Harry Potter, The Matchmaking Queen
The winter break was approaching, and with it came a flurry of excitement. For not only was the Christmas break around the corner, but this year Hogwarts school was hosting the yule ball, a traditional event that always takes place for the 3 schools participating in the Triwizard tournament. As the yule ball is, primarily, a dance, the students took lessons with their head of house.
For Harry and his group ("gang? fam? troublemakers?" Harry had asked Hermione one night when it was just the two of them in the common room. Hermione's response had been an eye roll and "Just call us your friends, Harry. That's what we are, after all.". Harry thought it was a rather boring name, but oh well) the group dance lessons led to a whole new kind of trouble brewing - operation match-making, fondly named by Luna.
It all started in the library
The library, end of November
After the group dance lessons, in which Harry went to the Slytherin one, danced with Blaise and then asked Snape to the yule ball and got detention, Harry and his friends decided to spend some time in the library, some of them wanting to read up on dancing and the others just wanting to find some cool spells to use as pranks over the next few weeks.
"Good book?" Ginny jumped as Draco appeared from behind the armchair she was sitting in and snatched the book from her hands. "Oh, Charms, cool." He began flicking through the pages, Ginny scowling and trying to take the book back. Draco, having height on his side, held it up, too high for her to reach.
So Ginny, being the rational, forgiving, responsible person she is, launched herself at him. The group watched as the book, in what seemed like slow motion, flew across the room and landed right on -
"Oh Merlin, not Mrs Norris." Ron groaned, as the cat screeched loud enough to wake the grumpy librarian, Miss Pince.
"Hooligans!" She yelled. "Out! All of you!" The group scrambled out of their seats and hurried out of the library, Harry picking up the book as they went.
"Look what page it landed on!" He showed the others as soon as they had stopped in an empty classroom to catch their breath.
"Matchmaking spells? I don't know, Harry..." Daphne said, looking a bit wary. "It could go very wrong very quickly, and you know how fragile teenage friendships and relationships are."
"Not on the students, silly." Harry grinned, and Hermione and Neville both groaned. But Harry, knowing Draco was top of Charms class and the best candidate to help him pull this off, was solely focused on the blonde.
"You want to put spells on the teachers? Are you absolutely mental??" Draco exclaimed, slamming the book shut. "No. No way."
"Pleeeeeaaaaaaassssseeeeee, Dray?" Harry said, puppy dog eyes on full power.
"No."
"Fine, I'll just keep nagging then. Please please please please please please please please please please please please -"
"Fine!" Draco shouted. "Just shut up, please!" Harry cheered. So did Ron.
In Ron's opinion, it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. In Harry's what was at first hilarious quickly gave him nightmares.
Draco hit each teacher with the charm at breakfast the next morning, and pandemonium ensued instantly.
For whenever the teachers made contact with each other, their compatibility rating was yelled out in a voice that sounded a bit like the Mirrors that insulted people, and was just as honest.
The matchmaker prank lasted for a whole day, and the students adored it. The teachers? Not so much.
"50 Percent!" The spell had announced when Madame Pomfrey handed a Headache reliever potion to Professor McGonagall.
"Oh no, Just no!" It exclaimed when Dumbledore shook hands with Karkaroff.
"Hmmmmm." Was all it said when Moody pushed past Severus in the corridor.
After a while, Harry unexpectedly felt guilty, and handed himself in. He refused to tell his friends why, but he avoided Professor Sinistra and Professor Snape like the plague, which caused the former to laugh every time she saw him and the latter to be in incredibly high spirits.
As the Christmas break drew ever closer, with it a new kind of task emerged. This task, however, wasn't just for champions.
For some, the hard part of the task was finding a partner. For others, it was learning the steps. But for many, it was both. And that is how Harry and his group of mischief makers found themselves in a secret ballroom hidden behind a tapestry of Rowena Ravenclaw in the West wing of the school, being taught to dance.
The group was rather large now, and they had discovered that it was a bit of a squeeze to fit them all in the kitchen, so Luna had introduced them to the secret room she used to practise her ballet. The room had quickly become the group's meeting place, and they had worked quite hard to make it homely.
Posters and pictures adorned the walls, mostly photos Colin had taken of their escapades, and four wall hangings; one for each house. Half of the floor was left clear so Luna could continue to dance (the ballroom is fairly large for a room hiding behind a tapestry in between two other classrooms, Hermione compared it to a TARDIS to the confusion of those who know nothing of muggle television) and the other half was covered in comfy beanbags, blankets and cushions. There was even a hammock, and no one was quite sure how it got there ("100 people points to Remus Lupin").
"I still don't understand why we all need to learn to dance. It's only those four that will actually have to." Ron pointed accusatorily at Harry, Cedric, Fleur and Viktor, all of whom grinned identical grins and waved mockingly at him from the beanbags. Draco, Daphne, and Neville were the most proficient ballroom dancers in the group, so they were teaching the rest of them a few at a time. Viktor, Fleur and Cedric also knew how to dance, but were all terrible teachers, so they just watched the rest and occasionally helped them practice. Luna preferred to watch.
"It's an important skill to learn Ronald, suck it up." Hermione scolded.
"Oh yeah?" Retorted Ron. "Okay, when Voldemort -"
"Voldypants." Harry corrected, enjoying himself immensely when Ron scowled.
"When Voldemort next shows up to kill that annoying idiot over there, I'm sure his excellent foxtrot will send him off with his tail between his legs."
"Don't be silly Ron, if anything, the power of dance will-"
"SHUT UP GINNY!" Ron yelled, finally losing it.
"Wow, you really do hate dancing, don't you?" Fred commented, raising his eyebrows at his furious younger brother. "It only gets worse from here mate, you've got to find a willing partner next."
Ron let go of Neville's waist and stormed over to the beanbag next to Luna, and she patted him on the head.
"I'll go with you." She said lightly. "As friends. I would like to go the ball, but I need to go with a fourth year or above."
"Oh, er, okay then. Thanks Luna." Ron said gruffly.
George opened his mouth to make a jibe at Ron, but before he could, Ginny whacked him in the stomach.
"OW! What was that for?" He gave her an insulted look, and she smirked.
"Just felt like it. So, Ron and Luna are going together - anyone else have dates yet?"
"I'm taking Cho." Cedric said, a faint blush on his cheeks.
"I was hoping you'd, um, come with me, Ginny?" Neville said, looking extremely nervous.
"Sure, sounds fun." Ginny smiled at him and he gave her an awkward smile back.
"He's got guts, asking her in front of a crowd." Draco muttered to Harry as he sunk into the beanbag next to him.
"We're hardly a crowd." Harry said. "There's only what, 15 of us?"
"If you include Colin and Susan then yeah."
"Which I do."
"Which we do. Okay then."
"I'm going solo." Daphne said with a grin. "Being stuck with whichever random guy asks me all night instead of partying with my friends sounds like torture."
"Sounds like a plan, all the power to you I say." Harry said, making no sense really but sort of does. "Besides, men are a waste of space."
"Says who?" Draco demanded, looking a bit put out.
"Hermione."
"I'm going with Viktor." Fleur said, smiling at Krum. "As friends."
"Ooooooh, love that!" Harry exclaimed.
"I'm going with Parkinson. Father demanded it. It's okay, though. Blaise is going to bring Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff so they'll be pleasant company."
"You need to bring Blaise here one day, he'd be an excellent addition to group!" Harry said happily
"Absolutely not. Harry and Blaise being friends would probably cause the entire planet to spontaneously combust."
"Rude." Harry put a hand on his heart, looking wounded.
"Okay so Draco and Pug face, Ron and Luna, Cedric and Cho, Fleur and Viktor, Daphne and no one, Me and Neville. That just leaves Mione, Harry, and Gred and Forge." Ginny reeled off.
"I'm taking Katie, Fred is taking Angelina. Harry?"
"Well, I was hoping Hermione would go with me? I'll need her to keep me in line." Harry said, grinning cheekily at her. "And also because she's excellent company. So, Hermione? What you think?"
You see, Harry wasn't quite as stupid as he looked. Or maybe he just reads his friend's body language well. Either way, he could tell he'd cheered Hermione up when her fake smile quickly relaxed into a real one.
"I would love to!" She said happily.
"Great!" Daphne said. "Now, whose turn is it to dance next?"