A Kiss in the Dark

Summary: Someone sits in the common room thinking about the New Year and an old adage that went with it.

Disclaimer: I used Tom Felton's name in this. Other than that no characters were mentioned so I don't think I have to say anything.

Thanks to my friend Amber for beta-ing

On with the story!

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The common room was mostly dark and the fire started to die in it's grate as midnight crept closer and closer to reality, and I was left alone with my thoughts. Which happened to be the worst thing for me at the moment.

For almost sixteen years I had heard from several people that if you kiss a person at midnight New Year's Eve, well technically New Year's Day, that you would stay with that person for the rest of the year. But what in Merlin's name are the odds that the brainiest, bossiest, and most lonesome girl in school would be kissed at that all-important hour of midnight? Better yet, what are the chances of that same girl getting her first kiss at midnight?

“Very slim to none.” I muttered the answer to my own question because no one was in the common room to hear me preach to myself.

“What is slim to none? Or are you just trying to find the odds of you talking to yourself. Well sweet, you just lost that bet.” A very familiar voice sounded behind me as he flopped down on the couch beside me.

“Ah, nothing. I was just thinking out loud.” I lied, but his smile was there to remind me that I couldn't bluff. Just another reminder that I should never play poker.

“Uh huh. And I am Tom Felton…” I had to smile at that, of course he wasn't Tom Felton. It just went to show that he didn't believe me.

I shouldn't tell him, I shouldn't tell him, I shouldn't tell him, I shouldn't tell him. “OK, if you must know, I was just thinking about the whole kiss-someone-at-midnight-and-be-with-that-person-for-the-rest-of-the-year thing.” I can't believe I told him. I could already feel the blush creeping up my neck and on to my face, just proving to him what I am pretty sure he already suspected.

“You are blushing sweets. Does that mean what I think it means?” I nodded. Sometimes I do think that he is the smartest wizard ever, and they say I am smart. Or I should say that he could read people better than I could. “Darlin', I didn't know that. Why didn't you say something before? We always thought that you had already been kissed when you were fourteen.” I groaned at that, I remembered that year, and believe me nothing happened that year.

“Don't remind me. Please, don't remind me about that. That was the worst mistake in my life.” He laughed at that comment; needless to say that he thought it was funny. “Don't laugh, it is perfectly common for someone to have not been kissed before.”

“But not at eighteen, sweetheart.” I can't believe his nerve; here he is, sitting in front of me, mocking me. He is mocking me. I am the smartest witch in centuries and he mocks knowing well that I can hex him into the next millennium. Men, the nerve of them.

“Shut up about that. That is just a drawback.” A serious drawback if I say so myself. I haven't had a boyfriend, well someone that I could call a boyfriend, since fourth year. It sucks. “It will happen soon enough. I have a feeling about that.”

“Uh huh. Like I said before, I must be Tom Felton.” Goddamn him for making me smile when I am angry. I have decided to hate him from this day forward. Well, tomorrow. You are supposed to start new things the next day. Best yet, a new year. I can hate him starting in the new year.

Speaking of a New Year. Happy New Year to me. Somewhere in the common room a clock struck the first bell of twelve signaling it was finally midnight. “It is now officially 1999, you know that?” He asked me.

“Of course I know. I was the one who starting thinking about it before, remember?” He rolled his eyes. He rolled his eyes. I could have screamed.

Five chimes. Six. Seven. Eight.

“Happy New --”

“Shut up.”

And then, all at once, he kissed me. He kissed me. I can't believe that he actually kissed me. Me? The brainy, know-it-all that can hex anyone into oblivion? My mind was no longer reeling at the thought that I no had never been kissed, but the fact that I was actually kissed at midnight and I don't know if I will be with this person for the rest of the year or not.

He then drew his face back and looked deep into my eyes. “Stop thinking, sweetheart,” and he swooped back to press his lips against mine once more. This time I stopped thinking and allowed myself to be drawn deeper into the kiss. The kiss that my best friend initiated at midnight. And when we finally drew our faces apart the clock read five after.

“Do you know what that means?” I shook my head. I was too afraid to ask knowing that my heart might be jeopardized in the process. “That means that for the next year, you are mine.”

I could and would only give a smile and one answer to him, “Finally!” And believe it or not, that one word summed up my thoughts and feelings exactly.

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Author's Note: I wrote this story not for the general H/Hr relationship or as a get together story. I wrote this with no names so we the readers can place ourselves in the story. Some say that the `Harry' character is out of character, but with placing ourselves in the story it gives our `guy' a chance to flatter us by calling us sweets, sweetheart, and darlin'. (And no the guy was not based after Malfoy!) But that is why I did that part…and the reference to Tom Felton was something I threw in because a guy I know thought I was fibbing and he claimed: `Yeah and I am Tom Felton.' Good Lord, I know he isn't, I have pictures of Tom all over my room, I know who he is (I just happen to be a huge fan)…

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