You Can Fall From a Star

You can fall from a star,

You can fall from a tree.

But the best way to fall,

Is in love with me.

Harry Potter walked along an empty hallway, enjoying the echo of his sleepy footsteps. His eyes lazily wandered over the walls as he went. He had no idea what he was looking for late at night, but part of him was glad to have such and easy job. Being a prefect had its ups; he could use the 'I was up late at night protecting the grounds' card to get himself out of an early Potions lesson. Harry absent-mindedly fingered his badge as he wobbled around a corner. He had found the last couple of hours rather boring.

He passed a corridor and waved quickly to Nearly Headless Nick. Harry really wanted to see his fellow Gryffindor prefect, but Hermione had been nowhere to be found. He rounded another hall and hopped down a staircase. At the bottom, he saw a flash of dark brown hair. The sweet, smiling face of Hermione turned to him as she watched him walk down the rest of the steps. He greeted her at the bottom while he wiped his hair from his eyes.

"Did you find anything interesting?" Harry asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes and told him the tale of how she found several rowdy 3^rd years trying to capture Peeves and shut him in a closet.

In the last couple of weeks, Harry had asked many of his friends for love advice. He had tried to be as smooth about it by trying to slip his questions into normal conversation. At one point, he'd gotten advice on how to hook one particular witch that Harry had had his eye on. Most of it had been very ineffective to say the least. Much of it including the grab and kiss technique that Ron had suggested; it didn't seem to fit into any situation he could find or to the girl he had his eye on. He had too much respect for her. But the idea it self sounded rather appealing.

Harry even thought about asking Draco for some advice, considering he had become quite the ladies man. But asking him would not be a good idea. He would potentially have the ridicule from Draco and the public humiliation from it as well. He could already figure out how the conversation would play out...

"Hey Malfoy."

"What Potter?"

"I need some advice."

"On what, pray tell? How to fend off your throng of adoring fans?"

"And how would you know what that's like?"

"Sod off Potter."

"Gladly."

Rather short conversation, Harry thought, but is seemed to be realistic. But after all, he still didn't know how to go about it.

"Harry, what are you looking at?" Hermione asked as she turned to see the wall that Harry was staring at while he was lost in thought. She had a rather confused look on he face.

"I was just looking over there." He didn't have any good excuses. "Uh, I thought I saw something."

"Really?" She wrinkled her brow and pulled out her wand. "Where?"

Harry reached out to her shoulder and turned her back to him. "Don't worry about it. I think it's just because I'm so tired." She smiled wearily at him.

"Yeah maybe. Maybe, I'm just jumpy. Yes, that's it. Jumpy." Her voice trailed off. She looked to him.

She stood there for a moment, lost in her own words. Nevertheless, it made Harry worry more because he knew that she was worrying about him. He twisted his hands around and shifted uneasily on his feet. He needed a break from the nervous tension and Hermione broke it for him.

"Well, I think that I should get going. I still need to look over the 3^rd floor." He tugged on her sleeve as she spoke. She smiled at him and Harry noticed that they weren't really having a conversation, but he really liked to be near her.

Watching her robes swish around her legs, Harry gazed at Hermione as she walked away, sighing to himself. He felt so old and wise, but whenever he was near her, his entire common sense was sucked out of him.

Harry noticed that Hermione had turned around and was facing him. Harry could feel heat burn at his cheeks from embarrassment of being caught watching her. Her eyes glowed in the faint light of the torches on the walls as a small smile spread across her face. She started to run towards him, as her smile grew wider. She thew her arms around her neck and jumped into his arms. Harry slid his hands around her back and savored the feeling of her robes against his as she looked into his eyes. The heat from her body he felt in their embrace made Harry feel slightly lightheaded.

They looked into each other's eyes and she slowly tilted her lips up to his and brushed them. Harry went rigid; every part of him was in shock and he felt like he was trapped in a dream. He feared that he would soon wake in his bed and would have to leave her. Harry soon realized that it wasn't a dream. He really could feel the heat from her body, the feeling of her warm mouth on his, and her hands slowly working into his hair. He soon noticed that he was kissing her back not even realizing that he was doing so.

Pulling her tighter into his arms, he pressed his mouth to hers with increasing urgency. Torchlights were fading in the halls and Harry became aware of his sense of smell; flowers and vanilla, the smell of Hermione. He didn't want to stop, but he felt like they should. He pulled away from her and Hermione's eyes slowly flickered open and she stared at him. Her lips were slightly pinker and her cheeks were flushed. She looked rather upset that he had stopped but decided to pull her hands from his hair and run them down the front of his robes. Harry cleared his throat nervously as she did this.

"Well," he started, "that was different." He had no words to describe what had just gone on; his favorite dream had just come true.

Hermione pushed away from him as her eyes slowly turned up to his and then she started to back up and walk away. Harry didn't make a move until he felt her hand tug at his. He took at few lazy steps along with her, both of them smiling.

"Come on, Harry." Hermione pulled at his arm and he walked a tiny bit faster.

"We still have work to do." Harry was making it very hard for her to pull him up the staircase. She gave up and when he turned around she was a step down from him and she had her hands on her hips.

"We do have work to do," Harry said, as he brushed a few stray strands of hair from her eyes. He leaned down to her and brought his lips to hers. This time, it was Hermione who pulled away.

"I don't think so, Potter." She walked around him and started up the steps. Harry grabbed her hand and followed her up.

At the top, she turned to face him. On the step above him, she had just the right amount of height to be a little taller than he did. Her eyes were serious and they bored into his.

"Do you know what this means Harry?" She fixed the collar of his shirt as she spoke. Harry felt his mouth go dry as his hands stared to shake. His mind went empty like it usually did when she was around.

"I think so." Not the best answer ever, Harry admitted to himself.

She raised an eyebrow at him and placed a hand on her hips.

"I think that we should go and look over the 3^rd floor." He smiled his best smile at her. "I know of something interesting on the 3^rd floor."

He walked around and grabbed her hand as he started down the hall. He turned up another winding staircase with Hermione behind him. He pushed open the door at the top and closed it behind him as they entered the room.

Harry looked at Hermione and saw that her eyes were wide with shock and she slowly turned to him.

"You brought me to the Astronomy tower?" She said the words slowly, as if she was having trouble finding them herself.

"Yes, yes I did." He took her in his arms and looked down on her face, which was lit by the soft light of the billions of stars above them. He leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers, speaking softly.

"Do you have a problem with that?" He leaned in to kiss her without hearing an answer.