A/N: Hello people and thank you so much for your support! A fun little Harry x Katie Yule date for us!
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Harry ran a hand through his hair, wet and heavy with exertion from Quidditch — and the snow they'd played through — as he walked back through the tunnel with his teammates. Ron had finally made it on the team with Oliver gone, and Angelina had taken up the mantle of Captain. Aside from that, Harry had been playing with the same people since he'd joined the team back in first year.
It was part of what made them so successful whenever they played, their team dominating all opponents handily… most of the time. But they didn't need to discuss those off days they'd occasionally have. What he did, however, need to discuss, was the upcoming Yule Ball. There was somebody he'd fancied for a couple of years now on the Quidditch team with him, but he was too nervous to ask her out.
If she refused, things would get weird on the pitch — he didn't want to ruin the chemistry of the team. Maybe he wasn't fearless either. He hadn't always been lucky throughout Hogwarts, but one thing Ron and Hermione would typically say was that he was brave. Ridiculously and recklessly brave, Hermione would point out.
All the same, that bravery did nothing for him when it came to Katie and the thought of asking her out. The two times he'd been just about ready to do so, he'd chickened out at the last minute, bringing up their shared interest in Quidditch and discussing how best to beat their next opponent. It let him stay near her, sure, but it made him almost paranoid that he'd get caught looking at her or one of the other witches might figure out he fancied her; Lavender was notorious for that, lucky for him she didn't fancy Quidditch, much less any workout, really.
Harry finished the shower he'd gone for after practice and, now dressed, left the locker room after a quick goodbye to the Twins and Ron. He reckoned he'd go and find Hermione in the library and spend a bit of time studying with her now that Quidditch was good and done. There was a spell he wan—
"Harry!"
At the call of his name, he turned and looked back whence he'd come. Katie, Angelina and Alicia were walking towards him from the girls' locker room.
"Yeah?" he called back to them. He waited where he was standing too, on account of them already moving towards him.
When they were closer, enough so that they didn't need to yell any longer, Angelina spoke whilst nudging Katie forward. "Katie has something she'd like to talk to you about. Do your Captain a favour and listen to her while Alicia and I go back to the Tower, will you?"
"But I wa—" Alicia started with a pout, only for Angelina to turn towards her. The silence that came was rather immediate.
Harry, hiding a quick chuckle under the mask of a cough, nodded. "Sure," he said, nodding.
"Thanks, you're a dear!" Angelina messed up his hair — something that didn't need doing as far as he was concerned — and brushed past him. She had a rather large smile on her face, and as he turned to look at her and Alicia as they moved past him, he swore he saw her shoot Katie a thumbs up.
But maybe not. Maybe it was simply the way her hand had been when she'd been moving past him.
Harry turned back to look at Katie, suddenly far more nervous now that it was just the pair of them together in some dark hall. He hoped she couldn't hear his heart beating, fast as it was.
"Walk with me," Katie said suddenly, nodding down the hall her friends had rushed off through earlier.
He fell in-step beside her, waiting for whatever it was that Katie wanted to say to him. With the flickering of torchlight the only illumination, Katie was glowing, her blonde hair almost fire itself, such was the illusion it gave. He looked away suddenly, right when she turned to look at him with her mouth open, ready to speak.
Harry got far too easily enthralled by her. He reckoned it probably felt weird, as well, being stared at that was. Hermione certainly hated it when Cormac had been taking a gander at her for minutes unending. Until Ron had gotten him and started to go toward the other bloke, at which point he'd turned away and Hermione had stopped taking notice of him as she attempted to pull Ron back to his chair.
He did have to wonder when those two would finally get together. Even somebody as blind as him could take no—
"Are you distracted by something?"
Katie's voice cut through his thoughts in an instant.
"No," he said, shaking his head and looking her in the eye even if he wanted to look anywhere but. "I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"Ron and Hermione."
Katie nodded then, a grin forming. "Wondering when they're finally going to get together, are you?"
Harry was just about ready to speak his agreement when Katie spoke again, before he could do so.
"Bit hypocritical, wouldn't you say?"
He blinked at her, wondering if he'd heard her correctly. Harry blinked some more, but Katie was still looking straight ahead, down the hall with that same grin still on her face. It seemed like she was teasing him… but not in the way that she usually did.
"What?" That was all the response he got out.
Katie paused and pulled him into an alcove. It was one of many abandoned classrooms, and a place nobody would see them… not that many people would be down in this area of the castle. Not at the time of day they were.
"I like you. Angelina and Alicia keep telling me that you like me too," she shifted, turning to look at him intently. "Is that true? Do you like me?" Katie's eyes bore into his when she finished speaking. There was still that playfulness that was so typical of her too, otherwise, it wouldn't be Katie.
Harry opened his mouth, and then he promptly closed it. How did he answer this? Would a simple 'yes' work to say that he liked her, or should he go into some long-winded speech… that was what he usually overheard Lavender and her circle speak about.
"Yes?" His answer sounded like a question even to him, and so when Katie raised a brow, stopped walking and turned to look at him with her arms folded, he spoke again. "Yes." That time, it sounded more decisive.
"Yule?"
"Yule?" he parroted back at her.
Katie promptly smiled and dipped her head. "You're asking me to Yule? How lovely," she took his arm and started them off again, down the hall they'd been headed. "What do you suppose we should dress like? Muggleborn or classic? I quite fancy Muggleborn dresses, you know. They're beautiful in a simplistic sort of way."
As Katie continued to walk, moving the pair of them along, Harry was struggling to understand what's just happened. He hadn't asked her to Yule, he'd repeated what she'd said… but she'd taken it that way, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Then there was all that stuff about dresses and styles and the like. He hadn't a clue what any of that meant.
She prodded him. "Come on, Harry, you're never this quiet on the pitch. Don't tell me I make you more nervous than the entire Slytherin team. That just might hurt a witch's feelings, you know."
"Yule," he repeated, still on the topic of the celebration. "You'll go to the Yule Ball with me?"
"You've already asked me, silly," Katie pulled him in closer, her hand messing his hair further. "Muggleborn, I think. Colours? Gryffindor?"
He snorted. "It'd be like our uniform."
"Just like our uniform," Katie agreed. "It's only natural that we're going together too — the rest of the castle's used to watching a couple of Gryffindors front and centre, aren't they?"
"I guess they are."
Katie smiled, wide and toothy when he seemed to agree. It made him do much the same, her happiness infectious as they practically skipped through the halls of Hogwarts. He'd somehow got tricked into taking her to the Yule Ball, and he couldn't be happier… he also made sure to remember Katie could be surprisingly cunning.
That was almost immediately forgotten when she switched back to the topic of dresses and style and colours thereof.
Harry swallowed, a hand going up to pull at his neckline. He felt like he was suffocating, waiting for Katie as he was. Merlin, Harry was still reeling from how he'd 'invited' her to the Yule Ball some time earlier — he didn't forget that Angelina and Alicia knew either. He was almost tempted to ask them about Katie, but when he realised they'd not tell him anything, he'd just continued on.
From that invitation on, really, everything had gone by in a blur. A blur saw him to where he was standing now, in a hall waiting for Katie dressed in a Muggleborn-style suit with a Gryffindor tie. He felt rather posh, and his hair, hard as it was to believe, wasn't messy. It was nice and combed, and he'd even had it trimmed only the other day at Hogsmeade.
"Morgana, you certainly look cute, don't you?"
He nearly jumped when Katie's voice spoke up from behind him. Harry hadn't heard her, and he certainly hadn't seen her whilst he'd been pacing nervously back and forth. He'd gotten over much of the anxiety on account of them already going to the ball together… but that was all. It'd only be the ball. She hadn't said anything about dating.
That wasn't to start on the whole thought of dancing in front of the entire school with her. Though, he did like the idea of all the other blokes seeing him with her. Hopefully, that'd go and run them off if any had the idea of asking her out.
"Merlin."
That was the one word he uttered when he'd finally gone and turned around so as to look at Katie.
"I hope that's a good utterance like mine," Katie said as she stood before him, hands on her hips as she looked him up and down. As before, the smile on her face proved infectious, and before long the two were looking at one another, cackling. It was probably weird to any on-lookers, and McGonagall, when she emerged, definitely looked at the pair as if they'd done something wrong.
It was fair, he supposed. Laughing Gryffindors in the midst of Hogwarts would usually spell trouble, often literally.
"You're beautiful."
He blinked when he realised he'd actually gone and said that. Katie, for her part, had stopped laughing, her smile slipping as she looked at him. Harry was worried he'd been stupid, at least until she smiled again, this time, more bashful, shy, even.
"I'm glad you think so," she jabbed him accusingly in the chest then, her eyes narrowed. "And finally! Alicia and Angelina said you've been looking at me since last year. What kept you waiting?"
"You're proper intimidating."
Katie huffed. "That's not nice to say to the witch you're dating."
"Dating?" he echoed, creasing his brow as he looked at her. His eyes went wide when he realised what she was doing, and he was just about to say something again when she responded with mirth-filled eyes.
"Are you asking me out before we've even had our first dance?" Katie put her free hand to her chest as she looked at him. She looked like she was only just containing a fit of giggles when she continued. "Well then, if you're being so forward, I suppose I'll be as well — I'll be your girlfriend."
Harry blinked, opened his mouth, but then he shut it.
First the Yule Ball, now they were dating. He'd be barmy if he questioned so much as a thing.