Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 4

Days of Auditions and Decorations

The day of the auditions started out like any other. Hermione got up did a few stretches and went to take a shower but stopped in her tracks when she saw a bronze and well toned Slytherin brushing his teeth wearing only a towel.

"Hey Granger give me just a second and the bathroom is all yours." Draco said with a wink and rinsed out his mouth.

"So what time are you going to be starting your auditions today?" Hermione asked making sure to keep her eyes at his face and no where lower.

"They're going to be starting around 3pm."

"Ok. Well I'm going to take a shower now. Have fun with your auditions." Hermione said as Draco shut the bathroom door.

Wow! What an amazing body.

'Down girl maybe you should make that shower a cold on'

Bite me.

'I'm starting to think you have the hots for him. Very much so. Enjoy that shower.'

It's only a sexual attraction.

Later That Day

"Ok welcome to the auditions, and thanks for attempting." Draco started. "And hopefully I won't be disappointed."

"As you know your faces are charmed and I have no idea who you are," Draco reminded as he walked about the room. "So that way it's fair and no one will think I'm choosing my partner based on looks or they're body or simply because that's who I want whether or not they have talent.

"Obviously we are in the Room of Requirement. I though this would be the best place to hold an audition, this is also where the rehearsals will be held. Since the room senses what we need…" Draco started just as dancing stand-ins appeared. "This is the ideal place to have everything we need. I'm going to have music playing and as you see I have my own stand-in. So please pay attention to the moves and follow to the best of your ability."

After about 3 hours of auditions there were three finalists.

"Congratulations on become the final three," Draco started obviously becoming tired, "So we are going to be dancing to one more song. This song will also be the song and dance we will be performing at the Halloween Ball. And since this is the final three I have requested that Professor Snape assist me in the judging. "

And once Draco had finished his sentence the music started.

"Now follow me."

Draco had started with a slow move and the stand-ins responded and the three finalists followed the female stand-in. The three remaining girls were Lavender Brown who was number 24, Hannah Abbot number 18, and Hermione number 8. They were all quite surprised and proud with themselves.

As the song played the moves became more sensual and almost erotic as the dancers had to become almost intimate with their partners, one move involving having one leg in between their own while being bent back.

When the song ended Draco gave the three girls a well done and went to where Snape had been standing for the duration of the song.

"They did very well Draco, you pick excellent finalists." Snape comment as Draco sat down drinking some water.

"Thank you, though they are all great dancers I can only pick one."

"Well in my personal opinion I don't believe that blonds make good tango dancers. They just seem so out of place. "

"I agree with you there but the girls are being judged on their dancing abilities not their hair color."

"Number 24 and number 8 seem to do very well with the more intricate moves and bends, and don't get me wrong so does number 18, but she seems to be a bit more hesitant about whether or not she is doing the move correctly enough to grab your attention. Number 18 does appear to enjoy dancing by the way her body moves but I believe she maybe over thinking things a bit too much. And if she is then that could be detrimental to the performance if she were to over think enough and screw the up moves."

"Ok so that takes number 18 out and leaves me with 24 and 8. They both move with style and grace, as well as they both seem to have the ability to pick up on the moves quite quickly there seems to be something different that I couldn't just put my finger on. What do you think?" Draco asked his godfather.

"It appears to me that number 24 is trying to out do number 8. Just by the way she would bend back or stretch out her leg during certain moves. That could possibly also damage the routine. That there might be a slight chance she would want all of the attention on her instead the both of you. While number 8 seems to be dancing because she just simply like to do so. She followed the moves to the T and left nothing to be desired. She bent back and stretched out without trying to out do herself or anyone for that matter. Not to mention her hair color and skin tone seem to fit better than the lighter skinned blond who appeared to try and out dance her."

"So number 8 seems to be the best fit for my partner?" Draco asked already deciding.

"As long as that's how you treat her during the dance and the rehearsals. As your partner and not someone just there to make you look better. A partner needs respect and kindness, screw that up and you've screwed yourself into the ground with the school and most importantly the head girl you're trying to get to forgive you and except your friendship."

Draco looked at his godfather as if he had just developed a third eye, and was quite surprised that her knew that much about his intentions with the head girl. But then again Snape was his godfather and knew him almost as well as his own mother. Draco missed his mom, and how she'd try to get him to dance with her and teach him new moves. He was grateful that Lucius would allow something so simple for her to do with him just so she could spend time with him during the summer. A time where he wasn't being pressured into follow his father's footsteps. Oh how he miss her.

Suddenly he remembered that he had to announce a winner and shook his head to clear his mind.

"I have decided on a winner. The three of you are amazing dancers and I'd like to give you some constructive criticism, so please don't think I'm trying to be mean with what I say." Draco started with a smile. "Number 18 you are a great dancer, but it appears that you might lack some confidence and that you may be over thinking the moves in hopes that you won't mess up. And in some cases it is better to over think then not think as much. I don't want anything I'm saying to be taken the wrong way and if you would like for me to explain something then I'll gladly do so. And if I offend you then I am very sorry that is not my intention."

And with that Hannah said thank you for the chance to audition and left the room leaving only Hermione and Lavender left.

"Thank you for auditioning," Draco began. "You both are amazing dancers and very talented. Though I must say that 24 while you had both grace and ease you seemed to try and out do number 8. Don't get me wrong trying to prove how talented you are is a great quality, but this is a partner performance. I don't want to have someone trying to out do me and I don't want to try and out do them. I want to be able to respect my partner and have equal respect. Not feel like that they're going to try and steal the show. Do you understand at all what I'm trying to say?" He finished trying his best not to hurt the girl's feelings.

Lavender muttered yes and congratulated Hermione, though neither knew who the other was and she left the room.

"So I guess that leaves me then?" Hermione asked with a smile in her voice.

"Yes it does congratulations and may I say you did very well."

"Thank you very much. When will we be having our rehearsal?" Hermione asked hoping he wouldn't make it a day where she had to patrol.

"How about we practice every day except for Friday, and obviously the day of the ball."

"Sounds good to me."

"Great we'll meet here around 7pm each day. I have decided to keep your face charmed so that I won't know who you are until midnight at the dance. I hope you are ok with that." Draco said suddenly aware that his partner might not like that at all.

"That is fine with me." Hermione was quite surprised with how kind and aware of people's feelings Draco was being.

Maybe Ron and Harry were right.

'Maybe they were. They've been right a few times here lately.'

What do you mean?

'Well if they hadn't convinced you into going to the party in the first place we wouldn't be here right now would we.

What does that have to do with the price of eggs in china?

'I mean that were right that you'd have fun at the party. Also that he may not be that arrogant little boy anymore.'

I don't want to think about that right now, thank you.

'Whatever you say, it's your mind I just live here.'

"So I'll see you here tomorrow after Hogsmeade at 7?" Draco asked pulling her from her thoughts.

"Yeah see you then." And with that Hermione left the room and hurried to the head commons in hope that she could take a shower and change before he got there. Once in the common room Hermione ran up her stairs to her room threw her bag in her closet grabbed a towel and headed for the shower. When she had finished she changed into a pair of soffee shorts and a tank top suddenly very aware of how tired she was and went down stairs to grab some water and an apple before heading to bed.

Once she was down stair Draco entered the room looking just as exhausted as she felt.

"So how did your auditions go today?" Hermione asked nonchalantly while handing him a glass of water.

"Rather well actually. I think the girl I picked will be an excellent partner." Draco answered drinking the water down slowly. "Though as much as I'd like to stay and chat about it I really need a shower and to get some sleep. Maybe if we have time before everyone is ready to go look at decorations in the morning I'll tell you all about. Thank you by the way for the water. Have a goodnight." And with that Draco headed up to his room for a long needed shower and a goodnight's sleep.

The Next Morning

Hermione woke up well rested and still slightly sore but happy. She was proud of herself for winning the auditions and was quite excited to pick out decorations and her dress for the ball. She slowly climbed out of bed and got dressed in a pair of tight jeans and an off the shoulder sweater and headed down to the common room where Draco was dressed and ready.

"You look nice today Granger. Still want to hear about how the auditions went?"

"Thank you. You look nice yourself and yes I would love to hear all about them." Hermione said trying to act like she knew nothing of how the auditions actually went.

While the head students walked to the great hall Draco gave her details about the auditions and how the winner was chosen. When he mentioned the comment about the hair color Hermione was glad she didn't let her cousin dye her hair and smiled that her hair color had helped her win even if it was slightly.

The Hogsmeade day for the students that could go didn't start until 12 o'clock. But the prefects and the heads were allowed to go down earlier so that they could pick out the decorations that they needed. Once they were in Hogsmeade they went straight for the party store and were debating on the colors to choose.

"So are there any suggestions as to what the colors should be?" Hermione asked with an excited smile on her face?

Lavender raised her hand. "I was thinking that since this is a masquerade and that it was on Halloween why not do a gold, black, silver, and green color scheme. Maybe have gold chandeliers with silver chain connecting them. Then have black chairs and green table cloths. Then I kind of thought that have black and silver balloons all about the great hall would be pretty." Lavender finished feeling a bit stupid for saying so much.

"That seems like a very good idea to me." Hermione started looking a Draco. "What do you think?"

"I agree, but I think that a show of hands on who likes the idea would be a better way to decide then having it be up to us and possibly pissing off the rest of the prefects."

So they took a poll and the vote was almost unanimous for Lavender's idea. By the time the rest of the school had arrived into town the prefects and head finish gather the decorations and had them delivered to the school.

"Hermione are you going to look for your dress with Pansy and I." Ginny asked with a huge smile on her face.

"Yeah sure. Last time we were in here I saw a dressed that I though would look amazing on you." Hermione said linking arms with the younger girl.

Then what are we waiting for," Pansy said linking arms on Hermione's free hand, "Let's go shopping."

Once inside the store there was a frenzy of girls looking for dresses. Luckily for Hermione she had asked the sales woman to hold the dress she saw for Ginny.

"Do you still have the dress I asked you to hold?" Hermione asked almost scared that the lady had already sold the dress.

"Yes ma'am, give me one moment to go get it for you. I also have another dress for you to look at just in case this one wasn't to your liking." The sales woman said walking into the back to retrieve the dresses.

"Hey Ginny," Hermione hollered. "They have the dress I wanted you to look at."

Just as Ginny and Pansy arrive by her side to see the dress the sales woman came out of the back holding two boxes.

"This one is the dress you asked about," the sales woman said handing Hermione the first box.

"Here Ginny, I want you to go and try this on." Hermione said handing the first box to Ginny.

After about 5 minutes Ginny come out of the dressing room and both girls were amzed at how beautiful the dress looked on her.

"Wow." Both girls said almost breathlessly.

"You look amazing." Pansy said circling around Ginny looking at the intricate bead and embroidery work the dress had.

Ginny's dress was a pitch black color with silver crystals and embroidery that was covering the chest in a very flattering way that went to the back of the back and traveled down the center all the way to the short train the dress had.

"Ok stop acting like a vulture, I'm going to go change out of this so we can see Hermione's dress." Ginny said smiling.

When Ginny exited the dressing room the girls looked at Hermione excited to see her dress.

After another few minutes Hermione showed the girls the dressed she hadn't even seen before then since the sales woman picked out the dress. And their responses were almost the same as with Ginny's but the seemed to be speechless.

Hermione's dress was a deep almost blood red color. The dress had a long slit up the side of one of her legs that stop rather high on her hip with the ends of the dress ruffling out. The front of the dress had black and silver embroidery very similar to Ginny's though the dress had small sleeves that rested off the shoulders. The embroidery started at the top of her right breast and flowed softly diagonally to where the slit starts and went to either side of the slit and followed it down to the end of the dress.

The girls packed up their dresses paid for them and made their way over to the Three Broomsticks. Once they sat down and were settled Hermione decided it was time to tell them she had won so they wouldn't be mad at her for not telling them before the dance.

"Hey I have confession to make," Hermione said looking at the girls. "But you have to keep this a secret. I auditioned for the dance. And I won!" Hermione finished with a huge smile watching the girls faces hoping they wouldn't yell it out for everyone to hear.

"Oh my god," Ginny said completely shocked. "I'm so happy for you." Ginny finished as both girls gave her a huge bear hug.

"Wow. How are you going to be able to hide that it's you who won during the rehearsals?" Pansy asked

"Well he's keeping the charm so that he doesn't know during the rehearsals as well."

"But you share a common room. Don't you think he'll notice that you'll be leaving when he does and arriving about the same time too?" Ginny asked still excited for her best friend.

"Well I've worked out how I'm going to show up at the rehearsal without him figuring it out but everything else I'm going to have to work on." Hermione answered thinking slightly about the problem that has yet to be solved.

The girls sat and enjoyed their afternoon and walked together back to the school when it was time to return.

Hermione returned to her common and seeing no sign of Draco shrugged and went up to her room got ready for bed. After about 15 minutes of thinking about the last 2 days of excitement fell asleep with a smile on her face excited to start rehearsals after class the next day.

YAY chapter 4 all done. Sorry it took so long. Hope you enjoy and as always reviews and ideas are very welcome.