The next few weeks went by so fast, I hardly knew what was happening. Potions was the most eventful class, even though it was my least favorite. Malfoy decided that it was his mission in life to show me up in class, probably because I had made him kind of mad. I knew I deserved it, but he was so irritating. The social event of the month was the Hogsmeade trip. I thought it was actually kind of boring, but I got a lot of Christmas presents and a ton of Chocolate Frogs. Harry told me that Hermione was coming for Christmas break and that the Yule Ball was coming up. I was really excited about the ball. Ginny and I were in my dorm picking out dresses and robes for it. "What do you think about this one?" Ginny asked, holding up an ad in Witch Weekly. In the ad there was a wine colored dress with an A-line skirt with cream-colored robes and trim. "That would look really fabulous on you. I need help. I want to find the perfect dress. This is kind of mean, but I want to make Hermione jealous because she and Harry and she and Malfoy were together and she broke both their hearts." "That is kind of mean, but you have a good motive. Wait, I think I found it!" "What? For you or me? Let me see!" She held up an ad for a powder blue dress with bell sleeves and a full skirt. It had little tiny sequins around the low-cut bodice. It had navy blue robes with a silver clasp on the front shaped like a snowflake. "Oh my God! You're right, that is the absolutely the best dress I have ever seen. I have to have it. Where is it?" "You're in luck, it's at Hogsmeade. That is so lucky. They hardly ever have good dresses. We can go this weekend, the dress I want is there too." "Ok, cool." "Wow." Lavender had walked in and saw the dress I was getting. "That is a killer dress." "You like it? I'm getting it for the Yule Ball." "You haven't gotten a dress yet? I had mine at the beginning of the year." "Yes, well seeing as I only found out about it two days ago I haven't had much time." "Then I guess you better brush up on all your cosmetics charms, not that you need them." She said enviously. "I'll see you later Kerry, I'm going to go see what jewelry I'll need for the ball." "Yeah, see you Ginny." She left and I said to Lavender, "I think I'll go downstairs and play chess or something." As I left I heard her say softly as if she thought I couldn't hear her, "You do that, bitch." I was wondering what her problem was, and then I decided not to think about it. I had found the perfect dress. Malfoy, Harry, and Ron would fall down dead when they saw me. I saw Harry and Ron playing Exploding Snap in the corner and went to sit down by them. "Hey guys." "Hi Kerry, wanna play?" "Nah, I'll just watch." "Suit yourself." Said Harry as he drew a card. After four games of just watching I was getting pretty bored, but I didn't really want to play. "You know what, I think I'll go for a walk." "You'll be fine by yourself? You don't want anyone to go with you?" Ron asked. "I'm a big girl. I'll be fine, unless you want to come." He looked at Harry before he said, "Sure." "I'm gonna grab my cloak, I'll be down in a minute." "Ok." *~* "What do you think you're doing?" I asked. Ron and I had agreed that we wouldn't flirt and chase after Kerry. "I know we agreed that we wouldn't, but." "But what? You really want to? If you're not going to keep your promise then I'm not going to either." "Fine, see if I care." He stormed off up the stairs to get his cloak. *~* We were walking around the lake. I couldn't help but remember the times I had walked this way with Malfoy. "So, how's the search for the "perfect" dress going?" "Really good actually. Ginny found one for herself and the absolute most perfect dress for me. You'll die when you see it." "Will I?" He was acting kind of nervous. It sounded like it was difficult for him to keep the conversation going. "What's wrong? I don't bite. Well, maybe a little, but it shouldn't hurt." He giggled. It is really strange when a six-foot tall red headed guy giggles, but I guess that's what happens when they're nervous. "Nothing's wrong, but you probably don't know what you do to me." "Like what?" I asked, I was really curious. "Like when I see you in Potions, I have a strong urge to hit Malfoy because he's flirting with you. Or when Harry gets mad because he can't just flirt outright with you because we agreed not to. Or like when I'm near you I get chills." "That is so sweet. I think that's the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me." "I doubt it. I can't talk to you when we're alone because I get nervous." "Don't be. I really like you. You are so much nicer than Malfoy and if Harry doesn't flirt with me because he promised you not to then why are you flirting now." He blushed crimson. "He chewed me out for that as soon as you left. He's really hacked off at me and at Malfoy and at just about everyone. He's been kind of frustrated with the whole world since he found out that Hermione's coming." "I can see why, if my ex was coming for Christmas Hols I would be upset too." "Ooh, an ex, what happened?" "Nothing, that's why he's my ex, anyway it's ancient history." "History is my favorite subject, I want details." "Then why are you failing it? And are you turning into Lavender and Parvati's informant? Why would you care what happened with my ex boyfriend anyway?" "So I can learn from his mistakes." "That's so cute, but you will just have to owl him and my friends in the states to find out." "Maybe I will." "No you won't, that's one of the things I love about you." "One of the things? There are more? Tell me." "Well I like the way you play with my hair when you don't even notice you're doing it." He looked at his hand, intertwined in my long, curly, blonde hair. "And I like the way I can tell exactly what you're thinking by looking into your eyes. I like the way you blush beet red when you're embarrassed." He was blushing maroon as I said that. "But, most of all, I like the way I know that you really like me and it shows in how you talk to me, that we're friends, first and forever." He was blushing even darker than before and I could tell that I had made him uncomfortable. I knew that I would just bother him more, but I did it anyway. I stood on my tiptoes, reached up, and kissed him. He was shocked, he didn't move at all for a moment, then he moved and reached down so I wasn't at such an odd angle. He kissed back firmly, but I only gave him a second after he leaned into the kiss before I broke it off. "What was that? I mean, um, uh, I think I have to do something, somewhere, um, yeah, uh." "Ok stop. Breathe. Calm down. Are you okay now? Good. Now to answer your question, that was a kiss. If I'm not mistaken, that was what you wanted to do but you're a little too nice to kiss me outright." "Well, maybe. You didn't give me any time to kiss back." "That's because I thought you needed to earn a kiss before I gave it to you. I still haven't got a date to the Yule Ball because none of you have the balls to ask me out because you're afraid that someone else might try to hurt you. I was surprised that I didn't have offers coming out of my ears, but I think everyone's scared of you and Harry." He grinned sheepishly. "Well, you know how it is. Anyway, Kerry, would you go to the Yule Ball with me." "I thought you'd never ask. Of course I will." Then he kissed me and we kept it up for what seemed like hours. Then we went back up to the Gryffindor tower, and it occurred to me, what would we tell Harry? I started to get kind of nervous about that but then figured I would let Ron handle it. *~* (A/N: New POV, I haven't used her yet but had to get to the heart of that nasty comment.) I hate Kerry. She has everything I want, everything I've worked for all these years. She comes in and in three weeks she has the perfect life, and to top it all off, she doesn't even like me. She is mean and condescending to me. I have been nothing but nice to that tramp and she completely ignores me. You may think that I am just jealous and that it is stupid, but it's more than that. She has everything I've ever wanted and she didn't even work for it. *~* I can't believe it! I am so happy! Harry is going to kill me! Oh my gosh! What am I going to do about Harry? I mean, how can he blame me, she practically asked me to the ball. Just because I said the words doesn't mean everything, does it? She kissed me first. Maybe I just won't tell him, or maybe I should go tell Kerry that I can't go with her because of our agreement. I should at least give Harry a chance to ask her. That's what I'll do, I'll tell Kerry what's going on and then tell Harry. *~* It was a week before the Yule Ball and I was going to get my dress in two days, I had a date, I had friends, and most of all I was happy. I thought my life was going to be absolutely perfect for the next few days anyway.