"It's Hopeless"

Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong to J.K. Rowling! Not me! No copyright infringement intended, please don't sue. Thank you!

A/N: Sorry about the wait for this chapter. I was having trouble uploading for a while. The next few chapters should come rather quickly, that is if I get enough reviews, hint hint!

Chapter Ten: The Halloween Ball

By the day of the Halloween Ball, Hermione had convinced herself to feel good about Ron asking her. It meant that he thought about her. 'Even if it was as just a friend, at least he thought to ask me, and not some other girl he might like', she told herself. She thought that if he liked her enough to ask her as a friend, there might, just maybe, be hope in the future, the far future.

She had decided to look her best, but still make sure she was herself. After all, he may have asked her as a friend, but he did ask her. She bought brand new robes for the event and was actually pretty excited. At the worst, she would get to spend the night with Ron, and maybe he would ask her to dance a few dances with him.

*** By that night Ron had his plan fully formed in his head. He would ask Hermione to dance the first dance with him; he told himself that he at least deserved that. Then he would say he wasn't having fun dancing and suggest Harry dance with her. He would keep doing this, until they got the idea. He would eventually leave them alone and go back to the dormitory.

This whole idea of his was making him sick, but he was certain it was what his friends wanted, and he wouldn't let himself stand in the way.

He put on his new dress robes, all the while cursing them. If it weren't for these stupid things, he wouldn't have got into this mess. He combed his hair, and took one last look in the mirror. He looked pretty okay he thought. He then walked down to the common room and sat on the couch, waiting for Hermione.

"Hello Ron, you look great!" giggled a voice behind him.

He stood up and looked hopefully toward the voice, but it was Lavender.

"Oh, thank you! You look nice too." He said politely. She winked as she walked away. Ron was clueless as to why.

Hermione saw all of this from the stairs, and she was extremely jealous. She knew Lavender thought Ron was cute, but she never saw her flirt with him that way before. After she got over her anger, she looked at Ron more closely. He did look great! He was wearing brand new royal blue robes, after a second of wondering how he got them, she decided she didn't care, he looked wonderful. She also knew these robes would bring out his blue eyes. She was beginning to feel weak, but before letting it take hold of her too much, she started to walk down the stairs.

Ron looked up and caught his breath in his throat. She had never looked more beautiful, and to top it off, she looked like herself. She was wearing dark purple dress robes with a lighter purple dress that hung underneath the cloak. She was wearing just a bit of makeup and her hair was hanging loose, still curly, just controlled.

"You.you look.beautiful Hermione!" he said it before he could stop himself, but gave himself enough of a mental whipping for it to remember never to do it again.

"Thanks, you too! I.mean.you look nice.good.nice I mean." She didn't know where that came from, but it came, and she couldn't take it back for a more elegant complement.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

"Sure!" she was now getting excited.

As they made their way to the Great Hall, they talked about school, well Hermione talked about school, Ron about his quidditch training, and just anything they could think of. But something was bothering Ron, and he just had to ask.

"So are you and Victor still together? I don't see him write you much, but you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He was curious to know, because if she was still with Victor, it might be a bad time to try to get her and Harry together. He actually found himself wanting her to say yes.

"No Ron. I told you before, Victor and I are just friends, really, I mean it. Wait a minute, you called him Victor, not Vicky!" She seemed astonished.

"Oh, well.I thought I should respect him since he is your boyfriend, or sorry.friend."

Hermione got the impression that maybe Ron had grown up just a little this year, and she was too busy trying to not think about him to notice.

As they made their way into the hall, Ron almost immediately turned to his and asked "Hermione do you want to dance?" it was as if not asking her right away might take the chance away forever.

"I would love to." She seemed very happy.

He took her in his arms, almost like he did that night when she was upset, and they danced to a slow song together. He tried to remember every minute of the dance, the words, the way she smelled. He told himself this was the only time he would have to be with her, as if she was his. For the few minutes the song lasted, he was in another world, one were she wanted him back.

Little did he know, she did. Hermione was having the time of her life, and the night had just begun, she hoped this night would last forever.

When the song ended, they pulled apart and walked to the nearest table and sat down. Ron was beginning to tell her something when Harry came swooping up behind.

"Wow, you look great Hermione!" Ron thought he was acting almost too excited.

"Thanks Harry!" she said smiling.

It was now of never, Ron had to get Harry to start dancing with Hermione somehow, but before he could really even try.

"Come one Hermione, lets go dance!" said Harry as he grabbed her hand and heading for the dance floor to dance to a fast song. Harry tried his best to look comfortable, but the truth was, he wasn't really fond of dancing, but this was all part of his plan. He stuck to his plan all right, after that dance; he danced with her again and again. He could tell she was getting tired of it and wanted to go sit down with Ron, but he couldn't let her.

Ron was watching the whole time, through their first dance all the way through their eighth. He thought his whole plan would have been harder to execute. He was also not expecting it to be this hard to watch, well, maybe he did expect it to be this hard. He decided he couldn't take anymore for the night, he needed a rest from it, so he got up to leave.

Harry was getting restless. He thought Ron should have been over their yelling or hitting him at least fifteen minutes ago. He was getting sick of dancing and it was getting harder and harder to convince Hermione to stay. He looked up to see if Ron was starting to at least look mad, but saw that he was.'Was he leaving?' he thought 'That's not in the plan'.

Ron got up and started walking to the door, but he turned and looked one more time. He had to admit, he hoped it would have been a little harder to get them to ignore him and be together, but then he reminded himself, that it was the plan. He put his head down and walked out slowly. He had never felt worse in his life.

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