Chapter 14 – A New View on Hermione

Later that day, Hermione was walking through the corridor to go to lunch as she thought about Viktor, when Neville stopped her.

"Hello, Neville," Hermione greeted with a smile. She felt nothing could bring her down now, Viktor had turned out to be a very nice person, not bothered or corrupted by fame at all. In fact, she had quite enjoyed her chat with him and she was quite excited about going to the ball with him.

"Uh- Hermione," Neville began in one of his nervous, fidgety manners.

"What homework do you need help with now?" Hermione giggled, but that didn't seem to make Neville's situation any better. She saw this and suddenly became serious hoping it wasn't something like that day after Moody's class where he had went pale and freaked out. "What's the matter?"

"Would you um- would you like to go to the- uh- the thingy with me?"

"What thingy?"

"The ball?"

"Oh, Neville," Hermione said suddenly as though she had just heard his dog had died or something. "I'm terribly sorry, Neville. It's not you, definitely not, you've been a pleasure to work with and stuff, but I'm already going with someone." Hermione frowned as he went very pink and then very pale before muttering good-bye and then leaving. She sighed, it felt good to be able to say she had someone to go with, but not to someone like Neville.

It was time for dinner and Hermione was now on her way there with Harry and Ron. Both of them were discussing asking someone to the ball when Harry spotted Cho Chang. Hermione had a bad feeling about this as Harry told them to go ahead without him.

"I'll meet you at dinner," he had told her and Ron before running off up the marble staircase. Hermione wanted to yell after him and tell him now to, but her attention was now turned to Ron who had left her side and was headed toward Fleur and Diggory. Hermione frowned as she saw Cedric, but she became more worried as Ron began to speak.

"Oh, he can't be," she tried to convince herself, but he was.

"Who can't be what?" Hermione turned and saw Ginny.

"Your brother," Hermione said as she pointed off in the direction of Ron who seemed to be coming to his senses all at once and looking very red in the face. Ron ran off as Fleur stood there looking anything but pleased, Ginny looking to Hermione quickly before running off after him. Hermione sighed and went into the Great Hall. Hermione had been sitting there for more than half of dinner when she finally realized that neither Harry nor Ron were coming down, so she decided to go and see if Ginny had managed to help Ron. She walked up to the Gryffindor common room with a smile on her face as she passed every window and saw the Durmstrang ship. She entered the common room to see Ginny and Ron sitting on the couch and Harry standing in front of them. "Why weren't you two at dinner?"

"Because – oh, shut up laughing, you two – because they've both just been turned down by girls they asked to the ball," Ginny answered.

"Thanks a bunch, Ginny," Ron replied with bitterness.

"All the good-looking ones taken, Ron? Eloise Midgen starting to look quite pretty now, is she? Well, I'm sure you'll find someone somewhere who'll have you," Hermione taunted, but her taunts didn't seem to be getting through to him. He was staring at her strangely and she didn't like it in the least.

"Hermione, Neville's right – you are a girl..."

"Oh, well spotted," she hissed.

"Well – you can come with one of us!" Ron looked from Hermione to Harry and then back again, but Hermione felt anger instead of epiphany like he did.

"No, I can't!"

"Oh, come on," Ron pleaded with lessening patience. "We need partners, we're going to look really stupid if we haven't got any, everyone else has..."

"I can't come with you," Hermione replied simply as she felt heat rising in her face. She knew that they would be mad if they knew why. "Because I'm always going with someone."

"No, you're not! You just said that to get rid of Neville!"

"Oh, did I?" Anger was so immense in Hermione at that moment that she wanted to smack Ron. "Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no on else has spotted I'm a girl!" Her angered tone did nothing to sink in and make him feel guilty, though as he began to grin. How could he grin?

"Okay, okay, we know you're a girl. That do? Will you come now?"

"I've already told you! I'm going with someone else!" She didn't give him a chance to ask who, though. She went stomping across the common room and racing up the girls' dormitory stairs, slamming her dorm door shut behind her. "How can he be so thick?" Hermione wasn't up there by herself for long though as Parvati and Lavender came racing in, cornering her and beginning to bombard her with questions.

"Who are you going with?"

"What?"

"Harry said you already had a date to the ball," Lavender explained. "Who are you going with?"

"I- uh-"

"We figured that you would go with Ron," Parvati said in astonishment. "Who are you going with?"

"I- uh- I can't tell you," Hermione said finally.

"What? Why not?"

"Let her alone, then, Parvati," Lavender giggled. "It must be someone she's embarrassed about."

"It is not! Ask Ginny, though she won't tell you, but she can tell you I'm not embarrassed about it," Hermione protested.

"Okay, sure," Lavender went on.

"Fine! I'm going with a boy from Durmstrang," Hermione snapped.

"Durmstrang?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, Parvati, I'm serious. He's quite nice, you know," Hermione sighed finally.

"Are- are they any different from the boys here?"

"Oh, don't be silly, Lavender," Hermione groaned. "They are all human, all the same. He on the other hand seems to be a little sweeter and stuff, though."

"Who is it?"

"Can't tell you," Hermione sighed as she plopped down on her bed.

"Fine," Parvati droned.

"We'll just see at the ball," Lavender agreed as she too dropped down onto her own bed.

Hermione had never been so on her guard. It would seem that everyone was determined to get out of her who she was going to the ball with. Parvati and Lavender would ask her every morning she woke and every night she had gone to bed, until she got to the point where she was tired of hearing it and wanted to put a Silencing Charm on them. Ron had persisted in asking as well, not letting her have her piece.

"Hermione – who are you going to the ball with?"

"I'm not telling you, you'll just make fun of me."

"You're joking, Weasley! You're telling me someone's asked that to the ball? Not the long-molared Mudblood?" Hermione turned slowly to see Malfoy, Harry and Ron both looking as though they were going to hex him, but she wasn't about to let him get the last laugh. "Hello, Professor Moody!" Hermione waved at the imaginary Moody behind Malfoy as he jumped and went pale, looking around wildly for the professor. "Twitchy little ferret, aren't you, Malfoy?" Draco said nothing as Hermione and the boys went up the marble staircase laughing.

"Hermione," Ron spoke up. Hermione feared that he was going to ask her again, but he didn't, instead, he commented on something else. "Your teeth..."

"What about them?"

"Well, they're different... I've just noticed..."

"Of course they are – did you expect me to keep those fangs Malfoy gave me?"

"No, I mean, they're different to how they were before he put that hex on you... They're all... straight and – and normal-sized."

"Well," Hermione said with a sheepish grin. "When I went up to Madam Pomfrey to get them shrunk, she held up a mirror and told me to stop her when they were back to how they normally were. And I just... let her carry on a bit. Mum and Dad won't be too pleased. I've been trying to persuade them to let me shrink them for ages, but they wanted me to carry on with my braces. You know, they're dentists, they just don't think teeth and magic should," but Hermione didn't get to finished that thought as she saw something. "Look! Pigwidgeon's back!" Hermione had to hold back a giggle as Ron went after the tiny owl, scolding it and telling off some third-year girls for giggling and pointing at it.

"Clear off! Here – take it, Harry." Hermione waited on pins and needles as they went off the Gryffindor Tower and opened the letter from Sirius.

"He sounds exactly like Moody," Harry whispered as he tucked the letter into his robes. "'Constant vigilance!' You'd think I walk around with my eyes shut, banging off walls..."

"But he's right, Harry. You have still got two tasks to do," Hermione pointed out. "You really ought to have a look at that egg, you know, and start working out what it means..."

"Hermione, he's got ages! Want a game of chess, Harry?"

"Yeah, okay," Harry agreed as Hermione gave a disapproving sort of glare. "Come on, how'm I supposed to concentrate with all this noise going on? I won't even be able to hear the egg over this lot."

"Oh, I suppose not," Hermione gave in as she settled down and watched their match. A little while later, Hermione decided that it was time for bed, though she didn't feel the least bit tired because she knew the Yule Ball was coming up the very next day, no to mention it was Christmas. "Well, I'm going to bed."

"Good night, Hermione," Harry called as she went off across the common room.

"Yeah, good night," Ron called as well.

Hermione awoke the next morning to find all sorts of presents at the foot of her bed. Mainly non-sugar sweets from her parents as well as a bit of money and some new clothes. She had gotten mostly books from her friends, a new diary from Ginny, and some mince pies as well as a scarf from Mrs. Weasley. But two presents really caught her eye.

They were both from anonymous persons. It was a tiny box and inside was a bracelet, a charm bracelet to be exact. On the bracelet was a little charm in the shape of a house-elf. Next to it were four more charms, the letters S, P, E, and W. Hermione smiled as she waved her wand and the bracelet clasped itself around her wrist. The silver piece certainly was beauty as it shined and shimmered in the light.

The next present was a book as well, but this book was something special to her. For when she opened it, it played a sweet little tune that Hermione could have swore she had heard before. The book was of a romantic fairy tale about a princess who was a witch and a brave warrior who was a wizard. There were dragons on the cover and the most beautiful pictures Hermione had ever seen in a book. She loved this gift more than any other.

She cracked the book to the first page, she loved the feel and sound of a brand new book being opened. It excited her and made her want to read more and more until her eyes refused to look at the words any longer. She was just about to begin when she heard her name being called from the common room. She sighed and set the book aside on her nightstand, she would have to find these anonymous gifters and thank them immensely.

They went down to breakfast which Hermione enjoyed greatly, but something was constantly bugging her. That book. She wanted nothing more than to get back to the common room and read it. When they had returned to the common room, she found it to be too noisy to read. More to her dismay, Harry, Ron, and the rest wouldn't let her retreat to her bedroom to read.

Lunch rolled around and everyone began to fill up on turkey, Christmas pudding, and Cribbage's Wizarding Crackers. Hermione had gotten a neat little tiara out of hers, in which she and Ginny put in Ginny's hair. They laughed and giggled the whole lunch through until the twins came in and invited them to go outside for a snowball fight.

"C'mon, Hermione," yelled Fred as he and George and Ginny made a snow fort to fight against Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville.

"No, thank you. I'm content with just watching," Hermione sighed as she sat down on a rock by the lake. She was watching them play, laughing each time someone would get hit.

Then, the twins, without warning, threw a snowball at her. She managed to duck, but that was only one and there were two twins. As she sat there with her tongue out at them, George threw another snowball and hit Hermione. She was so shocked that she fell off her rock into the snow. She laughed and giggled as the cold snow melted slowly against her warm skin and hair.

She began to wave her arms and legs, making a snow angel in the fresh white powder. She was sighing with content when she looked up and saw someone watching her from one of the dark windows of the Durmstrang. It was Viktor Krum, the Durmstrang Champion. Hermione blushed and sat up in the snow.

Seeing Viktor reminded her that she still had to get ready for the Yule Ball, and with her hair, she knew that wouldn't be an easy take. Hermione looked at her watch, it was just about five o'clock, that would give her three hours to get ready.

"Oy! Hermione," called Fred. "Where are you going?"

"Up to the castle to get ready," Hermione called back as she made her way up the sloping front lawns.

"What do you need three hours for?" Ron had been off guard while yelling after Hermione, and this left an opening for George to his him hard in the side of the head. "Who are you going with?'

She entered the girls' dorm to find, to her relief, that Lavender or Parvati wasn't there yet and that meant that she could have the bathroom for fourth year girls to herself. Hermione gathered her things and shut the bathroom door as she dumped her things onto the sink. First thing, Hermione grabbed the extra large jar of Sleekeasy's Hair Potion and began to read the directions aloud to herself.

"Wash hair thoroughly before use. Apply to damp hair, working from end to root. Blow dry with magic and style away!" Hermione paused for a moment, looking at the sparkling label. "Simple enough," Hermione sighed as she began to strip down so she could get into the shower.

She washed her hair extra good, and when she got out, she wrapped a towel around her, her hair dripping all over the place.

"Now, where did I put my wand?" Hermione picked up her clothes she had been wearing earlier and began to search through them for her wand, finally finding it in her inside robe pocket. She wiped a spot on the mirror and checked her watch, she still had two and a half hours. That was enough time for her.

She twisted the cap off the jar of hair potion and crinkled her nose as a strange smell of a Muggle hair salon filled the bathroom.

"What's in this stuff?" The ingredients were listed, but Hermione had a feeling that some special had to be done to each ingredient, because it wasn't normal for there to be such things as Abyssinian shrivelfig, daisy roots, fluxweed, gillyweed, ginger roots, Graphorn horn, and salamander saliva. After reading the last ingredient, Hermione figured it best she just do her hair before it dried, or worse, she read something that made her even more sick and not want to put this stuff in her hair.

She tossed her head downward, her hair flipping forward to where she could easily apply the thick, sticky, gel-like potion to her hair. Once she had it well worked into her hair, Hermione stood up, her hair standing up as well, on end that is.

"Well, that just won't do," she giggled as she pushed it down flat to her head. She had thought she looked like the bride of Frankenstein. Once her hair was down where it should have been, she pulled out her wand. With a swish and a flick, a jet of warm air came out of her wand and ruffled her hair a bit. Once Hermione was done drying her hair, she grabbed a comb and ran it through her hair, something she had never been able to do before because her hair had always been too thick.

Her hair was poker straight and sleek. It shined like rays of the sun and it was amazingly radiant. She smiled broadly, but then reminded herself that she was only half done.

"Here goes nothing," she huffed as she laid down her comb and pulled out a curling iron. Now, normally, Muggle appliances didn't work at Hogwarts, but Hermione had found a way around this. She grabbed the curling iron and flipped the on switch. A little red light below this came on and Hermione felt a bit of triumph flow through her as the solar powered iron began to heat up. "Just a little curl will do it."

Hermione waved her wand at the curling iron and it floated up out of her hand and hovered behind her. She pulled her hair up in a ponytail and watched the curling iron move forward toward her hair. She separated a piece of her hair from the ponytail and watched the curling iron take it, rolling itself up to the very top of the ponytail where the beret was.

The iron stayed there fore a moment or two and then unfurled itself from her hair, a beautiful curl falling gentle from its iron clamp.

"Perfect," Hermione said softly as she admired the lovely little curl. She continued to do her hair like this, until all of the ponytail was in curls. Then she waved her wand and watched the curls spring up into an elegant bun that very much resembled a bow of brown silk ribbons.

Hermione couldn't help but smile from ear-to-ear at the wonderful job she had done. With haste, she put on her stunning blue dress, putting on her black school robes over it so that her dress was not visible. She gathered her things and left the bathroom, creeping back to her dorm where she grabbed her shoes and put on her jewelry and make-up.

"One hour left," Hermione said nervous as she looked at the clock on her nightstand. "Ron and them will be back," Hermione said as she looked out the window and saw that they were now tramping up to the castle. "I best get out of here." With that, Hermione tucked her wand into her robes and grabbed her scarf, pulling her hood up gently so as not to mess up her hair.

She had made it down and out of the castle without being seen by anyone. She soon regretted wearing the shoes she had as the coldness of the snow bit at her toes and turned them numb and purple. She finally made it to the Durmstrang ship and saw Viktor waiting on the deck.

"Hermy-own!" She blushed as he made his way slowly off the deck. He was quite handsome looking from where she was standing. He was in maroon robes with gold, it went well with his dark hair. She smiled as he stepped into the snow and seemed to speed up as he neared her. She began to feel butterflies as he stopped in front of her.

"Hello, Viktor," Hermione greeted.

"Hermy-own... you look beautiful tonight. I haff something for you," he said as he pulled out a white rose corsage. Hermione smiled as he put it on her wrist.

"Thank you," she said with a smile.

"Did you get my other gift today?"

"What gift?"