Dancing Shoes: Solution

Dancing Shoes: Solution

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Author's Note: The third and last part of 'Dancing Shoes'. There, you can all breathe now, and wave flags and throw confetti, or whatever to celebrate --- just let me in, okay, and don't make me dance? ^^ If you haven't read the first two chapters of this story, *read them now*!!! Well, I'm not going to spoil anything, but to those of you that complain I should have a different pairing or ending: Ha! Too late! In your face! (beats himself up) Ow. Anyway, hope you liked the story overall...fluffy to semi-fluffy romance writing was never my department to begin with, so this is new for me, and so this was quite difficult to write. And do tell me about it, alright? Oh...did I finally mention that if you skipped the first two chapters you should go back and read them? I did? Okay, if you haven't read the first two chapters, read them now. Ha. ^^ Okay, later.

--Cybaster

"Believe in the Sign of Zeta!!!"

Disclaimer: Same as before. All names and places but, of course, Harry's pair of dancing shoes and the wonderful almost-anime-like house elf extra known as Semie, belong to Joanne Kathleen Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Raincoast Books.

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Fortunately for Harry, Hermione didn't run very far from the dance hall --- but even from a distance and from behind her, Harry already knew that she was a literal wreck deep inside. Taking a deep breath, Harry slowly moved towards her, looking at her wistfully. Harry felt that somehow it was his fault things had taken this turn; if he had checked with Hermione about the dancing shoes before coming to the dance, he would know about the new problem and helped Hermione fix it...and if he had even known about it before Harry took Hermione into the dance hall, she wouldn't have had to face all that.

Ludicrous as they sounded, Harry could almost think of countless reasons why Hermione's sadness was his fault alone, and Harry only seemed all the more convinced that it was so. He knew that he had to make things right for Hermione again, but this time Harry had little confidence in himself --- to defeat a Death Eater or even Voldemort with magic is one thing, but to cure Hermione's heart in a situation like this was nothing that magic could do.

Harry took another deep breath, sighed, and kept walking forward until he was a single foot away from Hermione. Her hands covering her eyes and face and sobs still escaping her lips, Hermione was still crying and shutting herself out in a last attempt to comfort herself, which wasn't at all working.

"Hermione?" Harry asked, and Hermione quickly waved him away without even turning around.

"Just leave me alone, okay, Harry?" Hermione whimpered coarsely, nearly choking on her own words. "Please..."

"I..." Harry bowed his head, fearful of looking at her directly and seeing her cry. "...I'm really sorry. I know now. I know about---"

Harry stopped in mid-speech as he heard Ron and Mandy come up behind him and stand consolingly beside her, trying their best to help. Ron gave Harry a worried glance; Mandy looked at Hermione and hesitantly touched her shoulder, only to have Hermione shove Mandy's hand away violently and continue crying. Harry was glad for their support even though he had told them not to, and at the same time peeved by their presence: only Harry knew about Hermione's problem and her new problem was because of the old one, and he'd prefer that it stayed that way, no matter how trustworthy Ron and Mandy were. It'd certainly make Hermione less embarassed.

"Talk to me, Hermione." Ron demanded sternly. "What's going on?"

"We're only trying to help, Hermione." Mandy answered. "Whatever happened, we're not going to laugh at you or anything, alright? We just want to see what's going on."

But Hermione was adamantly silent. She couldn't talk to anyone about her embarassment because she can't let anyone know about her previous problem, either, and while Harry knew, she couldn't talk to him if Ron, Mandy and pretty much the entire school would be on their case. Although she knew that crying never helped her before, Hermione now felt that it was the only option everyone was leaving her, as if crying could make it all go away, make all this a dream and her wake up to the beautiful graduation waiting for her. It was ludicrous, but at the moment, it was all Hermione wanted to do.

"Come on, Hermione. Please talk to me. Whatever it is you and Harry know about, you can tell me." Ron pleaded, not wishing for Hermione to be like this or for himself to be left out anymore. When Hermione likewise gave him no answer, he looked at Mandy with a hopeless look and fought to keep his temper. "I don't want to be left out of this, okay? Please, tell me what's going on!"

Harry decided that things were going nowhere fast, and decided to act. First, since only he and Hermione were the ones that knew about the whole business --- and decided to keep it that way --- he knew that only he should even talk to Hermione about it right now. As bad as it sounded and was, he'll have to get Ron and Mandy away. "Ron---" Harry began, and stopped when he saw Professor McGonagall walk up to where they were as well. Harry frowned: the last thing Hermione needed was Professor McGonagall, followed by probably the rest of the dance, being there as well.

"Is Miss Granger alright?" Professor McGonagall asked with concern. "Is there anything I could do for her right now, Mr Potter?"

"Well, Professor---" Ron began with a slightly angry tint, but both Harry and Mandy stopped Ron short, who looked at his two friends with annoyance. Hermione still refused to answer, and merely kept crying to herself.

"Professor McGonagall..." Harry began, taking a deep breath. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but...I know what Hermione's problem is...I'm the only one who knows, and it's better now that it remains that way. Please, let me try to talk to her alone. She doesn't need lots of people ogling her right now."

Ron looked at Harry in shock; Mandy remained silent as she tried to think. "Are you sure you would not be needing our help, Mr Potter?" Professor McGonagall replied, doubtful. "It would be better if Miss Granger talked to more than one person right now."

"No, not this time." Harry shook his head. "Please, Professor, trust me on this. And can you please keep the rest of the class from coming out here and staring at her? Especially Draco?"

By now, Professor McGonagall was thoroughly, if not completely, convinced that Harry was right; Hermione was embarassed about something and the best she could do was keep everyone from making her even more embarassed --- especially Draco, who had already probably jumped the chance and wouldn't hesitate to do any more damage. Whatever was happening, she could see that Harry had a clear idea of Hermione's problem and was probably the best person to solve it. Nodding in agreement, she gestured for Ron and Mandy to follow her. "Alright then, Mr Potter. I'll start the dance without you two --- that should keep everyone occupied. If you decide to change your mind, I'll be on the podium, as always." Professor McGonagall smiled assuringly, only a bit doubtful still, and began walking back towards the dance hall. "Mr Weasley? Miss Brocklehurst? Let's leave them alone for a bit."

"But---" Ron began to protest, but Mandy looked back at him with a steady look that told Ron everything was going to work out (the same one Ron had always seen of Mandy over and over and never failed to cheer him up), and Ron stopped to give her, and Harry, a wry smile. Letting Mandy take him by the arm, Ron followed Professor McGonagall towards the dance hall again. "Alright, Mandy, I know you're right. Let's go back and start dancing, alright?"

"Ron? Mandy?"

Ron and Mandy turned back to Harry with an expectant look, who was looking back at them with a warm, and grateful, smile.

"Thanks for understanding. I promise I'll tell you everything after the dance." Harry whispered gratefully.

Both Ron and Mandy nodded warmly and, knowing Harry would succeed, turned around towards the dance behind Professor McGonagall. As they left, Harry took a slight moment to distract himself as Mandy began to bring herself and Ron away: "I want to dance all the slow songs they'll be playing, Ron, but are you sure you can handle it? If not, we could rest awhile after every, um, four or five songs..."

Hermione's whimper brought Harry back to reality and he turned back to the problem at hand, his heart feeling lightened with the task --- and knowing that Hermione was also slightly grateful, as well. "Hermione..." Harry began softly. "I...I know now. About the shoes, I mean. What happened to them?"

Hermione shook her head quickly. Knowing that they were finally alone and it would stay that way, Hermione wanted to tell Harry, but the words wouldn't come out. It felt too embarassing for her to even say it. At the same time, however, Hermione was willing herself not to; comparing herself to Harry now, she couldn't bear for herself to say anything, not even to him, but that will was dwindling down.

"P...please, Hermione. Talk to me." Harry pleaded again. "You have to tell somebody sometime."

Then Hermione finally let herself turn around to see Harry, and Harry knew for sure that whatever problem Hermione had, it was really bothering her. Although she had stopped crying, her face was nearly completely red, her eyes blurry with tears that ran down her cheeks and dampened both her sleeves. She was breathing heavily with slight whimpering and Harry realized that she seemed about to cry all over again. Harry didn't want Hermione to feel that way and he felt his own heart ache for her.

"I---I wished it would all go away, Harry, I really do..." Hermione blurted out hoarsely, trying to let everything out at once. "The shoes---the...I lost th-them...Semie took them, and washed them, and...and...and I'm stuck! I really can't dance without them, I can't..."

Harry managed to piece together what Hermione was trying to tell him --- Semie washed Hermione's shoes and destroyed the enchantment on them, so Hermione couldn't dance or talk to him again about it --- and decided to act quickly. "Calm down, Hermione! It's just a pair of shoes---"

"They're not, Harry! Don't you understand!?" Hermione cried out in despair and threw her hands over her face again. "Everyone's in there waiting to pretty much embarass me and without those shoes, I'm finished, okay!? I'll just be clumsy, and I'll fall and everyone will laugh at me for the rest of my life! You were there with me! You know! The last chance I have to actually have fun with everybody and I blow myself up, Harry! How would that feel if it happened to you?"

It had rarely occured to Harry that Hermione herself was one to really want others to notice her for who she was --- the Hermione he knew was always readily buried in a book or a dozen of them and always knew everything she had to, the right spell, the right potion, the right ingredients and the right answer to every question. But maybe, Harry also realized, this was how Hermione herself intended to be noticed. Now everything, her embarassment and her earlier problems with needing to know how to dance, made sense; it was opposite of how Harry's life went, but Harry knew well how that would feel, with everyone demanding everything from her. Giving a sigh of understanding, Harry reached out to grip Hermione, but she bristled and backed away at his touch. Harry frowned.

"I'd feel really embarassed, Hermione. I'm sorry." Harry apologized.

Hermione waved Harry off, herself sorry for snapping at Harry like that. Whether he understood or not, Hermione had no right to yell at Harry, and he didn't deserve to be yelled at. "No, Harry, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you. But...I can't dance, and I can't go back in there. You have your pair..."

Harry looked briefly down at his own pair of dancing shoes which were supposed to save him, but somewhat failed to help Hermione in the dance, and looked back up at her. Hermione covered her face again. "...You can dance well if you wanted to and nobody will laugh at you. But I'll only be in the way, Harry, I'll only embarass you."

Reaching forward, Harry tried to get a grip on Hermione's shoulders again and this time Hermione seemed to have lost all energy to resist like she previously did. At his touch, Hermione calmed down a bit more and lowered her hands to look at him again. "Listen to me, Hermione. Nobody's going to laugh at you. Well," Harry shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe Draco and the Slytherins, but don't they always do that? It'll be alright. And I won't feel embarassed, dancing with you."

Giving a loud sigh of delusion, Hermione backed away a step. "Please don't lie to me, Harry." Hermione pleaded with a whisper. "Who'd want to dance with me? I'm no good at dancing!"

"I'm not, either!"

"And don't you think everyone in the dance knows that? You've seen how they were whispering things when we're being called! They're just waiting for me to mess up in front of them and have something nasty to talk about for Graduation! Bookworm Granger's really a clumsy slug! Can you see that? Why would you care? Nobody would say anything about you, because you're famous! Why would you want to be stuck with me?" Hermione argued, her confidence nowhere near to being helped.

"But..." Harry began, and tried again to give an assuring smile. "Because you're my friend and I would like dancing with you."

Hermione replied with a derisive frown and, unconvinced, turned her back to Harry and looked away. "...Really? Because you'd actually look like you dance good in front of me, probably. You're the one with the dancing shoes. Please leave me alone, Harry. If you want to look good dancing, I'm not the one to ask."

With uncertainty and looking at her with sympathetic eyes, Harry began to think as Hermione went silent again. The dancing shoes were created in an attempt to make himself look good in front of everybody, not because Harry actually wanted to dance, but working with Hermione changed all that, telling Harry that the dance was there to have fun with each other instead of defending reputations. That single night before the dance, Harry had nearly forgotten about his problem and had asked Hermione because he wanted to, but was it really what should matter and was Hermione right? If he had danced with someone else like Mandy or Cho or even Medea, would he really be better off than he would dancing with Hermione?

Harry then found his answer as he remembered Ron's earlier advice and finally realized what he should be at the Last Moments for: dance for yourselves. He asked Hermione before because he wanted her to be there with him, he liked being with her for the Last Moments, and Harry would be quite happy to dance with her and nobody else. With that realization, as well, Harry also realized that despite what Harry and Hermione had thought earlier, their dancing shoes didn't matter at all.

Silence ensued.

Finally having lost all hope that Harry would bother wasting any more time on her, Hermione finally turned around to realize her loneliness. Although Hermione would never admit it, she wanted Harry to keep talking to her, to keep trying to convince her that everything would work out as he had always done before and to show her that he really did care about her. She knew that she would've liked to dance with Harry, but she can't do that because she'd only embarass herself and Harry in front of everyone, and that thought alone remained in her mind.

But that thought disappeared rapidly when she looked down and saw Harry knelt down in front of her, unbuckling his dancing shoes and taking them off.

"Harry? What are you doing!?" Hermione exclaimed. She was momentarily confused; she had always seen that Harry seemed to need his dancing shoes for the Last Moments, but now he was taking them off for whatever reason. "Why are you taking them off now?"

Harry merely shook his head --- he was finally sure now, more than ever what to feel and say, and by now he had taken off his left shoe and was going for his right. "Because I don't need them at all, Hermione." Harry simply replied. That wasn't what Hermione had thought Harry would say, though, and she was only even more confused.

"But, Harry---"

"Please, Hermione, wait a bit." Harry asked gently and, with a tug, removed his right shoe as well. Tossing both shoes aside and standing with his socks on the outside grass, Harry stood up and looked Hermione in the eye with a sincere, pleading look, one that to Hermione was somehow more reassuring than Harry ever was and told her to hear him out. Shuffling nervously for a bit, Harry finally forced himself to say what he had wanted to. "Hermione...when me and Ron were talking in Hogsmeade a week ago and I found out that everyone would be looking for me to dance...I misread what he meant."

"What?" Hermione asked, more curious than dejected. "What do you mean, misread?"

"Well, um, when I found out about the problem I had---thought I had," Harry blushed a bit but otherwise forced himself on. "I thought I had to dance because they'll be seeing if I can. I thought I needed those dancing shoes because I had to dance good in front of everyone...and when I figured out I had to, um, have my shoes, uh...I thought that was more important than having someone to dance with, that if I could dance good, I would have someone to go with because of it. But Hermione...I was wrong..."

Hesitantly at first, Harry reached out and, this time, held Hermione's hands. His grip was tight, and although Hermione had tried to slip out of them at first, eventually she found his touch soothing and relaxed her arms into them. Pleasant that she felt, though, Hermione was still confused over what Harry was trying to tell her, her mind and heart in two different places. "A-about what, Harry? What did you find out?"

Harry took a deep breath and went on. "That night in the Library after we finished the dancing shoes together, when we hugged and when I asked you to be my date for the dance, Hermione, briefly I realized that being able to dance was nowhere as important to me as being able to...as being able to, uh...dance with someone you would really to dance with." Harry finished those last words in whispers, letting everything out.

Hermione blinked at him: somehow in her heart she understood what was coming from Harry, but a part of her still refused to understand. "Harry...what are you trying to say?" She tried to turn her head to avoid Harry's eyes, but his look held firm and Hermione didn't dare falter away from them. Harry continued on softly and when he finished, Hermione was looking at him with a bit of surprise, although she finally understood his words and those words had managed to not only calm her down considerably, but also bring a warm feeling into her heart as she realized that she was, no matter what, liked.

"Don't...don't you see, Hermione?" Harry asked, unable to raise his voice any longer and whispering, trying to sound as sure of himself as possible. "I guess that I'm trying to say that...that...that the dancing shoes won't matter to me at all as long as I'll be happy dancing with someone I would really like to dance with. Hermione...with or without the dancing shoes, I would really, really like to dance with you."

"You...you really mean that, Harry?" Hermione whispered, wanting to be sure that she wasn't dreaming Harry telling her all this. If she did, it'd only be proof that she was going crazy. "That you would like dancing with me in the Last Moments? In front of Ron, Mandy, Draco and everybody? Even if I dance bad?"

Harry nodded and smiled widely. "I do mean it, Hermione. This time, I do. I would love dancing with you. I don't dance very well, either, so...if you're going to be embarassed, I'll embarass myself with you, too."

Hermione felt as if the great weight she had felt was on her heart suddenly lifted away with Harry's words; initially having thought that embarassing herself and Harry in front of every single seventh year in Hogwarts by messing up the dance was everything to be worried about, she, too, then realized that it didn't, and shouldn't, matter at all. The fact that did was that she would also like to dance with Harry and that she would have fun doing that. Once again, tears of joy welled up, and this time Hermione felt so happy and glad for Harry that she felt she could kiss him...

But that would be overdoing it, and Hermione contently knew that. Like she had done last night, she threw herself into Harry's arms and hugged him tight. "Oh, Harry!" Hermione exclaimed happily. "Thank you very much! I feel much better now! I really am glad you and Ron are always there for me...even Mandy sometimes, and you especially."

They consciously remained there, enjoying the company and the hug, and neither needed to say anything at all.

After what pleasantly seemed like an hour or so but was still much less than that, Harry and Hermione reluctantly backed away and let each other go. This time, neither was blushing with embarassment or confused with the touching feeling --- instead, both Harry and Hermione, knowing that there was nobody around them and wouldn't be for at least quite awhile, wanted very much to hug each other again but knew that there was a dance waiting for them both.

"I guess we should go inside and let everybody know we're ready, Harry." Hermione whispered light-heartedly. "I think we still owe each other a dance."

Harry smiled warmly back at her as he thought about the same thing and the pleasant prospects of finally getting to dance with Hermione. "Yes, we do." Harry replied with a tone that was trying to be gentleman-like, and politely held out his hand towards her again. "Well then, Hermi! May I have the pleasure of having this dance with you?"

Holding back a giggle, Hermione reached out and took Harry's arm around her own. "Of course you may, Harry. It would be my pleasure as well."

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Therefore, hand in hand, Harry and Hermione turned around towards the dance hall and, once inside, danced with each other oblivious to everyone else. Harry and Hermione knew that they didn't dance good at all --- although they didn't step on each other's toes all that much at all, they missed a few steps and made a few mistakes. However, only Draco, Medea and the Slytherins laughed at them; the remainder cheered them on, and fawned over the sight of an otherwise perfect dance with an obviously --- to them, at least --- perfect couple.

And, as Harry and Hermione both discovered, they liked dancing with each other and despite the mistakes, enjoyed themselves in the dance --- that, to them, was all that really mattered...and they discovered that it was all because of two pairs of dancing shoes Harry and Hermione didn't really use, and really, when they finally thought about it with each other, didn't need at all.

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