A Different Ball

Part Three

The next day, Hermione seemed to be floating. She glowed in a way no-one had seen since their first year when she had first arrived at Hogwarts. "What's up with her?" Harry muttered to Ron, after Hermione had wandered into Potions, sat in front of them and not immediately berated them for doodling and playing Exploding Snap. But Ron didn't answer. He'd been like this since the Ball, when he'd taken Hermione into the gardens to 'talk to her' about how her date was going, and come back in a bad mood and Hermione-less. Harry assumed that they'd argued and made up, which would explain why Hermione was acting weird, but it didn't explain Ron's bad mood. When he didn't get a response, Harry nudged Ron.

"What did you say?" he asked.

Harry sighed and repeated. "I don't know, ask her." Ron replied, and turned back to Seamus, who was explaining about how to turn water into rum. Harry rolled his eyes, and went to ask Hermione, but stopped short when he heard Ron mutter under his breath "Why don't you ask the bloody ferret. He'll know." Confused, Harry turned to ask him what he'd said, but didn't get the chance, because Snape swept into the room, yelled their instructions and glared at them as if to say 'Don't try me'. Harry resolved to talk to both of them after class.

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Hermione felt like nothing could ruin her day. That was until she had to go to the ingredients cupboard and run into Dra-Malfoy and Pansy. She ducked her head to avoid looking at either of them, as she could feel herself blushing, and began collecting her ingredients. She was looking for the last thing – Indigo Rose Petals- when she realised they were behind Malfoy. Cursing her luck, she swallowed and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, looked at her and smirked.

"Yes Granger?"

"Could you move, I need that" She said as confidently as she could and pointed to the jar of petals. She could feel herself turning red but tried to mask it as irritation. His smirk grew. "Pansy, take all this back to the desk", he said around the door, "I just need to grab something." He waited a couple of seconds before turning back to the shelf and continuing to get whatever he was looking for. She stared at him and said "Could you move, I need that jar". He looked at her over his shoulder and said "Oh, you mean this jar?" and grabbed it off the shelf.

"Yes, that jar."

"What do I get if I give you it. I mean, I was also intending to use them."

"The knowledge that you aren't a complete douche?"

"Not gonna cut it, I'm afraid."

"Well, what do you want, cos clearly you'll reject everything I offer."

He chuckled, leant close to her ear and murmured "Meet me at the Astronomy Tower and 9."

"Why? Gonna push me over the edge?"

"Touché, Granger, touché" he smirked. He began to walk away, and she stared after him, before realising she didn't have the damn petals. The ferret was gonna make her go after him. She stalked over to his desk, grabbed a handful of petals, smiled sarcastically, and walked back over to her desk.

"Hermione, are you- "
"Don't. Say. A. Word."

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Malfoy was very pleased with himself. In two days, he'd managed to banter with, dance with, argue with, embarrass, and get a date (albeit an unofficial one) with Granger. He walked to the Slytherin dorms, with a smug smirk on his face. As he stepped into the Common Room, Pansy latched onto his arm and attempted to talk him into going to the dorm for some 'them-time'. He grimaced and said "No thanks, Pansy. Anyway, I wouldn't have time. I've got a... date." Pansy gaped at him, before bursting into tears.

"YOU'RE CHEATING ON ME?!" He sighed.

"Pansy, dear, we were never dating."

"Whatever, I'm too good for you anyway."

"Whatever you say, Pansy, whatever you say."

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A/N:

Hey guys, sorry the ending of this Part was a bit abrupt but i couldn't think of another way to end it without using bits from Part Four, which i didn't want to do.

Comment, review, vote or just be a silent reader. that's cool too.