Chapter Nine

Draco was not inclined towards fidgeting. Still, he felt the nervous energy thrumming through him as he and Blaise waited for their dates.

Blaise, the treacherous bastard, had blatantly stolen Draco's idea and had invited Hermione Granger to the ball as well. Hermione was still standoffish since the dinner debacle and Draco anticipated more fireworks before the end of the night. Blaise, while usually smooth and charming, had a way of stumbling over his own tongue around Hermione. Sometimes Draco wondered if his friend wasn't smitten.

Draco turned as a horse drawn carriage pulled up. He recognized the driver and smiled at the young woman. She sent him a cheeky grin before jumping down and opening the door.

Draco found himself holding his breath as Hermione, in a stunning dress of shimmering midnight blue silk, accompanied by a black cape of star-velvet, stepped out. Hermione drew many appreciative murmurs. Star-velvet was enchanted velvet made to glisten and glitter with star bursts and was extremely rare. Draco knew for a fact that Hermione had enchanted this velvet herself. It had been one of Blaise's more intelligent moves when it came to Hermione: rather than send her the cape already enchanted, he had sent her the cape and an extremely rare book of spells, marking the page on how to enchant star-velvet.

Hermione spared a little smile for Blaise as she took his hand.

The driver reached into the the cab of the carriage and took the pale, freckled hand of the only woman Draco had eyes for tonight.

Ginny emerged from the carriage like a princess. Her kinsale cape had the hood up and as she stepped fully off the stairs, she pushed it back. Her crimson hair had been curled into loose waves and sliver and amythyst pins held it back in an intricate style that reminded Draco of something from a fantasy movie. She wore little makeup, her own natural beauty shining through, just a bit of lipstick and some eyeliner.

The amythysts sparkled in her ears and he could see the glint of them at her neck where the necklace fastened.

He offered his hand as she stood there. She seemed a bit overwhelmed by the crowd. Or maybe, he thought hopefully as they made their way to the cloak room, it was just seeing him in a tux.

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It was seeing Draco in a tux. Ginny hadn't been lying when she told Hermione how strongly she was affected by men in tuxedos. And Draco was a gorgeous man in a tuxedo. When she stepped out of the carriage, she would have fallen if not for the driver there holding her arm.

His blonde hair was shorter than it had been in school, and he looked like a blonde Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge. The tuxedo was perfectly tailored and the style seemed as if it had been made with Draco in mind.

This is what a man should look like, her treacherous mind whispered.

She pulled back her hood and was immediately rewarded with a whisper of admiration as the crowd took her in. She felt a thrill of exhileration. She could do this. It was only one night. She could make it through and never have to think about Draco in a perfectly tailored tuxedo again. That was totally the plan.

Then Draco offered her a hand and she knew this was going to be a lot harder than she anticipated. Right now though, she had to get past the cloak room. She knew the dress Draco had procured for her was going to garner her attention. Hermione's dress was lovely too but nothing compared to the amazing cloak she wore.

That had been a nice move on Blaise's part, Ginny felt. Hermione had gushed over the book of spells and Ginny had even seen a few she had a mind to try.

Ginny steeled herself as they entered the cloak room. Draco took off his own black cloak, giving Ginny a better view of his perfectly tailored tuxedo. Hermione was removing her own cloak. The attendant was finding it hard not to oogle Hermione's beautiful cloak. Hermione's dress clung to her figure perfectly and shimmered.

Ginny finally unclasped her own cloak.

The attendant had finished reverantly putting Hermione's cloak away and was reaching for Ginny's cloak. The attendant was a good looking young man. He made to move behind her but Draco beat him to it.

"Allow me," Draco said, slipping the cloak from Ginny's shoulders.

Ginny had been pissed at Draco. After the dress had come, she had realized he had failed to give her shoes. She had been on the verge of going out to get her own shoes when a young woman had shown up announcing she was there to help Ginny and Hermione. She had introduced herself as Chai and had immediately taken over. She had tamed Hermione's hair into the complex mass of ringlets and ribbons that it was and had done more or less the same with Ginny's hair only using amythyst encrusted hair pins and combs. She had advised them with make up and delivered Hermione's dress (they had gotten the cloak and book the day before just after Ginny's packages came). Then she had pulled out a pair of strappy roman sandle esque shoes for Ginny.

The shoes had ridiculous heels but Chai had enchanted the shoes and Ginny's feet so that she wouldn't trip and they wouldn't get uncomfortable.

Then Chai had pulled out the underbust and sleeve garnishes.

Ginny stood, aware that everyone's attention was drawn to the amythyst and onyx encrusted underbust she wore. It was laced at the sides and the front with strings of small black seed pearls that Ginny had no doubt were real. The onyx and amythysts formed a pattern of roses that blended excellently with the black brocade of the underbust. The sleeve garnishes were latched into place over the cinched portion of the sleeves and strings of black seed pearls and dark amythyst beads fell from them.

The outfit was not gaudy though. Ginny had feared it would be but she had been pleasantly surprised when she saw the entire thing.

Still the whole thing had to have cost Draco a small fortune, not to mention the money the jewlry must have cost.

Every eye in the coat room was on her and Ginny felt uncomfortable. Then Draco swept over and took her arm. Though she knew it wasn't true, she told her self that they were staring at Draco. She tried not to cling to his arm as they swept into the main ball room.

(A/N: little conversation in this chapter but can you blame me? This chapter was sooo much fun to write. and I promise the next one will be just as filled with sexual tension.

To MidnightWriter1213: Don't we all?

To Lulu: Draco is already too much in love with Ginny to ever hurt her on purpose.