Hermes' Secret

Chapter 13- Love in Song

Hermione stumbled down the steps, taking deep breaths and telling herself that everything'll go fine. The fact that this was her first social occasion as a boy wasn't the only thing making her anxious. She had something planned for tonight and, well, if it went wrong... Entering the doors, Hermione scanned the Great Hall for her friends, completely oblivious to the number of stares she had drawn towards herself. Spotting them among the crowd, Hermione made a beeline towards the gathering, but, on her way, was confronted by none other than Harry Potter.

He glared at her.

"What?" Hermione asked, exerting much more confidence than she actually felt.

"I want to warn you, Hermes Orion" Harry snarled. "Forcing my fiancee to fraternise with your lot. You'll pay for this!"

"Fiancee?" Hermione scoffed "Tell me, where's the ring?"

Pushing Harry and his scantily clad date out of the way, Hermione continued to head towards her friends.

"Hey" she greeted, sitting down on one of the stools.

"Hey, what did Potter want?" Ginny asked.

"He wanted to warn me about the consequences of making you fraternise with the enemy" Hermione rolled her eyes "Where's Theo? I thought he was your date."

"He is" Ginny replied "He's gone to get drinks and don't worry about Harry. Dumbledore let him off this time, but I've got a feeling he won't be as generous a second time."

At that moment, Theo arrived with the drinks.

"The teachers have banned alcohol after what happened at the last ball" Theo explained offering Hermione and Ginny a glass of coke mixed with lemonade.

"Good" Hermione nodded "They've got the right attitude"

"You'd say so" Ginny chuckled after thanking Theo for the glass with a kiss on his cheek, causing Theo to try and hide his blush by drinking a large gulp from his glass.

"What'd Hermes say?" Blaise asked, coming over with Draco and turning to Hermione "You really need to take a break from being a goody-two-shoes"

"Haven't you got a date to annoy?" Pansy asked, alerting everyone to her presence, her voice more interested than accusatory for a change.

"Ummm, actually I don't have a date" Blaise mumbled, looking down at his feet.

"Wait, you don't have a date?" Ginny asked, looking surprised at the Italian. He shook his head.

"But why? It's always you whose saying that they're irresistible." Pansy said, a glint of hope in her voice.

"I didn't feel like asking anyone," Blaise told them "and when I was asked, I refused"

"Bold of you" Pansy noted before rushing off to get a drink, cheeks flushed

"He's got it bad" Draco whispered to Theo, only noticing afterwards that he wasn't listening to a thing that he said, but was busy flirting with his date. Smiling with affection, he turned his attention to the disguised girl, who was smiling at her friend.

"So, are you having fun?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah" Hermione assured him. "The drinks are really nice"

Enjoying herself for the best part of the rest of the evening, Hermione found herself chatting with Draco when Ginny came up next to her, pulling at her sleeve and giving her a loaded look.

"Right, got to go" Hermione said quickly before rushing out of the hall with Ginny.

"Thanks" she breathed, once in an empty classroom "You're the best. Do you know how long I've got?"