A/N: Thank you for your amazing response to the last couple of chapters; it really made me happy :') I'm feeling much better now so hopefully I won't have any more 'off' weeks like I had with the last chapter.
So yeah... nothing like a bit of Christmas fluff when it's not Christmas... ;D
Enjoy!
The Empty Box
Christmas Day: 3 hours until the Yule Ball – Part 1
Hermione glared at Ron as a snowball whizzed just past the tip of her nose, where she was watching the snowball fight.
"Honestly Ron, that's the third time you've almost hit me!"
Ron shrugged at her and grinned sheepishly. "Lighten up Mione, it's Christmas."
"You're lucky it is otherwise I wouldn't hesitate to-"
"Oomph. Oi watch it, you donut!" Ron rubbed the back of his neck and whirled around to glare at Fred. His momentary lapse in concentration to talk to Hermione had allowed someone to hit him with a well-aimed snowball.
Fred said nothing but grinned at his brother widely. Ron bent to scoop up some snow, supposedly to exact his revenge.
"Woah, woah, Ronnie. You didn't think that was me did you?" Fred asked.
Freshly made snowball in hand, Ron paused in preparing his launch, "Who was it then?"
Fred stepped aside to reveal Ginny, who was standing quite a distance away. She waggled her fingers at Ron in a girly and innocent wave, winked, and ran off.
"It was Ginny?" Ron asked in awe.
Fred nodded proudly. "Good aim isn't she little bro? You watch: she'll be on the Quidditch team as a Chaser soon enough."
Ron's ears turned red, which were already pink from the cold, not really liking the fact that he may very well be the only Weasley currently at Hogwarts who never made the Quidditch team. Well, that will have to change.
Realising he was still holding the snowball, he marched up to Fred and shoved it straight in his face. "That is for calling me Ronnie," he smirked.
Fred spluttered and wiped the snow from his face. "Blergh, I call foul! Ref?" He looked around but nobody was listening. Well except for Hermione, but she didn't feel much like settling a debate right now. With every second that ticked by, she grew more and more nervous about the Ball, and Draco, and being with Draco at the Ball. She had decided that she was going to follow through with her deal with Ginny after all, feeling like it was a chance of a do-over of the kiss she prevented from happening on Saturday. This did little to help her nerves though; it was one thing to say it and another to actually do it. Every so often she didn't quite trust herself not to chicken out. After all she still felt rather wary and cautious around him after the 'Pansy incident'.
"Ref? This isn't a bloody Quidditch game, you plonker," Ron rolled his eyes and ran in the opposite direction, right into the path of another snowball, and he fell over.
"Seriously?!" he exclaimed to nobody in particular. Fred laughed and pulled him off the snowy ground.
"Well well, maybe we can get a full set here. If you can block Quaffles as well as you get in the way of snowballs I'd say you'd make a fair Keeper."
Ron said nothing and proceeded to shake the snow off his brand new maroon Weasley Christmas jumper. Keeper… hmm…
Hermione giggled from the sidelines and drew her cloak further around her body. She glanced up at the clock in the tower from her seat in the courtyard for what felt like the millionth-and-first time that afternoon. It was 4:50pm. She was just about to turn back but she did a double take. As her gaze flicked downwards again she noticed a streak of bright blond hair that stood out almost dazzlingly against the darkness of the balcony and castle walls, as well as the black non-winter winter robes the figure was wearing. It was unmistakeably Draco.
She didn't know whether to be happy or scared when she saw him, just how long had he been lurking there in the shadows? Hermione kept her eyes on Draco, waiting for him to notice her. He was looking just out at the landscape at nothing in particular, but after a few seconds he looked down directly to where she was sitting. Their gazes locked and even from a distance Hermione could see his lips tilt to form that signature smirk. That git; he had so blatantly been watching her.
Draco beckoned to Hermione with his hand to go up and meet him. She rolled her eyes; of course he was far too important to be the one to move. She found herself smiling; the gesture was just…him, and she just couldn't get annoyed at that anymore.
She stood and held up her index finger to signal she'd be up there in a minute, and headed into the battleground of the snowball fight to locate Harry. She dragged him away from the crowd where there was less chance of being hit.
"'Sup, Mione?" Harry asked.
Hermione fought back a bubble of laughter at her friend's appearance. His glasses were askew, his hair was even more dishevelled than usual and his clothes were practically dripping from the amount of snow that had melted off them.
"I'm going to head up to the common room now," she said.
"How come? It's only," Harry stretched his neck to see the time on the clock, "like five o'clock."
"I need to go and get ready for the Ball," she said.
"You bloody what?" Ron shouted, overhearing this. He walked over to them with his mouth agape, "there's still three hours 'til it starts. Three hours!"
"I know!" said Hermione. She shuffled her feet impatiently, knowing that Draco would never let her hear the end of it if she took too long getting there, "I just...need to go now," she fixed her gaze on Harry, hoping he would get the hint.
Harry looked at Hermione's earnest expression, then back at the clock, where he saw Malfoy stood on the balcony, and it dawned on him where she was actually planning to go. He sighed, still not feeling completely okay with the idea of her and Malfoy as a couple. He kept telling himself that he couldn't really judge after everything that happened with Daphne but Malfoy and Hermione was just weird. He knew Ron was still finding it difficult even processing the idea, and he didn't feel like dealing with any awkwardness today, so he decided it was best if Ron was left in the dark on this matter, just as he was still in the dark about the almost-kiss on Saturday. They were only together for the Ball anyway…
Harry cleared his throat, "Yeah, you need to do, um, that thing you told me about. The thing that would take you forever to do," he gestured vaguely with his hands.
Thinking on her feet, Hermione responded, "Er, yeah, my hair!" she then realised that she'd actually have to do something with it now that she'd said that. Crap – she really did have to get a wriggle on.
"Riiight," Ron said slowly. He shook his head. He had no bloody clue why girls needed so long to get ready, "see you then," he waved to Hermione and headed back to the snowball fight.
"Bye!" Hermione shouted after him. She and Harry said goodbye too and she made her way into the castle. She could practically feel Draco's eyes boring into the top of her head as she passed under the balcony.
Knowing she was taking much longer than expected anyway, Hermione decided it couldn't hurt to make a quick detour to the common room. She headed to the clock tower as soon as she could. Draco was stood in the same spot when she got there, and he was still staring out at the view.
Hermione crept up behind him, tapped him on the right shoulder and scurried around to his left side in the hope she'd catch him out. To her disappointment, he didn't fall for her trick and turned to the left. He looked less than impressed and raised an eyebrow.
"Aw you're no fun," Hermione pouted.
"I was fun when I was seven, when I last fell for that," he said with apathy.
Hermione blushed, "oh yeah, you're a Slytherin."
"Took you long enough to notice," Draco smirked, "you're really going to have to try harder to trick me, Hermione."
She nodded, pleasantly surprised to be avoiding the torrent of whinging for taking ages to arrive.
"I've got a present for you," she smiled and held out a medium-sized squishy package to him, "Happy Christmas!"
Draco's eyebrow rose again, "Is this why you took eons getting up here?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. She was still holding the present. "Do you want the bloody thing or not?"
Draco's eyes widened slightly, and he gently pulled the package from Hermione's hand. "Yes," he said meekly, "Thanks."
Draco hadn't meant to tick her off about that: he was planning on letting it slide, since it was Christmas and all. But he needed to stall while his brain tried to process what was happening. She'd bought him a present; that was just what he needed to make him feel even worse about himself, especially since she was still a little reserved at times. The Parkinson thing was clearly still bothering her, whether she cared to admit it or not.
It also didn't help that last night he was hit with the painful irony that he'd only started making an effort with the young witch purely for his own selfish gain of freeing himself for the guilt of what she had told the elf. Now he was in way over his head and the guilt had grown more than anything. What a bloody awful error of judgement that was.
"Don't mention it," Hermione snickered as Draco tore off the wrapping paper. He seemed curious and excited at first but this was quickly replaced by an impassive expression that clearly read, 'really?'
"What'cha think?" Hermione smiled teasingly as Draco unfolded the new set of winter robes she had bought for him. The corners of his mouth tilted up into a smile. She was just poking fun of the robes he had worn to Hogsmeade. It was nothing serious: thoughtful, yes but not serious. That made Draco relax considerably.
"Very funny, Mione," he said, chuckling slightly.
Hermione rocked back and forth on her heels. He had called her that a couple of times the day before so she didn't really think much of it now, though it was hard to ignore the feeling of her heart fluttering in her chest whenever he said it.
"Hey, at least you have proper winter robes now. They may not be as posh and expensive as the things you're wearing but these are actually practical," she laughed.
Draco smiled and shrank the robes down so he could transport them in his pocket.
"Okay, your turn," he said, digging around in a different pocket.
"What?"
"I got you something too."
"Oh," Hermione blushed. She didn't know what the big deal was since she'd bought something for him. Her heart thumped in anticipation as Draco finally pulled out a small, rectangular silver box with a green ribbon tied around it.
"Merry Christmas, Hermione," he held out the box to her.
She took it and sighed, "Thank you. I don't think much of the decoration though."
Draco winked and Hermione rolled her eyes and removed the lid. Her smile fell almost immediately. It was empty.
She frowned and her bottom lip quivered slightly. She narrowed her eyes at Draco.
"What?" Draco frowned and leant over to peer inside the box.
Hermione said nothing and just shoved the empty box under his nose.
"There's nothing there – guess that means your present is the box." His voice was serious but Draco couldn't keep his expression blank for very long, as a smirk crept onto his face.
Noticing this, Hermione's own expression softened slightly. Her mind slowly managed to put two-and-two together and she rolled her eyes.
"Draco, are you messing with me?" she asked.
Draco just laughed, looking very pleased with himself. He took the empty box from her hand and replaced it with an identically shaped and sized one, though this new box was red with a gold ribbon.
"Now that, dear Granger, is a Slytherin standard trick," he said, looking very pleased with himself.
"Suppose I'd better up my game then," Hermione replied. The words sounded bitter and sarcastic in her head but this just didn't translate to her voice from the flood of relief that washed over her. Her patience was already wearing thin with Draco and sometimes she kicked herself for letting him get away with the Pansy thing so easily. This trick, although harmless, made her doubts about him rush back to her. She told herself that next time something may happen, he wasn't going to worm his way out of it so easily, if at all. But until then, she was giving him another chance; however twisted it may be, she rather enjoyed his company and the challenging battle of wits they usually engaged in.
This box was slightly heavier than the last – it definitely wasn't empty. Thank Merlin. She didn't much feel like having a big bust-up on Christmas Day, which is exactly what would have occurred if this box were empty too.
She shook it and held the red box up to her ear, all the while being watched by Draco. The contents of it rattled quite clearly. Interesting…
"Such a strange girl," he muttered under his breath.
Hermione paused her rattling. "What?"
"What the bloody hell are you doing? Just open it."
"That takes all the fun out of it," she smiled, "you mean you've never tried to guess what a present is before you open it before?"
"Well when I receive a present, usually the first port of call is to open it," Draco said matter-of-factly. Hermione shrugged; maybe what she was doing was a Muggle thing.
She took her time undoing the ribbon, which was tied in a little bow. She would have ripped it off under normal circumstances, but this was no ordinary present, so she felt the suspense was apt. Plus there was the added bonus of driving Draco to the brink of insanity by making the opening process very slow.
After sighing and tapping his foot impatiently for a while, Draco caught on to Hermione's game and he removed the lid of the box with a casual wave of his wand. He said a spell but Hermione wasn't paying attention. She frowned when the lid flew off and narrowed her eyes at him.
"You're no fun," she repeated.
"I beg to differ," Draco smirked and leant against the railing, "as I recall we spent a rather pleasant day together yesterday."
"Maybe you enjoyed repeatedly casting the Jelly-Fingers curse on me whilst I was doing my homework, but I for one, did not."
"Only because you ruined my fun by refusing to play Wizard's Chess with me because I kept beating you," his smirk grew wider.
"That's not the reason why I stopped playing," though it really was, "I needed to do homework."
"Whatever the case, you ruined my fun so consider the lid removal my revenge," Draco said, not finding anything strange about Hermione doing homework on bloody Christmas Eve. It was just… a Hermione thing to do.
Hermione smiled to herself and finally looked down into the box. She gasped. Reaching into it with a trembling hand, she delicately picked up the hair barrette she had seen in Malkin's Boutique. It looked even more beautiful in the bright sunshine than it had in the shop. She stared at it hypnotically, not realising when her eyes filled with tears of happiness. It was the same as she remembered, though she could almost swear that the central crystal was clear instead of a pale indigo-colour like it appeared to be now. Huh – must just be the lighting.
She finally found the willpower to tear her eyes away from it and into Draco's. He was chewing his lip nervously and looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something. That was a rare sight indeed. It was times like this where she couldn't quite believe what an arse he had been the other day, and moreover, how unpredictable he was. Whether this was a good thing or bad thing, Hermione was unable to tell as of yet. As soon as he took note of her open-mouthed expression, he raked a hand through his hair.
"What? Is it not the right one? Oh Salazar please tell me it's the one you were talking about – I'm going to kill that bloody elf if he messed this up. I made an alteration or two, yeah, but…" he started to babble and Hermione cut across him.
"Draco, wha- what are you talking about? This is it."
"Then why are you crying?"
"These are happy tears, you idiot!" she beamed up at him. His body relaxed and he let out a long breath, "it's just," she glanced down at the barrette again, "perfect. But you really shouldn't have bought this. It was too much money to spend on someone you've only been friends with for two weeks or so."
"What can I say, a Malfoy's date needs to look the part. But of course, the Malfoy is always the main attraction," he said with a wink. Maybe it was just the way he said it, or maybe it was the handsome twinkle in his eyes, but Hermione just knew that this wasn't the real reason he had bought the barrette for her. There was meaning and thought behind it, and those points alone gave Hermione butterflies.
She didn't make comment, but just moved towards Draco and threw her arms around his neck, still clutching the barrette tightly in a fist. She knew the gesture was forward, especially after what had happened over the last few days, but she just didn't think words were enough to tell him just how much it meant to her.
Draco stood frozen to the spot for a moment or two before gathering his bearings and wrapping his arms around Hermione's waist, much to her surprise. Screw it, he thought, despite the fact that his inner-Slytherin was cringing at the action. Dealing with a little awkwardness later on was worth it just to have this moment, a kind of moment he never thought he'd have again with Hermione. It was wrong on so many levels, but there was something about her that constantly intrigued him and drew him in.
The hug lasted much longer than was necessary, but neither of them seemed to care or even realise. Draco was content enough just to breathe in her floral scent (she was wearing that perfume again) whilst Hermione was trying to figure out why this didn't feel weird. They just seemed to fit together perfectly like a jigsaw; a bloody challenging 1000 piece jigsaw perhaps, but a jigsaw nonetheless.
"Why do you always feel the need to one-up me?" She laughed, repeating a question she had asked Draco at the Three Broomsticks. She heard Draco's heartbeat quicken, and soon she could feel the vibrations of his own chuckle, something that tickled her ear that was pressed against his chest.
The whoosh! of something slicing through the cold air snapped them both to attention. Draco was a little slow on the uptake and failed to dodge out of the way of the oncoming snowball and ended up being hit on the side of the head.
"Argh shit – it's in my bloody ear!" he cocked his head to the side and thumped his other ear in an attempt to remove the snow.
Hermione peered down into the courtyard to see Harry, Ron, Ginny and the twins ogling them from the ground. Hermione blushed. She completely forgot that they were stood on the balcony, where anyone could see. At the same time, she couldn't help but smirk at the whole snowball incident just now.
By process of elimination she determined that it was Ron who threw the snowball; after all, she and Harry had told him that she had to leave to get ready for the Ball. Not to mention the fact that the others simply didn't have enough motive. Well maybe Harry did, but he wasn't in a position to act in such a way when Hermione had caught him and Daphne in a not entirely dissimilar circumstance the day before, and she had simply reacted by smirking and walking on by. The twins apparently didn't seem to have a problem with the idea of her and Draco judging by what Ginny had told her of the conversation she overheard, and she herself had always seemed rather supportive of the idea.
"Uh-oh, looks like you've been rumbled," Harry said to Ron as Hermione's eyes pierced disapprovingly into the redhead from above.
"I've been rumbled?" Ron exclaimed incredulously, "what about her? She said she was going to get ready for the Ball. I knew something was off about that; no-one needs three bloody hours!"
His voice was loud enough to carry over the breeze to where Hermione stood. Feeling like she owed him some kind of explanation, she waved the red box for the group to see. If anything, this could just baffle Ron even more, but it was all she had.
"Wha'ssat she's holding?" Ron asked, squinting.
"Don't ask me, my glasses are apparently defective," Harry replied with a small smile.
Ginny squealed excitedly, "Ooooh he must have bought her a present! That's so sweet."
"Well, well, well," Fred said.
"It may not just be hormones after all," George added.
"What? But it's Malfoy! Call me judgemental but he always struck me as the kind of bloke who only thought about himself. He can't like Hermione that much…if at all," Ron said dryly.
"The evidence begs to differ, little brother," George indicated to the balcony, where Hermione was using a hot-air charm to melt the snow from Draco's robes, hair and ear. She was smiling brightly at him and he was looking back at her with what appeared to be a legitimate affection. Ron gaped.
"'Evidence?'" Ginny rose an eyebrow at the twins, "have you two been watching Dad's Muggle videos about courtroom dramas and that Sherlock Holmes dude?"
The twins exchanged smirks and simultaneously held up their hands and said, "guilty."
Ginny rolled her eyes, but Ron was still staring in disbelief at the balcony.
"Bloody hell," he muttered to himself.
Daphne tapped her wand to a page in Witch Weekly, and then tapped her eyelids, which were instantly covered with the same make-up as worn by the model in the picture. She peered into her mirror and wrinkled her nose at her reflection. Eyeliner really didn't suit her; she looked like a bloody Goth. No, she thought, trying again. This time she had glittery pink eye shadow with matching lip-gloss – Gross; this is more up Parkinson's alley. On a third attempt (mascara, subtle smoky eyes and a dusky rose lipstick) she was satisfied.
She looked at her reflection again and pursed her lips. Maybe she should put contact lenses in instead of her glasses… wait. Why was she trying so damn hard, and for Potter of all people? Daphne raked her hands through her hair and banged her forehead onto the dresser. She knew it was a mistake to go and find him yesterday, but she honestly had nowhere else to go. She could have walked around on her own, but she just really had to vent and let off some steam about Pansy. Did that make her selfish?
Daphne began to feel suffocated by the small dormitory and ran into the spacious common room, not really caring that her hair was a complete mess and she was dressed like a slob. She didn't exactly have a large audience anyway, as the majority of students were still outside. She began pacing around, gnawing her lip and muttering incoherently to herself.
At that moment Draco entered, humming to himself. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Daphne, and blinked several times to adjust to what he was seeing. Daphne was acting so much like Hermione in that moment it was almost scary.
"Oi Greengrass."
Daphne stopped her pacing and looked up at him.
"What's up with you?"
"None of your bloody business, Malfoy," she sneered.
"Well excuse me for trying to be nice to you on Christmas Day. I shan't bother next time," he scowled and shrugged off his cloak in one fluid movement.
"Answer me this Malfoy; do you even care what's up with me, or are you just being a nosy arse?"
Draco's smirk said it all, and Daphne rolled her eyes. "That's what I thought," she said.
Draco mimicked her with a roll of his own eyes and strode towards the boy's dormitories. He stopped as he reached the entrance and slowly turned back to face Daphne, a look of clarity on his smug face.
"This is about Potter."
Daphne took a sharp intake of breath and her brown eyes widened. "How did you-?"
"Come on Greengrass, I've been way more involved with this bet in regards to interacting with the Gryffindors compared to you. Something's messing with your head, and trust me when I say that I know exactly what you're going through."
"You do?" Daphne asked sceptically.
"Please," Draco scoffed, "This whole bloody bet has been one massive headache. I've been questioning and seriously judging myself on quite a deep level, especially over these last few days. It's really not healthy. I was perfectly content being a 'tool' as Parkinson so eloquently put it before you started this. And, you, might I add, didn't help in the slightest the other day with all of your little 'you-must-fancy-her-because-you-aren't-bloody-denying-it' mind games."
Daphne's gaze dropped to the floor, "Well I can see why you got so pissed off now."
Draco grunted his response. "So are you going to tell me or what?"
The blonde girl sighed. She didn't particularly want to speak to Malfoy about this, but at the same time it was nice having someone willing to talk to her about it, and he did seem to understand. Daphne sighed again, choosing to ignore the painful irony that she and Malfoy could have been allies over the last few days - at least, where the Gryffindors were concerned. She still thought he was an insufferable arse for what he did to Pansy – both for kissing her the other day and for leading her on before the bet even started - but at least they seemed to have something in common now.
"It's just, some weird shit has happened with Potter. Don't even think for one second that I'm going to go into details. You can deny it all you want but I just somehow know that some stuff has happened between you and Granger too. I've had the decency not to push you on it so I'd like the same courtesy from you."
"Whatever," Draco said indifferently
Daphne walked backwards until her legs hit one of the leather sofas, and she sank into it. "Well long story short, I got a bit worked up on Saturday because Pansy was still giving me hell about 'betraying her trust and friendship'," Daphne sneered at the memory, "and Potter was just… there for me."
Draco cocked an eyebrow, "I'm not understanding how this classifies as 'weird shit'?"
"Let me finish, will you," Daphne glared.
The wizard held his hands up defensively and allowed her to continue. "You don't understa-… well you might do, but it just felt kind of nice to have someone there who would just let me be upset without pushing me for every damn detail, or any detail for that matter. Without even realising we just sort of let our guard down around each other," Daphne tried not to react as the memory of Harry kissing her flashed through her mind, "So yesterday I found myself seeking him out, because it felt good to get some stuff off my chest. I wanted to feel comforted again without being judged. Well, there's a good chance he and his friends have had a good old laugh about me but at least he kept his opinions to himself when I was there. He just said that he didn't want to push me into telling him anything, but he was worried about me. He was bloody worried about me!"
"Stupid bloody Gryffindors and their nobility," Draco muttered this to himself, having heard the same thing from Hermione. Daphne heard his comment and she and Draco nodded in acknowledgement of the other's situation. "Why are you freaking out so much?" he asked.
"It may have crossed my mind at some point that maybe I'm not worth his energy and comfort because I'm just-"
"Using him?" Draco supplied, his stomach twisting in knots as he did so.
Daphne nodded. "Just a while ago, I thought that maybe I might care for him on some level, because I felt a little guilty, but that's just totally bonkers! Maybe it's just his comfort I like instead of him as a person, and that just makes me look like a selfish cow."
Draco ran a hand through his hair. "You're just going to have to find out what you feel for him on your own." He held back a shudder at the thought of anybody being attracted to Saint Potter, on any level.
"How?"
"You're bloody going to the Ball with him aren't you? Just make sure you're not all weepy tonight and you're all set. Do what I'll be doing with Hermione, and stay with him for the whole night. Being in his company when he isn't comforting you would give you a sort of frame of reference for comparison for how you feel towards him then as opposed to yesterday, when you were upset."
"That's… actually not a bad plan, Malfoy," she half-smiled at Draco, who smirked in response. True to his Slytherin nature, he had an ulterior motive.
"Of course, if that will be too much pressure for you, considering I will be winning this bet once the night is over, and you'll have to face kissing him, you can always back out right now," he drawled, somewhat hoping that she would crack under the pressure and refuse to follow through with her own bet. That would mean he would be able to start afresh with Hermione sooner than he had anticipated.
Daphne actually looked like she was considering his proposal. She looked him in the eye rather quickly and flatly said, "no."
Dammit, Draco thought. So close…
Hermione groaned in frustration as she pulled out the French braid she had been working into a bun and began brushing her unruly locks vigorously, tearing several of her hairs out by the roots in the process.
"Jeez Hermione, calm down. You'll have no hair left, otherwise," Parvati Patil laughed as she walked into the dormitories from the bathroom, her own sleek and shiny hair falling loosely around her waist so effortlessly. Hermione shot her an envious glare.
"At this moment in time I'd rather be bloody bald and wear a wig than deal with this mess," she muttered as she tugged out another knot.
"Aw, but you wouldn't be able to wear your pretty barrette otherwise," Lavender gushed, "it would be such a waste since you would have bought that just to go in your hair."
Hermione said nothing in return. Nobody in her House had a clue that Draco bought it for her, and she was hardly in the mood for a long gossip about him. She continued to pull and tug at her hair determinedly and stubbornly.
"If she's serious about a wig do you reckon she'd let me borrow the barrette?" Hermione heard Lavender whisper to one of the other girls. Without turning around or ceasing her brushing, Hermione addressed Lavender, making her jump.
"She certainly would not."
Hermione saw Lavender's pout being reflected in her mirror, "Whyyy?" she moaned, "My hair's pretty much the same colour as yours, if not a bit more blonde, which goes better with blue in my opinion, and-"
"No!" Hermione snapped.
The girls behind her looked at one another with confused expressions on their faces. They had never known Hermione to act this way before, bar when she was revising for summer exams, and the girls had learnt to keep out of her way during this period, but why was she getting so stressed about her hair? It may have something to do with the Yule Ball but Hermione had never seemed all that excited about it.
After a short pause, a cheeky grin spread across Lavender's face. "Ooooh is this about Draco?"
Before Hermione could so much as open her mouth, Ginny came barrelling into the room, drenched in melted snow and right on cue.
"Ooooh, are we talking about Draco?" she asked excitedly. She turned to Hermione and held out her hand, "Come on, and fork it over. Let me see what he bought you."
The girls gasped. "He bought you a present? What is it?" Parvati's eyes lit up with interest.
Hermione didn't even have to move as Ginny's eagle eyes caught sight of the glint of blue that lay on her dresser. She snatched it up and began examining it at all angles. Her mouth fell open, "Is-this-that-barrette-you-found-in-Hogsmeade-but-didn't-buy because-it-was-too-expensive?" she asked in one breath.
Hermione rolled her eyes playfully. "It might be," she said. She already knew the torrent of questions from her roommates was inevitable, but she had hoped to put it off until she had her hair sorted. So much for that now…
After she wasted about half an hour enduring Lavender's endless interrogation, she was cutting it short on time and her hair looked appalling. She pulled her dress on, conceding that she may as well do something productive in the midst of all of her panicking.
Ginny, who had slipped out of the room when the questioning had barely begun, re-emerged at that moment with a bottle in her hand.
"Here," she said, tossing it to Hermione, "I figured you might need the extra short-cut since you wasted Godric knows how long at the clock tower with Malfoy." She winked and darted out again.
As much as Ginny's sixth sense unnerved Hermione at times, this was a rare instance that she felt grateful for it. She glanced at the bottle's label: Sleekeazy's Hair Potion. There was a little note attached to it written in Ginny's neat script.
'Don't forget we still have our little deal…' it read.
Hermione smiled to herself. She took a deep breath and got to work on 'taming her frizz' as Draco would say. The potion worked a treat, although she used a substantial amount of it before it had any effect. She managed to style it successfully on first attempt, and took one good look at her barrette before clasping it to the side of the elegant knot she had made. Hermione surprised even herself when she realised that she had only remained calm and patient during this time as her mind was preoccupied on other things: namely, her deal with Ginny.
To be continued…
A/N: Ooh it's getting closer, I hope you enjoyed it :)
I'll do my best to keep updating every 4/5 days as I've been doing so far, but I'm going back to college on Tuesday, I'm doing a fanfic writing competition; the first round of which is starting next week, I'm doing a Drabble a Day challenge too so I may not have as much time to write for this. I'm currently mid-way through chapter 19, and I always seem to do okay whenever I think updates will slow down so it'll probably be fine but just so you know...
Having said that I'm quite keen to get the next two chapters up as soon as possible, so we'll see what happens.