 yet seen inside the school. Everlasting icicles had been
attached to the banisters of the marble staircase; the usual twelve Christmas trees
in the Great Hall were bedecked with everything from luminous holly berries to
real, hooting, golden owls, and the suits of armor had all been bewitched to sing
carols whenever anyone passed them. It was quite something to hear "0 Come, All
Ye Faithful" sung by an empty helmet that only knew half the words. Several
times, Filch the caretaker had to extract Peeves from inside the armor, where he
had taken to hiding, filling in the gaps in the songs with lyrics of his own
invention, all of which were very rude.
And still. Harry hadn't asked Cho to the ball. He and Ron were getting very
nervous now, though as Harry pointed out, Ron would look much less stupid than
he would without a partner;
Harry was supposed to be starting the dancing with the other champions.
"I suppose there's always Moaning Myrtle," he said gloomily, referring to the
ghost who haunted the girls' toilets on the second floor.
"Harry - we've just got to grit our teeth and do it," said Ron on Friday morning, in
a tone that suggested they were planning the storming of an impregnable fortress.
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"When we get back to the common room tonight, we'll both have partners -
agreed?"
"Er . . . okay," said Harry.
But every time he glimpsed Cho that day - during break, and then lunchtime, and
once on the way to History of Magic - she was surrounded by friends. Didn't she
ever go anywhere alone? Could he perhaps ambush her as she was going into a
bathroom? But no - she even seemed to go there with an escort of four or five
girls. Yet if he didn't do it soon, she was bound to have been asked by somebody
else.
He found it hard to concentrate on Snape's Potions test, and consequently forgot to
add the key ingredient - a bezoar - meaning that he received bottom marks. He
didn't care, though; he was too busy screwing up his courage for what he was
about to do. When the bell rang, he grabbed his bag, and hurried to the dungeon
door.
"I'll meet you at dinner," he said to Ron and Hermione, and he dashed off upstairs.
He'd just have to ask Cho for a private word, that was all. ... He hurried off
through the packed corridors looking for her, and (rather sooner than he had
expected) he found her, emerging from a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson.
"Er - Cho? Could I have a word with you?"
Giggling should be made illegal. Harry thought furiously, as all the girls around
Cho started doing it. She didn't, though. She said, "Okay," and followed him out of
earshot other classmates.
Harry turned to look at her and his stomach gave a weird lurch as though he had
missed a step going downstairs.
"Er," he said.
He couldn't ask her. He couldn't. But he had to. Cho stood there looking puzzled,
watching him. The words came out before Harry had quite got his tongue around
them.
"Wangoballwime?"
"Sorry?" said Cho.
"D'you - d'you want to go to the ball with me?" said Harry. Why did he have to go
red now? Why?
"Oh!" s aid Cho, and she went red too. "Oh Harry, I'm really sorry," and she truly
looked it. "I've already said I'll go with someone else."
"Oh," said Harry.
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It was odd; a moment before his insides had been writhing like snakes, but
suddenly he didn't seem to have any insides at all.
"Oh okay," he said, "no problem."
"I'm really sorry," she said again.
"That's okay," said Harry.
They stood there looking at each other, and then Cho said, "Well-"
"Yeah," said Harry.
"Well, 'bye," said Cho, still very red. She walked away.
Harry called after her, before he could stop himself.
"Who're you going with?"
"Oh - Cedric," she said. "Cedric Diggory."
"Oh right," said Harry.
His insides had come back again. It felt as though they had been filled with lead in
their absence.
Completely forgetting about dinner, he walked slowly back up to Gryffindor
Tower, Cho's voice echoing in his ears with every step he took. "Cedric - Cedric
Diggory." He had been starting to quite like Cedric - prepared to overlook the fact
that he had once beaten him at Quidditch, and was handsome, and popular, and
nearly everyone's favorite champion. Now he suddenly realized that Cedric was in
fact a useless pretty boy who didn't have enough brains to fill an eggcup.
"Fairy lights," he said dully to the Fat Lady - the password had been changed the
previous day.
"Yes, indeed, dear!" she trilled, straightening her new tinsel hair band as she
swung forward to admit him.
Entering the common room, Harry looked around, and to his surprise he saw Ron
sitting ashen-faced in a distant corner. Ginny was sitting with him, talking to him
in what seemed to be a low, soothing voice.
"What's up, Ron?" said Harry, joining them.
Ron looked up at Harry, a sort of blind horror in his face.
"Why did I do it?" he said wildly. "I don't know what made me do it!
"What?" said Harry.
"He - er - just asked Fleur Delacour to go to the ball with him," said Ginny. She
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looked as though she was fighting back a smile, but she kept patting Ron's arm
sympathetically.
"You what?' said Harry.
"I don't know what made me do it!" Ron gasped again. "What was I playing at?
There were people - all around - I've gone mad - everyone watching! I was just
walking past her in the entrance hall - she was standing there talking to Diggory -
and it sort of came over me - and I asked her!"
Ron moaned and put his face in his hands. He kept talking, though the words were
barely distinguishable.
"She looked at me like I was a sea slug or something. Didn't even answer. And
then - I dunno - I just sort of came to my senses and ran for it."
"She's part veela," said Harry. "You were right - her grandmother was one. It
wasn't your fault, I bet you just walked past when she was turning on the old
charm for Diggory and got a blast of it - but she was wasting her time. He's going
with Cho Chang."
Ron looked up.
"I asked her to go with me just now," Harry said dully, "and she told me."
Ginny had suddenly stopped smiling.
"This is mad," said Ron. "We're the only ones left who haven't got anyone - well,
except Neville. Hey - guess who he asked? Hermione!"
"What?" said Harry, completely distracted by this startling news.
"Yeah, I know!" said Ron, some of the color coming back into his face as he
started to laugh. "He told me after Potions! Said she's always been really nice,
helping him out with work and stuff- but she told him she was already going with
someone. Ha! As if! She just didn't want to go with Neville ... I mean, who
would?"
"Don't!" said Ginny, annoyed. "Don't laugh -"
Just then Hermione climbed in through the portrait hole.
"Why weren't you two at dinner?" she said, coming over to join them.
"Because - oh shut up laughing, you two - because they've both just been turned
down by girls they asked to the ball!" said Ginny.
That shut Harry and Ron up.
"Thanks a bunch, Ginny," said Ron sourly.
"All the good-looking ones taken, Ron?" said Hermione loftily. "Eloise Midgen
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starting to look quite pretty now, is she? Well, I'm sure you'll find someone
somewhere who'll have you."
But Ron was staring at Hermione as though suddenly seeing her in a whole new
light.
"Hermione, Neville's right - you are a girl. . . ."
"Oh well spotted," she said acidly.
"Well - you can come with one of us!"
"No, I can't," snapped Hermione.
"Oh come on," he said impatiently, "we need partners, we're going to look really
stupid if we haven't got any, everyone else has . . ."
"I can't come with you," said Hermione, now blushing, "because I'm already going
with someone."
"No, you're not!" said Ron. "You just said that to get rid of Neville!"
"Oh did I?" said Hermione, and her eyes flashed dangerously. "Just because it's
taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a
girl!"
Ron stared at her. Then he grinned again.
"Okay, okay, we know you're a girl," he said. "That do? Will you come now?"
"I've already told you!" Hermione said very angrily. "I'm going with someone
else!"
And she stormed off toward the girls' dormitories again.
"She's lying," said Ron flatly, watching her go.
"She's not," said Ginny quietly.
"Who is it then?" said Ron sharply.
"I'm not telling you, it's her business," said Ginny.
"Right," said Ron, who looked extremely put out, "this is getting stupid. Ginny,
you can go with Harry, and I'll just -"
"I can't," said Ginny, and she went scarlet too. "I'm going with - with Neville. He
asked me when Hermione said no, and I thought. . . well. . . I'm not going to be
able to go otherwise, I'm not in fourth year." She looked extremely miserable. "I
think I'll go and have dinner," she said, and she got up and walked off to the
portrait hole, her head bowed.
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Ron goggled at Harry.
"What's got into them?" he demanded.
But Harry had just seen Parvati and Lavender come in through the portrait hole.
The time had come for drastic action.
"Wait here," he said to Ron, and he stood up, walked straight up to Parvati, and
said, "Parvati? Will you go to the ball with me?"
Parvati went into a fit of giggles. Harry waited for them to subside, his fingers
crossed in the pocket of his robes.
"Yes, all right then," she said finally, blushing furiously.
"Thanks," said Harry, in relief. "Lavender - will you go with Ron?"
"She's going with Seamus," said Parvati, and the pair of them giggled harder than
ever.
Harry sighed.
"Can't you think of anyone who'd go with Ron?" he said, lowering his voice so
that Ron wouldn't hear.
"What about Hermione Granger?" said Parvati.
"She's going with someone else."
Parvati looked astonished.
"Ooooh - who?" she said keenly.
Harry shrugged. "No idea," he said. "So what about Ron?"
"Well. . ." said Parvati slowly, "I suppose my sister might. . . Padma, you know ...
in Ravenclaw. I'll ask her if you like."
"Yeah, that would be