Chapter Thirteen: Yule Ball:
Never had the castle seemed so crowded around Christmas break Harry thought. Then again most students went home for Christmas and did not stay at Hogwarts. Students fourth year and up stayed and a few third years lucky enough to have dates to the dance did as well. One of them was Ginny Weasley and she was going with Neville Longbottom as he had asked her. Harry and Ron knew they had to get dates but Hermione had a date when each of them asked her and so they thought they would have to go dateless, that is until two third year girls practically begged them to take them. They were from Hufflepuff, twin sisters, Aurora and Andromeda Green. This was a good thing as Padma and Pavati really would not be amused to have him ask both of them out he was sure of that now. They both were good at interesting forms of magic, Padma at the stinging hex, Pavati at the banishing charm.
"Wow never thought I would get such a nice girl." Ron said as they headed into the common room
"Well they are pretty." Harry said. "Very nice too, they really wanted to go with us, I could tell it was not just because of my scar."
"Yea true that, I think my natural charm got to them." Ron said grinning.
"Well that or my good looks." Harry said and both boys grinned.
"Chess?" Ron asked Harry.
"Yea, sure why not?" Harry replied.
The castle had been cleaned up, walls, windows and the like that needed it were patched, cleaned and painted. Paintings were scrubbed clean and armor was polished until it shone. Garland and holly were everywhere and Peeves was warned if he did not behave the Bloody Baron had new ways to make him behave. The castle looked like a wonderland and Harry was getting nervous, Ron had despaired with his dress robes as he was unable to get the lace off them. That was until Harry ran into Dobby late one night as he dozed in a common room chair. He woke to someone covering him up and saw Dobby there having froze after covering him up.
"Dobby wow it's great to see you!" Harry said.
"Dobby see Harry Potter asleep sir and the common room cold." Dobby said. " Master Dumbledore hired Dobby, no-one else would and he did so here I am!"
"It's great to see you." Harry said looking the elf over and the odd clothing he wore, child's soccer shorts, mismatched socks and a tea cozy for a hat that had cut outs for his large ears. "You are doing well?"
"Very well Harry Potter." Dobby said. "Anything you need, anything at all Dobby helps."
"Yea, if you have time I have a friend who needs his dress robes mended if you can manage it?"
"Dobby will do anything for Harry Potter."
The evening of the Yule Ball came and the boys got dressed in their dormitory. Harry put on his bottle green robes, Neville had a set in Navy Blue and Ron put his red ones on and looked down at them, the lace was gone and the hems were neat and his robes looked almost as good as his friends, once they were on they turned to a nice navy blue like Neville's. He looked puzzled then looked over at Harry who looked at him innocently. He knew Harry had something to do with this and he wondered if Harry had done it himself. No Harry could do some housekeeping charms now but nothing like this!
"Spew it mate." He said.
"Well I may have said to one of the elves to mend what needed mending in our dorm, he may have gone a bit over board…" Harry replied innocently.
"A little?" Ron said grinning letting Harry get away with his little lie, it was not as if he bought the robes or had a house elf of his own do this. "House Elves are mental."
"Yea, they are." Harry said grinning glad his plan worked.
They walked down to the entrance Hall and met their dates. Ginny was clad in robes of pink and Harry's date Aurora was clad in robes of mint green and Ron's in lavender robes, all the girls had done up their hair and had artfully applied their makeup and looked beautiful and much older than third years. The champions would go in first and Harry watched as first Victor Krum and a girl he did not know went in first. Krum was in robes of deep red and the girl was in robes of powder blue. Cedric was with Cho Chang, he was in robes of green, she in robes of light yellow. Fleur walked by in silver robes with a seventh year boy Harry did not know in robes of ice blue.
"Wonder who that is with Krum?" Ron said to Harry.
'Don't know but she is pretty." Harry replied.
"Yea she is." Neville added.
Once the champions entered the hall everyone else followed and Harry looked around in awe. The whole hall was done in ice and snow and the twelve trees were lit with real fairies. Harry sat with Aurora at a table near the champion table and looked over and stared. The girl by Krum was none other than Hermione! Yet Harry had never seen her like this before, her hair was sleek and done up in an elegant bun and she looked so fresh and happy. Ron was not so happy but he did his best to be nice to his pretty date and focus fully on her and not on Hermione.
Dinner was served, or rather one asked from the menu on their plate what they wanted. Once dinner was over the smaller tables were arranged along the wall and the dancing began. All the hours of practice paid off, all houses proved they could dance and Harry was surprised that Crabbe and Goyle were able to dance, then again with Snape as head of their house he would make sure they could. Draco, clad in robes of black was with Daphne Greengrass who was stunning in cream robes.
"How did Hermione get to be so good looking?" Ron asked Harry.
"She is a girl." Harry replied.
"I never noticed she was, was that good looking." Ron said.
"Yea well she is." Harry replied.
The dance went on and Harry was having fun. A few hours in he had to use the restroom and excused himself from his date. He went out into the great hall and down a corridor to the boy's toilet on the ground floor. He was headed back when he heard voices and hid as he recognized one of them. He is natural curiosity overcame him and so he stayed hidden as he recognized the second voice, that of Karkaroff.
"You know what this means Severus." Karkaroff said. "You know the signs."
"What signs Igor?" Severus said (Harry wondered since when they were on first name bases).
"Do not play that way with me." Karkaroff said. "He is coming back and you know it, let me see your arm."
"Keep your hands off me Igor." Snape warned him death in his voice.
"Maybe you are afraid Severus?" Karkaroff said
"I have nothing to be afraid of do you Igor?" Snape asked him.
"You will go back?" Karkaroff said.
"If I do you will be the first to know." Snape said and Harry was not sure that was a good thing. "Do not bring this up to me again Igor, I have a job to do as do you."
"Very well, but if…"
"No more!" Snape said sharply to him.
Harry waited until they had left and made his way back to the dance. He found his date fast enough and acted as if he enjoyed the rest of the night. Finally the dance was over and it was time to head back to the common room and to bed. Harry was going to tell Ron all he had heard but that thought was scrapped when he found Hermione and Ron in a fight yelling at each other. Finally Hermione ran up to the girls dormitory and Ron was left not understanding what had happened. Harry knew it was better to say nothing as he was sure Hermione had been right.
He was tired when he went to bed but not tired enough to fall asleep at once. He was still going over what he had overheard and wondered if it were true what Rita Skeeter said about Snape, that he was a death eater. Finally he did manage to sleep but dreamed of men in hooded robes that all morphed into Snape telling him he was never going to escape Voldemort…
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So there is the Yule Ball and Harry learning a bit more about Snape than he had known before. Right now as he does not have the Tri-Wizard Tournament to worry about he will start to put two and two together. A bit of background on the love potions, this is what my friends and I way back when we were in High School we called perfume this. So when I think of love potions I think of perfume, the right scent really can drive a guy wild.
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