𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚕𝚎𝚗 𝚍𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎. fred weasley

𝚡𝚡. 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚙𝚒𝚍, 𝚑𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚜𝚞𝚗𝚏𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚜

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"Will you, uh, go to the Yule Ball with me?"

Ginny gives her a deadpan look. "That was the same as last time. Too much nerves frayed in there. You have to make it more convincing. Sturdier and less shaky. More like you want to actually ask him to go to the ball with you. You sound like you want to strangle yourself, or that someone has a wand to your head, forcing you to do it."

Cress groans. Axel nods his head in agreement. Mallory looks oddly upset about the whole thing, like she wants to push some confidence into Cress but doesn't know how. Cress appreciates her either way. Tiny Viktor, who has a new pet dragon — a gift from Cedric after the first task — is trying to teach the model (that Cress modified) how to sit. So far, the tiny Swedish Short-Snout has refused to do anything since it's bigger than tiny Viktor and therefore thinks that it shouldn't have to listen to him. Tiny Viktor is growing agitated; Cress can relate.

She's been in the Hufflepuff common room for the past hour, getting tips from Ginny and all her friends on how to successfully ask Fred Weasley to the Yule Ball. It's been going horrible to say the least. They keep telling her to picture that she's actually talking to Fred like that's actually going to work and Cress always freezes up and Ginny yells and Mallory sighs and Axel just rolls his eyes in exasperation. It isn't fun and Cress hates school activities.

Professor Sprout should have just not mentioned the whole thing all those weeks ago. She should have just let them leave Herbology without saying a word and Cress might have kept her sanity for the duration of winter. But, no, Professor Sprout stopped them before they could leave and explained the whole Yule Ball and how it was a chance for the students to mingle with the other schools without the stress of the tournament weighing down on them. And sure, that might be nice and all, but then there was the whole prospect of date. Bloody dates. As in someone to go to the ball with. Cress didn't like that as much.

She thought, at first, that she would just go home. Just hop on that train with Mallory when break starts and hightail it out of Hogwarts because there was no way that she would be able to scrounge up a date, much less scrounge up the courage to ask Fred Weasley to the Ball. But Axel and Cedric and even Ginny — who had stopped her in the Great Hall and said that if Cress left the school during break, she would make her regret it — were very adamant on her staying and Cress was forced to sign that idiotic paper that would ensure her stay when break does, in fact, begin, and ask Fred Weasley to the Yule Ball.

Cress tried to put it off for as long as she could but as the days grew colder and the castle became more festive as students started getting excited about break starting and lessons halting, her chances of snagging the date she desires are growing slim. She knows that Fred is definitely a catch and that most girls (if they're smart) have probably lined up — or are going to because George said that no one has questioned him on who he was going with yet — and there is no doubt that he won't say no. He'll say yes or he'll ask someone and there goes Cress's perfect chance at obtaining a date.