The matches had, in fact, calmed down quite a bit. McGonagall gathered all the Quidditch players together after an infamous game against Slytherin and Ravenclaw where Alex and Cho got into a huge aloft fist fight. Both Cho and Alex ended up in the hospital wing after a messy series of hexes from the angry players and McGonagall was furious; the Quidditch teams appeared to be crazier than she'd ever seen them. Her long speech was followed by a warning that she would halt the games altogether if any more trouble was started.
Hermione and Ron's classes were interrupted frequently by McGonagall, Snape, and other various Weasleys; Harry was spending more time away from them then he had ever spent. It didn't bother him too much because Ginny was around a lot and so was Luna (when she wasn't sneaking off somewhere), as were the two half-elves almost constantly; they both seemed to have an unusual taste for the spotlight that followed Harry around. He didn't mind too much though, because they reminded me distantly of Fred and George and had a fantastic sense of humor.
Rebekah, as it turned out, was the only one who seemed to believe Ginny's story. Alex, on the other hand, was still telling people that Harry was the father of both girls' babies, and they argued about it almost everyday.
Hermione didn't like Rebekah very much, however (and the dislike was returned), and Ron had a naïve prejudice held against Alex for being a Slytherin. She didn't seem to mind, though, she just flirted a lot and was always saying things like "Why hello, Mr. Weasley," and "Didn't I tell you we can apparate anywhere?"
Ron would scowl and Harry would choke on his cornflakes for laughing. Even Hermione found this amusing, because she realized Alex was only playing on Ron's grudge against Slytherins.
Hermione was annoyed by Rebekah's laziness with her schoolwork, even though, as Hermione put it, she had enough brains to get by as one of the better students. Ron wondered why Hermione would want competition, but only muttered this question to Harry as not to spark Hermione's rage. Rebekah and Alex contented themselves with Quidditch, and, as they put it, everyone's business.
Harry had started to notice that Ginny was getting stranger and stranger as her pregnancy progressed. Some days she would show up to class wearing her regular weekend clothes, and have to go back and change. She was always losing her books, but she commented casually one day that she knew them all and didn't need them anyway. Hermione shot Harry a worried look behind her back.
The small red-head had never been on good terms with McGonagall, but she had started to suck up in a way that even Hermione couldn't believe. Charms, suddenly, was her best subject, and she'd walked out on the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin's twin brother Cassius (who most girls were positive was a vampire), claiming that it'd become pointless and she had no reason to stay. She was starting to remind Harry a little of Snape.
The students were all looking forward to Halloween until McGonagall appeared in front of the Great Hall about two weeks before announcing that there was to be a Halloween costume ball in the place of their regular feast. Harry was crushed because he hated balls, but Hermione and Ron seemed quite excited about it. He scowled at them as they both talked about it casually, but Harry was stressed out because he knew he'd either have to ask some girl or go stag, and he wasn't excited about either option.
He considered taking Luna as a friend, but he was scared of Snape and wrote that one out immediately. He also thought of Ginny, but he didn't want to give Alex any more ideas. Writing out Ginny made him think of Alex, but she was asked by the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain the day after the announcement. He thought of Rebekah, but she was quickly asked out by Blaise Zabini, Seamus Finnigan, Michael Corner, and a number of other boys before rejecting all of them for, they were surprised to hear, Neville; it appeared that she had finally admitted defeat when it came to Ron.
Harry finally made a decision about three days before the ball when he was sitting in the common room listening to the other Gryffindor's talk about their costumes. Ginny, he noticed, was sitting at one of the wooden tables working on her homework with very bloodshot eyes; Harry realized that she, despite still being very pretty, probably wouldn't get invited to go with anyone and decided that he would take her. A plethora of new gossip would come out of this development, but he wasn't entirely bothered by it.
"Ginny?" he said, approaching her quietly. She looked up and jumped.
"Yeah," she said, careful to avoid his eyes with her own red ones. She slid her book, the same one she had been reading earlier, over a little as he sat down across from her.
Taking a deep breath, he just blurted it out.
"Do you want to go to the Halloween ball with me?"
She gave him a doubtful look.
"Why do you want to go with me?"
Harry thought about this for a moment; he had a new and terrifying fear of pregnant girls, and didn't want to say anything he would regret.
"Well, you're…I just thought it would be weird to go with anyone else, you know, like Luna, or something…"
"Romilda really wants you to ask her," said Ginny. "She was talking about it in the dormitory," she finished and picked up her quill to write something random on her homework parchment.
"Oh, well…I'm kind of scared of Romilda, so—"
"Oh," said Ginny lamely.
"Well, if you don't want to go," said Harry, who hadn't been expecting this reaction. "You don't have to go with me—"
"I never said that," Ginny snapped. "What are you going as?"
Harry opened his mouth to respond and closed it again. He didn't know.
"I don't know."
"Well, most of the kids are getting theirs in Hogsmeade that afternoon…we'd have to get there early or we're not going to find anything."
"Right," said Harry.
"Have you thought about it at all?" asked Ginny, clearly not expecting anything.
"Um…no,' he said. "Can't we just go in dress robes?"
She gave him a look that clearly said "You're stupid."
"Well, what do you think of something medieval? Ooh!" she said, jumping slightly. "We can go as Hogwarts founders!"
Harry narrowed his eyes and gave her a look that clearly said "Seriously?"
"Shut up! It will be cool! We can go as Godric and Rowena," said Ginny. "I wonder where we're going to find costumes like that. Too bad Godric is a man; it'd be cool to go as the founder of Gryffindor." She shot him a look, as if it was his fault Godric was born a boy.
"Cool," said Harry, somewhat relieved to have found such a willing date.
"Meet me at the gate on Saturday morning, and we'll go looking together," said Ginny, going back to her work in a much cheerier mood. Harry merely nodded and went upstairs, grateful the whole 'find a date' thing was over.
In the next couple of days, Harry actually became sort of excited about the Halloween "masquerade" (as people had started calling it). A lot of people, Harry heard, were going as Greek gods and goddesses, pixies, werewolves, vampires, and, he was amused to discover, muggles.
"What are you two going as," Harry asked Hermione and Ron as they walked toward the gate. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ginny and her red hair running towards them, trying to catch up, so he stopped. Hermione and Ron saw what he was doing, and did the same.
"We were thinking a bride and groom," said Ron casually.
"I don't know if we should do that, though," said Hermione, looking suddenly dark. "I mean, it'd only give people more to talk about."
"Hey," said Ginny, out of breath. "I woke up late. You two looking for costumes as well?"
Hermione and Ron nodded.
"What are you guys going to wear?" asked Ron.
"Hogwarts founders," said Ginny happily as Harry scratched his nose nervously. "Rowena and Godric."
"That's cool!" said Hermione. "Ron, we should go as Hufflepuff and Slytherin!"
Ron gave her a terrified look.
"Me? Go as Slytherin? Are you crazy? They'd kill me! They call me the blood traitor, they'd have my—"
"Well, we're all going as a different founder, Ron," said Ginny. "All except for Harry. We'll all be different too."
"Yeah," said Hermione. "Besides—do you think it would be better if I went as the founder of Slytherin? I mean, that'd really make them angrier than anything, especially more than you."
Ron sighed, admitting defeat.
"Good!" said Hermione. "Then that's settled."
Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Ginny spent all day looking for something to wear to the ball. Hermione and Ron found what they were looking for the fastest, but Ginny had a lot of trouble finding something. The second-hand shop they went into didn't look to have much of anything at first, but the shop keeper, Madam West, ushered them into the attic where an array of things were hidden.
Hermione's gown was long and black, but she was afraid it was too plain; the woman at the second-hand dress store was very accommodating though, and found a long yellow sash that she draped on Hermione's shoulders. The affect was beautiful and she looked just like anyone would expect Helga Hufflepuff to look; out of the spotlight, but elegant and radiant at the same time.
Ron, for one, couldn't take his eyes off of her.
Ron found a set of dark green robes that made his green hair look very interesting. He wore interesting black trousers and a velvet vest under his robes, along with black boots and black gloves. He was afraid he looked silly, but Hermione and Ginny thought he looked brilliant so he didn't question them. Harry said he looked very cunning and evil, and they all laughed.
Harry also had a hard time finding something to wear; his suit was a little harder to pick out than Ron's, because red wasn't really a common dress color. He finally decided on a red tunic and odd, medieval looking pants like Ron's. He looked in the mirror and thought he was on fire because of all the red, but everyone said he looked good. He bought and old pair of high, black boots, and black gloves. Ron ran downstairs for a minute to pull an old toy sword out of a pile of junk and shoved it at him, grinning.
Ginny's dress was the hardest to find; one dress they found looked good, but they were disappointed to find that it had a giant dark stain on the front (it was also a tad big in the front). They went through dress after dress after dress until finally Madam West disappeared with a squeak shouting "I can't believe I forgot!" and appeared a few seconds later with a long, dark blue gown.
Hermione teared up and said "You look so pretty!" when Ginny came out of the dressing room. Ron stared at the dress disapprovingly, and Harry only looked at her. The dress was long and thin, and was a little more revealing than Hermione's. It was sleeveless, and quite form fitting around her waist and shoulders, although it did flare out at the bottom like Hermione's. Harry could understand why Ron would be wary about it, but he didn't mind as much. Madam West found a bronze chain belt and put it around her waist so you could see it plainly against the dark blue. Finally, the shop keeper found sleeveless robes made out of some kind of semi-transparent, white fabric so the dress wasn't quite so revealing, but also so you could still see the dark blue underneath. Ron was satisfied, but Harry thought this was funny; the robes only made her look more like an Egyptian goddess than she had before.
When they were done, they all bought plain, black masks from the nearby odds-and-ends store (although Harry was pretty sure people would know it was them anyway). The black mask could not, in any way, cover up Ron or Ginny's hair, and Harry's scar was still visible. After remarking that they looked like superheroes, Ron said "What's a superhero?" and they all left while Hermione and Harry shook their heads.
Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Ginny all met up with Luna, Neville, Rebekah, Alex, and the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, a boy named Leon Wright, who Harry had never met before. They went to The Three Broomsticks and had Butterbeers while they discussed their costumes (Rebekah, Alex, and Luna were all going as characters from a muggle book Harry had never read, but knew was very popular). Neville and the Quidditch captain were going as "Orcs", and Harry neither knew nor cared what an "Orc" was.
After a long day in Hogsmeade, they all went back to the school so they could rest, change, and get ready in their dormitories. Seamus Finnigan was going with Lavender Brown as vampires, and Dean Thomas was nowhere to be found, as usual. Around seven thirty, all the kids started to wrestle their brilliant costumes on and they all made their way toward the Great Hall.
Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron all gasped as they entered the Great Hall. The ghosts, ones Harry knew and others he'd never seen before, were already dancing to the eerie music coming from an old, battered organ and several other stringed instruments. Long, black, moth-eaten curtains were hanging from the walls and even the teachers, Harry noticed, had donned disguises for the event. The sky above them was cracking with lightning and gloomy with rain and clouds, although Harry was sure it had been sunny a few hours before.
The students all looked brilliant in their costumes, but, as Harry noticed, the Hogwarts founders seemed to be making an impression. The Hufflepuff ghost, the fat friar, was delighted and actually bowed to Hermione, who bowed back happily.
The Slytherins looked at Ron and gave him scathing looks, which he returned.
Ginny made Harry dance (who had forgotten how since the last time he had to at the Yule Ball), and Hermione and Ron both danced as well. When Harry was tired of making a fool of himself, they sat down and ate with Luna, Rebekah, Alex, Leon, and Neville. The three girls all looked stunning, but Neville and Leon looked absolutely ridiculous. Rebekah had bewitched her hair blonde and was wearing a white, willowy dress. Alex was wearing a dark blue dress and a veil over her head. Luna, lastly, didn't do anything with her hair, and she looked pretty in a green gown.
They all had a good laugh when Luna danced with Neville in his Orc costume, which he kept tripping on.
Tired of the bad organ music and dancing, Ginny and Harry decided to go back to the common room. As it turned out, Hermione and Ron had disappeared around 10 o'clock, but Ginny and Harry left anyway.
The two students went back to the common room where a huge party was still raving; Hermione and Ron were not there, but Harry stayed up with the rest of the Gryffindors. An assortment of Gryffindors and other random students from all different houses stayed up until they crashed, exhausted, all over the Gryffindor common room.