Born The Day You Kissed Me

Lyrics by Rascal Flatts

The Gown

Pansy stormed through the corridors under Blaise's invisibility cloak. She'd seen everything...she knew everything. From bloody Granger finding him, to all of his confessions of not wanting to be like his father, their steamy snog against the walls of her filthy muggle house...damn him!

She threw off the cloak, suddenly not caring that she came out of nowhere to some second year Slytherins who were also on their way to the common room. There stared at her strangely until they caught eye of the cloak.

Thankfully, they were silent for Pansy thought she'd have cursed them if they started asking questions.

"Snakeskin!" Pansy shouted at the portrait. Her mind was racing as she stomped up the stairs to her dorm. She willed tears of anger and frustration to not spill over her eye before she made it to her room.

"Why?" she cried as she flopped herself down. "How could he?!"

She threw one of her pillows hard against the wall, and then wiped her tears in fury.

Pansy sighed loudly before she walked to her desk and took out some parchment and a quill. She had to do something...anything to--punish Draco. The worst thing she could think of at the moment was letting his father know about his...change of attitude. She got out Lucius' old letter and read it over, then straightened out the parchment as she began.

Dear Mister Malfoy,

Hello, this is Pansy Parkinson. I apologize that Draco has failed to return your letter, and mean no offense by responding myself. In fact, I mean to help you. Draco never read your letter for he was careless and left it behind at breakfast one morning. You see, Draco's priorities have been skewed as of late. I am sure it will alarm you to hear that your son spends every waking moment with the Mudblood. His unfortunate promiscuity is disturbing me as well.

Mister Malfoy, I am aware of the plan you and Draco had for the Mudblood over the winter break. Draco did not tell me this; I have my sources here at Hogwarts. Considering that Draco will probably not cooperate with you given his new outlook concerning the Mudblood, I am writing to offer my services as the inside assistance you need here at Hogwarts.

I will not disappoint you, and I look forward to receiving any role I can to assist you and your company.

Pansy Parkinson

* * *

Saturday arrived quickly, and everyone was excited to go to Hogsmeade to choose their costume for the Valentine's Day Ball.

"I saw some red dress robes the last time we were there that I am dying to get my hands on!" Ginny gushed to Hermione as they walked to Hogsmeade. "What about you?"

"I have no idea, but Draco wants me to get my costume with him today," Hermione said as she stepped carefully through the snow.

"He asked you to the ball?"

"No, McGonagall said we had to attend together," Hermione explained.

"Ohhh," Ginny said a bit sarcastically.

"Who are you going with Gin?"

"Harry," she said simply.

Hermione smiled at the younger witch, who gave her a wink. They laughed, and continued on their way to Hogsmeade.

As they walked through the entrance of Hogsmeade, Hermione felt a tap on her shoulder. She spun around to find Malfoy leaning against a wall.

"Hello," she said as her friends stopped behind her.

"Potter, Weasley, Weasley," Draco said with a nod.

"Malfoy," Harry and Ginny said back. Ron was standing there with his mouth gaping opened.

"You know, usually when someone greets you, you respond back. Or perhaps you didn't learn that as a child--" Draco started but was cut off at Hermione's warning look.

"Hermione, did Malfoy just greet us?" Ron whispered to her, ignoring Malfoy's comment.

"Yes, he did, and you're being very rude by not greeting him back," she said crossly.

"Right," he said with a nod in Malfoy's direction.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron. "I promised to get my robes with Malfoy, so I'll meet you guys later in the three broomsticks, okay?" Hermione said to her friends.

They nodded and resumed walking, Ron throwing her a fleeting glance as he left.

"Right, this way," Draco said. Hermione followed as he pushed off the wall and began to briskly walk through the snow.

"Aren't we going to Gladrags Wizardwear?" Hermione questioned when he kept walking past the entrance to the robe shop.

"No, I already have something on reserve for us at Monsieur Malvice's," he said motioning for her to follow.

"Where?"

"Monsieur Malvice's," he repeated.

"I've never even heard of that shop," she said uncertainly. "Is it forbidden for students?"

"No, why would it be?"

"Well it must be past the Hogs Head if I haven't heard of it before."

"It is rather expensive; I suppose most students don't go there. They stick with Gladrags," he said turning a corner.

"Wait, did you say you had something on reserve? How did you do that?"

He turned to smile at her. "You ask a lot of questions," he replied.

She began to retort but forgot what she was going to say as he began to walk up to the door of Monsieur Malvice's Robeshop.

As they entered, all eyes were drawn in their direction. The shop was surprisingly busy, and Hermione felt like something was amiss. "There aren't any girls in here," she realized as they zigzagged around a porcelain statue. As they walked along the pathway, Hermione could feel eyes digging into her. She also noticed that there seemed to only be male dress robes in this shop. "Draco, uhh--it doesn't seem like there is anything...suitable for me to wear in this shop."

"There will be; I requested a favor," he replied. They made their way through some more traditional looking dress robes until they came to the front desk where a short graying man stood.

"Ahh, Monsieur Malfoy! Come, come! Follow me s'il vous plaît," he said in a jolly voice.

Hermione looked over her shoulder, still feeling eyes following her every move. The boys looked away at her glare. She didn't recognize any of them, except two of the boys who were wearing Hogwarts robes.

She caught up to Draco, a little taken back from the fact that she was the only girl there. "I just don't understand why we couldn't go to Gladrags, I mean there are some very nice costumes there--"

She stopped talking altogether when Malvice held up a gown for her to see. Her jaw dropped. She was completely silent for a moment as speechlessness bombarded her. He handed the dress to Draco along with his robes and went to help another customer.

"Draco," she finally whispered. She hesitantly raised her hand out over the material and blinked furiously. "Draco...this is exquisite."

He placed the hanger into her stunned hands, pleased with her reaction.

The dress was white lace...no, it was see through white lace, but was lacier in a few areas as not to be too indecent. The lace was a flowery pattern with little blue gems imbedded in the middle of the flowers and along the leaves to give the tiniest hint of color.

It was strapless and dove down in the middle to form a shapely "V". To accentuate the gems, a large light blue silk sash was wrapped around the waist, reaching from bellow the bosom to the belly button. A darker shade of blue, much smaller in width rested right under the light blue sash, and each were tied in an elegant ribbon in the back. A great, swooping shawl was draped over a separate hanger that was light blue to match the sash on the dress.

Hermione was so amazed in her costume that she didn't even feel Draco poking her in the arm to follow him to the dressing room. She was in awe at how beautifully detailed this dress was...it truly looked like a gown designed for royalty.

"Draco, I cannot afford this," she realized as she shook her head with dismay.

"Don't be silly, I've taken care of it."

"No, I refuse--"

"It's too late, I already paid," he said. "Consider it a Valentine's Day present," he whispered with a wink as he saw Malvice return to take the dress from Hermione to place it in a separate room.

Hermione probably wouldn't have made it to the dressing room if Draco hadn't pulled her along, and encouraged her to try it on so that Malvice could alter it if needed.

The dressing room was fairly big, with black stools situated in front of mirrors. Almost every stool was occupied with someone, except for one particular black block that sat in front of several floor to ceiling mirrors. The other boys hadn't really noticed her presence, and she thanked Merlin that they all hadn't stopped to gawk at her like the boys in the front of the store had.

"Honestly, it's like they've never seen a girl before," she thought as she shut the door and stared at the gown that now hung on a hook waiting for her.

She tied her hair up into a messy bun so that it would be out of the way. Suddenly excited to try it on, she took off her scarf and robe. Then she tugged off her tie and struggled to get out of her button down shirt as she barley had the patience for buttons.

She slipped out of her skirt, and had to discard of her bra because of the see through lace. This didn't really bother her, but when she realized that she would also have to forgo her knickers she became a little nervous.

Slipping the dress off the hanger, she carefully slid into the extravagant material. She assumed that the lace would feel a little bit itchy like it did on the outside, but it seemed to be charmed to feel like velvet against her skin.

Hermione zipped up the back, and then cautiously slid her knickers off and bundled them up in her skirt. She ran her hands over her front, savoring the glorious feel of such expensive fabric against her fingertips.

She then glanced up into the mirror for the first time, and her jaw fell open in shock as her hand shot up to hover over her mouth to quiet her gasp of astonishment. It was...absolutely gorgeous. She stared at herself for several minutes, wondering how one dress could make her look so beautiful.

Besides the fact that most of the dress was see through, another thing that worried her was how...revealing it was. She felt like her boobs would pop out at any moment, and she kept pulling the sides up in fear that it would slide off her body. She must have been in there for a while for Draco's voice broke her reverie.

"Is there a bottomless pit you've fallen into Granger?" Draco said sarcastically.

"No," she called back in a weak voice.

"Need any help?"

"Uh--No," she replied.

"Are you coming out then?"

She took a deep breath before opening the door to him.

His eyes seemed to grow wider, as his head leaned backwards and his eyebrows shot up in shock. "Wow," was all he said.

Hermione smiled modestly and nodded uncertainly. Never in her life had she worn anything so grand, delicate or low-cut. She slowly walked out of her dressing room towards Draco.

"It uh--" she started as Draco's silent shock grew uncomfortable, "It's a bit snug at the top," she said as she let her hands glide down her sides.

"So it is," he said, eyes glued to her. He cleared his throat as he noticed that every eye in the room was now glued to her figure. He leaned down to her ear and whispered, "You're breathtaking."

She flushed at his words, and welcomed the hand that offered to escort her across the room to the big black block.

"You don't look so bad yourself," she said as she eyed his dress robes. His tie and vest matched the blues on her gown. "Ughh," she muttered as she pulled on the dress again.

"What's wrong?" Draco asked as they stepped onto the block to admire themselves in the mirror.

"This dress is gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but it's dreadfully...low. I feel like it is going to slip off at any moment," she said in distress.

"Well, a simple charm will fix that," he suggested.

"Ahh, 'tis beautiful! As usual, my wife never disappoints me," Malvice said as he sashayed over to them.

"Your wife?" Hermione said as he began tugging at the bottom hem and muttering, "'Tis too long!"

"His wife owns a store in Diagon Alley, it is especially for women as this store is especially for men, and he had her send it over when I wrote to them," Draco explained.

"Ohh," she said. "I was wondering when you brought me in here if you were going to try and dress me up as a man!"

"No, I prefer gowns like that one," he said letting his eyes roam over her for the tenth time.

Hermione grinned and looked into the mirror again. She did a double-take then gasped aloud. "Draco! My hair! It's turning blue!"

"'Tis part of zee dress," Malvice said in a thick French accent. "Eet is a charm my wife builds into all of 'er gowns, eet will only color a few inches of zee end of your hair," he explained.

At her bewildered look he put down his scissors and stood up from the ground. "It accentuates zee sash, and eet will go avay as soon as you take zee dress off," he said while retying the ribbons in the back. "I must say how proud I am; zis is zee first costume that my wife and I have co-created in a long long time and vous semblez magnifique!"

"Thank you sir," she said. She looked to Draco who was staring at her already.

"You like it then?" Draco asked her.

"Are you kidding? I absolutely adore it! Thank you so much, you didn't have to do this for me," she said as she squeezed his hand.

"I wanted to."

She couldn't stop smiling, and they faced forward to look into the mirror again.

They looked...really good. Almost like a couple.

"I'm still not sure about this blue hair bit," she said while playing with the ends.

"Mademoiselle, it eez art!" he exclaimed while coming up to hand her a pair of matching heels. "Put zeese on, I need to adjust zee precise length."

Half and hour or so passed and Hermione and Draco thanked Malvice for his help. They each had a long bag that held their outfit, and Hermione was still grinning.

As soon as they were out of the store, Hermione put a hand out to stop Draco. She tugged on his scarf to bring his head down to hers in a sweet kiss. "Thank you," she whispered against his lips.

"You're welcome," he replied.

She smiled, and let go of his scarf, then he took her hand with his free one.

"I'm going to head back to the castle, I'll take these with me," Draco said motioning to their new costumes.

"Wait!" Hermione exclaimed. "We don't have masks! That is the whole point of a masquerade!"

"Not to worry, they came with the costumes," he said.

"Why didn't we get to see them?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Malvice said he put them in the bag."

"Okay," Hermione replied in a singsong voice. "Well, I'm going to go meet my friends, I'll see you back in the room?"

He nodded. She gave him one last kiss that left her breathless.

Hermione walked to the Three Broomsticks in somewhat of a daze. She couldn't fathom why Malfoy would go through so much trouble to get her such a beautiful dress...unless he really had feelings for her. Perhaps this was a sign that he did.

She was ecstatic to think that he might return the same kind of feelings she was harboring for him. Should she tell him how she felt? She had been wondering what was going on between them, but hadn't found the moment to ask him.

She opened the door to the pub, and immediately spotted Harry, Ron and Ginny as they were all waving at her.

"Here, we ordered you a butterbeer," Ginny said as she scooted over to make room for her to sit.

"Thanks," Hermione said as she took a long swig. "Did you find those red dress robes?"

"Yes," Ginny said with a wide grin. "Harry got them for me," she said as she gave him a thankful smile.

"And she looks beautiful in them," Harry added, staring at Ginny intensely.

"Please," Ron said as he waved his hand in front of Harry's face.

"What about you? Did you and Malfoy find anything?" Ginny asked.

"He took me to Monsieur Malvice's Robeshop."

"Where?" all three said at the same time.

She laughed. "It's an all-male store, it's a ways past the Hog's Head. Anyways, Malvice's wife has a shop in Diagon Alley so she sent over a gown for me," Hermione explained.

"What does it look like?" Ginny asked excitedly.

Hermione sighed deeply. "Ginny, it is absolutely breathtaking; I don't think my description will do it justice. You're going to have to come and see it for yourself," she said, and then took another long drink.

"Hey, what about us?" Harry asked, motioning to him and Ron.

"It'll be a surprise," Ginny said before Hermione could answer. "I'll come by later this evening, and I'm expecting you to try it on for me."

Hermione was so excited to put it on again that she didn't protest. "Deal," she said to Ginny as she drained the rest of her butterbeer.

* * *

Hermione walked into her common room to find her dress draped over the couch. She walked over to it and unzipped the bag to look at it again.

The dress brought back thoughts of Draco and his generosity. He had been so kind to her these past few weeks, and she had never known him to be kind. All of their intimate moments had to mean something, didn't they? They liked each other, but would he ever want anything more?

"I'm glad you like it," Draco said coming up to stand directly behind her and bringing her out of her musings.

"It's stunning," she said softly, enjoying his warmth.

"Even more so when you're wearing it," he whispered into her ear.

She shivered as his warm breath rushed across her skin. Suddenly, his hands wrapped around her. She leaned back into his chest and put her hands on top of his.

Hermione sighed softly as he began nibbling at her neck. "Draco?" she whispered questioningly.

"Yes?" he replied as his hands slid up to pull her scarf from around her neck. He spun her around and kissed her fiercely.

She put her hands uncertainly against his chest and pushed him away. He looked down at her, a little offended by her abruptness. "Draco? What are we doing?" she asked as she stepped away from him.

"I thought that much was obvious," he said as he leaned down to capture her lips again, but she pulled away.

"No, I mean...us. What exactly are we...to each other?"

He looked around the room before saying, "You mean, are we a couple?"

She nodded, with a hopeful look in her eyes.

He sighed and looked down at her, holding out his hand to her. She took it, and allowed him to pull her against him. He nodded silently.

Her eyes widened. "Is--is that a yes?" she whispered.

"Yes," he replied. "I consider you my girlfriend," he said as he pushed some of her hair out of her eyes.

"I guess that makes you my boyfriend," she whispered, as she smiled and looked down at her shoes shyly.

Draco took his finger and used it to bring her chin up.

He kissed her so softly that Hermione felt like she was floating away. Her eyes fell closed, and when their lips parted, she leaned her forehead against his breathing raggedly.

She bit her bottom lip and smiled. "Thank you for the gown," she whispered, before she raised her head to kiss him.