It had been an eventful evening for everyone involved. The Daily Prophet had even set aside a front page spread and two internal pages to cover the festivities of such an important day. For some it had been a day of celebration, to commemorate a year of peace but for others, those more directly affected by the war it became a day of remembrance.
For everyone who had attended functions they slept late into the morning. As reported by the Prophet, some celebrations ran into the wee hours of the morning. The Ministry's party was no exception.
Hermione rolled over and rubbed her eyes, trying to remove the last grittiness of sleep. The effort proved unnecessary because no sooner than she sat up did her bedroom door creak open and in crept her boyfriend with a newspaper curled up under his arm.
"Morning babe," he whispered.
"Is anybody else awake?" Hermione asked him, ensuring the whole time though that she kept her voice at a steady low volume as to not wake anybody else. They'd been officially dating for almost a year but that didn't stop any of the adults in the house from looking down upon them if they spent to much a lone time together. Hermione knew that Harry and Ginny were facing the same problem they were. How were you supposed to get any privacy when everyone went out of their way to ensure you didn't have any?
For Ron and Hermione the answer had come easily, while everyone else was sleeping.
Scooting over to the edge of the bed Hermione pulled back the covers and Ron kicked off his shoes and curled up to her.
"Did I ever tell you how beautiful you looked last night?"
"No, I don't think you did," she teased, although she had heard it from many people. One in particular caused her heart to flutter and her palms to grow damp. Something totally unlike herself, it was rather unsettling. Especially since it wasn't her boyfriend, but she wasn't going to tell him any of that.
"I wished I could have been with you last night. It was lonely. And now not being able to be seen with each other in public. Man it's going to kill me."
"I have to do it Ron. You know just as well as I do what a mess everything is right now. This is something I can fix, I know I can and if I walked away from it I'd feel so incredibly guilty."
"I know."
"God what time is it? I'm absolutely beat."
A snicker met her ears.
"Ron?"
"Well...ahh..."
"Spit it out."
"Fine it's 5:30."
"You have got to be kidding me. I just got to bed an hour ago. What did you have in mind coming and walking me at this ungodly hour? Did you have special plans that took more than thirty minutes to accomplish?"
"Well you never know," he said sheepishly.
"You are insane. I'm going back to sleep. You can stay or you can go. Whatever you do, please just be quite."
She rolled over so her back was facing him and whiled herself to go to sleep. It didn't come. She didn't hear Ron get up to leave but he didn't wrap his arms around her for the longest time. Sometimes she wondered about him.
As the sky gradually grew lighter outside her bedroom window but sleep still didn't come. Instead her mind was racing, replaying everything that had occurred the night before.
It had been a disaster of a day. A lot of the ceremonies had been scheduled for outside but like England was so prone to, dawn broke to a dark grey sky and wind blowing. By lunch time it became apparent that even if the rain did stop, there would be no way people could attend a festival outside without swimming trunks or full rain gear. You would have to be a duck, not a lady in fancy shoes or a man in his best robes to enjoy the festivities. The Ministry function had luckily been inside.
Doors were to open for dinner at 7:00 and the meal was to occur an hour later. With a ceremony of commemoration to follow. After that it was anybody's guess what was going to happen as the liquor began to flow and married men started dancing with their pretty young interns and the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement jumped up on the stage and sang a throaty ballad to his mother. Yes, anything could happen at this sort of event.
The most unexpected part of the evening was the arrival of two sworn enemies, together. The lively chatter dropped instantly to a dull whisper as the doors parted and in walked a young pureblood an accused but cleared Death Eater escorting a stunning brunet. Camera bulbs flashed as heads swivelled to witness this unlikely pairing emerge. It was later reported by some people that high up members of the ministry had been heard saying that hell had frozen over or something of the like.
For some people this seemed like the worse possible thing. A death sentence for her. She had her whole life ahead of her. What about that Weasley boy? The poor thing he's going to be devastated.
And other's wondered yet again how the young man designated to kill the great Dumbledore was not rotting away in Azkaban, awaiting a day that would never come, his release. If only they knew that the reason he was standing before them with his enemy clinging to his arm was because of a deal. A deal that would save him mentally in some ways, but shatter his mental well-being in others. After all, how could you get out of being Hermione Grangers lover completely unscathed?
As Hermione tossed and turned in bed more memories flooded her conscience.
-Malfoy and her walking through the crowds, posing for a few pictures before moving on.
-Ron standing alone with a drink in his hand. Staring off in her direction. It took everything she had not to run over to him and kiss him, apologizing for making him go through this.
-Picking up small desert bites after a wonderful meal, all the while trying to balance a top heavy champagne flute as they prepared for the toasts.
-Walking up to the Head Table where she sat with other members of the Order as guests of honour.
-Malfoy receiving glares from both the light and dark side as he accompanied her to her seat. It appeared their job wasn't going to be as easy as they thought.
-Herself after midnight and after a few to many glasses of champagne. She was what some would call a lightweight and what Malfoy had so kindly dubbed 'To damn innocent for her own good.'
-Malfoy supporting her as they left the hall.
-Malfoy standing off ten feet from her as she puked her guts out in a flower garden.
-Malfoy dropping her fully clothed onto her bed and stormy away to his own bedroom.
No wonder she couldn't sleep. It was amazing she still wasn't puking up anything left in her stomach.
Hermione finally fell asleep as Ron began to toss and turn as he gently woke up from a peaceful sleep. As soon as he was completely alert he looked over at Hermione and laughed. He had to have been drunk as well as to not realize she was still clothed in her dress robes. His laugh sadly woke Hermione up and at that point she gave up on sleep. Her stomach also decided to give up it's contents without a second thought. As she pushed herself off the bed and launched herself for the door a knock sounded. Hermione wrenched open the door and with her hand over her mouth stumbled down the hallway for the bathroom. After she unloaded everything in her stomach she made her way back to the bedroom. All the way she could hear the horrendous laughter of the man, no boy she'd been forced to fake an interest in.
"Good morning Granger. I see that a new day hasn't brought you any relief from your binge drinking of last night."
"Screw off Malfoy," she chocked out. She didn't have the energy to come up with some witty comment to fire back at him. Sometimes it just really pissed her off that he wasn't rotting away in Azkaban. Instead they were made to share the second floor bathroom together like god forbid, brother and sister.
"Anyway as much as I'd like to join you we have a briefing with McGonagall in five minutes. I'm sure she's going to go over how untasteful it is for a hero of war to be falling all over her lover at a Ministry Function. Whatever, oh and before I go, Weasley don't you just love having to give up your girl to me? I have to thank you. Not many guys would have the dignity to let themselves be pulled through the mud and hung out to dry when they didn't even do anything."
Ron jumped out of bed and yanked at his wand but Hermione quickly stopped him.
"Five minutes Granger."
"So I heard. Oh and Malfoy."
"What?"
"Next time you so kindly throw me in bed, could you at least take my shoes off me? Thanks, it's much appreciated. I don't want a repeat of last night next time we have to do this," and with that she closed the door.
"Where were we?" Ron chuckled.
"You were just leaving," she said, gave him a peck on the cheek and then proceeded to find her everyday robes as he glumly left the room.
xxx.:.x.
a/n A bit confusing I know and I promise things will be explained in a later chapter. Quite possibly in the next one. Please review. Thanks to all that have. Now I have to go to work, so sorry to cut it so short.
