After his failure to invite Granger over for Christmas break, Draco decided to stay at Hogwarts and focus on what the Dark Lord had in store for him. He wasn't sure how he felt that Granger was staying too.
One night while reading in the Slytherin common room, trying to keep his mind on the book and not on...other things, the door flung open and Blaise Zabini strutted in. When he saw Draco sitting by the fire, his face lit up with a grin. He made a beeline for him. Draco pretended not to notice.
"Well well, Draco," he said, plopping down next to him.
"Er-hello, Blaise, what do you need?" Draco said, putting down his book.
"Oh, nothing from you. I just came to say...Slughorn's having a Christmas party in his office, and you were not invited," Blaise replied in a casual tone, very interestedly digging through his bag for who knows what.
Blaise had been invited for lunch on the train as well. Draco had not, and he had been quite resentful, but now it was hard for him to focus on anything. But he pretended to be interested.
"Who else was invited?" he asked, tossing his book into his bag.
Blaise stopped digging through his book bag, and grinned. "Potty, some of Slughorn's old friends...." He went on and on. He had just about named everyone in the school, when he finally said, "And that Mudblood Granger."
"Her-Granger's going?" Draco, against his will, was interested.
"Yes, but why are you so interested?" Blaise asked suspiciously.
"Noth-nothing, I just can't see why Slughorn would invite a Mudblood," he said weekly.
"No, me neither. But I have something even more outraging," Blaise sat on the end of his chair. "We're allowed to bring guests, and Cormac McLaggen, the Gryffindor pure-blood, and Granger, the Mudblood, are going together. He's a blood traitor." Blaise waited for Draco to be shocked.
"Granger's going with MCLAGGEN?" Draco cried, standing up suddenly. When had Hermione ever shown any interest in him? She had never mentioned him before, nor had he ever seen them together. And McLaggen was the world's greatest git.
"Yes. We should show him some-hey, where are you going?"
But Draco had already gone.