I took a deep sigh clearing my mind of the anxiousness followed by a casual peek around the corner of the top of the stair case. Harry stood at the bottom of the grand stairs with Parvati, even from behind his long shaggy black hair unmistakable.

Parvati turned around, I swear she saw me for a mere second. Another deep breath, there was no use hiding. I forced a smile across my face letting the true excitement I had been feeling spill out.

I grabbed the railing and slowly stumbled down the stairs. Now I was sure Paravti had saw me, not just saw me, she was staring. What was she looking at? Was there lipstick on my teeth, no stupid you're not wearing lipstick, I told myself. Was the dress too flashy? Ginny would have said something, she wouldn't do that to me. I had safely made it down the stairs. No turning back now.

Another deep breath. I felt my chest shake with the jitters. My hands started to shake as I stood there waiting for him. Finally I saw him make his way through a crowd, a look of surprised came across his face but just before I wanted to feel worried again an even greater smile filled his face.

He quickly marched towards me and bowed. I smiled back not sure what the proper thing to do was for the first time. Victor grabbed my hand and I felt an odd sense of confidence as he walked me through a gabbing crowd. Is that Hermione? With Victor? I heard people whispering my name but for some reason it didn't bother me. I was with him, which made me feel untouchable.

I was smiling so much my face actually started to hurt. This was the first time I had ever felt like this, I felt graceful. Every girl stared at me, like they wished they were me.

We walked into a transformed Great Hall. There were no tables and instead of the bronze walls, everything was covered in a white frost. I looked up at the ceiling to see a snowing black night sky glossing the room with a wonderful glimmer of snow.

I looked over to Victor and he looked at me. I let out a giggle as our eyes met then turned away blushing. What was he thinking? I looked back at him shyly and he whispered to me softly, "You are beautiful."

I actually think he meant it, because for the first time in my life, I felt beautiful.

Victor lifted me up and spun me around. It was breath taking. I felt light as a feather and I glided through the air smiling like an idiot.

Professor Flitwick suddenly appeared through a closed curtain and mumbled an announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen! Your attention please." Nobody was paying attention, "Your attention please!" He cried out, and then seemed to gather himself up, "For the first time live, playing here at Hogwarts, please welcome…The Weird Sisters!"

Suddenly a mad crowd of teenagers filled up close to the stage as the curtain pulled back to reveal the best punk rock band!

I turned to face Victor and we both screamed like 7 year olds! He started dancing around and I just laughed not being very coordinated. Victor showed off and when we had enough we pushed our way through the crowd to a table where Harry and Ron sat depressed looking.

Victor kissed my hand, dashed away and I sat down beside Harry, a huge smile on my face. "Victor just went to get us some drinks." I said turning to Harry, "Would you care to join us?" I suddenly felt bad having had so much fun knowing they had just sat there the whole time lonely.

"We're not joining you and Victor!" Ron said drastically. I pulled back, the smile disappearing, "What's got your wand in a knot?"

Ron rolled his eyes like I was missing something so obvious, "Hermione he's a Durmstrang! You're fraternizing with the enemy!" I was appalled, what the bloody hell was he thinking?

"The enemy!" I blurted out in surprise, "Who was it wanting his autograph? Besides the whole point of the tournament is international, magical, cooperation! To make friends!" The spark inside of me had disappeared, I no longer felt like the graceful girl with Victor, once again I was just the brainiac once again.

Ron grunted, "I think he's got a bit more than friendship on his mind?" What was he thinking, just because he was miserable didn't mean he got to take it out on me. I rose up out of my chair, going over what to say in my head, the best come back, glancing at the silent Harry every few seconds.

I started to walk away then turned around wanting to say what Ron deserved but just found myself marching towards the stairs filled with so much frustration I was about to explode. I heard stomping feet come up behind me.

"He's using you!" Ron argued.

"How dare you!" I replied in offence, "I can take care of myself!"

"He's way too old!" Ron said casually, "It's not like he actually likes you."

"What?" I exclaimed in fury, "That's what you think?"

"Yah that's what I think." He admitted

"Well here's a solution then!" I now spoke my mind without a care, "Next time there's a ball, pluck up the courage to ask me before somebody else instead of using me as a last resort!" I spoke so quickly I didn't even think I heard myself. I am not a last resort I told myself over and over, I am not a last resort. He had no right to do this to me. I was having the time of my life and he just ruined it.

"That's completely off the point." Ron mumbled. "Harry!" I turned round to face Harry.

"Where have you been? Never mind, off to bed, both of you!" I ordered like a smart ass. But this time I had the right to be, Harry had been no better than Ron, we were friends and he didn't stick up for me which was just as bad.

Ron spoke again "They get scary when they're old-."

Without letting him finish I blurted out, "Ron you spoiled everything! I hope you're happy." I lisped the last part under my breath, too tired of arguing.

I swerved to see them run up the stairs both frightened of me. I ran towards the stairs making it up a few steps before falling to my knees. I burst into tears letting all the frustration pour out. I took off my shoes which had been killing me and lifted my head to just see Victor in the back of a crowd looking at me.

He would come save me and make everything better, make me feel beautiful again. But he didn't he sprinted through the crowd pretending to never have seen me. I guess I never really was beautiful to him. It was just the makeup and dress.

I sat there, my face scrunched up, I could barely breathe, and my chest heaved. I half crawled up the staircase feeling so weak. I caught my breath then I ran down the hall, taking random turns here and there, not caring where I ended up. I made a sharp left and smacked off of something falling to the ground.

I lifted my head to see polished black shoes. The last thing I wanted to see was a person. I glanced up trying to hide my face as well as I could, embarrassed of my red blotchy stained face. I looked up to see blonde hair covering his forehead and part of his thin almond eyes. Out of all 3 schools, it had to be Draco.

I gathered myself and stood right up taking a deep breath readying for his laughter. Although to my surprise he didn't look amused, more astonished than anything. "What?" I yelled. He just stood there, "Just get it over with."

Draco mumbled, "Are you okay?" What was wrong with all the boys today? Why wasn't Draco tearing me apart, this would be the easiest time to do it. I had no defence.

"Pardon?" I said.

"I said, are you okay?" He repeated annoyingly.

I paused in bewilderment then stuttered, "Why aren't you insulting me, you hate me?"

He blinked in confusion like I was the one missing something, "Come on Hermione, you and your little friends might not be my favorite of people but I'm not evil. You obviously aren't in a good state of mind so what good is it for me to make you feel worse?"

I was still in a muddle. "So," I started picked words out carefully, using a soft voice, "You have picked on me for the past 3 years, called me the crudest of names but you don't hate me?"

Draco bit his lip thinking over his response like it didn't fully make sense to him either. He took a deep breath, "Well, you wouldn't understand." He said offensively.

"Try me?" I added in a smart tone.

"Okay." he sighed, "But not here."

"What?" I questioned, "Then where?"

Draco looked in all directions, then straight at me and smiled. I felt a tug at my hand and before I knew it I was speeding down the hall. We made a right and he looked back to check on me with an excited face. Where was he taking us?

After a while I started to go over the events of the evening, curious how it had come to this. Draco, Harry's nemesis, taking me to some secret place in Hogwarts? I never would have thought I would find myself in this odd situation in my lifetime.

We came to a spiral of descending stairs and he carefully led me down them. When we came to the bottom I recalled the room in front of me not from being their but from Hogwarts a History.

"This is the underground boat house?" I questioned. Draco looked at me and nodded in reply. I continued the conversation which seemed to have happened so long ago, "So you were saying."

"Well you see." Draco pressed his back to a wall then slid down to sit on the ground, "First impressions are how you see people for the rest of the time you know them, don't you agree?" I thought about it for a few seconds, the topic had never come to mind, but eventually I nodded my head in agreement.

"But!" I added before he continued, "That's not always the case."

"Well you are judging me right now based on how we first got to know each other."

I paused, "But I'm not judging you based on our first meeting, I am judging you based on how you have treated me for the past few years." I smiled proud of my come back.

"Wrong." He replied with a smirk, "You judged me over the past few years based on how I treated you the first time I met you. You didn't treat me any better than I treated you the first time we met and that is why I kept treating you that way." He spoke as fast as I did, like this was some sort of debate, "You hated me because of our first meeting, then I felt the need to dislike you back because what is the point of liking someone who hates you in return?"

I was stunned, confused and impressed all at once, "So then get to your point."

Draco played with the buttons on the end of his sleeve, "Well, when I said first impressions are important to your identity, what I meant was, when I first met you and your friends I made a big mistake by not watching my mouth. And well that's how everyone saw me. The smart mouth Slytherin." He lifted his head and our eyes met. He pulled his focus away and his pale cheeks flustered.

"You wouldn't understand, but, when your friends expect so much from you, you feel the need to live up to it. Just to be accepted. So for that, I'm sorry about the past. I hope this can somehow make it up." He looked up at me again.

There was a long silence, "So now what?" He asked, "Now that I've confessed my big secret are you going to tell me what's wrong?" My story didn't seem quite as difficult to admit to now that Draco had confessed to such a sensitive subject. I turned my bare back to the wall and pressed it against the cold stone sliding down to sit beside him.

"Well I went to the party with Victor." I started, "We were having lots of fun until I went to go see how Harry and Ron were doing while Victor got drinks. Ron started telling me off, saying I was going against Harry, fraternizing with the enemy. That Victor didn't really like me, he just wanted to get to Harry." I swallowed my words and felt lump in my throat, "It's just so frustrating that he was mad that I got a date and he didn't. I told him next time there's a ball to ask me instead of using me as a last resort. Being a last resort, it just makes you feel worthless, like you're not as good as all the other girls. It seems like what girls go through is much more complicated than boys. I mean we have to alter ourselves to feel good about our body but if you're too altered you're fake. We flirt to make ourselves feel wanted but if you get more attention than anyone else you crave the attention. If you're smart then you're a know it all, but if you act stupid you have no self respect."

I looked over at Draco, his jaw hung open on its hinges. "Why am I telling you this again?" I asked embarrassingly.

"Because," He slowly replied with a smile, "I guess I am the only one who gives a damn." I smiled back.

I leaned my head on his boney shoulder in exhaustion. "Do you think this means anything?" I craned my neck to match his expressions to the words he had said. "You know, are we just going to forget this, go back to our common rooms and start hating each other again, because I don't want to do that." He looked down to meet my eyes.

I looked into his pale blue eyes and answered, "I haven't the slightest idea but I don't want to forget either."