AN: I'm sorry that I haven't been updating but well, life hasn't been that easy on me and I've had a lot of problems. But I'm back now. Thanks to all of my reviewers, you really helped me a lot.

-Chapter 18-

[*The Next Morning, Draco Malfoy's P.o.V*]

Draco slowly opened his eyes and yawned loudly. He drew his tired eyes to the alarm clock standing on the bedside table right next to him. The blond haired hunk nearly fell off his king sized bed in shock.

How the heck can it be 1 o'clock already?

He immediately jumped out of his bed and just threw his cover carelessly on the bed.

Then he quickly threw on a pair of plain black shorts with a steel grey t-shirt to match.

When he ran down the stairs he got his second big shock of the day; Hermione was standing in just her dark blue bathrobe in the kitchen with her hair tied up in a tight knot in the back of her head. But the most shocking part was that she was cooking something on the stove.

Draco screamed in both shock and horror when she turned around and faced him; She had some green gunk on her face and one slice of cucumber on each of her eyes.

"AAAHHH!! Hermione! LAY DOWN ON THE FLOOR!! I THINK SOMEONE HAS CURSED YOU WITH A VERY DANGEROUS SPELL! YOU'VE GOT GREEN SMEAR ALL OVER YOUR FACE!!" Draco screamed loudly as he ran down the stairs hysterically.

When he reached Hermione he took out his wand and was just about to swing it when she took his hands into hers. The sweet laugh that came out of her mouth clung softly into Draco's keen ears.

"You crazy bum. It's just a face pack, no one has put a curse on me." Hermione said softly and smiled.

"Face pack? Why would you want one of those? You don't need any cream to make you look pretty. I think you're just perfect as you are." Draco said confused with a frown on his face.

"Awww…you're so freakin' cute." Hermione said with a big smile.

Draco's third big shock came when Hermione stood up on her toes and softly laid a kiss on his cheek. After that she quickly turned around and continued with whatever she was cooking.

But if Draco had been a little more attentive and had looked more closely at his brown eyed girl he would have seen that her face was now not only green, there was now a crimson red color beneath all that gunk.

[*Hermione Granger's P.o.V*]

Oh no, why did I just do that? I've got to stop listening to my heart. Hermione thought as she turned another pancake.

"What are you doing there, Birdie?" Draco said without thinking as he sat down on one of the chairs at the table.

Hermione almost dropped the frying pan when she heard what he called her.

Oh my goodness, he must have been looking at my butt. That's always nice to know…I think.

You see, on the back of her bathrobe, just underneath her butt was a print with the text Birdie written in fire red letters.

"Um, I'm just frying some pancakes. Are you hungry? Because it's ready." Hermione said.

She took the plate full with golden brown pancakes and put it down on the table, just in front of Draco. Then she opened the fridge and grabbed a package of milk and the glass can with cranberry jam in it. After that she opened the cupboard right beside her and took out a bowl full with fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. She also grabbed a bowl with sugar.

All of these things Hermione then put down on the table next to the pancakes.

Draco begun to set the table as Hermione finally sat down on one of the chairs.

"Where are mum and dad, by the way?" Draco asked and sat down on the chair again.

"They left before you woke up. Mrs. Malfoy said that they were going to some kind of castle, that I really can't remember the name of, and prepare for the Christmas dinner." Hermione said, and begun to load her plate with pancakes.

"Oh." Draco said

Just when he was about to stuff the pancake into his mouth, Hermione quickly stood up and smacked him on the head, HARD.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? SPIT IT OUT RIGHT NOW! " Hermione screamed and smacked him once again.

Draco immediately spitted it out.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT??" Draco half screamed, confused.

"Calm down, Draco. I'm offended. I've been working my ass off with this food and you just ignore all of the delicate different berries. Can't you at least take some sugar?" Hermione asked, obviously very indignant.

Draco looked at her both confused and strangely while he slowly strewed out some sugar on a new pancake. When he was finished he looked at Hermione as if asking if it was okay for him to eat his food now that he had taken the stupid sugar.

Hermione however didn't look pleased at all.

"Can't you take a couple of berries too? Please? For me?" She asked with her famous puppy dog face.

Draco stared blankly at her until her gave out a defeated sigh.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll take some of those freakin' berries." He said and did as he promised.

Surprisingly, he really liked it.

"T'is 'ell dod." Draco said with his mouth full.

"You see? Hermione Granger is always right. Well, I better start get ready for the Christmas dinner." Hermione said as she walked up the stairs.

Draco suddenly stopped eating and watched as Hermione walked away.

"Wait! You're going to the dinner? With who?" He called after her.

He heard Hermione laugh sweetly from upstairs before her body became visible.

"Yeah sure, pretend like you don't know. I don't have time for your silly little games 'cause I've got to make myself pretty." She said with one last laugh before she disappeared again.

Draco just continued to stare at the stairs with confusion written all over his face.

"By the way Draco, You should get ready soon too. I wouldn't want to be seen with a shabby looking ferret as my escort, now would I?" Hermione shouted from upstairs.

The blond haired boy now choked his food but managed to swallow it heavily.

Me? Hermione's escort? WHAT? When did this happen? And how come I'm not informed? Draco thought with his gray eyes wide in confusion.

He tried to breathe normally but his breaths started to get more and more hysterically. Soon the boy was shaking in need of oxygen.

'Who can be cruel enough to tell Hermione that I'm her date without telling me? It may have been Snape or……….' Draco thought until suddenly he came up with who the evil creature may be.

"MOM!!" He yelled furiously but soon remembered that she was away with his father somewhere.

[*Hermione's P.o.V*]

Hermione walked out of the shower with one towel wrapped around herself and her hair wrapped into another one. She stopped at the bed and picked up her new bought dress.

Carefully she put it on with her hair still wrapped into the towel. Since she was still kind of wet, it was really hard to get the dress on. But the girl almost couldn't breath when the piece of cloth finally was on since it clung so tightly onto her body. She decided that it would be looser later on, when her body had completely dried.

Hermione walked over to the large golden-framed full length mirror, which was placed on the wall a few meter away. There she looked at the wall clock hanging above and noticed that it was four o'clock already.

Wow. That means that I must have showered for over one hour. And Narcissa promised that she would help me with my hair and make-up…I can't remember if she was suppose to come home five or six o'clock. I'll just have to wait and see.

As she thought this she took out her now almost dry hair out of the towel. Just when Hermione was about to take up the brush she heard a door slam quite hard.

[*Draco Malfoy's P.o.V, 15 minutes earlier.*]

Yep, here he was; Draco Malfoy, sitting on the couch infront of the fireplace, looking as bored as a human being could ever be.

He was reading How To Talk To Women Without Ending Up Sleeping On The Hard Couch;

The woman's mind is very complicated and is definitely not to play with.

One of the many rules when it comes to women is:

However she looks, it's always " absolutely fabulous". And to avoid her starting World War 3, always agree with whatever she's saying.

These are the two main rules, follow them and you will be a happy bunny[AN: Or a happy ferret in Draco's case].

There is NO exceptions!

Before he could read any further he heard a small pop. He looked up to see if it was his parents and sure enough, there was standing a man and a woman infront of the fireplace, dusting off their robes.

"MOM! I think we need to talk." Draco hissed with a death glare on his face.

Narcissa tried to look as natural as possible and just laughed nervously.

"Heh..eh..yes, that would be fine." She said and followed her son upstairs.

Draco opened the door to his parent's room and let his mother in before he slammed it shut again quite hard.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!? ME? HERMIONE'S DATE!?"

Narcissa looked at her son in an apologizing manner with her gray eyes begging after forgivness.

"I'm sorry Scootchie, but I knew you wouldn't have the guts to ask her by yourself so..I did it for you. And besides, I'm sure you'll both have a lovely time." She said and gave him a sad smile.

Draco looked up at her and narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

Why am I angry with her? Isn't this what I've been waiting  for…or more like begging ever since Hermione became my Owl Pal? Searching for an excuse to hang out with her, talk to her. I should thank my mother for asking Hermione to go to the Christmas dinner with me.

"It's okay. I'm sorry too, I didn't mean to overreact. I guess I was just shocked. But how am I suppose to be ready for the dinner in 2 hours? I won't make it." Draco explained with a frustrated sigh.

Narcissa sat down on the bed next to him and put her arm around his shoulders in a comforting manner.

"Don't worry Scootchie, I've already asked your father to help you to get ready. And I promised to help Hermione so I better go now." She said before she placed a kiss on his forehead and left him with his thoughts. 

[*1½ Hour Later*]

Draco was waiting nervously downstairs together with his father.

They were waiting for Hermione and Narcissa to come downstairs and join them so that they could get going to the Christmas dinner.

Draco took one last glance in the mirror and looked at himself closely; His blond hair was falling naturally infront of his gray eyes, which gave him a kind of relaxed but stylish look. He was of course wearing his new jade green colored suit and a pair of plain black shoes.

The blond haired hunk looked over to his father and saw him walking around the room and frantically glancing down at his watch.

Lucius was wearing a classic looking suit that matched his normally cold blue eyes. There was something different with the cold hearted man, he seemed almost...happy. Which was extremely rare coming from Lucius Malfoy.

Just when Draco was about to die of nervosity he suddenly saw his mother walking down the stairs. She was wearing a antique silver colored dress with her silver-blond hair tied up in an elegant knot on the top of her head. Since Draco wasn't really an expert on make up, he couldn't name the products she had on her face. But he thought that it was  mascara on her eyelashes, she may have been wearing lip gloss too, he couldn't really tell. He did know though that it was silverish colored eye shadow on his mother's eyelids.

When Narcissa finally was downstairs she gave her husband a gigantic smile.

Draco suddenly felt someone knock him on the shoulder. He turned around and was very surprised to see Hermione standing there, looking as beautiful as possible. The blond haired guy's jaw almost touched the floor when he saw her dress. It looked absolutely perfect on her. The dress didn't show too much, just enough to make her look like the natural beauty she truly was.

Of course he noticed that she had make up on too, but just a tiny amount of mascara and a little bit of pink lip gloss. Her hair was just like Narcissa's, but tied up in a loose knot with a few strays of curly hair framing her face.  

"You..you l-look...beautiful." Draco said with a little bit of shock still left in his voice.

I'm just glad that I found my voice again. Could have been really embarrassing. I didn't know Hermione looked this good, well, I've always known that she's pretty but not THIS pretty. I cannot believe that I was actually doubting on going with her as my date.

Hermione blushed crimson but gave him a brilliant smile, which he of course returned.

"Well kids, we better get going. The dinner starts in 15 minutes." Narcissa said and took her husband's hand.

[*10 minutes Later, Hermione Granger's P.o.V*] 

Draco and Hermione dusted off their clothes and saw Narcissa and Lucius doing the same. They had just flooed into the house that the Christmas dinner was held in. Hermione looked around the unfamiliar livingroom and saw amazing art hanging on the maroon clored walls and lots of antique furniture. It looked just like an old castle with it's high ceiling and huge elegant stairs.

A sudden loud squeak interrupted Hermione's thoughts. She looked up and saw Nienna running towards a terrified Draco, which made her laugh slightly but she couldn't help feeling a little jealous and angry.

Why am I angry at Draco? He can do whatever he wants with whoever he wants. But why Nienna? Even Pansy is better than her, heck, she's ten times better than her. I just wish I could show Nienna a lesson..a real painful lesson. But I can't do that...or can I? Why shouldn't I be able to show her not to mess with me? I'm the smartest witch in Hogwarts! It couldn't hurt to just earn a little respect..now could it? Well then, I guess it's settled. Watch out Nienna Petrell, I'm going to make you wish that you never came to this dinner. Or ever laid eyes on my Draco.

-End of chapter 18-