Just a Dramione one shot I couldn't get out of my head. I might make it into a story if enough people like it. All Pansy lovers, stay away. I know, I love her too, but for the purposes of this story, she's annoying.
Takes place during 6th year, and I'm pretending there's a yule ball then, because I CAN. So basically Harry and Ginny are off in superloverparadise land together and Ron's snogging Lav Lav and so Hermione is all ANGSTNOONELOVESME. And so our story beings. (:

ps- Anything you recognize isn't mine. (duh)
xxx

"It's only eight o'clock Draco!" giggled Pansy Parkinson seductively. "I'm sure you can wait another hour or two!" Hermione groaned. Harry was with Ginny, she had lost Ron forever, and now she had to listen to Draco and Pansy do who-knows-what in what used to be a deserted corridor. Needless to say, this year's Yule ball was not exactly going as planned. She could hear their footsteps as they came closer to the empty classroom she was in, Pansy's heels clicking on the concrete.

"This can't wait." said Draco flatly. Hermione wiped her tears on her sleeve and snuck towards the door, hoping she could get out of earshot before they did anything really dirty. She peered through the dusty glass to see if she could possibly creep out without them seeing, but they were standing together only a few doors down from where she was, making escape impossible.

"We need to talk Pansy."

"Can't we talk later?" Hermione heard her whine, sticking out her lip and leaning on the tall pale boy.

"You are driving me completely insane." He said to her, backing up a step.

"I know..." She purred, stepping towards him and placing his hands on her chest. Hermione watched, disgusted. How anyone could stand that girl, she had no idea.

"I'm serious Pansy!" He said, pushing her away from him. "That is exactly what I'm talking about!"

"If you're not in the mood tonight, that's ok, but why did you go with me to the Yule Ball?" She asked incredulously, her bottom lip trembling.

"I didn't want to go with you! You're the one who dragged me here!" He said, fury creeping into his voice.

"Draco!" She said, moving to put her arms around him again. "You don't mean that! We can just go back inside the dance, and pretend this never happened."

"No. It's over. I'm tired of you clinging onto my arm everywhere I go, and simpering over me like you're my mum, and how I have to do all of your homework for you 'cause you're too much of a dumb ass to do it yourself..." He trailed off, leaving Pansy in what seemed to be a state of complete shock. She stared at Draco with her mouth open, as if she were truly at a loss for words. Hermione watched enthralled, as Pansy's dark eyes hardened and she stumbled backward as it finally got through her thick skull what was happening.

"You'll be sorry Draco Malfoy. I'm going to make you so sorry." She said dangerously, reaching down to pull a heel off of her foot. Pansy swung her arm back and hurled the strappy pink shoe at him before hitching up her pink frilly mess of a dress and running down the corridor, leaving the other shoe in her wake.

Draco dodged the projectile easily and whirled around. He strode toward the door Hermione was hiding behind, causing her to scurry into one of the dark corners. 'Guess I'm not the only one getting my heart broken tonight.' She thought to herself, causing a new waterfall of salty tears to coarse down her cheeks.

The door slammed open and Draco walked in muttering darkly to himself. He stopped in a patch of silvery moonlight, which glimmered off of his white-blond hair and made his pointed face look even gaunter than usual. He wasn't unattractive, Hermione conceded, though evidently looks weren't everything.

Suddenly, he swung his fist back and punched a globe sitting on the desk, causing it to ricochet off and hit the wall with a crash. Hermione yelped, then slapped her hand over her mouth, hoping he hadn't heard it.

"What was that?" He asked, whipping out his wand. "Lumos." The room was flooded with blue light, and she cringed as Draco's eyes found hers. "Get out." he said coldly. "Now."

She sniffed wiping her eyes. "No. I wont leave. I was here first."

"At least stop crying." He said with a scowl. "You have no right."

"What do you mean I have no right?" Hermione practically screeched. "Ron has made it completely clear he wants nothing to do with me, everyone thinks I'm a stupid mudblood, and my best friend is too caught up in Ginny to care about me and-" Hermione suddenly realized who she was taking to, and clammed up immediately.

"Oh how sad. You have it good. You're the best in the class, you're beautiful, your parents love you... You're part of the Golden Trio for god's sake!"

"Well I'd sure like to hear what gives you the right to smash up a globe and then kick me out! Did the Slytherin prince break a nail? I thought you were happy to be rid of Pansy!"

"You really want to know why I have more right to be moping around here than you do?" He asked, glaring at her menacingly. "Have you ever had to perform deeds for the Dark Lord? Do your parents believe that the Cruciatus curse is an appropriate form of punishment? Do you have to avoid your common room as to not be raped by Pansy Parkinson even though you've broken up with her seven times?"

Draco knew he should have stopped talking long ago and just hexed the mudblood until she left. He also knew that he didn't want to stop, the words that he had never dared to speak pouring out of his mouth. He couldn't stop, his deepest secrets begging to be let out. "Do you have a Dark Mark you don't even want on your arm? Has the Dark Lord threatened to kill you and your family if you don't kill Dumbledore, even though everyone knows you're going to die if you try?"

His words hung in the air between then, and the silence was almost tangible. Draco sank to the floor and put his face into his hands, as if he had nothing left to hold himself up with.

Hermione felt her heart go out to the blond boy, and she slowly got up and walked over to him. "Draco?" she whispered, sitting down next to him. "I'm sorry."

"Save it. I don't want your pity." He said, his voice devoid of all emotion.

Hermione didn't know what to do. Half of her ached to throw her arms around Draco. He looked so forlorn sitting on the floor next to her, his usual smugness nowhere to be found. The other part of her was afraid he would push her away for being a muggleborn. Besides, six years of teasing at the hands of him and his band of Slytherins didn't just go away.

So she just sat next to him, listening the faint strains of music coming from the great hall where the rest of the school was happily dancing the night away.

He raised his head to look at her, his gray eyes huge and slightly wet. Draco Malfoy, crying? Hermione could barely believe her eyes.

"You're still here." he said softly. It wasn't an accusation, only a statement of fact, as if he couldn't quite believe she hadn't left him in the empty classroom.

"Yes." She replied, the tears on her face mirroring his own. Hermione slowly leaned over to Draco and tentatively wrapped her arms around him. He stiffened for a few moments, before disentangling his own arms and wrapping them around her.

"Don't touch me you stupid mudblood." He whispered, pulling her closer to his chest.

The logical part of Hermione was screaming to let go of Draco and run away as fast as she could, but she tuned it out. There would be plenty of time for running away later, and she couldn't bring herself to let go just yet.

She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in his dress robes, listening to his hearbeat, in an effort to forget the earlier events of that night.

He was warm through the thin fabric of his dress shirt, impossibly warm. She placed her head gently on his shoulder, closing her eyes against the silver moonlight.

The logical part of Draco's brain was having thoughts similar to that of Hermione's. He shuddered slightly imagining his father's disbelief and fury if he ever found out that Draco had even come in such close contact with a mudblood. He shook the thought from his head and rested his chin on her shoulder. He could feel her heartbeat through his shirt and he concentrated on it's steady pulse as the two sat together on the cool floor.

Her hair smelled nice, he noticed, like flowers. Pansy had always doused herself in enormous amounts of vanilla perfume, but this was different, better somehow. He wanted to bottle it up so he'd have it forever.

They stayed in that position for a long time, each drowned in their own miseries, when Draco finally pulled away and stood up.

"Come on. I'm going to bed." He helped her up as well, and they walked slowly down the hall, neither speaking. The Yule Ball wouldn't end for another hour of so, and the winding passages of Hogwarts were deserted.

"Night Granger." He said with a small smile as they reached the place where theirs paths split. She realized she'd never actually seen him smile sincerely before. It was a definite improvement.

"Night Malfoy." she replied, smiling back. Even after tonight he was still Mafoy, and she was still Granger. Some things would never change.

She felt as if her legs were made of lead as she trudged up the stairs, heels in hand. Suddenly a thought struck her and she stopped dead. He said I was beautiful. Draco Malfoy said I was beautiful. Hermione whirled, and looked down the staircase. The Slytherin boy was already gone.

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