Hi Everybody! *hears a chorus of "hi Dr. Nick!" in my head* :P Ok, I'm reallllllyyyyy sorry I haven't updated in so long, I was away in this boarding school place that wouldn't let me use my laptop :O so I couldn't write anything :(. I will try to make it up to you by getting chapter 7 up in the next two weeks, I'll do my very best. It's the least I can do for all for you who have subscribed, commented, or even just read this, a major thanks is in order me thinks... THANK YOUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D Ok then, on with the story...

Disclaimer: You know how it is.

Chapter 6

Darkness fell over Hogwarts as a boy strolled down a corridor inside the ancient building carrying out his head-boy duties. First years shrunk back in terror as he approached the few who had dared stay out after curfew, only to gaze after him in astonishment and relief when he passed them without so much as glancing in their direction, his mind elsewhere.

The head-girl walked more swiftly down another hallway, smiling at any students she passed but sending them off to their common rooms with a firm voice. Her observant eye taking in less as time wore on and her thoughts began to drift away from the task at hand.

Their paths crossed on the fourth floor.

He spotted her immediately and his thoughts snapped back to the present as his eyes watched her face. He felt his temperature warm up as she drew closer, a slight tinge of colour lighting up his pale face. She hadn't noticed him yet.

Her hazel eyes watched her feet slapping against the hard floor with each step she took. A small smile was planted on her face as she absent-mindedly twiddled her wand in her hand. She continued forward, oblivious to the boy walking directly toward her. Unlike her, his feet made no noise when they made contact with the floor. He smiled inwardly to himself as her brown curls fell down around her, now almost entirely covering her face.

She felt his hand as he passed her. His fingers entwined with hers for the briefest of moments as he passed her, before letting go and continuing on his way without a word. He smirked when her surprised gasp reached his ears. He turned his head back to face her, but continued walking. She had stopped and turned fully around to watch him walking away, surprise now filled the smile that remained on her face. His silver-grey eyes met her brown ones, a smirk still on his face, and he winked. Her smile stretched into a grin and she shook her head in happy disbelief.

The moment passed as quickly as it had come, and the head-boy and head-girl walked off in opposite directions, only a tell-tale smile remained on their faces.

~*~*~*~

Ron shoved piece after piece of toast into his mouth as he watched one of his best friends glaring angrily at the two girls walking slowly in their direction, whispering excitedly together.

"Hey hawwy, are wu gonna eaa your egg?" he asked, his mouth full of half chewed food. In response, a plate with an untouched egg on it was pushed towards him. Not believing his luck, Ron wolfed down the egg before Harry had the chance to change his mind and snatch it back.

Harry's eyes narrowed in anger and suspicion as he watched the two whispering girls obviously glance over in the direction of the Slytherin table, and start giggling, sharing an unspoken secret between them. He turned his gaze to the table across the hall and scowled over at one of the green-robed students.

Blaise rolled his eyes and gave an amused smirk as the boy sitting beside him chocked out the punch line of a joke he had already begun to laugh at. His smirk lessoned slightly, however, and a questioning gaze filled his eyes as he caught sight of the hate filled gaze that Potter was shooting at him from the Gryffindor table. He held his gaze for a few seconds, but broke it as a fight broke out among some of the boys at his table, and he quickly lost interest in the reason 'The-Chosen-One' had decided to take a sudden personal dislike to him. He let out an amused laugh as rabbit ears suddenly sprouted from the top of one boys head and began twitching uncontrollably.

"Hey Ginny! Morning Hermione!" Ron called good-humouredly. He had finally eaten all the food in reach and was contentedly stretching his arms above his head in satisfaction. "Thanks for helping me with that potions homework last night, I don't know how you understand that stuff."

"No problem!" Hermione chirped happily as she swung her legs over the wooden bench and sat down opposite him at the breakfast table. Ginny, who had followed her lead, smiled over at her brother.

"Hey back!" She said, then the smile fell from her face as she looked around the table. "Ron, did you eat nall the food?" She groaned as he smiled guiltily back at her. She stood back up and went in search off some breakfast as Hermione laughed lightly at the predictability of the situation.

Harry, with a sour expression, watched his two best friends and his girlfriend chat friendlily among themselves. They had begun to avoid him over past few days, as he had been in a constantly foul mood. Hermione also hadn't forgiven him for the other day. How dare he talk to her like that? He rolled his eyes stubbornly at the memory, insisting to himself that he had been right to give out to her.

After a few minutes a group of sixth years came over to their table. Ginny got up to join them. She came over to him and let her lips touch his, he responded automatically, raising his head slightly into hers, but pulled away quickly and stiffly. He heard Ginny give an exasperated sigh and, out of the corner of his eye, he saw her give Hermione a look that he was sure said something along the lines of 'well there he goes again'.

She joined the group of sixth years and they walked off to class together, a babble of happy laughter and loud voices. Harry glanced quickly back at his two friends who were still sitting at the table beside him. He looked away just as fast when he realised that they were both looking at him with worried expressions.

"Hey, are you ok, mate?" Ron asked in a quiet voice. He didn't answer, just stared straight ahead with a scowl on his face.

"Harry? Please talk to us, what's wrong?" Hermione tried next, leaning forward into his line of vision, making it much harder to ignore her.

"Is it something to do with You-Know-Who?"

The sound of Harry slamming his hands down on the table echoed through the Great Hall. Hermione jumped back in surprise. Ron's eyes widened in bewilderment at this sudden outburst. Heads around the hall turned towards the source of the noise.

"NO, IT IS NOT TO DO WITH..." Harry shouted but stopped himself just in time. He took a deep breath and tried again, much quieter this time. He growled through clenched teeth.

"It is not to do with Voldemort--"

"Don't Harry," Ron interjected automatically. Harry glared at him.

"It has nothing to do with Voldemort," he continued, glaring pointedly at Ron as he emphasised the Dark Lord's name, ignoring him as he cringed back from the word.

"Not everything in my life revolves around him, you know, I do have other problems, normal problems in my life, though you may find that hard to believe," he growled out, getting angrier with each word.

Hermione and Ron both looked very taken aback, Hermione was the first to speak.

"You're right Harry, you're completely right, I'm so sorry. Of course you have other problems, who doesn't? I didn't mean to just assume."

Harry felt his anger decrease. It's not very easy to be angry with a person if they don't get angry back.

"It's ok, really, I'd have asked the same thing," he told her, his voice audibly softer.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Hermione asked him.

"No, I'm ok, don't worry about me," he told her, dismissively.

"Of course I'm going to worry about you Harry, you haven't smiled in about three days."

He gave her a tight, sarcastic smile. She rolled her eyes in response as he got up to leave.

"Seriously Hermione, don't bother," he murmured, just loud enough for her and Ron to hear. Hermione stared after him in confusion as he walked from the great hall, his legs dragging.

"You gonna bother?" Ron asked, as soon as the doors had swung shut after Harry. Hermione looked over at him.

"Obviously," she said. Hermione was worried about him, of course. It wasn't like Harry to act this way. He was always the one who kept it together, even in the worst situations, he was her rock. It was only natural for her to assume Voldemort had something to do with this, he was always the reason Harry would openly show his bad mood. Harry usually kept anything else to himself. Ginny, Cho... Draco.

Hermione sighed as his name came to her head and found herself automatically wishing things could have been different, wishing they were friends. She shook the thought dismissively from her head, that was never going to happen, there was no point hoping it would.

Her mind turned back to Harry.

She tried to think of what could be wrong with him, but drew a blank. Apart from her little drama with the Slytherin Prince everything seemed to be fine in school. She looked over at Ron, who was watching her with a slight frown on his face.

"Look Hermione, don't worry about it, he'll work it out himself," he tried to reassure her.

"Yeah, I guess," she replied, unconvinced. Suddenly Ron's eyes slid over towards the Great Hall entrance and his face darkened, a scowl covering his face. Hermione slid around in her seat to see the reason for his sudden change of face. Her heart leapt and a small smile filled her face as Draco Malfoy strolled gracefully into the Hall.

He caught her eye almost immediately but looked away after a millisecond. No one else noticed it, but Hermione saw the corners of his mouth pull slightly upwards in a secret smile as an answer to hers.

All worries of Harry immediately flew out of her mind as her stomach flipped and she had to purposefully stop herself grinning from ear to ear just at the sight of him. She was half aware of Ron's voice grumbling away in the background but she wasn't properly listening. She glanced over at him and reaslised with a start that he was talking to her. Of course he was, who else would he have been talking to? She focused her attention on what he was saying.

"... thinks he's so great the way he walks around here as if he owned the place, wish somebody would teach him a lesson."

Hermione secretly rolled her eyes. Of course, he had been grumbling about Malfoy. She tuned out again, thinking about last night. Girls really hadn't been lying when they said Draco was a sex god, he really was something else, amazing.

"Earth to Hermione!"

Ron's hand waving in front of her face brought her back to the present. She blushed, all-too-clear images still flashing in her head. She tried to cover her blush by acting casual. Ron, ever unobservant, failed to notice her blush, much to Hermione's relief.

"What?" she asked.

"I said would you ever pretty please consider jinxing Malfoy?" he asked her, an evil grin on his face.

"What? No, why? He hasn't done anything."

"That never used to stop you, isn't him being alive reason enough for you? You used to be more fun than this," he grumbled, "I hope you're not falling for him..."

Hermione froze. Even though she knew that he was only joking she became suddenly paranoid. What if he did know? How much did he know? What would he do if he found out? How would she explain?

"Of course I'm not! How dare you? Don't ever say anything like that again!"

She glared at him as she stood up, then turned and walked out of the great hall. Ron's eyes followed her, astonished, and she stomped towards the door.

Hermione fell back against the wall and let out a breath, she closed her eyes and shook her head at herself.

Subtle Hermione, real subtle, she thought to herself.

"Hermione, I need to talk to you."

Hermione jumped at the sudden voice beside her ear. Her eyes flashed open to see a mess of dark brown hair half covering a thin red lightening shaped scar. Two green eyes stared down at her. The anger and worry that filled them immediately filled her with dread.

"What's wrong Harry?" she asked immediately, but he just shook his head.

"Not here," he said and turned away from her. He started walking towards one of the empty classrooms, Hermione had to run to keep up with his longs strides. She followed him into the classroom and waited while he cast a sound proof spell.

"Hermione I want you to be completely honest with me now, can you do that?"

Fear gripped at Hermione's throat but she nodded anyway.

"Is Ginny having an affair with Blaise Zabini?"

Hermione's eyes widened in surprise. Whatever she had been expecting, it certainly hadn't been this. She just stared at him.

"What?" she finally managed to choke out.

"You heard me, has she?"

"No of course not, what makes you ask something like that?"

Harry turned away from her and walked towards the front of the classroom.

"All those secret looks she gives him, I've noticed them and he's even winked at her a few times. And all those times you and her giggle and look over at the Slytherin table, I have noticed you know, maybe Ron is completely oblivious but I am a little more observant than you give me credit for. Look I don't even know why I'm asking you, I know they have something together, I guess I just need you to, I don't know, clarify or something."

"Wait a minute, is this what the whole thing was about the other day? When you told me to stay away from Blaise?"

Hermione winced inwardly at her stupidity of using his first name but Harry either didn't notice or chose to ignore it.

"Yes, that was before I knew that you knew about it. I never thought you would have kept something like that from me, even if it were for Ginny's sake. I certainly didn't think you'd think it was ok, a great piece of gossip, a matter to giggle over."

Harry swung around to face her again, his eyes blazing with anger but Hermione saw the hurt behind them. That was what stopped her from just turning around and walking out, which was what she had been just about to do after he accused her of what he had.

"Harry, you have got to calm down," she told him. She had to admit she was scared, she had never seen him this angry at anyone except Voldemort or his Death Eaters, she had never even seen him this angry at Draco. Even though she knew he would never purposely hurt her she had no idea how strong this anger was and whether he would act on it or not.

"Calm? I've got to calm down? Can I have nothing good in this life? Both my parents were killed, the only relatives I could stay with hate me to my very core and treat me like shit, my real guardian, my god father was killed too. This school, my friends here and my girlfriend were the only good things to ever happen to me Hermione. But now it looks like I'm going to have to leave school to kill the man who killed my parents, my girlfriend is cheating on my with one of my greatest enemies best friend and I find out my best friend knew about it and didn't feel the need to tell me. Now how about that? Everything good I know is disappearing and you're telling me calm down?"

The anger wasn't gone from Harry's eyes but it was the hurt that dominated them and Hermione felt a lump come to her throat as she saw him try to blink away the tears that had now welled up his eyes. She took a step towards him.

"Harry listen to me, you have to believe me when I say this, there is absolutely nothing going on between Ginny and Blaise."

Harry blew out angrily, telling Hermione that he obviously didn't believe her.

"Harry, do you honestly think I would keep that from you, let alone laugh about it?"

Hermione felt a tug at her chest as her best friend broke down in front of her and sobs wrenched through him. His legs slid from under him and he collapsed onto the floor, tears streaming readily from his face. Hermione ran to him and sunk down beside him. She wrapped her arms around his neck tightly as he cried into her shoulder. After a few seconds he pulled away.

"I can't loose her Hermione, I can't, I don't..." he trailed off as his voice cracked and a new batch of tears slid down his cheeks. He tried to wipe them away, half embarrassed, half angry with himself.

"Harry look at me," Hermione said, holding both sides of his face so he would face her. "You are not going to loose her, do you hear me?"

She lightly shook him as he tried to break eye contact with her.

"She loves you, just you," Hermione said, trying to convince him.

"But I saw her look at him, it was definitely him. He winked Hermione, why would he wink?"

"Because that's what Blaise does, please believe me Harry, I promise you there is nothing."

"But then why would she look at him?" he asked, still convinced he was right.

Hermione felt the familiar feeling of guilt hit her as she watched her friend break down in front of her, all because of her. She knew it was her fault, and she also knew that she could do nothing about it. She couldn't tell him.

"Look Harry-" she began, not knowing what she was about to say but he cut her off anyway.

"You know something," he accused, "you do know, and you won't tell me. What is it Hermione?"

"Harry I can't..."

"Yes you can!" he urged, "what is it? Are they? They are, aren't they?"

"No Harry, no they're not."

"Then tell me why they do that."

"Harry please, I can't tell you," she begged him to stop asking, she knew she could only refuse for so long. "But I'm telling you that it has nothing to do with Ginny, or Blaise for that matter."

Harry eyed her suspiciously. It hurt Hermione that he would look at her like that but what was worse was that she knew she deserved it, even though it wasn't for the reason he thought. She met his gaze with her own eyes.

"Please believe me."

"I'm going to be honest with you Hermione, I don't think I can believe you, at least not until I know what you're talking about," he told her, "it just looks too bad, there is no other explanation from where I'm standing, can you see that?"

"I know what you mean," Hermione nodded, "but it all really comes down to whether you trust Ginny and me. I know there are some things that you can't tell us but I trust you so I don't question it. Now I'm asking you to do the same thing for me, do you trust me?"

Harry stared at her for a while. Hermione waited, and waited, for a few awful seconds she was terrified that he wasn't going to answer, but finally he nodded his head slowly. He then became more sure.

"Ok Hermione, ok, I do trust you," he confirmed, to her great relief, "and I'm sorry."

Hermione nodded, she was scared that if she said anything she would choke on the lump that had just come to her throat. Harry trusted her, and even though she wasn't officially doing anything wrong, she still felt as though she was betraying him. She looked at her best friend who had stopped crying by now but still had the telltale signs of dried tears on his cheeks, he gave her a small smile when he saw her looking and pulled her into a tight hug.

As they left the classroom together, Hermione still feeling guilty, they walked into a crowd of students leaving the Great Hall.

Lunch must be over, Hermione thought to herself.

Suddenly she caught a glimpse of that platinum blonde hair and her breath caught in her throat. He hadn't seen her standing there and was walking away from her. But even just looking at the back of his head got Hermione's heart jumping like someone had given her an electric shock. And she knew, no matter how guilty she felt over Harry, she would never be able to give him up.

Well there you go! I know that there wasn't very much Hermione/Draco interaction but I needed to do that chapter and I will have them more in the next chapter :) I hope you liked it anyway :D so what did you think? Pretty please comment, you know I love it, and I WILL reply... promise!

luv you all!

LettersFromNoah