* 50 *

Slughorn's party was the occasion this Christmas. Those who weren't part of the Slug Club badly wanted to go, so those who were were the envy of everybody else on Christmas.

Those like Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.

Ron made his displeasure loud and clear by sighing dramatically and making ho-hum expressions in response to basically everything the afternoon of. He knew his two best friends were going, and he spited them for it. What he did not know is that they would be going together.

Harry and Hermione were actually quite pleased with the fact that Ron could not go, given his recent behavior. They were both still upset with him, and didn't really associate the bickering squabbles they would likely have with him there with having a merry Christmas.

They were relatively low-key in their preparations for the party, just as they planned to be during. Though Harry would wear a mostly black, quite fancy suit, he was not planning on flaunting his extravagance. He simply wanted his outsides to be as exquisite as he felt on the inside since the Quidditch celebration.

As divine luck would have it, he was to be gilded with the most beautiful date of them all: none other than Hermione Granger, who was now just leaving the common room to get dressed with some of the other girls.

"Who're you both taking?" Ron asked glibly. Harry cleared his throat. He didn't know how to respond, so he just made a series of noises until the Keeper gave up on him.

The redhead narrowed his eyes. "I certainly don't see why it should be a bloody secret," he grumbled to himself, looking sour at no one and nowhere in particular.

Harry went to put on his suit, the same one that nearly all the men were going to wear to fit the theme. His best mate seemed unenthused about the idea of several of his friends going without him, but it was impossible for anything to get to The Boy Who Lived right now. He felt he could survive multiple rounds of the entire Slytherin House verbally waging war on his legendary stupidity, his freakish four-eyed unattractiveness, and his boundless failings of character and yet emerge entirely unscathed.

He was so excited to see what Hermione would wear that he busied himself for several minutes more with getting his suit looking just right, knowing she wouldn't be done with her dressing and makeup for a bit yet herself. He tried to keep his mind preoccupied to keep from whizzing and driving his heartbeat to go faster, but the occasional giddy smile broke through in the mirror, which eventually made an annoyed face back at him when even it began to ridicule his unseemly enthusiasm.

When he at last heard Hermione's voice downstairs, he nearly leapt out of his shoes and rushed to meet her.

The first thing he noticed was a large crowd of girls standing in the common room and blocking his view. The second thing he noticed was that Ron had left. To go where, Harry could not identify. But it was no matter, not right now.

He made his way anxiously through the crowd, mumbling rushed excuses and apologies as he passed by, before he finally came out on the other side. When he did, he was rewarded with a treat beyond words.

He could see only her back, but the flash of pink from her dress immediately captured his attention with its vibrant color. And as she began to turn around, everything slowed down for Harry. Her hair was put up a small bit in the back, but came down in waves on both sides of her head. Her dress…

Well, her dress…

He looked to the center. Deep black lines perfectly separated the pink material that fanned out until the combination ended at the bottom.

It was…

In the next moment, he saw it twirl around her legs as he paid heavy mind to the swatches of youthful peach he could see there.

Very…

He looked back around her neck and felt a flash of heat hit his face as his keen eyes spied a noticeable streak of black cutting down the center of her chest.

E-erm… He felt like the wind were knocked out of him.

In the next second, he finally looked into her face.

First, from her reaction, he realized that he had been caught eyeing her from head to toe. And second…

He couldn't speak, because her face was even more entrancing than the rest of her. He could see her lightly made-up coffee brown eyes gazing at him, but he couldn't grant her any response to this astounding ocular inquiry amidst everything else he had just seen which already saturated his brain with euphoria.

Hermione…was his?

"You…" he started to answer her entreating globes. The girls he had pushed through started turning and taking notice that the person talking so mumbly-like was Harry Potter. Then they witnessed him staring Hermione down. One or two let out a giggle, hiding it behind their hands as they watched him.

"I mean, you look…"

Hermione herself simpered with a coquettish smirk, swaying back and forth and raising a hand to her own mouth to giggle as he tried to continue.

"Hermione, I'm…really impressed," Harry finished mutedly at last. He didn't feel it did her any justice, but at least he had managed to find something to say.

Only then, when he had finally spoken, was he made aware of the plethora of girls that had been staring at him while he fumbled for words. He self-consciously cleared his throat and took a step back to hide like a turtle in the swarm of girls, but Hermione gently grabbed the sleeve of his suit.

"Thank you, Harry," she said aloud with a grin. He returned it, temporarily forgetting all else again as the smile from this angel disarmed him. He abashedly looked down to the floor and regained himself before happily taking another full dose of her chocolate hypnotism.

When she suddenly grabbed solid hold onto his arm in the next moment, he immediately began leading her off in a slight hurry, and the girls surrounding them exchanged glances so fast it was as if they were watching Quidditch players dart across the field on broomsticks. Hermione laughed once in nervousness and embarrassment before being escorted by her date to Slughorn's party.

Most of the girls who had stared at them had not managed to become part of the Slug Club, so Harry and Hermione were relieved that word that "Harry Potter's entranced eyes were locked upon his bookish best friend Hermione Granger – a possible romance?" would leave them alone – for a little bit longer, at least – as they attended to the celebration. They would deal with that later.

When at last they were more out of earshot, Harry felt more relieved. As they ascended the marble staircase to Slughorn's office and began to hear the increasingly loud music and conversation, instantly, Harry leaned to her ear and said more properly, "You look beautiful, Hermione."

Hermione stopped in her tracks. She blushed a little as she gave him the eyes of a flattered but saucy minx, batting her eyelashes at him and eliciting a deeply interested raised brow from his incredibly beguiled expression. She giggled again and squeezed his arm once more to signal she was ready to go inside. He finally trained his eyes forward (at least for a moment) and led the two of them up to the doors.