A/N: Cheers for the support, everyone :) Okay, just on a note: please take into account that I am a British writer, and that some words are spelt differently here than in America, so I spell defence with a 'c' and colour with a 'u' and maneouvre instead of maneuver. I'm grateful for those of you who spot these believing them to be typos, but just be aware that with these words anyway, that they are the correct spelling. Thanks, I'll stop rambling now and let you read :)

Enjoy!

The Games Continue

8 days until the Yule Ball - Part 2

For what felt like the first time ever, the library offered no degree of sanctuary for Hermione. In fact it seemed to make the situation worse. She had sought refuge there in the hope that she could avoid all of the pointing and whispers that seemed to follow her wherever she went; however the silence of the room made the whispers even louder. She buried her head in a book and did her best to concentrate, but the acoustics of the room made the words echo off the walls, making it sound like there were hundreds of people gossiping about her and Draco.

Draco… Merlin she didn't want to proceed on that train of thought. One moment he mentioned the two of them going to the Ball together with no sign of disgust or contempt, and the next he was calling her a Mudblood again.

And Harry and Ron said girls were confusing.

In Hermione's opinion, Draco Malfoy was worse; that boy was about as predictable as a Bludger. He couldn't seem to figure out what she was thinking when she shook her head at him, but really, why would he? He didn't know her: not in the arrogant way he liked to think he did anyway.

Hermione's gesture hadn't been directed towards Draco as he may have thought. It was merely an external reaction to how stupid she felt in that moment. She honestly thought all the Yule Ball talk that morning would lead to some sort of invitation – he did seem to jump at the chance to tell her that he had no date either, and since when does Draco Malfoy inform anyone, least of all Hermione, about his personal life? In addition, they had got on surprisingly well in the library the day before… maybe it was just Hermione's ego thinking that she was finally getting somewhere with the claim she had made last week.

"Harry and Ron said you'd be here," Ginny's voice said from nearby. Hermione placed her book down and looked up to where she heard her friend. Ginny was fidgeting slightly, and a sheepish expression was on her face. Hermione frowned.

"You okay, Gin?" she asked.

"I think I should be the one asking you that, Hermione," Ginny replied, pulling up a chair beside her, "are you getting a lot of stick from this you and Malfoy rumour?"

"You know, funnily enough, not really. Even Draco himself didn't seem that put out by it. Come to think of it, none of the Slytherins have actually said anything to me, which is rather odd. Do you suppose it was one of them who started it?" Hermione thought aloud. Some part of her suspected Daphne, because evidently, she and Draco had had some kind of argument, and she wasthere yesterday when Draco had been apparently hitting on her.

"That would make a lot of sense, except I know it wasn't any of the Slytherins who started that rumour," Ginny said.

"How can you possibly know that?" Hermione asked incredulously. Well, as incredulously as she could be considering they were in the library.

"'Cause it was me," Ginny winced.

"WHAT?" Hermione's voice went shrill, "Ginny, why would you do that?" she demanded crossly.

"I know it sounds mad, but I was trying to help you," Ginny said, "just hear me out, and if you're still angry, I'll Bat-Bogey hex myself. Now you can't deny that's a sign of true friendship right there."

"Coming from the Bat-Bogey master, I'm a little more convinced that you have good reason," Hermione replied, folding her arms across her chest.

Ginny nodded and proceeded with her explanation, "Okay well I was coming down from the dormitories this morning, but I overheard Harry and Ron talking so I held back, like we did last Friday. And Harry was telling Ron about what happened in here last night."

"Oh Godric, no," Hermione groaned.

"Yes Hermione, I know everything. And thanks for filling me in on the gossip last night…" Ginny shot her an annoyed look.

"Hey! Like my brain wasn't frazzled enough after everything that happened."

"That's no excuse," Ginny joked, "anyway, Harry seemed pretty convinced that Malfoy had already asked you to the Ball and so that's why you've been avoiding telling them who your date is. He was telling Ron everything, which I think was pretty stupid on his part. But he convinced Ron not to say anything to you about it until they were certain he was your date. From what I heard, you and Malfoy, strangely, were getting along. Even flirting a little, -"

"We were not flirting!" Hermione said indignantly.

"Sure you weren't," Ginny answered sarcastically, "you were holding hands and you fell for Malfoy's moves. Face it, you think he's hot," she winked.

Hermione blushed, but Ginny spoke before she could defend herself.

"Aha, I thought so," she laughed, "but from those two pieces of information, you two have apparently moved past the animosity-" Hermione begged to differ at that statement; Ginny was unaware of the events of that morning, "and you need a date. So I thought if everyone thought you two were going together then-"

"What? We'd just give in and go together to satisfy a rumour?"

"Yes," Ginny said.

"Ginny Weasley you manipulative minx!" Hermione laughed, "I don't know if that plan was genius or a disaster waiting to happen."

"Well if it turns out to be genius just remember to thank me," Ginny winked, "oh hey Viktor's over there. And he's looking at us. At least you have him as a back up if this Malfoy thing doesn't work out. In any case, can you PLEASE get a wriggle on – I wanted us to go into Hogsmeade on Saturday to get our dresses."

Hermione turned and saw the familiar form of Viktor Krum browsing the shelves as he usually did. He must have sensed her eyes on him, as he looked up a few seconds later. Hermione smiled at him, but he didn't return it. He blinked at her a couple of times and turned his attention back to the books.

"That was odd," Ginny commented, having watched the exchange, "did you two fall-out or something?"

"Not exactly, but the last time we spoke was last night and it was fairly obvious that he was about to ask me to the Ball-"

"Oh my gosh!"

"Don't get too excited, Draco pulled me away from him before I could answer…what?" Hermione asked. Ginny was smirking and wiggling her eyebrows at her.

"Sounds like Malfoy didn't want you to go with Viktor."

"No, it was just him being a baby because obviously he should have been my main priority last night – since I was tutoring him and everything," Hermione dismissed.

"And you believe that?" Ginny asked, "This is Malfoy – or even more simply, a Slytherin we're talking about."

"Exactly! Slytherins will do anything to get their way, and that was Draco's way of getting attention. But for arguments sake, why would he have lied about that?"

"Do you seriously need me to answer that question? Because I think deep down you already know why he would lie, and you already know the real reason he dragged you away. You're either just too confused or scared to believe it," Ginny said bluntly.

Hermione nodded thoughtfully; her friend was really too perceptive for her own good.

A while after the girls left to get some lunch, Daphne strolled in to the library. She was humming to herself, in a decidedly good mood considering the blatant lie of a rumour that was spreading around the school like Dragonpox. When she heard, she actually believed it for one wild moment. That is, until second lesson when Draco and Hermione arrived, both looking considerably pissed off.

Draco had been in a bad mood all morning. He refused to explain why, though Daphne was under the impression that it was he who started the rumour, and Hermione had found out and flipped her lid about it.

"Excuse me," Daphne's thoughts were interrupted by a deep voice that spoke in a thick accent. She looked up and was surprised to see Viktor Krum looking down at her. She had no idea why he was speaking to her but she was in no way complaining.

"Yes?" she asked.

"You are vriends with Herminny?"

Herminny? Daphne had to think for a while about who he was talking about. Then it occurred to her that it was Granger.

"Not exactly – why?" she replied.

"You vere with her last night in here, so I thought you vere vriends," Viktor frowned and paused for a moment, "are you vriends with Malfoy?" he asked, having noticed the Slytherin symbol on her robes.

Draco? Daphne's interest was piqued. She adjusted her glasses and nodded.

"Do you know if this talk is true? Is he going with Hermay-o-nee to the Ball?" Viktor looked almost worried.

An evil grin spread across Daphne's face. She couldn't help but feel enraged that someone as rich, famous and hot as Viktor Krum wanted to go with plain old Granger to the Ball. However; it was very lucky that she had an admirer who could swoop in and ask her out before Draco. It was luckier still, that this had come to Daphne's attention when Draco and Granger were mad at each other.

"That rumour is complete bullshit," Daphne said bluntly.

"You are sure about this?" Viktor asked.

"Absolutely," she smiled.

"Thank you," he smiled back and bowed slightly before stepping around Daphne and exiting the room. Daphne smirked and went to find a free table so she could do her homework.

Unfortunately for her, Pansy had been browsing for books she needed for their Transfiguration essay and had overheard this entire conversation. The brunette started to panic – she needed to think of a plan, and fast. Suddenly, a genius idea came to her, but she would need to be extremely tactical in executing it – timing would be everything.

Pansy conceded that this was the only chance she had at helping Draco get back any hope of getting Granger to go to the Ball with him. She could have slapped him for his sheer stupidity at letting his ego get the better of him when he wound Granger up that morning. In fact she did slap him… twice…

The Slytherin girl took a deep breath and slipped out of the library. She needed to find Viktor.

The evening rapidly approached and Draco reluctantly pulled himself up from his chair by the fire in the common room.

"Well to the snake-pit I go," he said wearily, stretching.

"If you're referring to your detention with Granger I think 'lions den' would be a more appropriate metaphor. She's a Gryffindor after all," Daphne cut in.

"It's a bloody figure of speech Greengrass, not an English lesson," Draco snapped at her.

He had been on edge all day and by lunchtime had come to the point where he seriously wanted to kick himself for losing his cool that morning. Hermione hadn't actually said that she believed what Daphne said – he had just got defensive too quickly and presumed. Sure, Granger was being uptight and snooty but it was a rare occasion that she wasn't those things. He was now on edge because he knew he would have to grovel to her so he had a slim chance of redeeming himself, and it didn't help that Daphne had been irritatingly chipper ever since it became evident that he and Granger had fallen out.

Daphne just smirked at him and started leafing through the pages of Witch Weekly. Draco clenched his jaw and marched towards the door. As he got there, Pansy caught the sleeve of his robes and held him back.

"What?" Draco sighed.

"Don't take that tone with me, I'm busting my butt trying to make up for your stupidity today." Pansy said in a hissed whisper.

Draco frowned, "What do you mean? And why are you whispering?"

"I don't want Little Miss Traitor over there hearing this," Pansy jerked her head in Daphne's direction, "just let me worry about what I'm doing. All you need to do is make sure Granger goes to the library at eight o'clock tonight."

"How could I possibly make sure she does that? If I just tell her to go she'll suspect something's going on."

"Lie for Salazar's sake, lie! Tell her someone wants to speak to her there, tell her an unabridged version of Hogwarts: A History has just come in, anything! I know the exact time is awkward but it's the only way my plan will work," Pansy said.

"I'd love to interrogate you more about this little plan of yours, Parkinson, but I've got that detention to get to. I suppose I'll just have to trust you know what you're doing."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Pansy smiled.

Draco rolled his eyes playfully at her in response and strode through the door. When he arrived at the Charms room, he was unsurprised to see that Hermione was already sitting at a desk in there. She turned up half an hour early, no doubt.

"Ah Mr Malfoy, hello. Why don't you take a seat next to Miss Granger so the two of you can work on whatever you need. I'll be at my desk marking papers so just shout if you need me," Professor Flitwick said cheerily. He waved a hand in Hermione's direction. Her expression was unreadable when she looked up at him, which consoled Draco somewhat as he shuffled his way over to her. At least she wasn't giving him death-glares anymore.

He sat down beside her and both of them had yet to speak to one another. They had exchanged acknowledgements of one another via silent curt nods, but apparently both of them were equally stubborn. Eventually Draco gave in, which, if he didn't have a bet to worry about, he wouldn't have done.

"Hi," he said bluntly.

"Hello," Hermione replied in the same tone.

"Sorry I called you a Mudblood earlier," Draco muttered. He could tell she'd be pissed at him about that more than anything else, "I was just frustrated."

"That was your excuse for the last time you called me that," Hermione countered.

"Well it's true. And if you don't believe me then I think I had good basis for snapping at you this morning," Draco shrugged.

Hermione chewed her lip. He had a point, and she didn't really have the energy to fight with him again, especially not after her conversation with Ginny. She felt like arguing now would just make it more difficult to suss him out once and for all.

"I'm sorry, I know it must have sounded like I was just finding excuses to not trust you, but in my defence I didn't get chance to explain my reasons for asking you that question about what Daphne said. And to be fair, it's still early days so I feel justified in still feeling a little insecure and paranoid about you," she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Draco surprised her by the statement he decided to press her on.

"What were your reasons for asking?" His question was a mixture of curiosity and wanting to call her bluff. Frankly, he didn't believe she would have any other reason for asking other than her nosiness.

Hermione looked at him and readied herself to explain, but Flitwick cleared his throat from across the room and prevented her from doing so.

"There has been plenty of time for conversation during the day, you two. Right now, you should be focused on practicing spells for your exam on Thursday," he squeaked.

"Sorry, sir," Hermione replied. She hastily tried to get her brain into 'work mode', which was difficult because for once, her priorities weren't to do with academia.

"So, Miss, what do you think I need to work on?" Draco enquired.

Hermione scoffed, "it amazes me how you can make a term of respect sound so condescending."

"What can I say? It's a gift," Draco smirked. He was revelling in the fact that he could be as snarky as he pleased for the next hour. Hermione wouldn't be able to physically reprimand him now that they were in the presence of a teacher.

She decided to pretend she hadn't heard this comment, "I think it has to be banishing charms again since Daphne didn't exactly allow you to practice that much yesterday. I'll just go and get a cushion from the store cupboard." Hermione rose from her seat and strolled across the room. Draco found himself watching her. Something seemed different.

Let's see, frizzy hair is still the same, so are the short stature and the hideous, unflattering knee-length skirt. He cocked his head to the side and examined Hermione objectively until he pinpointed what was different. She wasn't wearing her robes or school jumper – only a three-quarter length sleeved white blouse with her tie. Draco was rather surprised to see that she had quite a slim figure. He certainly wouldn't have thought she'd be thin, but he realised the loosely fitting Hogwarts uniform must have been hiding her figure all this time.

Hermione had now turned around and was heading back his way, cushion in hand, and Draco quickly snapped himself out of it before she could see him staring. Damn hormones, he thought.

She returned to the desk and leant over Draco to set the cushion down in front of him. He sniffed the air and noticed something else that was different.

"Granger, are you actually wearing perfume?"

Hermione started. Yes she had borrowed some from Ginny, but only because she had insisted on it. Hermione had purposefully selected a very subtle fragrance; therefore hadn't expected Draco to actually pick up on it. He must have the nose of a bloodhound.

"Why so surprised? I am a girl, you know," she said dryly.

"Yes but since when have you acted like a girl?" he drawled.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well let's face it, you've never been a typical girl. You don't wear make-up, couldn't care less about your appearance, not once have I seen your nose buried in Witch Weekly, you've never moaned about breaking a nail after you punched me in third year,your best friends are both boys and from what I've seen, you have never seemed interested in boys. Now you're suddenly wearing perfume? Forgive me for being a little surprised."

"Oh," Hermione said quietly. She seemed quite reserved and thoughtful.

"What's up? Did I say something to offend you?" Draco asked a little harshly. He had a feeling she would do what she did best and get on her high horse over nothing.

"It's just, I've never thought about it that way," she sighed, "I mean I'm happy being who I am but it makes me wonder, is that why people think I'm such a freak? It's not because I'm studious at all is it?" Hermione felt tears begin to form in her eyes and she willed herself not to get upset. She knew the more she analysed this, the more convinced she'd be of the truth of it.

Draco had also noticed the change in her attitude. He also willed her not to cry. He couldn't bear hysterical girls; he had zero patience and tolerance to that kind of thing.

"Hermione," he said calmly. He knew using her first name would get her attention and make her look at him. She did just that; her eyes were wide and glassy in anticipation of what he was going to say next.

"Did I say it was a bad thing?" he asked.

"Well no, but-"

"But nothing. I was just listing the ways that you aren't a typical girl. I didn't say anything insulting towards you."

Hermione sniffed. She made to speak but Draco cut her off, "and just to add one more thing to the list, you never get unnecessarily weepy. That point is certainly not a negative against you," he laughed. He wasn't quite sure why he was going out of his way to feed her ego and cheer her up like this, but he felt like he was obliged to do so for some reason.

She laughed weakly and blinked back her tears. "So that's it? No snarky comment about my lack of femininity being the reason why I'm so abhorrent to boys, and why nobody wants to go to the Ball with me?"

"You can tell yourself that all you want, Granger but just remember that I neither said nor thought such things. Don't blame me for this," Draco said bluntly. He would have elaborated by pointing out that Krum wanted to take her to the Ball but that would have been self-sabotage at the end of the day.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Hermione asked.

"Because I feel bad about what happened earlier," Draco answered. He ran a hand through his hair, and opened his mouth to continue but he stopped himself. He felt slightly unnerved by his realisation that he actually admired the girl for being different after so many years of taunting her for that same fact. He wasn't sure what that meant, but until he knew the answer he decided not to tell Hermione.

"What?" she asked. She had seen him about to say something more.

"Nothing, and don't you dare press me on that. I've had enough of your badgering for one day," Draco smirked.

Hermione rolled her eyes at him but smiled secretly to herself as he turned away to retrieve his wand from his robes pocket. Had she and Draco just shared a 'moment'? She didn't know whether to be happy or scared about that. After re-playing her earlier conversation with Ginny in her head, she ended up feeling a mixture of both emotions.

"So, how would you feel if I suggested we try being cordial again?" Draco asked.

"I'd say it's not worth it if we're just going to argue every five minutes."

"Hey you're the one who flipped out and called it off earlier. Remember that," Draco drawled, poking her in the ribs.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him and he smirked again in triumph at calling her out on that point, "fine," she said, smiling to herself.

A moment of silence passed as Draco psyched himself up. Hermione seemed to be in a relatively good mood with him, so he decided to finally take the plunge. Merlin knows he could finally relax for a few days once this was over.

"And how would you feel if I suggested we go to the Yule Ball together?" he asked. He held his breath in anticipation of her response and his heart was hammering. He felt about as nervous and on edge as he would have felt asking a girl he really fancied… stupid bet!

The question lingered in the air, and Hermione just stared at Draco in utter disbelief.

"Are you okay? Has someone Confunded you?" she joked. He must be having her on.

"I'm serious, Hermione," he said. Sure enough, there was no smirk or humorous glint in his eyes.

"I don't understand," she thought aloud, "this is me you're talking to."

"I'm not blind," he scoffed, "but just hear me out. Neither of us have a date yet, and-"

"Well I would have a date if you didn't drag me away from Viktor yesterday," Hermione muttered.

"And how was I supposed to know what you were talking about?" Draco challenged. He wondered if she would have the gall to accuse him of eavesdropping. To his surprise, she didn't.

Hermione just shrugged. She didn't dare question him after the way he flipped out that morning.

Draco nodded in comprehension, "as I was saying," he shot her an annoyed glance, "there's this rumour going around, and before you jump to conclusions, I have no idea who started it. Let's face it, nobody would believe us if we denied such juicy gossip so we may as well do what everyone already thinks we're doing."

Hermione couldn't believe her ears: Ginny's plan was actually working.

"What would your friends have to say about that?" she asked.

"They don't own me. Besides since when do you care what people think?"

"I don't care, but I just wonder how much stick you'll get from them for lowering yourself to going on a date with a Muggleborn."

"I'm a big boy – I can take care of myself," Draco drawled, smiling at her, "this is purely for convenience."

Convenience. When he put it like that, it seemed a little more plausible for him to be asking. Hermione couldn't help wondering if there was more to it than that.

"Look Draco, sorry to bring this up again, but I need to know the answer to the question I asked you this morning. How many girls have you used that move on?"

Draco sighed impatiently, "Why does it matter?"

"Well put it this way, if you don't answer, I wont feel comfortable agreeing to go to the Ball with you," Hermione said. She couldn't help feeling slightly worried that he would still refuse to answer. Some wild part of her wanted to go to the Ball with him. She had to admit that Draco was attractive, and he may be an arse at times but he was good company when he chose to be.

The only issue was that they'd never been together in public, so it would be a bit of a gamble to go with him. Merlin knows what his friends thought to all of this, let alone what Harry and Ron would think.

He scowled at being manipulated in such a way, "Nobody. That's the truth," he said, "Greengrass was lying."

Hermione processed his answer and felt inclined to believe him. After all, her instinct had been that Daphne was lying. There was still some hint of doubt there though; something that was telling her that Draco's proposal wasn't entirely genuine. She just didn't know if it was her paranoia or if there was something going on. Hermione decided she needed a second opinion.

"Fair enough, but would you mind if I think about it for a while?"

Draco's heart skipped a beat. Merlin why was she so awkward? He swallowed hard and tried to think of a way to protest, but then he remembered that Pansy was planning something. He never thought he'd be in a position where he had to rely on her to help, but it looked like he had no other choice. Draco knew that allowing Hermione to think about it would just give Viktor another opportunity to ask her out as well.

"That's fine," he lied, "but I should have you know that Malfoy's don't like to be kept waiting for long."

"You're a spoiled bunch aren't you?" Hermione joked.

"What was your first clue?" Draco raised an eyebrow and smiled at her.

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

"It was a rhetorical question."

"Of course it was," Hermione said sarcastically, "we should probably start practicing stuff now," she added, as Flitwick cleared his throat from across the room.

"I suppose," Draco's tone was void of enthusiasm, "but before we do, I just remembered I need to tell you something. Your presence is required in the library at eight o'clock."

"Why?" Hermione frowned.

"Er-" Draco paused. He didn't want to lie and risk Hermione catching him out, but he somehow put two and two together and he suspected that Pansy's plan had something to do with Krum; she knew about the close call of the night before, "Krum said he wanted to speak to you."

He knew that was a risky thing to say, and he hoped his choice of words wouldn't come back around and bite him in the arse.

To be continued...

A/N: As ever, thank you very much for reading. I'm assuming most of you are Dramione shippers if you're reading this, but if you are it'd be awesome if you could check out my new collection of Dramione Drabbles. I'd love some more feedback on there to help improve my writing and whatnot.

Hope you're enjoying this story so far :)