a/n: Thanks for the follows and the review guys! I was intending to update every week, and I'm still intending to. Sorry about this week, though, I've been sick. There will be another chapter up, soon!

And of course, thank you to the Necromancer, for editing :)

Chapter 2

Hermione

When Professor McGonagall came back, Madame Pomfrey woke Hermione up with a gentle shake. She had been sleeping off the healing potions, because they'd taken so much from her. Hermione sat up with a little tenderness in her jaw, but everything seemed fine.

"Good evening. Are you feeling okay?" Madame Pomfrey's face looked worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How long was I alseep?"

"Just two hours. But, unfortunately, that means you've missed the dinner feast. I can have one of the elves bring you something up if you'd like."

"No, I think I'm fine." No need to make a house-elf's life harder because she had a git as a dance partner.

"Do you know who cursed you?"Professor McGonagall now spoke.

"I'm not really sure, Professor." She figured Malfoy had to be involved, but she would have seen it if he did it, being his dance partner and all. So she couldn't very well go blaming things on him without knowing for sure, even if she did want to give him another nice punch in the nose. She also didn't really know much about what went on, because she was mostly obscuring her view with her hands, trying to make sure no one saw the buck teeth that had mysteriously appeared.

McGonagall gave her a meaningful look. "Well, Miss Granger, if being with Mr Malfoy is too much, I can switch up the partners a little. I would have thought that out of anybody, you would be able to deal with his attitude. But if it is taking too much from you, let me know."

Great. Professor McGonagall had just played THAT card. She wouldn't let McGonagall down. Besides, she would prove to herself that she could take Malfoy and his stupid jokes.

"It's okay, Professor. You don't have to change things around just for me. It's only a week."

The older woman almost looked relieved. "Good. You can keep him in line. Now, I will see you tomorrow at 4pm prompt, Miss Granger." With a quick nod, she had turned on her heels and whipped out of the room.

Madame Pomfrey was muttering to herself as Hermione got out of bed and the mediwitch took her sheets. Hermione thought it was a good idea not to bother her as the student witch slipped out the door.

After she got out of the hospital wing, Hermione slowly wandered in the opposite direction of Gryffindor tower. She didn't really want to head directly there, because she knew she would have to talk about how Draco was as a dance partner, and she really just wanted to forget the whole mess. She thought that maybe if she waited long enough, they would all have gone to bed. Harry and Ron would wait up for her, but she could almost always deal with those two. And she wanted to thank them for earlier, anyway.

She stopped by the kitchens, because it turned her walk into a much longer walk, and she had missed dinner. She went to go see Dobby, and see if any of the other house-elves had taken to her S.P.E.W. idea.

Half an hour later, she had a few cakes for Ron and Harry stuffed in the pockets of her robes and a few less galleons. She had left a few on the tables, hoping that the elves would notice after she left. She had tried once again to get them to take them outright, but they seemed even less receptive than the last time she tried.

She was going up a corridor when she bumped into someone else sneaking down to the kitchens. As she fell into the wall, she saw the blond that she'd been trying to push out of her head all evening.

"Damn, Granger, you're as bad at walking as you are when attempting to dance."

"Maybe it's the partner." She spouted as she stood straight and brushed off her robes.

At that point, he got very close to her, trying to throw her off. "You can't honestly believe that a mudblood would ever hold their own next to a Malfoy."

She stared right back at him, challenging his grey-blue eyes with her brown ones. "Well, the people who stand next to you are usually as pig-headed as you, so I do believe that anyone with morals could actually 'hold their own'."

She sauntered off, throwing off as much confidence as she could muster. When she turned the corner, she leaned against the wall. She'd never been that close to Malfoy before, or exchanged that many words in a private area. She hadn't noticed before, but they had been alone. Completely. She couldn't remember the last time she had been alone with him. But, he wasn't all that scary, she told herself. She'd seen his eyes flicker when she called him out. He was almost surprised. She shook her head, getting thoughts of the Slytherin off her mind.

A deep breath, and she was off to the Gryffindor common room to give Harry and Ron their presents and gratitude.

Draco

Granger had challenged him. She had insulted him. She had called his family pig-headed.

He should be more offended, but he couldn't help feeling a little electrified. She had stood up to him, and he wanted to keep arguing with her. No one had ever really argued with him.

Crabbe and Goyle aren't much for conversation and he was pretty sure they were scared of him, anyway. Pansy was a whiny bitch who liked arguing, but she never actually had a legitimate statement. Blaise Zabini was really the only one who ever put him in his place but that was very rare and he always said it as part of the conversation, no argument needed. He remembered the time Blaise had first told him off.

They'd been in their second year. Malfoy had been trying to show off that he knew how to counter-jinx when no one else could do it right. He had dared Goyle to think of his worse hex, and send it at him. Draco would throw it out of the way, to prove he was the better wizard.

Honestly, Draco had only successfully done a counter-jinx once, so when Goyle threw a puss-squirting hex at him (thank Salazar that that was all Goyle could come up with) he said the wrong thing and amplified the hex instead.

Crabbe and Goyle had run off, scared of what their leader would do to them, but Zabini had stayed and helped Malfoy get his face back to normal.

"Well, that was dumb. Try not to let your hubris get in the way again." Blaise had said. Draco had felt thoroughly idiotic, but Blaise had told him what he thought, straight out. That was one of the best things about Blaise. He always knew what to say and how to say it. Draco never even wanted to argue with him.

But, Granger was different. He enjoyed arguing with the Gryffindor Princess. It was – fun. He couldn't wait to do it again and watch as she gnawed on her lip to come up with an answer, and then see that glint when she found something good to say.

Some good banter was entertaining, even if it was with Gryffindor scum.

Hermione

Hermione woke up early and just laid in bed for a bit. Thoughts of yesterday and last night racing through her head, tantalizing her with the hope that maybe it was all just a bad dream. The dancing, the fighting, being alone in a dark hallway with Draco Malfoy. She wasn't quite sure why, but she hadn't mentioned that little adventure to Ron and Harry when they were talking last night. Maybe if she ignored it, it would just disappear from her memory.

Maybe if she stayed in bed, everything would go away and she wouldn't have to deal with dancing with the Slytherin ass.

But she had classes all morning and she certainly wasn't about to tarnish her perfect attendance record, so she finally got herself to get up and trudge to the baths.

The morning slid by just a little too fast for Hermione's liking. Pretty soon it was lunchtime and she wandered into the Great Hall, anticipating what was going to happen later.

She sat down next to Harry, Ron, and Neville and picked at her food. While Harry and Ron were in a heated discussion about Quidditch, Hermione talked to Neville. She thanked him for standing up with her the day before, and he told her about asking Ginny to the ball. He hid a sweet little smile when he mentioned the redhead. Hermione smiled too, because the thought of Ginny and Neville would be really nice.

After lunch, Hermione, Ron, Harry and Neville were joined by a few younger gryffindors heading down to the dungeons. When Ron and Harry asked each other why there were younger students with them, Hermione explained that it was most likely girls and boys that had been asked by an older student, and were still required to dance.

Her theory was confirmed when Ginny joined them, excitedly talking to Hermione about what they would wear..

"We need to go to Hogsmeade this weekend so I can pick up a dress." She was grinning while she talked. "Mum thought that I wouldn't be joining the celebrations this year, so I didn't get to bring one. Hermione, you'll know how to help me. Oh bollocks, I have to owl mum that I won't be coming back for Christmas."

"Of course I'll help, Gin. And I'll go up to the Owlrey with you right after this."

"Thanks! Oh, and don't you need a dress as well? Or have you got one and it's as much of a secret as your date?" She said this last bit a little quieter, but the boys were too caught up in their conversation to notice, anyway.

Hermione wished that she could be as excited as her red-headed friend, but she couldn't really decide how she felt about the dance. She had kept her little secret of who she was going with from all but Ginny, and she was excited about it, but not as much as she felt that she should be. She grinned at her friend, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Nope. You can help me pick out the perfect dress, too." They walked with arms around each other, and Hermione was feeling slightly more aflutter by the time they descended the stairs.

However, all the excitement she had gotten from her friend escaped when she walked into the room and saw all the Slytherins sitting up along the walls.

Draco

Last night had been weird. But ever since Granger had gotten in his face last night, Draco had come up with a new tactic. He was going to get under her skin about everything. He'd make sure that this hour or two of every day was the worst she had. He would get her all worked up again. And he wasn't about to admit that the reason for it was to get her worrying her lip again.

As she walked in, he smirked at her. She looked away to talk to Weasel. Why did she even talk to him? It's not like there was anything special about him. He wasn't even good at anything.

Damn, why did he care who she talked to?

McGonagall and Snape were at the forefront of the room again. She was going on about a more complicated part of the dance that she was going to teach. Damn. What if he didn't know that part? Maybe he'd practice on his own, just to show up Granger that much more when they were here in class. He didn't know why he was taking this to heart, but he felt an obligation to make as much a fool out of the Gryffindor princess as possible.

And as a sidenote, not that he would ever admit this to anyone, he honestly enjoyed dancing. Not to mention that it was another proof of status. Most of the higher-ranking members of Wizarding society had kept up the tradition of teaching their heirs to dance and dancing was a show of a pureblood upbringing.

He sauntered over to Granger with a big smirk on his face. When she saw it, she scowled at him. He smiled even bigger at that; this was going to be fun.

"What are you possibly smiling about, Malfoy?" She berated him as he took her hand and led her to the floor. "Another slimy, underhanded trick up your sleeve?"

He was taken aback by the fact that she was so blatantly standing up to him again, and took a minute or two to process what she'd said. Did she think that the only way he could win was with magic? Okay, he'd play it her way and he'd STILL win.

"Lost for words already?" She wasn't giving him any leeway today. She was clearly still upset about what had happened the day before, even though he wasn't the one that did it.

"No, just wondering which creature I haven't compared you to, yet. You know, I really don't like reusing material. It makes me look cheap." He smirked at her again.

She glared and rolled her eyes at his comment, then turned away to face McGonagall, who was speaking to the class.

After the spat early on, there wasn't too much fighting between him and the Gryffindor for the rest of practice. He had noticed Professor McGonagall keeping a close eye on them since yesterday, and thought it best to keep off her radar. It wasn't that easy when McGonagall had come over to inspect them and take a closer look at what they were doing wrong for at least twenty minutes. She was clearly making sure that a repeat of yesterday didn't happen. She obviously also believed that it was all his fault.

Oh well, let her think it was him. He'd take credit for a curse like that. And it's not like McGonagall is going to do anything to him, because Snape would always take care of it.

Hermione

Hermione had asked her best friends to help her practice. Ron wasn't very good, but he stuck to the idea that he shouldn't ever need it and it didn't really matter to him if he was a bad dancer, whereas, Harry had just found out that him and his date were supposed to start off the evening because he was a Triwizard Champion. Suddenly struck by the epiphany that he was going to have to dance in front of hundreds of people, Harry took Hermione up on her offer of practice.

So, they waited for everyone to leak out of the common room: it was easier to do such things without an audience. Harry and Hermione shoved all the puffy chairs to the walls and Ron sat on the edge of the room, agreeing to start and stop the music.

Right from the beginning, it was bad. Even worse than when she danced with Malfoy, which she wasn't about to admit to anyone besides herself. She had already stepped on Harry's foot twice and they had crashed into each other every single time they had tried to spin. He didn't lead well, and she was a little too clumsy to not have a strong lead. 'Which Malfoy was', Hermione found herself thinking.

About fifteen minutes later, they decided to take a break because they weren't getting anywhere. That was when Ron decided to try and stood up with Hermione. With Ron, it was just as bad, possibly even worse. He was a decent lead, but no better than Harry at trying to keep a beat. Ron kept trying to move a half second too slow, which was when she was supposed to move. They were really awkward too, because Ron had grown so much taller and bulkier than her over the past summer. Neither of them fit with her well.

"We could practice tomorrow night. Maybe we'll get better if we practice together." Harry was looking hopefully at Hermione.

"Um, maybe." She was trying to help them out, but she knew that this wasn't going to help her any.

They only had half an hour under their belts, but it seemed like so much longer to Hermione. Hermione stayed up, saying that she had wanted to finish her potions essay that was due next week. Even though they weren't currently having potions, Snape was making sure that they didn't forget that he was the toughest teacher at Hogwarts.

Hermione sat down to write, but she couldn't focus. She wanted to practice some more. She wanted to make sure that Malfoy couldn't make fun of her tomorrow. Since she didn't want to insult her friends, and being watched was not ideal, she closed her books and crept down the porthole, thinking of the only place she knew where she could be completely alone.