At the Ball

Draco Malfoy stepped into the large ball room gracefully. He walked, talked, dressed, and looked like a pureblood should. His tuxedo was form fitting and elegant, his white hair slicked back artfully, and his bow tie tight around his neck. The only thing he was missing was a date. Pansy Parkinson was supposed to be accompanying him tonight, however they got in a bit of a row a few hours beforehand. Actually, a bit of a row was an understatement, the final words he said to her were something along the lines of, "I never want to see you again." Now Draco was forced to attend the annual "End of the War Anniversary Ball" Alone.

He hated these silly ministry parties, every year since the war had ended (which was only two), they had been celebrating the anniversary of the final battle. It really was a pointless function for ministry workers and war heroes. Draco, of course, had a job as an Auror for the Ministry. He turned his life around shortly after the final battle and never looked back. He got a job at the ministry and spent most of his time helping the war relief cause by infiltrating the remaining death eaters who weren't in Azkaban.

"Mr. Malfoy! So wonderful to see you!" A familiar blonde in a silver gown greeted him.

"Hello Maria, it's nice to see you as well." He greeted her back. Maria was a secretary at the Ministry, and for some reason she had recently become very affectionate for Draco. He couldn't stand her, she was far too enthusiastic and loud.

Draco quickly made a lame excuse and escaped the young witch. He continued his proud walk over to where he saw some Auror friends talking by the bar. They greeted him and he joined in on a very interesting conversation about Quittich. After about a half hour of this talk, he was bored, and decided to step outside for some well- needed air.

The stairs outside were empty, except for one person, a young lady sitting on the stairs. Her head was in her hands, and her body was slightly shaking. Draco realized that she was crying, and was about to leave her alone, but then her recognized her. She was unmistakable now, he knew that curly brown hair anywhere.

"Granger? Are you okay?" He asked, stepping closer to her.

She looked up at him with a surprised expression. "Oh, Draco, you surprised me." She said, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "I'm fine, I was just getting some air."

"You don't look fine." he said, sitting down next to her now. Draco and Hermione worked fairly close in the ministry. Hermione did research for the ministry, mostly on death eater affairs. So you can see where their jobs overlapped. Over their time working together, they had brief conversations, sometimes they even ate lunch together. Yes, it could be called a friendship.

"What's wrong?" He asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Ron." She only said that one word, but Draco understood immediately.

"That Weasley boy is just a git." He said, trying his best to comfort her.

"Yeah, we broke up." She said quietly.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He wondered if he had said too much.

"No, I've been expecting this for a long time, I just didn't expect him to dump me."

"You don't need him."

"Yeah, it's just hard to come to these things without a date." She said sadly. "Hey, speaking of dates, where's Pansy?"

"Oh, we're over." Draco said with the same face she had displayed earlier.

"Sorry."

"I'm happy to be done with her." He smiled slightly.

Hermione nodded and they sat in silence, staring up at the night sky. She seemed very deep in thought. Draco knew that this occasionally happened to her. One or two times before, Draco had caught her in her office staring off into space, contemplating the universe or something. "You know what I think?" She asked him.

"What?"

"I think that if everybody sat outside and looked at the starts every night, the world would be very different." She said this with a straight face, submerged in thought as she looked up at the little specks of light freckled across the black abyss.

Draco smiled and looked up with her. It was times like these when he just wanted to be with Hermione, he loved listening to her saying things like this. After several minutes staring upwards, Draco looked over to Hermione and noticed that the tears had stopped and she seemed calm.

"Well, since we're both alone tonight, how about a dance?" He asked, listening to the faint music coming from inside.

Hermione smiled. "Sounds good."

Draco helped her up, and when he saw her standing, he really got a good look at her. She looked stunning. She wore a deep purple dress and her hair was elegantly curled, when she smiled at him, he could feel his heart ache a little. Since when had he felt this way for her? He didn't remember these feelings ever coming up before, but now they were strong and powerful.

"You look beautiful tonight. Weasley really messed up letting you go." He said while putting his hand on the small of her back, leading her inside.

When they entered the ball room, the music was clearly audible. It was an elegant waltz, couples were scattered around the dance floor. Draco lead Hermione into the center of the room where he placed one hand on her waist and held her hand in the other. He whisked her away, dancing with the music and swaying around the room. Draco knew he was a good dancer, being a Malfoy meant many years of lessons. That was one thing he could thank his parents for.

Draco stared into her eyes for what seemed like forever. She was looking at him as well, their eyes were glued to each other. If asked to, Draco couldn't have explained the happiness he was feeling at that moment. The months prior held nothing but sadness for him, except for a few light spots where Hermione came in. It seemed that up to this night, Draco had never realized how much he cared for the bushy haired witch currently in his arms.

Hermione suddenly leaned her head down, and rested it on his shoulder. "You smell good." She said absentmindedly.

Draco chuckled. "You smell better." he said when he got a whiff of her hair. She smelled like…watermelon. He decided that he loved the smell of her.

"Draco, why are you doing this?" Hermione asked.

"Doing what?"

"You know, talking to me outside, sitting with me, dancing with me now." She looked up at him with worried eyes.

"Well, maybe I just…care for you. A little more than I should." He suddenly felt as if he had revealed his deepest darkest secret. But it didn't matter, because this girl suddenly felt like his best friend in the world.

Hermione smiled up at him. "I think I feel exactly the same way."

Draco let out a breath. He found himself lost in her eyes, they held so much. So much beauty, so many stories, so much bravery, so much love, and so much intelligence. He felt an incredible urge to do something he knew he shouldn't do. But he acted on that urge, leaning down slowly, giving her time to pull away. When she didn't pull away, he captured her lips with his. It was a gentle kiss, he kissed her softly and kindly. She responded by kissing back the same way. When he broke off the kiss she was smiling brilliantly. It made his heart warm up to know that he cause that smile.

She returned her head to his shoulder, and he inhaled her scent once again. They continued dancing for the rest of the night, now wanting to let go of each other. Only hoping to dance forever.

A/N: Hey readers! So this is my first Hermione/Draco story. And yes, it's a one-shot. I hope you like it! Please, please, please review. I, just as much as any author love reviews dearly.