Chapter 4

"There's a dance?" Lavender nodded as she read out loud from the bulletin board, skimming through paper after paper of class schedule changes and announcements. "Hey looks like muggle bands are coming too, tonight." 

Parvati's eyes widened and she let her mouth hang agape first before pursing them primly and pushing Lavender aside in haste as she tiptoed to stare at the most recent announcement. "Oh my Lord! Avril Lavigne, and Third Eye Blind are playing tonight!"

"Tonight?!" Parvati sounded alarmed as she too raised her eyes to meet Lavender's blue ones. "Then this is Hermione's chance! We must call upon our fashion instincts and give her a make over so that a certain blond prince would but swoon upon her beauty." "God, you suck." Lavender shook her head in mock disbelief. Parvati frowned. "Honestly, Lavender, must you prick at my pride for all the time?" "'Prick my pride'!" Lavender rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Come on, Parvati, we're not in the baroque period here so much that we have to speak all fancy and stuff…" "Shakespeare wasn't baroque, was he?" Parvati asked out loud as she allowed her best friend to drag her into the hallway. "I believe that he died and Beethoven wasn't even born then."

Lavender made a face. Why must Parvati get into such a tiff about Shakespeare now? She thought irritably. Just as she was about to blurt out how irked she was about rhymes and sonnets, Lavender felt soft fingers knotting with hers.

"Come on, Lady Macbeth, let's find Hermione already." Parvati giggled. "I know that we should work together pronto to help our friend." Lavender grinned as Parvati shook her head and flushed as the brown-haired girl tightened her grip on her hand affectionately. "Well, that's the Patil I'm used to dealing with!"

"Oh…really?" Parvati teased. Lavender grinned. "Yeah.."

***

"Did you see how the disgusting thing stared at my Draco?!" Pansy scoffed as she paced back and forth within the Slytherin's girls' dormitory. "Ugh! She's so… dorky, with her stupid brown hair and teeth and, chewed nails… Can you believe she thinks that Draco will ever like her? Can you believe that? Ha! She's hideous whereas I'm beautiful and perfect! That stupid imbecile's not so smart, is she, Blaise… Is she?!!!" Pansy's eyes narrowed as she found Blaise sleeping in a chair. Flustering in ire, she banged her fist on the bedside table to wake the boy and wake he did, yelping. "Fire! Fire!" Pansy's eyebrows were raised insipidly; clearly Blaise wasn't paying attention the whole time she rambled and it annoyed her so much that she threw a frustrated fit. "Sorry.." Blaise chuckled nervously as Pansy's eyes burned fervidly. "ARGH!!!" And thus, a flock of innocent doves picking rice with their beaks on the castle side flew out of the 7-mile radius surrounding Hogwarts at the screech of a certain Slytherin girl.

Draco watched and mused belatedly. He had been listening to their or rather Pansy's (conversation?) rant, had stopped in his tracks when he was bound to approach Pansy. Hermione was so easy, he knew of her affection and wanted a tease. He decided to have his fun and, smiling that infinitely cocky smile, trudged off from the Slytherin girls' 6th year dorms and to the common room where he tossed a bouquet of roses into the sickly green fire wisping in the fireplace. It burned slowly and the scent of beauty withered with its ashes. Meanwhile flawed beauty forged by carelessness, transfigured into elite grace or something akin to that.

***

"Hermione…?" Lavender peered into the drapes where she heard the creasing of paper and the scratch of quill against parchment. "Hermione… hey…" She opened the drapes and was relieved to find Hermione lying on her stomach doing her Arithmacy homework. Her hair was disheveled and circles were visible around her swollen eyes; she looked weary and was sporting a yellow nightgown, a hand buried beneath her stomach.

 "Are you feeling any good?" Lavender asked in concern for the bushy-haired girl. "You look… so…yellow…" Hermione sighed in fatigue and groaned under her breath. She reached out for a pillow and buried her head in it. The bed dipped as Lavender sat on the edge of the mattress, placing her hand affectionately on Hermione's head. "The week was anything but good." Muffled sob coming from Hermione. "The whole school now knows that I fancy Draco Malfoy… And it's all your fault! You and Parvati's! If it weren't for your persistence I wouldn't have blurted it out!"  "MY FAULT?!" Lavender cried out, shock shimmering in her pale eyes. "I OFFERED MY HELP TO MAKE YOU PREPPED UP FOR YOUR GUY, YOU NO GOOD WHO—"

"Lavender!" Parvati, who'd been eavesdropping when she wasn't supposed to rushed over to pull Lavender from grabbing Hermione's head of hair. "No! Lav! Don't! Pull! Don't! Argh! Get off of her!" "Ouch!" Hermione screeched as her bushy brown hair almost got yanked out of her scalp. She rubbed her head ruefully. Lavender was heaving.

"There's going to be a dance tonight," Parvati murmured as she pulled Lavender to her side and squeezed her hand to calm her. "And LAVANDER," she accented on the name as Lavender started mimicking her. "— And I, figured we should help YOU get ready for it. You know, give you a make over." Hermione backed away. "Oh, no you don't!" She grabbed the quill from her bed and pointed it threateningly at both of them, her eyes wild in fear. "You're not giving me a make over without a fight! Back I say! Back! Back! No more mumbo jumbo about beauty and fashion, I'll only end up embarrassed no less than I've ever been in my entire life! You two stay back!!" "What, you're going to poke us with that or something?" Lavender rolled her eyes boredly. She gave an insipid sigh and crossed her arms. "Honestly, Hermione. You are so queer sometimes. Well, here we are giving you your big break so you can be with Malfoy and you threaten to God knows why … poke our eyes out!" Hermione frowned as she put the quill down and sat on one end of the bed. The bed dipped under her weight and she leaned the side of her cheek against a fist on her knee. Lavender thought it was boyish. "What? Are you lesbian now or something?" At this, Hermione scowled fiercely at her and almost reach for the quill, whereas Parvati squealed. "Of course not!" Hermione said, outraged. "I am straight as a line with two endpoints." "So will you reconsider our offer then?" Parvati piped up.

"Perhaps you'll take a break from all the homework and have a little fun with old Draco?" The two best friends grinned as Hermione's brow shot up. "Well… Fine." She surrendered.

***

The great hall was indeed fabulous, to hold a dance in such short notice made the news of the event spread like wildfire and in no less than half an hour the whole school had been informed that bands were coming that night and the school would be dressed up. Students rushed to ask their girlfriends or boyfriends or some random people if they wanted to come as well and due to the fact that the dress code was not at all strict and allowed them to wear casual clothes, people were in a rush deciding if they should wear some new pair of Prada sneakers or some other Dickies top. Draco had asked nobody to the dance and this made Pansy in a huff while Blaise debated whether to ask Susan Bones, Slytherin pride and all that. The boy who lived asked Hermione, knocking at the girl's lavatory where she had been the whole day. Hermione agreed and Harry swore to God that he heard hushed voices and hisses erupting from the other end of the door, something about Malfoy, 'say no!' and a make over. Harry had just shrugged and met with Ron to ask him about Padma. The dance would start at 7 and still, Hermione had not been out of the lavatory. Parvati and Lavender had dressed up and decided to come together to the dance, putting on their best clothes as they clothed Hermione with dignity in the lavatory. Lucky for them, there were other nine more in the school. Hermione had been difficult to deal with, the two had broken several combs just straightening her hair and had had to cast a spell to free the many tangles of her hair. However one advantage was that Hermione was very pretty already, it was just that she did way too much homework, had big front teeth (which grew yet, after being magically shrunk by Madam Pomfrey) and her hair was disheveled and unkept. Not forgetting that she just had to get rid of her, old pointy boots. It did not go with her school robes.

The great hall was dressed up indeed. House banners adorned each four corners of the room and tables were pushed back at the two sides of the hall, chairs in few corners around it. The food lay in the tables, along with several varying colored punch bowls and a small stage was elevated at the right corner of the great hall. The ceiling reflected the night sky and seraphs and cherubs alike were visible hiding beneath the clothes. It was all dream-like, surreal; the colors of the great hall were in deep rich hues, as the soft, mellow flicker of the candlelights danced with the shadows they created. The band started coming at 6:30 and were perfecting their act by checking their equipment and setting them up on the stage. A short, petit girl of 5'2 stood on the stage and tapped on the microphone as her band started playing. Instantly, people filtered into the great hall, students in formal and semi-casual attires. The dance had begun.

***

The dance had started an hour ago and Parvati had just dragged Lavender out to dance to 'Tomorrow' together. Hermione suspected they were more than they let on as Lavender entangled her fingers with Parvati. In any way, it was not her place to be intruding their privacy. She had been sitting there, sitting on one cubicle, looking at herself, quite contemplatively. She argued with herself if she ought not to come out, for she had no clue what Parvati and Lavender had been doing to her for the past 4 hours— they even forbade her to look into the mirror and had covered all the mirrors in the sink. Hermione wondered if it were some joke the two girls decided to play on her. Shutting her eyes, Hermione shrugged paranoia off of her shoulders and gave herself a break from everything. Maybe Parvati was right about lightening up.

***

The petit girl onstage had left, punk clothes and all as Third Eye Blind started their act.

They began a slow song to romance the crowd of teens who were nose to nose after a few guitar strums and melodic lyrics. Harry had been sitting at the opposite end of where Draco was, waiting for Hermione while the blonde boy was fawned on by Pansy. Harry walked away, pissed off at Hermione's lack of punctuality and headed for the Gryffindor common room. It was then Hermione walked in, in a periwinkle tube dress, straight almost glittering hair falling loosely to her pale shoulders. She had a bit of make up on, highlighting her perfect cheekbones and her lips were raw pink. On her neck was a feminine black choker with a red rose on it. She smiled shyly as onlookers watched and gaped.

"When we met light was shed

Thoughts free flow you said you've got something

Deep inside of you,"

Draco stood up, making Pansy fall off of him and he brushed himself off carelessly, walking over to Hermione who searched for Harry. He tapped her on the shoulder gently.

"Miss, can I have this dance?" He had no clue who she was, let alone why he had never seen her before. She looked oddly familiar though. Hermione blushed and nodded.

"A wind chime voice sound, sway of your hips round rings true

Echo's deep inside of you

These secret garden beams changed my life so it seems

Fall breeze blows outside, I don't break stride

My thoughts are warm, and they go deep inside of you,"

Draco's arm was around her waist and Hermione's on his neck as they softly, yet shyly, danced. People watched, stared. It was the best night of Hermione's life. In a corner, Parvati and Lavender were giggling.

Tbc…

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