(HELLO everyone! I've been really busy with exams and still am, but I managed to finish this chapter. It was completely different when I started it, but I was just so unhappy where it had taken me that I changed it around. I'm much happier with this outcome and I think in the next chapter we will be seeing the ball… YAY!)
CHAPTER 7
"What's going on in here?" Harry questioned when he, Luna, Ron and Hermione had entered the Room of Requirements for the DA meeting.
"Well… we've all been working very hard, and doing so well, that we decided we were going to have a little DA Christmas party." Colin Creevy announced.
"A DA Christmas party?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Thanks to Fred and George, we've been supplied with a beautiful amount of candy and Butterbeer from their wonderful shop." Pavarti smiled.
"We've got more then just candy and Butterbeer my friends, pour us a glass Dean." Seamus laughed as he placed a large punchbowl on a table the DA members had prepared.
"What's that Seamus?" Hermione questioned.
"Punch of course, can I pour you a glass?" Seamus asked.
"Urrm, no thanx." She answered reaching for a glass of eggnog.
"Suit yourself." He said passing out glasses to the rest of the DA members.
The party was quickly a success. Everyone was singing, dancing, or laughing at one thing or another.
Ron and Luna went around from one mistletoe to the next, there were many games of Wizards chess, poker and charades being played, holiday gifts were being exchanged and sweets were being eaten.
Harry played a few rounds of Wizards chess, poker and charades, but for most of the Christmas party, Harry sat curled up on a sofa with Hermione; just talking.
"How did that slimy snake become our Headmaster?" Harry wondered.
"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione answered taking a quick sip of her eggnog. "What does Draco do when he wants something?… he frightens whomever is in his way, and gives them a nice sum of money to keep them quiet."
"You think Lucius bought his way out of prison, and into Hogwarts?"
"I know it doesn't sound very logical, but place Voldemort into the picture and it starts to make sense. The ministry is terrified of Voldemort and his followers, as is everyone, so all Mr. Malfoy has to do is insure the Ministry's protection and offer a nice amount of Galleons for his position at Hogwarts." Hermione explained.
"Maybe your right."
She gave him a loving grin.
"Hermione?"
"Yeah?"
"That pre graduation ball is coming up fairly soon."
"I know." She answered taking another sip of her eggnog.
"Well… I was sort of wondering,"
"What were you wondering?"
Harry's face flushed and he felt himself grow hot around the collar of his shirt. "Well, urrm… I was just," Harry felt his heart rate quicken. "I mean… It'll be fun won't it?"
Hermione's shoulders slumped. "Uhh, yeah… fun."
Harry suddenly found himself and Hermione being pointed and whistled at.
"What are they on about?" He asked Hermione.
"I don't know." She shrugged.
"Look up Potter." Ernie laughed.
Harry and Hermione's eyes traveled to the ceiling where mistletoe hovered just above them.
Harry's face turned red like a Quaffle, and he gulped uncomfortably.
Hermione suddenly found her shoes very interesting.
"That's an enchanted mistletoe that is." Zacharias chuckled. "If you don't kiss the girl, she gets turned upside down for an hour, letting us see her pretty knickers."
"Don't worry about me Harry." Hermione said still staring at her shoes.
He gently lifted her chin so that her syrupy brown eyes looked into his enchanting green ones.
"I want to." He said softly.
Harry wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer until he could feel her warm breath against his face. As he leaned in to kiss her lips, she turned her head, and Harry ended up kissing her cheek.
Harry flushed an even darker shade of red, and held his breath as the DA members erupted in fits of laughter.
"Goodnight Harry." She said sliding off the sofa and avoiding his eyes.
"Night `Mion." He mumbled looking for a means of escape.
"Oy, Hermione I'm off to bed as well, wait up." Seamus remarked joining her by the door.
When she had left, Harry quietly slipped away from the party. He found himself in the Astronomy Tower overlooking the glistening stars scattering the night sky.
Harry had meant to ask Hermione to be his date for the upcoming ball, and failed miserably. He saw disappointment in her eyes, as if she had longed for him to ask her, or possibly expected it.
A shooting star swept across the darkness, it gave Harry a feeling of faith. With his new found hope, he pledged to succeed in asking her to the ball.
****************
"Ron come on, please, just let Harry sleep, he had a rough night." Luna pleaded tugging on Ron's robes.
"How would you know he had a rough night?" Ron asked suspiciously.
"Uhh, well… he left the party early?"
"Yeah well, we all had a rough night… besides, if I don't wake him up he'll have another detention, I'm sure he'll thank me for it in the end." Ron said as he strolled over to Harry's bed and took the curtain, surrounding Harry's bed, in his hands.
"RON!"
"What?"
"Uurrm, how about we go to the Quidditch Pitch and you could, uuhh, teach me some flying skills." Luna grinned as innocently as she could.
"Sure, we'll do that after dinner okay?" Ron smiled and pulled the curtain open.
"AHH!" Ron screamed seeing Hermione in Harry's bed.
Next came Hermione's shrill shriek when she awoke not knowing what was happening.
Luna bit her thumb and winced at the situation. She did breath a sigh of relief that Harry wasn't with her this time.
"What the bloody hell are you doing Hermione?" Ron demanded.
"I was sleeping Ron!" Hermione barked back.
"If you hadn't noticed, this is the Boys Dormitory!" Ron declared.
"So?" Hermione challenged.
"Why weren't you in your room?" He interrogated.
"I don't know!"
"What do you mean you don't know?" Ron yelled louder making Luna wince.
"I said I don't know okay!" Hermione replied roughly chucking a pillow at Ron's face. "Now get off my case!"
Hermione pulled the covers off herself and got up from Harry's bed. She was wearing her soft gentle blue nightgown that looked as smooth as silk. She stretched and yawned, as Ron stared with a sheepish grin on his face.
Luna frowned and elbowed Ron in the ribs. "Humph."
"Ow, what was that for?" He protested.
Luna's large blue eyes turned cold and small.
"I think you know well enough." She answered stomping out of the room.
"Luna… wait, I didn't mean it, I'm sorry." Ron called after her.
Hermione clucked her tongue. "You better go after her Ronny."
"I'm not finished questioning you." He frowned pointing a finger at her.
"I told you, I don't know how I got here!"
"Fine, whatever… when you care to let me in on the secret, please do!" Ron stated before making his way after Luna.
Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, she really didn't have a clue why she was in Harry's bed or how she got there in the first place. After a moment, she decided she would go back to her room to dress and find Harry so she could tell him her bizarre incident.
She had foolishly hoped he would ask her to the pre graduation ball last night, but now it was painfully obvious to her, that such an incident would never happen. It had crushed her deeply at first, until she realized that she was lucky enough to have his friendship. If that was all she would receive from him, she was going to be grateful with whatever he had to offer.
She opened the door to her room and briskly strolled to her bed, where she froze. Her jaw dropped and she held her breath as she took in her surroundings.
Her bed was covered in magnificent enchanted flowers that could have only been gathered from the Forbidden Forest. Delicate rose pedals covered the floor around her bed, enchanted candles hovered around her room emitting gentle smells of vanilla, cinnamon and brown sugar, and a large violet box, with a neat ribbon centered in the middle and a white envelope tucked neatly beside the ribbon, lay near the pillow where she slept.
Her heart fluttered as she raced over to the bed and carefully placed the white envelope aside. Her hands shook as she undid the ribbon and opened the gift.
A gasp escaped her mouth. Her fingers plunged into the large, violet box and gathered the gift in her delicate hands.
She placed the dress before her and examined herself in a mirror.
It was a scarlet colored dress, with exact detailed embroidery, it shimmered lightly in the candlelight and it looked like it had been made especially to fit her.
"Oh, its so beautiful." She whispered to herself.
Hermione rushed to her bed where the white envelope lay patiently awaiting her.
She was surprised to see there was nothing inside the envelope.
Two hands wrapped around her eyes and she inhaled rapidly in surprise.
"Will you be my date for the ball Hermione?" He whispered calmly into her ear still cupping her fingers over her eyes.
"Harry?"
"Shh, just answer."
"Harry…"
Harry's fingers fell from her eyes and he turned her around so he could look into her honest brown eyes.
She looked caught off guard and panicked.
"What's wrong?" He questioned.
"Harry, I… I… I want to go with you to the ball, but,"
"But what?" He asked concerned.
"I didn't think you'd ask me,"
"Don't worry about that." He answered grinning at her.
"No, it's not that…" She said.
Harry's smile faded. "I don't understand."
Hermione took a deep breath. "Yesterday after the party, Seamus asked me to be his date for the ball, and I agreed."
"Oh." Harry stared at the floor feeling dazed.
"I'm sorry Harry, I just can't take it back now, It wouldn't be fair," She wanted to slap herself for being honorable. "I really wanted to go with you… I never thought I'd have the chance to."
Harry sighed and brushed a hand through his hair.
"It shouldn't be a problem for you to find a pretty date Harry." She said regretfully putting the dress carefully in its box and giving it to Harry.
"No you wear that dress Hermione."
"I couldn't."
"Yes you could, I picked it out just for you." He said placing the violet box back on her bed.
Her cheeks flushed pink and she looked away from his gaze.
"Consider it an early Christmas present, okay?" He said with a grin.
She wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you Harry, but you really shouldn't have done all this for me."
"I did it because you're special Hermione."
"Don't feel sorry for me, I'm happy being just your friend, okay." She said giving him a brisk kiss on the cheek.
Harry's stomach gave a rapid toss, he felt terrible.
"I better have a shower and get dressed, I'll meet you in the Great Hall." She said again letting go of him.
Harry nodded and headed for the door to her room.
"Uhh, Hermione?"
"Yeah?"
Harry stared into her chocolate eyes and felt like he could melt beneath her delicate smile.
"Would you mind if… will you… save me a dance?" He asked helplessly.
Her grin widened and her cheeks flushed pink again. "As many as you want."
"You promise?"
She raised an eyebrow in question. "Of course."
"Okay… I'll see you at breakfast then."
Hermione was surprised to see Harry sitting at the Muggle born table patiently waiting for her; he was holding a large bundle of red roses.
"Hey Harry." She said taking the seat next to him.
"Hi." He said grinning. "These are for you."
"Thank You." She said looking puzzled.
"They're from Seamus… he asked me to give them to you."
"Oh." She answered looking over at the Gryffindor table where Seamus was sitting. "Why didn't he give them to me himself?"
Harry shrugged and poked at his scrambled eggs.
"Listen Hermione… just be careful with Seamus, okay?"
Hermione frowned. "What do you mean?"
"He's not like Ron and me, so just be careful."
"I'm a big girl Harry, I can take care of myself."
Harry nodded. "I know… we better get to class, we've got Snape first thing."
"You're starting to sound like me." She laughed.
"Well you've had a big influence on me." He laughed back.
Harry and Hermione entered their potions class together and took their seat at the front. The room was lit brighter then it usually was, in fact, normally Harry had to focus to see the words written on his parchment through the darkness.
"Good morning class, please take out your textbooks and turn to chapter five."
Hermione gave Harry a large grin.
"Harry, its my Arithmancy teacher, its Professor Vector!" She exclaimed in glee.
Harry shook his head at her excitement and grinned, nearly anyone was better then Professor Snape.
"Before we begin, I'm sorry, I was instructed to make adjustments by our current Headmaster." Professor Vector looked sadly at Hermione. "All Muggle Born students, please move to the back of this classroom."
Hermione's grin fell, she looked hurt.
Harry rubbed her back and took both her books and his own under his arm.
"Mr. Potter, I must ask you to stay where you are… I'm sorry." Professor Vector ordered.
Harry nodded and handed Hermione her books.
"I'll be okay Harry, don't worry."
"Professor, what'll happen if I choose not to follow this rule?" Harry questioned.
"I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave, these are Mr. Malfoy's orders." He answered.
"Don't Harry, just stay where you are." Hermione pleaded.
"Okay Hermione… I'll stay."
"In that case, I'll be sitting with you Harry."
Harry spun around to find Pansy Parkinson taking Hermione's seat. He frowned unpleasantly at her.
"What are you doing here?" he barked raising his voice.
"It's a classroom, I'm learning." She answered sarcastically taking out her books.
"Only Hermione sits here!"
Pansy looked left, right and under the table. "Unless I'm sitting on her, I don't see her anywhere."
Several Slytherins laughed. Draco looked furious.
"Now, now… settle down you two, lets get to work." Professor Vector positioned himself at the front of the classroom. "As we all know, there was only one Wizard who was able to create a Potion for bringing one back to life, can anyone tell me what his name was?"
"Ricardo Gallenza." Came a cool voice to Harry's right.
"Very good Mr. Malfoy, ten points to Slytherin."
Harry's head spun around to Draco who looked smug, and then to Hermione who looked astonished.
"Ricardo Gallenza," Draco continued "Was only able to re-crate one life potion throughout his entire life, and he was not able to remember its exact formula, some say he made a mistake and wasn't able to retrace what his mistake was."
"Excellent Draco, yes very good indeed, another ten points to Slytherin." Professor Vector announced.
"That's not entirely true Professor, there are many that believe Ricardo Gallenza wasn't the first to create the Potion of life, there are many that believe he had killed his own brother to steel his brother's research, in order to become rich and famous, his brother's name was William Gallenza." Hermione spoke without being acknowledged.
"That, miss Granger, is only a theory, one that has never been proven, and one that had absolutely no evidence, but yes, good point Hermione." Professor Vector said.
"According to research, William Gallenza was incapable of discovering a life Potion, he hadn't any education and books fail to mention that he was just a squib." Draco added with acid in his tone.
"That's not a valid point Draco, a squib can still make potions!" Hermione yelled banging her fist on her desk.
"That'll be enough, I shall continue on this subject, please take notes and I do not accept talking out of turn." Professor Vector instructed.
Hermione blushed. "Sorry Professor."
"Now…only one life potion was ever created…."
Harry's classes flew by fairly quickly. By the second class of the day, the Muggle Born students, including Hermione, didn't have to be asked to sit at the back, they knew that Mr. Malfoy implanted this rule throughout the entire school. Harry was completely appalled and furious. How could Lucius Malfoy be allowed to get away with this? How could teachers obey so easily to such discriminations? Harry didn't need to ask, he knew they were terrified to loose their jobs as teachers, and even more terrified of becoming victims to Voldemort's attack.
"Harry, I need to go to the library, I'll see you later okay?" Hermione spoke as they both made their way out of Defence Against the Dark Arts, which happened to be their last class of the day.
"She's been going to the library a lot lately." Ron announced catching up to Harry.
"Yeah… I wonder what she's up to." Harry wondered.
"It's probably another Spew thing, maybe she's still knitting clothes." Ron laughed.
"I don't think so Ron, she's up to something that I wouldn't approve of, I'm sure of it." Harry replied.
"Like what, flirting?" Ron teased.
"No Ron, I'm serious… I'm going to see what she's up to."
"Okay, it's your funeral." Ron laughed.
"Huh?"
"You think she's going to like being spied on?"
"I'm not spying… I'm just… curious."
Ron shook his head, gave Harry a pat on the shoulder, and left in the other direction.
Harry made his way to the library. There weren't many students yet, but Harry knew that in the next five minutes, it would be fairly full at this time of the day.
He quietly made his way between the large shelves of books and snuck up to the table Hermione always occupied. Harry often joked that he would buy her a nameplate for that table since no one else ever had a chance to use it.
It was a secluded table in a quite corner of the library, near a small window that had a beautiful view of the grounds and the lake that surrounded the school.
Harry carefully looked through a bookshelf to see what she was doing.
All he saw was an enormous, brown, hardcover tome that was opened on the table, and Hermione's fingers curled around the sides. The tome was battered, dirty and looked extreamly old; even the title had rubbed off except for a small roman numeral four, carved in gold on the spine.
Harry emerged from his hiding place. "Hermione?"
Hermione's bushy brown hair emerged over top of the tome, followed by a pair of brown eyes. She peered at Harry for a moment, slammed the book shut and gave Harry and innocent grin.
He strolled over to her and took the seat next to her. "What you reading?"
"A book." She answered.
"That much I could have guessed on my own."
"I know." She added.
"What's it about?" He questioned.
"About?" She looked pale.
"Yes Hermione, what were you reading about?"
"Oh, yeah, uhh… nothing really, its very boring. I was about to put it away and find another, because you know, its just so uninteresting."
"Right… well…. I'll put it away for you?" He tried.
"N, no, I'll, I'm just fine, thanks, really, just fine." She answered heaving the tome into her small arms and staggering over to a large bookshelf that held many tome's of the same size, but different colors.
Harry took note where she had placed the tome, he wanted to see what she was reading that made her so nervous.
Together, they walked down to the Great hall for dinner.
"Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"How did I end up in your bed?" She questioned before they reached their table.
"I, uuhh, needed you out of your room so I could sort of set things up." He answered flushing red.
"Wingardium Leviosa?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
Harry nodded and took his seat at the table.
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