the ball, the ball! the ball! the ball! the ball! yeah! the ball!
guess what this chapter is about! hehe!
Disclaimer: own the little peom that some recites to Kyla, but Edgar Allen Poe owns the quotes from his poem, "The Raven". ok, enjoy!
"Merry Christmas," Hermione greeted Ron and Harry as they came down to the common room.

"Merry Christmas," the answered together in cheerful voices.

Ron looked around and asked, "Where's Kyla?"

"Still asleep," Hermione told him. "I tried to wake her up, but she wouldn't budge from her bed." Then she added quickly, "What did you get for Christmas?"

"Well, for some reason, Fred and George decided to find their long, lost souls and buy me some decent dress robes," Ron told her. "Of course mum, sent me the usual gift." Ron held out his hand knit sweater. "And I haven't opened any other ones."

Ginny came down the stairs and said, "Ron you can have my fudge, merry Christmas."

She threw the fudge at Ron, who caught it eagerly.

After the presents were all unwrapped, Hermione and Ginny went up to their rooms, only to find Kyla still sleeping.

"Wow, she slept through Christmas morning, I could never do that," Ginny told Hermione.

"Well, she must of woken up and unwrapped all her presents and then went back to sleep," Hermione said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"How can you tell?" Ginny asked.

"The end of her bed is clear, that is where I find all my presents," Hermione explained.

"Or she could just not gotten and presents. Let's face it, she didn't do to good of a job making friends, especially when someone spreads rumors about her." Ginny said the last part quietly to herself, but Hermione heard it and felt guilty. Ginny looked at Kyla and asked, "Think we should wake her up for breakfast?"

"I guess," Hermione said.

As Ginny walked over to Kyla's bed, she noticed a piece of parchment on Kyla's nightstand. Ginny picked it up and said, "Whoa."

"What?" Hermione asked coming over.

"Look at this drawing," Ginny said, handing over Kyla's doodle of a dress that looked a lot like her butterfly costume. "It's so pretty, I wish I could wear that to the masquerade ball."

"Yeah, it is pretty. Do you think that is what she's wearing to the dance?" Hermione, a note of panic hinted in her voice.

"No, I don't think she wants to go to the dance," Ginny told her.

"Oh," Hermione said happily.

Kyla stirred and opened her eyes. Ginny smiled and said, "Hi Kyla. We thought we wake you because it's time for breakfast."

Kyla nodded and then rolled over on her side. Hermione then asked, "Are you wearing this to the dance?"

Kyla turned around and Hermione gave her the piece of parchment. Kyla shook her head and gave it back to Hermione. "Are you going to the dance?" Hermione asked.

Kyla shook her head and rolled over, again. "Well, just to warn you, it's time for breakfast, so either get up now or you'll get none."

When Kyla still didn't move, Hermione and Ginny left. As soon as Kyla was sure everyone was out of the Gryffindor tower, she pulled out the boxes Dumbledore gave her and a parchment hidden in between her mattress. She looked over the parchment and began working on how to make her drawing a reality.

"Ok, the dance started ten minutes ago, what are keeping the girls?" Ron asked nervously.

"They're girls, what do you expect?" Dean asked.

Seamus looked at Harry and asked, "Who are you waiting for?"

"Parvati," Harry answered him. "How about you?"

"Lavender."

"I thought Lavender fancied some Ravenclaw," Ron said.

"She did, but he already had a date," Seamus told him.

Right after Seamus said that, Lavender and Ginny came down. Lavender was wearing a classy lavender dress, and Ginny was wearing a golden gown, with golden wings and a gold butterfly mask. Her hair was down and given a wavy appearance.

Seamus took Lavender by the arm and said, "Lavender, you look great."

"Thanks, well see you everyone," Lavender said, and then the two of them went down to the dance.

"Ginny you look gorgeous, but I thought you weren't wearing a mask," Dean told her.

"I wasn't planning on it, but I saw this drawing Kyla drew and she and Hermione said they would help make it for me. So here I am, a golden butterfly," Ginny explained.

"Well, you really do look fantastic," said Dean. "We bide you gentlemen farewell."

Parvati came down in a soft green dress, followed by Hermione in creamy pink gown, with long white gloves. Her hair was straight and not as busy, and but up in an elegant bun with two strands out at the front, curled.

"Wow, Hermione, you look great. I love your hair," Ron told her.

"Thank you," Hermione said with a genuine smile. Then she added, with a more force smile, "Kyla did it for me."

Harry went up to Parvati and took her by the arm. "You look really nice."

"Thank you," Parvati blushed. Then she turned to Ron and Hermione, and asked, "You guys ready?"

"Yes," Hermione answered her.

Ron and Hermione were about to enter the Great Hall, when Malfoy came up to them. He was wearing black leather pants, with a black shirt and a black robe over it. He smirked and asked, "See Pansy, I told you that mudblood lovers always stick with their original mudbloods."

"Malfoy," Ron snarled.

"I see you finally managed to get decent dress robes this year. Did your parents have to save their moneys for a couple years to afford those?" Malfoy asked.

"Malfoy, why don't you get out of here and dance with your date?" Hermione suggested.

Malfoy just shrugged and walked away with his date, Pansy. Ron glared after them and said, "I would like to punch that smirk right off his face sometimes."

Hermione placed her hand on his arm and said soothingly, "Just forget about him tonight, and enjoy being at the dance, with me."

"Yeah, I'll enjoy that," Ron told her with a smile.

As they were walking over to Harry and Parvati, a man in deep red robes bumped into Hermione. "Oh excuse me, miss," he told her. He looked up at her and smiled. He was wearing a red mask shaped like small wings, and Hermione couldn't tell which house he was in. Then he said, "My apologizes."

He went to leave and Hermione asked, "Which house are you in?"

"Me?" he asked, turning around again. "I'm, I'm in a house. It's a good house. I'm in the, umm, the house with, uhh…"

"What my friend here is trying to say is he is in Hufflepuff," a man dressed in all back said. The man had on a black mask, in the shape of wings that covered most of his face. He had piercing pale blue eyes that made Hermione feel cold. "Incase you were wondering, my friend is supposed to be a red robin. I'm a raven and then names Edgar."

"What year are you two in?" Hermione asked.

"What year are you in?" the boy dressed up as a raven asked.

"I'm in sixth," Hermione told him.

"See, we're in seventh," he told her. "Oh yes, I'm in Ravenclaw by the way."

"I… I'm…" the boy in red stuttered. "I'm Jona-Jimmy. John-Jimmy, just call me Jimmy though. I hate the name John."

"Ok," Hermione told. "Nice meeting you two."

After Hermione and Ron walked away, the boy in black turned to the red one and said, "Jonathan, you need to work on you're lying."

"Trevor, you know I'm not good at lying," Jonathan told him.

"The names Edgar, and I guess you're John-Jimmy," Trevor told him with a laugh, and walked towards the drinks.

Kyla took a couple of deep breaths and slide in the Great Hall, unnoticed. She had on a blue dress that had a scooping neckline, and the bottom had a wavy edge. The dress had wavy lines and spirals that were only a shade or two off from the background color of blue. Thus a person couldn't really tell they were there, unless they looked for them. The sleeves weren't really sleeves, just a strap of light blue, about an inch wide that fell off of Kyla's shoulder by just a little. Over her dress, Kyla had a robe with the same color as her dress. The robe tied around her neck. It moved with her body and the hood was pulled up, hiding her mask. The mask was a darker blue and it went from the bridge of her nose, down to a little pass her cheeck bones, and then up covering her eyebrows. Her mask also had the spirals on it also.

"Kyla, is that you?" Ginny asked, peering into her eyes.

Kyla took down the hood and nodded. Ginny looked astonished and said, "We didn't think you were coming. Wow, you look great. Are you here alone?"

Kyla nodded, and Ginny said, "Here, come sit with us."

Kyla went to protest, but Ginny was already dragging her towards the table. Ron and Hermione were getting some drinks, when Ginny and Kyla came over to the table. Ginny sat Kyla down next to herself, and then Dean asked Ginny to dance with him. Parvati and Lavender stared at Kyla for a while. Finally Parvati broke the silence. "Where did you get the dress?"

"Grandmum," Kyla told them, after a moment of thought.

"Oh," Lavender and Parvati said together. Then Lavender asked, "What are supposed to be?"

Kyla shrugged and started tapping her foot to the beat. Parvati opened her mouth to ask something else, when the boy dressed as a raven came over. Everyone stared at him, feeling slightly uneasy. Kyla looked at him and smile. He smiled back at Kyla and asked, "Care to make my dreams come true and dance with me?"

He extended his hand, and Kyla took it. He led her out to the dance floor as a slow song came on. He stepped closer to Kyla and asked, "Single tear drop?"

Kyla looked up at him and nodded. She looked at his mask and asked, "Raven?"

"Yeah, the name is Edgar, by the way," Trevor told him.

Kyla giggle and said, "Edgar Allen Poe."

"First person to get that," Trevor told him. "But the name's Edgar, for the night. By any chance is your last name De Lorme?"

Kyla laughed and shook her head. Trevor asked, "Are you familiar with him though?" Kyla nodded and Trevor recited, "Freedom in a drop, safety gained and lost, one tear for you, nothing more, nothing less. Just a single tear drop."

Kyla smiled and then recited, "And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting; On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming."

"And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor; Shall be lifted- nevermore," Trevor finished for her.

Kyla smiled at him, and when he asked if he could spin her she nodded.

"Uh, Hermione, would you um, like to dance?" Ron asked, when a slow song came on.

"Yes Ron." Ron led Hermione on to the dance floor, and they started dancing, both grinning broadly.

After a couple songs they went back to the table and started talking to Neville and his date from Hufflepuff. Some food became available and most of the couples that were still dancing stopped, and came over to fulfill their hunger. However, some couples were so preoccupied with each other they didn't even notice if the music stopped for a minute.

Ginny came over and sat down next to Hermione. Ginny nudged her and whispered, "So, how's it going?"

"So far, pretty well. We dance to a couple songs," Hermione whispered back.

"Better then last time, where he spent all his time staring at you," Ginny told her.

Hermione went to ask about it when Lavender said, "Wow, Kyla's still dancing with that guy."

Hermione's heart sunk. "Kyla's here?" she asked.

"Yeah, she started dancing with some guy and hasn't stopped," Parvati told her.

"Joy," Hermione muttered to herself. Thankfully, Ron was too involved in a discussion about Quidditch to pay attention to what they were saying. Hermione leaned in and whispered, "Where are they?"

Parvati pointed to them. Hermione tried to recognize whom Kyla was with. She couldn't, which helped her recognize who it was. It was that boy with the piercing pale blue eyes that made Hermione shiver. Hermione prayed that Ron wouldn't notice Kyla, and then she turned her attention to the food.

"Hermione," Ron interrupted her train of thoughts. Hermione looked up at him, and smiled. "Care to dance?"

Hermione nodded, and gave Ginny a wink before leaving. As they were dancing Ron said, "Hermione, thanks for coming with me."

"There is no one else I rather be with Ron," Hermione told him.

Ron leaned in to kiss her, but at the same time Neville bumped into Ron sending him sideways. Thus, Ron bumped into Trevor, and they two of them fell over. Ron quickly got off of Trevor. Once Ron was up, he offered his hand to Trevor. When Trevor took the hand, "Sorry, I didn't mean to trip you," Ron apologized.

Kyla started giggling, and Trevor turned to her smiling. "What you think that's funny? Me falling down?" he asked in a playful tone. When Kyla nodded, giggling harder, Trevor asked, "Well what if I go to dip you, but end up dropping you, would you like that?"

Kyla kept giggling, so Trevor place his hand on her back, held her hand, and dipped her. As he brought her back up, Kyla started laughing and placed her head on his shoulder, unaware that Hermione and Ron were still watching them. Trevor looked in their direction, but not at them. Then he turned his head back to Kyla and leaned his mouth to her ear. Kyla nodded, not picking her head up from his shoulder, they started dancing again. Soon the two of them were far away from Ron and Hermione.

Hermione looked sadly at Ron, who was staring, in horror, after the couple. Neville broke the silence by asking, very nervously, "Was that Kyla?"

"No, I don't think it was," Ron lied, with a stutter. He turned to Hermione and asked, "Hermione, do you mind if we sit down for a bit? I think I hurt my ankle when I fell." Hermione nodded, and they walked back to the table.

Hermione sighed. It look Ron was more focused on Kyla dancing with the boy dressed as a raven, then focusing on dance with herself. She sighed again and started taping her nails on the table.

Everyone had come back from dancing, saw what Ron was doing was the same thing he did at the last dance, and went back out dancing. Everyone seemed happy, including Harry. It probably had something to do with the fact that this ball he was representing the school in anyway.

Hermione looked around and saw all the other happy couples, which made her madder at Ron. The guy that Hermione had bumped into earlier came up to her and asked, "I know you probably have a date, but care to dance?"

Hermione looked at him and then looked at Ron. She cleared her throat and asked, "Ron, is it ok if I dance with this guy?"

Ron mumbled something in approval, and Hermione asked, "Is it ok if I go shag him?"

Ron once again mumbled something, so Hermione turned to the man and said, "I would love to dance with you."

He led her out to the dance floor and started dancing with her. "Sorry I didn't make your fella jealous," he told her after a minute of silence.

"Oh, he's not my fella," Hermione told him. "He just asked me to this dance, but he's not paying attention to me."

"I know that feeling," he told her. "I would always have a date to everything, and though I tried to be nice to her, she was most unpleasant about it. Just nodding her head along to anything I said, never meeting my eyes."

Hermione looked in his eyes and smiled. "She sounds like a complete horror. Have we meet, your voice sounds oddly familiar."

"I get that a lot," he told her.

"Now you said your name was John-Jimmy right?" Hermione asked.

"Sounds unbelievable right?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes, it does," Hermione told. Then she asked, "You don't got to this school, do you?"

"No, my friend convinced me to come to this dance. He said I could meet my new bride here," the man in red told her.

"Bride?" Hermione asked.

"It's a joke," he said quickly. "I've only had one girlfriend, and everyone saw us getting married. But she left, so my friend said this would be a good place to meet new people."

"Your friend…" Hermione trailed off.

"Yeah, he seems really normal but then he can act like a header," he told her.

"A header?" Hermione asked.

"Means mad, crazy, a bit off," he explained. "My girlfriend was like that sometimes."

"Why didn't you dump her then?" Hermione asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, if she was so horrible to you, then why didn't you dump her?"

"Oh, well our parents really, really wanted us to be together," he explained.

"Oh. Have you found a new bride?" Hermione asked.

"Well, there is this one girl who is smart, but hasn't told me her name," he said with a grin.

"Hermione," she told him. "And you really are?"

"Jonathan," he replied. "But I really do hate the nick name John."

"Ok, is your friend's name really Edgar?" Hermione asked.

"No, he said since he was going as a raven, his name should be Edgar. I think he said his last name was going to Poe, whatever that means."

"Oh, like Edgar Allen Poe," Hermione said, making the connection.

"Yeah, I guess," Jonathan said, still not getting it.

The song ended and he smiled at her. "Thanks for dancing with me Hermione."

"Thanks for asking Jonathan," Hermione told him and head back to her seat.

After awhile, when Ron still hadn't spoke anything that was close to a word to her, Hermione noticed Dean and Seamus huddle in the corner drinking some concealed beverages. She stormed over to them and asked, "What is that?"

"Nothing," Dean said, hiding it behind his back.

"Give it here," Hermione said in a voice with so much danger in it, Dean didn't protest. Hermione looked at it and said, "Fire whiskey is against the rules." Then she looked back over to Ron, and took a huge swig of it. It burnt going down her throat, and she started coughing. Once she recovered she took another, bigger sip then before. She handed over a nearly empty bottle back to Dean. Dean was staring at her, mouth gaped open, utterly bewildered. "Keep this stuff coming," she told them before walking away.

Everyone notice something was off with Hermione. She was giggly and randomly started talking to an empty chair. Whenever people asked about her Dean just smiled broadly, but said nothing. Dean has given her two bottles of the fire whiskey, which Hermione took, almost, greedily.

However, Ron didn't notice. He was to busy staring at Kyla with the man in black, who appeared to be having a good time.

While the two were dancing, Kyla reached up and began to push back Trevor's mask. Trevor pushed her hand away and asked, "What are you doing?"

Kyla shhhed him, and pushed the mask all the way up. Trevor and her stop dancing. He used both his hands and slowly pushed her mask up also. They looked in each other's eyes, and for them, time stopped. Trevor looked at her with such need, despair and lust. Kyla looked at him with fear, longing and lust also. Kyla took a step towards him, pressing her body up against his. Trevor looked at Kyla, who was taking deep breaths, trying to control herself. She couldn't do it anymore. She couldn't deny her feelings for Trevor. She had all her life, but seeing him here, a place where she no longer had restrictions, made them all come out.

Their lips meet in flurry of live long, pent up, emotions. Trevor placed a hand behind her head and pulled her even deeper into their kiss. Trevor licked Kyla's lip softly with his tongue. She moaned softly, and allowed access in her mouth. Kyla's placed a hand on his back, and made sure no space was between their bodies. They both stopped and pulled away from each other, seeming as though they both realized whom they were kissing.

They both were panting heavily, wanting more. Kyla said, in a low whispery voice, "Backstabber."

"Harlot," he said back, in the same voiceless voice.

They stared each other down, and then in a quick second, their mouth collided. Trevor groaned, and pulled Kyla closer to him. Her arms gripped his back not wanting to ever let him go.

"Look, Kyla's kissing some one," Hermione said with a giggle, before falling out of her chair.

They all looked to where she had pointed, but all they saw were dancing couples. However, Ron had seen them both times. He ran his hand through his hair and muttered, "I need a drink."

"Oh, oh!" Hermione exclaimed, waving her hand in the air. "I know this one. Dean has some!"

Everyone looked at Hermione confused, and then one by one, everyone glared at Dean. Dean smiled nervously and said, "She asked for it, honest."

"You gave her fire whiskey!" Ginny cried, in a hushed voice. "Idiot." Then she slapped Dean in the back of the head.

"Who wants to dance?" Hermione asked. She looked at Harry and said, "Come one Harry, let's dance!" She grabbed Harry's hand and led him out to the dance floor.

Trevor and Kyla pulled away from each other. They looked at each other out of breath. Kyla took a step back from him. She reached for her mask, and Trevor followed suite. Once their masks were secure on their faces, they both nodded. Then they walked away as fast as they could, without cause attention to be drawn to them.

Ron looked angrily away from Kyla, but found he couldn't take his eyes of her for very long. He watched as Kyla head for the exit, but Malfoy stopped her. Ron saw the smirk as Malfoy grabbed her arms, and forced her onto the dance floor. Ron argued with himself if he should go help her or not. When he saw Kyla try to get away from Malfoy's grasp, and Malfoy slap her, he got up land went over towards them. Pansy intercepted him by saying, "Weasley, dance with me." She looked pained to say that, but still took his arms and started dancing with him.

"Pansy, get off me," Ron snarled at her, trying to get over to Kyla and Malfoy.

"Trust me, by touching you I'm doing you the favor," Pansy told him.

Ron watched Kyla and Malfoy carefully, till Malfoy practically had to drag her out to the hallway. Ron pushed Pansy away and started to go after them, but Pansy grabbed his hand. "Let go of me."

"Relax, your precious Kyla will be back in about five minutes," Pansy told him with an evil grin. "Well, knowing Malfoy, it will probably be only two minutes."

"Get off me and she's not my precious Kyla," Ron corrected her.

"Right, that's why you didn't hardly danced with Hermione at all, and you didn't notice her dancing with someone else. And you didn't notice her getting drunk," Pansy told him smugly.

Ron broke away from her and ran out into the hallway. Malfoy pushed Kyla up against the wall, and pinned her arms against the wall. He was kissing her neck, and she tried to move her feet, but they were stuck to the floor. "No," she told him, trying to squirm away.

Ron ran up to Malfoy and gave him a right hook, in the jaw. Malfoy fell to the ground and Ron yelled, "Get away from her."

Malfoy got up and spat blood at Ron's feet. He saw the danger in Ron's eyes and said, "She not too much fun anyway." Then he walked away, rubbing his jaw.

Ron turned to Kyla and asked, "Are you ok?" All thoughts of her kissing the mystery man was lost, his only concerns was if she was all right.

Kyla nodded, but then shook her head. She pointed to her feet, and tried to move them. Ron thought, and then muttered the counter curse to the one Malfoy had placed on her. "You ok now?" he asked.

Kyla nodded and threw her arms around him in a grateful hug. Ron stiffened at first, but then relaxed and hugged her back. He realized she was shaking and said, "Don't worry Kyla, I'm here. I won't let anything bad happen to you again."

Kyla relaxed as she heard those words. Ron closed his eyes for a second, taking in the moment. Then he opened his eyes and saw a pair of angry, pale, blue eyes staring at him with hatred. Then the owner of the eyes turned around and entered the Great Hall, his black robe whipping around the corner making the only noise in the hallway.

"Kyla, let's get you back to the Gryffindor tower," Ron suggested and Kyla nodded.

Ron sat Kyla down on the couch, and she stared at the fire. Ron sat down next to her and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Kyla looked in his eyes, and tried to figure out how she felt about him. Something inside of her made her want to smile and blush when ever she was with Ron, but then again, the same part of her reminded she couldn't like him. Ron looked at his watch and said, "Twenty seconds to the new year."

Kyla shifted closet to Ron. He began the countdown, "Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven…" He leaned in closer to Kyla. "Four… Three… Two… One…"

"Happy New Year!" Hermione yelled, slurring the words together.

"Hermione?" Ron asked looking at her as though she had a leg sticking out of her neck.

She was staggering and was walking towards the right. She fell down and started laughing. Harry, who came in after her, helped her up to her feet. "Hermione, how about we get you up to your bed?"

"Ok Berry!" Hermione told him, in a high pitch voice. "Which one's my room?"

"This way," Harry pointed to the stairs on the right.

"Ok," Hermione said and staggered up the stairs to the left.

"Hermione, that's the wrong way!" Harry called after her.

"Well, maybe if you didn't move your three hands around so much I could tell," Hermione defended and kept walking up the stairs.

"I'll go make sure she's ok," Harry said and went after her.

"That's was interesting," Ron said, and turned his attention back to Kyla. She looked as though she was about to fall asleep. She smiled at Ron briefly, before resting her head against his shoulder, falling asleep.

Ron blinked unsure of what to do. Finally he sunk back into the couch, and also fell asleep.

He woke up to a jab at his throat and pair of angry hazel eyes staring at him. Ron looked down and noticed he had Kyla wrapped up in his arms. He also notice the jab in his throat was from a wand. He looked back at they eyes, and a voice demanded of him, "If you know what's good for you, get the hell away from her."

"No."


A/N: ohh, cliffish ending! so sorry about that! but this chapter is more then eight pages long! amazing huh? thanks for all the reviews, makes my day! and onlyonceinforever, please keep any dirty thoughts to yourself, but if you wish, you can say "dirty thoughts", and giggle if you wish! but really, no detials please!