Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter Ninety-Three

Friendship

Hermione wrapped her arms around her knees as she thought about how things had gone so wrong. When McGonagall had first told them about the ball she had been excited. She had thought that many Ron would ask her … they had been growing closer this last term and she was starting to think that he might like her. It hadn't even matter that he seemed to be terrified about the prospect of going to a dance with a girl; she still thought there was a good chance that they would end up going together.

It had annoyed her though, when he teased Harry about the girl that had asked Harry to the ball. Saying that she was cute and that they better hurry before all the good looking girls were taken. It felt like he punched her in the stomach hearing that he had only cared about the way his date looked and not about their personality. She knew that she didn't have much to offer in the looks department, what with her unruly hair and … well, she no longer had large front teeth, but it didn't seem like he (or anyone else) had noticed. At least she had thought that until today when he said it brighten up her smile.

Thinking of that both made her inside squirm and made her want to cry. He had noticed … he had complimented her! But she had accepted to go to the stupid dance with another boy.

Of course he was partly to blame for that, she thought, trying to convince herself that she had every right to accept Viktor's offer to go to the ball. It wasn't working very well. It didn't matter if she had the right; she still wished that she had said no. She was, however, convinced after Ron had asked Fleur Delacour that he was never going to ask her. She clearly wasn't what Ron was looking for.

And it's not like she said yes to the first guy that asked her. Terry Boot had asked her, but she had turned him down because she didn't want to go to the dance with just anyone, she wanted it to be specially. Then Viktor Krum asked her and she must admit she felt a little awestruck that someone so famous … someone that could have just about any girl in the school … had asked her. It went to her head, how he said that he would go to the library just to see her and how he had been trying to talk to her for weeks but was too nervous to. That wasn't the only reason why she yes though. She had been really fascinated by Viktor and she wanted to know more about Durmstrang, and for the first time since she realized that Ron wasn't going to ask her, she felt that she could have fun at the ball.

She should have known better than to hope for that.

She wasn't a hundred percent sure if Ron had asked her to the dance as his date, or had just asked her out as a friend, but it seemed as if it was as the former. The way he had looked when she said she was going with someone else was heartbreaking. The way he got angry when she had told him it was Viktor … his responds when she snapped back at him about asking Fleur out. He hadn't even meant to ask Fleur.

Yes, she had definitely messed everything up.

"Hey," someone said and she didn't even have to look up to know that it was Harry. She didn't say anything to him as he sat down next to her. "You okay."

"He asked me to the ball," she said in a whisper.

"I know," Harry said, his tone was grave.

"Everything?"

"Yeah, he told me everything," Harry sighed. He had just been talking to Ron where his friend told him about Hermione going to the dance with Viktor. He knew that it wasn't really his fault, but he still felt bad about encouraging Ron to ask her out (at the time he was sure that Hermione would say yes and they both would be happy) only for this to happen. He wrapped his arm around her and she leaned in, knowing that he was offering friendship in his embrace.

"I messed everything up," she sobbed.

"This might not be as bad as you think," Harry tried to cheer her up, but it was hard, he didn't really know what he could say to her statement.

"He's going to avoid me …" she pointed out, "and I don't know if I can see him either …"

"Maybe," Harry frowned. "Just give it some time … things will work out."

Hermione didn't know if she could believe that but she let Harry's word comfort her all the same.

O

"Oh!" Luna said in a startled voice, "Hello Ron."

"Hey … sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Ron said, actually looking at her as he was taken out of his mopiness by Luna's voice … he hadn't realized that the dreamy girl could be startled.

"I was just following some Seniumuris," Luna explained. "They like to be around people with sad feelings … there have been a lot around Hogwarts lately, I think it has something to do with the ball."

"Yeah, I can imagine," Ron said smiling wryly at that.

"Yes, with people getting turned down by the person they like …" Luna started to say but stopped when she noticed Ron flinch at her word. "Oh! There's a Seniumuris now," she suddenly exclaimed.

"Luna … that's a mouse," Ron said frowning at what Luna was pointing at.

"I can see why you're confused, they do look like mice, but that was a Seniumuris," Luna said and Ron smiled at Luna's stern but still dreamy expression. "They're also known as the gloomy mouse."

"Right," Ron said still smiling and then he did something without thinking, bringing out his wand and waved it. "Accio Seniumuris." Much to Ron's surprise, the mouse actually came zooming towards him.

"Oh no," Luna gasped when Ron caught the mouse and he turned to look at her still in shock and now a little afraid. "You shouldn't catch Seniumuris."

"Sorry," Ron sighed. "Did I hurt the little guy?"

"No, but they become attach to anyone that catches them," Luna explained as the mouse in Ron's hand stop struggling to get away and turned to look at him.

"Er … they don't cause you to become sad, do they," Ron said looking at the mouse.

"No, they can't affect the way you feel," Luna continued to explain, "but they are only happy when they're around sadness."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Ron mumbled.

Luna looked at him sadly before she added, "sometimes if they are taken care of properly they can mature to Sensusmuris."

"What's that?" Ron asked.

"The feeling mouse," Luna answered. "They can learn to reflect the mood of their master. Then you wouldn't have to be sad to make him happy."

"That settles it then," Ron said smiling slightly as he put the mouse in his front pocket, pleased when it didn't seem to protest what he was doing. "I've been looking for a pet since what happened to Scratch … I think he will do nicely."

"Yes, I think he will," Luna said as she turned to smile at Ron. "You are a good friend, I'm sure he'll mature quickly."

"Thanks Luna," Ron returned the smile. "Hey Luna, are you going to the ball with anyone?"

"No …" Luna sighed. "No one asked me."

"Do you want to go with me," Ron said, "as friends of course?"

"I …" Luna hesitated and bit her lip; she seemed to notice how Ron's expression fell at her hesitation and said, "I thought you would want to go with Hermione."

Ron flinched at the name and then looked down at his hands and said, "She's going with Krum."

"Oh," Luna said, still not sure what she wanted to do.

"I get it, you don't want to go with me," Ron sighed, "I just thought that if I went with a friend … maybe the night wouldn't be so bad."

"Okay Ron," Luna put a comforting arm on his shoulder and said, "I'd like to go to the ball with you."

O

Neville was sitting out on the grounds by himself looking out at the lake. He didn't really care that it was freezing and the ground was covered in snow, Hermione had taught him the warming charm and it was a nice place where he could think in peace. After all, most of Hogwarts was inside the castle on this cold day.

"It took me forever to find you," Hannah said in irritation as she sat across from him.

"Sorry … I didn't realize that you were looking for me," Neville shrugged. Though he had come here to think alone, he was far more pleased that she had come to find him.

"You know, I thought Ginny was mad when she said that you were out here," Hannah said, "It should be freezing, but it's actually rather pleasant. You're really good at the warming charm."

"Thanks," Neville laughed, starting when she had thought he was crazy. "You must have been determined to find me if you really thought it was that cold."

"I might have been," Hannah shrugged. "I like being around you."

"Same," Neville replied with a smile, but started to feel uncomfortable when neither of them said anything. "Er … are you looking forward to the ball?" he threw out the question because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"I suppose," she answered with a sigh, not looking at him.

"What's the matter?" Neville frowned.

"Everyone is going as a group because they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but all it's doing is making everyone unhappy," she explained.

"You mean you're not going with Ernie," Neville asked, he had been convinced that Hannah wanted to go to the ball with Ernie. In fact, he had been trying to think of a way to get his idiot dorm mate to ask her already. Of course just thinking that made him sad which was why he had spent most of his time out on the grounds lately.

"I might end up being his 'date'," she said making quotation marks with her hand at the word date, "but Susan is the one he wants to go with. She wants to go with him too, but she's afraid that I would be all alone and she doesn't want that. Then there's Justin … he wanted to ask Padma, you know the Ravenclaw in our year … but he doesn't want the numbers to be uneven. It really is a big mess."

"Wow … how could I have missed all of that?" Neville said in awe, though his thoughts were mostly on the first part of what she said. The way she said date … it seemed like she didn't like the idea of that very much. She didn't seem depress either when she said that Ernie liked Susan.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you've spent all of your free time out on the grounds," Hannah grumbled.

"Sorry," Neville half sighed half chuckled. "You know through all of that, you didn't say what you wanted."

"No … I didn't," Hannah agreed.

"You never wanted to go with Ernie, did you?" Neville groaned as he realized what she really wanted, and he felt like a really idiot.

"Is that what you thought?" Hannah asked, looking taken aback by his question. "No … Ernie is my best friend, I'm sure we would have fun if we went together but he …" she stopped there and looked at Neville, a blush creeping up her cheeks, "he's not the one I wanted to go with."

"Hannah," Neville said and suddenly his heart was pounding in his chest and he was finding it hard to form the proper words, but with an effort he finally said, "do you want to go to the ball with me?"

A broad smile stretched across her face. "I'd love to."

"Brilliant," Neville's smile matched her.

"Come on, we better get going," Hannah said suddenly getting up and grabbing his arm to force him to get up as well.

"Where are we going?" Neville asked.

"Weren't you listening … we have a lot of unhappy people that we have to help out," Hannah said.

"I suppose you have a point," Neville chuckled and he went with her to go find their friends to see what they could do to help them go to the Yule Ball with the dates they wanted to.

O

"At least your happy," Ron said to his pet mouse or Sensomuis or whatever it was that Luna called it. It was two days later and he had hardly spoken to Hermione. She seemed to be avoiding him just as much as he was avoiding her. He then pushed in a few rat treats into the cage he still had that once belonged to his old pet Scratch. He had decided to name his new pet Sunny, because the mouse seemed to be really happy. Luna was right about it feeding off his gloomy mood. He was also trying to be optimistic, if Luna was right about how the mouse mature (and he had a feeling she was) then the mouse would start reflecting his feeling and he wanted it to still be happy then.

He sighed and turned away from his pet and walked down the stairs, knowing that the only way that he would have a chance to be happy anytime soon, he would have to find Hermione and make things better with her. He was surprised when he found her in the common room, a book in her hand. He wondered if she was waiting for him or if it was just coincidence.

"Hey," he said, as he sat down on the couch she was on, near to her but giving her room too.

"Hey," she repeated with a sigh, putting down her book and turn to look at him.

Okay, now you have to say something, Ron prompted to himself, but nothing came.

"I heard you're taking Luna to the dance tomorrow," Hermione said.

"Yeah," Ron said relieved that she brought this up; at least it was better than just sitting there in uncomfortable silence. "I figured it was best to go with my friend."

Hermione didn't say anything as her eyebrows furrowed and he wished he could know what she was thinking in that moment.

"Sorry about getting upset about who you were going with," Ron said, "I was just a bit jealous."

Hermione's eyes widened and yet again he wished he could know her thoughts.

"I would love to go with a Quidditch star," he added with a mock remorseful look.

"Ron," Hermione shook her head as she laughed at his obvious joke, her heart lightening as she realized that they're friendship was still intact. Though she still had regrets about what happened, knowing that things wouldn't be as awkward as the last two days was relieving. "You know, we might all be able get together during the ball."

"I might like that," Ron smiled at her, the longer she was near him the less time she would have with that git alone.

"Me too," Hermione agreed, smiling. Maybe things weren't as bad as she thought.