A/N: I'm so sorry for the wait, but it wasn't my fault. I was writing the whole time. My computer broke and I just got it fixed today, but still I am very sorry. I hope you guys like this chapter, it's the last one, please review! ! ! !
Chapter 3
When Hermione woke up the next morning it nearly lunch time. She swore and jumped out of bed narrowly missing Crookshanks who had jumped off the bed as soon as she had woken up.
She hurried out of her room and down into the common room where she saw Ginny and Draco making out on the couch. Hermione groaned and stalked over to them, she tapped Ginny on the shoulder and watched as Ginny gently pulled away from Draco who immediately looked up and groaned.
Hermione gasped as she saw the large blue and black bruise on his right eye. "What the hell happened to you?"
She looked at Ginny who was clenching her teeth.
"Hey I had almost gotten her to forget. Now I'll have to start all over again!" Draco complained taking in his fiancée's peeved expression.
Ginny ignored him, "Apparently Harry wasn't quite as okay with our relationship as he appeared. I found them fighting this morning near the staircases. They both just got out of the hospital wing."
Ginny turned to glare at Draco.
"He started it," said Draco immediately defending himself.
"I don't care who started it! You shouldn't have hit hum back!"
"What did you expect me to do, let him hit me?"
"No, but you could have just walked away. You should have just walked away."
"And let him win? There is no way that I was going to let him…"
Hermione cut him off. "Would you two just give it a break!?"
Draco and Ginny stopped bickering immediately and looked up at her.
"How's Harry?" Hermione asked.
Ginny shrugged, "He's out of the hospital wing. You'll probably see him at the dance, he looks okay. Draco managed to break his arm though so I'm sure it was a slightly painful experience. He's fine now though."
Ginny looked at Draco who looked smug. She glared at him and added, "Harry broke three of Draco's ribs though and his nose. It's just harder to mend a broken arm then it is to mend a couple broken ribs and I don't think Draco's nose looks that bad. What do you think, Hermione?"
Hermione saw the gleam in Ginny's chocolate brown eyes and decided to play along. "Well I thought it looked just a tad bit crooked, but I didn't want to say anything."
Draco went pale the hand that had been intertwined with Ginny's went up to feel his nose trying to tell if they were kidding or not. He hadn't looked in the mirror since he'd gotten back from the hospital wing.
"Oh, don't worry," Hermione said quickly, "you can hardly tell."
Draco stood up fast and hurried into his room slamming the door shut behind him as Ginny and Hermione burst out laughing at Draco's horrified expression.
Hermione was still chuckling when she waved Ginny good-bye and headed to the Great Hall to grab something to eat before she had to get ready.
She was almost there when she heard a voice calling for her to wait up. She turned around to see Neville Longbottom hurrying up to her.
"Hey Hermione." He greeted her almost shyly, which had become very out of character for him in the last few months. He'd gotten much more confident.
"Hey Neville," she greeted him in return slowing down so he could fall into step beside her.
Neville cut right to the chase. "I was wondering is you might want to go to the ball with me since neither of us have dates, as friends of course."
Hermione stopped and Neville almost went on without her. He stopped just in time to turn and see her pondering the idea then her face broke out into a large smile, "I'd love to go to the dance with you, Neville."
Neville relaxed and gave his own smile in return. "Great, how about I come to your room around 8 o'clock?"
Hermione nodded and started walking again. Neville keeping up pace beside her, "That sounds great."
They walked into the Great Hall together and settled down at the Gryffindor table.
They talked the whole time and were there nearly and hour and would have kept talking if Hermione hadn't looked down at her watch and gasped in alarm.
"What is it?" asked Neville.
"I have to get ready for the dance. I only have five and a half hours before I have to be ready!'
Neville stared at her. "Five and a half hours isn't enough?"
Hermione shook her head vigorously already standing up.
"Sorry, but I have to go. I'll see you at eight though."
Neville nodded and she took off practically sprinting to the door then yanking it open and running out towards the head boy's and girl's rooms.
When she got up to her room Ginny was already there sifting through her make-up and pulling out all the different colors she would use. Hermione could here the shower running in the bathroom. Ginny glanced up at her. "Finally," she exclaimed, "You went down to the Great Hall nearly an hour ago what took you so long?"
"I was talking to Neville," Hermione replied rummaging under her bed for the box with her dress in it, "He asked me to go to the dance with him, as friends."
Ginny squealed in delight, "That's great, now you won't look like complete outcast."
Hermione frowned as she pulled the box out form under her bed and set on top of her mattress. She looked over at Ginny who was grinning sheepishly just about ready to walk into the bathroom and take her shower, "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
Hermione smiled, "How did you mean it then?"
"I don't know, but that didn't sound so bad in my mind." Ginny replied and shut the door to the bathroom.
Hermione shook her head and opened the box that held her dress. She couldn't help the large grin that formed on her face when she saw it again. She absolutely loved the dress she'd gotten and she wondered if Harry would like it too. Now that he obviously wasn't with Ginny she thought she might have a chance, with the way he'd been acting a couple days ago she thought he might actually like her as a girl. I mean what guy friend would he hold hands with and sleep with. Hermione laughed out loud at that. She had indeed `slept with Harry'.
She pulled out her dress and laid it on her bed spreading out and smoothing out any small wrinkles.
She then walked over to her closet and pulled out a black shoe box.
She opened it and pulled out the shoes she was going to wear with her dress. They were strappy black heels with glittering little lightning bolts on them that she had just had to buy when she had gone out shopping with her mother over the summer. She had never really thought she'd be bold enough to wear them, but tonight it just felt right to wear them and they were a lot nicer then the plain black heels she'd gotten to go with the dress originally.
She laid them out on the bed just as she heard the shower turn off she was gabbing a towel from her closet when Ginny walked out with a towel wrapped around her body like a sarong and another one in her hair.
Ginny immediately scanned the room for Hermione, but her eyes stopped half way around the room and settled onto the shoes Hermione had laid out on the bed. "Where did you get those?" she asked walking towards the bad to get a better look.
Hermione blushed and thought about forgetting about the shoes and going to get her old ones.
She was just about to reply that she'd accidentally gotten the wrong shoes out when Ginny explained, "They're perfect!"
Hermione smiled, but the doubt was still there. "Do you think I should wear those?"
"Of course you should, they go perfectly with your dress and if Harry doesn't get the hint then he is too stupid for you to love him anyhow."
Hermione smiled, feeling much more confident. She picked up her towel and walked into the bathroom to take her own shower leaving Ginny to get dressed.
When she came out Ginny had already donned her emerald green dress and the beautiful necklace Draco had gotten her for her birthday a couple months ago.
It was a silver dragon with an emerald for its eye. Ginny loved that necklace and until now she wore it tucked under her shirt at all times. Ginny was obviously nervous and Hermione didn't blame her, this was the night she and Draco were going to publicly announce there relationship to everyone.
She gave Ginny a reassuring smile and pulled on her dress while Ginny started on her own hair. She used her wand to dry it and pull it up into an elegant chignon with a few pieces hanging down to frame her face.
Ginny got up and turned toward Hermione again, "What do you think?"
Hermione smiled in return and replied, "It looks great. I don't know how you get it so perfect. I wish I could do that."
"You can," replied Ginny, "You just don't want to practice something like that when you can be working on something more useful like a shrinking spell or something."
Hermione reached back behind her back and tried to zip up her dress. Ginny shook her head and did it for her, zipping the dress all the way up and latching the hook.
"Thanks," said Hermione as Ginny hurried her over to sit down in front of the mirror. Ginny rubbed some shiny pink stuff into Hermione's hair that tamed the curls that were already starting to dry and tangle up then muttered a drying spell. She then set to work waving her wand in all kinds of complex patterns until the hair fell in loose curls at the bottom.
Hermione smiled her gratitude even as she thanked Ginny for all she had done. Ginny blushed and shrugged it off, but Hermione could tell she was secretly pleased.
The both did their make-up and pulled on there shoes meeting up at Hermione's full scale mirror to check their appearances.
With a nod of approval both girl grabbed their purses and headed down to the common room where Neville and Draco were waiting for them.
Ginny went down first earning awed looks from both boys and more than a little staring. Neville snapped out of it at first complementing Ginny on her appearance.
Draco took much longer before he was finally able to complement her on how beautiful she looked. Ginny blushed with pleasure and took his offered his arm.
She moved to the side so Hermione could make her way down the stairs. She walked down the stairs shyly looking at her shoes. When she finally looked up both boy's were staring at her slack jawed. This time Draco was the first to come out of it with a well earned smack from Ginny.
Neville shook his head and grinned widely, "You look amazing, Hermione," he said holding out his arm.
Hermione took it with a smile and a quiet thank you. "You guys both look very handsome as well," said Hermione with a smile.
Neville was a dark blue set of dress robes while Draco was dressed to match Ginny in a slightly darker shade of emerald green. Hermione was glad to see that Madam Pomfrey had healed his eye and that he seemed to be back to normal.
They strode out of the room together and made their way to the Great Hall where many other couples had already gathered.
The Great Hall was decorated beautifully. Snow fell from the ceiling immediately disappearing when it hit the ground or a person. There were ice sculptures everywhere and icicles hanging down from all the windows. The table and the dance floor both looked like ice, but no one seemed to be slipping or sliding about. The Weird Sisters were already playing and there were several couples already on the dance floor.
Ginny immediately pulled Draco towards the dance floor and he had no choice, but to follow her or be dragged.
Hermione spotted Harry, Ron and lavender, Ron's date, sitting at a large table off to the side. A Hufflepuff seventh year Hannah Abbott was there along with a couple of Ravenclaws. She tried to pull Neville towards the table, but he wouldn't budge she looked up at him in confusion to see his eyes were centered on Hannah Abbott who was talking animatedly to one of her friends.
Hermione grinned. "Come on, Neville, everyone's over there."
Neville looked down at her and hesitated then nodded looking very nervous. He allowed Hermione to pull him through the people over to the table. When they were about ten feet away Harry looked up in the middle of a conversation with Ron almost as if he knew she was there. His eyes immediately landed on her and they visibly widened and his jaw dropped. Hermione kept walking towards them trying to smile confidently while she debated whether or not to run away from here as fast as she could.
When they arrived at the table Hermione made sure to have Neville sit next to Hannah unfortunately this put her right next to Harry who seemed to have regained his senses enough to smile at her and say hello. He was the only guy at the table that didn't give her some kind of complement and the only one that she cared if he thought she looked beautiful or the least bit attractive.
They all talked for a while before Ron and Lavender decided to dance and many of the other couples followed suit, soon only Harry, Neville, Hannah Abbott, a couple Ravenclaws and her were there.
Hermione smiled suddenly and nudged Neville. "Ask Hannah to dance, Neville. I know you want to," she whispered in his ear.
Neville blushed then nodded. Waiting until the blush died down he cleared his throat and asked Hannah very politely if she wanted to dance.
Hannah immediately agreed and they went out on the dance floor followed closely by Hannah's giggling friends who wanted to watch.
Harry and Hermione were left alone at the table they sat in kind of an awkward silence both pretending to be actively engaged in watching the dancing.
Hermione was the first one to speak, "So… how's your arm?"
Harry shrugged, "Its fine. Malfoy just got a lucky shot."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "You shouldn't have even been fighting."
"Yeah well," Harry shrugged again, "he's an asshole and he did after all get my girlfriend pregnant."
Hermione almost flinched when he used the word "girlfriend" but regained her composure immediately, "I thought you didn't care about Ginny like that…"
"Well not romantically. She's still like a sister to me though."
Hermione smiled at that, at least there was still a small chance that Harry might like her as more than a friend.
"Do you want to go talk outside? It's getting kind of hot in here." Harry asked, "I think Neville's still dancing with Hannah."
Hermione looked to check and sure enough he was.
She nodded and Harry stood up offering his hand to her to help her up. She allowed him to, and then walked along side him out into the gardens that had been set up for the dance.
They walked for a while in silence the sounds of the party going on in the Great Hall faded as they got further and further away from the castle they called home.
It started snowing and Hermione laughed and swirled around causing her dress to sweep out around her making her look every inch the ice queen as she danced in the snow.
Harry watched her in shock. His best friend, the book worm, Hermione Granger simply didn't just start dancing around in the snow.
She grabbed his hands and pulled him around with her catching him off guard. He lost his balance and fell pulling her down with him. He hurriedly turned his body so he took the brunt of the fall. Harry winced as his body came into contact with the hard ground. Hermione fell on top of him a shocked expression on her flushed face. For a second Harry thought she might get mad or something, but then she started laughing again and he laughed with her suddenly taking in the strangeness of the situation.
When they finally stopped laughing they were both breathless. Harry rolled them over in an attempt to get up, but he found himself straddling her looking down at her suddenly still face.
Time froze between them as their eyes met, his filled with a sudden burning and hers filled with apprehension and hope.
He leaned down slowly and brushed his lips against hers mindless of the consequences of his action. He pulled back then leaned back down to kiss her again a little more deeply she responded this time a little more timidly moving her lips against his. Harry ran his tongue across her lips and Hermione surprised both herself and him when she opened her mouth meeting his tongue with her own.
When they had to come up for air they were both gasping. Harry leaned down again, but Hermione stopped him putting her hand on his chest to hold him back. Harry looked down at her with confusion and a little bit of uneasiness.
"Harry," Hermione said hesitantly suddenly regretting that she'd made him stop, "What are we doing? What does this mean?" Do you like me? Hermione wanted to ask, but she was too afraid of the answer so she kept quiet and watched his face fearing his answer.
Harry groaned and rolled off of her and onto his back beside her, looking up the sky. Hermione sat up to look at his face trying to read it and finding that for once she couldn't read the emotions playing out on his face.
He sighed once then focused on her sitting up and facing her. "Hermione, I've liked you for a while. Since before I started going out with Ginny. I only did that as a cover up for her and Malfoy's relationship. Though I didn't know it was him at the time. I figured it was just some random Ravenclaw guy or something and you know how Ron is about his sister going out with anyone. I thought she just didn't want him to go all over protective and try to beat the guy up."
"I guess it started out as just lust, I mean you are beautiful even if you don't seem to think so," Harry continued. "But then I started to notice the little things you do like biting your lip when you're nervous and how you always play with the edge of the page when you're reading a book. I started to dream about you," he blushed, "and I started staring at you during class, I still can't believe you never noticed. Ron knew I think, but he didn't say a thing when I started going out with Ginny. I think…" He kept his eyes locked on the ground, "Hermione, I think I love you."
He kept staring at the ground waiting for her to run away or reject him. He finally looked up when the silence became too much.
Hermione had tears running down her cheeks. Her make-up was a complete mess, but in his eyes she looked as beautiful as ever. She was staring at him. Suddenly she threw her arms around him sobbing into his chest.
Harry held her awkwardly trying to comfort her as cried. "Shhhh, Hermione I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything. We can just forget I said anything. I just don't want to lose you as a friend."
Hermione pulled away from him and wiped the tears from her eyes. Unable to find anything to say she kissed him. This time Harry was caught off guard, but he responded immediately putting one arm around her waist and drawing her closer to him fisting a hand in her hair while she settled hers around his neck.
Hermione smiled when they broke away from each other. "Harry, I think I love you too. I have since you and Ginny got together."
Harry stared at her as if in shock then grinned openly laughing out loud and kissing her again and again.
They found themselves stretched out on a pile of snow later staring up at the stars hand in hand.
"It's so beautiful." She said softly looking up the brightly shining stars.
"You're beautiful," said Harry turning to look at her. Hermione turned her head to look at him and burst out laughing.
Harry almost looked offended, "I'm sorry," Hermione said between laughs gasping for breath, "that was just soooooo cheesy though."
Harry laughed too, "I thought it was romantic," he said as they started to calm down again.
"It was and so sweet," Hermione assured him, "I just thought it was kind of funny. I'm sorry. Thank you for the complement, but I'm certainly not beautiful. Especially with my make-up al over the place."
"Of course you are," Harry protested standing up slowly and pulling her to her feet, "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."
Hermione shook her head, she wasn't beautiful, but she didn't say anything.
Harry saw the doubt in her eyes and tipped her chin up so she was looking into his eyes. "You are beautiful, Hermione," he whispered and then he kissed her again and Hermione thought her knees were going to give out.
They broke apart reluctantly and Harry took her hand again, "Let's go back inside. Oh and by the way I like your shoes" he grinned.
Hermione blushed and looked down at her shoes, "Thank you." She waved her wand and her make-up was fixed. "Alright, let's go." She said when she had finished.
They walked back into the dance together to see Ron tackle Draco. Hermione groaned as Harry struggled not to laugh. Hermione smacked him in the shoulder. "It's not funny; go help Ginny pull Ron off of Draco."
Harry shrugged and waved his hand. Ron flew off of Draco and floated in the air a second before being unceremoniously dropped on the ground.
Hermione glared at him before letting out a small laugh, "Ron doesn't even know she's pregnant yet."
"I know," replied Harry, "And there is absolutely no way in hell I'm helping Malfoy out of that one."
Hermione rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "Come on, let's go dance."
Harry groaned, but followed her on to the dance floor. "I better get to kiss you a lot more because of this. I hate dancing."
Hermione shrugged as he rested his hands on her small waist and pulled her closer to him on the dance floor, "Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky."
The End
A/N: It's over, finished. I hope you guys liked it!
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