I am sooo sooo sorry that it's been so long. I have a lot of stuff going on for school and work and I didn't have a lot of time to update. This chapter is longer than usual because I couldn't find a good place to stop. Please review and don't have me because I was late in getting the chapter up!

CHAPTER 14

What was she thinking? How would Draco react? Could she even tell Draco? A million thoughts and feelings coursed through Hermione's body as she sank down onto her bed. This had been going on for a few days, but she'd thought nothing of it, these things happened sometimes.

A knock on her door snapped her out of her own mind. "Yes?" she asked, trying and succeeding in sounding as normal as possible.

"Are you ready to go down to breakfast?" Draco asked, opening the door and seeing her sitting on the bed in her nightwear still. With a grin he said, "apparently not. Are you okay?" he asked, taking in her paler face.

She nodded, "yes, I'm just…I think I might be coming down with the flu or something. I'll get ready for breakfast, just a moment," she said as she got up, grabbed some casual clothes and headed to the bathroom. Once there she leaned back against the door and closed her eyes.

Five minutes later she came back out in jeans, a nice maroon top, and her hair up in a pony tail. She'd applied cover up, to hopefully add enough color to her face that Harry and Ginny wouldn't ask her questions too.

"Ready?" Draco asked. Hermione nodded and they walked down to breakfast holding hands.

Harry and Ginny were already there, whispering and laughing. They looked up when Hermione sat down across from them. "Are you excited Mione?" Ginny asked.

"Definitely, getting to dress up and look pretty and have a handsome guy fawn all over me. I live for these events," Hermione teased, "but really, I am looking forward to it. And you?"

"Oh yes! It's going to be so much fun!"

Hermione smiled. "Well I'm glad I won't have to deal with you all day if you're going to be so happy."

"What makes you think you don't have to deal with me? I asked Draco yesterday, he said it was fine if Harry and I came and hung out in your dorm today. So ha!" she replied.

Hermione gave a dramatic sigh but smiled at the younger girl. She looked down at her half eaten plate of food and felt like she was going to be sick. "Well, I have an essay to finish up so I'm going to go do that now, but when you're done eating come on up, I should be done with it by then," she said, getting to her feet.

None of them noticed the eyes following her, the blue ones a few benches down, and the brown ones from a whole different table. Almost at the same time the two people stood up and left the hall as well.

"Hey!" the first one yelled at Hermione's retreating back. With an audible sigh Hermione turned to look at Pansy Parkinson.

"What do you want?" Hermione said with a bored expression.

"You've ruined my life! You've stolen my boyfriend and told everyone that I'm a prude! You think you're going to get away with that?" she demanded, stepping closer.

"For one thing, I did not steal your boyfriend, you were already broken up. For another, Ginny was the one who said you were a prude. But you know what, none of that matters because you're life is far from ruined. You're healthy, you have money, you're getting okay grades, you aren't known as the school slut, you have no articles full of lies written about you, you're not pregnant….you're life is far from ruined." Hermione fought to keep herself from flinching as she realized that she'd said that last part out loud.

"I don't care what you say! Draco and I were going to get married! We were going to be the most known couple in all of England! And you've ruined it all!" she almost shrieked.

Hermione closed her eyes and tried to calm down. "Pansy if you don't clear off right now I will put you in detention for harassing a Head Girl. None of your accusations are correct and as such you should not be acting this way. Get out of my sight right now!"

Pansy gasped at her as if she hadn't expected this coming. "How dare you presume to order me about!"

"What's going on here?" came another voice. Hermione closed her eyes again and clenched her hands together. When she opened them Ron was standing in front of her, next to Pansy.

"This does not concern you Mr. Weasley, so you can just go back to whatever you were doing," Hermione replied.

"It might not concern me, but it sure as bloody hell is interesting. What's going on?"

"This….this mudblood has ruined my life! Stolen my boyfriend! And has the audacity to order me out of her sight!" Pansy said loudly.

"Oh my gosh! You know a word that big? And what it means?" Hermione mocked, rolling her eyes. "Give me a break, you don't give a damn about me 'stealing' Draco from you. You just saw another opportunity to try and make my life more difficult. It won't work. I'm not kidding here Parkinson, get out of here before something happens that you don't want!"

"Did you hear her threaten me!?" Pansy demanded of Ron, who to Hermione's confusion was still standing there.

He nodded, "yeah, what is the school coming to when our own precious Head Girl and Know-It-All Granger can threaten students and not get in trouble? Perhaps the headmaster would like to hear about this…"

Hermione glared at him like she never had in all their years of friendship. "What is wrong with you?!" she exclaimed. "Why are you being like this?"

"Don't you realize that Malfoy is just using you? I don't know what he plans to gain from using you like this, but that's what he's doing! And you're just walking right into it Hermione! He doesn't care about you! You were always supposed to end up with me! Everyone knew it, everyone expected it!"

"Everyone? Even you Ron? If you knew that we were supposed to be together then why did you torture me like you did? Why were you always such an inconsiderate prick? Why did you go off and date Lavender when you say you knew we were meant for each other? I'll tell you why, because you didn't give a damn! You figured you would have some fun and then when you got tired of Lavender you could just come back and everything would be how it was before! Well I have news for you! Nothing is the same Ron! We aren't the same people, we don't want the same things! Why can't you just except that and leave me alone to live my life?"

Ron just opened and closed his mouth a few times like a goldfish but didn't reply. Pansy was watching the exchange with interest and an oddly calculating look.

"Now if you two don't mind, I'm going to my room before this useless conversation goes any farther. Perhaps we will see each other at the dance tonight," Hermione said with a falsely pleasant voice.

She walked up to her dorm alone and in silence, but instead of sitting down and doing her essay, she went into her room and curled up under the blankets. What was she thinking? How could she let this happen? And while she was in school still no less? Her thoughts of her predicament blocked out everything else, the fact that her boyfriend and best friends were coming up any minute, the dance tonight, everything except her current problem.

"Hermione?" Draco asked softly, coming into the darkened room slowly. "Hermione are you alright? You've been acting strange all morning."

Hermione sat up slowly, "yeah I'm fine Draco. I just….I've been feeling kind of tired so I took a nap to see if it would help. And it did, I'm feeling much better now."

Draco still looked suspicious but didn't say anything as he and Hermione walked down into the main common room to find Harry and Ginny sitting on the couch together.

"What took you guys so long?" Ginny asked with a smirk.

"I was sleeping, is that a crime nowadays?" Hermione asked back playfully. She had decided not to let her problem ruin the night. They'd been planning this for weeks now and they all deserved to have a good time.

They spent a few hours talking and hanging out before Ginny dragged Hermione back up to her room to start getting ready. By the time they were done Ginny was ready in a deep purple dress that somehow accented her hair instead of clashing with it. It was another slightly formfitting dress, but by the time it reached her knees it flared out and trailed on the floor behind her. She had pulled her hair up in a French twist and had a little tiara on top.

Hermione was now slightly dreading her choice of dress. It reminded her of her Yule Ball dress a little. It was a kind of pink ivory color with beading at the very top of the strapless bodice. The fabric on the bodice overlapped each other and then moved down to the waist where it kind of opened up into several layers of ruffles with a bow. She wasn't happy with the bow but Ginny told her that it added character to the dress. Sure it was very elegant and if she was honest it looked amazing on her, but for some reason she didn't feel like she had the right to wear such an amazing dress. For her hair she pulled the top few layers up and curled it all with nice big elegant curls instead of the craziness that it usually was. Looking in the mirror, she knew she was gorgeous, as was Ginny, who was standing beside her with her arm wrapped around Hermione's waist.

(AN: for a picture of Hermione's dress see my profile. Sorry I don't have a picture of Ginny's I just kind of made hers up. But I figured Hermione should have something special, so I looked for one for her : ) )

"Come on Mione or the dance will be over by the time we get down there!" Ginny said, pulling her after her down the stairs to the common room where the boys were waiting.

Hermione had had Draco's outfit made for him, since she wanted it all to be a surprise. But she'd had no idea it would look so amazing on him. It was a white tux with a white vest underneath and a tie that had been handmade to match her dress. She had never seen him where white before, but had to admit him in white gave him in black a run for his money. Harry was standing beside him in a black tux with a purple tie and vest looking as good as he always did.

"Hermione, you look amazing," Draco said, taking her in his arms and kissing her cheek.

"Thank you, you don't look to bad yourself," she replied with a smile.

"Indeed, Draco you look hot," Ginny piped up from where she and Harry were waiting for them. "Hermione really knows how to dress you huh?"

Draco grinned, "yeah I was a little worried at first, because I don't do white, but I was surprised by how good it looked on me. Thank you by the way."

"It was nothing, I just wanted our first real social event to be well coordinated and have us match."

"Oh I see, it had nothing to do with me after all," he teased as they walked down to the Great Hall.

Even with Ginny claiming we would be late, they were still some of the first ones there, and Hermione couldn't help but notice that everyone was staring at them.

The dance itself went amazingly well and Ron and Pansy never once confronted them. Draco and Hermione spent all but one dance together, when they switched partners with Harry and Ginny. More than once they became the center of attention as they showed off their expertise in the art of specialized dancing. Hermione got a lot of compliments on her dress and even though they had a very good time, she couldn't help the nagging thoughts that kept creeping into her mind. She knew that she would have to tell Draco about her problem soon.

That night she and Draco laid in his bed together, wrapped in each other's arms.

"I love you Hermione," Draco said, stroking her arm.

"I love you too," she replied, her heart filling with dread at what she had to tell him.

Ok so I know, the dance itself didn't get a lot of time in the story, but I figured it'd been so long since I updated you guys wouldn't really mind the fact that it didn't get a lot of playing time so to speak. Please leave some feedback. Where do you want the story to go? What do you think should happen with Ron? Thanks……REVIEW : )