A/N: This was a plot idea that popped into my head while I was writing “All I Want for Christmas.” Hopefully this one won't take as long beyond the holiday it's written for to finish. Needless to say, this is a Valentine's fan fic. For the record, this is NOT the sequel to “All I Want for Christmas” (I'm just saying that now to diffuse any questions on that front). I'm grateful to all those who read and reviewed my first attempt as writing fan fiction. This is my second attempt. Hopefully it will turn out as well as the first one did.

Lots of side-ships in this one. Let's see if I can remember all of them that will come up…we've got: Ron/Luna, Neville/Ginny, Lupin/Tonks, Bill/Fleur, and references to Lily/James. This story is slightly AU, but only in the sense that I've added some characteristics to some characters.

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies. All I own is the plotline and a song that will appear later on in the story.

The Music of Love

Prologue:

Harry was pacing the floor of the flat the Trio shared in Hogsmeade for the third time in two days.

“Blimey, Harry,” Ron said in bewilderment from his chair. “You must be seriously be going mental. There's nothing about teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts that should have you this stressed out.”

Harry looked over at Ron, in his orange and black Chudley Cannons assistant manager robes. “I don't know why you're so relaxed,” he said bewilderedly.

Ron got up slowly and limped over to Harry, the ever-present reminder of the quidditch career-ending injury that Ron had suffered in the final battle with Voldemort. He put his hand on Harry's shoulder and sighed in bewilderment. “Harry,” he stated firmly, “I'm going to go make us some reservations over at The Three Broomsticks for the two of us for lunch. I'll drag whatever has you so bloody stressed out of you then.”

Before Harry could respond, Ron had disapparated to make the reservations.

Harry sighed in frustration. The one person that he typically turned to for advice in situations like this was exactly the one person that he couldn't turn to this time.

Hermione.

His Hermione.

The Hermione that had been his for almost two years now.

Harry smiled in recollection. They had finally realized that what they shared was more than friendship during the Christmas holidays of their last year at Hogwarts, when they had gone to stay with her folks. Since they got together late one night while they were there, the two of them had been nearly inseparable. They had even fought Voldemort side-by-side, and she had played a large role in his final defeat.

It was her idea that the three of them get a flat together in Hogsmeade, which wasn't too inconveniently out of the way of any of their jobs.

To the surprise of some, Harry said that he'd had enough fighting after defeating Voldemort, and took the DADA position at Hogwarts. Hermione was also still in the castle regularly, as she took Professor McGonagall's place as the Transfiguration professor, and she still spent a lot of time in the library, which is where she is on this beautiful Saturday morning. Ron's injury in the final battle kept him from his dream of playing quidditch professionally with his beloved Chudley Cannons, but their manager caught wind of Ron's skills at strategizing and asked him to be his assistant. The Cannons have improved drastically since Ron's come aboard, and it's widely believed that Ron will someday have the Cannons managerial position.

A year after they moved in to their flat, a fourth person moved in.

Luna Lovegood.

Harry smirked a bit when he thought of her. Ron had fallen hard for her during their seventh year, and at the Halloween Ball he had even worked up the nerve to ask her to be his girlfriend. She was overjoyed…putting it mildly. She immediately leaped into his arms and gave him a big kiss—right smack dab in the middle of the Great Hall—much to everyone's amusement.

Harry had been there with Hermione that night, and gave her a slight squeeze when Luna leapt into Ron's arms. Hermione had looked up at him with a big smile on her face before leaning her head on to Harry's shoulder and saying “I'm glad he's found someone that will make him happy.”

Harry was honestly a bit surprised that Ron and Luna hadn't gotten married yet. Of course, Ron had to propose before that could happen, but everybody, including the wizarding tabloids expected that to happen before too long.

Marriage. Harry thoughts drifted to the numerous discussions that he'd had with Hermione on the subject. They both knew that they wanted to get married eventually, but they didn't feel like they were ready quite yet. Over the past couple of weeks, though, Harry had started to get the sense that they were close enough to being ready to marry to start seriously thinking about proposing.

Of course, he hadn't mentioned that observation to her. He wanted to surprise her when he proposed.

That was his problem.

Harry has absolutely no idea of how to propose to the love of his life, despite the fact that he's known her for nine years. Not even figuring out how to beat Voldemort had been this baffling.

He walked over to the window and looked down at the street, with the light layer of snow covering it. There were numerous Hogwarts students wandering around, as this was the last Hogsmeade weekend before the Christmas holidays, and the students were taking advantage of the opportunity to do their Christmas shopping for their friends. The occasional couple would pass by, holding hands.

Harry smiled slightly, then turned and walked away from the window and into the bedroom that he shared with Ron. It was pretty obvious which side of the room was Ron's, because it was a big mess. Hermione had rubbed off on Harry and had helped him to become a cleaner person than he had been before they had finally gotten together.

Ron's bed had unwrinkled sheets on it. Proof that Ron had not slept in his bed the night before. Not that Harry needed a reminder. They were making plenty of noise in Luna's bedroom.

Harry felt bad for Hermione, her room was right next door to Luna's, so she would have heard even more noise than Harry did from across the hall. Not to mention the thumping of the bed frame against the wall.

Harry figured that maybe that was why Hermione had gotten up so early to go to the library this morning. They had shared a cup of coffee before she had left, and she clearly hadn't slept well.

Luna had left an hour ago for The Quibbler's offices, where she had taken her father's place as the editor after graduating. The Quibbler had become a more respected publication after Rita Skeeter's interview of Harry had been published during his fifth year, but many still looked down upon it as nonsense.

Harry walked over to the closet and pulled out a hard black case and carried it over to his bed and laid it down. He opened it quickly, and carefully picked up his guitar. He tuned it fairly precisely, but wasn't skilled enough yet to tune it exactly.

Harry started to play some simple songs that he knew to help take his mind off of his troubles. Eventually, he started to sing love songs. He smiled dreamily as he thought about Hermione. He could see her nibbling on the end of her favorite quill while she worked.

“That sounds beautiful, Harry,” a dreamy voice came from behind him.

Harry stopped playing and turned around to face the door. “Hi, Luna,” Harry replied. “What are you doing back here so soon? I figured you'd be at the office for a couple more hours yet.”

“I realized that I forgot to grab an article that I want published in the next edition, so I had to come get it,” Luna replied dreamily.

“I'm sorry I distracted you, then,” Harry said apologetically.

“You have no reason to be sorry, Harry,” Luna told him. “Girls really like guys who play the guitar. If we weren't already in relationships, then maybe we would have gotten together.”

Harry's eyes grew wide in alarm at the thought. “We'll never know,” Harry offered weakly in response. “I don't want to delay you any longer than you have to. We can talk later. I hope things go smoothly at work for you, Luna.”

“Thanks, Harry,” Luna said dreamily. “I'm sure they will. Don't worry. You'll figure out how to propose to Hermione sooner or later. I'll see you when I get off from work.”

Harry's mouth dropped open at Luna's comment about his proposal troubles. He has never ceased to be amazed at Luna's ability to know exactly what's troubling people before they had admitted it to anybody else.

Once he regained his composure, Harry resumed playing his guitar softly. After a few minutes, he put it back in its case, which he returned to the closet.

Harry sighed in frustration as he got dressed for lunch with Ron. He then walked out to the living room and sat back down. He was surprised that Ron wasn't back yet. Surely it didn't take this long to make reservations for lunch.

“Why does it have to be so bloody confusing figuring out how to propose?” Harry muttered aloud to himself. “It's only Hermione. It's not like she hasn't been my best friend for the last nine years or anything like that.”

Harry paused to think about what he had just said.

“The only way that one can legitimately put `only' and `Hermione' in the same sentence is to say that Hermione's the only woman for me,” Harry mused to himself. “I can't imagine what my life would be like without her there beside me to share every moment with me. Not that I'd want to, either.”

Harry knew that proposing to Hermione without her figuring out what he was up to eventually was going to be extremely difficult, if not downright impossible.

“How in the world am I going to pull this one off?” he murmured to himself as he got up and started to pace again.