A/N: Chapter dedicated to @caramelokoala12 and @lydiann_3403. The dresses are posted above, but they'll be posted in the next chapter, as that's when the actual ball will be. Also, if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

****Lyra's P.O.V.****

The next morning, I woke up in a happy mood, just in time for Snape's class to bring it down.

"Alright class, as I have not heard complaint about the current seating chart in a while, I think the time is due to change it. Everybody. Up."

We all stood up, groaning. Snape always put us with the worst person he could, and we had Honors Potions, mostly Slytherins.

"The pairs will be as followed. Potter and Draco. Wealsey and Zambini. Granger and Parkinson. Patil and Crabbe. Snow and Goyle. Bloom and Black. Peterson and Abott."

I noticed Gabrielle's friend, Aaron Snow, was stuck with Goyle. My partner was the only other Tri-House in the school, Lydia Bloom. She was Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. She was staring at Hannah's cousin, a Hufflepuff, Orlando Peterson.

She sat down next to me and sighed. "I wish I could've been partnered with Orlando Peterson. He sucks at potions, but he has that hair. . . it's like. . . and strangely pointy ears. . ."

She must've noticed I was giving her a weird look, because she paused, mid-fangirl.

"What?"

"Do you normally fangirl about people's hair and/or ears?"

"No. Just his." She sighed happily.

"O-kay, well we have to make Amortenia, so. . ."

Snape interrupted our strange conversation. ". . . since you seen so confident, Potter, how about we use your potion on another student. Miss Black, perhaps?"

My eyes widened. Harry was horrible at potions. "Harry, what the heck?!" I whisper-shouted at him.

"It's not my fault! How does 'I suck at potions, I'm going to fail', sound confident?!"

"Going to kill your little girlfriend, Potter?" Thanks, Draco, you're really helping this situation.

An hour later, I added three unicorn hairs, and my potion was done. I smelled it and, smelled exactly what I expected. Evergreen trees.

"Alright class, let us see how Potter has done. Miss Black, to the front of the room!"

I shakily walked up to the front of the room as asked. Shape handed me an eye dropper full of potion. Worriedly, I tilted my head back and drank it, wincing. I stood there for a minute or so, waiting for my mind to go fuzzy.

"Nothing happened." Ron stated stupidly.

"Yes, Weasley, we can see that. Potter, you fail."

"Excuse me sir, but Harry's potion was perfect." Hermione sassed.

"Miss Granger, I-"

"No, Professor, his potion worked exactly as it was supposed to. On Lyra, at least. You see, if you used that potion on anyone else, they would be running around confessing their love for him. On Lyra, however, there's, metaphorically, no more room in her heart for love, artificial or otherwise. She's already in love with Harry so much that the potion has no affect on her."

I groaned. "Shut up, 'Mione."

Just then, the bell rang and we all rushed out of the room. "Potter, Granger, Black, stay behind."

"Yes, Professor?" I asked innocently.

"All three of you have detention with me, tonight. Do not be late."

"Yes, Professor." We chorused, grumpily. Walking out of the room, Hermione started ranting, walking backwards so as to look at us.

We must've been quite a sight. The school's picture-perfect good girl walking backwards, ranting to a couple, his arm over her shoulders, about the stupidity of detention.

"All I'm saying is that he shouldn't have given us detention for being right."

"Hermione, you sassed him in front of the entire class and implied that Lyra and I are both hoplessly in love." Harry stressed.

"Aren't you?"

"Not the point. Shape hates you, hates being wrong, and hates human emotion. Of course he gave us detention. I'm not saying it's right, but he was obviously going to punish us." I butted in.

"Wait. . . Hermione Granger and Lyra Black got detention?" Lydia jumped into the conversation.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Harry, it's just no big deal when you get detention." She shrugged.

"Don't you have an elf to go oogle at?" Harry grumped

"Orlando Peterson is not an elf. He is the picture of mortality."

"Lydia, he's a wizard."

"O-kay, well I'm gonna go. . ." Hermione stated awkwardly, Harry rushing behind her.

"Some boyfriend you are!" I called after him.

He stopped and looked back at me. "Ly, you can't expect me to stand here while you debate the mortality of some dude I don't know. I'm going to see Ron." He shook his head, smiling.

"He is normal."

"Sure. Don't you have a shrine to go set up, or something?"

She smiled at me. "I think we're going to be great friends."

I walked back into the Gryffindor common room to see Lucy and Sarah having a shouting match.

"What happened?" I asked Sarah, scared. She was on fire, and she usually has really good control over her Spotter.

"Lucy says that since you're dating Harry, he's going to drag you into his Voldemort nonsense."

"Luce?"

"It's true! He's nothing but trouble, and you're going to get yourself killed." She replied stubbornly.

"First, Sar, you don't have to defend me. Second, Lucy, all of his true friends would support him. If he goes down, I'm going down with him. If you're not willing to accept that, than maybe you don't need to get involved in this Voldemort nonsense. We're in the middle of a war, Lucy."

"Believe whatever you want to, Lyra. Just don't involve me in any way, shape or form." She hissed, narrowing her eyes at me and stalking away.

I collapsed on the couch, crying. I seem to be doing that a lot lately. Harry came downstairs, looking alarmed. Immediatly, he rushed towards me, worried.

"Ly, what happened?"

"L-Lucy!" I choked out.

"Is she okay?"

"Lucy decided to come up to me, and had the nerve to tell me to stop hanging out with you, Harry, because you were going to get me blown up! Lyra went off on her, and she just left!" Sarah ranted.

Harry stood up, his eyes showing a mixture of anger and guilt.

"Oi! Potter! Don't kill my girlfriend, she just wants to be safe." Seamus snarled.

I almost choked on my spit. "G-girlfriend?"

"Yeah. You got a problem with it, take it up with someone who cares." He walked away.

I knew Harry was angry and needed to let some of it out. I led him to a forest clearing, and attempted to transfer some of my power to him, grabbing his wrist. Pushing all of my anger into him, I felt his skin getting hot.

Pulse racing, he let out all of his anger through my fire. I managed to create air bubbles around both the clearing and us, so that he wouldn't hurt the forest, and we wouldn't have to breathe in the smoke. The air bubble was also under our feet, just in case.

After he finished, I realized that me grabbing his wrist turned into us holding each other's hand.

"Better?" He smiled thankfully at me and nodded.

"Now I understand why you and Sarah do that so often."

"I know! It's really useful, especially when you're trying not to kill anyone!" I smiled cheerfully. Slowly, we walked back to the school.

"Harry. Harryyyyyyy. Haaaaaarrrrrryyyyy!"

"What?!"

"You should give me a piggy back ride." He groaned, but held his arms out anyways.

We- he walked back to the castle, and into the Gryffindor common room, again.

"Snogging again?" Sarah tsked at us.

"Nah, just trying to kill trees." Harry smirked.

"Sure." Sarah rolled her eyes.

I mirrored her actions, "Sar, I gave Harry some of my fire to let his anger out. We were in the forest." She walked away, not believing a word I said.

"Lyra, can I talk to you for a minute?" Nataly came downstairs. I nodded, so she walked back up, me following.

"I know you and Harry are together now, and I wanted to say I'm sorry. For liking him, I mean. I got you something."

She handed me a small book with a leather cover.

*

Today was Hogsmeade. I was shopping with Gabrielle, Hannah and Hermione for the Yule Ball, which had been announced yesterday. Sarah just told me she was just going to search through whatever's left over from the Halloween costume wardrobe, and Mum sent Ginny a dress.

She really didn't care.

We went to the dress shop in the right side of Hogsmeade, and I headed towards the pastels. Hannah went towards the poofy Cinderella style dresses, Hermione was by the pinks, and Gabrielle was near me, looking at the neutral colours.

Hannah squealed and ran at me with a crystal Cinderella style dress. "It's great, Han, try it on." I smiled.

I noticed Hermione and Gabrielle talking, Hermione with a beautiful turquoise flowy dress. She walked into the dressing rooms, and Gabrielle soon followed, clad with a black dress over her arm. I grabbed a nice purple dress and followed their steps (in a different dressing room, or course).

We all opened the doors at the exact same time as Harry, Ron, Aaron, and Neville walking by.

"Dang it, Harry/Ron/Aaron/Neville, now we have to get new dresses!" We chorused.

They smirked. "Your welcomeeeeeee!" Aaron led them all out in a sing-song voice. Looking around, Gabrielle, Hannah, and Hermione were blushing. I quickly muttered a spell that wouldn't allow those four to see in the store for hours.

"You're blushing." I commented.

"So're you." Hermione shot back.

"Yeah, but I'm allowed to blush. I'm his girlfriend."

"So, Hannah, Neville asked you yet?" Hermione changed the subject. Typical.

"No, not yet." She blushed.

Suddenly, we heard a scream from the back of the store. I immediately had fire and water in each hand, just in case.

Looking back, I saw Gabrielle holding a white patterned dress with a royal blue ribbon around the waist.

"Gaby, it's beautiful!" I gasped.

"Eesn't eet great?"

"Wow."

"You have to get that." Hannah commented, coming out of the dressing room in a pink princess dress.

"Wow, Han, that's. . . amazing." Gabrielle and Hannah paid for their dresses and left Hermione and I.

"What do you think of this?" We chorused. We then proceeded to burst out laughing like maniacs. What're best friends for?

She showed me a flowy pink-purple dress, and I showed her a simple peach dress. My dress had gems around trailing from the neckline to the waist. Her dress transitioned from light pink at the shoulders to a dark purple at the hem, with was a small piece of fabric as a decorative belt.

We smirked at each other as we walked into the dressing rooms, knowing what was about to happen. You see, every morning, Hermione and I have a contest to see who can get ready the fastest. It's become, like, a game to us now.

"DONE!" We chorused, earning weird looks from other customers. Looking at the other, we both gasped and came to a silent agreement. We were getting these dresses.

For the rest of the hour, I spent time with Hermione, looking for Hannah and Gabrielle. Once we found them, Hermione and Hannah ran off, back to the castle.

Gabrielle and I spent the rest of the day together, teasing each other about their crush.

"Gaby, at least he knows I like him. We're dating for Merlin's sake!"

"Not ze point. Ze point eez, we both like a guy, and your guy likes you. Ze guy I like only knows me for my seester."

I rolled my eyes, and on doing so, saw a heartbroken Aaron, who had heard out convesation. He turned and ran away, and I, muttering a quick excuse to Gabrielle, followed him.

I finally cornered him with my Shadow, in the bookstore.

"Aaron! Wait!"

"What, Lyra?"

"Gaby-"

"She likes someone else." This guy was stubborn.

"Well, she obviously doesn't like me." I rolled my eyes, "plus, what makes you think she wasn't talking about you?"

He hesitated. "She's a veela, Lyra. She has plenty of guys falling at her feet."

I smirked. "Her sister is a veela. Her sister has boys calling at her feet. Gaby doesn't have veela. She thinks you only know her for her sister, as does almost everybody else."

"Merlin, I made a mistake!" He ran off, leaving me alone.

Suddenly, I was attacked by owls. There were like six of them, and they all began pestering me for treats. Some random kid must've seen my predicament, because he threw owl treats my way.

Graceful as I am, I didn't catch them. So, until the owls stopped killing me long enough for me to feed them, I was stuck.

Suddenly, I had and idea. I burst up, covered in water, and the owls all flew away. I thanked the boy with the owl treats, who turned out to be Aaron, Gabrielle on his arm.

Back at the castle, we did everything possible to avoid the boys, who wanted to see our dresses. We only had an hour left before we all had to be back in our common rooms.

I noticed a letter stuck to my dress bag when I got to my Hufflepuff room, which must've been from the evil owls.

Meet me near the forest. Use your shadow, I have something to show you.

Love, your boyfriend.

P.s.- I will never get tired of saying that. :)

I blushed, but walked to the forest anyways. Looking around, I saw a small path of Oreos inside air bubbles. The bubbles were probably Sarah's doing, but the Oreos were definitely Harry's; he's the only one who would leave me a path of chocolate.

I followed the path, leaving the bubbles the same. What? I needed to be able to find a way back, I'd just eat them then.

"H-Harry? Where are you? Harry?" I was starting to get scares, but I just continued following the Oreos. I came to a clearing, the clearing where I helped Harry not kill people.

The was a classic picnic blanket hovering in the air, covered in all different kinds of desserts.

I gasped. "Oh, Harry. . ."

He came off from on top of the blanket, where he was organizing everything.

"Er- d'you like it?" He was fidgeting nervously.

"Like it, Harry, I love it! This was- and how'd you- and. . . wow."

We talked and laughed throughout dessert after that, and he started fidgeting towards the end.

"Um. . . er. . . Ly?" He looked nervous again.

"Um. . . er. . . what?" I mimicked him, smirking.

"I was wondering if you would. . . go to the ball with me?"

I beamed at him. "I'd love to, Harry. Now can we leave, it's past curfew, and I promised Lydia I'd meet her in the Slytherin dorms no later than thirty minutes past."

He nodded and walked me there, holding my hand. Which would probably be a lot more romantic if it wasn't to let me Shadow him.

I said goodbye and walked in, only to be confronted by Lydia, in a spinning chair, petting a strangely familiar coloured blonde car.

"Lydia, what is wrong with that cat?"

"You're late. And I bewitched it to have the same color hair as O- that's beside the point."

"Well, Harry asked me to the ball-"

"Of course he did. And guess who asked me?!"

"Orlando?"

"No, Voldemort, who do you think?!" We both started squealing like freaks.

"Lyd, we're trying to sleep." Draco came down the stairs, yawning.

"Lyd?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, hey, Lyra." Draco smiled at me, a genuine smile.

Lydia must've seen my weirded out look, because she smiled at me. "Draco only acts like a jerk in public. Or around your boyfriend."

Draco choked on his own spit. "You know, I will never understand your taste in anything but chocolate." He looked at me weird.

"Whatever. We're gonna have a sleepover. You need to leave." Lydia stated bluntly.

"Why?" He looked at her weird.

She smirked back. "BECAUSE I JUST ATE YOUR CAR, NOW GO!" Draco, terrified, ran away.

"Well that's an interesting way to put it."