Here is chapter 10!
Just so you know, I'm going out of town until 11/21 so there may or may not be any updates until Monday.
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I was thanking Merlin that the first half of the term was officially over, but with that came the Slughorn Christmas party and I had been dreading it since my encounter with Malfoy in the empty corridor that day. Padma told me to just gracefully back out by saying my mom wanted me home early or I needed to finish an essay, something like that.

But the days quickly turned into weeks and I found that I had become a chicken when it came to dates. I never cancelled on Blaise and once I hit the 'week until the party' mark, I had missed my opportunity to back out gracefully.

Instead, I wrote my older sister, Vanessa, and begged her to let me borrow a dress. She sent one two days later (a strapless, dark blue number that had sequins across the top) with a rather snarky note telling me to not spill anything on it and that she wanted it back as soon as I got home from school.

The afternoon of the party, I met with Padma in one of the girl's bathrooms on the fourth floor. Her arms were loaded with makeup, hair supplies, and accessories when she barged in the door, scaring me to pieces.

"What the hell is all that for?" I asked, astounded as she dumped it into a dry sink. "Are you moving into the bathroom? I don't think all of that is necessary!"

She shot me a look of disbelief. "You're going to a formal party. Remember the Yule Ball?"

My mind flashed back to frilly dresses and Padma getting me ready for three hours straight. My heart started to race in terror and it must have shown on my face, because she started to laugh. "I'm not going to be that long. Besides, we don't have that much time." She pulled her wand out of her back pocket. "And I'm much better with this now."

I looked at the wand uncertainly, but Padma didn't notice. She sat me down on a stool she had conjured, pulling half of my dark hair and piling it on top of my head.

"Couldn't you have put a cushion on this thing?" I asked as I squirmed to get more comfortable on the wooden seat. "I think I sat on a splinter."

"Oh shut up and stop complaining."

I felt like I had sat there for hours, and I probably had, because by the time she had finished with me the sun had gone down and I could hear the distant chinking of glass dishes on the wooden tables along with murmured voices of students and staff.

"Okay," she said gleefully as she stood up straight, stretching her back quickly as she did so. "Go change into your dress, but don't look in the mirror yet!"

I obliged her, more so to make her happy, and grabbed the dress from its hanging places on a stall door of one of the bathrooms. I quickly pulled off my leggings, tank top, and zip up sweat shirt and shimmied into the knee-high dress. I zipped it up as much as I could in the back, zipping the rest up with my wand when I could no longer reach. I stepped into the silver-glitter four inch heels that Padma had brought and opened the door to the stall.

Padma gasped in delight, ushering me quickly over to the mirror.

"Geesh, Padma, there is no need to cry. I see you every-"

I stopped as I took a look in the mirror. Whoever Padma had replaced me with was standing opposite me in the mirror. Her dark hair had been curled into big ringlets that were pinned softly to the back of her head, giving it a half up, half down appearance. The dark blue makeup brought out her eyes and Padma had somehow matched a blush perfectly to her already-tan skin complexion.

"You look beautiful!" Padma squealed as she swiveled me around so she could take a better look. I tripped over my own feet slightly. "You're going to need to learn to walk in those. Very fast."

I tripped and stumbled my way toward the potion master's party, where Blaise was waiting for me just outside the entrance.

"You look beautiful!" he exclaimed as he took my hand. "Let's get inside. I want to show you off now."

I smiled at his comments, but I was slightly put out when the butterfly feeling I had been expecting didn't show up. Nevertheless, I took a deep breath and plunged into the Slughorn Christmas Party.

The look of Slughorn's office was rather stunning, for he had transformed his space into a vast tent-looking room with golden, emerald, and crimson drapes slung across the ceiling. Some of the drapes covered the stone walls, daintily grazing the floor as they moved with the breeze. Large golden lanterns with deep crimson patterns decorated the room, casting an orange-ish glow on the crowd.

"Wow," I whispered more to myself than anything as I followed Blaise through the crowd, almost running straight over a rather small house elf. He grinned back at me, skirting around a group of older pipe-smoking wizards. I brushed the smoke out of my face with my free hand, coughing slightly as it drifted back into my vicinity.

"Slughorn really knows how to throw a party," Blaise murmured as he put his hand on the small of my back, summoning over a rather tall, lanky boy with a tray full of flutes. I had no idea what was inside them, but I took one from Blaise, thanking him politely as I did.

"Neville? What are you doing here?" I finally said as realization hit me. The tall, lanky boy carrying the tray was Neville Longbottom and I had barely even recognized him. Blaise shot me a look of disgust for talking to the guy, but I ignored it.

Neville shrugged, an unhappy look on his face. "This was the only way I could get an invite," he said before turning around to dip back into the crowd. I felt really bad for him. He always seemed to get the raw end of the deal.

"What's happened to you?" I overheard Harry ask Hermione, who was casting anxious glances around the crowd as if trying to avoid someone.

"Oh, I've just escaped- I mean, I've just left Cormac," Hermione whispered back, craning her head over the crowd. "Let's move this way. We'll get a better look, he's so tall."

I smirked to myself as she walked by me. There was a twinge of guilt that I had set McLaggen on her, but it was quickly snuffed when I was reminded that she was me just a few weeks ago. I noticed Snape had slunk into the party and I grabbed Blaise by the wrist, pulling him in the opposite direction.

"What are you doing?" Blaise laughed. He gently slid his wrist out of my grasp and placed his hand on my lower back, steering me away from the crowd.

"Trying to get away from Snape," I giggled back, allowing him to lead me toward a door at the other end of the office. "Where are you taking me?"

"You'll see."

He glanced around quickly; making sure no one was paying any attention to us. The only people in the vicinity were two older witches, both of them sprawled over a tall wooden table, a crystal ball set in a vintage golden piece between them.

The door opened with a sharp click and I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone had noticed us. They hadn't. Blaise pushed open the door with one hand, steering me into the dark room with the other. The door shut behind us with a snap.

"Blaise? What are we-?"

He cut me off by crashing his lips onto mine. It wasn't like the kiss we shared a few weeks back after the quidditch game. This kiss was incredibly uncomfortable and not the slightest bit romantic. He pushed me up against the door, bending down to run his hands up my legs.

I managed to wriggle away from his lips and slap at his hands, which were starting to inch up my dress. "Stop! Blaise-" He responded by forcing his lips onto mine again, effectively cutting me off.

I pushed him away and, unlike Malfoy, he stumbled back. An angry expression flashed across his face.

"What? Isn't this what you want?" He took a step toward me, grabbing my hips and moving his head down to mine for the third time. I ducked, causing him to smack his head hard against the wooden door.

"I thought we were just coming to have a good time!" I managed to sputter out after I had created a comfortable distance between us.

Blaise laughed humorlessly. "Me? Have a good time with you?" He ran his fingers through his dark hair. "Do you know why I even asked you out in the first place? Hm? Draco Malfoy dared me to."

I felt a piece of me deep down start to numb. I couldn't feel my feet, my heart had dropped to my stomach.

"Merlin, you think someone like me would be willing to go out with you?" He laughed humorlessly again. "Oh, that's good. You want to know something else you stupid mudblood-loving bitch? The dare was to get in your pants by Christmas. Seems like I'm going to succeed."

A hungry, almost competitive look jumped back into his eyes and I scrambled across the dark room, narrowly avoiding his grabbing hands as I threw open the door and tripped back into the party.

No one had noticed my appearance, for the door was far from the crowded area of the office. In the orange light, I glanced back to see Blaise's stony face glaring at me from the doorway.

I turned away from him, pushing my way through the crowd.

"Natalie! Are you okay?" Harry had asked, as I had just rammed my shoulder into his back. He grabbed my hand instinctively, but I snatched it away in fright. The look of terror in my eyes must have startled him, because he let go of my hand as if it were on fire.

I continued to push through the crowd until I saw the door to the entrance, where I stumbled out into the hallway. It felt like I had stepped outside from the instant temperature change, but I didn't care at that moment in time. I just wanted to get as far away from the party as physically possible.

I didn't really know where I was going, but my feet seemed to carry me to hallway directly above the party. I could hear the music thump beneath me. Muffled voices carried through the floor.

"I'm surprised to see you up here."

I whipped around as my hand shot up to my mouth. I hadn't realized that I had been crying, but as my hand touched my face, it became wet with tears. Malfoy was seated on a large windowsill overlooking the lake. The moon's light was reflecting beautifully off the white snow, making it seem like it was almost daylight.

"Blaise," I began, "the party-"

Malfoy shook his head as he climbed off the windowsill and stood in front of me. Even in my four inch heels, he had a good five inches on me. His hand lightly brushed away the tears that still covered my face.

"What happened?" he asked quietly as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

I sucked in a deep breath. "Blaise and I…he took me into this dark room and…he started to feel me up." I let out a short sob. "And it was a-awful! He wouldn't stop- even though I asked him to!"

Malfoy stopped wiping away my tears. He actually seemed to freeze in place.

"What else did he say?" he whispered, almost afraid to hear the answer.

My mind reeled back to the memory. I wanted to push it out of my head, but something Blaise had said jumped at me and I took a step back from Malfoy, looking up at him in disgust.

"He said that you guys had a dare that you could get into my pants by Christmas." I was silent for a moment, waiting for him to answer. When he didn't, I asked if it were true.

He took a deep breath, nodding his head slightly as he did so. I glared up at him in anger.

"Are you kidding me?" I felt a fresh batch of tears sting my eyes, threatening to fall with even the slightest movement. "After all that time we were friends and you didn't bother to mention this stupid bet you two had planned? I actually liked him! I thought we would have been good together!"

Malfoy scoffed down at me. "Don't kid yourself, Garcia. You and I both know that you did not think you two would have been good together." I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off quickly. "I saw the look on your face when he kissed you after the quidditch game."

I shifted uncomfortably on my feet. That point I couldn't deny. I had known for awhile that I didn't want to go with Blaise for an extended period of time, but I did like the attention I had gotten from him. I rounded back onto Malfoy. "We were friends, Malfoy! And you didn't bother mentioning-"

"I told you to stop seeing Blaise!" he exploded at me. "I told you to not accept his date request, you did. I told you not to go to this party with him and you did. Don't tell me that I didn't say anything to you!"

I let out a chuckle of anger. "That is not telling me anything. I thought you were jealous, I thought you wanted to-" I stopped myself, letting out the air I had been holding in. "It doesn't even matter anymore, because I hate you, Draco Malfoy. I hate you."

He looked stunned, hurt flashed across his face. "Excuse me?"

"I hate you," I seethed at him, "and everyone has been right about you. I thought you were a good person, that this outer shell was just an act. Obviously I was very wrong. Stay away from me, Malfoy. I don't want anything to do with you. Ever."

I stormed away from him, but he grabbed my arm. Before I knew what was happening, he planted his lips right onto mine. I was incredibly startled, but I couldn't help the butterflies that exploded in my stomach, rising through my chest and heating up my face.

His lips were warm and soft against mine. I leaned into him, kissing him back. He wrapped his fingers into my curled hair, his other hand clutched my lower back as he pulled me closer into his body. I grabbed a hold of his sweatshirt, dragging his head, if it were even possible, closer to mine.

He deepened the kiss for a moment, but then realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I shoved him away from me, breaking the kiss reluctantly. The butterflies were still dancing in my chest.

"What-" I started to say, but I cut myself off. I just turned and walked away, leaving him to stare bewildered after me.

I had gotten a few hallways away before I figured out what had happened. Draco Malfoy had kissed me. And I kissed him back. The heat was still in my face and I couldn't help the small smile that spread across my lips.

It was then I remembered what exactly had happened before the kiss, causing my anger to flare up indefinitely in the pit of my gut.

"And what do you think you're doing out of bed?"

I looked up to see Filch standing before me, a lit lantern clutched in his right hand.

I let out a deep breath. "I just left the Christmas party you stup-" I cut myself off, tightening and relaxing my hand. "Draco Malfoy is trying to crash the party," I finally said as I pointed behind me. "He's just a few hallways that way."

A look of glee crossed Filch's face as he scuttled by me, eager to reach the boy before he disappeared back into the depths of the castle. I continued my walk toward the common room, my mind reeling with the last hour's events.