A/N: Oooh this one was fun. I couldn't help myself and turned it into an Emmalee thing. Enjoy!

A guest requested this one: #3: The Giant Squid is not an appropriate date to the Yule Ball.

-PJatOgirl

"Boys! Hey, boys!" I call, running down the stairs from my dorm room. The three's heads pop up guiltily from behind the couch we turned to face the corner. I dash over to them, nearly tripping over some first years. I start to climb over our couch but then I notice the looks on their faces. They don't…want me. A little hurt, I say, "Nevermind," and turn around. I glance over my shoulder and their heads have disappeared behind the couch again. I steal borrow one of Hermione's many books as I walk past that girl and her two guyfriends and their stack of books. I shove aside someone's cat and sit down crosslegged in an old armchair, then open the book. Ugh, it's Pre-Arithmancy something or other. I pretend to read it and ignore the noise coming from the corner of the common room.

At some point I fall asleep, and I wake up to the twins tilting my chair back. I close my eyes again to dismiss the annoying pricks and suddenly feel myself flying forward. Involuntarily, my eyelids open. They've shoved the chair back upright. No one is in the common room except for me and the three idiots. "Bloody h- Whaddya want?" I sigh.

"We wants to know who you plan on going to the Yule Ball with." Fred says.

"Oh, no, Fred, that's not it at all. Lee?" George cuts in.

"Really, I wanted to know if you'd go with-" Lee begins, but I interrupt.

"Can't. Already been asked."

They're all blown off their feet. Hmph. Their expectations for my romantic life are pitifully low. Then all at once the twins start to talk, wanting to know who and when and making petty threats of what they'd do when they find out who had the nerve to ask me knowing they were my friends or something like that.

"Charles." Is all I tell them, and I stand up and walk away, up to the girls dorms, knowing they can't follow.

For the rest of the week, they pester me about my elusive "Charles". I'm proud to say I don't give them anything, and I just watch them get more and more frustrated. Then they start trying every method of bribery they know, and I take the bribes in exchange for vague clues that just confuse them more. They resort to paying other students to ask me about Charles, and soon the entire school knows about it. What no one can understand though, is how I can be going with a boy named Charles when there aren't any Charleses in all of Hogwarts.

Then we have Care of Magical Creatures with some Durmstrang boys. One of them whistles when me and the boys walk in, late because they were stupid and asking about Charles. I grin because the boys have a moment where all three of them are kicking themselves for not realising something. "He's from Durmstrang?" Lee asks, almost accusingly.

"I never said he wasn't. But I never said he was." The boys groan in defeat. "Oh, give it up!"

"Fine, we give!" George says for the three of them.

"It's the bloody Giant Squid, mates!" I tell them, louder than I'd meant to. I get the attention of everyone in the class- including the teacher.

"Wha's this abou' th' Giant Squid, Emma?" Hagrid asks me.

"Nothing, nothing." I say, shaking my head. "It's just, Charles is my date to the Yule Ball." I slip a glance and a sly grin at the Durmstrang boys, knowing it will bother my boys. The Durmstrangs smile and nudge each other in a guy-ish way.

"Yeh can't take th' Giant Squid ter th' Yule Ball." Hagrid replies.

"But, Hagrid, Charles asked me. I can't just turn him down!" I protest.

"Yer not allowed a date th' Giant Squid, plain an' simple." His voice is half wonderment and half annoyance.

"Aww, Hag-rid!" I start again.

"Back ter th' lesson please, Emma."

"Fi-ine." I pout. I notice out of the corner of my eye that the Durmstrang boys are whispering to each other. I don't bother to pay any attention to my boys.

After class, a particularly attractive Durmstrang boy approaches me, but Lee and the twins get there first. "So now that you're free for the Ball, can Lee ask you a question?" Fred says.

"Are you three going to avoid me ever again?"

"Is that what this is about?"

"Whaddya think this is about, morons?" They don't have a response. "But I think this guy wants to say something too." I nod and smile at the Durmstrang boy.

He smiles back and asks, "Vhould you vhant to attend thee Ball vhith me?"

At the same time, Lee shouts quickly, "Emma-Rae-Jones-will-you-go-to-the-damn-Yule-Ball-with-me-you-stubborn-witch?"

I laugh. Lee's got his eyes squeezed shut, and the slow Durmstrang boy is taken aback. I push past my boys and walk up to the Durmstrang boy. Standing on tiptoes, I kiss his cheek and say, "Sorry, love, I'm not the girl who goes for looks. Hope you don't mind me turning you down for that stupid face."

"It ees quite fine." He says, face red; not in embarrassment, I hope.

I walk over to Lee and take his hand. He chances a peek and realises what I said, and hugs me quickly, then lets go; in embarrassment, I know.