Chapter Seventy-Five - The Unexpected Task
Harry was sitting in the common room when a prefect posted a notice on the bulletin board. He paid the momentary disruption no mind. The board usually contained only a list of the upcoming Hogsmeade weekends, as well as fliers for lost belongings. Harry was too engrossed in the mystery of his golden egg to be interested in the new notice.
Several days had passed since the first task, and Harry still had no idea what the clue was supposed to mean. He had tried several methods of opening the egg, each with the same ear-splitting results. Millie had suggested opening it in complete darkness. Blaise had recommended daylight when this failed. Harry had even tried opening it in the abandoned Chamber of Secrets, far beneath the school, where the screams had echoed deafeningly against the vaulted ceiling. He had then climbed to the top of the astronomy tower and opened it under a waxing moon. Nothing changed the result.
Finally, Harry had tried opening the egg in his dormitory. He thought that this was a test of patience, and he tried waiting for the cry to die out on its own. He had hoped that if he endured the screeching long enough, something new would happen. He had been forced to abandon this plan when Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle justifiably threw him out of their shared room with loud complaints.
Banished to the common room, Harry dared not open the egg again, fearing reprimands from the rest of his housemates. Instead, he agonized over the egg in silence, frowning at it as if staring long enough could intimidate the egg into revealing its secrets.
Outside, a mermaid swam through the waters of the Black Lake. The Slytherin common room was located in the dungeons, submerged beneath the waterline. It was not uncommon for Harry to see merpeople, a grindylow, or even the giant squid skulking past the dim windows. This particular mermaid had been watching Harry stare at his egg for several minutes. She seemed to be laughing at him.
"Enjoying the show?" Harry grumbled before turning away from the window in frustration. It was then that he noticed the crowd that had gathered around the bulletin board. Most of the students were girls, and nearly all of them were giggling.
The common room door opened and Blaise and Millie stepped inside. Each of them carried heavy books recently checked out from the library. The bustle near the notice board caught their attention immediately. Since both of his friends were taller than most students their age, they easily peered over the heads of the giggling girls and read whatever news had caused such a fuss. Harry, delighted for the distraction, pushed his egg to the side as Blaise and Millie joined him at his table.
"What's going on over there?" he asked with a significant nod to the group of giddy schoolgirls. He noticed that several were casting hopeful looks at Blaise.
"They're talking about the Yule Ball," Blaise said with a smirk.
"Which is what, exactly?"
"Don't be thick, Harry! You know it must be why mum bought us those dress robes!"
"Stop acting superior when you've only just found out yourself," Millie chided.
"I still don't understand," said Harry, "A ball… As in dancing?"
"Of course, Harry. What other kind of balls are there?" Blaise said. He reconsidered his words the moment they escaped him, and he quickly added, "Don't answer that."
Harry realized that this must have been what Mrs. Zabini was referring to when she said he would have other plans over Christmas, but he disagreed with her assessment. He wasn't particularly interested in dancing, and he would much rather have spent the holiday with Mrs. Zabini, Remus, and Sirius. Hopeful that Blaise would share his opinion, Harry suggested that they forgo the festivities in the castle in favor of a holiday at home.
"And miss out on a chance to party?" Blaise scoffed, "Never!"
"The notice says the ball will take place on Christmas day," Millie informed Harry, "Only students fourth year and up are allowed to attend, unless one of the underclassmen gets invited by someone older."
That explained the looks Blaise was now attracting. He was quite popular among the girls in their year, independent of his friendship with The Boy Who Lived. Harry was sure any of the girls present would be happy to receive an invitation from him. Millie alone seemed to share Harry's indifference to the idea of a dance.
"What about you?" Harry asked her, "Are you going to stay for the ball?"
He briefly entertained the idea of leaving Blaise to his own devices and visiting Millie's parents for the winter holiday instead. Millie's mind seemed to be drifting in a similar direction, before she sighed and said, "Mrs. Zabini bought me a dress, remember? It would be rude to waste it."
Harry shrugged. It wasn't his idea of a fun holiday, but there was plenty to do at Hogwarts over their break. Plus, he would be with friends, and there were worse ways to spend Christmas. This matter settled, there was nothing else to do but return to his egg. Millie asked him if he had made any progress. Harry, upset by the reminder, was forced to admit that nothing he had tried worked so far. Blaise and Millie pushed their library books toward him, all with titles related to banshees or other squealing beasts, and they spent the rest of the afternoon brainstorming.
Blaise and Millie did all they could, but they were no closer to cracking the mystery of the egg when classes resumed. Some teachers were in more of a holiday spirit than others. While Snape remorselessly piled on assignment after assignment, Hagrid had basically given up all hope of tending to the Blast-Ended Skrewts. The beasts seemed more than capable of taking care of themselves, though their numbers had dwindled as they began to ruthlessly kill each other off. Hagrid had resorted to keeping them in separate steel cages. His students were then free to converse as they made food for the strange creatures.
Harry found himself working closely with Hermione and Neville. Once they had exhausted the topic of Harry's golden egg, the conversation inevitably turned to the Yule Ball once more. Unlike Harry and Millie, who cared little about the dance, Blaise could talk of little else. He kept asking for Hermione and Neville's opinions, though without pausing long enough in his chatter to hear their responses.
"Are you going to be at the Yule Ball, Hagrid?" Blaise asked as the gamekeeper stopped to see how they were getting on.
"I though' I might look in on it, yeah,'' Hagrid said a bit stiffly, "What abou' you, Harry? Find yerself a date yet?"
Harry nearly upset a tub of slugs as he turned to gape at Hagrid. He was certain he had misheard the question.
"My what?"
Hagrid noticed his alarm and returned it with equal force, "Blimey, Harry! Yer date fer the dance, o'course! It's tradition fer the champions ter open the ball with their partners! Didn' Snape tell yeh?"
"He forgot to mention it," Harry grudgingly replied.
This revelation put more urgency on the situation. Harry had been considering the ball as a mere diversion over the holidays - a reprieve from having to ponder over the egg. His plans had extended as far as attending with two friends to watch the proceedings as a casual spectator. He had no real intention of dancing, and now Hagrid informed him he would need to dance in front of the entire school! And if he didn't think quickly, he might be dancing alone…
Hagrid muttered a few phrases meant to bolster Harry's confidence before awkwardly shuffling away. As soon as he had moved on to the next group of students, Harry turned to Millie.
"You'll go with me, won't you?" he asked.
Millie's response was to laugh in his face.
"Didn't you hear what Hagrid just said? You've got to open the ball! Do you think I'm going to make a fool of myself in front of everyone?"
"But you're one of my best friends!" Harry declared, "And thanks to Skeeter, everyone already thinks we're dating, so if you think about it…"
"No thanks," Millie said in a tone that did not invite further pleading.
Harry then turned hopefully toward Hermione as his next obvious choice. Her gaze was fixed intently on the slugs they were crushing into food for the Skrewts, though something in her expression gave Harry the impression she had been listening intently to all that passed.
"Hermione," Harry said tentatively, "Have you already got a date to the ball?"
Hermione looked flustered and perhaps even a little disappointed as she stated, "Actually, yes. Someone asked me and… And I accepted."
"Longbottom, you sly thing!" Blaise said with amusement.
"Don't look at me," Neville said morosely, "I'dve asked you too, Hermione, but Krum beat me to it."
"You're going with Viktor Krum!" Harry gasped. Suddenly, Krum's frequent trips to the library made more sense. He had often wondered what made Viktor so keen to join their study groups, and had always assumed it was simply to prepare for the first task. Now Harry suspected that the Durmstrang champion had his eye on Hermione from the beginning.
"It's not a big deal," Hermione said, blowing a lock of hair out of her face and avoiding eye contact with everyone, "You've talked to him, Harry. He's nice. And this dance is supposed to be about mingling with the other schools… making friends…"
"You don't have to explain yourself to him, Granger," Blaise said with a laugh, "I've been saying exactly the same thing."
Blaise carried the conversation through the rest of the class, weighing the different merits of taking a student from either Durmstrang or Beauxbatons over Hogwarts. Harry didn't pay him much attention at the time. He was too busy worrying over who else he could ask.
Harry quickly became just as obsessed with the Yule Ball as Blaise, though while his friend was excited, Harry only felt dread. By the end of the week, he had still not thought of a solution to this unexpected task. Troubled, he approached the topic with Blaise once more, only to find that he did not share his concerns.
"Harry, you're a Triwizard Champion," Blaise reminded him, "You've just fought off a Hungarian Horntail, not to mention you're The Boy Who Lived. Girls should be queuing up to go out with you."
"Do you see a queue?" Harry aked, opening his arms wide to demonstrate just how much space he could occupy without slapping a fangirl in the face. Irritable that Blaise had brushed aside his worries with so little care, he then asked who he planned to ask himself?
"I've already had several offers," Blaise said with infuriating ease, "I'm just trying to narrow down the list of suitors…"
Harry rolled his eyes. Blaise was tall and had inherited his mother's good looks. It was no surprise that he tended to be a little vain. Harry thought this was just another demonstration of his ego, until he noticed Blaise was holding a roll of parchment before him. He held a quill in his hand, and was busy crossing off names on a long list. Harry, curious to see who Blaise was considering as worthy of his notice, approached the sofa he was sprawled across and read over his shoulder. He had scanned a few names before exclaiming, "Hold on... Roger Malone… Kevin Entwhistle… There are boys on this list!"
"The heart wants what the heart wants," Blaise replied with a wistful sigh, "The trouble is, do I pick someone from Hogwarts or one of the the foreign schools? What do you think would look best?"
Harry could only shake his head, and in doing so glimpsed Colin Creevy and his friend Pandey sitting by one of the common room windows. Pandey was making gestures with his hands to a mermaid outside, who seemed to be copying his movements. Curious to see what they were doing, Harry left Blaise to grapple with the challenge of finding a dance partner alone.
Approaching Colin with a friendly wave, Harry asked what the pair was doing.
"Herb's teaching the merpeople sign language!" Colin said with his typical enthusiasm.
Harry looked to Pandey with interest, who confirmed Colin's report with a nod. While Harry looked on, Pandey made another gesture, which was faithfully imitated by the mermaid outside.
"I don't know if it's the sort of thing other people use," Pandey explained, "But my parents taught me this to communicate with my sister. I thought it would be a good way to talk to the merpeople as well."
Harry, impressed with his ingenuity, asked, "What is she saying?"
Pandey shook his head, "Nothing much, yet. We've just been going over the basics."
"Can you ask her if she'd like to go to the ball with me?" Harry asked jokingly. A mermaid of the Black Lake would not make the most attractive date, but he was running out of options fast.
"You haven't found a date yet, Harry?" Colin asked even as Pandey made a complicated set of gestures, motioning to Harry. The mermaid opened her mouth wide. She seemed to be laughing at him. Then she twirled through the water and disappeared from sight. Harry wondered if it was the same mermaid who had been laughing at him and his egg.
The castle was becoming more festive as the holiday approached, and Harry's anxiety grew with every pine tree that appeared indoors. He still had not found a date for the ball. Meanwhile, Blaise cheerfully reported that he had obtained not one, but three partners.
"Three!" Harry blurted, feeling that this was inconceivably selfish.
"There were so many offers, I couldn't possibly pick just one," Blaise explained, "So I picked the most attractive student from each school."
"Most attractive?" Millie asked with suspicion, "Who are you taking from Hogwarts?"
"Daphne Greengrass, of course," Blaise replied, "Then there's Yuri Poliakoff from Durmstrang and Jamila Kirmani from Beauxbatons."
"Who's Jamila Kirmani?" asked Neville Longbottom, who had just settled down with them at the Slytherin table.
"One of my dates for the Yule Ball."
"She the one you've been flirting with all term?" Millie asked with interest, while Harry noted that Neville was mouthing the words "one of" with a look of confusion.
"What about you, Longbottom?" Blaise asked in an airy tone, ignoring Millie's question, "Have you got yourself a date to the ball?"
"Yeah," Neville replied happily, "I'm taking Ginny Weasley."
Blaise was quick to observe that even Neville had got a date before Harry. He then suggested that the youngest Weasley had only accepted Neville because she would be unable to attend otherwise, though this insult was lost on Harry. Normally, he would have defended his Gryffindor friend from Blaise's teasing, but he was really panicked now. Neville Longbottom had a date and he didn't!
He darted an anxious glance at Millie and hazarded an invitation once more, "You're sure you won't go with me?"
"Not a chance," she said flatly.
The time had come for Harry to make a decision. Hermione and Millie were out of the question. There were no girls on the Slytherin Quidditch team, and he didn't know many girls outside of his classes. He was sure most of them had dates already. At this rate, he would be forced to go alone!
An idea suddenly flashed across his mind. Leaping from his seat, he slammed his hands on the table and cried, "Nell is a girl!"
Millie loudly scolded him for nearly upsetting a tureen of pumpkin juice, but Harry did not stick around to be reprimanded. He needed to get to Nell before someone else did.
His desperation made him bold, and he ran directly to the Ravenclaw table, ignoring the stares of the students having lunch nearby, and addressed Eleanor Willoughby breathlessly.
"Nell! Have you already… I mean are you… Would you like to go to the ball with me?"
It was done. The words were out of his mouth. Nell was looking at him with open shock, and it was only then that he realized she had been having lunch with her friends. They had started to giggle while Nell looked as embarrassed as he felt.
"Yes, alright," she said, her cheeks a little pink.
"Ok, I understand…" Harry began with a sigh, already starting to turn away. Then her words had a chance to process and he turned back again in surprise, "Wait… Did you say yes?"
"Yes, Harry. I'll go to the ball with you," Nell said again. Her face deepened from pink to a dark red, as smiling.
"Oh, ok." Harry said, feeling very awkward, "That's great! That's… really good. Right, so then... I'll see you later?"
"See you later."
And just like that, it was done. Harry had secured his date for the ball. He walked away from Nell and her snickering friends, feeling as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders. It occurred to him that he hadn't actually asked anyone other than Hermione and Millie to the dance. He wondered if it had been this easy the whole time. He took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief, and only then realized that he didn't know how to dance.