A/N: Holy SHENANIGANS! I'm finally back… I'm so sorry for not updating in like a gazillion years, I've had writer's block, plus I had some stories for the school paper to work on, and tests, and yeah. And swim practice is starting up again soon… NNGH!

Chapter 17

"Oy! We always needs to get back at Malfoy!" Harry looked up from the chess game, then at the grandfather clock in exasperation. It read eleven o'clock A.M. "Well, hurry up and explain the plan to us!"

"Patience, my son," said Fred. "It's really very simple."

"We asked the blokes from NFG for a good prank- apparently they'd really been good in their day-" George stated.

"It's a charm that will make Malfoy act completely like a girl for the entire ball," interrupted Fred.

Harry and Ron burst into laughter. Hermione looked up from her book, interested. "So he'll act gay, or will he really be a girl?"

"I guess we should have asked Steve or Jordan. Apparently, they were the only ones to have ever used that charm," said George.

"But wouldn't it be even funnier to be surprised?" asked Ron rhetorically.

"Who invents these charms in the first place?" Hermione interrupted before either of the twins or Harry could answer Ron.

"Does that really matter, 'Mione? Remember, you hate Malfoy!" Ron told her.

"I guess you're right," she grinned. This sounded amusing!

"So you want us to give you the charm then, kids?" asked Fred. The three nodded eagerly, and he said, "I only trust Hermione with casting it."

Harry and Ron's smiles drooped. They both shouted at Fred and George in unison, "WHY?"

"You two, with your history of misfiring spells, and even though Harry's been in a duel, would most likely miscast it, say the words wrong, or cast the spell on yourself by accident," George said.

"Remember the slugs in second year, Ron? I know you had a broken wand, but still," said Hermione.

Ron made a face, but he and Harry stopped whining. "Well, tell us the charm!" he said.

"Ready?" asked George. "Now, this is a very secret charm, let no one else know of it-"

"Shut up and tell them already," said Fred.

George growled at his twin, then whispered, "Fidelus feminina. No, Hermione, don't write it down," he said to Hermione who was busily scratching away at a piece of parchment with a quill she had whipped out of her pack.

"No, George, I'm not writing the charm down. But thank you for telling us. What I'm doing is sketching what I want my costume to look like for tonight's ball. Didn't you four know that there's a costume contest tonight? Oh, and by the way, Harry, if you want to ask Ginny to the ball-" Hermione pointed to Ginny who was taking a nap on one of the chairs in the common room and raised her eyebrows at Harry, "-you'd better hurry because I know of several other boys who are waiting to ask her. And she told me she wants to go with you. Go wake her up."

Harry was accosted by a deluge of glares from the three Weasleys standing next to him.

"Don't hurt her," said Ron.

"Don't break her heart," said Fred.

"Oy, you stole what I was going to say, Ronniekins," said George. But he joined in the glaring.

"Honestly, BOYS, it's just a dance. If looks could kill, poor Harry would be dead by now. Ron, get over here. Fred, George, sit down and stop glaring at Harry," Hermione said bossily.

Harry went over to Ginny where she was napping on the couch. Aware of Fred and George watching him, he became more and more nervous. "Ginny, wake up," he said quietly, poking her in her shoulder.

She woke up with a start and stared around wildly. "Oh, Harry!" she said, blushing. "Sorry, I didn't see you," she shyly sat up.

"Er, Ginny, do you think I could ask you something?" Harry took a deep breath. Even after just waking up from a nap, Ginny was quite pretty. The freckles on her face just made her more beautiful, Harry thought. Wow. I've never really thought of her as much more than my best friend's little sister, but she's really grown up from the little girl who hid when I first came to visit!

"Sure, Harry," Ginny said.

"Well, I wanted to know if you wanted to go to the Halloween Ball tonight as my date. I know that I've basically treated you just as a sister, but I really think that you're beautiful and you have a wonderful personality," Harry said, blushing.

Ginny's jaw dropped, then she pulled herself together. "Of course I'll go to the ball with you!" she said happily with a big smile.

On the other side of the room, Ron's jaw dropped at the same time as his sister's when Hermione showed him her sketches for their costumes. Also strewn all over the table were British and American rock magazines, which was where Hermione got all of her ideas.

"You can't have me wear that!" Ron exclaimed under his breath so his brothers wouldn't hear. (He shouldn't have worried; they were too busy glaring at Harry!) What Hermione had sketched for him was a pair of very baggy skate pants, black and red. The pants had a flaming skull on the back, and a wallet chain attached. Ron would have a chain belt as well. He'd also be wearing Converse high-top shoes and a blue T-shirt that read "How to get girls… look like me" over a gray undershirt. Hermione had also sketched in numerous bracelets and necklaces on his costume, and there was a bow tie choker to top everything off.

"Ron, calm down. I think you're going to look great. Oh, and I want to do your hair for you before the ball starts… liberty spikes. I have some electric blue gel that I got from a Muggle store outside Hogsmeade. You'll be the cutest bloke at the ball!" Hermione blushed.

"Oh, fine," said Ron. "Wait, LIBERTY SPIKES? Augh. Oh well, all right, what's the prize for the costume contest, anyway?"

"Er, I think it was 100 galleons for first prize, 50 for second, and 25 for third. Now hush and look at the costume I have for me."

Hermione took the sketch of her dress out. She'd be wearing a long Victorian styled dress, with a low neckline and belled sleeves. The bodice of the dress would be dark purple with black laces, and the rest of the dress was a glittery black. There were black combat boots to go with the dress, and a spiked choker.

"I'm not telling you how I'm going to do my hair, that's going to be a surprise," Hermione told Ron, whose mouth was still open.

"Blimey, 'Mione," he said, closing his mouth, "I think you're going to look really beautiful," he admitted truthfully.

"Aw, thank you," she replied, blushing, and nervously twirled a strand of her less-bushy-than-fourth year hair. Then, shaking her head at herself, Hermione whipped out her wand, waved it at the sketches on the table, and said several charms. The pieces of parchment disappeared to be replaced by boxes. Checking inside the boxes, Hermione nodded appreciatively and wrote "Ron" on one box and "Hermione" on the other.

"Take this one," she said, handing him his box. Ron took it upstairs so that he'd have it to change into for the ball. Hermione grabbed her own box, bag, magazines, and quill, and went up the opposite staircase.

On the couch, Fred and George had decided that glaring evilly at Harry had gotten boring. Glancing at the clock, George noted that as it was almost noon, lunch would be soon.

"Hey, Gred," George called to his twin, being swiftly reminded of something as Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet walked into the common room. "Did you ask Angelina to the ball yet?"

"Ah! I guess I should," Fred returned. "Oy! Angelina…" he yelled across to common room to the tall black girl who was chatting with Alicia. "You want to go to the Halloween Ball with me?"

"Sure, Fred," said Angelina, walking across the room to him and depositing her friend Alicia in George's lap.

"I guess this means you're coming with me, hmm?" asked George.

"I think so!" said Alicia.

"Now, ladies…" Fred said with a glint in his eye, "You know that there's a costume contest at this ball, now don't you?"

Angelina and Alicia smiled mischievously at their respective boyfriends and said together, "Well, we've already taken care of that!" and then took out plastic bags they'd been hiding behind their backs, giving them to the twins.

George burst out laughing as he looked in his bag. Inside was a bright green leisure suit from the seventies, complete with big shoes and a big necklace. Fred did the same when he looked in his bag and saw a purple leisure suit.

"This is perfect!" he said, laughing. "And what about your costumes?"

"Well, we're going to be dressed like go-go dancers from this American movie we saw a few months ago," said Alicia.

"But you two have to be surprised at our costumes! Go-go dancers is the only clue we're giving you!" said Angelina.

Fred had already brought up a somewhat racy mental image in his mind and was smiling happily. "Okay…"

Across the room, Harry and Ginny were talking to each other about THEIR costumes for the ball. Apparently, Ginny had already gotten several ideas from fellow Gryffindor girls, while Harry hadn't given the idea much thought at all.

"Well, Parvati is apparently going with Dean, and she told me that they're going to be dressed as magazine models for some Muggle clothes company-" Ginny began, and Harry imagined how embarrassed Dean might be. "Lavender and Seamus are going together, and Lavender told me they were going to be dressed as space aliens. Er, Colin Creevey is going with a fourth year from Hufflepuff and they're going to be pirates. And Neville is going with some girl from Ravenclaw, and they're going to be dressed as giant lobsters."

Harry laughed. "Lobsters?"

"Sure! And I have a good idea for our costumes, too," stated Ginny.

"I don't want to be any kind of sea creature," said Harry worriedly.

"No! We can be dressed as hippies! I remember my mother talking about how she went to some Muggle concert in America in the sixties, and everyone was dressed really wild and screaming about peace… she said she only went because of some British band called the Who. Well, my mum said that hippies wore bell-bottoms and lots of tie-dye, and they had their hair really long, and they wore wild colors of sunglasses and stuff."

"Bell-bottoms?"

"Jeans that are very wide at the bottom. Hold on a second, let me go up to the dormitory and show you what I'm wearing tonight." Ginny shot upstairs, nearly crashing into Hermione who was coming down. Hermione winked at Harry and sat on a couch to wait for Ron.

After quite a bit of banging around in her dormitory, Ginny found what she wanted and came down to show Harry. She had in her arms a pair of jeans with very big bottoms, a very colorful shirt that looked like it would be extremely tight, lots of pins, a big peace necklace, a bandana, and some flip-flop sandals.

"This is what I'm going to wear," she said. "And I think I can get something for you… hang on, let me talk to Hermione." Ginny went over to her friend and had her perform the charm she'd done for Ron's costume. Ginny thanked Hermione then walked back over to Harry with a box. "Here, open it."

Harry opened the box and saw a pair of jeans like Ginny's, but made for a guy. He took out the jeans and under then was a white shirt that said, "Make love, not war" and there was also a pair of Converse high-tops. Tucked into the shoes was a peace necklace like Ginny's and some pins.

"Hey, this looks kind of interesting," he said.

"There's also a charm that I can do that will make your hair turn into dreadlocks," Ginny said, and seeing Harry's shocked look, she added, "You're going to look fine!"

A/N: I'll write another chapter really soon! Read and review!