Chapter 23 – The Yule Ball
The week before Christmas Snape dragged himself down to the Slytherin Common Room and gave a terse little speech about expected behaviours during the Yule Ball one evening, and then ducked out of the Common Room after leaving behind his apprentice, Shafiq, to give a brief dance lesson.
As uncomfortable as it was learning the steps to the wizarding dances, Harry was glad Snape had insisted they go over them – all his prior dance experience had been muggle, after all. And none of that had been in any way formal. At least it was Shafiq leading the lessons rather than Snape himself.
But after that, it was a free run to Christmas Day and the Yule Ball itself.
Harry awoke to a rather different experience on the twenty-fifth than he'd had the previous year. Because of the Yule Ball none of Harry's dorm mates had gone home for Christmas, so Christmas Morning in the dormitory was rather chaotic.
A loud keening filled the air as Blaise's special alarm sounded over and over again until everyone in the room was awake.
"It's Christmas, you lazy arse!" shouted Blaise as he threw a ball of wrapping paper at the just-woken-up Harry through the curtains on his bed. "Get up!"
Harry reached for his glasses and sat up in his bed.
"I am up! As if I could sleep through all the noise."
Fortunately, Blaise's alarm would fall silent once the last sleeper in the room woke up. Unfortunately for everyone, Harry saw that the last once asleep was Vince, who could sleep through a hippogriff rampage if left alone.
Blaise's alarm wailed on and on as Vince slept through the din. Eventually Blaise got out of his bed and threw open Vince's curtains, then shook him awake.
"It's Christmas! How can you sleep through Christmas?" Blaise said before jumping back onto his own bed. When he noticed that Vince still wasn't up and about, he shouted again. "Oi! Don't go back to sleep!"
"Merry Christmas, guys," Harry said to the room. "Bit different from last year, anyway."
"Oh, yeah," said Vince, still clearly half-asleep. "You stayed last year didn't you? 'Cause of that Black nutter... And then they found him here in the summer anyway, so you could have gone home."
"Er, yeah," Harry said. "Brilliant Christmas banter, Vince. Thanks for that."
Of course, Sirius hadn't been any danger to Harry or his family, but no one had known that then except for Sirius. And in the end, the danger had come from within the school itself, from a teacher. Harry hadn't had a bad Christmas, anyway. And at least he'd received his Invisibility Cloak in secret.
"Shall we open presents, then?" suggested Blaise. "The elves put them at the foot of our beds, which is nice. And it's no fun doing it on your own, so..."
Harry wasn't sure what was waiting for him at the foot of the bed but joined his dorm mates anyway to open them. A small pile of neatly-wrapped presents, some using Muggle paper, and some magical, sat there, expertly stacked. Unlike the previous year when he'd received his Cloak, there was nothing that looked especially unusual. Harry hoped he wasn't about to receive a rare and powerful magical artefact better kept secret, anyway, since the room was full and he doubted he'd be able to keep anything from Blaise's prying eyes.
Harry and Blaise started to open presents while Theodore followed along at his usual, rather more sedate, pace. Vince was sluggish getting out of bed and seemed not to care much about his presents anyway, as he was instead looking for his cat where it slept beneath his four-poster.
Draco appeared hesitant to do anything at all, which Harry thought strange, as he'd assumed Draco would simply love to expound the virtues of his no-doubt ludicrously expensive gifts from home. But instead he simply stared at his pile of presents, his expression difficult to read.
No point wasting Christmas morning on Draco, Harry thought. There were presents to open, and from quite the variety of sources this year.
Harry sorted his presents so that he could open them in the order which seemed like it would be the most exciting. He had the expected set of gifts from his more distant friends and classmates, which would probably be little tokens and nothing extravagant, so he would open those between the more interesting gifts. He saw one gift from Ernie which looked like a book although could have been something else, he supposed, along with another marked 'from Algernon, Mairi, and Ernest', which he put to one side to open first. Another from Tracey, and then a gift from Blaise.
Petunia and Vernon had sent along a mid-sized box wrapped in muggle paper a few days beforehand with Agrippa, with a note marked 'DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS DAY' stuck to it. The box had disappeared once Harry had taken it back to the dorm but had reappeared with the rest of his gifts on Christmas Morning. Some sort of elf organisation, Harry assumed, so that the presents were all opened on Christmas Morning itself.
"Oh, that's very nice," said Blaise as he looked at his most recently unwrapped gift. "Nice one, Mum."
Harry glanced over to have a little look.
"That is nice," Harry said. "Professional grade, I assume?" Harry hardly needed to ask the question, because of course Blaise would only buy the absolute best of anything. But there were technically other options that were considered expensive and prestigious enough for Blaise and his mother's tastes so Harry didn't feel stupid for asking the question.
"Obviously," said Blaise. "It's the wand holster used by all the top-flight duellists. I know we don't technically need it for our level but it's good to get started with it, right? And it's a nice piece of kit..."
"That's the one with the cushioning and the anti-summoning charms on it, isn't it?" asked Harry. "I had a look at it but didn't get it in it the end, felt like I wouldn't need it yet. Maybe I'll grab one for my birthday."
Maybe he even would get it. Probably not just for sport duelling, though – it was good enough that Harry might have actual practical uses for it outside the arena, given the looming threat of Voldemort.
"Yeah. I mean, they only work while it's in the holster but it's still a good set of charms to have on it, isn't it?" said Blaise. He shrugged. By then he'd moved on to his next present – some sort of shimmering robe that looked like it could have been made from acromantula silk.
Harry opened some of his own gifts then, mostly the little ones from his friends and classmates that included the general sorts of things. Things like a quill and ink set from Millicent, and a specialty parchment set from Daphne, along with the standard array of sweets and chocolates from more distance friends. When he was dine with those, Harry opened the gift from his aunt and uncle.
Inside was a little note that Harry read and tucked away back in the box. Harry had only actually asked for one gift from his aunt and uncle that year: a new pair of trainers since he didn't like to duel in wizards' shoes. Petunia had included a very nice pair of trainers in the box but had also bought some new t-shirts and jeans and put them in, too.
Harry wasn't about to turn down new t-shirts although he didn't think he'd be getting much opportunity to wear them while at school. The trainers, though, were a Godsend.
"Muggle shoes?" asked Blaise. "Don't you have that really good pair of dragonhides? What do you need muggle shoes for?"
Harry shrugged.
"I don't like duelling in my boots. Trainers feel better."
"You must be mad," said Blaise. He paused. "Well, I know you're mad, but I didn't think you were that bad."
Harry rolled his eyes and then changed the subject.
"You okay, Theodore? You've not said anything in a while," Harry asked, glancing towards where Theodore sat with a massive, ancient-looking, book.
After a few moments Theodore nodded.
"Yeah, yeah, really good, thanks," he said, looking up from the book. "My father got me... you remember that book I said about? The banned one? Well, he didn't get me that, but he got me this book that's nearly the same thing but without the banned bits and I reckon I could use it to figure out what the banned bits were as well! There's a book in the library, see, that says about it and I think I can figure it out using this!" Theodore sounded genuinely pleased and more enthusiastic than he did about essentially anything else, so Harry supposed the gift was a good one even if it wasn't quite what Harry would have wanted to receive.
A book with the banned bits taken out didn't sound especially interesting. The banned book, maybe, although if Theodore's academic spelunking went well he could just ask for the summary version.
"Er, that's great," Harry said. "Good book, then?"
"Very," said Theodore, who had already gone back to reading the book and whose remaining presents sat unopened.
Vince had extracted his sleepy cat from beneath the bed by that point and was sat opening his own presents, a very grumpy cat sat next to him. He opened a massive box of sweets, cakes, and other assorted desserts and shared them with Harry and Blaise, although neither Draco nor Theodore seemed interested.
Harry tackled the little box from the Macmillans next, wrapped in its paper marked with the Macmillan crest.
A little note fell out.
To Harry,
This is a gift from all our family to you. Ernest told us about your selection for the flying and we just couldn't help ourselves! We hope you win wearing them!
Yours,
Algernon, Mairi, and Ernest
Harry opened the box to find a nice pair of flight gloves, charmed with all the racing-legal comfort charms.
"Nice," Harry said. He would have to remember to send a note back in thanks for that.
Harry got through the rest of his presents quite quickly after that. He received a book on unusual duelling skills from Ernie himself, then opened his gift from Tracey.
Harry laughed when he saw the cover.
"We got each other the same book!" he said, smiling. He had in his hands an exact replica of the book he'd bought Tracey – Doubles Duelling Strategies for Novices. Well, at least he knew Tracey thought it was a decent enough gift.
Harry opened the rest of his gifts, saving the one marked 'Padfoot' for last. Harry's godfather had wrapped the present in festive, but not especially Christmassy , wrapping paper festooned in palm trees and coconut shells. A hint, perhaps, at where he was – or at least where he had been, given that he'd said he'd be back in Britain soon.
Under the paper was a simple wooden box. Harry pulled out the box and saw it was marked with fancy Japanese characters, along with the Latin alphabet version of the name underneath it – Hayami. Curious, Harry opened the box to find a pair of flight goggles from Hayami's professional range.
A little booklet nestled underneath the goggles that gave a rundown of the many and varied charms and spells on the goggles, stressing of course that each and every one was competition legal. Sirius had included a little note as well, tucked beneath the one from Hayami.
Harry,
Merry Christmas!
I don't know if you've got a pair of goggles already, but I thought you'd appreciate these. They're really good especially for hazard racing. They're the best flight goggles available on the market. Technically, they're not on the market yet—these are a product sample meant for the big shops, so they can flog them. I know, I know—I'm the best godfather ever. No need to shower me with praise, although if you wanted to, I'd suffer through it.
You're going to smash the competition, I'm sure. And yeah, I know that Viktor Krum is competing as well. But you should have seen your dad fly back in the day—he could have played Quidditch for England! And I'm positive you'll be even better—I gave you your first and second broom, after all.
Your parents would be proud, Harry.
Keep on winning.
Padfoot
Harry ignored the lump in his throat after reading Sirius's letter and folded it up so that he could look over it again later. Harry took off his glasses and tried on his new goggles. Immediately, he knew they were worth whatever money Sirius had paid for them. The lenses adapted to match his vision, which meant he could dispense with his glasses during flying. The adaptive straps fit perfectly, neither too tight nor too loose, and Harry could barely tell he had anything on.
"Who got you those?" asked Blaise, leaning over to look at the box. "Hayami? Must have cost a nifty knut."
"Friend of my dad's," Harry said. "They're not even on sale yet, apparently. But they feel really good and look at the booklet—they've got all the proper charms on them. Lifetime guarantee, as well."
Blaise glanced over at Draco.
"Hear that, Draco? Harry's gone and got himself a pair of Hayami flight goggles. Did your dad manage to snag you a Firebolt, or are they still all on backorder?"
"That's nice," said Draco – the first thing he'd said all morning. It wasn't like Draco to ignore any kind of jibe, but he seemed completely disinterested in engaging with Blaise that morning. He'd been less present in the room than Theodore, even, who was totally lost in his book. Harry thought perhaps he was more interested in his presents, so sneaked a little look – and he wanted to scope out whether Draco had managed to get a Firebolt, just in case.
Draco hadn't opened any of the gifts sat at the bottom of his bed. Instead, he sat there on the floor with the other boys staring at a letter he held in his hand.
"You haven't opened any of your presents," said Blaise. "Why not?"
Draco shrugged.
"They don't matter. I know what's in them, anyway," Draco said. "I'll open them later." He folded the letter and slid it into his robe pocket. "We should get going for breakfast—Shafiq told me the whole House eats together on Christmas morning."
"I made sure we all got up early enough that—" Blaise said, but Draco got up and walked out of the room before he finished. "What's crawled up his arse?"
"Maybe it was something he read in that letter. Don't know if you've noticed, but he's been avoiding his dad whenever he's been here for Tournament stuff," Harry said. He shrugged. "Who knows? But he wasn't wrong about breakfast—I didn't know if we'd be doing it this year because everyone stayed for Christmas but it is tradition apparently, and it's nearly time for breakfast."
"Yeah, alright," said Blaise. "But I still don't see why he had to be rude about it."
"It's Draco," said Harry. "He's always rude."
The four boys got ready for breakfast after that, although Harry did have to gently remind Theodore to get a move on. He took the big book with him to breakfast, but Harry supposed that was fine. It was Christmas, after all. They joined the rest of Slytherin House, all two hundred or so of them, and went to breakfast in a great mass.
The rest of Christmas Day unfolded for Harry much as it had the previous year, although it was much busier and he had his friends with him too. The day stretched on until it was nearly time for the Yule Ball and all the girls – and half of the boys – disappeared to get ready for what was sure to be the most talked about social event at Hogwarts for years.
Harry stood in front of a mirror in his dorm's bathroom fiddling with his hair. He couldn't get it to sit just right and was close to giving up altogether.
"Does my hair look alright?" he asked, glancing towards Blaise. The handsome boy was doing the final touch-ups to his own dense, springy hair – hair that was still more manageable than Harry's, and styled much better.
"No," Blaise said without looking over. "It's never alright. But you'll be fine—no one cares about your hair. Just make sure your do your robe up properly and wear your nice shoes and that's all anyone will see."
"Right," Harry said. "Er, do you think I should wear my nice belt with my robe? The robe feels a bit... flowy."
"You don't own any nice belts," Blaise said. He stopped what he was doing to look over at Harry. "Your robe is fine. It's actually really fashionable. No need for belts, either—it's fitted 'round the middle. Just wear your nice boots and use some of my eau de Cologne, and you'll be fine."
"Well, okay," Harry said, looking himself over in the mirror again. He wasn't quite so confident in his attire as Blaise, but the robe had been picked out by Mairi and she did seem to know what she was on about. Harry sighed. "Oh, go on then—pass me some, I'll just use a bit."
Harry did have some of his own, but it was muggle, and the wizarding stuff just smelled better. Less artificial, more fragrant, and lasted longer. He put a little behind his eyes and around his neck and then stepped back to look over himself yet another time.
"Ready to go?" Harry asked Blaise. It was only the two of them in the bathroom – Vince had thrown on his robe and left the dormitory almost immediately and Theodore hadn't stuck around for that much longer either. Draco had been elsewhere all day and still hadn't got back, although nobody knew where he was – including Pansy, his date for the evening.
"Yeah," Blaise said. "Let's go."
Harry and Blaise left their dormitory bathroom and joined the other second years – those who were ready, anyway – in the Common Room.
Daphne and Tracey were nowhere to be seen, but Theodore and Millicent were sat in a little cluster of chairs with space enough for Harry and Blaise to join them. Theodore sat there picking awkwardly at the cuffs of his dress robes, while Millicent lounged in her chair, seemingly unconcerned with the upcoming Ball. She'd worn a much more feminine dress robe than Harry had first assumed, although it wasn't quite as dressy as some of the other girls'. Still, it was a massive step up from Millicent's usual robes, and the overall look was quite striking, in Harry's opinion.
Not that he planned on saying that, since Harry doubted Millicent cared about his opinion and it felt much too awkward to just put that out there. So he said nothing.
"I don't reckon Daph will be ready for another hour," said Millicent. "She's had her hair in that Sleekeazy stuff for ages," she said with a pointed look at Harry.
"She can't take another hour," Theodore pointed out. "Dinner starts in fifteen minutes and I doubt she'd be late to the Ball."
"You haven't seen how stressed she's been today," said Millicent. "Why do you think I left the dorm? It's mad in there."
"She won't be late," said Blaise.
True enough, Daphne and Tracey appeared from the dormitories a few minutes later. Daphne did look stunning, Harry thought – her robes looked like some sort of expensive muggle dress, but with little bits and accoutrements that clearly had to be held up with magic. Next to her it was clear enough that Tracey had spent more than a little while getting ready too – her hair done up into an elegant set of buns, and in a set of dress robes that accentuated her – rather ample – feminine features so well Harry felt like he shouldn't be looking.
"Believe it or not," Daphne said once she and Tracey reached the rest of the group, "it was Tracey who made us late, not me. Just so we all know, I was ready ten minutes ago."
Tracey went pink around the ears.
"I couldn't get the charm on my hair right," she said. "But I did it in the end."
"Well, shall we get going to dinner? Some of us have to meet our dates still," said Blaise, glancing towards Harry.
"Er, hang on a minute," said Theodore. He shot up from his seat and walked across the Common Room and returned with Florence Nettlestalk, who smiled weakly at the group and offered a little wave. "Florence is my—erm—we're going to the Ball together," Theodore managed to say eventually.
"Right, well, anyone else need to pick someone up from the Common Room?" Blaise said. "Because I don't want to be late."
Nobody did, as Theodore had collected Florence and Millicent and Daphne were going together, so their little group left the gradually emptying Common Room and headed for the Entrance Hall so that Harry, Blaise, and Tracey could meet their dates for the evening.
"Who'd you ask, anyway?" Harry asked Blaise as they were walking along. "You never said."
Blaise paused.
"Eglantine Harrow," he said. "You know, from Hufflepuff."
"You're going with Eggy Harrow?" Harry asked, incredulous.
"Alright, so I know she's a bit—" Blaise made vague motion with his hands. "But she's really fit and actually quite funny when you get to know her."
"I'm sure she is," Harry murmured. Eggy Harrow was fit, but she was what Harry's aunt would politely refer to as 'high-strung' and 'a little bit much'. Harry only knew her by reputation, and from the few times they'd been around each other about the school, and from things his Hufflepuff friends had said. "How'd you know her, though? She's not in any of our classes and she doesn't do Duelling Club either."
"I know her from outside school," Blaise said. He shrugged. "Tracey's going with Hopkins. Why don't you bother her about her choices?"
"But Wayne is lovely," said Tracey. "And he asked me to the Ball in Welsh! So I had to say yes!" She paused. "Well, Wayne speaks Welsh as well so it wasn't that impressive but speaking her language is one of the ways into a girl's heart, you know."
Harry wished he'd known that earlier, since he would have learned some nice phrases in Italian but filed away the information for later anyway.
The group made it to the Entrance Hall where it seemed most of the school, along with the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, were milling about waiting for the Ball to start. Little groups had formed throughout the Hall where people were meeting and had met their dates from other schools and Houses, and despite the large size of the Entrance Hall, it was nearly packed to bursting with the full complement of Hogwarts students in addition to the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.
It appeared to Harry as if the Tournament's stated aim of fostering international bonds and encouraging co-operation had worked, at least when it came to school students and their dates to the Yule Ball. Harry saw that quite a few of the Hogwarts students had asked Beauxbatons or Durmstrang students to the Ball, and he could even identify several couples made up of students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.
Blaise left the group when he saw Eggy stood across the room with several of her friends, offering only a muttered 'be back in a bit' as he did so, and Tracey split off to join Wayne too. Theodore and Florence, along with Millicent and Daphne, stayed near Harry as he scanned the Entrance Hall looking for Giovanna.
Harry found her near the great hourglasses which represented the four Houses' house point totals, stood with several more of Durmstrang's competitors in the flying events—including Viktor Krum.
"I've found Giovanna," Harry said. "I'm just going to go—I might be back, I'm not sure what Giovanna wants to do, but..."
"Just go find her," said Millicent.
"It's not eight yet, so we won't be going anywhere," Daphne added.
Harry nodded and crossed the room to meet his date for the Ball. He felt a bit nervous, but they'd had lunch together a few times, once even as a proper date, so he didn't think it would be too awkward just because it was Christmas Day and a Ball. Giovanna was stood near a cluster of fairy-lights – literal, live fairies acting as lights – whose wings Harry assumed were the cause of the buzzing sounds he'd been hearing throughout the Entrance Hall.
As Harry approached the group he realised they were all speaking German. He waited until there seemed to be a decent enough lull in their conversation to slip into the group, and then did so, touching Giovanna lightly on the arm.
"Merry Christmas! You look beautiful," Harry said, remembering that Blaise, Tracey, and Daphne had all told him to compliment Giovanna as soon as he saw her. It wasn't a lie, either – she had on some sort of floaty dress-like robe where the hem floated several inches above the ground by some sort of enchantment, and her dark, shiny hair waved gently to an enchanted wind.
"Thank you," Giovanna said. "And Merry Christmas to you, too. Please, let me introduce you to my friends. Natasha, you have met already, and Anatoly, but I do not think you have met Viktor or Janus. Viktor, Janus, this is Harry."
"Hello," Harry said, smiling. "Merry Christmas, good to meet you all."
Giovanna's friends offered Harry a chorus of polite greetings.
"Harry Potter—the Boy-Who-Lived," said one of them. Janus, Harry thought. "Are the things they say of you true?"
To have answered that Harry would have first had to have known what the things 'they' said about him were, and as a general rule he tried to ignore rumours and gossip about himself – unless it ended up in the papers. Harry opened his mouth with a little retort ready, but Viktor got there first.
Viktor nudged Janus and said something in an undertone in German, to which Janus simply shrugged and turned away.
"He is being rude," said Viktor. "He should know better. I am told you vill be flying against me—us—after Christmas. I look forward to it very much. You have a Firebolt, yes? It is a good broom. You vill be very good competition."
Harry opened his mouth to speak but Viktor cut him off.
"Ah, I am sorry—I started a conversation I could not finish! I see my partner for this evening and I must go to her. Again, I am sorry. It vas nice to meet you, Harry Potter."
Viktor offered a smile and then left the group, heading towards the Entrance Hall staircase to meet his date. Harry couldn't help looking – it was, after all, not every day that an international Quidditch star picked a Hogwarts schoolgirl for a date, and he wanted to see who it was.
Viktor met a stunning witch in pale blue dress robes – periwinkle, Harry thought was what Daphne would have called the colour – that looked almost like a muggle ball gown and an intricate, elegant hairstyle at the bottom of the Entrance Hall staircase. Harry didn't recognise her on first glance, but on a second look he realised Viktor Krum had taken Hermione Granger to the Yule Ball. A Hermione Granger who had admittedly gone to extreme efforts in getting ready, but Hermione Granger all the same.
That was a pairing Harry could honestly say he'd never in a million years have expected to happen – and not just because Granger ordinarily went about with hair on par with Harry's own mess.
"Viktor has been so happy about his date for tonight," Giovanna said quietly. "He met her in the Hogwarts Library, you know. She does not fly, but she is a duellist, I think."
"Er, yeah, she is," Harry said, still a bit too surprised at the matchup to offer anything better. "She's in Duelling Club with me, and we have some classes together. Honestly, I wouldn't have put them together." He shrugged. "But they've got something in common, I suppose."
"I think she does not care that Viktor is a Quidditch superstar, only that he is a talented wizard. And Viktor likes this. Or so Viktor has said," replied Giovanna.
Anatoly said something in German, to which Natasha and Janus sniggered. Giovanna just frowned, so Harry assumed the comment was unkind in some way.
"We should go and join your friends," said Giovanna quietly to Harry. "I do not think you would enjoy the company of Janus and Anatoly this evening." She turned to the other three Durmstrang students and said her goodbyes – in German, so Harry didn't know quite what she'd said. Natasha frowned as Giovanna left, but Giovanna simply linked her arm with Harry's and headed to where Harry had left his friends.
When Harry and Giovanna returned to where Harry's friends were waiting Harry saw that Tracey hadn't come back – Harry spotted her amidst a cluster of Hufflepuffs and assumed that's where she was intending to stay – but Blaise had brought Eggy Harrow back to join their little group.
"Alright?" said Harry once they'd got back. "Erm, Giovanna—you've met Daphne and Millie at the Cultural Fayre, and Blaise at the Feast, but I don't think you've met Theodore before. Oh, and this is Florence and Egg—Eglantine."
"I am very pleased to meet you all," Giovanna said. "Your hair is very bold," she said to Eggy, whose shiny blonde hair was done up into a towering beehive and decked out with glistening bits of jewellery.
Eggy tittered and hid her mouth behind her hand.
"Thank you so very much!" she said. "People tell me, 'Eglantine, you have such a unique style!' and it's just so nice to hear! And you know, darling, it's just the best way to be! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!"
Harry didn't know quite what to say to that, so wisely kept quiet. It looked as if everyone else had felt the same way, however, as a little silence fell over the group in the wake of Eggy's statement. Fortunately, the doors to the Great Hall opened to signal the start of the Christmas Feast, and so Eggy's hair was forgotten.
"Right, well, let's get going then, shall we?" said Blaise. He guided Eggy gently into the Great Hall, joining the mass of students making their way into the transformed Great Hall. Harry and the others followed after him.
"It looks so different!" said Giovanna once they'd got in. Instead of the usual House tables and the teachers' table on its dais, an array of much smaller, circular tables had been scattered throughout the Hall. Everlasting ice sculptures depicting the three schools and various other Christmassy themes stood at the centre of most of the tables, along with pretty little floral arrangements.
The normal Christmas decorations had been scaled back somewhat and replaced with much more refined versions, and Harry thought the overall effect was very nice indeed. And although he'd never attended a formal ball before – and school discos in the sports hall were so far removed as to be a completely different thing in his mind – he was impressed.
"There are tables for four, six, or eight," said Blaise as he scouted the room for a table. "How d'you lot want to do it? All together?"
"That would be nice," said Daphne. "There's a spare eight-seat table over here, with the winged boar statue on it."
"Ooh, that's just marvellous!" declared Eggy, who set off immediately towards it. The rest of the group followed after her.
Daphne held off finding a seat until Eggy and Blaise were both seated, and then chose the spot furthest away from Eggy.
"Harry, you and Giovanna can sit here," said Daphne, indicating the pair of seats between Eggy and Blaise. Harry let Giovanna take the seat next to Daphne and sat himself down next to Blaise. Unfortunately for Florence, that meant she had to take the seat closest to Eggy.
"It's so much more intimate than the usual tables, wouldn't you say?" Eggy said. "And it's so nice to mix outside of our Houses sometimes, isn't it?" She paused, and then giggled. "Oh, but all of you are in Slytherin anyway!"
Harry already wished he'd taken a four-seater table with Theodore and Florence. Perhaps Eggy would be funnier and more pleasant to be around after he got to know her, but Harry had the feeling that wasn't how it would go.
"Giovanna is from Durmstrang, so we're not all Slytherins," Harry decided to say, as that was a nice, neutral comment. "Although, actually, I don't know how it works there—do you have Houses or something like that?" he said to Giovanna.
"Something like that," Giovanna said after a little pause. "Not so... serious as Hogwarts Houses, I do not think. In my, ah, cohort? Yes, cohort, there are two groups or, ah, 'Houses' but it depends how many people there are in the cohort. Some have three or four."
"At Hogwarts the Houses are meant to be based on personality traits and core values," said Florence. "Is it the same at Durmstrang?"
"Oh, no, not at all," Giovanna said. "Our groups are more administrative, I think. And for a little bit of competition inside the school, yes? But they are not, ah, meant to be representative of anything more than this."
"Sometimes I think that would be nice at Hogwarts," Florence continued. "It feels like a lot of the time, people see you as 'a Slytherin' and not as just who you are without all that," she said. "It can be a bit hard to make friends outside your House, sometimes."
Harry saw what she was saying, although he had managed to make some friends outside of Slytherin. Perhaps only because he'd met Ernie on the train before the Sorting and Ernie had been friends with Millie already. For someone like Florence, who had struggled to make friends within Slytherin because of bullying from Pansy and who didn't seem to have many friends from before school either, Harry supposed it would have been much harder.
He couldn't discount the 'Harry Potter factor' either, although thinking on that was unpleasant and he tried not to generally. The thought that some of his friends may only have wanted to get to know him because of that, and not because they liked him as a person, wasn't something Harry wanted to dwell on.
"I have friends in other Houses," Daphne said. "I trade clips and accessories with Parvati in Gryffindor all the time! But it is a lot easier to have friends in your own House, so I do see what you mean, Florence."
"We should order our food," Blaise said, ignoring the discussion on Houses. "Look, some of the other tables are already eating!"
"Order our food?" Harry said, although once he looked down at the table he saw that little menus were sat at each space. The entries on the menus were mostly standard Christmas fare, although some of them were things Harry thought might have a more Continental twist. "Oh, never mind. I suppose we just... hold the menu and say the thing we want?"
"Yes," said Giovanna. "This is how you should do it."
Once everyone at the table had ordered their food for the evening, it appeared on their plates just at it usually did at dinnertimes, and everyone tucked into their meals. The food itself Harry found as just as good as any other feast at Hogwarts, but he did have to admit that Eggy was right about the added intimacy of the smaller tables being nice. As Petunia would say, the Ball had a 'delightful ambience'.
"Are you looking forward to getting to compete after the New Year?" asked Daphne of Giovanna conversationally over dinner. "It must be very frustrating having to wait so long to get started!"
"Oh, very much!" said Giovanna. "I am not a good duellist – it is one of my worst classes at school – but I love to fly. So when I was selected to come to Hogwarts for the competition it was so exciting! Most of my friends are still at Durmstrang, and they are all very jealous that I got to come here because only competitors were allowed to travel. But it is a little disappointing that I have not been able to compete yet. I cannot wait to get in the air and fly against my competition," she said, with a glance towards Harry.
"I want to start flying too," Harry said. "I know I've done the duelling already and I love that, but there's just something about flying..." He looked at Giovanna. "The competition will be brutal but that's part of it, isn't it? It'll be the most challenging flying done at Hogwarts in generations, won't it? So it's really good to be part of it."
"Ooh, you two are just so cute together!" declared Eggy. "So delightfully sporty and athletic! Oh, what a pair you make!"
Harry blushed. Those were some of the things he liked about Giovanna, but it felt a bit much for Eggy to just come out and say it at the dinner table. Felt like rather a lot of pressure.
Daphne ignored Eggy.
"Harry said that you're a hazard racer, too! That must be very exciting," Daphne said. "And so dangerous, too! I could never do it—you must be so brave."
"Maybe at first," said Giovanna, "but after all the training and the practising you get used to it. I lost my arm after one session, even." She smiled. "But we could grow it back, so that was not so bad."
Daphne grimaced at that but replaced it with a smile fairly quickly.
"I am definitely never doing a hazard race," she said.
"You don't even like normal flying," Millicent said. "I can't imagine you in a hazard race."
"I think I would be able to do it," said Daphne, perhaps a bit defensively. She sniffed. "I just don't want to."
Eggy tittered behind her hand.
"Oh, yes—make that the two of us, darling!" she said.
Dinner passed by quite quickly, and without many awkward lulls in conversation – although as far as Harry could tell, that was mainly down to Daphne and Eggy being quite good conversationalists. When it came time for dessert, the menus updated themselves with the new offerings, and after the dessert course was over and done with, Dumbledore started the Ball proper.
The many tables – and their sculptures – disappeared to reveal the dancefloor beneath, although some did transform into smaller areas of seating around the periphery. The dais at the far end of the Great Hall reappeared, and the Weird Sisters emerged – to great applause – from the antechamber behind it. There was a little pause in the action as the band got ready, but nobody really seemed to mind, and soon enough the Triwizard Champions and their dates took to the floor to dance the inaugural dance.
All of them performed admirably, in Harry's view, although he couldn't say he envied them. Despite the dance lessons Snape's apprentice had given the Slytherins earlier on, Harry didn't rate his dance skills very highly at all, and a fully public outing with everyone's eyes on him was not how he wanted to test them.
"Fleur is just too beautiful," Daphne said quietly. "I don't know why she chose Roger Davies as her date. But, oh, she moves so gracefully..."
"Oh, I know," said Eggy. "It's enough to make you feel like a fish out of water, isn't it?"
Well, Harry didn't disagree with that. All three of the Champions were handsome or beautiful in their own way, and even if Viktor was the least nimble on his feet they all moved through the steps of the dance with ease. Diggory and Chang, Delacour and Davies, and even Krum and Granger each made gorgeous pairs as they danced through the first dance, and when it had ended the Hall broke into a polite applause.
After that the dancefloor was a free-for-all as the Weird Sisters started their set, and students in their pairs and groups flooded the floor to dance.
Dancing had never been Harry's forte. At school discos before Hogwarts he'd avoided doing anything like it, along with half the other students, but Eggy dragged the whole group, including Theodore and Florence, up onto the floor anyway. At a push Harry would have said it wasn't the most awful social experience he'd ever had, as dancing to popular music with a girl he liked in a group without the eyes of an entire room on him was almost like having fun.
Almost.
Harry spent the next hour or so alternating between dancing and sitting at the side, chatting with Giovanna and introducing her to some of his other friends who hadn't been at their dinner table. He did that until the Weird Sisters took a brief intermission and snack tables appeared at the edges of the Hall, and everyone started to browse over them.
After the Weird Sisters resumed their set Harry found himself back on the dancefloor dancing in a large group of his friends along with Giovanna. The Weird Sisters had played a selection of their most popular songs and had even covered a few from popular bands across Europe, so the floor was almost always filled with dancing students and more than a few teachers, too.
Dumbledore in particular seemed a highly sought-after dance partner, taking to the floor with McGonagall, Madame Helix and her towering beehive hairdo, Sinistra, Madame Maxime and even one of the Ministry wizards at different parts of the evening.
As one song faded into the next, Giovanna leaned in towards Harry and spoke softly.
"It is so hot in here! Shall we go get some air?"
Harry nodded and the pair ducked away from the dancefloor and left the castle through the Entrance Hall doors. Cold December air hit Harry full on as he stepped outside, but after the heat of the dance, the difference in temperate was welcome. The wide lawns outside the castle entrance had been transformed into sprawling rose gardens, complete with fancy topiary statues and fairies flitting about. Some of the plants seemed to be ambulatory and rearranged themselves into various different shapes and patterns of their own accord. A bit inconvenient, Harry thought, but pretty enough. Harry chose a rather more sedate-looking patch of roses to wander through with Giovanna.
A number of Hogwarts staff patrolled the gardens on the lookout for any overly familiar pairs of students—Snape amongst them.
"Stebbins!" Snape barked. "Fawcett! I daresay you are both far too close for decency! Get some distance between you or I'll have you both scrubbing cauldrons until next Christmas!"
"Let's go, er, deeper in," suggested Harry. "Snape can be a bit of a..." He shrugged. Although there were teachers and other members of staff crawling all over the rose gardens, Harry felt like he'd rather get a telling off from almost anyone other than Snape lurking about like a giant bat. It was Christmas Night, for God's sake, and the man was still storming about like a thundercloud.
They strolled through the rose gardens until Giovanna ducked into a shaded alcove with a little stone bench at the end of it, a dozen or so fairies sat amidst the bushes. Giovanna sat down on the bench and Harry sat next to her, leaving what he thought was a respectful bit of distance between them.
Harry and Giovanna sat amongst the roses chatting about nothing in particular and everything under the sun all at once, and not even the cold December air was enough to chill the mood. Although Harry did think the rose gardens were rather warmer than they had any right to be and suspected some sort of charm was at play.
But after a while Giovanna shivered and leaned slightly closer to Harry.
"It is quite cold," she said, looking over at Harry.
Harry almost opened his mouth to say something stupid like, 'let's go back inside' until he realised that perhaps Giovanna was hinting at something else.
The problem was, flying through a hazard gauntlet or stepping into the duelling arena was a rather different proposition than leaning over to kiss a girl – for the first time – and Harry wasn't sure how to go about it. As a starter Harry leaned in closer and thought about placing his arm around her but couldn't figure out how to make it work without it being more awkward than it already was.
Harry's heart thumped in his chest to the point that it was almost the only thing he could think about, so much so that he wondered whether Giovanna could hear it. He glanced over at Giovanna quickly just to check whether she was looking, and saw that her face was just slightly angled towards his, too...
And then they kissed.
It happened again, and again, and again, until Harry lost all sense of time or place. The pair of them kept kissing until a loud voice startled them both.
"Oi! Potter! Girl whose name I don't know! Cut that out or I'll have to assign detention or take House points or some sort of... something."
Harry glanced over to see the grinning face of Auror Tonks stood at the entrance to their alcove.
"I sound like a fun killer saying it," continued Tonks, "but scoot away from each other a bit. Maybe go take a walk 'round the rose garden to cool off, or something, right?"
"Er, sorry, Auror Tonks," Harry said. "We'll, um, go for a walk."
"Nice one," said Tonks, changing her hair from black to bright pink. "Off I go, killing fun to extremes my mum could only dream of!" She raced off through the garden, leaving Harry and Giovanna alone once more.
"Auror Tonks?" Giovanna asked, eyes wide.
"She's here on secondment," Harry said. "She's alright, actually." He paused. "But we probably should go for a walk, just in case Snape comes around and catches us..."
Harry and Giovanna left their little alcove arm in arm and took another wander around the rose gardens. The shapes and patterns which made up the winding pathways had changed once again as the rose bushes rearranged themselves, so they passed by all kinds of different bits of topiary, including an impressive representation of the Durmstrang ship.
"That is the Beauxbatons Headmistress!" whispered Giovanna, looking just above a nearby hedge. "She is with that man, look."
Harry turned to look and saw that although Maxime and her companion – Hagrid – were both sat down, their heads were above the fairly tall hedges anyway. They appeared to be deep in discussion.
"Hagrid," said Harry, "he's an assistant professor. Magizoology."
"...which side was it for yeh?" Hagrid said. "Mine was me mum. She never stuck aroun', o' course. But giants never do, do they?"
"I am not quite sure what you mean, Meester 'Agrid, but I do not like ze insinuation," said Maxime eventually.
Hagrid snorted.
"Oh, come off it, Olympe," he said. "Yer as tall as me—taller, maybe—and I ain't seen anyone near as tall as us without some o' the blood in 'em."
"I 'ave big bones, zis is all," Maxime said, her voice quiet.
"Yeah, and so do giants," said Hagrid.
As interesting as the conversation between two half-giants was – and Harry was more or less certain that's what both of them were, since it made perfect sense now that Hagrid had said it – it felt wrong to be lurking about listening to private conversations about such a sensitive matter, and he wouldn't want to be caught doing so either.
"This feels really private," Harry whispered. "Come on, we should move on..."
Giovanna nodded and they moved away from Hagrid and Madame Maxime. They passed by a number of other students on their walk through the garden, including Blaise and Eggy, along with Daphne and Millicent, although they didn't stop to talk. As they passed along the far side of the gardens furthest away from the castle, Harry paused when he heard Snape in discussion with another wizard.
"You bring this to me here?" Snape hissed. "Here, in the midst of hordes of hormonal teenagers and Ministry officials? In the bloody rose garden on Christmas Day?"
"You have been avoiding me, Severus," said the other wizard.
"It is Master Karkaroff!" said Giovanna. "I wonder what they are arguing about..."
"Then could you perhaps have thought that was because I did not want to speak with you?" said Snape.
"I don't care what you want, Severus," snapped Karkaroff. "Look," he said. "Do you see? Yours must be doing the same—if the Mark is like this again, then surely it must be because—"
"Not here, you fool!" said Snape once more. "Perhaps you believe yourself unassailable, ensconced in your own dismal little frozen fiefdom, but I do not have your luxuries. If you absolutely must bother me with this, see me in private later. We're done."
Snape strode out of the alcove in which he'd been talking with Karkaroff and right past Harry and Giovanna, who scrambled to make it look as if they'd been stood there kissing rather than eavesdropping.
"Potter! Five points from Slytherin for lurking about in the shadows!" shouted Snape as he walked away. Harry thought that was unfair, as lurking about in the shadows while not explicitly being something Slytherins did was certainly in the general area of normal behaviour, but then Snape was known for being unfair and Harry had just overheard a very delicate conversation.
Moments later Karkaroff emerged from the gloom as well and snapped at Giovanna in German as he did so.
"That was not good," said Giovanna once Karkaroff had gone. "He will have me swimming laps of the lake tomorrow, I am sure. That was not a good conversation to overhear..."
"Definitely not," agreed Harry. "Er, so you know what they were on about, then?"
Harry knew what was said about Snape. In Slytherin, and being who Harry was, it was impossible to avoid the rumours. Some said that he was a Death Eater, a double-agent, or even a triple-agent depending on who was doing the telling. Which, if anything, was true, Harry couldn't say. But he had done the reading on Karkaroff to know more of his history than Theodore had said about, too. The Mark could only have been Voldemort's Dark Mark and given what Harry knew of Voldemort and his plans, the conversation was highly concerning for a whole host of different reasons.
None of which he could share with Giovanna, of course.
"Yes," said Giovanna. "This is known at Durmstrang. He was ... involved ... with the Dark Lord who..." she trailed off looking up at Harry's scar.
"Killed my parents and tried to kill me, yeah," Harry said. "They were on about Voldemort's Mark."
"Yes," Giovanna said. "I do not know much about this, I should say – it was a long time ago, and so far away for me, that it is not something I have thought much about. But Master Karkaroff sounded very concerned... afraid perhaps that his Lord is returning? Do you think this is possible? Did you not... ah..."
Harry was unsure what to say. He hadn't told many people that Voldemort was still alive – or at least, wasn't dead – and he didn't think in the rose garden at Christmas was the right time to widen that circle. But he didn't want to say an outright lie, since he thought it was better Giovanna be at least a little prepared.
"Nobody really knows what happened that night," Harry decided to say in the end. "And who knows what Dark Lords are capable of? So maybe he could be coming back."
"There would be many in Europe who would rejoice at this, I am sad to say," Giovanna said. "I hope this does not happen."
"Really?" asked Harry as they walked back towards the castle. "Why?"
Giovanna shrugged.
"It may surprise you to hear that much of the rest of Europe outside Britain—and Ireland—is less tolerant and open to muggles and the muggleborn than they are here. Britain is not so accepting of these things as France, perhaps, but..." Giovanna shrugged again. "There are worse places for those of mixed blood to live, Harry."
Harry hadn't really thought about what it was like in other parts of Europe for muggleborns and part-humans like Hagrid or Delacour. He'd just assumed it couldn't be that bad since nobody ever talked about the German or Spanish equivalents to the Blood War.
"What, like, there've been wars like we had here?" He felt entirely out of his depth in the conversation. Giovanna had been raised in multiple languages and across different magical cultures with the expectation of attending a school in – that was, even – a different country; Harry hadn't known magic was real until he was twelve and hadn't ever left Britain until the summer just gone.
Giovanna shook her head.
"No, not like this. But there are places in Europe—in the world—where muggleborn children are taken from their parents to be raised by wizards. In these places they say it means there is no discrimination and there is no danger to the Statute of Secrecy, as there is no such thing as a muggleborn. I am not sure if I believe this, but..." Giovanna shrugged again. "It is what they say."
"I think I'd heard of that," said Harry. "But I didn't think it was still happening."
"There are places—Italy is not one of them—where it is illegal for a wizard to marry a muggle. So there are many in these places who supported this You-Know-Who in his aims. They were waiting, you see, for him to win so that they would have help in transforming their own societies," Giovanna said. "This is all part of our—ah, how do you say it? Geopolitics and history classes, yes. Of course, there are many who worry that your Dark Lord would be a second Grindelwald, bringing war and devastation across Europe once more. I would not want this to happen. But there is a, ah, careful balance, yes? Between the sides of this argument."
"And Voldemort nearly tipped the scales," muttered Harry. "I'm surprised Karkaroff isn't happier, then—from what I've read he was into the whole thing."
Giovanna stopped walking along the path that led to the castle.
"He is afraid of losing his position, I would think," Giovanna said. "He has money and power and connections now—it would be dangerous for his Lord to return, as he might lose everything, yes?"
Harry could see that. Unfortunately for everyone – except perhaps Voldemort – Voldemort hadn't gone anywhere and was actively trying to return to power. Snape, Karkaroff, Lucius Malfoy, the elder Nott and everyone else with ugly Marks on their arm would know about it soon enough. Knew about it already, perhaps.
Harry sighed.
"Yeah, fair enough. God, this is gloomy stuff for Christmas. Shall we go back inside?" he said. He felt like if he spent any more time dwelling on Voldemort and blood prejudice, he would ruin the memory of what had been, up until then, a very nice night.
Giovanna leaned over and kissed Harry on the cheek.
"Yes, let's go."
They returned to the Great Hall where the Yule Ball was still in full swing. Harry and Giovanna spent the rest of the night eating, dancing, and drinking butterbeer with a selection of their friends – new and old – until the Ball ended at midnight.
Harry and Giovanna kissed again before she left for Durmstrang's ship moored on the lake, and Harry went to bed in the dungeons giddy and full of happy memories.
The next morning – at a rather late breakfast given the hour at which most of the castle's denizens retired from the Ball – the entire castle was abuzz with recollections of the Ball. Harry went to breakfast in good spirits and joined his friends at the Slytherin table as they all recounted tales of the night before.
"You know, Eggy isn't actually that bad," Harry heard Daphne say to Blaise over crumpets.
"See, I told you she was funny once you get to know her!" Blaise said.
"Oh, well I didn't think she was funny, to be honest," Daphne said, "but we did have fun dancing."
"That's hardly fair!" said Blaise, although the rest of his objection was drowned out when the post owls swooped into the Hall en masse. Agrippa dropped a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of Harry and then flew away with the other owls.
"That's weird, I don't usually get the paper," Harry said. He unfolded it anyway to see that the entire front page – along with a goodly section of the inner pages – had been devoted to the Yule Ball. There had been an official press photographer there, and the only photos Harry could see were clearly taken by him as part of the public relations for the event.
But the articles themselves contained information that only someone at the Ball could have given away. Plastered across the front page was the headline, 'GIANTS AT HOGWARTS', and the story contained actual quotations from Maxime and Hagrid – words that Harry had heard them say himself – along with a number of archival photographs of each of them.
There can't have been anyone else there, Harry thought. But there must have been since he didn't think Hagrid or Maxime would have gone to the press about this themselves.
Could it have been Giovanna? Harry wondered. She didn't seem the type to go running to the press with salacious gossip, but…
"God, now that really is beyond the pale, isn't it?" said Blaise a while later. "I mean, to just go ahead and publish that..."
"D'you think they really are half-giants?" Millicent asked. "They are both really tall..."
"Surely Dumbledore wouldn't have hired a half-giant," said Daphne. "I know France is tolerant enough that one might slip through, especially one like that Madame Maxime, but here..."
"Mr Hagrid is nice enough, isn't he, though?" said Tracey. "So I don't think it matters."
"Well, I don't know if I'd go that far," muttered Blaise.
Harry flicked through the paper and saw, to his dismay, an article about him. Worse than that, it was about Giovanna, too.
Potter and his Paramour
Column by Rita Skeeter
Delicious food, fabulous fashion, and music all night long—it's no wonder that the topic on everyone's lips this Christmas has been the Yule Ball held at Hogwarts as part of the renewed Triwizard Tournament. A truly international affair, the Yule Ball was attended by students from sixteen different countries—or more than twenty, depending on how you count!—from each of the three schools in the competition, along with their teachers and an appropriate selection of Ministry officials.
It was, this reporter has been told, a night to remember. Regular readers of the Daily Prophet will have already read my previous columns, and indeed my front page feature this morning on the shocking revelations found out by this reporter's sources only adds to the drama generated by the most prestigious Tournament.
But this column isn't a rehash of all that, dear readers. No, instead, as a complement to my previous profile on Harry Potter (reprinted at the back of today's issue if you missed it!) that may be of wide interest.
Harry Potter attended the Yule Ball with a selection of his friends from Slytherin, including the son of famed socialite, Livia Zabini, and heir to the Greengrass fortune, Daphne Greengrass—along with Giovanna Fantoni, the fiery-but-beautiful witch pictured above with Potter in Hogsmeade.
They make a pretty pair, don't they? And yet my sources have revealed that beneath the surface something ugly lurks. At the beginning of the Yule Ball Ms Fantoni stood with her friends outside the Ball where, it is alleged, off-colour jokes regarding those of mixed-blood and heritage were shared several times. Indeed, later on in the evening Ms Fantoni is quoted as saying, 'there would be many in Europe who would rejoice at [He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named returning]'. Is she one of them? It is natural to wonder at such a comment.
My source was able to obtain comments from a handful of Potter's friends about the pairing. What I have learned may well shock you, but in the interests of the truth it is something I must share with you all.
'I know of her family, a bit, from back in Italy,' said Potter's friend, Blaise Zabini. 'Some awful buggers in it, but she seems alright. Still, you never do know.'
'Did you know she's never met a muggleborn?' Millicent Bulstrode is known to have said. 'Harry was the first muggle-raised she's ever met. I mean, it's not surprising what with being at Durmstrang, and with that Headmaster, but...' (For more on Igor Karkaroff, Headmaster of Durmstrang Institute, see page 12)
'[Giovanna] seems nice,' said Daphne Greengrass, 'but I'm not sure I trust her.'
This reporter is never one to accuse without the facts, but we are all left wondering—just what is Potter up to? Does he even know?
Well, he knows now. And if he happens not to have read this little profile, I'm sure there are many who count themselves among his friends who will be more than happy to share it with him.
Harry grabbed the paper so hard at the edges that it tore.
"Did you say this?" he said, brandishing the paper at Blaise. "You gave Skeeter a quote? About Giovanna?"
"What, mate?" Blaise said. "I've never spoken to Rita Skeeter—my mum would kill me if I went anywhere near her without a bloody lawyer. What are you on about?"
"Look," Harry said. He shoved the paper into Blaise's hands, then turned to address Millicent and Daphne. "And you two—she quoted you both in the paper. Read the article. It's awful."
Blaise's look of anger faded into embarrassment as he read through the article.
"Oh, fuck," he said. "I did say that, but I swear I didn't say it to Skeeter—or any reporter or anyone. I said it to Eglantine in the rose gardens—you saw us there, it was just after that. I'd never give a quote like this to the press, it's just not done..."
Daphne had gone pale, like the colour had drained right out of her and into Millicent, who sat next to her red in the face.
"I did say that, Harry, but I promise I didn't say it to—it was just me and Millie in the rose garden, we were—"
"Snogging," Millicent said. "No one else was around. I promise, we'd never give any comments like that... but I did—I mean... those were things that we said."
"That sneaky bitch," Harry said, louder than he'd intended and which drew the ire of a nearby prefect.
"Oi! We've all read the paper but there's no need for language," he said.
Easy for him to say.
Harry grunted in response and then lowered his voice.
"How'd she get the quotes, then?" Harry demanded. He believed that none of his friends would have given comments if approached – it just wasn't the type of thing they would do, although Harry did wonder about Blaise at times. But even so, they had all admitted to having said what Skeeter had reported, so that meant someone had been listening in on the rose garden.
That, Harry could believe easily. After all, he'd overheard conversations between both Hagrid and Maxime and Snape and Karkaroff, but it still meant there had been someone running off to the press. There had been a number of delicate conversations held that night including Harry and Giovanna's own, so Harry wondered just what Skeeter had heard about but decided not to print.
"There were loads of people in the rose garden, Harry," Daphne said. "I thought we were being quiet – we picked a nice out of the way place because we wanted it to be private – but we weren't even... And after I said that bit I did say 'oh, but I'm probably just being silly' as well! Someone must have been listening and only picked the nasty bits. But I didn't see anyone."
"Dumbledore banned all press from attending the Ball anyway," Blaise said, "apart from the official photographer who stayed inside all night. So it must have been a student." He paused. "Er, not me. Just to be clear."
"I suppose it could have been a teacher since there were a few of them in the rose garden when I was out there," Tracey said, "but that doesn't seem likely..."
"It must have been a student," Theodore said. "No teacher would risk their job over gossip, would they? But the question is, which student? Someone you're competing against, maybe? Someone who doesn't like Giovanna?"
Harry thought back to who he'd seen in the gardens the previous night, but it was a non-starter. There had been dozens of people in the gardens throughout the hour or so Harry and Giovanna had been there, and with all the little alcoves and dead ends and constantly changing patterns of bushes there were places for people to hide Harry wasn't even aware of.
Harry just shrugged.
"I don't know. I'm sure there are people who don't like me—I mean outside of the obvious ones—but it all seems a bit far for someone who doesn't like Giovanna. Going to the press with nasty rumours and out-of-context comments..."
"Someone obviously did," Blaise said. "You might want to ask her about it. You probably will need to do a bit of damage control as well. I can't imagine she's pleased with this." Then he paused. "Although, actually, I don't think the article was really about her—Skeeter was using her to get at you, doing all her normal insinuations. See, there's that bit at the end. So if you'd taken anyone to the Ball I bet Skeeter would have tried something like this."
"God, how do I even apologise for this?" Harry said.
By that point most of the students in the Hall who got the Daily Prophet had reached Skeeter's column on Harry, and the whispers and 'discreet' looks had started. Harry ignored them. He checked the Hall for Giovanna and saw her sat at the Ravenclaw table that morning. Just as with Harry, people all around the Hall were looking at and talking about Giovanna that morning, and the ordinarily poised young witch appeared frustrated at the attention.
"Anyone have a quill? And some parchment?" Harry asked. "I'm going to write her a note asking her to meet me in the Entrance Hall; I don't want to just go over since everyone would see..."
Theodore reached into his bag and pulled out a scrap of parchment and a self-inking quill. He passed it to Harry, who started to scratch out a quick message to Giovanna.
"Why've you got parchment on you?" asked Blaise. "There's no school until January."
"I'm going to the library after breakfast to meet Florence," he said. "We're going to—" Theodore turned red and started to mumble. "We just need parchment," he said.
Harry folded the parchment and tapped out a quick little charm that made it sail across the Great Hall towards Giovanna. She read the note and then tucked it into her robe pocket. She took a look around the Hall, said something to her friends, then got up and walked out of the Great Hall.
"I'll be back, just... well..." Harry said. He left his breakfast on the table and then followed Giovanna out of the Hall, completely ignoring everyone in the Hall as he did so.
"Right. Um. Good morning—" Harry said once they'd reached the empty Entrance Hall.
"Stop," said Giovanna. "You want to say, 'I'm sorry'. I believe that you are. But... I can't do this, Harry. I don't want to do this. Those things that woman wrote about me—the things that she implied. They are offensive. And your friends who I thought—well. You read what they said."
"They did say—but they said that none of them—nobody gave comments to Skeeter," Harry said. "Someone must have overheard and then gone... But I'm sorry anyway. You shouldn't have had to—it's not fair for you to be dealing with this."
"Yes, of course I shouldn't be dealing with this," Giovanna said. "Harry, I think you are a nice boy. A handsome boy. I have had fun with you. But I don't want to do this anymore. I was not—Viktor told me something like this could happen. But I thought you are not as famous as an international Quidditch superstar, and everything would be okay. I did not expect the press here..."
"They're awful," Harry agreed.
Giovanna nodded.
"I had a nice night at the Ball," Giovanna continued. "I will remember it. But that is where we will leave things, Harry. We can be friends—from a distance. I still wish to fly against you, of course. But..." Giovanna shrugged. "What we were doing, I don't want to do anymore."
It took Harry a few moments to fully internalise what Giovanna meant. When he did, he felt like his heart had dropped out of his arse to splatter against the cold Entrance Hall stones. He took a deep breath.
"I—yeah, alright," Harry said. "That's probably for the best. I wanted you to know—it was fun for me as well." He turned to leave, and then back again. "I'm looking forward to facing you in the flying—good luck."
Then Harry left.
There was no point dragging it all out any longer. He'd said what he wanted to say and Giovanna had made her decision. It probably was the best decision for them both to make, even if it hurt. Instead of returning to breakfast at the Slytherin table with his friends – and the rest of the school, nosy bastards that they all were – Harry headed for his spot in the dungeons where he worked through some of his more complex spell sequences until lunchtime.