Chapter 8 The Party
A/N:I do realize that as I type this chapter and a few others that it is the middle of summer here in the U.S., but as I started this story months ago when it was still winter here, I feel that I should keep up the story line. Also, I do not own anything Harry Potter related.
Hermione's holiday vacation was going wonderful. Daphne's parents were great towards her, they did not comment on her blood or the fact that she was sorted into Gryffindor; they just accepted her for her. Hermione and Daphne hung out at the Greengrass Manor for the first couple of days of holiday and then they decided to go to Diagon Alley and do some last minute Christmas shopping. They flooed to Flourish & Blotts, so that Hermione could look at the new books that came in over the last couple of months, then
they set off to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Daphne wanted to buy a new dress robe for the party that her parents were holding on that weekend. Hermione decided that since she was there she might as well try on a few too, so they set off to the dressing rooms with arms loaded down. They entered the
same dressing room, much to the shock of the sales ladies. Daphne tried on a silver strapless dress that came to just above her knees and when she twirled it flared out into the shape of a bell. It was really pretty but not the effect she was going for, next she tried on fire engine red halter top dress that fell to the floor with
a slit up the side where it stopped mid-thigh. This was still not what she wanted, after trying on about twenty more dresses, she finally settled on the dress she wanted. Hermione had the same problem, all the dresses she tried on were not what she wanted, but she did like bits and pieces of certain dresses and so she bought
three different dresses, she was a witch after she could just make her own out of the three. She could not wait to get back to Greengrass Manor to get started on her dress. She also planned on altering Daphne's as she knew that Daph would love it. After they long morning shopping they stopped in a cafe to get something to eat
and then they went back to Flourish & Blotts where Hermione found a book on Hair Coloring, Straightening and Other Hair Related Spells. They flooed back to the manor and spent the rest of the night trying new spells on their hair, Hermione brown hair ended up with silver highlights and streaks of green in hers and Daphne's hair
ended up with silver streaks with green highlights. The girls loved it and it would go great with their dresses, the boys would not know what hit them when the girls walked down to the party together. Which was that Saturday and it being Thursday night they had one day to fix their dresses and put the finishing touches on their accessories.
Hermione that night was feeling sad; she missed the Burrow and all the Weasley's. It was her tradition, besides going home to visit her parents. It was different and even though she would see Harry, Ron, Ginny and most of the Weasley at the party on Saturday it still was not the same. But she would get through it, it was their fault that she was not with them, if they would have just accepted her for who she evolved into over the summer and during the beginning of school, then she could be tucked into bed in Ginny's room and they could be gossiping and sharing secrets. But she was here at the Greengrass Manor and was in her own room, by herself. It was different and in some ways it was nice, but she still missed the Burrow.
The day of the party Hermione and Daphne woke up early, they went down to the kitchens and ate a light breakfast, they then helped Mrs. Greengrass put the finishing touches on the party decorations and made sure that the food was just right, after all this they then went up to Daphne's room and started to get ready. Hermione took a shower first and as she was drying, straightening and putting her hair up into a bun with sparkling butterfly clips placed everywhere and the butterflies where charmed to flutter their wings,
she then applied her makeup with the rutrum spell that applied the makeup to her face. Daphne then got out of the shower and dried her hair, straightened it and left it down with only the sides pulled up and held with glittering daffodil clips, they were charmed to smell just like the flower. She then used the rutrum spell to apply her makeup and then she slipped into her dress, just as Hermione slipped into hers.
They watched out the window as guests started to arrive and made comments on everyone's evening attire. Somewhere dressed very nicely while others just looked hideous. Hermione noticed when Harry with Ginny on his arm walked up the stairs into the Manor and behind them was Ron with Lavender on his arm, then came the rest of the Weasley's, following them was Draco with his parents and a few people behind them was Marcus and Hermione could not wait to get down there to see him. She was so excited that she would be able to Marcus and dance with him, without worrying about what everyone would think, since he was no longer a teacher. As the clock struck 10 o'clock, Daphne and Hermione headed out of the room and to the top of the staircase where Mr. Greengrass would announce them to the guests.
As all eyes were on them they walked down the stair, Hermione in a dress that was silver on top and slowly faded to a deep green, it was strapless and the top had little butterflies on it in a deep green color and right below her chest the dress fell straight to mid-thigh, when she twirled in it the skirt flared out but never showed anything that it shouldn't. Daphne had on a dress that was the same colors as Hermione's, but hers went from green to silver and it had two little straps holding it up, but instead of stopping mid-thigh it fell straight to the floor, on her sides there were cut outs of a daffodil flower that started just under her arm and the stem ended just above her hip. They were both wearing heels, Daphne had on silver heels which were nothing but straps, while Hermione had on dark green closed toed ones with butterflies on the tops.
Marcus and Draco were talking when Hermione and Daphne were announced and their jaws hit the floor when they saw the two of them. Their girls looked just beautiful, even though Hermione did not realize that she was Marcus' girl, he was hoping that by the end of the night she would be. Draco was lucky enough to have Daphne as his girl already, but he wanted to make sure that everyone at the party knew that they were together, so without much thought he walked over to her as she reached the last step and held his hand out to her. She accepted it and Draco led her to the dance floor for the opening dance. Marcus not to be out done by the younger man, walked up to Hermione and as he held out his hand to her, he bowed low and said "My lady, may I have this dance?" to which Hermione replied "Why yes good sir, you may" and as Marcus led
her to the dance floor, they were both smiling. Watching the whole thing was Harry, Ginny and Ron, two of them where not happy with the way things were turning out. Ron still had hope that Hermione would come to her senses and realize that he was the one for her and not that Slytherin. Harry was thinking that Marcus was going to hurt her in some way, but Ginny, Ginny knew love when she saw it and oh boy did she it. The night progressed without any problems, Hermione and Marcus danced all night, while Daphne and Draco sat and talked with each other. At one point Marcus asked Hermione to take a walk with him outside. She agreed and they headed outside.
"Hermione, there has been something I wanted to talk with you about for a while now. You see even when I was your professor, I thought you were special and not in the bad way. You were the one bright spot to my day and if my mornings started out bad, I knew that everything would get better, because you would be there soon to make it all better. My afternoons were a little better, but if they were bad, I only had to think of your lesson and it would all go away. Tonight when you walked down those stairs, you took my breath away, you are the most beautiful girl that I have seen, not only that but you are smart, caring, understanding and loyal. The point of all this is I would like to call you mine.
As in my girlfriend, my woman, my love, my whatever, as long as I can just call you mine." Marcus said all this as he stared into Hermione's eyes and watched all the emotions she was feeling cross her face.
"I don't know what to say, except that if you want to call me yours, I have the right to call you mine. I want it known that you are taken, I don't want to read in the papers that you were spotted with some other girl out and about now that you are going to be a big Quidditch star. I want the exclusive rights to you, your name and your body. If you can agree to that, then yes you can call me yours!" Hermione said all this with a smirk on her face; it was a smirk that she had learned not only from Marcus but from Draco as well.
"I think that I can handle that, 'Mione," Marcus then placed his hands on her waist and pulled her to him. She tilted her head up to look at him and he lowered his head towards her and gently placed his lips against hers in the most tender and gentle kiss that he or she ever had.
"Mine!" Marcus breathed as he captured her lips again, this time it was more demanding and more hungry then the first, but Hermione did not care, she ran her hands up his back to his neck and into his hair. She finally pulled away and said "I think we need to take this upstairs."
A/N: Please let me know what you think so far. Please leave a review, good, bad or whatever.