I may not have gone to homecoming, but I went dress shopping anyway and this is what came of it. Review please!

Gladrags Wizardwear was packed. Girls from fourth to seventh year swarmed the store, excitedly sifting through racks of dresses, squealing to one another when they thought they'd found "the dress". Only one girl didn't look happy.

"C'mon, Hermione!" Ginny laughed, dragging her less than pleased companion along the rows of dress robes. When Hermione continued to scowl, she said, "Here, I'll make you a deal. If you find a dress here –and no, you're not grabbing a random dress and paying without trying on at least three– I'll correct Ron and Harry's essays for two months."

Hermione looked sorely tempted to take the offer, but said, "You won't know any of the information-"

"Then I'll borrow your notes and work from them. I'll be way ahead in my studies, the boys will have decent essays, and you'll have a dress and two months of peace." Ginny put on a pleading puppy-dog face. "You do want to impress your extremely famous and hard to please and in my opinion quite handsome date, don't you?"

Hermione sighed. "Fine."

Ginny's face immediately lit up and she dragged Hermione over to a rack of untouched ball gowns. "I'll never be able to afford these, but it'll be fun to try them on, won't it?"She picked out six dresses; two green, one blue, one white, and two pink. "Let's go!"

The dressing room was crowded, even if it was magically expanded. Ginny shoved one pink, one green, and one white dress and pushed her into a stall.

"Get out!" Ginny yelled a few minutes later, pounding on Hermione's door.

"No! I look horrible!" Hermione wailed from inside. Ginny let out an exasperated sigh.

"I'm forcing the door open in three... two... one... alohomora... Hermione! You look amazing!"

"I look horrible!"

"No, you look incredible. Actually, can I borrow it?" Ginny ran a hand over her blue dress and shook her head. "It's a little too floaty and fancy for my taste. Yours is simple, but it looks incredible on you... try a few more and we'll switch."

Fast forward three minutes...

"Pink is not my color," Ginny huffed, sticking out her lower lip and crossing her arms. Hermione, who was in a much lighter shade of pink, snickered and patted her friend's head. "You're just not very lucky today, are you?"

Ginny –who could be compared to a Vegas casino's front entrance with her vibrant hair and neon dress– whined, pointing accusingly at Hermione, "You look amazing. Again. And you didn't want to come."

Hermione clapped her hands together and giggled in a very un-Hermione-ish way. "Well, let's see if you've any luck with the last one."

A while later...

"Hermione Granger, you are horrible," Ginny said, pulling at her dress. It was a nice color, really, a pretty green; but the style left a lot to be desired. "I have a giant BOW on my ASS."

"I'm sorry, but I can't seem to find your ass to begin with," Hermione laughed. Once again, she looked beautiful in a white strapless gown with black flowers embroidered up the side. "You should wear it and we can play a game called 'Where in the World is Ginny Weasley's Ass?'"

"You horrible person," Ginny repeated, although she was smiling and attempting to play the game herself. "Merlin, I look like... like... like... it's so terrifyingly horrid that I'm beyond words."

"Then get out of it, silly! We still have to switch!"

An undetermined amount of time passes...

"That's it. We found our dresses," Ginny said, letting out a huge sigh. It was perfect; a lovely emerald green, not too bright, hugging all the right places and not poofing out anywhere, and no badly placed giant bows or other obnoxious decorations. "Finally."

"It would be just our luck that we'd find each other's dresses," Hermione laughed. Like in everything else she'd tried on, she looked stunning; this dress just seemed to fit perfectly. It was sky blue, with a silky top and a floaty skirt. As Ginny gave her friend a once-over, she could already piece together the rest of the outfit, from the hairstyle to the shoes. "I still think you should wear the last one, though... I doubt any boy in the entire school would mind playing a game to find your ass..."

Ginny smacked her. "Oh, please."

"...especially Harry."

Hermione smirked as Ginny's eyes grew to the size of plates. "Oh, you –!"

"What? It's not like you're not painfully obvious. You wanted him to ask you, didn't you?"

It was quite entertaining to see how red Ginny's entire face got. "I-I-I'm getting changed."

"Denial isn't just a river in Egypt!" Hermione teased when Ginny slammed the stall door.

"You would use something like that to mock me with," Ginny's muffled voice said from the other side. "How can I be in denial if I don't even know where it is?"

"You do now."

"I don't like you," Ginny whined. Hermione laughed again and closed her own door.

"By the way, have you checked the price tag yet?" She asked when they were both out. Ginny made a face and turned the paper over.

"Oh, damn," she hissed. "I'll never be able to afford it..."

"I'll pay," Hermione said. "Mine was apparently on sale. No," she grabbed Ginny's arm as the younger girl reached for her purse, "don't pay me back. I'll buy you your dress and you'll get only a bag of candy for Christmas, alright?"

Ginny sighed. "Alright. But don't mention it to Mum."

Hermione smirked and whispered, "I think the ass-bow dress was on sale, too. You're sure you don't want it?"

She snickered as Ginny smacked her shoulder. "There is a very good reason that that dress is on sale."

"Then don't come crying to me when someone else snatches it up."

They both snorted and Ginny said, "You'd have to be absolutely insane to buy that dress."

At the Yule Ball...

"I told you. You'd have to be insane," Ginny said with a giggle.

"I must say, though, the color doesn't look that bad on her," Hermione laughed happily.

Who invited Luna Lovegood to the Yule Ball, they had no idea. But there she was, twirling alone on the dance floor in the dress. Ginny laughed even harder. "You know, I've got a feeling I'd really, really like her."

"I'm sure you would," Hermione said seriously, and they both started to laugh uncontrollably.

"That's the best dress in existence," Ginny managed to say. "It really is."

The credit for the ass-bow dress goes to my friend Christine from drama club, who invented the intermission game "Where in the World is Christine's Ass?" and endured three shows and six dances with that dress. Poor Christine... but thanks for the inspiration!