Feeling awkward in my dress I stepped outside the bathroom to let Millicent take a look at me.

"You look great," she said.

She didn't look bad herself. She'd lost almost all of her baby weight, and while her jaw was still a little thick, and her shoulders would always be wide, she was starting to look kike a young woman.

I, on the other hand, still looked like a child.

I'd hoped that some of my deficits in my last body would be corrected this time, but there wasn't much evidence of that yet. I should have looked at the pictures of Millie Scrivener's parents more closely.

How had her mother been built? Often you could tell a lot about your future figure simply from looking at your family.

I wasn't vain enough to use the pensieve for something that trivial, not given the effort that it would take me. Dumbledore had removed it to Sirius's house, presumably to keep me from using it for some kind of nefarious purpose.

"I feel stupid," I said. "Although she did put in the easy access knife and wand slits that I asked for. Can you tell?"

I spun around, and her eyes searched my figure. I'd given the people in my group some very basic training in looking for weapons. It was harder in the Wizarding World than in the muggle world, because a wand was easier to hide than a gun.

I'd pulled my hair up in a complicated hairstyle, and I was using a second wand as a hair stick. There were slits in both sides of my gown, and I had a wand strapped to my left leg, and a knife to my right.

Furthermore, the skirt was designed to rip away easily. I'd have to be careful not to dance with anyone who was likely to step on the hem, but that was why I'd elevated the hem above floor length.

I'd paid for the modifications with my money from the Acromantula venom, although Fred Weasley had still paid for the basic gown.

"I wish I could go," she said wistfully.

"I need you to stay with the others," I said. "In case there is an attack. We've got the paintings set up to give the alarm."

I'd convinced Rowle to set up many of the paintings in the Great Hall, both to watch for any attacks and to act as chaperones for the students.

The paintings in the rest of the school were to be on high alert.

Those kids in my group who were not going to the dance were to hide in the Room of Requirement, ready to fight.

I'd managed to borrow the other end of my magic mirror from Remus; we'd set one end of it high on the wall facing the stage so that the kids who were left behind could still see and hear the Weird Sisters.

After all, my unsettling encounter with the House Elf didn't necessarily mean that the attack was going to happen during the ball.

It didn't mean it wouldn't, either.

All the muggleborn who were going to the ball were going to be on high alert; that didn't mean I didn't want them to enjoy themselves; it simply meant that all of them planned to keep their wands close at hand and one eye open.

The aurors were around as well; they were as unobtrusive as possible, given that they were adults.

"You can watch the band through the mirror," I said.

While the mirror could be expanded, the magic allowing it to show what was in the other piece did not, and so we'd had to reverse engineer a pair of omnioculars to create a lens that projected the image onto the wall.

The best part of it was that we'd licensed the technology for the second task. The initial plan for the task had sounded rather dull for the audience.

For some reason Bagman and Crouch had been amenable to my ideas for making the whole thing much more interesting for the audience.

The Ministry could afford multiple magic mirrors, after all, especially since the likelihood of them being damaged was minimal. Presumably as long as Ministry officials handled the mirrors and we handled the lenses and watched over them, no one would be able to curse us.

"Get to the Room," I said. "I've arranged for food."

She nodded.

I left the Slytherin dungeons and I was quickly met by Fred Weasley.

"This is going to be humiliating," I said.

Most of the girls in my age group were five two or five three. I barely stood five feet with shoes on. I could have worn lifts, but that would have impacted my combat effectiveness, and my ability to dance.

Fred was already nine inches taller than me, and he was only two years older.

"Hey, you promised to get me all the dates I could handle if I got you into this thing," he said.

That wasn't how I remembered it going, but whatever.

"If you dump me to run off with other girls, it'll hurt your prospects," I said.

"What do you think I am? My brother?"

Did he mean Ron, or George... or one of any number of brothers he probably thought I knew about?

"I'm not an idiot," He said. "It's not like I'm going to sit on the sidelines and ignore you all night. Only an idiot would do that."

"Harry was going to try to get one of the older girls to take him to the dance until he realized that he was going to have to... you know, dance."

We both smirked.

"You do know how to dance, right?" I asked.

"I'm a pureblood," he said. "What do you think?"

We'd reached the doors to the Great Hall

"I'm not much of a dancer," I said. "So you'll have to take the lead."

"There's something you aren't good at?" he asked. He looked at me and grinned. "I guess I'm winning a bet with George."

"Maybe he's the one I should have gone to with this after all," I said.

"Just kidding!" he said. "Let's go in."

"I'm surprised you managed to get Hebert to give you the time of day," Draco said from behind me.

His robes were jet black with a high collar. I thought it made him look like Bela Lugosi, but I doubted he'd get the reference.

He was escorting a girl from Beauxbatons in a green dress. Hers didn't have the vivid color mine did, but she filled her dress out better.

"Maybe I've got charms you don't know about, Malfoy," Fred said.

He grinned at the sour look on Draco's face.

For all that Draco was no longer as overtly racist has he had been during our first year, he still didn't particularly like the Weasleys.

"Your jokes aren't funny," Draco said. He was silent for a moment. "And that's pretty much all you've got going for you."

"I've got my raging good looks, my quick wit, and I'm clever," Fred said, but Draco had already moved on.

"He's a real..." Fred continued, then stopped himself. He forced himself to smile, and he offered me his arm again.

I felt like a dwarf standing beside him, but we stepped into the area in front of the Great Hall.

The doors to outside were open and we could see that the lawn had been transformed into a faerie grotto, lit by hundreds tens of actual faeries.

It was beautiful; seeing it with my own eyes was different than sensing it through my bugs. They had no sense of beauty, and the wavelengths they saw through dulled some of its grandeaur.

On the other side was the Great Hall.

Rowle and the Ministry had outdone themselves.

The walls were decorated with something that looked like ice but was not cold to the touch. It glittered in the light from the lanterns at the hundred or so small round tables.

Silver strands were woven through the ice, making it shine more brightly. It looked as though we were in the palace of the Snow Queen, with only the stone floor disturbing the illusion.

There were ice scuptures that were doubling as fountains for punch, spraying punch into basins also made of ice below. These actually were cold.

There were sculptures on all four corners of the room. One showed a male and female Griffon. The next was two Eagles; a third two rampaging badgers, and the last two great snakes that reminded me of the basilisk down below.

The sculptures were beautifully done, and they made the animals look majestic. Was it an attempt to restore the house unity that I'd shattered when I'd put people in my group over the houses?

Between them, at the walls were several snack tables.

There was an open space in the center for dancing, and a stage with a curtain where the Head table usually sat.

We reached our table, and I saw that Hermione and George were already there.

Hermione had gone with a periwinkle blue dress. Her hair had been done professionally, and with her teeth repaired, she looked amazing.

Everyone around us was noticing, too.

I saw a fourth year Ravenclaw stumble into a table while his date gave him a dirty look.

Hermione was flushed, but she was smiling nervously.

"You look great," I said.

She had a second wand in her hair as well. I'd slipped her one, telling her it was a Death Eaters wand. She'd looked nervous at that, but we'd practiced with a few after I'd washed the bloodstains off, and she found one she could use a little better than the others.

I, of course had been practicing with all of them in secret. There were going to be times when I had to take a wand off a dead body, and I couldn't afford to not be able to use a strange wand. It wasn't something I devoted a great amount of time to, but I practiced now and again.

"Really?" she asked. "I asked for help... I don't know a lot about hair or dresses."

I shrugged.

"It's not exactly my strong suit either."

"Where's Edmund and the others?" Hermione asked.

"The Ministry wants them to make an entrance," I said. "Be more impressive for the photographers."

I nodded over toward the corner, where a couple of adults were waiting patiently with cameras. Moody claimed that they'd both been thoroughly vetted, but I wasn't going to trust someone who pointed things at people unless I was absolutely sure.

"I'm surprised they didn't insist that you and Harry stand up front with the judges," Hermione said.

"They want to avoid looking like we're more important than the actual champions," I said. "Also, I look like a child in this dress and they probably wanted pictures that looked at least semi-decent."

I should have picked someone short to take me to the ball. At least we'd look better together.

"You don't look too bad," Hermione said unconvincingly.

"I look like a five year old playing dress up," I said irritably.

It shouldn't matter; this wasn't even my real body. However, I'd had body image issues when I was younger, and I'd always regretted not having curves.

The music changed, and everyone moved to their seats.

Through the doors to the Great Hall came the champions. Edmund was first, along with his date. They'd been an item ever since I'd pushed them together as a distraction, and even I wasn't quite sure whether it was real or not.

They were followed by the champions from Beuxbatons and Durmstrang and their dates. Alek was dating a Slytherin, of course, a seventh year.

They solemnly walked up to the stage, where the judges were waiting. The cameras were flashing.

I stayed on alert; being blinded by camera flashes would be a perfect time for an assassination attempt.

Nothing happened, though, and shortly afterward, dinner began.

There were menus, and we had to call out our food choices. I had goulash. Normally that would be a very bad choice while wearing a formal dress, but I'd found a spell in Witches' Weekly that would make blood slide straight off cloth, and I'd taken to applying it to all of my clothes.

It had been originally meant for slobbish husbands, of course, and it meant that food slid off and fell on the floor, where it would be cleaned up later when the tables were banished.

It also meant that I could eat my food without worrying.

Strangely, Ron and Harry had taken to using the spell as well, although likely for different reasons. Apparently Hermione had been haranguing them about their manners even though she usually didn't eat with them except on weekend lunches, when things were less formal.

Once the tables were dismissed, the champions were called to dance. It was a waltz of a sort; apparently this was an older form, from before the Wizarding and muggle worlds separated.

Other couples started dancing once Rowle gave the nod, and Fred held his hand out.

I sighed and took his hand.

What followed was embarrassing; I stepped on his toes more than once, and I found that combat ability and dancing skill, while related weren't guaranteed.

He was good about it; he whispered that he'd put a hardening charm on his shoes and not to worry.

That of course had been an inspiration; hardened tennis shoes would be just as good for kicking someone as steel toed boots. You'd want to remove the insoles first; otherwise you feet would be constantly moving against a hard surface.

Part of the reason I was so bad at dancing was that I was trying to dance and to focus in every direction at the same time.

Then the Weird Sisters were introduced, and we were allowed to do more modern dancing.

This I knew how to do; I'd done it before when the Dancing Skeletons had played here.

I couldn't enjoy these musicians as much as I had the Skeletons, in part because I was still distracted. After thirty minutes of dancing, I excused myself to go to the restroom.

I was hot, but I wasn't winded. Cardio was finally paying off.

Returning from the nearest bathroom, I took the opportunity to step outside. It was cooler outside, and I enjoyed looking at the fairies.

Personally, I'd have given them all tiny uniforms, but if the school wanted to cut corners, I couldn't blame them. Faeries likely didn't like to wear clothes anyway, despite the weather.

The brisk October air felt good as I stepped into the maze. The further I went in, the more the music faded away, and all that was left was the sounds of my footsteps crunching in the snow.

I found a little bench in a corner. There I could close my eyes and concentrate, expanding my focus to the world around me. I could see the castle and the maze, and if I focused on any one thing I could see what was happening there.

What I needed was to be less focused, to see not the normal things that were happening, but whatever didn't fit.

There were couples all around the maze. Despite teachers wandering around as chaperones, some of them were more successful than others in doing inappropriate things.

Although it was cold outside, all the bushes had warming charms so that the fairies could be comfortable. That meant that my bugs in the bushes were warm as well. That didn't extend to the lawn.

I didn't look too closely at what they were doing, other than to make sure that it seemed consensual. It was possible that enemies might be pretending, but I couldn't imagine that they could do any more harm without getting closer to the school.

I could have, but most people didn't have my advantages.

I couldn't see into the Room of Requirement, but insects flying by the mirror in the Great Hall gave me a flash of everyone I expected to be there being there.

The dancers seemed to be having fun; George and Fred were taking a break and chatting enthusiastically with Hermione.

Maybe, just this once I was wrong and nothing strange would happen. I'd enjoyed another Halloween; why not relax and enjoy this one?

It was just then that I noticed a figure leaving the castle.

The moon was obscured by clouds, and with it snowing, the number of bugs I could muster was limited. It took a moment for the moon to emerge and for me to see a glimpse of silver hair.

It could have been Moody except this man was too tall, and his gait was unhindered. It was Karkaroff.

He was heading for the edge of the lawn, toward the ends of Hogwarts' protection charms.

It was my understanding that he was supposed to be helping to chaperone the students.

He was heading directly for the Skrewt pens. They had warming charms as well, although I wasn't sure that they really needed them, given that they had an internal source of fire.

What was he planning?

Oh.

I had class with Hagrid tomorrow. He was undoubtedly planning a creative accident for me, and if it killed several of my classmates, it wouldn't be his fault.

He could claim credit with the Dark Lord without ever having to face me directly.

It was a dilemma.

I'd promised not to kill Karkaroff on school grounds. Technically, the skrewt pens weren't on Hogwarts grounds, but the intent had been that I not create an international incident.

Yet if he was the one having the accident, it might not be an international incident at all.

Choices, choices.