Chapter One: Hiding Hedges

Haha" Hermione laughed as she and Viktor walked out of the castle towards the lake to take a stroll. "Stop it, I can't laugh anymore after that little dancing fiasco with Romilda whats-her-face"

"Vat? It is true. That Malfoy vould not stop looking at you." Viktor put his arm around Hermione's waist hesitantly, and when she didn't pull away, he tightened up his hold instead of letting his arm hang loosely beside her. "And by the vay, that Romilda could take a few lessons on being a little more subtle"

Hermione giggled. Not an hour into the dance had some Gryffindor girl, who had come with a Ravenclaw sixth year whom Hermione did not know, named Romilda had been shamelessly throwing herself at Viktor, trying to literally get in between him and Hermione. Hermione had to finally leave Viktor to and find Rmilda's original date, who was with his friends, taking bets on the upcoming task.

"Well then he must have been wondering how a mudblood like me was your date for tonight." Hermione tried to laugh off as she leaned in a little, allowing Viktor to wrap his arm around her waist a little more.

"Vat are you talking about? He vas vondering how he could have let me get you before he had the chance." Viktor smiled as he looked down at Hermione's blushing face. Her beautiful, flowy, periwinkle-blue robes seemed to shine in the moonlight.

Hermione felt his eyes on her tomato-red face and began to blush a bit more, if possible. She tried to turn away, but Viktor stopped walking all of a sudden. Hermione didn't realize this and continued walking, though, until his hand slid around her waist and fell into her hand. He gave a soft pull and brought Hermione into his arms. Hermione couldn't help but smile at the look Viktor was giving her. He gazed deeply into her eyes. Hermione suddenly heard a noise in the distance and snapped out of the trance that Viktor's deep eyes seemed to have over her.

"What was that?" she said, flipping around, blocking Viktor from the direction that the noise had come from. She whipped her wand out of the sleeve of her robes.

"Vere you expecting an attack?" Viktor lightly mocked about the wand.

"Stay here Viktor," Hermione said as she stepped lightly towards the Slytherin bleachers.

Viktor was about to take a step to follow her, but Hermione pushed him away, giving him a threatening look.

"Viktor, this may be the person who put Harry's name in the goblet. It might be dangerous, You stay here and if I'm not back soon, I want you to go get Harry or Ron." Hermione said seriously. Viktor slowly nodded, not understanding why Hermione would not let him go.

"But Herm-ow-"

"No." she interrupted sternly. Hermione continued her walk towards the bleachers. The main reason why she actually wanted to go alone was in case it was Sirius, or if it was something involving Voldemort.

"But Drakie, what do you think it is?" Hermione heard a shrill voice ask from under the bleachers.

"I don't know Pansy," it was Malfoy! He sighed, "but father sounds serious, and by his letter, a little frightened"

Hermione could not believe what she was hearing! This was a goldmine of information. Wait until Ron and Harry heard this.

"Well, did he hint anything? I mean, did he say if the Dark Lord will be-" the shrill voice asked.

"Pansy, do you honestly think that my father would be stupid enough to tell me by owl, or any way that is not in the privacy of the manor?" Malfoy said. He sighed, "And for goodness sake, don't speak so loud. I think I might have seen a few people over by the goalposts across the field."

"Oh don't worry Draco," Pansy sighed. It was obvious that she thought that Malfoy was being paranoid. "Besides, I think it was a couple. Don't worry, they're probably just snogging or something."

"Listen, Pansy, why don't you go back to the dance. I need to do something," Malfoy finally said after a time of silence.

Pansy sighed and walked out from their hidden spot. Hermione hid behind the corner as she watched Pansy walk briskly past her. Hermione tried to control her urge to laugh at Pansy's frilly, pale pink robes as they caught under one of her shoes.

Hermione heard Draco punch one of the rafters. The whole thing began to shake a bit, but nothing happened. Hermione was about to head back to Viktor to bring him back to the dance to tell Harry and Ron what she had overheard when suddenly one of the Slytherin banners hanging from the rafters fell onto her, trapping her under the green and silver fabric.

"OOMPH!" she said a little too loudly, because all of a sudden she saw a bit of Malfoy's shoes from underneath her material prison.

"Pnnsy, I thought I told you to go ahead to the party." He said quietly before sighing.

Hermione tried to say something, but her words were muffled by the mound of dirt and grass in her mouth. She tried to move some of the banner off of her so that she could stoop low enough as to ask Malfoy for help, but failed and hoped that he would notice.

"Listen, Pans, I know hat you're worried about me, but don't be. I'm serious. I can take care of myself. " Hermione saw him on his toes. She assumed that he was squatting. "C'mon, I know that you're in there. Now just come out and we can continue to pretend to be happy for our parents. Woo hoo!"

Hermione's head shot up about two centimeters, which was about as high up as it would go. Malfoy was pretending to be happy for his father?

"Okay, so how about after we can go for a walk, I know you want to do that. We can go nick some food from the ball and throw it at the squid?" Hermione wiggled a little more from where she was. "PANS! Stop it, please. You know that I can't take your neediness. Your cries for attention. Your constant dependency. Why can't you just understand that sometimes moving the focus away doesn't help? Well, with Granger, that's a different story. I still can't believe father told me about great-great granddad Ignatius. Who would have thought that a Malfoy would have anything to do with a muggle-born." Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing! She heard Malfoy let out a deep sigh. "I swear, if anyone knew this, wow, I don't know what I would do. Pans, listen, just stop trying to get the attention. Just get up. sniff I think I'm ready to take you up on your offer and talk."

"Ml-moy" Hermione finally got out.

"Pans?" Malfoy could tell that this wasn't Pansy.

"Mlp!"

"Who the hell are you?" Malfoy demanded.

"My-mah-me! Mlz!" The weight of the banner was becoming unbearable.

"Granger?" Malfoy jumped up. He could not believe what he had just told her! He quickly pulled the banner off of her, but before she could move or even think, he grabbed each of her upper arms and held her close to him as he pulled her up. "What the hall were you doing spying on me little mudblood?" he asked in a deathly silent whisper.

"I-I don't know. The banner was pretty heavy. I didn't even realize it was you until you just now called me Pansy." Hermione lied.

"Mudblood, I don't need this shit" Malfoy let go of her arms as he turned away from her.

"Malfoy," Hermione put her hand on his shoulder, "I know I may not be Pansy, but I can swear to secrecy if you ev-"

"I don't need your sympathy. I bet you're gonna go tell Potty and Weasel about all of this and then the three of you will re-open your little mystery solving club and find out about Ignatius Malfoy" Malfoy whipped around and faced her. Their faces were inches apart. "Well don't bother. I doubt there are any records of him remaining in the world. Forget everything you have heard or else." He turned away to begin to walk out, but Hermione was too quick for him.

"Petrificus Totalus!" She called. She walked over to face one of her greater enemies. "Look, Malfoy. I know what you're probably thinking. But, I just want you to know that no matter what house you're in, no matter what a bitch you are, no matter who you even are, I will always be there for anyone who needs it." She turned around and walked back to Viktor, un-petrifying Malfoy as soon as she was far enough.

"Vat vas it Herm-own-ninny?" Viktor asked as Hermione came back to him. He put his arms around her.

"Just a couple of students. It was my mistake, but they were doing something to the Slytherin bleachers so I had to fix it after they left." Hermione lied. "Let's go back to the ball."

Well, I hope you all enjoyed that little bit of the Yule Ball that no one knew about. Please R&R. I expect at least 10 reviews by my next update

Millies