Him - A Harry Potter Love Story

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The next weekend, Hermione and I went out on our own to Hogsmeade. Slughorn had invited us to his Christmas party, along with Harry. I, of course, haven't been able to go shopping in a long time, so Hermione offered to help me find a nice dress.

"What about this one?" I asked, touching the fabric on a pale blue dress. It wasn't very fancy, just the plain color with short sleeves and a skirt that flared out slightly at the waist. It was about knee-length.

"How about something other than blue?" she suggested, smiling a little. "It looks great on you, but blue is basically all you wear."

I blushed slightly. "It's my favorite color."

"What about pink?"

"I've never really liked the color pink for dresses," I said, shrugging. A dark burgundy-colored dress caught my eye all of a sudden. It had a sort of see-through material on the full length sleeves, along with part of the front and back. It changed to a thicker, softer material at the chest, flaring out at the waist just as the other had. It also was around the same length.

"Oh, Cassie, that one's beautiful!" Hermione gasped when she saw me looking at it.

"I love it," I said with a laugh, picking up the hanger. "I'll try it on."

A minute later, I came out of the dressing room, smiling. It felt like in fourth year when I was coming out of the bathroom with the dress for the Yule Ball on. Hermione was grinning from ear to ear, nodding frantically.

"That's perfect! Oh, Harry will love it!" she laughed.

I bought the dress, and we went back to the castle. Seeing Harry and Ron talking in the common room, I ran upstairs to put the bag with the dress away quickly so he wouldn't see.

"Did you have fun?" Harry asked when I came back down.

"Yep. I got a new dress," I said, curling up next to him. He wrapped an arm around me, kissing the top of my head.

"For the Christmas party?"

"Yep," I responded with a smile.

"Can I see it?"

"Nope."

"That's what I thought," he sighed, laughing a little. "Well, I can't wait to see it. I bet you'll look beautiful."

I blushed, turning away slightly so he wouldn't see. How could he still have that effect on me? It's been almost two years, and he can still make me so flustered I can barely speak.

"Who do you think Hermione's going to take? When I asked her, she said she had someone who would make Ron upset," Harry mentioned.

"Huh...I don't know," I said, looking back into Harry's eyes. "I haven't even asked her. Speaking of Hermione and Ron, where did they go?"

He rolled his eyes a little, grinning. "I think they've gotten into a habit of leaving when we're both here."

I laughed. "They did that basically all of fourth year. It's funny how they could tell that we liked each other when we couldn't, isn't it?"

"Even when they spent all their time trying to convince us we did," he chuckled, rubbing my arm a little.

"I wish we hadn't missed all that time last year," I sighed, moving so I was even closer to him. He shifted slightly so I could lay my head on his shoulder.

"Me too."

••••••••••

"Cassie, come on! Harry's waiting!" Hermione called from the other side of the bathroom door.