"So, how are things going with you and Draco and your friendship?" asks Hermione. She and Harry and Ron are all in attendance at the next day's Weasley family lunch—specifically, what Hermione calls "the kitchen table pre-party portion." It's funny, Harry thinks, how much they still act like newlyweds sometimes, Hermione fussing with her ring and Ron slipping his arm around her as though claiming his territory in a very non-confrontational way. What's not funny is Hermione dancing around the question she really wants to ask.

"Why don't you just come right out and ask if we're shagging yet?" Ron snorts and Hermione smirks at Harry.

"If you were doing that, you would've already told me," she says.

"Who's Harry shagging?" George leans over into the conversation, and Harry is very, very glad Molly and Arthur, along with Bill, Fleur, Percy, and Audrey, aren't in the room.

"No one yet," says Ron. "But if both of them have their way, then Malfoy, probably."

"Really, Harry? Him?" George cocks his head to the side and studies Harry. "You sure you're doing alright? Not having your mind messed with or something like that?"

Harry rolls his eyes. "I'm fine. I just, we've been doing this dancing thing a lot lately, and we went to a couple Quidditch matches, and he's not bad company."

"He's also rather good looking, isn't he?" Ginny drops into the conversation. "Kind of grew into the pointed features, lost any rodent-like qualities, and now he has a better body. I heard he works out in a Muggle gym."

"Lifting heavy things and running in place?" George mock shudders. "Don't know why you'd ever subject yourself to that, although if it works for him and it's caught Harry's attention..."

"This is your fault, you know," Harry says to Hermione. "Pairing us off like that, you had to have known, you had to have been trying something."

"I thought it wouldn't be so bad to make you a little bit happier," says Hermione with a shrug.

"It's not fair to put it like that."

"Why not?"

"Because what if it hadn't worked? What if it still doesn't?"

Ron leans across the table to grasp Harry's shoulder. "Harry. Mate. You're not going to know if it works or not till you say something."

"Why do I have to be the one to say something if we're both interested?" Harry grumbles.

"Somehow that's just how you have to be," says Ginny. "Dean wouldn't ask me out again on his own, so I did it, and now, well." She extends her hand so everyone can get a look at her engagement ring.

"No one said anything about actually commitment," Harry says. "The idea of saying, 'Hey, former enemy, I'd like to go beyond our extremely improbable friendship and snog you senseless right now' seems tough enough."

"That's not really what you say to start a relationship," says George, scratching his head. "At least, I don't think it is. Wouldn't know, really."

"I thought you and Angie were still together," Ginny says to George.

"We are. Sometimes. I didn't have to do anything to start that, though. She just tapped me on the shoulder at Fred's wake and kissed me."

Ron nearly spits out the sip of water he's just taken. "That's how that started?"

"How come no one else has it that easy?" Harry sighs.

"Hey, to be fair to me, we were at my best friend and brother's funeral," George points out. "Anyway, Harry, the worst he can do is slap you or something, and it's not as if he hasn't done worse to you before. I think you should say something."

"So do I," says Ginny.

Hermione looks at Ron and then Harry and says, "You already know how we feel about this one."

"Fine," says Harry. "I'll try to do something about it sometime. When's the next dance lesson we haven't already gone through?"

"A couple weeks from now, but the next gala is this coming Friday." Hermione's eyes light up. "Oh, Harry, what if you asked him to the gala?"

"That," Harry says, "sounds terrifying."

"No, I think she might be right," Ron says, sounding thoughtful. "It would make sense, with you knowing how to dance together and all."

"Plus," says George, "after asking Malfoy to go to what is, by all accounts, a dance with you, any question thereafter—want to shag, want to get married, want to adopt, all that—will be nothing in comparison."

"You're so funny," Harry mutters as Ron, Hermione, and Ginny burst into fits of laughter and the rest of the Weasley brood comes into the kitchen.

"Everyone else seems to think so," George says cheerfully. "But really, Harry, say something, would you? It'd be good to see you as happy as everyone else seems to be, and you're already on your way there."

"I'll try."

"You will," George says, his tone turning stern.

"Fine. I will," vows Harry. George grins, Harry smiles back, and the knot in Harry's stomach grows ever tighter.