Here is the much anticipated Halloween Ball Chapter! Yay for the Chapter! Yay for my beta! Yay for REVIEWS(hint hint)!!!

Draco rolled over and groaned as his alarm woke him up. He wanted to go back to sleep and to a world where Hermione didn't hate him. He still felt horrible about what happened. And he had expected her to be mad about it, but not this mad. It had been almost a full month since she had acknowledged him. In fact, those words whispered in the Great Hall had been the last words she had spoken to him. Every time he thought of her, he heard those words course over his body. There was nothing he wouldn't give for her to forgive him. Hell, he would sell his soul for her to simply say 'pass the salt.'

And as he had predicted, the Wizarding World had a field day after Rita Skeeter's article. He had been flooded with owls asking for interviews, and, much to his horror, a Howler from Mrs. Weasley. Even a month later, the owls wouldn't stop coming. With each owl he received, he knew that Hermione received at least ten more. Draco felt horrible because he wasn't able to help her through this difficult time when he had promised he would. It had taken her a full day in the Hospital Wing and several calming potions to save Hermione from her mental breakdown. And, aside from the constant attention, she had seemed to go back to her normal routine. With all of the uproar from the initial article, Dumbledore, Hermione, and her attorney agreed to an interview. Draco had actually cried when reading some of her words, not that he would admit that to anyone.

-"I just recently found out about this myself. It is very difficult to hear that, not only did I lose one set of parents, but learn in the same stroke they weren't even my 'real' parents. This has all just been a real shock to me. I'm taking life on a day to day basis until everything is figured out..."

-"I'm finding it difficult to know whom to trust. My biological parents wanted me placed with a Muggle family to keep me from being taken advantage of, and it seems that they were right. It is very unfortunate to find someone whom you cannot rely on… No, I do not mean Mr. Malfoy, although I must admit that I was upset and hurt by his tactlessness..."

In Draco's mind, Hermione definitely showed her Gryffindor courage with the hell she went through every single day. Unless she was in the Common Room, she never seemed to have a minute to herself. Never before had he seen any one student receive so much attention. Everywhere, there were boys asking to carry her books or for a date. The girls, especially the younger ones, had taken to wearing their hair curly. And, to top it off, the library was now the most popular place to be. Not all the attention, however, was positively sent. The Slytherins, under Pansy's lead, taunted and insulted her at every opportunity. No matter how many times he protested, the attacks kept coming. Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise, it seemed, were the only three people in the school on his side. Because, yes, even he was being attacked. Pansy's posse had not taken Draco's defense of Hermione lightly. And, after the initial article, Rita Skeeter had printed another stating that he had only befriended Hermione because of her newly recognized blood status. That article may have been the one thing that had hurt him more than Hermione's fury and his guilt.

He knew he had to win her back, but it seemed like an impossible task. Tonight was the Halloween Ball and he cursed every second that brought him closer to it. He knew he was no longer Hermione's date and it rubbed stinging solution in his wounds when he heard Ron would be taking her. After everything he had done to protect her from Ron, it broke Draco's heart that she had gone running back to him.


Hermione was relieved that for the night no one would be focusing on her. She and Ginny had completely taken over the bathroom, not really caring about Draco. Ginny had decided to be Cliodna, the Celtic Goddess of Beauty and the Other-world. She had her bright red hair down and flowing. Her dress was floor-length velvet, darkening as it fell from pale blue to Prussian, like stormy sea and completed by a veil, held in place by a braid of blue and silver threads. In addition, she had three birds enchanted to fly around her all night. Hermione, on the other hand, had decided to be a fairy, since she thought many people would expect her to portray a famous person. She had a thigh length dress of a pale, shimmering purple. Ginny had curled Hermione's hair into ringlets and twisted silver wire into a complex design throughout. Even though Ginny insisted Hermione go barefoot, she decided to wear flat purple shoes with bells on them. After she was done dressing, Ginny enchanted life-like wings into her back. If she stood still for long enough, her wings actually lifted her two centimeters off the ground.

Finally, they were ready and went to the Common Room to join Ron and Harry. Harry was dressed as Bowman Wright, the inventor of the Golden Snitch. He had transfigured his hair grey and wore deep, striped blue and magenta robes and matching caubeen, complete with Golden Snit feather. Ah, Bowman Wright, how appropriate for Harry… Ron dressed himself as Merlin. He had also transfigured his hair grey and grown himself a mid-chest length beard. His costume consisted of gold, blue, and purple dress robes and a large, blue cone-shaped hat with silver stars that twinkled and, occasionally, moved across the fabric. Both men stopped talking and stared at the two girls. They giggled at their admirers as the boys struggled for words.

Just then, Draco emerged from his room. He was dressed as a gothic vampire. As hard as she tried not to notice, Hermione did have to admit that the color black looked very sexy with his pale complexion and blonde hair. His jaw dropped in surprise at seeing the four of them standing there and Hermione noticed that Draco had transfigured his eyeteeth into fangs and had added a tickle of 'blood' in the corner of his mouth. She was caught off guard, since she had been avoiding him for a month, at how irresistible he looked, even with a line of 'blood' coming out of his mouth. His silver eyes met hers and she saw her angel for a full second before she turned away. A stab of regret shot through her heart and she pushed it away. No! He hurt me! I'm not the one who should feel guilty! Hermione grabbed Ron's hand. "Come on Ron! We have a Ball to get to!"

Harry and Ginny followed Hermione and Ron out the portrait hole, leaving Draco by himself. Being in Draco's presence for those few seconds had thoroughly pissed Hermione off. She was now on a mission to forget all about his beautiful eyes. Stupid ferret and his stupid angel eyes! Before she could register the action, Ginny was dragging her into the first floor bathroom. "You okay Hermione?"

"I don't want to see him ever again!" Hermione yanked her arm away from the red-head.

"Alright, I know that he's a complete asshole, but… Now, you know I hate him too and this probably isn't the right time to say this to you… Well, it really looks like it's hurting him a lot that you keep ignoring him…"

"Ginny…" Hermione's voice had never sounded more like a growl.

"Oh come on! You don't have to be nice to him! I just think that maybe you could go back to insulting him like before? I mean, well, everyone else has. It might help bring some normality back to things, you know… put things in perspective-"

"I. Am. Not. Going. To. Talk. To. Him. EVER!"

"I-"

"No! I don't want to hear anymore! Now I'm going to the Ball and seeing how much Butter beer I have to drink to forget this conversation ever happened!"


Unfortunately for Hermione, there was nowhere near the amount of Butter beer that she needed to forget Draco and his eyes, and, with the twins long gone, no one daring enough to have snuck in anything stronger. At least no one was solely focused on her… She had to be thankful for that! Ron was even being a 'good date' and letting her dance with other guys since he refused to be pried from the table. Dumbledore had definitely outdone himself with the decorations and music. The man had even managed to book the Weird Sisters again.

The song ended and Hermione felt herself being spun away from Neville, her current dance partner. The first thing she registered was the olive skin tone of the person holding her. Her eyes travelled up their chest to meet Blaise's stupid, Slytherin smirk. "Hey there, Granger."

"Let go of me Zabini."

"Now I'm hurt. Where is that House Unity you were promoting a month ago?" His mocking tone sent her seething.

"Well, go ask your ferret why I don't care about House Unity at the moment!" Hermione huffed and struggled against Blaise's grip. "All I wanted was to forget the last month for one night and have a goodtime! Why does everyone keep ruining it for me!?"

"Ha, well I guess I'll spin your little Gryffindor self back to your friends then, at least for a few minutes until… Never mind."

"Until what?" She turned back around to find him, but Blaise had disappeared.

Just as she made it back to the table, Hermione found out what Blaise had meant. The lead singer was making an announcement and had the attention of everyone in attendance. "In order to congratulate the Head Boy and Girl for this spectacular ball they put together, we would like to invite them to a spotlight dance for everyone to see! Would Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger please make their way to the middle of the floor?"

The crowd erupted in applause, but Hermione couldn't hear anything after that announcement. I'll kill him! How could he do that to me!? He must really have a death wish! And then I'll find out whoever did this and make them pay! Not wanting to make even more of a scene, she moved forward to meet Draco. Ron tried to hurry forward but Harry and Ginny help him back. Draco held out his hand to take and gulped as she accepted it. He pulled her close to him and began to spin them around the floor. She spoke through her forced smile, refusing to look at him. "How dare you do this!? Was ruining my life once not good enough for you!? Are you just going to follow me around for the rest of my life, making sure I never get any peace!?"

"I didn't do this…"

"Yes you did! Blaise said-"

"Then he did it, not me."

"I- oh…" Blaise was going to suffer then. Boils. Hermione decided he definitely deserved boils for this. Maybe even a flesh-eating slug in the-

"And I'm not trying to ruin your life. I never wanted to hurt you in the first place… I'm sorry."

"I really don't care if you're sorry! You betrayed me! It was all too easy for you to tell the whole castle MY secret! And, because of that, you weren't there to help me like you said you would…"

"Only because I knew you wouldn't let me be there… But I did help you; you just didn't know it at the time."

"Wh- what do you mean?"

"Well… I kind of put a spell on you that kept away any owls with Howlers or any booby trapped letters. I figured I had hurt you enough and I didn't want you to have a repeat of Fourth Year…"

"Y- you did? I… Thank you." She'd honestly wondered why no one had sent anything that vitriolic this time around, but had attributed it to the idea that nobody wanted to risk being found out as the one to hurt, or even kill, a Founder's Heir.

"Well, I didn't want you to suffer, anymore than you already were, because of what I did. I- I never meant to tell anyone… I was so caught up in the moment, trying to defend you, and… I'm sorry."

"I know, and, I suppose, I forgive you… That doesn't mean, though, that we're friends again."

The song was winding down at long last, and, as Hermione moved to break away, Draco leaned in. "You're too forgiving for your own good, you know that?" He kissed her gently on her forehead, or, rather, tried too. Misjudging their heights, he ended up kissing more hair than skin, but it was still Hermione, and he didn't mind. "Hermione, I- I love-"

"I-" She pulled away violently, the shock of it enough for him to release her. "I have to go! Ron's waiting for me."

Okay, so Hermione kind of forgave Draco... So leave me some reviews to let me know what you think! I've got ideas for the next few chatpers, but I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE some ideas and stuff- so let me know what you'd like to see!

Oh, and the people that Harry and Ginny dressed as are actual people. Just google the chocolate frog cards and find them :-)