Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do NOT own HP or any of its characters. They are the sole property to the mighty JKR – she may be flawed but she's still pretty darn amazing, if only for the world she created which we all love mucking around in!

Note: This scene begins in the middle of Professor Slughorn's Christmas party in the Half Blood Prince movie (which I recently re-watched with my son and which clearly had tons of great 'potential' H/Hr moments which went totally unrealized. Safe to say, I was left feeling disgruntled and frustrated at the end of the movie and that inspired me to come up with this fic. Consider it a… 'What if things had gone differently at the Slug Club party' fic)

For those of you who haven't seen the movie, this scene is preceded by Harry and Hermione talking in the library after Hermione attacks Ron with the birds. Hermione vehemently denies being bothered by Ron and Lavender's relationship and mentions that she's made alternate plans for Prof. Slughorn's party. Harry mentions that they could've gone as friends – which makes her regret her existing plans (at least in my mind!) and then they proceed to make alternate plans for who Harry can bring along as his date. This moment, screams 'Harmony' to me – it's one of the many moments in HBP that could've easily turned Harry and Hermione's whole relationship around – if only they'd behaved a bit differently than how they did.

As some of the more ardent fans will notice, most of the earlier dialogue is a word to word copy of the same scene from the movies.

Also and this is VERY IMPORTANT – the events of this fic are not canon compliant in any way – that is to say, I'm going to be playing fast and loose with the timelines and events of HBP. Some events will be ignored altogether, some changed and some will happen much earlier (or later!) than they did in canon. Call it 'artistic license'.

A huge shoutout to MarsPotter for her mad alpha skills - for taking so much time to go over the fic in minute detail and helping me iron out all the kinks!

I feel like this bears repeating - both Harry and Hermione are over 16 in this fic and therefore over the age of consent! Still if it bothers you that they are still teenagers, please stop reading! It is not my intention to cause anyone any harm whatsoever!

As Neville moved away, Harry eyed the rest of the party guests. He had to admit to more than a passing curiosity about his fellow 'Slug Club' members. One had to admit – the Professor certainly had a knack for 'collecting' as the Headmaster had so eloquently put it. There were more than a few famous faces among the crowd – a veritable who's who from the magical world. Despite himself, he couldn't help but be impressed. Was that…Gwenog Jones? Amazing!

He shook himself. He wasn't here just to socialize. He had a job to do! The headmaster had tasked him with getting closer to Professor Slughorn and gaining his confidence. (He hadn't exactly been forthcoming about why he wanted Harry to do so - but then, when was he ever forthcoming about his plans? Harry just trusted - or rather, hoped - that whatever they were, they would be in his best interest!) Of course getting close to Professor Slughorn wasn't going to be easy in any way! For starters, he had no idea how he could go about getting the old goat to trust him!

Before he could come up with a workable plan, his eyes fell on Hermione who, he couldn't help but notice, looked particularly beautiful tonight. He blinked. Hermione? Beautiful? But…but she was just one of the blokes, wasn't she? Or maybe an annoying but loving sister. At least that's how he usually thought of her. And it was easy to, what with her constant worrying and pushing and nagging. But tonight she looked exactly like what she was – a very beautiful and desirable girl on the cusp of womanhood.

She was wearing a gorgeous dress that came to her knees and seemed to hug every curve she possessed (Ugh, this was Hermione! He shouldn't even be noticing her curves, much less thinking about them! Also, cusp of womanhood? What in the actual Bloody hell! Then again – he was a teenage boy! And as any teenage boy worth his salt would attest - curves were curves, even if they belonged to a best friend who 'seemed-like-but-definitely-wasn't-a-sister'! ) in some shade of…err…pink…? Part of her hair was pinned up delicately at the top of her head, the rest of it flowing in loose little ringlets down her back. He was taken aback – she really was gorgeous, wasn't she?

He winced, mentally chastising himself for having all these thoughts about his best friend! Normally, he never had this problem! Normally, she was just Hermione – his nerdy, book loving, exam obsessed best friend! And then, there were times like tonight and the Yule Ball in 4th Year, when she transformed into an enchanting temptress. (How in the world she managed to do that - pivot so effortlessly from one persona to the other - was beyond his meager skills to decipher.) Thankfully such times were few and far between and so he didn't have to worry about such occurrences too often!

Honestly though, he just couldn't believe that he hadn't really given much thought to the fact that his best friend had grown up into a beautiful young woman until tonight!

Though, at that very moment, she wasn't acting very lady-like. In fact, she seemed to be behaving in a rather shifty manner. As he looked on in confusion, she furtively ducked behind the sheer curtains that the house elves had put up as decoration to cheer up the otherwise dreary office. His eyebrows rose in bewilderment. What in the world…?! He moved closer to investigate.

Once relatively hidden, she looked around, seemingly trying to locate someone. The funny thing was, she looked positively harried (Err…pun wholly unintended) and disheveled. What was she doing? Making sure that no one else was looking, he ducked in right after her.

"Hermione" he called, in a stage whisper.

She started violently. "Oh, Harry, it's just you!" The relief on her face was unmistakable.

Huh? Who else would it be?

"Are you alright?" he inquired. "And what happened to you?" he went on with a growing sense of concern.

"No, I just escaped!" she blurted out, continuing to scan the room around intermittently. Then she seemed to catch herself. "I mean, I just left Cormac under the mistletoe!" She corrected herself.

"Maclaggen!? That's who you invited to the party?" he questioned incredulously. He couldn't help but feel mildly insulted. How could she choose to come to the party with that…that arse over him?

"I thought it would annoy Ron the most!" she blurted out.

Oh! Ron. Of course.

He couldn't say he was surprised, this whole thing with Ron had ballooned completely out of proportion over the last few days even if Hermione refused to admit it in any way. She was jealous of Ron's relationship with Lavender. Even an idiot could see that and despite his many shortcomings, Harry wasn't an idiot (Er, at least he wasn't one all of the time!)

Of course, Harry secretly couldn't help but think that Hermione could do way better than Ron (He loved Ron like a brother – he really did, but he wasn't blind to his many flaws. Or Hermione's for that matter. They bickered – almost constantly. So much so, in fact, that Harry couldn't remember the last civil conversation those two'd had. Now Harry was clearly no expert on relationships but even he knew that constant bickering was a terrible foundation for a relationship! They were just too different, too stubborn and way too obstinate to really be good together.) In fact, he was of the firm opinion that Ron and Hermione getting together was the worst idea in the history of bad ideas but he was in no way brave enough to express that opinion to either of the parties involved. If that meant that he was undeserving of being called a Gryffindor, so be it!

"Honestly, he has more tentacles than a Snarfalump plant!" she continued agitatedly, entirely unaware of the turn of Harry's thoughts.

What? Wait, was she still talking about Ron? He was confused for a moment until the full meaning of her words dawned on him. He could feel his temper rising! Argh! Maclaggen! That utter git! How dare he?

"What happened? What did Maclaggen do?" He asked with a dangerous inflection in his voice.

"Oh, honestly!"Hermione huffed. "Don't get all bothered, not on my behalf! He's a sodding oaf, is all. And don't forget, I can take care of myself just fine. Especially against a twit like Cormac!"

Before he could make up his mind about whether to hex Cormac or take offense at Hermione's words, another 'server' peeked from behind the curtains. The guy had a plate of hors d'oeuvres that he thrust towards them. "Dragon tartars?" he asked.

"No, I'm fine thank you." Hermione responded while Harry just shook his head.

"Just as well," the server replied. "They give a person horribly bad breath."

As soon as she heard that, Hermione snatched the whole plate away and looked ready to stuff one of the slimy looking concoctions down her throat.

"On second thought," she said, "It might keep Cormac at bay!"

Fuck it, he didn't care if he got in trouble with Hermione, he was going to throttle that bastard. How dare he touch Hermione against her wishes?

Before he could actually act on that impulse, Hermione started again. "Oh, bugger here he comes!" she squeaked in panic before ducking down and making her escape in a hurry. And not a moment too soon. The very next second, Cormac was pulling aside the curtains that Hermione had been trying to hide behind.

"Was Hermione here, by any chance?" Cormac questioned.

"I think she just went to powder her nose." Harry gritted out, mentally seething and planning out Maclaggen's gruesome demise down to the very last detail.

"Slippery little minx, your friend!" Cormac commented. "Likes to work her mouth too, doesn't she?"

Honestly? What an utter arsehole! Forget throttling him, Harry wanted to just punch his bloody teeth in!

Thankfully Snape took that moment to interrupt, inadvertently saving Cormac from an arse pounding like he'd never experienced before (and Harry from what would surely have been a series of detentions lasting for the rest of the term, if not longer!)

Harry had never really believed in 'karma' - not until that night. But even he had to admit that there was a higher power at work because Cormac immediately got his comeuppance for what he'd tried to pull that night - and how! While blathering on with Harry about how 'slippery' his friend was, the arsehole had eaten...or at least tried to eat one of the 'dragon tartars' (not that Harry did anything to stop him from doing so!) from the plate that Hermione had thrust into Harry's hands before making her escape. The look on Snape's face when Cormac barfed all over his feet was just…priceless! He couldn't wait to tell Hermione all about in glorious detail!

As soon as he could get away without earning any detentions himself, he looked around for her, but couldn't seem to spot her in the room. Where was she? She couldn't have left already, could she? He just hoped she was okay. Feeling uneasy, he realized that he wouldn't be able to rest until he checked up on her; made sure she got back to the Gryffindor common room without any bother.

He made his way over to Luna and told her what had happened. Luna being, well...Luna, wasn't offended about being ditched in the middle of the night. In fact, she decided that she'd had enough of this gathering herself and decided to call it a night as well. Despite his urgency to check on Hermione, Harry made sure to escort Luna back to her dorm before sprinting back to the Gryffindor common room.

To his consternation, Hermione wasn't in there either and no one had seen her come back from the party yet. It was almost time for their curfew! Where could she have gone? Growing more worried by the minute, he sprinted to the boys dorm room to pick up the Marauder's map and his Invisibility cloak before dashing out of the portrait hole once again.

After activating the map, he scoured over it under the cloak. There! He finally found the dot labelled 'Hermione Granger' in the astronomy tower. Thankfully she seemed to be alone. Relieved at having a concrete location now (and even more relieved that she didn't seem to be in any trouble), he quickly made his way there under the cloak.

As he climbed the last of the stairs leading to the tower, he couldn't help hearing some intermittent sniffles. Bloody hell! Hermione must really be upset if she'd been reduced to crying in the astronomy tower all by herself! Even more problematic – he was terrible at dealing with crying women (the infamous Cho incident was adequate proof of that!) And yet, what choice did he have? She was his best friend and something was clearly bothering her! The least he could do was offer her some comfort. Or barring that, lend her his shoulder to cry on!

He walked up to her timidly and shrugged off his cloak. "Hermione…" he called softly.

She whirled around, flustered. "Harry! How did you…?" He raised the map, knowing exactly what she was asking even before she could get her question out.

"Oh, of course, I should've known," she said while wiping away her tears. Her eyes got wide in distress. "Oh no! You're supposed to be with Luna!" she screeched. "I hope you didn't just run out of the party and leave her there all by herself!"

"No, no, don't worry, I dropped her off before I picked up the map and cloak!" he hurried to appease her.

She sagged in relief before she turned around to gaze at the sky once again. "You're a good friend Harry," she sighed softly. "But you shouldn't have changed your plans to come running after me."

He blanched. Her words felt like a slap in his face. The simple truth was…he'd been a terrible friend to her this year! While it was true that in recent times he and Hermione had gotten a bit closer (especially since she and Ron had their falling out), they'd had their share of disagreements over the course of the year. And if he was really honest, he'd have to admit that most of them had stemmed from him!

She'd disapproved of his use of the old copy of 'Advanced Potion-Making' book that he'd gotten from Professor Slughorn's closet right from the very beginning. She also wasn't a huge fan of his mounting distrust of Malfoy's motives, but rather than address those issues he'd allowed them to fester and drive a wedge between them. Not to mention, the whole Felix Felicis incident! He couldn't believe that she'd actually indirectly accused him of dosing Ron with liquid luck in order to cheat his way to his first win as the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. He'd been really hurt that she'd thought he was capable of such deceit. And yet, he hadn't addressed that issue either.

He was also upset that she didn't trust his instincts over Malfoy – he wasn't just being a prat, he knew the ferret was up to no good, dammit! And so, he'd held on to his resentment with Hermione – (how could she not see things his way?) until just a couple of weeks ago. Truth be told, he hadn't always been there for her this past year when she needed him to be. Despite all that, he couldn't believe she had actually expected him to just blithely carry on with his plans for the evening after what she'd shared with him regarding her 'date'!

"And you think I'd just be able to go on enjoying myself at the party - not that I was doing much of that to begin with - after you tell me about what happened with Cormac and then run away - nowhere to be found for the rest of the evening?" he questioned incredulously.

She seemed to wilt dejectedly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ruin your night… or unload my troubles onto you. It was nothing I couldn't handle anyway. He was more of a bother than an actual issue. Besides, I'm much better now!"

"What a load of crap!" He exclaimed, more than a little bugged that she was trying to brush off the whole incident like it was no big deal. He walked over and gingerly put his arm around her. He wasn't a touchy-feely kind of guy and he and Hermione didn't really have the kind of relationship where they hugged each other very often – well, at least, he didn't hug her; she'd been openly affectionate with him on more than one occasion – but she clearly was in need of some comfort.

"If you're so okay, why are you over here, crying in the dark instead of down in the common room?" He challenged her. "Besides, what's this nonsense about not wanting to unload your troubles on me? How many times have I done the same with you? Pretty much always! So why would I not be there for you when you need me? Now, stop being silly and tell me what's bothering you!"

She sighed unhappily. "What is wrong with me, Harry?" she asked, instead of answering his question. "Why can't I get any boy to like me? Any boy other than Cormac that is…" she muttered. "Am I too ugly? Too boring? Too much of a know-it-all?"

"Wrong?" he blurted, offended that she would even say these things, much less believe in them. "Nothing is wrong with you, do you hear me? You are not, nor have you ever been, ugly or boring! In fact, I was just going to tell you that you look stunning tonight! And as far as being a 'know-it-all' is concerned – you're just smart – in fact, you're the smartest person I know! And if anyone has a problem with that, then they're just not worth your time, you hear me? (In all honesty, he'd been pretty intimidated by Hermione's smartness at times himself. But he'd like to think that he'd grown up enough to get over that insecurity by this point, unlike Ron, who still found reasons to mock her about it. Just one of the many reasons that he didn't think Ron and Hermione getting together would be a good idea…but that was a topic for another time.) "You're perfect just as you are!" She really was…and he was going to hex Ron and Cormac and all the rest of the idiots who'd made her believe otherwise!

Especially Ron! He was most definitely going to curse him the next time he saw him! And it wouldn't even be all that much of an effort on his part. He was still more than a bit bugged at him for mishandling the whole Hermione/Lavender situation so badly. (To be fair, he couldn't blame Ron for getting together with Lavender. He could be with anyone he wanted – after all, it wasn't like he'd made any promises to Hermione or anything. But having said that, he'd certainly gone out of his way to show her that he had feelings for her since 4th year! Harry couldn't help but feel like he should've had the guts to talk to her about what was going on. Or…barring that, he could've at the very least, made some sort of an effort to not shove his newfound happiness in Hermione's face!)

She chuckled tearfully. "Oh Harry, I'm far from perfect, but thank you very much for saying so."

"So was it just Maclaggen? Oh, that reminds me, he got a month's worth of detention! And with Snape, no less! For once the old bat came through." By the time he got to the part about Cormac throwing up on Snape's feet, Hermione had a horrified look on her face but she was clearly trying hard not to burst out laughing. So he took that as a sign of a job well done!

"Anyway, what did the sodding wanker do, exactly? Do I need to find ways to hide his body or just beat him up till he can't walk again?" He reverted back to his original question, determined to get a straight answer out of her.

"No, no…. He was just a bit – shall we say, handsy? More annoying that upsetting actually." Hermione responded with a half-hearted chuckle.

"What an arse!" He muttered darkly. A huge part of him couldn't help but be relieved though. At least things weren't nearly as bad as he'd feared. "So what're the tears all about then, huh? Is it the whole Ron and Lavender thing again? Because honestly, Ron's not worth all this! Frankly, he's a right git!" He protested.

"You'll get no arguments from me there," she said with a wet chuckle. "Honestly, I don't know why it's bothering me so much! And the whole Cormac thing? Ugh, I feel so stupid! I went with him only because I knew it would bother Ron! And it didn't even work! In fact, I don't think he even noticed! Instead, I could've just gone with you and at least enjoyed myself! And, Ron might've actually noticed that!"

The moment the words left her mouth, her eyes lit up with an unholy glint that did not bode well for his peace of mind in any way.

"That's it! Harry, that's what we need to do!"

"Huh?"

"We need to date each other!"

His mouth dropped open. "Er…what?" There was no way he'd heard her correctly! "Hermione, forgive me for saying this, but have you lost your bloody mind?"

"Come on, you know it makes a lot of sense! I know the whole Ginny and Dean situation bugs you too and I want Ron to finally notice me! This would be the perfect solution to both our problems!" She seemed to be getting more and more excited about this insane plan of hers.

"And you think the way to make Ron notice you is for you to date his best mate instead?" He questioned incredulously. Either he was totally stupid or she'd gone completely mental!

"Of course! Do you remember how much he hated it when I went with Viktor Krum to the Yule Ball? Now just imagine how much more he'll hate it if he sees you and me together!"

He was pretty sure he was missing something here! "But won't us being together also pretty much preclude you and Ron from getting together?"

"Oh Harry, don't be silly! I don't mean date date! What I'm saying is that we should pretend to date each other…"

"Oh. Oh! So… we'd just be faking it then?" That, at least, made a bit of sense. Still, she didn't actually think this would work, did she? "But come on… no one will buy that we're dating each other, no matter how much we try! I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm not that great an actor!"

"Uh…you're joking, right? Most people already think we've been secretly dating each other since 4th year!"

"Er, well, I guess you have a point there…"

"Of course I do! It'll be easy. And temporary. What do you say Harry? Come on, please! We have to do this. It's the only way." she pleaded.

Famous last words, he couldn't help but think. But how could he say no to her after everything she'd done for him over the years? And all without ever asking or expecting anything in return! He couldn't, of course.

But that didn't mean he was crazy about this plan of hers. Or that he wasn't scared about everything it could potentially entail. Or that he wasn't worried that he would mess it all up – badly. Still he had to try at least.

He took a deep breath. "Okay, tell me what we have to do."

A/N:- Reviews are better than chocolate frogs - well, probably not - but I love them just as much! Please let me know what you think! Thank you!