She's bittersweet

That morning they had chocolate cake at breakfast. No one questioned it but Hermione, who stared thoughtfully at the piece on her place.

"I wonder," she said. "Why do we have chocolate cake for breakfast?"

"Who cares, 'Mione?" Ron said with a mouthful of the stuff. "Just enjoy it while it lasts."

Hermione shrugged and lifted a fork daintily to take a bite. That's when Pansy Parkinson walked by and pushed her face into her plate.

The whole Great Hall stared at Hermione as she wiped her face off. She screamed in frustration and turned to berate Parkinson. However, Pansy had already made her way to the Slytherin table and was laughing hysterically with her little gang.

With great embarrassment and a few tears, Hermione rushed toward the girl's lavatory. She saw Harry on her way there, but made no motion to stop and say hello. The chocolate on her face served as a reminder of just why she had made a scene in the first place.

Even though she washed her entire head thoroughly, Hermione still had some of the chocolate cake in her hair for the rest of that day.

She knocks me off of my feet

Later that day in Charms class, they were working on Memory Charms. As always, Hermione was doing the best in the class. Many different times, she was able to make Ron and Harry forget their favourite colours, before Professor Flitwick told her that she had done enough and was allowed (read: forced) to stop.

She was having such a fun time watching Harry try and try again to erase Ron's fear of spiders (Only to add a debilitating fear of butterflies, might I add), that she didn't see it coming.

Suddenly, Hermione's chair flew right out from under her, sending her falling to the ground. The whole class began to laugh, and she felt her face heat up. Looking around, she saw Pansy Parkinson again with a smirk on her face.

"Ms. Parkinson!" shouted the professor. "That is highly inappropriate! 50 points from Slytherin!" The Slytherin students groaned, and Pansy hmphed.

"It was so worth it," she muttered loud enough so Hermione could hear.

I can't help myself

They were paired together in Potions class. Damn Slughorn for his "house unity" crap; no one in the class was especially happy about their arrangements. But at least, Hermione supposed, she didn't have it as bad as Harry who was paired with Draco Malfoy.

Taking one look at Parkinson, she retracted her words. At least Malfoy had grown beyond pitiful skylarking.

Just when Hermione reached for a vial, so did Parkinson. Their hands touched and they both froze. Then Pansy drew back her hand as if burnt.

"Don't touch me!" she shrieked and moved a few centimetres apart. Hermione looked at her incredulously, wondering just what was so wrong about a simple mistake.

Maybe it wasn't a mistake.

I don't want anyone else

In retrospect, she should have seen it coming. After all that had happened between the two of them, Hermione knew that Ron had developed feelings for her. And as much as she wished to return them, she couldn't.

So when he asked her to go to Hogsmead with him, she declined, saying she was busy with schoolwork. Ron looked quite down, but she knew it was easier to let him down now than to lead him on.

Besides, she had someone else on her mind when he asked her.

She's a mystery

Night had fallen, yet Hermione was still wide awake. She couldn't sleep for she had much too much on her mind to consider relaxing. With heavy eyes, she pulled out the parchment hidden inside her robes.

Above all, she felt bad for this. It wasn't like Hermione to go around stealing things, but Harry would hopefully understand. That is, if he ever returned, because he was still out somewhere in the castle.

Taking a quick look at the Marauder's Map (and ignoring the sight of Harry in the dungeons), she spotted something odd. Pansy was in the House Elves' quarters with Blaise Zabini. Now, Hermione did not know either of them very well, but she knew them enough to know that they weren't upstanding citizens interested in S.P.E.W. Deciding to investigate, she exited the Gryffindor common room with great care and made her way down to where she had seen the abnormality.

After looking perhaps everywhere, Hermione could not find the missing two. She pulled out the map in hopes of it giving her clues, and it led her to one location: a broom cupboard.

Slowly, she opened the door and was greeted to the most disturbing of sights. Blaise was inside of Pansy, trusting wildly, and they both had their heads thrown back in the woes of passion. They were also yelling up a storm, but Hermione paid that little mind and quickly closed the door.

She's too much for me

Hermione didn't know what she found so upsetting, but she was now sitting in the lavatory on the 2nd floor bawling her eyes out. Her tears weren't enough to prove to her that she was really sad and angry at what she had just seen, and she put it off as hormones.

But after sitting there alone for a few hours, she knew that seeing Pansy having sex with someone was too much for her to handle, and she knew why as well.

She was in love with Pansy Parkinson.

But I keep coming back for more

The next day, Hermione was sitting at the breakfast table and laughing at Ron's stupidity. Things had returned to normal, it seemed. At the same time, things would never be the same.

She's just the girl I'm looking for

Sitting in Transfigurations next to Pansy was hard. On the outside, Hermione was her calm, cool, and collected self. Nothing was going to faze her.

On the inside, however, she was an emotional wreck. What was she going to do? She loved Pansy, and what? She could never be with her, and it was just torture being near her and knowing that.

In what would later be described as a major error of judgement, Hermione leant over and kissed Pansy abruptly.

As soon as she realised what she had done, however, Hermione ran out of the classroom with everyone watching her. With her hand clutched to her chest, she relaxed against a wall and cursed her impulsiveness. Of all the stupid things she could have done, Hermione did the worst of all.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't realise that Pansy had followed her. It was only when the other girl spoke that was brought back to the world around her.

"Hey, Granger." With wide eyes, Hermione started backing up. No, no, no! This couldn't be happening! No one was around, and Pansy was going to either yell at her, or beat her up. It didn't matter which it was going to be; Hermione would take her punishment.

"What took you so long?"

"W-what?" Hermione was confused. Did Pansy just say what she thought she said?

"You heard me," Pansy said with a smirk, then grabbed Hermione by the front of her robe and pulled her close. "What the hell took you so long?"

Instead of waiting for a reply, Pansy pushed their mouths together in a kiss that was not even close to delicate, but perfect nonetheless. Hermione smiled into Pansy's mouth and for once decided not to question anything.