"I-I was tired…" Hermione said at last, not wanting to tell either of them that
she had been looking for Ron. "So I came up here for a little while. I was
going to go back right now, Victor." she added, looking uncertainly at Krum.
He nodded. "Awright Hermioniny. Come, we shall leave together now." he shot
Hermione a displeased look. "And what," Krum continued icily. "is he doing
here?'
Ron had recovered his breath and was now scowling at Krum.
"I happen to be her friend," Ron said, looking Krum straight in the eye. "I was
looking for her. Harry was worried where she had gone off to."
The last thing Ron wanted to tell his new archenemy was that he was the one who
had wanted to speak to Hermione alone. Hermione stared first at Ron and then
back at Krum.
"Weasley." said Ron through clenched teeth, determined not to lose his temper.
Even Ron could see that Krum was not only older than him, but was taller and
more muscular too. It would be a height of stupidity to challenge him, wand or
no wand.
"Ah, yes. Mr. Veesle-ee!" said Krum. His tone of voice seemed to dare Ron to
correct his pronunciation.
Ron said nothing.
Krum's eyes flashed at the younger boy before him and seemly to regard him like
a parasite.
"I so admire you looking for your 'friend' and leaving the ball and your date,
who is probably at the verge of tears by now." he drawled caustically. "Tell
me, is Hermioniny so important to you?"
Ron narrowed his eyes and then left the common room from the back door and made
his way back to the Great Hall, his head held high.
"Oh, Harry! It was awful!" sobbed Cho, as she finished
relating the incident in which Cedric had deserted her.
Harry was quite shocked. How could any one be crazy enough to leave such a nice
girl to dance with a Sytherin? It didn't make sense!
But Harry knew that there were two things he could do.
Either he could convince Cho to forgive Cedric and persuade her to give him a
second chance, or he could sympathize with her fully and finally get his wish,
to dance and spend time with her.
Harry had a crush on Cho, hated her date and did feel sorry for her. Why should
he persuade her to go back to her date? Did Cedric even care about the girl?
Harry was, after all, not some pious do-gooder.
Making up his mind, Harry patted Cho's hand clumsily and said gently: "Oh,
don't worry about it Cho… you're too good for Cedric anyway, he really doesn't
deserve you…"
Cho smiled in response. She wiped away her tears with her sleeve and gave a
little laugh. "No, Harry Potter! You're too good for me! I wish I had gone out
with you instead of Cedric!" she paused and sniffed and Harry held his breath.
"Hey! I don't want you to feel miserable for me! Cedric's a jerk but we
shouldn't let it spoil our evening! I'll go up to the common room and you go
find your date. I'm not that much in the mood of dancing anyway!"
Seeing how determined she was not to ruin his ball by her troubles, Harry liked
and admired Cho even more.
"Cho," Harry said nervously, standing before her. "I'd really like it if you
went back to the ball with me, you really haven't spoilt anything at all."
Cho looked at Harry for a second and saw nothing but sincerity in his
startlingly green eyes.
"But what about your date? I don't want to come between you two…" Cho replied
uncertainly.
"Listen, I'll tell you what," answered Harry, a thought swiftly occurring to
him. "I bet that my date hasn't even missed me and is dancing with… uhh… one of
the Weasley twins by now. If she isn't and is waiting for me, then you win and
you can leave. But, if she is… well, then I win and I get to dance with you!"
"Harry, you just made me an offer I can't refuse!" Cho said, linking an arm
through Harry's and then laughed as a scarlet blush spread over Harry's face.
*
Ginny was enjoying herself.
Not that it had anything to do with her date, Neville Longbottom. The boy was a
total klutz! Not only did he manage to step on her foot on the precise spot
that hurt the most in every dance, he also refused to dance anywhere that was
slightly away from the buffet table!
Still, the least Ginny could say about him was that he was sweet and had a good
sense of humor, even though he was lousy at cracking jokes.
Ginny spent most of the evening either trying to distract Neville from food or
calming him down whenever he saw Snape in his fifty mile radius. Also, her
brothers, the infamous Weasley twins, were usually about (Ginny felt suspicious
of that though. She had this horrible feeling in her gut that they were up to
something) but still, they kept her in good spirits by their usual antics.
But, by the start of the sixth song, Ginny felt a strange feeling. She felt as
if something was pushing her away from Neville as they danced! Neville
certainly didn't seem to notice anything amiss. He kept on dancing cheerfully,
but Ginny knew something was wrong. When they finished the dance and drew apart
to join in the usual applause after each song, Ginny felt as if the breath had
been knocked out of her!
Fred and George came up at that moment and looking at Neville and Ginny, snickered.
"Hey Neville!" Fred cried in mock horror. "What have you been eating? You look huge!"
Sure enough, Neville seemed to be twice the size he was before and it seemed that his stomach seemed to continue to grow!
"I knew it! Didn't I tell you, Neville, that something was wrong? I felt something pushing me! It was your stomach!" shrieked Ginny, her eyes as big as saucers as she stared at her date who was looking white as a sheet.
At this last piece of information, the twins started
guffawing and clutched at their stomachs as they doubled over laughing.
"it'ss nat phunnee!" Neville cried through his swollen checks. "Reversth it!
Reversth it!" he blubbered.
"It was the pudding, wasn't it!" cried a desperate Ginny as a crowd formed to watch. "Fred! George! You better do something or I swear I'll make you pay like never before! You wait till I…" Ginny began but was cut off my Fred saying: "Look people! Watch and learn how to make your friend beach balls! It's so easy!"
At that, George magically created a flashing sign that bobbed over Neville's head saying: 'You can even choose the colors of the beach balls! Try it! Just for 14.99 galleons! It's magic!"
Ginny almost exploded with anger! It was her first ball and her aggravating brothers were trying their level best to ruin it!
"QUIT IT YOU TWO!" she shrieked.
Seeing Ginny's red face and Snape coming towards them, the twins produced two
identical long pins and before Neville could even whimper again, thrust them
into him.
The crowd of onlookers gasped but soon saw that Neville
wasn't hurt at all, but was slowly deflating! The twins also seemed to have to
have disappeared as Snape came up to Ginny and Neville.
Snape stared at Neville, who was more or less back to his original dumpy
physique and scared the poor boy almost out of his wits by bestowing his worst
scowl on him.
"What's going on?" he barked.
"Nothing professor," replied Ginny meekly, even though she seriously wanted to
report the twins. "Just having a bit of fun…" she replied but immediately knew
she had said something wrong seeing Snape's expression grow grimmer.
Snape's eyes flashed angrily and he snarled: "Well, Miss Weasley, if you would
just step into my office afterwards, perhaps I can demonstrate what I
consider 'just having fun'! You Weasleys are all alike!" he proclaimed, quite
unfairly.
By now Neville was shaking all over and Ginny kindly said to him: "C'mon
Neville, don't worry about that big bully! Let's get a bite to eat."
Saying so, they made their way to the table, though Ginny was in pain because
of Neville had unconsciously clasped her hand tightly.
"I suppose he's still petrified.' thought Ginny good-humouredly and gave
a wry smile as she carefully extracted Neville's hand from her own. She picked
up a goblet of water to hand it to her date, but before either of them could do
anything, two faces peeped through the tablecloth and gave her a thumbs-up
before running away from the scene of the crime.
*
Ron came into the hall and noticed that Hermione and Krum
still had not arrived. It figured since the back door was closer to the Great
Hall than the main entrance. He glanced around the huge room and saw his date
still flirting with Malfoy. He rushed over to her and said: "Wanna dance?" and
before Padma could reply, he had yanked her to the dance floor and started
dancing.
At that precise moment the song ended (Ron cursed his luck) and Padma spat out:
"Ron Weasley! You had no right to do that! I was having fun! And no thanks to
you!"
"Sorry Padma! Let me make it up to you, okay?" replied
Ron, too drained to argue.
Hearing this seemed too much for Padma's wishy-washy character.
"Awright! Let's dance!" she chirped and didn't notice Ron rolling his eyes.
Just as Ron was getting ready for a fast song, the Weird
Sisters started playing a slow and romantic ballad.
'Shit! I hate you weirdoes!' Ron thought and shot the group, which
playing on the elevated platform in the center of the room, a dirty look. Ron
cursed under his breath as Padma giggled in delight. The song seemed to be her
favorite.
"Shall we?" she said brightly.
"Sure!" Ron said but thought instead: 'Do I have a choice?' and sighed.
It was then that he noticed Harry was dancing with Cho
Chang not far off. Ron grinned when he saw the contented expression on Harry's
face. He obviously had gotten what he wanted! Other couples were also swaying
to the peaceful music and almost everyone had their head on their partner's
shoulder.
Ron hoped Padma wouldn't get any ideas.
As they drifted between the crowd, Ron actually started to relax. The calm
melody and Padma's quietness was having its due effect. Ron actually started
enjoying himself.
Then when he spotted Krum and Hermione through the thinning crowd and saw Krum bending over her and whispering something into her ear, it seemed as if somebody had thrown a bucket of cold water over his head. He jerked awake from his trance and gritted his teeth.
*
Hermione now found herself dancing with Krum again.
She sighed.
'If only Ron was here instead…' she wished but then hit by how bizarre
her thought was, she comforted her inner self by thinking: 'As a friend I
mean!'
But then, she told herself practically, Harry was also her friend… but did she
want to dance with Harry? No!
'I think I've been reading too many romance novels!' she thought and
smiled.
At that moment Krum looked at her dreamy expression and thought it was because of him. Like most people, he was pleased that somebody was enjoying his company. He didn't even seem to notice the searching looks Hermione gave the other couples, hoping to see Ron's familiar face.
'Maybe I should make this poor girl's dream come true!'
thought Krum as they danced on.
He put his arm around Hermione and pulled her even closer
to him.
Hermione looked at his arm and blinked.
'What the!' she thought worriedly. She didn't know much about couple
dancing, but she knew one thing: she definitely did not like being held so
close to him.
Hermione struggled against his hold but he evidently didn't notice her disgust
as he gripped her more strongly.
"Victor, I…" she began but was cut off as he leaned over, his breath tickling
her ear, and whispered hoarsely: "Relax, Hermioniny… I do not bite."
Hermione felt as if she was doing some thing horrible.
*
"I'll show her! It's not as if I can't live without
her!' thought Ron, anger blazing inside him as he saw Krum flirting with
Hermione so blatantly.
Determined to show Hermione that he didn't care what she did and with whom, Ron
also pulled Padma closer and said: 'Padma?"
The girl looked into Ron's eyes and whispered:" Yes?"
Ron swallowed.
'This is hard work!' the boy thought desperately.
"Have I ever told you how beautiful your… uhh…" Ron racked his brain. "Your,
your…"
He was stuck! "Say something you oaf!' he scolded himself.
"Yes?…" Padma encouraged him.
Ron took a deep breath.
"Have I ever told you how beautiful your nostrils are?" he blurted out, saying
the first thing that came to his mind.
Padma underwent a sudden change. Her beaming face now turned a nasty shade of
purple.
"No, Ronald Weasley! You've never told me that my nostrils are attractive and I
would've appreciated it if you never had!" she snapped. "Some romantic nothing
that was!"
Ron turned red and mumbled an apology.
'Nostrils? Now, where'd that come from? But one thing's for sure,' Ron
thought miserably, noticing that Padma no longer looked at him as they danced.
'this certainly wasn't supposed to happen! And Hermione didn't even see us!'
Ron cursed his luck.
He noticed that he seemed to be doing that quite often lately.
**
Sorry for lengthening the dance so much! I just wanted to tell everybody's thoughts in detail! Sorry! I promise the dance ends now! Honest! I'll do it in the next chapter! Please review this now… I don't mind criticism or flames but I do hate 'em! ^_^ No really, I need to know how this chapter was. I seriously have my doubts about it…