"I cannot believe I'm going to the ball with Harry Potter," Parvati sighed, lying down on her bed and looking at the ceiling. It was just her and Lavender in the dormitory just then, with all the other girls doing who knows what in the common room.

Lavender leaned against the wall next to Parvati's bed and said something encouraging, thinking about her own date for that night.

"Lavender, stay after class please," McGonagall had snapped in response to her whispered comment to Parvati. The class had gone on, Lavender had ten points taken away and a stern warning, and she had walked out of class to find Seamus nervously standing outside the classroom with her bag and a red card. Lavender stood in front of him without a word as he slowly became redder and redder.

"I, um… I asked Parvati if I could wait for you because I, um, I wanted to… I wanted to give you this." Seamus thrust the card into her hand. He then rushed down the hallway, Lavender's bag still in hand.

As she opened the card, a Christmas carol began to play, and the words "will you go to the ball with me?" were written in elegant, curling script. Lavender let a smile cross her face and she shut the card and ran to catch up with Seamus.

"Yes, you dolt, now give me my bookbag," she said all in a rush, grinning wildly.

"Oh, sorry!" Seamus burst out. "And… I'll… I'll pick you up in the common room before the ball, alright?"

Lavender smiled as wide as she could and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll… see you then. Bye Seamus."

"We're going to the same class," Seamus said, brow furrowed.

"Of course, I… D'you want to walk to Charms together?" Lavender blushed furiously.

"Course," Seamus said, his tone falling into it's usual teasing note. "Wouldn't want a lady walking down the hall by herself, now, that'd be rude."

Lavender smiled just thinking about her date as Parvati expressed her elation about going with a Champion.

Lavender didn't need a champion, she just needed a little Irish boy and a pretty dress.

And that's exactly what she had as she walked down the steps and saw Seamus, in a cute pair of maroon dress robes. Lavender breathed a sigh of relief; his red robes didn't clash with her red dress. She'd had nightmares about his robes being bright yellow or baby blue.

"Hi, Seamus," she said happily. His mouth opened and closed several times like a fish.

"Erm… hello Lavender," Seamus said finally. "D'you want to…" he extended his arm and Lavender beamed as she looped hers through it.

They walked down to the entrance hall, and then into the ball itself. As the champions danced, Lavender watched Parvati with a smile.

She didn't notice that Seamus was watching her, not the dancers.

" You wanna join them?" he asked. Lavender felt her hopes fall and then forced herself to raise them back up. He was a fourteen year old boy, what did he know about asking a girl to dance? At least he was asking.

"I'd love to," Lavender answered, and they glided out onto the dance floor. She grinned as his hands felt their way to her hips and guided hers to his shoulders, letting him lead her around the floor.

"Oh, you have no idea what you're doing, do you," she quipped, grinning up at him. "Should've taken an older boy, one that knows what he's doing."

"Oh, but they don't know you like I do," Seamus said, dipping her at the completely wrong point in the dance and laughing when she gasped. "Don't trust me?"

"You don't know you like I do," Lavender said back, forcing herself to frown when all she wanted to do was laugh.

"That makes no sense," Seamus replied, twirling her around at, thankfully, the right time.

"Half the time you don't either, but I think it's cute."

Twirl. Step to the left twice, glide and stop, turn on your heel.

"You think I'm cute? That greatly diminishes my masculinity."

Take a couple more steps, sway not-so-gracefully, more steps, twirl and then Lavender's up in the air, then she's set down and the dance is finished with a sweep.

"With those great big muscles it's hard to diminish, but I'm sure I'll manage every chance I get."

Then the nice, orderly slow dance ended and suddenly they were in a wild crowd of excited teenagers accompanied by loud music.

After a couple of songs, Lavender's feet began to ache and she grabbed Seamus' arm. "Get out of here?" she mouthed, pointing at her feet.

"Of course," came the reply, and he whisked her out to the garden outside, where they sat on a park bench and she took off her shoes and he got punch and they leaned against an ivy covered wall and talked.

"I don't understand what all this champion fuss is about," Lavender said when the conversation strayed this way. "It looks terrifying, I wouldn't want to compete if you paid me."

"But they do," Seamus reminded her. "And anyways, eternal glory! Think of it! I'd much rather have the glory than the money."

"You Gryffindor you," Lavender teased, putting her head on his shoulder. "I don't know, you'd have to be mad to put your name in. Maybe I'm not suited for Gryffindor after all. The Tasks are just to scary."

"No, you're perfect for Gryffindor, Lav. I'd never be able to admit that I'm scared of anything. Too afraid of what people would say about me." Seamus looked at his hands. "I suppose there's different types of bravery."

"Well, do you have the kind of bravery I'm thinking of?" Lavender asked suddenly, sitting up and facing Seamus.

"What's that?" he asked, looking down.

"The bravery to kiss me right now and not worry if I don't want you to?"

"I think so."

And then their lips were together and Lavender positively melted into him, even though he was a terrible kisser and so was she, but it didn't particularly matter because she was happy he was kissing her and he was happy she was letting him.

"How very Gryffindor of you," Lavender said breathlessly once they broke apart.

"Oh, not really. I'm afraid you don't want me to do it again now," Seamus said with a face that said otherwise.

"I don't think that's the case," Lavender replied with an equally mischievous face. "Of course, you never really know until you ask."

"Can I kiss you again?" His eyes flicked to her lips and then back up again.

"Why yes," Lavender said, following his gaze. "You can."

AN: For Montley, written for the Summer Fic Exchange… I hope you enjoy this and I hope that it lived up to your expectations! I enjoyed writing Seamus/Lavender much more than I thought I would, they're quite a cute couple and I think I ship them now…