The next chapter, straight away to compensate for my absence •^_^•
Disclaimer: Okay, soooo...I still don't own Harry Potter or Fairy Tail
Everyone had a wonderful day, and when they met up with Hermione's parents later on, Minerva was overjoyed that Ginny would be staying with them - the two had become almost inseparable.
Later that night, Hermione worked with Ginny to get rid of some of the walls between the suites, and made one giant room for the girls to have a sleepover after the ball. "I don't know how I didn't think of this before! It's much more fun this way!" She said, and Lucy cleared her throat.
"Are you going to do the same for the boys?" The blonde asked, laughing at what chaos would be caused.
"If I did, Natsu and Gray would destroy that portion of the house in ten minutes," she said seriously, before laughing.
"I'd give them five!" Levy joined in, and Lucy nodded.
"And that's if you're lucky!" The blonde said, still laughing.
Ginny walked over to Hermione. "Hey, Hermione, would it be okay if Fred and George stayed here for a while? Mum kicked them out too after they had a go at her for sending me away, and it would only be until their business got really-"
"Of course, Gin, they - and you - can stay for as long and you all need." Hermione grabbed a piece of paper, scribbling down a quick note to the twins before handing it to Ginny. "I think they'd get along brilliantly with Natsu - if I'm not mistaken, he's only rooming with Happy, Elfman and Romeo at the minute, and they had one of the largest suites besides mine and my parents'. Hey, do you think Luna would want to stay over after the ball? Neville too, he can go in with Gray, Harry and Jellal."
Ginny grinned. "Yeah, I think so - I'll owl Nev in a minute, once Pig is done with Fred and George's. We can ask Luna when she gets here." The girl ran off to tie the note to her hyperactive owl, which was currently being chased by Enyo.
Luna soon arrived, as she, as well as the other Mahoutokoro girls not already staying over, had been invited early by Hermione so they could join them getting ready for the ball
"Well then, ladies, I do believe it is time for us to prepare for the ball!" Hermione said in a formal voice, giggling slightly, and everyone formed a long line as Lucy called Cancer out to do their hair. Then, they paired off to do makeup, and when everything else was done, they put on their dresses.
Hermione was wearing a long-sleeved, wine red velvet dress that had no embellishments, other than a simple gold ribbon tied around the waist. She was wearing a matching golden ribbon in her hair, and Ginny sighed dreamily.
"You look so pretty, Hermione! I wish I looked like you!" She said, making Hermione snort.
"No way, Gin. You're the pretty one - I could never pull of Slytherin green, and yet it looks so damn perfect on you, like everything else! Seriously, you could wear a black sack and still look gorgeous!" This was what Hermione liked about Ginny. Whilst people like Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil would be fishing for compliments if they said something like that, Hermione knew that Ginny was genuinely just that oblivious of her own good looks.
"Who's your date anyway, Ginny?" Lucy came up next to them, trying to do up the buttons on the back of her dress.
Ginny grinned and helped the blonde out. "He's, um, one of your schoolmates, actually, Lucy. I don't think you two are in the same house - sorry, guild, though. His name is Hibiki. Hibiki Lates."
Lucy squealed. "Miraaaaa!" She yelled, and the other girl came over.
"What is it? What's happening?" She said gleefully - she recognised Lucy's expression. That was the true expression of a matchmaker.
"Ginny's going to Hermione's ball with Hibiki Lates! Aaw they must make such a cute couple!" Lucy turned to the other girl. "Are you dating? I bet you are, aren't you!"
Much to Hermione's surprise, Ginny nodded. "We started hanging out a few weeks after you guys got here, and then he asked me out. We actually went to the Yule Ball together as well, but we were trying to hide from Fred and George. They were playing the 'overprotective older brothers' card."
Mira grabbed Lucy's hands, and the two started jumping around in a circle.
"It's funny how these two were the ones that told me about Minerva's demon matchmaker tendencies, and yet they're the ones jumping around because their ship has sailed," Hermione whispered to Ginny who snorted.
"Hello, Hermione," a dreamy voice said from behind them.
"Luna!" Hermione greeted warmly. After greeting the girl briefly as she arrived, Hermione hadn't had much of a chance to talk to Luna as they were both swept up in the preparations for the ball. "It's wonderful to see you - I'm so glad you could come! I suppose Ginny's already asked if you can stay?"
Luna nodded. "I sent an owl to daddy, and he was fine with it."
"That's great! We really need to catch up!" Hermione squealed, grinning as she looped an arm through Luna's. "Did you get asked to the ball by Rufus again?"
The other girl nodded, smiling dreamily. "He's such a gentleman, you know." Luna started to giggle slightly, before sighing happily. "He sent me a bouquet of roses along with the note!"
Ginny looked at the two quizzically. "Am I missing something?" She asked, confused. "I didn't think you two even liked each other!"
"Well, after Luna constantly insisting that her creatures were real, I looked in the library to see if they were in any of the books. And, surprisingly, they were! I spent a few days reading up on them, before I found this note that someone had scribbled into the margin - it said that only certain bloodlines had any record of being able to see these creatures, one being the Malfoys, another being the Lovegoods, and the final one being the Whitethorns. After that, I did some more digging, and found out that Luna's mother had been a Whitethorn before she married Xenophilius Lovegood - so it was highly likely that Luna could see the creatures," Hermione paused for breath. "Having gathered enough information, I went to find Luna to apologise for having been so horrible about it, and that's when I found her cornered by three of her Ravenclaw yearmates. After I hexed them, they ran away, and Luna told me that had been happening for a while, so I made it my mission to hunt them down one by one and, ah, instil some sense into them. When Luna found out what I'd done, we started hanging out and, yeah, that's pretty much how it happened."
Ginny was stunned. "Wow...that's just...wow. So you can really see, um, nargles and wrackspurts, Luna?"
The dreamy blonde nodded, smiling slightly. "You appear to have attracted quite a few, Ginny."
Ginny squealed and batted away invisible things around her head whilst the others laughed.
Minerva wandered over to the group, smirking. "Did I hear right? Did Rufus actually get a date?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Did you really not notice him and Luna at the Yule Ball?"
"I was...preoccupied," Minerva replied, still smirking.
Hermione suddenly started laughing, and Minerva blushed, realising how that had sounded. "Not...not like that, baka!" She spluttered. "I was busy beating Sting, because he spilt punch on my dress when you walked in with Rogue!"
Hermione high fived Lucy. "I knew that would happen!" She yelled triumphantly.
There was a knock on the door. Wendy was closest, so she opened it, revealing Gray and Harry stood outside.
"Hey, girls, Hermione's parents just sent us up to tell you that the ball's going to start in about ten minutes, so you should go downstairs. Oh, and Hermione - you need to go see your parents. They're in the entrance hall," Gray said, blushing when he saw Juvia.
The girls quickly grabbed their bags and put the finished touches on their outfits. Hermione pinned the necklace Rogue had given her round her neck - somehow it matched her outfit, even though the colours should have clashed.
She rushed downstairs, and just made it to the entrance as the first guests arrived.
"Neville! And you must be Yukino's sister, Solano!" Hermione greeted, hugging the boy and kissing Solano on the cheek. "Come inside! Harry and Ginny are in the ballroom, Nev, as is Yukino." This was Yukino's final Christmas present - they had asked Solano to come to the ball, and arranged all the transportation so that they could meet.
Next was the Weasley twins and their dates - Cana and a pretty Hufflepuff called Jenny.
After this, guests began to arrive in droves until the only ones left to arrive were Jellal's twin brother, Mystogan, his fiancé Ultear, and their adoptive daughter Meredy. Hermione thought Meredy was also bringing a date, but she wasn't sure who they were.
As she saw four figures approaching, her suspicions were confirmed, but when the fourth person pulled back his hood, Hermione's jaw fell practically to the floor. Because Meredy's date was none other than Draco Malfoy.
"Malfoy?!" Hermione yelled, and he grinned - not smirked, grinned.
"Eloquent as always, Granger," he drawled, taking his date's cloak and handing it to Hermione.
Meredy looked apologetically at her. "I wasn't sure whether to bring him, but your parents insisted it would be fine. Sorry, Hermione."
Hermione regained her composure, standing up straight as her childhood lessons in etiquette came rushing back to her. "Nonsense, Meredy. Any friends of yours will of course be welcome here."
Malfoy did smirk this time. "Lovely to see you, Miss Granger," he purred kissing her the cheek before taking his date's hand and leading her inside.
As Mystogan and Ultear followed their daughter into the ballroom, Hermione hung the cloaks with the others and closed the doors, walking towards the ball in a daze.
Not soon after she entered, Rogue grabbed her and they started to dance, and she completely forgot about Malfoy. At least, until they saw each other again later.
"So, Malfoy, why'd you come?" Hermione asked casually, though the tension was evident in the way she held herself.
"Because Meredy invited me as her plus one," he said in his customary sarcastic drawl.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant. You must've known it was my parents who were hosting the ball - why did you come to a muggle household?"
Malfoy sighed, slumping slightly as the light in his eyes died. "Had to spoil it, didn't you, Granger?" He muttered under his breath, making Hermione frown. "Okay, what I'm going to tell you is not to be repeated under any circumstances to Potter. The idiot can't keep a secret to save his life - you, however...you are noble enough to not tell the wrong people, and have enough of a brain that you would think before doing so. You know my father was-is a Death Eater? Well, he decided to try and transfer his beliefs to me - the 'muggles are inferior, mudbloods should die' sort of beliefs. What he doesn't know is that at the same time my mother was teaching me about why not to believe him - and it is her teachings I follow. But then when I went to Hogwarts, I couldn't act like that, I had to pretend to be a complete asshole, basically, because if not, my father..." Here the boy hesitated, holding out his hand. As he stripped away the glamour on it, Hermione gasped. "Yeah, this is what he did when he found out Potter had got into the tournament and I hadn't. Undiluted bubotuber pus - he sent it in an envelope at breakfast the morning after the announcement. The burns are slow to heal, and magic doesn't do anything, so I had no choice but to put a glamour over them and pretend they aren't there. That's why-"
"That's why you were such a git to Harry the next day! Shit, Malfoy! I'm so sorry!" Hermione said, the realisation washing over her like a bucketful of icy-cold water.
"Draco. You can call me Draco," he said, and Hermione smiled wanly.
"Call me Hermione, then. Who else knows about this? That you're not a racist pureblood asshole, I mean?" She asked.
"Blaise Zabini. My mother. And you now, I guess." His eyes were sad, and for the first time Hermione could understand why he always acted so cold.
"Draco..." She stumbled over the unfamiliar name. "If your father is such a bastard, why doesn't your mother leave him? Divorce does exist in the wizarding world, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, it does, but it's just not an option. If mother left father, he would go to the Wizengamot, she would be left with nothing - not even me! He is Lucius Malfoy, after all, half the bloody members of the Wizengamot, including the Minister himself, are in his pocket! Without a shadow of a doubt, if this case was taken to them - which it would be - my father would gain custody over me. My mother won't let that happen, no matter how many times I tell her to just leave me and go," Draco said, his anger evident as he talked about his father.
Hermione looked at him, thinking and calculating. "For quite some time now, I have been researching wards and the like, to protect my parents from V-Voldemort, and the house is currently under a modified Fidelius Charm - I am the secret keeper, and my parents the witnesses. I modified it so that I can partially lift it for events such as this, and lock it down if He starts attacking muggles again. If you and your mother ever need to - and I mean ever, you can come here."
Draco looked at her in shock. "You-you'd really do that? You'd let us stay here?"
"Yes, of course. I mean it, Draco. If he...steps over the line, don't hesitate to come here - with the charms and wards up he'll never even be able to detect that you're still in Britain." Suddenly Hermione's eyes lit up. "I'm aware that when we go back to Hogwarts you'll have to act like an asshole again, but when you have the time, go somewhere secluded and call one of the Hogwarts house elves. Tell them that Miss Hermione needs them to take you to the come and go room. I'll meet you there - I've just had a brilliant idea! Anyway, talk to you later, I have to go do something really quickly! Sorry about punching you last year!" She yelled the last part as she dashed away.
He chuckled as Meredy came back with the drinks, his eyes much brighter than before.
Meredy smiled at her 'date', he looked as if a great weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.
"Thank you, girlfriend," he said, his customary smirk returning.
"No problem, boyfriend," she replied, winking at him.
They heard a collective shout, and more than a few glasses smashing as the dragon-slayers relayed the news to everyone else.
"That's gotta suck!" Draco said to Meredy. "How does anyone keep their secrets at Mahoutokoro if those bloody lizard-slayers are always listening in!"
Meredy snorted, and raised her eyebrows at the nosy idiots. Wendy and Rogue looked away, blushing slightly at being caught, but Natsu, Gajeel and Sting just laughed, Laxus on the sidelines rolling his eyes.
Meanwhile, in the Granger library, Hermione was sorting through the magical section for a certain book.
"No, it's not this one...or that one. Fuck! Wait a second, is that...there it is!" She yelled, grabbing the book before she lost it again.
She carried it over to the table and started flicking through, Levy's borrowed wind-reader glasses making everything a lot easier.
"Hah! Victory!" She summoned some parchment and started making some notes on her subject of choice - magical emancipation.
A/N - Yeah, yeah, she has a saving people complex. Draco and Narcissa are just the next on her list... I just couldn't leave him out! I am a shallow, shallow person and I like (love) blondes, *sorrynotsorry*. Enjoy the second ball scene, and don't forget to leave a review •^_^•