Harry Potter and the Daoimear de Dán

Chapter Nine: Dragons and Dress Robes

A steady stream of former Hogwarts students began arriving at the school after Dumbledore's announcement. First to arrive were Fred and George's old friends Lee Jordan and Alicia Spinnet, followed by the ever-loyal Diggorys. Professional Quidditch was suspended by the Ministry a week after the attack on the Burrow as Cornelius Fudge could no longer deny Voldemort's return. Amongst others, Oliver Wood and Aidan Lynch arrived at Hogwarts, incensed that Voldemort had come between them and Quidditch and determined to get the league reinstated as soon as possible.

The castle was becoming filled with people arriving to help the cause and others who thought Hogwarts would be safer than their homes. By far the most exciting arrival was that of Charlie Weasley. He arrived one afternoon while Harry, Ron and Hermione were outside for Herbology. None of the class could miss the huge Hungarian Horntail flying over the Forbidden Forest. At first, the class began to panic, but Harry then noticed the red-headed man on the dragon's back, waving to them. It landed gracefully and while most people ran away from it, Harry, Ron and Hermione ran towards it.

"Charlie! Charlie!" Ron shouted. "What are you doing? Are you mad?"

"He's perfectly safe," said Charlie in casual tones as he jumped off the Horntail's back.

"Right, we believe you," said Ron sarcastically.

"Trust me Ronnie," said Charlie. "This Horntail's been hand reared since hatching."

"Yeah? By who?" his brother demanded.

"By Romana," said Charlie, helping another person off the Horntail's back. Dressed in a style similar to Charlie, the woman had a mane of black hair and looked to be of gypsy or Slavic descent. Charlie took the reins of the dragon in one hand and her hand in the other.

"This is Romana. My wife," he said. Ron's mouth fell open as Charlie smiled.

"Mum's going to kill you!" Ron managed to say when he recovered the gift of speech.

"Probably. So how've you been?" Charlie asked casually.

"Oh all right. I'm a shaman, you know."

"Really? Cool."

"Hagrid's going to love you," said Hermione. Charlie grinned.

"No he won't. He'll be all over Romana though."

"Is it really tame?" asked Harry curiously, recalling the last time he was this close to a Horntail.

"Yes, but he won't obey anyone but Romana."

"Jealous, Charlie?" asked Ron with a smirk.

"Nah," Charlie replied with a good-natured smile.

"Mum's really going to kill you. You didn't even tell us!"

"We only got married last month, Ron. It was kind of... spontaneous."

"That's nice," said Ron with a grin for his brother. "But she's still going to kill you."

"Is she all right?" asked Charlie with concern. "Did the attack..."

"Calm down, Charlie. You should know our mother well enough to know she's not easily scared, and definitely not by Death Eaters."

"Good." Charlie turned to his wife. "So, want to meet my mum?"

"It would be about time, Charlie," said Romana, a strong Croatian accent colouring her words.

"First though, we have to find somewhere to put Augustine."

"Who?" asked Ron.

"The dragon," explained Romana.

"Well, Hagrid's coming over. Ask him," said Harry.

"Ello Charlie!" bellowed Hagrid. "Good to see yeh!"

"Afternoon, Hagrid."

"Who's this?" he asked, coming over to the dragon.

"This is Augustine, Romana's Horntail," said Charlie. "Know where we can put him?"

"Yeh've got him tamed?" asked Hagrid in a near-reverential voice.

"Romana raised him. Hagrid, this is my wife Romana," said Charlie, introducing his wife.

"Lovely to meet yeh," said Hagrid, shaking her hand warmly. She smiled back.

"Charlie has mentioned you," she said. "You're fond of dragons?"

"Hagrid loves dragons," said Ron.

"You remember that Ridgeback I told you about?" Charlie asked. "Hagrid raised him until he got too big."

"He's tame, this one?" asked Hagrid with great awe.

"Yes. Do you know where he can stay?" Romana asked with a charming smile.

"I'll take yeh to the Forest. Follow me," he said, leading Romana and Augustine towards the Forbidden Forest.

"Charlie! Charlie!" Molly Weasley came running across the grass towards her son.

"Hey Mum, how are you?" he said, hugging her warmly.

"I'm fine, love. Why did it take you so long to get here?"

"We had to tie up some loose ends at the sanctuary before coming out here."

"He arrived on a dragon, Mum!" exclaimed Ron excitedly.

"A dragon! Charlie, you could've been killed!"

"Mum, Mum, I work with dragons all the time. Besides, this one is completely tame."

"A tame dragon? Who would tame a dragon?" she asked. At that opportune moment, Romana Kobaich Weasley returned.

"Mum," said Charlie, sucking in a very deep breath. "This is Romana. My, uh... my wife. She tames dragons."

Molly Weasley's mouth fell open and for a long moment she was speechless, something that both Ron and Charlie had long thought impossible.

"Wife?" she repeated in a stunned voice. Charlie nodded.

"It's lovely to meet you at last, Mrs. Weasley," said Romana, putting out her hand. Molly shook it, still quite bewildered.

"Charlie?" Molly asked. He smiled charmingly at his mother.

"We got married in January."

"January!" she screeched. "That was a month ago, why didn't you tell me? Did you not think I'd be interested? Honestly Charlie, not telling your own mother!"

Charlie took this ear-bashing with grace. After a few minutes of this, she stopped and turned to Romana and smiled sweetly.

"Hello dear, it's lovely to meet you," she said, taking Romana away from Charlie and leading her towards the castle. "You must tell me all about you and Charlie..."

"That could've been worse," said Charlie as he watched his mother and wife walk away. "Much worse. But now I should see Dumbledore."

The faces of each turned serious.

"How are things here?" Charlie asked Harry. "Since the Burrow was attacked?"

"Well, there was an attempt at the Fletcher house," he replied. "But the family were already here. It's mostly been a lot of scare tactics on the part of the Death Eaters."

Harry paused for a long moment.

"He's up to something, I know it. He must be preparing for something big."

"I think, Harry," said Charlie "that we all agree with you."

***

By the beginning of March, most lessons for everyone from Fifth year or above had been abandoned in favour of training for coming battles. It was a voluntary thing, but so far nobody seemed to have said no. Several students had disappeared after receiving black letters, and Dumbledore was forced to accept the sad truth that some of his students would be fighting on the other side when the time came.

More families were attacked, and the Dark Mark flew high in the sky again as it had done so twenty years before. More and more people arrived to stay in the castle, including residents of Hogsmeade after an attack there nearly destroyed the Three Broomsticks. The increasing number of people on the side of Dumbledore and what people were calling the Phoenician Army (after the Order of the Phoenix) worked hard to keep Death Eaters at bay. Hogwarts and Hogsmeade became increasingly cut off from the rest of the wizarding world- particularly Diagon Alley, in the face of Death Eater ambushes and embargoes. It became harder to get supplies from the place and Hogwarts increasingly took on a siege mentality.

At the end of March, Sirius led a raid on a well-known Death Eater's house- Marco Zabini. Zabini ended up being killed by a stray Avada Kedavra conjured by one of his own men, while Sirius' right foot was broken.

When Harry was finally allowed into the hospital wing to see Sirius, he bounced in torn between happiness and worry.

"Are you all right, Sirius?" he asked anxiously. Sirius nodded tiredly.

"I'll be fine. Foot bones are tricky to heal, but I should be fine in a few days."

"Did the raid go all right?"

"Well, we would've preferred to take Zabini alive, but it wasn't my fault his mates were sloppy."

"Professor Dumbledore said that Blaise can probably come out of hiding now," Harry told him.

"Hi Sirius!" called Hermione as she and Ron came into the hospital wing. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine," Sirius repeated. "How is everything here?"

"Well, Charlie reckons that his dragons can be used in battle, but some of the less enlightened people around here are complaining," said Harry.

"Like who?" asked Sirius.

"Like Percy," answered Ron with a roll of his eyes. "Dragons are unsafe... Can't possibly be tame... blah, blah, Percy, blah," he said with an uncanny impression of his brother.

"Well, I see his point," said Sirius. "We'd have to make sure that the dragons wouldn't accidentally breathe fire onto our lot as well."

Ron looked crestfallen.

"But I'm sure it can be sorted out," Sirius added hastily, putting a smile back on Ron's face. "I've got worse news, though."

"What?" asked Harry quickly, worried at the extremely grave look on his godfather's face.

"It's coming and it's coming very, very soon. Voldemort's gearing up and he plans to attack the school."

"Says who?" asked Hermione.

"Says the Death Eater we fed Veritaserum earlier," he said. "Voldemort's been planning for as long as we suspected. He'd got veela, vampires, Death Eaters, all kinds of creatures and they're all coming here."

"Do you know when?"

"Two weeks, no more."

"Bloody Hell. Did you tell Dumbledore?" asked Ron. Sirius nodded.

"It's all in hand. There will be a meeting of the Order in a couple of days. And not just the members at the table."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry, not aware that other members existed.

"I mean retired members, members who stepped down for one reason or another. I mean people like your mother, Ron."

"My mum was a member of the Order of the Phoenix?" Ron asked, his eyes goggling in surprise.

"And your father. She stepped down a long time ago to look after you kids. He retired after that Halloween when Voldemort disappeared."

Harry didn't think that pink-eared Ron had ever looked quite so proud.

***

The meeting came around quickly and involved so many people that it was held in the Great Hall rather than in the Order chamber or the abandoned classroom they usually used.

"Welcome one and all," said Dumbledore, kicking off proceedings as usual. "It seems rather like a family reunion, doesn't it?"

Despite the serious nature of the meeting, most of the people in the room laughed. Many that the trio did not recognise were of considerable age, but there were a few like the Weasleys who had retired from the table for reasons other than age. Professor Sprout, for instance, had not been at any previous meetings but was present now. Harry wondered if the Order swelled its ranks during times of trouble, like the 1970s, before then decreasing numbers in times of relative safety.

"By now you are all aware that Voldemort is planning to attack Hogwarts very soon," started Dumbledore. "We have many plans for this eventuality. I have every confidence in our ability to keep Death Eaters from entering the school."

"Yes, but what about You-Know-Who?" asked Molly.

"Voldemort," said Dumbledore quite deliberately, "is not as invincible as he would like to think he is."

"We have several plans for Voldemort himself," started Arabella Figg. "But that isn't why we brought you here. We have intelligence reports that he has amassed an army of dark creatures as well as his Death Eaters, all of whom, as we know are well equipped with dark magic."

"Our plan is quite simple really," said Sirius. A few people frowned at his intervention.

"What is he doing here?" asked one wizened old witch who clearly recognised Sirius beyond the bleached blond hair. Several others muttered their agreement with her. Dumbledore stood up and held up his hand for silence. When he got it, he spoke.

"Sirius Black is here as a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Whatever you may have heard about him is erroneous. He was not the Potters' secret keeper. He did not betray them. He did not kill all those Muggles. Peter Pettigrew did."

Not everyone looked convinced. Sirius, not usually easily embarrassed, hung his head as muttering and murmuring filled the room.

"I believe him!" said Harry, standing up. "I saw Peter Pettigrew with my own eyes. He's a rat animagus and he betrayed my parents. I know Sirius and I know he'd rather have died than betrayed his best friend!" On finishing his outburst of righteous indignation, Harry sat down again. Remus smiled proudly at him, Snape glared, while Sirius looked at Harry with tears shining in his eyes. Now they all looked convinced. Sirius sniffed slightly and stood up to speak.

"The plan is to meet them on the grounds of the school as they arrive. We have been training the older students to duel and we think that they can be highly useful in helping defend the castle so that we can concentrate fully on our offensive strategies. We plan to divide ourselves into sections to fully capitalise on everyone's strengths. Arabella and Remus will head up a group to concentrate on destroying whatever animals and creatures Voldemort is bringing along with him, while our old duelling champions Snape and Flitwick over here will head up the group to tackle the Death Eaters."

"Yes, that's all very well," said the same wizened old witch. "But what about Voldemort?"

"Who do you think will take on Voldemort?" Sirius challenged her.

"Harry Potter, of course," said some of the people in the room, including a worried but proud looking Molly.

"He's a seventeen year old. What can he do?" challenged others.

"He will not be alone," said Dumbledore. "We have been training Harry and his friends since the beginning of the year. And let us not forget that Harry has faced Voldemort on several occasions in recent years and lived to tell the tale.

"What do you mean, he won't be alone?" asked another older member of the Order. Harry stood up again, feeling rather bold even with the eyes of the entire Order directed at him.

"I have my friends," he said. "We've got a plan and I wish I could tell you all the details but I can't. Just trust me on this. You might say I've been training for this since I came to Hogwarts. I know everyone is counting on me and I don't intend to let you down."

"Nor do we," added Hermione. Ron nodded. Finally, the Order seemed convinced.

"We shall split into our groups and discuss our individual roles in more detail," said Dumbledore. He then began reciting lists he'd made and everyone began congregating into groups. Only the trio remained. Dumbledore went over to them.

"An impressive speech Harry," he said, a friendly twinkle in his eye. "I believe that Maura is waiting for you outside."

"All right. Thank you Professor," said Harry.

True to Dumbledore's word, Maura was waiting outside for them.

"How did it go?"

"Not bad. Harry gave a couple of speeches, persuaded everyone to listen to Sirius, things like that."

"Oh. Nice. What are we meant to do?"

"No idea," said Harry. Ron cleared his throat.

"Uh, I have an idea."

***

"I'm really not sure this is a good idea, Ron," said Hermione. They had gone up to Trelawney's classroom and taken some of the incense and now Ron was preparing to go into a trance in the comfort of the Charms classroom.

"I am," he said. "What else am I meant to do? There is nothing else."

"But you haven't been into many trances. What if you can't get back? We don't know what to do..." Hermione asked, biting her lip anxiously.

"Hermione, I know what I'm doing." said Ron in a firm voice. He sat down and lit the incense sticks.

"What are we meant to do?" asked Maura.

"Sit down, shut up and wait," Ron told her.

"Fair enough," she said with a shrug.

Ron began his preparations to go into the trance. He breathed deeply, feeling the incense begin to clear his mind.

***

"You're Ron," said a voice. He turned to look at the speaker. Red hair, green eyes, sweet smile... He knew this woman.

"You're Harry's mum," he said, still adjusting to being in the trance. She smiled serenely and nodded.

"That's right, Ron. It will soon be time for the fight, you know."

"How soon?"

"Very soon."

"Care to be more specific?"

"I cannot. But you must realise that there is only one person who can defeat Voldemort."

"Harry."

"Yes. But more than that, the two warriors must face him alone. Harry and the new Heir. You cannot help him once the battle begins."

"So what am I meant to do?" asked Ron, who had never considered not helping Harry face Voldemort.

"Ah my tiger, you must defend those who cannot defend themselves. You and the druid girl will be more help on the battlefield."

"So Hermione and I can't help Harry?"

"You can help him, Ron. But you will help by fighting the Dark Lord's minions. For if Harry defeats Voldemort but his men take over the castle, what victory is that?" asked Lily.

"True," said Ron, nodding with understanding.

"You are a wise young man, Ron," Lily told him and his ears went pink. "The battle will not be easily won, but the four of you have great power within you. You can win. You must win."

"What happens if we don't?" he asked.

"If you don't? Darkness will descend upon our world like it has never managed before. You must win."

"Well, we'll do our best," said Ron, feeling reality tugging at him now.

"Your best will, I hope, be good enough."

"What about Maura? She wants to avenge your death."

"And she will. Harry will not face Voldemort alone, she will be there to fight alongside him. But he is the only one who can destroy Voldemort. That is how it is done and how it must be done."

Ron nodded again and Lily smiled.

"And Ron?"

"Yes?"

"Tell my son to stop beating about the bush and just give her the ring."

Ron looked puzzled but agreed just the same.

"All right."

"Good bye, Ron."

***

Ron sat up, slightly dazed, to find three pairs of eyes all looking at him with worry and curiosity.

"Well, the good news is, Harry, you can kill Voldemort. The bad news is, if you don't the world will end."

"We already knew that," said Harry irritably. "Anything interesting? What did you see?"

"Well, I had a lovely conversation, actually," said Ron. Harry looked at him.

"With whom?"

"Umm... Your mum, actually," he said gently, wondering how his friend would react. Harry fell back into his chair, looking a little stunned. After a moment, however, he recovered.

"My mum, really? What did she say?"

"Well, the most important thing was that when the battle comes, you and Maura must face Voldemort alone. Without us," he said, pointing to himself and Hermione, who looked indignant.

"Well, where will we be?" she asked.

"Fighting everyone else. Or as she put it, what use would it be if we all went off and killed Voldemort only to find that everyone else got killed by Death Eaters? Well, she said it better than that, but still..."

"It makes sense," said Harry, looking a little relieved. "You'll lead the rest of them. I mean, we've all been training for this for so long it would be wrong to waste it all on Voldemort."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah. She said that Harry must be the one to kill him. Maura can't do it. Only Harry."

"Fine, whatever. Just so long as I get to give him a good kicking. Maybe break his nose," said Maura with an amused, vicious grin.

"He doesn't have a nose," said Harry. Maura wrinkled her own nose in disgust.

"Well then, I'll just have to break something else."

"What else, Ron?" pressed Hermione.

"Well.... She called me a wise young man."

"How lovely," said Hermione sarcastically. "Anything else useful?"

"No. She was insistent that I understand that we couldn't follow Harry and Maura."

"Right. Well, might as well go get some sleep. She didn't happen to mention when he might turn up?" asked Maura. Ron shook his head.

"Very soon is all she said."

"Care to be more specific?" asked Harry. Ron grinned.

"That's exactly what I said. But she said she couldn't."

"Fine. Maura's right. Sleep time," said Harry with a loud yawn.

"Oh, are we keeping you up?" asked Hermione. He stuck his tongue out at her and they began walking back to the tower.

"Night people," said Maura before heading off in the direction of her room. The other three points of the diamond headed into the tower. Hermione bade the two boys a brief good night before going up to the girls' dorms.

"Harry?" asked Ron as they prepared for bed.

"Yeah Ron?"

"She did say something else."

"What?" Harry turned to look and the desperate sadness in his eyes made Ron want to sob. He suddenly felt very guilty that he was the one to speak to Lily, even if she was just an apparition in a trance.

"She uh... She said to tell you to stop beating about the bush and just give her the ring. They were her exact words and I've got no idea what she's talking about."

Harry gave him a bittersweet smile.

"I do."

***

Preparations began on a scale Hogwarts had never seen before. All kinds of magical and Muggle weaponry were brought into the Castle as the Phoenician Army began mobilising. Ollivander and a team of experts came to check every single person's wand to make sure it was in perfect working order. Most exciting, however, was the arrival from Romania and Croatia of some of Charlie's colleagues, complete with dragons. Each of the dragons was tamed to some extent and spent their time tied up in the Forest being fed sheep.

Other magical creatures were brought to the castle including, Hagrid was pleased to discover, a certain Hippogriff by the name of Buckbeak. Indeed, Buckbeak seemed as happy to see Hagrid as Hagrid was to see him.

Members of the Order continued training students to defend the castle, and while they were all worried and scared, most students were eager to help. They had all grown up hearing stories of Voldemort and had spent their adolescences in fear of the newly-risen Dark Lord. Each of them wanted to finally put an end to their fear.

***

"Did you hear?" asked Ginny eagerly as she bounced into the common room. Ron, Harry and Hermione looked up from the battle plans they were working on and each shook their heads.

"Dumbledore's throwing us a party!" she squealed in excitement. A few of the first years heard her and joined in the excitement. Ginny glared at them and added:

"Fourth years and above." The First years shut up immediately.

"Why?" asked Harry with a suspicious look. Ginny giggled at him.

"You've been spending too much time readying for war, Harry. It's meant to be some fun before... well, you know. Fun, Harry. You like fun, don't you?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. Ginny may have got over her crush, Ginny may even be the latest girlfriend of Seamus Finnigan, but Ginny still flirted with Harry. Although Hermione and Harry had never publicly gone out with each other, and although she had not been his girlfriend for some time, Hermione still felt jealously flare up as she watched Ginny's batting eyelashes and Harry's charming smile.

"So," Ron cut in, clearly irritated with Ginny's flirting himself. "When is this party?"

"Saturday night, the Great Hall. Fourth years and above only. And everyone else who's a guest of Hogwarts."

"Fabulous," said Ron sarcastically. "Yet another opportunity for Ron Weasley to trot out his bloody dress robes."

"You have your new blue ones, Ron," Harry pointed out.

"Oh. Yeah," a certain amount of worry left Ron's face. "But I'll still look a complete fool as soon as I step anywhere near the dance floor."

"Oh, Ron!" Ginny scolded with another giggle. "You don't mean that. It's going to be so much fun."

"Yes," he said moodily. "Because the Yule Ball was so much fun."

"That was three years ago, Ron," said Harry with a snort of laughter.

"Yes, and I still remember it very well."

"Well Ron," said Hermione in a tone drier than certain deserts, "at least you have time to find a date this time. I trust you won't need to work out who's a girl and who isn't?"

"Leave me alone."

"Well, you have two days to find a date," said Ginny. She grinned at her brother before bouncing off in the direction of Seamus. The trio shared an uneasy glance.

"Well..." began Ron, wondering exactly what Harry and Hermione were going to do about the dance. "I've got to do my Divination homework. Bloody Trelawney, doesn't she know there's a war on?"

Ron jumped out of his seat and bounded up the stairs leaving Harry and Hermione alone together.

"So...." Harry trailed off awkwardly. Hermione just looked at him with those big brown eyes that made him want to kneel down and beg forgiveness for his sins.

"Perhaps you'd like to go with Maura," she said quite quickly. "You're the two great warriors, after all."

He couldn't believe his ears.

"What?"

"Well, you two get along well now and..." she stopped and looked down at her hands, which she was wringing continuously.

"You want me to go with Maura?" he asked, green eyes boring into her. She didn't answer. He watched her for a long moment.

"That might be... nice," he managed. "What... what about you?"

"Oh I don't know. I don't really feel like going to a party. I've still got so much reading to do about healing. Madam Pomfrey and I have been working on it and I want to be ready in time for..."

"Well then. It's all sorted." Harry stood up and after pausing awkwardly went off in the direction of his dorm. Hermione slumped in her seat and put her head in her hands. Had she actually told Harry to take someone else, to take Maura, to the party?

***

"Maura, I was wondering..." started Harry. She looked up from sharpening her dagger and smirked at him.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Well, how'd you like to accompany me to the party on Saturday?" he asked, quite surprised at how easy it was to ask her. Perhaps it was because he didn't really want to be asking the redhead.

"Hmm..." said Maura, pretending to ponder it quite seriously. "It's nice of you to ask..."

"But?"

"Don't you have someone else you'd rather ask?" Maura raised her eyebrows questioningly. Harry looked at her with sad green eyes. She put both the dagger and the sharpening tools down and gave him all her attention. He sat down in the seat next to her and his shoulders slumped.

"Yes."

"So why, pray tell, are you asking me?"

"She doesn't want me to ask her. She told me to ask you."

"Well, I feel loved."

"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"I know. Hermione really told you that?"

"More or less. I asked her what she wanted to do and she said that she wasn't going to go. Something about her healing studies."

"Oh. Well..." Maura fixed him with a firm look. "Promise you won't dump me on the dance floor?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die," he said with a small smile.

"Well then, I'd be honoured."

"Thanks. Pick you up at eight?"

"That would be lovely." Then, they burst into laughter.

***

"You have to go!"

"No I don't."

"But... But this party was arranged specially so that we could get away from working."

"I don't care. I have to learn this before the battles begin. I can't just depend on being descended from druids and healers, I have to actually be one. It really isn't a strong point of mine, you know. I can't... I can't afford to get anything wrong."

"Hermione..."

"No, Ron."

"This is the second time you've turned me down," said Ron quite mournfully.

"I'm sorry Ron, really I am."

"You just wanted to go with Harry," he accused.

"No," she said dejectedly. "I don't. He's going with Maura."

"I know, because you told him to. Why on Earth would you do that?"

"Because he doesn't want me!" she screamed out of the blue, causing heads to turn. Ron grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the common room and into the corridor outside.

"What do you mean?"

"He doesn't want me, Ron. He told me."

"But you know he just said that..."

"I know! But the fact remains he did it. James married Lily even though there was a war on! It hasn't stopped Percy and Penny or Fred and Angelina, or even Seamus and Ginny. Bloody Hell Ron, Maura and George, even!"

"They are all very different cases and you know it," said Ron, hugging her in an attempt to comfort her.

"I don't know it! He told me he didn't love me!"

"And you know he was lying."

"Do I?" she asked miserably. "Do I? Ever since he's treated me as nothing more than his friend. How do I know what Harry Potter thinks?"

"But..."

"No buts, Ron. I'm not going. A herd of stampeding Hippogriffs couldn't drag me there. And that's final!" Hermione turned on her heel and walked off down the corridor.

"She seems upset, dear," said the Fat Lady.

"You don't know the half of it," he said gloomily before giving her the password and going back inside.

***

The school was full of talk about the party for the next few days. Dumbledore had been right to throw it too: gone were the stresses and strains of working so hard and the worries about what was coming, to be replaced by excitement and anticipation of the first big function since the Triwizard Tournament. Dates were procured and declined, robes were sent from home and the House-Elves worked hard to arrange refreshments.

Harry found himself pestered by many girls wanting to take him to the party, and while most were content to flirt and hope he'd ask them, some were a little more brazen.

"Harry?" asked a voice. The latest girl was Joanne Newman, a pretty Ravenclaw Sixth year he knew only by sight. He sighed and turned to face her.

"Hi... Joanne?"

"That's right! I was wondering if you had a date for the party on Saturday yet?" she asked, right to the point without beating about the bush.

"I'm very sorry Joanne, but I do."

"Oh. Well, that's OK."

"Thank you for asking," he said with a smile so bright and fake that it made his jaw hurt. She didn't notice how false it was and smiled back before bouncing away down the corridor. The sooner Saturday was over, he realised, the better.

***

To be Continued...