Dramione One-Shots (Dramione Fanfiction)

2. Under Freshly Painted Ceilings

Prompt: See above YouTube video. It's beautiful anyway, and it inspired this story.

"I don't understand why we have to have masquerade balls in our final year," Hermione said with a somewhat petulant sigh. "It's so much fuss over just one evening."

"But it gives us a chance to feel beautiful," said Parvati with a gentle smile over the other girl's shoulder. "You can't tell me you don't love your dress, it's perfect!"

"I do like my dress," Hermione admitted as Parvati helped to tighten the corset.

It was an enormous Edwardian-inspired brocade ball gown, with a tightly pulled-in waist and wide hips which balanced the low square neckline. Despite her reservations about the masquerade customs, Hermione would be damned if she didn't go all-in with her appearance. The pale blue fabric was shot through with delicate silver threads which gave the whole dress a mysterious sheen under the candlelight of the girl's dormitory. There was heavy lace detailing around the cuffs of the tight three-quarter sleeves, and plenty around the bust as well; Hermione had joked about looking like a wedding cake when she and the other girls had gone shopping for it, but as Parvati secured the corset and smoothed down the back of the dress, she knew that it was only out of fear that she didn't look as good in it as she felt.

"Even you can manage to lighten up for one night of the year, Hermione." Lavender chimed in as she passed Hermione her silk gloves and the triple-layered pearl necklace that she was being loaned for the night by a girl in the year below.

"It's not that I don't want to lighten up, I just think the whole thing is... frivolous."

"For someone who doesn't like frivolity, you look incredible," Lavender smiled. "Are you trying to impress someone?"

"Not at all," Hermione admitted, "I just wanted the opportunity to dress as someone else entirely and be more than the bookworm know-it-all for one evening. Nobody will know it's me, and so I can afford to dress as un-Hermione-like as I want."

"Well, grab your mask and let's go downstairs!" Parvati encouraged, lifting her dark curtain of hair out of the way so she could put on her own mask. Lavender did the same, making triumphant comments about the ease of having put her hair in a bun, and congratulated Hermione on her same choice.

They left the dormitory eagerly, already chattering about which boys they thought would rise to the occasion. Hermione cast herself a final look in the floor-length mirror that sat beside the door.

She really didn't look like the Hermione anyone knew: ornate dress, gloved hands, a cinched waist and emphasised bust... All of these things screamed confidence in a way that Hermione couldn't possibly replicate with her normal daily attire. Her hair was straightened - it had taken the girls hours to comb it all through and even longer to then iron it flat - and coiled into an elegant curl at the top of her head. While her mask hid the top half of her face, it still meant that she could apply perhaps her favourite part of her look: lipstick. A dark purple-brown shade with a slight shimmer that complimented her skin and eyes effortlessly - and, with the aid of the mask, made her look nothing like Hermione. It was perfect.

Ensuring the elastic on her blue tissue mask would hold, Hermione made her way to the Great Hall. She stopped short of the bottom of the impressive staircase and waited just for a moment. She wasn't sure why, but it felt right to halt for a second, take a deep breath, and then proceed onwards. Tonight Hermione wasn't Hermione: she was whoever she wanted to be. And she wanted to be confident.

So she build up that courage and strode into the Hall. Already people were mingling and dancing; she easily recognised Ron despite his mask (the fiery hair was a dead giveaway), and assumed the dark-haired boy beside him who was gesturing awkwardly to the red-headed girl in a coral pink dress was Harry. Harry, who was badly flirting with Ginny. Hermione decided to steer clear of her usual friends and see what happened.