A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! Hopefully Draco will behave better than Ron does in canon - let me know how you think it turned out! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions! Huge thank you to Ava Safari for beta reading this chapter!

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

1995

After learning that Hermione was going to the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum, Draco was fairly certain that he'd fucked everything in their friendship up. He'd tracked her down the next morning, finding her on the grounds with the Bulgarian Seeker himself.

"Are you really going to the Yule Ball with Krum?" he asked, sounding utterly confused and bewildered.

It must have been his tone that had set Hermione on edge, because immediately she was prickling under his gaze. "Yes, I am going with Viktor," she confirmed, the smile falling from her face.

"Why?" The questioned had come out of his mouth before he could stop himself. Knowing that he needed to explain himself, he tried to get out what it was he was feeling, even though he didn't entirely know what it was that he was feeling. "I just mean, I thought that maybe you and I would go together as friends."

Hermione immediately scoffed. "I am going with him because he asked me and I like him," she answered, before crossing her arms over her chest in a defensive pose. "If you really wanted to go with me, you would have asked me weeks ago."

"I lost track of time," he'd answered, lamely.

"The Ball is only a week away, Draco," she countered. Hermione didn't give him a chance to hash it out further, leaving him alone with his thoughts so that she could go rejoin Viktor.

It hurt so much that she was going with someone else and that he knew that he had no one to blame for this turn of events other than himself. He knew that he needed to make things right, but he wasn't sure how.

His mother would kill him if he'd acted in any way less than chivalrous with a witch, so it would be impossible to ask her for advice. While he thought about writing to his Grandfather Cygnus or Uncle Sirius, he quickly dismissed that idea, knowing that he probably needed a woman's perspective. Eventually, he settled on sending an owl to his Aunt Hermione.

Her owl had arrived the morning after the Yule Ball, which Draco had attended with one of the pretty girls from Beauxbatons, even if he didn't really enjoy himself much. The tone of his Aunt Hermione's words were...bemused, and he wondered if she'd had a similar experience before. She told him that no girl liked feeling like a last resort, and by waiting so long to bring up the dance with Hermione, he'd sent the signal to his friend that he had only thought of her when he couldn't come up with anyone else to go with.

Aunt Hermione's advice was...illuminating to say the least. He thought that she was probably right, based on his Hermione's assertion that he should have asked her weeks ago. Draco knew that he needed to make things right between the two of them.

He found Hermione in the library, shortly after the new year, and she was blessedly free of Krum's brooding presence. "Care if I join you?" he asked, waiting for her affirmative response before he slipped into the seat opposite of her. "You looked really pretty at the Yule Ball. I'm sorry I didn't get to tell you on the evening."

Hermione flushed under his compliment. "Thank you, Draco," she answered. "I was thinking that you might have asked for a dance."

"I didn't think you'd really want to talk to me, not with how our last conversation went," he said. He hadn't wanted to ruin Hermione's night, not when she looked to be having so much fun with Krum.

A little smirk formed on her lips. "Yeah, you're probably right," she agreed eventually.

"Listen, I...I wanted you to know that I don't think of you as a last resort," he said finally. "I really didn't mean to save asking you to go to the Yule Ball with me until the last minute. I just assumed that-"

"You assumed that no one else would want to go with me," Hermione said, letting him know how much he'd hurt her.

"No, that's not it at all. I just...I always imagined that we would go together," he tried to explain not knowing exactly how to put it into words. He and Hermione just always seemed to fit together, it was strange to imagine them doing things separately. "It was rude of me to wait so long without discussing it with you. I had no right to be peeved when you wanted to go with someone else."

It was painful for him to have to apologize to her so thoroughly, to take full ownership of his wrong. Malfoys so rarely apologized for anything, as they always had the tendency to be right. But his Aunt Hermione's letter had opened his eyes that in this case, he was definitely in the wrong.

"I-thank you, Draco," Hermione said finally, her eyes boring into him as though she were trying to read his mind. "I know how hard it is for you to apologize to me. You are forgiven."

"If it matters, well, I am glad that you had fun with Krum," Draco said, even though he didn't really feel that way. He was still a selfish boy, after all, and part of him wished that Hermione wouldn't have fun with anyone but him.

Before they could hash things out any longer, Krum was looming over their table, looking like he'd made plans to join Hermione in the library. Feeling pushed out, Draco knew not to overstay his welcome and collected his bag, ready to leave the two of them alone. Just as he was turning to leave, though, Hermione's voice caught his attention.

"Draco!" she called after him. When he turned around, she was giving him a shy smile, nervously playing with the hem of her skirt. "I would have said yes, if you'd asked."

That knowledge was enough to put a spring in his step, even as he retreated back down towards the Slytherin Common Room.