Marina fiddled with her sleeves, quietly flipping through the pages of her new Transfiguration book as she ate breakfast. George sat beside her and asked her questions about it and she gladly answered, happy to talk to someone her own age for once.

"Will all Gryffindor fourth through seventh years come with me please?" McGonagall shouted, interrupting the meal. Reluctantly the Gryffindor students stood from their table and followed her into a large ballroom.

"Now will all the ladies of the house sit to my left and will the gentlemen sit to the right." George waved bye to her before joining fred on the right side of the room. The students watched each other with confused faces. Filch interrupted the silence when he wheeled a record player into the room.

"The Yule ball has been a tradition of the Triwizard Tournament since its inception. On Christmas Eve night we and our guests join in the Great Hall for a night of well-behaved frivolity. As representatives of the host school I expect each and every one of you to put your best feet forward, and I mean this quite literally because the Yule ball is first and foremost…A dance." The room filled with mixed responses. Marinas stomach churned.

"I'm going to have to spend another event in the library…" She thought.

"I will not have the house of Godric Gryffindor acting like a babbling bumbling band of baboons." Fred and George turned toward eachother.

"Babbling bumbling band of baboons."

"Babbling bumbling band of baboons."

"Babbling bumbling band of baboons."

"Inside every girl a secret swan slumbers waiting to burst out." Marina began to feel sick. A couple of dirty looks were sent her way. The boy's side of the room broke out into snickers, Ron laughing the hardest of them all. "And inside every boy a lordly lion prepares to prance. Mr. Weasly can you come here." McGonagall snapped. Every one burst into laughs as he walked up awkwardly.

"Now place your right hand on my waist…" She flatly spoke.

"Where?" Ron squeeked. Wolf whistles erupted from the boys side of the room.

"On my waist." She repeated louder. The record player began to play music. "Everybody come together. Boys On your feet!" All the girls lunged forward, while the boys hesitantly got up. Marina crept toward the door, her face burning with shame.

"All the boys are going to avoid me like the plague." She thought to herself.

"Marina." She turned to answer but felt someone take her hand. Her face turned bright red. "Why hello there."

"G…George!"

"Yep that's me." He grinned, taking her waist.

"Wh…what are you doing!" He smirked and began to sway with her.

"Well I wanted to ask you something." She looked down to hide her face.

"What do you want to ask?" She managed to speak. McGonagall had let Ron scurry off. She surveyed the crowd and stopped when she saw George and Marina. She beamed and clapped her hands in excitement.

"Well…that's a good question…" She could barely sway with him she was so embarrassed… "I know we just learned about this "ball" that's supposed to be going on…"

"Y…yes…"

"And I know we've only talked to eachother a couple of times…but…I was…I…I wanted to know if you would go with me?" She froze trying to process the question. A loud squeak was all she could manage. George gave her a puzzled look.

"Are you ok?"

"Surprised." She whimpered. He suddenly felt nervous.

"Why's that?'

"Well you see…people don't like me much." She trained off and stared at his face.

"Because your last names Riddle?" Her face burned, she couldn't look him in the eye. "Look, I don't care. It's not like you had a say in who your parents would be. I'm asking you because I like you." They were both quiet for a moment.

"I…I'll go with you…thank you…for asking me." He grinned as he danced with her, and she was finally able to look up into his eyes.


"I heard you got a date to the Ball." Marina smiled.

"Yes. Who told you?" Moody looked over from his paperwork.

"McGonagall, she was so excited, you'd think that…" He took a swing from his flask, "you'd think that the minister of magic resigned." She smiled.

"Are you going to ask anyone Alastor?" He shrugged.

"I doubt anyone would say yes to be honest."

"I thought the same thing. Might as well." He took another swing from the flask.

"Maybe."

Marina and George sat with the others in study hall, flipping through his potion's notes. Marina helping him with one of his assignments.

"This is mad. At this rate we'll be the only ones in our year without dates." Ron complained. Snape strode by smacked him across the head. "Well, us and Neville...but then again he can take himself." Hermione and Ginny exchanged glances.

"It might interest you to know that Neville's already got someone." Hermionie snapped.

"Now I'm really depressed." Ron scoffed. Fred scribbled a note and threw it at Ron. Ron read it and threw it back at him. "Who are you going with then?!" He rolled the paper into a ball tossing it toward a girl down the table. She turned, glancing at Fred.

"What?" She whispered obviously annoyed with him as Fred sat up. He mouthed the words ''Will you go to the ball with me?'' He pointed and danced as everyone quietly laughed, the witches face tinting pink.

"Yeah...sure I'll go." He turned and winked at Ron.

"That's Angelina." George whispered to Marina.

"Well Hermione...you're a girl." Harry pulled at Ron's sleeve to no avail.

"Oh well spotted."

"Come on. It's one thing for a bloke to show up alone. For a girl it's just sad." She raised an eyebrow.

"I won't be going alone because believe it or not someone's asked me." She stormed over to Snape handing him her Potion's notes. "And I said yes."