Chapter 25: Drama's Not My Style

I was so mad at Fred that I didn't even go to the party that him and George were hosting. Instead I just stayed in my dorm, catching up on homework. But it wasn't easy, as my quill kept poking through the parchment, for I was writing so hard, and while I knew Angelina and Alicia meant well, them checking up on me every half an hour was not helping my mood.

I finally just turned off the light and layed in bed, ignoring their knocks until they went away.

December tenth brought the first snow to the castle. We woke up early one morning, and outside the window the grounds were covered in a thin layer of white. Before that, all the weather had done was pelt us with harsh sleet and high winds.

In Transfiguration, I still sat with Fred, as there were no other open seats, and we also had to work in pairs often, making sitting on my own pointless. I didn't talk much to him though, it had been about three weeks since the first task. But, as Fred had said himself a few years ago, I was famously able to hold a grudge.

There was a prefect meeting scheduled for tonight, and it was all I was thinking about through the class, mainly to keep myself distracted. This year, I had actually done some of my nighttime patrols, so I was invited to this meeting. But McGonagall stood up at the front of the class just a few minutes before the bell was due to ring. It was my last class of the day, and several other peoples as well, making the noise level through the roof.

"The Yule ball is approaching, and as a steady tradition of the Triwizard Tournament, I expect all of you to be there. This ball is open to fourth years and above, but you may invite a younger student if you wish." She looked at us sternly, obviously disapproving of one of us inviting somebody more than two years our junior.

"The ball starts at eight o'clock on Christmas day. You are senior students, and I expect you to represent our school with the utmost dignity. Dismissed." We got up with a general scraping, I talked to Angelina and Alicia on the way out, they were chattering all about what guys they were going to ask, or get to ask them.

"You should go with Nick." Alicia said, an excited smile on her face.

"Do you think we'll be allowed to order in dresses from Diagon Alley?" Angelina said, clasping her hands in front of her in excitement, an unusual display of emotion for her.

"I don't think I'll go with Nick, he's not too exciting." They both nodded in agreement, I had told them how I felt, and being good friends, they completely understood my lack of attraction. Even though Nick still came into the castle and sat with me in the library while I did my homework. I tried to deter him as much as possible, usually I just had to go up to the common room.

As the weeks passed by to the end of term, it became apparent that nobody was leaving for Christmas break except the younger years. Though a few were holding out and waiting to see if they would get asked to the Ball by a student from an older year.

"Hey, Vern!" Fred's voice shocked me, gradually we had been talking more, but I wasn't willing to just throw my reservations away, he had never apologized for what he said.

I was sitting in the common room, with Angelina and Alicia, Fred and George were over in the corner talking to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"What?" I called back, looking up from my paper.

"Do you want to go to the ball with me?" My lungs stopped in that exact instant, Angelina and Alicia looked at each other, and at me in quick succession.

"No." The word left my mouth almost automatically, Fred just smiled and turned back to Ron and Harry. I felt my own rejection as if he had rejected me. I just rejected going to the ball with the guy I liked. But I steeled myself, it wasn't my fault that Fred had been a dick, and that was why I said no.

"See, it's that easy, you just gotta ask." I faintly heard him say.

"You got rejected." Ron said incredulously, "I don't wanna get rejected!"

"I handled it well though, you try George." Fred said, nudging George with his elbow, George shrugged and instead called out a different name.

"Oi Angie!" She had been talking with Alicia in low tones, and kept nudging me, but she looked up when George called her name.

"What do you want?" She called back.

He grinned in a very George way, "Do you wanna go to the ball with me?" Angelina couldn't help laughing.

But to my surprise, she answered differently than I expected her to, "Yeah, all right then." She turned back to us with a small smile on her face, the twins left and Angelina watched them go.

"Um, are you two going to say anything?!" Alicia sputtered.

"I'm not the one who just got a date to the ball." I said, grinning and looking at Angelina, who looked a bit shell shocked.

"You got asked though, by Fred Weasley! Why didn't you say yes?" Alicia demanded.

"He still hasn't apologized." I muttered, I knew it sounded petty, but I couldn't stand how he thought I would just say yes about going to the ball with him when he still couldn't apologize for calling me fatherless.

"Oh, well yeah that does put a damper on things." Angelina said, frowning a bit.

"Oh no, Angie I'm happy that George asked you, I know you two will have so much fun." I said, and I really meant it, it was hard not to have fun with the twins.

We went up to our dormitory in no time, and plenty of gossiping happened that night. I finally told Angelina and Alicia that I wanted to go out with Fred, and Angelina told us that she wasn't so sure about George, but that she thought he was cute back in fourth year, so that was something.

Alicia was afraid Lee was going to ask her out, which I said was a stupid fear, he had probably already asked out all of the seventh year girls in the school, to varying results.

The school had gone into overdrive with Christmas decorating, and with only a week left to the ball as the term wrapped up, I was increasingly worried about if I was going to have a date or not.

A surprising amount of people had asked me to go to the ball with them. About five in total, Nick had asked me, but for the last time I shut him down, A seventh year Hufflepuff, one third year who looked absolutely terrified and ran away when I looked at him funny, a Ravenclaw fifth year, and some guy from Gryffindor who was a year younger than me, named Cormac McLaggan. He was definitely the worst of the bunch, and wouldn't leave me alone until I threatened him.

Alicia had been asked by Cassius Warrington, a Slytherin in our year who was on the quidditch team, Alicia had it firmly cemented in her brain that because they hated each other so much, it was undeniable attraction.

"Can you imagine the angry sex?" Alicia said, soon after they agreed to go together.

"ALICIA!" Obviously Angelina and I weren't so sure.

111111111

"Vern, can I have a word?"

"If you're going to ask me to the ball again, no." I said to Fred, who had stopped me on my way down to lunch, we had just come out of transfiguration, and my grudge was still going strong.

"No, actually I wanted to say that I'm sorry." The disbelief flashed across my face before I could stop it, I turned my body fully to him. Fred saying sorry was rare, I was expecting it to be much longer before I got anything from him.

"Not good enough." I said quietly, finding my words, "Not near good enough."

"I just-" Fred stammered, looking shocked, "I just wanted to say-"

"It's been almost a month, since you insulted my lack of parents. 'I'm sorry'," I practically spat, holding my hands up in the air, "Doesn't cut it. You had a whole fucking month to say that you were sorry, but the time afterwards doesn't matter, it's that you didn't say it right then."

My fuse that lit my temper seemed to get shorter and shorter every day, I would've tried to control myself any other time, but in the moment I just couldn't be bothered.

"You walked away." Fred's expression was stony, but mine was harder, and I drew myself up and stared him right in the eyes.

"There was at least thirty seconds in between those two things happening, you can say 'I'm sorry', about twenty times in thirty seconds. Also, even better, you could have jazzed up your apology," I sneered, getting carried away despite of myself, "Oh Vern, that was really insensitive, I'm sorry I ever said it, I didn't really mean it." I played out, "That took me about eight seconds, which means you could have stated that almost four times. What's your excuse?"

Fred just stared at me, looking sad, and sort of sheepish, "I don't have one."

I looked at him, and I knew he was sorry. I had known Fred for so long that one look was all it took, and I knew what I was saying next. "I'll go to the ball with you."

A wide smile broke out onto his face, and while I didn't smile, it felt nice to be on good terms with him again, and I was just holding out for an apology, and for him to know that what he said was wrong, that's all I wanted, and if Fred wanted to go to the ball with me, who was I to say no?

Forgive but not forget. Maybe I was too forgiving with certain people, but everybody has their flaws.

111111111

It was December twenty-second, four days after I agreed to go to the Yule Ball with Fred. Angelina, Alicia and I had placed our dress orders, and they were arriving tomorrow. I was in full Christmas spirits. McGonagall must have been feeling it as well, because she was extra nice, and was allowing a few students from Gryffindor to go down to Hogsmeade today. Mainly Fred and I were going, on sort of a date, though neither of us were calling it that.

The castle was so beautifully decorated this year that I just took walks sometimes to marvel at the craftsmanship. I had always liked pretty things, and got lost in my imagination often while looking at them. The Christmas trees were covered to the skies, and wreaths and tinsel were hung throughout the hallways, along with boughs of holly. Mistletoe grew naturally on the side of the castle, up from its host trees below, and the teachers let it twine through windows and down walls, it gave some green to the usual stone.

I was going to buy some Christmas presents for my friends while I was in Hogsmeade. I was trying to make the money I had brought from summer last for as long as I could. I didn't want to have to send a letter to Gringotts asking for more money from my vault, they took a famously long time to get back to you.

After reconciling with Fred, I found my mood improving significantly. He was just a light to me, and a whole month avoiding him after six years of being friends was a lot.

I got Angelina a broom shaped quill that could fly when it wasn't in use, and for Alicia, I got her a package of do it yourself tea from that ugly Madam Puddifoot shop. She loved the tea there, so I grinned and beared it when I had to go in and request their 'Lovey Dovey Tea Special' addressed to Alicia Spinnet. I'm fairly certain the lady who wrote it actually thought I was dating this Alicia, and kept giving Fred, who was standing beside me, pitying looks, he was just trying not to laugh.

"That place is horrendous." He chortled as we left the shop. I took a deep breath of the cold, not overwhelmingly scented air as we were walking down the street.

"I smells like the Divination classroom and I don't like it one bit." The mild headache I was getting from waiting for the exceptionally slow service they had was ebbing away.

"Let's never go back there, agreed?" Fred didn't seem to realize what he was saying, and maybe he hadn't meant it how I thought he implied it, but I was a person who looked way too far into anything and everything.

Fred and George had asked for some rather odd things for Christmas, namely parts of plants from the more dangerous greenhouses. As a prefect, I was possibly abusing my powers by going in there and taking them, but where else was I going to get more tentacula seeds, and the juice from the snargaluff pods.

I never got anything for Lee, he had forgot it was my birthday for the whole month of August a few years ago, so I forgot to get him a Christmas gift, ever since then we never gave each other anything for Christmas or birthday's, our words were enough.

All in all, it was a wonderful day, and that night, Fred and George had started more work on their Canary Creams. Before long the Gryffindor common room was going to have people bursting into feathers at least twice a day, as they were selling them so fast, it was exhausting. While I knew it was safe, I worried what other things they were going to make.

It was the next day, and Alicia, Angelina and I woke up to loud tapping coming from who knows where.

"If that's Fred and/or George, I am going to skin both of them alive." I heard Angelina growl as she hauled herself out of bed.

"Don't do that Angie, it's not worth it, and anyways, who'll be your date to the ball if George is dead-" I mumbled, turning over.

"Oh my god they're here!" Angelina shrieked, cutting me off, my eyes snapped open, and within a few seconds both me and Alicia were out of bed.

"What's here?" Alicia snapped, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders.

"The dresses!" At Angelina's words I practically ran over to the window beside Angelina's bed, where the three giant owls were flying, waiting to come in.

Angelina unlocked the window and threw it open, and all the owls came into the room. I fished out some owl treats from Alicia's trunk, as she was the only one of us that owned an owl, and started giving them to the birds as Angelina and Alicia worked on getting the packages free.

The owls left shortly after getting their treats and we all ripped into the unlabeled packages, to find which dress belonged to each of us. Wizard dress robes were similar to muggle dresses, but were always floor length, and had just a bit more material involved.

I had ordered a dark red one, that faded to black at the bottom, Angelina had it and when she gave it to me I held it up.

"It's so pretty!" I practically yelled as I twirled the material around. Angelina had found hers by this point, it was a purple that would be stunning with her dark brown eyes. Alicia's was a perfect Slytherin green, she drew an endless amount of teasing at the time, but when she held it up to herself I realized how much the colour suited her.

"Should we try them on?" Angelina spoke in a hushed tone, the clock said it was only eight in the morning, so with little hesitation, we all threw on the robes as fast as possible.

I had never dressed up this fancy for anything before, and the shoes that came with the dress matched it perfectly. I felt beautiful, and as we twirled and fake danced with each other, the soft material swishing around our heels, my anticipation for the dance just kept growing.

1111111111

"Angie told George that you guys got your dresses for the ball this morning." Fred started from beside me on the couch. We were practically alone in the common room, everybody else was at various points around the castle. George was with Lee, doing something that Fred wouldn't tell me about, which I didn't find too suspicious because I knew it probably didn't concern me. Alicia was spending every second she could with Warrington, she still insisted that they hated each other, but doing a prefect patrol a few nights ago I had caught them violently making out in the dungeons.

I had declared that to be firmly not my problem, and continued on as if I hadn't seen them.

"Yeah we did." I finally answered Fred after a few seconds pause. I was doing my Christmas break homework, and Fred was beside me actually doing something that looked vaguely complicated. I knew it was a recipe for one of his new inventions, probably the fever fudge thing I heard him talking about a few days ago, but it looked like nothing I had ever seen him do, so I wasn't going to break his concentration too much.

"What colour is yours, 'cause I have this ugly colour of dress robes- not sure what Mum was thinking, but they're really dark red and I would do anything to charm them a different colour, I already transfigured them to look better-" I cut Fred's rambling off.

"Actually they'll work perfectly." I said, smiling brightly at him, he sighed deeply.

"At least we'll match I guess."