? Come on, Hermione. Who says no to their friends, especially those who need help? I yawned, tucking some of my brown hair behind my ear gingerly.

"Maybe... he's being respectful." I suggested. She scoffed. "Maybe he really cares about you and doesn't want to rush you." She gave me an expression that I'd often seen my cousins give me when I suggested reading a good book over playing 'spin the bottle' growing up. It said 'yeah, right'. I didn't really want to say the only that was left that I could think of. I didn't even want to think about the mere possibility of it. "Maybe... he has..." Oh, come on, Hermione, just say it. "Staying problems." I finally choked out.

"Trust me," she replied. "He has a lot of problems, but that's not one of them." I frowned.

"Gin..." I didn't know how to ask the question that I wanted to ask. Was I going to sound cruel or offend her? "Is it really so important for you two to... you know." She gazed at me as though I were an alien, or perhaps a very hostile hippogriff.

"Hermione, this isn't just some silly crush." Ginny said. "I love Harry. I really love him, and by all the muggle gods in the world, I want to have sex with him."

"Okay, bu-"

"Maybe I'm just..." she mumbled to herself. "Maybe he doesn't want me."

"Gin, he's been in love with you for the past three years." I told her. "Just give him some time." She stared at me for a long moment, thinking, before slowly nodding.

"Yeah, you're right." she said. "Thanks, Hermione."

After my reluctant heart-to-heart with Ginny, it was time to head down to dinner, which I skipped. I couldn't keep myself from thinking about Ginny and her newfound knowledge of men and their... habits. I wondered if there was a wizard version of condoms, and whether, if I asked Draco about it, he would give me an honest, or at least plausible, answer to whether we used protection. My instincts told me that he'd probably covered that front. I doubted that Lucius Malfoy would take kindly to his son getting a 'filthy mudblood' pregnant any more than my parents would be happy to find that out that I was sexually active.

Besides, I wasn't looking forward to sitting across from Ginny and Harry and pretending not to be contemplating their situation. Instead, I was going to rush to the library quickly and do a little research. Classes were due to begin tomorrow, and if I didn't get at least one answer to the dozens of burning questions that were now floating around in my head, I would probably vomit. Damn Malfoy and his perfectly shaped penis!

I froze mid-step just outside the library, wishing I could kick myself in my head. I couldn't believe that I'd just thought that. Okay, Hermione. New plan. Take the books and run. It would be best if you weren't out in public in this condition. Yes, I thought, that's a good plan. I took a deep breath and ran into the library, heading to the section with books on advanced transfiguration, then to the dark arts section, and when I'd grabbed all the books that I needed for school, I snuck into the medicinal section. Hopefully no one would notice me - after all, they hadn't noticed that I was missing from the school for an entire night and half the morning. Why should they notice me now?

The library was empty anyway. It was a Sunday night, and by now people were usually finishing their dinner or heading back to the common rooms to get the most out of their one last night of freedom. I was alone as I shuffled through shelf after shelf of books. There was a book on spells, a book on herbs and their uses. I couldn't decide what book to look through for an answer to my specific question, so naturally, I took down a whole stack. Flipping through the pages methodically, I'd occasionally glance back at the door or the gaps between shelves, hearing a noise or thinking that I'd seen something.

It hadn't occurred to me at the time that they wouldn't keep books with those kinds of spells in a school library - it gave them ideas. I sighed, tossing the books aside. Two hours of research and no answers; what a complete waste of time. I leaned back and closed my eyes, feeling tired and more than a little hopeless.

"Yes... oh, Draco!"

"I love you, Her-"

"Hermione?" I jumped, shocked out of my reverie. Looking up, I frowned to find Harry looking at me with a worried expression. "Are you okay?" I pushed away from the shelf, rubbing my aching eyes.

"Yeah, sorry." I said. "I'm just tired." He didn't look like he believed me, but he let it go. He scratched his head, looking sheepish for a long moment, before gathering the courage to talk.

"'Mione, can I uh... can I ask you a question?" he asked. I looked around, wondering what the time was. The library had to be close to closing. I looked at my stacks of books. They were going to be hell to drag back to my room.

"Of course. What's going on?" I waited patiently for him to get past his embarrassment to actually ask me a question.

"Has Ginny... I mean, has she talked about us at all?" he asked, eyes darting about. I groaned inwardly. First Ginny, now this?

"Uh, well... I- I don't know, Harry." I said quickly. He sighed.

"It's just... lately she's been... distant." he said. Distant? Ginny? But she was just talking to me a few hours ago complaining that you haven't slept together yet.

"I don't know if I'd say distant." I told him. He looked confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked. I tried to decide the best way to approach the situation as Harry looked at me expectantly. I could be bold, and tell him exactly what Ginny had told me, but that would be breaking the confidence of one of my best friends. Plus I didn't know how to say it without sounding cold.

"Look... uh..." I sighed. "Maybe you and Ginny should talk about it." Please! I was practically screaming in my head. He looked at me dejectedly.

"Did she say something?" he asked nervously. I felt kind of bad for him.

"Look, I think it'd be better if you just took to dinner and talked to her about it." Put on a little music, light some candles... He sighed depressively. "It'll be okay, Harry. She really likes you. You guys will work it out." He nodded and picked up a few of my books to help me carry them back to my room. I smiled appreciatively and followed him out.

A/N: I know, it's not incredibly long for the amount of time that you guys waited for it, and I actually meant to have it up a little sooner than I did. But actually, my mom's been on vacation this week, and she hasn't had a vacation in over four years. She teaches doctorate students how to write and do research for a university, so she could definitely use the break. So that's where I've been, and I literally haven't had time to get on my computer until now. Half of this chapter was actually written on my nifty Samsung Blackjack.

I promise, I'll update the next chapter sooner than I did with this one!

Oh, and thanks to all of the awesome people who're reviewing and reading! (I would make a happy face, but I think deletes those) You guys rock!!