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A Christmassy One-Shot by Missus B

"I'd wager you can't do it."

"That's a stupid wager and we both know it." Draco scoffed and made sure his cufflinks were set in place. He wasn't above glancing to the other end of the classroom as Professor Binns droned on about some part of history no one other than himself cared about. The only student who seemed to still pay a smidgen of attention was, of course, the Head Girl.

She also happened to be the object of his discussion with Theo. 

Draco Malfoy observed the way Head Girl, Hermione Granger, gnawed on her quill before something Binns said was deemed important enough for her to write down. After watching her for close to seven years, he had her tells down.

He had been forced to learn. 

She was the only one able to beat his school records and had since their First year. Since then, Draco pulled his head slightly out of his arse and paid closer attention in class when he realised he wouldn't get by on his name alone.

He could still count on his good looks in many other instances, but to obtain the best and most N.E.W.T.s he was, unfortunately, forced to do his work. The only issue was that Hermione Granger always seemed to work just as hard as him.

Through the years, he had come to study her just as much as his homework. With each thing he learned, he found he never disliked her as much as he grew fascinated with her.

Neither of them had been surprised when he was found flashing a Head Boy badge similar to her Head Girl badge.

"I still say you won't be able to pull it off." Theo's lowered voice brought Draco back to the present and the far too-easy wager he was about to win.

"Theo, you do know Granger and I share living quarters? I have every opportunity to ask her whenever I want," he whispered as he pulled a sheet of parchment closer under the pretence of glancing back at Granger again. Just like he always seemed to try to glance in her direction. 

Because he just couldn’t stop himself.

Throughout the years, she had grown into her massive hair and she'd seemed to find a way to tame it so it looked much prettier on her. Draco had never been the one to tease her directly. That had mainly been Pansy. Draco had broken things off with her in their Fourth year when she turned out to be more pain than pleasure in her maintenance levels. It was only last year, as he shared more classes with Granger where there were fewer students, that he started to pay much closer attention to her.

Like just now, the way her bottom lip would jut out just before she placed her quill in the side of her mouth. Draco bit his bottom lip as he watched her suck the tip of the quill inside her mouth.

Fuck.

As if it wasn't difficult enough to live in the Head's tower rooms. Where the scent of her perfume always lingered in the air. The one he could pick out anywhere because it reminded him of her.

He had been tempted too many times to barge into their shared bathroom with any flimsy excuse to see her. To smell her. Each time this urge pressed upon him, he would silently hex himself and lock himself in his room until she had left for breakfast.

Draco contemplated Theo’s proposed wager. There was another reason Draco thought it would be an easy win.

He planned to ask Granger even without it. It was all he had been thinking about since the start of their seventh year and the knowledge of the annual Yule Ball for Fifth-years and upwards. He wanted to tell her how he felt this year before it was too late and they graduated. Or she was convinced to give that knobhead Weasley a chance.

"Doesn't mean she'll say yes. You've seen the way that Weasley wanker dances around her these days. I tell you, any minute and he's gonna beat you to it." 

Draco received a jab to his ribs for good measure for Theo to get his point across.

"Hell, I'll even beat you to it if you're not interested. Granger's hot." Theo smirked and Draco glowered. 

He knew perfectly well that Granger was hot. He had been the first to notice and point it out during a very heavy drinking game with the rest of the Slytherin (and a few Hufflepuffs) from their year at the end of their Sixth year.

"Shut the fuck up, Theo." Draco pushed Theo so hard that he nearly fell off his chair. Binns paused for the briefest of moments and it caused Granger to look in their direction. 

Draco caught her gaze and held it for as long as possible.

She seemed caught in his stare but showed no reaction other than a deep inhale when she blinked and turned her attention back to the front of the class.

"I'd said it was a stupid wager because I know I'll win, so don't go getting any ideas just yet."

Theo snickered but said nothing else on the topic for the rest of the class. When Binns disappeared through the wall and class was dismissed, Draco shoved his things in his book bag and pulled ahead of Theo who seemed intent on getting a foot shoved in his arse if he kept going.

Draco almost had to trip Theo in his eagerness to try and get to Granger.

"So, Granger," Draco caught up with her hurried pace and he was pleased to see her miss a step as they reached a staircase. He caught her by the elbow. She found her footing and pulled out of his hold faster than he would've liked.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" She hoisted her bag back on her shoulder and turned up the stairs again. Draco followed easily, knowing which steps to avoid as every other student.

"The Yule Ball is coming up next month."

"Yes, I know, well-spotted, smarty pants," she snarked and Draco was mildly surprised and impressed with this trait in her. It was one he rarely saw yet most of it was directed at him when he pushed her.

"Yes, well, got a date yet?"

"That's none of your business," she stomped onwards and sped up slightly. Most likely to get away from him as she always liked to point out how annoying he was to her.

If only she knew what she did to him.

"That's a no, then."

She scoffed but said nothing else even as her cheeks flushed.

Draco walked beside her for a minute without saying anything. They turned a corner he recognised, the corridor hardly had any students near thanks to the proximity to Trelawney's office, and the rather high risk of her popping out of nowhere to predict something.

Granger halted in her steps and was about to turn back only to find herself face-to-face with Draco and she nearly walked into him.

"Oh, bugger," she sighed.

"Granger, I have a serious proposition for you." Draco did the gracious thing and stepped back to give her the space. She huffed a breath but just crossed her arms, waiting for him to go on.

"Go to the Ball with me?" He gave her his best and most seductive smile. Granger narrowed her eyes before she broke out laughing but still managed to get one word out between huffs of laughter.

"No." 

Before Draco could argue his point more, she strolled past him.

He could hear her laughter from down the stairs as she departed. A door two feet away opened from which two very large eyes poked out at him from behind inches-thick glasses.

"My boy, I see great pain in your near future. Oh dear, oh dear. You must take care. Uranus is in a horrible position these days. Oh dear, oh dear." She tutted to herself.

Draco scoffed a laugh to himself.

“Uranus is in a shit position, all right.” 

Draco decided to skip his next class and instead fly a round around the Quidditch pitch while he mulled things over.

Theo didn’t need to know that Draco had been planning to ask Granger to the Yule Ball for a while. That it was his first step in his plan to finally act on his simmering feelings. Truthfully, they had only grown stronger since he’d been forced to live so closely with her as Head Boy and Girl.

Every morning was a slight torture when he could use the bathroom after her and the scent of her shampoos and perfumes still lingered in the air. These days it was odd if he didn’t start with a wank in the shower while her scent wafted around him.

He descended his broom and headed for the changing tents for a cold shower before heading to the Great Hall for lunch.

Granger wasn’t at the Gryffindor table. Draco stopped before even entering. He surveyed who else was seated at the Gryffindor table. Granger seemed to be the only one missing.

This meant she was either back at their Head Quarters or the library.

Draco found her pouring over an ancient scroll in the library.

He seated himself and pulled out some of his homework. He caught her glance in his direction.

“What are you doing, Malfoy?”

“Homework, of course. If you have to ask, I can only assume you haven’t done yours yet.”

“Of course, I’ve done mine!”

“Why the silly question then?”

“That’s not what- I didn’t- Ugh, you’re impossible.” She started rolling the scroll back, which took longer than usual considering the old age of the thing.

“What’re you reading, Granger?”

“As if you even care?”

“Just because your other imbecile friends don’t care what you study, don't make the mistake of comparing me to their low levels of intelligence. Now,” Draco turned in his chair to give her his full attention. “What were you reading, Granger?”

She narrowed her eyes and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. Draco had to fist his hands to keep from reaching forward to release it from her teeth. Her eyes darted between him and the scroll for half a minute before she let out a heavy exhale and unrolled the scroll again.

“Well, I’m looking into the effects of the moon cycle in lycanthropy. Teddy Lupin hasn’t shown any symptoms but Remus is still worried and I offered to help.” Her shoulders dropped and she stared at him, obviously awaiting a snarky retort.

“How old is he now?”

She opened her mouth before closing it again before she was able to answer.

“He just turned three this summer.”

Draco hummed as he thought about what he knew of lycanthropy. He shifted in his seat as he tried his best to remember the sparse things he knew of his estranged family.

"I've never heard of anyone passing lycanthropy down that way. Then again I'm no expert but," he hesitated and rubbed his chin for a moment. Granger studied him, waiting for him to finish his line of thinking.

"I remember coming across some old texts in the Manor library. I could have them sent here if you'd like?" He would bottle the way her eyes lit up at this simple suggestion. The way she positively beamed at him for the briefest of moments before she seemed to catch herself and who she was beaming at.

"Thank you, that would, thank you. that would be wonderful." She went back to roll the old scroll together again and avoided his eyes. 

"He is family, after all. Despite what my parents might believe." Draco rose from his seat after delivering this view. All his life he knew he had two aunts. One he had seen sparsely in his childhood before she was sentenced to life in Azkaban. Another he had never seen but knew lived happily with a husband and daughter. A cousin to Draco who now had a son of her own.

He shouldered his satchel and turned back to Granger.

"I'll let you know when I have them. We can look through them together?" It was an offer. 

Given her flat-out rejection of his proposal for them to go together to the Yule Ball, he knew he had to find another way to get close to her. This could be one. If she accepted his offer of help.

"All right." She finally said in a low voice. The tiny smile she sent him before she left kept him going through the day. Enough to smack Theo when he asked if Draco had a date for the Yule Ball yet.

🎄🎄🎄

It was a full week before the Malfoy owl swooped into the Great Hall with the scrolls Draco had asked his mother to send him. She had included a note and a small letter she wished he would forward to his aunt. Draco's heart clenched at his mother's request. 

He joined Granger in the library that afternoon and they went through the material and divided it between them. An hour passed of them reading quietly together like this. 

Except Draco had to read the same things twice because he kept stealing glances at Granger.

She, on the other hand, just read as studiously as always and chewed on her blasted sugar quill. Draco could tell it was one of the latest Christmas flavours from Honeydukes.

Two days later when they met, he brought a new box of sugar quills in a sugared almond flavour. He pushed the box across the table wordlessly.

Granger stared at it and raised an eyebrow at him.

"What's this?"

"Sugar quills."

"But… why?"

"They're your favourite, correct?"

"Yes," she looked down at the box and then up at him again. "How did you know that?"

"Anyone with eyes in their heads can see you chew on them constantly." He shrugged it off and returned his gaze to what he was supposed to be reading. 

He could feel her gaze on him for a little while before she returned to her reading. A moment later, there's a tear and she's torn into the box for a quill. Draco failed to hide his smug smile and received a soft shove on his shoulder for it.

🎄🎄🎄

"There's a full moon tonight." 

Her head snapped up and stared at him.

"Yes?"

"I had an idea since we've been reading so much about lycanthropy."

"Yes?"

"It requires a bit of rule-breaking. I know you Gryffindors aren't too fond of."

She snorted at this and Draco was surprised to find how much he liked the sound.

"Oh please," she waved him off and urged him to tell her what his idea was. 

After he'd told her, she had narrowed her eyes and stared at him some more before saying she would think about it.

Close to midnight that same night, Draco crept from the dungeons where he had snuck extra pillows and blankets to bring to the top of the Astronomy Tower. Once he reached the Tower, he unshrunk the pillows from his pockets and placed them along with the blankets side by side. Then he waited for Granger.

He didn't have to wait long before he heard the door but saw no one.

He had just settled back to watching the stars blink into view when there was a shift in the air beside him and suddenly Granger sat beside him.

"What the fuck?" He burst out and scrambled in his seat. Granger laughed and folded something back together.

"Where the hell did you come from?" 

"The Common Room," she shrugged and leaned back on the palm of her hands.

"Fucking hell, you know that's not what I meant."

"Why do you think Harry and Ron never get caught sneaking around the castle?"

"I always figured you helped their sorry arses."

"True. But this one helped a lot too." She lifted a corner of the fabric from before and Draco caught it shimmering in the moonlight.

"Is that?"

"It is. Now, why are we here?"

Draco scoffed and gestured for them to lie back down. She followed.

"To look at the moon, of course. And the stars, if you want?"

She turned her head. He did the same and they looked at each other for a moment. Both with hints of smiles playing around their mouths. She was the first to turn her attention back to the stars.

They lay there for a long while without saying a word. Draco kept turning his head from time to time to look at her.

"Why do you always look at me like that?"

"Like what?" He was looking at her again as she turned to look at him too.

"I don't know. Like," she bit her bottom lip again and Draco turned fully to his side, completely forgetting about the stars.

"Like what, Granger?" He lowered his voice and kept still, waiting.

"Like you're trying to solve a big mystery."

"What mystery would that be?"

"You tell me?"

"Maybe I'm just waiting for the right answer to appear."

She didn't say more. Just bit her lip again. This time Draco dared himself. He reached for that bottom lip and freed it from her teeth before running his thumb over it. He felt the inhale of breath that ran between her lips but didn't remove his thumb. Just kept brushing it across her bottom lip. 

She blinked slowly. 

Draco followed every minute change in her expression as he inched closer to her. When her lashes fluttered he pulled on every ounce of confidence and brushed his lips against her mouth. She let out a soft sigh. Draco pushed his mouth firmer to her lips. Feeling the shape of her mouth and how well it fit with his own. Feeling the softness of her full lips and the subtle taste of her toothpaste. He kept the kiss soft.

He barely pulled back. Only to give them both space to breathe.

"Go to the Yule Ball with me, Granger?"

She kept her eyes closed and he stole another soft kiss for a few seconds.

"Maybe," she whispered against his lips. 

Then she turned her head to the stars again and Draco was left to lick his lips to savour the taste of her on them for the rest of the night. They tasted like Christmas treats. He forgot why they were supposed to observe the moon.

🎄🎄🎄

Over the following weeks, the teachers and perhaps even the castle itself donned its complete Christmas regalia. Draco was accosted with tinsel and holly wherever he stepped and even had to dodge a pair of singing gnomes who had come from the kitchen with knicked bottles of something inebriating.

Every morning at breakfast, Theo would ask if he had his date ready for the Yule Ball. Every morning, Draco would whack Theo on the back of his head for being a nuisance.

"I'll take that as a 'no' then," Theo mused as he rubbed the back of his head.

"How many times have you asked her at this point?"

"It doesn't matter," Draco grumbled and reached for more toast. He buttered it angrily and sliced it even more angrily.

"And you still don't want me to ask her?" Theo waggled his eyebrows and Draco was half on his way to smack him again when a thought occurred to him.

Recently, she didn't flat out refuse him when he asked her pretty much every afternoon after they finished studying together. Either she smiled and shook her head without a word before she left or she whispered that soft 'Maybe' she had already let out atop the Astronomy Tower.

Draco had half a mind to sort out if it was him or the Ball, in general, she had no interest in. Balls and fancy things had never been much for Hermione Granger, at least from what he had observed of her over the years.

If Theo asked her and she refused him too, then Draco…. Well, he wasn't sure how he would feel.

"You know, give it a go. Still won't change our wager."

Theo's grin grew twice its size and he immediately straightened his spine to look for the curly head of Granger. Draco spotted her before Theo did.

As always, she sat with her idiot friends, Potter and Weasley and the Weasley girl. All of them chattering away over breakfast.

Theo snatched an apple before he sauntered over to the Gryffindor table.

Draco watched with feigned mild interest as he saw Granger's eyes widen when Theo proposed they go together. He watched her lips shape words he couldn't tell, but he recognised the look in her eyes. 

She was refusing him.

Draco couldn't keep the smirk off of his face.

That is until she turned and caught his eyes.

She looked at him in a way that told him she knew what he was doing.

Nice try, she seemed to tell him with her eyes, before she patted Theo on his arm and returned her attention to her friends and breakfast.

"I'm beginning to feel this wager might never come to anything. Weasley was just about to ask her to go too when I left." 

Draco's knife got stuck on the table at this piece of news. His eyes were glued to the back of Granger's head as he watched her curls dance around her shoulders. 

"Not to worry, mate, I'm pretty sure she was going to turn that tosser down too. Maybe she just doesn't want to have fun." Theo shrugged, reached for some porridge and put the matter out of his mind with the first spoonful of food.

Draco snatched a sugared cane and brought it with him to his next afternoon with Granger.

She accepted the candy without question this time and happily pulled the thing between her dainty lips. Draco licked his lips as she smiled at him. Her motions faltered.

From the way her eyes blinked just then, Draco was sure she was remembering their soft kisses from that night.

"You've turned Theo down. And Weasley and I assume Potter too. Those I understand, but why keep turning me down, Granger?"

"Because." She averted her gaze and tried to find the right pieces of parchment.

"Hermione, go to the Ball with me, please?"

She dropped her hands to the table, rolling the candy cane between two fingers before she looked up at him.

"You've never said please before. Always just demanded I go with you."

"You've always said no either way."

"The world doesn't work purely on your demands, Malfoy. Surely, you ought to know that after all these years of working your way to Head Boy." Hermione prodded the badge on his chest. Draco's reflexes had him catch her wrist before she could withdraw again.

"Is that what this is? Having me work for it? Work for you?" He leaned in closer, still holding her hand close to his chest.

"No, that's not… I didn't mean…. Malfoy," she sighed and dropped her gaze to where he held her hand. Her palm was flat on his chest now and he was sure she could feel the raging beat of his heart.

"Please, tell me what you meant. Or how I can earn you? Earn this?" He stroked his thumb along the back of her hand and she shuddered.

"I know we've fought over the years," she scoffed a laugh at this simple way of describing their academic rivalry through all of their school years. "But you can't deny the chemistry that's been slowly coming to life between us."

"I-"

"Hermione, the first time you beat my Arithmancy scores I dreamt about you." 

"You what?" She looked up at him, her eyes wide and brimming with something close to fear yet tinged with hope.

"That was the first night I dreamed about besting you." He smirked and held on tighter to her hand as he knew she would try to pull back. "But it was also the first night I dreamt about working with you." He shifted to the edge of his seat, inching himself closer to her as she continued to sit immobile.

"I started watching you. Trying to figure out how you always were so clever. How you always seemed to have the right answers right before I did. I never found that out."

"What did you find out?" Her whisper danced across his chin with how close they were sitting by then. He kept clutching her hand to his chest, willing her to feel the beat of his heart and how it called to her.

"I found out you love sugar quills. That you chew them into cinders when you get nervous or deep in thought. I noticed a small frown on your brow when you're trying to see reason in a difficult question. I found a softness to your shoulders when they aren't loaded down with books. But most interesting of all, I found a person I could easily fall for. Have fallen for." He pressed his lips to her mouth in a tentative gesture. Waiting for her response to either destroy his heart or mend it completely.

She let him kiss her for a moment before she whispered his name. Their foreheads found each other and she nodded silently.

"You can try asking me one more time," she said in the lowest of voices and Draco nearly surged for her mouth again. Instead, he pulled back and held her hand in a grand gesture to place a kiss on the back of it.

"Hermione Granger, would you like to accompany me to the Yule Ball next week?" 

He waited.

Her face turned into a soft smile as she locked her gaze on him.

"On one condition," she said confidently.

"Anything."

"Promise you won't hurt me?" Her fragility shone through her entire being in front of Draco. He never would have thought he should be able to find something so precious and rare in the stacks of the Hogwarts library. Yet here she was. Sitting right in front of him with hope shining in her dark eyes and fingers that shook in his grasp.

It was then he realised that Granger hadn't refused him because she didn't want to go. She had refused him because she wanted to go too much and was afraid to get hurt by him.

Draco dropped her hand to cup her cheeks in his hands instead as he leaned closer.

"I would rather feed the blast-ended skrewts for eternity than hurt you," he promised and was rewarded with her laugh. He savoured her laugh for a minute before he pulled her face to his and kissed her again.

However, this time it was not the soft press of lips to test the waters. This time it was a proper kiss that stole both their breaths.

Draco captured her mouth and sought to explore it as he would any new subject in classes. He kissed his way across her lips and found the curve in her mouth to memorise for later. He slid his tongue across that bottom lip she tended to pull between her teeth so often. She sighed against his mouth and then opened for him.

Draco found her tongue waiting for him as he sought it out. He deepened the kiss with fingers in curls at the back of her neck. He licked across her teeth and tongue and discovered how to elicit new sounds from Hermione Granger he had only heard in his dreams. She clutched his chest and shoulders as she kissed him back eagerly.

"This is a library!" The shrieking voice of Madam Pince broke their trance and they scrambled apart to gather their things. Madam Pince ushered them from the library with flaming cheeks but matching grins.

When Madam Pince slammed the doors behind them, Draco stepped up to Granger again to kiss her one last time.

"I suppose I have to find a dress," She hummed in a slightly bored tone. Draco chuckled.

"You can wear your uniform for all I care, Granger."

She laughed at this but swatted his chest before she took off and Draco was robbed of another chance to kiss her.

It was a good thing they lived in the Head Quarters together. He would have plenty of opportunities to kiss her later.

🎄🎄🎄

Draco did not have all the opportunities he would've liked to kiss Granger.

In the following week, leading up to the Ball, he hardly saw her in their living quarters. He assumed she spent her time with the rest of the Gryffindors and he hardly wanted to make a fool of himself by trying to get into their Common Room.

There was only one night in that week, where he could greet a tired Granger in their Head Common Room with a soft kiss and warm embrace. She accepted both and for half an hour before she practically fell asleep on top of him, they kissed languidly in a way that said they were both trying to learn more about the other in this way.

On the day of the Yule Ball, she kissed him too hurriedly before she left for their morning classes, saying she would be with Ginny the rest of the afternoon getting ready for the Ball.

When Draco waited outside the Great Hall like many others of the male student body from 6th year and up, he felt his nerves would overpower him.

Theo sauntered over with one of the Patil twins on his arm.

"Well done mate, congratulations. For a minute there, I didn't think you'd be able to pull it off."

"Sod off, Theo." Draco grumbled and for a moment, turned his back to where he knew Hermione would make her entrance.

"But you did it, you got her to go with you, so here, take your winnings." Theo offered a small sack of galleons that Draco glared at.

"You can ke-"

"I was just a wager?"

Draco whirled on the spot to a vision straight from his dreams. Because there she was in periwinkle robes that made her shine even brighter than she already did. Her hair was swept away from her face, which had been dusted lightly in simple makeup to highlight the beauty of her freckles and her eyes. Eyes that were glistening with tears as she looked at him.

"I told you one condition."

"Hermione, listen," He stepped forward to take her hand but she stumbled backwards to get away from him.

"You couldn't even keep that. No," She whirled on the spot and her eyes were no longer glistening. They were overflowing and trying to kill him at the same time.

"No," her voice wavered as she backtracked and tried to keep her balance.

"No." She said again when Draco tried to follow her.
"Hermione, listen to me, please."

"I said no!" She stormed away and Draco was left with a rendered heart. 

He turned to Theo who had the decency to look crestfallen.

"You fucking idiot, Theo."

"Go after her, then, tell her the truth."

"She fucking won't believe me after this," Draco ruffled his otherwise impeccably kept hair. Fuck. How had he ruined this wonderful thing already? 

A soft hand rested on his elbow.

"Tell her the truth, Malfoy. Force her to listen, if you have to. Hermione's heart may be strong in many things but not in this. She will need the most sincere truth from you. If that is what you want." The Patil twin with wide eyes implored him. Draco nodded as several things ran through his head.

"Go, for fuck's sake!" Theo almost shouted and then Draco tore through the corridors nearly knocking over Potter and the Weaslette as they descended the grand staircase.

Of course, she had warded their common room to keep him out.

"Hermione!" He pounded on the door and repeated her name. He heard things squeak and break behind the door coupled with bursts of bright light from underneath it.

"Hermione, please listen to me?!"

"GO AWAY!" She shouted through the door and Draco fell back a step. He hung his shoulder as he tried to think of what to say. They said he needed to be brutally honest with her.

Fuck.

This was going to hurt.

Even more so if it didn't work.

He knocked on the door one more time, calling her name softly as he dropped to his knees and rested his forehead against the door.

Then he started to speak.

"Yes, you were a wager. But one I only ventured in because I had already planned to ask you to the Ball. Hermione, I… The first time I noticed the shade of your eyes it was because you glared at me over a cauldron in Potions when I answered one of Slughorn's insane questions before you could. Since then, I've tried to get you to look at me again. To see just how much caramel your eyes hide from me.

I always try to argue with you in classes because it means I get your full attention for a brief time. Plus, it's fun to try and push to see how much it'll take for you to admit you're wrong. But it's even better when you get to gloat over being right, which is usually all the time. It means I get to see you smile.

Last year…. Last year was the first time I noticed how beautiful you are. When you get excited about an idea you get this glow around you. Or when you want to help someone you care about, like my cousin, Teddy. It warms my heart and melts the swaggering idiot I pretend to be when I see you care so much for people you've rarely met. Hermione, you have the biggest heart of everyone I know, and I… I never meant to break it. 

But seeing your face tonight, I know I have.

And I'm truly sorry.

It was the last thing I ever wanted.

All I wanted tonight was…. Was to dance with the prettiest girl I know. Maybe get to hold her hand. I dreamt about maybe stealing a kiss from you right in front of Potter's surprised face but the best part would still be just to kiss you.

Hermione I," Draco halted after this long stream of words as he struggled to find what else to say. What more was there to say?

"Hermione," Draco sighed and bit his lip. "The truth is, fuck, I can't believe I'm about to say this to a door." He banged his head lightly against the door right at the time so he didn't feel when Hermione dropped her wards.

"I started falling in love with you two years ago. I haven't stopped falling. I doubt I will. I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am for tonight. You've never been a wager to me. You… You're the grand prize." He fell back on his haunches and ran his hands through his hair as he whispered the last part to himself.

"And I guess I lost." 

The door clicked in front of him and then he looked up into her tear-streaked face. She held the door open with one hand and her wand in the other. He thanked the heavens that it wasn't pointed at him. What little amount of makeup she had worn earlier had been washed away by tears and what he assumed were her hands wiping her face continuously. Some of her hair had come undone but he didn't care.

Hermione looked down at him as her lips trembled. He watched her tighten her hold on her wand (and vaguely registered the tiny things in their Head common area she had blown to pieces).

"Really?" Her voice shook as her hands trembled. Draco saw fresh tears starting to make their way from her eyes and he wanted to leap up and wipe them from her. She held out a hand to stop him when she caught the motion. She didn't, however, point her wand at him.

"Is that the truth?" She asked, still holding her hand out to prevent him from getting near her.

"It is." He breathed and watched her lower her hand with a deep exhale. He watched her chest rise and fall with her heavy breathing. Waiting for her.

"Hermione, I'll do anything, please tell me what to do?" He sat on his knees on the floor waiting for her absolution because it was the only thing he felt necessary to keep on with. 

He watched her drop her arms to her sides and pull her bottom lip between her teeth. She wiped her eyes one more time before taking a deep breath.

"I suppose you can start by taking me to the ball." This time she held out her hand for him to take and he surged to his feet, even if he had to fight for a brief moment to regain his balance. He never let go of her hand.

Draco stepped closer and placed a hesitant palm on her damp cheek. His thumb ran over her smooth skin and her eyes fluttered.

"Are you sure?" He asked because he had to be sure. He couldn't handle it if she wasn't. She just nodded into his hand as more tears fell.

"Yes, I-" She broke off and closed her eyes as he pressed his palm into her cheek. She gasped when he rested his forehead on her.

"I think I might have been in love with you too, for a little while."

Draco didn't know what to say to this, so he didn't. Instead, he slowly leant down to find her soft lips and was welcomed with a taste of salty tears coating her mouth. He wrapped his arms around her waist and shoulder, holding her as close as possible while he kissed her fervently. Hermione's fingers dug into his shoulders and back as she kissed him back with more passion than she had done before. 

Draco licked her lips for any trace of her tears and kissed up her cheeks for any new tears that found a way past her eyes. Then he backtracked along her jaw until he found her mouth again and slipped his tongue between her wet lips. He commanded her mouth and explored her with every swirl of his tongue. Hermione kissed him in return as she let out tiny whimpers.

The only reason Draco relented and paused in familiarising himself with her mouth was so he could pull back and look at her. He cupped her face and spoke in earnest.

"I'm in love with you, Hermione Granger. Will you grant me the first dance of the night?" 

She nodded through her tears, which he now assumed were happy tears. He still kissed them off her face.

"And every dance after." She spoke against his mouth. Draco smiled and kissed her for a little while longer.

When they both caught their breath, Hermione wanted to go fix her makeup and hair. Draco just tugged her along with another kiss to her temple.

"You're perfect just as you are." 

He watched her blush more than ever, yet she kept dabbing at her eyes.

Some minutes later, when he pulled her to the dance floor, he paid no attention to anyone else in the room. He only had eyes for the slightly dishelleved witch before him. He spun her around and held her close when she twirled back to him with a radiant smile (He may have gloated a little at the stunned expressions on Potter and Weasley's faces).

In Hermione's smile, he began to see the beginning of a future he had only ever dreamed about as she twinkled beneath the sky and many Christmas ornaments.

But to Draco, she was the brightest star that Christmas.