A/N: Thanks to everyone who left feedback on the last chapter! I hope you
all like this one, too!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of them.
***************************
Dancing with Lavender was very much like dancing with Parvati. Harry reckoned that since they were exactly alike in every way that he really shouldn't have been too surprised by this fact, but it was rather disturbing nonetheless. Lavender, like her best friend, took the liberty of leading their dances, and Harry, of course, had no complaints about this. If she wanted to steer, he would gladly let her because it would just mean one less thing that he had to worry about. The main difference between dancing with Lavender and dancing with Parvati was the fact that Lavender was much more. risky with her dancing. She definitely was not afraid of more than a little physical contact, and Harry was a bit shocked to find that she was not shy at all about pressing her body tightly against his own and making sure they stayed that close the whole time. Of course, he was a fifteen year old boy, so he had no real complaints about this, either; it was just the fact that Lavender continued to annoy him with drawling stories about her animals and her hair and her wardrobe and her friends and everything else she could think of, and Harry wanted nothing more than to put a silencing spell on her to shut her up.
He got quite good at pretending to listen while studying the couples around them, though. Parvati looked extremely happy with Devon, and Dean was practically drooling over Padma. Neville was dancing awkwardly with Tamara, the Hufflepuff he'd taken to the ball, and he saw that Tamara looked to be in as much pain as Ginny had been the previous year when Neville had taken to stomping on her feet instead of doing any real dancing. At the thought of Ginny, Harry unconsciously glanced around in search of her. He spotted her off to the side of the dance floor with Colin, who was coughing into his hands and looking quite miserable. He'd been sick for a few weeks now, and it seemed like every single time he started to get over his illness, it returned. He'd spent a good part of the past month in the hospital wing under the care of Madame Pomfrey, and even when he wasn't in the infirmary, he was in the Common Room looking absolutely miserable. Ginny was patting him soothingly on the back and telling him something seriously. Harry's eyes wondered away from the pair of fourth years and settled on a sight he'd rather hoped to avoid.
Cho and Justin dancing happily on the other side of the room.
Harry scowled slightly as he watched Cho laughing loudly at something the seventh year Slytherin had just said or done, and it sickened him. Why did she have to go out with a Slytherin anyway? He didn't even know Justin, but he figured that he couldn't be that great of a guy if the Sorting Hat had put him in the same house with Draco Malfoy. And Cho deserved so much better than some stupid Slytherin. At least she looked happy, though; Harry had been afraid that another ball would only serve to remind her of Cedric and make her depressed.
"Harry, are you paying attention?"
The speaking of his name caught his attention, and he promptly turned back to a very stern-looking Lavender. Obviously, she was not used to people not hanging onto her every word, and it certainly offended her because she looked as if she'd been scandalized.
Harry blushed. "Oh! Yeah, I'm listening."
Lavender turned her head and looked in the spot where Harry's attention had been. She rolled her eyes and turned back to him. "She would never go for you." Her tone was so matter-of-fact that it sickened Harry.
"Huh?" He tried his best to appear confused. "What are you talking about?"
Lavender rolled her eyes again and looked pointedly at him. "You're younger than her. She's the most popular girl in Ravenclaw. Tons of guys ask her out. And she just sees you as a friend."
Harry fought the blush threatening to invade his cheeks again. "What?"
"Cho Chang!" Lavender exclaimed loudly, and Harry glanced around nervously. "I swear, you're no better at playing dumb than Hermione is, so you should really give it up."
'"Wha." Harry looked at her bewildered. "What?!"
Sighing, Lavender broke it down for him. "Look, Harry. Everyone knows. I don't know if anyone's told you or not, but everyone knows you like her."
"But."
"Don't even try to deny it," she said positively. "We all know it's the truth, so it won't do any good. And it's okay if you like her, but I really wouldn't keep wasting my time if I was you because it's never going to happen."
Harry couldn't think of a single thing to say. He was absolutely horrified at the news that everyone in the school knew he had a crush on Cho Chang. He hadn't really ever told anyone, except for maybe Ron and Ginny that one time when he admitted to asking her to the ball, but even then he didn't come right out and say that he liked her. And dear God. If Lavender Brown knew, then Parvati Patil knew, and if they both knew then the whole school really did know!
"Hey, Lav. Want to dance?" Another voice drew Harry's attention, and he turned to see Seamus standing beside them and looking very intently at his date.
"You don't mind, do you, Harry?" Lavender flashed a quick and coaxing smile at him. Did he mind? He could positively have kissed Seamus for the suggestion!
"No, it's fine," he said quickly. "I'll just wait over there."
Lavender and Seamus smiled again. "Okay, I won't be long."
"Oh, take your time," he said honestly as he watched the pair of them disappear into the crowd. After they were gone, he kept his promise to wait over there and made his way to one of the now empty tables lining the walls of the dance floor.
He had a lot to think about.
*******************************
Ron and Hermione were both very, very aware of their close-proximity, and they were both very, very nervous all of a sudden. Hermione instantly wished that she hadn't been so bold and placed them so close to each other because she honestly wasn't sure that she could handle this. Ron, like Hermione, was also cursing the closeness that they were now sharing. He'd known for several months now that being this close to her was definitely not good on his insides.
Because she made him feel too much.
She made him feel tiny sparks shooting off throughout his body. She made him feel like his skin was on fire anywhere it made contact with her own. And she made him feel things on the inside that he wasn't used to feeling. She made him feel protective and gentle and careful and a whole sort of other things. Things that he didn't like to associate with Hermione Granger.
And it scared him.
He was vaguely aware of the music surrounding them, but he couldn't really tell what song it was or even what beat it had. All he could do was focus on the fact that he had his hands on her lower back and the fact that she had her own hands on the back of his neck. He tried to tear his eyes away from hers because he was getting embarrassed at literally staring at her, but he couldn't help it. There was just something so different about her lately that he'd found himself studying her intently at the most inopportune times.
And then he started talking. He didn't mean to, but he couldn't stop it. The fact that his voice could work without his brain scared him, but what scared him even more was the fact that it was saying something so incredibly true.
"You look really nice tonight."
He immediately blushed as soon as he'd heard himself speak. He tried to force himself to look away, but he still couldn't. And he was forced to watch her reaction. At first she just looked up at him in semi-shock, studying him as if trying to find something untruthful about his claim. But when she found none, her face broke into a bashful grin, and her eye softened dramatically.
Quietly, she said, "Thank you."
Ron couldn't help it. She was so beautiful, and although he wanted desperately not to notice this fact, it was so overwhelming that he had no choice. She was beautiful, and Ron was suddenly hit with a revelation so strong that it nearly knocked him over.
He liked Hermione Granger.
And as a lot more than a friend.
************************************
Harry sat watching the couples all around him enjoying themselves. Lavender had disappeared a long time ago, but Harry wasn't upset by this. He was more than happy to be rid of her, and he was now eternally grateful to Seamus for relieving him of the torture that was Lavender Brown.
The main couple he was watching, though, was the couple made up of his best friends. He'd never seen any of them act the way they were acting out there on the dance floor. Both Ron and Hermione looked positively terrified, but this didn't deter them from snuggling up quite nicely with each other. Each of them seemed to be using this dance as an excuse to experiment on how close they could get to one another without going crazy.
And while both of them were still quite sane, Harry found himself nearing the brink of insanity quite quickly.
"Hey."
Harry looked up at the sound of the voice just in time to see Ginny Weasley sitting herself beside him at the empty table. She gave him a half-smile, and he realized he hadn't paid much attention to her appearance that night, as he'd only seen her briefly when she was soothing Colin. She was wearing new dress robes, and Harry suspected that the twins had bought them for her with the money he'd given them. She looked very pretty in them, as they were a royal blue color that accented her hair rather nicely and made her creamy white skin look even paler than usual. Her hair was piled on top of her hair with a few select strands framing her face. Harry decided she looked very elegant indeed.
"Hi," he said, returning the half-smile. "Where's Colin?"
Ginny frowned. "Sick. He shouldn't have come at all, but he insisted on at least making an appearance. I think it only made him worse, though, so he had to go up to bed."
Harry nodded slowly. "Hope he's alright."
"Yeah." Ginny was looking out at the dance floor absently, and Harry caught her staring at Ron and Hermione. "Looks like they might actually be getting it together," she said with a small grin. "It's about time."
Harry had to disagree. For all he cared, they could take the rest of their lives on 'getting it together.' He still wasn't comfortable with the idea of them together, and watching them dancing so closely was making him feel that perhaps he would follow Colin's lead and retreat to bed with an illness.
"Where's Lavender?" Ginny's question drew his attention away from his best friends.
"Oh, she went to dance with Seamus." He paused before adding, "About forty- five minutes ago."
It was obvious that Ginny was trying very hard not to grin. "Well, that sucks, huh?" was finally her reply.
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Lavender actually isn't much more fun than Parvati was."
Ginny nodded absently. They stayed silent and watched the couples dancing for several more minutes. A fast song was playing, and George and Alicia were very clearly in a contest with Fred and Katie over who could do the wildest combinations. Several of the couples on the floor, even, had stopped their own dancing and were watching the little show with amusement.
Ginny was shaking her head. "Oh, God," she muttered. "And it's not like I can even claim that they're not related to me..."
Harry laughed a little. He let his gaze slide for the thousandth time to Ron and Hermione, both of whom were standing to the side of the floor and watching the little competition. Ron looked just as embarrassed as Ginny was claiming to be, and Hermione was very clearly giggling rather convulsively. Harry didn't allow himself to look in Cho and Justin's direction, and when the song ended, he focused his attention back on the twins who were now joking around with each other and their dates.
A slow song replaced the fast one, and the dance floor filled back up. Harry couldn't help but catch sight of Cho wrapping her arms around Justin's neck yet again, and he briskly looked down at the ground for something, anything to study as intently as possible.
"Do you want to dance?"
He looked up and remembered suddenly that he wasn't alone at the table. Ginny was looking at him nervously, a very, very faint blush coloring her cheeks. Figuring that anything had to be better than sitting alone at a corner table and watching his two best friends get incredibly cozy with each other and the girl he'd had a crush on for three years get incredibly cozy with someone who most definitely was not him, he shrugged. "Sure."
Ginny stood up and smiled at him awkwardly. He hadn't seen this nervous Ginny in awhile, and he found himself grinning at the reform as he stood up to join her. Together, they walked to the dance floor and into the crowd of couples. As they made their way to an empty space, Harry spotted Dean and Padma getting very, very close, and he knew that he was in for at least one recap of a snogfest later in the dormitory.
When they finally reached the small clearing, they stood looking at each other silently for a moment. Harry was suddenly feeling very awkward himself, and he saw the feeling mirrored on Ginny's face. It didn't surprise him much that Ginny was nervous, as it was no secret that she'd held a crush on him for quite sometime. But he couldn't for the life of him figure out why he was so nervous.
This was Ginny Weasley.
Ron's little sister.
Sweet, blushing, nervous, innocent, little Ginny Weasley.
Only she wasn't so little anymore. And she definitely wasn't innocent anymore with the twins as her mentors. He wasn't sure he'd call her sweet, either- not after seeing some of the huge rows she'd gotten into with Ron recently, complete with a very colorful vocabulary and several questionable hand motions.
But the blushing and nervousness was something she was displaying rather profusely at the moment.
The only problem seemed to be that Harry, too, was displaying the same.
After realizing that they probably looked quite stupid standing there motionless in the middle of the dance floor, Harry swallowed whatever had recently settled in his throat and said, "Well, here we are..."
Ginny swallowed, too, and nodded. "Yes," was the only word from her mouth.
Harry waited for maybe ten seconds more before reaching out and awkwardly placing his hands on her hips. It seemed to take several more seconds for her own hands to find his shoulders, but she finally rested them there lightly. Harry felt something sharp go down his spine at the contact but promptly forced himself not to acknowledge it. He kept his eyes on her feet as they slowly started to move in time to the music.
It was strange dancing with Ginny. When he'd danced with Parvati the year before, she had made it perfectly clear that she was in control, and he hadn't minded one bit letting her be the one to do all the steering. Lavender had done the same, only with much, much more physical contact. But with Ginny... It was different somehow. She wasn't doing the leading, and he wasn't, either. They were simply moving.
He finally risked a glance up at her and noticed for the first time that with the shoes Ginny was wearing, she was about an inch and a half taller than he was. He figured that he should have felt embarrassed by this fact, but for some reason, he found himself laughing despite himself.
Ginny looked up at him, nervousness all over her pale face. "What?" she asked anxiously.
Harry snickered once more and shook his head. Finally, he managed to say, "I feel really short."
Ginny smiled slowly and eventually added her giggling to his own. She pulled away enough to draw her wand out of an inner pocket in her robes and mutter a quick spell which instantly turned her stacked shoes into flats and took three inches off of her current height, making her the one who was now about an inch and a half shorter than he dancing partner.
"Is this better?" she asked between quiet giggles.
Harry laughed again and nodded.
He immediately decided that Ginny Weasley was a much better partner than Lavender Brown.
***************************************
Well? The next part is already written, and it's mostly Ron and Hermione. I know there wasn't a lot in this chapter, but the next one will make up for it! PLEASE leave feedback!!!!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of them.
***************************
Dancing with Lavender was very much like dancing with Parvati. Harry reckoned that since they were exactly alike in every way that he really shouldn't have been too surprised by this fact, but it was rather disturbing nonetheless. Lavender, like her best friend, took the liberty of leading their dances, and Harry, of course, had no complaints about this. If she wanted to steer, he would gladly let her because it would just mean one less thing that he had to worry about. The main difference between dancing with Lavender and dancing with Parvati was the fact that Lavender was much more. risky with her dancing. She definitely was not afraid of more than a little physical contact, and Harry was a bit shocked to find that she was not shy at all about pressing her body tightly against his own and making sure they stayed that close the whole time. Of course, he was a fifteen year old boy, so he had no real complaints about this, either; it was just the fact that Lavender continued to annoy him with drawling stories about her animals and her hair and her wardrobe and her friends and everything else she could think of, and Harry wanted nothing more than to put a silencing spell on her to shut her up.
He got quite good at pretending to listen while studying the couples around them, though. Parvati looked extremely happy with Devon, and Dean was practically drooling over Padma. Neville was dancing awkwardly with Tamara, the Hufflepuff he'd taken to the ball, and he saw that Tamara looked to be in as much pain as Ginny had been the previous year when Neville had taken to stomping on her feet instead of doing any real dancing. At the thought of Ginny, Harry unconsciously glanced around in search of her. He spotted her off to the side of the dance floor with Colin, who was coughing into his hands and looking quite miserable. He'd been sick for a few weeks now, and it seemed like every single time he started to get over his illness, it returned. He'd spent a good part of the past month in the hospital wing under the care of Madame Pomfrey, and even when he wasn't in the infirmary, he was in the Common Room looking absolutely miserable. Ginny was patting him soothingly on the back and telling him something seriously. Harry's eyes wondered away from the pair of fourth years and settled on a sight he'd rather hoped to avoid.
Cho and Justin dancing happily on the other side of the room.
Harry scowled slightly as he watched Cho laughing loudly at something the seventh year Slytherin had just said or done, and it sickened him. Why did she have to go out with a Slytherin anyway? He didn't even know Justin, but he figured that he couldn't be that great of a guy if the Sorting Hat had put him in the same house with Draco Malfoy. And Cho deserved so much better than some stupid Slytherin. At least she looked happy, though; Harry had been afraid that another ball would only serve to remind her of Cedric and make her depressed.
"Harry, are you paying attention?"
The speaking of his name caught his attention, and he promptly turned back to a very stern-looking Lavender. Obviously, she was not used to people not hanging onto her every word, and it certainly offended her because she looked as if she'd been scandalized.
Harry blushed. "Oh! Yeah, I'm listening."
Lavender turned her head and looked in the spot where Harry's attention had been. She rolled her eyes and turned back to him. "She would never go for you." Her tone was so matter-of-fact that it sickened Harry.
"Huh?" He tried his best to appear confused. "What are you talking about?"
Lavender rolled her eyes again and looked pointedly at him. "You're younger than her. She's the most popular girl in Ravenclaw. Tons of guys ask her out. And she just sees you as a friend."
Harry fought the blush threatening to invade his cheeks again. "What?"
"Cho Chang!" Lavender exclaimed loudly, and Harry glanced around nervously. "I swear, you're no better at playing dumb than Hermione is, so you should really give it up."
'"Wha." Harry looked at her bewildered. "What?!"
Sighing, Lavender broke it down for him. "Look, Harry. Everyone knows. I don't know if anyone's told you or not, but everyone knows you like her."
"But."
"Don't even try to deny it," she said positively. "We all know it's the truth, so it won't do any good. And it's okay if you like her, but I really wouldn't keep wasting my time if I was you because it's never going to happen."
Harry couldn't think of a single thing to say. He was absolutely horrified at the news that everyone in the school knew he had a crush on Cho Chang. He hadn't really ever told anyone, except for maybe Ron and Ginny that one time when he admitted to asking her to the ball, but even then he didn't come right out and say that he liked her. And dear God. If Lavender Brown knew, then Parvati Patil knew, and if they both knew then the whole school really did know!
"Hey, Lav. Want to dance?" Another voice drew Harry's attention, and he turned to see Seamus standing beside them and looking very intently at his date.
"You don't mind, do you, Harry?" Lavender flashed a quick and coaxing smile at him. Did he mind? He could positively have kissed Seamus for the suggestion!
"No, it's fine," he said quickly. "I'll just wait over there."
Lavender and Seamus smiled again. "Okay, I won't be long."
"Oh, take your time," he said honestly as he watched the pair of them disappear into the crowd. After they were gone, he kept his promise to wait over there and made his way to one of the now empty tables lining the walls of the dance floor.
He had a lot to think about.
*******************************
Ron and Hermione were both very, very aware of their close-proximity, and they were both very, very nervous all of a sudden. Hermione instantly wished that she hadn't been so bold and placed them so close to each other because she honestly wasn't sure that she could handle this. Ron, like Hermione, was also cursing the closeness that they were now sharing. He'd known for several months now that being this close to her was definitely not good on his insides.
Because she made him feel too much.
She made him feel tiny sparks shooting off throughout his body. She made him feel like his skin was on fire anywhere it made contact with her own. And she made him feel things on the inside that he wasn't used to feeling. She made him feel protective and gentle and careful and a whole sort of other things. Things that he didn't like to associate with Hermione Granger.
And it scared him.
He was vaguely aware of the music surrounding them, but he couldn't really tell what song it was or even what beat it had. All he could do was focus on the fact that he had his hands on her lower back and the fact that she had her own hands on the back of his neck. He tried to tear his eyes away from hers because he was getting embarrassed at literally staring at her, but he couldn't help it. There was just something so different about her lately that he'd found himself studying her intently at the most inopportune times.
And then he started talking. He didn't mean to, but he couldn't stop it. The fact that his voice could work without his brain scared him, but what scared him even more was the fact that it was saying something so incredibly true.
"You look really nice tonight."
He immediately blushed as soon as he'd heard himself speak. He tried to force himself to look away, but he still couldn't. And he was forced to watch her reaction. At first she just looked up at him in semi-shock, studying him as if trying to find something untruthful about his claim. But when she found none, her face broke into a bashful grin, and her eye softened dramatically.
Quietly, she said, "Thank you."
Ron couldn't help it. She was so beautiful, and although he wanted desperately not to notice this fact, it was so overwhelming that he had no choice. She was beautiful, and Ron was suddenly hit with a revelation so strong that it nearly knocked him over.
He liked Hermione Granger.
And as a lot more than a friend.
************************************
Harry sat watching the couples all around him enjoying themselves. Lavender had disappeared a long time ago, but Harry wasn't upset by this. He was more than happy to be rid of her, and he was now eternally grateful to Seamus for relieving him of the torture that was Lavender Brown.
The main couple he was watching, though, was the couple made up of his best friends. He'd never seen any of them act the way they were acting out there on the dance floor. Both Ron and Hermione looked positively terrified, but this didn't deter them from snuggling up quite nicely with each other. Each of them seemed to be using this dance as an excuse to experiment on how close they could get to one another without going crazy.
And while both of them were still quite sane, Harry found himself nearing the brink of insanity quite quickly.
"Hey."
Harry looked up at the sound of the voice just in time to see Ginny Weasley sitting herself beside him at the empty table. She gave him a half-smile, and he realized he hadn't paid much attention to her appearance that night, as he'd only seen her briefly when she was soothing Colin. She was wearing new dress robes, and Harry suspected that the twins had bought them for her with the money he'd given them. She looked very pretty in them, as they were a royal blue color that accented her hair rather nicely and made her creamy white skin look even paler than usual. Her hair was piled on top of her hair with a few select strands framing her face. Harry decided she looked very elegant indeed.
"Hi," he said, returning the half-smile. "Where's Colin?"
Ginny frowned. "Sick. He shouldn't have come at all, but he insisted on at least making an appearance. I think it only made him worse, though, so he had to go up to bed."
Harry nodded slowly. "Hope he's alright."
"Yeah." Ginny was looking out at the dance floor absently, and Harry caught her staring at Ron and Hermione. "Looks like they might actually be getting it together," she said with a small grin. "It's about time."
Harry had to disagree. For all he cared, they could take the rest of their lives on 'getting it together.' He still wasn't comfortable with the idea of them together, and watching them dancing so closely was making him feel that perhaps he would follow Colin's lead and retreat to bed with an illness.
"Where's Lavender?" Ginny's question drew his attention away from his best friends.
"Oh, she went to dance with Seamus." He paused before adding, "About forty- five minutes ago."
It was obvious that Ginny was trying very hard not to grin. "Well, that sucks, huh?" was finally her reply.
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Lavender actually isn't much more fun than Parvati was."
Ginny nodded absently. They stayed silent and watched the couples dancing for several more minutes. A fast song was playing, and George and Alicia were very clearly in a contest with Fred and Katie over who could do the wildest combinations. Several of the couples on the floor, even, had stopped their own dancing and were watching the little show with amusement.
Ginny was shaking her head. "Oh, God," she muttered. "And it's not like I can even claim that they're not related to me..."
Harry laughed a little. He let his gaze slide for the thousandth time to Ron and Hermione, both of whom were standing to the side of the floor and watching the little competition. Ron looked just as embarrassed as Ginny was claiming to be, and Hermione was very clearly giggling rather convulsively. Harry didn't allow himself to look in Cho and Justin's direction, and when the song ended, he focused his attention back on the twins who were now joking around with each other and their dates.
A slow song replaced the fast one, and the dance floor filled back up. Harry couldn't help but catch sight of Cho wrapping her arms around Justin's neck yet again, and he briskly looked down at the ground for something, anything to study as intently as possible.
"Do you want to dance?"
He looked up and remembered suddenly that he wasn't alone at the table. Ginny was looking at him nervously, a very, very faint blush coloring her cheeks. Figuring that anything had to be better than sitting alone at a corner table and watching his two best friends get incredibly cozy with each other and the girl he'd had a crush on for three years get incredibly cozy with someone who most definitely was not him, he shrugged. "Sure."
Ginny stood up and smiled at him awkwardly. He hadn't seen this nervous Ginny in awhile, and he found himself grinning at the reform as he stood up to join her. Together, they walked to the dance floor and into the crowd of couples. As they made their way to an empty space, Harry spotted Dean and Padma getting very, very close, and he knew that he was in for at least one recap of a snogfest later in the dormitory.
When they finally reached the small clearing, they stood looking at each other silently for a moment. Harry was suddenly feeling very awkward himself, and he saw the feeling mirrored on Ginny's face. It didn't surprise him much that Ginny was nervous, as it was no secret that she'd held a crush on him for quite sometime. But he couldn't for the life of him figure out why he was so nervous.
This was Ginny Weasley.
Ron's little sister.
Sweet, blushing, nervous, innocent, little Ginny Weasley.
Only she wasn't so little anymore. And she definitely wasn't innocent anymore with the twins as her mentors. He wasn't sure he'd call her sweet, either- not after seeing some of the huge rows she'd gotten into with Ron recently, complete with a very colorful vocabulary and several questionable hand motions.
But the blushing and nervousness was something she was displaying rather profusely at the moment.
The only problem seemed to be that Harry, too, was displaying the same.
After realizing that they probably looked quite stupid standing there motionless in the middle of the dance floor, Harry swallowed whatever had recently settled in his throat and said, "Well, here we are..."
Ginny swallowed, too, and nodded. "Yes," was the only word from her mouth.
Harry waited for maybe ten seconds more before reaching out and awkwardly placing his hands on her hips. It seemed to take several more seconds for her own hands to find his shoulders, but she finally rested them there lightly. Harry felt something sharp go down his spine at the contact but promptly forced himself not to acknowledge it. He kept his eyes on her feet as they slowly started to move in time to the music.
It was strange dancing with Ginny. When he'd danced with Parvati the year before, she had made it perfectly clear that she was in control, and he hadn't minded one bit letting her be the one to do all the steering. Lavender had done the same, only with much, much more physical contact. But with Ginny... It was different somehow. She wasn't doing the leading, and he wasn't, either. They were simply moving.
He finally risked a glance up at her and noticed for the first time that with the shoes Ginny was wearing, she was about an inch and a half taller than he was. He figured that he should have felt embarrassed by this fact, but for some reason, he found himself laughing despite himself.
Ginny looked up at him, nervousness all over her pale face. "What?" she asked anxiously.
Harry snickered once more and shook his head. Finally, he managed to say, "I feel really short."
Ginny smiled slowly and eventually added her giggling to his own. She pulled away enough to draw her wand out of an inner pocket in her robes and mutter a quick spell which instantly turned her stacked shoes into flats and took three inches off of her current height, making her the one who was now about an inch and a half shorter than he dancing partner.
"Is this better?" she asked between quiet giggles.
Harry laughed again and nodded.
He immediately decided that Ginny Weasley was a much better partner than Lavender Brown.
***************************************
Well? The next part is already written, and it's mostly Ron and Hermione. I know there wasn't a lot in this chapter, but the next one will make up for it! PLEASE leave feedback!!!!
