RECAP: Hermione tiptoed down the corridors to her door and quietly slid in. She flicked on the light and was about to get a snack when…

"Where were you?"

She jumped, and whipped around. "Oh! Jessica." She sighed, grabbing her heart. "You scared me half to death!"

Jessica was sitting on the couch staring up at her, weary eyed. She had been waiting up.

"Where were you?" She asked again.

Chapter 13 – The End of the Summer Ball Part I

"Look… Jess, I'm really tired and I think I should-" She had began to head towards her room but Jessica had grabbed her arm.

"Just answer the question." She was clearly tired, and seemed serious about this. The most serious Hermione had seen her.

"I was in the mail room. You know… detention." Hermione wasn't exactly excited to admit that she had just made out with her worst enemy.

"Yeah, but why were you gone so late?" She asked, her brows furrowed.

"Well I was with Draco…" She trailed off.

"Ohhhh." Sighed Jessica in realization, her mood lightening up quite a bit. "I thought you were like… sneaking around with Harry or something!"

Hermione laughed. "Me? And Harry? Yeah right. I know him waaaay to well. Plus he is all the way at Hogwarts, so we couldn't do anything even if we wanted to. Don't worry, he's all yours."

"Good! Because if you were doing anything…" She began, smashing her fists together. "Anyway, you were with Draco? Tell me what happened!"

"Well… we were sorting mail… and he just sort of… kissed me." She blushed.

"No avoiding it! I want details!"

Hermione laughed, and filled her in on the happenings in the mail room.

"Holy shit! That is so sexy. You better not let go of him… Oh, and I cant forget. I TOLD YOU SO!" She got up, dancing around Hermione and pointing at her. "I told you so, I told you so, I TOLD YOU SO!"

"Okay, okay! I shall trust your wise ness."

"I AM psychic after all. You should believe me."

"I will from now on!"

Just then there was a knock on the door, but before either of them had the chance to open it, it burst open and Pammy bustled through.

"Oh, my, GOD!"

"What?" Jessica and Hermione cried at the same time.

"Guess what is in two days?" She didn't wait for them to guess. "The End of the Summer Ball!"

Although Hermione had no clue what this was, Jessica immediately shouted. "ARE YOU KIDDING! WE HAVENT EVEN BOUGHTEN OUR DRESSES!"

"Yeah I know! We better go today, since tomorrow we have classes. Do you know any good places we could go to get them?"

"Well I know a great robes place that also sells dresses called Madam Malkins down in Diagon Alley… but before we start on that, what the fuck is The End of the Summer Ball? And why are there SO many activities at Merlin's that I don't know about until the last minute!"

"Well… it's a ball," Began Pammy.

"At the end of the summer!" Chimed in Jessica.

"Uh… yeah. I got that part." Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

"Well its basically just a dance, with formal dresses and stuff. It sounds pretty dull, but it ends up getting crazy! The stories from the ball last throughout the entire year! It's huge! Even bigger than Campfire night. Plus, it's for 5th 6th AND 7th years instead of just 7th years."

"Ohhh…" Hermione said. "That actually sounds like fun."

"Loads!" Jessica squealed. "So where's this Malkins place you are talking about and how do we get there?

XXX

By the time Jessica, Ben, Pammy, Chance, and Hermione headed through the doors of Madam Malkins it was already crowded. Apparently Hermione was not the only one who knew about it. Finally, after they had waited around for quite a while, the crowds cleared and they were able to look at dresses and tuxes.

"What do you think of this one?" Pammy asked, pulling out a particularly hideous purple dress with an oversized bow.

Jessica scrunched up her nose. "Pammy, your tastes in dresses are almost as bad as your tastes in boys!"

Pammy frowned and hung the dress back up. Finally after much browsing, each of the girls had picked out a dresses. Pammy had chosen a quite nice white one, which Jessica was very surprised that Pammy would even pick, Jessica had picked a short pink one which, in the words of Hermione, 'made her look like a Barbie', And of course Hermione was still in the dressing room. She had always been indecisive about this sort of thing.

"HOW THE HELL DID THIS THING GET IN HERE!" Hermione yelled, walking out in the ugly purple dress Pammy had looked at earlier.

"Heh, heh…" Pammy muttered nervously.

"Pammy…" Jessica said with a frown.

"I just thought it would look really good on her!"

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh and retreated back into the dressing room.

Ben picked up one of the dresses that Hermione had thrown messily into a pile labeled "MAYBE" and gazed at it adoringly. "If you choose this dress, can I borrow it?" He called in.

"What?" Hermione called back.

"Nevermind." He sighed then turning to Jessica added, "I think it would look better on me than her."

"Wow Ben… I'm surprised you like it considering its not pink!"

Just then Hermione burst through the doors of the dressing room. She was in a gorgeous black slinky dress that hugged her in all the right places. The neck line swooped and the bottom of the dress came down in a sort of diagonal line. Ben gasped.

"Girl, you look FABULOS!" He stuttered running over to her.

"He's not kidding Herms. That's totally the dress."

Even at the mention of the nick name Hermione's smile didn't fade. "Right now I am in a very good mood, and if you want to kill it, then call me that one more time."

"Okay, okay… point taken."

"Are we ready?" Asked Pammy, obviously upset that Hermione hadn't picked the purple dress that she liked.

"Yeah, hold on a second, I've just got to go change out of this thing."

And with that, she disappeared into the fitting room once again.

A/N: Okay, kind of a boring chapter so I will probably update even without 3 reviews, although it WOULD be nice. I promise that the next chapter will be far more intriguing xD