Hello all! Sorry for the delay. It's been a rough summer in terms of my writing, so I apologize. I hope the fall is better in terms of my writing, as well as my mental and emotional states. I wrote most of this chapter today, so I hope it's alright. Enough of that though. Hope you all enjoy!

Special thanks to my good friend Ally for making me the banner. :)

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Vanessa stood patiently outside The Three Broomsticks, waiting for Draco Malfoy to show up. Alex and Artemis stood next to her, although they knew in moments they were going to be forced to leave the girl alone on her date. Neither of them was very keen on the idea still, and it was obvious in the way they were acting. Vanessa knew they weren't thrilled about it, but she was beyond caring at this point. She wanted to get to the bottom of why Draco was acting the way he was to her.

"Are you sure you don't need us?" Alex inquired. "I mean, this guy is shady as all hell. What if something happens to you? You know what your dad is gonna say to me, or do to me, if I let something happen to you?"

Vanessa sighed. "Yes, I am sure I don't need you guys. I am perfectly capable of defending myself if something goes wrong. Just go buy us some candy for later or something," she replied. She reached into her pocket, grabbed a couple of Galleons and handed them to Artemis. "Here, I know you don't need my money to buy candy, but still. I feel bad when you buy me stuff."

Artemis pocketed the money, although reluctantly. "I'll get you some chocolate, but you know you're just going to get these back," he retorted. He was going to say something more, but caught a glimpse of Vanessa's date approaching, so he decided to cut it short. "We'll meet up with you later, alright?"

Vanessa took a deep breath. "Sounds good. Wish me luck," she answered. "We'll talk about how this goes later."

Artemis and Alex both sauntered off, leaving Vanessa standing there alone, although not for long. Within a minute of her friends leaving, Vanessa was joined by Draco. Admittedly, she was hoping he had forgotten about their date, and she could've gone on her merry way with her friends. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to be the case this time. Despite the fact that she was not excited about spending time with him, Vanessa put a smile on her face as she greeted her date.

"Good afternoon, Malfoy," she began, hoping she didn't sound too unenthused.

"Same to you, Avery," he said back. Vanessa studied his face; he looked just as thrilled about today as she did. He seemed paler than usual, and dark circles were prominent around his eyes. Vanessa shrugged it off as him not sleeping well or feeling under the weather just as he spoke up again. "Shall we go get a table?"

Vanessa followed Draco into The Three Broomsticks, and the couple soon found a table towards the back of the pub. After only a few moments, a waiter approached the table. Vanessa was hesitant, and was going to shoo him away, realizing she had accidentally given Artemis all of the money she had brought with her for chocolate, but then Draco spoke up once again.

"Butterbeer for both of us," he ordered. The waiter nodded, and then scurried off to get the drinks. With him gone, Draco continued the conversation. "Now... why would you have Amber spy on me? Let's be serious, Vanessa. It's not like we're five."

Vanessa was afraid he was going to ask that. She shrugged. "How else was I going to get answers from you? You kept dodging questions. You think I'm going to keep wasting my time asking when someone closer to you can get the answers for me?" she asked back.

"Fair enough," Draco sighed, just as the waiter returned with the butter beer. "I suppose I may as well cut to the chase." He took a sip from the butterbeer in front of him, seemingly trying to debate how to word something. "I've been a bit standoffish. I guess I am just not used to dealing with someone like you."

Someone like me? Vanessa thought. "What do you mean?" she questioned. "I'm no different than any other person you deal with."

"I guess I should reword that," Draco mused. "You're not like the other girls at that school."

Vanessa resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He had to use that horribly clichéd line on her. "Oh?" she responded. "Humor me then. How am I any different than the rest of them? You don't know me well enough to know if I am any different than them."

"You're abrasive, and you don't let things people say get to you. But probably most unlike them... you resist me," Draco went on. "The others? Not so much. They wouldn't ignore my... personality like you have. You know how many girls I have made cry by saying some of the things like I have said to you?"

"You got to understand half of those girls are one, younger than you and are therefore more sensitive by default; two, not as secure with themselves as some others; and three, have nice and cozy family lives where nothing is wrong at all," Vanessa tried to reason. "You saying one negative thing to them could crash their whole system of thinking, which is both fortunate and unfortunate depending on how you look at it, but I'm not here to debate that with you." Vanessa took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down before going into some rant. "The reason I don't get upset when we get into those little spats is because there are a hell of a lot more important things for me to get upset about. I'm here for answers, Malfoy, and you only have a few minutes to explain yourself before I get up and go find my friends. So, once again... humor me." Vanessa finally acknowledged her butter beer, and had a drink to help soothe her throat and voice.

"I like you," Draco said bluntly.

Vanessa couldn't resist spitting her butterbeer out. "Are you kidding me? That's why I have been living in hell the past month or so? Because you like me? Wow. Here I was thinking you hated my guts," she rattled on, wiping her mouth off with a napkin, shaking her head in disbelief through the whole process. "So now that that's out in the open, how do you propose we go about solving your problem?"

She stared at the blond boy for a moment, not sure what he was going to say in response. Although she wasn't sure what she wanted him to say in the first place. Part of her was hoping he was going to run off, too afraid to come up with a viable solution; yet part of her was hoping he would say something, anything to help them get out of the awkward rudeness they had been plagued by. Although what he did finally say made her stomach flip.

"Go out with me," he suggested.

Vanessa didn't answer him right away. Was that something she wanted to do? Draco hadn't really been friendly to her, but other than this year, he hadn't really been a prat either. Vanessa had to admit, he was attractive, plus maybe having a boyfriend would keep her mind off of things. What harm would it do?

"Are you serious?" she asked, not sure if she was walking into a trap of some kind. "I thought you were already kinda seeing Parkinson?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "No, she's an idiot," he retorted. "So what do you say?"

The girl bit her tongue for a moment, knowing her friends were going to shake her for this. "Sure. It's worth a shot," she replied, smiling as she took another sip of her drink.

A smile crossed Draco's face for a moment just before he finished off his drink. "Excellent," he said, setting his empty glass on the table. The boy looked at her for a moment, and then spoke again. "I'll be right back."

Vanessa simply nodded as Draco left the table and made his way back towards the bathrooms. She continued to sip quietly on her butterbeer, wondering what in the hell she had just agreed to. She glanced around the bar, wondering who else was spending their trip here. She wasn't surprised to see Harry Potter and his friends sitting at a table on the other side of the room. It was no secret that Harry had a knack for thinking Draco was up to something devious; thus far he had been wrong on each account, but was probably there for that reason anyways. Even though Vanessa wasn't friends with Draco until now, it had still been incredibly annoying through the years.

She rolled her eyes, looking away from the Golden Trio just in time to see Draco emerging from the bathroom. The smile reappeared on her face once he rejoined her at the table. "Sorry about that," he started. "Anyway, do you want to go somewhere else? We still have some time."

"Sure, besides your best friend showed up here," Vanessa answered, nodding in the direction Potter was sitting. Vanessa stood up, stretching slightly as she watched Draco place more enough money on the table for their drinks.

Draco sighed. "He needs a life."

"You said it, not me," Vanessa replied. "Let's get out of here before he realizes we left."

The two of them made their way out of the pub, back out into the crisp autumn air. She was wondering where they were going to go, but as Draco's hand grasped hers, suddenly she didn't seem to care where they went, even if her friends were going to kill her when they got back.