It was nearly the end of Transfiguration class just after the First Task when Professor McGonagall called out, "I have something to say to you all."

Please, not more homework, Harry thought miserably. And please don't mention me, either.

"The Yule Ball is coming up"—these words were completely meaningless to Harry, but surely they didn't mean homework or more attention for him?—"a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above—although you may invite a younger student if you wish—"

Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil began to giggle mindlessly, though Professor McGonagall did her best to ignore them completely.

"Dress robes will be worn, and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then—" She looked at them as though she was a bit surprised to see them there. However, her face quickly turned to a scowl as she said, "The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to—er—let out hair down."

Lavender and Parvati giggled louder than ever, and Harry rolled his eyes at the two girls, though he understood the outburst. Professor McGonagall didn't look like she had let her hair down, in any sense of the phrase, in centuries. Why this message was of any concern to him when he definitely was not going to associate himself with the ball at all

"But that does NOT mean," she continued, "that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarrasses the school in any way."

Saved by the bell, Harry thought, as the chime went off, signaling the end of class. He and Ron packed their things (he was so glad that they had made amends after the first task) and started to exit the room, but the sound of Professor McGonagall's voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Potter—a word, if you please."

He told Ron to go wait for him out in the hall, then made his way dismally to the professor's desk. When all of the students were gone, she jumped right in with saying, "Potter, the champions and their partners—"

"What partners?" Harry interrupted.

Professor McGonagall gave him a quizzical look. "Your partners for the Yule Ball, Potter. Your dance partners."

It suddenly felt as though he had just stepped into a lake full of ice cold water. "Dance partners? I don't dance."

"Oh yes, you do. That's what I'm telling you. Traditionally, the champions and their partners open the ball."

"I'm not dancing."

"It is traditional." If looks could kill, Harry would have already been in a casket six feet under Hogwarts from the look that McGonagall was giving him. He didn't point out that she had already said that this was a traditional practice; saying it again was just redundant. "You are a Hogwarts champion, and you will do what is expected of you as a representative of the school. So make sure you get yourself a partner, Potter."

"But—I don't—"

"You heard me, Potter." She immediately set about looking at a stack of essays on her desk from her fifth year students, clearly finished discussing the matter with him. Resigned to simply agree and find someone to go with, he exited the room to the hall, where Ron was waiting for him.

"What did she want?" he asked once they had walked a bit away from the door.

"I'm expected to open the ball…with a date."

Ron immediately started roaring with laughter.

"Stop laughing," Harry said, feeling himself flushing red. "I've got to find somebody… Why do girls always travel in packs?"

This was perhaps the truest statement that Harry had ever made. When one looked about the school, there was rarely an instance where a girl could be seen walking to and from class by herself. She usually had at least one other girl with her at all times.

There seemed to be two exceptions to this rule: Hermione, who was usually accompanied by Harry and Ron whenever she went somewhere around school; and Maddie Lewis, who Harry was seeing more and more of following the First Task.

Immediately after Harry and Ron's exchange, girls all over the school were queuing up to go with Harry. A third year Hufflepuff girl that he had never spoken to before asked him the following day if he'd go with her, and before he had taken much time to realize what she had said, he had already declined the offer. She walked away looking quite hurt. Following this, two more girls asked; a second year that he definitely had never spoken to before, and (to his horror) a fifth year who looked as though she might knock him out if he refused.

"She was quite good looking," Ron said once he stopped laughing. "You should have said you'd go with her."

"She was a foot taller than me," Harry said, a bit unnerved from this exchange. "Imagine what I'd look like trying to dance with her."

This just made Ron start laughing harder.


Harry and Maddie typically met up in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom in order to obtain some privacy, and as they spent more and more time together, even Myrtle gave them more solitude.

"What are you doing for the holidays?" he asked her one day about a week after McGonagall's message.

She brushed some of her long blonde hair out of her face before she answered. "Oh, I don't know yet. I don't think I want to go home to see my parents, given the circumstances…but they'd probably want to see me eventually."

"Given the circumstances?"

She seemed hurt by the question, but finally clarified, after a few moment's pause, "Cedric's been my friend since I was four years old. They always ask me about him…"

He interrupted her then, understanding completely. "I see. Well, I'll be here over holidays, too. I've never really fancied going home to my aunt and uncle." Not that I have much choice this year, he thought, as he remembered what he was due to do on Christmas Day.

She ran her fingers through her long blonde hair. "They're Muggles, aren't they?"

He nodded, watching her fingers trail through the thick strands. "Brutal Muggles." He suddenly reached out, pushing back a strand of hair that had slipped through her fingers and fell in her face. "Have you ever thought of pulling your hair back in a…"

He stopped then, looking at her eyes and finding himself suddenly incapable of speech. Her eyes were a brilliant shade of emerald green, very similar to his own. But hers were somehow more…captivating than his were. They were also filled with sadness; whenever she smiled, it rarely reached her eyes. Her glasses, which were thick and rectangular, hid the pretty orbs from view enough as it was, but with her hair constantly in her face, it was even harder for him to see just how pretty she really was. Now that he was seeing her truly for the first time, he felt breathless.

It suddenly made perfect sense to him why Cedric would have dated her despite their age gap, even if in secret. She was quiet and reserved, but she had said that they grew up together. He probably got to know her over time, the same that Harry was doing now. He had probably seen her grow up from a little girl into a teenager, seen the transition into a beautiful young woman. He must have seen her in a way that nobody else could have—or perhaps it was that nobody else could be bothered to get to know her in such an intimate way.

Harry suddenly realized that he never finished his sentence when she asked, "In a ponytail?"

"Er—what?"

"You asked if I ever thought of pulling my hair back 'in a…'; is 'ponytail' the word you were looking for?"

"Uh, yeah, it was."

He suddenly dropped his fingers from her hair as though they had been electrified.

"I've done it before," she said, as though this had never happened. "I think all girls have."

"So why do you always have your hair in your face? I think some people would like to see more of you…" He stopped talking, suddenly realizing that he had said too much.

She shrugged. "Habit, I suppose."

"Kind of like biting your nails?" he asked, looking at her hands with a grin.

She suddenly pulled her arm away as though she feared him discovering more than just the bitten nails there. "Well, it's easier to break the habit with my hair than it is there."

As he realized that it was getting close to time for dinner, Harry and Maddie left soon thereafter to go to the Great Hall. Throughout the evening, he was unable to keep the girl from Hufflepuff out of his thoughts. If only he could ask her to the Yule Ball; McGonagall had said that third years and below couldn't go. He supposed he would just have to say 'yes' to the next girl that asked him.

It was about halfway through that he nearly dropped his fork as he realized what McGonagall had actually said: "The ball will be open only to fourth years and above—although you may invite a younger student if you wish—"

Of course he would like to invite Maddie Lewis to go with him, but actually asking her was an entirely different matter. As a result, she was on his mind throughout the course of the evening, and Hermione and Ron noticed the change in him, as evidenced by the looks that they gave him. Neither said anything about the matter, however, and about halfway through the meal, Hermione was invited to the Yule Ball by Neville; she politely declined this offer, however, saying that somebody had already asked her.

"Hermione, you're a girl," Ron said shortly after this exchange.

"Well spotted," she said back.

"No! It's just that—why don't you go to the ball with me and set Harry up with one of your friends?"

"Ron, you heard me just tell Neville that I've already been asked!"

"Well, you just said that to get him off your back, didn't you?"

This was obviously the worst choice of words that Ron could have used, as Hermione went very red in the face. "What are you trying to say, Ronald? That nobody would want to go to the ball with me?"

"So someone's asked you, then?" Harry asked, trying to change the subject. "Who is it, then?"

"I just…don't see you as the type of person who'd be interested in such a thing," Ron said, slightly taken aback.

"Why? Because I'm too focused on schoolwork, is that it?"

"Well—yeah, actually."

"Well, next time there's a ball, pluck up the courage to ask me before somebody else does, and not as a last resort!"

"But who are you going with? It's one thing for a bloke to be going alone, but for a girl, it's almost sad."

Hermione turned even redder and seemed to be on the verge of tears as she shouted back at him, "Is that what you think? I won't be going alone, because believe it or not, somebody's asked me!" She stood up, getting ready to exit. "And I said yes!"

And with that, she turned and raced out of the Great Hall and in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.

"Well done, Ron," Harry said after a shocked silence.

"Well, I have to go with someone!"

"You have to go with someone? I have to open the Yule Ball with my partner…"

"Got any idea who you're going to try?"

Harry didn't answer. He knew perfectly well who he'd like to ask, but working up the nerve was something else…Maddie was a year younger than he was; she was very pretty; she was a very good friend, and she was also very heartbroken. Ron seemed to know what was going on inside Harry's head.

"Listen, you're not going to have any trouble. You're a champion. You've just beaten a Hungarian Horntail. I bet they'll be queuing up to go with you."

"I suppose there's always Moaning Myrtle," Harry said, thinking to his exchanges with Maddie in the girls' lavatory that Moaning Myrtle liked to haunt.

The following day, Hermione was still cross with Ron, and he and Harry still did not have anybody to go with. Ron suggested that Harry just go with Ginny and he take one of her friends, which caused Harry to flare with jealousy at the idea of anybody going with Maddie but him. Ron thoroughly startled him when he finally delivered an ultimatum a few moments later.

"Harry—we've just got to grit our teeth and do it. When we get back to the common room tonight, we'll both have partners—agreed?"

"Er—okay," he said, watching as Maddie and another girl ducked into Transfiguration together. How was he supposed to ask her to go with him? He supposed that he could probably find her before dinner… That was probably the best way to get her alone.

Throughout all of his classes, he was unable to push the green eyed third year from his mind. Snape took many points off his potion in double potions that afternoon, but he couldn't care less; he was still trying to summon the courage to ask Maddie Lewis to go to the Yule Ball with him. Most of what all of his teachers said went through one ear and out the other.

As they left class, neither Ron nor Hermione seemed ready to speak to one another, and Harry suddenly realized what it must have felt like for Hermione to be their friend before the First Task of the tournament: awkward, and a bit frustrating. He was still thinking of Maddie Lewis as he felt the thick silence that had fallen over them when…

"I'll meet you at dinner," he said to Ron and Hermione as he spotted her sitting on a bench in the grass.

Neither asked questions and simply walked away as he started across the grass towards her. Once she was a little bit away, however, it dawned on him that he didn't have a clue as to how he was going to ask her to go with him. He supposed he could just come out and say it… Or would she be expecting a speech? Was he supposed to have something for her? Or was just his presence going to be enough?

After a few minutes of thinking to himself, he decided that Ron was right; he would just have to man up and ask her. He finally took off in the direction that he had seen her in earlier and found her easily, sitting on the same bench and reading a thick book. Good, she's alone.

He started to walk up to her, feeling nervousness flood all over him again—but he froze when he got closer and realized that she was sobbing. From a safe distance, it simply looked like the rise and fall of her chest and back was just the rhythm of her breathing, but up close, tears were flooding her face and falling onto the book in her lap. Eventually, he worked up the courage and walked over to her, taking up the empty space on the bench.

She seemed to know it was him without looking up at him, shutting the book with a loud thud and putting it back into her bag. It was an advanced textbook, probably too advanced for someone her age, but he didn't question it; it seemed it was just in her presence as a way of diverting attention away from her sobs.

He wondered what could possibly be causing her cries, but he looked up and saw what she must have been seeing across the way a bit. Cho Chang was certainly pretty on her own, but when she was with Cedric, she seemed five times more beautiful than she already was; it was as though happiness filled every orifice in her body and made her all the more stunningly pretty. Though Cedric, too, was smiling, his seemed a bit forced, but still, they were so very together.

"How does it feel, Harry?" Maddie said in a shaky voice, nearly making him jump out of his skin from the sudden permeation of the silence. He turned to look at her, trying to decipher what it was she meant, but she was pointedly avoiding eye contact with him. "When you think about me with Cedric?"

"Oh," he said, taken aback greatly. "Um…" How did he feel? Well—jealous of the other boy, that was for sure. And a bit confused as to what they were doing together, and also saddened by the fact that she obviously cared for him as much as she did…

Did he try to deny it? Did he own up to it? Did she even mean what he thought she meant? Maybe she meant something completely different than what he thought…

She didn't; he understood the question quite clearly, which she confirmed when she said, "I know. I've seen the way you look at me."

Was it that obvious? Did anybody else know other than her? He said nothing, instead just watched Cho and Cedric be silly together—Cho had found a single flower on the ground and Cedric had put it behind her ear, with a blank expression on his face; but Cho had a giggling fit and nearly fell over, which made the smallest of grins cross Cedric's face…

Harry turned to look at Maddie, who had found the courage to turn away from the couple at last, looking at Harry. "He was my best friend…"

And then, sobs captivated her once again, and she couldn't stop crying. Harry put an arm awkwardly around her shoulder, unsure of what else to do, but feeling her misery come over him. He finally had an answer to her question.

"It feels like this."


Harry left her a little while later, telling her that she should probably clean herself up and then go straight to bed. They hadn't said much else since Harry admitted his feelings for her indirectly, feelings that he wasn't even sure he had until just a few days prior. She was very pretty…

"Fairy lights," he said to the portrait of the Fat Lady, sounding as though he had been sentenced to death. He had spent the better half of an hour with her, just letting her sob, and hadn't even plucked up the courage to ask her to the ball! It didn't seem like the proper time to, but maybe she would have stopped crying if he had…

When he entered the Gryffindor common room, he was surprised to find Ron sitting in a chair before the fire, looking as though he had witnessed an execution. Ginny was speaking to him in a low, soothing voice, and Harry approached cautiously, curious as to what was happening.

"What's up, Ron?" he asked.

"Why did I do it?" Ron asked back, looking at Harry in horror. "I don't know what made me do it!"

"What?" said Harry, wondering what exactly 'it' was. Ron made it sound as though he had committed a murder.

Ginny picked up the slack, as Ron apparently was not answering. "He—er—just asked Fleur Delacour to go to the ball with him." She looked like she was trying very, very hard not to smile. This simply mooted the act of her patting Ron's arm sympathetically.

"You what?" And Harry thought he was crazy for trying to ask Maddie Lewis to the ball…

"I don't know what made me do it!" Ron repeated, turning white suddenly. "What was I playing at? There were people—all around—I've gone mad—everyone watching! I was just walking past her in the entrance hall—she was standing there talking to Diggory—and it sort of came over me—and I asked her!"

"You shouted it at her, actually," Ginny said, no longer able to resist the temptation to grin. Now, it seemed like she was fighting doubly hard not to laugh. "It was quite terrifying."

"She looked at me like I was part sea slug or something!" Ron said, groaning. "Didn't even answer. And then—I dunno—I just sort of came to my senses and ran for it."

"She was probably trying to get Cedric to ask her to the ball," Harry said, feeling disgusted. "It's a wasted effort—he's probably going with Cho Chang."

Ron frowned, looking as though he was a bit relieved to have some of the attention shifted off of him. "Why do you say that?"

"Long story."

Ginny looked at Harry in surprise. "Is that why Maddie's so upset with him? I feel like she's always fancied him a bit."

"Maddie?" Ron asked. "Your friend from Hufflepuff?"

"Yes, that's the one."

Ron suddenly lit up. "Ginny, why don't you go with Harry and I go with her?"

Harry flared with jealousy, but Ginny suddenly looked uncomfortable. "I'm not so sure I can do that…"

"Why not? It'd be better than going alone, like Neville. He asked Hermione over dinner the other night, and even she turned him down! Can you believe it?" Ron started to laugh at this, seemingly forgetting about his pain with Fleur Delacour, and even Harry couldn't fight a grin.

"Don't—don't laugh," Ginny said, turning scarlet and looking a bit annoyed.

At that moment, Ron and Harry both erupted into a fit of giggles, and Hermione climbed in through the portrait hole, looking at them in concern.

"Why weren't you two at dinner?" she asked.

"Because"—Ginny started to explain, but she grew annoyed by the laughter—"oh, shut up laughing, you two—because they've both just been turned down by girls they asked to the ball!"

That shut Harry and Ron up. "I haven't been turned down," Harry said.

"So you've finally asked Maddie, then?" Ginny asked.

Ron suddenly took an interest in this. "You want to ask Maddie Lewis to the ball?"

"Er—yeah, I…" He stopped talking, looking at Ginny in surprise. "You know about that?"

"She's one of my best friends, Harry. She's told me loads about you. And in my opinion, if you haven't asked her, then it's the same as being turned down." This was hard to argue, he thought as he looked uncomfortably down at his feet. "You should get a move on before she decides to go home for the holidays."

"And while you're at it, try to set me up with one of her friends," Ron said.

"For goodness sake, Ron!" Hermione said, breaking her momentary silence. "Why can't you just ask somebody?"

Ron turned scarlet once again, matching Ginny's reddened complexion. "I tried asking you…"

"And I've told you, I'm going with someone!"

"You just said that to get rid of Neville!"

"No, I didn't!"

"Well, at least that way, I'm not the only one going alone—Neville is, too…"

"No, he's not," Ginny said, turning even redder. "I'm going with—with Neville. He asked me when Hermione said no, and I thought…well…I'm not going to be able to go otherwise, I'm not in fourth year." She looked extremely miserable. "I think I'll go and have dinner."

She walked out of the common room then, apparently to avoid further embarrassment from Ron.

As she left, Harry thought more about what she had said: She's told me loads about you. And in my opinion, if you haven't asked her, then it's the same as being turned down. You should get a move on before she decides to go home for the holidays.


The following day, Harry walked idly through the castle. He didn't really have anywhere in particular that he needed to go to; it was just before lunch and he could go back to the common room if he pleased…

That was when he saw Maddie Lewis leaving Charms with a girl with long brown hair and another with olive skin.

He ran up to her, grabbing the attention of some passerby.

"I've told you, Sierra," the girl with the long brown hair said to the olive skinned girl, "I'm not going to do much of anything once I leave here. Charms is useless."

"Charms is never useless, Amber!" Maddie said, sounding borderline offended. Did she take school just as seriously as Hermione did?

Harry cleared his throat. "Maddie?"

She and her friends stopped walking and they turned to face him. Her face erupted into a real and true smile as she saw him. "Hi, Harry," she said. "Fancy seeing you here…"

"Can I talk to you?"

Her face relaxed some. Giggling should be made illegal, Harry thought, as her friends that were with her (Amber and Sierra, he thought their names were) started to laugh. She didn't laugh, though, saying, "Okay," and following him a safe distance away. "What is it?"

He took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and thought, here goes nothing.

"I was just wondering…"

He took another deep breath.

"Wangoballwime?"

The words came out in a jumbled blur and he could feel his face reddening. Way to be smooth, Harry. She looked at him, confusion written on her face. "Sorry?" she asked. "I didn't catch that."

Of course you didn't, he thought. One more time, he took a deep breath and said, "I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to go to the ball with me?"

"Oh!" Maddie suddenly turned red, too. Harry had his fingers crossed in the pocket of his robes. "Oh—Harry, I…yes, all right, then." She grinned, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Really?" He could hardly believe it. Had she just said yes?

"Yes, I will."

"Well—brilliant! Do—do you happen to know anyone that would like to go with my friend Ron—Ron Weasley?"

"Well, there's my friend Amber. She's staying here for the holidays and she hasn't been asked by anyone. I could ask her, if you'd like."

"Yeah, that would be great," Harry said. "Let me know, will you?"

"Of course." He started to walk away, but she called after him. "Oh—Harry?"

He stopped, turning to look at her. "Yeah?"

She was grinning a mile a minute. "Thank you for asking me."

He, too, smiled. "No problem. I'll see you around."

He started to walk away and she ran up to catch up with her friends. "What was that about?" the one called Sierra asked.

"Oh, Harry just asked me to go to the ball with him," she said, and her friends started to squeal and giggle. "Oh, and Amber? You've got a date now, too. With Ron Weasley."

From the way that Amber started shrieking, Harry imagined that Ron was in for quite a treat, and laughed in spite of himself, glad that he finally got that out of the way and feeling really and truly happy for the first time in days.


WOO LAME ENDINGS GALORE! This fanfic is full of them. :) I just wanted to warn you all that I was just cast last minute in a school play. I auditioned and wasn't cast, but then somebody else who was cast had to drop out and I was asked to take their place, so you REALLY have to be patient with me if I promise an update that doesn't happen. Also, I start my finals in two days. I'm not looking forward to it, but you can (hopefully) expect the next update on the twenty-first of December, when my finals will be done.

I also quoted a lot of this directly out of the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and a bit from the movie. Hopefully you can tell what part was which. And um yeah and stuff.

Nobody knows Hatter's name yet. How depressing. I'm still giving hints though… Next hint for my name: the spelling is a bit unusual. Nothing out of the ordinary, but not that common for my name.

Please review, hope to see you next time.

- Hatter of Madness