Chapter 13: Yule Ball

After getting his dress robes on, Harry made his way down to the Great Hall to meet up with his date. He had to stop and wait for the stairs at the staircase and decided to recount the events of the last month.

After learning that Hermione had already been asked to the ball, he lamented having to find a date. It wasn't that there was a lack of girls willing to go with him, there were honestly a lot of girls who had asked him before and after he tried to ask Hermione. He would've said ye but all of the ones who asked him wanted to go with the Bo-Who-Lived, not Harry, which only unsettled him. He hated all the hero worship but it had seemed that there was very little chance in anyone looking past his fame. He felt lucky that he had found someone who understood his apprehension.

His thoughts turned to Hermione and how he had wished that he would've drawn up the courage to ask her to the ball. What was confusing was that he was only going to ask her as a friend but he found himself becoming nervous at the idea of asking her. He was worried about having a date that wasn't looking for anything serious. He had hoped that Hermione would understand that and go with him and found his anger was rising.

Passing a window, he eyed the moon high in the sky and abolished those thoughts. He knew that Hermione wasn't obligated to go with him and started feeling morose about even getting upset over such a thing. He knew that the moon was effecting him, the full moon rising in a few days as it were, but he still found it difficult to differentiate natural thought from his instinct driven ones. He now knew why he was overly-feeling the moon's effects but he was far from accepting it.

He finally arrived at his destination, situating himself away from the majority of the crowd and began looking around for his date. His search was interrupted as his gaze moved across the staircase, where he was floored by what he saw.

-HP-

Hermione made her way down the staircase in the Great Hall and was immediately made aware of the fact that everyone's attention was directed at her. The many stares were starting to get to her almost leading to turn around and run back to her dormitory. Upon closer inspection, she began to realize that they weren't looking at her in a negative way, in fact many of the faces couldn't believe who they were looking at.

Pride began to well up inside her as all her preparations weren't for nothing. She had decided in the weeks between accepting Viktor's invitation and the ball that she would try to look her best, not only so that people wouldn't look at her and her date scathingly but more importantly, herself. Hours of attempting to straighten her hair and applying an ample amount of make-up seemed to not be in vain.

Seeing that Viktor hadn't made it yet, she gauged all the reactions around the room. Among some of them was Malfoy sporting a bewildered expression on his face, and Pansy Parkinson with an equally evident look of jealousy. Lavender and Pavarti seemed to be in shock, or maybe in awe of her transformation, only adding to her boosted confidence.

The longer she looked, the more she noticed that her two best friends weren't present. Ron had left earlier to meet up with Padma, so she determined that he was already inside the Great Hall with a majority of attendees. Despite their recent disagreement, she was happy that Harry had helped him find a date so he wouldn't suffer the embarrassment of not having one.

Then her eyes found Harry, shifting nervously in the corner of the Great Hall. She smiled at the action, knowing that he would try to avoid any attention that might come his way. He hadn't noticed her yet, so she started to slowly make her way down the steps again, until she saw him begin to turn around.

The look on his face when he finally saw her caused the warm feeling to spread through her body just like when he hugged her. His jaw visibly dropped to the point where she was nearly worried that he might've dislocated it. His green eyes gave the impression of slight awe at her appearance but it lacked any sort of surprise, as if he wasn't surprised.

She smiled down shyly at him and began to take in his appearance as well. She admitted to herself that he looked good in is dress robes and a brief pang of guilt ran through her body. She wondered if he would've asked her if she wouldn't have said yes to Viktor.

Hermione decided to at least to say hi to him when she saw both Viktor and Fleur Delacour entering the hall. Viktor began to make her way to her as Fleur was striding across the hall, causing Hermione to wonder who she was accompanying to the ball.

Her question was answered soon after, as she stopped right next to Harry, and took his offered arm. A brief scowl crossed Hermione's face which she quickly suppressed, but not fast enough to escape Harry's notice. His questioning loo caused her to falter slightly, she only mouthed later as she took Viktor's arm before the Champions entered the hall.

-HP-

The Yule Ball was a far more enjoyable experience than Harry had initially anticipated. His fear of dancing was overcome due to his dance lessons with Professor McGonagall. He found that he actually found the activity enjoyable and that he was quite good at it, the only person overshadowing his prowess surprisingly was Neville who also had participated in his lessons.

He had his reservations about going to the ball with Fleur but most of them were unfounded. The fellow champion was obviously enjoying herself, but Harry convinced himself that anyone who like himself, wasn't affected by her appearance would be able to reach the same result. The only thing was that there wasn't anyone else who could resist her allure to the same success as Harry.

Even though she seemed relieved at having such a good time, Harry could still tell that she was still sizing him up. When they weren't dancing, she would ask him about his classes, friends, and about some of the stories she had heard from other students. The surprise at his humbleness was evident on her face and instead of being annoyed like he normally would, he found it entertaining.

It was after one of their dances that Harry chanced a glance over in Hermione's direction. He saw her a few tables away talking to Krum. She appearing to enjoy herself, but Harry noticed that something was up. After knowing her for so many years, he could tell that even though she was genuinely enjoying herself, something was still eating away at her.

Looking to Fleur, he saw that her eyes were already on her. Feeling ashamed that he wasn't paying attention to his own date, he attempted to apologize.

"It iz okay 'Arry. Why don't you go ask 'er to dance?"

Taken aback by her comment, he righted himself before questioning her.

"Are you sure Fleur? I don't want to make it seem that like I don't enjoy your Company."

She laughed at his awkwardness. "You 'ave been a wonderful date Monsieur Potter. I don't mind if you go dance wiz someone else."

Nodding his head, Harry made his way over to Hermione. It took a few moments for her to notice his approach, and he seemed to think that her smile got slightly bigger when she finally did notice her.

"I was wondering if you would like a dance, milady?" The chuckle that came from her confirmed that his attempt at humor was successful as she accepted his hand and followed him out to the dance floor.

Once there, the song changed and the band began to play a slow song, much to the embarrassment of the two teens. Resigning that there wasn't any other choice they wrapped their arms around each other. Swaying slowly to the music, Harry noticed that the warm feeling returned but was unaware that the girl in his arms was currently experiencing the same thing.

It was nice dancing with Hermione and even though he tried to resist it, he began comparing his dances with Fleur to this one. This one felt a lot more special than any of his dances with Fleur but he reasoned that it was because they had avoided all slow dances so far that night, not wanting to experience the awkwardness of it, but with Hermione, he had no reservations.

"Are you having a good time at the ball?"

The question came out of nowhere and startled Harry slightly. The resentment returned in full force but he didn't want to lash out at Hermione, she was only looking out for him as a friend.

"Yeah, Fleur's been great. She asked me a few weeks back because she wanted to go with someone who didn't want to go with her because of her heritage which I completely understand." He paused his explanation weighing his next words carefully. He wanted to bring up the fact that Fleur wasn't his first choice of date but didn't want to hamper her good mood.

He did see a brief flash of guilt cross her face, but decided not to push it any further as the song began to die down. Pulling apart, an awkward silence descended between the two as neither knew exactly what to say.

"Thank you for the dance Harry."

"It was my pleasure Hermione. Now I think it's time to return to our dates." Breaking the awkwardness Harry tentatively stepped forward to offer her a brief hug, catching her off guard. After pulling away, they smiled at each other before heading back towards the tables together. Seeing Fleur smiling at him, he offered his hand to her as well, but stopped when he noticed that Krum and Hermione were standing up to leave. He made sure to wish them a good night before returning to dancefloor with his date,

"Zat waz a nice zing you did for 'er 'Arry."

"It waz nothing. I felt like I should've danced with her at least once."

"Still, zat was a very sweet of you to do zat. She is lucky to be friends with such a caring friend."

Harry felt his cheeks heat up at her compliment and he briefly thought he detected another warm flush course though his body. It was after this that he realized that they were dancing to another slow song and became aware of their close proximity. He wasn't sure about hi date, but the awkwardness that they had anticipated was definitely there, but it wasn't as pronounced as he would have thought.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw a person stand up suddenly and head towards the exit. A blur of red hair and an irate Padma storming off was all the confirmation Harry needed that his other best friend was storming off. Wondering what would cause such a reaction from Ron, Harry remembered that Hermione and Krum had passed closely by Ron and he immediately feared for the worst.

"Excuse me but I have to go." Not really giving her a chance to retort, he quickly made his way towards the exit.

-HP-

Fleur was caught off guard by Harry sudden dismissal and decided to follow him to see what was up. As she neared the doors leading to the Great Hall, a large mob of students blocked her oath, slowing her down significantly. She nudged and maneuvered her way through the crowd, the sounds of someone shouting becoming louder the closer she came to the door.

Once out it the hall she continued up the hallway towards the exit to the grounds when she saw the girl she knew from Harry as Hermione arguing with Harry's other friend. Determining that it was the tail end of the shouting match, Fleur decided that it was best that she hide herself behind a suit of armor and wait to see how things played out. One final shout from Hermione sent the red head skulking away. Listening intently she became aware if the sound of someone sobbing. She almost made her way out from her hiding spot when a voice caught her attention.

"Hermione?"

The blazing row had taken up all of her attention so she figured that Harry was also somewhere nearby waiting for the flames to settle. She could hear the worry in his voice and allowed herself to peak out at the scene in front her.

Harry approached the girl and offered an arm around her shoulder. For her part tried to hide the evidence of her tears but she couldn't shake the worrying Harry off.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Harry." Her voice sounded anything but, causing Fleur to wonder if she was trying to convince Harry or herself.

"You don't sound fine Hermione. Why don't you talk to me about it?"

Cracking underneath his concern, she relented and began to open up. "Oh it's just Ron and his insensitivity." Harry gave her a look that urged her forward. "He was angry at me for coming to the ball with Krum instead of him, saying things like I was 'fraternizing with the enemy'" Fleur could tell even from a distance that her face showed equal amount of disdain as in her voice during that last statement.

"That's completely mental."

"That's what I said. He's the one who was going on and on about wanting his autograph all year and I'm the traitor." She was getting far angrier now, as she stood up and began pacing in front of the bench that they were previously sitting on. Her anger though seemed to dissipate completely as her mind appeared to contemplate something further.

"That's not even what hurt the most. He said that I only made myself look nice because I wanted to impress Viktor, and…" she seemed to fight the urge to not continue further, but another deep breath calmed her down enough to press on, "he said that I was betraying you." The tears were back in full force as Hermione made to run away, but was caught up in a sudden hug by Harry.

"I don't think you going with Krum was a betrayal. I'm just happy that you found someone to go with who would have a good time with." The smile that he gave her caused Hermione's tears to stop flowing and brought a huge smile to Fleur's unseen face. "Besides I know that you dressed yourself up more for yourself than Krum, even though I think it wasn't necessary."

The words confused Fleur briefly, but it was nothing compared to the confusion on Hermione's face. "Thank you Harry" was all she could choke out before finding herself in another hug from Harry. Thanking him one more time, Hermione turned and began to head her way back towards were Fleur assumed was the Gryffindor Tower. Deciding that it was now safe to come out, Fleur made her way towards her date.

"Zere you are 'Arry. I waz wondering where you went off to."

Harry began rubbing his neck, his bashfulness showing in full force and Fleur couldn't help but smile at his expense.

"I'm sorry for running off Fleur. There was something I needed to take care of."

"You 'ave nozzing to be sorry for. You 'ave made this a wonderful night, I could not ask for a better one." She saw relief cross his face and it only endeared him even more to Fleur. The selflessness that he showed his friend was all the assurance that she needed to know that Harry was who he claimed he was, she couldn't fault him for that. "I zink it is time to turn in for ze night 'Arry. I 'ad a lovely time." She offered her hand as a sign of goodwill towards him. He took her hand and smiled at her.

"I had a great time as well Fleur. I hope that we can become friends after all of this."

"I would like zat." The smile that her face was hopefully a sign that she was generous about that admission. He then surprised her by kissing the back of her hand.

"Goodnight Fleur." Feeling brave, she stepped forward and tentatively kissed him on the cheek.

"Goodnight "Arry." She turned around began to make her way towards the Beauxbatons carriage, leaving a very confused Harry in her wake.

Author's Note:

Here's the Yule Ball guys. I really tried to do the ball justice while trying to do it differently than I've seen it usually done. Hopefully you guys like the direction that I took this scene, as well as where the story is going. I'm going to be leaving more clues as to what is wrong with Harry but it will still be a few chapters before the reveal.

I saw in a review that someone thought I was sticking too close to canon and I wanted to address that. The story will get progressively more AU as it goes on. The Goblet of Fire will be slightly AU, whereas OotP will be about half based off of canon AU, and finally HBP will be mostly AU with a few plot points from the book surviving.

As always, thanks for reading.