Before they knew it, the Halloween dance was already only a day away and the school was fizzy with excitement. The prefects and Heads, however, were panicking with stress. The great hall was a mish-mash of unused décor.

"No, no, no! The fog machine goes over there, not in the middle of the room!" A prefect shouted at a younger student who was helping. Hermione turned to one of the Gryffindor Prefects.

"And the music… what's the deal with that?" She asked, looking at her clipboard.

"Well, I didn't get the Weird Sisters to come since they're on tour in Russia… so a student came to me and said he'd be the DJ instead. He knows wizarding music and muggle music. I've heard stuff he' put together, it's pretty good."

"Sounds good! Who is it, by the way?"

"A 5th year Ravenclaw named Aaron Jasperson." She nodded. "Here he is right now, actually..." The doors to the Great Hall opened and a large cart with speakers and a turn table was brought in and stopped right in front of Hermione and the prefect. A tall boy stepped out from behind the cart. He was dark-skinned and had jet black hair that was straightened and fell slightly past his eyes.

"Got the stuff, where do you want me to set it up?" He looked at Hermione. "You must be the Head Girl." He smiled and extended a hand. "I'm Aaron." She grabbed his hand and he gripped it softly. She blushed.

"I'm Hermione. Thanks for DJing, it helps us out tons!"

"Anytime," he smiled, exposing his white, straight teeth and looked her in the eye. She looked back but then realized they were still holding hand. She withdrew her hand quickly and blushed more.

"Um… that can go on the platform over there.." she pointed in front of the staff table. She started wheeling the equipment away and as he passed he winked at Hermione. She smiled, turned away and was as red as a tomato. The prefect's eyebrows were raised and he was smirking.

"What?" She asked and walked away in a flutter.

…

"Where are my fairy wings!" She yelled while tearing apart her bedroom.

"They're in the common room on the chair next to the fireplace…" Draco called with a bored tone from the bathroom.

"Oh… thanks." She walked into the common room, grabbed them and went back into her bedroom. She put her black wings with orange glitter over her black, flowy dress and secured her matching black with orange glitter mask over her eyed. She heard a knock at her balcony window and opened the door.

Harry was standing there in an old Quidditch jersey and painted some fake scars and blood on his face, and was holding his Firebolt. Hermione smiled widely and hugged him. He squeezed her tightly.

"You look so great, Hermione…" He said, pulling away to look at her fully. She giggled and spun around, letting the dress fly around her. She DID look great. "You ready?"

"I'm ready if you are!" She laughed and started heading towards her bedroom door.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"Um… the Great Hall..?" She turned around and he was on his Firebolt, looking at her. Her eyes widened.

"No Harry I… I can't! You know I'm petrified of riding brooms..!" She took a step back. He gave her a sad look.

"You'll be safe with me, Hermione. Do you trust me?" He held his hand out towards her. She looked at it and hesitated.

"You promise?"

"Of course I do, I would never let you get hurt." And reached his hand a few inches further, and grinned. Her face broke out of it's worried look and smiled as she took his hand. He helped her onto the front of the broom and took off. His arm was safely secured around her waist and she felt alright. They soared above the castle and circled around a few turrets. Hermione actually started laughing in enjoyment while Harry squeezed his arm around her a bit tighter. She started heading for the front of the school to land. Harry touched down the broom lightly and helped Hermione off. After he got a hold of his broom, she hugged him tightly and whispered in his ear.

"That was amazing... You're amazing, Harry… I…" She pulled away and looked at him.

"You what?" Harry looked at her with a serious face. She smirked.

"Eh, I'll tell you later." And laughed, then headed towards the Entrance Hall. Harry stood there, his mouth open then ran after her, catching up quick.

"Hey, you can't do that! Wait!"

…

Hermione stood in front of the DJ and the students all looked at her.

"Welcome to the Halloween dance everyone!" The crowd cheered. "I hope everybody has a blast, but remember, don't get too frisky!" Some people laughed. "Let's give a hand for our DJ, Aaron Jasperson from Ravenclaw!" The crowd exploded with applause and the music started up. It was that popular muggle song "Yeah!" that even Ron heard before. Hermione swam through the crowd and found Harry. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he placed his hand around her waist. Harry leaned forward and locked her lips with his. She smiled into the kiss and started swaying a bit to the music. Harry pressed himself up against Hermione and kissed her deeper, while dancing to the music.

Hermione lost all awareness of everything around her. All she knew was that she was with Harry and that's all that mattered. The song changed to a slow song and she broke the kiss and smiled at Harry. She leaned onto him and tucked her head into Harry's neck and closed her eyes while they swayed slowly. Suddenly Harry pulled away bit and looked into Hermione's eyes.

"Hermione, I love you." Her breath stopped in shock.

"I love you too Harry… I always have…" She leaned up to him and kissed him on the lips with a hungry passion which he gladly returned. Her fingers ran through his hair and grabbed it. Harry started to kiss down her neck and she leaned her head back, welcoming him to do so. Somebody tapped Harry on the shoulder and he stopped to see who it was.

"Chill out, you two." Ginny grinned. Hermione flushed. "Want to get some punch?"

"Yeah, sure," Harry said, taking Hermione's hand and lacing their fingers together. They headed towards some circular tables and Hermione sat down.

"I'll get us some punch, then." Harry said and went towards the refreshments table with Ginny. Hermione took off her mask and wiped her forehead. Somebody came up and sat next to her. She looked up and saw Aaron.

"Hi, Aaron… Uh… who's playing the music?" She said.

"Oh, I have it on an auto play list that I made earlier today so I can enjoy the dance, too." He smirked. "You look great, Hermione." She turned red and looked at his costume. He was wearing a purple silky vest and white pants that ballooned at the bottom.

"Haha, I like you're costume. You look like Aladdin!" She laughed.

"Finally, somebody who knows what I am..! You'd be surprised how many people have never even heard of any Disney character…" They both laughed. Harry just got back from the punch bowl with their drinks and he looked at Aaron.

"Uh…Hello…" He said, trying to make out who this guy was.

"I'm Aaron." He shook hands with Harry and stood up.

"Would you mind if I danced with Hermione for this song?" He asked Harry, who nearly choked on his punch.

"Um… I dunno… Hermione, do you want to?" She sort of shrugged and nodded. Harry frowned slightly.

"Alright, go ahead." Aaron held his hand out to Hermione and helped her up, then led her to the dance floor. Hermione put her hands on his shoulders, and he put his hands on her hips and they swayed to the tune of the slow song. It was sort of awkward so Hermione broke the silence.

"So... do you like the dance so far?" He nodded and looked her in the eyes.

"Only because of right now."

"Wha - ?" Aaron leaned forward and smacked his lips on hers, catching her way off guard. Her eyes widened and she felt his arms lock around her. She tried to push him away, but he was too strong. Harry, where's Harry! Oh my God..! She felt Aaron try to shove his tongue in her mouth and she screamed, but it was barely audible. He forced her lips apart and his tongue came in vigorously. She saw Ron out of the corner of her eye looking at her with disgust and confusion so she shot him a panicked look. He took off and returned with Harry a few seconds later. Harry yelled and ran up to Aaron, pulled him off and punched him square in the face, knocking him out. Aaron fell to the floor and everybody stopped their dancing and looked. Hermione burst into tears and collapsed into Harry's chest. He put a protective arm around her and looked at Aaron. The crowd parted and Professor McGonagall walked to the scene. She looked at the boy on the ground who was starting to stir and at Harry.

"Potter, come with me. Everybody, go back to your houses, the dance is over." There were significant complaints of protest from everybody, but they slowly retreated out of the great Hall. Harry and Hermione stayed while Aaron regained consciousness. He looked up and dove for Harry, but McGonagall held him back.

"Mr. Jasperson! Control yourself!" He huffed angrily and stood back. "Now, what happened?" Harry and Aaron both started up, but were silenced by McGonagall. "Hermione?" Hermione wiped her eye and took a deep breath.

"Harry went to get me some punch and I was sitting a table waiting for him.. Aaron came up and sat with me and we talked a bit, then he asked if he could dance with me and I said alright so we were dancing then... then… Aaron kissed me and forced me to kiss him back and it was awful! I couldn't get him off me then Harry came and pulled him off then punched him…" She sobbed a little and Harry rubbed her back.

"Mr. Jasperson, I'm VERY surprised at you! I'm going to give you two weeks of detention helping Mr. Filch clean the school—" Aaron took a breath to protest, "—No, I don't think it's too harsh at all. You sexually harassed this young woman and that is entirely against school policy. Now, go back to your dorms, all of you." McGonagall watched them leave, then groaned and pointed her wand at the DJ stand to turn the music off and left in a disappointed huff.

…

The next week Hermione received another letter from Charlene setting up an appointment to meet with her on the following Friday. Finally! I thought she totally forgot about me! But the more the looked forward to her appointment with Charlene, the longer the week seemed to drag on, and even the littlest things agitated her. One morning in Herbology, she yelled at Harry for standing too close to her and breathing down her neck. He didn't let that get to him. As they were walking back to the Great Hall for dinner, he caught up with her.

"Hey, Hermione?" He said carefully.

"What?" She replied in a flat, annoyed tone.

"Why are you being so… overly stressed? Is it because of your meeting tomorrow?" Harry looked at her. She sighed and looked at him, her eyes full of worry.

"Yes… that's exactly what the problem is… I'm so scared she might not like me because I might not be tall enough or skinny enough—"Harry put a finger over her lips and smiled encouragingly.

"She won't. If she did, she wouldn't have wanted to meet with you so badly, right?" She nodded slightly and looked down.

"I guess you're right… Thanks, Harry." She smiled widely and reached up to kiss his cheek. Soon enough the evening ended and tomorrow was today. Hermione woke up with a cool breeze blowing in through her open widows. Immediately she thought of the meeting… An owl just then flew into her window.

Dear Miss Granger,

You meeting with Ms. Oxnard will take place in my office at precisely 10:30 this morning. Please arrive in a timely manner, thank you!

Professor Dumbledore

She smiled widely, and an to her closet and picked out her outfit for the meeting. Hermione pulled out a sunny colored blazer with a matching skirt and a plain blue shirt to wear with it. She looked at the clock and saw she had only an hour left. She quickly went to the bathroom and took a shower, then used a drying spell to dry her hair into perfect brunette curls, pulled it into a French bun and dressed herself. She stepped into the common room and headed towards the entrance.

"Wow, you look very professional. Where are you off to?" Malfoy said from the corner of the room, catching Hermione off guard.

"Oh—Um, I'm going for a job interview…" She stepped closer towards the entrance.

"What job, eh?" He poked at her. She growled and turned around.

"I'm going to meet with a modeling agent, alright! I'm already running late now shut up and let me leave!" She turned around and stomped out of the common room. He looked after Hermione. Wow… a modeling agent? She's gonna be a model? Hmm…He shrugged and went back to relaxing on a sofa.

Hermione checked her watch, it was 10:26, which left her just barely enough time to get there and catch her breath. When she reached the statue guarding the entrance to Dumbledore's office, she took a deep breath, straightened her clothes to insure everything was presentable and she stepped into the office which a skinny, middle-ages woman was sitting and talking with the headmaster.

"Ah, Miss Granger, come in and take a seat!"

…

AN- Okay, First 4 chapters, tell me if you like or not… I need to know! I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE constructive criticism, it helps a lot!

G. Lou