A/N at the end!

Chapter Twenty

Monday mornings were never fun. And that morning in the beginning of June was no exception. Pansy was back at the Slytherin table and had refused to talk to Ron ever since the incident. He was really down about it, and therefore ate even more than usual. He threw bacon, sausages, scrambled egg and pancakes into his mouth. His face expression, though, was as a brick. The entire Pansy thing hurt him, Hermione could tell. It was his first serious relationship. (Lavender in no way counted.) He feared he was the one who'd screwed up, but it was in fact Pansy who was a bit of a coward. She didn't want to lose her status as cool because of a guy. She just yet had to realise that the guy was more worth.

Also Luna, Hermione could tell from her seat, was acting more strange than ever. She was avoiding people who tried to talk to her, and spent the entire meal smiling at the ceiling.

Hermione wondered if she had hit some kind of hypnoses. But on the other hand, it could just be a new Luna thing to do. She never failed to surprise anyone with her actions.

"Ron, go talk to her!" Hermione advised. She was getting sick of seeing him eat so much. He had emptied an entire bowl of bacon.

"Why?" he spat out with anger (and a few bacon pieces.)

"Because you were obviously happy together!" Harry joined the conversation. He too seemed down about his best mate being so depressed.

"She doesn't want me," Ron explained.

"Ron, we all know that's a lie. She's crazy about you. All you have to do is make her realise that she cant live without you!" Hermione encouraged.

"That's it, I'm out," Ron said. He got up from his seat and marched out of the Great Hall with fast, certain steps. Hermione saw that Pansy was following him with her gaze. The regret swam in her eyes, but still she just turned her head away and continued her conversation with her fellow Slytherins.

Coward, Hermione thought and shook her head slowly.

Her thoughts got interrupted by hundreds of owls that flew in to the hall and landed in front of some students. Hermione got shocked when a small, coal coloured owl landed on her empty plate. It held a fragile letter in its beak, it was addressed to her.

"Who's it from?" Ginny asked. She was leaning against Harry who also looked at the letter in curiosity.

"I've no idea," Hermione admitted. She opened the envelope in slow movements, and pulled out the paper that was inside. She quickly recognized the handwriting, but that only made her heart beat faster. As she read the letter through again and again she felt as if her heart would leave her body.

Hermione folded together the letter and put it in one of the pockets in her robes.

"I'll see you in Classroom 3C," she quickly spoke and ran off just as Ron had did a few minutes ago. She could feel the tears press against her eyes.

Ginny kissed Harry on the lips -it still felt as it had the first time- and then went off to her first class. Harry searched the castle for Ron.

The Slytherin gang entered the third floor classroom 3C minutes before Professor Snape. The girls were deep into a conversation about a subject Ron didn't catch. His thoughts were all on the beautiful dark brown haired girl with the fine body. She was in the midst of the group; centre of attention as always. She had a smile on her rich lips, but Ron did not buy it. Over the past weeks that they'd been secretly seeing each other he'd learned to tell her façade smile from her real and true smile.

Pansy noticed that Ron was looking at her, and her façade smile faded away. A real smile appeared in her eyes though, but it seemed as if she didn't want it to. She wanted to be angry with him, but had a hard time being it.

Without second thoughts Ron walked up to the group of chatting girls. He looked fearless but he defiantly was not.

"Pansy," he exclaimed, and all the girls turned their faces and starred at him as was he a complete idiot, "can I have a word?"

Pansy took a glare at her 'friends' around her, and then looked back at Ron. Without a word she grabbed Ron's hand and lead him away from everyone.

"What is it?" Pansy asked. She'd taken Ron into an empty classroom not far away from 3C. None of them gave Professor Snape a thought.

"What is it? You ask me what's wrong? I think we should turn that question around," Ron complained.

Pansy's eyes widened at first, but then her hands flew up and covered them. Sobbing sounds escaped her lips.

Ron had never before dealt with a crying girl so he had no idea what to do. He followed his instinct, and therefore gently pushed Pansy's head towards one of his shoulders. He stroke her hair with his fingers. It smelled nicely of cinnamon; Ron's favourite. He took a deep breath of it.

"Tell me," he whispered to her, "tell me it all."

For every sob Ron could feel chills down his spine. He hated that Pansy was feeling like that, and he hated that he probably was the reason.

"I really like you, you know that -sob- right? But it's just so hard -sob- because my friends think I'm stupid and ignorant -sob- they just do not know you."

Ron had nothing to say. He just kept stroking Pansy's hair.

"I want to be with you, I really do. I'm just not sure I can leave all my friends behind," she explained.

"I understand," Ron gasped. He did. He felt lucky that Hermione and Harry had accepted Pansy as one of them, but he knew that it would take lots of time before the Slytherins would even consider just looking at Ron. "And I respect whatever decision you make. But promise me you'll tell me if you start ignoring me again, please. It is a bit confusing," Ron grinned. He could hear Pansy giggle too.

"I promise," she said. "But, to be honest, I don't think I'll need to."

Ron pushed away gently.

"Meaning?" he asked.

"Meaning, you're the first person ever to hold me while I am crying. I can't just give you up."

Pansy leaned in and kissed Ron deeply.

"We're going to lose the entire cup on Saturday only because you had to fool around with Draco!" Ginny exclaimed. She and Harry were alone in the Gryffindor common-room. They had skipped dinner because of a fight they were having.

"He jumped at me, remember?" Harry easily lost his temper when people were yelling at him. He always tried to stay calm around Ginny because he didn't want to hurt her, but sometimes it was just too hard.

"Jumped on you? After what I've been told you followed him into the bathroom!"

"You must admit he's been acting strange lately. I wanted to find out why!"

And so the yelling and accusations continued until their fellow Gryffindors came back from dinner. Then they went back to acting perfect couple.

Those small fights had been happening for a few days now. There were always something they didn't agree on; always something the one didn't like about the other. In the beginning it had been hard to pretend that everything was still all right, but by now they were able to put up a façade that fooled their friends completely. They didn't want anyone to know about the rocks in their relationship because they knew that was just one more worry for them. Hermione and Ron were both training hard for the Quidditch finale. They didn't really have time for so much else -a pity for Hermione who was obsessed with studying at the end of the year.

"You weren't at dinner," Hermione spoke. It wasn't a question but a statement.

"It's hard to get some alone time here," Harry explained with a smile. He looked at Ginny and grinned. It was hard to tell that they seconds ago had been yelling and cussing at each other.

"I see," Hermione smirked. She picked up a book and begun to read.

"Which reminds me, how's Pansy?" Harry asked Ron.

"Great. She's great."

"I'm glad you overcame it all. People do stare in the beginning, but it gets better once they're used to it," Ginny said, talking for the first time since the others got back. Her voice as still a bit shaking from yelling, but Ron didn't notice so.

"Me too. It's great." Ron didn't sound very interested in the topic though.

"Good."

Truth to be told, the friendship between the two boys had faded a bit away as they had both gotten girlfriends. Though they were always together, they never really talked -not as before at least. Things had somehow gotten awkward between them ever since Harry started going out with Ron's sister, and Ron with one of Harry's arch enemies through all his years at Hogwarts-

"Which reminds me," Hermione said, copying Harry's exact words, "of the night you told us you were dating Pansy." She had put down the book she was reading.

"What about it?" Ron asked.

"Why did Luna come to talk to you the night before?"

"Luna? What does that have to do with Pansy and I?"

"Well, she came asking for you, you were missing. Putting one and one together, I believed.. I believed you were dating her. Not Pansy."

Ron broke into a tiny laughter.

"Are you serious? Luna and I?"

"Well, why did she want to speak to you then?"

Ron seemed to disappear into his thoughts for a minute or two.

"Oh!" he all of a sudden exclaimed. "She caught me the next day. It was kind of weird, actually."

"Weird. Weird how?"

"She was asking me about Malfoy. Something about what he liked in a girl. I honestly don't know why she'd ask me, though!" Laughter stroke him again.

Hermione's thoughts went crazy. What Draco liked in a girl? Why on earth would Luna find that an interesting topic?

She stood up from her chair and left the common-room before anyone could ask her why.

For the second time in a short amount of time Hermione found herself outside the Ravenclaw common-room, knocking on the door. And once again a kind student let her in.

Luna was easy to spot; she was sitting the exact same way she had done in the Great Hall.

"Luna, can I have a word?" Hermione asked. It took a few seconds for Luna to understand that someone was actually talking to her. She moved her gaze from the ceiling to Hermione.

"Hermione, nice to see you here. What can I do for you?"

Hermione looked around to make sure no one was following their conversation. But of course they all were. It was a rare thing that a Gryffindor entered the Ravenclaw common-room.

"Why are you interested in what Draco Malfoy likes in a girl?" she asked.

The question took Luna by surprise. She, too, realised how many were actually looking at them, so she brought Hermione into her dormitory.

"I like to know about people," she explained. "It amuses me."

"But why Draco?"

"He's an interesting person. Nobody really knows anything about him."

"He enjoys fire-whiskey," Hermione shared. She realised that that actually was the only personal information she'd been able to snap up on her date with him.

"The nargles like him," Luna exclaimed.

"Nargles-" And then it all hit Hermione as a stroke of the lightning.

She widened her eyes and starred at Luna with a wondering look.

"You had sex with him, didn't you?" she spoke with surprise in her voice.

"Yes I did," Luna said as was it a small, meaningless thing.

"But why?"

Hermione was shocked by her dirty-blonde haired friend. And even more by Draco who had just accepted it, even though Luna was a year younger than her.

"To keep away the nargles of course."

Hermione wondered if Luna even knew what sex meant. If she had any clue..

A/N:

There you got your answer on who the girl with Draco was. Few of you managed to guess it -great job! And thank you so much to.. oh my God, I totally lost who came up with the idea for Luna/Draco! I'm so sorry. Please contact me if it was you because I'd like to give a proper shoutout!

Anyway, thank you to reviewers!

KtotheCPower – Drkness'Daughter – DensiShine – past decembers – TamariChan – SciFiGeek14 – 2dismybestfriend – 321 – Little-miss-book-worm-95 – Kam3910 – SummerLillie – Pureblood101 – PenMySword.

Thank you all!

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