Chapter 2- Step One

Hermione waited for her 2nd years to quiet down enough to hear her. "Quiet down class." She said in a playful mannerism. Her class chuckled but listened to her. "Thank you." She said with a smile. The class beamed back and looked to the boards for directions. Hermione was, no doubt, one of the most loved teachers by all houses. Though Gryffindors bent to her ever whim, even Slytherians couldn't deny her a thing. Another favorite teacher was Professor Lovegood. From what Hermione had heard from her students, Luna was quite the…interesting teacher. While Luna was head of Ravenclaw, the class that spoke the highest of her was Huffelpuff.

"Today we will be learning a spell to disable an opponent, Expelliarmous (how is it spelled?). Now take out your wands please." The class obeyed silently. Hermione heard the door creak as someone went to close it behind them. Not turning around, Hermione called over her shoulder, "And what excuse do you have for me today hmmm?"

"I have no excuse for anything." A soft, dreamy voice said back as the new Charms teacher entered the room. Hermione spun around, confused by the voice.

"Lu…Professor Lovegood, what are you doing in here?" she stuttered.

"I have no classes today so I thought…why not go see my good friend Hermione?" Hermione blushed at the use of her first name but just nodded to an empty chair near the door. Luna smiled brightly and took her seat. She sat quietly through the whole lesson and even helped one or two students when Hermione was working with the others.

After everyone left, Hermione stood up from grading papers and walked over to a still sitting Luna, who, despite the lack there of attention from her crush, stayed where she was. "How are classes going Luna?" Hermione asked as she took a seat next to the blond.

"Very well, thank you. How are your classes?" she asked in return politely.

"Pretty good." Hermione smiled as they cut the chit chat short and began to talk about things in their personal lives, families etc. Hermione was extremely excited (though she didn't know why) to find out that Luna was still single, though she lost her smile when Luna brought up Ron.

"So…how is your relationship with Ron going?" Luna asked politely, knowing that she was going to get one answer, but all the while she was praying for the opposite. 'For all I know, they are married and have child already.' thought Luna glumly.

"Uhhh…me and Ronald…we just didn't…click." Hermione stammered out as a reply. Luna's face lit up but dimmed when she noticed the sadness on Hermione's face.

"Hermione…are you alright?" Luna asked, concerned as she placed a small hand on the older girls shoulder.

"Yes…I'm alright Luna, thank you." Hermione said as she straightened herself up and turned to face Luna. "Do you like anyone Luna?" Hermione asked curiously. Luna looked in total disarray when she heard that question.

"What?" she mumbled.

"Do you fancy anyone?" Hermione repeated as she moved closer.

"I…I…that I do…I do fancy someone." Luna said as she hid the blush that had come out in full force.

"Who?" Hermione asked hastily. She too blushed after a second of silence but looked to Luna for an answer anyway.

"Um…ummmm…" Luna tried to get out. Hermione was quite confused by her behavior since Luna never got nervous or uncomfortable and it made Hermione mad at herself because she had put Luna in that specific place.

"Luna…you don't have to…" Hermione trailed off as Professor Hooch rushed into the classroom and looked for the pair.

"Luna…come quick…your students…" breathed Hooch heavily as she waited for Luna to collect her cloak and such. As soon as Luna heard 'students' she quickly grabbed her cloak and followed Hooch while she sent an apologetic smile in Hermione's direction. Hermione nodded, amused, though she wanted to know what was going on with Luna even more now.

For the rest of the week, Luna came to see Hermione every morning and stayed until Hermione had finished grading papers or tutoring one of her students. It was become somewhat of a ritual for the pair to have all of their meals together and would usually (depending on the weather) go walking near the Black Lake. The students had gotten used to seeing Luna slip in during their classes, sure not to cause a distraction. Though no one told her when Luna did slip in, Hermione always knew.

3 Months Later

All Hermione heard was the occasional scratch of her quill and the sound of Luna's soft humming. "Hermione?" Luna asked suddenly as she looked up and the girl's eyes met.

"Yes?" Hermione asked, confused.

"Will you go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?" She asked curiously. Hermione sat still-shocked but managed to nod.

"Good…it's a date then." Luna said happily as she jumped around at the desk. Only after seeing the affects of her words did she realize what she had just said. "Hermione…I only meant that…" but she stopped herself. Hermione had stood up and had begun to walk towards her.

"It's a date." Hermione agreed with a satisfied smile and called out a goodbye as she walked out of the classroom. Luna stood there, occasionally looking around and pinching herself to make sure that she wasn't dreaming…though in her dream they were NOT going to Hogsmeade, that's for damn sure. Luna smile crookedly as she remembered her dream from the other night. Let's just say it most defiantly wasn't PG-13. After she had gotten over the initial shock, a gleeful smile graced Luna's face as she started to skip off to see her students for her nightly check in. She also wanted to tell Claire (a 7th year that had become very close to her) about what had happened with Hermione.

A/N- Thanks for all the alerts and such but some reviews would be nice too (wink wink nudge nudge). Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter, hopefully you liked it. Here is a question, should Claire become a problem for the hopeful couple? Yes? No? Trust me, these chapters are just fluff, the next ones should give this some body so don't stop reading yet. BTW, this story should only be about 6 or 7 chapters. Thanks again. RR please.