Unofficial Portkey Archive

The Art of Invitation

"I think they're in shock," Ginny hissed in Alice's ear as they sat next to the fireplace. Her stage whisper carried to Hermione who was sitting a few feet away and the other girl grinned. It was over two weeks since the first task and Professor McGonagall had only just announced that there would be a Yule Ball on Christmas day as part of the Triwizard Tournament. Not only that, but they would have to invite partners. And there would be dancing. At this final revelation Ron and Neville had all gone very pale and seemed to enter the semi-catatonic state which they now currently occupied, Harry hadn't taken it very well either. For the past twenty minutes the girls had been watching them from the corner of their eyes as they got on with their homework. The boys on the other hand were staring into the fire looking as though they had just been condemned to a life sentence in Azkaban, only speaking very occasionally.

"I mean," Neville croaked eventually, "you don't think we'll have to dance dance do you?" Apparently this cryptic sentence must have made sense to Harry and Ron because they both looked across at him and shrugged.

"I have no idea mate," Ron answered. He sounded as though someone had just told him he'd be forced to dance with Snape for half an hour. "I have no idea. I mean," he looked accusingly at Harry, "it's all right for you. You don't have nearly so much to worry about. You can go with Hermione and you won't have to make any effort at all."

Hermione glanced up from her Transfiguration textbook, eyes flashing dangerously. "I'm going to try very hard to take that as a compliment Ronald."

Ginny scribbled something on her parchment, considered it, scribbled it out and then tucked her quill behind her ear before continuing. "I don't know why you're all getting so antsy about it. It's just a ball. You're meant to enjoy yourselves not get your wand in a knot about it! At least you're allowed to go, but some of us aren't fourth years yet so we can only go if an older student invites us!"

"Don't worry Gin," Hermione consoled her. "I'm sure someone will ask you."

"Well I'm not asking you," Ron looked appalled at the very thought.

The look on his sister's face as he said this was priceless, a mixture of shock, revulsion and contempt danced across Ginny's delicate freckled features for a moment before her mouth turned into a thin hard line. "Don't worry Ronald I really, really, wasn't looking for you to. I think I'd rather not go. In fact I think I'd rather voluntarily eat a plateful of Hagrid's cooking, or serve detention with Filch and Snape for a year. In fact I think I'd rather be chased by a mob of hungry bees whilst coated in honey and run into -"

"Ok, ok, we get the picture," Ron grumped.

Alice smiled, her friends were ridiculous sometimes. But if she was honest she was a little nervous about the ball too. It wasn't that she minded going to the event itself, it would probably be fun and she didn't mind dancing either. If she was very honest she would almost definitely love to dance. She wouldn't even be that bothered if she went by herself, she certainly didn't expect anyone to ask her. It was just that there would be the expectation that she should have a partner. It was all anyone had talked about since Transfiguration that morning. Hermione and Harry would be going together, Ginny certainly wouldn't be short of boys asking her to go even if she was only in third year.

"This must be why they asked us to bring dress-robes this year!" Hermione suddenly looked stricken. "I hope mine are alright…"

Harry smiled encouragingly at her from his spot on the sofa. "I'm sure you'll look lovely in whatever you wear." He had to raise his voice over the end of his sentence to be heard over the nauseated noises Ron, Alice and Ginny were all now making, Neville was too nice to join in, but he did laugh along with the others. Thankfully the couple saw the funny side and joined in after a moment.

When she went up to her bed that night Alice fished a small leather-bound book from her trunk and flipped through it. Harry had made it for her during the holidays and it contained copies of all of the photographs he had of their parents along with some more that Sirius had contributed. Thumbing through she came across several that must have been taken when Lily was the same age that she was now, perhaps a year older. They were quite similar, she couldn't believe it had taken her so long to realise. There was just something about her mother though, she had some luminous quality that shone through the old photographs and made them light up.

Alice smiled sadly as she looked at one of Lily and some of her friends all dressed up for a fancy occasion, maybe another ball held at Hogwarts. Her mother was wearing pale green dress-robes, tied neatly at the waist and with a thin trim of lace around the sleeves and a smile that would melt the hardest of hearts. She was the most beautiful person Alice had ever seen. For about half an hour she just sat staring at her, occasionally she would flick to another page, but she always returned to that one. Eventually she tucked the book away with a sigh. It wasn't that she herself wanted to look that beautiful, she doubted she would ever even be able to come close, but right now, when there was a ball at school, when dresses were being discussed, she was beginning to notice the boys in her life, not to mention all the other problems she had that most teenage girls would never have to face. Those were the times she missed a mother, missed Lily, the most. Still, Alice rolled over, closed her eyes and tried to force herself to sleep, there was no point in wallowing.

"You know," she remarked to her friends as they sat at breakfast a few days later. "I reckon if Hogwarts gets anything more to gossip about this year the place won't be able to hold it, there will be an explosion or something. I mean first there was the World Cup, then the attack on Gringotts, The Triwizard Tournament," she was counting them off on her fingers, "the dragons escaping and now this Yule Ball." They were sitting listening to around a dozen conversations going on around them, each about one of the many things she had just listed.

"Don't forget the rumours about you and Cedric," Ron chirped up brightly from across the table.

Alice scowled. How could she? Rita Skeeter still delighted in throwing the odd comment into any and every article she possibly could about Hogwarts new `golden' couple. Alice hated it as it only fuelled the rumours, but the upside was that every time one appeared in the Prophet, Cedric would come rushing over to apologise about it. It was childish to allow it to continue, but still, if she was going to have embarrassing and untrue stories published about her she might as well get something out of it.

"Speaking of the dragons," Ginny sat down next to them and began ladling porridge onto her plate, "Luna told me that she heard McGonagall tell Professor Sprout that they don't think it was an accident they escaped." She paused with the ladle hovering above her plate, a gloopy drip dangling precariously, as she found herself suddenly with everyone's undivided attention.

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked. "I mean it is Luna we're talking about here, she's not exactly…"

"Sane?" Ron supplied helpfully.

"Don't say that!" Alice admonished him. "Luna's really nice, she's just a little eccentric that's all. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a little different!"

"If by different you mean loopy - alright, alright!" Ron held his hands up in surrender as she glared and stuffed some marmalade laden toast into his mouth to show he would say no more on the subject.

"It's true," Neville piped up, his cheeks colouring as everyone looked at him. "I… I heard them speaking about the dragons too. McGonagall came into the Greenhouse to talk to Sprout… and I was working there -"

"With Luna?" Harry asked curiously, a slight smile playing about his cheeks.

"No," Neville added hurriedly, his face going even redder, "not with Luna, just in the same place as Luna." He ducked his head, avoiding everyone's eyes as he continued. "I would have said something earlier, but I forgot about it. McGonagall just came in and they were talking about the Tournament, Sprout asked if there were any updates and then McGonagall said that the business with the dragons looked like it had been deliberate. That was all."

Harry looked round quickly at his sister, girlfriend and best-friend, opening his mouth to speak.

"Now Harry," Hermione bet him to it, "I know that look. We are not going to go off on some wild goose-chase just because McGonagall mentioned something suspicious might be going on. We've all got enough going on this year without adding mysteries too."

"Good luck with that," Ron muttered. "Besides, we already have a mystery. We still haven't discovered who stole Alice's book and robes."

It was true they hadn't, although Alice wasn't really sure how they would even begin trying to find out. They had no suspects since she hadn't seen who it was and no one had been seen with a copy of the book. Harry and Ron of course had wanted to blame Malfoy straight away, but this had quickly been shot down when the girls pointed out that there was no way a boy could have been the thief. So they were stuck.

"You could always post a notice asking for someone to return your things," Ginny suggested. "I mean I know it probably won't encourage whoever took them to return your things, but at least it will let more people know what happened and someone else might know something."

"It's alright," Alice sighed. It was a bit late now to be causing a stir about the business. "I don't mind so much about the robes, I mean I have spare ones and they can be replaced. It was just that Hermione gave me the book… Never mind. Just forget about it." They were scanning her face, trying to see how truthful she was being so Alice scrambled for a change of subject. "Has everyone managed to do their Potions homework for this week?" It was a pathetic attempt, but it would have to do.

Later that afternoon they were all studiously getting on with said homework in the Library when they became aware that Victor Krum was sitting only a few tables away. He was rather hard to miss actually, or rather the group of giggling girls spying rather obviously on him from behind a bookcase were rather hard to miss. Alice really wished they would go away, because it made concentrating on her Potions essay really difficult. It was hard to sort through the properties of hemlock when all you could hear was teenage twittering.

Harry on the other hand had a completely separate bugbear. "He's been staring at you for ages," he complained quietly to his girlfriend.

"So?" Hermione asked, not even bothering to look up from her book.

Harry blinked in surprise and took a moment to marshal his argument. Alice had a horrible feeling this wasn't going to go well and she really didn't want to stick around to watch them argue. She couldn't interfere because it wasn't her place, but she also couldn't get up and leave either without a good excuse, which of course no one took the liberty of supplying. Ron for once appeared to be completely absorbed in a book on poisonous fungi, it was upsides down, but she had to give him credit for trying she supposed, and Neville had disappeared looking for a Herbology book somewhere. Alice tried to focus on her own work and drown out the argument blossoming in front of her. Unsuccessfully.

"Well, he… he just shouldn't." It sounded so obvious to Harry, but from the set of Hermione's jaw Alice could tell he was treading a very thin line.

Finally Hermione looked away from her book, moving at the deliberately slow pace Crookshanks used when he was away to pounce. Alice wished she could reach Harry's leg under the table to give him a warning kick, but there were too many other legs in the way and he was too far away. "And why not?" Hermione asked. "Am I that repulsive that I need to wear a paper bag over my head or something?"

For a moment Harry seemed relieved, as though he had suddenly worked out what was bothering his girlfriend, and in rushing to clarify himself he fell into the trap. Even though it was, in Alice's opinion, a very well signposted and obvious trap. "No, no. I didn't mean that at all! I just meant - well you're my girlfriend, so he shouldn't…" Harry finally seemed to realise that he might have said the wrong thing as Hermione slowly placed her quill at the top of her notes, taking time to make sure it was perfectly in line with the top of the page.

"Right, so, let me get this straight Harry. Since we've started dating no one is ever allowed to look at me ever again. Have I got that right? But it's fine for girls to look at you all the time whilst you parade around the corridors, mostly because you're the famous Harry Potter might I add, even if you are too knuckleheaded to notice!"

"I do not - they do not - I am not knuckleheaded!" He spluttered eventually.

Hermione just sniffed and rolled her eyes.

"Well I'm not some sort of possession either Harry, and it's hardly as though I have other boys staring at me all the time, and," her voice dropped to a dangerous whisper and Alice thought she could see tears welling in her best friend's eyes, "its not as though it would ever matter anyway, because I'd never do anything about it."

Abruptly Hermione slammed the book shut earning herself a disapproving scowl from Madame Pince, grabbed her notes, her bag and her quill, bundled them all into her arms and then stormed from the Library leaving an awkward silence at the table behind her. Eventually Ron looked up from his book.

"Well mate, I know I'm probably the last person who should be giving advice about arguing with Hermione, but you didn't half make a spectacular mess of that."

Harry looked slowly from one redhead's face to the other's with such a perplexed expression that Alice just wanted to hug him, even if he was a complete idiot at times. "I don't… I didn't mean…" He ran a hand through his messy black hair causing it to stick up even more violently than usual.

"Oh, Harry." Alice made a mental note to explain the female psyche to him at some point. "Just give her some time; Hermione will be speaking to you again before you know it." She tried to say this with a little more confidence than she felt.

There was silence for a moment as the three of them looked at each other, then suddenly Neville's head popped around the corner of a nearby bookcase. "Is it safe to come back now?"

Alice fought very hard to keep a straight face.

Less than a week was left before the end of term, but it was an incredibly awkward week for the Gryffindors. Hermione refused to speak to a very contrite Harry again and naturally Ron decided that in a show of solidarity he wasn't going to talk to Hermione any more. Alice tried to remain friendly with everyone and divide her time between them, but occasionally Hermione would become stiff and awkward with her. There was a distance between them which was unusual and unwelcome.

"Can you not just go and tell her you're an idiot?" she asked her brother at dinner. She, Ron and Neville were all sneaking covert glances down the table at Hermione as she sat eating with Ginny and a few of her friends. Harry was concentrating on his potatoes.

"I've tried that," he sighed, "she won't listen."

"Probably because she already knows you're an idiot, mate."

Harry gave him a frank look. "Thanks, Ron. That was really helpful."

"I aim to please."

After another long pause Neville tried to change the subject. "So do you still think that it was Death Eaters that let the dragons escape?"

Harry's latest theory on the subject was that Death Eaters had infiltrated the first task and released the dragons to trigger a disaster which would allow them to take over Hogwarts. The others were less than convinced, but were humouring him on the subject more than they would ordinarily.

"Well it is possible," he was arguing, "I mean, there were loads of people running around that day. Dragon handlers and journalists and ministry officials, it would have been easy for someone to slip in unnoticed. Or maybe it was a Death Eater working undercover, waiting for the opportunity to let them escape and sabotage the tournament."

Alice made a sceptical noise. "Now you've just been watching too many James Bond movies."

"Who's James Bond?" Neville looked perplexed.

"Never mind," Alice grinned. She sometimes forgot that not everyone had been raised a muggle.

"Maybe it wasn't anyone trying to sabotage things," Ron sounded quite reasonable for once, "it could just have been a student trying to have a laugh and it went wrong."

Harry looked incredulously at him. "Who would be stupid enough to release dragons for a joke?!"

"Fred and George."

Alice shook her head. "I don't think even they would do anything that reckless. They might be foolhardy sometimes, but they're not stupid."

"I still think it's connected to the attack at Gringotts though," Harry was still arguing about it as they climbed the stairs in the Entrance Hall. "I mean, what's the likelihood that the World Cup and Gringotts are attacked by Death Eaters in a matter of months and then when Hogwarts ends up with a couple of dragons deliberately let loose it's completely unconnected?"

"In the wizarding world?" Ron asked. "Quite high actually."

Alice on the other hand thought her brother made a valid point, there did seem to be a lot more weird things happening this term than usual, and for Hogwarts that was saying something. That didn't meant she thought a Death Eater had released the dragons, but she wasn't going to rule out the possibility that the incidents were somehow connected. However, with no evidence left at school and nowhere to start looking, there was no way they could ever prove it.

"Hey Alice, hold on!"

She stopped and turned curiously on the stairs as someone called her name from the crowd milling about below them. By the time she had spotted him Cedric was already leaping up the stairs two at a time, his long legs carrying him up to them in a matter of seconds. Her stomach performed a painful flip flop for a few moments.

"Hi," the word didn't come out properly so she cleared her throat and tried again. "Hi, Cedric. Is everything alright? Oh," her heart suddenly sunk, "Rita Skeeter hasn't written something else has she?"

Cedric chuckled, a sound that made the hairs on the back of Alice's neck do something warm and tingly. "No she hasn't, at least, not so far as I know. No I just wanted to ask you something."

"Oh," Alice's heart seemed to be thrown to the top of the marble stairs and bounced down each and every single one before leaping back into her chest. Cedric had said exactly the same thing to her last night, right before he asked her to go to the Yule Ball with him. Except that had been a dream. She glanced back at Harry and her friends, but they were already at the top of the stairs and didn't seem to have noticed that she wasn't with them yet. "Sure," she gave him a timid smile, "what is it? Ask away."

"Thanks," Cedric grinned. "Erm… okay this is a bit embarrassing, but…"

For one crazy hopeful second Alice was back in her dream. Cedric was just away to ask her to the Yule Ball and Christmas was going to be perfect. Then he spoke in a rush. "Well you see the thing is, and you can't tell anyone this, but well - do you know Cho Chang? She's the seeker for Ravenclaw. Anyway, well… I erm… I wanted to ask her to the Yule Ball, but I think, well I was worried she might believe what Rita Skeeter wrote and think that I like you, or that we were… well you know, which is stupid really. And I was wondering if you could tell her that it's not true, because she'll believe you more than me I think, and then she might… go to the ball with me."

For a long moment Alice didn't blink. Her eyes were fixed on Cedric's face, but she couldn't really see him. She was concentrating so hard on not crying that she didn't want to move or speak, or even breathe in case that set her off. It had been stupid to think really, idiotic to hope that he might have even noticed her. The idea of Cedric even asking her to the ball would never have entered her head if she hadn't dreamt about it the previous night. She felt all her confidence and her excitable mood of only a few moments before wither and shrivel inside of her, crumbling into a fine powder that settled round her feet.

"Yeah," she forced the word out eventually so as not to compound her humiliation by having Cedric look at her strangely as he was beginning to. "Of course. Sure. Yes. I can do that."

"Good. Thank you," he smiled again which now only made it worse. "It means a lot."

"I can do that," she repeatedly numbly. "I just need to… I have homework I need to go and do, so I have to go now Cedric, I'll erm... bye!" She dashed off before he had a chance to respond, it was only once she was thirty paces away that she realised it was the last day before the holidays, they didn't have any homework. Merlin, but she was such an idiot sometimes!

Alice continued tripping up the stairs trying to put as much distance as she could between herself and her embarrassment; she didn't seem to be succeeding.

"Are you alright Alice?"

That dreamy voice could only belong to one person. Looking around she tried to spot Luna, but couldn't see her.

"I'm up here." Tilting her head back Alice saw a thin, pale face and a lot of blonde, wispy hair sticking out from behind a portrait. She felt her eyebrows rise in surprise.

"How did you manage to get up there?"

Luna pointed towards a nearby window sill. "Climb up. If you go over there you'll see the way, there are a few handholds, and then you shuffle round this ledge here."

Dutifully Alice did as she was told and after a little effort and several apologies to the occupants of pictures she found herself slipping into the space beside Luna. It was just as well she wasn't afraid of heights really, because rather than an alcove as she had been expecting there was just a hole in the wall except on the far side there wasn't a picture frame to cover the gap only a long drop down to the floor of the Entrance Hall.

"I like to come up here sometimes," Luna gestured vaguely round about herself. "It's peaceful and I like watching everyone down below. No one ever thinks to look up." There was another long pause as the two girls sat swinging their feet far above the students shuffling slowly around. She guessed they must be at least sixty feet up here and felt glad that she was used to being on a broom. Through the open door, Alice caught glimpses of those still at dinner in the Great Hall.

"Have you been crying?" Luna gestured to the tears Alice could feel on her cheeks, she guessed they were probably still red too.

"No," she lied automatically then thought better of it. If there was anyone in the world who wouldn't judge her, it would be Luna. "Yes. Only a little bit though. It was stupid really. It doesn't matter now."

"That's good. If you're really sure." She looked seriously into Alice's face for a moment, her normally distant eyes, serious and lucid. When Alice didn't say anything she looked back down to the far away floor. "I come up here sometimes when I've been crying. If people have stolen my things, or they've been laughing at me, or if I miss my mother. It helps, to see other people, there's usually someone or something that cheers me up and when there isn't it's nice just to have quiet to think about things."

Abruptly Alice felt selfish and petty for crying and being upset. After all, there were people much worse off than she was and she had everything she could ever really want… more or less. She took a deep breath and bottled down the hurt, she would examine it later or hope it would go away on its own, either way she needed to stop wallowing.

"Do people steal your things a lot Luna?" She suddenly felt a renewed stab of pity for the poor girl. She was a bit odd, but quite lovely in her own unique way and she didn't deserve that.

"Only when they think they're being funny," there was something sad about her smile, "mostly. It tends to be at the end of term when I'm about to pack. Sometimes I think it might be Borrowers though, so I'm not always sure if they've been taken by students or borrowed."

"What's a Borrower?" Alice asked politely.

"They're little people; they take your things and make them into things that will be useful for them. It's quite ingenious really."

Sometimes Alice was convinced Luna made up creatures on the spot, Hermione would argue it was all the time, but at others she came out with things that genuinely sounded plausible so it was difficult to sort one from the other. Either way she decided to plough on. "But people taking your things, that's horrible."

Luna shrugged. "It's not so bad; I usually get them back before I go home for the holidays."

"But don't your friends…" Alice stopped unsure of what to say, she couldn't very well take her words back, but she knew if she kept talking she was just going to get tangled up in her sentences.

"I don't really have any friends." Luna said it with such a matter of fact attitude that Alice felt like crying all over again. At this rate she would have used up her yearly quota of tears in one day.

"Of course you do," she told Luna hoarsely. "We're your friends. I'm your friend."

"Really?" Luna's face lit up in a way she had never seen before, it was as though the sun had come out behind her eyes. Even her hair seemed more golden. "Do you mean it?"

"Of course," she responded emphatically.

For the next hour or so the two girls sat there, high above the rest of the school. One with hair the colour of fire and hazelnuts and the other with flaxen gold. Alice told her all about Harry and Hermione's fight, the way things were strained in the group now and about her fears about the Yule Ball, though she missed out the recent fiasco with Cedric. In return Luna told her about Wrackspurts and Nargles, her adventures during the holidays with her father and fishing for Plimpies in the stream by her house. Alice quickly built up a picture of a very lonely little girl, whose eccentric father doted on her, but couldn't make up for the mother she missed so desperately. Although she didn't mention her mother much, the few things she did let slip allowed Alice to guess that she died in some accident when Luna was younger. Missing a mother was one thing she could sympathise with, but she sensed that it was a sensitive topic, so she didn't dig too deeply into the issue.

Eventually the two girls had to clamber down from their hiding place and part ways, each heading for their own common room, but before she left Luna gave her a tiny, fleeting hug. It was rather like having a tiny bird wrap their fragile wings around you for a second before she skipped away again humming to herself. Alice was touched.

By the time she returned to the common room Hermione was nowhere to be seen, she had probably gone to bed, but Ron, Neville, Harry and the twins were all lounging around the fire munching on a plate of biscuits they had procured from somewhere.

"Where in Merlin's name have you been?" Harry asked as he saw her duck through the portrait hole.

"We thought you'd been eaten by a dragon," Ron added.

"Well, more hoped really," George piped up throwing a biscuit in her direction when she stuck her tongue out at him.

"I was talking to Luna if you must know. If you don't mind," she tried to forestall any questions or teasing remarks, "I'm really tired and it's been a long day. I think I might head to bed." She dodged quickly away from her friends and headed for the spiral staircase. Once she was in her dormitory she briefly toyed with the idea of waking Hermione up to confide in her, but boys were a touchy subject with her at the moment, as was the Yule Ball so she decided against it and slipped under her blankets quietly.

It was difficult to avoid the subject of the ball altogether though. With less than a week to go until Christmas the castle was buzzing with it. Most students were staying on over the holidays which made the place seem oddly crowded, especially once the holly boughs and Christmas trees had all been dragged inside. Add to that the continually obvious presence of their foreign guests and it almost didn't feel like Christmas at Hogwarts at all. She still had to divide her time between Harry and Hermione, but in a way she didn't mind so much. All the boys ever did was worry about who they were going to ask to the Ball - except Harry of course, who knew exactly who he wanted to go with, she just wasn't speaking to him. Hermione on the other hand never really wanted to discuss the issue, which was fine as far as Alice was concerned. Of course there were times when the two of them would sit with Ginny and her friends, often at lunch or in the common room at night and it was then that Alice would have given her right arm to have the boys discussing the Ball. At least they didn't worry about what their dress robes looked like, fret about whether the shoes they had ordered would arrive by owl on time, or discuss numerous ways they could do their hair and make-up. Sometimes it made Alice want to scream.

"Alice?" Ron turned to her suddenly three days before Christmas as she sat with the boys toasting marshmallows over the fire in the common room. "You're a girl."

She observed him coolly over her half-eaten marshmallow for a moment. "Is that a question or a statement of fact?" She caught her brother's eye for a split second and Harry grinned in amusement.

"You know what I mean, but… well, you know other girls."

Alice waited, seeing where he was going with his babbling. It was almost funny watching him struggle and get progressively redder as he spoke.

"Well… I - you know… I was… you could see if anyone wants to go to the ball with us. I mean if we don't find someone soon all the good ones will be gone, I mean as it is all the best… well they've probably got someone to go with."

Alice tried very hard not to take offence.

"And why can't you ask them yourself?"

"Well, I - we -"he gestured to Neville who looked up from the fire, surprised to be included in the conversation, "could obviously. We will, it's just you could lay the ground work first."

"Riiight," Alice nodded, for a second appearing to give the suggestion some serious consideration before giving Ron a direct look. "No."

"Please?!" He wheedled.

"You don't need to ask someone for me Alice," Neville cut in quickly. "It's fine."

Ron looked extremely put out and glared at Neville for abandoning him like that; Neville just shrugged apologetically and resumed tending his marshmallows. "This is ridiculous," he muttered. "I mean, even Fred and George are gong to have someone at this rate!"

"Who are they going with?" Alice asked, the first spark of curiosity flaring up. Neither of the twins had mentioned it to her.

It was Harry who answered. "Angelina Johnson."

"What, both of them?"

Her brother chuckled. "No, I think Fred was going to ask her, but George cut in first. At least that's what George said to us anyway."

"And Fred?"

"None of your beeswax Evans," a voice called from another table. Alice grinned.

"Did your mother never tell you to eavesdrop?"

"She might have," Fred replied, "but I was too busy listening to a conversation in the next room to pay attention."

Alice rolled her eyes and ignored him. Laughing would only encourage such a terrible run of jokes.

"What about Luna?" She returned to her conversation with Ron.

"Loony Lovegood?" Ron seemed bewildered for a moment. "What about her? You're not saying that I should ask her to the Ball are you?"

"She's nice," Alice defended her, "you just need to get used to her… eccentricities. Besides she'd probably go with you if you asked."

"Are you trying to say that I couldn't get anyone else to go with me?" Ron asked, a blob of melted marshmallow sticking to the corner of his mouth. Alice didn't say anything, but gave a noncommittal shrug. "Fine," Ron huffed eventually. "I'll think about it. Who are you going with anyway?"

Alice felt her gut contract and for a moment she considered lying, she had no idea what she would say or why she had the sudden compulsion, but she did. Thankfully the feeling was brief which was probably just as well considering she was awful at it. In the end she opted for the embarrassing truth. "No one. Yet. And I'm not going with Harry," she added as Ron opened his mouth before quickly closing it again. It was embarrassing enough having to dress up and not be asked by anyone; turning up with her brother would just be compounding the situation. Even Hermione had received an invite, ironically enough from Victor Krum. She had turned it down obviously which led Alice to suspect she was still hoping to go with Harry, but that wasn't the point she had still been asked. It wasn't that Alice thought Hermione wasn't pretty enough or nice enough for boys to be interested, quite the opposite, it was just that everyone knew she was going out with Harry, or had been until a week ago.

Her brother looked as though he was about to say something consoling. "It's fine Harry, I don't mind really. Now can we please talk about something other than the Yule Ball for five minutes?"

They changed the subject and she tried hard not to dwell on the fact that she seemed to be spending more time in the run up to the Ball sorting out everyone else's partners than enjoying it herself. The previous day she had finally managed to track down Cho Chang and after a lot of deliberation, mumbling and embarrassment she had succeeding in relaying Cedric's message. Afterwards she hadn't stuck around long enough to see what the Ravenclaw girl made of it but had dashed into the nearest room she could find in an attempt to get out of sight. It had turned out to be a closet.

It seemed she couldn't get away from the topic of the Ball entirely however as when she went up to bed that night Hermione was waiting for her. "Do you know if Harry is going to the Ball with anyone?"

"Can't you ask him yourself?" Alice was tired and she was beginning to get one of her headaches.

"Aliiiice," she wheedled. "Lavender," she lowered her voice and glanced to the other side of the room where the other girls were noisily getting ready for bed. "Lavender said that she'd heard a rumour that he was going with a fifth year."

"Since when has listening to rumours, or Lavender for that matter, ever been a good idea?"

Hermione shrugged and looked shamefaced for a moment. "So he's not?"

"No he's still waiting for you to talk to him again so the two of you can go together."

"I'm not -"

With sleep beckoning and fed up with the way her best-friend and brother were behaving Alice's tone became sharp. "Alright, look I'm only going to say this once because I know it's none of my business, but can you at least just talk to him. Harry might have been out of line saying what he said, but he's a boy, they get stupid when they're jealous. Besides it's not as though he was completely wrong about the situation either was he? Not after Krum asked you to the Ball at breakfast yesterday."

"Well that was just - I didn't -"

Alice waved off her friend's protests. "I'm not saying that was your fault at all, just that… well I don't know what I'm trying to say. But the point is you two both mean too much to me, and to each other, for me to let you go on not speaking. It's just stupid." As she rambled to a halt Hermione was watching her with a slightly stunned expression on her face. Alice waited a second to see if any more words would come tumbling out before nodding with finality and going to sleep.

The next morning Hermione wasn't in her bed when Alice woke up, nor was she down in the common room in her usual chair reading, she was however down in the Great Hall. Having breakfast. With Harry. The two of them had barely touched their porridge, but had their heads bent together and looked deep in conversation. With a slight smile Alice decided to leave them to it and cast an eye around for some more of her friends. Ron it seemed was still asleep, he was certainly nowhere to be seen and since breakfast was always his first port of call, she assumed he hadn't gotten out of bed yet. Looking around the room she spotted Cedric walking away from the Ravenclaw table, he caught her eye and gave her a huge thumbs up and brilliant smile. Her stomach performed a small acrobatic leap and she tried vainly to smile back before glancing quickly away again.

"Hey, Potter-part-two!"

Even as she turned Alice schooled her face to stillness and glared challengingly at the group of Slytherins approaching. "What do you want Malfoy?"

"Good morning to you too," he sniffed.

"It was until you showed up."

He ignored her and looked around the Hall as she had been doing moments before. "Looking for someone desperate enough to take you to the Yule Ball then are we? A little bird told me no one's asked you, can't say I blame them."

Alice was about to ask who had been gossiping about her, but then she caught sight of the smug gloat on Pansy Parkinson's face as she hovered behind the blonde and decided not to waste her breath on the question. She opted to try and rise above it instead. "I don't see that it's any of your business whether or not I'm going with someone."

Malfoy snorted down the length of his long, sneering nose. "That's what anyone says when they're going to something alone. Poor, pathetic, Potter! No one wants her. She can't even get herself a proper last name never mind a partner for the Ball. Then again I wouldn't want to go with someone who insists on sticking a disgusting muggle name onto pureblood one, even if it is Potter."

Feeling humiliated and angry Alice made the mistake of snapping back. "Well it's just as well I would never want to go anywhere with you in a million years then, isn't it?"

The smirk dropped from Malfoy's face faster than if it had been oiled and he took a menacing step towards her. "Just you watch your mouth Potter. You'll get what's coming to you soon enough, you and everyone that panders to that stupid brother of yours. You'll see; it's already started. We won't need to wait long to be well rid of the likes of you."

His face was so close that she could see his pupils narrowing in hate as he hissed the words and it took all her slowly built confidence not to take a step backwards.

"Everything all right here?" Suddenly a familiar voice was right behind her and she saw Malfoy's eye flick over first one of her shoulders and then the other.

"You wouldn't be harassing Evans, would you Malfoy?" From the corner of her eye Alice could see George grinning evilly at him. "Because then we might have something to say about it."

"So we really hope you are," added Fred.

Recovering his composure Malfoy tried to square up to the Weasley twins, but didn't quite manage so he tried to slink subtly back between the hulking forms of Crabbe and Goyle who were loitering silently behind him. "I should have expected you two to turn up. You're nearly as bad as Potter and the rest. I suppose you'll be hoping one of them takes you to the Ball?" He sneered at Alice.

"Actually," Fred slung an arm around her shoulder before she could respond, "Alice and I are already going together." Alice tried not to look as though this was as much of a surprise to her as to Malfoy who blinked quickly and glanced between the two of them.

"A Weasley," he managed finally, though his tone had none of the venomous arrogance of earlier. "That's all you and your pathetic brother can manage isn't it Potter, a Weasley and a mudblood? I should have guessed that would be the only person with standards low enough to take you anywhere."

Alice felt Fred's arm tighten reflexively around her shoulders and both boys drew their wands. "Hey Malfoy," he drawled, his anger making him every bit as menacing as the Slytherin had been attempting to be, "why don't we rearrange your face for you and then see how many people want to go to the Ball with you?"

"I wouldn't bother, Fred," his twin responded, "anything would be an improvement on the way it is now. Though I'm sure we can think of other things to do if you don't mulch back into whichever puddle of ooze you crawled out from. Now." The boys held their ground as Malfoy threw one last scowl in Alice's direction before moving off with his cronies in tow. As she left Pansy Parkinson stuck her tongue out and Alice couldn't help but respond in kind.

"Thanks for that," as she turned towards them Fred's arm slid from her shoulder. "I could have handled it, but thanks anyway."

"Of course you could have," George winked at her his earlier stance replaced by a sunny demeanour, "we just couldn't pass up the chance to bate Malfoy."

"You'd think the little rat would learn to stop throwing his weight around and spewing poisonous garbage all the time," his brother was still scowling at the retreating Slytherin's backs, wand in hand.

"He's a Malfoy," Alice offered by way of explanation. "Fred," she waved her hand in front of his face when he didn't respond, "forget about him. He isn't worth it."

Fred's eyes snapped back to her face as his twin laughed at some unshared joke. "Ah, yes," he switched the frown out and replaced it for one of his devilish grins, "it would appear that I have managed to talk myself into having a partner for the Yule Ball. So," he bowed dramatically in front of her and snatched up her unresisting hand, "Alice Evans-Potter, also occasionally known as Midget, otherwise referred to as -" George cleared his throat loudly behind him and Fred looked abashed for a moment before continuing. "Ah yes, so would you do me the honour of attending the Yule Ball with me, that most illustrious of events, on Christmas day? Say you will, my heart will be broken otherwise." He batted his eyelashes ridiculously for a few moments as he waited for her response.

Alice couldn't help but burst out into a peel of uncontrollable laughter. When she had eventually calmed down enough to respond she grinned and gave a mock curtsey. "I'd be delighted to."

A/N: I've been waiting ages to write this chapter and really enjoyed myself doing it! Hope you like it, please review to let me know what you think!

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