It was the morning of the ball. Christmas Eve. Call it whatever you like. Anyway, it was the morning of the ball and it felt just like any other morning…at least, until I got downstairs.
I made my way down to the common room, where everyone was all awake and buzzing around like they’ve had too much caffeine. I spotted Ginny over with some of her fifth year friends, and she came over to me.
“How come no one is at the Great Hall eating breakfast?” I asked, not really in the mood to deal with all of the excited people. Let me tell you right now, sometimes I am not a morning person.
“Didn’t you hear?” Ginny asked excitedly.
“Obviously not,” I replied in a bored monotone.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked in a slightly offended tone.
I sighed deeply. “Nothing. Sorry about that. Now go on, what were you going to tell me?”
“The Great Hall is closed because it is being decorated for the ball tonight.”
“Okay, great,” I said with a yawn. “Now where am I supposed to get my breakfast?”
Ginny gave me a funny look.
“It’s being served right here, right now.”
All of a sudden I noticed that almost everyone was sitting down at small tables positioned all over the common room, with poor house elves scurrying about. I didn’t know why I hadn’t noticed this earlier, when I first came downstairs.
“So everyone is eating in their common rooms?” I asked, becoming more interested.
“Yeah,” Ginny replied.
“Weird. I guess we’re spending the whole day in here, huh?”
“Yeah,” Ginny replied again. “Pretty much…I mean, I know all the girls will be taking advantage of this time to get ready.”
“Okay, thanks for the update, Gin,” I said as I saw Harry and Ron at a table in the corner.
“No problem,” she answered, making her way back to her friends.
I made my way over to Harry and Ron. The small table that we were sitting at was conveniently large enough for three. I pulled out the last remaining chair and sat down.
“Good morning,” I said to them.
“Hey Hermione,” they replied.
“What do you have planned today?”
“Uh…the ball?” Ron said. “That’s it, really.”
“Oh,” I said. I still had yet to tell everyone that I wasn’t going to the ball. I couldn’t. It was too much of a heartbreak knowing that Harry and I were only going as friends and now he probably thinks I don’t like him and likes someone else all ready! “So Ron, did you manage to find a date?”
“What do you mean, ‘manage?’ And yes, I did find one for you information,” Ron said a bit heatedly.
“Who?”
“Susan Bones,” he replied. “We decided we were going together ages ago,” he said with a boastful tone.
“Ages ago?” Harry scoffed. “Don’t you mean yesterday?”
“Well it felt like ages ago,” Ron mumbled, turning slightly red.
We ate mostly in silence. Harry didn’t say much of anything, I observed. The pitiable house elves scurried around, serving food to all of the students.
“So what do you want to do now?” Ron asked. “Probably has to be limited to the Gryffindor Tower, though.”
“You can count me out,” I said. “I’m going upstairs to read.”
Ron shrugged.
“So mate, is it just me, or does it seem like a good time to play a game of wizard’s chess?” I heard Ron say as I left.
When I got upstairs, I plopped down onto my bed and pulled out my weathered copy of Hogwarts, a History. I flipped to where I had left off the previous night, but then again, it didn’t matter since I’ve read that brilliant book seven times all ready.
My mind began to wander as I thought about the ball again. Why did I have to act so stupid when Harry asked me? I pounded the big comforter and fell backwards, so that I was on my back, facing the ceiling. As I stared at the wooden beams supporting the ceiling, I wondered if Harry thought I was a complete idiot. I mean, how much more obvious could he get? I flipped over, and buried my head into my pillow, quickly falling asleep.
When I woke up, I blinked a few times and checked the clock to see what time it was. How long had I been asleep? Apparently it was an hour until the ball. Rubbing my eyes, I saw Parvati and Lavender inspecting themselves in front of the full-length mirror. Parvati noticed I had woken up, and came over to me.
“It’s about time you woke up, sleepy head. We almost thought you were going to sleep through the ball!” she said with an airy laugh. Her dark brown hair was in none other than a plait tied with a gold ribbon. She was wearing satin robes of deep violet that was stitched with gold thread. Parvati waved a gloved hand in front of my face, making the gold rings on her fingers glisten.
“So, Hermione, what do you think?” she said as she twirled around.
“Nice,” I said hollowly, having not quite forgotten my thoughts about the ball earlier. “Who are you going with?”
“Michael Corner. Padma introduced us.”
Boy that Michael Corner sure gets around…although I didn’t say that out loud.
“Well, that was convenient.”
“Yeah, I know. We’ll be with Lavender and Dean; they’re going together, of course.”
I nodded as Lavender came over. Her straight light brown hair was down, and reached a bit past her shoulders. She wore light robes of nothing other than the color lavender.
“Those are very pretty robes,” I said to her.
“Thanks. The lavender was Dean’s idea, actually.”
“I hope you have fun at the ball,” I said earnestly as I glanced at Parvati who was frantically fixing her hair in the mirror even though it was perfectly fine.
“You mean you’re not going?” Lavender asked. “Why not?”
I shrugged. I figured that it was no use going; it would only serve to make me look even more stupid.
“I dunno…I don’t really feel like it…I kind of feel sick, actually,” I lied lamely. I’ve used that excuse a lot.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Lavender said as she smoothed her robes and smiled in the mirror to check her teeth.
“Hermione, do you know a spell that makes your teeth whiter?”
I shook my head and sighed at the very Lavender-like question.
“No, but I’m sure one of those might be able to help you,” I said as I pointed to a stack of my spell books that looked quite intimidating towering on a table close by. Lavender frowned impatiently.
“Well we’re going down to the common room now,” Lavender told me as she examined herself in the mirror one last time before slipping on her mask. She beckoned Parvati as she picked up her handbag.
“Hope you feel better,” they said together as they slipped out of the room.
Stupid ball. Stupid, stupid ball. I began to wallow in my own self-pity and I didn’t even care. I had gone and as good as lost Harry by acting that way. Why should I go? To make a complete fool out of myself? I grabbed a change of clothes and headed down to the prefects’ bathroom to take a long and well deserved bath. I hoped that by the time my bath was over, the ball would be too.
I came out of the bathroom feeling very much refreshed. I just had a long, luxurious bath without any real worries (if you don’t count the ball) or interruptions. My hands were all wrinkly, like they are when you’ve been in the water a long while. I even smelled of flowers, which made me relax a lot. I had a slight grin pasted on my face and I blinked sleepily even though I had only just awoken from my nap. By this time, everyone was probably well into the ball. Harry’s probably forgotten about me. Good for him. I didn’t need any drama in my life, especially for my age, when I should be thinking about be life after Hogwarts.
I climbed slowly through the portrait hole, entering the common room. It was completely empty. I leaned against a wall, hugged my book that I had brought with me to my chest, and closed my eyes, still keeping that grin on my face. Those soap suds sure had made me a bit delusional.
“Thinking about Harry?” a voice rang out of the emptiness. If anything were to take me out of a stupor, surely those words could.
My eyes opened immediately, and my arms dropped to my sides as if they were tied down with lead weights. A girl rose from one of the chairs whose backs were facing me, with her back facing me as well. The girl had straight hair that was a vibrant red col-- Wait a second, red color? Ginny…Ginny, boy was she going to get it. Why was she still up here? She turned to face me. She was wearing a white mask that covered her eyes, matched with pure white robes that flowed to her feet.
All I did was scowl at her.
“What are you still doing here?” I huffed heavily.
“I could ask you the same question,” she said smoothly.
“But haven’t you missed out on the ball?” I asked. “You must’ve missed ages of it by now! You shouldn’t have waited for me,” I said in a very apologetic tone. Why did Ginny have to go and wait for me? I hated her for it because now I was going to feel really guilty about it. She does that a lot. She makes me feel guilty for things, I mean. Now I felt like some sort of antagonist in a book.
“Well if you can call minutes ‘ages,’ then yes, we both have missed exactly five ‘ages,’” she said, looking at the clock with a smile.
“What?” I said in a very confused tone. “But haven’t I…I mean, didn’t the ball…Huh?” I said instead.
“You must have left for your bath a long time before the ball was supposed to start,” Ginny said smugly. “Betcha didn’t realize that, did you?”
I scowled at her again. I was supposed to have missed the entire ball by now.
“Well, what are you doing just standing there?” she said impatiently. “Go on, get dressed!”
“You think I’m going to the ball?” I said, as if the mere idea of it was ludicrous.
“Well, yeah, that’s what you told me, isn’t it?”
“Well newsflash, Gin, I can’t go to the ball,” I said, thinking of Harry and making my heart sink as if it had tripped into quicksand.
“Can’t or won’t?” she replied wisely.
I sighed. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“Harry and I are just going as friends, remember? Nothing less…and certainly nothing more. What am I supposed to do? Go and look like a complete idiot? I don’t want that to happen. Go on to the ball, Ginny. Have fun. I hope you have a wonderful night,” I said earnestly.
Ginny gave me a hard, appraising look before she said anything.
“You really do surprise me, Hermione Granger,” she said finally.
I looked at her with a bewildered expression. “What in Merlin’s name are you talking about?”
“Have you ever thought of what would happen if you stayed here? Did you ever think of how Harry would feel? Did the thought even happen to fly through your mind that you might hurt his feelings? Or have you only been thinking about yourself?” she said, and each question cut right through me. No, I had never thought of these things. Ginny really did have the gift of making me feel guilty…very, very guilty. She could probably make an innocent man feel the need to volunteer for the Dementor’s Kiss…not that she would ever do that or anything.
I slowly shook my head. “No, no I haven’t,” I said softly. How could I have been so inconsiderate? What kind of friend ditches her best friend just because she hadn’t gotten her way? Surely they wouldn’t be considered best friends after that. Best friends should always stick together through thick and thin. I had even said those exact words to Harry. What did I think I possibly was doing now? I was doing the exact opposite of that. It shouldn’t matter that I made a fool of myself. It shouldn’t ever matter.
“Well you might as well go and get changed then,” Ginny said with a grin. “We don’t want to miss any more of the ball. And don’t be hard on yourself, okay? Sometimes we can all lose track of what’s really important in our lives.”
I looked up at her, after concentrating on the carpet. “Oh, all right,” I said wearily as I began to get up and trudge up the stairs.
“Hurry up!” Ginny added. “At the rate you’re going, we’ll get to the ball and it’ll be your graduation!”
I chuckled to myself as I quickened my pace…but only by a little.
I reached the sixth year dormitory and opened the door. I went over to my trunk and searched at the bottom. Feeling around, I fished out a package that I recently thought I would have no use of. I opened the crinkly paper and looked at my folded dress robes. They were the same blue dress robes from my fourth year, but over this past summer, I had taken them back to Madame Malkin to see if she could hem them to match my new height and maybe fix them up a bit. Sure enough, Madame Malkin had come through and my robes were filled with magic again. Not literally, mind you. The silk periwinkle blue material felt almost like water in my hands. I unfolded them and took out the objects that were placed inside the folds for protection. First was the diamond jewelry. Earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet. All of them were made with sterling silver and pure diamond, cut, shone, and polished to near perfection (if I do say so myself). Mundungus would probably have a field day if he saw those. They were my mother’s and she even wore them on her wedding day. I set those down on my bed and pulled out the next object. It was a light blue mask outlined in rhinestones. Apparently my mum and dad went down to New Orleans (in the United States) while my mum was pregnant with me and my dad had gotten my mum this mask. I asked my mum if I could borrow it about a week ago, and she sent it to me by owl. The last item I had was a pair of glass slippers. I know that this sounds exactly like something out of the muggle fairytale, Cinderella. In fact, that’s part of the reason why I bought them. I got them on my holiday to France a couple years ago. They were in a small unnoticeable magical store, and thankfully they were enchanted not to break and to be very comfortable to wear. Without those enchantments, I probably wouldn’t have owned them this long. I quickly put on my clothes and fixed my hair. I pointed my wand at it, trying to fix it into something presentable. I settled for it curling downwards. Don’t ask me how I managed to change my frizz into curls. I must’ve said one of the incantations wrong. I wasn’t really about to complain since it turned out so well. I glanced in the mirror and twirled around. I guess everything fitted all right. From the collar down to the rhinestone studded hems, everything seemed perfect. I slipped on my mask and tip-toed downstairs.
“Okay Ginny, let’s get this over with,” I said.
Ginny raised her eyebrows. “You look great, Hermione. I never want you to complain about going to a ball ever again. I mean, look at you! I have a feeling that this night might just be perfect.”
“Oh, it will probably be far from perfect, but we’ll be with each other. That’s what will make it okay,” I said, remembering our dilemmas with Harry and Malfoy.
Ginny and I linked arms and practically marched downstairs and into the Great Hall feeling very confident. As the doors to the Great Hall opened by themselves, some students gawked at us for being oh-so fashionably late. Ginny and I grinned knowingly at each other, but our attention was soon captivated by the decoration of the Great Hall. Two enormous hippogriff ice sculptures were placed at the entrance; each with a stern expression on their faces. As my eyes flitted upwards, I caught sight of the ceiling. Snow gently fell from the ceiling, disappearing before it could touch a single solitary object. Though it was snowing, the faint glimmer of stars could be seen through the thin clouds. The walls of the Great Hall all had been transformed into life-size winter landscape paintings that made you feel as if you were really outside, dancing carefree in the snow. On the far side of the hall, the Weird Sisters’ stage was set up, and they were currently singing their hit song, setting the mood for the dance. In the center, everyone was dancing like there was no tomorrow. Along the walls were small café-sized tables made of ice. The chairs at the tables sat two, and the backs of the chairs were created to imitate snowflakes. If you compared all of the chairs, you could see that there were not two chairs in the room that had identical designs. All the people who weren’t dancing were eating their dinner. The floor was also covered in snow. Not that fake, cotton snow that you see in store windows. This was real snow. It was enchanted not to melt, and it had no temperature to it either, so you didn’t freeze your feet off. The whole thing looked like something out of a fairy tale. It was gorgeous and beautifully created. I suspect that Professor Flitwick had some real fun creating all of the illusions.
Ginny and I sat at one of the ice tables near the center of the hall. It was filled with excitement and chatter. The buzz of the party definitely meant that everyone’s mindset wasn’t on Lord Voldemort for once. We both pulled out our snowflake chairs and sat down, feeling very grateful that we didn’t feel the ice beneath us.
“So now what?” I said as I examined the silverware on the table (it was made of clear crystal, if you want to know).
“What do you mean?” Ginny asked. “We’re here aren’t we? We can do practically anything we want to and get away with it,” she said, tapping her mask.
“You sound just like Fred and George,” I said.
Ginny grinned. “Good,” she said.
As I looked around, I felt that I could not recognize one person in the room. Either that or I hadn’t seen anyone I knew yet. A mask couldn’t hide everything.
“So what do you think of it so far?” I asked Ginny.
“I think it’s wonderful. The Great Hall is astonishing. I’m having trouble believing that it only took one day to decorate it, even with magic,” Ginny said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It’s amazing.”
“I see Malfoy,” Ginny said suddenly, sounding very miserable.
“Where?” I asked.
She nodded her head over to the dance floor. Somewhere in the center, a male with white blonde hair was surrounded by females, and was arm in arm with Pansy Parkinson.
“Oh no,” I said breathlessly. “Don’t worry about him Ginny. Tonight’s your night. I’m sure someone else will come along, just don’t think about it.”
Ginny smiled, but by the look in her eyes, I could tell that she didn’t really feel happy.
“Thanks Hermione, but I’m not really looking for anyone else.”
Just then, by some strange coincidence, a boy with dark blue robes came up to our table. He had ruffled dark brown hair, and a certain feel about him that seemed like I had met him before.
“Would you like to dance?” he asked Ginny, having eyes only for her.
I leaned over to Ginny. “Go on,” I urged at her doubtful look. “Remember, tonight is your night. Go have fun,” I said.
“Are you sure?” she whispered back uncertainly. “I don’t want to leave you here.”
“No,” I insisted. “Go ahead, I’ll be fine.”
With that, Ginny smiled warmly up at her masked stranger.
“I would love a dance,” she said, as he held out his hand for her, helping her to her feet.
“Don’t worry,” the boy said to me. “I’ll have her back by the end of the night.”
I grinned at them, watching the boy lead her to the dance floor.
After a few minutes of watching everyone else dance, a boy came up to me as well. My heart leapt up in my throat as I realized that it was Harry.
“Do you mind if I sit down?” he asked, with an unhappy expression on his face.
“Sure,” I answered. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Well,” he began. “I can’t find my friend, and I’ve been looking for her everywhere. Maybe you know her? Her name is Hermione Granger…I don’t know what she’s wearing, but maybe--”
“Harry,” I laughed. “It’s me!”
“You’re who?” he said, looking uncertainly at me.
“It’s Hermione!”
His vivid green eyes expanded in surprise as his jaw dropped.
“Hermione! You look beautiful!”
I felt my cheeks tinge pink as I grinned in embarrassment.
“You don’t look bad yourself,” I answered as I noted his bottle green robes from our fourth year.
“How did you know it was me?” he asked curiously.
“How could I not know it was you?” I responded.
“You should never answer a question with a question,” Harry joked.
“So now what?” I asked. “You found me. Are you going to ask me to dance?” I asked, half-joking.
“That was precisely what I was going to do,” he answered, even though we both knew that Harry wasn’t any good at dancing.
He held out his hand for me, and I took it willingly.
As we set out on the dance floor, we danced to another of the Weird Sisters’ hit songs. I don’t deny loving that fact that there were so many people around me, and that I loved dancing with Harry no matter how silly we both looked. After that, their song slowly faded into one of their popular ballads.
Harry and I walked almost cautiously to one another. I was completely mesmerized by his intense green eyes. I lightly placed my hands on his shoulders as he wrapped his arms around my waist. He handled me carefully, like I was a piece of porcelain china, trying not to step on my feet. After the first few blunders of the feet, we settled for not moving that much. We barely moved, only to lift our feet about half an inch off the ground. Over Harry’s shoulder, I saw Ginny being led by the dark-haired boy in a series of ball room movements that I never would have expected. I smiled at her, and then looked at Harry again. Halfway through the song, I found that it was hard to breathe because Harry and I were looking at each other for such a long period of time, so I put my arms around his neck, and laid my head on his shoulder, not exactly wishing the light-headedness feeling away. I smiled to myself, feeling as if we were the only people in the entire room. My heart skipped with every breath Harry took and when he tightened his arms around me. The lead singer, Myron Wagtail, was crooning out the notes to the song. As the song quietly ended, Harry softly put his lips to my forehead and I felt like my heart was going sky-diving.
“Do you want to sit the next one out?” he whispered in my ear.
I nodded as we walked off of the dance floor. As we were walking, Harry’s hand found mine, and our fingers entwined. He felt so warm; I didn’t ever want to let him go.
We finally sat down on an ice bench that was facing one of the enormous paintings. It felt a bit silly to be staring at a wall, but then again, it looked completely real. In the picture, there was a little log cabin with smoke twirling up into the sky from its chimney. In the distance was a pine forest, and even further into the distance was a grey outline of rugged mountains. Harry sat down next to me and I laid my head on his shoulder, looking out on the landscape.
“Hermione,” Harry finally said. “You know you’re more than just a friend to me,” he said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “I wanted to tell you that. Even if you don’t feel the same way as I do, I’ve told myself that I at least need to let you know. Do you remember the night of your birthday?”
I nodded. How could I ever forget that day? It was the day that I found out Seamus was cheating on me.
“I told you then, while you were sleeping. I told you that I love you,” he said. I could tell that he was having trouble saying this.
I lifted up my head to face him as I looked at him uncertainly. His eyes told me that he wasn’t lying, and I wanted so badly to believe him.
“I really do. I was too scared to tell you to your face, but now I’m not. I love you, Hermione.”
Our faces began to come close together, but suddenly tears began to well up in my eyes and stream down my face. After all this time of loving him, why was it now that I wanted to back out? I choked silently on my tears as I turned my head away.
“I- I can’t,” I managed to say, wiping my cheeks with the sleeves of my robes.
“You can’t what?” Harry asked. “Kiss me or love me?”
“Both,” I answered, sending another series of tears down my face.
“I don’t expect you to or anything, but do you mind telling me why not?” Harry asked, wiping my tears with his hands.
I sniffed. “After Seamus, I guess I’m just afraid of it all. I don’t know if I can trust anymore. I want to but I just can’t,” I said, the tears blurring my vision. I blinked, and it sent them rolling down my cheeks.
“You know that I would never lie to you, Hermione,” Harry said resolutely. And I believed him.
“Oh Harry,” I whispered. “I don’t want to fall in love again,” I almost pleaded, tears shining in my eyes.
“Don’t worry…I’ll catch you,” Harry answered.
With that, he touched my face, and my chin tilted upwards. Our lips gently locked, and my eyes slowly shut, permanently marking this as the most magical night of my life.
- H. Granger