A Very Harmony Christmas

No Longer A Dunderhead

Prompt: December 11th. Yule Ball.

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No Longer A Dunderhead

"I was a dunderhead," Harry announced.

"Ten points from Gryffindor!" Hermione replied in her best Snape voice that had the two of them quickly dissolving into laughter.

It was just the two of them left in the sitting room, all the Weasleys having left to go do something else after Celestina Warbeck's Christmas Special had finished on the radio. Harry and Hermione had decided to stay, curled up on the couch together, the radio playing softly in the background.

"So, pray tell, what brought on this burst of insightfulness?" Hermione asked once they'd calmed.

"We could have been doing this for a year or more, cuddling, kissing, being more than just best friends, if I hadn't been afraid," he replied.

"A year or more?" she questioned, turning so that she was facing him instead of having her back resting on his chest. "Exactly how long have you liked me like this?"

Harry paused, thinking back, trying to pinpoint when his feelings for Hermione had changed. In the end, he frustratingly shook his head. It had been such a gradual thing that it was almost impossible to say.

"I'm not sure," he replied.

Hermione, being Hermione, wasn't one to shirk away from a puzzle and her eyes took on an excited gleam.

"First year?" she asked.

"Friendship and bravery?" he asked, shaking his head. "No, not that far back."

"Second year?"

"When you were petrified and I spend hours every day by your bedside?" he asked, grimacing at the memory. "No, I don't think so."

"Third year?"

Slowly, Harry nodded, although it was very uncertain. "The hippogriff ride to save Sirius. Possibly that was when I started to realise, but I still didn't understand what it was that I was feeling."

"Fourth year?"

This time, Harry sighed. "Seeing you walk down the stairs the night of the Yule Ball. You were so beautiful. Not that you're not now, because you are, you are gorgeous, absolutely amazing but that night, the way you'd done your hair up, your fabulous periwinkle blue dress ... yes, I think that was the moment that I realised."

"Thank you, Harry," Hermione smiled and leant in to kiss him slowly and tenderly. "You looked so incredibly handsome that night, too."

"You're just saying that 'cause you're my girlfriend now," Harry teased.

She laughed and captured his lips with her own again. "Oh no! I've been found out!"

They lay like that for a while, wrapped in each other's arms, the music playing on the radio filling the room.

"Harry? Did you ever consider asking me to the Yule Ball?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, I did," he sighed. "But, like I said, I was a dunderhead, too afraid to ruin our friendship. Besides, Victor asked you."

"I would have turned him down if you'd asked me," she confessed.

He lifted his head to stare at her. "You would have?"

"In a heartbeat," she stated. "The only reason that I accepted his invitation was because I knew you, Harry. I knew that you weren't going to ask me. Perhaps if I'd dropped a dragon-sized hint that I already liked you that way, you might have done the right thing."

Harry groaned. "I wish ..."

Harry's mind whirled and he promised himself that the very next time there was a Ball or a dance or something, that he wouldn't hesitate, he'd ask her straight away. And then his ears caught up with his brain. They were listening to music right then!

"Hermione? Would you care to dance?" he asked.

She lifted her head and looked at him, her chocolate eyes connected with his emerald green and he knew that she was searching his, trying to determine why it was that he'd asked her.

"I'd really like to have a first dance with my girlfriend, even if it is a year later than it should have been," he said.

"I'd love to, Harry," she smiled.

Quickly, they untangled themselves and stood. The small table in the middle of the room was levitated out of the way and the positions of all of the other couches and chairs was checked. And then, just as a new song began playing on the radio, a slower song that sounded perfect to Harry, he extended his hand towards Hermione.

"May I have this dance?"

"I'd be delighted, good Sir," she replied, placing her hand in his.

He drew her in and allowed his other hand to land on her hip before sliding around to the small of her back. Her free hand came to rest on his shoulder, completing the pose. And then, slowly, they began to dance.

Harry knew that he wasn't a good dancer, especially after a whole year of not dancing and only having had a few lessons before that. Thus, he concentrated on his feet, being as careful as he could with their placement – he had no desire to crush Hermione's feet with his big hoofs.

"Up here, Harry," she said, touching his chin to raise his head from where he was trying to see his feet. "Don't worry about the steps, just move with me."

He nodded and looked into her eyes, being captivated by the sparkling joy that he found in them. Their dance became more of a sway with the occasional turn, their hips seeming to do most of the work. Instinctively, he released her hand and slid his around her back so that he was holding her properly. Both of her hands were now around his shoulders and neck.

"You're amazing," he whispered.

"You're not so bad yourself, for a dunderhead," she replied, causing them both to laugh.

They pivoted then, as the song changed to another, equally as slow tune.

Pulling her slightly tighter to himself, Harry leant forward and kissed her. Somewhere along the way, they stopped dancing, not that either seemed to realise or care, lost as they were in each other. Finally, after seconds or minutes or perhaps years, when it felt right, they broke the kiss and leant their foreheads against each other.

"Hermione?" Harry whispered, feeling his heart beat a tattoo so strong in his chest that he was sure that it was about to burst out.

"Yes, Harry?" she whispered back, her eyes never leaving his.

"I think ...," and then he took a breath, determined to no longer be a dunderhead and to tell her the scariest thing imaginable. "I think ... I think that I'm falling in love with you."

Her eyes beamed and glistened, even as a huge smile appeared on her face.

"I love you, too, Harry," she replied.

He stared at her in wonder, feeling his heart beating faster still and did the one thing that felt imminently right: he captured her lips with his own and kissed her deeply, putting everything of him and what he was feeling into that kiss. His heart melted to discover that her kiss was filled the exact same way.