Disclaimer: I do not own anything, except my own storyline and OC's, Just FYI.

Chapter 37: Second Chances

The Yule Ball had been announced, and Harry was surprisingly frightened. Supposedly, as a champion, he was required to have a date and participate. While he was suspicious of whether it was actually enforced, he decided not to take a chance. The issue was that of a date.

In all honesty, he really couldn't think of anyone to take. His mind had immediately reverted to Daphne, but he knew she was no longer an option. His mind had come up with Fleur, but it went off like a passing fancy, she was much older, far too beautiful and would likely prefer a more mature boy. Hermione had been asked by Krum and accepted, so he was honestly stumped.

He harbored no crush, and he felt very little for many now. It honestly made him wonder if this entire thing had been set up to embarrass him, he was certainly unpopular enough at the moment, thanks to the poisonous Skeeter's words. Apparently, missing an important ceremony like the Weighing of the Wands in favour of studying to face whatever the first task would be did him no good in the public eye.

He almost considered skipping it, but then realised his situation would just get worse. They didn't know Voldemort was alive, didn't know they needed his help, but it also led to the other line of questioning he'd been having ever since that fateful meeting in the Headmasters Office where he lost his temper. He knew he was typically one who remained rather cool, professional, as his past experiences had explained to him, but his friends kept getting in his way. But he couldn't let that happen again.

Yet… if he didn't have friends, what motivation would he have for defeating the Dark Lord? And if this war ended and he had nobody, what was the point? Dumbledore was too selfless for his own good, and it left him a broken shell of a man who would likely die surrounded by followers rather than friends or family, with a great legacy but none to take it on. Could he really be that kind?

He shut his thoughts away, deciding teenage angst has its moment. Now he needed to think of someone he could honestly take to the Ball. He considered some of his male friends, but unfortunately as far as he knew both he and them were straight, and they'd likely be seeking out their own female dates. Rocking the wizarding world would have to wait for another day. As such, he decided to pen a letter to his Godfather, asking for advice.

He received a reply that very next morning.

Harry!

Already looking for some female friends to saddle up with eh? Good, your Father and I were quite the playboys back in our day, whenever he wasn't moping about your Mum. Anyways, I'd say just look around the Great Hall, pick a random girl and take them out! My 7th year we had a ball ourselves, as Dumbledore wanted to bring in a few happy emotions in those times, and I just closed my eyes, opened them, and bam! Oh, let me tell you, Mary Chang was quite the kisser.

Right then, otherwise you could just try and ask the first girl next to you, though from what you've described that isn't a possibility. I am afraid I'll have to agree with you that Fleur Delacour would be a rather poor choice, though I disagree with your reasoning. Because Harry, no matter what, you have to have hope. Make a dream of what will happen after you defeat Voldemort, and cling onto that with every fibre of your being, and you'll survive. I promise.

Now that the sappy stuff is out of the way, try it! If it doesn't work, I can certainly arrange a date for you, though I'm not sure you'll find it overly satisfactory, it's worse than the embarrassment of going alone. I suppose that could be a rather powerful statement though, up to you.

Love,

Sirius

Harry smirked, and held on tightly to the paper, reading it over thrice. His one living connection to his parents, and the closest he had to a father. His family was slowly expanding. As such, he decided to close his eyes, shook his head around, and opened them, spotting a young mousey-brown haired girl, Katie Bell, he thought.

Waiting until breakfast was over, he caught her arm before she left, gulped and asked for the others to give them a moment. The Gryffindor Chasers looked at him oddly, but he ignored the others in favour of waiting patiently.

'Yes, Harry Potter?'

'Would you go to the Yule Ball with me?' She smiled sadly, and Harry felt a tugging in his gut, though his face showed nothing but his typical smirk.

'I'm sorry Harry, I've already accepted Lee Jordan's invitation,'

'Oh, it's alright, I'll make do.' He left quietly, though a giant blush slowly made its way across his face as he realised he'd utterly embarrassed himself for nothing. He decided to send Sirius a letter accepting the offered set-up, sighing as he did so. Instead, he got up and went off, looking for Fleur.

Finding her in another abandoned classroom, he watched as she practiced her own little spell, a charm to summon a Dove. He watched her carefully, stepping in as he carefully waved his wand and summoned a snake, wrapping it around his shoulders. Finally, she gave up, and turned to him.

'Do you have a date to the Ball, yet?' She smiled.

'Yes, Roger Davies asked me, quite the attractive man, isn't he?' Fleur smiled somewhat fondly, and Harry felt a tiny twist, though it was so slight he didn't even notice.

'I suppose, though, he can be kind of an arsehole.' She frowned.

'I think not.' A smirk slowly spread along her face. 'Jealous, are we?'

'I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you with a negative answer, Ms Delacour. Though I do hope you have a wonderful date, I have to go, I have a date, myself.' Her reaction surprised him, even if he had slipped into a rather formal tone.

'Are you sure? You just got here, don't you want to spend some time with Moi?' He'd expected her to smile and wave him off, but decided she was just messing with him.

'Yeah, Sorry, I'm just a bit busy.' Harry left, feeling a bit downcast. His friend did seem to harbour a crush on his Quidditch captain, and it left him rather frustrated. He knew he couldn't date her, both socially and the fact he didn't truly stand a chance, not that it really helped.

There was also the likelihood that she would end up dating Davies afterwards, which just kept him down. As such, he decided to move off to the library, read up on some other subjects. He never noticed Fleur slowly following him, feeling frustrated herself.

'How was that?'

'Very good, Harry! Contractions save a lot of time in a conversation, so if you learn to use them in more informal conversations, you'll not only have more time to study, but you'll come off a bit more personable!' Neville explained.

'Really? Well, that's useful.' Harry said, smiling. Neville smiled back.

'Yeah, you've already started to use them more often, and I felt a bit more practice will speed you up. Just remember, you'll want to not use them in formal situations, or you'll come off rather thick.'

'I know. Now, let's get on to spellcasting?' Harry said, to which Neville nodded as they stood up, facing each other.

'We've been doing this for a month now, so you remember the 3 Rules of Dueling?'

'Yeah, uh, Always stay focused on your target.' Neville said, as Harry motioned for him to continue. 'Don't lose grip on your wand, a good grip can prevent most disarming spells, and finally, don't go for the kill unless necessary, right?' Harry nodded.

'Good. Now… BEGIN!' The Ravenclaw shouted, quickly throwing out an expelliarmus as Neville ducked.

In retaliation, the Gryffindor cast his own stinging hex, nearly hitting his opponent before they twisted and threw out an incendio, lighting Neville's sleeve on fire. Putting it out, an aguamenti was thrown onto the floor, a glacier charm coming right after as Harry fell on his arse.

Shattering the ice, a Flipendo was shot forwards, leaving Neville flying into the air before landing on his feet, breathing heavily. A protego was cast, nearly as bright as Harry's, before a giant CLANG! Struck the room, as a bone-breaker hit it.

Unrelenting, Harry began to send a barrage of spells, all glancing off the shield spell as Neville stood there, feet rooted, sweat dripping from his brow. His determination was commendable, but Harry had little patience at the moment.

Cracks began to form as shield-breakers were sent, and with a loud explosion it was broken, before The Gryffindor immediately readied himself and began sending his own, using various charms that appeared harmless in dangerous ways, such as the ticking curse aimed towards the throat, overpowered to scratch rather than its intended use.

Yet his opponent was growing hungry, and decided to end it quickly. Summoning a rock from behind Neville, he pulled it forward, knocking him out. After taking a second to breathe, he revived the Gryffindor and they laughed heartily, before moving to the Great Hall for lunch. There, they separated, Neville moving towards a small group of friends also interested in Herbology he'd found recently, Harry sitting towards the middle, alone except Cedric across from him.

'Hey Cedric, how's it going?' His fellow champion looked up.

'Hey Harry, I'm alright, though Cho isn't exactly happy with me right now, so it could be better.' Harry simply nodded, he tried to empathise but it was a rather different relationship than the one he had with Daphne that had crashed and burned rather brutally.

'What's up?' Cedric spooned his food, now rather downcast.

'Communication problems. She won't just be honest with what she wants, and it's confusing the hell out of me.' Harry nodded, though he suddenly felt a rather immediate urge to leave, it was getting all too similar to what happened to him. Though, at least Cho didn't suspect her boyfriend to be a potentially evil murderer.

'Well, I hope you two can work it out, you both look rather well together, in my opinion.' Cedric nodded, as Harry went off to finish his classes for the day, and take a quick nap.

As he stepped up, face fierce and unmarred, he turned to look down on his followers, his people.

'Look at me! Look how far we have come! The last of the Rebellion's forces are nearly destroyed, and soon enough, we will rule the world! No more fighting, no more tragedy, a world united!' He slowly slipped off his robes, leaving him shirtless as he began stepping backwards into a pool of silvery liquid.

'Join me my Brethren, become one! Our time has come, and soon, we shall be like the Gods of Old. Come, and choose your Patron!' Already, his throne was lined with designs based on his own, but to show unity he slipped in as well.

As the platinum solution slowly covered him, memories began flowing back, those of rituals he had committed when he was younger to conquer that damnable quest. The time he had gone looking for powerful artifacts and finding the imprisoned Thor, who had led him to the others.

But it all turned sour quickly as those he'd left behind appeared, but before it became too much he felt a soft hand slip into his own, as he relaxed. It was his love, his best friend, and slowly he sunk in deeper, flashing images given to him by his Gods, until they landed on one particular memory.

They had never seen the explosion coming. It had struck with an incredible force, and the only one left standing was he, hunched over, robes torn to pieces and an absolute mess. This was the day it had all changed. The day he had turned. When he declared War. Soon enough, his forces gathered, and many years later, it left him where he is now. A Dark Future, one of many possibilities. It had gone rather well, in his opinion.

'Oh. Yes… yes, this was good. He's here. Finally, he could start it all.'

Harry woke up with a groan as the bell rang for History of Magic to end. His dream had been rather strange, not totally unpleasant but not especially great. He chalked up the weirdness of it all to Binn's off-topic lecture motivated by Hermione, who had asked a dozen questions about Palpatine's rule until the ghost gave up. He grimaced at the faux pas, but there had been little he could do since she called so much attention to it and herself.

Getting up, he moved out of the room and towards the Ravenclaw Common Room, abandoning all hope for the nap he'd desired earlier. Instead, he aimed for a nice book to read in one of the couches tucked away. Soon, the 2nd Task would be announced, and while he had quite a few ideas he still didn't know what the best method would dbe, and there was still the issue of a date. At that, he grimaced.

Finding someone to take was getting rather difficult. His prime candidates were taken, though Daphne was apparently refusing any boy, and most of the rest still wanted a moment to bask in his fame. It was as he was walking he accidently stumbled into Parvati Patil, whose books fell. He quickly bent down to pick them up, and as he did so, he took a second to look at her.

She was a pretty girl, of Indian descent and quite popular. While she had shown some interest in his fame, her own family was quite powerful so it was more likely interest in an alliance, he hoped. She was far too much of a gossip for his tastes in a long-term partner, but as someone to take to the Ball? It helped that she was also quite intelligent, being the twin sister of Padma had counted for something as while not reaching the marks her sister received, she was by no means an idiot. Who knew? It could even work out as an actual relationship if it went well. At this, he decided to just go with it and sucked up his courage, taking a mental note to thank but decline his offer for arranging someone to escort him.

'Hey, Parvati, would you be willing to go to the Yule Ball with me?' Wow, that was surprisingly hard to get out, he was surprised he didn't stutter as badly as Neville used to.

Parvati giggled. Was that a good sign? A million thoughts rushed through his head as his cheeks flushed red and he suddenly regretted his choice to ask her. What if she said no? What if she laughed at him? Embarrassment was an emotion he was getting more and more used to nowadays, but it didn't make it any more fun.

'Sure, Harry!' Whew. 'What colour should I wear?' Harry considered it, but decided she would probably be better at the fashion side. It was one area she superseded her sister, that, and Defence Against the Dark Arts, oddly enough.

'Why don't you choose? It's a rather big night and I don't know if I trust myself for this, honestly.' He rubbed his neck, but thankfully she laughed, which made him infinitely more comfortable.

'Alright! I'm glad you're at least willing to admit your faults, more than most guys. Anyways, I'll pick it out and give you the list to order? Can you get it here on time?' Harry breathed a sigh of relief, and nodded. That wouldn't be an issue, thankfully, he had money to spare. 'Alright, would you like to go out on a Hogsmeade weekend beforehand, get to know each other a bit?' He hadn't even thought of that, but it seemed like a good idea.

'Sure! We can go next time, I'll pick you up at Twelve?' She nodded, and they parted ways, Harry feeling much happier than he had before. Fleur's rejection stung quite a bit less now, and he hadn't been wrong, Davies could be a bit of a prat sometimes. It didn't help that Fleur was Veela, and he was slowly feeling even more happy.

As such when he arrived at the common room he had a spring in his step that left the other students reeling. Harry suddenly went from the tall, dark and brooding bad boy to a handsome, confident man with a single question, though it did leave some looking at him a bit closer, with gossip traveling quickly that Harry was in an oddly good mood.

The gossip left many with various feelings. Neville and Cedric were happy themselves, Parvati was feeling even better about her choice, and many other students felt simply surprised, though his old friend group, Daphne especially, were quite disappointed and worried, especially since it took only moments after to reach everyone he had a date, and it was likely the reason he was feeling so jovial.

When he finally laid down to read his book, it was quite satisfying.

Harry had received his list from Padma, which he quickly ordered, sent his letter to Sirius, tried on his robes, and was now readying himself for his date with Parvati. The time he spent with Fleur was rather minimal now, as they were both juggling school work and readying themselves for the Ball. In his hands was Sirius's reply, which he decided to read right before he left.

Harry,

Nice job! I remember her Mum, quite a nice woman and rather intelligent too. She was a few years ahead so we didn't interact much, but I'm glad you've gotten over the Greengrass and Delacour girls. I will say I'm glad you dealt with your Fleur drama, as, I am sad to admit, there was very little chance of it actually working out.

Dumbledore is rather adamant it will, but he's a bit out of touch when it comes to romance, honestly. Doesn't help that his only love died by his own hand.

Anyways! I wish you luck on your date, school flings rarely work out but life just might surprise you, you know.

Sirius

Harry smiled. Looking in the mirror, he adjusted his sweater, a nice emerald green with a golden snitch flying about. Molly Weasley, Ron's mother, had sent him a box of goods to apologise for her son's behaviour, including this rather nice sweater, to which he sent her a letter in thanks and a small token of his gratitude. His glasses were on operfectly, hsi hair as combed as it could possibly be, and a good pair of slacks. He was ready.

Stepping out and down the stairs, he breezed past the whispers, which had sprung up and continued, even growing in some cases, since his mood change. Ignoring it all, he moved on, though with a quick glance he saw Fleur with a frown on her face, but he threw it out of his mind as he continued.

Calling out to Parvati, who turned with a smile growing across her face, they walked out, moving into a carriage. His mood was somewhat soured as he recalled what happened the last time he took someone for a date to Hogsmeade, but again, he pushed it out of his mind. He was surprisingly excited, but decided to take the initiative in the conversation.

'So, Parvati, what do your parents do?'

'My Father works at the Ministry at the Floo department, and my Mum is on the Wizengamot for the Patil seat. Politics is interesting, but I think Padma will go for the seat, I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do.' Harry nodded.

'I have a few seats of my own on the Wizengamot, I'll probably have to take them up. So the Patil family is matriarchal?' She shook her head.

'No, but it's not patriarchal either, just whoever of patil blood wants the seat. If both do, generally there's some sort of inner-family contest based on whoever can do it better.'

'Interesting, I didn't know any family could just not be either.' She nodded.

'I don't know much about it, Politics isn't really my thing, you could ask Padma for more information, but I think it has to do with the fact one of my ancestors who started the family decided to forgo the tradition. I'm pretty sure you can arrange for a ritual to get rid of it too, though it isn't as necessary nowadays.' Harry sat back, mulling it over. It wouldn't be a bad idea, and the entire idea of a Patriarchal or Matriarchal family was outdated anyway.

The carriage stopped, and they stepped inside Honeydukes, where Harry bought them both some sweets, before moving on to the Three Broomsticks. Parvati had looked over at Madam Puddifoot's, but when Harry shook his head she nodded before bringing him over to the shop. After ordering a couple of butterbeers, they sat down and Parvati began asking him questions.

'So, how is life with Sirius Black? I know your old family was supposed to be terrible.' Harry looked at her strangely.

'How?' She giggled rather cutely.

'The Daily Prophet, silly! It was across the Headlines for weeks when it came out.' Harry flushed.

'Oh.'

'Anyways, what's he like? Is he crazy after Azkaban?' Harry laughed, took a sip and began.

'Oh he's crazy, but it's not from Azkaban. Actually, he recovered rather well from the prison. No, he's a bit of a playboy, obsessed with pranks, women and his good looks, but he's alright.' She nodded.

'I know it's a heavy question, but do you miss your parents? I don't know what I'd do without mine. You-you don't have to answer.' Harry looked off, contemplating the question. Finally, he nodded.

'No, it's fine. I do sometimes, but I like to think they're still watching over me. I don't really believe in the afterlife, or God, and it's been proven all the Norse, Greek, Roman ones were just ancient and powerful Witches and Wizards, but here, in my heart. I'll meet them someday, watching over my descendants, btuf or now, they're still with me, you know?' Parvati was fascinated, before she shook herself out of it.

'Yeah, yeah, I get it. That's really cool, like Guardian Angels. Well, we should probably order some food, huh?' Harry nodded, and as they ate they continued asking and answering questions, before moving on to the many other shops. Scrivenshafts, even Gladrags, though mostly for Parvati to make fun of the clothing.

Eventually, it was time to head back, but when they stopped in front of the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, she paused. He was confused, and just stood there, before she appeared to gather her courage, kissed his cheek and entered the portrait through a whispered password. He just moved a hand towards his cheek, and walked over to the Ravenclaw common room.

As Harry entered his bedroom, his mood was still rather high, and when he fell asleep, it was nightmare-free.

R & R, Plz! Sorry for the delay, ADHD, schoolwork, etc. was a pain. However, it's summer, I've graduated. Might still be somewhat slow, I get frustrated when I go too fast or too slow in pacing, but next chapter will likely consist of the Ball and the 2nd Task. If you can't tell, Fourth Year might end up short of 10 chapters(My goal for each year,) but I'll probably figure something out.