"Come and dance" he added abruptly to Hermione.
She looked taken aback, but pleased too, and got up ; they vanishes together into the growing throng on the dance floor.
"Ah, they are together now?" asked Krum, momentarily distracted.
"Er-Sort of" said Harry.
As Ron led Hermione by the hand onto the now pretty crowded dance floor, full of loved up couples or merry partygoers, what had been a fairly upbeat song morphed into a slow, romantic ballad at the bridge. Both Ron and Hermione shared a slightly nervous look, but it was brief. Ron had a courageous moment and glanced down at the dainty held he still held tightly.
"Miss Granger, can I have this dance?" Ron smiled crookedly, gently running his hand over her own smaller one.
"You most certainly can, Mr Weasley!" Hermione grinned back. At this, a mix of emotions flooded Ron's face- half ecstatic and half relieved, as if he'd expected her to say no.
Ron then pulled Hermione in closer to his chest, until their bodies were only a matter of inches away from each other. Ron tensed a little, unsure as to how she'd take this bold manoeuvre, but, much to his elation, Hermione's expression softened and she smiled at him in return, putting her arms round his neck. His answering grin was dazzling, as he positioned his arms around her waist. Their bodies moved fluidly and in perfect rhythm with the song playing, Hermione leading and Ron happily moving with her. A minute or so had passed before either one spoke up.
"You know, you don't have to be intimidated by Victor" Hermione announced matter of factly, gesturing vaguely to the table where he and Harry were conversing. "I know you don't like me talking to him, but I swear to you, he's just a friend. And that's all he'll ever be." She finished, gazing up at Ron, a good head taller than her, whose smile had now faltered and an apprehensive expression taking its place on his features.
"You swear? You have no feelings for him whatsoever?" Hermione shook her head rigorously. "Oh" he replied, the smile returning to his eyes once more. "It's just, the way he looks at you, like you're a piece of meat…" He shook his head, disgusted at the thought.
Hermione could pick out the protective edge in his voice as he spoke, and she fought to keep her words light for him. "That's what I get for wearing this dress!"
At that, Ron couldn't help but glance down at Hermione's outfit again. The lavender dress she was wearing was just the perfect shade for her complexion, and the fit of the dress itself was figure hugging in all the right places. Her matching heels were high enough to give her an extra height boost, but not high enough that she towered over Ron. Her face, which, in truth, Ron had been focused on more than anything else, was made up with minimal, but pretty make-up, her normally frizzy hair sleek and shiny. Ron was momentarily lost for words at this revelation – an odd occurrence.
"You really do look - uh, you know" he stammered, his ears flushing scarlet.
"You know?" Hermione smirked, one eyebrow raised.
"Beautiful" Ron managed eventually, his voice muted, his ears now as red as his hair. "You look beautiful tonight, Hermione" he added a little louder.
"Why thank you Ronald!" Hermione smiled back, a blush now creeping across her features too. "You scrub up pretty well yourself"
Ron beamed in reply, just as the DJ announced that they were going to slow things down even more. "Grab your special someone and some dancing shoes, because it's time to celebrate the power of love!" He then started a song by Celestina Warbeck, Ron was quite sure, from the groans coming from Fleur's direction – she hated that music.
As Bill and Fleur waltzed past Ron and Hermione, Ron's brother Bill winked at him and nodded in Hermione's direction. 'You finally got her!' he mouthed, Ron waving him off discreetly. That was all he needed, for his older brother to mess everything up when things were going so perfectly between them.
It was then, as Ron focused his attention back to Hermione, that he noticed her eyes seemed distant, her expression mournful. "Hermione, is everything alright?" he asked, suddenly worried that they'd done something to upset her.
Hermione composed her features and forced a weak smile for Ron, if it could even be considered a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine." She replied quietly, looking down. Ron, unconvinced, gently placed a hand on her cheek and brought her back to face him.
"What's got your wand in a knot really? There's something, I can tell. Is it me? I know I have two left feet and – "
"No! Of course not!" she said immediately, then after a pause "I was just thinking, worrying a little, I guess, about what's coming. We're going to be leaving any day now, and I'm just panicking that after all our careful planning, something might go wrong. Or someone will get hurt. I mean, we are going u against Voldemort, essentially; you never know what to expect." She hesitated. "I suppose that's my problem – the unknown. I like books and facts, and we're going into this blind…" she trailed off, biting her lip.
Ron was now wearing an expression that Hermione wasn't used to seeing all that often – his features were serious, his eyes worried, for her, she was sure. He moved his other hand to cup her face softly in his large hands. "I obviously can't make a promise to you that everything will be ok, even though I'd love to. All I know is that Harry's a smart guy, and you're the brightest witch of your age; I'm sure we'll figure something out" he winked.
Hermione's answering smile this time was genuine, and this warmth was even visible in her deep brown eyes. "Thank you, you're right. But you forgot someone really important."
"I did?" Ron smirked, "What would you say I am then?"
"Amazing. You're the glue, and we'd be a mess without you." With that, she reached up on her tiptoes to gently peck him on the lips. Brief but meaningful. Ron stared down at her for a moment, shell shocked, but then he laughed lightly and pulled Hermione even closer to his body. She let her head rest on his shoulder, his arms tightening around her waist. They were like this for a while, gently swaying on the spot, until Hermione spotted Luna over Ron's shoulder doing the same, but by herself, and she erupted into fits of giggles. Ron smiled, glad at her mood change and after looking to the source, couldn't help but laugh too. Luna was swaying from side to side, her arms spiralling around her head, hair flying everywhere, looking perfectly content, in a erratic, brightly coloured dress.
"You've gotta love her" Ron said.
"Yeah" Hermione agreed, and then she added quietly, "I'll miss Hogwarts." She said it almost to herself, like she'd not really wanted Ron to hear. But he did.
Ron looked at her quickly, expecting another mood wing, but there was nothing. She only seemed to be thinking aloud. "Me too. But, hey, you won't miss the library, since I'm pretty sure you're bringing most of it with us!"
She giggled again, just as the song morphed into a faster, well known track by The Weird Sisters. Ron released all of Hermione but a hand, and they started to dance again, Ron twirling her around, all her worries forgotten.
"You know, I keep thinking what if? What if we had gone to the Yule Ball together? I wonder if it'd be like this." Hermione called over loudly to Ron, who stopped twirling Hermione for a moment and who's face softened.
"I wonder that all the time. You know how much I regret not asking you. One of my biggest mistakes."
"I never knew that"
Ron was silent. "Well, you do know. I'm sorry.
Hermione took that in for a moment, then nodded slowly, smiling. "It's nice you know you regretted it. Nice, in the sense that, I kina thought you were just being an idiot and asking me as a last resort…Obviously, I know you're not like that."
"I'd never dream of asking you as a last resort!" Ron replied passionately. "You've always been my priority." Both flushed pink at this, thus, effectively ending that conversation.
Time wasn't important to neither Ron nor Hermione, so neither one knew how long they'd been dancing until Ron groaned unexpectedly. Hermione glanced at where he was looking and sighed – Aunt Muriel was fast approaching, on a mission.
"Best hot foot it" Ron hissed, taking Hermione's hand and starting to pull her away quickly from the dance floor.
"Ronald!" Muriel crooned, appearing out of nowhere behind Ron, who jumped. "Why didn't you tell me you had a new girlfriend? Auntie Muriel needs to know these things!" She paused, giving Hermione a once over. "I do believe we've met, dear. Don't tell me you're with her, Ronald…" she added loudly in Ron's ear. Hermione scowled, Ron about to go to her defence, when she said even louder, "Such bad posture! And skinny ankles! Needs a good feeding!"
"On that note" Ron began, already backing away with Hermione in tow, "I'd better go feed her!"
"Feed me?" Hermione snorted when they were out of earshot. "What am I, a cat?"
"I'm sorry. I needed something to get away from her, the old bat…"
"It's ok. I'm glad really" Hermione replied, glancing down at her shoes, "My feet are going to drop off in a minute!"
"Right. I'll go and hunt down some more Butterbeers, you'd better head back to Harry – he'll think we've been abducted by aliens or something."
"Good point" she agreed, and then looked down at their still intertwined hands. "And thank you, by the way. I liked that. It was nice to just get my mind off things for a while. And I forgive you, for the whole Yule Ball thing. You just made up for it" She smiled.
"My pleasure. Oh, and I'm glad." Ron smiled back, reluctantly releasing her hand.
"And, for the record, you're not a bad dancer either!" Hermione called, as she turned, starting to walk back to their table; she could hear Ron's loud chuckle as she walked. When she was about ten feet away or so, her attention was caught, as she heard muted arguing. It seemed to be coming from Xenophilius' table, where he and Victor were having an animated argument, both gesticulating wildly. Hermione stopped in her tracks, curious, when, at the same time, Victor got up from the table and stormed past Xenophilius, not stopping to give even Hermione a second look. Hermione shook her head, confused, and then made her way back to the table, where Harry was sat, his expression unreadable.
"I simply can't dance anymore," she panted, slipping of one of her shoes and rubbing the sole of her foot. Ron's gone looking to find more butterbeers. It's a bit odd, I've just seen Viktor storming away from Luna's father, it looked like they'd been arguing—" Hermione dropped her voice, staring at him. "Harry, are you okay?" From the look on his face, she knew whatever it was he didn't want to talk about could only mean more trouble ; just when she'd thought that everything would be fine as well…