A/N: Love the response guys! Keep it coming guys ;) Any ways on we go..

Chapter 7 - Dancing, dates and...Dragons?

She ran as fast as she could, and considering she grew up with Dudley for a cousin she could run pretty fast. She didn't particularity look for any route she just need to get away as fast as she could. Then she collided with a rather large body, albeit not Hagrid sized but large enough that she was sent sprawling to the floor. Looking up the stern look of Professor Moody looked down at her. "P..Professor! I was just running to the uh..Bathroom?" She said uncertain.

"Come with me to my office Potter" He said gruffly and it was then that she noticed that she was near the defence classroom. Standing up and brushing off her trousers (She loathed skirts and point-blank refused to wear one in school or in general) She stared at him apprehensively before following the stumpy professor as he limped towards the room. She felt a sense of foreboding wondering what would happen to her now. Surely he would not give her a detention for running in the corridors? She followed Moody into his office and shut the door behind her when he motioned for he to do so. Turning to face her, his fake magical eye whirring in its socket until it stopped and fixed upon her. Her palms began to sweat slightly under its neon blue gaze. Then after what seemed like an eternity he spoke "That was a very decent thing you did there Potter" He said quietly. She was shocked, one that he held the ability to talk quietly the way he just did and two that he had heard what she had done. She then blushed, he must have seen all of it. Including the kiss afterwards. She didn't know what to say in response so she just stayed quiet and waited for him to continue.

"Sit down Potter" He said pointing to a chair in front of his desk. When she did she looked around. She had visited this office twice in the past each time under a different professor. Lockhart had many portraits of himself on the walls and several shelves filled with 'awards' for his 'work'. There was barely any of the old wall that had not been plastered with the mans face and twinkling teeth. When Lupin had been here she found several fascinating new dark creature he had procured for the class to study. And there were of course books, many obscure and covered in a layer of thick dust that she was amazed that one could even read the title on the aged and cracked spine. However, the office now held several remarkably odd objects. She supposed that Moody must have used them in his Auror days. She looked across at his desk and saw a large cracked sneakoscope, she knew it was this as Hermione had bought her one for her birthday in second her although hers was much smaller than the monster sized one sat at Moody's desk.

On the wall that once had old books and a vain mans Portrait sat an unusual mirror. It wasn't usual because of its shape, it looked like a normal mirror but it was the contents that gave its uniqueness for it was smokey and through the gloom of smoke inside of it she could see shadowy figures moving around, none she could see in greater focus.

"Like my dark detectors" Moody asked as he watched her closely. She said nothing until she worked up the courage to ask the gruff man "What's that" pointing to the mirror that still had dark looming figures moving around

"Oh, that's my foe glass. Let's me see my enemies, No trouble until I can see the whites of their eyes, Then I open my trunk" He said giving a sardonic snort as the trunk rattled she jumped when he laughed roughly. "So figured out the dragons have we" He asked. She hesitated slightly, she hadn't mentioned to Cedric how she found out about the dragons and she certainly didn't want Hagrid to get into trouble for breaking the rules. "It's all right girl, Cheating's been a part of the tournament since it's inception" He said lifting his wooden leg with a slight groan.

She bristled and said sharply "I didn't cheat, I found out by...accident" sitting up straighter she looked moody in the...real eye. He grinned toothily and said "I wasn't accusing you girlie" Once again she bristled at him "I've been saying from the start. he can be as noble as he likes but you cane sure as hell bet old Karkaroff and Maxime wont be. They want to win, they'd have told their champions. they want to show that Dumbledore is only human" He said smiling throughout laughing at the end sending the fake eye swirling frantically making her queasy inside "So any ideas on how to beat it then" He asked when he'd calmed down.

"No" She said glumly, to be killed this early would be a mercy at least but by a dragon? She couldn't imagine it being a pleasant way to die. "Well I can't be seen giving favoritism but here's some advice. One, Play to your Strengths" he said stressing the word

"I don't have any" She said before she could stop herself interrupting

"None!" He growled at her "From what I heard you can fly"

"I'm a fair flier but a fat lot of good that'll be I can't bring my broom only my wand" She said glumly, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately saying things glumly.

"From what I hear more than fair and my second piece of advice, use a simple spell to get what you need" He said looking at her intensely.

Then it clicked. To get her firebolt she'd need to summon it. To summon it she needed-

"Hermione" She whispered to her best friend in the greenhouse when she had run in "I need your help"

"Rose! What do you think I've been trying to do!" She whispered back her normal looking eyes wider than usual with anxiety.

"I need to learn the summoning charm by tomorrow afternoon" She said looking grim at her friend over the Flutterby Bush they were pruning.

She had been so busy yesterday learning the charm that her panic had left her and all thoughts of yesterday (Kiss included) had vanished but by the morning they had returned in full force. The atmosphere in the hall was tense as she poked at her breakfast the butterfly's in her stomach turning cannibalistic and eating her from the inside out. Normal lessons would cease by midday and everyone would make their way down to the enclosure holding the dragons, Not that anybody knew besides the champions and her friends, and from there she would meet her fate head on.

She stared at her breakfast dismally wondering what God she had pissed off to suffer this wrath. She had felt disconnected all day from people around her. Ignoring the well wishers and hisses of "We'll have a box of tissues ready Potter" as she passed them in the corridor on the way to her lessons. She had never been so nervous, not even on her first Quidditch match had left her with so much anxiety that she found it hard to function. She wondered if she would lose it on her way to meet the dragons, and just randomly fire curses at people left right and center. At least then she would be locked up in a nice cosy cell somewhere and not about to face a humongous fire-breathing killing machine.

The time was playing up as well she noticed, it seemed to rush past her in huge breakneck gallops. It was so fast that one moment she was in her first lesson, history of magic, listening to the deceased teacher ramble on and on about the goblin wars to the next time she blinked she was walking to lunch where she picked and played with her food too sacred to even muster an attempt at eating and then Professor McGonagall was walking towards her while people watched the exchange over their meals. Where had the dragon free hours gone? She wondered swallowing hard as the Transfiguration teacher spoke "Potter, The champions need to come down to the grounds now...It's time for you to get ready for the first task" She nodded numbly as she stood on shaky legs and began to walk alongside her head of house down the grounds.

"Rose You'll be fine" Hermione said behind her though her eyes gave away her panic.

"Yeah" She said in a voice an octave higher than her own. As they left the hall she looked at her teacher. She looked rather like Hermione, in that she was emitting anxiousness greatly. As they stood outside the large tent that had been erected for the champions that would lead them to the enclosure she laid a hand gently on his shoulder "Now, Don't panic" She said, her voice breaking slightly "Just keep a cool head...We have Wizards on hand if something goes wrong" Immediately Rosalie began imagining scenarios where things went wrong. Very wrong. Seeing her student was paling more she pushed her into the tent and walked briskly away sniffing slightly before schooling her face into an appropriate teacher visage.

She walked in her hands shaking heavily. In the corner on a low wooden stool sat Fleur who looked slightly less composed than usual, she was pale and clammy and Rosalie felt the same. Viktor looked surlier than usual which, she supposed, was his way of showing his nerves. Then she looked at the boy she had both been avoiding and pining for. Cedric paced up and down the tent but when he noticed she had come in he walked over to her and hugged her tight. Allowing her cold mask to fall she buried her head into his chest shaking. Separating his eyes showed panic and she smiled, though it felt more like a grimace to her.

"Rosalie! Oh good Come in, Come in make yourself at home" Bagman said happily marching up to her. She studied the man and came to the conclusion that he looked like an overblown cartoon character from his old Wasp robes. "Well, now that we are all here, time to fill you in for the task" He said brightly as though the chance of imminent death wasn't there "I am going to offer you all this bag" He lifted up a small corn sack "From which you will select a small model version of the thing you will be facing in a few moments. Now the task is to collect the Golden egg". She glanced around and took in her competitions faces, Cedric looked slightly green and began to pace again although he looked at her to see if she was okay. Fleur and Krum didn't react at all and Rosalie thought that perhaps they worried they would be sick if they tried to speak; that was definitely how she felt right now. At least they had volunteered for this.

In no time at all, though it had been ten minutes, the sounds of hundreds of feet filled the air. The owners of said feet could be heard laughing and joking and Rosalie felt a thousand miles away from them. Maybe if she wasn't stood in the tent about to face a dragon while also competing against people three years older than her, she may have been one of them. Placing bets on who she thought would win and laughing and joking with her friends. But she wasn't. She was here, in a tent about to plunge her hand into a sack that contained a model dragon and then she would faced off against its fifty foot counterpart. The sack was then thrust under her nose and she looked at the other dragon models. The Welsh green, Chinese fireball and Swedish Short-snout had owners. She flashed back to the night she had found out about the dragons. She knew what was left. The worst of them all, the Hungarian Horntail it snapped at her fingers with its miniscule fangs with a tiny number four hung around its neck.

Bagman had left earlier leaving the four champions alone in the tent. She didn't want to talk, for gear she would throw up what little lunch she had eaten. In her head she chanted the mantra that Hermione had drilled into her head. Concentrate, Concentrate. In the background she heard her fellow champions battling the dragon and she knew she should probably care more than she could at the moment but she just couldn't. She heard Krum finish collecting his egg and then she heard the applause slice through the wintery air. It was her turn.

She stood up ,noticing in some far away part of her mind that her legs seemed to have become made of marshmallow. She stood near the entrance watching her breath spiral into smoke as she inhaled the cold wintery air. Then the whistle blew and she walked out, he panic levels raising in a crescendo of fear inside of her. She walked into the arena,and took in the hundreds of faces staring back at her. And there in the other end of the arena stood the Horntail. A huge monstrous lizard with half furled wings, its yellow eyes glaring at her. Then she flicked her massive horn spiked tail leaving gouge in the rock in front of it. A warning, one she should have taken but didn't. The crowd around her seemed to be making noise, friendly or not she didn't know all she knew was that she had to do something. Raising her wand she shouted at the top of her lungs "Accio Firebolt".

She waited, every fiber of her body hoping it would work. There was nothing, now noise or broomstick. She panicked, the noise around seemed to have hit some invisible barrier around her. Her vision swam in a heated haze of fear and then she heard it.

Speeding through the air behind her, she turned and jumped on top of it and kicked off her fear decreasing and her confidence increasing. She could do this, she heard Bagman shouting something but she didn't care hearing things was not exactly on her priority list at the moment. She felt her fear shrink as she entered the mind scape of Quidditch. It was just another match, and the lumbering Dragon was just another ugly opposing team.

She looked down and spotted the egg nestled between a bunch of other eggs, it's location blocked by the Horntail's black leg. Okay, Diversionary tactics it is then she thought. She dived feeling the wind blow through her hair freeing her of the worries that plagued her all morning and then something else hit her. Confidence. She could do this. The Horntail's head followed her movement downwards knowing what she had to do, she pulled upwards sharply feeling the heat of a spiral of flames brush her skin. She didn't care, it was just another Bludger. She heard Bagman compliment her flying but she didn't care, she needed the egg not an inflated ego.

She soared higher in circle with the dragon still watching its head revolving on the spot almost as if it were hypnotised, she thought briefly she could make it dizzy but she knew if she did the chance of encountering flames would be higher. She dived suddenly missing the flames again but instead of coming up clean she saw the horn spiked tail coming to meet her as well. Eyes widening in panic she swerved left she felt the spike graze her shoulder tearing into her robes. Instantly she felt stinging and wetness from the blood she was sure was slipping through the wound already. The dragon didn't want to take off it seemed. She flew around it, she knew it was bothering her and all she needed to do was wait until the dragon gave in and flew up to meet her in the sky. "Come on...get up" She hissed.

And the beast reared and spread its leathery wings finally entering the air space. Seizing her chance she dived again faster than the last time,and before the dragon knew what was happening she had flown through it's parted legs and seized the golden egg within her hands. She held it under uninjured arm and then her hearing clicked into working again and she could hear the crowd. They were cheering loudly. When she saw Dragon-handlers rush out to subdue the Horntail she lowered to the ground and met Hagrid and Professor McGonagall and Moody rushing towards her.

She entered the tent with their compliments ringing in her ears and then she was pulled into a pair of arms and held tightly. She looked up to see Cedric with an orange paste on half his face. He looked down at her and smiled in relief. "Mister Diggory back to bed this instant!" Madame Pomfrey snapped before pulling Rosalie onto a bed and inspecting her wound muttering under her breath about the ridiculous creatures let into this school. Rosalie sighed and fell back onto the bed, adrenaline wearing off she allowed herself time to rest. She had done it! She smiled and waited until the school Nurse allowed her to leave. She stood up and was immediately crushed into a hug by her bushy haired friend behind her Ginny and Neville smiled and when Hermione let go gave her hugs, though less bone-crushing.

After the score giving she slowly made her way back to the castle. Then a certain reporter stood in the way. "Congratulations Rosalie!" She said beaming at him with a greedy glint in her eye "I wonder if you could give me a quick quote? How you felt facing a dragon? And how you feel now about the scores" She asked quickly as though she had not written a trashy article ruining Rosalie's reputation in the school.

Looking at her friends outraged face she turned to face the woman and smiled a little too sweetly "A quote? Of course you can Rita" She said savagely "Fuck off"

And then she walked back to the castle head held high.

"Weasley! Pay attention!" Professor McGonagall snapped from the front of the class. Rosalie rolled her eyes at her former friend who scowled at the old woman when she had turned around. Ron, despite the overall consensus of the school, still had not made an attempt to apologise to Rosalie, it seemed as though he was expecting her to come to him first. She shook her head and faced the front and waited until McGonagall spoke again.

"Now that I have the full attention of the class, The Yule Ball is approaching - a traditional part of the Tri-wizard tournament and an opportunity to encourage socialization between the three schools. Now, the ball will be open to fourth-years and above although you may invite those of younger years if you wish" She said before giving a disapproving stare at Lavender Brown who let out a girlish giggle. When she and Parvati Patil had stopped giggling she carried on "Dress robes will be worn and the ball will be starting at eight o'clock on Christmas day and will finish at Midnight in the great hall"

She swept her eyes around the room sternly while she carried on in a more disapproving tone "The Yule Ball is a time for us all to..Let our hair down" Even Rosalie giggled this time, the thought of the most stern of all the teaching staff (Snape aside) with her grey hair in a tight bun, looking as though as she had never released it in any sense.

"But that does NOT mean that we will be relaxing the standards set by the school, I shall be most disappointed if a Gryffindor student were found to be embarrassing the school in any way" She gave one last stare of non-approval before sending the class on its way when the bell rang. Rosalie made her way to the door when her professors voice rose above the noise of people leaving "Potter, A word if you please" Though it was a question the woman's delivery gave it an order type tone.

Assuming it was something to do with her homework she proceeded to stand in front of the desk "Potter, the Champions and their partners-"

"What" she interrupted only to be met with a fierce glare that she quailed under. She often marveled the woman's glare, she had faced Voldemort twice and now dragon and still her glare terrified her.

"As I was saying, The champions and their partners will be opening the ball"

"But...I don't want to go to the ball" Rosalie said, She didn't. Going meant dressing up in a...well a dress and she hated the way she looked in one. She looked like she was pretending to be something she just wasn't.

"It is mandatory that you attend, and you will be attending with a partner" She said firmly before she ushered her out of the room.

She walked through the school heading towards the charms classroom, she was slightly annoyed that they had classes on Christmas eve, to make up for the tournament disruptions, but she was busy figuring out how to find a date to the ball by tomorrow night. Neville was going with Ginny and Hermione wouldn't say. That just left her, on her own. She supposed she could dress up a broom...That sounded promising. Then at least she could have the last word on everything.

"Hey Rosie" A voice said looking up from the floor she looked at Cedric who motioned for her to come to him. Smiling as she did she walked to him and he pulled her into a small space in the wall. "What's up Ced" She asked blushing as she looked into his eyes.

"Are you going with anybody to the ball?" He asked

"Yes, Sergio" She said all serious

"Who?" He asked confused, there was no Sergio at Hogwarts was there?

"How could you not know? He's the cutest broom stick I'll ever have the pleasure to dress up" She said giggling at the comprehension.

"Well, I came here to ask you to the ball but seeing as Sergio got here before me I may as well leave" He joked. She looked up at him her mouth suspiciously dry "...What"

"Will you go to the ball with me" He asked softly holding her hand in his. Nodding he smiled widely before saying "That's great! I'll see you in the entrance hall at eight then" He said before kissing her cheek and rushing off to his lesson. She stood there in a daze before she floated, yes to her eternal shame she will admit that she floated to Charms.

She sat in her regular seat, and as Professor Flitwick saw his class wasn't properly focusing he gave them a free lesson, she was soon accosted by her dorm mates and best friend. "What happened" Hermione asked as her friend smiled widely unable to stop.

"Why does something have to happen for me to be happy hm?" She asked still smiling Ridiculously wide.

"I know you Rose" Hermione said "What append today?"

"Well, I woke up, had breakfast, went to class, Got asked by Cedric Diggory to the ball and came to Charms" She said quickly. Then she watched as her friend (And the others) Figured it out.

"He asked you!" She squealed in a more girly way than was normal for Hermione.

"Yes" She replied equally happy.

"Wait, Someone asked Rosalie Potter to the dance?" Seamus Finnegan asked.

"yes...Why is that so hard to believe" Rosalie demanded.

"Just shocked is all" The Irish boy said not noticing the angering girl.

"And why would you be!" She snapped.

"Because you're not exactly a dress kind of girl are you...You more of a boy than anybody else, even Hermione looks more like a girl than you" He said ignorant to the girls feelings.

Rosalie looked down at her trousers in shock, She like the way she dressed. It was comfortably and...Boy like. Was she that much of a tomboy? She like being 'one of the guys' but...there was a part of her that wanted to be a girl and to have people look at her like she was pretty and not just like someone who was good at sports. She looked at her baggy clothes and then looked at the others. There was no denying that Lavender was a girl, her skirt did that enough but she wore make-up and did her hair. The furthest that Rosalie ever did was run a brush through it and tame it. And she never ever wore make-up. Guys liked girls who made an effort didn't they? Feeling tears pricking her eyes she grabbed her bag and walked out the room quickly not hearing the shouts at the Irish boy by the three other girls. She fled to her bed and sat down.

She looked into the mirror in the bathroom and looked hard. Somewhere under all of that was girl. People always told her that her mum was beautiful. Maybe if she tried she could be too. Spying Lavenders make-up bag she pulled out a tube of lipstick and looked at the maybe girl in the mirror. Tomorrow they would see, Rosalie Potter was 100% Girl.

Cedric Diggory stood waiting for his date in the entrance hall. He smiled when he saw Hermione walk down the steps. She had sleeked back her normal bush of air and wore clothes that made her look more like a girl. "She'll be coming down now" She said smiling at the boy in front of her before going to Viktor Krum and taking his arm smiling at the looks she was getting. Then people gasped and Cedric looked up towards the stairs. "She's beautiful" Parvati whispered and Cedric agreed wholeheartedly.

Rosalie wore a dark green dress that showed off that she was, in fact a girl. Her hair that usually lay in wild curls or in a ponytail hung delicately down her shoulder it had been somehow tamed into submission. She wore jewellery which again was unusual for her but added to the girl image she wanted. He walked up to her quickly and whispered to her "You look...Amazing" She blushed lightly and said

"So do you" He offered her his arm and she took it and they each took their place in line behind the two other champions. Rosalie looked up and saw McGonagall's smiling face. Mission accomplished She thought as they walked out to the great hall. She distinctly heard Seamus Finnegan mutter a "Blimey" She smiled again and she took Cedric's arms as he wrapped his other around her waist.

And for one night, she could pretend that she was a regular girl that didn't have the weight of the world on her shoulders.