A/N Welcome back! Thank you to all who have favorited and/or followed this story, it means a lot to me.

In this chapter we have a memory of Hermione's. The ** signifies the beginning and ending of the memory.

Ch 3
Knowing Tuesday night is her night should be enough to keep Draco away and yet here it is the following Tuesday and hes walking into Paddy's pub.

"Come to try your luck again?" Sean asks as Draco walks up to the barman.

"Eh, might as well come here and drink then stay home and drink." Draco replies shrugging. Being around the muggles he allows himself to be much more candid than in his normal day to day life. He'd certainly not talk to Tom at the Leaky like that. Draco turns away from the bar to checkout the scene. He quickly spots her even as he try's to convince himself she's not the reason he came back tonight. Last week he had left alone and only slightly buzzed and it was the first time he was able to actually sleep without copious amounts of alcohol or a strong sleeping potion. Instead of upsetting him and depriving him of sleep talking of Astoria with Granger actually helped. After just a moments hesitation he grabs the scotch that Sean already had waiting for him and walked over to Granger's table.

"Still with a book Granger?" The look she gave him would have made lesser men cower. Honestly it made him think twice but he didn't let his smirk slip.

"Weasley" she half growled at him as she tucked a flyaway curl behind her ear.

"I would have thought you'd be one to hyphenate. Or even not change your name." He replied as he pointed to the chair opposite her. She nods as he sits down.

"Just shows how little you know of me. Call me Granger again and I'll hex you. I've mastered enough wandless magic to be able to cause some serious pain." She answered him again not looking up, "Bored again?"

"Your table has a good view of the rest of the room, good spot to scope out my options." He replies looking around. Again there weren't really the many people in the place yet. Certainly not anyone he felt like wasting his time on.

She snorts finally looking up at him. "Malfoy on the prowl, this ought to be good. Have you acquired a target yet?" Looking around she realizes the place is almost empty. "You going after the obviously married woman with her husband or the ladies in the corner?" She points to a pair of ladies at least 60 years old on the opposite side of the room. "Only other option is Sara and I can promise you that won't happen. Either way I would take your wedding ring off first. Usually detours most women." She concludes looking down at the silver band with inlaid emeralds on his left hand holding his glass.

Draco looked at his ring. Until he started going out on Saturday nights, he hadn't taken it off. Honestly he only ever took it off when he was looking for a hookup. It felt like an insult to Astoria to not wear it. "Guess I'm not really into it tonight."

At the sound of his voice, the pain in it Hermione looked up, softer this time. "That's ok, we'll just talk then. Tell me about Astoria. How did you to meet?"

The shock flooded Dracos face. He certainly didn't expect her to bring up Astoria. He had to admit talking about her help so after a moments hesitation he started, "We've always known each other, practically grew up together. After I was released I wanted nothing to do with anyone. I refused visitors, not that I had many." He looked down as he paused, spinning his glass in his hands. "I refused to go out at all. The Malfoy name is still pretty much mud to both sides, very few invites had come our way. Actually the Greengrass' were the only pure blood family to even talk to us. Finally in January Mother insisted I accompany her to a formal dinner at the Greengrass' home. I fought her on it but finally she won out. I went, I wasn't happy about it, but I went. Most of the evening Mother was acknowledged but not really included. I was flat out ignored. And I was ok with that. After dinner everyone moved to the drawing room for drinks. Again I just stood in a corner and kept to myself, waiting for an appropriate amount of time to pass before we could leave. Astoria came up and asked me to take a walk with her outside." He pauses here, smiles and takes a sip of his drink. "To say I was shocked would be an understatement. But I knew I couldn't refuse. So we walked and talked about our early years. She was a couple years behind us. Actually she should have been in her final year but because of the rebuilding and the unknown reaction to the Greengrass name she didn't go back. We talked so much that finally everyone else had left the party and Mother came looking for us." Finally he stopped looking almost embarrassed at Hermione, "I don't know why I'm telling you this."

"Because I asked and its something you need to talk about."

They sat there for a few minutes and then Draco asked Hermione about her work at the ministry in an effort to change the subject and lighten the mood.

At 10:30 Hermione excused herself and apparated home. As she sat in bed she thought back to her school days, talking to Draco was bringing up all kinds of memories.

**

"You ok Hermione?" Fred had found her after her and Ron's big fight. The Yule Ball had been amazing until Ron had to go and ruin it for her. After she left the main hall she didn't want to go back to the dorms and face Lavender and Parvati. So she ran down a side corridor and kept running until she couldn't hear any noise from the Great Hall. She thinks she went down a secret passage she didn't even know existed because after a few stairs and more turns she thinks she's on the third floor near the charms class but even she wasn't sure at that point. How he found her she didn't know or even care.

"No." She pauses, sniffling, "But I will be." She knew she must look a mess but she didn't care at the moment.

"Good, because hes not worth crying over. Hes just a stupid git that needs to pull his head out of his arse." Hermione looks up at Fred at that.

"Hes your brother, shouldn't you be on his side?"

"If he were right I would be but hes being an ass and as a good brother it falls to me to tell him that." Fred shrugged at her. "So what do you want to do? Go to the kitchens and get some ice cream, go for a walk, plan a prank on him? I got some awesome new itching powder I need to try out, I could put it in his pants. It's up to you." He hated seeing her cry and just wanted her to feel better.

She laughed at that, "all of the above?"

"Absolutely my lady." Fred helps her up then offers her his arm. They went to the kitchens, got ice cream sundaes and went for a walk while plotting Ron's downfall.

A week later Fred got to try out his time release itching powder. Ron made it till lunch before he started to feel a little itch in his underwear. Ten minutes later he ran from the great hall red in the face spewing curses as he went to the dorms. He decided he couldn't get to the dorms and stopped in the fourth floor bathrooms. Fred followed him and once Ron stripped down stole all of his clothes. They hadn't learned clothing transfiguration yet so he stayed in there till long after dinner when Harry finally decided to take pity on him and brought him some robes. Hermione never took credit for it but Fred made certain that Ron knew why he was targeted.

**