Moody glared at Snape with both the fury and delight of a predator capturing its prey. "So did you teach him that spell, or did his father? Your little pupil tries to murder someone with a dark spell and you try to get the victim expelled? We're going down to the dungeons, and good thing we do have on-duty aurors on the grounds thanks to the tournament, eh? Potter, you're free to go." Moody marched Snape away at wandpoint after he ushered the teens out the door.
They entered Gryffindor Tower to see everyone in the common room drop what they were doing and stare. Surprisingly, Ron was the first to break the silence. He walked up to Harry and handed over the Christmas gift from his mother. Looking down in shame, he said, "I'm sorry I've been a bit of a git to you two," he said quietly.
"Now there's an understatement," Hermione snorted.
"I... um... I couldn't think of a way to make it up to both of you, but since Harry might get expelled, I was thinking I could take you to the ball instead?" he asked Hermione.
Bad news travels fast in this castle, doesn't it? thought Harry. "I'm not getting expelled, Ron, but Draco might be. I'm taking Hermione to the ball," he said.
"But... but... I have to go with Hermione! We've known each other for years!" Ron protested.
"I've known her for as long as you have, Ron, and I do have the advantage of being her boyfriend."
"I know, but you could find a date with any girl you want in the whole school! There's... nobody else I can go with!" Ron's so-called "favour" for Hermione was quickly becoming a favour for himself.
"And out of the whole school, I'd pick Hermione," Harry said with finality, to end the argument.
"Excuse me, boys, but did it ever occur to you to ask for my opinion on all this?" Hermione glared at Ron, but elbowed Harry as well. "Even if Harry was expelled, I would rather not go to the ball at all than go without Harry. He found the perfect dress for me, I got him his dress shoes, and we took pictures together with my family."
"Is that why you got your hair cut?" Parvati shouted out.
"You got a haircut?" Ron asked, staring at Hermione.
"You didn't even notice? Ron, we've hung out together for years, and now that half of Hermione's hair is gone and you can't see the difference?"
"This is why I could never go to the ball with you, Ron. You never pay enough attention... to anything, really. Me, Harry, your homework, everything! Harry, on the other hand, remembered exactly what I wanted and bought my dress for me. He remembered the one dress I liked the best out of dozens that I tried on, and then had it to a dressmaker to make it even better."
"So that's it? You're going with Harry because he bought your dress for you? You know I'd never be able to afford stuff like Harry does, is that it?" Ron was practically glowing red in anger as he stormed off to his room.
Harry was left speechless, while Hermione just shook her head, saying, "Ugh. That's exactly what I was talking about. Why did he even want to go with me anyways? He had the entire holiday to ask a girl at Hogwarts!"
"Allow us to explain," Fred said, with the George and Ginny grinning behind him. "Although it might have been funnier if you agreed to go with him, but we didn't expect you accept, so we do have a backup plan."
"Our dear little Ronniekins has never had much experience with the fairer sex," George explained.
"Apart from Ginny, Mum, Aunt Muriel, and maybe Luna, Hermione's probably the only girl he's ever said more than five words to in his whole life," Fred continued.
"And with Luna, half those words were usually 'loony,' so she probably doesn't count."
"So, quite literally, you're the only one he could even think of asking to the ball."
"He might have even thought that you had feelings for him," Ginny offered meekly.
"What? How on earth did he get that idea? We argue all the time!" Hermione's mouth hung open in confusion.
"He probably thought you enjoyed it. I mean, you do get into some pretty heated arguments with Harry, too," Ginny explained.
"There's a world of difference between arguments and debates, you know. Harry actually listens to what I say even if he completely disagrees with me. I try to get an idea into Ron's thick skull, and he just insults me and calls me barmy until we can't stand to talk to each other any more."
"I'm not sure if he knows the difference," Fred said.
"Well, what would have happened if I did agree to go with him? And why does he want to go so badly anyways? There's no way Ron's interested in fine dining and dancing."
"Well, we have to thank Ginny for the idea."
"She's the one who decided Ron needed to be taught a lesson, and writing to mum simply wouldn't do the job properly."
"So we decided to take it upon ourselves to teach our brother a lesson."
"We were just going to slip some of our test products into his food for a few days, nothing special, really."
"But Ginny here comes up with a plan to make Ron desperate to get himself into the New Year's Ball," Fred said proudly, patting his little sister on the back. Ginny gave a shy smile to Harry, who was curious to hear more. "Anyways, she pulled off this perfect act about how Ron's favourite Quidditch star would be there, so now he's going to make a fool of himself trying to get a date... in less than forty hours."
"And if, by some miracle, he does find a girl desperate enough to go with him, he'll be wearing our great-uncle's dress robes," George laughed.
"What's wrong with his robes?" Harry asked.
"Well, apart from being about a century out of date, they're about ten times as ugly as the stuff Dumbledore wears," Ginny finally spoke up again.
Harry chuckled. "You know, you guys didn't have to do this for us. We're fine just letting him be."
"Oh no, Harry, this isn't for you. If a Weasley acts out of line, we normally get an earful from our mother. Since he hasn't got the stones to tell mum what he did, we've taken it upon ourselves to give him what he deserves. Consider it an internal family matter. You two just have fun on New Year's Eve."
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