A/N: I do not own Harry Potter or any character thereof!

Chapter 70

"Arrghhhh! Oomph!"

Harry heard laughing all around him. He removed the silencing charm from himself and glared up from the floor at his laughing dorm mates and the wide-eyed looking elf.

"Dobby! You scared me to death."

"I is sorry Harry Potter sir but I wanted to bring you your Christmas present. I is making it myself."

Harry glared at his snickering roommates again. They were all knee deep in half open Christmas presents already. (Seamus had some type of ribbon stuck in his hair that made Harry do a quick double take at him as he reached for his glasses.)

"Thank you Dobby. Here. I have something for you too." Harry reached into his trunk and pulled out a pair of socks that flashed many different colors. They were wrapped in red tissue paper.

Dobby started crying when Harry handed it to him. "But sir, there must have been a mistake. They are two of the same kinds!"

"Here you go Dobby. You can mix and match with this pair," Ron said tossing a pair of maroon socks at him.

"Oh! The great Wheazy has given Dobby socks too!"

Harry saw Ron turn red.

A few minutes after Dobby left, he dug into his own Christmas presents.

Harry got the usual things from Mrs. Weasley. Hermione had given him a homework planner - no doubt because he had been slacking lately. Ron had gotten him a Quidditch play book. Neville got him his own set of gobstones. Remus (co-signed with a paw print) had sent him a book titled Marauder's Play Book. Flipping through it, Harry saw a list of all of the Marauder's escapades - including pranks.

Revenge against the twins entered his mind along with an evil like cackle.

A very evil like cackle.

Harry quickly got dressed after he decided that he would shower before he changed for the ball. As he was cleaning up the paper from around his bed, he spotted another present under the edge of it.

He picked it up and sat back down on the bed.

It didn't say who it was from, it just had his name on it.

When he opened the outer layer of wrapping, he saw that there was a letter folded up on top of a box. He quickly pulled it off to read it.

Happy Christmas Harry.

Your mother gave this to me many years ago and I think that it should be passed to you. It is imbued with protective spells and when you put it on, an invisibility charm will activate on it so no one else can see it.

The note wasn't signed.

Harry's eyebrows shot up in his hair line. He then carefully opened the box and saw an amulet.

As soon as he touched it, he felt the power it contained. The power reminded him of Dumbledore.

The jewel was red with black streaks through it. It was beautiful and wicked looking at the same time. Harry removed it from the case and saw that it was on a black chain.

Racking his brain, he couldn't figure out who it was from. Surely Sirius would have signed it if it would have been from him. He heard Ron coming back from the shower so he quickly put it on. A dizzying wave of magic washed over him but it only lasted half a second. Ron walked in as he was putting the note in his trunk.

"They have food downstairs but don't eat too much. The ball is supposed to have good food tonight."

Harry nodded, surprised that Ron said not to eat too much food. He contemplated on asking Ron if he felt alright but figured the red head would just hex if him if he did simply out of spite.

"You two need to read this. I'm off to go get ready."

"What is it?" asked Harry as he took the 3 pieces of parchment she handed over.

"Why are you going to get dressed so soon?" asked Ron at the same time.

"That is a list on how to treat a girl, especially at a dance. And I am going to go get dressed because it will take me a while to do so."

Harry's eyes widened at the list. He scanned through the papers. There had to be 200 things written down. Ron didn't even look at it.

"Uh ... Hermione. The ball doesn't start until six. It's only just two."

"It takes time to get ready Ron."

"Who are you going with?" yelled Ron as she headed up the stairs.

"Give it up Ron. We'll just have to find out tonight," Harry said as he glanced up from the paper's Hermione handed him.

"Who are you going with Harry?" asked Dean.

Harry grinned wryly. "You'll find that out later too."

Ron chuckled.

Harry and Gabriella had decided to keep it a secret and shock the school. Despite the attention he knew that this was going to bring his way, he was looking forward to it.

Severus was standing in the entrance way talking to Albus while making sure that no underage Slytherin students snuck into the ball.

"Please Albus. I find it highly improbable that Trankin could invent his way out of a room with four open doors."

Albus chuckled.

It was then that he saw his son come down the stairs with Ron Weasley, who had on some - odd - type of dress robes with a lot of lace. (Though it did look like some of the lace had been cut off.) One of the Patil sisters was on Weasley's arm. However, his son appeared to be dateless.

Severus frowned. "I thought he was told he had to find a date?"

Albus turned to look at Harry. "Maybe he's taking someone from another house."

Severus nodded. It was plausible. He had seen Harry talking to girls from the other houses on occasion, especially the Hufflepuff, Susan Bones.

He then saw a third year Slytherin come up the stairs from the dungeons. He was surprised at who it was. Normally Ms. Nott didn't break very many rules (or hadn't gotten caught doing so) but he hadn't heard of her being invited to the ball.

Harry's heart started beating hard when he caught sight of Gabriella. She was normally a pretty girl but wow. Whatever she had done to herself made his mind go blank. It seemed that all that stuff that Hermione had wanted him to learn from those pieces of paper went right out of his head.

Gabriella had on a dark green dress that came to her ankles. It was sleeveless. The dress circled around the back of her neck holding it up. She also had on matching gloves that went up past her elbows. It reminded him of one of the old fashioned ballroom dresses that he had seen in pictures, especially with the way that her hair was fixed.

After he remembered how to put one foot in front of the other, he made his way to her through the crowd. As he got closer, he saw that along the edges of the dress was black lace. It was a nice effect.

"Miss Nott. You are not able to attend unless you were invited."

Harry stepped up to Snape and Dumbledore the same time that the Slytherin Head of House had said that. "Hello Headmaster, Professor Snape. Gabriella was invited. She's my date tonight." He grinned at her and took her hand. "Y-You look very nice," he told her as he led her away from the utterly gob smacked potions professor and twinkling Headmaster.

Severus watched Harry walk away with Gabriella Nott.

"Breathe Severus," whispered Albus.

"He's taking a Slytherin. Why did I not know this? How did I not know this? Did you know about this?" he asked suspiciously. After all, the Headmaster always seemed to know everything.

"No, but I think it's wonderful. It looks like they kept it a secret to shock the whole school," Albus said, clearly amused.

Severus looked around the room and saw what Albus was talking about. Everyone was staring.

"This was so worth it," whispered Harry as they made their way over to Ron and Parvati.

"Careful Harry. Your Slytherin side is showing."

Harry grinned.

"Champions. Champions come to me," Harry heard McGonagall yell over the noise.

It was as they were lining up that Harry saw Hermione - with Victor Krum.

"Wow Hermione." She looked very different. In fact, he had almost not recognized her.

"Oh Harry! You look nice. So do you Gabriella."

"Thank you," she replied. She too, seemed shocked by Hermione's appearance.

At 6 pm, the doors to the Great Hall opened.

Since dinner was first, there were tables set out. Not the normal tables but round ones with a lot of chairs. Each table had candles on them. The ceiling was charmed to give off a snowy effect.

The Champions and their dates were to sit at the head table with the Headmasters of each school.

Harry had been about to sit down in his chair when he saw Krum pull out Hermione's chair. He quickly done the same for Gabriella, hoping that it looked like he was going to do that all along.

Her slight chuckle told him that he might have failed in looking natural.

During dinner, they talked about all kinds of things, including the shock factor going around the room.

"Think I should talk to your brother after dinner?"

"Nah. I can handle him. I'll just tell him I'm reconnoitering or some such."

"Her-my-oh-knee."

Harry turned towards where Hermione was trying to teach Krum how to properly say her name. She flushed at Harry when she realized he was looking at her.

As he took a bite of his steak (he had never had one before) he saw Ron. His friend looked flustered by something Parvati had said. Neville, sitting at the table beside of Ron's, looked like he was having a good time with Ginny.

"Do you like to fly?" Harry asked Gabriella, refocusing on her. (It had been one of the things on the first page of those papers Hermione had handed him. 'Focus on your date all night long.')

She nodded. "I play Quidditch with my brother and his friends all the time."

"What position?"

"Keeper mostly but I've played a beater as well."

Severus sat with most of the other professors. He discreetly kept an eye on Potter. He could not believe that Harry had taken a Slytherin tonight. That took guts.

And he couldn't have been more proud of him.

Granted, the boy would probably be vilified in the paper tomorrow but for now, he looked to be having a good time.

Occasionally he would see Harry glance around to make sure he was doing everything right. Severus idly wondered if he had ever ate a formal meal before now.

Harry watched the Headmaster stand. "Now that we are all full, it's time to start the dance portion." He waved his wand which pushed the tables to the side of the room. "If our Champions would take the floor, we'll begin the rest of the ball."

Harry helped Gabriella up (the way Cedric helped Cho) and took her hand to go to the dance floor.

"Just like I showed you," she whispered.

"Minus the books falling on my head I hope," whispered Harry back as he took her waist.

Harry had told Gabriella that he didn't have a clue how to dance so she had given him a couple of impromptu lessons in the library stacks. One of those lessons ended up with about 10 books falling on his head - and a lecture from Madam Pince.

Once the music started, he realized it wasn't as hard as he fretted. At least he wasn't stepping on her feet - yet.

Harry chuckled and nodded towards the corner of the room where Dumbledore was dancing with Madame Maxime. It was an odd sight since she dwarfed him by several feet.

After that dance, the Weird Sisters played a more up beat number. They danced to that as well.

"I'm going to get something to drink," said Harry after a couple more songs played. "I'll bring you back something."

Gabriella nodded.

The punch table was where the confrontation that Harry had been waiting to happen, happened. Well, some of the confrontation anyway.

"Potter."

"Nott."

"What are you doing asking my sister to the ball? I thought I told you to stay away from her."

"You did but this is between me and her and she honestly looks like she's having a good time to me."

"You better not go anywhere alone with her," Nott said after Malfoy whispered something in his ear.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"I mean it Potter. I'll be watching you."

"Fine. Excuse me." Harry carried two drinks back towards where Gabby was talking to her Ravenclaw friend that had also gotten invited.

"Harry!" he heard Ron exclaim.

"Wow Ron. What's the hurry?" (He noticed that Ron had ditched the outer layer of his dress robes already.)

"No hurry. Where's Hermione?"

"Not a clue. Probably in that mob in front of the stage."

"That was rather dirty of her to be fraternizing with the enemy like she is but maybe she'll tell you about Krum so that you can beat him in the next task."

"Uh. Ron. Krum isn't the enemy."

"Sure he is. He's from Durmstrang."

"Ron! There you are. Let's dance."

"Help me," mouthed Ron silently.

Harry just shook his head as he watched his best friend being dragged off.

"C'mon Harry. Let's dance."

He nodded as he handed her the drink.

At one point, during one of the more upbeat songs, Ron was dancing so exuberantly (a lot like the twins) that he had accidently hit Harry in the eye. Ron never noticed b/c of the insane amount of bodies around, but Harry did.

He stumbled out of the group and saw Gabriella standing off to the side laughing at him.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh, but that was amusing."

Harry chuckled. "I'll get him back for it too if it actually turns black."

"I'm glad I chose to sit out that dance."

Harry quickly repaired his glasses and put them back on. "I wish I did." He grinned at her as he pointed out how Ron was dancing now. "It's official. He dances worse than the twins," he said laughing so hard that he thought he was going to break a rib.

Around 10pm, Harry and Gabriella went out to the courtyard to cool off. There were fairy lights in the bushes.

"It's snowing!"

Harry watched as she went out in it and twirled around. After a minute, he joined her.

Red faced from the cold, he didn't object when she took his hand. He suddenly became aware of the fact that they were alone. No students or teacher's were around that he could see. That still didn't stop him from half expecting her brother to hop out of some dark corner and hex him.

He got very, very nervous.

"I'm having a good time tonight."

"So am I," replied Harry honestly. And he truly was. He had expected this night to prove miserable.

"How many girls did you ask before you asked me?" she asked while grinning at him. With her heels on she was the same height he was.

Harry knew better than to answer that question. It had been one of the things on those list of papers. ('If she asks, do not tell her how many girls you asked before her.')

"Uh ... Well, I'd rather not answer that." He grinned at her sheepishly. "For all I know, you'll hex me if I tell you."

Gabriella laughed and pulled him down on a bench next to her. She suddenly turned serious. "You know, all of my life I'd heard about you. I'd heard about how you made the Dark Lord disappear and how you must be really powerful if you done it as a baby." She took a deep breath. "I had assumed that because of that you would be spoiled and selfish and a show off, plus an attention hog ... but you're not."

"That's not a bad thing is it?"

"It's not. I like how you're down to earth. Of course, the fact that you're not a dunderhead helps too."

Harry chuckled. "Ron calls me a bookworm sometimes because I read so much. Where I was raised by my aunt and uncle I didn't even know that I was a wizard until my 11th birthday. I feel like I've missed so much because of that. It's like I'm constantly playing catch up. I actually read a book that was given to me on wizarding traditions to make sure that there wasn't a specific custom I was supposed to use to ask girls out."

Gabriella laughed before she could stop herself then turned it into a chuckle when she realized that he was red in the face. "Sorry. I think its nice that you did that. So many of our traditions get lost over the years.

"Wait a minute," she said suspiciously. "You said you didn't even know you were wizard until you turned 11?"

"Nope."

"How did you learn to fly?"

"Evidently its natural talent," he said grinning.

She hit him in the arm. "So much for not being a show off."

They sat on the bench watching the stars through the light snow fall for a few minutes in comfortable silence. "My father was a Death Eater during the war," she said suddenly.

Harry stiffened slightly. That had been the last thing he would have ever expected to hear from her mouth.

"He says that the Dark Lord isn't dead and that he will come back. I know that he wishes for it all the time. He's always talking about a return to the 'old ways'."

"Oh?" Harry tried to keep his face neutral.

"Yeah. Despite what my father wishes, I hope that the Dark Lord stays gone. I've heard stories about what it was like back then. Even if you were on his side, evidently it was still not a nice experience." She sighed. "Father always practices whatever Dark Arts he can get away with. He says it helps keep him in shape for when the Dark Lord does return. I think he just likes to perform them for the power it gives him."

Harry had a horrifying thought. "Does he make you participate in them?" He caught her gaze.

"No. I know a lot about them but I've never done any."

"Why tell me this?"

"Because you're easy to talk to, because you listen, and because I wanted you to know. I'd hate for it to be a surprise later."

He smiled at her. Suddenly they were moving in closer and closer. Just as Harry started to realize that they were going to kiss (what a topic to kiss after, the back of his mind commented), they heard a noise.

They jerked away at the same time, both blushing. Harry glanced around and saw Snape at the other end of the courtyard. Karkaroff was heading towards the potion's master. From his position, he thought that Snape looked more than a little annoyed over something. "Maybe we should go inside. I'd hate for your brother to come looking for me to threaten me some more," he said grinning.

She chuckled.

However as Harry went to stand, he noticed something in Gabriella's hair.

It was a lady bug ... and it had Rita Skeeter's glowy thing on it.

A feral grin came over him.

"Can you keep a secret," he said slyly, hoping that the beetle wouldn't fly away if it heard that Harry was about to offer up a secret of his own.

She nodded.

"I need you to hold still before I can tell you," he whispered, in what he hoped was a secretive tone.

He saw her confusion but was pleased she didn't move. He looked around and saw a couple of cups lying next to the bench. Picking one up, he reached over and very swiftly grabbed the beetle. He then put it in the cup.

"C'mon. I need to go see the Headmaster. I think he would want to see this."

"The beetle?"

"It's not just a beetle. It's an animagus that's not registered - if I remember correctly from my paper last year."

He noticed that Gabriella's eyes lit up in mischief. "Is that beetle black mail-able?"

"Oh yes, but given that she just heard our entire conversation, the Headmaster can control the leash better than I can." Harry saw Gabriella pale some.

They entered the ballroom. It looked like some had left for the night but there were still a few couples dancing.

"Professor Dumbledore, can I have a quick word?"

"Certainly my boy. What can I do for you?"

"I appear to have caught a beetle that's not a beetle." He handed over the cup. "I don't remember seeing her on the registry list when I wrote my paper for Professor McGonagall last year."

Harry saw the Headmaster's eyes widen as he looked in the cup. "My ... my."

"She just overheard some stuff that was not meant to be heard and I figured you didn't want your students involved in a blackmail scheme ..."

"Blackmail?"

Harry almost laughed at the Headmaster's expression.

"No. Not at all. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. You two go enjoy the rest of the ball. Our beetle will be taken care of."

Harry grinned and walked off.

"He looked like he enjoyed that," she pointed out.

"I think he did."

"Can we go back out to the courtyard? It's still a little warm in here."

Harry looked around and nodded. He thought it was a comfortable temperature in the room but seemed to sense that she wanted them to be alone together.

The music filtered outside.

"Dance in the snow with me," she said grinning.

Bewildered, Harry danced with her in the snow to the slow song playing. Why she wanted to dance in the snow was beyond his understanding.

Towards the end of the song they heard a throat clear. "Mr. Potter. Ms. Nott. You two need to be inside."

Again they jumped apart. It was Professor Snape. Harry felt like he would rather have been caught by McGonagall than by him.

As they went back in, he glared at her. "You did that on purpose."

"Nope," she said cheekily. "I certainly didn't want to be caught by my head of house, even though we really weren't doing anything."

"Let's get something to drink," he said as he eyed her funny.

They sat at a table and talked for the rest of the night. (Harry did notice some glares being sent his way by Theodore Nott a few times.)

Near midnight Harry looked around. "I wonder where Ron and Hermione are?" He was having such a good time that he had practically forgotten about them. In fact, the only reason he remembered at that moment was his eye started throbbing again.

"Hmm. I've not seen them for a while actually."

Harry looked over and saw Neville and Ginny dancing. Both looked tired.

"Here. You'll need this for tomorrow," she said handing over a bracelet from her wrist.

"I will?"

"Yep. You'll have to return it to me, unless you don't want to see me again."

Harry was confused. "I need an excuse to see you?"

"I take back what I said earlier. You are a dunderhead."

"I know I am," Harry admitted freely.

She put the bracelet back on. "I'll make the next move."

Harry squeaked and flushed a deep crimson red, which caused her to laugh.

"And that's the end of the Yule Ball. Everyone make your way to your respective dorms."

Harry walked Gabriella to the stairs that would go to the Slytherin dorms. "Well, uh, I had a good time tonight."

"So did I. I'll see you tomorrow."

Harry nodded and then summoning his Gryffindor courage, leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "G'nite," he mumbled again.

"Night."

Harry watched her walk down the steps then turned to head up to the Tower.

When he entered the tower, it was like he walked into a war zone.

"You ruin everything Ronald!"

"No I don't."

"Tell you what. Next time there's a ball, pluck up the courage and ask me yourself and not as a last resort."

"Well you just totally missed the point."

Harry then heard two slamming doors.

"I take it I missed something," said Harry.

Unfortunately that drew everyone's attention toward him.

"Harry, how could you go with a Slytherin?"

"She might be a spy!"

"You're not really considering moving down there to be with her are you?"

"Ugh," groaned Harry. "Not that I really need to explain myself but I took her because she's nice. Not all Slytherin's are evil."

As soon as he said that, he headed up the stairs to the dorms.

"Where were you all night mate?"

"The ball," said Harry as he started pulling off his dress robes.

"I didn't see you a lot."

"I was dancing for most of it, until you elbowed me in the eye. Thanks for that by the way. I was outside for the rest."

"With the Slytherin girl?" Ron completely ignored the fact that he had elbowed Harry.

"Yeah." Who else would he have been with? Ron was daft sometimes.

"She's probably just using you. At least you won't have to see her anymore."

Harry turned around to face his best friend. "Ron, what's your problem? You're the one that suggested I go with her. I had a good time tonight. I don't want to fight before we go to bed."

"I'm sorry, mate. Parvati talked my ears off all night. It just put me in a foul mood. Maybe sleep will help."

Harry desperately hoped so.

Severus sat staring at the flames in his fireplace. He had discreetly followed Potter around all night, keeping an eye on him and Ms. Nott. He had been pleased that nothing improper happened. Of course, both times that they had tried to kiss, (seriously, Severus knew where kissing could lead), he had managed to cause a diversion of some sort.

As he took a drink of his tea, he again let his thoughts wander back to what all he learned tonight. Severus had known for a while now that Harry had a caring streak in him that was too long to measure. It was shown again tonight when he had been more concerned with the fact that Ms. Nott's father might make her join in the Dark Arts' rituals than the fact that she had revealed that her father had been a Death Eater.

And Harry, he had handled that news with a lot more grace than he had thought the boy possessed.

At one point Igor had managed to catch him so he had lost track of his son for a while. When he had found him again, he was dancing out in the snow.

That's all they both needed ... to get sick from the cold weather. (The fact that they had been about to kiss again when he had made his presence known had been purely coincidental.)

As he stood up to prepare for bed, he wondered if they would continue seeing each other, and if they did, what that would mean for everyone.

Severus knew that he would need to keep an eye on both his son and Miss Nott. Hopefully neither of them would get hurt because of this.

A/N: Another long chapter! Yay! I hope you all enjoyed it. I know that writing it was fun. Poor Severus ... won't even let his son get his first real kiss. *snicker* I decided to take care of the Rita Skeeter problem this way. The idea of Harry catching her as she eaves-dropped on his and Gabriella's conversation appealed to me. Besides, in most stories, Dumbledore hardly ever get's to be involved in blackmail or revenge schemes. However, this incident is going to make the Headmaster a bit more curious about Harry's abilities.

Up next, Harry and Malfoy have a chat and poor Hermione is going to see that sometimes, not thinking outside of the box is going to cause her some troubles. Also, Harry and Severus have a lil chat too! *grins mischievously* Right now the length of the next chapter seems to be too long so I have some serious editing to do to it. I imagine I'll have it up in a couple of days.