The part few nights had been mostly sleepless for me and Ginny as we would spend most of it doing our homework or discussing "Date Day." We played a lot of kiss, marry, and kill, a muggle game where you get a choice of three boys and have to choose who you would kiss, who you would marry, and who you wouldn't mind killing, to pass the time. The one thing I wanted to get out of coming back to Hogwarts this year, no matter how I got it, was some form of love. It was finally the morning of "Date Day" and I was terrified. I wasn't sure what to wear. I wasn't sure who I was going to end up with and that terrified me most of all. Surprisingly, Ginny wasn't worried in the least.

"Aren't you worried this might do something to your relationship with Harry?" I asked her while standing in front of my trunk, attempting to pick out clothes.

"Not really," she answered cheerfully.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Well," she said, almost laughing at me. "Harry and I are in the same boat, aren't we? Both of us are in love with each other and we both dread going to this. In fact, I think I'll send him a note over breakfast so his girl knows he's already taken." Both Ginny and I fell to the floor and started rolling around in hysterics.

When we finished laughing, we both got up and Ginny picked me out a nice, pleated skirt and a white top.

"Here," she said. "Wear this. It's not too nice and it doesn't show off your Gryffindor style too much. If anyone gives you trouble today, tell them to come and see me and I'll be sure to tell them what's what."

"Ok," I agreed and followed her down to the Great Hall for breakfast. When we got there, we saw it was split into two sections. The first bit had three long tables. This is where the rest of the school was supposed to sit. Halfway across the hall, there was a divider with a door in the middle of it.

"I take it we are supposed to go through there," Ginny said with a slightly frightened look in her brown eyes. We took each others hands and stepped into the room.

It was dark black in the room with a bunch of tables set up all around the room, each with a different boy sitting at them. The ceiling, instead of showing the current weather outside which just happened to be a thunderstorm, had large colored hearts floating around. Ginny pulled on my arm and almost tugged my sleeve off my arm.

"Hermione, look," she said in a worried whisper, her hand extended with her finger pointing at — Harry? Except it didn't look like Harry at all. He was wearing pink robes with his hair dyied purple and leading a smug looking Pansy Parkinson over to a nearby table, also covered in pink.

"Wha — how —" I couldn't even finish a sentence. I was in complete and utter shock and Ginny looked close to tears.

I turned the other way and saw Ron. He was leading Hannah Abbott over to another table. She looked pleasant and pleased to be with Ron. I didn't mind much. Hannah and I were friends and I knew she wasn't going to try to steal Ron away from me.

Ginny was tugging on my arm again, this time she had a huge smile on her face, so I turned around quickly. Luna Lovegood was racing across the room with her arms wide open. Neville was standing on the other side, arms open and waiting. We all watched as Luna leapt into his arms and Neville picked her up and twirled her around like a princess. Then he set her down in her chair and pushed her in. Once they were both seated, they proceeded to spoon feed each other breakfast, switching off who got fed after each bite.

"Awwwwww," sighed the entire room in perfect unison.

I turned and looked over to see — Malfoy. Great. Real treat to see him. His table was elaborately decorated in green, silver and snakes, sometimes with a hint of red peaking through. He was dressed up way too nicely in dark green robes lined with silver. His hair was an absolute mess and it suited him.

"He's hot," I said, not really thinking.

"Who?" Ginny asked me.

"Oh —" I didn't realize I'd said that out loud. "Ron of course. Who else would I think was hot?" Ginny had a huge smirk on her face on her face but before she could reply, we were interrupted by a piece of paper being shoved in my face with the words Hermione Granger written on it. I turned around to face whoever it was. Just my luck. It was Malfoy.

"What do you want Malfoy?" I asked, even though I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

"I got your name in the drawing. Let's go sit down, shall we?" As he spoke every word, a part of me died. How in the world could I get stuck with the kid whose been hurting me and my friends for the past who knows how many years. This couldn't be. I felt my face grow hot and my eyes began to water.

"What's wrong Granger? Why are you crying? Is everything alright?" For a second, just for a second, I thought he cared. Then I looked into his eyes and saw a smirk written there. It made me cry harder. "Oh no! Please Granger. Stop crying." Then he whispered, "And besides, your making me look bad."

I was so done. I wanted to go back to my common room with Ginny. Ginny. I looked around for her but I couldn't seem to see her. My vision was blurry so I couldn't see very far.

"Looking for little Weasley?" Malfoy asked. I nodded. "She's over there, with Blaise. Or Zabini to you." I looked over to where Zabini was talking to Ginny. She just looked annoyed and was trying to catch Harry's eye.

Malfoy walked me slowly over to the extravagant table and sat me down in my chair.

"Sorry," he said. My eyebrows rose straight up into my hair. Malfoy saying sorry? "I didn't mean to make you cry. And I didn't mean what I said. Let's just — try to make it through the rest of the day and then you can go back to Weasley and we can pretend this whole fiasco never happened."

"What about you and Parkinson?" They had been a thing for as long as I could remember.

"Oh — yeah, her, um —" he seemed very distant. "I broke up with her. She's so annoying and all she wants is my money. I want real love if I'm going to get married." He whispered the last sentence so I could barely hear it.

"Really?" Well it was very interesting how quickly the conversation had changed. "That's what I want too." I said quietly. I felt my cheeks turning red. Why? He's just Malfoy.

All of a sudden, I heard Pansy Parkinson shriek in a high pitched voice, "My god Potter! Ugh. I can't wait to get this over with and be with my Drakey-Poo again." The entire room erupted with laughter and even McGonagall could be seen attempting to hide a smirk. Malfoy looked completely mortified. It was very hard for me not to make fun of him.

Just then, a pink envelope flew across the room from Ginny's table to Harry's. When it arrived at Harry's table, he picked it up and glanced at Ginny.

"Open it," she mouthed across the room. Harry raised his eyebrows and did so. The envelope flew up into the air and started singing a somewhat familiar poem —

His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,

His hair is as dark as a blackboard.

I'm glad that he's mine, he's truly divine,

the hero who conquered the Dark Lord.

When the envelope had finished it's song, it turned to Pansy, stuck out its tongue and blew a raspberry at her. Then it burst into flames and disappeared.

The Hall erupted in laughter for the second time that morning. I turned back to Malfoy and started eating.

"They really do love each other, don't they?" Malfoy's words caught me by surprise and I wasn't quite sure how to respond. "Lucky."

"Yes I suppose they are."

"Meet my by the lake after breakfast, ok. And bring your favorite book."

"Ok," I said. Not really sure what else I was supposed to say to that. Just then, McGonagall started speaking again.

"Seventh years. I'm so proud at how you are doing with this so far. Even though some of you seem a lot happier with your partners than others." Her eyes went to Ginny and then to Harry. "You will have some time with your partners during the day and then tonight you will be expected to attend the party. Tonight you will sleep in your assigned cottage with your partner and when you wake up in the morning, you will never be asked to even look each other in the eye. Girls, ask your male partners for the cottage number. They should know it. I hope that you all have a wonderful day and stay safe. Also one last thing, you should all be happy you are in the year you are in because every year after you for the next five years will be asked to join in some sort of marriage and pregnancy program. This is just for friendship, even though we all know that the Ministry wants you all to be married by the end of the year. I told them no because you are the class that fought at the Battle of Hogwarts and might still need some time to recover."

And with that she left the room.