Graduation Ball
Disclaimer: I only own the idea, and Billy-Bob, the Scottish pirate. Though that doesn't really matter right now, does it? J.K. Rowling owns Harry and co., and I can't steal it from her unless *looks up thoughtfully* I make a fake ID card and say I'm her! *thinks some more* Nah, wouldn't work. She's better at writing than I am anyway….
Hermione walked down the steps to the Great Hall in the dark red dress robes she had just bought from Diagon Alley. She had put her hair in an elegant bun, and she had some fall of her hair fall in ringlets to her shoulders. She felt a bit like Cinderella, walking down those steps. Well, maybe not Cinderella, but some kind of princess anyway.
She had ended up going to the Graduation Ball with Seamus, even though she really didn't want to go with him. Who she really wanted to go with…well…he hadn't asked her.
As she came around that elegant curve of the stairs, she saw someone sitting at the end of the of the stairway. When she got closer, she saw that it was…Ron.
Hermione looked at him and suddenly realized how much he'd changed through the past seven years. She smiled as she remembered when he'd wore those maroon dress robes. The ones with lace collars and sleeves. He'd looked so funny in those…. But now he was wearing midnight blue ones, and they didn't clash with his fiery red hair like the maroon ones did. They seemed to…make him stand out more.
"Hello Ron." She said cheerfully to him. He looked up at her with his freckly face and smiled.
"'Lo Hermione. Who are you supposed to be?" He asked with a goofy grin.
"Well, isn't it obvious?," she did a little twirl on a step. "I'm a princess."
Ron chuckled a little and asked, "But where's your Prince Charming?"
He's right here talking to me, Hermione thought. But she said, however, "I don't know. Probably off with Lavender somewhere. Where's your date?" she asked curiously. She wanted to know who Ron had chosen over her. Ron's smile, though, dropped at the question.
"I didn't get one." He said gloomily. Hermione sat down behind him and patted him on the back.
"I suppose Eloise Midgen turned you down then?" she asked in mock sympathy. Ron whacked her playfully on the shoulder and said, "Actually, she was going with someone else."
Hermione laughed and looked into the Great Hall where everybody was dancing and having a good time. "You know," she said as she watched Harry and Ginny dance like there was no tomorrow. "I'm really going to miss it here." She sighed.
"Yeah," Ron started fiddling with a loosed string that was hanging at the end of sleeve. "Me too. But there's something that I always wanted to do here that I never got around to doing."
"And what's that?" Hermione asked curiously.
"I always wanted to slide down this banister," he hit the stair rail with his hand. "But you know, I'm probably never going to." He grinned at her. Hermione suddenly got an idea.
"Of course you can Ron! I'll slide with you! Come on, it'll be fun!" she ran up the stairs to where the banister began.
"Okay, but I get to go first!" Ron laughed as he ran up after her.
He saluted Hermione as he got on the banister, and he whooped "WA-HOO!" as he slid down it. Hermione heard a thump and Ron yelled, "Okay, you can come down!"
She got on the banister and managed to slide gracefully down for the most part of it. Ron was at the end of the stairs laughing. Maybe he's going to catch me…, she thought. But no, he stepped away from the banister to make room for her to fall, and she only had a few seconds to pull out her wand and make a mattress appear where she was going to land.
She fell on the mattress and got up, brushing the dirt off her robes. Then she whacked Ron on the back of the head.
"You dolt! You were supposed to catch me!" she said in mock anger.
Ron laughed and said, "Fine, I'll catch you next time."
So they went back up for a second ride, and this time when Hermione came down Ron had his arms outstretched to catch her, and that's exactly what he did. He smiled down at her and said, "You know, you're a lot heavier than I thought you'd be."
Then a drawling voice from behind them said, "Getting cozy with the mudblood, Weasley?"
Ron put Hermione down and turned to face Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Malfoy smirked at him.
"Yes, that's just what you were doing, weren't you Weasley? Trying to add some brains to the line? Tsk, tsk Weasley, you can do better than a little mudblood can't you?" Malfoy said nastily.
Ron lost his temper. He went up and punched Malfoy. HARD. Right on the nose. It started to bleed heavily, and Crabbe and Goyle just looked at him in shock, trying to make their little brains accept what they had seen.
"Malfoy, I swear to God, if you ever insult my family or my friends again, I'll break more than just your nose." Ron said in a deadly quiet tone. "C'mon Hermione, I think that the fun just went out of this room." Ron pulled Hermione into the Great Hall.
Hermione was scared and shocked, and she trembled, "Ron…you shouldn't have done that…he's going to get you back for that."
Ron looked at her and said, "He had it coming, you know he did. Besides," Ron took up his grin again. "That's another thing I wanted to do before I left here."
Hermione grinned at him. "Are there any more things you wanted to do here before we leave?"
"Yeah, maybe two more things, but other than that, I've pretty much done everything I wanted to do."
"Oh, well…look, I don't want to stand here talking through the whole ball, and it looks like Seamus forgot about me," she glanced over at Seamus, who was flirting with some sixth year girls a few feet away. "So…do you want to dance?" she asked finally.
"Why not?" Ron said. So they started dancing to the waltz that the Weird Sisters were playing.
"Are you leading me?" Ron asked in mock surprise as Hermione twirled him.
"This is a waltz where the women lead." Hermione said matter-of-factly. Ron snorted.
"It is not." He said.
"Is too."
"Is not."
"Is too!"
"Women aren't supposed to lead in any of the waltzes, Hermione." Ron laughed.
"Oh fine, you caught me….But I suppose you couldn't lead any better!" she replied.
"Au Contraire, Mademoiselle," Ron stepped back from her and bowed. "You forget that we Weasley's come from a line of excellent dancers."
Hermione laughed and curtsied at Ron, who took her up and practically danced for her. "See?" he pointed out as the waltz ended. "I told you I could dance!"
Hermione collapsed in a chair. "Well," she said. "I think I need to rest a little…and I am definitely not dancing to that!" the music the Weird Sisters were playing now was really, really fast. "You'd probably kill me!"
"Okay, okay…rest. See what I care. I'll just dance with myself." Ron let out a huge fake sigh. He looked up at the teacher's table and spotted Snape. Alone. Hermione heard Ron mutter, "Perfect…"
"What's perfect?" Hermione asked.
"Um…nothing…I'll be back in a minute, okay?" Ron said quickly. Hermione saw him pull something out of his pocket as he walked towards the teacher's table. It appeared to be…a dung bomb.
Hermione watched him set it off and send it and Snape, who didn't know what was coming. It hit Snape dead on the ear, and you could see his lips curling into a disgusted sneer. Ron ran back over to the table and sat down, trying to look casual and innocent. Hermione laughed at him.
"What did you do?" she asked.
Ron looked around and pointed at himself. "Who, me?" he gave her an innocent look. "I didn't do anything…"
"Yes you did…"
"Yeah, I did. I set a dung bomb on Snape. Now I only have one thing left to do…" he said thoughtfully.
The fast song the Weird Sisters had been playing stopped. Everybody clapped, and they started up a new song, a slow one.
"Do you want to dance now?" Ron asked Hermione.
"Sure." She smiled.
"I'll try not to go too fast for you this time, okay?" Ron said. Hermione kicked him playfully on the shins.
"Oh, shut up you!" she said. And then they started dancing and twirling and spinning and all sorts of different moves. And before they knew it, the ball was over. And it was time to go back to the common rooms for the last time. And sleep in their beds for the last time.
The entrance hall was crowded and it looked like they were going to be waiting for quite some time.
"So Ron," Hermione decided that talking would make things not be so boring. "What was the last thing you wanted to do before you go?"
Ron smiled. "Well…do you really want to know?" he asked her.
"Oh, come on Ron, just tell me…" Hermione said impatiently.
"But I can't tell you. It's something I have to do." Ron shrugged.
"Then do it! It's got to be more exciting then waiting here…" Hermione tapped her foot impatiently.
"You're absolutely sure?" Ron asked cautiously.
"Of course! Now just…tell me! Or go do it! You're annoying the bloody hell out of me!"
"Well…okay…" And he bent down and kissed her.
Hermione looked up at him and smiled. "You know, I've been waiting for you to do that." She said softly.
"It's about time!" Harry yelled as he and Ginny ran over to them.
Ron gave Harry an evil grin. "Well I'm sure that you and Ginny make a perfect couple."
Harry shot something back at him almost instantly. "At least I asked her out when I started liking her! You waited seven years! And even then you didn't ask her!"
Ron whacked Harry on the back of the head. "Oh, shut up!" he grinned. Then he kissed Hermione again, longer. Harry clapped and whistled at them.
But on the other hand…………
Draco paced furiously in the Slytherin Common Room.
"Damn!" Draco cursed under his breath. "Damn, damn, damn! My beautiful nose! Broken! And by a Weasley, no doubt! Him and that little mudblood always scurrying about together…DAMN!"
"Duh…duh…boss…what do we do now boss?" Goyle asked stupidly.
"Nothing…we wait for the perfect chance to strike, and strike we will!"
"Duh…that's a good one boss…duh…duh…" Crabbe sniggered.
"Don't laugh like that you great big lump! You must laugh evilly… observe…" Draco cleared his throat and started to laugh evilly. "MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
*dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!*
THE END OF THIS STORY
BUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I had to put a little humor in it…sorry…but I'm trying to make a fanfic for each category…you know, general, action/adventure, romance, humor, horror, etc., etc…. So if my humor fic fans are reading this…I posted something funny also (Voldemort Visits A Psychiatrist) Okay? Okay. And I think I did pretty good on this one too…took me a hell of long time to write as well…So flame me if you want, but I think that this is a pretty darn good fic! Ask the Scottish pirate Billy-Bob! (Arr, me mateys! I'll go blow some tunes on me bagpipe!) Hee hee!
toodles,
hermionefan