It wasn't until Christmas Eve that the four champions came across some books about merpeople in the Hogwarts library and read that above water, their voices came across as screeching noises. "Perfect!" exclaimed Cedric. "All we have to do is stick our eggs in a tub of water, then put our heads under the water and listen to the eggs. That will allow us to hear what's actually being said, since obviously none of us speak Mermish."
"Okay, but can we do this after Christmas and the Yule Ball's over?" Alex asked. "We wouldn't be able to properly focus on what to do with what we hear from the eggs tonight, and there's no point in not being able to enjoy the holiday."
"I agree," said Viktor. "We should listen to the eggs next week, when things have calmed down." Thanks to all the time he was spending with the other champions, his English had improved to the point that his accent wasn't as pronounced, and the same was true for Fleur, though she still pronounced 'th' as 'z'. "Oh, Fleur, did you find a date for the ball? I forgot to ask you before."
Fleur nodded. "I am going wiz Roger Davies. He is ze captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. He is good looking, and Vera says zat he is level-headed most of ze time, other zan sometimes being a little too focused on Quidditch."
"Roger Davies?" asked Alex, looking surprised. "I thought he was still dating that friend of Cho Chang."
"Actually, Roger broke up with Marietta," said Cedric. "And Cho is no longer friendly with her, either. From what Cho told me, Marietta persists in looking down at Luna Lovegood, and at the rest of Luna's group of friends just for associating with someone so different, so neither of them want anything to do with her. Cho and Roger may have thought that Luna was a bit weird, but they never actively did anything to her."
"What is wrong with Luna?" asked Viktor, looking puzzled. "From the few times I saw her, she was a little strange, but she did have wise advice."
"Her father is the editor of The Quibbler," Alex explained. "It's a magazine that prints articles that are entertaining, but not necessarily accurate, like on creatures that aren't proven to exist or government conspiracies. Luna normally believes, or says she believes, the stuff printed in the magazine, and has been known to say strange things. Also, some of the wise things she does say are along the line of uncomfortable truths, so not everyone likes that. She is a good and loyal friend, even if she is a somewhat odd, but not everyone sees that."
"Zat explains ze looks I saw a few of ze Ravenclaws giving her!" exclaimed Fleur. "Zey do not like her for being so different. And I zink her roommates, ze ones zat are not her friends, zat is, are jealous of her."
"They're jealous that their dormmates are able to go to the Yule Ball, but nobody asked them," Alex explained. "Leah told me what was going on when I asked why Ginny and the others were getting the dirty looks."
"Wiz personalities like that, I am not surprised nobody would want to ask ze two girls to ze ball," Fleur said with a snort. "Oh, I know I am no angel, but I do not behave like zat."
Alex knew that was true. His first impression of Fleur had been that she was rather aloof, didn't seem to think much of Hogwarts, and could be a bit snobbish and shallow. After getting to know her, however, he could see that she was different underneath the cold exterior. Part of her behavior was due to the fact that she was part-veela, which meant that girls would be jealous or envious of her beauty and charm and boys tended to be taken in by it and their feelings might not actually be genuine. As for the looking down on Hogwarts, well, people tended to think that their own school was better, and from what Alex had read about Beauxbatons, Fleur did have a point. Of course, he would never think that any school was better than Hogwarts, but Beauxbatons was still a very good school, and the atmosphere there was nice.
Cedric then pointed out that it was now noon, so they put away the books they had been reading and then headed down to the Great Hall for lunch. Alex told his friends what he and the other champions had discovered, and his friends began speculating what the egg could be saying in Mermish about the second task.
The next day was Christmas, and Alex woke to find Dobby leaning over him. He gave out a yell of surprise. "Dobby! What are you doing here?"
"Dobby is sorry for scaring you, Master Alex!" the elf squeaked anxiously, twisting the hem of his red shirt that had a pattern of holly on it. "Dobby was just delivering the presents from your family, and wanted to give you his present to you."
Alex glanced at the foot of his bed and saw a pile of presents (though it was rather blurry, as he didn't have his glasses on) sitting there. "That's all right, Dobby. But in the future, could you just prod me or something if you have to wake me up, please? Don't lean over me like that."
"Someone attacking you, Alex?" Seamus asked sleepily over from his bed.
"No, it was just Dobby, my family's house-elf, delivering my gifts," Alex replied. "You can go back to sleep."
"Nah, presents!" Seamus exclaimed, seeing his own stack of presents. Dean, Ron, and Neville, also having been awoken by Alex's yell, decided they might as well get up and open their presents too.
"Well, thank you for delivering my presents, Dobby," said Alex, grabbing his glasses and putting them on. "And thank you for getting me a present too. Your present from me should be waiting at Grandmum Lise's home, since Hedwig returned last night from delivering my presents there."
"Thank you, Master Alex!" exclaimed Dobby, a wide grin on his face. "Dobby will be opening it as soon as he is finished delivering Miss Beth's presents! Merry Christmas!" With that, he disappeared from the room with a pop.
Alex began opening his presents, and to his mild surprise, he found that the other champions had gotten him gifts. (Well, Cedric wasn't a surprise, since they'd been friendly with each other prior to the tournament and had exchanged birthday and Christmas gifts before.) Fortunately, Alex had thought to give them gifts as well, so he didn't feel guilty about it. From Viktor was the Snitch that he had caught at the World Cup, with his signature scrawled on it. Cedric had given him a biography on Josef Wronski, the Seeker that had created the Wronski Feint, and Fleur had given him an Appleby Arrows hat. Well, that explained why she had asked him what his favorite Quidditch team was two weeks ago.
Alex's other presents were just as good, though Dobby's gift of a pair of socks (that he had evidently knitted himself) were a little odd. Since Dobby wasn't in the habit of wearing matching socks (as he had been freed with only one sock and had found another one missing its mate upon being given proper clothes to wear), the pair he gave Alex weren't matching, either. One was bright red, with a pattern of broomsticks, while the other was green with a pattern of Snitches. Still, they were well-made, and the patterns were of things he liked, so Alex grinned at the odd socks and put them on, noting that the green one was the same color as the jumper that Mrs. Weasley had gifted him, which had a picture of a dragon on it.
After Dean and Seamus had left the room, Alex called Ron and Neville over. "I got something from Viktor that I never expected to get." He took the Snitch out of its box and let it flutter around his bed. "His card says that it's the one he caught at the World Cup, and he even signed it."
"Wow!" exclaimed Ron, staring at the Snitch. "Lucky you, Alex. You must be on better terms with Viktor Krum than you thought."
"I suppose," said Alex, sounding a bit dazed. "I thought if he did give me a Christmas present, since all of us champions are on friendly terms now, it would be something more impersonal, like a book or broom polish."
"I think it's the way you treat him like an ordinary person and not as a celebrity, and that's why he gave the gift he did, Alex," Neville said thoughtfully. "Other people might act the way his fan club does, or be pestering him for autographs for themselves or their friends. You do none of that."
"That could be it," said Alex, grabbing the Snitch out of the air and putting it back in the box it was packaged in to place in his trunk. "I hope Viktor likes the pen and notebook I gave him. I couldn't think of anything else that wasn't Quidditch related, since I'm sure he gets lots of those. Well, other than things like scarves and hats, but I doubt that's anything he'd want to get from anyone that isn't his family or close friend."
"I'm sure he'll like your gift and find it useful," Neville said. "And you looked up a Bulgarian-English dictionary and wrote his card in Bulgarian. It might not be completely grammatically correct, but you made the effort, and he'll appreciate that."
At breakfast, Viktor stopped by the Gryffindor table to thank Alex for his gift and that he had made the effort to write the card in Bulgarian. "I vas not expecting that ven I read the card," his accent relapsing due to his pleasure. "And the quill and notebook vill be useful for me."
"Well, thank you for giving me the Snitch you caught at the World Cup, and signing it," Alex said. "I definitely wasn't expecting that. I thought if you did give me a gift, it'd be something like a scarf or a book."
"I thought you vould like it," said Viktor. "You are the kind of fan that I vould give something like that, since you treat me as an ordinary person and vill not go around boasting that you are friends vith me and show off the things I give you to everyone."
"I'm your friend?" asked Alex in shock. "Sure, I knew that we were on friendly terms, but I didn't think I could claim actual friendship."
"You and the other champions are the only ones that I can really call a friend, outside of my family," Viktor said seriously. "And your cousins Cara and Ivan, as they also do not behave like other fans do, and treat me as an ordinary person, though one with a talent at Quidditch."
"But what about the other Durmstrang students? Or are they also blinded by the fact you're famous?"
"Some of them are. Others are jealous of the fact that Professor Karkaroff shows me favor, because I am his star student. Those are just the ones that are around my age, however. The younger students at Durmstrang I do not know that well."
Alex was now feeling rather uncomfortable. If his actual identity had been known, would he have ended up in a similar situation as Viktor? Alex would like to think that his friends, at least, would have gotten to know the real him, but the rest of the school, or at least the ones in his year, would either only want to befriend him because he was famous or hate him because he caused the downfall of the Dark Lord. If some of the teachers did show him favoritism, there would no doubt be students that would be jealous of him too.
At that point, Fleur walked in into the Great Hall with the other Beauxbatons students. Alex quickly set aside his feelings to get up and thank Fleur for her present. She in turn thanked him, then Viktor, for their gifts to her, and then walked over to the Hufflepuff table to speak to Cedric.
In the afternoon the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor quintets had a snowball fight against each other, which ended at five, when all the girls headed back to the castle to get ready for the ball. An incredulous Ron called after them, "What, you need three hours to get ready?"
"Girls normally take longer to get ready than guys, Ron," Alex pointed out. "They have to fix their hair and put on make-up and stuff. And I expect they'll want to shower first, so they probably want to make sure there isn't a crowd of people in the bathroom by going in earlier."
At half past six, the guys went inside as well. Alex took a quick shower, then did a Drying Charm on his hair and combed it out. After that, he took out his dress robes, did a charm his mother had taught him over the summer to smooth out any wrinkles on them, and donned the robes. As Granny Ilsa said, the bottle green robes did match his eyes. He straightened the robes, then put on the silver cuff links that his parents had given him that morning, followed by a quick spray of the cologne that Aunt Sarah and Uncle Niko had given him. He finally picked up the corsage of pale gold roses that his paternal grandparents had included with their present, the note saying that he was to give it to Ginny to wear for the ball.
Fifteen minutes to eight, Alex headed down to the Entrance Hall, where he was meeting Ginny. She looked very pretty in dress robes of pale green with gold trim and embroidery that happened to match the flowers in the corsage. Her red hair was partially pulled back with a jade butterfly clip, and she had on a simple gold locket and a jade bracelet for her jewelry. The only make-up she had on was some sparkly pale green eye-shadow, pink lip gloss, and sparkly gold nail polish.
"Wow, Ginny, you look very pretty," said Alex. "Oh, this is for you."
"Thank you, Alex," Ginny said, beaming at him. She put the corsage on around the wrist that wasn't wearing the bracelet with his help.
A short distance away, the rest of the two quintets were meeting up. Luna was wearing a set of spangled silver robes, which went quite well with the dark gray robes that Neville was wearing. Leah was wearing robes of a rather pretty rose color that complemented Ron's navy blue robes. Adam's robes were of midnight blue with silver trim, which went well with Beth's sapphire blue robes, and David had on dark silver robes. Hermione and Beth had also clearly put more of an effort in their appearances than they normally did, for their hair was put up in elegant knots and they had on jewelry and make-up (though it was about as much as what Ginny was wearing, other than the addition of sapphire earrings for Beth).
The front doors opened and the Durmstrang students came in with Professor Karkaroff, Viktor in the forefront. Next to him was Cara, though Alex did a double-take upon seeing her, as she looked different. As she was tomboy, she normally never wore anything traditionally girly, other than bangle bracelets and hoop earrings, and that was more about embracing her Roma heritage than a real desire for jewelry. Now, however, her dark hair (which she had started growing out after starting Hogwarts), was done in a braid with a gold chain threaded through it, and over it was a white scarf with gold embroidery. Her outfit was a ruffled white blouse with gold spangles and embroidery, and a gold-colored skirt with gold spangles. The only jewelry she wore was gold hoop earrings and a pair of gold bangle bracelets, and she had on no make-up at all, except for a smudge of dark gold eye-shadow on her eyelids.
"I see that Cara reconciled the fact she needed to get dressed up by wearing a traditional Romany outfit," said Beth, sounding amused.
Just at that moment, Professor McGonagall called for the champions, so Alex escorted Ginny over to her. The Head of Gryffindor was wearing robes of red tartan and had arranged a rather ugly wreath of thistles around the brim of her hat. She told the two to wait on one side of the doors while everyone else went inside; they were to enter the Great Hall in procession when the rest of the students had sat down. Fleur Delacour and Roger Davies stationed themselves nearest the doors, the former looking stunning in robes of silver-gray satin, while the latter had on dark blue robes and looked so stunned by his good fortune in having Fleur for a partner that he could hardly take his eyes off her.
A little ways away was Cedric and Cho. Cedric blinked when he saw Cara, and said, "I wondered how you were going to deal with having to get dressed up. You look nice."
"Thank you, Cedric," said Cara with a smile. "You and Cho look very nice too. I see that I'm not the only one that decided to embrace my heritage."
Since Cho was wearing a silvery dress that was made in the style of a qipao, or a cheongsam as pronounced in Cantonese, (minus the slit up one side of the skirt) that was quite true. She smoothed the front of her dress, then looked around the group and remarked, "Looks like the Ravenclaws are popular with most of the champions, considering that me, Ginny Weasley, and Roger Davies are the dates of three of them."
"So I suppose that means Vikor and I are the odd ones out?" asked Cara with a laugh. "I had to be in Hufflepuff, and Viktor had to choose to date me."
"Sometimes being the odd one out is a good thing," Cho said. "Oh dear, I see not everyone is happy that you're Viktor Krum's date."
The entire group turned to see Krum's fan club walk by on the way to the open door of the Great Hall, all of them throwing Cara looks of deepest loathing. Several other people that were walking behind them gaped at her, and a couple more (all of them Slytherins) looked very surly.
Once everyone else was settled in the Hall, Professor McGonagall told the champions and their partners to get in line in pairs and to follow her. They did so, and everyone in the Great Hall applauded as they entered and started walking up toward a large round table at the top of the Hall, where the judges were sitting.
The walls of the Hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The House tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern-lit ones, each seating about a dozen people.
Dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table, but Karkaroff wore an expression of displeasure he watched Krum and Cara draw nearer. Ludo Bagman, tonight in robes of bright purple with large yellow stars, was clapping as enthusiastically as any of the students; and Madame Maxime, who had changed her usual uniform of black satin for a flowing gown of lavender silk, was applauding them politely. But Mr. Crouch, Alex suddenly realized, was not there. The fifth seat at the table was occupied by Percy Weasley.
When the champions and their partners reached the table, Percy drew out the empty chair beside him, staring pointedly at Alex and Ginny. Alex took the hint and sat down next to Percy, who was wearing brand-new, navy-blue dress robes and an expression of such smugness that Alex thought it ought to be fined.
"I've been promoted," Percy said before Alex or Ginny could even ask, and from his tone, he might have been announcing his election as supreme ruler of the universe. "I'm now Mr. Crouch's personal assistant, and I'm here representing him. Lucky for me, because that means I can be with Vera. Not for dinner, of course, since she can't sit at the top table, but after, we can dance and socialize."
"Why didn't Mr. Crouch come?" Ginny asked, looking curious.
"I'm afraid to say Mr. Crouch isn't well, not well at all. Hasn't been right since the World Cup. Hardly surprising - overwork. He's not as young as he was - and I think his mind is slipping a bit. I understand what happened at the World Cup upset him, but he didn't need to dismiss his house-elf just because she was caught off guard. And now, well, as I say, he's getting on, he needs looking after, and I think he's found a definite drop in his home comforts since she left. And then we had the tournament to arrange, and the aftermath of the Cup to deal with - that revolting Skeeter woman buzzing around - no, poor man, he's having a well earned, quiet Christmas. I'm just glad he knew he had someone he could rely upon to take his place."
"That's good that you've been promoted," Ginny remarked.
"It is, especially as it's come with a bit of a pay raise," Percy said delightedly. "Don't tell anyone else just yet, but I was able to buy this." He pulled out a small velvet box and opened it under the cover of the table. A gold ring was in it, set with a ruby and a sapphire in such a way that it the two gems were on top of each other. "I plan on proposing to Vera tonight, since she's of age now. Of course, we won't actually get married until a year or two after she graduates. We have to save money for our future first."
"Congratulations, Percy," said Alex, looking happy to hear the news. "I'm sure you and Vera will be happy together."
Percy grinned as he shut the box and put it back in his pocket. "Well, let's have dinner."
There was no food as yet on the glittering golden plates, but small menus were lying in front of each of them. Alex picked his up uncertainly and looked around - there were no waiters. Dumbledore, however, looked carefully down at his own menu, then said very clearly to his plate, "Pork chops!" And pork chops appeared. Getting the idea, the rest of the table placed their orders with their plates too.
The food was quite delicious. As they ate, Ginny and Alex talked about commonplaces, such as how their school year had been so far, with Percy. Further down, Viktor was telling Cara all about Durmstrang, until Professor Karkaroff interrupted him with a false laugh. "Now, now, Viktor! Don't go giving away anything else, now, or your charming friend will know exactly where to find us!"
Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling. "Igor, all this secrecy...one would almost think you didn't want visitors."
"Well, Dumbledore," said Karkaroff, displaying his yellowing teeth to their fullest extent, "we are all protective of our private domains, are we not? Do we not jealously guard the halls of learning that have been entrusted to us? Are we not right to be proud that we alone know our school's secrets, and right to protect them?"
"Oh I would never dream of assuming I know all Hogwarts' secrets, Igor," said Dumbledore amicably. "Only this morning, for instance, I took a wrong turning on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I have never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamber pots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only accessible at five-thirty in the morning. Or it may only appear at the quarter moon - or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder."
Alex snorted into his plate of goulash, knowing that Dumbledore must have stumbled upon the Room of Requirement. Percy frowned, but Alex could have sworn Dumbledore had given him a very small wink.
Fleur was comparing the differences in decoration between Hogwarts and Beauxbatons. Roger, however, had a dazed look on his face as he watched her talk, and clearly was too enthralled with her to really pay attention to what she was saying. Evidently she noticed this, for a cross expression appeared on her face for a couple of seconds. It was replaced with a patently false smile, and she started saying ridiculous things, such as, "At ze Palace of Beauxbatons, zere are many gold and jeweled statues. And we eat off of platinum and diamond plates, and zere are angel choirs." Alex stifled a snort of amusement as Roger just smiled and said, "That's nice," in reply.
When all the food had been consumed, Dumbledore stood up and asked the students to do the same. Then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clear, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the right wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and some bagpipes were set upon it.
The Weird Sisters now trooped up onto the stage to wildly enthusiastic applause; they were all extremely hairy and dressed in black robes that had been artfully ripped and torn. They picked up their instruments, and Alex, who had been so interested in watching them that he had almost forgotten what was coming, suddenly realized that the lanterns on all the other tables had gone out, and that the other champions and their partners were standing up.
"Come on, Alex!" Ginny hissed. "We'll be fine. It's just one dance."
Alex stumbled over his robes as he got up. The Weird Sisters struck up a slow, mournful tune; Alex walked onto the brightly lit dance floor, carefully avoiding catching anyone's eye, and next moment, Ginny had seized his hands, placed one around her waist, and was holding the other in hers.
It wasn't as bad as it could have been, Alex thought, revolving slowly on the spot. He kept his eyes fixed over the heads of the watching people, and very soon many of them too had come onto the dance floor, so that the champions were no longer the center of attention. His friends joined them, though to his surprise, Neville was dancing with Beth, while Luna was dancing with Adam (though their dance was in no way traditional, as they appeared to just be making up dance steps.) Only Ron and Hermione were actually dancing with their dates of Leah and David.
Meanwhile, Dumbledore was waltzing with Madame Maxime. He was so dwarfed by her that the top of his pointed hat barely tickled her chin; however, she moved very gracefully for a woman so large. Percy had found Vera and was dancing with her. She was dressed in a similar outfit to Cara's, though her skirt and scarf were a cornflower blue with silver spangles. Mad-Eye Moody was doing an extremely ungainly two-step with Professor Sinistra, who was nervously avoiding his wooden leg.
"Nice socks, Romanov," Moody growled as he passed, his magical eye staring through the bottom of Alex's robes.
"Oh - yeah, my family's house-elf knitted them for me," said Alex, grinning.
Alex heard the final, quavering note from the bagpipe with relief. The Weird Sisters stopped playing, applause filled the hall once more, and he let go of Ginny at once. "Let's sit down for a bit," he said. "Even with the dance lessons Professor McGonagall gave us, I'm not that comfortable dancing anything that's not a Romany dance."
"That's fine with me," said Ginny. "I'm not much of dancer, either." As the Weird Sisters started another song, this one faster than the first one, Ginny and Alex each grabbed a bottle of butterbeer from the drinks table and found seats at one of the tables to the side. Alex noted that for this dance, Ron and Hermione were dancing together, while Leah and David were walking over to Ginny and Alex, giggling to each other and with triumphant looks on their faces.
"What are you two so pleased about?" Alex asked, once the two third-years had sat down.
"Our plan to get Ron and Hermione to dance together worked," Leah said. "When I was dancing with Ron for the first dance, I made some comments to him about David looking like he really enjoyed dancing with Hermione. Ron started looking jealous, so I suggested he ask Hermione to dance the next one."
"And I told Hermione that I really liked Leah and wanted to use the ball as an opportunity to get her to notice me as more than a friend," David said. "So between Ron's jealousy and Hermione wanting to help me..."
"Oh good, the plan worked really quickly," Ginny said, joining in her friends' laughter. "Maybe now Ron and Hermione will realize that they like each other more than just as friends, and will start dating. What's going on with Beth and Neville?"
"We didn't have to do anything," Leah said. "During dinner, Beth said she wished she could spend the entire evening with Neville, and Luna and Adam immediately volunteered to hang out together so that Neville and Beth could do so. If you ask me, I think my twin has a crush on Luna."
"Hmm, I think you're right," David said thoughtfully. "Adam has been jumping to Luna's defense before the rest of us can say anything. Ginny and I can't get a word in half the time, and considering that the two of us have known Luna longer..."
Alex, however, didn't care about that. If Adam and Luna had deeper feelings for each other, that was their business and not something he should meddle in. What mattered to Alex was the fact that Beth wanted to spend the entire evening with Neville. Again, it was their business, but as one was his sister and the other his friend, it was something he cared about. Of course, he wasn't going to meddle, since Beth would hex him and Neville, well, he might be quiet and calm normally, but that didn't mean he couldn't get angry and strike back.
"Alex, you don't mind about Beth and Neville, do you?" Ginny asked. "She is your sister, after all, and I imagine none of my brothers would be too thrilled if I were dating something. Well, I suppose they'd make an exception for Adam or the guys in your family, but that would be it."
"Even if I did mind, Beth would tell me in no uncertain terms that who she dates is none of my business," Alex pointed out. "And she'd probably hex me in the bargain if I was being really bad about it. In any case, she has feelings for Neville, not some tosser, so I'm fine with it."
The current song ended, and Alex asked Ginny to dance again. After all, even if he wasn't that comfortable dancing, she was still his date and deserved to have a good time. She accepted and two took another turn around the dance floor. After two more dances, they decided to go outside for a walk.
Giiny and Alex made their way around the crowd of people and slipped out into the entrance hall. The front doors stood open, and the fluttering fairy lights in the rose garden winked and twinkled as they went down the front steps, where they found themselves surrounded by bushes; winding, ornamental paths; and large stone statues. Alex could hear splashing water, which sounded like a fountain. Here and there, people were sitting on carved benches. He and Ginny set off along one of the winding paths through the rosebushes, but they had only taken no more than ten steps when they almost collided with another couple that was running down the path.
Behind them, Professor Snape's voice was snarling, "Ten points from Ravenclaw, Fawcett! And ten points from Hufflepuff too, Stebbins!" A couple of seconds later, Snape came into view, and for some reason, Karkaroff was with him. The latter looked slightly discomposed to see Ginny and Alex standing there. His hand went nervously to his goatee, and he began winding it around his finger.
"What are you two doing?" Professor Snape demanded.
"We wanted to take a walk and get some fresh air, Professor," said Alex. "That is fine, isn't it?"
"Keep walking, then!" Snape snarled, and he brushed past them, his long black cloak billowing out behind him. Karkaroff hurried away after Snape. Alex and Ginny exchanged looks and continued down the path.
"What was up with Professor Snape?" Alex asked. "He might not be very pleasant in public, but he's never been so short with me, either, unless I did something wrong."
"And did you notice how nervous Karkaroff seemed?" Ginny added. "Something must be bothering him. But why would he be with Professor Snape?"
"Well, when those Death Eaters escaped, my parents told Beth and me some stuff about the war against Riddle and its aftermath," Alex said. "One thing they mentioned was that Professor Karkaroff was arrested for being a Death Eater, but he was released in exchange for giving the Ministry names of other Death Eaters. He tried to include Professor Snape's name in the list, but my family and Professor Dumbledore had vouched for Snape, explaining that he was a spy for their side, so he escaped arrest."
"Well, that would explain why Karkaroff and Snape know each other," said Ginny. "But why would they be with each other, and presumably talking? Unless... Snape must think Karkaroff's up to something and wants to keep an eye on him."
"I suppose," said Alex thoughtfully. They had reached a large stone reindeer now, over which they could see the sparkling jets of a tall fountain. The shadowy outlines of two enormous people were visible on a stone bench, watching the water in the moonlight. And then they heard Hagrid speak.
"Momen' I saw yeh, I knew," he was saying, in an oddly husky voice.
Ginny and Alex froze. This didn't sound like the sort of scene they ought to walk in on, somehow. They turned around to go back the way they came, but heard, "What did you know, 'Agrid?" said Madame Maxime, a purr in her low voice.
Ginny and Alex exchanged looks and then started to walk away as quietly as possible. They had gotten no more than two steps when they heard Hagrid say, "I jus' knew... knew you were like me...Was it yer mother or yer father?"
Before Madame Maxime could make any reply, a blaring alarm sounded in the air. It cut off two seconds later, but there was instantly a flash of light and a figure fell off the statue, screeching as it did so. Another flash of light appeared, and Alex and Ginny looked down to see the Stunned body of Rita Skeeter.
Hagrid and Madame Maxime burst in on the scene, alarmed looks on their faces. "What jus' happened?" Hagrid demanded. "Alex, Ginny, wha' did yeh see?"
"We heard the alarm and turned around to see what was going on," Ginny replied. "When it ended, there was a flash of light and we saw someone falling off the reindeer statue. There was another flash of light right after that."
"Maybe the second flash of light is what Stunned Rita Skeeter?" Alex suggested. "Because she wasn't Stunned when she fell off the statue."
"If I remember rightly, one o' the wards does that," Hagrid said. "I think it's the one that's s'posed ter keep Pettigrew from gettin' in the castle."
Madame Maxime volunteered to go bring Professor Dumbledore, while Hagrid stayed to keep an eye on things. Five minutes later, she returned with Professor Dumbledore and the Heads of House. When they saw the Stunned body of Rita Skeeter, and Ginny and Alex explained what happened, the teachers exchanged looks. "It looks like that annoying Rita Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus," Professor McGonagall said with some glee. "Well, it's good to know that the ward we set up last month to specifically prevent Peter Pettigrew from actually entering the castle in his Animagus form works."
"So that means if Pettigrew tried to come here in rat form, he'd be forced back to his human form and Stunned?" Alex asked.
"Precisely, Mr. Romanov," said Professor McGonagall. "The only Animagus exempt from having this happen to him or her is me."
"Well, since you two didn't notice any animal perched on the statue," said Professor Sprout, "Ms. Skeeter's form must be of a very small animal. Probably an insect of some sort."
"I agree," said Professor Dumbledore. "Well, we'll have to question her. Professor Snape, could you please go fetch a bottle of Veritserum and meet the rest of us in my office?"
Professor Snape nodded and set off at once. "Miss Weasley and Mr. Romanov, you are free to go," said Professor Dumbledore kindly. "Thank you for your help. Madame Maxime and Hagrid, if you wish to accompany us for the questioning, you may do so."
Professor McGonagall levitated Rita Skeeter's Stunned body and the teachers all walked down the path. Once they were gone, Alex asked, "Why would Rita Skeeter be sneaking around Hogwarts like that anyway? And in her Animagus form, whatever it is?"
"She must have been looking for some material for an article," Ginny responded. "I'm surprised she has an Animagus form."
"She probably became an Animagus so that she could spy on people without their knowing," said Alex. "Must have been lucky for her that her form turned out to be a small animal. It would be really hard to remain unnoticed if you were a cow or something."
"Well, now that she's been found out, she can't do that anymore. I bet the teachers will turn her in, and she'll be fined at the very least for being an unregistered Animagus, if not sent to Azkaban for a month or two. Then she'll have to get registered, and she could lose her job at the Daily Prophet."
"Well, as long as she stops writing stupid and untrue articles, I'll be happy," Alex said. "Do you know how many students gave me, Beth, and our cousins funny looks after she revealed that I was a 'Gypsy' and could possibly know 'strange Gypsy magics'? They all stopped by the time of the first task, but it was still annoying. It's bad enough that many people have wrong preconceptions about the Roma. Rita Skeeter doesn't need to go around encouraging it."
"Several Ravenclaws did ask Vera and David if they knew any weird stuff," Ginny said, remembering. "Vera's friends and the rest of our quintet put a stop to it, though. We told the annoying questioners that Vera and David knew the same magic that everyone else did and that was it. Of course, we didn't mention that the Romany tended to do more wandless magic, since they didn't always have access to wands, because we figured it would be taken the wrong way."
"None of the Gryffindors bothered Beth or me about it, other than Cormac McLaggen, but he stopped right away, because Fred and George shut him up."
Ginny shook her head at that and the two sat down on the bench that Madame Maxime and Hagrid had vacated. Alex and Ginny spent a pleasant hour talking about Quidditch before they decided to return to the castle. They danced two more dances, and then sat in a corner of the room, drinking butterbeer and talking with their friends.
When the Weird Sisters finished playing at midnight, everyone gave them a last, loud round of applause and started to wend their way into the entrance hall. Alex found himself feeling slightly disappointed that the ball was over, for he had enjoyed it. Dancing hadn't been that bad, and he had enjoyed being with Ginny. She was quite easy to talk to, and they had fallen back into the friendship they had prior to starting Hogwarts and forming their own circle of friends. Alex made a note to hang out with her more, and just before they were going to separate to the directions of their respective common rooms, on an impulse, he bent his head and kissed her.
He had meant to kiss Ginny's cheek, but ended up kissing her on the lips instead. She looked startled, but recovered a second later and put her arms around him, returning the kiss. They broke apart five seconds later, their faces flushed.
"I meant to kiss you on the cheek, not your lips," said Alex, an embarrassed smile on his face. "But I liked it."
"I liked it too," said Ginny, smiling shyly.
Alex looked away for several seconds, then looked back and said, awkwardly, "Well, good-night, Ginny. Er, d'you want to meet up tomorrow, or rather, later today, since it's past midnight, and just talk?"
"I'd like that," said Ginny. "Good-night, Alex." The two went their separate ways and as Alex climbed into bed fifteen minutes later, he wondered if he was developing feelings for Ginny that weren't of platonic friendship.
Author's Note: Since the books didn't mention what color robes Cho Chang wore, I went with the robes she wore in the movie to describe them. Also, since I couldn't find that much about Romany dress, other than what modern day Romany wear, I just went with the dance outfit that a Romany character wore in the book The Present, by romance author Johanna Lindsey. Also, a guest reviewer had said that they thought Ron and Beth would be adorable together. Unfortunately, that relationship will not happen. I personally don't have anything against it, but I can't write any fic in which Ron and Hermione don't end up together. The best I could do would be like the books, where they each dated other people, but broke up with them and and got together in the end. I can pair up Harry with a girl other than Ginny (except Hermione), whether they be a canon character or OC, but I just have difficulty envisioning Ron and Hermione being with anyone except each other. Therefore, Neville will end up with Beth, since I have no difficulty writing him being with someone other than Hannah Abbott, his wife in canon.