Spending time with Ginger Stotts, to Draco’s dismay, did not help with the insomnia at all. He merely used her to fantasize about Hermione, and had to be careful not to groan her name instead of Ginger’s by accident.

“How’s it going with Granger?” asked Blaise casually over the breakfast table one morning.

Draco scowled as he received the toast some girl buttered for him. “Not very well,” he grumbled. “She’s ruining my life.”

“How so?” Blaise mused.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to disclose what impact she was having on him, so he chose to keep his mouth closed on that one. “Forget it,” he said. “How about you and the Weaslette?”

Blaise shrugged. “I kissed her cheek that first night, haven’t talked to her since. Keep it mysterious and surreal, you see.”

“Perhaps I should have gone your way,” Draco said. “Granger hates my guts.” Somehow it was difficult to say that without a grin.

“No, for you, you have too much fun making her angry,” Blaise said, smiling. And they both knew he was right.

Packing up all her books had taken a while, so Hermione emerged from the History of Magic class after everyone else had already left. She was walking to the Gryffindor Tower when she saw Ron linger in front of a door, trying to peer inside.

“Ron?”

He positively jumped. “Whoa!”

She narrowed her eyes at her friend. “What’s going on?”

Ron’s face was scarlet. “Oh, nothing, nothing at all.”

“What were you looking at?” she asked demandingly, her hands on her hips.

“I told you, nothing,” he said hastily, standing in front of the door to block her.

Arching her brows, Hermione approached the door. “If you have nothing to hide, then move aside.”

Grumbling, Ron moved reluctantly from the door. Hermione peered inside.

To her surprise, it was just another class: the 6th year Ravenclaws were learning Charms. She stared back at Ron. “You were peeking at a class?” she asked skeptically.

“Uh, yeah. Never hurts to learn,” he quickly replied.

Still unconvinced, she turned back to the door. She saw a couple of students she knew, including Luna Lovegood. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought you were peeking at Luna,” she laughed as she pulled away from the door to face him again.

He laughed, relaxing a bit. “No, not Luna, she’s no where as pretty as-” He abruptly stopped himself; he had said too much.

Hermione’s jaw dropped. “You like someone in there!” she cried.

“No, wait, Hermione-”

“It’s alright, Ron, you can tell me!” she said kindly. “Is it Vivian Knowles?”

He shook his head.

“Hmmm…” she looked back into the classroom. “Elle Himmick?”

He shook his head again.

“Natalie Queen?

He shook his head again, but she didn’t miss the sudden intake of breath.

Hermione turned back to the classroom to take a better look at the said Natalie Queen. She was a petite girl with adorable blond curls, pale skin, and bright blue eyes. She looked more like a porcelain doll as she beamed in delight at something her classmate had said.

“You like Natalie Queen,” Hermione said, a soft grin at her lips. Ron looked almost as adorable as Natalie as he reddened.

“Please don’t tell her,” he said quickly.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because I barely know her, Hermione! I barely even talked to her.” He looked miserable.

“Well, you can’t just sit and do nothing!” cried Hermione. “I’m not the one to get involved in others’ businesses, but just saying.”

He sighed. “I know. I really should get to know her.”

“Good luck,” she smiled at him. “And if you need any help, just let me know.”

“Thanks, Hermione. You’re the best.”

“Did you figure it all out yet?”

Hermione placed a finger in her book and looked up. Harry was leaning against the desk, looking a lot more serious than she would have preferred.

“Please, Harry, this is my business,” she said.

“I know that,” he grumbled. “But you are my friend.”

She sighed. “Nothing happened that night.”

A look of brotherly relief was undeniable on Harry’s face. However, he did not let off his guard. “How do you know?” he asked with his right brow arched up.

“Logical reasoning,” scoffed Hermione. “Just a nasty prank of his, don’t worry about it.”

“…fine,” he finally said. He played with the tip of his wand. “Want me to pay him back for it?”

Hermione laughed. “No thanks, Harry. I think I can handle him alone.”

It was a bright Sunday morning, and Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Harry were enjoying a late brunch in the Great Hall when a disheveled, shocked Neville Longbottom walked into the scene.

His hair was messy, his tie had been yanked from him, and his shirt was slightly torn. The belt buckle to his trousers seemed to have been undone rather abruptly, and the bright red lipstick marks around his face, neck, and shirt were hard to ignore.

“Blimey, Neville!” cried Ron in a mix of shock and amusement, dropping his toast.

“Hullo, guys,” said Neville nervously.

“What happened to you?” asked Ginny, laughing a bit.

Neville’s face was red. “I was going to ask Harry or Ron for the password so I could clean myself up,” he said instead of giving a reply.

“Who did this to you?” asked Harry. “It’s not Malfoy, is it?”

Hermione rolled her eyes.

“It’s obviously a girl,” said Ron with a grin, pointing at the lipstick marks. Neville flinched.

“You can tell us, Neville,” Ginny said, putting down her glass of apple juice and cupping her chins.

Neville looked around nervously before taking a seat next to Ron. “It…was Lavender.”

“Lavender?” cried the four friends in surprise. “Lavender Brown?” asked Harry.

“Well, yeah. Except she didn’t really seem herself,” Neville explained. “And when I managed to get away from her, I saw her walking out of a different classroom with other girls!”

“Weird,” said Harry.

“Sounds like the first Lavender was only an impersonator,” said Hermione thoughtfully.

Ginny frowned. “Polyjuice?”

“Definitely possible,” Hermione said.

“Why would anyone want to pretend to be someone else to advance at Neville?” Ginny asked curiously.

“I don’t see who wouldn’t want to,” chuckled Ron, earning a smack on the arm from Hermione.

Neville looked awfully uncomfortable. “Could I just get the passwor-”

“Study the lipstick,” cried Hermione, who loved detective work.

Ginny yanked Neville closer and sniffed at the lipstick mark on his shirt, making him blush madly. “It’s the Elise Noir brand. The summer red color.”

“How can you tell that?” asked Harry, furrowing his brows.

“I’m a girl, I know,” said Ginny. “Elise Noir is expensive,” she added.

“Hey, a rich girl!” Ron hooted, attempting to give Neville a high-five and in the process knocking over his glass of pumpkin juice. The girls rolled their eyes.

The swift kiss on her neck had made a small moan escape her mouth, and Hermione could not forgive herself for it. She hated thinking anyone had an impact on her, and well…Malfoy definitely did. She scowled at the thought. These thoughts were swimming in her head while she was making her way back to the Gryffindor Tower one evening. She was just turning a corner when, with a quick intake of breath, she hid herself behind a suit of armor. She had spotted Ron leaning rather awkwardly against a wall talking with Luna Lovegood and two of her Ravenclaw friends, one of which Hermione recognized as Natalie Queen.

“Wouldn’t want to interfere,” she said quietly to herself, grinning a bit; she momentarily forgot about her own problems as she hid.

She heard Ron’s voice:

“So, yeah, Loony- I mean, Luna, is a good friend of mine. Right, Luna?” he sounded almost desperate.

“Oh, yes,” said Luna, sounding happy beyond years in her dreamy voice. “Ronald has been very hospitable.”

“And these are your friends, Luna?” asked Ron.

“Oh yes,” came Luna’s voice. “This is Vicky Wong and Natasha King.”

“It’s Vivian Nguyen and Natalie Queen,” came another girl’s rather businesslike voice. Hermione bit back a laughter.

“Nice to meet you girls,” said Ron, and Hermione could tell he was trying to sound as casual as possible.

“Hello,” said the two girls.

“You’re a friend of Harry Potter, aren’t you?” The businesslike voice was inevitably that of the same girl who had corrected Luna.

“Why, yes, he’s my best mate.”

“Harry Potter is also my friend,” Luna sounded very pleased with herself.

“Well,” came the other girl’s melodic voice that was clearly that of Natalie; Hermione had spoken with her a couple of times last year in the library, by mere acquaintance, and therefore recognized the voice right away. “I gotta get back to the dorms. Nice to meet you, Ron. Bye, Vivian, bye, Luna!”

The other girls and Ron said bye, and Natalie’s footsteps died away in the other direction. The girl named Vivian kept on asking questions about Harry, and Hermione emerged into the hall. Ron smiled nervously at her.

“Hi, Hermione,” he said.

“Hello. And hi, Luna,” Hermione said casually.

“You are Hermione Granger,” said Vivian. She had distinctively dark brown hair in a bun that reminded Hermione vaguely of Professor McGonagall. To add to the businesslike image of her she also fashioned dark-rimmed glasses that suited her rather well.

“Yes, I am,” said Hermione in an amused voice.

“Friend of Harry Potter as well?”

“And mine,” added Luna dreamily.

Vivian’s slightly-wary attitude suddenly flashed into that of great admiration, which startled Hermione a bit. “You are my role model,” she sighed.

“Wh-what?”

“I’ve heard all the things you’ve done,” said Vivian eagerly, “how you out-perform everyone in classes but still manage to go on adventures! And it also must be immensely exciting observing Harry Potter up-close!”

“Harry’s not a thing to be observed,” said Hermione rather irritably.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” said Vivian quickly, and she did in fact appear apologetic. “The last thing I want to do is to offend you. You are just so amazing; I can’t believe I finally got to see you-”

“You could have just asked me,” said Ron incidentally.

Vivian ignored this and continued beaming at Hermione, who smiled weakly at the sixth-year Ravenclaw.

“I thought it was safe to emerge,” said Hermione as she and Ron made their way to the Gryffindor Tower. “I heard Natalie walking away.”

Ron gave her a grateful smile.

“But then again,” Hermione nodded, “that girl Vivian…flattering, yes, but kind of…”

“Creepy?” offered Ron.

She laughed.

A/N: So whom do you think is the lovable character? I meant for it to be Natalie, but Vivian also seems pretty lovable to me! Haha! Gotta love the O.C.s. =) REVIEW!