Disclaimer: I only own Hex, Maeve, Peter, Norman, Robert, Peggy, Bridget, Samira, DJ Druid, and the unseen Kitty Haywood. I guess I also own the Eye of Muldawr, but since it doesn't exist I'm not making any money off of it; and the Chilling Charm. JK Rowling owns Hogwarts and the rest of its inhabitants. The Hex Holmstrom Karaoke Hour was inspired by Heath Ledger's song number in the teen movie 10 Things I Hate About You. (I was supposed to use the same song, too, but changed my mind.) The song "Little Child" belongs to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and "Pretty Woman" to Roy Orbison. Tarzan belongs to Edgar Rice Burroughs. The "Big Brother is watching" comment also does not belong to me, but I have no idea who owns it so I can't credit anyone — anyway, the point is it's not mine. Finally, the "underwear in a festival" comment in Chapter 10 was taken from the Nickelodeon show All That. I forgot to mention it, but was too lazy to re-post the entire chapter. On with the show!

The Hex Holmstrom Karaoke Hour

You're here for a reason.

Hex went through the next few days with Hagrid's words throbbing in his brain. He knew there had to be something behind his acceptance into Hogwarts. The question was, what was it?

"What was it?" Hermione asked, her voice dragging him back down to earth.

"What?" he asked, snapping back to attention.

"The symbol of the agreement between the humans and the house-elves, what was it?" With his equivalency exams coming up, he and Hermione agreed to resume their tutorial sessions in the library. That afternoon, she was quizzing him on what he might need for the History of Magic exam.

"Uh…a…golden broomstick?"

"Close, but not quite. It was a golden broomstick set with the Eye of Muldawr, a ruby from the last elf jewel mine."

"Right."

She closed the massive textbook and looked at him quizzically. "Are you all right?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Just…thinking, I guess."

"Daydreaming, more like," Ron teased. These days, when the Gryffindor team wasn't practicing for its upcoming match against Slytherin, he hung around with them in the library with the stated intention of making sure Hex was doing his work properly. Hermione scolded him for creating a distraction — but whether he was distracting her or Hex, she refused to say. "About who you want to take to the ball?"

"Uh…" Hex figured it was better to agree than to ask about the significance of real names in the magical world. The night before, he had dreamt that he was standing in the mist, while voices asked him to tell them his name. He refused, remembering Hagrid's warning, and the voices asked him again while the mists began to wrap around him like a mummy's bandages. The more he refused, the tighter his bonds became. He had jolted awake at two in the morning, in a cold sweat and short of breath. "Yeah. That's right."

"Anyone asked you yet?" Ginny, who was sitting with them, asked with a smile.

"No, not yet." He grinned. "I guess girls are still trying to figure out if I'm escort material or not."

"Well, I wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen with you."

"Uh…thanks, Ginny," Hex said, blushing under Ron's big brother glare. "When I ask someone, I'll make sure to mention that. Have you got a date already?"

"Don't you go asking her, now," Ron said. "She's holding out for—"

Presently, Harry walked up to the table in a breathless rush. His cheeks were pink, and he was grinning. "I did it!" he announced in a voice still soft enough to pass muster with Madam Pince. "I'm taking Cho to the ball!"

There was the slightest pause before Ron and Hermione smiled and congratulated him. "Good for you, dude," Hex said.

Ginny, on the other hand, had turned a mottled pink. "Um, that's great, Harry," she piped, rising abruptly and gathered her things together. "Well, if you'll excuse me…I–I have to go. Colin has my Transfiguration notes."

Hermione watched the redheaded girl leave with a concerned look on her face. "Is she OK?" Hex asked while Harry took Ginny's seat and recounted his encounter with Cho for Ron.

She nodded slowly. "She'll be all right. I suppose she was hoping Harry would…"

"Oh."

The thought of the Christmas Dance and his upcoming exams helped to push disturbing thoughts about his name and the Lestranges to the back burner of Hex's mind. Ulric the Oddball and Wendelin the Weird were cavorting through his thoughts when he finally returned to the Hufflepuff dormitory after a late dinner. After giving the password ("Macarena"), the suit of armor jumped aside to admit Hex into the common room.

Quite a few people were still up. Girls were chatting in one corner about what they were going to wear to the dance (assuming someone asked them), and a group of boys sat across the room, watching a chess game when they weren't sneaking looks at the girls. Peggy, Samira and Robert were huddled around a diagram of the quidditch pitch, discussing strategies for the next match against Gryffindor. Susan and some other fifth years were toasting their toes by the fire.

"Look at this, Hex," Peggy said, holding up the diagram. "I think we've found a way to get around the Weasley twins."

"Uh, can we do that some other time, Peg?" he asked, massaging the back of his neck. "I'm up to my eyeballs in goblin rebellions and I'm still trying to digest it all."

"Oh, of course. Maybe we should wait until after your exams to discuss strategy."

"No, that's OK. Let's look it over during breakfast tomorrow, how about that?"

Peggy smiled and nodded. "All right. In the meantime, you should get some sleep."

"Yeah, I'm on my way up right now."

"Susan?"

Everyone turned to see Peter come down from the boys' dormitories, where he had holed up since after dinner. He had a resolute look on his normally placid face.

The girls around her giggled, but Susan looked gravely at him. "Yes, Peter?"

"I…" His face flamed as he realized all of Hufflepuff House was watching him. "I was wondering if you would like to go to the ball with me," he blurted out.

Susan smiled at the big boy. "I'd love to, Peter Brandegoris."

He relaxed as the entire room burst into applause. "Thank you."

"All right, Pete!" Hex said as he came abreast of his friend. "Congratulations!"

Peter grinned, more relaxed now that the deed was done. "Can you believe that?" he asked as some of the Hufflepuffs patted his back on their way to their dormitories. "She said yes."

"If she had said no," Maeve said as she caught up with them, "I would have held her up by the ankles and shaken some sense into her."

"She's half a foot taller than you, Maeve. If you'd held her up by the ankles, her head would have dragged on the floor."

"It's the thought that counts," she replied, shrugging good-naturedly. "Are you on your way up?" she asked Hex.

"Uh, yeah," he said. "I'm not feeling too well after that History review."

"Oh. Well, I hope you'll feel better in the morning."

"You're not going to be able to take her to the ball if you don't talk to her, you know," Peter joked as Maeve skipped up the stairs. "And I know that she's waiting for you to ask her."

Hex blushed, his History-induced headache disappearing. "She is?"

"A slew of fellows asked her at dinner — Malfoy included. She said no to all of them."

"Barf-boy asked her again? She refused him the day before!"

"And the day before that. But tonight he brought her flowers."

"I hope she laughed in his face."

"She did hide her face in those flowers for a long time." Peter smiled patiently as Hex snickered. "I'm glad you find it funny, but tomorrow Malfoy could bring her sweets, and after that, a diamond necklace or something. How do you expect to compete with that?"

The other boy's face took on a look of steely determination as the gears in his previously overloaded brain began to turn again. "I'll think of something."

Sure enough, the next morning at breakfast, Malfoy strutted over to the Hufflepuff table with a fancy wrapped box. Maeve rolled her eyes to the sky as Susan and Hannah giggled beside her. Scenting danger, Peter got Hex's attention by throwing a piece of orange peel over to where the other boy was sitting, making last-minute repairs to Dean Thomas' electric guitar and listening to Peggy's plans to counter the Weasley twins.

Following his friend's urgently rolling eyes, Hex dropped his screwdriver and pulled out his wand. "Hey, Peg, hold that thought, will you? There's something I need to do."

Instead of scolding him for his lack of attention, she and Robert grinned. "Go for it, Hex."

Taking a deep breath, Hex tapped his throat with his wand. "Sonorus."

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Hex Holmstrom Karaoke Hour!" he announced in his magically magnified voice. Throughout the Great Hall, students jumped, startled, and craned their necks to see where the noise was coming from.

Seeing that he had an audience, Hex jumped up onto the bench and bowed low to the crowd, who laughed and applauded. "For my first number, I'd like to do a golden oldie by a band I'm pretty sure even you pure-bloods know. It's a nice song, one your parents probably remember. And this goes out to a really special gal…Maeve Moondaughter, this is for you."

There was more applause as a pink-cheeked Maeve turned from Malfoy to the blond lunatic grinning down at her. The pale Slytherin frowned, tried unsuccessfully to regain Maeve's attention, then glared at Hex as he burst into song.

Little child, little child

Little child, won't you dance with me?

I'm so sad and lonely

Baby, take a chance with me…

His audience laughed and began pounding on the tables as Hex jumped off his bench and did a few hokey sixties-style dance moves on his way toward Maeve.

If you want someone to make you feel so fine

Then we'll have some fun when you're mine, all mine

So come on, come on, come on…

Most of the Great Hall was whooping and clapping as Hex slid to his knees in front of Maeve. "Maeve Moondaughter, will you give me the honor of taking you to the Christmas Dance?"

She giggled and, her face shining with merriment, nodded.

"Thank you. I'll pick you up at seven-thirty."

There was more laughter and applause. "Quietus," Maeve said, tapping his throat with her wand just as Professor McGonagall strode into the vast chamber, demanding an explanation for all the noise.

"I heard your voice, Holmstrom," she said in her most severe voice. "What have you done this time?"

"Uh, Professor," he stammered, "I was just…we were just…"

Pretty woman, walking down the street

Pretty woman, the kind I'd like to meet

Pretty woman…

Professor McGonagall took her eyes off him and blushed as Justin broke into the Roy Orbison tune. Other students soon joined in, hamming it up with imaginary microphones, pointing at the teacher, and comically mimicking Orbison's trademark growl. "All right, that's enough…" she said, waving her hands around as if fanning away a zillion singing flies. "Get on with your breakfasts…it's nearly time for class…"

But her cheeks were pink and her eyes were shining when she left the Great Hall right after that.

The last day of classes before the start of the Christmas break hummed with excitement over the upcoming dance. People were talking about what they were going to wear (Lavender), whom they were going with (Parvati), or what they hoped would be on the menu (Ron). Rumor had it that Dumbledore booked DJ Druid, fresh from a successful tour of wizarding clubs throughout Europe, to provide the music.

"I think I need to go to the bathroom again," Peter told Hex as they stood in the Hufflepuff common room, waiting for their partners to come down from the girls' dormitory. He tugged nervously at the collar of his russet-colored dress robes.

"Will you just chill?" Hex told him. "It's only a dance."

"Easy for you to say — you're probably used to this sort of thing."

"Then believe me when I tell you that there is nothing to be nervous about. It's not like we're getting married."

Presently, Professor Sprout entered the common room, dressed for once in clean dress robes the deep violet of a Shivering Shummelflub. "My, don't you boys look nice!" she said happily. "You'll all be on your best behavior tonight, won't you?" She beamed, pleased, as they nodded. "Wonderful! Now, I must be on my way, I need to help with the last-minute preparations; I'll see you in the Great Hall!"

"Bye, Professor Sprout," Hex said as their Head of House left. He turned from the common room entranceway in time to see Susan and Maeve descending the stairs from their dormitory. He gulped.

"Wow," Peter blurted out.

Susan, with her hair in an elaborate cascade and dressed in robes of silvery lavender, gave him a smile that could have come from Parvati Patil. "Shall we go?" Peter nodded numbly and she took the arm he offered, smiling at Hex and Maeve. "We'll see you downstairs."

"See you," Maeve replied as the pair left the room. "She looks pretty tonight, doesn't she?"

"You look pretty, too," Hex managed to say. Instead of her black school robes, Maeve was wearing dress robes of crimson silk. She had done her hair in a tiny braid on either side of her face, leaving the rest to flow loose. "I—uh, I got this for you."

Last weekend he ordered a corsage in Hereford, and Maggie had sent it by owl that afternoon. "When Muggles have dances, the guys always get the girls flowers. I, uh, put a Chilling Charm on them, so they wouldn't wilt…guess I overdid it a bit."

Maeve smiled at the frosted red rosebuds that Hex tied around her wrist. "They're lovely. Thank you."

"So…shall we?"

Students were just starting to fill the Great Hall when Hex and Maeve arrived. "The decorations are lovely," Maeve said. A hundred Christmas trees and tall ice sculptures glittered around the room. Overhead, the enchanted ceiling depicted a velvety black sky and non-melting snowflakes hung in mid-air alongside tall white candles that bathed everything in a warm, golden glow.

Hex grinned down at her. "You're prettier than everything put together."

They bumped into Ron and Hermione just inside the Great Hall. "Hi, Hex, Maeve," Ron, for once looking halfway decent in brand-new silvery-gray dress robes, greeted them.

"Hey, dude," Hex replied, then winked playfully at Hermione. "Looking good, Herm."

"Don't call me Herm," she said, but flushed with pleasure at the compliment anyway.

Just then, the Weasley twins walked by sniggering. "I'd avoid the cherry-berry punch if I were you," George whispered before moving away to join a group of their friends at a nearby table.

Hex chuckled. "Guess we're warned. Where's Harry?"

"Outside, waiting for Cho," Ron answered. He grinned shakily. "You should see him, all pale and nervous, like a—"

"Stop teasing him, Ron," Hermione ordered. "Harry's nervous because he really, really likes her."

"That must explain why you look like you're about to fall apart yourself, Red," Hex teased.

"Why aren't you nervous?" Ron retorted as both he and Hermione blushed.

Maeve smiled. "Believe me, he's nervous."

The boys were chuckling (nervously) when Harry showed up, looking like he'd won the lottery. "Hello, everyone," he said cheerfully, then gestured to the girl in pale blue beside him. "This is Cho Chang. Cho, this is Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Hex Holmstrom, and Maeve Moondaughter."

"Hi," Cho said softly.

"Hello, Cho," Maeve said, smiling. Hex supposed she got the whole social graces thing from growing up in Malfoy Manor. They probably dressed for dinner and everything there. "It's nice to finally be introduced."

"You look very nice," Hermione piped up.

"Thank you." Cho smiled — rather sadly, it must be admitted. "So do you."

Harry shot the girls a grateful look. "Let's go find some seats, shall we?"

"You guys go ahead," Hex told them. "Maeve and I are sitting with Pete and the others. Hey, Ron, will you tell Harry about the punch or shall I?"

"What's this—"

"Hello!" Just then, Ginny joined the group, a determined smile on her face.

"Hey," Hex greeted her. "Looking good, Ginny."

The younger girl blushed, looking down at her sunny yellow robes. "Thank you."

"Did you come by yourself?" Harry asked.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. "What a thing to—"

"Hi! All right, everyone?" squeaked Colin Creevey, a shrimpy fourth year Gryffindor, coming up beside Ginny. "Sorry I had to disappear like that, Ginny. My shoelace came undone."

"That's alright," she told him, smiling.

"All right there, Harry?" Colin asked, looking adoringly at the other boy.

Harry's jaw dropped.

A similar look was on Hannah Abbott's face when she saw her sister enter the Great Hall on Robert's arm. "Oooh!" Susan giggled. "They make a cute couple!"

"Peggy doesn't go to things like this!" the blonde girl sputtered.

"She does now," Hex said, waving to his quidditch teammates.

"She looks very nice tonight," Maeve observed. Quite a few boys were looking at Peggy, although she had neither Hannah's blonde prettiness nor her showy figure.

"Better than Millicent Bulstrode, that's for sure," Bridget, who was there with Justin, said as the Slytherin girl walked by with Crabbe and Goyle, all three of them in dress robes of drab green. "She had the cheek to make fun of Kitty Haywood's looks the other day, when she herself looks like — I don't know, one of Malfoy's goons."

"She may look like King Kong," Hex joked, "but she's the only girl here with two dates."

"The pair of them together can't compare with a Hufflepuff man," Justin declared.

"Hear, hear," Ernie agreed, grinning and toasting his friend with a cup of cherry-berry punch. After taking a drink, he turned a vivid purple.

Hex laughed. "Oh, man, I forgot to tell you guys to stay away from the punch!"

"Maeve told us," Susan told him, smiling, "but Ernie was too busy reading the menu."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," Peter said. "The Weasley twins' tricks usually wear off after a while."

"Usually," Hex emphasized with a grin.

After a sumptuous dinner, wherein the students ordered their food from the elegantly printed menus lying beside their plates, everyone rose. By waving his wand, Dumbledore moved the tables and benches aside, creating a large dance floor in the middle of the Great Hall. The candlelight dimmed and a dark-skinned wizard with a black goatee and showy purple robes began to spin records on a massive and — Hex supposed — magically powered sound system set up in one corner.

As DJ Druid played some golden oldies, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall opened the dancing with a sedate waltz. The students applauded politely as the number ended and unseen spotlights began to sweep the room with bright splashes of red, purple and blue. They whooped and hollered their approval as a faster song came on, but no one wanted to start the real dancing.

"They're wasting the music," Justin complained.

"So why don't you start the dancing?" Hex asked.

"Why don't you?"

"Look, someone's out on the dance floor already," Susan said. The Gryffindors cheered as Fred Weasley whirled Angelina Johnson around.

Justin chuckled as he watched the pair flail about on the dance floor. "Is that dancing or a seizure?"

"And I suppose you can do better?" Bridget challenged him.

"In my sleep."

"Prove it!"

"All right, then — come on."

"Wait!" Bridget pulled her hand free. "I'm not going out there!"

"Well, I've got to have someone to dance with, don't I?"

"Let's all go," Hannah said firmly, dragging Bridget to the dance floor with one hand and Ernie with the other.

"We'll all dance together?" Susan asked, bringing up the rear (Ernie had grabbed her sleeve in a desperate bid for freedom). "Can a person dance with more than one partner at a time?"

"If they can't, then it's my turn to incite the Hufflepuffs to rebellion!"

Maeve looked at Hex, giggled, and scurried off to join the rest of the girls on the dance floor. Peter came up beside his friend as they watched Justin start dancing. "He's actually rather good."

"Uh-huh."

"Do we have to go out there, Hex?"

"If you want a good-night kiss."

Peter was silent for a moment. "I can't dance," he finally admitted in a low voice.

"Neither can I."

"Ernie and Robert don't look like they're very good, either."

"They're dying out there." Hex chuckled. "C'mon, Pete, why don't we go look stupid together?"

The Hufflepuffs all formed one big circle on the dance floor and, once Justin had showed them a few basic moves, actually had some fun. Samira turned out to be a fairly good dancer herself, and Robert finally decided to just clown around instead of trying to do proper steps. Suddenly, Maeve whirled out into the middle of their circle, dark hair flying, a siren's smile on her face as she moved sinuously toward Hex.

"Maeve! Stop this vulgar behavior at once!" Glaring at her from outside the circle, surrounded by a gang of sneering Slytherins, was Malfoy. Maeve shot him a flippant look before turning her back on him. "At once, I said! Or I'm telling Father!"

"Sod off, Barf-boy," Justin said. "Don't go ruining her night just because you can't dance."

"He can so dance!" Pansy Parkinson retorted shrilly.

"Then go dance, preferably someplace else," Hex told her. "And give those two lessons — they're making me puke." He shot a wry glance at Crabbe and Goyle, who were jumping around behind Malfoy like a pair of hyperactive yaks.

Malfoy gave the sniggering Hufflepuffs one last glare before stalking away, with Pansy dragging Crabbe and Goyle in his wake. Hex watched them go, then turned back to find Maeve now standing in front of him, holding out a small hand.

"You are not dancing," she told him.

"Uh, I was just…warming up!" He chuckled weakly as she dragged him to the middle of their laughing circle, shooting a pleading glance at Peter, who was happily twirling Susan around.

Caught up in trying to look like he knew what he was doing, Hex didn't realize the Gryffindors had infiltrated the Hufflepuff circle until he saw Justin ricochet off a slam dance with George Weasley. Angelina was trying to get a furiously blushing Ginny to join them and Hermione was similarly tugging on Ron's arm and giggling. "If you don't want to dance with me, fine," she huffed playfully. "I'll dance with Hex."

"Oh, no, you won't," Ron said, finally allowing Hermione to drag him into the fray.

By now, Maeve had joined Angelina in the fight to convince Ginny to dance. "You won't look ridiculous," she was telling Ginny when Hex came up behind her. "Samira can teach you some steps."

"I don't have a partner," the younger girl replied. Apparently, her brothers had scared Colin away.

"We'll all be out there with you. It'll be loads of fun."

"And it's the perfect chance to show Harry you're having a great time without him!" Angelina said.

Ginny went scarlet and looked over at where Harry and Cho were sitting and watching the dancers. Every so often, Harry would glance over at Cho and smile at her, which she would return before turning back to the dance floor with a sad, faraway look on her pretty face. "She's still not over Cedric, is she?" she observed. "Poor Harry."

"It's tough being the rebound guy," Hex said, grabbing Ginny's hand. "But it's tougher still to just wait around and let all the fun pass you by. Come on, Ginny, dance with us."

The younger girl raised her chin. "You know what? You're right. I'm not going to wait for Harry anymore. Let's dance!"

"That's the spirit!" Angelina said, applauding.

"You go, girl!" Maeve cheered.

"Right on!" Hermione called out from where she was wrestling Ron into some semblance of a dance.

"Help," Hex croaked as Ginny dragged him away.

"I think you've created a monster," Fred told the girls some time later. Ever since their little pep talk, Ginny had not sat down, dancing every dance even as everyone paired off to dance to the slower songs. Only a few young couples were out on the floor, Ginny and her partner of the moment included, the rest preferring to sit around and watch.

"Nonsense," Maeve said blithely.

"We've just allowed her to discover her inner power, that's all," Angelina said in a firm voice.

"She has been dangling after Harry for ever so long," Katie Bell, George's date, said. "It's about time she stopped waiting and had some fun."

Presently, the monster stepped off the dance floor, fanning her flushed face. "All right, everyone?"

"Someone looks like she's having a good time," Hex observed with a grin.

Ginny smiled. "I am! This dance is ever so much better than the Yule Ball last year."

"I'll say," Ron and Hermione agreed in unison as they danced nearby, then looked at each other and blushed.

"Where's your partner?" Fred asked his sister.

"I expect all the glaring you've been doing has finally run him off," Angelina told him. Besides the fact that boys were lining up to ask her to dance, another reason why Ginny had so many partners was that her brothers were scaring them off with a precise combination of broad hints and subtle threats.

"Actually, Malcolm went to get some drinks," Ginny corrected.

"I hope he didn't get overheated because he was dancing too close," George said in a warning tone.

"He was not. If he was, then maybe Ron needs to get some drinks, too."

Hex tuned out the sounds of the Weasleys ribbing each other to watch the dancers. They weren't really dancing, just holding each other and swaying. It looked easy enough. He turned to Maeve, who was smiling and watching couples spin by. "Maeve?"

She turned her smile to him. "Hmm?"

"D'you want to dance?"

"I'd love to."

The Hufflepuffs cheered as Hex rose and Maeve gracefully took the hand he offered. She playfully blew kisses to their audience before they took to the floor.

"This is nice," she said as they danced.

He smiled down at her. "It sure is."

They swept past Harry and Cho, who were still seated and watching the dance floor. "Harry hasn't danced all night," Maeve observed, giving the Gryffindor boy a wave.

Hex arched an eyebrow. "What's it to you?"

"Nothing—oh!" All of a sudden, she lurched and lost her balance. "Oh, my!"

"What happened? What's wrong?" He held her arms steady, but she wasn't getting up. "I didn't step on your foot or something, did I?"

"No," she reassured him breathlessly. "I–I think I have a cramp."

"Maybe you should sit down for a while."

"No, it will go away soon."

"I don't want Madam Pomfrey to see me dragging you around and think I'm forcing you to dance."

"But it's such a nice song," Maeve said wistfully as Hex guided her back to their bench.

"We'll dance to it some other time, OK? In the meantime, sit down."

"What about you?"

"I'll live."

"You shouldn't waste the music," she said as she sat down next to Ginny, whose partner never did turn up. "Why don't you dance with Ginny?"

"What?" he asked in disbelief as Fred and George jerked to attention.

"Just to finish out the song, at least. And make sure you dance in front of Harry." She smiled at the Weasley twins, who subsided with identical grins, and at Ginny, who blushed.

Hex narrowed his eyes at her. "You don't really have a cramp, do you?"

"No," Maeve admitted with a giggle.

He shook his head and gave a long-suffering sigh. Maeve had him wrapped around her little finger and he had no idea how he got there. And he wasn't sure if it was a bad thing at all. "All right. D'you want to dance, Ginny?"

Ginny shot Maeve a nervous, grateful look, smiled shyly at Hex, and nodded. "I'd love to."

"I have no idea how I got roped into this," Hex murmured as they took the floor to catcalls and enthusiastic applause from Fred and George.

"You did it because Maeve asked you to," Ginny said, grinning. "It's hard to believe she grew up with the Malfoys. They're not very nice."

"Well, Tarzan was raised by apes and that doesn't make him an ape."

Ginny giggled. She sounded a lot like Maeve. "Are you saying that the Malfoys are apes?"

"May I cut in?" It was Harry.

"Hey, Harry," Hex said, while his partner went cold. "Where's Cho?"

"Oh, she went on up to her dormitory already," the other boy explained. If anything, he looked relieved. They probably didn't do anything except talk about Cedric Diggory all night. "She has a long trip home tomorrow. Is it all right if I dance with Ginny, then?"

Hex supposed this was what Maeve was hoping for when she faked that cramp. Maybe she'd like it if he made Harry squirm a bit. "Yeah, I guess so—if it's OK with Ginny. OK if Harry dances with you, Ginny?" he asked her.

Scarlet and tongue-tied as she always was in Harry's presence, Ginny nodded.

"OK then." Hex winked at her as he gave her over to the other boy. "Have fun—but not too much fun. Big Brother is watching." He cocked his head toward the three redheaded boys who had materialized in the immediate vicinity with their partners.

"You mean all three big brothers are watching," Harry said, finally smiling.

"Right. See you two around." Hex gave Maeve a thumbs-up as he returned to their bench but maintained a stern tone when he spoke to her. "Man, you owe me."

"Ginny looks so happy," she said as he sat down.

"She looks like she's about to have a heart attack."

"Nonsense." Maeve laughed as Ginny grinned crazily over Harry's shoulder. "See? She's happy."

"What about you?"

She smiled, warming Hex to his toes. "I'm very happy, too."

Concluding Remarks: Whoopee! I'm back! I hope everyone was waiting with bated breath the way they said they would ;-) Thank you for your patience. The rest of this story is definitely coming. In the meantime, please read and review! ~ Ara Kane