yaaay! chapter 7! this one is a bit lighthearted but its cool to have fun at a ball I guess. please review!

"Step two three four, turn and glide and step and rock and step and rock." Parvati Patil's soft voice filled the room of dancing Gryffindors. Rose was happy to let go of The Rat's hand and turn to face her new partner. She might be a little clumsy as she stepped on Doyle's foot with a murmured apology, but she did like this dance because when you turned and took up a new partner, you never knew who you were going to get, though the dance was arranged in such a way that it was always a male and female couple.

On a more pressing note, the Valentines Ball was one week away and Rose Weasley still did not have a date. It was a matter of some urgency; as a girl, she was almost required by society to have a date. To have shown up without one would have been highly embarrassing.

Thea and Lavender had both already expressed that they had dates. Lavender blushed slightly as she confessed that Al had asked her and she'd accepted. ("WHAT! MY COUSIN?!")

Thea had refused to say and grinned at Rose with a knowing, triumphant smirk, which made her slightly uneasy. Who was Thea going with?

Nevertheless, it was with a chewed lip and nervous hands that took Rose through the next few days. It was Thursday, two days before the ball that someone finally plucked up the courage to ask Rose.

The end of the dance session. Patil was ushering the Gryffindors out into the hall.

"Rose! Rose! Hey, Rose!"

Her stomach dropped - she knew that voice.

Please no, please no, please no.

It was with great effort that Rose managed to hide her disdain as she looked down into the spotted face of Barry Nooney. Good god, he wasn't serious?!

"Rose," He addressed bluntly, "It's come to my attention that you are without a date for the Valentines Ball this Saturday."

Somehow, his manner of speaking reminded her of her Uncle Percy, and Rose suppressed the ridiculous urge to laugh.

"Yes." She mumbled meekly.

"Well, as I'm sure you have noticed, neither have I."

He waited, as if expecting Rose to jump for joy and begin screaming wildly. When she was not forthcoming, he plowed on.

"It would be my honor," and he literally bowed to her. People were beginning to turn and watch this amusing spectacle. "To have you accompany me to the ball this Saturday. Will you accept? Rare is the chance to appear at the side of a learned gentleman such as myself."

Oh god. What should she do?! She could lie and tell him that she'd already agreed to go with someone else, thereby risking discovery, or she could accept and arrive as the date of The Rat. It was a lose-lose situation. The question was whether she'd rather go with him, or with nobody.

"Oh, um, Ra- I mean Barry I'm really sorry but I've –" she began.

"Wonderful!" The Rat beamed, taking her hand, "I'll meet you at the entrance to the Great Hall at…shall we say…six thirty on Saturday night?"

Rose floundered helplessly for something to say. She shot a desperate glance at James and Hugo, who were trying hard to contain their laughter.

"I…alright. Fine. I've got to go now…um…see you later." She rushed.

"Oh, Rose, let me walk you to the Common Room then."

"No really, it's fine. Besides, I've got to go and…ask Professor Longbottom a question about the homework." With that, Rose made her escape with Thea, and she did not go back to the Common Room for a long while.

….

"Ro-ose!" Emory stamped her foot indignantly, "I told you to be careful and not muss up your hair! Now I've got to do it over again. Come here." She beckoned and Rose grimaced, hair was such a pain. Emory had done it up beautifully though, braided and knotted in the back. It made Rose look much older and more sophisticated.

Emory had chosen to wear her own dark brown hair unadorned and poker-straight. She had on a long, wine-red dress that adorned her slim figure. Rose, for her part, was dressed in a teal colored satin dress that had been her grandmother's. Emory remarked that it matched her eyes.

Harriet was wearing a sky blue dress that came down to her knees – she looked very cute with her chin-length honey-colored hair kept out of her face with a single barrette.

Thea had re-dyed her black pixie cut and done the tips purple to match her plum-colored dress that might have been a little too low-cut for the tastes of some of the teachers. She'd still refused to tell Rose who her date was, and Rose had threatened that maybe she didn't even have one after all. To which Thea scoffed that she did have someone and he was a sight better than Barry Nooney. Rose scowled at this reminder and resolved to get away from said date as soon as possible.

"Ah! There we go!" Emory finished redoing Rose's hair, "Here – this will help it stay in place; Fixiate!"

With a bit more preening, the girls in dorm 319 made their exit and entered the Common Room. James was there with his current girlfriend Karin Valance, whom Rose had always liked, though why anyone in their right mind would date James Potter, renowned ladies man and show-off of Hogwarts was a mystery to her. Hugo was alone – Rose grinned to think he didn't have a date, but he stood when they arrived, smiling at someone behind Rose's right shoulder.

Thea grinned back and blushed as he took her hand. It took Rose a moment to realize what this meant, and when she did, she thought every horrid awful swear word she knew, gawking at this shocking new turn of events.

"No." Rose squeaked. "No, this is not okay. You…and you…And I thought Al and Lav was bad."

Truly, from an outsider's perspective, this was not such an unlikely pairing. Both Hugo and Thea had a shared sense of humor, and both wore identical smirks as they looked at the redheaded Weasley girl.

"Didn't I tell you I could do better than The Rat?" Thea asked smugly as the group continued out the portrait hole.

"Dumbedore's pants!" James yelped, using his favorite curse, "I didn't know either. You coulda told me, mate!"

"Dumbledore's baggy boxers more like!" Rose shrieked. Of all the girls in her year, what were the odds she'd pick as her best friends the two girls who were now smitten with her cousin and brother?!

As they made their way to the Great Hall, Rose grew ever grumpier. It was all well and good to meet up on a date if you were from different Houses, like Al and Lavender (who was dressed beautifully in a midnight blue dress, causing Al to blush fiercely.) But when you came from the same House, it was much more chivalrous to pick your date up in the Common Room, was it not?

But The Rat was waiting faithfully by the door to the Great Hall, and good god, was that a monocle he was wearing?

But it was, and Rose reluctantly put her hand on his arm as he led her into the hall, commenting on how lovely she looked tonight.

Rose saw as she entered the Hall that the four tables had been moved to one side and on them were refreshments of various sorts, and the rest of the room was filled with students. She observed that some of the male students were wearing Muggle formal dress, as Flitwick had recently posted a notice claiming that any Muggle-born would be allowed to use the tellyfunk in McGonagall's office if they wished to contact their parents for a tuxspeedo or any other type of Mugglewear for the ball.

Lavender had laughed when she'd seen this, explaining between giggles that it was telephone and tuxedo, to which Rose had asked it if wasn't the same difference.

Hugo and Thea immediately flounced off to the middle of the action, while James and Karin made their way to a quiet corner where they could snog in peace. Al and Lavender stood there blushing at each other, and Rose was unwillingly dragged into a dance with The Rat.

It was a few minutes later that another couple arrived, both dressed in green. Aria clung to the arm of Scorpius Malfoy as though clinging to life itself. Rose had to admit that whoever had dressed her up this evening had done a wonderful job – it was hard to make a squirrely little lunatic like her look pretty. But here she was in a lovely emerald dress and silver trimmings and her hair done up in an intricate set of swirls and clips, and her lips filled out and pouting up into the face of her date.

The date had not gone to such extravagant measures. His dress robes were the same color as Aria's dress, but otherwise he looked like he usually did as Aria practically dragged him across the floor to start up a conversation with another Slytherin couple. In between kicking The Rat's shins and scratching his hands with her fingernails, Rose caught snippets of their conversation.

"—And look at that Street Rat, her hair is completely unacceptable."

"—Potter's girl. . .what a little slut. . . Weasley. . ."

"Did you see That Weasley girl? What an ugly dress!" Aria finished rather loudly, glancing fleetingly at Rose, "And her date! I bet they've been snogging all evening. Think that acne's contagious? Sure hope not. I'm not sure I could even look at her now without vomiting, let alone with such a horrid complexion."

Rose's eyes flashed but she didn't acknowledge the comment. The Rat looked at her sympathetically.

"Don't worry, my love, she's simply jealous of the relationship you have with me. But fear not, my heart will always be yours."

Rose, for once, would have been happy to vomit along with Aria.

Through the evening, Rose did some dancing, a good amount of eating, and a lot of trying not to look at her brother and best friend, who were the life of the party.

A Hufflepuff couple waltzed pass Rose as she reached for another éclair. Then a new hand entered her vision and an Irish voice said, "You're lookin' a bit bored Rose? Wanna dance?"

"Thanks, Doyle." She replied, letting him pull her up, "I've been trying to escape from The Rat for a while now."

"Not at all." Her friend replied cheerfully, spinning her around. This was Rose's favorite dance – the one where you twirled round to switch partners. After a few minutes, Doyle let her go to a Hufflepuff boy, and then on to a Ravenclaw Quidditch player, who passed her to Fred…

Who spun her straight into the arms of Scorpius Malfoy.

-oldsoul

you cant always get what you want

but if you try sometime

you might find

you get what you need!