A/N: hi everyone! okay, so I'm really really sorry for not updating recently... seriously, you probably thought I'd died or something! but I'm still alive, and I have finally got around to updating (I know, about a month late, please don't hate me!). I've finished my first piece of history coursework/ controlled assessment, only one more to go, and i have an English presentation on Friday and a clarinet grade 6 exam in like a month, and I still don't know the pieces. and science mocks coming up. my life is very hectic right now... well, at least I'm updating now, and it's extra long to make up for it.

I have recently discovered the joys of danisnotonfire and amazingphil on you-tube if you haven't watched them, seriously, go watch. now. just out of curiosity, is anyone else here a Danosaur? or a Phillion? or a plain old phangirl? 'cause I'm now all 3... I shouldn't do this to myself in GCSE year...

I got a twitter! please go follow me, cause I'm lonely on there with my follower total of... zero. None of my friends have it... i only got it to stalk people...

I'm CharIMer Bluesky, or CharIMerESB, obviously.

I love you guys! thanks for the amaaazing response to the last chapter!

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this world. no seriously, it all belongs to like my parents, or the queen. only my imagination is you can't have that. and Dan. he's mine too. all mine. MWAHAHAH... anyway. Slytherin side of me kicking in there.

Charlie x

Draco still hadn't let go of her hand, and she was perfectly content to let him hold it. They got a lot of disdainful looks from all the students who had returned solely for the ball and hadn't yet heard of their relationship. When they walked into the hall all eyes were on them and there were angry whispers and stares. There was a shattering of glass from one side of the room, and a clatter from the other as a plate and a glass simultaneously fell on the floor as two very different people dropped them. Hermione blushed, and looked up at Draco.

"Everyone's staring." She whispered looking around worriedly, as they made their way over to the food tables.

"Let them. I want them to all know you're mine." He growled, looking at her with a look that made her melt a little inside. There were more whispers behind, and Draco distinctly heard someone whisper 'I bet she'd under the imperious curse. She'd never go with him. He's probably got a plan to kill us all'

Hermione stiffened beside him, proving she'd obviously heard the whisper too. She looked up at him, worried he might take it badly. He was staring at her thoughtfully, and then he leaned in to capture her lips in a kiss. The hall instantly went totally silent, and as he pulled away both noticed the professors pushing their way through the crowd who had gathered, obviously preparing to diffuse a fight.

"If you don't believe" Draco stated, his voice loud and cold "that I am with Hermione simply because I asked her to the ball and she agreed, maybe that will change your mind. That and the fact she is willingly my girlfriend."

The silence broke at this and immediately the hall was full of noise. Half the hall (the kinder and more forgiving kind) smiled and clapped politely. Several female groups applauded very loudly, declaring that they made a perfect couple. Quite a few girls fainted at the fact that Draco Malfoy was no longer single and for the taking, and had to be comforted by their dates who looked rather peeved.

The rest of the hall (which was mainly Gryffindor and Slytherin boys) were shouting insults at the couple, and many were being restrained from punching the couple in the face. Pansy Parkinson, who had earlier been the one to drop the glass, pushed her way through the crowd and managed to get up to Draco and slapped him.

"How dare you!" she screeched. "We were meant to be together, and get married!" she announced, to which Draco paled and looked positively ill. Meanwhile, Ron Weasley, who had earlier dropped the plate at the same time, pushed himself out of Dean Thomas's restraining arms and marched over to Hermione. Dean sent a very apologetic look to Hermione, who had noticed Ron striding over.

"HOW COULD YOU! YOU TRAITOR! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US, TO ME! YOU LYING, CHEATING BITCH!" he shouted at her. Draco caught the end of this and pushed Pansy (who was staring daggers at him) away back into the crowd. He rounded on Ron looking murderous, but before he could do something very drastic Ron was sent flying into the air and dangled there, the work of someone's levicorpus spell. Looking around, he and Hermione saw Ginny standing there, pointing her wand at him, with utter fury upon her face. She screamed at the crowd

"SHUT UP! NOW‼" and immediately silence fell. She pointed her wand at her brother and told him in a voice full of hidden threat and torture "if you ever insult Hermione again I will castrate you. I mean it. Then she turned on the rest of the hall, her fiery red hair a curtain behind her.

"Right all of you. You," she said pointing to the girls who had obviously just returned to consciousness, "get over yourselves. Yes, Draco is taken. Deal with it. You," she said pointing to the excitable girls who had clapped enthusiastically, "we all appreciate your support but please stop squealing. And the rest of you, if any of you have a problem with Draco and Hermione as a couple, then you'll have me to deal with. And believe me; I could kick your ass any day. And I'm sure my boyfriend will back me up. You all know who he is, don't you. And for those who don't, NEWSFLASH, its Harry freakin' Potter, man-who-defeated-the-most-powerful-dark-wizard-of-all-time-a-total-of-6-times-and-killed-him!" she broke off after this large speech and looked around as if daring anyone to challenge her. When no one did, she announced "well, go back to whatever you were doing before you all lost your minds", before spinning around and walking back to Harry to peck his cheek as he grinned at her. As they walked off into the crowd, she flicked her wand at Ron who was released from the spell and fell to the ground, before picking himself off the ground and running as fast as his legs would take him out of the hall. No one was sad to see him go.

After a moments shocked silence, the hall returned to the cheerful party atmosphere it had before, although the atmosphere was slightly tenser. Pansy Parkinson was also seen storming out of the door, and Draco turned back to Hermione to see a tear track down her cheek.

"Oh shit" Draco muttered under his breath, before saying to Hermione "please don't cry Hermione, you shouldn't cry over him. He's not worth it." He wiped the tear away with his finger gently and softly kissed her cheek. She smiled at him apologetically.

"Sorry. I shouldn't let him get to me like this." She apologised to him, and he waved her apology away with a 'not needed'. After a few moments, she visibly brightened as music she recognised began playing.

"Do you want to dance?" he asked her and she grinned and took his outstretched hand before allowing him to lead her onto the dance floor.

They danced together for most of the night, content to enjoy each other's company and ignore the people around them. At midnight, they were standing outside, taking a break from dancing. They heard the clock chime, and everyone inside celebrating. They looked at each other.

"Merry Christmas" they both whispered to each other, before Draco wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in for a soft kiss.

They kissed for a few more moments before they heard the announcement in the hall. They listened in, and upon hearing that the party was finishing Draco took Hermione's hand and walked with her back into the hall. They walked to the doors, but just before leaving they were ambushed by an overly excitable Ginny who pulled Hermione into a hug. Harry popped up behind her with an apologetic expression in his eyes. 'She's a bit hyper', he mouthed at them, and Draco, who had never seen her hyper before grinned. However, Hermione, who understood the danger, blanched slightly. Ginny released her from the hug, bouncing on her heels, before turning to Draco and pulling him into a huge embrace as well. He looked totally shocked, but Ginny seemed oblivious. When she pulled back it was as if she hadn't noticed she was practically hugging a plank.

Ginny started to talk, but she was speaking so fast none of them could make out what she was saying. Hermione wisely cut across her to say

"Ginny, I'm going up to bed." Ginny pouted slightly, acting exactly like a three year old, before waving goodbye to her and Draco and grabbing Harry by the hand. He shot Hermione a very scared look before she dragged him away. Draco laughed by her, and Hermione turned to look at him. "You've never seen Ginny hyper before, have you?" she asked him.

"Well, no?" he responded, and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Believe me; we need to get out of here before she comes back." Just as she said this, there was a large explosion over the other side of the hall. "Or she destroys the castle."

She led him briskly out of the hall and down towards the dorms. He kept glancing behind at the hall, and he asked her,

"Was that explosion her?"

"Probably. Last time she got this hyper she caused that explosion in the Gryffindor common room that meant we had to sleep in the great hall for two days. You probably heard about that."

"Oh. When can we stop being scared?"

"Probably not until tomorrow. If the castle's still here that is."

They reached the dorms and entered, Slytherin's portrait scowling at their intertwined hands, Gryffindor looking slightly disapproving, Ravenclaw looking stately but obviously pleased that Hermione was wearing her house colours, and Hufflepuff looking completely delighted. As they entered the room, Hermione yawned.

"I'm going to bed, I'm exhausted. See you tomor- well, later today."

"Merry Christmas," he said with a smile at her.

They both went into their respective rooms, and as soon as they were out of their formal clothes and in their pyjamas, both fell into an instant and dreamless sleep the moment their heads touched their pillows.

Hermione woke up later that morning in a very good mood. It was 10 in the morning, it was snowy outside and it was Christmas day! And she'd had a brilliant time last night at the party. Thinking of the party, her thoughts strayed to Draco. She'd had a brilliant time with him at the ball last night. She smiled to herself, and then eagerly got out of bed. Getting dressed as quickly as she could, she all but bounced out of her room.

She knocked on Draco's door, but upon receiving no response she pushed it open. Draco was still sleeping, and she walked over to him. When she tried to wake him, he just mumbled something incoherent and turned over so his head was buried in the pillow. Hermione looked at him and ad to suppress the desire to laugh. If he wasn't going to wake up then she'd have to wake him up. She prepared herself for a moment, before quite literally jumping on top of him so she was sitting on his back. That woke him up as he quite literally lost all the air in his lungs as she winded him. Swearing, he pulled his head from the pillow and turned to look at her. She beamed at him, and he scowled back at her.

"What the hell was that for?" he gasped, irritated.

"Good morning, and Merry Christmas to you too." Hermione told him, beaming. "Time to get up!"

He scowled at her again, before pointing out,

"I can't exactly get up if you're sitting on me."

She laughed at this, before agreeing and getting up off him.

"Get dressed quickly, I want to open presents!" she told him, and he rolled his eyes at her over-enthusiasm.

"Alright, alright! I'm getting up, okay! Shoo!" he told her and she laughed again before leaving the room to go and sit in one of the sofa's in the common room. She looked around, and realised it had been decorated for Christmas, probably by a house elf, while they slept. There was a tall tree in the corner with floating lights on it, and Hermione frowned at it. Realising what was wrong, she walked over to the table with all of the presents piled on and lifted them all with a hover charm. She arranged them neatly under the tree and stood back to admire her handiwork. Just as she did, Draco walked out of his room. He looked at her like she was crazy, and she grinned maniacally at him.

"Presents!" she announced, beaming, and he smiled back and came to sit on the sofa. She grabbed a couple from beneath the tree one for each of them, and they eagerly tore back the wrapping paper. Then, Hermione grabbed some more and opened them. Draco was finished first obviously, with only presents from Hermione (a new scarf), Ginny (who had got him a bag of sweets when she was feeling kind), surprisingly Harry (another bag of sweets, you can never have too many) and the biggest surprise of them all, a present from Dobby (a non-matching pair of socks, but it's the thought that counts).

Hermione, of course, got a lot more than he did. Neville, Dean, Lavender and Parvati had all contributed to a very large encyclopaedia of every spell registered at the ministry which Hermione instantly fell in love with. Ron had even gotten her a book, even though they weren't actually speaking. Ginny had given her a new outfit, with a hint that she should wear it more often, rather than her current clothes (Ginny's subtle way of telling Hermione she dressed badly, which Hermione just laughed at). Her parents sent her some money, as they were unsure what to get her. She received a traditional Weasley jumper as well, which she reluctantly pulled on when Draco insisted.

Once she had opened all of these presents there were only two left, one from Harry, and one from Draco (of course). She tore open Harry's present and gasped. It was, of course, a book. But this wasn't just any book. She beamed as she showed Draco the cover, and he grinned before asking

"Can I read that after you?"

"Of course! I completely forgot this was coming out!" she continued to smile and put the book down, sending a longing glance towards it. Seeing this Draco chuckled and told her,

"You can read it once all the presents are open."

Sending another longing glance towards 'inheritance', the fourth book in the inheritance cycle that both she and Draco loved, she sighed before tearing her gaze away from it. She strode over to the Christmas tree, and grabbed the final present from Draco. She tore open the paper to reveal a long black box. She opened it, and gasped at the beautiful necklace inside.

"Oh Draco. It's beautiful."

She lifted it out of the box, admiring how it caught the light. It was a delicate silver and golden twisted chain with five shields hanging from it. The first shield was split into two halves down the middle and on one side was the Gryffindor crest, on the other was the serpent of Slytherin. All the other four were decorated with golden vines which twisted around two intertwined letters. The second shield had the letters H and D (their first name initials), the third had J and L (for their middle names), the fourth had G and M (for their surnames), and the fifth had G and S standing for their individual houses.

"You like it then?" he asked her nervously. She smiled, at him, before launching herself onto him and kissing him fiercely.

"I love it." She told him, when they pulled apart to breath. He looked slightly dazed; and shook his head lightly to clear it before laughing.

"If this is the reaction I get for giving you gifts, I should do it more often! Let me put it on you." He replied, and she handed her the necklace, he gently clasped it around her neck before spinning her around to kiss her again.

When he pulled away her head was spinning slightly. He chuckled and pulled her down to sit next to him on the sofa. She grabbed the book from the side table and opened it, curling up next to him. She began to read, and soon lost track of the time.

A knock on the door finally pulled her out of her trance with the new book. She looked up startled, and Draco chuckled at her face before getting up and pulling open the door to reveal a beaming Ginny and an amused Harry. Draco sighed as he let them in, and Harry grinned.

"Invasion of the Gryffindors!" Ginny joked, before wandering over to sit next to Hermione on the couch in Draco's recently vacated spot. He scowled at this and went to sit in an armchair. Harry sat down next to Hermione on the other side and poked her. She looked up from her book again having already begun to continue reading it.

" I'm going to stop buying you books if you don't come see us on Christmas day!" he complained, and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"'Hey Hermione, how are you, Merry Christmas' wouldn't have been hard to say" she said swatting him on the arm with the book before leaning over Ginny to place it on the table.

"Yeah, whatever" Ginny brushed her off. "We were going to go down for Christmas lunch, want to join us?" she asked enthusiastically.

"Okay then. Wait-," she said glancing at Draco before Ginny cut her off.

"Yes, Malfoy can come too. I dare say he needs to leave this room a bit more."

"Hey! I leave the room!" he protested.

"How many times apart from classes, balls and comforting a distressed Hermione?"

"Erm… a couple."

"And one was when he came to confront me for being a bad friend" Harry helpfully contributed, and regretted it when Draco fixed him with a cold stare.

"Draco, stop intimidating my friend." Hermione chided, and he sighed.

"I can't help it. I must be allergic to too large a concentration of Gryffindors." He cheekily replied, but when she fixed him with a stare, he cowered and sighed. "Alright, I'll stop. Happy now?"

"Very." She told him before getting up off the sofa, brushing the wrinkles out of her clothes and walking over to the portrait hole. She turned back and said to them over her shoulder, "come on then!"

Chuckling, Draco stood up and walked over to stand behind her and she took his hand. Hermione could see Harry pointedly ignoring the fact that his best friend was holding Malfoy's hand, and Hermione sniggered when Ginny hit him on the arm and pulled him unceremoniously off the sofa so he overbalanced and almost crashed into the Christmas tree. Pushing open the portrait she led the way to the great hall before all her friends killed each other, intentionally or not.

A/N: what am I doing with my life? i mean seriously. ah well. back to phangirling on tumblr. and writing slash you-tube fanfics... what it my life?

well, i doubt ill update for a while. at least you're better off than my friends at school, who have totally lost all hope in me. they reached the end of where i wrote to, like 2 months ago, and I actually haven't written any more since. in future, i will finish things before putting them up here, or giving them to people to read...