After the first task, Harry's status as Slytherin's resident prodigy was firmly established. He had always been a celebrity, of course, and his association with Draco and Pansy had earned him a large measure of respect. But even his status as a quidditch star did not prepare him for the respect and deference he was now being afforded, both by his peers and by the older students. At night, while he was lying awake in bed, Harry secretly wished that the first task had never happened. During the day, however, when he could barely walk through the common room without being slapped on the back, it was easy to focus on the benefits of his situation and ignore what it had taken to get there.

As the end of the term approached, Dumbledore made an announcement at dinner: in the traditional of previous Tri-Wizard Tournaments, Hogwarts would be hosting a Yule Ball for the students of the various schools. Anybody who wished to attend the ball was welcome to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays.

Generally speaking, the only people who stayed at Hogwarts for the holidays were students who were too poor to return home, like the Weasleys. There was the occasional student, like Harry, who stayed over for holidays because he was unwanted by his family. Beyond that handful of students, however, only the staff remained at Hogwarts.

Dumbledore's announcement changed everything. Suddenly, a student who was forced to return home for the holidays was being subjected to a tragedy. No self-respecting Slytherin would leave Hogwarts this winter. Draco quickly suggested that the Weasleys would be called home, to avoid paying for formal dress robes. When Draco repeated this suggestion for Hermione to hear, the Gryffindor witch suggested that Draco would be called home to avoid the embarrassment of having no date. Draco countered by declaring that he was afflicted with chronic indecision, bemoaning the difficulty of choosing just one date from the multitude of witches who had asked him to the dance. Harry secretly thought that Hermione would make an appropriate date for Draco, but neither of his friends would ever admit it.

A few days after Dumbledore's announcement, before the start of Defense with Moody, Theo Nott approached Harry. "Do you have a moment?"

Harry shrugged. "Sure."

"Are you staying at Hogwarts for hols?" Nott asked. The rabbitty-looking boy seemed nervous, and there was a light sheen of sweat on his forehead. He wouldn't look directly at Harry; instead, he kept glancing around the room, eyes flicking from place to place without settling for more than a second or two.

"I have every year," Harry said. "No reason to change now. It's not like I'm desperate to go spend time with my muggle aunt and uncle."

"So you're going to Yule Ball?"

"I guess so," Harry said. "I haven't thought about it much."

"Oh," said Nott. Nott wiped a hand across this forehead, then dried it against his robes. "Do you know who you're going to ask to the ball?"

"I especially haven't thought about that," Harry said. In fact, Harry had been pointedly avoiding thinking about who he was going to ask to Yule Ball. Every time he started to think about getting a date, he started to feel panicky and nervous. "Why?"

"Er… I was thinking of asking Tracey to the Yule Ball." Nott grimaced as he spoke. He looked Harry in the eye for the first time in the whole conversation. "What do you think?"

Harry drew back slightly, surprised. "Don't you and Tracey usually go after one another like cats and dogs?"

"So I shouldn't," Theo said. His head dropped and he gave a rueful smile.

"I didn't say that," Harry said quickly. "It just seemed more likely that you'd ask Pansy or Daphne."

"Pansy is too loud and Daphne is too pretty," Theo said quickly.

Harry nodded. Nott certainly had point—Pansy was not a friend for the faint of heart. Harry had been idly considering whether or not he should ask Pansy to Yule Ball, but he was hesitant to do so. Harry imagined that any wizard escorting Pansy to Yule Ball would be expected to satisfy a long list of unspoken expectations, and that failure to do would result in absolute misery for both Pansy and her date. It seemed like the sort of thing that Draco or perhaps Blaise could accomplish, but not Harry. Daphne was a simpler matter—she was intimidatingly attractive. Harry would be scared to ask either Pansy or Daphne to the ball, and Harry was one of the most famous wizards alive, and a Tri-Wizard champion; Nott was neither.

"So you want to ask Tracey?" Harry asked Theo.

"I mean… do you think it'd be okay?"

Harry smiled. "Yes, I do think it'd be okay. If you want to ask her, you should ask her." It would be extremely nice of Nott, actually, because Tracey didn't have any close friends outside of Harry and Daphne.

"Really?" Theo seemed both excited and cautious.

"Yes. I think it's a brilliant idea." Harry heard Tracey's voice at the doorway to the classroom. She and Daphne had just entered. Harry clapped his hand on Theo's shoulder. "Good luck!"

Harry watched as Theo approached Tracey. The nervous behaviors that Theo had been displaying had increased significantly—Theo was wiping his forehead almost constantly, and he could barely raise his eyes from the floor to speak to Tracey. The only time he looked her straight in the eyes was after he was done speaking.

Before Tracey answered, she glanced over at Harry. Harry winked and gave her a thumbs-up. Tracey turned back to Theo and said something quietly, then patted him on the shoulder. She and Theo walked to their seats at the front of the room, and Daphne took her seat next to Millicent.

Harry didn't know what to make of the conversation. If Tracey had said yes, then Theo should be much happier. If she had said no, then Theo should be despondent. But he didn't seem to be either. Instead, he seemed almost… frustrated. Angry. But that didn't make sense.

Harry discovered the reason behind Theo's frustration at lunch. Harry was sitting between Draco and Blaise when Tracey walked down from the other end of the table.

"Budge over," Tracey ordered Blaise. "I need to talk to Harry."

"By all means," Blaise said sarcastically as he moved aside. "I would never dream of obstructing the important business of such a well-spoken lady."

Tracey stuck her tongue out, then sat down. "Theo asked me to go to the Yule Ball with him," Tracey said abruptly.

"What'd you say?" Harry asked.

"I said that I would think about it," she said. "I wanted to know what you thought."

"What I think?" Harry shrugged. "I think you'd have fun. Theo's a good guy, and he's always seemed nice enough. You and he like you talk a lot, even though you're usually arguing when you do it."

"So you can't think of any reason that I should say no?" Tracey asked. Her tone that she had a reason in mind, but Harry certainly couldn't think of it.

"Nope," Harry said. "I think you should say yes."

"Oh. Okay." Tracey got a strange look on her face, then stood abruptly. Without saying goodbye, she walked back and took her seat next to Daphne. After a moment, Tracey called farther down the table, getting Theo's attention. "Yes, I'll go to the ball with you!" Tracey yelled at Theo. Nott's face turned deep red, but a huge smile broke across his face.

"What'd you do that for?" Blaise asked, punching Harry in the arm as he did so.

Harry rubbed his bicep. "Do what? Tracey needs more friends, and it was nice of Theo to ask her."

"That's all fine and well," Blaise groused, "but now I still can't get a date!"

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

Draco sighed. "None of the girls in Slytherin are accepting invitations to the ball, because they're all hoping that you are going to ask them."

"Tracey and Nott are going together," Harry pointed out.

"Because you just told her that you weren't going to ask her to the ball!" Blaise said.

"I didn't say-" Harry paused and replayed his conversation with Tracey in his mind. "Bugger. I did say that, didn't I?"

"Yes," said Blaise. "And I'd bet Theo asked you about it before he invited Tracey to the ball, right?"

Harry dropped his head into his hands. "He wasn't asking advice. He was asking permission."

"Right in one," Blaise said. "All the blokes have been assuming that you were going to ask Tracey to the ball. I guess Theo realized that you were being so thick that you weren't going to ask her at all."

"And when Tracey came down here just now, she was giving me one last chance to ask her to the ball." Harry groaned.

"Correct again, my scarred friend," said Draco cheerily, throwing an arm around Harry's shoulders. "But there's nothing to be done about it now. The important thing is that you find a date as fast as possible, so that the rest of us in Slytherin can get to work."

Damn it all. Harry was furious with himself. Asking Tracey to the dance would have been perfect—she was cute, and a good friend, and she never would have turned Harry down. Tracey had given him every possible chance to do the practical thing and invite her to the ball, but she obviously wasn't going to tell Harry what to do when it came to their friendship. It seemed that Harry had come to rely on Tracey's social advice a bit too much, and without her guidance he had made a costly mistake. Even worse, now that Harry had rejected Tracey, he couldn't ask her for help in finding himself a date—he might as well slap her in the face.

Harry glanced around the Great Hall, evaluating the various witches he might ask to the ball. Pansy was the obvious choice for Harry's date, and she was sitting on the other side of Blaise, talking loudly to Millicent Bulstrode. Pansy was pretty, and Harry certainly enjoyed it when she latched onto his arm during the celebration after the first task.

But nothing had been done to alleviate Harry's already-present concerns about asking Pansy to the ball. She was a witch with standards, and she would expect her date to behave in a certain, formal manner. If her date did not, Pansy would be horrifically embarrassed, and Pansy responded to embarrassment with unbridled aggression. Harry clearly remembered Pansy's warning from the beginning of the year very clearly: never embarrass her again. If Harry asked Pansy to be his date for Yule Ball, he would almost certainly be disobeying that command.

Perhaps more importantly, Harry wasn't even sure that Pansy would accept his invitation. As Draco pointed out earlier in the year, Pansy didn't believe in forgiveness—she believed in vengeance. If Pansy still harbored a grudge from their fight at the Welcoming Feast, asking her to Yule Ball would give her the perfect opportunity for revenge. She would simply need to turn down Harry's invitation, loudly and publicly, and Harry would be humiliated. Pansy was not a viable option for a Yule Ball date; Harry wasn't sure that he would be able to bear the ignominy if Pansy turned him down.

Harry looked over at Millicent Bulstrode. As for Bulstrode… yikes. Harry wasn't sure he would be able to bear the ignominy if Bulstrode said yes.

Harry turned in the other direction, where Tracey was chatting brightly with Daphne Greengrass. Daphne was spectacularly pretty and would make a wonderful date. Harry had always enjoyed speaking with Daphne, and she wasn't nearly as judgmental as Pansy. But Daphne was also Tracey's best friend. Tracey would be devastated if Harry ignored her obvious desire to attend Yule Ball with him, only to ask Daphne instead. Greengrass was right out.

Harry sighed and faced forward once again. This was going to be impossible.

Across the Great Hall, several tables away, Harry caught a glimpse of Hermione was talking to Ron Weasley. Ron seemed half-bored, half-confused, but the smile on his face suggested that he was enjoying himself anyway.

Hermione. That wasn't a bad idea. She had most of the same qualities that Tracey had—she and Harry were good friends, and, despite their differences earlier in the year, Hermione and Harry certainly had some chemistry. She was also rather attractive, if you didn't care about her wild hair or slightly overlarge teeth. If there was one girl at the school who was unlikely to have a date, it was the girl who practically lived in the library, Hermione Granger.

And Bulstrode.

Harry stood. "I'll be right back," he said to Draco and Blaise.

Harry strode across the Great Hall. He had to do this now, before he lost his courage. He could feel his stomach flip-flopping, but he forged onward.

Harry sat next to Hermione, and gave a quick wave to Ron.

"Hi, Harry," Hermione said.

"WouldyougototheballwithmeHermione?" Harry said.

"What?" Hermione shook her head. "I didn't catch that."

"Don't make me ask again," Harry said. "Yule Ball. What do you say?"

Hermione smiled, slowly. "I'm sorry, Harry. I already have a date."

"Darn right," said Ron teasingly. "You need to stop poaching our fair Gryffindors, Potter. It isn't that hard to get a proper date of your own kind. Leave our witches alone."

"You say that as if you actually have a date," Hermione said sharply.

Ron got an odd look on his face. "I, um… I hadn't asked yet, but… aren't we… I mean… me and you…" Ron's voice trailed off into nothingness.

"No, Ronald, we aren't," Hermione said, her voice clipped. "Before a girl will go to the ball with you, you have to ask."

"Wait. You said you had a date, already. If it isn't me, then who is it?" Ron was suddenly indignant.

"That's my business and not yours," Hermione said.

Harry leaned in and grinned. "So, Ron, tell me again how easy it is to get a date?"

Ron scowled, and blushed even deeper. "Watch this," he said, sitting up straight in his chair. "Oi! Lavender!"

Lavender Brown, a Gryffindor with blonde ringlet hair, turned toward Ron.

"Do you want to go to the ball with me?" Ron shouted. He winked and mimed some slow dance moves. Ron hammed up his performance, making absurd sultry faces and kissy lips at Lavender. "What do you say?"

Lavender burst into giggles. "Okay, Ron." Giggling, she turned away and began to talk excitedly with Parvati Patil.

"There," said Ron. "Nothing to it." Ron was facing Harry, but somehow it seemed as if the comment was directed at Hermione.

"Don't listen to him," Fred Weasley said from a few seats away. "That's how Lee, George and I asked Katie and Alicia and Angelina last week."

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Ron said. "I've got a date, which is more than Harry has."

Harry felt his temper begin to rise. He was the most popular person in Slytherin, one of the most popular people in school, and one of the most famous wizards in all of England. Despite all his advantages, he had managed to turn down a potential date with Tracey, and had been rejected by Hermione. On top of it all, Ron Weasley had somehow, with less than ten seconds of thought, managed to get himself a date. It was absolutely humiliating, and it was happening in front of every student in Gryffindor. Harry had come over here precisely to avoid humiliation. If he didn't want to retreat to the Slytherin table in shame, he was going to have to do something drastic, and immediate.

An idea popped into Harry's head; it would get him a date, and infuriate Ron. Without further thought, Harry acted.

"It's that easy, is it?" Harry asked Ron. "Let me try." Harry stood and yelled down the table. "Oi, Ginny!"

Ginny looked up from her lunch, and immediately blushed when she saw who was speaking to her.

"Do you want to go to the ball with me?" Harry asked.

Ginny turned even redder, and nodded her head. "Sure," she said quietly.

"HEY!" Ron shouted. "That's my sister! You can't ask her!"

"You don't tell me what to do, Ron!" Ginny snapped immediately.

Harry raised his hands in mock surrender. "The lady has spoken," he said. "It's out of my hands." Harry had successfully obtained a date, which prevented any further disgrace, but he felt the urge to do something to provoke Ron a little further. Ron needed to know that he hadn't won this encounter.

What would Draco do? Something smooth and impressive, of course. Doing his best to act like his blonde friend, Harry stood walked down the table to Ginny. He placed his left hand behind his back and, with his right, lifted one of Ginny's hands off the table. Harry leaned down and paused just before his lips touched her knuckles.

"I'll pick you up from your common room at seven-thirty," he said, his breath lightly passing over her hand. Harry brushed his lips on Ginny's knuckles, then stepped back. Ginny somehow managed to blush even more deeply than before. Harry glanced back at Ron, and saw that his face was almost as red as his sister's.

Perfect.

When Harry returned to the Slytherin table, Harry had hardly taken his seat before Blaise began to speak.

"Please tell me that you aren't going to the Yule Ball with Granger," Blaise said. "Because it looked like you went over there to ask Granger to be your date."

"Of course not," said Harry. Harry realized that Blaise and Draco, seated at the opposite end of the Great Hall from the Gryffindor table, had no way of knowing what had just taken place. In fact, because Harry's back had been turned, they probably hadn't seen the full extent of Harry's interaction with Ginny. Harry was suddenly pleased with himself—allowing Draco and Blaise to tease this information out of him was going to be fun.

"Good," Blaise said. "You worry me, sometimes."

"Hermione already has a date," Harry said.

"And she didn't ditch him for you?" Draco asked with a snort. "She's barmy. But so are you, for asking, I guess." Draco took a drink of his pumpkin juice, affecting a calm attitude. "Perfectly out of curiosity, who is it?"

"She said it was a secret," Harry said.

"I bet she doesn't even have a date," Blaise said.

Harry turned to Blaise. If Hermione was operating by the same logic as the Slytherin girls, there was only one possible person that could be her date. "I'll bet you ten galleons that Hermione's date is Viktor Krum."

Blaise considered Harry's proposition. Blaise had never met a bet that he didn't like, and this seemed like an easy win. Harry's proposition was ridiculous. How would Hermione have secured a date with an international quidditch star?

"You're friends with Granger," Blaise said. "She probably told you."

Harry shook his head. "Nope. I wouldn't fix a bet like that against another Slytherin. A Hufflepuff, maybe, but not a Slytherin."

"Fine. It's a bet." Blaise stuck out his hand, and shook with Harry.

"So, who are you going to ask?" Draco said. "Granger was a bad idea, terrible, worst that you could have had…

"Draco…"

"I'm just saying that you dodged a bludger with that one. But you should really get on with finding a date."

"Oh, I have a date," Harry said offhandedly. He was enjoying this.

"What? Who?"

"Ginny Weasley." Harry knew that Draco would erupt, but it was still spectacular when it came.

"WEASLEY? Are you daft? You could have gone with anybody!"

"Ron was taking the mickey because I didn't have a date, so I picked the person that would make him the angriest."

"Harry, the Weasleys are the biggest blood traitors in Britain! It'd be better if you had gone with Granger! She's mudblood by birth, but the Weasleys are blood traitors by choice!" Color was rising in Draco's cheeks. Everybody seemed to be turning red-faced today.

"Don't call her that," Harry said. "Either of them. I've made my choice. It's no skin off your nose."

While Draco continued to sputter, Blaise directed his attention down the table. "Pansy, would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?" He was wasting no time in procuring a date.

"What's all the shouting about?" Pansy asked, ignoring Blaise's question.

"Draco doesn't like Harry's choice of a date," Blaise said. Harry thought it was rather well done; Blaise mentioned that Harry was off the market without ever suggesting that Pansy would have preferred Harry as a date. "What do you say?"

"Wonderful," Pansy said. "I accept."

"WAIT!" Draco shouted. "I was going to ask you to go to the ball, Pansy!"

"You should have asked me, then," Pansy said primly. "Instead of worrying about Harry, you should have been worrying about me."

"Fine! I'll ask Daphne," Draco said. Draco and Harry both knew that Pansy considered Daphne to be her biggest rival.

"I heard that, Draco," Daphne said loudly. "I'm nobody's second choice!"

Draco closed his eyes and winced. He took a moment to regain his composure before speaking.

"Of course not," said Draco to Daphne. "In fact, you were my first choice. I was simply intimidated by your beauty. I was certain that you would reject my invitation, so I set my sights on a more… achievable goal."

"Hey!" Pansy folded her arms and scowled. "I am not 'achievable!'"

Draco ignored her. "Now that my safest option has been taken away, no harm can come of reaching for the stars." Draco gave Daphne his best smile.

"Are you comparing me to a star, Draco?" Daphne asked. Her voice still had a sarcastic edge, but there was a hint of amusement.

"No, Daphne. I am comparing the stars to you. And when their light is held up against your beauty, they shine not nearly as bright." Draco was laying it on thick, but he seemed to be pulling it off, because Daphne was smiling.

"Very well then. You may ask me to the ball at a later time." Daphne turned away, hiding her face with her dark hair. For all that Daphne tried to hold herself above the petty politicking of Slytherin, she was still vulnerable to well-executed flattery.

"Was that necessary?" Harry asked Draco in a whisper. "You're making the rest of us look bad."

"Absolutely necessary," Draco said. "If Daphne Greengrass is anything, she's hard to get."

"Here's a hint, mate: maybe she isn't worth the effort," said Blaise.

"Have you seen Daphne Greengrass? She's worth it."

"Then why were you going to ask Pansy first?" asked Harry.

"It's a balancing act," said Draco said. Now he, too, was whispering. Pansy leaned closer in an attempt to hear. "You have to balance a witch's attractiveness against the likelihood that she'll reject your invitation. Pansy is attractive and wasn't likely to say no. Daphne is extremely attractive, but also extremely likely to reject me. Until just now, that is." Draco reached across the table and slapped Blaise on the shoulder, his voice returning to a normal volume. "Thank you, Blaise, for forcing me to achieve greatness."

"And what is it about me, exactly, that isn't great?" Pansy snapped.

"The fact that you're going to the ball with Blaise and not me," Draco said.

"You're going to regret this, Draco." Pansy's voice was ice cold.

"Regret taking Daphne to the Yule Ball?" Draco smiled. "I doubt it."

Pansy slapped her hands on the table and stood. She grabbed her bag of books and stormed out of the Great Hall, refusing to speak to anybody.

Harry gave Draco an inquisitive look. "You are the same person who told me that Pansy doesn't believe in forgiveness, right?"

Draco nodded. "She believes in revenge."

"I think you just made an enormous mistake, my friend," Harry said.