Harry woke alone and sighed. It was dark outside, and he was still exhausted after two days of intense activity and less sleep than he liked.
He put his glasses on and took a sip of water before sitting up. His whole body ached from the hours of dancing and his bladder was agonisingly full.
Rolling out of bed, he groaned with discomfort as his exhausted feet touched the cold plank floor of the dormitory. It was well past dawn on a white Boxing Day, snow was flurrying against the windows that no one had bothered to shutter the night before.
Dean, Seamus and Neville were still asleep as he crept awkwardly across the room, out and up the half-turn to the bathrooms.
Five minutes later, he was back in the dorm wrapped in a towel. His ears were still ringing from the music and his head swam as he scrubbed his hair dry.
Then something slid into place in his head and he jumped on his bed, reaching under his pillow.
He found the chain and drew out his mirror, pausing to close the curtains around his bed.
"Pansy." He said, staring into the mirror.
He sat on his bed waiting for her. After a minute he wondered if it hadn't worked and said her name again.
A moment before he gave up, the surface of the mirror rippled then cleared revealing her pale, beautiful face.
"Good morning, handsome." She said, smiling.
"I thought you weren't going to answer," he said, shivering as he noticed she was still in bed.
She yawned and stretched. "Don't be ridiculous," she said, as her blankets slid down almost to her waist, "there's literally no one else in the world I'd rather talk to. But most humans do need sleep, you know? It's only nine."
She was beautiful and he couldn't help looking down – her pyjamas were some light, diaphanous material and the top two buttons were undone. His reaction was almost instantaneous and unavoidable.
"What're you staring at?" She asked, smiling in a knowing, teasing kind of way.
He smiled, feeling the flush erupt over him. "Just what I've been dreaming of all night."
Her smile softened, her fingers straying to her buttons. "Me too, tell me more?"
He double checked the curtains were thoroughly closed.
They met half an hour later, the world falling away as they came together at the top of the stairs. The rest of the day passed in a haze of endless discussion about the previous night, gossiping with others, whether on the Gryffindor or Slytherin tables.
At dinner they found themselves with Ron and Luna, discussing Seamus' continued refusal to discuss his date or where they had been all night when Hermione arrived. She looked harassed and annoyed.
"And how was your night?" Pansy asked.
"Fine." Hermione said, avoiding her eye.
"What's the matter?" Harry asked.
"Just got back from Hagrid's." Hermione said, running her fingers through hair that was bushy again. "I must say, it was nice having my hair a little different last night, but it was far too much effort to do that every day."
"That's why I keep mine this length now," Pansy said, patting her own hair which had returned to its normal chin-length bob, "what did you use?"
"Sleekeazy's." She replied shortly, pulling a tray of lasagne toward her.
"What's the matter, Hermione?" Harry asked again, frustrated at her continued antagonism.
"Oh nothing, I just went to see Hagrid, that's all. He's really cut up – I'm surprised you didn't go too." She glared at Harry and Ron as she spoke.
"Why, what happened?" Ron asked, dropping his fork to tinkle on his plate.
"Oh, he only confided in Maxime that he's half-giant – because it's so obvious that she is too – and she denied it." She said with a false airiness.
"Well that's odd – like it needed confessing!" Pansy said, frowning.
Hermione looked at her for a moment. "Well it must have taken a lot for him to open up to her like that – it's not like there are many people… like them."
"I always wondered what it was…" Ron said, licking his spoon, "Didn't know whether he'd fallen into a vat of Skele-Gro when he was a kid or something."
"Like the great hero Obelix!" Luna said with a giggle. "I was quite obvious though, really."
Harry was quiet, upset for not having heard about it earlier. "Why didn't you mention this before?" He demanded, "We saw you at lunch."
She turned her cold glare to him. "You were attached to each other at lunch – by the face for the most-part."
Everyone went quiet for a moment. Harry felt Pansy stiffen next to him and heard her take a breath.
"Nice exaggeration. Now why don't you just get to the point, Hermione?" Hermione started to respond, flushing, but Pansy cut across her. "Because this… whatever this is, is getting old."
Harry put a hand on Pansy's. "Hang on. I can't deal with this right now: I'm going to see Hagrid – who's coming with me?"
Ron immediately stood up, followed by a clearly frustrated Pansy and Luna standing after a few seconds. Harry picked up a Yorkshire pudding, filled it with carrots, peas and a sausage before dipping it into the nearest gravy boat and stepping away from the table.
Pansy and Luna followed, with Ron bringing up the rear, carrying his still overloaded plate and a fork.
By the time they forded a path to Hagrid's hut, they found him leaning on his garden wall talking to Firenze the centaur.
"- they want me to bloody well do about it." Hagrid was saying.
Firenze nodded, crossing his arms across his massive chest before raising his chin in Harry's direction.
"Hi Firenze!" Luna cried, running up to the centaur who towered over her.
"Luna, good evening." He said, inclining his head.
"What're you lot doing here?" Hagrid asked, turning to them.
He looked tired and considering his recent attempts to tame his hair, he appeared to have let it go wild, with it forming a wiry black cloud around his head.
"I just thought we'd come see how you're doing, that's all." Harry said, trying to appear non-chalant. "Evening, Firenze."
"Hello Harry Potter. Hagrid, I will report back to you when I hear more." Firenze said, turning around and walking back toward the forest, his hoofbeats muffled by the snow.
"What's all that about, Hagrid?" Ron asked, sitting on the garden wall and offering the groundskeeper a sausage.
Taking one and popping it whole into his mouth, Hagrid sat facing them. "There's some kind of commotion happening in the forest – something about what the seers among 'em are predicting: can't say I can get my head around either end of it, t'be quite honest."
Pansy came over to Harry and snuggled up to him against the cold. "Are you alright Hagrid? Hermione said you were upset."
"She did not, did she. I told her to keep it to herself." Hagrid said, harumphing.
"Well she kind of told us all off, really." Said Luna. "She was quite mean."
Hagrid frowned, "Doesn't sound like our Hermione?"
They all shrugged.
Harry looked at Ron then to Hagrid. "She told us what happened – are you okay?"
Hagrid stood and started pacing around his garden. "Well yeah, I am I guess. Big Boned – would you believe it?"
"Well she's not wrong, is she?" Luna said conversationally.
Hagrid looked over and smiled, "I guess not. Tell you what: want to come in out the cold? Managed to smuggle a couple of bottles of champagne out from the festivities last night."
They all moved into the comfortable, earthy warmth of Hagrid's hut. Fang bestirred himself to sit next to Harry, drooling into his lap like always. Pansy knelt next to the great dog and scratched his ears, not flinching when he stood, putting his paws on her shoulders.
"Get down, Fang." Hagrid said, half-heartedly, collapsing into his enormous chair beside the roaring fire.
"It's okay," Pansy said, hugging the dog who easily outweighed her, scratching his ears until he was satisfied and returned to drooling on Harry.
From what was becoming his normal chair on the opposite side of the fire, Harry stretched out and stroked the enormous boar hound.
Pansy and Luna, neither of whom had been inside Hagrid's hut before were looking around awestruck.
"Hagrid?" Luna said, walking over, her hands outstretched with some thick, shimmering material between them, "Is this Acromantula silk?"
"Oh yeah," Hagrid said, a little alarmed, "best let me get that, it's not been washed yet so it might… well don't worry – just let me know if your hands get itchy, okay?" He spent a few seconds teasing the wire-thick strands from around her pale hands.
"And is this unicorn hair?" Pansy asked, running her fingers through a thick knot of silvery-white hair.
"Aye, that it is. Makes for great bindings for bandages – nothing like it, even for the worst wounds." He replied a little distractedly.
Pansy stared at Hagrid disbelievingly. "But Hagrid, there are… hundreds here – they're worth a fortune."
Hagrid – his enormous hands cradling a rugby ball-sized roll of the silk – laughed. "Maybe, but I use most of what I find and the rest go up to the school; lots of uses for unicorn hair. Now if you want to talk valuable," he said, rummaging around inside a chest and drawing out a long, tubular something wrapped in a scrap of leather, "is valuable."
He opened the leather, revealing a shimmering silver horn, twisted in a tight spiral all down its length. At the thickest end there was a rough, splintered crack running through it."
"Bloody hell, Hagrid." Harry said, staring at the horn. "Where did you find that?"
"Y'see 'em time to time in the forest – the males molt every decade or so, and those horns are empty – no magic left and useless, but this is proper rare. The lad this belonged to, I call him Moonwhisperer lost a challenge for the most powerful female in the whole greater forest and lost his horn in the process. He's still depressed t'this day, poor bugger."
"What're you going to do with it?" Pansy asked, reaching out, "can I touch it?"
Hagrid pulled it back, putting it back inside the leather. "Better not – they're a bit powerful, y'know? Mighty aphrodisiacs and from the looks of you pair, that's the last thing you need."
Ron burst out a laugh. "You're not wrong. Do you have any of those cakes left, Hagrid?"
Hagrid directed Ron to a cupboard, "While you're at it, the champagne's in the snow outside the back door."
Ron went to get it as Hagrid sat back down.
"Well I've got the measure of her now," Hagrid said grumpily, "never be ashamed of who or what y'are, y'hear me?"
Pansy made her way over to Harry and sat on the part of his lap that wasn't covered in Fang's drool.
"We hear you, Hagrid." Harry said as Ron came back in, his arms full of bottles of champagne.
"You didn't tell us you'd gotten the good stuff, Hagrid." Ron said, putting the bottles up on the kitchen counter which was at his eye-level, or just below Hagrid's waist.
"Only the best for you lot, you know that." Hagrid said, pointing out where his cups were before turning back to Harry. "Right Harry, have you got that egg thing sorted out yet?"