Revelatio

As They Reveal

A/N:- Hello there! Get ready for a really long chapter. It's REVELATIO. Of course the revealing chapter will be one of the longest ones.

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As they conceal

As they drown

As they reveal

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∞≈∞≈∞≈∞≈∞≈∞≈∞

Words, like nature,

half reveal and

half conceal

the soul within.

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

∞≈∞≈∞≈∞≈∞≈∞≈∞

Hogwarts was in terrible chaos.

Giggling girls were dashing after no-longer-boisterous boys. Brave boys were dashing after gorgeous-but-giddy girls.

Reason?

The impending Yule Ball.

It was the new raging topic of discussion those days. Talks were usually limited to apparel, dates and jealousy. It was on everyone's mind. Well, everyone but not Hermione. Not Draco. Of course, one couldn't discuss such frivolous topics when one was a worried bookworm, trying to master the secret of magic or a prodigy in wizardry, training to be a death eater.

~*~

She was seriously sick of it. After a nearly sleepless night, she didn't want to go on a fruitless Hogsmeade trip, only to end up discussing the bloody Yule Ball.

Everyone, even the usually Quidditch oriented Ginny, Ron and Harry kept talking about the damned ball. She was the least interested. So, when she got up wearily from her bed that morning, she quietly went about her business, ignoring the chatter of the girls in her dorm. As she slipped in the common room, the volume increased monumentally.

"Hermione!", someone yelled.

She turned around, apprehensively. She didn't want to talk to any person, except a certain grey eyed boy for whom she had been waiting since Sunday.

It was Ginny. "Oh, Hi!", she replied, suppressing her unreasonable irritation.

"Going to Hogsmeade today? Even if you're not, please come!"

"I am sorry Gin, I really am but some urgent work has come up. I know I promised you all but I can't. Sorry.", she said politely. If only they knew what urgent work was...

"Okay...but don't complain later. Oh! One last question. Who are you going to the ball with?"

Not again. "No one Gin, no one.", she momentarily paused and then quickly continued, "What about you?"

"Neville just asked me!" Ginny smiled but the spark didn't quite reach her eyes. "And don't say that you're going with no one. I sure you'll turn up with someone great."

"We'll see.", she glanced at the red haired witch in front of her. "And Ginny, if Harry and Ron ask for me, will you please tell them that I'll be off somewhere on my own and that I don't want to be disturbed?", she added.

"Of course. That somewhere being the Library, right?"

"Maybe", and with that she turned on her heel and continued her walking, before Ginny could say anything else. As she slipped out of the portrait hole, she noticed that the hallways were not any different. She didn't head for the Great Hall; she had things other than food on her mind. She tried her best to not pay any attention to any chatters and walked on; head held high, ears closed and eyes searching for remarkably smooth whitish hair.