"I made a mistake

I think I took a wrong turn

Somewhere along the way

I sealed my fate

And all I know is your gone

Yeah, you're gone away

I'll never touch your face…

I'll never see you again"

-Wrong Turn

Chapter 18: Uncomfortable Encounters

The usual disclaimer applies.

"Did that really just happen?" Harry asked unbelievingly as he and Hermione exited the dungeons.

Pale-faced, she replied with an almost robotic tone, "Yes, and now we've all received detention for the next three Friday evenings." Hermione just could not cope with that fact. She (and Neville for that matter) had just been made prefects and were supposed to be setting a good example for Gryffindor house, not completely mucking up the Potions classroom and getting themselves into massive trouble for no purpose whatsoever.

Harry shook his head, "At least they're not with Snape," he told her, "its bad enough I've got this next Saturday with him." He then added, "Going from a full night of scrubbing cauldrons for him right to an entire morning chopping up ingredients would just be torture."

"Oh, I highly doubt Professor Snape will be allowing any of us near so much as a rat spleen any time soon."

"If ever," Harry laughed, feeling somewhat hopeful on his words. He genuinely disliked brewing.

Hermione managed to crack a smile, "Well, I just hope it was worth it."

"You can't be serious," Seamus interrupted, coming up behind the two. "Did you not see the look on the Professor's face? Priceless," he patted Harry on the back and walked off to catch up with Dean before either could respond.

"Yeah, it was definitely worth it," Harry grinned widely, remembering how shocked Snape was when he first realized what was happening. Then, when the Potion's master actually got smacked with a sopophorous bean, well, that soon went up on Harry's 'Top 5 Best Moments Ever'.

"It better have been," cut in Pansy who hadn't been far behind seeing as she too had DADA next period. "I've never seen Professor Snape so livid."

Harry shuddered, recalling how explosive Snape had been, "You have Malfoy to thank for that one," he reminded her. Despite the fact that the whole ordeal was utterly hilarious, when it all came down to it, the Slytherin seeker had started it, thus causing Snape to seek wrath on them all.

"Please, if Granger had just cut up the bean properly in the first place, then none of us would be soon living out a miserable night." Draco said, walking in stride beside Pansy.

'Speak of the devil,' Harry thought before replying, "Don't blame her," he defended.

"You're the one who lost it when the thing hit you in the face," Parkinson chimed in.

Hermione, who was shocked that the other brunette was actually taking their side, agreed.

"Why are you even talking to us?" Harry asked before the blonde could argue.

"Draco, honestly, go take a walk, won't you?" Pansy ordered, more so than suggested.

"What's your problem?" he inquired, ignoring Potter's question.

"Last night," she said bluntly, "You ignored me."

"So?" Malfoy asked, not seeing the issue.

"So," she stressed the word, "I wanted to discuss your meeting and you completely blew me off."

"I was tired," he informed her. "Besides, you're not my girlfriend. I'm not obligated to talk to you when I'm not up for it."

"Thank Merlin for that," Pansy muttered, for Blaise was the boy she was currently seeing. Her friend was such a git at times. "Yeah, and you're not my boyfriend," she used Draco's statement against him. "I neither have to talk to you when I don't want to do so. That being said," She spat, "go away."

With a glare, Malfoy did as she said and sped up to walk alongside Crabbe and Goyle to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Pansy, can I speak with you for a moment?" Hermione asked, coming to a stop as they were about to go up the Grand Staircase. After the other girl reluctantly nodded, she turned to Harry, "I'll see you in class," Hermione gave him a short hug, "We're ahead of time as it is being that Professor Snape dismissed us early today."

"Hey, he had other things to do," Harry smirked, knowing that the man was probably still dealing with their mess at the moment. He then took his leave, wondering why the Slytherins had decided to be uncomfortably friendly with them all of a sudden. Malfoy's excuse just couldn't be the only reason. Could it?

…

"What do you want?" Pansy asked rather harshly after Potter had left.

"Did you tell him anything?" Hermione got straight to the point.

"Tell him what, exactly?" she pried, annoyed.

The Gryffindor sighed, "About the topics we discussed last night."

"You mean about Weaselette?"

Hermione nodded.

"No, of course not," Pansy assured her quickly, "I'm sure you were smart enough and put two and two together," she eyed the taller girl.

Again, she nodded, "Yes, and Ginny knows."

The Slytherin rolled her eyes in exasperation. She really didn't want everybody finding out.

"She was obviously going to figure it out sooner or later," Hermione said, honestly.

"You haven't told anybody else, have you?"

"No," she took her turn in giving reassurance, "That's why I asked if you had talked to Harry about it."

Pansy let out the breath she had been holding, "Good." She then asked out of sheer curiosity, "But why don't you want him to know?"

"He has enough things to worry over right now," she told her flat out.

"I take it you don't fancy the idea of Weaselette and-"

"Not at all," Hermione cut her off quickly, not wanting that particular mental image. How this whole situation came to be, she couldn't fathom. It was simply all too odd for her liking.

Pansy let out a near evil laugh, "Well, I'm off," she said, making her way up the staircase, "I promised Blaise I'd meet up with him before class."

"Isn't he going to be in there as well?"

"Well yes, but seeing as we've got nearly fifteen minutes to spare-"

"Nevermind," Hermione said quite fast, "Just go," she sputtered, avoiding the gruesome details that were to come.

Pansy merely smirked and turned to leave.

"Wait," the other prefect spoke up before she made it up a step.

"Yes?" she asked, tiredly.

"Why are you being so-?"

"Willing to put up with you?" Parkinson offered. The thought of her lot actually being 'nice' to the Gryffindors was still too much to handle, for that simply wasn't done in the Slytherin house, family obligations or not.

"I suppose," Hermione compromised, hoping for an answer.

"I don't know," she said, disappointing Granger. "Do you want us to stop?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Hermione replied. "I mean," she cleared her throat, "it's just nice not having you all fighting with us every day," she explained.

"Understandable," Pansy half-smiled, "Well, I'll be seeing you then?"

"Sure," she nodded, feeling something other than pure hatred towards her for the first time. Noticing this, Hermione began to question her sanity as the other prefect went out of sight.

…

"I can't believe you're really back," Harry entered the DADA room early just to see his favorite Professor. Honestly, he just couldn't contain his excitement.

"Harry," Remus smiled, opening his arms to greet his best friend's godson. "How have you been?" he asked, after letting him out of the hug.

"Pretty…alright," he answered. Truthfully, Harry didn't know how to respond to that. The year had only just started and already, it managed to turn into a rollercoaster of different emotions. From his unusual meetings, warm conversations with Hermione, and then the unforgettable potions ingredient fight, he wasn't sure what to feel.

"Hmm…" Lupin wanted to discuss the matter further, but knew that within the next five minutes students would be barging through his door, "Why don't we hold a meeting this coming Friday evening? We could catch up a bit," the man told his 'cub'. It had been nearly three months since they last spoke properly.

"Um," Harry looked down, suddenly finding his shoes incredibly interesting, "I actually have to be somewhere…"

"Oh," was all Remus said as his heart sank a tad. He assumed the boy, in reality, didn't want to see him outside of class. "Maybe Saturday?" he tried again.

The younger Gryffindor turned slightly red, "I'll be busy then, too."

"Well, then," the werewolf straightened his back, "I better be setting up for class," he told Harry, checking the time. Two minutes until the teaching finally began.

Realizing that he was giving Lupin the wrong idea, he tried fixing it, "How about Sunday evening?" he suggested, hating his busy schedule. Friday he would be in detention, Saturday would unfortunately be the same along with loads of homework, then throughout most of Sunday he would be holding the Quidditch tryouts he had to postpone.

Grinning and feeling ridiculous for his previous feelings, Remus happily agreed just before the classroom door opened.

…

Monday and Tuesday seemed to fly by for Hermione. Before she knew it, Wednesday was here and Ginny's anonymous meeting was soon to be held. The older girl had spent all of her free time (which, unfortunately, wasn't much) working on the list she had promised her friend. So far, the only names she had come up with were: Cormac McLaggen and Draco Malfoy. With C or D being the first letter and M definitely being the last, there wasn't much to go by. Those two were the only possible suspects…and Ginny was far from pleased with that fact.

"It has to be Malfoy," she sighed.

"There's a chance it could be Cormac," Hermione said, just as hopeful as her friend that it wouldn't be the Slytherin.

"Doubtful," the red-head retorted, pessimistically.

As the other girl had previously done, Hermione sighed, not knowing what else she could say on the matter.

"I'm just going get this over with," Ginny told her several minutes after pointlessly staring at the note. Before she could exit the Fat Lady's portrait, the brunette caught her arm.

"I'll be going with you," she said. "I've got Harry's invisibility cloak so you don't need to worry about me being seen," she filled her in before any argument could be made.

"How did you get that?" Ginny couldn't help but to ask seeing as the item was once in the bottom of their friend's trunk, inside the boy's dormitory no less.

"Does it matter?"

"Well, is he even aware that you have it?"

Hermione's guilty expression was answer enough.

"Let's go," Ginny said, abruptly dragging her friend from the common room. This was going to be interesting.

…

Ten minutes later, Hermione was successfully hidden from view and standing behind her friend at the quidditch pitch.

"Are you sure about this?" Ginny asked, trying her best not to move her lips too much. She didn't want to look like some nutter talking to herself.

"No," the other girl replied, honestly. "But I've got your back," she reassured her.

Feeling extremely nervous at Hermione's answer, Ginny was just about to bolt when the no longer anonymous student made their appearance.

"Fancy running into you here," he smirked.

There was a look on his face that made both girls' extremely uncomfortable. Clearly, something was up…

A/N: I know you're out there…

Just review, would ya?

Ha-ha :)

I am incredibly grateful to those of you who have taken the time to do so!

Please give me your opinions on Chapter 18, okay?

Thanks!

Also: I changed Ginny's meeting to Wednesday (also in the previous chapter) because it fit the plot better. I apologize for any confusion.