Author's Note: I think the Yule Ball Saga will be about five or six chapters long. It depends on whether or not I add the actual ball. You'll have to let me know on that one. I think I will add it, though. It'd be cruel to have all this fabulous buildup to the ball and not show it. But that brings me to another dilemma: should I tell it through Harry or Tina? Or…maybe I'll do both. I want to do Harry, but I think it would be cool to show what Tina and Hermione are doing as well.

This is a short one!

"So…you lot got dates for the ball yet?"

"Nope," said Ron.

"Well, you better hurry up, mate, or all the good ones will be gone," said Fred.

"Who're you going with, then?" said Ron.

"Angelina," said Fred promptly, without a trace of embarrassment.

"What?" said Ron, taken aback. "You've already asked her?"

"Good point," said Fred He turned his head and called across the common room, "Oi! Angelina!"

Angelina, who had been chatting with Alicia Spinnet near the fire, looked over at him.

"What?" she called back.

"Want to come to the ball with me?"

Angelina gave Fred and appraising sort of look.

"All right, then," she said, and she turned back to Alicia and carried on chatting with a bit of a grin on her face.

"There you go," said Fred to Harry and Ron, "piece of cake."

"What about you George?" asked Harry. "Who're you going with?"

"Ah," said George. "Thanks for reminding me." He turned to Tina, who looked slightly alarmed.

"Want to come to the ball with me, Tina?" George asked with the air of one asking the time.

"What?" Tina blinked.

"Come…to…the…ball…with…me." Said George, as though he was speaking to someone quite slow.

"Oh, wow, George, I…um…well, that'd be fun and all, but I can't. I'm already going with someone."

George showed no sign of surprise at this, but Harry and Ron looked as though they had been told that Blast-Ended Skrewts could cure the common cold.

"No problem," said George. "Just asked because you're a friend."

"Right," said Tina. "Why rock the boat?"

George grinned. Fred got to his feet, yawning. "We'd better use a school owl then, George, com on…"

They left. Ron stopped feeling his eyebrows and looked across at the smoldering wreck of his card castle at Tina.

"Who is it, then?" he asked.

"Who is who?"

"Who's your partner for the ball?"

"Oh," said Tina. "Terry Boot. You probably don't know him that well, he's in Ravenclaw. I met him when I was talking to Parvati's sister once, and he's really nice."

Both boys looked doubtful about this.

"So you are allowed to ask someone from another house, then," said Harry thoughtfully.

"Yeah," said Tina. "Wait…why?"

"No reason, just wondering," Said Harry quickly, but he was slightly red around the ears.

Ron didn't seem to notice this. He merely looked at Harry now and said, "We should get a move on, you know…ask someone. Fred's right. We don't want to end up with a pair of trolls."

Tina raised her eyebrows and Hermione let out a sputter of indignation.

"A pair of…what, excuse me?"

"Well — you know," said Ron, shrugging. "I'd rather go alone than with — with Eloise Midgen, say."

"Her acne's loads better lately — and she's really nice!"

"Her nose is off-center," said Ron.

"Oh I see," Hermione said, bristling. "So basically, you're going to take the best looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"

"Er — yeah, that sounds about right," said Ron.

"I'm going to bed," Hermione snapped, and she swept off toward the girls' staircase without another word.

"What's wrong with her?" said Ron.

"No idea," said Harry.

Tina sat sputtering at the two of them for a full minute before she spoke.

"You people are sick," she said, looking more disgusted and offended than amused. "No wonder you two haven't got dates for the ball."

Then she got up and stomped towards her dormitory, pausing only once to look back at them and shake her head hopelessly.

A/N: I had to have that there, I'm sorry. Whether or not George Weasley would actually ask me to the ball, I will never know, but the twins rocked, and I had to try. Plus, Anandini77 recommended it, too, so that clinched it! Blame her!

Now, this is hard to remember if you haven't read the book incredibly recently, but Fred and George showed up asking for Pig to send a letter, and Ron's eyebrows are singed because he made a card castle with his Exploding Snap deck which blew up in his face.

Anandini77- Yes! I really liked the idea of Tina and Terry because I wanted it to be someone unfamiliar. Someone who I could make into my own character, too. Plus, he's a Ravenclaw, so he's smart. (hehe) I am going to use the bit about the Harry-Hermione-Krum triangle later on, but I won't be giving that away just yet. I felt sorry for Neville too! But, we must remember that he didn't 'fancy' Hermione, so he wasn't crushed, just maybe a little taken aback. And he bounced back quick enough to ask Ginny, didn't he? Oh, and Tina wasn't surprised to find him in the common room, she was surprised to find him reading. After all, he isn't the most studious person. If you care to know, he was reading Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean, as we know this book will prove to be quite helpful. There will be girl bonding for Tina and Ginny, of course! I don't know if it'll be on the Quidditch field, though. You think I'd make a good Chaser? I always saw myself as Seeker, since my hand-eye coordination at catching and throwing things isn't that great. But yes, they will get a moment. Possibly in Book 5, though, with a smaller one in Book 4. Yes, yes, yes, I absolutely have to show the four of them in class! And both the classes you mentioned will be the ones I use. I gotta say, half this story just may be your ideas.

Padfoot, Prongs and Moony (though Moony seems to be the only one reviewing…) - Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! Sirius is coming! He'll be in Book 5, though, that's the one where we see him with people besides Harry a bit more. Tasks in the tournament? Excellent idea. I'll most definitely be using that one. Rita Skeeter is so cool! Okay, granted, she's a back-stabbing cheating scum, but she's just…cool. You have to admit that she'd make a great spy for the Order, too. I was planning on having Tina do something to her (one of those things I always long to do but never get pushed over the edge enough to actually do them. Rita, however, is going to push me/Tina over the edge to the point of doing it. Did that make sense?). But the problem is that I know Rita would get some sort of revenge. That's that part I don't know how to write. I don't know what she can do to Tina! Argh, I need to think. I feel bad for Neville, too! But check my response to Anandini77 for more on that, I'm too lazy to type it all over again.

Ronkid8829- Thanks!

Tekvah Ariel- As I wrote to Padfoot, Prongs and Moony just now, see my response to Anandini77 for the explanation on Neville. I really do like the kid! Sorry if I gave you writer's block! Bad Proma, bad bad Proma! :: hits herself with the lamp like Dobby:: Ouch. Tina does go to the library with Hermione, not all the time, but more than the boys, because they both have Ancient Runes. I think I already told you about Krum's 'stalkerish' behavior, right? Well, just in case, we have to remember that he did only come to the library to talk to Hermione. In all those times that he didn't, he must've learned a lot about her without trying to.

Venus725- Oh! You used the word 'perfectly' and you were talking about something I did! That, I am not used to. But thank you, thank you, thank you! Glad you like Viktor. He's actually a pretty easy person to write. He's just very…simple, I guess. (And trollish, but in a non-freaky way.) Yes, I love R/H! But, I've pretty much never seen a fic that pulls it off. (And if I have, I just can't remember right now) The D/H a lot more people (like you!) can pull off, because it isn't foreshadowed in the books and Draco and Hermione were never friends to start out with. You have an R/H fic??? I have to read it! Or did I already? I dunno. I'll read it again! But yeah, the whole Harry/Hermione thing just strikes me as odd. I just…can't bring myself to see it at all, or like it much, either. Except in Tekvah Ariel's story, because they're still very much friends. Glad you enjoyed the girl moment! There's more where that one came from, let me tell you now. I like Ginny and Hermione being friends, too, but they don't really see each other as much as Hermione and Tina can. Ginny's in a different year, and has no classes with Hermione. Tina, on the other, does. I just love that I can do that, though! Plug myself in to do what Ginny can't, I mean. Don't get me wrong, the three of them are good friends, too, but just as Ron and Harry are better friends than Hermione and Harry, Tina and Hermione are better friends than Hermione and Ginny. Yes, Hermione, does like Vicky, even if it isn't really the same as 'Vik' feels for her. But the fact is that whenever someone likes you, you just can't help but enjoy that fact. Yes, Malfoy interaction coming soon, but he may not be returned from my fic in flawless condition. I don't know how exactly I feel about Malfoy. I probably don't 'like' him, though. Tom Felton's good-looking, no doubt about that, but when I read the books, I always seem to see Malfoy as a sort…short person, and because he's got an ugly personality, I see him as ugly in the books. That and he's complete scum. Hope I'm not offending you or anything. I do like the Malfoy in your fic, though. Him, I could enjoy meeting. Maybe.

Review! See how long a response you can get? But the response must fit the review…