Hermione Granger slumped on the staircase, reaching down to ease the pain in her feet by taking off her high-heeled shoes. Lines of tear stains covered both of her cheeks and she took shaky breaths, trying to calm herself down.

Her night had been great at first as she danced with Viktor Krum and spoke to many of her friends. But when she had gone over to Harry and Ron to invite them to join in on the fun as they looked pretty gloomy, Ron just had to be an arrogant jerk.

She shook her head gently to stop herself thinking about what happened and instead looked around at who else was still there. Turning her head to look into the great hall, she could see Neville and Ginny still dancing together. They looked so happy.

"This is stupid." Hermione muttered, looping her fingers through the back straps of her shoes and standing up. Just as she was about to turn around and go back to the Gryffindor common room, she noticed Draco Malfoy standing next to a girl, a bright smile on his face as he spoke to her. "Even he's still happy." she mumbled, not noticing as a death glare appeared on her face and she continued to stare.

Draco Malfoy turned slightly, rolling his shoulders gently. He glanced around the room casually and noticed Granger standing on the stairs glaring at him. He frowned slightly, seeing the tear stains on her face. Then he raised an eyebrow and waved, smirking.

Hermione saw the gesture and narrowed her eyebrows, picking up the side of her dress with her free hand and turning around to go up the stairs. Draco broke away from his friends and his date, striding over to her quickly and putting a hand on her arm to make her stop.

"What do you want?" Hermione snapped, glaring at him over her shoulder.

"You're the one that glared at me first." Draco defended himself, folding his arms. Hermione slowly faced him, letting go of her dress so she could put her hand on her hip.

"I didn't make you retaliate." she said, lifting her chin an inch.

"The glare was the invitation, I simply accepted." Draco smirked, enjoying the direction this conversation was going. Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to leave. "Where are you going?"

"Away from you. My day has been bad enough already without you adding to it." she called back to him.

"What happened?" Draco kept the smirk on his face, trying to get information to tease her about. Hermione stopped walking up the steps again, turning to look down at him.

"What could have possessed you to think I would actually tell you?" she asked, a look of annoyed disbelief on her face. Draco shrugged, letting his arms fall to his sides.

"I've been told that it sometimes helps to tell someone about your problems." he explained casually.

"What, so it would help me to tell my enemy about my problems? Oh yeah, like it's going to be helpful giving you more things to tease me about." Hermione rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"Is that a 'I'm not going to tell you'?" Draco asked in amusement.

"Yes, as a matter of fact it is." Hermione slowly walked back down the steps to him, reached out, patted his hair in a patronising way and then went back up the stairs.

"You did not..." Draco's smirk had completely disappeared and in its place was a deadly death glare. As Hermione looked down at him she was sure she could see the fire shooting out of his eyes. Well, almost.

"This is the part where I run." Hermione smiled at him and hurried up the stairs, going around the corner and out of sight.