blushcrush: The spell is broken.

Current mood:	confused
Current music:	click-click of keyboards in the computer room

The spell is broken.
All... all right. Well, I'm still a bit confused as to what actually happened last night. It was definitely Hallowe'en, you could tell, what with all the strange things that happened. But here's what happened to me...

It all started out so nicely. Classes were canceled for the day, so I slept in through breakfast and got up in time for a lovely, cool, breezy lunch by the lake. It was just sunny enough outside to be warm in my cloak. Soblessa and I lit up our jack-o-lanterns and nicked some sweets from a nice boy in third year, and rushed through dinner so we could get in our costumes for the Ball.

It was like getting ready for the Bleu Ball again, only the dress was that much more elaborate and fun. Soblessa and I altered her pink robes to look like Celestina Warbeck's and she wore her long streaked wig, it was really very adorable on her. It is too bad she's tone-deaf. :D I was a bit nervous to get ready because I've never cast a charm like the one I found for my costume, but it worked so well, I'm surprised. I really like Charms and I always get good marks, so I suppose it was within my capabilities after all! I was just wearing my school robes and normal skirt and shoes and hat, and they turned into a silver-blue satin gown with short sleeves and a very full skirt with a bustle, and a beaded stomacher, both of which were very odd to wear, slippers, two long white gloves that went up past my elbows where my sleeves had been, and a small tiara in place of my hat. I was so pleased with the way it all came out. Wearing magicked clothes feels so different from ordinary clothes. They really don't feel real. They really aren't real. It's like wearing a coat of magic, and you can feel how temporary it is. But real or not, I have never worn anything so fine, something fitted to me, not hemmed or tucked or patched to fit. Soblessa was lovely about twisting my hair up for me. I'm afraid no matter how many red-haired princesses get painted by Mr. Rossetti and Mr. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, I think bright carrot hair looks so inelegant... if I could have, I would have charmed my hair black, but the only charm I know for it is practically useless, and a red-haired princess is better than a purple-haired princess any day.

When we were ready, we went down to the common room, where Colin was sitting on the arms of one of the chairs, wearing his noozy costume. Well, it was just that funny hat and a pair of breeches and stockings, and a shirt under a waistcoat, but he had a whole stack of Prophets and he shouted, "Extra, extra! Read all about it!" at us a couple of times. We saw Neville and Lavender -- she was pinning this flower to him that was playing music over and over. Lavender looked pretty, and Neville was wearing a nice suit, but I don't know who they were supposed to be. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan were dressed in matching costumes that were kind of yellow-ish and blue-ish and black, but I'm not sure about them, either. Harry and Hermione were there and so was the very large chess piece that was my brother. His costume was utterly huge and it looked very heavy, so he was stumbling around a bit, and he had no arm holes for his arms so every time he tipped over a bit, he couldn't steady himself, and one of us had to catch him! I don't know how he thought going to a ball in that thing would be fun! But Ron hates balls anyway, so I guess he didn't care about it after all. Hermione's costume was a dentist costume. She wasn't wearing any makeup or a mask or anything, and she looked a lot like herself, except she had on this white coat that buttoned up on the side kind of funny, and a very scary-looking little hook she said was for scraping teeth, and she said, "Open wide" and "This won't hurt a bit" and gave me a little sweet from a bag, and said it was sugarless. It did taste sugarless. Hermione, I think, would be a very good dentist, because it kind of looked scary and Hermione is very nice, so I wouldn't be scared of her if I had to have her be a dentist to me.

Harry was a Quidditch player. His costume was rather easy, I reckon, which is good, and he always looks very professional and everything in his red and gold robes. It's funny, but I somehow can't imagine what else he would be.

I am used to a Hallowe'en feast every year. But sometimes, a change of tradition can be fun, and in this case everyone had hurried through dinner and ran to their rooms to change into their costumes for the ball. So when we all went down to the Great Hall, in little groups, we found that while we had been away, even more Hallowe'en decorations had been put up. There were live bats on the ceiling, more cakes and sweets set out along one of the tables, and there was a little orchestra of wizards setting up on the stage. They were no Nine Inch Wands, but they started playing music that was utterly spooky and lovely and rhythmic at the same time. So Colin asked Soblessa to dance almost immediately, which now that I look back, I reckon I should have seen that coming. Colin hasn't talked much to me since Ron threatened him, and so I see him in Potions labs and class and all, but otherwise I only see him when I have other company, and he's taken a fancy to Soblessa, I think. That's okay, since Soblessa and her boyfriend from Ravenclaw got mad at each other and decided that inter-house relationships never work. I wonder if that's true... because...

Well, anyway, Ron was tired from lugging himself around in his big horse costume, so Hermione, Harry, and I left him at the wall by the refreshments and went to go talk to people from other houses about their costumes. Hermione kept handing out sugarless sweets and people kept giving Harry a hard time about his costume, which wasn't very nice, really, I thought it was just fine. Some people didn't recognise me and kept asking me my name and what House I was in. I think they just really hadn't ever seen me before, or they were just being nice. But it was kind of nice, I've never been talked to so much!

Finally when I spotted Cho and a few of her lovely Ravenclaw friends I said a quick see-you-later to Hermione and Harry went to go talk to her. And to all of them, of course. She had said she wasn't going to go to wear a costume, really, but she looked really beautiful because she was wearing a really gorgeous Chinese robe and had her hair done up like I love it, oh, it was just so pretty I wanted to hug her. We talked for probably half an hour and I just loved it, every time I see her I feel like I get on with her a bit better, just talking with her makes me feel smarter and more grown up and happy. I really think I could have stood there the whole night and not danced once. I sort of forgot about my gown and the music and everybody talking loudly and it felt like one of our walks around the lake, only we were still.

But, all of a sudden, Cho said she felt bad and that she probably ought to go lay down, and said she'd see me later. :( And, well, I was sad to see her leaving so quickly... the ball had only been going on for a little while, but I guess she must not have been having any fun. None of her friends looked like they were having fun, either, I wonder if balls just aren't Ravenclaw things. Anyway, I tried to go and find Harry and Hermione, but I ended up running into Colin and Soblessa again, and I'msorryifyoudidn'twantthisannouncedtotheentireworldBlessa (but the majority of Hogwarts was there anyway) they were kissing, so I felt utterly awful for bumping into them like that. I think that is one of my worst habits. I really don't mean to do it, but I am always seeing people snog, it makes me feel like a bit of a spy, and I don't like feeling awkward about things like that, but I can't help it! I found Ron and refilled his punch for him so he wouldn't have to lug his costume around and end up knocking over the entire refreshments table.

I was just trying to get him to wiggle out of his costume (I think he was really rather stuck) and come for a dance when a boy from Ravenclaw came up to us. He was dressed as a vampire, only it was really rather more like a parody of how Muggles see vampires. Long black cape, slicked-back black hair -- he'd even given himself little fangs, which were really cute. He asked if I fancied a dance, so I looked at Ron with my eyebrows raised. But he couldn't really protest, stuck in that big knight costume, so I put my hand in Terry's and went and danced with him before Ron could get out!

Well... :) It was kind of odd! Kind of odd and lovely. I think it was the first time I've ever danced with someone and felt like I was waltzing. I really have no idea why he asked for a dance, but I'm really quite flattered and, well, quite glad he did. I didn't know he was such a good dancer. In fact, I really don't know a lot about him at all. I'm not sure what prompted him to ask me to dance, but he was... he was very warm and... seemed to know me, sort of. That looks funny. But that's how it felt. And it was lovely because I'm so used to dancing with Colin and Neville and, er, well, I don't think they, er, like to dance, maybe, as much as Terry does, because it was really completely different to dance with someone whose feet went into all the right places and who didn't go too fast and who looked at me right in my eyes instead of talking to other people who were nearby. It was grand, his cape swirled a lot and it was just like dancing with a prince at a real palace ball. Only he had fangs and I'm no princess. We got only one dance in, and then a slow dance started playing, and he'd - Terry had just put his arms around my middle when someone came up and tapped Terry on the shoulder and said, "Might I cut in? Thanks ever so" and took my arm and pulled me away.

It was Harry...

At first I just thought something was wrong, so I asked him what, but he didn't answer and just pulled me into a dance, and I didn't, er, really argue. I lost sight of Terry for a bit after that, but I don't think I was really looking. I've always... Well, I've always really sort of wanted to maybe dance with Harry, so I was kind of distracted, and kind of shaky, because I'm really not so used to being held around the waist like that, and I practically clomped all over his feet. And I couldn't think of anything to say, either. All I could think of was how badly I was suddenly dancing... but then he said something that was really not very polite. I've never heard Harry say anything like that, ever. So I froze a bit and gawked up at him and kind of wanted to run to the toilet and cry or maybe take a peek to see if it was really true, and then he mentioned that valentine from first year, and told me I knew I wanted it... and for a minute, I was so confused, if he hadn't been smiling Harry's nice smile, I don't know, I still don't understand why he said those things, but then everything became a lot more confusing and I screamed because Ron and Harry came rolling up and it wasn't Harry I was dancing with at all.

Except then Ron was yelling and everyone around us had stopped dancing to see what Ron was on about, and Harry, the other Harry, I mean, the real Harry, said something like, "Malfoy, what are you doing?"

I swear I wrenched away from him like he was poisonous - it was so utterly frightening - everything about him was just absolutely identical to Harry, from the Gryffindor Quidditch robes to the really dark kind of sticky-uppy hair to the specs to the scar on his forehead, and his voice was even Harry's, and he was going on like, "I'm not Malfoy, you are. If I'm Malfoy, ask me something Malfoy would know." And Ron asked him something I don't even remember now, and Harry, only not Harry, said, "See? I've no idea, I'm not Malfoy. I'm your best friend, Ron, you can't even recognise me?"

But I've never heard Harry imply Ron can't do something like that, and what with the horrid rude thing he said to me about my, well! So I said, "You're not Harry!" And I think I called him a nasty rude something-or-other, but then I felt Terry come up behind me and turned and really kind of threw myself at him. I didn't see what happened next, but there were hexes called out, and Terry pulled me back through the crowd away from Harry and Malfoy/Harry because they started fighting right there on the dance floor, wrestling around, and it was so odd to see Harry wrestling with himself -- and poor Ron was face-down shouting at the floor the whole time, and no one thought to help him up because everybody was yelling and cheering and gasping about the fact that there were two Harry Potters going for each other's throats right there on the floor.

But that didn't last too long, and Professor Snape looking really rather amused and McGonagall looking really rather furious and Professor Vector looking really rather numerical came and had them pulled apart pretty quickly. Only they were being taken out of the room, one of the Harrys yelled something at Hermione and spit at her, only the spit was red and so I think it was blood... that Malfoy, I swear someday he is going to get what he deserves for being such a disgusting horrid boy. I hope they take away his Prefect badge and I hope he gets in massive trouble with His Father and I hope he never thinks he could be anywhere as good as Harry. I'm glad Harry bloodied his nose. I don't know why he did what he did, but it wasn't funny or clever, it was terrible. But I'm glad Dumbledore didn't make us all go back to our dorms - he told us we could have the rest of the dance, unlike last time, so I spent the rest of the dance with Terry, because Ron and Hermione were gone, too, and Colin and Soblessa were still dancing by themselves.

I told Terry a lot of that, too. I don't remember starting to cry but I guess I must have been because he was really quite nice and wiped my cheeks with his thumbs.

Even though the little orchestra played some more happy songs, Terry and I mostly slow-danced. I just put my head on his shoulder and listened to him talk and he didn't seem to mind when I put both my feet on his and let him move my legs for me. I'm not sure why I felt really comfortable with him, but he was very sweet and really kind of dashing, the way he pulled me out of the way of the fight and everything, and so, when he kissed me, it was...

Well, I'm really rather speechless.

It must have been just at midnight, because it seemed like right after that, my gown changed back to my school robes and regular clothes. So it felt sort of funny, dancing in my normal clothes like that. I felt like Ginny again, instead of, well, a princess. Now I know how Cinderella felt... only, it wasn't me who ran away. After we danced, I turned away for one moment and then Terry was gone...

Only there was nothing left behind, not even a glass slipper.

I haven't seen Terry or Cho all day now, so I'm thinking about going to the Ravenclaw common room to try and see them. It's sort of lonely around here, Colin and Soblessa are off again together... well... we'll see... oh, but I should probably go visit Ron in the hospital wing instead, and bring along some sweets for him. He, er... tried to throw a hex or something, except of course his arms were inside his costume, and he hexed his own leg.

just_harry @ 2002-11-02 09:38 am UTC

Ginny, I'm really sorry Malfoy said that stuff to you and you thought it was me. And I'm sorry you had to dance with him and I'm sorry you got so upset. I'm just really sorry.

blushcrush @ 2002-11-02 06:18 pm UTC

I'm sorry, Harry, for making you sorry. It isn't your fault.