Hermione ducked behind the door, barely escaping McLaggen's notice as he reentered the room. She watched him make his way through the crowded party, scanning for her until Professor Slughorn had the compassion to stop him and strike up a conversation, and slipped quietly out of the dungeon.
Out in the hallway, she let out a sigh of relief. She knew full well she shouldn't have asked McLaggen to come with her. The idea had burst into her head suddenly, and she had clearly not bothered to think things through entirely before acting on it, but there was nothing for it. She was just going to have to deal with it for the rest of the night. Hopefully, it would be a small price the pay for Ron's jealousy.
She chanced a glance back into the room, wondering how long she could get away with standing there before McLaggen realized that she was missing. Judging by the animated conversation he appeared to be having (no doubt about spectacular Quidditch save no. 4082 he'd made against such-and-such semi-famous player), she guessed it would be quite a while, but still she couldn't depend on it. Slughorn was bound to notice her absence sooner rather than later and would probably ask after her. But she was already resolved to appear only as long as she was required. The moment McLaggen remembered that she was supposed to be there fawning over him, she was agreed to humor him for five minutes and then distract him by asking him to get drinks or tell so-and-so the story about his uncle Tiberius while she escaped from the room again.
Right on cue, she saw McLaggen turn his head, peering around the room while Slughorn attempted to do the same. Rolling her eyes, Hermione ducked back into the room, carefully avoiding McLaggen's gaze for as long as possibly, finally letting him spot her near the punch bowl. He waved his hand for her to join them, and resigned, she obliged.
"Ah, Miss Granger!" Slughorn beamed as she approached. "Wonderful to see you! I hope you're enjoying yourself?"
She winced as he winked enormously at her. "Yes, yes of course," she answered, secretly wishing she could dump the punch bowl over McLaggen's head, as he was now gazing around the room, uninterested so long as the conversation did not revolve around him.
"Excellent, excellent," said Slughorn happily. "And, of course, I'm rather pleased to see two of my best students here together," he added, winking enormously at them. Hermione had to exert an extreme amount of self-control to keep herself from vomiting as she forced a smile. McLaggen on the other hand, responded brightly:
"All thanks to you of course, introducing us."
Slughorn chuckled merrily, tippling a bit and smacking his lips. Hermione could sense McLaggen once again preparing to command all of Slugorn's attention and internally breathed a sigh of relief, excusing herself awkwardly by pointing towards Harry and Luna, who she had just noticed standing off to the side. As she approached, Harry raised her eyebrows in amusement.
"Oh, shut up," she grumbled, seeing his facial expression.
"I didn't say anything," he said innocently as she glared at him. "I didn't realize there would be so many people here."
"Yes, well the Slug Club" (she made a face as she pronounced this) "has been expanding since you've stopped coming to meetings," she said, eyeing the company disdainfully. "Keep an eye on McLaggen for me, will you? If he starts coming this way let me - err, what's up with Luna?"
Harry turned to watch the little blond girl snatching randomly at the air for no apparent reason, ignoring the stares she was getting from the other attendees.
"Looking for a wrackspurt, maybe?" Harry mused.
Hermione snorted. At least Harry's date was just as bad as hers.
"Oh, you'd better hide," he murmured. Hermione quickly glanced behind her to see McLaggen approaching.
"Thanks. If he asks, Luna and I went to go touch up in the bathroom," she muttered back before grabbing Luna's hand as she sped away from McLaggen.
Unconcerned, Luna followed obediently, albeit dreamily, and Hermione had to half drag the girl along with her to the door, sneaking back out into the hallway. Outside, Hermione rested against the wall for a moment until she noticed Luna gazing at her dreamily, her head tilted slightly to one side.
"Erm, thanks for coming with me Luna," she said quickly, remembering how uncomfortable Luna's presence could be. She wasn't sure how long she could keep this up, either. McLaggen might be an arrogant ass, but he wasn't stupid. At some point he was bound to get suspicious, even if she kept changing her excuses for disappearing.
"Why were you running away from Harry?" Luna wondered, her enormous eyes staring.
"What, oh, umm I wasn't running away from Harry, just McLaggen."
Luna's eyes grew wider. "Oh, I see. That was probably a good idea then. After all, the McLaggens are good friends with Rufus Scrimgeour. Daddy thinks they're probably vampires too," she said in earnest.
"Right," Hermione mumbled, trying very hard to keep the skepticism out of her voice. She was busy peering back into the room to see if it was once again safe for her to return when it happened.
A buzzing sound, not unlike Muffliato seemed to fill her ears, and she could not for the life of her, remember where she was or what she was supposed to be doing. She had the distinct feeling that she was supposed to be doing something however, so she turned to face Luna, only to find that she had no idea what this girl's name was, nor what she had wanted to say to her.
"Hermione?" Luna tilted her head, watching.
Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. Those sounds seemed familiar somehow, so she moved towards them.
"Wrackspurt got you?" The voice sounded distant. Hermione did not know what those sounds meant either, nor did she recognize that the little blond girl was speaking to her. For all she knew, this stranger could have been asking the wall what was wrong.
Hermione moved towards the little blond girl. She wanted to ask for help, only she couldn't remember how to form the words, or indeed, what the words were. It seemed she also could not remember how to walk, because she stumbled forward until Luna caught her and helped her stand (unsteadily) upright again. The little blond girl stared pleasantly at Hermione, forming words the latter could not understand. She had the sense that if she moved her mouth she could make a faint, garbling sound not unlike the ones she could hear issuing from the little blond girl's mouth.
Hermione frowned and leaned in closer towards Luna. She could feel the sounds her mouth was making, even if she couldn't understand them, and she had the strange sense that if perhaps she could also feel the sounds the little blond girl was making, perhaps she could make some meaning of them. Her lips found Luna's, but to her disappointment, there weren't any sounds coming from the little blond girl anymore. She pulled away and stared into Luna's eyes, willing the girl to understand her, to help her, when suddenly the world came flooding back, and Hermione snapped back into reality, only to find herself inches from Luna's face and with no memory of the last five minutes. She stood there for a moment, gathering her surroundings before she leapt backwards, unable to remember what had just happened.
"Err, I'm sorry Luna, but can you tell me what just happened? I can't seem to remember anything."
Luna gazed at her dreamily. "Oh, don't worry, it was only a wrackspurt," she said. Her eyes turned from Hermione, wandering through the air as they tried to follow the path of the invisible creature, floating in the space around them.