A/N: Hey everyone! Back again! In just about a weeks time, I am done with finals and on break for a full glorious month, in which time, I fully plan to do a LOT of writing. Thank you all so much for sticking with me! Hope you enjoy! -Shane
We went back to working in the library the next week. A lot of sorting through books. Which were destroyed beyond repair, which could be repaired, sorting them into correct sections, figuring out which sections were wiped out completely. I thought it ironic that the area that felt the most damage was the restricted section, but no one else seemed to get it.
After our bonding session the past weekend, everyone seemed to be getting on much better. There was a lot more support and camaraderie than there had been prior. Especially between Draco and everyone else. Draco and Harry got on well enough, because, though neither was willing to admit it, they were astonishingly similar. And now that Draco was more on the straight and narrow, he was, admittedly, much more pleasant to be around.
George and I made a surprisingly good team. He was efficient with the books, while I often lingered, longing to make a book so obviously beyond repair fixable. Though I resented to admit it, the amount of knowledge we were losing with some of these first editions was enough to make me cry, exactly as McGonagall had expected. My knowledge of the library came in handy, though. George was primarily in charge of sorting through, and the books that could be repaired he'd hand off to me. My thorough reading of so many of the books made it easy for me to, after reading a few sentences, re-print the title and author on a spine, for example, or fix a binding so that it fit in with the covers. In just the first two days working, George and I had managed to at least sort through between what could be saved and what couldn't, and organize the books by topic again. I'd managed to get through a section and a half by lunch of our second day.
Though working really without a kitchen, the house elves still were able to out do themselves with our meals eaten in the castle. McGonagall had set the house elves up in a house of their own, which warmed my heart, and they utilized their own kitchen and magicked the food up to the Great Hall around meal times. Today, what appeared to be a full holiday feast was laid out: ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, pies of every sort.
"Did I miss a few months? Is it Christmas already?" Ron joked as we tucked in. It was rather odd for the elves to cook up something like this. They usually stuck to sandwiches, soups, pasta, something of that sort.
"Apparently they felt it was long overdue for a feast. Well, come on then!" McGonagall ushered everyone over, beginning to pass around dishes.
"Hermione, could you pass the sweet potatoes?"
"Why don't you finish the serving and half of regular potatoes you have first?" I teased Ron as I picked the bowl up.
"If there's still room on my plate, I fill it." He retorted, ladling out at least two servings of the potatoes.
"Oy! Why is all the food pooling around Ron and not making it to the rest of us?" George shouted down the table. "We want to enjoy this surprise holiday feast! I demand food!"
"Yeah, we have needs too, you know." Fred said. "For example, it's rather close to the holidays, so I'm really going to need a certain prefect to let up on her domineering rule for a few weeks." He winked at me.
"Oh, really? Let up on you when most people are studying for mid-year exams? I don't think so, Mr. Weasley."
"Oooo, I'm Mr. Weasley now, how sophisticated. You hear that, George? I think we'll need to step up our game on our pranks, we're just a step away from being sirs."
"You can't be referred to as 'sir' until you refine your manners enough to be gentlemen." There was a soft "oooooo" from the fan club of girls around Fred and George. I smiled self-satisfactorily. This would be an entertaining battle of wits, if nothing else.
"Why, the dear lady doesn't think we have manners, George! I am both shocked and insulted. Never been nothing but kind to this girl, and she has the gall to insult me like that? Why, my dear Hermione, oh how I must change your mind now." He stood, coming to a stop behind me. I turned in my chair, ready to meet whatever challenge he threw my way. "Might I be ever so honored as to ask the lady's hand for a dance?"
"Nice try, but there's no music. It's a feast, not a ball."
"Such doubt from you this lovely eve! Oh, Maestro!" He shouted down to Lee, who summoned the radio from his room. Cranking the volume up, the sounds of Christmas carols filled the Gryffindor area of the Great Hall. "Now, your hand?" Fred stuck his hand out yet again, a look of "you'll never do this" in his eyes.
"Well, since you're trying so hard." I rolled my eyes. I hated dancing, I hated this many eyes on me, but I wouldn't let him think he could one up me, not this time. He bent and took my hand, kissing it, cueing another eye roll. Then, pulling me to my feet, and he began waltzing me around the table, which of course caught Dumbledore's eye.
"Oh, why, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, what great spirits you are in!" He shouted, clapping his hands with the music as the Great Hall's din began to quiet again. This, of course, prompted Fred to make an even bigger show of it, dragging me halfway around the room before the song stopped, and we came to rest in front of the staff table. Stepping apart, Fred bowed to me, while I executed my best curtsy. I couldn't help but giggle as the Great Hall burst into applause. As the noise again quieted, Fred made to move off. "Oh, but Mr. Weasley, surely you wouldn't leave such a lovely young lady under the mistletoe all alone?" I looked up, panic starting to well in me. Sure enough, Dumbledore was holding a piece of mistletoe over the edge of the banister, right over top my head.
My face was probably redder than any Weasley's hair had ever been. Sure, I'd imagined this scenario in my head dozens of times, but never like this. Never had he been forced to do it, never in front of all of Hogwarts. I refused to take my eye off of the mistletoe, because that would mean I'd have to see him walk back to his seat.
"Why, of course not, sir. No gentleman would ever be so rude." And so Fred stepped back over to me, leaning down and placing a peck on my cheek, causing the Great Hall to once again erupt into applause and cat calls. When he stood again, he offered his hand. "Well, my lady, I have made enough of a spectacle of myself for one evening. May I escort you back to your seat?" Composure, Hermione, get it together.
"Why of course you may. I, too, have been made enough of a spectacle of for one night."
"You mean you don't actually enjoy being paraded around the Great Hall for all to stare? I am ever so shocked Miss Granger." When we reached my seat, he held my hand until I was fully seated. Then, leaning down once more, he whispered in my ear. "For the record, you're a lovely dance partner."
"HERMIONE!" Someone snapped their fingers in front of my face. I shook my head to clear it, and saw half the table staring at me. "Sweet potatoes? Sometime today?" Ron said.
"You're snappy when you're hungry." I grumbled, passing the bowl to him.
"And apparently you go half way into space and back when you're hungry."