Uncertain Ground
Hermione and Ginny whirled into the room in a dense mist of green and as soon as it cleared, they drew in matching gasps at their surroundings in the Great Hall.
It had been enchanted to emulate a springtime forest bathed in warm orange sunsetting light with small balls of light burning brightly as though the space were suffused by small glowing stars. The lights filtered down from a seemingly expanseless sky and dappled slightly by the copes of trees gathered around a meadow full of wildflowers where a few people were already dancing. Off to the side, on a wooden platform, an orchestra weaved a beautiful ensemble of layered violins and brass instruments, playing something that sounded familiar, but Hermione couldn’t quite place her finger on.
“Wow” Hermione breathed “this is beyond what I was imagining tonight would be.”
Ginny seemed at a loss for words, and Hermione felt a similar shock coursing through her considering the battle they had fought here 3 months ago, and the people that they had lost.
McGonagall had corrected the gloom that hung about Hogwarts and charmed it into a spring dreamland, signifying new growth and beginnings.
They recovered from intrusive memories slowly and spotted a vine lattice with glass flutes slotted amongst bright flowers and leaves, which Ginny steered Hermione towards, plucking one out for each of them. Hermione took a sip of the honey liquid inside and was surprised at the sweet violet taste, it was delicious.
Despite all their worry about being late, it seemed they were there before most of the Order. She spotted Kinglsey, now minister for magic, at his place near the orchestra chatting in hushed tones with Arthur Weasley, heads both bent low. As if sensing their gaze Arthur’s head turned in their direction searching, when his eyes met Ginny’s his face transformed and softened instantly, contrasting to the furrowed brow he was sporting a moment before. His eyes settled on Hermione next smiling and hurried over to them with Kingsley hot on his tracks.
“My girls!” he said as he was close enough to envelop them in a quick hard hug. Kingsley sidled up next “Ginny, Hermione” he said as he inclined his head to each of them.
Hermione hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing either of them in just over a month, she could feel the tension of the breakup already breaking up into smaller more manageable parts at the sight of familiar faces.
Ginny greeted them in return, and Hermione followed suit continuing the niceties by asking them how their day at the ministry had been. At their tense look towards each other, she recalled the hard lines of their shoulders and bent heads as they spoke in hushed murmurs moments before.
Arthur disregarded the moment of tension with a sigh “Kingsley and I were just discussing some of the issues we have been encountering following-”
“I think we should wait for Harry, Ron, and the others to arrive before we discuss this, perhaps after the awards ceremony.” Kingsley interjected, “Please, make the most of this night, after all, tonight is a celebration” he continued with sincerity, masking a brief flash of concern washing over his face with a bright easy smile. Arthur’s lips pressed into a tight line, uncharacteristic on his face as they excused themselves for a drink.
Hermione looked at Ginny and saw her jaw tense as she stared after them pondering “Well, that was… odd”, stewing for a few moments more before seeming to settle on what she was going to say next “As Kingsley said, let’s make the most of tonight, it’s utterly gorgeous and we deserve a night for ourselves.”
Hermione nodded her assent to making the most of such an evening but felt her mind tracing over the strange interaction and feeling it out for some hidden meaning that could not be discerned.
Hermione and Ginny chatted about what they had been up to since they had last spoken, only a few days before, and expressed their mutual excitement for the return of the school year next month and a return to some semblance of normalcy. It would be both of their last year at Hogwarts due to the year Hermione had spent in hiding with Harry and Ron whilst at war.
A whooshing sounded behind them as they whirled around to see Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, and then Theo Nott stepping out of the roaring green flames of the floo, the latter two seeming rather buzzed from whatever place they had just come from, Draco’s face remained stoic.
Draco’s eyes landed on her first, a smirk curling his lips evoked a furious blush across Hermione’s nose and cheeks, responsively she scowled at him. The first interaction she has with him after the Battle of Hogwarts without even a word shared is insufferable, she thought with vehemence.
Although perhaps there was some truth in Ginny’s remark earlier, that he did in fact suit Voldemort’s downfall. His frame seemed to be taller, and more filled out which suited his impeccable deep almost Durmstrang red dress robes, with the most marked change in his face which no longer looked drawn and veering on sallow as she had noticed that awful night she had spent at the manor. Reflexively, she remembered the ‘mudblood’ scar on her arm and her fingers twitched to trace its outline against her bare arm. She wasn’t ashamed of it and saw it as a testament to her strength, all that she had survived. Draco appeared to notice the flicker of her eyes towards the scar, and anger flashed across his flint grey eyes. The change of expression was abrupt and perhaps the audacity of her explicit supposed mudblood status riled him she speculated inwardly.
She felt a question forming in her gaze at the deep red hue of his robes and felt his same appraising look as she realised rather belatedly considering the return of a slight smirk on his mouth that their outfits were matching.
Ginny caught wind of the unfortunate coincidence next giggling a bit maniacally as she muttered “I sincerely hope for your sake that Skeeter isn’t here because she would have a field day in her gossip rag” at Hermione’s accusing glare she continued and shrugged “It looks like you’ve come together with that level of synchronisation.”
Hermione let out a groan “No one would believe that”, she knew she had a bad feeling about Malfoy being here, and not only because of their deeply personal and fraught history. Malfoy headed towards them, Blaise and Theo realising his direction and grins widening in greeting.
Hermione’s stomach did an odd sort of anxious summersault as they approached, old school rivalry flared and she quickly started the conversation first by grounding out a curt “Malfoy” inclining her head, and then “Zabini, Nott.”
Draco’s eyes settled unwavering upon her, and he responded before the others with a reciprocally curt “Granger, Weasley”. At least, Hermione thought, he’d grown out of his horrid nickname of ‘Weaselette’ for Ginny, as he continued “Or, is it Potter now?” with a raised eyebrow.
Ginny let out a startled “Not quite” at the remark and laughed, and Hermione didn’t miss the intense eyes of Blaise Zabini that flickered up to Ginny at the admission.
Blaise leaned in slightly and smoothly interjected “You both look stunning” but his eyes lingered on Ginny’s widened ones. Hermione couldn’t remember ever sharing a word with Blaise, but perhaps Ginny and Blaise had struck up some level of familiarity between each other during the last year spent at Hogwarts.
Ginny’s expression seemed to war over different emotions, as finally and seemingly reluctantly a satisfied smirk twisted her mouth as though she couldn’t help it. Hermione felt as though she was missing something.
“Thank you, Blaise. You look rather dashing yourself, as always” Ginny admitted slowly, eyes travelling appraisingly over him. She was right, he was around the same height as Malfoy now was, his hair was cropped short, skin a deep honey brown, perfectly tailored grey dress robes, and his fingers adorned by expensive-looking rings.
The last part of her sentence was partly muffled by Theo’s loud clearing of his throat, and Ginny’s eyes snapped up as thought caught and sheepishly covered “You too Theo.”
“I completely agree” Theo smirked and gave her a wink.
As if recollecting herself Ginny suddenly remembered her reason for wanting to speak with Draco “I know we haven’t been friendly in the past Draco, but I’ve been wanting to catch you tonight, so now seems like the perfect opportunity.”
Draco’s haughty expression faltered and looked momentarily caught off guard as he waited for her to continue.
“I just wanted to say, thank you. Completely and utterly thank you for saving Harry,” she said fiercely, her eyes travelling back to Draco’s from their brief interlude in the depths of her nearly empty cocktail.
His grey eyes searched Ginny’s for a moment before he slowly started “Gin-evra” the name sounding foreign on his tongue, clearly not being able to quite bring himself to use the overly familiar ‘Ginny’ and looking rather uncomfortable with the turn of conversation, Hermione felt similarly, they were being so civil with each other thus far and despite a post-war world, it was strange.
Draco continued “I was merely returning the favour” his expression unfazed with a slight quirk to his lips, as though he tossed his wand at people every day.
His seeming nonchalance did not unsettle Ginny and she grinned suddenly light-hearted again “Just so.”
After considering a moment Ginny continued “I believe you deserve a cocktail regardless, Blaise, Theo want one too?” hardly leaving them a moment to agree before she sauntered off, Blaise and Theo stalking after her and suavely offering extra assistance despite Ginny already flourishing her wand.
They stood quietly for a few frozen moments as Hermione rattled her brain for something to say to the person she’d already agreed in her head to utterly avoid. “So, red hmm?” Hermione mentally cursed herself, what a dull thing to say to someone, let alone to Draco Malfoy her academic school nemesis, and Harry’s actual school nemesis. But, if as it seemed Harry had tried to move on by suggesting Malfoy for an Order of Merlin award, maybe she could reluctantly let bygones be bygones too.
Malfoy’s eyes flashed to hers at the innocuously loaded question “Am I not allowed to wear red, Granger?” he returned dangerously, looming over her with the new height he seemed to have acquired.
Hermione schooled her features in an air of defiance, she refused to be cowed by Malfoy and had sworn to this ever since he’d hexed beaver teeth onto her, humiliating her in front of Hogwarts almost in its entirety.
She puffed out her chest to accentuate her defiant stance which had the opposite effect of what she intended and the dress made the action seem rather explicit and she instantly straightened “Actually, I was just thinking it wasn’t very Slytherin of you.”
She looked up at Malfoy to realise furiously that he had indeed caught the whole thrusting of her breast’s outwards debacle with a kind of wild glint in his eye.
His eyes darting back up to hers unashamedly caught in their detour “Don’t you think certain colours for certain houses is rather arbitrary?” his voice velvet as he raised a challenging eyebrow at her.
She shot him an accusing glare after tracking where his look had shifted from, and she secretly agreed that house colours were incredibly arbitrary, but she had been too distracted by the weird almost flashing thing she had done when responding to him, to shoot a better question towards him, but she would never admit that. So, she ignored his question and diverted the line of inquiry to “If it is so arbitrary, I take it that you won’t be returning to Hogwarts for our last year?”
Draco’s expression soured “Too much has changed, besides, I finished the majority of my 7th year under the Carrows and Snape, so McGonagall is organising my exams outside of the school year.”
Hermione wondered at the disgust writ across his expression, after all, he had been a death eater in his own right at that point so surely that expression was less warranted on his face than it would be on somebody else’s.
He caught her dubious expression and shot at her “What, think I was too busy murdering and torturing my way through Hogwarts to finish my schoolwork?”
Hermione, not one to shy away from his attitude, demanded “Well, weren’t you?”
Draco spat out “Some things never change I see, you’re still an impossible little swot who thinks they know everything there is to know about things they’re not privy to”
Hermione bristled about to huff out a damning retort when the flu behind them whirled green again and out stepped Harry and Ron. She whirled around on them still agitated but upon meeting Ron’s eyes her mind went blank.
Her expression revealed too much, as Draco sneered at her “What, trouble in paradise Granger?”
“Shut up Malfoy” she spat at him, “It appears you’re similarly claiming authority on matters you know absolutely nothing of.”
He made her blood boil and she thought she was utterly correct in her preconceived avoidance of him, and she silently cursed Ginny for wandering off with the others to get drinks. Ron was staring at them, and she thought at a distance she saw a hurt look flash across his expression as he muttered something to Harry who grimaced and shook his head.
She had expected them to come over and save her from the dragon she was so clearly entrapped in conversation with and shifted her attention back to Draco furiously who she thought had been the reason they hadn’t approached her despite it being a big night for them, as a trio.
The turn of her head once more brought to attention their coordinated outfits and realised their position standing alone under a cope of dense trees and luminous balls of starlight suffusing the air around them whilst staring heatedly at each other, and suddenly gasped as she thought – did Ron think she was here with Malfoy?
Draco deciphered her look quickly and looked abruptly like the cat that got the cream “Oh this is rich, does your little boyfriend think we’re here together?”
She shot back “In your wildest dreams Malfoy”
He sneered back at her “Wouldn’t you like to know what my wildest dreams of you look like. I’ll tell you if you like”, his eyes scrutinising her.
Before he could go on to explain all the fucked-up fantasies he had of torturing her probably, she started to storm off. She was supposed to be having a good night, and as per usual any supposedly fun situation where Malfoy became involved was a Sisyphean endeavour of futility.
Rolling her eyes, she stalked towards the cocktail area and plucked a drink from it knocking it back quickly out of anger and frustration. Malfoy caught her eye from where she had left him and he was staring unabashedly and intensely at her, so she turned her back to him and watched the beautiful orchestra weave soft melodies through the air, trying her best to ignore the hole being bored in her back.
The room was mostly filled with guests now, and it was swiftly approaching 9 pm when the awards and speech would be starting. Theo bumped her shoulder, and she started in surprise, she had thought she was standing there alone. She remembered Theo from school, he had spent a similarly apparently excessive, according to Harry and Ron, amount of time in the library.
She smiled at him, and he returned and said, “It feels inappropriate to leave a beautiful woman standing over here alone, I wonder if you’d care to join me on this last dance before the ceremony?”
She felt pleasantly surprised at the compliment from someone she hadn’t seen in over a year, and he looked more mature, no longer the reedy boy she sometimes encountered in the library. He was wearing black dress robes and had grown into his height, seeming broader, with tanned skin, and his thick light brown hair curled slightly in front of his light blue eyes.
She thought he looked rather attractive and stepped towards him feeling a warmth spread through her and quietly returned “Sure, Theo.”
His large hand enveloped hers as he swept her towards the dance floor, when they reached it, his free hand slipped around her waist. There was a wicked glint in his eyes as they darted towards the corner of the room, and apparently liking what he saw over there he cleared his through and twirled her around, hand dipping lower.
Suddenly feeling affronted, she raised an eyebrow and firmly reached around her waist and lifted his hand to the appropriate spot. His expression looked briefly put out before he covered it with a smile.
“It is rather a heady mix of atmosphere and drinks in here, wouldn’t you agree?” he teased, concretising her decision as the correct one in her choice to move his hand.
She felt as though he was in on a joke she wasn’t and replied cautiously “I suppose it is” feeling as though he had watched the whole interaction she had with Draco by the double meaning behind his words.
He confirmed her suspicions as he whirled her around once more and slowed, nodding his head in Draco’s direction who was now in a seemingly stunted-looking conversation with Harry, yet his head was angled away from him, towards the dance floor.
“Your conversation looked rather… it looked as though you got under his collar, I haven’t seen that kind of reaction out of him since our 6th year and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you, Hermione” he said as he tilted his head mockingly to her.
The front of these Slytherins she bemoaned internally, why on earth had she agreed to dance with one, her eyes searching for a clock, surely this dance must be over soon.
“Well, if I must say so myself Theo, I rather enjoyed it too. It is comforting to know that some things will never change.”
That was the wrong thing to say as Theo suddenly looked delighted at her admission, “Enjoyable huh? How so?”
Wasn’t it obvious, that she was annoying Malfoy? What more to know was there about a joyful experience involving him.
Saved by the bell, Kingsley’s voice boomed by Sonorus charm to gather by the wooden platform for the ceremony.
Hermione sprung away from Theo relieved and made her way over to the stage.