Just a Stupid Crush

Chapter 7

AN: It will always be Hermione's POV unless otherwise indicated

It was the beginning of December and Ginny, Natalie and I were going to buy our dress robes for the upcoming Ball. Ginny was going to the Ball with Harry and Natalie and I were going dateless. We agreed that we would go and make fun of all the people who had dates. I mean what a silly idea... having a date. Who needs a date? I don't.

So anyway… Ginny, Natalie, and I were going to buy our dress robes for the upcoming Ball. We walked into the shop and my eyes immediately fell upon a mint green dress robe. I knew it was prefect for me. I tried it on and decided I loved it, so I bought it. Ginny bought a nice gold dress robe while Natalie bought a soft blue, almost grayish dress robe. With that done, we walked around for a little bit, then went back to the castle.

We were walking up to the Gryffindor common room when we saw none other than Sirius walking down the hall. Ginny and Natalie smiled at me. We got to where Sirius was and stopped to talk to him.

"Hello, ladies," he said smiling at us.

"Hi, Sirius. Sorry, Ginny and I don't really have time to stop and chat. Nice seeing you," Natalie said, grabbed Ginny's arm and kept walking. Sometimes I cannot believe those two.

"It's Saturday and they are claiming they have something to do?" Sirius asked.

"Apparently," I said simply. I shook my head slightly.

"Oh, are you going to the Ball?" Sirius asked looking at the bag I was holding that contained my dress robes.

"Yes, I am. Are you going?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Yup, I just told Dumbledore this morning that I would be attending the Ball. Who are you going with?"

"No one," I said slightly self-consciously, "I'm going by myself."

"Really?" he said sounding surprised, "well, you're probably better off. Sorry to cut this conversation short, but I have to get going. I'll see you in class on Monday."

"Yes, okay. Bye, Sirius."

"Goodbye, 'Mione," he said smiling.

I smiled back and kept walking. What in the world does that mean? What he said kept running through my mind, 'you're probably better off.' I went back to the common room where I found Ginny and Natalie waiting for me. Of course.

"So, anything interesting happen?" Ginny asked. I sighed audibly and told them everything that happened. They giggled like schoolgirls. I went to my room and practiced my animagus training. Give me about a month longer and I think I'll be able to fully transform. It's awesome.

Fast-forward to the time of the Ball

It was December 24, the day of the Ball. I was in my room getting ready. I already had my dress robe on and was just trying to figure out how I should do my hair. I had already tried a few things, none of which I really liked. Then, an idea struck me. Half up, half down, strands of the top will be twisted back and the part that's down will be curled. Oh and to make it even better, I'll put a ribbon matching the color of my dress interwoven in my hair! I'll be prefect! (AN: Hope that made sense…)

I tried that and decided I loved it. Just then, there was a knock on my door. It was Ginny and Natalie.

"Hermione! You look gorgeous!" Ginny exclaimed. I blushed a little.

"Thanks. You both look great too," I responded.

"What, in this old thing?" Natalie asked jokingly and smoothing out her robe. We all laughed.

"Sorry you guys, I have to go meet Harry," Ginny said looking very happy. "I'll see you at the Ball. We'll all sit together!"

"All right, see you later, Ginny," I said.

"So, Hermione. Hoping to see anyone… in particular at this Ball?" Natalie asked innocently.

"Of course I am. I am hoping to see you, Ginny, Harry, Ron, Lavender-"

"You should ask him for a dance," said Natalie pretending she didn't hear my previous statement. I just shook my head at her.

"You know I can't do that, Nat."

"Why not? Every other girl in the place will want a dance with him as well. But you are different. He will want a dance from you," she said seriously. This conversation was leaving me in an unpleasant mood.

"Drop it, Natalie. Come on, let's just go." Natalie looked sadly at me for a brief moment before throwing a smile on and saying,

"Let's go party!"

It was crowded outside the Great Hall and as Natalie and I got there, who shows up but Sirius and Remus. I glanced over at them and smiled at them. They smiled back (is it my imagination, or is Sirius smiling a lot more than Remus?) and Natalie pulled me through the crowd, not realizing that Sirius and Remus had been just a few feet away from us.

As we were walking around inside, I kept looking around for Sirius. I'm not exactly sure when I became absolutely obsessed with him. I mean, I kind of was before, but this is bad. Anyway, while looking, I saw Remus talking to Professor McGonagall. I decided to go and say hello.

"Hello, Hermione," Professor McGonagall said sounding slightly surprised.

"Hello, Professors."

"Hermione, you look beautiful," Remus said.

"Thank you," I said smiling genuinely. Remus seemed to be looking around and Professor McGonagall asked who he was looking for. He glanced at me before responding that he was just looking around.

"I had better go. It was nice to see both of you," I said politely excusing myself.

"Yes, nice to see you too, dear," Professor McGonagall said. Remus smiled and said goodbye. I smiled, turned and tried to find the table where Natalie, Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Lavender should be at.

I found it and sat in the open seat next to Natalie. She gave me a look and I just shook my head. Just like at the Yule Ball, we ordered our food and then they started to play music. I'm not a big dancer, not to mention that the dance floor was right in front of the teachers table. To make it worse, Sirius and Remus were facing the dance floor and Natalie and Ginny picked a spot right in front of their table to dance.

I tried to pretend I didn't notice whose table we were dancing in front of but it was just weird. Ginny and Natalie, being Ginny and Natalie, told me to loosen up and just dance. After a little while of it being uncomfortable, I finally decided I didn't care and did just what they suggested. It wasn't much, but like I said, I'm not a big dancer.

Pretty soon, our food appeared and we went back to our table to eat. We were all talking and laughing and just having a good time. Once we were done, we went back out on the dance floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a group of girls trying to pull Sirius out of his chair to the dance floor. He was just laughing and shaking his head. I gave Natalie a look clearly saying, "see? He won't dance with a student." She just shrugged her shoulders. Just then, the DJ said that there was going to be a slow, couple's only song. Natalie and I looked at each other and made our way back to our table.

Being in this situation made me feel terrible. Out there on the dance floor were countless couples, in each others arms, just dancing. Why can't I have something like that? I looked longingly in Sirius' general direction. Once the song was over, Natalie pulled me back out to the dance floor.

"Forget about it for just tonight. Just have some fun, alright?" she said to me. I nodded and tried to have fun, but my mind kept wandering back to a certain person sitting at the table behind me.

At some point later, I glanced over at his table and noticed that he and Remus were gone. I figured that they probably just went for a walk or to the restroom or something, but they never came back.

Sirius' POV

Remus knew that the smile on my face was not real. He knew I was miserable and that I was fighting a war inside my head. I genuinely tried to forget about her. I tried to let my feelings for her go. But who was I kidding. They just would not let me be. Other girls tried to get me to dance, but there was only one girl I wanted to dance with. She was out there, right in front of my table, just dancing away. She looked so happy, but I noticed that the look did not quite reach her eyes and sometimes, the happy look on her face faltered.

"Do you want to head out, Padfoot?" Remus asked me sounding concerned. I just looked at him and nodded.

AN: I know it's been a long time since I have updated. But I am at college now and have been super busy. Like right now I'm supposed to be studying for the 4 exams I have next week. But I decided I would rather write this chapter. I know I skipped a whole lot of time, but I didn't have anything interesting planning to go on during that time anyway. It would have been better to just skip ahead to this time. I hope you enjoyed it. I know some people were looking for more details about other couples and the Ball itself, but I'm not that great with details. I tend to just write the main points. So there you go. Please review! I have no idea when the next update will be.

PadfootBlack4Ever