Sorry if this update is late, not terribly late I hope. I haven't had the inspiration to write anything lately. Anyways, enjoy the chapter. :)
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The Yule Ball was approaching and the atmosphere at the castle was getting excited. Hermione found this extremely annoying, girls giggling in the bathrooms and everyone acting so strangely. The level of noise in between lessons and after them drove Hermione to the library. To her surprise, even if it was nearing Christmas, students seemed to come to library, and only few of them were looking for the silence. The rest of them were what Hermione kept quietly damning the "Krum-Fanclub". They kept their distance though; Hermione was always sitting in the darkest corner as far from the Fanclub as she could. She was used to her privacy; the usual students who came to the library knew how Hermione always wanted to study without interruptions. The occasional clueless first-year student moving towards her was given an irritated stare and they dared not to go closer. That one particular time, few weeks before Christmas, Hermione startled when remotely familiar face appeared in front of her.
"Her-mow-nee, I vould like to ask you a kvestion," Viktor Krum said, rather shyly.
"Oh, er… Yes?"
"Vould you like to come vit me to the Yule Ball?" His cheeks turned red and he directed his gaze to the floor.
"Me? Er… I suppose I could come with you. I mean, nobody else has asked me or anything," Hermione said, rather hesitantly. Nobody had asked her, but the reality of going with someone finally hit her. The thought of Fleur suddenly popped into her head, she suddenly remembered the last thing Fleur had said to her. I couldn't 'ave charmed you with ze Veela-part of me, even if I wanted to, just so zat you know. Hermione stood up and went to find the book she suddenly remembered once seeing; Krum tailing her.
"Oh, yes, I'll come with you so if you'll wait for me before entering the Great Hall or something, or I could just look for you in there in case you don't wish to wait," Hermione said, noticing Krum behind her.
"If you vould come to our ship and ve vould go together," he said, gave Hermione a small bow and left with a shy smile on his face. Hermione was already strolling between the shelves and finally found the book, opened it straight away and checked the page from the index. She read the part standing up, she felt like her heart had stopped and kept re-reading the part that proved everything wrong, every reason she had for being so mad at Fleur. The book dropped on the floor from her hands with a loud thump and Madam Pince soon came to see what had caused the noise.
"The books belong on the shelves or on the tables and should not be placed on the floor,"
"Wha--- Oh, the book, I'm sorry. I won't do that in the future, thank you. I… I uh, I think I was just about to leave," Hermione stuttered, she picked up the book and put it back on the shelf. She walked out of the library, her mind was blank and soon she found herself sitting on her own bed, feeling utterly confused. Her insides seemed to be vanished; she felt unfamiliar emptiness inside of her. Everything she had kept telling herself for the past weeks had just been flushed down the toilet. She didn't know how she should be feeling. Ginny happened to walk by the doorway and saw Hermione sitting and staring at nothing.
"Hermione? Are you alright?"
"I think so," she answered, still feeling numb and empty.
"But you don't seem to be, well, yourself. Has something happened?" Ginny sounded worried; she walked in front of her and sat down on the opposite bed. Hermione still had the empty stare and said nothing. Ginny waved her hand in front of Hermione's face.
"Oh, Ginny, how did you get here?" Hermione asked, feeling more conscious of where she was. She looked around her, twice, to see that she really was sitting on her bed. She felt uneasy, the last thing she remembered was being in the library and reading the book about Veelas, particularly how their charms affect people. It clearly stated that it only affects the men, not women, "more importantly, how did I get here?"
"Are you sure you're ok?" Ginny asked, staring at Hermione inquisitively.
"Yes, I'm fine. I guess I'm just a bit confused," Hermione tried to make a quick excuse, she wasn't ready to tell Ginny anything, "Viktor Krum asked me to the Yule Ball with him," Hermione stated, more to herself than to Ginny, when she remembered more clearly what had happened. Ginny's eyes lit and she let out a scream.
"He did! Well?"
"What? Oh… I said yes," Hermione answered, she started to regret her decision. She could've just apologized to Fleur and asked her now that she knew. But then she looked at Ginny and decided it might have not been a bad decision after all. She wasn't ready to come out to the whole school.
Ginny kept asking every detail and to Hermione's annoyance pointed out things she would have not thought about, such as what she was going to wear, how she'd do her hair, if she'd wear any make-up or what kind of shoes she had, if she wanted her fingernails to be painted the same shade as the dress and all other things Hermione felt like she couldn't have cared less at that moment.
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Fleur still kept avoiding Hermione; she only saw her at breakfast and couldn't find her anywhere after lessons. The morning of the Yule Ball everyone were fussing around and Ginny kept confronting Hermione whenever she could. Few hours before Yule Ball Hermione saw Ginny approaching her again and made some excuse to the boys and fled from sight. She locked herself in the bathroom and decided that she'd confront Fleur during the Yule Ball where she couldn't avoid her. Remembering that it'd still be hours before the Yule Ball, she thought she could take the most of the time and actually prepare herself. She wanted to look perfect, from head to toes. Even if it meant polishing her nails and putting on some make-up, which in any other situation she would have not done.
Finally feeling and looking ready, she headed her steps towards the Grounds. On the way she felt very nervous but better and more confident she had felt in weeks. She wondered whether Krum still remembered that he was supposed to go with her, she had ignored him quite completely. Dreading that she'd have to enter the Ball alone, it increased her nervousness. But all of her doubts and fears disappeared when she saw Krum standing near the lake and waiting for her. They waited a while for Professor Karkaroff and the other students and after everyone was ready they started walking towards the castle. Hermione was in the front with Viktor, she turned her head to see if the Beauxbatons students were anywhere near but she couldn't see them anywhere. They reached the doors and went in. She kept walking close to Viktor and felt extremely anxious, seeing the people staring at her from the corner of her eye. She nervously glanced around and every single one of them had their eyes on her. She decided to ignore them and let the evening finally begin.
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After the filling feast and lots of dancing, Hermione stopped to greet the boys, only she found Ron in particularly bad mood, after fighting him a while, she realized she could never even tell Ron. She could imagine how he'd blame her for the same things he was blaming about Viktor. Fraternizing with the enemy. Harry tried to stand up for Hermione but couldn't help much, Hermione stormed out of the Great Hall and headed for the first bathroom she could find. Splashing her face with some cold water and gathering her thoughts for a while, she stared at herself from the mirror for a while. She felt slightly bad for abandoning Viktor like that. She had already discussed about the nature of their date with him, he had agreed to only friendship and understood the matter as well as Harry had. She felt like needing some fresh air after all the dancing and storming around. She walked around in the garden and stared at her feet, lost in her thought. She tried to think of the best way to apologize to Fleur and how she'd confront her, prevent her from leaving the scene. Suddenly she stopped; a few feet further Roger Davies was dragging Fleur to the nearest rose bush. Their lips were locked together, Hermione just stood there, unable to move, until the two stopped kissing and Fleur noticed Hermione standing there, tears forming in her eyes. Hermione turned away and started to run as fast as she could, heading towards the forest. She was halfway there when Fleur caught her from behind. Hermione stopped running; Fleur turned her around and embraced her. Hermione tried to get away but Fleur kept holding her tightly.
"No, 'ermione. Let me explain, we were not... I mean… we were but I did not want to 'urt you, I never wanted to 'urt you, please, believe me," Fleur said, still holding Hermione who had stopped trying to get away and was instead crying on her shoulder. She put her hands around Fleur and returned the embrace. Neither of them said anything or moved anywhere for a while. Hermione gradually stopped crying and pulled back slightly. She lifted her gaze to see Fleur.
"I should have believed you in the first place, I just… I was being thick. I'm sorry that I said all those foul things to you, I really didn't mean to hurt you either."
"So you finally found out ze Veela-charms don't 'ave an effect on women?" Fleur asked with somewhat an amused tone, giving Hermione a little grin.
"Yes, I'm really sorry I jumped into conclusions like that—"
"I am sorry, 'ermione for being so cold towards you, for not trying to find you and explain," Fleur said more gravely, the grin vanishing from her face.
"You had every right to be mad at me, and I'm the one who should have found you earlier, or read the damn book before blaming you," Hermione said, holding her tears back again. Fleur placed her other hand on Hermione's cheek and pulled her into a deep kiss.
When Fleur finally broke the kiss, she stared into Hermione's eyes. Hermione stared back and was in awe how the blue eyes looked even deeper blue in the moonlight. The golden lights coming from the castle were flickering in the blue eyes and Hermione couldn't help but think she had never seen anything so beautiful. Apparently Fleur was thinking the same.
"'Erm-own-ninny, you are really beautiful tonight," Fleur said softly.
"Thank you, wait… did you just call me Herm-own-ninny? Were you listening to what we were talking about?" Hermione asked slightly amused, grinning at Fleur who gave Hermione a sly smile.
"I might 'ave over'eard some things."
"Which reminds me, I left Viktor all alone, I should probably go and say goodnight to him," Hermione said, not really wanting to leave but feeling worse every second, Viktor had really been nice and understanding.
"Could you come to see me later? Let's say in about an 'our if possible, I'll wait for you in front of our carriage, non?"
"Oh… Of course, I'd stay now but I really need to find Viktor first, I hope you understand. And if you don't mind I'd like to change into more comfortable attire, this dress really isn't suitable for running around the Grounds."
"Of course, as I said, I'll wait for you zere in an 'our. Also… don't get too comfortable with Viktor," Fleur blinked and gave a small kiss on Hermione's cheek.
"I won't. See you in an hour," said Hermione and left back to the castle to find Viktor.
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The next chapter is almost done; I decided to cut this one in half because it seemed to me to be too long. I really appreciate your support on this one, and I think I'll go with the NC-17, though nothing too graphic and I'll do my best to blend the scene to fit the rest of this story, not change the style. I do remember being a teenager and it certainly wasn't anything to fit PG-13 rating. ;) Though Hermione's a good girl, unlike me when I was her age. :S Well I'll see, if the NC-17 content seems somehow improbable, I'll leave it out.
R&R, pwetty pweaaazz!