Hermione had another big smile on her face after listening to Harry tell her that he was happy that they were going to the ball together. In truth, she was worried that she was not pretty, but Harry didn't see her that way at all. He knew her and accepted her for who she was, not what she looked like. What Hermione did not realize, was that Harry did think that she was beautiful and that he was the lucky one.
Packing up her books, Hermione stood up and asked, "Would you help me put these back on the shelves and then we can go practice a bit?"
Harry stood up, grabbed the second stack of books, and began putting them back on the shelves. "Sure. Can we stop by the dormitory first? I want to grab a couple of things from my trunk."
"Okay. I'll meet you back here in a couple of minutes." After gathering up the books, Hermione was moving between the shelves with practiced ease.
When they had finally entered the Room of Requirement, Hermione asked Harry, "What did you need in the dorms?"
"I decided that I am going to keep the map and my cloak in the new trunk now. My school trunk isn't really that secure and I don't want to risk losing either of those items." Harry stated.
The Room of Requirement looked the same as it did when Hermione had first called it into being the day before. Looking around in wonder at all the room provided, Harry walked over to the library area, took off his cloak, and draped it across the back of the couch.
He flopped down onto the couch after grabbing the spell list from Sirius and Remus out of the resized trunk. Hermione had come over and was sitting on the other end of the couch with her feet tucked under her as she began reading one of the books about the history of the tournament. After about an hour of reading, Harry wanted to try a couple of the new spells. The Room of Requirement responded by providing a practice dummy in the dueling area.
Getting up from the couch, Harry called over to Hermione, "I'm going to try out a few of these spells that Snuffles and Moony gave us." He walked over to the dueling area and stood fifteen feet from the practice dummy. Pulling his wand from his sleeve, he called out, "Reducto." The force of the spell knocked the dummy back about six feet and left a smoking chest plate with a hole in it where his spell had hit.
Hermione had put down her book and was watching Harry practice. When she saw what the spell had done to the training dummy, she got up from her spot and joined Harry in the dueling area. "Harry, do you mind if I practice with you?"
"No. Do you know the wand movement for Reducto?"
Hermione gave Harry a look that plainly conveyed that she did indeed know the spell and proper wand movement. Harry smirked at her and reset the training dummy on the platform, then stepped behind Hermione so he would not distract her.
"Reducto." Hermione cried aloud while taking aim at the target. The spell knocked the dummy almost three feet back, the hole in the chest was only about half the size of the one that Harry's spell had created. "Wow. That is a strong spell. I didn't do as much damage as you did though. I always knew that you were a powerful wizard."
"Thanks, Hermione, but I'm nothing special. I may be powerful but I'm not a great wizard or anything." Harry said softly while looking at the damaged training dummy.
"Harry, please look at me." When he had turned to face Hermione, she continued. "You are a powerful wizard. The difference in our results clearly shows that. I do believe you will be a great wizard one day. You have already done some amazing things that most adult wizards and witches will never do, nor would most of them want or be able to." Hermione said with conviction. Seeing that Harry was about to argue this point, Hermione held up her hand and cut him off before he could begin. "Trust me, Harry. You are becoming a great wizard and an even better man."