The next morning I couldn't stop thinking about what Malfoy had said about Lavender. Pansy and Millicent gossiped as much as Lavender so the rumor about her might be true or it might not. They were Slytherins, she was a Gryffindor. Those girls would make up any type of story to ruin a Gryffindor's image or anyone's for that matter.

"Marianne!"

I turned around to see Ginny. "Yes?" I responded and closed the book I was reading.

"Fancy going to Hogsmeade this weekend? I know that the Halloween balls like three weeks away, but we have to find a dress early before the good ones are all out."

"Sure, sounds fun." I said smiling.

"Great, it'll just be you, me, Hermione, Lavender and Parvati." Ginny said then walked away.

Hearing the last two girls' names made me regret agreeing to go with them. I didn't know how Hermione was going to tolerate this trip with them. Probably we'd find an excuse and leave them after buying out dresses.

Which reminded me that I didn't have a date for the ball. None of the boys asked me yet. I didn't mind really, there was still enough time and I wasn't too crazed to have a date let alone a boyfriend. However, I had my eyes on a few cute boys. They were seventh years and I doubted that they'd ask me.

I had a feeling that Cormac McLaggen was going to ask Hermione. He had been eying her for a long time now, although she didn't give him her attention the boy never stopped flirting with her.

Today was the tryouts for Quidditch and Harry was captain. I was thinking of trying out as a chaser along with Ginny and Ron as a keeper. Ron was a nervous wreck, Ginny was confident and I on the other hand was emotionless. I wasn't nervous nor confident and thought that I would do my best and see how it would turn out. And having the captain as my best friend didn't make much of a difference in the decision of choosing the players. I knew Harry would look past the fact that I was his friend and judge me by my skills, same went to Ron and Ginny.

The chasers were first to tryout. Like I said I would do my best. I waved at Hermione who was sitting on the bench to watch the tryouts or to be more specific Ron. After trying out, Harry congratulated me giving me a side hug then I flew over to Hermione.

"Here to support Ron?" I teased.

"Don't be ridiculous! I'm here to support you guys as well." She said too quickly and I shrugged sitting down next to her. "Congratulations by the way, you were fantastic!"

"Thank you!" Harry had announced the Beaters and the Chasers who made it and I was so excited and happy to see that I got in along with Ginny and Katie Bell.

Now it was the keepers turn. Each keeper stood at the goal hoops. Ron had turned pale and almost green. He always had problems with his nerves. I looked around the stands and noticed Parvati and Lavender. I glared at them without them noticing and went back to watch the keepers.

Cormac managed to save four penalties out of five. On the last one, he went to the wrong direction and wasn't able to save it and he grunted as he landed on the ground. Now it was Ron's turn. Before I could yell a cheer, an annoying voice interrupted me. "Good luck, Ron." It was Lavender. I was expecting Hermione to say that instead.

"Woohoo! Go Ron!" I cheered after he saved four penalties in a row and the fifth one as well. I jumped up and down excitedly with Hermione. We decided to head down and congratulate Ron's brilliant tryout. I noticed that Cormac was arguing with Harry about something and I only could catch that he was angry for not getting a second shot.

"Well done, Ron. You flew really well." I started to say but Hermione cut me off.

"You did brilliantly, Ron!"

I smirked seeing a grumpy Lavender storming off the pitch. She must have had overheard out conversation. On our way back Ron couldn't stop telling us about how he saved those penalties.

"I was better than McLaggen. Did you see how he missed the fifth penalty as if if he was Confunded."

I noticed Hermione's cheek growing a deep shade of pink and I tried my best not to gasp. Apparently, Harry had also noticed this as we exchanged looks. However, Ron didn't since he was too engrossed into describing his tryout.

We made our way to the Great Hall and I glanced at the Slytherin table by reflex to notice that Malfoy wasn't there. Millions of thoughts were running through my mind of where he could be, but were interrupted by someone who was trying to catch my attention.

"Hello, Marianne." It was a seventh year Hufflepuff called Ryan, I think. "You probably don't know me, but I'm Ryan Charlton." I was right.

"Hi, Ryan." I said blushing. This boy was not that bad looking, but if he were to ask me I would turn him down.

"I wanted to ask if you would like to go to the Halloween ball with me." He said with a grin.

I glanced at the Gryffindor table to see my friends were already there. Hermione was giving me the thumbs up and Ron looked confused and Harry...well his expression was hard to read. I wasn't sure if he it disappointment or confused or displeased.

"I would have to say no, but thank you for asking Ryan." I said as gently as I could and noticed how his grin turned to a frown.

Ryan just nodded and head back to his table with his head hung low. I walked over to my table and sat down next to Hermione. She slapped my arm and I yelped "Ow, what was that for?"

"An incredibly cute seventh year just asked you to the ball, why did you turn him down?"

"How would you know what conversation they had over there, Hermione?" Ron asked curiously.

Hermione and I rolled our eyes not bothering to respond. "I don't know, I just didn't want to go with him is that so wrong?"

"No." I heard Harry say simply without looking up.

"Thank you, Harry." I said and I noticed him smile a little. "It's fine Hermione. I'll just wait for another guy to ask me and if someone won't I'll just go to the ball by myself I'm fine with that."

"No one wants to go alone, Marianne." Hermione said it like a fact, well in fact it wasn't.

"Well, I wouldn't mind going alone. Can we drop this conversation?" I said as they started another subject.