After his latest growing a fish tail, and thank Merlin he got enough to get to the Prefects' bathroom, he stumbled across his Mate and the Weasel cuddling in a private corner from the corner of his eyes. He was watching them from his hiding spot.

His eyes were bulging with jealousy, as if they were going to get out from their sockets for now and all he was seeing was red. "I gotta get to MY Mate." Was all he could think of in his mind. So he walked towards them, wand out to get the Weasel, when Pans stopped him and abruptly waked him up from his trance while whispering to him for the couple not to hear them :

"I told you to not do anything rash at all to Weasley. You're breaking your promise to me."

"Not my fault he's all over MY Hermione."

"She doesn't know she's yours yet and it'd cost you Her seeing you in a new light if you did anything to her precious Weasley."

"So, what should I do about my feelings for Her? Nothing, just stand there and watch Her with him?"

"Why were you watching them if you can't stand the sight of them together in the first place?"

"I didn't want to watch them, I just stumbled on them by accident."

"Yeah, right, I bet you couldn't resist following Granger around?"

"I swear to Merlin, I didn't do that."

"All right, I believe you."

"And anyway, what about Lavender Brown and getting the Weasel interested in her?"

"We'll go talk to her in a minute. And could you lower your tone and be more polite to Weasley, please?"

"He'd always be 'The Weasel' to me. You're asking the impossible from me."

"For your Mate's sake."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I meant that if you were more polite to her actual boyfriend, it might actually get you into her good graces, if you're getting my drift."

"What? I gotta be nice to the Weasel, my rival?"

"Yes, because he's your Mate's boyfriend. And by being nicer to him, she might eventually think you're not so bad."

"I can't do it, Pans, he's already all over MY Mate, and I can't stand it every time I stumble across them accidentally together, shagging in a private corner. I wish it were me doing that to MY Hermione, not him." Draco's voice went up several octaves.

"Draco, let's just get away from there, we obviously can't stay there any longer. Let's go talk to Lavender Brown."

But too late, already, Ron was walking towards them upon hearing Draco Loud's voice.

"Oi, Malfoy, what are you doing, here, spying on us?"

"Nothing, just passing by." Said Draco as calmly as he could.

Seeing that Ron was about to point his wand at Draco, Hermione told him :

"Stop it, Ron, love, he's not worth your time nor mine." At this, Draco felt crushed. So he wasn't worth her time. He voiced these thoughts to his friend after his Hermione and Weasley had gone :

"So I'm not worthy of her?"

"For now, because you've mocked her for a very long time, it's not going to be easy to thaw that enmity between you two out. I'd suggest you to act civilly to Her in your next Prefect's duties with Her in a few nights."

"Yes, that's what I was thinking too. I didn't need you to point that out to me." He said dryly to her.

"Now, let's just get to Lavender Brown's. Pansy said as she led Draco away by his arm.

On their way to see Lavender Brown, Draco asked Parkinson, the cunning Slytherin girl, also his childhood friend :

"How are we getting the Brown girl to agree to our plans to break Weasel and MY Hermione up?"

"We'll get no problems on that front. She's agree all right. She's all jealous over the fact that your Granger and Weasley are together."

"But how are we going to approach her? Just blurt out the fact that I'm a Merman, and Hermione's MY Mate?" He was emphasizing strongly on the "my" when he said to his friend.

"Of course not, we're going to tell her that you've always had a crush on Granger, and we could use her help to and she'd get what she wants all along : Ronald Weasley."

"Except that I bullied MY Hermione and called her that for 7 long years prior to my finding out that she's MY Mate and that I'm a Merman. She'd not believe a word from you."

"Well, you might be surprised at how much she wants Weasley, Draco, and we're just going to tell her that you were bullying Her because you liked Her, although you were forced to hide your feelings from everyone because of your Father's allegiance to the Dark Lord." The Her in capital H was his Mate, of course.

"Sure, that sounds like a good plan."

Which after, they went to meet up with Lavender Brown in one of the Gryffindor corridors from the Gryffindor common room. And Lavender Brown got quite surprised to see them both there, so asked them, abashed :

"What are you 2 doing here, in a Gryffindor hallway, Parkinson and Malfoy?" She asked, taken aback by their sudden appearance.

"Well, we wanted to talk to you about something. A secret?" Pansy first started off with.

"A secret? And what's it got to do with me?" She asked Pansy again, intrigued.

"Well, it's like this, our Draco, our Slytherin Prince, always got a crush on your Gryffindor Princess."

"You mean Hermione Granger? Impossible. He was always calling her a you-know-what before, so how could he have liked her for that long?" As she asked her question, her eyes were out of their sockets by now.

"Everything's possible, Brown. Draco's been hiding it for so long, so would you help us get Her for my best childhood friend?"

"And why would I help two people whom I barely know? What do I get out of it?"

"Well, you'll get your crush, Ronald Weasley."

"How did you know?"

"You were a tiny wee bit too obviously jealous of Granger when these 2 got together."
"Really, I showed that much?"

"Yes You were basically wanting to claw Granger's eyes out." This time it was Draco.

"Yes, I'll have to admit, I've loved Ronald Weasley since a very long time."

"Yes, 7 years." said Draco precisely in answer to Brown's self-lamenting."

"But the question is, will you help us get break Granger and Weasley apart?"

"Yes, except how will I do it?"

"You're just going to show some extreme interest in Weasley and leave the rest to us."

"I understand my part, so I will get my Weasley, you promise it's not a shame?"
"No it's not, my feelings for Hermione are the truest, Brown."

"So it's Hermione now, isn't it, Malfoy?" She teased him.

"Yes, although in front of everyone else, I still call her Granger."

"I understand how much you want her and if you've really wanted her for as long as I wanted Weasley, I'll help you guys as much as I can, but I can't promise that he'll fall for me."

"No worries about that, we'll take care of it. Thank you for your help, Brown." said Draco gratefully.

After Pansy and Draco got alone, she said to her best friend since childhood :

"Well, that didn't go too bad, now, did it?"

"No, indeed, it didn't. We'll see how she does her part."

"And I'll do my part which is making sure Weasley falls for the Brown girl."

"You got any plans?"
"Yes, I've got it all schemed out."

"Mind telling me how you're going to proceed?"

"Shh, it's a surprise, Draco."

"I hate your surprises. Yours have always been nasty."

"You'll like this one, I promise and it won't a nasty one."

"Thanks, Pans."

That night, Draco went to bed in his own large Prefect dormitory, with a heavy weight off his shoulders now that Lavender Brown agreed to help them out, despite being strangers for the most part. He wasn't aware that she was so desperately in love with Weasley, that she'd agree so easily and readily to Pans' evil and conniving plans.