The night of the ball was a stressful one. Girls were running, giggling all over Gryffindor tower, while the boys who had been ready for hours sat, bored, in the common room. There were squirts of perfume and sparkles of jewelry everywhere. Hermione took one last look at herself in the mirror. She had her beautiful dress robes on. Palest of blue silk material, off the shoulder, tight down her body to her hips where the dress swept down her legs, long enough to trail on the ground behind her, but not long enough for people to trip on. She wore her hair down, sleek and long with a few loose curls at the ends. On her head was a simple silver tiara with pale blue stones to match her dress and around her wrist was a silver bracelet. Everyone who walked past her commented on how amazing she looked, how much she had transformed. At last she and the other girls went down the stairs in the common room. She walked past Ron as she went to find Seamus, she wanted to apologize but he just ignored her so she went on by. Seamus couldn't believe his luck when all the girls came out; Hermione was by far the prettiest. He greeted her with a kiss on the cheek, and he kept saying over again how beautiful she looked. He gave her a single white rose, which he placed in her hair, and then he took her hand as all the couple walked down the stairs to the entrance hall.
She turned and caught a glimpse of Ron who was with Lavender, and by the looks of it Parvati had got her wish as she was around Harry's arm. An amazing sight met them at the bottom of the stairs. The great oak doors were open to the grounds, and a red carpet was rolling up through the doors and there were all kinds of people! The press was there, photographers for every wizard newspaper there was. And all kinds of people were walking up the red carpet. Hermione saw The Weird Sisters walking down, covered in piercings and plaid. There were all kinds of people from the Ministry, heads of all the departments and the Minister himself. They walked into the great hall and it was at least twice its normal size. Dumbledore must have used some type of enlarging spell, the one they use on the ministry cars to make them bigger on the inside but the same on the outside. There were hundreds upon hundreds of beautifully dressed tables everywhere and a huge space as the dance floor. And the decorations! Gold everywhere!
Seamus took her hand as they went to find their table. It looked like there were 6 to a table, so they looked for their names. They looked at the tags on their table when they found it, it seemed they would be sitting with Ron and Lavender and Harry and Parvati. She groaned, this would be a lovely uncomfortable night. They sat down; they were first at the table. When the rest walked over, Ron and Harry looked equally uncomfortable at the seating arrangements. They all sat in uncomfortable silence awaiting Dumbledore's opening speech.
"Welcome, friends, to this, the 5000th anniversary of our dear school Hogwarts. It was on this day 5000 years ago the founders, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin opened this fine institute, and to celebrate this it is my great honor and privilege to announce this ball open!" Dumbledore bowed, and thousands of hands all over the hall begin to clap. There were so many people clapping it seemed to shake the very foundations of the building. At that moment, the band struck up and began to play a cheerful song that rang through the hall. People all over got up and made their way to the dance floor.
"Would you like to dance, Hermione?" Asked Seamus, and seizing the opportunity to leave this uncomfortable table, she got up and they walked to the dance floor hand in hand, under close watch of one Ronald Weasley.