Harry and Ron were in the Gryffindor Common rooms, it was a rare occurrence to have the whole common room to themselves considering it being in the middle of the day. They were both trying to work out some charms problems, but it was quite difficult to concentrate on the task at hand. With the ball only four days away, they were both still officially dateless, and that was all they could think about.
Harry was obviously going to ask Ginny, but he couldn't figure out how to ask her. He didn't know what to do,he wanted to do something special to show how much he cared about her. Hermione kept telling him to ask her with flowers and a sign; how muggle boys ask muggle girls to dances. He had also asked Ron, but every time he asked him he would answer with either "I don't know mate she's your girlfriend and its not like I've had many of them.", or "She's my sister, I can't help you with that." Ron had waited until the last minute, just as he had during the Yule ball their fourth year. "I can't take this anymore." Harry said out loud pushing his books to the side. "Do you think Ginny would like it if I asked her the muggle way? Thats the best I've got right now and I want to ask her." He asked his friend ready to hear his response about how he still didn't have a date.
"Honestly, I don't think she cares how you ask her, as long as you ask her she'll be happy, but I think you should ask Hermione for help making the sign and stuff she's had to most experience with muggle." he answer truthfully. He had come to terms with their relationship. He decided that if there was anyone he could trust Ginny's life and happiness with it would be his best friend.
"Yeah I was going to do that, have you decided who your going to ask to go with you? There's less than a week left until the dance, and remember what happened last time you waited until the last minute to find a date." Harry said, reminding his friend about the disaster that happened during their fourth year. Ron would surely create a mess last minute about not going because he was dateless.
Ron shuddered thinking back to his fourth year cringing his face scrunched up a little bit, "I'm going to ask Hermione, I don't think anyone has asked her yet. Do you think she'll say yes?" Ron replied. He was finally going to act on his feelings for the witch.
"Probably, but no offense I don't see you two really ending up together in the long run.." Ron started to interrupt but Harry continued, "Listen to me, Ron as much as I would like the two of you to end up together, realistically I don't think its going to happen. Hermione wants a career after Hogwarts and you want to start a family. I'm not saying that either is wrong but you can't have both. Hermione is only 19, in the muggle world thats when you go off to college start their life. Hermione has grown up with that in mind and I don't think.. I mean I know that she won't let anything get in her way. Hermione is here willingly, if it was up to you, you would probably be working. Hermione is too strong of a witch to be a housewife and you want a traditional wizarding family." Harry finished. He knew that they were too different to have any kind of relationship, but he didn't want to break his friends heart at the moment. Hermione wanted to finish school so she could go off to Australia and look for her parents, Ron on the other hand wanted to settle down and start a family and work for Fred and George at their joke shop.
On the other side of the castle, Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy were having a completely different conversation, they were talking about the argument that had taken place merely 3 hours ago. "But really though, I don't know why Pansy thought it was a good idea to pick a fight with the Weaselette when there were so many people around." Blaise told his friend. They were picking apart the fight. They needed their respect again, wether that was real or through fear, they were tired of being treated like shit.
"She's never been the smartest person, but I get why she did it. Like they walk around like they own this place, especially Potter and his posse, and treat us like we are the worst people ever to walk this school." He replied, he placed over at the green clock to check the time, "Aww shit we have an astronomy lab in 15 minutes, we're going to be late as hell." He said jumping up and turing to leave, Blaise following at his heels.
"Shit, you're right, I know a faster way." Blaise replied going left instead of straight as they approached the grand stair case. He had seen Weaselette go that way after her and Pansy's fight and followed her, needless to say, it lead right up to the hallway where astronomy classroom and the Gryffindor common room were located. Despite not knowing where he was going Draco ran in front of Blaise causing him to laugh at his love sickend friend. No one liked astronomy and there were multiple days in past years where the duo would ditch the boring class, but Draco had found a new love for it, or actually in it. In their class, was Astoria Greengrass, Draco's new love interest. Although she clearly hated him for playing her younger sister a few years back, Draco didn't notice and consistently made a fool of himself trying to impress her. "You know we don't have to have to run anymore, were gonna get their in like 2 minutes now." he called at his friend. He started talking to the knight that was the door inside. Draco realizing his mistake walked back swiftly his normally colorless cheeks tinted slightly pink.
"Do you think anyone has asked her yet?" he questioned. Blaise's face went pale, or as pale as his Italian face could get. He knew that Justin, from Hufflepuff had just asked he a few days ago.
"Huh…" he asked trying to play it off as not knowing what Draco was talking about. This was not the time to talk about it. Although there were many rumors about how Draco, he knew for a fact that his best friend was a spoiled brat who got everything he wanted and if he didn't he would destroy everything that stood in his way.
"Stop playing dumb Blaise, you know who and what I'm talking about. Has anyone one asked Astoria to the Halloween Ball yet?" Draco asked, enunciating his words as if her were talking to a small child annoyed that his friend was avoiding the question. He walked up staircase right behind his friend, "Blaise stop ignoring me, I need to know." he pouted.
"Don't throw a fit," he started cautiously. Blaise knew his friend and how he got territorial about girls he was interested in, "But yeah, she's been asked. Justin Fitchy-Fletch, from Hufflepuff asked her yesterday when they were in the library studying." Blaise replied cautiously trying to judge what his friend's face. "And as long as I'm being honest with you, I'm pretty sure most of the girls that you would consider taking are taken only the losers are left, so you can either go solo or get a looser to go with you." It was easier to deal with him once than deal with his anger again when he found out that basically everyone had a date already.
"Wow, thanks Blaise way to make me feel better about her… or my life in general." Draco snapped sarcastically. They continued walking in silence until they got to class.
Hermione was dying of laughter as she and Ginny talked about what had happened earlier. "I can't believe she actually said that, after everything with the war how could she possibly tell you to respect her." she laughed, suddenly she stopped laughing and with a glint in her eye said, "If I were you I would dress extra nice tomorrow, just saying."
"Herms…" the redhead started, "why do I think that you aren't telling me something important."
"Thats because you are one hundred percent right Gin." Hermione started laughing even more at Ginny's frustration. Harry had asked her for help about the whole 'muggle asking thing'. She had decided to help him right away. Harry was the only family that Hermione had at the moment and Ginny was her best friend there was no way she could not help either of them. "Just take my advice and you'll thank me later." she added Ginny hated not knowing something so this was making her quite annoyed.
"So who are you going to go with to the ball, I heard from a little birdie that you're going with my brother." Ginny said teasingly even though knew for a fact that Hermione had no intention of going with her brother.
"Was that little birdie Harry," Ginny face reddened to match her hair, "I don't know Gin, he for starters hasn't asked me yet and I don't want to be his last resort like he did last time during the Yule." Hermione replied. She knew she was worth more than a last resort, she had more self respect than that.
"Yeah I guess, but this same little birdie told me that he's wanted to ask you since the announcement of the ball but he didn't have to balls to." They both laughed at Ginny's pun.
"If he asks me I'm going to say yes, but he can't just assume that I'm going with him. Even Harry isn't assuming that you're going with him and you two are dating." Hermione decided. "You don't understand Gin, you're beautiful inside and out and you have a long line of boys waiting to ask you, but I have none. I lucked out last time with Viktor, but no one has asked me yet this year." shyly.
"Oh calm down Hermione. You're an amazing person, you're smart, you're gorgeous, you helped defeat Voldemort. There are so many guys out there for you, even better ones than my brother, they're probably to scared to ask you." Ginny replied honestly. Hermione frowned, but then quickly hid it with a smile, the thought that she intimidated boys bothered her a lot. She knew what she wanted and in her mind that wasn't a bad thing.
Blaise and Draco had finally finished their classes for the day. Draco was pretty pissed for obvious reasons. They took the long way back to the common rooms, or Draco walked out pissed that he couldn't ask the girl he wanted to, and Blaise jogged to keep up with his pace. "Mate calm down, no need to run the common room won't take away points if were late." Blaise said trying to diffuse Draco's anger; an angry Draco was a dangerous Draco. In his angry march Draco walked straight into a Hufflepuff, one whose name he did not know. "You stupid Slytherins walking around like you own the place. Hopefully none of you are going to the ball so it can actually be fun." huffed the Hufflepuff completely pissed off that all his stuff was knocked over.
Eventually catching up to his friend back in their common room Blaise clutched his side as he tried to regain his breathe. He was tall, almost 6 foot, but Draco was taller, over 6 foot so naturally the blonde walked faster than him. Even though he had played quidditch for the same amount of years as his friends there was no amount of training that could make him fit enough to run across the castle with out running out of breath.
"Are either of the two of you going to the ball?" Pansy asked suddenly looking up from filing her nails.
"No, we were just threatened by a 2nd year Hufflepuff" Blaise said rolling his eyes at the girl, "We're obviously going if we paid for and bought tickets. And if your thick skull didn't get it were not going to be threatened by the rest of the school." He added, the last part as an after thought.
"He's going to take advantage of the galleon he spent on the ticket. I'm not I don't care about it I have enough galleons to pay for all of Hogwarts to go to the ball one isn't going to dent my back account." Draco said thoroughly pissed off.
"Yeah, I forgot about that.." Blaise throught, "He's going because Astoria is going to be there and he's gonna impress her there." He told Pansy, smirking at how he had manipulated the both of them. Pansy would help Draco get his dream girl since she was a mutual friend of the two. Despite popular belief Draco thought of Pansy as a sister and would never even consider dating her because she was basically the sister he never had. Pansy was never interested in Draco her heart was with the Italian wizard that was currently her boyfriend. She would do anything for Draco because he was the reason that she was not a death eater.
A/N: So thats chapter 2! You get to see more inside the heads of both characters and what their post war life is like and their relationships with the other characters. Sorry it took so long to upload (cringe face) college was an exxpierecnce but next semester is going to be much better for sure! Please follow favorite and review this story CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always welcomed.
