The Amazing Disappearing Buffet Trick

There were loads of gryffindors, some ravenclaws and a few hufflepuffs even, but not a single slytherin. She looked at each person three times to make sure he wasn't there, with a new hair color or some such. "Oh, Hermione," she said to herself, tears forming in her eyes, "what were you thinking? Of course he wouldn't still want to go with you."

Looking completely and utterly miserable, Hermione slowly made her way towards the Great Hall. The walk was excruciating; she felt like all of Hogwarts was staring at her. The tears in her eyes were threatening to fall down her cheeks and smear her makeup when suddenly a hand shot out from a classroom she passed and dragged her inside.

"Draco! You startled me." She said as she tried to hide her face so he wouldn't see that she had been crying. Although the Slytherin Prince may like her, she knew that he still had a reputation to uphold, and going out with whiny girls who cried all the time would ruin it. Even dating a muggleborn was acceptable, if it was just to get into her knickers. Following this train of thought, Hermione started to wonder what he was going to tell his friends after the Ball, as they would inevitably see him with her, the most hated of all muggleborns.

"I didn't mean to. I also didn't mean to sneak around like this, but those bloody gryffindors took one look at me and started drawing wands. I figured I'd best keep out of their way for tonight, seeing as I'm dating the gryffindor princess and all. That's enough reason to hex me already." Draco said before he finally looked at Hermione properly. She had wiped away any tears forming but her eyes were still red.

"Were you crying? What did they do? Did someone hurt you?" He asked her with a worried expression on his face. His hands had found their way to her shoulders as his eyes sought out hers.

'I thought you had,' Hermione thought as she looked into Draco's silvery eyes.

"No, no, nothing like that. It was just silly, never mind. Shall we?" She responded while trying to seem as cheerful as ever so he'd drop the subject.

Unluckily for her though realization seemed to dawn on Draco as his eyes widened and a smirk settled on his face. "You thought I had stood you up. You can't deny it, can you? Well, I understand your reaction perfectly. Who wouldn't be as distraught as you were if they thought that I, Draco Malfoy, had better things to do than grace them with my presence?"

"You git! If you think I've spent even a moment crying about you then you are a narcissistic fool."

"Whatever you say, Hermione, whatever you say. I'll believe you the day you stop staring at my body while I try to have a simple conversation with you." Draco retorted while leading a beet red Hermione out of the classroom and down towards the Great Hall.

But Hermione wouldn't let up simply because they were now out in public.

"Me? Need I remind you, Draco, that you're the one who ends up kissing me every time I try to say something."

"Alright, alright, can you calm down and shut up for once?" Draco whispered urgently to her, looking around him to see if anyone had heard his date. He had obviously not told any of his slytherin mates about what had been going on between them, and he seemed very worried about them finding out.

Considering his status as Voldemort's spy, Hermione remembered that no one could find out about them, as the Dark Lord would kill Draco for it, if he was in a merciful mood. 'I need to be more careful,' Hermione thought as she walked down the stairs wondering how Draco had reasoned that going to a Ball with his enemy would not be noticed. She tried to read his face and ended up staring at him instead, quietly resisting the urge to run her hands through his hair and kiss him. He looked even more aristocratic (and handsome!) than usual in his black and silver robes and his slicked back hair, making Hermione wonder if he spent even more time in front of the mirror than Lavender and Parvati combined.

"We're the Heads, it's only natural that McGonagall would force us to go together." Draco said, interrupting Hermione's train of thought. "Huh?" she replied, staring confused up at her date.

"That's our excuse, Hermione, now quit staring at me and start pretending this is the worst night of your life." Draco said before opening the doors to the Great Hall with a scowl on his face, trying to look as uncomfortable as possible.

The Great Hall looked magnificent, and Hermione let out a gasp as she walked through the doors. Snow falling slowly down from above, never hitting the ground; icicles hanging from each chandelier, table and chair; everything decorated in a light blue, creating the feeling of being out in the snow without being cold. "It's beautiful," Hermione said, more to herself than anyone else.

"Of course it is, Granger, I planned it." Draco replied with an annoying smirk plastered on his face.

As they walked further into the Hall Hermione spotted Ron and Harry over by the buffet. She went completely against her newfound desire to stay as close to Draco as possible and tried to think back to what she used to do when she hated his guts. Naturally that meant quickly excusing herself from Draco and making her way over to her friends. "Hey, guys."

"Hey, 'Mione, how's your date going?" Harry asked on behalf of him and Ron, as the latter was busily munching on a bit of everything he could find.

"It's dreadful. I can't believe Professor McGonagall made me go with Malfoy." Hermione told Harry, who caught on quickly.

"But I thought you wanted to go with- ouch! What was that for?" Ron asked his best friend, nursing his stomach where Harry had hit him.

Before anyone could reply Draco had caught up with her and, putting his hand on her back, tried to lead her over to the dance floor. "As much as I love seeing the Golden trio together again, we are the Heads and are responsible for this Ball, so don't you think it would look bad if we didn't dance together the first dance of the evening? I'm sure Potty can keep Weasel from eating the entire buffet before we get back." Draco said to Hermione while glaring at her friends.

"Don't worry about us Malfoy, you and Hermione go and have a horrible time together." Harry replied with a glint in his eye, reminding Hermione of Dumbledore.

--

The music started and Hermione awkwardly put her one hand in Draco's while the other wound around his neck.

"I do believe Potty knows we're on a real - and not forced - date, Miss Granger, would you care to explain how?" he asked while glaring at his date in much the same manner he had been glaring at her friends.

Blushing under his intense scrutiny, Hermione didn't really know what to say.

"I, uhm…he just found out. He's pretty clever, you know. And he knows me too well. He won't tell anyone though, I promise. He's not like that, he knows what's at stake."

Although he didn't seem too pleased, Draco quickly let go of the subject matter and focused on glaring at passing gryffindors instead. It was an awkward few minutes while the song lasted, both him and her trying to get as close to each other as possible, yet trying to make it seem like they wanted to do the exact opposite. She didn't dare look at him, and, through the corner of her eye, could make out that he wasn't looking at her either. Hermione had never felt so wanted and abhorred at the same time, nor so safe and so exposed. She suddenly felt like she needed to get away, desperately, from this fake Draco, this public Draco. It wasn't who she wanted to be with.

The song finally ended and Hermione tried moving away from Draco, but he kept her firmly in his arms, with a pleading look on his face. "Just one more."

"Ok," she whispered hesitantly.

He clutched her tighter than he had before as they danced, refusing to let her go until the song ended. This time, Hermione decided she wouldn't go through another dance like the previous one, and tried instead to talk to her partner to take her mind off how close he was, and how incredibly good he smelled.

"Draco?" she said timidly after checking that no other dance couple was in earshot.

"Hmm?"

"I want to be your girlfriend." At this, Draco's shocked expression could be described as matching perfectly that of Hermione's, as both were desperately trying to figure out why she just said what she did. Hoping to explain her last statement through referring to her bouts of insanity (knowing that Harry and Ron could testify to it, as she had done and said some really strange things in the years they had known her), Hermione tentatively started a sentence which she had no idea how to finish.

"I mean that…I..uh…"

"I think we should talk, privately. Meet me outside in five minutes." Draco said before disappearing off past the sea of dancing students, past the now empty buffet table, past the severely bloated Ron and out of the Great Hall.