A/N: Thank you to my reviewers, shaymars, VAMPIRESEX and naturallyshay!

CHAPTER 10-

'Do I look okay, Hermione?'

'Yes, Ginny! Now can you do my make up?'

'Sure, sit down.' Ginny gave herself one last look over in the mirror, before putting a dressing gown over my dress so she could do my makeup. After about half an hour, she had finished messing around with my face.

'What have you done to my temples? You were messing with them for ages.'

'Look in the mirror and you'll see.' I took the dressing gown off and walked to the mirror and gasped. Ginny had made my foundation as pale as possible to go with my normal skin tone and my eye shadow was a light blue. By some miracle, Ginny had used glittery silver eyeliner along the bottom of my eyelids and done some strange swirly pattern on my temples.

'Ginny, I… don't know what to say.'

'Thank you, perhaps?'

'Thank you so much!' I was about to hug Ginny but she held up her hands.

'No hugging until tomorrow. You might smudge something. Now, your hair…' She stood next to me, looking into the full length mirror. 'I was thinking doing it the same way you had for the Yule Ball as that style would go with this dress beautifully, but Kru-'

'I don't care about him anymore. Do it, please.' Ginny waved her wand a few times, and my hair fell into place, with a few curls framing my face.

'At least we didn't have to curl it this time…'

'Shut up!' Ginny giggled.

'Come on. The head girl needs to make an appearance soon.' We linked arms and went down the stairs into the common room to find it deserted. 'I don't get why no one's allowed to see the Head Girl's dress until the ball.'

'It's just a tradition. Be glad that you're the exception to the rule.' We left the common room and walked down the stairs and empty corridors until we came to the stairs that led down to the Great Hall doors. Before we could down them to meet Draco and Harry, Professor McGonagall stooped us.

'Not you, Miss Granger. The hall doors haven't closed yet and no one is allowed to see you. Miss Weasley may go.' Ginny peeked around the corner and had a look at both boys.

'If you don't mind me saying, Draco looks fit, Hermione. Not look like he doesn't usually, but even more so tonight.' I blushed and looked down. 'He's wearing a very nice muggle suit thingy with a blue tie thingy and blue rose attached to the lapel that goes with your dress. If that's the sort of boy who just takes a girl to a Ball to a dance because he has to, he's not doing a very good impression of it. Oh, your lips!' Ginny quickly waved her wand in front of my face, applying lip gloss. 'I'll see you in there.' She winked and walked down the stairs. I heard Harry telling her how beautiful she looked and another quick sound as they kissed. I sighed. I'd never even been kissed before, unless we're counting the horrible and meaningless ones from Krum, and now I wanted the sex god of Slytherin to go out with me. I shook my head as the hall doors closed.

'If you want him so badly, why don't you just ask him?' My head snapped up to look at Professor McGonagall. 'Transfiguration class. When he's not looking, you stare at him. When you're not looking, he stares at you. I know he's getting engaged, and he's in Slytherin, and he'll become a Death Eater soon, and the war's coming, but I've heard some of the students say You Only Live Once. I think it comes in the form of the word "YOLO", but I do believe it holds the same meaning.' I smiled at the Professor. 'Come on. I'll go first. Don't wait too long to show yourself to the poor boy: he's been stood down there pacing for half an hour. I think he may actually break through the floor soon.'

McGonagall smiled at me and went down the steps. 'Where's Hermione?'

'She's coming now, Mr Malfoy.' I took a deep breath, turned the corner and walked down the stairs, looking at Draco the whole time. Ginny was right, he did look good, especially with that rose on his lapel. He had his mouth open the whole time I walked down the steps and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out his sockets. Dumbledore elbowed him slightly and he closed his mouth. I stood in front of Draco and his beautiful silver eyes looked back into my brown ones.

'Mr Malfoy, don't you have something to give Miss Granger?' Draco broke out of his trance and nodded, taking a blue rose out of his pocket like the one he was wearing. He stepped closer to me and slid it into my hair, his breath tickling my forehead. 'Please get ready to enter the Hall for the dance, you two.'

Draco stepped away from me and took my hand, leading me to just behind Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall. He put out his arm and I put my arm on top of it, his other arm going behind his back. He leaned towards me and spoke quietly, so the Professors wouldn't hear. 'You look beautiful.' I smiled and blushed, turning away from him.

'Are you ready?' McGonagall turned to us and we both nodded. I nervously smiled at Draco and he returned it. Dumbledore cleared his throat and the doors to the Great Hall opened.

We followed the two professors down the middle aisle past tables filled with students. Everyone clapped as we entered. I felt everyone's eyes on me and I swore I was going to be sick. We carried on walking until we got to the middle of Hall, in the great expanse of space that had been reserved for dancing. Dumbledore and McGonagall stood at the front and nodded to us and we held each other like we had in practice and we nodded back to them. The music started playing and we began dancing.

After the first lift, Dumbledore and McGonagall joined us as well as a few other Professors and some of the prefects. I saw Ginny and Harry dancing, and surprisingly, Ron and Lavender.

'He's staring at me again, Hermione…' I looked in Ron's direction to find that he was staring at Draco again with the same murderous look on his face. Lavender was dancing and talking at the same time and Ron just kept on nodding, all the while looking at Draco.

'If this carries on, I think Lavender may start to think he's gay.' Draco smiled and lifted me again.

'Do we have to stay to the end of the dance?'

'Yes.' Draco sighed. 'Hey, don't worry about it. We get pictures taken by the Daily Prophet after that. And Rita Skeeter's probably here.' We both sighed.

'And my father will be over the moon when it gets delivered to the manor tomorrow morning.'

The dance ended and we were taken to a corner in the Hall were the photographers and reporters were.

'Can I just ask you a few questions while they take photographs?' We both nodded to Rita's scheming face as we posed for pictures in front of one of the smaller Christmas trees.

'Hermione, are you still with Viktor Krum?' I bit my lip and immediately wanted to punch her.

'No, we broke it off quite a while back, we still write to each other though. I haven't heard from him in a while, and I'm beginning to wonder if there's something wrong.'

'Ah, I see. We at the Daily Prophet were wondering if you knew anything.' I shook my head and gave her a fake smile, internally breathing a sighing of relief. 'And, Draco, are there any last minute invitations going for your family's Christmas party?'

'I think my father is just sending out the last one's tonight. You may want to go and check owl mail.' Rita grinned and said something quietly to her photographer.

'We're just about done here, so Michael's going to take a few more photos, and then we'll be gone. We just really need a front page shot. Draco, put your arm around Hermione's shoulders and Hermione put your arm around Draco's waist.' We looked at each other and from his eyes I could tell he wanted us to act like we didn't want to.

'Do I really have to?'

'Yes!' We both sighed and did as she said. 'Smile, for Merlin's sake! This is going on the front page of the Daily Prophet.' We smiled- well it was more like stretching our lips- and had several photos taken in the same pose before Rita said she was done. 'Go and dance with your friends.' We both huffed off in different directions, and I couldn't tell whether or not he was acting. I quickly found Ginny and Harry by the refreshments bar and went over.

'What did David say when he saw you?' Ginny handed me a glass of pumpkin juice and I took a sip from it before replying.

'Nothing at first. I actually stunned him into silence. Never thought that day would come… but then he told me I looked beautiful.' We laughed and Harry rolled his eyes.

'He must like you then.'

'Harry, just because he stared at me doesn't mean he likes me. Guys look at girls all of the time to see how pretty they are.' I thought back to what McGonagall said earlier. 'And even if he does like me, nothing would ever happen. He has so much pressure on him at the moment.'

'Don't you think you should at least tell him? I think he deserves to know.' I raised my eyebrows at Harry's concerned face.

'Really? After everything he's done to us? Six years of torment. Calling me a filthy little mudblood, calling Ron and Ginny poor and blood traitors. He called you the Boy-Who-Won't-Die. Do you really think he deserves it?'

'Hermione, I told you the other night in the common room. You've changed him. Up until tonight I hadn't spoken to him this year, but when I was waiting for Ginny, we had a conversation about Quidditch. Not a snide remark match, we had a conversation with no insults in it. And he even said Ginny was quite pretty! Tell him, woman!' Harry grabbed my arms and shook my slightly and a few of the other students stared at us.

'I'll erm… consider it. Come on.'

'Hmm?' Harry let go of my arms and I took his hand.

'I did say I was going to dance with you and Ron tonight…'

Two and half hours later, I was pretty sure I had danced with every 6th and 7th year in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and even a few in Ravenclaw. I went outside into the Entrance Courtyard, breathing in the cool winter air. It began to snow and I held out my hand to catch some of the snowflakes.

'Are you not cold?' I looked up to see Draco walking towards me.

'No, it's so hot in there. Where have you been?'

'Just for a quick walk. Needed to clear my head, you know? It's the twenty third of December. We leave Hogwarts for the holidays tomorrow, and on Christmas day, it's my family's party and my engagement announcement. And my father wrote to me the other day to tell me that I'm getting my Dark Mark a few days after New Year. I don't want it.'

'It'll be okay, Draco. The war will have come and gone soon. It'll be alright then.'

'Yeah, if you're on the light side, bound to win, not destined to be in Azkaban until the day you die.' Draco looked coldly at me and I looked at the floor, watching the snow hit the cobbles of the courtyard. After a few awkward minutes, the music in the hall changed from one of the Weird Sister tracks to a slow moving song which I instantly recognised with a gasp. 'You know the song?'

'Yes, it's my favourite song, from my favourite film.' Draco raised an eyebrow at me as to ask what it was. 'Beauty and the Beast from err… Beauty and the Beast.' I laughed quietly at Draco held out his hand to me.

'In that case then, may I have this dance, Miss Granger?'

'You certainly may, Mr Malfoy.' I giggled and took his hand and we began dancing slowly to the music.

'That night we had the first dance practice what did Ron want to talk to you about?'

I sighed. 'He was going on about how I should only talk to you if I really had to, like on our rounds and at Prefect meetings. He's trying to act like my dad, and my real dad isn't even that protective over me.' I paused. 'Harry said you had a conversation with him before.'

'Yeah, about Quidditch. I suppose he's not that bad once you get to know him. Don't tell anyone this, but I kind of wish now that I had made friends with you lot in that first year.' I raised an eyebrow at him. 'I don't have many real friends. It's just Blaise, Pansy and Theo. My father even paid Crabbe and Goyle to be friends with me.' He sighed. 'I wish I hadn't asked the sorting hat to put me in Slytherin.'

'You asked it? How could you have? I watched you at the ceremony. The hat barely even touched your head.'

'As I walked up to it I began mouthing the word Slytherin at it, to make my father proud. I didn't think it saw me at first, and it just placed me in Slytherin because I belonged there, but two years ago I got called into Dumbledore's office and I had a conversation with the hat. It told me I should have either been in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, and would have decided fully had it a chance to explore my personality more.'

'Oh…' I looked up at Draco and he smiled. I saw that my hands were now around Draco's neck and I could feel his hands around my waist. I didn't tell him to stop.

'What's Beauty and the Beast about then?'

'It's about this girl who's a bookworm and her father's an inventor. Belle, this girl, doesn't really fit in her town, but the most popular guy in the town wants to marry her, just because she's beautiful…' I told Draco the story, and when I finished, he smiled.

'That's kind of like my life. I feel like an unloved beast sometimes.'

'That's not true…' I realised what I had said and quickly said something else. 'If that's like your life, is there someone you like then? Hopefully not Astoria.'

Draco quietly laughed. 'No, not Astoria.' The music in the Great Hall finished and we stopped moving, but our hands remained where they were. 'Isn't it obvious, Hermione?' Draco leaned forward, taking one hand from my waist and cupping my cheek, my breath catching in my throat. I moved my hands to his shoulders and chest to push him away but he held on to me.

'We can't, Draco…'

'I know you're on the light side, I'm on the dark. You're in Gryffindor, I'm in Slytherin. You're a muggle born, I'm a pureblood. I'm getting engaged and Ron won't even let me speak to you. Please, Hermione. I've wanted to kiss you for so long now, it physically hurts.' I wanted the exact same thing. 'Can I kiss you?' I nodded and Draco closed the distant between us.

He kissed me softly, something I didn't think he was capable of doing for being so strong. I pulled on his neck to bring us closer together, since I was a lot shorter than him. A few minutes later, but I could be wrong, he pulled away from me and ran a thumb over my cheek.

'I shouldn't have done that… I'm sorry, Hermione.' Draco turned away from me and began to walk back inside.

'Wait, Draco.' He turned and walked back a little to me. 'Don't be sorry.' Draco walked towards me, took my hand and quickly kissed me.

'Good night, Hermione. I'll see you in January.' He gave my hand a squeeze before going back into the building. I walked slowly towards the door. Everything seemed blurred and out of place, like time had slowed down. My head was spinning and I only just managed to make it to the steps by the Great Hall before I collapsed against a wall. I looked in the open doors ahead of me to see them pushing the last few students out so they could begin to clean up. When they had left, I sat down on the steps and wept, like I had done three years previous.