t w e n t y - s i x

---

“It’s Christmas Eve, Hermione! Do you know what that means for you? Well, for us?” Ginny asked her friend with huge grin as she pointed from herself to Blaise. “Well?” She pressed and wiggled her eyebrows excitedly.

“I’d rather not say.” Hermione said quietly as she avoided eye contact with her friends, looking over at Draco for help. She placed her elbow on the table and pressed her cheek against the palm of her hand, staring at Draco. “We should get the hell out of here before they can stop us.” She whispered hurriedly to Draco. She widened her eyes and allowed her pupils to swiftly look over at her friends as a clue for him.

“What do they have planned for us?” Draco asked in a whisper, leaning into her ear. “Is it something bad?”

“Zabini wants to spend time with me and Ginny wants to spend time with you—“

“Bloody hell! That will never happen! Over my dead body.” Draco yelled as he shook his head ferociously.

Ginny and Blaise exchanged glances and smirked together. “What are you two whispering about?”

“We’re . . . well—we were whispering sweet-nothings to each other.” Draco told them with a groan as he glared at them.

“I’m assuming you know what today is, then?” Blaise asked as he winked over at his friend.

“No, I will not allow this to happen. Never. You’ll both have to hex me to oblivion before you make me do—“

One minute later . . .

“So . . . Draco, what is it that you like about Hermione?” Ginny asked him as she smiled at him, nudging him slightly with her elbow.

“Don’t push it, Weaslette. Just don’t.” Draco warned her deadpan as he shook his head ever-so-slightly.

The smile that was once glued to Ginny’s face was kicked off. “Weaslette? Really? I thought we were on first name basis here!”

“We were never on first name basis and we never will be.” Draco scoffed as he got up, fixing his shirt. “If you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do.”

The redhead glared at Draco and sighed, rolling her eyes. “I really didn’t want to do this because you’re my best friend’s boyfriend, but I guess I have no choice.” She huffed under her breath as she pulled out her wand. She stood up and shot a nonverbal spell at Draco.

A yell soon followed suit.

---

Hermione let out a laugh as she and Blaise continued to walk down the corridors of the school. “Draco did what?”

“He fell out the window once while trying to impress a girl. The girl got impressed, I mean, he fell a 10 ft floor building for her.” Blaise divulged all the embarrassing moments made by Draco Malfoy with a huge smile on his face.

“But it was accidental . . . and she probably wasn’t impressed, probably pitied him.” Hermione said and shook her head. “Goodness, he fell out a window? How stupid is he? Did he lose balance or something?”

“Well, don’t you know how guys roll? We have to look cool for the ladies so what do we do? We lean against the window sill and look cool but in his case, he fell out because he was too nervous.”

Hermione beamed over at Blaise. “And who was this lucky girl?” She asked and suddenly clapped as she shook her head. “Wait, no, don’t tell me.” She quickly said before Blaise could open his mouth to speak.

“Why not?” Blaise asked with a scoff as he looked over at Hermione with an are-you-jealous–look.

Hermione shook her head as she frowned. “I’m just not curious anymore.”

“Oh, are we jealous?”

“What?” Hermione asked as she whipped her head towards Zabini. She laughed and shook her head. “Me? Jealous, no. And I am most certainly not jealous of the mystery girl who fell for Draco.” She said as she punctuated each word, trying to drill the words into Blaise’s head.

“No, I think you’re jealous.” He pushed a bit more as he stared at her intently.

Hermione felt a blush bloom across her cheeks and pressed her lips into a thin line. “I’m not jealous.” She said and glared at him. “I don’t need Draco to fall out a window for me to be impressed. I’m simply impressed by just . . . him.” She said and mentally slapped herself as she cursed under her breath for telling Blaise her feelings for Draco.

“Ah, and so the stubborn, fiery princess decides to speak the truth now, eh?” He teased her as he winked over at her. “So just Draco being his stupid self is enough for you to fall in love with him?”

She shot him daggers and cleared her throat; her cheeks were now blazing red. “Oh, shut up.” She said as she continued to walk on. Hermione stepped outside and found the whole place covered in white snow. “To the lake?” She suggested and watched as Blaise nodded his head in agreement.

Hermione and Blaise finally walked over to the lake and sat down at on the snowy ground. “Okay, enough about Draco and me. How is it that you and Ginny are so close?” Hermione asked as she cocked an eyebrow over at Zabini. “You didn’t think I’d forgotten about you two, right?”

Blaise cursed under his breath and scratched the back of his head. “We happened to become friends since our best friends were drooling over each other.”

“We were not drooling over each other.” Hermione corrected him as a scarlet flame brushed across her cheeks. “Wait, no, don’t try to turn this over to me. We are going to talk about you and Ginny.”

“Actually, we’re going to talk about you and Draco.” Blaise fought back as he stared at her with a complacent grin.

“I don’t think so.” Hermione told him with a hard stare as she frowned. “Look, there’s obviously something going on between you two. I’m not positive it’s a romantic relationship, but there’s seriously something going on. What is it?” She asked sternly, determined to get the answers to her questions once and for all.