Always a Bridesmaid

One dance led to three before someone cut in. Hermione groaned softly when she heard the cleared throat and had no shame in turning to glare at the man she knew would be standing there. Seamus was, as usual, unfazed by her glare. Instead, he looked very smug and was grinning in a way that made him resemble a chipmunk hiding a walnut in its cheek. On anyone else, the look would be rather adorable. On Shay, it looked impish, which was never a good thing.

“Diggory, you really need to learn the rules of proper etiquette for a wedding,” Seamus tsked in a very pompous voice she was certain he probably tried out in Dean’s ear during the ceremony. “No monopolizing the head bridesmaid.”

“I must not have received the rulebook,” Cedric drawled as a lazy smile crossed his lips. “If you wanted a dance, all you had to do was ask, Finnigan. I’m sure Granger can spare me for a few minutes.”

“Cheeky,” Seamus accused with an even bigger grin. “Hermione, my dear, we’re dancing this next one if you can let go of your Puff long enough.”

The comment was very basic but Seamus had a way of making it sound as if she were doing lurid things instead of simply dancing. She rolled her eyes and looked at Cedric. “It appears we’ve been ‘cut in’,” she told him with a dramatic sigh.

“Have I ever mentioned that one of my favorite hobbies is hexing little Irishmen?” Cedric asked Seamus in a ‘Go or I might hex you…Please?’ tone.

“Oh? Then I’ve nothing to worry about,” Seamus said brightly before he winked and took Hermione’s hand. “I’m not little. Just ask Dean.”

Before Cedric could respond, Seamus twirled her around the dance floor until they were in the middle. “You’re a prat,” Hermione muttered as he moved his hands to her bum and started doing some odd grinding movement that she assumed was supposed to be dancing. “Get your hands off my arse and stop rutting against me like that. It’s disturbing and may very well scar me for life.”

“Pshaw. I’m helping,” he offered with a leer and wiggle of his eyebrows. “Perhaps Diggory will realize he can touch below the waist and then I can sit back and watch the heterosexual mating ritual as it happens.”

“You’re worse than a prat. You, my lovely Seamus, are a perverted git,” she informed him as she reached behind her and moved his hands to a more proper place. The action caused her dress to scrunch down, again, so she quickly tugged it back up before her bits fell out.

“You know, Muggles make some sort of tape stuff that helps keep those sorts of dresses in place,” he told her. “Aren’t you a girl? You’re supposed to know these types of things.”

“They do?” She frowned and wondered why she hadn’t been told about it when she’d been muttering to the dress maker about how easy it was for the bodice to slip down after a bit of movement. The woman hadn’t liked her much, though, so maybe that’s why. She arched a brow and smirked. “And how do you happen to know this, Mister Finnigan?”

“You, my dear, have a dirty mind,” he said loftily. “I heard about it on some telly program with these two harpies who dress people. I like to watch educational programming when Dean is being all ‘I’m an artist and can’t have distractions’. The closest I’ve ever gotten to wearing a girl’s clothes is my kilt and that’s traditional.”

“Maybe it is for Oliver Wood but certainly not for Seamus Finnigan.”

“Well, then, it’s kinky,” he offered with a lecherous smile. “Bet you’d not mind Pretty Boy Diggory wearing a kilt and nothing else. You’d be more than happy to slide your hand beneath the material and---Ow! That was me bum!”

Hermione smiled sweetly. “You’re not to think of my hands sliding anywhere, thank you very much,” she said after she pinched his bum rather hard. “And don’t you dare give me the wounded puppy dog look because I’m immune.”

“Maybe I should have danced with Diggory to warn him that you’re a rough one,” Seamus murmured before he grinned again. “’course, Diggory might like it a bit rough.”

“We can always go change partners,” she suggested even as she blushed slightly as she thought of Diggory wearing nothing but a kilt and possibly being spanked. God, three minutes around Seamus and her mind was firmly in the gutter thinking of the most inappropriate things ever.

“You really like him, don’t you?” Seamus sounded a bit amazed before he recovered and stopped leering. “He’s a good bloke, Diggory is. He’s got a bit of a different drummer than most give him credit, if you know what I mean, but he’s loyal and nearly as fussy as you. ‘sides that, he’s right fit and got a great arse. You should be pinching his instead of mine. Mine’s getting a bit flabby.”

“He’s fussy?” Hermione was torn between curiosity, as Seamus might know Diggory a bit better after working with him briefly a few years ago, and changing the subject.

“Didn’t know that, did you?” Seamus grinned. “Yeah, he’s persnickety. That’s a great word, isn’t it? Dean’s ma says it a lot. Anyway, Diggory isn’t as anal as you by any means, but he was always working late and writing his notes all precisely. Bothered the fuck out of him when someone’s notes were covered in splotches or they didn’t straighten up their work areas. Couple of the sloppier ones had a party when he quit.”

Hermione smiled as she looked over Seamus’ shoulder to find Cedric dancing with a seemingly chatty, or possibly tipsy, Lavender. “He’s working for Gringotts now so I imagine that they appreciate such attention to detail,” she said with a slight smile.

Before Seamus could reply, the music changed and Vince was there to cut in. After a stammered, “You look very pretty,” they danced in comfortable silence. Vince was a large man, though not much taller than her, and obviously felt awkward dancing. She led, making sure to keep their movements easily graceful and uncomplicated. That dance ended and he released her hand with a smile before ambling off to get a drink.

Three steps were taken towards Cedric, who was looking at her as he finished a dance with Professor McGonagall, who would remain thus titled and never be Minerva in Hermione’s mind no matter how hard she tried to be informal with her favorite former Professor. A hand took hers before she made a fourth and she found herself dancing with Remus.

It was nice to catch up with him and that dance became two as he discreetly inquired about a certain handsome young boy, as they were still all children to Remus and, like Professor McGonagall, would always remain that way in his mind, who was spending an awful lot of time watching her when he was supposed to be dancing.

By the time she reached the edge of the dance floor, she’d been spun around the floor by Colin, Ernie, Terry, Dean, and several Weasleys. Thankfully they didn’t ask questions about her and Cedric, though Terry got a bit fresh and spent most their dance looking at her cleavage and George looked far too knowingly smug when he danced her around to the opposite side of the dance floor from where Cedric had been. Of course, Cedric was gone when she finally stopped dancing and finally reached the area.

She caught sight of him dancing with Tonks, who seemed to be making him blush as he stole looks at Hermione and apparently answered questions. Poor boy had no idea what he was getting into by kissing her publicly. When she noticed Ron on his way over to Cedric, her eyes widened and she hurried through the crowd of dancers to grab his hand before he could do whatever it was he had planned.

“Dance with me,” she told him firmly as she deliberately twirled away from Cedric who had, unfortunately, been intercepted by the bride. Hermione felt a moment of terror at the idea of what Pansy, of all people, would say to him, hoping that she was wrong and he was simply having polite chit chat about the weather with his dance partners. That notion, however, was ruined by the look of mischievous glee in Pansy’s eyes as she wiggled her eyebrows at Hermione and blatantly pointed at his arse and made a grabbing motion behind his back.

“He’d have been safer talking to me than dancing with Parkin-Potter,” Ron muttered in a disgruntled tone. “I wasn’t going to hex him or anything, Hermione.”

“What did you plan to do?” she asked as she looked up at Ron, wondering how Luna managed to not have a constant sore neck. Luna was shorter than her and Ron was even taller than Cedric, which meant Luna had to tilt her head back at a quite an angle to even see Ron. She refused to think about the mechanics of such a height difference in areas other than dancing, though, because again with the Harry-ish eeew, and especially in this case as Ron was her ex.

“I was simply going to ask his intentions,” Ron told her casually.

“I’m not your daughter so I’d say that’s not a question you have any business asking,” she informed him in her best ‘do it and you’ll have boils on your bollocks’ tone.

“He’s been staring at your ti---attributes,” Ron blushed slightly, “and he seems to have a case of grabby hands.”

“Seamus seems to think his hands weren’t nearly grabby enough.”

“Seamus is a perverted tosser who is lucky Dean has a thing for lecherous Irishmen.”

“Ronald, I appreciate you wanting to look out for me but there’s no need to give Diggory the Weasley Inquisition.”

“Hermione, you’re making googly eyes at him and you keep blushing in a really disturbing sort of way. You obviously fancy him and it’s my duty as Best Friend to make sure he knows that he’ll die a thousand deaths if he uses you, hurts you, or pretty much does anything except cherishes you and makes you happy.”

“I love you, Ron,” she said before she kissed his jaw.

“I’m pretty lovable,” he preened before he kissed the top of her head. “Just don’t want you sad.”

“I know,” she replied, “but, please, at least wait until I see where this thing with Diggory might go before you play overprotective little brother, okay?”

“You promise that Harry and I can take him out for a drink if this goggly eyed thing goes further?”

“Promise.”

“Fine. I won’t threaten him tonight then,” Ron relented reluctantly. He suddenly grinned. “I think Ginny already threatened him anyway so it should be okay.”

He ran to hide behind Luna before she could smack him and then Kingsley was telling her that she was dancing with him. After recovering from the surprise of Kingsley actually dancing, she found out Moody had dared him to dance with every guest and it seemed a bottle of aged firewhisky and reputations were on the line. He’d just finished dancing with a shell-shocked Vincent Crabbe, it appeared, so Hermione let him twirl her around the floor.

It was another two dances before she met up with Cedric in the middle of the dance floor, both giving up trying to reach the side. “Having fun?” she asked as he took her hand and squeezed gently.

“Fun isn’t quite the word I’d use,” he decided. “Let me just say that you have some very creative friends and I pity anyone who ever treats you poorly. Those women are harsh and more than slightly scary.”

“It’s been that bad?” She was suddenly worried that he’d decide she wasn’t worth the trouble.

He smiled as he leaned down to kiss her, his lips lingering against hers for a few heartbeats. “It hasn’t been bad at all,” he told her. “It’s nice that they care about you. Besides, I’ve no intentions of doing anything that would result in my facing their wrath so it’s simply nodding and letting them get the subtle and, in a couple of cases, not so subtle warnings out.”

“Oh.” Well, that sounded very intelligent. If fancying a bloke meant her intelligence suddenly diminished, she might have to rethink this entire relationship possibility thing.

Cedric smirked and dipped her back suddenly, dragging his fingers along the curve of her throat before he raised her again. Before she could tug, his hands were discreetly pushing the material of her dress back up to properly cover her where it had slipped from the dance move. She smiled when she saw he was looking at her face and not her barely covered breasts, something that earned him a soft kiss.

The music stopped and dinner was announced as they ended their dance. She was pleasantly surprised to learn that Ginny had asked Cedric to change places with her, which meant he was seated next to her during the meal. Pansy hadn’t even called Ginny on the rather weak excuse that she wanted to be next to Neville in case she went into labor or anything. Seeing as she wasn’t due for another six weeks, it was a flimsy excuse, at best, but Pansy merely nudged Hermione and whispered something about ‘your Diggory’.

Speeches were made before the meal was served. Her speech went well, though it was one of the worst parts of the entire bridesmaid experience in her opinion. She hated having everyone stare at her and wasn’t a funny person so she couldn’t tell jokes that were actually funny or anything. She focused on Pansy as she knew Ron would talk more about Harry, and told a few stories with a dry wit that she could pull off somewhat well. Ron’s speech made her sniffle and discreetly drink some wine to cover the fact that she wanted to cry at his reminiscing of the past years with their Harry.

The speech Pansy gave was entirely her. It was hard, sarcastic, affectionate, and gentle beneath. It was Harry’s speech, though, that made her sigh like a sap. It was just so bloody awful and he stammered awkwardly but it was so full of emotion that she couldn’t help but envy Pansy a bit for having someone love her like that. Pansy seemed to approve, too, because she knocked her chair over backwards when she stood up and kissed Harry in the middle of his stuttering adorableness.

The remainder of the meal was spent talking and laughing, the conversation between her and Cedric flowing so well that she was tempted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t just dreaming. She wasn’t smitten enough to not see his faults, of course. He had this annoying habit of not letting his food mix on his plate, it seemed, and he pushed his hair back from his face more than most girls she knew.

She knew he was stubborn and that he could be rather passive when it came to heated debates, though he always spoke passionately about his opinions when he actually got involved in such a discussion. He just seemed to choose his fights, so to speak, whereas she had a tendency to argue with anyone if it was something she had opinions about. He didn’t seem to mind arguing with her during the years, of course.

When the food was cleared, Harry took her hand and led her to the dance floor before she’d barely stood up. “You know, just because you’re the groom doesn’t mean you get to be rude,” she told him as the music started.

“Yes, it does,” he replied as he pushed his spectacles up before he took her hand and began to move. “So you and Diggory?”

“Not you too,” she groaned in an obvious attempt to avoid this discussion, again.

“Like I could resist?” He grinned suddenly. “It’s sweet.”

“I am not sweet,” she denied before she stuck her tongue out at him.

“No, you’re the mature one,” he said dryly as he rolled his eyes and smiled. “I’ve just never seen you like this before so it’s rather weird but also cute.”

“You people really need to get lives,” she muttered as she realized that her flirtation with Cedric was probably the biggest gossip at the wedding. It was more than a little embarrassing to know their friends were so aware of the changes in their relationship that had been happening during the day.

“Don’t hurt him,” Harry told her softly. She looked at him in surprise and decided that it was just like Harry to say something that left her rather speechless. “I know he’s got a reputation for being confident and very self-assured, but he’s actually rather shy when it comes to relationships and I know it’s taken a lot of nerve for him to flirt so openly with you the past few years. You can be very difficult to please, Hermione, and your expectations tend to be ridiculously high not to mention that bossy streak and rather overwhelming personality you’ve got.”

“I wouldn’t---“

“I know you’d never deliberately do anything,” Harry interrupted as he twirled her to the music. “I just had to mention something because you’re both my friends and I don’t figure most people would think about the chances of him being vulnerable. Hey, did you hear that? I’m actually reading that word a day calendar you got me for Christmas, for once. Proud of me?”

“You know, all those people that say you’re not very smart or sensitive are just bloody ignorant,” she told him as she squeezed his hand.

“Sweet talking me won’t work, Hermione. I already gave him a nice warning of what happens if you fuck with the sister of Harry Potter,” he teased as he pulled on a stray lock of her hair. “Now why don’t you go save the poor guy and sneak away for a bit of whatever happens to happen so long as I don’t have to think about it because, yeah, that’s just not on at all.”

“Save him?” She looked over her shoulder and saw that he was dancing with Luna. She laughed and ruffled Harry’s hair when the song ended. “Congratulations, Harry. I’m really glad that you’ve found someone who makes you happy. I expect lots of presents when you get back home from your honeymoon so make sure you leave the room at least once.”

“She does make me happy,” Harry said with a goofy smile. “In fact, I’m about to find her and do a bit of escaping of my own I think.”

Hermione kissed his cheek and gave him a hug before she went to reclaim Cedric. “I believe you promised me this dance,” she told him as she snuck up behind him.

He turned and smiled. “Did I?”

“Uh huh.” She nodded as she took his hand and moved closer to him. They started to dance and she gathered up her courage. “This is our last dance, Diggory.”

He stumbled slightly and looked at her. “It is?”

“Yes,” she replied as she brushed the stubborn lock of hair away from his forehead. “My feet hurt and I want to get these shoes off so I’ll be more comfortable. One last dance.”

“Oh, well, you need to take care of your feet,” he said with obvious disappointment before he smiled. “I’ve been told that I’m pretty good at massages, you know?”

Hermione laughed as she moved closer to him and rested her cheek on his chest. “I was actually thinking that you might like to leave with me,” she mused with far more confidence than she actually felt at the moment. What if she’d read the signals wrong? What if it really was just a flirtation and he had no intention of actually going beyond a few kisses?

He inhaled sharply and he stopped moving for several beats of the music. “For a walk or something?” he asked softly as his hand drifted up and down her back.

“Or something,” she replied as she deliberately pressed against him in a way that showed what she couldn’t actually say. Her cheeks were red, she knew, and she hoped everyone was distracted and hadn’t just seen her rub against Cedric that way.

“Granger,” he muttered hoarsely as he lowered his head and kissed her neck. “We don’t have to---I mean, I want to, God, do I want to, but I’m good if we just do this.”

“I have a room,” she whispered as she pulled back to look up at him. She smiled when she saw the look on his face that left little doubt as to his desire for her. He seemed a bit flushed and she almost felt sorry for boys because it was rather difficult for them to hide their arousal, the hardness currently pressed against her belly definitely telling her his body was more than happy and ready for her plan. It was the look in his gaze, though, that excited her and flustered her and aroused her all at the same time.

“A room?” he repeated in a husky voice as his hand drifted down her back to discreetly squeeze her arse before it moved back up to rest on the small of her back. “Let’s finish this dance, Granger, and then we’ll just see what happens. No expectations or anything.”

The rest of their dance merely heightened their arousal. The touches were more deliberate, their movements sensual, and she almost cheered when the bloody song finally ended. They had maneuvered their way to the closest escape path back to the inn and she took a glance around to make sure no one was watching as it was rather awkward for all her closest friends to know she was sneaking away to, hopefully, shag Cedric Diggory rotten.

Content that no one was paying them any attention, she took his hand and led him away from the reception. They didn’t even make it inside the inn before he stopped her and pulled her against him for a kiss that made the previous ones seem tame in comparison. She whimpered as she gripped his hair and pressed closer. She pulled back and smiled somewhat cheekily. She took his hand and pulled him along after her inside the inn and towards the stairs as she told him in an echo of his words to her earlier, “Hold that thought.”

End Chapter 8