Pride of a Granger & Prejudice of a Malfoy

Chapter 1: Wizarding Traditions

***** Dedicated to terryjames for coming up with the wonderful title =) *****

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“There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be...” ― John Lennon

“Hermione!” Parvati Patil screeched the moment she entered Hermione Granger’s office, located in the Law Enforcement Department of the Ministry of Magic, startling Hermione and causing her to spill ink all over the parchment she had been scribbling on for the past two and a half hours.

“WHAT?!” Hemione asked, pulling out her wand, expecting intruders.

“Have you seen this?!” Parvati squealed, waving an envelope in Hermione’s face.

“Yes,” Hermione replied, trying to restrain herself from strangling Parvati for making her spill ink all over her report for such a trifle reason.

“What’s with all the squealing? I could hear you all the way from my office,” Cho Chang asked, walking in with heavy files loaded in her arms and depositing them on Hermione’s desk. “Hermione, these are the files you wanted me to bring.”

“Thanks, Cho,” Hermione replied.

“Have you seen this?” Parvati squealed, now waving the envelope in front of Cho’s face.

“No,” Cho replied, trying to decipher the writing on the envelope, which was quite the feat considering the velocity at which the paper was being waved. “I haven’t checked my owls yet. What is it?”

“It’s an invitation to some ball,” Hermione replied, trying to focus on the files that had been deposited on her desk.

“It’s not just any ball,” Parvati replied as if Hermione had just committed an act of blasphemy, which, according to Parvati’s book, she probably had.

“It totally is,” Hermione muttered under her breath as she used a siphoning charm to extract the ink from her paper.

“I heard from Lavender, who heard from Hannah, who heard from one of her tenants, who heard from one of her cousins, who was informed by Millicent, who had apparently overheard Pansy talking about it, that Blaise Zabini is going to be at there,” Parvati finished with a flourish.

The reaction she had expected was clearly not the one she received.

“Um, ok?” Hermione replied, not quite sure why the attendance of one random Slytherin she hasn’t heard of in years was so important and wondering what she could possibly say or do that would make Parvati go away.

“Blaise Zabini is attending the Ball,” Parvati repeated slowly, quite sure that Hermione and Cho hadn’t heard her clearly. “His twenty-fourth birthday was last week.”

“Well. Happy belated birthday to him,” Hermione replied, eager to get back to work, while Cho tried her best not to burst into a fit of laughter.

“Ah! You are hopeless! I don’t even know why I came and told you about it. I would’ve gotten the same reaction from the pillar. Maybe even a better one depending on which pillar it was,” Parvati replied bitterly, nearly stomping out the door.

The second she left, Cho burst into laughter.

“Thank Merlin, she left!” Hermione exclaimed. “I almost got a migraine from hearing her squeal.”

“So, were you doing that on purpose to make her go away, or do you not know about the significance of the ball?” Cho asked, after she was done laughing.

“I honestly don’t know! What’s so important about Zabini turning twenty-four?” Hermione asked.

“Well, according to Wizarding traditions, when a wizard reaches the age of twenty-four, especially if the wizard in question is quite wealthy, he is considered to be an eligible bachelor. Thus all the young witches flock around him to be the lucky girl to become the fortunate bride.”

“That is the most pathetic thing I’ve heard since Ron told me that the spirit of Aragog was haunting him,” Hermione replied. “Some people have no self-respect, throwing themselves at wizards just because they are rich.”

“So, I suppose you’re not going?” Cho asked, hoping Hermione was going, for she most definitely did not want to go alone.

“No, I have to go. Ginny will kill me if I don’t. She is convinced that I haven’t gotten over Viktor, even though it has already been a month. If I don’t go, she will think that I moping by the fireplace.”

“That’s absolutely great! You don’t have a date and I don’t have a date, we could go together!” Cho exclaimed. “Who knows, we may just stumble upon our wizards in shining robes!”

“Cho, I honestly doubt that,” Hermione replied, giving Cho her best ‘get down to earth from lala-land’ look.

Little did Hermione know that Cho was right after all.