The Winterscapes

The Winterscapes - Chapter Eight

Hermione had a problem. Harry and Ron--or rather, Harry or Ron. She had to choose which one of them she wanted to take her to the Halloween festival, but she really didn't want to go with either one of them. She didn't feel anything more than friendship and platonic affection for either of them; she hadn't for over two years. And from the way they had asked her, she was fairly sure that they didn't feel that way about her. They just thought that because she was a girl and their friend, one of them ought to end up with her sooner or later. Last night they had cornered her in the common room.

"Hermione," said Ron, "we've been thinking."

"We'd both like to take you to the Halloween festival, but we know you can't go with both of us, so we thought we'd let you pick," said Harry.

Merlin's beard. I think this is worse than when Ron asked me to the Yule ball. Hermione thought.

When she stood there gaping like a fish and not saying anything, Ron continued, "Yeah, you just pick which one of us you want to go with."

"Well ..." Hermione said, "I'm going to need some time to think about it. Can I tell you my decision tomorrow?"

<><><><><>

Dean Thomas and Hermione were the only Gryffindors in the seventh year Advanced Ancient Runes class. On the way back to Gryffindor Tower after class, Hermione asked, "Dean, would you like to go with me to the Halloween festival? It'll be fun. You like to dance, don't you? I do too."

"Aren't you going with Harry or Ron? They were both planning to ask you."

"See, that's the trouble," Hermione said morosely. "I don't want to go with either of them."

"Oh, I see," said Dean. "Well, I would, but I was going to ask Lisa Turpin."

Hermione tried not to grin. "Lisa Turpin is going with Terry Boot. He asked her after their last Apparation class, hadn't you heard?"

Dean narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"You're not making it up?"

"Dean! I would never make that up; I'd be too afraid that you'd sneak into the girls' dorm and hex me in my sleep. I heard it from Parvati who heard it from Padma who sleeps in the same room as Lisa."

"Oh." Dean shrugged. "OK, then. I'll go to the Halloween festival with you. I just hope Harry and Ron won't kill me."

"They won't! Thanks, Dean, we're going to have a blast!" Hermione called as she said the password and dashed through the portrait hole.

<><><><><>

The Hogwarts professors and prefects went all out for the Halloween festival. Outside on the lawn there was a bonfire, hayride, and a haunted maze. The bonfire was lit as soon as the festival started--around four o'clock--though it was still light outside. It was huge; it blazed higher than two Hagrids, one standing on the other's shoulders. Most of the teachers were outside making sure no one caught on fire or wandered into the path of the hayride, which Hagrid was driving. As for the haunted maze, Hermione wasn't quite sure what haunted it. It was Dumbledore's pet project.

The prefects were stationed in the Great Hall where they had set up games and contests for the other students to play. Hermione herself was in charge of the bobbing for apples booth. There was also a floating ring toss ran by two of the three Ravenclaw prefects, a pumpkin pie eating contest by Hannah Abbot, a pumpkin carving contest to be judged by the two Slytherin prefects and the Head Boy, sack races by Dean Thomas and Ginny Weasley of Gryffindor, and Michael Corner, a seventh year Hufflepuff who could've given Hagrid a run for his money, had an arm wrestling table. Susan Bones and Ayla Quirke were passing out popcorn balls and punch to everyone who wandered in the Great Hall from outside.

Hermione reflected that the problem with being Head Girl or prefect was that you could never fully participate in balls or festivals because you had to concentrate on making them run smoothly, but she decided she didn't mind because everyone seemed to be having so much fun. The first students who came to bob for apples were Allison, the chronically homesick first year Gryffindor, and her friends. Allison was laughing and jumping up and down with excitement, so Hermione surmised that she had her mind on other things besides her baby brother left at home.

"OK, there are three buckets of water so you can go three at a time. You might want to tie your hair back so it doesn't get wet. Then kneel down and try to get an apple. You can eat it once you grab one, but you can only use your teeth! Keep your hands clasped behind your back," Hermione instructed the younger girls.

They were competitive, enthusiastic, and they were hilarious. They raced to see who could get an apple first, and one of them fell forward into the water and soaked her robes and the floor. Hermione let her have an apple and cast a drying charm on her, and then sent the girls to carve pumpkins because a line was forming behind them. Hermione gave the instruction speech to a group of Hufflepuffs.

Before too long, Harry and Ron showed up looking winded and muddy. "What happened to you?" Hermione asked, bemused.

"The haunted maze!" Ron grinned.

"What's haunting it?"

Harry laughed. "You wouldn't believe it! Some of the teachers have transfigured themselves to look like vampires and goblins and things, and Peeves and the house ghosts are hiding in the bushes throwing mud and spiders at people who get lost. You should've seen Ron--"

"Are you going to let us bob for apples or not?" Ron interrupted.

She let them bob for apples. Later Seamus Finnegan and Lavender Brown came through.

"Hi Hermione. How's it going in here?" Seamus asked, pulling a piece of straw out of his hair.

"We've just been on the hayride," Lavender supplied.

"That's what I thought," grinned Hermione. "It's been busy..."

Thirty minutes later Neville Longbottom walked in through the Great Hall's propped open doorway, and Hermione waved him over from across the room.

"Hi Hermione," Neville said.

"How are things outside?" Hermione asked, dumping another bag of apples into the water.

"Great! Well, a second year Ravenclaw almost fell in the bonfire because her friends were chasing her around it in circles, but Snape pulled her out. Other than that ..."

"That's good. Want an apple?"

<><><><><>

Hermione's eyes were drawn to Professor Dumbledore as soon as he entered the Great Hall. His skin was bright blue and he had great yellow horns growing out of his hair, mud all down the front of his robe, and he was holding a pitchfork, but his teeth were enlarged and he had a grin on his face that made Hermione smile.

"Attention students! It is time to return to your dormitories and clean yourselves up for the feast. It will be served in precisely one hour; don't be late! Prefects, if you'll please follow me outside ..."

Hermione joined the other prefects around Professor Dumbledore and walked with him outside where the hayride was waiting. "On behalf of the faculty I would like to say that we are very proud of your hard work in putting this festival together. The students have enjoyed it immensely. I think there is time for all of you to go on the hayride before the feast."

They piled in the wagon. It was easily large enough for twenty students, and it was filled with fresh smelling hay to sit on. Hermione sat in between Dean Thomas and Ginny Weasley. When everyone was seated, Hagrid looked over his shoulder, "Everybody ready back there?"

"Yes," they called.

Two strangely large horses pulled the wagon. Hermione had never heard of giant horses except in storybooks, but she wasn't that surprised anyway. Hagrid pulled on the reins and the wagon took off at a faster speed than perhaps was safe. It was much more fun than the hayrides Hermione had gone on with her parents as a small child. Everyone shrieked with their arms in the air as they raced around the greenhouses, past the Quidditch pitch, in front of the lake, and back to Hogwarts' front door. Every time they turned a corner everyone slid across the floor of the wagon and Ginny Weasley toppled into Hermione's lap. She was beginning to understand why everyone who came to bob for apples had straw in their hair. The wagon came to a halt and Hagrid turned around again. "Well, that's it, last ride of the day. You lot ought to get cleaned up for supper!"

Hermione glanced at her watch. She had exactly thirty minutes to comb out her hair and dress for the feast and the dance.

<><><><><>

The Great Hall was lit by the candles overhead, around which bats were hanging in what looked like midair. Around the outside of the room, the jack-o-lanterns from the carving contest lined the walls and grinned with illuminated faces. All of the house hangings had been transfigured into black ones embroidered with scenes of headless horsemen and ghosts and spider webs in silver thread. It would have been spooky if not for the chattering and laughter of the hundreds of voices of students sitting at tables eating glazed ham, potatoes, roasted chickens, carrots and parsnips, and baked apples. To drink there was the usual pumpkin juice, and bottles of butterbeer that had been brought in from Hogsmeade.

Hermione sat next to Dean Thomas instead of in her usual seat. She was not lying when she said she liked to dance, and she knew from past balls that Dean was one of the few Gryffindor boys who did as well. They had both decided to wear Muggle clothing for ease of movement. Hermione had thought about wearing orange because she was very much in the Halloween spirit, but it looked terrible on her so she decided on a long-sleeved red velvet dress with a deep v-neck and a swishy knee-length skirt. Dean wore a blue shirt, dark grey woolen trousers, and no robes.

When the feast was over Dumbledore stood up. "I hope you all have had a lovely Halloween. Now I must ask that the first through third years return to the dormitories and not throw wild parties whilst we old fogies remain in the Great Hall."

They left and everyone else stood up. With a wave of Dumbledore's hand, the house tables, dirty dishes and all, disappeared to make room for the dancing, and music filled the room. Hermione identified the band at once; it was the Soulful Sirens, whom Lavender and Parvati had been obsessed with since the Weird Sisters broke up in fifth year. "Well, shall we?" asked Dean, holding out his hand.

Hermione took it. As Dean spun her across the dance floor, she noticed Ginny dancing with Harry. Harry went from positively graceful on a broom, to reasonably coordinated on the ground, to worse than Neville Longbottom in Potions class whenever music started playing. Hermione saw Ginny wince as Harry stepped on her foot.

The music changed to a faster beat, calling more of the students standing by the wall onto the dance floor. As it grew crowded Hermione slipped her arms around Dean's neck and they bumped and ground to the beat. She had never, ever thought that she would dance like that at school, where all of her teachers and people who knew her could be watching, but she was having fun and she felt very beautiful, and she was dancing with someone who wasn't bad looking himself.

The music changed again and they waltzed across the Great Hall, from corner to corner. Hermione could practically feel the eyes following her across the room. She was really glad she had decided on a dress instead of heavy dress robes. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Draco Malfoy dancing with a fifth year Slytherin girl she recognized as a distant cousin of Lavender Brown. She had to listen to Lavender whine all week about how life was so unfair, Draco Malfoy, the Draco Malfoy, had asked her spoiled little cousin to the Halloween festival. Hermione thought they looked glamorous. The both had soft, shiny blond hair, though the girl's was long and more golden, and they both had blue-grey eyes and smooth, flawless skin. Of course, they both wore expensive dress robes. The girl's were purple and Hermione would have sworn that she was wearing diamond earrings and diamond clips in her hair. Draco's robes were grey silk, and he looked very pleased with himself and the evening and the pretty girl he was leading around the dance floor.

"You have a thing for Draco Malfoy or something?" Dean whispered in Hermione's ear.

"What? No, of course not," said Hermione.

"OK," he grinned.

Dean led them over to a corner, by Lisa Turpin and Terry Boot, who were having a loud argument. Terry stormed off. Hermione sighed.

"You can go ask her to dance if you want," Hermione said to Dean.

"Really? You don't mind?" he asked.

She shook her head heroically. Dean kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks, Hermione! I owe you."

Hermione wandered off and sat against the wall by Ron, Harry, and Ginny.

"Where's Dean?" Ron asked.

"Oh, he's dancing with Lisa Turpin," Hermione said. "He really likes her."

"You don't mind? You two looked quite good out there together, all dark hair and bright clothes ..." Ginny said.

"No, we just came as friends, " Hermione answered. "I'm all danced out, anyway."

"Me too," Harry said.

"Do you three want to go back to the common room? I don't have to chaperone or anything for once," Hermione said.

Harry looked at his watch. "Actually, I have to go!" He stood up and darted out of the Great Hall between the pairs of dancers.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all looked at each other. "Weird," they said at the same time.