Chapter 9
"Oh" Harry said, in a blank expression. He felt…no…he didn't know what his feeling was at that moment. "Well" he said, finally, breaking the silent between them. "That's good isn't it, I mean we both have…uh…someone" "yeah" Ron said, who was expecting something else. "Well then, I think we should go to sleep now, the time is getting late" Harry felt the words come out of his mouth without his permission. "What?" Ron said, frowning. "But it's still…" "Yeah" Harry cut across him. "I know what time it is" he said, "well, let's begin with some homework then" he said, grapping his bag and taking out his potions book and a peace of parchment. "Harry?" Ron asked. "Yeah?" Harry said, faking a frown, for no reason. "You're ok with it right?" he said. Harry didn't know what Ron meant, and somewhere deep, he didn't want to know. "About me taking…taking her to the ball" Ron said, jerking his head towards the girls' dormitory. Harry was speechless. Why is Ron asking me that? He wondered. "Sure, you want to go with her and she wants to go with you, then why are you asking me?" Harry smiled after he finished the sentence, and somehow the smile came natural. He felt good when he said that out loud and he felt even better when he saw Ron smiling at him in relief. What was with me? He thought. But he let go of the matter as soon as they started their homework for Snape.
The next morning, they got up and the dormitory was full of noises. Harry saw that everyone was up. They looked excited about the ball tonight. "Good morning Harry" Ron said, peering through his blankets. "Good morning" Harry said, yawning hugely and sitting up on his bed. "What's going on in here?" Ron said loudly, sitting up on his bed too and looking around. "the ball's tonight and the visitors are here, not all of them, but most of them are arriving in the afternoon, or at breakfast" Dean was saying above the noise. The boys were all looking out of the window and were talking so loudly and excitedly. Ron got up quickly and went to the window. "Harry, when is Chris coming?" he asked, looking at Harry. "She didn't say" Harry said, "she didn't even reply to me" he looked at Ron, with a frown in his face. "Don't worry, mom will convince her to come" he smiled to Harry and looked back at the window again. "I hope you're right" Harry said in a whisper.
They went down to breakfast in the great hall. It was filled with a noise louder than the noise that Harry heard in the dormitory when he woke up, and it was filled with students more than usual. "Where's Hermione?" Ron asked, looking around. "There" Harry said, spotting her running towards them. "hi" she said, "a lot of noise, huh, I think we should go outside" she pointed at the door. But as they pushed the doors, it didn't budge. "What's wrong?" Ron said, looking at the big double-doors in front of him. "Why is the door locked?", "So that's why the great hall was full" Harry said, "the doors are locked" "but why?" Hermione asked, frowning. They saw Lavender coming towards them. "Haven't you heard?" she said, looking at them. "Heard what?" Harry asked. "The grounds are locked until the start of the ball, which is going to be outside" she said, and then she entered the great hall without any further talk.
"Let's go and eat in the common room" Hermione said. "Yeah" Ron said. "Wait" Harry said. "How are we supposed to eat if we didn't have any food?" he laughed. "Oh, you're right" she said, laughing a bit. "I'll go and bring some toast and juice, you wait for me here". "Yeah" Ron said, "we're not going anywhere" he laughed softly and went silent. They waited for her outside the great hall, which was going to explode from the sound that was erupting from it. After nearly ten minutes of waiting in hunger, they saw Hermione coming out of the great hall and holding a plate full of toast and three glasses of juice. "here" she said, handing the glasses to Harry, and giving Ron the plate of toast. "the great hall is completely full" she said, patting her hair, which was bushier than before. "There are new people in there" she said, pointing back. "They arrived this morning. "wait" Harry said, "what if Chris had arrived, she doesn't know the place here" he looked around for her. "Well" Hermione said, stopping. "Why don't you go and look for her". "No" Harry said, "I'm not going inside that hall" he said, starting to walk. "then what are you going to do?" she asked. "I'll go to professor McGonagall" he said, turning to go to the direction of her office. "wait" Ron said, "I saw her in the great hall when I peered inside" he said, pointing at the great hall. They stood there for a minute as Harry was thinking. "Er…Harry" Hermione said, stopping his train of thoughts. "Shouldn't we go to eat?" she asked. "You go, I'll come later, after I get out of the great hall…if I ever did" he said, with a smile. "Ok" Ron said, and he and Hermione went to the common room. He was looking around as he headed off to the great hall once more, when he saw Chris leaning on a door and reading a newspaper. "Chris" Harry said, running to her. "Harry" she said, spotting him. "where have you been?" she asked, "I've been waiting for you here a long time". She was wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt that read the letter C. she looked more beautiful than before, and her beautiful eyes looked at him happily. She had her silky hair in a ponytail. "So" she said, "this is Hogwarts then" she said, looking around the entrance hall. "it's beautiful" she said, "I just can't wait…can't wait to enter these doors as a student, and lay my hands on a book about ancient magic" she said, her eyes were bright as she looked at Harry. Harry smiled at her, and then he saw, behind her, professor McGonagall coming towards them. She arrived, Chris looked at her. "I see that your partner has arrived then" McGonagall said, smiling at Chris. " and I dare say that she's a very beautiful partner too" "Oh" Chris said, not knowing what to say. "Thanks...er…" "I'm professor McGonagall" McGonagall said, extending her hand, Chris shock it. "hi, nice to meet you" Chris said, " I'm sorry I didn't recognize you, Harry didn't tell me yet about the school, because I've just arrived here" she said, looking around. "and it's a very great place in here" she added. "Oh, yes" McGonagall said. "well, I'll be going now, I'll leave you two, and just so you know, the ball will be held on the school grounds" she smiled at Chris and then she departed. "she's really nice" Chris said, looking at McGonagall's back. "well, Harry, take me to your common room" she said suddenly. "How do you know about the common rooms?" he asked her. "Oh, Mrs. Weasley told me when I was there" she said, smiling. He took her hand and led her to Gryffindor tower. Harry noticed that people were looking at Chris with interest as she passed with him. Even Malfoy stopped as she passed him towards the dungeons. They arrived in the common room few minutes later and saw Ron and Hermione sitting on the floor (the common room was full too) and were talking. "Chris" Hermione suddenly shouted and she got up and hugged Chris tightly. "so you found her in the great hall?" Ron asked Harry, smiling. "Oh, no, she was waiting for me outside the great hall" he smiled too. They sat together and talked about the school, and about the homework. Boys often stop when they see Chris and come over to them to say hi. Harry felt like they were back at the Burrow and he was so happy. He supposed that the ball is not going to be too bad after all.