A Pity Date?

Another one to practice my dictation and editing. This one came from Chartry and her 'Emmi's collection of prompts' on AO3. I'm going to have to find that again and let her know I took up the challenge.

I hope you like it. I don't expect a lot of traffic on it. This is my 50th fanfic here on ffn. So go me!

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Harry Potter was getting desperate. It was less than ten days before the Yule Ball, and he and Ron still didn't have a date. He had just asked Parvati Patil, and she said that she already had a date, she and her sister, both. Which was too bad because the Patil twins were quite good-looking young ladies. He didn't know why he waited so long to ask them. He was just being shy and stupid, he guessed.

"You could always ask Millicent Bulstrode. I hear she doesn't have a date," Parvati said, giggling like she knew a secret that he didn't. She was one of the top gossips in the Gryffindor Tower, after all. She and her best friend, Lavender Brown, knew secrets about everybody. He wondered what they had on him.

"Why would I ask her? She's a Slytherin," he said, scrunching up his face and with little bit of disgust. Last time he remembered seeing Millicent was when she was shorter and quite a bit chubbier. He hadn't seen much of her this year, but then again, he hadn't been looking. He had more important things to do, like quidditch and homework and Sirius.

"Well, she's part of the Sacred 28, well her family is, and she would be able to help you through everything you needed to know at such a formal dinner," Parvati said, flipping her long black hair, over her shoulder. She would have been able to do the same thing, her father having taught her everything she needed to know about a formal dinner. Though the customs were different in her country than they were here, so there was that.

"What's the Sacred 28? And what do you mean, a formal dinner?" Harry asked, panic creeping in his voice. Was there a difference? He had never been to a formal dinner before, unless you counted what the Dursleys called practice dinners, and he didn't count that because they didn't know Jack about anything. They just like to think they knew what they were talking about. Petunia read everything she could in magazines, but that didn't mean anything. Those rags were always going on about things they didn't know either.

"Oh, Harry, don't you know there are things you're going to need to know and things you can't do during a formal dinner," the Patil twin said, giving him a very piteous look. She always wondered how the Boy-Who-Lived could be so uneducated in the ways of the world. He was supposed to have grown up in a castle, learning everything he needed to know about living in the wizarding world. He was supposed to know his station, but obviously he did not. She was beginning to think that all those books about him were false. "As for what the sacred 28 is, ask Millicent. She'd know more about it than I do. I'm just a foreigner," she said, shrugging her shoulder. She didn't care about that group. It didn't affect her.

"What will I need to know about this formal dinner?" Harry asked in a true panic. Maybe he should ask Millicent. If she could help him then that would be great, and it wouldn't matter what she looked like. He'd leave off worrying about what the Sacred 28 for another time. It just didn't sound like it was important.

"Those are things that Millicent can help you with," she said in a firm tone. She wasn't going to be teaching him anything. That wasn't her job. She did have pity for him, but she had things she had to do, like get her dress ready for her date.

"But she's so… so… so…," Harry said, stumbling over the words, trying not to be insulting, yet being insulting at the same time.

"'So' what, Harry?" Parvati asked, glaring at him as if daring him to finish that sentence.

"I mean, she's not the prettiest girl, is she?" He finally got out with a wrinkle of his nose. She was short and had a huge forehead and last time he saw her she was round. He hadn't paid much attention to the Slytherin table this year. He had too much on his mind. The only person he paid attention to was Draco Malfoy and that was because that boy kept putting his attention on him. What with those buttons, and all.

Well, that wasn't totally true, Harry paid close enough attention to know that Greengrass was attractive, and her friend Davis wasn't far behind, but the rest of the girls in Slytherin weren't on his radar.

"You're not exactly a winner yourself there, Harry Potter. I mean, look at you. You've got those geeky glasses and you've got that ugly disfiguration on your forehead and you're all skinny. And I mean, just look at you," Parvati stated, pointing to each flaw as she said it, and then she waved her hand as if to encompass his entire being. He could tell from the look on her face that she found him lacking.

"Hey! I may not be everybody's cup of tea, but I'm… I'm not ugly," Harry stated, denying everything. Sure, he wasn't the greatest looking bloke, but he was alright.

"You're not a catch either. Yeah, I mean, sure, you're the Boy-Who-Lived, but that's all you've got going for you. Besides, Millicent is the only one who doesn't have a date right now. You're going to have to go and ask her in case somebody else snatches her up," the teenage girl stated, in a knowing fashion.

"Yeah, I guess I better go and do that," Harry said, leaving the common room and going to search for Bulstrode. He dragged his feet because even though he knew he had to do it; he really didn't want to.

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It took him a better part of three hours to find Millicent Bulstrode. When he did, she was in the courtyard doing something weird. It looked like she was lifting weights. He sat and watched her for a minute and noticed that she wasn't chubby anymore. Well, at least not as much as she used to be. She wasn't short either. It was like she shot up over the summer, and she was actually cutting quite a figure. He reckoned if she gave it a few more months she'd be a rather good-looking young woman. Those robes hid a lot.

"Bulstrode, can I ask you something?" Harry asked, coming up to her when she had the weights firmly on their resting spot. He knew better than to startle somebody who was pressing weights. That would just cause them to have an accident.

"What do you want, Potter?" she asked, glaring at him, for interrupting her exercise program. She had been doing this for months now and she would like to say she was doing rather well at it. She had dropped three stones of weight and was feeling better than she ever had.

"I hear you don't have a date for the Yule Ball," he said nervously, playing with the hem of his sleeve. He didn't know why he was so nervous asking this girl. It wasn't like she was some type of catch. Then again, from the looks of her, it looked like she could snap him in half without even a thought. So, he better be careful about how he asks her.

"Yeah, what of it?" she asked, going back to her weights. She wasn't going to stop working out just because this idiot couldn't get words out of his mouth.

"Well, I don't have a date either. And McGonagall will have my arse if I don't have one. Would you go with me?" Harry asked in quite rushed words. He was very nervous about asking, but he really desperately needed a date. McGonagall made that quite clear and if this was the last girl that didn't have a date... Well, then, he'd better get it right. He bungled that up already.

"Bit last minute for asking, don't you think?" was all she said in way of an answer.

"I know and I apologize. I just… I just... It's just… Come on, Bulstrode, cut me a break," Harry said, practically begging the girl to give him a chance.

"Do you even know how to dance, Potter?" she asked, even though it wasn't really necessary for him because she was rather good at dancing herself. It was part of being pureblood. Well, she wasn't a pureblood, she was half-blood, but she grew up in a pureblood family.

"I took the lessons McGonagall offered," he said with a grimace, knowing that those lessons were not up to par and getting them through the date. They would have to be enough to get him through the one dance, though, because he wasn't going to dance any more than that if he could help it. He certainly hoped he didn't make his date look bad.

"I suppose I can take pity on you and go with you. What color are your robes?" she said, conceding. It wasn't like she had been going to go anyway. She was going to stay the night in her room reading. But if he needed a date that badly, she could spend it with him. It might get her daddy's business some good publicity, for her to be seen with the Boy-Who-Lived.

"They're a dark forest green," he said, hoping that they were the right color, though he really didn't understand the whole color thing that girls had.

"At least I won't have to change my dress," she said, glad that her mother had put a dress in her trunk. She had fought with her mother over that, but her mother won as usual. And her mother was right, as usual. Why did mothers have to be right all the time? It was frustrating.

"What do you mean?" the teenage boy asked, looking at her, perplexed. It was one of those girl things. He knew it.

"Don't worry about it. Just come and pick me up at my common room at 7pm sharp on the night of the ball," she demanded. She wasn't going to walk through the castle unescorted, looking like she was going to look. She just knew that Greengrass and Davis were going to get a hold of her, making her look like some dolled up version of herself.

"Yes, ma'am.," Harry said in a cheeky tone of voice.

"Actually, I want to see you next weekend and we're going to go over a few things," she said firmly. She wasn't just gonna let him walk all over her just because she took pity on him to have a date with him on a very important night. There were going to be ground rules and she was going to set them. She was nobody's doormat anymore. She made sure of that when she started working out.

"Alright then," Harry said, though he did give her a puzzled look.

And with that, the two parted. Millicent went back to her weights and Harry went off to let Ron know that he had a date, and the other boy was on his own.

"What do you mean you got a date without me?" Ron said, throwing his hands up in the air like Harry had done him a great disservice.

"Well, I couldn't very well wait for you. The Patil twins already had dates," Harry said once more, trying to calm Ron down from one of his jealous fits. Though this time he could understand why the boy was mad. They had been trying to find dates for weeks now, but nobody seemed to want to go out with them.

"Well, what am I going to do?" the redhead questioned, like it was Harry's job to find him a date.

"I don't know what to tell you, Ron. I had to get a date and she was the only one who didn't have one," Harry said, throwing up his hands in the air in frustration. He didn't know what to do. As far as he knew, everybody else was taken.

"Well, I can't even ask Ginny. She's going with Neville," Ron said, slumping down in the chair next to the fireplace, folding his arms and glaring at the fire as if it had an answer to his dilemma.

Harry snickered at that.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. At least she's got a date and I don't have one. I'm gonna have to go stag. Everybody's going to laugh at me," the redhead said, remembering how hideous his robes were. Now he was going to have to go without a date, and in those ugly robes. He just knew that it was going to be a horrible day for him.

"You can't be the only one who's going stag. There's got to be other blokes out there that didn't get a date. It's just that since I'm the champion, I have to have a date or McGonagall will have my arse," Harry said, taking the chair next to Ron's.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess I understand," Ron finally said in a grumpy manner. He was just pissed that he was the only boy in the entire dorm that didn't have a date. Did the boys really outweigh the girls. He didn't think that was right. How did all the girls get dates then?

"Anyway, let's go play some chess," Harry said, trying to placate his ever-angry best mate.

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Next weekend came and Harry met up with Millicent. And she took him into an empty classroom to tell him how she thought the date was going to go.

"Let me lay down a few ground rules for you, Potter," she said as she sat them down in chairs at the front of the classroom. She had chosen this classroom because it was between Slytherin House and Gryffindor House. "First of all, you're not just going to take me into this ball and then leave me there hanging. You're going to stick by my side the entire time we are there," she said this, punctuating each word with a poke on the desk in front of her. She felt very firmly about this. She wasn't going to be some wallpaper while he went about socializing.

"That sounds reasonable," Harry said, feeling that wasn't too much to ask. He knew if he was taken somewhere than if the person that took him there left him to his own devices, he would be upset too. It was one of the Dursleys favorite pastimes, to take him somewhere and just leave him on his own. Then they get mad at him when he did something wrong. They did it a lot when he was a kid. All he had to do was stand at the wall and touch nothing and do nothing and they'd still get mad at him.

"Second of all, you're not going to shun me for any of your friends. We're going to have conversation the whole time we're there. It's only polite," she said, still punctuating her words with her finger. She wasn't going to sit there and be quiet the whole night either. She was actually quite a conversationalist if you got her talking on topics that she had passion about. Like quidditch and her father's business. Which was shipping potions ingredients.

"Again, that sounds reasonable," Harry agreed. He tilted his head to the side and began to think that maybe she had quite the childhood. She seemed to be a bit friendless in the Slytherin House. He wondered if it's because she was half-blood or because she just wasn't well liked. Could be a bit of both. She was coming off rather forceful right now, and he knew most Slytherins wouldn't like that.

"Third, we are going to dance. I don't care how poorly you do it, we are going to dance at least six times during the night," she said in a no-nonsense manner. Her mother had spent a lot of money on her getting those dance lessons as a child. She was not going to see them go to waste because this boy couldn't dance.

"Here now, I told you I don't know how to dance very well," the teenage boy protested in the only manner he knew how, which was blind panic. He really didn't know how to dance, and he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of all those people.

"Don't worry about it. I can lead. I'll show you how to go around the dance floor and look good doing it too," she said, waving off his protestations as if it were nothing. She was going to have her dances whether he liked it or not.

"Parvati said you would show me how to not make a fool of myself during the dinner. What are some of the things that I need to know?" Harry asked, taking the subject away from dancing for now. He'd figure it out when he got there. If she was as good as she said she was, maybe it wouldn't be an issue.

And with that, they discussed the placements of silverware, things that were allowed to be discussed during a general conversation, and about taboo subjects that weren't to be discussed. Harry figured it was just like any other genteel dinner. Only with a magical twist. They did talk for a good two hours and then it was time to split up.

He also asked her about the Sacred 28, and he decided that they weren't important. Just a bunch of names some stuck up man threw together to make himself seem significant.

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On the night of the ball, Harry came and got Millicent at 7pm. And boy, did she look different. Her hair was done up elaborately on the top of her head with some curls around her face. Plus, it looked good on her. It made her still slightly chubby face look rounded and beautiful. She had makeup on that was skillfully applied. It must have been done by Greengrass or Davis.

Her sleeveless dress showed her wide shoulders in such a manner that made it look like a professional swimmer. She was so tense that her muscles were defined, and it looked rather good on her. She really did look like she could rip Harry in half if he messed up tonight, so he better behave.

Her dress was a deep emerald green that matched his forest green rather well. It was not too tight at the waist that it showed her as cinched up, but tight enough that it showed off her curves. And it flared down like any other ball gown. She had a string of pearls that were midway down her neck with matching earrings that dangled. There was also, in her hair, a crown of pearls.

"What are you staring at, Potter?" she said in a frustrated tone. She had been under the care of Greengrass and Davis all day and they were making cooing noises at her and saying how pretty she was, and she was just tired of it.

"You look good," Harry said, meaning it.

"I'd better, they have me under that makeup mirror forever," she said, glaring at him for all she was worth. It was all his fault, anyway. If he hadn't asked her, she wouldn't be here right now. She'd be curled up in her bed with a book like she wanted to be. But no, she had to take pity on him. Still, if having a day with him helped her daddy's business, that would be all for the better. She wasn't one to turn down an opportunity. She was a Slytherin after all.

"Well, come on then, let's go," Harry said, never the one for niceties.

He held his arm out so she could take it and they walked to the Entrance Hall where he and the other champions had to wait for the ball. Yeah, he got to see Hermione come down in her periwinkle dress, and she looked good too. He was very surprised, but she didn't look as good as his date in his eyes. Who knew he went for the buff type?

They had a really elegant dinner which went off without a hitch. She coached him through what to say and who to say it with in whispers and nudges. She made sure that he ate with the right fork by letting him copy her and going in slow motions. He actually did a pretty good job of being a perfect gentleman.

When it came time to the dance, he led her to the floor, but he let her lead the dance. She was so good at it that she made it look like he was in the lead. They wowed the crowd. She was very light on her feet for somebody who was very tall and not quite skinny. It was a good thing she was wearing flats, she was already taller than him.

When Ron came over and tried to disrupt his date, Millicent stood up and said to him, "Buzz off, Weasley." She wasn't about to let this upstart ruin her date.

"Oh, naff off, Bulstrode. I'm here to talk to my mate," Ron said all but pushing her out of the way, which he wouldn't do because she was a girl, but he really wanted to because look how big she was.

"He's my date tonight, not yours, so you can just go bugger off," she told the nosy redhead. She had no problem pushing him out of the way, though. She shoved him back a few steps.

"Hey, let's not fight," Harry said, getting between the two before it came to blows. He knew Millicent would probably win, and he didn't want to have to listen to Ron if she did. "But Ron, she is my date tonight. You just need to go find something else to do," he told his friend, holding out his hand in a 'leave off' gesture.

"You're gonna put some girl over your best mate? I like that," Ron asked, disbelief clearly on his face that Harry would pick this Slytherin over him for any reason. She wasn't even that good looking of a bird, even though she did cut quite a figure in that dress.

"Look, mate, I only get one night with her. Just go ahead and find somebody else to talk to for a while. I promised her I'd give her a good time," Harry said, trying to get his best mate to just leave him alone for the night so that he could show the woman who gave him pity a nice night.

"A good time, huh? I see how it is," Ron said, using his hormonal brain to jump to the wrong conclusion right away.

"No, I didn't mean it like that. I meant to show her a special night," Harry said, of course, saying the wrong thing again. But he wasn't sure how quite to put it, that he just wanted to have a nice quiet night of dancing and eating. It was as simple as that. He just wanted her to have a lovely Yule Ball.

"Yeah, I see what you're saying," Ron said, still misconstruing the whole situation. "Well, that's the only way she's ever going to get it," he said with a sneer at Millicent.

"You'd better watch your mouth, Weasley, or I'm gonna put my fist right through your face," Millicent said raising her fist, showing how much she was willing to put it in his face. She was not going to back down from this redhead. He was crossing the line.

"Shut it, Bulstrode. You're just lucky Harry took pity on you and had a date," Ron said, getting up in her face like he was not scared of her. What could a girl do anyway? He should know better. He had a sister who was more than willing to put him down nine times out of ten.

"I do believe it's the other way around," Millicent said, first sneering at Ron and then smiling at Harry in a 'forgive me' type manner. She had been having a good time until the redhead showed up. But then again, she knew that Weasley was always one to come and destroy anything Harry Potter was having. It didn't matter if he was having a good time or a bad time. Weasley was more than willing to come and destroy it.

"She's got me there, mate. She's the one who took pity on me," Harry said, smiling back at her in a pleasant manner. "And that's why I want to make sure that she has a good time. If it wasn't for her, I'd be going stag and everybody would be laughing at me because I'd be sitting up here in front of everybody being watched and goggled at," he said with a laugh. And then, he added, "Heck, I'd probably be in tomorrow's paper if I didn't show up with a date. So, she's doing me a huge favor."

"Yeah, whatever," Ron said as he stormed off.

"You don't think he's gonna cause trouble, do you?" Harry asked, already knowing the answer. Ron was not one to keep his mouth shut. He was the one to rant and rave and let everybody know how he was feeling. Oh, well, there was nothing he could do about it now.

"He better not, or I'm going to introduce my fists to his face. Don't think I won't just because you're his friend," she threatened, though she did sit down and straighten out her dress and calmed herself down in the best manner she knew how, which was to take deep breaths and just ignore what was going on around her. She wasn't going to let Weasley ruin her night, even though he did for a bit. Weasley was just as bad as Malfoy. Those two just had their different type of prejudice, but they were both bigots just the same.

"If he says anything about you that ruins your reputation, you have my permission to do that," Harry said as if he had any say in the matter.

"I don't need your permission, Potter," she snapped at him and then took another calming breath. It wasn't his fault; his friend was a prick. It was just his fault he hung around with that arsehole.

"Okay," Harry said, getting up and holding out his hand so that he could take her out for another dance, that always seemed to calm her down.

And they went on like that for the rest of the night. They had dance after dance, and they even took a walk outside in the enchanted garden. Millicent had a really good time. And she was thankful that she went to the dance with Harry, even though she had been planning on spending it alone.

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The next day, Harry was appalled to find out that he actually did make the front page of the newspaper because he did have a date, even though he didn't talk to anybody about it. Rita Skeeter was one of those reporters that just seemed to be able to get into everything. She seemed to be able to go anywhere and everywhere, and he just didn't know what to think about that. She reported that Harry was on a pity date, and that Millicent was the one who was being pitied, and how Harry was being so brave and heroic to take pity on such an unattractive girl.

Harry was furious.

He didn't know what he could do about it because this woman was just being vile. So, he did the only thing available to him, he wrote his own note to the editor and cussed them out. He let them know it was she who took pity on him because he didn't have a date at the last minute, because he was such a berk. That he had waited to the last moment to ask anyone, and how Millicent hadn't even been going to the ball, and she took pity on him by letting him escort her.

He let them know that Millicent was a perfectly well-adjusted young lady who showed him what to do during a formal dinner when he floundered. She had held his hand through the entire dinner and if it wasn't for her, he would have made a big fool of himself.

They printed his letter, and he got a lot of posts about that. Some of them criticized him for being such a dork. And others praised him for standing up for Millicent.

Millicent came up to him a few days later and said, "You didn't have to do that, Potter."

"Sure, I did. You were such a great date that I didn't want to see them ridicule you like that in the paper," he said, giving her a winning smile. They were in the middle of the Great Hall, and everybody was staring at them, and he wanted to make sure that everything he said in the newspaper was fact.

"Well, I'm glad you did, but you really didn't have to. We would have gotten free publicity anyway," she told him with a smirk, also aware of their audience. She didn't want anybody to think that they were romantically inclined. Maybe further down the road, but they were only fourteen years old, and she didn't want any rumors going around about them. She was already fighting off the rumors that his redheaded buddy tried to start. She'd been in three fights already defending her honor.

"So, you just went out with me just so you could get free publicity for your dad's business?" he asked with faux aghast. He knew she had only been out with him as a friend. He didn't have any romantic inclinations towards her. He thought she was cute and all. And hey, maybe down the road, but not right now he had this tournament to worry about and the last thing he needed was a girl in his life. No matter what Hermione said.

"I am a Slytherin, after all, and you are the Boy-Who-Lived. It's not like we went out because of romantic reasons," she said, clapping him on the back, making him move forward just a little bit. She was definitely stronger than he was. And if she kept working out the way she did, she was going to be able to break anybody.

"I guess I could see that. I'm not hurt. If you're going to do business like that with me next time, ask, okay?" He said, a smile still planted firmly on his face. He really didn't care whether people used his Boy-Who-Lived status to get ahead as long as they asked.

"Sure, no hard feelings, Potter?" Bulstrode said, holding out her hand for a handshake. It had been a really good night and they had a really good time, so she had no problems being friends with Potter.

"No hard feelings, Bulstrode," Harry Potter said, shaking the hands of the Slytherin in the presence of everybody in the Great Hall.

And with that, they parted as friends. Who knows what would come in years down the road, but for now, it was all good.