She walked back into the room after freshening up and glanced around for her fiance. Locating him after they have been separated is typically an effortless feat as she always seemed to find his red hair in the center of whatever crowd was gathering. This was, however, not the case at tonight's shindig. She considered momentarily not going out of her way to look for him, at least not at this precise second, if only to allow herself one more breath of serenity. The thought was quickly dismissed. She knew she took longer in the restroom than necessary, but it was, in fact, completely necessary. She valued the time alone in the bathroom, or when she could steal a few minutes outside while he is preoccupied. Taking in several deep, cathartic breaths and enjoying a moment to herself was the only thing that got her through these events. That and alcohol. So much alcohol. At this point, she really couldn't afford anymore time away from his side without risking resentment later that night, and that was not a conversation she wanted to have. Again. Petty, repetitive, and simply not worth the effort, especially after several hours at a party she didn't want to attend in the first place.
She stepped farther into the room, and she felt her leg slip out of the slit running up the left side of the dress. If she was being honest, having her leg exposed up to her hip still made her rather uncomfortable. Same goes for when the back of the dress stopped a mere centimeter above her bum. She knew these were both better than the alternative of having the front of her dress dip too low, sometimes below her breasts, or any of the short dresses that show off far too much of both legs. It took perhaps an entire year of arguing to finally convince him to stop buying dresses that exposed her chest and legs to that extent, and even then it was with the compromise of high slits and low backs. She knew this was the lesser of two evils, but that did not make her feel any better when someone touched her exposed back longer than she would have deemed appropriate.
She knew she looked good. It was not a confidence thing. It was a beautiful dress and she wore it well, but walking around a crowd in such a dress on the arm of a man that looked around more at others than at her made her feel like a prize being shown off to everyone around them. Arm candy at its finest. Dirty. If she was going to reach down to the deepest pit of honesty, it made her feel dirty. It wasn't the dress though. It was the lingering stares, the prolonged touching, the comments made by both her fiance as well as other men right in front of her. That was another argument that went on for years before she decided to let it go and bite her tongue. Anytime she brought it up, he would tell her that she was being too sensitive and that she needed to loosen up. Strange though, it was for the same reasons that he was not comfortable with her going off without him. She wasn't even allowed to dance with other men, aside from a select few. She thought if she simply could dress more modestly, both of their discomforts would be alleviated and these parties would go more smoothly for them. He would say she could stay by his side throughout the party and that too would help in alleviating, at least his, concern, and problem solved. Why wouldn't she want to spend all night by his side anyway? She did love him after all.
She was startled back into reality when she felt someone touch her back before greeting her. This, of course, did not make her feel any more comfortable than she was feeling moments ago, but her forced smile never faltered as she declined the drink, declined the dance and left to find her fiance.
He always wanted to be amongst the crowd. Even on their date nights, he would insist on going to popular restaurants where he anticipated people would recognize them most. That was another thing that bothered her to no end. So, here they were again, on a night that was meant to be for the two of them, at a party for someone or something that she didn't even know and he was nowhere in sight. She was rather miffed. She was supposed to spend the day at the spa with her best friend, and then have a quiet evening with her fiance, but that was not how the day unfolded. He guilted her into staying home to help with a project that required a bit of magic above his skill set, telling her that it would be just like old times. She used to love working on projects like that with him. She knew she couldn't discuss advanced magical theory with him, so small projects were a fun way to bond, until they became too complicated and he would get frustrated and leave. They weren't fun anymore. Then, as she was getting ready for their evening alone, he mentioned a party as though it was something they had previously discussed. When she told him that she really wanted to stay in with him, he told her that he already told the host they were coming, besides, she would be by his side anyway.
Finding it odd that she could not find him in the middle of everything, she began to look more diligently in the hopes that no one else would stop her. After only a few minutes of walking around the surprisingly large and well-packed room, she heard a commotion. Loud cheering, jesting, laughing. There is no way she would not find him there, so she walked to the door off to the side of the main room.
She was not surprised to find Ronald Weasley in the middle of this second room. No, not one bit. She was surprised, however, to find Ronald Weasley sitting down at the small table across from Draco Malfoy. This was an odd sight to see for sure. It took several seconds to process exactly what was happening in front of her. Ronald Weasley was sitting across from Draco Malfoy with a chess board between them. While Ron looked stunned, Malfoy could not have looked any happier. While Ron was banging his head against the table, Malfoy was leaning back and stretching his arms above his head. While Ron was groaning, at what she could only conclude to be his humiliation of losing a match to his childhood bully, Malfoy chuckled quietly to himself.
"Rematch!" Ron shouted, finally looking up.
Malfoy chuckled louder. "Not a chance, Weasley. You lost, end of story. I expect payment. In full. Tomorrow."
"Payment?" There was only a hint of aggravation in her tone. There was also only a hint of disbelief, confusion, anger, concern, disappointment and maybe even a little bit of fear.
Disbelief that Ron might do something foolish.
Confusion as to how this even started, not to mention her lack of knowledge regarding the aforementioned payment.
Anger that Ron would do something foolish.
Concern that this would impact her wedding, as so many other incidents have done recently.
Disappointment that Ron definitely did something foolish.
Fear that, just maybe, Ron was subconsciously self-sabotaging because he might not actually want to get married.
Time seemed to stop. Everyone in the room was now looking directly at her and no one dared say a word. It wasn't unusual for her presence to capture the attention of those around, but this was something different all together, and she found it rather unsettling. No one moved. No one spoke. There was something that she didn't know and she had a strong gut feeling that it was not good.
"Mione!" Ron looked at Hermione with a level of concern she hasn't seen in quite a while.
"What is he talking about, Ron?" she asked as calmly as she could.
The room was so quiet, everyone heard Ron swallowing before attempting to speak. "It's nothing. We can talk about it at home." He tried and failed to sound assuring.
"What payment, Ron?" she asked more sharply.
Most would have acknowledged that the question left little room to argue. Ronald Weasley certainly was not most people. "Really, Mione. Let's go home. I'm beat." Malfoy clearly found this all to be entertaining. "Please, let's just go." He started to walk towards Hermione, but her voice stopped him dead in his tracks.
"What. Payment. Ronald?" Anger was written all over her face. She felt it in her teeth. While she was concerned from the start, his reluctance to let her in on this was deeply unsettling and set her on edge immediately.
She didn't think it was possible, but Malfoy's smirk deepened even further. He was undoubtedly taking great pleasure in something, and that something was most likely Ron's utter humiliation but she knew there was more to it than that alone.
He started to backpedal. While Ron's wants and needs were dominant within the relationship, leading many to believe he was the one always in control, Ron was all too aware that the wrath of Hermione Granger was not a pretty picture. She was still one witch with whom no one should ever mess. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I was trying to win some money for our wedding."
"Well, that's awfully sweet, Weaselbee." Malfoy spoke for the first time since Hermione made herself noticed. "I thought you said the money was going to pay for the new Blitzbolt. What a ridiculous name for a broom, truly." He said the last part quietly, more to himself than anyone else. He was openly very amused with the entire situation and doing his best to further the indulgence.
"A NEW BROOM, RON?" she shrieked. She stared at Ron in utter disbelief. She was still unfamiliar with all of the facts, but she knew with the prospect of a new broom, Ron would offer up just about anything, and this troubled her greatly.
"I know, right?" Malfoy laughed again. "Money for the wedding sounded much better." He paused. "I suppose that would be why he was only going to mention that part," he stated flatly in false contemplation.
"Shut it, Malfoy." She spoke through clenched teeth. He looked at her again, his smirk set permanently in place, eyebrow raised in amusement and eyes glistened with unspeakable elation. Steel eyes never left her own. Something stirred within her, something that would have captured her attention and caused hours of over-analyzation, if she had not been so distracted by the oaf to the right of the blonde prat. "Ronald Weasley," she began slowly as her eyes bore into his soul, demanding truth. "I don't care what Malfoy offered. At this point, what you could have won is clearly moot as you clearly did not win. So I ask again, and I ask for the last time. What exactly do you owe Malfoy? I am certain it has nothing to do with money, Rowena knows he doesn't need any of ours, so what is it that you have to do for him tomorrow, on our anniversary of all days?" At these words, Ron's head shot up. He forgot. Again. He never was good at remembering dates.
Ronald Weasley had many fine attributes. He was the best friend of all best friends. Other than the few months in 3rd year when his head was so far up his own arse that he shut Hermione out completely over a rat he didn't even like and a broom that wasn't even his, and 4th year when he couldn't find a place to store his pride and jealousy so he carried it around with him everywhere he went in place of Harry, he has always stuck to his friends, through and through. Okay, there was also that time when they were on the run and he abandoned his two best friends, but he felt bad about each of those times and he apologized as best he could. Ron had a temper and his insecurities stemming from within the family never helped, but Hermione never faulted him for it. They were young and were subject to bouts of immaturity, and at the end of the day he was there and he cared for his friends. He made her go to more functions than required, more than Harry even attended. More parties, more galas, more memorials. He kept them in the spotlight when she wanted nothing more than to be in the shadows, but he also bought her small gifts that told Hermione that he was thinking of her. He would bring home flowers when he knew she was having a hard time. He couldn't cook, and he definitely ate his share of the food, but he helped with the dishes. He wasn't perfect, but they made it work because they loved each other.
Ronald Weasley was also an idiot though, and Hermione Granger was more than fully aware of the dimwitted decisions Ron could make in the heat of the moment and under the spotlight, especially when being challenged. The fact that it was Malfoy would have only made it worse. She was not looking forward to hearing what was supposed to happen tomorrow and she wanted no part of it.
"You know what?" She interrupted his incoherent stammering. "I honestly don't care. You deal with it." She shook her head, obviously fed up with the situation. "I had to cancel my spa date with Ginny for this party, so I will tell her we can go tomorrow, assuming they can even fit us in on such short notice. Even if they cannot, I want nothing to do with whatever this is. You figure it out." She turned to leave, but stopped the minute she heard Malfoy speak up.
"Well, this is awkward," Malfoy muttered with a feigned embarrassment that never quite reached his eyes. Probably because they were overloaded with glee. Pure, unadulterated glee.
"What is awkward?" she asked. She turned back to look at him.
"Well, you see," he looked down as if he had an ounce of modesty in his body, "I won you." He looked into her eyes again, with those piercing grey irises. There was a pause, everyone looking at her expectantly. "Not forever, of course. Only for tomorrow" he stated, as if that was in any way reassuring.
All expression left her face. All emotion left her body. The will to move, breath, think, all of it left her as she stared at Malfoy. "Wha- I ca- H-How do y-" She was at loss for words. She closed her eyes and asked the question to which she did not want the answer. "What do you mean 'you won me'?"
"Well, when you say it like that, it almost sounds like a bad thing." Malfoy looked at her as if offended. She was picking up on a lot of insincerity from Malfoy.
"Those were your words" she managed to say. "And there is no argument, it is definitely a bad thing. I am not a prize to be won!" Though she was speaking to Malfoy, the last sentence was directed more towards Ron.
"Oh. Well. They were mostly his words," he pointed to Ron, "if I am being honest. I simply asked for an opportunity to spend some time with you, hoping to make amends and all that. You are rather stubborn, so I did ask for the entire day, you understand. He's the one that said if I won the game that I won you." Malfoy grimaced as if the conversation was making him uncomfortable. As if he had a heart that was capable of caring about how utterly humiliated she was in this exact moment. "Don't be too hard on him though. I'm sure he didn't mean for it to come out as bad as it did. English seems to be very difficult for Weaselbee. I'd say it was genetics, but he appears to be the only one inflicted."
At this, Ron lunged at Malfoy. Thankfully for Draco, even in her current state, Hermione is quite gifted. From the outside, it looked like Hermione simply raised her hand, but both Draco and Ron could feel the force field that was cast between them both non-verbally and wandlessly. While Ron was upset he would not be allowed to take his frustration out on the target of said frustration, Draco was completely enthralled in the display of impressive magic effortlessly casted by Hermione.
So many thoughts were flying through her head, felt bogged down by too many nargles and made a note to ask Luna for another cleansing.
At this point, Hermione looked around at the crowd. Several men, i.e. those afraid of Hermione's wrath, had left or were in the process of slipping out. Of those remaining, most had the decency to at least appear with a look of vexation or disappointment at the display of abhorrent masculinity, while a few still looked as though they found this to be the funniest thing they have witnessed in ages.
"No." How ridiculous, of course, Hermione would never agree to this.
"Um, Hermione?" Ron began. "You kind of have to." He looked as if he could piss himself at any moment.
"I would like to see you try to make me" she laughed coldly.
Ron groaned loudly. "Mione, you have to." He looked at her in desperation. "We made the Unbreakable Vow." Hermione wasn't sure how long she stood there, it could have been 30 seconds or 30 minutes. Either way, her arm fell and the shield faltered.
Malfoy walked over and grabbed her hand. She stood rooted in place, unable to believe the words that her fiance spoke to her. She didn't realize that Malfoy was right there by her side until she felt his lips lightly graze her knuckles.
"Until tomorrow princess."
