It was an exhausting afternoon.
Harry had hidden from at least 5 would-be suitors, when finally he grew tired of it. He needed a date to the Yule ball anyway, so why not?
It was- a brilliant idea. Amazing, and had little to no hassle.
He proposed this. He would pick one name out of a hat containing magically generated names, and go to the ball with someone who shared that name.
Catch the 'someone' in there?
He's not an idiot. There's a reason the hat wanted him in Slytherin, after all.
There's bound to be multiple people who shared the name, and he didn't state that the person would be from, or present in, Hogwarts either!
It became... sort of a spectacle. Fred and George set up a betting ring, and he thought that some of the professors had joined in, as well. He found Snape scrutinizing him more heavily than usual, but when he turned to look, the bloody git had the gall to sneer at him.
When the day finally came, he was maneuvered into reading the name at lunch, much to his chagrin. But if he had to do this, he'd make the most of it.
So Harry Potter stood on his bench, and everyone's attentions diverted to him. Even Malfoy, who looked suspiciously torn between interested and incredulous.
He dramatically waved his arm, pulled a piece of paper out... and smiled. Some would say it was a romantic smile, or one so blinding it would light a room, but two people knew that smile Extremely Well. These two people were Minerva McGonagall, and Severus Snape. They knew what it spelt. Trouble, with a capital T.
Harry placed the paper back in the hat, vanished it all, and hopped back off the bench, glancing at everyone's hopeful, intrigued, spiteful, or loathing faces. "You didn't think I'd ask right here, did I? How uncouth. It needs to be... sufficiently extravagant, worthy of such a beautiful woman."
He winked at a cluster of hufflepuffs, many of which swooned, and walked out of the great hall.
He didn't specify the name had to belong to a human, either.
Everyone waited with baited breath for Harry Potter to enter the ballroom. No one had heard of an extravagant gesture, but it could be the lucky girl (for didn't he imply the name was belonging to a woman?) kept it to herself.
They heard his charming, feather soft voice before they actually saw him. The voice that made half the Hogwarts population swoon, once they discovered the existence of such as thing as attraction.
The boy, no- the man, walked in, and when he did, the excitedwonderingcurious stillness turned into drop dead silence.
For there he was, Harry Potter, and he brought... a house elf as his date. She wore a beautiful lavender and blue dress, hand-sewn by herself, of course, and he wore lavender spriggs pinned to his robes.
"Hello, all," he said, with that blinding, devilish smile, "this is my date, Lavender." He seemed to say it while looking in the general direction of Lavender Brown, but one couldn't be sure.
Either way, he danced the night away with Lavender the elf, both looking incredibly joyous and ignored all outrage from the other students or guests, and if one particular student seemed excessively angry, well, no one noticed.
You see, Harry Potter had made it a point to be great friends with the portraits, the ghosts, the elves, and the snakes of the grounds. Never ignore the silent, the ignored. They were his eyes and ears in the castle, and told him if something was a danger, or if he was about to be caught. If he took solace, comfort, in individuals who were treated much like he was, well, no one would know.
So when Harry pulled Lavender out of the hat, he knew exactly what to do. Not only would it constitute as the most insane, inane, harmless prank to ever flow through his mind, but he'd be giving a friend an opportunity she had always wanted.
House-elves didn't exactly have balls, but when Harry had told them stories of girls named Belle and Cinderella (they were stories his aunt and uncle especially didn't want him to know, So Of Course He Searched Them Out), Lavender had been enthralled.
Lavender had exchanged stories in return of balls her previous masters hosted, and how she longed to dress in pretty gowns she made that reflected her master's and mistress's beauty and wealth. Of course, wixen were prideful creatures, and often feared being outshined. House-elves were often made to wear baggier things, often actual bag-like cloths.
It was something he could relate to.
So when he asked Lavender to the ball, she jumped for joy and said she had already made a dress. Some of the other elves were a little scandalized, but- it wasn't against any kind of rule, and they even asked the permission of the Headmaster. He seemed particularly enthused about it, which lead Harry to believe that Dumbledore had placed a bet as well.
In the end, two people won the bet, and the profits were split. Luna Lovegood, and Albus Dumbledore.
They made a lot of galleons.
