new chapter everyone! and you can tell by the title what it's going to be about. Because we can't have a proper Yule Ball without some Ginny and Harry, am I right?

joking aside, I want to thank my reviewers and readers for being wonderful again :D

Emmylianaa22: awww, thanks for always dropping by to check for updates, that's really sweet :) this chapter is definitely less sad than the previous, but it's got its share of melancholy. hope you enjoy :)

guest: I'm very flattered, thank you:) I'm really happy you agree; that's why I am fascinated with this couple, their story is quite dark and twisted if you break it down. It's actually very compelling. thanks for the encouragement :)

Derp1: very glad to hear you liked the ending, it felt like a defining thing for the two :) and I'm happy you like my rendition of Ginny so far. One of my goals is to make her come out of the shadows and take on a more important part in the series.

One more thing, at one point Harry will reference back to a previous chapter, namely chapter 8 which also takes place during Goblet of Fire, but before the events in this chapter. Hope it makes sense.

That being said, enjoy!

.

10: The Yule Ball

It wasn't as bad as it could have been. Harry thought, revolving slowly on the spot (Parvati was steering). He kept his eyes fixed over the heads of the watching people, and very soon many of them too had come onto the dance floor, so that the champions were no longer the centre of attention. Neville and Ginny were dancing nearby - he could see Ginny wincing frequently as Neville trod on her feet – and Dumbledore was waltzing with Madame Maxime.

(...)

Harry and Ron spent the rest of the ball discussing giants in their corner, neither of them having any inclination to dance. Harry tried not to watch Cho and Cedric too much; it gave him a strong desire to kick something.

Rowling J.K., Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, PDF, Chapter 23: The Yule Ball, pages 270-278

Sometime around midnight, The Weird Sisters started playing slower, more romantic songs for the couples in the audience and a good quarter of the pairs withdrew from the dance floor in what Harry decided was a fairly comical sight. Most of the students (particularly the girls) had made a compromise with their partners; the younger ones got to attend the Ball while the older ones got to have a partner and not look stupid.

Ginny and Neville were a good example of that. They both liked one another enough to come together as friends, but not enough to "hold each other close and feel their heartbeats" as the vocalist had smoothly suggested at the beginning of "Smouldering Hot Cauldrons".

Neville offered to sit this one out and Ginny was more than glad to accept since they had been dancing for quite a while and her feet were getting very sore from Neville's constant missteps.

Among the retreating couples, however, Harry could not unfortunately spot Cho and Cedric. It seems they did not at all mind the change of atmosphere. In fact, they were not only enjoying slow-dancing more than most pairs around them, but they seemed to have done it before too.

Harry swallowed down his jealousy as best as he could. There was no reason to regret not having gone with Cho. He was not very good at social events, not to mention he was a terrible dancer; she would have probably ended up dancing with someone else either way.

Instead he counted down the minutes until he could finally go to bed and wipe the memory of the night's less than successful outing out of his head.

"Oi, Harry – d'you know Parvati's dancing with some Bulgarian bloke?"

Harry woke from his reverie and looked up at the boy standing before him.

"Yeah, Neville. I know. I saw her," he answered drowsily.

Ginny was standing next to Neville looking very tired, but happy. Her soft green dress made her look like a giant Cornish pixie, albeit a much, much nicer looking one.

"You did? Well! Aren't you going to do something about it? He stole your dance partner!" Neville replied, taken aback.

"Well, she asked me if she could go and dance and I was not going to join her any time soon, so I can't really blame her," Harry explained listlessly.

Neville looked even more confused. "But Harry, dancing's wonderful! I had so much fun! Maybe you didn't choose the right partner. Ginny was great!"

The young girl blushed and rolled her eyes in amusement. The boy had never been more exhilarated.

"Neville, that's very sweet, but you nearly killed my feet, you know that?"

"Oh, did I?" he asked, crestfallen. "I'm really sorry, Ginny! You said it was nothing."

"Don't worry, I enjoy being stepped on from time to time and you held out all right for a first dance," Ginny replied, tongue-in-cheek.

"Now, if you could only find Pansy Parkinson and ask her to dance..."she trailed off, smiling mischievously.

Both boys laughed in good humour, Harry in particular, feeling his spirits slightly lifted after spending such a morose evening. He was glad to have friends who could actually make light of the stuffy occasion and not take it too seriously, unlike Ron, who kept scowling at everything around him.

He didn't bother replying much to Ginny's questions.

"What's gotten into you? Did Padma see your dress-robes and make a run for it?" she asked, straight-faced.

Harry rather enjoyed her attempts at getting a rise out of him.

"I'll go find Hagrid and Maxime again. Beats sitting here," Ron muttered after his sister tried to push him out of his chair.

"Hagrid and Maxime? Isn't she the lady from Beauxbatton?" Neville asked, sitting down next to Ginny, who had taken Ron's seat, as intended.

"Yeah, she is. We, uh, we were walking outside and we spotted them talking. Hagrid was trying to romance her, I think. I don't know how half-giants go about it," Harry told them, wincing slightly at the use of the term. He felt quite stupid that he had not known this about Hagrid before Ron had told him about it.

Ginny chuckled. "That's very sweet, actually. But I wouldn't want to see their children. I mean what with Hagrid's facial hair and Maxime's yellow complexion –"

"Oh, Merlin, Ginny! Why'd you have to put that image in my head?" Neville moaned, trying in vain to shake it off. "Now I won't be able to look at Hagrid again!"

"Yeah, you pretty much ruined Hagrid for us," Harry agreed amused.

The three of them continued to talk about several other strange couples they had seen parading across the room that evening (including Mad-Eye Moody and Professor Sinistra) while they indulged in some treacle, when all of a sudden, Neville jumped out as if he had been burnt.

"Ginny, what time is it?" he asked, his face aghast.

The girl took out a small pocket-watch. "It's a quarter to midnight, why? What's happened?"

"Oh, good! It's not midnight yet! Sorry, I just have to get back in the dorm in fifteen minutes!"

Harry raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Are you turning into Cinderella or something?"

Both he and Ginny stared at him nonplussed.

"Um, muggle fairytale, nevermind," Harry mumbled.

"It's not that, it's just Gran said she'd check on me and I'd get a Howler if I was not back by midnight. She's sort of strict, you see."

"Oh. Well, that isn't very nice of her. Not letting you have some fun with your friends. You of all people deserve it," Ginny commented, commiserating.

"Yeah, Neville. You should have a talk with her. She shouldn't be sending you Howlers anymore, you're old enough," Harry agreed.

"Well, the Ball's probably going to end soon anyway, so I won't be missing much," Neville mumbled, swallowing his humiliation.

"Thanks for the lovely evening, Ginny, I had a great time," he said, beaming gratefully.

Ginny smiled back, nodding her head. "Me too."

"See you both in the common room, then. Good night!"

"Poor Neville," Ginny commented, watching him run up the stairs in a hurry, "he was really looking forward to staying up all night."

"Really? Well, I doubt we'll be staying up all night," Harry replied, glancing towards the teachers' table which was by now completely empty.

Only when Ginny looked back at him, puzzled, did he realize what he had said.

He coughed and shook his head embarrassed. "I mean, no – that sounded stupid. I meant the rest of us."

Ginny nodded her head shyly and looked down at her feet, feeling suddenly twice more self-conscious than before.

With Neville gone, they found themselves alone at an empty table, standing next to each other as if they were one of the couples.

Or at least that is what Ginny imagined and instantly regretted.

Harry had almost asked her to the Ball, but she was glad she hadn't had the chance to refuse him, because she was actually sure she wouldn't have refused him at all, which would have only prevented her from making any progress in her quest to suppress the obvious feelings she still had for him.

"Hermione looked really nice. I couldn't believe it was her at first," she began half-heartedly, looking towards the dance floor. "Not that she isn't pretty as a rule. But you know..."

"Yeah, she surprised everyone, I think. No one's ever seen her with straight hair before."

"Or with a Bulgarian Seeker," Ginny added amused.

"That too," Harry acquiesced, smiling. "Ron did not take it so well. He tries and fails not to see her that way," Harry said matter-of-factly.

Ginny was pleasantly surprised that Harry, unlike Ron, was not so immature that he could not acknowledge his friend's ridiculous jealousy. She had thought boys always stuck together and never discussed issues, but Harry was a nice exception.

Of course, Ginny thought rolling her eyes, she always made Harry the exception. She had to stop doing that.

Just then, one of the taller boys from Durmstrang approached their table with an obvious glint in his eye.

He stopped right in front of them, revealing a dazzling smile and very dapper dress robes and asked Ginny for a dance.

She turned slightly red and started explaining how her feet were killing her and that she could not even try standing up, but the boy, who did not have a very clear grasp of English, noticed how she exchanged glances with Harry and upon recognizing him as one of the four champions he waved his hand apologetically.

"I understand – you are dancing vit ze champion! Av course! You are couple, yes?"

Ginny shook her head in horror. She was sure her cheeks were aflame. She could feel them burning. She gestured once more at her feet and tried to make him see the problem, but Harry shrugged it off immediately.

"Find someone else, then, since she's unavailable." He was not exactly kind to anyone who referred to him as "the champion".

The boy smirked and winked at him before turning to the adjacent table.

"Thanks," she muttered, hiding her red face.

But Harry was already lost in his thoughts. It had started snowing and he was looking up at the swirling cotton fluff falling softly from the ceiling, his mind far away.

Ginny followed his gaze. It was a lovely, mesmerising view.

She could stare at it for hours and not get tired. In fact, if she stared hard enough, the entire Great Hall would fade into obscurity and the only thing left would be the snow and the sky.

"Do you – do you still have those nightmares, Ginny?"

She did not move her head or turn towards him, but he could see from the corner of his eye that she was visibly startled.

Ginny had managed not to bring up that memory for an entire evening spent in his presence, but now that he had suddenly breached it, she felt as if she had been thinking about it all this time.

That night at the World Cup would never truly fade away, more so because it wasn't just her memory. It was his too.

He noticed how uneasy the question had made her.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked. I was just...concerned."

He hadn't been able to forget either, but unlike Ginny, who was always unwillingly reminding herself of it, he only remembered when she was around.

"No, it's – it's fine. The dreams are getting better now. Um, sometimes I don't even dream," she replied, her voice tinged with unspoken sadness. "You shouldn't be worried."

It was only half a lie. Her dreams were not as gruesome or frightening as before, but they were not exactly warm or pleasant, either. In fact, she had nearly forgotten what it was like to have normal dreams.

That is why outwardly she was so cheerful and boisterous around her friends and family. She wanted to have the days to herself.

Ginny wondered if she should thank him again for that night, tell him how much he'd helped her and how much it mattered to her still, but she knew that it would sound silly and contrived. He had done his part, but he hadn't eradicated him from her dreams. He had only woken her up. No more, no less. He always seemed to be doing that.

She just wished he wouldn't always associate her with nightmares and Tom Riddle.

As if he had read her mind he told her in what was meant to be a comforting voice,

"I won't bring it up again, if you don't want me to."

And she didn't, so he didn't.

But they both knew it would not last. Harry couldn't not bring up Tom Riddle and Ginny couldn't not want to know.

For now, though, they were glad to bury it in the ground.

The music had stopped.

Harry went outside in search of his friend and he and Ginny parted ways in front of the moving staircase.

A/N: obviously what I meant by "for now" and "it would not last" is that they both certainly address Ginny's possession and Tom Riddle-related experiences in Order of the Phoenix (you can go back to chapter 1 which deals with that in particular:) )