The walls were covered with gleaming golden, silver, and bronze coins. All available floor space was covered with sacks of money, piles of it, and more sacks. Hagrid nudged Nita out of the car. She tottered through the door and grabbed handfuls of gold, silver, and bronze coins until her bag was full. She grabbed a smaller sack labeled "Galleons" and carried the two bags to the cart. The Goblin looked at her.
"Miss Callahan, would you still like to look at your other vaults? They are exactly the same as this one…" Nita shook her head, and the goblin continued the trip until they reached Dairine's vault, which was as packed as Nita's were. She also filled her bag but filled it with Galleons and Sickles only. She joined the cart and they careened down the passageways to Kit's vaults, which were almost identical to the girls'. Harry took the opportunity to visit his single vault and they left Gringotts holding their sacks in hand, feeling quite happy. Ron seemed a bit stunned, and Hermione was chattering about the schools' books. They approached Flourish and Blotts', but Kit and Nita told Hagrid they had all the information they needed in their manuals. Harry and Ron led them to several Quidditch stores. They looked at the rows of shiny brooms, and Kit watched as Ron looked at the Firebolts and sighed. They continued on to buy dress robes, quills, and ink. Kit selected a pair of black dress robes with silver trimming and matching black shoes. The robes consisted of a black silk vest, black dress pants, a white collared shirt, a maroon tie, and the long flowing robe portion of the outfit. Nita bought a simple, yet beautiful pale blue tube top silk gown with a pair of stiletto white sandals that tied just above her ankles, while Dairine chose a green silk dress with 3/4 sleeves that flared into beautiful green silk extensions that reached a little below her hands, and a tight top that flared into green silk waves that went to her ankles. Harry and Ron promised to meat at the Leaky Cauldron for a midday meal and left, going Christmas shopping. Hermione, Nita, Dairine, and Kit, accompanied by Hagrid, went to accomplish shopping of their own. They returned to Gringotts and retrieved more Galleons. The odd thing that they noticed was that as much as they took out, it continued to refill. This time they brought out only Galleons, four large sacks each, sharing four with a very reluctant Hermione. They continued to Quality Quidditch Supplies, where they bought the whole Gryffindor team the newly introduced Lightblaze XLs, to be delivered to each player's room on Christmas Eve via Owl. They personalized Harry, Ron, and Ginny's brooms, also, they then bought Ginny, Ron, and Harry new Quidditch robes with their names emblazoned on the breast in gold fiber, along with a broom-care kit to go along with their Lightblazes. Hermione bought Ron a thick book titled, "A History of the Chudley Cannons and Other Top Quidditch Teams," while she bought Ginny a series of Muggle classic books that she had taken interest in. The group bought presents for each other, keeping their purchases a secret. They bought presents for the Weasly clan, and they met the others at the Leaky Cauldron at midday, sharing a meal, when Hagrid slapped his head and roared,
"Ere, I guess I fergot t' let yeh know, Headmaster wants me t' take yer to Ollivander's fer wands." The whole group trouped over to Ollivander's in a happy mood, and tried with the wands until they finally found ones that matched. Dairine had an 11 inch ash wand with the core of a veela's hair, while Nita picked a 13 inch rowan (unsurprisingly) wand with a core of the rare Procyon dragon's heartstring, the heartstring of the rarest dragon discovered, a platinum scaled dragon with elemental powers. Kit chose a 13 inch pine wand with the core of a Procyon Dragon's heartstring as well. Old Ollivander smiled to himself, saying,
"There is an interesting story about these two Procyon Dragon heartstrings. These magestic dragons were found ages ago, mates, wound together, dead. When the heartstrings were removed from the dragons, they twined together and could not be pulled apart. The thick strand was cut in half and placed as the core of these two very opposite, yet similar woods. Rowan, a helpful tree, and a scrub pine, a useless mountain plant with no more use than to chop for firewood. Ah, yes, these are powerful wands. Be careful in their use, young wizard and witch, for they have more power than one could ever know." The two reddened and paid for their wands. They returned to Gringotts to withdraw regular pocket money, as they had spent all of their money in the sacks. Nita, Kit, and Dairine were surprised to find that their vaults seemed to be stacked with even more coins than that they had taken. They each grabbed a sack marked galleons and Flooed back to the Gryffindor Common Room. They stashed their purchases into the empty trunks at the feet of their beds and went to sleep.
The days passed quickly, and soon it was time for the Yule Ball. Dumbledore had the hall decorated in festive style. Wreaths were everywhere, the torches seemed to burn brightly than before in the dungeons, and even the ghosts looked happy. Ron grinned to himself as he plotted out a truly F&G Weasly scheme.
On the night of the Yule Ball all of the girls left for their rooms early, to prepare. Ron and Kit played wizard's chess, which Kit seemed to take a liking to, and was brilliant at. He grinned as his pawn impaled Ron's king through the chest with a pike. Ron groaned and held his temples.
"Lets do something else. Kit, this is the fifth time you've beaten me!" Harry grinned. Ron had had a good beating by Kit. Harry looked at the Muggle invention on his wrist. Luna had given it to him as an early Christmas present, and it was called a watch. The time had passed quickly. There was but one hour to the dance.
The boys were seated comfortably in the large Common Room chairs, clad in their dress robes. Harry had a green robe with gold ivy designs along the cuffs and hem of the robe, while Ron was in a dark blue set of robes with dark yellow trimming, while Kit was in the dress robes he had purchased beforehand. They sat around the fire, waiting for the girls to come down. Harry spoke up.
"So, Kit, how long have you been with Nita?" Kit shrugged, the hint of a blush accenting his tan facial features.
"Oh, about maybe 4 or 5 years. How about you guys?" Harry shrugged,
"Just about six." Just then, there was a sound of a light cough. The boys snapped their attention to the girl at the top of the stair. The boys jerked to their feet and blushed to the roots of their hair. Hermione stepped down the stairs quietly; the only sound was the swishing of her maroon dress to the floor. Her hair was in an elaborate bun, almost like the one she had at her infamous dance with Viktor Krum. She stood to the side of the stairs with Ron and looked expectantly up at the top of the staircase. Two nearly identical red-haired girls stood side by side. One wore a buttercup colored dress (Ginny) and Dairine wore the one she had bought. They descended the dormitory stairs and went each to their dates. By now, Hermione stood with to Ron, and Ginny was Harry. Dairine shook her head and stood beside Kit, though she fervently denied all claims that she was going with him. Kit looked up the stairs and was met by the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. Nita's auburn hair fell in waves past her shoulders, simply held from her face by a simple silver hair barrette. Her dress clung to her lean form, proportioning everything perfectly. Still, he reasoned to himself, she was perfect. Kit's jaw dropped open wide and stayed that way. The other guys and their dates had backed off slightly and smiled at Kit, though he was oblivious to their stares. His eyes were only on Nita. She descended the staircase gracefully and silently stood in front of Kit. He took her hand and brushed it to his lips, than stepped back a little. "Good evening, Miss Callahan," Kit said with a distinguished bow. "May I expect the pleasure of your company at the Yule Ball tonight?"