Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for twelve different colors in eyeliners.
The Challenge (posted by Ms. Louis Cordice Zabini): Dumbledore wants to lighten up spirits after the war. He does this by making it mandatory for teachers and students to partake in Spirit Week. (Author's Note: I tweaked it a little to make it Deathly Hollows compatible by having his idea carried out by Professor McGonagall, so I figured I was close enough. I also added the dance myself, just to make it so that Spirit Week was leading up to something like it does at my school.)
Requirements: Spirit Week: Monday-Little Kid Day; Tuesday-Social Swap Day; Wednesday-Twin Day; Thursday-Opposite Gender Day; Friday-School Spirit Day. Must be 5 chapters or more. Harry/Ginny, Ron/Pansy, Blaise/Luna, and Draco/Hermione. Draco and Hermione MUST kiss. Must have a happy ending.
Two. Dresses and Dates.
Ginny held up a burgundy dress to her body to inspect it in the mirror of Gladrag's Wizardwear. She frowned, disappointed by the way the color clashed with her freckled skin and long, red hair. Hermione seemed to be having problems finding a suitable dress as well judging by the small crinkle in her forehead. Ginny sighed and glanced over her shoulder at Pansy, who was sitting on one of the chairs examining her nails. She was having a custom-made dress sent to her by her family and was spared the stress of looking for a dress in the small, outlandish shop on a Saturday. Ginny couldn't help but be a little jealous of that fact.
"Hermione," Ginny whined, placing the burgundy dress back on the rack and pouting dejectedly. "There is no way in hell that we are going to find any dresses in here that are even somewhat attractive. I mean, just look at the place! Bloody hell, it looks like someone ate a bunch of clothes and puked up all the unattractive ones all over this place."
Hermione grimaced and looked around the store. She hated to admit it, but Ginny was right. Most clothing stores were organized, first by size of the clothes and then by color. Gladrag's employees had literally tossed clothes on racks, leaving the garments hanging, sometimes forlornly and other times covered by many other pieces of clothes until there was a small mountain on the rack.
"I know, Gin," Hermione replied. "But where else can we go? There's no way to sneak to Diagon Alley. We barely figured out the way to get to Hogsmeade. And I really don't want to get lost looking for a secret passage to Diagon Alley. This is the best we can get."
"I can't stand how frumpy these make me look though! And they all clash with my hair. It's like someone in the fashion world decided that clothes should not look good on redheads and the rest of the designers followed suit without thinking twice. And it's not like Mum is going to go and buy me a nice dress and send it to me by owl. She refuses to dip into the money Ron gave her after the war," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. "She says she's saving it for an emergency."
"I think this counts," Hermione stated, giving Ginny a look. "You should definitely floo her tonight and beg for a dress."
"I don't know," Ginny said skeptically. "Mum has never been an overly social person. She'll just tell me not to go to the dance."
"Then tell her that Harry wants to go and you're doing it to please him."
"I could do that. I just don't know that I trust her taste in dresses though."
Pansy started snickering from her seat behind the two girls. Hermione and Ginny locked their eyes on Pansy, glaring at her. The snickering continued even as Pansy met each of their glares. She shook her head and put a small hand over her mouth to try to stifle the laugh.
"And what's so funny, Pansy?" Ginny asked. Pansy continued to shake her head and laugh. It took a few moments for her to collect herself enough to answer.
"Put those atrocities away. I ordered three dresses for next weekend, but only one has my measurements. The other two have your measurements," Pansy explained. "I just had to see you two try on the ugliest dresses in the world before I could stand to tell you."
Shocked, Ginny looked at Hermione. "But you never even took our measurements," Hermione said, aghast.
"It's not hard to guesstimate," Pansy said. "Especially when you've got an eye like mine. I plan on being a designer when I graduate, and your measurements aren't that hard to judge by sight."
"Merlin, Pansy. Thank you," Ginny gushed, rushing forward to hug her friend. Pansy smiled and hugged Ginny back, and then hugged Hermione. "What color are they? Are they long or short? Where did you get them? How much did they cost? I'll floo Mum and tell her to send me however much it cost, because she won't let me just take a dress like that. What color is yours? When are they -"
"Whoa now! Easy on the questions, Sherlock," Pansy said, smiling at Ginny's excitement. "Hermione's dress is purple and your dress is dark green. They're short, a couple inches over your knees. They're from Madam Malkin's. You don't get to know how much they cost, so don't even think about flooing your mum and asking her for money to pay me back. Because I won't take it. My dress is red. They're being sent to me on Monday, so we can try them on on Monday night to make sure no changes need to be made. Any other questions?"
"What do they look like?" Hermione asked. "Other than the color?"
Pansy grinned. "That's for me to know and you to find out."
0000
Harry sat back in one of the armchairs in the Gryffindor common room, waiting for Ron to make his move in their game of wizard chess. He had to be very careful because if he didn't make the right move, Harry would have his Queen mated, and that wasn't something that Ron was going to allow to happen without a good fight. His brow was furrowed with concentration as his right foot tapped on the ground obnoxiously as he thought his move through. Harry took his moment to think about Ginny. He wondered what her dress was going to look like. He knew she would look stunning in it, but other than that he had no clue.
Ron finally made his move, saving his Queen for one more turn. Harry quickly moved his Knight to put her back under pressure and smirked. Ron frowned, annoyed that Harry had gotten so much better at the game since their last time playing one another.
"Ron, who's going to ask Hermione to the dance?" Harry asked suddenly. He knew that he was going with Ginny and Ron was going with Pansy, simply because they were dating. Blaise Zabini was going with Luna Lovegood, who he had been courting since halfway through summer. Harry wasn't sure how it had happened, but apparently Blaise liked the odd girl. He had asked her to the dance after the feast and she had happily said she would go with him, followed by something about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks being in the Forbidden Forest and needing to be fed. Blaise had come up to the Gryffindor common room that night and told Harry and Ron about the experience and both of them had laughed but congratulated him.
Ron looked up at Harry, his brow furrowing even further than before as he thought even harder about that. It was odd for Ron to think about Hermione dancing with anyone since he had fancied her once and now saw her as his sister. He felt very protective of her. "I don't really know," he finally said. "It's not like she's unattractive, so I'm sure that someone will ask her. Maybe Pansy or Ginny could get one of their guy friends to ask her? I'm not even sure that she would mind if she went by herself."
Harry doubted that Hermione would be okay with going by herself. She was confident in the library, but social scenes were not her cup of tea when she didn't feel like she was accepted. That acceptance would have to come from a person asking her to the dance. Ron saw the look on Harry's face and sighed.
"Yeah, you're probably right. Maybe we should keep an eye out for someone, too," Ron murmured. "If worst comes to worst, she can go with someone younger."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Hermione needs someone who she can actually talk to though, not some dimwitted sixth year. She'd be two years older than the little bugger since she was supposed to be a seventh year when he was a fifth year. You know that wouldn't work."
"And you know that there's absolutely no one at this school who can match Hermione for wit and knowledge expect for that bloody sod Malfoy. And the entire school knows that he would die before walking into the dance with a muggleborn on his arm," Ron shot back.
"As right as you are about him being the only one who can match her for wit and knowledge, you could be completely off base. Things and people change," Harry replied.
"Harry, you can't be serious right now!" Ron exclaimed. "You hated Malfoy for the better part of seven years! You can't just go and take that ferret's side all of a sudden and try to say that he's changed. It's not possible for him. He's just a right foul git, and I won't let him fool you with his smooth act. He belongs in Azkaban and you know it."
Harry shook his head. "Hermione has already explained this to you, Ron. I know that you don't like him as a person, but he doesn't deserve to be in Azkaban. And neither do any of the other Slytherins who were allowed to return to school. I'm not saying that I like him either, because he is a git. And I'm not saying that I want him to go with Hermione to the dance, because that would mean dealing with him all night. I'm merely stating a fact: he is the only male in this school who can keep up with her intellectually."
"Either way, Harry, we all know that she would say no if he asked her," Ron said, hoping he could believe his words. Hermione could be a very surprising person, and sometimes she forgave too easily. She trusted people right off the bat, and even more if they sincerely apologized. Not that Draco Malfoy would ever apologize to a muggleborn. It was beneath him. So the way Ron figured it, they had nothing to worry about concerning Malfoy. Ron made his move on the chessboard and sat back.
Harry, on the other hand, had other ideas about what they could expect from Malfoy. "Checkmate."
Ron frowned at the board, crossing his arms over his chest and looking annoyed. The portrait creaked open as he and Harry started to clean up from their game and Hermione, Ginny, and Pansy walked in, arms free of bags. Harry and Ron shared a confused look as the girls made their way over to them. Ginny kissed Harry on the cheek by way of greeting and Pansy gave Ron a quick hug before sitting on the nearby couch with Hermione.
"So I see that you've returned empty-handed," Harry said, somewhat befuddled. "What happened?"
"Pansy ordered us dresses when she ordered her own," Hermione said, grinning from ear to ear. "So we don't have to worry about them."
"Well that was very sweet of her," Ron said, smiling at his girlfriend approvingly. He couldn't be happier that she was getting to be closer friends with his best friend and sister. "What do they look like?"
"We don't even know yet! She won't tell us." Ginny pouted. Pansy rolled her eyes at the melodramatic girl.
"It has to be a surprise! I know you'll like them," Pansy said, nudging Ginny with her shoulder. "Anyways, I want to see our Triplet Day outfits. You still haven't shown me those. Which means that I'm about to just go up to the dorms and ransack every room until I find yours, at which point I will find this outfit. But that's only if you refuse to take me to them."
Hermione laughed and pulled Pansy with her to go upstairs. "Bye boys!" she called over her shoulder as she and Pansy ascended the staircase that led to the girls' dormitories. "You coming, Gin?"
"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute!" Ginny called back, still reclining on the couch. "I have to talk to my brother and Harry for a bit."
"Suit yourself," Pansy said and followed Hermione. Harry and Ron looked at Ginny inquisitively, not sure whether to be scared or not. She smiled deviously, which didn't soothe their thoughts or dispel the confusion they felt.
"What's up, Gin?" Ron finally asked.
"Hermione needs a date for next weekend," Ginny stated. When she didn't say anything more, Harry motioned for her to continue. "Well, I was hoping you could suggest some people who you thought might be good enough for her, especially since you two have to approve or it could be a very awkward. Which means I need your input on every single boy in this school who is a seventh year currently."
"That's a large number of people, Gin. And not all of them live up to Hermione's standards or intelligence," Harry said.
"Well, that narrows the list down a lot, doesn't it?" Ginny said. "I expect a list of suitable boys by Monday. Now, I'm going to look at my Triplet Day outfit. Don't tell anyone we're doing this, alright?"
"Yes ma'am," Ron said, jumping up and pretending to salute. Ginny laughed, rolled her eyes, and stood up. She kissed Harry once more on the cheek before she skipped across the room to the staircase leading to the girls' dormitories. She arrived at her room a few moments later, where Pansy and Hermione were already wearing their outfits for Triplet Day. Hermione had magicked copies of her muggle shirt, shorts, shoes, and accessories for Ginny and Pansy to wear.
"This is going to be the best day ever," Ginny said, smiling as she walked over to her friends. Hermione handed Ginny her ensemble, laughing a little.
"People are going to think we're crazy," Pansy stated.
"Let them think what they will," Hermione said proudly. "We're having fun. And that's not something they can't judge us for."