Disclaimer
The Harry Potter universe and all the characters in it belong to J. K. Rowling. I get nothing out of this except enjoyment.
Important Note – This chapter was originally intended to be a stand-alone story recounting some additional events that occurred in association with the Yule Ball in Book 4, but I realized that it also fit in well with the premise of this story – Hermione telling her daughter about things that happened that weren't in the books.
So here it is, something to keep your interest while waiting for the story of Year 6 to begin. Just for the record, the story that follows is completely canon compatible – i.e. – as related in Goblet of Fire. The scenes below are additions to the text, not replacements. If you haven't read it for a while, you may want to look it over again. Note – this is the book, not the movie! There is no 'staircase scene' where Parvati exclaims that Hermione is beautiful. There is no heavy metal band and mosh pit. Neville does not become the reincarnation of Fred Astaire. In fact, he repeatedly steps on Ginny's feet while they're dancing, and she eventually hooks up with Michael Corner. (Not that any of that has anything to do with this story – it's just something that annoys me.)
Thanks to canoncansodoff for his advice on how to post this piece, and on the content as well.
Text in bold font is taken directly from the book.
-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-
Yule Ball – The Rest of the Story
In the weeks after Hermione finished telling her about her fifth year, Rose thought often about how her mother and father had gotten together. Since her mother had hinted that her feelings for him had begun to develop during fourth year, she reread book 4 looking for clues, and found herself puzzled by the description of the events surrounding the Yule Ball. One evening she approached her mother with a request for clarification.
"Mummy, will you tell me more about the Yule Ball?"
Hermione got a long ago and far away look on her face and nodded. "Yes. That really was something of a turning point in my life," she observed. "Besides the fact that people saw a completely new side of me, I learned some things about myself from that whole episode." She looked down at her daughter's eager face and reached out to stroke her hair. "Most importantly, that's when my feelings for a certain boy began to change, and I started to fall in love."
-oooOOOooo-
"It is traditional," said Professor McGonagall firmly. "You are a Hogwart's champion, and you will do what is expected of you as a representative of the school. So make sure you get yourself a partner, Potter."
-o-o-o-
"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione and Ron had waited for Harry outside McGonagall's classroom and noted his dazed expression as he emerged, and Hermione was immediately concerned.
"I … nothing," he muttered, and walked quickly away from them down the corridor. Hermione and Ron exchanged confused glances and Ron shrugged his shoulders. Hermione's eyes narrowed as she tried to work out what McGonagall had said to Harry that would have put him in such a state.
"Let me talk to him," she instructed Ron. "We'll meet you back in the common room."
"Harry?" She finally caught up with him one corridor later and steered him into an empty passageway. "What is it? Is it something I can help you with?"
"No," Harry answered sharply, but he immediately felt bad as he saw her face fall. She had gone out of her way all year to help him in any way she could, and this was a poor way of showing his gratitude. "Well … I don't know," he amended. "I don't see how you can help this time."
"What's wrong? Is it about the Ball?" she pressed.
"Yeah," he acknowledged as his shoulders drooped. "McGonagall just told me that not only was I required to have a partner, I have to open the dancing because I'm a champion."
Hermione nodded, forcing herself not to smile. This was so like Harry. He could gather up his courage and face a dragon, but the idea of asking a girl to a ball, and worse yet having to dance with her, terrified him.
"Well, I can help you with at least part of that," she offered.
"You can?" he asked in surprise.
"I can teach you how to dance," she explained. "And if you like, I can try to help you find a date."
"Really? You'd do that?" he said in amazement. "Teach me to dance, I mean. I … well I sort of … um … already have an idea about the other thing."
"Harry, of course I would," Hermione responded, fighting down the urge to inquire about whom he was planning to ask. "I've been helping you out so far, haven't I?" She grinned at him. "Just think of this as another task you have to get through in this tournament."
Harry managed a weak grin of his own. "I guess that's one way to look at it." He paused as a nervous look filled his face. "Um, could you please not tell anyone though? About the dance lessons I mean? Not even Ron?"
Hermione didn't understand why boys had to be so embarrassed about learning how to dance, but readily agreed. If Harry needed her to keep this in confidence, he could rely on her discretion. "We can meet in the evenings like we did when we were studying spells for the First Task," she decided. "We'll tell Ron I'm helping you get ahead on your homework so you'll have more time to figure out the egg clue."
-ooo-
"Now, put one hand on my waist and hold my hand with the other," Hermione instructed in her normal lecturing voice. Harry moved to comply but then hesitated as his hand was about to touch her, realizing as he focused on that particular part of her anatomy that Hermione had developed some curves. The slight flush that flooded his face gave him away.
"Come on, Harry, it's just me," Hermione urged as she took his hand and placed it on her waist. "We've been in a lot closer contact than this before. Remember Buckbeak?"
"I know, it's just that …" Harry stammered.
"You've only just noticed that I'm a girl?" Hermione asked with a touch of annoyance in her voice.
"No! I mean, no, I've always known you were a girl," he protested. "But those other times … well, we were doing stuff where it didn't matter. This … this is a boy-girl thing, and … well, I've never thought of us in a boy-girl way before. You've always just been my best friend Hermione."
"I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing," she remarked, as a slight twitch of a smirk caught her lips. She noted that he hadn't moved his hand from her waist, and seemed to be getting more comfortable.
"I've always thought it was a good thing," he offered. "I like that there's none of that kind of awkwardness between us. She smiled and nodded. Then he raised an eyebrow. "On the other hand, this …" he nodded at his hand on her waist, "is certainly more pleasant with you than it would be with Ron." Hermione's smile blossomed into a light laugh, and Harry joined her.
"I think I'll take that as a compliment, then," she decided. Harry nodded that it was intended that way, and they both settled down, Harry much more relaxed than he had been initially, and got to work. It quickly became clear that Harry had a long way to go, and they agreed that several more lessons were in order.
-ooo-
"You don't have a date yet, do you?" Hermione asked as they began their next lesson. Harry shook his head glumly. "Who are you planning to ask?"
Harry hesitated, then decided he could trust her. "Cho Chang," he mumbled. Hermione nodded supportively, giving him a look that urged him to continue. "She sort of caught my eye during our quidditch match last year."
"Oh? Fraternizing with the enemy?" Hermione teased to lighten the mood. She succeeded in getting a grin from him as he nodded sheepishly. "Well, I think you'd better hurry. She's pretty popular from what I hear." In fact, Hermione suspected that she was already taken, but didn't want to discourage her friend too much. "Perhaps you should have a backup plan."
Harry sighed. "I don't know who else would want to go with me." This caused Hermione to shake her head in exasperation.
"Harry, there are lots of girls who want to go with you. I've been right there next to you when they've asked you."
"Yeah, but I don't want to go with someone I don't even know. They're just asking me because I'm a champion. They don't want to go with me, just Harry, they want to go with Harry Potter, school champion. It's like you said about those girls who hang around Krum because he's famous." Harry didn't notice the blush that filled Hermione's cheeks at this comment. "Do you understand the difference?"
"Yes, Harry, I quite understand," she reassured him. "Believe me, I do." She paused for a moment to correct one of his dance steps.
"So, why not ask someone you do know then?" Hermione suggested. "Perhaps Ginny or Parvati?"
"But I don't fancy them," Harry objected.
"Harry, that doesn't matter," she explained. "It's just a ball. It's not the same as an actual date. It can be, but it doesn't have to be. "It's an event that people need partners for. And while it's not as big a deal for the boys, the girls all want to go. So lots of people will go with partners who are just friends."
Harry was quiet as he processed this new information, and they both focused on their dancing for a while. Finally he resumed the conversation. "I understand what you're saying, but I still think it would be awkward to go with Ginny, because of the crush she used to have on me."
"She's not so bad anymore though," Hermione pointed out. Harry just shrugged, and Hermione decided that she'd better tell Ginny to look elsewhere.
-ooo-
"Harry, you're doing much better now," Hermione complimented him. The ball was now only a week away and at least one part of Harry's problem was under control. But as for the other …
"Have you asked Cho yet?" she inquired. "Harry shook his head despairingly. "I just can't figure out how to get her alone. She's always surrounded by her friends." Hermione nodded sympathetically.
"Hermione, I was thinking about what you said the other day," Harry commented a bit later. "What about you?"
Hermione blinked in surprise. Was he asking her if she had a date? Did he suspect? "What about me?" she responded with a bit of an edge in her voice.
"Sorry," he amended, realizing how open-ended that question had been. "What I meant was … I was wondering if I could go to the ball with you. You suggested I ask a friend, and well, you're my best friend." Hermione blushed deeply.
"Harry, I'd love to go with you, but I already have a date," she responded.
"Really?" Harry was unable to keep the surprise out of his voice, and immediately regretted it as he saw a hurt expression cross her face. "I mean, not that I don't think that you should have a date, but … well I thought you'd tell us if you did. I mean, I'd certainly tell you." Hermione nodded that she understood and wasn't upset with him. "So, who is it?"
"I … I'd rather not say," she replied meekly. Harry frowned in puzzlement.
"Why?" He didn't think she was the type to accept a date and then be too embarrassed to admit whom she was going with.
"It's just … well, you'll see." She was clearly flustered about it so Harry decided to drop it.
"OK."
-ooo-
Harry led Parvati from the dance floor. Thanks to Hermione's lessons, it hadn't been too bad, but he was relieved that it was over. Dancing with Parvati wasn't unpleasant, but he had hated being in the spotlight. Just before they reached their table they were intercepted by Hermione, with Viktor Krum in tow.
"Want to switch partners?" she asked. Parvati blushed noticeably at the thought of dancing with the international quidditch star, but accepted shyly. Harry nodded to Hermione in relief and headed back to the dance floor, but soon found out that she had other ideas. Pulling him right up to Cedric and Cho, she interrupted them as they were about to start another slow dance.
"We're all trading partners for a dance," she announced. "Spirit of good sportsmanship and all that." Before Harry could say anything he found himself facing the pretty Chinese girl. Swallowing hard, he haltingly raised one hand to take hers and put the other gingerly on her waist. She shot him a dazzling smile and his mind blanked out. Fortunately his feet knew what to do and he made it through the dance without any major miscues. If anyone had asked him afterward what he and Cho had talked about during that dance, however, he would have had not a clue.
After that dance Hermione and Cedric reappeared and Harry stared wistfully as Cho and Cedric spun away. Then Viktor arrived and reclaimed Hermione. Parvati was still a bit flustered from dancing with the Durmstrang champion and made no objection when Harry suggested they go visit with Ron and Padma for a bit.
"How's it going?" Harry asked Ron, sitting down and opening a bottle of butterbeer.
-ooo-
Harry had just made it back to the common room after Cedric had passed on the tip to open his egg under water when he came upon Ron and Hermione in a blazing row.
"Well, if you don't like it, you know what the solution is, don't you?" yelled Hermione.
"Oh yeah?" Ron yelled back. "What's that?"
"Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!"
With that Hermione turned on her heel and stormed up the girls' staircase to her room. Ron turned to look at Harry as though intending to argue his position but he was silenced by a glare from Harry. Red-faced, Ron stomped over to the boys' staircase and up to his own room. Harry watched him go, torn. He liked being back on speaking terms with Ron, but on the other hand his friend was clearly out of line, and he felt guilty for not sticking up more for Hermione after all she had done for him.
Instead of following up to the dorms, Harry wandered over to the fireplace and slumped into the sofa. He now understood Hermione's reluctance to tell anyone in advance that she was going with Krum, given Ron's reaction. He felt a sense of admiration for her for having caught the quidditch star's attention, but was surprised to also discover a twinge of jealousy mingled in. He decided that it was because Hermione had had such a good time with the Bulgarian seeker, much better than he'd had with Parvati, and certainly better than he'd had sulking with Ron.
After more of this musing, including wondering just how Hermione had even met Viktor Krum, much less impressed him enough for him to ask her to the ball, Harry heard soft footsteps coming down the stairs. He turned around to see Hermione hesitantly approaching. She had discarded her ball gown and was now wearing a dressing gown and fuzzy slippers. Her hair had been let down from the elegant knot it had been in for the ball, but was still sleek and shiny, hanging smoothly down across her shoulders. It was also obvious that she had been crying.
Harry moved over to make room for her on the sofa and she gave him a little smile of acknowledgment and settled down at the other end.
"I was too angry to sleep," she explained. "But I didn't want to mess up my dress, and I just had to get out of those shoes." She reached down to rub her aching feet, but Harry pushed her back. Then he reached over and pulled her legs up onto the sofa so that her feet were across his lap, took off her slippers, and began to massage them. This elicited moans of pleasure from Hermione, and they sat there for a while before speaking.
"I never got a chance to tell you, but I thought you looked really pretty tonight," Harry said finally. Hermione blushed and looked down at her hands. "I mean, I didn't even recognize you at first." This comment brought her head up and her eyes narrowed slightly. Harry gulped and hastened to try to explain.
"I mean, it was your hair mostly," he stammered. "As I was looking around for you I passed right over the straight haired girl with Krum. It was only when I stopped to look closer that I realized it was you. I can't believe how different you look with straight hair."
Hermione nodded and Harry let out his breath, relieved that he'd managed to dig himself out of that hole. This in turn caused Hermione to break into a small grin as she fully realized the discomfort he'd just been in.
"Well, don't get used to it," she declared. "I had to use the better part of a bottle of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion to get it this way. After I wash it tomorrow morning it will be back to its old bushy self."
Harry nodded. He wasn't sure if he should say it, but she just didn't seem like Hermione with straight hair. He decided to move on. "It was more than that though. You were carrying yourself differently and your smile …" He cocked his head and looked at her. "You should smile more often. You have a very pretty smile." This comment elicited exactly what he had just described.
"You really think so?" she said, blushing slightly again. Harry nodded with a grin of his own. "And that blue dress really did look good on you."
Hermione pulled her feet from his lap and scooted closer to him, giving him a one-armed hug and leaning her head against his shoulder for a moment. "Thank you," she murmured softly. Then she pulled back and grinned at him. "Fixing my teeth certainly helped, didn't it? And I'd probably smile more often if I didn't have to spend so much time worrying about you." She said this in a teasing tone and poked him in the arm for emphasis. He responded with a shrug and turned up his hands as if to say, 'What can I do? That's my life.'
They sat there side by side staring into the fire for a few minutes. "I'm sorry I never got a chance to dance with you, especially after you spent all that time teaching me," Harry lamented, breaking the silence. "I'd kinda planned on it but …"
"Yes, it would have been nice," Hermione agreed. "Things didn't exactly work out the way I'd planned either. Except the part where I got you to dance with Cho," she teased.
"You planned that?" Harry asked in surprise. Hermione grinned and nodded. "Well, thank you. I appreciate it."
"So, what did you talk to her about?" Hermione inquired, shifting her position and tucking her legs under herself.
"I have no idea," Harry replied while shaking his head. "I just blanked out." Hermione threw her head back and laughed, now much more relaxed and comfortable than she had been when she came downstairs. When Harry pretended to scowl at her for her lack of understanding, she patted his arm consolingly, sympathizing with her best friend who was so hopeless with girls.
When they had exhausted that subject Harry decided she was calmed down enough to discuss what had happened earlier. "You want to talk about Ron?" he asked hesitantly. Hermione became quiet again and responded with a shrug, which Harry took for assent. "You really wanted him to ask you, huh?"
"Oh Harry, it wasn't like that exactly," she explained. "That comment was more out of frustration and anger than anything else. It's just that he has no right complaining about who I go with if he doesn't want to go with me himself. But …" Harry waited for her to finish, but she fell silent again.
"Actually, I sort of regret not asking you sooner," he noted. "I was just thinking how much more I would have liked it if I'd gone with you than with Parvati. But then, you seemed to be enjoying yourself with Krum so …" He paused there, not comfortable with where this thought was going. The idea of Hermione with Viktor Krum was still unsettling.
Hermione immediately picked up on this. "Harry, it's not like that. Yes, I enjoyed talking to Viktor and getting to know him, but I certainly would have preferred being with you. Or …" She looked down again and began twisting her hands nervously in her lap. "To tell the truth, I was hoping either you or Ron would ask me." She looked up to see Harry's eyes widen in surprise. "Because you two are my best friends, Harry. That's what I was trying to hint at that day. It's perfectly normal to go to something like this with a friend. That's why Neville asked me, and then Ginny, and Lavender went with Seamus. They're not dating, they're just friends. But you didn't pick up on it and then Ron said he only cared about taking the best looking girl and Viktor asked me …"
"Hey, I don't think Ron meant it that way," Harry objected. "He didn't mean that you weren't good looking."
"I think he did," Hermione insisted in a low voice. "When he was going through all the good-looking girls he could ask I bet he never once thought of me." This time Harry put his arm around Hermione and pulled her against his shoulder.
"Don't say that, Hermione," he said comfortingly. "Ron and I were just both really stupid about this. And besides, you were certainly pretty enough to attract Krum's attention, right?"
This got a bit of a smile out of Hermione. "He just asked me because I wasn't like the other girls who flocked around him because of his fame," she protested softly. "He's not interested in me romantically or anything like that."
"No?" Harry teased. "You don't think he's fallen for your brilliance and charm? I bet he's completely smitten. I saw the way he looked at you tonight. He's probably thinking he can't live without you …"
"Harry stop!" Hermione pulled back and hit him on the arm, laughing out loud as he joined in. Then she grabbed him and snuggled back up against his shoulder, both of them still chortling.
"Thank you," she whispered eventually after their laughter had run its course. "Thank you for cheering me up. I'm so glad I have a friend like you."
"Anytime," he replied softly. But inside he was thinking that if there was anyone who couldn't live without Hermione, it was himself.
Hermione pulled back again with a gleam in her eye. "Now, about that golden egg …"
-oooOOOooo-
Rose had a thoughtful look on her face as Hermione finished the story. "I don't understand," she protested. "You said that's when your feelings for a certain boy began to change, and you started to fall in love. But Viktor was the one who asked you to the ball. That would certainly lead to a change in your feelings toward him, right? Wouldn't that make you fall for him?"
"It's true that my feelings for him changed," Hermione allowed. "But only because I didn't really know him before that. So while I appreciated that he asked me, and frankly was a bit overwhelmed that he thought enough of me to do that, I never developed any serious romantic feelings for him because of it. That's a good thing for you to realize – just because a boy asks you out it doesn't mean he's in love with you or that you'll necessarily fall in love with him."
"OK," the young girl allowed, filing this lesson away for later use. "But Ron was so jealous. Doesn't that mean he was in love with you? And it seemed that you wanted him to ask you too. Wouldn't knowing he felt that way about you make you have those kinds of feelings for him too?"
"Ah, that's more difficult to explain," Hermione replied. "A lot of people think that when someone is very jealous that shows that they love the other person. But that's not what love really is. When you truly love a person you think more about them than you do about yourself. Jealousy is just thinking about yourself and what you want, not about what's best for the other person. So that isn't really a sign of love. Do you see the difference?"
"I … I think so," Rose decided. "And so although neither of you really were thinking of the other romantically …"
"What your father did showed that he loved me, yes," Hermione agreed. "Do you see how?"
"Well," Rose began, thinking back through the story, "He trusted you to teach him to dance and not make fun of him, or tell anyone else what you were doing."
"Very good," Hermione acknowledged. "He confided in me, and trusted me with his concerns. It said something important to me about how close we were. And he was comfortable with me and let me know he enjoyed being with me. That really made me feel good about myself. What else?"
"When you were at the ball he didn't get jealous and yell at you like Ron did?" Rose suggested.
"That was very important," Hermione agreed. "Not only didn't he object to me being with Viktor, but he stood up for me, even against his best friend. And later he apologized that he hadn't defended me more. That showed that he was concerned about me. What else happened?"
"When you were together later he tried hard to cheer you up." Rose was definitely getting the idea now.
"Exactly," Hermione declared. "He did everything he could think of to comfort me and cheer me up. He said some really nice things about me, and he meant them. After that he listened to what I had to say and tried to alleviate my concerns. And even though he might have been uneasy about my dating Viktor, he was happy for me, and let me know it."
"And the whole time he was thinking about what was best for you, not for himself," the young girl announced triumphantly. "And that's what love is?"
"That's right," confirmed Hermione. "And even though we didn't think of each other in a romantic sense at that time, it was a very good foundation for falling in love with each other when we did start thinking of each other that way."
"So, you're saying I should fall in love with my best friend?"
"Not necessarily," Hermione laughed. "But you should be good friends with him. You need to 'like' a person in order to make a relationship work. They may say that opposites attract, but the more you have in common with someone the better it will work in the long run. That's the kind of love that lasts."
"I hope I find someone to love like you did with Daddy."
"I hope you do too, sweetheart." Hermione caught her daughter up in a big hug, and they snuggled together on the sofa for the rest of the evening.
-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-
A/N On a very serious note, I feel compelled to respond to an accusation of plagiarism that was made by another author in the reviews for the previous chapter in this story. With my background in the academic world this is a very serious matter to me, probably more so than it is for most writers of fanfiction. If such an allegation were made and substantiated about my professional writing, I would likely lose my job, and perhaps my career. There are very few things that can get a tenured professor fired, but that's one of them.
It is perhaps because of this that I take particular care to acknowledge ideas that I get from other stories. I am not aware of any other author that does this as much as I do, as those of you who have read my stories may have noticed.
In this particular case, I do not recall having read the story in question before I began writing mine. I did come across it at the beginning of this month (January), and noted the similarity at that time – that is, the concept that Hermione sold the story to a muggle publisher because they needed the money, which appeared in the backstory in the very first chapter. As it happened, this was only a few days before the other author called it to my attention. I do have e-mail correspondence from early October where I discussed that specific idea with another author who I'd asked for advice on the story-within-a-story structure, and neither of us gave any indication at that time that we were aware of the similarity.
So, I did not consciously borrow that idea from another author. At the time I wrote it, I thought it was original. I am sorry if this troubled anyone, or if this incident detracted from the story.