Hermione Granger's Headstrong Conquest

It was my last class of the day, and I couldn't have been more excited. The bell rang and I made a b-line for the door. I bolted out the door, to see Hermione Granger standing there waiting for me. She looked just as happy as I did, but only for a moment.

"Harry! What are you doing?" she asked with what seemed like a hint of panic in her voice.

"I'm going to Hogsmeade if that's what you're asking," I said, thinking she knew already. "What are you doing?"

She sighed, then pointed to her bag, "I brought my books."

"Why would you do that? We're going to spend the whole day together!" I exclaimed. "You can read on our date."

"Date?" she said, looking confused. "Who said anything about a date?"

"I did, when we were at the Yule Ball." My face felt hot. Obviously she didn't remember me asking her out all those months ago. She had obviously forgotten about it. Which was fine; it's not like it really mattered anyway.

"Harry..." she stopped walking and turned to look at me, "...when did we go to the Yule Ball together?"

We stood there in silence for a few moments while I struggled to remember the answer myself. "Crap!" I shouted after a few moments, startling Hermione, "we never went!" I remembered now. It was Ron who had asked her out; he just didn't know how to dance so he had asked me to come along too because he thought he'd look better if we came as a group and not just him dancing by himself. That night was when Ron had told us about what happened between him and Lavender Brown in the closet...as well as every other detail which left us feeling extremely nauseous (the thought of it still does). So yes, that was why Hermione looked so surprised when I mentioned the ball!

"Oh," she said softly, then took off running down the hall without another word. Before she got too far though she turned around and yelled back at me over her shoulder "I won't be joining you in Hogsmeade today Harry! Goodbye!" Then she returned to running away from me as fast as possible. I turned around and watched her run down the hallway until she disappeared into an empty classroom (luckily one of them wasn't being used for detention), leaving me behind because apparently I was all alone again!