Oh hey what do you know- the world didn't end! w00t! (if you're wondering what I'm talking about, some priest was saying that the world was gonna end today) Anyway, here's chapter 12!

The correct answer to last chapter's trivia question was: Rita is 43. The reviewers that got it right were: cammiestar58, KellyPNguyen, HarryPotterRoxMySoxForever, and HP-sibuna11. Awesome job guys! This chapter is for YOU!

This chapter's trivia question is: What spell is used to send birds out of a wand? (This one is also in The Weighing of the Wands.)

Enjoy! and REVIEW! xxxx

Hermione's POV

The next few weeks passed rather uneventfully. Harry and Mara started going out(finally!), Ron was talking to Harry again, the skrewts got bigger, and Snape got meaner.

But, a few weeks after the first task, McGonagal said something in class that made everyone pay attention for once.

"The Yule Ball is approaching-a traditional part of the TriWizard tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Dress robes will be worn, and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall." she said, looking around at us sternly. "The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to-er-let our hair down. But this does NOT mean that we will be relaxing the standards of behaivior we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarasses the school in any way."

The bell rang, and everyone scurried to get their things together.

"You'll be going with Harry, I suppose." I said to Mara.

"Yeah, I think...and Nina-" she said, looking at Nina "-will be going with Fabian, right?"

Nina blushed. "Uh, no, I mean, why would you think I would go with Fabian?"

"Oh, maybe because you two are TOALLY in love with each other." Amber said, smiling.

"We are not!" Nina said defensively.

"Are you sure? All you would have to do is ask Fabian..." I said.

"Ask me what?" I heard Fabian's voice behind us and we turned around.

"Ah, Fabian, just the guy we were looking for." I said, slowing down to walk next to him. "Nina has something to ask you-right Nina?"

"No I-"

"Yes you do!" Amber hissed at her.

"Okay, well...I was wondering if...you'd...help me with my Potions homework? I've been having a bit of trouble." Nina said, her face as red as a tomato. Amber, Mara and I groaned.

"Uh, sure." Fabian said, looking a little confused. Poor, clueless Fabian. "Speaking of which, I forgot my potions textbook. I'll be right back."

"No it's ok, I'll come with you, just a minute." Nina said, turning to face us. "And I'll thank you three not to play matchmaker for me." She whispered to us angrily and hurried off to catch up with Fabian.

"Poor Nina." said Amber, shaking her head. "How can she not see that Fabian is head over heels for her?"

"And how can Fabian not see that Nina is the same for him?" I asked.

"But, how come you and Ron aren't going out yet?" Mara asked teasingly. "You two seem to be like Nina and Fabian, except with more bickering."

"No we're not!" I said hotly. Even though I wanted nothing more than to go to the ball with Ron.

"Okay, okay." she said, holding up her hands in defense. "I'm officially done being the matchmaker for today."

"Well I'm not." said Amber. "Time to go match myself up with Viktor Krum and Mick. See you guys!" She skipped off to catch up with Mick.

I looked at Mara questioningly. "Viktor AND Mick?"

"I've learned never to question Amber's logic unless you want an hour long story about what Victoria Beckham does." Mara replied, shaking her head.

A few days later in charms class, Ron and I were partners and I decided I probably should ask him to the ball before someone else does(not likely, but hey, you never know.)

"Hey, Ron?" I said casually.

He looked up. "Yeah?"

"I was wondering if...if...if...you'd like to go to the ball with me?" I asked tenatively.

He looked surprised and happy at first. "I..." he said. But then his face contorted-first to confusion, then to anger.

"You know what Hermione? No!" he said angrily. "When I asked you out a few months ago, you said no, and now you're asking me to the ball? Is it because Harry already has a girlfriend, so you needed someone else to go with, so you chose me as your second pick?"

"No, no, Ron, it's not like that at all-" I said desperately.

The bell rang. "I'm done with you!" Ron said, stalking out of the classroom, leaving me extremely hurt and in shock.

Mara came over to me. "Are you alright? I heard Ron shouting, are you two fighting again?"

I shook my head wordlessly and burst into tears.

"Hermione!" Mara said, looking alarmed and putting her arm around me. "What happened?"

She led me into the girls bathroom. When I told her what had happened, she looked outraged.

"Thats horrible! And childish!" she said. "I can't believe he would do something like that!"

"I can." I said, drying my eyes.

Mara's POV

Later that evening, I was sitting in the common room talking to Harry, who had his arm around me.

"So, why was Hermione so upset earlier?" he asked.

I sighed, looking over at Hermione who was watching Nina and Fabian playing wizards chess. "She asked Ron to go to the ball with her, and he said no and yelled at her about...stuff."

Harry looked surprised. "Why would he say no? I thought he liked her?"

"Well..." I hesitated. "He asked her out at the beginning of the year, before we came I think, and she said no cause she felt bad about leaving you out, so he thought she liked you, which she doesn't, she was just being nice cause you're her friend. So when Hermione asked Ron to the ball today, he got mad at her because he thought that he was just a second choice to you."

"Ohhh." he said. "Well, I'll talk to him."

I shook my head. "No, I don't think Hermione still wants to go with him, or even speak to him really after the horrible things he said to her today."

"Well, I'll at least make him apologize." Harry said. Then he turned to me. "So, we're going to the ball together, right?"

"Not if thats how you're going to ask me." I said teasingly.

He grinned. "Okay, what do you want me to do, get down on my hands and knees and beg?"

I smiled and nodded. "Exactly."

Harry got off the couch, kneeled in front of me, and grabbed my hands.

"Mara, will you pleeeaaaasssseee go to the ball with me?" he asked.

I laughed and leaned down and kissed him. "Of course I will!" I said. "I was only joking."

He got back onto the couch. "Well then what did you make me do that for?" Harry said, grinning and lightly tapping me on the shoulder with the back of his hand.

"To amuse me."

"Well, I hope you're amused, because everyone else seems to be." he said, gesturing around at the rest of the common room, where some people were laughing.

I giggled, and he kissed me. It felt so perfect, so right. I was so glad he was finally mine.

A week later in potions class, Draco Malfoy came up to the table where I was sitting with Harry, Ron and Hermione(who was sitting as far away from Ron as possible and was acting like he wasn't there).

"What do you want Malfoy?" Ron snapped.

"Oh, I was just going to give Potter this article that he might find...interesting." Malfoy snickered and walked away.

"Git." Ron grumbled. "What does it say Harry?"

Harry's face got redder and redder as he read the article. He glanced at me. "Oh, er nothing, Just something about the tournament."

He tried to slip it into his bag, but Hermione grabbed it out of his hand. She gasped as she read it.

"What a pile of rubbish!" she said, looking outraged as she read it.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Nothing. Like Harry said, just something about the tournament..." Hermione tried to put it into her bag, but I grabbed it before she could.

At the top of the page was a picture of Harry and I hugging in the champions tent before the first task. Below it was a short article entitled: Harry Potter's Secret Heartache, written by Rita Skeeter.I read through the article, and it was a bunch of rubbish about me 'toying with Potter's and Campbell's emotions' and how Harry Potter should 'bestow his heart upon a worthier candidate'.

After I finished reading, I looked up at Harry. "Why would she do this to me?"

He shook his head. "Rita didn't." he said. "Look closer, at the bottom of the page."

I looked. There, at the bottom of the page, was slightly smaller writing that said: Written with input from: Draco Malfoy, 14.

I gritted my teeth and looked over at Malfoy on the other side of the dungeon, who grinned.

"How did she know about all this?" I asked. "I mean, I saw her take the picture but, what about everything else?"

"Malfoy probably told her." Ron said. "He was just ticked off about the skrewt incident."

"Yeah but some of this stuff, Malfoy couldn't have even known." I said.

"Like what?" asked Harry.

"Like-" I started

"Fascinating though your social life undoubtedly is, Miss Jaffray," said Snape, who had snuck up behind us, "I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor."

I groaned, and Harry was about to make an angry retort but Snape grabbed the magazine out of my hands. "And reading magazines under the table as well? A further ten points from Gryffindor. But of couse, Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings..."

The Slytherins all laughed. Snape smiled unpleasantly, and to my horror, began to read the article aloud.

"'Harry Potter's Secret Heartache'...dear, dear Potter, whats ailing you now? A boy like no other perhaps..."

You could've fried an egg on mine, Harry's and Mick's(who did not know about the article until Snape read it aloud) faces. Hearing Snape read the article made it a million times worse.

"How very touching." Snape sneered when he finished reading it. "Well, I think I had better separate you, so your minds are on you potions instead of your tangled love lives. Potter, sit in front of my desk, and Miss Jaffray, over here next to Miss Williamson."

I was fuming by the end of potions class. I had half a mind to walk up to Snape and smack him right in the face. Hard. Maybe I'd even break his overly large nose...

I hope you liked it! I wrote and rewrote that scene in potions hundreds of times, and I still don't think its that good but whatever. Review! and answer the trivia question! xxxxx