Draco Pov
As Draco was eating his pie at lunch, he looked over at Hermione, who was sitting with the Weaslette. Apparently, the Bumbling Two were nowhere to be found. She was already looking at him and when they made eye contact, she motioned towards the door. He nodded and stood up. "Crabbe, Goyle, I have a meeting. If it runs over, cover for me in DADA." Goyle gave him a thumbs up and a wink and Draco rolled his eyes.
Once Hermione was leaving the Great Hall, Draco looked around and when no one was looking, caught up to her. They walked in silence to their regular meeting classroom before Draco closed and locked the door behind them. They both broke out in conversation at the same time and laughed.
"You can go first," Draco said. He sat on the top of one of the desks and smiled at her.
"Can you go first? I need to gather my thoughts."
"Sure. First off, is there any way for me to convince you to give me my 150 galleons back? Father's not happy I lost that much money; plus he doesn't believe that Goyle actually won against me."
"Nope. Sorry Draco, but a deal is a deal." Hermione laughed. "You could always win it back."
"Hermione, don't even pretend you don't know you can't beat me in a second at poker. I'd probably just lose even more money. Anyway, I have a gift for you." Draco gestured for her to come closer.
"Oh, what is it?" Hermione said as she moved so she was standing in between his dangling legs. He leaned forward and pressed his lips onto hers. He felt her smile and deepened the kiss. Her body was pressed flush against his and his hands were in her hair. Draco could almost feel the sparks flying in the air. He felt her hands everywhere and every sense heightened. Her lips parted slightly letting him slip his tongue into her mouth. He slowly stood up, pushing Hermione towards the nearest wall. Her hands flew to his chest in surprise, before she regained composure and gripped his white shirt. Every so often, they would stop for air but would resume just as quickly as they stopped. Hermione finally pulled away and giggled. "Merlin, Draco, that sure was a gift. Any particular reason or special occasion for your gift?"
"I missed you. Plus, I've been thinking about the Yule Ball and how much I want to take you." Draco looked at her with his best pleading eyes. His heart sank though when Hermione shook her head.
"I can't, Draco. I know I'm a coward, but the thought of my friends rejecting me because of who I'm dating makes me sick. I..." Hermione paused and was obviously trying to hold back tears. "Draco, I'm so, so sorry. How about this? I'll save my last dance for you and you'll save yours for me. Okay?" Draco nodded. He understood; he really did. It just hurt his heart to think of Hermione being scared of her friends' reactions. "But Draco."
"Hmm?"
"I do have some good news for you. Ginny and I have become much better friends over the past year and I told her about us. She was skeptical and suspicious of you at first, but I convinced her you are nothing like your father," Hermione said.
"Well, that's wonderful news, darling. If she reacted well, why wouldn't Potter and Weasley be okay with it?"
"Because they are boys," Hermione responded simply.
"You do have a point there." Draco laughed and pulled Hermione in again, but this time only for a hug. "I don't want you feeling guilty at all about this because I understand. Even if I do want us to not have to hide anymore, I don't want my father to know. Not because I'm ashamed of you, but because I fear you would be in grave danger. So you see, our deal works out perfectly in both directions."
"Draco, I still have one thing to tell you." Hermione pulled away from the hug and bit her lip. She paused before everything came out. "Victor Krum asked me to the dance but I haven't told him the answer yet because I wanted to make sure you were okay with it. I don't want to go alone because I'll never hear the end of it from Harry and Ron."
"Of course you may. I had a suspicion you would say no to going to the dance with me, so I said yes when Pansy Parkinson asked me to go. We are just friends, but her father and my father are set on us getting married. Of course, that is a topic for a different time."
"Thank you, Draco."
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Even though Draco was prepared to see Hermione with Krum and feel jealousy, he was still dreading it. He was leaning against a wall in the entrance hall waiting for Pansy to show up when he saw the Weaslette coming towards him. He quickly pushed off from against the wall and stood upright. "Malfoy," Weaslette said curtly. Draco had to admit that she cleaned up nice, but was still a Weasley.
"Weaslette."
"Please, call me Ginny," she said in a falsely sweet voice. "I'll make this short and sweet. You hurt Hermione and I will kill you. Treat her well. Oh, and don't think that just because you are my best friend's boyfriend, we don't still have beef." She did the 'I'm keeping my eyes on you' gesture and strode off.
Just in time for Pansy to arrive. "Bollocks! I'm sorry, Malfoy. I just checked the time and realized I was running late so I got here as quickly as I could. Has it started yet?"
"Not quite. Although we are cutting it quite close. I was just in the process of thinking of the horrors of having to arrive without a date, but luckily those fears won't come true." Draco held out his arm, like a gentleman, until she scrunched up her nose in disgust.
"Do we really have to go through such formalities? After all, we aren't even dating, and I have no wish to do so," said Pansy as she rolled her eyes.
"As you wish." Just as Draco was about to say they should head in, he saw Pansy's eyes widen in surprise at something behind him. He turned around and that's when he saw her. His girl. His darling. His one true love descending the stairs gracefully. "Merlin's Beard," he said under his breath. It took all of his strength to not run over there to sweep her up in his arms and take her to the dance floor, but luckily Krum came and sent Draco's fantasies crashing back into the reality of Earth. To any bystanders, it would look like even Draco Malfoy didn't even have an insult to throw at her.
Krum took Hermione's arm and they met up with the other champions and their dates. As Draco slowly became more aware of his surroundings again, he noticed that Pansy was waving her hand in front of his face and looking at him weirdly. "Draco. Draco. You know, Malfoy, for someone who claims to hate her, you looked pretty in love when she came down."
"Oh, shove off. Let's go." As they entered the Great Hall from a side door, they noticed the champions had already started dancing, and Draco, of course, noticed that Krum was way too close to Hermione.
"Dance with me to get my mind off of her, will you?" he asked Pansy. She took his outstretched hand and while they were dancing, Draco made sure to scowl at Krum every time they passed the other couple.
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Draco was exhausted. He had been dancing all night plus drinking that punch someone had evidently spiked. He hadn't caught sight of Hermione since the first dance with Pansy. Draco thought he had probably fallen asleep on one of the tables because he suddenly awoke to two voices speaking. He looked around and his eyes locked on Hermione and Weasley fighting.
"He's using you," Weasley said, obviously annoyed.
"How dare you!" Hermione exclaimed. "Besides, I can take care of myself." Draco raised his eyebrow and smirked. That was for sure.
"I doubt it. He's way too old." Yep, that settled it. Draco was going to fight Weasley when he got the chance.
"What? What, that's what you think?" Their voices were so loud, Draco could still hear them even as they went out into the Entrance Hall.
"Yeah, that is what I think," came Weasley's voice.
"You know the solution then, don't you?" a very upset Hermione asked.
"Go on then."
"The next time there is a ball, pluck up the courage to ask me before somebody else does. And not as a last resort," Hermione added angrily. Their voices got a little quieter, and Draco could hardly hear them, but he didn't need to. He understood that Weasley was obviously jealous (not unlike himself) and was taking it out on Hermione. Draco couldn't help but roll his eyes at the stupidity of Weasley.
Soon, Draco couldn't hear them at all and decided to go investigate. He pushed his way through the few couples still dancing (one of which included Pansy who was hardly dancing; more like eating the face of a Durmstrang boy) and got out into the Entrance Hall. There Hermione was, on the stairs crying. The Entrance Hall was also basically empty, so Draco walked over and sat down next to her. He started rubbing her back and she gladly leaned into him. "Ronald is a jerk," she sniffed out.
"That's for sure." Draco chuckled. He reached down and put two fingers under her chin to lift her head to look at him. "I was wondering if you would still be open to that dance you promised me." Hermione nodded with a smile growing on her face and he stood to pull her up. They headed back into the Great Hall where there were three couples still on the dance floor; Longbottom and Ginny, Diggory and Cho Chang, and Pansy with the unknown boy. The song that was playing was just a slow song that Draco didn't recognize, but Hermione evidently did.
"Oh, I love this song." She smiled up at him and they started dancing. Her head came to rest on his chest with her arms around his neck and his arms around her waist. They rocked back and forth and Draco couldn't help but smile. Things might be bad in their separate lives, but they were together now and she was all he needed.
Hermione looked up and he leaned down to kiss her softly and whispered "I love you," against her lips.
Another one, I know. I guess I finally got over my writer's block. Did you like that chapter? I really did because I just love the Yule Ball in general. Thanks for 1k, it really means a lot Please comment vote, and request scenes. Do you guys think the chapters go too fast?
-Ms. Scarlet