– Chapter Twenty Four –

The Yule Ball

Despite the very heavy load of homework that the fourth years had been given for the holidays, Romi was not in the mood to work when term ended, and spent the week enjoying herself fully as possible. After all with two horsemen down and a promising night of fun ahead of her, who could blame her?

Gryffindor Tower was hardly less crowded now than during term; it seemed to have shrunk slightly, too, as its inhabitants were being so much rowdier than usual. Fred and George had great success with their Canary Creams, and for the first couple of days of the holidays, people kept bursting in feathers all over the place. Before long, however, all the Gryffindors had learnt to treat food anybody else offered them with extreme caution, in case it had a Canary Cream concealed in the centre.

Snow was falling thickly upon the castle and its grounds. The pale blue Beauxbatons carriage looked like a large, chilly, frosted pumpkin next to the iced gingerbread house that was Hagrid's cabin. While the Durmstrang ship's portholes were glazed with ice, the rigging white with frost. The house elves down in the kitchens were outdoing themselves with a series of rich, warming stews and savoury puddings, and only Fleur Delacour seemed to be able to find anything to complain about.

"It is too 'eavy, all zis 'Ogwarts food," they heard her saying grumpily, as they left the Great Hall behind her one evening. "I will not fit into my dress robes."

"Oooh, there's a tragedy," snapped Hermione, as Fleur went out into the Entrance Hall. "She really thinks a lot of herself that one, doesn't she?"

"There's only one way to deal with them," Romi said lightly. "Girls that are prettier than you."

"And what's that?" Hermione asked.

"Always carry something heavy enough to smack them with," Romi answered.

"Where did you learn that?" Harry asked, staring at her stunned.

"I read it in a comic once," Romi answered lightly, grinning mischievously at Hermione.

"Hermione – who are you going to the ball with?" asked Ron. He kept springing this question on her, hoping to startle her into a response by asking it when she least expected it. However, Hermione was quicker than him and merely frowned.

"I'm not tell you, you'll just make fun of me," Hermione said.

"You're joking, Weasley?" said Draco behind them. "You're not telling me someone's asked that to the ball? Not the long molared Mudblood."

Harry and Ron both whipped around, and Romi started to open her mouth, while Neville grabbed her sleeve as though to stop her, but instead Hermione said loudly waving to somebody over Draco's shoulder, "Hello, Professor Moody!"

Draco went pale and jumped backwards, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew.

"Twitchy little ferret, aren't you, Malfoy," said Hermione scathingly hooking her arm into Romi's. Once the five of them had made it up the marble stairs, they all started to laugh.

"Hermione," said Ron, looking sideways at her, suddenly frowning, "your teeth…"

"What about them?" she asked.

"Well, they're different… I've just noticed…"

"Of course they are – did you expect me to keep those fangs Malfoy gave me?" Hermione said looking forward, but the fact that she was squeezing Romi's arm, meant that there was something else behind it.

"No, I mean, they're different to how they were before he put that hex on you… they're all… straight and – and normal sized."

Hermione suddenly grinned mischievously. Romi took a closer look at Hermione's teeth, even though she had been there when Madam Pomfrey shrunk them.

"Well… when I went up to Madam Pomfrey to get them shrunk, she held up a mirror and told me to stop her when they were back to how they normally were," she said, glancing to Romi. "And I just… let her carry on a bit." She smiled even more widely. "Mum and Dad won't be too pleased. I've been trying to persuade them to let me shrink them for ages, but they wanted me to carry on with my brace. You know, they're dentists, they just don't think teeth and magic should – look! Pigwidgeon's back!"

Ron's tiny owl was twittering madly on top of the icicle laden banisters, a scroll of parchment tied to his leg. People passing him were pointing and laughing, and a group of third year girls paused and said, "Oh look at the weenie owl! Isn't he cute?"

"Stupid little feathery git!" Ron hissed, hurrying up the stairs and snatching Pigwidgeon up. "You bring letters straight to the addressee! You don't hang around showing off!"

Pigwidgeon hooted happily, his head protruding over Ron's fist. The third year girls all looked very shocked.

"Clear off!" Ron snapped at them, waving the fist holding Pigwidgeon through the air. "Here – take it, Harry," Ron added in an undertone as the third year girls scuttled away looking scandalized. He pulled the letter off and Hermione whispered to Romi, telling her that they had sent a letter to Sirius right after the first task.

Romi purposefully grabbed Neville by the arm, and declared that they needed to get some homework done, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione to read Sirius' letter alone.

"We don't have to do any homework, do we?" Neville said, looking at her surprised.

"Not if you don't want to," Romi answered, "I just figured that they wanted to read their letter in private. Besides, it's been ages since we've seen Luna, we should go and catch up with her."

Neville's cheeks went a little pink as Romi dragged him off to find their other friends.

Romi woke on Christmas morning to a squeal by Lavender and she sat up looking around trying to get the sleep out of her eyes, her hair in a wonderful mess.

"Good morning, sleepy," Parvati said good naturedly. "Merry Christmas."

"Happy Christmas," Romi said stretching and then looked to her presents on the foot of her bed. Zhi was sprawled among them, with Crookshanks spread out beside her. There was already a lot of paper lying on the floor, as Hermione, Lavender and Parvati were half way through opening their presents.

Romi opened the first one was from her parents which was a dream catcher, hand made by the medicine women in the reserve near where they used to live. She was a witch herself and had endowed the webbed section with a glittering power that would truly catch dreams. Romi secretly thanked her parents for knowing when she had bad dreams even without telling them. The other girls in her dorm were fascinated by the dream catcher and it went all over the room as they inspected the craftsmanship.

Draco had sent her a rose, not a real one, but a metal one that had been twisted with red and green glass, into an open bloom with long stem. She grinned as she read his letter. It was short, and said that because real roses withered, he got her one that wouldn't.

"That's beautiful," Parvati said, as Romi twisted it in her fingers. "Who's it from?"

"I don't know," Romi said, tucking the letter under her sheets.

"I think you have a secret admirer," Lavender said with a giggle. "May I?"

Romi passed it over and opened the rest of her gifts. She caught Hermione's eye as Lavender inspected the rose, and Hermione raised an eyebrow and Romi looked away, hoping that Hermione wouldn't say a word.

Neville had got her a large book that had all sorts of magical healing practises from the Native American peoples which Romi found fascinating. Ginny had got her a box of Bertie Botts' Every Flavour Beans, and Mrs Weasley had sent Romi a warm knitted scarf along with an assortment of mince pies. Harry had got her a pocket watch as she had a tendency to never were watches and always looked at someone else's. The watch was the perfect size to slip into your pocket, and said never to fall out. Severus gave her box of sweets and a bag of treats for her cat. All in all she thought that it was a brilliant Christmas.

Hermione and Romi met Harry, Ron and Neville in the common room, and they went down to breakfast together, meeting up with Ginny on the way. They spent most of the morning in Gryffindor Tower, where everyone was enjoying their presents, then returned to the Great Hall for a magnificent lunch, which included at least a hundred turkeys and Christmas puddings, and large piles of Cribbages Wizarding Crackers. Romi, Ginny and Neville all sat with Luna for lunch. They decided not to talk about the Yule Ball, as Luna was the only one of them who would not be attending as no older student had asked her to go.

They went out into the grounds in the afternoon; the snow was untouched except for the deep channels made by the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students on their way up to the castle. A snow ball fight was quickly started between Romi and her friends, and Harry and the Weasleys. Romi, who always loved the snow landed the most hits and dodged the most snowballs. At five o'clock Hermione made a signal. Romi quickly noted it and turning to her friends excused herself from the game, telling them that she would see them later. Hermione said that she had to go back upstairs to get ready for the ball.

"What, you need three hours?" said Ron, looking from her to Romi, and paying for his lapse in concentration when a large snowball, thrown by one of the twins, hit him hard on the side of the head. "Who're you going with?" he yelled after Hermione and Romi, who just waved and then jumped up the stone steps into the castle.

"You first," Romi said, once they got inside. "Yours will take longer."

"Are you even doing anything with yours?" Hermione asked, going to her trunk.

"Not particularly," Romi answered. "I'll probably put it up, gets annoying when it's down for too long – not to mention hot."

"That's true," Hermione replied. She handed the bottle of Sleakeasy's potion to Romi.

"It says that you need half an hour for a quarter of the bottle for it to work," Romi said, reading the instructions as Hermione got out her periwinkle blue gown. Hermione changed into an old t-shirt, Romi got out two pairs of her medical gloves and the two tackled Hermione's rather frizzy hair, which ended up in a lot of laughing and potion everywhere.

"Did you use the whole bottle?" Hermione asked when they had agreed that there was enough in her hair to make it smooth.

Romi laughed, "not a drop left. You're going to have to have that in for two hours before you can wash it off."

"That's why I started so early," Hermione said.

Just then Parvati and Lavender came into the dorm. Then there was a great mess of people getting ready, and admiration of the gowns. Romi helped with the other girls' hair before doing her own.

"You know," Lavender said, when she looked in the mirror. "You'd make a great hairdresser, Romi."

"Sorry," Romi said. "I have other plans for my life."

"You don't mind if I call you to do my wedding though, do you?" Lavender said with a giggle.

"Not at all," Romi said with a grin, piling her own hair into a stylish bun behind her left ear, with locks curling down over her shoulder.

By seven o'clock Hermione went to wash out the Sleekeazy's Hair Potion and came back with long, smooth flowing hair. Romi put Hermione's up and adjusted her own silvery blue gown over her shoulder.

"I have got to say, whoever designed dresses without sleeves clearly don't have boobs," Romi said, fidgeting with the bust of her dress. "I feel like one side is falling down without the support of my shoulder to keep it up."

Hermione laughed, "You look fine, not uneven at all. If fact you look very pretty."

"Thank you," Romi replied, "You look fantastic yourself. Shall we?"

"We shall," answered Hermione.

The two girls made their way down from their Dormitory to the Common Room. It seemed very packed in there with all the different colours from the dress robes. Romi couldn't see Harry or Ron anywhere, which was a little bit of a relief, they did however meet Neville and Ginny almost immediately.

"You two look wonderful!" Ginny said. "I love your hair, Hermione."

"Thanks," she said, smiling. "Well, I guess we'd better go and meet the boys."

"They are lucky boys," Neville said, holding out his arm for Ginny. She took it and the four of them made their way down towards the Entrance Hall.

Just as they made it there, Krum came right over to them and bowed to Hermione, and offered a hand.

"You look beautiful," he said, smiling at her. Ginny and Neville gave a small wave and left the other two, disappearing into the crowd. Hermione took Krum's arm, smiling broadly. Krum glanced at Romi as she looked around the room. "Are you vaiting for someone?" he asked.

"Blaize, he's in Slytherin," Romi said smiling at Krum.

"Ah, they are over here, vould you allow me?" Krum said, offering Romi his other arm. Romi glanced at Hermione, who smiled and nodded slightly. Romi took his hand Krum guided them both over to the group of fourth year Slytherins.

Crabbe and Goyle it appeared, did not manage to find dates, and Daphne was of course, on Theodore Nott's arm. She had a beautiful emerald green dress on, and seemed absolutely thrilled. Theodore also looked thrilled with his girlfriend and couldn't seem to take his eyes of her. Blaize was standing with them, with his back turned, but it was Draco that caught her eye; he was wearing a set of dress robes made out of black velvet and with a high collar. Hanging off of his arm, smiling so much she could have turned inside out, was Pansy, wearing an awful, frilly, pink cocktail dress.

"Excuse me, sir," Krum said, coming up to Blaize. Blaize turned, and his eyes fell on Romi, and he looked stunned, and then smiled.

"Thank you," Blaize said to Krum, as he passed him Romi's hand.

"Thank you," Romi repeated to Krum.

"Your velcome," he said, and gave a nod of his head to Blaize, who returned it, and guided Hermione away. Romi looked up to Blaize and smiled.

"You look beautiful," Blaize said.

"Thank you, you look very well yourself," Romi replied. She then looked at the rest of the group. Daphne was grinning.

"You really do look awesome," Daphne said, taking Romi's hands. "Where on earth did you find such a dress?!" she demanded.

Romi shrugged slightly, "It was just at Madam Malkins," she said.

"It looks like you've captured a river and decided to wear it," Daphne said, laughing slightly.

"You look wonderful too," Romi replied. "You all do," she added glancing at Theodore and Draco. She decided not to mention how much she didn't like Pansy's dress. Pansy didn't seem to like Romi's too much either, but that might have been because ever since she had arrived Draco had been staring at her. Even now when she made eye contact with him, it didn't appear like he could say anything at all.

Pansy broke the silence, "Was that Granger with Viktor Krum?" she asked, glaring at Romi.

"Yes, it was, actually," Romi answered, lightly. "I thought we did good job on her hair, took a bit of work."

Romi looked around the Entrance Hall, and immediately picked out Harry and Ron who seemed to be staring at her a little stunned. She smiled at them, putting an arm around Blaize's again.

Just then Professor McGonagall's voice called over the champions and the rest of the students were ushered into the hall. Harry stared pointedly at Romi as she passed with Blaize, but she didn't say anything to him. She could see that a fair amount of other students were looking at her oddly.

The hall was filled with tables that seated about a dozen each, but before the students sat down, they lined up leaving an aisle for the champions to walk up. The ceiling was snowing dry and warm snow, with mistletoe and garlands strung all over the place.

A moment later and the Great Hall doors opened and the entire hall clapped and cheered as the champions walked forward. Fleur with Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain, Roger Davies came first followed by Cedric and Cho Chang. Krum and Hermione came next and there were whispers that exploded everywhere when Hermione walked past.

Harry and Parvati came next and although Parvati seemed to be having a great time, waving at friends, Harry was looking downwards, trying not to trip.

Dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table, but Karkaroff was wearing a sour expression as he watched Krum and Hermione draw nearer. Ludo Bagman, tonight in robes of bright purple with large yellow stars was clapping enthusiastically as any of the students; and Madame Maxime, who had changed her usual uniform of black satin for a flowing gown of lavender silk, was applauding them politely. It was only then that Romi noticed it was not Mr Crouch who sat in the fifth seat, but Percy Weasley.

"What is that Weasley doing up there?" Draco said bitterly.

"Draco," Romi said warningly, as Blaize led the way to a table for them. "Can we please not do this tonight?"

Draco just huffed a little, but then was occupied with Pansy as she started talking to him. Blaize led Romi to a seat and pulled it out for her. She sat down and he sat beside her.

There were menus in front of them all and looking around the room understood what to do when Dumbledore said quite clearly to his plate 'Pork chops.'

Romi looked to her own plate and asked for fish and chips. They appeared golden and delicious looking seconds later.

"How is your Healership going?" Blaize asked, as everyone started their dinner.

"Oh please don't talk about gross stuff at dinner!" Daphne said beside her. Romi laughed.

"It's going very well," she replied, "Madam Pomfrey thinks I might be able to take the First Apprentice Exams this summer, after school."

"But you're only fourteen," Pansy said with a snort, sitting across the table from Romi.

"I've learnt all the material," Romi replied. "I could heal you now if you accidentally ate the frog in your salad."

Pansy looked down at her plate immediately, but then looked back up at Romi and glared, while Daphne laughed.

"Romi wouldn't do that tonight, would you?" Daphne said, staring Romi down. Romi pretended to think for a moment, and then replied;

"Maybe not tonight," she said.

"Have you done it before?" Blaize asked, which caused Romi, Daphne and even Draco to laugh. Romi then explained what had happened before they had started her third year. Pansy immediately engrossed Draco in a different conversation leaving Blaize and Romi to talk alone.

Romi was surprised at how much she actually liked Blaize. She had not really spoken to him before, but was getting to know him much better. There was a streak of pureblood pride that she couldn't really appreciate, but his conversation was good. She could see Draco glancing at her out of the corner of her eye, but she continued to look firmly at Blaize. She was, admittedly, a little annoyed that Draco had said yes to Pansy, despite that he knew Pansy and Romi did not get along.

Once the food had been eaten Dumbledore stood up and asked the students to do the same. Then, at a wave of his wand, the tables zoomed back along the walls, leaving the floor clear, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the right-hand wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, a piano and some bagpipes were set upon it.

The Weird Sisters now trooped up onto the stage to wildly enthusiastic applause; they were all extremely hairy, and dressed in black robes that had been artfully ripped and torn. They picked up their instruments and choose a tune that sounded vaguely like a nineteen twenties waltz.

Harry and the rest of the champions made their way to the floor and started the dance. Romi watched painfully for a bit, as it seemed that Harry was stepping more on Parvati's toes than the dance floor, but soon they were not the centre of attention anymore as other couples joined the dance floor.

Neville and Ginny were one of the first couples out, and Romi could see that Gran wasn't lying when she said that Neville had done well in his dance classes. He was certainly much better than Harry.

"Shall we?" Blaize said, holding out his hand. Romi smiled and took it and he led her out onto the floor. Dumbledore was waltzing with Madam Maxime. He was so dwarfed by her that the top of his pointed hat barely tickled her chin; however she moved very gracefully for a woman so large. Mad-Eye Moody was dancing with Professor Sinstra, who was nervously avoiding his wooden leg. Blaize, it turned out, was also a fantastic dancer, and Romi was certain that she had stumbled over his feet more than once, but he never mentioned it. Finally the last quavering note from the bagpipe with ended and the Weird Sisters stopped playing to tremendous applause.

Then the nineteen twenties music was finished and the lights went dark, everyone started to jump and shout as the Weird Sisters struck up a loud, fast rock song.

Romi had never been to a dance like this one before, and she was very much enjoying herself. A lot of the songs were fast, and difficult to dance with a partner, so there was plenty of dancing in groups.

Despite them dancing in a group, Theodore and Daphne were still very much coupley through most of it. Romi grabbed Daphne's hand and pulled her away for a moment, laughing at Theodore's disappointed face. He gave them a couple of seconds dancing and then came up behind Daphne and slipped her hands around her waist and kissed her cheek.

"Excuse us for a moment," Theodore said, grinning at her, and he pulled Daphne around to face him, dipped her over his arm and very thoroughly snogged her. Pansy laughed hysterically.

"Hey!" Romi said, putting her hands on her hips, but smiling broadly. "No tonsil hockey!"

"Oh, go snog Blaize," Daphne replied when she was back on her feet again, blushing slightly. Romi blushed, glancing at Draco, he seemed determined not to look at her. She let it go and they moved onto a different topic.

Their little group of Slytherins were not that far from where the Durmstrang group was, and Romi made a little detour to Hermione.

"Having fun yet?" Romi asked, yelling over the music.

"Of course!" Hermione answered. "Harry and Ron can't see us, can they?"

"Who cares!" Romi replied, "I bet they are just sitting at the edge of the room sulking anyways."

Romi and Hermione actually found themselves dancing with the Durmstrang girls, who had all taken partners with someone from their school, and surprisingly had an amazing time.

None of them really knew who Hermione or Romi was and for once, they were not judged by anything, including their dancing. Romi sang along at the top of her lungs, enjoying herself intensely. Blaize spent time with Krum and the other Durmstrang boys and seemed to get on well also. Back in their little party of Slytherins, Romi could feel that neither Draco nor Pansy were having as good of a time, but for different reasons.

After a little while, Romi, Blaize, Hermione and Viktor Krum disentangled themselves from the dancing. Viktor and Blaize went off to find them drinks, and Romi and Hermione walked arm in arm. Romi caught sight of Harry and Ron sitting down with Padma Patil, looking in at the dancing crowd moodily. Romi looked at Hermione and nodded to the boys. Hermione sighed, but then they made their way over to where they were sitting.

"Hi," said Harry, as the girls arrived. Ron didn't say anything at all.

"It's hot, isn't it?" Hermione said, fanning herself slightly with her hand, and glancing at Romi, she sat down in the empty chair beside Harry. "Viktor and Blaize have gone to get some drinks."

Ron gave her a death glare.

"Viktor?" he said. "He hasn't asked you to call him Vicky yet?"

"Why would he ask that?" Romi asked, confused.

"I'm not even talking to you, traitor," Ron snapped at her. "You're in Gryffindor going to a dance with a Slytherin, really?"

Romi rolled her eyes, "oh, brother."

"What's up with you?" Hermione said, frowning at Ron.

"If you don't know," said Ron scathingly, "I'm not going to tell you."

Hermione stared at him, then at Harry who shrugged.

"Ron, what the–?"

"He's from Durmstrang!" spat Ron, "That's even worse than Slytherin! He's competing against Harry! Against Hogwarts! You – you're –" Ron was obviously casting around for words strong enough to describe Hermione's crime. "Fraternising with the enemy, that's what you're doing."

Hermione's mouth fell open.

"Don't be so stupid!" she said after a moment. "The enemy? Honestly – who was the one who was all excited when they saw him arrive? Who was the one who wanted his autograph? Who's got a model of him up in their dormitory?"

Ron chose to ignore this. "I s'pose he asked to you to come with him while you were both in the library?"

"Yes, he did," Hermione said, pink patches glowing brightly on her cheeks. "So what?"

"What happened – trying to get him to join spew, were you?"

"No, I wasn't! If you really want to know, he – he said he'd been coming up to the library every day to try and talk to me, but he hadn't been able to pluck up the courage! He even spoke to Romi first, and she approved."

"You encouraged this?!" Ron demanded looking at Romi.

"I thought you weren't talking to me," Romi replied, crossing her arms, "I'm a traitor remember, I'm here with a Slytherin."

Ron scoffed, "so then he's just making his story really good."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione demanded.

"Obvious, isn't it? He's Karkaroff's student, isn't he? He knows who you hang around with … he's just trying to get closer to Harry – get inside information on him – or get near enough to jinx him."

Hermione looked furious, and frankly Romi couldn't blame her.

"For your information, he hasn't asked me one single thing about Harry, not one–"

Ron changed tack and the speed of light.

"Then he's hoping you'll help him find out what his egg means! I suppose you've been putting your heads together during those cozy little library sessions!"

"I'd never help him work out that egg!" Hermione said dangerously. "Never. How could you say something like that – I want Harry to win the Tournament! Harry knows that, don't you, Harry?"

Harry really rather looked like he wanted to stay out this one, giving Romi a grimacing glance.

"You've got a funny way of showing it," sneered Ron, in Harry's silence.

"This whole Tournament's supposed to be about getting to know foreign wizards and making friends with them!" said Hermione shrilly.

"No, it isn't!" shouted Ron. "It's about winning!"

Romi was starting to notice people staring at them, and she really wished that she hadn't pointed out Harry and Ron to Hermione.

"Ron," Harry said quietly, glancing at the people that were staring at them. "I haven't got a problem with Hermione coming with Krum–"

But Ron ignored Harry too.

"Why don't you go and find Vicky, he'll be wondering where you are," snapped Ron.

"Don't call him Vicky!" Hermione jumped to her feet and stormed off across the dance floor, disappearing into the crowd. There was silence for a moment.

"Well," Romi said, looking to the two of them. "You certainly know how to ruin an evening, thank you for that."

"Are you going to ask me to dance at all?" Padma Patil asked him on the far side.

"No," said Ron, still glaring after Hermione.

"Fine," snapped Padma, and she got up and went to join Parvati and a group of boys from Beauxbatons.

"There you are," said a deep voice beside Romi and she turned to see that Blaize and Viktor Krum had returned, each with two butterbeer bottles.

"Yes, here I am, and thank god you're here too," Romi replied, taking one of the butterbeers from Blaize, and downing a quarter of it. She wrapped an arm around Blaize's waist, as he put one on her shoulders. Both Harry and Ron glared the two of them down.

"Vare is Herm-own-ninny?" asked Krum, looking at Harry and Ron.

"No idea," said Ron grumpily, "Lost her, have you?"

Krum was looking very surly again.

"Ignore him," Romi said, looking to Viktor Krum. "She went this way, follow me."

Romi led the two boys back into the crowd where they eventually found Hermione standing on the opposite side of the room, looking very cross. When Romi and the boys showed up though, she did her best to cheer up.

Romi and Blaize drifted between Hermione, Krum and the other Durmstrang students and Draco and the Slytherins for the rest of the night. Romi attempted to enjoy herself, though she was a little put out as well by the conversation with Ron.

Around eleven o'clock Romi was making her way back into the Great Hall after a bathroom break, when she noticed someone familiar standing near the refreshment table. She paused for a moment, thinking and then walked straight up to her.

"I didn't think I'd see you here," Romi said, standing beside her. Phoebe Capello turned to look and smiled when she saw Romi.

"It's Romi, right?" she asked. Romi nodded. "Yes, I was invited by Professor Dumbledore, and Rita would never forgive me if I didn't come."

"Rita Skeeter? She's not allowed at Hogwarts though," Romi replied.

"Exactly," Phoebe replied. "She wants me to tell her everything about the night. Who doesn't like a good ball?"

"I can think of a few," Romi replied, looking over to Ron and Harry's now empty seats. There was a long moment of silence and then Romi looked to Phoebe. "How is that lifeline going for you?"

Phoebe looked at her hand, rubbing the line a bit, "still the same," she replied. "But, I guess I'm still here and living right? Been a tough couple weeks though," she added.

"Oh? How so?" Romi asked.

"My two brothers got into a little… problem, shall we say?" Phoebe said, with a sigh, "not to worry though, my youngest brothers are coming up to help out. Should work out fine."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Romi said, not really sure what else she should say. "Well, I hope you try to enjoy the dance."

"Thanks," Phoebe said with a big smile, "I'm sure I'll see you around, Romi."

"Sure," Romi replied and feeling slightly awkward, left Phoebe to go and find Blaize again.

All too soon, the songs began to wind down and most people where leaving the dance, until there was only a handful left on the floor, including Krum, Hermione, Romi and Blaize.

When the Weird Sisters finished playing at midnight, everyone gave them a last loud, round of applause, and started to wind their way into the Entrance Hall.

Blaize walked Romi out and stopped just at the marble staircase.

"I had an excellent night," Blaize said, holding onto her hand still. "Thank you very much for coming with me."

"Thank you for asking, I had a great night too," Romi replied, smiling broadly. Just then Draco and Pansy walked past them towards the Slytherin common room, both of them eyed Blaize and Romi before they disappeared down the corridor. Romi sighed, watching them go.

"Don't worry," Blaize said, watching her glance. "I'll sort him out." He then leaned forward and very gently kissed her on the cheek, before bowing slightly and letting go of her hand.

"Good night," he said, smiling.

"Good night," Romi replied.

The smile wouldn't leave from Romi's face, and she hurried up the stairs towards the Gryffindor Tower. She could practically skip down the hallways, and saw her brother walking alone just ahead of her. She quickened her step to catch up, and linked arms with him.

"Hey," he said, as soon as he realised who she was. "How was your night?"

"Good," Romi replied, "aside from a little blip where I got called a traitor."

Harry cringed slightly. "That was probably a poor choice of words–"

"Yah think?"

"But, come on, Romi, you did go to the ball with a Slytherin," Harry said, looking at her. "We've always been enemies."

Romi huffed, "Enemies is also a poor choice of words. I'm friends with them and everybody knows that. They shouldn't see this as a problem."

"Well," Harry said, patting her hand, "don't be surprised if Ron doesn't talk to you for the next couple of days."

"You're talking to me at least," Romi said.

"I can't completely ignore my only sister," Harry replied, "just a little bit." They made it to the Fat Lady and her friend Vi who were snoozing in the picture over the portrait hole. Harry had to yell 'Fairy Lights' before they woke up. Harry let Romi climb into the Portrait Hole first and followed quickly afterwards.

They walked right into Hermione and Ron having a screaming match; standing ten feet apart and bellowing at each other.

"Well, if you don't like it, you know what the solution is, don't you?" yelled Hermione; her hair was coming down out of her bun, and starting to go frizzy again.

"Oh yeah?" Ron shouted back. "What's that?"

"Next time there's a ball, as me before someone else does, and as a last resort!"

Ron mouthed soundlessly like a goldfish out of water as Hermione turned on her heel and stormed up the girl's staircase to bed. Ron turned to look at Harry and Romi.

"Well," he sputtered, looking thunderstruck, "well – that just proves – completely missed the point -"

Romi looked to Harry.

"I'm going to go to bed before I say something I'll regret," she said to him. He nodded, smiling slightly.

"Good night," he added.