A/N: Hooray, an update! This ones a bit longer. I wasn't quite sure where to end it, but I hope that this is suitable. Expect an update within the week!Â
Thank you to all of my lovely reviewers! And in answer to skyace's question, two years ago I wrote fanfiction, but not on Portkey and not with this pen name. Keep on R&Ring!Â
I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 2
Hermione, having made it through the rest of her classes, was up in her dormitory with Ginny Weasley. The two girls were getting ready for the Friday Formal. After a long discussion about hairstyles, they had decided that Hermione should wear her hair down and charm it to curl softly. Ginny had done her hair in an elegant updo at the nape of her neck, and her makeup was a little more pronounced than Hermione's. She had gone for the smokey eye look, but she used the same nude lipgloss as Hermione.Â
The girls were ready, save for getting dressed. Hermione was rather surprised that Ginny had agreed to get ready with her. She had thought that Ginny would rather have gotten ready in her own dormitory with her own friends, but the sixth year had brought all of her necessary equipment up to Hermione's room without Hermione even having to ask. Ginny slipped into her dress, an elegant, floor-length forest green dress. It had a plunging neckline that only Ginny could pull off and not look trashy, Hermione thought to herself. Hermione stepped into her own dress. She then clasped a dainty pearl necklace around her neck. Her grandmother had given her that necklace when she was born. Her mother had only just revealed its existence to Hermione the year prior. She put the matching pearl studs in her ears and then slipped her shoes on. They were satin heels with a rounded toe, and she had charmed them to match the embroidery on her dress.Â
She stepped back and took a look in the floor-length mirror on the back of the door to her dormitory. Hermione Granger gasped at the sight of her appearance.
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After Ginny had decided that she was as ready as she could be, both girls made their way downstairs, which proved to be harder for Hermione than she had expected, seeing as she was wearing heels. Ginny on the other hand made it seem like she had been wearing heels since she was born. When Hermione reached the bottom of the stairs, she found a nearly-empty Common Room, occupied only by Harry, Ron, and the stray underclassmen who had not made it up to their dormitory yet. Ginny had made it to the bottom first, as she was uninhibited by her heels. Ron had already started yelling at her for her choice of apparel, but Ginny was merely rolling her eyes at him. She had endured so much of his overprotecting that she had very nearly learned to ignore it.Â
"You might have thought to wear some bloody clothes!" Ron was yelling, his ears rapidly turning the color of his hair.Â
"Oh, bugger off, Ron," Ginny said in a bored voice. "What I choose to wear to a school event is no business of yours." Ron couldn't think of an adequate response, so he settled with sputtering indignantly at her.Â
Hermione looked around at the other seventh year in the room. He had remained quiet through the fight, but, as Hermione noted, his attention was trained on the very part of Ginny that the fight was about. He looked up as Hermione glanced at him, as if he could tell he was being watched. His shoulders rose as he realized he had been caught ogling, and he shot her a sheepish grin. Hermione rolled her eyes, but couldn't help smiling slightly.Â
"Ron, leave her alone," Harry finally added. "Weren't you going to go check and make sure we had all the punch?"
"Oh. Yeah," Ron grunted, and then walked over to the buffet table, still muttering under his breath. Hermione distinctly heard him say "bloody whore... if mum had seen... gone blind... what the hell was she thinking?" as he passed.Â
"Thanks for that," Ginny said to Harry, crossing her arms delicately over her chest. "He's just... I mean, I suppose it's nice that he cares enough to be a prat about it," she said, shaking her head as if she didn't believe herself, "but... he needs to wake up and realize I'm not eleven. Honestly, he's worse than Dad." The three remaining laughed nervously.Â
After a little more awkward small talk, punctuated by Harry glancing at the more revealing parts of Ginny's dress in what he thought was a sneaky manner, it was finally time to open the doors and allow students from the three houses to enter. Hermione double checked the wards on the corridors leading to the dormitories. They were still safely in place. All of the fifth, sixth, and seventh year Gryffindors had eventually ambled down to the Common Room.Â
When the portrait opened, it revealed a mass of students in multi-colored dress robes and regular dresses, all peering interestedly in through the opening. Then suddenly there was a rush to enter the room, which had been charmed to make it appear bigger.Â
After the first surge of people, the students milled about in the room. A few last minute stragglers made their way in, but for the most part, everyone who was planning on coming had arrived. About ten minutes in, Hermione saw, out of the corner of her eye, a sixth year Slytherin casually tipping something into the punch bowl.
Eventually, the Weird Sisters brought out their band equipment and were immediately swarmed by excited students. The Gryffindors had somehow managed to book the Weird Sisters, a feat that had not been accomplished since '78, back when the band wasn't as popular. Hermione had never really gotten into the Weird Sisters craze with her fellow classmates; the fact that their genders were indeterminable was slightly creepy to her. She had always wondered if the Weird Sisters were the only Wizard musicians, as they were nearly the only ones ever mentioned in conversation.Â
If they were to be perfectly honest with themselves, the only reason the seventh year Gryffindors had been able to book live entertainment was because of the "Chosen One". They had originally claimed to be booked solid until next year, but once Harry took a shot at persuading them, their manager had immediately "found an opening" that he "hadn't noticed before".Â
As Hermione was considering the Magical music industry, Ginny came over to her, her face flushed and her eyes flashing. She motioned for Hermione to lean in closer. "Don't tell Ron this, but..." she began, shooting a quick glance around them to make sure that her brother was nowhere near them, "Draco Malfoy has been making eyes at me across the room." Hermione looked around, and, sure enough, Draco Malfoy was staring right at the younger redhead at Hermione's side, with a characteristic, if not slightly disturbing, smirk on his face. Ginny had looked up too, but she immediately turned her back on him and put her face in her hands.Â
"But, Ginny," Hermione said, taking another look around the room, "half the boys in this room are making eyes at you." This was very true, and it was a fact that Ron had seemed to notice as well. He came hurrying up to the girls, looking furious.Â
"Ginny!" he said loudly, causing the assorted people around them to look up in shock. "I TOLD you that that dress was a bad idea!" He had lowered his voice slightly, but he was still practically shouting. Those in the surrounding area laughed and started talking amongst themselves once more.Â
"Oh, shut up, Ron," Ginny said, glowering at him. She stalked off with her arms crossed over her chest.Â
Now it was Hermione's turn to glare at Ron. "Really, Ron, you could have handled that with a bit more tact," she said scathingly. He started going red around the ears and shuffled his feet a bit.Â
"Yeah. Well," he said awkwardly, which made Hermione bite back her retort. What the hell was wrong with him?
"Ron..." Hermione began, about to ask him what was going on, but he had already walked away. Almost immediately, Harry appeared in his place.Â
"I'm not Ron," he said, grinning. He was holding two plastic cups full of punch.Â
Hermione turned towards him. "Do you have any idea why Ron is acting like a... prat?" she asked him, wincing ever so slightly at her use of the word. Over the course of the year, the boys and Ginny had taken it upon themselves to make Hermione incorporate more slang words into her daily vocabulary. It had worked, for the most part, but Hermione still had to consciously make herself use her new slang words.Â
Harry shrugged. "Dunno. But this is a party, Hermione. You're too uptight. Here, take this," he said, forcing the plastic cup into her hands. She took it and brought it up to her mouth, inhaling subtly through her nose. There was definitely some sort of alcoholic substance mixed in. She took a big swig. "There," Harry said, content. "A few more drinks and you won't be worried about Ron." She was about to protest, but suddenly the prospect seemed very appealing.Â
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An hour into the party, Hermione had lost count of how many drinks she had had. Of course, that was probably thanks to her intoxicated state, but it was still the most drinking she had ever done in one period of time. She usually stayed away from alcohol because she could not hold it very well. The last thing she needed was to end up shagging some boy she hardly knew because she couldn't make proper choices.
Most of the students were either dancing or mingling along the walls. Harry had stuck dutifully by her side for essentially the whole time, eagerly going off to refill their cups whenever they ran dry. Ron was nowhere to be found, and Ginny was off in the corner with her giggling girlfriends, no doubt discussing the males in the room.Â
The room spun a bit and she grabbed on to Harry's arm a little tighter than necessary. She laughed at something he had just said, something distinctly unfunny such as "The ceiling is red." He laughed too and took her cup, stumbling a bit as he went to refill it.Â
A/N: I changed the hex vs. charm mistakes. Thanks to Mmbug98841 for pointing them out!