Fairy Tale

Disclaimer: *Sighs* Not mine...

Chapter Nine: Fairy Tale

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Hermione Granger stood in front of a wall-length mirror, surrounded by a gaggle of girls her age and younger. Grinning, she traced over the curves accentuated by her gown, the color of the midnight sky. Diniz had pointed it out in the Lisbon Luxury Apparel store at the end of the summer and had sent it to her when he got word. She would now have to thank him royally for the attention she was receiving. She turned a bit to look at her back in the reflection and was pleased with the result. Her bare back was toned and shadowed in a most sensual curve down her spine. She never had known the back to be an attractive trait on anyone. Little things like this were what held her up these days.

"Wow, Hermione!" Parvati gasped, wide-eyed at the plunging backline and magnificence of her dress.

She had quite out-dressed most of the girls in the dressing room. Lavender was a faerie, dressed to the nines in flowing pink. Parvati had decided to be a magical fish from India, a Ramora, in wonderful shades of silver and grey. Other girls had resorted to the common shades of black and some even wore orange and purple. But Hermione...she was admittedly gorgeous for someone whom everyone viewed as the virginal bookworm of Gryffindor tower. Her dress was a deep, royal blue.

"What are you, exactly?" Lavender folded her arms and looked to Parvati for support. Her two classmates looked at her with judgment in their eyes and Hermione couldn't help but feel a little disheartened by it.

"A peacock. Or something like it." She bent down and picked up her hair ornament. It was a lovely decorative comb carved out of jade. Her mother had bargained for it with an old Japanese man when they were vacationing several summers ago, and now she was glad she'd had that slight tantrum before her mom was persuaded. A small group of peacock feathers decorated the waistline in the back, fanning out over the layers of kelly-green shantung silk covering her behind. "You both look dazzling."

"'Mione, you look much better than these slags." Ginny strode up to her, glaring at the two other girls who cast vicious glances Hermione's way as they exited to the common room.

All noticed her entrance, as Hermione's indigo gown reflected flecks of golden light from the candles in the room. Ron, catching a quick glance at her, left immediately. She could almost see a cynical smirk on his face as he headed for the Hufflepuff dorm. Harry, Neville, Dean, Seamus, and many other boys would've lost their jaws if they had not been attached at the joints. Hermione blushed. She hadn't really expected that kind of reaction.

"Hermione." Harry gaped. Ginny smirked and walked over to him, gently pushing his mouth shut.

"Harry." She smiled. Hermione looked at the two of them: Harry wore forest green dress robes and Ginny wore all black, cat-eyes donning her face in a simple but elegant mask. As they all chatted about the decorations they'd snuck a peek at earlier, Ginny nestled into Harry's neck and stayed there. It was an interesting color...red and black.

"What are you, Neville?" Ginny asked, directing the attention to the boy's uncanny appearance.

"Luna and I chose to be the Loch Ness monster and the giant squid."

"You're the Loch Ness?" Seamus snorted.

"Can't wait to see Luna!" Dean exclaimed from behind Seamus as a pearly-white smile proportions darted across his orange-masked face.

-o-

The ball was in full swing when they all arrived. The company was grand, the punch was tolerable, and the music was a mix of wizarding and Muggle hits. The war had been fought for Muggle-Wizard equality, anyway. Hermione locked eyes with Blaise, who was enjoying a bit of champagne with a group of friends, and intended to join them as soon as a mob of firsties dissipated. Behind him were mountains of candy and delectable goodies that they had requested from Honeydukes and other finer delicatessens in Wizarding London. It was dark in the room, and eerie light accompanied with fog enchanted the rafters of the hall. It was truly a magnificent sight, and Hermione, for the first time in a long while, felt proud of herself. She had made something as magnificent as this, despite her past and her present and the future she refused to contemplate. Many teachers were bopping along with Who Do You Think You Are, and Hermione made her way across the hall as Harry and the others convulsed with mirth, regarding the entertaining sight of Hagrid coaxing Professor Vector out onto the dance floor.

"You picked this song, Hermione? Of all the Muggle songs to choose from?"

"Of course! I love the Spice Girls!" She giggled at his apparent disgust. "How do you know this song, anyway?" She smirked as he sought out an answer.

"I... really have no idea." He grinned and Hermione was surprised, having never seen a smile on Blaise Zabini before. He always wore either an indifferent or contemplative look, his slanted, dark eyes never wavering, never crinkling into even a shadow of a smile. She supposed he smiled often, though. She did not know him personally, so who was she to make an assumption? "Do Muggle and Wizarding worlds overlap often?"

"More than you would think," she answered, nodding and tapping a finger to her lips. And then Hermione began to count off many well-known celebrities on her fingers: "Melanie B is a witch. There is more than one reason why they call her Scary Spice! There's also David Bowie, Ringo, Tchaikovsky..." Blaise's eyes widened as the list continued. "Anyway, a little dance music for the dance floor never hurt anybody!" She bounced on her toes as a song by the Weird Sisters came on.

"Fancy a dance, Granger?" Draco Malfoy seemed to materialize out of the throng of Slytherins, catching her by surprise. She had rarely seen him during the year...which was odd, really, because he made a point of taunting the trio when he could in the past...and she suddenly realized why that might be. Whatever troubles the Malfoy clan had had in the past, they certainly weren't lacking in economic issues (among other things) now. But Draco was still wearing a tasteful burgundy suit and holding two champagne glasses. He set one in Hermione's hand as she frowned, sipping at the drink suspiciously.

"Are you making a pass at me, Malfoy?" Despite herself she quirked a smile...happy that someone was willing to give her a dance...and folded her arms, an action made less effective with her current attire.

"You and I both know how that would go with my mum," he chuckled, downing the rest of his glass and holding out his hand.

"S'pose that's alright, then. One dance."

"Wouldn't want to subject the Head Girl to too much fun." He smirked as she took his offer. She had all night to patrol and would be ignored by some, sidetracked and slighted by others, but for now, two former enemies would enjoy a dance in the throng of costume-clad bodies.

-o-

As the night wore on, the slower songs played more and more. The traditional ones were of Blaise's choice...and the more recent ones of Hermione's. However, as couples paired off and moved about the floor, the magnificent peacock was pushed out to the realm of the wallflowers, coincidentally near Ron, who had refused to give his girlfriend a dance all night. Hermione walked around the perimeter, exchanging vague pleasantries, adjusting décor, et cetera. She was allowed to return to her inner thoughts.

She thought of school, her problems with Ron, the massive cleanup that she and the Prefects would have to do afterwards... and then her mind wandered back to the potion she had been working on since the beginning of the year...the same she had neglected for the past couple weeks. She racked her brain for the ingredients that could increase the potency of her mixture without suppressing the purpose of the potion in general. The only things the textbooks pointed to were ingredients involved with love potions. It was not a love potion. It did several things...along with shedding inhibitions, side effects could potentially increase lust toward the object of affection, if there was any. It was more of a passion potion, causing the drinker to realize many things about themselves, in turn realizing what they might feel about others. Maybe she should write Diniz about it and see what he would think. Somehow that didn't seem right, though...he was always a stickler for regulations. She had made a mistake of telling Harry one piece of information, and it had blown up into a huge deal. Hermione did not like huge deals... unless they were superlative balls like this one.

She eventually turned towards the grand entrance, deciding that a nice, leisurely walk along the shore, without the stress that always accompanied the presence of her friends, would be quite enjoyable.

A/N: To be continued... Heh. Next, we'll see what (or who?) Hermione encounters on her evening stroll ;)

My dress idea is here:

http://av-co-bu-325.deviantart.com/art/The-Peacock-118558661