Chapter 101: Something About Her
Snow was falling thickly upon the castle and its grounds now. The pale blue Beauxbatons carriage looked like a large, chilly, frosted pumpkin next to the iced gingerbread house that was Hagrid's cabin, while the Durmstrang ship's portholes were glazed with ice, the rigging white with frost. The house-elves down in the kitchen were outdoing themselves with a series of rich, warming stews and savory puddings, and only Fleur Delacour seemed to be able to find anything to complain about.
"It is too 'eavy, all zis 'Ogwarts food," we heard her saying grumpily as they left the Great Hall behind her one evening. "I will not fit into my dress robes!"
"Oooh there's a tragedy," Hermione snapped as Fleur went out into the entrance hall. "She really thinks a lot of herself, that one, doesn't she?"
"Hermione - who are you going to the ball with?" I asked her. For like the tenth time that week.
Hermione frowned. "I'm not telling you, you'll just make fun of me."
That was actually not true. One main reason why I wanted to know was that I wanted to confront the git and let him know if he put one toe out of line he would be in a world of hurt. In my eyes, no one at this school (visiting schools included) deserved to go with her.
"You're joking, Weasley!" said Malfoy, coming up behind us. "You're not telling me someone's asked that to the ball? Not the long-molared Mudblood?"
Harry and I both whipped around, my hand on my wand, but Hermione said loudly, waving to somebody over Malfoy's shoulder, "Hello, Professor Moody!"
Malfoy went pale and jumped backward, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew.
"Twitchy little ferret, aren't you, Malfoy?" said Hermione, and she, Harry, and I went up the marble staircase laughing heartily.
And that's when I realized. The thing that I had thought was different about her for weeks.
"Hermione," I said, looking sideways at her, suddenly frowning, "your teeth..."
"What about them?" she said.
"Well, they're different...I've just noticed..."
"Of course they are - did you expect me to keep those fangs Malfoy gave me?"
"No, I mean, they're different to how they were before he put that hex on you...They're all...straight and - and normal-sized."
Hermione suddenly smiled very mischievously, and Harry seemed to have noticed it too.
"Well...when I went up to Madam Pomfrey to get them shrunk, she held up a mirror and told me to stop her when they were back to how they normally were," she said. "And I just...let her carry on a bit." She smiled even more widely. "Mum and Dad won't be too pleased. I've been trying to persuade them to let me shrink them for ages, but they wanted me to carry on with my braces. You know, they're dentists, they just don't think teeth and magic should - look! Pigwidgeon's back!"
Pig was twittering madly on the top of the icicle-laden banisters, a scroll of parchment tied to his leg. People passing him were pointing and laughing, and a group of third-year girls paused and said, "Oh look at the weeny owl! Isn't he cute?"
Stupid little feathery git!" I hissed, hurrying up the stairs and snatching him up. "You bring letters to the addressee! You don't hang around showing off!"
Pig hooted happily, as if embarrassing me amused him. The girls didn't like that at all, but I really didn't care.
"Clear off!" I snapped at them, waving the fist holding Pig, who hooted more happily than ever as he soared through the air.
"Here - take it, Harry," i said, pulling Sirius's reply off Pig's leg. Harry pocketed it, we hurried back to Gryffindor Tower to read it.
When we got there, we went to a quiet corner and let Harry read the letter out loud.
Dear Harry,
Congratulations on getting past the Horntail. Whoever put your name in that goblet shouldn't be feeling too happy right now! I was going to suggest a Conjunctivitis Curse, as a dragon's eyes are its weakest point ("That's what Krum did!" Hermione whispered), but your way was better, I'm impressed.
Don't get complacent, though. Harry. You've only done one task; whoever put you in for the tournament's got plenty more opportunity if they're trying to hurt you. Keep your eyes open -particularly when the person we discussed is around and concentrate on keeping yourself out of trouble.
Keep in touch, I still want to hear about anything unusual.
Sirius
"He sounds exactly like Moody," said Harry quietly, tucking the letter away again inside his robes. "'Constant vigilance!' You'd think I walk around with my eyes shut, banging off the walls..."
"But he's right, Harry," said Hermione, "you have still got two tasks to do. You really ought to have a look at that egg, you know, and start working out what it means."
"Hermione, he's got ages! Want a game of chess, Harry?"
"Yeah, okay," said Harry. Then, spotting the look on Hermione's face, he said, "Come on, how'm I supposed to concentrate with all this noise going on? I won't even be able to hear the egg over this lot."
"Oh I suppose not," she sighed, and she sat down to watch our chess match, which I won, of course.
As I was playing, I was watching Hermione out the corner of my eye. So it was her teeth. And while I didn't mind her old teeth, I thought her new teeth looked really nice on her too. She was still transforming right before my eyes. Parts of me liked it. Really liked it.
And parts of me still wanted to know who that git was that she said yes to. Maybe he only noticed her because of her new teeth. Which as unacceptable.
On Christmas morning, I, along with Dean, Seamus, and Neville, had woke up to Harry's yelling. All of us were peering through the gaps in our hangings.
"Someone attacking you, Harry?" Seamus asked sleepily.
"No, it's just Dobby," Harry muttered. "Go back to sleep."
"Nah...presents!" said Seamus, spotting the large pile at the foot of his bed. Soon, the rest of us were looking at our presents too. I looked over, and seen Harry talking to Dobby.
"Can Dobby give Harry Potter his present?" he squeaked.
"'Course you can," said Harry. "Er...I've got something for you too."
Harry reached into his trunk and pulled out the socks that housed the Sneakoscope. He took it out and handed Dobby the socks. "Sorry, I forgot to wrap them..."
"Socks are Dobby's favorite, favorite clothes, sir!" he said, ripping off his odd ones and pulling on Harry's uncle's. "I has seven now, sir...But sir...they has made a mistake in the shop, Harry Potter, they is giving you two the same!"
"Ah, no, Harry, how come you didn't spot that?" I said. "Tell you what, Dobby - here you go - take these two, and you can mix them up properly. And here's your sweater."
I threw Dobby a pair of purple socks I had just unwrapped, and the hand-knitted sweater Mum had sent. Dobby looked quite overwhelmed.
"Sir is very kind!" he squeaked, his eyes brimming with tears again, bowing deeply to me. "Dobby knew sir must be a great wizard, for he is Harry Potter's greatest friend, but Dobby did not know that he was also as generous of spirit, as noble, as selfless -"
"They're only socks." I said, shrugging. "Wow, Harry -" I had just opened Harry's present, a Chudley Cannon hat. "Cool!"
Dobby now handed Harry a small package, which turned out to be - socks.
"Dobby is making them himself, sir!" the elf said happily. "He is buying the wool out of his wages, sir!"
The left sock was bright red and had a pattern of broomsticks upon it; the right sock was green with a pattern of Snitches.
"They're...they're really...well, thanks, Dobby," said Harry, and he pulled them on, causing Dobby's eyes to leak with happiness again.
"Dobby must go now, sir, we is already making Christmas dinner in the kitchens!" said Dobby, and he hurried out of the dormitory, waving good-bye to the rest of us.
After we finished opening our presents, we met up with Hermione in the common room, and we went down to breakfast together. Wr spent most of the morning in Gryffindor Tower, where everyone was enjoying their presents, then returned to the Great Hall for a magnificent lunch, which included at least a hundred turkeys and Christmas puddings, and large piles of Cribbage's Wizarding Crackers.
Then we went out onto the grounds in the afternoon for a snowball fight between my brothers, and Harry and I. Hermione sat and watched for awhile and then decided she needed to go get ready.
"Going in so soon?" I asked as she started up the grand steps towards Gryffindor tower.
"Yes. I'll need to be getting ready. And that's going to take a while"
"But the ball isn't for another 4 hours. How long is it going to take you to do whatever bloody things girls do to themselves? Surely not that long"
"You forget that I have a lot of hair to tame Ronald" she said crossing her arms, giving me an annoyed expression.
I looked at her hair and couldn't help but tug at a curl. "But I like your hair the way it is Mione".
Hermione seemed to be taken aback by my words, but she smiled. "Thank you Ron...ummmm that's really nice of you. But bushy hair really doesn't go well with my dress".
"Oh." I said looking at her through my lashes like some shy ass prat. I started to become aware that was close enough to her to realize that her breathing had become a bit faster. She went up two steps and told me she would see me later.
As I walked down the steps, I yelled after her."Hermione? Who's your date?!"
"Not telling!" she yelled back.
There was no Christmas tea today, as the ball included a feast, so at seven o'clock, when it had become hard to aim properly, we abandoned our snowball fight and went back to the dorm.
Harry, Seamus, Dean, Neville, and I changed into our dress robes. Dean, Seamus, and Neville went down to the common room. While Harry stayed in the dorm with me, listening to me moan about my attire.
"Bloody hell I look like shit" I said as I glared at myself, feeling like I wanted to throw up.
"Honestly Ron, it isn't that bad" Harry said, obviously lying.
"You can talk. Look at your robes, you look all right. I look like a prat with no fashion sense. Tell me why I'm going again?"
"Because Padma agreed and you won't flake out on your date, it isn't proper"
"AND NEITHER ARE THESE BLOODY ROBES!"
"Well... I expect that they are more on the traditional side"
"Traditional?! They're fucking ancient!"
"It's going to be okay Ron. Maybe we can ask the twins if they know a spell to get rid of the smell. After that you'll be okay."
In a desperate attempt to make them look more manly, I used a Severing Charm on the ruff and cuffs. It worked fairly well; at least I was now lace-free.
We popped up to the 6th year boys dorm where after taking the mickey out of me, the twins took away the horrid smell of the robes. At least Padma wouldn't be puking on me because of that tonight.
"I still can't work out how you two got the best-looking girls in the year," muttered Dean.
"Animal magnetism," I said gloomily, pulling stray threads out of my cuffs.
The common room looked strange, full of people wearing different colors instead of the usual mass of black. Parvati was waiting for Harry at the foot of the stairs. She looked very pretty indeed, in robes of bright pink, with her long dark plait braided with gold, and gold bracelets glimmering at her wrists. And she actually wasn't giggling
"You - er - look nice," I heard him tell her awkwardly.
"Thanks," she said. "Padma's going to meet you in the entrance hall," she added to me.
"Right," I said, looking around, not paying much mind to Parvati's words. "Where's Hermione?"
Parvati shrugged. "Shall we go down then, Harry?"
"Okay," said Harry. Fred winked at Harry as he passed him on the way out of the portrait hole.
The entrance hall was packed with students too, all milling around waiting for eight o'clock, when the doors to the Great Hall would be thrown open. Those people who were meeting partners from different Houses were edging through the crowd trying to find one another. Parvati found her sister, Padma, and led her over to Harry and I.
"Hi," said Padma, who was looking just as pretty as Parvati in robes of bright turquoise. I really couldn't complain at all, however, she didn't look too enthusiastic about having me as a partner. And I didn't blame her. I wouldn't even take me out looking the way I did.
"Hi," I said, not looking at her, but staring around at the crowd. "Oh no..."
I bent his knees slightly to hide behind Harry, because Fleur Delacour was passing, looking stunning in robes of silver-gray satin, and accompanied by the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, Roger Davies. When they had disappeared, I stood straight again and stared over the heads of the crowd.
"Where is Hermione?" I said once more. This was getting ridiculous. That wanker better not had done anything to her.
A group of Slytherins came up the steps from their dungeon common room. Malfoy was in front; he was wearing dress robes of black velvet with a high collar, looking like a fucking vampire. Pansy, looking like a pink massacre, clutched Malfoy's arm. Crabbe and Goyle were both wearing green; they resembled moss-colored boulders, and neither of them had managed to find a partner.
The oak front doors opened, and everyone turned to look as the Durmstrang students entered with Professor Karkaroff. Krum was at the front of the party, accompanied by a pretty girl in blue robes. Actually, pretty was an understatement. This girl was completely and utterly gorgeous. Even better looking than Fleur, and she was part veela.
She was wearing robes made of a floaty, periwinkle-blue material, and she was holding herself up with an air of nervousness, but confidence. Her smile was infectious. It was actually making me smile.
I felt oddly drawn to the girl. As if I had seen her a million times before.
And that's when it hit me.
It was Hermione. My Hermione. On the arm of that fucking asshole Viktor Krum.
I immediately saw red.