Harry and Ron sat alone in the Gryffindor common room while every other Gryffindor, and probably every other student at Hogwarts, were downstairs in the Great Hall having breakfast. This was probably the first time Harry and Ron missed breakfast because of how anxious and stressed they both had been the past few days. The Yule Ball was just around the corner and they were the only ones without dates. Even Draco Malfoy, who Harry thought was one of the most annoying boys he had ever met, was taking someone.

"What are we going to do Harry?" Ron moaned to Harry, he sounded very upset and a sudden surge of worry was had settled in his voice. "There is a week left before that stupid Yule Ball, and we have no one to go with!"

Harry sighed; he was disappointed and upset just as Ron had been. Truth be told they were the only boys without dates and if they showed up to the Yule Ball together, well they would be the laughing stock of the century.

"Harry, let's make a deal." Ron interrupted the silence "Today we'll ask someone to the Yule Ball and if either one of us doesn't find a date they'll be locked out of the Gryffindor common room for the whole night."

"Alright" Harry nodded in agreement but his insides twisted with anticipation.

Later that day when the two of them had their afternoon frees, they had set out to look for dates to the Yule Ball. Ron headed down to the library, as he was hoping to find some pretty girl reading a book all alone he would then swoop in and make all of her dreams come true, but all he found was Hermione. Ron did think about asking Hermione but saved her for his last resort, he did not want the Yule Ball to be spent with his friend - Hermione.

Ron headed down to the Great Hall once it was time for lunch; he had already missed breakfast today so he decided to eat something before continuing on with the day. In the Great Hall he noticed Harry and Hermione sitting together, they were both slouching over their food not talking. Hermione had a pile of books right next to her, as always, but something was different about her. Ron never noticed how her hair fell so smoothly down her face even if it was super messy. Hermione's cheeks gave off a rosy tint and her eyes gleamed - she really did look different.

"Hey" Ron said as he sat down next to Harry. "Any luck?"

"No, not at all. It's so hard to just go up to one of them as they are always so close together" explained Harry, reaching for more Yorkshire pudding.

Hermione sat silently playing with her food, to Ron's surprise she did not bother to try to get involved with their conversation. There was a sudden silence in the Great Hall and all heads turned around to look at the entrance. Hermione did not, as many girls had not bothered either, she just let out a big sigh of disapproval.

"Oh looks it's the Beauxbatons girls" grunted Hermione under her breath.

Both Ron and Harry ignored her as they stared at the girls making their way to the Ravenclaw table. The Beauxbatons girls were wearing their beautiful blue silk dresses and all of them were whispering to each other as they noticed the stiff silence around them.

"I'm going to do it" Ron said with a sudden rush of confidence filling him up. "I'm going to go over there and ask Fleur to go with me"

With a sudden swish of hair and boiled vegetables flying out of Hermione's plate.

"Ron! Are you insane? "Hermione cried. "You know exactly what's going to happen if you ask! Especially, if you ask … Fleur!"

There was an awkward silence but Ron shook his head at her and got up from the Gryffindor table.

"Has Ron gone mad?" asked Harry as he and Hermione both watched Ron make his way towards the Ravenclaw table where Fleur sat surrounded by her friends. The girls all around Fleur stared at him as he talked to her. She was smiling and Ron seemed to be turning a brighter red by the second. Fleur giggled and so did the rest of her friends; Ron smiled back at Fleur and headed back to where Hermione and Harry had been sitting.

Ron sat at the table and placed some vegetables on to his empty plate. Harry and Hermione watched him without saying anything, until Ron noticed the silence.

"You two could stop staring at me" Ron said, breaking the silence "I'm not a statue"

"What happened, Ron?" Harry asked "What did she say?"

Ron told them that he simply went up to her and asked her if she would go with him to the Yule Ball. "She did ask if Bill was my brother, which I thought was a bit odd but anyway, I told her that he was and that's when her friends started giggling, I didn't quite know why but anyway she ended up saying yes. Easy as that, now I have a beautiful date to the Yule Ball" Ron said this all very fast as if it was no big deal.

"Well now we all have dates. Ron is going with Fleur, I have a date and Harry" Hermione paused "you are going with?"

"Actually I haven't g-"Harry began to say but was interrupted by Ron.

"Who are you going with?" Ron snarled at Hermione in disbelief.

"Oh don't talk to me like that! If you can believe it someone did ask me and I am going with them whether you approve of it or not." Hermione spat, she grabbed all her books and stormed out of the Great Hall.

"Well she's just mad" Ron complained. "I feel sorry for her; poor thing probably doesn't even have a date but she is just covering it up. I was going to ask her but going with your friend to the Yule Ball, that's just silly"

Harry sat silently nodding at Ron, while he stammered on about what he is going to wear and what they are going to talk about. Once they were done with lunch they had yet another free since Professor Trelawney had been feeling sick and their Divination lesson was cancelled. Ron headed up to the common room to open the package this mom had sent him a couple of weeks back – they were supposed to contain his dress robes. Harry on the other hand decided to take a walk around the court yard.

As Harry made his way down to the court yard he noticed Ginny sitting alone on the steps reading a book. Her ginger hair fell softly on her pale, freckled cheeks and her bright brown eyes were glowing. Harry was just about to go up to Ginny and ask her to the Yule Ball, but thought he better not – as she is Ron's sister.

Hours later Harry found himself on his way to the Quidditch pitch - he wasn't quite sure why he was going there but he felt that maybe, somehow he will find a date there. Harry really wanted to ask Cho Chang, a Ravenclaw girl, he always had a certain liking for and he just wished that he could go with her. Just as Harry was entering the Quidditch pitch and about to make his way to the stands he saw her, he saw Cho, sitting alone in the stands.

"Hey" he yelled out to Cho as he walked towards her, he felt extremely confident talking to her. "What are you doing here, alone?"

Cho looked at Harry and shyly replied "Oh, just trying to clear my mind off of things"

"Yea, it's nice to come out here when it's all empty" Harry said as he sat next to Cho.

"Why are you here, Harry?" Cho asked him.

Harry took a while to think of a reason to why he was there but couldn't come up with anything interesting so he just blurted out "Would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?"

Cho turned a soft pink and tried to reply but proper words did not seem to come out of her mouth. Harry watched her, he knew she was going to say no but he hoped that somehow she would say yes. They sat there in silence while Cho regained her speech.

"Harry" Cho said minutes later, breaking the stiff silence between them "Yea, I'd love to go" she said with a sound of uncertainty in her voice that Harry chose to ignore.

Just a few hours after he asked Cho Harry found himself in the Gryffindor common room with Ron, they were the only ones there apart from a pair of Year 2 girls laughing and a Year 7 boy reading a book. They hadn't seen Hermione since she stormed off during breakfast but didn't pay much attention, Ron thought she was in the Library crying her eyes out while reading a book because she didn't have a date. Harry on the other hand just thought she was busy with work.

For the following few days all of the Gryffindor girls, would run around the common room and you could hear them screaming from dorm to dorm room asking things like; where Katie's pink earrings were or if anyone had seen where Angelina's silver necklace was. All of the boys seemed to ignore the entire Yule Ball, so did Hermione – but she had not talked to Ron or Harry ever since her tantrum in the Great Hall. Harry did not mind this as all he was thinking about was Cho and the fact that he would have to dance with her, Harry really did not know how to dance – you could say he was a pretty bad dancer.

Ron would constantly complain about his dress robes, he said they were way too lacey and colorful – unlike Harry's which had been a plain black color. Harry chose to avoid that as much as he can and try and figure out what he is going to talk to Cho about while they were dancing, Harry had always been very awkward with Cho mostly because she was his crush for the past two years. He thought he would talk to her about Qudditch and how her classes were going, it seemed quite stupid but it was the best he could think of.

"Harry, look you'll be fine" Ron nudged Harry softly "Let's go sit in our dormitory"

Harry nodded and they headed up the stairs, as they opened the door to their room they saw Neville dancing around in his dress shoes and pajamas. They sniggered at the sight of him but were not as quiet as they hoped. Neville turned around fast and turned a tomato red color; he quickly pulled on his robes and ran out of the room.

"What was that about?" Ron asked Harry, still laughing "I honestly never knew Neville had such a passion for dancing"

"Well at least he can dance" Harry sighed, now sitting on his bed "I can barely move my feet."

"I'm sure you aren't that bad, Harry. If anything Cho can lead and you can follow" Ron Sniggered.

They joked around and laughed until it started to get dark, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan had joined them until it was very late. Neville did not show up by the time everyone had fell asleep – but Harry was sure he heard him come inside the dormitory and quickly get in to bed.