The Colour Pink

Chapter Nine

I do not claim ownership of anything in this wonderful world of Harry Potter.

Or Phantom of the Opera.

Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who is enjoying this story; whether reading it for the first time, following it, or favouriting it. But a very special thank you to the few of you who have taken a second to review. I love to hear your guys' thoughts about things! About how ridiculous somethinng is, how in or out of character people seem to be, if you enjoy a particular moment or if there's something about it that's just annoying—I am open to any and all thoughts you have! So please continue to enjoy in whatever way you like, but feel free to leave me any thoughts, theyare always welcome. Thanks again!

"So, you don't like Care of Magical Creatures because of…peacocks?" Hermione wondered with a half smile.

"It's just the principle of the thing! If a bird that gorgeous can bruise your left buttock, then just about anything else could kill you." The pirate was confidently defensive, passionate about explaining himself because he knew that he probably sounded crazy.

"Oh, you poor thing." Hermione said in between hidden chuckles. The two had taken a break from dancing and were wandering amidst the tables, holding hands and talking as they went. Somehow talk had come to least favourite classes, and this ridiculous truth had come out. Draco Malfoy was pretty much afraid of animals.

"That's why I like flying brooms. They have no mind of their own, no 'secret agenda'." He was half smiling himself by now, almost in disbelief that he had shared this secret with a girl he'd just met—he didn't even know who she was.

"I don't know about that. I've only tried flying three different times, and each time it was like I had towrestle with the broom for it to go where I wanted."

"That's because you weren't thinking like the broom."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll ever have the same thought processes as a Nimbus 2000 or a Stardust 360." She raised her eyebrows, though unseen because of her mask, and then giggled when the pirate rolled his eyes.

"That's not what I meant."

"You need to explain yourself more clearly." Hermione said lightly, as if it would solve everything.

"No, what I need," the pirate stopped, pulling slightly on Hermione's hand so that she stopped with him and they turned to face each other, "is to know your name."

Hermione didn't say anything; her brown eyes were surveying his softened gaze as his free hand had come up and pushed some free strands of her hair behind her shoulder. This is what had frozen her: that same hand was now rested lightly on her neck, just under her ear, and his thumb was caressing her jaw line slowly. Suddenly she realized that he was leaning towards her slowly, and her eyes fluttered closed in anticipation until she felt his breath on her ear.

"Before the night is up, I will know it." He pledged, and then his soft, hot lips pressed themselves gently against her cheek. Shifting once more, those same lips, now trembling, hovered just over her own trembling lips. But just as they touched Hermione gasped.

"Let's dance." She was blushing, flushed, warm, her heart was racing uncontrollably—she needed time to think. Draco Malfoy had just voluntarily kissed her.

"Draco Malfoy! Draco! Draco Malfoy!" A voice urgently called, weaving its way closer to the dancing couple. Hermione urged with her eyes for him to ignore it, but when the voice screeched in recognition Malfoy turned. Eyes narrowed, the boy continued to hold his dance partner's hand as he surveyed who turned out to be a frantic Emily. "I'm sorry to bother you, but you see I couldn't find Hermione—I don't quite know what to—"

"What's wrong." Malfoy maintained through Emily's nervous rambling. The girl wrung her hands together before saying:

"Ron Weasley's attacking Harry Potter on the front steps of the castle."

"What?!" Hermione shrieked, startling both Malfoy and Emily before leading the way off the dance floor, out of the Great Hall, through the Entrance Hall, and onto the front steps of the castle. There they found that Ron had grabbed Harry by the collar and had him pushed up against the stone wall while Ginny was doing all she could to get Ron to let go of Harry.

"What d'you think you're playing at, doing this to my sister—Gin! This is for your own good!" Ron's red-face yells shifted from Harry to his sister in a moment of annoyance.

"Just Let-Him-Go!" Each of Ginny's infuriated words was accompanied by a strong to kick to Ron's ankles.

Harry, in the meantime, his mask awry on his face so you could see where tender skin around his eye started to puff up already as blood trickled from a cut on his already swollen lip, was weakly trying to loosen Ron's grip on his shirt, "C'mon mate, just lemme go—"

"You would think that after all he's been through, Potter might remember to carry his wand with him." Draco noted with slight amusement from his place behind Hermione, and the Head Girl turned back to glare at him. Quickly turning back to the scene, she tried to take hold of Ron's arm.

"Ron, leave go of his shirt." She demanded authoritatively, but Ron just cast her a blank look as he said:

"Stay out of this."

For one moment it was as if he'd slapped her in the face, until thankfully Hermione remembered about her makeover. But the fact that Ron hadn't even recognized her at all was still jarring. Narrowing her eyes in determination, Hermione tore her mask off so that she could sternly glare at the red-haired boy.

"I said leave go, Ronald." Hermione persisted, and a surprising series of looks overtook Ron's face: anger, to bewilderment, to confusion, to recognition, to awed shock, and then finally to total and complete lividness. The last face hit Hermione so hard that a plead for help sounded in her voice when she then called for Draco:

"Malfoy, your assistance please."

Draco was glad that his mask helped to cover up his surprised face, because it was in that moment that it finally registered that the girl was Hermione, and had been Hermione all night long. Heart almost stopping with that revelation, Draco had to quickly regain composure before he went over and wrestled Ron off of Harry (unfortunately, Draco had also left his wand in his dorm room, and forgotten about the sword at his hip).

Once let go, Harry sank to one knee with one hand on the ground to steady himself while the other carefully removed his ruined mask. Hermione rushed over and crouched by him, holding his arm as a means of support while Ginny could only look on in concern because of the strong grip that was holding her back. Somehow Ron had managed to free one of his arms from Draco's hold to grab hold of her arm.

"Of course, Hermione's come to Precious Harry's rescue." Ron spat irately.

Hermione, Harry, Ginny, and Draco all had similar bewildered looks on their faces, and Harry angrily demanded, "What is your problem, Ron?"

"Oh, stop being so innocent! You Know!" Ron raged, "You know! Sneaking behind our backs like that!"

Ginny glared at her brother while Hermione sighed. Shaking her head, she asked, "What are you on about?"

"The Ring!" Ron screamed unnecessarily loud. Harry and Hermione froze, and Ginny only paused for a moment before wondering exasperatedly, "What ring?"

"He knows about the ring?" Hermione tried to say this quietly to Harry, but the tense silence allowed everyone to hear. Ron smiled triumphantly when he noticed Ginny's eyebrows narrow.

"What ring?" Ginny insisted harshly.

"The one Harry had Hermione fawning over a couple nights ago in the library!" Ron announced, happy to note that his sister had stopped trying to pry herself from his grip as she sent an unhappy confused look towards Harry and Hermione.

Draco watched with peaked interest as Hermione stood, her eyes narrowed stubbornly as she looked at her friend; "Ginny, it's not—"

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Ron cut Hermione off as he loudly addressed Harry, who managed to look genuinely sorry despite the wounds his friend had just given him.

"I'm sorry I didn't talk to you before I spoke to Hermione."

But Ron was unsatisfied, "And my sister? When were you going to tell her?"

"Tonight." Harry's tired eyes practically bled honesty, "I was on schedule until you showed up."

"I can't believe you. After all we've been through—" Ron trailed off, too angry to continue for a moment, "—I can't believe you'd get her all excited for this and then just let her go."

"Wait—" Harry stopped Ron for a moment. Shaking his head and realizing that someone was missing something, Harry eyed Ron, "What?"

"Hermione Potter does have a nice ring to it though, I suppose." Ron went on nastily.

"What?" It was Hermione's turn this time to realize that something was amiss, and frustrations clouded her reasoning so that she couldn't figure out what it was.

"I can't believe you! Leading me on like that, like some—harlot." Ron vented. Hermione gasped, Harry glared, Draco's grip on Ron tightened considerably while Ginny still stood there, confused. Without hardly an thought Ron turned his focus to Harry; "And you! Feeding all that to my sister and then having a—an affair with Hermione, of all people!"

"Stop talking about Hermione like that." Draco seethed unexpectedly, and the Head Girl promptly sent a bewildered look towards the boy.

"Great! You've even seduced Malfoy." Ron was purple with rage. Eyes narrowing, Hermione was clutching her mask with a white-knuckled grip, her free hand fisted as she glared at Ron, but at the last second her intense eyes shifted.

"You're not helping, Draco."

A furious look overtook his unmasked eyes and bade the Head Boy argue with indignation, but he instead jostled Ron roughly and carefully slid a veil of rigid calmness over his eyes, reasoning that he could take this up with Hermione later. Especially since Harry was shaking his head and saying:

"You think I gave Hermione the ring."

"Well, didn't you?" Ron's furiousness faltered a bit.

"Why would I? Hermione's like my sister." Then, despite the unromantic atmosphere, Harry drew a ring from his pocket. With fierce confidence, overlooking the fact that he was still on one knee because he hadn't the strength to stand up, he held the ring out to Ginny and gave her an honest look.

"Ron misunderstood. I only showed Hermione because I was afraid this would scare you away. The truth is— I love you, Ginny Weasley. I love you, and I know we're to young to marry but I promise that one day I will ask you to marry me. And this ring—" Harry paused to catch his breath, "—this ring is a symbol of that promise. And I was sort of hoping that you would take it, and wear it, and promise to say yes once that day comes."

Hermione held her breath as she watched Ginny. The girl had one hand covering her gaping mouth, the other filled with a fistful of her dress while her eyes shone brightly. A brilliant smile lit up her face when she nodded and made to move towards Harry. But she froze mid-stride, turned to glare at her brother (who Draco had released when the boy had wilted in embarrassment), and then whacked him hard on the shoulder. Her smile returned and she spun, running to Harry and falling on her knees in front of him when she got there.

Forgetting the ring for a moment, Ginny threw her arms around his neck and finally found her voice; "I love you too, Harry! Yes, of course I promise!" And when she finally pulled back, Harry slipped the ring onto her right ring finger.

Had Harry not been injured, and Hermione not felt stung by Ron's words, it would have been a perfect moment.

Startled by a sigh sounding from somewhere behind her, Hermione whirled around to find Emily leaning against the doorframe. "Oh Emily, I'd forgotten you were here…"

"I don't blame you." Emily said ruefully, and then smiled, "Beautiful ending though, eh?"

Hermione agreed as she peeked back to find that Ginny was gingerly planting kisses on Harry's bruised face.

Pirate-Draco then made a move to go past Hermione and into the castle, but Hermione caught his arm, accidentally dropping her mask in the process.

"Draco, wait. Please, I just—"

The grey-eyed glare from behind his mask for some reason hit her harder than any other time he'd glared at her. Hermione recoiled, quickly drawing her hand from his arm. Wide-eyed and brow furrowed with worry, Hermione stood stubbornly under Draco's long glower. Wishing with all her heart that she could scream out anything, Hermione tried to portray her regret, reasoning, and longing through this one critical moment.

But either he didn't see it, or her refused to, because he leaned down as if to tell her a secret and lowly but purposefully whispered, "Don't ever touch me again, you ungrateful hypocrite."

The only good thing that Hermione could see about this heart-wrenching situation was that Draco had turned away fast enough so that he hadn't seen the tears welling in her eyes. Horrified and mortified because Emily had witnessed the entire exchange, the Head Girl covered her face with her hands, regretting with all of her heart that she'd gone through with the makeover.

"He didn't mean it, not really." Emily insisted, putting a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder. But Hermione wasn't so sure. Emily sighed and then continued, "Maybe we should get Harry to Madam Pomfrey or something—before a professor gets here."

Hermione nodded absently, uncovering her face and looking up to where Draco had gone as she wiped away her tears. That was true enough, where the flip had the professors been throughout that whole ordeal? Sighing, and trying her hardest to push aside her regret and pain, Hermione turned.

And there stood Ron: tall and blushing with her mask in his hands. Clearing his throat, he offered the white mask to her almost reverently. It was a peace offering, an unspoken apology. But for some reason it only broke down the indifferent façade Hermione had just been trying to create. Eyebrows narrowing dangerously, Hermione snatched the mask from his hands fiercely. Shaking with rage, the girl's brown eyes welled up with tears again, and because she was trying to keep them from flowing freely, her hateful words were said thickly:

"Why can't you communicate with people like a normal person? Or do anything right for that matter?!"

Ron reddened, eyes narrowing as he wordlessly pushed past Hermione and Emily to enter the castle and head straight for his dorm room. Trying to control herself, Hermione shakily fitted her mask back onto her face, surprised when she shuddered with relief.

The shock of the realization was what ultimately halted her tears: she felt safe behind her mask.

"Hermione." Emily cautiously said, and Hermione looked over at the girl as she finally mastered the look of calm apathy.

"Go back to your friends, Emily." Hermione continued, cutting Emily off before she could start, "I'll take care of Harry's wounds. Enjoy the dance, you worked hard for it."

Emily bit her lip but stopped trying to argue. One expression of gratitude and an encouraging smile later, the girl had turned and started on her way back to the Great Hall. Hermione focused back on Harry and Ginny, hoping that all the drama hadn't affected them. She knew that the couple had been happily preoccupied in their own little world when Ginny looked surprised to see Hermione there, and then held up her hand:

"Look, isn't it gorgeous?"

Hermione nodded with as much genuine sincerity as she could muster before she approached them and borrowed Ginny's wand to fix Harry up quickly.

Hopefully he would patch up easily and they could return to the dance without anyone noticing. Sighing, Hermione started her work.

-

Some hidden part of Draco Malfoy knew that he shouldn't be this mad at Granger, but his thoughts were still fuming as he re-entered the Great Hall. Did she realize how much he was sacrificing by even just looking at her without glowering? Pansy had been disgusted with him, and Blaise wouldn't even talk to him anymore.

Defending her meant risking everything, even if hardly anyone had been there to see it. Jaw tense, the boy stayed away from the dance floor but looked on earnestly, as if he were searching for someone to yell at. But his fellow students were having too much fun jumping around and singing along to the Weird Sisters that no one was doing anything reprimand-worthy.

He found himself glancing to his left often, where the entrance to the Hall stood not far away. It was just after the lead singer announced that the next song would be their last for the night that Hermione finally entered, followed close by Potter and little Weasley. A sort of cruel satisfaction set in when he noticed that the Head Girls shoulders were scrunched forward, and her head was bowed slightly as she walked. That was not the walk of a happy girl.

Serves her right. Draco thought with a glare as one hand returned to rest on the hilt of his sword. Deciding spontaneously that he didn't want to be anywhere near her at all, he angrily stepped towards the mass of moving people.

"Watch it!" He hissed when he bumped into someone, but at that moment he really didn't care. Weaving through the students on the dance floor, Draco tried to suppress his anger by barking reprimands left and right. And he didn't stop until the last note of the Weird Sisters' song had been played.

"It's been great fun, you're a good crowd. Have a good night!" The lead singer finished with a flourish, waving and smiling while trying to catch his breath as the students cheered for the band. He then followed the rest of his band mates off stage, but was stopped when he was halfway down the stairs.

Curious, Draco craned his neck to try and see what had stopped the man, but the dim light and bad angles only let him catch glimpses of a form. Well…at least he knew it was human. Eyebrows still narrowed, he watched as the lead singer nodded, and then turned and hopped back up the stairs, striding back to the mic.

"Hey there—just back with a message for Mr. Harry Potter." The lead singer looked out towards the crowd as he gestured towards the stairs to the stage, "Your sister's looking for you."

Anger forgotten, Draco's eyebrows rose under his mask, "What the hell?!"