Disclaimer: I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book.
Part II : End of the Dream
Hermione was having an absolutely grand time at this last ball. It was a little tiring, spending dance after dance on the ballroom floor but it was fun and exhilarating as well. She barely had time to catch her breath before she was whisked away back to the dance floor by someone else.
It was such great fun. What was best was that because Hermione's partners were dancing with her just as friends, they weren't trying to be someone they were not in order to impress her. Everyone was acting completely naturally and it was so easy to have a good time just talking with people she had practically grown up with for the last seven years.
Her dance with Dean Thomas was the one she was most out of breath after. That wasn't because they talked non-stop as they had hardly spoken a word at all. Instead, they had danced up a storm. Before the dance, Dean had apologized in advance for any mishaps that might occur leading Hermione to think that her feet would be in pain afterwards. That couldn't have been farther from the truth. Dean had to be the best dancer in the school—unlike some of her other partners, he actually knew how to lead. She paid for it afterwards as she was left gasping for breath by the time the song was done.
Thank goodness her next dance after that was with Seamus Finnegan. Not only was he understanding about how she couldn't talk and willing to fill the gap himself but he had the most charming accent to listen to. There was something about men who spoke with an Irish lilt to their voice. Towards the end, Hermione had fully recovered from her romp on the dance floor with Dean but she still kept quiet so she could listen to Seamus more during the time they had left. She had told them when they were finished that he should never try to disguise his accent and the poor boy had actually blushed.
It was so amusing that Hermione had almost laughed out loud at the sight.
She harbored some trepidations about her next dance with Blaise Zabini. They had fought like cats and dogs over that dratted Potions project but had managed to pull off the best grade in the class. Hermione did not know why she had agreed to a dance with him except that she would very much like to let bygones be bygones. Yet when she saw him approaching her, butterflies made their presence known in their stomach. What if that dance turned out to be as awful as that project?
Blaise, however, played the part of a perfect gentleman. There was something to be said about sending boys to cotillion classes. Blaise had admitted that he had been forced into the Wizarding version of such classes after she had complimented him on his dancing ability. He then went on to regale her horror stories of that experience. Blaise evidently had the scariest hag there to keep all the boys in line when they had to practice dancing. Hermione could hardly breathe for laughing.
All throughout the dance, however, Hermione could feel a pair of eyes watching her back. It was a pair that she knew and loved so well.
She just couldn't figure out why Harry would be staring at her so when he had his own date that he could look at. He obviously thought the world of Lisa considering how he went on and on about her the week before. Hermione knew for a fact that he did not actually want to dance with her. He had taken his time to ask her. She had already refused several other students by the time he had made his way to her. It was an obvious ploy—ask Hermione after her dance card was full so you didn't have to spend any time with the girl you weren't interested in.
It was positively nerve-wracking to spend that entire dance with his eyes glued to her back. Hermione had been gracious enough to leave him alone after he refused her. She now wished that he would do the same.
****
The evening was turning out to be long, slow and torturous. It hadn't been too bad earlier when Harry was dancing with Lisa but now that he had been left alone, he found himself constantly watching Hermione having a good time without him.
He still couldn't grasp the fact that she hadn't even bothered to save a single dance for her best friend for the last seven years. Didn't all those years mean something to her?
Evidently not, otherwise she wouldn't have left him behind without a second thought.
"Splendid last dance, isn't it, Harry?"
Harry jerked back to reality at those words. He had been so busy glowering at Hermione that he had not noticed Ron coming up to him from the side. Not wanting to admit that he was not having a pleasant time, Harry said, "The staff certainly did their best to make sure that we'd all have a perfect evening."
Ron raised an eyebrow knowingly at Harry's statement. He wasn't blind. He had observed just who Harry had been glaring at before he had interrupted his friend's activity. Glancing over at Hermione dancing with Zabini, Ron noted, "Hermione is certainly enjoying herself. She hasn't sat out a single dance."
"And she's not going to," Harry replied bitterly. "Every single dance on her card is full."
"That's no surprise. It's a well-known fact that she's the nicest girl in our school She'd have to be the way she's put with Neville's accidents in Potions throughout the years, not to mention all the times that we've acted like prats towards her."
"I don't see how nice it is to forget about a friend you've had for seven years."
"Didn't get there fast enough?" Ron asked although the answer was clear. Hearing no response as the current dance came to an end, he continued, "Well, if you excuse, I better go to Hermione before someone tries to cut in."
At that moment, Harry hated both of his best friends.
****
Hermione was exceedingly glad that she had agreed to a set with Blaise. He had actually apologized for some of the things he said to her when they had been working together. Hermione had blushed and returned the sentiment. When you got down to it, she had been at fault as well. She was pleased that they had been able to put that experience behind them.
As the song came to an end, Blaise uttered a few last pleasantries before escorting her off the floor. After he had left, Hermione raised her wrist to take a look at who was next but before she could read the name, someone caught her hand in his.
It was Ron.
"No need to look at that, Hermione," he said while smiling at her surprise. "I've the next dance."
"Perhaps I should take a look just in case you're mistaken, Ron," Hermione bantered good-naturedly.
"When have I ever been mistaken?"
"All too often as I recall."
"If you don't have anything nice to say, Hermione . . ."
"You never follow that axiom so I see no reason why I should."
They both laughed at that. Hermione remembered the time when she had dated Ron very briefly. It had been excruciating. They had at least twice their normal number of fights. It didn't take very long for them to figure out that they did not belong together as anything more than friends. Fortunately, they had came to that realization at the same time as Hermione didn't want to think about what would have happened if she had to break the bad news to Ron.
There was one advantage to their brief spate of dating. They became better friends for it. During their short relationship, Hermione and Ron had come to realize that the other did appreciate their strengths, although they didn't always act that way. This made their fights easier to bear as each knew the other cared for them. Since then, Ron had acted more like a protective older brother towards her than anything else.
Being close friends for so long meant that you could spend time together without having to fill the air with stilted conversation. Hermione closed her eyes, content to be dancing with her adopted older brother for the moment.
Harry was staring at her again. It was getting to be truly annoying.
She sighed, feeling a bit miffed at Harry. Why wouldn't he leave her alone?
Lifting his head to peer over Hermione's shoulder at the sound of her sigh, Ron could see Harry giving both of them death glares. He unconsciously echoed Hermione's sigh. It would be so much better for Harry if he would just admit to himself what everyone knew to be true. There was only one girl that Harry spent his time with day in and day out—and that fact was not mere coincidence. Well, Ron reflected silently, he hated to admit it but his gender was not known for their perceptiveness when it came to emotions.
Looking down at Hermione, Ron knew that she was getting upset over the whole situation. Taking pity on his fellow male as he had been in the same position before, he tried to calm her down.
"You do know that he's really regretting the choices he made now, right?" Ron attempted to address the matter tactfully.
Hermione snorted in a rather unladylike manner. "I have not the slightest hint about what you're talking about."
Ron sighed. This was not going to be easy. Harry should be thankful that he had a good friend like Ron. "I think you do, Hermione. You wouldn't have made Head Girl otherwise."
Hermione rolled her eyes at his comment. After a minute or two of silence, she replied, "I just wish he would leave me alone. He's making me feel very uncomfortable."
"He doesn't mean to," Ron replied gently. "You have to take pity on us poor males, Hermione. Sometimes we're the last to know what's practically staring at us in front of our faces. It might be hard for you to believe but sometimes we really do not know what it is that we really want."
Hermione considered that statement before deciding that she didn't want to deal with the situation any more. She was tired of mooning over her best friend only to be completely ignored as a romantic interest. Glaring at Ron, she bitingly said, "I have absolutely no inclination to continue this line of conversation."
Ron winced. When Hermione started to look for words of four syllables or more to use in her conversation, that was a big hint for you to change topics. He had tried his best. However, just because Harry had ruined his last dance at Hogwarts didn't mean that Ron had to follow suite.
****
It looked like her friends had been right. She hadn't stood a chance with Harry Potter, not while Hermione Granger was still around.
It was fun while it had lasted, Lisa thought to herself. She was ever so surprised when Harry had asked her to the dance that she had almost forgotten to tell him yes. Everyone had thought that he would ask his best friend, although there were still bets floating around as to whether they would be going as a couple or just as friends.
She had been completely bouncing off the walls after he had asked her. A couple days later, she had learned from her sources in Gryffindor that Hermione had worked up the courage to ask him and had been refused. That piece of information made Lisa begin to think that Harry actually did like her. When she heard that he was always talking about her in the Gryffindor Common Room, she was ecstatic.
That illusion had ended the moment Hermione had entered the room. Harry had not paid any attention to Lisa since then. Once again, the rumor mill of Hogwarts was hard at work and she had heard that Hermione had refused Harry's offer of a dance. While Lisa's first reaction was that Hermione must have lost it somewhere along the way to the ball, she felt rather vindicated as a female. Why agree to dance with the man who had rejected you so soundly? That would make no sense from a woman's point-of-view.
The strains of the last dance started to fill the Great Hall with their magic. Taking a deep breath, she asked her date, "Shall we dance?"
Harry jumped at that, not too happy that someone had the gall to interrupt his wallow in self-pity. After a quick look at what he had settled for, he replied brusquely, "No thank you. I don't think I'd make a pleasant partner."
Harry walked away to find a better place on the wall to watch Hermione share the last dance with her date. And so the last ball he would ever attend at Hogwarts ended without him ever getting a chance to share a dance with her.
The dream had truly ended.
****
A week after that last ball found the Trio hard at work. N.E.W.T.s were coming up and their professors had taken it upon themselves to prepare the seventh year students by assigning additional loads of homework. Hence Harry, Hermione and Ron would be found in the Gryffindor Common Room on a daily basis, attempting to complete the piles of work they had been given by overly zealous instructors.
Despite the fact that they had major assignments due this week in Charms, Transfiguration and Potions, Harry couldn't concentrate.
He was watching Hermione instead.
Since that dance, she had acted as if nothing had changed between them. She didn't seem to notice how much her not saving just one dance for him had hurt Harry.
Harry wasn't used to that. Hermione was usually the first one to be aware of his feelings. She had always tried to comfort him before. It was selfish of him to think it but he missed that.
It was weighing on his mind. Harry could not forget how it felt to be left behind by her. During that last dance, he had the irrepressible urge to cut in on her partner but never got around to doing it. Perhaps he should have done it—perhaps he wouldn't keep returning to that awful dance over and over again in his mind. For what seemed like the hundredth time that day, Harry sighed.
That caught Hermione's attention. She had been trying to ignore the glares that Harry had been sending in her direction with some success. But when he had sighed, she had looked up to see that he had been completely ignoring his work.
That simply would not do.
"Harry," she began. "Might I suggest that you start to actually work on your Potions assignment?"
With a roll of his eyes, he replied, "That's exactly what I've been trying to do, Hermione. It's not my fault that Snape's assignment is impossible to complete!"
"Honestly! If you would just apply yourself a bit more, you would find that it's not as bad as you're making it out to be."
"Thank you for the advice. Now could you please stop nagging me and leave me alone." Harry normally didn't reply so to Hermione's urgings as but he was extraordinarily peeved. How dare she take him to task when it was her fault that he couldn't concentrate?
"You know that I'm only saying it for your own benefit. I do care about you and I don't want you to fail."
"Could have fooled me," he retorted all too loudly.
Hermione's face turned pale at that answer. "Just what is that supposed to mean?"
Harry snapped. He had been frustrated with Hermione and her lack of caring for a week to not give her a piece of his mind. "It means that if you cared about your best friend then you wouldn't have let that dratted dance card fill up without his name being on it."
"I don't see how I'm required to save any of my time for you. You didn't do me that favor."
Rising to his feet, with his face turning read, Harry angrily tore into Hermione. "Is that it? It that why you did it? Because you were jealous? I thought better of you. I thought that you understood me, that you knew what I had gone through, and you would be happy to see that I finally had someone I loved. But no—jealousy had to rear its ugly head and you had to go and try to ruin my evening!"
"I was not jealous." That was a lie and Hermione knew it but she was not about to give Harry the pleasure of hearing her say that. "All I was saying that if you didn't wait for me, then why should you expect me to wait for you."
"One dance is a lot smaller than a date. I had plans before Hermione—plans for a completely wonderful date that you ruined."
"That I ruined? If anything, you did that yourself by acting like a complete git. And yes, a date is bigger than a dance but the idea is still the same. Besides, if you really had wanted to dance with me, why didn't you ask before the ball ever started."
"Someone's getting a big head now, isn't she? If you want to dance with Ms. Hermione 'Perfect' Granger, you had best get your reservations in advance."
Hermione got to her feet at that. She so wanted to slap him across the face but she restrained herself. She wasn't going to hit her best friend even if he was being a complete and total idiot at the moment. She quickly gathered her books to leave the room before uttering one last barb.
"For your information, that's exactly what Ron did because he wanted to dance with me as you so obviously didn't. And frankly, the only green-eyed monster I see in this room right now is you."
With that, Hermione left Harry behind again. Stunned, he watched her leave without saying a single word.
Seeing that his best friend was in shock over what he had said and done, Ron placed a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder. "Don't worry," he said. "It's not the end."
Harry hoped but could not believe that was true.
Author's note—I think that this one will have a total of three chapters, not four, meaning that I hope not have to end the next with another cliffhanger. It might get a tad long, but it should be doable. I would really like to see what you think about this story—so please leave a review.
And thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a review for the last chapter. Words cannot express my gratitude. So thanks goes out to Heaven, draco's princess, Eric, Noodlejelly, Animagus-Steph, Jme H, ice_cold, Aline Aquiar, AznGolDragonGod, ChrisMiss, leogrl, Perire Dea,prowess, LadyZ, May, snow,Brian and Nappa for being kind enough to do so.
As a last word, I've just one comment on the reviews. I find it
really interesting how the guys are going "Oh no! Angst!" while the consensus
amongst the older females is that Hermione should be cheered on since Harry
deserved it. I am most definitely in the latter camp. The plot
bunny for this fic came from one part of GoF—where Harry was reflecting
that while he liked Hermione very much, he preferred being best friends
with Ron because it was more fun and you didn't spend as much time in the
library. I wanted to smack that boy at that comment—it's not like
she was trying to save your life or anything like that at the time. So
I
think Hermione is under-appreciated by both her guys and if Harry doesn't
wake up to see how wonderful she is, I hope something like this happens.
And kudos goes to May for putting all of this in the most creative way—the
problem with directions though is that guys never want to ask for them
or follow them. 'Tis much better to lead them there yourself.