Several sleepless nights accompanied the final tests before the Christmas vacation. Now that Brian didn’t have schoolwork to think about, he was once again filled with disappointment. He’d probably be one of the only students at Hogwarts during the vacation. What was he going to do by himself for a few weeks?

The Common Room was packed with most of the Gryffindor House. AJ and Alex had somehow smuggled in pumpkin juice, and they were passing around goblets.

“Care to toast the end of examinations?” AJ asked him.

Brian shook his head but reluctantly took a goblet when AJ persisted. He was sitting in the corner near the fire, looking out the window. The fact that tomorrow was the dance and Brian didn’t have a date didn’t improve his mood. He felt sorrier for Nick, though. Brian could’ve had a date. For some reason, several girls had been hinting to him that they’d love for him to take them. One second year even asked him on his way to Potions earlier this week. Brian had said no automatically and wished he’d had more tact as she rushed off, embarrassed. The second year wasn’t anyone he’d ever met, though. Brian didn’t even know her name, just that she was in Slytherin. In truth, although she was too young for him, the deciding factor had been her house. Brian couldn’t see spending an evening with a Slytherin, which wasn’t fair, but the house made him think of Timberlake.

Nick, on the other hand, hadn’t recovered from his humiliating moment with the Hufflepuff girl. Her friends had passed the story around school, and he’d felt too rejected to ask anyone else.

A moment later, Nick slumped down next to him. Howmione followed.

“What has your wand in a knot?” he asked him.

“The Yule Ball is tomorrow. I bet we’re the only three seventh years without a date.”

“Perhaps the only two seventh years,” Howmione responded.

Nick turned to Brian. “What? Who are you going with?”

Brian looked at him, attempting to convey that he didn’t know what Nick was talking about.

Only then did Nick turn back to Howmione who had his hands on his hips. With a “hmmpf” he stormed off.

Nick wore a puzzled expression. “What’s Howie so mad about? And why won’t you tell me who you’re going with?”

“Me?” Brian knew he was going to have to spell it out for him. “Howmione must’ve gotten someone.”

“Howmione? No way! Where’d he meet a girl? The library?”

Alex came by and poured more pumpkin juice in each of their goblets before returning to the crowd surrounding a game of Wizard’s Chess.

“We can’t go by ourselves. We just can’t. And tonight’s all we’ve got. You and I need to pack up the courage and ask someone.”

Brian suddenly felt rather nervous. In truth, there was only one person who he could see himself enjoying the ball with. And it wasn’t someone he thought Nick would appreciate. Nick stood up with a sudden determination as if he was offended by the idea that Howmione could find a date and he couldn’t.

“Okay, by the time I come back, we both have dates. Agreed?” Nick said. He didn’t wait for a reply before he charged into the Common Room crowd. Someone must’ve made a good chess move before there were cheers and the sounds of one piece crushing another.

Brian had no intention of going and asking girls at random, so he glanced out the window again. Something was slinking across the yard. Clouds were covering the moon, so Brian had to squint to see anything in the darkness. Whatever it was, it was walking to the castle. It was too small to be Hagrid. What...

“Not in the mood for pumpkin juice?”

Brian jumped and felt his face reddened. “Not really.”

Leighanne smiled comfortingly. “You’re missing a great game of Wizard’s Chess.”

Brian simply nodded and wondered why his mouth wasn’t working properly. She’d spent the fall tutoring him in the basics of magic, so she already probably thought him the dumbest wizard in the world. He certainly wasn’t helping his case now.

“I’m sorry about Christmas. Nick told me that you couldn’t go home.”

“Oh. What else did he say?” Brian wondered how much she knew.

“Nothing... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” she apologized.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that...” Brian started. Good going, he thought. Here she was trying to have a conversation with him, and he was making it as difficult as possible. There was no build up. He didn’t know what made him blurt it out. Maybe it was Nick’s speech. More likely it was the way the light of the fire was giving her face a beautiful sort of glow. Whatever it was, Brian didn’t know what he was saying until the words were out of his mouth.

“Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?”

Leighanne’s eyes widened. “Oh, Brian. I’m sorry...”

“It’s okay,” Brian stammered. He was already getting up. It was the night before the dance. Of course she wasn’t going to say yes.

“Someone’s already asked me, and I can’t cancel...”

“No, I understand. Don’t worry about it.”

She frowned. He managed a good night and retreated to his room. He clapped his hands and the fairy lights turned on. With a groan, Brian flopped down on his bed. He had already changed and crawled into bed when Nick appeared.

“Well? How’d it go?” Nick smiled.

“Oh, I didn’t find a date.”

“Didn’t you ask anyone?”

Brian froze. He didn’t want to admit to Nick that he’d asked out his sister, an act that must’ve violated the friendship code in some way. Nick must’ve taken his silence as a no. “Well, of course you won’t get a date if you don’t try... Aren’t you going to ask me if I found anyone?”

“Who’d you get?”

“Lavender. There I was, looking around for someone to ask, and all of a sudden, she was standing next to me. Like it was meant to be, huh mate?”

Brian wondered if the sudden attention had caused Nick to forget how many times in class Lavender gave the most air-headed answers. Or her high-pitched laugh. Or her ditzy voice.

“That’s great!” Brian managed.

Now he was the only seventh year without a date.

“Why won’t you tell us who you’re taking?” Nick demanded.

“Suddenly you care about me again, huh? I thought I was cramping the Nick and Brian show,” Howmione scoffed. “Can you move? Your elbow is about to smash my black pudding.”

“Fine,” Nick said. “I won’t tell you who I’m going with either.”

“Lavender Hilton? You don’t have to tell me, I already know,” Howmione said proudly.

Nick pouted and began pushing the food around his plate with a fork.

“See you later, Brian,” Howmione said pointedly. He grabbed his textbook- even though classes were over for the term, he was reading ahead in Muggle Studies- and headed out of the Great Hall.

“I can’t believe he’s going with someone else.”

“I suppose you wanted to be his date?” I teased.

Nick glared. “He should tell me who he’s going with.”

We didn’t see Howmione back in the Common Room. Nick and Brian spent the afternoon trading the witch and wizard cards from inside the chocolate frogs they’d been eating. The girls were already rushing to their dormitories to primp for the ball.

“What do you think takes them so long to get ready?” Nick pondered, giving him a gnarled old witch in exchange for a gap-toothed wizard of which Brian already had another.

He shrugged. Brian hadn’t told Nick, but he was contemplating not even going to the ball.

“No,” Nick said, looking up and reading his silence. “You can’t back out... Do you want an Edgar the Excellent?”

When the hour finally grew later, they went to the dormitory to put on their dress robes. Brian pretended he couldn’t find his, but Nick grabbed it was where he’d hastily stashed it under the mattress. He glanced around, wondering when Howie was going to be up to the room to get changed. He didn’t show, though, so Brian and Nick went down without him.

Lavender Hilton had arranged to meet Nick by the portrait of the Fat Lady. She was wearing pink dress robes with matching bright bubble-gum pink lipstick. Her hair was curled with a ribbon holding part of it back. It, too, was pink.

“Hi, Nick,” she smiled.

Nick straightened and tried to puff out his chest as if he were trying to look important. She grabbed his arm and led him down the staircase. With a sigh, Brian followed and hoped this night would pass quickly.

The Great Hall was decked with the usual Christmas decorations. The trees Qbeus had brought in were as beautiful as ever with glimmering lights. Now, though, the ceiling was enchanted to look like falling snow. Soft music played as they entered the room, which was slowly filling with Hogwarts students. Several professors hung to the side by the punch bowl. Qbeus kept glancing at McGonagall when she wasn’t looking.

Brian could see Alex and AJ in the center of the crowd. They seemed to be having a dance-off. A group of girls circled them, cheering on the twins as they did strange moves Brian had never seen before. One looked as if they were casting some strange, complicated sort of spell, their arms making frantic wandlike movements. Timberlake was in the corner, although Brian couldn’t see his face. Draco was making out with whoever his Slytherin date was.

“Nick, could I have a glass of punch?” Lavender asked, her voice syrupy sweet. She twirled one of her blonde curls.

“Sure,” he grinned, and went toward the punch bowl like a puppy after a bone.

Awkward silence followed as Brian and Lavender were left alone. Brian had never had an individual conversation with her before, and he didn’t know what to say. Lavender, though, didn’t seem to have this problem.

“You’re not going to follow us all evening, are you?”

“What?”

“Just because you didn’t get a date doesn’t mean to you need to be with us all night. You know what they say: too many cooks to a cauldron.”

Brian stared at her with a confused expression. Before he could respond, Nick reappeared.

“Come on, lets dance,” Lavender took the drink she’d asked for only long enough to hand it to Brian, and then led Nick near where AJ and Alex were still dancing their hearts out.

Brian stood self-consciously. A slow song had started playing. He noticed there were instruments in the corner enchanted to play without musicians. The other students did as Lavender and Nick and began slow dancing. Three songs passed before Lavender and Nick returned.

“Why don’t you come and join us on the dance floor?” Nick asked.

“I’m not much of a dancer.” Brian assumed Lavender hadn’t told him about their conversation, and Brian wasn’t about to bring it up in front of her. Besides, as annoying as Lavender was, Brian didn’t want to spoil Nick’s evening.

“I still haven’t seen Howie.”

Truth be told, Brian had forgotten all about Howmione. He’d been looking for someone else. A moment later, though, they both got their answer.

Howmione walked into the Great Hall with his arm linked with the most beautiful witch in the room. Leighanne was wearing deep blue robes of Brian’s favorite color, and they made her eyes sparkle.

Nick’s mouth dropped. “I’m going to kill him.”