"Don't forget who's taking you home and in whose arms you're gonna be. So, darling, save the last dance for me." -Michael Buble (Save the Last Dance for Me)

Slughorn's Christmas party was being held in a section of the castle that I had never been to before, so I was very glad that Harry had asked me to meet him in the entrance hall. I rocked back and forth on the balls of my feet as I stared at the ceiling, waiting for Harry to arrive. I had on a silvery pink dress that I had bought on my trip to Sweden over the summer. It was very lucky that I had bought it, actually. It was perfect for the party. I also had my mistletoe earrings from Neville in my ears.

Harry appeared beside me a few minutes after eight. "Hi," he said. "Shall we get going then?"

"Oh yes," I said, ignoring the giggles from people walking by. They were probably just very taken aback by the brightness of my dress.

"So did you hear there's supposed to be a vampire coming?" Harry asked as we walked up the marble staircase.

I hadn't heard that so I shook my head. "No, is it Rufus Scrimgeour?"

"I—what?" Harry asked. "You mean the Minister of Magic?"

"Yes, he's a vampire," I said. "Dad write a very long article about it when Scrimgeour first took over for Cornelius Fudge, but he was forced not to publish it by somebody from the Ministry. Obviously, they didn't want the truth to get out."

Harry didn't answer, but I didn't mind. I just stared around me as we kept walking. "That's a very interesting dress," Harry finally said.

"Oh, thank you. I got it in Sweden." I smoothed down the front of my dress.

"Looking for Crumple Horned…uh, things?" Harry asked.

"Snorkacks, and yes. You know, I've never been to this part of the castle. At least not while I was awake. I tend to sleepwalk, you see. That's why I wear shoes to bed."

"You wear your shoes to bed? Isn't that uncomfortable?"

"Not really," I said. "It's better than walking around in bare feet without knowing what I'm stepping on."

"How many sharp things can be lying on the floor?" Harry asked, looking down as if expecting to see spikes sticking out of the ground.

"Plenty, I'm sure," I said. "I wouldn't know what they are, though. I just know that the first time I sleepwalked I woke up with very dirty and scratched feet. Maybe I went down to the lake and walked on sharp rocks."

"Or maybe it was a Crumple Horned Snorkack," Harry said, with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't be silly," I laughed. "There aren't any around here."

"Right," Harry said with a laugh.

We finally reached the party and I looked around the room with a smile on my face. It was very nicely decorated. Slughorn had clearly gone all out. The room was already packed with a lot of people even though Harry and I were on time.

"Harry!" Slughorn boomed, coming towards us with a drink in his hand. He didn't even acknowledge me, but I didn't mind. Apparently, Harry did, though.

"Professor Slughorn," he said with a slight nod. "I'm sure you know Luna. She's my date."

"Oh," Slughorn said, blinking at me a few times. "Her? Well, yes, how nice. Anyway, Harry, come here. I'd like you to meet someone." He grabbed Harry's arm and began to drag him across the room. At the last second, Harry grabbed my arm and I had no choice but to be pulled along with them. I didn't mind. In most cases like this I would have just stared at the ceiling, lost in thought, but instead I used the opportunity to search for Neville in the crowded room.

"Harry, I'd like you to meet Eldred Worple, an old student of mine. He wrote a wonderful book about vampires. And this is his friend Sanguini."

"Harry Potter, I am simply delighted," Worple said, shaking Harry's hand enthusiastically. I tuned out what he said next. He wasn't talking to me and I doubted he would at all. Even though my dress was incredibly shiny, I still seemed invisible. I suspect it might be a talent of mine. I still wanted to find Neville, so I used the opportunity to look for him. I craned my neck as I searched the room. Every time someone with a tray of drinks walked by, my heart stopped for a second, but it was never the one person I was looking for.

"Drink?" someone asked beside me. I'm not one to jump, but this time I did. When I turned my eyes upon the person who had appeared beside me, I saw that it wasn't Neville. My heart sank slightly.

"Sure, thanks." I took a drink off of his tray. "Oh, have you seen a boy who's-," I turned back to the boy, but he had already disappeared into the crowd.

"Come on," Harry suddenly whispered into my ear. He grabbed my arm and pulled me to the other side of the room. I set my drink down on a table as we passed it. "I've just seen Hermione," Harry said, "and I needed to get away from that Worple guy and his vampire friend."

"Oh, that was the vampire?" I asked. "I was almost positive it was going to be Scrimgeour."

Harry gave a small shrug and pulled me behind a curtain in the corner of the room where Hermione was hiding. "Harry, there you are!" she exclaimed. "Hi Luna!"

"Hello," I said. "Why are you hiding behind this curtain?"

"I was just about to ask that," Harry said with a smirk.

"I've just escaped—I mean, I've just left Cormac," she said. "Under the mistletoe."

"Good decision," I said.

"Nargles?" Harry and Hermione asked together.

I nodded. "It's probably full of them."

"Anyway, it serves you right, Hermione, for coming with him," Harry said.

"I thought he'd annoy Ron most."

"No, Harry would," I said.

"What?" Harry and Hermione said together.

I shrugged. "Well, first of all, Ron and Harry are best friends, so that would annoy Ron. Secondly, I kind of just said that because I suspect Neville's avoiding me. Either that or it really is too crowded in here." I took another desperate look around the room from behind the curtain.

Harry and Hermione were both silent for a moment before Harry spoke. "Neville got mad at you for coming with me." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

"Not exactly," I said. "He was just a little disappointed that he didn't get to take me to the party. I'm having a wonderful time so far, though, so don't feel bad, Harry."

"We've been here five minutes and we haven't done anything but stand behind this curtain and talk to Slughorn's friend Worple what's-his-name," Harry said.

"It's quite alright," I answered.

"Well, if you find Neville, go talk to him. Don't let me being your date stop you."'

I nodded and changed the subject. "So, Hermione, Cormac's not what you thought?"

"No," she said forcefully, making a face. "Cormac makes Grawp look like a gentleman. I actually considered Zacharias Smith for a while and now I'm wishing I chose him."

"Zacharias Smith?" Harry asked, flabbergasted.

"Yes, I did, now come on. If we go this way we'll be able to see Cormac better if he comes to look for me."

The three of us made our way over to the other side of the room. I still hadn't seen Neville once; not even a glimpse. Once we reached the opposite corner of the room, we ran into Professor Trelawney. "Hello," I said politely. It was too late to not say anything. She was alone and had already seen us.

"Good evening, my dear," she answered. "I haven't seen you in my classes lately."

"No, I've got Firenze this year," I said.

"Oh, of course," she said, shaking her head. "You would have thought that Dumbledore would have gotten rid of him now that I am no longer 'fired'." She made quote marks in the air. "It's an insult, really."

I politely listened to Professor Trelawney ramble on about how insulted she was to be sharing classes with Firenze. She seemed to be a tiny bit drunk and hardly seemed to notice or care that I wasn't responding. Not that she was leaving any room for me to get a word in edgewise. Finally, she turned towards Harry and seemed to notice him for the first time. Hermione had disappeared. There had probably been a McLaggen sighting.

"Harry Potter!" Professor Trelawney gasped.

"Oh, hello," Harry said dully.

"My dear boy," Trelawney whispered, putting a hand on his shoulder. "The rumors! The stories! The Chosen One! Of course, I have known for a very long time, but why have you not returned to Divination? For you, of all people, the subject is of the utmost importance."

"Ah, we all think our subject's most important, don't we?" Slughorn had appeared through the crowd and stood grinning at Harry. "But I don't think I've ever known such a natural at Potions! I was even telling Severus about Harry's talent!" With that, he reached out and seemed to pull Snape out of thin air. "Some credit must go to you, Severus. You taught him for five years!"

"Funny," Snape said in his low voice, "I never had the impression that I managed to teach Potter anything at all."

"Well then it's natural ability!" Slughorn said. "What other subjects are you taking, Harry?"

"Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology…"

"All of the subjects required to become an Auror," Snape said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that's what I want to do," Harry said.

"I don't think you should be an Auror, Harry," I said. Everyone turned to look at me and I blinked back at them. "The Aurors are part of the Rotfang Conspiracy. I thought everyone knew that. They're working to bring down the Ministry of Magic from within using a combination of Dark Magic and gum disease."

Harry let out a laugh and I smiled at him. It was the first time I had seen him laugh in a while. "This is why I love being around you, Luna," he said.

Someone cleared their throat from behind me and I spun around. It was Neville. He cleared his throat again, clearly unsure of what to say.

"Neville! I've been looking all over for you," I said, grinning.

"Yeah, looked like it," he mumbled. His cheeks were bright red and he spun on his heels and walked away, getting lost in the crowd again.

"Harry, do you mind if I-?"

"No, not at all, go ahead." Harry gave me a smile before he turned to look at something else that had clearly distracted him. I vaguely registered Filch dragging Draco Malfoy across the room, before I took off in the direction Neville had gone. I just had to find him and talk to him so that I could fix this.

I finally found him on the opposite side of the room and I politely tapped him on the shoulder before he could go any further.

"What is it, Luna?" he asked when he saw me.

"I want to talk to you," I said. "I really have been looking for you all night."

"Yeah, it didn't seem like it when you were standing around with Slughorn and Harry, telling them about whatever it is you were telling them. It looked funny, though, seeing as Harry was laughing so hard."

"It wasn't meant to be funny, but I guess Harry thought it was," I said with a shrug.

"You know why I'm upset," Neville continued. "You know I wanted to be the one who got to stay with you and listen to your stories and just be with you."

"I know you do and I promise I was looking for you, but there are so many people here. It seemed that everywhere I went there was someone to talk to and no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find you. I actually thought you were avoiding me because you were mad."

Neville's expression softened and he set down the tray of drinks. "No, I wasn't avoiding you. I've been busy." He gestured to the tray, a dismal expression on his face.

"Well," I said, taking his hand. "I don't think Slughorn will mind, or even notice for that matter, if you take a break to dance with me."

"I don't think I should," Neville said. "I should get back to work."

"I didn't look for you for nothing," I said, shaking my head. "Come on." I led him to the dance floor. Lucky for us, it was a slow song.

"I'm not the best at this," Neville muttered.

I shrugged. I had danced with Neville once before and I hadn't thought he was a bad dancer. "Most people believe that they can't dance. Dancing is hard, but at the same time very easy. There are no rules. That's what makes it so hard and so easy at the same time, I think."

Neville scrunched his face up in thought as he processed what I had said. While he was thinking, I slid my hands around the back of his neck and he put his on my waist.

"You're wearing the mistletoe earrings," he whispered with a smile.

"Of course I am. What other earrings would I wear at this time of year?"

Neville shrugged. "I'm glad to see you wearing them."

I smiled. "I love them. You know me so well."

"I'm sorry I got upset that you were going to the party with Harry," Neville said, looking embarrassed. "I just wanted to be able to take you to the party. I got a little jealous."

"I wanted to go to the party with you, too, and I didn't mean to make you jealous. I just went with Harry as friends. It was very clear to both of us that we were going as friends. And anyway, you kind of did get to go to the party with me. We're dancing right now aren't we?"

"Yeah, you're right," Neville said, a smile appearing on his face. "How is it that you always know how to make me feel better?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Like you said, some people just want to be miserable, which I can sort of understand, but I don't think anyone should be miserable, even if they want to. After a while, it just gets tiring and misery is contagious, like dragon pox."

"Aren't smiles contagious too?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, but they're the good kind of contagious," I said.

"Ah, I see," Neville answered.

"I knew you would," I answered, contentedly resting my head on his chest.

"By the way," Neville muttered. "You're dress is very bright and shiny. I love it."

"I knew you would," I said again. He laughed and I just had to join in. His laugh was contagious, but it was, of course, the good kind of contagious.