"So the boy will be there?" the hooded figure asked.
"Yes, my lady," Barty said, cowering with fear. "I heard it myself that he does not wish to lose his magic and the way he's performing in the task, I am sure he will live it up to the third challenge. But will he win in the third task? He clearly declared he did not wish to win."
"That's no problem," the figure said. Just keep an eye on him. How is his friend doing?"
"He is doing the way he is supposed to," Barty said.
"There's no change in him?" the figure asked.
"Not much," Barty said.
"Hmm, he's growing stronger every time," the figure said. "Well, just keep an eye on him, too."
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Gohan took in a breath. This was harder than he had thought. He had blurted it out in front of Harry and Neville so now it became the matter of his pride. So, waiting near the stairs of the girls dormitories made him the subject of a lot of weird stairs.
"What are you doing?" Harry whispered to him when he saw his friend.
"I am waiting for Hermione," Gohan said.
"And you could not find any other place in the whole castle to wait for her," Harry said, dragging him away from the spot.
"What's wrong with here?" Gohan asked, confused.
"The unwanted attention," Harry said. You are not gaining yourself some extra attention unknowingly but Hermione will notice this, too. And that won't be a good scenario for you to ask her to the dance."
"So where do I go?" Gohan asked.
"Just stay here, in the common room," Harry said. "Wait for her to come down and then tell her you need to talk to her about something. Then take her out and tell her. Simple."
"Not that simple as it sounds," Gohan muttered.
"I know," Harry said.
"Do you?" Gohan said, a bit amused. "I know Luna immediately said yes to you the moment you asked her to be your dance partner."
"And Hermione will, too," Harry said. "Oh, here she comes. Good luck."
Harry left his friend and went out of the common room. Gohan walked over to the corner so Hermione could not see her as soon as she came into the room. He saw her carrying a thick book about dragon eggs, clearly trying to find a way to help Harry get his clue for the second task. As she grabbed her usual place by the silent corner of the common room, Gohan approached her, his heart beating fast.
"Hey, Hermione," Gohan said.
She looked up from the book and smiled warmly at her friend. "Hey, Gohan," she said.
"Um, do you have a minute?" Gohan asked. "I wanted to ask you something."
"Yeah, what?" she asked.
"Not here, please?"
"Alright," she said, getting up. "Let me go and keep this book in my dorm and then we both can go to the grounds for a walk."
"Sounds great," Gohan said.
Ten minutes later saw the two walking down towards the lake.
"So?" Hermione asked.
"So?" Gohan asked, looking at her confused.
Hermione let out a chuckle. "You wanted to talk about something?" she made him remember.
"Oh, yeah," Gohan realised. "Um, listen, I was wondering...would you like to go to the Ball with me?"
He then got silent abruptly, awaiting her reply. He felt scared looking at her so he kept looking down when he felt her hands on his face. He looked up as Hermione's hands guided his face. He saw her smiling widely.
"Yes, Gohan. I would love to," she said.
Gohan's smile knew no bounds. "But I don't know how to dance," he said.
Hermione blurted out a laugh. "I heard Neville offered to teach you and Harry?" she asked. "Who is Harry going to go with?"
"He's coming with Luna," Gohan said. "And yes, Neville offered to teach us both a thing or two about dancing. I will try and not embarrass you in front of others."
"You won't," she said. "Trust me."
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Most of the students of Ravenclaw were shocked when they heard that Luna will be going with Harry. While the girls were now extremely jealous of her, especially Cho, the boys could hardly believe that someone like Luna actually was Asked. They consoled each other saying that Harry would've done this out of showing pity on her but the girls weren't conceived. They all knew how close Luna was to Harry's little friend circle so when Luna was having her dinner one night Cho approached her with a nasty scowl on her face. When she slammed her hand hard on the table, it was enough to draw everyone's attention.
"So, would you like to reveal the trick you used to lure Harry to ask you to the ball?" Cho asked.
"Are you going to do something?" Neville asked Harry, a little worried about Luna.
"She got this," Harry said with a smile.
Daphne sat not much apart from the Eagles' table but her eyes were on Harry. She felt extreme guilt whenever she looked at him. She had said unpleasant things about him and his parents without knowing his actual life story. She needed to ask him for forgiveness. She, too, knew about Harry asking Luna to the dance so when Cho confronted Luna about it, Daphne's eyes wandered over to Harry to see what he'd do. But to her surprised he was sitting there calmly. It was as if nothing had happened.
"Answer me, Lovegood!" Cho asked, a bit louder this time.
"I did nothing to lure him. He came to me all by himself," Luna said dreamily.
"Oh, like that's gonna happen!" Cho exclaimed. "You do know that use of love potions is a crime, don't you? And I don't know whether it really was a love potion or actually something worse like loyalty potion? Thank goodness that I came to know about this. Professor Flitwick would be very cross with you." She then bent down a little so only Luna could hear her. "And tell Harry that you don't want to go with him. You don't deserve to go out with any boy let alone Harry. And if you don't tell him that you are sorry to go to the dance with him, I will make sure that you remember the ball night forever for the rest of your life."
Cho rose up and turned in her full attitude to walk away when she tripped and fell hard on the floor, face first. But that was not it as when she fell, her left hand slammed with a few plates filled with food so when the clanking of the dishes echoed throughout the hall, it grabbed everyone's attention. Not even the Ravenclaw children could stop themselves too laugh when they looked at her fifth year old prefect lying on the ground filled with food and gravy. Flitwick ran over to help his student up and under his gaze a few of Cho's classmates gave him a hand on it. With ruffled hair and gravy all over her body, she was quite a sight too implore upon for the night. Her nose was bleeding because of her fall but her pride was hurt a lot worse.
Luna could only smile before she turned back to focus on the food that was in front of her. "Thank you, Hogwarts," she said slowly before continuing to eat.
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Dumbledore sat in his office, thinking hard over something he was growing irritated from. The job of selecting something very precious of the champions was given to him. He knew, for Fleur and Krum, it would be easy as they both had their younger siblings with them here in the castle. He did not know whom to pick as Cedric's and Harry's treasure. Neither of the boys had shown something like that to other people in public. Cedric had a band of friends from his year and from senior years as well since he had became the champion. Harry's group was small but over the time Dumbledore had noticed how clever and alert they all had become. He seethed with anger when he realised that Potter had also clutched away his second golden boy Neville. The boy was the last resort in order to fit his prophecy, thus giving him what he wanted but even a boy as dumb as Neville was now topping in his classes. He was having a tough competition with Harry for the third as the first two spots were for Hermione and Gohan. Then there was Luna who was also a member of Harry's small group but Dumbledore saw that Harry had asked Luna actually out of guilt and pity even of the boy doesn't believe it himself. So grabbing away Luna was not valid. He could've taken Ginny to be Harry's treasure had those Weaselys not ruined his clever plan. For Cedric, he would know the on the night of the Ball who will be the boy's treasure but for Harry it was becoming difficult. And then there was that feeling he had got the other day of suddenly feeling weak and then feeling mighty all of a sudden. He had checked and re-checked the wards and magical flow of the castle but he could find nothing. He wondered whether the castle was playing pranks upon him. but the castle was dead. It were the ghosts and the elves who drew magic from the students and the teachers living inside the castle. Looks like he needed to ask one of his elves as what was going on.
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As the ball day came near, the last Hogsmead weekend was full of enthusiastic children buying last minute items to make themselves look good. Ron was angry and embarrassed after Dean publicly revealed the suit his mother had sent him for the ball. He searched desperately but nothing was available to make him look a tad better in that suit which he was confused belonged to the first generation Weaselys or what. To make it all worse, no girl had come to ask him for dance. He wondered why. Scum like Crabbe and Goyle now had partners. He was way better than those two. And to make it all worse Crabbe was going with Daphne, the one beautiful girl Slytherin could offer. He wondered how Daphne agreed to go with him but then again, she was a Slytherin. All Slytherins were dumb and no one needed to know why.
He then saw Ginny who walked beside him. He knew his sister wanted to go with Harry but since that imbecile needed nothing to do with his family anymore, Ginny had planned to go with Neville but soon she came to know that Neville had already asked Susan and that girl had said yes. Fortunately for her Colin was available but she had to ask and on top of it all, convince him as he was simply planning on flying solo, his main motive to capture the moments of the ball in his camera.
He then saw other students walking and running by him. He felt jealous. Why did they all get to have the best things in the world and he was stuck with a family that could barely afford to present gifts on Christmas? Had Potter not walked up on him, he would've gotten himself something good to wear for the ball. Dumbledore's payment to him was also stopped and it was all because of Potter. And thinking of him led him to become angrier and add to that, he saw him and his little group in a nearby shop. They were buying broaches to go with their suits. And from the looks of it they appeared quite expensive. Harry's was the most expensive one while Gohan's was the least but Ron could easily guess that none of it was cheap in any way possible. They three had planned it all. Word had it that Gohan had asked Hermione. Ron wondered why Gohan would do that then he realised that just like Harry did with Luna, Gohan would've asked Hermione out of pity. But he wasn't here to spy on them. That work was long gone for him. if he wasn't being paid for it why would he do the job? Right now he needed something more important – a dance partner for the ball night or else he would be an even bigger mock ball than he was when Dean revealed his clothes that his mother had sent for the dance. His mind started to work in full capacity, for probably after a very long time, remembering which girl in his house was still without a partner. He realised Lavender Brown was still looking for one partner. She wasn't pretty. She was fat and though her face was okay to be called normal, it didn't suit with the curls she liked to keep. So all in all, she wasn't pretty for him but seeing no other way he needed to do it and to make it worse he would have to go and ask her for the dance. That wasn't his job! Girls were the ones to go and ask boys to be their dance partners. But it appeared as if he had to break this rule for the day. He was a partner-less at the moment and he didn't want to be like that. He would worry about it all later. Checking his money pouch he realised he still had some galleons left. Forcing his thoughts to buy candies, he made his way to one of the small, shabby shops in the end parts of the street of Hogsmead to look for something that will make him look good in that forsaken suit of his. Damn, he could not even get the old smell out of it.
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