DISCLAIMER: I own nothing – it all belongs to JK Rowling.
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Halloween was going to be an odd day this year – Harry could just feel it. While the boys carried on as normal, the girls seemed to have gone completely insane. Everywhere he looked, girls had their heads together, avidly discussing their dress robes for the Quidditch Ball that night, and collapsing into giggles every time a boy hove into sight.
Even Hermione, who was normally very sensible, seemed to have caught the bug. She bolted down her breakfast, refusing to look at Ron, and then hared off to the library muttering something incoherent about an Arithmancy essay she needed to finish.
Harry and Ron spent most of the day in the library themselves. The workload for NEWT subjects seemed heaver than it had ever been. Determined not to give Snape the satisfaction of failing him, Harry was putting in plenty of hours doing extra reading for Potions. It seemed to be working – so far, he hadn't failed a single class.
At about four o'clock that afternoon, arriving back at the common-room, Harry and Ron found it completely empty of all girls.
"They've all gone upstairs to panelbeat themselves," said Dean, who was playing Exploding Snap with Dennis Creevey and losing horribly.
"Weird," said Ron, shaking his head. "I reckon it'll take us about ten minutes to get changed into our dress robes, but they need three hours? Better be worth it …"
However, it seemed that even the boys wanted to do a bit of primping and preening. Most of them headed to the showers an hour before the ball was due to begin, and spent quite a bit of time applying various aftershaves, colognes and hair ointments.
Harry, who had given up on his unruly hair years ago, didn't even bother trying to flatten it down. Giving it a good combing after his shower, he left it to its own devices and sat in his dark green dress robes on his bed, watching the others get ready.
Ron was climbing into the dress robes that Fred and George had bought him two years ago, from the TriWizard winnings that Harry had given them. They were navy blue and very plain, and suited him much more than the lace-trimmed, maroon ones he had been forced to don for the Yule ball two years ago.
"Much better," said Harry, grinning.
"You're not kidding, mate," said Ron with feeling. "I didn't entirely trust Fred and George when they first gave them to me, though. I poked the robes with a stick a bit just to make sure they weren't going to strangle me, or make me turn blue or something. I only tried them on once George had worn them to prove that they were safe."
"They wouldn't do something like that to you, would they?" asked a shocked Neville from across the room, where he was struggling into his slate-grey robes.
Glumly, Ron nodded. "Oh yeah," he said. "I wouldn't trust those gits as far as I could chuck a cathedral."
Trooping down to the common-room, they settled down to wait for the girls. Neville headed for the portrait hole.
"Where are you going, Neville?" asked Harry.
Neville blushed. "I'm taking Hannah Abbott, so I'm going to meet her in the Entrance Hall and I don't want to be late," he stammered. Shooting out of the portrait hole, he slammed the portrait closed behind him before anyone could say a word.
Harry looked at Ron. "Hannah Abbott?" he said, grinning. "Well, I never …"
Slowly, the girls started filtering down from their dormitories. Harry and Ron were chatting to Colin and Dennis in front of the fire when Colin, who was facing the staircases, stopped talking in mid-sentence and gaped towards the door. Harry and Ron turned around.
There, just reaching the bottom of the stairs, were Ginny and Hermione. Wearing gold satin robes, Ginny's hair cascaded across her back in a shower of flaming ringlets. She beamed happily at Harry and came over to him.
"Wow," he said into her ear, giving her a hug. "You look beautiful."
Ron was staring at Hermione. Her robes were ice-blue, and she had straightened her hair and left it down, making it look much longer than when it was in its usual, bushy state. She wore a simple circlet of silver leaves around her head in a band to hold her hair back.
"You look … um … nice," said Ron.
"Thanks," said Hermione. "I like your new dress robes."
Ron grinned. "At least I won't be using these to cover Pig's cage!" he laughed, remembering the days when he used his maroon lacy robes to keep Pig covered and quiet on the train.
The large, noisy Gryffindor group moved down to the Entrance Hall. On the way down, Harry noticed that Katie Bell was alone.
"Are you going with someone from another house, Katie?" he asked.
She giggled and winked at him. "Not exactly," she whispered to him. "Wait and see – it's a surprise."
To Harry's amazement, Colin was partnering Luna, who was wearing a multicoloured creation and had her hair in a series of complicated weaves and plaits. Harry raised an eyebrow at Colin, who went very red.
They milled around the Entrance Hall, waiting for the doors to the Great Hall to open. Harry spotted Malfoy, who was partnering Pansy Parkinson again. Malfoy glared at him, and then flinched and turned away when he saw Ginny.
"He's really scared of you now, Ginny!" said Harry, highly amused. "Before, he was just nervous about the flying bogies, but now he thinks you're going to savage him!"
The doors to the Entrance Hall opened slowly, and they began to move inside. Much like the Yule Ball, the Hall was filled with small round tables. However, it was decorated with all things Quidditch – huge, illuminated Quaffles floated above the tables, casting soft red light. Overgrown Snitches zoomed around, happily bouncing off the walls and shedding showers of golden glitter whenever they hit something. Harry was very relieved to see that the only Bludgers in evidence were stationary, sitting in the middle of each table and acting as candle-holders.
Ginny suddenly came to a complete halt. "What on earth are you two doing here?" she said, as Fred and George came bounding towards them.
"Hello, little sis – nice to see you too!" said Fred.
"And what are you doing holding hands with this scarred git?" said George ominously, glaring in mock-disapproval at Harry. Grinning, he held out his hand for Harry to shake. "Only kidding, Harry, mate!" he said.
Harry shook hands with both of them, very surprised to see them. Ron came up behind him.
"What's going on?" he asked. "I thought you two had graced these hallowed halls for the last time when you did your grand exit last year."
"We had," said Fred smugly. "But Dumbledore asked us to help with the after-dinner entertainment … so here we are!"
"And here's my partner," said George, holding out his hand to Katie Bell. She grinned at him.
"Nice to see you guys back," she said. "It's been very quiet without you."
"Thank goodness for the quiet," muttered Ron, steering Harry and Ginny towards the table he had commandeered. "At least I don't have Mum writing to complain that I should be controlling my brothers better any more. As if anyone could ever manage those two…"
"Well, not that I'm not happy to see them, but this is just great!" said Harry, disgruntled.
"What is?" asked Ginny.
"My first real date with you, and I have not one, but three older brothers watching my every move," he complained.
But Hermione was staring past Harry, grinning. "You'd better make that four," she said.
"WHAT?" said Harry, turning around.
There, walking towards them from the staff table and accompanying a very blonde, curly Tonks, was none other than Charlie Weasley.
This time, jaws dropped all around the table. After throwing herself at her older brother for a hug, Ginny stepped back and looked at him suspiciously.
"Please don't tell me you're dating my Defence Against the Dark Arts professor?" she begged.
Charlie looked a little abashed, and Tonks went pink. "Well, yeah, actually – I am," he said.
"But … how long … where…" babbled Ron, looking very shocked.
"Well, we met at 12 Grimmauld Place during some Order meetings last year," said Tonks, talking very fast. "And we started seeing each other a few months ago. Don't worry, Ron," she added, grinning at Charlie's younger brother. "It won't affect your class marks."
"I was kind of hoping it would," said Ron. "As Malfoy always says – it's not what you know, it's who you know." He ducked a mock punch from Charlie.
Dinner took much the same format as with the Yule Ball. They simply looked down the menu and chose what they wanted, then ordered it from their plates. Magically, the food appeared instantly.
Munching on his lamb chops, Harry noticed that Ron and Hermione were very quiet. Odd, he thought, for two people who normally couldn't make it through four sentences without having a go at each other. In fact, watching them surreptitiously, he noticed they weren't really looking at each other much, either.
After dinner, Dumbledore stood and, asking everyone else to do the same, waved his wand and sent the tables flying along the edges of the room to create a dance floor.
"Before we begin the dancing, however," he said, twinkling around at the assembled crowd, "I would like to introduce two alumni of this school, Fred and George Weasley, of Weazley's Wizarding Wheezes. We have asked them here tonight to provide a little light entertainment."
As he finished speaking, the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall lit up with a spectacular display of fireworks. They flew up to the roof, ignited, and became Quidditch players on broomsticks, made entirely of sparkles and smoke. When one of the fireworks erupted as a Quaffle, the game was on and the 'players' sped around the Great Hall, passing it from side to side.
"That's bloody incredible!" yelled Harry to a beaming Fred, who had just released an incendiary Bludger.
"Thanks!" he yelled back. "Took us a while to develop these fireworks, but now we know how to do it, we can make them become anything we want!"
The display went on for another few minutes, and then ended with a spectacular explosion that blinded everyone for a few seconds.
The audience applauded wildly as Fred and George took a bow.
"Thank you indeed!" said Dumbledore, smiling. "And now, may I introduce our band for the night – Quentin and the Quills!"
Going by the enthusiastic response to this announcement, Harry deduced that this was yet another very popular band in the wizarding world. Trooping up to the stage was a group of young wizards that would have looked quite at home at a rock concert in the Muggle world. They were all wearing lurid leather jackets and trousers and had long hair and earrings.
The dance floor filled up quickly as they launched into their first song. Very relieved that it wasn't like the Yule Ball, where he'd had to open the dancing with the other champions, Harry took Ginny's hand and led her to an open space for the first dance.
Half an hour later, Harry felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he found Charlie grinning at him. "Mind if I cut in for a dance with my baby sister?" he said.
"No problem," said Harry hastily. "I'll just go and get us some drinks, shall I?"
Heading towards the drinks table, he was surprised to see Hermione sitting alone. On the other side of the room, Ron was talking to Susan Bones. Harry went over to Hermione.
"What's up?" he asked, flopping into a chair next to her.
To his horror, her eyes were full of tears. "He hasn't even danced with me yet," she said desperately. "He's been over there talking to Susan for the last half an hour."
Suddenly, Hermione leapt to her feet. "I'm not prepared to go through this humiliation," she said. "I'm going outside for a walk, and then I'm going back to Gryffindor tower. See you, Harry." She rushed away, out of the doors of the Great Hall.
Anger boiling up inside him, Harry got up and went over to Ron. "Hi, Susan," he said to her, noticing that her eyes, too, were rather red-rimmed. "Sorry, but do you mind if I have a quick word with Ron?" She shook her head.
He dragged Ron to a quiet corner. "Just what do you think you're playing at?" he hissed.
"What are you talking about?" said Ron, looking astounded.
"You've been neglecting Hermione all evening, and now she's left and she's really angry with you," Harry said furiously.
Looking horrified, Ron looked towards their table. "Oh, no…" he whispered.
"Oh, yes!" said Harry. "What on earth are you doing over here with Susan, anyway?"
"She's just broken up with Justin Finch-Fletchley and she's really upset," said Ron defensively.
"Well, you'd better get outside and sort this out with Hermione right now!" ordered Harry. No, don't even think about trying to wriggle out of this one," he added as Ron looked as though he was about to object. "Put it this way: Ginny's got six brothers who'll have my head on a platter if I hurt her. I'm the closest thing to a brother that Hermione's got, and I kid you not, mate, I will give you a serious belting if you hurt her any more than you already have. Now move!"
He gave Ron a push in the direction of the Great Hall doors. With a last, despairing look in his direction, Ron fled.
Glancing at the dance floor, Harry saw that Ginny was now being swung around with great enthusiasm by Fred. He caught her eyes and mouthed "five minutes" at her. She nodded and smiled, then shrieked as Fred swept her right off her feet.
I'd better go after Ron, just in case he messes this up with his usual diplomacy and I have to mop up Hermione, Harry thought grimly. Outside the main doors, the front area of the castle had again been transformed into a rose garden, complete with fountains, bowers and fairy lights. He spotted Ron disappearing towards a small fountain to his right, and sneaked after him.
Hermione was sitting on a tiny stone bench in front of the fountain, and by the look of it, had been crying desperately. She jumped to her feet as soon as she saw Ron, wiping her face angrily. Ducking behind a nearby rosebush and nearly getting his eye poked out by a stray thorn, Harry strained his ears to listen.
"Why did you bother to ask me to this Ball, Ron?" said Hermione furiously. "Honestly, if you wanted to ask Susan Bones, then you should have!"
"I asked you because I wanted you to be my partner!" flared Ron.
"Oh really?" said Hermione. "You could have fooled me – you haven't said two words to me since we got here!'
"Well, I …" muttered Ron. "I just needed to talk to …"
"I KNOW!" shouted Hermione. "Susan! Well, obviously, I embarrass you or something, Ron – so why don't you just go back inside and spend the rest of the evening with her, then?"
"Embarrass me?" said Ron, nonplussed. "Of course you don't embarrass me! You look beautiful and I'm really proud to be with you!"
"Well, then? What's the problem?" she spat angrily.
"It's just that … well, I think you always look great, but when you're dressed up like this, you don't look like my Hermione, and I don't know how to talk to you," said Ron honestly.
Harry winced. My Hermione? He closed his eyes, bit his lip and waited for the sound of a resounding slap to echo around the garden.
He didn't hear it.
"Oh, Ron…" said Hermione, and then there was complete silence.
Harry opened one eye. What on earth was going on? He opened the other eye and cautiously peered around the edge of the rose bush. He froze at the sight that met his eyes. There, outlined against the silver water of the softly playing fountain, were his two best friends – wrapped in each other's arms. And they definitely weren't fighting.
Grinning from ear to ear, Harry stole away and slipped back up the stairs to the entrance hall. It looked like the inevitable had finally happened.