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Chapter 11: Let's Dance the Night Away

The hospital ball was a few hours away and Hermione was ready to dance the night away with Draco. She was finally ready to show the world that they were in fact together. Flint however, was not very pleased that she had turned him down. He acted alright about things until a few days ago when he decided to be a complete ass to her for no reason at all.

Flint would slam the door in her face instead of his usual holding of it. He would act like he couldn't stand to be in the same room with her no matter where they were at. He barely made any eye contact with her whenever he would mutter any words to her or when she would tell him of a diagnosis. It was becoming a bit too unbearable for her. She wouldn't tell Draco though, no she didn't want to start any sort of problems between cousins considering that those two actually got along. No, she figured that she could handle his behavior until after the ball. Hermione was assuming that Flint would go back to normal once he realized that she was now dating Draco.

"Hello darling." Draco greeted her as he entered her office at the hospital.

"Draco," Hermione smiled at him as she watched him walk across her office and deliver a kiss on her lips. "I wasn't expecting to see you for a few more hours." She gave him a confused, but grateful look as he walked to take a seat in front of her desk.

"Well, I went back to your apartment and Darcy told me that you were still at work even though you were off today. Is something bothering you?" he looked so concerned for her that it was heartbreaking. She wasn't quite sure what she had done to deserve this from him. He really was a blessing in disguise for her.

"Honestly," she began as he intently listened. "I'm just nervous for tonight is all. I have my dress and I know you have your suit, so I'm not nervous about being unprepared. I am just nervous about exposing my private life to everyone here is all."

"Yeah, I don't blame you. How do you think my family is going to take it that I'm not with a Pureblood." Draco chuckled darkly at this. "But tonight is not about any of them. Tonight is about raising money for the hospitals and having an enjoyable time with coworkers and loved ones. You will look gorgeous and I will look dashing next to you." He gave her his signature smile as she blushed at his words. She loved that smile of his. It could change her mood in a heartbeat and she was pretty sure that he knew that. "Come on beautiful." Draco rose from the chair and offered his hand to her. "Let's go get ready for this ball shall we?"

"Alright, let's go then." She took his hand and they both walked out of the hospital together fingers entwined.

They arrived at the venue around seven o'clock and the night air was crisp as they stepped out of their limousine. Draco was wanting to take one of those vehicles as a surprise for Hermione since neither one had ever used one and he knew that she would enjoy the experience with him. She enjoyed it so much that the driver had to drive an extra block while they had sex.

Draco stepped out of the limo first and offered his hand to Hermione as she herself stepped out of the limo as well. She looked stunning in a royal blue floor length dress that sparkled in ever direction. The dress had a sexy slip that began mid thigh and trailed to the bottom to expose her shoe. Not only that, but she had a plunging back as well. She was a true masterpiece in Draco's opinion. He couldn't stop staring at her with admiration and a hint of lust for her. He didn't look bad either with his jet black 3 piece suit. He was definitely confident in his attire. They both looked stunning as they walked into the building to join the party.

"Wow." Hermione breathed as she looked around the extravagant room. "They sure do know how to throw a party don't they?" she asked Draco as she continued to gaze at the room.

"That they do." He agreed. The celling was very high and was enchanted to contain pale pink clouds that moved slowly around the room. Among the clouds were what looked to appear as children with wings. As for the walls and colors, there was gold everywhere. In the middle of the room, there was a rather large golden statue that represented the hospitals founders and at their feet were the festivities food and drink.

"Hey look there's Flint." Draco waved at his cousin as Hermione turned around to see Flint's expression change quite rapidly. He went from smiling as he waved to Draco to horrified as he met her eye contact and back then to a rather neutral expression as he approached them.

"Hi Draco and Hermione. I didn't know that you two knew each other." He sounded rather surprised at them being there together and even hurt maybe.

"Well she is my girlfriend Flint. We started dating a few months long ago and we both wanted to keep it quite for a bit before making it public." Draco squeezed her hand as he explained this to Flint.

"Ah," he said slowly as he looked at Hermione. "Where you two dating when I asked you out to the ball?" Shit, of course you would ask this and in front of Draco too…

"Why does that matter? She's with me now and I don't plan on going anywhere any time soon." Draco didn't seem to like what Flint was getting at. Either way, Flint ignored him as he continued to make eye contact with Hermione. Apparently he wasn't going to let this go.

"Actually, we had just started dating when you had asked me." Draco looked at Hermione and gave her a weak smile.

"See, we were already together when you asked her out. So there should be no hard feelings." He sounded so confident in his revelation.

"No," started Flint as he shifted his sight to Draco. "She told me that she would think about it. She didn't say no or that she had a boyfriend. She only said that she would think about it."

"I wasn't sure if I would be ready to make our relationship public yet or not. I wanted to keep my options open." Hermione explained to Draco. She then turned to Flint. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you no right away. Mine and Draco's past is complicated and I wasn't sure if I was ready to let everyone into my private life like this. But now I am confident in letting the world know that he and I are together." She finished as she carefully watched his expression.

"I'm not the one you have to worry about love." Flint said as he grinned from ear to ear.

"What the hell are you getting at?" Draco demanded of him right away, but all Flint did was begin to laugh as he pointed behind them.

"What the bloody hell is going on?!" Hermione and Draco looked at each other as they both recognized who that voice belonged to. They slowly turned around and met the furious gaze of Ronald Weasley.

"Ronald…" Hermione's voice trailed off as she spoke his name. It had been well over eight months since the last time that they had been face to face with each other. She couldn't believe that he was there right now in front of her staring so intently at her. For a moment she felt so self conscious that she almost let go of Draco's hand. But then she reminded herself of how horrible Ron was to her before she left and found her grip to only tighten on Draco.

"Weasley." Draco said as Ron continued to look at Hermione. "Why are you here? You have nothing to do with this establishment." Ron focused his attention on Draco now. His gaze went from their hand holding and followed up to Draco's eyes.

"Actually, I contacted Flint for a ticket into this circus of a benefit." Ron quickly glanced around the room with a look of disgust worn on his face.

"Why? How did you even know Flint was here?"

"I bugged Ginny and Harry's home." he responded nonchalantly and his eyes darted to Hermione's expression of pure disgust.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Hermione was furious that he had done such a thing to Harry and Ginny. No wonder he knew where she was. He was seriously starting to sound like a basket case to her.

"Yeah, I bugged their home. I figured that they were hiding you from me and I was right. Lucky for me that the day I go and bug them is the day that I find out that you have contacted Ginny." Hermione was trying to figure out how Ron even knew how to bug their house and the only thing she could think of was that Ron heard of bugging phones from his father who was obsessed with all things muggle related. If it wasn't for the fact that Arthur was such a kind hearted man, Hermione would swear that he only liked her for being a muggle born. "Ginny was telling Harry over their dinner how you were in Italy and was working with Flint Lestrange. And honestly, I came and visited him because I was truly worried for your safety, but then I saw you with Draco. I saw you two holding hands and kissing each other on the streets yesterday. When I found Flint, he had told me that he liked you and was hoping you would go to the ball with him and that you had turned him down. So naturally I told him that you were fucking Malfoy over here. He was a tad heartbroken, but he wanted to get you back and what better way to do so than to invite your ex-fiancé to this ball where you planned on showing off your new fuck boy."

"That's enough Ronald." Hermione was seconds away from cursing Ron is some way shape or form. She was sick of him thinking that he was entitled to act the way that he was acting and he needed a wake up call. Right here. Right now. "How DARE you think that you have ANY right to degrade Draco in this manner! He did not cheat on me weeks prior to our wedding day! Draco loves me unlike you ever did Ronald. You may have loved me in the beginning, but that love left the day you fucked another woman behind my back. I have not once done anything like that to you our whole relationship and I'll be damned if I let you bully me in this way. I love him and you and I will never be together again." Ron stared at Hermione dumb founded as tears fell down her heated face. He didn't know what to say except to ask her why they could never be together again. Hermione just looked at him like he was an idiot as she wiped the tears away.

"For multiple reasons. I no longer love or trust you. And I'm pregnant by the man I love and I plan on being with him until the day I die." Ron's face turned beat red as he looked at her. Draco looked speechless at her announcement. He wasn't sure how to react to the news that he was going to be a father.

"You're…you're pregnant." Draco stammered as he smiled at Hermione. "I'm going to be a father?!" he cupped her face into his hands and passionately kissed her in front of a dumbfounded Ron and Flint. "Thank you so much for giving me the greatest gift of all Hermione. I love you so much." He kissed her one more time before wiping the remainder of her tears away. He couldn't believe that he was going to be a father and that the smartest witch of their age was his child's mother. he was beyond ecstatic. "When did you find out?"

"I found out this morning. That's why I was at the hospital when I had the day off. I had taken a muggle test and then decided that I needed to check my blood so I went to the hospital to do that where no one should bother me on my day off." she grinned at Malfoy. "But then you showed up in my office today right after I had confirmed that I was. I just didn't want to tell you right then and I didn't want to tell you in this manner either. I'm sorry that I didn't inform you in the best way possible. It just slipped out." Draco held Hermione close and put his lips to her ears. Apparently he didn't want anyone else to hear what he was about to say to her.

"It doesn't matter to me how I am informed. What matters to me is your utmost happiness love. I love you and our baby. You have made me the happiest man alive in this moment regardless of the delivery." he finished by kissing her on the ear and placing another soft kiss at the base of her neck. He then met her eyes as he calmly addressed Ron and Flint. "I think it's time that you both leave our presence right now." He turned his gaze to face them. "I don't want her stressed out anymore than you have already caused tonight. Flint, you two are merely coworkers and nothing more well aside from being somewhat related now. As for you Ron, she is your past and not a part of your future. That is just something that you will have to learn to get over."

"Are you fucking kidding me!" Ron bellowed as he swung at Draco barely missing him. Next thing Ron new, Draco punched him square in the face rendering him unconscious. Hermione grabbed Draco's arm and started pulling him towards the doors.

"Come on Draco. Let's leave, Ron's not worth the time and energy. I'm ready to go home." She gave him a tired look as he nodded in agreement. They both headed out the door and straight for home.