AN: Okay, I'm sorry that there was a delay with this chapter. For some reason, I was having a bit of a hard time writing it. I hope that the next few will come more quickly. Also, thank you for your reviews! They're lovely and wonderful and I enjoy them so much. Please continue. :) One last thing: Guys, go check out . Seriously. She is a lovely writer and a wonderful person, and she reviews literally everything I write. She deserves more attention. Okay, that's all. Your long-delayed chapter is here. NOTE: "Titian hair" is a reference to Titian Vecelli, an artist who famously painted red-haired women. Look up images of "Titian hair" if you're confused.


"Lily, wake up! I have it! I figured it out! It's brilliant!"
I opened my eyes and yelped. A gigantic pair of green eyes was staring at me.
Hold on a second.
I blinked.
Oh. Will, looking all fresh and clean, his hair still wet from the bath, was kneeling next to my bed. (His bright-eyed, early-morning cheerfulness was disgusting. That boy wakes up way too early.)
Anyways, the close proximity of his face had made his eyes look gigantic. It was rather scary, like Will had turned into a gigantic, human-fly hybrid and was floating around my head, ready to slurp up my blood and drag my drained carcass back to his lair.
Wow. I never knew I could be so imaginatively violent at seven in the morning.
"What are you doing?"I demanded, closing my eyes. "Let me sleep!" Alice Longbottom and the other girls in my dormitory had learned the hard way not to wake me up before 9:00 a.m. on the weekends. (The hard way involved the Curse of the Bat-Bogeys and large amounts of ice-cold water. I think the stains on the dormitory walls remain to this day.)
Wait.
My dormitory.
Why was Will in my dormitory?
"Will!" I exclaimed, sitting bolt upright and opening my eyes. "What are you doing? You're not supposed to be in here!"
"That doesn't matter right now!" he said excitedly. "Listen, Lily, I have a plan!"
"Well, tell me!" I said, starting to get slightly excited.
He grinned. "There's going to be a ball!"
A ball? "Like the Yule Ball?"
"Yes!"
"Oh my Morgana, you're a genius!" I said, jumping out of bed and hugging him. "How are we going to—
"I already talked to Headmaster Longbottom! He says we can do it! I mean, there's going to be a bunch of Muggle stuff we have to do, but—
"Will!" I shrieked. "You're the best!" I hugged him even tighter.
"I know," he said, oh-so-modestly. But he squeezed me back even harder, and I knew he was just as excited as I was.
For some reason, I felt reluctant to let go of him, but I did anyways. Quickly, to rid myself of the bizarre feeling, I splashed some water over my face and ran a brush through my hair, as Will filled me in on the details.
"It's going to be on Halloween," he informed me, as he sat on my bed, watching me get ready for breakfast. "A masquerade ball."
"Awesome," I said. Then I frowned. "Ugh, a ball. I suppose I'll have to get a date."
Will rolled his eyes. "Like that's going to be a problem."
I turned to face him, my hands on my hips. "Are you implying that I'm a floozy?"
"Who uses the word floozy?" he said. Just as I was about to punch him, he added, "And no, I'm not. I'm implying that you're drop-dead gorgeous."
I lowered my hand and blinked rapidly. "Wait, what?"
"Don't fish for compliments, it's unbecoming," he responded.
"I'm so lost right now," I said, confused.
He got to his feet, wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and turned, so we were facing the mirror. "Look at yourself," he said.
For a moment, I did. I took in pale (a poet would say creamy) skin, dark red (an artist would say Titian) hair, and brown (the poet would say chocolate) eyes. Sure, I was pretty-ish, but definitely not drop-dead gorgeous.
Instead, my eyes drifted over to Will. He had nice, chestnut brown hair, olive skin, and fantastic green eyes. His teeth were white and straight, and when he smiled, his whole face lit up. Furthermore, as I was now noticing, he was just a few inches taller than me, and the muscles in his arms were rather nicely toned and muscular—
Okay, Lily. You really need to work on your focusing abilities. What were we talking about? The ball. No, the fact that Will thinks you're gorgeous.
No, the fact that he's gorgeous.
No, we weren't talking about that.
Although he actually kind of is—
"See what I mean?" said Will, interrupting the painful internal struggle of my two inner voices, the logical one and the annoying one. I have to deal with their bickering so much; I should probably give them names or something. Annoyilily and Intellily, maybe? "You're pretty."
I blinked, my eyes focusing back onto the mirror. "Well, thanks," said. "You're not so bad, yourself. Especially for a frumpy hare."
Will groaned. "I thought we had moved past that, Ginger."
"Never, frumpy hare," I said, moving away from the mirror. But as I did so, I caught sight, one last time, of my reflection, and I saw that I was blushing. And so was he.


That morning, Scorpius, Rose, Albus, Will, and I were eating breakfast together (yes, I was actually eating breakfast. Normally, I sleep in so late that 'breakfast' for me is actually lunch.) I was halfway through a plate of sausage and eggs, a nice change from the whole sandwiches-for-breakfast thing, when I saw Headmaster Longbottom getting to his feat. I elbowed Will in the side, and he elbowed Rose, and Rose elbowed Alice Longbottom, and soon the entire Great Hall was silent.
Headmaster Longbottom cleared his throat. "Attention, students!" he announced. "The professors and I have decided that there will be a slight change of holiday plans for this year. Instead of attending the Halloween feast, all fourth-year and above students may attend the Halloween Masquerade Ball. In order to ensure that this ball is a learning experience for you all, you will be required to perform a Muggle dance you have learned in your Muggle Studies class, and you will be assisting in decorating and preparing the food—the Muggle way. Thank you. That is all!"
The Great Hall filled with excited murmuring and chattering.
Grinning, I turned to face Will. "There's no escape for them now," I said.
"None at all," he replied, grinning back.