Disclaimer: I do not own HP, JKR does.
It was a cold and windy Saturday, to put it bluntly. It was around ten degrees outside, and the air howled as snow came crashing down. It was a concussion of weather, and everybody shivered as they stepped outside, but it just seemed to make the snowstorm worse.
Everybody in the pack, except for Ron, who was going off with Seamus and Dean, were trying to get to Maria's Auras, a supposedly small robe shop. It turned out that Hermione already had her dress robes, although she insisted that she wanted to come. Harry knew it was just because she didn't want to go with Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, two Gryffindor fourth years. He couldn't blame her; those two were really quite annoying.
So the six of them walked through the bitter cold, and they all smiled when they finally found the robe shop. It was a medium sized shop, with a few welcome signs in the front window, as well as a few dress robes. The whole shop radiated joy, just like Madam Malkin's did, but it welcomed customers slightly more. Since everybody was very cold, they all quickly went inside.
There were only two people inside the shop, a customer, who was a Ravenclaw third year, Astoria Greengrass, and Mrs. Maria herself. The shop owner was very busy, since the second year was requesting some new robes. The brown haired girl then said a quick goodbye, before leaving, a scowl on her face. "Oh hello there," Maria smiled, before asking, "Do you all need dress robes?"
"Nope," Fred and George grinned, before Fred replied while pushing Harry, Ginny, and Luna forward, "Just these three."
Maria evidently sighed in relief, before ushering the three of them near the mirrors. "Yes, yes, let's see," she muttered slightly.
She went over to Luna first, before taking out various fabrics. When she had finally stopped at a dark blue fabric with white polka dots, she then put away the other fabrics, and started to pin the material into a dress robe. After she had done that, Maria waved her wand and dark blue thread and a needle went together and began stitching the fabric. "Tell me when that's done," she told Luna.
Maria then went over to Harry, looking between him and even more fabrics. She then settled for a dark emerald green one, and then began to pin it together. It surprised Harry that she chose that color, since it was only two or three shades darker than his actual eye color. She told Harry the same thing as she had with Luna, before she went over to Ginny.
But, Luna told her that the stitching was done, and Maria quickly went over to her. "Ah, yes, they are finished! Go and try this on, if it doesn't fit, just tell me. The changing rooms are over there," she smiled, and Luna ran over to them, dress robe in hand.
Maria then looked at different types of fabric for Ginny, and while she was doing so, she realized that Harry's dress robe was ready. She ushered him towards the changing room, and Harry was sure that he had heard a few laughs from Fred and George, who were evidently reading two copies of the Daily Prophet. It seemed that those two were catching hold of any conversation in the shop; which was going to be very annoying.
Hopefully Winter Break was going to be an alright time. Although Harry didn't like the idea of getting dress robes, he had agreed since he was a Hogwarts Triwizard champion, and this meant he had to go to the Yule Ball. This made him mentally wince, to just even think about Christmas Eve.
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"Ah, yes! Green does suit well with you, dear," Maria smiled as she took out a fabric that was a dark emerald green, and another fabric that was a ruby red. "The red is for the sash," she added when Ginny looked at her incredulously.
Maria then started to pin the dress robe together, mumbling to herself about something. It took her a few minutes longer to pin the fabric together, but soon enough she was finished with the pinning. She waved her wand, and an emerald green thread and a needle began stitching the robe together. "Now you just wait and tell me when that stitching is done," Maria ordered.
Ginny laughed to herself. It was such a simple thing to do, but yet it wasn't. Maria seemed to make it all the more harder.
Looking at the stitching taking place, Ginny became lost in her thoughts. There was something nagging in the back of her mind, like she should know something, something very important. But what was so important that she had to know about? She couldn't think of any reason why, it seemed absolutely ridiculous to feel like she did. The feeling didn't go away, though, and it absolutely bothered her. It was Winter Break! What did she have t worry about?
And then suddenly, it came to her. She knew exactly what book they needed to see, the exact book that would help her and Harry find out about this mystery they were trapped in. The book, deep within the library, but not in the restricted section; it would be easy and hard to find. A difficult task, but was it worth it in the end?
"How do I look?" Luna asked as she stepped out of the changing room.
The dark blue and white dress robe went down to her feet, and it was absolutely stunning. It seemed that everybody was speechless at first, except for Hermione, who cheerfully complimented, "It looks perfect."
"Umm. . . .The stitching is done," Ginny muttered, and Maria, who was tending to another customer, Michael Corner, came over to her and looked at the finished piece.
"Yes, yes, it is done! Now please go try it on and see if it will fit," Maria ordered, and Ginny complied.
It looked well on her, the dress robe, in her mind. Yes, it was slightly plain, but the simplicity was spot on. All in all, it was perfect for her. But was it right for the champion's Yule Ball partner, and girlfriend? It was all so confusing to think about, it gave her a headache.
Deciding that it was, Ginny slowly walked out to see her friend's and brothers' judgment. The scene was quite humorous, when she walked in, actually. George, Fred, and Hermione seemed to be trying very hard to hex the other as Hermione had a very heated argument with the two. It seemed that George and Fred were winning the fight, since they were not sporting electric blue hair. Although, Ginny knew she couldn't be sure.
Luna was trying to calm the fight, but she was not having much success either. She looked as if she was handling a bunch of kids; utterly exhausted. Ginny had only seen that same look on her mother, many times, beforehand. Luna was also back in her regular school robes, but that really wasn't much of a surprise. She had stated before to Ginny that the nargles and snorkacks often attacked her when she wore a dress, although she had said the snorkacks didn't have horns like their cousins, crumple-horned snorkacks. Ginny had found this quite absurd, since she didn't even know what snorkacks were. She had been even more confused when Luna had actually explained what snorkacks were.
But she then focused on Harry. Running over, she pulled him into a hug, smiling as she did so. Although her dress robes hung to her feet, she was still able to run over to him, and he seemed slightly shocked when she did so. But Harry then broke into a grin, and the only thing that that separated them was a cough from Fred. Ginny, who was now slightly amused with her brother, turned around just in time to see him be whacked with a book by not Hermione, but Luna. "Learn some manners!" Luna scolded, and they all paused before they burst out laughing.
"Not my fault. At least I'm not as bad as Ron," Fred grinned and replied cheekily, which earned him another round of a book to the head.
"Yes, you may not be as bad in some ways, but you're worse in others," Hermione pointed out, and they all started to chuckle slightly.
Ginny then slipped out, and quickly went over to the changing rooms. She didn't want to be seen in that dress robe until she had to be, which would be at the Yule Ball. Besides, the dark emerald green matched her necklace completely. Her necklace; it prevented the nightmares.
Ever since she put it on, she had had no nightmares. It seemed to be a miracle, but a trace of the nightmares wasn't there anymore. No Chamber, no Tom Riddle, and no flashes of green light. Although, the green light did not come from her own dreams, it still had her shuddering when she saw it. It was amazing what the necklace could do, and she had Harry to thank for that.
This time, though, instead of tucking the necklace behind her school robes, she brought it out to the front. It was a gift, and she should treat it so. It hadn't really occurred to her before that she should treat it that way, since many girls stared wide-eyed at the pendant. She had hidden it, afraid of what girls would comment about when they saw it. But, Ginny didn't want to hide it anymore. It seemed strange, to her, of course, but she felt like she couldn't hide it. The dream-catcher was too important now. Too important to hide, it seemed.
Ginny walked back out, hoping that she had enough money to pay for the dress robe, which she carried in her hands. But, much to her shock, Harry handed Maria two dress robes worth of galleons as Ginny walked in. He shouldn't have done that; she could very well pay for it herself. She wasn't that helpless. She didn't like it much when people outside her family paid for things she could pay for herself, but this time, she didn't have a say in the matter at all.
Walking up to him, Ginny frowned, before she said, "I could have paid for this myself."
"And what fun would that be?" he grinned at her, and she couldn't help but smile back.
"Oi are you two coming or not?" Fred, yet again, got hit with a book.
Ginny felt her cheeks turn red, but the two of them caught up with them. They had decided to go to the Three Broomsticks to get butterbeer, and it was still early in the day, so they had plenty of time before they had to head back to Hogwarts. Grabbing the package that her dress robes were contained in, Ginny and most of the pack went out of Maria's Shop and headed towards the Three Broomsticks.
It was harder than usual to get there. The bitter cold air blew in their faces, and the snow came pelting onto their coats, causing a stinging pain on their cheeks. Not to mention that the snow came down so thick that Ginny struggled with seeing past two feet in front of her. It seemed that everyone except Harry struggled with this, since he wove through the snow quickly while they chased after him. When they had finally gotten to their destination, they were all panting and gasping for breath.
The Three Broomsticks was owned by Rosemerta, a witch who seemed to have a specialty at her job. She ran the inn and pub, and she made sure that when Hogwarts students visited Hogsmeade that they all stop buy for some fresh butterbeer. And today the pub was getting quite a good bit of business, since the warm indoors was an escape from the snowstorm outside.
Walking into the pub, the six of them quickly sat down, all of them still slightly shivering from the cold and Luna got up to buy the bottles of butterbeer. When she came back, with the six bottles, all she said was, "No paying me back."
Ginny grabbed her bottle of the sweet drink and immediately opened it and took a sip. It was a calming solution to her problems; and she relaxed. And the chatting that they had had earlier picked right back up quickly, as Luna asked, "Wonder why Ron's angrier at the moment?"
"Probably because he's being an arse at the moment," George suggested.
"The Yule Ball incident," Hermione suggested as they all grimaced.
"Not very likely, he usually isn't this angry about one thing," Fred replied.
Fred, Luna, George, and Hermione then got into a heated discussion about the whole topic. Ginny didn't really care; Ron really could be an arse at times. But she didn't really want to know why he was mad; because she had an idea of why, and she didn't like it at all. But she didn't say anything; instead she just drank the rest of her butterbeer quietly, listening to the argument play out. It was quite an argument, where it got to the point that they had decided to stop the discussion altogether. Fighting wasn't going to help, especially if one member of the pack was angry with the rest of them, and they didn't want to have another angry with them.
A few minutes of silence followed after the end of the discussion, before Harry spoke up, "Anybody wants more butterbeer?"
Ginny nodded, and he went off to get two more bottles of the drink. When he came back, he gave her a bottle and she quickly opened it and took a sip. She just wasn't in the mood for conversation at the moment at all.
"Are you two there?" George asked slowly, snapping Ginny and Harry, shockingly, back into reality.
"The nargles are around, besides," Luna began, but she ended what she was going to say very quickly.
The rest of the day at Hogsmeade was spent in the Three Broomsticks. Fellow students would stop at their table to say hello, and the pack would reply with a nice greeting. The Three Broomsticks was very alive with all the students from three different schools talking excitedly and staying out of the cold. Many of them were moving as little as possible when they first walked into the pub and inn, even. But one good thing was that, supposedly by Luna's predictions that Christmas Eve should be warmer than this weather, although she didn't say how warm it was supposed to be.
When it was time to back to Hogwarts, the six of them barely fought the cold as they headed back. Again, the cold blew into their faces, except this time it didn't sting as bad. The snow wasn't pelting down as badly, so Ginny could see farther than before. She could barely hear the murmurs of complaints from the other students, although their complaints amused her.
By the time they had gotten back to the castle, like before, they were gasping for breath. The warmth that the castle provided was a good escape from the bitter cold air outside, which felt like a sudden drop of a burning summer. Hot chocolate was given to the students by the house elves, although Hermione forced a smile when she took her cup. She had started S.P.E.W., and everybody was grimacing when she did so. Harry and Ginny had refused upfront, saying that the house elves liked their jobs, and the trio of two Weasleys and a Lovegood had also refused, but they were the only ones. Ron was unlucky when he had been forced to join as well as Neville, Parvati, and most of the other Gryffindors.
By the time the six of them had gotten back to the Gryffindor Tower, all of them were exhausted. But one thing was on Ginny's mind, and they had to do it quickly; before anyone noticed. After putting her sweater and scarf away, she met up with Harry, trying to contain her excitement. "I know the book that holds the answer!" she exclaimed.
His reaction was humorous; he looked at her with a surprised and befuddled look, before she grabbed his arm, and told the rest of the pack quickly, "We're going off to the library!"
Ginny and Harry hurried through the corridors, running almost at full speed. Thankfully, they had gotten out of the Common Room before the rest of the pack, minus Ron, could ask if they could come. But they had to be quick; at least Harry had the Marauder's Map so they could see if anybody was coming their way. It was going to be hard to make sure of that and look at the book at the same time.
"Ginny, where exactly is this book?" he asked her at one point.
"No time to explain!" was all she said in reply.
By the time they had reached one of the library's entrances, they were both out of breath, but they didn't have much time. "Do you have your invisibility cloak?" was all she had to ask before Harry pulled it out and pulled it over them.
Normally, Ginny would have asked why he had it with him, but they were running out of time. It was already near curfew. Chances were they were going to be locked inside the library until morning. Harry had told her before that that had happened to him once before, in his first year, and he had escaped through a door that hadn't been locked yet. He had later run into a heated argument between Snape and Quirrell, before Filch had gone up to them, telling them that a student had been in the Restricted Section of the library.
Ginny and Harry slowly walked into the library, their footsteps not making a sound. They slowly weaved through the thousands of shelves that contained books of all kinds. They even passed the Restricted Section. But the two of them continued on until they found themselves in a tightly knit corner of the library, and all of the books there seemed ancient, but not like the Restricted Section. The books here seemed welcoming, while the books in the Restricted Section, even outside, seemed to be whispering dark things.
Immediately, Ginny threw off the cloak and started to search through the massive rows of books. Harry began to help her, and they searched through the rows of books, and Harry checked the Marauder's Map occasionally when Ginny told him they couldn't be caught. If they were caught, that would be bad. Her mother, Molly Weasley, would know, and that would not be a good at all. So they didn't say a single word as they searched the rows that held the possible books. Harry probably already knew what they were looking for, but he didn't ask if he actually did not.
Ginny looked closely at the books, some were in Runes that she knew, some in other languages that she couldn't begin to understand. They searched well into the night, but still came up empty-handed. It was well past three in the morning by the time they had actually found something.
Ginny looked at the book carefully before pulling it out. The spine of the book gave no title, and was covered in dust, unlike the others. The author's name wasn't even said on the cover, and Ginny had to blow really hard to get all the dust off, which seemed to have magnetic pull on the book. The color of the book was even stranger, as it was mostly rose-colored, and had all the eight colors of the four Hogwarts Houses: red and gold, bronze and blue, green and silver, and yellow and black. "I think I found something," Ginny mouthed to Harry when he looked up, and he walked over and peered over her shoulder.
The book had only a one worded title, Bonds. The cover contained no pictures of the sorts, just the colors that formed a symbol that looked like two halves of a heart on separate sides. As they watched, the two halves came together, and the book flew open to the table of contents.