"Does Romilda really want me to ask her to the party?" Harry whispered, sliding over next to Hermione on the common room couch after dinner. His voice came in a whisper, but it made her jump, her quill making a rogue line next to her writing.

"Harry!" she quickly scolded with a huff. "I miss pens."

"You still would have done that with a pen."

Hermione's eyes narrowed before she grabbed her wand and uttered a quick spell to erase the last word she'd been working on. "Yes, she really wants to ask you. But you can't go with her."

"Why not?"

"Because you need to go with me," she whispered after looking around to make sure no one was close enough to hear.

"I'm sorry?"

"Look, do you want to do this plan right or not?"

A smirk appeared on Harry's face. "That's how you planned on asking me, then?"

"What? No, I-... I was counting on you asking me!"

"How did you expect me to ask you if I didn't know I was supposed to?"

Hermione opened her mouth, but closed it. "Okay, that's… fair. Well, now you know, so…"

"Oh, come on, Hermione… you got asked to the Yule Ball!"

"Because the boys are supposed to ask the girls."

"And you of all people don't think it's okay for the girl to ask?"

"We're not going to sit here and fight about who should ask who, Harry."

"Okay, then, just ask me." He lowered his voice again. "Look, Ron doesn't suspect a thing, does he? You'll need to be more direct. Ginny will catch on."

Hermione groaned, but she knew Harry was right. She quickly looked around the common room to see who was paying attention. Ron looked like he was doodling in his notes that were spread out on a nearby table. "So, Harry," she started, a little louder than normal, just to make sure she could be heard over the quiet murmur of students, "I was just wondering if you'd like to go to Slughorn's Christmas party with me. There's… really no one else I'd rather go with." She batted her eyelashes playfully, and Harry almost chuckled, but he kept it together.

"Of course, Hermione. I'd be honored to go with you."

A few pairs of eyes from around the room glanced from the couple to Ron, who was pretending not to glare directly at the back of Harry's head, before going back to minding their own business.

Hermione did feel bad for asking Harry, knowing this was part of her own agenda and it made him unable to ask anyone, but he didn't seem to mind, no matter how many times she brought it up over the next few days as the event grew closer. They couldn't talk about it much, as Ron had been sticking around them more, telling them that Lavender was "busy" that day, so he could hang out with them, and it always seemed like he settled himself between them on couches or during meals or walked between them in the hallway. Was it working this quickly? Was Ron already jealous?

Still, she did want to dress up, and the last time she'd gone to a party, it hadn't gone well at all, so she hoped to redeem herself with this one by going with Harry, like she probably should have done before to save herself the heartache. She curled her hair and put on a little makeup. Not that she was trying to impress Harry necessarily, but she didn't want to be plain like she normally was. Ginny was going with Dean after all, and had even helped her get ready, though she tried not to read into her slight unwillingness to talk as direct anger.

Harry tried not to make too much small talk with Dean while they were waiting for the girls. Everyone else was at dinner, but they'd be eating at the party, so it was just the two of them, sitting on separate couches. He hadn't really gotten a chance to talk to Dean much in the past few years; even though they were in some of the same classes, they had their own friends and weren't much more than acquaintances who passed each other in the halls.

"So…" Dean started once the silence began to get awkward, "you and Hermione, huh?"

Harry had barely even paid attention to the fact that he was talking. "What? Oh… er… we're just going as friends, that's all. I just figured it would be fun since… well, I just figured it would be fun. And she asked me, so I wasn't going to say no."

"Oh, well, that's a shame, I suppose. You two would make a pretty good couple, I think. Not that… you can't just be friends, of course, but I could see it."

"She fancies Ron." Why on Earth did he tell him that?

"Really?"

Harry nodded.

"Huh."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all, I just don't… I can't see it, that's all. Her and Ron. Isn't he always wanting to copy her homework? And they fight all the time, don't they?"

"They've been doing that for years. That's… kind of their thing, I guess." Though it didn't make any sense to Harry, either.

"Well, what about Lavender? How's she taking that?"

Harry shifted in his seat, suddenly uncomfortable with talking about Hermione's love life with Dean. "Not well, frankly. But is anyone?" he tried to joke, and found Dean laughing along with him.

"That's fair. Honestly, I don't know how he can stand her. I mean, she's a decent girl, I suppose, but… she's not what I'd go for in a relationship, you know? She seems a little… clingy."

"And Ginny's not?"

The smile on Dean's face fell, and Harry immediately felt guilty for ruining the moment of camaraderie. "Honestly, Harry, I'm not even sure if we're together anymore. Officially, anyway."

"Not together? I heard McGonagall getting onto you the other day for snogging in the hallway!" Not that he was the one that had told on them.

Dean shrugged. "I know. It's… weird? It's great, but we've been fighting a lot and I just don't feel like she's into it anymore. Maybe she's just hanging on for looks. I dunno."

Harry's heart gave a small flutter of hope, though he tried not to show it. He'd have to talk to Hermione about it later. "I'm sorry to hear that. Have you talked to her? Maybe she's feeling the same way." Why he was giving relationship advice to the man who was currently dating the girl he had a crush on, he didn't know, but deep down, he wanted Ginny to be happy, even if that didn't necessarily mean it was with him. If he was meant to be with her, he would. He wasn't going to break them up just to steal her out from underneath him.

"Not yet," he admitted. "But I will. Maybe that's it and this is all just a misunderstanding. Misreading of signals. Thanks, Harry."

Harry was about to respond when Ginny and Hermione appeared from the dorm, and he quickly stood, suddenly wishing Hogwarts held more dances.

"You look incredible," he grinned. "Both of you." And even though he instinctually moved to Ginny first before realizing that no, she wasn't his date, he couldn't stop his eyes from shifting to Hermione. The light pink dress she was wearing wasn't as elegant as the one she wore to the Yule Ball, but it still fit her very well and was cut low enough that he had to consciously keep his eyes from wandering.

She moved a hand up to fix a rogue strand of hair, fidgeting under Harry's gaze as a blush crept up her neck. "Thanks," she muttered. "So do you."

Ginny suddenly cleared her throat, moving between them to take Dean's hand. "Are we ready to go, then?"

Hermione looked to Harry's hand and back up, not sure what to do, but Harry nodded at Ginny. "Yeah, yeah. Let's… go." He could tell Hermione was nervous, though he wasn't sure exactly about what, but he rested a hand on her back, making sure it was over her dress, as they made their way out through the portrait and down the stairs.

The silence on the way to the party was thick, and the friendliness they'd shared just a few minutes earlier was long gone. Hermione kept glancing sideways at Harry and trying not to say something in fear she'd scare everyone, but this wasn't normal. Not for them. Then, Hermione seemed to have an idea.

She pulled out her wand and muttered a quick "Muffliato" on herself and Harry before letting out a sigh. "Why is this so awkward, Harry?" she whispered. Ginny turned around quickly, and Harry pretended not to notice the almost hurt look she gave him, knowing they were having a secret conversation. She stepped a little closer to Dean as she looked back forward.

"Because we're going to this Christmas party with the wrong people?" he offered.

"No, we're okay. I'm… actually really glad I'm going with you. It's… them. And us. Like they don't want to be here. Ginny barely spoke to me while we were getting ready."

"I don't think she really wanted to come with Dean," Harry admitted. "He said they've been fighting a lot lately. And for what it's worth, I'm happy that you're my date, too. It would have probably been a nightmare taking anyone else."

Hermione looked down shyly at her feet, and for a few seconds, the only sound in the corridor was their shoes against the floor. "I was about to ask Cormac as a last resort."

Harry huffed out a laugh. "Seriously?!"

"What? I thought it would annoy Ron the most. I'm not… I don't want this plan to ruin your friendship with him, Harry, I hope you know that. If… if he even likes me and he sees you moving in, I-"

"Hey." His hand slipped around her waist, pulling her close as they walked. "It won't. I know. Same with you and Ginny, yeah? Anything gets hostile, we'll call it off."

Her head leaned briefly on his shoulder. "Deal."

"Ms. Weasley, Mr. Thomas, Ms. Granger, Mr. Potter! So glad you all were able to join us tonight!" Slughorn, who looked like he may have had a little bit too much mead already, greeted them as soon as they got inside. The room had been transformed with red and gold fabric draped on the ceiling to resemble a tent, with twinkling lights throughout. There were tables and curtained-off spaces for privacy, and students bringing around snacks and drinks; a much better place to spend the evening than the Great Hall. Ginny's hand almost immediately dropped from Dean's as she veered off to talk to someone else, and Hermione nudged him quickly.

"Go after her. I'll get us drinks." She knew he would feel bad if he left his date alone, even if they weren't really there together, but she'd be all right. Once Harry was gone, she looked around quickly. There had to be someone else she knew there.

"Ginny, wait up," he called softly. She turned around to look at him with a somewhat annoyed look on her face. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," she answered, seeming to be looking past him. "Did you need something?"

Harry frowned. "I was just… you kind of went off in a hurry, so I just wanted to make sure that you were all right..."

"I'm fine, Harry," she repeated. "You came here with Hermione - you don't need to keep an eye on me."

"I didn't… come with Hermione, we're just…"

"That wasn't how you looked at her. And it's not how Dean looks at me." She bit her lip. "I'm sorry, Harry, I just… I'm a little overwhelmed right now and I'd like to take a minute to myself, that's all," she continued after a deep breath to calm herself. "I promise I'm okay, really. I'll meet up with you later. I'm sure there aren't many other cool people here to talk to anyway." A soft grin came over Ginny's face and she seemed to be genuine as she reached out to squeeze his hand.

"Not with Snape here, at least," he replied, to which Ginny couldn't help but let out a laugh, though her smile didn't reach her eyes.

"That's true. I'll see you later." She squeezed his hand again before disappearing into the crowd. Then, something swished out of the corner of his eye, and when he turned to look, Hermione was trying to hide in one of the curtained rooms. That couldn't be good.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" he asked with a smirk. She was holding a small glass of mead in each hand. "Those aren't both for you, are they?"

"No!" Hermione replied incredulously. "No, I… was getting them for us and Cormac cornered me, thinking I'd gotten one for him."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him I was with you." She handed Harry one of the glasses before taking a sip out of hers.

"And what did he say?"

"He didn't believe me."

Harry almost snorted out his drink. "Is that a good thing?"

"No idea, but he tried to catch me under the mistletoe."

"Look, just the other day, you were complaining about not having anyone ask you to the party, and now you're complaining that someone wants to kiss you?" he teased.

"It's just him," she insisted, looking around again to make sure he hadn't followed her. "If you wanted to kiss me, I wouldn't mind." Harry smirked again, raising his eyebrows until Hermione realized what she said. "Not… not like that, Harry, I just meant… I don't know." She downed her drink and her eyes widened. "Here he comes. Take my waist."

Harry quickly pulled Hermione close with his free hand, leaning against the wall next to her and trying to make it not awkward, which was a feat in itself. A few seconds later, Cormac pushed open the sheer material to stick his head in.

"Oh," he frowned, "you really did come here with him." He paused, looking between them.

"Is there something we can help you with? We're trying to get a bit of privacy, if you don't mind." Harry tightened his grip on Hermione instinctively.

"Weird."

Suddenly, another head popped into the curtains with them, accompanied by a tray of food. "Hey, I thought I saw you two!" Neville beamed.

"Neville? You're working the party?" Harry asked with a smile, suddenly acutely aware of how close he was standing to Hermione, but he wasn't going to back down for Cormac. Neville looked between them, then to Cormac, but otherwise didn't seem to think anything of it.

"Yeah. I wasn't technically invited since I didn't get into the Slug Club, but that's okay. I still got to be here. He's got Belby handing out towels in the loo, so I'd much rather do this. Dragon tartare?" he offered.

"Yeah, sure!" Cormac excitedly took a few and popped him into his mouth all at once.

Hermione's brow furrowed. "Well, that's attractive," she quipped. Harry snickered.

"Oh, you'll want to watch those, Cormac. They can give you terrible breath," Neville said with a wink at Hermione. "Anyway, you three have fun."

Before Neville could leave the curtain, Cormac looked at the two of them with wide eyes and darted out, leaving Harry and Hermione in a fit of laughter.

"Did you see his face? Totally deserved it."

"Thank you for… um… you know… keeping him away from me."

"Of course. Anytime. I figured it'd be good for me to get to protect you every once in a while, too," he teased.

And even though they were already close, not having moved from their spots, Hermione leaned her head on his shoulder again, grateful to have Harry as her best friend.

She'd known they'd be friends since first year, of course, when they defeated Voldemort the first time. It was comical to think about now, how they thought they were done with him that quickly. But no matter what, Harry had always been by her side. He stuck up for her when no one else would, he seemed to care more about her feelings than any of her friends, she could talk to him about Muggle things and he would actually understand. It had made her feel loads better at Slughorn's first dinner party talking about her parents when she'd looked over to see Harry laughing and smiling at her stories. He'd been the one to figure out her basilisk clues in second year, and he was quick to follow her lead with the Time Turner, and it really made her think about how he'd always blindly trusted her. He knew she knew what she was doing, and he never doubted her, which was more than she could say about a lot of people in her life.

"Come on. Let's get back to the party."

Hermione nodded, pulling away from Harry and moving to part the curtains for them. "Did you find Ginny?"

"Yeah," he said with a frown. "She… was really upset, actually, but I'm not sure what about. I couldn't really make sense of it."

"Speak of the devil," Hermione muttered as she saw Ginny breaking through the crowd towards them. "She's been crying again."

"Yeah," Harry sighed. Had he been the one to cause it this time? He swallowed thickly as she approached. "Hey, Ginny. I was just going to come find you, actually. Um… I think dancing's about to start and I wanted to ask you if you'd like to join me for the first one."

Ginny's eyes flitted between Harry and Hermione. "Aren't you going to dance with her? You can't do the first dance with someone who's not your date," she said with a soft chuckle, but Harry shrugged.

"Well, eventually, yeah, but… I wanted to ask you first." He didn't have a good excuse; he knew that. But he hoped Ginny would understand, or at least play along, especially after what happened earlier.

Ginny sighed softly, but a smile graced her face. "I… I'd like that. Sorry, Hermione."

"I'll dance with him later. It's all right," she teased. "Meanwhile, I might try to offer Cormac some more Dragon tartare." She waved to them with a laugh before walking off.

Harry took a breath - this was his chance. For a few minutes, he could be selfish and get to have Ginny all to himself. No Hermione, no Ron, no pretending. He didn't want to be the first one out onto the dance floor, and he hoped he'd gotten at least a little less awkward when it came to dancing in the past two years. Luckily, Slughorn, unsurprisingly, was the first one to take the floor with the first professor he could find, which led to a couple more students following suit.

He offered his hand to Ginny, who took it with a shy smile as they headed with the rest of the group. Hermione was watching him closely from the sidelines, ready to provide some magical intervention if Harry started struggling, but she couldn't help feeling weird that she was on the wall while her date was dancing with someone else. When she peered about the room, Dean was doing the same, seemingly uninterested in dancing at all. No wonder Ginny had been upset. Then again, were they even together? Hermione mentally sighed - relationships were too complicated; that's why she didn't do any of this.

Dancing with Ginny wasn't nearly as awkward as Harry had anticipated (or feared), for which he was thankful. The songs weren't too slow, so the weirdest part for him was just being so close to her. And trying to figure out where to put his hands took a couple seconds at first, until she let out a laugh and moved one to her waist, taking the other.

"Have you never done this before, Harry?"

"Er... not really, no," he admitted with a laugh of his own. "You saw me at the Yule Ball."

"I did, yeah. It was very… entertaining."

She'd been watching him?

"It's not like we get a lot of opportunities."

"I know," Ginny responded, "but you're doing pretty well right now." She lifted his arm up so she could spin around underneath it before moving back closer to him with a grin.

"Well, you're pretty easy to dance with." Harry thought he caught a faint blush color Ginny's cheeks, but she just laughed again.

"So are you. Why haven't we done this earlier?"

Harry swallowed, searching her face for any ulterior meaning, but he couldn't be sure. She had gotten very good at hiding her expressions when she wanted to. "I have no idea," he answered, and Ginny grinned.

They danced and talked and laughed and twirled through a few songs before Ginny was tapped on the shoulder by none other than Hermione, who cleared her throat softly as Ginny turned around.

"Can I cut in?" she asked, her eyes flicking up to Harry's.

"Oh, of course!" Ginny was quick to answer, and Harry reluctantly released her from his arms. "Thanks for the dancing, Harry."

"Anytime…" He took a second to remember that Hermione had wanted to dance with him, and moved to take her hand when a voice slid into the air behind him.

"Potter," Snape began, "I have a message to deliver to you. Ms. Granger, if you could give us a moment."

"Of course, Professor," she whispered, giving Harry a sorrowful look before heading off with Ginny, whispering between themselves.

Once they were out of earshot, Snape began again, his eyes glancing around at the other patrons to make sure no one was listening in. "Professor Dumbledore wishes you his best and he hopes you enjoy your holiday. You see, he's… traveling. And he won't return until term resumes."

"Traveling where?"

Snape didn't seem too interested in answering, but he was saved from more of Harry's questions by a commotion at the entrance.

"Get your hands off me, you filthy Squib!"

Malfoy. Snape immediately headed that way, and Harry was glad Snape couldn't see him roll his eyes.

"Professor Slughorn, sir," Filch began as a crowd started to gather. "I just found this boy lurking in an upstairs corridor. He claims he was invited to your party." He had a struggling Malfoy by the sleeve, and Harry lingered back as to not seem too interested.

"Okay, okay! I was gate-crashing! Happy?"

"I'll escort him out," Snape drawled.

"Certainly… Professor," Malfoy answered in a manner that made the hair on the back of Harry's neck stand on end.

It was a few awkward seconds before Slughorn finally broke the silence with an, "Alright, everyone, carry on. Carry on."

But Harry knew he needed to follow them.