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Harry woke with a yawn in Ravenclaw tower, and as he came to, his mind foggy from having just woken up, he groaned. It wasn't a sound that'd be audible to anybody else on account of the privacy charms he'd put up — he'd learned them his first year at Hogwarts from the Prefects — but it was louder than most noises of annoyance he'd make.
As for the reason, it was another day in which he'd wake up and remember what had only recently occurred. Somehow, somebody had found a way to cheat the Goblet and in doing so, they'd entered his name. Unsurprisingly, as one might expect when somebody cheats the Goblet, his name had been pulled.
He pushed off the covers of his bed, groaned again, and then pushed aside the curtains that hung for privacy's sake. In short order, he was dressed, clean and out of Ravenclaw Tower with his satchel packed full of books and his restricted section pass in his most secure pocket. That was an item he'd never want to lose, least of all nowadays, when he'd need it more than ever.
"Morning, Harry."
Harry blinked, his eyes taking a moment to focus on his friend as she greeted him. "Morning, Pansy," he returned to her, one hand sliding under his glasses to pluck around his eye and send off any sleep crust that'd made it through the shower. "Coming to the Great Hall with me for breakfast?"
"Of course," she answered as she came to stand beside him, her own bag just as full-looking as his. He thought he spotted a novel atop it too, one that was from one of those bookstores on Diagon Alley that specialised in fiction. "We'll study in the evening. I've recently discovered a plethora of books that might help you."
That's why her bag's so full, he thought then, a smile coming to his face when he understood his friend's action.
"Thank you," he said, that smile growing as he leaned in to give Pansy a hug.
She returned it, her hands gliding across his back whilst making imperceivable shapes. "You'll do more than survive the tournament by the time we're finished — Champion of Champions of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. It sounds rather prestigious, and there's been less than a hundred across centuries."
"If we're working together, anything's possible. We've proven that enough times by now."
Harry meant it too. Since their very first year at Hogwarts, madness had been happening. One could hardly go through a year of the storied school by this point without expecting a completely barmy and all too dangerous happening to occur. By Harry's second year, he'd realised that alongside Pansy.
She looped her arm through his in that formal fashion of hers, and together and after such words, the two started off toward the Great Hall. As one might expect, they avoided the vast majority of comments made by their peers, uneducated as they were on the true happenings of the tournament and how Harry'd been done over by the sub-standard security thereof.
Pansy had been cross, even more so than he'd been when it'd happened. Afterwards and together, the two had decided in addition to their studying, they'd try and figure out just what really had happened for Harry to have his name submitted passed the perimeters and 'unbreakable' security.
Thus far, there'd been no decisive answer, but they had ideas.
"Harry?"
He glanced at Pansy as they took a turn, passing a few Gryffindors and the painting that was berating them. Ron Weasley seemed to be at the forefront of said berating, and behind him were his typical two accomplices. Harry gave a nod to the three boys as he passed; Dean returned it, Ron continued his argument and Seamus scoffed.
"What is it?" he asked once they were farther away from the pride of Lions.
"You're aware that the Yule Ball's not all that far away, aren't you?"
Harry shrugged. It wasn't that far away, but it also wasn't all that close either. There was still around a month left to go… and yes, he could tell what she was getting at. He just wasn't sure what he'd do to solve that issue just yet.
"I guess," he eventually responded. "Why?"
"Haven't you put any thought toward who you'll ask to go with you?" Pansy inquired as they descended a set of stairs, emerging into a hallway once they'd finished. One lit by torches and lines with stained windows and old suits of armour; the craftsmanship was sublime. "You should, if you've not. It's best to plan well in advance, though you've still some trouble doing so."
At that, Harry laughed before he tried to pout at her. "Come on. I told you already, plans don't tend to work all that well for me. When everything goes upside down, I usually decide everything on the move — that's worked out well for us so far, hasn't it?"
Pansy rolled her eyes and prodded him a few times in the side, forcing a few gasping laughs from Harry as she spoke. "I told you already, you had no idea the Phoenix would show up to help you, lucky dork."
Lucky dork, was it?
He'd show her.
Harry finally managed to get away from her prodding and once he did, he turned on his heels towards her. Immediately, Pansy's eyes went wide and not a second later, she was tearing off toward the Great Hall with reckless abandon. Harry was hot on her heels, hands outstretched and ready to tickle her should he catch up.
Unsurprisingly, he managed to do just that and the tears that came as a result of his tickling were as funny as he'd remembered them being.
Harry hadn't done as Pansy had suggested, unsurprisingly. He'd taken his time, dragged his feet, and now, there were only a couple of weeks left until the Yule Ball. In truth, there'd only been a couple of people he might have asked to go with him, but for one reason or another, he hadn't done so. He'd procrastinated.
But… there was one person that he knew for certain didn't have a date to the Yule Ball yet. One he'd thought about asking, but like the other people he'd considered, opted not to; he wasn't nervous, certainly not, there'd just not been an ideal time thus far. Harry looked across the table, where Pansy was seated and quietly reading. She'd been doing so since he'd gotten his name pulled in the tournament, and so had he, for the most part.
I could ask her, Harry said to himself, his eyes flickering between the pages of the tome that lay in his lap and Pansy's face. She's talked about balls and galas before. Maybe she's fond of dancing.
Harry opened his mouth.
Harry closed his mouth.
He couldn't very well ask while they were in the library, now could he? That wasn't the proper spot to ask a Witch out to the Yule Ball. Usually, people would do it in the halls or the courtyards, or even by the lake or on the grounds of Hogwarts. Yeah. He'd wait a little bit longer and leave her to her reading. Speaking of, he should be doing much the same.
"Are you going to say something, or are you going to keep looking at me?"
Pansy set her book down but a second after she'd spoken, a brow arched as she gazed at him. "You've been opening and closing your mouth so many times, I'm starting to think you've become a fish."
Harry laughed at that. "I was thinking about what I wanted to say," he explained once he'd finished his short round of laughter; Pansy had smiled at said laughter. "Evidently, I didn't decide quite yet."
"Oh?" Pansy pushed aside the tome and leaned forward. Intelligent and driven as she was to consume all manners of knowledge, she was keenest when that knowledge was in relation to rumours or the like. "You've only gone and piqued my interest."
"Unpique it?"
"That's not a word."
"It could be."
"Could, acknowledges the fact that it's currently not," and with that, Pansy's face turned victorious; ah well, he'd allow her this round. He could always just win the next. "Now, if you'd please. We'll get right back to studying, I'm sure."
Now, here, Harry recognised he had two paths he could take. He could tell his friend — one he'd considered a friend for going on four years now — that he wanted her to be his date to the Yule Ball, if she'd accept, or, he could come up with something believable. His mind was undecided even as she stared at him expectantly.
On and on the silence seemed to go, until, finally, Harry made up his mind. He'd have to apologise later if he messed things up here.
"I'd like to take you to the Yule Ball."
Pansy blinked at him, a flush immediately coming to her face before she broke eye contact to gaze elsewhere in their quiet little corner of the library. It was after she'd broken that aforementioned eye contact that her response came.
"You can't ask so boldly," she said, embarrassment riddling her voice. "That's entirely too straightforward. At least lead up to it so a witch might learn of your intentions prior to the question."
"I can do that," Harry said with a nod. "Hey, Pansy?"
"What?"
He finally won her attention back, and when he did, the smile on his face was one of the largest, goofiest ones he'd ever given. "I was thinking, since the Yule Ball's coming up, would you want to be my date for it?"
"Harry!" Pansy chided, turning away as she'd done before, but not before he saw the grin that'd broken out. "Really?"
Harry blinked, and then, he nodded. "Really," he answered, confirming her su—
"That was rhetorical and you know it. You're horrible," Pansy, once again, turned to look at him. There was the grin on her face that he'd spotted earlier, and in addition to it, he could see her cheeks were as flushed as they'd previously been, when first he'd asked her to be his date to the Yule Ball. "And, yes."
"Yes?" he parroted.
Pansy rolled her eyes and brushed a few errant strands of hair out of the way of her eyes. There'd been many that'd gotten loose with how rapidly her head had been moving on account of his earlier antics. "Who else would I go with? Draco?" she scoffed at the idea. He was entirely too bratty and unrefined, not to mention he was a touch too close to her family for her liking; she practically thought of the boy as her brother. "So yes, I'll be your date — you better remember those dancing lessons we'd had the year prior. I'd sent you three books that explain in depth how to do so when you'd asked about our traditions."
This time, it was Harry's turn to roll his eyes. "I read the lot of them, and I remember just about everything important."
Pansy looked at him knowingly, and without saying anything more, she began to carefully and with great respect, stack the tomes in her satchel. One after the next, her notes as well, were stuffed into her satchel all the whilst Harry watched her.
At least until she said something to get him moving. "Come on," she'd said, nodding at the tomes and other items scattered out on the table before him. "Pack up. We'll have plenty of time to continue whence we'd left off, but there's something that can't wait; you need to give me the colour of your dress robes, too."
Harry imagined she meant just the colour of the pair he'd chosen since she'd been the one to help him shop for them over the summer. Her father hadn't been all that fond of him, but her mum loved him, and she'd been all too happy to take the pair shopping all throughout the duration of their summer holiday.
"I was thinking of grabbing the set you said matched my hair," Harry answered. That was the note he'd left on it, at least, considering that was a comment she'd made he reckoned she could figure out just which one it was that he meant.
"Wonderful," Pansy said. "I've got just the dress to match it. How so very convenient my mother pushed me into getting it. Now, hurry, we've got somewhere to be."
"Do we?"
Pansy nodded and fixed him with a look. "If we're going to the Yule Ball together, I'm making sure that you remember how not to step on my feet. I should mention, I'm quite fond of twirls and spins as well, so naturally, we'll have to make sure you can handle such feats."
He looked between Pansy and the books, and in an instant, his mind was made up. Those old tomes or what have you could wait. He'd finally gotten up the nerves — it was mostly him — to ask Pansy to the Yule Ball, and now she wanted to take him to someplace private for dancing lessons.
Harry wasn't an idiot, his marks would second that; what bloke wouldn't choose Pansy?
The two were out of the library within the next thirty seconds.
The time had finally come, Harry just couldn't believe he'd ended up taking Pansy to the Yule Ball. It didn't feel real, his friend of four years coming with him as a date — she'd said as much too, so those weren't just his words.
And to think I was worried about ruining our friendship, Harry thought with a shake of his head as he turned and glanced over his shoulder; she still wasn't here yet. It was only him, Cedric and Cho. I wonder if she was waiting for me the whole while too. I'd heard a few other blokes had asked her, but she'd told them that she'd already found herself a partner. I'd guarantee Draco was livid.
At such a thought, Harry grinned. Draco was such a tosser.
Harry turned to look over his shoulder as he'd been doing for the past ten or so minutes, and li— Pansy was there this time. He'd look over his shoulder and back immediately, simply not expecting her presence, but there she was.
Merlin, words didn't do her justice. She was beyond beautiful, simple as that. The dress, the jewellery, he was a lucky wizard. Maybe he'd been blind before, or stupid. A combination of the two might work. Whatever the cause, he couldn't believe he'd not recognised just how beautiful Pansy could be earlier.
It's got to be the friend effect. When you're friends with somebody, you don't tend to look at them like that. Well, not until the library, when his mind had lost to his heart, all the years of studying helping little in the way of romance.
"You're at a loss for words, are you?" Pansy teased as she grew nearer, the dress she was wearing giving off an illusion that she was simply gliding across the ground. "That's a first."
Harry found his voice then, after her banter. He didn't banter back with her, he simply stated a fact that caused her to blush as furiously as she'd done in the library.
"You're beautiful."
And I'm lucky.