CHAPTER NINE

It was the night of the Christmas party and Draco took this opportunity to get some personal work done. Well with Hermione being at the party at all, she couldn't distract him. He sat in the hallway for a while as he waited for everyone to get to the party. He couldn't risk being caught. He stared at the door for a while before entering. He finally got the nerve to go in and walk up to the cabinet. Once again he pulled the sheet down. He loathed the purpose it had. Why did he have to be the one to do it?

He opened the creaky door and placed a green apple at the base of it. He took a deep breath before closing the door.

"Harmonia Nectere Passus." he whispered the spell to himself.

The door opened up revealing that the apple had disappeared. He was quite amazed. Terrified but amazed. He closed the door again.

"Harmonia Nectere Passus." he repeated the spell once more. When he opened the door, the apple had returned with a single bit taken out of it. It had worked.

***

Hermione showed up at the Christmas party without Cormac. She told him that she would meet him there. She wanted to spend the least amount of time with him as possible. She wore a reddish-pink dress that stopped at her knees and crossed under her breasts. Even if she didn't feel good, at least she looked good.

She grabbed a drink to calm her nerves and didn't stop drinking it until it was gone. When she put the drink down she saw Cormac walk through the doors. All she could think to do was avoid him. She ran and hid behind the curtains.

She heard a familiar voice shout. She peaked her head through the curtains and saw Draco being pulled in by Filch. She couldn't make out what they were saying but he had clearly gotten himself into trouble. She wondered what he had been doing.

Snape quickly escorted him out. Hermione hid again. Moments passed and she wish she could just leave and find out what Draco had been up to. Draco was just across the hall getting a lecture from Snape. He told him the importance of not getting caught and offered his assistance. He soon sent him to his common room and went back to the party.

Draco didn't go to his common room. Instead, he went back to the party. He didn't get to see Hermione and Cormac together and he couldn't miss that. Maybe he could use it to tease her later. He snuck behind the curtains trying not to catch Snape's eye and to his luck, he ran into just the person he was looking for.

He startled Hermione as she touched her on the shoulder. He wanted to touch her everywhere else. She looked beautiful tonight.

"What are you doing here? Didn't you just get kicked out?" She was trying not to scream.

"I wanted to see you." He looked her up and down. "And I'm really glad I got to." he smiled and bit his lip. "Let's get out of here. It looks like you're not enjoying yourself anyway."

"I have to stay for at least another hour." She desperately wanted to go with him but she didn't want her friends to wonder where she went.

"I have an idea. How about I come back when it's over, we sneak a couple of drinks and have a party of our own?" His offer was very tempting and sounded like a lot of fun to her. Old Hermione wouldn't do something like that in a million years. Especially not with Draco, but everything was starting to feel different. She was gaining trust for a boy she once hated.

She silently agreed and made him get on his way. She spent the rest of the night talking with her friends and avoiding Cormac. She didn't feel so bad about it now. After an hour and a half of dancing and laughing, people started to see themselves out. She watched everyone leave until it was just her and Slughorn.

"Looks like the party is over now Miss Granger. You are free to go. Slughorn gestured to the door.

"Why don't you have me stay and clean up a bit. It's the least I could do." She was proud of the excuse she came up with.

Slughorn agreed as he was eager to get out of there. It looked as if he had enjoyed one too many drinks that night. Draco wasn't there yet so she just started cleaning. She wondered how he would know when everyone left. She heard footsteps behind her and she prayed it wasn't a teacher. To her luck, it wasn't. Draco was standing there in a dress shirt and slacks.

"You've changed." she was extremely happy to see him. The drinks she had made her feelings more intense.

"Well you look so nice I thought I might as well too." He walked over to the bar and picked out a bottle of firewhisky. She grabbed a glass of champagne and walked over to him. Under the sunset, they started to drink. It was well into the night but the ceiling had been bewitched to look like the sun hadn't gone down yet. It set a special kind of mood in the room.

"Here have a shot." He handed her the bottle. She was slow to take it from him. She preferred drinks like butterbeer and hadn't experimented with anything stronger than that. She grasped the neck and took a swig. It burned from her lips to the bottom of her stomach as she swallowed. She closed her eyes shut and felt as if she was going to be sick.

"Woah Granger, you barely started drinking." he grabbed the bottle from her and let her calm down before he took a shot. He handled it a lot better than she did. She laughed at his nonchalant reaction. Her eyes were still watering and her mascara bleed like watercolors down her cheek. He raised his hand to her cheek and wiped the tear away.

"You look beautiful tonight." He pulled her closer to kiss her. His lips tasted like the firewhisky she just managed to get rid of. It didn't bother her though. It simply added to the experience. She reached for his neck kissing him back. She has never experienced anything like this before. She has never felt anything like this before. She opened her mouth wider trying to taste all of him. Even though he tasted like fire, his lips were still cold.

He broke away and looked at her with his sharp gray eyes and held out a hand offering a dance. She accepted it and followed him into the middle of the dancefloor. The whiskey had just started warming her up and she started to blush.

He spun her around before pulling her close. They danced to the slow song playing and held onto each other. Her grip was soft but he was so firm. He held her waist like he was afraid she was going to slip away.

"I bet Cormac didn't give you a dance like this." he spun her around again showing her he was actually a quite fine dancer.

"We didn't get to dance. I spent the whole night avoiding him." She laughed at her antics.

"Good, because I would've killed him if he got too close to you." He talked as if she was her property. He wanted her to be his and his only. It was the first time he felt love and the last he'll ever need. She was the only thing that mattered to him at that time.

Hermione was dismayed by his response. She forgot he could be so brutal. She kind of liked it though. Having someone wanting to protect her. They continued dancing. They didn't say another word. They just held each other. Hermione looked up at the clock. It was almost 2 am.

"We better get out of here before we get caught being out too late."

He had to agree. He had already been caught enough for one night.

"I'll walk you to your common room." Hermione had no idea he was such a gentleman.

They walked the hallways cautiously trying to avoid anyone who might have been awake. They approached the painting of the fat lady. It felt so early but he promised he would bring her to her door. He wanted to take her to his but that was too risky.

"Goodnight Hermione." That was the first time he had called her by her first name and it felt good. It took her by surprise. She had never heard him call her that before. She smiled at him.

"Goodnight Draco." she went through the portrait door. Draco just stood there until she was gone. She left ages ago but he still had butterflies.