A/N: Thank you all so much everyone who has reviewed etc so far, it means a lot. I hope you all enjoy the next part. (I own nothing)

Consulting-Prussian - I appreciate your constructive feedback, and thank you. I suppose using ' instead of " is more convenient as a writer, but I've gone back and changed the speech marks if it will make things easier for readers :)

The Icebreaker

13 days until the Yule Ball - Part 1

"Pansy, talk to me." Daphne said, grabbing her friend's arm as they emerged from the Great Hall after breakfast.

Pansy stopped walking but she didn't face her. Daphne tried not to roll her eyes; this girl could talk and bitch for England and yet she chose now to give her the silent treatment. Daphne had tried countless times to tell her exactly what she was planning and who she had set Draco up with the previous night, but Pansy would just sulk and stick her fingers in her ears or threaten to hex her.

"Look, just let me tell you who the girl is and you'll feel much better about everything. The situation still wouldn't be great for you and I'm sorry, but –"

"Save it Greengrass," Pansy said, still with her back to Daphne. "Just the fact that you even suggested this bet in the first place – "

"Was stupid, I know. But I just wanted to challenge Draco: he's all talk and no walk, we both know that."

"And yet, I feel like it's you who should be punished. You know how I like Draco." Pansy said, finally meeting her gaze.

"Pansy were you not listening to what he was saying last night? He doesn't like you like that and never has done. Can you really blame me for wanting to call him out on his bullshit?"

Pansy's shoulders slumped and Daphne knew that meant her words had hit home. She smiled tentatively at the brunette but Pansy's eyes hardened once again.

"The point is that you could have at least consulted me before acting without thinking." She muttered, her stubborn side coming into play. "You know what: I hope you do have to kiss Potter." She smirked unattractively and marched off with her nose in the air.

Daphne didn't know what to say: she remained stood in the Entrance Hall staring blankly after Pansy. She sighed and adjusted her glasses, preparing to set off for Charms when someone bumped into her.

"Hey watch where you're going." She snapped, whirling around to face the other. Her stomach twisted when she came face-to-face with none other than Harry bloody Potter.

Great; as if her morning wasn't bad enough.

"Oh er, sorry." He mumbled awkwardly. Merlin - why everyone was idolising this bumbling twerp was beyond her.

An insult was just on the tip of Daphne's tongue when she stopped herself, thinking about what Pansy had said. What if she actually did have to kiss him? She couldn't very well do that out of the blue after weeks of insulting him.

"Don't worry about it; it was probably an accident. Just watch where you're going next time, Potter." She did her best to remove the venom behind her words and plastered a smile on her face.

Potter's eyes widened in surprise behind his glasses and he ran a hand through his already untidy hair.

"Er yeah, sure… okay." He said uncertainly, as he turned to walk away, staring at Daphne with a confused expression for a second or two longer.

Daphne rolled her eyes and proceeded to climb the staircase after him. As she reached the Charms classroom, she was unsurprised to see that Pansy wasn't in line, she was instead, presumably sitting in the common room sulking like she usually did when someone ticked her off.

Shortly after taking note of Pansy's absence, Daphne received reason number three for 'why this was a crappy morning': Draco was talking to Granger and she was…smiling.

Merlin, could her day get any worse?

Meanwhile…

"Hey Harry, what happened? I thought you were right behind us," called Hermione from the line outside the Charms classroom.

"Let me guess; you were bombarded by the Slytherins and their stupid badges?" Ron said as he scowled towards the approaching group, "speaking of the snakes, here comes Zabini, the ferret and his pet trolls now."

"Something like that." Said Harry vaguely. He began scratching his head, his mind still unable to process the unusual encounter he had just had with Daphne.

Ron and Hermione, however didn't seem to hear him as Malfoy's voice soon cut through the air nearby.

"What's that Weaslebee?" He demanded in a surly tone.

Ron's ears turned red as it registered that Malfoy had heard his comments. He shuffled on the spot and cleared his throat, but Hermione rolled her eyes and confronted the blond before her friend could.

"What's it to you?" she asked coolly. She was rather bemused to see Malfoy hesitate when his eyes met hers. The unattractive sneer he had been sporting vanished in an instant, and Hermione furrowed her brows. No sooner had she realised this, it appeared once more and he parted his lips to speak, but Professor Flitwick, accompanied by Professor Moody, appeared at the doorway and cut him off.

"Potter, can I speak to you for a moment?" Flitwick squeaked.

Hermione watched Harry and Ron exchange confused glances. Harry looked questioningly at the Defence Professor, who gave a sharp nod. His magical eye was fixated on someone behind Hermione, whom she could only presume was Malfoy.

The small gesture seemed to be enough to relax Harry; he shrugged and followed Professor Flitwick into the room. Moody glanced briefly at Hermione and Ron, before turning on his heel and marching down the corridor.

"That man's mental. I mean, yeah he knows his stuff about defence but he scares me." Ron whispered as Moody's heavy footsteps faded away.

"Ron you don't have to whisper; he has a magical eye not ear." Hermione giggled.

"You can never be too careful. You can't trust anyone these days."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, and Ron spoke again.

"Actually I might go in there too before class starts; I've got questions about the homework we've been set."

"All we have to do is read three books on summoning charms." Hermione laughed.

"Yeah but, what if there's a test or something? I'm going to ask Flitwick."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"There's no point reading them if we aren't going to have a test on it." Ron shrugged before making a quick get-away into the classroom from Hermione, who had a haughty reply on the tip of her tongue. She smiled after him and shook her head, but soon became very aware that someone was watching her.

Sure enough as she turned on the spot, she saw Malfoy with his eyes fixated on her through his fringe. His face was relaxed, a rare sight indeed as Hermione was used to seeing him with an arrogant smirk or sneer plastered across his features. He had his hands in his pockets and his head tilted to one side, his brows furrowed too as though in deep thought.

Hermione realised that she had been staring but it felt strange being under Malfoy's observation like this; it was a different kind of scrutiny that she wasn't used to, and quite frankly she wasn't a hundred per-cent sure she liked it. It made her feel uncomfortable. She felt like she was a goldfish in its bowl.

"What?" she said finally. There was no malice in her tone as it had been overpowered by curiosity.

"Your teeth." He stated plainly.

"Oh ha-ha," Hermione said sarcastically, suddenly feeling defensive, "evaluating me are you? Wondering what kind of hex to use on me next?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Malfoy scoffed arrogantly, "I was aiming for Potter. But if you feel the need to have first-hand experience of one of my exquisitely executed hexes then I'd be willing to oblige."

Hermione bristled and rolled her eyes. Godric, did this boy have a modest bone in his body?

"Please, I've seen more advanced offensive spells being used by second years."

"Maybe so, but you can't argue with its effectiveness." Malfoy drawled, raising an eyebrow mockingly at her.

Only Draco Malfoy could brush off an insult with such composure and still turn it into a compliment.

"Do you actually have a point here?" Demanded Hermione.

"I did, before you started jumping to conclusions. Your teeth just look different."

"Obviously, I couldn't exactly waltz around the castle with those abominations you gave to me." Hermione muttered bitterly.

Malfoy briefly scrutinised her once more. "Even so, something's changed from how they were originally."

Hermione was taken aback. It amazed her how Malfoy of all people noticed the alterations she had made before either of her two best friends did. She felt herself blush a little at this realisation and smiled at the floor, but she quickly tried to snap herself out of it.

"Yes actually, I er, may have asked Madam Pomfrey to shrink them more than was necessary." She said, not quite believing that she was having a relatively civil conversation with the bigoted Draco Malfoy.

"Wow Granger; manipulating a situation to get what you want? That was rather Slytherin of you, especially for a Mud-" His eyes widened and he began chewing his lip to prevent himself from saying the word. Hermione was stunned; since when did Malfoy have a problem with calling her a Mudblood?

"Sorry." Malfoy mumbled, almost inaudibly.

"Sorry?" Hermione repeated in the form of a question; her voice was almost shrill with shock.

Malfoy arched an eyebrow at her response and Hermione clocked a brief twitch in the corner of his mouth that gave away his amusement. If she hadn't seen this however, there would have been no indication as to what he was thinking.

"About your teeth."

"About my-? Oh! Right." Hermione babbled. She ran a hand through her hair, flustered at her wild presumptions. She had initially drawn the conclusion that he was apologising for almost calling her the M-word. But obviously that was stupid since he had called her that too many times to count over the years.

I think the more important point here is that Draco Malfoy apologised to you, never mind why! Her mind was racing.

"Like I said, it was an accident." Malfoy's drawl interrupted her thoughts.

"Oh, right." Hermione repeated, at a loss as to what else she could say. She stared at the floor awkwardly.

It wasn't entirely implausible for this whole thing to be an act to get himself off the hook for hexing her; it was now a well-known fact that the Slytherins had been extra cautious around Professor Moody since the 'ferret incident'. Ron's statement about not being able to trust anyone anymore was still at the front of Hermione's mind, and this was still Malfoy after all.

In spite of this, Hermione found herself hoping that this wasn't the case – she wanted to see the good in people.

This slight change to his attitude was completely throwing her off balance. She had established a default attitude and persona for encounters with the snarky blond, but this circumstance was different, and she had no idea how to handle it. It made her feel like she did at their first flying lesson; up until that point she had become accustomed to being the smartest and most capable in the class, but being out-performed where brooms were concerned made her feel insecure and useless.

Hermione smiled at him slightly, finally chancing meeting his stony gaze, but he was no longer looking at her. His attention was fixed on the corridor where a set of footsteps was approaching. Malfoy's jaw was tensed, emphasising his pronounced cheekbones and hardened eyes, looking very much like the boy Hermione knew him to be.

She turned her head and her eyes fell upon Daphne Greengrass, who too looked decidedly on-edge. Daphne's brown eyes were darting between Malfoy and herself; however her expression was not hostile, as Hermione would have expected it to be. The Slytherin girl looked almost worried, or uneasy at the very least.

A moment later a chorus of snickering rang out somewhere nearby, and Hermione turned in the opposite direction, getting whiplash on her neck from her hair in the process. The sound had come from Crabbe and Goyle, and Blaise Zabini was shooting them both death-glares.

Malfoy seemed to have heard too. He turned to face her again, his expression still hard.

"I'd say this has been a pleasure but frankly that would be a lie so I won't bother. See you around, Mudblood." He sneered at her, though the expression was lacking the usual malice that lingered within his eyes.

Before she could respond Malfoy had already spun on his heel and was walking over to the Slytherin boys, closely followed by Daphne. Hermione just stared after them. What the bloody hell is going on with them, today? She thought.

"You know, there is such a thing as 'subtlety', you cretins," Draco hissed across the table at Crabbe and Goyle, who were still smirking in amusement.

"It's just so bloody brilliant, what Greengrass has got you to do," Crabbe said.

Draco scowled; he knew this wasn't going to be easy under the best circumstances, but of course he had to be placed in the same house as the brainless buffoons.

"I can't believe you actually apologised to her." Goyle chimed in.

A couple of seats away, Draco heard Daphne snort.

"It was part of my plan, actually, you idiots. As if I'd willingly lower myself in such a way if it weren't for this bet. And it was working, no thanks to you three and Greengrass here ogling us and making a spectacle of the whole thing. I had to bloody call her a Mudblood just to make the whole thing a little more genuine. Talk about one step forward, two steps back."

Silence fell around them, and Draco rolled his eyes. Hmm. Maybe they actually have the decency to feel a little guilty about sabotaging my attempt at an icebreaker.

"Oi, Draco. Your girlfriend's staring at us. She looks well supsishus."

"Did you mean 'suspicious', Goyle?" Blaise laughed.

"Yeah that's the one. You got your work cut out for you now, Malfoy."

No. No, of course they don't feel guilty. They're bloody enjoying this. Draco made a mental note to hex Crabbe and Goyle at a more appropriate time, and looked over to the other side of the room. Sure enough, Granger was tapping her wand absently on the table and staring at them, frowning slightly.

He sighed. What the bloody hell was he going to do now? He had been awake most of the night trying to think of some sort of tactic to talk to Granger without overdoing it and apologising to her seemed the most convincing way to go about it. Every other idea would have been too obvious and aroused her suspicions and thanks to his useless friends, he needn't have bothered being tactical… he was in no better position than he would be if he just asked her out there on the spot.

And knowing how meddlesome Granger could be, Draco knew that now she was suspicious, she wouldn't drop it until she found out what they were up to.

Trust Greengrass to set me up with the most infuriating witch in the whole bloody school. It would be easier to get a 'yes' from McGonagall at this rate. Draco thought as he attempted to clear his mind to summon Crabbe's quill from out of his hand, but to no avail.

His mind was whirring with questions that had no answers. Even when he wasn't talking to Granger, she was giving him a headache.

To be continued...

A/N: Coming up... Hermione's challenge. Just a heads-up, there's quite a few characters involved in this so bear with me over the next couple of chapters so I can establish their point's of view etc.

Thanks for reading, if you can leave me a review then that would make me happy!