Ron sat at one of the tables in the Great Hall next to Padma, looking about, trying to spot Hermione in the crowd. He wanted to see who she'd ended up getting for a date instead of Viktor Krum, but also he hoped that she and her date would sit at his table with him and Padma. He'd never really spoken to Parvati, not to mention to her twin sister who wasn't even in Gryffindor with them, and he had no idea what to talk about. Not like he would have done if it was Hermione or Harry sitting there with him, at least. He reckoned he was better at doing the whole social thing when they were around - at least there was stuff to talk about beside how nice the decorations were, which, so far, was the only thing that either he or Padma had found to say. Hermione, with her bushy hair, was usually pretty easy to spot, even in a crowd - but Ron just couldn't see her anywhere among the students milling about, choosing their seats under the fairy-lit ivy and pine boughs.

Maybe Hermione hadn't come at all, Ron realized, and a horrible sinking feeling of guilt ran through him. He'd been so busy pestering Hermione about who she was taking to the Ball that he hadn't ever bothered to consider that she might not have had a date at all. Maybe she'd made up the thing about going with Krum just because she felt terrible about not having a date at all and, as the day of the Ball got closer and closer, she'd been unable to find one or to admit to having lied - smart as Hermione was, she did always like to be right and Ron reckoned she had never gotten the guts up to admit to him and Harry that she hadn't found any date at all. That's why she'd left the snowball fight early, he thought, so she could avoid having to tell them the truth. Ron sighed heavily, picturing Hermione sitting up there, all alone in the girls dormitory with nobody to talk to, just reading some sad book, all miserable and left out. She was probably pretending to herself that she didn't need anyone anyways, knowing her. Ron shook his head, saddened by the image.

"What is it?" Padma asked, leaning over to look at him.

"Nothing," Ron answered. She had very large eyes, Ron thought, and the sparkly eyeshadow that she had brushed on her eyelids only made them look bigger. Or maybe it was the black stuff she'd smudged along the lid that did it? He wasn't sure the purpose of the myriad of bottles, full of creams and powders,  that made up a girl's make up collection were for. Ginny had started wearing make-up only just a couple years ago, after begging their Mum for ages and ages to let her learn the spells for doing her face up. Ron thought the stuff looked rather clownish and overdone - on most girls it was alright, but on Ginny it looked weird because she barely looked like herself under all that stuff.

Padma sighed and sat back in her seat, straightening her silverware.

"Do you see Hermione?" Ron asked, turning back to looking about the room again.

"No," Padma said, and her voice had a bit of an edge to it that made him glance over at her for a second.

"What's the matter, Weasley?" Sneered a voice from his left, and he looked over to see Draco Malloy in smart velvet dress robes, one arm hung over the shoulders of Pansy Parkinson, smirking down his stupid pointed nose as he lounged there in his seat, pale hair practically reflecting the lights overhead, "Trying to see if anybody's wearing dress robes as ugly as you are?"

Ron gave him a rude gesture and turned away.

"Where's that Granger girl, Weasley?" Malfoy asked, "I'll bet even her robes aren't as ugly as yours."

"Eat slugs, Malfoy," Ron grunted.

Malfoy grinned, "Careful. Remember what happened last time." His eyes glinted maliciously, recalling the time Ron had told him to eat slugs with a broken wand that had backfired and set a curse on himself that had him puking up great, sticky slugs, bent for hours over an old bucket in Hagrid's hut. Then, glancing around as though to spot Hermione for himself, Malfoy's brow cinched slightly. "Did the Granger girl end up going with Potter to the Ball?" He snorted. "Couldn't even get her to agree to go to the ball with you, Weasley?"

Padma glanced at Draco Malfoy, then looked at Ron with a raised eyebrow.

"He's just a bully, don't pay any attention to him," Ron muttered.

"Ohh I'm sorry," Draco drawled in the fakest apologetic voice anyone had ever mustered, "I didn't realize you're the poor girl that got stuck with him. Pity for you." Crabbe and Goyle both snickered, sitting on either side of Draco and Pansy, resembling moss-covered boulders in their green dress robes.

Padma turned back to facing forward as Malfoy laughed and Ron turned red, slouching a tiny bit in his seat and picking forlornly at the stray threads on the severed cuffs of his ugly dress robes. Ron wished Harry didn't have to do all his Champion duties - he would've had a smart response for Malfoy if he was there, at least.

Suddenly the doors of the Great Hall opened and everyone turned to look, many people applauding, as the Champions filed in through the doors.

First came Fleur Delacour and her date, Roger Davies, the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain. Roger was red-faced and looking rather stunned by his good fortune in having Fleur for his date. His eyes kept darting to her, smiling with pride and appreciation. Ron couldn't blame the bloke - Fleur had to be the most beautiful girl in the whole castle, he reckoned, her hair shimmered as though she'd brushed glitter through the strands, and she wore a lovely red dress with a skirt that looked a bit like rose petals hanging from her hips, a white fur stole hung over her shoulders and clipped with a silver brooch. Roger's bow tie matched Fleur's dress and they looked like a lovely couple. Ron envied Roger's gumption to have asked Fleur in a coherent way, a feat that Ron himself had not succeeded at doing. He flushed remembering the ill attempt at asking Fleur to the ball and sunk even lower in his seat when she glanced his way.

Next was Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory, both looking really nice. Hufflepuff house had practically exploded over their arrival, Herbert Fleet in particular standing up and letting out a loud whistle and a shout of "Captain, my Captain!", which set Cedric's face to flushing and he shook his head at his friend's boisterousness. Cedric's hair did that thing that girls liked - his brother Bill could achieve that look sometimes, but it never stuck for Ron, even that one time he'd tried using a spell to hold it in place like his Mum used sometimes when she did up her hair very nice. He envied boys whose hair fell like that - they were cool and smooth and all the things that he, Ron, couldn't ever be. Sometimes, he hated to admit it, Harry's hair did that... and just when he woke up, too, with no effort at all. Ron sighed in frustration, feeling worse with every passing moment as he watched Cho and Cedric walking through the Great Hall.

Then came Viktor Krum and Ron couldn't help but sit up because on Krum's arm was literally the prettiest girl that he had ever seen in his entire life... She had straight, shiny brown hair that hung over her shoulders in a delicate wave. Her periwinkle blue dress hung just above her knees like a bluebell and her legs - they were long and sleek, pretty, with slippers that matched her dress. She moved gracefully, holding onto Krum's arm and looking up at him so that Ron couldn't quite see her face clearly. He craned his neck, trying to see her face.

"Who is that with Krum?" Ron asked, narrowing his eyes, trying to get a good look at her. He didn't recall any girls having come along with the Durmstrang crowd - maybe she was from Beauxbatons? Nobody at Hogwarts looked like that... It had to be some Veela relative of Fleur's, he decided, though he didn't remember anybody saying there were any other sisters besides the younger one that had been at the First Task in the stands... she was just a kid, though, not anywhere near old enough to be coming with Krum to the Ball. Had she just arrived? Maybe she'd come specially for the Ball?

Padma, who was sitting forward and staring across the room in surprise at the girl, too, looked at him as though he had gone mad.

Ron looked back just as the girl turned and he lost his breath. "'Mione?" Ron gasped. He looked at Padma. "Is that Hermione?"

Padma nodded, then sat back in her seat, looking rather sulky.

Beyond Padma, he could see Draco Malfoy, too, had shut up his face and was sitting up, staring across the Hall with a shocked expression as Krum walked with Hermione up the center aisle toward the plinth and the table at the head of the room where the judges were sitting. Malfoy's already pale face had gone even more pale and, judging by the twitching of the corner of his mouth, even he couldn't find a single thing to comment negatively on about the way Hermione looked tonight.

Ron whipped back around to watch as she took her seat - so enamored with Hermione's arrival on Krum's arm that he barely even registered Harry and Parvati's arrival into the Great Hall.

So she hadn't been lying about coming to the Ball with Krum after all, Ron realized, and he felt funny - numb, almost. He sank back into his seat like he'd been before the Champions had come in. He wished he hadn't agreed to come along with Padma - the most boring girl in Hogwarts, he reckoned - and wished that he hadn't come to the Yule Ball at all. It was all a big pompous waste of time, wasn't it? Everyone going around being all dressed up and him stuck in these stupid robes, with his dumb hair all tacky from the Sleekeasy he'd stuck in there in a sad attempt to make his hair do the thing that other boys hair did naturally... He crossed his arms and sighed.

Stupid Yule Ball.

Stupid everything.