A/N: Okay! So here's I am, giving you the fifth chapter of SNYSF…I'm thinking of changing the title though. I don't like this one anymore. It worked when I planned on having this a one-shot…but now that I have a plot that I didn't have at the time, I need to change the title. What do you guys think? Well, think after you read this chapter k? lol. Have I done a disclaimer on this story yet? I don't think I have, so I will do one now.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER AND CHARACTERS RELATED. EVERYTHING, WITH EXCEPTION OF THE PLOT, BELONGS TO J.K. ROWLING. THANKS…though I do wish I was as talented at writing as she is…

There, now that I got that out, here's the 5th chapter of SNYSF thanks for reading


"Gryffindors, listen please," hollered Professor McGonagall over her chatting charges. Christmas Day had finally arrived after two days of waiting. The chattering died down quickly enough. "Now, it is your decision what you tell your date and when/ you can make up a name if you wish I think it'd be more fun to do it that way, but do whatever you wish." McGonagall looked around the room. Every student held the package that contained their gown or tux and a mask.

"Ok, girls line up in ABC order by last name, guys do the same. One-by-one, you'll go in and get changed. Be quick about it, we don't have all day," said McGonagall. She waited patiently for the students to get into ABC order. Once that was done, they went into the bathrooms one at a time. Hermione looked over at the boys' line. Harry was somewhere in the middle and Ron was one of the last few people. She was in the middle of the first half of the girls.

Once it was Hermione's turn, she stepped into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. This was the last time she would see herself as she did now for the rest of the night. Remembering that she couldn't dawdle, she opened the package and pulled out a beautiful light purple dress. Hermione gasped at how high the slit went: up to her mid-thigh. She took off her clothes and slipped into the dress. It was a no sleeve turtle neck dress with a diamond cut out above the chest. Her eyes widen some. Never has she worn anything so revealing in her life.

Hermione reached into the package and pulled out a pale gold shawl, four gold loops, a pink glittery mask, and light pink heels. She slipped her hands through the gold loops to find that they were too big, she decided to wear them as anklets instead. She slipped on the shoes and looked into the mirror. All that was missing was the mask and the shawl. Hermione picked up the masked, closed her eyes, and put the mask on. She waited a few moments before opening her eyes. She gasped at her image. She had a light bubble gum pink hair that went a little past her butt, a slightly paler complexion and violet colored eyes. On her back appeared purple tinted angel wings. She wrapped the cloths she was wearing in the package and put it with the rest. She grabbed her shawl and left the bathroom. She had spent a little too long in there. She draped the shawl over her shoulders and wrapped it twice around each arm loosely.

As Hermione walked to the library, there were many angels and demons already about. The angels seemed to radiate beauty. Some of the demons looked a little scary, especially the guys. Others did give off a sense of beauty too. She was awed with the masks' transformations. She couldn't put a name on any of the students.

Speaking of names, what should she call herself? She didn't want to give herself away at the beginning of the night, she liked Dumbledore's idea of secrecy. Besides, house unity wouldn't happen if she told a Slytherin that she was Hermione Granger and she wouldn't have a date to the Ball. No, she wouldn't have that happen…but what name was going to give herself? Not a name someone else in this school might have…maybe a foreign name?

She ventured closer to the library with no name in mind…well, she had a bunch of names running through her mind, but none she liked. She had always enjoyed the Japanese culture…maybe a cute Japanese name? Hermione smiled. A Japanese name would be perfect.

She racked her brain, figuring the meanings of different names. She wanted one that suited her personality a little, but all the names that she could remember the meanings of, she didn't like. She walked into the library and made her way to the back where the Restricted Section was. Her date wasn't there so she still had time to think about a name.

As she sat down, about to think of a name, her mind wandered to the night by the lake. She had kept her thoughts about her feelings and what happened at bay. Her mind didn't think about that night, especially when other people were around. Now that she was alone, her mind wanted to think about it.

'Why did he have to come out there? He shouldn't have came. He shouldn't have been so nice,' she thought as she closed her eyes. 'Maybe that's why he's been acting different…maybe he doesn't like what happened.' She put her face in her hands. 'I hated you…so why? I know you hate me too…so why did I comfort you. I hate you!'

"Err…miss?" a hand tapped her shoulder, causing her to jump. She looked up at the person, realizing that he was her date. She stood up quickly. "Are you okay?" asked the man. His short pitch-black hair, a darker shade than Harry's, covered his left eye. He had two gray colored devil horns and small bat looking wings on his back. His tux was black and he had a spiky bracelet that he had pulled up near his shoulder. He had a dull studded belt and his eyes were like two black orbs.

Hermione nodded, "Yes, I'm fine." She blinked. Her voice was a little more high-pitched, but at the same time, it was softer. "I was just thinking, is all." Hermione smiled.

"Oh, it looked like you were about to cry," commented her date. His voice was deep and seductive sounding. She couldn't put a name on him either.

'He can't be a Slytherin. He's being way too nice for a Slytherin,' she thought to herself. "Um…instead of calling me miss or something, you can call me Mitsuko." She had just remembered that name. It means 'Child of Light' and thought that kind of suited her.

"Durza," he replied with a bow and kissed her hand, making her blush. The mask covered most of the blush, but not all of it. She also radiated a very, light heat. He smiled. "Something the matter?" Durza asked as he took a step closer to her.

Hermione shook her head. She felt her cheeks slowly turn crimson. "N-No, nothing's wrong." She watched him take another step closer. She would have already took a couple steps back, but the wall was against her back. Durza stood about six inches from her.

"Awkward?" he asked, his expression looked serious with a hint of laughter in his eyes.

"A-A little," answered Hermione.

Durza took a small step closer. "What about now?" Now they stood about two inches from each other, face-to-face, his body slightly grazing hers. Hermione nodded weakly. She never had someone she did not know who they were this close before. It didn't help she was shy either, nor did the sound of his voice. Durza tilted his head and smiled taking a step back. "I'm only messing with your." He laughed. "You're really shy."

Hermione couldn't help but smile. "I've always been shy. I can't help it." She was thankful that the mask hid most of her blush. She was fine with conversing with people, but when people she hardly knew or had a crush on was teasing her like he was, she became extremely shy.

"I don't want you to be shy around me," said Durza. "By the end of the night, I'll be able to stand two inches away from your face and you'll talk to me like I was two feet away, K?" he looked at her purple eyes with his black ones. Hermione looked down. "You'll also be able to hold my gaze."

"You've got yourself a deal," Hermione said with a smile, already getting over her shyness a tiny bit, without realizing it

"Making this interesting, are we?" smiled Durza. It was a little nerve racking to see this student dressed up as an imitating demon smile. His seductive voice didn't help the matter either. "Okay, if I can get you to outgrow this shyness of yours around me, you have to reveal yourself first."

"And if you don't succeed with that, then you have to reveal yourself first," said Hermione. They smiled at each other competitively.

"Deal," they said at the same time and shook hands. "Come on," said Durza, "let's head down to the Great Hall." Hermione nodded.

"Look at all these students!" commented Hermione as they made their way to the Great Hall. "You can't even tell who they are!"

"Yeah, these masks are amazing," Durza told her.

'I wonder who Durza really is,' thought Hermione as she walked next to him. 'He's very nice. He couldn't possibly be a Slytherin. He's way too friendly. That's good though…I guess, but I would have thought Dumbledore would pin Gryffindors with Slytherins. Maybe Harry and Ron got a Slytherin? I feel sorry for them if they did.' Hermione glanced at Durza. 'I still haven't sorted my feelings and thoughts on Dra-Malfoy. I'm not sure of my feelings or anything towards him. That night…I'm not sure why that happened. Something-just came over us…it probably doesn't mean anything to him anyway. Just something that happened.' She looked down at the ground as she walked. "Durza, promise me one thing."

Durza looked at her. "What is it?"

"Promise me you won't fall in love with me."

Durza stared at her for a moment. Don't fall in love with her? He nodded. "Promise." Hermione smiled at him. "Just don't' fall in love with me either and we won't have any problems, but you still will not be shy around me." Hermione nodded. "Do you have a special someone?"

Hermione felt her whole face turn read, visible where the mask didn't cover her face. Durza smiled. "Not really. I'm not sure. I still have to figure a few things out." Durza nodded. "What about you? Do you have someone special?"

Durza shook his head. "No," he answered simply. Hermione nodded in understanding. "It'd be nice to share that with someone, you know? To be able to trust someone so much may sound scary, but I think it's scarier to have no one to trust at all."

Hermione smiled warmly. "That sounds nice. It's the truth though. I want to find the reason I'm living in someone else. I think that'd be wonderful." Durza nodded. "Wow, you're the only person I can talk to about this."

Durza smiled warmly too. "Same for me."

They walked into the Great Hall, gasping. It looked a lot like how it was during the Yule Ball during the Tri-Wizard Tournament three years ago. The only difference was that it was only Hogwarts students and they were all dressed up as angels and demons.

The twelve traditional trees had great care taken into them. They were decorated beautifully. Ice statues of angels and demons were spread about the food tables and there were smaller ones on each of the little round tables. They ceiling showed dark clouds and a snowfall, but that just added to the beauty of the room. Music wasn't playing yet because not everyone had gotten dressed and into the Great Hall. Students sat with their dates at the tables and chatted quietly. Durza grabbed Hermione's hand, and led her to a table. The tables seemed to have a small layer of snow on them, but when you tired to sweep it away with your hand, you'd find it transparent.

"What would happen if I did end up falling for you on accident?" Durza asked her after a few minutes of silence between the two. It was one of those uncomfortable silences that had made them fidgety.

Hermione stared at him and looked down. "I don't think I'd be able to accept your feelings. I wouldn't mean any harm to it."

"What would you do?"

"I think I would stare at you as if you were crazy, the probably run off and you'd never find out who I am," said Hermione. She looked down at her lap as she said this at the top of her mind. "Why do you want to know?"

"I was just wondering, is all," said Durza, his black eyes staring at her intently.

A few minutes passed between the silent two when Dumbledore stood up in front of the hall. The noise stopped and al heads turned to face the old man. "I hope everyone is having a wonderful time so far," Dumbledore looked around the room, his eyes twinkling. "Now, it's your choice when and where you reveal yourselves, but not too soon. I want you to become friends with your date first. I'm not saying that after you take off your masks, you'll still be friends because they might be someone you already disliked in the past. Although, now that no one knows who anyone is, you'll be able to talk to your peers in a new perspective." He paused and looked around again. "Okay, enough of my chitter-chatter, let's let this Masquerade Ball begin!"

As soon as he said that, music started to play. Students and their dates started talking about the Masquerade Ball and what Dumbledore had said. Slowly, students started to pull, drag, or simply walk with their dates onto the dance area. Everyone was in step with each other while they danced the beautiful dance they learned three years ago.

Durza got up from his chair and walked around the table. Hermione watched him intently, wondering what he was going to do. Smiling, Durza bowed in front of her and held out his hand. Hermione's eyes flickered from his face to his hand, waiting for him to say something.

"Mitsuko, would you care to dance?" Durza asked her, his fingers twitching for her to slid her hand into his. He watched as her face slowly turned a healthy pink.

Hermione smiled and slid her hands into his. He was warm to the touch. He slowly led her to the dance floor. He placed the hand he was holding around his neck. His arms snaked around her waist, holding her close, but she protested.

"I-I'm sorry. Too close. Too soon," muttered Hermione so no one else except Durza could hear.

"I'm sorry, no need to apologize. It's my fault," said Durza. He gently pushed her away from him some. Hermione stared at the ground, ashamed. Durza's fingers slid under her chin, forcing her to look at him. "Stop it. Don't blame yourself. I appreciate your morals. It's okay. I promise."

Hermione nodded. "Okay. Thank you."

"No problem," smiled Durza. He started to lead the dance and lifted her into the air at the same time everyone else lifted the girls.

Once the girls touched the ground, they spun two feet away from the guys. Once they stopped spinning, their right leg toe-touched the ground in front of them. Hermione's dress fell to the sides of her leg, revealing most of her leg. She gulped, but didn't do anything. She guessed this part of the dance was to tease the guys. The guys smirked at the girls. Most of them were admiring the girls' legs, even if half the dresses didn't show as much as Hermione's, if they did at all, but Durza's eyes were locked with Hermione's eyes. For that, she was thankful. The girls stared at the guys, waiting for them to do something.

All at the same time, the guys stalked to the girls, fingers brushing along the girls' legs, even if they were covered with a dress. All except Durza, who had hovered his fingers over Hermione's bare leg. His black eyes never leaving her purple ones the whole time. The guys wrapped around the girls' waists, pulling them close. Once again, Durza respected Hermione's shyness and innocents. He didn't pull her too close.

"You now, you don't have to do this," muttered Hermione in his ear. "Don't hold back because of me."

"I'm not doing it just because you're shy," Durza said in a teasing voice. Hermione stared at him. "I'm not like the other guys here." He said as he looked around the hall at the guys who were holding the girls very closely. "You already said no to being close. I didn't forget that, you know."

Hermione smiled. "You're not like any guy I've met before. You're charming, sweet, caring…"

"You're not falling in love with me, are you? You'd be breaking a promise and that's bad luck," teased Durza. He raised a brow. They spun around, making Hermione's dress raise some.

"No, but I would like to be friends after tonight," said Hermione. "You're great to talk to and you understand girls' feelings like no one else I know."

Durza smiled, tilting his head to the side. "Sure. You're fun to talk to too." He spun Hermione away from him, still holding her hand. He spun her back into his arms and dipped her as the song ended. They stared at each other's eyes for a moment before he brought her to her feet again.


A/N: Wow! This has to be one of my longest chapters now.It had been a LOT longer. But I decided to cut it short here because I didn't want the whole ball in one chapter. So, I cut it and now I've gotten through like two pages on word on chapter six, so it should be here in no time at all.

The name Durza is actually the name of the Prince in my RP forum I talked about in chapter four of this story I believe…or maybe last chapter of Paid Date? I don't know, one of the two though. Mitsuko was my Japanese name out-come on an online quiz on my Myspace© ( add me if you have a myspace too!)

So, what title should this story have? I was thinking Masquerade Ball (hey, thats my formal theme for this year...and i am not going...((cries)) what do you guys thing?

Well…that is all I have to say for now. Stay tuned for the 6th chapter of this story!
This is Kiwi-san
Over and Out