A/N: Thanks for the reviews, and I'm going to get in to third gear with my writing, because chapter 7 was posted a little later then expected. And the title of the chapter, well yeah I couldn't come up with anything better :)

Disclaimer: Don't own a thing :-)

Review-answers:

Lizziememe – Thanks :)

Dracoslilprincess – Thank you :) I'll continue for sure

northernlights-daemon – Thanks, and if I keep getting such great reviews I'll definitely keep writing!

Last Time: Hermione and Draco have to go to the ball together, Ginny now knows about the growing friendship, and the feelings of Hermione towards Draco... Draco overheard their talk.

Draco had opened the portrait and acted like he just came inside. He looked at the two girls and walked to his room to grab his stuff... he was still hearing Hermione's words in his head, she liked him, she wanted to kiss him, but she didn't trust him... but she had said one magical word... 'Yet' he was going to gain her trust... starting with tonight.


Ch 08 Trust & Bertie Botts

When Draco walked upstairs Hermione's eyes followed him upstairs. Ginny was watching her friend with amusement in her eyes. 'Come on mione, stop drooling we have to go talk to Harry and Ron' she giggled as her friend slapped her on the shoulder 'I was NOT drooling!' Hermione said.

'Ok, not drooling then, you were just mentally undressing him' Ginny said while walking outside. Hermione froze for a second and then realised her friend was joking and walked after her.

'So now we're going to tell Harry and Ron, ready 'Mione?' Hermione nodded in reply end they walked downstairs, Harry and Ron were outside. Hermione was a little nervous as she walked outside to them. But she realised something, they were here friends, they respected her opinion, at least she thought they respected it.

'Harry, Ron? I want to talk to you 2' they walked to her 'is there something wrong 'Mione?' she shook her head, 'I just wanted to tell you something, and please let me finish my story before you interrupt ok?' Ron spoke up 'why would we interrupt?' he asked. 'Just promise it' Hermione said. They both nodded. 'We won't interrupt you 'Mione' Harry said.

'Well you know the eurhm Head Boy?' Harry nodded suspiciously 'Well he and I became something else then arch nemeses, we began to like each other, not intentionally but because of our position in Hogwarts as HB and HG, we became friends... I know you don't like Draco, but I want you to realize that I do, I actually begin to like him, and this doesn't mean I trust him, but it does mean we're friends...'

'Now I don't ask you to become friends with Draco, and I don't think he wants that so... I just want you to be civil towards each other, because I respect him as a friend, and you're my best and greatest friends in the whole world, but I want you to respect him as my friend...' The last part she said in one breath so now she was gasping for air.

She looked at Harry and Ron 'So? What do you think?' they were staring at her. Ron spoke up first 'Are you out of your mind?' she heard Ginny gasp at her brother's reaction 'No I'm not Ron, I've gotten to know him...' Ron shook his head 'Well at least you're not expecting me to be friends with ferret- face!'

Hermione glared at him for a second and looked at Harry 'I don't know if I trust this 'Mione, but as my friend I'll accept you're decisions, and since you're the smartest witch I've ever knew I think you know what you're doing' he said slowly. Hermione smiled and hugged her friend tightly 'Thanks Harry...'

'That's what friends are for' he smiled, she heard Ron sigh 'yeah 'Mione I go with Harry' Hermione threw her arms around Ron and hugged him 'thanks Ron, this means a lot to me' Ginny smiled behind her and said 'well you've already gotten my view on it so can I have a hug too?' Hermione laughed and hugged her friend.

When she pulled back she whispered in Ginny's ear 'Sure you don't want Harry to hug you?' Ginny's eyes grew big and her head started to get to the same colour as her hair. And Hermione smiled, her friend was so easily to read for her.

Then she turned back to Harry and Ron 'Well now that you know about my friendship you sure don't mind me going to the ball with him' she said nervously 'it's kind of a requirement for HB and HG' she added quickly 'Dumbledore wants us to go together'

Now Ron turned bright red. 'You're going to the ball with him too?' he shook his head and sighed 'next thing we now you're shagging him like bunnies do' she stared at him 'RON!! We're friends, not shag-bunnies!' Ginny giggled behind her, and she couldn't repress her laugh either and both girls were now laughing.

Harry was grinning at Ron 'You know buddy, it's none of your business it 'Mione wants to use Malfoy as her sex-slave' he said and then burst into laughter. 'Well I'm going to leave the 3 of you, I have duties to do, see you tonight at the feast' she smiled and walked back to her common room.

It was a small little lie, she just wanted to be alone, to think. When she walked into the common room Draco was sitting on the couch, reading a book and eating a couple of bertie botts. He had a large bowl standing on the table filled with the little thingies.

'Hey' she said while sitting down and pulling her legs beneath her. 'What are you reading?' He looked up 'Care for a dragon, Part 31' he replied. She looked surprised 'Wow Part 31, are there really 31 books about it?' he nodded 'no, not only 31 but 50 books, I have them all in my collection, I just haven't read them all' he smiled.

'Do you have them here?' she asked while taking a bertie bott. 'yeah they're upstairs in my room, want to see them?' she nodded, and they walked to his room, when they entered they walked to a closet in the corner. She hadn't seen it before, not that she was frequently in Draco's bedroom, but when she came to wake him in the morning if he overslept again, she came to wake him up. But she hadn't seen this closet before...

When he opened it she gasped, it wasn't a closet but an entrance to a small room filled with books. On the far end of the room was one bookshelf filled with the 'Care for a Dragon' books Draco walked over there while Hermione looked around the room, all she could say was 'Wow...'

She was amazed that was sure, Draco looked at her and smiled. She was looking at all the books, her eyes filled with amazement, she hadn't heard of any of these books, well only one and when she saw it she was surprised 'Hogwarts: A History First Edition' she gasped and looked at Draco 'Is this really the first book ever made' she asked.

'yeah, father bought it for me the moment I received my letter from Hogwarts, he demanded me to read it at least 3 times before I would go to school.' His grey eyes clouded at the mentioning of his father, and then grew darker as if there was a thunderstorm going on behind his eyes.

'This is amazing Draco...' she said while placing the book back on its standard. 'None of these books sound familiar to me, well besides this one of course.' Draco walked over to her. 'Well I thought you would like this so I decided I would show it too you' he smiled. 'I want you to know you can read any of these books if you want'

Hermione looked up 'I can?' she smiled as he nodded 'yeah, the password is Dragon, if you tell it to the door it will open' she hadn't heard Draco say a password when they entered but she was amazed that she received the password. And she looked at him and smiled 'Wow Draco... you don't have to do this'

'I know Hermione, but if you want to read something you've never heard of before you can come take one whenever you want, and if I give you the password like I just did, you can enter anytime you want' he said. 'and now, go get ready for tonight' he smiled and pointed at the clock 'While watching the books you didn't notice that time flew by... it's already 4 o'clock, and the ball begins at 6'

'Oh god, I have to get Ginny and Lavender, and Parvati, and Luna, we were supposed to meet at 4 so we could get ready here, because of the big bathroom and Vanity...' she wanted to ran out of the room and go get them, but ran first to Draco and hugged him 'Thanks' she whispered before running downstairs to meet with the 4 others...

When she was downstairs she gasped for breath 'Ow you decided to show up' Ginny laughed. 'Yeah sorry guys, come on... Why couldn't you just come up to the portrait so I just had to open the damn thing, now I had to run...' Luna smiled 'we didn't think about that when we decided to dress in your room.'

When they arrived at Hermione's common room, Draco was sitting on the couch again but he was just thinking this time, eating some Bertie Bott's and staring at nothing in particular. He said his hello's to the 4 other girls and then returned to his room to change to. When the 5 girls entered 'Mione's room, 3 gasps were heard. Luna, Lavender and Parvati were staring at the room in amazement. 'Wow 'Mione, this is lovely' Lavender said.

An hour later everyone had their hair done, and their make-up. Except for Hermione, she was struggling with her hair like always. Her make-up was nice, and sparkly, she had light-blue coloured eye-blush with sparkles and she had put a charm on it so they would sparkle all night, she had lipgloss on which would last the whole night too.

But her hair, it was still one big mess. Whenever she needed her hair to look good, it just didn't... Lavender and Parvati saw it and began working at her hair. They didn't want it in a knot, but didn't want it curl-less either, so they decided that small wavy curls would do. They used a spell that her brown hazel-colored hair changed in a slightly lighter colour of brown with dark red-purple meshes.

It looked beautiful. So she thanked her friends and went to put on her dress. She still wanted to dress in the long purple dress with silver margins that she had bought in Diagon Alley, so she put it on. In the meantime all the other girls where fully dressed and ready to go because it was already 5.55 and they were presumed to be downstairs for their dates in 5 minutes.

When she exited the bathroom all girls went quiet. Hermione was stunning. They complimented her for the dress-choice, and after a couple of compliments they decided to go downstairs.

Draco was already waiting at the bottom of the stairs for Hermione, when Ginny came down followed with Lavender, Parvati and Luna he was getting nervous. Ginny walked up to him and whispered 'she's ready to come down, treat her well Malfoy, she looks like a princess.' She smiled and walked to Harry who had asked her in the last minutes, but she accepted it with pleasure.

When Draco heard Harry shut up in the middle of his sentence he looked up and saw Hermione coming from the stairs. She walked towards him, and smiled. When she was next to him he whispered so she alone could hear, 'Ginny said you looked like a princess, but she was wrong' Hermione looked a little confused and hurt but smiled when he resumed his sentence 'You look more like a goddess to me'

TO BE CONTINUED

A/N: hope this was fast enough :) I really tried to write as much as possible so I hoped you liked it :) Next Chapter: 'The End of Holiday Party'