The weeks to the Christmas ball had flown by, and tonight was the night. Dumbledore had insisted that Hermione not help with the set up, so she could enjoy the magic of the night along with everyone else. Hermione never looked so beautiful; she was wearing a long muggle evening gown. It clung tight in all the right places, giving her an hour glass figure, and in the back was a small elegant train. Her dress was the most fabulous shade of blue, making her dark eyes pop. She wore her long hair straight with a few curls at the end. Her make up was quite simple, just a light layer of pink eye shadow, and black mascara. Because her dress tied around her neck, she couldn't wear a necklace, so instead she wore a sliver, diamond laced bracelet that sparkled in the light. Very people knew how wealthy Hermione's parents really were. On her feet she wore simple sliver heals. Hermione looked in the mirror one last time before she picked up her mask, which was sliver, and had blue crystals on the left side, leaving the right side bare. She said the spell that would make it stay on till she removed it again with magic. She smiled, she looked beautiful, and the best part was that no one would know who she was. She looked over to check the time, and gasped, she was running forty-five minutes late, she had to run, or she was going to miss the last sleigh.

She ran as fast as she could in her heels, and as she entered the foyer, she could see one sleigh left, "wait" she cried out, as the sleigh was about to leave. Its passenger heard her cry and told the driver to wait.

Hermione ran over and climbed into the sleigh, "Oh thank you so much, it would have been horrible to have to walk all the way to the ball."

It was fiercely cold outside, and she looked over at her passenger who was staring at her.

"May I?" She asked.

"Pardon?"

"The blanket, I'm a bit chilly may I share it with you?"

Her passenger looked over at her and saw the Goosebumps on her arm, and opened up the blanket, and placed it over her and himself.

"So no date?" her mysterious passenger asked. She looked over at him, and something was so familiar with him, the way he held himself, the confidence in his voice, she wished she could point him out.

"No not this time," she said and sighed.

"I find it hard that someone as beautiful as you doesn't have a date."

"My my sir," she said smiling, "quite the charmer aren't you?"

Draco looked at the beautiful lady sitting beside him, and tried to place her. Surely he would have noticed someone so beautiful before tonight. He saw that she was smiling at him, and said "No charm my lady, only the truth." He could see her looking him up and down, he had gone all out tonight. He wore a simple black dress robes made out of silk, a diamond clip held his robes on. His mask was silver like his passengers, but his had embellishments made out of black jewels all over it. His hair hung lose and free, and he felt very sexy. As they rode down towards the forest, he could see a lit path, it was almost as breathe taking as his passenger was.

"This is amazing, Hermione really out did herself," Draco said out loud.

"Excuse me?" Hermione said, wondering if he knew who she was.

"The head girl, Hermione Granger, she did this."

"Oh yeah… I knew that" said his Hermione.

Before they knew it, they had arrived at the dance floor, Draco stepped out of the sleigh and offered his hand out to her, so she get out safely. As soon as Hermione stood up, the crowd became silent.

"Well my dear, it seems that you are drawing a lot of attention to us," Hermione blushed. Draco could see his mysterious women blushing underneath her mask, and it made him laugh.

"No need to blush, you must know how ravishing you look."

Hermione said nothing, but took Draco's hand, and stepped out. The second their skin touched, it was as if every cell in his body had come to life, he had never felt so alive in his life.

"Oh my," said the women, she had felt it too.

"Care to join me?" Draco asked, putting out his arm for her taking.

"Love too," she said hooking her arm with his.

Hermione could not believe what was happening, she knew he had felt the spark of energy that they shared when he helped her out of the sleigh, and now she was going to eat with this stranger, whom she had no who he was. Draco pulled out her chair as they reached there table.

"Thank you," she said and put her napkin in her lap.

"If I could have your attention," said one Dumbledore, all of the students stopped talking and turned there attention to their headmaster. "Now as this is a masquerade ball and I don't want anyone's identity given away unless they choose so, I will read the speech that our head girl wrote."

Dumbledore cleared his throat, a few of the students laughed. "First of all I would like to thank Dumbledore for allowing the ball to happen in this unique location, having the ball outside in nature has been a dream of mine for a few years now, and I am happy to share it with all of you. I would also like to thank all of the perfects for there help. For many of us this is our last Christmas at Hogwarts, and I wanted to be the last Christmas ball to be a blast. Now on to the food!"

Everyone clapped, and Hermione felt proud of herself. Their food magically appeared on the table, everyone had something different. Hermione had bewitched the plants to serve what ever food that person was craving the most. On Hermione's plate was spaghetti, and on Draco's was a sirloin steak. They sat in silence but it was never uncomfortable, just looking at each other they were having a full conversation. Dinner concluded with a piece of cheesecake for Hermione, and a slice of chocolate mousse cake drizzled in a raspberry sauce for Draco.

The music started playing and people were dancing to a fast pop dance. Hermione saw Ron dancing near her, she knew it was him because no one could miss his hair, it was unmistakable. She then spotted Harry and Ginny dancing, both of them had removed their masks, and were getting pretty close to each other, Hermione smiled, they both deserved a bit of love.

Draco was watching Hermione and looked to see who she was smiling at, Harry, and Ginny, this must mean she was a Gryffindor, did that bug him? No not really, maybe in the long run if this turned into something then just one night it might be, but he didn't dwell on it.

Tonight he was going to have fun and be the person he was truly now, nothing would take away his one night to be free. The music changed to a soft slow song, he stood up and offered his hand to Hermione.

"Would you like to dance?" he asked, as Hermione looked at him she smiled and took his hand. He led her out to the dance floor, and then wrapped his arms around her tiny waist. He could smell her shampoo and it was intoxicating. He felt Hermione rest her head on his hard chest and it felt wonderful. He never wanted the song to end, this moment felt so close to perfection. Hermione lifted her head up and looked into Draco's eyes. For the first time that night he noticed how dark and rich they looked. They were brown, but not a boring brown; her eyes almost looked like tiger eyes.

Hermione looked into her strangers eyes for the first time that night, and she saw the purest blue eyes she had ever seen, they were so blue they looked grey. She found that she could not stop looking at them. She knew she had seen them before, if only she could remember. She needed to remember. Her stranger then lifted his hand up to her face and pushed away the hair that was in her face. Draco then leaned in and went to kiss her, when the music suddenly changed and someone hit him making him loose his balance and fall on the floor. Hermione burst out laughing.

That laugh, he knew he had heard it before, that smile, he knew he had seen it before, and recently. He tried not to blush as he pushed himself off of the ground.

"Oops," he said as he dusted himself off.

"Glad to see you are not has perfect as you seem," Hermione said.

"Oh you think I'm perfect?" Draco teased.

"You seem like it."

"You haven't seen anything yet," Draco whispered into Hermione's ear, and he could see the goosebumps appear on her skin.

"So Mr. Perfect, tell me about yourself?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"Well I am a blue-eyed god." Draco said causing Hermione to laugh, she hit him on the arm and he grabbed her hand and held on to it. Hermione smiled. Draco was in heaven.

"What house are you in?" Hermione asked. Draco remembered seeing her smile at Harry, so he figured that she was in Gryffindor and didn't think she would be too happy knowing that he was a Slytherin so he lied.

"I'm in Ravenclaw."

"Oh, so handsome and smart?" Draco laughed and pulled Hermione into his chest.

"What about you?" he asked. Hermione smiled.

"Gryffindor," she said lightly almost a whisper. Draco smirked, he was right.

"Oh a brave Gryffindor, how brave are you?"

"Pretty brave."

"Brave enough to take a walk with me?" Draco asked, in a seductive way.

"Absolutely."

Draco and Hermione walked hand in hand, deeper and deeper into the woods. For some reason though, she didn't feel all that scared, who ever she was with, she knew he would protect her no matter what. Once they had left the heat bubble zone, Hermione began to shiver, and Draco gave her his dress robe to drape over her shoulders. She could smell him all around her, and he didn't smell cheap, she could smell his cologne and she knew it wasn't cheap. Once they reached a small clearing, Draco conquered up a blanket for them to lay on, and a small heat charm to keep them warm. Draco let go of Hermione's hand and sat down on the blanket, inviting her to join him. She only hesitated for a moment. Draco smiled as Hermione sat down.

"Now what?" Hermione asked she was nervous but she didn't want to show it. For some reason she felt safer with this stranger then she had ever felt with Ron.

"We watch the stars," Draco said and he laid down. Hermione didn't hesitate this time, she laid down beside Draco allowing his arm to come around her.

'I've never done this before," Hermione whispered.

"Done what?" Draco asked.

"Laid in the woods with a stranger."

"Do you feel comfortable?"

"Yes, I do," Hermione said smiling.

"How do you feel?" Draco asked wanting to know if she felt the same way he did at this very moment.

"I feel like everything is perfect, like I was meant to run late so I could meet you."

Draco smiled and pulled Hermione closer.

"I feel the same way," he said to Hermione.

"I'm scared."

"Of what?"

"I'm scared that when I find out who you are, and you find out who I am, we wont want this to continue."

"Do you feel our connection?"

"Of course I do."

"Nothing will keep me away from you then." Hermione simply nodded, she had a bad feeling about who this person was, and she prayed that she was just over reacting. They laid there almost the whole night, and at one point Hermione fell asleep. When she awoke, she found that her stranger was sleeping. She gently sat up and stared down at the person laying in front of her, could it be possible that she had found someone she could truly open up too? She never felt what she was feeling now with Ron. Thinking about it now, it felt as if she just fell in love with Ron because that was what she was supposed to do. Slowly her gentleman woke up, and saw her looking at him.

"Hmm like what you see?"

"What do you think?"

"I think you are ticklish," Draco said as he started tickling Hermione. Hermione screamed out in glee and tried to get away from Draco, but he grabbed her and pinned her to the ground, still tickling her.

"Ahh stop please," Hermione said barely getting it out as she was laughing so hard. Draco suddenly stopped and looked into Hermione's eyes. Hermione nodded, and Draco leaned in and brushed his lips softly against hers.

Very slowly he kissed her lips. He let his tongue out touching her lips asking for entry, and Hermione opened her mouth. Draco let his tongue touch Hermione's tongue ever so lightly, waiting for her response, which he got right away. Slowly Draco deepened the kiss, and soon there were in a heavy passionate kissing session. Draco was alive, he had found his hearts other half and he didn't care who was behind the mask, he would make her love him. With her he was allowed to be himself, and he prayed that his identity wouldn't scare her away. He had to tell her who he was before this went any further. Draco pulled away and looked deep into his soul's mate's eyes.

"I need you to know who I am, and I need to know who you are before this goes any further." Draco said seriously.

Hermione nodded.

"On the count of three we will take each other mask off ok?"

"Okay," Hermione said, getting out her wand.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

Hermione and Draco said the spell that would take off each others mask.

"Oh my god," Hermione said.

"Hermione?" Draco asked.

"Draco?" Hermione asked.

Nice and Fluffy. I hope you guys liked it. If you have any idea's or want to see something in this fic just tell me and I'll see if it works, and if it does, I'll use it. If you guys want to add me on myspace, go ahead, its on my profile (the link to my myspace profile.)

Also, be kind, leave a review ;)

--Nickie Thorn