A/N: It's an update! After...a long time. Well, anyways, thanks to all of the wonderful people who have been reading this story, and especially to all those who have reviewed, since you're awesome. And a GIGANTIC thank you to the COOLEST beta ever, Quiet Anon!!

Disclaimer: Don't own.

"It's all your fault, Hermione!" Ron paced the boys' dormitory angrily.

Harry grinned at him as Hermione sighed and crossed her arms.

"Ron, you didn't have to accept. He was just asking you."

Ron stopped and stared at her. "Yeah, but he said he knew something you wanted to know! Who knows what he knows! The guy's a stalker."

Hermione rolled her eyes and sat down on Harry's bed with a huff. "And just what makes you believe that Zabini's a stalker?"

"He knew- never mind," Ron's eyes trailed downward, and he continued pacing the room.

Hermione leaned back onto the bed, propping herself up with her hands. "Besides, Ron, I could've probably gotten the information Zabini knows some other way. I do think it's very sweet of you to go out on a date with him, but I don't think that it's my fault. He obviously really wanted you to agree if he supposedly tried to blackmail you."

"Not supposedly! He did!"

"Of course he did," Hermione soothed.

Ron bobbed his head irately, stalked over to his wardrobe, and stopped.

"What am I supposed to wear, anyway? I'm on a bloody date with a Slytherin that I was blackmailed into. Should I wear mourning colors or something?"

Hermione rolled her eyes again. "No, you should dress very nicely. After all, since this is such an awful trial for you, you wouldn't want him to say that since you didn't take it seriously, he was going to make you go on another date with him, right? Wouldn't that be terrible?"

Ron groaned. "Yes. Bloody hell, you don't think he can do that, can he? We have a deal."

"No, he can't, as long as you keep to your side of the deal. And you agreed to go on a date with him, which means a date, where you dress nicely and are kind to the other person and all. Foreign concept to you, I know, but try your best."

Ron flung his hands into the wardrobe, tossing out behind him a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt. He chucked a sweater out hardest, and Harry had to duck to avoid it. Ron spun around, and yanked off his clothes to change into the 'nicer' outfit. Hermione sighed and covered her eyes with her hand.

"There. That'll do, right?"

Harry glanced, up, and he saw Hermione's hand fall back down to the bed. Ron only looked a little scruffy now, almost like an angry munchkin from The Wizard of Oz with red hair.

Harry shrugged. "I guess it's fine. It's not really first date material, and I don't think Zabini's going to be particularly impressed."

Hermione flapped a hand. "It'll do. It's an improvement on what you would've worn, anyway."

Ron gave her a vaguely insulted look, but nodded.

"Blaise, if you're serious about dating Weasley, why did you ask him out by withholding information?" Pansy inquired as she, Blaise, and Draco walked out the door into the courtyard on the way to Hogsmeade. "I'd think you would have wanted him to agree of his own power."

Blaise smiled merrily over at her. "That's the thing, Pansy dear. Do you really think Weasley would have ever agreed if I hadn't said I had a piece of information Granger needed? Of course he wouldn't have. There was no other way."

"And that's the other issue," Pansy's brow furrowed, and she stopped and turned towards the two boys. "Do you actually have information for Granger, or was that just leverage? You haven't told me anything Granger would want to know."

Blaise's head bounced. "Exactly. That's because you would probably go right to Granger and tell her."

Pansy opened her mouth, and Blaise waved a hand.

"Oh, stop it. I saw you two working in the library three days ago. You're too friendly with her for me to tell you what I plan to withhold from her."

Draco raised his eyebrows as Pansy gaped at Blaise. Honestly, it was news to him that Blaise knew that too. Blaise never seemed to breathe a word of what he knew to anyone until he could use it for maximum effect, except for when he was being stupid. Then he just blurted out anything that came to mind.

Pansy drew her head back and snapped her mouth shut. "Well then," she tilted her head up and looked away, "I guess there's no point in making up an excuse, since you both already know. Hermione and I are going to visit Dervish & Banges. We're going to look for items that may have caused the effects on you, Blaise. Potter and Weasley probably still don't know she's meeting me, though, so we'll meet a little later when she can slip away from Potter."

"WHAT?" Weasley exclaimed from behind them.

Draco sighed and turned around at the same time as Pansy and Blaise.

Weasley stared at them from in between Harry and Granger, his face reddish-plumb colored. His head snapped towards Granger.

"You're meeting her? Pansy Parkinson?"

"Yes," Granger sniffed, and glanced at Pansy. "We're looking for information on what and who caused the odd effects on Zabini, since we both believe that it's an important piece of this mess. Even if it was a one-time revenge by someone, at least we'll know that."

Harry sighed. "You know, Hermione, I think you're taking this a bit too much by the fist."

"We've been over this before, Harry. They might try to sabotage ano-"

"Yes, Hermione, another of my relationships. But if they use this same method, then I should be thanking them for pointing out an obviously unstable relationship to my attention. If my boyfriend or girlfriend will cheat on me just because their friend's under some sort of spell or potion, I don't think it's meant to be."

Granger shuffled her feet and glanced down at her Mary-Jane shoes.

"Think about it. Pansy and I are going to Dervish & Banges anyway, just in case. Since we're both here, how about we just go?"

Her gaze snapped up, and she strode forward towards Pansy, taking her arm and beginning the path down to Hogsmeade. Pansy gave a little half-wave back at Draco and Blaise, and ran ahead with Granger.

Draco turned to face Harry and Weasley, and Blaise stepped forward. He cleared his throat awkwardly, while Weasley's maroon face gaped at him.

"Well, since Pansy and your Granger have both run off to have fun in Dervish & Banges, perhaps we should be off ourselves, Weasley. I'm sure Potter will be glad to be rid of you, and Draco can do whatever suits him."

"What, he can't get a girlfriend?" Weasley sneered at Draco in a contemptuous way.

Draco wondered why Ron hadn't been sorted in to Slytherin, if only for the hatred he was capable of. It would have been a slight setback that much of that hatred was aimed at Slytherins, but Draco was pretty sure the sorting hat didn't think too much about that sort of thing.

"He's a voodoo doll," Blaise nodded. "I don't know that voodoo dolls want girlfriends."

Weasley's eyebrows scrunched together, and his eyes squinted like he was concentrating really hard. "I don't get it."

"You don't have to," Draco groaned. "I'm not a voodoo doll."

Blaise beamed. "Speaking of voodoo dolls, Weasley, would you like to go see the Shrieking Shack?"

"I've seen it b-" Weasley started peevishly, broke off, and grinned suddenly. "Yes, let's go to the Shrieking Shack. Let's go really close to it." His eyes glinted slightly.

Had Draco not seen Blaise slip his wand up the sleeve of his sweater this morning, he would've been more worried as to Weasley's eagerness.

Blaise and Weasley wandered away bickering about how close was close enough to the Shrieking Shack, both of them naming distances about a meter apart, and Draco glanced toward Harry.

"So..." Draco started feebly.

Harry's head snapped away from Blaise and Weasley's figures and towards Draco. "What?"

"I don't know." Draco copied his harsh tone. "I just figured we shouldn't sit here in awkward silence forever."

"It wasn't awkward. I just didn't really want to talk to you, nor did I know what I'd talk to you about."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "So what do you want to call that? Not a comfortable silence, obviously, and not an awkward silence."

Harry scowled over at him. "How about just a silence? Is that good enough for you?"

Draco shrugged. "I don't actually care that much. I was trying to defend my effort to make conversation, not start an argument over exactly what silence we're in."

That was what was called an awkward silence.

"Well," Harry mumbled, and gazed off past Draco. "I've actually got a date with Eleanor. So I've got to go."

"Eleanor?" Draco resisted the urge to snort. "Who's that?"

Harry glared at him. "She's my girlfriend. She's in fourth year, a Hufflepuff. She's really cute."

"You're dating fourth years? That's four years younger than you."

"I ran out of fifth, sixth, seventh, and our years."

Draco stared at him. "You ran out of girls, and that's why you're dating a fourth year. That's pathetic."

"It's not just because I ran out of girls," Harry growled, "She's cute and nice too."

"But that's not the reason you're dating her. When I speculated that she was four years younger, you didn't say 'she's special' or 'she's different' or anything of the sort. You said that you ran out of the other years."

"But that's not-" Harry stopped, and squinted at the air for a second. "Well, yeah, that is correct. Who are you to criticize me on my relationships anyway? You cheated on me."

Draco sighed. "As you seem to bring up in every conversation, yes. I think we've figured that out already."

Harry nodded. "The point was that you are in no position to say that I'm not choosing my girlfriends correctly, when you aren't exactly straight on the romance track."

"At least I'm admitting to my mistakes and not dating anyone instead of constantly dating in a foolish attempt to prove that you aren't gay."

"I'm not- You know what?" Harry sent him a viper-like glare. "I have to meet Eleanor. And I'm not going to argue with you and be late to my date just so that you can twist everything I say to make me look bad."

He gave Draco another glare, and stomped off into the crowd heading toward Hogsmeade.

Draco stared after him, motionless.

"So, Zabini," Ron began as they both stared at the Shrieking Shack from behind the fence. "Why are you interested in me?"

"Huh?" Zabini's gaze flew to Ron. "Could you repeat that? I wasn't listening."

Ron groaned. "What, are more of your senses than your eyes screwed up? Why are you interested in me?"

"I would've thought it was obvious," Zabini drawled.

"Well, obviously not. So, why?"

"Why what?"

Ron flushed angrily. "Since it's not obvious, why are you interested in me?"

"Who said I was interested in you?" Zabini tilted his head.

"You asked me out, so you're interested in me. It's common sense."

"Just because I asked you out doesn't mean I'm interested in you."

Ron blinked blankly at him. "So, are you interested in me or not?"

"Of course not. You're-well, just look in the mirror one day."

"Then why did you ask me out?"

"I would've thought it was obvious."

"You already said you thought it was obvious," Ron growled. "What did you think was obvious?"

"The reason I asked you out, of course."

"Zabini." Ron's hand began inching towards his wand. "Tell me the reason you asked me out. Now."

Zabini swung his hand up and glanced at his watch. "Look, can we just stand here for another minute or so? Then I'll tell you, and I'll tell Granger the information that I promised and count this as a date, despite the fact that it's only been about fifteen minutes."

Ron glared at the Slytherin suspiciously. "You promise you'll tell me and give Hermione the information?"

"Yes, I promise." Zabini bounced his foot impatiently. "Now, there's only about thirty seconds left."

They stood there for a while staring at each other, and Ron groaned. "Has it been thirty seconds yet?"

"Only a few more."

"Zabini, a few seconds off won't hurt. Just tell me already."

Zabini stared at his watch, and finally nodded. "Yes, it's been enough time."

"Okay," Ron glared at him. "So, why did you ask me out?"

"Simple," Zabini smirked, "With Pansy doubtless meeting Granger and going somewhere to research, the groups would have been you and Potter, and me and Draco. So, if I take you and me out of the equation, that leaves Potter and Draco. Hopefully they've talked a few things over, and either figured out that they do hate each other, or taken the first step towards getting back together."

"Wait..." Ron blinked a few times. "So, you were just stalling when you kept saying you thought it was obvious? And that's why you wanted to wait a minute before telling me?"

"Of course." Zabini beamed.

"Well, Harry actually had a date with Eleanor today."

Zabini's shoulders fell slightly. "Really? That's a shame. He had an excuse to slither off, then." He sighed, but then brightened after less than a second. "Oh well. There's always next weekend."

Ron groaned. "If you ask me out again just to set them up, I'm going to curse you. Actually, I'm going to curse you now." He grabbed his wand out of his pocket, and pointed it at Zabini with a grin.

"No, you won't," Zabini smirked. "If you do, then I won't tell Granger the information."

Ron paused. "Hermione said she could've found out the information another way."

"She was probably counting on Pansy knowing it, which she doesn't." Zabini's smirk grew larger. "So you shouldn't curse me."

"Why doesn't she know it?"

Zabini sighed and rolled his eyes. "And you thought I could be interested in you? Because then Granger could've found it out, you dimwit."

"Fine," Ron growled, "Tell me the information, or I'll curse you."

"But if you curse me, I won't tell you the information. Face it, Weasley, it all depends on me."

"Or Veritaserum."

Zabini's mouth opened, and closed again as he slid his wand out from his sleeve. "That's one of the first good points I think I've ever heard you make, Weasley."

"Zabini," Ron stared at him. "You've already said you'll tell me. Why not now?"

"You're on a roll today, Weasley. That's the second decent point you've made. However, the truth is, I don't think you'll be happy with the information, so I don't want to be the nearest object you can curse, despite that I'm doubtless a far more advanced dueler than you."

"Zabini, I might curse you either way."

"Alright, that's also a good point." Zabini paused dramatically, and finally smirked at Ron. "The person who administered the potion that made me lose my memory and go after Draco, as well as the person who is currently working on administrating a non-made-by-me love potion for Harry, and who deliberately sabotaged Potter's relationship?"

Ron's eyebrows raised. "Administrating? The person's doing it now?"

"Yes, but hang on, or you'll completely look past them."

"Zabini, hurry it up then!" Ron hissed.

Zabini winced slightly. "Your dear sister, Ginny Weasley."

Ron stared at him for a moment, and bolted for Hogsmeade.

He could've sworn that behind him, Zabini had started laughing.