Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I haven't magically obtained the rights to anything, especially Harry Potter. What a bummer.
It had seemed only a handful of days ago that Harry had sort of asked Daphne to the ball when he looked up and discovered himself in front of the mirror, having just put on his dress robes for the ball. He straightened part of the collar and checked his watch, which read 7:43. He was supposed to meet Daphne in the Entrance Hall at eight, but decided it was best to be a few minutes early, just in case. Merlin knows if he shows up after her, even if it was before eight then he could potentially get in trouble for being late. Girls worked in strange ways.
Harry casually leaned against the stone wall and observed everyone else as they tried to find their partner amongst the crowd as he tried to remember what Hermione had taught him about dancing. He saw Dean and Seamus escorting Parvati and Lavender down the stairs. Harry met eyes with both boys and nodded, which they replied with sly grins. Neville and Ginny soon followed their housemates across the Entrance Hall. Ginny pretended to make no notice of Neville when he nearly tripped, though her face did turn a slight scarlet color.
Harry glanced at his watch again. It was now 7:58 with still no sign of Daphne anywhere. He tried his best not to notice the fact that all of the other champions were already with their partners. Cedric with Cho, Fleur with Roger Davies, and Krum with an attractive witch Harry didn't know, though there was an air of familiarity about her. He heard the castle clock chime eight times and tried his best to overcome the slight anxious feeling he was getting in his stomach. Professor McGonagall appeared to make sure they were all ready. She cast a nervous look at Harry and politely asked him about his partner.
"I don't know. She said she would be here at eight."
"Sorry, got held up."
Harry glanced over to where the voice was coming from and felt all the air leave his lungs. He knew he was staring and he didn't care one bit. Daphne was dressed in a sapphire blue dress which went perfectly with her crystal blue eyes. It wasn't overly revealing, but with only one strap, it did show off a decent amount of her slightly tan skin. Her dirty blonde hair was slightly wavy and flowed down just past her shoulders. It was at that moment that Harry felt all the cocoons in his stomach break open as there were now hundreds of butterflies flying around. Harry was aware of one thing and one thing only in that instance. Daphne Greengrass was beauty.
"Geez Potter, didn't anyone teach you that it was rude to stare?" she put her hands on her hips and grinned jokingly before she gracefully floated over to his side. Harry opened his mouth, but his throat suddenly became very dry and he lost all train of thought. "I suppose we could stand in silence in the Entrance Hall all night while you ogle me."
'Say something you imbecile!' Harry told himself. 'You're acting like a brainless git.'
'You really should say something Harry.' Why did this voice sound like Hermione? 'Tell her she looks pretty.'
'No, tell her she looks smoking!' Apparently his inner Sirius was also giving his opinion.
'Merlin no, don't tell me that!' huffed another voice, this one sounding exactly like the girl who was currently eyeing him expectantly. 'For the love of Merlin Potter, just say I look nice.'
"I look nice!" Harry blurted out.
'Way to muck it up Potter,' said the inner Daphne.
'Very Smooth young blood,' added the inner Sirius, which was also barking with laughter.
Daphne just raised an eyebrow at him, hands back on her hips.
"Did I really just say that?" Harry said horrified as he covered part of his face with a hand.
"Yes. Yes you did. Would you like to remove your foot from your mouth and try again?" she asked him. It was in a rather serious manner, but still had that slight sarcastic and joking feel to it, as did most things Daphne.
"Yes please."
"Alright proceed."
This time, Harry did the intelligent thing and ignored all inner voices that did not sound like him. Removing his hand from his face and his metaphorical foot from mouth, his green eyes found her blue ones.
"You look great," he heard himself say. It sounded rather awkward to him, but that was perhaps because his experience with girls outside Hermione was extremely limited.
"Thanks Potter," she grinned up at him. "I suppose you're not too bad yourself.
"Alright everyone," Professor McGonagall interrupted. As she began ushering everyone into a line, she added, "Line-up everyone."
Fleur and her partner were heading the line, followed by Krum and Cedric with their partners with Harry and Daphne bringing up the rear. Applause rang through the Great Hall when the four champions entered with their partners. Harry quickly glanced around as he escorted Daphne to the front of the hall. Many heads were turned his direction with shocked looks when they saw him and who he was escorting. Harry did his absolute best not to crack a smile and laugh when he saw just how scandalized Malfoy looked. That combined with Parkinson's mouth hanging open and her eyes the size of dinner plates. Daphne followed his gaze and smirked at their reactions as she tightened her hold on Harry's arm. Harry couldn't help but notice that Dean, Seamus and Neville were grinning and eyeing Daphne with interest. He could almost imagine how many questions would be asked in their dormitory later that night. Sitting at the same table as them was Padma and Ron, in which the latter was determinately looking anywhere else but at the champions. Harry tried to ignore this.
Upon reaching the tables set up at the front of the Entrance Hall for the champions and staff, Harry only saw two tables with room for him and Daphne. One of them had Percy Weasley, who waved at Harry and motioned for him to sit next to him. Pretending that he thought Percy had just waved at him, Harry waved back politely and immediately guided Daphne to the other table with open seats. Harry helped Daphne into her seat and looked up to see that Krum and his date were the other two sitting at their table.
"Hey Harry," Harry heard Hermione's voice as he settled into his own chair. His head shooting up, Harry glanced around mildly confused. That was when he learned why Krum's partner had a familiar look to her.
"Hermione?" He tried, and failed spectacularly to make that not sound like a question. Harry also didn't do the best job at concealing his surprise either.
"Yeah! Hello Daphne, isn't it?" Hermione asked politely.
"I know you know who I am," Daphne laughed. "We have Ancient Runes together."
"Hey Viktor," Harry held out his hand to the Bulgarian, who shook it with a tight grip. "This is my date Daphne Greengrass."
Viktor took Daphne's hand when she offered it, bowing slightly and kissing it.
"It is a pleasure to meet you Da-vv-nee," Krum said to the Slytherin girl. Daphne couldn't help but grin at his attempt to pronounce her name. Clearly she didn't mind the slight mispronunciation as she made no attempt to correct him.
Hermione opened her mouth to speak when Dumbledore stood and made a small announcement before he began suddenly speaking to his plate. This confused Harry at first until he saw what looked like pork chops appear on his plate. That was when everyone else began speaking to their own plates, placing orders of whatever they desired. At first Harry thought they would be eating in silence and that it would be slightly awkward since he had never spoken to Krum before, who seemed the strong silent type. Harry, however, was quite wrong. Barely ten minutes later Harry, Hermione and Daphne all found themselves roaring with laughter at a story Krum was telling.
"And so ve see my manager heading straight for us and I vas not supposed to be out because I had a match the next day. So my comrade Dmitri pushes me into the alleyway outside of the pub and says to Vlad, "Quick, hide Viktor." So here comes Vlad to the rescue and vhips out his vand and points it at me," Viktor told them through his thick Bulgarian accent, holding up his fork for visual affect. "And the next thing I knew, I vas a duck!"
Harry, Hermione and Daphne all lost it at that part. Hermione looked like she was starting to cry from laughing so hard. Harry, meanwhile, was clutching his side and trying to catch his breath.
"No way!" Daphne managed to blurt out between laughter. "He turned you into a duck?"
"Oh yes! I vas a duck. At first, I vas very confused. I tried to say something to Vlad and it just came out as quacks! So here comes my manager and asked Dmitri and Vlad vhere I vas. Then he looks over and sees a duck start vaddling out of the alleyvay, just quacking avay. My comrades manage to convince him that I vas not there and that they had no clue vhere the duck came from. After he leaves they transform me back, except Vlad is not the best at transfiguration. Ve thought I vas back to normal, except vhen I tried to valk, I vas still valking duck-footed!" Krum finished, his heavy laugh filling the air around their table. "And I have been duck-footed ever since."
"Oh yeah!" Harry said through laughs, having just remembered. "I noticed that at the Quidditch World Cup. I was sitting in the top box when you walked through."
"You guys vere at the Vorld Cup?" Krum asked.
"Yes, Harry and I went with our friends family who had seats in the top box," Hermione explained. "Daphne, were you there?"
"Yeah, but of course our seats weren't as nice," she laughed. "We were sitting by the giant scoreboard."
"I gotta say Viktor, even though Bulgaria lost, you were awesome," Harry said to the Bulgarian. "That Wronski Feint was just brilliant."
"From vhat I saw at the First Task and from vhat Herm-own-ninny says, you seem to be quite the flyer yourself. Are you a quidditch player or just a good flyer?"
"I'm a seeker just like you. Youngest seeker at Hogwarts in a century," he added proudly.
"That's very impressive," said the Bulgarian, nodding in improvement. "Perhaps ve can fly together sometime?" He added hopefully.
"Oh definitely!" Harry blurted excitedly. "After watching you at the World Cup, I've been wanting to learn how to pull off the Wronski Feint just the right way, you know?"
"Between you and me, it's not as hard as it looks. It is all about timing," Viktor said, leaning into the table as though he didn't want to be overheard. "I'd be more than happy to show you comrade."
Harry had opened his mouth to respond when Dumbledore stood and announced that the Champions were to open the ball with a dance. He was vaguely aware of Cedric, Cho, Fleur and Roger all stand from their table and begin moving to the spot Dumbledore had cleared for dancing. Only when Hermione and Viktor stood also was Harry fully aware of what was about to do. Suddenly his mind was racing through all those damn dance steps Hermione had tried to teach him, and not remembering a bit of it.
"You look like you've been petrified Potter," Daphne whispered as Harry escorted her to the dance floor. "Dancing with me that bad?"
"It's not that," Harry muttered back. "Let's just say dancing isn't my strong suit."
"Are my feet about to hurt?" She asked as Harry took one of her hands and rather reluctantly put the other on her waist, as if she was going to bite his head off if he touched her.
"Probably."
The music started playing and they began moving. Harry was surprised when his body began moving out of memory and he found he didn't need to concentrate quite as hard on his lessons with Hermione. The song wasn't overly long, but Harry was glad that others, led by Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, joined in for the sole reason of getting the attention off of himself. He found that he actually didn't mind dancing with Daphne when everyone wasn't staring at them.
"I'm proud Potter," Daphne said when the song had ended. "You only stepped on my feet twice."
"I'm surprised I managed to do that good, to be honest."
More music filled the hall and they all began dancing again. The four of them danced for the first twenty minutes before Hermione demanded that they switch partners for at least one song so she could dance with Harry.
"And to think," she said to Harry as they danced. "Barely a week and a half ago, you were about as good and graceful at dancing as that dragon you faced would've been."
"Yeah yeah," Harry laughed casually. "How many times do I need to say thank you?"
"Hmm, about thirty seven times more," she laughed also, but was drowned out by the laughter off Viktor and Daphne, who were dancing next to them.
"No no I'm serious. Potter really did blow up! He was ranting about Merlin knows what and the Blast-Ended Skrewt we were supposed to be taking care of just shoots off and Potter just blows up behind it. I had to take him to the Hospital Wing afterwards." Daphne explained to the Bulgarian, both of whom were laughing, to which Harry groaned audibly.
"Why must you feel the need to retell this story?" Harry asked her as the dance finished. "And why must you get so much satisfaction from it?"
"You have to admit Potter, it's pretty funny," she grinned as Harry just shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"Vhy don't Harry and I get us drinks?" Viktor suggested after he had finally stopped laughing from the Skrewt story.
"Daphne and I can get us a table," Hermione said in response.
"Actually, do you mind if I go talk to my friend Tracey for a few minutes?" Daphne asked them, Harry more so than Hermione and Viktor.
"Yeah go ahead," Harry said as he and Viktor started walking into the crowd of students, beginning their beverage mission.
"So what do you think of Hogwarts compared to Durmstrang?" Harry asked casually. For someone so famous, Viktor seemed to down to earth. Then again, he himself was famous and was always told he was way too modest about it. Perhaps he and Viktor Krum had more in common than he initially thought.
"It is great!" he said with enthusiasm, and went on to explain how Durmstrang only had four floors and how awful the winters were. "You vould love it in spring and summer. There is so many lakes and mountains to fly around. I vould not have minded attending Hogvarts though. Durmstrang has such a bad reputation with the dark arts."
"I honestly didn't even know there were other magical schools until I saw how many international witches and wizards were at the Quidditch World Cup," Harry admitted as both men grabbed two bottles of butterbeer each. He scanned the area and saw Hermione sitting by Ron and Padma, motioning to Viktor with a butterbeer to show him.
"So how did you and Herm-own-ninny become such good friends?" Krum asked interestedly as they made their way back to where Ron and Hermione were at.
"Me and our friend Ron saved her from a mountain troll in our first year," Harry said nonchalantly. Upon seeing the incredulous look on Krum's face, Harry elaborated a little bit. "It's a long story, I'll have to tell you later." Krum nodded approvingly at this as they approached the table.
"Hey Ron, how's it going?" Harry asked as he took a seat next to his friend, politely adding, "Hi Padma."
"Vhere did Herm-own-ninny go?" Viktor asked nicely, but with a hint of confusion.
"No idea. Lost her, have you?" Ron spat. Viktor looked taken aback and glanced at Harry.
"Hey Viktor, why don't you look for Hermione and we can meet back at our table in a little bit?" Harry replied to Viktor's look, trying to defer the situation from whatever the problem was.
"Ok my friend. Ve vill see you in a bit," he answered with a nod before heading back to the champions table, butterbeer still clutched in his hands.
"What was that about?" Harry questioned his friend.
"I can't believe Hermione is hanging out with that git from Durmstrang," Ron glared at Viktor's retreating figure as though by doing this he would burn a hole through his back.
"Viktor's alright Ron. He's actually pretty nice and down to earth for an international Quidditch player."
"As if you have room to talk."
"Excuse me?" Harry said slowly.
"Are you even going to ask me to dance at all?" Padma interjected.
"Nope." Ron answered at once, causing Padma to get up and join her sister and Lavender with Dean and Seamus.
"What the bloody hell are you doing with her Harry?" Ron said once Padma was gone.
"Is there a problem with me taking Daphne to the ball?" Harry asked coolly. He was afraid he knew where this was going, and certainly didn't want to go there.
"She's a Slytherin!" Ron said, putting as much bitterness as he could into such a simple sentence.
"So what?" Harry was certainly not going to help Ron get to where he was going with his conversation. It was already going to be unpleasant enough without his help.
"So who knows what she's planning on doing to you! She could be planning on cursing you as soon as she gets you alone or..."
Harry didn't need him to finish his sentence. Standing up, he looked at Ron with a determined look. "Ron, you remember what I told you after the First Task? I said I forgave you for being a prat, but that it would take some time for you to get back in my good book? Well, you're still not there yet and you're walking on very thin ice here. So think long and hard before you finish that sentence."
"But Harry..."
"I said think Ron. Longer than a second," Harry cut him off. He glanced up at random and saw Daphne walking towards him. He held up a finger to stop her and saw her stop where she was and wait for him. "Now, my date is waiting for me and I'm going to go spend time with her. You're more than welcome to join us as long as you act civil. If not, then think about the situation, and that goes for Hermione and Viktor as well, and we can have this conversation again later."
Harry ignored Ron's stunned look at he made his way to Daphne. Even after dancing for so long, she was still radiating beauty. He smiled as he walked up to her, reaching out to hand her a butterbeer, which was no doubt cold as this point. Oh well, maybe she won't notice.
"This is cold Potter," she commented after taking a sip. Damn, she noticed.
"Err, sorry about that. Want another one?"
"No, don't worry about it. Let's just sit down, my feet are killing me."
They found a small table away from everyone in the back of the room and took it over. Apparently when Daphne said 'no, don't worry about another butterbeer,' was code for 'I'll just drink yours,' seeing as how she did just that. While Daphne drank his butterbeer, which was still partly warm oddly enough, they actually began having real conversations. She started telling Harry about her family and he found that she wasn't anywhere near as sarcastic when she talked about them. She explained her parents jobs at the Ministry, about how they were a house divided between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, and her sister Astoria. Apparently Harry was going to have quite an interesting conversation with Astoria once she found out her sister went to the Yule Ball with the Boy-Who-Lived. They must've sat there for over an hour, just talking about different things.
"Hey Harry!" Harry looked up, trying to find who shouted his name.
"Oh no," Harry muttered when he found Percy Weasley making his way towards them. "Hey Percy," he said as nicely as he could, although rather half-heartedly.
"I don't believe we've met. I'm Percy Weasley. I work for Mr. Crouch in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Actually," he added smugly. "I'm here representing him."
"I don't," Daphne started to say 'I don't care,' but changed tactics quickly when Harry discreetly grabbed her hand and squeezed. "believe we have met either, you're right. I'm Daphne Greengrass."
"Ah yes, I know you're parents. From the Ministry of course. Very nice people. So Harry," he turned back to him, apparently not very interested in Daphne in the least. "Made friends with Viktor Krum I see. I saw you sitting with him earlier."
"Uhh, yeah. I guess you could say that."
"Very good indeed. That what this whole tournament is about, International Magical Cooperation. How do you think the tournament is going so far? Apart from that little fiasco with you being entered and all, of course."
Harry tried his best to hide his eye roll and sigh so as not to be rude, but you could hardly blame him. Give Percy five minutes and you'll get the pants bored off you with the latest news in cauldron bottom thickness. Unbeknownst to Harry, Daphne picked up on this sign from Harry and did quick analyzing of the situation.
"Oh well, I don't know. It seems to be going alright," he didn't really know what else to say.
"I'm surprised at how the whole situation turned out with you. But I mean rules are rules. As Mr. Crouch always says..."
"Let's dance!" Daphne jumped up, grabbed Harry's hand and began to pull him to the dance floor. Harry turned to give Percy the best apologetic look he could fake and heard Percy say what sounded along the lines of 'good man,' and 'gotta keep the ladies happy.'
"Oh lord, thank you," Harry exclaimed when they were a good distance away. "I thought we were doomed for a minute there."
"Oh that was for my benefit. I could sense a long, very dry conversation on the horizon. You think I wanted to sit there for that?"
"Well then," Harry blinked. "I suppose thanks for taking me with you and not abandoning me."
"Don't say I never did anything for you," she replied, not missing a beat as she finally found a space on the dance floor and turned to face him.
The song was slow. If you asked Harry, the lights seemed dimmer but Daphne was positively radiating more light than the Great Hall. He wasn't sure which one of them did it, but they were suddenly dancing much closer than they had all night. Before he knew it, they were much too close, he couldn't remember ever seeing her crystal blue eyes as clearly as he could now. Time seemed to have stopped, but the next thing Harry knew, he was leaning down towards her and what was more, she was doing the same. Their lips were barely an inch apart when all of a sudden pain shot through his side and he was kissing, not Daphne, but the floor of the Great Hall. Fred and George, apparently, had been doing the most crazy and exotic dance in the world together, no doubt showing off for Angelina and Alicia, when things had gone quite wrong. The end result was George being hurtled straight into Harry like a rampaging rhino. Harry looked up to see George laying on top of him, looking dumbfounded for moment before he gave his trademark mischievous grin.
"Harry! Mate, how's life?"
Harry blinked. "Oh you know, still living."
"Good, that means you're winning."
"Gred?"
"Yeah Harry?"
"Do you mind getting off me?" Harry said as he was still flat on the floor pinned under George.
"Oh, sorry mate, accident. Usually I can pull off the Dancing Hippo of the Nile better than that." George grinned as Fred roared with laughter.
"It's ok, no pro...wait, the dancing what?" Harry wondered as George leapt to his feet and offered Harry a hand, pulling him up.
"The Dancing Hippo of the Nile," Fred stated matter-of-factly.
"We learned it from this loony old wizard when we were in Egypt," George added.
"Waste of 12 sickles our mum kept saying."
"We're being conned out of our money said dad."
"But we knew otherwise."
"This is a sacred dance of the Egyptian Wizarding Culture we told them."
"Knew it would come in handy eventually."
"Would you care to learn this foreign tradition dear Harrykins?"
"Free of charge for you of course."
"Maybe later guys," Harry could help but laugh at this. Good ol' Gred and Forge were something else.
"Well ickle Harrykins," George said with a grin.
"We must be on our way."
"Can't keep the ladies waiting," George motioned to Angelina and Alicia, who were standing nearby.
"But we leave you," Fred said, putting his arm around Daphne's shoulder. "In the no doubt loving embrace of the charming Miss Greengrass."
"The Dancing Hippo of the Nile?" Daphne asked once the twins walked back over to Angelina and Alicia. "They must've been pulling your leg."
"You know, I can never tell with those guys."
"I don't know about you but I think I'm done with dancing for the moment," Daphne said as she brushed some of her hair out of her face and straightened part of her dress.
"Same," Harry nodded in agreement.
"Walk with me outside?" She gazed into his eyes softly. It wasn't a question. Or at least, not a question that had more than one answer. Harry could tell by her look that 'no' was not the right answer in this situation, nor was it even acceptable as an answer. He responded by offering her his arm. He was nowhere near suave enough to pull this off smoothly, so naturally it came across slightly awkwardly. Daphne must've been in an extremely good mood as she completely ignored his slight awkwardness and made no sarcastic or witty response. Either that or she was Imperiused. 'For my sake,' Harry told himself as she took his arm. 'Let's just say the good mood.'
They slowly walked around the garden-like area that was created outside for the ball. Benches were placed strategically around all the decorative hedges for the students to use and while there was snow on the ground, it didn't seem to be cold. Dumbledore must've enchanted the small area to stay warm. They casually walked around for a few minutes before a bench was finally deemed acceptable by Daphne. It was tucked away by several of the hedges and had a rather large hedge right behind it, where, Harry was sure, more benches were. Harry opened his mouth to make some probably lame comment when he heard a familiar voice coming from a bench on the other side of the hedge. Why, out of all the freaking benches there, did
Daphne had to pick this one?
"Moment I saw ya, I knew," came Hagrid's deep, rumbling voice.
Harry wanted to be anywhere rather than on that bench, able to hear Hagrid and Madame Maxime's conversation. He tried to distract himself with a beetle that was sitting on the bench by Daphne's shoulder. The beetle tried to scurry out of his reach, so he simply flicked it away, just to see how far it would go. He didn't want to look at Daphne, for fear of seeing her reaction. Very soon, however, Madame Maxime angrily took off and Hagrid gloomily trotted his way back to his cabin. Harry finally came to his senses when he felt a warm hand in one of his.
"Did you know?" came her voice through the night air. He was afraid of this, but he knew it was coming and tried to brace himself for it.
"No, but what does it matter? He's still Hagrid." Which was true. Harry didn't care at all if Hagrid was part giant, he was still the same man Harry regarded as family. He was the one who introduced Harry to everything he knew now.
"It's just that, well, there's a reason giants are secluded the way they are. They're terrible and dangerous."
"Oh yeah?" Harry found his voice getting a little colder with each word. "Are you saying Hagrid is terrible and dangerous?"
"I'm not saying that, but you know some of his lessons are rather dangerous," she replied, rather calmly.
"So he's a bad teacher?" He tried to quail the anger that was slowly bubbling in the pit of his stomach. He wasn't anger at Daphne per say, it was the whole situation really.
"I mean, come on Potter, Blast-Ended Skrewts? And then there was the Hippogriffs last year and that accident with Mal.."
"Don't you dare try to blame that on Hagrid," Harry retorted defensively. He retreated his hand from Daphne's, much more harshly than he intended. "It's not his fault Malfoy is a slimy and brainless git. He knew what would happen if he insulted Buckbeak, he just wanted to get Hagrid fired because he's a racist scumbag."
"Well what about the Skrewts huh? Not to mention the fact that I know he was imprisoned in Azkaban during second year for the Chamber of Secrets mess. You know he was expelled from Hogwarts right?"
He was on his feet in an instance. He had certainly not expected this when she had asked him to walk outside. He was so angry right now he didn't know what to do. She had no idea about Hagrid. She had no idea about anything. He knew he would probably hate himself for thinking this later, but was she really the same as Malfoy when it came to about Pureblood supremacy? She had given him the 'Not all Slytherin's are Death Eater's' speech, but one does not need to be a death eater to be a racist. Then again, she hadn't necessarily said Death Eaters, she had said evil. Not all Slytherin's are evil. Can one be racist and not be evil? She had never given him any reason to believe she thought that way before. For reasons unknown to himself, Harry decided to take all the logic he just thought of, and chuck it out the window.
"You have no idea what you're talking about Greengrass!" Now she was on her feet.
"Oh, it's Greengrass now, is it?" she replied acidly.
"Thought it was more appropriate, seeing as how you only seem to know my last name."
"Merlin Potter..."
"You see? There you go with the Potter again," he interrupted her, causing her to glare at him.
"You're such an ass."
"Yeah?" Harry had the sudden urge to kick the bench, but suppressed it at once.
"Yeah." She replied shortly, and brutally.
"Well, I'd rather be an ass than be someone who thinks they're superior to another just because of their heritage!" She spun so fast her hair slapped him across the face like a whip before she stormed off.
Harry waited a full minute before heading to Gryffindor Tower. He used his knowledge of the school to take some of his 'shortcuts.' The ones he used took a few minutes longer, but they ensured him privacy. Gryffindor Common Room was fairly empty with the exception of the odd student here and there who were third year and below. Colin Creevy tried to wave at Harry, but he pretended not to notice and made his way up the stairs to his dormitory. He was not surprised to find it deserted and was glad for it. He furiously ripped off his shoes and threw them. One landed under Dean's West Ham poster and the other bounced off Neville's bed and ricocheted out the open window. He silently dropped every swear word he knew as he summoned the shoe back. Not bothering to even change out of his dress robes, he dropped into his bed and started at the ceiling for what felt like hours, pretending to be asleep when Ron and the others trickled in later in the night.
A/N: I know a lot of people don't like that my chapters aren't like novels in themselves, so starting from here on out, I'm going to try to make them at least a bit longer, probably around this length. Only downside is that it might take me a little bit longer to update because of it. While I'm on that topic, I want to apologize for the slight delay in uploading this chapter. I actually finished it almost a week ago, but I've been without internet for almost two weeks. So naturally when I got it back today, this was my first stop.
Part of this chapter I wrote when I was thoroughly exhausted. I had worked from 5 am to around 1 am with short breaks in between and it was around 2 in the morning when I wrote part of this chapter. The parts I wrote during in that half asleep phase was the scene with Krum telling the duck story and the scene with Gred and Forge doing the Dancing Hippo of the Nile. I don't know where I came up with those ideas, but they seemed like a good idea at the time and once I was properly awake and editing some, I decided what the hell, I'll keep em. So you guys can see a bit of how my mind works when I'm tired.
In other news, I'm about halfway done with the next chapter and I'll try to update soon. Let me know what you guys think about the Yule Ball and how you guys like the length of this rather than before. Feel free to drop a review or PM me with any questions, comments, or criticism. I enjoy hearing what you guys have to say.
One last thing, my last update, chapter 9, The Walk hit 50,000 views, over 500 followers, and over 300 favorites. I never thought that this story would be read and liked by so many people. You guys really are awesome and I really appreciate all of you who keep coming back to read more! Thanks to all of you and I hope you enjoy this chapter and the ones to follow!