by Cali
 
 
 

Valentines ball.
For some girls, heaven. A chance to dance, have fun, get a boyfriend.
For Hermione Granger; the annual humiliation.
She sighed, and crossed her legs.
Why did she have to be a wallflower?
Even Millicent Bullstrode had a date.
Maybe it was because what she was wearing?
Dressrobes never were her style, but come on, did all the boys at Hogwarts have something against muggle
dresses?
She looked out at the dance floor.
Harry was dancing with Mandy Brocklehurst, a Ravenclaw.
Only inches away, Lavender leaned her head against Ron’s chest. Ron rolled his eyes and flinched. He hated
dancing.
Everywhere, people was dancing. Hufflepuffs, Rawenclaws, Gryffindors and Slytherins.
She couldn’t take it anymore.
She stood up, and walked out of the hall, walked out of the castle.
Outside the castle wasn’t much better.
People were snogging and snuggling all over the lawn.
The only place that seemed unattended, was the great rocks down by the lake.

She sat down.
The mirrored lake showed her her reflection.
A normal girl.
The hair might be a tad bushy, but the rest of her was okay.
Then, footsteps.
She turned, and groaned.
"Do you have to come here? It’s bad enough having to share the Heads bathroom with you, let alone having to
share my loneliness with you!"
He snickered.
"The shores of the lake are flooded and wet."
"Then why don’t you just sit down there and get wet?"
"Oh, shut up, Mudblod."
It wasn’t the word itself that stung.
She had gotten used to it.
But it was just to much for her to take right now.
Her face red with anger and fury, tears in her eyes, she turned at him.
"Malfoy, if you’re so damn smart that you were made Head Boy, how come you’ve used the same insult for
7 years in a row?" she spat out.
"The other things I could say to you would make you slap me."
"Why do you have such an attitude problem? Have I ever done anything against you?"
He thought about it for a second.
"No, but it would be so much easier to love you if you were tall, blonde and had big breasts."
"Well, if you like Lavender so much, why don’t you just MARRY her!"
This made him shut up.
For a minute.
"Why are you down here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be up there with Potter and Weasel?"
She pursed her lips.
"They are dancing with their dates."
"Big surprise," Draco snickered. "Dancing with their dates, like they always do."
"What do you mean, ‘like they always do’" Hermione asked.
"Well, come on Granger. Every day when it’s school, they hang with you. But as soon as it comes to dances,
they run off, desperate to find a date. I mean, Potter went with Brocklehurst, for God’s sake!"
"So?"
"Have it ever occurred to you that they might be using you?" he said, his voice poisonous.
Hermione bit her lip and cursed inside.
Malfoy had just said what she sometimes thought.
"If you don’t shut up, Malfoy, I have no problem kicking your pale, pure-blooded ass off this rock," she said
through gritted teeth.
"Oh, I am SO scared."
"Well, what about your little girlfriend, Pansy? Why aren’t you dancing with her?"
"Because she is ugly, stupid and foolish."
"Well, that would make it two of you!" Hermione snapped.

She stared out at the squib, which currently was eating a- skrewt?
She looked at him, and she could see him snicker through the darkness.
He leaned over, and whispered into her ear:
"That’s quite a tongue you’ve got there, Granger. I’m surprised that your parents would let you play with such
a sharp thing."
Now, she became really angry. She turned, and looked right into his eerie, silver eyes.
"If you’re so much better at handling sharp things, why don’t YOU play with it?"
As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she realised that she had made a mistake.
"You don’t have to ask me twice," he said.
Then, he leaned forward and kissed her.

Maybe it was her loneliness, her hormones or the butterbeer she had had earlier that night, but she didn’t make
him stop.
It was like something she never had felt before. Fireworks and stars before her eyes, and phoenix song in her ears.
His tongue in her mouth, her hands in his hair.
They broke apart.
He cursed softly into the midnight air.
She didn’t meet his eyes, just stood up.
"Thank you, Malfoy." she muttered.
He looked up at her, his face confused, his eyes concerned.
"Thank you for not letting me graduate from Hogwarts unkissed."
And with that, she turned on her heel, and walked back to the castle.
He didn’t try to stop her, and she was glad.
It was probably better this way.