Disclaimer: I do not own any character in this story. (Waves wand)"Righoitous Ownius" (POOF!) . Nope, still nothing.
"You, Ron Weasly, are a bloody idiot!"
Hermione Granger shouted at her friend as she strode into the Great Hall. He was standing with Harry Potter, her other close friend, by the punch bowl at the Sixth Year Ball. Ron and Harry were quite unsure as to what Ron had done to incur the wrath of Hermione, but she certainly seemed to be on the warpath and ready to slaughter anyone who got in her way.
"What did I do?"
Ron barely managed to squeak out amidst the ranting of a thoroughly incensed witch.
"What did you do? What did you do? You know bloody well what you did, you twit!"
She screamed at him.
Harry looked hurriedly around to see if anyone had been alerted to this argument. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that the music was enough to drown out even Hermione at her loudest.
"Umm. Hermione, as it appears that Ron hasn't got the foggiest notion as to what has you so upset, maybe you could tell us."
He regretted his interference immediately when the young girl rounded on him.
"You want to know what this freckle-faced git managed to do in Potions today? He blunderingly, stupidly, and moronically poured phosphorus alkaloids into a wolf's bane and dragonfly wings brew. Had it been done properly, it would have merely given me the hiccups for a few hours, instead it had me burping purple smoke all day!"
Hermione shouted full force at Harry, her eyes blazing and her face a dangerous shade of mottled red. Neither boy felt that that would have been a good time to mention that her skin looked slightly blotchy. It was as if she read their thoughts or saw them written on their faces, because she turned and stomped towards the dance floor. As she passed Seamus Finnegan, she reached out a hand and grabbed a hold of what she thought were his robes, pulling him to the dance floor.
Professor Serverus Snape sat back in his chair and watched as the Granger girl grabbed onto Mr. Malfoy and proceeded to dance with him. Neither of them aware of whom they were dancing with. Snape looked over at Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher and spoke softly.
"That my friend is as unusual a pair as you will ever come in to contact with."
He nodded his head in the general direction of the couple that was swaying slightly to the music.
Sprout looked up from the drawing she was doing in order to examine the objects of Snape's scrutiny. She dropped her quill in shock at the sight that assaulted her eyes.
"Granger and Malfoy?? How did that happen?"
"Darned if I know. But I do know that this should soon turn into an eventful evening."
He then turned back to what he considered to be a true spectator sport.
Draco Malfoy was standing with his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, muttering dark oaths against Harry Potter and his worthless friends, the muggle lover Weasly and the mudblood Granger. He could hear the said mudblood in the background screeching like a harpy out of Hell. He did his best to ignore the piercing shrieks yet he was forced at one point to look over to see what it was that had Granger in such a wild state. As he turned he caught the very last bit of her statement to Potter,
".had me burping purple smoke all day!"
He laughed out loud and turned to add this tidbit to his house's enormous repertoire of Granger humiliation stories. Before he could utter a word, he felt himself grabbed by the collar of his robes and pulled to the dance floor. Assuming it was Pansy, as usual, he turned back to his fellow Slytherins and recounted what he had just heard. He felt no inclination to acknowledge his partner seeing as how it was she who grabbed him. He could still hear Granger in the background only she seemed much closer than before. He continued to block out the noise with the sound of his own voice.
Harry and Ron stood in utter disbelief when Hermione, in an attempt to grab Seamus, mistakenly pulled Draco Malfoy with her instead. They weren't the only ones in shock.
Professor McGonagall had just come into the hall and upon seeing the unlikely duo promptly turned and walked back out, unwilling to risk her sanity to try to figure that one out.
Meanwhile, Hermione was still turned towards Harry and Ron and was oblivious towards her error. Ron turned to Harry with an almost frightened look on his face.
"Do you think we ought to tell her? Or do you think it's too hazardous to our health in general?"
Harry regarded, first Hermione and then Ron and Hermione again.
"Ron, how do you think Hermione will react if we don't warn her that she's dancing with Malfoy?"
Images of great destruction and pain filled Ron's mind causing him to shudder.
"Alright Harry, have at it."
Harry turned in astonishment and hissed,
"Me? You want me to tell her that she's dancing with her most hated enemy of all time? The only person I can think of that she hates to face even more than a troll?"
Ron nodded vigorously,
"Harry, she'll take it better from you. As you can see, she's still furious about what happened in Potions."
As he said this, they were pulled from their conversation by Hermione's voice shouting more mild expletives towards Ron.
"The only thing worse than being paired with you for a partner, would be having to deal with Malfoy tonight."
Harry and Ron winced in unison as they heard that said simultaneously with Malfoy's next slam against Hermione. Both of them paled as they saw Hermione and Malfoy perk up at the sound of their names spoken by their respective enemy. Time slowed down as two heads turned in the direction from which the insult was lobbed and when brown eyes met grey the entire audience gasped in unison.
Hermione had been collectively launching insults to Ron and about Malfoy when she heard that miserable death eater say her name as he paired it, yet again, with the word mudblood. Didn't he ever get tired of that? As she turned to look for the source of the insidious voice, she saw Harry and Ron grow extremely pale. Confused she turned all the way around and found herself face to face with Malfoy. The gasp from the crowd was unheard by her as her thoughts screamed and then began to voice themselves in an extremely volatile way. She pushed Malfoy from her and shouted,
"Expelliarmus!"
Malfoy went flying across the hall and landed with a satisfying thump in Snape's lap. Hermione then turned away from the gawking stares of her peers and strode from the hall, ignoring her friends completely.
Draco, while dancing, had continued his barrage of insults against Granger, but he turned from that when he heard a particularly nasty remark about him emerge from her lips. He whipped around and found himself facing one of his worst enemies. He saw her eyes widen and then quickly narrow as she opened her mouth and screamed. She then pushed away from him; he was too shocked to do anything but stare, mouth agape, as she shouted,
"Expelliarmus!"
He then felt himself flying through the air and soon found himself in his house leader's lap. Snape wasted no time in pushing him to the ground where he lay quietly, mulling over the evening's events.
Snape's plastered grin grew even wider when he saw the twosome recognize each other. He turned again to Sprout,
"See, what did I tell you? Eventful, most eventful indeed."
He made a move to say more when he heard the disarming spell shouted from Granger and then found Mr. Malfoy lying across his lap. He promptly shoved him off and rose from the table, glaring at the students gathered and went back to his chambers.
Harry shook his head at Hermione's retreating form as he debated whether or not to go after her. He then pictured the look on Malfoy's face as he flew through the air, and as enjoyable as that had been, he did not look forward to a similar fate. He opted instead to search for his suddenly missing friend Ron. It didn't take long to find him huddled under a table clutching on to the leg for dear life.
"Is she gone?"
He asked. Harry nodded. He understood Ron's fear. He could only imagine what Hermione would say when she decided she was speaking to them again. It wouldn't be pretty, that was for sure. So in the mean time, Harry and Ron thought it best to retire and give their friend as much space as she needed and practice as many protection spells as they could.
TBC…