Inverse

Winter

"I haff to go now," he explained, setting her hand back on the table. "But I vill see you at the ball, Hermy-own. I vill be vaiting at the ship."

She forced her head to nod. "Okay."

He gave her another dashing smile before casting the disillusionment charm over his head, and disappearing from view.

It was a few minutes later that Hermione was able to start breathing again. She pat her chest reassuringly, telling herself that Viktor Krum had really asked her to go to the ball. She was secretly hoping Ron would ask her, but when she gave it some thought, he probably didn't even consider her as an option. And she definitely wasn't going to go with him as his last choice, when he finally figured out she was a girl.

Raising her knees to her chest, she sighed. It was almost ironic—really, the single most sought out man Hermione had ever seen in Hogwarts had asked her to attend the ball with him. She was sure girls would have killed to be in her position. There was a small bubble of happiness in her heart, knowing that Viktor saw her for who she was, bushy-headed and a total book nerd living in the library, but he had genuinely asked for her to accompany him. It was a wonderful feeling.

Smiling, she decided to at least inform Ginny about it, and stood from her seat. She returned the book to its proper place, scanned around her area to make sure she wasn't leaving anything behind, and took off.

Ginny was gaping like a fish after Hermione had informed her of her new date, her face was twisted into an expression of shock and delight. She released a nervous laughter when the red head asked what kind of look she was going for.

"Er—I haven't really thought about it," she replied honestly. "My mum picked out this light blue dress for me—never thought I'd actually wear it though."

"Hermione!" Ginny looked taken aback. "You must! Let me see this dress, I'll help you."

Feeling rather nervous about the young Weasley aiding her, Hermione flipped her trunk open and gently pulled out the blue dress that had been sitting under everything else. Her friend gasped and squealed quietly as she gazed at it, her eyes flashing with ideas.

"Ginny, I'm thinking of just—I don't know—something natural?"

She just nodded and mumbled under her breath, not listening to her. "I've got the perfect look for you! Just trust me on this. You'll look absolutely stunning!"

Hermione cleared her throat and gulped down her sudden anxiety. Maybe it wasn't such as good idea to inform her.

.

The week before the Yule Ball, Malfoy finally decided to return to the library. For the last few weeks, she had simply followed him down to the Quidditch pitch or watched him walk back into the Slytherin common room. He went to the lake one time, sitting there by himself while Hermione simply watched him do nothing. It was incredibly aggravating just standing there, but she thought it would be too strange for her to walk up to him and start conversing like they were old friends. It just didn't work like that.

The term was officially over, so she hadn't bothered to use the Time Turner. She was able to get away from Harry and Ron relatively easily, and staying out of sight after that was also within her new skill set. Unfortunately, trying to find Malfoy was a lot harder than she thought.

Hermione watched with narrowed eyes as Malfoy walked through the double doors of the library. It was Christmas break, and she doubted that he was going to do any reading for future classes. Her surprise grew even more as she noticed him stop by the muggle study section. She clamped her hand over her mouth to suppress a gasp, and watched, as he seemed to carefully read through the spines and pulled out three books off the shelf.