Harmione One Shots

Dancing Through The Years

Summary: He puts out his hand, offers it to her, and she accepts it, because that was what she did, she just trusted him completely, and when asked, she would always dance with him...

Ship: HarryPotterxHermioneGranger

All credit goes to Ickleronnikens on Ao3

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The Yule Ball, Hogwarts, December 25th, 1994

There was only one Tri-Wizard Champion that was not enjoying himself at the traditional Christmas dance, and Harry Potter had a very good reason. His partner for the evening, Parvati Patil, although she was a lovely girl and very nice to him, she had not been his ideal choice for the occasion. He felt bad about her having to get stuck with him, but after the dance of the four champions had finished, and they'd sat down to have dinner, and he'd refused to dance again, she'd had enough, and wandered off. Harry could plainly see her dancing with one of the boys from Durmstrang, and she seemed quite happy, so he felt less bad for her, and aimed his self-loathing back onto himself.

He sat alone at one of the tables at the back of the Great Hall (everything had been pushed back and out of the way so that there was plenty of room on the dance floor) and he was watching the sea of colours moving this way and that to the music. His best friend Ron Weasley had long since soured, and after Harry had shot down his suggestion that they go for a walk for some fresh air, he had left on his own, mumbling about how stupid the whole concept was. He had been even worse with his date, Padma Patil, who had spent ages badgering him to dance with her, only to give up and go join her sister with the Durmstrang's.

Harry, however, was not watching the Padma sisters, he only had eyes on one girl, who was not just dancing with a Durmstrang student, but in fact their champion, and she was very flushed in the face, and appeared to be having an enjoyable night. He didn't know why that bothered him, why it upset him, why it pinged his heart that she was dancing with someone else, other than him. For a while he just sat there, slightly bitter about what was happening in front of him, and also angry at himself that he had allowed this to happen, that he had neglected to ask her to this dance when he had had so many chances.

Then, the music stopped, all the dance partners wedged apart, applauded, and then the Weird Sister's lead singer announced there would be a short interlude before the next number. Harry sat up a little in his chair as the girl he had been watching parted ways with her Durmstrung champion (he went to get them some drinks) and she wandered aimlessly in his direction, slightly wobbly on the high-heeled shoes that she was still breaking in, and because she had already had quite a few too many Butterbeers over the course of the evening as well.

Hermione Granger spotted her best friend, beamed at him, and wandered over.

"Hello Harry!" she said, still slightly flushed in the face as she slumped down into the chair next to his, and leaned back with a sigh. "This is a such lovely evening, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Harry said, but it was a lie, he didn't want to tell her he was having a miserable time and that his own date had long since abandoned him.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione asked curiously, her neck craning to look at the empty seat beside Harry, she had become so accustomed to the redhead always being there, that it caught her off-guard, and she began to look around at the nearby tables, wondering if he was hiding from her on purpose.

"I think he went for a walk," Harry said with a shrug.

"Oh, okay," Hermione said, she slumped back in her chair, but she never stopped looking around, searching, "Viktor's just gone to get some drinks."