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Harry glowered across the dance floor at a flirting couple. Ginny’s red hair glinted in the fading sunlight. Cedric said something to her and she snorted, then full-on guffawed. Harry scowled at the man, deeply offended by this occurrence.
Harry was sitting alone and nursing a drink, as he was wont to do at large parties that had dancing, his tie undone around his neck and shirt buttons open.
A bright laugh shook him away from his brooding and he turned to see the woman of the hour, Cho herself, looking like a Disney princess in her glittery white ball gown. She collapsed into a chair and gathered her glossy black hair in one hand, using it to fan the back of her neck. She turned to look at him. Her face was flushed and she had an air of soft, breathless contentment.
“You look beautiful,” Harry said honestly. She grinned at him, and her nose crinkled.
“Now, now, Mister Potter,” she chided, her eyes sparkling, “I’m a married woman!” She waggled her ring finger at him as evidence.
“Alright, alright, my bad,” Harry capitulated jokingly, lifting his arms in surrender. He glanced up and caught sight of the groom, standing a bit behind Cho and wearing a slightly awkward expression.
“Daniel, darling, have you met Harry?” Cho asked, flapping her hand to beckon her husband closer.
The man stepped forward gamely, offering a tentative smile and reaching out a hand for Harry to shake.
Harry felt for him. The groom’s friends and family were here, of course, but as a whole the guest list was overwhelmingly of the Hogwarts crowd, and they were a notoriously insular group. Harry supposed that Cho simply had more friends than her partner, and it just so happened that all of her friends were Hogwarts people. (Although, perhaps that was to be expected when one spent seven years cloistered in a castle with the same people).
Harry shook the proffered hand firmly, and decided that if he had to quantify him, Daniel (darling) was more of a Cedric than a Harry: He was tall and handsome, (if more rugged than Cedric, whose general physique was more elfin-underwear-model than human). Daniel was built, broad and tall, but the imposing stature was offset by a pair of the friendliest eyes Harry had ever seen: green, like Harry’s, though a more muted, earthy brown-green.
“So,” Cho said, stealing Harry’s glass and sniffing it, before treating herself to a swig, “ That’s happening, huh?” Without turning from Harry, she gestured with an elegant motion of her head to the unwelcome sight that had been occupying Harry for the greater part of the night: Across the dance floor, Ginny and Cedric stood laughing together, rather too close for comfort, in Harry’s opinion.
Harry groaned and snatched his drink back. “Don’t remind me,” he growled, hearing Cho’s tinkling laugh.
“Our exes,” she explained to a confused Daniel, waving to indicate Ginny and Cedric.
“Ah,” Daniel said, shifting awkwardly, sending Harry a grimace of sympathy.
“Oh, darling, sit down,” Cho said, indicating a chair next to her, “Did you know, Harry and I used to date?”
Harry grunted in response to Daniel’s raised eyebrows. “Date is a strong word, Cho,” he downplayed, smiling ruefully.
“Oh, come off it Harry!” She turned to Daniel, “I was his first girlfriend,” she announced proudly.
“Is that so?” Daniel asked, giving Harry an amused look.
Harry groaned, slouching in his seat. “Cho, please don’t try to make me the target of your husband’s wrath; he looks like he could break me in half by accident.”
“Oh, don’t worry, it wouldn’t be an accident,” Cho assured him.
Daniel laughed heartily in response. “So did you invite all your exes to your wedding or just the handsome ones?” He asked, giving Harry a friendly wink.
Harry raised his glass to toast him, grinning. “Cho, have I mentioned I like your new husband very much?”
Cho smiled sweetly and snuggled up against Daniel, “Not my fault I have excellent taste in men.”
Daniel’s eyes were like warm fire as he wrapped his arms around Cho and kissed the top of her head in response.
They looked so happy together.
“Better keep him away from Ginny,” Harry mumbled half-heartedly into his drink.
Cho’s eyes alighted on him and they shared a look of commiseration for their weird love rectangle situation that only the two of them would ever understand and that Cho had just bought herself a one-way ticket out of.
“Don’t worry, Harry,” Cho said softly, her eyes warm. “She’s got good taste in men, too. I love Cedric but,” she lowered her voice conspiratorially, “I’m rooting for you two.” She tried to wink at him, but ended up blinking instead because, despite a year trying to teach her how to when they were dating, Cho still couldn’t wink.
Harry smiled, his heart welling with affection for her.
“I think I’m going to ask Ginny to dance,” he decided, and then stood up before he could change his mind.
Bolstering himself with Cho's encouraging noises from behind him, Harry navigated his way awkwardly across the dance floor to where Ginny and Cedric were giggling over canapes. He swallowed down his anxiety and inserted himself smoothly between the two, cutting off whatever witty remark Cedric had been about to make.
“Ginny,” he addressed her as confidently as he could.
She looked at him, her brown eyes surprised and curious. She was sun-tanned and vastly freckled, her vibrant red hair loose over her back and tickling her shoulders, left bare by her sleeveless yellow dress. “Harry?”
She was stunning, blindingly so. Like the sun.
He closed his eyes. “Canihavethisdance?”
When he didn’t immediately hear a response, he cracked a lid and peeked.
She was smiling up at him, eyes warm. She was incandescent.
“Lead the way,” she said simply, gesturing towards the dance floor.
And he did, taking a freckled hand in his and easily ignoring a spluttering Cedric.
He glanced back across the dance floor and saw Cho and Daniel still cuddled together. Daniel spotted him and gave him a tentative thumbs up. Cho blinked at him.
Harry grinned and saluted them, Ginny's hand warm in his.