A/N: Thank you to my reviewers Hanable-13, Honoria Granger(Oops! Sorry, I'll change it!)and Booknerdxx(Haha, thank you!)! Enjoy! hsx

CHAPTER 10-

The following morning, I was sat in the Head's compartment on the Hogwarts Express reading, waiting for Draco to come back from the toilet. After I had broken down at the ball last night at his words, he took me down to the dungeons and we sat in front of the fire in the Slytherin common room, just talking. I smiled, remembering him walking all the way up to the seventh floor with me just to make sure that I got to my room safely.

The door slid open I looked up from my book, seeing Draco had returned. 'Have fun on the toilet?'

'Lots and lots and lots.' We both grinned at each other and he led down on the side of the compartment I was sitting on, and rested his head in my lap and shut his eyes, telling me he hadn't got much sleep last night.

'Why not?'

'I was thinking about you. I wanted to know if you were alright.'

'I'm fine.' I ran my fingers through his fine hair as he rested, and when I was sure he was at least half-unconscious, I took the eight notes I had received from my secret admirer out of the back of my book, deciding not to leave them under my pillow during the holiday. I looked at each strip of parchment in turn, all of the handwriting the same apart from the extra sorry note that I had got on the eighth day. Was my admirer getting someone to help them?

'What are those?'

'Letters from my mum.'

'In eight pieces?' I nodded guiltily and put them back in my book. He looked like he was about to say something else, but the compartment door opened and the trolley lady was stood there.

'Anything from the trolley, my dears?' Draco paid for some sugar quills which we shared for the last hour of the train ride before we arrived at platform 9 3/4 where Narcissa was waiting for us to take us to the nearest floo network so we could go to Malfoy Manor.

That evening, after I had dinner with Draco, his parents and my parents who were staying at the Manor for Christmas, Draco and I sat on the indoor balcony that the Malfoy's had added to the newly refurbished drawing room.

'Remind me why we're here again?'

'The day before Christmas Eve, it's tradition for the eldest Malfoy male to invite over nine other men to have drinks with, who are also the oldest males in their family. They bring their children and they sit and socialise, which has been made easier by this balcony we added.'

'Okay, so that's why you're here. I don't understand why I am.'

'One, you're a guest in our house, so I'm not allowed to leave you on your own. Two, you're my girlfriend, so I wouldn't leave your side unless I really had to. Three, your dad's part of the drinks group this year.' Draco smiled happily, and the door underneath us opened, Lucius and my dad walking into the drawing room together. 'I'm glad about the kind of people my father's inviting this year. They're usually a load of Pureblood Lords who want to give their daughter to me.' I laughed and walked over to his chair, sitting in his lap. 'Jealous, Miss Granger?' Draco asked, wrapping his arms around my waist.

'A little.' Just as we were about to kiss, the door to the balcony opened, and there stood Ron, Dean, Blaise and Pansy.

'Malfoy Manor Christmas Eve-eve drinks tradition. Highlight of my social calendar.' Draco raised his eyebrows at Blaise. 'Well, I prefer your family's ball. Anyway, my mum's got a new husband.' More people entered the room underneath us, and I saw Mr Weasley, Mr Thomas, Mr Parkinson and a man whom I didn't recognise, which must have been Blaise's step-dad. 'He's quite nice. For a change.' I smiled at him and we all took our seats apart from me, as I was still on Draco's knee. 'So, did you manage to stop your girlfriend from crying, Draco?'

'Of course. They were purely tears of love.' Draco's hand on my waist tightened slightly as he tried to fake a nonchalant tone, telling me that he cared more than his voice allowed him too.

'I didn't even know that was possible.' The two best friends smirked at each other, and Blaise turned to Ron. 'Kissed that Lauren-girl yet?'

'Only on the cheek. Planning on doing it tomorrow night when we're here.' Draco grinned.

'I'll show you around the quiet spo- Ow! What the hell was that for?' I had hit my boyfriend mid-sentence, and he feigned pain, knowing that I wasn't physically strong enough to actually hurt him with my own hands.

'They've only been on one date.' Draco rolled his eyes at me, but Ron just laughed.

'It's all right, Hermione, really.' The door opened beneath us, and in walked Dumbledore, Snape, Flitwick and Slughorn.

'Why are they here?' Draco shrugged.

'I'll ask my father later. It's starting now though.' The ten men each took a drink from the centre of the table and began chatting about businesses, Lucius inquiring about my father's dental practice.

'How about you help me to set up a dentist in the Wizarding World?'

'Why not? Hermione's always said that you just use spells to clean your teeth. She used it on me once to show me the results, but it didn't work very well. I dread to think what state your teeth are all in.'

'Let's do it then. We'll start the business plans after Christmas.' The two men smiled. 'Bedsides, we'll get to know each other better this way. I think are children are too much in love to ever even contemplate leaving each other.' They clinked the glasses together and glanced up at us on the balcony, seeing me sat on Draco's knee.

Draco kissed my neck and I turned my head towards him. 'I will never leave you.'

'I know. I never will either.' We smiled at each and carried on listening to the conversation downstairs.

'Ah, young love.' Dumbledore smiled, then winked in our direction.

'Their relationship was basically the spark the war needed, there's nothing charming about it.' Snape drawled on and I tried not to laugh.

'I think you're forgetting, Severus, that without their union, we would have lost the war. I do wonder sometimes how it ever came about. Don't you ever think about what happened between the two of them in that common room to make them fall in love?'

'I'm sorry,' the new Mr Zabini asked, 'but what happened with Hermione and Draco? I was in Australia during the war. The other nine occupants of the room filled him in on the story, Draco and I sat on the balcony with our eyebrows raised.

'We are still here, you know.' Draco shouted down to them, and they all simply just turned to us and waved before laughing together. Draco removed me carefully from his lap and took his wand from his pocket. 'Blaise!' He whispered to his best mate who had the same idea and got up from his seat, also withdrawing his wand. 'I think it's time to for the Malfoy Manor Christmas Eve-eve heir's drinks tradition, don't you?'

'Absolutely.' The two boys leaned over the balcony and pointed their wands at the glasses the men were drinking out of and whispered a spell that was so quiet that I couldn't work out what they had cast.

'What have you done?' I asked when he returned to my side.

'Stand and watch.' The six of us stood looking out over the drawing room, each of the men taking a sip of their drinks, then dropped it as they all stood up and began to dance and leap around the room. 'We do it every year when they start talking about us.' I began to laugh, but it was cut short when I felt parchment in my hand:

On the tenth day of Christmas, I give to my true love ten lords a-leaping.

I looked at my bracelet, to see, along with a shoe from last night, a small man. I looked around the room nervously as everyone carried on laughing, making sure that all of the doors and windows were shut. At least I've finally narrowed the list down.