A/N: I'm so so so so so so so so so so so so SORRY! I haven't updated in so long. I feel so bad and guilty. I'm so sorry. It's just this took so long to get out. My excuses are; 1. so much homework -.- i swear, term 1 and 2 are fine, but term 3 comes and KA-BOOOM, homework bomb explodes!; and 2. i haven't imagined this chapter out like I did the other chapters. That made it harder for me to write it down. So I'm sorry.

On a happier note, new longest chapter! Whoo! Around 3,200 words! Beats chapter 2, which was 2,900, I think. I was going to end it halfway through, but there were some stuff I wanted to include, and I wanted to dedicate a whole chapter to the Ball, so those things would have to be on a chapter of their own if I left them out, and then that chapter would be too short. So I decided to just stuff them in here. And out comes a whopping 3,200 words! :P

So anyway, here you go! Enjoy! and review!

CHAPTER 10

A week after Dumbledore's announcement of the Christmas Ball, Hermione found out that maybe not everyone is repulsed by her after all.

"Hey, Hermione," a voice said as Hermione sat at the Gryffindor table Friday morning, eating breakfast.

Hermione and Ginny, who was sitting next to her, looked up behind her. So did Harry and, subsequently, Ron, who was sitting about 10 metres away (Hermione had no idea how they managed to hear). Anthony Goldstein was standing there, smiling down at her. Hermione realised he was smiling because she, strangely, was stuffing her mouth with food.

She blushed, and tried to chew her food quickly and swallow it down. She managed to do so without choking, but got a pain in her throat and chest as the lump traveled down her oesophagus.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "Hi."

"Yeah, hi," Anthony said, still smiling somewhat like he's enjoying her fumbling. Hermione blushed even more. "Um, I just wanted to ask you something?"

"Sure," Hermione said, intrigued and puzzled, as Ravenclaw's rarely needed help, and she and Anthony didn't have that many classes together anyway.

"I was wondering if you would go to the Christmas Ball with me," Anthony said, very much to Hermione's surprise.

"Oh!"

Hermione didn't really know what to say. Of course, the polite thing to do would be to accept the offer. It didn't seem like a bad idea, actually. Anthony was a perfectly charming guy, who, after everything that had happened, still has enough respect and somewhat of an attraction, dare she say, for her to ask her to the Ball. Why else would he ask, if he wasn't the least bit interested? It could be a dare of some sort, a wary voice at the back of Hermione's brain whispered, or a prank or trick or joke. But the hopeful smile that was gracing his attractive features seemed to sincere for it to be a prank. It couldn't be; he was asking her genuinely.

"Sure," Hermione grinned. It was nice to feel liked instead of hated and talked about for about the first time in a month. Anthony's smile widened, and Hermione was sure it wasn't a joke.

"Brilliant! I can't wait," he said. He picked up her hand from where it was lying next to her plate on the table and kissed it at her knuckles. Hermione blushed, but couldn't stop feeling very pleased. "See you around the school."

He walked back to the Ravenclaw table, both of them with bright smiles on their faces.

"Oooohh!" Ginny nudged her gently, a playful smirk on her face. Hermione rolled her eyes, but her smile didn't disappear. "Someone got asked to the Ball," she sang. Ginny wasn't jealous because Dean Thomas had asked her to go with him just yesterday. She had graciously agreed.

"Whatever, Ginny," Hermione said.

"All the boys will be so jealous of Anthony," Ginny announced, without the slightest hint of doubt in her words. "He gets to go to the Ball with the beautiful Hermione Granger!" She giggled. Once again, Ginny was being more excited about Hermione's events than Hermione was about it herself. Although, Hermione was excited, she just didn't show it on the outside that much.

"Ooh!" Ginny exclaimed suddenly. "Have you got a dress?" She asked concernedly.

"Oh, God, no!" Hermione cried softly. What was she going to do?

"You have to buy one soon!" Ginny exclaimed. "The Ball is only a month and a half away!"

"Can't I wear the one I wore last year?"

"Merlin, no!" Ginny said. "That's social suicide! You cannot go to the Ball wearing last year's dress. Lavender and Parvati will never shut up about it afterward, and I'd like to keep my hearing intact until I'm at least sixty, thanks."

Hermione chuckled. Ginny was right. She couldn't wear the periwinkle dress she wore last year, even though it was very beautiful. Lavender and Parvati would freak. Not only that, that dress was-is-associated with Viktor Krum, despite the wonderful semi-relationship they had, and her fight last year with Ron, which she really didn't need to be reminded of right now. She would need a new dress.

"How am I going to get a new dress though?" she asked worriedly.

"Well, the closest shop is Gladrags Wizardwear at Hogsmeade." Ginny replied, sounding like general stating his war plan. "I saw some pretty good dresses the last time I went. There's a Hogsmeade day next weekend."

"Perfect," Hermione said. "We'll go next weekend."

Last week she had been sceptical about the Ball, not wanting to go at all. But now, she couldn't wait.

Fred and George emerged from Zonko's, laden down with joke-things and knick-knacks. They had been running low lately. Their bags were now bursting with Dungbombs, Fanged Frisbees, Frog Spawn Soap's, Instant Peruvian Darkness Powder and other trinkets as they walked up Main Street.

Fred suddenly spotted a pair of familiar figures up in the distance. He was pretty sure one had flaming red hair, and the other a massive nest of messy curly ones.

"Hey, George?" he said to his twin. "Isn't that...Ginny and Hermione?"

George craned his neck to look at the two figured walking in their direction down Main Street.

"I think it is," George replied. "What are they doing," he continued interestedly, as their sister and friend turned and walked through the front door of Gladrags Wizardwear, "going into Gladrags?"

"Sounds like something we need to find out," Fred said with a mischievous grin.

George pointed a finger at him. "And that's why we're twins."

The two hurried up Main Street and walked into Gladrags Wizardwear, the only wizarding clothes shop in Hogsmeade. They looked around the shop to search for Hermione and Ginny, and found them in the party dresses section.

"So, what brings you two," Fred asked loudly to catch their attention as he and George walked down the aisle between racks of dresses, "to a clothing shop?"

"And the party dresses section of said shop?" George continued, as the two girls looked up in surprise at them.

"Hermione here needs a dress," Ginny answered.

"For..." George said.

"The Christmas Ball," Ginny finished.

"Who asked you?" Fred asked Hermione.

"Anthony Goldstein," she replied with a small smile.

Fred raised his eyebrow simultaneously with his twin, ignoring the fleeting hollow feeling that passed in his stomach.

"I'm surprised he, of all people, has asked you to the Ball," George said.

Hermione frowned. "Why can't he?"

George shrugged. "He never showed an interest in you."

Hermione considered this, then said, "Fair enough."

"I'm surprised we didn't find this out from Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil earlier," Fred said. George laughed while Ginny and Hermione looked at him quizzically. "Well, we found out about your agreeing to be Ron's girlfriend from them," he answered their puzzlement, "and also about your break-up with Ron..."

"So now that your dating again, we're surprised those two gossip queens haven't babbled our ears out already," George finished. Hermione and Ginny laughed. Fred smiled. He didn't know why it felt so good to make Hermione laugh.

"So do you need any help?" George asked.

"Help with what?" Ginny said, while looking through some dresses on the racks.

"With finding the perfect dress," George said this with a girly voice and his hand held loftily in the air. Hermione snorted.

"No, I don't think we do," she said.

"We could give you opinions," Fred said, "on whether guys would like it or not. We are guys, you know."

"No, you're pranksters," Hermione said.

"Doesn't mean we're not guys," George said, wide-eyed, as if Hermione had said something treasonous. Hermione chuckled.

"Fine, fine, if you're so adamant about it," she agreed. "You can help."

Fred and George gave each other a high-five and indulged in a victory dance, which made Ginny roll her eyes and Hermione snort with exasperated fondness.

"So how may we be of help?" Fred asked, faking formality, once he and his twin had finished doing their celebratory dance.

"Well, you can look through the dresses and pick some out for Hermione," Ginny said, "or you can wait until we've finished picking and give us your opinion on each dress."

"How about we do both?" George said to Fred.

"Won't be a problem," Fred said back.

So they joined the girls in looking through the racks of dresses. Fred had never been in Gladrags before, and so was surprised to find that they had many different types and styles of clothing in there. He was baffled by the variety in the dresses alone (no wonder girls take so long to get ready for an event. How do they choose?). There were cute, girly dresses; formal, flowing dresses; soft, everyday dresses; sexy dresses, some of which George held up a few times as a joke, to which the others had adamantly protested.

They chattered while they searched. And somehow, the topic of the Ball was taken up.

"So who are you two going with?" Ginny asked the twins.

They shrugged at the same time.

"We don't know," they answered honestly. "Actually," Fred went on, "we weren't planning on going to the Ball at all."

"We were planning to prank it, actually," George continued.

"But we can't do that now, can we?" Fred teased Hermione. "Not now that our dear Hermione has got herself a date there."

Hermione's face turned Gryffindor scarlet. George sent a discreet glance in Fred's direction. His twin had never cared before whether Hermione Granger-or anyone for that matter-was at the venue of a prank they were about to pull. If anything, it only spurred Fred on even more, that someone was there to be annoyed or amazed at his mischief. What happened to that attribute? George fixed his gaze back to the racks of dresses before anyone could notice.

"So I guess now we'll have to ask someone," he said, nudging Fred. "I bags Alicia."

"Guess I'm going with Angelina again then," Fred shrugged as if it wasn't a big thing.

"No, you can't," George announced. "Some guy from Ravenclaw asked her last week. She accepted. Same for Katie."

"Guess I'd have to go on my own," Fred shrugged again.

George nudged him again, "If it's any consolation, I'll go alone, too." Fred shot his twin brother a grateful grin. Not that he would have minded going alone.

"Why do you have to go alone?" Hermione said from the next rack. "You could go with any girl in the school, with your looks." Fred thought she blushed very very slightly as she said this.

"Very true," Fred grinned. "But I don't care enough to go with anyone."

"You don't have to go at all," Ginny pointed out.

"But I can't miss Hermione's big date now, can I?" Fred teased the bushy-haired witch, to which she once again turned Gryffindor scarlet.

After about 15 minutes they managed to find a selection of dresses for Hermione to try. They handed them to Ginny, who dragged Hermione by the elbow to the changing rooms. She proceeded to pull Hermione inside one of them, and pulled the door closed, then conjuring up a few chairs for her brothers and herself to sit on. Then she handed Hermione a dress from the top of the pile.

A few minutes later, Hermione's voice came somewhat timidly from behind the door, "I'm done."

"Then come out," Ginny said excitedly.

Hermione obeyed. She stepped out with her head hung, and Fred had the idea that she didn't really like doing things like this.

"You don't like being on display like this do you?" he asked unintentionally out loud.

"No," Hermione admitted, shaking her head vigorously. Fred chuckled. Then he took a look at what she was wearing.

It was a strapless dress with the sweetheart neckline, and a soft, flowing skirt which started at the waist and ended just above the mid-thigh.

"No," Fred said at once. He didn't know why, but the dress didn't fit Hermione's personality, having such a short skirt. "Way too short."

"Wouldn't that be good for Anthony?" Ginny said with a teasing smile. Hermione frowned.

"I'm not letting him see anywhere above my mid-thigh on Christmas Eve," she said.

"Didn't think you would," George chuckled. "Back in you go."

So back in Hermione went, and back out, and back in, and back out for the next 10 minutes as they made their way through the relatively large pile of dresses. Most of the dresses received a thumbs-down, being too boring, or too everyday, or not "Hermione" as Fred put it-or too sexy, as was the case with a tight, revealing dress, with what Fred thought was less than a metre of fabric, and more holes than that rag the owner of the Hog's Head uses to wipe his glasses, that George had sneaked into the pile as a joke. Some others were put aside for consideration, as they decided to go through all of the pile then choose the best out of the newly-made smaller pile.

"Okay, this is the last one," Ginny announced at the end of the 10 minutes. She tossed a mass of black and white fabric inside the changing room to Hermione. Minutes later, Hermione stepped out, and Fred came to the instantaneous decision that this dress was the best one.

It was a black dress with sweetheart neckline, but her shoulders weren't bare. The bodice was covered with a stretch of lace that came up to hug her neck, tantalisingly veiling her creamy skin. It was sleeveless, leaving her arms bare. The bodice glittered with beads in between the holes of the lace. The skirt was another thing. It puffed out slightly, starting from her waist. The front was short, ending just above her knee, but the back continued on, ruffled and layered, ending at her ankles. Hermione looked beautiful.

"Perfect," Fred said immediately. The others agreed. They bought that one.

Fred didn't remember that Anthony Goldstein was going to see Hermione in this at the Ball. He only remembered and cared that he, Fred Weasley, was going to Hermione at the ball in that exquisite thing.

He's going, for sure. And he couldn't wait.

Hermione walked along a fifth floor corridor, wondering if anything will happen tonight, and if so, what? She chuckled. Everything seemed to happen when she was on her Prefect patrol on Tuesday nights.

"May I join you on your walk?" Anthony's voice came to her. Hermione chuckled again, louder this time, as Anthony joined her, walking by her side. "Why are you laughing?"

"Nothing," Hermione sputtered a bit, "It's just...a lot of things that happened to me, always happens on a Tuesday, when I'm on Prefect patrol."

"Right," Anthony said.

"You realise you're not allowed to be out of the Ravenclaw Tower right now, right?" Hermione asked.

"I've got Prefect immunity, remember?" Anthony reminded her.

"Oh yeah," Hermione said. She continued walking with Anthony. "So did you want to say something to me?"

"No, I just wanted to have a walk with you," Anthony said.

"Right."

They continued walking, in silence. Hermione was feeling a tiny bit awkward. Thankfully, Anthony spoke up again.

"Actually, there's something I wanted to do," he said. He stopped, and Hermione, for the sake of politeness, stopped too. They turned to face each other.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"It's something I've wanted to do for a while," Anthony said softly. "Would you let me do it?"

"Do what?" Hermione asked, confused.

"Do this."

Then he took her face in his palm, and pressed his lips to hers gently. He didn't kiss her passionately, just placed a gentle kiss on her lips. Hermione felt dizzy. At the same time, she felt somehow wrong. Like this isn't supposed to happen. Like it shouldn't. Even though it was perfectly fine.

She blushed, and pulled away. She smiled, just to let Anthony know she wasn't bothered by it. He smiled back, reassured.

"Well, I think I'll go to bed now," Anthony said, before holding up her hand and kissing it again. Hermione smiled. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Hermione finished her patrol, feeling disappointed with herself. She should have enjoyed that, kissed back, or something. It should have been a good experience. Yet it wasn't. It felt strange to her, and wrong, and inappropriate. Why?

Hermione drove it from her mind.

"Good morning," the twins sang together as they dropped into the seat across from Hermione at breakfast the day after. "How has your day been?"

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"It's 8 o'clock in the morning," she said. "My day hasn't even begun yet."

"Well, then..." Fred paused in contemplation.

"Last night!" George finished in a brainwave. "How was last night? Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, I did," Hermione answered monotonously.

"Come on, Hermione," Fred groaned. "Okay, what did you do before you go to sleep?"

"Prefect patrol," Hermione deadpanned again.

"Anything happened during Prefect patrol?" George asked.

At this, Hermione could see Fred tense and his eyes flitting away for a moment. She knew he was thinking of their...tryst on that Tuesday night so long ago. But before she could finish her thought, he looked back, his mischievous expression still on his face.

"Well?" he said.

Hermione thought before answering. They wouldn't want to know about her kiss with Anthony. Wait. Would they? Actually, they probably wouldn't care, not in a jealous way at least. They would only care in a girly, gossipy manner. Not that they would spread the gossip of this news.

"Nothing," Hermione answered. But she knew she had hesitated too long.

"Uh-uh," George said, wagging a finger at her. "you're hiding something. I can see it in your eyes. Spill."

Hermione rolled her eyes. Should she tell them? She didn't think they would care. They'd tease her, but they-Fred-wouldn't be jealous. Not if he doesn't have feelings for he anymore.

"Um..." she started, not sure how she would tell them. She could feel her face heating up.

"Oh sweet Merlin, she's blushing," Fred said, grinning like a child on Christmas morning.

George gasped.

"Does this has anything to do with a certain Ravenclaw?" he said, wagging his eyebrows.

Hermione rolled her eyes, but she could tell she was blushing profusely. "Come one, Hermione, spill."

"He kissed me," she muttered.

"What was that?" Fred asked. He genuinely hadn't heard, she could tell.

"He kissed me," Hermione said a bit louder.

"Who kissed you?" said an excited voice behind Hermione. She turned to see a beaming Ginny, who slid into the seat beside her. "Anthony?"

Hermione nodded. Ginny started squealing and laughing, sending Hermione's eardrums reverberating. She turned back to Fred and George, to see both of them grinning as well. But as she surveyed Fred face, she saw that there was something wrong there. The grin was there, but it seemed a little bit forced. Amusement wasn't dancing in his eyes the way they would when he really grins.

Hermione can't help but feel a little flutter inside. Does that mean that he's jealous? He can't be. She thought back to her kiss last night. She felt another flutter of emotion, only not hope, like before. Why, now that she is sitting here, staring at Fred, is she feeling regret about that kiss? Not quite regret, because she hadn't started it. Regret for telling the twins, yes, but more than regret for the kiss. She realised. Guilt. Why is she feeling guilt, albeit a tiny flutter, about her kiss with Anthony? She had every right to kiss him. Hermione frowned.

Things were getting confusing again.

A/N: I hope that was good. It took me ages, I'm sorry again. And I hope the description of the dress was alright, and that you guys could picture it. It was hard for me to do it justice.

So i hope you guys enjoyed that. I'll try and update sooner, but I can't promise. It might take any time from half a week to a month. But no longer than a month, I swear. I solemnly swear, on Fred's grave. (Although that's not very nice is it? and god, the feels...)

And I forgot to mention, so many reviews! 11 reviews for chapter 9, which is the highest ever! Thanks so much, guys. *sends out chocolate frogs*

Reviews are beautiful!

In minion language, poopaye! :P