Harry sighed. He looked awful. Why wouldn't his hair stay down? For one measly night? He knew Cho was his friend, nothing more. But Harry WANTED it to be more. Even though he couldn't kiss, hadn't even kissed before, he wanted to kiss her, to be kissed. He knew Cho thought he just asked her because he had no-one else to go with, but…
"Harry! Hurry up! We're late!"
"Coming, Ron," sighed Harry. He looked once more at his pitiful appearance in his mirror, before turning, and walking away.
Cho looked herself up and down. Even she admitted it, she looked good. More than good. Gorgeous. Way better than her normal look, although she knew Hermione got jealous even then of Cho's looks. But it didn't seem good enough. At least, not for HIM. Her date for the evening, Harry Potter. Cho wasn't big-headed, she was shy. He'd only asked because he had no-one else to go with, even she knew that, but, all the same, she wished he'd asked her as a PROPER date. A romantic, dancing one, with maybe their first kiss? But even if that did come true, Cho didn't know the first thing about kissing. The closest she'd ever come to kissing was kissing her Grandma at Christmas. What if she got it wrong? Harry had probably kissed half the girls in school-
"Cho, you look fantastic. Now let's GO!" Hermione ordered, Ginny giving Cho a look too. Cho turned, dreading the coming night, as she took a last look at her dormitory. She was terrified.
"Oh, my God!"
"Look at her!"
"Who's she?"
Harry turned to look at the newcomer, with a slight interest. What he saw stunned him.
"Cho?" He asked incredulously.
"Yeah," Cho replied shyly, but smiling, as Hermione went off with Ron, Victor Krum having dumped her. Harry smiled. "You look fantastic, Cho. As usual." Whoa, Harry thought, I'm flirting with her! Cho grinned back, as they linked arms and stepped into the Great Hall.
Cho felt like she'd never felt before. She longed to dance with Harry, but at the same time feared it powerfully. She knew he was flirting, so why hadn't he asked her to dance? Ron and Hermione were, as far as she could tell, although they were having a laugh, as friends. Even so, she didn't understand. She was beginning to feel light-headed. Harry's gorgeous voice cut into her thoughts. "Cho? You don't look OK. Do you want to get some air?"
"Alright."
Cho's heart was beating faster than ever. She felt so nervous, but why? What was happening to her? She'd never felt this way, even for Cedric Diggory back in first year – the git. He'd said she was too young for him when she'd asked him to the Yule Ball. She was glad she hadn't gone with him now though.
"Harry, what is it?" Cho asked, for Harry had gone crimson.
"Cho, would you…would you like to go to Hogsmeade this Saturday?
"Ok," she replied, "Hermione wanted to get Witches Unleashed, the new album, you know…"
"No," Harry cut her off. "Just-just you and me.."
He was interrupted by Cho's lips against his own. They stood there for a moment, kissing, when-
"POTTER! CHANG! NO KISSING ON SCHOOL GROUNDS!"
"Professor," Harry replied coolly to Professor McGonagall, pointing upwards, "Mistletoe."
"Ah, yes," said the teacher, and entered back into the noise and light that was the Yule Ball.
"We'll tell Ron and Hermione tomorrow," decided Cho, after they had stood, transfixed, looking at each other, for about a minute. They walked, hand in hand, to the Great Hall, and started to dance.