It was almost midnight of Christmas Eve. It was the night of the Yule Ball. Draco Malfoy stood leaning against a wall, eating a green apple, one hand shoved in his pocket. His date, Pansy Parkinson had claimed to need her beauty sleep and had already gone up to her dorm.
He suddenly heard screams of a girl, someone yelling through tears. He saw Hermione Granger wiping her wet eyes, yelling at Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, something about Viktor Krum. He stood there, surprised and waited for the shrieking and the argument to pass.
A few minutes later, Hermione took off her shoes and sat on the steps, sobbing, messing up her beautiful periwinkle blue evening gown. It was almost hard to recognize her. He had never seen her dressed up, her hair done like that. She indeed looked beautiful.
NO, Draco! He thought to himself, he couldn't feel affection for a mudblood. He felt a feeble throb in his chest. Did anybody realize all those times he bullied Granger were due to prejudice in his family?
Putting his thoughts aside, he swaggered up to her and sat next to her, gently putting a hand on her shoulder. She whipped up her head and glared at him,"Malfoy…"
Draco pulled his hands back, "Hey, don't go off on me, I was just trying… to.. uh.. um.. make you like, er.. feel better."
Hermione frowned, and wiped away the last of her tears. "Since when do you care, Draco?"
"Since… I don't know." He shrugged. "I guess I don't enjoy watching beautiful young ladies cry."
There was definitely something fishy going on, Hermione thought. She knew all the times Malfoy had bullied them. But she didn't care. She was here at the Yule Ball, her date had abandoned her, and her best two friends had made her cry. She smiled weakly and put her head on his shoulder. "Thank you."
Draco swung his arm over her shoulder and rubbed her arm, "It's okay. I wasn't doing anything, so might as well make myself useful."
Hermione smiled softly. How had she blindly missed this small sensitive side of the handsome blonde man next to her?
They sat there in silent for the next few minutes, and finally he mustered up his courage and looked at her, "Would you like to dance?"
A slow smile crept over Hermione's face. "I thought you'd never ask."