Chapter 2

Third Floor Corridor

It's been three weeks after the Quidditch win, and three weeks since Hermione and Ron had started dating. They were quite possibly the longest three weeks of Harry's life.

He was still trying to sift through his own feelings and had taken it upon himself to get some space between him and the new couple. Luckily, it seemed that the pair was also having the same idea whether they intended it that way or not.

Since that kiss in the common room, Hermione and Ron had been near inseparable. They appeared always be within arm's reach of each other for the first week, and only gained a little extra distance between them during the subsequent weeks. They would sit next to each other, whispering, during all the classes that they had together, forcing him to regularly sit with Neville, which was previously a usual occurrence instead of the constant state that they're seating arrangement currently was.

About the only time that Harry regularly interacted with the happy couple was during meals, except they would usually talk amongst themselves and Harry would usually talk Quidditch with either Ginny or Neville. Quidditch practice had taken over much of the time he would normally spend in the common room due to the feeling that he would rather be there than have to watch his two friends. Even though Ron was on the team and Hermione would sit in the stands and work on her assignments during practice, Harry found it easy to focus on other things and his attention would only drift to the two of them for brief periods of time.

He also had needed to find a new place to study and the library had surprisingly become an unexpected safe haven. Even with Hermione as his girlfriend, Ron's abysmal study habits remained, which caused Hermione to only spend passing time in the library, opting to study in the common room so she could also help Ron with his work.

Harry was slowly growing accustomed to the new norm that had settled in his personal life. It wasn't that he wanted to distance himself from his friends, it was the fact that every time he saw them together, it caused pain to blossom in his chest. Deep down, he knew why this was the case. Deep down, he knew that he had developed feelings for Hermione and even though he repeatedly tried to convince himself that it wasn't true, the reality was that his dreams every night consisted of visions of him and Hermione together, only for her to be snatched away by Ron.

Harry's wandering was interrupted when he noticed a certain trio of Slytherins coming down the staircase and heading towards the dungeon. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle looked straight at him, leveled a sneer in his direction before continuing down towards the dungeons with renewed urgency.

"Bloody hell," he cursed to himself, his wandering mind had cost him the perfect opportunity to fall the Malfoy and figure out what he was planning. Ever since following him in Diagon Alley and the altercation on the train, Harry wanted nothing more than to prove that the blonde git was up to something.

The fact that the three were coming down to the third floor sent up red flags because it was Saturday, meaning there were no classes and by extension, they had no reason to be up that way. Though these actions were suspicious, he had nowhere near enough proof to prove that Malfoy was up to anything nefarious, let alone a Death Eater.

Since the start of term, he taken to watching Malfoy like a hawk and using the map to track his movements when he noticed quite a few unusual details. Firstly, he noticed that, when not in class, Malfoy could be seen doing one of two things, either pacing in the Slytherin common room or he would disappear from the map entirely. When he would go to Hermione or anyone else with this information, they would dismiss it almost immediately, mostly stating that in his haste to find him, Harry simply missed him on the map.

The other surprising turn of events was that Malfoy had relinquished his place as Seeker on the Slytherin Quidditch team. Given the Malfoy Scion's superiority complex, Harry would've thought it'd be a cold day in hell before Malfoy would ever believe that anyone else was as good of a Seeker as he thought he was, let alone give up his spot on the team to said person. Even though most people he brought this too thought it was unusual, it was still brushed off.

His thoughts drifted back to the day of the first Quidditch match and how that went from one of the happiest days he'd had since last year to being one that he would rather forget. He had use extra effort to stop that train of thought, as it usually led to Ron and Hermione, and then just to Hermione, and he still wasn't particularly prepared to sort out his jumble mess of feelings quite yet.

"Harry m'boy!"

Harry groaned internally. The last thing he needed was to be around Slughorn right now. It seemed that the Professor would always show up at the most inopportune times and try to convince him to go to one of his parties, all of which he had been able to avoid up until this point. A quick glance behind Slughorn confirmed Harry's suspicions, Malfoy and his cronies were long gone.

"Good afternoon Professor," laying it on thick with the fakest smile he could muster. Dumbledore wanted him to get close to the Potions master and even though he hated the assignment, Harry carried it out.

"You're just the person I was looking for. I'm having a little get-together right before the end of term and was hoping you would attend." Harry opened his mouth to give an excuse to get out of it but was cut off. "Now I won't be taking no for an answer. You haven't attended any of my get-togethers so far this year, so I've made sure that this one wouldn't conflict with your schedule."

Harry realized that there would be no getting out of this and so resigned himself to his fate. "I'll be there sir."

A triumphant grin spread across Slughorn's face, "Splendid m'boy. Now, don't forget to dress nicely and bring a date. Miss Granger is already invited so you too could go together to save the hassle."

Harry cringed internally at his words. "Actually sir, her and my friend Ron are dating so I'll have to go with someone else." Even though he tried his hardest not too, he couldn't suppress the idea that it would be nice to go with Hermione, but that wasn't likely to happen anymore.

"Oh. No matter then, I'm sure you can find yourself a suitable date in a week's time. Have a good rest of your afternoon!"

Harry watched the professor's retreating form as he felt resentment settle down into his bones. He hated doing anything that put him any more in the spotlight than he already was and the fact that he had potentially attend it with someone who would just fawn over him constantly.

Thoughts like these plagued his mind as he made his way down to the Great Hall for dinner. He was making his way on auto-pilot, until he quite literally bumped into someone.

"Luna! I must not have been paying attention to where I was. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Harry Potter. I was just making my way down to dinner as well. I guess the Nargles wanted us to run into each other." Harry chuckled lightly at his friend's antics. Even though he didn't even remotely understand half of what she was usually on about, he felt more of a connection with her than he did any of his other friends, with the exception of Ron and Hermione of course.

That thought gave Harry pause.

"Hey, Luna?"

"Yes Harry?"

"Would you want to go to one of Professor Slughorn's parties with me before winter holiday?"

Luna's expression went from shocked, to puzzled, to finally setting on a small smile, that lit up her face despite its size.

"Yes, I would like to go with you." Before anymore could be said, Luna returned to skipping her way towards dinner, leaving Harry behind with a relieved smile on his face.

Slughorn's Party

Hermione was enjoying the party immensely. The opportunity to meet so many successful members of Wizarding society was the chance of a lifetime for a witch as ambitious as her to make connections. From members of the Weird Sisters, to famous potion makers, to even a supposed vampire who was in attendance; the possibilities of the lasting relationships were endless.

The only slight downsides to the whole occasion was the absences of Ron and Harry. Where Harry had yet to arrive to the party, and she was sure that he would be there after hearing from Ginny that he was practically cornered and forced to attend by Slughorn, Ron on the other-hand was socially absent.

While he had reluctantly agreed to go to the party with her, he had absolutely no desire to mingle with any of the guests there. He started off going around with Hermione and exchanging pleasantries with whoever they came across, but after much grumbling, he eventually made his way over to Neville who was serving drinks, and would occasionally return for a few minutes before venturing off again.

Hermione had been annoyed at first at his lack of enthusiasm and would occasionally glance around the room for him with a stern expression, but her features would soften whenever he would notice she was looking for him and smile her way. It was still early in her relationship and there was plenty of time for him to change.

She still couldn't help but smile when she thought about her relationship with Ron. In the three weeks since they started dating, there had very few fights between them and Ron seemed to be trying for her which touched her greatly.

"Harry m'boy! Glad you finally made it!"

Hermione glanced towards the door to see Harry get immediately swept up by Slughorn followed closely behind by…Luna? She was briefly puzzled by the younger Ravenclaw's appearance but quickly realized that she must've been Harry's date. She suddenly felt a little bad that Harry had had to fend for himself to find a date sometime during the last three weeks. Not that Luna wasn't good enough per say, it was just that she didn't agree with the eccentric girl all the time and she thought that Harry could've gotten someone a bit more…normal?

She immediately shot that thought down. Luna was one of Harry's friends and stood with them during the fight in the Ministry. She was a step above many of the other potential dates that Harry could've gotten.

As soon as Harry could break away from Slughorn and saw her, him and his dare made their way over as Hermione beckoned Ron over as well.

"About time you showed up mate. We thought the party would be finished before you'd get here."

"It was my fault actually," Luna piped up, "I couldn't decide what charms I wanted to wear, so I eventually went with some common jewelry." Hermione had to admit that Luna did look good without he radish earring or bottlecap necklace. She also couldn't help but notice that Harry had one of his arms wrapped around Luna's waste. The quartet chatted amongst themselves for a few minutes, until Harry started to look uncomfortable and was focused on something behind her.

"Well, I guess we'll see you guys while we're here. Slughorn's already motioning me over to meet some friend of his, so I'm sure Luna and I will be busy for most of the evening."

As Harry and Luna walked way, Hermione looked over towards the Potions Master and saw that he was in deep conversation with another wizard, not once sparing a glance in their direction. Once the pair left, Ron decided to stay with her as she planned to continue perusing the rest of the party.

The party continued like that for the better part of an hour. Ron stayed with Hermione the whole time surprisingly and they were only able to meet up with Harry and Luna on a few rare opportunities. At one point Hermione lost track of Harry, finding Luna talking with Neville all by herself, but simply dismissed it as him being whisked away to meet some other friend of their Professor's.

Her thought drifted back to Luna again and her position as Harry's date for the night. She couldn't quite place what she was feeling. What was it? Sadness? Guilt? Jealousy? She didn't quite believe that any of these were the case, deciding to instead enjoy the little bit of the party that remained instead.

Harry walked Luna back to Ravenclaw Tower as his mind replayed the events of the night.

First and foremost, he thought about how Malfoy was caught trying to get into the party. After he was ousted, Harry excused himself for a moment and followed him and Snape out to an abandoned corridor where he overheard a conversation about plans, tasks, and Unbreakable Vows, whatever they were. He made a mental note to ask Ron sometime over the winter holiday at The Burrow.

His thoughts then landed on the party itself, specifically his interactions with Hermione. When he had first spotted her, he had been overjoyed to see her, but his joy was soon squashed when he realized that Ron would be joining them and he would be forced to watch more of them interacting as a couple.

H remembered almost unconsciously wrapping an arm around Luna's waste once he came to this realization, his true purpose of this action he couldn't quite identify. If Luna had noticed or was affronted by this move, she either didn't notice or didn't care.

As their conversation continued, Harry desperately wished to try and distance himself from them to once again save himself the heartache, he didn't even have the energy to try and deny that that was indeed what he feeling at point, and made up an excuse to leave. Most of the party continued in the same vain, he would avoid Ron and Hermione until it was impossible to do so, and would then find a reason for him and Luna to continue their way.

Looking over at the girl in question, Harry began to feel ashamed of himself. His mind was so occupied with either thoughts of Hermione or Malfoy for most of the night and he was beginning to feel that he had neglected his date. He opened his mouth to apologize once they were outside the entrance to her common room, but she spoke before he could.

"I had a wonderful time tonight Harry." Her smile was an infectious one, causing Harry to briefly forget his guilt and return it, but the feeling returned just as quickly.

"That's great. Sorry for being a rubbish date Luna," his hand immediately went to rub the back of his neck as he looked awkwardly at the floor.

"Oh, you weren't rubbish Harry." He looked back up at her face and saw no deception in her eyes. "You were just a little distracted. It happens to the best of us. I did have a good time tonight Harry."

Then, before Harry could realize what was happening, Luna leaned in and quickly place a quick kiss onto his cheek.

"Goodnight Harry Potter." She then turned and opened the door to her common room. Harry, having been caught completely off-guard, was only just able to respond with a quick, "Goodnight," before the door was shut, unsure if Luna had heard him or not.

He still stood there for a few moments, baffled by what had just happened. He curiously raised a hand to the spot where she kissed, before smiling lightly and turning to head back to his own dormitory.

AN: There's chapter 2 for ya. I've updated the character part of this story to include Luna because as I was writing this chapter, ideas of how I could use her started to come to mind. Don't worry though, this is still a H/Hr story, it needs to go a few different places before we reach that destination.

After looking at the 3 stories I uploaded, this one was undoubtedly the most popular, so I'm going to try and update it once a month for the time being.

As always, thanks for reading.