The Dance

Hermione sat down on the corner of her bed and sighed. Lavender and Parvati exchanged a frustrated look and walked over to her.

“What’s the mater Hermione?” Parvati asked, looking as if she already knew the answer.

Hermione looked puzzled, “what do you mean?”

Lavender then sat on the corner of her bed and said, “you seem upset. What is it that’s bothering you, as if we don’t already know?”

Hermione looked at the two of them, before saying, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Parvati smirked, and said, “the ball is coming soon, and almost everyone has an escort, and he still hasn’t asked you yet, has he?”

Hermione looked down, and sighed, “no, he hasn’t.”

Lavender then asked, “why don’t you just ask him already?”

“I think everyone in the school knows you want to go with him, with the possible exception of, well, him,” Parvati observed.

Hermione the said quietly, “I hugged him today.”

Parvati then sat down as well, “you did? What happened?”

“He was on the way to Quidditch practice, and I did it. Nothing happened.”

They both looked disappointed at this.

Lavender then gently asked, “well, maybe you took him by surprise. Is that the first time you did something like that.”

“No, not really. I hugged him when he won his last match. I hugged him when he got an O in defense against the dark arts. Heck, I even hugged him when he didn’t get a T in potions.”

Parvati giggled a bit as she said, “jeez, how dense is he?”

Hermione quickly replied, “he’s not. He is one of the smartest, not to mention bravest, people I have ever known.”

Before they could badmouth him any more Hermione got up, and said, “excuse me, I have to go.”

She then walked down to the common room where she saw the team returning from another practice. She saw the sweat shine on his face as he wiped his glasses, and her knees became weak.

Calm down, she reminded herself, as she walked over to him. When he finally spotted her approaching him, he shot her that grin that made her heart leap. That grin should be illegal, she thought as she walked over to him.

“How was practice?” she asked, for a want of anything better to say.

Harry’s face shined, as it always did when the subject of his team came around.

“Great. We are really improving. This might be our best team yet, without a doubt. I think we have this Quidditch Cup in the bag. I am going to love rubbing this in Oliver’s face. You don’t think that would be cruel or anything, do you?”

As she stared into his eyes, all she heard was I, love, and you, but she shook that off.

The rest of the team went up to shower before dinner, but as Harry went to follow, Hermione called him back.

“Yes, Hermione?”

She gave him another hug, and as she took in the odor of Harry’s sweat, she didn’t want to let go of him. Then, for some reason that she couldn’t explain, she kissed him on the cheek.

“What was that for?”

“I am happy that the team is doing well, and anyway, do you have a date for the dance yet?”

“Yes.”

“You do?” she said, trying to hide her obvious disappointment.

Harry grinned again, and said, “if you say yes that is.”

She beamed, and gave a bigger hug this time, and after giving him another kiss, she whispered into his ear, “yes, I would love to.”

Harry coughed, and said, “I probably should go up and take a shower, and since I doubt that you plan on joining me…”

She finally realized that she still hadn’t let go of him yet, and after sneaking another kiss, she let go of him, and watched as he disappeared up the stairs.

She then turned to go the portrait hole. She wanted to go to the owlery, since there was an important letter that she wanted to send.

As she passed the stairwell to the girls dormitory she saw Parvati and Lavender, and they looked stunned. She couldn’t tell if this was because they were surprised by what just happened, or if they were disappointed, but that made no difference to her now.

As she left, she gave them the biggest smile she could muster. She walked around for days with that smile glued to her face and most people looked at her as if she was quite mad, but she didn’t care.

Harry landed on the pitch after what was an exhausting workout. He was grateful because it took his mind off things for a while.

He still had the image of Sirius’ last moments on his mind. He also wondered nonstop about what Voldemort was up to; he hadn’t found the relative lack of ne3ws to be very comforting.

However, as much as all that weighed on his mind there was one thing that he kept finding his thought drifting to: his best friend. He wondered why was he so preoccupied by her, since he didn’t think of her that way; or did he?

Harry was tired and dripping with sweat from the practice. As he wiped the sweat off his brow the rest of the team joined him as he started to the castle.

George then tossed a towel onto Harry’s head. As Harry wiped his face, Fred asked him, “do you know who you are going to the ball with yet?”

Harry shrugged, “not really. I think I just might go stag. What about you?”

He gave a broad smile as he stretched out his arm, “yeah, I reckon we know who we are going with.”

Harry looked at the twins, and after a moment, asked, “do they know?”

The looked at each other before saying, “good point.”

Fred then called out, “oy, Angelina, Alicia.”

Harry then looked at Ron, who was unusually quiet.

“Something wrong Ron?”

Ron looked down, and he said, “no.”

“Are you taking someone to the ball?”

Ron then muttered something that Harry couldn’t quite make out.

“Sorry?”

“Luna,” he said, and his face turned redder then Harry had seen in some time.

Harry wasn’t sure how to react to this. While trying his best to repress a desire to laugh at this, he asked, “when did this happen?”

“When I was returning from serving detention with Snape, I ran into her, literally. After I picked her back up, well, she asked me. It took my by surprise, and before I knew what I was doing I said yes.”

Harry wasn’t able to restrain himself anymore, and he continued walking, bent over with laughter, as Ron was giving him dirty looks along the way.

Ron the snapped, “who are you going with?”

After a few minutes, Harry was able to regain his composure somewhat, and said, “I already told your brothers, nobody.”

Ron gave him a frustrated look, “why don’t you ask her already?”

“Ask who?”

Ron stopped in front of the Great Hall, “you know who I mean.”

Harry was starting to get what Ron meant, “we’re just friends. You know that.”

Ron continued up the satires as he laughed, “do you ever notice how she cant seem to keep her hands off of you?”

“Well, we are friends.”

“She is my friend as well and she wouldn’t be any less likely to touch me if I was a Blast-Ended Skrewt.”

“It’s just your imagination,” Harry insisted.

“Is it really? Then why is it that you seem to be the only person in school that doesn’t seem to notice it?”

Harry thought about this as they walked the rest of the way up to the Gryffindor tower in silence.

They saw the rest of the team in front of the portrait hole. Fred had his arm around Angelina’s waist, while George was holding Alicia’s hand.

As they walked into the common room, Harry was looking forward to taking a nice long shower, preferably a cold one.

As he wiped off his glasses, he noticed Hermione coming down from the hall and he couldn’t help but smile. She walked over to him, and his stomach did a little bit of a somersault. This isn’t fair he thought, as she joined him.

“How was practice?” she asked, but Harry couldn’t get his mind off how pretty she looked today. Come to think about it, he has been thinking that quite a bit recently. As his thought about her, he hoped that she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Great. We are really improving. This might be our best team yet, without a doubt. I think we have this Quidditch Cup in the bag. I am going to love rubbing this in Oliver’s face. You don’t think that would be cruel or anything, do you?”

The rest of the team went up to shower, and Ron, whom Harry had forgotten was even there, cleared his throat, and motioned up the staircase to the boys’ dormitory.

Harry followed him before Hermione called him back. He thought that she must be reminding him about some study session, or maybe some SPEW thing that she wants help with.

“Yes, Hermione?”

She then gave him another hug, which he has become quite fond of, but she did something that took him by surprise. She kissed him on his cheek. Could Ron have been right about her?

“What was that for?”

“I am happy that the team is doing well, and anyway, do you have a date for the dance yet?”

“Yes.”

“You do?” she said, and when he saw the look on her face, he knew what he had to do. He in fact had never been surer of anything in his life.

Harry grinned, and hoping that this wasn’t a huge mistake, said, “if you say yes that is.”

She then put him in such a tight embrace that he could actually feel her heart pounding against his chest, as she placed a deep kiss on his cheek, “yes, I would love to.”

While Harry wished he could stay for a while, he knew that he really needed to take a shower, so he coughed and said, “I probably should go up and take a shower, and since I doubt that you plan on joining me…”

When she let go of him Harry felt as if he was on his trusty Firebolt, and he flew up the staircase rather then climbed up it.

When he entered his dormitory, he saw Ron lying down on his bed, not even bothering to take off his Quidditch robes.

As he started to gather his things, Ron put down the magazine he was reading, and asked, “did you ask her? I know you asked her. You must have asked her. Did she say yes? She must have said yes. She did say yes.”

Harry didn’t say anything but took his things and headed to the Prefects bathroom. It was a bit farther, but he had a better chance to get some privacy there, and he had a lot he had to think about now.