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i don't own the story or the characters only the plot... blah blah, blah..... but HERE IS SOMETHIN U NEED TO KNOW BEFORE STARTIN THIS FIC: i wrote it b4 hp6 came out, so just think Dumbledore's still alive n the world's still cheery. (I really have no idea why the hell J.K Rowling had to kill him anyways!)



The Dating Game

Hermione sat snug and comfy on a couch in the Gryffindor common room in the middle of the night staring into the crackling fire, crookshanks was purring loudly in her lap while she was gently stroking her fur, it was the end of the sixth year and the holidays were getting nearer, she was thinking about how to approach Ron and have a calm important conversation with him.


It all started on the train on her way to Hogwarts in the beginning of her sixth year, Harry and Ron were playing a game of wizard chess while talking about quidditch (their typical nature), Luna lovegood was reading the quibbler upside down again and Neville Longbotom was watching Harry and Ron play and participating in their conversation.
Only Hermione and Ginny were left whispering in low voices, stealing glances at the boys and giggling silently every now and then.



“I know you fancy Harry” Hermione said giving Ginny a fiendish smile.
_Yes, he’s amazing isn’t he?” Ginny said in a dreamlike state.
_He likes you too you know.
_What, did he say something?
_Ginny, of all people, you should know these boys well enough to know what they’re thinking.
_Well, looking at Harry constantly makes me forget what he’s thinking, please enlighten me.
_The way he looks at you Ginny, it’s obvious.
_Yes, but he likes older women, like that Chang girl.
_Come on Ginny! You know they’ve broken up, and that was a long time ago!
_Well” she sighed “I guess you’re right and what about you and my brother?
_What about Ron?
_Honestly, don’t tell me you don’t know!
_Don’t know what?
_‘You should know exactly what they’re thinking’ Ginny mimicked.
_Oh Ginny,” Hermione laughed slightly “you think Ron and I are_
_Aren’t you?
_No Ginny! What on earth makes you say that?
_You mean you haven’t noticed?!
_Noticed what?” they were still whispering so that no one would hear.
_Hermione! Wake up won’t you!” Ginny waved a hand in front of her face “Ron’s had a crush on you since the first year!
_Yeah right, you actually expect me to believe that?
_Hermione, I swear, Ron talks about nothing but you when you’re not around.”



That was what struck Hermione, she believed that Ron had feelings for her, but such feelings did not exist in her heart, that’s why she was sitting in the common room alone thinking, she was thinking about how she would tell Ron without hurting him badly and so this story begins.



Hermione walked silently down the hall towards the empty classroom by the D.A.D.A room where she had asked Ron to meet her.
She opened the door and walked in slowly shutting it behind her.



“Um... Hi Hermione.” Ron said apparently looking nervous.
_Ron, I need to tell you something.” she said uncertain of how to begin.
_No wait Hermione, I need to tell you something first,” he walked slowly towards her, hesitating every time she took one step back Then finally he spoke “Hermione, I love you, I’ve loved you since the minute I first saw you, I’ve been concealing it all these years and I cannot live another day in secrecy.”
Hermione hardly had any time to react before Ron gently pressed his lips against hers. She quickly pulled away; her eyes were now red and teary,
“I’m sorry Ron,” she sobbed “I just don’t love you back.” She ran out of the room crying.



Ron stood there swallowing what had just happened, this was nothing he had expected, he couldn’t believe she did that, he stood not moving while in his mind his confusion turned to rage as one thought ran through it: “Revenge”.



Ron stood in silence for a few minutes, then it came into his mind that he should follow her, he ran out of the room heading towards the Gryffindor common room staring at the ground the sound of his feet pounding the floor as he ran was loud and clear in the half-deserted hallways for it was almost after hours, thousands of questions ran through his head, disbelief was the strongest, he was wishing hard that this be a dream or that Hermione would come running towards him, hug him and tell him she was sorry, he liked that thought an slowly looked ahead of him waiting for her to come running into sight any minute now, but the minute he lifted his gaze from the ground, it wasn’t Hermione he saw but a blond sixth year student wearing neat school robes with the Slytherin symbol on them.



Ron tried to stop but it was too late, he ran right into Malfoy and fell to the floor.
“Watch it weasel! I just had these robes cleaned!” Malfoy said pretending to wipe dirt off his robes looking disgusted as if someone just threw up on them.
Ron glared at Malfoy while still on the floor, apparently Malfoy didn’t like that glare at all, then pointed his wand at the floor and mumbled a spell under his breath.
Ron didn’t like where this was going, so he tried to get up, but just as he pushed his weight off the floor with his hands, they slipped and his nose met the hard stone.
“What’s the matter weasel? Ground too slippery for you?” Malfoy laughed and walked away, leaving the furious red-head behind.


After many attempts to get up, Ron decided to slide back to the common room, so he sat cross legged on the ground and pushed himself forwards with his hands, like skiing only without the equipment. He went faster and faster by the minute, at first he enjoyed it, but his smile was whipped off the minute he saw a big staircase going down straight ahead, he was going too fast, he tried to stop but he couldn’t, at last, he reached the edge of the staircase and flew off it probably ten feet in the air and landed face down on top of his arm that was now bleeding.
Ron’s anger rose above any he had ever experienced, this was certainly not a good day, and he was relieved to see that the ground between where he lay and the hospital wing was no longer slippery.



“Good heavens Mister Weasley what happened to you?!” Madam Pomphrey hastily rushed towards Ron and examined his arm; it was broken and bleeding badly.
“Now I want you to tell me exactly how this happened.” Madam Pomphrey ordered while pulling him towards one of the beds.
“Well the floor was slippery and I fell on my arm” Ron was trying to be modest and not tell on Malfoy.
_“You fell?! Mister Weasley, a mere fall cannot do this, what did you do, throw yourself off the marble staircase?
_No, I kind of slid off a staircase.
_The nerve if the students these days, you were using the ‘cramia’ spell to slide down the hallways weren’t you mister Weasley?!” Ron tried to interrupt and explain but the nurse was too loud. “You’re the fifth student this term, honestly, is sliding down the hallways a new game or are you kids trying to get back to your rooms before you get caught after hours?!” Ron opened his mouth to answer, but the angry nurse wouldn’t let him “Next thing I now, you kids will be scaling the outside walls to get from window to window and some of you will walk in here missing a finger or a head, consider yourself lucky Mr. Weasley, for I will not tell the headmaster now because I had never expected this behavior from you, but mind you, if this ever happens again, Minerva McGonagall will make sure you were on your way home the minute you’re healed!!”




Ron had never seen madam Pomphrey this angry; she had probably woken up the whole school by now.
His modesty was gone; the same thought that was ringing inside his head within the past hour was now pounding the walls of his insides: “REVENGE!”


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Hermione did that?!” Harry said as he and Ron were sitting in divination attempting to read the palm of a chimp to see its future.
“Yeah and then Malfoy had to top everything with this” He pointed at his bandaged arm “And what the hell does “cramia” mean anyway?!
_I think it’s the spell that Malfoy put on the floor” Harry answered, the chimp was now climbing on his back. “Did Madam Pomphrey really scream that loud?
_Yeah I’ve never heard anyone scream louder.” Ron sighed.
For a moment, they were silent while Harry was trying to get the chimp off his back.
“You know Harry, there’s only one solution for this.” Ron said breaking the silence.
“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Harry said now trying hard to get the chimp that had climbed onto his head back onto the table while it was searching his hair for bugs.
“Revenge.” Ron smiled fiendishly.



“Ouch! You stepped on my foot!” Harry said as he and Ron slowly made their way towards professor McGonagall’s room in the dark hallways around midnight, trying hard not to trip under the invisibility cloak.
“Well sorry, you know we’re both getting too big for this. And keep it quiet! We don’t want filch catching us!” Ron whispered harshly as they reached the door.
“I’ll do this.” Harry said, then poked his wand out from under the cloak and pointed it at the lock. “alohamora” he whispered and the lock made a loud sound that echoed around the hall, the hair on the back of the boy’s necks stood on end, as the hallway fell silent they stood still for a moment to listen and see if anyone had heard the sound and was coming to see what was going on. Thankfully, no one heard and no one came but the lock was open.
“You’ll do it huh?” Ron said as he slowly pushed the door open and went inside.
“What’s the plan again?” Harry whispered to Ron who was pacing around the room searching the drawers noiselessly.
“McGonagall keeps all the tests of every single student in this office right?” He said and Harry nodded “And Hermione cares about nothing more than her grades right?” Ron continued and Harry nodded again “Well I figure we should find her tests and change her answers to wrong ones, so that she gets bad grades, she’s miserable, I get my revenge, we’re all happy except for Hermione.” Ron said adding a monstrous smile to his last sentence.
“I still think its wrong Ron.” Harry said then Ron stopped searching and turned to face him, his evil smile now gone and replaced with a sad look.
“Harry, look at me, look at what Hermione’s done to me, look at what she’s turned me into, I promise Harry that if you help me, I will never do this again.” Ron said as he looked at Harry pretending to sob.
“Alright” Harry sighed “fine, I’ll help you, but just this once, now find those tests!” He said and Ron immediately sped around the room with his wand lit checking every drawer until he found four big identical ones each with a different name on them.
“Ravenclaw… Hufflepuff… Slytherin… And… Here we are, Gryffindor.” Ron pulled open the large drawer and searched through the files. “G… okay Granger” He pulled it out “I found it Harry” he called Harry silently and he sped over and took it from Ron’s hand, pointed his wand at it, mumbled a spell and all the answers slithered around the tests and switched places with the most different of questions.
Ron snickered and put the test back into the drawer, just then, a sound of a cat came from the hallway, Mrs. Norris stood in the doorway, meowed then ran off.


“Filch is coming, we have to go.” Harry said as he pulled the cloak around him “come on Ron!” He whispered.
Ron closed the drawer but then his eyes fell upon the Slytherin drawer, without warning, he pulled it open and searched in it hurriedly “M… You’re going to pay Malfoy.” He pulled out the file.
“Ron there’s no time for that! Now come on!” Harry tried to pull Ron away but Ron stood still, he pointed his wand at the tests and mumbled the same spell.
“Ron! Filch is coming I can hear him!” Harry whispered panicking.
Ron swiftly returned the file into the drawer and pushed it shut, then he got under the cloak and he and Harry scrambled out of the room, shutting the door and locking it behind them.
“Who’s there?!” Filch yelled walking slowly towards McGonagall’s office “show yourself!” he checked the door, it was locked.
Ron and Harry slowly moved away from the caretaker and rushed back to the Gryffindor common room.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


The Gryffindors and the Slytherins sat on opposite sides of McGonagall’s classroom as usual. The professor looked angry as she threw a dangerous glance towards Draco and Hermione when she passed them their test results.



“What?!” Hermione howled when her eyes came across her result. But she quickly clasped her mouth shut and sat still.
Draco though, made no sound or movement when his eyes rested upon his test results, he was too busy staring at it, reading the number written with the clear red ink right next to the word “total result” again and again, to make sure that he had not read it the wrong way around or backwards.
“Excuse me professor,” he said “there must be some mistake, these can’t be my results.” He said praying with all his might that she would take one look at his paper and correct it immediately, begging for his forgiveness.



But Professor McGonagall stopped passing out papers and turned slowly to look at Draco with the most dreadful look on her face.
“No, I’m afraid it is yours Mr. Malfoy.” She spoke calmly but the look never left her face “And I would appreciate it” she continued “if you and Miss. Granger here” she pointed at Hermione “would remain in class after it is over, for I wish to have a word with the both of you.” She said now looking at Hermione with the same appalling look.
The class was awfully silent.
Although in the corner of the class, sat a satisfied Weasley barely able to hold back his laughs.



“Could I have a reasonable explanation for this?!” McGonagall asked, no, shouted, holding up two sheets of paper containing test results in her hand, while sitting in her classroom with two students after the rest of her class was dismissed.
They both remained silent, staring at the cracks in the old classroom’s floor, not daring to look into the eyes of the fuming professor out of fear of turning to stone.
“NEVER, in all my years have I recalled that anything like this has ever happened!” She paused, took a breath and spoke calmly again “You two were the best students Hogwarts had in the last few years, and you two were to be chosen as heads next year, but this is unacceptable, I shall be writing to your parents to inform them of… this… this…” She hesitated, “failure.” She finally managed to finish.
“But professor_” Hermione started but McGonagall interrupted. “No, I don’t want to hear it, now I want both of you to turn around and walk out of my office!” She yelled and pointed at the door with her bony finger, still stabbing the two students with her penetrating gaze.
Hermione marched out of the room slowly, Draco waited until she was outside the room then followed, though his anger was boiling inside him, the sight of Granger marching away like that couldn’t help but amuse him, he quickened his pace and caught up with her.




“I can’t believe what just happened.” Hermione said in an angry tone, and when Hermione Granger is angry, she’ll complain to anyone thus she did to one slick and sly Malfoy.
“The nerve of that woman, I say we barge into Dumbledore’s office and report this.”
“Sorry Ganger.” The blond said “I would dye before exiting or entering the same room as you while you’re exiting or entering it, never in the same room at the same time.” It was when he finished the sentence that he noticed that what he just said was complete crap, though it was true, the way he said it was just not like him, it wasn't like the amazingly intelligent and unbeatable Draco Malfoy to say crap like that. He thought of about a thousand completely logical explanations for his action, but none of them involved Hermione.



SHE, on the other hand, took one surprised look at Malfoy then returned to bickering about McGonagall, but Draco was not listening to that, he was too busy watching her anger symptoms which he had never noticed before, he couldn’t help but let out one of his wide smirks.
“And you find this funny Malfoy?!” Hermione stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted the smirk on Draco’s face, which he quickly wiped off.
“No.” he said hastily.
There was silence in which Hermione felt quite uncomfortable so she broke it.
“So, what was your final result?” she asked.
Draco’s face turned pale for a split second then he instantly resumed smirking.
“No matter how bad it was, it couldn’t have been worse than yours Granger.” He said in a rough daring tone.
“Your result? Malfoy? Better than mine? Impossible!” She grimaced.
Draco snorted and continued walking.
“Oh then why don’t you tell me what your result was?” Hermione said then crossed her arms over her chest and followed “it’s the only way we can make sure that I did better than you” she said the last phrase triumphantly.
“Fine then!” he said then mumbled the words under his breath.
Hermione's mouth dropped.
“And you got a better grade?” Draco asked now angry at her reaction.
“No,” she inhaled and swallowed “I got the same grade.” She said slowly.
“Liar.” Draco simply answered.
“You know what Malfoy? I think this has gone beyond any conversation we’ve ever had, and I think it should be more than enough to last us our lifetimes. Don’t ever speak to me again!” She yelled.
“Why would I want to talk to a worthless mudblood like you anyway?” He asked looking her up and down disgustedly.
Hermione opened her mouth to answer, then decided it was not worth it and dashed off in a different direction, trying to pretend that the conversation never took place.

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A/N: I'm back!!! I'm really sry I didn't update this earlier, but its here now! Enjoy!