Disclaimer: I am not JRK, and I'm making no money off this.

Perfect Mistake

Fourteen

Bittersweet

Graduation Ball

Hermione plastered her most dazzling smile on her face and proceeded to do more hand shaking.

"Fantastic Head Girl," someone from the ministry whose name she had forgotten pumped her hand. "We've all heard about your achievements, Ms Granger."

"Thank you," Hermione said with a smile.

"I thought the hand shaking would never end," she muttered to Ron who was her date.

He chuckled and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Well, who asked you to be such an accomplished Head Girl that everyone just has to tell you how great you really are?"

Hermione gathered her long dress- something Ginny had picked out for her. It was pink, sequined and floor length with a plunging neck line and felt like a second skin. She was still uncomfortable about the V-neck that showed off a considerable amount of cleavage but everyone was convinced it look amazing on her, so who was she to disagree? She never had Ginny's good taste in clothes anyway.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Draco Malfoy. Her heart jumped. Somehow, after the drunken kiss they shared after curfew, she stopped hating him. It didn't mean she liked him; she just stopped thinking of him as an evil villain, now that she actually had seen him vulnerable.

He looked dashing in black velvet robes and his hair was even more silver in the light.

Narcissa Malfoy had her hand on his back, smiling up at her son with the air of a proud mother. Hermione had always thought Malfoy got his looks from Lucius but now that she saw Narcissa beside him, she realized that Malfoy looked more like his mother than father. The hair of course was Lucius' hair colour, but Draco's smirk was less cruel like his father's but more haughty like his mother's. They had the same nose and the same curved lips.

Hermione walked purposefully over to where they stood, after all it was her duty to shake hands with all the parents, which had been what she was doing the whole time.

"Mrs Malfoy," she said politely. "I'm Hermione Granger, Head Girl."

Narcissa Malfoy shook her hand. "Pleasure to meet you," she said, with a small smile on her face that revealed nothing.

"Refreshments are over there," Hermione gestured. "Please feel free." She smiled again before walking off.

"Granger."

She paused and turned around. "Malfoy?"

Draco mentally slapped himself. Why did he stop her when he didn't even know what to say?

"Can I have a word with you?" he asked, keeping his voice cold.

"Of course," she answered back, icily.

She walked to a corner and tilted her chin, motioning for him to start speaking.

"You look nice," he said finally. Beautiful, he thought, absolutely beautiful.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "What?" she asked incredulously.

"Beautiful," he said. "You look beautiful." Completely utterly painfully beautiful, so beautiful I ache.

She blushed, from her neckline all the way to the roots of her hair. "Thank you," she said stiffly. "You look… nice too."

He nodded. "You did a good job as Head Girl this year."

"I would say so myself, seeing that I was the one who found you drunk on night patrol," she said easily.

She saw his cheeks dye red.

"Right, that," he said distractedly.

"Malfoy," she started but didn't know how to finish that sentence.

His hands locked on either side of her face and pulled her forward, like gravity. When his mouth sealed over hers, it was bittersweet.

He wasn't Ron, Hermione noticed, so their lips don't move in a familiar rhythm. He wasn't Ron, so their teeth grinded against each other. He held the back of her head as though he was scared she would break away or push him away like before. She didn't struggle; she didn't try, just stood there and let him kiss her.

Finally he broke away, breathing erratic.

He pivoted on his heels and hurried away, tugging on his crumpled robes in the process. Hermione slumped against the wall, her hand over her heart, trying to coax it into calming down.

He wasn't Ron, she thought, but why was it that nothing she and Ron had ever done had made her feel this way before?

"Hermione, here you are!" Ron grinned at her.

She smiled back. He pulled her into a hug and kissed her so tenderly Hermione almost unraveled. She kissed him back, urgently, trying to make sense of why this kiss felt so different from the other before. She could still taste Draco- when had it become Draco? Just barely two minutes he had still been Malfoy- like a stolen candy tucked against her cheek, sweet when she least expected it.

--

"You sure this is going to work?" Draco asked nervously, studying the bottle of sea foam green gel.

Fred snorted. "Of course it works, we tried it out ourselves!"

Hermione laid a hand on Draco's back. "Trust them; they know what they're doing. This concerns Bee, they won't hurt her."

Draco nodded. "Alright then, how much of it?"

George smoothed his hand over Bee's bald head and exchanged a glance with Fred. "Well depends how long you want it."

"Shoulder length," Hermione answered the same time as Draco replied, "Waist length."

"Are you insane? How are we going manage that much hair?" Hermione barked.

"What? That's the Malfoy hair, it's always manageable!" Draco exclaimed. "The Malfoy hair only works its charm on a female when it's long!"

"She's only five! She doesn't need that kind of charm," Hermione argued.

"Look, we can always cut it if it's too long," Draco reasoned.

"That sounds reasonable," Hermione nodded. "Go on then."

Fred dipped the brush into the gel and smeared it over Bee's head gently.

Bee shivered and giggled. "It's so cold!" she gasped, squirming.

"Hold still," Draco said. "Do you want to end up with more hair on one side of the head and less on the other?"

Mortified, Bee froze. "No," she whispered.

"I can't believe she got the Malfoy vanity," Hermione groaned.

"Hey, it comes with the package," Draco said indignantly. "How do we look so good if not for the vanity?"

"Wait five seconds, George instructed.

After about six seconds, the effect was amazing. Silver blonde hair began to sprout from Bee's head, unfurling and growing at a steady rate. Bee broke into a wide smile when she felt hair graze her shoulders and continue sprouting.

The growth only slowed when it passed Bee's hips.

"There," Draco said proudly.

"Don't wash for six hours," Fred warned.

"Okay, thank you," Hermione smiled. "You know how much I love you boys."

Fred and George both grinned.

"Okay, it's lovely," Hermione admitted. "We won't cut, but once it gets any longer we have to cut."

Draco whooped and tossed his daughter into the air. "Now we get to dazzle the boys," he declared.

"Excuse me?" Hermione said icily.

Draco sealed his mouth shut. "I didn't say anything," he said quickly.

--

"It's over," he said, lying on his back, his arm encircling her waist. "I'm so glad this whole dramatic fiasco is over.

"Nope," she smiled, propping herself up to look at him. "It's only beginning. We have a daughter to bring up, we need to plan and get her ready for school- how can it be over?"

"That's my Hermione, always thinking about school," he snorted.

She glared at him. "Oh, shush," she scolded. "Who are you to say anything, Mr. Second-In-The-Year?"

"Yeah? At least I didn't spend every bloody waking hour with my head buried in books!"

"Hey! That's untrue, Draco, completely untrue and you know it!"

"Oh well then," he smirked down at her, changing position swiftly so he was braced atop her, grinning down. "Why don't you show me what else you can do?" he said, his voice dropping to a whisper.

Both their heads tipped towards each other, their lips scarcely an inch apart.

There was a call from the next room and she bolted up straight, making him yelp in shock and fall onto the floor.

"For the love of-" he swore, scowling as Hermione raced out of the room at their daughter's call.

"We'd have to get used to that, don't we?" he asked sullenly, following her out.

"No, you will," she smirked.

He huffed his displeasure. "It's all your fault," he muttered to Bee.

"What did I do?" she asked, her eyes wide.

He grumbled and Hermione laughed, gathering Bee in her arms and standing up. She propped her daughter up so that Draco was eye level to Bee.

"She's our miracle, Draco," she whispered.

He pressed a kiss to Bee's head. "Miracle of all miracles," he agreed.

She smiled into Bee's hair and her fingers entwined with his as they sandwiched the evidence of their love between them, filling the house with the fresh smell of love.

-finis-

A/N: There, you go(: The End.

Please review!

And please check out the new story I'm working on- Evanscent. (:

-lissie