A/N: Have a very Happy Christmas (and now Boxing Day, probably) gingerdream! Sorry, this is a little late but I hope you like it! It doesn't exactly take place during a Yule ball, but I figured it was close enough!

Title: essay-wrapped gift

Summary: Lavender and Parvati exchange gifts in the deserted Gryffindor dorm, and remember the Yule ball from three years ago.

WC: 945

Genres: Romance, Hurt/Comfort-ish?

Characters: Lavender B., Parvati P.

Lavender opened the small packet in front of her just as the bell struck1 in the morning. The package was actually one of Parvati's old essays, she knew, as she could read Carrow's red markings all over the page; all of them probably insulting and degrading. But then Parvati had gone over that in green ink and drawn little Christmas trees all over, so it did look like wrapping paper, if you squinted.

After being careful not to tear, she took out a pair of earrings. They were little paper swans, folded to precision and they looked so delicate and fragile. Lavender smiled.

"You know what this reminds me of?" she asked Parvati, and the other girl looked up from her own essay-wrapped package.

"What?" Parvati replied. The moonlight hit her face, making her look positively ethereal.

"The Yule Ball from our Fourth Year," Lavender told her with a smile.

"Three years ago," Parvati sighed, "It seems so long ago."

Well, of course it did. Having a war in the middle made everything seem so long ago. The time when Lavender was fooling around with Ron, thought only a year ago, now seemed like a whole lifetime away. As for the Yule Ball, it was even further back than that. It was not even a lifetime away, but rather a whole millennia. But still.

"Nevertheless," Lavender said with a smile, "You also gave me earrings for the occasion."

"Really?" replied Parvati, looking up, surprised. "I don't remember."

Lavender gave a small laugh. "Probably not. I didn't even wear them because they didn't go with my outfit."

Parvati looked at her with an amused disbelief. "And what did you get me?"

"Okay, this is going to make me sound even worse," Lavender told her.

"Tell me," Parvati ordered. "We were 14, we were stupid. It's all water under the bridge anyway."

Lavender blushed, "I got you this really, really ugly bracelet. And you wore it anyway!"

"You mean that ugly lime green bracelet was from you! I couldn't remember where I'd gotten it!"

"Well, now you know it was a very spiteful and jealous 14-year-old me."

They were whispering, everything was hushed. Technically, they didn't really need to be that quiet; they were the only ones in the Seventh year Gryffindor girl's dormitory, ever since Hermione hadn't come back to school on September 1st and was rumoured to be with Ron and Harry plotting He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's end.

It felt awfully lonely in the beginning, when it was just Parvati and Lavender. Eventually, they learnt to appreciate having the whole dorm for just the two of them. But then, sometimes, Hermione's absence was just such a loud reminder of what they were living it was almost suffocating. Even more suffocating than the end of Sixth Year when she had been ready to murder the girl. Funny how once upon a time, she wished nothing more than the girl to go away forever, and now she wished she would come back.

Well, maybe not entirely…

"Jealous, why would you be jealous?" Parvati said with a giggle. Hushed of course, despite the fact that there were probably wards around the dorm to make sure everyone slept soundly – if that was even possible any more – during this Christmas night.

"Oh, you know. You were the one going with a bloody Triwizard champion, and opening the whole Yule ball," Lavender explained.

"Trust me, it wasn't as much fun as it looked. He stepped on my feet the whole time and barely took any care of me," Parvati assured her.

"I know, you spent hours complaining about him afterwards."

"At least I was luckier than Padma. Ron was just as awful and he wasn't even a champion," Parvati tells her. "He spent the whole evening glaring daggers at Krum and Hermione."

"Merlin, those two!" Lavender exclaimed. "They were always so full of drama."

"I know," Parvati said and rolled her eyes.

There was a moment of silence, when all they could hear was the soft beating of snow against their windows, and the whisper the candle makes while it burns. Lavender pulled her hair up and put the delicate swan origami earrings on.

"How do I look?" she asked.

"Lovely, as always," Parvati replied and the both of them blushed.

"Now, look at what I got you!" she ordered

Parvati opened her own package. The wrapping was Lavender's latest Potions' essay. She'd always been rubbish and didn't know by what miracle she had managed to get and Exceeds Expectations in her OWLs, but it had allowed her to pursue the subject, and pursue her dream of becoming a Mediwitch one day. Well, that had been her dream from before the war….

"Oh, a necklace!" Parvati exclaimed. "I love it!"

It was a quill Lavender had shrunk and attached to a chain, turning it into a feather necklace. It wasn't much, but it was all she could manage at the moment, but Parvati's delighted smile reassured her.

"Can you help me put it on?" Parvati asked, turning around and lifting her hair.

Lavender reached around her neck and carefully attached the necklace, fascinated by the smooth skin at the back of Parvati's neck.

"You know," she whispered, "Maybe I was actually jealous of Harry, during that Yule ball."

"What do you mean?" Parvati asked.

"Well, he's the one who got to take you to the Yule ball…" Lavender said, her voice dropping at the end of her sentence.

Parvati turned around and smiled at her. They kissed in perfect silence, and for a moment, all thoughts of war and horror left their minds, and for a moment, it was just Parvati and Lavender.