Ginny was awakened by the commotion of her dormmates opening their Christmas gifts. A ray of sunshine made its way through the small gap in her bedside curtains facing the window and onto her bedspread. She felt groggy, but quickly roused herself at the prospect of opening her gifts, which included a hand-knitted sweater from Mum, a pack of Droobles, a couple of books, and a prank wand, the last being courtesy of Fred and George.

She met up with her friends Lena and Demelza in the common room and they made their way down to breakfast. There was much excited chatter about the Yule Ball later that night, and while at first Ginny was excited to have been able to go, her enthusiasm for it had become quite low. Several times she considered telling Neville that she was no longer interested in going, but she found she didn't have the heart to do so.

After breakfast they made their way back to the common room, which was a lively affair. Ginny played with the fake wand that had been given to her by Fred and George, and looking around the room, it looked as though everyone else was also enjoying their new presents. After lunch, which was unusually upscale, she went outside with Harry, Hermione, and the rest of the Weasleys for a snowball fight (Hermione backed out at the last second and chose to watch instead).

She aimed most of her snowballs at Ron and Harry. She got them several times, but Ron was only able to get her a couple times and Harry three times. Being smaller had its advantages. In what seemed like no time at all, it had become too dark to see anymore and Hermione announced that she was going up to get ready for the ball.

"What, you need three hours?" Ron shot at her, as George took advantage of the opportunity and got Ron square in the side the head with a snowball. Ron seemed unfazed and called after Hermione, who was already racing up the stone steps to the entrance hall. "Who are you going with?"

Hermione merely waved and disappeared inside. They continued their snowball fight in the dark, but with much less success, and at seven o'clock, they decided they had had enough and made their way up to the common room.

"I'm pretty sure we won," said George.

"You only got me four times!" said Ginny incredulously. "I know I got both of you at least seven each. Or maybe I got one of you fifteen times. Either way, I clearly won."

"Well, if you got George fifteen times and me zero, then clearly I won, didn't I?" said Fred.

They argued until they were halfway up to the common room, then switched the topic to the Yule Ball, which only Fred and George seemed even remotely excited about. Ginny couldn't help but feel pleased that Harry seemed completely indifferent about taking Parvati to the ball. Ron, on the other hand, was extremely grumpy.

Ginny changed into her dress robes in her dormitory, which Mum had said once belonged to Aunt Muriel. They were slate blue and definitely looked aged, but were thankfully not frayed like Ron's. She straightened her hair and clipped it in the back and made her way down to the common room where she met Neville.

"Hey, Ginny!" he said, beaming. He wore maroon robes and had combed his hair. "You look nice!"

"Thanks, er – you too Neville."

They made their way back down to the entrance hall, which was very crowded and stuffy. Ginny was very hungry, and her feet were starting to hurt from standing too long; she was starting to regret continuing the snowball fight well past dark. She spotted Harry and Ron in the crowd, and she saw Ron duck as Fleur Delacour made her way past with her companion, who looked like he was close to fainting as he stared shamelessly at her. He seemed stupefied that he had managed to get Fleur as his Yule Ball date. Ginny rolled her eyes just as the Slytherins made their way into the hall from the dungeons to add to the huddled mass of students.

A moment later, the oak doors to the grounds opened, and Karkaroff entered with Krum right behind, Hermione by his side. Ginny opened her mouth in surprise; Hermione was totally unrecognizable. She had her hair sleeked into a bun, she had some makeup on, but it wasn't overdone, and she wore a dress of periwinkle blue.

"Karkaroff sure is a creepy-looking bloke, isn't he?" muttered Neville. He didn't seem to have recognized Hermione.

"Champions over here, please!" called Professor McGonagall.

Ginny watched with a pang of longing as Harry, Krum, Cedric, and Fleur made their way with their partners over toward her. She badly wished she were in Parvati's shoes. McGonagall said something to the champions that Ginny couldn't hear, and they entered the hall.

The rest of them filed in a moment later, and Ginny saw the champions lined up on one side of the double doors to the hall as they entered. Ginny beamed at Hermione as she passed by her, and she beamed back, but she avoided looking at Harry and took a seat with Neville at a nearby table. The four long House tables had vanished and been replaced with a bunch of smaller ones. The walls of the Great Hall were covered with a realistic-looking snow, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling.

"Wow," Neville exclaimed, looking at Krum and Hermione. "She didn't tell me she was going with Krum!"

"I think I'm the only one she told," said Ginny. "She made me promise not to tell anyone."

"She looks so different."

"I know, I've never seen her hair in a bun like that! Her teeth look different too."

Once everyone had seated, the champions made their way to the front to sit at a round table with the judges. Parvati seemed quite pleased with herself for having Harry as a date, and she smiled and waved around the hall to seemingly no one in particular, showing Harry off as she did so. Ginny scowled.

To Ginny's surprise, when Harry approached the top table, he took a seat next to Percy who engaged him in conversation. Percy seemed to be doing most of the talking. Parvati sat on the other side of Harry with Cedric sitting to her left. Hermione was talking animatedly with Krum, and Fleur was looking haughty and appeared to be complaining about something. Her date was still staring shamelessly at her, and when he went to take a bite of food, he missed his mouth with his fork and smeared potatoes all over his face. Ginny snorted.

"They really went all out on this, didn't they?" said Neville, looking around at the decor.

"Mm," said Ginny, whose mouth was full of pork.

"What's your brother Percy doing up there?"

Ginny shrugged.

"I was wondering that too. Thought he'd be much too busy with his cauldron bottom report or some other rubbish to bother with this."

After everyone had finished eating, Dumbledore stood up, and indicated that they all should as well. He waved his wand; all the tables were moved toward the side wall so that they now had a big open area. Ginny and Neville found their table and sat back down. Dumbledore waved his wand again; a platform was conjured on the opposite end and the Weird Sisters marched onto the stage. They were all very hairy and their robes were torn in many places, which was clearly by design. The lighting became dim, and Ginny watched as Parvati tugged on Harry, who stumbled as he got up, and the champions made their way onto the dance floor. Determined to look elsewhere, she focused instead on Krum and Hermione. They looked like the happiest couple of the four, though Cho and Cedric were a close second.

Ginny glanced at Neville; he looked quite nervous. She was feeling quite nervous herself. It wouldn't be long until they would be out on the dance floor with everyone else. Ginny looked around at who else was at their table but didn't see anyone she recognized. She was sitting next to a boy with dark hair that extended almost to his shoulders, and beside him were some older students that Ginny didn't know.

Before she knew it, it was their turn to dance. They walked nervously over toward the champions and when everyone else was on the floor, Ginny grabbed Neville's hand, and the other she put on his shoulder, while Neville put his other hand on Ginny's waist.

It was clear Neville had very little, if any, experience dancing. He did not follow the beat at all, and Ginny winced as he stepped awkwardly on her feet several times.

"Sorry!" Neville muttered. "I'm not good at this!"

"It's okay," Ginny said, wishing she could have just stayed in the common room.

After the song ended, Neville asked to sit down, which Ginny was more than happy to do, and they made their way back to their seats. Madame Maxime, who had been dancing with Dumbledore, began dancing with Hagrid instead, and Dumbledore offered his hand to Professor Sprout.

"Hagrid finally found someone his own size, eh?" chortled Neville.

"Can't wait to see those kids," Ginny mused.

"Want a drink? I'm going to go get a water," said Neville.

"Sure, get me a butterbeer," Ginny replied. Neville got up and set off towards the drinks table.

Ginny glanced at the boy with the long hair that was sitting next to her. He turned too and caught her eye, and he smiled casually. Ginny thought he was rather cute.

"Hi," he said.

"Hey," said Ginny.

"I'm Michael," he said. "Michael Corner. I'm in Ravenclaw. You're Ginny, right?"

"Yeah," she said. "It's nice to meet you."

"I'm a fourth-year," he said. "And this is Anthony." He indicated the boy sitting next to him, who smiled and gave a small wave of acknowledgement. "Who did you come with?"

"Neville Longbottom," Ginny replied. "He left for a moment to get some drinks. He'll be back."

"Oh," he said. There was the slightest hint of disappointment in his face. "You've got a lot of brothers, don't you?" he said after a moment.

"Yeah, six," she said.

"Six?!" he said, amazed. "That must be difficult!"

"Oh, it is," said Ginny grimly. "They're all prats. Well, Charlie and Bill aren't, but they're older, I don't get to see them as much. It definitely toughens you up, though, having a bunch of older brothers."

Their conversation was interrupted by a commotion a few tables down. Ginny turned around to look: Hermione and Ron were arguing loudly. Harry was sitting by them looking rather awkward. Parvati was not with him, and Padma was sitting by Ron looking bad-tempered.

"Don't call him Vicky!" Ginny heard Hermione shout at Ron. It was clear now what was going on: Ron's jealousy had taken over. It's your own fault, Ron, she thought to herself, smiling. Hermione stormed off across the dance floor and disappeared into the crowd.

"See? Didn't take long for my brother to make a prat of himself, did it?" she said to Michael. Michael was still staring in the direction of Harry and Ron as if hoping to see more drama. A girl who was at Ginny's table earlier approached him.

"What are you staring at?" she said curiously.

"Oh, nothing, Lisa," said Michael dully. "Just some drama. Looks to be over now."

"Shall we dance then?" said Lisa.

"Oh – yes," said Michael, standing up. It seemed he had nearly forgotten about his date. "See you later, Ginny!"

"Bye," she said, as they disappeared into the mass of people on the dance floor. A moment later Neville returned with the drinks, and he handed her a butterbeer. "Thanks, Neville."

"No problem," he said. "Er, did you want to dance anymore, or…?"

"Um, not really, to be honest," she said. Her feet were still hurting. Ginny was pleased to see Neville looked relieved.

"What was Hermione all upset about?"

"Pretty sure Ron made her mad," said Ginny. "It looked like he was making fun of Krum." She looked over at Harry and Ron again. Percy was talking to them now, and Padma had left, apparently having given up on Ron for the night. Ludo Bagman joined them as well, looking as boisterous as ever.

"I thought he liked Krum!" said Neville. "Doesn't he have a poster of him?"

"Yeah, he does, he's just being a git," said Ginny scathingly. "He's just mad Krum asked her to the ball before he did."

Ginny knew she probably shouldn't be revealing this information but found she didn't really care right now. She sympathized with Hermione, and she was still a little annoyed about how Ron had embarrassed her in the common room when they were still desperately trying to find dates. She watched miserably as couples continued to dance and friends chatted, and wondered dimly how things would have gone if she were here with Harry instead. Judging by Ron's behavior and Harry's lack of enthusiasm, she was pretty certain it would not have gone the way it had played out in her dreams.

Ginny was finding the ball to be rather dull herself, and her expectations weren't high to begin with. The argument between Ron and Hermione had been the most entertaining part of the evening so far. She drank the rest of her butterbeer and was contemplating heading back to the common room, but decided to stick it out a little longer. She spotted Parvati on the dance floor, who now had a different partner. This cheered her up slightly.

"At least Snape's not here," said Neville.

"Not surprised, nobody would want to go with that greaseball. He doesn't seem much like the party type anyway, does he?"

Neville gave a nervous laugh, as though Snape could have heard them talking about him. Ginny saw Harry and Ron walk by; they didn't look at her but made their way toward the entrance hall. Hermione and Krum had resumed dancing near Michael and Lisa, and Fred and Angelina were dancing enthusiastically near the edge of the dance floor. Cho and Cedric had sat down at one of the tables and started snogging, while Fleur and her partner were nowhere to be found.

"Longbottom," growled a voice. Mad-Eye Moody had limped over, leaning on his staff, his small beady eye fixed on Neville and his magical eye looking through the back of his skull.

"Hi, Professor," said Neville.

"Had a good Christmas?" he said.

"Yeah," said Neville. "Pretty good, I guess… got some good gifts. Usually visit my parents over break, but…"

He suddenly looked very morose. Moody clapped him on the shoulder.

"How are you coming along with that book I gave you? Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean?"

"Oh, great!" said Neville, perking up slightly. "I read all of it, it was very interesting!"

"That's a good lad. I'm sure Professor Sprout will be pleased when you show off how much you know," Moody said with a wink. Neville smiled awkwardly.

"How about you, Miss Weasley?" said Moody, fixing his gaze on her now.

"Oh, fine," Ginny said nervously. Moody always creeped her out.

"Well, you lot keep yourselves out of trouble," he said gruffly. "Constant vigilance!"

He took a swig from his hip flask and clunked off. Neville seemed absorbed in his thoughts for a moment. The dance floor began thinning out as people got tired; Parvati and Padma were at a table near the front with a bunch of Beauxbatons boys, and Michael and Lisa were making their way back to their table.

"I'm gonna go get us some water," said Michael as Lisa sat down, and he headed off.

"You alright, Neville?" said Ginny, turning her attention back to him.

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine…" he said quietly. Ginny could tell he wasn't; something was clearly bothering him, but she didn't press him on it right now. She scanned the dance floor once again; Cho and Cedric had resumed after their snog break. Ludo Bagman was now dancing with a teacher Ginny hadn't seen before, his ugly dress robes standing out like a sore thumb. Ginny decided to take a bathroom break, and when she returned, she saw Harry and Ron had returned and were sitting in the back near the wall talking quietly amongst themselves.

The rest of the night was uneventful, Ginny chatted a bit more with Neville and Michael, but at half past eleven she felt she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer and headed back up to her dormitory. She didn't have a bad time, but she felt the ball had been overhyped. After getting undressed, she laid down and fell asleep almost instantly.