A/N:
I do not own Harry Potter.
I may still add to this story.
December 1994
The Yule Ball fever had spread throughout Hogwarts. The school was hosting the Tri-wizard Tournament, and along with that came the responsibility of hosting a Yule Ball for the guests and for students Fourth Year and above. Indeed, every corner of the castle was filled with girls flipping through Witch Weekly advice columns on hair, make-up and etiquette advice, happily talking amongst each other about how perfect their nights are going to be, or boys comparing notes about how to make their dates swoon. The whole castle was abuzz with Yule Ball talk, every single resident of Hogwarts was excited...
Except for one bushy-haired Fourth Year Lion. Hermione rolled her eyes when she heard Parvati and Lavender swoon over a Madam Monique dress they saw in a Witch Weekly magazine.
"Isn't it dreamy? What I'd do to wear this to the ball!"
Hermione couldn't help glancing over to check on the what it was the annoying duo was going crazy about this time. She felt her heart sink when she saw that it was dress she was secretly crushing on herself - a muted pink tiered gown made of chiffon and silk. The brilliant witch had no idea how long she had been staring at the dress until her two classmates cleared their throats.
"Hermione, do you like the dress too?" Lavender inquired.
"I'm sure it might make you look good for once," Parvati chimed in. "It's just too bad you aren't going to the ball."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at her two classmates before she picked up her books and headed out of the Great Hall. In her rush to leave the two laughing witches, she paid no mind that a slip of paper had fallen from her Charms book onto the floor.
"Accio, Granger's love letter," a voice whispered harshly. Immediately, the piece of paper flew from the ground and into the hands of one Draco Malfoy.
"What does it say, Malfoy?"
The blond Slytherin skimmed through the letter, before he cast an Inciendo and watched it burn. "It seems Krum backed out as her date to the Yule Ball."
"Well I can imagine! Who would want to date the mudbl-", Crabbe was starting to say when Draco narrowed his eyes at him. "Sorry, Draco."
"Well, what are you going to do now?" Theo Nott asked. "Find her a date?"
"Actually, I need to find Pansy A Date," he replied coolly. "Looks like I've finally found mine."
The Slytherin boys stared at their handsome young leader like he'd grown two heads. "Granger? Aren't you afraid your father -"
He looked at them murderously. "Let him hear about it then," he told them, much to their surprise.
"So how are you gonna do this? She doesn't exactly like you," Blaise inquired.
"You're such a great friend," Draco said sarcastically. "You underestimate me. I'm Slytherin. I can make her go with me. You'll see."
"Ten galleons she screams at him before she says yes," Goyle whispered.
"Raise you to fifteen she knocks him out before he even asks," Theo responded.
"I bet twenty he wouldn't even be able to go anywhere near two feet away from her," Blaise countered.
Draco rolled his eyes. Oh they of little trust, he thought to himself as he tried to figure out how to make the frizzy-haired brunette say yes to him.
A week to go before the Yule Ball, and Hermione was still without a date. Harry offered to take her to the ball along with Parvati, but she politely refused, knowing how Parvati would never forgive her for ruining her perfect night. Dean and Seamus asked her if she wanted to go with them, as the pair was attending stag, but she politely refused as well. She may be dateless, she thought, but she didn't want to go with anyone because they took pity on her.
And then it happened over breakfast on December 20th. While the students were busy eating and chatting about the upcoming Yule Ball, the owls flew into the Great Hall with copies of the Daily Prophet, letters, and care boxes for some of the students. Hermione watched as they happily opened their letters and boxes, when the sound of wings fluttering in front of her caught her attention. A majestic eagle owl landed in front of her, and then bowed before it presented her with its right leg. Tied to it was a letter and a pouch. Curiously, she untied the package, nodded at the owl and offered it a bite to eat before she sent it off. When the majestic bird flew away, she turned her attention to the package in front of her.
"What do you reckon that is?" Harry asked.
"Only one way to find out," she said, opening the pouch and taking out a beautiful silver rose hair pin.
"Who would send you a… a… what is that anyway?"
"Don't talk with your mouth full, Ronald," she chastised, as she unfolded the letter that came with the package. It read:
'Roses are red,
but in this case it's silver.
Will you go to the ball with me,
A positive answer, please deliver.'
PS: Tap your wand once to say Yes. Twice to say No.
PPS: Please don't tap twice.
Hermione frowned. The card was not signed so she didn't know who her mysterious letter sender was. At this point however, she was done being the topic of people's conversations about how she got ditched by Viktor Krum and how she was still dateless. She took out her wand and tapped the parchment once. The parchment lit up and magically disappeared.
"You agreed to go on a blind date!" Harry exclaimed.
"What? The person who sent it is blind?" Ron asked, incredulously.
"No he isn't Ronald," Hermione hissed before turning to Harry, "And so what if I said yes. Maybe someone actually likes me, is that so hard to believe?"
Harry and Ron watched, bewildered, as she kept sighing happily throughout her meal.
The days had gone by with Hermione receiving roses, chocolates and letters. Harry, Ron, Dean and Seamus were all betting on who their friend's admirer could be.
"Two galleons it's Anthony Goldstein!"
Dean frowned at Seamus, "Really? Well, I bet three galleons it's Ernie McMillan."
"Ew, not that jerk! Five galleons it's Adrian Pucey!"
Harry almost choked when he heard Ron's pronouncement. Just then, the eagle owl they fondly named 'Mr. Post Owl' flew into the Great Hall and straight into Hermione's direction. Again it bowed and presented its leg where a big blue box was tied to it. She carefully extracted the burden off the owl and offered it something to nibble. The owl nipped her affectionately and flew off. When she opened the package, she saw a beautiful pair of pink diamond earrings and a matching necklace. The guys' eyes widened, while the girls in the table dropped their jaws.
"Hermione, those are jewelry!"
"Very good observation, Parvati," she retorted.
"No, you don't understand," the olive skinned Gryffindor said. "In Pureblood custom, when a man wants to declare his affection in public, he presents a woman with jewelry."
She closed the box. "Pish, posh!" she exclaimed. "If he wanted to declare his affections in public, he wouldn't be anonymous, don't you agree? Stop giving it a lot of meaning. I'm pretty sure that whoever it is doing this is doing this because he feels bad I don't have a date. That's all it is, all right?" and with that, she stood and left for the library.
That evening, she entered the dorm and got ready for bed. It was the night before the Yule Ball, and she was feeling nervous and excited. While in the library, she couldn't help thinking - what if what she said earlier were true? What if whoever her mystery date is, is just doing it out of pity? What if he looked horrible?
'Since when did you care how people looked?' she scolded herself, as she drew the curtains of her four-poster bed in the girls dormitory. She gasped when she saw a big box on the bed, wrapped in an ornate wrapping paper with a card attached.
'You'll look beautiful in this. I would like it very much if you'd wear it to our date tomorrow. Your friends are right about the jewelry. And no, those aren't fake. I'll see you outside the Great Hall at seven.' was written in elegant script. Eyebrows furrowed, she opened the present and saw the exact same dress Lavender and Parvati were swooning over a few days ago. She couldn't believe her eyes - the dress was everything she'd imagined it to be. And after reading the note, she felt her heart beat even faster. What exactly did he mean by her friends not being wrong about the jewelry? Was he saying he liked her? She tossed and turned in bed, wondering what was going to happen during the ball. Maybe saying yes was a bad idea.
The next day came and went too fast. While the rest of her classmates were busy putting final touches to their make up, Hermione was sat on her bed, looking at all the tokens her mystery date had given. She felt it was just right to use them, to show him she appreciated his gifts. When the last of her classmates left the dorm, she rose and started to get ready for the ball. It was six-fifteen, and she had a good thirty minutes at least to get ready and move to the Great Hall. She carefully applied Sleekeazy's hair potion on her hair, and styled it in a loose updo. She applied light make up, and slipped into the dress her mystery date gave her. Hermione looked at herself in the mirror and thought she'd never seen herself so beautiful in her life. She put on the pink diamond earrings, and twirled to check how she looked. At five minutes to seven, she started walking to the Great Hall.
From a few meters away, she could hear music and laughter coming out of the Great Hall. She felt her heart beat fast. Well, she was supposed to meet her mystery date outside. She was a few steps away from meeting him. Hermione came to a stop when she was right outside the door leading to the party.
"You're late,"
She jumped as she heard a voice from the shadows. "I'm right on time," she objected.
"I said seven o'clock, it's already ten minutes after seven."
She gasped when out of the shadows stepped the Slytherin she had punched in Third Year. "Malfoy?"
He smiled, "Yes, Granger?"
"You're…"
"Yes, I am," he bowed and offered his arm out to her.
"But I thought…"
"Well you thought wrong obviously," he winked. "Come on, Granger. Give me a chance, will you?"
"This isn't a prank?"
"I wouldn't spend galleons and raid my family heirloom for a prank," he said, frowning.
She smiled. The truth was she was hoping the blond Slytherin would take notice of her, even just once. This was better than she'd imagined.
"You look beautiful, Granger," he said. "I told you that dress would look good on you."
"All right, Malfoy. I'll give you a chance. You know your father -"
"Will hear about this? Granger, he already has. How do you think I was able to get a hold of those pink diamonds? They're my mother's jewelry. She passed it on to me so I can give it to you. So what do you say, shall we go give the Great Hall something to talk about?"
She threw her arms around Draco and kissed him on the cheek before she nodded. "Let's do this, Malfoy."
The doors of the Great Hall opened, and Madam Rosmerta could swear she heard Severus wail all the way from her bar at the Three Broomsticks.
End.