Disclaimer: It's been a while, so I thought I might renew this. I don't own anything, I just borrowed JKR's puppets for a while. All of this belongs to her except the plot and Keeping the Moon, which belongs to Sarah Dessen (great book by the way. You should totally read it.)

Dedication: I was going to say that the 75th person to review would get a chapter dedicated to them. I didn't know that goal was already reached! But I'm a good person, so this chapter is dedicated to Secretly-In-Love. You rule! The next chapter will be dedicated to the 100th reviewer. If there isn't one, the dedication is going to Margaritalimes, who writes the longest reviews. Read her story- it's amazing!

A/N: Yay! A fast update! Okay, I've been looking at my traffic, and I've had around 700 people look at this story in April. Come on people! Why are you not reviewing! Take the 30 seconds to type a bit of input! Anyhoo, thanks to everyone who has reviewed, especially Margaritalimes, LilacGrace444, WinnieThaPoo92, Nicole White (you don't really review, but you have written like half of the story, so you are amazing and I love you!), Isabella120, Joseph Santiago (I'm pretty sure you're my only guy reader) and I'm sure I'm missing like 10 people, but there are just too many of you amazing people, so I can't thank you all. Moving on to the actual story…

Hermione wondered if anyone would notice if she didn't get out of bed the next morning. She lay on her back, curtains around her bed closed, blankets pulled over her head. Outside her protected circle (well, more like a rectangle), Ginny was trying to make her come to breakfast.

"Come on, Hermione," she pleaded. "You need to eat. You have to have food to get through the day, you know that."

"I'm not coming," Hermione replied, voice muffled by the blankets. She was also exhausted from staying up all night and her throat and eyes were sore from crying. "I'm skipping class."

"What?" Ginny cried. "Hermione Granger, skip class? What is the world coming to?"

"Death," Hermione said. "Destruction and misery."

Ginny huffed. "Well, enjoy it before the death, destruction and misery."

"Too late."

Hermione's friend groaned. "Come on, Hermione. I've never seen anything you can't take."

Hermione wrestled her head free of the blankets and stuck it outside the hangings so she could look at Ginny. "I can't face him, Ginny. I can't."

Ginny sighed. "Boy trouble. Now sit up and tell me about it."

Hermione thumped back onto her pillows and pulled her blankets up to cover her face. "I want to die."

Ginny yanked back the hangings and dragged the blankets off Hermione's bed, glaring at her. "This isn't going anywhere. Sit up and talk or I'll turn your blankets and every piece of clothing you own bright pink and fix a charm to them so you can't turn them back."

Hermione glowered at her. "You wouldn't."

"Yes, I would," threatened Ginny, waving her wand warningly in the direction of Hermione's wardrobe. "Sit up." Hermione obliged, grumbling. "Now, what's the problem?" Ginny asked in a much sweeter tone.

"If you tell anyone about what I'm about to say to you, even if it's one of your garden gnomes, I swear I will skin you alive. Without magic," Hermione warned. Ginny nodded, waiting. Hermione sighed. "I don't exactly know how to put this," she admitted.

"It's me," said her friend. "It's Ginny. Just spit it out."

"Okay." Hermione took a deep breath. "Fred kissed me."

Ginny's eyebrows shot up. Clearly, this wasn't what she'd expected to hear. "No way."

"Yeah."

"I hadn't thought he would! I mean, I know he'd had a crush on you for ages, but still!"

"He had what?" exclaimed Hermione.

"Are you blind?" Ginny asked incredulously. "Everyone knows he likes you."

"Wow," Hermione muttered. "Maybe I am blind."

"Back to the subject. Why is it such a big deal? Beyond the obvious reasons, of course."

"Well, normally I'd just be mortified for a few days and get over it, but…" She bit her lip. "Draco saw."

"Oh no." Ginny's eyes widened. "That's a bad situation to be in with anyone. But Malfoy? I don't even want to think about it."

"I don't either."

Ginny caught the look on Hermione's face. "What did he do?"

"He called me a bloody mudblood," Hermione whispered.

"Oh Hermione!" Ginny knew what it felt like to be talked to like that by someone she really cared about.

Hermione burst into tears. "He hasn't called me a mudblood since… forever ago!" she sobbed.

When she had recovered somewhat, Ginny put her hand on Hermione's shoulder and looked at her intently. "Hermione, listen to me." Hermione nodded shakily. "You cannot let him disrespect you like that. Have you ever read the book Keeping the Moon?" Hermione shook her head. "Well, one of my favorite quotes from that book is 'You are a human being worthy of respect and some people will make you forget that.'"

"But he had every right. That's the problem! Draco didn't do anything out of line when you look at what I did."

Ginny shook her head. "You didn't do anything. My git brother did. And even if it looked bad, and I'm sorry but it probably did, Malfoy should've listened to you. He owes you that."

"But he didn't, so now what do I do?" Hermione asked.

"If he didn't listen to you then, you're going to have to make him listen to you now. I think you'd better go now, before you lose your nerve."

Hermione took a deep breath. "As if I have any. I don't know if I can do this."

"You can." Ginny sounded so sure. She hugged Hermione and jumped off the bed. "Come on. Get dressed. You just have to remember why you wanted to be with him in the first place and he'll remember too. Let's go."

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Hermione and Ginny were some of the last people in the Great Hall at breakfast. Hermione looked over at the Slytherin table. Draco was sitting on his own, looking angry and unhappy.

Ginny hugged Hermione around the shoulders and said, "Go. It's now or never." As she stood, Hermione reflected that the advantage of being friends with Ginny was that you were always enthusiastic about what you were about to do, no matter how stupid and terrifying it might be. She was more than ready to give Draco a piece of her mind.

She walked over to Draco, head high. "What do you want, Mudblood?" he asked venomously when she stopped behind him.

"I wanted to talk to you," she said evenly, though her voice wanted to crack. His tone made her want to cry. He hadn't spoken to her like that since she'd broken up with Ron.

"Not interested," he snapped, standing, eyes blazing.

She slapped him, hard, across his face. "That was for calling me a mudblood," she informed him. "And this," she hit him again, "is for not listening to me when I tried to explain."

"There's nothing to explain." He raised his own hand as if to hit her, but she grabbed his wrist.

"Listen to me Draco." He flinched slightly. "Look at who you're talking to and tell me: Would I honestly kiss some bloke, even Fred Weasley, in a place where I knew you would be, after all I've put into this relationship and the amount I've lost because of it? I would have to be mental to do that. I'm not stupid and I don't have the intention of becoming the most-hated person on the planet, so why would I do that?"

He looked a bit shocked, but his angry mask quickly settled back into place. "I have no idea."

"Well then, let me tell you. I wouldn't. I'm not an idiot, Draco. Fred kissed me, not the other way around." Her voice got softer. "I don't want to lose you. This means too much to me. If you want, you know where to find me." She couldn't do everything after all. This would require a bit of effort on his part as well. She turned and walked out of the Great Hall, hoping either he or Ginny would follow. But when she stomped through the doors, the person she saw was Fred.

She was tempted to ask what the hell he was doing there, but he got his words out first. "I saw you arguing with Malfoy. Do you think-"

"Don't get your hopes up," she snapped, storming off. She wasn't in the mood to deal with the person who was treatening to ruin her relationship with Draco. Part of her did feel sorry for him, though. It had to have taken a lot of guts for him to come and tell Hermione what he thought of her. But just then, she couldn't deal with him.

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In the common room that night, Hermione felt like the stupidest person alive. Maybe even the stupidest person who'd ever lived.

"He'd have to be crazy the see me after I hit him like that," she groaned to Ginny.

"No he wouldn't," Ginny said, scratching out an essay for Professor McGonagall. Hermione snorted. "I'm being totally serious, Hermione," Ginny said, looking up.

"Why?" Hermione asked. "And not 'Why are you being serious because this is so something I feel like laughing about.' Why would he want to see me? I know him well enough to know that he doesn't take the crap I gave him this morning from anyone. Give me three good reasons he shouldn't just walk away after I hit him and said all those things."

"Fine." Ginny glared at her. "Number one. Because what you told hem wasn't crap, it was the truth and I'll bet he knows it. Number two. Because you are a beautiful girl, and I know he knows it. Don't give me that look Hermione. I'll be perfectly honest and say that he knows that girls like you are hard to find, no matter how cliché that sounds."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Whatever." It was clear she wasn't buying it. "And you still have one more reason."

Ginny sighed. "It's true and you know it. And reason number three: You mad him see that you were willing to go to him if you had to."

"What?"

"Malfoy has a lot of pride. I'm willing to bet he'd never go to you to explain unless he knew he really had to. You showed him that you were willing to swallow your pride and talk to him. For him. And besides, you woke him up."

"Geeze! Enough about pride! I get it! But what do you mean, I woke him up?"

Ginny giggled. "Did you see what he looked like while we were eating? He must've been up all night! There's nothing like a good hard slap to wake you up in the morning."

Hermione stared at her friend incredulously. "Ginny, honestly."

A/N: Well, I hope you liked it! More about Draco's reaction in 2 chapters! The next chapter is all about Ginny, and it's going to be great. Don't freak if it feels like it doesn't fit: I have a plan! Again, thanks to all my fabulous reviewers! Read my other story, please! It only has 3 reviews! And remember, the 100th reviewer gets a chapter dedicated to them.