Chapter Five… 'The Shoe'
As Oliver nervously led Hermione out onto the dance floor, Annabella stood back, glaring at them with her make-up covered eyes. Hermione slightly tripped on the hem of her dress, nearly causing her to fall flat on her face but like any good fairy tale, Oliver was luckily there to catch her.
"Have a nice trip?" he asked, supporting her waist.
Hermione very, un-elegantly untangled herself from her dress and stood up properly. "Well I suppose we have to dance now?" she practically whispered in fear.
"I guess so," Oliver replied, quickly glancing over to Annabella who was watching them with great interest. His eyes darted back to Hermione. "She's still watching."
"Right," Hermione said. "Okay then, we can do this, we can dance, it can't be that hard, I mean we did it at school right, uhuh, just one foot, then two feet, then just stepping to the music right, right?" Hermione sounded like she was re-assuring herself more than him.
"Exactly," mumbled Oliver, fumbling to find the right position. "Couldn't have said it better myself."
Eventually, after what seemed like about ten days, they seemed to be standing in what looked slightly like how dance partners were meant to stand. Oliver's arm was on Hermione's shoulder, stiff as a board and Hermione was rigidly standing with one hand on Oliver's shoulder, the other in his sweaty hand.
"This is mighty uncomfortable," she remarked, teeth gritted.
"I know," he replied, clumsily trying to lead her through a waltz. "This is ridiculous."
"Ouch!" she cried as he trod on her delicately enclosed foot.
"Sorry!" he replied, tensing up from embarrassment.
"It's okay," she tried to laugh it off, but struggling against the throbbing pain sensation in her big toe.
"Are you all right?" Oliver asked, letting go of her and sincerely humiliated that he had caused her so much pain.
Hermione was choking back the tears. "Yep… fine…" she coughed.
Oliver's eyes widened. "Hermione, if you don't get that shoe off I think your foot might swell so much you won't ever be able to get it off."
The thought of that happening was enough to convince Hermione to stop dancing. She let Oliver help her hobble aside to where some seats were set up and luckily for them, Annabella had obviously lost interest and had disappeared out of sight.
"I'm so sorry," bumbled Oliver, pouring Hermione a glass of punch.
Hermione smiled. "It's okay Oliver, really, it's fine. You didn't kill me."
"I know, I know… okay, so let me take a look at this foot of yours…" he knelt down in front of her and gently tried to remove her high heeled shoe. It didn't budge. Obviously the swelling had already started.
However as Oliver had always been told by his grandfather, 'if at first you don't succeed. Try again. Harder.'
So Oliver went at the shoe again, this time forgetting all gentleness and tugged, pulled and jerked the shoe off Hermione's foot, while she sat there, trying her mighty hardest not to cry out loud.
It wasn't until Oliver looked up that he noticed he had caused Hermione pain.
"Oh, sorry," he said, his lower lip out guiltily.
"It's fine really," she replied. "At least it's off now."
They both peered at her left foot to closer assess the damage.
It didn't look as bad as Hermione had predicted it might but it certainly hurt like hell. The curse that had been put on Hermione back in third year was no where near the amount of pain her foot was currently in. She swallowed as best she could and tried with all her might to forgive Oliver for practically trampling it. If anything, she had been warned he was a terrible dancer.
Red marks were quickly appearing with lots of bumps and bruises covering mainly the area of her big toe. Oliver winced when he saw it but could only pat her on the head apologetically.
Hermione sighed. There would definitely be no more dancing tonight.
They both heard a little 'beep beep' suddenly and looked around for where the noise was coming from.
Hermione realised it was her pockerpager and reached into her bag. "Great Wizards," she cried, leaping off her seat despite the horrendous pain.
"What is it Hermione?" Oliver asked, frantically trying to get her to sit down again.
"It's Harry and Ron," explained Hermione, rushing to collect her belongings. "They came to visit and found my house had been robbed and trashed. Oh Oliver, I have to get home immediately! I'm so sorry for causing such chaos for you!" Hermione grabbed the hems of her dress, hoisting it up around her ankles and rushing out the door, forgetting all about her foot and her shoe which Oliver was left holding, staring after her as she disappeared out of the hall doors.
Author's Note: Yay, finally some Cinderella relevance! Thanks for all the beautiful reviews people… can I ask a favour? When you leave a review can you try and sign in please because I would love to return the nice gesture for you or at least thank you personally.
On a totally non-fanfiction note, if you haven't seen the film Chicago yet, please do yourself a favour and see it. It's pure brilliance.