Friday, November 19, 1944
8:14 P.M.
The Room of Requirements was packed to capacity. Since the Quidditch season had seemed to let up for a few days, the Room of Requirements Dance Hall was the place to be that Friday night. Not only was there music; the room was loaded with innumerable flavourful aromas: Nearly every person in attendance had smuggled food in from dinner, and Draco, Harry, and Ron had taken a covert trip down the secret passage to Hogsmeade earlier that evening, bringing back crates of butterbeer and every kind of sweet imaginable. Draco had appeared to look a bit dazed when he returned. Hermione just ignored it.
"Hermione! Love the outfit!"
Hermione swivelled her head to the left, her curls swept back in a half-ponytail down her back, a few brown wisps still floating delicately around her made-up face. Her latte-coloured eyes swiftly searched through the dim lighting and intermittent white spotlights for the source of the compliment.
She felt a hand lightly swipe her shoulder, and she finally caught sight of Celena Coffee as she passed Hermione on the dance floor. Draco's arm was wrapped snugly around the blonds waist. Hermione raised an eyebrow at du Lac. Celena was a Half-Blood Slytherin and mighty pretty.
From the way people were looking at her you could tell she was popular with the boys. She was wearing a deep green, satin dress, her hair tied back elegantly. She looked breath taking."Thank you, you look pretty too. I can tell du Lac agrees," Hermione shouted back with a smirk.
The beautiful Slytherin shot Draco a loving look and smile, to which Draco beamed very broadly and smiled dreamily back.
"Its true, you look beautiful Celena" Draco said happliy. Celena blushed and tucked a piece of her perfect hair behind her left ear.
"Thank you du Lac. I'm going to get a quick drink"
"Alright" as Coffee had disappeared into the throng of students, Draco leaned down and kissed Hermione on the top of her curly head, yelling into her ear, "I love you, Nef, do you realize that..."
"Yeah, yeah—wait what?!" Hermione asked horror striken.
"You having the brilliant idea to organize this ball caused me to ask Celena to be my date. She's perfect. Sweet, kind, beautiful, smart, sweet..." Hermione was suprised. She had always thought that Draco would go for someone like Columbia. Sassy and annoying. Bur she was happy for him.
"Well, your welcome I guess" she responded.
"Oi, you two! Over here!" Lavender and Ron pushed through the crowd, precariously levitating six bottles of butterbeer; Ron wearing a rather trendy silk shirt and trousers that had once belonged to Dumbledore himself and Lavender sporting a dress the color of her namesake.
"Hi, seen Harry and Ginny yet?" Hermione greeted, immediately sweeping one bottle off their hands and popping the top. Swaying with the energetic beat of the swinging big band music that was blaring throughout the polished-wooden-floor-topped Room of Requirements, she took a sip of the cool drink, feeling a wave of pure bliss and frothy bubbles wash down her throat.
In the building heat of the packed room, she had to admit she was grateful that she had given in and worn the sleeveless classic black taffeta dress Ginny had urged upon her. The spaghetti-strapped dress clung to her slender form all the way down to the thin, striking pink ribbon and jauntily placed side bow at her waist, where the dark material swept out slightly, ending a few fingers below her knee, the same pink-coloured netting flaring for a half-inch at the bottom.
Ginny had insisted that, along with the cut blending in with forties fashion, the pink fabulously matched the Amulet of Eras, now hanging blatantly around Hermione's bare neck.
"Errmmm," Ron stretched to his considerably lengthy, full height and glanced around the Room. "I think they're closing the door at the moment, but they should be back soon."
"Good." Hermione sighed, watching as various couples, some more talented than others, swing-danced their way around the party floor. "Call me a party-pooper, but we do need to discuss the future of this entire night now that we know Riddle's heard of it. From me."
"Party-pooper," Lavender accused obediently, bouncing from one foot to another and finishing her butterbeer as the swing music slowed and began to fade. She placed a hand over her heart dramatically. "Oh sweet Merlin, I actually stopped worrying about Snake Eyes for two little hours out of an entire school year, and I instead selfishly spent the time enjoying myself. I have just doomed all future generations to a terrible fate."
"Lav," Hermione began in a warning tone, but Harry and Ginny's arrival marked a change to the conversation, Harry trailing Ginny as if they'd had some sort of falling out in the last ten minutes.
With a huff, Ginny collapsed into a nearby chair, her red taffeta dress, the cut quite similar to Hermione's, billowing out from around her waist like a sleek color. Ginny still wore red often despite being a Slytherin. Ignoring her boyfriend, Ginny pointedly turned to Hermione and Lavender and asked morosely, "Do you think if I sit here and look sad, someone'll ask me to dance?"
Harry shared a secret smile with Hermione, then took a step back and pretended to seriously survey his doe-eyed girlfriend, the edges of her lips now pulled down into a miserable pout for show. "Honestly, Gin, I think if you fall down on the floor and pretend you're choking, you'll get a bigger reaction."
"Yeah, all the boys would just jump right in to give you mouth-to-mouth," Lavender piped in. The comments were enough to make Ginny's stone face crack, and she laughed, shoving Lavender playfully and shooting Harry a withering look.
Hermione held back a smile, taking one last swig from her butterbeer bottle and setting it down on the table. Suddenly, though, her head snapped up, automatically feeling a shot of adrenaline surge through her veins as an all-too-familiar, mesmerizing beat slowly wound itself around the room.
"Glad to know I wasn't missed" Hermione looked up and saw Draco sitting down next to her. Ginny rolled her eyes.
"Ferret, your still alive? Dammit!" She said sarcastically, yet Draco still scowled.
"Yes I am West. Coffee's hanging out with her friends right now. Damn that girls popular" Rons head shot up. He looked at Draco in almost awe.
"You mean the Celena Coffee?!" Draco smirked than smiled happily.
"Yes, her" he sighed and rested his head in his hands. He looked like he was day dreaming. Ron looked at him in envy.
"Lucky" Lavender gasped and slapped his arm roughly.
"Nefertari?" Hermione looked up at the sound of her last name and her eyes meet Draco's. She made a sound of recognition.
"Fancy a dance?"
"What about Celena?" He seemed to really consider this for a moment. Than he smiled.
"I think she won't mind"
Hermione cocked her head to the right, getting a better view of the blonds face. She couldn't help but smile slyly as she wordlessly held up her right hand. Draco reached over and took her hand firmly in his, and twirled her around to face him.
Prowling backward onto the dance floor, he leisurely treaded his way through the dancing couples until he found a relatively open spot.
Of course, it did help that the other students parted like the Red Sea to let her and Draco through. They were curious to see how this would go. Draco didnt even notice a pair of hazel eyes looking hurtly at him. Feeling him stop, Hermione leaned her entire body forward slightly, her back elegantly arched, and wrapped one tanned arm around Draco's pale neck. The Amulet was burning against her neck, the power of the dance pulsing up from the floor though her petite black stiletto.
They paused momentarily as Hermione's long dark lashes brushed his cheek as she huskily breathed into his ear, "Do try to keep up, Draco darling."
He and she smirked. And they danced. They both didn't notice the popular blond girl's eyes starting to leak.
YOU ARE READING
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