The Unexpected Task
On Thursday, during the end of Transfiguration class, everyone had finished their work.
Which was the guinea fowl they've changed into guinea pigs, which were all shut away in a large cage on McGonagall's desk (Neville's still having feathers).
They then copied down their homework from the blackboard ("Describe, with examples, the ways in which Transforming Spells must be adapted when performing Cross Species Switches").
The bell was due to ring at any moment now.
"I have something to say to you all." McGonagall announced. "The Yule Ball is approaching, a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialise with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above - although you may invite a younger student if you wish -"
Lavender Brown made a shrill giggle and Parvati nudged her in the ribs, her face clearly showing that she was trying not to giggle herself. The two then looked at Arthur, who looked away, feeling sick to his stomach at the idea of going to a ball.
"Dress robes, regular dresses or tuxedos will be worn…" McGonagall continued. "...and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight, in the Great Hall. Now then -"
She stared deliberately at the whole class.
"The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to - er - let our hair down." She said, very disapprovingly.
This made Lavender giggle harder than ever with her hands pressed hard against her mouth. Arthur was able to see what was so funny, though he didn't really agree, as did Mike: McGonagall had her hair in a tight bun and looked like she never let her hair down in any sense.
"But that does NOT mean…" McGonagall went on. "...that we will be relaxing the standards of behaviour we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarrasses the school in any way."
The bell then rang and there was the usual scuffle of activity as everyone packed their bags and swung them onto their shoulders.
"Pendergast, a word if you please." McGonagall called through all the noise.
Arthur didn't know what she wanted to talk about, but he stayed and walked up to her desk.
She waited until everyone else left before saying "Pendergast, the champions and their partners -"
"Partners?" Arthur questioned with some worry about what she was implying.
"Your partners for the Yule Ball, Pendergast." She said, calmly. "Your dance partners."
Arthur now felt like he was about to throw up, fully realising what she meant.
"What do you mean dance partners?" He asked.
"Traditionally, the champions and their partners open the ball."
Arthur tried imagining himself in the tux Martha got him before going back to school and saw himself embarrassing himself and the school. And seeing himself with a girl made him cringe on the inside.
"But I don't even know how to dance." He admitted.
"Then you'll just have to learn." McGonagall said, looking very understanding as she saw how he didn't seem thrilled about this. "You are a Hogwarts champion, after all, and you will have to do what is expected of you as a representative of the school. And make sure you get yourself a partner, Pendergast."
Arthur nodded wordlessly and walked out.
Arthur didn't realise that the idea of going to a ball with a girl would actually be much more terrifying in comparison to facing a Hungarian Horntail until now,
He also had never seen so many people put their names down to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. Naturally, he always did, thinking Christmas at Hogwarts would be cooler than at the Dentleys, being in the minority. This year, though, everyone who was fourth year and above wanted to stay, very much obsessed with the Yule Ball that was approaching.
Well, at least the girls were.
There were so many girls that giggled and whispered in the corridors, or even shrieking with laughter as boys passed them, excitedly comparing notes on what they'd wear on Christmas night.
"Why do the girls have to travel around in packs?" Arthur groaned as he and David walked past around a dozen girls, who all sniggered and stared at Arthur, making him still feel like he was about to throw up.
"I don't know." David groaned himself.
Part of the problem for Arthur was that even if he liked to go to the ball with a girl, there wasn't any that he wanted to go with, not even Cho Chang, as he only ever thought of being friends with her.
"I wish you luck. Being a champion, plenty of girls will be queuing up to go with you."
And David proved to be right.
A curly haired third year in Hufflepuff that Arthur had never spoken to before asked him to the ball with her the next day. He instantly said 'no' and she walked off, looking rather hurt. This made Arthur having to endure Dean and Seamus taunting him during all of History of Magic.
The following day, two other girls asked him, one being a second year, and to his horror, a fifth year who looked like she'd knock him out if he refused.
"She was good looking." David noted.
"But she was a foot taller than me." Arthur criticised. "Can you imagine how I'd look if I danced with her?"
Arthur then thought about all the girls stalking Krum and how they're ultimately just drawn to him because he's famous, this is easily the case for Arthur. If he wasn't a school champion, he was so sure they wouldn't ask him out.
But aside from the whole dilemma of finding a dance partner, Arthur's life started improving ever since the first task.
He no longer attracted as much unpleasantness in the corridors, which was mostly likely thanks to Cedric, who probably told the Hufflepuffs to leave Arthur alone, in gratitude for telling him about the dragons. There were also fewer Support CEDRIC DIGGORY badges being worn.
Of course, Draco still quoted Skeeter's article any chance he could, which only resulted in fewer laughs now.
What added to Arthur's well being was that there was no story about Hagrid in the Daily Prophet.
"She didn' seem very int'rested in magical creatures, ter tell yeh the truth." Hagrid said when asked by the trio about his interview with Skeeter during the last Care of Magical Creatures lesson of term. They were relieved when Hagrid had given up on direct contact with the Skrewts, and were sheltered behind his cabin for the day, sitting at a trestle table and preparing a fresh selection of food with which to tempt the Skrewts.
"She jus' wanted me ter talk about you, Arthur." Hagrid continued in a low voice. "Well, I told her we'd been friends since I helped yeh at Diagon Alley. 'Never had to tell him off in four years?' she said. 'Never played you up in lessons, has he?' I told her no, an' she didn' seem happy at all. Yeh'd think she wanted me to say yeh were horrible, Arthur."
"Of course that hag does." Arthur gritted his teeth as he threw lumps of dragon liver into a large metal bowl and picked his knife up to cut some more. "She seems to think that a tragic hero is boring."
"She's trying to get a new angle by making you look bad." David shook his head.
"If she wants that, she should interview Snape." Arthur growled. "He'd give her all she wants to hear. Pendergast has been crossing lines ever since he first arrived at this school…."
"Said that, did he?" Hagrid said while David and Chrys laughed. "Well, yeh might've bent a few rules, Arthur, bu' yeh're alrigh' really, aren' you?"
"Thanks, Hagrid." Arthur grinned.
"So are you coming to the Yule Ball, Hagrid?" David asked.
"Though' I might look in on it, yeah." Hagrid said gruffly. "Should be a good do, I reckon. You'll be openin' the dancin', won' yeh, Arthur? Who're you takin'?"
"No one, yet." Arthur said, that queasy feeling rising back up. Hagrid didn't continue the subject, most likely because of the expression on Arthur's face.
The last week of term was very boisterous as it went on.
Rumours of the Yule Ball flew everywhere, a lot of which Arthur didn't believe. One being that Dumbledore bought eight hundreds of mulled mead from Madam Rosmerta.
But it was a fact that he hired the Weird Sisters, who David told him was a wizarding band.
Some teachers, like Flitwick, gave up on teaching them much when their minds were elsewhere. So he allowed them to just play some games in his lesson on Wednesday. He himself spent most of it talking to Arthur about how perfect his Summoning Charm was during the first task.
But other teachers weren't as generous as him. Nothing would distract Binns from ploughing on and on through his notes on goblin rebellions, being someone who didn't even let his death stand in the way of teaching.
Both McGonagall and Moody kept them working until the very last second of their classes.
And there's Snape, who thought that playing games was as ridiculous as adopting Arthur. He stared nastily at everyone, saying that he would be testing them on poison antidotes during the last lesson of the term.
"Evil git." David spat bitterly that night in the Gryffindor common room as he was doing his notes. "Of course he'd spring a test on us on the last day. He had to ruin the last bit of the term with revision."
"Why aren't you doing some notes, Arthur?" Chrys asked, as he laid on the couch lazily reading a book on dragons.
"Because I've done them already, I wanted them done as soon as possible." He replied.
"Well, you could be using your time up better if you tried solving that egg." She replied sternly.
"Chrys, I have a lot on my mind right now. I can't focus on the egg right now, so I'll start trying to solve it in January." He replied, snapping the book shut and looking right at her.
He placed the golden egg in his trunk in the dormitory and hadn't opened it since that party after the first task.
"Fine." Chrys groaned before she got back to her notes.
"Hey, David, can we borrow Goliath?" Jack asked as he and Kevin joined David and Chrys.
"No, he's off delivering a letter. Why?"
"It's none of your business who we want to send a letter to." Kevin retorted.
"Anyway, do you have dates for the ball yet?" Jack then asked.
"No." David replied, looking down, but darted his eyes for a second towards Chrys, which only Arthur noticed. He clearly wants to ask her out but seems to be too shy to do so.
"Well, hurry up, otherwise the good ones will be gone." Jack pointed out.
"Well who are you going out with?" David asked him.
"With Angelina, obviously." Jack replied without hesitation, looking over at her as she was talking with Alicia Spinnet as she looked at him and they grinned at each other.
"About time. You two might now start dating." Arthur smirked, having always known of their chemistry.
"Well, looks like we'll just have to use a school owl, come on Jack." Kevin said and they left.
"I may be struggling, but you really do need to get a move on, David." Arthur raised an eyebrow, now knowing that David clearly likes Chrys in more ways than one.
The Hogwarts staff, still having the desire to impress the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang visitors, were very determined to show the castle off at its best this Christmas.
When the decorations finally went up, Arthur noticed that they were the most stunning he had seen at the school.
There were everlasting icicles that were attached to the bannisters of the marble staircase. The usual twelve Christmas trees that filled the Great Hall were now bedecked with everything from luminous holly berries to actual hooting golden owls. The suits of armour also had been bewitched to sing carols whenever anyone passed them.
Sometimes Filch had to extract Peeves from inside the armour, where he'd hide and fill gaps in songs with lyrics of his own, which were all rude.
On Friday, after finishing Potions, which Arthur did well in, he went off to the common room, not really feeling hungry for dinner as the Yule Ball was fast approaching and he still hadn't found someone to go to the ball with that he liked.
He sat on his bed in the dormitory, thinking about how this situation was the most unbearable he faced yet.
Why is it that he can't stomach the idea of being with a girl? He liked being with Chrys and Mary, but they were his friends. And were very much like his sisters.
And as he thought more and more, he recalled that he wasn't affected by the Veela, or even Fleur's partly Veela allure.
In fact, he never recalled ever being attracted to any female for that matter.
So it came down to two possibilities: either Arthur wasn't attracted to anyone at all… or that he is actually gay all along.
He was about to think which he was when he saw Mike entering the dormitory.
"Hey, Arthur… David and Chrys told me you were up here…." He said as he entered and sat on his bed, facing Arthur. "They've also told me that you're still struggling to find a dance partner to the Yule Ball."
Arthur looked into Mike's purple eyes, the ones that made him feel like he can talk about anything freely and he sighed.
"Yeah. I just can't stand the idea of being with a girl to the ball with, and not only that, I don't even know how to dance." Arthur complained as he leaned against one of the four posters of his bed.
"Well… I happen to know how to dance. I can teach you if you want." Mike suggested, leaning forward.
"Really? You can help?" Arthur asked, sounding partly relieved.
"Yeah. And in terms of a dance partner, it doesn't have to be someone you have feelings for. It could just be going as friends." Mike then said, walking up to Arthur, who still sat on his bed.
"Yeah… that's a fair point. Thanks."
"No problem." Mike said, patting Arthur on the arm.
Arthur felt a pleasant jolt from that gesture and his brain now started going into overdrive.
He recollected many other times he's had with Mike and every time he was given a gift from him, or was told some comforting words or made physical touch with him, it all made Arthur blush, feel stuff physically or want more.
The truth finally came to him like a bombshell.
Arthur Pendergast is gay and has a crush on Michael McGonagall.
Before he or Mike could say anything else, the two heard a commotion from elsewhere in the common room.
The two left the dormitory and found an ashen faced David sitting in a distant corner with Mary sitting with him, talking to him in a low, soothing voice.
"What happened?" Arthur asked as he and Mike joined them.
David just looked up at them with a look of blind horror.
"I didn't know what made me do it." He said wildly.
"Do what?" Mike asked.
"He just asked Fleur to go to the ball with him." Mary told them as she patted her older brother's arm sympathetically.
"WHAT?" Both boys asked in unison.
"I didn't know what made me do it!" David gasped. "There were people all around, I had to have gone mad. I just saw her walk in the Entrance Hall… she stood there talking to Cedric… and it just came over me and I asked her!"
He moaned as he put his hands over his face. "She looked at me as though I was some sea slug…. She didn't even answer as I came to my senses and just ran for it."
"Yeah… that's because she's a quarter Veela." Arthur revealed finally, shocking everyone. "Her wand core is a Veela hair from her grandmother."
"Huh… that says a lot." Mary said.
"By the way… Neville actually asked Chrys to the ball." David dropped another bombshell, now sounding depressed.
"Seriously?" Arthur questioned.
"Yeah." David nodded as some colour was coming back into his face. "He told me after Potions. Saying that she was always nice to him, helping out with work and such…. But then she told him that she's already going out with someone."
"Oh… I'm sorry, David." Arthur then said, patting his shoulder, knowing that he wanted to ask her out.
"Hey, how come you weren't at dinner, David?" Chrys' voice asked as she had just entered through the portrait hole. David looked away from her.
"He asked Fleur out to the ball and he backed out." Mary told her, making Chrys look a bit shocked.
"Apparently you're already going out with someone." Mike said. "Who is it?"
"I, um…. I didn't want to say, but… I'm actually going to the ball with Krum." Chrys confessed.
Everyone looked at her shocked, and in David's case, devastated.
So that was why he kept lurking in the library and looking at the trio and Mike. He was attracted to Chrys, though it rubbed Arthur the wrong way as he's an eighteen year old, an adult, and he's going to the ball with a fifteen year old Chrys, an underage witch, it made Arthur shudder at the thought.
Before anyone else said a thing, David got up and walked to the staircase to the boys' dormitory with his head hung low. Arthur looked at him with utter sadness.
"What's wrong with him?" Chrys asked, confused.
"I think he planned on asking you out, but was nervous to do so." Arthur told her and she looked horror struck before she went off to the girls' dormitory.
"I hate to bring this up, but I actually happen to be going to the ball with Neville. He asked me after Chrys said no." Mary brought up, breaking the now uncomfortable silence.
Then both Lavender and Parvati came through the portrait hole. With Arthur knowing that he can simply take someone to the ball without any romance at all, he decided to take action.
"Hey, Parvati?" He asked, getting her attention. "Would you like to go to the ball with me?"
This made Parvati go into a fit of giggles. He waited for her and Lavender to stop until she could speak.
"Yes, alright then." She finally said, blushing furiously.
"Are you already going, Lavender?" Arthur then asked.
"I'm going with Seamus. Why?"
"Because David would've asked Chrys but she's already going with someone and I want to try and cheer him up." He replied.
"Who's Chrys going with?" Lavender asked.
"It's not my place to say." Arthur replied, not really wanting to mention Krum.
"Well, he could go with my sister, Padma. She's in Ravenclaw, I'll ask her if you like."
"Thanks. I just don't want David to be alone at the ball." Arthur said gratefully before the two girls headed off to the girls' dormitory.
Arthur then sighed, hoping that the Yule Ball will turn out good, despite the circumstances that he and David have gotten themselves into.
Such a significant chapter. Arthur has now realised that he is actually gay and has a crush on Mike.
And we have the first major seed that David has feelings for Chrys.
