Slytherin won 350 to 120; they were throwing a party in their common room to celebrate the victory. Draco was hoping that Hermione would come, since she supported them during the match and they were getting be really good friends. So he was a little disappointed when he walked into their common room and she was already in her pajama bottoms and a tank top.

"'Mione, I thought you would come to the party with me in Slytherin common room?" Draco asked her with a pout.

"I think that I have done enough damage to my friendship with Ron and Harry that I will pass on the party, at least this one." Hermione refused to look at Draco when she spoke. She did not want to the tears in her eyes or know how upset she really was over the whole thing with Ron.

"If that is what you want. I will check in on you later." Draco turned and left the common room. On his way to the dungeons he passed Professor Flint walking up from them.

"Hey, Flint would you do me a favor and try to cheer 'Mione up tonight. She seems a little down and I think that things with Ron are making her more upset than she wants anyone to know." Draco asked Flint with concern lacing his voice.

"Sure! Anything for Hermione, she has turned out to be one of my favorite students. I hate to see her upset over that Weasel." Flint's voice took on a hard edge when he said Weasel. He was really beginning to hate that kid.

So, Flint walked to the Heads common room and said the pass word to the portrait and walked in to see Hermione on the couch crying her eyes out. He walked over to her and pulled her on to his lap, wrapped his arms around her and let her cry it all out. About fifteen minutes of her crying, she finally stopped and dried her eyes on Flint's shirt.

"Thanks, Flint. I really needed that. But, you should be down with your House celebrating the win. I cannot in good conscious let you stay here and wallow in self-pity with me." Hermione told him.

"Well then, I guess that you will just have to come with me. I mean, you did help us when. If you had not worn what you did today, Weasel would not have been distracted and we would not have been able to score on him." Flint told her with a hint of humor in his voice.

"I guess, I could go for a little while, but it will not become a habit. People will think that I have gone to the dark side." Hermione replied with humor lacing her voice more than Flints.

So, she got up, dressed in a similar outfit as earlier, but she had on gold leather pants, maroon colored jumper that was snug in all the right places and to top it off, she grabbed Draco's Slytherin scarf and tied it around her neck. 'There the best of both, I think this will become my new look.' She thought to herself. Hermione and Flint made it to the Slytherin common room with no mishaps and Hermione had a wonderful time. She danced with almost all of the Slytherin boys and although some were rude, most were very nice and friendly. She realized that she had more things in common with the girls of Slytherin house, than she did with the girls in her own house. As the night progressed, most of the kids were waiting for her to say something about calling it a night, but she never did. At around two in the morning, Hermione finally said goodnight to the whole Slytherin house and Draco walked her to their common room. They said good night went to sleep.

The next morning, Hermione woke up feeling really good. She was no longer upset about the whole Ron and Harry thing and she was actually really happy about her life for once. There were no Death Eaters to worry about, no Slytherin's to harass her and most importantly, no fear of flying. It was going to be a wonderful rest of the school year, and the winter holidays were almost here. She walked down to the Great Hall, students were still staring, but she was getting used to it. Today she wore a silver mini skirt over gold leggings, a pair of knee high black boots, with a green jumper that just barely covered her stomach and to top it off, she was wearing Draco's Slytherin scarf again with her own Gryffindor one. As she walked into the Great Hall, instead of going to the Gryffindor table like usual, she walked over to the Slytherin table and sat next to Daphne Greengrass. She filled her plate with all her favorite food and began to eat, she was well aware of all the whispers about what she had done, but she did not care and all the Slytherin's were glaring at anyone who looked wrong at her.

It was any unusual way to start her day, but it was really nice, because none of the Slytherin's asked her to either help or do their homework. As the day went on, it stayed the same way, no came up to her with anything bad to say, though they talked about her behind her back. When the day was over, she went to her common room and had a nice talk with Draco till it was time to go to bed, she said goodnight and went to bed.

The next couple of months went by pretty much the same way, she would get up get dressed in her uniform on the week days and on weekends she would wear a combination of Slytherin and Gryffindor colors, she would hang out with the Slytherin's most days, every now and then Ginny would hang out with her, but not as much as she used to. She found out that Daphne really liked Draco and so she went about hooking the two of them up, which worked out wonderfully as Draco like Daphne as well. As the winter holiday was approaching, she was trying to figure what she would do, normally she went home for a week and then went to Burrow, but this year was going to be different.

"Hey, 'Mione whatcha doing for the holiday this year, I know you normally go to the Weasel's house, but I thought you could come to mine this year." Daphne asked her.

"I think that would be great. I will owl my parents and see if it is ok? Gotta run though, flying lesson with Flint!" Hermione ran off to the Quidditch pitch so she would not be late.

"Hey, what is the rush?" Draco asked her as she slammed into him just before she got to the pitch.

"Flying….Flint…. gotta go!" Hermione wheezed out as she was out of breath running the whole way.

"I think it will be ok if your late, Flint say's you're his favorite." Draco replied to her.

"Nice… to… know… bye!" With that Hermione ran the rest of the way to the pitch. As she got there she noticed that Flint seemed preoccupied with something in his hand.

"Flint, hey sorry I'm late. I was talking with Daphne about the holiday break." Hermione got the impression that he was not listening to her. "FLINT!"

"Oh,.. Hey Hermione. Sorry, I got this letter from the Puddlemere United. They want me to join their team." Flint told Hermione with a sadness and wistfulness in his voice. "I like teaching, but I love Quidditch. I don't know what to do. But enough of that, we have a lesson to get on with."

"Yes, we do. I thought for this one, you could teach me how to play Quidditch?" Hermione asked him and was surprised when his face split into a huge grin.

"I would love to teach you how to play Quidditch. Let's get started." And with that he taught her how to play every position in Quidditch. After the lesson, he informed her that he would be at the Greengrass' holiday party and could not wait to see her there.

The rest of the two weeks went by faster than Hermione would have liked and the next thing she knew it was the day before they all left for winter holiday. As she was packing her stuff an owl landed outside her window. Hermione opened the window and the bird flew in, it landed on her desk and extended its leg, Hermione removed the letter and the bird flew off.

Dear Hermione,

We know that you were looking forward to coming home for the holidays and we would love for you to be home for them, the unfortunate thing is, is that we have a convention that we need to attend. We have tried everything we can to get out of it, but it is impossible to do. We have written to the Weasely's to see if you can stay with them until you go to your friend Daphne's, but they refused, so we are hoping that Daphne will not mind you staying at her house. We are terribly sorry about this honey.

Love,

Mum and Dad

Hermione sat there staring at the letter, until Daphne came up to get her for the evening meal. Hermione explained the problem and Daphne said it was no problem, she would inform her parents and that would be it. So they went down to the Great Hall to eat. The next day they all departed for the platform at Hogsmeade and boarded the Hogwarts Express. Hermione was determined to have a wonderful holiday.

A/N: Thank you to all of those who have read this and stuck with me. Please review, good, bad or indecisive.