little miss perfect ; hermoine granger

chapter 27

All the students who wanted to go had arrived at Hogsmeade, and most of us were going to get ready for the ball. Ginny, Luna, and Hermoine and I split from the rest of the students and searched for a shop to buy some dresses. "Mum gave me a couple extra galleons to buy a new dress this year, I don't think I've had a new dress since I went to the Yule ball!" Ginny told us, as we opened the door to a store that none of us had ever been in before.

The dresses that were lined up on the racks and walls were beautiful, and I couldn't wait to try on all of them. We started to look around the shop, as I picked up as many dresses in my size as I could. I HAD to explore all my options. I needed the perfect dress, and I was certain that I'd find one here.

We didn't all talk much while finding the dresses, except to occasionally ask for input on one, or to see if someone else liked one. Hermoine had been awfully quiet though, almost too quiet, so I went up to her. "Hey, Hermoine. Find any dresses you like?" I said, trying to bring her into a conversation. "Oh, no I don't need a dress. I've already had one sent to me. I just wanted to come with you all. It seemed like it would be fun." She answered. "Oh, okay. Well I hope you're having fun!" I told her, obviously being able to tell that she wasn't having fun. But, in situations like this, usually I'd want to be left alone, and I'm not going to make things awkward for her by asking her if she was okay in front of every one.

As I had a pile of about 6 dresses, I told the girls that I'd be going into the dressing rooms. I tried on the first, it was yellow, and very poofy at the skirt part. Honestly, it was just kind of ugly. I took that dress off, and tried the next. This one was dark green, and it had small sleves over the shoulders, and beautiful green rose detailing on the bodice. The skirt was a little poofy, but not as much to make me look dumb. But I couldn't get the zipper up, no matter how hard I tried.

It wasn't that the dress didn't fit, it was that I couldn't reach. "Can someone come zip me?" I called out, since the dressing room doors weren't really doors, just curtains. I was looking at myself in the mirror, as I heard the curtains ruffle. I turned around, and of course, it was Hermoine. She had a nervous smile on her face as she walked in. She didn't say anything, as she zipped me up, but I could feel her fingers brush up against my skin, and I could tell that it wasn't an accident. She was trying to tease me. I turned back around towards her, not even looking at how I looked in the dress yet, until Hermoine said "Wow. You look beautiful, Ana." Her eyes lit up as she said it, and I could see her looking me up and down, but trying to hide it.

I smiled at her, then turned around and looked at myself. Not to be cocky or anything, but she was right. I mean, the dress looked like it was made for me. It fit me almost perfectly, and the color complimented my skin tone very well. "This is the one. I can tell. I don't even need to try any of the others on." I told Hermoine, turning back around to face her. "Oh, do you want me to go now? Because I can get out in a sec-" She said as she started to walk towards the curtain to open it, but for some reason, today, in this dress, I felt bold.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her back towards me. Our faces were close together, close enough that our lips were almost touching. "Stay." I whispered. We stood there for a second, and then I smiled as I closed the distance between us. She put both of her hands on my face, as we locked lips, but then she suddenly pulled away. "We can't." She said, our foreheads resting against each other. "Why not? Nobody can see us in here. We're safe, I promise." I told her, as I leaned back in, but she pushed me away. "I'm sorry, but we can't. You know Ginny, the girl doesn't have any boundaries. And we don't know how anyone would feel about us. Ana, WE don't even know how we feel about us. I mean, what even are we?" She asked me, and looked at me with a questioning look on her face.

"I don't know what we are yet," I said, and then paused. "But I know what I want us to be." I paused again, and then looked her in the eyes, and said "I want us to be together, Hermoine. And I know that we can't, or at least, not out in public, but I want to be with you." I told her and took her hand. "It's all up to you, though. If you don't want anything, that's okay with me. I don't want you to feel like you have to be with me if you don't want to." I told her, halfway lying. I want her to be happy, and if that isn't with me, then I'd have to be okay with it, but it doesn't mean that I'd be happy about it. I'd just simply accept it.

She looked like she was thinking about it very deeply in her head, and at that moment, it felt like time was going in slow motion. I mean, it seemed like she was standing there for 10 or 20 minutes trying to decide, when in reality it was only a couple of seconds. "Okay. I want to be with you too. But if anyone ever found out-" She started to say, and I cut her off. "I know." I smiled at her, and she smiled back at me and we laughed.

"Wait, so does this mean that we're like...dating?" I asked, and she smiled while she looked down and then back up at me again. "I suppose." She said, and I threw my arms around her. "Oh my god I was so worried you'd say no!" I exclaimed while still laughing, and as we pulled away from each other, she said. "You make it really hard to say no to you, Ana. But now we gotta go! The girls are gonna start getting suspicious!" She said, and in that moment, I felt so, unbelievably happy. 

But what I didn't know, was that the dark lord had other plans for me.