Pride of a Granger & Prejudice of a Malfoy

Chapter 17: The Date (Part II)

Hello lovelies! I'm back,

So sorry for the long wait. I know I deserve to have Hermione's canaries set on me, thus I apologize profusely.

Thus I'll shut up and let you read in peace.

Enjoy!!

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Dread of disaster makes everybody act in the very way that increases the disaster. --Bertrand Russell

                The date had barely started and Hermione was already wishing for it to end. They had just gotten seated at the restaurant and Hermione was already tired of Cormac’s constant bragging. If she had not met a certain platinum blonde before, she would’ve never thought it possible for one to brag so much. Even then, Hermione was certain that Cormac was reaching new highs, or lows depending on how one looked at it.

                “…and then I did a nosedive. A perfect one, mind you. I was going exactly ninety degrees in respect to the ground and my broomstick…” Cormac continued elucidating some story that Hermione had long before zoned out of when a waiter interrupted him to get their orders.

                “I’ll have red wine, please,” Hermione replied deciding she’d need something stronger than her typical white wine to get through this disaster of a date. It was at this point that she noticed what she’d thought to be Cormac having a seizure. “Cormac, are you okay?” she asked, quite concerned.

                “Yeah, of course,” Cormac replied as the waiter walked away. “Why do you ask?”

                “Uh...nothing,” Hermione replied, not quite knowing how to kindly describe the way in which the right side of Cormac’s face had begun twitching. Instead she decided to focus on her menu.

                “So what are you getting?” Cormac asked. “I’ve been here before a few times and the grilled salmon they serve is quite good. Speaking of the last time I’ve been here, you will never believe what happened! I was—”

                Hermione took this time to glance around the room to see if Fred, George, Harry, Ron, and Ginny, who had all teased that they’d show up to watch her suffer in embarrassment, had actually taken up on that threat and showed up despite Hermione’s counter threat to sic her infamous canaries on them if they did.

She let out a sigh of relief as her cursory scan of the room proved that none of them had risked the threat of the infamous canaries. As she was about to direct her attention back to Cormac, something else caught her eye: an unmistakable shock of platinum blonde hair. The sight that met Hermione’s eyes immediate caused her to wish she’d brought Harry’s cloak with her. For the shock of platinum blonde hair belonged to none other than Draco Malfoy who, siting two tables away from her, was quite unmistakably smirking at her and her current situation.

Hermione’s first impulse was to hide behind the menus. Unfortunately, the waiter had returned and was taking them away. Fortunately, he’d brought their drinks with him, something that Hermione now realized that she needed even more than before to get though the night’s embarrassments especially now that she knew she had an audience who will never let this go and tease her at every possible moment.

“Champagne, on the house,” the waiter said with a knowing smile as he set the champagne flutes down and walked away.

Hermione was quite relieved at the timing of their arrival. Thus in a very un-Hermione-like manner, she proceeded to waste no time in downing the entire glass.

What happened next was something that, Hermione later realized in hindsight, could have been prevented in a number of ways. If she’d not noticed Draco, she would not have felt the urge to drink an entire flute of champagne at one go. If she had been paying more attention to Cormac, she would’ve put two and two together and realized what was about to happen.

Alas, she did not.

And disaster struck.

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Sorry that was so short! I really meant to make it longer. Infact, I've been looking forward to writing this scene for a long, long time. But my favorite part is going to be in the next chapter, when everyone realizes what just happened. I was going to write it all together, but right now I'm too sleepy to actually function let along write (being sick sucks).

In the meantime, anyone care to hazard a guess as to what just happened? The dedication to the next chapter goes to whoever guesses right.

Amazingness xx