The Yule Ball

Disclaimer: Rowling owns HP.

Kitty was rudely woken on Christmas morning by Luna, who surprisingly, was quite excited with the large number of gifts at her bedside. Apparently, she had never received more than one gift before, for Christmas. Kitty sat up, rubbing her eyes, and looked eagerly and the enormous pile of presents at her bedside.

Pulling the nearest one, she ripped off its wrapping and held up a box of Chocolate Frogs which Ron had given her. Hermione's gift was a very heavy one; she had given Kitty a huge pile of books, among which were Sonnets of a Sorcerer, A Vampire's Monologue by Armarillo Restoat, The Hairy Heart: A Guide to Wizards Who Won't Commit and the Adventures of Martin Miggs, The Mad Muggle.

Kitty's next present also contained books, from Fred and George: Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts and Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks. Professor Snape had given her a set of tortoise shell combs, encrusted with peridots. Inside, was a note that said, "I was going to give your mother these the day she died. I hope you like them." Luna had given Kitty the latest edition of the magazine, The Quibbler, and a pair of Spectrospecs, that were designed to observe nargles. Harry had gifted her a collapsible pair of Omnioculars.

Sirius and Remus had sent a box of Droobles Best Blowing Gum, and an album full of moving photographs of Kitty's parents. Dennis's present contained a live miniature model of a Hungarian Horntail. The gift from Vandyll was a turquoise hourglass, and a two way mirror. A badly wrapped present also contained a pair of socks from Dobby that looked as if he had knitted them himself. Besides these, Mrs. Weasley had sent a box of homemade mince pies, and a purple jumper, with the letter 'K'.

Once in the Great Hall, Kitty met up with Vandyll and sat down to breakfast at the Slytherin table. Malfoy, sitting a little away, caught her eye, and scowled. Vandyll gave her a questioning look. When she told him what had happened the last night, and his knuckles grew white.

They spent the rest of Christmas day out on the grounds having a snowball fight with the Weasleys and Harry and Hermione. At about four, Hermione, Luna and Kitty announced that they were going to go get ready for the ball.

"You need two hours?" said Ron, looking at them incredulously. They nodded and turned to go. "Who're you going with?" Ron called after Hermione, who didn't answer. "It's Krum, isn't it?" said Kitty to Hermione once they were out of earshot. Hermione blushed and nodded.

Later, at six o' clock, Luna and Kitty left their dormitories and went towards the Great Hall. Kitty had worn sea green dress robes, and had put one of the combs; Snape had given her, in her dark red hair. She spotted Neville standing by Ron and Harry, and went to join him. Ron was wearing frayed brown robes, and was standing with Padma patil while Harry was with his date, Parvati Patil, Padma's twin sister.

They stood aside, waiting for Hermione. A large group of Slytherins passed by: Malfoy, Kitty was pleased to see was looking sulky. He was accompanied by Pansy Parkinson, a pug faced girl, who kept calling him Drakie poo. "Drakie poo!" mouthed Kitty at Malfoy, and pretended to gag, while Malfoy glared at her and muttered something to Pansy which made her scowl. Krum followed the Slytherins, and was accompanied by Hermione, who was looking very pretty in blue dress robes. Ron was staring open mouthedly at Hermione. So was Harry.

Then Professor McGonagall's voice called, "Champions over here, please!" Parvati readjusted her bangles, beaming; she and Harry said, "See you in a minute" to Ron and Padma and walked forward, the chattering crowd parting to let them through.

After the opening dance which Kitty could see Harry did not enjoy, the rest of the school got to their feet. Neville seemed to have practiced dancing all night, for he danced very gracefully with Kitty. After dancing twice with Neville, and once each with Ron, Krum, Fred and George, she saw Malfoy making his way towards her, and hurriedly slunk away and sat down by Harry, who was by the looks of it, being bothered by Percy. Missing Vandyll very much, she began to talk with Harry.

A few minutes later, Ron joined them, looking grumpy. Parvati, was invited to dance by a Durmstrang boy and left hurriedly. When Hermione, joined them, Ron's scowl deepened. "Viktor's just gone to get some drinks." Ron gave her a withering look. "Viktor?" he said. "Hasn't he asked you to call him Vicky yet?" Hermione looked at him in surprise. "What's up with you?" she said.

"He's from Durmstrang!" spat Ron. "He's competing against Harry! Against Hogwarts! You - you're -" Ron was obviously casting around for words strong enough to describe Hermione's crime, "fraternizing with the enemy, that's what you're doing!" Hermione's mouth fell open.

"Don't be so stupid!" she said after a moment. "The enemy! Honestly - who was the one who was all excited when they saw him arrive? Who was the one who wanted his autograph? Who's got a model of him up in their dormitory?" Ron chose to ignore this. "I s'pose he asked you to come with him while you were both in the library?"

"Yes, he did," said Hermione, the pink patches on her cheeks glowing more brightly. "So what?"
"What happened - trying to get him to join spew, were you?" "No, I wasn't! If you really want to know, he - he said he'd been coming up to the library every day to try and talk to me, but he hadn't been able to pluck up the courage!"

Hermione said this very quickly, and blushed so deeply that she was the same color as Parvati's robes. "Yeah, well - that's his story," said Ron nastily.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Obvious, isn't it? He's Karkaroff's student, isn't he? He knows who you hang around with...He's just trying to get closer to Harry - get inside information on him - or get near enough to jinx him -"

Hermione looked as though Ron had slapped her. When she spoke, her voice quivered."For your information, he hasn't asked me one single thing about Harry, not one -" Ron changed tack at the speed of light. "Then he's hoping you'll help him find out what his egg means! I suppose you've been putting your heads together during those cozy little library sessions -"

"I'd never help him work out that egg!" said Hermione, looking outraged. "Never. How could you say something like that - I want Harry to win the tournament. Harry knows that, don't you, Harry?" "You've got a funny way of showing it," sneered Ron. "This whole tournament's supposed to be about getting to know foreign wizards and making friends with them!" said Hermione hotly.

"No it isn't!" shouted Ron. "It's about winning!" People were starting to stare at them. "Ron," said Harry quietly, "I haven't got a problem with Hermione coming with Krum -" But Ron ignored Harry too. "Why don't you go and find Vicky, he'll be wondering where you are," said Ron.

"Don't call him Vicky!" Hermione jumped to her feet and stormed off across the dance floor, disappearing into the crowd. Ron watched her go with a mixture of anger and satisfaction on his face.

Kitty feeling disturbed left the Hall, and decided to go to bed. When she reached the dormitory, however, she got out the mirror Vandyll had given her, and said his name.

At once, his face appeared into it, saying, "Kitty, why aren't you at the ball?" "I just got tired, that's all," lied Kitty, "Do you want to go for a walk?" Vandyll swallowed, and said, "A what?"

"A walk, Van, W-A-L-K." He nodded. Kitty changed into jeans and a t-shirt, and set out of the dormitory.

While the rest of the school enjoyed up at the Great Hall, Kitty and Vandyll strolled about the Hogwarts grounds in the moonlight, talking of less important things. "It's a good thing you weren't invited, really," said Kitty, slipping her hand into Vandyll's, "It wasn't that great anyway. I much prefer going on a walk with you." Vandyll flushed and thought it was a good thing that it was dark and Kitty could not see him.

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