every day seemed to be filled with laughter and fun now that harry, ron, elara, and hermione were all on good terms. dobby and winky were at hogwarts, harry wasn't dead, elara's dreams weren't as terrifying as they used to be, and even ron and hermione seemed to be able to tone down the arguing.

"potter! weasley! will you pay attention?"

professor mcgonagall's irritated voice cracked like a whip through the transfiguration class on thursday, and harry and ron both jumped and looked up. elara and hermione shared a look, trying not to snicker.

it was the end of the lesson; they had finished their work; the guinea fowl they had been changing into guinea pigs had been shut away in a large cage on professor mcgonagall's desk (neville's still had feathers); they had copied down their homework from the blackboard ("describe, with examples, the ways in which transforming spells must be adapted when performing cross-species switches"). the bell was due to ring at any moment, and harry and ron, who had been having a sword fight with a couple of fred and george's fake wands at the back of the class, looked up, ron holding a tin parrot and harry, a rubber haddock.

"now that potter and weasley have been kind enough to act their age," said professor mcgonagall, with an angry look at the pair of them as the head of harry's haddock drooped and fell silently to the floor — ron's parrot's beak had severed it moments before — "i have something to say to you all.

"the yule ball is approaching — a traditional part of the triwizard tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above — although you may invite a younger student if you wish —"

lavender brown let out a shrill giggle. parvati patil nudged her hard in the ribs, her face working furiously as she too fought not to giggle. they both looked around at harry. elara rolled her eyes.

"dress robes will be worn," professor mcgonagall continued, "and the ball will start at eight o'clock on christmas day, finishing at midnight in the great hall. now then —"

professor mcgonagall stared deliberately around the class.

"the yule ball is of course a chance for us all to — er — let our hair down," she said, in a disapproving voice.

lavender giggled harder than ever, with her hand pressed hard against her mouth to stifle the sound. elara could see what was funny this time: professor mcgonagall, with her hair in a tight bun, looked as though she had never let her hair down in any sense.

"but that does NOT mean," professor mcgonagall went on, "that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we expect from hogwarts students. i will be most seriously displeased if a gryffindor student embarrasses the school in any way."

the bell rang, and there was the usual scuffle of activity as everyone packed their bags and swung them onto their shoulders.

professor mcgonagall called above the noise, "potter — a word, if you please."

ron, elara, and hermione left harry to either be chewed out by mcgonagall for something, or receive terrible news. they couldn't decide which one was worse. when harry had informed them that it was imperative to find a ball date because of tradition, elara and ron specifically, decided that that was much, much worse.

elara had never known so many people to put their names down to stay at hogwarts for christmas; she had once, of course, because she'd finally made friends, but she was in the minority before now.

she had already turned down a boy from durmstrang who looked like he fought dogs in his spare time, and a rather brave first-year that had practically screamed his invitation. while the ball was exciting, all the girls in fourth-year and above had become obsessed with the upcoming event, and elara found it quite annoying. instead of paying attention, they discussed nails colors and often ranked boys from cutest to ugliest.

"why do they have to move in packs?" harry asked elara as a dozen or so girls walked past her, harry, and ron, sniggering and staring at harry. "how're you supposed to get one on their own to ask them?"

"you don't. you gotta work up the courage, and deal with the consequences," said elara, shrugging.

"you're great help," grumbled harry.

"got any idea who you're going to try, harry?" asked ron, staring across the courtyard at where fleur and the other veela-girl, who's name elara still didn't know, were chatting.

elara looked over at harry, who was already staring quite intensely at her. he turned a brilliant shade of red and looked away. ron snickered.

"listen, you're not going to have any trouble. you're a champion. you've just beaten a hungarian horntail. i bet they'll be queuing up to go with you."

"that's real nice, ron," snipped elara, annoyed at how he was talking about girls as if they were trophies.

"you must've been asked already," said ron, ignoring her.

"well, i have -- "

" -- and you said no, right?" harry had stopped and interrupted elara. he looked terrified for some particular reason.

"of course i did, there's someone i have in mind," said elara with great nonchalance that harry looked as if he might faint from excitement for some odd reason.

"they better get a move on and ask you then," ron said loudly, avoiding harry's eye. "because, i know of at least eight more guys that want to ask you."

"says who?"

"girls love gossip. seriously, it's like air to you people."

ron, to elara's amazement, turned out to be right. a beauxbatons boy, who was very attractive, had practically cornered elara and insisted she go with him until another girl from beauxbatons had to drag elara away from him all while apologizing profusely. a really nice third year, who seemed really nervous to ask her, almost made elara consider accepting. but in the end, she let him down as easily as she could, and promised to find someone for him to go with. finally, for that day, the same durmstrang boy asked again, but instead of being polite, she spoke spanish she had learned from her muggle primary school days until he went away.

the last week of term became increasingly boisterous as it progressed. tumors about the yule ball were flying everywhere, though elara didn't believe half of them — for instance, that dumbledore had bought eight hundred barrels of mulled mead from madam rosmerta. it seemed to be fact, however, that he had booked the weird sisters. elara, after finding this out, was actually anxious for the ball to arrive.

some of the teachers, like little professor flitwick, gave up trying to teach them much when their minds were so clearly elsewhere; he allowed them to play games in his lesson on wednesday, and spent most of it talking to harry about the perfect summoning charm harry had used during the first task of the triwizard tournament. other teachers were not so generous. nothing would ever deflect professor binns, for example, from plowing on through his notes on goblin rebellions — as binns hadn't let his own death stand in the way of continuing to teach, they supposed a small thing like christmas wasn't going to put him off. It was amazing how he could make even bloody and vicious goblin riots sound as boring as percy's cauldron-bottom report. professors mcgonagall and moody kept them working until the very last second of their classes too, and snape, of course, would no sooner let them play games in class than adopt harry. staring nastily around at them all, he informed them that he would be testing them on poison antidotes during the last lesson of the term.

"evil, he is," ron said bitterly that night in the gryffindor common room. "springing a test on us on the last day. ruining the last bit of term with a whole load of studying."

"mmm . . . you're not exactly straining yourself, though, are you?" said hermione, looking at him over the top of her potions notes. ron was busy building a card castle out of his exploding snap pack — a much more interesting pastime than with muggle cards, because of the chance that the whole thing would blow up at any second.

"but hermione, its christmas," elara whined; she was pouring over starcharts for no particular reason for the tenth time in an armchair near the fire.

hermione looked severely over at her too. "i'd have thought you'd be doing something constructive, you too, harry, even if you don't want to learn your antidotes!"

"like what?" harry said as he watched joey jenkins of the cannons belt a bludger toward a ballycastle bats chaser.

"that egg!" hermione hissed.

"come on, hermione, i've got till february the twenty-fourth," harry said.

"but it might take weeks to work it out!" said hermione. "you're going to look a real idiot if everyone else knows what the next task is and you don't!"

"leave him alone, hermione, he's earned a bit of a break," said ron, and he placed the last two cards on top of the castle and the whole lot blew up, singeing his eyebrows.

"nice look, ron . . . go well with your dress robes, that will."

it was fred, george, and aurora. they sat down at the table with harry, ron, elara, and hermione as ron felt how much damage had been done.

"ron, can we borrow pigwidgeon?" george asked.

"no, he's off delivering a letter," said ron. "why?"

"because george wants to invite him to the ball," said fred sarcastically.

"because we want to send a letter, you stupid great prat," said george.

aurora snorted.

"who d'you two keep writing to, eh?" said ron.

"nose out, ron, or i'll burn that for you too," said fred, waving his wand threateningly. "so . . . you lot got dates for the ball yet?"

"nope," said ron.

"well, you'd better hurry up, mate, or all the good ones will be gone," said fred.

"who're you going with, then?" said ron.

"angelina," said fred promptly, without a trace of embarrassment.

"what?" said ron, taken aback. "you've already asked her?"

"good point," said fred. he turned his head and called across the common room, "oi! angelina!"

angelina, who had been chatting with katie bell near the fire, looked over at him.

"what?" she called back.

"want to come to the ball with me?"

angelina gave fred an appraising sort of look.

"all right, then," she said, and she turned back to katie and carried on chatting with a bit of a grin on her face.

"there you go," said fred to harry and ron, "piece of cake." he got to his feet, yawning, and said, "we'd better use a school owl then, george, rori, come on. . . ."

they left. ron stopped feeling his eyebrows and looked across the smoldering wreck of his card castle at harry.

"we should get a move on, you know . . . ask someone. he's right. we don't want to end up with a pair of trolls."

hermione let out a sputter of indignation. elara's mouth dropped open.

"a pair of . . . what, excuse me?"

"well — you know," said ron, shrugging. "i'd rather go alone than with — with eloise midgen, say."

"you're so superficial, ron," said elara disdainfully.

"well, her nose is off-center," said ron.

"oh i see," hermione said, bristling. "so basically, you're going to take the best-looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"

"er — yeah, that sounds about right," said ron.

"i'm going to bed," hermione snapped, and she swept off toward the girls' staircase without another word.

"you're really vapid, sometimes, you know that?" said elara, peering up over her star chart at ron. he shrugged and went upstairs not soon after.

elara and harry soon became the only ones in the common room. they sat in a comfortable silence for awhile, the only noise being the crackling of the warm fire on the opposite side of the cosy common room.

"hey, lara?" said harry.

elara hummed in response, continuing to pore over her star chart.

"i don't know how to dance," he admitted sheepishly.

"well it's easy," said elara, her lips quirking upward. "you plant your feet, move around, and hope for the best."

harry snorted before continuing, "no, i mean like waltzing. mcgonagall said i should know how by the time the ball starts."

"i could help," said elara. "uncle ted used to waltz with me around the living room. nymph and i used to be able to do the jitterbug pretty easily."

"jitterbug?"

"nevermind. but here, i'll teach you how to waltz."

elara stoop up, and held a hand out to harry. he took it rather reluctantly, his face almost as red as ron's hair.

"put your hand on my waist," elara instructed, and harry's red face turned redder.

"where?" he coughed.

"oh merlin, harry," said elara exasperatedly as she grabbed his hand and guided it to her waist. "i'm not a hungarian horntail."

this seemed to relax him. he was less jumpy as elara guided him throughout the basics. harry only seemed to mess up when elara told him that he was the one who was supposed to lead.

"no, harry -- your other left. ouch, no, i'm okay. alright, and one, two, three, one, two -- nope, again, your other left. no, it's okay, stop apologizing, you've only just started. alright, you've got the hang of the box steps, now we can start with the underarm turn -- yes, harry, you have to twirl me. no, there's no dipping, that's the tango -- "

by the end of the hour, harry had managed to get the box steps memorized and almost got the hang of the underarm turn. elara was more than happy with his progress, even with the ball a couple days away.

"what do you mean there's more to it?" said harry, groaning and collapsing on the couch.

"at least you don't have to do the jitterbug."

"what's the jitterbug?"

"you'll find out at some point," said elara before she yawned largely. "i can't believe it, harry, you've managed to wear me out to the point where i want to sleep."

"thanks again, lara. now i won't look like a total idiot in front of everyone."

"i'm really just making it easier for the poor girl who has to dance with you," elara teased as she made her way to the staircase up to the dorms. "goodnight, harry!"

"goodnight, lara," said harry as he watched her disappear up the staircase.

after a moment's hesitation, fueled by a random burst of confidence, harry called, "wait!"

seconds pass, and elara's head poked around the corner, "yeah?"

"er, would -- would you liketobemydatetotheball?" harry rushed out so fast that elara couldn't decipher it.

"what?"

"would you want to go to the ball with me?"

elara's mouth dropped open. harry immediately felt embarrassed.

"nevermind, it was stupid, sorry. you've probably already got a date -- "

"no, i haven't," said elara, smiling widely as she stepped out from behind the corner to lean against the wall. "and yes, i'd love to go with you."

"brilliant," harry grinned.

the hogwarts staff, demonstrating a continued desire to impress the visitors from beauxbatons and durmstrang, seemed deter- mined to show the castle at its best this christmas. when the decorations went up, elara noticed that they were the most stunning she had 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 "o come, all ye faithful" sung by an empty helmet that only knew half the words. elara and ron had taken to walking back and forth the suits of armor to hear them start the songs over and over again, much to the annoyance of the other students. 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.

truth be told, elara was over the moon about going to the ball with harry. it had only just occurred to her that she fancied him. she supposed the feelings started when she scared harry's aunt and uncle after the train ride home, but she had written it off as she'd never had such good friends before.

"okay," said elara, as she was walking through the courtyard with hermione. "please don't freak out."

"why?" said hermione, suddenly concerned. "what's happened? are you hurt?"

"er -- no. well, harry kinda-sorta-asked-me-to-the-ball-and-i-kinda-sorta-said-yes."

hermione did, in fact, freak out.

"oh, that's wonderful! ron and i've been waiting since last christmas for him to say something," she squealed.

elara stopped in her tracks. last christmas?

"last christmas?"

"oh, yes, you see, harry's fancied you since first-year, after you tried to help him fix his hair," hermione said with almost perfect nonchalance. elara wondered if she heard her correctly.

"harry fancies me?"

hermione suddenly understood that harry did not, in fact, confess his feelings to elara, and she went quiet. elara didn't have anytime to ask more questions, as they turned to see what the commotion was about.

"FLEUR, WILL-YOU-GO-TO-THE-BALL-WITH-ME?"