Draco was waiting for her at the entrance to the Great Hall. She had Parvati go and make sure that Ron was not in the Common Room before she left. She wanted Ron to see her slow dancing with Draco on the dance floor first. Draco's first look was of complete astonishment. She admitted, she did look very fancy. He was wearing robes of green velvet with silver trim, a gift which he had told her, was from his father. They entered the Great Hall and waiting were Ron with Lavendar in robes of navy blue and Harry with Ginny in robes of emerald green. Ron turned quickly upon hearing the doors open and his mouth slowly dropped.
"Nice look, Ron. I hope you do know you are drooling all over the carpet." Hermione said with a laugh in her voice.
"Shall we dance, Herm?" said Draco in his showy voice.
Hermione nodded her head, waved in parting, and allowed Draco to lead her on the floor. She could not help looking back at Ron, who was still looking quite shell-shocked, in spite of Harry poking him in the arm. The last view she had of Ron was when Harry was dragging him out the doors of the Great Hall.
She danced, but she didn't feel right being held tight in Draco's strong arms. There was definetely something missing, but she couldn't put her finger on what. After dinner of filet mignon, they went back to the dance floor, but this time, Hermione could feel Ron's eyes upon her.
"Can I cut in?" came Harry's grovely voice.
"Of course, Potter." came Malfoy's response.
Harry led her off in a waltz in a corner where they could not be overheard.
"Come of it, Hermione. You are absolutely tearing Ron in half, and you're enjoying it too! Please, just go talk to him. He refuses to come back in the Hall, he's sitting either outside the doors or in the Common Room."
Hermione had not actually meant to hurt Ron, just to force him to reveal his feelings. But if he was hurt. . .perhaps that was revealing his feelings. It did seem to her like he was insanely jealous of the looks and kisses she had been giving Draco in the last month. She had to find Ron.
"Draco, I need to find Ron. I may be back tonight, or I may not. But I want to thank you for your help. It was most beneficial."
Draco gave her a kiss on the cheek and sent her off in search of Ron.
He was sitting right outside the door to the dormitory.
"Ron! What are you doing, sitting out here in the cold? You're going to catch pneumonia!"
"What do you care? You've got your precious Draco to worry about!" Ron's voice sounded like he had been crying, and when he turned his face towards the moonlight, there were little crevices along his face that were shiny from tears.
"Ronald Weasley! I care about you! I care a lot about you! And if you were half a person, you could see that! But if you're going to just let what's staring you in the face go, then you deserve to be alone!" Hermione was definately crying now. She was crying so much she could barely make the password recognizable. "N-n-nimbus-s-s- T-t-t-two-t-t-thousand-d-d." she finally managed to utter. The portrait swung forward and she hurried in before she lost it completely.
She knew what she had to do. She hurried upstairs to her dormitory, fetched her journal, and shut herself up in her room.
"What was I thinking?" she wrote. "I've hurt him so badly, I don't think me or Harry will ever be able to repair the damage. He'll never forgive me. My brilliant plan suddenly doesn't seem so brilliant anymore."