Chapter 489: Everybody Wants to Dance with Fish (Edited)

Like Fish, Harry thought that Professor McGonagall had left them behind because he and Ron had a childish fight before the end of class....

Wait a minute! If that's the case, why is Ron all right?!

And Lavender Brown, earlier, let out several chuckles and Professor McGonagall said nothing.... Is the teacher pointing a gun at me?

Thought Harry, who still hadn't turned his head.

"Nothing to do with that." Professor McGonagall looked at Harry and waited until everyone else had left the classroom before continuing, "It's about the dance, the champions all have a partner-"

"What partner?" interrupted Harry unconsciously.

Professor McGonagall looked at him suspiciously, as if she thought he was joking.

"The partner you take to the Yule Ball, Potter," she replied flatly, "Your dance partner."

"Dance partner?"

Harry was numb, he had wanted to go to the ball, but he hadn't thought of a partner....

Well, maybe he'd thought about asking Cho Chang, but it was just a thought.

"I'm not going to dance." Harry blushed and hurried to say.

"Oh, you have to dance," Professor McGonagall said impatiently, "I was just about to tell you and Fish. It is traditional for the dance to be danced by the champions and their partners."

"Fish's partner is Hermione, didn't you know that already, Minerva?".

(??ω??)?

Fish scratched his head in confusion, not understanding why Professor McGonagall had left him to talk about this.

"It is a necessary procedure to inform the champions." Professor McGonagall seemed to be on business.

"Oh, now that Fish knows, so... can he go now nya?" Fish rubbed his stomach, "Fish is already hungry nya."

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

With a wave of Professor McGonagall's hand, Fish immediately hopped out of the Transfiguration classroom, grabbed Hermione, who was waiting on the other side of the door, and ran into the Great Hall.

Harry, for his part, shuddered as he imagined himself at the ball...he imagined his Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia in ball robes for the ball, thinking he was going to wear a tuxedo like his Uncle Vernon, forgetting about the ball robes Mrs. Weasley had bought him over the summer.

"I'm not going to dance." Harry refused once again.

"It's tradition," Professor McGonagall said firmly. "You are a Hogwarts champion and, as a representative of the school, you must do what is expected of you. So you must find yourself a dance partner, Potter."

"But... I don't..."

"You heard me, Potter!" said Professor McGonagall in such an unquestioning tone of voice that Harry swallowed his every argument with a bitter grimace.

Harry's struggle to find a dance partner aside, when Fish arrived at the Great Hall with Hermione, he kept being approached by girls, including students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, who wanted to be his dance partner.

But Fish refused on the spot, which made Hermione, next to her, so happy that she couldn't suppress a smile, and the girls' teeth itched, wishing they could pounce on her and bite her.

"Fish!" The girl, Gabrielle, ran up to her, hugged Fish and asked expectantly, "Gabrielle wants to be your dance partner!"

And Fleur came up behind her.

"Fish's partner has already been chosen, it's Hermione nya, go find someone else."

(?ΦωΦ?)?

Fish patted Gabrielle on the head, but he still refused in a very simple way.

Gabrielle's expression immediately aggravated, then she puffed out her cheeks and glared at Hermione next to Fish, and behind her, Fleur's gaze sharpened.

At the same time, the expressions of many boys around became strange, and some of them even ran straight away.

They sent an invitation to Fleur.

But Fleur didn't even look at them, and said to Fish, "Don't you think it would be more interesting to have two champions as a couple?"

She ruffled her silver-white hair at her temples and winked flirtatiously at Fish.

Σ(? °? °?)

Gabrielle, who had been glaring at Hermione, turned around and looked at her sister in shock.

"Nya? are you inviting Harry?"

?ω?

Fish didn't catch the meaning of Fleur's words at all and replied, "Right now he should still be in Minerva's transfiguration classroom, he'll be here later."

"... It's you I want to invite."

Fleur stared at Fish speechlessly for a long moment, making sure the other wasn't playing dumb, and then stopped beating around the bush.

The boys around her became even more agitated, and Fleur had already taken her natural charm to the limit.

"Sis!" Gabrielle cried out in frustration, hating herself for being so young that her gift for charming the opposite sex was nowhere near as effective as her sister's.

"Fish said, my match is Hermione, and I don't plan on changing."

(`ω′′≡`ω′)

But, unfortunately, Fish was completely unaffected by the veela's charm and rejected Fleur without hesitation, much to the relief of the boys and girls around his.

Compared to Fleur, a girl from another school, Hermione suddenly became a more acceptable dance partner for Fish.

When Fleur's invitation fell through, she probably felt a bit humiliated, so she grabbed the Gabrielle and hurried out of the Great Hall, despite Gabrielle's protests.

Compared to Fish, who had already secured a mate and many others, Harry was not as successful.

It wasn't that he couldn't find a partner; with his performance in the first event, and the fame that came with the title of Champion and the "Boy Who Lived," there were plenty of girls who wanted to be Harry's partner.

But Harry's target had always been Cho Chang, but he couldn't find the right opportunity to ask her, nor even, at the moment, did he have the courage to do so.

Not to mention the fact that Harry had discovered that girls liked to gather in groups and that it was almost impossible to talk to Cho Chang alone.

"Why do they all move in groups?"

Harry argued with Ron helplessly, in fact, he also knew that this was probably pointless, it was just to find someone to talk to and ease the depression of their situation.

"How do you wait until they're alone and take one of them to invite?" He asked.

"Put a ribbon around one?" suggested Ron in a nonchalant tone, and asked Harry, "Have you thought about who you're going to ask?"

Harry preferred to keep quiet, even though Ron was his best friend, he didn't want to tell the other who his favorite girl was at the moment...mainly because, if he didn't invite her, he'd be a bit humiliated.

"Look, you're not going to have any problems. You're a champion and you just beat a Swedish Snout dragon. I bet they'll be lining up to dance with you."

Ron seemed to see Harry's concern and suppressed his bitterness and jealousy to reassure him.

And so it was, after confirming that Fish had been "taken" by Hermione, many of the girls had turned their attention to the other two champions, not forgetting Krum, the star player, and Harry, who in the last few days, had been approached occasionally by girls.

But he turned them all down...

He really wants to be with Cho Chang.

Harry wanted to ask her, but couldn't find the courage, and then he didn't want to settle for another girl, so he was undecided.

Ron was also undecided, and hadn't even decided on his own goal.

"I wish we were as popular as Fish..."

Ron lamented as he played magic chess with Harry.

It seemed that it was still early for the ball, so Harry and Ron didn't worry, and although they didn't find a partner, they remained quiet as usual.

Harry nodded approvingly, if he had Fish's affinity, he wouldn't have cared how many people were with him, he would have simply walked over and offered the invitation.

"By the way, how are you doing with your second event? have you found a way to dive yet?"

After a brief conversation about dance partners, Ron changed the subject.

Harry nodded, moved his bishop with his pawn's disdain and replied, "In Sirius' reply, he taught me a bubblehead spell, but I haven't mastered it yet...it's a bit tricky, more complicated than the conjunctivitis spell or the flying spell."

"Bubblehead spell?" Ron grabbed his knight and mercilessly devoured the bishop Harry sent in front of him, "Isn't that the spell Fish used in his first year?"

Harry gave him a blank stare, not even bothering to answer the question; instead, he picked up the bishop that had been removed from the board and asked earnestly, "Can I repent?"