Disclaimer: I am not JKR.
Chapter Five Lilac Robes and Butter Dishes
"Ginny, Hermione! Are you almost ready?!" Mrs. Weasley called up the stairs.
"Just a minute Mum!" Ginny yelled back. The two girls had spent the last few hours or so getting ready for Neville's party, and it was nearly time to go.
Ginny examined herself in the mirror. Her new golden yellow dress robes fit her perfectly, and her fiery red hair was done up in a loose bun. Her robes had been a present from Fred and George. Ever since they had started making money, they loved to spend it.
Hermione cleared her throat. She tugged nervously at the lilac-colored dress robes she wore. She had let Ginny fix her hair and makeup, and she looked better than she ever had before, even better than at the Yule Ball.
"'Mione, don't worry," said Ginny, as if she could read Hermione's mind. "You look absolutely fantastic." And she really did. Ginny had managed to tame Hermione's hair into pretty curls, instead of her normal bushy mane.
"Thanks Ginny," she replied, "So do you." Ginny thanked her, and nervously smoothed her robes.
"Well, are you ready?" Ginny asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be," replied Hermione, and the two started down the stairs.
Ron impatiently tapped his foot as he waited for the girls to come down. "What could possibly take them so long to get ready?"
"Oh, you wouldn't understand Ron," said Mrs. Weasley, pulling a loaf of bread out of the oven. "Here boys, have some homemade bread. There'll probably only be finger foods at the party you're going to." She put the bread on a plate, and set it on the table in front of Harry and Ron along with a butter dish.
"I can understand that!" said Ron as he grabbed several slices. He was in mid-chew when they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Ron gulped down the wad of bread in his mouth, and brushed off the crumbs on his robes. When he looked up, he saw Hermione in all her splendor. "Hi, Ron," she said shyly. He could only gape. She was stunning! He tried to tell her so.
"'Mione, you look… You look so…" He trailed off. I knew it, thought Hermione. I look ridiculous. Stupid. Terrible.
"Surprising," said Ron finally. When she looked hurt, he quickly added, "Beautiful." They both blushed. Then, Ron got a mischievous look in his eye. "You know, lilac was Lockhart's favorite color. Did you pick out those robes for him?"
Harry just rolled his eyes at the two of them teasing each other, and looked over to see Ginny coming down the stairs. She smiled at him, and he could only lean on the table and gawk. Since when had she become so pretty? She put whatever thoughts he had ever had about Cho to the bin. The yellow of her dress robes made her glow. He was trying to think of something witty to say to her when Ginny looked at his arm and giggled. "What?" Harry said, looking himself over to see what the problem was.
Ginny giggled again. "Your elbow's in the butter dish, Harry," she said. He quickly tried to wipe off the mess that was now all over his robes. Ginny hurried over to help him. Harry couldn't help but smell the wonderful scent of flowers that lingered around her.
When he was clean, he said hoarsely, "Thanks, Ginny." Before she could go away, however, he added, "You look really nice."
Ginny blushed. But she hardly ever blushes around me now, Harry thought. She murmured a thank you. She would have never thought that just a compliment from Harry Potter would make her heart leap like that, at least not anymore.
The four teenagers quickly came out of their lovesick trances, and were left with an awkward silence. Mrs. Weasley, who had been watching with amusement the whole time, said, "Well, it's almost time for you to go. Come over here by the fireplace." They did so.
"Do you think it'll be safe for us to be traveling by Floo?" Harry asked. "I mean, now that there's this war going on?"
"Oh, it's fine. There will be plenty of good, experienced wizards at the party you're going to, and the Floo Network is safe," Mrs. Weasley replied. She glanced at her watch. "7:03! Harry, that's you." He reluctantly stepped into the fireplace. Floo Powder would not have been his first method of transportation. "Neville's party!" he yelled. He quickly disappeared in a burst of green flames.
When Harry emerged from the fireplace, his first thought was, This is so boring, it could be someone's funeral. He was in a very large, white ballroom. Classical music, coming from a group of aged musicians in the corner, met his ears. There were at least a hundred guests there, and they seemed to be a lot of elderly witches and wizards, most likely friends of Neville's gram, and a lot of kids his own age. Harry recognized a few of them from his year at Hogwarts.
He turned, and a very old, very dull-looking man came up to him. He wore simple black robes and carried a small brush. "Do you need brushing off, sir?" he said in a very nasal voice.
"No, I'm fine, thanks," Harry replied. The servant's eyes widened when he saw Harry's scar, and he scurried away. Harry sighed. He turned expectantly toward the fireplace. Sure enough, Ron's gangly form appeared in the fire, and he stepped out. The little man with the brush came up to him as he had with Harry, and Ron pushed him away.
"Looks like a cool party," said Ron sarcastically. Harry laughed. They saw another burst of flame from the fireplace, and Ginny came out. Ron rushed over to her before the servant could. "Nobody's going to be 'brushing off' my little sister," he said, and steered her away. Harry wondered if Ron's protectiveness of Ginny extended to all possible brusher-offers…or boyfriends.
A few moments later, Hermione came out of the fireplace. Ron rushed over to help her up, and to protect her from any perverted old butlers that might have wanted to 'brush her off.' After they were all free of soot, an old woman with a fox fur scarf over her dress robes approached them.
"Why hello, Mr. Potter. And the Weasleys and Ms. Granger of course," Neville's gram said. "How lovely to see you."
"Thank you for inviting us, Mrs. Longbottom," said Hermione politely.
"You are ever so welcome, dear. Now I must run along, and see to my guests." She went back into the crowd of people.
"Well, she seems nice enough," said Harry dryly.
"Now into the party!" Ron said, loud enough so that several adults turned around. The four of them walked toward the center of the crowd.
"We should probably find Neville, I bet he's miserable," said Ginny.
"Yeah, I'll come with you," said Harry. They walked toward the edge of the room, leaving Ron and Hermione alone. After several minutes of searching the room, he and Ginny found Neville, slumped in a chair and surrounded by Dean and Seamus.
"Neville, you must be depressed," said Ginny. He nodded.
"My gram was so excited to throw me a birthday party, I just let her," he said glumly. "And this is what I got. A bunch of old people I don't even know, and a stupid string quartet." Ginny patted his shoulder, but Seamus and Dean looked uncomfortable.
"Well, Ginny, you look like you've got it under control from here," said Dean quickly.
"Yeah, see you Neville. Come on, Harry," Seamus said, and pulled Harry away from their friend. "He's been whining like that for the past fifteen minutes," Seamus explained. "It was bloody annoying."
"Where's Ron?" Dean asked.
"Talking with Hermione," Harry replied, once he got the thought of Ginny and Dean together out of his mind.
The other boys snickered. "What?" Harry asked.
"Nothing. It's just that we heard something about them," Seamus started. "That they're going out now."
Harry was shocked. "What?!"
"Don't worry mate, it was just a rumor," Dean said quickly.
This seemed to calm Harry down a bit. "A rumor. Yeah, that's right. I'm still asking Ron about it though." They walked over to where Harry had left Hermione and Ron. They were now in deep conversation with two Hufflepuffs from their year. Hermione saw them, and motioned for them to come over.
"Hi Seamus. Hi Dean." She nodded in the direction they had come from. "I'm going to go see how Neville's doing." She left, and so did the Hufflepuffs.
"So, Ron. Hermione, huh?" Seamus said with a devilish wink. "Personally, I've got my sights set on Lavender. What about you Harry? See anything you like?" Before either of them could protest, Seamus went on. "But I suppose I shouldn't be that way toward Hermione, because did you see her today? She's looking hot, don't you say?" Harry had to restrain Ron so he wouldn't leave a dent in Seamus's face. "Only joking mate, only joking!" Seamus backed away from him.
Ron still looked furious when he said, "What about you, Dean? Now that we're on the topic of girls, what about you and my sister?"
"What about your sister?" Dean said, confused. "I'm not going out with her, if that's what you mean." Then he added under his breath, "I don't have a death wish. Four older brothers!"
"Six," Harry corrected him in a whisper.
Now Ron was the one who looked confused. Then he understood how Ginny had tricked him, and shut up about it.
"Hello, boys," came a voice from beside them. It came from Parvati and Lavender, looking as pretty as usual. Dean and Seamus were whisked away, and they looked very happy about it.
When Harry turned back around, Ron was loading up a small plate with tiny sandwiches from a buffet cart. "Ron, can I ask you something?" Harry said, as Ron shoved three of the sandwiches in his mouth.
"What?" said Ron, although with his full mouth, it came out as "mff?"
Harry decided to be direct. "Are you and Hermione going out?" Ron was taken aback. "No!" he answered quickly. Not yet, he added to himself. However, the answer seemed to satisfy Harry.
Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione spent the next part of the evening filling up on tea sandwiches and comforting Neville. At around eight o'clock, all of the food was taken away (much to Ron's dismay) and a waltz started to play. All of the adults started to dance to the music. Harry and Ron remembered painful flashbacks from the Yule Ball.
"Would you like to dance, Ron?" Hermione looked at him expectantly.
"I'd love to, but I can't." Ron stared at his shoes.
Hermione looked hurt. "Why not?"
"No, I mean I literally can't. At all." He blushed. "Especially waltzes."
Hermione was determined. "Then I'll teach you." She led him out onto the floor. "Here, left foot first. One, two, three. One, two, three. There, you've got it!" They danced for the entire waltz, Ron only stepping on her feet a few times.
Harry looked on curiously. Not going out, eh? Well they both seemed like they wanted to, at least. Harry brushed that thought aside, and got into a deep conversation with Terry Boot about the D.A. and the upcoming Quidditch season.
Harry looked up from their discussion, and saw Ginny dancing with Neville, who looked a lot more cheerful. Neville wasn't stepping on Ginny's feet at all, unlike the last time they had danced at the Yule Ball. Harry felt both a pang of jealousy, and an urge to rip Neville's heart out through his throat. He wondered what would happen if he asked Ginny to dance. Harry resolved to do so, but when the song was over, the music did not start again. Everyone was lining up in front of the three large fireplaces at the entrance. It was time to go.
Harry hurried off to join his friends in line to go. Hermione and Ron were already in line, so he cut in with them. "Well, this was fun, wasn't it?" Harry said jokingly. He was surprised when Ron said, "Yeah, it really was, wasn't it?" without the slightest trace of sarcasm.
Before Harry could comment again, Ginny cut into the line with them. "I guess Neville's feeling better, huh! We had a lot of fun dancing together."
Ron looked angry when he talked to her. "Gin, why did you tell me that you and Dean were going out?"
She looked confused, but then laughed. "Ron, I thought you knew I was joking about that! I only said it because you're always so protective of me! I just said the first name that popped into my head!" Ron was relived (as was Harry).
"Well, that's one less person that I have to kill," said Ron, grinning. However, his comment dampened Harry's good mood a bit. He still hadn't told his friends what the prophecy had said, and he would most rather not even have to think about it.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, Weasley and Weasley," one of the servants said when they stepped to the front of the line. Finally, each of them went into the fireplace and back to the Burrow.