A/N: I know the chapters are short, but please understand that I was working with a forty-five minute time frame. I tried to show snapshots of their time together, and tried a new pairing: Hermione and Cedric. This story takes place in 4th year during the Yule Ball. Hope you enjoy. :)
Chapter One
Missing Dates
9:36 P.M.
The night… the Ball had been perfect. Actually, it had been more than perfect. It had been heaven. She had felt beautiful… gorgeous… phenomenal. It had been heaven. And then Ron had said something. He had opened his mouth and just let words pour from his lips. Stupid boy…
Hermione had to wonder what made that boy tick. Did his red hair indicate a temper or stubbornness? Or did its presence just give him an excuse to act that way? Or was it just a beacon of utter stupidity and blasphemous friendship? It was only then that she actually took a deep breath and willed her mind to stop racing. She never thought coherently in the heat of anger. That was when she thought up phrases like blasphemous friendship – though the description was fitting and proper.
In some back hallway of the school, she caught her breath, the ball and its swirling music were far below her. Viktor was far below her. So was Ron. So were her dreams. She would be lying to try and profess that she never dreamed of living her own Cinderella story. She had… before the girls in her school had ridiculed her frizzy hair and buckteeth. Now, her hair was smooth and her teeth were straight… and she could hex them all if she so chose.
She had even had her prince… an internationally recognized, sweet, and caring Quidditch player. And then Ron – the person who could have been one of the mice turned into the horses – had ruined it. He had ruined it completely. This night would never be a fairy tale, and all because of Ron. It all finally hit her and she dissolved to tears. On the night of my supposed fairy tale, I'm sobbing alone in a back hallway… and I didn't even leave a glass slipper.
o.0.o
Cedric swirled around the floor with Cho, who seemed jumpier than usual. Each time he asked her if anything was wrong, she smiled prettily and answered that everything was perfectly fine. And then she would through an uneasy look over her shoulder at Harry Potter. If Harry had been acting normally, Cedric would have just guessed that the two of them had had some sort of awkward encounter. But Harry wasn't acting normally. He looked tense and uncomfortable and kept staring unblinkingly at Cho.
Things had always come easily to Cedric. He was good-looking, responsible, and very intelligent. He was a prefect and the Hufflepuff Quidditch seeker and captain. Then why was the gawky, unsure, undedicated Harry Potter making his beautiful and elegant date uncomfortable? He usually wasn't this arrogant, but in his opinion, his presence was more soothing than Harry's disruptive one. He sighed as the song ended, excusing himself to go and fetch some drinks.
At the drink table, he found himself standing beside Viktor Krum. He smiled thinly at the other Tri-Wizard Champion. Krum seemed so happy. After all, he did have a beautiful date as well… and he was just like Cedric. Popular, well-liked, and usually lucky. At this, he spared a glance for Cho. She still looked uncomfortable and her own flighty glances attributed it to the one and only Harry Potter.
It was too much for Cedric. So he left.
o.0.o
Cho and Viktor both spent the next forty-five minutes trying to find their dates. No amount of questioning yielded their whereabouts. Hermione could not be found. And neither could Cedric.