Cupid's Parchment

DRACO

-

So he was wrong, and a bit presumptuous. It was nearing eleven and the dance had been going on for two hours. Hermione was nowhere to be seen. The Slytherin common room was far too pink for Draco's liking, it was everywhere, not a sliver of green left in the room. Draco had taken post in the farthest corner, elevated enough that he could see who entered the common room, but it also meant he had an eyeful of everything else going on.

Too much gyrating in his opinion, and in the words of Severus Snape when during yule ball dance instruction, "not enough room for Salazar between partners." Nope, not an inch. Theos list had been a little too good at its intended purpose. It seemed that everyone in the room had found a name or two on their list appealing. As he scanned the room Draco failed to locate anyone lacking a partner.

Two hours of loud music, migraine-inducing pink, and flashing lights were a bit too much for his taste. Draco glanced at his watch mentally giving himself ten minutes before heading back to his dormitories and succumbing to the embarrassment of assuming The Golden Girl was head over heels for him. Theo's parchment had worked for seemingly the entire Hogwarts student body but Draco's initial assumption was correct. One of the names that had appeared on his list was wildly incorrect.

-

Draco had stayed past the ten-minute mark. He would never tell anyone but he was still holding out hope. That and Theo had spotted him and begun a long-winded speech about some other trinket he had in the works. Draco nodded and "mhmmd" in just the right places but he paid little attention. His eyes were still glued to the door. His stomach was in knots, he couldn't expect the dance to continue much longer. From the movements around him, and the state of Theo, everyone was highly intoxicated. That and it wouldn't be long before couples decided to call it a night and journey to somewhere more private.

Draco was beginning to resent them. If it weren't for the malfunction on his list, Draco would have chosen from the dozens of names and they probably would have been headed.....

The door opened like it had many times before. Hermione stood there, the she-weasel moving around her and grabbing her by the arm tugging her into the crowd. Hermione had made her appearance. Albeit over two and a half hours late, definitely past the point of fashionably late. Nevertheless, she had shown up, though it seemed reluctant as Ginny pulled her in the direction of the dancefloor.

Theo's jabbering pulls Draco back and he turns his attention back to his friend. Draco waits for a beat before grabbing Theo's arm to stop him because Merlin knows Theo wouldn't have stopped by himself. "I gotta go, Theo I'll be back, uh... enjoy yourself with your date." Theo gives him a questioning look but Draco ignores it because of course his behaviour has been strange.

Draco moves away from his perch and down towards the crowd taking the steps two at a time. Usually, Draco has a plan, but now, well Hermione's late arrival had made it so he was going in blind. He was supposed to dance his way across the room, each song making it closer to where she existed on the dance floor. Then finally when they had made enough eye contact and danced around each other just enough he would approach her for a dance.

The crowd on the floor was thick and clearly more intoxicated than anticipated. He was moving through a sea of uncoordinated slow-moving idiots, and barely making any progress. Frustrated, he pulled his wand out of his pocket and began to send stinging hexes towards the feet of dancers moving in the direction of where he last saw Hermione.

Hermione's standing at the furthest point of the room, back glued to the wall, her dress is red, satin, short, with thin straps and it's making his mouth water. His breath catches for a moment and he stares at her before pulling himself forward and propelling forward. As Draco finally makes it to Hermione she looks up, looking unsurprised and less than happy. The she weasel is long gone. And while Draco doesn't have a plan, it seems like everything is unfolding in quite a favourable way.