New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|65| Chapter Sixty-Five

S I X T Y  F I V E 

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Returning to the Gryffindor common room only brought about more talk of the Ball, even though Saffron and Hermione had agreed not to talk about it unless they were in private in the fear of letting Hermione's plans slip. But Neville asked Saffron to the Ball and that meant that the subject of the Ball was unavoidable.

It was with a heavy heart that Saffron rejected his offer but suggested that he ask Ginny instead, knowing full well that Ginny would jump at the opportunity to go with anyone, seeing as the ball was only for fourth years and above unless you could get an invite. Neville looked heartened at that but Saffron still felt bad. She actually would have accepted Neville's offer had she not been so adamant on going with Olly as it would be far less complicated and awkward, seeing as they would have knowingly gone along as just friends.

It was also hard to not talk about the Ball when you had Lavender Brown as a roommate, who wanted to talk about partners, dresses, how a partner would dress and everything in between, constantly.

"Any updates?" Lavender inquired, when Saffron and Hermione came up from the common room into their dormitory, to find Parvati in Lavender's bed, gossiping as per.

"Neville asked me just there," Saffron responded idly, stretching out and neglecting to bring up that Hermione had been asked by the boy that almost every single girl in the school undoubtedly dreamed of going with.

"You didn't say yes," Lavender seemed to be trying to make sure that Saffron declined. "Oh, Saffron you didn't say yes?"

"No, I didn't say yes," Saffron told her, slipping into her pyjamas briskly.

"Good for him for trying though," said Parvati in fairness. "He asked me after Charms,"

Hermione allowed her book to fall onto her legs, as she supplied, "He asked me too,"

Lavender let out a scoff. "I wasn't asked!"

The lack of invitations became a common theme for Lavender as the days passed by, Parvati had turned down seven boys at this point, Saffron her fourth and Hermione was now committed to going with Viktor. However, their options were beginning to dwindle, something that worried Lavender and Parvati, to the point that Parvati was considering to go back to someone she had already turned down.

It was a little ironic that the three people who obsessed over it the most in their dormitory hadn't yet found the right person, whereas Hermione who didn't display any concern whatsoever was all set. Saffron tried to think about taking a leaf out of Hermione's book but it really wouldn't make any difference. The quaffle was firmly on Olly's side of the Quidditch pitch and Saffron hoped he had some idea about what to do with it.

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"No luck?" Rowan took a seat next to Saffron early the next morning at breakfast. The Great Hall was relatively empty, and Saffron had been sat alone with Hermione at the Gryffindor table.

"Do you seriously expect me to divulge into my dating life with my barely teenaged brother?" Saffron asked him with a smile.

Rowan shrugged. "Rather me than Maya or Rachel,"

"True, very true,"

"Speaking of," said Rowan slowly, glancing over his shoulder so as to see if either of the two girls were around. "Maya's got herself a partner,"

"You really are such a gossip," snorted Saffron amusedly.

"Am not," insisted Rowan, affronted. "I just talk to them a lot, same classes with Rachel, not to mention we can speak to each other in our minds from time to time," He paused to laugh, "and then same house as Maya, I get to see them a lot more than you do,"

Saffron knew that Rowan had added that explanation in order to not make her feel bad about not having spoken to either of her sisters about the ball. It wasn't that they weren't close, they were, it was impossible not to be. However, Saffron just didn't have that kind of a relationship with Maya or Rachel. She couldn't talk to them about nearly as much as she could talk to Rowan about.

"Who's she going with then?"

"Matt Eaves, the boy in her year," Rowan informed Saffron and Saffron nodded, remembering that Matt was the guy with the messy dark hair. "Wasn't all that surprising, to be honest, she joked about going with Bethany but obviously wasn't going to. It turns out though that even if she wanted to, she had to bring a guy which pissed Melanie off like crazy. She had asked Professor Flitwick about it, apparently, it's some rule of the tournament which is crazy. Melanie's trying to get it removed,"

"Good for her," said Saffron approvingly, and Hermione nodded profusely. Saffron knew Melanie, Maya's Gryffindor friend was in a relationship with a girl. Should she have been the Champion, why would she not have been allowed to bring whoever she wanted to bring to the dance? It's an outrageous prospect and Saffron was hopeful the rule would be removed for future generations.

"Maya and Matt, Rachel and Justin," said Saffron slowly, grabbing some toast from across the table. "That just leaves me and you, honestly, Ro, if no one else asks me I might just take you,"

Rowan and Hermione both snorted.

"Is that not a tad inappropriate?" Hermione asked her with a grin, not noticing that Saffron was serious.

"It's not like in a romantic way, obviously," said Saffron casually. "I mean, you want to go, don't you?"

"Of course," Rowan nodded, before rolling his eyes at her. "Just not with my older sister. There's still time, maybe someone will ask soon. Emilia says I should ask someone but I don't know..."

"Emilia going with anyone?" Saffron asked Rowan curiously.

Rowan shook his head absently. "No, not yet anyway. She's always quiet about things like this, I doubt she'd even tell me if she was asked," He sighed. "Anyway, I better get going. I'll put a prayer in for you that he asks you,"

Saffron rolled her eyes playfully. "Appreciate it," She nibbled on her toast and then turned to Hermione and said: "Is it bad to say I don't want him to find anyone so I'm not the only Mitchell without a date?"

"It is, but you can find someone, just ask someone you like, if they say no they say no, what's the worst that can happen?" Hermione told her with sincerity.

"Dying of humiliation," responded Saffron. "Literally... I might have to beg you to ditch Viktor so we can go together instead,"

"I love you, but that's one step too far," chuckled Hermione, placing her Astronomy book back in her bag, readying herself for the usual sound of the bell that was due to ring out any second now. "It'll happen, if Viktor Krum of all people asked me of all people, I'm sure Olly will ask you,"

Saffron looked over her shoulder to look down the Ravenclaw table and kept looking until her eyes landed on Olly, who was talking to none other than Rowan's friend Emilia Kallantar at that very moment. Saffron felt envious of the position that the third year and allowed her mind to wander to there being something going on between the two of them. But she reminded herself that the pair of them had been petrified back in their second and first year respectively and had bonded over that. There was nothing else to it, surely?

She didn't know for sure, as the pair of adults controlling her gained pleasure in Saffron not knowing. Bored of waiting for the culmination of their elaborate scheme, they were toying with her and had no intention of finishing playing with her just yet.