Chapter 28: Costume Craze
The weeks leading up to the Halloween dance were fun for most of the students. The older ones had a chance to visit Hogsmead for anything they may need and the younger ones asked for help from their older friends in transfiguration after Hermione showed one 2nd year how to transfigure her cloak to look like Little Red Riding Hood.
Hermione propped the door to the heads common room open for three hours each night the week before the dance so anyone who needed her help could come ask for it. There was a steady stream of younger and even some older students in and out of the room. Gabrielle and Ginny were there sometimes to help the students with costume ideas. One second year hurried into the room, "Can you make me a pirate?" He asked hopefully. "I told my friends I was going to be a pirate but my mum couldn't find my costume to send it to me."
"What kind of pirate do you want to be?" Hermione asked him. "Are we talking about a regular pirate or a pirate captain?"
"Can you make me look like Captain Hook?" he asked her with a big smile.
She transfigured his muggle clothes he had brought for him. His winter coat became the red velvet tail coat with belt, his jeans a pair of black breeches, his t-shirt a frilly white shirt and his shoes and socks into their appropriate counterparts. She then took his cap and turned it into a perfect black pirate hat complete with white feather and an extra quill into a hook that he could put over his hand. "Thank you so much, you are the best head girl ever!"
"Do you want to help me with my costume as well?" Gabrielle asked her. She had decided to go as a fairy. She changed one of her dresses to be smaller and shimmery but was having problems with the wings since she wanted them to move as well. Hermione transfigured the wings easily and Ginny and Gabrielle decided to work on finding a charm to get them to beat.
Ginny and Hermione wouldn't tell anyone what they were going as so it would be a surprise. Over half of their friends were going as various characters from the Wizard of Oz movie. Draco was going as prince charming. He had a very nice looking costume. Harry told them he was going as Dumbledore and they would see him at the dance.
Hermione was just about to shut her door when Crabbe and Goyle walked in looking nervous. "Hello boys, come on in," she told them and closed the portrait behind her. "What can I do for you?"
"We heard you were helping with costumes for the dance," Goyle told her looking shyly at his feet. "We don't have costumes."
"I thought you went with Draco to Hogsmead to buy them?" She asked surprised.
"We don't have the money to buy them," Crabbe told her. "The ministry had our father's accounts frozen since they went to Azkaban and we only have enough to live off of. We didn't tell Draco so he wouldn't be mad at us."
"He wouldn't be mad at you," Hermione told them with a smile. "Alright, so tell me, do you have any ideas for your costumes?" They shook their heads. "Well do you want your costumes to compliment each other or be totally different?"
"I don't know," Goyle told her. "We're sorry we don't have any ideas."
"Alright, here are some ideas: Cowboy, Indian, Referee, Police Man, Viking, Biker, Elvis, Caesar, Hippie, Pirate, Batman, Superman. Do any of them sound good?" She asked them with a smile.
"Are Batman and Superman muggle heroes?" Crabbe asked her.
"Yes they are. I think you could go as them. Batman wears black and Superman is in red and blue." They both nodded and she got to work making their costumes.
"Thank you," they told her shyly while clutching their costumes. "What can we do to pay for this?"
"I want to see each of you ask at least one girl to dance. You are very nice boys so you need to find girlfriends, ok?" She asked and they nodded and went back to their common room. Draco came out of his room once they were gone knowing they wouldn't have asked for help if he was there.
"Thanks for helping them," he told her. "I heard what they said about their finances. I didn't realize they were in trouble. Do you think I should ask the ministry to appoint them as heads of their families so they can access their money?"
"I don't know maybe we should just help them until the war is over. We don't want to shake things up too much." She told him and they started their homework. "So do you think they'll ask anyone to dance?"
The dance was due to start in 2 hours and Hermione was putting the finishing touches on her costume. She had a green dress that was on one shoulder strap over her left shoulder. It cut down drastically to almost be indecent over the right side. The skirt was raised high on the left up to almost her mid thigh and the other side down to her ankle. The dress was trimmed in silver and had the words 'Snake Charmer' embroidered in silver across her chest. The dress was backless as well and she charmed a fake green and silver snake tattoo between her shoulder blades and a snake the same color green as her dress to wrap up her left leg. She had her wand in a thigh holster on her right leg so she could wear strappy silver high heal sandals. She had a silver snake necklace around her neck that made it look like a snake was coiled around her throat and a silver arm cuff of a snake around both arms. They each had emerald jeweled eyes (cuffs and necklace). Her hair was the best part of her costume. She had it charmed to float around her head and form into moving snakes. The snakes were not real, just gathered pieces of hair but the effect was stunning. She put on sparkling green eye shadow and silver glitter over her face and body. She then painted her lips fire engine red to stand out. She loved the idea of going to the dance as Medusa. She had also charmed her dress with a very tiny silver snake to slither around the words on her chest. If anyone stared at the eyes of the snake they would be petrified for 15 minutes. It was her own adaptation of the full body bind and only she could release someone from it. They would have to be staring very hard at her chest to see the miniscule snake so she felt justified in her charm.
Hermione was one of the last to enter the hall so she could make an entrance. There were many turned heads and lots of boys with their mouths wide open as she made her way over to her friends as the cast of Wizard of Oz. "You look great Harry," she told him with a laugh at his long white beard and purple robes with moons and stars in gold. "Did you notice that Dumbledore returned the favor and went as you?" She said pointing at the head table where Albus was grinning at them.
"You look incredible Hermione, killer costume. You make a great Medusa," Gabrielle told her as Draco and she wandered over. Draco was the first man to be effected by her body bind charm. Hermione laughed and explained to her girl friends what she did, they all laughed and she freed Draco who shrugged.
"You are the epitome of every male Slytherin's fantasy I couldn't help but stare!" He said with a shrug. "I'll bet you get quite a few boys with that tonight! Maybe even a few teachers too," he told her pointing at the head table where both Charlie and Severus were checking her out. In fact it seemed like half the room was staring at her and she tried not to feel self conscious.
Sylvester Spinnet was the first boy to gather his courage and ask her to dance. "My Slytherin queen, may I have the honor of dancing with you?" He asked her. He was dressed as Caesar and she accepted. She then danced with almost every once of the Slytherin guys. She was happy to note that Crabbe and Goyle were each dancing with girls from Hufflepuff that were in their DA squad.
Ginny and Harry made a weird couple as she had come as a devil. Her red hair really complimented the skintight short red leather dress with matching tail and horns. She was earning quite a few stares herself. Lavender was a genie girl and Padma and Parvarti were gypsies, they were very disappointed they were not the sexiest girls there.
"Severus, I think you need to blink and try and breathe," Remus told him with a chuckle when Hermione walked in. He was a happily married man and even he appreciated her outfit so he had an idea of what it was doing to the head of Slytherin who had affection for the girl.
"Damn, does she have any idea what she is doing to me dressed like that?" He asked his friend. Remus and Albus both laughed and Tonks giggled. Tonks and Remus were dressed as Raggedy Ann and Andy. Hermione danced with quite a few boys and excused herself to the head table.
"Where is your costume Severus?" She asked him putting her hands on her hips. He couldn't respond or he knew she would be able to tell his arousal in his voice so he bared his teeth at her and she could see the fangs. "You dressed as a vampire?" She asked with a laugh, not noticing him stiffen as her chest heaved from her laughter. When she looked over at him again he was completely rigid. She laughed again and poked his arm, causing her to almost cry with mirth. Severus Snape had been caught by her charm. She leaned over and told Tonks what had happened and the two women had to hold the table for support. "I'd ask you to dance Severus but you won't be moving for another 10 minutes or so. The charm lasts 15 minutes!" She then leaned in to purr in his ear. "You make a very appealing vampire. If you promise not to suck my blood maybe I'll let you have a better look at my snakes later." She then kissed his cheek and headed back to her friends.
"What is she laughing at?" Remus asked Snape and then noticed the rigid pose. He looked around the room and saw two additional boys go rigid after staring avidly at Hermione's chest. "So she really does turn them to stone for a few minutes huh?" He laughed to Tonks. "How does it work?"
"She charmed a very tiny snake onto her chest and you'd have to be starting intently at it to see it. If you look at the eyes of the snake you get a modified body bind for 15 minutes." Tonks told him and he laughed while Albus choked on his lemon drop when he heard it was so amusing. "I wonder who else will be trapped." They all looked down to see that Charlie Weasley was rigid as well as half of Hermione's Slytherin fan club.
Draco and Hermione were dancing together, "So Severus checked out your rack huh?" He asked her with a smirk. "I thought you two were just friends."
"We are only friends but that doesn't mean he can't appreciate my outfit. I am a snake charmer after all and he is the head snake. He is also the only one here that is fun to try and charm, the rest are too easy." She told him and they headed to the front table to start the costume contest when the song ended.
"Everyone will receive a ballet in their house color to write the name of the boy and girl in each year you think has the best costume as well as the overall boy and girl with the best costume." Hermione announced and the ballets appeared out of no where in everyone's hand. She put Ginny down as the best dressed girl and Harry as the best guy then filled in the years.
"After the ballets are tabulated we will announce the winners for each year and we have a bag of sweets from Honeydukes and some tricks from WWW for each. The overall winners will be crowned Halloween King and Queen and will get a crown as well as the treat bag. "Professor Dumbledore will you please do the honors of announcing the winners."
The first year winners dressed up as Elvis and a Hippie girl, the 2nd year that Hermione helped be Captain Hook won along with an Angel, the 3rd years were a Viking and Cleopatra, Dennis won as a flying monkey for the 4th years and the girl was a cowgirl. The 5th years were an Indian and cheerleader and Colin won the 6th years as the Tinman and Ginny won for her devil costume. Draco won the 7th years as the prince and Hannah won for Dorothy. "And your King is Harry Potter dressed as myself," Albus told them with a laugh. "Your queen is our very own head girl Hermione Granger dressed as Medusa." There were lots of cheers for Hermione and she smiled and thanked them.
Harry and Hermione danced together as Halloween King and Queen and it was funny to dance with his beard. "You're all scratchy!" She joked and they spun around. "I'm going to go get Severus to dance with me now." She told him with a wink and headed back up to the head table.
As she passed Charlie who was dressed as a knight he said, "Hermione I'm sorry I've been such a jerk. Please forgive me. Would you dance with me?"
She smirked at him as she had seen him petrified at least 3 times that night. "I do forgive you Charlie but I was just about to ask Severus to dance. Perhaps if there is time later." She told him and headed over to Snape, who of course had just heard the conversation. "So how about dancing with me?" She asked him with a smirk.
He stood and offered her his arm and led her to the dance floor. He smirked at Weasley on his way by just because he could. "You look absolutely breathtakingly stunning tonight." He told her as he held her closely. "No snake stands a chance against your charms." Hermione grinned at his comments and contented herself with the feeling of being in his arms. It was fun to flirt with him every now and then. "You truly are the Queen tonight."
"Now are you just trying to sweet-talk me so that you can suck my neck?" She asked him and he bared his fangs at her again as she laughed. It was especially funny since there was a first year girl dancing near them who saw the fangs, screamed and ran over to her friends on the side of the room.
"I believe the correct phrase is, 'I vant to Suck your blood' or something of that nature." He said with a chuckle.
"I still can't believe that your idea of dressing up is to wear your normal clothes and charm two of your teeth longer." She said shaking her head at his lack of creativity. "You could have at least done something more fun like Zorro. He has a sword to play with."
"I have a sword to play with as well, but it's not appropriate for me to show it to the students," he purred in her ear causing her to shiver at the hidden meaning as well as his silky voice.
She smirked then told him, "I hear that Arley Filtch is a sword master, perhaps he would like to see your sword?" She grinned as he narrowed his eyes at her.
"Quiet woman, don't even think something that disturbing. I may never sleep again." He told her grimacing. "It's bad enough you allowed Crabbe and Goyle to wear tight leotard type suits!"
"How can you stand to dance with him?" Ron asked her when she headed back to her friends. "Do you have grease on your hands now?"
"You are as bad as your brother Ronald Weasley," Hermione said in her dangerous voice. "Severus Snape deserves your respect. You don't have to like him or be friends with him but I refuse to stand around and let you insult him. Furthermore, I enjoy dancing with him. I've danced with him quite a bit now and he is a much better dancer than you. You may be the great and powerful wizard of oz but I'll always just see you as the man behind the curtain who had no real power!" She finished her rant and saw the rest of her friends trying to hide their smirks.
"Damn woman you look scary when you yell in that outfit!" Justin told her trying to defuse the situation. "I'm both petrified and aroused at the same time!" That earned him a swat from Hannah but broke the tension as they all laughed.
"Yeah Hermione you are kind of scary," Ron told her. "And I'm sorry for insulting Snape. It's hard to break the habit after all these years." He hugged her and all was forgiven.