The next morning, Hermione didn't leave her room for anything. Draco had waited for her to go down to breakfast until even he missed out on eating. He went down to the kitchen and gathered whatever was leftover, bringing some for Hermione as well. She wouldn't come out, so he slid it under her curtain.

Hermione sat on the floor and stared at the napkin with a few strips of bacon and a piece of buttered toast. She looked up at the curtain and heard Draco's retreating steps. She cast her glance back down at the still warm toast and with a sigh she picked it up and took a small bite. Her hunger was beginning to cry louder than her thoughts and she took her time finishing the food before tossing the napkin in the fire.

For a moment, she thought about crawling back into bed and not waking up for a few more hours. Then, she took one look at her pajamas and decided to take a long hot shower. She walked into the bathroom and saw Draco's door was open. Worse than that, she saw that Draco was sitting on his bed.

"Good morning, Hermione."

She only heard "Good mor-" before she reached out and shut his door.

"Well aren't we cheerful this morning," frowned Draco as he continued his reading.

Hermione turned the water on as hot as she could bear it, letting the water wash over her. She sat on the floor of the shower, leaning back against the wall and shutting her eyes. The kiss. It haunted her sleep last night and it haunted her thoughts today. There was so much in that kiss, so much that kiss had awakened in her, so much that was missing in Ron's kiss. What didn't make sense before made sense now, it flew in the face of her logic. But she couldn't let it be real.

After a while, her skin was wrinkled, the water had turned cold, and there was a knocking at the door.

"Hermione? Hermione, are you ok in there?"

She snapped out of her daze and stood up.

"Yea, I'm alright."

"You've been in there for nearly half an hour, the prefects should be getting here pretty soon."

"What time is it?"

"11:45"

"Oh my gosh!" Hermione quickly showered and by the time she got out it was five till noon. She put on an old pair of jeans and an old long sleeve shirt and quickly pulled her wet hair back into a sloppy ponytail. The prefects were waiting downstairs, pawing through the sorted piles of party stuff as she walked down the steps. Their job was to wait until the Great Hall had cleared out from lunch and then spend the afternoon decorating. They passed the hour by dividing jobs and finalizing plans.

At five after one, the whole group headed down with their hands full, talking in small groups excitedly. Once they were in the Great Hall, they used a mixture of magic and old fashioned elbow grease to get the place ready. All the prefects set off to clear out the long tables and to mop up the room, leaving Draco and Hermione alone with each other.

"Hermione, I-"

"Oh look, I think we should take down the house banners so people can forget about house allegiances for one night."

"I agree. Listen, Herm-"

"And Hagrid has brought in his pumpkins, so I think we should leave a few on the ground for effect."

"Oh sure. I just wanted to talk about last-"

"So much to do! Well, I'd better get started." Hermione picked up a few boxes of Touch N' Go Streamers and a cage of live bats and walked briskly away from Draco.

"Yea, well, I'm glad we had this little chat," Draco muttered to the empty air where Hermione once stood. He took the box filled with food and recipes down to the kitchen to instruct the elves what to do.

When he got back upstairs, loads of tiny, intimate tables had been set up and Hermione was up on a ladder trying to set up a few party decorations when a flock of bats flew by, knocking her off balance. Draco hurried to the bottom of the ladder and caught her just in time. He kept her in his arms for a few moments.

"Careful."

"Thank you," she muttered, her cheeks red as she quickly fought out of his arms.

Sooner than they had thought, the Great Hall was decorated and ready for the ball. All of the prefects as well as the Head Boy and Girl were grimy and sweaty from all their hard work. They all rushed back to their dorms to join the rest of their peers in getting ready for what was sure to be the greatest party of the year.

Draco was ready at half past seven. He wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of dressing up for the ball, but after a lot of thought he decided on a costume. Most of the muggle girls he had talked to about what was hot told him all about this Legolas from a movie called Lord of the Rings. Now, Draco had read the books and scoffed at what J.R.R Tolkien called an elf, but the girls thought he was the hottest thing around which Draco thought fit him best.

So he was waiting at the bottom of the steps, his blond hair tied back from his face. He was dressed in earthy colors with a dark green cloak around his shoulders, held in place with an ivy brooch. He strapped a bow and arrows onto his back for effect, but decided that they would come off shortly into the dance.

"Hermione," he glanced at his watch. "Let's go, we're supposed to be there early."

Hermione's curtain parted and when Draco caught sight of her, his jaw dropped. Gone was the innocent little girl look he was so accustomed to. He wasn't sure what she was supposed to be, but she looked very hot.

Hermione was wearing a pair of emerald green hot pants that were very sparkly and had scarves hanging off the sides. On top she had a tight green top pieced together with rhinestones that bared both her navel and her cleavage. She put on a very eye catching fake belly button ring to tie the look together. She wore a pair of tan suede boots that were embroidered with snakes. Her hair had been tamed into loose, relaxed curls that looked very soft and very sexy.

"What?" she asked innocently as Draco continued to stare.

"What are you supposed to be?"

"Britney Spears... she's this muggle singer. Plus I liked the look. It's... different for me."

"It's very... Slytherin."

"Yea I guess so. Shall we be going then?"

The dance was a complete success. It was great to see all the students laughing and having fun together, forgetting house lines. Everyone was dancing and all the costumes were great. About half way into the dance, a slow song came on that Hermione was very familiar with. Draco came over to her.

"Would you like to dance?" She nodded and accepted his hand.

"Did you request this song?"

"Request it?" Draco grinned. "I gave him the CD to play. I know you love Coldplay, so I decided that he should play it."

She smiled, then bit her lip. "I heard you playing this song one night." It was "In My Place."

"Did you?" he tried to keep the nervousness out of his voice.

"Yea," she looked into his eyes. "It was really good."

"Was it?" His voice was barely above a whisper.

"Almost as good as..." Her voice trailed off as they both leaned into a kiss.

Once again their lips met, this time soft and tender, but short. It was no friendly kiss, and all those who could see them stopped dead in their tracks. After they broke apart they stared into each others eyes, oblivious to the scene that was going on around them. Draco's eyes flickered upwards and he backed away from Hermione.

"What? Draco, what?" She followed his glare behind her where her eyes met Ron's very pissed off ones.

"Hermione, my dear... I think it's time we had a little chat."

She turned back to look helplessly at Draco, her face full of fear. Ron grabbed her arm and proceeded to drag her out of the Great Hall.

"Ron, I want to stay for the whole dance," she meekly protested.

But Ron wasn't listening.