If I Had Made A Different Choice (Completed)

Part 11

The Daily Prophet story on the Tri Wizard Tournament by that disgusting Rita Skeeter linking Harry and her romantically, despite being a complete fabrication, had been a potential breakthrough. She had taken the high road, not responding to the comments of her fellow students, good or bad, and carefully not denying it either, hoping that it might get his mind thinking in the right direction. Parvati and Lavender had gone crazy grilling her about it, trying to find out what the real story was. But even though she was spending so much time with him, even staying up until 2:00 AM helping him learn the summoning charm, the idea seemed never to have crossed his mind.When the Yule Ball had finally been announced, she had immediately begun trying to figure out how to get him to ask her. But her clever plan to casually suggest that he could take a friend as his date was derailed by Ron's stupid declaration about not ending up with a pair of trolls. From then on it was all about getting the best-looking girl they could find. Which, of course, excluded her from consideration.
Not that it mattered anyway, she eventually determined. Harry had been smitten by Cho Chang, and had his mind set on asking her, if he could only get up his nerve. She was disappointed that he would fall for nothing more than a pretty face, but she shouldn't have been too surprised – he was only fourteen after all, and emotionally stunted from living with the Dursleys. And so Hermione had said yes when Viktor Krum had surprised her by asking her to be his partner for the ball – just as friends, he had assured her. Besides, going with Viktor would help her get revenge on Ron for his troll comment. She was certain that he wouldn't be able to get a date and would end up asking her, and then she could haughtily decline. She even taunted him a little about Eloise Midgen starting to look better.
The revenge had quickly turned sour, however. First, it turned out that Cho had turned Harry down, and Hermione might have been able to go with him after all! Then, Ron had asked her in the most insulting manner possible. She had angrily turned him down and stomped off to her room. Her misery was complete a few minutes later when Parvati came up into the dorm, gloating that she was going to the ball with Harry Potter! How was that fair? Parvati got to go to the ball with her Harry!