A huge thanks to all of you out there who have read this story! You guys are what make this story happen.
Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own Harry Potter, all rights go to JKR.
I woke up to a cold bed. Where was Draco? I rolled over and noticed he left a note. 'Mione, gone to Quidditch practice. Have fun picking out dresses. Draco'. I smiled. It wasn't a love letter by any means, but he still took the time to write a note telling me where he'd gone.
I hummed to myself as I got ready to go dress shopping with the girls. This ball was formal like the Yule Ball Had been, but the dress code was dresses and suits. My idea. McGonagall had come to ask Draco and what we thought this years ball should be like. When I suggested it both McGonagall and Draco were surprisingly for the prospect. I was really excited about this ball and I especially couldn't wait to see Ginny's face when she came down the stairs and saw Harry.
Waking from my thoughts I noticed that I was already outside the Great Hall. "Hello Ms. Granger." I turned. "Morning Headmistress." "Miss Weasley told me that you Miss Abbott, Miss Lovegood, Miss Greengrass, Miss Patil, and Miss Bones will be heading to Hogsmeade today to get some dresses for the ball. I'm very happy to see how much Interhouse Unity you seventh and eighth years are showing. I hope you have a good time today." I smiled at McGonagall. "Thank you very much."
I myself had been surprised with the show of unity with this trip. But Ginny had explained that she wanted to invite all of the seventh and eighth year girls that returned so nobody would be left out.
"Hermione! We're going to miss our carriage if you don't stop daydreaming!" Whoops. "Sorry Gin!" I ran to catch up with them. We fell into amicable silence for a moment. As usual, Ginny was the one who broke it. "So Daphne, what style of dress are you thinking of getting?" "Well I was hoping to try a mermaid style but I'm not sure whether that will be too formal." "It's a ball Daph, nothing's too formal." Hannah interjected.
Hannah had stood up for Daphne in History of Magic when some Ravenclaws had called her a Death Eater (which she isn't) and the two girls have been fast friends ever since. "To be honest I'm more nervous about the actual dancing. They taught us at the Yule ball, but that was years ago and I hardly remember anything." I confessed.
Daphne smiled at me. "I could teach you if you like, I had dance lessons every week when I was young. Or I'm sure you could get Draco to teach you. On second thought, do that. He'd love to teach you and you'd probably learn better from him than me, he's an excellent dancer."
"That's exactly why I don't want him teaching me. He's so good at it and I'm…well not." I grimaced. "He's your boyfriend. I'm sure he'll still love you no matter what." Once again I was caught off guard by Luna's knack of reading people. I blanched a little at her comment. Sure we had smelled each other in our Amortentia but we just got together and love seemed like a big step. Did he love me? Did I love him? Luna smiled serenely at me as if she knew what I was thinking. Not for the first time I caught myself wondering if she was a legilimens.
Abruptly, the carriage stopped. I glanced up in shock. We were there already? As soon as we all exited Padma started speed walking into town. "Hey Padma, what's the rush?" Susan questioned? She turned around and noticed how far ahead she was. "Sorry," she smiled sheepishly, "I guess I'm excited." We laughed and all ran to catch up with her. We walked much faster after that, our focus only on dresses.
After a long three hours, everyone had managed to find a dress as well as shoes, accessories and a matching tie for their date. I had gone with a strapless emerald green gown that flowed to my ankles. The others had teased me for the Slytherin colour, but I was too in love with it to care. Daphne had picked out a form fitting blood red dress with a slit in the leg which made me wonder who her date was. Padma went with an elegant silver that was short with long sleeves and an open back. Luna had gone with a short hot pink ball gown, Susan with a mermaid style orange that sparkled in the light. Ginny had chosen a deep blue a line style dress that hugged her curves in all the right places.
Satisfied with our purchases, we sent them to our dorms and went out to the Three Broomsticks for lunch. After everyone had ordered I decided to inquire about dates. "So who's everyone going with to the ball?" Ginny's face fell slightly and Daphne blushed red. "I was thinking we should keep it a secret until that night, it would give it some suspense. Unless you're dating someone because then we know you're going with them."
I wasn't surprised when it had been Susan that announced this, seeing as she was supposedly dateless at the moment, her date pretending to go with Ginny. The other girls agreed. "We can start a betting pool." I rolled my eyes. "Really Ginny?" She shrugged. "What? It's easy money."
The rest of the lunch was spent talking about anything and everything. I smiled around at everyone on the walk back to the castle, thinking about how fun it had ben. "Y'know we should get together more often. This was super fun!" Padma grinned. "Let's get ready together! We can make a whole day of it and help each other with hair and makeup.
"We should!" I agreed. "I'll kick Draco out of our dorm and you can come get ready there, the bathroom's huge." "Okay! Is 9 am on Friday a good time for us all to come over?" I nodded. "Nine's good. Well I'll see you guys around." "See you" they chorused.
When I got back to the Head's dorm I immediately placed a sealing spell on the bag so that Draco couldn't peek. I was just getting out his tie when I felt strong arms wrap around me. Smelling Draco I immediately leaned back into him before recoiling in horror as I realized how sweaty he was. "You git! You're all sweaty!" He smirked at me. "Don't you think it makes me look sexy?" I rolled my eyes at him, but he was right. He did look incredibly hot. I shook myself.
He kept smirking. "Take a picture it'll last longer." I glared at him and hit him in the chest. He laughed, which only made me glare more. "Is this my tie?" He changed subjects. "Yes." I said smiling now. I didn't say anything to the other girls but I happened to know that red was secretly Draco's favourite colour and it had definitely been a factor when picking out my dress. Plus I am the Gryffindor princess and I've got a lot of house pride.
He smiled when he saw it. "Red huh? Gryffindor through and through I see. However, I think I'll forgive you seeing as red's such a fabulous colour." "I knew you'd think so. If it doesn't fit we can use charms to make it fit. I didn't know your size." He smiled. "No worries Granger." I raised an eyebrow. "Granger?" He shrugged. "Sorry, force of habit."
"Besides. Calling you Granger makes it easier for me to do this and not feel bad about it." It makes it easier for you to do what? Draco! Get off of me!" He'd tackled me to my bed, covering me in his sweat. Gross.
He realized our position and smiled deviously down at me before kissing me. I gladly obliged. After a while he pulled back, both of us panting due to lack of oxygen. "I'm going to shower now." He announced. I glared at him. "Don't you dare use all the hot water, I need to shower too now." He smirked. Ferret.
By the time we were both clean and ready to go it was time for dinner. We made our way to the Great Hall and I smiled when I saw that all of the seventh and eight years had claimed a spot at the Ravenclaw table and made to go join them.
"Hey guys." I greeted, sitting down next to Blaise. He raised an eyebrow. "What took you guys so long? We got down here half an hour ago." "Well someone" I looked pointedly at my boyfriend "decided that it would be a good idea to cover me in his sweat, therefore making me need to use the shower as well. He smiled innocently.
"So what have you guys been talking about?" Ginny grinned evily. "Oh, this and that. How Blaise's tie is bright pink." He moaned and covered his face with his hands. I patted him on the back. "There there Blaise. I'm sure you're confident enough in your sexuality to wear pink." Draco guffawed. Susan frowned. "But I thought we were agreeing to keep our dates a secret?" "We were." Luna replied. "But only if we weren't dating someone because then it could be assumed we were going together. I forgot some of you didn't know we were dating." She smiled sweetly at Blaise who smiled back.
"Whipped." Draco coughed. Blaise glared at him. "And you aren't?" "Hey!" I exclaimed. "What's that supposed to mean?" Blaise paled. "Nothing Mione." Obviously he'd learnt his lesson from the Quidditch players comment. "That's what I thought."
Once we had finished dinner we bid everyone good night and headed back upstairs. I glanced nervously at Draco. "Draco?" "Hm?" "I was wondering if you could…if you could teach me how to dance. You see the Yule Ball was so long ago, and I forget how." He smiled softly at me. "Of course I will." I beamed. "Thanks a million! You're the best boyfriend ever!" After doing homework we went to bed and I fell asleep straight away. With his arms around me I never had to fear nightmares again.