Prompt: Ministry Gala, "Go talk to her already. You've been staring at her all night,and it's starting to get weird." Green dress, Jadeite necklace. "What if I kissed you right now?"

"What the bloody hell is this music?" Draco shouted over the racket coming from the speakers set up around the edge of the ballroom.

This year's Ministry Gala to raise money for preserving Centaur lands was unlike anything he'd been to before. There was a theme, "Raising Gold for Greener Pastures". Who came up with such tripe? There was a signature cocktail, a cucumber mojito. What the fuck was a mojito? And there was someone called a Disc Jockey, playing pre-recorded music, rather than a live band.

"It's something Muggle," Theo answered.

"Yes, I'd gathered that. Thank you for enlightening me." Draco rolled his eyes before turning away to survey the room once again. He brought his drink up to his lips, nearly choking as he inhaled in shock at the same time as the alcohol began to slide down his throat.

"Is that Hermione Granger?" Theo absently thumped his friend's back, while staring across the room and voicing Draco's thoughts.

It certainly was, but Salazar, how she'd changed in the past ten years. Ten years since she'd moved to The States. Fifteen years since they'd repeated their 8th year together.

"Who knew she looked so good in green?" Theo quirked an eyebrow as his eyes unabashedly slid down her form.

Draco thought, I knew, but couldn't voice that secret aloud.

Her slinky green dress clung to her in all of the right places. What in Merlin's name had she been doing in order to be so fit?

"Well, I don't see a ring on her finger, so I'm going over there," Draco heard Theo say as he stalked away. The bastard surely didn't waste any time.

Draco realized his drink was empty. Where had it gone? Mojitos aren't half bad, he realized.

"Did you see Granger?" Blaise sauntered up beside him at the bar.

Draco sighed.

"It's difficult to miss her dancing with our other best mate, isn't it?" He tried to act nonchalant, just giving a cursory glance over to where Theo was doing an approximation of dancing with the woman in question to the horrendous music. He gulped as Hermione laughed at something Theo said, tipping her head back, elongating her slender neck.

"It's difficult to miss the rack on her too. She's got some sort of necklace on; I can't quite see what's on the chain. Notice how it glints when the light hits the silver? She's hiding something down her decolletage. Guess there's one way to find out what it is." Blaise finished his drink and set the empty glass on the bar next to Draco.

"Do you think the tosser has even looked Granger in the eyes once?" Pansy asked, now standing next to Draco, contemplating the way Blaise towered over the petite curly-haired witch he was dancing with.

Draco was sure Blaise hadn't. He was also sure Blaise had discovered it was a Jadeite necklace that hung down between Hermione's breasts. Did it mean something she'd shown up wearing a green dress and the necklace he'd given her?

Draco was using the loo when none other than Harry Potter came bursting in, dragging Ron Weasley by the arm.

"Are you barmy?!" The Man Who Lived yelled at his best friend, either not noticing Draco's presence or perhaps wholly uncaring. "You can't just walk up to Hermione after not seeing her all this time and ask her 'What if I kissed you right now?'"

Draco snorted as he washed his hands.

"Something funny, ferret?" Weasley sneered at him.

Draco looked up, inspecting his reflection in the mirror, running a hand through his perfectly mussed hair. "Nope, nothing at all," he smirked as he spoke, keeping his back to Weasley, eyes flicking momentarily to make contact with the other man's reflection.

The redhead surprised Draco by picking up on the subtle disrespect. He tried to move towards Draco, his fists clenching and face turning red.

"Come on, Ron," Potter said, now dragging his friend back out of the bathroom.

When Draco once again entered the ballroom, his eyes darted around until they landed on her. Oliver Wood was a surprisingly good dancer. Or at least Draco thought he must be; it was difficult to tell what dancing to this type of music was supposed to look like. The Quidditch star's hips moved in time to the beat, gyrating lewdly and closer to Hermione than Draco considered decent.

A unbidden memory of just how her hips were capable of moving popped into Draco's mind.

Daphne materialized next to Draco as he looked back and forth between Hermione and the bar, contemplating in which direction to walk.

"Go talk to her already. You've been staring at her all night,and it's starting to get weird."