Confused Kiss

~*~*~*~*~Chapter 1~*~*~*~*~

"My love for you is deep. Deeper than the deepest deep place...

No, that doesn't sound right," Hermione chided herself, sitting in front of her bedroom mirror. She picked up a framed picture of Harry and stared at it, wishing she could be near him. She was finding it so hard to wait until she started her sixth year at Hogwarts. Sighing, she put down the picture, cleared her throat, and tried again.

"Harry I love you. I always have, and I always will."

Groaning, she threw herself down on her bed. She stared at the ceiling until dreams of boys with amazingly green eyes overtook her and she fell asleep.

~*~*~*~*~

Ron sat down between Harry and Hermione on the Hogwarts Express, going on and on about how the Chudley Cannons had lost; while, quite oblivious to him, Hermione stared at him distastefully.

"Mmm, chocolate frogs!" He exclaimed, as he leapt to his feet to go but as many frogs as he could from the snack cart which had just entered their train car. Hermione used the opportunity to slide a bit closer to Harry, taking up just enough room to make Ron go sit on the seat opposite them, which he did with much muttering. Plopping a great pile of frogs down next to him, he began to eat with much gusto. Hermione looked at him distastefully before hopping up to buy some snacks for herself, followed closely by Harry. As they sat down again, Hermione allowed herself a fleeting glance at his face, glad that she would be able to spend the whole year with him, again.

~*~*~*~*~

"Well," Dumbledore said. "Another year begun. Before we begin to feast, there are a few announcements I'd like to, well, announce." He paused for an eye twinkle and then continued. "First of all, I am sad to say that Ms. Umbridge has decided to retire as a teacher." No one looked sad. "So I am pleased to introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Perique." A tall, very handsome man in his early to mid-twenties waved his hand at the tumulus applause and (from the girls, at least) batting of eyelashes.

"Furthermore," continued Dumbledore. "Due to the pleading of many, many students, I am very pleased to announce that Hogwarts will be hosting, not one, not even two but..." *Eyetwinkle* "Three balls." The now, if not already, popular headmaster waited out the five minutes of applause. He then cleared his throat and continued.

"We will be having a Yule Ball right before Christmas break for fourth years and above, but if you are below the age limit, you can still go if someone who can asks you. A Valentine's ball on Valentine's Day on for fifth years and above, same rules apply. And an end-of-the-year ball on the second-to-last day of school for *eyetwinkle* all the students." He once again waited out the seemingly endless applause.

"Three balls!" Ron shouted. "Can you believe it? And we get to go to ALL of them!" As the meaning of his words sunk in, he immediately turned and started scoping out a group of pretty Ravenclaw girls, muttering under his breath. Meanwhile, Parvati and Lavender were debating over whether you could ask professors to the balls; all the while shooting glances at Professor Perique.

Dumbledore jumped on a lull in the applause. "Well, he said, now that we have something to talk about, let's eat, so we have enough energy to continue talking," he said, with a great eyetwinkle. He waved his wand, sat down, and started scooping a pile of mashed potatoes onto his plate, that had magically appeared in front of him (the potatoes, not the plate).

Hermione looked at Harry across the table between bites. She caught his eye and gazed deeply into those beautifully green eyes of his. As he glanced away to grab a piece of chicken, Hermione knew exactly whom she wanted to go to the ball with.