AN: At long last!

Harry felt terrible. His stomach was twisting and turning all the time and he was constantly distracted. Well, not exactly distracted. He'd even go as far as to say that he was very focused. Immensely focused. Probably too focused.

Just...not on things he'd usually be focused on. Normally, he'd focus on getting out of Snape's crosshairs or on not getting into too much trouble. He'd inevitably fail to do either of those things, but at least he focused on trying.

These days, however, he was hyper-focused. The target of his focus was giggling and chatting with her best friends, brightening up the very air around herself just with her presence in their common room. The cloudy, grey sky turned into a brilliant blue, there were rainbows and singing birds, everything had a wonderful, flowery smell and she managed all of that just by being there.

"Harry? Harry!"

He was so startled out of his thoughts, he nearly spilt the contents of his ink bottle with his elbow all over his homework.

"Gosh, what's going on with you?" Hermione asked, half-amused, half-worried.

"Nothing," he said, his shrug doing little to hide his blush. "Everything's fine."

"Right."

Hermione's knowing, growing grin made him sigh. "Just say what you want to say, Hermione."

"Have you asked her out to the ball yet?"

Harry groaned. "...no..."

Hermione huffed and leaned back against her chair. "You do realize that she won't wait forever for you to ask."

He raised a brow at her. "You sound like she's waiting for me specifically to ask her."

"Maybe she is," Hermione said with a shrug. "I know for a fact that she has been asked a ton of times, even by a few upperclassmen and some of the foreign students, but she has always declined."

Of course she'd be asked tons of times. Lavender was unbelievably beautiful, after all. She was funny and kind and just an overall great person.

He groaned again in frustration, dropping his head on their table while ignoring Hermione's annoyed huff as she snatched away his homework just in time. Good thing she did it as well or he'd have a lot of ink on his forehead.

"I've written to Padfoot about her. He hasn't owled back yet."

"He'll tell you the same thing I am telling you already," Hermione stated matter-of-factly. "He'll say to just go and ask her. What's the worst that could happen?"

Harry sat up again and looked at Hermione incredulously. "She could say no?"

"Well, yes, but –"

"It's a stupid idea," he said with a despondent sigh. "What'd she want with someone like me anyway?"

"With someone kind, caring and brave?" Hermione wondered in a duh-tone. "And you aren't exactly terrible to look at either, if I may say so," she admitted. "You'd just need something decent to wear and I'd go as far as to say that you'd be one of the best looking boys in our year."

Harry turned his head to look at her with wide eyes and his face heating up. Hermione's cheeks had a bright, rosy tinge as well. "Do you mean that?" he asked her. No one had ever said anything like that to him before.

"Of course," she replied. Her voice sounded a little higher than usual. "And I won't ever repeat that, so you better remember it for the rest of your life."

"Um. Okay. Thanks." He wasn't sure what else to say.

Harry turned his head to look at Lavender again. Her bright and blonde hair was adorned with a navy coloured hairband today. Before this year, he had never paid particular attention to anything about her and now he knew that she was wearing a different hairband every day. Gold, red, purple, navy, turquoise – she had so many hairbands and they all looked so pretty on her. It was one of those things that were just her. Like her giggles, like her being ambient noise that just helped him relax and relieved him of the tension he always was carrying with him. He loved her giggles. They made his stomach twist and turn in the best of ways. They could drive Dementors away.

Suddenly, a worried frown made its way to his lips when he saw another bloke go to speak to her – probably to ask her for the Yule Ball. It drove a knife in his heart, but he released a shaky breath of relief when she shook her head and the bloke left with an uncaring shrug.

Harry couldn't take it anymore. He had to ask her. Waiting for Sirius's advice or words of encouragement or whatever it was he had hoped to get from his godfather was not enough. Facing Quirrell possessed by Voldemort, a gigantic basilisk, hundreds of Dementors at once was more difficult than speaking to girls. Or at least those things were supposed to be more difficult.

And he fancied Lavender Brown. He knew he fancied her something fierce and he would be absolutely miserable throughout the entirety of the ball if she were to go with someone else because he had been too scared to ask her himself.

With a sudden surge of determination, Harry got up from his chair. His knee hit the table, forcing Hermione to stop the bottle of ink again from spilling all over their homework.

Ignoring her annoyed glare, Harry walked over to Lavender, who was sitting with Parvati, Sophie Roper and Fay Dunbar. He had little to no contact with the other two Gryffindor girls of his year and Hermione hardly ever mentioned her other dorm mates. He glanced over at them and gave each a small, awkward smile in greeting, which they returned with grins and giggles and teasing "hi Harrys". It, at least, caught Lavender's attention, who then turned around to face him, her face immediately breaking into a happy and wide smile.

"Hi, Harry!" she echoed her friends' greetings.

"H-hi." He cleared his throat and shuffled around nervously. Opening his mouth to ask that question, he immediately felt his face heat up. The presence of the other girls made everything so much more difficult.

"Yes?" She gently prodded him, urging him to speak. He had a feeling she knew what he wanted to ask.

Come on, this can't be more difficult than facing Voldemort! Harry took a breath. "Wouldyougototheballwithme?" he blurted out in a single breath. There. He had done it and felt like fainting already. Holding his breath in anticipation, he waited for Lavender's answer.

She raised a brow. "I'm not entirely sure, but I think you just asked me out for the ball?"

He felt his cheeks redden but nodded his head in confirmation. His face turned even redder when Parvati nudged Lavender with a wide grin, who in turn had a pretty blush gracing her cheeks.

"I would love to, Harry," she answered with a squeal and quickly got up to wrap her arms around his neck for a fierce hug.

He was too stunned to react to the hug immediately after her positive reply, but slowly and awkwardly, he returned it with a pat on her back. It made her huff and laugh and, for the life of him, he just couldn't fight off that happy and dopey grin he was now sporting.

Releasing him from the hug, she rested her hands on his shoulders and gave him a serious, stern look. She had the most gorgeous blue eyes, he noticed. "You promise to dance with me? You also promise to pay attention to me and to not ignore me and to do your best so I'll have a great time with you? You promise to do your best to be a great and considerate date?"

"Yes!" He wasted no time to answer. "Of course! I promise!"

"Good." She grinned at him and patted his cheek with a hand. "I'm looking forward to it."

Lavender let him go and rejoined her friends, all of them breaking into hushed, excited whispers. Harry, on the other hand, realized suddenly, just how many eyes were on him. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he quickly avoided the stares and sat back down next to Hermione. Ron had also joined them by now.

"And?" Hermione asked teasingly, making it clear that she already knew the answer. He doubted that it had been one of her more difficult conclusions to come to so far.

"Mate, did you seriously ask Lavender to be your date for the Yule Ball?" Ron looked at him with wide eyes.

Harry nodded. "Yeah. And she said yes." He slumped in his chair, the tension and nervousness just gone all of a sudden. "Lavender's my date for the Yule Ball." He grinned again and it was so impossibly wide that it made his cheeks hurt.

"I told you so, didn't I?" Hermione said and he couldn't even be mad at her smugness.

"You've put me in a right pickle, mate," Ron complained, though without any heat. He even slapped him on the back in congratulations. "I've got to step up my game."

Hermione snorted. "What game?" She muttered under her breath.

"Oi!"

And then they began to bicker once again, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Lavender had said yes and she'd be his date for the Yule Ball, which was absolutely amazing and he couldn't be any happier.

Except, he needed dance lessons. Those from McGonagall just weren't enough.

"Hey, Harry," Lavender greeted him for breakfast the next day. She sat down next to him, joined by a grinning Parvati. Across from them were Ron and Hermione.

They had a little less than three weeks left for the ball and it was blatantly obvious just how excited Lavender – and, granted, everyone else as well – was getting.

"Hi." He couldn't stop himself from blushing or from staring at her with a bright smile. He definitely couldn't untangle that nervous knot building in his stomach whenever she was near. Even the sausage halfway towards his mouth was forgotten for a moment.

"So, do you know how to dance?" Lavender asked him. "I forgot to ask yesterday. I don't mind teaching you in case you need me to."

"That'd – that'd be great, actually," he admitted. "McGonagall's lessons aren't really helping if I'm being honest."

"Then, how about this: every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we'll have dancing lessons after dinner for an hour."

"Sure. Fine by me." Despite feeling a bit guilty about it, he hoped that neither of their friends would join them in these dancing lessons.

"Great!" Turning on her chair towards the table, Lavender began to fill her plate. "I can't have you stomping on my toes the whole time, can I?" She winked at him from the corner of her eyes with a grin, making him chuckle nervously.

"I'd rather not do that, yeah. I'd just feel terrible."

"Have you two found a date yet?" Parvati asked Ron and Hermione.

To Harry's surprise, Hermione blushed a brilliant red but didn't answer. Her shy, poorly hidden smile gave her away though.

"Oh, do tell, Hermione!" Lavender said eagerly. "Who's taking you?"

Hermione just shrugged and refused to answer, though she still had that tiny smile firmly etched onto her face.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Ron frowned and even sounded a bit hurt.

"You never asked," was Hermione's quick answer.

"Well, yeah, but – who is it?" Ron then demanded more than he asked.

"You'll see."

"Playing the mystery angle now?" Parvati giggled. "I like it."

"I bet it's one of our guests," Lavender guessed before pointing a finger at Hermione's increasing blush. "It is one of our guests!"

"But they're competing with us, Hermione!" Ron exclaimed incredulously. "Why would you go out with one of them? I would've gone with you if you'd asked me!"

"Here we go," Harry muttered tiredly and proceeded to tune out the following bickering and fighting between his two best friends.

As much of a curse as this whole tournament had proven itself to be, it has also come as a blessing in disguise. He glanced at Lavender from the corner of his eyes, her flowery scent lingering around her like an aura of sorts and intoxicating his senses. Maybe she was a Veela herself. The way she had sucked him into her orbit from the moment her name had come out of that goblet, it wasn't too far-fetched in his opinion.

And even now, with that comically disturbed expression she was sporting while watching Ron and Hermione go at each other like rabid animals, she was just stunningly beautiful.

He had it bad. He realized that he had it really bad, but Harry just couldn't bring himself to care.

When Hermione slammed her cutlery with unbridled fury onto the table, got up from her chair and left, quickly followed by Ron – though Harry couldn't say whether Ron followed Hermione or just had left for elsewhere – Lavender and Parvati turned to face him, both still appearing to be rather disturbed by Ron and Hermione's display in front of the entire school. Plus guests.

Parvati was the first to break their stunned silence. "I know those two bicker a lot, but that was something else."

Harry gave her a surprised look. "Don't you remember last year? The whole debacle because of Crookshanks and…Ron's rat?" It was awkward talking about Pettigrew in that sense after knowing everything.

"Ohhh, right." Parvati nodded. "Still, this was even worse."

"What happened to that rat anyway? Did Crookshanks really eat it?" Lavender asked.

Harry just shrugged, avoiding eye contact with them. "We don't know."

Still feeling their gazes on him, he was glad when the owls flew in, distracting the student body, including Lavender and Parvati. Saved from further questioning when an unfamiliar barn owl landed in front of him, he quickly went to work and untied a piece of parchment from its legs before offering it a piece of sausage.

Once it flew away, he unrolled it and had to smile at the by now familiar scrawl of his godfather.

Quickly rolling it up again and stowing it in one of his school robe's inside pockets, he resumed his breakfast.

"Who was it from?" Lavender asked, eyeing him with unhidden curiosity.

"Oh, just, uh...a friend I asked for advice." He fidgeted a bit. Lying to her was becoming more and more difficult.

"What kind of advice?"

He had to chuckle at that. "How to ask you out for the Yule Ball," he admitted openly, making her and Parvati giggle. "Turns out I didn't need the advice in the end."

"Wasn't half as scary as you might've thought, was it?" Parvati said, leaning past Lavender to wag her brows at him.

"It was a lot scarier than I imagined, to be honest. With Fay and Sophie there, it was even worse."

"Sorry, Harry," Fay said with a wink and a wave, a couple of chairs farther down to his left.

He just shrugged and grinned. In the end, he got what he wanted. It had been worth it. He got to go to the Yule Ball with Lavender bloody Brown, after all.