Oh Dear lord, I'm going to waste some more of your time by apologizing for the lateness, I finished the first section, but it was no where near long enough, and I had writers block, tbh it's still pretty damn short, and hasn't been proof read, so sorry, but at least you have it. Updates are going to be slower and slower I'm afraid, I'm doing 6 subjects at a-level and the work is going to be burying me - just a heads up.

Thanks to those who have stuck with me:

polkadot girl, fallingstar93, x8jessica8x, jadekate, tfobmv18, xheex, LRSD, cyiusblack, xxxMissMalfoyxxx, owlish quagmire, Essabellia, cyn23, Jazii26, joker's-gurl, K00K, shopaholicblondie, MeredithGlass, soccercrazyfreak, VoiletDhaliwal, sexxydemon, queen-of-oddities, bringITback, Crossy, scarredprincess, firstEveningStar, That Ella Loves, xoxojessicaxoxo and Arabella-Minette.

Chapter 15: Sneaking Out

Breakfast the next morning was awkward. There was a new tension in the air, that did not correlate with the one Hermione was used to, nor was comfortable with. This new tension had been brought along when Harry and Pansy arrived, Pansy always a few paces behind Harry. Hermione looked closely at her. She had dark bags under her eyes, her hair looked as though it hadn't been washed and her eyes were red and puffy. She glanced at Draco, and noticed that he had perceived the same as she had. It was pretty clear Pansy had been up all night crying. She sat down, emotionless, helped herself to a piece of toast and started spreading marmite on it. Never understanding the appeal of marmite on toast or marmite in general, Hermione grimaced and turned her attention back to eating her scrambled egg on toast.

Blaise and Ginny had been writing notes for the past 5 minutes and to be quite honest it was getting on Draco's nerves, not to mention the fact that you could cut the atmosphere with a spoon. To his relief Blaise cleared his throat breaking the silence.

"So, Draco," Blaise started, ignoring the death stare from Ginny, "We, that is Ginny and I, were down at the lake last night."

"Really? Should I care? I've told you before Blaise I hold no interest your sex life." Draco replied lazily.

"You should care. Because I believe-" He was distracted by Hermione wincing and exclaiming:

"Ow! Gin! What the hell?!"

She looked at her best friend, rubbing her leg with a confused expression on her face.

"Sorry!" Ginny apologised, "I was meant to hit Blaise."

"How did you miss?!" Hermione asked, more puzzled now than she was moments ago.

She shrugged, "Don't know, sorry though…"

"Anyways, we have to go." Hermione addressed Draco whilst standing up.

"What? Where to? Its Sunday, we don't have any lessons." he said still sitting down.

"Just come on!" Hermione said gesturing for him to follow her. He sighed and following her looking very confused. Once outside the Great Hall she grabbed his hand and started pulling him up the stairs.

"Hermioneeee!" he said dragging out the e making it sound so whiny Hermione laughed.

"Dracooooooo!" she said mimicking him.

"Where are we going!?" Draco whined as she turned off at the top of the staircase into the 3rd floor corridor

"Just shush," she said continuing to drag him along the corridor before coming to a halt in front of the one eyed witch statue.

"Hermione, this has been here since 1st year, why are we staring at it?"

"I normally wouldn't," she said more to herself than Draco, "But I'm meeting your mother next week, and I really need an engagement ring, and something to wear, all my jeans are too small…"

"Hermione? What-" but he stopped when he saw her draw her wand, point it at the statue and mutter dissendium. The witch's hump opened up and after checking for people in the corridor (it was empty, everyone must still be in the Great Hall) then she climbed in and slid down the slide on the other side and landed gracefully on the concrete floor.

"You coming?" she shouted up the tube in which she had just slide down.

Laughing to himself, smiling and shaking his head he followed her down the slope. Landing not so gracefully on his feet, tripping forward, and falling into Hermione, grabbing her as he fell down, resulting in the two lying on the floor gasping for breath, laughing.

"Why does this always happen to us?" asked Hermione giggling and sitting up as Draco rolled off of her.

"I dunno, maybe it's our thing?" Draco suggested.

"Our thing?" she said teasing him.

"Yeah," said Draco enthusiastically, obviously not picking up on the sarcasm, "you know, like Spiderman and Mary Jane. They like to kiss each other upside down, and she got all offended in that second movie when that other women kissed him like that - what are you laughing at?" he frowned looking at Hermione who was trying to stand up but failing because she was laughing so much.

Draco just stood there and looked at her, her hair, pinned back, and tears threatening to pour down her face. He couldn't imagine anyone more beautiful than her. He walked towards her and held out his hand to help her get up. She took it - still laughing - and pulled herself up so she was pressed up against his body. This seemed to sober her up pretty quickly, even more so when he kissed her. They stood there for a while, at the bottom of the slope, kissing. Draco pulled away.

"So, enlighten me, why were you laughing" he asked.

"You." she said a smile broadening on her lips

"Gee thanks…" he said looking slightly hurt.

"Hey!" she said grabbing his arm as he began to walk away, "you know I didn't mean it like that…it's just that…you know Spiderman is a Muggle thing yeah?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Okay then, it was just you, the pureblood Malfoy, watches Spiderman, it kind of demeans your status doesn't it?"

Draco chuckled.

"Why yes Granger, It does."

"Oh, okay then," she said she grabbed his hand and started leading him down the narrow corridor.

"Hermione, where does this tunnel lead?" Draco asked quite nervous now.

"To the cellar of Honeydukes," she answered simply.

"Ah, so, why are we going to the cellar of Honeydukes?" Draco said, completely confused now.

"We're not going to stay there you loser. I need to go shopping before I meet your mother next week and Hogsmeade seems like a good place to do it. I can't wait for the next legal trip so this was the next best option." she explained.

"Oh. Fair enough then, what do we need to get?" he asked happier now he knew she wasn't kidnapping him and taking him someplace secret.

"Well, I need an engagement ring. So we at least look engaged when I meet your mother, and I need a decent outfit. Unless you want me to meet your mother wearing my jeans and jumper."

"I don't care what you wear, you'd look good in anything, and okay, so we go to Gladrags wizard wear for your 'Meet the parents' outfit, and we ought to get you your engagement party outfit, in fact we should get you several - think of the amount of engagement parties you're going to go to." he said this last bit in response to the questioning look on Hermione's face.

"I guess, so, its 11 now, Merlin knows how long we spent back there at the bottom of the slope-"

"-It was time well spent-"

"Either way, we're short on time now-"

"Let's get going then." Draco finished for her. He grabbed her hand and started pulling her further and faster into the tunnel.

"Draco?"

"Yep?"

"You don't know where your going do you?"

"I've no idea."

Giggling she ran forwards and dragged him around the corner as the tunnel veered to the left.

Harry and Pansy sat in the common room staring in opposite directions to each other, both pretending to work.

"Pansy -" Harry started quietly, when she didn't answer he proceeded, "-we need to talk."

"Actually, I think you made everything pretty damned clear last night Potter, or was there something else you forgot to say? You know, just to make sure I got the message that I don't have a chance with you?" she snapped spitefully.

"Look, I didn't mean-"

"Yes you did! Don't even try and say that! It's a blatant lie! Look Potter, I never thought for a second we would get on like best friends, but I did think with a bit of practice and time spent together we could get along. But apparently, that's below you."

"Pansy. Will you stop and listen to me? I'm sorry I called you a slut, but you have to admit - you were acting like one, and what I said was true, I don't love you, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends… right?"

Pansy got up and started walking away. Harry shouted, "Pansy! I'm apologizing! The least you can do is listen to me!"

"Apologising?!" she shrieked turning around, "You call that apologizing?!"

"Yes," Harry said clearly offended, "What was wrong with it?"

"Hmm, let me think, you pretty much said "I'm sorry, but I was telling the truth" that isn't apologizing! Apologising would be I'm sorry I hurt your feelings Pansy, what I said was wrong, and I'm sorry you were up all night crying and had to stay in the bathroom! Not "I still think you're a slut!" Oh, and Potter? Tonight - you're in the bathroom," she sneered as she slammed her way out of the door."

Shit, Harry thought to himself breathing out heavily and throwing himself back into the sofa.

There you go peeps, I'm actually going to try extra extra hard to get the next chapter up soon as., though I dunno if I should just skip a few days, I'm not sure…

Anyways thanks for staying with it ;D

Also, check out Way Out Of Your League, it's more serious than this but the first chapters have been revised because they were a bit crap tbh....it's a lot better than it was! It's my baby *grins*