Chapter 28 – Costume Shopping

"You're kidding me! Friday?" Hermione asked, taking a swig of her pumpkin juice.

"Well… yeah, that IS Halloween, and the Halloween Ball is usually held on Halloween…" Lavender said sarcastically, as if it should be blatantly obvious.

Hermione smacked herself in the head. "How could I forget? I'm such an idiot…"

"Don't beat yourself up over it," Parvati said half heartedly, looking down at her untouched meal and picking at it with her fork.

Hermione leaned over to Lavender. "What's wrong with her?" she asked in a whisper.

"It's Seamus. He turned her down for the Ball."

Parvati whipped around, glaring at her best friend. "Fine, go RIGHT ahead, Lavender!Yell it out for the WHOLE WORLD to hear!" she snapped, getting up and storming off dramatically.

Lavender didn't seem to be very surprised at Parvati's display. It was old news to her. "Anyway," She said. "Who are YOU going to go with Hermione?"

"I have no clue..."

"How about Draco Malfoy? He's positively dreamy…and he lives right across the hall from you!"

"How about NOT?" Hermione answered, pretending to be repulsed. "I would rather go with Professor BINNS!" As if to prove her point, old Professor Binns had fallen asleep at his chair at the teachers table, and was drooling into his soup. Hermione chuckled. "So, who are you going with?"

Lavender looked around the room. "Don't tell Parvati this… but the reason Seamus rejected her was because I got to him first. I always love when boys choose me over her!" she cackled, smiling widely and making Hermione glad she was not really friends with Lavender. "Have you decided on what you want to go as?"

"Of course not. You just told me about the ball about 20 minutes ago."

"Fabulous! You can come shopping with us!"

"'Us' being…"

"Me and Parvati, of course."

"Umm… okay," she said, not up for an argument. "When?"

"Today. It's a Hogsmeade day, remember?"

"No, actually, I forgot that too," Hermione sighed. "I guess I'm just not up on all the school events..."

"Apparently not," Lavender smiled sympathetically. "But all that will change. I mean, loads has happened in just the last few days… Oh my god! I have so much to tell you! For instance, did you hear about how Serena and Milly got into a duel?" Hermione sighed again, and shook her head. Lavender continued enthusiastically, "Well, it's true! Just wait, there's way more! Oh, today will be so fun!" she finished happily, smiling broadly at Hermione.

For the third time in the last five minutes, Hermione let out a heavy sigh. This was going to be a long day.

XXX

Hermione entered her dorm, hoisting her heavy book bag onto the floor, and rushing into her room, searching through her drawers for the money she would undoubtedly need to buy her costume.

"Getting ready for some fun with your 'mini massager'?" Draco asked with a smirk, lingering at her door.

Hermione whipped around. "You startled me," she smiled. "And no, I wasn't… Are you going to remember that forever?"

"Yes."

"Damn."

"Well, what are you doing then?"

"Looking for some galleons. Since it's a Hogsmeade day, Parvati and Lavender are taking me to Madam Malkin's to get a costume for the Halloween ball… Did you know it's on Friday?"

He nodded.

"God! I guess I was the only one who didn't know…as usual. Why didn't you tell me?" Hermione demanded.

"I didn't think it mattered…" Draco began.

Hermione smiled and continued, "Well? Aren't you going to invite me?"

"Of course not."

"Draco! That's so mean!" Hermione stood back, slightly aghast.

"It's not like I don't want to invite you… I would like to go with you, but there will be people there, remember?"

Hermione thought for a second, and then remembered. "Oh, right! Sorry, I nearly forgot. The whole… secrecy thing…" she trailed off sadly.

"That's the one," Draco smiled wryly.

"Hmm…" she pouted. "I wanted to go with you!"

"Of course you did," Draco laughed. "Every girl at Hogwarts wants to go with ME."

Hermione laughed as well. "Riiight. That's what you think. Now get out! I'm going to change out of my robes for Hogsmeade."

"But-" he protested, as she tried to push him out the door. "It's not like I haven't seen you undressed before…"

"Out!" she yelled, slamming the door in his face.

XXX

"Ooh!" squealed Parvati (who had seemed to have made a miraculous recovery), pointing at a slightly revealing fairy costume in the window of Madam Malkin's. All the stores were prepared for Halloween, and costumes were everywhere. "That is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Come on!" she said, dragging Hermione and Lavender into the store and bouncing up to the clerk. "Do you have that in blue?" she asked, and the man whisked her away.

Hermione and Lavender walked over to the many racks of costumes that were lined up. Each rack was stuffed to the brink, and they had a hard time fishing through them.

"Hey, Hermione?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you keep an eye out for- Oh! Here it is!" Lavender said, pulling out a long slinky black jumpsuit with cat ears.

"Uh… Lavender? That looks a little small for you…" Hermione said truthfully. The jumpsuit DID look several sizes too small.

Lavender looked a bit hurt. "No it isn't!" she argued, holding it up to herself. "Okay, maybe it is. But we can make it work!"

Suddenly, Parvati skipped back over to them. She was wearing a sparkly blue leotard with a poofy skirt that fell in many strips of sheer and shiny fabric. Fat pink jewels adorned the collar, and two see-through pink wings lay on her back.

In short - it was hideous.

"I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOOOOVE IT!" Parvati shouted, twirling around and making several of the other shoppers stare and shudder, looking away.

"Parvati!" Lavender cried.

'Oh no…' Hermione thought. 'Lavender is so brutally honest…she'll probably hurt her feelings…! Poor Parvati…'

"Parvati!" Lavender shouted again, running over to her friend and touching the poofy sleeves. "It is absolutely…"

'Here it comes…' Hermione thought.

"GORGEOUS!" Lavender shouted, hugging her best friend. "I love it! Its so… you! Look at mine!" she continued, holding up her black cats' costume, which looked like it was made for a toddler.

"Lavi! That is SO cute! We are going to look FABULOUS!" she squealed, jumping up and down. "What are YOU getting, Hermione!"

"Um…" Hermione said, not really wanting to be involved in this love fest. "This, I think…" She held up a blue and white checkered dress, which was slightly short, and very pretty.

Their smiles fell. "Uh… THAT?" Lavender asked skeptically. "I don't know Hermione… it's kind of…BLAH."

'How ironic that the one nice outfit is the one they hate,' Hermione thought.

"Yeah, and what would you be going as, anyway?" asked Parvati.

"Dorothy, of course…"

"Who?" they asked at the same time.

"Dorothy… you know… from the Wizard of OZ?"

"Huh?"

"You don't know what the Wizard of OZ is?" Hermione asked in a shocked tone, as it was one of her favorite series of books.

"Um… no," Parvati said blankly.

"Wow! I thought everyone had read it. I'm sure others will recognize it though." She said happily, pulling the dress off the rack and walking over to the register to buy it.

"Poor Hermione. Such a nice girl… with such bad tastes." Said Lavender solemnly.

"Well… as long as she's happy who are we to say anything?"

Lavender nodded, and they headed off to buy their outfits.

A/N: I just have to say THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS GUYS! YOU ROCK! And as I promised, after 10 reviews, here is a chapter. Hope you liked it, although not much happened so instead of 10 reviews I will only ask for 7 this time. So after I get at least 7 reviews, I will update the next chapter which is the Halloween Ball!

Oh! And I almost forgot, my friend Nat (aka the bagel) is now going to beta my story so HOPEFULLY no more typos…