"So," Kurt says, sitting down across from Blaine at lunch near the end of November. "I was wondering if you'd like to come to my house for Christmas? It's just my dad and I, so it's pretty low key, but-"

"You want me to come over for Christmas?" Blaine asks in surprise. He's never actually met Kurt's dad. He's heard a lot about him throughout the years, but Blaine's parents pretty much always drag him away the moment he gets off the train.

"Yeah," Kurt smiles nervously. "I thought I would offer. You're always here over break, and I thought it could be fun. I was actually going to invite you last year, but dad decided we needed to visit some of the relatives, and I didn't want to subject you to that." He shrugs, trying to act as though the invitation isn't much of anything. Blaine knows that's not true though. Kurt may have made friends over the years, but that hasn't stopped him from being reserved when it comes to welcoming people in. This would be a major step, being allowed over during a time that Kurt cherishes greatly, time spent with just him and his father.

This is why Blaine knows that he should accept this for what it is; a really important invitation that he shouldn't take lightly. "I would love to come," Blaine finds himself agreeing. "I've wanted to meet your dad for ages, and it sounds so much better than hanging around here with the other few kids who stay behind."


Two days before Christmas, Kurt wakes up to the sounds of his dad and Blaine yelling at the TV. He rolls over and see's that it's almost noon, meaning that he's left Blaine on his own for way longer than he meant to. He rushes through his morning routine, making sure he's presentable before heading down the stairs.

He pauses at the bottom, grinning, when his eyes land on his dad and Blaine who are now high fiving each other as though they were both responsible for the point that their team just scored.

"You boys having fun?" he teases, leaning against the banister, arms folded across his chest.

"You're awake!" Blaine says happily, grinning at him from the couch.

"Morning Kurt."

"I see you two don't even need me here," he replies, walking towards the kitchen to find some breakfast.

When he comes back a few minutes later, cereal bowl in hand, the two of them slide over so that he can sit between them. He nods in thanks, eating while they continue watching the game. After one particularly good play they cheer loudly and Kurt sets down his bowl. "Okay, fess up dad, how did you get Blaine this into hockey after three days of being in the same house as him?"

"Oh come on," he replies, wrapping an arm around Kurt and pulling him close for a moment. "Everyone likes hockey."

"I don't." Kurt rolls his eyes at him. "Seriously, Blaine," he turns to look over at Blaine who glances away from the TV for a moment, acknowledging him, before his eyes go right back to the TV. "You have two wizard parents! And now you suddenly seem to know everything about hockey?"

"Sam talks about it sometimes," Blaine says. "We've actually played once or twice when the lake froze over. Well, Sam played, I tried to balance on skates. Those things are challenging," he adds, a whine evident in his voice.

"What do you wizard children even do for fun?" Kurt asks. "You guys only have Quidditch for sports, you have chess and gobstones, and… that really seems to be about it. I'm pretty sure you guys don't even have TV!"

A commercial break comes on and Blaine turns to look at him. "You kind of have a point actually. At some point I think wizards are going to have to start adopting some more muggle technology, but I like to think that instead of sitting in front of the TV all day or filling our time with endless numbers of sports, wizard children are getting to play and discover nature and the world before we're sent off to Hogwarts, land of 'nope that muggle technology won't work here.'"

"I almost left during my first week because I couldn't use my hair dryer or my book light."

"What's a book light?" Blaine asks, head cocked to the side as Kurt rolls his eyes and Burt laughs.

"It's a little light that you attach to your book so you can read at night without disturbing anyone else," he replies, glancing over at his dad and immediately bursting into laughter.

Blaine glares at both of them. "It's not my fault I grew up in a wizarding household!"

Kurt giggles as Burt shakes his head, standing up to grab something from the kitchen. "I am so glad I had a wizard mum and a muggle dad. I got a bit of the best of both cultures growing up."


They arrive back to school on the Hogwarts Express with all of the other students the night before classes are to resume. Towards the end of dinner, Kurt is exchanging gossip with Mercedes, when Figgins stands up, tapping on a goblet for silence.

"Excuse me, excuse me ladies and gentlemen," he calls out, nodding in thanks when everyone quiets down. "I know you're all eager to get back to your classes tomorrow, but first, I wanted to remind you all that on February 14th, we will be holding the annual Valentine's Day Ball. You may attend if you are at least in your fourth year, or if you are asked by an older student. That is all, carry on," he says, sitting back down in his seat and adding a piece of pie to his plate.

"Oh my god," Mercedes says, gripping Kurt's arm tightly as Kurt tries not to glance a few places down where Blaine is sitting. "You have to go this year. It was amazing last time."

Kurt sighs, pushing the remaining food around on his plate aimlessly. "I don't want to go without a date Mercedes, I'll feel like such a third wheel."

"Oh come on," Mercedes insists. "I'll save some dances for you, it'll be fun!"

"I know you mean well, but it's just…" he glances down the table at Blaine, who's now deep in conversation with Sam. He lowers his voice, "You know how I feel about Blaine."

"And…?" Mercedes asks, gesturing a fork at him.

"I don't think I can stand spending the night hoping that he'll ask me to dance and that if he does, wondering if it actually means something."

Mercedes glances down the table where Sam is now not so subtly gesturing at Kurt while he talks to Blaine. "You never know, he might surprise you. You could also ask him to the dance," she suggests.

"He would have given me some kind of signal over break, Mercedes. Can we just," he stabs a strawberry dejectedly, "leave it. I'll consider going, but I really don't think I will. I have a lot of work to do anyways."

"The dance isn't for another month and a half!"

"I'm sure I'll have a lot."


"What does the Amortentia smell like to you?" Tina asks Blaine, as the two of them plus Kurt and Mike stare at the steam spiraling up from the potion in front of them, mesmerized by its mother-of-pearl sheen.

"It smells like…" Blaine leans a little closer to the cauldron, taking a deep breath in through his nose. "It smells like grass, hairspray, honeydukes, oo turkey!, some sort of perfume, and… something like the Owlery or an owl, but cleaner? What is that smell? It's so familiar…" he trails off, trying to place half the smells and wondering why the Amortentia is making him smell those particular ones.

"What does it smell like to you?" Blaine asks, turning to Kurt.

Kurt startles, almost knocking over a bowl of newt before straightening up and looking at Blaine. "It's, umm, well," he pauses to take another whiff of it. "It smells like-"

"Okay, class," Professor Dingwall interrupts. "Now that you've all had a chance to take in the Amortentia, we are going to try to brew some of our own. If I see one of you try to sneak some out of here though, I will fail you on the spot," she threatens. "Now, you have two hours to get the first half of your potion done. You will want to get to step 15 by the end of class so that it has time to properly cook before our class on Wednesday." She nods at them all, settling back at her desk while they scramble for ingredients, working in their groups to properly concoct the potion.

During lunch two days later, Blaine realizes that the smells in the Amortentia were related to Kurt. He freezes, wondering how he hadn't realized sooner, staring across the room at Kurt, who's sitting at the Gryffindor table, laughing with Mercedes.

He watches Kurt carefully pick the tomatoes out of the sandwich in front of him and almost laughs, because not only did he not realize the smells related to Kurt, he also didn't realize that he is in love with Kurt.

"Hello?" Blaine jolts out of his reverie at the sound of Sam's voice, and the hand he starts waving in front of his face. "Blaine? Anyone home?"

"Yes!" he says, pushing Sam's hand away in annoyance. "What?"

"I was telling you about my morning and then you suddenly zoned out, staring at-," Sam turns around, looking off in the direction Blaine was. "You were staring at Kurt." Sam says in surprise. "Wait- did you-?"

"Did I what, Sam?" Blaine asks, trying to keep his tone neutral.

"Did you finally get your shit together?"

"I have no idea what you mean?"

Sam sags a little. "So you didn't finally realize you're in love with Kurt?" he asks, stabbing his fork at his salad dejectedly.

Blaine's fork clatters onto his plate. "How did you know that?"

"Because you look at him all th-" Sam's head shoots up. "You know you're in love with Kurt."

"Not so loud!" Blaine hisses, glancing around at the people sitting near them to make sure they didn't overhear. "Yes," he whispers. "I- yeah. I'm in love with him. How did you know?"

'How did I- dude." Sam says, incredulously. "You are not even the tiniest discrete about it! We have all thought the two of you were dating, multiple times, only to be proved wrong."

"Why would you think we were dating?"

"Seriously?" Blaine continues looking at Sam with a raised eyebrow, so Sam continues. "You've basically gone on dates to Hogsmeade, you take long walks around the lake, you sneak off and spend hours alone together - we still don't know where you go -, and he cheers for you at Quidditch matches, even when you're up against Slytherin."

"That's what friends do though," Blaine replies, glancing over at Kurt again. "Why would that make you think we were dating?"

Sam holds up his hands in defeat. "You just do the couple thing. It's fine, you aren't dating. I get it. But it sounds like you want to change that?"

"I don't know," Blaine sighs. "Okay, so I do. But how would I even go about doing that? I don't want to lose him as a friend. What if he says no?"

Sam lets out a laugh, before realizing that Blaine is serious. "He's going to say yes. Just, ask him to be your date to the Valentine's Day dance and then go from there."

"You know what?" Blaine straightens up in his seat, looking over at Kurt once more. "I'm going to do it. Tomorrow after dinner. I'll plan something a little bit special but not too special. I don't want it to be unbearably awkward if he says no."

"If he says no, I'll buy you a butterbeer, okay?" Sam offers. "And if you don't ask him, I'm going to make sure you do it, and that won't be very pretty."


By Saturday, Blaine has a plan.

"Good morning," Blaine says cheerily as he settles down at the Slytherin table next to Kurt.

"Well aren't you a ray of sunshine this morning," Kurt comments as he grabs a piece of bacon. "Exciting Quidditch practice later?"

Blaine shakes his head, still smiling as he puts some eggs on his plate. "I do have Quidditch, but that's not what I'm excited about." Kurt raises an eyebrow, prompting him to continue. Blaine tries to shrug casually, "It's just a really nice day out, and I was thinking we could maybe take a walk around the lake or something together before studying?"

"It's barely above freezing!" Kurt laughs. "I guess we could go for a walk though, it would be good to get some exc-"

"Hey guys!" a seventh year named Adam who Blaine thinks is a Slytherin says, sitting down on the bench across from them.

"Umm, hey," Blaine says, uncertainly.

"Oh, hi Adam!" Kurt greets, smiling at him.

Adam grins and then turns to Blaine, "You don't mind if I talk to Kurt in private for a moment, right?"

"Uh," Blaine glances over at Kurt who gives him a small smile. "Yeah, sure," he says reluctantly. "I'll be..." he stands up and glances across the room, spotting Mike at the Hufflepuff table. "I'll be over with Mike when you're done."

Blaine briskly walks over to the Hufflepuff table, sitting down across from Mike, where he can see Kurt and Adam talking. He sees Adam lean forward, looking as though he's asking Kurt something. Kurt opens his mouth to speak, but Blaine can't even try to read his lips because Mike chooses that moment to speak up.

"Hey man, you going to say anything, or are you too busy staring daggers at that guys head?"

Blaine looks over at him sheepishly, "Sorry, I was just- sorry." He glances back over at Kurt and Adam before focusing his attention on Mike. "How are you?"

"I'm good, just wondering what's up with you?"

"Nothing," Blaine sighs, grabbing a fork and running it through his fingers. He looks up to see Mike raising an eyebrow at him. He rolls his eyes at himself, setting the fork back down. "It's Kurt. I had this whole plan to ask him to the dance, and then that Adam guy just swooped in and wanted to have a 'private conversation with Kurt.' I lost my chance."

"It could be about anything, dude," Mike tries to comfort. "Does Kurt even know the guy?"

"He seems to," Blaine grumbles. "He didn't sound too surprised when he sat down to join us."

"I'm sure it'll all work out. You're going to have to tell me when you decided to ask him though and how that came about." Mike says pointedly.

"I'll tell you during practice later or something," Blaine says, wanting to wallow in self pity for a little while because he waited too long to ask Kurt.

"Hey!" Kurt chirps, settling down next to Blaine a few moments later. "What's got you down?" he asks, noticing Blaine's harried attempt to hide the dejected expression on his face.

"Nothing!" Blaine says, a little too loudly. "Nothing, just, apparently practice is going to be an extra hour today because..." he trails off, trying to think of an excuse.

"Beiste wants to go over a new play," Mike offers helpfully.

"Okay..." Kurt says, glancing between the two of them uncertainly.

"What'd Adam want?" Blaine asks, suddenly unable to stop himself.

"He, um," Kurt breaks eye contact, reaching out to fill his mug with tea. "He asked me to the dance." Blaine's stomach sinks. He missed his chance apparently.

"Really?" Tina squeals, sitting down next to Mike. "That's so cute! And now you can-"

"I said no," Kurt continues.

"-go to the dance with- wait. What?" Tina asks, staring at him in shock. "Mercedes said you weren't going because you didn't have a date, why would you say no? Especially to a guy as cute and smart as Adam?"

Blaine almost kicks her. Out of the corner of his eye, Blaine sees Kurt shrug. "I didn't want to say yes for the sake of having a date. Adam's sweet, but... well, honestly his friends were jerks to me for years, and I don't like him in more than a casual -acquaintance way.

Blaine bites back a grin. "You ready for that walk?"

Kurt looks confused for a moment. "Wa-? Oh! Yeah. Sure, let's go."


"So." Kurt says, breaking the silence when they make it halfway around.

"So what?" Blaine asks after a moment.

"You have never once asked me to take a walk around the lake in the middle of winter. What'd you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, er," Blaine rubs the back of his neck nervously. "I was wondering if you, ah," Blaine laughs at himself, stopping so that he can focus on getting the words out. Kurt stops walking, turning to look at him with a tilt of his head. Taking a deep breath, Blaine says "I was wondering if you wanted to go to the dance with me." Kurt's mouth drops open as Blaine continues. "As my date. Like a not friend type date."

"You want to-? With me?"

Blaine's stomach drops. Of course Kurt doesn't feel the same way. "It's okay if you don't want to. You don't have to say yes just because I asked. It's fine, I just thought I would because I like you, and I thought you might feel the same way, but if you don't that's okay, I understand..." Blaine trails off as Kurt, who had stepped closer to him while he spoke, put a tentative hand on his chin, tilting Blaine's head up and forcing him to make eye contact.

Kurt's eyes dart nervously between both of Blaine's eyes, seeming to find something reassuring in them. Blaine's eyes flutter closed, his hands flailing before finding purchase on Kurt's back as Kurt kisses him.

They kiss for a few minutes, Blaine pulling Kurt closer to him. When they pull away, Blaine rests his forehead on Kurt's shoulder for a moment, a disbelieving laugh escaping him.

He looks up after a moment, "Should I take that as a yes?"

Kurt lets out a laugh, slipping his hands into Blaine's and starting to walk again. "Yeah," he rolls his eyes. "It's a yes."

They fall silent again, hands clasped between them now.

"So you're- you like me then? As more than a friend?"

Kurt grins, blushing lightly. "Blaine, I have always liked you as more than a friend."

"You-? What? Really?"

"You didn't know?"

"No! If I'd known, this whole asking you out thing would have been a whole lot less nerve-wracking!"

Kurt laughs, "I seriously can't believe you didn't know. How did you not know?"

"You never said anything?" Blaine asks, racking his brains for anything Kurt might have said that would have given it away.

"You are so oblivious."

Blaine pouts, "No I'm not."

"Yes you are," Kurt grins at him, squeezing his hand lightly so he'll stop pouting. "What made you decide that now was the time to take the plunge?"

"Well with the Amortentia the other day I realized that I have more than friendship feelings for you, and-" Blaine deflates a little. "Okay I might be oblivious if it took me until now realize that."

"It's okay, you can make it up to me by dancing with only me at the dance."

"Who else would I dance with?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure someone will ask, and you better turn them down, Mister," Kurt glares playfully at him. "None of this 'but he's so nice' or 'her dress looks so pretty, Kurt!' You're my date."

"I like that sound of that."

"Me too."


The night of the dance, Kurt nervously straightens his tie before heading down the stairs towards the Great Hall. He and Blaine have been, well, a couple for around a month now. Their friends had been very much not surprised by the development. In fact, most of their year had apparently thought the were already dating. Kurt wasn't all that surprised. Blaine was.

It's been a month of almost non-stop smiling for Kurt though. He had never thought he would get this at Hogwarts. He'd spent so long completely friendless at the school, and then Blaine had stumbled into his life and everything had changed. Even when they were just friends, Blaine had made Kurt feel special almost every day. And now that they were dating? Well, Kurt was pretty much on Cloud Nine. That's not to say that there weren't problems in his life, but the past month? He pretty much couldn't bring himself to let anything bring him down.

He reaches the top of the stairs coming up from the Slytherin common room and pauses, wishing for probably the first time ever, that the Slytherin common room led to the marble staircase, so he could look down at the crowd of students dressed in their dress robes and happily bandying about, before finding Blaine. He steps forwards anyways, making his way towards the portrait that he and Blaine had agreed they would meet at.

He spots Blaine first. He's deep in conversation with Sam, probably discussing the latest Quidditch match or something.

"I just don't want to mess up this night!" Kurt hears Blaine say as he gets closer. Apparently they're not discussing Quidditch then. He slows down a little to prolong his eavesdropping without being obvious about it. "He deserves the best, and I still can't believe he actually agreed to be my boyfriend, Sam. I don't want to-"

"He's practically right next to you, dude," Sam says, winking at Kurt over Blaine's shoulder and then giving them both a wave. "I'll see you two in there, alright? Mercede's should be here any minute now."

Sam leaves, and Blaine turns around. A soft smile crosses his face as spots Kurt. Leaning in, Blaine kisses him softly before stepping back and looking him up and down.

"Wow," Blaine lets out. "You look really... wow."

"Good wow or bad wow?" Kurt asks, biting his lip nervous, trying not to get distracted by how good Blaine's hair looks when it's gelled like that.

"Good wow. Really good wow. You look amazing."

"You don't look so bad yourself, mister," Kurt says, blushing as he does so.

Blaine beams and Kurt is fairly certain he could stop wars with that smile. "So," Blaine says, sticking his hand out to hold Kurt's. "To the Great Hall?"


The dance itself is almost exactly like Kurt imagined it would be. There are people he deliberately avoids, but mostly it's just a good time with their friends who are couples, and dancing.

There's actually a lot more dancing than Kurt expects. They avoid the dance floor during the hour that the band plays fast music that results in grinding because their relationship is not ready for that, but the slow dancing? They pretty much slow dance during every slow song.

Kurt's more than a little surprised, because he had spent all this time thinking Blaine would be a typical sixteen year old boy, who had no idea how to dance, and had very little interest in it.

Kurt was wrong. Very wrong, because Blaine knew how to dance. They spent the night twirling around the dance floor.

Around midnight, they were just holding each other close as they swayed on the dance floor, barely moving from their spot. "As much as I hate to say it," Kurt says, lifting his head off of Blaine's shoulder to look around the room. "I think it might be nearing time for us to leave."

Blaine glances around the room before sighing sadly. "It looks like it, let's wait for this song to finish first."

They wander slowly down to the Slytherin common room, talking about the night and yawning occasionally. When they reach the wall that hides the Slytherin common room, Blaine murmurs good night before brushing a kiss across Kurt's lips.

Kurt knows it's intended to be a short kiss, just to send him off for the night with, but he's not having any of it. He's spent years dreaming about Valentine's Day dates, and a lot of those dreams involved Blaine, so he's not about to let the night stop after a brief kiss.

He places a hand on the back of Blaine's neck, pulling Blaine closer while deepening the kiss. Blaine let's out a small squeak at the sudden change of pace, but he quickly catches on and steps in closer to Kurt, backing him against a wall, his hands settling low on Kurt's back.

After a few minutes of kissing, when it feels as though Blaine's about to retreat again, Kurt flips them, so that Blaine's back is against the wall. Blaine lets out a startled noise, but takes it as a cue to continue.

They don't stop until they hear a loud cough followed by a voice saying, "Normally I wouldn't have a problem with watching you two suck face, but you're blocking the door, and no way am I letting a Hufflepuff stumble in there."

Kurt pulls away from where he was sucking on Blaine's neck to glare at Santana, "Like Brittany hasn't been in your room numerous times."

Santana rolls her eyes, "Just move over so I can go in, Hummel."

Kurt steps to the side, pulling Blaine with him, deciding not to bother coming up with a retort when Blaine squeezes his hand comfortingly. Santana goes inside, and Blaine kisses Kurt softly before stepping back. "I should really go now, but breakfast in the morning? 10am?"

"Sure," Kurt agrees, tugging Blaine back in for one more kiss. "Thank you for asking me to be your date," he whispers when he pulls back.

"Thank you for agreeing to be my date," Blaine beams.