With the yearned for/dreaded ball fast approaching, the headmistress arranged an extra outing to Hogsmeade. The head-witch also organized a clothing bazaar in the village so that her charges would be able to buy themselves garments for her event. Every cloth dealer and dressmaker was there, from Second Hand-Harold to Madam Malkin. Students milled between the stands looking, pointing, and spending their hard-earned Knuts.
"Oh, can you believe it?! Harry asked me out! ME! Thee-hee," Ginny jumped in the air while brandishing the note she had received yesterday morning. "Although...," she continued wrinkling her brow, "being the saviour of mankind, he should have plucked up the nerve to ask me himself."
Hermione shook her head. She would not get involved in the Harry-Ginny affair again.
They stood by an aged woman's stand, looking at second-hand jewelery. Ginny had already found her dress; Hermione hadn't been that lucky.
"And...," the freckled girl persisted, "he shouldn't have broken up with me in the first place if he was just going to come crawling back!" She turned to Hermione, "Honestly I really should turn him down and let the bastard suffer!"
"He'd deserve it...," Hermione began with a smile on her lips.
"Yeah," Ginny agreed darkly.
"But then you wouldn't be able to dance with him at the ball."
"Can't I show up without a date? We'll be forced together by the special pair dance in the end anyway, right?"
"That dance won't be at the end of the ball." Hermione had seen to that, if it was in the middle people might be less focused on her and Snape. "But yes, you would have to dance with Harry then."
Ginny smiled a wicked little smile then looked around her. Seamus stood not too far away.
"Hey, Seamus!" She yelled and walked over to him.
He smiled as they approached. Hermione noticed he hurriedly stuffed a piece of paper in his pocket.
"What?" he asked in a pleasant tone.
Hermione saw that Dean was off a little way, speaking to a very good-looking dark girl. The market wasn't open only to Hogwarts students, even if they were overly represented.
"Oooh" Ginny cooed while batting her lashes. "Would you take me to the ball Seamus?"
The question seemed to startle the boy.
"I dunno... I wasn't really thinkin' of going, " he squirmed.
"Come on now, Seamus. You have to go," Ginny pleaded, looking as cute as she could.
Seamus saw a way out. "In any case I can't take you, Gin. You've dated two of my best friends!" He glanced over at Dean. "And you're Ron's little sister on top of that. I'd get Hell."
Ginny pouted.
"Gin. Please. I can't. I'm rather avoiding that dance."
Ginny pouted and batted her lashes. Hermione thought she looked silly but apparently Seamus disagreed.
"Fine, I'll take you." He sighed. "No man with blood could deny your eyes."
Hermione rolled her eyes.
Ginny lit up and beamed with her entire face. "Thank you! Thank you Seamus!" she flung her arms around him.
He gently but firmly detached her. "Um.. We're not going on...like a date, right?" he asked, looking worriedly over at Dean. Dean hadn't noticed. "'Cause honestly I'd get hell."
"Oh no! We're just going as friends," she answered smiling from ear to ear.
Seamus gave her and Hermione an unsure smile. "Thinking about it, I'll still get hell."
"HA," Ginny jumped and smirked at him. "You already said yes! No way out now."
"Yeah well, I'll be going then." The Irish boy walked off to Dean looking nervously back at Ginny. Hermione just shook her head at the triumphant smile on Ginny's face. They walked between the stalls, and when Ginny calmed down she turned to Hermione. "Now we just have to find someone for you to go with. I'm sure...."
Hermione looked away.
"Ehm...I already have a partner." She muttered without stopping, she still needed a dress.
Ginny looked disbelievingly at her older friend. "What? You never said.... Who?"
Hermione cleared her throat and deliberately didn't meet Ginny's eyes. "Malfoy."
Ginny pulled a face. "Eww... Malfoy? What possessed you to do that?"
Hermione was almost relieved Ari was going with Snape. Almost. What if she would have had to explain Snape to Ginny? On the other hand, Hermione would gladly curse the little blonde skank off the face of the earth before having to see her on Snape's arm. She wouldn't tell Ginny that though.
"We thought that be a good idea us being the Heads and all."
Ginny shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. Still... eww, Malfoy."
"He's not that bad looking." Hermione saw a beautiful aquamarine fabric.
Ginny looked Hermione squarely in the eye. "Uck, Hermione. Just uck."
"No, really? I think it's beautiful."
"I meant Malfoy."
Hermione shrugged, maybe it was only she who saw the hotness in Slytherins.
"Oh! Oh! OH!" Ginny garbed a hold of Hermione's sleeve and pointed. "Look It's Harry!"
Hermione rolled her eyes.
The boys saw them and Ron pulled Harry over to meet them.
Ginny stuck her nose in the air and flung her hair- a little over the top in Hermione's opinion.
"Hi ye girls," Ron beamed.
"Hi guys," Hermione greeted while she bought the fabric.
Harry smiled, "Nice colour, Hermione."
"Thanks."
Ron looked discreetly from Harry to Ginny and back again. "So... Hermione I just wondered if you could help me with something...."
Hermione smiled and they went a little way away and pretended to look at ties.
Harry looked at Ginny who hadn't yet met his eyes.
"Well...um.... Hi Ginny."
"Hello Harry," she answered very coldly. He was taken aback.
"Is something the matter?" he asked her. She still looked away from him.
"No Harry, nothing's wrong." Something was definitely wrong.
"Has someone done something?"
Ginny looked at her nails. "You mean apart from you breaking up with me and then sending me an invitation to some dance?"
"We've been over this, Gin,'" Harry almost whined. "I don't want you to suffer the media circus that's always around me," he tried again.
"But as soon as there is an event you can just call on faithful old Gin and she'll come running, is that it?!" she asked, getting agitated.
"No, I never..."
"No you never! You can save the bloody world, can't you Potter?! But a relationship is a bit to scary for you isn't it, Scarhead?!" she screamed, making a scene.
"Ginny please I only wanted to save you from...," he looked nervously around.
"Yeah well you can save your invitation up your arse, Potter." She flung the note at him and turned to walk away. In a deathly sweet tone she added over her shoulder, "I'm going with Seamus...."
It really would have been an amazingly dramatic exit with Potter standing broken in front of everyone, if a couple of Slytherins hadn't felt like spoiling it.
Daphne Greengrass casually stepped on the Weaslyette's slightly too-long robe. Ginny tripped face down on to the ground. It was a loud smack. She was lucky she didn't get a bloody nose.
Pansy, Daphne and two other Slytherin girls snickered. They were packed to breaking point with loaded shopping bags.
"Oops," Daphne said with her hand at her mouth. "Sorry Weasley, didn't notice your second-hand robe there. Maybe you could ask your boyfriends for new ones? You've done half the Gryffindor tower by now, surely someone will pay up." The girl sneered.
"Leave her alone!" Harry bellowed.
Daphne batted her eyes innocently, but Parkinson snickered. "Now now, Potter, she's none of your concern anymore. You just got ditched."
Harry glared at the green clad girls, but turned away; Ginny followed his example and swept off without a word.
Ron and Hermione were left to their own. They shared a look. A look they've shared far too many times.
"You'll..." Ron said, but Hermione finished for him "...take Gin, and you'll go after Harry. I know the drill."
They had only taken a few steps Hermione turned again "Oh and Ron..."
He stopped and looked at her.
"He kind of deserves it, playing with your sister like that."
"He doesn't mean to..."
"I know but you tell him he has to make up his mind... he's headed for a shotgun marriage."
Ron smiled and gave her the thumbs up.
He really was a wonderful guy. Why couldn't their school love have bloomed in to serious romance? Now Hermione was stuck in some love tragedy with Snape and a mysterious long-legged bitch.
She watched Ron disappear into the masses, and with a smile she turned to walk again.
There was a wall in her way. A black-clad wall. She looked up in to the face of the man who had caused all her head/heart aches.
"Professor," she said "Slimy heart snatching goa,t" she thought and tried to step around him.
"Miss Granger, a word." His voice was as cold as his glare.
"Of course, sir." She followed him to the side. "May I wrench off your head and stab you repeatedly sir?" she thought with an obliging smile draped across her features.
Snape rounded on her.
"What possessed you to speak to Miss Winter about this hateful ball?!"
"I never knew she was going with you and making me stand watching as you and your Barbie dance to the beat of my breaking heart."
"What do you mean, sir?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Even a brainless little girl like you must have figured out the disastrous result that would ensue after we've danced together this Friday." Snape took a menacing step closer to her, but she did not fear his wrath as she might have before. What harm could he bring her that he had not already unintentionally brought her? "Because thanks to you, Miss Granger, we will dance this Friday." The dark looming Professor persisted. The wind sent a whiff of him to her. He was intoxicating even now when he tried to intimidate her.
Hermione said nothing, only looked up at him.
The look she gave him seamed to unsettle the tall man but the confusion didn't put him off the slightest.
"I would have been able to ignore my invitation to the ball if it had not been for you. Now Miss Winter insists on attending with me. Had you not informed her, we would have been able to live through this Friday without the oncoming disgrace!"
Hermione's mood darkened from misty night to pitch black.
"It is not my fault that you're dating some blonde girl, young enough to be your own daughter! Don't come here and blame me for your own mishaps!"
Snape snapped.
"Miss Winter is my what?! And it was MY mishap?! She would never have known about the dance hadn't it been for you! It is your mishap that will bring our ruin!"
"I did no such thing! She already knew about the ball!"
They stared fixated on one and other.
Hermione felt an unrecognisable urge run through her as she looked into the black and fevered eyes of Severus Snape.
"You must h...," he began.
"Scheveruss"
The disagreeing two turned to see McGonagall stumble towards them. Hermione saw that in her right hand the headmistress was holding a brown bag with mysteriously bottle-like contents.
"Scheveruss, Look at my handiwork," she said triumphantly, her hand gesturing broadly over the marketplace. "I made thisch. Seen the old bugger having this musch fun? I don't think so."
McGonagall flung her left arm across the Potion Master's shoulders.
Snape straighten up and tried to look dignified with a drunken elderly woman draped over his shoulder.
"You have done a remarkable job, Minerva." He looked at Hermione if to dare her to laugh. She didn't dare, yet.
"I been looking for you Schnapy my boy...," she lifted her right arm with the bagged bottle to the sky. "Staff meeting at the Green Dragon. Now!"
Snape gave Hermione a look that either meant we'll talk about this later, or I'll get you for this. Then he turned and headed of with the happy Minerva hanging on to his shoulder.
"Hogs Head Minerva, not Green Dragon."
Hermione looked at the teachers she was supposed to hold in high esteem, then smiled and went to look for Ginny.
When she found her, Hermione didn't really need to comfort Ginny, only talk her out of an attack on the Slytherins.
They walked between the stands for another hour before heading up to the tower, satisfied with their shopping.
The rest of that afternoon was spent calming Dean, Ron and Harry down long enough to explain the Seamus-Ginny situation.