"Clear or black? Clear or black? Clear or-"

"Gin, calm down!"

"Calm down!" Ginny shrieked. "Calm down! I have exactly HALF AN HOUR to apply nail varnish and you're telling me to CALM DOWN!"

Hermione rolled her eyes, trying to perfect her nails with a toothpick. "Get started then," she said, and before her friend could start her ranting again she added "black."

Ginny nodded absently, unscrewing a pot of black nail varnish. "Do you think he'll like it?" Ginny asked, absent-mindedly dipping the brush in and out of the pot.

"Who?" Hermione asked. "Harry?"

Ginny laughed. "No. I meant Dr-Derek." She had almost said Draco. Why...? "Well, and Harry, I guess," she added, blushing. "He IS kinda cute. Not that I think I'd ever kiss him... that would be rather frightening." Ginny screwed up her face. "Definitely frightening. Although, I suppose it does depend on the circumstances," she added thoughtfully. "I suppose under mistletoe wouldn't be to bad, I'd have an excuse..."

Hermione tried to keep a straight face, but Ginny was too preoccupied by the pretext of imagining what it would be like kissing Harry, not to mention her nearly have asked for Draco's opinion that she didn't notice until Hermione raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"What?" She asked, defensively. "He IS kinda cute. Although he is my friend. But I don't think I would mind potential boyfriend... although not being in love with him might cause a slight problem... And you're one to talk!" She scowled. "Ooh! Wow Bill! That's so cool Bill! Tell me more about Egypt Bill!" Ginny mimicked in a high pitched girly voice while batting her eyelashes furiously.

Hermione choked. "That was ONE time. And that was a DARE."

Ginny grinned. "Still, it's not as if we asked for you to kiss him on the cheek as you left or smile at him sweetly," she added, knowing full well that this was always an embarrassing subject for Hermione.

"It's called IMPROVISATION Ginny!"

Ginny grinned. You're a very talented actress Hermione."

Hermione looked confused. "Thanks," she said uncertainly.

"Oh to Hell with it!" Ginny cried unexpectedly as the nail varnish got on her skin. "I am NEVER going to have to do this the muggle way, so what's the point? Nelshi ravan!"

Black nail polish appeared magically on her nails, and she smiled contentedly to herself. "Hm... Wethr Onlg!" He nails were now one centimetre longer. "Cool! Do I want fake jewels? Repea Elwej!" And miniature fake jewels appeared, spelling GINNY in fancy writing on her nails. "Groovy!"

Hermione gaped. "How the hell did you do that?" She asked, abandoning her nail varnish and grabbing Ginny's hand, pulling it rather painfully judging by Ginny's startled cry, into her range of view.

Ginny shrugged nonchalantly, ignoring the momentary pain. "Just a little something I picked up."

Hermione crossed her arms defiantly across her chest, her brow was furrowed and she glared at Ginny, as if jealous that Ginny had learnt something before she had.

Ginny grinned at her friend's face. "Gimme your hand."

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"Do you think I should ask her, Ron?" Harry asked nervously, fidgeting with the collar on his dress robes. "I mean, you don't mind, do you?"

Ron shrugged, trying to fix his hair. "Call her my sister, but I really do not have a clue how she'll take it. She agreed on going with you, so that's a good sign isn't it?"

Harry sighed. "Yea-ah, but is it enough? I mean, she doesn't act like Parvati around me, but...?"

Ron stopped fussing with his hair and turned to face his best friend. "I think," he said, brandishing the comb in Harry's direction, "that if you want to ask her, do it towards the end. If she says no, then that's okay, you have the whole night to think of an apology. If she says yes, then great!" He turned back to the mirror, to inspect his appearance. "Either way, you win."

He grinned at Harry through the mirror, and then clapped him on the shoulder. "I'm off, see you in twenty minutes." He grinned and waved Harry goodbye before disappearing through the door.

Harry sighed at his reflection, and pulled a face. "I suppose it could be worse," he muttered. "I suppose I could be stuck on the inside of a mirror like you are," he told his reflection, who scowled.

"Well, wish me luck," he grinned feebly, at his reflection, who was forced to grin back, looking terribly irritated.

"It's no fun, you know that right? At least YOU have a life. All I have to do is hang around and watch you prance around getting ready for a dance."

Harry sighed, and looked around the room; Ron's reflection was nodding in agreement to Harry's reflection's statement.

Shaking his head, he positioned Ron's mirror in front oh his.

"If you get bored of each other," he called over his shoulder at the two reflections, "you are not obliged to stay. It's not like Ron or I will be standing in front of you anyways. Night!"

And he shut the door, laughing slightly as he set down the steps, in search for Ginny.

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He found her pretty quickly, she was standing by the fireplace chatting to a 5th year girl, whom he did not recognise.

"Hi," he said, coming up to her and grinning widely. "You look... wow... you look great. Better than great actually... more along the lines of extremely gorgeous... where's Hermione? I thought you were waiting with her?"

Ginny blushed scarlet, and smiled at him shyly. "She went off early to meet Travis." She rolled her eyes. "You know, her boyfriend." She did the quotation marks with her hands at the last word.

Harry grinned. "Oh yeah, I think she's mentioned that... at least 10 times or so. So... you ready to go?"

Ginny smiled. "Yeah, sure." She turned to the girl she'd been talking to. "See you there!" She squealed excitedly, and then she set off to the Great Hall with Harry.

"Well..." Harry said, when they'd escaped the packed common room. "THAT was awkward."

Ginny smiled slightly, cocking her head up at him. "I think what's awkward is that everybody expects us to be going together. Ron mentioned something about Seamus and Dean betting on who you'd be asking."

Harry looked down at her curiously. "Really? Who did they think I would ask?"

Ginny frowned. "Dean thought you'd be going with Lavender, and Seamus said something about Hermione or Cho Chang."

Harry laughed bitterly. "Yeah, RIGHT. Cho, as if that's ever going to happen."

Ginny stayed silent, thinking about what Harry had just said. "Yeah, RIGHT. Cho. As if that's ever going to happen." The sentence echoed through her mind, and she found herself thinking about Draco. The chances of them getting together was about minus one hundred compared to Harry and Cho.

Ginny wasn't even aware of the awkward silence that had settled between them until they had almost reached the Great Hall.

"Remember the last dance we had to go to?" Harry asked, grimacing at the memory of the Tri Wizard Tournament. "Bloody nightmare wasn't it?"

Ginny laughed. "You sound exactly like Ron."

Harry smiled, a genuine smile. "You can't deny it was awful though."

"Yeah, it was pretty terrible wasn't it?" She chuckled at the memory. "My toes hurt so much from Neville trodding on them that I could barely walk properly the next morning. I had to go see madam Pomfrey during lunch break for pain killers."

"Ouch. That sucks."

"Yeah, it did."

Silence fell over them once again as they entered the entrance hall, now packed with students. Before Harry or Ginny knew what was happening, Hermione had fought her way through the crowd, hand in hand with a very handsome looking boy.

"Hi!" She said, breathlessly.

"Harry, Ginny this is Travis. Travis, these are two of my very best friends."

Harry and Travis exchanged curt nods, small smiles on their faces, but Ginny, ecstatic about finally having met her friend's boyfriend enveloped him into a tight hug, catching Travis completely off guard.

"Hi!" Ginny squealed, letting Travis go and holding him out at arm's length, very much the way Mrs. Weasely did after Ron and Ginny came back after a year at Hogwarts.

"I've heard so many good things about you! I'm Ginny, Ron's sister. I can't believe I'm actually meeting you! I thought Hermione had made you up you know, she never shut up about you and the only "proof" - Ginny used the hand quotations "she had about you being real was a bracelet. Hermione told me all about you, I feel as if I've known you my whole life! You go to Nimberth don't you? I have a cousin who goes there. Well, she's not really a cousin... more like a friend's cousin, maybe you know her... Francis?"

Travis gaped at her. "Could you repeat that... a little slower please?"

Ginny laughed good naturedly. "Sorry, all the excitement building up."

Hermione coughed softly. "What she means is," she said, smiling at Ginny, "is that she's pleased to meet you."

Travis grinned at Ginny revealing nicely even teeth, though not as nice as Derek's or Malfoy's. "Nice to meet you too Virginia."

Ginny scowled. "DONT call me that. Call me Ginny, and that's an order."

Travis looked slightly alarmed. "Okay... Ginny."

Polite conversation was made after that, consisting of Harry and Travis debating who they thought would win the next Quidditch World Cup and why, and exchanging opinions on quidditch teams.

"Puddlemere United," Travis challenged Harry, his eyes bright with mischief, reminding Harry forcefully of Ron's older brothers, Fred and George.

Harry shook his head. "They're good, but they don't beat the Fringled Hervats for miles. A friend of mine used to play for them, he's being replaced at the moment, he's in St Mungoes for a while."

"No kidding!" Travis exclaimed. "Wood?"

Harry grinned. He certainly did approve of Travis. He would have to remember to congratulate Hermione on her excellent choice later. "Yeah, he used to be Quidditch Captain, he left of course two years ago, he was replaced by Angelina, that's her over there-" he motioned to the tall Hispanic looking girl, a few feet away from them. "But she's leaving too in the summer, so I get to be captain." He grinned.

Travis shook his head at Harry good naturedly. "I'm hating you already," he said with a smile, envy was written across his face.

Meanwhile, Hermione had excused herself for reasons un-known to Ginny, and as Ginny stood awkwardly next to the two chatting boys, she felt eyes on her.

Turning her head ever so slightly, she found herself looking into Draco Malfoy's pale blue eyes. He nodded at her ever so slightly and she gave him a small smile, before quickly breaking eye contact, suddenly nervous.

Then, before she was able to spare him a second glance, the oak doors opened, and they were let inside.

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Sorry to let the romantics down, no kissing yet… however, the ball hasn't started yet has it? ..winks.. Review! If you are so inclined…