DISCLAIMER: Everyone and everything that has ever been featured in a Harry Potter book belongs to that artistic genius, J. K. Rowling. Andromeda belongs to me – but J. K.'s welcome to borrow her if she likes! ;-) All of the fuel in Great Britain also belongs to me and I'm charging £1000 per litre!
Harry Potter awoke and knew, without hesitation, what one of his dreams had been.
Lessons drifted by. He could not pay attention for more than a minute at a time. If only he knew more – if only his first dream could have been clearer – they could find where Voldemort was hiding. But Ludo Bagman was dead, that he was sure of. He had to find Dumbledore.
As soon as they had a break he headed for the office, but, trying last year's password, he found that it didn't work. He could have cried with frustration. This was one of the most important things Harry had ever known, and he could not find the man who most needed to be told of it.
Harry found Andromeda and asked her whether she had been to see Dumbledore as he had suggested. She had, and told him the password. He left hurriedly, with no more words, leaving her wondering what she had done wrong.
'Cauldron cakes,' he muttered to the grimacing stone gargoyle. He could not wait for the revolving staircase that was revealed to ascend, and took the steps two at a time. Finally he was facing the almost familiar oak door, and knocked urgently.
The reply came within seconds; it was almost as though Dumbledore had been expecting him. 'Come in, Harry,' said the headmaster.
'Ludo Bagman is dead,' he said, still standing in the doorway. Dumbledore looked sharply at him.
'How do you know?'
'I had a dream.' He paused, thinking of how to phrase it. 'I've had dreams like them before. They're always turned out to be real, actually happening elsewhere. Voldemort killed Bagman, and they're hiding somewhere in the north, I think – it's cold there –'
'Harry, are you absolutely sure this is true? I do not want to cause any further unnecessary panic within the Ministry, but if you are certain, I will believe you.'
'Yes, Professor. I'm absolutely sure.'
Harry sat nervously in a chair as Dumbledore wrote a few short notes and sent them off with various owls. Then the headmaster turned to him and said, 'Harry, I would like you to tell me exactly what you know about the place where Voldemort is living.'
As Harry related every detail about the place of his dream, a crimson quill took down each word he said with impossible speed. Dumbledore was not holding the quill, just resting the tip of his finger lightly on its feather as it scored along the page. Words spilled remarkably quickly from both the quill and Harry's lips.
Finally he could think of nothing more about the place. Dumbledore presently dismissed him, and he returned to the Gryffindor common room.
It was empty, being almost time for lessons to restart. He walked inside, needing a rest, however brief, and noticed that the room did, after all, have occupants. Fred and George were sitting on the floor behind an armchair,muttering to one another, and as Harry wandered closer he heard a piece of their conversation:
'You can't put that, he'd never write that.'
'But she doesn't know that, does she?'
'Fred, come on! It's got to sound real, otherwise what's the point? This isn't going to work if they figure it out.'
'What are you doing?' Harry asked suspiciously. Fred and George looked up guiltily, and George shifted himself to sit on a piece of parchment.
'Nothing.'
'Oh yeah,' said Harry sarcastically.
'Harry, it's none of your business, so keep your nose out, OK?' said Fred sharply.
Harry, despite being very curious, knew that pestering the twins wouldn't do any good, and hurried off to Herbology.
It was the week before Christmas and preparations were under way for the Yule Ball, an event that had been so successful the previous year that the Hogwarts staff had decided to hold it again, despite the absence of the Triwizard Tournament. Once again, there was a much larger number of students staying for the holidays.
The halls were filled with nervous-looking teenagers, blushing, giggling and looking much more nervous than usual in the last week of term. It was hardly noticeable when the holidays began, as so few pupils had opted to return home. Harry, who was taking his attendance with Andromeda for granted, had noticed that Ron was behaving strangely.
'Who are you going to the Yule Ball with?' he asked. Ron flushed deeply.
'I don't know,' he mumbled.
'Well, hadn't you better find someone?'
'No, it's OK… I will…'
He got an equally vague response when he asked Hermione, but she had found someone to attend with. When asked who – 'I'm not telling you,' she said aloofly.
Harry groaned. 'It's not Viktor Krum again, is it?'
This time Hermione blushed. 'No, it isn't. In fact, I haven't heard from him since I turned down his offer to stay with him.' She looked downcast. 'I told him I had to stay here – I couldn't exactly leave when Voldemort could return at any moment, could I?'
'Of course you couldn't,' Harry reassured her. Just then, Andromeda arrived at their side, out of breath after sprinting from the Slytherin common room.
'Kieran Ladysmith asked me to the Yule Ball,' she told Hermione, chuckling. Hermione looked surprised.
'He's really good-looking, isn't he? What did you say?'
'She said no, of course,' Harry cut in, feeling slightly threatened. 'She's already got a date.'
'Have I?' said Andromeda in mock surprise. 'Well, that's a shock, seeing as I haven't been asked.' She hesitated, looking expectantly at Harry.
'You shouldn't have to be asked,' he said crossly. 'You're my girlfriend, after all.'
'I haven't been very aware of that recently,' replied Andromeda, her temper flaring up.
Hermione, looking extremely uncomfortable, said, 'Oh, look… there's Parvati and Lavender…' and scuttled off.
'What are you talking about?' demanded Harry.
'You haven't even been talking to me. You've barely said a word to me for a week. Not even hello. And you can't just take it for granted that I'm going to go to the ball with you, when you've been ignoring me for weeks…'
'I haven't! I have not been ignoring you!'
'You have barely been acknowledging me, Harry, and you've got to learn that I won't just follow you about and do what you want. You've got to have some respect for me as well.'
'Andromeda, you're blowing this completely out of proportion –'
'I am not blowing anything out of proportion, and if you don't stop taking me for granted I might just say yes to Kieran.' And she stormed off, leaving Harry standing open-mouthed in the corridor, surrounded by a small crowd.
Severus Snape stood before Lord Voldemort. There was no-one else in the room, not even Wormtail. They were alone.
'You have had your week,' said Voldemort.
'Yes, sir.'
'What do you have to tell me?'
Snape exhaled loudly, then began his false betrayal of Dumbledore. At Hogwarts, a small party of guards was being assembled. The Hogwarts professors would not have a peaceful Christmas.
Fred and George Weasley were sitting in their dormitory, putting the finishing touches to what they regarded as twin works of art. Their little scheme was coming off perfectly, and neither could wait to see how it would turn out.
It was chaos in the Gryffindor common room. It was completely divided; friendship groups were more pronounced than ever, girls huddling with girls and boys lounging with boys, both trying to look nonchalant. It wasn't working. Every now and then someone would cross from the boys' side to the girls' or vice versa, and a momentary explosion would take place as everyone within earshot began to giggle. The giggling got worse every year, Harry had decided.
Ginny Weasley blushed more vividly than Ron, if it was possible, as Neville Longbottom approached her and, himself the colour of beetroot, invited her to the ball. It looked as though she had agreed, as she smiled shyly and he returned to a cackling Dean and Seamus. Many pairs were already established; Seamus and Lavender, who were sort-of going out, were attending together, and Dean had asked Parvati; Fred Weasley was going with Angelina and George with Alicia. Katie Bell, Grace Ramsbottom and Grace's friend Lizzie Biddleswick all had partners outside Gryffindor.
Ron and Hermione remained strangely unaffected. Harry suggested that they attended together, but Ron derided this suggestion and Hermione reminded him that she already had a date. 'What's the point of this secrecy?' Harry asked, annoyed. But Hermione just looked aloof and didn't answer.
Harry himself was fighting an emotional battle. He wanted to go to the ball with Andromeda, but it would hurt his pride to apologise, and he was embarassed, having realised that she had been right. And what if she'd said yes to Kieran What's-his-name?
Harry couldn't bring himself to enter the Slytherin common room, and eventually went to bed with the issue unresolved.