Chapter 12

First Dates

Hermione

It was her first ever date and Hermione was worrying endlessly as she tried to figure out if she looked okay as she stood in front of her mirror inside of her bedroom at her house.

"You look hot Hermione!" Daphne insisted as she had come over to help her get ready.

Hermione blushed as she said, "thanks."

She did look really good she had to admit. She wasn't wearing anything too fancy or revealing in her blue dress but she was certainly dressed a lot nicer than she normally did.

"Harry isn't going to know what hit him," Daphne praised her again, "just don't seem too eager, we want our boy feeling like he needs to put some effort into it because you my dear are worth it."

"Ooh, what if I mess up though?" Hermione questioned, "I mean I took the time to read a couple dating books earlier, but it says that-"

"Books can only teach you so much, but what they can't teach you, you've already got if you just allow yourself to relax and have a good time," Daphne told her wisely.

"I wish I had your confidence," Hermione replied.

"Oh I'm sure I'll be nervous too when I get to go on a date with Harry," Daphne answered, "however the way I see it, we've already known Harry for years now, he's a good friend of ours, and we know he already likes us if that makes things any easier for you."

"Yeah, but this is an actual date," Hermione complained.

"We don't need to make a big deal out of it though," Daphne argued, "unless you decide to kiss him or something."

Hermione blushed as she had thought about doing so about a thousand times by now, but she didn't think it wise to go that far, especially not on a first date.

"Not that I can blame you if you do," Daphne said, "whether you do or not though I plan to kiss him on my date with him."

"Really?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, in fact I plan to have sex with him too," Daphne added.

Hermione's eyes widened with her mouth wide open.

Daphne however laughed as she said, "oh goodness you are just too easy. Still I don't see anything wrong with kissing someone on a date, it doesn't have to be a big deal if both of us want to. I'll see how things go and if I decide Harry has earned it from me by the end of our date. I don't want to give in too easily, always leave the boys wanting more."

"Do you think I should...kiss him I mean?" Hermione asked, "I mean that's kind of a big step, especially since we aren't even really in a relationship or anything. Maybe we ought to plan it out, I could even come up with a chart and-"

"Why don't us girls just agree to do what Harry and we feel comfortable with doing on our dates?" Daphne suggested, "nothing too much I suspect, just a quick kiss or maybe hold hands, none of us I'm sure are really ready for anything more."

"Okay, well that sounds good," Hermione agreed, relaxing a little even though she was still thinking about kissing Harry.

At that, her mother called for her and said, "Harry is here!"

With one last look at her appearance and Daphne giving her the thumbs up, she finally went to go join Harry.

Her mother however stopped her in front of the hallway as she looked her over and said, "you look lovely Hermione."

"Thanks mum," She told her, managing a smile.

Her mother however then started tearing up a little as she said, "I can't believe my little girl is so grown up."

"It's just a date mum and with Harry who I've already spent loads of time with, it's nothing too serious," Hermione said, trying to reassure her.

"I know," Her mother said shaking her head as she walked with her over to the front door where Harry was waiting along with her father.

Her father seemed to have been glaring at Harry as if trying to silently threaten him.

"Be nice Neal," Her mother warned her overprotective father.

Her father however then turned to look at her, seeming to suddenly be aware that his daughter was not a little girl anymore and it only seemed to worry him even more.

"Are you sure that dress is appropriate?" Her father asked her worriedly.

In truth, her dress was actually rather modest, with it going to her ankles, and completely covering her shoulders and chest.

"I think she looks just fine Dear," Her mother again came to her rescue.

"Hi Hermione," Harry said nervously, also looking her over, seeming impressed, "you look great."

"You too," Hermione said, also looking him over.

He really was so very cute dressed in a business casual like button up black shirt and jeans. He seemed to have tried combing his hair, with mixed results, and she was dying to run her hands through it even if she would only end up messing it up again.

After a bit more conversation with her parents and some silent warnings directed Harry's way by her father, they finally got to leave and go on their date.

As their mode of transportation, Harry called for the Knight Bus, which arrived a moment later and the conductor greeted them, a gangly youth she guessed to be around 18 or 19 years old:

"My name is Stan Shunpike, I will be your conductor this evening on the Knight Bus, transportation for the stranded witch or wizard."

Stan gave her an appreciative look even though she was much younger than him as he commented, "why you're looking lovely this evening."

She however quickly shut him down as she admitted, "thanks, we're on a date."

Stan looked at Harry as he commented with an impressed smile, "why good for you then mate, treat her well then right?"

At that, Harry paid for their fare and told Stan where he wanted them to go before they got on and found a seat next to each other.

They traveled mostly in silence, occasionally looking at each other as both of them were quite nervous.

However as the bus suddenly stopped much too quickly with a sudden lurch in order to pick up another passenger, she instinctively reached for and grasped Harry's hand.

"Sorry," She apologized instantly as she pulled her hand away.

"It's okay, you can do that if you want," Harry told her before then getting bold and grabbing her hand again and asking just to be sure, "you okay if we do that?"

"Yes," She said simply, even though on the inside she was practically screaming YES! Harry was actually holding her hand.

They continued to hold hands all through the rest of their travels with her heart giving little pitter patters before they finally arrived at a somewhat classy Muggle restaurant.

"My Aunt and Uncle would usually go here for their dates," Harry confessed, "always kind of wanted to go myself just to see what it was like."

At that, they headed into the restaurant, still hand in hand. It wasn't a super fancy restaurant, but nice enough and after quickly getting a table, Harry pulled out a chair for her to sit down on.

"Thank you," Hermione said, feeling a bit odd about being pampered like that.

In truth Harry was usually quite a gentleman already, often getting the door for her and the other girls in the study group to go through, or thanking them even for the smallest of gestures, but it was nice to see this sort of thing on a date with him too.

All through dinner she found herself relaxing more and more as she and Harry got used to the idea of being on a date together and just had a good time. Much of their conversation was about wizard stuff which no doubt got a lot of odd looks from the people sitting next to them, but then Harry got the bright idea to explain:

"It's a role playing game," Harry explained, getting some understanding nods from the people around them as if that explained everything even though they did get some eye rolls at some of the weird games that kids played nowadays.

Really though she had a great time going on her first date with Harry, it had been a lot of fun and she was looking forward to more sometime in the future with him if he wanted to again as it seemed he did.

At the end however as he dropped her back off at home she got nervous again.

"So I hope you had a good time," He said, fumbling with his empty hands, "I certainly did."

"Yes I certainly did," Hermione agreed, once she had relaxed and not worried about what might happen, she had had a great time and was hoping Harry would ask her on a date in the future so she asked, "we should do this again sometime."

"Sure, sounds great," Harry agreed, looking pleased, "so see you later then Hermione."

She however didn't really want to end their date like this, not because she felt obligated to, but because she wanted to at least do this as she quickly gave Harry a kiss on the cheek.

It was only on the cheek as she had decided that was good for now, but still Harry touched the spot on his cheek where she had kissed him.

"Good night Hermione," He told her.

"Good night," She agreed as she opened her front door and went inside, still thinking of her first ever date and how it went.

….

Harry

The next weekend Harry picked up Susan then for her date with him for the Charity Ball. To be fair though, since he already lived with her he wasn't really picking her up, merely stood outside her bedroom door waiting for her.

Still when she came out of her room, his eyes still went wide at her appearance, thinking the same thing he had first thought when he saw Hermione: she looked hot!

Susan was dressed in a more revealing dress than Hermione, wearing a black dress that went to her knees and hugged her curvy figure as well as showing off some of her tantalizing cleavage. Considering the fact that he had seen her in a bikini plenty of times by now over this summer she had already revealed a lot more to him, but seeing her in that dress got just as much of his attention and seemed oddly just as sexy.

Susan seemed pleased by his reaction to her outfit as she told him, blushing a bit, "I'm really looking forward to our date Harry."

"Me too," He answered, "you look incredible Susan."

She smiled and said, "thank you Harry, you too."

Feeling a bit bold but wanting to make sure it was okay at the same time, he held out his hand for her to take which she smiled and took as they held hands.

It was interesting how even holding hands with a girl could be this great feeling.

Hand-in-hand they headed over to where Susan's mother and Aunt had their rooms side by side.

Their mother Karen (should he start calling her mum he wondered, he knew it wouldn't be expected but it would be rather nice) emerged first, dressed in a fancy red dress, also displaying the curves it seemed all Bones women seemed to have.

"You look beautiful mum," Susan praised her mother.

"You really do...mum," Harry said, deciding to try it out.

Both Bones women looked surprised but pleased that he would call her that.

"Is that alright?" Harry asked tentatively

"Of course it is Harry," Karen told him, smiling as she seemed pleased by this new title that he had called her.

"She can be your mum too if you want Harry," Susan encouraged him.

"I think I'd like that," Harry finally said, liking the idea, "still I think you look much too attractive to be mine or anyone else's mother."

Karen smiled again and commented, "well thank you Harry, I can see why Susan likes you so much...well one reason anyway."

"Oh there are lots of reasons to like Harry," Susan insisted, giving him a wide smile.

"There are lots of reasons to like you too," Harry answered, looking deep into her eyes.

He wanted to kiss her right then, but decided that would be too much especially in front of their mother as he instead resisted and then asked, "so where is Amelia?"

"I'm here," Amelia answered, just now coming out of her room, dressed very nicely in a gold dress.

"Wow, I haven't seen you wear that dress in quite awhile," Her sister Karen pointed out.

"Yeah and apparently I've gained more than a few pounds since then," Amelia admitted, "I feel like it might rip if I'm not careful...not that Sirius would mind."

"You are going with Sirius Black?" Susan asked.

"Yes," Amelia admitted, blushing a bit, "it is going much better than I would have expected, this would actually be our third date."

"You know what that means," Karen teased her.

"Karen!" Amelia scolded her sister, "I'm sure Sirius doesn't expect us to go that far...not that I would let him anyway. We're just going to take things slow and see how it goes for now."

"Well I'm glad that you're happy," Karen told her, "I think both you and Sirius in fact deserve happiness after everything that both of you have gone through in your lives."

"Yeah Sirius definitely had it rough in prison and I'm not sure if he'll ever fully recover from his ordeal," Amelia admitted grimly, "still he seems to look and seem better each time I see him, so there is that."

"Or maybe you just find yourself liking him more," Karen pointed out.

"Yes perhaps that too," Amelia conceded, "anyway enough about my love life, let's focus on the two of you Harry and Susan, you both look really nice."

"Thank you Aunty, you too," Susan replied.

Harry noticed with a start that both he and Susan were still holding hands, but it seemed neither of the two Bones women seemed to mind, which was the exact opposite of what Hermione's father had been, he looked like he was about to kill him for going out on a date with his little girl.

However Susan's mother and Aunt seemed to be actually very much approving of the fact that he and Susan were going on a date, especially since they would both be around during most of it.

At any rate, after talking for a little while longer he and Susan were side-along apparated over to where the Charity Ball was to take place.

As soon as they got there, Harry noticed it really was a quite grand affair, with never melting ice sculptures, the Weird Sisters playing music, some dancers, as well as house elves scurrying about offering food and drinks on trays.

Amelia left them once she spotted Sirius and Karen went to go get something to drink, but he and Susan stood there for a moment looking around. Admittedly he felt a bit awkward wondering what he should say or do, much like he had at the beginning of his date with Hermione.

However then Minister Fudge noticed him with a pleased smile and came over to him, accompanied by his entourage of supporters.

"Harry Potter!" Fudge declared happily, "it is good to see you at my Charity Ball, and it looks like you did bring a date after all, you lucky boy."

"Yes, this is Susan Bones," Harry introduced her to the Minister.

However Fudge didn't seem to give Susan another glance as he was now entirely focused on him, "so Harry I would like you to meet-"

There followed Harry being introduced to all sorts of important sounding people, all of which seemed inclined to try and win his favor as they surrounded him and pressed him with trying to offer gifts or reasons for him to come to various events...which he declined over and over again pointing out that he was still in school and school would be starting up again soon. Really he had had enough of this sort of treatment, they only cared about him because he was the boy-who-lived.

As soon as he possibly could and not appear too rude he got out of there to rejoin Susan, who had been forced away from him by all the people swarming him.

"I'm so sorry about that Susan," Harry apologized, feeling guilty as he hadn't wanted her to feel forgotten or abandoned.

"It's okay, I know that it wasn't your fault," Susan told him as she took his hand again and squeezed it.

They then helped themselves to some food before finishing eating and merely watching as quite a few couples were dancing.

"Would you like to dance Harry?" Susan asked hopefully.

He could tell she really wanted to, but was hesitant to agree.

He finally admitted, "I don't really know how."

"Neither do I," Susan admitted, "but my mother did show me at least a few things if you want to try."

"Sure," He immediately agreed, feeling better about it if she could show him at least the basics.

They went out onto the dance floor and Susan showed him where to put his hands on her, causing him to blush at the slight physical intimacy before she then demonstrated the steps to a very basic waltz.

He was nervous that he would step on her toes but after awhile of getting used to the steps he began to relax a little and just merely enjoy dancing with Susan.

"You having a good time?" He asked her after a while, still worried about making sure that she did.

"Yes, with you I am," Susan admitted, blushing as she said it.

His heart melted a little at that.

"I'm having a good time with you too," Harry told her, "you're an incredible girl Susan, smart, beautiful, kind, generous and much more. I consider myself lucky to be here with you."

He figured it wouldn't hurt to express at least a little just how he felt about her.

Susan blushed as she said, "thank you Harry."

They danced for quite awhile as they looked into each other's eyes for much of it. She was just so beautiful and amazing, he'd gotten a similar feeling with Hermione and had been tempted to kiss her at the end of their date but he had of course chickened out even though he had been quite thrilled when she had kissed him on the cheek.

Yet with Susan as they danced so close to each other for so long…

He actually leaned in for a moment but then stopped and pulled back.

The motion however was not lost on Susan as she said with a smile, "you can kiss me if you want Harry."

"Really?" He asked her, hardly able to believe his luck.

"Yes I want you to kiss me Harry," Susan told him, blushing again.

Very pleased with that answer he then leaned in and kissed her on the lips, it was brief, but also quite nice and caused both of them to blush even more.

"So that was both of our first kiss then," Harry observed.

"Yeah it was," Susan agreed, still blushing, "I'm glad it could be with you Harry."

"Me too," Harry answered, "to be honest I was tempted to do so with Hermione but then she just kissed me on the cheek instead."

He hoped he wasn't ruining the moment even though he already feared he had.

"Yeah I know," Susan said, not seeming bothered by it, "Hermione told me and the other girls all about it."

"She did?" Harry asked.

"Us girls talk about everything," Susan pointed out, "especially when it comes to you, Hermione filled us in on every aspect of your date with her. She was quite happy about how things went though."

"Oh, well I'm glad Hermione had a good time," Harry said, unsure what to say to that even though he was pleased she had said that to the other girls, even so he quickly then added, "but I don't mean to take away anything from our date by-"

"It's okay Harry," Susan told him reassuringly, "I liked hearing about your date with Hermione from Hermione and so did the other girls and I plan on telling them how our date went later on too. I expect Padma and Daphne will want to do the same after their dates with you and I'll enjoy hearing about that as well."

"I see," Harry said, "I was just worried you girls might get jealous of each other or something."

"No, we're all surprisingly cool with it," Susan told him, "besides jealousy is definitely not a good thing to have and I'd like to think we are such good friends by now with each other that we are above it for the most part."

"That's good," He said, pleased to see that this was the case with them. That had been his biggest fear going out on dates with each of them.

They then got back to dancing, stopping after a while as Susan was thirsty and went to go get a drink.

As he waited for her then Karen asked if she might get a dance with him, which he happily accepted.

As he danced with her she commented: "it seems your date with Susan is going well."

"Yeah, I'd like to think so at least," Harry agreed.

Karen seemed to think for a moment before admitting, "you know she really, really likes you Harry."

"I really, really like her too," He agreed.

"Don't think I didn't miss that kiss between you two," Karen observed with an amused smile.

He felt a bit worried and guilty as he said, "sorry."

"No need to be sorry Harry," She told him reassuringly, "it's nice seeing the two of you together."

He decided to explain, "well we aren't exactly together, just enjoying one date...and I am going on dates with other girls too."

Karen frowned at that as she admitted, "well you can't really blame me for hoping that Susan and you do end up together and get married, it really would be wonderful for you to be even more family than you are now."

He really wasn't sure how to reply to this. He would indeed consider himself lucky to be marrying Susan one day, but he felt like he was too young to be making such a decision, even with the obvious pressure that Karen was giving him.

She seemed to realize this as she confessed, "well maybe I shouldn't pressure you so much and just let things take its course."

"It's alright," He answered, even though he was still thinking about it.

At any rate, he left Karen then citing the desire to go dance with Amelia for at least one song as well, which he did after stealing her from Sirius.

As he danced with her he noticed that it didn't feel the same way that he felt dancing with Susan, but it was rather nice to dance with the two other Bones women that had become a big part of his life as well even if it did feel they were pressuring him a bit to end up with Susan. Amelia herself didn't say anything but he could tell she felt much the same way as her sister on the matter.

Soon after that Karen then asked if he and Susan were ready to go as it was getting late, which both of them agreed to as they were both quite tired by then.

Amelia and Sirius they noticed however did not accompany them back home as after dancing for quite awhile together had gone somewhere to be alone.

It did feel rather odd to see the two of them dating, considering how different they were from each other, Sirius a formerly convicted prisoner and Amelia the Head of Magical Law Enforcement but he supposed they both deserved to be happy if they made each other happy.

After arriving back home and deciding it would at least be a good idea to escort Susan to her bedroom.

"What is bothering you Harry?" Susan asked him.

"I'm fine," He tried to insist.

Susan put a hand on her hips and asked, "I know you better than that Harry, things were going quite well on our date up until near the end?"

He sighed and said, "it's just your mom kind of mentioned that she would like to see the two of us get married. I just don't think that I'm ready to make a decision like that, I'm not even really ready to commit to a girlfriend yet."

"Oh don't listen to mum," Susan reassured him, "of course she's going to want to see the two of us get married, she's our mum after all but she knows that we are simply too young for that, don't feel pressured by her. As for me, I really enjoyed our date and I'm looking forward to more dates sometime in the future, but I don't expect much out of them or of you. We should just have fun together for now."

He let out a deep sigh of relief as he managed a smile and said, "thank you Susan, you really are a wonderful girl."

She smiled back and he decided to brave giving her another quick kiss, which Susan happily accepted and caused both of them to blush.

It was another end to another successful date he thought.