Asking Hermione

God, there she was. Not your typical gorgeous girl, but pretty nonetheless. And now her teeth were normal-sized, which made her even more attractive.

But he wasn't hung up on physical appearances, and there was so much more to her than that- she was brilliant, brave, and didn't care what untrue things that other people thought about her. Pretty much a model Gryffindor.

Terry shifted his weight uncomfortably on the bench in the Great Hall. Honestly, how hard could it be, asking a girl to the Yule Ball? It wasn't like he was ugly or anything. At least, the female Ravenclaw population certainly didn't seem to think so. But this wasn't an ordinary girl- this was Hermione Granger.

The Ravenclaw had debated asking her for quite a while, because he was quite afraid that she would say 'no'. And, once he'd decided to ask her, he still didn't know when. Upon waking up today, he'd decided that this was going to be it- he was going to take the plunge.

He kept his eyes on the back of her head, and waited several minutes after she left the table before heading to the library. She had to be in there- that was where she always was, looking up information on Hippogriffs (who knew why, but she was).

A few older Beauxbatons and Hogwarts girls were also headed to the library, giggling. There was no doubt that Krum was in there, then, Terry thought sullenly.

Looking around, he was slightly shocked to see Krum and Hermione sitting at the same table. Krum leaned closer to her, asking or saying something. Hermione stared at him, looking slightly pink and rather startled. She grinned, then nodded.

Suddenly, it hit Terry. The stupid bastard, Krum had asked her first!

Hermione rose, and Krum offered a half-scowl, half-grin to her. It was the first time that he hadn't seen Krum looking entirely unhappy.

Quickly, he turned and left the library, trying to keep the rage from building up inside of him. After all, it was his own fault that Krum had asked her first. Or maybe- maybe Krum hadn't asked her!

All of the signs pointed to it, but Terry wasn't thinking quite logicaly at the moment. "Hey, Terry!" He turned around, and saw Hermione hurrying towards him, her book bag slung over one shoulder. "Was there something you wanted to talk to me about? You kept looking my way whenever you first came in."

Damn. How had she noticed? He took a deep breath. "I, uh, don't suppose that Krum asked you to the Yule Ball, did he? I don't mean to pry or anything," he added quickly. "It's just, if he didn't, I was wondering if maybe..."

Hermione's brown eyes widened. Damn her for having such perfect brown eyes. "Oh, Terry, I'm so sorry..." She placed a hand on his shoulder, and he shrugged it off. Hermione flinched visibly.

God, now I really did it. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Terry said, biting his bottom lip in what was definitely (he knew) a girlish expression. "I mean, I... I've been wanting to ask you for a while. Guess I just wasn't fast enough." He shrugged as though he didn't care, and hurried in the opposite direction he'd just been going, and towards the Ravenclaw common room.

"Ecru." He muttered the password, and slipped into the common room, sinking gratefuly into a large blue chair slightly away from the fireplace. How stupid could he have been? There had to be plenty of guys who wanted to ask Hermione to the ball, and he just should have been a little faster.

"That's your problem," he said to himself, groaning. "You never want to do anything fast enough. You always have to think everything through, every possible outcome, and then you take forever deciding if it's worth it or not."

There was a chuckle from behind him. "Shame on you for being such a Ravenclaw."

He turned around, face-to-face with Lisa Turpin. "Sorry, I didn't see you there," he murmured, and she flopped into the chair next to him. Lisa reminded him of Hermione in many ways, but was so unlike her, as well. Smart, yes, but not to Hermione's point. They looked a bit the same, in face shape. Lisa had lighter brown hair than Hermione, and blue eyes. Pretty, though he'd never realized it before. But not as brave, not as corageous, and much, much more concerned about what people thought.

"So who was it?" she asked after a long silence. "Oh, don't look so startled. Only a girl could cause the great Terry Boot to skip studying and stare off into space like that. And it had to be quite a girl, too. Who was it?"

He shifted, not answering the question. "Hermione Granger," he finally muttered, and Lisa grinned at him.

"Figured so. Had to be someone smart- you usually go for brains- and someone who had at least a decent personality. If it had been someone like Mandy or one of the other Ravenclaws, I would have known it. You would never ask a Slytherin, and none of the Hufflepuff girls would really appeal to you." Finished with her short speech, Lisa sat back in the chair, letting the silence fill the conversation.

Terry reflected what she had said. Most of it was true- was he that easy to read? He hoped not; he would hate to have everyone in the school knowing exactly what he would do. That was Lisa for you, noticing small things about you that sometimes even you didn't.

After quite a few minutes, she stood up. "Don't stay up too late," she mock-chided him, grinning briefly before heading down the hallway to the girls dormitories.

"I won't," he promised her, feeling a faint smile cross his lips.

This time was going to be different- he wasn't going to wait. No, he was going to get her first.