"Where did Hermione go?" Luna asked, halfway through eating her pudding; Neville looked up from eating his own food and glanced up the table towards the entrance to the great hall.

"Has she not come in yet?" He murmured, chewing his mouthful and scanning the tops of the tables.

"I can't see her…" Luna said rather dreamily, "Perhaps she has gone back up to your room…" Neville frowned slightly.

"Well if you wait until I'm finished we can go up and see if she's there." Neville replied.

"Okay…" Luna agreed, returning to her pudding.

Hermione had run up staircase after staircase from the entrance hall to the seventh floor where the Gryffindor common room was; she could feel the tears burning to let them escape in the corridor where someone (especially Peeves) may appear unexpectedly. She made it to the common room and only just made it inside the – mercifully empty – circular room before the tears leaked over onto her face. She covered her face with her hands, trying not to let a sob escape her lips; she couldn't even understand why she felt so upset, it wasn't even like it had been anything really important… Although it had been important to her… She had been excited to be going to the ball with Draco, but not if he felt like he was an embarrassed about going with her. Hermione really didn't give a damn about other people talking about her, that had been happening the whole time she had been at Hogwarts, especially once she had become closely associated with Harry. Going to the ball with Draco wasn't going to be any different from having been in that kind of spotlight for the past eight years… And actually, she would prefer for people to be talking about her because she was with Draco, because then other people might stop being so prejudicial, once they had seen her being inclusive. But it was more than that… She hadn't asked Draco to go with her as head boy in the first place, she had asked him to go with her because she liked him, and she had hoped that maybe – just maybe – something might have happened between them… But now that looked unlikely to ever happen. She furiously swiped away the tears from her eyes as she could almost hear Ginny's gloating voice in the back of her head already: 'I told you he was no good, I told you he would just hurt you in the end. Poisonous toadstools don't change their spots!' She was glad that Ginny was occupied by quidditch practice tonight, otherwise she probably would have followed Hermione after she disappeared form dinner and then this moment would have been even worse. But Hermione knew that Draco had changed and was different, but that maybe he hadn't realised it yet, and he wasn't able to see past what other people might think, where she could and she honestly didn't care. She had sunk down into one of the armchairs near the fire, feeling thoroughly down, knowing that there would soon be people arriving back from dinner and she didn't want to be found with tears all down her face. She stared forlornly into the fire, watching the crackling flames lick at the wood; hearing the portrait holy swinging open and the beginning of chatter from students coming up from dinner.

"Hermione?" She looked up as a dreamy voice said her name and Luna and Neville standing next to the armchair she was sitting in. "What's wrong?" Luna asked, noting how Hermione's eyes were slightly red.

"You didn't come down to dinner." Neville said, taking a seat next to her. "What happened with Draco?"

"He, well…" Hermione began, still feeling tears at the back of her eyes and not wanting them to respell over onto her face again. "Did either of you tell anyone else that I was going to the ball with Draco?" She asked suddenly, determined to get to the bottom of how the news had leaked out causing Draco to freak out.

"No, you asked us not too." Neville responded, "Is that what this is about?" He twigged quickly, Hermione nodded.

I don't know how, but somehow people have found out." She told him. "A group of girls stopped him in the corridor and asked him about the ball, so someone has told them… and he's kind of freaked out about it."

What do you mean freaked out about it?" He asked, Hermione sighed.

"Just, not wanting people to be talking about it, or staring at us…" Hermione explained, "I think he's just concerned about reflecting the reputation he thinks he deserves onto someone else."

"He's maybe just looking out for you…" Neville tried to pacify her.

"But he doesn't realise that I don't care about people talking about us!" Hermione said, feeling slightly exasperated because this was the main issue. "I do not need Draco to protect or look out for me, if anything he's the one that needs looked out for! Especially after everything that has happened!" She felt angry; why should it be the right thing for Draco to look out for her if it wasn't going to help him at all. "I do not care if people talk, if people point and laugh for all I care; if they think I'm an idiot for going with Draco! Because if they do that then they clearly don't get him, that he's not a scummy death eater anymore – he is different, and I like him – I enjoy being in his company! He is wiser than most because he made all those wrong choices and been led to see how stupid he was and how wrong those choices were, and that's vitally important! Maybe one day he will be able to help other people who might be making the wrong choices…"

"Have you told him that?" Neville asked quietly, "Perhaps hearing someone say that to him like that might make him reconsider…" He patted Hermione gently on the shoulder.

"I just don't know what to do now…" Hermione said, "I was really looking forward to going to the ball with him, and now that's not going to happen."

'No, no, I'm not having this…' Draco could feel his knees trembling as he tried to figure out what he was going to do now. He had been trying to decipher how he could rectify his mistake from the moment that Hermione had left him standing in the entrance hall. He had burnt too many bridges in his time, and he didn't know how to rebuild them – Hermione had been the one to rebuild them with him despite everyone else being against him. He hadn't deserved for her to be so kind and generous and gracious to him – and he had spent too much time being piteous and self deprecating and not doing anything that might change his circumstance. He might have been the one to mess it up this time, as usual, but this time he was going to be the one to fix it. He wasn't going to lose her over this, over his stupidity. No, he wasn't going to allow it to happen, how was he supposed to change it? How did he get to speak to her, could he go up to the Gryffindor common room and just wait until a Gryffindor student could get Hermione for him? But what if she refused to see him? That would be really embarrassing, not just for himself but for her too…

To avoid the hubbub of people that would soon be emerging from the Great Hall and meeting people or going to clubs that were after dinner, Draco paced around the Slytherin common room – running his hands repeatedly through his hair and then rubbing his palms together. There was a new spark within him, a fire in his belly that Hermione had lit and that he wasn't prepared to let it be doused. Maybe he was worrying too much, maybe he was too concerned with what everyone else was thinking that he hadn't really considered what Hermione thought… Or that she might not think as much about what other people thought – she was the one that counted after all! Maybe he shouldn't care about what the other students would say… Maybe if he was with Hermione then it wouldn't matter as much what people were saying. If only he had her confidence, if only he had her purity, he had always been in the wrong – but perhaps she would help him right all those wrongs. And with her then other people might forget the sort of person that he had been before…

People were coming back into the Slytherin common room now, and they were beginning to notice that Draco was pacing back and forth across the floor. He needed to do something, standing here wasn't going to help him sort out this situation – he needed to act. Pushing past several Slytherins who were loitering just outside the entrance to the common room, Draco headed up the stairs towards the entrance hall, then proceeded further up the marble staircase. He didn't really know where he was going, but wherever it was he was going to try and resolve his mistake. Up and up and up, staircase and staircase, he kept going, until an idea struck him. He had an owl…!

If standing outside the Gryffindor common room couldn't guarantee him getting to see Hermione, then he had to think of another way to contact her tonight, before she went to bed and slept on the argument. If he could write a letter and get his owl to fly it up to the Gryffindor common room then his apology might just be acceptable. He wasn't going to let this lie, he wasn't going to let his flaws and worries of character let her slip away.

A/N: Thank you very much for reading so far - I hope you've been enjoying it! I'd love to know what you think of this story/chapter so far! :