Oh God Not Again!

Chapter Forty Four

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: While I don't like having anything resembling a pairing here, they kind of need dates (especially champion Harry) and as such there must be pairings, if only for the Yule Ball.

The boys of the castle were quite irritated with Harry for the next few weeks as they felt they now had to live up to his standards in asking girls to the Yule Ball. Of course, Ron and Neville had also added to the bar set, but did anyone care about that? No, they all just decided to blame Harry. It actually became somewhat of a competition to see who could come up with the most attention-grabbing proposal and hardly a public gathering went by without at least someone trying to secure their date.

Naturally, Harry was very pleased with the results.

The day of the Yule Ball, there was hardly a girl in sight after noon. While Ron wondered aloud what they could possibly be doing that took so long to get ready, Harry just thanked God that he wasn't expected to put hours of preparation into his appearance because in all honesty he probably wouldn't have bothered if he was.

When the time came to go down to the dance itself, Harry spotted Luna standing at the bottom of the staircase. He supposed she was waiting for him, but she seemed quite engrossed in a discussion with the portrait next to her. Her dress also appeared to be on fire.

"Hey Luna," Harry greeted her.

"Hello Harry, you look very nice," Luna returned the greeting.

"Thank you. Is your dress supposed to be like that?" Harry asked a little uncertainly.

Luna looked down to see if anything was amiss with her outfit. "You mean the flames? Yes, yes it is. You don't like it?"

"Oh no, I do," Harry assured her. "I just wasn't sure if it was supposed to be like that and I would have felt really stupid if I complimented you on it and it turned out it wasn't intentional."

Luna looked amused. "I think even I would notice if my dress was on fire and it wasn't supposed to be, Harry."

"You never know," Harry said defensively.

"I suppose it is possible that I somehow failed to notice a flame-freezing charm," Luna agreed pleasantly. "Although the lack of a tickling sensation would normally preclude that possibility. Then again, I've never been very ticklish."

"It could happen!" Harry insisted. "Shall we go?"

"Champions, over here!" McGonagall called at that moment.

"I think that's a yes," Luna decided. "Do you think she means the dates as well."

Harry shrugged. "Probably. They really should be more clear, though."

Fleur Delacour had elected to go with Roger Davies again, most likely because Cedric (who Harry had heard had turned her down again and no one could believe he would actually do that even though he already had a girlfriend) was still with Cho. Harry saw how happy she looked and how it had taken years and Marietta literally dragging her to a therapist – Muggle, because there weren't any wizarding ones so the story had to be slightly edited – before she could be said she had come to terms with Cedric's death and hoped she wouldn't have to go through that again. She really was a nice girl, if a bit clingy. And teary, but that was understandable. Viktor, having not been able to even ask Hermione given how public Ron's asking and her acceptance had been, was with Parvati in a strange twist of fate. With any luck, he'd be more attentive than Harry had been. Then again, Ron was probably the only person who hadn't managed that feat and God knows if he did it again, Hermione would hex him. Fred had once again decided to go with Angelina and George was there with Katie.