"That's not true," Ginny inserted. She turned and winked at Harry, who laughed at the gesture.
"Well I've never seen you flirt before," Hermione continued.
"Well I'm not about to flirt with you," Harry remarked unconsciously.
Hermione's face took on a hurtful expression and Ron's looked a little indignant as his gaze shifted onto Harry. "And just why not?" Hermione demanded.
Harry quickly realized his mistake. "Hermione," he said as he held up a placating hand, "you're more like a sister to me than anything else."
That was all it took. Ron smirked widely as he transferred his attention to Hermione. Her features made a rapid conversion from hurt to touched. Unshed tears sprang into her eyes as she almost whimpered, "Oh Harry," before launching out of her chair to hug him.
Harry, after hesitating a moment, tentatively returned the gesture, perhaps a bit stiffly. He had to casually spit out a piece of Hermione's bushy hair that had managed to make its way into his open mouth in his surprise at her reaction to his statement. He looked over her shoulder at his three other friends. Ron's wistful expression seemed to have returned, though he was smiling behind it. Neville gave him a thumbs up to go with his smirk. When he met Ginny's eyes, she winked again and mouthed "smooth."
Harry mouthed a "thank you" in return. He then patted Hermione a couple times on the back and slowly extricated himself from her embrace. She smiled at him, her eyes still sparkling, as she pulled away.
The rest of the meal went pretty smoothly. Luna wandered in not long afterwards, and the group welcomed her to their table wholeheartedly. They spent a good hour just sitting around chatting over butterbeers before making their leave. Madame Rosmerta had conveniently left his second plate of food off his bill, but Harry paid the cost anyway. He winked at Madame Rosmerta on his way out, wondering what her reaction would be when she noticed the extra money he had left behind.
They wandered around town for a little longer, but didn't make any more stops. Soon enough, they were making their way back up to Hogwarts. As they traversed the weathered path, Hermione and Ron were in the middle of one of their typical arguments. Harry didn't even know what this one was about, nor did he really think it mattered. Luna was telling Neville about some creature of her own imagination. The expression on his face as he listened was hilarious.
Harry was watching Neville's facial expressions in open amusement as he felt a nudge at his side. He looked over and found the disturbance to be none other than Ginny Weasley, her mane of red hair flowing behind her in the gentle afternoon breeze. "Hey," she said.
"Hey Gin, did you have fun in town today?" he asked her, already knowing the answer. She had not exactly hidden her enjoyment. Indeed, she had not stopped smiling since she first entered the Three Broomsticks.
"Uh huh," she replied. "You?"
"Yep, I had a great time," Harry replied. "Good company," he added, giving her a playful nudge.
"Oh I'm sure," she retorted. "Although I'm sure you were sad to leave behind your precious Rosie."
"Well, now that you mention it…." Harry played along.
"You know, if you wanted to take her to the ball, I wouldn't hold it against you," she teased. "I don't want to stand in the way of anything."
"Aww," Harry laughed, "that's sweet of you, really. But you're not weaseling out of our date that easily. I'm afraid you're quite stuck with me."
"Pity," she mock pouted. Then she abruptly changed the subject. "I don't think I ever really thanked you for lunch today."
"Don't worry about that," Harry replied automatically, waving the matter off. "It was nothing."
"It wasn't nothing," she insisted. "It was very sweet of you, especially to just give up your own plate of food without any fanfare. Most guys would try to draw attention to the fact to take credit for their generosity or whatever, but you just do it without even thinking about it. In truth, I didn't have enough money to cover lunch. I found some dress robes at Gladrags that I was barely able to afford, and I didn't really think about what I would do for lunch at the time. You saved me from going on in hunger, so thank you."
"You're welcome," Harry replied. "So you found some dress robes, huh?" Harry was surprised to find that he was actually curious about what her robes looked like.
"Uh huh, I really like them a lot," she practically gushed. "It's lucky they were on sale; otherwise I never would have been able to get them."
"So what color are they?" Harry asked her.
She opened her mouth as though she were about to reply, then closed it and glanced sharply at him. "You'll find out at the ball, Mr. Potter. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for you."
"Awww," Harry pouted. "Please? I am your date, after all. Don't I get some sort of special privileges for that?"
....
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