I don't own Harry Potter. This one was written a couple of years ago, inspired by points I've seen made by various writers. The line in bold comes from a chapter in Deathly Hallows: The Wedding, and is the main inspiration for this fic.

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Hermione turned and beamed at Harry; her eyes, too, were full of tears.

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Harry Potter sat back, at one of the tables, thinking hard. Only one question was currently running through his mind: Why had Hermione turned to beam at him, rather than Ron, during the ceremony? Ron was sat on her other side, after all, so she should have turned to look at him. For that matter, why had he turned to look at Hermione? Ginny was the girl he'd been dating, and the one he should have looked for at that moment.

He barely acknowledged Viktor Krum's comments about Xenophilius Lovegood's necklace; the Lovegoods weren't exactly sane, and it was likely that he didn't have a clue what the symbol Krum thought was Grindelwald's meant. He paid more attention when Krum drew his wand, causing him to remember where he'd heard the name Gregorovitch, and for a moment he was distracted again by thoughts of the war.

But his mind kept returning to the same question, that of Hermione.

Unlike Ron, Harry had been aware that Hermione was a girl since his third year, and that flight upon Buckbeak they'd shared, when she'd been pressed up with her arms around him. The Yule Ball had made him realise he found her attractive, much like he found Cho attractive. But he thought that Hermione was dating Krum after they attended together, so he'd focused on surviving the tasks.

When she kissed him on the cheek on Platform 9 and ¾ at the end of the year, Harry had been stunned. He was fully aware that he'd been grinning goofily in the back of the car for the entire journey back to Privet Drive, but he hadn't cared. Hermione had kissed him!

Once he met up with Hermione and the Weasleys at Grimmauld Place, he looked for a sign that Hermione felt something more than friendship for him. When he saw no change in her behaviour after a week of staying there, he convinced himself that he'd been putting too much emphasis on that kiss. It was just a kiss on the cheek, and meant nothing more than a hug did. The French did it all the time, based on what he'd seen of Fleur and the other Beauxbatons students. No, the kiss meant nothing.

He remembered how Hermione had reacted to the news when he kissed Cho. She'd had a slight frown on her face, and her comment to Ron had been nastier than he'd thought she would be. While Ron had been amused but supportive, Hermione ... hadn't. Like she disapproved of Cho, or Harry dating her at least.

And then there was the meeting with Hermione, Luna and Rita Skeeter on Valentine's Day. Had Hermione intentionally set up a meeting with Rita for Valentine's Day, to make Harry's date with Cho more difficult? It didn't sound like something she'd do, but then again he wouldn't have expected her to shoot a flock of birds at Ron after she'd seen him kissing Lavender. Hermione wasn't the type of girl to be into grand romantic gestures, he thought, but looking back, it did seem like a romantic gesture from an outside perspective. After all, what guy leaves a date with a girl as attractive as Cho Chang on Valentine's Day?

But Ron was the main problem, from what Harry could see. All through sixth year, Hermione had been all over him, again in a most uncharacteristic fashion. But was Ron interested in her? He'd been playing with Lavender throughout the year, basically ignoring Hermione in favour of the more buxom blonde. Even when they reconciled after Ron's poisoning, he hadn't really expressed much of an interest in her.

Harry made up his mind, and stood up to go and ask Hermione for a dance. It'd give him the perfect opportunity to ask her if what he suspected was true: if she had feeling for him.

Of course, that was when Kingsley Shacklebolt's Patronus flew into the tent, and delivered that horrifying message.

-.-End-.-

AN: So, this is just a little drabble, dipping back into Harmony waters. The bit about Hermione's reaction to Harry's revelation that he kissed Cho at Christmas 5th year is true: she does frown while Ron laughs, and throughout the conversation she's speaking vaguely, distantly, absently, impatiently: in all the ways a person speaks when they don't want to talk about something, but they kind-of have to, and then they all sit in an awkward silence for the next 20 minutes, before Hermione makes her excuses and leaves. You could argue that it's because she wanted to carry on writing her letter that she's distant, but if she wanted privacy to write her letter, she'd have been up in her dorm rather than down in the common room with Ron and Harry. And then, as soon as she finds out Harry's going to see Cho again, she brings up the closest thing she has to an ex. Trying to get him jealous much?