A Kiss Goodnight

            Tonight had to be one of the most looked-forward to nights in my fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This year was full of excitement, starting with the school hosting the Triwizard Tournament. With the tournament came three tasks to watch, and of course, the Yule Ball to attend if you were a fourth year or older. Lucky me I just made the cut.

            I was one of the last girls in the Gryffindor common room checking myself over. Mostly everybody had headed down, except for Hermione Granger. She was still up in the girls' dormitory. She was just finishing up. I had looked her over before leaving the dormitory earlier. Hermione was so beautiful that she never realized it. Of course, naturally as one of her closest friends, I would shower her with compliments.

That's what friends did for each other.

            I looked out the window of the common room. The night sky looked radiant as always. I tried to look at my reflection in the mirror. The easiest thing to notice was my curly, flaming red hair framing my face, the lightly applied white eye shadow bringing out my bright blue eyes. I looked myself over once. My dress had thick straps; it was a bright white that hovered just above my knees. Where it puffed out from below my waist, it was covered in swan feathers. I couldn't believe Mum had made this herself. Even my sister's dress looked nothing like this; hers looked like something that a little girl would wear.

            "Angie, are you ready?" Hermione called. I heard her heels clack down the stairs. I turned to shake my head in awe at my friend.

Nobody had really seen Hermione dressed up so nicely before. She wasn't in Hogwarts robes nor was her hair bushy like it always was. She had a bit of makeup on, another nice change for her. It was a good change for her, it made her look so different—not to mention mature as well.

            "Mhm," I confirmed. Together, we both sauntered out of the Gryffindor common side by side. "You never did tell who your date was, you know."

            "I know. I want to keep it a surprise."

            "So when we get to the Great Hall, you're going to shoo me away so I can't see him." I sighed. "You can't keep him a secret forever, you know. I'll see him sometime."

            As we made our way to the Great Hall for the ball, my mind kept popping people next to Hermione, to find out who was her date to the ball. It certainly wasn't my brother, not after he thought that she was going alone. Those two were always at each other's throats that it amazed me neither was dead yet.

            It wasn't one of my older brothers; both had dates to the ball. It wasn't Neville Longbottom either, because he was taking my younger sister to the ball. It certainly wasn't Draco Malfoy, because he was a downright snob and despised Muggle-borns (that's what Hermione is, though Draco calls her a much fouler name every chance he can get).

Ugh, Hermione was making me paranoid. Who had asked her to the ball? You'll find out in time, be patient, I scolded myself. Besides, you need to make sure you find your date.

            Like I had predicted, Hermione let me go on ahead of her to the Great Hall. I rolled my eyes as I left her.

It was semi-crowded outside the Great Hall's doors. Students from all three schools (Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons) were all mingling, all looking at their best. Naturally, I was jealous of the Beauxbatons girls because they all were so thin and beautiful that it made them look like goddesses whereas I was just a mortal.

            "Angie," a voice called.

I nearly tripped down the stairs just trying to search for him. When I was at the bottom, I found him. He had tried his best to tame his mussed dark hair; he looked really dashing in his dress robes. To many, people viewed him as Harry Potter, cheater who submitted his name into the Goblet of Fire so that he could compete—but to me, he was my date to the Yule Ball, and a close friend of mine...and not to mention the boy I've crushed on since last year.

My sister wasn't the only one who had a crush on the Boy Who Lived.

            "Harry," I said sweetly. "You look great."

            "I can say the same about you." He grinned sheepishly. "Did you see Hermione come down yet?"

            "She made me go on. She's keeping her date a good secret," I huffed. I looked through the Great Hall opening. Inside looked to be a winter wonderland, everything was white. A huge crowd was gathered, leaving just a narrow way to the dance floor. "What's with the entranceway?"

            "Professor McGonagall said that the Triwizard champions get the first dance."

            I whipped my head around to him. "When did she mention that?" I stammered.

            "About a minute ago to me. I know, it caught me off guard, too."

            "And you and I aren't the best dancers..." I almost stumbled back a few steps in horror. Poor Harry and I were going to die of embarrassment, because neither of us were great dancers. We weren't even good when Professor McGonagall gave us a dancing lesson. That had been funny, yet tragic, because a good amount of Gryffindors couldn't dance.

            "We'll be okay though," Harry said. "We'll just keep it plain and simple, that's all."

            "Right...plain and simple." I swallowed, wringing my hands nervously, looking around to try and calm myself down.

            I finally caught Hermione inching down the stairs. I noticed a Durmstrang boy was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. I watched intently, trying to get a closer look at his face. He bowed in front of her, Hermione looked away sheepishly. The boy held out his hand and she laid hers atop his, and when he escorted her, my jaw dropped.

Viktor Krum, Durmstrang's Triwizard champion, was Hermione's date! She looked at me so giddily I had to giggle at her. Hermione had never looked and acted like a girly girl in all her life.

This side of her was a refreshing sight for me.

            "We better get ready," Harry murmured to me.

            We scrambled to be the last pair to walk through the Great Hall. Once the music started, the champions and their dates strolled in. Harry looked as nervous as I did, and I couldn't blame him. He had never wanted this for himself, he said that multiple times. He was the outcast—the underdog—during this Triwizard Tournament.

            Once all eight of us were on the dance floor, Professor Flitwick looked ready to make the orchestra begin playing. I looked to Harry nervously. He took control of the situation and got us set up properly: one hand of his on my waist while the other hand grasped one of mine. My free hand lay gently on his shoulder. I tried not to look at the thousand pairs of eyes watching us. I felt the pressure, and it threatened to make my knees buckle on the spot.

            Once the music started up, Harry took over. I moved in sync with him, trying not to step on his feet or trip him by accident. There was plenty of room, so we didn't bump into Viktor and Hermione, Fleur Delacour and her date, or Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang. Our movement was constant and fast: we'd switch hands, Harry would twirl me out, and then back to him, or he'd try and lift me a few times.

            I didn't see why I was so worried, and I didn't get why Harry had been either. He was doing most of the work; I was just trying to keep up. When more pairs began to join in, I felt slightly better. There was less attention on us, but there was a chance we'd bump into other pairs. We nearly hit Neville and my sister when dancing; same went for Draco Malfoy and his date.

            Throughout the Yule Ball, after the first dance, that was all we really did. Harry and I weren't much for dancing when it was optional, so mainly we watched everybody else. Ron, my twin brother, sat at a table miserably with his date, one of the Patil twins from our House. I sat with her, trying to cheer her up.

            "I thought this was going to be a nice time with him," she whispered to me. "But he's as miserable as I am. It was a nice gesture from Harry, but it's clear he's not interested in taking me to dance."

            "You can leave him," I said carefully. "I don't think he'll be put out if you do. I'll get to the bottom of it, I promise."

            The Patil twin left and I scooted closer to my brother.

            "What's got you down besides the obvious?" I asked him. Ron had his arms folded and he didn't meet my eye. I shook my head and sighed irritably. "You definitely know how to give your own sister the cold shoulder." I stood up and went to Harry. "Do you want to be sulking like my brother or do you want to dance?"

            "I'm not sulking," he retorted.

            "Harry," I whined, "I can see that you are. It's a slow song; it might help you take your mind off of whatever it is you're thinking about." I pouted, trying to guilt Harry into getting his arse off the bench.

            Harry didn't make any annoyed noises, but he didn't look very happy when I led him out to the floor. He put his hands respectively on my waist and I hung my arms over his shoulders.

            "Now...what's really going on with you?" I asked quietly.

            "Nothing," he muttered.

            "Harry Potter, don't lie to me." He didn't meet my eye. He was as bad as Ron was with that. "I get it." This caught Harry's attention. He looked at me, head tilted to the side. "I wasn't your first choice for a date to the ball, was I?"

            "I can't fool you. You're right, you weren't." Harry scanned the couples around us before looking back at me. "I was going to ask Cho, but Cedric beat me to it."

            "You like her."

            "A little bit." Harry went pink.

            "Don't be ashamed about it, Harry. It's okay to have a crush on somebody." I laughed quietly. "It's not a bad thing, and you know I won't tell anybody."

            Harry pulled me closer to him. I burrowed my head under his chin, closing my eyes as we continued to slowly sway with the music. My heart was beating hastily in my chest. Being that Harry was my crush, being this close to him was a dream come true for me. I thought I would've peed myself when he had asked me to the Yule Ball. But now, I had to remind myself he had his eyes set on Cho Chang.

            Well, if that's who he likes, who's to say that I shouldn't be happy for him? I thought. Harry was a best friend to me; I had been friend-zoned. Oh well, nobody can always get what they want.

Nobody really knew about my crush on Harry, except for Ginny (my sister). She had thought I was out to steal Harry from her when she had found out. In all honesty, I was jealous of Ginny because she was the youngest in the family, but I would never steal something from her. Ginny had just taken it the wrong way and jumped to the wrong conclusion. So right now, she and I weren't exactly on friendly terms, but I had hopes that we'd be okay again. That's how siblings usually were: they had their fights but always got back together after a while.

I opened my eyes to see Ron and Hermione once again looking to be bickering. Hermione stormed off just as the song ended. I looked at Harry, then at Hermione as she was out the Great Hall doors.

"What?" Harry asked me.

"Could you excuse me for a moment?" I said quickly. I detached from Harry and loped out of the Great Hall, flying past Ron. I caught Hermione by the arm. She looked so angry that I thought she would burst into tears any second. "What's wrong? What happened between you and him this time?"

"Your brother needs to learn to pluck up the courage to ask me first, and not as a last resort!" she said stiffly. "I'm going to bed. I'm sorry you have to see me like this, Angie. He's ruined everything for me." Squeaking out a sob, Hermione left me standing there speechless at the bottom of the stairs as she hopped up them and headed for the Gryffindor common room.

"Angie," Harry called. I wheeled around to see him walking to me. "What was that back there?"

"Did Ron pull you aside and tell you the story?" I asked.

"Yeah, something about him and Hermione getting into a row again."

"I just talked to her. She's in near tears, Harry, because of him." I sighed. "Sometimes I wonder about him. I'm sorry for my rambling, it's just...I don't like to see Hermione so upset like that. It breaks my heart, because she's like a sister to me."

"Do you want to go follow her back to the common room?"

"And leave you dateless? No. I'll talk to her and try to cheer her up soon. Right now, we have a ball to get back to." I grabbed Harry's wrist and pulled him back into the Great Hall. I shot Ron a nasty look as we passed. He would get an earful from me soon enough.

We didn't end up staying out on the dance floor much longer, because the urge to chew Ron out for what he did to Hermione had gotten the better of me. So the moment I got the chance, I broke away from Harry, stomping up to my brother.

"What is with you?" I hissed at him. Ron was outside the Great Hall, leaning against the wall.

"More like what's with you," he retorted. "What was that stink eye look back there for?"

"Oh, I don't know, Ron, you tell me." I folded my arms across my chest. "Maybe it's because you upset Hermione, that's why."

"Bloody hell, she told you," he moaned, smacking his forehead.

"Yes, after I saw you two arguing when Harry and I were slow dancing. You really hurt her, Ron, more than you realize. This was a special night for her, and you trashed it. Why would you do something like that? I could expect this kind of behavior from Malfoy, but not you."

"She was fraternizing with the enemy," he mumbled.

"Fraternizing with the enemy? Ron, the whole concept of this tournament is for three schools to be brought together, for all of us to mingle and make new friends!"

"I don't think Krum had his mind on friendship with her."

The light bulb went off in my head. How could I have been so oblivious to it? No wonder Ron looked so miserable earlier. No wonder he picked a fight with Hermione.

Ron was jealous.

"I see what's going on here," I said slyly. "You don't like the idea of her and Krum together, do you?"

Ron didn't answer, he just looked away. I knew that he knew I was right. Ron was sometimes the easiest person in the world to read. He liked Hermione, like I liked Harry. He had a crush on Hermione. This was news to me. I could've figured it out years ago if I had known sooner.

Maybe it hadn't cropped up until recently, I thought. I mean, Hermione looks her best tonight, Ron would definitely be jealous that he couldn't have her as his date. It all makes sense.

"You don't know anything, Angie." Ron stalked off, leaving me alone once again. I stomped my foot irritably. My brother, he was such a git to Hermione sometimes and to me as well.

"Everything all right?" Harry asked. I jumped and pressed myself against the wall, panting.

"Harry, you scared me," I sputtered.

"Sorry. I'm guessing everything's not okay."

"No, I just confronted Ron. It wasn't a smart move, because now I suspect something that might be the truth."

"Oh?"

"Are you ready to go back to the common room?" I asked him.

"Yeah, it's been a long night." Harry held out his hand for me. Tingles shot up my spine when I took it.

Like the gentleman he was, Harry escorted me the entire way back to the common room. Once we gave the Fat Lady the password, we emerged into an empty common room. I had no doubt Hermione was upstairs crying her eyes out. If she was up for talking, I'd be there for her.

"I bet a lot of people are still at the ball," I said. We walked to the staircases that led to our dormitories. "I'm sorry about constantly running off on you, Harry. I feel like I abandoned you more than I should have. I feel like I ruined tonight for you."

"It's all right, Angie, really," he said. "I had a good time."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sure it would've been better if you had gone with Cho."

"I don't know about that," he said lowly.

"Oh?" I yawned. "Well, goodnight, Harry." I released his hand.

"Angie, wait—" Harry grabbed my arm. I turned around to ask him a question, but it caught in my throat.

Harry had the height advantage on me by a few inches. I looked into his beautiful green eyes. We couldn't tear our gazes away from each other. Harry nervously inched his face down towards mine. I watched him very closely, shutting my eyes when he got so close. My heart raced.

I nearly pulled back when he snogged me. It was a foreign feeling for me, to have someone's lips over mine. I thought I would faint from shock, but I didn't. Cautiously, I snogged Harry back. It was a small kiss, but we tried to make it as long as possible.

Harry pulled back, but kept his face inches near mine. My heart was singing when I opened my eyes to stare into his. I smiled, stifling a giggle.

"What brought this on?" I murmured.

"You're right, I do like Cho...but not as much as I like you," Harry stammered. "I know it sounds wrong, because you're Ron's sister, but I can't help it. There's a connection between us, Angie. You must feel it."

"I-I have, at times," I confessed quietly. "But I thought you liked Cho?"

"I partially used it as an act to throw you off. Nobody really knows about how I feel about you, well except for you now of course." He chuckled. "I want to be with you, Ang, so badly."

"Then ask me out," I pushed gently, brushing a few locks of stray hair away from his face, exposing his famous lightning scar. "You know I won't refuse you."

"I—I can't, not—not yet," Harry sighed.

"Why not?"

"I think you know why, Angie."

"Oh." Harry had stated it before. "Right. Ron."

"Mhm. He'd probably explode if we dated."

"So what?" I snorted. "Harry, I wouldn't get too worried about Ron's opinion of us. If he's upset, fine, let him be. He'll learn to accept it in time."

"We aren't together yet, Angie. Remember?"

"Hmm...how about we make an ultimatum?" I proposed. "We'll keep this hidden until we're ready for it to go public. Does that sound fair?"

"I think it does," he considered. "Angie?" Harry's voice was almost inaudible. "Will you go out with me?"

"Yes." I pressed my forehead into his. Harry took me in his arms, looking into my eyes. I grinned. He kissed the tip of my nose. "You know...nobody's in here right now. We've got the common room to ourselves."

Harry took a sweep of the room to make sure nobody was looking. He happened to look up.

"Look."

 I snapped my head up. "Mistletoe," I whispered. "Huh. Appropriate, I'd say." Harry and I both looked at each other; I was blushing a bright red.

I held Harry's face in my hands as we snogged. It was very gentle and cautious still, being that we were both new at this experience. Harry's hands slithered to rest on my neck and knot in my curly red hair. I flinched when he had me pressed against a wall.

There was a loud creak and Harry and I pulled apart, looking at each other, panicking.

"Someone's coming," I squeaked.

"We'll try some other time when there's nobody around," Harry crooned. He snogged me longer this time, hands on my hips.

"Harry, go already," I whimpered.

"Goodnight, Angie." He managed to sneak a kiss on my forehead before he retreated from me.

Harry was already hiking up the stairs while I stood against the wall in a daze. I was probably so blinded by this wonderful feeling that I looked to be drooling or having some stupid grin on my face.

"Angie." It was Ginny. Her hair was down and straight, like it always had been.

"Oh, hello." I giggled. "Where's Neville? Did you leave him at the ball?"

"Oh, no, he's right behind me. What's with you? You seem unusually happy." She walked to the bottom of the steps.

"No reason." I sighed, trying to calm my singing heart down. "Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah. I'm guessing you did judging by how giddy you look. Are you going to bed?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah—yeah, I am." I shook myself out of my daze and followed Ginny up the winding staircase.

Ginny would've liked to murder me if she had seen Harry and me snogging. I mean, she had a crush on him. Well, I just scored him as a boyfriend. Of course, nobody knew that except for Harry and me. We'd keep it secret from all of Hogwarts until we were ready to expose our relationship.

So what if Ron doesn't like me dating Harry? He knows Harry would treat me right. They're best friends after all. Yet...I bet Ron is one of those types who thinks that best friends don't hit on each other's twin sisters. My main concerns were Ron and Ginny when they'd find out. My best bet was that they'd take it maturely.

I tried not to burst into high squeals of joy or start dancing up the stairs the entire time I made my way up to the dormitory.