In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Harry and Ron watched Hermione carefully. She seemed to be her old self again. She'd gone to her normal place as head of every class, and was acting normally in every way. Ron was showing her greater affection than normal, and got in first to ask her to the Yule Ball. She had gratefully accepted; Harry was going with Ginny. Yet again, someone had asked Cho to the ball before he'd had a chance. He didn't mind much, though. He hadn't talked to Cho for a few weeks, and he'd lately noticed how pretty Ginny had become. Ginny had gone as red as her hair when Harry asked her, but she hastily said yes, obviously afraid he'd ask someone else.
Lessons were going as expected. Divination was boring as usual, Potions was always irritating with the Slytherins, but they were actually studying interesting creatures with Hagrid in Care of Magical Creatures. They'd had a few lessons with centaurs, a couple of follow up lessons on unicorns, and they had even learnt about the merpeople living in the lake. On their way down to Hagrid's cabin for another lesson, Ron and Harry argued about what creature they'd be learning about next.
'We've had too many nice creatures. Hagrid's got to pull out something that bites, or blows fire sooner or later.' Said Ron. Harry shook his head.
'I think he's going for the more intelligent creatures this year. Maybe we'll study phoenixes.'
'I think you're both wrong,' interrupted Hermione 'Look.' She pointed towards Hagrid's cabin where a large fire was burning outside. They could see a large pile of something sitting in the fire, but were too far away to distinguish what it was. Standing beside the fire was Charlie Weasley, Ron's older brother. When he saw his brother he grinned and waved.
'What are you doing here, Charlie?' questioned Ron.
'Hagrid's had to go away for a bit, so he asked me to take his lessons for a while.' Charlie patted his brother on the back.
'Are they what I think they are?' asked Harry, pointing at the pile of what looked like rocks sitting in the fire. Charlie nodded.
'Yep, dragon's eggs. Hagrid was really upset to miss this lesson, but he had to go.'
Hermione started to ask where Hagrid had gone, but at that moment, the Slytherins arrived, led by Draco Malfoy.
'What's going on?' he asked, looking at Charlie through eyes narrowed with suspicion.
'Hagrid's gone away for a while, so I'll be taking his classes until he returns.'
'Fabulous.' Muttered Malfoy under his breath to Crabbe and Goyle. Harry glared at him.
'As you can see, we have some dragon's eggs. These are Common Welsh green eggs – notice the green flecks on the brown eggs?' Charlie pointed to the nearest egg.
'These eggs are just about ready to hatch, so we should see some dragons soon.' As Charlie said this, one egg began to crack. He noticed this and quickly got it out of the fire using long tongs. He handed Harry the tongs and told him to get out the eggs as they cracked. Harry noticed a few more cracking eggs and quickly got them out of the fire. After about fifteen minutes, all the eggs were out except one.
'Get it out anyway, Harry. I think that one's a dud.' Said Charlie.
'It's not the only one.' Harry heard Malfoy mutter, Crabbe and Goyle sniggered.
The rest of the class crowded around the cracking eggs and watched anxiously.
'They imprint on the first thing they see, and because we want to release these dragons into the wild, the first thing they have to see is their mother.' At this, Charlie conjured a mirrored enclosure around the dragon eggs.
'These mirrors are enchanted to show whatever looks in them as a fully-grown adult. So the hatchlings will see fully-grown Welsh Green looking back at them.'
The egg nearest to Hermione cracked open.
'Look!' she cried excitedly. A tiny dragon had rolled out of the egg. It unfurled its wings and looked around. Upon seeing the reflection of itself as an adult, the hatchling made a squeaking noise. The class watched as all the eggs hatched. The last egg hatched just as the bell signaled the end of the lesson.
'Next lesson, we'll be learning about the feeding habits on the Welsh Green.' Charlie called out as his class left Hagrid's hut. Harry, Ron and Hermione stayed to help him with the hatchlings. Charlie began performing a number of charms on the enclosure.
'What are you doing?' asked Harry.
'Just putting some protective measures on our hatchlings. No one except me will be able to move them or touch them with this charm. Plus they'll be safe from predators.' Charlie finished the charms with a flick of his wand and headed up to the school with the others for lunch.
'Oh by the way, Ron,' spoke up Charlie as they walked into the Hall 'Mum wants you to send her an owl to check everything's okay.'
Ron groaned.
'Just do it Ron. Otherwise she'll just worry more.' Harry laughed at him. Ron reluctantly agreed.
Christmas came quickly. Some students, mostly those under fourth year, went home for the holidays on the Hogwarts Express. Those that stayed talked excitedly about the Yule Ball. Ginny blushed madly anytime anyone mentioned who she was going with. For this, Ron and the twins teased her mercilessly, but she got her own back. She enchanted buckets of water to stay over the Gryffindor common room portrait hole, and empty on her brothers when they entered. As well as this she had buckets of feathers above the hole as well. Ron chased her around the common room looking like a chicken for about fifteen minutes until Harry convinced him to go and clean himself up.
On Christmas morning, Harry woke up to find several presents on his bed. He and Ron opened them eagerly and then hurried down to the common room. They found Hermione and Ginny there, clutching the necklaces that Harry and Ron had bought them.
'Thank you!' exclaimed Hermione, throwing her arms around them both. 'I will go perfectly with my robes!'
Ginny hugged her brother and smiled shyly at Harry.
'We though it would match your hair perfectly.' He said, returning her smile. She blushed at this.
The four of them hurried down to breakfast. They spent the day walking around the grounds, throwing snowballs at each other. About three hours before the ball, the girls hurried up to their dorms to get ready. Harry and Ron mucked about for a bit longer, and then went to get ready themselves. They dressed quickly. Harry had his green robes on again, but Ron had new black robes. Fred and George had remembered their promise to Harry at the end of last year and had bought Ron new dress robes with the money Harry had given them.
Harry and Ron waited in the common room for Ginny and Hermione. At last they came, and both Harry's and Ron's jaws dropped open. Ginny had beautiful silvery grey robes on that made her hair positively shine. The necklace Ron and Harry bought her accentuated it perfectly.
'Wow. You look wonderful.' Stammered Harry, taking her by the arm. Ginny blushed.
Hermione was robes of jade green. Her hair was hanging loose down her back and was so straight and shiny that it looked like water. She'd obviously used Sleekeazy's hair potion again. Her necklace held a stone the same colour of her robes. She walked up to Ron and pushed his mouth closed.
'Are we ready?' she asked. Ron nodded, still staring at her.
She grabbed his arm and escorted him out of the common room, Harry and Ginny trailing behind them.