Chapter Twenty-One
Harry was sitting with Daphne, Adrian, Robert and his date in the ballroom that the Ministry for Magic had rented for their Christmas Ball. He couldn't help but grin at the sight of Ron being coerced around the dance floor by his date, Eve Marling. Ron hadn't changed from the fourteen-year-old boy who had scowled his way through the Yule Ball. He still hated dancing. But unlike Padma Patil, Eve was attractive enough for him to humour her desire to dance. He was doing a pretty bad job of it, though, which was making Harry snigger.
"I don't know why you are giggling like a four-year-old little girl, Harry. The only reason why you're not up on the dance floor and being led around like an overdressed monkey is because Daphne values her toes," Adrian said mockingly.
Harry scowled at his work colleague. "No, that's not true. Daphne doesn't like dancing either, do you, love?" he asked his fiancée.
"Er…" she said, clearly not wanting to lie or hurt Harry's feelings.
"Come on, Daphne, let's show this Chosen One how Slytherins dance," Adrian said, holding his hand out and leading Daphne onto the dance floor, where he twirled her elegantly.
"Show-off," Harry mumbled.
Robert just laughed and went to grab his date from the bar before highlighting that Ravenclaws could dance well, too. Harry moped at the table, feeling more than a little abandoned. Usually he and Ron came to these functions together. This was the first year he'd been able to bring Daphne properly as, although Hermione didn't attend, she would have heard all about Harry's Slytherin date on the Ministry gossip grapevine.
Harry spied Angelina returning from where she had been chatting to friends and grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the dance floor. He'd show that cheeky Slytherin.
"Er… Harry do you think this is a good idea?" Angelina asked. "I remember Parvati complaining for days about the bruises you left on her feet during the Yule Ball and that was just one dance."
"That was those stupid Durmstrang boys. Besides, that was a decade ago. I'm sure I'm better at dancing now."
Angelina grimaced slightly but saw Adrian dancing with Daphne and decided that she could steer Harry that way and grab her infinitely more co-ordinated date and leave Harry's two left feet to the woman who loved him.
Hermione couldn't help but feel a little nervous about walking into the main ballroom. The last one of these things she attended had been just after the war where once more Ron had managed to ruin her night. He hadn't argued with her about her date because he had been her date. No, he'd got rip-roaringly drunk and puked all over her instead. The two balls she'd been to had seen her leaving the ballroom in tears and trying her hardest to stop herself from hexing Ron out of sheer anger.
Malfoy squeezed her hand. "Why are you nervous?" he asked.
"I'm not good at these things. The only two balls I've been at were a complete disaster."
"Oh, I wouldn't say the Yule Ball was bad. You had the whole male population of Hogwarts panting after you," Malfoy told her.
Hermione looked up at him in shock.
"Yep, even the Slytherins," he confirmed with a laugh.
Hermione snorted at that. "Please. As if you lot would have gotten over your blood prejudice to even admit I was a little bit attractive."
Malfoy leaned down to whisper in her ear. "You'd be surprised. Many a Slytherin boy's heart was torn that night. You were Muggle-born but you looked absolutely gorgeous."
Hermione blushed a little. Her fifteen-year-old self could have done with knowing that. She probably wouldn't have been so shy at letting Ron know her feelings then. But then again, that relationship hadn't turned out too well so it was probably a good thing it hadn't happened before the Great Battle.
Malfoy's voice dropped a little lower as he breathed in her ear. "But not as stunning as you look tonight."
Hermione looked up into his face and blushed even harder when she saw the desire in his eyes. She felt short of breath and couldn't help but lean a little into him and he in turn lowered his head slightly.
"There you are, Draco, you prick! I take it I have you to blame for this?" Blaise snapped from behind them.
Malfoy swore under his breath and Hermione regained control of her senses. What the hell was she thinking? She didn't even have the excuse of having had anything to drink. She and Malfoy both turned to face Blaise who was storming their way with a giggling Ginny in tow. Hermione couldn't help but gasp and then burst into laughter as she saw the posy of flowers Blaise had in his hand.
"Nice choice, Weaselette," Draco drawled.
"Why did my date – my female date – turn up at my flat with flowers for me to hold during the ball?" Blaise fumed.
"Come now, Blaise. We all know who wears the trousers in your relationship and it isn't you. Besides, you always were a feminine boy," Malfoy teased.
Hermione had never seen a huge amount of emotion of Blaise Zabini's face. He prided himself on being aloof from everyone and had the Slytherin trait of finding emotion a little too messy. But right now, he was raging mad and it showed. He looked as if steam would come out of his ears at any second.
"I'm going to kill you!" he yelled as he lunged towards Malfoy, who quickly darted behind Hermione, cravenly hiding from the consequences of the obviously silly idea he'd planted in Ginny's head.
Hermione's third formal party was saved from being another total disaster by Ginny grabbing onto Blaise's robes. "Don't you dare take another step towards Hermione," Ginny growled. "I did not spend hours this evening getting her ready, not to mention the whole day I spent in Malfoy's company with him moaning and whining, for you to ruin everything in a second."
Blaise took a few seconds to breathe deeply and get his temper back under control. "Now who's being the girl in your relationship," Blaise growled.
"Excuse me, are you trying to say that girls are weak and incapable of handling themselves?" Ginny objected.
"You better explain yourself, Zabini. I took on fully grown Death Eaters when you were still mastering basic defensive spells," Hermione fumed.
Blaise looked a little embarrassed when confronted by two such powerful magical humans, who also happened to be female. "I didn't mean it like that."
"You better not have. I will not date a sexist who thinks women are weak in any way, shape or form," Ginny fumed.
"Sweetheart, you are so formidable that you scare the largest wizard on his best day," Blaise back-tracked quickly.
Malfoy just smirked from his vantage point behind Hermione. "Mate, this is Hermione Granger. Only an idiot would not hide behind her."
"Whatever," Blaise snarled before stalking off into the ballroom.
"Those flowers suit you, by the way. They highlight your eyes. Ginny picked out your colours," Malfoy called out to the rapidly disappearing Slytherin.
"Prat," Ginny said, whacking Malfoy's shoulder.
"Careful, Weasley, I'm on date with Granger. Only she gets to handle the goods. I'm a one-woman kind of man," he teased.
"Like I'd want to touch you, Ferret," Hermione sniped good-naturedly.
"Hey, don't dash my hopes just yet. I asked the barman especially to make some Slytherin's Revenge for you."
Hermione rolled her eyes but for once refused to rise to the bait. "You better worry about your own Slytherin's Revenge because Blaise doesn't look like a very happy bunny."
Malfoy nodded his head towards Ginny. "I'm relying on Red here. She'll soften him up later for me."
"That depends, Malfoy. What are you going to do for me?"
"Let's just say I may have sorted out the Holyhead Harpies sponsorship problems. The team will be able to afford the latest Firebolt after all," he informed her.
Ginny squealed and jumped up and down. "Do you mean it?"
He nodded and found himself with an armful of over-enthusiastic redhead. "Hey," he complained. "What did I say about handling the goods? Only Granger here gets to man-handle me."
Ginny let go, grinning from ear to ear. She pushed Hermione towards Malfoy. "You heard the man," she said. "Go snog him for me."
Hermione shot her friend an annoyed glance. Ginny knew how sensitive she was feeling about that whole incident and to bring it up like that was mean.
"I'll settle for a dance," Malfoy said, obviously reading how uncomfortable she was.
She sent him a grateful look but missed the collaborative wink he sent Ginny, who went on her merry way to charm her date back into a good mood. Her work was done for now and Hermione was feeling a lot more welcoming towards Malfoy.
Narcissa Snape viewed her handiwork with a pleased eye. She and Severus had come to the party whilst Draco had Flooed over to the Grangers to surprise and coerce Hermione to attend. She watched as her son led the brunette onto the floor and started to waltz with her elegantly.
As usual with these events, the dancing started off very conservatively to please all those in attendance who complained about new fangled music. As a Malfoy, Draco was expected to shine at such events and Lucius had made sure that he had been given dancing lessons as a child. She smiled as remembered how much her son had hated them. He'd sulked and thrown tantrum after tantrum to try and get them cancelled. But Lucius had held firm. It was not acceptable for a Malfoy to be in any way socially inept at something. Draco certainly didn't look like he minded the lessons now as he expertly led Hermione around the dance floor.
Narcissa sighed at the sight and Severus looked towards her. "What has you acting so sentimental, Cissa?" he asked.
She pointed towards Draco and Hermione. "Don't they look so perfect together?"
Her husband rolled his eyes. "At least she's got that hair of hers under control. I must admit, I am surprised you are encouraging this infatuation of Draco's. I would've thought you'd do anything to keep that hair out of your family line. Imagine if your grandchild inherited it."
Narcissa giggled a little and lightly smacked Severus on the arm. "Stop it, Severus. I know you are fonder of the girl than you like to admit. How could you not be with that brain of hers?"
Severus scowled a little. "I am not fond of insufferable little know-it-alls like Miss Granger."
She shot him a knowing look. "Of course you aren't, darling. And you would never have wanted her in Slytherin House."
Severus obviously decided that dancing would shut his too shrewd wife up and led her out onto the floor. She demurred and happily steered them towards Draco and Hermione.
"Darlings," she gushed as they came upon them. "You just look divine together. Hermione, you are ravishing tonight."
Narcissa liked the fact that the former Gryffindor could still blush at compliments. It meant that she didn't expect them as many other women of her age did. Most of the females that Draco had escorted to these events before had very much expected to be told how beautiful they looked. They'd also expected a proposal to become the next Mrs. Malfoy and she had been increasingly happy that Draco had ploughed his own furrow and not bowed to the dictates of his Malfoy ancestry.
She kissed Hermione and then Draco before whispering in her son's ear, "Make sure you don't mess this evening up. She'll never forgive you if you make any more mistakes with her."
Draco shot his mother a glare before shooing her off so he could go back to dancing with Hermione.
Harry had to admit that this dancing lark wasn't too bad as long as it was in the arms of the woman you loved. They'd been dancing for several songs now and he didn't feel bored or self-conscious. He was happy to be spending this time with Daphne. Then he felt someone violently poking his shoulder.
"Harry! Merlin, Harry! Have you seen this?" Ron asked, clearly worked up about something.
Harry frowned. "What, Ron?"
Ron just pointed a couple out across the dance floor. Harry saw that it was at Malfoy. "It's just Draco. So what? He comes every year."
His friend pushed Harry's head to look harder. "I know you wear glasses but try not to be so blind. Check out who Malfoy's date is."
Harry peered across at the girl and his mouth dropped as he realised it was Hermione. "Hermione? What? How did he get her to come?"
"Dunno. She doesn't even look angry," Ron commented.
The two boys descended on their best friend. "Hey, Draco, move. We want to dance with Hermione."
"Really? The three of you? Won't that be a little awkward?"
"Just move," Ron said elbowing Malfoy out of the way.
Hermione found herself being dragged off the dance floor by two pairs of hands. "What are you doing here? And with Draco?" Harry asked.
"Have you had something to drink? You're not drunk, are you?" said Ron.
She rolled her eyes at her ginger-haired friend and ignored his questions. "I was ambushed," she replied to Harry. "Malfoy colluded with my parents and Ginny."
Ron leaned in to smell her breath.
"Ronald, I am not drunk!" she snapped.
Her friend moved back, looking a little abashed. "Sorry, it's just you're here voluntarily with Malfoy. I just thought I should check in case you try and jump him on the dance floor."
"Honestly, Ronald, your lack of faith in me is insulting."
"So you aren't avoiding Draco anymore," Harry persevered, used to Ron's left-field questions.
"Well it's pretty hard to do so when his mother connects my parents' fireplace to the Floo network and he turns up in the front room."
"Rachel is still friends with Narcissa Snape then? Weird," Ron said.
Both Harry and Hermione ignored him. "He did always make it hard to ignore him," Harry remarked of Draco.
Before anything else was said, one of the reasons why Hermione usually avoided these events like the plague intruded on their conversation.
"Excuse me, Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, but I really must speak to Miss Granger here."
Both men found themselves pushed out the way by two of the boniest elbows to ever exist. A severe old lady peered above her glasses at Hermione. "Miss Granger, I am appalled at your latest legislation. I've actually had to free my house-elves in order to avoid the ridiculous fines now being imposed by the Ministry. I really must protest."
Hermione felt mind-numbing boredom start to in seep through her brain. She hated the fact that she was open for any narrow minded pure-blooded busy-body to come and berate her for wanting just some basic rights for house-elves.
She was just gearing up to hit the old biddy with facts when a smooth voice interrupted.
"Aunt Araminta, how lovely to see you," Malfoy drawled in that perfect cut glass accent of his, reminding Hermione that he was related to many of those who made her working life a misery.
"Oh, Draco dear, I haven't seen you since this event last year. You really should visit with your mother soon."
Malfoy smiled charmingly at the ancient woman. "I'll tell Mother that. It would be delightful. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to reclaim my date," he said, taking Hermione's hand.
Mrs. Rosier looked taken aback at that. "You're escorting Miss Granger here?"
The way her name was spat, Hermione was under no illusions as to how Mrs. Rosier viewed her and Muggle-borns in general.
"Yes," Malfoy replied. "She was kind enough to take pity on me and agree to be my date tonight."
"What must your mother think of that? Shouldn't you be courting a different style of girl? One of those Greengrass girls for instance? Although not the oldest, I hear she's got herself mixed up with that Potter boy. Shame really."
Hermione could see Harry bristling behind Mrs. Rosier but before Harry could intervene, Malfoy decided to show his teeth. "My mother is close friends with Hermione's mother so she is thrilled I'm escorting her here tonight. And you should know that we Malfoys do what we please." He bowed his head slightly and swept Hermione off in style back to the dance floor.
"Should I be swooning and crying "my hero" right about now?" Hermione asked, amused.
He grinned down at her. "I thought you could do with rescuing before you hexed her and ended up in Azkaban."
"She did come pretty close to finding herself in the Body-Bind Curse. Although I think she still might be in danger. Harry looks like he's going to explode any minute and the last time he did that, he inflated his aunt."
Malfoy's eyebrow rose in surprise and Hermione filled him in on Harry's Aunt Marge and how she'd had to be Obliviated just before their third year at Hogwarts. He was laughing hard by the end of story.
"Not that she didn't deserve it, that nasty cow," Hermione commented.
Malfoy felt a tap on his shoulder and looked round to find to Adrian Pucey. "Draco, if you don't mind, I'd like to cut in and steal your delectable date for a dance."
Malfoy smirked down at Hermione. "See, I told you the Slytherin boys had a thing for you at dances, Kitten."
She reddened a little but smiled at Pucey as he swept her away from the blond.
"How come you wanted to dance with me?" she asked. "I don't think we've ever exchanged more than a few words."
Pucey grinned. "Ah, but now I can tell my grandkids that I danced with the Hermione Granger and she didn't hex me."
Hermione couldn't help but smile at that.
Draco leant against the wall and watched as Hermione danced with the Slytherins present. It was a bizarre sight as he watched her energetically dancing with Theo Nott. If anyone had told him back at the Halloween Quidditch game that he would be escorting Hermione Granger to the Ministry Christmas Party and that she'd willingly be dancing with practically every Slytherin present, he would have had them committed to St. Mungo's for lunacy. It was amazing the difference a few months could make. Now all he had to do was get her to admit that she wanted to kiss him again.
"You're looking pretty pleased with yourself," Daphne said as she approached with Pansy in tow. "Well done on getting Hermione to come."
"Yes, how did you manage that?" Pansy asked.
"Let's just say Mother may no longer have Malfoy as her surname but she's still just as sneaky."
"And she's married to Severus. He double crossed Voldemort for years and managed to live to tell the tale. That's pretty cunning," Daphne pointed out.
Draco bowed his head in acknowledgement. He continued to gaze at Hermione.
"She looks amazing," Pansy commented cheekily.
"He's lusting after her more than he did during the Yule Ball," Daphne mentioned conversationally.
"Tell me about it. I almost killed him that night. He was my date, yet he stood there staring after Granger like a gormless goon all night," Pansy replied.
"I can still hear you both," Draco said.
"I'm surprised," Pansy responded. "I thought you may have gone deaf, dumb and blind from the sheer gloriousness of Granger."
He rolled his eyes but looked away from his date and instead focused on his two friends. "Happy now?" he asked.
"At least we rate your attention," Daphne said. "So how is Operation Woo Hermione going?"
Draco sighed. "Well, she no longer hates me and the Weaselette says that she has a crush on me but I don't think she's aware of it."
Pansy sniggered. "It's so refreshing to see that the Malfoy charm isn't infallible."
"You've been hanging around Weasleys for too long. They're rubbing off on you," he said cuttingly.
"You're just jealous because George will kiss me without the aide of alcohol."
"If you want to kiss overgrown ginger oafs then that's completely up to you," Draco sneered.
"Envy doesn't suit you, Draco," Pansy teased.
He grunted before going back to watching Hermione, who was now dancing with Blaise and smoothing his ruffled feathers by the look of it.
Hermione was enjoying herself hugely. If she'd known that it would be this fun she would have started coming years ago. Mind you, if she had come then she would have most likely spent the night glowering at the Slytherins present and trying to persuade Harry to arrest them. She was feeling quite grateful to Rowena Ravenclaw and her curse. If it hadn't have been activated then she would have been stuck continuing to bury her issues and not getting help.
Despite the trauma, especially in the early days, she was feeling more balanced and content than she had for years. And dancing with Slytherins was infinitely preferable to Ron and Harry, who, bless them, didn't have an ounce of rhythm between them.
Her eyes then strayed towards Malfoy who was leaning against the wall conversing with Daphne and Pansy. Hermione knew the snarky blond so well now that she could tell the two women were teasing him mercilessly about something. He looked annoyed but she knew he'd have that twinkle in his eye that he got when he was teased by those he cared about. It also didn't escape her notice that he got that look when teasing her.
Ginny had come to berate Hermione at her office for ignoring Malfoy during the week. The redhead had told her that he had feelings for her and in ignoring him she was being cruel. Personally, she found it a little hard to believe.
As much as she didn't want to admit it, she knew that her crush on the blond had rekindled. Except this time it wasn't just a reaction to his good looks and her disappointment with Ron. This time she actually liked his personality as well. And whilst she wanted to believe that Malfoy felt the same about her, she was too insecure when she thought about it. Did he really get that incredibly tender look in his eyes when he looked at her, or was she just imagining it?
"Hermione, thank goodness, there you are," the precise tones of Minerva McGonagall cut through her thoughts.
She looked away from Malfoy, whom she had been gazing dreamily towards over the Blaise's shoulder and looked towards Hogwarts' Headmistress, who was hurrying over to her with unusual haste.
"Ah, Mr. Zabini, this concerns you also. In fact, could you round up those of you who are here who affected by the curse. I need to talk to you all urgently," McGonagall said.
"Minerva, what's happened? We broke the curse already, remember?" Hermione said with a frown.
McGonagall just shook her head. "No, you didn't. You thought you had but I've been contacted by Rowena who informs me that you got it wrong and the curse is still in effect."
Hermione's head spun for a minute. Damn, just as she had been coming to terms with her feelings, the curse was back, hanging over them all like a harbinger of doom.