Chapter 8
Formal affairs
Captain Picard and the other senior staff
moved to greet the party from
The visit was mostly shore leave, but
Starfleet also had jumped on the opportunity to let the flagship handle a few
small diplomatic affairs.
"Welcome on the
"Captain Picard. It's good to see you again.
I hope you enjoyed your time on the surface." The woman with the long, blond
hair answered back.
"I haven't had the time yet to beam down. I
had planned to go down tomorrow." Picard replied. They made small talk for a
few moments, then he moved on to the other members of the party.
Finally he greeted the young Konega son. He
had already known the boy for a few years and he knew how he loathed this
formal affairs. That was why Picard had thought of the fact to invite the young
wizards and witches to the party.
***
Hermione checked herself over in the mirror
to see if everything was as it should be. Ginny was finishing her make-up in
the bad room. A few moments later the youngest Weasley also emerged and she
checked herself over in the mirror.
Suddenly the chime rang. Hermione called:
"Come in."
Harry, Ron and Sirius entered. All three were
dressed in their dress robes.
Sirius whistled when he saw the girls. "You
look beautiful, girls." Both smiled a bit shyly.
Ron walked over to Hermione and offered her
his arm. "Will you allow me to escort you, milady?"
Hermione smiled again, hooked her arm trough
his and replied: "Of course, milord.'
Harry grinned and offered Ginny his arm. Then
the five walked out. Hermione and Ron first, then Ginny and Harry and Sirius
trailing behind.
***
Deanna looked up when the doors opened. Their
'magical' guests entered. She was a bit surprised at how mature the teens looked.
Hermione was in a velvet dark blue robe. The
velvet was embroidered with silver roses and leaves. The tiara Ron had given
her was carefully woven into the hair pilled on top of her head. She also wore
the earrings Deanna and Beverly had given her.
Ron, who was holding Hermione arm, was in
deep red dress robes. Those accented his auburn hair and they were just tight
enough to show his muscled physique.
Ginny and Harry were behind them. Ginny wore
forest green satin dress robes, embroidered with gold at the hems. Her hair was
pilled on top of her head, but it didn't hide the golden circlet with small
green gems she wore, nor the matching ear rings.
Harry besides her had somehow managed to tame
his hair a bit. He wore simple, ebony black silken robes.
Sirius closed the lines. Also he wore simple,
ebony black silken robes, but his were trimmed with gold. His hair was pulled
back at the nap of his neck.
Deanna quickly made her way over to them.
***
Christian was looking around. He was bored.
He had been on this ship a few times before, so that also had nothing new to
offer. And all the small talk around here…
But suddenly his interests were perked by the
small group that had entered. The group existed from two young women and two
young men, around his age. Another man was also with them, but he appeared
around the age of the Counselor who was walking over to the group.
***
"Hello
Counselor."
"Hi. Usual party clothing in the wizard's
world?" Deanna greeted the small group.
"For the boring, formal ones, yes. For real
parties, no." Sirius replied.
Hermione whacked Sirius on his shoulder.
"Yes, they are. And they are mostly for more formal affairs. But these are
slightly flashier then usual dress robes."
"They look good on you." Deanna replied.
Harry, Ron and Sirius groaned, but the girls
thanked her.
"Guys in our world usually hate dress robes.
Any different here?" Ginny quipped.
"No, only captains who say that the size of
their neck is still the same as sixty years ago. Come on, I will introduce you to
some of the people." Deanna said and she guided them over to the guests.
***
"Konega, I would like you to meet some of our
other guests. This is Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ronald and Virginia
Weasley and Sirius Black." Deanna introduced them to the elegant lady in green
and silver.
"I have heard about you. What did you think
about our planet?" The lady said.
"I am afraid we haven't seen enough of it to
give a fair judgment, but what I have seen was very beautiful. The lake where
we were today reminds me of home." Ginny answered.
"And the girls love the daily wear. They
spent quite some time selecting a set for themselves." Ron added.
Konega Armina smiled. "And what did you think
about our planet, young Ronald?"
"I must agree with my sister. We haven't seen
enough to give a fair judgment. But please call me Ron."
"This is my son Christian. Christian, this is
Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley and Sirius Black." The
ruler of
Christian smiled and shook hands with Ron,
Harry and Sirius. But when he took Ginny's hand he didn't shake it, but lifted
it to his mouth and placed a light kiss on it. He repeated the same by
Hermione.
After some further introductions Armina went
of with Sirius and Deanna while the teens chatted about several subjects.
***
Suddenly a Waltz
started to play. Captain Picard walked over to Konega Armina and asked her to
dance. The woman accepted and the two walked out to the open dance floor.
The couple danced together for a
while, then other couples started to fill the floor. Harry took Ginny out to
the floor and Christian asked Hermione also.
The teens had quite a nice time
together chatting and dancing together.
***
"Counselor Troi, would you like to dance?"
Deanna was talking with
Deanna smiled: "Of course."
Sirius offered her his arm and guided her to
the floor. Deanna placed her hand on his shoulder, while Sirius placed his hand
on her back. Then he took her hand and started to dance.
"Counselor Troi… may I call you Deanna?"
"Tomorrow, Mr. Black. Tonight I am afraid
it's gonna have to stay Counselor Troi." Deanna said.
"Then only for this dance?"
Deanna saw the puppy dog eyes and relented a
bit. "Okay, only for this dance."
Sirius threw her his most charming smile.
"You look great tonight."
"Thank you. But to be honest, I hate the
dress uniform."
"I see you in a mauve dress robes. With all
silver decorations in your hair…"
***
"Do you see that?"
Ron and Hermione turned to Ginny who was
dancing towards them with Harry. It had been Ginny who had spoken.
"What do you mean?" Ron asked.
Ginny's nodded in the direction of Deanna and
Sirius.
Hermione and Ron looked and their mouths fell
open.
Sirius and Deanna were dancing. That wasn't
the problem. The problem was that they were dancing quite close. A bit too
close. Sirius' hand had slipped a little bit too low.
"That isn't the only problem." Harry's nod
directed them to look in the face of Commander William Riker. A face that stood
like a thunder cloud.
"Ron, we need to cut in. Harry, occasionally
you seem more mature than your godfather." With those words Hermione danced
away with Ron, in the direction of Deanna and Sirius.
"Harry, I hope you don't mind, but I gonna
distract Commander Riker a bit."
Harry guided them away from the dance floor
and Ginny set of to do a bit work of her own.
***
"May I cut in?" Ron tapped on Sirius'
shoulder, just as the song stopped.
Sirius didn't look like he wanted to stop,
but Hermione already gripped his hand and pulled him away. In the mean time Ron
placed a hand on Deanna's back and griped her other hand and started to dance
in the quickstep that had started to play.
***
"What the heck do you think you are doing,
Sirius? Flirting with the Counselor." Hermione chided him.
"What is you problem, Mione? It means
nothing."
"If everything goes well, we won't even stay
in this time. And we are at a formal affair and there was a Commander Riker
with face like a thundercloud… All I am saying is, if you want to flirt or even
to seduce her, be careful. Voldemort is also here, in this time. We must be
stay on our guard." Hermione said.
"When I sometimes hear you, Mione, I wonder
who the adult is and who the teenager is."
"Most of the times you are the adult, Sirius.
And when you can't be, one of us will take over for the moment. And if you get
wounded or something because you get in argument with the dear Commander, I
will tell Ginny not to patch you up." Hermione said with a wink.
Sirius shook his head and smiled. After the
dance was finished, Hermione went of to fetch something to drink. Sirius did
the same and the next dance he was asked by a lieutenant.
***
When Ginny approached Commander Riker, it
took a few moments to get his attention.
"O, Miss Weasley. What can I do for you?"
"I merrily was wondering if you wanted to
dance. You looked so longing." Ginny said with a smile.
"It isn't so bad. But if you are offering me
a turn on the floor, I won't refuse." He offered his hand to the girl and led
her to the floor.
Ginny smiled when the music started to play.
A quickstep, her favorite dance. And the Commander was an excellent dancer,
most of the time.
"Ouch." Ginny noticed the Commander was very
distracted and staring at Deanna, who was dancing with her brother. "Where are you
with your head, Commander?"
She pretended if she was following his looks.
"Counselor Troi is good hands with my brother. He might look big and a bit
clumsy, but he won't smash her. He is quite a good dancer. Ask Mione."
Riker just smiled and kept his attention on
the girl before him, trying to make sure he wouldn't smash her toes.
***
Hermione took a sip of the cider she had
fetched for herself and felt the cool drink gliding down her troth.
"Miss Granger."
Hermione looked up to see a handsome young
man standing before. From the rank pin on his uniform she could see he was
cadet who did a traineeship on the
"Yes?"
The man ran a hand trough his black hair. "I
was wondering if you would like to dance with me."
"Of course, Cadet…?"
"Baker. Damien Baker. But please call me
Damien."
"Only if you call me Hermione."
Damien smiled and guided her to the dance
floor. They danced together for a couple of dances. Ron, Harry, Sirius and Ginny
had been occupied with some questions about Dementora.
"I have been looking at you in Ten Forward
several times. And you have me smitten. I was wondering if you would like to
join me for dinner in two days."
"Damien, I probably won't ever remain in this
time. And there are too many things I have to worry about."
"That doesn't matter to me. Just to have good
time. That's all. You need to relax sometimes."
Hermione smiled a bit, considered this for
few moments, then agreed.