Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Warner Brothers bought me out.
Harry had been waiting for this day for months now. It was finally Christmas day, and Harry was looking forward to moment of revenge. He was glad that Ron had left the commons early that evening - it would make it that much easier to surprise him when he arrived at the Great Hall with his 'date'. Harry absently looked at his watch, anxious for Hermione to be ready, although he was surprised at Hermione's late start at preparation - last year she had spent a few hours fussing over the Yule Ball, this year she started preparing only 15 minutes before the dance began. The reason was quite clear as she exited her dorms. She was dressed very plainly in a simple brown dress – which didn't look much different from her usual Hogwarts robes, and she wasn't sporting the sleek hair she had last year. She looked pretty much as she did during a Hogsmeade weekend, Harry had to admit. "Ready?" Harry asked from the bottom of the stairs.
"Yes," Hermione replied, and the pair left the commons through the portrait.
Harry walked his way to the Great Hall, every moment building up to the instant where Ron would see who his date was. Yet as soon as he stepped into the Great Hall, his entire body seemed to freeze. There was Ron, sitting right next to Cho! Harry's mouth fell and he tried to make sense of what was happening, and missed the moment he had been looking forward to when Ron noticed him and Hermione.
"Is something wrong?" Hermione asked, seeing the odd look on Harry's face.
"Nothing," Harry said shortly. "Do you want to dance?"
"Er," Hermione said confusedly, "Usually you wait for music - the dance hasn't started yet."
"Er, well," Harry stammered.
"There's Ron!" Hermione said, finally seeing the redhead. Hermione tugged Harry along, and Harry soon found himself staring at his ex-best-friend sitting next to the girl of his dreams.
"Hi Harry," Cho said cautiously.
"Er, hi Cho," Harry replied listlessly.
The group of four sat around in an awkward silence, until Hermione broke forth, "Nice decorations, don't you think Cho?"
"Very nice," Cho quickly said, "I really like the snow flakes."
Despite the girls' desperate attempt at conversation, silence fell again. Finally, Hermione said, "Well, we'll see you two later. Enjoy the dance!"
As she and Harry walked away, Hermione hissed in his ear, "What is wrong with you tonight, Harry?"
"Nothing," Harry replied tonelessly.
"Nothing?" Hermione asked skeptically.
Harry was saved from answering by the first song flowing over the crowd. Hermione shook her head and the two began to dance. Dancing with Hermione was nothing like dancing with Parvati, Harry immediately noticed. Parvati was extremely forward, and Harry remembered her leaning against him during the first slow song last Yule Ball; Hermione, on the other hand, didn't even bump against him the entire song and no point of their bodies touched the other besides their hands. Harry was glad though - for some reason, dancing with Hermione was like dancing with, well, a sister. If it hadn't been for Ron, he wouldn't have even considered asking her to the dance.
Harry looked over her shoulder at Ron, who was dancing along with Cho. Although in truth the pair were hardly dancing closer than Harry and Hermione were, in Harry's eyes it looked as if they were meshed together. All throughout the next song as well, Harry shot glances over at Ron and wondered when they'd get a room. There were practically entwined!
"Something wrong?" Hermione asked, with a tint of anger in her voice.
"No. Nothing's wrong," Harry quickly replied, looking back at his date.
"Then why are you constantly glaring at Ron?" Hermione asked sharply.
"I am not constantly glaring at Ron!" Harry said, and then more softly said, "Let's just dance."
A slow dance song started up, and Hermione went to hold Harry's hand again. However, Harry decided he'd have to dance a little more directly he if wanted to rile Ron up. So instead of lightly resting his hands on Hermione's hips, he gently pulled her towards him.
"Harry, I'd rather not," Hermione whispered.
"Come on, Hermione," Harry softly pleaded.
Suddenly, Hermione's face lit up, and she glowered at Harry and crossed her arms. "I can't believe it!" she hissed angrily.
"What?" Harry asked, not liking the recent turn of events.
"I can't believe it took me until now to figure out what was going on! I can't believe you two!" Hermione trembled, and then crossed her arms in obvious anger which was apparent to anyone with 20 meters.
A cold laugh came from the right, and Harry looked over to see Ron. However, seconds later he was slapped hard by Cho, who then stormed out of the hall without a word. Ron looked around at everyone staring at him and quickly left the dance as well.
"We're leaving," Hermione said stonily, and turned to the entrance.
Harry and Hermione walked to the Gryffindor commons in silence; Hermione was striding angrily while Harry was at her heels trying to think of something to say. However, he couldn't come up with anything before they reached the portrait, and before Hermione gave the password she turned back around to face Harry.
"You don't deserve it, but I didn't slap you back there in front of everyone." She stood a minute, and Harry got the definite impression that she was still aching to hit him.
Harry watched as she entered the portrait, and waited a few minutes to enter himself, only to find yet another Gryffindor angrily staring at him.
"You... what the...why?!" Ron angrily sputtered incoherently, although Harry knew perfectly well what he was talking about.
"You're no better!" Harry yelled. "You asked Cho only because you knew I liked her! How hard did you have to work to convince her to go to the dance?"
"At least she doesn't have a boyfriend! I didn't ask Hermione because she's going out with Vicky!"
"Viktor couldn't come!" Harry shouted. "But if you weren't so pig-headed and actually talked to her about it, you'd already know that!"
"She was free for the dance?" Ron wondered, before remembering his anger. "And you took quick advantage of that, now, didn't you!"
"You had already asked Cho when I found out!" Harry viciously pointed out.
"But you didn't know that, did you?" Ron said angrily. "Now Hermione's not even going to talk with me, anymore!"
Despite everything, Harry slumped down in one of the chairs next to the fire, his anger finally spent. "Well, at least you're not alone. I doubt Cho will give me the time of day anymore, either."
Ron looked at Harry for a minute and more calmly said, "Yeah, well, at least Hermione didn't smack you."
"Oh, trust me Ron, she wanted to."
Ron slumped down in the chair next to him, having a grim sort of smile on his face. "How in bloody hell did this get started, anyway?"
As if on cue, the portrait swung open and admitted Ginny and Neville. Neither appeared to notice Harry or Ron, and Neville gave Ginny a kiss on the cheek.
"I had a wonderful time, Neville," Ginny said, and gave him a quick kiss back. Ginny walked up to her dorms, and Neville walked up the opposite stairway to his, humming along the way. As soon as both the doors shut, Harry and Ron immediately burst into laughter.
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Sorry for the late submission (again) of this chapter. Hopefully I'll get back into my groove.
Lakergurl: You bet – Draco was due for a win :)
Actually, I've read the three LOTR books and the hobbit. Ok, yes, they do stop singing in Mordor. But about every other scene they look back at the good ol' times (when they got to sing). Don't get me wrong, I love the books – they're just not what I expected.
Popo: Thanks!
KittyDooter: Thanks!
CastusAlbus: Wow… simply wow. It looks like you've now ready pretty much everything I've written in less than a week, and my stats say it's 170k words…
Phoenix Flight: Poor Clive… yeah, it's going to be hard to resist the temptation to have him 'overcome all odds' and be a quidditch player in his third year… :)
Erinamation: Well, alright!
Katani: Yeah, I looked over the chapter, and Draco could be construed as being OOC/Nice. It isn't some plot device I'm going to use later, it was just a mediocre portrayal on my part. Something for revision (if I ever get around to it… I'm still revising the Two Draughts…)
Beefywpac: Haha, consider him dead within the next chapter… No, I still don't know what I'm going to do about Draco. Maybe I'll just have him fade into the background, just to annoy you even more :)
MicroChick: Sorry to disappoint, but Draco wasn't supposed to be nice – like I told Katani, it was a somewhat disappointing portrayal on my part. Good suggestion about the dueling scene! You're absolutely right – I should add some more specific details. Clive and the Orb Wizard aren't going to play the biggest parts in the story. Technically, if you want to trim this story down to the essential plot, it will involve the Gem Thefts, SPEW, Legion of the Shadow, and possibly the dance (because of how the main characters interact). However, the misc. sections will probably make a return throughout the next two stories if I write them.
Chaser: Thanks!
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