I do not own Bleach or Harry Potter the both belong respectively to Tite Kubo and J.K. Rowling
"Potter! Weasley! Will you pay attention?"
Prof. McGonagall's irritated voice cracked like a whip through the Transfiguration class on Thursday, and Harry and Ron both jumped and looked up.
It was the end of the lesson and the bell was due to ring any moment. Harry and Ron were having a sword fight with a couple of Fred and George's fake wands at the bac of the class. But of course nothing escapes their head of house's attention in her classroom.
"Now that Potter and Weasley have been kind enough to act their age" said the professor. "I have something to say to you all.
The Yule Ball is approaching; a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for you 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 let out a shrill giggle. Parvati nudged her hard in the ribs, her face scrunched up as she worked furiously not to giggle herself. They both looked around at Harry, Prof. McGonagall ignored them, which he thought was unfair, as she had just told him and Ron off.
"Dress robes will be worn" McGonagall continued. "and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the great hall. Now then…"
Prof. McGonagall stared deliberately around the class.
"The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to-err-let our hair down" she said disapprovingly.
Lavender giggled harder than ever, hand pressed against her mouth to stifle the sound. Harry could see what was funny this time; Prof. McGonagall with her hair in a tight bun, looked as though she never let her hair down in any sense.
"But that does NOT mean" she went on. "that we will be relaxing the standards of what we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarrasses the school in anyway."
The bell rang, and there was the usual scuffle of activity as everyone packed their bags and swung them onto their shoulders.
"Potter, a word if you please" Prof. McGonagall called above the noise.
Straight after classes, Harry was led by Yoruichi to the Room of Requirements, which had taken the form of a barren wasteland, dotted with large boulders and dead trees, leaving plenty of space for training.
While he was familiar with the places abilities, Harry found that he liked the room much better, when its' power wasn't leaking out all over the castle.
Harry soon found out that Yoruichi had a very different teaching style from anything he'd experienced. For example, she had decided to start them off by playing a game of tag, in order to better hone his flash step skills. Of course Yoruichi wasn't known as the Flash Goddess for nothing. Over the last couple of hours, Harry hadn't even come close to catching her.
Of course it probably didn't help that he was distracted by what McGonagall had told him about the ball.
"So you have to go to some dance. What's the problem?" asked Yoruichi, stopping to allow her student some time to catch his breath.
"The problem is I don't dance" said Harry. "And I need to find a date. I've never been on a date before."
Harry felt himself going red, as Yoruichi started laughing at his obvious discomfort.
"If you want I'll go with you." she said teasingly, smirking as Harry's face got even redder. "After all, you've already claimed me as your own."
Before Harry could even hope to stammer out a response, Yoruichi sent him flying with a sudden burst of spirit energy, and crashing through a boulder.
"What was that for?!" Harry demanded, only to be forced to dive out of the way as she came down on him with a literally earth splitting axe kick.
Harry was stunned not only be the display of strength but also Yoruichi's speed: to be able to cross an entire field in an instant. The very same speed that she was now using to once again catch him by surprise, dropping him to ground with a painful knee to the gut.
"You didn't think you'd just be chasing me the entire time, did you?" said Yoruichi. "Do not seek beauty in battle. Be ever mindful. If you wish to protect your comrades from harm, attack the enemy from behind. This is taught to every Soul Reaper at the academy."
Harry didn't like the sound of that. Attacking behind was a Slytherin tactic. He preferred facing his enemies head on, in an honest battle.
"If you don't like it then you must become strong enough to face any enemy" said Yoruichi, as if reading Harry's mind. "Be quick and decisive."
To make her point, Yoruichi brought her leg down in another axe kick aimed for Harry's head. To Harry's surprise, his body moving on instinct flash stepped out from beneath Yoruichi, dodging her attack, and countered with his zanpakutō.
"Not bad" Yoruichi smirked, catching Harry's sword with her bare hand. Oh sure she was taking it easy on the kid but she was still impressed by Harry's natural aptitude for combat, even if he wasn't fully aware of it yet.
Harry struggled to push forward but Yoruichi's grip on Nakatsukasa's blade was too strong.
"Ain-Soph-Aur!" Yoruichi's eyes widened in shock as Harry released the deadly energy wave at point blank range.
For a moment Harry was sure he managed to finally catch Yoruichi, only for her to fade away.
"What?" Harry gasped.
"Nice try" said Yoruichi, appearing behind Harry., knocking him to the ground with a quick burst of spirit energy.
To his credit Harry was quick to get back on his feet, though that last display showed him just how far he had to go. Yoruichi was able to dodge a point blank attack, moving so fast she left an afterimage.
It was the first time Harry saw a glimpse of what a captain class fighter looked like, and he found it to be truly frightening. And yet beneath it all there was a different sort of feeling that he couldn't place…at least not yet.
"Alright that's enough for today" Yoruichi decided, she could tell Harry was on his last legs. "I'm going to go raid the kitchen that friend of yours, Dobby is really warming up to me. You can go work on finding yourself a date."
Yoruichi then left the room in her cat form, laughing at the embarrassed Harry's reddening face.
Turns out finding a date wasn't as easy as Yoruichi implied. It wasn't that Hogwarts didn't have enough girls, far from it. In fact, it seemed the castle suddenly had more girls than Harry had ever noticed before. Girls giggling and whispering in the corridors, shrieking with laughter as boys passed them, excitedly comparing notes on what they were going to wear on Christmas night.
"Why do they have to move in packs?" Harry asked Ron as a dozen or so girls walked past them, sniggering and staring at Harry. "How're you supposed to get one on their own to ask them?"
"Lasso one?" Ron suggested. "Got any idea who you're going to try?"
"Not a clue."
Honestly Harry wasn't sure how to ask let alone who. Plus, he was still nervous about the idea of dancing, he'd never danced before in his life and didn't like the idea of his first time being in front of so many people.
"Listen, you're not going to have any trouble" said Ron, as if reading his friend's mind. "You're a champion. You're probably the youngest animagus ever. And you've beaten a Hungarian Horntail. I bet they'll be queuing up to go with you."
To Harry's amazement, Ron turned out to be right. The very next day a curly haired third year Hufflepuff girl to whom Harry had never spoken in his life asked him to go to the ball with her. He was so taken aback he said no before he'd even stopped to consider the matter. The girl walked off looking rather hurt, and Harry had to endure Dean's Seamus' and Ron's taunts about her all through History of Magic. The following day, two more girls asked him, a second year and (to his horror) a fifth year who looked like she'd knock him out if he refused.
"She was good looking" Ron said fairly, after he stopped laughing.
"She was a foot taller than me" said Harry, still unnerved. "Imagine what I'd look like trying to dance with her."
Hermione once said girls only liked Krum because he was famous. Harry couldn't help but think the same thing applied to him. It was bad enough that he had to open the ball; was it too much to ask that he at least get to go with someone that wasn't just looking to use him for fifteen seconds of fame.
Still even with the embarrassing prospect of opening the ball before him, life had definitely improved since he got through the first task. He wasn't attracting nearly as much unpleasantness in the corridors anymore, which he suspected had a lot to do with Cedric; who might have told the Hufflepuffs to leave Harry alone, in gratitude for the tip-off about the dragons.
Best of all there was no story about Hagrid in the Daily Prophet.
"She didn't seem very interested in magical creatures, to tell you the truth" said Hagrid, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione asked him about his interview with Rita Skeeter during the last Care of Magical Creatures lesson of the term.
To their relief Hagrid had given up on direct contact with the skrewts now, and they were merely sheltering behind his cabin today, sitting at a table, preparing a fresh selection of food to tempt the deadly beasts.
"She just wanted to talk about you, Harry" Hagrid continued in a low voice. "Well I told her we've been friends since I to fetch you from the Dursleys. 'Never had to tell him off in four years?' she said. 'Never played you up in lessons, has he?' I told her no, and she didn't seem happy at all. You'd think she wanted me to say you were horrible, Harry."
"She's looking for an angle, Hagrid" Ron said wisely, as he deshelled salamander eggs. "She couldn't get at Harry before so she's going after people he knows. You were probably supposed to say Harry's a mad delinquent."
"But he's not!" Hagrid actually looked genuinely shocked that someone could be so deceptive.
"She should've talked to Snape" Harry said grimly. "He'd give her the goods on me any day. 'Potter has been crossing lines ever since he first arrived at this school…."
"Said that did he?" said Hagrid, while Ron and Hermione laughed at Harry's Snape impression. "Well you might've bent a few rules, Harry, but you're all right really, aren't you?"
This brought a grin to Harry's face; he just found it difficult to stay upset in the half giant's presence.
"You coming to this ball thing on Christmas day, Hagrid?" asked Ron.
"Thought I might look in on it, yeah" Hagrid said gruffly. "Should be a good do, I reckon. You'll be opening the dancing, won't you, Harry? Who're you taking?"
Of course he had to ask me about that. "No one, yet" said Harry, feeling himself going red again. Thankfully Hagrid let the subject drop there.
The last week of term saw students even more excitement about the Yule Ball from the students, making it difficult to teach. In fact, some teachers like Prof. Flitwick gave up trying; he allowed them to play games during his lesson on Wednesday, and spent most of it talking to Harry about the perfect summoning charm he used during the first task.
Other teachers weren't so generous. History of magic was as boring as ever, seriously tempting Harry to send off the ghostly professor. Professors McGonagall and Moody kept them working to the very last second of their classes too, and Snape of course, was as miserable as ever. Staring nastily around them all, he informed them that he'd be testing them on poison antidotes during the last lesson of the term.
The Potions professor clearly hadn't forgotten about Harry sending him to the hospital wing, though it seemed Dumbledore must've told him to leave him alone, as Snape settled for simply glaring at the boy rather than directly antagonizing him. But Harry had a feeling it wouldn't last long.
"I swear he's evil" Ron said bitterly that night in the Gryffindor common room. "Springing a test on us on the last day. Ruining the last bit of term with a whole load of studying."
"You're not exactly straining yourself, though, are you?" said Hermione, looking at him over the top of her Potions notes. Ron was busy building a card castle out of his Exploding Snap pack. "Honestly I don't get you. You do all that extra studying with Ginny and yet you still slack off like this."
"It's Christmas, Hermione" Harry said lazily, rereading his copy of Flying with the Cannons for the tenth time in an armchair near the fire. "Besides it's just Snape. He'll just end up cheating us out of points anyway."
Hermione looked severely over at him too. "I'd have thought you'd be doing something constructive, Harry even if you don't want to learn your antidotes!"
"Like what?" Honestly it wasn't like Harry just wasted he's days away. He was training every day with Yoruichi, and he still dealt with random Hollow attacks, as she had made it clear that she was simply there for support and he was still responsible for the area. So he didn't see any harm in relaxing when he could.
"That egg!" Hermione hissed. "You still don't know what the clue means."
"Come on, Hermione. I've got till February 24th" Harry argued.
Harry had told his friends about the riddle inside the golden egg. Problem was Harry's ability to understand any language as his own was backfiring in that they didn't have enough information to solve the riddle.
"But it might take weeks to work out!" she stressed. "You're going to look like a real idiot if everyone else knows what the next task is and you don't!"
"Leave him alone, Hermione" said Ron, as he placed the last two cards on top of his castle. "He's earned a break."
Suddenly Ron's card castle exploded, singeing his eyebrows.
"Nice look, Ron" Fred commented, as he and George took a seat at the table with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, as their younger brother felt how much damage had been done.
"Ron, can we borrow Pigwidgeon?" asked George.
"Why?" Ron asked suspiciously, not putting it past the twins to do something to the little owl.
"Because George wants to invite him to the ball" Fred said sarcastically.
"Because we want to send a letter, you stupid great prat" said George.
"Who do you two keep writing to, anyway?"
"Nose out, Ron, or I'll burn that for you too" said Fred, waving his wand threateningly. "So…you lot got dates for the ball yet?"
"Nope."
"Well, you'd better hurry up, mate or all the good ones will be gone."
"Who're you going with, then?"
"Angelina" Fred declared, without a trace of embarrassment.
"What?" said Ron, taken aback. "You've already asked her?"
"Good point." Fred turned and called across the common room, "Oi! Angelina!"
Angelina, who had been chatting with Alicia Spinnet near the fire, looked over at him.
"What?" she called back.
"Want to come to the ball with me?"
Angelina gave Fred an appraising sort of look.
"Alright, then" she replied, and turned back to Alice and carried on chatting with a bit of a grin on her face.
"There you go" Fred said to Harry and Ron. "Piece of cake"
He got to his feet, yawning, and said "We'll just use a school owl, George come on."
They left. Ron stopped feeling his eyebrows and looked across the smoldering wreck of his card castle at Harry.
"We should get a move on, you know…. ask someone. He's right, we don't want to end up with a pair of trolls."
"A pair of…. what, excuse me?" Hermione sputtered.
"Well you know" Ron shrugged. "I'd rather go alone than with-with say, Eloise Midgen."
"Her acne's loads better lately and she's really nice!"
"Her nose is off center."
Ron had shown many moments of personal growth as of late. Clearly this wasn't one of them.
"Oh I see" Hermione said stiffly. "So basically, you're going to take the best looking girl, who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"
"Err-yeah, that sounds about right" said Ron. Yep definitely not one of his moments of maturity.
"I'm going to bed" she snapped, and swept of towards the girl's staircase without another word.
The Hogwarts staff, demonstrating a continued desire to impress their foreign guests, seemed determined to show the castle at its best this Christmas. When the decorations went up creating the most stunning display, Harry had ever seen at Hogwarts. Everlasting icicles had been attached to the marble staircase's banisters; the usual twelve trees in the great hall were decked with everything from shining holly berries to real hooting, golden owls, and the suits of armor had all been bewitched to sing carols whenever anyone passed them.
And still Harry and Ron didn't have any dates, and were starting to get nervous. Though Harry did point out, Ron would look much less stupid than he would without a partner; he was supposed to be starting the dance with the other champions.
"Suppose there's always Moaning Myrtle" Harry said gloomily, referring to the ghost who haunted the girl's toilets on the second floor. It wasn't like he couldn't actually touch spirits, though he might get a few looks when ghost doesn't pass through him.
"Harry, we've just got to grit our teeth and do it" said Ron on Friday morning, sounding like they were planning some dangerous mission. "When we get back to the common room tonight, we'll both have partners, agreed?"
"Err…okay."
It was easier said than done. Every time Harry even came close to ask a girl, he felt their eyes running over him, checking out the muscles he's been developing through his work as a Soul Reaper,making him too nervous and uncomfortable to ask. Honestly I'm not a piece of meat.
He found it hard to concentrate on Snape's Potions test, and consequently received bottom marks. Harry didn't care though; he was too busy trying to calm his nerves. By that point he was considering just sending Mick in his place, though he knew that idea had way too big a chance of ending with the mod-soul beating someone up on the dance floor; sometimes Mick could be a little too protective.
That night after another rough session of training with Yoruichi, Harry returned to the common room to find an ashen faced Ron sitting in a corner with Ginny, talking to him in what seemed to be a low soothing voice.
"What's up, Ron?" asked Harry, joining them.
Ron looked up at Harry, a sort of blind horror on his face.
"Why did I do it? I don't know what made me do it!"
"What?" Harry didn't have a clue what Ron was talking about.
"He…err...he just asked Fleur Delacour to go to the ball with him" Ginny explained, looking like she was fighting back a smile, as she kept petting her brother's arm sympathetically.
"You what?" said Harry, now gaping at Ron.
"I don't know what made me do it!" Ron gasped again. "What was I thinking? There were people all around. I've gone mad, everyone was 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."
Ron moaned and put his face in his hands. He kept talking though the words were barely distinguishable.
"She looked at me like I was a sea slug or something. Didn't even answer. And then, I don't know I just sort of came to my senses and ran for it."
"She's part veela" said Harry. "Her grandmother was one. It wasn't your fault, I bet you just walked past when she was turning on the old charm for Cedric and got a blast of it."
"Wasting her time then" said Ginny. "I heard he's going with Cho Chang."
"This is mad" said Ron. "We're the only ones left, who haven't got anyone-well except Neville. Hey, guess who he asked? Hermione!"
"What?" Harry gasped.
"Yeah I know! He told me after Potions but she told him, she was already going with someone. Ha! As if! She just didn't want to go with Neville…I mean who would?"
Some color came back to Ron as he started laughing, and to his shame Harry found the way he said it a little funny.
"Don't laugh" said Ginny, sounding annoyed. "Neville's a great guy and besides he's already found a date, he's going with Hanna Abbott"
That shut Harry and Ron up, as Hermione climbed in through the portrait hole.
"What's wrong with them?" she asked, coming over to join them.
"Oh they just realized they might be the only ones without dates" said Ginny.
"All the good looking ones taken, Ron?" Hermione said loftily. "Eloise Midgen starting to look quite pretty now, isn't she? Well I'm sure you'll find someone somewhere, who'll have you."
But Ron was staring at Hermione as though suddenly seeing her for the first time.
"Hermione you're a girl"
"Oh well spotted" she said acidly.
"You can come with one of us!"
"No I can't" Hermione snapped.
"Oh come on" he said impatiently. "We need partners, we're going to look really stupid if we haven't got anyone, everyone else has…"
"I can't come with you" said Hermione, now blushing. "Because I'm already going with someone."
"No you're not" Ron denied. "You just said that to get rid of Neville!"
"Oh did I" Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously. "Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has realized I'm a girl!"
And she stormed off towards the girls' dormitories again.
"It's just one step forward and million steps back with you isn't it Ron" said Ginny. Honestly and he made so much progress last summer too. "And she really is going with someone else."
"Who is it then?" Ron demanded.
"I'm not telling you, it's her business."
"This is getting stupid. Ginny, you can go with Harry and I'll just…I don't know."
Harry couldn't believe he hadn't thought about it before. Ginny was the first person he had told about his Soul Reaper powers, not Ron or Hermione, her. She was the one that helped him resolve his feelings about fighting Lorene. And she didn't hesitate to knock some sense into him when he was having problems with Nakatsukasa.
"Ginny, would you go with me to the ball?" Harry asked, now starting to feel strangely nervous.
Ginny stared at Harry like he'd grown a second head. He had asked her. Ginny couldn't believe it. She had come a long way from the shy mess of a girl that couldn't even speak when in the same room as Harry. And during their time spent together she had gotten to know him well, coming to like the real Harry far more than any boy-who-lived story. Yet she never once imaged that Harry would ever ask her.
"Yeah, I'd love to go with you, Harry" Ginny said at last.
"Great, so now what about me?" Ron complained, he still needed a date. "Hey you think I could ask Yoruichi?"
"No!" Ginny said quickly, getting confused looks from the boys. "I mean you've still got plenty of time Ron, why don't you try asking a student first. It would be hard to explain where Yoruichi came from after all."
Nothing against the woman but considering their first formal meeting involved her teasing her brother and Harry with her naked body, Ginny was afraid of what Yoruichi would do at the Yule Ball.