On a cold day in early December, the teachers made an announcement in their morning classes; Hogwarts would be holding a Yule Ball. At lunch, the Great Hall buzzed with discussion of the upcoming event, and the critical question of who everyone might go with.

At the Gryffindor table, Seamus asked, "Who are you planning to ask, Harry?"

"I don't know. Reporters have been crawling all over the Tournament, which means they'll probably be at the Ball too."

"And?"

"And I don't want them crawling all over me. Rita Skeeter tried to ambush me last time she was here. I don't believe for a second she just happened to run into me, or that getting banned from Hogwarts is going to stop her from trying again."

Ginny said, "I don't see her being a problem, after our little chat."

"She still found a way to be annoying in her last article, even without telling any outright lies we could call her on."

"Maybe it's time to renegotiate the terms of our agreement with her."

"Even if we did, there are plenty of other reporters."

"Yeah," Ron chimed in. "I bet they'll want to talk to you more than ever now, after that thing with the dragons."

Harry grimaced. "Thanks for the reminder." He shook his head. "I don't even know how to dance anyway."

Seamus grinned. "Uh-huh. You sure you're not just scared to ask someone?"

Ron snorted. "Scared? Harry? Four dragons, remember? Besides, of course Ginny will go with him."

"I believe that's Ginny's decision, not yours," Hermione informed him.

"What is she going to do instead? Sit in her room all night?" Ron shot back.

"Maybe she'd like to go with someone else."

"Like who?" Ron and Harry both demanded.

"That's her business. Especially if Harry isn't even going."

Further down the table, Dean leaned forward to give Ginny a considering look.

"Hold on," Harry said quickly. "I didn't say for sure I'm not going."

"You can't expect her to wait around for you to make up your mind," insisted Hermione.

"Alright, fine." He turned to Ginny. "If I go, of course I wouldn't go with anyone but you, so don't accept if anyone else asks, okay?"

Without waiting for a response, he turned back to Hermione. "Happy?"

Hermione stared at him for several seconds before she could even form words. "That was an awful way to ask!"

"I didn't ask her. I said if I go."

"That's even worse! You don't even realize how much you take her for granted."

Harry turned to Ginny again, to find her looking down at the table. "Ginny? You got what I meant, right?"

"Of course I'd go with you," she said quietly, without looking up. "But it would still be nice if you actually asked me."

He put his arm around her. "Sorry. You know I don't take you for granted, I just assumed…" He trailed off.

"Exactly!" Hermione said.

"Alright, Hermione. You made your point. Ginny, would you like to–"

"Don't you dare!" Hermione interrupted. "You owe her a lot better, especially after treating her so abominably. Think of a way to ask which shows you care enough to put some effort into it."

"Merlin, Hermione," complained Ron. "Let them sort it out. You ought to worry less about them, and more about yourself."

She whipped her head around to glare at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means who in their right mind would want to spend the Yule Ball with a witch who's going to nitpick everything you say?"

She gasped, stared at him for a moment, then jumped to her feet and grabbed her bag.

As she turned to storm out, Neville called after her, "Hermione, wait!"

She turned back. "What?"

"It's not true," he said, rising from his seat and fidgeting with his hands. "It's not true that no one would want to go with you."

She gave him a tight smile. "Thank you for saying so."

As she started to turn away again, Neville blurted out, "Hermione, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"

She stopped and stared at him, as did everyone else who'd been taking in the unfolding drama.

Neville flushed at the attention. "Sorry. I know that wasn't a great way to ask, but I couldn't let you go off thinking no one wanted to go with you. Or take the chance someone else would beat me to it. I wanted to ask you before, but I couldn't figure out how. I mean, I thought of lots of things to say, like how I like talking to you, even when we don't agree. You get me to think about things I wouldn't otherwise. Important things."

"Neville…"

"Wait, I have more. You're really brave, and really smart, and really pretty, and, uh…" He licked his lips and swallowed, glancing around at all the eyes on him. "This would be better organized if I had more time. I can run down to the greenhouses to get some flowers, then ask you again, but better."

Hermione walked back to him. "That was actually quite sweet, Neville. I would be delighted to attend the Yule Ball with you." She hesitated, then leaned forward to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Oh," he said. "Good. That is, I would be delighted too."

Hermione smiled and nodded, then turned to walk away again, this time at a more relaxed pace. She didn't spare Ron even a glance, though she did shoot a glare at Harry, along with the hissed parting advice, "Ask her like she means something to you."

Neville sat down heavily, his face red, as the male Gryffindors who'd witnessed the scene congratulated him on having secured a date so quickly–aside from Ron, who gave him an annoyed look, but said nothing.

Harry turned to Ginny. "You do, you know. You mean a lot to me."

"Don't worry about it," she said, still not looking at him. "You know how determined Hermione can be when she decides she needs to fix something."

"Yeah, but this time she's a hundred percent right. Just give me a couple of days to work on it before you agree to go with anyone else, okay? I promise I'm going to ask, so this isn't me expecting you to wait around to see. That was dumb on my part."

"I don't need anything fancy. I'm a pretty simple girl."

"I want to. Just give me a couple of days to work it out, okay?"

"Okay."

"Thanks. Sorry."

"It's okay."

He rubbed his hand up and down her back, watching her face, until she raised her head and gave him a faint smile.

He gave a relieved smile in return. "I'd better get to Defense. Moody likes to introduce new curses on people who come in late. See you at dinner?"

"Yeah, see you."

~*~

After Defense class, Hermione took Neville aside. "During class, I remembered you're supposed to go see Ollivander to get a properly-matched wand over the holiday. How are you going to do that, if you're staying here for the Ball?"

"I'm going home as soon as classes finish, then returning by Floo. I'll be back in time for the Ball. That is, if you still want to go with me, now that you've had time to think about it."

"Of course I do! I just can't bear the thought of interfering with your education. Does this mean your grandmother agreed to take you?"

"I haven't brought it up yet. If I don't do it in person, she won't take me seriously."

"What does she think you're coming home for then?"

"Same thing as every year." He glanced around. "I don't usually talk about this, but every Christmas, my Gran takes me to see my parents."

"Oh. I'm sorry, Neville. To visit their graves, you mean?"

"No, they're not actually gone. Not like dead, at least. People just assume, because I live with my Gran. But my parents are in St Mungo's, in long-term treatment."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

"It's okay. I mean, it's not, but it's been this way as long as I can remember, so I'm sort of used to it. I'm not sure they even recognize me, but it's important to my Gran, so that's what we do."

She stepped tentatively forward and gave him a hug.

When she stepped back, she said, "Thank you for sharing that with me. I won't repeat it, if you don't want me to."

"Thanks. I guess I'm supposed to be proud of their sacrifice, but it's just, I don't know… awkward."

"It must be hard. If you truly don't feel up to facing an argument with your grandmother about your wand, I'll stop pushing you. Well, for now."

"It'll be alright." He grinned. "Facing her won't take as much courage as asking the smartest witch at Hogwarts to the Yule Ball, while the whole school watched."

She blushed, but smiled back. "And that worked out the way you wanted. You just had to decide to go for it. See?"

"Yeah."

"We should get to dinner. I'm going to grab something quick before heading to the library. I've been searching for spells to help someone survive underwater in a freezing cold lake, but haven't found any suitable for someone in our year to use."

"Does it have to be a spell? Gillyweed would be perfect for that."

"Really? I've never even heard of it," she remarked, sounding impressed. She took out her notebook, and flipped past several pages of diagrams with annotated arrows going back and forth, until she found a place to jot down the plant's name.

Neville shrugged. "No reason you should have. It's native to the Mediterranean, and fairly narrow in its uses, so most British shops don't bother to keep it in stock."

"Would Professor Snape have it?"

"Probably. He seems to have at least small samples of most ingredients, even less common ones."

"I only need enough for one person. Thank you, Neville. Now that you've freed up my evening, I believe I'll use the time to enjoy a more leisurely meal. Shall we?"

~*~

The next day, Harry met Ginny in the common room before breakfast, and told her not to worry about buying dress robes, as he was taking care of it.

"You don't have to. Mum will figure something out. She always does. Let's just go and have fun. I'm not expecting you to spend a bunch of money on me."

"I'm not. I talked to Sirius last night, and he's working on setting things up. He might be making what he considers a small contribution to a worthy cause, but the part I'm doing will be more of a trade. I know the Ball isn't too far off, but I just need a couple of days. You haven't said you'd go with anyone else, have you?"

"No."

"Thanks. I'm going to ask you."

"I wish you'd just do it already. What are you–"

"It's a surprise. Don't worry, you'll like it. I hope. Hermione wouldn't help because she said it would mean more if I came up with something myself, but I didn't want to risk screwing up again. I would have gotten advice from Tonks, but I figured it would take too long by owl. I did manage to come up with half an idea, then used the mirror to ask Sirius for help with it. Well, you know what he's like, so the whole thing kind of grew bigger and flashier than anything I would have come up with on my own… but I still think you'll like it."

"Does it involve you risking your life?"

"Of course not. Why would you ask that?"

She looked at him without comment.

He scowled. "Alright, maybe it's not a totally unfair question. But no, nothing like that."

"That will be a pleasant surprise then."

"My life is only in real danger like a couple of times a year."

"Only you would brush that off as 'only'."

"It would be way worse if I had to go through it without you."

"Good thing that's never going to happen."

"I know. I'm going to show you I know."

"You really don't have to–"

"Too late, plans are already in motion. Come on. Let's head down to breakfast."

~*~

The following Monday evening, the students in the Great Hall were surprised to see Madam Malkin entering the room as dinner was about to start. As she approached the head table, Dumbledore rose to greet her, and called for everyone's attention for a brief announcement.

Although the seamstress had met every person in the room individually when they came to her shop, she appeared nervous about addressing the entire student body at once.

She cleared her throat. "Thank you, headmaster. Now then, I'm sure everyone is looking forward to the upcoming Yule Ball. For anyone who has yet to make arrangements for suitable attire, I'm pleased to announce that generous contributions from Witch Weekly and Sirius Black have made it possible for me to offer a significant discount on all new robes from my stock, as well as modifications to older robes, wherever they were originally purchased from."

This news brought applause from the room at large, though the mention of Harry's godfather brought some curious glances his way.

Harry's focus was entirely on Ginny.

She asked him, "Is all this…?"

"Yes," he told her. "For you. Keep listening though."

Malkin went on, "To be eligible for the discount, you need only agree to pose briefly on your way into the Ball for photographers from Witch Weekly. They will be there to do a special feature on the event, for an upcoming issue."

Judging by the response, the student witches who were regular readers of the magazine considered this a bonus, rather than a burden.

She continued, "Since it would be difficult for most of you to arrange a visit to my shop in the time remaining before the Ball, I will be in the castle throughout the day tomorrow for fittings." She looked around the room until her eyes found Harry. "The preceding offer is open to every student, but Mr Black has made one additional provision for his godson, Harry Potter."

Everyone who hadn't already been staring at Harry now turned to do so.

Malkin said, "The lucky witch who accompanies Harry Potter to the Yule Ball will get first pick of the available robes, which will be hers free of charge. She and Mr Potter will appear on the cover of the upcoming special issue of Witch Weekly. I understand he has someone special in mind, but has been waiting for the right moment to ask her?"

Harry hadn't taken his eyes off Ginny. "So… will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"You did all this to get me dress robes?" She glanced around the room, noting the stares, then turned back to Harry. "Why would you do this? You hate being the center of attention."

He shrugged. "I don't mind so much, if it's for a good cause. And this wasn't just about the robes. I wanted to make a big deal of asking you, to show it matters to me. To show that you matter to me. Though to be honest, things got a bit out of hand after Sirius got involved. I'll tell you the whole story later, but, um… you didn't answer if you want to go with me or not."

"Oh! Of course I do!" she said, throwing her arms around him in a hug, which he returned.

Madam Malkin said, "Well, I think we can take that as a 'yes'."

There was laughter at this, and even some scattered clapping.

Harry took one arm away from Ginny long enough to give Malkin a thumbs-up gesture.

Malkin began to go over minor details, drawing the attention of the other students back to her.

Ginny pulled back far enough to see Harry's face. "You didn't have to do this."

"Yes, I did. Even if you would have let me get away with doing a lot less." He glanced around. Aside from Hermione–who was beaming at them with delight–no one seemed to be paying attention, but you could never be sure. "Can I explain more later?"

"You don't have anything to explain. We're good."

"Good, but there's more I want to say. But later, okay?"

"Okay. And thank you for arranging for my dress robes."

He smiled. "My pleasure."

~*~

After dinner, Harry and Ginny found a couch to share in a quiet corner of the Gryffindor common room.

"You really didn't have to," she told him again.

"Even if you were ready to let it go, I wasn't. Do you want to hear the whole story?"

"Sure."

"It started when I remembered how unhappy Ron was with his dress robes, and I wasn't sure if your mum would be able to get you any as nice as you deserve, with such short notice."

"That was thoughtful, but she would have sorted something out."

"I knew you'd say that, and you wouldn't let me buy you robes any more than Ron would. But then I thought about how the press is always trying to get an interview with me, or a picture or whatever. And so I thought Sirius could arrange a deal for someone to pay for your robes in exchange for access to me."

"That's very sweet, but I don't want you doing things you hate for my sake, any more than I want you spending a bunch of money on me. And this is a lot more than one picture. This has turned into a whole big thing."

"I know, but let me finish. Sirius thought it would be easier to get permission for Malkin and Witch Weekly to come here if the offer included everyone. Then he got to thinking about how much the wizarding world revolves around bribes and donations, and he got excited about sticking it to the rich pure-bloods by playing the same game, but in service of something they'd hate. I'm sure they all have closets stuffed full of fancy dress robes already, but now everyone at the Ball can look just as nice. You remember how Malfoy mouthed off about Ron's robes… Damn, now I wish I'd thought to check the Slytherin table, just to see the outrage on Malfoy's stupid, entitled face. Along with all the others like him."

"Too bad you only had eyes for me."

"Yeah. You're a much more appealing sight. You know this was all for you, right? I hope you don't mind all the other stuff getting mixed in. I originally wanted to do something which would be just for you and me, but, well… Sirius."

"It was a rather slick move, now that I hear his thinking behind it. Growing up in the Black family must have had some effect on him after all. Don't tell him I said that."

"I won't. Remus may have had something to do with it too. You know his whole thing about challenging existing hierarchies and all that. And to be honest, I kind of got swept up in the excitement too, seeing how it would also help Ron, and anyone else who always has to make do with hand-me-downs." He grimaced. "I know what that's like."

"However it came about, if you thought I wouldn't appreciate you doing something special for me, while also making the Malfoys seethe, you don't know me at all."

"I hoped you'd see it that way."

"Speaking of Sirius and his plans, how does this affect the one about driving a wedge between the Malfoys?"

"I don't think that one was going anywhere. He had Narcissa and Andromeda over for dinner, thinking he might be able to get a whole Black family unity thing happening. It didn't go well."

"Don't Sirius and Andromeda hate most of the rest of the family, and everything they've ever stood for?"

"Yeah. I don't imagine that helped much." He shrugged. "I guess it didn't hurt to try. It didn't cost him anything but an unpleasant dinner. Well, that and a house-elf he was never going to get along with anyway."

"Didn't he also give them a piece of jewelry that day? Knowing the Black family, that probably would have fetched a few galleons."

"Probably cursed. No great loss there either."

"I suppose not. To be honest, I never thought he'd win her around, cousin or not. Some people are too far gone. I don't feel much like talking about the Malfoys right now though."

"Me neither. I'm just glad you're cool with how it all turned out."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm the one who wishes I could have done it without drawing so much attention."

"Which brings us back to the fact that even your original idea involved you making a deal with the devil. Though I suppose photos for Witch Weekly aren't nearly as bad as an interview with Rita Skeeter."

"Another thing you saved me from, which I don't think I thanked you for enough. Which brings us back to me taking you for granted. It's easy to do when you're always there."

"I don't mean to smother you."

"You don't," he said, taking her hand. "It's a good thing. I just never think about it. But I should. It's like… breathing. No one thinks about that either, but if the air ever disappeared, you'd sure notice quick."

"Aw. Is that your way of saying I take your breath away?"

"Shut up. This is as close as I get to being able to talk about important emotional stuff."

She laughed. "You're doing fine. I hope you didn't let Hermione get in your head too much. I'm glad you understand I'm always here for you."

"I do. But I should do a better job of appreciating it."

"Well. A girl does like to feel appreciated."

"I couldn't imagine going with anyone else, and I guess I assumed you wouldn't either, but that was dumb. It's not like you'd have any shortage of offers."

"It wasn't dumb. I thought we'd end up going together, so I wasn't interested in having anyone else ask me. Though to be honest, I was hoping you'd actually ask, rather than just assume. Sometimes it's nice to go through the formalities. It's a girl thing. It's okay if you don't get it."

"No, I think I do, though I didn't know you cared about things like that. You've never said anything about dancing or posh dresses or stuff like that."

"Probably because I'm too busy going on about destroying our enemies. One day we will, but for now, part of me is still a teenage girl who wants one night of having fun, looking pretty, and dancing with her… friend. I don't blame you for finding me confusing. I haven't figured out how the different parts of me fit together yet either."

"I know the feeling. I have no idea how to deal with that jerk who's always wearing my clothes and borrowing my stuff."

Seeing her puzzled expression, he clarified, "You know. The Boy-who-lived, with all the expectations he dropped on me the first time I set foot in the Leaky Cauldron."

"Ah. That guy. Yeah, bit of an attention hog, but not so bad to look at."

"Your parts don't fit together so bad either, since we're on the subject. Sorry, that came out ruder than it sounded in my head."

"I don't mind," she told him in a soft voice. They locked eyes for a long moment, and her tongue flicked out to wet her lips.

Harry cleared his throat and looked away. "I just hope the way I asked was good enough to make up for how much I screwed up the first time."

"More than good enough. You're way back in the plus column now."

"Good, because there's one other problem."

"What's that?"

"I still have no clue how to dance."

She laughed and rolled her eyes, then moved to snuggle up against him. "We can work on that."