The Yule Ball Missing Moment
Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does, bless her.
Summary - Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley struggle to find dates for the highly anticipated Yule Ball on Christmas night.
01
'Miss Weasley, are you paying attention?'
'Huh?'
Ginny looked up hazily from her notes to find that Professor Flitwick was addressing her, whilst the rest of the class were turned in their seats to stare at her; annoyingly, a couple of Hufflepuff's up the front were smirking at her in amusement. It was Friday afternoon, in her defence, and despite the fact that it was the middle of a theory class, her mind was completely elsewhere.
It would be Christmas holidays soon, and the Yule Ball was due to be held Christmas night, as it was tradition for it to be held between the first and second tasks of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Ginny desperately wanted to go, but as she was both in her third year and as yet without a partner, she would not be allowed to go, unless accompanied by someone that was allowed.
She had foolishly let herself hope that Harry Potter (one of the Champions mind you) would, out of the blue, ask her to go with him; being asked out by him had been a dream of hers since he had first come into her life, but after it had been announced earlier in the term that there would be the Yule Ball, her dreams had become far more reoccurring.
But as Harry was so busy chasing his own dream, in the form of Cho Chang, she felt that her dream would inevitably go unfulfilled.
Although she was not yet ready to give up on him - last time she had heard from Hermione, Harry was yet to have a date - she was beginning to think though that she would have to bite her pride, and actually be the one to ask someone if she really wanted to go to this exclusive event.
However, she could never EVER pluck up the courage to ask Harry, it would be the end of her.
'I said, are you paying attention?' Professor Flitwick squeaked again.
'Yes, Professor,' Ginny replied.
'Then you will have no problem repeating what I just said,' he asked her.
'Err...' Ginny hesitated and looked down at her parchment, which was no help at all, for she had covered it entirely with scribbles of snitches, broomsticks, and names of boys of whom she might consider asking to go to the Yule Ball with her.
And Harry Potter's initials were everywhere too.
She looked back up at a restless Professor Flitwick, and an entire class in search of an answer (her fellow Gryffindor's looked as though they were preparing themselves for a loss of points) when Ginny remembered they were covering Cheering Charms.
'Well,' Ginny said, attempting to pull some words out thin air, 'you just started talking about the effects of Cheering Charms, and that we really have to concentrate when performing them.'
Professor Flitwick had a mixed look of being impressed, whilst seemingly frustrated at the same time.
'Good,' he said with a little nod, 'and then...?'
'And you said it's also important to note that when the spell is underdone, it will have no effect on the subject,' Ginny said carefully, raising her eyebrows slightly, 'and when overdone, it can cause the subject to be overcome with fits of hysterical laughter. And that is has also been known to be incurable.'
The class turned back to Professor Flitwick, who seemed to blink wordlessly as he tried to think up what to say to that.
'Well, indeed, you're right, Miss Weasley,' Professor Flitwick said, 'those are the effects you can encounter if you do not concentrate properly, and I definitely did say that - however, that was some time ago now, as we have all well and truly moved on to the effects of the Freezing Charm. So clearly, you have not been concentrating.'
Ginny felt her stomach drop.
'I-'
'Having said that,' Flitwick said, cutting her off, 'I will let you off with a warning, Miss Weasley, simply due to the fact that I do not wish to deduct points from Gryffindor, when you are the only ones most likely to win the House Cup over Slytherin again this year.'
There were murmurs of agreement throughout the classroom, several of the Hufflepuff's were nodding, and all of the Gryffindor's were expressing a sigh of relief.
'Thanks?' Ginny said questionably.
She didn't particularly care about the House Cup right now, her mind was still thinking of people she might ask to the Yule Ball - but simply to keep her fellow Gryffindor's happy, she put as much of it as she could into the back of her mind until the end of class.
When she entered the Gryffindor common room that evening, Ginny's mind was well and truly re-immersed in the problem of not yet having a partner for the Yule Ball. She had aimlessly wandered the hallways of Hogwarts for a couple of hours, picturing herself on Harry Potter's arm, entering the Great Hall along with the other Champions.
Once she had brought herself out of her reverie, she had then contemplated the candidates with whom she might have to end up going with, when it became a reality that Harry won't be taking her.
She was just about to go up to her dormitory and write up a flow-chart with ideas on how she might manage to wrangle Harry's attention, when she spotted Hermione sitting over by the fireplace on her own and immersed in a book. Ginny did a quick look around the common room, and noticed that neither Harry nor her brother Ron were anywhere to be seen, and as Quidditch had been cancelled because of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, she had no idea where they could be.
Ginny liked to think that she stopped and headed over to Hermione as her friend, to give her some company and talk about the things they usually talked about, like homework and how their week had gone. But in reality, she went over fully intending to find out EXACTLY where Harry Potter was, whether Hermione knew if he had a date for the Yule Ball yet, and if she'd managed to slip the idea into his head that Ginny was available.
'Hi,' Ginny said sweetly, sitting in one of the other chairs by the fireplace.
Hermione looked up over her book on Giant Wars and spotted Ginny, before closing her book and sitting a little upright.
'Oh hi,' she said nervously, turning slightly pink at Ginny's sudden appearance, 'how are you?'
'I'm fine, and you?' Ginny said, completely missing Hermione's obscure embarrassment.
'Oh I'm, fine,' Hermione hesitated with a shrug that Ginny didn't see either, her eyes kept flashing toward the portrait hole for some reason.
'How's your day been?' Ginny asked curiously, now glancing at Hermione.
'Average,' Hermione said, nodding, biting her lip, 'nothing special happened at all, very normal for me, you know?'
Ginny eyed her suspiciously.
'Is everything alright, Hermione?' Ginny asked her.
'Fine, everything's fine,' Hermione said sharply and nervously, 'so how was your day?'
Ginny raised an eyebrow. 'Same,' she said with a nod, 'just average.'
Hermione nodded and Ginny turned to look back at the portrait hole.
'Do you know where Harry and Ron are?' she asked, scanning the room again in case she'd missed them.
'No idea,' Hermione replied curtly, 'been in library all free period, they had Divination I think, and I came straight back here after Viktor- errr, I mean-'
Hermione hesitated again, causing Ginny to look curiously around at her.
'What was that?' Ginny questioned her, staring at her friend intently, who was turning red again, 'Viktor?'
'Who?' Hermione asked awkwardly, 'I don't know any Viktor-'
'Are you talking about Viktor Krum?' Ginny demanded. 'Has he been hanging around the library again?'
'Yes! That's it!' Hermione practically shouted, making Ginny jump, 'he came- err, showed up and started browsing through the line of bookcases again, and he caused a group of giggling girls to follow in after him. So I left.'
Ginny stared for the longest time at her friend, attempting to figure out whether she was full of it or not. Eventually she decided that Hermione's answer was good enough, and returned her focus on the portrait hole, which seemed to be coughing up every single other Gryffindor except for Harry and Ron.
'So I meant to ask you-' Ginny started, fully intending on bringing up Harry again, when Hermione flat out interrupted her.
'OK OK, Victor Krum asked me to go to the Yule Ball!' Hermione spat at Ginny.
Ginny turned to look at Hermione so fast that a worrying clicking noise reverberated from somewhere around her neck. She stared at her friend, wide-eyed and in disbelief for several silent and nervous moments.
'He asked... you?' Ginny hissed, barely believing it as Hermione put a finger up to her mouth to quieten her.
They both looked around - there were a few students hanging around the staircase nearby, but they were in their own conversations and appeared not to have heard anything. The rest of the students were practically on the other side of the common room, safely out of earshot.
'Krum?' Ginny repeated, once they'd deemed it safe to talk.
Hermione bit her lip and nodded her head. Ginny bit her lip too, but only in an attempt to stop from laughing out loud.
'Are you serious?' Ginny hissed at her, still in disbelief.
'Very serious,' Hermione assured her - she was a little red in the face still, but she felt a whole lot better now that she had managed to get this piece of news out of her system.
'But... how? Why? You?' Ginny stopped herself and put up a hand apologetically, before taking a breath and rephrasing the question. 'What did you say?'
Hermione hesitated and looked around for potential eavesdroppers once more just in case.
'He told me that he had been coming to the library, not for the books,' Hermione explained to her, 'but to build up the courage to talk to me.'
'You're kidding?' Ginny was speechless.
'And, well, once he'd managed to get that out, the rest just seemed to come - he asked me to the ball and...' Hermione hesitated again, looking around nervously before finally smiling, 'and I said yes!'
Ginny stared at her. She also could not help but let a little smile appear on her face before she said, 'that's great, Hermione, I'm glad you did say yes.'
'Thank you,' Hermione said, still blushing.
'Well, you wouldn't want to wait around for my stupid brother to ask you last minute, would you?' Ginny asked her with a wink, and rather than agreement, Hermione looked around nervously again.
'Please don't tell him,' she begged, and Ginny figured she meant Ron, 'and please don't tell Harry... or anyone! Please.'
'It's OK Hermione, I won't tell anyone,' Ginny assured her, 'I think it's pretty certain I won't tell Harry. But, don't worry, it will stay between us.'
'Thank you,' Hermione said, beginning to breath normally again.
After a moment's pause in which the two girls appreciated each other's friendship, Hermione suddenly looked at Ginny in a worried fashion.
'And what about you?' Hermione asked importantly, 'are you going to let yourself be a pity date for someone last minute, or are you going to try and get what you want?'
Ginny sighed.
'I don't know,' she said sadly, 'do you know if Harry has a date yet?'
'Not as far as I know,' Hermione told her, 'why don't you just ask him?'
'No way,' Ginny spat at her, 'he'll say no.'
'You don't know that for sure!' Hermione told her firmly.
'Couldn't you... you know...?' Ginny hinted, but Hermione shook her head.
'I've told you I'm not playing matchmaker,' Hermione said, 'we agreed, no match making.'
'But you have a date now,' Ginny pointed out, 'please, I'm getting desperate.'
'Then ask,' Hermione said through gritted teeth, nodding toward the portrait hole.
Ginny suddenly turned around to look, and sure enough, Harry and Ron were crawling through the portrait hole looking collectively grim. She hesitated, but realised too late that any sudden movements toward the girls staircase would be seen by them, so she turned back to look at Hermione with alarm in her eyes, and scarlet in her cheeks.
Hermione disappeared behind her book as they approached, meaning the two of them trailed their eyes over a red-in-the-face Ginny, attempting to look cool, and an anti-social Hermione, attempting to be oblivious.
'Hi Ginny,' Harry said pointedly, making Ginny laugh nervously.
'Hi,' she said expectantly, smiling from ear to ear.
Ron ignored his sister completely and sat in the armchair that was closer to Hermione - much to Ginny's dismay, Harry followed, and the two of them began a conversation, almost literally with their backs to her. Ginny scowled and, making sure Harry and Ron didn't see her, she kicked Hermione's shin to get her attention.
Hermione peered angrily over her book at her, before assessing the situation and sighing deeply to herself. She snapped her book shut sharply, making both Harry and Ron jump, before placing it on her lap and smiling up at them both.
'So,' she said sweetly, 'did either of you two manage to get a date for the dance yet?'
Both boys shook their heads.
'You mean you didn't ask Cho yet, Harry?' Hermione questioned him.
'Err, no, not as yet,' Harry admitted
'Shame,' Hermione said, glancing at Ginny who smiled and gave her the thumbs up, 'and you're just waiting for the right moment to ask Fleur Delacour, aren't you Ron?'
'I'm don't want to ask Fleur,' Ron snarled at her.
'Oh of course not,' Hermione waved an airy hand of acknowledgement, 'but you have it all planned out, don't you? Who you're going with, I mean?'
Ron blinked at her. 'Maybe.'
'Why are you suddenly interested in whether we have dates or not, Hermione?' Harry asked her curiously, making her raise her eyebrows.
'Oh no reason,' Hermione shrugged, 'just that, it's topical I guess. It's fast approaching, you know, and I heard a few boys in our year already have dates.'
Harry and Ron were both busy looking worried at each other to notice Ginny get up, pat Hermione on her shoulder in thanks for helping her get the information, before she disappeared up the spiral staircase to the girls dormitory.
She suddenly had an abundant of ideas for her flow-chart to get Harry's attention.
