Harry looked down at Hermione where she had fallen from her broom for the fifth time in a row. It seemed no matter how much he taught her she was bound to the ground by a stronger pull of gravity than the rest of humanity. He supposed it shouldn't be surprising that even the earth longed to keep her close when that's all he could think about.

The first time he had tried asking her on a date had been an out and out failure. He'd suggested she come to dinner at his place on a Wednesday night and she showed up with Ron and Ginny as well as an armful of work to do. He'd only cooked for two so he scrambled to make some salad out of what he had on hand and finally gave in and asked Dobby to come make some mashed potatoes while he hurriedly tried to remove all the evidence of a date gone wrong from his dining room before the others got in there. Candles and flowers evanescoed, he walked into his living room and looked at Hermione working on whatever project she was fired up about that week and felt like an idiot.

Asking Hermione out wasn't something one could just try and do on a whim. He realized he should approach it more like apparition and use the three D's to consider how to make sure she understood what he was doing. He'd deliberated enough over the topic already, and he was very determined so that must mean his destination had been wrong.

The next time he asked he wouldn't make the same mistake. After Ginny had left dinner that night for a late night Quidditch practice with her team and Ron had eventually left to do something Harry couldn't really remember he drew up his Gryffindor courage and tried again.

"Hermione, are you busy next Friday?"

"Not really, just a few errands to run over the weekend."

"Right, well, that's good."

Hermione looked at him with a suspicious calculating gaze when she heard his voice crack for the first time in six years. "It's good I have errands?"

"Huh? No, I mean, it's good you're not busy. I was hoping we could have dinner together."

"Oh, you should've asked while Ron and Ginny were still here. I think Ginny might already have a date that night."

Harry mumbled something under his breath. "Sorry, Harry, didn't catch that."

"I said, good! That makes one of us!"

"No need to get testy! It's not my fault you never ask anyone out!"

"It bloody well is when I'm trying to ask you out and you're so pretty and pigheaded all I can think about is that I want to kiss you and I stuff it up!"

"Oh." Hermione's eyes flashed with dawning realization and smiled. "Wait, was tonight supposed to be a date? Is that why you forgot to ask Ron and Ginny - because you didn't want them here?"

"Maybe," Harry buried his head in his hands out of mortification. "Just bury me in the back garden, I'll make good fertilizer. The headstone can read 'Boy-who-lived-to-die-of-embarrassment.'"

"Honestly Harry, I don't know why you're being so dramatic. Of course I would like to go on a proper date with you if you just clue me in." Hermione moved to sit next to him and touched the hands covering his face with hers.

Looking up with hope in his eyes, Harry blushed in a way not proper at all for the savior of the wizarding world. "You will? I thought it might take some convincing."

"Well, now that I think of it, I do need to research the topic a bit before I can be certain." Seeing him roll his eyes at the mention of research she grabbed his head with both hands and kissed him. Just one gentle kiss before Harry responded by wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her back properly. Once they both needed to breathe they seperated and looked at each other with twin smiles.

"Please tell me that's not how you've been doing research all these years." Harry said with a mischievous grin.

Hermione grinned at Harry. "Only with the books I really like." She laughed as she considered what Madam Pince's reaction might have been if she had ever caught a student kissing a book.

"Was your research sufficient for deciding on whether you could go on a date? With me?" Harry asked with a whisper.

Smiling at him she whispered back. "Definitely."

After that their relationship had been like coming home. They knew each other so well already that they skipped the awkward getting to know you phase and jumped into the irritatingly in love phase. It was after a few months of this that Harry decided Hermione needed to make her peace with flying and insisted on giving her lessons. He wasn't entirely convinced she could really be this bad at anything after watching her eviscerate several wizards three times her age in front of the Wizengamot on her warpath towards equality for house elves.

"What am I going to do with you, Hermione?" He offered her his hand to help getting up yet again. "You're the brightest witch of the age and you can't even ride a broom properly."

Standing up she laughed at his teasing "I don't know, is it really so bad having me ride behind you? I've grown to quite like it."

He raised an eyebrow as he mounted his Firebolt and lifted several inches off the ground. "Is it possible you're this bad on purpose?"

"It's possible. I mean, perhaps I've just been thinking about handling the wrong broomstick?"

With a thud, Harry took his turn succumbing to gravity.