Chapter 3 – Christmas Eve
Harry lay is his four-poster bed in Gryffindor tower the following morning. In his excitement at discovering that there was going to be a ball on Christmas Day, and his subsequent decision to ask Hermione to attend the ball with him. He'd completely forgotten what had happened in the arena during the first task at the end of November. The entire school had seen him get blasted by a jet of dragon fire, lose all his clothes and then lie in the sand and have a nice little chat with a goddamn dragon. He wasn't exactly in the mood to get up and be bombarded by questions from his dormmates and people staring at the mysterious new eyes he'd woken up with.
Madam Pomfrey had returned to the hospital wing last night with the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall in tow, who had apparently been enjoying a late-night spot of tea in the headmaster's office. They'd both been completely taken aback and even looked slightly afraid when they'd caught sight of his face, though once they realised that he was in fact still the same old Harry, they seemed to relax somewhat.
He'd been questioned at length by Dumbledore, who was very interested to know if anything happened when he touched the golden egg yet seemed unsurprised when Harry told him that nothing had. He'd told Harry that the egg had been a portkey which should've transported him to safety the moment he touched it, and that he'd theorised that the person who'd put his name into the goblet had also tampered with the egg. He'd also been very curious about what had happened down in the arena and the ensuing conversation he'd had with the dragon.
He'd told them all about it, hoping they would have some answers for him but was disappointed to discover that they knew even less than he did, though both seemed amazed by what the dragon had said regarding dragon blood. Dumbledore had said that he'd scoured all the ancient tomes he'd possessed the moment the task had ended but had never come across anything that referenced an ability to speak to the winged beasts.
He'd had to endure a few final tests from the school Matron who seemed desperate to find some explanation for the miraculous change in his eyesight and new colour so she could keep him overnight. Yet had been unsuccessful and was forced to accept that he was perfectly healthy and let him and Hermione leave the hospital wing together.
They'd gone back to Gryffindor tower holding hands, Hermione filling him in on the events of the last few weeks before parting at their respective staircases with one last hug and a promise to meet in the common room before breakfast the next morning to go for their usual morning jog. Hermione had been going for them alone since Harry had still been unconscious in the hospital wing and seemed extremely excited to finally have company again.
He finally decided to try to sneak out of Gryffindor tower and go and meet Hermione without waking up any of his dormmates, he could hear Ron's unmistakable snores which meant that he at least was still deep asleep. He jumped out of his bed, grabbed an old pair of jogging bottoms and a shirt that used to belong to Dudley, before grabbing his wand which had been returned to him the previous night and sparing a glance at the golden egg that was sitting on his bedside table. He was immensely thankful that he hadn't managed to wake anyone so quietly opened the door and headed down the staircase to the common room.
He was surprised to find Hermione already awake and waiting for him in an armchair by the fire.
She jumped up the moment she saw him and gave him a quick hug before taking him by the arm and leading him towards the portrait hole. "There you are Harry! I thought you'd want to go early and avoid all the other Gryffindors for a while".
"You know me so well Hermione" he replied with a small smile, letting her steer him out of the portrait hole, down one of the moving staircases and towards the grounds.
They'd arrived back outside the portrait hole an hour later after enjoying a rather pleasant jog around the lake and a much-needed chat about their relationship. Hermione had confided in Harry that she had started to like him since they were in their second year and made a mental promise to herself to finally tell him after the first task. She'd been surprised to hear that Harry had made an extremely similar promise to himself when he left the champions tent to face the dragon. Though neither of them had expected Harry to take a month-long nap and both of them have to wait until Christmas Eve.
"Hermione" he said, suddenly realising something "I've just thought, It's Christmas tomorrow and I've got nothing to give you".
"Don't worry about it Harry" she replied with a small smile "I've been so worried you wouldn't wake up that I completely forgot about Christmas and haven't bought any presents for anyone at all. Besides, how could you have possibly got me anything? I'm just glad you're okay and you know how I feel about you now, plus we're going on a date to the Yule Ball, I couldn't be happier".
"Really?" he asked with only a hint of scepticism, "I was kicking myself in that tent thinking about how I wished I'd told you sooner, when that dragon seemed ready to finish me off all I could think about was everything I'd never had a chance to tell you. Then you came rushing into the arena to stand between me and the dragon" he finished suddenly stern. "You really shouldn't have done that by the way Hermione, I thought it was going to kill us both."
"Well it didn't" she snapped back, "You've been my best friend for years and if you really think I was going to sit there and watch it eat you then you've got another thing coming. No one else seemed ready to try and help you, all the dragon keepers were just standing there like idiots staring at you trying to figure out why you hadn't burned to death. All the staff and most of the students were obviously shocked into not moving by the same thing, besides from all the girls who were too busy trying to get a look at something else."
He blushed scarlet remembering his state of dress, or lack thereof back in the arena. He was saved having to think of a retort by Hermione giving the password to the Fat Lady and pulling him through the portrait hole into the common room. The common room was now full of people, who all looked up at him and Hermione as they stepped inside.
"Err, Hi?" he said warily, glancing around at them all.
"Blimey Harry! What the hell happened to your eyes?" yelled Seamus from where he had been sitting nearby. That seemed to be the queue for everyone else to start pelting him with their own questions, none of which he was able to understand as they'd all started yelling at the same time.
He held up his hands to try to stop the tide of questions and was surprised when they all stopped speaking at once. "I have no idea what happened to them, I woke up last night and they were just like this, I don't need my glasses anymore either, some kind of reaction to the dragon fire I guess. Besides from that I've really got no more answers for you so If you'll excuse me, I need to go take a shower".
He took Hermione by the hand then and headed towards the staircases to the dorms.
"I'll meet you back down here in a bit Hermione and we can go down to the great hall together, sorry I was a bit short with you, I just couldn't bear to see you get hurt because of me".
"Don't worry about it Harry, sorry I snapped back at you, I'll just quickly shower and change too and then meet you back here" she replied, giving him a kiss on the cheek and running up the staircase to the girls dorms.
Harry made his way up the staircase, entered the dorm and was surprised for find Ron waiting for him sitting on his four-poster, he'd obviously noticed Harry's slept in bed and waited to get him on his own.
"Hey Harry" he greeted dully, sparing him a glance before quickly looking away from him.
Harry couldn't help but notice that he seemed to be steeling himself for something. He took in a deep breath and said quickly "Sorry I've been such a prat recently, I know you'd never put your name in for the tournament but I think I just let my jealousy get the best of me."
Harry couldn't hide his surprise "That's oddly insightful of you Ron."
"Yeah well, Ginny gave me a bit of a talking to while you were in the hospital wing, helped me realise how much of an idiot I was being. Pointed out that you'd never liked all the attention, and I was just being a jealous prat."
Harry was surprised to hear this, he'd known Ginny had been a good friend to Hermione recently and had spent a lot of time trying to comfort her while he'd been indisposed. He wasn't aware she'd been trying to fix his and Ron's rocky friendship.
"Don't worry about it Ron, I know It's been hard being a friend of mine the last couple of years, trouble seems to hunt me down and I constantly get way more attention than I'd like. It'd be nice if you actually trusted my word in future though and not just become a jealous mess."
"Yeah I'll try to get a handle on it" he replied shamefully, looking up at Harry properly for the first time since he'd entered the room.
"Forget your glasses Harry?" he asked, though his eyes suddenly shot wide open and he stood up quickly to get a better look at him. "Merlin's Beard! What the hell happened to your eyes mate?"
Harry actually started laughing at Ron's sudden return to his old self. "No idea to be honest Ron, woke up in the hospital wing last night looking like this, think I gave Hermione and Madam Pomfrey a bit of a fright."
"Hermione? Is that where she's been sleeping? I heard Lavender and Parvati talking about how she hadn't been sleeping in the dorm the last couple of weeks. Surprised Madam Pomfrey didn't just kick her out."
"Oh she tried, Hermione was telling me about it last night, apparently she snuck in the night after the first task to keep an eye on me. Only Madam Pomfrey caught her and told her to leave, Hermione refused so she called Dumbledore. Apparently, he actually took Hermione's side, seemed to think it'd be good for me to have some company." He explained, feeling a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth at the thought of Hermione sleeping at his bedside.
"Absolutely mental that Hermione is." Stated Ron. "Dunno why she couldn't just leave well enough alone, you were bound to wake up at some point."
Harry was amazed at Ron's continuous ability to be completely tactless; Hermione had been worried about him and yet he seemed to think she should've just carried on with her life as if her best friend hadn't been injured fighting a dragon and had basically been in a coma for the past month.
It was this that made it clear to Harry that Ron had never been anywhere near as good a friend to him as Hermione had. Sure, he might have met Ron first and he'd been Harry's first real friend. Yet ever since he'd befriended Hermione she had always been a better friend to him.
He thought back to the firebolt incident the previous year. He had been sent the most expensive broom in the wizarding world anonymously and Hermione had been the only one to consider that the broom may have been sent by Sirius Black, who at the time was thought to have been trying to kill Harry.
He had been too enthralled by the prospect of having the best broom gold could buy to really stop and think that she was only looking out for his safety. He'd immediately taken Ron's side and had been furious with Hermione when she'd gone behind his back to speak to McGonagall about it.
It was now clear from his recent behaviour that Ron would never have taken Harry's side as readily as Harry had taken Ron's. He'd been furious with himself after that, and had apologised to Hermione profusely in private, though he was sure Ron had never bothered to do the same.
The events that had caused them to befriend Hermione in the first place should have indicated that Ron wouldn't ever be a good friend to Hermione. He'd upset her so badly that she had spent half the day crying in the girls bathroom, resulting in her nearly losing her life to that troll. Ever since that day Ron had never failed to jump at the opportunity of upsetting her again, whether it was a sly insult about how her front teeth used to be bigger than average, or how he was convinced that she loved books more than people.
He silently vowed to himself that he wouldn't allow another one of Ron's slights on Hermione to go unnoticed.
Yet before he could say anything, Ron's stomach gave an almighty rumble and he excused himself to run down to the great hall for some breakfast.
Harry quickly showered, changed and met up with Hermione back down in the common room before heading down to breakfast together. Resolutely ignoring all the stares and whispers from the rest of their fellow students in the great hall. They joined Ron at the Gryffindor table and started piling food onto their plates, albeit with slightly more grace than Ron, who was currently loading up his third plate with great enthusiasm.
He'd told Hermione about his conversation with Ron on the way down and Ron's attempt at an apology, though didn't mention his comment about her. Harry hadn't really forgiven Ron, though was ready to attempt some sort of civility, even if only for the sake of appearances. For now at least.
He'd been rather enjoying his breakfast until a rather high pitched and unpleasant "Hiii Harry" reached his ears. He knew who that voice belonged to and groaned inwardly.
"Romilda" he replied rather unenthusiastically, turning to look at her. She'd been eyeing him greedily from the opposite end of the Gryffindor table since he'd entered and he really wasn't interested in any of her usual games. She'd only started Hogwarts the previous year but seemed to have developed a bit of an obsession with him ever since she realised who he was.
"Not sure if anyone's told you Harry but the Yule Ball's tomorrow" she mentioned, clearly not noticing his lack of interest "given any thoughts as to who you'd like to take? You'll need a partner for the opening dance after all." She gave him an expectant look, as though she thought he would suddenly throw himself at her feet and plead for her to go with him.
"I have actually", he replied offhandedly "already asked her if she'd go with me last night, she said yes."
"Oh really? Who?" She looked shocked. He could tell she was trying hard to sound only mildly interested, even though she clearly wanted the information very much.
He spared a glance at Hermione who was sitting next to him, she gave him a shrug which he understood to mean "May as well, she'll find out soon enough anyway."
"I'm going with Hermione."
CRASH – "RON!"
He looked across the table at Ron in surprise, who'd appeared to have been attempting to load up his plate for his fourth helping of breakfast and had knocked over the jug of pumpkin juice by mistake. Absolutely drenching both himself and Ginny in the process, who had the misfortune of sitting next to him.
The shout had been from Ginny herself, who'd shot to her feet and attempted to move her bookbag out of harm's way.
"You absolute prat!" she roared, before hitting him in the side of the head with her bag and heading towards the doors of the great hall. Presumably to take another shower.
"I think you'd best get yourself cleaned up too Mr Weasley."
Harry looked around in surprise to see McGonagall giving Ron a scathing look, before turning to Harry and Hermione.
"Mr Potter, Miss Granger, could I have a quick word in my office please?"
"Of course Professor" he responded.
He and Hermione got to their feet, suddenly aware that they'd attracted the stares of everyone in the great hall. He glanced towards the head table and was sure he saw Dumbledore give him a small wink, but then Harry blinked, and the headmaster seemed to be deep in conversation with Professor Sinistra.
Completely nonplussed, they followed McGonagall in silence out of the great hall.
Harry and Hermione entered Professor McGonagall's office shortly after and sat down in the two chairs as director by Professor McGonagall.
"I couldn't help but overhear that you two were planning on going to the ball together." She began the moment they sat down.
Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance, both inwardly wondering how this had anything to do with their professor.
"We are Professor" stated Hermione coldly. Harry had asked her to the Yule Ball, and she wasn't about to have someone tell them they couldn't go together, not even her favourite teacher, regardless of what reason she cooked up.
Minerva looked at her favourite student, shocked at the tone of voice from the usually extremely polite Miss Granger. She suddenly realised the reason for the way she'd spoken and sought to eliminate the misunderstanding straight away.
She raised her hands as though in surrender "Oh, no you misunderstand Miss Granger, I have no wish to prevent you going together. In fact, if I may be so blunt, I'm actually surprised it took you two this long to act on these feelings you have towards one another."
"You knew?" It was Mr Potter who'd spoken to her this time.
"Of course, Mr Potter, as did most of the staff and I believe your housemates as well." She smiled at them fondly. "It's hard not to notice the way the pair of you look at each other, though I do believe Mr Weasley was a bit surprised judging from his performance earlier. I do believe he may be one of the few Gryffindors who actually had no idea".
Harry had been completely taken aback by this news, he'd always thought he'd managed to keep his feelings about Hermione well hidden, though apparently not hidden enough. The usually stern Professor McGonagall was actually smiling at him across the desk, talking about Harry and Hermione's more than just friendly feelings towards each other. Feelings that apparently most of the school knew about. He was still confused why she wanted to talk to them about the ball though, and that confusion must've showed on his face as she continued.
"I assume you are both aware that as Mr Potter is a Triwizard Champion, he will need to be one of the first to open the ball?"
"Yeah…." They both chorused together, clearly wondering where she was going with this.
"Well as the Yule Ball will be taking place tomorrow, I do think it would be suitable to ensure you're both able to dance beforehand. We can't have you embarrassing Hogwarts, can we?"
Harry's heart sank, he'd never danced before in his life and now not only was he going to make a fool of himself, he'd be making a fool of himself while dancing with his best friend, who just so happened to be the girl he'd been crushing on for the last few years, on their very first date!
He looked over at the bushy haired best friend in question to see her beaming at him, and felt his worries ebb away, what did it matter what other people thought? As long as they had a good time.
How long had she been able to do that to him? To simply smile at him at make all of doubts just fade into non-being. He really should have figured out that she felt the same way about him before now. He looked down at their intertwined fingers, had they walked all the way here holding hands? He'd not even noticed, physical contact between them had always been extremely common, they seemed to do it subconsciously these days, no wonder most everyone already knew they'd liked each other.
That had started the first time she'd given him one of her bone crushing hugs, he'd stiffened, having never experienced anything of the sort before and she'd noticed and pulled away. She'd apologised, saying she was a hugger and couldn't help it. He hadn't been able to think about anything else for the entire day after that, finally concluding that while it had startled him, he had enjoyed it immensely. Next time he'd seen her he'd been the one to hug her instead, after that they hardly went a day without one of them finding some excuse to give the other a hug.
Yes, he could definitely see how people had come to that conclusion.
"Knut for your thoughts Harry?"
He looked up at Hermione who was looking at him knowingly, and suddenly became aware that he'd been staring at their locked hands for God only knows how long.
He smiled at her, "Nope, everything's perfect".
Looking back at Professor McGonagall he asked, "Sounds great Professor, where do we start?"
Professor McGonagall watched the two teens fondly as they danced around her office, she couldn't help but chuckle to herself when she noticed that Mr Potters eyes were staring at his feet, trying to ensure he didn't step on Miss Grangers toes.
Every so often he would look up into her eyes, and the smile that crept onto his face was so familiar that for a moment she thought she must've stepped back in time. It was exactly the way young James Potter used to look at Lily Evans when she finally returned his feelings in their seventh year. As though he was looking at the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen and couldn't believe his own good fortune.
Miss Granger rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, It was at this moment that the usually stony faced, stern professor felt a single tear trickle down the side of her face. She wiped it away quickly before her students could notice, though they seemed oblivious to anything besides each other anyway.
Young love… I truly love being a teacher.
Harry and Hermione found themselves relaxing under their favourite oak tree besides the Black Lake several hours later. Harry was leaning up against the tree with Hermione lying with her head on his lap reading a book. They'd left McGonagall's office hours ago, red faced and exhausted yet happier than Harry had been in months.
"Hermione?"
"Mmhmm" she replied absently, turning a page of her book.
"Do your parents know about us?" he asked.
She looked taken aback. "I've told them all about you over the years, and I'm pretty sure my Mum figured out I was interested in being more than just your best friend." She giggled at this, a truly wonderful sound. Completely unlike the annoying giggles of Lavender Brown or God forbid Romilda Vane.
"But they don't know we're-"
"Dating?" she interjected, sitting up and turning to look at him.
"Well, yeah, it just occurred to me that I've never actually met them. "Your dad's not one of those Hurt my daughter and I'll break your leg's types, is he?"
She burst out laughing. "Oh please Harry, he's a dad, that's exactly what he's like. But don't you go worrying about that, I know you'd never do anything to unleash his wrath." She patted him on the arm consolingly.
She moved to sit beside him with her back to the tree. "And don't start wishing you didn't ask me to the ball" she added, suddenly stern as though daring him to try to take that back.
"I wouldn't dream of it." He replied, snaking his arm around her waist pulling her tight against him.
"What about- Sirius?"
"What?" he asked suddenly confused. "No, I haven't told Sirius anything about us either, don't really have a safe way of contacting him, do we?"
She shook her head "No Harry that's not what I'm talking about." She pointed towards the forest.
He followed her gaze and suddenly understood when he spotted a very familiar looking shaggy black dog watching them at the edge of the forbidden forest. It stood up and started to trot away, glancing back over its shoulder, clearly requesting that they follow it.
"What's he doing back here? I swear if he gets caught." Harry fumed before he could stop himself. Though he was internally excited at the prospect of seeing his godfather for the first time in months. They'd corresponded in letters and even spoke a few times through the Gryffindor fire, yet it just wasn't the same as seeing him in person. He'd barely had a chance to get to know him as Sirius was still in hiding due to the Ministry believing he was a mass murderer.
He and Hermione followed Sirius into the Forbidden Forest until they were well out of the sight of anyone in the castle or grounds when Sirius transformed back into himself.
Harry just couldn't help himself, so despite his anger that Sirius was risking getting himself getting caught and sent to Azkaban, hugged him the moment he appeared.
Sirius let out his usual bark like laughter. "It's nice to see you too Pup. Though I'm glad Dumbledore warned me about those eyes of yours. I'd probably have thought you were possessed or something."
"You spoke to Dumbledore?" Harry was surprised, he'd been warned against contacting Sirius in case the owl was intercepted.
"Of course, he's the one who'd let me know you'd finally woken up, sent me a letter with Fawkes, much safer than owl post. I decided I needed to be a bit closer to my godson in case anything else happens" He gave Harry a lopsided grin.
Harry noted his dishevelled appearance, he only looked slightly better than when he'd escaped from Azkaban the previous year. "But where are you staying? Surely you haven't been able to book a room in the Three Broomsticks?"
"Course I haven't. Dumbledore mentioned a cave near Hogsmeade, I'll be staying there as Padfoot, if anyone comes across me, they'll just think I'm a stray. I can just nick a bit of food out of the bins to get by."
"Sirius that's absolutely barbaric!" Hermione interjected. "We'll see if we can start sending some food down to you."
"Yeah! I can ask Dobby to bring it down or something." Harry added, suddenly excited and remembering the little house elf popping through the Hogwarts wards like it was nothing. "We can ask him to bring a couple letters then as well; I can't believe I didn't think of that before."
They spent the better part of an hour chatting with Sirius about what had been going on outside of Hogwarts before the topic of the ball the next day came up.
"Assume the two of you are going together judging from what I saw under that tree back there?" He asked, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.
Hermione let out a little squeak and blushed scarlet. Harry blushed too and stared down at his feet in a desperate bid to avoid looking Sirius in the eye.
Their silence was apparently all that was needed. "About bloody time!" he roared. Surprising them into glancing up at him. "Finally wise up and snog the daylights out of her when you woke up eh Harry?"
"What? No!"
He spoke without thinking. He chanced a glance at Hermione to make sure he hadn't upset her but was surprised to see she looked just as flustered as he felt.
"You're incorrigible Sirius". She muttered, slowly getting redder by the minute. "Come on Harry we, best get back up to the castle before they notice we're missing." She took him by the hand and without sparing a glance back at Harry's godfather, started hurrying back the way they came.
Harry had just enough time to shout a hasty "See you later Sirius!" before she dragged him away.
"Don't worry you two, plenty of time for that later!" he shouted back, before transforming back into the shaggy black dog and disappearing from view.
They walked back toward the castle hand in hand in silence, though he was sure he heard Hermione muttering "He's mad, absolutely barmy, no filter at all" all the way back through the trees.