Little note;
Just a tiny chapter this time, they'll get bigger and bigger after this, lol. Thanks for the reviews! I'll keep updating daily, I think.
Chapter four
Potterfest
'I think she might have cast a Shrinking Spell on it,' Ginny mumbled, her dress stuck halfway through its way down, and she squealed: 'Hermione! Help!'
Hermione, already in her own white dress, hurried over to Ginny who was having trouble breathing, and pulled the dress down.
'There! Stupid jealous counter girls,' she complained.
'Ginny, we've got to GO!' Harry shouted from downstairs. 'We're supposed to arrive early!'
Harry and Ginny would be the first ones to dance (not something Harry looked forward to), and open the dance for everyone else. Ron had been bugging Harry about it for a couple of weeks.
'I'm not ready!' Ginny hissed at Hermione, who quickly came to her aid by brushing her hair.
'It's nice like this, you look pretty. Now go, he's obviously bleeding nervous for tonight,' said Hermione, who thought she sounded like Mundungus Fletcher.
When she'd given Ginny a little squeeze and the latter had ran off to Harry, Hermione could finally go and prepare herself. She and Ron didn't have to leave for another thirty minutes. Her hair was a bitch, as usual, but she pulled the trick for the third time; her hair was nice and straight, and she quickly put on a little make-up when Ron started crying hurry up's and come ON's to her, too.
Quite happy with the result, she wrestled her feet into her white pumps and tried to locate Ron's position to Disapparate into his arms, but unable to do that because he was probably pacing up and down the hall, she decided to just walk down the stairs as graciously as she could.
She stood looking at Ron's back (not an unpleasant sight, but she preferred his front) at the bottom step and cleared her throat loudly.
'Mione! What took – woah.'
'How do I look?' she asked, obviously hinting he'd better throw her some compliments.
'Better than ever, I'm glad I didn't ask the ghoul to be my date after all.'
She accepted his arm and smiled at him.
'Don't be mean! He would've looked very pretty in this dress, I'm sure.'
She looked him up and down and added: 'You look handsome, stranger.'
He did look a bit unlike Ron. He'd done something to his hair, which now had some sort of Harry effect on it, but she had always liked Harry's messy hair, and with Ron's face beneath it, it was picture perfect to her.
'So, ready to go, beautiful?' he asked her and George made puking noises while he strode past them.
'Shut up, earless!' said Ron in a bit of a rude way. He'd been very careful with making jokes to George, but he didn't seem to take it too badly.
'See you at the Fest, Harry, Hermione,' he replied grinning and Disapparated to his date's house. Apparently she was a 'mysterious, sexy stranger whom had always admired him'.
Ron had guessed he was paying someone to be his date, unfortunately being overheard by Mrs Weasley, who attempted to push him down the stairs.
'Well, we'd better go.'
Ron checked his multifunctional watch, grabbed her hand and they turned on the spot.
'… Think I lost my upper lip,' he mumbled moments later, and Hermione turned at him in concern.
She giggled. He hadn't shaven in a few days and apparently his moustache-to-be had been ripped off of his face.
'Your upper lip is fine. You're getting better!'
He frowned and touched his lips. 'Are you sure?'
'Sure as can be!'
She took the liberty to touch his lips as well.
Then they both turned around to look at the place they'd just Apparated into; they stood in an old courtyard, next to two heavily breathing dogs. They looked really hungry and Hermione shrieked.
'Oh, great job, you've done it all wrong!' Hermione snapped, before sighing and Disapparating again.
Together with a slightly grumpy Ron, she had entered a whole new environment.
They were standing in downtown London, in front of what looked like an empty warehouse. Luckily the invitation had warned them about this, for if it hadn't, they'd probably think they had Disapparated wrong again. Witches and wizards in pretty robes and dresses were crowded in front of the large building, all waiting to get inside. Ron and Hermione were VIP's (Hagrid had read a Muggle magazine and loved the idea, and therefore chose about two hundred people to be VIP's at the party, including a couple of centaurs), so they could enter immediately.
'Wow,' Ron said quasi-impressed, 'they actually made an effort!'
'You don't know that, Ron,' Hermione shrugged, 'I don't think they'll actually have a dance in an empty warehouse. Don't forget we're wizards.'
'Yeah, we are! We can do… magic!' Ron exclaimed, as if realizing it for the first time in his life.
Before he would be carried away and trying out cool magic tricks with his wand, Hermione clasped his hand firmly and started walking towards it.
A red carpet that looked rather out of place was welcoming them, and next to the door stood Hagrid, for once dressed in a hairless suit. He was accompanied by about a dozen witches and wizards with camera's and eager faces, undoubtedly journalists.
'Ron! Hermione!' Hagrid yelled at them, and his black eyes shone in happiness.
'You look ruddy fantastic!'
They said: 'Hey, Hagrid!' and waved at him, happy to see their biggest (take this literally, Grawp could, even though he was now close to behaving like a human, not yet be accepted as a real friend) friend again.
Ron took his 'humble-friend-of-Harry-Potter-pose' and Hermione smiled at the cameras, before they went inside.
'You're gonna love it, the both of yer! Luna, Dean and meself, we make a great team, we do!' Hagrid called after them, looking sentimental.
'I bet you do, I'm sure we'll love it, Hagrid!' Hermione smiled at Hagrid, and they went inside. Hermione looked backwards to see who were VIP's as well, and saw McGonagall march up the red carpet, with a most excited professor Flitwick running to keep up with her.
'So happy to be here!' he screamed at the journalists, barely understandable through the noise of the chatting crowd. 'So happy! I feel so privileged!'
Hermione looked at her former professors in a bit of a nostalgic way, but there was no time for what if… questions.
She'd chosen to help Harry on his journey and without her help (and her beaded bag); she knew as well as the other two, they wouldn't have gotten very far.
Yes, she'd done the right thing.
Inside, they entered a whole new world.
The party was Hogwarts-themed, and the banners of all of the four houses (though Slytherin's was slightly smaller than the other three) decorated the walls.
The enormous space was not yet crammed with wizards and witches, but they knew that was only a matter of time. There were dozens of house-elves patrolling through the warehouse (which was magically enlarged, even despite the enormous amount of room it already provided), all wearing the same little black suits and holding up trays too big for them.
Hermione thought she recognized Winky, but was not sure (and ashamed of this).
There were loads of high tables with red or black table-cloths on them and from what seemed to be beneath the floor were bright lights shining up at them.
A couple of feet away from them, they saw Luna running up at them in a long, blue dress, apparently not caring about her killer heels while sprinting.
'Welcome, welcome!' she said cheerily, and in a way sounded like professor Trelawney. Ron had obviously noticed too, for he backed away a bit, making apologetic faces.
'Hey, Luna! What a great job you've done…' Hermione said, gesturing at the huge food table where no food was on, just a sign saying: 'What you wish, you will receive!' and a lot of little notebooks.
'Oh, yeah, it's really cool! The Hogwarts house-elves heard rumours of the Potterfest and all of them offered to help out! If you write something on those magic notebooks, they will prepare it for you!' Luna beamed, and she held out her hands.
Confused, they took them and she led them to the big, wooden door.
'We've changed our plans! Ginny and Harry will still open the dance, but you will join them in the middle of the first song!'
'What?' Ron squealed. 'You've got to be kidding me!'
Hermione looked at him and practically saw his brains rattling, thinking:
'At least I've got dress robes that aren't ancient', and to her great shame, she was thinking the exact same thing.
Luna pushed them through the big door, where Harry, Ginny, Dean and somehow, professor Slughorn, were awaiting them.
'I believe I'm gonna throw up, mate,' Ron told Harry, indeed looking slightly green, sitting down next to his best friend.
Hermione said hellos to Dean and Ginny and stared at Slughorn, who was wearing emerald green robes with embroidery on it. Wrapped around his neck was a expensive-looking silver scarf, and lately, he seemed to have enjoyed more of his favourite candy than ever, judging by the size of his belly.
'Well, children, from what my sources tell me,' he started, throwing a furtive look at Dean, who looked rather unhappy, 'your dancing abilities have suffered some serious damage by not practicing over the last few years!'
He shot all four of them mean glances, as if it was their fault they'd been trying to stop Voldemort and fight evil away.
'We're genuinely sorry and apologize for every non-taken opportunity to put on our dancing shoes and go for it,' Ron said, sounding quite truthful.
Harry and Hermione grinned at each other and looked back at Slughorn, who was looking at Ron in a very compassionate way.
'Ah, my dear boy, I understand! Of course, your insecurity has possessed you over the years, I'm happy to see that you have changed your attitude! Very brave!'
'WHAT MADE YOU THINK I WAS INSECURE?' Ron roared, but Slughorn gave him a vague wave, and Ron calmed down.
'Anyway, I will show you some dancing moves to loosen up those muscles!'
He gave Ginny a little squeeze in a muscle we will not name here, and she swung her arm forwards and hit him full in the face.
'DO THAT AGAIN AND I'LL SHOW YOU MUSCLES! Ginny screamed, adding 'professor' in obvious sarcasm and revulsion.
Slughorn drew his wand in agony.
'Must be something in that Weasley blood of yours!' he breathed, yet loud enough for Ron and Ginny to hear. They chased him all the way to the door, and he almost made a dive for it. From the other side of the door they heard laughter, and they started to laugh themselves, too.
'How comical that was,' Harry concluded after a while, and they all agreed.
Hermione was feeling quite nervous now; she could dance, of course, but Ron was horrible. She reckoned Ginny was mulling over the same thing, too; Harry had proven not to be that much of a dancer at the Yule Ball, where Parvati Patil had almost tripped over him.
'Maybe we should just dance together and let them be,' Hermione offered in a low voice, and Ginny giggled.
'Nah, the Potterfest wouldn't be the same without Potter, would it?'
'You just love to see Harry suffer, don't you?'
'Oh, more than anything,' Ginny answered, but they were interrupted by Dean jumping up and laughing broadly at them.
'Uh-oh, I believe it's time.'
'Everyone we invited plus a couple of reporters are inside!' he said happily, and slowly, they rose to their feet.
'Do we have to?' Ron whined.
'Yes, you do,' said Dean, not attempting to hide his excitement about them going to be humiliated in front of hundreds of people.
And before they knew it, Dean had pushed Ginny and Harry through the door, yelling: 'Good luck, lovebirds!'
Ron sighed and looked at Dean. 'Pathetic. You're so not over Ginny.'