Hermione was walking on air. Heaven was several clouds below her. In her delight, she charmed her schedule to sparkle purple and blue, Padma's favorite colors, and swirled the gradients into girly heart shapes. She felt like someone had cast Wingardium Leviosa on her heart, it was soaring with the winds. Her friends were supportive, albeit still a little dazed from her revelation. She knew they in time they would joke about the whole thing. Hermione waltzed down the hall, Padma's face drifting before her eyelids. Everything was going right for a change. In her complete and utter happiness, she bounced right into Malfoy.
"Opps." She giggled.
"Opps?" Malfoy raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry?" she volunteered, "Sorry, sorry, sorry. Silly me, my fault. Opps."
"Are you completely gone?" he questioned sardonically.
"Maybe," she grinned.
"Ah, the Patil girl," he said knowingly.
"You always know," she said mock-angrily.
"I am perceptive that way. Which you are not," he countered.
"In what way?"
"Me, Zacharias Smith, the broom cupboard, the east stairwell, the whole bloody school,"
"Lucky you," she retorted, "but I knew already." Malfoy looked shocked.
"How?"
"Oh, I have my ways," she smirked in a frighteningly Malfoy-esque manner.
"I'm sure you do," he huffed quietly. Hermione saw a shadow which reminded her of Padma's hair and went back to smiling her dreamily distant smile.
"You, Miss Patil, the library?" he queried.
"Uh huh," she affirmed. "And everywhere else is no longer safe."
"Lucky girl," he smirked, "And I mean you," Hermione swatted his arm. Malfoy assumed a look of deepest hurt. Then, without warning, in his most gentlemanly manner he bowed formally. "Mademoiselle Hermione, please be my escort to dinner?" he requested, holding his arm out dramatically. Hermione mock-swooned. "Wait, take the other arm, this one hurts too much," he amended.
"You'd better watch it or you won't be able escort me at all. And what will Zacharias think?"
"The same thing Miss Patil is thinking."
"Ah." Perhaps things would work out after all.
"To dinner then?"
"Ah, yes," and the silly smirk returned.
As they walked into the dining hall, Padma gave Hermione a discreet wink and licked her lips. Hermione grinned happily as shivers slid down her back. Idly, she wondered how long exactly it took to eat one's bangers and mash. One more look at that swan-like neck confirmed her suspicion that fifteen minutes were fifteen too many. Malfoy's seat was already conspicuously empty along with the seat of one Mr. Zacharias Smith. Snape's laboratory could no longer boast that capacity. Three point four minutes later, Hermione dashed out of the Great Hall in pursuit of Padma who had mysteriously vanished not twenty seconds earlier. Ron and Harry shared a communal commiserating shrug as if to say 'lesbians'. They were taking it all quite well. Pansy stabbed her potato and schemed.
As irony smiled down upon her, Hermione beamed in sheer happiness at the quixotic paradise that had become her life. To her utter delight, Padma smiled back.