A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Normally these chapters are stand alone, but this one will have follow up next chapter. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter ten and be on the lookout for chapter eleven soon!

1994

Draco had been surprised when they announced that the Triwizard Tournament was coming back to Hogwarts after centuries of it being discontinued. It certainly explained why his mum was in such a tizzy all summer. The only thing that he'd been able to get out of her was that it involved school politics. If he had to guess now, Narcissa Malfoy probably did not approve of bringing back a series of tasks that had killed school children in the past.

But, Narcissa Malfoy did not get her way in this instance and students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang invaded the Hogwarts grounds in September.

Draco found it annoying that he had to share his already limited space with them, though the rest of the students seemed quite intrigued by the prospect of new people to crush on, new people to talk to, and of course, Viktor Krum. Draco had seen him fly that summer at the World Cup and it seemed impossible to believe that a world class Quidditch player would be at their school, let alone as one of the three selected champions, along with Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons and Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts.

He had realized that the Tournament meant that there would be a Yule Ball, long before Professor Vector put up sign ups for dancing lessons in the Slytherin Common Room. Harry and Alphard had decided to sign up, not wanting to make absolute fools out of themselves, and despite already being quite good at dancing, Draco tagged along.

It was after one of the dancing practices that the trio of boys started talking about the necessity of actually getting a date. "Cheer up, Harry, I am sure there will be some other girl that you can ask. Daphne maybe?" Alphard suggested helpfully, after Harry revealed that he'd been turned down to go with Cho Chang. The Black heir was going to be attending the ball with Mandy Brocklehurst, having asked her weeks ago after a Hogsmeade weekend.

"Nah, she's already going with Blaise," Harry answered with a frown. "Maybe I'll just ask one of the Beauxbaton girls. They are rather pretty aren't they?"

Draco made a noise before he could help it. While they were different he didn't think that there was anything special about the French girls.

"Oh? Who are you asking then?" Alphard asked, puffing his chest out.

The blond scoffed in response. "I figured that I'd just go with Hermione," he answered smoothly. "She's my best friend after all."

"Well, have you asked her? Because Hermione isn't exactly a mind reader, mate," Harry scolded him.

Draco sucked in a breath realizing that he had maybe let it go a little bit long before asking her. They talked all the time, but the details of the dance just never seemed to come up. "Well, if you're so worried about it, I'll just go ask her now," he countered, thinking that it probably was a good idea to go.

He left the Common Room for the library, knowing that it was the most likely place to find her. But, when he got there, Hermione wasn't at her usual table. Scouring the aisles, he didn't see even a glimpse of her, but he did find his cousin, Arcturus. Seeing as the second year was in the same house as Hermione, perhaps he would know. "Hey, Arc," Draco said in greeting. "Do you know where Hermione is?"

"Why does everyone always ask me that?" he asked with a huff, reminding him of the slightly snobbish way that Uncle Regulus spoke. "It's not as if she's my sister."

"I just thought that you might know since you are housemates, and you both seem to be in love with the library," Draco argued back. "If you don't know where she is, I'll leave. I just wanted to ask her to the Yule Ball."

"Didn't you hear?" Acrturus asked, with a rather Slytherin looking smirk on his lips. "It's all that the school could talk about for the past week."

"Well, what is it?" Draco demanded. Didn't Arcturus know that he paid little mind to the gossip that went around, especially after the rumor late last year that he and Pansy were betrothed to one another? As if his mother would agree to something as stupid as that.

Arcturus gave him a sad look then, all of his gloating gone. "Hermione already has a date to the Yule Ball," he explained quietly. "It's Viktor Krum."

Draco felt his mouth drop open in surprise. "Viktor Krum?" he asked, sounding dumbfounded that Hermione would agree to go with someone dark and brooding and older like Krum. "But she doesn't even like Quidditch that much."

His cousin shrugged his shoulders, unable to explain the attraction. "Sure, but that hasn't stopped him from studying with her in the library all year. She's probably with him now," Arcturus explained further.

Feeling as if his world was spinning out of control, Draco could feel his heart sink in despair. How had he not known that Hermione had grown so close to someone? And even worse, how was it someone as famous and desirable as Krum? Literally all the girls at school had been absolutely bonkers over him. Then he remembered how he'd been skiving off studying with her in exchange for messing about with Alphard and Harry, exploring the secret passages on the Marauders Map and staying up too late.

Salazar, he thought to himself, he'd been a terrible friend all year, but it still sort of felt as if Hermione had gone behind his back and found herself a secret boyfriend. He couldn't even begin to untangle why that felt like such a big betrayal to him, especially when he knew that he didn't have that sort of claim over her.

Harry had been right that Hermione wasn't a mind reader. She hadn't known that he'd been planning on asking her, so he couldn't exactly blame her for going with someone else. But he still felt like they needed to hash things out. And he could only do that by talking to Hermione.