-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

All is fair in love and war

a story written by Grace Robin

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Chapter 3 – Surprise encounters

Hermione walked through the corridors of Hogwarts. She knew that everyone would be on their way to their dorms, as they had finished dinner and wanted to catch up on friends they hadn't seen in so long. So she went straight to the Griffindor tower. On the way she had felt a strange feeling – like half of her soul had disappeared for a moment or two, and then she felt pain on half of her body, like as in she had fallen on the ground. She dismissed this though, and as she entered the Griffindor common room, she was met by a huge crowd cheering her name at the sight of her. She was quite overwhelmed – but she pushed it aside, trying to find Harry, Ron or Ginny in the crowd. After a good 5 minutes, she found the people she was looking for. But what she saw before her shocked her. Sitting in Harry's lap was Ginny, kissing Harry quite passionately. Hermione had known that Ginny and Harry had had a thing the year before, but she hadn't realised that they had carried it on in secret. Sitting across from the couple, Hermione spotted Ron, frozen still. She could tell this was hard for Ron. Seeing his baby sister kissing his best friend wasn't going to be easy for him to deal with, but he would have to get over it. As Hermione walked closer to the threesome, Ron turned around and spotted her. In his eyes, she could see fear. So she decided to ask him about Chris, to at least help him forget about what he saw infront of him.

"Hey Ron, have you seen Chris? Ron... Rooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnn... RON!"

"Ha? Wha? Oh, Hermione! Um, no, I haven't. But his probably up in the boys dorms. Do you want to go check it out?"

"Am I allowed to? I thought girls weren't allowed up there,"

"Earth to Hermione – your a head now – you can't get in trouble,"

"Will you still come with me anyway? I don't want to go up there by myself if I do get in trouble,"

"Okay, fine, but only to get away from these two. Besides, you and Chris never do anything like them," referring to the kissing couple downstairs, "so I'm safe," and with that conversation over, they made their way up to the boys dorms. When they finally got to the seventh years' level, Hermione found the room that Chris should be in, and opened the door. As she walked in, with Ron behind, she saw Chris sitting on his bed alone, with is head facing down. When he heard the door open, Chris had snapped his head up to see who it was. But when Hermione looked at Chris' face, it scared her. And to her annoyance, Ron left the room, mumbling something about going to sleep, just in case they did get up to something.

Chris' face was all blotchy, red and tear-stained. Hermione didn't know what to do that would actually help, so she did what comes naturally to girls – going up and giving Chris a hug. As their bodies came in contact, Chris' eyes started to water again, with tears coming down faster and stronger all over Hermione's shoulder. But she didn't mind; she loved him. Chris just kept crying for a while, and when no more tears would flow, he kept holding onto Hermione as if he would die if he let go. She tried numerous times to ask what was wrong but he wasn't ready to talk.

As it got later, Hermione remembered that she really shouldn't be up in the boys dorms, and she asked if Chris wanted to come over to the Head's common room and chat, before she got caught. He agreed to this and so they secretly set off towards the opposite side of the castle.

It had taken her well over an hour but she had finally gotten the story out of Chris. On the day that they were meant to meet at the cafe, his father had popped out of the house for a carton of milk. Down at the market he met a death eater who was assigned to kill him, and the next thing Chris knew, he was fatherless and his mother was a widow.

Hermione felt so sorry for Chris. Why did it have to happen to him? Why not someone like Draco?

That night Chris stayed in the common room and slept there, while Hermione went up to bed. But all this time, without Hermione or Chris noticing, Draco had been watching the whole chain of events. He now knew how to get back at Hermione -break up her and her "little special boyfriend".

"Her freakin fridget boyfriend," added Malfoy. "If she were my girlfriend, man, our relationship would be rockin'!" and off he went to sleep, his dreams finally adding some colour to his magical room.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Hermione woke up the next day quite cheerful. She had discovered what was wrong with Chris, and she had humiliated her arch enemy twice. Can't do much better in one day, can you? But as Hermione found her way down to the common room, dread began to drain away her happiness. What she saw before her were two lots of trouble. By themselves, they were each worth fear, but together, they were terrifying! First, a letter from Professor McGonagall; second, Malfoy and Chris were talking like they were best friends.

Hermione decided that she should deal with the easier problem first – Professor McGonagall's letter. It was bright red and Hermione could tell right away that it was a Howler, looking very similar to the Howler that Ron and Harry had received all those years ago from Mrs Weasley.

Instead of opening the Howler in front of the boys, Hermione briskly walked up the staircase and up to her room. But just before she entered her room, she remembered how it looked like there might be an extra room between her's and Malfoys. So she decided to check it out first, to try and avoid her terrifying problems for as long as possible. As she entered her room, she saw to her right a door with a shiny door knob. As she opened the door, she was amazed at what she saw before her. How had she not thought about the glories of the Head's bathroom? The bathroom, just like the bedrooms, had an enlargement spell inside it, and it was even bigger than their rooms! It was huge – especially the bath tub. It was bigger than a swimming pool; and it even had a drink cooler so that you could have a party in there.

As Hermione looked from the bath tub to the Howler in her hand, she came up with an ingenious idea, since she didn't want the whole left-hand side of the castle to hear the Howler. First she water proofed the howler, then she made her hearing perfect for other than air situations. Her head slowly made a decent to under the waters of the tub and the Howler followed. Under the water, Hermione opened the Howler.

"MISS GRANGER! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK THE HEAD BOY LIKE YOU DID! I KNOW YOU AND MR MALFOY HAVE HAD YOUR PROBLEMS IN THE PAST, BUT NOW IS THE TIME TO GET OVER IT AND START ACTING LIKE THE RESPONSIBLE ADULT YOU ARE SOON TO BECOME! PLEASE REPORT TO MY OFFICE ASAP," and as the dreaded Howler curled up and burned (even though it was in water), and Hermione pulled her head out of the water, she sighed and went on her way to fix her next problem.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco and Chris had been talking for over an hour before Hermione had woken up. Their conversation had started with Malfoy sneaking up and scaring Chris.

"Oi! What was that for? I've never done anything to you before, so leave me alone!"

"Exactly right. You've never done anything to me, which means that we can be friends,"

"Excuse me? Friends? Are you nuts? And do you ever listen to yourself?"

"Wow, you've really been spending too much time with Granger; your beginning to sound a lot like her,"

"How would you know? All you do is throw insults at her which she doesn't deserve,"

"Doesn't mean I don't know how to treat a lady of her persuasion, and how to get in her good books – I've just never bothered to try out my cunning skills on her, since I don't go for her type,"

"What, the smart type? I could never imagine you with a girl that has an IQ over 1 digit long – too hard to get girls with a brain into bed, right?"

"Look, do you want help or not with making Hermione fall in love with you?"

"It depends – what will it cost me?"

"Only to be allowed to talk to Hermione,"

"There must be something more in it for you. Your a skeemer, and skeemers don't just want to be able to talk to a guy's girlfriend, when he could easily do it without permission,"

"I'm just asking to talk to her, and that's it. I'm also mainly helping you because since this year is going to be so stressful, if she don't loose her stress some how, I might get blamed for killing her when her head pops off!"

"Okay, you have my permission. Now lets hear this advice," and so Malfoy started getting into details on how to bag Hermione's love. Or at least that's what Chris thought.

After Hermione had gotten out of bed, grabbed the Howler and left the room, Malfoy finished his conversation with Chris.

"So, do you really think that your plan will work?"

"Umm, hello, that swarming mass of hot girls ain't there for decoration; believe me, it'll work,"

"It better, otherwise I will bash you into a pulp," and off walked Chris, out of the Head's common room, to set into action Draco's plan.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As Hermione came down the stairs, she saw that her boyfriend was no longer talking to Malfoy; he wasn't even in the room. But she was glad – now she had an excuse to yell at Malfoy. As she came closer to Draco, words began flowing out of her mouth before she could control it. Shouting, Hermione said,

"Draco, what the hell are you doing talking to MY boyfriend about? You two aren't even friends, and you hate Griffindors as it is!"

"Well, that has changed today. And why aren't I allowed to talk to your boyfriend? I just wanted to get to know him better so I would know if I would have to worry about staying awake all night by the sound of you two doing it till your hearts content, or whether his a fridget ass. It seems he is the latter,"

"You are such filth Malfoy, you know that? I wish you'd go to hell!"

"Too late, sunshine, but I've already been there before, and it looks better than you do with a wet head like right now," Hermione had completely forgotten about putting her head in the water of the bath upstairs, so she quickly hit her hair with a drying spell, and flounced off. But before leaving, she stated with a mono tone voice,

"You better get changed and kick your sorry ass downstairs to breakfast fast, cos we have classes in less than twenty minutes," and with that said, Hermione left the common room and Draco's cursing behind her as she made her way to the Great Hall.