Hermione's eyes fluttered open as the sun's rays pierced the dirty window of Gryffindor tower the next morning. Groggily, she stretched and rolled onto her back and began thinking about hearing what Ron would say to her later that day. She wondered if he would indeed apologize for not getting his act together sooner or if he would ignore it as if nothing happened.

Hermione was vaguely aware of the deserted girl's dormitory that morning as she glanced around and saw empty beds and various belongings had been packed away to take home while the other girls visited their families over holiday. This year was the first year she didn't return home to visit her parents over term break as they were vacationing in the Caribbean on a time share her father was part of. It was unfamiliar territory to her to be away from them, but she rather enjoyed the solitude of the tower that morning.

After a few minutes she got to her feet and stretched her tired muscles. She began dressing herself in casual clothes since there were no classes in session and students were free from the restrictions of the usual dress code. Hermione pulled on her favorite deep red cable knit sweater and a pair of dark denim jeans. Pausing the check her reflection in a nearby mirror, Hermione noticed that her elegant up-do from the night before now looked ghastly and limp. She grabbed her brush and began pulling it through her long locks before styling it into a simple bun.

She walked over to the chair near her bedside and saw her fantastic periwinkle-blue dress from the night before spread over it. A smile crept onto her face as she remembered the events from the night before. A few hours earlier, her perspective of the evening was completely different, now however, she found herself recalling a wonderful evening that was as pleasant as she had hoped it to be.

She sighed fondly and bent to gather the dress to pack it away properly but as she lifted the delicate material off the chair, something fell from within the folds and fluttered to the floor.

Hermione gasped, remembering for the first time her encounter with Draco Malfoy. She stooped to gather the silky handkerchief in her hands and studied it closely. The small square of fabric was the most beautiful pearly white color she had ever seen. As she traced her fingers over the emerald green monogrammed letter 'M' she noticed that the stitching appeared to be hand sewn and very intricately designed. She wondered if perhaps the reason for her newfound appreciation of the night was because of Malfoy's company that lifted her spirits.

Questions instantly flooded her mind as she tried desperately to think of a reason behind his sudden change in behavior. She figured that either she had imagined the whole thing or that it was a one time lapse in judgment, or maybe perhaps Malfoy had been hexed to act with decency. Whatever the reason, Hermione was determined to investigate further. She vowed that she would return the kerchief to him at the first available opportunity. With a wave of her wand, the pearly white cloth was free from Hermione's tear stains and she tucked it into her jeans pocket before strolling out of the room and down to breakfast.

When she entered the great hall she did a quick once over of the room. The long tables weren't crowded with the usual number of students but in fact were very empty. Only a few students from each house were busy feasting on the morning spread and reading the paper. She glanced toward the Slytherin table as she made her way to her usual seat next to Harry and Ron but did not spot Malfoy's tell-tale blonde hair.

"Morning." She greeted Harry and Ron as she settled in and reached for a bit of toast.

"Hey Hermione," Acknowledged Harry. "Juice?" He asked her passing a carafe of orange juice across the table.

"Ron." Hermione nodded in Ron's direction but he seemed oblivious to her presence. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows and starred at him with interest, waiting for him to say something. When he said nothing, she poured herself a glass of juice and began, "You both had an enjoyable time last night I suspect, we're lucky really, not many students get the chance to attend the Yule Ball."

Ron snorted, "Yeah, lucky alright."

Harry ignored him, "Right…er –enjoyable." He muttered.

Hermione's fist slammed down on the table, "What is the matter with you two? Are you completely incapable of carrying on a conversation?!"

"What's the matter with you?!" Ron barked suddenly, "Last I checked, you were the one that was too good to be seen with us, now that you've got Viktor." He sneered at her, seemingly disgusted by Krum's name.

Hermione felt her face go white, "Is that what you think, that I only went to make you look bad?"

"That's what I know!"

"I went because he asked me!" She spat, "Honestly Ron, not everything is about you." Hermione's eyes darted around the room, searching more frantically for any sign of Malfoy that she had missed before.

"I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about Harry! How do you think it looks when the youngest champion's best friend is off gallivanting around with a Durmstrang?"

Hermione gave no reply, her throat was dry as she tried to think of a nasty retort but was coming up with nothing. She exchanged a glance with Harry who seemed to have no opinion on the matter and wasn't getting involved. "Rubbish, absolute rubbish!" Hermione mumbled as she got to her feet and stormed away from the breakfast table, leaving Harry and Ron alone once again.

Her feet carried her out of the hall and into the entrance near the main staircase, letting her temper rise as she walked. Clearly Ron wasn't going to apologize any time soon and had no intention about discussing things like a mature person.

"Hermione!" A voice called from afar.

Hermione whirled to see Viktor marching in her direction. He was the absolute last person she wanted to see right now, after all it was him who got her into this mess.

"Did you already have breakfast? You are welcome to come sit with us if you would like." Said Viktor, bending down to kiss Hermione's left hand.

"Excellent." She said, turning back toward the Great Hall as she took Viktor's arm. She didn't want to fuel the fire with Harry and Ron more, but there was something so satisfying about doing so that Hermione couldn't resist.

When they strode past the Gryffindor table, Hermione didn't need to look over to know that Ron was gawking after them. She knew that what she was doing was the exact wrong way to go about fixing things and she knew she wasn't particularly interested in Viktor. She wasn't ready to let go of her anger just yet, no, she would ride it out a little longer for the sheer fun of it.

They took seats next to the other Durmstrang boys and Viktor began chattering to them about the tournament and the next challenge. Hermione was only half listening as she was too busy scanning the room more thoroughly than ever, finding no Malfoy in sight.

Once the winter Holiday had ended, classes at Hogwarts resumed as normal and Hermione began to fall back into her usual pattern of going to class, studying and trying to act as regular as possible around Ron. The pair had not spoken of their argument since the morning after the Yule Ball and Hermione was glad that he wasn't pressing the issue further, even though she disliked how awkward their conversations are these days.

Harry continued trying to unravel the clue for the second task, and he oftentimes confided in Ron and Hermione about his many concerns. Viktor Krum was also still hanging around. Whenever Hermione would go to the library to study, Viktor would accompany her and watch her work. It's not that she didn't enjoy his company, but she found that they were from such completely different world's that they had next to nothing to talk about.

Hermione still had also not had a chance to speak directly to Malfoy since the night of the dance as he seemed to be constantly surrounded by his usual band of Slytherins. Although she was almost certain that his polite demeanor was a one-time fluke, she couldn't help but wonder if she managed to get him separated again if he would be as kind as he had been several weeks before. The only encounter she had had with him at all was the occasional exchanging glance in the corridors between classes or across the tables of the Great Hall. These minuscule glances also reminded Hermione of what Malfoy had said the night of the ball. She couldn't help but notice that every time she caught Malfoy looking over he would be watching Hermione, seeming to study her actions around Harry and Ron.

One evening Hermione made her way to the library where as usual, Viktor sat next to her. She noted that he was focusing very little on his studies and mostly on watching her scrawl frantically across her parchment for her latest muggle studies assignment. Hermione was also vaguely aware of the regular stares of her fellow female classmates and the occasional sneering of Ron across the room.

"I just don't know how you can be so focused all the time." Viktor said suddenly.

Hermione continued writing so as not to lose her train of thought. After she completed her newest paragraph she replied, "I just find it easiest to get all my thoughts out on paper and then go back and edit them into something nicer for the final product."

Viktor frowned, "I don't have that many thoughts to scribble down, much less too many to go back and erase later."

From there Hermione took great pride in offering suggestions to Viktor's own essay and helping him get his thoughts organized into more direct sentences. After about a half an hour of proofreading and adding little notes to the margins on his paper, Hermione passed it back to him.

Viktor's eyes widened as he scanned through the corrections and suggestions she had written, "Wow, thanks Hermione, this is very helpful!" He exclaimed, taking a few minutes to write down some more thoughts of his own to add to the assignment. Hermione smiled at him and turned back to work on her own essay when she felt his hand make contact with her own. "I've never met someone that can help me get my point across like you can. Normally they will just tell me what to write or let me copy someone else's work."

Hermione, who had never approved of copying instantly thought of all the times she had tried to help Ron in this way and made notes for him to improve his work. Typically though instead or re-writing his essay to result in something new and improved, he would give up and copy Harry's work which Hermione also found to be sub-par most of the time.

"Well I am happy to help, and I hope that this will be helpful to you in the future should you find yourself stuck on something." She answered finally, Viktor still holding her hand in his own.

"Someday I'll find a way to repay you for all the help you have given me." He said, kissing Hermione's hand before getting up and excusing himself for the evening.

Hermione felt her heart flutter at the gesture, even though he wasn't the smartest wizard on the block, she thought that he had some of the best manners she had ever seen. She watched as he sauntered across the library and out the doors, turning to wave good-bye as he did. Once he had gone, Hermione looked over to where Harry and Ron were sitting and caught a glimpse of Ron's usual sour expression as he quickly tried to pretend as though he hadn't been spying on her and Viktor this whole time.

She very slowly and deliberately gathered her study materials and made her way over to where her two friends were sitting. Hermione casually slid in to the seat next to Harry and across from Ron, sprawling out her books as she did so.

"And what are you boy's working on tonight? I've only just completed my draft for my report in muggle studies and I've still got to do that work-up for potions class."

"I'm working on that now." Said Harry miserably. Harry's parchment was filled with his usual sloppy writing which looked to be written in very large text, Hermione supposed so that it took up more room on the two rolled assignment.

Ron gave no reply, a common thing these days and Hermione noted that his paper was still blank as usual. "Harry, might I see what you have so far? I don't know if I know where to start."

Harry nodded and scooted the paper over to her, removing his spectacles and rubbing his tired eyes. Hermione had barely began to read when…..

"Why don't you go ask to read Viktor's work?" Ron hissed.

Hermione blinked taken by surprise by the sudden outburst. "Honestly Ron, this again?"

"Don't 'honestly Ron' me! Every night it's the same thing! The two of you sit over there, letting him steal all your ideas and suggestions and then he gets up and waltzes off without having to do a spec of work. Really woman and you say I'm lazy…." He trailed off, turning his eyes back to his bare parchment and skulking.

"I resent that! He doesn't steal my ideas, he listens to them and it helps him get his work done sooner is all. And don't act like I haven't done the same for you countless times, you're just too daft to put any thought into it at all!"

Harry groaned fearing another argument coming on. He quickly tried to start work on his charms assignment to avoid getting involved.

"Yeah and like Krum is SO smart!" Ron returned hotly. "It's no wonder he's taken such an interest in you…you're the only one who's silly enough to think he actually wants help with his studies."

"Meaning what, exactly?!"

"Oh, come off it Hermione, you know exactly what I mean."

Hermione starred at Harry, willing him to speak up. "Right, er, well what Ron means to say is that it's pretty clear Krum has….other subjects he is interested in studying."

She felt her face blush, "Did it ever occur to you that he actually likes having someone to study with so that he can learn? Better yet, if the pair of you were so bothered by it you could have simply come and joined us and there'd be no need for this silly argument!"

At that moment the trio was shushed by the librarian to keep their voices down. Ron leaned across the table and said in a loud whisper, "Wouldn't want to interrupt you two love birds now would we?"

Hermione looked at Harry once more, thinking that at any given moment he was going to side with her and tell Ron he was overreacting, but he said nothing. In one swift motion, she swept her study materials off the old tabletop and stomped away from them.

Her temper flared as she hurried through the library's many aisles. Who did they think they were anyway? What did they know? They were probably just jealous because they both idolized Krum but were incapable of making friends with him, she thought frantically to herself.

As Hermione reached for the handle of the large door exiting the library, she spotted Malfoy out of the corner of her eye. He was sitting in one of the more secluded tables all alone, quill in one hand copying a bit of text from a very large book he was holding open in the other.

She turned on her heels, pranced over to where he was working and slammed her textbooks down loudly as she took the seat opposite him. "Idiots!" She breathed.

Malfoy didn't look up, "Need something?" he asked flatly.

Hermione blinked as she consciously realized for the first time what she had just done. "Yes actually….I wanted to return this to you." She said rummaging through her bag and retrieving the satin handkerchief.

He watched as she placed it beneath his nose, "Was there something else?"

Hermione paused to ask herself why she had dared to walk over and sit down next to Draco Malfoy who had clearly suffered from a momentary lapse in judgment the night of the Yule Ball when he had taken such an interest in her. "No… I….er—suppose there is nothing else." She stammered.

Malfoy began writing an explanation of the text he had just copied below his work, "Well if you're sure there is noth—"

"Say things to me." Hermione commanded suddenly, "Like you did the other night, just say things to me to take my mind off things."

He looked up at her for the first time, a blank expression on his face. "Alright…" he said slowly, swallowing audibly, "Weasley is a prat."

"Forget it." Hermione frowned, collecting her books once more and getting to her feet.

Malfoy reached out and snagged the sleeve of her robe, "Wait," He said, looking nervously around the room. "would you like to come somewhere with me?"

Hermione blinked dumbfounded, "Okay." She said, her curiosity rising.

A crooked smile spread across Malfoy's face as he shut his book and abandoned his work, leading Hermione from the library by her sleeve.