DISCLAIMER: Nothing's changed, still don't own HP. Utterly disappointing.
Hermione sat on the edge of the bed, brushing her hair out, making little impatient noises every time the brush got stuck in it, that Ron found endearing, and often teased her about. He sat by the window, watching her struggle, and laughing a little every time she groaned. She scowled and threw the hairbrush at him, which to her surprise he caught, without any effort. There was a rapt knock on the door, and a tall messy haired boy walked in, his shirt tucked loosely into his pants, and sat down beside Ron.
"Harry, if you're here to ask about Ginny again, I'm not going to –"
"Well, I wasn't," interjected Harry. "I wanted to ask you about…uh…," he looked around frantically for some topic of discussion, and his eyes caught onto the word Imperial Ball that was plastered across the first page of some newspaper lying across the floor. "….the Imperial Ball," he finished lamely.
Ron raised his eyebrow sceptically, but didn't comment. Whenever things came to Ginny, after a rather horrible spat they had had nearly a year ago, Ron decided to let Hermione do the talking.
Hermione wasn't fooled by Harry's attempt at diverting her attention from what his original intention was, but decided not to make a big deal out of it. Instead, she simply replied off handedly, "It's this big party kind of thing that the Malfoy's have every year. Or at least they used to. They haven't had it in a few years now, so this time it's supposed to be grander than normal."
"That git," spat Ron. "Why does he need a ball? What has he ever done? Who are they going to invite anyway? All of their supposed friends are either dead or in jail," he continued with no sympathy in his tone.
"Ron, the war was two years ago. You can't expect them to stop living their life."
"Why is it such a big deal anyway?" asked Harry, speaking for the first time.
"Well, I'm not sure, but supposedly it's extremely grand. The Malfoy's spend thousands of galleons on it. In fact, they order bands to come and play, and the food is excellent. I remember reading once that each guest got an ice sculpture of themselves as a thank you-for-coming gift."
"What's the point of that?" asked Ron.
"Well, obviously it was magical, so it would never melt. If you think about it, it's rather lovely."
Ron waved his hand dismissively, and Harry didn't seem to take in any of that information anyway.
"Hermione, could we go?" asked Harry suddenly.
"What?" asked Ron, clearly shocked.
"Could we go for the ball?" Harry repeated.
"Why would you want to go?" asked Hermione, confusion evident in her voice.
"I wanna see what the big fuss is about."
"Surely you've been to better balls, with the Ministry inviting you as the chief guest every other day. The only difference is that it'll be only the pureblood society; fun. What's the real reason?"
Harry hesitated for a moment, and then said calmly, "Oh alright, it's been a while since we've seen dear Draco, and I'd love to see the look on his face when he sees us there."
Ron grinned sheepishly, "That would be fun."
"Merlin, you both are just so immature."
"Oh, come on, Hermione, we haven't had any adventure in ages, the last thing did was defeat Voldemort," said Harry, grinning.
"Don't you make light of that. Everything isn't a game. That was a war, and not some silly video game you can joke about."
"Well, 'Mione, what do you expect? We were eleven when we started these crazy dangerous adventures, and tried to save the wizarding world, and now we're stuck washing dishes and rounding up some old Death Eaters who still cry about the Dark Lord like he was there mum or something. Let's do something exciting for once. It's not like it's dangerous, we're just sneaking into Malfoy Manor to give Draco a heart attack, that's all there is," reasoned Ron, using his best pleading tone.
"Oh alright, but if we get into trouble, you're explaining it to your Mum."
Ron smiled warmly and held her tightly, "That's my girl."
"Well, I'll see you two lovebirds at six. Dress well," said Harry before disappearing with a small pop.
Ginny woke with a start, as she glanced at her watch that showed her that she was fifteen minutes late. She bundled up her hair and yanked into a knot, splashed some water on her face, pulled on a small coat over her thin shirt, and ran towards Draco's room.
"You're late," were his first words.
For a moment, she had considered apologizing, but his tone had annoyed her and instead she rolled her eyes. "I'm here now."
"Here's the key," said Draco as he tossed a set of brass keys towards her, and pointed upwards.
"Last floor, take a left after the stairs, the room on the far end is all yours. Choose what you like. The elf will do your hair, and uhhh…anything else you need, ask now."
Ginny glanced at his icy exterior once, and wondered internally what made him act like that. Some days he could be moderately nice, and almost polite, if he tried, but no matter what, his façade was always up. Unapproachable, untouchable, and unwelcoming, that's the aura all the Malfoy's gave off in the very first instant of meeting them. She fingered the keys for a moment before mumbling an 'okay', and walking out of the room briskly.
"Oh, and Weasley," said Draco softly.
She turned, "Yes?"
"Blue looks good on you," he mumbled with a slight trace of a smile, and closed the door almost immediately.
Ginny couldn't help but smile as she walked away. She climbed the staircase slowly, not realizing that Lucius Malfoy was walking down that very staircase. When she caught a flash of his blonde hair in front of her, she looked up immediately and blurted as if on cue, "Mr, Malfoy! You look resplendent in those dressrobes, they really do suit you. Lovely choice." Lucius' eyes were cold and condescending, but he refrained from making any offensive comment as Narcissa emerged from her room. "Thank you," he muttered almost incoherently, before proceeding down the stairs, without a second glance at Ginny. Narcissa followed him, but she smiled at Ginny, an extremely well-practiced smile, that looked almost genuine but was most definitely not, so much so that Ginny wondered if she ever truly smiled even for her own family.
Ginny made her way to the designated room, and used the biggest brass key to open the lock. Funny, how a purely magical household, had a set of keys for one of their rooms. It was ironic, almost. She pushed the door back with a creak, and was immediately enveloped by a musty smell, that made her cringe. She used her wand to light a candle placed on a dresser inside the room. The room lit up surprisingly well, and her eyes adjusted to the dim light soon enough. Her eyes widened at the sight of the number of dresses stored in that room. There were large chests, cobweb ridden and dusty, sets of dresses, dress robes for men, a large dresser, full length mirrors, and photo frames scattered around the room. In contrast to the rest of the house, this room was highly disoraganised and hardly maintained. However, there was one part of the room that looked rather clean, and almost as though it had often been visited. She made her way there slowly, and pushed several dresses aside to reveal a hidden closet sort of arrangement. Curiosity got the better of her, and she tapped it lightly, and to her surprise, it sprang open, and let her into an entirely different world. Pictures of young girls by the swings, playing with each other's hairs, sitting in regal chairs by the fireplace, sitting adroitly in a garden were all pushed to one side. There were more pictures, too, as the girls got older, but it stopped abruptly at some age and after that there were no photographs at all. Ginny noticed that the girls were smiling, truly happy, and it took her a while to realize who the girls were. She picked up a small brochette made a blue jewels that was placed in the cupboard, and watched it sparkle. There were many other such small things, mementos and tokens from a past life, it seemed, and Ginny was more than intrigued, wanting to see a little more, when she heard the door open again, and a curt voice came out clearly.
"I thought you were here to choose a dress, not snoop," it said matter of factly.
"Ï…uhh…I wasn't snooping," Ginny managed. " I chose this one," she said pointing instinctively at a teal coloured dress. "I was trying to get it out."
Narcissa moved towards the dress and handed it to Ginny, without further comment. She didn't seem to notice the slightly ajar cupboard, and looked at Ginny expectantly.
Ginny looked at the dress she had picked out, and ran her fingers over the smooth material. It had an elegant cut, with a little frill near the bottom, to balance out the wide low cut neck. The teal looked simply radiant against her skin, and Ginny loved it. She noticed however, that the dress was too long to be Narcissa's and she blurted out before thinking, "Is this Teddy's grandmother's?"
Narcissa remained silent, neither acknowledging the question nor the mention of her sister.
Ginny was never one to be known for her tact, and usually ended up regretting saying what she did, moments after saying it. "If you hate her so much, why do you keep all of this? What's the point?"
Narcissa looked into Ginny's eyes, her cold blue eyes piercing Ginny's very soul. She spoke in a tone that made it clear that further discussion would not be permitted, "The ball starts at six. You must get ready. Don't be late."
Ginny took the rather obvious hint, and walked out of the room, with the dress in hand, and picked up a pair of high heels, that matched her dress, without taking attention away from it, and made her way back to her room. She couldn't help but notice that Narcissa didn't emerge from the room immediately, and wondered how many times Narcissa reminisced about her life before everything changed. For the first time, Ginny felt that perhaps there was a reason that the Malfoy's acted the way they did. The way they were brought up was so vastly different from her own, that she would never understand it, but maybe just maybe she would learn to accept it, with time.
Ginny dressed quickly, reaching the bottom of the stairs at the designated time, all dressed up and rather regal looking. She glanced sideways at Narcissa who showed no indication that she and Ginny had shared a connection just a few minutes prior to this. Lucius Malfoy stood in all his glory beside his wife, his chest slightly out, his long mane of hair combed neatly, with a proud smirk upon his well-defined features. Draco gently held her hand and squeezed it, almost reassuringly, and whispered in her ear, "Ready?" She nodded confidently. "Remember, a thousand galleons." Ginny tossed her hair backwards, and wrapped his arm around her waist, and smiled, a fake yet rather convincing smile, and whispered back, "Of course, darling."
Ginny braced herself for an evening of false smiles, forced laughter, humiliation, gossip, insults and unwanted surprises, as the first guest arrived.
A/N: So, it's me, again! I'm so sorry I take so long to update, but the fact that you guys still read it, just shows how amazing you are, and much much love to all of you. So, how was this chapter? Yay or nay?Thoughts? Criticism? Leave a review, please, it really does make my day. Constructive criticism really helps, too. Any questions? PM me or leave it in a review, and I'll get back to you.