Disclaimer: Everything you recognise isn’t mine.

A/N: Sorry it’s been a while. I haven’t really been in the humour mood, but thanks to Ash’s lovely Harry/Hermione fic recommendations I think I can get my inspiration going again, though admittedly I don’t feel that inspired as I normally do. 

Neville tapped his foot against the floor, watching as the blond Slytherin did what he did best: lied, cheated, and smooth-talked his way into getting what he wanted. It was quite disgusting really to see that the arrogant man had been right in saying he could get Madam Rosmerta to do what they wanted without resorting to anything but his own charm. Neville did have to give him credit for it, but that didn’t mean he liked the guy; if anything he was more worried about working with Malfoy. He was not stupid, and he had seen the way Draco looked at Ginny. Now, having seen the pasty-faced git’s way with women, he felt even more incompetent and anxious.

Smiling charmingly, and giving Madam Rosmerta a graceful kiss on the hand, Draco came waltzing back over to where Neville was standing and gave an arrogant smirk. “And that is how you do it. No bribes, no waste of money; all you have to do is use a little charm.”

Neville folded his arms unhappily and glared at the much taller man, his expression becoming rather owlish. “Yeah, well it’s nothing to be proud of. Only shows what an untrustworthy sneak you are.”

Draco placed a hand over his heart in mock-hurt. “I’m wounded, Longbottom, really, I am. After all I have done to help your little groupie, this is how you repay me? By telling me you don’t trust me?”

“I don’t care what you’ve done, I still don’t trust you,” Neville snapped, and feeling emboldened by his rising jealousy went further. “And I don’t like the way you look at Ginny either.”

The grey eyes watching him sparked with wicked amusement, a glimpse of the old Draco popping back in rather unpleasantly to say hello. “So that’s how it is?” he said with a wry grin, folding his own arms in obvious amusement. “You like little, miss Weasley.”

Neville’s cheeks tinged with pink, and huffily he started walking ahead, feeling embarrassed that he had let slip such a critical piece of information to someone who had never been very nice to him. He was sure he’d be made to regret it too, knowing that Draco Malfoy took great delight in embarrassing everyone else.

“I never said that,” Neville defended, feeling his ears going redder by the seconds. If only he had stayed cowardly silent as he normally did, but somehow his thoughts just seemed to be slipping right on out. Jealousy seemed to have that effect on people.

“But that was what you were implying,” came the sly reply.

Neville remained silent so as not to embarrass himself further. He was really regretting opening his big mouth now.

Draco caught up to Neville’s steps easily with his longer legs, his trademark smirk firmly in place. “So what did you hope to do by warding me off our fair Miss Weasley? Woo her for yourself?”

If it were possible Neville’s face went redder until he resembled a very sun kissed tomato. He would have put even the Weasley hair to shame, which was a rare feat indeed. “It’s got nothing to do with that,” he replied unconvincingly, fidgeting nervously with his hands. “I just don’t like the way you look at her.”

“Right, and my favourite pastime is to sing songs about loving muggles and paint peace signs on my chest.”

“Really?” Neville exclaimed wide-eyed.

Draco rolled his eyes. “It’s called sarcasm, Longbottom- maybe you should try it sometime.”

Neville only glared at him and continued walking. Of course he should have known Draco was only joking. It was just hard to tell with Malfoy sometimes- he was rather odd when one got to know him.

“You know, Longbottom, you never did answer my question.”

It seemed he was persistent too.

“That’s because I don’t like her.”

“What do you take me for? A troll? Even someone completely dense could see you have a thing for Weasley.” Draco eyed Neville in some exasperation, and yet amusement at the same time. “Now let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?”

Neville stared at him in some trepidation. Just what was Malfoy trying to do?

“You like Weasley, I happen to fancy her myself, which you so nicely pointed out before.”

“And?”

“And so I propose we make a little challenge.”

“A challenge?” Neville frowned and stared at the taller man suspiciously. “What sort of challenge?”

“We have till tomorrow night to get her to choose one of us. The person who wins gets the girl, and the other, erm, well we’ll think of that when we get there.”

Neville frowned and stared at his fidgeting hands. He knew he really liked Ginny, but competing against Draco Malfoy for her? The idea was absurd. How could he- someone who was neither good-looking, athletic, nor confident- ever hope to win Ginny over Draco Malfoy, who just happened to be all three of those things?

“I don’t know, Malfoy…”

“Aw, c’mon, Nev-” Neville glared at him- “Where’s your sense of fun?”

“I don’t like the idea of competing over her. She’s not a trophy.”

Draco rolled his eyes again and folded his arms. “Look, chunky- I mean Longbottom- you know you’re never going to show your feelings to her unless you’re pushed, so why don’t you just accept the challenge like a good boy? You could even say I’m helping you here.” He smiled, his grey eyes gleaming with mischief. “You aren’t scared of losing are you?”

“N-no. She’d never like a guy like you!”

Draco’s smirk grew until it seemed to swallow his whole pointy face in the Malfoy, smirking glory. “Then what have you got to lose?”

Ron stopped outside the Auror Department and turned to his companion. “Alright, Luna, you just wait here and I’ll go talk to Harry.”

Luna, who had finally disposed with her plant, gazed up at him through big, blue eyes that always seemed rather wide-eyed. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come?”

Ron shook his head, thinking it would be better if he talked to Harry himself so as not to cause suspicion. “I’ll be alright. You just keep an eye out for Krum or Chang.”

Luna nodded perhaps a little to enthusiastically, and gave him a dreamy smile that made her look rather like she had just been hit by a pile of bricks and was still trying dazedly to remember her name. Ron patted her shoulder awkwardly and returned a smile, before making his way towards Harry.

“Hey mate.”

Harry looked up from his work, glasses slipping down his nose and a bit of ink smudged on his cheek where it had obviously got stuck from his hand. He looked terrible, and had obviously been busy working for a good few hours now. He ran a hand through his messy, black hair and gave a weak smile. “Hey, Ron.”

“Geez, Harry, you look like you’ve just been hit with a hurricane.”

“Ha-Ha,” Harry muttered sarcastically, moving some papers from his desk. “What do you want?”

“I heard that you got an anonymous letter.”

Harry pulled his hand away from his hair and blinked a few times in confusion. “How did you-”

“-Well you didn’t think someone would be able to put a letter on your desk without someone seeing, did you?”

Ron was pleased to see his friend sit up a little straighter, his eyes becoming just a little more focussed as he pushed his glasses up further on his nose. Granted it was just possible Harry was curious to find out, nosy bugger that he was, who had sent the letter, but then Ron figured even curiosity was something.

“So who was it then?”

“Well,” Ron said with a smirk that would have made Draco Malfoy proud. “Me telling you that would ruin all the fun, now wouldn’t it?”

Harry’s shoulders slumped, and a scowl marred his normally good-humoured face. “Fine, be a git then, but I’m not going to it anyway. I have a feeling it’s Bertha- you know, the one that looks like a donut that sprouted legs and arms.”

“Bertha?” Ron laughed and shook his head. “Trust me, Harry, if you knew who it was you would most definitely be going on that date.”

“Oh?” Harry glanced at him suspiciously. “How do I know you’re not just saying that to make me go?”

Ron inwardly sighed in exasperation. Sometimes Harry could be a real pain- like now. All he had to do was a be a good boy and go on the date with Hermione, but instead he was being silly, suspicious Harry, and working himself into thinking his letter from the worst possible candidate. Who knew Harry was such a pessimist?

“No, really, I’m telling the truth,” Ron insisted. “You honestly will like who it is. It’ll be a surprise, but a good surprise.”

“Hrm…” Harry tugged at his fringe in thought and frowned. Ron wondered if he would do it. It would be just like Harry to ruin everything by declaring he wouldn’t go.

“Alright then. I suppose I’ll go, but if it’s Bertha I’m not going to be happy.”

Ron beamed in response and slapped Harry on the back. “You won’t regret it, I promise.”

“Yeah, well it’ll be on your head if-” Harry’s face broke into a puzzled frown- “What on earth is Luna doing?”

Ron turned in some trepidation and saw Luna standing at the doorway doing what looked like a very odd rain dance. She was stamping her feet loudly and throwing her hands up in the air, giving him pointed jerky head movements. It was some time before he realised she was actually trying to beckon him towards her.

“I’d better go see what she’s doing,” Ron muttered, and quickly made his way towards Luna, who had thankfully calmed down. “What are you doing?” he hissed, grabbing her by the arm and leading her away from prying eyes.

“I was trying to get your attention.”

“I can see that, but why did you have to do it so… so noticeably?”

Luna stared at him through her wide-eyes. “Well how else was I supposed to get your attention, Ronald?”

Deciding it would be best to just let the argument drop, Ron turned his attention to more important matters, like why Luna was desperately trying to get his attention anyway. “So what’s wrong?”

“Well, as I was sitting here wondering how many blibber moofins were crowding around the hallways, I thought I saw Cho Chang and Viktor Krum.”

Ron blinked. “You brought me out here, risking the ruin of our whole operation, because you thought you saw Krum and Chang?”

Luna nodded innocently, dreamy smile in place, not in the least aware she had just annoyed the redheaded man. Ron had to take a breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. Sometimes he really had to wonder what was going on in that dotty girl’s head.

“Luna I-”

“-Oh, here they come!”

Ron turned just in time to see Cho and Viktor coming out of a room looking very suspicious as they muttered furiously to each other. Without thinking, he grabbed the thin blonde woman in front of him by the waist, and pulled her with him behind the door to the Auror’s Department, covering them both with the wooden door so only the blurry outlines of their faces could be seen through the glass. Silently he held a finger to his lips, Luna giving a small nod to show she understood.

“So we’ll take a polyjuice potion to make ourselves look like the waiters, and then we can disrupt the date ourselves without being suspected?”

That had to be Krum’s voice.

Cho nodded, a smug smile on her face as she walked past the door, completely oblivious to the two people squashed up behind it. “That’s right. Those idiots think they’ve got us figured out, but they won’t be expecting us to be there too, and we’ll make sure Harry and Granger don’t get their little, romantic date.”

“So that’s their plan, aye?” Ron whispered, the sound of the conspirator’s footsteps drifting away as they got further from sight.

“What are we going to do?” Luna asked, completely squashed up against Ron behind the door. It would have been awkward if they weren’t so caught up in their thoughts to get Cho and Viktor back.

“Well, we’re going to-” he broke off suddenly, the door nudging into his back as someone banged into it, pushing him forward into Luna, and forcing his lips that had been slightly parted in mid-talk to fall against something very soft that tasted surprisingly like banana milkshake. Luna’s eyes went even wider, meeting his with stunned shock, and because it seemed the most natural thing to do, returned the pressure with her banana milkshake tasting lips, creating a rather chaste kiss between them.

Ron was the first to pull his lips away, his cheeks going just the slightest bit pink, his hands fidgeting awkwardly. He really didn’t know what to say now. He had just kissed Luna Lovegood- and enjoyed it.

“That was nice,” Luna said dreamily, though Ron wasn’t sure if the dreaminess was from the kiss or because she always sounded like that. He knew he was feeling a little dazed at least, and that kiss was more of a peck than anything else, which had him wondering why it had created such an effect on him.

“Y-yeah…”

“Well, we should really go stop Viktor and Cho. They’ll probably be heading right to the Three Broomsticks to get the hairs for their potion.”

Ron was astounded at how serious Luna could sound while still so whimsical, especially after they’d just kissed. He was beginning to wonder if her so-called ‘vacant expression’ was just an act. “Right,” he agreed, trying to pull his mind back to the matters at hand. “We’d better go stop them.”

Luna nodded and moved away from behind the door, Ron following behind feeling just a little confused.

Ginny sidled into the room, watching her bushy-haired friend packing up her papers. It seemed Hermione was about to go home, and Ginny thanked Merlin that she had managed to corner the girl before time ran out.

“Hello Hermione.”

Hermione glanced up, her face breaking into a friendly smile once she spotted Ginny. “Hello. I’m just heading off home.”

“So I noticed,” Ginny said with a grin, planting herself comfortably on the edge of Hermione’s desk. She glanced about the papers and noticed the letter was gone. “So… I hear you have a secret admirer.”

“W-what?” Hermione blushed slightly and looked at Ginny warily, wondering how it was Ginny knew that she had gotten the letter. Maybe Ginny knew whom it was from though? Hermione had been trying to figure that out for a long time now, and for a witch who was used to knowing everything, it was becoming a right pain not knowing this cryptic piece of information.

“Yeah… asking for a date at the Three Broomsticks?”

“How did you know?”

“I have my ways,” Ginny replied with a mischievous grin. Hermione had never liked that grin; it almost always spelt trouble.

“So,” Ginny stood up and folded her arms, watching her friend with keen interest. “Are you going to go?”

“I…” Hermione frowned and did up the clasp to her bag. She was curious, there was no doubt about that, but she was also feeling a little worried that this was all some big joke, or that maybe the person was someone she really didn’t like. It would be just her luck to have someone she didn’t like ask her on a date. “I don’t know. I’m so busy and all, and-”

“Oh, fiddlesticks- you’re no busier than the rest of us. Trust me, Hermione, you’ll regret it if you don’t go!”

“Do you know who it is then?” Hermione asked curiously, watching her friend looking very pleased with herself. Something was up…

“Of course. I heard him talking to Ron about it.”

“Ron?” Hermione exclaimed in surprise. That meant this guy was obviously close to Ron if he was willing to disclose that, and obviously Ron didn’t hate him that much, because everyone knew how protective Ron got over her and who she could date.

“Oops,” Ginny said with a feigned gasp. “I wasn’t supposed to say that.” She shrugged and gave Hermione a cheery smile. “Well just think about it anyway. You wouldn’t want to wound a guy’s feelings after all, especially this one.”

Snickering darkly at her own comment, Ginny trundled out of the room, leaving Hermione in some state of confusion. Who could it be? And why was Ginny so intent on her going?

“This is just ridiculous,” she muttered, and yet she was soon seen to be once more looking at the letter in her hands. She could just go and get it over and done with, but then why did Ginny look so happy about something? Oh she would never figure this out…

Letting out a tired sigh of exasperation, Hermione stuffed the letter in her bag and glared at the empty room. “Fine, I’ll go!”

The room did not answer. Empty rooms, after all, cannot talk, even in the Wizarding world.

“What do you mean you couldn’t get any hairs?” Cho demanded, an angry glint in her eyes.

Viktor shuffled under her gaze, looking like a great, over-sized baby. “There’s only one waiter, besides Madam Rosmerta herself, and he was not working today.”

Cho sighed and placed a hand over her face in exasperation. She could feel the familiar burning sensation in her eyes and felt her lips tremble. Everything just kept going wrong. How was she ever going to get Harry away from that horrible woman if she couldn’t even get to him on the date? She was not stupid, and she knew that those ingrates would be hovering around to stop them from coming. There had to be something she could do, but right now she could not think of anything. It was time to do what she always did when something upset her. Giant tears welled up her eyes, and feeling quite cross with everyone, Cho burst into hearty tears, the sounds getting increasingly louder and louder.

Viktor shuffled uncomfortably again, trying vainly to comfort her by saying they could find another way, but Cho was not having any of it.

“How are we supposed to do this now?” she demanded hysterically. “We can’t even get in there anymore to break off their date!” She sobbed even louder and slid to her knees. 

Viktor Krum was not known for his emotional sympathy, and being stuck with a crying girl was not at all what he considered a pleasant pastime. Chancing a glance left and right, he stared back down at Cho, feeling quite tired of her crying. She seemed to do it a lot.

“I don’t know, but crying isn’t going to help, and that seems to be all you ever do! No wonder Potter left you!”

Her eyes darted up nastily, and she quickly scrambled to her feet and poked him hard in the chest, tears still welling out of her eyes. “You’re the one who always gets caught!! I guess Granger couldn’t handle your stupidity!!”

“Are you saying this is my fault then?” Viktor demanded angrily, quite sick of her altogether now- he’d just leave, and then she could cry all to her heart’s content. “Well then you do it if you think you’re so clever!”

“WHAT? YOU’RE LEAVING ME?”

Viktor nodded. “Yes.”

“But you can’t!” She whined, gripping at his hands, and still sobbing. This only made him feel more uncomfortable, and prising her off his hands, he speedily started running away from her. Cho didn’t stop to think and raced after him, still crying, and still shouting.

“Blimey,” Ron muttered with a grin. “They don’t seem to be doing too well, do they?”

Luna laughed, and kept laughing for some time, finally managing to gasp out, “No they don’t seem to be at all.”

Relieved that his companion had started breathing again, Ron looked about the empty Hogsmeade streets, noticing that not many people were out today. There was no real point being here since Cho and Viktor had failed in their task, but, chancing a glance at the blonde next to him, Ron decided he had might as well make the most of it.

“Shall we have a walk around then? Or maybe you’d like a butterbeer? We don’t need to report back to Ginny just yet.”

Luna smiled happily up at him. “I’d like that.”

Ron nodded and walked with her down the snowy lanes, pausing as he felt a warm hand slip into his. He looked down and noticed Luna’s blue eyes smiling softly at him, and feeling his own light up with happy warmth, returned the hold on her hand, before continuing their stroll down the frosted streets, a companionable air surrounding them.

Ginny finished packing up her stuff, giving a friendly wave to her senile, old boss Mr Tibblet- who had finally found his quill (under his desk) and was now telling anybody who would listen that the thief obviously got so scared that they put it back- before making her way out of the Auror’s department. Everything was set and ready for the date tomorrow, or at least she hoped, and so she could just go home and relax. She was sure the others would tell her how they fared eventually.

Smiling at the prospect of bringing her two friends together, Ginny walked down the empty corridors, humming a little to herself, and feeling very much at peace with the world. Footsteps moving quickly behind her told her she was not alone, and turning her head slightly, Ginny’s smile only grew as she spotted Draco Malfoy walking towards her, Neville in tow.

“You two are the first to get back. I was just heading home.” She tucked her bag more securely under her arm and glanced at them expectantly. “So how did it go?”

“Fine, we’ve got it all sorted,” Draco replied with a careless wave of the hand. “Potter will be seated at the right table, don’t you worry your pretty head.”

Neville glared at the word ‘pretty’ and quickly pushed in front of the taller man, a nervous smile on his lips as he came face-to-face with Ginny.

“G-gi-gin”- he swallowed- “Ginny, I was wondering if you wanted to go out and get something eat?”

Ginny was not expecting this, but figuring it couldn’t hurt to get a bite to eat she nodded her head with a smile. “Sure, why not? To tell you the truth,” she confided with a laugh, “I didn’t really want to cook dinner tonight anyway.”

“Well why don’t we all go then?” Draco suggested, earning another angry glare from Neville, to which he only smirked in reply.

“You want to come too?” Ginny asked incredulously. He certainly seemed to be full of surprises lately.

“Why not?”

She shrugged and looked at Neville, whom she was surprised to see looked like he wanted to seriously hurt the blond man next to him. Thinking that was rather odd, but deciding not many people liked Draco anyway, she just decided to ignore that little hitch and be the peacekeeper. “Well we can all go; it’s not like this is a date.”

Both guys laughed a little sheepishly and nodded their heads. “Right,” they said in unison.

“Right…” Ginny stared at them for a moment, but then shrugged and continued walking. “So where do we want to go?”

Both guys instantly said a restaurant, and laughing slightly, Ginny could only shake her head at them. “I have no idea what you two just said.”

After both repeated their chosen destination, Ginny decided to go with Neville’s- Draco’s sounding just a little beyond her money means. Neville gave a rather smug smile at that, but Draco seemed un-phased, so his ‘happy moment’ didn’t last very long, and he was once more looking owlish that his ‘date’ had been third-wheeled. It was just he didn’t know who was the third wheel- himself or Draco?

Once they got to the restaurant and took their seats, Ginny glanced at both men with a small smile and then picked up her menu. Neville glared at Draco, who gave an infuriating smirk back.

“Oh, the roast chicken looks good!” Ginny exclaimed from behind the menu, completely oblivious to the tension rising on the other side of the table. She placed the menu down and smiled at them. “I think I’ll get that.”

Draco called for a waiter, and all three ordered their meals. They started chatting about trivial things, but the conversation was rather one-sided- Draco being a big talker and liking to be the centre of attention, and Ginny finding him interesting enough to actually listen. He seemed intent on cutting Neville out of the conversation completely, but Neville was finding it rather difficult to talk to Ginny anyway, even without Draco cutting him out. He’d always been shy around girls, but having someone else there just only made it all the more worse.

Feeling rather dejected that the one time he decided to open his mouth and actually ask a girl on a date another guy decided to come, Neville could only sigh and watch the two talk about goodness knows what. He had stopped paying attention after vainly opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish for five minutes. He was a pitiful excuse for a guy right now, and he knew he had no hopes in getting Ginny to like him with Draco charming the pants off her. He really did hope that didn’t become a literal thing too…

“So, Malfoy…”

“Yes Weasley?”

“Why did you decide to help us with this?”

Neville glanced at Draco curiously, he too having wondered much the same thing, though after their conversation earlier he thought he had a pretty good guess why.

“Well…” Draco smirked slightly and leaned back in his chair to watch Ginny with that lazy arrogance that always seemed to characterise him. “After you so charmingly hid under my desk and begged me to help you, I found myself curious as to what it was you were doing. I admit when I found out you were just trying to set up Potter and Granger that I was not particularly enthused, but it’s been a nice change to do something else today, and the company isn’t so bad after all.”

He said the last part rather suggestively, and Neville was annoyed to see Ginny’s cheeks go faintly pink. She shifted in her seat and turned her face away from the handsome Slytherin, meeting Neville’s gaze with a rather flustered but secretly pleased smile on her face. For Neville it was the worst feeling in the world to watch the girl he liked flirting and being flirted with by a guy he did not like, and yet Neville was unable to do anything about it. He didn’t want to look like the jealous guy making a scene, and somehow he had a feeling that Ginny was just being nice to him anyway. It was clear she was attracted to Draco Malfoy, and how could she ever like a guy like him after all? He was leaning dangerously on the chubby side, was clumsy and always did the wrong thing, and he couldn’t even talk to a girl to save himself! It was wishful hoping that a girl like her could ever like him.

“You know, I think I’ve had enough to eat and I just remembered I forgot something in my house….” Neville trailed off and quickly stood up, much to the surprise of Ginny, and the pleasure of Draco.

“You’re going so soon?” Ginny asked in a voice that almost sounded disappointed.

“Yeah…”

“Oh… well I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

Neville nodded and muttered a quick goodbye before leaving the restaurant, Draco’s smirking face imprinted in his head all the way. Damn that git for ruining all chances he had. Why did he have to accept that stupid challenge?

“That was odd,” Ginny mumbled with a frown, still watching where Neville had left. “He seemed upset.”

Draco shrugged unconcernedly. “Who knows what Longbottom takes into his head? I always thought he was odd personally.” He leaned over the table slightly, giving her a suggestive smile. “Besides, this leaves us more time to get to know each other better…”

Ginny looked back at him with a slightly suspicious expression on her face. “I suppose…”

She wasn’t sure if she really wanted to be stuck with just Draco. As much as he seemed to be acting more pleasant towards her, she was very aware of his eyes following her every move and had a feeling he had been expecting a bit more out of this dinner than Neville had. Poor Neville… She hoped he didn’t leave just because Draco had come too. She had seen the disappointment on her friend’s face, but she had been unsure on how to deal with the situation, and so had allowed Draco to come. She couldn’t deny that she wasn’t glad Draco had come though; he was rather handsome and quite fun to talk to when he wasn’t being a prat, but his flirty behaviour was making her just a bit uncomfortable.

The night went on, and Draco insisted that he should take Ginny back home. Feeling too tired to argue, Ginny had allowed him to take her to her home, and now both of them stood outside the door in the chilly wind, the stars peeping out from the clouds and the moon shining like a big smiling face in the dusky sky.

“Well, um, thanks for taking me to dinner.”

Draco shrugged. “It was Longbottom’s idea, but I’ll take the credit for it if you want.”

She laughed slightly and opened the door, giving him a small smile as she did so. “Goodnight Malfoy. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He nodded, returning the smile with his own arrogant one, and shaking her head slightly Ginny went to turn around to go back into the house when she heard him call out her name. Stopping in some surprise, she turned around and felt his lips suddenly pressing against hers in a small kiss. Her heart sped up in her chest, her eyes widening as she stared up into his face, but then it all stopped as he pulled away.

“Goodnight Ginny.”

She stood there a little breathless and watched him disapparate, not really sure what to think or what to do. All she knew was Draco Malfoy had kissed her.

A/N: Shock! Gasp! Has Neville lost in the race? And have Cho and Viktor really given up? Guess you’ll have to wait and find out on the next (and last) episode of Cupid’s Lost His Wings! (I so just had a Dragon Ball Z moment….)