A/N: For everyone who has been waiting for Dramione - we're finally there :) Thank you so much for your reviews! I hope you enjoy this one, too :)
As always, thanks to Sue for beta reading and thanks again to Emily :)
As expected, the interview was in the Prophet the next day, together with photos of her during the task and one that was a close-up showing the crest in detail. What Hermione hadn't expected was a photo of her being hugged by Draco, which must have been taken in the second before everyone else had reached her and some kind of group hug had ensued.
She did like the photo, though. Draco hugged her as close as he could with her still holding onto the egg and there was a big smile on his face. The text beneath the photo suggested a budding romance between the Malfoy heir and the daughter of Tom Riddle. At least they called him by his name now, which was a small victory.
When no one was looking, she packed the Prophet into her bag.
She wanted to keep that one.
When Severus Snape entered the Slytherin common room on Tuesday after the trial, most looked up in surprise. He had spent some time there with his students the day before and no one had expected him to come today.
He remained standing in the centre of the room. "Attention, please. Dumbledore briefly addressed the matter at the beginning of the year, but I was asked to remind you all of the Yule Ball. It will take place on Saturday evening when the holidays start, therefore the train back to London for those who will spend the holidays at home will leave Hogsmeade on Sunday at 10 am. The ball can be attended by everyone who is in their fourth year and above and dress robes are obligatory. You may invite younger students, if you wish."
Although Snape could not have looked or sounded less enthusiastic, most students made up for that lack.
"Headmistress McGonagall asked me to remind you to be on your best behaviour, as you represent Hogwarts and all that. While it is preferable to come with a partner, otherwise it will be difficult for you to dance, this is only obligatory for Miss Riddle." Hermione looked up in confusion. "The ball is traditionally opened by the dance of the champions."
Hearing this, she was so grateful for the lessons Pansy and Daphne had given her, sometimes with the more or less voluntary help of their male friends.
She briefly glanced over to Draco, who was sitting together with Vince and Greg, and wondered, if he would ask her.
Draco Malfoy was on a mission and although he would, strictly speaking, break school rules here, he didn't really care.
„Cruciatus." He walked into his godfather's office and found him sitting on his desk, marking essays.
"Hello," he greeted shortly and reached for the floo powder.
"It's not Friday or Saturday."
He knew that – he just didn't want to wait until it was too late.
"I know. But I really need to floo home, just for half an hour or so."
He looked up. "Did something happen? Did you hear anything about Dumbledore?"
"Not everything that matters revolves around Dumbledore, Severus!"
With that he took a handful of floo powder, called out "Malfoy Manor" and stepped out of the fireplace in the Entrance Hall of his ancestry home.
Severus followed only seconds later. Draco sighed. "Severus, it's really nothing that concerns you."
"Believe me, I wish I could agree, but you just left school grounds without permission. What has gotten into you?"
Draco was pretty sure his godfather just wanted to know what was going on and cared very little about him leaving school grounds without permission. "I need to talk to Tom. And no, not about Dumbledore. Bimsy."
The house elf appeared in front of him. "Master Draco, Bimsy did not expect you."
"I know, I'm not going to stay. Can you tell me where Tom is?"
"In Master Lucius' study."
"Do they have other guests?"
"No, Master Draco, Sir. Master, Mistress, Master Abraxas and Lord Riddle are all there, but no outside guests."
"Thank you!"
Without even glancing back at his teacher, he made his way to his father's study. It was probably good that his parents were there, too. He knew they wouldn't say no, but it was only respectful to let them know.
He knocked and was called in by his father. All four of them were standing around the desk, looking up from whatever they had been discussing, and Draco cleared his throat.
He told himself that it was unreasonable to be nervous; he had known Tom all his life and knew he liked him. But did he consider him good enough? Strictly speaking, no one was good enough. Sure, his family name would open most doors for him, but he highly doubted that this would be the only thing taken into consideration. Suddenly all his childhood mischief Tom had witnessed or his parents might have told him about came to mind. That was ridiculous. Tom wouldn't say no just because he had spent a whole day searching an island for him when he had been five. Or would he?
"Is everything alright, Draco?" His father asked. "Severus, why are you two here?"
"I wish I knew. I am here because your son left school in the middle of the week, because he really needs to talk to Tom. I only know that it's not about Dumbledore."
Draco finally pulled himself together and looked at Hermione's father, who watched him calmly. "Lord Riddle, I formally ask for your permission to court your daughter." It was the first time he had addressed him like that, but this was important to him and he wanted to do it right. He had long realised that what he felt went beyond friendship and Hermione was brilliant and beautiful, and if he didn't make a move soon, someone else would. She was a far cry away from the bushy-haired girl he had first gotten to know and others had noticed, too. Asking her to go to the Yule Ball with him was the perfect start. If it had just been about the ball, he wouldn't have come here to ask for permission first, but he hoped this would be more, that she would feel the same about him.
When Tom gave him a small smile, he could have fainted from relief. "Permission granted. There's no one I'd rather see on her side. As long as it is what she wants."
Draco smiled broadly. "Thank you!"
"I should have known the announcement of the Yule Ball would drive everyone mad," Severus muttered from behind him and Draco's mother laughed softly.
"Ah, the Yule Ball has been announced. You want to ask her to go with you?"
"Yes, of course!"
"And that couldn't have waited until the weekend, when you're home anyway?"
He turned his head to look at his godfather. "No, Viktor Krum is constantly lurking around her in the library when she's not training with him, Cormac McLaggen is making eyes at her, not that she would say yes to that creep, and several others are, too. I'm not risking waiting for almost an entire week." With that he said goodbye to his parents, grandfather and Tom and hurried back to the fireplace.
Hermione was sitting in the library, not really focusing on her homework. Several of her housemates had already agreed to go to the Yule Ball with each other, but instead of asking her, Draco had vanished.
Was he going to ask someone else? Maybe from another house? He had never shown any interest in anyone from a different house, but … who knew? Should she talk to him? She couldn't wait too long, with the opening dance hanging over her head. But she didn't really want to go with anyone but Draco.
Besides, some of her friends already had partners. Daphne and Blaise had decided to go with each other. She didn't think there was more than friendship between them, but as far as she knew, there was also no one either of them was romantically interested in. Theo was her cousin and therefore he wasn't an option. Gregory was terribly nervous about asking a girl from Ravenclaw he had talked about quite a lot lately, Doria or Daria, Hermione couldn't quite remember, but she had encouraged him to ask her.
If Draco wouldn't ask Hermione, she would just ask Vincent to go as friends, she decided. But she really wanted Draco to ask her.
While she was pondering all this, she heard someone clear his throat nervously next to her and when she looked up, she saw Viktor and smiled a little. After spending so much time training together, she did consider him a friend. "Hi Viktor."
"Hi." He hesitated, then took a deep breath. "Hermione … I wanted to ask, whether you would like to go to the Yule Ball with me."
Oh no. No, no, no, no, no! She had not expected anyone, except perhaps for Draco, to ask her. What now? She couldn't say yes! There was still a possibility that Draco would want to go with her. "I'm so sorry, Viktor. I already agreed to go with someone else."
That was a lie, obviously, but what else was she supposed to say without hurting his feelings? It had been nice of him to ask …
He looked disappointed, but pulled himself together rather quickly. "That's alright. I see you at training."
She nodded as he left and frowned when she saw Draco leaving the library even before Viktor. He hadn't even said hi.
When she came back to common room, Draco seemed to be in a bad mood while he was sitting on sofa, alone, doing nothing.
She sat down next to him. "Is everything alright?"
"Of course? Why shouldn't it be?"
"I don't know. You tell me."
He was quiet for a moment, then looked at her with a frown. "Who are you going with?"
"What? Where?" She had no idea what he was talking about.
He rolled his eyes. "To the ball, of course. Where else?"
She just stared at him and then started laughing.
His frown deepened.
"You heard me talking to Viktor, didn't you?"
"I may have."
"And it didn't occur to you that I may have said that because I didn't want to say yes, but also didn't want to hurt his feelings too much?"
He perked up. "You didn't agree to go with anyone yet?"
"No." She looked at him carefully. "Why do you care so much?"
He looked a little ashamed of himself. "Because … I wanted to ask you. And I was worried I'd be too late because I wanted to do it right."
"Do it right?"
"I don't just want to go to the ball with you, Hermione. I really like you. More than just a friend." A small smile came to her lips and she felt her heart beat faster. She had hoped he would ask her out for the ball, she hadn't expected him to be so serious about it. It wasn't unwelcome, though, not at all. "And before you start courting someone, it's traditionally the right course of action to first ask for her father's approval. That's why I went to Malfoy Manor after Severus announced the ball, to talk to Tom."
That was so incredibly sweet! And she had thought he had gone to ask someone else! "And did he approve?"
Now he finally smiled. "Yes, he did." He looked so nervous. "So … if you would like to, I would love to go to the ball with you. And, if you feel the same way, I'd like to … be more than just friends."
Her smile grew and she leaned forward and, as he had done on the day of the task, gently kissed his cheek. "I'd love that."
Hermione was over the moon, but unfortunately not everyone had been so lucky.
Later that evening, when she was sitting on the sofa, with Draco's arm around her shoulders, trying and failing to focus on anything else, Greg came back shortly before curfew, and immediately vanished into the boys' dorm.
The next day, a pretty pissed Draco told her that Doria or Daria or whatever the idiot was called had laughed at him and told him she would never go to the ball, or anywhere really, with someone as stupid as him.
That was disgusting and Hermione was extremely angry on the behalf of her friend. It was alright to say no, but had it been necessary to hurt his feelings like that? Greg was such a sweet person; he didn't deserve that.
Later that day, she came across a group of Ravenclaws on her way to the bathroom, with the girl Greg had asked out, and heard how she was making fun of him in front of her friends, all of them laughing and giggling. Hermione couldn't help herself and sent a Stinging Jinx in her direction. They didn't laugh anymore after that. The satisfaction only lasted a few seconds, though, as the new Transfiguration teacher, who had replaced McGonagall after her becoming the new headmistress, had watched the whole thing. Professor Steward took 20 points from Slytherin and gave her detention for the rest of the week before bringing the girl to the hospital wing. Which was a bit dramatic. He could just have reversed it, it was a Stinging Jinx, not a life-threatening curse.
Well, Slytherin was far ahead and she had deserved it, so Hermione didn't really worry about the points so much.
Therefore, she just continued her way to the bathroom before going to look for Igor. She was lucky and didn't have to go all the way to the Durmstrang ship. He was standing in the Entrance Hall, discussing something with Snape.
She approached them. "Sorry to interrupt. Igor, I just wanted to tell you that I can't join you for training for the rest of the week." He looked surprised. While he had told that she should only join when she had the time, so far, she had always made time. "I have detention for the rest of the week," she explained matter-of-factly.
Snape eyed her suspiciously. "For what?"
"For jinxing someone from Ravenclaw."
"Did she do anything? Attack you first?"
"No, it had nothing to do with me," she answered, still calmly. "But no one is cruel to one of my friends and gets away with it. Excuse me, I'll have to tell … someone … that I won't be able to go home before Saturday. Draco and I are expected on Friday."
"Tell that someone that I blame him for everything that is going wrong in my life," Snape said dryly.
She grinned. "I think he knows that."
With that she turned and left and since she and her friends were mostly spending the time they had previously spent in Room of Requirement in the Chamber of Secrets now and she also kept the mirror there, she made her way there.
She greeted Ferelith, let Noodles out of the bag, and sat down on a stone bench.
To be honest, it wasn't really so much because she couldn't come home on Friday. An owl would have sufficed for that. She really wanted to tell him that she was together with Draco now.
When she took the mirror, she thought they'd have to make this place a bit more comfortable. She enjoyed Ferelith's company and the Basilisk also seemed quite content with their regular visits, but the Room of Requirement had been cosier. She would talk to Daphne and Pansy about it.
"Father?"
A moment later, his image appeared in the mirror. "Hello."
"Hi." She beamed at him. "Draco asked me to go to the ball with him."
He chuckled. "I would have hoped so, considering he came to the manor – or as Severus put it, left school grounds without permission – to ask, if I'd approve."
"Yes, he told me. And then he came to meet me at the library only to hear me telling Viktor Krum that I already agreed to go with someone else. Which I only told him because I was hoping that Draco would ask me, but Draco then thought that I was already going with someone else."
"That sounds stressful. Thankfully, I wasn't so invested in dating when I was at school."
She raised an eyebrow at him. Did he really consider a secret relationship with his best friend no one could know about less stressful than a short misunderstanding? He wisely did not comment further. "It did turn out alright in the end."
"Good. I think you two make a good couple."
"I do, too." She dropped ridiculously big smile on her face and turned serious. "But we won't be home before Saturday. I have detention until and including Friday."
"Detention?"
"Yes. I jinxed someone. And before you say anything, she deserved it. Professor Steward was very dramatic about it and took her to the hospital wing. Because of a harmless Stinging Jinx."
"Stinging Jinxes are quite uncomfortable."
"That was kind of the point."
She could imagine that most people would have freaked out now and some, like Molly Weasley, would have sent a Howler or two. Not him, though. His voice was perfectly calm when he next spoke, merely mildly interested and maybe even a little amused. There was also no sign of sympathy for the girl she had jinxed. "Why did you do it?"
"Greg liked that girl for a while and yesterday he asked her out for the ball. He was so nervous about it and I even encouraged him to try. She laughed at him and told him he was too stupid for her. He's totally crushed and doesn't want to go to the ball at all anymore. Today I found her still laughing about him in front of her friends."
"You know, the responsible thing to do would be to tell you that this is totally unacceptable. But that would be hypocritical of me, considering I wouldn't have used a Stinging Jinx when I was your age. So, thank you for just using a Stinging Jinx."
She grinned. "You're very welcome."
~tbc~