Chapter Nine
Christmas Day
The first thing Harry noticed in the pile of presents at the foot of his bed was a small rectangular package wrapped in bright yellow paper. Written on it in neat small capitals - Llewellyn's handwriting - was the message, "Maybe now your hair won't be so unruly for tonight? Just kidding, although you might want to use it to tame your cowlick. Llewellyn & Draco." It was a bottle of Sleek-Eazy Hair Potion. Harry laughed and wondered if it was strong enough to combat generations of crazy Potter-hair genes.
Other presents he had gotten included a rather thick book on chess, from Ron, of course, and a box of little red Snitches from Hermione, "For individual player practice, NOT licensed for official game play." From home came a shard of something ceramic. Professor Visilio had given each of his students a little card - with a moving picture, of course - of a Dark creature, wizard, witch, or curse. Harry had someone named Professor Pullus Grindelwald, who, he realized suddenly, was the author of The Handbook of Modern Dark Magic.
He was struck by a sudden fear. Where was that book, anyway? He quickly searched through his trunk, wardrobe, and even all around his four-poster, as Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville opened up their presents. He couldn't find it anywhere, but he was trying to make it look like he was indifferently searching for a pair of socks to wear so the others wouldn't be suspicious. Was it just coincidence that he receieved that particular card from Visilio?
"Thanks so much, Harry!" called Ron, clutching the new velvet-lined chess piece box. "I guess my little players were complaining loud enough you heard them!"
Harry grinned. Actually, he had watched as Ron's ancient box went from deplorable to worse throughout the years, and since he had such a winning team, Harry felt that they deserved a nicer box. Maybe after this, his pieces would be a little nicer to Harry's much younger ones.
As Ron transferred his players, Harry noticed a larger, flat, silver box under all his other opened presents. Curious, he unwrapped it slowly, and saw that it came from Gladrags Wizard Wear. He opened the box and saw a folded, dark purple something along with a note. "I forgot to ask you what you're wearing to the Ball, so I bought something for both of us. You can wear it over your dress robe. Meet you in front of the painting of Wendelin the Weird on the first floor at eight o'clock. - Cho."
Harry unfolded the purple cloth and saw it was sort of a poncho-vest that fit over his robes, with a little golden Snitch embroidered at the bottom. He smiled and put it on a shelf of his wardrobe for later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Has anyone seen my clear polish?" called Lavender frantically at seven o'clock.
"Yeah, it's under your bed," replied Hermione, brushing out her now- smooth hair calmly.
"Which goes better with my ultramarine dress, black or nude pantyhose?" asked Parvati.
"It's floor-length, silly." Lavender grinned, much calmer now. "Where's Llewellyn?" she wondered aloud.
"I'm in here," came a muffled reply from her closed four-poster, which, the girls could see now, was lit from the inside.
"You're changing in there?" asked Parvati, surprised.
"I kind of transfigured the bed into a dresser and the pillow into a mirror. It's nice, actually."
"Um...can we see?" replied Hermione.
"No...no, no, no. Not yet. Give me another half an hour, okay?"
Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender looked at each other and shrugged.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry re-adjusted the hem of his dress robe, and bit his lip, looking around for Cho at the painting of Wendelin the Weird. Just when he thought about going up and re-joining Ron and the rest of the Gryffindors, Cho appeared.
She was wearing light blue robes, with the dark purple Snitch cloth as a kind of bodice. Harry gulped and grinned. She was even more beautiful than he had remembered, and they were going to have the whole night together -
-- As friends, he reminded himself gently. He chivalrously extended his arm to her and they walked up to the Great Hall, which was already open and full of students. They made their way among the smaller tables to one in the corner, where Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Seamus, Lavender, Dean, and Parvati were already sitting. The music was again provided by Visillio's speakers and records, but he was obviously taming his music and himself from having too much fun at the formal Ball.
Hermione had put up her hair again, but this year she was wearing a simpler, smaller rose-pink dress that matched Ron's baby-blue dress robes perfectly. Harry reflected for a moment on their differences, on their horrible, long arguments in third and fourth year, and when they first met on the train five years ago. They had moved their chairs right next to each other and were in each other's arms. Harry smiled at seeing both of them happy...really, past all their differences, they were perfect for each other.
"I'm so sorry I was late," said Cho, and Harry gladly looked into her eyes as she spoke. "Meredith's hair was going haywire and I was the only one who could get it to stay up. Not like yours tonight," she admitted, patting Harry's hair. He had used the hair potion and, amazingly enough, he had managed to smooth it down.
"It probably won't last an hour," he replied, laughing. He thought of who had given the present to him and wondered where they were.
"Hey, Hermione," he asked, "Where's Llewellyn?"
"Ooh. Don't ask. I think she had an ugly dress or something, because she refused to come out of her four-poster while we were still in the room."
"Weird," said Harry, and he looked around the Great Hall.
It was just then that the Great Hall doors opened, and an older student couple walked in. The man was wearing long, frocked dress robes with a high collar, black, with accents of pale silvery-gold, and with a crest on his chest of an M surrounded by snakes. The woman was wearing a black dress with a full skirt of the same pale-silvery gold color as parts of his dress robes and hair, with her black hair piled on top of her head and eyes in heavy black makeup. She also had a high collar, with black wristlets on her arms, and a silvery-gold snake wound up the front of her dress. On her throat was a coat of arms, half dark blue bars, and and the other a solid blood red.
The rest of the students didn't pay the two much attention, but Harry was perplexed. He had never seen them before. Who were they? Maybe they weren't students -- friends of Dumbledore's or someone else. He asked Cho if she recognized them, but she shook her head no. They were very surprised to see the two walking towards their table, and as the man held the chair for the woman, it suddenly came to him -
"Mal - Draco? Llewellyn?" he asked, surprised. "Good evening, Harry," replied Draco. Llewellyn smiled and Draco took his seat.
"Glad to see that hair potion worked," commented Llewellyn.
"Yeah," Harry instinctively went to mash down his cowlick but just got his fingers all sticky.
"I'm so sorry I took so long," said Llewellyn to Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender, "but I was packing and I wasn't feeling so well."
"Packing?" asked Lavender.
"Oh, no, this is your last night here, isn't it?" replied Hermione quickly.
"End of semester," explained Parvati to Lavender.
Llewellyn sighed. "Yes."
"Don't look so sad, we still have the vacation to look forwards to. Plus...something else," said Draco.
"What?" asked Llewellyn.
"I pulled some strings," answered Draco matter-of-factly to her. "See, my father's so happy I'm going out with an Euryale that he'll do pretty much anything for us, and so...." He looked around the table. "Oh, fine, I can't keep it a secret. Llewellyn is going to stay until the end of the year!"
Everyone smiled, and Hermione cheered. "I did all that packing for nothing!" Llewellyn complained jokingly, but squeezed his hand. "Thanks, that really, really means a lot to me. Now both Rosalind and I are both going to be here for the second semester."
"Who's Rosalind? Your best friend back home?" asked Neville. Llewellyn nodded.
"Wait a minute...." Ginny had appeared ponderous since Draco had made his announcement. "What do you mean, 'my father is so happy I'm going out with an Euryale?'"
Llewellyn sighed and tapped her coat of arms pendant. "The Euryale family is one of the premier wizarding families of the States - I mean, the US. Now you're having me say it! What's for dinner?"
Harry and Ginny noticed right away that she had changed the subject nearly as quickly as she had began it. However, both decided to remember it for wondering later, and refocused on the night before them.
Dinner was had in the same way as last year, and Harry ordered himself a plate of salmon. Hermione appeared too happy with Ron to worry about the poor but eager house elves below them, and Harry wondered where Dobby was in the world. After dinner was some dancing, which Cho and Harry did together good naturedly, both of them talking about Quidditch nearly the whole time. At about ten o'clock, the people at Harry's table all drifted outside and into the maze of rose bushes. Harry and Cho decided to go for a stroll among the little fairy lights around them. He was prepared to talk more about the dangers of cobbing when Cho changed the subject to something much more personal.
She stopped him from walking further, motioned him into sitting next to her on a bench, and turned to face him. "Harry, I really appreciate you asking me to the Yule Ball. Everyone's acting like they're walking on eggshells with me and guys. Tonight's really helping me to move on from Cedric's death. I feel as if I'm closing up all the final ties that I had with him. I mean, we had a great relationship, and last year's Yule Ball was a real dream...but now I feel like my heart is finally back in one piece. So...thank you." She held his hand and gently kissed his cheek.
Harry turned to face her, meaning to say something in reply, but before either of them knew what was happening, their lips touched. Harry and Cho kissed each other then, sweetly, tenderly, still hand-in-hand. He slowly pulled his hand out of hers and put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer very gently. Suddenly, she stopped, and Harry looked at her quickly, afraid he had done something wrong. He followed her eyes and looked over his shoulder.
"Um...Hi Harry!" said Ron and Hermione in unison, brightly and sheepishly at the same time.
"We just wanted to see how you were doing," said Ron.
"We'll go now," added Hermione. They quickly shuffled onto a side path away from Harry and Cho.
A that-was-weird "Hmm" was all that came out of Cho before she and Harry were kissing again. Harry had never kissed before...but he was beginning to really, really like it.
Christmas Day
The first thing Harry noticed in the pile of presents at the foot of his bed was a small rectangular package wrapped in bright yellow paper. Written on it in neat small capitals - Llewellyn's handwriting - was the message, "Maybe now your hair won't be so unruly for tonight? Just kidding, although you might want to use it to tame your cowlick. Llewellyn & Draco." It was a bottle of Sleek-Eazy Hair Potion. Harry laughed and wondered if it was strong enough to combat generations of crazy Potter-hair genes.
Other presents he had gotten included a rather thick book on chess, from Ron, of course, and a box of little red Snitches from Hermione, "For individual player practice, NOT licensed for official game play." From home came a shard of something ceramic. Professor Visilio had given each of his students a little card - with a moving picture, of course - of a Dark creature, wizard, witch, or curse. Harry had someone named Professor Pullus Grindelwald, who, he realized suddenly, was the author of The Handbook of Modern Dark Magic.
He was struck by a sudden fear. Where was that book, anyway? He quickly searched through his trunk, wardrobe, and even all around his four-poster, as Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville opened up their presents. He couldn't find it anywhere, but he was trying to make it look like he was indifferently searching for a pair of socks to wear so the others wouldn't be suspicious. Was it just coincidence that he receieved that particular card from Visilio?
"Thanks so much, Harry!" called Ron, clutching the new velvet-lined chess piece box. "I guess my little players were complaining loud enough you heard them!"
Harry grinned. Actually, he had watched as Ron's ancient box went from deplorable to worse throughout the years, and since he had such a winning team, Harry felt that they deserved a nicer box. Maybe after this, his pieces would be a little nicer to Harry's much younger ones.
As Ron transferred his players, Harry noticed a larger, flat, silver box under all his other opened presents. Curious, he unwrapped it slowly, and saw that it came from Gladrags Wizard Wear. He opened the box and saw a folded, dark purple something along with a note. "I forgot to ask you what you're wearing to the Ball, so I bought something for both of us. You can wear it over your dress robe. Meet you in front of the painting of Wendelin the Weird on the first floor at eight o'clock. - Cho."
Harry unfolded the purple cloth and saw it was sort of a poncho-vest that fit over his robes, with a little golden Snitch embroidered at the bottom. He smiled and put it on a shelf of his wardrobe for later.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Has anyone seen my clear polish?" called Lavender frantically at seven o'clock.
"Yeah, it's under your bed," replied Hermione, brushing out her now- smooth hair calmly.
"Which goes better with my ultramarine dress, black or nude pantyhose?" asked Parvati.
"It's floor-length, silly." Lavender grinned, much calmer now. "Where's Llewellyn?" she wondered aloud.
"I'm in here," came a muffled reply from her closed four-poster, which, the girls could see now, was lit from the inside.
"You're changing in there?" asked Parvati, surprised.
"I kind of transfigured the bed into a dresser and the pillow into a mirror. It's nice, actually."
"Um...can we see?" replied Hermione.
"No...no, no, no. Not yet. Give me another half an hour, okay?"
Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender looked at each other and shrugged.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry re-adjusted the hem of his dress robe, and bit his lip, looking around for Cho at the painting of Wendelin the Weird. Just when he thought about going up and re-joining Ron and the rest of the Gryffindors, Cho appeared.
She was wearing light blue robes, with the dark purple Snitch cloth as a kind of bodice. Harry gulped and grinned. She was even more beautiful than he had remembered, and they were going to have the whole night together -
-- As friends, he reminded himself gently. He chivalrously extended his arm to her and they walked up to the Great Hall, which was already open and full of students. They made their way among the smaller tables to one in the corner, where Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Seamus, Lavender, Dean, and Parvati were already sitting. The music was again provided by Visillio's speakers and records, but he was obviously taming his music and himself from having too much fun at the formal Ball.
Hermione had put up her hair again, but this year she was wearing a simpler, smaller rose-pink dress that matched Ron's baby-blue dress robes perfectly. Harry reflected for a moment on their differences, on their horrible, long arguments in third and fourth year, and when they first met on the train five years ago. They had moved their chairs right next to each other and were in each other's arms. Harry smiled at seeing both of them happy...really, past all their differences, they were perfect for each other.
"I'm so sorry I was late," said Cho, and Harry gladly looked into her eyes as she spoke. "Meredith's hair was going haywire and I was the only one who could get it to stay up. Not like yours tonight," she admitted, patting Harry's hair. He had used the hair potion and, amazingly enough, he had managed to smooth it down.
"It probably won't last an hour," he replied, laughing. He thought of who had given the present to him and wondered where they were.
"Hey, Hermione," he asked, "Where's Llewellyn?"
"Ooh. Don't ask. I think she had an ugly dress or something, because she refused to come out of her four-poster while we were still in the room."
"Weird," said Harry, and he looked around the Great Hall.
It was just then that the Great Hall doors opened, and an older student couple walked in. The man was wearing long, frocked dress robes with a high collar, black, with accents of pale silvery-gold, and with a crest on his chest of an M surrounded by snakes. The woman was wearing a black dress with a full skirt of the same pale-silvery gold color as parts of his dress robes and hair, with her black hair piled on top of her head and eyes in heavy black makeup. She also had a high collar, with black wristlets on her arms, and a silvery-gold snake wound up the front of her dress. On her throat was a coat of arms, half dark blue bars, and and the other a solid blood red.
The rest of the students didn't pay the two much attention, but Harry was perplexed. He had never seen them before. Who were they? Maybe they weren't students -- friends of Dumbledore's or someone else. He asked Cho if she recognized them, but she shook her head no. They were very surprised to see the two walking towards their table, and as the man held the chair for the woman, it suddenly came to him -
"Mal - Draco? Llewellyn?" he asked, surprised. "Good evening, Harry," replied Draco. Llewellyn smiled and Draco took his seat.
"Glad to see that hair potion worked," commented Llewellyn.
"Yeah," Harry instinctively went to mash down his cowlick but just got his fingers all sticky.
"I'm so sorry I took so long," said Llewellyn to Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender, "but I was packing and I wasn't feeling so well."
"Packing?" asked Lavender.
"Oh, no, this is your last night here, isn't it?" replied Hermione quickly.
"End of semester," explained Parvati to Lavender.
Llewellyn sighed. "Yes."
"Don't look so sad, we still have the vacation to look forwards to. Plus...something else," said Draco.
"What?" asked Llewellyn.
"I pulled some strings," answered Draco matter-of-factly to her. "See, my father's so happy I'm going out with an Euryale that he'll do pretty much anything for us, and so...." He looked around the table. "Oh, fine, I can't keep it a secret. Llewellyn is going to stay until the end of the year!"
Everyone smiled, and Hermione cheered. "I did all that packing for nothing!" Llewellyn complained jokingly, but squeezed his hand. "Thanks, that really, really means a lot to me. Now both Rosalind and I are both going to be here for the second semester."
"Who's Rosalind? Your best friend back home?" asked Neville. Llewellyn nodded.
"Wait a minute...." Ginny had appeared ponderous since Draco had made his announcement. "What do you mean, 'my father is so happy I'm going out with an Euryale?'"
Llewellyn sighed and tapped her coat of arms pendant. "The Euryale family is one of the premier wizarding families of the States - I mean, the US. Now you're having me say it! What's for dinner?"
Harry and Ginny noticed right away that she had changed the subject nearly as quickly as she had began it. However, both decided to remember it for wondering later, and refocused on the night before them.
Dinner was had in the same way as last year, and Harry ordered himself a plate of salmon. Hermione appeared too happy with Ron to worry about the poor but eager house elves below them, and Harry wondered where Dobby was in the world. After dinner was some dancing, which Cho and Harry did together good naturedly, both of them talking about Quidditch nearly the whole time. At about ten o'clock, the people at Harry's table all drifted outside and into the maze of rose bushes. Harry and Cho decided to go for a stroll among the little fairy lights around them. He was prepared to talk more about the dangers of cobbing when Cho changed the subject to something much more personal.
She stopped him from walking further, motioned him into sitting next to her on a bench, and turned to face him. "Harry, I really appreciate you asking me to the Yule Ball. Everyone's acting like they're walking on eggshells with me and guys. Tonight's really helping me to move on from Cedric's death. I feel as if I'm closing up all the final ties that I had with him. I mean, we had a great relationship, and last year's Yule Ball was a real dream...but now I feel like my heart is finally back in one piece. So...thank you." She held his hand and gently kissed his cheek.
Harry turned to face her, meaning to say something in reply, but before either of them knew what was happening, their lips touched. Harry and Cho kissed each other then, sweetly, tenderly, still hand-in-hand. He slowly pulled his hand out of hers and put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer very gently. Suddenly, she stopped, and Harry looked at her quickly, afraid he had done something wrong. He followed her eyes and looked over his shoulder.
"Um...Hi Harry!" said Ron and Hermione in unison, brightly and sheepishly at the same time.
"We just wanted to see how you were doing," said Ron.
"We'll go now," added Hermione. They quickly shuffled onto a side path away from Harry and Cho.
A that-was-weird "Hmm" was all that came out of Cho before she and Harry were kissing again. Harry had never kissed before...but he was beginning to really, really like it.