Chapter 5
Two days later, Crystal sat on a cushy maroon sofa in the Griffindor common room while the rain poured down outside. She was flipping through a three inch thick catalog. She had a bored expression on her face and every few seconds she would stop slowly flipping pages and write something down on a small pad of paper.
Hermione walked over and sat down next to her.
"Whatcha lookin at?" she asked curiously.
"Nice grammar." Crys responded, looking up from the catalog with a smile.
"Thanks," Hermione said, "I've been studting all week. So what are you looking at?"
"Dresses."
"For the ball?"
"Yup."
"Can I look with you?"
"Sure." she scootched down the couch a little so that they sat next to each other, knees touching, with the book between them.
"Wanna look from the beginning?" she asked.
"Sure."
Ginny entered the common room soaking wet and muddy from the rain.
"Quidditch practice go well?" Hermione asked her.
"It was awful." Harry said trudging in behind her.
"Ron is worse than Oliver and Angelina combined." Ginny added.
"You weren't even on the team when Oliver was Captain." Hermione said.
"She's right though." Harry confirmed for them.
"What are you guys looking at anyway?" Ginny asked them, trying to get a peek at what was in the catalog.
"Dresses for the ball." Crys told her, "Go clean up and you can look with us. We'll wait for you."
Ginny smiled and nodded and ran up the staircase to the girl's dorms as Harry shook his head, splattering a few nearby second years with mud, as he walked up the staircase opposite.
A few minutes later Ginny came running down the stairs in a pair of silky red pajama pants and a black tank top. She sat down on the other side of Crys and they shifted the catalog so they could all see.
"So..." Hermione said, "Either of you have a date to the ball yet?"
"The poster only went up this morning!" Crys laughed.
"I know," Hermione continued, "I was just trying to use a creative method of bringing up the fact that Ginny already has a date."
Crys turned her head towards Ginny with raised eyebrows.
"Well." Crys said in a mock motherly voice, "Someone sure is eager for the ball. I just hope that you were responsible in your decision and that you know-" Ginny had grabbed a nearby pillow and hit her in the back of the head.
"Hey!"
They all started to giggle.
"Look what this is doing to us!" Hermione whispered, leaning in to her friends, "We're already turning into Lavender and Parvati and it's only a week into the year!" That only succeeded in causing a whole new fit of giggles.
After they all stopped, although they were still red in the face, Crys spoke.
"So who are you going with?" she looked to Ginny.
"Dean." she said shortly.
"You two are still going out!" Crys awed, "Woooooow."
Ginny shot her a mock glare and they started to look at the dresses.
"Where'd you get this anyway?" Hermione asked Crys, referring to the catalog.
"I wrote my friend in America. She sent me the catalog and said if we send the money, along with our orders, she can send the dresses to us by owl post."
They all grinned and continued to point out certain dresses on the pages of the thick little catalog.
"Ron this is miserable!" Ginny shouted from 50 feet above the ground on her broomstick, "We're not actually practicing Quidditch as much as we are practicing our survival skills! Let's just stop now and save our energy!" She was struggling to stay on her broom in the pouring rain.
"Fine! FINE! We'll stop!" Ron responded, officially pissed by how the amout of rain was seriously cutting into their practice time.
There were a few whoops from several other team members and everyone zoomed towards the muddy ground.
They all waded through the mud with scowls on their faces to get back into the locker room. When they finally arrived Ron stormed into the Captain's office and slammed the door. Everyone else had a hell of a time peeling their muddy quidditch robes away from their soaking bodies. They all put on fresh jeans and shirts but the mud just soaked through and they still looked like they fell into a mud puddle. Which for the most part they had, seeing as the whole of Hogwarts grounds was a big mud puddle right now due to all the rain.
Ron watched all this through the one way (by magic) window in his office.
How could this happen? he thought How, in my first year as Qudditch Captain, is it going to rain for the first few WEEKS of coaching? How did I get stuck with this?
He slowly undressed and was smart enough to use a handy little spell Hermione had taught him to dry off. He didn't dare try it on his head because he isn't the greatest wizard ever and hair does burn very fast. He pulled on a pair of jeans and an old black t-shirt, just as the rest of his team had, and sat down in the small wooden chair at his desk. He put his elbows on his knees and lowered his head so he could run his finger through his soaking hair. So much pressure. There has to be something to help take the pressure off. Knowing Crys is coming this weekend does not help with the stress either. What am I going to wear? His head shot out of his hands at his last thought.
"I sound like Ginny." he said aloud.
He stood up, ran his fingers through his hair nervously once more, and walked out of his office, carefully closing the door behind him.
As he walked through the Entrance Hall he could hear people laughing and eating dinner. He didn't really feel like eating. As he walked by the doorway he glanced in and saw most of his team eating miserably. All except Harry and Ginny. Harry. He had better not! Ron thought as he took off in a run towards the Griffindor Tower.
When he got to the fat lady's portrait he skidded to a halt and panted out the password as fast as he could.
"Ca-ca-nary cream." Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes was growing ever more popular by the day.
"In a rush aren't we, young man?" the Fat Lady said to him as she swung open.
Ron didn't respond he just scrambled up through the portrait hole to find out what those two were up to. I'm gonna kill Harry if he even gets anywhere near- his thought were cut off by running into the Common Room to see Hermione, Crys, and Ginny sitting on a sofa giggling over a catalog.
"Why the rush, Ron?" Hermione asked him.
"Nothing...nothing...I just couldn't wait to see you." he mentally slapped himself as he ran his hand through his hair again.
All three girls burst into a new fit of giggles, again causing Ron ears to redden.
Then they stopped laughing, but continued to grin as they leafed through a catalog pointing out different things they like and really don't like.
"Women." Harry said from behind Ron, holding out a butterbeer for him.
"Cheers." Ron said, before taking a long swig.
