Chapter 8: The Halloween Bash (and the Not-A-Date Afterwards)

It was the morning of the Halloween Bash. Everyone had just finished breakfast, and the Great Hall had been closed to students so that they could get ready. Hermione and Draco were helping prepare for the party. Ginny and Blaise were helping as well, as they helped Draco and Hermione with ideas. Professor McGonagall was there as well.

All of them were running around all day, and by 3:00 in the afternoon they were almost done. Throughout the day Ginny and Blaise got a little closer, and Hermione was sure they were friends by now.

"Well then. All we need to do is fix the lights and help the music people come in. All of you need time to get ready, so you can go. I'll finish up around here." Professor McGonagall tried to shoo them away.

"So Ginny-"

"Stop there Blaise. I think you keep forgetting that I'm dating someone."

"I'm always like this, though I wouldn't mind if you took me seriously."

"Ugh."

Ginny was really annoyed at Blaise because he flirting with her all evening.

Blaise and Draco made plans to get ready for the Bash in the Head Dorms, so Hermione and Ginny were going to get ready in the Gryffindor tower.

"Wait a minute Ginny, I have to get my costume. Then we can go."

"OK."

They reached the Head Dorms.

"Unity"

The door opened.

"I trust these two enough to tell them."

She told Draco before he had a chance to ask why she told them the Password.

Blaise already had his costume, so they went inside.

Hermione grabbed her costume and came back out. Both of them walked to the Gryffindor tower to get ready.

"Please can I do your make up Hermione?"

"Fine."

Hermione was getting tired of Ginny asking, and she knew that Ginny could do it a lot better than she could.

It took a while, but by 6:00, both of them were completely ready. Hermione still didn't know how Ginny managed to make them look so good.

The Halloween Bash started at 6:00, and Hermione had to be there, so she started down to the common room with Ginny behind her.

"Woah."

Harry and Ron were downstairs. Both of them were already dressed up, Harry as a Prince, and Ron as a knight. Both of them were gaping at Hermione and Ginny as they came down.

"Woah Ginny, you look so beautiful."

"You look nice too, my dear prince."

"Woah Hermione, you look nice. If I didn't know it was you, I wouldn't have recognized you. What's your costume?"

"I'm a Greek Princess."

Hermione's sentence was cut a little short, as she was wary of Ron. The four of them spent some the talking, and they went down by 6:30.

Once they entered the Great Hall, they could see that the party had started. Some people were already there, but almost everyone was entering at that time.

"Woah, Ginny, Hermione, you did a really nice job with this place."

"Thank you."

Then they dispersed. Harry and Ginny went off to dance while Hermione went to find Professor McGonagall. Eventually she found the professor.

"Hello Professor McGonagall. Is there anything else I have to do?"

"No dear. There is nothing else. Go have fun." Hermione nodded and went back into the crowd. She saw the snacks table, and she got something to eat. She was sitting at the table when she saw a costume that caught her eye. It was a Greek warrior. It was the perfect costume to complement hers. She tried to see who was wearing it, and to her surprise she saw that it was none other than Draco. He was walking towards her.

"Hello." Draco tried to talk to her.

"I see that our costumes match. You truly look like a goddess. What's your name?"

Hermione was confused. Draco didn't recognize her.

"Draco, it's me."

"Woah, Hermione? You look completely different. I like the look."

"Thanks."

They sat and talked for a while. Then a slow song came on.

"Well, we match, and the music is right, so do you want to dance?"

"I thought you would never ask."

Draco grabbed Hermione's hand, and pulled her into a dance. Hermione was having a lot of fun, and even though it was a party, and nobody was really slow dancing, she had a lot of fun dancing with Draco. She lost herself in the music and found herself wishing that they could do this more often. She wished that he would just ask her out. She knew that he liked her, so she didn't know what was stopping her from saying anything.

The song stopped too soon. After the song ended, both of them just stared into each other's eyes. Slowly, Draco leaned into Hermione. She wanted to kiss him so badly, and she leaned in too. Suddenly, as if they she had awoken from a dream, Draco pulled away.

"Sorry, I don't know what's gotten into me. I should go."

He started to walk away.

"No Draco, wait!"

He couldn't hear her. Stupid Hermione, you ruined your chance. You should have kissed him. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Pansy shaking her head. It seemed as though Pansy wanted them to kiss. Hermione wondered what Pansy and Ginny were planning. What if Ginny told Pansy what her costume was, so that Draco would match with her on purpose? She knew that she was assuming a lot of things, but it made sense, and it seemed like something Ginny would do. Hermione decided to ask Ginny later, and she went back to having fun.

The party started to stop at 1:00. People were getting tired, and they started to leave. Hermione decided to get some sleep, so she went up to the dorm rooms, took off her costume, and went to sleep.

October 31, 1998

Dear Diary,

Today was the Halloween Bash. I had a lot of fun. I danced with Draco. It was a lot of fun and I wish I could do it again. Our costumes matched by coincidence. I'm falling hard for Draco, and I know he likes me too, but none of us are doing anything to move it along.

I can't trust Ron anymore. I know I don't have reason, but I feel like he is up to something. Sadly, I can't do anything about it, except ignore him. It is around 2:00 in the morning, and I am really sleepy. I should probably go to sleep.


The next day Hermione slept in. It was around 9:00 when she got up. She saw that Draco had come back, but it looked like he was still asleep. Hermione got ready and went down for Breakfast. When she got down to the Great Hall, she saw that it was completely cleaned up. It looked as though there was never a party last night.

As she finished up her breakfast she saw that Professor McGonagall was calling her and Draco over to the teacher's table. Draco had also just finished breakfast, and both of them walked up to the professor.

"Obviously this is a little premature, but there are some more things to plan. The Thanksgiving feast won't take a lot of planning, as all we need is a list of food. Then we also need to plan a Christmas Ball. It is going to be the last day before the holidays, so students can come to the ball, and still go home to their families. It has to be a formal ball. I am telling you this now, so you can start planning accordingly."

"OK professor. When do you want to plans for both by?"

"I want the menu on November 23, and we don't have to go over it, so you can just hand it to me."

"I want complete plans for the Winter Ball on December 10th. Students go off on Holiday starting December 20th, so the ball will be on the 19th. This one, I want to go over with you."

"OK professor."

"That's all."

Both of them walked back.

"I guess we have planning to do then."

"Yeah. I didn't finish me breakfast, so..."

"OK."

Draco headed back to the Slytherin table, while Hermione went up to the Head Dorms to do homework. When she went into the dorms she heard a sound coming from her room.

"Who's there?"

Ron came out of her room holding her diary.

"How did you get in here? Why do you have that? You know how important it is to me."

"Exactly. What is this Hermione? I love Draco Malfoy. You wrote so much about the ferret. I've been trying to tell you that he's no good, but you don't listen, and you kept getting close to him. You are not supposed to love him! You are supposed to love me!"

"No Ron. I can love him if I want. You on the other hand, only want to think the worst of him. I don't want to love someone as prejudiced as you."

"I'm not the prejudiced one, he is. He's a Death Eater for Merlin's sake. Mione, you can't trust him."

"I can and I will. I would trust him with my life. I can't say the same for you. After all, who abandoned Harry and I last year?"

Ron lost his control and slapped Hermione.

In her shock she screamed at him.

"I forgave you for everything and you treat me like this!? I said it once, and I'll say it again. Why do you always have to ruin everything?!"

She couldn't hold it in anymore and punched him in the face.

"Just leave and never come back!"

"Fine. Don't come crawling back when he betrays you."

He looked like he was hiding something as he turned and walked away.

Hermione finally released all her pent up emotions and she cried.

Little did Hermione know, but Draco was outside the entire time. He heard the entire conversation, and left right before Ron came outside. Draco was so confused, and he couldn't think about anything except hurting Ronald Weasley. His blood boiled with anger at the fact that he hurt Hermione. He tried to call himself down. He wasn't supposed to hear the conversation, so he couldn't do anything. He focused on the other part of the conversation. Hermione liked him. She actually liked him. Draco knew that he didn't deserve her, but her main goal was to make her happy. Ron had broken her so much, and he was going to put her back together. He regretted that he didn't kiss her yesterday. He didn't know if she wanted to, and if she didn't, it would have been a disaster for him. Now he knew that she wanted it. He was going to give her what he denied her yesterday. He went down to the kitchen to plan something for Hermione.

In the meanwhile, Ginny came up to Hermione's room. She hadn't seen Hermione all morning, and Ginny was worried if something was wrong.

It turned out that she was right as she walked into the head dorms to see Hermione in tears. She was an absolute mess.

"Hermione! What happened?"

"Ron doesn't want to do anything except ruin my life."

"What did my idiot brother do now?"

Hermione told her the entire story, starting with the mysterious Slytherins, ending with when Ron walked out of the Head Dorms.

"Oh my Hermione! Are you ok?"

"After I get revenge on him I will be."

"OK. Come with me. We have to tell Harry, so that we can plan something."

"Fine."

Hermione pulled herself together and made herself look moderately presentable. Then both of them went to the Gryffindor tower. There she spent a few hours trying to forget about Ron. She still wanted to plan revenge, but she decided to do it later.

In the meanwhile, Draco brought a tablecloth and laid it in the middle of the head dorms. He brought food and candles. He decided that today he was going to ask Hermione out with a picnic dinner. By the time he was ready, it was way past lunch, and Hermione had been gone for a couple hours. Draco was waiting for Hermione to come.

Around 5:00 in the afternoon Hermione walked back to the Head Dorms. She opened the door to find a surprise. Draco was sitting on a tablecloth on the ground with a picnic setting around him. He had candles around him.

"I overheard your conversation with Ron earlier today."

"Oh."

"I wasn't trying to be a stalker or anything, but I just overheard what happened."

He faltered. Hermione could tell that he was having trouble thinking of what to say.

"I wasn't suggesting that."

"OK good. Well, what I wanted to say was, I like you too, and I hope you would like to go out with me."

It seemed as though he couldn't get that sentence out fast enough, but Hermione didn't mind.

"Yes. Yes! I would love to go out with you."

He sighed. The worst part was over.

"By the way, this isn't a date. Just a dinner."

"Now I'm excited for a date."

"Good."

They both sat down and started eating.

"You know, this is really romantic for our first not-a-date."

"I'm a Malfoy. Of course this is over what anyone else could do."

She laughed, and it was music to Draco's ears. They spent the evening talking. After they finished eating, and had put everything away. Now both of them were just sitting next to each other. Hermione had completely forgotten about Ron and revenge. She didn't know how, but Draco always managed to make her feel at peace.

Draco didn't know how he managed to fall so deep in love with Hermione. Just last year they hated each other's guts, now he wanted to kiss her and love her forever. Suddenly he got an idea. They were technically dating now, so she wouldn't mind if he kissed her, right? He decided to go for it.

He leant in, and Hermione panicked for a moment. He wanted to kiss her, and Hermione didn't want to do anything wrong. She just wanted to kiss him.

Normally she was a person of logic, but this was Draco. He always messed with her head in funny ways. She tried to let go of her fears, and she kissed him.

She heart was beating at the speed of light, and she could barely breath. Draco ran his hand through her hair, and Hermione melted in his arms. His cold lips tasted like mint, and Hermione was enjoy the kiss more than she thought possible. They stayed there for what seemed like forever, until they finally broke away for air.

"Wow."

"So..."

"i have no other words to describe it."

"I know I'm amazing you don't have to tell me."

"This sounds oddly like the conversation on my birthday."

"Yeah, only now you let yourself enjoy it."

"I know."

"We're avoiding the actual thing."

"We should just leave it at wow."

"Ok."

Both of them stopped talking and they just enjoyed each other's presence. Without knowing, both of them fell asleep on that tablecloth, lying in each other's arms.

I hope you liked it. I had so much trouble writing the kiss scene, so I hope it wasn't too bad. I managed to get this chapter out a little more quickly compared to usual.