A/N: This one goes into a bit of AU territory, so I've given you a bit of backstory at the start to settle you into the world. Most of the changes important to this story are slightly different House sortings, and most of them are pretty clearly made. As always, I don't own the Potterverse, I simply enjoy being allowed to play in JK's sandbox.
After the defeat of the Dark Lord Voldemort at the hands of one year old Harry Potter, and all of his Marked followers dropping dead from the magical backlash it caused, the reputation of Slytherin House as "the Dark house" began eroding, slowly at first, but a decade of peace allowed the Snakes to emerge from their dark dungeons and simply be just another house at Hogwarts. Exactly as Salazar would have wanted.
So when Harry Potter's cohort came to Hogwarts, the Boy-Who-Lived was of course hailed as a hero, but no one batted an eye when he was sorted into Slytherin, least of all the Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor and head of Slytherin, Sirius Black, who just happened to be Harry's godfather and guardian ever since that fateful Halloween. The body of Peter Pettigrew laying next to that of his deceased master left no doubt as to who had turned over the Potters, and while Sirius was nearly inconsolable for the following year at the loss of almost all of his best friends, the calming influence of Amelia Bones on him had eventually brought him back from the brink, and saw the pair raise their charges together. Just before Harry and Susan started Hogwarts, Sirius and Amelia made their long-rumored engagement official, to the delight of their entire family.
Their first few years at school passed with very few notable incidents, and most of those could be put down to Neville Longbottom acting like the second coming of Sirius Black, though no one occasion was more surprising than when he managed to score a date with the Head Girl to Homemade during 3rd Year. When asked later about how the date had gone, he merely responded with "A gentleman does not kiss and tell." The Head Girl was even less forthcoming, though every time someone mentioned Neville's name in her presence, her face got very red and her legs got very shaky. Conclusions were drawn, assumptions were made, but neither of the two involved ever said exactly what happened.
But all of that serves as a mere prelude to our story, which takes place during the cohort's 5th Year. Following the success of the prior year's Yule Ball during the Triwizard Tournament (won by Cedric Diggory, the present year's Head Boy), the staff of Hogwarts decided to make the Ball an annual tradition. As with the prior year, 5th years and above were permitted to attend, while the younger years had to be invited by someone older. Those not attending the Ball were allowed to go home for the winter holiday a bit earlier than the rest, who were scheduled to depart Monday morning so as to allow those celebrating late into Saturday night a chance to recuperate from their merriment.
Soon, rumors began flying around the castle about who has asked whom to the Ball. Having settled down some since his earlier wild escapades, Neville had asked Susan Bones, much to Harry's great amusement. Many had assumed that he and Susan were an item, but having grown up with the girl, he saw her as a sister, and couldn't imagine dating her even in his craziest dreams. He was very happy for his sister and his best friend, and considered himself quite fortunate to have Hannah Abbott as his own date. She was Susan's best friend, and made no secret of the fact that she had had a huge crush on Harry since first year. In the summer leading up to this school year, Hannah had spent a lot more time at the Bones/Black house, working up the nerve to finally ask Harry on a date, only for the boy to surprise her with a kiss and an invitation to go get dinner later that day. Hannah paused only to shout "YES!" before jumping on Harry and furiously kissing him back. Susan still teased the girl about that particular day quite often, but Susan was happy for the both of them, and hoped their fledgling relationship worked out. So far, it had.
The most surprising of the rumors that Harry had heard included his dormmates Vince and Greg. Supposedly, the boys had gotten dates with the Patil Twins, which Harry found a bit odd, but still congratulated them on the next time he saw them. True to form, neither said a word about their supposed good luck, but Harry took their simultaneous winks to be as good as a nod.
Over in Gryffindor, the hot rumor that Neville brought to their group at breakfast was that Hermione Granger had been seen in close company with Terry Boot recently, much to the ire of Neville's dormmate Ron Weasley, particularly when Hermione sat next to Terry at meals for the next month. Having his first choice very obviously taken, Weasley's older twin brothers began taking bets on who he would actually end up going to the Ball with. The current odds-on favorite was Luna Lovegood in Ravenclaw, with "Skips due to lack of date" not far behind.
Down in Hufflepuff, the biggest unknown as the Yule drew closer was who exactly Megan Jones would be going with. All she would say is that "Yes, I already have a date; no, I'm not telling you who it is, and that's final." Susan and Hannah tried day and night to cajole more information out of her, but the girl refused to budge. All they had been able to determine was that she wasn't taking anyone in Hufflepuff, and she certainly wasn't going with Weasley (as his face could very well attest, following his rather public failure at asking her, and the slap he got for his troubles).
The night before the Ball, Harry, Neville, Susan, Hannah, and Blaise Zabini of Ravenclaw were working on a group project for Charms, but their talk naturally turned to gossip as such groups often do. Megan still hadn't given any more hints on who she was going with, so the quintet put their heads together to see if they could figure it out by process of elimination. Harry was able to immediately clear the rest of Slytherin off the list, as he knew Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were going together, Theo Nott would be escorting both of the Greengrass sisters, and all of the upper years were paired off as well. Neville wasn't quite sure about the upper year Gryffs, but his roommates were pretty well set (Seamus Finnegan had secured an evening with Lavender Brown, and Dean Thomas was said to be taking Ginny Weasley). With Ron still scrambling for a date as far as he knew, that took them out of contention as well.
Blaise reported that most of Ravenclaw was either planning on going home early, or was in already known couplings (the primary exception being Luna, who had bet on herself in the Twins pool, citing 'the Wrackspurts tell me it will happen'). When questioned as to who he would be taking, Blaise merely smiled and said he wasn't too proud to go it alone. That line of inquiry ended rather abruptly, and with their work for the evening completed, the group broke, promising to reconvene during the Ball.
Day turned to early evening, and those attending the Yule Ball began making their way to the Great Hall. Harry and Neville met up with Susan and Hannah, and the girls reported that Megan had left the dorm early, and hadn't been seen since. Looking around, they didn't immediately see her milling about, but did spot a very happy looking Luna with a somewhat disgruntled Ron. Harry pointed this out to Hannah, who pouted a bit before passing Harry a Galleon. "You had that much faith in Ron, Harry?" "No, Nev, but I've never known Luna to be wrong on matters relating to Wrackspurts."
As the two couples headed inside the Hall to an empty table, Harry mused that he hadn't yet seen Blaise either, which made him wonder if the "not too proud" boy had chosen to go home early as well. At that very moment, Susan looked across the Hall, gasped, and pointed. She had finally seen Megan and her date, and couldn't believe her eyes.
"Is she really going out with him?" Hannah asked as she followed Susan's pointing.
"I guess so," said Neville as he too looked on with some disbelief.
"You were expecting something different, I suppose?" said Blaise as he led Megan over to their table. "I believe my exact words were 'I'm not too proud to go it alone', but I don't recall actually mentioning that I would be. And none of you actually asked, so I didn't even have to lie. Our friends seem way too trusting, don't they, Megan?"
Megan simply smiled winningly at a glaring Susan and Hannah. "Not everyone can be a Ravenclaw, Blaise, but we love them anyway."
A round of laughter broke out around the table, as the friends settled in for a Yule Ball to remember.