Chapter Ten: Nightmare Before Christmas

The Christmas spirit seemed to have crept up on the students of Hogwarts as they were sleeping one night because when they woke up one morning, it seemed to have changed from autumn to winter in one fell swoop. Snow was on the ground and the announcement of a Yule Ball was made. It became the main topic of every conversation.

"Are you going with anyone, Holly?" Cedric asked her one day. Holly was grumpy and fed up with the whole thing.
"NO!" she shouted. "NO! I am NOT going with ANYONE because I don't know ONE person that I COULD go with, thank you VERY much!"

"It was just a question, there's no need to get defensive!" Cedric couldn't help but smile at Holly's attitude towards the whole Yule Ball thing.

"Besides," she said. "I have other things I have to do."

"Harry's going to the ball, you know. He has to."

"Poor little brother of mine," Holly grumbled. "He'll probably have just as much trouble finding a date as I am. But even worse, he needs to have one or else he'll be a laughingstock!"

"It won't be that bad," Cedric put his arm around his friend's shoulder. "You'll both find someone, I know it."

"Right!" Holly laughed. "And who am I going to go with, Lee Jordan?"

"Holly, I—"

"Don't talk to me, Lee." Holly sat at a chair with her arms folded. Her lovely green dress robes were a large contrast to the horrible expression on her face. Lee grinned.

"You aren't enjoying this, are you?" he asked her.

"No, I'm not enjoying this! I could be here with someone I really care for—No, I don't mean to say I don't care about you, Lee, I mean—"

"You could be here with Cedric." Holly stared at him, dumbstruck. She quickly composed herself.

"Why do you think I meant that, Lee Jordan?" she asked as innocently as possible. Lee chortled.

"Oh please!" he cried, throwing back his head with laughter. "The twins may be blind but I'm not! It's dead obvious that you fancy him!"

"What are you talking about?" Holly forced a laugh herself. "Cedric and I are just friends!"

"Yeah, but you could have been more if you'd just admitted to yourself how you felt about him that time he kissed you in the hall."
"WHAT!?" Holly rose to her feet, positively shocked. Lee Jordan merely smiled, knowingly. "How on earth did you know I kissed him in the hall? No one knows that, Cedric didn't say a word about it, not even to his friends! How did you…"

"I was looking for you that day," said Lee. "I wanted to see if we could talk like friends again, if we could put the past behind us. But then I noticed you were busy talking to Cedric. I was about to walk away when I head him yell at you to give something back to him. I turned and he had you against the wall."

"Oh God…" Holly muttered. "You were watching us?"

"Not watching, I prefer to call it spying. And I saw you being an idiot, that's what I saw. Nothing more." Holly gave him a wan smile.

"Yeah…" she sighed. "You're right. I realized what a stupid mistake it was. But when I went to tell him that, he'd already found another angel."

"Speak of the devil…" Lee muttered and Holly followed his gaze to see Cedric and Cho walking over to them.

"I told you this would be fun!" Cedric exclaimed. Holly forced a believable smile.
"You're right! We're having a blast, aren't we, Lee?"

"Great time." Lee nodded without enthusiasm.

"Have you seen Harry?" asked Cho. "I've barely seen him all night." Holly jumped to her feet.

"What?" Cedric put his hands on her shoulders.

"Relax! You are way too jumpy. He is allowed to be out of your sight every now and then. I saw him. He's out in the garden, I think."

"You think?"
"You worry too much, Holly!" Cedric eased the girl back into her chair. Holly agreed.

"You're right, I do. I need a vacation."

"Hello!" It was Hermione Granger.

"Good evening, Hermione! This night just keeps getting better!" If anyone detected the note of sarcasm in Holly's voice, they didn't show it.

"Hello, Hermione," Lee said, politely. "I trust you know Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang?" Hermione nodded.

"We've never been formally introduced like that, however," she said. "Viktor's dancing with one of his admirers. Have you seen Ron?" Cedric shook his head.

"Saw his sister, though, dancing with someone from your year…" Hermione smiled.

"Neville," she said.

"Neville and Ginny, how sweet!" Holly's sarcasm went unnoticed.

"He might be out with Harry, though," Cho said. "They're best friends, aren't they?" Hermione nodded.
"Oh look, here comes Fred and Angelina!" Holly threw her hands into the air. "Let's all have a party with all the happy couples! I hate happy couples!" But Holly's rude comment was ignored as they continued talking.

"Hello, Fred!" Cedric greeted, cheerily, "Angelina, you're looking well this evening!"

"So formal, knock it off, Diggory!" Fred rolled his eyes. "We are your friends, you know."
"Hello, Fred."

"Hello, Hermione. Where is Vik-y-tor?" Fred stretched out his name. Hermione scowled.
"VIK-tor!" she hissed.

"Ever so sorry, Her-my-o-ninny!" Lee and Fred snickered as Hermione continued to scowl.

"Ah, here he is!" cried Angelina.

"Her-my-o-ninny!" Krum greeted. "Von't you introduce me to your friends?"

"Of course! Viktor, you know Cedric, and this is his date, Cho Chang, and that's Fred Weasley there, and joining him is Angelina Johnson. Slumped in the chair not saying a word is Holly Phillips accompanied by Lee Jordan." Holly grunted in greeting.

"Hi! That was a spectacular catch at the Quidditch World Cup!" Lee exclaimed, shaking the man's hand.

"Yeah," Fred added. "You won me and my brother quite a bit of money. Pity Bagman has to be a cheat…"

"Thank you…" Krum said as Lee continued to shake his hand. He then turned to his date. "Vould you like to dance, Her-my-o-ninny?" Holly couldn't help feeling he wanted to get as far away from Hermione's friends as possible, especially Lee.

"I'd love to, Viktor!" Krum took Hermione's hand and led her out onto the dance floor. Angelina looked at Fred expectantly. He stood there a while, pretending he didn't notice. He then started whistling. Finally, Angelina couldn't stand it anymore.

"DANCE!"

"Huh? Oh, right, I should be a good date, shouldn't I? Bye guys!" Fred grinned as he led the young lady away.

"I'd like to dance, Cedric," Cho hinted.

"In a minute, sweetheart, I need to talk to Holly. Will you walk with me?" Cedric offered his hand and Holly reluctantly took it. Cho frowned and Lee grinned and offered to take her dancing himself. She accepted. Cedric led Holly out into the garden.

"Where's George? I haven't seen him all night."
"Ill," Holly replied. "Be down in a bit, he says."

"Date?"

"Who, me or him?" Holly asked. Cedric frowned.
"I thought you had a date, Holly?"

"You mean you enjoy going to dances with one of your best friends?"

"Sorry…" he muttered.

"You didn't come here to ask about George or my date, did you?"

"It's about Harry. Are you sure what you told me is true?"

"Positive."

"Did it ever occur to you to get some sort of test, like DNA or something?" Cedric shrugged.
"Look, Cedric!" Holly stopped walking. "It's true! Dead true, OK! Why?" Cedric sighed.
"So you're positive that you're blood related to Harry Potter. His sister?" Holly nodded vigorously. "Because there's something I found out. Something I extracted from Malfoy about—"

"Cedric, Holly, what are you doing out here?" Holly jumped at the sound of a Weasley's voice. Ron had a mischievous grin on his face as he and Harry stood behind the two of them.

"How much did you hear?" she demanded.
"Relax, we just got here!" Harry cried. "All I heard was something about Malfoy. Say, don't you two have other dates?"
"We're just friends, you two!" Cedric hissed as powerfully as Holly might have done herself two months ago. Holly felt the blood rising in her cheeks, but no one else seemed to notice.

"Scat!" Holly ordered. "We were having a private conversation!"

"Oh we seem to be hearing plenty of those late—" Harry elbowed Ron in the ribs, forcing him to admit an 'Oof' noise.

"Shut up, Ron," Harry muttered.
"Right then, away we go!" Ron and Harry walked out of sight.

"You were saying?" Holly turned back to Cedric, but he was looking around, nervously.

"Not hear, not now. There are too many people who could be listening. Let's go back inside, I owe Cho a dance."

"Cedric!" Holly cried at the Hufflepuff's retreating back. He had caught her curiosity. "At least tell me what it's about." Cedric stopped and didn't move. Holly tried to figure out what he was thinking to no avail. Finally, he turned, his expression grave. The wind rustled his dress robes and gave Holly an eerie feeling.

"What once was lost is now found, what was forgotten is remembered, the Child will arise from the ashes of its parents and become the downfall of the Dark Lord Voldemort."

Cedric's words echoed in Holly's head and made her toss and turn and fall into restless slumber.

"Master… Master!"

"What is it now, you pathetic rat!"
"We have received, er, interesting news from one of our sources at the school."

"Indeed. And what, pray tell, is this interesting news? Has it anything to do with my plans?"

"Well, er, not really, Master, not directly at least. But it might cause a, er, c-complication?"
"Quit stuttering, you worthless Wormtail and spit it out!"

"Well, Master, there's… a girl."

"A… girl? And this is important because…"
"She's, well, she's… there was another there that night, Master. Ministry records back up the birth of a Holly Lillian Potter and I seem to recall Lily's first child being a girl, but—"
"You neglected to tell me there was another? A… A sister, a daughter?"

"I… I forgot, Master, please…"

"Forgot? You forgot?! How can you forget the birth of your best friend's daughter!"

"Well, after that night, everyone assumed her to be dead and she wasn't that exceptional a child. You were looking for Harry, Master. You were looking for a boy!"

"I was looking for a child! I was looking for the Child! Oh you babbling idiot!"

There was a scream of pain.

Holly awoke in a cold sweat.

When Holly entered the common room at four in the morning, she saw Harry there too with a blanket wrapped around him sitting by the fire. He heard someone coming and snapped his head around instantly, drawing out his wand.

"Relax," Holly said. "It's me."
"You…"

"Why are you down here?" she asked.

"Had a very bad dream," Harry replied under his breath, rubbing his forehead.

"Yeah, me too."

"What was yours about?" Harry inquired.

"You don't want to know. You?"

"I can't remember," he admitted. "I know it had something to do with you, though. You and me and… and Voldemort." Holly cringed.

"I hate that word," she admitted.

"Yeah, so do a lot of people," Harry replied. There was a brief period of silence. Finally, Harry spoke. "Holly?" he said in a timid whisper.

"Yeah?" Holly said, joining him on the couch. Harry pulled the blanket tighter around him.

"This'll sound stupid and childish."
"Yeah?" Finally, Harry looked up at the red-haired sixth year girl and saw an understanding in her warm brown eyes.

"I'm scared," he said. The words tore Holly's heart in two.

"Come here," she said and put her arm around him, the way an older sister would. They sat there for a while, saying so many things without a word. Holly's arm lay securely around the fourteen-year-old's shoulders for the rest of the night.

Sometimes actions speak louder than words.