A/N: I'm sorry this took so long, but I hadn't written a lot of the ball scenes this summer, so I had to really start this chapter from scratch. I hope you guys like it, and I'm really sorry for the delay!

Disclaimer: Nope!

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Halloween night seemed to happen almost instantaneously after Harry had accepted Lavender's date. He could hardly believe that four days had passed as he stood nervously in the Common Room with Ron and the other Gryffindor boys waiting for the girls to finally grace them with their presence.. At the thought of Ron, he turned his head to survey his best friend and saw that Ron appeared to be even more nervous than he was. Harry wasn't sure whether this was due to the fact that there was a ball period or if it had more to do with the fact that he was taking Hermione. He'd managed to patch things up between them the morning after he'd unconsciously offended her, but he was still acting very strangely around her, overly formal and much more nervous than he should have been.

Harry was so caught up in the whims of whatever Ron and Hermione had that it took Ron's breathing of, "Wow," to make him look up and take notice of his surroundings.

Wow just about summed it up.

Lavender, Parvati, and Hermione were all coming down the stairs together, and Harry's first thought was that he'd never seen any of them look quite so pretty. Parvati's hair was completely up for once, and it was twisted into several knots all over the back of her head. She was wearing red robes that contrasted brilliantly with her jet-black hair and stood out nicely against her dark skin. Lavender was wearing robes of baby blue that seemed to cling to her in what Harry had to admit were all the right places. But it was Hermione who really made him look twice. Her hair, which had been straight for the last months, was now curled again, though this time into soft ringlets that hung down her back loosely. She was dressed in robes of pale purple material, and on her wrist, she wore the silver bracelet with the violet charm that Ron had given her for her birthday.

"Hey, guys!" Hermione said brightly when the girls had made it to the bottom of the stairs.

Harry smiled at her. "Hey, 'Mione." He was about to tell her that she looked pretty, but he found his hand being grabbed by an obviously overzealous Lavender.

"Come on, Harry," she said quickly before dragging him away toward the portrait hole.

He was gone so quickly that Ron and Hermione barely had time to notice that they were now alone. Well, as alone as they could be in a room where several people were coupling or grouping up. They glanced at each other a bit nervously, and a rather awkward silence surrounded them until Ron finally managed to speak.

"Your hair's curly again." It was an obvious observation and one that Ron hoped sounded casual enough to get some sort of conversation started between them.

Hermione smiled a little as she unconsciously reached up to touch one of the ringlets. "Curly," she said with a grin. "Not frizzy. There is a difference."

Ron nodded, still nervous, and managed to offer up somewhat of a compliment. "It looks good like that."

Hermione's grin didn't fade as she looked at him and sincerely said, "Thanks."

Ron nodded yet again and appeared to be trying to come up with something else to say. When it was clear that he wasn't going to succeed anytime soon, Hermione swallowed and came up with something of her own.

"You got new dress robes." This was also an obvious observation, and Hermione prayed that it, too, sounded casual enough.

Ron glanced down at the dark gray robes and nodded a little. "Yeah. No more maroon."

Hermione smiled again. "They weren't so bad. Maroon's a good color for you."

Ron met her eyes with a curious expression before Hermione started to blush slightly under his gaze. She swallowed and tried to move on from the comment. "I wonder what we're going to have for dinner." Food was always a good choice of an aversion conversation when it came to dealing with Ron Weasley.

He was obvious quite grateful for her change in topic because he answered her quickly. "I don't know. Probably something really good, I bet."

Hermione nodded in agreement. "Probably."

And then came the silence all over again.

Ron pretended to study the wall, and Hermione pretended to study the floor beneath her feet. And while they both knew what the other was doing, neither one of them called the other on it. Finally, though, Hermione looked up and tried to force a smile. "Well, we should probably be going."

Ron, looking very much relieved that she had broken the silence which was threatening to choke him, nodded hurriedly. "Yes, you're probably right."

They looked at each other yet again, and Ron knew that Hermione was waiting on him to make the first move toward the exit just as he was waiting on her to do the same thing. When it was painfully clear that they could very obviously stay there for hours trying to subconsciously trick the other into the taking the first step, Hermione finally grew bored and nodded one ambitious nod. "Right then. Let's go." She turned and started toward the portrait hole.

Ron watched her for only a second before he got enough sense into him to follow her. They walked silently all the way down to the Great Hall, trying very hard to pretend that the deafening awkwardness was not surrounding them. When they reached the Great Hall, they found that it was set up very closely to the way it had been set up for the Yule Ball; there were hundreds of round tables around the edge of the room, and the center was empty for use of a dance floor. They both spotted the table where their friends were sitting. Lavender and Harry were there, and so were Parvati and that Ravenclaw Devon. Obviously, the Patil twins had decided to hook each other up because Dean had gone to the ball with Padma and was looking quite pleased with the arrangement. Seamus had gone alone, stating that without a date, it would be much easier for him to get action. No one was really sure how that would exactly work, but no one said too much about it. Neville had been coaxed into sitting with his date's friends and was looking quite out of place at a table of several fourth year Hufflepuffs. Ron instantly caught Harry's eye and was met with a look that clearly said, "Get your ass over here and save me."

"Let's go sit over there," he said to Hermione, breaking the silence that had been surrounding them for several moments. Hermione nodded and followed Ron to the table that still had three empty chairs, room for one more couple and Seamus' nonexistent date.

They were greeted with various, "Heys," from around the table, and they smiled and returned the greetings. Ron, having been raised properly, knew enough to pull Hermione's chair out for her before seating himself. He tried very hard not to look at her to see her reaction, but when she thanked him quietly, he had no choice but smile shyly in reply. Parvati, Lavender, and Padma all erupted into quiet giggles, obviously thinking the gesture quite sweet.

Small talk was made around the table, so, thankfully, there was no more awkward silence. The meals were served in basically the same manner as they had been at the Yule Ball with the spoken menu option, and everyone enjoyed their meals for the most part. It wasn't until they were waiting for dessert to be served that any of them started thinking about the actual dance part of the night, which was due to start anytime soon.

Lavender had spent twenty minutes telling Harry some story about the kitten she'd acquired over the summer and how she missed it terribly. Harry had pretended to be interested while really counting every single spaghetti noodle on his plate. When Lavender finally took a breath to turn away and tell Parvati something, Harry put a hand to the side of his face and turned his head in Ron's direction. Quietly, he said, "Give me your wand."

Ron looked at him as if he were mad and said, "Why?"

"So, I can kill myself." Harry groaned and rolled his eyes into the back of his head.

Ron laughed, and Hermione leaned around to survey the situation. She saw Harry, his fingers tangling tightly into his hair and his eyes quite unfocused. She grinned a little before glancing at Lavender and then back to Harry and mouthing, "I told you."

Harry glared icily at her before raising a single middle finger to slide his glasses higher onto his nose. Hermione's eyes widened, but she joined Ron's laughter, knowing that Harry was playing.

Just as Lavender turned back around and drew Harry's attention back to herself, Hermione leaned over to whisper in Ron's ear. "Looks like Harry's having fun."

Ron tried very hard not to notice the way it felt to have her warm breath tickling the side of his neck. He smiled in agreement, careful not to look over and meet her eye in fear of another awkward moment of silence.

Thankfully, the dessert chose that exact moment to appear before them, and the table once again got sidetracked by the food. The next fifteen minutes were spent devouring a strawberry cream tart, and everyone was put at ease for a good short period.

However, once the tables were cleared of the dirty dishes, the lights inside the Great Hall went down, and music started to float through the hall. Harry wanted to crawl under the table and die, Ron suddenly had the urge to fake an illness, and Hermione wanted desperately to just sit unnoticed.

So, it was no surprise that none of them made any effort to move from the position at the table.

However, Harry had no choice for very much longer. As Parvati and Devon and Padma and Dean all got up to join the several couples now making their way toward the center of the dance floor and Seamus got up in search of some "action," Lavender turned to Harry expectantly. "Aren't you going to ask me to dance?"

Harry blushed a light shade of red and consciously avoided looking in Ron and Hermione's direction. He sighed inwardly and mumbled something that sounded like, "Dawandan?"

Lavender, apparently understanding his mixed mumbling quite well, smiled briefly and nodded. "Yes, I would love to."

Harry wanted nothing more than to take a knife and cut his hand off so that he could go to Madame Pomfrey instead, but he sucked all of this up and decided just to face it. A few dances and then hopefully, he would be able to sit out for the rest of the ball. Still not daring to look backwards at his best friends, he got up and walked with Lavender to the middle of the floor.

Ron and Hermione both watched their roommates walk away until they could no longer see them. Both rightly guessed that Harry had walked purposely to a spot where he couldn't be watched by his best friends. They knew that he was embarrassed enough to dance with anyone, especially someone he disliked as much as Lavender; there was no doubt in either of their minds that Harry was simply mortified by the prospect of dancing with Lavender Brown.

Not that either of them weren't mortified with the prospect of dancing with each other.

It wasn't that they didn't want to be there with each other; they did, very much so, in fact. It was more the fact that were both insanely nervous. Hermione had been on edge around Ron continuously since the little talk she'd had with Parvati and Lavender, and it was driving her insane. She wanted desperately to not feel so awkward and self-conscious around her best friend, but she couldn't help it; everything that her roommates had said was still fresh in her mind and not planning on leaving anytime soon. Ron was nervous for very much the same reason and also for a different reason, having nothing to do personally with Hermione. He had never once danced with a girl before, and he definitely wasn't sure how to go about it.

On one hand, he felt that he shouldn't be as nervous as he was. After all, it was Hermione. On the other hand, he felt that he should be even more nervous than he was. After all, it was Hermione.

He'd been battling with himself for days over the fact that he was actually going to be on somewhat of a date with his best female best friend, and now that the moment was actually here, he couldn't have been further from relaxed. He knew she wouldn't laugh at him if he messed up or anything like that because she was simply too nice. But it didn't ease his worries that he would embarrass himself in front of her when he had some unfounded overwhelming need to impress her all of a sudden. He didn't know why he was suddenly plagued by this silly need; all he knew was that doing something stupid in front of her on this night would very likely cause him to have a nervous breakdown.

"So," Hermione's voice instantly jerked Ron out of his nervous reverie, and he turned to face her as she continued to speak. "Are you having a good time?"

Ron nodded, glancing down at the table, which was covered by a dark purple cloth. "Are you?"

Hermione nodded, too. "Yeah."

And then there was that silence again. They sat like that for a long moment, both wallowing in the awkwardness of the whole situation. Finally, Hermione decided that the whole thing was silly, and she looked very pointedly at her date and said, "Do you want to dance?"

Ron looked at her and carefully swallowed the last bit of his nervousness before nodding and saying, "Sure."

She gave him a small smile before standing up and waiting for him to do the same. She was instantly struck with how tall he was; sometimes she forgot that there was such a vast difference in their sizes, but during all the awkward moments when she and Ron were just a little too close, the realization always came back to her. And this was one of those times.

Together, they looked out onto the dance floor and saw that it was even more crowded than it had been before. It seemed as if everyone in attendance had decided they wanted to take advantage of the first dance, but Ron was thankful for this. If everyone was occupied, he would be less self-conscious about dancing, and maybe he wouldn't be so damn nervous. He glanced over at Hermione who started walking to a spot that looked a little less congested than the rest of the floor. He followed behind her, trying very hard to work the anxious nerves out of his system. He felt someone thump him on the back as he trailed his date, and he looked up to see George smirking at him. Ron felt himself turning red, but he ignored his brother and joined Hermione who had now stopped in a spot.

When speaking to each other or even making eye-contact seemed like it was going to be a horribly difficult accomplishment, both teenagers stared at the floor for a moment. Finally, Hermione took a careful breath and nodded slightly, more to herself than to anyone else.

Timidly, very timidly, she raised her arms carefully and placed her hands gently on Ron's shoulders. She was once again taken with his height and even felt almost silly as she raised her arms so high. However, one look up at him calmed his fears; she couldn't possibly be timid when he looked as if he held enough anxiety for the entire school. Wanting to calm his fears a bit, she forced a smile onto her face in what she hoped would be conveyed as encouragement.

Maybe it worked. Or maybe Ron just realized how ridiculous they could be looking. But he finally reached out and very carefully, even more timidly than she had been, placed his hands on her lower waist.

They were both instantly aware of something changing in that split-second, but neither of them wanted to admit it to themselves or, worse yet, comment verbally on it. Instead, Ron, his face flushed greatly, looked down nervously at Hermione and very quietly said, "Is this okay?"

Hermione, who looked up at Ron and was suddenly hit with the crazy thought that his hands resting on her hips was more than okay, opted just to smile shyly up at him and nod very, very slowly.

And then time seemed to stand still.

It wasn't as if they were touching each other for the first time. It wasn't as if this was the closest that they'd ever been. It wasn't as if they were strangers being hit by a huge wave of over-consuming passion.

They were best friends, both realizing something they'd tried very hard for the past few years to ignore.

To deny.

They very much enjoyed physical contact with each other.

And, of course, this scared them. However, it also made them both very curious, which may or may not have been a good thing depending on how you view it.

Finally, Ron swallowed and looked down at her, thankful for the rapidly dimming light; he could feel his cheeks burning bright. Nervously, he admitted to her that he didn't know what he was doing. "I've never really... done this before. You know, dance."

Hermione, thankful for some sort of break in the powerful silence, smiled gratefully. She nodded and said, "Well, it's a little more difficult because you're so tall and I'm so short." She paused for a second before timidly adding, "So, maybe we need to be just a little bit closer."

Ron stared at her, completely dumbfounded and yet, strangely, highly interested. In a voice he prayed was quiet enough that no one else could hear, he said, "How close?"

Hermione bit her lower lip and shot a quick glance to her left before turning her head back up to address Ron. Slowly, she said, "Maybe like this..." She lowered her hands from his shoulder and brought them down to sit atop his own; very easily, she simply moved his hands from her waist around to the small of her back. Ron allowed his hands to be moved and willfully cursed the little unconscious shivers that shot sharply through his body. He held his own breath when Hermione let go of his hands and said, "And maybe like this..." She slowly lifted her arms back up, but instead of placing her hands on his shoulders, she placed them on the back of his neck and took a single step closer to his body. Looking up to meet his eye shyly, she said, "Is this alright?"

Ron just nodded, not exactly trusting his voice to function properly.

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More Halloween Ball to come! It will probably continue for the next two or maybe three chapters. We'll see Harry and Lavender again (and just maybe someone else...) and LOADS more Ron and Hermione! PLEASE leave feedback!