A/N: Ok, I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Here's the next Chapter! hope you like and Enjoy! Please let me know what you think!

Chapter 8

They arrived at Hogwarts and jumped out of the carriage, Malfoy paid the driver and they dashed inside carrying their purchases. The idea was to get there before everyone else got back from Hogsmead. They walked quickly into the entrance hall, talking in low whispers and were just saying how they thought they might just have pulled it off, when they literally ran into something very large and very solid, knocking them both to the ground.

They lay there slightly dazed before a huge hand reached down and picked Malfoy up and set him on his feet and what felt like had begun to beat him mercilessly, but actually turned out to be 'dusting' him off. This hand belonged to Vincent Crabbe.

"Sorry Draco, you were walking so fast, didn't see you until you were on the floor!" Crabbe said stupidly.

Malfoy only grunted in response as Crabbe continued to 'dust' him down. When he finally stopped, Malfoy looked his robes over.

"You missed a spot!" He informed Crabbe.

"Oops. Sorry Draco!" Crabbe said and 'dusted' the spot that Malfoy was pointing to, almost knocking him off his feet.

"That'll do, Crabbe. Now, help her to her feet." Malfoy said nodding his head at Hermione on the floor.

Crabbe did as instructed and picked Hermione up and set her on her feet. She tolerated this, but drew the line when he started 'dusting' her down too.

"Oh, no thank you, that won't be necessary." She said firmly, but he ignored her and kept going. She felt like a sail being buffeted brutally by the wind in a storm.

He had reached her bottom and was dusting that off now.

She squeaked and tried to fend him off, but he seemed quite determined to 'dust' her down.

"You have dirt on your robes!" He protested as she turned in a little circle to try and get a way from him, but he followed and turned the circle with her and now it looked like they were doing some strange dance.

Malfoy stifled a laugh. "It's usless trying to stop him" he informed her as she struggled with Crabbe "he simply won't stop until he has every speck of dust removed from your person!"

Hermione sighed irritably and stood still, closing her eyes in great discomfort as Crabbe happily finished his job.

"There you go, Draco." He beamed, seeking Malfoy's approval.

Malfoy walked around Hermione looking her up and down and then pulled out a white glove, put it on and then drew his finger along her shoulder and inspected his finger.

Hermione stood looking at Malfoy in disbelief.

"Very good Crabbe, not a speck of dust!" Malfoy said removing the white glove and putting it back in his pocket.

Crabbe beamed proudly.

"Now, why don't you go and find Goyle. I'll meet you two here for dinner." Malfoy told him.

Crabbe smiled and began walking towards the dungeons, but he stopped and came back, walking right up to Hermione.

"You're pretty!" He said stupidly, before grinning at Malfoy and walking away, leaving a very stunned, and somewhat disturbed Hermione.

"What was that?" She finally said.

"That was Crabbe." Malfoy replied, trying to suppress his laughter, but he failed miserably and began laughing madly, barely able to stand.

"You should…you should have seen…seen your face Granger!!!" he laughed, clinging to a pillar for support.

Hermione crossed her arms and glared down at him. "You could have stopped him you know! He was 'dusting' in places that aren't supposed to be touched!" She said angrily.

Malfoy laughed even harder "Oh! Oh, I can't breath!!!" He laughed a bit more, taking in huge gulps of air until he could speak. "I'll have to congratulate Crabbe! He finally managed to cop a feel!"

"Laugh it up, Malfoy!" Hermione cried waving her arms wildly "Never mind the fact that I was just molested by your gorilla friend!"

Malfoy was now on the floor with tears in his eyes laughing like a madman.

Hermione stood scowling at him with her arms folded and tapping her foot impatiently.

"Are you nearly done laughing?" She demanded "The rest of the school will be returning in a few minutes you know, and I don't think you want them to see you in this state!"

After a few minutes, Malfoy managed to compose himself and got up from his position on the floor.

"Thank you!" Hermione said indignantly. She glanced out of the open doors and her eyes widened.

"Oh no! They're coming! Quick!" She said frantically and took off running…well, she didn't know where she was running to, she was actually hoping that Malfoy had a plan.

He ran alongside her, before pulling her down towards the dungeons.

"Where are we going?" She asked as they ran.

"You'll see." Was his only reply.

They arrived at a door and flung it open, dashing inside.

Hermione stood catching her breath not realizing where she was…until she looked up to see Snape standing over her.

"To what do I owe this great honour?" Snape asked sarcastically.

Hermione looked at Malfoy and pointed to him "Ask…ask him…professor!" She gasped, clutching the stitch in her side.

Snape raised an eyebrow and looked to Malfoy, who was also catching his breath.

"Well?" Snape asked.

Malfoy held up one finger in a silent gesture of 'please wait one moment, won't you? I'm trying to get my breath back. Thank you for your patience.'

Snape stood over the two students with his arms folded and waited.

A few minutes later, they had caught their breath.

Snape turned to Malfoy. "Now, what are you doing in my classroom?"

"We need you to do a memory charm on Potter and Weasley Professor!" Malfoy said.

"Whatever for?" Snape demanded.

"Well, we sort of ran into them at Hogsmead, and they saw Granger like this," he said gesturing at Hermione "and we fooled Weasley, but I think Potter sort of suspects!"

Snape quirked an eyebrow. "Very well, I'll perform the memory charm tonight at dinner," He turned to Hermione "Miss Granger, you need to turn up late for dinner, and make sure they don't see you before…" Snape checked his pocket watch "6:30"

Hermione nodded.

"They won't remember meeting you in Hogsmead, so, as far as they'll be concerned they've never seen you in your new look before." Snape informed her. "No doubt they'll be very surprised."

"It's Weasley she should be worried about!" Malfoy snorted "You should have seen the way he was looking at her! I swear I saw drool!"

Hermione blushed and looked down at her shoes at the mere memory of it.

"Oh I believe you, Mr Malfoy." Snape said "I've seen Mr Weasley's drool in action for myself and it's not a pleasant thing to have to view." He told the two students before him, recalling the potions class where Granger had turned up wearing make-up.

There was a few moments of silence.

"Well, you two should be going and getting ready for dinner." Snape said gruffly.

"Right, thank you Professor." Malfoy said heading gladly for the door, Hermione close behind.

They left Snape's classroom and went their separate ways.

Hermione ran all the way up to Gryffindor tower, and when she got there, dashed straight up to her room. She didn't see Harry and Ron in the common room, and was relieved to find her dorm room empty too.

She threw her several bags of new clothes on the bed and began hanging them in her wardrobe, shoving her old clothes to one side, then stopped. A thought had just struck her. She had new wizarding clothes, but what about muggle clothes? She remembered her cousin, who was the coolest person she knew, and who had always been trying to get Hermione to change her dress sense. Hermione grabbed a quill and a piece of parchment and wrote a note to her cousin, asking for the clothes catalogue that she ordered from. Then addressed the letter to her parents, with a note attatched asking them to forward the letter to her cousin via Royal Mail, so her cousin wouldn't ask awkward questions about having a letter delivered by an owl.

Then she ran out as fast as she could up to the owlery, keeping her head down as she ran, not that anyone would recognize her anyway, but just to be safe.

She reached the owlery and called a tawny owl down, tied the letter to it's leg and it flew out of the window.

She made her way quickly back to her dorm room and began the task of choosing what to wear.

She pulled out a very nice pistachio green robe, and began to change. It hugged her figure in all the right places and it's design was almost off shoulder (But not quite) and had a flowing chiffon skirt, and the sleeves reached halfway down her skirt were split up to the shoulders so her arms were only covered at the back. (A/N: Think one of Arwin's dresses in LOTR).

She gazed at her reflection and gaped. This was so very different from what she normally wore, she barely recognized herself!

Suddenly, the door burst open and Lavender and Parvati came in gossiping and chatting. They stopped abruptly when they caught sight of Hermione and stared at her in astonishment.

'Uh-oh, busted!' Hermione thought. "Uh, hello!" She said nervously.
"Who are you?" Lavander finally asked.

"Lavender, it's me!" Hermione stated incredulously.

Lavander peered at Hermione, looking into her eyes. "Mione!!! Look at you!!! You look amazing!!!!" She suddenly squealed.

Parvati joined in immediately and for several minutes, Hermione found herself surrounded by her squealing roommates. When they had finally calmed down, they asked her what had happened.

"I just felt like it was time for a change!" Hermione shrugged. She didn't want to tell them that Malfoy was behind it all, they would freak out if they knew he had been in their room.

This explanation seemed to satisfy Lavander and Parvati.

"Oh my gosh, Pansy Parkinson is going to flip out! She's going to be so jealous!!" Parvati said with relish.
Lavander squealed excitedly "Oooh I can't wait to see the look on her face, or Malfoy's for that matter! He won't be able to find one nasty thing to say about you!"

Hermione laughed nervously at the mention of Malfoy. "oh I don't know, you know Malfoy, never has a nice thing to say about anyone but himself!"

Lavander put her head on one side thoughtfully. "I've often wondered if he's just very misunderstood by everyone. Maybe he's a really nice guy underneath that cold hard and sexy exterior!"

Parvati sighed dreamily and Hermione coughed nervously.

"Well, hadn't you two better be getting ready for dinner?" Hermione asked changing the subject.

Lavander and Parvati's eyes lit up.

"Oooh, we can get dolled up too! Maybe Draco will notice us this time!" Lavander squealed clapping her hands excitedly.

Hermione suppressed a laugh. "I'll leave you two to it then!"
She went over and sat on her bed and picked up her potions book and began studying.

It seemed like she'd only just picked the book up when Lavander and Parvati said they were ready to go and that they were 'fashionably late' for dinner.

Hermione looked at her clock and saw that it was almost 6:30. She remembered Snape saying not to come before then, so she figured by the time she got down to the Great Hall, Snape would have preformed the memory charm on Ron and Harry.

Hermione grew nervous as she walked down to the great hall. Everyone was already at dinner, so the corridors were deserted.

She approached the doors of the great hall and suddenly, they opened a crack and then Malfoy emerged, he was dashing over to her, but stopped abruptly when he spotted Lavender and Parvati. He looked around him before dashing into the entrance to the dungeons disappearing from view.

Lavander giggled. "Did you see him? He must be so shy!"

Hermione snorted. "Malfoy? Shy!"

She glanced at the entrance to the dungeons as she passed them and saw Malfoy signaling that he wanted to talk with her.

"Ditch them!" he mouthed gesturing at Lavander and Parvati.

Hermione had to think quickly. "Oh…silly me!" She said "I forgot something! You two go on ahead, I'll be there in a few minutes!" she said dashing back up the stairs.

Lavander and Parvati shrugged and went into the great hall.

Hermione turned to see if they were gone before heading back down the stairs where Malfoy met her.

"What's the matter?" she asked "Has Snape done the memory charm yet?"

"Yes" Malfoy replied "Everything is in order."

"Then what did you want to talk to me about?" Hermione demanded.

"I just wanted to –" Malfoy began to say, but stopped when Dean Thomas came out of the great hall.

Dean stopped when he saw Malfoy and Hermione.

"Are you new?" he asked Hermione, smiling.

"Dean, it's me!" Hermione said, getting frustrated that no-one seemed to recognize her anymore.

"Hermione?!" Dean asked, goggling.

"Yes!" Hermione answered.

Dean tore his eyes from Hermione to look at Malfoy. A confused expression came on his face.

"Shouldn't you be somewhere else?" Malfoy said in an irritated tone.

Dean looked even more confused, then angry.

"What are you doing to her?!" He demanded suspiciously, eyeing the close proximity that Malfoy was to Hermione.

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Oh please! Just because I happen to be in the same room as Granger, doesn't mean I'm doing anything! I may be in Slytherin, but we do have more important things to be doing than tormenting you Gryffindors!"

Dean continued to eye Malfoy suspiciously.

"Dean, it's alright. Malfoy and I were just discussing our class assignment for potions." Hermione said reassuringly.

This seemed to passify Dean, but he wasn't completely convinced that Malfoy wouldn't try to hex Hermione.

"Well, if he try's anything just –" Dean said.

"I'll scream." Hermione finished for him. "Don't worry, I can take care of myself."

"Okay." Dean said doubtfully and walked away.

"Over-protective bunch you Gryffindors aren't you." Malfoy remarked.

"The boys are, yes." Hermione responded "Now what was it you wanted to say?"

"Just that…that…" Malfoy fumbled over the words, then sighed, as though giving up "That you look nice." He ended.

"Oh…well, thank you. It's all your doing really." Hermione replied blushing.

Malfoy shrugged and poked the bottom stair with his shoe "I just worked with what was already there." He mumbled.

Hermione smiled. "Draco Malfoy, are you giving me a compliment?"

Malfoy blushed. He actually blushed!

"Yeah well, don't read too much into it Granger. It's a one time thing." He said nonchalantly.

"Well, I'm hungry, so I'm going into dinner." Hermione said, relieving Malfoy of his discomfort.

"Wait! Let me go in first!" he said dashing for the door "I want to see everyone's reaction when you walk in!" he added seeing the bemused expression on Hermione's face.

She shrugged and let him go in first and waited a few minutes before going in herself.

Taking a deep breath, Hermione opened the doors of the Great Hall and walked in.