~ Love in Blindness ~ Part 3
The months flew by and Hermione quickly fell back into her standard routine. Despite her handicap, she easily balanced studying for the N.E.W.T.s and her Head Girl duties quite easily. She added a few charms on her clothing, which gave her a mental picture of her location in the castle, making going from place to place a lot easier. Almost immediately, laughter returned to Hermione's face and the area of the Gryffindor table that was always reserved for the trio was finally relishing in the defeat of Voldemort.
It happened one afternoon just a few days before the graduation ball. Hermione had just completed her final N.E.W.T. exam and was in high spirits when Draco Malfoy crept up behind, a sick grin adorning his face; it was clear that he was hoping to pick up from where he had left off a few months earlier. However, just when Malfoy was about to raise his wand, Hermione spun around and shouted, "Expelliarmus!".
Malfoy was flung back into the wall while his wand flew into Hermione's hand. "Tat-ta Malfoy, not this time," she said with a smirk on her face.
"G-Granger? How..." Malfoy spluttered. He tried to hide his fear but it was rather pointless since Hermione couldn't see his face and she could easily sense his fear.
"I have my ways," Hermione said with a smirk. She walked up to Malfoy and raised the two wands. Malfoy tried to shield himself with his hands but Hermione simply tossed his wand back to him.
"So long, twitchy little ferret," she said. As she walked away from a shocked Malfoy Hermione tried rather unsuccessfully to stop the giggles that escaped her lips. About a minute later, Hermione smiled as she heard two sets of very familiar footsteps run up to her. She knew in an instant that the footsteps belonged to Harry and Ron.
"Hermione!" Harry shouted. "We just saw Malfoy, what happened?"
"Oh, I just had a little run in with him," Hermione said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"What did he do to you?! I'll kill him!" Ron hissed as he cracked his knuckles.
"Nothing happened, Ron," Hermione said. "He tried to do something to me but I just gave him a taste of his own medicine."
"Are you sure you're all right?" Harry asked.
"I'm fine, Harry."
"Well if he, or anybody else ever tries to hurt you," Harry said. "I promise I'll stop them and make sure you're safe."
"I can take care of myself, Harry," Hermione sighed. But then she smiled and said, "But thank you for being my knight in shining armor anyway." She stood up on her tiptoes in an attempt to kiss Harry on the cheek. However, since she couldn't see where Harry's cheek was she ended up nailing him somewhere else. Hermione was completely shocked the instant she realized that the soft surface her lips touched was none other than Harry's own lips. She also felt the shock that went through Harry's body. However, before she could pull away to wallow in her embarrassment, she felt Harry start to kiss her back and his hands starting to roam her back. Before she could even remind herself that this was her best friend she was kissing, Hermione was kissing Harry back in a flurry of passion and her hands were buried in Harry's messy hair. Tongues started to duel as the boy and the girl tried to get closer to each other than they already were. Their clothes were very constraining and their hands soon started to fondle with each other's robes...
Ron cleared his throat very loudly and Harry and Hermione immediately sprung apart, their faces very, very red. Ron looked at his watch and said, "Hmm, two minutes. Not bad for what I'm assuming is a first kiss."
"U-um...um, I'll see y-you later, Harry," Hermione said, her face very red. She quickly gathered her books and scrabbled away toward the sanctuary of Gryffindor tower.
Harry meanwhile simply stood there looking shocked for about a minute when his face suddenly broke into a wide grin as if he had suddenly solved the greatest mystery in the world, which he probably had. Ron, seeing Harry's reaction rolled his eyes and said, "Its about bloody time!"
* * *
All too soon, the night of the graduation ball came. The ball was set, like all dances in the Great Hall underneath a star filled ceiling that simply twinkled. Dumbledore had given Harry and Hermione, the Head Boy and Head Girl, full charge of organizing the dance and they had made sure it would be an affair people would remember for a long time.
Hermione strode out of her dorm toward the Great Hall with a feeling of uneasiness. Since she couldn't see, she had to completely rely on Parvati and Lavender to help her dress up and she had absolutely no idea what she looked like. It wasn't that she didn't trust their tastes but Parvati and Lavender tended to dress in clothes that were far too revealing and wear way too much make up.
Feeling nervous, Hermione started to descend the stairs toward the Common Room as elegantly as she could where she would be meeting Harry and Ron. As she descended the stairs, her sharp ears picked up the sudden silence that came over the two boys. Hermione couldn't help but grin as she pictured their reactions, their jaws dropping and the two of them gaping like fish.
In fact, Harry and Ron had plenty of reason to gape. Lavender and Parvati had taken their job of dressing Hermione up seriously and quite frankly she looked beautiful. She was wearing a strap-less midnight blue dress robe that hugged her body closely and yet was completely decent. Her normally bushy hair had been tamed and pulled into an elegant bun though a few curls still framed her face. She wore a very slight hint of makeup, namely a light shade of lipstick and a slight amount of blush on her cheeks.
Harry was the first one to find his voice, "Hermione, you look absolutely...absolutely..."
"Amazingly stunning," said Ron with a huge grin.
"Beautiful," Harry finished, a smile on his face.
"Thank you," Hermione said while blushing a little. "I sure wish I could say the same for you two." Since she couldn't see how her two best friends were dressed, she had to rely on the reactions she heard from the other girls in the common room. In fact, Harry and Ron were also looking very handsome, Harry in his bottle green dress robes and Ron in his new sky blue ones.
"Shall we proceed," Ron said as he and Harry looped their arms around Hermione's arms.
"Yes, lets go," she said.
* * *
The dance turned out to be a great success for the majority of the Hogwarts residence. Dinner was great, the decorations were good, and Dumbledore had even hired a magical orchestra.
This was the last event the seventh years would participate in at Hogwarts before commencement two days later. After that, the seventh years would be going out to the rest of their lives. While eating her dinner, Hermione's thoughts wandered toward her immediate future. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were going to share a flat in London where Ron would start work at the ministry while Harry began auror training. Hermione's sudden blindness had disrupted her future plans so she wasn't sure what she would be doing after graduation. Whichever, she wasn't all that worried about her future since her outstanding N.E.W.T. scores meant that she could probably do anything she wanted. She would be O.K., so long as Harry was with her all through the way.
"May I have this dance?" Harry's voice cut into Hermione's thoughts and she was a little startled.
"What?"
"May I have this dance?" Harry asked again.
Although Hermione knew that Harry was an abysmal dancer, she blurted out, "Yes," as she tried to suppress the quickening rate of her heartbeat.
Harry grinned and pulled her out onto the dance floor just as the orchestra started to play a slow romantic tune. The two wrapped their arms around each other and started swaying softly to the music. All this time, Hermione was having a serious case of the butterflies. She hadn't been this close to Harry ever since that first kiss they had shared a few days ago; that wonderful kiss which they had mutually decided not to talk about until the right time.
As the two continued to dance, Hermione couldn't help but think, 'Is this the right time?'. Her heart was racing and there was a lot of heat in her cheeks. Finally, Hermione struck up her courage and said, "Um, H-Harry..." when Harry's lips suddenly descended on hers.
At first, Hermione was too shocked to do anything, but she soon recovered and started to kiss him back. In an instant, the rest of the world disappeared and all who existed were Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. They seemed to have forgotten the rest of the people in the Great Hall whom all had their eyes on Harry and Hermione, the music now silent. The kiss wasn't as steamy as their first one, but it was still enough to convey all the passion and the feelings that the two were baring to each other. Tears started to build up in Hermione's eyes as a beautiful feeling of bliss filled her, as if Harry were the matching piece of the puzzle to her life. When the two finally parted due to lack of oxygen, there was only one thing Hermione could possible say, " I love you, Harry."
"I love you too, Hermione." Abruptly, the entire hall broke out into a huge applause, much to the embarrassment of the two at its center.
To be continued...
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