Where I Found You

Hermione lifted her hand that he just held to touch her cheek; her whole body felt like it was burning. Was it normal to feel this hot and overwhelmed? She must've been blushed; she didn't want to be seen by anyone before composing herself. The Ravenclaw guy, on the other hand, was still staring at her; not as blatantly as he had been a few minutes before, but clearly, she was appealing to watch at the moment. When she turned to look at him, he, along with three or four other people, jerked their heads back. That was, after all, why he had been staring at her from the start. Considering Viktor's image, it wasn't hard to understand the reasoning behind the terrified look on his face. She chuckled at that thought and walked towards Madam Pince.

"Did you come across anything interesting?" she gave her a wink.

Hermione couldn't understand why she do such a thing all of a sudden. She assumed her wink was driven by the possibility of her hearing their conversation. Then, she remembered how Ms. Pince looked at the shelves— could he have been already there when Hermione came, waiting for her?

She tossed that thought away, not because it was silly, but because it would be too much for her to process at the moment if it was true.

"I...did in fact, yes." Hermione looked down at her feet. Feeling as if her mum caught her flirting with a guy.

"That's really good news. It was about time if you ask me," she chuckled in a very low tone.

"What was?"

"Oh, you don't– well, it's not my place to tell you, is it?" she smiled at her, raising her prominent eyebrows.

"Okay," Hermione's forehead was wrinkled, she didn't know what was she talking about, but decided not to dwell on it for now. "I need to meet with my friends. Have a nice day Ms. Pince."

"You too, Ms. Granger."

Hermione headed to the Gryffindor Tower hoping not to encounter anyone. The Fat Lady was having a drink when she noticed Hermione. She took a deep breath and approached her.

"What happened to your face?" she narrowed her eyes.

"Nothing. Fortuna Major," she nervously pulled the arms of her sweater.

"Hmm," the lady seemed to be thinking, then gasped dramatically.  "Were you snogging someone, Ms. Granger?" Other images began to listen in and scrutinize her face, whispering to each other. "Hey Albert, did you hear that–"

"No! Just let me in, Fortuna Major!" she raised her voice a little, and all the portraits collectively tsked at her.

The Fat Lady started mumbling as she opened the door. Hermione didn't want to hear a single word she said and walked quickly to the common room. Not many people were there, which was good; she could just sneak into her dorm before anyone asked about her face again. She went straight to the bathroom to look at her face. It wasn't as bad as she expected, her cheeks were a bit pinker, that's all. She thought about their conversation as she examined herself in the mirror. She was taken aback and only said a few words to him after he invited her to the ball; she would have to do better next time. She went downstairs to sit by the fireplace after splashing a handful of water on her face.

Ron was playing chess with Dean, or winning, as usual. She smirked as she approached them.

"Next time, mate," he laughed as Dean walked away with a frown on his face.

"You're really good at this," said Hermione.

Ron's face was noticeably surprised, but he quickly recovered and chuckled. "You should know better Hermione, remember first year?"

"How can I forget, that was amazing!" Ron grinned widely. She should compliment him more, he was always telling her how amazing she was, but come to think of it, this may have been the first time she called him that.

"I can teach you if you want," he suggested.

"Well, that's so nice of you, but I'm a bit overwhelmed...with classes,"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Maybe later?" he was lost in thought for a second. "It would be amazing to beat you, no offense."

"None taken at all, I trust myself," she said, the corner of her mouth quirking. "Where's Harry?"

"He went to the Owlery to send a letter to Padfoot," Sirius was wanted all around the country, and they decided not to use his name in public.

They sat together for a little longer but Hermione's mind went back to the library. She was unsure about telling him about Viktor. She wanted to tell everyone she knew about Viktor Krum's invitation to the ball, but she wasn't sure they would believe her.

•
•
•

Ever since Hermione told Ron that she was going to the ball with a date, he had been bugging her about it. He would try to find a way to get the name from her in every chance he got. Hermione knew what he was doing and never said anything revealing; he still had no idea who she was going with. The fact that he pressed her so much on this irritated her. If he was so interested, he could've asked her from the beginning which she would have gladly said yes, but he didn't and it was her choice to tell him about her date or not. She wasn't going to give the name, obviously, but it slightly satisfied her to see him like that.

"I know I shouldn't have said that but it's okay if you don't have a date, you know,"

Hermione rolled her eyes, sipping pumpkin juice from her cup. "Don't worry about me, Ronald, I'm not the one going alone here," Her commentary turned him red almost immediately and she turned to Harry. "Speaking of going alone, have you asked Cho yet?" Hermione's sudden change of attention seemed to catch Harry off guard.

"Yeah, I, uh, saw her yesterday at the Owlery," he didn't look happy at all.

"Did she say no?"

Harry lifted his head. "No. She said she was going with someone else,"

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, no problem," he played with the beans on his plate.

"You two better hurry, the ball is in a few days. Especially you Harry, you can't go alone as a champion."

A line appeared between Harry's eyebrows. "If you have someone in mind, please say so,"

"Actually, I do," Hermione had the usual know-it-all look on her face.

Harry was looking at her face with eager anticipation. "Go on, then,"

"Parvati Patil and her sister Padma," she looked between him and Ron. "You two can ask them. They are both very thrilled."

"No way I'm going with either of them!" Ron objected as he took a look at the twins.

"Then you can watch the party sitting all by yourself!" Hermione shot back. "I'm trying to help you two here. You wouldn't have had to worry about a date if you had the guts to ask anyone, simply anybody."

Ron's eyes started shining after hearing her comment. "You know what? You're right!"

Hermione glanced at Harry, who appeared to be just as perplexed as she was. Did Ron have someone in mind already? She returned her gaze to Harry. "Will you ask them?"

"I can't ask them both, but yes. Although I don't know much about her sister, Parvati is a charming girl, that's not the primary factor of course," he observed Hermione's face to make sure he didn't say anything bad.

"She brings her sister to our common room with a different excuse every single day. I think they want to go with you two."

Harry pondered on what she said. "I didn't notice."

Hermione chuckled. "I know, you never do,"

"What's that supposed to mean?" he sounded offended, but it was the truth.

Hermione saw Ginny raising the cup to her lips and lowering it without drinking, her eyes narrowing as if she could watch the particles in the air, and murmured, "There are so many girls fancying you, Harry." She looked at Ginny once again and added, "all you have to do is to be more aware of what is going on around you."

Ginny shifted her gaze to Hermione and smiled briefly. Hermione kept encouraging Harry while giving Ginny a little nod. Hermione was aware that she still had feelings for Harry, but she chose not to pursue the matter in order not to put pressure on Ginny. Harry, on the other hand, saw her as a younger sister and showed no interest in her. Maybe one day he would recognise how amazing she was, just as Viktor recognised Hermione.