I was dancing alone, until Harry appeared out of thin air and pulled me into his arms. We spun around together in our own bubble, forever and ever...
-----
My eyes snapped open. I stayed still, remembering the dream, until I realised that today was the Big Day. Christmas Day! I jumped out of bed and wrenched open the wardrobe, checking that my dress and shoes were still where they were the night before. I felt so high, I forgot about presents and ran downstairs to wake up Ginny.
'Ginny! Wake up! It's Christmas!' I cried, shaking her.
'Yeah... morning, Hermione... wait a sec! What are you doing in here at 5:30 AM?' Ginny tried to push me away and then fell back to sleep.
I felt like a six-year-old on Christmas Morning, except that I didn't care about presents. However, once I was back in my own dormitory, I slept until nine, when Ginny woke me up.
'It's a reasonable hour of the morning to open presents, and now you're asleep! What's with your sleeping patterns, girl?' Ginny winked and threw what felt like a Weasley jumper in my direction.
'Thanks, Ginny.' I sat up, suddenly wide awake. 'So are you ready to get this show on the road?'
'Make-up already?' Ginny asked. She laughed. 'Shouldn't we wake up the boys for presents first, and surprise them with our dresses later?'
I got up and stretched. Ginny picked up the pile of presents we had for Harry and Ron. Sure enough, when we reached their dormitory, they were still asleep. Seamus was nowhere to be seen. As Ginny threw gobstones at Ron, I slipped onto Harry's four-poster and kissed him on the cheek.
'Wake up,' I whispered. He opened his eyes and smiled at me, pulling himself up. He put his arms around my neck. I realised that I had never been on his bed with him before, however close our relationship was. I noticed how he slept in only boxers and that his sheets were tangled, as though he had moved around in his sleep. He kissed me for a long time and as we broke apart, he put on his glasses and handed me a small present. Harry held my hand and helped me open the box. Inside was a silver charm bracelet, with various charms such as an H, a book and a tiny ladybug.
'Wow,' I said. 'Thank you. It's beautiful.'
Harry didn't say anything, but picked up the charm bracelet and fastened it to my wrist. Then he picked up my hand and smiled. I put my other hand on his bare chest, but he lifted it off and held it as well. 'Do you want to see where the others are at?' he asked, and opened the hangings of his bed.
Everyone exchanged presents, and Neville and Dean woke up and joined in. Harry had his hand on my knee the whole time. I had been up early after all, so when I got tired I laid down and put my head on his pillow.
As Ron and Neville tried to see who could fit more chocolate frogs in his mouth at once (which is harder than it sounds, because the frogs keep trying to jump out), Harry laid down next to me.
Instantly, Dean called out: 'Breakfast?'
Everyone nodded, so Ginny and I went back to our dormitories to get out of our pyjamas.
-----
I was on edge for the whole morning; all through breakfast and the games of exploding snap in the common room, I just couldn't sit still. I could barely eat lunch due to my excitement. Ginny checked her watch.
'Okay, Hermione,' she laughed. 'I guess we can start get ready now.'
Parvati and Lavender had already taken over our dormitory, so I took my dress, shoes and make-up very carefully down to Ginny's, which was uninhabited because the other fifth year girls were having snowball fights.
First, we tried on our dresses, to make sure that they still fitted fine. Secondly, we changed back into our trackies and got to work.
I sat Ginny down and brushed through her long, thick hair. I separated the two front sections, braided them, then ran my fingers up and down the braids to make them look messy. Finished with hairspray, and that was Ginny's simple hairstyle done in twenty minutes. Next was my more complicated hair. I wanted retro curls, with my fringe pinned back. Ginny used her wand to set the curls before pinning them up, but it still took a while to get them just right. We had to thicken my hair and make it less frizzy.
When that was perfect, I began on Ginny's make-up. We'd agreed not to tell the other what we were doing, but to go all-out on make-up. I smoothed on the primer and foundation, and started to work on her eyes. I did a navy smoky eye, with really thick black lashes. I was careful not to mix up the three shades of powder, as I'd done at the last Yule Ball. Nude lips, to contrast with her dark eyes, and a tiny bit of blush, blended to her temples, completed the look. She wasn't allowed to see herself until the end, so I sat down and closed my eyes while she set to work on my make-up. I felt the brushes glide over my face, and the sticky eyeliner on my eyes. I nearly fell asleep, but was jolted awake when Ginny began to pluck my eyebrows.
'Oi!' I said. 'That hurt!'
She laughed. 'I'm finished now, anyway. We just need to eat and then do our nails and dresses.'
It was already six o'clock! We ate sandwiches, careful not to smudge our make-up. Then we painted our nails (Ginny's were red and mine were dark silver). And after that, it was finally time to put on our dresses! I helped Ginny slip the strapless over her head, and stood still while she zipped up the back of mine. We put on our shoes and turned to Romilda Vane's full-length mirror.
Ginny stood there, her hair long and almost reflective, in the navy blue strapless with a thick black belt. Her make-up matched perfectly, and her red patent flats highlighted the length of her legs. Next to her was me, with my ringlets freshly unpinned and shiny, in a long, silk, turquoise dress, with shoestring straps and sequins. Ginny had done my make-up just right, so that it looked good but not too over-the-top. She laughed and grabbed my hand.
'Come on!' She said. 'It's already time to meet Harry downstairs!'
I felt a jolt of excitement already. We headed down to the common room, where Harry was waiting for me. Ginny walked out of the portrait hole, leaving Harry and I nearly alone in the common room. He kissed me on the cheek and put his arm around my waist. The, he led me through the corridors of Hogwarts and into the Great Hall, where the Yule Ball was just starting. He took my hand.
'Shall we dance?'
