#⦗✦| and the yule ball idea still lives in my head rent free |✦⦘

[bccksmarts]

  The Great Hall was decorated spectacularly yet again for another Yule ball. Students of Hogwarts, as well as students from Durmstrang and Beauxbaton were in attendence again, but this year was significantly different. Eighth Years ( students retaking their seventh year that they couldn't attend due to the war ) were also in attendance—meaning Hermione Granger got another chance of a perfect evening. Her fourth year went up in flames when Ronald Weasley decided to accuse her of ❛fraternizing with the enemy❜—which was absolutely ridiculous, mind you—so she was very much looking forward to gracing a room without any such assumption.

  Students were bustling around the room, dancing with their chosen dates and their friends. Hermione, however, was stood off to the side with her glass of pumpkin juice in hand, taking light sips from it. Her attire for this particular affair was a sparkling gold dress that trailed all the way down to the floor, much like a princess' dress that you'd see in a movie or read in a fairy tale. The dress was accompanied by golden heels—that you couldn't see due to the dress' length—and a golden choker around her neck. Her hair was pretty much loose, though the top half was tied into a bun at the back of her head.

  Her chocolate eyes scanned the room for her friends and classmates, just to keep tabs on them. After all, she was the Head Girl this year, but she was ❛off duty❜ and Headmistress McGonagall had given her strict instructions to just relax. Her and relaxing didn't really mix. Off to the side of the room, by a pillar, was Ginny, talking up a storm with Blaise Zabini, a returning Slytherin of their year group. Not surprising really, given the amount of gossip she spilled to Hermione throughout the term. How Blaise was so dreamy and all this, that and the other. Harry was stood with Ron, Neville, Dean and Seamus, with Theodore Nott on their flank. Slytherins were mixing it up with the Gryffindors this year, it'd seem, really putting that ❛house unity❜ idea into effect. It was so strange, but at the same time? So right. They all looked so relaxed and chilled out... and here she was, off to the side, standing alone.

  Mere moments of just watching, the music seemed to change. Something slower, something more... intimate. She wasn't prepared for this kind of shift, not yet. Couples found each other so easily, lacing the hands together, arms wrapped around each other or being placed on waists and shoulders.

  ❛There I was again tonight,   Forcing laughter, faking smiles,   Same old, tired, lonely place...❜

  The witch swallowed thickly but quietly, wishing ( oh so wishing ) she had brought a date. She'd declined so many people, hoping for that right person to ask her, but they never asked. Not that she had that expectation; wishful thinking actually. But a girl could hope, couldn't she?

  ❛Walls of insincerity,   Shifting eyes and vacancy,   Vanished when I saw your face...❜

  The more the song went on, the more her shoulders slumped. Her eyes shifted around the room, wondering if she'd see that very face. Wondering if their eyes would connect and something deep would set off, pulling them together as if they were magnetised. Wondering if they'd dance, all up, close and personally; bodies pressing together as if they just fit together, made to fit, and their feet moving in perfect tangent, no awkward stepping on toes. Fluent, perfect, mesmerising.

  ...No. That was just some school girl's dream. The chances of that happening whatsoever were slim. Extremely slim. Taking another sip of her pumpkin juice, Hermione exhaled a sigh from her lightly painted lips before taking the chance to look around the large room again. Maybe... just maybe... she'd see someone, and they'd see her.