Draco and his 'Henchmen' barged straight past the gaping crowds and headed straight towards Hermione and Ginny. Blaise and Crabbe stopped in front of Harry and Ron, holding them back from whatever was about to happen. Ginny stepped to the side allowing Draco to grab Hermione's waist once again.
"What are you doing" The curly haired girl hissed at him, gaining no answer from the tall blonde.
She felt her heart rate increase, which caused her breathing to quicken. Noticing this, Draco to smirked. "Whatever you do, you mustn't hate me for this. You understand?"
She frowned, not entirely sure how to react, but then it occurred to her that he was pre-warning her for the stunt he was about to pull. The Gryffindor discreetly nodded at which point Draco took her by surprise.
The Slytherin leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, almost causing Hermione to scream. Then everything clicked in her head: Blaise and Crabbe holding Harry and Ron back, Draco's sudden change of behaviour and Ginny... She froze. Ginny willingly moved aside so that Draco could get to her!
As Draco pulled away, he whispered something to Hermione. "Forget what I said. Act rationally otherwise all our lies will be uncovered."
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked quietly as the crowds began to murmur.
"Positive."
And with that Draco released his grip on Hermione and she did the same thing she had done to him in third year. She punched him square in the jaw! Of course, she had to fake the look of disgust on her face, but other than that everything else was very much real. She rushed over to Ginny and dragged her back up the path towards the castle, too humiliated to face the boys.
***
That night while everyone was sat in the Great Hall waiting for the feast to begin, Professor McGonagall stood up and made an announcement, which pleased everyone in the building.
"Good evening to you all. I would like to mention that there will a mascarade ball this weekend..."
Before she could get the next word out, everyone, including Slytherin, began cheering.
"Silence!" The witch raised her hands to quieten the room. "We shall be transforming the quidditch field into the ball room. So apologises to the quidditch teams, there will be no match this weekend. There is however, one slight rule for this ball, you must all wear masks and reveal your identity to no one, so there will be no individual with a date, you shall dance with anyone you wish to. The ball will last one night, starting in two days." She sat down and the feast began.
"That's not fair!" Harry groaned.
"What? Having your quidditch field taken away?" Hermione chuckled.
"No! Well, yes that. But also not being able to take a date!"
"Well who would you have taken anyway?" Ginny questioned as Harry's face turned bright red.
Hermione laughed getting the hint and Ginny simply sat there in silence, unsure of how to react. Ron joined the three of them at the table moments later and groaned when he saw Hermione.
"Ronald will you just get over it!" Hermione sighed putting a chicken leg on her plate.
"Get over it? You let Malfoy kiss you, Hermione!" Ron exclaimed in a hushed tone. "Bloody Malfoy!"
"I didn't let him Ronald and you know it!"
The redhead rolled his eyes before turning to face Harry, who sat next to him. "I can't believe you forgave her!"
"Well it's not like she wanted to kiss that ferret, is it?" Harry replied as Ron continued to pile food onto his plate.
"Whatever." Ron turned to his sister and pointed the chicken drumstick he was holding at her. "And you! Why the bloody hell did you let him do it?!"
"There was nothing I could do about it!" Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother's attempt to continue the argument.
"You willingly moved aside!"
"And you, Ronald Weasley, willingly let Crabbe and Zabini hold you back, but I'm not complaining!" And with that Ginny got up and stormed out of the Great Hall, leaving Hermione to defend herself.
***
Over at the Slytherin table, Pansy was droning on and on about what she would be wearing on the night of the Ball.
"It will be a pale blue dress with green jewels and... Drakie! Are you even listening to me?"
"Do I ever?" He mumbled into his cup, as he continued to stare at Hermione as Ginny got up and stormed out of the Hall, wondering what was happening and wishing he was there to comfort her.
Pansy started clinging to Draco's arm. At first he asked her to get off him, trying to bite his tongue, but she refused to release his arm. It got to the point where Draco couldn't take it anymore. He shoved Pansy off his arm and left the table.
"Drakie?"
"Piss off Pansy!" He yelled as he stormed out of the Hall.
***
As Draco turned a corner of the corridor, he heard footsteps behind him. He rolled his eyes in annoyance and groaned.
"Get lost, Pansy!" He snarled without bothering to turn around.
"Well, well. Is little Drakie-wakie getting mardy?" Came the voice from behind him. He spun round on his heels and his frown was instantly replace by a smile.
He chuckled. "What's wrong? Potter and Weasley boring you already?"
"Actually, no they're not. I thought you could use someone to nag at."
"Are you sure it has nothing to do with the fact Weaslette just stormed out of the Hall in a huff?"
"That was entirely Ronald's fault, not mine."
"Sure. So what is actually going on with you and..."
"Nothing. Well... it's complicated."
"Right." The two of them fell silent, all that could be heard was the distant chatter coming from the Great Hall. "Look, about earlier..."
"Don't mention it. I've heard enough about it already."
"How so?"
"Ronald won't shut up about it and keeps saying I let you kiss me."
Draco smirked. "You kind of did."
"Oh shut up!"
Draco paused for a moment. "Why did you let me kiss you?"
"I didn't know what you were going to do! If I'd have known you wouldn't have even come close to doing that."
Draco stepped closer to Hermione, causing her to back up into the wall and gasp. He could tell her heart rate had quickened as her breathing had become noticeably heavier. He grinned as he place both his hand on either side of her body and chuckled.
"Draco. What are you doing?" Hermione breathed as she tried to duck under his arm, but failed to escape as he slid his arm down to wall to block her exit.
"Proving my theory." He said as she turned to face him again.
"What theory?"
"That you let me kiss you."
"Please. There's no way you can..." Before she could finish, Draco pressed his lips onto hers and that's when she realised that Draco was right. She let him kiss her! Before she had anytime to think things over she began kissing him back.
Eventually, they pulled away from each other, breathless. They leant against the cold stone wall trying to control their breathing. Draco opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a voice in the distance.
"Hermione?" They called from somewhere in the corridor.
Draco watched as the breathless girl beside him planted a small kiss on his cheek and ran outside into the crisp evening. Draco was about to run after her, but a voice behind him stopped him from doing so.
"Great. Just the person I wanted to see." The voice groaned as Draco turned to face it.
"I could say the same thing to you, Weasley." Draco said flatly, not in the mood for arguing.
"I can't believe I'm about to ask you this but, have you seen Hermione?"
"You mean the crying Gryffindor that pushed past me fifteen minutes ago? Yeah, I've seen her."
"Where'd she go?"
Draco didn't say anything, he simply pointed outside. The red haired boy looked doubtfully at the Slytherin, unsure whether to trust him or not, but Draco rolled his eyes.
"By all means, Weasel, take you God damn time. I'm sure the girl enjoys being alone balling her eyes out." The blonde boy groaned sarcastically.
Without wasting anymore time, Ron took off running as he sprinted down the path in search for Hermione.