"Potter Weasley! Will you pay attention?"
Professor McGonagall's irritated voice cracked like a whip through the Transfiguration class on Thursday, and Harry and Ron both jumped and looked up. Skylar and Hermione were both shooting them with disappointed looks.
It was the end of the lesson; they had finished their work; the guinea fowl they had been changing into guinea pigs had been shut away in a large cage on Professor McGonagall's desk (Neville's still had feathers); they had 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, and Harry and Ron, who had been having a sword fight with a couple of Fred and George's fake wands at the back of the class, looked up, Ron holding a tin parrot and Harry, a rubber haddock.
"Now that Potter and Weasley have been kind enough to act their age," said Professor McGonagall, with an angry look at the pair of them as the head of Harry's haddock drooped and fell silently to the floor — Ron's parrot's beak had severed it moments before — "I have something to say to you all.
"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 let out a shrill giggle. Parvati Patil nudged her hard in the ribs, her face working furiously as she too fought not to giggle. They both looked around at Harry. Professor McGonagall ignored them.
"Dress robes will be worn," Professor McGonagall continued, "and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then —"
Professor McGonagall stared deliberately around the class.
"The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to — er — let our hair down," she said, in a disapproving voice.
Lavender giggled harder than ever, with her hand pressed hard against her mouth to stifle the sound. It was an amusing metaphor for Professor McGonagall to use, with her hair in a tight bun, it looked as though she had never let her hair down in any sense.
"But that does NOT mean," Professor 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 rang, and there was the usual scuffle of activity as everyone packed their bags and swung them onto their shoulders.
Professor McGonagall called above the noise, "Potter — a word, if you please."
Hermione, Ron and Skylar all left the classroom without Harry and Skylar was the most excited of them.
"This is going to be so much fun!" She grinned. "I can't wait to find an outfit!"
"Didn't you already?" Hermione wondered.
"What if it's not good enough?" Skylar whispered.
Ron rolled his eyes. "Oh who cares?"
"Who cares huh?" Skylar smirked, "So I should tell my parents not to replace that awful maroon thing you brought with you?" She asked slyly.
Ron's ears went bright red and he turned to her.
"I mean I told them to already, but I think they were waiting for measurements, or the actual event to go ahead so, maybe I'll just tell them not to bother…" Hermione rolled her eyes as Ron glared at the girl.
"It's not the same, you already have a nice outfit, mine's not nice."
"You're the one who said no one would care." Skylar shrugged.
Ron grumbled to himself as he stormed off towards the Great Hall.
"Are you really going to tell your parents not to buy him better dress robes?" Hermione asked.
"God no, being my friend, there's a high chance I'll have to be seen with him in it." Skylar muttered. Hermione raised an eyebrow at her. "Plus he has it hard enough as it is."
"Aren't you just a saint?"
"I can be nice." Skylar shrugged.
"Sky!" The two girls stopped and turned at the shout to see Stephen running down the corridor.
"Stephen, is something wrong?" Skylar asked in alarm as he came to a halt before them, panting.
"No, I just had to find you first."
"Find me first?" Skylar muttered, glancing at Hermione, she didn't look confused but was grinning. Skylar turned back to Stephen as he straightened up before she looked surprised.
"Don't do it, I want it to be a surprise!" He rushed out as quickly as possible.
Skylar blinked and then smiled guiltily. "Oh,"
He looked at her, glancing at Hermione who shrugged, before sighing as he realised she already had heard what he was here for.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
"Well, suppose it's easier to ask now." He paused and took a breath, "Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"
Skylar chuckled. "I'd love to." She nodded.
Stephen grinned back. "Thanks!"
"I think that's my word."
"I'll see you later then." He couldn't stop grinning as he moved off towards dinner away from them.
"I can't believe how fast he was." Hermione confessed.
"Me either." Skylar muttered.
"Must know he has competition." Hermione giggled.
Skylar raised an eyebrow at her. "I don't know about that, it'll be Christmas time, people will go home."
Unfortunately, she was wrong. Never had so many people put their names down to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas before. Skylar had done it the last few years, Harry did it every year, Ron and Hermione usually stayed with them also, but they had only ever been in the minority before now. This year, however, everyone in the fourth year and above seemed to be staying, and they all seemed to be obsessed with the coming ball — or at least all the girls were, they were giggling and whispering in the corridors, girls shrieking with laughter as boys passed them, girls excitedly comparing notes on what they were going to wear on Christmas night…
"Even Skylar was complaining about her dress robes." Ron muttered.
"Once, and I haven't done it since thanks to your complaining." Skylar returned. "Besides, it's no surprise, girls have an image thing. I mean, what attracts you to a girl?"
Ron opened his mouth to answer but Skylar cut him off. "That's a trap, never answer that question!" She snapped, much to Ron's surprise. "Never, and I mean never, answer a question that has to do with a girl's appearance!" Ron took a step back at her sudden ferocity.
"Calm down Sky." He muttered.
"You will thank me when you avoid angering every girl in this place." She said seriously.
"Not that it matters." Harry muttered as he looked around. "Can hardly talk to them anyway. Why do they have to move in packs?" Harry asked as a dozen or so girls walked past them, sniggering and staring at Harry. Skylar shot them a look and they all hurried past. "How're you supposed to get one on their own to ask them?"
"Lasso one?" Ron suggested. Skylar hit him, earring an 'ouch' in complaint. "Got any idea who you're going to try?"
Harry didn't answer, but both Ron and Skylar knew he'd very much like to go with Cho Chang. Unfortunately for Harry, he had to have a partner with no exception, as the Champions all had to open the ball, dancing in front of everyone.
"If you don't ask her soon, someone else will." Skylar frowned. Harry shot her a look. Cho was a year older than he was; she was very pretty; she was a very good Quidditch player, and she was also very popular, asking her out was nerve racking.
Ron seemed to know what was going on inside Harry's head just as well as Skylar did.
"Listen, you're not going to have any trouble. You're a champion. You've just beaten a Hungarian Horntail. I bet they'll be queuing up to go with you."
In tribute to their recently repaired friendship, Ron had kept the bitterness in his voice to a bare minimum.
"I think the more important thing to think about, is that there are heaps of people in this school, more than usual, if one says no, ask another." Skylar shrugged.
"You realise how belittling that is right?" Ron muttered.
Skylar sighed before someone tapped her on the shoulder. It was a fifth year, she recognised him as he was in Nick's year, but his name escaped her.
"Hi." She said,
"Hey, Skylar, I was wondering if you'd like to go to the ball with me?"
Harry and Ron were watching intently as Skylar frowned.
"Oh, I'm really sorry," she paused for a fraction of a second, "Kenneth, but I can't go with you."
His expression fell slightly.
"Thanks for asking me though, I really appreciate that." Skylar smiled.
He nodded before walking away.
"Ouch." Ron said. "And you want us to go through that?"
"What? If you're a kind person, turning someone down is just as bad as asking them." Skylar admitted.
"Why did you turn him down?"
"I can't go with him." She shrugged. "Now you two need to stop being so chicken, it's just a dance, not a marriage proposal."
"Did you even know that guy?" Harry muttered.
"No." Skylar shook her head. "I highly suggest you don't go with a stranger, that would be awkward. At least go with someone you know the name of."
Neither boy seemed any more confident after Skylar's pep talk, but Harry was given the opportunity to know the guilt of turning someone down the following day. A curly-haired third-year Hufflepuff girl to whom Harry had never spoken in his life asked him to go to the ball with her. Harry was so taken aback he said no before he'd even stopped to consider the matter. The girl walked off looking rather hurt, and Harry had to endure Dean's, Seamus's, and Ron's taunts about her all through History of Magic.
"Please stop them." He whispered to Skylar.
"That's very manipulating, and no." She returned.
It didn't end there, the following day, two more girls asked him, a second year and (to his horror) a fifth year who looked as though she might knock him out if he refused.
"She was quite good-looking," said Ron fairly, after he'd stopped laughing.
"She was a foot taller than me," said Harry, still unnerved. "Imagine what I'd look like trying to dance with her."
"At least be flattered that she asked you." Skylar shrugged. "I mean, at least be flattered about these people wanting to spend an entire night with you."
"Pretty sure he was more scared of doing so with the fifth grader." Ron chuckled. Skylar hit him.
The last week of term became increasingly boisterous as it progressed. Rumours about the Yule Ball were flying everywhere, though some seemed farfetched — for instance, that Dumbledore had bought eight hundred barrels of mulled mead from Madam Rosmerta. It seemed to be fact, however, that he had booked the Weird Sisters. This caused wild excitement of those who had grown up listening to the WWN (Wizarding Wireless Network) as they were a very famous musical group.
Another bonus, was that Hagrid had his interview with Rita Skeeter and nothing bad appeared in the Daily Prophet about it.
"She didn' seem very int'rested in magical creatures, ter tell yeh the truth," Hagrid said, when Harry, Skylar, Ron, and Hermione asked him how his interview with Rita Skeeter had gone during the last Care of Magical Creatures lesson of the term. To their very great relief, Hagrid had given up on direct contact with the skrewts now, and they were merely sheltering behind his cabin today, 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, Harry," Hagrid continued in a low voice. "Well, I told her we'd been friends since I went ter fetch yeh from the Dursleys. '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, Harry."
"'Course she did," said Harry, throwing lumps of dragon liver into a large metal bowl and picking up his knife to cut some more. "She can't keep writing about what a tragic little hero I am, it'll get boring."
"She wants a new angle, Hagrid," said Ron wisely as he shelled salamander eggs. "You were supposed to say Harry's a mad delinquent!"
"But he's not!" said Hagrid, looking genuinely shocked.
"Think I'd have to disagree." Skylar mumbled, earning a nudge from Hermione.
"She should've interviewed Snape," said Harry grimly. "He'd give her the goods on me any day. 'Potter has been crossing lines ever since he first arrived at this school…' "
"Said that, did he?" said Hagrid, while Ron and Hermione laughed. "Well, yeh might've bent a few rules, Harry, bu' yeh're all righ' really, aren' you?"
"Cheers, Hagrid," said Harry, grinning.
"You coming to this ball thing on Christmas Day, Hagrid?" said Ron.
"Though' I might look in on it, yeah," said Hagrid gruffly. "Should be a good do, I reckon. You'll be openin' the dancin', won' yeh, Harry? Who're you takin'?"
"No one, yet," said Harry, feeling himself going red again.
Hagrid didn't pursue the subject.
Like Hagrid, some of the teachers gave up trying to teach them much when their minds were so clearly elsewhere. Little Professor Flitwick allowed them to play games in his lesson on Wednesday, and spent most of it talking to Harry about the perfect Summoning Charm Harry had used during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Other teachers were not so generous. Nothing would ever deflect Professor Binns, for example, from ploughing on through his notes on goblin rebellions — as Binns hadn't let his own death stand in the way of continuing to teach, they supposed a small thing like Christmas wasn't going to put him off. It was amazing how he could make even bloody and vicious goblin riots sound as boring as Percy's cauldron-bottom report. Professors McGonagall and Moody kept them working until the very last second of their classes too, and Snape, of course, would no sooner let them play games in class than adopt Harry. Staring nastily around at them all, he informed them that he would be testing them on poison antidotes during the last lesson of the term.
"Evil, he is," Ron said bitterly that night in the Gryffindor common room. "Springing a test on us on the last day. Ruining the last bit of term with a whole load of studying."
"Mmm… you're not exactly straining yourself, though, are you?" said Hermione, looking at him over the top of her Potions notes. Ron was busy building a card castle out of his Exploding Snap pack — a much more interesting pastime than with Muggle cards, because of the chance that the whole thing would blow up at any second.
"It's Christmas, Hermione," said Harry lazily; he was rereading Flying with the Cannons for the tenth time in an armchair near the fire.
"We shouldn't let Snape ruin our good week." Skylar agreed as she was toying with Meridiem with her wand.
Hermione looked severely over at Harry too. "I'd have thought you'd be doing something constructive, Harry, even if you don't want to learn your antidotes!"
"Like what?" Harry said as he watched Joey Jenkins of the Cannons belt a Bludger toward a Ballycastle Bats Chaser.
"That egg!" Hermione hissed.
"Come on, Hermione, I've got till February the twenty-fourth," Harry said.
He had put the golden egg upstairs in his trunk and hadn't opened it since the celebration party after the first task. There were still two and a half months to go until he needed to know what all the screechy wailing meant, after all.
"But it might take weeks to work it out!" said Hermione. "You're going to look a real idiot if everyone else knows what the next task is and you don't!"
"Leave him alone, Hermione, he's earned a bit of a break," said Ron, and he placed the last two cards on top of the castle and the whole lot blew up, singeing his eyebrows.
"Nice look, Ron… go well with your dress robes, that will."
It was Fred and George with Nick. They sat down at the table with Harry, Ron, and Hermione as Ron felt how much damage had been done. Skylar however had gasped loudly in shock and sat up.
"Shit, shit, shit," she muttered and they all looked at her in surprise as she got up and suddenly ran up the girls dormitory stairs, startling Meridium.
"What's wrong with her?" Ron muttered.
Everyone turned to Nick who shrugged. "Don't look at me."
The twins didn't dwell on it and turned back to their brother.
"Ron, can we borrow Pigwidgeon?" George asked.
"No, he's off delivering a letter," said Ron. "Why?"
"Because George wants to invite him to the ball," said Fred sarcastically.
"Because we want to send a letter, you stupid great prat," said George.
"Who d'you two keep writing to, eh?" said Ron.
"Nose out, Ron, or I'll burn that for you too," said Fred, waving his wand threateningly.
"Why don't you just use Mitchum? Or Reylon?" Hermione offered, not looking up from her notes.
"Both are busy." Nick confessed.
"So… you lot got dates for the ball yet?"
"Nope," said Ron.
"Well, you'd better hurry up, mate, or all the good ones will be gone," said Fred.
"Who're you going with, then?" said Ron.
"Angelina," said Fred promptly, without a trace of embarrassment.
"What?" said Ron, taken aback. "You've already asked her?"
"Good point," said Fred. He turned his head and called across the common room, "Oi! Angelina!"
Angelina, who had been chatting with Alicia Spinnet near the fire, looked over at him.
"What?" She called back.
"Want to come to the ball with me?"
Angelina gave Fred an appraising sort of look.
"All right, then," she said, and she turned back to Alicia and carried on chatting with a bit of a grin on her face.
"There you go," said Fred to Harry and Ron, "piece of cake."
He got to his feet, yawning, and said, "We'd better use a school owl then, George, come on…" They left. Ron stopped feeling his eyebrows and looked across the smouldering wreck of his card castle at Harry.
"We should get a move on, you know… ask someone. He's right. We don't want to end up with a pair of trolls."
Hermione let out a sputter of indignation.
"A pair of… what, excuse me?"
"Well — you know," said Ron, shrugging. "I'd rather go alone than with — with Eloise Midgen, say."
"Her acne's loads better lately — and she's really nice!"
"Her nose is off-centre," said Ron.
"Oh I see," Hermione said, bristling. "So basically, you're going to take the best-looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"
"Er — yeah, that sounds about right," said Ron.
"I'm going to bed," Hermione snapped, and she swept off toward the girls' staircase without another word just as Skylar came back down. She looked at Hermione as she reached the boys, parchment and quill in hand. She turned back to Ron with a judgemental look on her face.
"What is wrong with you?" She asked.
"What?"
"What did I say about commenting on a girl's appearance!" She snapped.
"I didn't insult Hermione?"
Skylar gapped at him. "You're saying looks are everything and that insults all girls! So girls who are funny, or kind, or brave have absolutely no chance unless they're pretty!" Ron leaned away from her as she scolded him. "But fine, fine, if looks means everything like that then I am not getting you new dress robes!" And she turned around and stalked up the girls' staircase after Hermione.