AUTHORS NOTE! :P
Hey :) thanks for all the reviews and favorites and alerts, I appreciate them all :)
Now I shall answer some reviews...
Courtney DiLaurentis: thanks and I can't wait to write it!
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Quail Sandwich: thanks :D
Felidaes' Tale: I love that sentence too haha :)
AnikaandAj: haha I always do that too when one of my favorite authors update :L all my friends think I'm insane haha :)
pyro and darnet co: i love dobby too :( you'll find out in this chapter :) year 3 got over 300 reviews :)
max artemis potter: i hope so too :P
thanks to everyone else that reviewed and we're still aiming for 200 by the next chapter! right now we have 189 reviews, so get reviewing!
Enjoy!
-Rach ;)
Max's POV
"Will you pay attention?"
Professor McGonagall's irritated voice cracked like a whip through the Transfiguration class on Thursday, and me, Harry, Ron, Fang and Iggy all jumped and looked up at the same time. It was the end of the lesson' we had finished our work, the guinea fowl we had been changing into guinea pigs were shut away in a large cage on McGonagall's desk, we had copied down our homework from the board. The bell was going to ring any moment, and the five of us had been having a sword fight with a couple of Fred and George's fake wands. We looked at McGonagall, Ron holding his tin parrot, ready to hit it against Harry's rubber haddock, and I was holding Iggy's rubber duck beside my fake chicken, while Fang still had a hold on his rooster.
"Now that Potter, Ride, Weasley, Martinez and Griffiths are acting their age," McGonagall said, with an angry look at us as the head of Harry's haddock dropped silently to the floor- Ron's parrot's beak had severed it moments before- "I have something to tell you all.
"The Yule Ball is approaching- a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will only be open to fourth years and above- although, you many invite a younger student if you wish-"
Lavender let out a shrill giggle. Parvarti nudged her in the ribs, her face working furiously as she fought not to giggle. They both looked down at Harry and I glared at them. I don't know why. Maybe it was because McGonagall ignored them, which was unfair because she had just given out to us.
"Dresses and dress robes will be worn," McGonagall continued, "and the ball will start at eight o' clock on Christmas Day, finished at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then-"
McGonagall looked around the class.
"The Yule Ball, is of course, a chance for us all to-er-let our hair down," she said in a disapproving voice.
Lavender giggled harder then ever, with her hand pressed to her mouth to stifle the sound. I could actually see what was funny this time: Professor McGonagall, with her hair in a tight bun, looked as though she never put it down.
"But that does NOT meant," McGonagall went on, "that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we except from each and every one of you. I will seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student is to embarrass the school in any way."
The bell rang, and there was the usual stampede to get to the door.
Over the noise, McGonagall called, "Potter- a word, please."
"I bet its something about the animal fighting," Iggy said as we waited outside the door.
"Animal fighting?" Hermione asked, who hadn't taken part of the fight, because she wasn't `as immature as you lot!' as she put it.
"Well, yeah. I would of been a sword fight if we were doing it with swords, but we weren't. We were using fake, rubber animals. So it was an animal fight," Iggy explained in a matter-of-fact tone.
I rolled my eyes. "You're such a dope," I grinned.
A few minutes later, Harry walked out of the class, looking moody and annoyed. "What did she want?" Fang asked.
"Told me that I have to find a dance partner for the ball. The champions open the Yule Ball by dancing with their partners," Harry said.
"So you need to find a date?" Ron asked. Harry nodded his head. "Yeah, basically."
"Brilliant," Iggy said, grinning. "We can all find dates. This should be fun." I smacked him over the head and said, "Don't be so sexist!"
"Oh yeah, like you two don't want to find a nice date?" Ron said, looking at me and Hermione.
"We don't need dates. It's Harry that'll need a date more then us. If he doesn't have a date, he's going to look like a nimrod," I said.
"Wow, thanks Max," Harry said sarcastically. I smiled at him. "Always trying to help."
"You can always ask that Cho chick," Iggy said. "You like her, don't you?"
Harry blushed and looked away from me. "Yeah, but I don't think I'd ask her." We spent the rest of the day thinking of girls Harry could take to the ball. I didn't like it, but I don't know why. I got this weird feeling in my stomach every time a new girls name was mentioned.
"That's all the girls I can think of," Fang said, sitting back in the couch in the common room. "Would you consider going with a boy?"
We all laughed as Harry frowned and shook his head furiously. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.
I have never seen so many people staying at Hogwarts for Christmas. We, of course, always did, because Harry always stayed and we didn't want him to be alone at Christmas. I understood why he wanted to stay at Hogwarts every Christmas- the only other option was going back to his aunt and uncle, and no one would want to stay there for more then five minutes. How Harry stayed there for eleven years still mystified me.
This year, it seemed as though everyone that was in fourth year and above were staying. Even Nudge was staying. "I'm just hoping someone will ask me, so I can go. If they don't, I'm still going to go," she beamed when I asked her why she wasn't going back to the Burrow.
Everyone seemed to be obsessed over this ball- well, all the girls were. It was amazing how many girls there actually were in Hogwarts and I never noticed it before. Girls giggling and whispering to each other in the corridor, girls shrieking with laughter whenever a boy passed them, girls excitedly comparing notes to what they were wearing Christmas night... The only girls I noticed that weren't talking about the Yule Ball every hour of the day were me and Hermione.
"Why do they have to move in packs?" I heard Harry asking Ron, Fang and Iggy as a group of girls walked passed them, staring at Harry. "How are we supposed to get one on their own to ask them?"
"Lasso one?" Ron said. "Got any idea who you want to ask?"
Harry didn't answer. He was probably going to ask Cho Chang. She was extremely pretty, and very popular, and a really good Quidditch player. Why wouldn't he ask her?
"Listen," Ron said, "You're not going to have trouble getting a date. You're a champion! You've just beaten a Hungarian Horntail. I bet they'll be queuing up to go with you."
Amazingly, Ron was actually right.
The next day, a third-year Hufflepuff girl with curly brown hair, who had never spoken to either of us before, asked Harry to go with her. He refused straight away, and she walked away rather hurt. During History of Magic, he had to put up with us teasing him, with the help of Seamus and Dean. The following day, two more girls asked him, a second-year (and to make things more amusing for us) a fifth year that looked as if he'd throw Harry out the window if he said no.
"She was kinda good looking," I said after I stopped laughed.
"She was a foot taller then me," Harry said, "Imagine trying to dance with her?"
"Mate, everyone is a foot taller then you," Iggy said. Harry just glared at him.
Harry wasn't the only person getting people asking him to the ball. Surprisingly, so was I. The day the massive fifth-year asked Harry, a fourth-year Hufflepuff boy who I've never spoken to before walked up to me and asked shyly if I wanted to go with him. I apologized and told him no. But after that, more boys asked me, including two Slytherins, but they looked desperate for a date. I said no to every one of them. I didn't know why, most of them seemed really nice, but I just couldn't say yes to them.
I also noticed that Harry wasn't getting as much bad-mouthing in the corridors anymore, and there were less and less Support Cedric! badges around too. Of course, Malfoy was still wearing his badge, and quoting Rita Skeeter's article at every chance her got, but he was getting fewer and fewer laughs from it. And best of all, no story about Hagrid had come up in the Daily Prophet.
"She didn' seem very int'rested in magical creatures, ter tell yeh the truth," Hagrid told us when we asked him about it in the last Care of Magical Creatures class of the term. To everyone relief, Hagrid had given up on direct contact with the skrewts, and we were just sheltering behind his cabin, preparing a fresh selection of food with which to tempt the skrewts.
"She jus' wanted me ter talk about ye lot," Hagrid said, pointed to me, Fang, Iggy, and Harry. "An' Nudge, too, o' course."
"Us? Why us?" I asked.
"Dunno," Hagrid said. "Told her we'd been friends since I brought yeh ter Diagon Alley, and been friends with you, Harry, since I got yeh from the Dursley's. `Never had to tell them off in four years?' she said. `Never played you up in lessons?' I told her no an' she didn' seem happy at all. Yeh'd think she wanted me ter say ye were all horrible."
"Course she did," Harry said, throwing lumps of dragon liver into a large metal bowl. "She can't keep writing about what a tragic little hero I am, or it'll get boring. But why was she asking about you guys?"
"That's what I'd like to know," I said, cutting up more cow kidneys.
"You don't think she knows?" Fang whispered, quiet enough only I could hear it. "I don't see how she would of found out. Let's just hope she wanted to find out more about the only American students at Hogwarts."
"But you're not American. Not really," Fang said.
"And who else knows that? No one else knows that Sirius is my dad, so everyone still thinks I'm American," I said.
"Let's just hope you're right," he sighed.
"It's me. I'm always right," I grinned.
"She wants a new angle, Hagrid," Ron said. None of them had noticed me and Fang's conversation. "You were supposed to say that Harry's a mad delinquent."
"But he's not!" Hagrid said, looking genuinely shocked.
"She should've interviewed Snape," Harry said grimly, "he would of told her everything she wanted to know. `Potter has been crossing lines here since he first set foot in this school..."
"Said that, did he?" Hagrid said while we laughed. "Well, yeh might've bent a few rules, Harry, bu' yeh're all righ' really, aren' you?"
"Cheers Hagrid," Harry smiled.
"Are you coming to this ball on Christmas Day, Hagrid?" I said.
"Though' I might look in on it, yeah," Hagrid said. "Should be a good do, I reckon. You'll be opening the dancin', won' yeh, Harry? Who're you takin'?" I couldn't help but notice Hagrid's eyes flash to me when he asked that.
"No one yet," Harry said, blushing.
The next day was Saturday, so I slept in late. When I woke up, the dormitory was empty. I dressed quickly, feeling hungry, and left the dormitories and walked down into the common room. There were a few people there, as I walked passed them to get to the portrait hole, I noticed them staring at me and whispering. I frowned, wondering what their problem was. I shrugged it off and walked down to the Great Hall.
All the way through the castle, it was the exact same thing. If I passed someone going down the stairs, they'd stare at me until I glared at them and they lost their nerve.
Just before I walked into the Great Hall, Fang, Iggy and Nudge came out, looking pale, worried, and slightly angry. "What's wrong?" I asked. Before they could answer, Harry, Ron and Hermione joined us, Hermione holding today's Daily Prophet.
"We need to go somewhere private," Hermione whispered urgently. The doors to the Great Hall were still opened, and I could see people staring at us. Hermione started walking back up the stairs, and she finally led us to a deserted classroom.
"What's going on?" I asked. "People have been staring at me all morning."
Instead of answering, Hermione just handed me the newspaper. I was afraid to look at it. The way the others were acting, I thought someone had died.
I took a breath and looked down at the Daily Prophet. I thought I was going to pass out.
It was a picture of us- me, Fang, Iggy and Nudge. But we were flying. It was from a few weeks ago, when we went flying together in the middle of the night.
Over the picture it read Bird-Kids at Hogwarts- Miracles or Freaks?
I looked up. "What the hell is this?" I hissed.
"Just keep reading," Nudge whispered, looking pained.
I looked back down at the paper and read the long article that joined the picture.
Late last month, I, Rita Skeeter, discovered that there are four students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, that possess not only impressive magical ability, but the ability to fly without a broomstick- they have wings. These students are Maximum Ride, Fang Martinez, Iggy Griffiths and Nudge Weasley. There are two younger children that are in their "flock" but are too young to come to Hogwarts.
But these children were not meant to be born with wings. The parents never knew that on their regular check-ups, the Healers were giving their babies avian (bird) DNA. When the children were born, they had wings. The Healers would then tell the parents that their child was dead, and take the baby with them to continue with their experiments. The oldest, Maximum, was taken from her parents shortly after her birth, and taken to a Muggle building called a laboratory in America, that they called "The School." Shortly after, Fang and Iggy joined Maximum. While they were there, the scientists that worked there did painful experiments on them, keeping them in cages.
When Ride, Martinez and Griffiths were ten, they managed to escape with the younger bird-children, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel. They lived together for a year, before Professor Dumbledore came to their home in America and informed them that they would be going to Hogwarts.
"It was the happiest moment of my life," Ride told me. "I mean, I loved it there, but I always felt like there was something missing. Now, at Hogwarts, I feel complete."
"It still hurts to think about my childhood," Martinez informed me when I asked him if he still thinks about what it was like growing up. "We all still get scared about it. But we've moved on, and we're happy here."
But there is still hope of a love life for these unfortunate children. The very night "the flock" told me about their past and their wings, Maximum shared her first kiss with a Ravenclaw boy.
Below this was a picture of me and Ethan kissing under the tree by the lake. So that explained the clicking noise I had heard... I blushed furiously out of anger, but also slightly out of embarrassment that my fist kiss was all over the newspaper. I looked back at the paper, forcing myself to read the rest.
"We never wanted to tell anyone about our wings. We weren't sure how people would take it. But we agreed that we just couldn't keep it to ourselves anymore, so we thought telling you would be the fastest way to get it around. Now everyone can know about us. We don't have to hide anymore," Griffiths told me.
Now the question I'm sure we're all asking each other is, are these children dangerous? Could they harm us, or our children? I doubt that the children could harm anyone, but I regretfully can't say the same for Maximum's father.
"Before last summer, I thought both my parents were dead. But I was wrong. My father is Sirius Black. But I don't want anything to do with him. He's a murderer. He's dead to me," Maximum said, tears brimming in her eyes.
In a strange twist, all six of these strange children have become close friends with none other then The Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter. Let's just hope that Mr. Potter's good nature will prevent the bird-kids from being a threat.
Under the last sentence paragraph were more about ten more pictures of us flying around the forest, and a couple more of me and Ethan kissing.
I threw the paper across the room. "How the hell did she find out?" I shouted furiously, my face red with rage.
"We don't know," Iggy said. "Did you tell anyone recently?"
"Of course I didn't tell-" I started, but I stopped myself. I did tell someone recently. Ethan.
"What is it?" Nudge asked.
"I told Ethan," I said quietly.
"You did what?" Fang snapped.
"I didn't have much of a choice!" I shouted. "He saw the Erasers, and they basically told him everything anyway. But he wouldn't tell Skeeter." But even as the words left my mouth, I wasn't sure if they were true. The look on Ethan's face when he walked away from the lake flashed in my mind. But Ethan wouldn't do this, no matter how hurt he had felt? Would he?
"Well if it wasn't him, then who was it?" Harry asked.
"Malfoy," Hermione said, raising her head. "Remember in first-year? He called Max birdie, then told everybody that they were birds? I bet it was him."
Fang shook his head. "It wasn't Malfoy. If it was, he would of gone to the Daily Prophet ages ago."
"Who else knows? We're not even sure if Malfoy knows for sure," Iggy said.
We sat in silence, thinking over everyone that could know about us. "Well, there are all the teachers-" I started, but Nudge interrupted me.
"OMG! It was Snape!" she said, jumping up.
"We'll keep him in mind as suspect number one," I said grimly. I couldn't believe this was happening. Everyone knew about us now. They even knew that Sirius was my dad, but Skeeter had written that I hated him. If Sirius somehow managed to read the article, he'd somehow believe that I hated him...
Your father won't believe this, Maximum. And no one told Rita Skeeter about the flock, the Voice said.
What? Then how did she find out?
Skeeter has her ways of finding out what she wants. How do you think she gets all that information?
What are her ways? And to no ones surprise, the Voice didn't answer.
"Hello? Earth to Max? Maaaaax?" Nudge was saying, waving her hand in front of my face. I jumped back and realized that I had completely zoned out when I was talking to the Voice. "Sorry, I was talking to the Voice," I grumbled. Something about the Voice had always set me on edge. How was it that it knew everything that was happening?
"What was it saying? Anything about this stupid article?" Ron asked. I nodded my head. "It said that no one told Skeeter about us. That she has her ways of figuring out what she wants," I said.
"What are her ways?" Hermione asked.
"The Voice didn't say," I said.
"This isn't helping anything," Iggy said. "We should just go down to the Great Hall and face the music."
"You know what that's going to be like?" Nudge said, raising her eyebrows and looking horrified. "Everyone is going to be staring at us, and whispering..."
"Just think of it as being famous," Ron said, grinning but there was no humor behind it.
"Well, we are famous now," I mumbled darkly, glaring at the newspaper that was crumpled in the corner.
"Let's get this over with," Fang said determinedly, his dark eyes flashing, walking over to the door. We got up and joined him by the door. Fang looked down at me, and asked, "Are you ready?" I nodded and said, "Let's do this."
The following week (which was also the last week of term) was the worst week of my life. Everywhere I went, there were people staring at me, and if they weren't staring at my face, they were staring at my back. A few people actually told us that we were really brave to still go to school after everything that happened to us, but other people just shouted, "freaks!" right to our faces, or else asking, "can I see your wings?" and directed at me instead of all of us, "You gonna help your dad kill more innocent people, Ride?"
The teachers did there best to get the other students to leave us alone, but it wasn't really working; as soon as the teachers turned their backs, we were pounced on again, either asking us questions or calling us freaks.
The day after the article came out, I sent a letter to Sirius, explaining everything that happened, but I haven't gotten a reply yet. I was starting to worry that he really believed that I hated him. But that was ridiculous, he was smarter then to believe anything Skeeter wrote.
On top of everything else, we were given a mountain load of work to do before the Christmas holidays, every single person was talking endlessly about the Yule Ball and there were some stupid rumors going around about the ball, like that Dumbledore had ordered eight hundreds barrels of mulled mead from Madam Rosmerta. But it was a fact however that Dumbledore had booked the Weird Sisters, one of the most popular wizarding bands that I sometimes listened to in the Burrow on the radio.
Truth be told, after the article, I wasn't looking forward to the Yule Ball. Nudge had told me that she had a dress for me, but I wasn't allowed see it until Christmas Day, but it was a dress everyone would be able to see my wings. I didn't think I could handle having people staring at me any more.
Some of the teachers, like Professor Flitwick, gave up trying to teach our class when our minds were so clearly elsewhere; he let us play games in his lesson on Wednesday, and spent most of it talking to Harry about the perfect Summoning Charm he had used during the first-task. Other teachers weren't as generous. Nothing could ever get Professor Binns to stop going through his notes with his boring, drawling voice- he didn't even let his own death stop him teaching, and supposed that Christmas wasn't going to put him off. It was actually amazing how he made something as violent and bloody goblin riots sound as boring as Percy going on and on about his cauldron-bottom report. Professors McGonagall and Moody kept us working until the very last second of the class, and Snape of course would no sooner let us play games in his class then adopt all the Gryffindors. Staring nastily around at us all, he informed us that he would be testing us on poison antidotes during the last lesson of the term.
"Evil, he is," Ron said bitterly while we tried to ignore all the goggling and staring we were getting in the Gryffindor common room. "Popping a test on us on the last day. Ruining the last bit of term with a whole load of studying."
"You aren't exactly straining yourself though, are you?" Hermione said, looking at him over the top of her Potions book. Ron was building a card castle out of his Exploding Snap pack- a much more interesting pastime then with normal Muggle cards, because of the chance that the whole thing would explode at any second.
"It's Christmas, Hermione," I said, leaning back into the couch and glaring at some sixth years that were whispering to each other and staring at us.
Hermione looked severely over at me too, but before she could say anything, Harry said, "Max is right, Hermione. It's Christmas. We should be relaxing."
"I'd have thought you'd be something constructive, Harry, even if you don't want to learn your antidotes!" Hermione said.
"Like what?" Harry asked.
"The egg!" Hermione hissed.
"Come on, Hermione, I've got till February the twenty-fourth," Harry said.
"But it could take weeks to figure it out! You're going to look like an idiot if everyone knows what the next task is and you don't!"
"Leave him alone, Hermione, he's earned a break," Iggy said, just as Ron placed the last two cards on top of the castle and the whole lot blew up, singeing his eyebrows.
"Nice look, Ron... go well with your robes, that will."
It was Fred and George. They sat down in the seats around us as Ron tried to feel for the eyebrows that weren't there as we held in our laughter. It felt nice to laugh after so long of feeling miserable.
"Ron, can we borrow Pigwidgeon?" George asked.
"No, he's off delivering a letter," Ron said, "Why?"
"Because George wants to invite him to the ball," Fred said sarcastically.
"Because we want to send a letter, you stupid prat," George said.
"Who'd you keep writing to, eh?" Ron asked.
"Nose out Ron, or I'll burn that off too." (AN: and then he'll look exactly like Voldemort! Sorry, I had to do it... on with the story)Fred said, waving his wand threateningly. "So... you lot got dates for the Yule Ball yet?"
"Nope," Fang said.
"Well, you better get a move on before all the good ones are taken," George said.
"Who are you going then?" Ron asked.
"Angelina," Fred said without a trace of embarrassment.
"What?" Ron said, taken aback. "You've already asked her?"
"Good point," Fred said. He turned his head and called across the common room, "Oi, Angelina!"
Angelina, who had been talking to Katie Bell near the fire, looked over at him. "What?" she called back.
"Want to go to the Yule Ball with me?"
Angelina gave Fred an appraising sort of look. "All right then," she said, grinning, and turned back to Katie.
"There you go," Fred said, turning back to us, "piece of cake." He got to his feet, yawning, and said, "We'd better go us a school owl then, George, come on."
They left. Ron stopped feeling his eyebrows and looked across the smoldering wreck of his card castle at Harry, Fang and Iggy.
"We really should get a move on you know... ask someone. He's right. We don't want to end up going with a pair of trolls."
Me and Hermione stared at Ron, our eyes wide. "A pair of what?" I asked, glaring at Ron.
"Well- you know," Ron said, shrugging. "I'd rather go alone than with- with Eloise Midgen, say."
"Her acne's loads better today- and she's so nice!" Hermione said.
"Her nose if off-center," Ron said. I glared at him. "You're kidding," I said. "You wouldn't go with her because her nose is off-center?" Ron nodded, looking like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"I see," Hermione said hotly, "So basically you're going to take the best looking girl you can find, even if she's completely horrible?"
"That sounds around right, yeah," Ron said.
"I'm going to bed," Hermione snapped, and she swept off towards the girls dormitory without another word.
I went up after her, and when I ran up the stairs, I sensed that someone else had followed me. I turned around and saw both Nudge and Ginny coming up the stairs after me. "We saw Hermione running up here. Is she okay?" Ginny asked.
I nodded. "She's fine. Ron was just being a jerk."
I walked into our dormitory and found Hermione lying on her bed, looking furious but confused. "You okay?" I asked, sitting beside her.
"Ron can be so annoying sometimes," she huffed. "I can't believe he's so shallow."
"He'll get over himself and when he has no date for the ball he'll realize that he shouldn't only go for the girls who are pretty. He'll realized that he'd be happy with any nice girl that likes hanging out with him," Nudge said.
"The only girls that like hanging out with him are us and Angel... and I don't even like hanging out with him all the time," I said.
Hermione smiled and rolled her eyes. Then she suddenly blushed a deep, deep red.
"What?" Ginny asked, staring at Hermione with an amused look.
"Nothing," Hermione said, a bit too fast, blushing even more.
"What is it? You're redder then a tomato," I said, grinning at my best friend. We all started poking her until she said, "Fine! Fine, I'll tell you."
We stared at her and she took a deep breath. "I'm going to the Yule Ball," she said quickly.
"Well, we all knew that. We're all going to the ball. Well, unless someone asks me, I can't go..." Nudge trailed off, looking disappointed.
"No. I meant I'm going to the Yule Ball...with someone," Hermione said, her face so red I thought it would set the room on fire.
"Who?" we all shouted, jumping on the bed.
"Em..." Hermione said, staring at her shoes.
"If you say Malfoy I will walk out of this room and never look back," I said, sitting back.
"It's not Malfoy!" Hermione said, giggling. "It's Krum."
We stared at her, completely silent. Then at the same time we erupted in an explosion on noise. "That's amazing!"
"He actually asked you? When? Where?"
"I can't believe this! You're going to be so cute together at the ball! You're so damn lucky!"
Hermione just looked down at her shoes, smiling.
The Hogwarts staff seemed determined to impress the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students by decorating the school the best it's ever been for Christmas. When the decorations went up, I noticed that they were the most stunning I've ever seen in the castle. Everlasting icicles hung from the banisters of every staircase; the usual twelve Christmas trees were hung up in the Great Hall were covered in holly berries and real, gold, hotting owls and the suits of armor had all been bewitched to sing Christmas carols whenever someone passed them. It was really something to hear "O Come, All Ye Faithful" sung by an empty helmet that only knew half of the words. More then once, Filch had to take Peeves out of inside the armor, because he had been hiding in them and filling the gaps of the songs with his own lyrics, and all of them were very rude, but I found them hysterical.
And still, I didn't have a date for the Yule Ball. There were still loads of boys that asked me, but I all told them no. I don't know what I was waiting for, I just didn't want to go with any of them. The boys were getting really nervous now, because they still didn't have dates either, though I did point out that they would all look a lot less stupid then Harry if they didn't have dates- Harry had to dance in front of everyone, and if he didn't ask someone soon, he'd be dancing on his own.
"I suppose there's always Moaning Myrtle," he said gloomily.
"We've just got to grit our teeth and do it," Ron said in a tone that made it sound like they were planning on breaking down the Great Wall of China. "When we come back to the common room tonight, the four of us will have partners- agreed?"
"Agreed."
I still didn't know why none of them asked me or Hermione, or Ginny or Nudge, to go with them. Well, of course, Hermione was taken but we were the only ones that knew that. She didn't want anyone to know, especially the boys.
All that day, I kept seeing Ethan wherever I went. He'd been avoiding me since the night of the Eraser attack and every time I tried talking to him, he'd make some excuse and walk away. After the article was published, and the pictures of us kissing were in the newspaper, Ethan had been getting some hassle as well, but no where near as much as we were. But he still wouldn't talk to me.
But today, it seemed like he was following me everywhere.
The six of us were walking down to Potions when I heard someone say, "Max? Can we talk?"
I turned around and saw Ethan standing in the emptying Entrance Hall, looking awkward and nervous. "Okay," I said. He was probably going to tell me that we shouldn't be friends anymore and that I should leave him alone. I looked back at the others. "Tell Snape that I was feeling sick and I'll be there in a few minutes," I said. They nodded, and I saw Harry giving Ethan a weird look before disappearing into the dungeons.
"What do you want?" I asked.
Ethan looked around at the now empty entrance hall. "I wanted to apologise about the way I was acting. I was a git," he said.
"Took you this long to notice that?" I said, crossing my arms. I couldn't believe it took me until now to realize that I was mad at him. I saved his butt from Erasers, then I tell him my life story, then he kisses me, then ignores me.
"No, I realized that I was a jerk as soon as I walked away from you at the lake," Ethan said.
"Then how come you've been ignoring me since then?" I asked. I didn't have the energy to be sarcastic and witty.
"Because I was afraid that you wouldn't want to talk to me after what I did," he said. "I'm really sorry."
I just stared at him.
"And I have something to ask you," he went on, blushing a little bit.
"Well spit it out," I said when he didn't say anything for a few minutes.
"Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?" he asked quickly, staring at his shoes.
Without even thinking about it, I said, "I'd love to. Meet me in the Entrance Hall before it starts." Ethan beamed, then leaned in and kissed my cheek. I grinned like a loon, hoping he wouldn't notice me blushing.
"It's a date," he said, smiling, before walking back up the marble staircase.
I couldn't concentrate on Snape's stupid antidotes test, but luckily I didn't forget to add the key ingredient- a bezoar. But unluckily, Harry did forget to add a bezoar, which meant he got bottom marks, but he didn't seem to care. As soon as the bell rang, Harry grabbed his bag, said, "I'll meet up at dinner!" and ran out of the dungeons.
"Where's he going?" Iggy asked, staring after Harry.
"Probably to ask Cho Chang to the ball," Ron said. My stomach twisted at his words, but I ignored it. I was hungry, that was all.
"Hey guys," we heard someone say behind us. It was Neville. He was looking nervous about something.
"Hey Neville," Hermione said.
"Can I talk to you?" he asked suddenly, looking at Hermione. Hermione seemed confused, but nodded anyway. Neville and Hermione walked over to the door, where we couldn't hear them. I saw Hermione blush after Neville said something, then she shook her head and said something to him. Neville looked a bit disappointed, but smiled anyway, and walked out of the classroom.
"Did Neville just ask you to the ball?" I asked Hermione, starting to feel really bad for him.
Hermione nodded. "He asked if we could go as friends, because I'm always helping him in potions. I told him I couldn't."
"Why couldn't you?" Fang asked.
"That's none of your business," Hermione said.
Suddenly, a light-bulb went off in my head. "I'll be back in a minute," I said, and I ran after Neville.
"Hey, Neville! Wait," I said as I caught up with him. He turned around and smiled when he saw me. "Hi Max," he said.
"You just asked Hermione to the ball?" I said, even though I knew the answer. Neville nodded, frowning. "Well, she can't go with you because she's going with someone else. But I know someone who you can go with. But she's in second year. Does that matter?"
Neville shook his head. "No, I just want to go with someone as a friend. I don't want a proper date."
"Perfect," I said. "Go ask Nudge. She really wants to go, and you get on well, don't you?"
Neville smiled. "Yeah, Nudge is great. Thanks Max," and he walked into the Great Hall, heading towards Nudge and her friends. I saw him sit down beside Nudge and whisper something to her. She smiled and nodded, and Neville beamed. He looked back at me and gave me the thumbs-up. I smiled at him.
"What did you do?" Ron asked, as the others joined me at the doors to the Great Hall.
"I got Neville a partner to the ball," I said, smiling smugly.
We were just going to walk into the Great Hall when a group of Hufflepuff girls that were in our year walked passed us. Just before walking through the door, Iggy said, "I'll be back in a minute," and he walked over to the Hufflepuff girls. "What's he doing?" Hermione asked. But her question was answered when we saw Iggy go right up to Susan Bones. We couldn't hear what he said, but Susan smiled and nodded. Iggy grinned at her, said something else that made her laugh, then walked back to us.
"What did you do?" Fang asked.
"Got myself a partner for the ball," Iggy said.
"Right, my turn now," Fang said. He looked around the Great Hall, and did his little mini grin when he spotted someone. "I guess I could ask Ginny. I mean, how else would she get into the ball?" Then he turned to Ron. "You don't mind, do you?" Ron shook his head. "Just don't snog her and I'm fine with it." Fang nodded and walked over to Ginny at the Gryffindor table.
I turned back to Ron. "Your turn," I grinned.
Ron looked around the entrance hall, and stopped when he saw that Fleur Delacour was talking to Cedric over in the corner. He walked over to her, but he wasn't exactly beside her.
"He isn't doing what I think he's doing, is he?" I said, looking at Hermione. She just shrugged, looking like she was trying not to laugh.
"Want to go to the ball with me?" Ron said, loud enough for half the Hall to hear. Fleur just stared at him as if he were something she found on her shoe. Ron paled, probably realizing what he just did, and then he ran up the marble staircase while the people in the hall laughed. Fang and Ginny came out of the Great Hall to see Ron sprint up the stairs.
"Let's follow him," I said.
We ran after him all the way back to the common room. When we walked in, we found Ron sitting in a chair in the corner, ashen-faced. We went over to him and sat beside him, trying to comfort him. He looked like he was going to get sick.
A few minutes later, the portrait hole opened and Harry came in, looking really disappointed. I guess he was too late for Cho.
"What's wrong, Ron?" Harry asked, sitting with us.
Ron just looked up at Harry, blind horror all over his face.
"Why did I do it?" he asked wildly, for the tenth time, "I don't know what made me do it!"
"What?" asked Harry.
"He- er- just asked Fleur Delacour to go to the ball with him," Ginny explained. She looked like she was fighting back a smile. To be honest, we all were.
"You what?"
"I don't know what made me do it!" Ron gasped again. "What was I playing at? There were people- all around- I've gone mad- everyone watching! She was just standing there, talking to Diggory! Something just came over me, and I asked her!"
Ron moaned and dropped his head into his hands. He kept talking, but his words were more mumbled.
"She looked at me as if I was some kind of sea slug! Didn't even answer- and then, I dunno- just sort of came to my senses and ran for it!"
"She's part veela," Harry said and we all stared at him. "You were right- her grandmothers one. It wasn't your fault. I bet you just saw her when she putting on the old charm for Diggory. She was wasting her time, though. He's going with Cho."
Ron looked up from his hands.
"I asked her to go with me just now," Harry said, staring at the carpet. "She told me."
"This is mad," Ron said. "We're the only two without dates. Those two got ones," he pointed at Fang and Iggy, who grinned smugly. "And even Neville got one. But guess who he asked first? Hermione!"
"What?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, I know," Ron said, some of the color coming back into his face. "He asked her after Potions! Told her she's really nice and always helping him potions and other stuff- but she said no. Wouldn't tell us why though."
"Because it's none of your business," Hermione said. "Well, all the good ones are taken, right Ron? Eloise Midgen starting to look really pretty, now isn't she? I'm sure you'll find someone somewhere who will go with you."
But Ron was just staring at Hermione as if he's never seen her before.
"Hermione- Neville's right, you are a girl," he said. And then he looked at me. "And Max is one too!"
"Well spotted," I said acidly.
"Well- you two came come with us!" Ron said. Yeah, I never actually told any of them except for Hermione what Ethan wanted, and that we were going to the Yule Ball together.
"No, we can't," Hermione said.
"Oh, come on," Ron said, "we need partners, we're going to look really stupid if we don't have any, everyone else has..."
"We can't go with you," I said, blushing slightly, "because we're already going with other people."
"No, you're not!" Ron said. "You probably just said that to get rid of Neville," then he looked at me again, "and I don't know what your excuse is. You've said no to every boy that asked you."
Hermione stood up, "Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has noticed that we're girls."
Ron stared at her. Then he grinned.
"Okay, okay, I know you're a girl," he said. "Go with one of us now?"
"I've already told you, I'm going with someone else!" and Hermione stormed off to the girls dormitory.
"She's lying," Ron said as he watched her go.
"She isn't," me and Ginny said at the same time.
"Who's she going with then?"
"Not telling you, it's her business," Ginny said.
"Right," Ron said, who was looking completely put out, "this is getting stupid. Look, Max, you go with Harry-"
"I can't, because I'm already going with someone," I said through clenched teeth.
"Who?" Harry asked.
"Ethan," I said, my face red.
"But he's been ignoring you for ages. Why are you going with him?" Harry asked.
"That's none of your business," I said copying Hermione. But Harry wasn't listening to me. He was staring at Parvati and Lavender, who had just walked in through the portrait hole.
"Wait here," he said and walked over to them. I heard him ask, "Parvati, will you go to the ball with me?"
Parvati giggled, then said, "Yes, alright then."
"Thanks," Harry said. "Lavender- will you go with Ron?"
"She's going with Seamus," Parvati said, and the two of them went into a fit of giggles.
"Can't you think of anyone to go with Ron?" Harry asked, lowering his voice so that Ron couldn't hear, but I still could.
"What about Hermione?" Lavender asked.
"She's going with someone else."
"Ooooohh, who?" Parvati asked.
"No idea," Harry said, "so what about Ron?"
"Well..." Parvati said slowly, "I suppose my sister might...Padma, she's in Ravenclaw...I'll ask her for you if you like."
"Yeah, that would be great," Harry said. "Let me know."
Then Harry sat back down with us. This ball was seriously a lot more trouble then it was worth. I just hope Padma's nose was right on center.
And here it is! The article! Now everyone knows about them! Sorry if the article was kinda bad, I'm not that good at writing newspaper articles.
Anyway, hope the chapter was good and that everyone liked it!
I also want to wish the families affected by the theater shooting in Colorado my best. That shooting was uncalled for and just horrible. R.I.P those who died.
And I have so much respect for Christian Bale right now. He actually visited the victims of the shooting in hospital, without alerting the press or media. He really is a hero 3
when you review, you get cookies and butterbeer so...
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-Rach ;)