Draco had spent a few hours setting up the bearded dragon and his tank. Severus had shrunk it once they were out of the shop, so they weren't carrying around a massive tank. Draco had placed it in a corner of the dorm, where the others would most likely leave it alone. Draco had asked Severus to place wards around the corner, only allowing Draco through.

Anyway, Draco grabbed the boxes sitting on his nightstand and made his way to the RoR. Hermione walked in about two minutes later.

"Hey."

"Hey, love."

"Dray, what's going on?"

The room was much different than they usually had it. Instead of a fireplace, a couch, and the big open learning space, Draco had a nice couch, a few candles, and a little table with a bouquet of roses in a vase.

"Mya. I love you, and this is not a proposal. This is me promising myself to you, someday. Someday, we will get married. If you accept, that is."

.

Hermione had covered her mouth with her hands; she was floored. This was so beautiful, and Draco, oh Draco. He was perfect, standing there, a box in hand. As she stepped closer to see inside the box, she saw a gold ring, two dragons intertwined. There were alternating red and green gems, which she didn't doubt were real. There was a bigger ruby and sapphire in the dragon's mouths, their birthstones. It was perfect.

She loved it.

She loved him. She just never realized how much.

Inscribed on the inside of the ring, in what was definitely Draco's handwriting, was written 'semper tibi amo,' or love you forever, in Latin. She had become quite proficient in Latin, and could almost speak it fluently. In fact, she was almost ready to start creating her own spells.

But she also saw the list on the table, with a second ring in another box. This ring was mostly the same, but without the two big gems in the middle.

"Dray … I don't know what to say. Except that I promise myself to you too. Now and always."

Draco slid the ring out of the velvet box and onto her finger. It was a little large, and she was about to point that out when he said "Angustio" and the ring shrunk to just snug around her finger.

"Mya. These rings are enchanted, with a multitude of things, the lady in the store gave me a list, but I think I remember most of them. Obviously, there is a resizing charm, but then there is a basic hex and charm blocker, a medium strength potions resistance, which both will only activate if harmful. There is a permanent portkey, to a destination we can set. We just have to say those words when we want to set it, and it will bring us there no matter what." Draco pointed to the sheet of parchment on the table. "Lastly, both bands will know exactly how far they are from each other, and will stay hidden from those prying eyes, the people we don't tell about the bands. Severus might see them, he came with me to Diagon Alley."

"Draco, these are perfect! How could you choose such a perfect design?"

"I, uh, drew it. These are totally custom made."

"You can draw?" She was surprised. Well, she supposed she had seen the drawings Hagrid occasionally made them do for class, but she never really processed it. Draco just shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess."

They sat on the couch, and Hermione automatically snuggled into his arms, safe and comfortable.

.

A week later saw Hermione walking into the RoR, and she was confused for a moment. Pointing to the other two occupants of the room, she opened her mouth, then stopped.

"What is going on here?"

Harry and some Slytherin girl paused, and looked at Hermione. "Uh, Hermione? Why are you here?"

"I'm here nearly every Monday, Thursday and Saturday night. Why are you here? And who are you?"

"Daphne Greengrass. I thought your boyfriend had told you. Though I didn't tell mine, so … yeah."

"That's your boyfriend?"

"Mione, you have a boyfriend?"

"Yeah. You have a girlfriend?"

"Touché. I'm dating Daphne here, who are you dating?"

Just then, the door swung open and Draco walked in. "Hey Mya."

"Malfoy?" Harry said with disgust and shock.

"Potter. Uh, hi? Greengrass, why didn't you tell me you were coming up here tonight?"

"Are you going to follow our every move now?"

At this point, Harry had pulled Hermione to the side and was questioning her quietly.

"How long have you been seeing him?"

"Well, we met about a year before Hogwarts, and I've been dating him since the end of second year."

"So he's nice to you? Treating you right? What about all the things he says in the halls to you and about you?"

"All lies. Harry, you see this ring? It's a promise ring. Just given to me recently, actually. He's not a bad guy, at all."

"If you think so."

The two of them walked over to where the Slytherins were waiting. When all four were standing in a loose circle, Hermione spoke up.

"So, Daphne Greengrass."

"Hermione Granger. I knew it was you, but didn't say anything to you, sorry." She pointed from Hermione to Harry. "It slipped my mind."

"Yeah, Dray, what's your excuse for not telling me this?"

Draco winced and looked down. "I didn't want to."

Hermione sighed. "Oh, Dray."

"So, Potter. Harry. I want to apologize for everything I've ever said or done against you. Even in the Slytherin common room mid - second year."

"You knew that was us?"

"Uh, Weasley's hair was changing back, and Crabbe and Goyle are dumber than that. And Mya told me. I actually helped brew a little bit."

Harry nodded a bit, then said, "huh." Yeah, she guessed that it would be odd to know the person you were interrogating was helping you interrogate them.

"Anyway, Draco and I were going to practice a bit."

"What exactly do you practice?"

"Wordless, wandless spells. And spells up to Auror grade 3. But we are fully through Hogwarts curriculum. Oh, we also do quite a bit of Muggle work too. We're both in year ten."

"Why would you do Muggle schooling too?"

"Well, what if something happens, or we need to get away from the Wizarding World. This way, we at least know somewhat what we are looking at. I personally really like the sciences." Draco answered. "Muggles really have advanced, and I hate quills with a passion. Don't know why we are forced to use them. Pens are so much better."

"Uh. Yeah, Quills are really annoying to use."

Draco came up behind Hermione and hugged her. "Sorry for not telling you sooner," he whispered.

"We will talk about this later."

"Ok. Later."

.

It was, in fact, later that Hermione and Draco were the only couple left. Daphne and Harry had left after they had started competing with a wandless levitation (that eventually turned into a stalemate after about fifteen minutes of standing around holding chairs in the air). They had even had a wandless duel, and of course Hermione won. Not because Draco let her either, he was working quite hard to hold her off from stunning him.

His strongest spell was either a stunner or a disarming charm, while Hermione's strongest was probably a Jelly Legs Jinx or a Stinging Hex.

"So, when were you going to tell me about them?"

"Well, you see, I never really got the chance -"

"Draco, you had all sorts of chances! You had over a week, Daphne told me! Why?"

Draco sighed. "I didn't want to ruin the moments we were having. I'm sorry."

"You better be!"

Hermione stormed out of the Room of Requirement, fuming and muttering under her breath the entire way. Draco looked longingly after her, but knew it was best not to follow. Let her cool off a bit.

.

Hermione wasn't mad at Draco, per se. She was just annoyed he hadn't told her that Harry and Greengrass were going to be joining them in the RoR. He had plenty of opportunities to do so, and even could have sent Amethyst at any time.

But she still didn't return to the Room of Requirement for a few days. Let him learn his lesson. If he doesn't want to talk to her, then she wouldn't talk to him.

Eventually, after the notice about the Yule ball, Hermione knew she would need to talk to him. So, the next time they met, the following Friday, she went to the RoR and hoped he would be there. She had totally ignored him all of their shared Care of Magical Creatures class earlier that week, not that that was really any different than usual.

~Flashback~

"I don' know if they hibernate or not, so I thought we'd just try and see if they fancied a nice nap. We'll just settle 'em down in these boxes."

At this point, there were less than a dozen Skrewts left. They were still killing each other, and reaching six feet in length.

Long story short, the Skrewts did not hibernate, and the boxes they were nailed into were soon blown across the lower grounds. At this point, Draco had started his 'Dramatic Boy' act and practically flown into Hagrid's cabin. Then Rita Skeeter showed up and made the whole mess worse.

Yeah. It was a terrible class, and Hermoine didn't have the energy to really put up with all the mess, and almost walked out of the area, but stayed and helped Hagrid clean up a bit.

~End Flashback~

But now she was worried about what they would do for the ball. They definitely couldn't go together, but Draco couldn't go alone (pureblood standing and all), and it really wouldn't be right if she went alone. Hermione was half expecting Ron to ask her, and soon. But first, she needed to talk it over with Draco.

.

In the Room of Requirement, Draco was pacing. He had already completed his homework for the next week, and he really didn't want to practice his magic without Hermione, it wouldn't feel right. He asked the room for a dueling dummy, and the room seemed to pick up on his mood. It sent him a dummy that threw mostly simple hexes and jinxes.

Eventually, Draco stopped, and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He tried to just give himself over to the practice and exertion, but ultimately, his mind was still on Mya. His Mya. His ring started heating up, but he ignored it. Then he remembered that the rings knew when the other was closer. He turned around just in time to see the door open, and an angel came through.

Well, not an angel, but close enough. He hadn't been able to talk to her in a week, hadn't been able to say he was sorry again. Of course he was happy to see her again.

She looked a little apologetic, but also like she knew what she was doing. and Draco really had learned his lesson. He supposed it was a lesson in what it meant when they didn't communicate.

"Hey. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. But I missed you. And I'm also sorry that I didn't tell you that Daphne had figured it out, and would be bringing Harry by."

"But we need to figure out what we're doing for the Yule Ball. Obviously we can't go together, and I might have been asked by someone else already, but I told him that I needed to think about it."

"I think it would be best if you went with him, whoever he is, and I guess I could probably go with Pansy, though I really don't want to. She looks like a pug."

Hermione dissolved into a fit of giggles, then they walked towards each other and embraced each other. He really had missed her.

.

Draco walked into the Entry Hall, looking around for his date. He saw Pansy standing under some mistletoe (conveniently) and rolled his eyes. She was wearing the frilliest pink dress on the face of the earth, and looking like a fancy blobfish.

As they walked into the Great Hall, Draco could not suppress a gasp at the stunning decorations. However, he quickly recovered his pureblood decorum and turned to see the champions walking in. He gasped as he saw Hermione on the arm of Victor Krum. She was in a flowy blue dress, not unlike Pansy's. But she actually pulled it off. And what had she done with her hair?

She looked like a princess. His princess, though no one else knew that

"Oh Drakie! Come and dance!" Pansy squealed, yanking Draco onto the dance floor. Disgusted, he swayed on the spot while trying not to look her in the eye. At the end of the song, he made his way out, mumbling excuses about being tired, even though it was just the beginning of the ball.

Heading outside, he strolled around for a bit, making sure to stay out of the teachers view.

He found Hermione kneeling behind a rose bush, looking very flustered. checking to make sure there was no one around, he kneeled down next to her. Holding her shoulders, he brought her forehead to his shoulder "He kissed me! Oh my goodness Draco, I'm so sorry! I think he thought that there was someone on the side. And then Ron started yelling about him, asking if I was calling him Vicky yet."

"Oh, and you should probably talk to Harry. Let him know that we agreed that we would take other people, and meet later."

"Okay, I'll do that later. You want to head up to the Room of Requirement now?"

She nodded. "That'd be nice. Let's go have our own mini ball. Can we send Amethyst to Daphne asking her and Harry to join us too? Or do we want to be alone?"

"I think alone is better for tonight. We haven't been able to spend much time together this week. You look absolutely stunning, by the way."

"You don't care about Krum?"

"There was nothing you could do about it, was there?"

"No," she said miserably. "No, there wasn't."

"Okay then. Meet me up in the room in 15 minutes. I'll make a couple last appearances. I'll see you then."