Chapter Eleven:

Once Hermione is at the gala, she makes sure to go around the room and have conversations with all the important wizards and witches whom she knows will make sizeable donations at this year's event. Just as she's wondering how much longer she'll be expected to stay, she feels a presence behind her and a warm familiar voice,

"You look absolutely incredible tonight Hermione."

Hermione turns around to see Theo Nott, standing there with two glasses of champagne. A slow blush burns up her cheeks as she thanks him and takes the drink offered to her.

"Hello Theo, you look quite nice tonight as well, and may I ask how you got an invitation to a ministry event?" She asks him with a sparkle in her eye.

"Ah, well, I guess you didn't hear but you're looking at the newest member of the Centaur Liaison Office here at the ministry." He tells her and she can tell that he is trying so hard to rein in his smile and appear modest.

"You're joking! Theo that's incredible!" She is beaming at him and his charade quickly fades, and he is soon grinning from ear to ear.

"Thanks Hermione, I'm pretty excited about it, it does mean I'll be moving back and leaving everything I've built in America, but I think I'll make more of a difference with this job and you know how I feel about that." He gives her a sheepish grin, and she thinks back on their conversation from lunch last week.

She knows exactly what he means so she decides to just reassure him, "you'll be a perfect addition here, I'm sure of it." He gives her his dimpled smile and she's even more convinced.

"Yes well, enough of my dull life, I saw you over here looking bored out your mind and thought I'd save you. Although I would have thought Draco would be with you, where's he at tonight? Couldn't manage a simple charity gala?" She internally grimaces, she knows he is saying it in jest and surely doesn't know the real reason he's not here.

"Um, no, we uh, we actually broke up a few days ago. So I honestly don't know where he is tonight." Well this conversation just became uncomfortable. And by the sudden change in Theo's demeanor she can tell he was not expecting that response.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that" he grabs another two champagne glasses from the passing waiter and hands her one, "here drink up, because tonight we're going to make sure you have some fun!" Hermione laughs and takes the drink, surprisingly looking forward to the night ahead.

The evening has gone better than she had planned, she has mostly stayed by Theo's side the entire time and he's always quick to make her laugh if he feels she's getting in her head. Towards the end of the night she excuses herself from a conversation with the Hungarian Minister who was boring her to tears. She doesn't want to make it seem as though she just wanted to get away from him so she decides to find the nearest loo. As she walks in she sees one of the last people she wanted to run into. Astoria Greengrass. Hermione must have made a noise upon seeing her there because before she can turn right back around Astoria locks eyes with her. But Hermione takes one look at Astoria and her snobbish attitude and decides she's going to turn and walk out the door anyway.

"Hermione wait…"

Her hand is on the door handle, but she pauses for a moment waiting for Astoria to continue.

"You know, Draco is madly in love with you" Hermione's heartbeat starts to quicken, "he was never like this when we were together, not even when we were engaged." Astoria tells her in what could only be described as envy.

"Yeah well, we broke up, so it doesn't really matter does it." At this she steps away from the door and turns to look at the stunning brunette.

Astoria hesitates but then continues, "look, I know Draco didn't tell you the entire reason he was with me that night, and I know he did that to protect me. I was with him that night because…because I thought I was pregnant." At this Hermione becomes a bit lightheaded. Fantastic, this is exactly what she needed to hear tonight. But Astoria persists, "don't worry, it wasn't Draco's, but the potential father was kind of a one off so I didn't know who to go to and I…I needed a friend. It wasn't fair of me to go to him after he made it clear he was moving on to you, but I've never liked feeling second best, and I think a small part of me knew Draco wouldn't be able to just throw me to the side if I really needed him."

The little bint, practically confessing that she knew what she was doing and wasn't respecting Draco's insistence for space. But another part of Hermione felt for the girl, a very small part of her. That would be a lot to go thru and she couldn't imagine not having a good friend to have at a time like that.

"This is my way of apologizing Hermione. Draco was nothing but a gentleman that night and I could tell he didn't really want to be there with me, he much rather would have been with you." At that Astoria walks over to Hermione and looks her square in the face, "I know you could probably care less what I think, but don't let him go, I can see he's different around you, he's better and I need to accept the fact that I want the best for him even if that's not with me."

At that Astoria walks past her and out the door.

Hermione's head is reeling. This is definitely information that would have been nice to know that night they were fighting, not that she really gave Draco the chance to explain himself. She feels like a terrible person and she wants nothing more than to talk to him right now. As she walks back out into the atrium where the event is happening, she sees Theo out of the corner of her eye walking up to her. She turns her head and gives him a small smile.

"Hey Granger, care for a dance?" It appears people have started dancing and she doesn't have it in her to turn him down, one dance and then she will go home.

"I'd love to." She takes his extended hand and they walk out onto the dance floor.

"Are you okay? You looked a little down when I found you." The look of concern on his face is enough to almost make her start crying, maybe agreeing to dance was a bad idea.

She looks up at him and gives him a small smile, "I'm good, just ran into Astoria and that was a conversation I didn't see coming."

"Ah, Storia, you know what we used to call her at Hogwarts? A Blast-Ended Skrewt, because she would blast your head off if you got on the wrong side of her." At that Hermione bursts out laughing, not sure if she believes the story but appreciates it none the less. She looks up at Theo with tears in her eyes from laughing so hard and is incredibly grateful for their friendship. At that same moment Theo looks down at her and it seems as though he is starting to get closer. Before she realizes what is happening, Theo is kissing her and her mind is immediately conflicted. On the one side Theo is great, she has such fun with him, and he's definitely a good kisser, but the other side is: he's not Draco and she knows that Draco is the one who holds her heart.

Hermione softly breaks the kiss and she knows it's clear on her face what she's thinking. At the same moment she catches a flash of blonde out of the corner of her eye and her head swivels so fast in that direction. There's Draco half-way across the room looking completely stricken. So he did decide to come to the gala after all.

She turns her attention back to Theo and sees that he had turned his head and saw what she saw as well and she knows what he's going to say before he even opens his mouth.

"It's always going to be him isn't it?" at that she lightly nods her head "well, can't say I didn't give it a shot. Go get your man Hermione, you deserve all the happiness."

Her heart is beating out of her chest at this point. She looks up at Theo with all the sincerity she can muster and gives him a small kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Theo."

And she runs off to catch up with a retreating Draco.

As she gets to the corridor that leads to the floo network she sees Draco's back a few steps ahead of her.

She calls out before he can walk away from her forever, "Draco –

At the sound of his name he stops but doesn't turn around yet, "break my heart, Granger, break my heart into a thousand pieces. Do whatever you want." At his declaration his shoulders slump in defeat.

"Draco, I love you. It's always been you."

He slowly turns around and she can see the war raging on inside but he slowly walks toward her and lifts her chin up so that she's looking right at him. "I love you too."

And then he's kissing her. Kissing her like he's never going to let her go ever again.

The End.

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Thank you to everyone who read my story! When I first started writing this, it was mainly for me because I love this book and I love Dramione so I desperately needed them to mesh together. But I thought maybe there were others out there that needed the same thing I did, so I posted it! Super scary. As you can see I pushed the two books together into this story. Maybe I'll write another one that revolves around the third book. :)