The upcoming Holiday Serenade threw Harry into a panic. It had taken him several weeks to pluck up the courage to ask anyone to the Yule Ball last year- how was he ever going to manage this year?

Ron suggested he ask Cho Chang again. "She's pretty and you fancied her."

"No good," Hermione said. "She's going home for the holidays."

"I didn't really want to humiliate myself again anyways," Harry said. "Once was enough."

A sixth-year had asked him the day before, and he had embarrassedly turned her down because she was incredibly tall, and he couldn't imagine trying to dance with her. A group of fourth-year Ravenclaw girls had been following him for a few days, giggling when he whirled round to look at them, but he doubted they would ever actually talk to him.

With only two weeks left before the ball, he and Ron roamed the school, looking for girls to ask to the ball. "Lisa Turpin?" Ron said, nodding in her direction.

Harry shook his head. "She's going with Seamus. But there's Susan Bones. I could ask her."

"You won't believe this, but she already asked Neville," Ron said. "Well, you could always ask Parvati again."

"She was furious with me for weeks after the Yule Ball," Harry said. "And why aren't you looking, Ron? Have you already invited someone?"

Ron reddened and mumbled, "Wasgnaskerminee."

"I beg your pardon?" Harry said, grinning.

Ron was beet red. "I was going to ask Hermione," he said icily. "Are you satisfied?"

"I'll be satisfied when she says yes," Harry said. "When are you going to ask her? There's only a couple weeks left. You better ask her before someone else does."

"I know," Ron said, glaring at him. "I'll ask her in my own time. At least I've picked someone."

"I can find a girl," Harry said, indignant. Privately he was quite worried. There were lots of pretty girls at Hogwarts, but he knew he was too shy to ask anyone.

Harry and Ron found Hermione doing homework in the library. "Ginny's not going with anyone," she immediately said to Harry. "Ask her."

Ron was appalled. "Ginny, my sister? And Harry? Please tell me you're joking."

Harry was embarrassed. "I can't ask Ginny." Ron's sister had had a crush on Harry since her first year at Hogwarts. But he was uncomfortable with the fact that she worshiped him for his reputation as some sort of superhuman idol.

"There's nothing wrong with her," Hermione said.

"There certainly is!" said Ron. "She's related to me!"

"You've got that right," muttered Hermione. Louder she said, "Fine, don't ask Ginny. Go alone and have a miserable time."

"Maybe I will," Harry said huffily. He stalked off into the Transfiguration section and glowered unseeingly at an empty bookshelf until a voice behind him said, "Hi, Harry."

He turned to find a very pretty girl named Sally-Anne Perks standing there. She had long golden hair that fell in tight curls around her pale face. Harry recognized her from Herbology class, which Gryffindor took with the fifth-year Hufflepuffs. "Er..." He wondered why she was talking to him. Sally-Anne was reputedly the most attractive girl in Hufflepuff house. She was of Muggle parentage, but she was a very clever witch. She was in some of Hermione's advanced classes and was one of the top ten students in their year. Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas mentioned her with great awe, Harry remembered, but he had really never spoken to her before. "Hi, Sally-Anne."

Sally-Anne smiled at him. "Has any lucky girl snapped you up for the Holiday Serenade yet?"

Was she trying to set him up with one of her friends? "No," Harry said cautiously. "Why?"

"Well, do you want to go with me?"

"Oh," Harry said, relieved but greatly shocked. "Yeah, sure."

"Excellent," said Sally. "See you in Herbology tomorrow then."

Harry returned to Ron and Hermione, feeling rather bemused. "Sally-Anne Perks just asked me to the ball."

"Really?" Hermione said, startled. "You?"

"You don't have to sound so surprised," Harry said in annoyance.

"Why would Sally-Anne Perks ask you to the ball?" Ron said, just as Ginny Weasley rounded the corner behind Ron and Harry, a determined look on her face. Hearing Ron's words she immediately turned red and walked off quickly the way she had come. Hermione jumped up and ran after her.

"Where's Hermione going?" Harry said, turning to look, but Ginny and Hermione were already gone.

"Could I ask Hermione now, do you think?" Ron asked anxiously.

"Yeah! Here she comes now. Come up to the common room after she says yes."

"I couldn't catch Ginny," Hermione reported breathlessly as she returned to the table. "She was almost running down the hall. I think- I think she was going to ask you to the Holiday Serenade, Harry."

"Did she hear me talking about Sally?" Ron said. "Oops."

"I ought to go find her," Hermione said worriedly. "She looked upset."

"Then go on," Harry said before realizing he was missing his excuse to leave them alone. "No wait Hermione, I'll go."

"Would you?" said Hermione. "She won't ask you to the ball, but be nice to her, for once."

"I'm always nice," Harry said indignantly. When Hermione wasn't looking he grinned and winked at Ron, who flushed and made a quick obscene gesture at him.

The common room was full of studious Gryffindors, but Ginny wasn't there when Harry arrived. Guessing she was hiding in her dorm, he sat down with Seamus, Dean and Neville, who were working on Divination for a test the next day, and told them about Sally.

"Sally-Anne Perks asked YOU to the ball?" Dean said incredulously. "Unbelievable."

"Hey!" said Harry.

"Okay Harry, I think I've figured this out," Seamus said, comparing the setup on the table to the diagram in his textbook. "All right, the six of pentacles across the two of wands... and the Empress is over here, which means... Harry, you're... pregnant?"

"I'm what?"

"Your textbook is upside down, Seamus," Niamh Giffard called from across the room without looking away from the Exploding Snap card castle she and Marcus were building.

"Oh yeah," said Seamus, turning the book right-side up. "Now it means... you were born in midsummer."

"Right," Harry said, grinning.

Suddenly there came the sound of loud footfalls running down the hall outside the portrait hole, and there was a collision with the portrait.

"Watch where you're going!" cried the Fat Lady angrily. "Oh, it's you, dear... But what's the matter?"

"Let me in!" shrieked Hermione's voice, sounding distraught. "Legerdemain! Legerdemain!"

The portrait swung open and Hermione rushed in, her face pink and blotchy from her race through the school. She was holding her wand in one hand and, strangely, a blue carrot in the other.

"Hermione?" Harry said into the stunned silence.

She saw him and let out a cry of anguish. "Harry!" She rushed at him and burst into tears on his shoulder.

"Hermione, what happened?" Harry asked, bewildered, as the other Gryffindors all gathered round in amazement.

Hermione hiccoughed, "Library- Ron- he-"

"Where is Ron?"

Silently Hermione held out the blue carrot. Seeing Harry's shock, she let loose a fresh flood of tears.

"Did you do it?" Dean asked.

"No! Malfoy!" Hermione wailed. "He was eavesdropping- he attacked Ron- turned him into a carrot- and I tried to fix Ron but I only turned him blue!"

"Did Malfoy get away?"

Hermione shook her head. "I Transfigured him into a football and kicked him out the window," she said in a small voice.

In the gales of laughter that ensued, Harry ran up to the boys' dormitory with the carrot.

He put Ron on his desk and said jokingly, "Stay here." Then he ran to his trunk and started pulling out Potions ingredients and textbooks. He stood over the carrot with his wand. "Finito Incantato."

The carrot sprouted little blue arms and legs and stood on the desk with its hands on its hips, or as near as the hips would be on a nine-inch-tall carrot.

"I hate to say it, but Malfoy's gotten good at hexing," Harry said, peering closely at Ron. "The workmanship on the carrot is so detailed, and he even managed to fit in an anti-reversal proviso to prevent 'Finite Incantatem' from fixing you. Do you want me to try to brew a cure-all antidote?"

The carrot, predictably, said nothing.

"Like the name says, it cures all," Harry said as he assembled his Potions equipment. "I should tell you I've only made one successful cure-all potion before, and now I'm really just improvising. It won't take too long, I hope."

Ron remained mute, but a little crease about the level of his eyebrows scrunched up.

Darius Diggle suddenly burst through the door. "Harry! Harry! Oh, you're working on fixing Ron. I was in the library, I saw the whole thing. Shall I tell you?"

"Yeah, tell me," Harry said, lighting a fire under his cauldron.

"It started when Ron asked Hermione to the Holiday Serenade. Sorry, Ron," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. But the acoustics in the library are good and it just sort of drifted over." The carrot voiced no objections to Darius' apology, and Darius continued, "So Ron asked Hermione if she wanted to go with him, and she said yes."

"Excellent!" said Harry as he chopped up ginger roots.

"That's what I thought too, and I was about to get up to go congratulate Ron when Draco Malfoy sidled round a high pile of books with that awful smirk. You know the one he gets sometimes when he's about to be really nasty to someone? He had obviously been eavesdropping on purpose. He said to Ron, didn't he have better taste than to go slumming round with Muggle-borns. Well- he used a different word than Muggle-borns, but I really don't want to say it."

"I know what word it was," Harry said, gritting his teeth.

"And Ron said Malfoy'd better take back his remark, and Malfoy said that even a Weasley could do better than Hermione, so Ron said something to the effect that Malfoy could engage in rectal penetration, and Malfoy used a few expletives to eternally condemn Ron to the seventh circle of Hell, and Ron suggested that Malfoy's paternal descent was doubtful due to his mother's... promiscuity. So Malfoy hexed him."

"Why a carrot?"

"Well, he had just called Ron Carrot-Top. I suppose that was still on his mind."

"And what was Hermione doing during all of this?" Harry asked, stirring the cure-all, which was sickly green in colour.

"She was quite horrified, paralysed with rage I think. But even if she'd wanted to, there really was no way to stop them once they had started. At least she got back at Malfoy for Transfiguring Ron. Did you hear about that? She turned him into a football! And what a leg on that witch! She could play for Manchester United, that ball went flying nearly all the way to the Forbidden Forest. It'll take the Slytherins all night hunting in the snow to find Malfoy."

The carrot wriggled, apparently in amusement.

"She could really get in trouble for this though," Darius said worriedly. "She's a prefect and she's fighting with other students. If Snape hears about this, she could lose her badge."

Harry paused in dropping handfuls of knotgrass into the cure-all, which turned deep purple. "I didn't think of that," he said in dismay. "At the very least she'll get about fifty detentions with Snape."

Ron squirmed on the desk. Harry read his thoughts.

"Unless someone owns up to it first?" he guessed. The blue carrot fidgeted. "Ron, they'll never believe you managed a perfect human-football Transfiguration."

The carrot shook his fist at Harry. "You can do the spell for him then, Harry," said Darius. "Is that potion ready yet? Hurry up with it!"

"It's not easy, you know!" Harry protested. "There's nothing in the textbook about turning carrots into people, or vice versa. I'm making this up as I go." He flipped to the Hair-Raising Potion, muttering to himself, "This will make the hair grow back, I think... I'd better put in extra rat tails... Darius, if Ron's going to take the blame for Hermione, you had better go distract her so that she doesn't go confess first. Who else saw her transfigure Malfoy?"

"Only me and the carrot," Darius said. "Don't worry, I can stall her. I'll steal her wand and run."

Twenty minutes after Darius left, Harry completed his viscous purple potion and dipped the carrot in, leaves and all, and set him on the desktop. The carrot began to grow, and the skin paled to a freckled pink tinged with blue, and in a few moments Ron, full-sized and human shaped, was sitting on the tabletop, rubbing his eyes.

"It worked!" Harry said, amazed and rather proud.

"It stings my eyes," complained Ron.

"That might go away in a while. But listen Ron, if you're going to take the blame for Hermione you'll need evidence. Give me your wand," Harry said, spotting Neville's toad, Trevor, sitting on Dean's bed. Ron handed over his wand. Harry flipped through a Transfiguration textbook till he found human-to-sports-equipment spells. "Conglobo!" he said, pointing Ron's wand at Trevor, who ballooned into a football and rolled off Dean's pillow onto the floor.

"That was the spell Hermione did," Ron said, taking his wand. "I get it. Now it's in my wand and I can show McGonagall with a Prior Incantato. Thanks, Harry."

"So she said yes?" Harry asked, smiling.

"Yeah," Ron said casually, before his face split into a grin. "I'm going to the ball with Hermione!"

Darius Diggle burst into the room, panting and clutching a wand in his hand. "Got it," he wheezed at Ron. "Go on and confess to McGonagall."

"Go, Ron," Harry said, "or Hermione will get to McGonagall before you."

Ron ran out to find Professor McGonagall. When he came back to Gryffindor Tower several hours later, he was fifty house points poorer and many detentions richer. But the best thing was that he had been found guilty.

Malfoy, it turned out, had not been found by his fellow Slytherins for over an hour, and had suffered minor frostbite-related pains. Ron had gotten to Professor McGonagall first and confessed to the crime, and the evidence of the Reverse Spell Effect had cinched his culpability. Professor McGonagall was more stunned by the fact that Ron Weasley claimed to know how to do sixth-year-level Transfiguration tricks than by his altercation with Malfoy. When Malfoy was located and restored to human form, he told Snape and McGonagall that Hermione Granger had hexed him, but Professor McGonagall earnestly defended her prefect, and since the much likelier suspect had already confessed, Hermione was only called upon for testimony as a formality. When she discovered what Ron had done for her, she was deeply touched, and corroborated his declaration of guilt.

Malfoy, it was finally presumed, must have suffered head trauma in his flight from the library window, and Ron was the real culprit. Snape was still highly doubtful of this story, but Minerva McGonagall was immovable in her decision; and Snape settled for penalizing Ron Weasley for the crime, which he did in a grand style, awarding Ron twenty-five detentions, to be served with the Potions master himself. Professor McGonagall, still surprised by the quality of the Transfiguration hex Ron had allegedly thrown at Malfoy, only took fifty points from Gryffindor, concluding that a rush of adrenaline and rage must have sharpened his wits and his Transfiguration skills.

The incident made Ron into a hero among the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor houses, all of whom were happy to see a Slytherin be humiliated. Malfoy, however, chose to ignore the giggles and rumours, opting instead to put an extra swagger in his walk as he boasted that he would one day get back at Hermione- for Malfoy remembered exactly who had hexed him, and was not to be fooled by false confessions.

In the days afterwards Harry worried about what Malfoy might do to Hermione or Ron in revenge. One day while in the library, watching Malfoy practising a Drought Charm with a glass of water, Harry recalled Niamh's Christmas gift. What had she said? "The Malfoy family is not originally from England. They immigrated here several centuries ago from the continent. From western continental Europe."

What did that mean? Harry abandoned his Defence Against the Dark Arts homework and sought out the History of Magic section.

"Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century... Deviant From the Norm: The Autobiography of Uric the Oddball... Sites of Historical Sorcery... Aha! Ancient Wizarding Names."

He pulled the musty tome off the shelf. It was fragile and covered in dust, and did not appear to have been consulted by anyone in many, many years.

Harry flipped to the M's. He quickly found "Malfoy" and began reading. The Malfoy lineage certainly appeared to be as pureblood as Draco Malfoy claimed; but, Harry noticed, the records of that family only went back as far as 1375, when Dragomir Malfoy had moved into present-day Malfoy Manor, in northern Scotland.

A scratchy drawing of Dragomir accompanied the man's incomplete biography. He was a stocky, scowling man, swarthy in complexion and attitude. Harry conjured a magnifying glass and squinted at the words printed in the corner of the sketch. "F. Bracov, Sighisoara- 1373," he read. He Summoned an atlas from a shelf and located Sighisoara in the gazetteer.

"Sighisoara, Romania, page 164, M21." He turned to page 164 and stared at box M21. There was Sighisoara, in northwestern Romania. But a letter "T" partly obscured the town's name. The "T", Harry then realized, belonged to the word "Transylvania".

He sat back. Was that the solution, that Malfoy's family was from Transylvania? Maybe he had missed something. He turned back to the Ancient Wizarding Names and stared at Draco's family tree. "Dragomir Malfoy m. Ileana Tepes."

The Tepes family appeared in the book as well. Ileana Tepes was also of Sighisoara. And the Tepes family name, the book said, was famous because of a certain novel written by Bram Stoker called Dracula. It was about a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula, who was a vampire, but was based on one Vlad Tepes or Vlad Dracul. The novel Dracula was widely accepted as fiction, but, the book hinted, it may actually have been true to reality.

And then Harry understood the connection. He ran to the Magical Creatures shelves and grabbed Bestiary of Part-Human Magical Creatures, and riffled through the pages. There was only one entry under the letter he was looking for. "V for Vampire," he whispered to himself.

'Generally hated and feared, vampires are known as evil blood-sucking monsters. They are, however, part human, and are treated with respect by the governments who regulate their population. Vampires are found worldwide, for their species spread across the globe as wizards and Muggles alike were bitten and "contaminated" with the vampire's curse, which they then transferred to other humans during feeding. Vampires originated in Transylvania, a northwestern Romanian region,' and that was where Harry stopped reading because he had already figured out the answers.

Dragomir Malfoy had accidentally married a vampire and passed on part-vampire genes through his line to his descendant Draco, which at least accounted for Draco's social inelegance and his pale, gaunt appearance.

Harry leaned back in his chair. So the Malfoys had a vampire in their family. He smiled and began to think about how this information could be used to the greatest advantage.