the day we connected // drarry

day 19 - in formal wear

Draco and Harry's plan to get Hermione and Pansy together had had little effect. Pansy had continuously rambled on to Draco - and Harry, most of the time, since he and Draco were quite inseparable - about how Hermione being bisexual and wanting a girlfriend gave her a bit of a chance and made her hopeless crush a little less hopeless.

Pansy had been reluctant to share such information with Harry at first, but after being reminded by Draco that Harry had been the one to give them the information on Hermione in the first place, she had given in soon enough and now shared her plans with both boys.

It was now the second week of December and the third last week of the term. Pansy was sitting cross-legged on the gap between Harry and Draco's beds. They had been stuck together to prevent Harry or Draco widening the gap and slipping through at night. Harry and Draco were sitting next to each other and facing Pansy.

"Any new schemes, Pansy?" Harry asked boredly, fiddling with the hem of his jumper.

Pansy sighed. "None. They all seem to end with Granger laughing in my face. Maybe I should stop trying- as if she'd ever even look at me as more than...Parkinson."

"Parkinson...her girlfriend?" Draco suggested cheerily but looked at his legs when she gave him a reproachful look. 

She sighed again. "For all I know, Granger and I could fall into a void where we act like we hate each other for seven years and make sure everybody knows it, and then eventually we give in and profess our love for each other."

Draco and Harry stared at her, and then each other, and then back at her. "Wait-" Draco started to say, but the door suddenly burst open and Hermione and Ron appeared. They looked like they were about to announce something, but noticed Draco and Pansy sitting there and stopped themselves. Ron disappeared again, and Hermione blushed as she and Pansy locked eyes. She looked away quickly and addressed the three of them sitting cross-legged on the bed.

"There's going to be a ball," she said. She sounded half-excited, half-flustered. "A ball. Like in fourth-year!"

"There's going to be a Yule Ball?" Harry asked sarcastically and Hermione offered him a deadpan look.

"Shut up, Harry," she said, smiling.

He grinned at her. "Do you know who you're going with?" he asked.

She pulled a face. "I'm not sure. Ron offered but I declined. I think he's going to go with Parvati now, so that's gone. What about you?"

Harry was about to motion to Draco and give Hermione a look that said, 'Well what do you think?' but he quickly remembered she didn't know the truth. He chose to shrug instead. He saw Hermione's eyes flicker over to Pansy so fast, he thought he might have imagined it.

"Well, I'll talk to you later, alright?"

She nodded and made to close the door again, but Harry said, "Oh, Hermione?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it all ages?"

"The ball?"

"Yeah."

"It's fourth-years and up," Hermione smiled. "I reckon it was going to be third-years and up but then we came back and I don't think they could fit six year groups into the Great Hall."

Harry shrugged. "Dunno. Only three-quarters of our year group came back, remember?"

Hermione shrugged, now. "All I know is that there's a ball for fourth-years and up on the penultimate day of term."

"Okay," Harry smiled at her. "Thanks."

She nodded and left the room, closing the door shut behind her. Harry's head whipped around to face Draco.