Hermione angrily threw her dancing clothes into her trunk and stood in the middle of her room, shivering, a frustrated look on her face.

She stood there, arms wrapped around her body, for a few minutes, before her frustrated look turned to one of misery.

It hadn't worked.

She sat down heavily on the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest.

She was startled out of this position a few minutes later by her door being thrown open and a breathless Ginny standing in the doorway, a huge grin on her face.

"You did it!" she crowed, bending down and hugging Hermione before realising that she was wearing only lingerie again.

"You've got to stop doing that. Some day someone might just take pictures and show them to the entire school." She smiled ruefully.

Hermione looked at herself and blushed.

"Sorry, I forgot. I was just feeling sorry for myself."

She stood up and went to her trunk, picking up a t-shirt and pulling it over her head.

"Why? You did a great job. It's all anyone can talk about! I thought you were just going to put him in his boxers, but I think what you did is heaps better! I wish I could have been there to see his…face."

She grinned mischievously and Hermione shook her head, smiling as she tugged on her jeans.

"I can't believe you." She muttered, still smiling.

"How do you do it?" she asked now.

"Do what?" Ginny asked, looking confused.

"You always make me feel better. Always make me laugh even if I'm in a really crappy mood."

Ginny's face relaxed into a smile.

"Because I'm brilliant!" she exclaimed, spreading her hands.

Hermione grinned and punched her lightly on the arm.

"I love you. Thanks so much for your help. I just wish…"

She sat down on the edge of her bed, her smile fading.

Ginny sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"What is it? Did something go wrong? I thought, from what I heard anyway, that he was good and humiliated. Am I right?"

Hermione nearly started crying she was so frustrated.

"NO! That's the thing! Everyone was laughing, but he…he just walked out, and he didn't even seem as though…as though he even cared! He just walked out looking…Merlin, absolutely bloody glorious, and argh! I don't know, he…I don't think I got my revenge at all. I think people just see him as more of a sex object now."

She put her head in her hands and groaned.

Ginny rubbed her back sympathetically.

"I dunno. He hides his feelings pretty well. I think the fact that you even stood up to him, even did something, is guaranteed to make him feel angry and humiliated. I think you got him. Let's go down to breakfast and see if I'm right. And I am."

Hermione nodded and stood up. Ginny grinned at her, standing up as well.

She slapped her on the back and said bracingly, "Good on you girl! This will be fun, trust me!"

They walked down to the Great Hall, Ginny chattering away to keep Hermione's mind off the fact that they would be seeing Draco in a few more minutes.

As they entered the Great Hall, Hermione held her head high as Ginny had instructed her, and sat down so that she was facing Malfoy across the Gryffindor table.

He saw her and turned away, his pale cheeks going slightly pink.

Hermione smiled at Ginny, who gave her a reassuring look.

She bent over her breakfast and then saw Harry and Ron enter the room.

They smiled at her and she stood up, hope swelling inside her.

Ron waved and she raised her hand, a huge smile on her face.

She walked towards them, and, as they grew closer, she said softly, "Oh, Ron, Harry, I'm so glad you…"

But they pushed past her, ignoring her completely, and sat down next to Dean and Seamus, smiles pasted on their faces.

She turned to watch them, realising suddenly that the whole Hall was quiet, and everyone had just seen her being publicly rejected by her two best friends.

She sat down, feeling wretched.

Ginny looked intently at Harry and Ron, and, finally, catching their eyes, shook her head slowly, disappointment etched on her face.

They turned away quickly before she could start speaking.

Ginny turned back to Hermione and whispered angrily "They're stupid. Stupid, stupid boys who don't realise what they're giving up. Alright? You don't need them. No-one needs them because they are stupid. And you are smart. And I won't talk to them ever again, if you want. I won't!"

Hermione smiled weakly, wiping her eyes.

"That's not what I want Gin, you know it's not. I don't want you to stop speaking to your own brother and Harry. That would be silly. I know you love them as much as I do. Don't worry about it. They'll come around eventually." Her voice broke and she thought; hopefully.

Ginny hugged her fiercely.

"I won't talk to them. You don't have a say in it, because I actually know what you want and you won't say it. Shut up!" She whispered as Hermione tried to say something.

"They need to know that they can't get away with being so thick. It isn't like it's your fault. It's all Malfoy, and if they can't see that, then…then they're just STUPID!"

Hermione choked out "you already said that. Quite a number of times actually."

"Well they ARE. And stop talking. I'm trying to make you feel better."

"Well, perhaps you could stop choking me then."

"Huh?"

"I can't breathe you silly girl! Let go please."

Ginny grinned guiltily.

"Oh. Sorry."

Hermione smiled to show it was alright.

"Thanks for doing this. You're the best friend I could ever…" she paused, looking over at Harry and Ron, but they were studiously ignoring her.

"…have." She finished sadly.

Ginny looked as though she thinking for a moment, and then held out a piece of toast and marmalade.

"A toast!" she cried, throwing the toast onto the floor.

Everyone turned to look at her and she ignored them.

"To Hermione Granger, the first person to humiliate Draco Malfoy, and in the most inspired way! Huzzah!"

There was silence and Hermione turned pink, glaring slightly at the other girl.

Ginny shrugged and picked up another piece of toast.

"Can't please everyone." She mumbled.

Then people started to applaud, and Hermione saw that all the Gryffindor's (bar Harry and Ron, who were looking at her with narrowed eyes), and all the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were cheering her.

Ginny pulled her up and held her hand, giving it a tight squeeze.

"BOW!" she whispered severely in her ear.

Hermione obeyed, fearing decapitation, and everyone cheered louder.

Only the Slytherins were quiet, glaring evilly at her.

She risked a glance at Malfoy, only to see him leaning back in his chair, a look of total unconcern on his face.

A hot anger filled her as she saw his face, so clear of anything that she had felt.

No humiliation, no pain, no anger.

It wasn't right, dammit!

She stalked quickly over to him and slapped him viciously in the face.

"Get angry!" she yelled, unaware that the whole room was silent and watching her, shocked.

"Be angry, be humiliated, feel some pain! Feel something that I felt! Don't just sit there as if you don't care! I know you do!"

Draco looked slowly up at her, holding a hand to his burning cheek.

His lower lip was stained crimson where her hand had drawn blood.

He licked his lip cautiously and studied her, but in an almost dismissive manner.

His nose scrunched in distaste as he looked at her.

"Don't ever touch me again, Mudblood." He said coldly, and then he stood up so quickly that she nearly lost her balance trying to step away from him.

He leant in close to her, his blonde hair softly curtaining his face, and he whispered menacingly,

"You humiliated me Granger. You did, I'll admit that. But I'll get you. I'll get my revenge. Because a Malfoy always wins."

Hermione glared back at him, trying to overlook how close he was to her.

"I don't think you will win this time, Malfoy. And I don't think you'll get revenge on me either. Apart from being too thick to come up with an idea, you wouldn't dare."

"Oh, I will Granger. I will. Just you wait. It's going to be…such a surprise."

"Amaze me." whispered Hermione disgustedly, staring angrily at him.

He shook his head and turned away.

Hermione turned on her heel and stormed from the Hall amid cheers.

He wouldn't do anything. She knew he wouldn't.

A week later she realised how very, very wrong she was.

Time lapse as Author is too lazy to write more... Read on...

Hermione jumped down the stairs, holding her skirt with both hands.

Her robes twirling around her body, and the short seconds of feeling as though she were floating, before landing sharply on the ground, made her feel liberated.

She got the bottom of the stairs before her happy feeling was diminished in the slightest.

A record.

One minute she was jumping, the next she was landing – on top of Draco Malfoy.

"Gerroff me!" he yelled, fighting her robes off with his bare hands (a brave one, he is).

She jumped off him as quickly as was possible, considering he had tangled himself in her robes.

She unclasped them quickly so that she wasn't leaning, and watched Draco struggling with her robes with rather a lot of amusement.

"Would you stop smirking and help me, goddamit?" He cried, but it came out as more of a mumbling through the robes.

The only part of him visible was his blonde hair, sticking in tufts out of an arm of her robe.

"Sure Malfoy. Help you. Riiight. Well, only because I need my robes."

She untangled him carefully, wary of his thrashing arms, and put them back on.

He crossed his arms and glared up at her, looking delightfully mussed.

"Enough smirking, Mudblood. I need to get to breakfast. I'm starved."

He stood up gracefully and then glimpsed himself in the mirror.

"Gah!" he screamed, seeing his hair.

Hermione sighed.

"You evil, evil little witch! Is this more of your bloody revenge? Well, its not bloody…its not bloody nice, its not!"

Well, now she knew another way to make him very upset. Mess up his hair.

"Revenge isn't meant to be nice Malfoy. And I didn't do it on purpose."

She shook her head ruefully as he put his hair perfectly into place, the tip of his tongue sticking out of his mouth.

She mentally slapped herself as she realised she had been watching his mouth with a slightly glazed look on her face.

Stupid, she thought.

And walked out quickly.

As soon as she had gone, Malfoy turned from the mirror and followed her. He definitely needed to be there when it all hit the fan.

Hermione got to the staircase before she realised anything was wrong.

A Gryffindor she didn't know glared at her when she smiled and a group of Hufflepuff fourth years scuttled away from her when she approached as though she would give them a nasty disease.

She looked after them in puzzlement, and then, shrugging, walked down to the Great Hall.

When she got the floor above the Great Hall, Harry and Ron rushed up to her.

Amazing. Thought Hermione. Why are they approaching me? Oh. To tell me off.

Ron was pink with rage.

Harry didn't look much better.

Not a sexy look for them, Hermione perceived

"What the hell were you thinking?!" screamed Ron, his face now matching his hair.

Harry grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her until her teeth rattled.

"WHAT. THE HELL. WERE YOU THINKING!?" screamed Harry in an apoplectic rage.

Hermione looked between the two, trying to get some information on this unknown situation.

What had she done now?

Why were they repeating each other?

Why was Harry screaming in Caps Lock and Ron in Italics?

Was Ron's vein about to pop?

"WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!" screamed Harry, pacing madly and frothing at the mouth.

"Why what?" asked Hermione timidly, wondering if he might have a fit.

"Why what?!" screamed Ron, turning purple.

"Why'd you do it?! Why what…" he muttered angrily, his eyes rolling a little.

Hermione stepped backwards.

"I don't know! What'd I do?!" she wailed, scared for her own safety.

Had they both gone mad?

Harry and Ron seemed to get fed up with her and stalked off, Harry still Caps Locking, Ron still Italicking and an unattractive shade of puce.

Hermione shook her head and raced downstairs to find Ginny, who hopefully had an idea as to what she had done wrong now.

But a circle of people blocked her path.

She tried pushing through, and, as each person saw her, they gasped and moved quickly out if her way.

Wondering what the hell was going on; Hermione pushed her way into the middle of the circle, only to see everyone staring at her.

"What?!" she asked exasperatedly.

Everyone instinctively looked down.

She followed their collective gaze and saw, to her horror, a message painted on the floor.

In her handwriting.

But huge and sparkly.

And covered in rose petals.

"Gnk." She said.

Everyone looked back up at her.

But what did it say that was so terrible?

Because she doubted that Ron and Harry would have had fits of rage if she had merely graffiti-ed the school.

In fact, if she had done that, they probably would have welcomed her back with open arms.

She looked down at the message again.

D.M

I'm so sorry for everything, and I wish you could forgive me.

Would you go with me to the next Hogsmeade weekend?

We could get to know each other.

I think you are really quite sexy.

Love,

H.G

Hermione turned purple and rubbed her eyes.

She looked at the message again.

No, it was still the same.

How on Earth did…?

It hit her like a ton of bricks and she closed her eyes, trying to remember to breathe.

Great.

Suddenly the object of her revulsion was standing next to her, a hand on her shoulder.

His voice was surprisingly warm, and his face wore the perfect mixture of sympathy and friendliness.

"Granger…Hermione, can I call you Hermione?"

She glared at him, eyes narrowed to slits, and he smiled sadly.

"Hermione. Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot…"

Hermione snorted in a very unladylike manner.

"…But this…"

He waved his arm expansively to take in the paint, sparkles and rose petal, not to mention the large crowd in attendance.

"…This is just going too far, don't you think? Maybe an unobtrusive letter on the mantelpiece would have been better, you know? We do share the same common room after all. And, well, you could have just talked to me. Anyway, I'm flattered, honestly, but…I think I'm going to have to pass. I'm sorry, really I am."

He turned after giving her a comforting (disparaging) pat on the head.

She glared at him, realising what he had done.

This was quite possibly the worst day of her life.