A/N: Sorry for being silent for than a month. To be honest I've lost some of inspiration for this story. Thank you for all your PM's full of encouragement. I'm continuing the story, I know what I want to do with it, it's just getting there. Since I'm working on another story at the moment, I'll be updating them at the same time. I want to say sorry if this chapter seems like verbal yuck, anytime that I felt like writing, I was sick. Anyways, please review/give feedback. Sorry again about the way late update. This chapter is un-beta, all mistakes are mine.
True Love's Locket
Chapter 26- The Turning Point
Hermione snuggled her face deeper into the foreign comfortable warmth that surrounded her. She embellished in it, and inhaled deeply as her mind relaxed deeper into a cozy relaxed state. Her skin buzzed with appreciative contentment as a low sigh slipped from her dry, morning lips and her still slightly buzzed mind tried to process her morning alertness. Groaning from the pounding headache that was a side effect of her night, Hermione made a small mental note to never break school rules again.
The warm, fuzzy feeling settled deeper within her body as she shifted closer to the warmth. When she felt the heat from the shining sun as it burned across the delicate skin of her back; Hermione violently threw the green cover over her, to reflect the burning rays. With that, she lazily flung her sleepy limb over the firm warmth that her face was currently buried into and hummed deeply as she waited for sleep to overcome her once more.
It was when her comfortable warmth shifted underneath her and begun to toy with her chestnut curls that rested on her back was when Hermione's chocolate brown eyes bolted open. Her eyes roamed across a ghostly, almost ethereal muscular chest until she fixed on Malfoy's face. His pure blond eyelashes reflected in the morning sun as it shone from the small window of Hagrid's hut. She gulped loudly when his silver eyes stared down at her with a glint of surprise within their molten depths. Hermione quickly shifted away from Malfoy's embrace and out of the bed that they had shared sometime during the night.
She flinched when her bare toes landed on the icy cold wood of the floor. Though, she was glad to be fully clothed. Her head pounded from growing headache because she stood too quickly. "Malfoy," choked out Hermione with a tight high pitched voice, "Just how did we end up in bed together?" She struggled to keep her accusations out of her voice but she managed.
Draco shrugged his bare shoulders and began to remove himself from the bed. The white sheets precariously hung around his body, before slipping off his waist as he drew to stand. The neglected sheet laid on the floor as they stared at each other. Draco was comfortable with his nudity. He wanted to give Granger a little more than a shock to tease her. Draco wouldn't admit that her reaction to him this morning hurt his feelings more than a bit.
Hermione's eyes only grew wider as her eyes took in all of his glowing skin of his chest then automatically venturing her eyes downwards. She turned on her heels, putting her back to Malfoy, almost at inhumanly fast rate as flaming heat burn at her skin. The blush on her cheeks still burned red as she stammered out with a slightly panicked voice, "Why are you naked?"
There was a pause as Hermione remembered something else, something of Malfoy's that laid below the belt. Something that she had no curiosity in, until now. Of course, she being herself, Hermione knew what male anatomy was capable of, but seeing it was a whole different matter. Somehow she managed to choke out from between her lips, "And why are you..like that?"
With a matching blush on Draco's face and ignoring the pulses of pleasure spiking down his skin, he quickly pulled his scattered clothing from the floor onto his body. He feverishly dressed himself faster than a golden snitch. After pulling his black turtleneck over his head, Draco snatched a pillow from the bed and threw the fluffy lump at Granger's back, signaling that his repulsive body was hidden from view. She turned her head slowly, with her brown chocolate eyes a mere squint and before she could ask anymore questions, he whipped his wand through the air, "It's morning."
That was the only explanation he would provide. He wasn't going to blush again in such a short span of time explaining about his bodily functions and what tends to happen being male in the morning. His eyes focused on the floor; not daring to see Granger's reaction. Draco heard a feminine snort from in front of him, "You didn't answer why you were naked."
Keeping his face as nonchalant as possible and not seemingly offended, Draco wrote,"I'm assuming that in my intoxicated state, even with you here, I was going to sleep naked, as I always do."
There was no need to tell Granger that he hadn't started to sleep naked before the locket, but all those damn dreams about her made him do so. She stood staring at him for a moment, then her mind started to play fuzzy firewhiskey-induced flashbacks.
The scene in her head was blurry as they had bickered about claims on the bed. Both of them so close together that they could have kissed again, but instead shouting intangible sentences at each other. She remembered that Malfoy had declared that he would strip naked in front of her if she didn't back down from the fight. In her drunken stupor, Hermione had claimed that his nudity wouldn't bother her and well, Malfoy being Malfoy, he stripped. Now, Hermione would pat herself on the back last night for keeping her eyes trained on Malfoy's face while she was slightly intoxicated. This morning was a whole different matter entirely.
Her face heated into a blush as she reflected back to Malfoy's pale naked chest and to his morning issue that she immediately took noticed of when he stood. Hermione's face grew warm and she shook her curls to rid herself of the images. In a nervous voice, Hermione asked carefully, "Do you recall anything from last night?"
"Blurs here and there but I am sure that we didn't ravish each other," wrote Draco with a simple shrug of his shoulders.
Hermione scoffed at him and crossed her arms, fighting another blush that threatened to flush her cheeks, "Why on Earth would that happen?" She was proud that her voice carried the appalled, almost disgusted tone.
Draco still stood in the same place as he wrote, "I guess your brilliant mind is a little fogger than mine Granger. You were practically begging me to ravish you until you couldn't comprehend your name or anything else for that matter."
She coughed, choking on her tongue within her dry mouth. "I would never!" protested Hermione, but her voice was laced with a sliver of uncertainty.
The fogginess in her mind what just as Malfoy said. Her mind was plagued with a heavy fog that did not seem to want to fade anything soon in the morning light. Hermione couldn't remember. Damnable alcoholic inebriation.
Malfoy gave her a little smirk before sitting on the edge of the bed to place his shoes on his feet. The smirk on his face was one she was familiar with. The simple tug of his lips told her that he was being smug like he knew something that she didn't. As her mind ran through the worse scenarios that she could think about, Malfoy's face disappeared from her view for several seconds before returning back in her eyesight. With that smirk still playing on his lips.
Before she could inquire his new obsession of smirking at her and perhaps offer that he needed to go to St. Mungo's, Hermione watched as Malfoy's wand whipped through the air, "Are you certain? I would have a look at my neck."
Hermione's mind quickly digested the fiery red letters before her then she following her eyes to Malfoy's hand as he pulling his dark black turtleneck down. Sitting on his skin, was a large brandish of purple that broke the elegant curve of his neck. Malfoy neck's had a hickey, a hickey that she made with her mouth. Hermione's jaw dropped to the floor in horror as she gasped, she could see his pulse throbbing underneath the bruise.
"I didn't...I c-couldn't have," Hermione stammered out, trying to deny that fact that, maybe, possibly, she had tried to seduce Malfoy. The most troubling part of her discovery was the flavor in her mouth, knowing that the salty, sweetness was from Malfoy's skin. She tried to convince herself that it wasn't the taste of his skin, and that a part of her didn't like it. Hermione watched with huge eyes again as Malfoy nodded and smirked, as he wrote, "You did."
"I'm sorry, I-" started Hermione before Malfoy had raised his hand up, stopping her words. She nibbled on her bottom lip as Malfoy's silver eyes stared up at her, "No need for your apology Granger. Just try not to ingest copious amounts of firewhiskey around anyone else yes? They may not display gentlemanly behaviors as I did."
Hermione nodded weakly from sheer embarrassment as Malfoy continued writing, "I wonder if the castle is open now?"
Grateful for the change in topic, Hermione replied as she looked out at the morning sunshine, "I believe so. The doors open when classes begin."
With that note, the Gryffindor and Slytherin tidied and straightened up Hagrid's hut silently. Hermione tried her best to make the home as it was before they had used it for an emergency shelter. When the rusty kettle was placed back inside of the sink of the kitchen, Hermione strolled out to the living area and found Malfoy dressed back in his black school robe, along with his scarf, looking out at the woods; blandly ignoring her presence. She arched her eyebrow at him wordlessly before tugging on her black school robe. Before leaving, she snatched the leather gloves from the brown leather chair and tossed them at Malfoy; smirking a little to herself when they each connected to his face with a light 'thwap'
Quickly, she tucked her Gryffindor scarf close to her face to busy herself from seeing Malfoy's expression. When she was as warm as she was bound to be in the cold, Hermione threw open the door to the harsh elements outside. Malfoy soon followed her, and she locked the door as it was. They walked up the heavy, snowy path in the same silence as before, then Hermione cleared her throat to speak.
"Thank you." said Hermione as her eyes roamed over the snowy land as she waited for someone to jump from the frosted pile and gasp in shock from seeing the two of them walking together and actually talking. Instead, Hermione heard the familiar whisking of Malfoy's wand as it cut through the air, "For what?"
Hermione bit back her bitter laughter as her foggy mind cleared just a bit more. In the hazy vision, she felt horribly scared and she knew that she had a nightmare of her time in the golden cage again. She could remember his filthy breath on her, the way his hands skimmed over her skin, his twisted words of just what he had wanted to do to her.
What she hadn't expected was waking up to Malfoy rubbing soothing circles on her back, or even holding her as she drunkenly cried on his bare skinned shoulder. The main reason she was thanking Malfoy was because, he stayed. In her drunken stupor, and with her emotions dried and tired, Hermione had desperately clung to Malfoy's forearm, waiting to be comforted. She had pleaded with him with her eyes that he stayed in the bed to just hold her. And Malfoy had done just that. Hermione felt deeply touched by the man next to her. He could have simply pushed her away and let her sink into her spiral of nightmares but he didn't. Something different warmed in her chest and throughout her body as she looked to Malfoy. Her brown eyes were met with silver and she realized that he was waiting for her reply.
"I may not have been myself last night but I do remember one thing," replied Hermione with a blush on her face from being caught staring.
"What would that be?" wrote Draco.
"You had extended comfort last night when I had a nightmare sometime in the middle of the night. You stayed in the bed with me when I had asked. I am very grateful, even if it had seemed I wasn't this morning. I was just surprised by the state of your..."
Hermione blushed heatedly, her cheeks burned with embarrassment that mixed in with the flush of the frosty cold before choking out the last word with a small cough, "Undress."
Her eyes, stayed trained to the ground while she tried to think of anything but the morning images of Malfoy standing nude in the morning sun. Then she heard Malfoy's wand whipping through the air, and her chocolate brown eyes caught his reply of, "Nevermind Granger. Someone had to pipe you down somehow."
She smiled a small smile, mostly to herself and spoke, "You have my gratitude regardless."
They fell back into a comfortable silence, each one lost in their own thoughts containing the other. Their footfalls stopped short of the large door that lead into the castle as they turned in to each other, freezing when they both had a mouth open to speak. Something between them made the air spark with warmth and almost contentment, there was something growing between them that couldn't have a name. Not yet. Last night, though, was a turning point for both the Gryffindor princess and the Slytherin prince.
Hermione shuffled back and forth on her feet as she nibbled on her bottom lip before she spoke, "I guess we go our separate ways now then?" To that Malfoy only nodded.
She quickly cracked the door open and slipped into the sea of students easily. The current carried her away quickly, but not before watching a platinum blond head walking in the opposite direction. Her heart pounded within her chest as she watched him as he disappeared within the crowd. Then she was back to gnawing on her bottom lip when her heart gave a painful throb of loneliness.
She walked into Gryffindor Tower as her stomach twisted in painful reminder of her own hunger as she smelled the lingering smells of earlier breakfast. The common room was the usual, buzzing noise; from giggles to boastful laughs and it annoyed her. Hermione found herself yearning for the content quiet conversation of Malfoy's company last night. As she climbed the stairs leading to the girl's dormitory, Hermione reflected on the dark hickey that graced Malfoy's neck, knowing that conversation wasn't the only thing that happened.
Hermione walked into the girl's dormitory and she was met with loud, happy chatter from other girls. Silence fell over the room as Hermione walked over to her bed, where a large fluff of orange was sitting on a silver box. Her spine tingled as she stroked a hand over the grumpy cat and she could only assume that Lavender was trying to bore a hole through the back of her head. Low whispers came next before shuffling footsteps and the sound of the wooden door closing; Hermione didn't need to turn around to confirm that she was indeed alone in the room. At least for a few seconds, then the adjoining door of the girl's bathroom opened, revealing a familiar shade of red hair.
Suddenly, Hermione saw the wave of relief that crossed over Ginny's features before she was engulfed by Ginny's embrace. The red head's skin was still wet from her shower as Hermione returned the hug. After a few moments of a tight hug, Ginny pulled away first and with narrowed blue eyes, she asked, "Where have you been? Dean and I waited for you for hours."
Even before Hermione could offer an apology, her heart thumped in her chest when Ginny asked, "Why do you smell like cologne?"
Hermione bit her lip nervously as her mind ran a mile a minute to formulate just what she was going to tell Ginny.
"Why are you wearing Slytherin robes?" asked Ginny. In that moment, Hermione swore her blood turned into ice. She quickly looked down at her 'robes' to see if Ginny's observation was correct. It was. Right above her left breast, sat the green and silver emblem of Slytherin. Her cheeks flushed scarlet before she could fight back the feeling of embarrassment as Ginny studied her. Biting her bottom lip again, Hermione stuttered out, "W-well, I...uh...um...I must have grabbed someone's robe yesterday before I went off for my walk. The Three Broomstick had quite a crowd after all."
When Ginny nodded, Hermione mentally sighed. It seemed that Ginny had believed her excuses but the twinge of guilt shot through her body. Last night with Malfoy, was just going to be another thing to lie to Ginny about. Hermione shuffled on her feet as she fought against her feelings, and how she wasn't deserving to be Ginny's friend any longer. There was a silence in the room, only seemingly tense because of Hermione, but Ginny seemed unfazed as she pulled clothes on her toweled body. When the red head was suddenly dressed, she broke the silence with, "I got a letter from Mum today. She was wondering if you were spending the holidays with us."
Hermione sat on the edge of her bed causing the orange cat to meow in protest; her brown eyes were trained at the floor, "Not the whole week. I want to stay around the castle just in case-" Then her voice trailed off. 'Just in case Harry wakes up' dies in her throat. Hermione looked to Ginny though, and she knew automatically that the red head knew the last of her sentence. Said or unsaid.
Her blue eyes blazed as she spoke in a heated but hollow tone, "Just in case what Hermione? That Harry might awaken? He's never going to wake up. He's going to live the rest of his life in that bed. You should, you need, to move on just as I have. Dwelling on someone who's good as dead isn't healthy."
Hermione bit the inside of her cheek to refrain herself from opening and closing her mouth from pity and sadness. There was nothing she could say that would get Ginny to change her mind, to have faith in Harry when there seemed there was none. She only stared at an interesting stain on the floor as her mind quickly wondered if she was the only one that believed that Harry would wake up. Her eyes were still focused on the floor as she heard a low shuffling that approached her. Hermione tried not to flinch when the edge of the bed dipped down next to her.
"I'm sorry Hermione," stated Ginny. "You didn't deserve that. I was worried about you yesterday and the finals were still plaguing my mind." Hermione nodded, listening to what Ginny had to say.
"Your dress came in today," said the red head, as her head nodded down to the box that rested between them. "It was the very first one to show at breakfast. I couldn't find you, so I brought it here; Hoping that you would stumble in and find it," said Ginny.
"Thank you." beamed Hermione, smiling brightly at Ginny. The red head returned fully, knowing that her outburst was forgiven. They both looked to each other, then both eyes flickered to the box. Wordlessly, they teamed up and hastily ripped through the silver paper and into the main box itself. Then both mouths dropped to the floor.
"This isn't what I rented," whispered Hermione, still shell-shocked from her brown chocolate eyes landing on the pure white dress that she had tried on the previous day.
"Who cares?" whispered Ginny. "You are wearing that dress."
"I care. Remember such things as cursed items? We don't even know who this is from," stated Hermione. Ginny groaned as Hermione spent ten minutes or so, performing every spell she could think of, which was plenty. When the white dress didn't react to any of her spells, her eyes connected with Ginny's. The red head mirrored her expression of adoration and beauty as her blue eyes roamed over the dress. Hermione gingerly lifted the dress from the plain cardboard box and her eyes admired every detail then she heard a light thump from something hitting the ground.
Ginny bent over from the bed and retrieved it, "Here Hermione, this might be something." Hermione laid the dress on the bed as she kept a wary eye for Crookshanks then took an envelope from Ginny's open hand. She opened the envelope quickly and dumped a small silver heart necklace into her other hand. Her heart thumped against her chest as her mind immediately understood who gave her the dress: Malfoy. She was still dumbfounded as she nibbled on her bottom lip; her mind started to question why didn't he inform her last night. She stumbled out of her thoughts when Ginny asked, "What is that suppose to mean?"
Fighting the urge to smile, Hermione simply shrugged her shoulders. Her fingers fiddled with the silver chain of the necklace, "I have no idea." Knowing perfectly well what the gifted locket met.
Draco entered into his bedchamber and quickly shed out of his tight school robe. He placed it neatly on top of his bed. His mind was reeling about his morning with Granger and how it was nothing as he expected it to be. Her reaction to his nudity had made him aware of just how her beauty could affect him. Draco had to resort to thinking about Blaise naked just to keep himself from scaring Granger. He was relieved when he didn't have any sexual fueled dreams of Granger last night; moaning her name in his sleep would have definitely damaged any kind of friendship that they have.
He stripped from the rest of his clothing, leaving them just a pile in the middle of the room and the scent of her perfume still teased him. It was on his clothes, his cloak, on his skin and something about that smell made his heart pound and ache at the same time. Draco knew that he missed her company, but he would never say it aloud. His body throbbed with heat and lust with knowing that he had slept beside her naked through the night after her nightmare episode. Draco felt warmth pooling into his abdomen and everything about Granger was slowly driving him mad; he determined that he needed a cold shower. Perhaps a very long, cold shower and he walked into the bathroom with his wand in hand, closing the door behind him.
Within the shower, under the frosty cold water, Draco scrubbed his skin until he couldn't smell her perfume on his skin anymore. Then he relieved his pent up frustrations of his body that allowed him to have some grasp of reality again. When he was satisfied and clean, Draco stepped from the shower with water dropping from his body after shutting the water off with a turn of the silver handle. The coldness of the air nipped at his already cold skin as he opened the bathroom door to walk into his bedroom. His silver eyes immediately took notice of Blaise leaning on the stone wall with widened eyes before the mocha skinned man protested.
"Merlin's beard Draco! Put some damn clothes on!"
Draco snorted when Blaise's face turned away from him as he strolled towards his wardrobe unaffected by the other man. He opened the wardrobe and pulled a pair of silk boxers up his pale legs to rest at his waist. Then he threw a shirt at Blaise before writing, "As I recall, this is my bedroom."
Blaise then, snorted at him, "Obviously."
There was a silent moment before Malfoy sighed, "What do you want Blaise?"
Blaise looked at him with his dark brown eyes narrowed, "Well, before I answer your question, one thing first," said Blaise. When Draco only looked at him with unimpressed expression on his face; Blaise continued. "Why do you have Gryffinder robes on your bed? Why does it smell like perfume?"
He inhaled a sharp breath as the blood in his veins began to freeze. With a stoic, empty expression, Draco narrowed his eyes onto the robes in question and the article of clothing indeed carried the Gryffindor emblem. Luck only had it that he wasn't stopped by any Slytherin house mates before he strolled into his room. He gave Blaise his best nonchalant face as he pulled a pair of dress pant up his legs. When he fixed the article around his waist, Draco drew up his wand to reply but before he could do so, Blaise spoke.
"So, I was going to inquire about your absence last night at dinner, but could we just cut to the chase and I can assume that you were shagging Granger finally."
"No, you may not assume," wrote Draco before he pulled another dark black turtleneck over his head. His blond, silky strands fixed back into their usual spot.
"So it is Granger's then? How did her robes end up in your possession?" asked Blaise. Draco ran a hand through his hair, slightly ashamed and annoyed as he imagined what Blaise's reaction would be to his adventure yesterday. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Draco wrote, "We were together but not like you assume. We were in Hogsmeade when the weather grew heavy in a winter storm. By the time the snow had settled, we were locked out of the castle."
The mocha skinned man just blinked incredulously at him out of mere shock and he pushed off from the wall and stalked towards Draco. The blond held his head down to avoid the heated glare that he felt anyways as Blaise approached him. His voice carried the disbelief as he spoke, "You mean to tell me that you spent the night out of the castle with Granger and you didn't make your move! What the hell is wrong with you mate?!"
Mentally, Draco had asked himself the very same question as he had walked to the Slytherin dungeons. Just what the hell was wrong with him? He should have said something about the locket and how it was to be removed by Granger. Instead, he was too absorbed in her. In her smile, her laughter, her heated glare when he said something that she didn't like. The way she would nibble on her bottom lip as she thought, the way that her curly locks were always untamed but teased Draco with their softness. If only Draco had treated Granger as he did Pansy; he would be talking to Blaise at the moment. In his head, and in his heart, Draco knew that he wouldn't have been able to use Granger like that, then to cast her aside. When Draco had said admitted that he considered Granger a friend, he had meant it. His feelings of friendship or perhaps something deeper were real. He couldn't leave Granger broken, not when she was broken already. The locket wanted him to fix her, to comfort her, not to destroy her.
The room was silent as Draco listened to the whirlwind of thoughts coursing through his mind. He was startled when Blaise spoke with a sense of calm, "Nevermind mate. What you do or don't do with Granger is none of my business."
Draco refrained from nodding or even replying as he slipped his black button up shirt onto his shoulders. Blaise was correct is stating that this topic was none of his business until Draco had personally invited him. Yes, the locket belonged to his grandmother, but it was around his neck therefore made the locket his. It would be his damn responsibility to remove it; just hopefully by not laying with Granger. Draco made a point to ignore the other man in the room as he stared at his reflection in the mirror that hung inside of his wardrobe. A small smile played on his lips as he remembered Granger's snub at his dark clothing choices and he promised to give her something close to a surprise later. His practiced fingers quickly buttoned the shirt and he turned to Blaise, "Let's go to lunch. I'm starving."
Hermione had quickly bathed before Ginny and herself decided venture into the Great Hall for Lunch. Lunch quickly passed and both Hermione and Draco avoided to even spare a glance at each other, even when she was dying to know. During the course at the Gryffindor table, Hermione sat next to Ginny and chatted with Dean, who was perched on the other side of the red head, becoming enthralled with stimulating conversation. Hermione could still feel the heated glares that radiated from lower down the table. Her brown eyes connected with Lavender's, who managed to look bashful and angry for getting caught. There was a round of heavy complaints when Ron shoved himself into the already crowded space. Ron wasted no time in piling up his foot before devouring it. Hermione caught Ginny's blue eyes and they shared the unsaid mantra of 'He's disgusting.'
Both woman bursts into laughter, as everyone around them remained lost in confusion. After lunch, the pair ventured back to the Gryffindor tower, making a point to ignore both Dean and Ron as they pestered them about the colored dress that they were wearing. Several hours went by and on Ginny's insistence, Hermione allowed Ginny to doll her up with makeup, fixing her hair, and finally doing her nails. Eventually she was deemed ready enough to slip on the white dress with Ginny's help.
Both women wordlessly stared at Hermione's reflection in the mirror of the girl's bathroom. Then Ginny's face broke out into a wide grin, "Thank you to whom ever got this dress for you. You look stunning."
Hermione just stared at herself in the mirror, almost deeming herself unrecognizable. If it wasn't for some stray curly strands of brunette hair and her chocolate eyes, she wouldn't even know that her reflection was herself. Ginny walked out of the bathroom and Hermione exhaled. Whispering to herself, Hermione spoke, "I'll be sure to do that."
"What did you say Hermione? I didn't catch that?" asked Ginny from the other room. Hermione took one last glance at herself in the mirror before exiting the bathroom to follow Ginny. Hermione shook her head, and replied, "Nevermind," as the younger woman wrestled into the green dress.
She was sitting on the edge of her bed, slipping her heels onto her feet when Ginny spoke, "Hermione, think you can help me zip?" Hermione's silver heels clicked on the stone floor as she approached Ginny. The red head maneuvered her waist length red locks out of the way of the zipper when Hermione stood behind her.
Her fingers grabbed the zipper and she attempted to close the dress, but the thing refused to move. "Ginny, did you try this dress on?" asked Hermione carefully. The red head was oblivious when she answered, "No, it's my size."
Hermione simply nodded, not wanting to be the barer of bad news of telling her best girl friend that her dress wasn't going to zip. She pretended to fumble with the zipper with one hand as she pulled her wand from inside her dress. Barely whispering, Hermione increased the size without Ginny's knowledge. When she quickly tucked her wand away, the zipper went up the red head's back with ease. "Sorry, Ginny, the zipper was jammed on a piece of thread," lied Hermione. Ginny turned around and beamed at Hermione before her face sank.
"I know what you did Hermione. As soon as tonight is over, I'm going on a diet for a year," declared Ginny.
Hermione snorted at Ginny, as the younger witch placed her shoes on her feet, "Last time you declared to diet for a year, you only made it to nine months."
Ginny tipped her head thoughtfully, before beaming again, "Yes, well, nine months is almost a year." They both stared at each other, before bursting out into laughter for several minutes. When they both calmed down, Ginny did the last touches to their make-up and hair on the red head insistence again.
"There!" exclaimed Ginny. "We're done. We should be meeting Dean and my brother right about now." Which Hermione softly sighed. Ginny patted her shoulder sympathetically as she said, "You should have said no."
"Yes, I'm aware. Let's go," stated Hermione. The quicker they met with Dean and Ron the faster this night would be over with without any problems. They walked out of the girl's dormitory, their heels clicking on the stone floor. Hermione stopped short of the stairs leading down to the common room and she turned around on her heel, leaving a puzzled Ginny behind. Hermione walked to her bed where the silver locket sat and she grabbed it delicately. She placed the heart shaped necklace around her neck before meeting Ginny outside the girl's dormitory.
With a sigh and a small smile from Ginny, they descended down the stairs that lead down to the common room. The crowd of the common room hushed to silence when twenty or so eyes landed on them. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Hermione whispered to Ginny through gritted teeth, "They must be looking at you."
Ginny's smile grew more and whispered back, "Of course Hermione. Whatever makes you feel better," before they reached Dean and Ron at the bottom of the stairs. Dean automatically scooped Ginny into her arms and kissed her lightly while Hermione shuffled back and forth on her feet. She cringed under Ron's stare, and looked deliberately away when Ron didn't react to Ginny getting snogged by Dean.
Before Hermione could say anything, Ron spoke, "I thought Ginny said that your dress was blue last night at dinner."
She nodded, "It was. The store must have sent this to me by mistake," explained Hermione.
Ginny interjected, "There's no way that prat of a store clerk would be that thick. It had to be a gift from someone but Hermione doesn't know who. Right?"
Again, Hermione nodded her head, "I don't have an inkling of who," lied Hermione. The room was buzzing again with excited energy as the foursome quickly ventured from the common room. The white dress flowed elegantly over the floor as they walked through the hallway. Hermione rolled her eyes when she heard Ron mutter underneath his breath, "I don't like the idea of some mysterious person getting you this dress."
She heard Ginny snort next to her, and they shared a look before Hermione shrugged her shoulders. As if Ron's opinion mattered to her. It wasn't everyday that Draco Malfoy bought a dress for someone like her. She wanted to find him and thank him by the end of the night.
A/N: So, the next update will cover the dance. Any ideas of what's going to happen?