Hello, everyone! I hope everybody is enjoying their summer thus far (or
winter or fall to our transatlantic and transpacific cousins). I'd like to
welcome my readers to Part 5 of my story, Harry Potter and The Scholar of
Mystery. I would also like to remind everyone that reviewing is a divine
exercise that will surely give you good karma once your day of judgment is
upon you (I always wanted to say that!). That, and I'll review some of
your stories too. And remember, no matter how hot the sun may burn in my
humble abode, flames are always welcome. And now, the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Really, I don't. You know, the whole practice of this disclaimer seems kind of counterproductive to me. After all, what would J.K. Rowling, who is already a multi-millionaire in her own right want to interfere with the actions of a 21-year-old frittering away his spare time? Don't worry about my speculative mood; I'm sure it will fade by the end of the chapter.
Chapter 5: Fun Times at The Yule Ball
The spirit of Christmas was alive and well in the Gryffindor common room as the cheery, young witches and wizards scurried about to gather their gifts. A titanic pine tree festooned with baubles and other extravagant decorations dominated the southwest corner of the room. The December snow was falling at an amazing rate outdoors, but the roaring fires and the sturdy granite walls of Hogwarts turned the snowstorm into nothing more than a harmless attraction for the students.
Of course, to say that this festive atmosphere within the Gryffindor common room was something positive was quite debatable. The excitement in the air only seemed to intensify the already rambunctious nature of many of the Gryffindor students. Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas were at the center of the common room playing a highly competitive and highly dangerous game of Exploding Snap. Poor Neville Longbottom has already misplaced his toad Trevor (Ron said Neville had broke his old record, much to Hermione's annoyance) and was currently engaged in a frantic search to find him. Meanwhile, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, and Alicia Spinnet, Harry's female teammates on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, were heading up an extremely loud gab session that had attracted all but two of the female Gryffindors.
"Why must they always go about like bloody fools?" Hermione Granger asked, her before-shower brown hair looking like a flattened tornado.
"Don't worry about it too much," answered Ginny Weasley, Ron's little sister. "You've got all the company you need right here!"
"That's right!" Ron said enthusiastically, his bright orange Chudley Cannons cap looking spectacularly repulsive upon his red-haired head. "After all, what's Christmas but a time to celebrate with the people you care about the most!"
"Then why are you here with us, Ron?" Harry asked with an playful grin while Ginny and Hermione giggled.
"You're just jealous because of my stunning new headwear," Ron said airily while grasping the rim of the hat he received from Harry for a Christmas present. "Honestly, Harry, if you wanted it so badly you should have just kept it for yourself!"
"I hope you don't plan on going outside with that on Ron," Hermione said from her cushy armchair. "You may frighten the local wildlife." That caused Harry and Ginny to laugh even louder. Ron just shrugged his shoulders.
"Ah, what do you know about taste?" He asked Hermione cheekily. "You're going with Harry to the Yule Ball after all."
"Hey!" Harry and Ginny both shouted while the entrance to the Gryffindor common room slid open, revealing Fred and George Weasley. The roguish twins had their arms full of treats that they had doubtlessly received from the house-elves. In their Christmas tradition, they were wearing each other's sweaters that they received from their mother every Christmas. It was quite an irritating tradition for many of the Gryffindors, since Fred and George would often pull a malicious prank to the people that didn't refer to them as Gred and Forge during the day.
"Can't you two quit sneaking around Hogwarts for just one day?" Hermione asked in frustration. "If only for the spirit of Christmas?"
"Oh, come off it!" Gred said with a smile. "Besides, if we hadn't have gone out today, we wouldn't have found this fellow." And, with that said, a third figure popped up behind Fred and George, a very welcome and familiar figure at that.
"Matt!" Harry and Ron both exclaimed. The young Ravenclaw, whose arms were full of badly wrapped presents, gave an amiable smile in return to his friends' calls.
"Thanks Gred and Forge for your always timely assistance!" Matt said in a disarmingly soldier-like fashion.
"Anything to help a fellow prankster," Forge said while he ran across the room to give his little brother a playful noogie.
"Merry Christmas, Matthew." Hermione said with a slight grin. "I see you've put Harry's invisibility cloak to good use."
"It definitely beats making an invisibility potion," Matt said as he handed the silvery mantle back to Harry. "Thanks for letting me borrow it."
"Don't mention it." Harry said merrily. "And, in return, here's your gift."
"Hey! I've gotta hurry up and see what it is!" Matt said as he handed out his presents to Harry and Hermione while Ron and Hermione handed their gifts to him in return.
"Hey! What about our presents?" Forge asked.
"Just consider my not telling Professor McGonagall who put those Cornish pixies in her desk last month as my Christmas present to you two," Matt said with a smirk.
"All right!" Forge said audaciously. "And our not telling Professor Vector who turned his skin blue last week will be our Christmas present to you!"
"I knew we could work something out!" Matt said as he unwrapped his present from Harry. "Harry! This potions set must have cost you a fortune!" Matt shouted as he pulled out several cleanly rolled balls of spider silk. "How on earth am I going to make this up to you?" He wrapped his arms around Harry's shoulders.
"Just promise you won't kiss me and I'll be fine," Harry choked out, quite a bit uncomfortable in Matt's sturdy grip.
"Thank you for the new Transfiguration book, Matt!" Hermione said cheerfully as she held up a rather thick book of insanely complex incantations. "I haven't found the time to read this one."
"A book that Hermione hasn't read!" Forge said while his hands flickered up to his cheeks.
"Will wonders ever cease?" Gred chimed in, much to the amusement of the others.
"That joke just gives me a new excuse to try these spells out on you, Gred and Forge," Hermione said serenely as Matt unwrapped his present from Hermione. The present was an incredibly vast astronomy map, was complete with stars that were enchanted to move along in accordance to their lifelike counterparts. Matt stared in awe of the gift as the Big Dipper seemed to shine at him.
"That's so you don't have to try to copy off of my Astronomy exams in Professor Sinistra's class any longer."
"Why thank you, my bushy-haired, formerly bucked-tooth study partner!" Matt said as he and Hermione gave each other a friendly embrace. Meanwhile, Gred and Forge were applauding Matt over his gift to Harry.
"One-thousand and One Ways to Cause Trouble with Magic," Harry read off the cover.
"I figured it was another thing I could do to help you become a smart- ass troublemaker like me, Harry!"
"I'm sure it will make an excellent doorstop," Hermione quipped.
"Who invites you to our gatherings anyway?" Ron asked in mock annoyance.
"It has to be Harry, Ron," Matt said simply. "Apparently the only reason they keep us around us is to better avoid the temptation of putting their hands all over each other."
That comment was quickly met by Harry and Hermione throwing some nearby pillows while Ron, Gred, and Forge guffawed wildly. Ginny, meanwhile, just blushed quietly and watched the goings-on.
"Flying with the Cannons, Ron?" Matt said as he held up his present from the lanky fourth-year.
"It's like your present to Harry," Ron said. "It'll help motivate you in the right direction." Hermione, as she often did, groaned in frustration at the two.
"I really don't understand why I hang out with the two of you," she said dully.
After a predictably immoderate Christmas brunch in the Great Hall, Harry and his friends were tromping about the freshly fallen Christmas snow. The atmosphere was so enchanting that not even Hermione could resist taking part in the annual snowball fight, which turned into a five-on-five with Matt and Mandy Brocklehurst, Matt's date to the Yule Ball, along with the usual group. Matt, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were on one side while Gred, Forge, Mandy, Angelina, and Katie on the other. Within a half- hour, the air around Hogwarts was filled with the excited cries of ten playful witches and wizards, each of whom were finding their own way to enjoy the thrill of not having to deal with schoolwork, if only for a little while.
Ron was quite watchful of the times Matt and Ginny were hunched side- by-side with one another. He even took a couple of unnecessary snowballs because of it. His little sister certainly seemed to enjoy Matt's company, which, needless to say, was something that needed to be taken care of immediately. After all, what are big brothers for if not to protect their innocent little sisters?
However, Ron's suspicions of Matt temporarily faded when Matt, Harry, and Hermione handed him their Christmas present to them. Much to Ron's shock, it was a racing broom, a classic Silver Arrow at that. Ron spent much of the rest of the afternoon flying about the Hogwarts grounds whooping like a maniac while Gred and Forge followed him around in their Cleansweeps while trying to pelt their little brother with snowballs.
"Man!" Ron said with exultation as he hit the ground. "I've got my first broom and tonight I'm going to the Yule Ball with a veela. I don't believe life can get better than this!"
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's mention of his date for the evening. Apparently Matt had somehow, with the help of a fantastic introduction, managed to get Ron a date with one of the veela who were staying in the Ravenclaw common room for the year due to the Triwizard tournament. Matt had done it in the hope that Ron would abandon his almost maniacal quest to keep Ginny away from him, but it was obvious that seed had yielded very few crops. The veela's name was Marie Courant, a sixth-year who celebrated her seventeenth birthday just before she arrived at Hogwarts. Ron was now being touted around school as the second luckiest man in Hogwarts (next to Roger Davies, the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain who had somehow managed to get a date with Fleur Delaclour).
"I've never seen such a prominent example of somebody so over his head, have you Gred?" Forge asked while ruffling Ron's hair.
"Don't complain, Forge. It'll be fun watching him crash and burn." Gred countered as Harry, Matt, and Hermione laughed.
"I don't care what any of you say!" Ron shouted. "Nothing is gonna bring me down today! Nothing!"
"Famous last words," Hermione whispered to Matt, who just sniggered in response.
"Come on, Peter!" Lily Evans cried as she finished wrapping her silky, red hair into an extravagant bun. "Come out of there! You can't look that bad!"
"This is Wormtail we're talking about Lil'" Sirius Black said as he fiddled with his top hat. The self-claimed "master of pranks" had opted to wear a handsome tuxedo to the ball over the standard dress robes.
"With him, anything bad is very possible."
"One more joke like that Padfoot and I'll stick that ponytail of yours right up your repulsively large nose!" Peter yelled through the door leading into the Gryffindor boys' dorm. Soon after the good-natured retort, a 16-year-old Peter Pettigrew emerged wearing a rather shabby set of green dress robes that were once worn by his father. He personally thought the robes were a little big for him, even after considering his own slightly pudgy frame. However, Peter was not about to let the state of his robes get him down He had a date with Christina Abbott, a seventh-year Hufflepuff whom he had a major crush on since his third-year and he was going to give everything he had to make sure that she had a good time. And, if he had to hang Padfoot up on the steeple of the North Tower in order to do so, so much the better.
"You look great, Peter!" Lily said as she straightened out some of the wrinkles in his robes.
"You sure you don't want some of my advice when it comes to the ladies, Wormtail?" Sirius asked with a lecherous grin.
"I think Wormtail would want to get Christina to like him, Padfoot, not make her run as far away as possible." Remus Lupin jibed from the top of the staircase.
"You're just jealous because you don't have my animal magnetism," Sirius said while maintaining his broad grin.
"If you mean 'animal magnetism' in the terms of you as a canine, I think Wormtail would do best to stay away from that." James Potter said, who was also decked out in a black and white tuxedo, much to Lily's approval.
"Well," Sirius said as he began marching down the stairs, "why are we all still standing around here? We've got to go pick up our lovely company for the ball! Come on, Moony! You too, Wormtail!"
"Just to remind me," Remus said as he adjusted the collar to his dress robes. "How many dates do you have tonight, Padfoot?"
"Just the three I told you about earlier," Sirius said with an impish grin while Lily, who was now arm-in-arm with her future husband, rolled her eyes in mild annoyance.
"Sirius, you're a walking Fellini movie," Lily said with a patient sigh.
"Who's Fellini?" Sirius asked.
"It's a Muggle reference," Peter said as he leaped down the last two steps and started making his way to the portrait of the fat lady. "I do have a question for you though, Sirius."
"What's that, Wormtail?" Sirius inquired innocently.
"Am I going to have to bring some flea powder for you tonight or do you have some in your pocket?"
It took a beat for the joke to set in for Remus, Lily, and James, but by that time Sirius was chasing Peter out of the common room and towards the Great Hall.
Thirty-seven year old Peter Pettigrew was snapped out of his reveries when a snowflake landed on his tiny, pink nose. He had watched the entire scene the moment Harry and his friends had left the Hogwarts gates. However, as much as he wanted to linger on about times past, he was sent here to do a job, and he wasn't about to fail. So, little Scabbers began his slow trot towards Hogwarts, his unusually long tail dragging behind him in the deepening snow.
Matt and Mandy were making their way to the Gryffindor common room to meet with Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Matt was looking quite resplendent in dark-blue dress robes while Mandy had chosen to wear an all-black dress that caused Matt to joke to others that he was taking a Goth girl to the ball.
"Just remember who is bailing out who in this situation, Matt," the honey-haired Ravenclaw reminded him as she teasingly placed a delicate finger onto Matt's chin.
"Touché," Matt said with an amiable grin.
After several minutes of traversing through the incredibly crowded and lavishly decorated Great Hall, Matt and Mandy had somehow managed to stumble their way towards Gryffindor Hall, where Ron and his date were waiting for them. Ron had somehow managed to take off all the frills in his hand-me-down dress robes while Marie looked so stunning in a tight ivory-white gown that it seemed Ron couldn't pay attention to anything else. Personally, Matt thought the gown made the half-veela look like a high-class woman of ill repute, but he wasn't about to say that to his disturbingly giddy friend.
"Harry and Hermione have already gone ahead," Ron said with a beaming smile. "We'll catch up to them after the dinner. Let's go!"
And, with these excited comments, Ron had grabbed a hold of Marie's left arm and proceeded to nearly drag her into the Great Hall. Matt and Mandy, both giving the girl a look of extreme sympathy, quickly followed behind the very unlikely pair.
Once the quartet had made their way back to the central corridor and proceeded to push their way into the Great Hall, Matt and Mandy went out into the gardens where dozens of fairies were displaying their colorful magic to create a truly gorgeous sight. Matt was impressed so much with the sight that he pondered out loud on what it would be like to be a fairy.
"I'm not sure elfin ears would go with your dress robes, Matt." Mandy said saucily as she shook some of the fairy powder from her hair.
"Don't rob me of my joy, Mandy." Matt said with a sour smirk as he peered into the throng of students lined up in front of him before the doors of the Great Hall. "Have you seen Hermione yet?"
"She's probably at the front with Harry and the professors," Mandy answered. "Guess we'll just have to wait until the feast to find her."
"Sorry if I'm not going to be the kind of company you were looking for tonight Mandy," Matt said repentantly. Mandy just shrugged her shoulders and gave her fellow Ravenclaw a bright smile.
"Just promise to save me a few slots on your dance card and we'll call it even," Mandy said simply. "It's too bad you couldn't get Ginny to come with you." Matt blew out his breath and softly ran a hand through his slicked-back brown hair.
"I'll think of something," he said with a downhearted manner.
"Champions over here, please!" Professor McGonagall called over the loud talking of the collective student body. "All students please make your way into the Great Hall and be seated."
Quick to get his Christmas dinner started, Ron kept his firm grip on poor Marie's hand as the two made their way towards one of the tables at an incredible pace. Mandy simply shook her head while Matt did all he could to avoid bursting out in laughter.
"Think we should sit at Ron's table, Matt?" Mandy asked unceremoniously.
"If only to make sure he doesn't make a complete fool out of himself," Matt answered while he politely offered his arm to his friend. "Shall we go, madam?"
"Why certainly, monsieur." Mandy said as she accepted the offer and the two Ravenclaws made their way into the Great Hall.
The walls of the Hall were covered with sparkling silver frost that seemed to fall from the sky. Dozens of garlands of mistletoe and holly accompanied the frost while the stunning and starry black Great Hall ceiling provided much of the light in the vast dining hall. Festive lanterns were on each table to provide even more light for the young witches and wizards. Even Matt could not avoid applauding along with the rest of the students at the great efforts that had been made to make the Great Hall look wonderful. After quite a bit of struggling, Matt and Mandy had managed to find Ron and Marie's table near the front of the Great Hall. Ron, bless his heart, was already stuffing himself with whatever he could get his hands on while Marie seemed to stare at her date as if she were dealing with a wild man.
"This is really great!" Ron cried to Matt and Mandy, his mouth stuffed with mashed potatoes and gravy. "Ask for anything you want to eat and it'll just appear right on your plate!"
"Hermione is going to have a field day with this," Matt said as he stared at his empty plate. He was expecting Mandy to make a smart-ass comment about Hermione's stance on house-elves, but his friend was otherwise occupied with something going on at the head table.
"Matt, there's Hermione!" Mandy shouted in a shocked voice as she pointed to a young woman that Matt couldn't quite recognize. Once he put two-and-two together however, his eyes went wide.
Indeed, the elegant young lady who was sitting next to Katie Bell, Viktor Krum's date for the evening, was none other than Hermione Granger. Her suddenly silky brown hair was tied up into an elegant knot that Matt thought made her look like a young duchess, a far cry from her normally bushy curls. 'She must have used a potion on her hair to straighten it out,' he thought. She was wearing light cerulean dress robes that seemed to mesh wonderfully with Harry's emerald-green robes. Matt had expected her to be shouting angrily about the work the house-elves had to go through to make this dinner possible, but instead found her and Harry chatting amicably to Viktor Krum, who seemed to be telling them about the surroundings of the Durmstrang Institute from what he could hear and read. It took quite a while for Matt to adjust himself from the shocking sight but, once he did, he looked at Mandy with a devilish grin.
"I CAN'T WAIT TO TEASE HER ABOUT THIS ONE!" Matt shouted with triumphant glee. Mandy shook with laughter and partial embarrassment at her friend's enthusiasm.
"I won't have you saying a bad word to her about this!" Mandy murmured urgently. Matt just ignored Mandy's warning for now, however.
"And she said that she wasn't going to do anything for the ball!" Matt rambled on as he banged his fists upon the table. "This is too good to be true!"
"Matt, if Hermione wants to impress Harry, that's her business and her's alone," Mandy whispered angrily. With those words, Matt gave a resigned shrug of his shoulders.
"All right. All right." Matt said pretending to relent to his friend's wishes.
"What on earth are you two talking about?" Ron asked indignantly as he tried to get Marie to sample a treacle tart.
"Go back to eating Ron," Matt said flatly while he raised his glass of pumpkin juice and gave his friends a silent toast.
'Good luck, you two.'
"Ve have a castle also, not as big as this, nor as comfortable, I am thinking," Viktor Krum was telling to Harry and Hermione. "Zer are only four floors, but our grounds are larger than even these! Ve don't enjoy them much in the vinter but you should really see zem in the summer!"
"It truly sounds wonderful, Mr. Krum." Harry said with a polite grin.
"Call me Viktor, Harry," the Durmstrang champion said while he took a swig of butterbeer. Harry didn't imagine the Quidditch star as much of a talker. Since his arrival at Hogwarts, Krum was either in the library reading alone or skulking about around the Durmstrang ship. However, it seemed that Viktor Krum had another, more excitable side to him.
"Now, now, Viktor!" said Igor Karkaroff, the headmaster of Durmstrang said with a grumbling laugh, "don't go giving away all of our secrets."
"I'd love to visit there sometime," Hermione said, her dazzling white teeth seeming to sparkle in Harry's eyes. "It would be nice to see another wizarding school besides Hogwarts!" she exclaimed as Harry nodded in agreement.
"You act as if you've seen everything there is to see here, Miss Granger!" Albus Dumbledore said good-humoredly. "I hope you won't go running off from Hogwarts. Miss Granger is quite the remarkable student, Igor, if you didn't know." Hermione turned scarlet from Dumbledore's shining compliment. Harry, meanwhile, was now trying his hardest to tune out the loud complaints of one Fleur Delaclour, the champion from Beauxbatons. Like she had done many times since she had arrived from Beauxbatons, she was criticizing every little thing aspect about Hogwarts that came to her mind, from the magical suits of armor to Peeves, whom she had dubbed as a "'orrible monstrosity". For one moment, Harry found it hard to believe that Roger Davies could even stand to be next to her. Then he took a look at her striking silver-gray robes and at her luxuriant hair, causing Harry to understand Roger's real reasoning.
'Best remind myself to never date a veela,' Harry thought with bemusement before Hermione grabbed Harry's shoulder and pointed across the Great Hall towards Hagrid, who was wearing his favorite brown moleskin suit and had his hair slicked back with what appeared to motor oil. Even Harry couldn't avoid giggling a bit while he gave the Hogwarts gamekeeper a small wave, which Hagrid was happy to return.
"Looks like he's really trying to impress Madame Maxine," Harry said, referring to the headmaster of Beauxbatons who was, like Hagrid, uncommonly tall and strong.
By eight o'clock, the Christmas dinner was over and Dumbledore used his wand to remove every one of the vast dining tables from the Great Hall in the blink of an eye, much to the amazement of the students and several of the professors. What once was a dining room for nearly several hundred witches and wizards was now a dance hall that made the Palace of Versailles look humble. Once that seemingly simple task was over, Dumbledore went on to introduce the house band for the night, The Weird Sisters, much to the joy of many of the young men and women in the Great Hall.
The sight of The Weird Sisters was obviously not something Harry was expecting. Sure, he had seen many rock-and-roll bands thanks to the Dursley's television but he had never seen one that looked so incredibly, well, complex. There were seven members, each one wearing a black school robe that seemed to be torn apart by angry lions. Harry couldn't imagine why someone would choose to wear something like that, it looked extremely uncomfortable. The number of instruments that the band was preparing was also quite shocking to Harry. There were electric guitars and drums but also a saxophone, keyboards, a cello, and two extremely colorful sets of bagpipes. Harry was so shell-shocked that he gave a slight jump when Hermione gave him a light tap on the shoulder.
"Shall we dance or would you prefer that we remain at the table?" Hermione asked cheerily with her eyebrows raised. Harry was a bit tremulous to the idea of dancing in a public place, let alone with someone else, let alone with that somebody being Hermione.
"Sure we can't stay at the table?" Harry asked sheepishly. Hermione just gave Harry a gentle smile as she extended a small, well-manicured hand.
"I'll lead the way," she said softly with a confident smile while Harry gradually rose from his chair and took Hermione's hand. Ignoring the sniggers from Seamus and Dean and the wolf whistles from Gred, Forge, Matt, and many of the Slytherins, Hermione and Harry made their way to the center of the dance floor hand-in-hand. Once they arrived, The Weird Sisters began to play a slow tune that Harry could not even imagine how to dance to.
"Don't be so stressful, Harry," Hermione urged gently.
"I'm not much of a dancer, Hermione," Harry said, completely spooked.
"Put your left hand on my hip, Harry," Hermione requested, which Harry quickly complied with. Much to Hermione's relief, Harry seemed to relax quite a bit more with this and his shy smile finally emerged from its apparent hiding place. Soon, Harry was confident enough to keep up with Hermione and began to dance in a fashion that Harry could not have dreamed possible.
"Harry's doing well," Mandy whispered in approval.
"Be a shame to let him do this alone though," Matt said while nodding his head. "Shall we show them how it's done?"
"Absolutely!" Mandy said with enthusiasm as Matt took her hand and guided her to the dance floor.
It had been two hours since the first dance had begun and Harry still hadn't managed to sum up the nerve to ask for a break. However, Harry wasn't sure that this reluctance was due to his newly found dancing abilities or the fact that it was Hermione he was dancing with. Her chocolate-brown eyes were twinkling like the fairy lights in the Hogwarts gardens and her smile was beginning to make his heart flutter. Simply put, Harry thought that she looked wonderful.
'You think she looks wonderful all the time,' a little voice said in the back of his head.
"You're doing a great job, Harry!" Hermione shouted gleefully as she drew closer and whispered in Harry's ear. "I think we're even making Draco jealous."
Harry couldn't help but smile at that comment and spun Hermione around to go along with the fast number that The Weird Sisters were playing. Harry had quite a few wonderful days during his three-and-a-half years at Hogwarts: his first Quidditch match, the day Gryffindor won its first House Cup, and the discovery of Sirius Black as his godfather, but this day ranked right up there with them. It had nothing to do with him saving the world, learning about magic, fighting Malfoy, Snape, or Voldemort, or being different from everyone else. This day was about Harry and Hermione having the time of their lives in the center of the Great Hall dancing the night away.
'It doesn't get much better than this.' Harry thought with a smile.
Meanwhile, the suddenly unfortunate Ron Weasley had gotten himself in trouble. It appeared that his lack of composure on the dance floor had pushed Marie past the breaking point and the half-veela appeared to be having her revenge by embarrassing him in front of the entire student body.
"I don't understand zwy I came wit' you tonight. It eems you jus' go out of your vay to humiliate me. Also, your 'obes are so 'ideous zat you look like a vagabond."
Ron, who was now about as red as a tomato, was trying his best to make himself as small as possible while Marie chastised him about everything under the sun. Draco Malfoy was one of the first students that had noticed Ron's humiliation and was now trying everything he could to rub it into his face.
"Thank God that your mum isn't here to see you blubbering like this," Draco hissed while Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind him. "You would disgrace your family name more than you already have!"
"Oi! Malfoy!" Gred called out as he made his way to the scene of the argument with Angelina Johnson in tow. "Keep talking about Ron like that and I'll ram your slime-filled head down the nearest toilet."
"Oooooh!" Pansy Parkinson shrilled as she latched onto Draco's arm, "'ittle Ronniekins is being protected by his big, older brothers.
"You're as pathetic as they come, Weasel." Malfoy sneered.
"Try to say that in front of me," Angelina huffed while her shoulders bristled. It seemed that the Gryffindors and Slytherins were about to fight until they were interrupted by a loud crack resonated from Dumbledore's wand.
"As much as I am supportive of competition between the houses," Dumbledore remarked while looking straight at Malfoy, "For the interest of everyone here, I would like Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Weasley to put their rivalry aside for tonight." Malfoy, knowing there was nothing to gain by continuing, gave an angry huff towards Ron and returned to the dance floor with Pansy clinging to his arm. Ron, meanwhile, was in the midst of slumping out of the Great Hall until Matt, Hermione, and Harry caught up with him.
"Are you alright, Ron?" Hermione asked sympathetically. It took poor Ron a while to register just who was asking him the question.
"Is that you, Hermione?" Ron asked with a stunned expression on his face. "You look bloody fantastic!"
"What about me, Ron?" Matt asked with a shocked expression on his face. "I think I look pretty damn good tonight!" Ron gave Matt a misty grin.
"No, Matt, you just look as hideous as you always do." Both Matt and Harry gave a big grin at that and gave their redheaded friend a hug, which Ron accepted gratefully.
"Don't worry about it, Ron!" Gred said smiling from behind the quartet. "No matter how much of a failure you are in romance, you've always got your family!"
"Yeah," Ron said with a lump in his throat, "but I don't want to dance with any of you!"
"Then let's get you some butterbeer, Ron," Harry said as he wrapped an arm around Ron and then he turned back to Hermione. "Is it all right if I sit the next one out?"
"Don't worry Harry, my boy," Matt said with a sleazy grin as he snaked his arms around Hermione's waist. "She's already got an upgrade." Hermione didn't even bother to look at the Ravenclaw.
"Please hurry back before I'm forced to kill him," she said flatly without missing a beat. Harry waved back while he, Gred, and Forge guided Ron towards the refreshments table. "Well," Hermione sighed as she gave Matt a sour glance, "I might as well get this over with."
"Flirt." Matt said flippantly, which caused Hermione to break her expression and chortle. Without another word, Hermione and Matt walked back to the dance floor while The Weird Sisters, who didn't seem to be even close to being on the verge of slowing down after roughly two hours of playing music, starting playing a slow waltz tune. While many of the students looked at the musicians with befuddlement, Hermione and Matt simply shrugged their shoulders and began to dance.
"Well, milady," Matt said while the first bagpipe made its presence, "allow me to say that you look even more lovelier than usual tonight."
"Why thank you, kind sir," Hermione responded as she continued to lead the way.
"And allow me to be the first to say that it did quite a significant number on Harry. I never knew you had it in you."
"Would you stop!" Hermione hissed as she nearly stomped on Matt's feet. "I'm only doing this so Harry would have a date for the ball!"
"Is that all?" Matt asked impassively as he twirled Hermione around. "I wonder how many times you've said that to yourself tonight." Hermione's angry gaze had once again returned after a two-hour absence.
"I'm not here to talk about my romantic life. I'm here to help out with yours!" Matt couldn't help coughing a bit in shock at that remark.
"Pardon me?" Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Not with me, you git! With Ginny!"
"How on earth did you know about that?" Matt asked, almost scandalized that he had been discovered.
"Mandy told me you've been watching Ginny dance with Neville for half the night. She said that you even winced whenever Neville stomped on Ginny's feet!" Matt scowled quite a bit over his friend's treacherous tongue. "Forget how we know about it and go find Ginny. Neville tells me that she's out in the garden watching the fairies."
"What about Ron?" Matt asked urgently.
"Don't worry about him!" Hermione whispered. "Harry and the twins have him occupied." Matt would have smiled about the open opportunity if he weren't so shocked about it. " Now you have no more excuses, Matt. Get out there before I have to drag you out there!"
"Aye aye, ma'am," Matt said with a warm smile, "and thank you." And, with those last words, Matt began to walk quickly out of the Great Hall while Hermione watched him go.
Virginia Weasley loved the smell of the night air as it seemed to wash over her. The fairies were putting on a wonderful show and she was enjoying it immensely. She ran a weathered hand through her straight, red hair as she continued to gaze at the fairy lights and the stars above them. Parvati and Lavender had insisted that Ginny should do something with her hair to make her look exotic, but Ginny made it clear to the both of them that she would have none of that. She wasn't exotic, nor would she ever pretend that she was, and that was perfectly fine by her.
'If only Harry shared the same feelings,' Ginny mused quietly as she removed her right shoe to rub some of the soreness of her feet that had been created from Neville's frequent stumbling on the dance floor. Don't get her wrong, she enjoyed Neville's company and liked him very much as a friend, but it was Harry that she truly had eyes for. But, alas, it seemed that his heart belonged to another. One of her best friends, no less.
Again, don't get her wrong, she was more than happy to see Harry and Hermione getting closer, but she would almost give anything to put herself in Hermione's place. Then, giving a brief sigh to the night, she returned to rubbing her aching feet. 'Perhaps I could spend my time better teaching Neville how to dance,' she thought.
"The pursuit of war is indeed a quest most foul, but the pursuit of love is one of utter stupidity," Ginny called out to the fairies who certainly didn't seem to be paying any attention.
"It's never a good sign when you're quoting Voltaire at a ball," Matt said quietly. "Some silly git would start to thinking about putting arsenic in your tea." Ginny was wearing reddish-pink dress robes that most people would have thought made her look rather homely. Matt, however, thought of her as nothing less than a scarlet-haired vision. He wasn't about to tell her that, he wasn't that bloody stupid! Ginny whirled around in shock to spot the source of the new voice, only to be relieved that it came from somebody she knew.
"Had a rough night with Neville?" Matt asked with a Cheshire-cat grin on his face. It wasn't the most effective of first lines in the history of getting a girl to like you, but it definitely seemed to suit him. Ginny just gave a shy giggle as she continued to rub her feet.
"It's what I get for dancing with a man with two left feet," Ginny answered casually. "And where is your date tonight?"
"I think she's trying to get a dance with Cedric," Matt said with a timid smile and he took a seat on the bench besides Ginny. "Looks like Cho has quite a grip on him though." There was a long silent pause before Matt summed up the courage to say something else. 'He always seemed to have plenty to talk about when we're out gallivanting around with Hagrid!' Matt thought angrily. 'Why can't I think of anything now?'
"You, um, look nice tonight," Matt stumbled.
'Good job! You've got her eating out of the palm of your hand!' his inner voice teased him.
"Thanks," Ginny said as a slight blush began to form on her cheeks. "You look pretty handsome too."
"Thanks," Matt sputtered. This was obviously not part of Matt's intricate plan.
"It's so beautiful out here," Ginny said with an blithe grin as she stood up off the bench that they had been sitting on as she made her way to the fountain. "I think it looks even nicer than the decorations on the inside."
"Yeah," Matt said, still rooted to his seat on the bench. "It's real nice. Um, would you like to, well, you know. . ."
"What?" Ginny asked calmly.
"To dance?" Matt squeaked out. Ginny breathed a bit while she ran her hands through the water in the fountain before she replied.
"That may be a little difficult. There isn't any music, Matt." Ginny said dully. It took a bit for Matt to realize that it was quite true. The heavy, oak doors that separated the main grounds to the school itself was an effective sound barrier between the solitude of the gardens and the music inside. Once again, another part of Matt's master plan was quickly ripped asunder. Fortunately, he somehow managed to improvise another idea and attempted to express it in an incredibly charming matter.
"Well, um, you don't really need music to dance, y'know." Matt said with all the grace and romantic flair of a drunken vicar. "I can sing to you." Ginny perked up significantly at that idea.
"I'd like that!" Ginny said with a grin as she moved back towards the bench. Matt couldn't seem to find the ability to get up and join her, however. Ginny had a very unsure look on her face as she asked, "This isn't going to be once of those seated dances, are they?"
"Um, no," Matt said as he made an incredible effort to will his legs to get into action. He finally succeeded and Ginny took Matt into her arms and began a slow dance.
It took quite a bit longer than expected for Matt to get his singing voice up and running, but he finally managed it after about a half-minute of dancing. A low, mournful baritone began to resonate from the Hogwarts gardens.
"Heaven, I'm in heaven. And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak. And I seem to find the happiness I seek, when we're out together dancing cheek to cheek."
It wasn't the most stunning rendition of the song that Ginny had ever heard, but the emotion behind it almost seemed to stun her. Then, without really knowing that she did it, Ginny began to stretch her legs slightly so that her cheek would touch with Matt's. The young man continued to sing.
"Heaven, I'm in heaven. And the cares that hung around me through the week. . . seem to vanish like a gambler's lucky streak. When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek."
Try as he might, Matt couldn't seem to think of the next verse, but it mattered very little to either of them. The two were dancing around the sparkling fountain to music that was only their own. The fairies stopped their playful magic to watch the young couple, many of them giggling in admiration. It took quite a while for the music in Matt and Ginny's minds to stop as they finally pulled back from one another.
"That was lovely," Ginny choked out as her azure eyes threatened to drown Matt. It took quite a bit of time for Matt to remember the next step in his surprisingly improvised master plan.
"Ooh, that reminds me," Matt said as he dug into one of the pockets in his blue dress robes. Before too long, he had pulled out a small present out of one of the side pockets. It seemed to have been wrapped cautiously, as if he didn't want to make the slightest mistake. "I forgot to give you your Christmas present." Ginny gave Matt a look that had an ample mixture of shock and horror.
"But, Matt," Ginny stammered, "I didn't get you anything!"
"Oh, that's all right," Matt said as he slowly handed his gift to the youngest of the Weasleys. "Don't worry about it." Ginny didn't look quite ready to accept Matt's forgiveness, but she gently took the gift from Matt's hands and slowly unwrapped it. Inside was a mahogany box about eight inches long.
"It's a music box," Matt said, finally once again mustering the courage to look back into Ginny's eyes. Her eyes seemed to shine as she stared at the gift.
"It's wonderful," Ginny said softly as she cautiously opened the box. A slow, little tune began to emanate from the humble music box that sounded quite a bit like a serenade.
"My grandmother told me it was a song she used to sing to me as I fell asleep. I can't remember the words really, but it always seemed to relax me." This time it took a while for Ginny to respond.
"Thank you," Ginny whispered as she and Matt continued to stare at one another, quite heedless of their surroundings.
"So. . ." Matt said while blushing slightly, not being able to think of what to do next.
"So. . ." Ginny responded. "It's getting rather late. Perhaps I should get to bed for tomorrow's classes."
"Perhaps you should," Matt said gently. And, with that little goodbye, Ginny began a slow march back into the Great Hall. As she opened the door, she turned back to look at Matt, a small, but unbelievably magnificent smile on her face.
"Merry Christmas, Matt." Ginny said as she closed the door behind her.
"Merry Christmas, Ginny." Matt whispered long after Ginny had shut the door.
Meanwhile, Harry was escorting Hermione back to the Gryffindor common room so they could get some sleep. The two of them walked side-by-side, neither one making physical contact with the other. Both of them, for all their intelligence, had no idea what to do in this situation. Should they hold hands? Should Hermione lean against Harry's shoulder? Should they race each other down the corridor? Should they just yell like maniacs until everyone thought they were barking mad? There was no book that could tell them what to do now.
The Fat Lady was kind enough to let them in without saying a word and the two Gryffindors continued to trudge their way to the stairway that separated the boys' dormitory from the girls'. It wasn't until Hermione began to ascend the staircase until she turned around to say something.
"I. . . had a really nice time tonight, Harry," Hermione said, her elegant hair beginning unravel itself and return to its normal, bushy state, as if Cinderella was losing her magic.
"I did too," Harry said as he ran a hand through his unkempt black hair. Hermione giggled a bit at that.
"Maybe we can find our own dates to the ball the next time around," she said with a bashful grin.
"Yeah," Harry said. "It would be real embarrassing to go out with each other the next time around! Real, um, embarrassing."
"Yes. . ." Hermione said, suddenly losing her train of thought while looking into Harry's emerald eyes. "Well, look on the bright side. Tomorrow it will be back to the normal routine."
"Yep, back to Snape taking points and Moody going on about constant vigilance and Ron and Matt pulling pranks and, well, back to normal."
"Yes," Hermione said, finally being able to break away from Harry's puppy-dog like gaze. "Well, good night Harry." Turning back towards the stairs Hermione rushed for the girls' dorm not daring to look back. The periwinkle blue robes and the bouncing brown hair reminded Harry of an angel he had once dreamed about back at Privet Drive.
"Good night," Harry whispered after the door to the dormitory slammed shut.
As Harry made the slow, solitary walk up to the boys' dorm, he was unaware that somebody was watching his every move. A pair of deep black eyes continued to pore over Harry as he opened the door into the boys dormitory and shut it quietly so as not to wake Ron or Neville. The observer then went back to a vision of a similar looking young man with unruly black hair and a scraggly body conditioned by Quidditch and a red- haired bookworm who was just beginning to learn about love. The observer then looked up to the roof of the room where he had spent much of his adolescent years and made a silent prayer to the stars.
"Dear God," Peter Pettigrew said with tears clouding his eyes, "please don't let it happen again."
"Pettigrew has informed me that there are some slight holes in Dumbledore's defense at Hogwarts owing to the arrival of the foreign schools," Voldemort said in a cold, high voice that could have sent shivers down the spine of even the greatest of wizards.
"What do you wish of me, milord?" Voldemort's "visitor" grumbled, his immense frame nearly creaking the floorboards of Riddle's old home.
"I want you to kill Hermione Granger," Riddle said simply. "She is clearly the young woman that Ravenclaw spoke of in her final prophecy. She is already a formidably strong witch for her age but she is still a weakling and we cannot allow her to become stronger. You will become accompanied by no one in this venture, for I am certain that you are capable of completing this task yourself." The big man grumbled in assent at that.
"Why not assign Crouch to the task, milord?"
"I don't want my loyal servant to reveal his identity until the proper time has come."
"And what of the boy, milord?"
"YOU WILL DO NOTHING TO POTTER!" Voldemort screamed in a manner that would have sent most Aurors running for the hills. The big man did not even move a muscle. Voldemort was clearly impressed by the man's reaction. "He must remain alive to play a part in my glorious revival."
"Indeed, milord, but I was referring to the other boy in the prophecy." Voldemort gave a cruel smile at that statement.
"So you wish to finish the job you started, old friend? Very well, you have my permission to be rid of him as well. Just remember that the mudblood is your primary target. Do not fail me simply because you wish to carry out a debt of blood! Do you understand?"
"Indeed, milord." The tower of muscle said with a sadistic grin on his face. A colossal double-bladed battle-axe materialized by his huge hands and he took a hold of it. He swung it around as if it were nothing more than a child's plaything, imagining himself hacking into the limbs of the young witch and wizard. Once that deed was done, the man roared a hunter's cry into the silent night of Little Hangleton.
"Allow me to assure you that Hermione Granger and Matt McGonagall are as good as dead!" Macnair said.
Well, that about does it for the romance portion of this little short story, and I'm happy to see it end. My thanks to the beautiful song "Cheek to Cheek" written by Irving Berlin and originally sung by the late, great Fred Astaire. It's always been one of my favorite songs although I've never had the guts to sing it to a woman. Oh well, a man can dream, can't he? Oh well, here's the chapter preview.
It's New Year's Day at Hogwarts and things don't look good for our young heroes. Macnair is making his return to Hogwarts, and he ain't coming to take care of a hippogriff this time! And, what about the Triwizard Tournament (what, did you think I forgot about it?)? Is Harry finally going to take some time out to figure out the mystery of the golden egg? And what about Peter Pettigrew? What is his role in the events to come? Find out the answers to a few of these questions and more in the next climactic chapter: Myrtle, Moody, and Macnair! Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Really, I don't. You know, the whole practice of this disclaimer seems kind of counterproductive to me. After all, what would J.K. Rowling, who is already a multi-millionaire in her own right want to interfere with the actions of a 21-year-old frittering away his spare time? Don't worry about my speculative mood; I'm sure it will fade by the end of the chapter.
Chapter 5: Fun Times at The Yule Ball
The spirit of Christmas was alive and well in the Gryffindor common room as the cheery, young witches and wizards scurried about to gather their gifts. A titanic pine tree festooned with baubles and other extravagant decorations dominated the southwest corner of the room. The December snow was falling at an amazing rate outdoors, but the roaring fires and the sturdy granite walls of Hogwarts turned the snowstorm into nothing more than a harmless attraction for the students.
Of course, to say that this festive atmosphere within the Gryffindor common room was something positive was quite debatable. The excitement in the air only seemed to intensify the already rambunctious nature of many of the Gryffindor students. Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas were at the center of the common room playing a highly competitive and highly dangerous game of Exploding Snap. Poor Neville Longbottom has already misplaced his toad Trevor (Ron said Neville had broke his old record, much to Hermione's annoyance) and was currently engaged in a frantic search to find him. Meanwhile, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, and Alicia Spinnet, Harry's female teammates on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, were heading up an extremely loud gab session that had attracted all but two of the female Gryffindors.
"Why must they always go about like bloody fools?" Hermione Granger asked, her before-shower brown hair looking like a flattened tornado.
"Don't worry about it too much," answered Ginny Weasley, Ron's little sister. "You've got all the company you need right here!"
"That's right!" Ron said enthusiastically, his bright orange Chudley Cannons cap looking spectacularly repulsive upon his red-haired head. "After all, what's Christmas but a time to celebrate with the people you care about the most!"
"Then why are you here with us, Ron?" Harry asked with an playful grin while Ginny and Hermione giggled.
"You're just jealous because of my stunning new headwear," Ron said airily while grasping the rim of the hat he received from Harry for a Christmas present. "Honestly, Harry, if you wanted it so badly you should have just kept it for yourself!"
"I hope you don't plan on going outside with that on Ron," Hermione said from her cushy armchair. "You may frighten the local wildlife." That caused Harry and Ginny to laugh even louder. Ron just shrugged his shoulders.
"Ah, what do you know about taste?" He asked Hermione cheekily. "You're going with Harry to the Yule Ball after all."
"Hey!" Harry and Ginny both shouted while the entrance to the Gryffindor common room slid open, revealing Fred and George Weasley. The roguish twins had their arms full of treats that they had doubtlessly received from the house-elves. In their Christmas tradition, they were wearing each other's sweaters that they received from their mother every Christmas. It was quite an irritating tradition for many of the Gryffindors, since Fred and George would often pull a malicious prank to the people that didn't refer to them as Gred and Forge during the day.
"Can't you two quit sneaking around Hogwarts for just one day?" Hermione asked in frustration. "If only for the spirit of Christmas?"
"Oh, come off it!" Gred said with a smile. "Besides, if we hadn't have gone out today, we wouldn't have found this fellow." And, with that said, a third figure popped up behind Fred and George, a very welcome and familiar figure at that.
"Matt!" Harry and Ron both exclaimed. The young Ravenclaw, whose arms were full of badly wrapped presents, gave an amiable smile in return to his friends' calls.
"Thanks Gred and Forge for your always timely assistance!" Matt said in a disarmingly soldier-like fashion.
"Anything to help a fellow prankster," Forge said while he ran across the room to give his little brother a playful noogie.
"Merry Christmas, Matthew." Hermione said with a slight grin. "I see you've put Harry's invisibility cloak to good use."
"It definitely beats making an invisibility potion," Matt said as he handed the silvery mantle back to Harry. "Thanks for letting me borrow it."
"Don't mention it." Harry said merrily. "And, in return, here's your gift."
"Hey! I've gotta hurry up and see what it is!" Matt said as he handed out his presents to Harry and Hermione while Ron and Hermione handed their gifts to him in return.
"Hey! What about our presents?" Forge asked.
"Just consider my not telling Professor McGonagall who put those Cornish pixies in her desk last month as my Christmas present to you two," Matt said with a smirk.
"All right!" Forge said audaciously. "And our not telling Professor Vector who turned his skin blue last week will be our Christmas present to you!"
"I knew we could work something out!" Matt said as he unwrapped his present from Harry. "Harry! This potions set must have cost you a fortune!" Matt shouted as he pulled out several cleanly rolled balls of spider silk. "How on earth am I going to make this up to you?" He wrapped his arms around Harry's shoulders.
"Just promise you won't kiss me and I'll be fine," Harry choked out, quite a bit uncomfortable in Matt's sturdy grip.
"Thank you for the new Transfiguration book, Matt!" Hermione said cheerfully as she held up a rather thick book of insanely complex incantations. "I haven't found the time to read this one."
"A book that Hermione hasn't read!" Forge said while his hands flickered up to his cheeks.
"Will wonders ever cease?" Gred chimed in, much to the amusement of the others.
"That joke just gives me a new excuse to try these spells out on you, Gred and Forge," Hermione said serenely as Matt unwrapped his present from Hermione. The present was an incredibly vast astronomy map, was complete with stars that were enchanted to move along in accordance to their lifelike counterparts. Matt stared in awe of the gift as the Big Dipper seemed to shine at him.
"That's so you don't have to try to copy off of my Astronomy exams in Professor Sinistra's class any longer."
"Why thank you, my bushy-haired, formerly bucked-tooth study partner!" Matt said as he and Hermione gave each other a friendly embrace. Meanwhile, Gred and Forge were applauding Matt over his gift to Harry.
"One-thousand and One Ways to Cause Trouble with Magic," Harry read off the cover.
"I figured it was another thing I could do to help you become a smart- ass troublemaker like me, Harry!"
"I'm sure it will make an excellent doorstop," Hermione quipped.
"Who invites you to our gatherings anyway?" Ron asked in mock annoyance.
"It has to be Harry, Ron," Matt said simply. "Apparently the only reason they keep us around us is to better avoid the temptation of putting their hands all over each other."
That comment was quickly met by Harry and Hermione throwing some nearby pillows while Ron, Gred, and Forge guffawed wildly. Ginny, meanwhile, just blushed quietly and watched the goings-on.
"Flying with the Cannons, Ron?" Matt said as he held up his present from the lanky fourth-year.
"It's like your present to Harry," Ron said. "It'll help motivate you in the right direction." Hermione, as she often did, groaned in frustration at the two.
"I really don't understand why I hang out with the two of you," she said dully.
After a predictably immoderate Christmas brunch in the Great Hall, Harry and his friends were tromping about the freshly fallen Christmas snow. The atmosphere was so enchanting that not even Hermione could resist taking part in the annual snowball fight, which turned into a five-on-five with Matt and Mandy Brocklehurst, Matt's date to the Yule Ball, along with the usual group. Matt, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were on one side while Gred, Forge, Mandy, Angelina, and Katie on the other. Within a half- hour, the air around Hogwarts was filled with the excited cries of ten playful witches and wizards, each of whom were finding their own way to enjoy the thrill of not having to deal with schoolwork, if only for a little while.
Ron was quite watchful of the times Matt and Ginny were hunched side- by-side with one another. He even took a couple of unnecessary snowballs because of it. His little sister certainly seemed to enjoy Matt's company, which, needless to say, was something that needed to be taken care of immediately. After all, what are big brothers for if not to protect their innocent little sisters?
However, Ron's suspicions of Matt temporarily faded when Matt, Harry, and Hermione handed him their Christmas present to them. Much to Ron's shock, it was a racing broom, a classic Silver Arrow at that. Ron spent much of the rest of the afternoon flying about the Hogwarts grounds whooping like a maniac while Gred and Forge followed him around in their Cleansweeps while trying to pelt their little brother with snowballs.
"Man!" Ron said with exultation as he hit the ground. "I've got my first broom and tonight I'm going to the Yule Ball with a veela. I don't believe life can get better than this!"
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's mention of his date for the evening. Apparently Matt had somehow, with the help of a fantastic introduction, managed to get Ron a date with one of the veela who were staying in the Ravenclaw common room for the year due to the Triwizard tournament. Matt had done it in the hope that Ron would abandon his almost maniacal quest to keep Ginny away from him, but it was obvious that seed had yielded very few crops. The veela's name was Marie Courant, a sixth-year who celebrated her seventeenth birthday just before she arrived at Hogwarts. Ron was now being touted around school as the second luckiest man in Hogwarts (next to Roger Davies, the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain who had somehow managed to get a date with Fleur Delaclour).
"I've never seen such a prominent example of somebody so over his head, have you Gred?" Forge asked while ruffling Ron's hair.
"Don't complain, Forge. It'll be fun watching him crash and burn." Gred countered as Harry, Matt, and Hermione laughed.
"I don't care what any of you say!" Ron shouted. "Nothing is gonna bring me down today! Nothing!"
"Famous last words," Hermione whispered to Matt, who just sniggered in response.
"Come on, Peter!" Lily Evans cried as she finished wrapping her silky, red hair into an extravagant bun. "Come out of there! You can't look that bad!"
"This is Wormtail we're talking about Lil'" Sirius Black said as he fiddled with his top hat. The self-claimed "master of pranks" had opted to wear a handsome tuxedo to the ball over the standard dress robes.
"With him, anything bad is very possible."
"One more joke like that Padfoot and I'll stick that ponytail of yours right up your repulsively large nose!" Peter yelled through the door leading into the Gryffindor boys' dorm. Soon after the good-natured retort, a 16-year-old Peter Pettigrew emerged wearing a rather shabby set of green dress robes that were once worn by his father. He personally thought the robes were a little big for him, even after considering his own slightly pudgy frame. However, Peter was not about to let the state of his robes get him down He had a date with Christina Abbott, a seventh-year Hufflepuff whom he had a major crush on since his third-year and he was going to give everything he had to make sure that she had a good time. And, if he had to hang Padfoot up on the steeple of the North Tower in order to do so, so much the better.
"You look great, Peter!" Lily said as she straightened out some of the wrinkles in his robes.
"You sure you don't want some of my advice when it comes to the ladies, Wormtail?" Sirius asked with a lecherous grin.
"I think Wormtail would want to get Christina to like him, Padfoot, not make her run as far away as possible." Remus Lupin jibed from the top of the staircase.
"You're just jealous because you don't have my animal magnetism," Sirius said while maintaining his broad grin.
"If you mean 'animal magnetism' in the terms of you as a canine, I think Wormtail would do best to stay away from that." James Potter said, who was also decked out in a black and white tuxedo, much to Lily's approval.
"Well," Sirius said as he began marching down the stairs, "why are we all still standing around here? We've got to go pick up our lovely company for the ball! Come on, Moony! You too, Wormtail!"
"Just to remind me," Remus said as he adjusted the collar to his dress robes. "How many dates do you have tonight, Padfoot?"
"Just the three I told you about earlier," Sirius said with an impish grin while Lily, who was now arm-in-arm with her future husband, rolled her eyes in mild annoyance.
"Sirius, you're a walking Fellini movie," Lily said with a patient sigh.
"Who's Fellini?" Sirius asked.
"It's a Muggle reference," Peter said as he leaped down the last two steps and started making his way to the portrait of the fat lady. "I do have a question for you though, Sirius."
"What's that, Wormtail?" Sirius inquired innocently.
"Am I going to have to bring some flea powder for you tonight or do you have some in your pocket?"
It took a beat for the joke to set in for Remus, Lily, and James, but by that time Sirius was chasing Peter out of the common room and towards the Great Hall.
Thirty-seven year old Peter Pettigrew was snapped out of his reveries when a snowflake landed on his tiny, pink nose. He had watched the entire scene the moment Harry and his friends had left the Hogwarts gates. However, as much as he wanted to linger on about times past, he was sent here to do a job, and he wasn't about to fail. So, little Scabbers began his slow trot towards Hogwarts, his unusually long tail dragging behind him in the deepening snow.
Matt and Mandy were making their way to the Gryffindor common room to meet with Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Matt was looking quite resplendent in dark-blue dress robes while Mandy had chosen to wear an all-black dress that caused Matt to joke to others that he was taking a Goth girl to the ball.
"Just remember who is bailing out who in this situation, Matt," the honey-haired Ravenclaw reminded him as she teasingly placed a delicate finger onto Matt's chin.
"Touché," Matt said with an amiable grin.
After several minutes of traversing through the incredibly crowded and lavishly decorated Great Hall, Matt and Mandy had somehow managed to stumble their way towards Gryffindor Hall, where Ron and his date were waiting for them. Ron had somehow managed to take off all the frills in his hand-me-down dress robes while Marie looked so stunning in a tight ivory-white gown that it seemed Ron couldn't pay attention to anything else. Personally, Matt thought the gown made the half-veela look like a high-class woman of ill repute, but he wasn't about to say that to his disturbingly giddy friend.
"Harry and Hermione have already gone ahead," Ron said with a beaming smile. "We'll catch up to them after the dinner. Let's go!"
And, with these excited comments, Ron had grabbed a hold of Marie's left arm and proceeded to nearly drag her into the Great Hall. Matt and Mandy, both giving the girl a look of extreme sympathy, quickly followed behind the very unlikely pair.
Once the quartet had made their way back to the central corridor and proceeded to push their way into the Great Hall, Matt and Mandy went out into the gardens where dozens of fairies were displaying their colorful magic to create a truly gorgeous sight. Matt was impressed so much with the sight that he pondered out loud on what it would be like to be a fairy.
"I'm not sure elfin ears would go with your dress robes, Matt." Mandy said saucily as she shook some of the fairy powder from her hair.
"Don't rob me of my joy, Mandy." Matt said with a sour smirk as he peered into the throng of students lined up in front of him before the doors of the Great Hall. "Have you seen Hermione yet?"
"She's probably at the front with Harry and the professors," Mandy answered. "Guess we'll just have to wait until the feast to find her."
"Sorry if I'm not going to be the kind of company you were looking for tonight Mandy," Matt said repentantly. Mandy just shrugged her shoulders and gave her fellow Ravenclaw a bright smile.
"Just promise to save me a few slots on your dance card and we'll call it even," Mandy said simply. "It's too bad you couldn't get Ginny to come with you." Matt blew out his breath and softly ran a hand through his slicked-back brown hair.
"I'll think of something," he said with a downhearted manner.
"Champions over here, please!" Professor McGonagall called over the loud talking of the collective student body. "All students please make your way into the Great Hall and be seated."
Quick to get his Christmas dinner started, Ron kept his firm grip on poor Marie's hand as the two made their way towards one of the tables at an incredible pace. Mandy simply shook her head while Matt did all he could to avoid bursting out in laughter.
"Think we should sit at Ron's table, Matt?" Mandy asked unceremoniously.
"If only to make sure he doesn't make a complete fool out of himself," Matt answered while he politely offered his arm to his friend. "Shall we go, madam?"
"Why certainly, monsieur." Mandy said as she accepted the offer and the two Ravenclaws made their way into the Great Hall.
The walls of the Hall were covered with sparkling silver frost that seemed to fall from the sky. Dozens of garlands of mistletoe and holly accompanied the frost while the stunning and starry black Great Hall ceiling provided much of the light in the vast dining hall. Festive lanterns were on each table to provide even more light for the young witches and wizards. Even Matt could not avoid applauding along with the rest of the students at the great efforts that had been made to make the Great Hall look wonderful. After quite a bit of struggling, Matt and Mandy had managed to find Ron and Marie's table near the front of the Great Hall. Ron, bless his heart, was already stuffing himself with whatever he could get his hands on while Marie seemed to stare at her date as if she were dealing with a wild man.
"This is really great!" Ron cried to Matt and Mandy, his mouth stuffed with mashed potatoes and gravy. "Ask for anything you want to eat and it'll just appear right on your plate!"
"Hermione is going to have a field day with this," Matt said as he stared at his empty plate. He was expecting Mandy to make a smart-ass comment about Hermione's stance on house-elves, but his friend was otherwise occupied with something going on at the head table.
"Matt, there's Hermione!" Mandy shouted in a shocked voice as she pointed to a young woman that Matt couldn't quite recognize. Once he put two-and-two together however, his eyes went wide.
Indeed, the elegant young lady who was sitting next to Katie Bell, Viktor Krum's date for the evening, was none other than Hermione Granger. Her suddenly silky brown hair was tied up into an elegant knot that Matt thought made her look like a young duchess, a far cry from her normally bushy curls. 'She must have used a potion on her hair to straighten it out,' he thought. She was wearing light cerulean dress robes that seemed to mesh wonderfully with Harry's emerald-green robes. Matt had expected her to be shouting angrily about the work the house-elves had to go through to make this dinner possible, but instead found her and Harry chatting amicably to Viktor Krum, who seemed to be telling them about the surroundings of the Durmstrang Institute from what he could hear and read. It took quite a while for Matt to adjust himself from the shocking sight but, once he did, he looked at Mandy with a devilish grin.
"I CAN'T WAIT TO TEASE HER ABOUT THIS ONE!" Matt shouted with triumphant glee. Mandy shook with laughter and partial embarrassment at her friend's enthusiasm.
"I won't have you saying a bad word to her about this!" Mandy murmured urgently. Matt just ignored Mandy's warning for now, however.
"And she said that she wasn't going to do anything for the ball!" Matt rambled on as he banged his fists upon the table. "This is too good to be true!"
"Matt, if Hermione wants to impress Harry, that's her business and her's alone," Mandy whispered angrily. With those words, Matt gave a resigned shrug of his shoulders.
"All right. All right." Matt said pretending to relent to his friend's wishes.
"What on earth are you two talking about?" Ron asked indignantly as he tried to get Marie to sample a treacle tart.
"Go back to eating Ron," Matt said flatly while he raised his glass of pumpkin juice and gave his friends a silent toast.
'Good luck, you two.'
"Ve have a castle also, not as big as this, nor as comfortable, I am thinking," Viktor Krum was telling to Harry and Hermione. "Zer are only four floors, but our grounds are larger than even these! Ve don't enjoy them much in the vinter but you should really see zem in the summer!"
"It truly sounds wonderful, Mr. Krum." Harry said with a polite grin.
"Call me Viktor, Harry," the Durmstrang champion said while he took a swig of butterbeer. Harry didn't imagine the Quidditch star as much of a talker. Since his arrival at Hogwarts, Krum was either in the library reading alone or skulking about around the Durmstrang ship. However, it seemed that Viktor Krum had another, more excitable side to him.
"Now, now, Viktor!" said Igor Karkaroff, the headmaster of Durmstrang said with a grumbling laugh, "don't go giving away all of our secrets."
"I'd love to visit there sometime," Hermione said, her dazzling white teeth seeming to sparkle in Harry's eyes. "It would be nice to see another wizarding school besides Hogwarts!" she exclaimed as Harry nodded in agreement.
"You act as if you've seen everything there is to see here, Miss Granger!" Albus Dumbledore said good-humoredly. "I hope you won't go running off from Hogwarts. Miss Granger is quite the remarkable student, Igor, if you didn't know." Hermione turned scarlet from Dumbledore's shining compliment. Harry, meanwhile, was now trying his hardest to tune out the loud complaints of one Fleur Delaclour, the champion from Beauxbatons. Like she had done many times since she had arrived from Beauxbatons, she was criticizing every little thing aspect about Hogwarts that came to her mind, from the magical suits of armor to Peeves, whom she had dubbed as a "'orrible monstrosity". For one moment, Harry found it hard to believe that Roger Davies could even stand to be next to her. Then he took a look at her striking silver-gray robes and at her luxuriant hair, causing Harry to understand Roger's real reasoning.
'Best remind myself to never date a veela,' Harry thought with bemusement before Hermione grabbed Harry's shoulder and pointed across the Great Hall towards Hagrid, who was wearing his favorite brown moleskin suit and had his hair slicked back with what appeared to motor oil. Even Harry couldn't avoid giggling a bit while he gave the Hogwarts gamekeeper a small wave, which Hagrid was happy to return.
"Looks like he's really trying to impress Madame Maxine," Harry said, referring to the headmaster of Beauxbatons who was, like Hagrid, uncommonly tall and strong.
By eight o'clock, the Christmas dinner was over and Dumbledore used his wand to remove every one of the vast dining tables from the Great Hall in the blink of an eye, much to the amazement of the students and several of the professors. What once was a dining room for nearly several hundred witches and wizards was now a dance hall that made the Palace of Versailles look humble. Once that seemingly simple task was over, Dumbledore went on to introduce the house band for the night, The Weird Sisters, much to the joy of many of the young men and women in the Great Hall.
The sight of The Weird Sisters was obviously not something Harry was expecting. Sure, he had seen many rock-and-roll bands thanks to the Dursley's television but he had never seen one that looked so incredibly, well, complex. There were seven members, each one wearing a black school robe that seemed to be torn apart by angry lions. Harry couldn't imagine why someone would choose to wear something like that, it looked extremely uncomfortable. The number of instruments that the band was preparing was also quite shocking to Harry. There were electric guitars and drums but also a saxophone, keyboards, a cello, and two extremely colorful sets of bagpipes. Harry was so shell-shocked that he gave a slight jump when Hermione gave him a light tap on the shoulder.
"Shall we dance or would you prefer that we remain at the table?" Hermione asked cheerily with her eyebrows raised. Harry was a bit tremulous to the idea of dancing in a public place, let alone with someone else, let alone with that somebody being Hermione.
"Sure we can't stay at the table?" Harry asked sheepishly. Hermione just gave Harry a gentle smile as she extended a small, well-manicured hand.
"I'll lead the way," she said softly with a confident smile while Harry gradually rose from his chair and took Hermione's hand. Ignoring the sniggers from Seamus and Dean and the wolf whistles from Gred, Forge, Matt, and many of the Slytherins, Hermione and Harry made their way to the center of the dance floor hand-in-hand. Once they arrived, The Weird Sisters began to play a slow tune that Harry could not even imagine how to dance to.
"Don't be so stressful, Harry," Hermione urged gently.
"I'm not much of a dancer, Hermione," Harry said, completely spooked.
"Put your left hand on my hip, Harry," Hermione requested, which Harry quickly complied with. Much to Hermione's relief, Harry seemed to relax quite a bit more with this and his shy smile finally emerged from its apparent hiding place. Soon, Harry was confident enough to keep up with Hermione and began to dance in a fashion that Harry could not have dreamed possible.
"Harry's doing well," Mandy whispered in approval.
"Be a shame to let him do this alone though," Matt said while nodding his head. "Shall we show them how it's done?"
"Absolutely!" Mandy said with enthusiasm as Matt took her hand and guided her to the dance floor.
It had been two hours since the first dance had begun and Harry still hadn't managed to sum up the nerve to ask for a break. However, Harry wasn't sure that this reluctance was due to his newly found dancing abilities or the fact that it was Hermione he was dancing with. Her chocolate-brown eyes were twinkling like the fairy lights in the Hogwarts gardens and her smile was beginning to make his heart flutter. Simply put, Harry thought that she looked wonderful.
'You think she looks wonderful all the time,' a little voice said in the back of his head.
"You're doing a great job, Harry!" Hermione shouted gleefully as she drew closer and whispered in Harry's ear. "I think we're even making Draco jealous."
Harry couldn't help but smile at that comment and spun Hermione around to go along with the fast number that The Weird Sisters were playing. Harry had quite a few wonderful days during his three-and-a-half years at Hogwarts: his first Quidditch match, the day Gryffindor won its first House Cup, and the discovery of Sirius Black as his godfather, but this day ranked right up there with them. It had nothing to do with him saving the world, learning about magic, fighting Malfoy, Snape, or Voldemort, or being different from everyone else. This day was about Harry and Hermione having the time of their lives in the center of the Great Hall dancing the night away.
'It doesn't get much better than this.' Harry thought with a smile.
Meanwhile, the suddenly unfortunate Ron Weasley had gotten himself in trouble. It appeared that his lack of composure on the dance floor had pushed Marie past the breaking point and the half-veela appeared to be having her revenge by embarrassing him in front of the entire student body.
"I don't understand zwy I came wit' you tonight. It eems you jus' go out of your vay to humiliate me. Also, your 'obes are so 'ideous zat you look like a vagabond."
Ron, who was now about as red as a tomato, was trying his best to make himself as small as possible while Marie chastised him about everything under the sun. Draco Malfoy was one of the first students that had noticed Ron's humiliation and was now trying everything he could to rub it into his face.
"Thank God that your mum isn't here to see you blubbering like this," Draco hissed while Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind him. "You would disgrace your family name more than you already have!"
"Oi! Malfoy!" Gred called out as he made his way to the scene of the argument with Angelina Johnson in tow. "Keep talking about Ron like that and I'll ram your slime-filled head down the nearest toilet."
"Oooooh!" Pansy Parkinson shrilled as she latched onto Draco's arm, "'ittle Ronniekins is being protected by his big, older brothers.
"You're as pathetic as they come, Weasel." Malfoy sneered.
"Try to say that in front of me," Angelina huffed while her shoulders bristled. It seemed that the Gryffindors and Slytherins were about to fight until they were interrupted by a loud crack resonated from Dumbledore's wand.
"As much as I am supportive of competition between the houses," Dumbledore remarked while looking straight at Malfoy, "For the interest of everyone here, I would like Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Weasley to put their rivalry aside for tonight." Malfoy, knowing there was nothing to gain by continuing, gave an angry huff towards Ron and returned to the dance floor with Pansy clinging to his arm. Ron, meanwhile, was in the midst of slumping out of the Great Hall until Matt, Hermione, and Harry caught up with him.
"Are you alright, Ron?" Hermione asked sympathetically. It took poor Ron a while to register just who was asking him the question.
"Is that you, Hermione?" Ron asked with a stunned expression on his face. "You look bloody fantastic!"
"What about me, Ron?" Matt asked with a shocked expression on his face. "I think I look pretty damn good tonight!" Ron gave Matt a misty grin.
"No, Matt, you just look as hideous as you always do." Both Matt and Harry gave a big grin at that and gave their redheaded friend a hug, which Ron accepted gratefully.
"Don't worry about it, Ron!" Gred said smiling from behind the quartet. "No matter how much of a failure you are in romance, you've always got your family!"
"Yeah," Ron said with a lump in his throat, "but I don't want to dance with any of you!"
"Then let's get you some butterbeer, Ron," Harry said as he wrapped an arm around Ron and then he turned back to Hermione. "Is it all right if I sit the next one out?"
"Don't worry Harry, my boy," Matt said with a sleazy grin as he snaked his arms around Hermione's waist. "She's already got an upgrade." Hermione didn't even bother to look at the Ravenclaw.
"Please hurry back before I'm forced to kill him," she said flatly without missing a beat. Harry waved back while he, Gred, and Forge guided Ron towards the refreshments table. "Well," Hermione sighed as she gave Matt a sour glance, "I might as well get this over with."
"Flirt." Matt said flippantly, which caused Hermione to break her expression and chortle. Without another word, Hermione and Matt walked back to the dance floor while The Weird Sisters, who didn't seem to be even close to being on the verge of slowing down after roughly two hours of playing music, starting playing a slow waltz tune. While many of the students looked at the musicians with befuddlement, Hermione and Matt simply shrugged their shoulders and began to dance.
"Well, milady," Matt said while the first bagpipe made its presence, "allow me to say that you look even more lovelier than usual tonight."
"Why thank you, kind sir," Hermione responded as she continued to lead the way.
"And allow me to be the first to say that it did quite a significant number on Harry. I never knew you had it in you."
"Would you stop!" Hermione hissed as she nearly stomped on Matt's feet. "I'm only doing this so Harry would have a date for the ball!"
"Is that all?" Matt asked impassively as he twirled Hermione around. "I wonder how many times you've said that to yourself tonight." Hermione's angry gaze had once again returned after a two-hour absence.
"I'm not here to talk about my romantic life. I'm here to help out with yours!" Matt couldn't help coughing a bit in shock at that remark.
"Pardon me?" Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Not with me, you git! With Ginny!"
"How on earth did you know about that?" Matt asked, almost scandalized that he had been discovered.
"Mandy told me you've been watching Ginny dance with Neville for half the night. She said that you even winced whenever Neville stomped on Ginny's feet!" Matt scowled quite a bit over his friend's treacherous tongue. "Forget how we know about it and go find Ginny. Neville tells me that she's out in the garden watching the fairies."
"What about Ron?" Matt asked urgently.
"Don't worry about him!" Hermione whispered. "Harry and the twins have him occupied." Matt would have smiled about the open opportunity if he weren't so shocked about it. " Now you have no more excuses, Matt. Get out there before I have to drag you out there!"
"Aye aye, ma'am," Matt said with a warm smile, "and thank you." And, with those last words, Matt began to walk quickly out of the Great Hall while Hermione watched him go.
Virginia Weasley loved the smell of the night air as it seemed to wash over her. The fairies were putting on a wonderful show and she was enjoying it immensely. She ran a weathered hand through her straight, red hair as she continued to gaze at the fairy lights and the stars above them. Parvati and Lavender had insisted that Ginny should do something with her hair to make her look exotic, but Ginny made it clear to the both of them that she would have none of that. She wasn't exotic, nor would she ever pretend that she was, and that was perfectly fine by her.
'If only Harry shared the same feelings,' Ginny mused quietly as she removed her right shoe to rub some of the soreness of her feet that had been created from Neville's frequent stumbling on the dance floor. Don't get her wrong, she enjoyed Neville's company and liked him very much as a friend, but it was Harry that she truly had eyes for. But, alas, it seemed that his heart belonged to another. One of her best friends, no less.
Again, don't get her wrong, she was more than happy to see Harry and Hermione getting closer, but she would almost give anything to put herself in Hermione's place. Then, giving a brief sigh to the night, she returned to rubbing her aching feet. 'Perhaps I could spend my time better teaching Neville how to dance,' she thought.
"The pursuit of war is indeed a quest most foul, but the pursuit of love is one of utter stupidity," Ginny called out to the fairies who certainly didn't seem to be paying any attention.
"It's never a good sign when you're quoting Voltaire at a ball," Matt said quietly. "Some silly git would start to thinking about putting arsenic in your tea." Ginny was wearing reddish-pink dress robes that most people would have thought made her look rather homely. Matt, however, thought of her as nothing less than a scarlet-haired vision. He wasn't about to tell her that, he wasn't that bloody stupid! Ginny whirled around in shock to spot the source of the new voice, only to be relieved that it came from somebody she knew.
"Had a rough night with Neville?" Matt asked with a Cheshire-cat grin on his face. It wasn't the most effective of first lines in the history of getting a girl to like you, but it definitely seemed to suit him. Ginny just gave a shy giggle as she continued to rub her feet.
"It's what I get for dancing with a man with two left feet," Ginny answered casually. "And where is your date tonight?"
"I think she's trying to get a dance with Cedric," Matt said with a timid smile and he took a seat on the bench besides Ginny. "Looks like Cho has quite a grip on him though." There was a long silent pause before Matt summed up the courage to say something else. 'He always seemed to have plenty to talk about when we're out gallivanting around with Hagrid!' Matt thought angrily. 'Why can't I think of anything now?'
"You, um, look nice tonight," Matt stumbled.
'Good job! You've got her eating out of the palm of your hand!' his inner voice teased him.
"Thanks," Ginny said as a slight blush began to form on her cheeks. "You look pretty handsome too."
"Thanks," Matt sputtered. This was obviously not part of Matt's intricate plan.
"It's so beautiful out here," Ginny said with an blithe grin as she stood up off the bench that they had been sitting on as she made her way to the fountain. "I think it looks even nicer than the decorations on the inside."
"Yeah," Matt said, still rooted to his seat on the bench. "It's real nice. Um, would you like to, well, you know. . ."
"What?" Ginny asked calmly.
"To dance?" Matt squeaked out. Ginny breathed a bit while she ran her hands through the water in the fountain before she replied.
"That may be a little difficult. There isn't any music, Matt." Ginny said dully. It took a bit for Matt to realize that it was quite true. The heavy, oak doors that separated the main grounds to the school itself was an effective sound barrier between the solitude of the gardens and the music inside. Once again, another part of Matt's master plan was quickly ripped asunder. Fortunately, he somehow managed to improvise another idea and attempted to express it in an incredibly charming matter.
"Well, um, you don't really need music to dance, y'know." Matt said with all the grace and romantic flair of a drunken vicar. "I can sing to you." Ginny perked up significantly at that idea.
"I'd like that!" Ginny said with a grin as she moved back towards the bench. Matt couldn't seem to find the ability to get up and join her, however. Ginny had a very unsure look on her face as she asked, "This isn't going to be once of those seated dances, are they?"
"Um, no," Matt said as he made an incredible effort to will his legs to get into action. He finally succeeded and Ginny took Matt into her arms and began a slow dance.
It took quite a bit longer than expected for Matt to get his singing voice up and running, but he finally managed it after about a half-minute of dancing. A low, mournful baritone began to resonate from the Hogwarts gardens.
"Heaven, I'm in heaven. And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak. And I seem to find the happiness I seek, when we're out together dancing cheek to cheek."
It wasn't the most stunning rendition of the song that Ginny had ever heard, but the emotion behind it almost seemed to stun her. Then, without really knowing that she did it, Ginny began to stretch her legs slightly so that her cheek would touch with Matt's. The young man continued to sing.
"Heaven, I'm in heaven. And the cares that hung around me through the week. . . seem to vanish like a gambler's lucky streak. When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek."
Try as he might, Matt couldn't seem to think of the next verse, but it mattered very little to either of them. The two were dancing around the sparkling fountain to music that was only their own. The fairies stopped their playful magic to watch the young couple, many of them giggling in admiration. It took quite a while for the music in Matt and Ginny's minds to stop as they finally pulled back from one another.
"That was lovely," Ginny choked out as her azure eyes threatened to drown Matt. It took quite a bit of time for Matt to remember the next step in his surprisingly improvised master plan.
"Ooh, that reminds me," Matt said as he dug into one of the pockets in his blue dress robes. Before too long, he had pulled out a small present out of one of the side pockets. It seemed to have been wrapped cautiously, as if he didn't want to make the slightest mistake. "I forgot to give you your Christmas present." Ginny gave Matt a look that had an ample mixture of shock and horror.
"But, Matt," Ginny stammered, "I didn't get you anything!"
"Oh, that's all right," Matt said as he slowly handed his gift to the youngest of the Weasleys. "Don't worry about it." Ginny didn't look quite ready to accept Matt's forgiveness, but she gently took the gift from Matt's hands and slowly unwrapped it. Inside was a mahogany box about eight inches long.
"It's a music box," Matt said, finally once again mustering the courage to look back into Ginny's eyes. Her eyes seemed to shine as she stared at the gift.
"It's wonderful," Ginny said softly as she cautiously opened the box. A slow, little tune began to emanate from the humble music box that sounded quite a bit like a serenade.
"My grandmother told me it was a song she used to sing to me as I fell asleep. I can't remember the words really, but it always seemed to relax me." This time it took a while for Ginny to respond.
"Thank you," Ginny whispered as she and Matt continued to stare at one another, quite heedless of their surroundings.
"So. . ." Matt said while blushing slightly, not being able to think of what to do next.
"So. . ." Ginny responded. "It's getting rather late. Perhaps I should get to bed for tomorrow's classes."
"Perhaps you should," Matt said gently. And, with that little goodbye, Ginny began a slow march back into the Great Hall. As she opened the door, she turned back to look at Matt, a small, but unbelievably magnificent smile on her face.
"Merry Christmas, Matt." Ginny said as she closed the door behind her.
"Merry Christmas, Ginny." Matt whispered long after Ginny had shut the door.
Meanwhile, Harry was escorting Hermione back to the Gryffindor common room so they could get some sleep. The two of them walked side-by-side, neither one making physical contact with the other. Both of them, for all their intelligence, had no idea what to do in this situation. Should they hold hands? Should Hermione lean against Harry's shoulder? Should they race each other down the corridor? Should they just yell like maniacs until everyone thought they were barking mad? There was no book that could tell them what to do now.
The Fat Lady was kind enough to let them in without saying a word and the two Gryffindors continued to trudge their way to the stairway that separated the boys' dormitory from the girls'. It wasn't until Hermione began to ascend the staircase until she turned around to say something.
"I. . . had a really nice time tonight, Harry," Hermione said, her elegant hair beginning unravel itself and return to its normal, bushy state, as if Cinderella was losing her magic.
"I did too," Harry said as he ran a hand through his unkempt black hair. Hermione giggled a bit at that.
"Maybe we can find our own dates to the ball the next time around," she said with a bashful grin.
"Yeah," Harry said. "It would be real embarrassing to go out with each other the next time around! Real, um, embarrassing."
"Yes. . ." Hermione said, suddenly losing her train of thought while looking into Harry's emerald eyes. "Well, look on the bright side. Tomorrow it will be back to the normal routine."
"Yep, back to Snape taking points and Moody going on about constant vigilance and Ron and Matt pulling pranks and, well, back to normal."
"Yes," Hermione said, finally being able to break away from Harry's puppy-dog like gaze. "Well, good night Harry." Turning back towards the stairs Hermione rushed for the girls' dorm not daring to look back. The periwinkle blue robes and the bouncing brown hair reminded Harry of an angel he had once dreamed about back at Privet Drive.
"Good night," Harry whispered after the door to the dormitory slammed shut.
As Harry made the slow, solitary walk up to the boys' dorm, he was unaware that somebody was watching his every move. A pair of deep black eyes continued to pore over Harry as he opened the door into the boys dormitory and shut it quietly so as not to wake Ron or Neville. The observer then went back to a vision of a similar looking young man with unruly black hair and a scraggly body conditioned by Quidditch and a red- haired bookworm who was just beginning to learn about love. The observer then looked up to the roof of the room where he had spent much of his adolescent years and made a silent prayer to the stars.
"Dear God," Peter Pettigrew said with tears clouding his eyes, "please don't let it happen again."
"Pettigrew has informed me that there are some slight holes in Dumbledore's defense at Hogwarts owing to the arrival of the foreign schools," Voldemort said in a cold, high voice that could have sent shivers down the spine of even the greatest of wizards.
"What do you wish of me, milord?" Voldemort's "visitor" grumbled, his immense frame nearly creaking the floorboards of Riddle's old home.
"I want you to kill Hermione Granger," Riddle said simply. "She is clearly the young woman that Ravenclaw spoke of in her final prophecy. She is already a formidably strong witch for her age but she is still a weakling and we cannot allow her to become stronger. You will become accompanied by no one in this venture, for I am certain that you are capable of completing this task yourself." The big man grumbled in assent at that.
"Why not assign Crouch to the task, milord?"
"I don't want my loyal servant to reveal his identity until the proper time has come."
"And what of the boy, milord?"
"YOU WILL DO NOTHING TO POTTER!" Voldemort screamed in a manner that would have sent most Aurors running for the hills. The big man did not even move a muscle. Voldemort was clearly impressed by the man's reaction. "He must remain alive to play a part in my glorious revival."
"Indeed, milord, but I was referring to the other boy in the prophecy." Voldemort gave a cruel smile at that statement.
"So you wish to finish the job you started, old friend? Very well, you have my permission to be rid of him as well. Just remember that the mudblood is your primary target. Do not fail me simply because you wish to carry out a debt of blood! Do you understand?"
"Indeed, milord." The tower of muscle said with a sadistic grin on his face. A colossal double-bladed battle-axe materialized by his huge hands and he took a hold of it. He swung it around as if it were nothing more than a child's plaything, imagining himself hacking into the limbs of the young witch and wizard. Once that deed was done, the man roared a hunter's cry into the silent night of Little Hangleton.
"Allow me to assure you that Hermione Granger and Matt McGonagall are as good as dead!" Macnair said.
Well, that about does it for the romance portion of this little short story, and I'm happy to see it end. My thanks to the beautiful song "Cheek to Cheek" written by Irving Berlin and originally sung by the late, great Fred Astaire. It's always been one of my favorite songs although I've never had the guts to sing it to a woman. Oh well, a man can dream, can't he? Oh well, here's the chapter preview.
It's New Year's Day at Hogwarts and things don't look good for our young heroes. Macnair is making his return to Hogwarts, and he ain't coming to take care of a hippogriff this time! And, what about the Triwizard Tournament (what, did you think I forgot about it?)? Is Harry finally going to take some time out to figure out the mystery of the golden egg? And what about Peter Pettigrew? What is his role in the events to come? Find out the answers to a few of these questions and more in the next climactic chapter: Myrtle, Moody, and Macnair! Thanks for reading!