Dating at Hogwarts

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 11875

Because of the Shipping War (an Anne Proulx sequel?) there was much talk
about Hogwarts students dating, and someone asked where do Hogwarts
students go on dates? I can't find the post in which that question was
asked so as to give proper credit.

Taking 'dating' literally (making an appointment in advance), all we've
seen is the Yule Ball and some students making dates to accompany each
other on Hogsmeade outings, but there may be other dating opportunities
that we haven't seen: students making dates to sit together at the
Quidditch matches, for example. Maybe guest lecturers come by (authors
on a book tour, for example, if the book could be considered somehow
educational) and put on slide shows in the Great Hall done up as an
auditorium, and students make dates to sit together at the lecture.

Maybe there are dances less fancy than the (once a century?) Yule Ball
-- In HARRY POTTER AND THE DOOMSPELL POTION (a fanfic), there were
dances at the Three Broomsticks from time to time.  On campus, maybe
each House is responsible to throw one party a year for the whole school
and Harry just doesn't go to those parties. At first I assumed there
would be committees for Decorations, Refreshments, Music, and Clean-Up.
but then realised that the House Elves would do Refreshments and
Clean-Up.

I wonder what the Music committee would do about music (the Three
Broomsticks booked a  live band). Is there such a thing as recorded
music in the wizarding world? Do they save up their pennies, I mean
Knuds, to hire a live band? Or allow an amateur band of students to
practise on their guests?

Hogwarts Castle is big enough that those parties could be in some big
room other than the Great Hall.  And I feel sure that there are also
plenty of middle-sized rooms that students could reserve to throw a
more-or-less private party in -- some of the kinds of less-unofficial
private parties I remember from college were 1) very polite teas, with
cheese and crackers, sherry, coffee and tea, with a beloved professor or
visiting parent as Guest of Honor, 2) birthday parties, some with cake
and ice cream and others with beer and rum punch, 3) costume parties.
None of those were used for dating in the picky sense above: if a girl
and her boyfriend were invited to the same party, they could carry on
together while there, but an invited person couldn't bring an uninvited
person as a date.

I think the Hogwarts students would do a lot of what I just mentioned:
going to a tea party or a public lecture or a Quidditch game or a club
meeting or the library or just their House common room, and there
looking around for a friend to sit next to, and thus romance could bloom
without the rituals of dating. Percy and his Penelope were sneaking into
deserted classrooms for a little light making out, and if they had been
going on official dates, Fred and George would have known about it.
Maybe their earlier 'dates' consist of holding hands at prefects'
meetings.
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