Pride of a Granger & Prejudice of a Malfoy

Chapter 15: A Dance to Remember

Hey!!! I'm back!!

Sorry for the extremely late updates. With college applications, scholarship application, and midterms, I barely had time to breathe, much less write. Thank Merlin that most of those are over, now I can finally write!

Anyways, I wont keep you waiting any longer.

Enjoy!!

**************************************************************

"You did what?" Ginny exclaimed, almost chocking on her firewhiskey.

"I said yes," Hermione replied sheepishly.

"Maybe he used Occlumency," Ron suggested, munching on peanuts he had somehow procured.

"You can't do that with Occlumency," Harry and Hermione replied simultaneously.

"Maybe he used the imperius curse on you," Ron suggested again.

"I don't think so," Hermione replied, her brows furrowed in concentration. "It didn't feel like an imperius curse."

"Maybe he used something that he learned during his death eater days," Ron suggested, determined to lay the blame on Draco.

"I don't know," Hermione replied a bit uncertainly. "It felt...it felt odd. I...I don't really know how to describe it."

"Hermione Granger out of words? That's a first," Harry replied teasingly, earning him a halfhearted blow from her clutch.

"Maybe," Ginny began, pausing for dramatic effect, with a smirk on her face and a mischievous glint in her eyes, "you have fallen in love with him."

The Golden Trio, who had all unintentionally taken sips of firewhiskey simultaneously, spit it out in shock.

"Your faces are priceless!" Ginny replied doubling over in laughter.

The trio stood in silence as Ginny laughed away. Soon enough Harry and Ron joined in, while Hermione looked on in furious astonishment.

"Never joke about something like that," Hermione replied with a deadly glare. "Ever."

"You have got to admit that was pretty hilarious," Harry replied. "It is so ridiculously unbelievable that it is hilarious."

"Just imagine the headlines," Ron added between fits of laughter, "'War Heroine and Former Death Eater: What Would Daddy Think?' the latest scoop by Rita Skeeter."

"Or 'Muggleborn Gryffindor & Pureblood Slytherin: Wait Until His Father Hears About This'," Harry added.

Before Hermione could glare some more or retort, the current song ended, signaling time for what was perhaps the most dreaded dance in the history of balls. Hermione threw them one last glare before she grudgingly made her way towards the ballroom.

Before she could reach Draco, who was waiting for her in the center of the ballroom, Cho appeared near her.

"Hermione!" she exclaimed. "I'm glad I found you!"

"Why?" Hermione asked curiously.

"I just found out from Parvati that Harper isn't here!"

"Yes, I know," Hermione replied solemnly.

"From what Lavender said, I gathered that he was suddenly given an assignment that was apparently very urgent. So he had to go to Albania immediately."

"What assignment?" Hermione asked, suddenly suspicious. "I'm the head of the department and I didn't assign anything for today."

"Well, I don't know about that," Cho replied. "Parvati and Lavender told me that much and I thought you'd want to know."