I don't own anything other than the clothes on my back. Please listen to Jaymay's "Gray or Blue" and Damien Rice's "I Remember" (It will come up in the next chapter). Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. So sorry this is taking so long. I shall try to put the next chapter (Yule Ball) up in this next week. Depends how much alone time I have…

Hermione lay in bed crying after another day in which no one had asked her to the Yule Ball. After McGonnagal's dancing lesson, couples had scampered off, already paired off and ready to start quote-un-quote practicing. "Hermione! Hermione!" Ginny called from the bottom of the stairs, but all Hermione could do was sob louder. "Hermione! What's the matter? Oh!" Ginny threw the package she had been carrying onto Lavender's bed and knelt down at the head of Hermione's head. Ginny started humming as she wiped the tears from Hermione's eyes. "I feel so helpless now, my guitar is not around, and I'm struggling with the xylophone to make my feelings sound."

"Stop! Stop! Stop it!" Hermione sat straight up in bed. Grabbing a piece of parchment and the quill she always kept on her bedside table, she implored Ginny with her eyes.

"Um, I think it's called 'Gray and Blue.' My dad came across it in his studies, and I liked it." Ginny took the parchment from Hermione's tear-soaked hands and wrote it down. "Why does it matter?"

"It's just Luna. She was talking about it because I was frustrated about the house elves, but then she had to leave, and I tried to look it up, but I couldn't, and Viktor came over, and I left. Just—just, this—this week has been so frustrating!"

"Shh, Hermione. I'll just keep singing."

Viktor walked towards Hermione, parting in the sea of fangirls, as she marched out of the kitchens after another fruitless meeting with Winkie. "Herminny? Might I, uh, how do you say, have a word with you?"

She blushed at the European quiiditch star with his ill-formed feet and face that made up for any other physical deformity. "Yes, you may, how do you say, have a word with me."

"There is the, uh, dance coming up. As a champ-yun, I must choose a person with which to dance with all night or something like that."

In the corner of her eye, Hermione watched Harry and Ron as they trailed a group of Beauxbatons girls with their jaws hanging down around their knees.

"So, Hermy-nee, I was pondering… Did I use that word right?"

"Not exactly." Hermione shrugged, shifting her weight to her hip and relaxing against the banister. "But go on."

"I was pondering if you would go to said dance with me?"

"I would like to go to said dance with you."

Viktor took her hand and ran his rough, calloused thumb over her pale skin. "So then, I shall, as they say, see you at the dance—a rather pathetic expression if you ask me. Really! What if I see you before the dance? Then I have lied!"

Hermione raised her eyebrows and bit her lip. Nodding, she extracted her hand fromViktor's grip and started backing away.

"Goodbye, Her-minny. Until the dance!"

Someone reached out a hand from a moving throng of students passing by coming from the Great Hall—Ginny. She snatched the edge of Hermione's robe and pulled her off to the side into a dark alcove.

"Ginny?"

"Yeah, Hermione, it's me."

Ginny tapped Hermione's shoulders, pushing her down onto the ledge of the alcove. "Sit down. Trust me." Hermione squirmed on the cold stone, but found a wall to lean on and settled in. "Now, what was going on with you and Viktor Krum?"

"You saw that?"

"Yes, I may have been in the middle of a large group of people, but I'm not that short."

"Well, it was nothing, so if you'll just let me—" Hermione stood up to leave, but Ginny pushed her back down onto her seat.

"That was not just nothing."

"Yes, it was!"

"He was holding your hand. Viktor Krum does not just hold the hand of anyone. He likes you."

"Oh, Ginny, stop fangirling. So he held my hand. No big deal. It was just a, um, casual hand hold between friends."

"Friends? Seriously? Last time I held hands with a friend, they did not smile warmly at me and rub their thumb over my skin."

"Well, it's um, a new thing."

"Hermione!" Ginny whined, hitting Hermione on the shoulder.

"Okay, fine! He asked me to the dance, okay?"

"Hermione!"

"Whatever, don't tell anyone. It's my own secret. I don't want the guys to bug me about it, and I don't know… Viktor is so other-worldly, and their so British. British guys are just so blasé."

"Blasé?"

"Never mind. I have to go." Ginny flailed her arms in the dark, trying to grab onto a part of Hermione, but she only felt air.

"Hermione!"

She took a deep breath, shaking her head and brushing her hair back behind her ear. Hords of students walked past her, none of them stopping her, no one knowing what had happened to her minutes ago. Then Neville stumbled into her path.

"Neville!"

"Oh, sorry, Hermione. I didn't mean to—"

"It's okay." Hermione took a deep breath. "It's okay." She smoothed down her skirt.

"That's a relief." He swallowed. "Actually, I was looking for you."

"Yes?"

"I wanted to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"Something about the ball."

"Yes?"

"Something about my date to the ball."

"Yes?"

"I know I'm not a champion, but I still want to go with a date."

"Yes?"

"A girl, preferably. Not that I'm against boys with boys or anything! It's just not for me."

"Yes?"

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry. I'm waiting your time. I'll just say it. Hermione, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"Where is my guitar?" Hermione mumbled on her breath.

"What did you say?" Neville craned his neck towards her, bending down as he did so. Hermione sighed and stared at his feet. They were actually becoming normal-sized as he grew. It must have been that the rest of his body grew first. She shook her head to clear it.

"I can't. I'm sorry, Neville. It would have been nice, but I already have a date."

"Oh, I understand. Another date." He shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. "Don't worry, I've heard it before. You're not the only one."

"No, no, it's not like that." She finally looked up from his shoes. "He just asked me. I promise. I would love to go with a great guy like you, but I already made a commitment to him."

Neville looked into her eyes. He twisted his lips up like he was thinking and said, "Once you make a commitment, you stick with it. Like with the house elves. How is that going, by the way?"

"It's not so good. Sorry, Neville. I have to go. It's been, um, a weird day." Hermione bent her head and pushed past him, getting lost within a crowd of third-years running away from the dungeons. The mob moved towards the Great Hall, and so she followed them to the large, ornate doors, finally breaking from the pack once they split up into their various houses. She could not find any redheads at the Gryffindor table, nor any scar-faced boys nor any girls with muggle fetishes, so she grabbed a sandwich and left to go back to the Common Room.

"Why weren't you two at dinner?" She asked the boys as she climbed through the portal.

Ron hurled hurtful comments about her gender identity at her, so she bit her tongue at the idea of telling them about Viktor. She stormed off to bed and waited for Ginny to join her.

"Neville asked me to the Ball."

"That's wonderful, Ginny."

"Yeah. He's nice, right?"

"Incredibly so."

Ginny sighed at the sight of Hermione splayed out on her bed. "Do you want to see my dress?"

"Oh, yes."

Ginny ran down the stairs to get it, and Hermione started humming "Gray or Blue" to herself. She was nearing the end of the second verse when Ginny returned, waiting in the doorway until her friend finished the song.

"You have a very nice humming voice, Hermione."

"Oh, thanks. I've just been thinking about what Luna said to me about that son yesterday. I just can't find my guitar."

Ginny bit her lip in confusion, clutching the pink box she held in her hands closer to her chest? "Are you, um, ready to see my dress?"

"Yes."

She lifted the top off, revealing a box filled with satin the colors of a candy store. Hermione fingered the edge of the dress, a striped piping of sorts that was lotion on her skin. "Oh, Ginny, put it on." The ginger's eyes bugged out, but she swallowed and stood up from her chair as Hermione sighed while still holding the edge of the dress. "It's so…precious. How perfect for you."

Ginny blushed as she pulled off her pullover and slid out of her skirt. Hermione looked up from the dress to stare at the half-naked girl. There she was—freckled skin starting to get cold with goosebumps, red hair tickling her shoulders where her bra strap was starting to fall dangerously low. But Hermione envisioned someone else in her place—a girl with hair the color of the moon and a name to match who would probably jump at the chance to show off her Yule Ball dress and most likely twirl around in it after getting completely naked because her undergarments might damage the unique material of her dress. Oh my, what would Luna look like naked?

Hermione blinked. Ginny shrugged her shoulders in the dress that was a cure for any sweet tooth. The older girl reached out for her hands, sitting up and smiling. "Neville will love it. I love it. It's going to be amazing. The dance, the music, the dresses, the people. All of it." I think I'm finding my guitar.

Ginny blushed some more and ran off after a quick goodbye. Hermione stared at the wardrobe where her own dress hung with Lavender's. She fell asleep with images of the twirling blond in her head.