In the days following the first Triwizard Task the Yule Ball was announced. Professor McGonagall chose to announce it to Gryffindor House by introducing them to traditional dancing at the same time, to much of the House's annoyance, but within the hour she had them all "prancing" around the large classroom and most of them were enjoying themselves far more than they had anticipated. Ron had slumped over to Hermione and asked her to be his partner whilst Fred had sauntered over to Angelina Johnson and gotten her to dance with him, which made Hermione a little uneasy.

As the class continued to learn the required steps, Fred and Hermione kept catching each other's eyes, both of them aware that they should have just danced together.

It wasn't until they were in the common room a few days later that the subject of dates for the ball came up. The boys, Hermione and Ginny were sat around the fire and Ron was going on about how he would never get a date at the rate he was going and that there was more chance of Filch turning up with a date than him.

"Don't worry Ronniekins-"

"-you should hurry up though, before all the good ones are gone!" Fred laughed and grinned at his brother.

"Oh right so if you're so prepared, who are you going with?" Ron asked, putting him on the spot.

Fred glanced at Hermione and she prepared herself for him to ask her, only for her to completely sink as he shouted an invitation across the common room at Angelina Johnson, who said yes instantly.

He quickly shot an apologetic glance at her but she completely ignored it, she could hardly believe that he had done that when they had the perfect opportunity to acknowledge that they had something together. Instead he had backed out and she felt as if someone had winded her. She could already feel the tears in her eyes and she jumped from her seat, much to everyone's curiosity.

"There's a book in the library that I've wanted for so long, and it got returned last night, I need to go and get it!" she told them.

Of course everyone but Ron knew that she was lying but none of them said anything to her as she practically ran from Gryffindor Tower. She didn't stop until she reached the floor that the library was situated on and she crashed head first, into Viktor Krum.

"I'm so sorry!" she said as he helped her to get up from the ground.

"It is ok Miss. I was actually just inside there looking for you." He gestured towards the library.

"Looking for me?" she asked, a little confused.

"Yes. I wanted to find you a few days ago but I could not find you alone. I remembered that you liked to study so I came to look for you here."

"Well what can I do for you?" she asked, wondering if he needed any help with some of the classes he was taking at Hogwarts.

"I would like to request the pleasure of you as my date for the Yule Ball." He said, looking rather proud of himself once he had finished.

Hermione thought of Fred for a moment and how he would feel if she didn't go with him before she remembered that the entire reason that she was standing where she was in the first place was because he had asked someone else to go with him.

"I would love to go with you Viktor."

"I look forward to it Hermowninny." He said and placed a kiss on her cheek to say goodbye. It was enough for her to forgive his mispronunciation of her name and for her to actually want to return to Gryffindor Tower.

When she did she went straight to her dorm, not wanting to contemplate whatever excuse Fred might give her if managed to catch her alone. Instead Ginny followed her and invited her to her dorm.

"My brothers are complete idiots you know."

"Which ones?"

"All of them on some level!" Ginny laughed and made space on her bed for her best friend to sit down. "He just panicked you know. He said it himself once Ron went to the toilet. I think he's a bit scared of what Ron might do if you two are definitely a thing or what it means. Speak to him, he'll ditch Angelina and ask you, problem solved."

"I…actually have a date as it turns out." Hermione said a little sheepishly.

"What!? When did this happen?"

"When I ran downstairs I crashed into Viktor Krum who was actually looking for me to ask me to the ball and I was a bit mad at Fred so I said yes…."

"This is brilliant! You have to go downstairs right now and tell him!"

"I'd rather keep this between us right now if you don't mind. I don't want to make a big deal out of it. Besides, I'd rather Fred was feeling guilty for a little bit longer considering he barely glanced my way before asking Angelina." Hermione finished, rather pleased with her idea.

"His face is going to be priceless at the ball!"

"I'm counting on it!"

The girls continued giggling into the early hours of the morning before they finally fell asleep in Ginny's dorm.

When Christmas morning finally came around the boys were still convinced that Hermione was going to be attending the ball alone.

"Are you sure you still want to go?" Ron was asking her as they sat in the common room opening presents. "I mean, it's a bit sad for a girl to be going alone Mione. If you had just said, one of us would have gone with you!"

The rest of their friends were looking on as Hermione visibly tensed up.

"I won't be going alone." She said quietly.

"Mione, you don't have to keep pretending, it's only going to make it worse when we all get there."

"For your information Ronald someone did ask me to the Yule Ball and I already said yes!" she shouted at him and stormed from the common room to cool off.

It wasn't long until Ginny and Fred found her pacing outside of the tower.

"I'll leave you guys to it," Ginny gave her a small smile and headed away from them.

"Are you alright?" It was the first chance they had had to speak to each other since he had asked Angelina to the ball.

"I'm fine."

"Ron's a git a lot of the time."

"Must be a Weasley thing." She shrugged and returned to the common room, not wanting to make Christmas any worse than it already was.

A few hours later and she and Ginny were in her dorm getting ready for the Yule Ball. She couldn't contain her excitement for the night ahead when she finally slipped into her dress robes. She had chosen a light, periwinkle blue colour that was made of a light floaty material that hung to her ankles. The dress fitted her well and with her hair pinned back magically into an elegant knot on the back of her head she looked gorgeous.

She ushered Ginny to go and meet Neville ahead of her and assured her that she hadn't gotten cold feet, she was definitely going to make it. Ten minutes later she headed down to meet Viktor in the entrance hall, where she found just the champions and their partners remaining. Harry grinned at her as he caught her eye and Viktor was beaming at her by the time that she reached him.

"You look beautiful Hermowninny!" he said, almost surprised at her appearance.

He bent in a low bow and kissed her hand before offering her his arm to take. As they got themselves into the line-up the doors opened and they led the procession of the Triwizard Champions into the Great Hall. She blushed as everyone began to whisper about her appearance with Viktor. She caught Fred's eye as they walked past him and Angelina and he looked livid. They finally made their way to the middle of the dance floor and assumed the position for the dance and as the music started she found herself actually enjoying herself already. By the time the more traditional part of the evening was over she was almost worn out as Viktor had made her dance the entire time. She excused herself for a moment to go and sit down and she found Harry and Ron sat at one of the tables. She sat down next to them and Ron was already glaring at her.

"How's your evening been?" Harry asked her.

"It's been…wonderful." She beamed. "Viktor's a lot of fun once he gets going, I just can't believe how much dancing I've done!" she laughed.

"It's good to know that Viktor is a lot of fun." Ron said bitterly.

"Ron, what's wrong?"

"We're supposed to be behind Harry, not fraternising with the enemy!"

Hermione could hardly believe the words that Ron was saying. "You realise that this entire competition is about International Wizarding Relations? It's about making friends Ron! If I remember correctly you were so excited when he arrived in school and when he played at the World Cup!"

"Yeah but now look at him now that we know what he's like!"

"I don't know what you mean by that and to be quite honest if you're going to be like this I won't be staying with you, I don't want my evening to be ruined just because you're having a bad time!" she told them and left the table to go and find Viktor again, who was still dancing with his Durmstrang friends.

The rest of her evening went without a hitch and Viktor went as far as to walk her back to Gryffindor Tower once the ball had ended.

"Thank you for accompanying me this evening Hermowninny." He told her as he once again bent down to kiss her hand.

"Thank you Viktor, I had a really lovely evening," she smiled ta him.

Viktor pulled her towards him and into a hug and she was quite content to say that he was her friend. They heard laughter and voices enter the corridor and as they broke their hug and Viktor placed a kiss on her cheek to bid her goodnight she recognised Fred's familiar flash of ginger hair pass them.

"Goodnight Hermowninny." Viktor said and left her to make her way to bed.

As she entered the common room she noticed that Fred was saying goodnight to Angelina Bell. He gave her an eccentric bow and then placed a kiss on her cheek before she giggled and ran up the stairs to her dorm.

Hermione sat down in one of the armchairs near the corner of the room and finally let out a breath of relief: she had made it through the huge night that she had been dreading a little ever since Viktor had asked her to go with him. She even felt relaxed as Fred took the seat opposite her.

"How was your night?" he asked her, fairly calmly.

"It was lovely actually. Viktor was quite the gentlemen and I actually enjoyed myself."

"I bet he was. Why did you go with him?"

"I went with him because he asked me, which is more than I can say for you!"

"That's not fair! I panicked when Ron asked me and I thought that he would smack me if I asked you right in front of him!"

"I didn't realise that Ron's feelings were your prime concern." She told him sarcastically.

"All I meant was that I didn't even know if anything was going on with us for sure so I didn't want to take that leap in front of everyone for you to turn me down if you didn't feel the same way!"

"After everything that we've been through I'm insulted that you would even think that I would do that to you, you clearly aren't ready to see what we have." She could feel tears forming in her eyes.

"That's not true and you know that!" he said as they both stood from their chairs.

"I don't know that! I don't know anything that's going on because you won't talk to me about it!"

She didn't even notice Harry, Ginny, Ron and George entering the common room, all of whom stopped to stare at the sight of Fred and Hermione arguing.

"I'm sorry I couldn't find time to talk to you whilst you were busy fawning over Angelina Johnson!" she shouted in frustration.

"That's not fair! Let me make it up to you!"

"How do you plan to do that? I was so hurt when you asked her to the ball and you didn't even apologise!"

"Mione I'm so sorry, I was an idiot, please forgive me!" he grabbed her by the wrist as she tried to walk away and pulled her to him, trying to calm them both down in the process.

He felt her relax and he lifted her head to look at him.

"I really am sorry." He told her quietly and leaned in and planted a small kiss on her mouth.

She recoiled instantly and slapped him across the face.

"Just because you've apologised and I've run out of energy to argue with you does not mean that you can just kiss me!" she said, tears spilling down her face now as she turned and saw the rest of their friends staring at them in shock.

The sight of everyone watching them only made her more upset and she began to make for the stairs for her dorm.

"Mione wait!" Fred called after her.

She turned around, absolutely furious now, "You have ruined everything tonight!" she screamed and ran to her dorm.

As she was half way up the stairs to her dorm he stopped as she heard Ron shouting at Fred and Fred threatening to hex him for getting involved. Ginny caught up with her and managed to get her into her dorm where Hermione collapsed on her bed and started sobbing uncontrollably.

I'm still loving writing this! I'm a full time student and I work part time so this is my own little escape from the world for a few hours whilst I'm writing! As usual please let me know what you think by leaving me a review!

L x