Disclaimer: Not mine. None.
A/N: This is going to be a bit of a long chapter. Exciting, but long. All you Americans know that there's quite a bit that goes along with Homecoming…
11. HOMECOMING
Everyone in the house seemed to almost shun the five of them after the "VOLDEMORT!" incident that night. Even Sirius decided to make their lives a living hell for the next few days.
At least they all knew that Hermione had been drunk. They didn't know, however, that it was illegal for under twenty-one in the States. Harry, Ron, and George would never let neither Hermione nor Fred go to another party.
It was now a month into the school year, and lots of talk about "Homecoming" was going around. None of them knew what it was; they supposed it was like a Yule Ball or something.
"It's kind of a football thing," Tom explained to Hermione one day as they walked along the hallway. "There's the game on Friday, and the dance on the Saturday right after."
"Sounds like fun… Like the party at The Tunnel?" Hermione mused. How awesome that party had been… Even though she didn't remember much of it.
"Ha, no. It's school-run. No beer," Tom said in a disappointed voice. "But the after-parties are the best…"
Hermione smiled slyly. She would've never thought that she would be a party animal. Neither did anyone else.
"We are NOT going to the after-party," Harry struck her down immediately that day as they all walked home from school. Ron and George agreed violently.
"Hermione, you want to be Head Girl, remember? You asked if Dumbledore wouldn't mind when you were drunk that night," Ron recounted in a cynical voice.
"What Dumbledore doesn't know won't hurt him…"
"Dumbledore knows everything," George interjected. "Take it from us," he and Fred said simultaneously.
"Hm…" Hermione mused.
Homecoming was now two weeks away. Guys were asking girls all sorts of ways, and Hermione was now pressuring Harry and Ron to ask girls. Both of them violently disagreed. Hermione hoped someone would ask her soon enough…
Hermione walked into school with Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Ginny as usual. She intended to look for her calculator in her locker. She had needed it for her Geometry homework the night before but had misplaced it.
Tom immediately found Hermione at her locker.
"Good morning, Tom," Hermione said. She felt her face get hot. Thankfully Ron or Harry wasn't here to see; they wouldn't let her hear the end of it. It would be nothing compared to going to the Yule Ball with Krum last year. She really liked Tom… More than she had liked Krum.
"Hey," he said cheerily.
Hermione opened her locker and scanned it quickly. "I misplaced my calculator yesterday… If it's not in here, then I really don't know where it is…" she trailed off.
"Oh… Yeah," Tom said, his tone of voice changing. He swayed back and forth.
Hermione looked up to see Tom looking nervous. Or sick. Or both.
"Are you quite all right?" she asked.
"Yeah, fine," he sniffed.
Hermione went back to rifling through her locker. Where was her calculator? She turned her locker upside down looking for it.
"Hermione," Tom said. She stood up.
"I- uh… You know about your calculator?" he said, growing red.
"Yes…?" Her eyebrows were raised.
"I… Um… I have it," he said quickly.
"Why do you have my calculator, Tom?" she asked, her brows furrowed.
"I- um- here," he gave it to her from behind his back. Hermione took it, confused. "Open it," Tom said. His face was Gryffindor red.
Hermione slowly took the lid off the calculator. A piece of paper fluttered to the ground and she picked it up.
Hermione,
Since we met while running into each other and knocking over all the calculators, I thought this would be a significant way to do this, and I'm too nervous to say it out loud, but… Will you go to Homecoming with me?
-Tom
The look on Hermione's face softened and her face broke into a smile. "Yes, yes, yes!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Tom. Tom's face grew even deeper red as the people around them started to cheer and smile as he hugged her back.
"YES!" he exclaimed. "Oh, and… Shane!" Shane hurried over, carrying a dozen red roses. Tom took them, gave him a bro-hug, and presented them to Hermione.
The smile on her face broadened even more, if possible, and she pulled Tom into another fierce bear hug that could rival Mrs. Weasley's. She told herself that this was one of the best days of her life…
No one could've even Avada-Kedavra'd the smile off her face that day, not even Voldemort. Nor could Snape, no matter how many times he told her to "Stop her incessant, know-it-all chatter" that night at dinner. She presumed he was just jealous.
Hermione had forced Ron and Harry to ask girls to Homecoming, even if it were just Arianna and Lena. Harry immediately called dibs on Lena. In fact, he was even kind of excited…
Neither boy did it in a cute way like the girl expected, but they both said yes. Arianna didn't seem very enthused and didn't talk to Lena as much as usual the next few days, and Harry knew why. He stayed out of the drama, if there was even any real drama at all.
Then came the dress shopping… Hermione ran out of the house and flung herself into the backseat of Arianna's car. Arianna sped to the Macy's on Michigan Avenue, which was as crowded as Diagon Alley the week before the start of term.
"Any ideas on what you're going to wear?" Lena asked Hermione as they took one of the dozen escalators up to the Homecoming dress section.
"No idea… I've never been to a Homecoming before. I've been to the Yule Ball, but-" Hermione stopped herself.
"Yule Ball?" Arianna interjected.
"Oh, er…" Hermione thought a moment. "It's a Winter Dance. It's really formal. See, we all went to boarding school, so… Everything was kind of… a big deal."
"Oh…" Lena and Arianna mused.
The three girls tried on dozens and dozens of dresses. Arianna was the tip-giver to Hermione, who obviously didn't know what kind of dresses to look for. She tried on about a dozen long, formal dresses before Arianna finally picked them out for her.
"No one wears long dresses to Homecoming," she said, rifling through a rack of black dresses. "You're a six, right?"
Hermione agreed. Arianna piled dress after dress into Hermione's arms in every color, style, and texture imaginable. Silk, sparkly, black, blue, green, pink… They were all very short.
"Are we ready?" Arianna led them to the fitting rooms.
Hermione picked her dress halfway through the pile, and at that point she was dead tired of trying them on.
She, Lena, and Arianna stood in front of the fitting room mirror with their chosen dresses on. Lena had picked out a short and simple dress with a white sash tying in the back, and Arianna picked out the shortest, most form-fitting, and most sparkly dress of them all. It was covered in silver sequins with circular cutouts around the midriff. Hermione had actually cringed when she saw the dress, but played it off as a smile to Arianna. Hermione herself chose a dress the exact color of the light that Lumos gave off, her favorite spell. It was a form-fitting dress that looked as if there was a long-sleeved shirt made of lace layered under. Lena and Arianna agreed that it was gorgeous on her, and Hermione was bubbling with excitement. She felt as if this was all a dream…
The days left before Homecoming passed by all too slowly, much to Hermione's disdain. Ron complained whenever the subject was brought up on account of how badly he didn't want to go, and Harry played along. He was secretly excited about going with Lena, even if they were just going as friends. He pushed away the dirty things that filled his mind. Fred and George had no problem getting dates, they got girls to say yes as simply as before the Yule Ball. The girls were, in fact, twins themselves. Sarah and Marie or something…
Finally Friday arrived. Mrs. Weasley had banned Hermione from drinking coffee on account of how much she was talking and how badly she was shaking. Harry and Ron got the urge to laugh every time she opened her mouth, because usually it was something about Homecoming.
The week leading up to Homecoming had been filled with all sorts of strange dress-up days. Mismatch Day, Crazy Hair Day, School Spirit Day… Not that Harry and Ron had participated. Neither did Fred and George. Hermione, however, had dressed up with Tom for every single day, plus she had dragged them all to the Homecoming game. Of course, it was kind of mandatory to go to the game.
The game was the most crowded one all year; it seemed like everyone in the city was there. Lakeville won, of course, with Tom scoring the winning touchdown.
Harry, Ron, and George gingerly gave in to the afterparty at The Tunnel. However, once they got there, all previous events were forgotten and the five wizards partied their cares away. Everyone let loose. Hits were taken, cups of beer were downed, and the dance floor was full of drunken wizards.
They partied so hard, they almost forgot what had happened the next morning. They were all hung-over, telling Mrs. Weasley that they had all gotten food poisoning from the restaurant they had been to that night, but should be better by the time the dance came around.
"They were obviously up to no good last night," said Snape to Mrs. Weasley right before Harry walked into the kitchen. He hid behind the doorway to hear the conversation.
"Oh, Severus, they're just kids. I'm sure they were all perfect angels last night," said Mrs. Weasley.
"Molly, I'm not saying I don't trust them, but what if they were up to no good last night? They obviously look like it," said Kinglsey.
"Miss Granger has thrown up twice in the upstairs bathroom," said Snape.
"It's the food, dear. I know it is. Perhaps you could give them a stomach settling draught, Severus? Have you brought any?" asked Mrs. Weasley. Snape muttered that he had not.
Since no one ever dared to argue with Mrs. Weasley, Harry assumed they had won.
"I'll be keeping a closer eye on them," Kingsley said.
Harry ran upstairs to tell everyone what he had just heard. "So don't act like you're hung-over."
Arianna honked outside the window. Hermione grabbed her bag of things to get ready for the dance and ran into the car, leaving Harry, Ron, Fred, and George to get ready themselves. All they really had to do was put on a suit. The suits were already rented and in their possession, and God forbid something went wrong, they were going back to their house for pictures anyways. They had all agreed it had the prettiest scenery.
Hermione, Arianna, and Lena got ready in Lena's large bathroom. Three hair curlers were going at once and various makeup articles were scattered all over the countertop. Discarded clothes and shoes covered the floor.
Arianna painstakingly curled Hermione's hair until it was perfect, something she could've done by magic in seconds. She pinned it back into a delicate, curly updo, letting pieces fall and frame her face, similar to how she had done it for the Yule Ball. Lena did her makeup, Lena being a fantastic makeup artist herself. Hermione almost didn't recognize herself when she looked in the mirror. She looked perfect. She couldn't wait to see Tom…
Arianna and Lena did their own hair in more painstakingly perfect curls. Lena, still in charge of makeup, did their faces beautifully in a flash. Dresses were put on and pictures were snapped.
Hermione studied herself in Lena's floor length mirror. Her five-inch black pumps, borrowed from Arianna, contrasted with her lace-topped, Lumos-colored dress. Her elegant hair and makeup made her absolutely glow, as if she'd even performed a Lumos charm on herself. She felt like a Muggle movie star. Her stomach churned with excitement as the three of them got in the car with Lena's parents, who were coming to take pictures. Arianna's parents met them there.
Introductions went smoothly. Arthur and Molly Weasley introduced themselves. And Sirius, who had gotten a haircut, introduced himself as Hermione's father. Once they got through introductions with the Weasleys at the house, they learned that Tom had picked up Harry and Ron and would be coming soon. Fred and George were off with their own small group of people.
Hermione took Mrs. Weasley into the house while Mr. Weasley and Sirius chatted with the parents who were arriving.
"You look magical, Hermione! Absolutely stunning, dear," Mrs. Weasley cooed. "That dress is the exact same shade as-"
"That's exactly why I picked it out," Hermione smiled.
"Well, I'm glad to see that you didn't pick out anything like… that other girl… Arietta?"
"Arianna… I know, me too," Hermione said. She pulled something out of her bag. It was a disposable camera.
"What is that, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"It's a camera. The pictures don't move, but… You'll need to take pictures. All you do is look through this little hole," Hermione showed her the hole, "And press this button to take the picture."
Mrs. Weasley agreed and took a practice picture, then went back outside. Hermione stayed in the kitchen, cherishing her last moment of solace for the night. Moody, Kingsley, and Snape interrupted her peace by coming into the kitchen for a cup of tea. They each eyed her strangely in her Homecoming attire.
Suddenly Mrs. Weasley burst into the kitchen. "Hermione! Oh- there you are," she exclaimed. "The boys are here, and it's incredible! They've got this long car, and- well, you'll just have to come outside and see it yourself!" She was breathless with excitement.
The three at the table looked stunned.
"Oh, and Severus, you'll have to come outside. I've already noted you as Harry's father to the families here," Mrs. Weasley said in her anti-argue voice. The look of death overcame Snape's formerly blank expression.
"That brat…" he muttered as he followed Hermione and Mrs. Weasley outside, without his Batman cape, thank God.
Hermione blushed scarlet and nearly screamed as soon as she saw Tom and the… limo. She ran down the steps into Tom's arms.
"Tom!" she shrieked. Mrs. Weasley snapped a perfect picture of the couple in each other's arms.
"Wow, you- you look… amazing," Tom breathed, taking in Hermione as they let go of the embrace. "Here, I have a corsage for you…" he said, his hands shaking as he presented Hermione with a bracelet of flowers. Mrs. Weasley snapped another picture. Hermione took in Tom's appearance, noting he had obviously taken his time getting ready for this event. He looked… really hot.
"All right, let's all get together now, in a straight line," Mrs. Weasley ordered. Hermione let out a sigh of relief as she saw Harry and Ron looking presentable in their suits. And somewhat gentlemanly…
The group lined up in disarray; Hermione with Tom, Harry with Lena, Ron with Arianna, and Shane, Alex, and Dillon with their dates. Each set of parents was there, all socializing happily and snapping pictures.
"Smile!" roared Mrs. Weasley a total of ten times. The group cooperated for pictures, then piled into the limo.
"This is amazing!" Hermione said breathlessly to Tom as he helped her into the limo. They sat next to each other, hand in hand.
"Tonight will be amazing."
A/N: Yeah, I know this chapter is really long, and this isn't even the end of Homecoming. The actual dance is going to be next chapter, which should be up soon. Hopefully no one found this one too long or boring, but hey, I'm having fun writing it. Isn't this a little bit more entertaining than if it were set in the actual 90's? Keep those reviews coming!