Oh God Not Again!

Chapter Forty Three

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: Wow, apparently there are some people who are reading this for the pairing. 42 chapters and 145,000 or so words of no romance and they're reading for the pairing. That's…dedication, I suppose. Particularly, you know, since there are no pairings.

"Hey Luna, you know about the Yule Ball coming up, right?" Harry asked.

"Seeing as I'm a judge, it would be very remiss of me not to know," Luna responded.

"Right. Well, as a champion I'm kind of required to go. I'm not actually sure what would happen if I refused to go, but I'm sure my illustrious guardian would get a kick out of forcing me to attend, so I kind of have no choice. Bearing in mind that I don't want to go with anyone and give them the impression that I want to date them, forcing me to reject them and make it much harder should I ever decide that I do want to date them, I need your help," Harry said quickly.

Luna raised an eyebrow. "My help with what, exactly? Finding a way to make sure whoever you want to go with really understands that it's just as friends? Lots of people say they understand but really want more and going with someone you don't know as 'just friends' never works out so you could probably use the help."

"True," Harry acknowledged. "There are only two people I can think of who would really get that I don't want to date them right now. One would be Hermione, of course, but I can't ask her."

"Why not?" Luna asked. " You would have a lot of fun with her if she doesn't decide to try and kill you too many times."

"I know," Harry admitted. "But now's around the time that Ron realizes he has a crush on her and I do NOT want to get in the middle of that. Whether they still end up together or not, it's just a bad situation. And I don't think he ever really got over his hatred of Viktor…"

"Krum?" Luna asked. "What did he do?"

"He took Hermione to the Yule Ball the first time," Harry explained. "Then Ron asked, like, a week before the event. He wasn't very tactful either." Harry winced. "I believe he asked me if I had a date, mentioned he had none either, then said one of us could go with Hermione because she obviously had no date and refused to believe her when she said she did."

"And she ended up going with one of the champions," Luna finished. "Wow. Ronald has no tact, sometimes. He does grow out of that, right?"

"…Mostly."

"So who is the other girl?" Luna asked curiously.

"You, actually," Harry told her. "We could probably have just as much fun as Hermione and I and you understand my situation so you know why my choices of 'date' are extremely limited. Can I ask you to the Yule Ball?"

"You're asking me for my permission to ask me to the dance?" Luna sounded amused.

"Well, yeah. I wouldn't want to get turned down in front of everybody. It would be very embarrassing and there are a good three or four people who seem to carry cameras around with them everywhere," Harry replied with a wry grin.

"You don't have to ask in front of everyone, you know," Luna pointed out.

"I know," Harry conceded. "But I plan on doing it anyway. Hey, since you're a judge and I'm a champion, would we ever be allowed to go together?"

Luna considered the question. "I don't actually think there are any rules against it," she decided. "If for no other reason that usually judges are in their late thirties at the very least and the students are no more than seventeen or eighteen. One could argue that that would mean I would be favoring you – especially as representative of your school – but I did give you the lowest score I gave anyone save Krum and if you show off again for the Second Task then I'll probably have to do that again so people really won't be accusing me of that with any alacrity."