"Hey, Granger," Draco whispered in her ear.
Hermione jumped, feeling his hands graze her waist as he steadied her, his breath was soft on the nape of her neck and she felt a surprised smile flirt across her face. She had been hiding from Cormac who had been attempting to wrestle her under the mistletoe all evening, and when she had felt someone come up behind her she had been nervous it was him, until she'd heard Draco's voice at which point she relaxed completely, almost leaning back into him embrace.
"What are you doing here?" she asked him.
"I could ask you the same thing, you wouldn't be avoiding your date would you?"
"As it turns out you might have been right earlier, I shouldn't have come with him. He is an ape."
He squeezed her side gently and she could tell he was trying not to laugh, "I never thought I'd see the day when Hermione Granger is admitting I was right and she was wrong."
"Don't get used to it," she warned and turned to face him.
His expression instantly drew, "What's happened to you?"
She blushed furiously and wiped some of her lip-gloss off her chin, "I just escaped from Cormac."
The scowl on his face was so intense that she almost laughed, "You have no right to be annoyed with me," she reminded him.
"I- I wanted to speak to you, about that."
"Here?" she looked around the party.
"I don't want to spoil your evening, if you'd like me to leave you to your date…?"
She shook her head, "But I don't want to talk about Pansy either."
"Can I at least say that I regret it, and that I feel like a complete fool?"
Hermione tried not to smile, "You can, though I don't see why it's any of my business."
He swallowed, "So you listened to my advice about getting even and completely messed it up."
"I don't see how I messed up," she said honestly, it had definitely made her feel more on even terms with Ron, and Draco was now standing right in front of her. "Can I ask why you're crashing Slughorn's party? Or was it just to tell me you wished you hadn't kissed Pansy?"
"You're the one that said we should move our friendship out of the stacks."
"Not into a corner of Slughorn's office."
"Do you want to dance?" he had asked before he'd thought it through, and tried not to be offended when she glanced around, "Or would you be ashamed to be seen with me?"
"At least I have an invitation," she shot back, "… and a date who is still looking for me."
"And you don't think I could take McLaggen?"
They both laughed and he reached for her, pulling her into the circle of him arms, "Or we can dance here?"
"I didn't know you could dance," she commented quietly.
"Maybe there's a lot you don't actually know about me."
He twirled her in a tight circle and pulled her back into his chest and she surprised them both by giggling. He wanted to tell her that she looked beautiful, he wanted to run his hands through her hair that was for once not in frizzy spirals but was sleek and soft, he wanted to kiss her; the realisation was so strong and took him so by surprise that he almost stumbled. Luckily she hadn't seemed to notice, her eyes were cast down and he asked her, "What's wrong?"
"How do we keep doing this?" she asked him, her gaze flicking up, her eyelashes casting shadows on her cheeks, "We go from hating one-another to… dancing in the shadows at a Christmas party within twenty-four hours. It's almost as if that when we're alone…"
"We're alone just now," he pointed out.
"And tomorrow when you're surrounded by your friends, or mine are around, what then?" They had stopped dancing and she was now just standing in his arms, her hands light on his chest- but she hadn't pushed him away yet.
Draco swallowed, "I don't know," he said honestly. "It's just- there's so much… it's so complicated."
"Why did you come here tonight, I have to know."
"I wanted to see you, and I didn't want you to be here with him." He had admitted to being jealous, "Did you ask McLaggen because you saw Pansy kiss me?"
"I saw you not push her away," she countered, biting her lip.
He began to dance with her again, mostly for something to do to distract them both. He didn't want to think, he couldn't think, other than how much calmer he felt around her, even with the risk of them being caught and what it might mean. He leant forwards and wrapped his arm around her waist at the same time, so that his cheek was against the top of her head; as if he felt that not being able to look at her lips might make them easier to resist. Her hands curled so that she was gripping his shirt and the hand that wasn't around her waist came up to interlink with hers.
They danced until the music stopped abruptly, and Slughorn began to give a loud and slightly slurred speech. They broke apart as the sudden loud interruption spooked them back into reality, and they stood still holding hands while the room stopped spinning.
Hermione suddenly heard her name and peeked out from behind the archway to see McLaggen had cornered Harry to demand her whereabouts. Draco was watching her closely when she turned back to him, "I think we need to have a conversation- not in the library, and not here where…"
"There are too many people around?"
"Where there are too many distractions."
"I thought I distracted you," he murmured with the ghost of a smile.
She snorted, "You do, trust me."
"Shall I go?"
She didn't want him too, but her absence was now noted and she knew she'd have to face them eventually. "I should let McLaggen down."
"Not too gently," he said bluntly and she shoved him.
"Hermione?" It was Harry and when he rounded the corner she gave a panicked glance over her shoulder only to see that Draco had disappeared.
He grinned when he saw her, "Hiding from McLaggen?"
"Something like that," she pushed her hair back from her face and fanned herself to try and hide the fact she was flushed. Seeing Harry chased away the last of the hypnotic feeling dancing with Draco had created, she didn't know what she would have done if he had found them together.
They re-joined the party in time to see a disturbance breaking out, Filtch was storming his way into the centre of the room, with Draco's collar tight in his grip, and when Snape offered to escort him out and Draco's expression turned from annoyance into cold anger, Harry turned to Hermione and announced, "I know you think I'm crazy, but I'm going to follow them."
"Harry wait!" she hissed, but it was too late, he had pulled out his invisibility cloak and was weaving through guests towards the door.
Hermione considered her options; she could stay here and make excuses with Cormac, or she could follow her best friend and possibly discover whatever it was Draco was keeping from her. A moment later she found herself in the corridor, "Harry," she whispered, "Harry where are you?"
A hand came out of nowhere and suddenly she had been yanked under the invisibility cloak, "Hermione what are you doing?"
"What I always do, backing you up. Now come on let's go."

Hey guys, I've been really encouraged in the last week with the amount of follows and favourites, you're too kind. I hope that you're still enjoying the story, if you have any comments about the pace or the way the different characters are coming together then please leave a review and I'll take that on board.

I'm not here to make excuses but I am going to warn you that as I mentioned in a previous chapter I am about to move from Scotland to New Zealand, in fact I move on Saturday so while I have another few chapters written, I'm begging to you to grant me a little patience! I have almost 28 hours to kill in an airport and on planes in the next week so lots of writing will get done, but until I'm sorted with wifi I might have a short break between uploads. I should have one more chapter up before I leave, and I'm hoping that I won't be without internet for long, what I will say (and this isn't me trying to bribe you) is that the next chapter is a huge turning point in the story, it's going to be a good one!

-H