Harry Potter one-shot fiction!!! Takes place after the battle in the Ministry (OotP). Forget everything that happened after the battle at the Ministry, because I'm changing it. :-)

Pairing: Harry and Hermione

Dance by the Light of the Moon

The end of term feast was causing a great ruckus in the Great Hall, but Harry Potter walked right past it and out of the enormous front doors. Guilt sat heavily on his shoulders, and he didn't feel like putting up with the other students' stares and Ron's and Hermione's worried glances.

Harry didn't know where to go after leaving the castle, but he did know that he needed to get away from the hustle and bustle, and he needed a chance to sort out his thoughts.

Before he even knew where he was going, Harry's feet carried him down towards the lake, right to where he had faced dozens of dementors only two years earlier. Trembling, he dropped onto a rock and out his head to his hands.

"Why? WHY??" Harry's shout echoed through the forest around him. A flock of crows took flight from a tree nearby. "Why am I so STUPID? Why did I know better? I should have KNOWN that it was a trick!!"

The words he had spoken, or mostly yelled, so often over the past few weeks still left a hole in his chest, and he began to cry from the pain that threatened to overtake his body.

Hours passed, and darkness fell over the lake. Just as stars began to twinkle overhead, Harry's tears ran out and he fell into an exhausted, thankfully dreamless sleep.

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Harry woke with a start, but he didn't know why.

"Harry? Where have you been?" A soft voice entered his thoughts. "I was worried."

"Mom?" he asked cautiously, his head still foggy from sleep. The person laughed.

"No, Harry. It's me." The fog cleared, and Hermione's slender figure appeared beside him. "Where have you been? I was worried."

"I've been right here. I just needed to get away from the castle before I lose what's left of my sanity."

They sat in silence for awhile, though neither would have been able to say whether it was a minute or an hour.

"How are you, Hermione?" Harry asked after the silence grew near to unbearable.

"I'm okay. No permanent damage," she answered, shifting a bit so that her hand covered his. She gave his shaking hand a gentle squeeze.

"Thank you, Hermione."

"Thank me? For what?"

"For not hating me. For coming with me, even though I was a jerk, and even though I turned out to be stupidly wrong."

"Harry, I couldn't hate you for that. You were only doing what you thought was right. You cared about Sirius, and you thought that he was in trouble. I would have done the same thing if I thought you were in trouble."

"You would?"

"Yeah, you or Ron. You guys mean a lot to me, and I wouldn't let anything happen to you without a fight."

Harry didn't know whether to be happy to have such a good friend, or disappointed that he wasn't more important to her than Ron. 'Stop that! You'd do the same for Ron, so stop being jealous!'

After a few more moments of silence, Hermione surprised him.

"Get up Harry."

"What? Why?"

"I want to dance."

"Dance? Here?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Well, for one thing, I don't dance. And for another thing, there isn't any music."

Hermione started humming a tune he didn't recognize as she tugged at his arm.

"Oh, alright. I give up," he sighed, standing up. Hermione pulled him closer, and he out his hands to her hips. He was so close that he could smell her rosewater shampoo and the faint scent of medicine and dried ink.

"Harry?"

"Hmm?"

He was only answered with silence. He pulled back and looked at her.

"What is it, Hermione?"

"Hold on, I'm trying to think how I want to say this. Okay. Here goes. Harry, I like you."

"I like you, too, Hermione."

"No, you clod, I really like you. Like, I want to kiss you and date you and shout to the whole world that I love you."

Harry didn't say anything.

"Come on, say something
Harry looked into his friend's eyes and said something that felt at one and the same time both strange and perfectly right.

"I love you, Hermione Granger."

And as the sun rose over the eastern shore of the lake, their lips met in a sweet, soft first kiss. The first kiss of many.

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Well, what do you think? Please review!!!!