*that's Astoria and Draco btw not Hermione and him*
Hermione's POV
"the way we play isn't how people normally would, instead of truth or dare it's more like... truth or strip"
We were in a circle on the boys' dorm floor
Elio, Axar, me, Wren, Blaise, Astoria, Goyle, Theo, Blair, Celina, Dianne and Draco.
we had moved the tables closer to the wall
I charmed the drinks so if a teacher came in they would think its pumpkin juice, not what we're really drinking
"strip? Why strip?"
"well, it's a lot more entertaining, you play it pretty normally but when you pick truth you drink a drop of veritaserum so everyone knows you are definitely telling the truth and if you pick strip then you have to take a shot of firewhiskey and strip one piece of clothing"
Theo was already taking his shirt off
"Theo!"
he looked startled "what?"
"you're not supposed to strip yet"
he put his shirt back on in a grumpy manner "well I'm bored and I'm sure Tori wants to see me without a top on" he winked at her with that goofy grin
"fuck no Theo" she retorted, not moving her eyes from her nails, used to these comments
"Can you two shut up? Thank you, Mione, go on" Blaise seemed particularly unhappy at the moment
"Everyone has a partner who asks them 'truth or strip' that's it"
everyone got into their groups
- Blaise and Wren
- Elio and Dianne
- Goyle and Celina
- Axar and Blair
- Draco and I
- Theo and Astoria
"Why am I with Theo?" Astoria complained, shifting away from him
"Because he asked, let's start, who wants to go first?"
Elio volunteered "truth or Strip?"
"Truth" Dianne answered, she took a drop of veritaserum
"who is the most attractive in this room?"
"Axar"
Elio looked betrayed, and his brother looked particularly smug
"told you I'm hotter than you Elijah"
-
It's been an hour, half the girls were almost in their underwear and most of the guys didn't have tops on, and was that a sight.
All of us but Draco were at least tipsy
"Hermione!" Blaise screeched
"yes, Blaise.com?" I wasn't very drunk, but drunk enough that I most likely won't remember this tomorrow
"it's YOUR turn with Mr. Draco" Draco wasn't drunk at all, he was very good at withstanding alcohol
"ok, ok, Draco, truth or strip?"
"Truth"
"out of every person in this room, boy or girl, who would you snog right. This. Second?"
"none of you are gonna remember this tomorrow, are you? you"
instead of saying anything else I practically pounced on him, pulling him in and about to kiss him before he pushed me off him
"I said I would, I'm not taking advantage of you when your drunk Hermione"
I pouted, annoyed "you can be a pussy sometimes Malfoy"
"I'm not being a pussy I'm just not being a horny prat who takes advantage of a drunk girl... you're all buzzed, I think we should go to bed"
I jumped up quickly, apparently, I'm a flirty drunk "yes, let's go to bed Draco"
"no Hermione, you go to your bed, I'll go to my bed, go on"
he ushered me out of his dorm, following behind were my female friends.
I stumbled up to my room and fell straight on the bed, not bothering to change
Draco walked in the room and pulled me under the covers after taking my shoes off my feet, somehow I managed to keep them on
"night Hermione" he whispered, kissing my forehead, and left the room
I fell into blissful sleep
*
"'Ms. Parkinson, an intelligent but plain girl, with a taste for famous wizards her latest prey, sources report, is none other than the Bulgarian bonbon Viktor Krum, no word yet on how Harry Potter's taking this latest emotional blow' who knew Parkinson could be such a slag huh?"
We were in the great hall, everyone in Slytherin and Gryffindor had been called here for a lesson on 'ballroom dancing', I expect its for the yule ball
(Im guessing Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were doing this in a different room)
Blaise had brought todays Prophet and had read it to us
"I never knew they would actually start dating when we were saying he was her boyfriend in first year" I laughed, grabbing the paper and reading the other pages quickly "yeah, but it is Skeeter so it's probably lies... I'm gonna believe it this time though"
"the yule ball has been a tradition of the Triwizard tournament since its inception, on Christmas eve night we and our guests gather in the great hall for a night of well-mannered frivolity. As representatives of the host school, I expect each and every one of you to put your best foot forward, and I mean this literally because the yule ball is first and foremost, a dance" McGonagall starts
"well that's obvious" I muttered, I never really liked dancing but I have no choice but to go
"see mione? A dance! I wonder who's gonna ask me..." Wren was definitely one of the most excited ones
"your boyfriend, dipshit"
"SILENCE! Now... to dance is to let the body breathe inside every girl, a secret swan slumbers longing to burst forth and take flight. Inside every boy, a lordly lion is prepared to prance... Mr. Weasley"
McGonagall was dancing with Weasley to a slow waltz
"everyone come together, boys on your feet!"
none of the boys seemed to want to dance, me neither, I thought maybe I could slip behind everyone and-
"c'mon mione, we have to do it whether we like it or not" Draco pulled me to my feet
"I don't get why we have to do this, we learned this when we were nine, five years ago!"
mother and father had made us learn this 'for future purposes' it's still not helping much because we now have to have lessons
"yes, yes, but c'mon let's show off our skills yeah?"
I grumbled annoyed words as he made me walk to the middle of the dance floor
"Wren and Blaise are still the cutest couple, don't you agree?" I glanced at my friend, she was waltzing around the room with Blaise, they were chatting with smiles on their faces, merlin they are soulmates
"Yeah, they really are"
"Sooo who you gonna ask to the ball?" I winked humouressly
"I don't know yet" he says with a smirk
"You do! Tell me tell me tell me"
"Nah it's a secret" he's looking at me weirdly, I don't quite know how to explain it
"Hmm okay"
*
"hey, inkwood! Come ere"
We were in our dorm, chatting about random things when we heard Theo's voice from downstairs
"coming! I'll be back now" I nodded and she disappeared out of the room,
My vision went the now familiar shade of grey
"what's up?" she asked as she hopped down the last step
"do you know if Hermione has a date yet?" he fiddled with his fingers nervously
"no... why?" she gasped in realization "you like Hermione!"
he shushed her "I don't like her, but I was gonna ask her to the ball but if she has a date then... ya know, I can't can I? so does she?"
"I don't think so... you can go ask her if you want but I haven't heard of anyone else asking her, you might wanna do it quickly though because I've heard that lots of guys are waiting for their chance"
My vision cleared, showing me my dorm again
I don't like Theo, he's a great and funny friend, but that's the thing he's a friend I wouldn't go to any dance with him... I'll just have to lie and say I'm going with someone else... yes that's what I'll do
When the door opened it wasn't Wren
it was Theo
"I have something to ask you 'mione..." he walked toward me
"ah, ah, I know what your gonna say... but I can't, I'm going with someone else" I tried being nice about it, I'm not very good at that
"Who is it?"
"um..."
I was waiting for Draco to ask me...
wait what? Did I really just think that? Why would Draco ask me and why would I want him to? Do I... do I like him?
"Elio... yeah, Elio asked me" he didn't
"oh... sorry then" he trudged out of the room, unhappy
"sorry Theo, we're good though yeah?" I called after him
"yeah... yeah sure we're good"
"hey, theo" I grabbed his arm before he could start walking down the stairs
"mhm?"
"Astoria. you like her don't you?" I looked in his eyes
"I guess so.. but she wouldn't say yes"
"there's no harm in asking, you know girls like her play hard to get on purpose to make guys like you want them more"
"Really?" his face lights up
"yeah. go on, I'll see you later" I smile
*
"hey, Elio?"
That evening I saw Elio in the common room by himself, this will be the perfect time
"yeah?"
I sat next to him "remember that time I got you out of trouble a few years back?"
"yeah..."
"I need you to return that favor for me... it's a pretty huge one but I really, really need you to" I begged, my hands entwined with each other
"as long as it doesn't involve anything illegal then... fine"
"yay! Thank you, I need you to take me to the ball, you cant disagree you have to"
I didn't want to wait for him to say anything else so I got up and started walking to my dorm
I stopped abruptly when I saw two people in the corner
Astoria and Draco
Kissing
I don't know why this affected me so badly,
it felt like a bomb had just exploded, it shattered and the little pieces of my feelings felt like they were scattered everywhere
I ran up to my dorm, tears streaming down my face, I opened the door and slammed it closed behind me
"oh my... Hermione, what's wrong?"
Daphne and Wren were both in the dorm, they were talking about something when I interrupted them
"Draco... he- Astoria... corner- they- I..."
Wren seemed to understand enough to pull me over to her bed and let me sit with the two of them, I sobbed into wren's shoulder and both of them just sat there with me, offering kind words and threats toward both of the people in question
I cried for at least half an hour and eventually, it felt like I didn't have any more tears left so I explained what happened properly
"I was walking back to the dorm... and I looked over to the corner, I saw the two of them... kissing, like- full-on make out... I don't know why it hurt me so bad"
deep down... I knew why
"I think... I think you love him 'Mione" Daphne whispered, she's a year younger yet she is very mature
"love him? I mean... yeah... I think I do"
that's the moment I knew
that's the moment I knew that I love Draco Malfoy