"There she is!" Harry thought. He'd had a single thought in his mind from the moment he'd first heard about the Halloween dance: Cho Chang. "This time," he told himself, "I'll be the first one to ask her." Cho had just turned the corner to go into the Dining Hall. She walked to lunch alone most days, Harry had noticed, and so he'd planned to catch her at this moment.

"Hi!" Harry said brightly, tapping her on the arm to catch her attention.

"Oh, hi, Harry," she replied, a bit far-off and distracted.

Harry's fumbling attempt at asking Cho last year came to mind and he was determined not to repeat the performance. "So, um, I was wondering, would you like to go to the Halloween Dance with me?" He'd got the words out, and they'd been coherent!

Cho seemed taken aback, like Harry's words had pulled her down to reality with a hard landing. Then she blinked, and appeared to become a little more present than she'd been a moment ago. She stood there an agonizingly long time and Harry was about to repeat himself when she agreed with a sigh, giving him a weak smile.

Harry heard nothing but her acceptance; he paid no attention to the sigh or the resigned tone. He thought his face would break with smiling. "Thanks!" he said, shaking her hand, since he didn't know what else to do, and he excitedly ran off to tell Ron.

a/n: it gets better, guys, I promise! Please keep reading!