In Preparation For…

(A/N Thanks to everybody who reviewed. They are greatly appreciated. I hope you guys like this chapter, I had fun writing it! Please review. Enjoy!)

Sure enough, Hermione was right. The talk of dresses, and masks, and dates, and everything concerning the ball was the only thing on people's mind. Nobody talked about how hard homework was or which teachers were being mean. This ball was consuming everyone. Hermione had no idea why, really. It just seemed like a regular thing to her.

The Halloween Feast turned out to be wonderful. There were many different foods. They had candied apples bowls full of candy. Ron and Harry were in heaven. Ron was so sugar high he could barley walk straight.

"Up you go," Hermione said, leading him back to his dormitory. "I think it's time you went to sleep now." Ron just grumbled.

The next morning Hermione was down in the common room reading when Ron came down the stairs. He was rubbing his head in pain.

"Bloody headache," he mumbled.

"Next time I would advise not eating so much candy, Ronald," Hermione told him. He just nodded.

The next two weeks passed almost normally, except for Malfoy constantly teasing Hermione and getting on her nerves. Come to think of it, that was normal.

The Hogsmeade trip was the following day, which made everyone increasingly excited. She had decided that she would go and probably go but sit most of the time. To everyone's great joy, it was time for the shopping.

"Hermione, I have decided to take you under my wing, so to speak. I am going to find you a stunning dress and mask to go along with it," Ginny told her matter-of-factly. In the last couple of years, she had really matured. She was no longer the gangly, awkward red-head that she used to be. Now she was stylish, hip, and gorgeous. Hermione hadn't really changed; she was still the know-it-all bookworm.

They headed towards the first of the dress shops. They entered Madame Molly's Boutique. "Oh," Ginny squealed, rushing over to a neon pink, extremely short, low cut dress. She brought it over and pushed it into Hermione's hands and into a dressing room. Hermione breathed in a huge sigh and tried it on. It actually didn't look bad. In fact, it looked very good. But it was something that was entirely inappropriate for a ball and something Hermione would never be caught dead in.

"Sorry Gin, it doesn't fit," she lied.

"Oh well, there will be other dresses." Hermione was in the dressing room, waiting for Ginny to hand her the next dress she was to try on. "Oh my gosh Hermione, you have to try this one on," she told her, handing over a medium length tube top dress. And so it continued. Ginny would hand over a dress, Hermione would find something wrong with it, and it would be cast aside.

Ginny had already found a dress. It was light purple with a modest neckline. It went to about her knees and flowed nicely.

"Hermione, I told Harry I would meet him at the Three Broomsticks at three, so I need to be getting to him. But you are going to find a dress, and then you can meet up with us. Sound good?" Ginny asked. Hermione nodded, not knowing where to begin as far as dresses. She started walking around the shop. There was nothing there that she really thought would be right for the ball.

"I don't even know why it matters, it's not like I'm trying to impress anybody or anything," Hermione thought to herself. But deep down, she was. Nobody in particular, but she did want guys to know that she did want some sort of relationship with somebody. It made her sad to know that males would only think of her as a bookworm who could help them with their homework. She was determined to find something that would make her look unrecognizable.

Hermione walked into another dress shop, Something for Every Occasion. It was a large shop. There were indeed dresses and robes for every need. She put her hand up and touched all of the fabrics. There were soft ones, course ones, smooth ones, itchy ones, and silky ones. Hermione glanced around the room, and then she took another look at a specific dress. It was sea foam green. The dress had medium width straps and the back was corset style with strings tying it. The front was a lower cut u-shaped neckline. It was snug on the chest and hips, and then cascaded elegantly down to the floor. This was the one. Hermione went to the register and paid for the dress.

She still needed a mask. The brunette walked around Hogsmeade, not knowing where to go. Hermione saw a mask store and walked inside. There were so many. One caught her eye immediately. It was a smaller mask, almost in a figure eight shape. For the most part, it was silver, but had black accent parts and black stones on it. Hermione was almost through. All she needed now was shoes and something shiny.

After some searching, Hermione had found the perfect high heels. They were silver with tie-up strings. Next, she went to the jewelry store.

"Can I help you find anything?" an old man who worked there asked.

"Actually, that would be great. I'm looking for a necklace with a pendant of diamond. Do you happen to have any?" she replied. The old man smiled with a glint of happiness in his eyes.

"Right this way," he said, leading her to a circular display rack. Hermione knew right away which one she wanted. It was on a silver chain, and the pendant was slightly S-shaped. It was beautiful.

"I'll take this one," she said, handing the necklace over.

"Ah and a discount for the lovely lady, 50 percent off!" he said looking excited.

"Thank you so much," Hermione said, handing the money over.

"Things are finally starting to work out," she thought joyously. But the mood wasn't going to last long, for as she stepped out of the store, Malfoy advanced on her.

"Mudblood," he spat, "who would want to take you to the ball, with your ugly hair, know-it-all attitude, and chubby legs." His whole gang laughed. Hermione didn't have anything wrong with her legs, but was very self-conscious of them. Malfoy knew this and took advantage of her.

Him and his friends just walked by her after that. Hermione was close to tears. He had pointed out all her flaws and embarrassed her. She would get him. The witch muttered a spell under her breath and pointed her wand at the back of his head. With a squeal, Malfoy was back to his ferret self. Hermione laughed and walked back to the Three Broomsticks.

"Hermione, you look flushed, what's wrong?" Ginny said when she sat down with her friends. Hermione recounted the incident with Malfoy. They all started cracking up when they heard what she did in retaliation.

"Nice one Hermione!" Harry told her. They talked for a while, then decided to head back to Hogwarts.

"Hermione let me see what you got!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Nope, I'm not going to show you," she said in a sing-song voice. "You'll have to wait until the ball; I want it to be a surprise." Ginny protested but Hermione stood strong and wouldn't let her see it. Now that she had her dress and things for the dance, she was actually looking forward to it.

The next day, Hermione headed off to Potions with the Slytherins. This was now one of her favorite classes. The Gryffindors were favored and Professor Jennings didn't like the Slytherins, so she punished them easily. The only downfall was hat Hermione still had to sit next to Malfoy. He would still tease her and make her do all the work, but he was cautious Jennings didn't see or hear him. His ego was still trying to recover from being turned to a ferret the previous day.

"So how was life as a ferret, again, Malfoy?" Hermione asked sweetly.

"Just bloody wonderful. It took Madam Pomphry three hours how to cure me, thanks to you," he said grimly. She smiled and laughed at him. Revenge, sweet, sweet revenge…

The ball was coming up on everybody very quickly. It seemed like they still had two weeks, but soon enough, it was just days away.