Chapter 21

The Dance

"So," Heather said as she spooned a bit of the potion into a cup. "Who's the lucky boy? Wait, don't tell me. He has gorgeous eyes, the cutest behind to ever grace the planet, he's about three inches taller then you, he's caring, loving, and when he talks, you want to die listening."

Ginny looked up surprised. "How did you know?"

"A, I've seen the way you look at him. And B, I was there once too, Rose, I still am."

"It's Sirius, isn't it?"

Heather's cheeks tinged a slight pink. 'Not fair, she even blushes pretty. Why couldn't I be that beautiful?'

"Well, yes, it was, and is."

"Did you like him all through school?"

Heather pulled a soft bristled paint brush out and walked over to Ginny. "Me, and the rest of the world."

"Understandable, he's sexy as hell."

"Ginny!"

"Well it's true. I'm not blind to see anybody but Harry."

"Yes, well, he's four years older then me, I don't know why I bother. Hold out your arm please."

Ginny watched as Heather stroked the potion onto her arm, where it sank in and her skin turned green. It didn't look painted, it looked like her skin was really green. "This will come off, right?"

"In six hours."

"It's not hopeless, Heather. You're beautiful, friendly, and completely his type. And he always does that protective thing over you. It's cute."

"I'm just worried that the only reason he notices me is because he's been locked away or in hiding for fourteen years."

Ginny shook her head as she gave Heather the other arm. "No, not Sirius. He's way too nice for that. He wouldn't take advantage of you for the world. But it also means if he's fighting it, then he won't approach you, it will have to be the other way around."

Heather stopped to think on that for a moment. "Maybe you're right. Rose, you have way too much insight for a thirteen year-old child."

"How about a fourteen year-old girl?"

"Don't try to be something you're not. He'll love you if he loves you, weather you are one year younger, or ten years older, related to his best friend, or to a monkey."

"I am related to a monkey. Six of them."

Heather laughed, a bright sound that lifted Ginny's heart. "Come on now, let's get this on you so you can put your dress on and I can do your hair."

Harry made his way to the Chamber entrance. He felt that he should be one of the first down there, so if anybody needed out, he would be able to let them. He stole a glance at himself in a mirror.

Over all, his costume turned out very nice. He wore the sword, but he had put a small charm on it. Now, it appeared to read the name Godric Gryfindor once more, and only read Harry Potter when one looked closely.

The gold around his collar made his eyes stand out nicely, and he replaced his snake earring with a lion. His glasses were invisible, a feat he was rather proud of. They didn't teach that spell until fifth year.

Under his right eye was a light scar, a relic Godric wore from a fight with Salazar. His (now straight) bangs hid his real scar very nicely.

"Going down, you vain peacock?"

"Why is it you have an animal reference for everything?"

"It happensss when you are one," Sally replied icily.

Harry turned from the mirror to face her. "How do I look?"

"Well, there'sss no missstaking you for anybody but Godric, but you ssstill look like Harry to me, and I think that'sss becaussse you naturally look ssso much like Godric."

Harry grinned at her. "And don't grin like that, becaussse it givesss you away completely."

"Open." The sink slid back into the wall. "Are you staying here to let the students down?"

"Yesss, thanksss to Heather."

"Have fun." He jumped into the pipe.

Hermione smoothed her dress down, and took a deep breath. Then she entered the girls-bath-that-was-no-longer-a-bath. She grinned when she saw Sally sitting at the sink.

"Hello, Sally. Did Heather rope you into this?"

The snake nodded, then looked up and down at Hermione's costume. She hissed what Hermione hoped was approval, and then hissed once more to open the sink. Hermione knew that the costume didn't fool Sally, despite the fact that she didn't look like herself at all.

She wore a deep blue dress that made it very easy to remember that she was, in fact, a girl. Her hair had been changed to a very light blond and pulled straight and curled to frame her face. Her eyes were a light blue and her lashes long, dark, and curled. There was glitter on her pale cheeks, and her lips held a very light shade of pink. What made the outfit, however, was the gold set of wings on her back, and the gold circle that floated above her head.

The entire thing she had done herself, right down to the charm that made her float more then walk. All the charms she had used flashed through her head as she slid down the pipe.

Ron walked grinning into the girls bathroom. Sally at the sink suddenly started to make a lot of noise, and Ron assumed she could only be laughing.

"I look that good do I?"

She hissed at him, and Ron didn't need to be a Parselmouth to know it was something along the lines of 'Harry's going to kill you.'

"He is going to be pretty mad, isn't he? Oh well, he'll get over it. All I really did was take some of his things without asking. It took me a week to get the hair dying charm and eye color spell right."

Sally chucked to herself, Harry would be so mad, she wished she could be there when he saw. "Open," she hissed for the millionth time.

"Thanks!" Ron jumped in the pipe, enjoying his ride down.

Harry emerged from the pipe into a place he hardly recognized. Heather, dressed as Sandy the Sassy, walked up to him. "Nice costume," Harry commented with a grin. Sirius walked up behind her, dressed as Sandy's lover, Paul the Protector. Harry hadn't realized how much Paul really looked like Sirius, he had done nothing but brush his hair out and change his eye color.

"We thought it was a good choice." Sirius said, and Harry noted that his voice was slightly different, but his eyes, though a different color, still had that dull look Azkaban had given them, with a mischievous glint over top. 'Even twelve years in hell couldn't knock that glint out of his eyes.'

"Am I the first here?"

"Beside a lot of the staff, yes. Did you know even ghosts can't get down here without passing though the pipe? And we tried to use the Veedeeo spell on Sally saying open, and it doesn't work. There's ancient magic crawling all over this place, there's no way we have the Christmas dance down here."

"What ever you say. I do believe I can go get the other doors in here to stand open for you."

"Would you? Professor McGonagall just happened to be on the other side of one when it started to shut. It's a good thing she's as quick as a cat."

Harry chuckled to himself as he headed down the chamber to open it up.

When Hermione reached the bottom, there was already a very large number of students present, and music filled the chamber. She smiled mentally when a number of the boys stopped and turned to look at her.

She spotted Heather and Sirius, and headed -or rather floated- over to them.

"My, my," Sirius said, looking her up and down. "Did it hurt?"

"Did what hurt?" Hermione asked with a very slight pink tinge touching the glitter on her cheeks.

"Did it hurt when you fell from Heaven?"

Hermione turned a brighter shade of pink, and looked at Heather, trying very hard to ignore Sirius. "Who's your charming date?"

"You can call him Paul." She nodded, a smile hinted in her eyes. "Very nice work on the charms, by the way."

"Thank you. Have you seen any other members of the Dream Team?"

"Harry's having a conversation with the doors, trying to get them to stay open. They seem to have a real attitude, and he's having some difficulty."

With the perfect timing that he seemed to always have, Harry chose that moment to walk up. The annoyed expression on his face disappeared upon seeing Hermione. It turned out that the doors worked the same way as the stairs, you had to yell at them. Salazar must have liked to yell.

"Books? Is that you?" She nodded, and he grinned. "The only way I could tell was that nobody would be able to perform that many charms as well as you. May I say that you look gorgeous?" he asked with a slight bow.

"You may," she answered with a curtsy.

"So did you break anything?"

"What?"

"When you fell from heaven."

Sirius and Heather started laughing, and Hermione merely shook her head sadly. Harry looked up, and his eyes narrowed.

"He's dead."

Hermione gracefully twirled on toe (literally) to see that Ron had just entered. He had come dressed as Harry. She chose that moment to move off, not wanting him to see her just yet. She watched as he walked up to Harry.

"Hello," Ron said with a sheepish grin.

"You. Are. Dead."

"Wow Harry, I knew you wouldn't mind. Thanks!"

Ron had stolen a pair of Harry's robes, which fit him rather well, as he wasn't too much taller then Harry now. He had dyed his hair black, and used gel to make it look messy. His eyes were changed to green, and he had poked the lenses out of an old pair of somebody's glasses. He had used some sort of spell to draw on a lightning bolt shaped scar.

Harry turned to Heather. "Please tell me I don't look that stupid!"

She laughed, and patted his head. "No, you don't. He is recognizable as you, but he doesn't really look like you. His face isn't meant for that hair, or those eyes, and yours is, understand?"

Harry however had stopped listening as the entire room went quiet. The pipe was forming into a staircase. Harry walked foreword. Was Sally trying to say that something was wrong? But something stopped him. If something was wrong with Sally, wasn't he supposed to know?

His jaw dropped when he saw what was descending from that stair case.

Ginny tried to calm her heart as she stepped down off of the last step. Everybody was looking at her, there was no sound besides the music. The dancing couples stopped, and Ginny was glad her blush was impossible to see.

From the top of her neck down, every visible piece of skin of Ginny's was green. It didn't look like it had been painted, it looked natural. Harry realized with a start that there was quite a bit of green skin visible. She wore a green dress that couldn't possibly fit better, and was the exact same shade as her skin.

The 'shawl' of the dress was a green silk that looked so much like two leaves connected to her arms that Harry had to remind himself it was fabric.

Her face wore a golden color, which also looked natural. Her hair however, was what made the outfit. It was the same color gold as her face, and held up to look like a blossoming rose. Her eyes were the same gold, and she locked Harry's gaze, and he could see the fear in them.

"Harry you twit!" came a very hard to hear hiss from upstairs. "If you don't take sssome of the attention off of her, she'sss going to passssss out! Asssk her to dance!"

Harry took a step foreword, and bowed. While his head was lowered, his spoke quietly in Parseltongue. "Play along."

Ginny curtsied, and Harry offered her his right hand. She smiled nervously and took it with her right. He walked backwards slowly, leading her to the 'dance floor.'

Harry thanked his luck, (though he suspected it had more to do with Heather then luck) that a slow song had started.

They began to dance, and Harry spoke in Parseltongue once more. "You look amazing."

This comment made Ginny smile and look down at her feet. "Everybody is watching us."

"Hold on, I'll fix that."

Harry made eye contact with a number of people over Ginny's shoulder. Either they were all mind readers, or Harry was very good at conveying messages with his eyes, because there were soon more people on the dance floor. Seeing others, made more people come on.

Ginny relaxed slightly as some of the attention died off. She felt suddenly like she was going to collapse. She hadn't realized how tense she actually had been, and she was suddenly exhausted. Harry must have felt that too, as he shifted so he was supporting her more.

The first song faded into another, and by Ginny's favorite band, Golden Sky, Navy Stars. Harry made no attempt to stop dancing, and she smiled to herself. She would remember this moment for the rest of her life.

"Thank you. Sally insisted that I make an entrance. I thought I was going to die."

"Be glad you are not me. I think your entrance was lovely. It was almost as though we had planned it."

'I did,' she thought to herself, 'but I hadn't planned on it coming true.'

Hermione watched as Harry and Ginny danced, she was so happy for her best friend. A voice spoke behind her.

"Can I catch you next time?"

She turned gracefully around to see Ron. "I'm sorry?"

"When you fall from heaven, will you let me catch you next time?"

She smiled. 'He doesn't even know it's me.'

"Yes, I will let you catch me."

He smiled slightly and nodded. "Would you like to dance Books?"

Hermione was for once, caught off guard. "Wh-what? How did you know it was me?"

Ron looked surprised for a moment. "How could I not know? You eyes are different, and so is your hair, but you are still Hermione. I've probably memorized everything about you. I've known you for four years, I could pick you out of a crowd just by seeing your hand,"

Hermione shut her eyes. 'He likes somebody else. Another girl, don't say anything stupid.'

"So do you want to dance, Books? It looks like Rose really wants some of the attention taken off of her and Harry."

Ron led her out to the dance floor, and he watched his best friend and sister over her head. "That was really nice of Harry to save her like that."

Hermione sighed. "If there is anybody in this world that deserves Ginny, it's Harry."

Ron looked down at her, surprised. "What? Are you kidding? Them?"

"And why not?"

"Because she's my sister, that's why."

"And who better for you sister then your best friend?"

"A-" Ron stopped when he realized he couldn't argue that statement without putting down his best friend. He shook his head. "They're just friends, so it doesn't matter anyway."

McGonagall watched from her spot on the wall as Harry walked up to Ginny and bowed. 'A bow? He's either done his homework, and his really playing his part as Godric, or it just comes naturally to him.'

She watched as Ginny finally relaxed and Harry moved to support her. 'Miss. Weasley doesn't do well under attention. Quidditch will knock that out of her soon enough.'

McGonagall noted Hermione and Ron come on to the dance floor. She looked closer at Hermione's costumes and nodded in approval. Not many forth years would be able to manage all those charms.

"She did do a nice job, didn't she," Sirius's voice said behind her.

"Yes, she did."

"So I take it you're here to keep tabs and play spy."

"I am not a spy, I am only a pair of very sharp eyes."

Before too long, the Dream Team left the dance floor and sat at a circular table near the wall. Harry and Ron were talking about the approaching Quidditch game, Hermione was lost in her thoughts while staring at her glass of Pumpkin Juice. Ginny had so far turned down nine dance invitations, or rather requested that they ask again later. She was starring intently at something on the other side of the room.

Ginny stood up suddenly, as though the moment she had been waiting for finally came.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked.

"Watch this, and never underestimate the power of women." This statement caught her Ron and Hermione's attention.

They watched as Ginny crossed the room and stopped in front of a person who had come as a vampire.

"Who is that?" Ron asked.

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Malfoy."

Ginny walked up to Draco Malfoy, who was standing with two other Slytherins that were in the sixth year. Both of them looked up at her when she stopped. One of them whistled at her costume, while the other muttered "Great Scott" under his breath. Malfoy turned to look at her with surprise.

Ginny smiled, this was going to be so much fun. "Draco, ask me to dance," she said in the sweetest voice she could make.

Draco's eyes went wide and the boy to his right spoke. "Why does he always get the girl? I'm older and better looking."

After this statement, there was nothing Draco could do. He offered his hand to Ginny with a glare that could freeze fire. It didn't frazzle Ginny, who smiled at him as they made their way to the dance floor.

As the slow song started, (Ginny was glad she had discussed with Heather earlier) she moved in and leaned against Draco, resting her head on his shoulder. She could feel he was stiff with shock.

"What the hell are you doing Weasley!" Draco hissed.

"Hey, gave me a break," she said too quietly for anybody but him to hear. "You're cute enough for me to dance with once, even if you are snotty spoiled brat."

"I am not!" Draco exclaimed, wondering why he cared that she called him that.

"Oh, shut up, people are staring." It showed how much Ginny was enjoying herself that she didn't tense under all the attention they were getting. After seeing them dance, everybody had cleared off the floor to give them the spot light. All people from Gryfindor, Huffelpuff, or Ravenclaw was laughing at the look on Draco's face, while the Slytherins glared at Ginny.

"I'll get you for this Weasley."

"What will you do, insult me more then usual? Does it really make you feel that good? Well, I feel lucky, because I know that nobody is allowed this close to you. I'm attempting to figure out why."

"And that's really none of you business is it?" He sounded casual, but Ginny felt him get even more tense.

"I won't hurt you," she whispered. He relaxed very slightly, and she smiled to herself. The next few moments past in silence that Draco thought was very uncomfortable. "And it is my business," she said as the song began to end.

"And why is that?"

She turned to whisper in his ear. "Because I love you."

It was a good thing the song was over, because Draco stopped dead, and looked at her with surprise. 'And fear? God, it's worse then I thought.' "Oh don't look so surprised. She leaned over, and kissed him on the cheek, causing his pale face to turn very red, and she turned on her heal and walked away, back to her friends.

Ron, was bent over double with laughter. Hermione was laughing so hard she was crying. Harry was laughing silently to himself.

"Oh my God Rose, the look on his face! It was priceless!" Hermione managed to get out.

"He'll never be able to call you something snotty again!"

"What did you say that made him go all stiff like that?" Harry asked.

Ginny smiled and looked down at her feet. "I told him that I loved him.:

Hermione stopped laughing, Harry's eyes went wide, and Ron's laughter turned to coughing.

"You what!" he choked.

"I told him that I loved him," Ginny said with more confidence this time. She met Ron's bewildered eyes.

"Why on earth did you do that!"

"Because it's true." Ron gaped at her, and she rolled her eyes. "Oh put your eyes back in your head, Ron. Sometimes you're harder to deal with then he is and I still love you, why can't I love him too?"

"Face it Pawn," Harry said. "Ginny loves everybody."

"Rose," Hermione said, some worry left in her eyes. "You aren't in love with him, are you?"

Ginny shook her head, then turned to watch Draco across the room. "He's not a bad person, Books. You can tell if you look in his eyes. He only does what he thinks he's supposed to do. I think it's bad parenting. I don't think his parents love him. So, I'm going to love him." She smiled to herself. "Not to mention he's really cute when you scare him like that."

"Ginny!" Ron cried, and Ginny lost it and started laughing. Her laughter being contagious, her friends soon joined her.

Draco watched across the room at the laughing Dream Team. Unintentionally, he reached up and touched his cheek. 'She lied. Nobody loves the Ice Dragon.' With that, he found a seat and sulked the rest of the evening.

(A/N: Please don't kill me. SHE WILL NOT END UP WITH DRACO! I promise. This was just needed for the plot in later years. Hehe. Personally, I thought it was cute.

Draco: I didn't

Me: Shut up and get back in your drawer!

Draco: (voice trembling) Yes'm.

Well, tell me what you think, and thank you SO MUCH for all the reviews!!)