Sorry guys! I know it took forever to upload which is why I am giving you a long chapter! Thanks so much to all my reviewers! Your comments truly make my day! No idea if I'll get another chapter up this week but I promise to write a couple this weekend and so you won't have to wait that long. I rewrote this chapter 3 times and I'm still not entirely happy with it but I hope you all like it. Still not sure how long I want to make this story. It could be anywhere between 20 and 50 chapters long. Review to have your say and to make me feel loved!

Now Onwards...

When Draco and Blaise entered the common room it was clear that the two houses were still hugely on edge. Great! Another night of hell Draco thought sourly. Blaise apparently disagreed. In fact, while the rest of the Slytherins sat huddled in the silently agreed Slytherin side of the common room, Blaise plopped down onto the sofa in front of the fire that was currently occupied by non other then Harry Potter and his redheaded girlfriend looking extremely relaxed. Potter shifted ever so slightly away from him and Weaslette who was sitting in his lap eyed Blaise suspiciously. The Slytherins watched with mild interest as though expecting Potter to throw him off the couch whilst the other Gryffindors seemed a little startled and annoyed. Shaking his head Draco made his way to sit near Blaise. The Gryffindor side was much warmer after all and Draco certainly didn't mind pissing off a couple of Gryffindors. It wasn't until he sat down in the arm chair in front of the fire that he saw her. Granger was lying stomach down on the rug in front of the fire reading. Her legs were crossed in the air behind her and she was twirling a loose strand of hair around her finger. Draco swallowed hard as unwanted memories of her naked in the bath infiltrated his mind. He desperately wanted to run up to his dormitory and hide there but that would definitely lose him cool points so he remained planted in his seat instead opting to take out a book himself. He glanced briefly at Blaise to see what he was doing and his draw dropped open to see Blaise starring at Granger, a sly smile forming on his face. Draco's eye flew frantically to Granger to see what was so fascinating but she was still just reading her book, absentmindedly twirling that gorgeous hair around her finger- Gorgeous? No Draco! Ugly! Ugly! He forced his eyes back to Blaise to see him still gazing at Granger. Oh no way! A voice screamed in Draco's head. Blaise can't… she can't…Draco's eyes darted madly back and forth between the two till they actually hurt.

Blaise can't like Granger, surely Draco thought almost hysterically.

Why not? You like her… a voice -that sounded remarkably like Blaise's when he was smirking – said.

I do not. Just because I think she's pretty doesn't mean I like her. Yep he was definitely getting hysterical.

If you don't like her why does it bother you that Blaise does? This made Draco pause. Another quick glance between the two didn't help him at all.

Because she's not right for him! I mean, she's, she's, she's a muggleborn, a Gryffindor, The-boy-who-just won't-die's best friend. And, and smart! Blaise doesn't like smart girls! Okay passing hysterical...

Draco couldn't believe how he was reacting to this. For one thing he wanted to punch Blaise. Okay- maybe that was not so strange. With his Devil-may-care attitude Draco quite often had to resist the urge to throttle him. But this was different. He didn't want to punch Blaise because he was being annoying, he wanted to punch Blaise because, because

-because you're jealous…

"No!" Draco shouted. His eyes widened with the realization that he had indeed shouted and now Blaise, Potter, Weaslette, Granger and several others were looking at him startled.

"No?" Blaise asked him looking surprised. Draco tried not to look horrified.

"Jeez, I didn't think you'd be so against it Malfoy" Potter commented. Against?

"Well Potter, don't think." He said lamely. What in Merlins name were they talking about? Hermione (Hermione?) was gazing at him, her chocolate brown eyes wide and innocent with her surprise and Draco tried not to squirm under her stare. Blaise chuckled snapping Draco's attention away from Granger.

"Oh he's not against that part of it Potter, he just doesn't want to be on a team with you." Blaise informed him in a calm voice. Potter rolled his eyes. Ah, so that's what they're talking about. Draco relaxed back into his seat his smirk back on his face.

"Blaise I don't know." Granger said uncertainly looking torn. Draco immediately felt angered by the soft way she said Blaise's name. The way she said his (last name mind you), you'd think he was the dark lord himself.

"It'll be cool Granger." Blaise replied blasé. Draco's eyes narrowed at him. Maybe he doesn't like her; maybe he was just wondering how to put his proposition to her. But the way Blaise was looking at her contradicted his hopeful thought.

"You see how uptight everyone is, this will help ease the tension so much! Having the quiditch teams mix will mean that they've got to communicate with each other, work together. We'll finally be able to compete without dividing the houses so much. And I think we could really unite the houses if everyone got involved. Isn't that what you want?" Merlin he forgot how persuasive Blaise could be. Granger actually seemed to be considering it.

"What are you guys talking about?" Oh great. Another Weasley. Weasle sat down in the armchair opposite Draco looking questioningly at Potter. Draco noted The Weasels ears reddening at the sight of Blaise and himself and smirked. Someone's not happy to see me.

"Zabini's just suggested that this year we get the entire school involved in Quiditch." Potter told him. Weasle nodded looking serious and Draco resisted the urge to laugh. His brain was probably struggling trying to process what this meant. "And that we mix the houses up when we put teams together. You know a couple of students from each house per team."He continued.

"What?" The Weasle roared.

"Why is everyone yelling tonight?" The Weaslette asked laughing slightly.

"I don't want to play with Slytherins." The Weasle continued.

"Oh, shut up!" Draco snapped at him. He smirked when Weasels entire face went even redder. Merlin he could spend all day winding weasel up.

"Maybe it shouldn't be compulsory." Granger suggested tentatively obviously trying to move the subject back to safe ground.

"If it's not compulsory no one will do it." Potty laughed.

"Could we take a class out of the curriculum to practise?" The Weasle asked looking excited.

"Well sure. We could do flying lessons like we did in first year except of course more advanced. Then later we can split people into teams." Blaise replied smoothly.

"And this would be the whole school?" The Weaslette asked.

"Yep. We could have the junior section and a senior section."

Granger moved into a sitting position biting her lip anxiously. She looks adorable when she does that. Draco thought absentmindedly before mentally hitting himself.

Draco knew why she didn't want to do this. He'dknown since he was in first year and they had taken their flying lessons, that Granger was terrified of heights. Others thought she didn't want to fly because she didn't think she was good at it and she couldn't stand that. But Draco saw the fear in her eyes as she looked down at the ground; he saw the slight shaking of her shoulders and her knuckle white grip on the broom. Of course, he had found it terribly amusing having never experienced a fear of heights.

"So what do you say Granger?" Blaise asked looking at her smirking. His voice was light and teasing as usual to the untrained-ear but Draco had known Blaise since they were born and he could quite clearly detect a hint of flirtation in his best friend's voice and his mood darkened significantly.

Granger looked at her friends eager faces.

"I guess we can talk to McGonagall about it."She said at last and Blaise smiled triumphantly.

The next week at Hogwarts school of witch craft and wizardry passed painfully slowly for Hermione. Avoiding Draco Malfoy was practically an art form and one she was becoming very adept at using. Things in the common room hadn't improved much and Blaise and Hermione still hadn't heard back from McGonagall about the Quiditch. Sighing, Hermione leant against the wall outside the potions Classroom. It was Friday morning and Harry and Ron were –as usual- finishing off their potions assignments that they'd left till the last minute. Hermione tutted at them disapprovingly.

"What?" Ron asked in a whiny tone.

"I hope you don't intend to be this behind all year or you're not going to pass your newts." Hermione warned him sharply.

"Harry didn't do his either!" Ron yelled pointing at Harry who had been hiding slightly behind his parchment.

"I know. And I'm very disappointed in you too Harry." Hermione gave him a stern look and Harry did his best to look ashamed.

"Sorry mum." He apologised forlornly hanging his head. Hermione laughed and turned back to her own notes.

A few minutes later and Snape arrived brushing swiftly past the students and flung open the doors. As Hermione and the rest of the students filed into the classroom and made their way to the tables they were shocked to find pieces of parchment with their classmate's names on them.

"If you imbeciles haven't worked it out yet you are to sit at the seat where the parchment with your name written on it is." Snape drawled giving the class a disdainful look.

"Why didn't you warn me about this?" Ron whispered to Hermione. Hermione looked as surprised as him.

"I didn't know." She whispered back.

Looking around the tables Hermione at last found her name and almost died when she saw who was on her table. On the seat next to hers was a piece of parchment with Blaise Zabini elegantly written on it and opposite were Lavender Brown's and Gregory Goyle's. Looking around quickly, she wondered if anyone would notice if she swapped her name onto a different table. She was scanning the other tables to find a decent one to sit at when Blaise sat down next to her.

"Isn't this great?" Blaise asked her cheerfully. "What are the odds that we'll get to sit next to each other?" Hermione felt her expression turn to one of despair. What were the odds indeed? Hermione sighed looking ahead. Blaise's beaming face was making her depressed. At least you're not next to Malfoy she thought feeling slightly better. Ron was at the table in front of her. He was sitting next to Dean with his back to her and opposite him was a very sulky looking Malfoy and next to him an ecstatic looking Parkinson.

She looked around for Harry and found him sitting at a table on the opposite side of the room with Vincent Crabbe, Theodore Knott and Millicent Bullstrode. Hermione smiled sympathetically at him. Trust Snape to put Harry on a table with only Slytherins.

"Quiet." Snape growled and all talk ceased immediately. "Where you are seated now will be your seat for the rest of the year." There was a collective groan from almost everyone in the room (Blaise and Parkinson seemed quite happy where they were.) Snape glared at everyone till they were all quite once again.

"The person seated next to you will be your partner when you endeavour to create potions and you will work with your table on projects. This was not my idea, I do not support it and I will not hear of any complaints from any of you. Any questions?" He asked -though it sounded more like a dare. When no one spoke Snape went on to explain that they'd be making a potion that would paralyse the drinker and the method and list of ingredients appeared magically behind him on the board. When he was done, the students immediately started to argue with their partners over who was going to do what. Sighing, Hermione turned to Blaise. And surprise, surprise he was grinning.

Great smile… Whoa where did that come from?

"Right well if you get the ingredients I'll start to err, set the um, thing up…" She said lamely avoiding his gaze. Blaise still smiling moved to get the ingredients and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. There was something about standing in close proximity to hot, charming guys that made it hard to breathe, she noted.

She set up her cauldron and magically lit a fire underneath it. She was finally getting her breath back when Blaise returned with the ingredients.

"Okay." Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out…

"Well," Blaise looked at her expectantly. "Let's get started." She said, reaching for the nearest ingredient.

Draco was trying desperately to focus on his potion, really he was, but between Pansy's unending prattle, Thomas drumming his fingers and the Weasels grunts of frustration every few seconds it was literally impossible. Giving up he glanced around the classroom. Most sets of partners seemed to find the best way to work with each other was to say nothing at all and so apart from his musical table there was very little sound in the classroom at all. Then he heard Blaise's voice and looked up to see him standing very close behind Granger looking over her shoulder. Granger was stirring the potion her eyes fixed intently on it. Blaise whispered something that made Granger laugh. She looked up at him smiling and Draco unconsciously began to chop his Bruntwick very violently. A particularly aggressive chop sent a Bruntwick flying into Pansy's unsuspecting face, hitting her squarely between the eyes.

"Oh," she gasped bringing her hand delicately to rest on her forehead. "Oh Draco, you hit me."Draco's glare moved from Blaise to Pansy. Her eyes were wide and pathetic begging for an apology.

"Clearly not hard enough." He snapped throwing the now massacred Brunswick into the pot.

"Drake!" Pansy sobbed. And with that she passed out cold on the potions floor.

"Omg!" Students quickly began to rush over to her unconscious body. Draco groaned.

Merlin! This is just what I need...