"Does that mean you'll be my girlfriend?"

"Only if you'll be my boyfriend."

Harry smiled at her, and said, "It would be my honor."

"Then why don't you show me just how much of an honor it would be by snogging me senseless," smirked Hermione in reply, looking at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"I don't know much about kissing, never having done it before, but I can try," answered Harry. "Just might take a while to get it down."

"I'm counting on it, and we've got plenty of time before the Ball ends," smirked Hermione. "Anyway, I don't either — that's what makes it fun. Two horny, inexperienced teenagers learning together — and trying not to get caught by the Bat," she finished in a rush, grabbing his hand and dragging him down the path.

Harry only just briefly caught a glimpse of the Slytherin Head of House stalking towards the fountain they'd just been standing at, before he was jerked around the corner of a particularly high set of shrubs, as Hermione tried to get them to safety.

"Sorry about that," she panted out when she finally brought them to a stop in a hidden clump of bushes on the far side of the garden. "He did not look like he was in the mood to let a little innocent snogging going unpunished — not that I'd exactly say he's ever looked in the mood for it, but he really didn't then."

"I'm just thankful you saw him," replied Harry gratefully.

He was silent for a second, before finally asking, "So about that learning…?"

"Get over here and snog me, you silly boy," laughed Hermione, before launching herself on top of him before he even had a chance to try to move towards her first.

~HP~

The spot Hermione had found them proved to be a good one, as they weren't bothered by professor or other student for as long as they stayed there.

Harry felt like he could have continued forever, exploring Hermione's mouth and the strange but pleasant new sensations doing so made him feel, but Hermione had eventually pulled back saying they really needed to get back inside before it became too late, and anyway she'd like another few dances before the night was over. So they headed back inside, dancing for another thirty minutes until the Weird Sisters finally twung their last twang.

They both noticed Ron sitting alone in a far corner of the Great Hall glaring at them, but neither of them mentioned it to the other, and they certainly didn't feel inclined to go find out what his problem was, other than the fact Hermione hadn't been available when Ron had finally realized he could ask her out and it had all been due to Harry having already invited her.

In truth, Ron actually believed that Hermione really had still been inviteless when he'd asked, which was why she'd refused to tell him who she was going with. And it was only sometime after that that she'd agreed to go with Harry since he also didn't have a date yet, and he had either tricked her or used his champion fame to get her to go with him, instead of agreeing to go with Ron who'd asked first. But as Ron's thought process was such that, if they didn't already know he wasn't going to tell them, he never approached them and just sat there trying to glare holes through them every time he saw them.

At midnight, the Weird Sisters finally wrapped up, and the Professors began shunting everyone off to their commons rooms, despite pleas and beggings by many of the students to keep the party roaring for another few hours. But the professors were having nothing of it, and as the crowds began wending their ways through the castle to their respective common rooms, Harry and Hermione followed at the tail end of the Gryffindor crowd, up to Gryffindor Tower and their awaiting beds.

They did however duck into an unused classroom at the beginning of the seventh floor corridor leading to the portrait of the fat lady, to get in a last minute snogging before going to bed. They would have simply done it in the common room before they headed up their separate staircases, but they didn't particularly feel like having everyone watch them, and make a big ado about it when they were trying to just go to bed. So they simply stopped off in the abandoned classroom for a few minutes to get it in before continuing on down the hall to their common room.

But when they did finally step through the portrait hole, Hermione was immediately verbally assaulted by Ron, the only person left in the otherwise completely empty common room.

"I can't believe you went with this liar instead of me!" he bellowed at her, pointing accusingly at Harry.

Hermione pulled up short, staring in disbelief at the redhead's audacity. After several seconds, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, more than fed up with the redhead and his attitude about girls and dates surrounding the Yule Ball.

"Well, if you don't like the girl you want to go with going with someone else instead, you know what the solution is, don't you?" she finally growled.

"Oh yeah?" Ron yelled back. "What's that?"

"Next time there's a ball, ask the girl you want to go with before someone else does, and not as a last resort because you're waiting for the hottest girl in the castle to come to you!"

Harry noticed that she specifically never said that he should ask her, as Ron was clearly talking about, merely that he should ask the girl he wanted to go with, but her point still stood. It wouldn't have been her he would have asked, as Ron had had no actual interest in going with her even when he did finally ask, only that she was a girl and he didn't have one, but the redhead could have asked a girl he really would have wanted to go out with. And if he'd asked her soon after they'd all been told about the Ball, she could have still been available, and he could have had a good time at the Yule Ball. But instead, he'd waited on someone hot to come to him, before scrambling at the last minute to try to find anyone who would be willing to go with him and failing, and thus spending the entire Ball being jealous of someone who had asked the person they wanted to go with right after being told of the Ball's existence.

Ron merely gaped at her in reply, until Hermione finally turned to Harry and said crisply, "Night, Harry — see you in the morning," before disappearing up the girls' staircase to her dorm.

Once she was gone, Ron sputtered in the direction she'd disappeared in, "Well — well — that just proves — completely missed the point — !"

Harry didn't bother replying, knowing nothing was going to be getting through anyway. And he just wanted to get to bed too much at the moment to speak his mind right then, and more likely than not get rewarded his own row with the redhead for his efforts — but he personally thought that Hermione had the point much better than Ron had.