Before Hermione could answer, Harry laughed. "May I say something, as the supposedly "wronged’ boy here? First of all, Rita Skeeter lies like she breathes: many times a minute. Secondly, the Yule Ball was announced, and I was a clueless fourteen-year-old boy. It took me a while, because I’m slow, to work out that I wanted to go to the Yule Ball with Hermione. Alas, by the time I asked her, Viktor Krum had asked Hermione first."