I decided to wear my green robes that Draco had bought me for Pansy's Christmas ball. I carefully did my hair so that it was up in curls, with soft tendrils of hair framing my face. I applied my make up perfectly and sighed when I looked into the mirror. I looked beautiful. And I felt like I didn't have anyone to look beautiful for. I put on the jewelry set that Draco had bought me and put my wand into my robe.
I tried to figure out what I would say to Draco tonight. I wanted to clear the air. The lack of talking was starting to get to me. Even I had to admit that he was growing on me and I missed what we were – whatever that was. I didn't know what had happened, but I certainly wanted to find out, prior to midnight. Before he talked to Pansy and perhaps walked out of my life for the last time.
I left for the living room and saw Draco waiting there in a black set of dress robes. He had decided to wear a dark green bow tie that matched my dress perfectly. He smiled when he saw me, the first I had seen in over a week. He seemed to be remembering the last time I had wore these robes.
"Are you ready then?" He asked back to his cold demeanor.
"Yes, let's floo to the Ministry." I saw grabbing a handful of floo powder.
We arrived at the Ministry and went towards the ballroom. There were tons of people waiting in line to get in. Everyone was dressed in their finest and was chatting excitedly. It was tradition to be announced as you came into the room so the line wasn't moving too quickly. They had to check invitations as there were always people trying to sneak in.
We finally made it to the door and the man looked at the two of us wearily. We handed him the invitation and he nodded. "Miss Hermione Granger accompanied by Mr. Draco Malfoy." He announced, putting the Ministry worker ahead of the date.
Draco gave me his arm as we saw everyone turn around to watch us enter the room. We put on our smiles and looked like the couple everyone was expecting. Some people smiled, others looked to be scowling but already I knew we would be up for examination. It was the first time outside of pureblood circles that we had come out as an "official" couple.
"Draco, I know we haven't been getting along recently…" I started to say when I saw Harry and Ginny coming towards us. I cursed in my head their lousy timing but put a smile on my face.
"Later." He said as they got to us.
"Hello Hermione! Draco!" Ginny said as she gave each of us a hug. I watched Draco flinch at the contact but he managed to pat her back and not look to awkward.
"Hi guys!" I said hugging Harry as well. "You both look great!" They did with Harry wearing his black dress robes with a red bow tie that matched Ginny's red dress that went to her ankles. Her dress had sequence in it that made it shimmer in the light. Surprisingly, she had finally found a shade of red that wouldn't clash with her hair.
"Malfoy." Harry said in Draco's direction.
Draco nodded his head. "Good evening to you both."
"You look amazing Hermione!" Ginny said. "And holy cow, are those real?!" She said staring at my necklace. I watched her eyes go from my necklace to my earrings down to my bracelet.
"Of course they are. My girl wouldn't wear anything less." Malfoy said putting his nose in the air for emphasis.
Ginny's eyes went wide. "Merlin…" She breathed.
Harry cleared his throat and Ginny snapped out of it. "Oh, sorry Harry! Of course everything you buy me is fabulous as well." She recovered.
Harry rolled his eyes but smiled at the attempt. "Anyway, are you ready for tonight, Malfoy?"
"Of course, Potter." Draco answered.
"Mr. and Mrs. Theodore and Pansy Nott." Everyone heard announced. We all looked around to see the couple entering the room. Draco tensed a little and I grabbed his hand. He tensed even more then seemed to hold my hand tighter.
Pansy was wearing a gold set of dress robes with jewels hanging off of her neck and both wrists. I couldn't help but scrunch up my nose at how blatantly gaudy she looked. Theo was next to her wearing a formal set of black dress robes with a gold bow tie and he seemed to be whispering in her ear.
"Remember, not until after midnight." Harry reminded Draco. "The less people, the better."
"I'm aware, Potter." Draco responded. "I was paying attention yesterday."
"Is everyone here?" I asked Harry.
"Yes, Ron and Penny arrived with us. And Angelina and Seamus arrived right before you." He said looking back at me. "Blaise and Astoria are here already as well."
"Any everything is ready?" I asked, making sure everything was in place.
"Yes, everyone is accounted for and we all know our places." Harry assured me. "Nothing will go wrong."
I nodded while I looked around the room for everyone. I saw Ron and Penny talking to Seamus and Angelina by the food and I saw Blaise and Astoria next to the punch bowl. I felt Draco pull at my hand and I looked up at him.
"We should go say hello to Blaise." He said as if he was reading my mind.
"Very well." I answered. "I'll see you two later." I called out as we started to walk away.
We walked over to Blaise and Astoria. Blaise was wearing a set of navy blue dress robes with a black bow tie and Astoria was wearing a floor length black dress which showed more than ample cleavage. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed for her.
"Hello Blaise. Astoria." Draco said politely as we came up next to them.
"Hello mate." Blaise answered. "Hermione. It's great to see the two of you."
"Charmed, as always." Astoria answered in a bored voice.
The man behind the punch bowl gave me two cups of punch and I handed one to Draco. "Good evening." I said demurely.
"They really outdid themselves this year." Blaise said as he looked around the room.
I took a good look at the room for the first time and realized that Blaise was right. The room was full of floating candles and it looked like giant snowflakes were hanging from the ceiling. There were silver streamers running across the walls and gold drapes adorning the windows. It was really beautiful.
"They did." I agreed.
"Any New Year Resolutions?" Blaise asked.
Draco scoffed. "Like I ever do any of those things."
I smirked when I heard Draco's answer. For some reason, he never seemed the type to resolve to do anything, especially anything he didn't want to do. "I've been so busy, I haven't really been able to think of any." I answered.
Just then, the music started up and people started to get on the dance floor.
"Blaise, let's dance." Astoria whined, pulling on his sleeve.
"Ok, dear." He answered. "You two should join us." He said as he nodded towards the dance floor.
"Fine." Draco said, grabbing my hand and leading me roughly towards the dance the floor.
They started with a waltz and once again I felt myself being twirled around by a very good dancer. It was nice to dance with someone who knew what they were doing and I could just go along with it. Back leading got tiresome after a while. I stayed silent this time, trying to think about what I would tell when I finally got the chance. I racked my brain but really couldn't come up with a good way to broach the subject. We danced 3 more dances, every so often, passing someone we knew and smiling at them when we could.
We were leaving the dance floor when I decided to go or it. Now or never, right? It was already 11:30pm and I was running out of time. "Can we got outside for a bit?" I asked. "I'm really quite warm."
He nodded his head and walked towards the balcony. The same one that I knew was in the plans to get him alone with Pansy. I shivered as we walked out into the cold air but it also sobered me up to what I was about to do. He walked to the railing and looked out over the gardens as if he was trying to avoid looking at me.
I came up next to him and took a deep breath. "Look, Draco, what has happened between us?" I asked nervously.
I saw him look at me from the corner of his eye and then shrug. "There was never an 'us', Granger."
I flinched slightly. "I don't believe that." I responded defiantly. I heard him sigh and he turned towards me.
"What in the bloody hell are you talking about?" He said quietly. "We've been pretending, that's all."
"It hasn't really felt like pretending to me." I said resolutely. "And I miss…well…whatever was happening." I looked up at him and saw his eyes widen slightly. I could see him going through some thoughts as if trying to make sense of some things.
"But what about what you said to Ginny?" He asked cautiously. "On Christmas."
I racked my brain to think of what he could be referring to. "I don't understand…"
"I overheard you and Ginny talking at the end of the night. You said that you didn't like me like that." He said slowly.
The realization then hit me. He had heard me absolutely denouncing any feelings I might have had for him. "Oh, Draco, I was just confused." I said trying to smooth it over. "I wasn't sure what was going on with us and I was kind of scared about the whole thing."
"And what about now?" He said.
"I don't know, Draco. All I know is that I have missed you. And whatever we were, whatever we were leading to, I want to be there again." I said as I shivered from the cold or from putting my feelings on the table, I wasn't sure.
He wrapped his arms around me. "I thought you were just pretending. That you were playing with me for the sake of this case." He said into my hair. "I wanted to distance myself from you because I thought it would make it easier when this whole thing was over."
I shook my head. "I wasn't playing, Draco. Whether or not it was supposed to be pretend, I know now that it was certainly real." I don't know how long we stood like that but it was comforting and warm and I was fairly certain that I had no desire to move.
"We're going to start the countdown!" I heard someone yell from the doorway.
I sighed. "I suppose we should head back in, huh?"
He nodded his head. "Let's go then." He grabbed my hand and we walked back towards the door.
We moved back into the ballroom and saw the Minister standing at the podium. "Thank you all for coming here tonight! Thank you for all your hard efforts and here's to a fantastic new year!" He said as waiters started walking around with trays of champagne. Draco and I grabbed one and the Minster raised his glass. "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5…" We all counted along with him. "4,3,2,1,Happy New Year!!"
Confetti fell from the ceiling covering all of us. Draco spun me around to him and before I knew it, his lips were on mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck careful to not spill any champagne. When he let go, he whispered in my ear, "Happy New Year, Hermione."
I smiled, clinked my glass against his and we both took a long sip. Merlin, I had missed him. "Happy New Year, Draco."
I saw Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Penny making their way over to us from behind Draco's back. I disengaged myself from Draco's arm as they got to us.
"Happy New Year!" I said to them, beaming.
Ginny looked at me with a knowing smile and gave me a hug. "It's about time." She said in my ear.
I blushed but I nodded my head. "I know." I replied softly.
"Happy New Year!" Ron said, hugging me and Ginny.
Everyone hugged each other and talked about their plans for the New Year.
We all talked for a few more minutes and saw that the ballroom was starting to lose some people. Harry looked at us and said, "I think I'm going to grab Angelina and take a stroll through the garden."
We all nodded knowing that was the cue to get into our places. Ron sought out Seamus while Penny and Ginny tried to round people up away from the balcony.
I looked around and saw Pansy standing by the punch bowl by herself. I knew this was an opportune moment. "Please, be careful." I said to Draco.
"Of course I will." He said with a cocky smile. He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. "This will be all over and we won't have to pretend anymore." My smile faltered at the thought that he still wanted to be free of me. "Then I can kiss you and you'll know I mean it." My smile quickly recovered and I grinned ear to ear.
"I'm looking forward to that." I said.
He walked away from me and I walked closer to the balcony doors trying to stay out of sight but able to see what was going on. He walked over to Pansy and I saw her beam at the attention. She practically latched onto his arm and smiled up at him as if he was a god to be worshipped. He motioned to the balcony and she readily agreed practically skipping and holding his arm tight against her body. It made me want to vomit.
They walked out to the balcony and I saw her flirt with him heavily. She was leaning against him and talking animatedly. Something didn't seem right. If she wanted to kill him, why would she be so obviously craving his attention. Wouldn't she be nervous? Wouldn't she be trying to get her wand out? Maybe Draco was right. Maybe it wasn't her. I was about to go find Ron or Seamus when I felt someone grab my arm.
"Hermione." Theo's voice said in my ear. "Would you please accompany me while I fetch my wife from your boyfriend." He said a little forcefully as he pulled me out onto the balcony.
He was holding onto my arm roughly as I realized that we had the wrong person. "Pansy, darling. I'm shocked to see you out here all alone with Draco here. Hermione and I were getting worried." He said in an overly saccharine voice. "You must know that it looks terribly improper for my wife to be hanging all over someone else's boyfriend."
Draco's eyes got wide as he saw me being held by Theo. Pansy jumped back away from Draco when I could've sworn she said something along the lines of "Run!"
"Goyle!" Theo called out and suddenly Goyle was there and he had stupefied Pansy. She fell unceremoniously to the ground with a thud. Goyle then pointed his wand at Draco while Theo jabbed his wand in my back. "All this time, you've always had Pansy. Always. Now, it's my turn to take something you love." He said as I felt him turn and the feeling of side along apparating took over.
I looked around as I was roughly thrown on to the floor. "Accio wand!" I heard Theo say as my wand flew out of my robes and into his hand. "I'm sorry you got caught up in this, but I'm afraid Draco deserves it and it doesn't matter who is caught in the crossfire." He said as he summoned chains around me. I realized that I was in a bedroom and he had chained me to the bed. I started to scream but he quickly put a silencing charm on the room. "Tut, tut. Now that's not going to get you anywhere."
"What are you going to do with me?" I asked defiantly. "Draco will find me."
"Your optimism is overwhelming but I highly doubt that. I'm going to take away from Draco what he never let me have in my marriage." He said as an evil smirk graced his face. "Someone that loves him."
A/N: I hope you all are enjoying the story. Sorry this chapter is kind of short but I wanted to get something in before Christmas. I'm thinking that I should be able to finish this up in a chapter or two, maybe even put in an epilogue. The upcoming events are still floating around in my head and are not quite solid yet. Please review and let me know what you think! ~Chrissy
