Chapter One

Harry sat, staring blankly into the fire. He thought, as he stared at nothing in particular, about what he had just learned, when he heard the soft sound of someone moving stealthily down the stairs from the girls' dormitory. He looked up to see Ginny Weasley and two other girls sneaking down the stairs. Remaining still, he watched as they made their way toward the exit from the common room. Just as they reached the portrait, he cleared his throat. There were two screams and one muttered, "Bloody hell!". Harry snickered as he quickly figured out who said what.

"Miss Weasley, what would your mother say if she heard you using such language," said Harry, in his best imitation of Professor McGonagall he could manage.

"She'd probably tell you to go bugger off, Harry Potter!" spat Ginny, as she spun around, wand drawn. "Besides, you sound like McGonagall, with a cold."

Harry threw up his hands, "So where are you lot off to, at this time of night?"

"Nowhere, if you don't shut your bloody gob," hissed Ginny. "But if you really want to know, we were heading down to the kitchens to score some late night snacks, until you blew that plan. We won't make it there without Filch catching us. He usually takes twenty minutes to have a spot of tea...about ten minutes ago, now."

"Well, I may be able to solve that problem, if you don't mind another tagging along?"

The girls looked at each other, the one, Vicky something or other, thought Harry looked undecided and Demelza, the other girl was shaking her head no. Vicky turned to Harry and said, "How are you going to pull it off, just like you did to put your name in the Goblet?" before turning and stomping back up the stairs.

Harry was about to say something when Demelza said to Ginny, "I knew she was dense, but not that monumentally stupid, too."

Turning to Harry, she said, "Yes, we would appreciate your assistance, noble sir." She finished with a slightly overdone curtsy.

Bowing slightly, Harry replied, "Then first you must allow me to arm myself for the quest, milady." He turned and ran up the stairs to his room, to the giggling of the two girls.

Ginny's eyes went wide as she saw what Harry was carrying when he returned. She let out a low whistle and said, "Well, that prat who is also known as my brother, at least got that right," as she reached out for the cloth draped over Harry's arm. "And, I always wondered what happened to THAT," she added, noticing the folded parchment in his hand.

Demelza, for her part, looked at the two them as if they were stark, raving mad, until Ginny, grabbed the cloth and shook it out. She had Harry stand in the middle, between herself and Demelza and threw the cloth over their heads. "May I?" she asked Harry, as she unfolded the parchment.

Harry, too amazed to speak, simply nodded.

With a wicked grin on her face, Ginny tapped her wand to the parchment, saying, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

They made it to the kitchens without mishap or encountering Filch, but once there, the exuberant elves, led by Dobby, gave them enough provisions to launch an Arctic expedition, or Harry mused, feed his cousin Dudley for a couple of hours. Ginny charmed the serving platter to float lazily behind them.

"Damn," hissed Ginny, tapping the mound of food on the platter with her wand for the third time. "I can only get that spell to work about one out of ten tries."

"What spell?" asked Harry.

"Disillusionment. The twins taught it to me last year."

"Huh? Isn't that like Sixth year spell? Should THEY be learning...Oh...never mind, I can be dense sometimes."

Ginny snorted at Harry's response and said, "Yeah, Harry, you of all people should realize that if there is anything that can be used for mischief and mayhem, my brothers would have spent weeks trying to learn."

Demelza just stared at them, between glancing at the map and looking around the kitchen.

"Can you show me how to do it?"

"Sure. The incantation is occulto and the wand movement is a sharp tap."

Harry took out his wand and tried it, much to his surprise, the food and platter slowly faded from view. Ginny threw the cloak back over them and took the Map back off of Demelza and led them back to the common room.

Once there, Demelza took some of the food and said, "I'll take some of this up to Vicky, maybe she's settled down by now." Harry and Ginny nodded at her as she turned to leave.

"So, Ginny, you do this often?"

"No, not too often. But why don't you?"

"Who says I don't? It's self defense you know...I fear for my pillow every night I don't. If Ron has another 'food' dream I like to be prepared, you know."

"Yep, that's my brother...the human hover...err...Hoover."

Harry laughed, for the first time in weeks, he really laughed.

"So, why were you sitting in front of the fire looking like your Kneazle died?" asked Ginny, taking a big bite out of a chocolate éclair.

Getting serious again, Harry answered, "Well, do you know the Flame Freezing Charm and something to keep me from being dragon kibble?"

Ginny's mouth went wide, in a silent gasp. "The First Task is something to do with dragons?" she finally whispered.

Harry nodded, looking glum once again.

"I'm sorry Harry, I don't...but Gred and Forge probably do, why don't you ask them?"

"But...isn't that...cheating?"

"And finding out what the task is beforehand isn't?"

"Point."

"So what were you thinking?"

"Well, the Disillusionment charm you showed me could be handy and well, not getting toasted sounds appealing."

"Yes, but do you know what you have to do with the dragon?"

"Take something away from its nest."

"Bloody hell!" hissed Ginny, "not just dragons but nesting dragons. Why don't they just throw whatever it is into a nest of basilisks instead?"

Harry snorted. "No, they wouldn't make it that easy for me."

Ginny giggled and said, "I guess not. But there's an idea. Whatever happened to that thing?"

"I don't know. It's probably still there. Why?"

"Well, the skin should be at least as tough as dragon hide and would probably make a pretty decent shield."

"Yeah, but we are only allowed our wands and what we are wearing. I'm not sure that would count. And I'm pretty sure it would be too thick to make into a cloak."

"You need to make some time to go get the bloody thing, it probably isn't going to last forever, but a basilisk will last longer than just about anything else. And it's yours. if you didn't know."

"What do you mean mine?"

"You killed it, right? Well, then because you conquered the bloody thing, its remains are yours to dispose of...right of conquest and all."

"Ginny, you are the first person to ever explain something like this to me. Most of the time everyone thinks I should either already know something or I'm too damn arrogant to follow the rules."

"What do you mean?" asked Ginny.

"Exactly what I said. Nobody ever tells me anything. Hell, back in first year, Hermione knew more about my parents, mostly my dad's Quidditch career at Hogwarts, than I did. I never found half the stuff she did, until midway through last year and that was only because I finally asked Professor Lupin about it and HE showed me the Gryffindor Team Yearbook. Which I didn't even know existed after being on the team for two and a half years!"

"But..."

"Yeah, I know...I don't ask a lot of questions, so it's partially my fault too. But I do have a bit of an excuse there. I don't know what I don't know, so it's a little hard to ask, if I don't know that I need to ask. After a few years at the Dursley's I pretty much gave up on asking questions. It was a sort of unwritten rule...don't ask, it will be easier if you don't. And more than half the time, if they did answer it was either a lie or something so spiteful it was better off not getting the answer in the first place."

"So that explains why you have so much trouble with things like the Floo? Nobody ever explained it to you?"

"You mean that there is a trick to not getting dumped on your arse every time you use it?"

Ginny nodded, biting her bottom lip. "Yeah, there is. I can't show you now, but I WILL make time, since my prat of a brother, who is supposedly your best friend can't be bothered to show you all this stuff."

"Thanks, Ginny. I guess I needed somebody to do that. I didn't even know who to ask without feeling like a complete ass when asking."

"Oh, by the way, basilisk venom goes for around ten Galleons a minim..."

"That's about 24,000 Galleons a gill?"

She nodded.

"Holy shit! There must be a gallon of it down there! And that doesn't even count the hide or anything else, I bet the heart and liver would be worth a small fortune, too."

Ginny picked up another pastry and looked around. "I wish we had thought to grab some tea. A self heating tea set would be nice, but I can't afford one."

"What do you mean "self heating tea set"?"

"Just like it sounds, tea set that's charmed to fill itself with water, heat it and then you dump in the tea. We are allowed to keep stuff like that in the dorm, but most don't because they cost around 50 Galleons and not too many people want to leave stuff like that around where it could get broken."

"Where can I get one?"

"There's several shops in Diagon Alley that sell them, probably a couple in Hogsmeade, too...but I don't know, because the couple of times I've been there with Mum we weren't in those kind of shops. Why, you've got 50 Galleons lying around?"

"Well, don't get mad or anything, but yeah. I've got a pile in my vault that I don't know what to do with..." Harry used his hands to show her the size of the pile, "and well, if I'm going to get all that stuff from the basilisk, I guess I can afford it, right?"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to get mad over that, but don't you need that to live on when you finish school? That size pile sounds like about 30,000 Galleons, if that's all it is."

"But the pile never shrinks! In fact it's bigger now than when I first got some money out, back in my first year."

"Then that may only be a vault for you to use until you come of age. I knew the Potters were fairly well off, but that sounds like you're a little better set than that. Is there anyone you know that you can ask about it?"

"Yeah, maybe," said Harry, sitting down and rubbing his hands through his hair. "But that would mean I'm rich, right? And Ron's been somewhat of a prat already! Sheesh..."

"Well, what do you expect, all he ever does is spend his allowance on Chocolate Frogs and Quidditch magazines, then complains about not having any walking about money. We don't have a lot of money, but we aren't exactly paupers."

"I guess...so back to my original question, where can I get one of those tea sets you mentioned, before we get to go to Hogsmeade?"

"I suppose you can order one by Owl Post. Most stores have catalogs for doing that kind of stuff. I bet there are some up in the dorms. If not the girls in my year, the older girls should have some, Fred and George probably have a couple too, but probably only Zonko's or Gambol and Japes. I'll get them for you tomorrow."

"That would be great. But how do I pay for anything, I mean I have some money, but not a lot on me."

"Well, you just use your vault key and press it to the spot on the order form."

Harry nodded, then blushed slightly before asking, "Umm...can you make sure a couple of the catalogs have clothes in them? I'd really like to get some decent clothes, other than my school robes."

"Oh, Harry," replied Ginny, somewhat embarrassed, too, "if we knew that you didn't like what you were wearing, we would have taken you shopping before the World Cup. Mum thought you dressed that way on purpose...what do they call it grungy or something like that."

"Bloody hell!" hissed Harry, "I did it again!"

"I guess not," said Ginny, smiling nervously.

"Right in one. I HATE dressing like this. But since it's all I've got other than school stuff, I'm stuck with it. Hell, half the time I go commando because I don't have enough pants that fit."

Ginny turned beat read when Harry said that.

"Oops...sorry, I guess you didn't need to know that," said Harry, also turning red. Just then, the mantle clock chimed three.

"I guess we should go to bed," said Ginny, yawning.

"Yeah," replied Harry. "It's been fun. We should do this more often."

Ginny agreed, before running up the stairs to the girls dorms.]

The next day, Harry was the last one out of his dorm, almost missing breakfast. When he got to the common room, Ginny was sitting on the sofa, in front of the fire.

"Hey there, sleepyhead, I've got something for you," she said, holding up a stack of about twenty catalogs. "Let's go down to breakfast and look at these later?"

Harry nodded. Then he asked, "How are you so awake this morning?"

She smiled and answered, "Did you know that Alicia and Angelina have a charmed espresso set in their dorm?"

Harry laughed. "Well that explains how they were able to handle Oliver's morning practices."

Ginny stuffed the catalogs into her school bag and grabbed Harry's arm, dragging him out the portrait. Once in the hall, she linked arms with him and walked that way with him all the way to breakfast. They were still linked when they arrived at the Gryffindor table. Ron was glaring daggers at Harry as he sat down. Ginny reached over and started filling Harry's plate. A large mound of scrambled eggs, six sausages, eight rashers of bacon, a small steak, kippers and several other things.

"What are doing that for?" hissed Ron.

"Harry found out about the first task, last night. And if you weren't walking around with a stick up your arse, you'd know what this is all about. Charlie says if you are going to face a dragon, you'd best be in top shape to do it. Harry's in training now, if you'd care to know. Mind, I'm not saying that dragons are the first task, but Harry's going to need all the help with it he can get. Are you in or are you going to be your normal self, Ron?"

Ron growled and said, under his breath, "I suppose so."

Hermione looked at Harry and Ginny, shrugged and said, "Anything I can help with?"

Ginny, ignoring Ron for the moment, said to Hermione, "Yes, can you teach this lout to do a decent summoning charm?"

Harry swallowed what he was eating and said, "Hey, I'm right here, you know."

Ginny smiled and said, "Yes, but your mouth was full. I know you have better manners than my brother, so I didn't want you to start picking up his bad ones. Oh, and Hermione, do you have a little time this afternoon to help me with a project?"

"That depends on what sort of project, I do have a couple of essays to write."

Ginny turned to Hermione and answered, in a whisper. Harry tried to follow what they were talking about but Ron, after hitting Harry on the shoulder a couple of times to get his attention, started talking to him. After a few minutes of the latest Quidditch scores and other such nonsense, Harry asked Ron if he was still mad. Ron shut up and left the table. Harry shrugged and went back to eating. Ginny had piled about three times as much on his plate as he normally ate, but he found that he was just able to finish it all. By the time he was finished, the conversation between Hermione and Ginny had expanded to include both Lavender and Parvati, the Gryffindor Chasers, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot and Daphne Greengrass (Harry had to look twice at her, just to make sure), her little sister (Harry didn't know her name, only that she was now a Second year student in Ravenclaw) and two girls wearing Beauxbaton's robes, one of which Harry was sure called him 'leetle boy' not all that long ago. Harry noticed some of the looks he was getting from the girls. So he just stood and started to leave the table, when Ginny grabbed his arm and whispered in his ear.

"Be in the unused classroom, across from the Charms room at two. Make sure you are wearing pants."

Harry gulped and quickly made his way from the Great Hall. On his way out, he ran into Cedric, quite literally.

"Hey, Potter, watch where you are going."

"Sorry, Cedric. But I was beginning to feel like prime rib and they were looking for a grill. But do you have a minute?"

"Sure. I wonder what's up. I'm kind of jealous. You've got some of the best looking girls, from two schools eying you like that."

"Umm...yeah and that's supposed to make me feel any better?" Harry glanced around before continuing. "Look, I know that you don't think I cheated my way into this tournament, so here's what I found out. The First Task, it's going to be something against dragons. And not just any dragons, but nesting dragons. And as Ginny Weasley told me, there's probably very few things meaner than nesting dragons."

"Well, yeah...she'd know about that if anyone would. Her brother is a professional dragon handler, after all. Thanks, Potter...er...Harry...and you're right I didn't buy all that shit. I mean if Gred and Forge couldn't break the old man's age line, I don't think you could either. Look, if you need any help or anything, let me know. Hell, if you just want to talk let me know. I could tell you stories about the twin menaces that would make your hair stand on end and that's just from living close to them."

Harry was wondering what to do, until two, when he spotted Viktor Krum heading towards the main entrance, with a broom slung over his shoulder. Running up to him, Harry asked, "You want some company out there?"

"If you tink, you can keep up vith me, I'll humor you. Grab your broom."

"Meet you on the pitch, home side goals, in ten...make that five minutes."

Harry turned and ran to the Gryffindor tower. He knew that even running, he'd be hard pressed to make it to the pitch in five minutes, but he wasn't planning on running the entire way. It only took him three minutes to make it back to his dorm and another minute to make it to the very top of the tower. Once there he opened the door to the upper battlements and hopped on his broom. He kicked the door closed as he flew through it. It took slightly less than a minute to make it to the pitch, at full speed, on his Firebolt.

Viktor raised an eyebrow at Harry and started skyward. He started with a steep climb followed by a couple of quick barrel rolls. Not only was Harry following, but he had moved up and was pacing Viktor, about five yards off to his right. A smile broke out on Viktor's face as he picked up the pace, Harry matching him, move for move. After about an hour of what amounted to very high speed synchronous flying Viktor tried to up the stakes a little by dropping into a very steep dive. Harry stuck with him and when they both pulled up, their toes were scraping the grass of the pitch. Not to be out done, Harry pulled up his knees until they were on the handle of the broom, then he moved his feet under himself and stood, as he did to catch the Snitch in his first match. This time, without having to reach for the elusive gold ball, he was able to make the turn and drop back to a seated position. As he started back, he notice that Viktor had stopped, about halfway down the pitch. He was hovering there, mouth hanging open.

Harry pulled up and stopped when he reached Viktor.

"You are good. I've never seen that move before."

"That was how I caught my first Snitch."

"So you are a Seeker, too. Impressive."

"According to school records, youngest in over a century. I made the team my first year."

"Not even I did that. You must tell me that story some time. But enough of that, let's fly."

They spent the rest of the morning until lunch, doing just that. Viktor had invited Harry to fly with him any time. As they were going in to lunch, Ron spotted them and just turned and stomped off. During lunch, which Viktor ate with Harry, at the Gryffindor table, much to the shock of many Slytherins, Ginny reminded Harry of his afternoon appointment and to also make sure he had his vault key.

"Vhat is that all about? And is she your girlfriend or someting?"

"I'm not sure...and well...I don't know. I do kind of like her, but I've never really thought about her and me. I mean, she's...well...umm..."

Viktor laughed, "Trust me. I know. You tink...hey big Quidditch star...all the girls. Bah, most of them are empty headed. Veelas have more brains than most of them. All they want is fame and money. Ve don't needs girls like that. Vell...maybe for a quick romp but...tell me Harry, that girl with the bushy brown hair, she is always in the library, no?"

"Yeah, Hermione. She's a good friend...and very smart."

"I thought so. She seeing anyone?"

"Umm...no."

"Good...you not tell her about this? You do know that there is a ball that goes on during the tournament. I tink it vill be a Yule Ball."

Harry slammed his head on the table. "Ball...as in dancing. As in why doesn't anyone EVER tell me these bloody things?"

Viktor laughed. "I take it you have a problem?"

"Yeah, like I can't dance."

"You can fly your broom standing and you can't dance?" asked Viktor, incredulously.

"Right in one. Never learned how."

"Ah, vell, since there are many veeks until the ball, that can be fixed, no? Just ask that pretty little red-head to help, I'm sure she vill."

"No...umm...yeah...oh, bloody hell," said Harry, with a resigned sigh, "I guess. Thanks Viktor. You've made my life soooo much easier. Can't we just go fly the rest of the afternoon?"

"You are alright, Harry, no matter vhat that Malfoy says. I tink he is talking about himself instead of you."

As two o'clock approached Harry was getting nervous. He was dreading the meeting that Ginny had arranged. He knew that it was spiraling beyond just looking at a couple of catalogs and filling out some order forms. He was hoping that it wouldn't be as bad as he feared it would become. After lunch, when he returned to the dorm, the Chasers were sitting there, looking at catalogs. A quick glance showed Harry that they were looking in the men's clothing section. He quickly made his way to his room. Thankfully only Neville was there. After putting his broom away, he flopped on his bed.

"Neville, have you ever felt that your life was beyond your control? Like someone else was in charge and you were just watching?"

"Nope." answered Neville, looking up from some Herbology journal. "Gran has always been in charge and it's just easier to go with that."

Harry sighed. "Not much help there Neville." Sitting up, Harry asked, "What are you reading?"

"An article about the cultivation of gillyweed. Fascinating stuff, gillyweed. Do you think anyone would mind if I grew some here in the dorm?"

"Does it stink? bite? do anything really strange?"

"No. It does need to be grown in a saltwater tank, though."

"Maybe you can put some fish in it too?"

"Sounds possible."

"Well, then I don't mind. I'm pretty sure Seamus and Dean would say yes, too. So Ron's going to be the only difficult one. Ask him during dinner and when I'm not around. Don't tell him that I said it would be fine."

"You two still at it?"

"Yeah, I thought he was going to apologize at breakfast, this morning, but he got in a huff and stomped off again."

"I don't know what his problem is. I mean, if his brothers couldn't get their names in it, no offense Harry, but how could you?"

"None taken, Neville. Seriously, why can't more people think like that? How hard is it to figure out, especially since you guys live with me and know what my grades are like. I don't think even Hermione could have come up with a way around it any better than Fred and George. And look where they ended up."

"Exactly. There are days where I think that staying in bed and pulling the covers over my head and not coming out until spring sounds like the best thing to do...and most of them are Halloween."

"Yeah, that day seems to be one of your worst, every year."

Harry glanced at his watch and yelled, "Oh shit! It's almost two..." He jumped off his bed and started looking in his trunk, mumbling, "It was right here on top. I know I put it there this morning." He kept looking for a couple of more minutes, before sitting up and banging his head on the lid. "Shit! I bet Ginny has it!" he said, rubbing his head. Harry started looking around the room when the door opened. Alicia, Angelina and Katie entered the room, stopping just inside the door.

"Sorry, Neville, but Potter is coming with us. He has an appointment that he will not miss."

Neville looked a the girls, nodded and went back to reading his magazine.

"So, Potter, what's it going to be...come willingly or do we stun you and drag your scrawny arse there?" asked Alicia, twirling her wand.

"Gee, thanks Neville. I'll come willingly."

"I'm not getting between them and you, Harry. Being brave doesn't mean being stupid."

"Oooo, goodie," said Katie, grabbing on to Harry's right arm. Angelina grabbed Harry's left arm and they led him from the room. They held Harry's arms all the way to the unused classroom. Harry swallowed dryly when he entered the room. Not only were all the girls that were at lunch there but a couple of others, including a blond Ravenclaw that Ginny was always talking to, between classes. The other one was Demelza.

Harry looked a bit pale and felt like Nick, as he was being led to meet the ax man, or so he thought.

Ginny said, "Don't worry Harry, all the girls here believe that you are telling the truth and they are going to help with your wardrobe. The first thing you need to do, though is get measured."

Harry nodded, mutely, wondering exactly how they were going to do that.

Ginny pointed to a corner, where a blanket had been stretched across. "Go behind there and strip down to your shorts. Then someone will be back to take your measurements." She added, whispering in his ear, "If you don't go willingly, we WILL stun you and then measure you."

Harry just nodded and made his way to the corner. Shrugging as he went behind the blanket, he started to remove his clothes. When he was done, Ginny told him to toss his clothes out. A minute later, the girl from Beauxbatons, that he didn't know, came behind the blanket with a notepad and measuring tape. She told him what to do, in heavily accented English. She wrote down everything on the pad and then left. Harry not knowing what to do, sat on the stool that was behind the blanket. A few minutes later Ginny tossed a pair of trousers behind the blanket and told him to try them on and then step out. He did so without any argument.

"Well, girls," said Ginny when Harry stepped out, "that looks about right. So lets start. Harry go over and sit in that chair."

Harry sat where she pointed, noticing that the chair looked a lot like a barber's chair. Parvati and Lavender approached, one carrying a tray and the other a towel. They threw the towel over Harry's shoulders and fastened it behind his back. Then one grabbed a comb and started to comb his hair. Parvati reached over and took off Harry's glasses while Lavender started to cut his hair. After a few minutes, the scissors stopped and the girls started almost arguing with each other. They stopped after coming to a conclusion that the best thing was to start over. So Harry felt something cool and wet get dumped on his head. A few minutes later, the scissors started again. This time Ginny came over and said that what they did wasn't quite right and they should start again. So the potion was applied once more and the scissors started again. This was repeated several times, with one or more of the girls initially vetoing the results. Finally, Ginny came over, poured about three times the amount of potion on Harry's head and told Parvati to make it a couple of inches longer than shoulder length and then pull it back into a ponytail. After a few snips of the scissors, a little off the top and then someone pulling his hair back, Lavender told Harry to stand up. She took off the towel, shook it out and then Katie handed him his glasses and a shirt. He put both on and was led to a mirror. He was shocked by what he saw in the mirror. His hair, while being much longer than he ever had worn before, was almost behaving. His fringe, while not quite as long as he normally wore it still managed to subdue his scar. He kind of liked the look. Then he noticed the shirt actually fit, without having to roll the sleeves or anything. One of the older girls handed him a large sack. He looked in it and saw all the hair that had been cut off.

"What's this for?" he asked.

Ginny replied, as Hermione mumbled something about all boys being thick, "It's your hair. Usually it either gets burnt or banished by the person it came from."

It was almost as if a light went on in Harry's head. "Right," he said, nodding. "Well, where...?"

Ginny pointed to a fireplace in the far wall of the room.

Harry took the sack and with a quick flick of his wand, the sack was reduced to a pile of ashes.

"Now, the girls have picked out a wide selection of clothing. You don't need to order all of it, but we do think that you should get at least half of it." said Ginny, leading him back to the rest of the girls. They started showing him the various things they picked out, mostly things that resembled or were Muggle styles. There were several trousers, jeans and even some shorts with casual and dress shirts. There was a selection of robes, from casual to very formal. They included everything, from undergarments (both boxers and briefs), socks and four pair of shoes, two casual, one dress and one pair of boots. There were no outlandish colors or eye searing patterns, darker colors, greys, blacks, greens and blues were the predominant colors, with some muted reds and browns thrown in. The wildest items were a couple of tee shirts, from a catalog that carried both Quidditch league and various band shirts, at least one of them wasn't Chuddley, thought Harry. After he finished looking through all of the orders, he nodded.

"Thanks. But there's a couple of things I don't really like and a few more that I'd like to get."

So they all sat down with him and made the changes. Once they were finished Harry stamped the forms with his key. He noticed that Hedwig was sitting patiently on a desk, while Hermione tied the forms to her.

Glaring at his owl, Harry said, "You too, Hedwig?"

Hedwig gave a hoot before flying from the room. As soon as she left, another owl, carrying a small sack flew into the room. One of the girls grabbed the sack and dumped the contents on a desk. They expanded as they came out of the sack. Harry noticed a pair of trousers, a dark green shirt, socks, a belt and a pair of shoes. There was also a metal disk with a leather thong attached to it, that looked like some sort of Celtic knot work. Ginny grabbed the clothes and handed them to Harry telling him to go change. When he came out, Lavender took the metal disk and tied his hair back with it. The girls made him walk around the room, showing off his clothing. He finally started to relax, when none of the girls made any comments or looked like they were going to start teasing him. By the time he was finished, several more owls started to fly into the room bearing the same kind of sacks. Harry looked at the growing pile and groaned.

After a couple more hours of trying on clothes and most of them, at least from the Hogsmeade shops, having been declared keepers, most of the girls left, leaving Harry, Ginny, Hermione and the Chasers.

Ginny handed Harry his map and said, "Sorry about that, but this was too good to pass up."

"Umm...yeah, I guess I finally did start having fun, but come on, clueless guy here, you can't do this kind of thing regularly. Us guys...we break if that happens more than once every twenty years or so."

Angelina was the first to stop laughing. "Harry, what happened to the poor, sweet, clueless boy we all adored?"

"Umm...blame it on her," Harry said, pointing to Ginny. "Now, I have one other problem I need help with. I found out, that one of the traditional things during the tournament, is a ball. Viktor said that as a champion I would be required to attend and well, that's a problem."

"Are you asking one of us to be your date?"

"Errr...no, not yet, at least. I think I should wait until it's officially announced, don't you?"

The girls nodded.

"So what's the problem Harry?" asked Hermione.

Harry looked down at the floor and mumbled, "I can't dance."

"What was that Harry?" one of the girls asked.

"I can't dance," repeated Harry.

"That's nothing to be embarrassed about, Harry," said Hermione. "Since it's not anytime soon, there's plenty of time for lessons."

"Yeah, Viktor said it will probably be a Yule ball."

"See, that's a month away," said Ginny. Turning to the others, she added. "Think we can do it, or do we need to bring in the rest?"

"At least Susan, Celeste and Fleur."

Harry asked, "Who is Celeste?"

"The one who measured you, Harry. Her mother is a rather well known French robe designer." said Alicia.

Harry sighed and said, "I suppose that's alright but I don't want everyone involved, please?"

Ginny nodded. "Let's get all this back to your room and then get some dinner." she added, grabbing a pile of clothes as she stood up. Hermione and the Chasers grabbed some clothes, too leaving a rather small pile for Harry to grab.

"This is about two thirds of the stuff ordered. The rest will probably be here tomorrow or Tuesday." added Hermione as they left.

"Umm...how much did all this cost and what exactly did I order?"

"Well, everything we showed you, the extras you added and about five more of those hair bands. All total, about 200 Galleons." said Ginny, before adding, "But that's only a good start. Most of this stuff is charmed, but you will still out grow it in about three years or so. Now that you know what to do, though I think we can trust you to keep up with it? If not, I may have to call for a repeat session."

"No...I think I've got it now. But only 200 Galleons for all this?"

"But Harry, that's like 7,000 Pounds." *

"Oh...that's what thirty-five to one?"

"Yes," said Hermione.

"I know the Dursleys spend that much on Dudley every year. Did you ever notice some of the labels on that crap I wore? Levis and such aren't cheap. It's just that by the time i got them, they were beyond salvaging. And this is brand new, everything charmed to fit for a couple of years?" Ginny nodded. "So I don't think it was too bad."

"Well, when you put it like that, I guess not," answered Hermione.

* Yes, the 'official' exchange rate is 5 Pounds equals 1 Galleon, but that is patently ridiculous. Working out the rate, based on real exchange rates for the Dollar and Pound, during the 1990s and using the cost of the newspaper to base it on, the rate becomes a somewhat more realistic 35 Pounds to the Galleon...still not quite the exchange rate for gold, if the Galleon is supposed to be a one ounce coin, of pure gold. It most likely isn't, though.

That gives the price of some published items, like the Omniocculars, a value of several hundred Pounds/Dollars...on par with a cheap/mid-range video camera in the mid 1990s, which, is pretty much what they are, right?

This also greatly increases the value of the Knut and Sickle...making the candy on the Hogwarts Express about the same cost as extra food on an airplane. It also makes a Hit Wizard earn almost 25,000 Pounds per month, but supposedly your average 'Red Shirt' ensign on the U.S.S Enterprise (NCC-1701...pick your letter) has a longer life expectancy.