The Sunrise of My Heart

When Draco saw me emerge from the girls' dormitory, his eyes popped a bit and he smiled widely. I breathed a soft sigh of relief, glad to see I'd made a good impression on him. I wanted tonight to be wonderful, and this was a good start to a wonderful time.

"Riley, you look radiant," he said to me, and I smiled.

"You look quite ravishing yourself." He was wearing robes of black velvet with a high collar. After a moment of thought, I reached out and messed with his collar, making it lower so he looked less like a vicar and more like a viscount. "There, that's better. Now you look just as perfect as me."

He smirked at me, but as we walked towards the Great Hall, I thought I heard him mumble 'I doubt that', which made me happy. As we arrived, I saw that Pansy had landed a date with a Durmstrang boy who looked rather like a rock tower. He had pale blond hair, icy blue eyes, and a scowl on his face. His build was large and mountainous, and I realized with a start that he looked like a Crabbe-and-Goyle version of Malfoy. I fought back a laugh at this thought, and tried not to smirk at Pansy as we walked by.

"Hang on- Draco, who's that with Krum?"

Draco looked up, mostly uninterested, but when he realized who it was, his jaw nearly dropped. "Granger?! What did she do with her teeth? And her hair? And a dress?" He was grumbling under his breath, most likely because he couldn't taunt her when she was looking so beautiful and dancing with Viktor Krum, so I squeezed his arm comfortingly.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Krum will still want you. He just has to keep up an image, so he couldn't come to the ball with you." He glanced at me sharply, but I just smiled innocently at him. "Now be quiet, the dancing is starting and I want to enjoy it." Draco openly rolled his eyes at me but obliged and refrained from speaking.

I clapped when I was supposed to, and was smiling, but really I couldn't wait to start dancing with Draco. Finally, a few more couples had braved the dance floor, so I grabbed Draco's hand and started pulling him.

"Really? Do we have to dance? I was hoping we could just show up, watch, laugh at people, and talk or something." I pouted and gave him an imploring look, so he rolled his eyes and walked me out onto the floor, making me grin excitedly.

"Aw, you spoil me," I said jokingly.

"Well, when you look so divine, how can I do anything but spoil you?" He smiled flirtatiously at me, causing me to bite my lip so I wouldn't giggle. I would not giggle, no matter what.

"You're such a tease. But what will Krum think? You'll break his poor heart."

Draco rolled his eyes. "He'll live. He's got the Mudbl-" He cut off when I gave him a sharp look and changed his word at the last moment. "He's got that Granger to make him happy, and if he really wants a guy, I'm sure Potter would love to make sure he's happy." We both laughed, unaware for a moment that the music had changed and we no longer had to waltz. We danced through three more songs, and then we moved to our table and sat down, grabbing drinks as we did.

"Okay, so I have a question for you," I told him. He raised his eyebrows to show he was listening, so I continued. "You're royally mean to everyone else. You hate Harry Potter and his friends, you despise people who aren't of your status, and you loathe Muggles and their magic-born children. Yet you're so kind to me. Why?" He shrugged.

"I don't want to dance with Harry Potter or his friends, not to mention they're just annoying and pathetic. People lower than my status -aside from you- don't seem to hold my interest with the things they say. I don't enjoy being with Muggles, or find myself ridiculously thinking about them all the time, and I don't want to kiss their children- magic-born or not. You, on the other hand..." He smirked and raised his eyebrows. "Well, you're a whole other story."

I smiled and took a drink to give myself time before I had to reply, mostly because I knew it would annoy him. "So you liked dancing with me, which is good. You find me entertaining and interesting, also good. You enjoy being with me and you think about me all the time, borderline obsessive, but still very good. And you want to kiss me.... Wonderful." I gave him a coy smile, to which he responded with his signature smirk, and he leaned over and kissed me, slightly hesitant at first but more eagerly after a moment.

Unfortunately, our wonderful kiss was ruined when a very upset couple stormed pass, arguing. I pulled away, sighing, as I recognized Ron and Hermione's voices.

"Draco, Hermione sounds upset," I said softly. He gave me a look that clearly said he didn't care, but I stood up anyways. He reached out and grabbed my hand to keep me from walking away. "I should go to her. She might need a friend right now."

"She has the Weasel girl," he pointed out, but he sighed in annoyance and released my hand. "Fine, go to the Mudblood," he muttered. I hesitated, then leaned down and gave him a small kiss. "I'll see you when I get back to the common room, okay?" He nodded, obviously still annoyed, but let me go.
When I got to Hermione, she was crying by herself. Without saying anything, I sat down beside her and hugged her, letting her cry into my shoulder.

"Don't worry, Hermione. He'll come around. Boys are stubborn and stupid, but eventually their hearts get the better of them and they realize who and what they want. You just have to give them time."
She mumbled something, but in her state of sorrow and with her face buried in my shoulder, I couldn't understand what she'd said. So I simply rocked her and held her, the way a mother would do to her broken daughter. Finally, she sat up, wiped her eyes, and went off to bed. So I followed suit, going back to the Slyhterin common room. Draco, I was pleased to see, was waiting up for me, sitting down in a leather armchair.

"So I take it Granger didn't commit suicide?" From the sound of his voice, he wouldn't have minded this very much, but I ignored that.

"No, she's fine. Or, she will be with time. So what did you do after I left?" I could just see Draco shrug slightly.

"Came here, sat down, did a bit of Potions homework, grew bored with that, considered going to bed, decided not to, and sat here waiting for you." He sounded slightly annoyed, although I couldn't tell because it was dark in the common room.

"I'm sorry about that, but she really needed someone right then." I moved across the room and sat down on the arm of his chair. He pulled me down onto his lap and kissed me gently, but in the kiss, I could feel his anger at having been left behind.

"Riley, I don't want you to spend time with Alexander. I can tell he likes you a lot, and I don't like it. And also, I think you and I should go steady. We're good together, in my opinion." He sounded nonchalant and sure of himself, but I could hear an underlying hint of worry in his voice, as if he feared I would say no. I smiled.

"I agree. We go very good together, so we should go steady." I heard him sigh ever-so-softly in relief, and then he kissed he again, more eagerly this time. In that moment, it seemed that the world was perfect and that nothing could go wrong.