Hermione makes huge mistakes. Huge mistakes. Mistakes that are huge.

Hermione makes huge mistakes.

Huge mistakes.

Mistakes that are huge.

I'm sitting in the library, studying my Arithmancy. You never know when Professor Vector might spring a test. Viktor Krum is in here again. I don't understand why he would be in here, what does he study? He's always got the same book. It's called New Quidditch Strategies. I wonder why he would want to learn new Quidditch strategies, because according to Ron he already knows every Seeker move ever put in writing. Plus he never turns the pages. Once I passed him to sign out a book, and he had writing all over the page, little hearts, too. I didn't look to see whose name it was because why would I meddle in his love life? He's famous enough for his Quidditch skills; he doesn't have to be famous for his heart. It's probably some girl from Bulgaria I don't know. I don't have to care about him.

It's just that he seems very odd in the library. Can't he doodle on his ship? He's got the book upside down, today. Maybe something's up with his friends. Yes, that's probably it. He's probably in a fight with one of his friends, and is pretending to study as a cover, so he can think about how he's going to apologize. (I've been doing that for three years with Ron.)

Now his stupid little fan club has come in. Lavender Brown has joined, I see. I don't think Seamus would be very happy to see her stalking the Viktor Krum, world famous Seeker. Ack! I've already meddled too much, I didn't mean to hear Lavender tell Pavarti she was going to the Yule Ball with Seamus, they should just be a bit more careful about what they talk about in the dorm, you know I am there right beside them, twittering away like fools.

Well anyhow I might as well just pack up, the little fan club will be chattering away any time now. I can't study if someone's in my ear, debating who's going to ask Krum out to the Ball. Now that I think about it, I need a date for the Ball myself. I'll ask Dean when I get back to the tower. I don't think he has a date yet. I'll relieve him of the burden of asking a girl himself again. Witches these days are self-governing, we can ask whomever we want to whatever we want.

As soon as I get my bag, there's a tap on my shoulder. I turn around. The person is pretty tall, so I have to look up. Not him! Yes, it is he, Krum. Will he ever cease to annoy me?

"Hermy-own?" I suppose he must mean me, though I've never heard "Hermione" mispronounced that badly.

"Yes?" I say, thinking about how Ron would react if he knew that I was talking to Viktor Krum.

"I vos vondering," he says, (I really don't like Bulgarian accents. They sound like vampires on Muggle television programmes. I "vonder" if he'll suck my blood out my neck. Shudder. Bad mental picture.) "Vill you go to the Yule Ball vith me?"

Sorry, Dean.

"Well..." I say. Merlin, this is hard. "Yes. I'll go to the Ball with you." Krum-I mean Viktor smiles.

"Thank you," he says with a smile. He walks away.

Oh no. This is a huge mistake. Why would an eighteen year old internationally famous Seeker want to ask a fourteen year old nobody to a Ball? Uh oh. This is a huge mistake. I'm going to a ball with someone I've scorned since August. What will I tell Harry and Ron? I'll be a hypocrite.

This is a huge mistake. I could have gone with Dean, he's known me for three and a half years, and he would be a good date. If not Harry or Ron, I know for sure they wouldn't try to do anything nasty to me....

This is a huge mistake. HUGE MISTAKE. HUGE MISTAKE. A MISTAKE THAT IS HUGE! What will the little fan club say? I'll be in their bad books forever. This is a huge mistake. I tell you, a HUGE mistake. Maybe I'll have to wear some sort of disguise. Madame Pomfrey's fixed those beaver chompers Malfoy gave me. I'll get some of that Sleekeazy's stuff I saw in Hogsmeade for my hair. No one knows what my dress robes look like; I'll be so beautiful no one will know who I am. I have such a blown-up self-image. I won't be beautiful! Hermione Granger cannot be beautiful. Ever! But I'll be more prettier than I ever was before. More prettier? What am I saying? Remember Muggle schooling, Hermione... Prettier. That's it; I'll be prettier than I ever was before. God, I am going senile. But what will Viktor say if I show up next to him and he doesn't know who I am? What if he's secretly fallen in love with my unmanageable hair? Or maybe he has a thing for black robes. Maybe I have some natural charm I've never detected before. My life is ruined. This is a huge mistake. A huge mistake. It is one mistake that is huge.