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He stared at her in shock and awe, unblinking. He absently dropped his chess piece onto the board and opted to grip the chair arm instead as the world spun on a brand new axis.
“Come again?” he asked just to make sure he didn’t actually hallucinate the entire thing. There were an awful lot of Weasley & Weasley products circulating through Hogwarts and you could never be too sure.
Hermione’s cheeks bloomed red and she was becoming less sure of herself with each passing moment. She fiddled absently with her cardigan instead of making eye contact with him.
“I said, would you like to come to Slughorn’s Christmas Party with me?” She huffed before adding a perfunctory ‘please’ when he still didn’t answer her.
He knew it was odd enough when she offered to join him for a game of wizard’s chess in the Gryffindor Common Room, considering she had spent months outright avoiding him and she had made it well known that she thought the entire game was ‘utterly barbaric’, but he had thought that maybe, just maybe, she had come to her senses about him.
Now his heart had sunk to his stomach and he felt utterly defeated. She was beautiful, clever, and entirely too arrogant for her own good. A challenge if he’d ever seen one. And he’d been intrigued by her for two years before he’d finally worked up the nerve to try (and definitely fail) to flirt with her.
“How much of this has to do with you actually liking me and how much of it has to do with that?” He asked pointedly and she turned her lovely, frizzy head of curls to see Ron and Lavender snuggled up together on the loveseat by the fire, whispering sweet nothings.
He watched a flicker of emotions flash across her face. Jealousy, followed by embarrassment, ending with remorse.
“That’s what I thought,” he said in a subdued tone that brought her gaze back to his chest. She was adamantly avoiding his eyes and the blotches of embarrassment that painted her face only seemed to grow.
“McLaggen, I’m sorry–” She began her apology in a gentle voice which prompted a snort from him.
“Granger,” he said with humor crinkling his eyes. She raised her eyes to him.
“You can’t ask me out if you’re exclusively calling me by my last name. At least put in the proper effort before I say yes.” He smirked incorrigibly.
“Say yes? You’d still–you’d still say yes?” She asked doubtfully.
“An entire evening to try to woo you? Who in their right mind would say no to that?” He teased, causing her to smile carefully at him.
“Alright, Cormac, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to Slughorn’s Christmas Party?” She tried again and the smile she was giving him felt like a hard earned victory.
“Only if you put in some effort in this game of wizard’s chess. I’ve played against trolls who were better than you,” he teased and her surprised laugh was the best thing he’d heard in years.
“I was going easy on you!” she huffed before moving her chess piece.
“That’s the last thing I want from you,” he waggled his eyebrows before he declared check. She screwed up her face and slid her king out of check and he felt like he was finally playing on her level.