The morning of the ball had quickly arrived after a pleasant week of Ron's kindness and gentleness towards Hermione. Not once had they bickered or quarreled of any sort and it was a good change for the both of them. Harry thought of it good as well. He had always hated seeing them angry at one another mostly because he knew they did it to cover up their true feelings. Harry also succeeded in asking Cho Chang to the ball. There were a few rumors circulating that Cedric Diggory was solemnly upset about that and was going to duel him. Well, no such thing happened. Although, Ron noticed that whenever Harry and Cedric passed in the hall, Cedric would throw angry glares.

Ron woke excitedly and quickly changed into his robes before waking Harry. As soon as he finished, he nudged Harry in his sleep.

"Ah, flemespen." Harry mumbled s he rolled over in his cot.

"Harry! Oi!" Ron shouted causing Harry to jump out of his sleep quickly and reach for his wand on his beside table. After Harry put on his glasses to correct his vision, he sighed, annoyed.

"You don't have to bloody scream in my ear!" Harry replied.

"Sorry, I'm just excited, is all."

"Yeah, me too, but I reckon with you bursting my eardrum and all, I won't be able to enjoy the ball."

"Just hurry up and change so we can get down to the Great Hall."

"Excited to see your little date, Ronnie?" Harry laughed and Ron smacked him on his arm.

After a few more smacks and snide comments, Harry finally decided to change and follow Ron down to breakfast. Once they got down, they found Hermione wasn't there. They took their seats, Ron saving one for Hermione, and after an hour of waiting, Hermione still hadn't come down.

"I wonder where she is," Ron said nervously.

"Er, does it matter? She didn't blow you off on a date. She just decided not to come to breakfast."

"What if she doesn't want to see me?"

"Doubt it. Calm down, we'll see her later on in the day."

Harry was dead wrong. They didn't see her later on in the day. In fact, Harry himself was becoming quite suspicious. Ron decided to take it upon himself to search most of the school for her. He checked the library, the common room, the library, the Great Hall, Hagrid's hut, and the library again with still no trace of her.

The ball was in thirty minutes so it was time to get ready. After coming from the library, Ron had just arrived in the Boys' Dormitory to find Harry in his undershirt and boxers. Ron pulled his trunk from under his bed and took out his dress suits his mum had sent for him weeks prior. He had felt bad for Neville however; whose grandmother had sent him frilly dress robes.

He put on his clothes and looked in the mirror. He looked pretty good. Ron looked beside him to see Harry spraying something on himself.

"What's that?" Ron asked pointing to the bottle in Harry's hand that read 'AXE'.

"Body spray. Want some?" Ron took the bottle and sprayed it on reluctantly.

"Oh, this is good." He said after sniffing himself.

"Ready for your dance?" he asked Harry.

"I think so," he replied nervously. Ron clapped him on the shoulder.

"Then, let's go."

They made it down ten minutes before it was to begin which was sufficient time to find your date, if you hadn't already come down with them though Ron had a bit of trouble with that. He had asked several fourth years if they'd seen her and they all replied negatively. One even said they hadn't seen her all day, which worried Ron particularly. He was so nervous that his palms were getting clammy and his heartbeat a little faster than usual. He saw Harry had found Cho and they were walking together, arm in arm. Cho had flattened her hair to complement her cheek bones and a single braid was kept together at the front with a bedazzled sapphire barrette. To match her clip was a sparkly blue dress that fit close around her waist and fell neatly down her thighs and legs, stopping right above her ankles. Ron had to admit, she looked very pretty.

"Hi, Cho. You look great. You haven't seen Hermione anywhere, have you?"

"Oh hello, Ron! You don't look too bad, yourself. No, I haven't seen her." Cho replied in her naturally sweet voice and began to look around.

"Still haven't found her have you, mate?" Harry asked and Ron shook his head. It was three minutes to eight and Ron was now convinced that she decided to stand him up. He was completely devastated. How could she have just not shown up? It didn't matter anyway.

"See you guys. I think I'm just gonna head back up." He said to Harry and Cho.

"Wait, Ron!" Cho called after him as he was heading in the opposite direction. He looked back at her and saw her head motioning to the staircase. He glanced over and saw the most beautiful girl walking slowly down the stairs, one by one, her red silk dress trailing behind. A smirk was painted on her face as she sauntered down. Almost everyone in the room was admiring her beauty usually hidden behind library books and parchment. Ron felt so content with admiration and happiness it was unimaginable. That was his date. Once she reached the final step, she began to make her way towards where Harry, Ron and Cho were standing open mouthed.

"Hi," she greeted and smiled proudly. Her no longer bushy but now curly brown hair, was bouncing happily as she giggled at the bulging eyes she earned from almost everyone in the room. Ron scanned her from top to bottom. Her dress accentuated the curves around her slim stomach and slightly loosened around her hips and stopped right above her ankles. Her feet were settled in stunning white heels that were not too tall or too short.

Ron reached out his arm for her to wrap hers around and she happily complied. At that very moment a bell had gone off and Ron thought I was in his head but it signaled the beginning of the ball. All other eyes that had been previously engaged in Hermione's gorgeousness were now on their dates.

"Attention, please." McGonagall announced, earning silence from the hall.

"To officially begin the ceremony, we ask the four champions of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and their escorts, to lead us in with a dance."

Harry, Cho, Krum, a sixth year named Alicia, Cedric, a fifth year named Chelsea, Fleur Delacour and a seventh year named Joseph all began their waltz. Harry was admittedly light on his feet as he led Cho. The others were dancing quite well also other than Cedric's date, Chelsea, who was terribly lost and clumsy. After about two minutes of watching them dance, a few teachers paired up and began dancing as well, signaling the 'okay' for everyone to do the same.

"Would you care to dance?"Ron asked and smiled.

"I'd be delighted." She replied and put her hand on his shoulder and arm around his waist. He led the dance and she followed.

"You're a good dancer." Hermione complimented after a few minutes of comfortable silence and gazing into each other's eyes warmly.

"You're not so bad yourself, Granger." Hermione laughed.

"You know, I almost had a freak-out today." Ron whispered

"Oh, really? Why?"

"I hadn't seen you all day. I thought you were avoiding me and when I was looking for you three minutes before the ball, you were nowhere to be found. I'd thought you just decided to not show up."

"Oh, I'm sorry; I was doing my hair." She giggled and her curls bounced as she flipped them.

"I see that, ha." He laughed and admired her curls. Then, his eyes met hers once again.

"You look beautiful." He said without a smile on his face indicating his truthfulness.

"Do you really think so?"

"Of course. You're the most beautiful girl in the room." Hermione rested her head on Ron's shoulder and smiled as they slowed their dance.

"Well, you look very handsome as well. " This was true. She had to admit, he cleaned up good.

"This whole week you've been so sweet to me. It's not like you. Should I be worried?" she joked.

"No, you should be happy. After all, that was my intention."

"Oh my, I really didn't know deep down you were this amazing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I always knew you were charming under your shell but you've surprised me." It surprised him too but he honestly didn't think he could care for a girl, or anyone, like he did for Hermione. They continued to sway to the music until Ron whispered in her ear.

"Do you want to go somewhere?"

"Where?" she replied eagerly.

"I dunno, let's take a walk." And with that, he took her hand and led her outside into the hallway. It was completely deserted and you could hear the clanking echo of Hermione's shoes as they walked. Ron walked with her, hand in hand, over to a ledge where you could overlook the lake. He sat down and she imitated him.

"Let's talk." He said.

"About what?"

"Us." He replied nervously and she gulped. This was it.

"Listen, Hermione I really like you." That was a lie. He loved her and he knew it.

"I really like you too, Ron." More lies. She loved him and she knew it.

"And honestly, I don't even know why, considering you never fail to irritate me," Hermione continued and Ron hung his head in shame.

"But this past week has proven to me how caring you really are." He raised his head again to look at her smiling.

"There's another 'but', though. If we-"she took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently.

"-get together, there's a complication. We are Harry's best friends. If we break up, how are we going to deal with that? How is he going to deal with that? It'll be awkward whenever we get involved in one of Harry's 'missions' that occur at least once each year. Missions that, believe me, I doubt will ever end. Honestly, I doubt we'll even get one quiet year at Hogwarts." They both laughed at how true this was.

"Hermione, if we pretend like this never happened, it'll be awkward knowing that we both have feelings for each other. I mean, I thought this would be nerve-wracking but it feels so perfect and so relaxed. I say we just try it to see if it works out and we just try to live in the moment. Let's face it; I'm surprised we didn't get eaten in first year by Fluffy. I'm actually really glad I plucked up to courage to ask you to the ball. Heck, if I didn't we'd probably get together during a war or something, ha!" They laughed again at the silly thought. Ron was determined on fighting for them and Hermione admired that. She smirked and said:

"Okay, let's give it a go." She said and bit her lip.

"Shake on it?" Ron asked and she held out her hand. He shook it once, pulled it towards him and leaned in for a kiss. She was caught completely off guard but kissed him back in response, passionately. They both felt the spark that they'd been hoping for. The spark that indicated to them that they'd get through it with flying colours.

And there you go. The END! If you noticed, I put my name as Cedric's fifth year date. Well, Cedric was extremely gorgeous and I didn't have a name for his date! I also mentioned Chelsea's clumsiness because that is totally something I would do, ha! Realize I modernized Cho and Hermione's dresses to give them that red carpet imagery, I liked that. Notice I again added "if I didn't we'd probably get together during war or something". I love the references. And the ironic "flying colours" at the end was pleasing… Anyways, if you liked the story you can always review or put me on author alert for my other stories. It was fun writing these chapters but I'm off to scribbling rubbish in my notebook again! Bye, guys!