FANTASY. WRITTEN BY DELIRIOUSLY-HAPPY-GIRL-FOR-NO-PARTICULAR-REASON.
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing original (and when I say original, I don't mean the thing's I've invented, I mean J.K.Rowling's creations. They're what I call original).
Chapter Eleven: The Blind Date . . . and a Ball?
Hermione leant against the oak tree at precisely eight o'clock that Saturday. She was not in a particularly good mood and she didn't really want to be there, but she was not the sort of person to forget a promise. Her feelings for Draco were far too much to deal with already and she needed the free time to think them over (and convince herself that they were nothing more than friendly feelings).
'Where is he? I don't want to be waiting out here all day. There's better things to do and better places to be.' Hermione thought to herself. She looked around – not a person was in site. Suddenly a slight rustle of leaves could be heard and a boy with scruffy blonde hair appeared from behind a nearby bush, holding a rather large bouquet of red roses. Hermione was stunned as he grinned at her.
Her eyes widened. 'Is that Alex? Or . . . Ben?' Hermione panicked and her eyes searched the Hogwarts grounds for something else to focus on.
"These are for you, Hermione." He smiled and held the roses out to her, while she merely blinked at them. She smiled awkwardly and took the flowers.
"Why, thank you. You shouldn't have. Really."
"It was a pleasure to get them for you." He gave her another huge grin, before picking leaves out of his blonde hair. Hermione smiled politely back. There was silence as the two stood in front of the oak tree, both standing a fair distance away from one another.
"I don't know if you know my twin brother Alex or not, but I'm not him! In case you were wondering. Erm, my name's Ben Haven. Callum set us up, remember?"
She nodded, the polite smile not daring to falter for a second. She noticed that his eyes were a dark blue. Pretty, but not the sort she liked.
"Yeah, of course I remember. That's why I'm here, I guess."
Silence again. It was an awkward silence, a silence you often found when there was nothing to be said.
"Well, will you then?" Ben asked as his cheeks turned a bright red.
"Will I what?" Hermione asked quizzically. She kept her eyes on the lake, not daring to look. She didn't have enough courage to do that.
"Well, you know . . ." Ben stared at his feet and fidgeted. "Be with me?"
Hermione had obviously been expecting this. Nevertheless, she couldn't help the blood rushing to her cheeks. A boy (a rather handsome one at that) was asking her to 'be with him'. Ben looked nervous. Hermione began to ponder.
'He probably thinks I'm going to say no . . .'
'Well, aren't you?'
'Why should I? He is kind of cute, I guess, and he doesn't seem like a bad person. Maybe I'll grow feelings for him.'
'Are you mad? What about your feelings for Malfoy?'
'What about my feelings for Malfoy? I don't care about him! Certainly not! Humph, I'm going to say yes, just to prove it!'
"Well?" Ben asked, peering at Hermione with his large blue eyes.
Hermione smiled. "Erm – yes, of course I'll . . . be with you."
Ben grinned broadly. "Well, do you want to come eat breakfast with me? We better get going before all the food's gone!" All Hermione could do was nod, as Ben took her hand in his and began to pull her towards the Hogwarts castle and into the Great Hall.
Meanwhile, a certain Professor Dumbledore stood by his window, watching his two students. He gave a small smile. "Indeed Voldemort's plan is good,' he said, turning to Fawkes, "But it is certainly not as good as ours."
Dumbledore took a letter (that he had written earlier) from his desk and handed it to Fawkes, who took it in his beak and waited patiently for Dumbledore's instructions.
"Fawkes, take this letter to Miss Cho Chang at her modelling agency and make sure that you do not get followed or intercepted, do you understand?"
Fawkes flapped his magnificent wings and flew out of the open window, starting his journey towards 'Mademoiselle Suzi's modelling agency for youthful witches of all races'. Dumbledore watched Fawkes and a sigh escaped from his lips. He was confident that his plan would indeed be more successful than Voldemort's – but one could never be sure.
"Only fate can decide if this plan will succeed or fail." Dumbledore said solemnly. "While Fawkes is away, I guess I shall have to start the other part of the plan." Quietly, he descended the stairs, leaving his office in darkness.
Hermione read the note pinned to the notice board in the Gryffindor common room. It was from Professor McGonagall and must have been pinned on there earlier, as she was certain that it hadn't been there this morning. It read:
'To all Gryffindor students,
There will be an ice ball this Monday. We know it is of short notice but we hope that you shall all attend. However, it is optional, students may choose to attend or not. All students are allowed to go to Hogsmeade Village tomorrow (Sunday) to buy whatever they may need for the ball and muggle ice skates shall be placed in the trunks – free of charge. You shall be wearing the skates with the clothing of your choice. All other houses shall be there and we advise you to stay inside after noon today, as we shall be making preparations. It is suggested that you have a date to accompany you, as there shall be slow dances on ice. Note that both muggle music and wizard music will be played on the evening.
The ball will start at five o'clock, after dinner.
We will wait until quarter past five for everyone to arrive. Students shall wait in the Entrance Hall. Those who do not know how to skate may enter the Great Hall, where they shall receive a potion from Professor Snape that enables them to skate for one night – and one night only. We look forward to seeing you there.
Signed,
Professor M. McGonagall
Deputy Head Mistress.'
Hermione frowned. 'Monday? Does this mean I don't need to go to my detention with Malfoy?' Hermione decided to ask Professor McGonagall, and so she left the common room and made her way to the staff room. She soon arrived outside the mahogany door and, knocking three times, she waited. The door opened slowly, revealing a tired looking Snape.
"Shouldn't you be at lunch, Miss Granger?" He drawled, looking not too happy to see her. She glanced at her watch. It was one and lunch would be just about over by the time she made her way to the Great Hall. She looked back up at Snape, who was a good deal taller than her.
"I was looking for Professor McGonagall, Sir."
Snape nodded and gestured for Hermione to come in. It seemed that it was only Snape and McGonagall in the staff room – as well as a certain blonde-haired boy known by the name of Draco Malfoy. She glared at him as she sat down and he gladly returned it.
"Mr Malfoy . . . care to start?"
Snape eyed Draco as he began to talk. "I was just wondering Professor, does the ice ball mean that me and Granger's detention is cancelled for the Monday?"
"Yes, it certainly does." McGonagall replied, taking a long drink from her teacup. Draco smirked triumphantly, thanked the Professors and headed to the door. Hermione, realising that Draco had asked the question for her, thanked the Professors for their time and followed him out. As she closed the door behind her, she was quite surprised to find that Draco was leaning against the wall – presumably waiting for her.
"Don't be so shocked, Granger. It's only gentlemen-like of me to escort a lady – if you can call yourself that." He smirked.
"Whatever." Hermione said. The two began to walk down the corridor. "So . . . How are things going with you and Madeleine?"
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Why the sudden interest?" He asked. Hermione didn't reply. They continued to walk. "It's going fine."
Hermione looked at him and saw a scowl on his face. She had heard of Draco Malfoy and his 'dating skills'. But his relationship with Madeleine didn't seem to be anywhere near as exciting as the stories that had been told. Hermione decided to question him a little more.
"Fine, eh?" She gave him a suspicious look. "Not brilliant, or fantastic? Really, Malfoy, I expected so much more of you. It certainly doesn't sound fine."
"Well, why do you suddenly want to know all the personal details of my love life, Granger? It isn't as if you of all people would care." Draco said, scowling more. Madeleine seemed clingy, much like Pansy Parkinson, and he didn't particularly like girls of that sort. She was different to how he thought she would be.
"Well, it seems to me that you're having a rather bad influence on her," stated Hermione, lifting her nose in the air in a rather pompous fashion, "She's just had a row with Ginny, you know, over you as a matter of fact. And you don't even seem to care about her that much."
Draco glared at the Gryffindor. "If you must know, she reminds me a little too much of those little dolls my mother used to have. If I wanted a toy then I'd go out and buy one. Seeing as it interests you so much, you might like to know that I'm planning to end it soon, so if you see her you might as well tell her not to give up everything for me, okay?"
They stopped in front of the Fat Lady's portrait and she let out a gasp. Draco frowned. He didn't even know that he was going to be ending it soon. He hadn't meant to say anything like that at all. It had just . . . slipped out.
"Tell her yourself, you pig!" Hermione cried. "I'm not helping you do your dirty work!"
"Don't put words in my mouth Granger! I never asked you to do anything for me. But now that you've been nosey-ing around in my life, it's only fair to let me have a go." Draco smirked. "How are things going with that guy . . . Joe? I heard from some of my fellow Slytherins that you've finally bagged yourself a boy." He snorted. "I doubt you can keep him for long."
Hermione let out a bitterly sarcastic laugh. "His name is Ben. And it's going fine. Just slowly."
He snorted. "Slowly?"
"Yes, slowly. But I like things slow so that's no problem at all! As a matter of fact, he's already given me something, and I only met him this morning." Draco raised an eyebrow as Hermione stuck her tongue out at him. It was childish, but that was all Hermione could think of doing. The flowers from Ben were a lovely present, absolutely lovely. Hermione muttered the password quietly to the Fat Lady and stepped through the portrait hole, leaving Draco to himself. She was quite surprised to find only Harry and Ron, talking quietly beside the fire. The two boys looked at her. Ron began to speak.
"We'd like to talk to you, Hermione. If that's all right with you."
She gave them a suspicious look, before nodding and stepping closer towards them. "What is it? I'm not really in the mood to talk right now, let alone be questioned." She didn't enjoy, or want, to appear rude to either Ron or Harry (especially since they had not spoken for a while), but it was the after effect of speaking to someone like Draco.
"Well, we heard about you and that guy from Hufflepuff . . ." Harry said cautiously.
"Yeah, and if you ask me, I don't think he's anywhere near good enough for you." Ron said.
Hermione gave him a cold stare, and stiffly replied, "No one asked." She saw Harry and Ron glance at one another. She sighed. "I know what you're trying to tell me. Be careful, look out, I don't know him . . . but that's why I'm going to try to get to know him. He seems like a decent person. And I've met his brother, and he's very nice, so he can't be that much different. Oh, it's not like I'm dating Malfoy or something."
Harry smiled, "If you say so, Hermione. You know we trust you."
"Yeah well, we wanted to say something else too," mumbled Ron, "We just wanted to . . ."
". . . Apologise." Harry finished for him. "For not being there for you when you needed us. We want to say that it's not that we don't want to, it's just that there's something stopping us . . . a secret too secret to be spoken about – especially here." Harry's face was solemn and almost expressionless. Hermione opened her mouth, but Harry interrupted her. "I'm sure that you'll find out what it is soon. And we hope that you won't be mad at us."
Hermione smiled at them. It was nice to know that there was a reason why they had been ignoring her (although she didn't know this reason). She gave them a nod and climbed up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. The two boys watched as she left the common room.
"I'm glad Dumbledore finally let us tell her something." Ron said as soon as they were sure that Hermione was out of earshot.
"It's a shame we still have to hide things from her though." Harry remarked. "Keeping secrets from a friend . . . that's not supposed to happen. But if Dumbledore is right about everything, then Hermione needs to be careful. This war isn't going to be any child's play."
Both Ron and Harry sighed and stared at the crackling fire in front of them, wondering what was awaiting them in the future.
Edited Version: 16th August 2005