Hermione awoke a few hours later, Ron's arm around her waist, both of them half-naked in her parents' bed. At first, she thought Ron had finally got the best of her and they had done it, but, jumping off the bed, she realized she wasn't naked and smiled, remembering his kindness in the bathroom. Then she realized what time it must be and ran to her bedroom quickly taking a shower in her personal bathroom and getting dressed. When she was done, the wild girl added rouge and eyeliner, tied her hair in a high ponytail and ran out of the room; ready to wake Ron and inspect Harry's cleaning skills.
"Harry! Ron!" she gasped after having run all over the house a couple times, inspecting as she went along, and satisfied with the cleaning. She walked to the master bedroom one last time before she was going to head directly to the Burrow in hopes of seeing them there when she saw a note on the bedside's right table:
Hermione,
We're going to head on without you in case the party needs any extra help for preparations and such. Don't be late, birthday girl!
Harry (and Ron)
P.S.: Ron says you're beautiful.
Hermione smiled, folding the letter and putting it in her handbag. She turned to quickly make the bed and disapparated on the spot, having temporarily removed the anti-apparition wards.
When she arrived at the Burrow seconds later, she knew something wasn't quite right. No gnome wandered the gardens, no chicken pecked at seeds in the yard, no one answered the front door…All was still.
"Well that's unusual" she breathed quietly inspecting the entrance before jumping back in fright as the door banged open and fireworks shot out of the windows, exploding in the sky above her. She gasped as every living member of the Weasley family, Harry, Dean and Lavender, Parvati, Seamus, Padma, Luna, Neville…Basically all of the D.A./members of the Order of the Phoenix. They kept filing out and she briefly wondered how they had all fit in the small house until one Draco Malfoy walked out holding hands with Ginny.
The Weaselette had started dating the blonde earlier over the summer as the war was finally over and his name had been cleared. Voldemort was finally gone and all criminals were given their punishments. In Hermione's opinion, this particular ex-Death Eater should have been sentenced to a life-long stay in Azkaban but, unfortunately, she was not in the power to make that decision. She had made it clear that she disapproved completely of him. However, for Ginny's sake, she had kept quiet, ready to tell him off at any moment. No way was he going to start another war or battle or whatever it was he was capable of doing that she knew he would do if the opportunity arose.
She glared at him, the only acknowledgment he received from her. She turned instead to Ginny, hugging her tightly and thanking her for having her parents arrange the party.
She continued on to hug everyone in turn, thanking them all for coming and placing present after present she received under her arm, the load becoming increasingly harder to maintain balanced.
"Need help?" a horribly familiar voice asked as the owner brought yet another present under her nose.
"No." she said firmly.
"Listen Granger, there's a table over there. What say you to putting them all down?" he asked matter-of-factly, as though he hadn't been the one to torment her during her six first years at Hogwarts.
"I don't know what you mean by all this" she stated finally, making eye-contact for the first time, her brown eyes searching into his grey ones. A frown crossed his face before being concealed behind that almighty composure of his. "What are you doing here? Why are you with my best friend, a Gryffindor no less? How dare you show your face here? Why did you bring me a present for, for God's sake?"
His composure never dropped; his voice showed no hint of anger or resentment. All he did was stare at her until Ginny walked up, grabbing his arm and kissing his cheek, trying to pull him away from Hermione, obviously sensing trouble. Ron walked in with perfect timing, grabbing the gift from Malfoy, a few from under Hermione's arm, and putting them on the table Malfoy had suggested.
Hermione glared at Malfoy until he walked away, her chest heaving from the effort of restraining herself from demanding answers to her questions but quickly realized: Ginny. Ginny was the reason he was here, wasn't she? It was because Ginny was Hermione's friend that Malfoy had brought her something. Perhaps it was because of Ginny that he turned to the good side. Maybe he was using her to stay out of trouble too!
She marched up to Malfoy and grabbed his arm, trying to steer him outside to talk alone. It wasn't until he grabbed her arm tightly that she realized she should not have touched him at all. Afraid now, she backed away, trying fruitlessly to break his death-grip on her arm. She could feel the blood leaving her hand but he didn't let go. Finally however, he slackened his grip, and steered her outside himself.
"I won't answer any of your questions, you haughty bitch. Know this though: you are definitely going to pay for that one. Don't think you can talk to a Malfoy with that insolent tongue of yours, grab at a Malfoy, or accuse a Malfoy of anything you want. You know nothing!" he shouted at her before running up into the house.
"ARGH!" she yelled for the second time that day. Who the hell does he think he is!
She ran back to the house and continued celebrating with her friends until past midnight once again, though this time without the influence of alcohol. After the adults deemed it fit to leave the teens alone, Ron pulled Hermione into a tight embrace, kissing every inch of her face he could reach. To demonstrate his disgust, Malfoy ran from the room muttering on about "filth!" Ginny decided it was time for ice cream and she ran after him to convince him to help. They both came out carrying cartons of ice cream of mixed flavors, bowls and spoons. The whole birthday party theme had been tropical and exotic; the ice cream followed this, the bright colors in the cartons imitating Hermione's party dress.
"Alright!" Harry called, taking an ice cream spoon out of a side-drawer. "Hermione, sit in this chair here," he said pointing at a chair in front of him.
She sat and daringly allowed him to cover her eyes with a bright blue bandana.
"We have dozens of flavors here and you're going to try them all…" he trailed off and she could hear him opening the first carton. "But first-" he paused and casting silencio on the entrance of the room before then asking someone to turn the music on. "O. K." he went on as music blasted out of the new muggle stereo. "Tell me what this flavor is-"
As soon as the frozen goodness touched her tongue she recognized the strawberry-watermelon twist and smile, "STRAWBERRY-WATERMELON" she roared and received tumultuous applause.
"Correct!" they all shouted at her, begging to pick the next flavor for her to try. After many correct answers, when spoon after spoon had begged entrance into her mouth, the atmosphere lifted, cheerful and carefree once again. It wasn't until she heard a "let me get her to try this one" that she froze in her seat, afraid.
The spoon touched her lips and she silently debated whether to try it, afraid it might be poison. After a moment's hesitation she parted her lips and hoped for the best. The taste was delicious: piña colada. For a moment as she licked her lips and savored the wonders of the sherbet, she pictured Draco's lips against her own, his tongue full of piña colada…but she quickly snapped out of it, pulling the bandana off.
He did that, she thought wildly. I would never…he added something to it! She glared at him silently and realized he could've slipped anything in it while he was in the kitchen.
"You!" she said fiercely, stabbing him in the chest to further emphasize her anger. "What did you add to it?" she seethed loud enough only for him to hear.
"Nothing, birthday girl. Don't tell me you needed it to think in ways like that..." He trailed off, half-amused, half-mischievous.