To Me, From Me // DHr ✔️

s e v e n

"Let me get this straight. You're telling me that you," Ginny pointed towards Hermione that night during dinner. "Hermione Granger, just went and asked for a ball?"

Offended, Hermione slapped away Ginny's finger that was in front of her face. "I'm not that much of an introvert! Why is me asking for a bit of socialising such a hard concept to grasp?"

"Because you're like a black-hole where all happiness goes to die?" Dean piped in.

Hermione mocked the laughter of her friends. "Don't make me go over the table and smack you left and right, Thomas." She threatened with a wave of her spoon. He threw up his hands to signal his surrender.

"So, this end of term ball is going to be broadcasted outside of school? Does that mean we're going to be partying with the Rita Skeeters of the Wizarding world?" Ginny asked in all seriousness. Hermione promptly nodded with a grin plastered on her face.

"That's the idea, yes. If the people realize Hogwarts is still the safest place, more parents would let their children go here." She continued.

"But the reason they don't is because of the Slytherins." Seamus all but spat. "They're all here, the rotters. Bunch of no-good, evil-"

"Oh, they're not so bad. They're actually quite nice once you get to know them." Came the airy voice of Luna who appeared out of nowhere and was suddenly sat beside a blushing Neville. Seamus' eyes narrowed into slits.

"Don't tell me you've been hanging around them? You know what they did in the war – they don't deserve to be here." But Luna brushed Seamus off with a flick of her wand and a chicken drumstick flew into his mouth, shutting him up instantly and causing the entire table to erupt into laughter as he tried taking it out but to no avail.

In the middle of watching Seamus trying and failing to break free from Luna's charm work, Hermione's eye caught a familiar tuft of blonde hair in her peripheral vision. Cocking her head slightly to the right past Seamus who was sitting in front of her, she saw that Draco wasn't in his usual seat besides Parkinson and Goyle. She paused, remembering that maybe he doesn't like sitting with them anymore because of what happened with Crabbe.

She doesn't seem to recall ever seeing Zabini, Nott and Malfoy talk so animatedly before. Actually, she doesn't think she's ever seen them sit together in meals because Malfoy was always flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. But of course, she hadn't really paid any attention to them before now.

They look like they've been friends forever. They look like Ron, Harry and me.

And all of a sudden, Hermione missed her two best friends more in that second than she's ever missed them since the war. Her mind flipped through her memories of the three of them talking and laughing and wondered if things would ever be the same again. It was only when Ginny catapulted a piece of kidney pie that landed on her nose that she effectively snapped out of her little trance.

"Ginny!"

----

That night, Hermione spent the hours holed up in her dorm, going over the details for their upcoming Winter Ball. She's worked out with McGonagall that the ball would be for all year levels and that it would happen on the Friday two days before the students leave for the holiday break. She decided to enlist Parvati Patil to help with the organisation since Hermione knows of her flair for this sort of thing. She was in the middle of writing to her when she accidentally knocked over her ink pot, causing the ink to drip down from the table and onto her school bag that was placed right under it. She saw that her Hogwarts: A History took most of the inky damage. Pulling it out to clean, she remembered the photograph.

She knows that it would be an impossible task to try and find out who the other half of the picture is, but she can't help but wonder. After all, she looks so happy. This is Hermione's future, and there must be a reason she was sent this now.

With a newfound sense of determination, she quickly penned her letter to Parvati then took out a fresh piece of parchment. After refilling her ink pot, she started listing down names.