Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot and any characters you don't recognize from the books. Things you do recognize all belong to JK Rowling.

Title: At the Beat of a Hammer
Chapter Six

Harry and Hermione emerged happily from the Three Broomsticks, the butterbeer definitely helped cheer Hermione up. She had almost forgotten about the earlier events, almost. They have been at Hogsmeade for the past three hours, visiting one shop after another and talking about their week. At the moment Harry was half-way into his story about how Neville Longbottom, their classmate, made the simplest potion explode and cover the whole classroom with green goo that was later found to be glow in the dark. Harry still had a small glow around him at night, while Hermione used spells too complicated for her friends to clean it off of her in no time. Ron was quite frustrated about the fact that she wouldn't help them get it off themselves while she was at it.

Laughing, the two friends made their way down the street.

"Hey, Hermione? While you go shopping for the dress would you umm mind if I went into the Quidditch store? I mean, dresses don't interest me and Quidditch doesn't interest you unless you're cheering for Gryffindor so we wouldn't have to do things we don't really want to do." Harry felt unsure asking that, he didn't want to hurt Hermione's feelings but he really didn't want to stand in the shop with a purse in his hands watching girls squeal whenever they find something they like.

Hermione smiled, she didn't particularly want to go and look at brooms today either so she was rather quick to agree to his idea. "Yeah, how about we'll meet at the gate in an hour?"

"Sure." Harry looked obviously relieved.

"See you then." Hermione waved him goodbye and turned to walk toward the store where all the girls would be shopping for their Holiday dance. It was a month away, but apparently you had to order it ahead of time since the shop would be busy with other dresses. She sighed, she could have done without being pushed around by the more eager of her classmates but she promised Ginny that she would buy a dress today and she never went back on a promise if she could help it.

Walking into the store, she saw that it wasn't as full as she had feared. Better for her actually, she didn't want to be trampled. For this ball it was decided that they would enforce the Muggle way of dressing. That meant dresses for girls and suits or tuxedos for the guys. The Slytherin house wasn't happy when it was announced, but now she could see a few of the girls looking through the catalogs excitedly oohing and aahing.

"Do you need help, Miss?" A perky saleswoman called to Hermione from her desk. The woman was pretty; she had well tanned skin and brown hair. Her green eyes were brought out by the green of her robes.

With a sigh she walked over, smiling sweetly. She sat down on the chair and as soon as she did, the saleswoman began to talk. "I'm Madeleine and I take it you're from Hogwarts? Looking for a dress for the Holiday Ball? We've had quite a few girls your age come in already. Is there anything in particular that you are looking for?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow and thought about the questions she was bombarded with. The truth was, she didn't know what she wanted in a dress. "Umm.. anything that isn't too revealing? I really don't know."

"We'll start with that and explore all options." Madeleine grinned and tapped the white cover of the catalog and the book flipped open. The first page had small four by four pictures with general styles of dresses. The catalog quickly had all of Hermione's attention, even before the saleswitch pushed it toward her. All of he dresses she saw were pretty, but way too fancy for the occasion.

"These are all gorgeous, but is there anything more plain? Something simple?" The Gryffindor girl asked after looking through all of the pictures offered to her.

"Yes. We have a few." Madeleine said with a sigh. She really didn't understand her customer, usually girls her age wanted extravagant things with a lot of decorations and things that looked expensive. However, she complied to the girl's wishes because it wasn't her place to try to tell her what was best. She was to sell the girl what she wanted, not to force her to buy something that others might want. With those thoughts, she tapped the page and another set of pictures appeared. There were only five of them and they looked very simple compared to the ones previously seen.

Hermione smiled, she liked a few of the dresses she saw in this selection. There was one dress that stood out to her though, it was a dress that bared her shoulders and hung down to the floor. It had no decorations or sequence on it but it still looked worthy of wearing to the ball. The fabric was black and red, alternating from one to the other depending on where the light hit it.

She was still staring intently at that dress when she heard people walk into the room. It didn't take her long to realize that the high squeaky voice belonged to the pudgy-faced Slytherin girl her alleged fiancé was making out with that very morning. All of a sudden she felt nauseous. Her butterbeer tried to rush out of her body the way it came in as she began to stand up.

"I want the number 792. In red. Please deliver to Hermione Granger, Dorm 18, Gryffindor, Hogwarts." She rushed the words and ran out of the store. At least she made the purchase; she dropped ten golden coins onto the table before she stormed past the other customers.

Madeleine took down the information but did nothing else. She already had her eyes set on the Slytherins. By the looks of things, they would need something fascinating and she was ready to help them make the best and most important purchase.

Meanwhile, Hermione ran straight to the Gryffindor common room. She sat there, staring at the fireplace and ignoring everyone that tried to talk to her. The only time that day she answered was when Harry came back saying that he waited for an hour for her and even went inside the shop. He said that he was worried, and Hermione felt bad for not considering his feelings when she lost control. She quickly lied though, telling him that she forgot to mail a birthday card to her cousin.

The evening passed quietly with the boys playing wizard's chess and her just watching them. They still didn't know her major news, and Hermione decided that they wouldn't. They wouldn't know until it was time for the wedding; only then she'd tell them, but only because she wanted them by her side. With another sigh, she went to sleep hoping that the next day wouldn't be as horrible as the one she just lived through.

AN: Sorry it took such a long time, but I was really busy with schoolwork. I think that the next chapter will be up sooner. Yes, I know my writing is bad but I don't have a beta-reader nor the time to check it myself. Unless you'd rather have me take longer and edit it myself… but erm I hope you can bear with me.

Thank you: Gothhottie, HGDM lova, Green Falcon, Krickette, blonde-brain, jesus4ever, and Vashka for reviewing.

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