A/N: Harry Potter belongs to JKR / Warner Bros etc etc. Thank you everyone who has reviewed and followed this story so far, your support is awesome!
To Kiss Or Not To Kiss?
13 days until the Yule Ball - Part 2
"Getting a lot of homework are we?" Ginny laughed as she eyed the stack of books Hermione had plonked down onto the table.
"No, I'm trying to do some research for Harry since he's been avoiding trying to find out what that bloody egg means," she replied haughtily, feeling annoyed about her friend's sheer lack of responsibility, "and, Flitwick wants him to practice more charms that could be useful in the later tasks, so of course Harry asked me to tutor him."
"Cheer up Hermione, it's Christmas soon." Ginny smiled.
"I will not cheer up: the task is in February and for all we know it could take weeks to prepare for." Hermione said, becoming flustered.
She aggressively flipped the pages of the books she had picked out, becoming more and more anxious by the second.
"Hermione?"
"What?"
"This isn't just about the egg and a couple of hours tuition, is it?"
Hermione sighed at Ginny's perceptiveness and let out a deep breath, trying to calm herself.
"No it's not." She conceded, shutting the book and leaning forwards on top of it. She watched Ginny sit down opposite her before continuing, "I need a date to the Ball."
"Merlin, Hermione is that it? At least you can actually go to the Ball anyway; I'm in third year so I can't go unless I have a date," Ginny pulled a face out of disappointment, "besides, since when did you start caring about having a date or not?"
"Trust me, I don't care." Hermione snorted.
Ginny frowned. "So what's the problem?"
"Long story short, I had a point to prove to Ronald so I may have sort of, told him I already have a date." Hermione smiled weakly as Ginny began to chuckle.
"Oh Mione, you didn't."
"I did." Hermione said.
"Well personally I don't see why you're worrying; you and I both know you have an admirer." She said, wiggling her eyebrows and jerking her head towards the shelves of the Restricted Section of the library, where Viktor Krum was browsing.
"He appreciates fine literature, that doesn't mean anything." Hermione dismissed.
"I wouldn't class Quidditch & The Dark Arts as fine literature, Hermione." Ginny said, squinting to read the title of the book Viktor was reading.
"I suppose, but-"
"But nothing! You're the one who pointed out that he's always here whenever you are, and I've seen him staring at you at mealtimes. He likes you, you should ask him to the Ball."
Hermione smiled at Ginny's fiery nature, but she couldn't seem to stop her mouth from protesting. "And aren't you the one who pointed out that he has a certain reputation of being a player both on and off the pitch according to Seeker & Snitch?"
"I only buy that trash for the topless posters of the players," Ginny said bluntly, "that was just girly gossip when I told you. How was I supposed to know he'd end up staying at our school?"
Hermione couldn't find any more reason to argue and began to chew her lip nervously.
"Is there more to it than Viktor's supposed 'reputation'?" Ginny asked, apparently picking up on Hermione's uncertainty.
Hermione nodded and began playing with a strand of curly hair.
"It's kind of embarrassing but, well I wouldn't know the first thing to say to him if I was going to ask him; that's totally out of my comfort zone. I've never actually been on a date before."
"So you just hang around him; flirt a little bit; drop hints. He'll get the idea eventually and be the one to ask you instead." Ginny smiled. It totally baffled Hermione how a girl in the year below was so quick in providing a solution.
"Flirt? This is me we're talking about, Gin. Besides there's more."
"What is it?"
"The girls in my dorm were comparing notes on what the best lip-gloss is to use for kissing. Some of them reckon they'll get a kiss goodnight at the end of the Ball, and now I'm thinking, what if I ask Viktor to the Ball and he wants to kiss me? I wouldn't have the first clue about what to do."
"Hermione, are you saying you've never kissed anyone before?"
"Yeah," Hermione said quietly. "I feel so childish saying that, especially because I'm fifteen, the oldest in my year. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude: I've been attracted to boys before and had crushes but I've just never liked anyone enough, or rather, my crushes were never reciprocated so kissing was out of the question anyway," she said, flushing.
"Hermione, I know what you're thinking: Viktor is older and will be more experienced but you don't have to kiss him if you don't want to. More to the point, he doesn't strike me as the shallow type who would hold it against you because you've never kissed anyone before."
Ginny's words would have comforted Hermione immensely, had it not been for the cackle of laughter that rang out in the corridor outside the library as she finished speaking. Hermione groaned and felt blood rush to her cheeks as Pansy Parkinson emerged at the entrance, leaning against the archway and clutching her stomach.
"That's rich Granger. 'I've just never liked anyone enough': yeah right."
"What do you want?" Hermione snapped, willing herself to stop blushing in front of Pug-Face Parkinson.
"We both know the real reason you've never been kissed." Pansy mocked.
"Meaning?"
"Simple: no one would willingly kiss a dirty, frumpy Mudblood know-it-all like you."
Hermione growled and reached for her wand but Ginny stopped her from drawing it from her pocket, giving her a look that said 'it's not worth it'. She was right but Hermione thought docked house points would be worth it to see Pansy on the receiving end of a pimple jinx.
"Need your ginger Blood Traitor friend to hold your hand? That's sweet." Pansy quipped, laughing at Ginny.
"You want to take that back?" Ginny challenged in a low voice, trying not to alert Madam Pince.
Ginny had risen from her chair now and had her brown eyes fixated on the Slytherin girl, who didn't seem in the least bit perturbed by her reaction.
"A prude Mudblood and her Blood Traitor friend; both date-less to the Ball I'm assuming." She raised an eyebrow and began cackling again when the two Gryffindors shared a look. "Don't feel too bad, it would be a miracle for a guy to want to ask either of you, unless of course there are no other options."
Hermione was holding on to her wand so tightly now that she was sure her knuckles were white. Pansy had gone too far with her last comment; Hermione would never admit it but she had hit a nerve. After all, that was precisely the reason she had told her friends she already had a date.
"Why do you care about my personal life, Parkinson?" Hermione hissed.
Pansy scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself; I don't care. Just getting all the details before I can have a good gossip with the other Slytherins later. Then we can all put money on how long it will take for Granger to get a kiss. My bet: never."
"You snake. Hermione is perfectly capable of getting a kiss, and we are both capable of getting dates." Ginny spat.
"Of course you are," Pansy said sarcastically, "you two are boring me now, see you in class Granger." And with that she turned and stepped out of sight.
"I'm going to kill her." Ginny said, beginning to make for the door. Hermione pulled her back; giving her the same look Ginny had given her earlier. The redhead took a deep breath and slumped down on the chair again.
"She's not worth it." Hermione said, though her blood was boiling.
"You can't let her get away with that, Hermione. She's going to make your life a misery because of this."
"She does that anyway, Ginny." Hermione shrugged.
"So? Don't give her more ammunition. You need to do something." Ginny urged, clearly still fired up from their encounter with Pansy.
"What can I do?" Hermione asked helplessly, the anger draining out of her.
"Prove her wrong. We both will. You have to get a date anyway because of what you told Harry and Ron, but other than that we both have one thing to prove."
"She's not worth the effort of having to prove myself."
"But think how good it would feel to put her in her place. You'd finally have the upper-hand." Ginny said, and slowly temptation began to worm its way in to Hermione's mind. She couldn't care less of what Pansy Parkinson thought of her, but she didn't think she could ignore the embarrassment if the Slytherins decided to tell the whole school that she hadn't kissed anyone before. Plus, imagining the disbelief across Pansy's face if she proved her wrong was a promising incentive.
"Where are you going with this?" She asked slowly.
"I know how reluctant you are, Hermione, but I don't want to see her make a fool out of you all the time. It's time for her to get a taste of her own medicine," Ginny said, ever the blunt one, "I for one, plan on wiping that smirk off her face, so I'm going to get a date. If I'm successful, you have to get a kiss off your date during the Ball so Parkinson will see."
Hermione remained silent. She wasn't going to lie: she was seriously tempted, and truthfully she'd rather get her first kiss out of the way so she could stop worrying about it.
"I'm in," Ginny's face lit up and Hermione giggled. Yes she was nervous about having to kiss her date when there would be an audience, but the look on Pansy's face would undoubtedly be worth it. A few seconds of embarrassment to make that happen seemed a better option than potentially years of embarrassment for not doing it.
"So, are you going to ask Viktor then?"
"I don't know…" said Hermione. Now that her agreement with Ginny was in place, she was going off the idea of asking Viktor. Ginny may have said that the gossip about his reputation was rubbish, but there was still a seed of doubt in her mind that her friend had been lying to persuade her to ask him. The last thing she wanted to do was kiss him and then find him locking lips with someone else an hour later. "I'm just doubting things a bit, that's all."
"He's not going to reject you Hermione, you're really pretty," Ginny assured her, getting the wrong end of the stick, "nice teeth by the way," she commented as an afterthought.
"Thanks," Hermione said, absent-mindedly bringing her fingers to her mouth, "Harry and Ron haven't actually noticed yet."
Ginny rolled her eyes at Hermione's latter comment and smirked. "I suppose Malfoy did you a favour there when he hexed you."
"Yeah, ironically." Hermione agreed. "Now you mention it, you wouldn't believe what happened first lesson."
"I'm listening."
"Malfoy actually apologised to me for it, in front of his friends. He was still touchy and arrogant as always, but he did say sorry and seem to mean it. Well, he did call me Mudblood when he walked away but you can't have everything can you?"
Hermione played back the memory of the encounter in her head as she told Ginny, still not totally convinced she hadn't imagined it.
Ginny's mouth was hanging open. "Malfoy said that? Are you serious?"
Hermione nodded. "Godric knows what possessed him to do it, but something's going on with the Slytherins, first Malfoy, then Harry told me that Daphne Greengrass was somewhat civil to him before class started."
"Maybe they're trying to turn over a new leaf." Ginny thought aloud. "Do you know if he has a date yet…?"
"Oh Ginny, you aren't seriously considering going to the Ball with him are you?"
"Godric no, I can do much better than a ferret," Ginny smirked, "I was just thinking 'hmm who would annoy Pansy the most?'"
Hermione laughed and opened one of the books, trying to resume her research. "To be honest it would most likely be Pansy he'll be taking anyway, she's been fawning all over him for months."
"Shame," said Ginny, "So, tell me, how many of the fourth year boys are still available?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
Hermione laughed and glanced at the clock; lunch was nearly over. She opened her mouth to tell Ginny when she heard what sounded like footsteps running down the corridor that was adjacent to the library.
"What Hermione?"
"I thought I just saw… oh forget it, we've got to go now. I don't want to arrive late to Defence."
"Ugh you have Moody now? Good luck," said Ginny, "I've got Transfiguration. I'll see you later."
Hermione waved her friend goodbye and began to walk in the opposite direction. Sure enough, she saw the figure of Pansy Parkinson turning the corner at the end of the corridor.
Pansy had of course been eavesdropping, like any true Slytherin would. At first she had just lingered to see if Granger would spill any more secrets, but instead she had heard their feebly optimistic discussion about proving her wrong. Pfft. As if they could.
After that Pansy had turned to leave, that is, until she heard Draco's name crop up in their conversation. Why would Draco apologise civilly to that Mudblood completely out of the blue? Answer: Daphne had chosen Granger as Draco's date for their bet.
As this thought first crossed her mind, Pansy was overcome with a wave of fury and jealousy, especially when she heard the Gryffindors talking about Granger kissing her date right in front of her. The mental image alone was enough to make Pansy hex a second-year Ravenclaw out of rage, and she wondered why Daphne had thought it to be a good selection.
It then dawned on her that Draco was only proving a point; him asking Granger out didn't mean anything. He hated her guts. In that case, Granger would move in for a kiss and get rejected in front of everyone. Pansy much preferred this thought, and would certainly love to turn Granger's ploy back around on her. Maybe she should thank Daphne after all.
Pansy's thoughts kept going back and forth: she honestly didn't know what to think about this bet, or indeed, whose side she should take, for both scenarios had its perks.
Eventually Pansy came to the conclusion that Daphne deserved to receive the penalty over Draco: mainly because she had established the bet without considering her. Yes, she did redeem herself by choosing Granger, but a best friend's betrayal was twice as bad as rejection from a boy, no matter how good looking he was.
There was no way Pansy was going to let Draco lose this bet: it could kill two birds with one stone, the birds being Daphne losing and Granger potentially putting herself up for a fall. That would teach that Mudblood for planning to make a fool of her.
She relished the excitement of the endless possibilities, but it was short-lived when she remembered that Granger too, hated Draco. She would never want to kiss him.
This fact could prove a slight problem in Pansy's scheming.
Hermione was distracted in her Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson to say the least. Pansy Parkinson kept sneering at her, which wasn't anything new but something about her demeanour seemed different. There seemed to be a humorous and almost mocking smirk at times that usually wasn't there. It was the kind of look that she saw on Draco Malfoy's face back in first year when he challenged Harry to a duel - he hadn't shown up and consequently almost got them into trouble with Filch and almost killed by Fluffy the three-headed dog.
Simply put, the expression on Pansy's face was what Hermione recognised as the 'Scheming Slytherin Sneer'.
Hermione decided that whatever she was plotting, it wasn't going to cause her as much stress as this whole finding a date business was, although looking at Pansy generally made her mind travel back to their earlier encounter, which again made her train of thought circle back around to the bloody Yule Ball.
Topping it all off, Harry and Ron were having a conversation beside her about finding dates themselves. On the one hand Hermione was a little annoyed that her best friends were the two people she could not vent to about her problems, thanks to her big mouth that claimed she already had a date; but on the other she felt a little more confident knowing that she wasn't the only one struggling.
Daphne, too, had her mind on everything but the lesson. She had been watching Pansy as well, and was a little confused as to why she was suddenly attempting to provoke Granger much more than she usually did. It never occurred to Daphne that perhaps she had figured out that Granger was the 'target' – for lack of a better word – for the bet: Pansy wasn't the sharpest quill in the pot after all.
At least, it didn't click in Daphne's brain until she locked eyes with Pansy, and a knowing smirk spread across her thin lips. Daphne felt somewhat relieved that her friend now knew, but she was a little perturbed at her expression. That was Pansy's I'm-plotting-revenge expression.
"Miss Granger?"
Professor Moody's gruff voice echoed through the room, and both Hermione and Daphne jumped as their minds were brought back to reality. Hermione dropped her wand to the floor in the process, and several snickers rang out. She blushed and bent to pick up her wand, but someone else had beaten her to it, for long fingers were already wrapped around her wand and a pale hand was lifting it back up to her. Hermione spotted the polished black shoes that belonged to the hand's owner, and immediately knew it was Malfoy.
For the briefest second, Hermione's fingertips touched his, and she recoiled at the unexpected contact. Hermione rubbed her fingers with her other hand as Malfoy drew himself to his full height. She hadn't expected him to have such warm skin considering how cold his exterior could be.
His expression was unreadable but calm as he placed her wand back onto her desk. She gaped up at him. She was at a loss for words, as was the rest of the room, including Professor Moody, who was staring at them with both his real and magical eye.
"I believe the words you are looking for are 'thank you'." Malfoy said, a superior air about him as he looked down at her.
"Er yes. Thanks." Hermione said. She couldn't even seem to find it in her to make a witty comeback or roll her eyes, for her brain hadn't yet managed to process his strange behaviour.
Malfoy nodded at her and his lips twitched upwards slightly before he sauntered back towards his seat.
"At least this time I managed to stun you oafs into silence," Draco said quietly as he addressed Crabbe and Goyle's dumbfounded expressions, "good job I can think on my feet."
Draco felt relieved that he had somewhat managed to salvage Crabbe and Goyle's earlier slip-up. Now all he had to worry about was maintaining the façade, which would be easier said than done.
For the remainder of the lesson, Draco found himself absent-mindedly touching the tips of his fingers. Across the room, Hermione was doing the same thing.
To be continued...
A/N: Coming up... Draco hatches a plan.
I'm sorry if Hermione seemed OOC with the deal but I wanted to shake things up a little, and I think I managed to justify her reasons okay.
So Pansy's on Team Draco, who are you supporting? Let me know... or don't... all reviews are read and appreciated! :)