The night of the yule ball. People were dancing, drinking, partying, and having the time of their lives. It was supposed to be an exciting event, and yet...
"...And here you are fraternizing with the enemy!" Ron yelled accusingly.
"The enemy? Was it not you who was fawning over him before he even arrived?" Hermione yelled back in frustration.
Ron Paused for a second. "Well.. that's different! I'm not trying to get into his pants!"
"What?!" How dare he! "He asked me to the dance! Not the other way around!" She shouted defensively.
"Sure. Like someone like Krum would ask you." He shouted back. "And the fact that you think that if you dressed like that, you could catch anyone's attention is mad!"
That made Hermione stop in her tracks. Tears were threatening to spill from her eyes. Her face was red with anger, and she was about to lose her mind.
Just then, Harry caught up to them. They were a little away from the entrance of the ballroom. Most were already in the room dancing, but there were still a few people leaning on the pillars, and their spat was starting to draw eyes.
"Harry! Can you believe.." She was cut off by Ron.
"Come on, Harry! Let's go; you wouldn't want to deal with her right now. She's acting mental!"
"Mental!?" She raged.
Harry took a look at Hermione's distressed look and sighed.
"I'll take Ron to the dorms now. We don't want to make a big scene." He said tiredly, not waiting for Hermione to respond.
Typical. He always sides with Ron, and I'm always the bad guy.
That was her final straw. The tears she was holding in came loose, and she was left alone standing while they walked away. She could hear Ron grumbling to Harry about her "attitude" and how difficult she was being.
She wanted to crawl into a ball and cry right then and there, but there were too many people around, and she knew they saw her. She grabbed the tails of her dress and ran out of the hall. She didn't know how long she ran for or what direction she went. All she was focused on was getting away from everyone and everything.
She ended up outside in an empty walkway. She dropped her dress tails and walked over to an old bench. That's when it happened. No longer were tears streaming out of her eyes. No. She was full-on crying. Ugly cry and all. Why was she alone? And why did this always happen to her?
She thought back to 3rd year when Ron accused Crooks of eating his rat, and both Harry and Ron stopped speaking to her; she thought back to when a mysterious broom was gifted to Harry, and she reported it, which led to Harry and Ron not speaking to her again. She thought back to all the times they sided against her and left her all alone.
Did they even like her?
Did they even care?
Were they even friends?
These thoughts only led Hermione to cry harder. She couldn't hear the footsteps that approached her over the sound of her wailing.
"Ron Weasley is an idiot." A voice sounded. She looked up.
There stood Draco Malfoy staring her down. They made eye contact, and Hermione was stunned into silence.
"The slow bloke doesn't have even half a brain." He snarked.
This brought Hermione back to reality. "Why are you here? Come to make fun of me, have you?" She started.
"Well, I hope it was funny. You can go now," She yelled angrily, tears starting to form once more.
He rolled his eyes.
"If I wanted to have a laugh, I would have stayed in the ballroom watching Weaselette and Longbottom dance."
He thought to himself for a second.
"It was quite funny, actually. Seeing them stumble around. They looked to have two left feet." He chucked meanly.
Hermione scoffed. She turned away from him and crossed her arms. "I'm not in the mood for listening to you bad-mouth my friends."
"Well, if they're your friends... where are they now?" He asked calmly.
Hermione went quiet. Part of the reason was that she didn't want to give him an answer, and the other part was that she knew if she tried speaking again, she'd start to cry.
They stayed there in silence, looking into the sky.
After a while, Hermione broke the silence. "Malfoy... what do you want? Right now, I'm not in the mood for your games. Please just leave me alone." Hermione said dejectedly.
Malfoy sighed and sat down next to her. Not too close, but just enough that if she looked to her left, she could examine his face.
"I simply don't understand why someone like you is crying over someone like Ron Weasley."
"Someone like me?" Hermione asked accusingly.
"Someone smart." Malfoy quipped back. "A person as smart as you should not be crying over someone as dumb as him." He replied. Hermione turned to look at him.
"Where's your date anyways?" He asked.
" So many people kept coming up to us to talk to him. I could see he was getting overwhelmed, and I just told him that we could leave. I told him to go ahead first while I said goodbye to my friends, but then..." She trailed off.
"Weaselbee dragged you off." He scoffed. Hermione glanced at him. "Yeah. I saw your little argument." He crossed his arms. "But who didn't? Weasel is always loud."
Hermione put her face in her hands and sighed dejectedly.
"Hey, Granger." He said suddenly.
"What, Malfoy?"
"You don't look half bad."
This brought a tired smile to her face.
"Well, at least someone isn't offended by my look tonight." She replied sadly. All that crying left Hermione tired. As they both sat there in silence, only the sound of the breeze was heard. Hermione's eyes slowly started to close. And whether it was the slight alcohol in the punch she drank or the fact that she might actually be going insane, she felt comfortable in Malfoy's silent presence. The last thing she remembered was a warm surface she rested her head against.
"He doesn't deserve you."
When she woke up the next day, she was lying down on the Gryffindor common room couch. She groaned and rubbed her head. Perhaps Fred and George put more than just "a little bit" of alcohol in the punch. She looked down, confused. She was wearing her gown, but the ends of it were muddy, and her face felt puffy. She sat up and looked around. It was still dark out, and no one was in the common room. She looked up at a clock that hung near the fireplace, and the time read '4:00'. It was early in the morning. She sighed and walked up to the girls' shower to change.
Once done, she quietly entered her dorm and saw her roommates, Lavander and Parvati, sleeping. She closed the door slowly and walked to her bed. She climbed in, closed her curtains, and laid down thinking. Why was she on the couch? What happened last night, and why was her dress muddy?
And it all came back to her.
She remembered what happened. The fight, the crying, and, more surprisingly, the kind Malfoy.
Malfoy hated her. That much she knew was true. Then why...why was he the one comforting her?
She was confused. And she rarely ever was. For the first time in forever, she didn't know what to do or how to proceed.
She tossed and turned, trying to make sense of the situation. She ended up falling asleep again halfway through her inner rant. She may not know why he did what he did, and she may never find out, but all she knew was she went to sleep with a slight smile on her face.