Harry Potter // First Dates

for a change i decided not to write my typical best friends to lovers trope. look at my freshening things up. call me mr. clean or sum.

the reader is a hufflepuff bc sue me i'm biased towards my house. i'm curious, what house do y'all belong to?

wrote this in a few hours did not read again so might have mistakes pls forgive. ty.

***

harry rocked back and forth nervously, rubbing his hands together to get rid of his sweaty palms, his eyes darting around the entrance of the greenhouse every 10 seconds as if he was waiting for a dementor to show up. hermione, who was observing her friend with curiosity, side eyed the boy, wondering what had gotten into him. the gryffindors, along with the ravenclaws and slytherins were waiting in the greenhouse for the professor sprout and her house to arrive so that they'd finally begin their herbology class. they weren't waiting that long so she tried to ignore it but his incessant movements agitated her.

"alright! that's quite enough of that," she grabbed harry's arm and pulled him to the side, away from the chattering crowd.

"ow, hermione!" harry grunted.

"what the fuck is up with you? why are you acting so strange?"

ron, bewildered by hermione's reaction, followed her nevertheless and took a closer look at his best friend, "mate, she's right. you look like you're going to throw up."

"fucking hell, it's just chilly, calm down!" harry shrugged her off, clutching his arm as if she had ripped off the entire thing.

hermione narrowed her eyes at him, unconvinced; they were literally in one of the most controlled environment on hogwarts grounds. then she tried, "if this is about the potions exam-"

ron groaned, "hermione, harry couldn't give two fucks about that!"

"i was just wondering, alright, ron? no need to be such a prat about it." hermione retorted, huffing and crossing her arms.

their bickering went back and forth for the next minute or so, until the hufflepuffs along with professor sprout finally arrived and when harry spotted her, he straightened his back, slowly inching away from the couple in embarrassment. this did not go unnoticed by hermione. she ignored ron who was going on godric knows about what and followed harry's gaze.

hermione gasped as she connected the dots, "harry!" she grabbed his arm again and yanked him closer, "why didn't you say anything?"

"geez, woman, give his arm some rest, why don't you?" ron grumbled, clearly offended that she wasn't listening to him any more.

harry tore his gaze away from her and flushed red, "what are you talking about?"

hermione rolled her eyes, "oh, please. do not insult my intelligence. i've seen you make googly eyes at your herbology partner for the past year. you clearly like her! you're not that slick, harry." she raised an eyebrow.

harry felt his face heating up.

ron, now having caught on, grinned at his best mate, "you tosser, did you finally get the balls to ask y/n out? is that why your cologne was over? because you sprayed so much of it?"

hermione's eyes widened in excitement and she tried to conceal a soft squeal, gaining the attention of the ravenclaws nearby. she shot them an apologetic look and lowered her voice, "you're going on a date today?"

harry shushed her, slightly irritated. he really didn't want her to butt in. he exhaled sharply, "not yet. but, i was going to. we have the hogsmeade trip coming up next week."

before hermione could respond, professor sprout's voice rang through the greenhouse, "alright, dearies, let's begin! partner up and open your books to page 56. we'll be preparing essence of dittany today! it's be a short one, so if you're skilled enough and fast you may leave as and when you're done," she cheered.

harry walked away from his friends hurriedly to avoid any more questions and towards his work station, easing his way next to y/n, whose face broke out into a smile when she spotted the messy haired boy, "harry! have a good weekend?" she smiled warmly, pulling the textbook out of her bag.

his chest bloomed with warmth and he tried not to stutter, "yeah, you?"

y/n nodded, leaning against table to face him, "oh, nothing much. completed overdue homework and sent a couple of gifts to the folks back home," she wistfully said.

harry beamed, "right, it was your parents' anniversary?"

y/n blinked in surprise. he had somehow managed to remember this among the other things she usually rants on about, "uh, yeah," she cleared her throat, "i sent them a little something i got from hogsmeade. it was their 25th anniversary, i was pretty bummed to miss it."

harry tilted his head towards her, looking at her with a sense of admiration, his eyes softening, "i'm sure they appreciated it, y/n."

her stomach fluttered with butterflies at how her name sounded on his tongue. she looked away, flustered.

"shall we begin?"

"yes, ma'am."

they worked together with ease, understanding the instructions and following it. y/n offered to crush the dittany leaves and she promptly began mashing the powder in a mortar and pestle. harry, slightly distracted, tried not to look at how attractive y/n looked, especially when she was focused; her eyebrows slightly furrowed, her chewing on her bottom lip and loose strands of her hair framing her face. harry reached his hand forward and pointed to her hair that was falling on her face, "may i?"

huffing slightly as sweat formed on her brow, she tried to get a look at what harry was asking through her loose strands and nodded absentmindedly.

he smiled and reached forward to tuck the stray strands behind her ear. y/n did not flinch, instead her cheeks dusted pink, her heart fluttered and she shyly glanced at the green eyed boy, muttering, "thank you,"

he hummed in response, letting his gaze linger on her longer before going back to measuring the volume of salt water.

the two of them were done in no time, earning a nod of approval from their teacher. as they thanked professor sprout on their way out of the greenhouse, harry shouldered his bag, "let me walk you to your common room."

y/n smiled and fell in step with him, feeling comfortable in his company. as they walked towards the basement, their hands occasionally brushed against each other's, but none of them pulled apart.

once they arrived at the common room, y/n turned to thank him, "you didn't have to walk all this way, harry."

he waved his palm, "it's nothing, i like spending time with you."

a soft chuckle escaped her lips. her fingers nervously played with the sleeves of her robe, suddenly feeling shy.

harry was just as nervous and gently started rocking on his heels. before harry could lose the courage, he said, "our next hogsmeade trip is coming up."

y/n tilted her head to meet his gaze, and softly said, "yeah, it is."

harry swallowed nervously, "well, if you don't have any other plans, would you want to go to madam pudifoot's? with me?"

y/n felt warmth in her chest. she grinned widely, "yes, harry. i would love that very much."

harry exhaled softly, relieved and then mirrored her grin, if not wider, "perfect. it's a date."

"it's a date." she repeated, biting her bottom lip to try not to smile any wider and turned around to walk toward the common room, "see you then, potter" she called out over her shoulder.

harry placed his hand on his chest where his poor heart was beating way too abnormally and waited till she was out of sight, and then left, his smile still lingering.

***

"how do you even know her favourite flowers?" ron asked, quirking his eyebrow at harry, who paid the florist in hogsmeade and thanked him.

harry shrugged, "she mentioned it once," shifting to hold the bouquet of tulips in his right hand.

"it's called being an active listener, ron. i wouldn't expect you to know anything about it," hermione piped in, glaring at ron.

"it's called being down bad, 'mione," ron muttered, rolling his eyes.

her gaze softened as she turned to harry, "she's gonna love them! you don't have to worry about anything."

"i'm not."

both ron and hermione scoffed. they knew how nervous he had been all morning, making sure his clothes had been fresh and ironed, his hair, that never managed to stay in one place, was combed over about a hundred times until he himself gave up on it. he had paced a hole in the common room trying to walk off the nervous energy, but that just ended up with him being even more nervous. he left extra early to hogsmeade to reserve a table at madam pudifoot's and also to grab flowers.

his gaze drifted to over ron's shoulder where he spotted y/n walking arm in arm with hannah as they made their way towards them. harry pushed past ron and jogged to meet her halfway. hannah, spotting the boy, took this as her cue to leave and bid her farewell, not before nodding her head to harry in acknowledgement.

"hi," y/n beamed at him.

"hi." harry smiled, handing her the flowers he had bought just a while earlier.

y/n was shocked to say the least. she took the bouquet from him, dumbfounded, and inhaled the scent. how did he-

harry nervously scratched the back of his neck, "you said once that you'd rather be stuck in a field of tulips than a field of roses, so i-"

"i love them, harry," she said earnestly.

harry grinned, feeling pleased with himself. started on a good note. he held out his hand.

ever the gentleman.

"should we get going?"

y/n placed her hand in his, interlacing their fingers together, nodding. she tried to fight the warm feeling of his hand, even though the weather seemed quite warm too.

they walked hand in hand towards the tea shop.

***

to say the date went well was a bit of an understatement. y/n couldn't remember the last time she had so much fun with someone, and frankly neither could harry. they talked, they listened, they spent some time in comfortable silence as they ate and later, harry even took her to Dogweed and Deathcap to buy her a flutterby bush. but even after that harry really wasn't ready to call it the end. he wanted to do so much more with her, but he physically had to stop himself. he wanted to take her dancing, he wanted to watch the stars with her, he wanted to cook dinner with her he wanted to do so many more things. maybe on the second date. he tried to calm himself down.

y/n felt spoiled beyond control. besides the flowers, the tea and cakes and the plant harry bought, she loved spending time with him; she didn't want the date to end. he was such a sweetheart, and had such a lovely personality, it made it hard for y/n to not like him. besides that, he was funny as hell. and not to mention, cute.

as the day came to an end and curfew snuck up, they walked back towards the castle, still hand in hand, but now closer to each other, with big smiles gracing their faces.

"this was really fun, harry," she nudged him with her shoulder.

"yeah?" he smirked softly, "what do you say we do this some other time?"

y/n blushed at his straightforwardness.

"a second date, huh?" she bit her lip and stopped, making him stop too, his smile faltering a little, scared that he might have come off too strong too quick.

"oh, mean, yes but only if you. i don't want to -" his eyes widened slightly.

she turned to face him, standing on her tiptoes to lean up and kiss his cheek, letting her lips linger for a bit long, allowing her lipstick to leave a stain.

"does that answer your question?" she smirked.

it was harry's turn to be flustered. he thought his body would combust from the way his blood was heating up by her close proximity. and especially the feeling of her lips on his cheek.

"yep. message received." his throat felt dry as he answered back.

her hand reached up to pat his other cheek in reassurance. she eyed the lipstick mark on his cheek and beamed with pride. she turned back ahead and pulled him along, smiling like a love struck fool.

the warmth of her lips still lingered on his cheek for the rest of the night and harry prayed that it would never leave. she had quite literally left a lasting imprint on him.