"RONALD BILLIUS WEASLEY! YOU GET DOWN THESE STAIRS RIGHT NOW AND YOU CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF!" Hermione groaned into her pillow and blindly reached for her wand on her bedside table, it was there somewhere...

"YOU HAVE EXACTLY ONE SECOND TO START CLEANING RONALD!"

"Muffliato." Hermione had pointed her wand in the direction of her door. Hermione didn't want to know what Ron had done, she wanted to sleep.

But as she was drifting off something tapped on her window.

I'm ignoring you. I know you're an owl, but everyone I usually owl knows not to owl me on Sunday. Everyone I usually … Hermione sat up suddenly, her bed hair wild and bouncing around her almost comically as she looked out her window.

Sure enough, it was Malfoy's owl.

Hermione gave a squeal and jumped out of bed so that she could open her window to let in the owl. The owl circled before landing on her bedside table and holding out its leg.

Hermione was too busy focusing on untying the letter to notice the owl was holding something in its beak. Once Hermione had untied the letter the owl pecked her hands gently, making her pay attention to its beak.

"Oh!" Hermione gasped and took the gift out the birds' beak. It was a red rose that had only just begun to open, the outer petals softly hugging the inner petals and holding them together. Hermione bit her lip in anticipation as she opened the letter, still holding her rose.

Miss Granger, would you do me the honour of accompanying me on a date tonight?

Anxiously awaiting your response, yours sincerely,

Draco Malfoy.

Hermione pressed the rose and the letter against her chest, smiling to herself as she twirled around the room like a schoolgirl as she remembered the time she'd spent with Malfoy the previous night.

They'd finished their dinner at the Leaky Cauldron, and they were getting off the Knight Bus together. Draco had wanted to walk together the whole way, but Hermione had told him that it'd take over two hours to walk home, so they'd compromised and had the Knight Bus drop them off at a street that was about a good hours walk away. They'd talked all through dinner, not about anything in particular, but about the ministry, about the oddballs that walked in to get their dinner, about the food they ate, but not about each other, so during the Knight Bus trip and the walk home they mostly walked in companionable silence.

After literally jumping down the steps and out of the Knight Bus, Draco turned around gracefully and offered his hand to a giggling Hermione to help her down and out the bus, but even once she was off the bus and it had disappeared with a bang, he hadn't let go of her hand . Fifteen minutes later Hermione was still trying to get used to it – someone touching her because they wanted to, not because they wanted to show her off, or to make their family happy, or fuck her.

When they were about six houses away from Hermione's, Draco snuck a glance at Hermione – she was biting her lip and still looked a little shocked – and finally asked her the question he'd wanted to ask from the second he'd held her hand.

"Is this OK?" he asked, holding up their hands at her eye level. Hermione had just nodded vaguely, still biting her lip and not looking at him. Draco stopped, pulling her to a standstill.

"Hermione, that's not really an answer a bloke wants to hear. Especially after you let me hold your hand all this way." Hermione darted her eyes away from Draco's, looking at her shoes. Draco gently placed a finger under her chin and lifted her head.

"Hermione, if you don't like this, I'll stop and I'll walk away. You won't ever hear from me again." Draco moved his fingers as if he were about to let go of her hand, but Hermione gripped his hand in both of hers.

"NO! Draco it's not that! It's … something else." Hermione finished lamely, blushing furiously. Draco half smiled gently,

"Come on you brave Gryffindor princess, you can tell me." Hermione gave a shaky laugh.

"Well, I've not dated since Ron and I started going out. And Ronald isn't exactly … he isn't romantic at all, in the slightest. I don't know how to deal with this." This time Hermione waved their linked hands in front of Draco's eyes. Hermione waited as she watched Draco absorb this new information, frowning as it worked its way through his brain.

"You mean that Weasel never even held your hand?" Hermione shook her head, looking away again.

"No, he did hold my hand, but never because he simply wanted to. There was always a reason, usually doing it in front of his family, or because he wanted a fuck." Draco's mouth fell open with a slight 'pop'. Hermione glanced at him and couldn't help but giggle.

"You'll catch bugs if you keep it open like that." Hermione reached up to place one finger under Draco's chin and gently push it closed. Draco barely noticed, his thoughts were a million miles away, yet still on the woman in front of him. Hermione moved her hand so that it rested against his cheek, and waited for him to come back to earth, her eyes studying his facial features.

Finally Draco blinked and looked deep into her eyes.

"So, you're telling me that you've never been romanced before? Never had dates or sneaky kisses or been swept off your feet or a bouquet of your favourite flowers given to you on a whim? Nothing romantic like that?" Hermione shook her head.

"Wow Draco, I didn't realise you're such a romantic. Do you read women's romance novels in secret?" Draco rolled his eyes at her, giving her a half smile.

"Oh, I have my own entire collection at home. Every night I curl up in bed with my favourite chocolates, a glass of wine and my romance book before I get my beauty sleep." Hermione laughed outright at the thought of Draco Malfoy eating chocolates, sipping wine and reading novels about swooning damsels in distress and strong men ravishing them.

"Come on Miss Granger, I need to get you home." Together they finished the walk to Hermione's house still holding hands, with Hermione still giggling to herself and missing the looks that Draco was sending her. Looks of affection and tenderness.

They arrived at Hermione's doorstep – she'd finally stopped giggling – and faced each other, their hands still together. Hermione had no idea what to do now – invite him up or wish him goodnight? When Draco stepped forward and hugged her. Without hesitating Hermione hugged him back, breathing deeply to take in his scent of apples and new books.

The hug wasn't long enough in Hermione's opinion, but Draco leant back away from Hermione, holding her hand and placing her small hand over his heart, his eyes gazing into hers.

"Hermione Jean Granger, you've given me a second chance. I promise you with every beat of my heart, that I will not waste my chance. I will show you the new person I am, and I will treat you properly, the way a beautiful rose like you should be treated." His voice rang with sincerity and confidence.

Hermione could only smile and blush as he then bent his head, his eyes still connected to hers, and lifted her hand to kiss it softly. Hermione's heart almost seemed to skip a beat as little electric shockwaves ran down her arm from where Draco had placed his lips.

"Now, Miss Granger, you go inside and get some rest. I'll owl you in the morning. I promise." And Hermione had done as he'd asked. Once inside she'd sprinted up the stairs and to her study window so that she could watch Draco as he walked away. But by the time she was at the window he'd already disapparated.

Hermione had replied a hasty yes to Draco's invitation, asking what time he'll pick her up and what the dress code for their date was, before she'd gone down for breakfast. Luna was perfectly calm eating her egg and bacon sandwich, but Ron was a little pale as he ate his sausages.

"Not feeling the best, Ron?" Hermione sang, to receive a very slow, very slight shake of his head. Hermione laughed and sat down so that she could start eating, but first, very casually, she decided to tell the couple that she would be out that night.

"Luna, I've got a date tonight, so I won't be in for dinner." Ron made a gagging sound as he swallowed his sausage too fast, but Luna was much more composed.

"Ohh, who with?" Hermione blushed a little and almost didn't tell them, but a little voice in her head repeated Draco's words to her, taunting her. Come on you brave little Gryffindor princess.

"I've got a dinner date with Draco Malfoy." Hermione watched Ron as his face went blank with shock, then slowly turned different shades of red as his mouth gaped open and close, seeming to yell at Hermione silently.

"Bit overdramatic, isn't he?" Luna commented matter of fact. Hermione thought of her wake-up call this morning.

"Just a bit. What did he do this morning Luna? Your yelling woke me up this morning. You've got a set of lungs on you." Luna smiled dreamily at Hermione.

"Oh, he started eating breakfast, but I suppose he still had too much alcohol in his system, because he threw it right up. It went all over the food I'd just finished cooking. Then he refused to clean it up." Luna didn't get angry about the incident now, rather she spoke as if crooning to a baby.

Hermione looked at Ron, who was still red but had stopped his fish impersonation and was now staring angrily at his plate of food.

"Ron, it is one date. I've spent some time with him out in public twice already, and you can see that I'm fine." Ron's head snapped up, anger all over his face when Hermione mentioned that she'd already seen him twice.

"I can't keep you here, Hermione, but just be sure you know what you're doing. Be sure you're not walking into a trap!" Ron seemed to speak with a huge amount of barely controlled anger, wanting to remain calm for Hermione's sake. Hermione sat and truly did think about it for a moment.

"I'm positive I'll be fine, Ron. Relax." Ron just turned to his food and stabbed it angrily, muttering darkly to himself about girls always falling for stuck up ferrets and gits with too much money.

Hermione had found Draco's owl sitting on her desk in her library when she made her way back upstairs around midday. Along with Draco's letter, the owl also had a parcel. Wondering what on earth Draco could be giving her now Hermione untied the owls' mail, before getting out the water bowl and owl treats for it.

Hermione sat down and noticed that the envelope wasn't addressed to her the way Draco usually addressed it. Normally he just wrote her name, but this time he'd written her name and then underneath her name was one sentence. Open me first. Curious, Hermione opened the letter and unfolded the letter.

My dear Hermione

Tonight, where we are going requires moderate uptown fashion. I have gone to the liberty of buying you a dress, I just hope you've got shoes to match. Don't wear any jewellery. Please, wear your hair up tonight.

I will be picking you up at 7 at your house tonight.

Yours,

Draco

Hermione had no idea what moderate uptown fashion meant, but she knew that Draco would be dipping into the Malfoy fortune to be taking her to wherever it was they were going tonight.

Opening her package and pulling out her dress, Hermione couldn't help but gape at it. There were only two things that Hermione really noticed right away; that it was going to cling to her curves more than she usually wore her dresses, and the main colour was green.

He's bought me a Slytherin green dress?!

Hermione didn't have any problems with the colour green, but she usually went out of her way to then overshadow the green with another colour, or wear the extreme minimal of the colour. This was a big step for her. She could squash her Gryffindor pride just for tonight and wear the green dress for her date with Draco Malfoy, or she could back out of her date. There was only one word repeatedly running through her mind.

Shit.

All she could do was stare at her new dress, her thoughts sprinting around in circles but not drawing any conclusions. Finally, Hermione decided to go play with her hair and make-up while she made up her mind.

It took her five hours, more than her fair share of cursing, and two shots of Firewhiskey to calm her nerves, but she finally had applied subtle makeup that accentuated her eyes, made her lips appear full and kissable, and gave her cheeks a hint of colour. Her hair was pulled back in a slightly messy bun – it wasn't a sleek look like McGonagall's, but it wasn't the overly messy which seems to be a current muggle trend – and it was neat as she could make her curly hair. There was a lock of hair that didn't want to be a part of the bun, so she'd kept that down and framing her face.

Once she was satisfied Hermione was alarmed to find that it was 6 o'clock. She raced out of her ensuite and her bedroom to stick her head out her door and yell at the top of her lungs;

"LUNA! I NEED YOUR HELP!" Hermione listened intently for Luna's reply. She didn't get a spoken one, but Luna came gliding down the steps from the floor above.

"Can you help me with my dress?" Hermione noted that she sounded slightly crazy with stress and excitement.

"Of course, where is it? I guess it's not your nightgown." Hermione lead Luna over to her dress, which she'd laid out on her bed, and heard Luna gasp appreciatively.

"Draco bought it for me, for tonight. I haven't told him, but I have a feeling that he knew I don't own any dresses suitable for going out to dinner with him.
Hermione blushed as she felt the need to explain that she hadn't picked out the dress.

"Oh, Hermione … You'll look stunning!" Luna smiled as she lightly ran her fingers through the soft material.

"Do you really think so?" Hermione found herself whispering. Luna nodded then held up the dress, doing a little twirl with it held up against her chest before she held it out to the nervous brunette in front of her.

"Well, let's put it on so that you'll be able to see for yourself." Hermione smiled and took the dress from Luna then went to get changed behind her Japanese screen in the corner of her room that her parents had bought her. Finally, as she was sliding the dress on over her soft skin, she was able to actually look past the colouring and look at the design of the dress.

The middle section was a corset, which was why Hermione had called in Luna to help her put it on. The fabric that fell from the bottom of the corset down to the floor was soft, light and flowed similarly to Harry's invisibility cloak, so it swirled around her gently when she moved and hugged her legs when she was standing still. At the front the dress cut off at her ankles, so her feet peeked out from underneath, but the back was long enough to trail along the floor. All through the dress there was silver decorum, through the corset, all over the sleeves and the main dress, which gave it a silverly, shimmering look.

Hermione started the hyperventilate after she'd pulled the corset over her chest and found what was supposed to pass as the sleeves – they were nothing more than shiny fabric bunched together that would hang from the sides of the corset and gently wrap around her upper arms for an off the shoulder look.

"Luna!" Hermione squeaked, "I can't do this!" Luna calmly walked around the screen, took in the sight of Hermione clutching the dress to her chest, and calmly walked behind her to gently take one of Hermione's hands, ease it through the sleeve, then repeat the process with the other hand. If she noticed that Hermione's hands were slick with sweat she didn't say anything.

As Luna stood behind Hermione and started tying up the strings for the corset, the doorbell rang. Hermione's legs suddenly felt like jelly, her face paled under her light make up and butterflies started flying around in her stomach and throat, making it hard to breathe. And then she noticed what the corset did to her breasts.

"Breathe, Hermione!" Luna ordered and she deftly finished tying Hermione's corset using her wand. "You look beautiful. Now, put on your shoes and I'll let him in." Hermione could only nod as she walked towards her wardrobe, trying her absolute hardest not to think about how the dress hugged her body more than she would usually like. She was praising her good luck that her mother had wanted some quality time and taken her shopping at some muggle shops, insisting she buy the silver heels with straps that crisscrossed all over Hermione's feet. They were her only pair of heels that she owned.

"Hermione! Your date is here. Are you ready for him?" Luna's voice floated up the stairs, freezing Hermione in place on the edge of her bed.

Come on you brave Gryffindor princess. Out of nowhere Malfoy's teasing words rang in her ears. Taking a deep breath Hermione stood up, her back straight and her head high, showing her Gryffindor pride even though she was wearing the house colours of Slytherin.

Hermione walked down the stairs more gracefully than she ever had since she'd lived in the house, as she walked down she noticed that her shoes showed from under the dress which she expected since her feet had been visible when she put the dress on, but the dress length at the back hadn't changed, it still trailed along the ground – she'd thought that it would be raised off the ground now that she was wearing heels.

The fabric must be charmed. Hermione guessed.

While she was watching her steps and considering the fabric around her feet, she didn't notice that Luna had let Draco Malfoy in the house and told him to wait at the bottom of the staircase, so he got to watch Hermione descend in all her confidence and beauty.

"Beautiful." He murmured appreciatively, admiring how the dress showed the curves that she normally hid from the world. Draco hadn't expected her to wear the dress the way he'd sent it, he'd expected her to change the colours at least. But she hadn't, she was wearing his house colours. A Gryffindor was wearing Slytherin colours.

Gryffindor's truly are brave.

"Yes, she is." Luna agreed with his thoughts and his spoken word.

Hermione reached the bottom of the stairs, and Malfoy watched as she smiled widely at her shoes, obviously proud that she made it all the way down the stairs without tripping. Then she looked up to find Malfoy standing only a few feet away from her, looking dashing in a black suit with a tie the exact same shade of her dress.

"Oh … H-h-h-hi, Draco." Hermione stammered, blushing bright red, which made Malfoy smile down fondly at Hermione.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked her politely, Hermione could only nod as she was still admiring Draco in his suit. The suit made him appear taller, stronger, more confident and more grown up.

Handsome. Hermione summed it up to herself.

Draco held out his hand, offering for Hermione to take it. An offer Hermione accepted gladly, a comforting warmth spreading up her arm as she took his hand. Luna skipped to open the door for the couple and waved them out.

"I'll see you later Hermione! Have fun you two!" and she closed the door. Hermione giggled nervously, Luna had acted exactly the same way she'd expected her own mother to act on her first date.

"So how are we getting to … wherever it is we are going?" Draco half smiled and opened his mouth to reply, but a window slamming open above them interrupted him.

"DRACO MALFOY! IF YOU RETURN HER TO THIS HOUSE BROKEN IN ANY WAY, YOU WILL REGRET IT!" and Ron slammed the window shut again.

Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry Draco. He's still a little overprotective, but I don't know why." Draco nodded with his eyes fixed on the now closed window.

"I promise, I will return her. Now, Hermione, we're going to my favourite restaurant. And I'm apparating us there." Fixing his grey eyes on Hermione's brown ones, he took her hand and they disappeared from the street with a pop.

They reappeared outside a small looking restaurant, the front looking very plain and ordinary, and certainly not what Hermione was expecting. Draco chuckled at Hermione's expression.

"Wait until you get inside, Miss Granger." Draco led Hermione to the door, where there was a bouncer in neat but ordinary wizard robes holding a clipboard. Hermione noticed uneasily that there was a line-up of over 50 people eyeing them curiously, obviously wondering who this bloke thought he was, skipping the line the way he was. Draco looked at the wizard bouncer, and spoke one word to him.

"Malfoy." The wizard didn't even glance at his clipboard, he nodded right away and held open the door for the pair of them as the couple at the front of the line-up glared at them.

"Have a nice date, Mr. Malfoy, sir." Hermione walked in a daze through the restaurant, Draco's hand holding hers tightly being the only reason she didn't bump into anything.

Hermione only started paying attention to what was going on around her again when Draco held out a seat for her to sit on and pushed her in. They had a secluded corner all to themselves, so it was quiet with just the two of them.

"You OK, Hermione? I thought you'd be impressed with the decorations here." Draco asked her softly as he sat in his chair across the table. Politely Hermione looked around her.

The decorations look similar … Have I been here before? Then she looked up at the roof, and gave a loud gasp. It's bewitched just like the Hogwarts' Great Hall! They've modelled the place to look like Hogwarts! Looking around, Hermione had a sudden pang of loss. It felt like forever since she was last at Hogwarts.

"Last time I was at Hogwarts, I still hated you." Draco laughed softly.

"And I was spending my time wondering how I could get your attention." Hermione's eyes met Draco's.

"Really?" Draco nodded.

"I didn't want to admit that I liked you. You were still a dirty muggle born to me then." Hermione nodded.

"What am I to you now?" Draco reached out and took Hermione's hand, and pulled it towards his lips to kiss the back of her hand softly, causing warmth to run through her hand where his lips touched her skin.

"Someone willing to give me a second chance, who will hopefully let me into her life, as her friend, and maybe something more later as time passes." Hermione blushed, noticing that her hand was tingling where Draco's skin was touching her.

"You really want to be more?" Draco nodded as he stood up from his chair and walked around to kneel on the ground next to Hermione.

"Hermione Granger, I know our past isn't the happiest but I want to make you happy, I want to give you the world, if you'll let me do that." Looking down at Draco on his knees next to her, Hermione's heart reached out to the young man.

"Oh, Draco!" Hermione cried out as she slid off her seat and wrapped her arms around Draco's neck, hugging him tightly.

Draco wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist and held her close to him, burying his face in her neck.

With a pop Draco and Hermione appeared in front of her house. Hermione hugged Draco tightly, smiling into his chest when she felt his arms wrap around her tightly and his lips press a kiss to the top of her head.

"Thank you for tonight, Draco. It was nice." As Draco chuckled Hermione felt the vibrations in his chest against her cheek.

"Even though you dressed in Slytherin colours and you didn't like walking in without lining up like the normal people?" Hermione smiled a half smile and nodded, still with her head buried into Draco's chest.

They stood there together like that for a few moments longer, and then Draco reluctantly let Hermione go. "You'd better go inside, Hermione. Get some rest."

"Do you want to come in?" Draco shook his head.

"I do, I really do. But I want to take this – us – slowly. I don't want to make a mistake and hurt you by moving too fast and lose you before I had a chance to be with you." Then Draco cupped Hermione's face in his hands and kissed her gently. Draco went to pull away, stopping the kiss before he would fall under her spell and his plan to romance her would go up in flames.

But Hermione didn't know what was going on in Draco's head; all she knew was that for the first time since she started dating Ronald Weasley years ago, she wanted more. Hermione Granger wanted a man to touch her, hold her and do unspeakable things to her. Her entire body was tingling with adrenaline and excitement. She had given up hope that these kinds of feelings could actually exist between two people. So she acted on these feelings, she wrapped her arms around Draco's neck, she pressed her body against Draco's lean one and kissed him deeply.

Hermione felt Draco place one hand at the top of her neck and one hand on her hip, holding her steadily in place, deepening their kiss. Hermione moaned quietly and ran her tongue along Draco's lower lip, asking for entrance to his mouth. But Draco pulled back, disentangling himself from Hermione's grasp easily even though Hermione was using all her strength to keep him pressed against her body.

Draco looked down at Hermione, regret and lust shining in Hermione's brown eyes as well as Draco's grey ones. Draco gave Hermione a small smile and a light kiss on her forehead.

"Slow. We are going to go nice and slow, Miss Granger." Hermione's bottom lip stuck out slightly in a pout, and Draco laughed lightly at her, tracing his pointer finger lightly against her lip as he spoke softly to her; "Right now, what we have is going so well. Just having these dates and kisses together." Draco's finger trailed away from her lip and ran along her jaw, stopping just under her ear before bringing his hand up and cupping her cheek. Then he leaned forward slowly until his lips were next to Hermione's ear, speaking low.

"But one day, one day soon, I will claim you as my own and I will make you mine, and mine alone. I will need you to think about that day, because I don't like to share, if you allow me to make you mine, you will never be with anyone else again." Hermione shivered delicately as his breath passed her ear. Hermione tried turning her head to kiss him again, but Draco leant away too fast.

"Go on now. I'll owl you tomorrow, Miss Granger." Draco gave Hermione a deep bow and kissed her forehead one more time, before giving her a slight nudge towards her front door. With a heavy sigh Hermione began to make her way towards her front door. She was there in three steps, but as she was about to unlock the door she felt long fingers on her hips pulling her back into Draco's body.

"I forgot to tell you. You look beautiful in that dress, in my colours." His voice in her ear made her shiver again. She felt his fingers let her go, and watched as they opened the door for her. Draco nudged Hermione in the small of her back so that she would move forward into the safety of the house, and once she was inside, he closed the door behind her.

Hermione walked into the kitchen with a goofy grin on her face, vaguely thinking of getting a drink of pumpkin juice, to find Ron sitting at the table.

"Oh, Hermione. I didn't hear you come i-i-in." Ron gave a huge yawn and stretched his arms above his head. "I was just waiting for you to get home. How was your date?" Hermione blinked at the bleary eyed red head sitting in front of her, he didn't sound sarcastic, upset or angry. He seemed genuinely curious … and almost protective. Like a big brother.

"It was really nice. He took me to his favourite restaurant where the theme is Hogwarts! So inside it looks like the Great Hall, and there are even four separate seating areas and each area is decorated like each house! There's banners and everything! And the waiters and waitresses earn "house points", which is really their tips, and at the end of each month, a house is announced the winner!" Hermione had pulled out a cup, poured herself a glass of pumpkin juice and sat down in front of Ron as she'd talked, her words coming out in a rush from her excitement.

"And to start off, I'd thought that Draco had booked us in as Slytherin's, but it turns out he actually owns half of the restaurant, and has a corner table just is purely his – no one else is allowed to use it unless they ask him directly – and he'd had it decorated so that it was half Gryffindor colours and decorations, and half Slytherin! He'd even requested to have half Gryffindor and half Slytherin waiters! He was sweet and funny and kind and really respectful to me all night." Ron nodded, his eyes beginning to fall. Hermione smiled gently and placed one hand on his shoulder,

"Go up to bed Ron." Ron nodded his head and stood up, but he didn't move anywhere.

"Hermione. Do you love him? Should I expect to see the git more often?" Hermione hesitated, thinking her answer through before she answered the easier question.

"You'll defiantly see him more often. Or at least, I will be." Ron shook his head and turned to go to bed, before he realised Hermione hadn't answered both his questions, so he turned back to face her.

"Hermione, do you love him?" Hermione looked up at Ron, biting her lip.

"I defiantly feel something more than friendship. Ron," Hermione looked down, blushing, and spoke the rest of her sentence to her drink. "When he kisses me, I want more. You and I had accepted that we didn't get those feelings with each other. Well, I get them with him. And it's addictive, those feelings. I want to find out if they will stay and I want to find out what will happen if we get carried away. Ronald," Hermione looked up and locked eyes with Ron, "I want him to love me. Like you and I never loved each other, I want him to love me, even though I'm not good enough for him. He seems to have changed, and I'm giving him a chance to prove himself. I like this new Malfoy. A lot." Hermione took a deep breath and waited for Ron's answer, those butterflies attacking her stomach again.

At first Ron only shook his head, but he did eventually reply. "Well, Hermione, I don't like it, but you seem to be happy. So I'll deal with it. And if he hurts you, I'll hunt him down." Ron's expression turned fierce for just a few moments before exhaustion took over again and he yawned widely.

"OK, well, night 'Mione."

"Night, Ron. And thank you." Hermione listened to Ron's footsteps until she knew he was safely on his floor and didn't fall asleep halfway there, before she let the wide smile crawl its way onto her face again.

As she was crawling her way into her bed fifteen minutes later, a new thought came to her. Ron and I have truly stepped away from our lover's relationship. We're not lovers anymore; we're best friends again, just like we used to be!