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Bold = Parseltongue
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December 25, 1994
"Your mind must have been thinking all sorts of things when I mentioned the bath, is that right, Harry?" Alice asked with a mischievous tone of voice as she moved closer and ran a hand through his hair. "You are too adorable sometimes and if it did not bother you as I know it does, Cutie would be a perfect nickname for you. Lucretia, she agrees with me I think. Anyways, it is your turn, no?"
Harry nodded at the same time Lucretia scoffed, the sound not convincing even to his ears as the older girl moved around so that she was directly in front of him while Alice seemed perfectly content to stay seated right beside — and against — him.
"Here," Harry said, holding out an object for each of the girls after he withdrew them from his satchel. "I didn't wrap them as good as you and I don't know how to do the sort of things that you do, but…"
"I am sure they'll be quite wonderful, Harry," Alice said as he trailed off not knowing what to say.
Lucretia shrugged and when pressed by Alice with a firm look, she patted him on the leg with her foot. "What she said."
Alice's nose wrinkled at Lucretia's 'uncouth' behaviour, but neither girl said anything more before they each opened the gifts they were meant to have. He was most proud of Lucretia since it had taken no small amount of time to get right as the details only seemed to trickle in from Alice when he asked during their downtime. Alice's was something he had settled on after their second day together and solely because it was something she often made offhanded remarks about.
"You got me a ring?" Lucretia asked, her tone mainly curious-sounding with a bit of something else he couldn't place. "That's not you trying to propose to me this early, is it? I'll tell you we're still a bit too young if it is, but I'm flattered nonetheless."
Harry felt his face heat up but he shook his head and shouldered on, not wanting Alice to save him as she often did when it came to dealing with her friend and occasional rival. "No, it uh, it wasn't meant to get me to try to marry you," he swallowed and kept up eye contact, continuing to push through under the teasing eyes of Lucretia. "You've helped me a lot and if it weren't for both of you, I don't think I would've gotten through the task like I did. Thanks, really."
Lucretia's eyes flickered over to Alice, the former measuring the latter before she did something Harry never thought she would in the short time he'd known her. In full view of Alice and without a care as to what Harry saw her as, Lucretia stood up and moved to hug him. Her contact wasn't as soft or comforting as Alice's, but it was very expressive and supportive. When she kissed his cheek too, he couldn't help the smile that came to his face and he was very happy that she couldn't see it.
The teasing would have been horrible, even when he saw her major blush as she pulled back to show her present off to Alice; the diamond ring he had picked for her was brilliant if he said so himself, and he figured that since it was her birthstone it would only be all the more valuable to her. He knew when Miss Weasley had made him clothes, they were often the presents he enjoyed the most since it showed how much thought and care went into making sure it was done right.
"That was a very nice present, Harry. Lucretia will show that off for a long time to come," Alice said, her hand that was on his head now coming down the back of his neck to finally still itself on his shoulder. "You have a wonderful eye for pretty things, no?"
Lucretia snorted. "Things? Pretty? Beautiful witches and stunning jewellery to match them requires more than a wonderful eye. Give him another year or two and every witch able to chase him will be doing just that."
Harry didn't think that would be the case in the slightest, but when Alice hummed in response to Lucretia's words and went back to playing with his hair, he didn't care to think much about anything. That innate sense of comfort that Alice had mixed with her ability to sap the stress from somebody was something he would miss when the two of them left. It was like all of his concerns weren't real and he'd be fine, everything would be fine.
"You're not planning on falling asleep against me again, are you?" Alice asked softly, a smile so present on her face that he could hear it in her voice.
He shook his head, yawned and rolled his head to give her a tired smile. "Nope," he said, a grin coming to his face as he leaned further into her. "You have to open your present now too, or else I'll hover like Lucretia says you do."
"Oh, well we can't have that now can we?" Alice asked teasingly, her hand ruffling his hair as she plucked at the wrapping paper. "It's medium-sized, there's no sound and there's a bit of padding inside — you did a very good job ensuring I wouldn't be able to guess at what it was."
Harry nodded, his eyes flickering over to Lucretia in a gesture of guilt. If it weren't for her suggesting that he do just that, Alice's love of investigating anything regardless of how minute it was would see her gift spoiled before she opened it. That was her quirk in addition to her love for affection, he had learned.
"Don't sit there and think about it, open the gift he got for you fish-girl," Lucretia said, her hand resting lazily on her knee but in such a way that it showed off her new ring.
He was very happy to see that she loved it so much and he was equally as happy that she was prodding Alice forward. So often it was he that needed prodding and he had to admit, the change was a welcome one as well as slightly comedic.
Alice pouted at him, that one look nearly breaking his resolve… nearly. He had thrown off the imperius curse, unfortunately for her, and as such that willpower extended itself even to her entirely too beautiful, pleading look.
"I will do as our Harry requests," Alice said after a further few seconds passed, a soft smile on her face as she pulled the blanket up around the two of them so that they could better fight off the lingering cold.
Once that was done and the two were nicely cuddled together, Alice finished opening her gift until she was left looking at a red-velvet box. It was a bit gaudy for Harry's tastes, especially with the gold-laced inscriptions on the exterior that marked it as her property, but it was the only box that would fit the item inside. As it was, that box clashed enough with the present it was containing.
Go on then, open it and end this suspense… Merlin.
Alice laughed and kissed his forehead, an action that made him rethink if he were, well, thinking. When he realised he had indeed been speaking inside of his mind rather than with his voice and focused back on Alice, he saw that she had opened the gift rather than intrude on his thinking.
"This is something I would not expect until years of friendship, and even then it would be a gift befitting people of very high status. You are too nice to get us jewellery as expensive as these pieces, Harry," Alice's voice was as impressed and happy-sounding as Lucretia's, but there was an edge of warning or something of that sort.
It was like she didn't want to completely take ownership of the Amethyst necklace he'd gotten for her. He almost felt bad until she pulled him tightly into her side and turned his head so that she could place a kiss on his cheek. As soon as she did that, he couldn't help but grin and relax completely.
"Harry's a wonderful friend and a strong wizard," Lucretia said while he was content to rest against Alice. "Strong wizards need something if they're to grow stronger too, and we all know what that is, don't we?"
Harry opened one eye and peaked across at Lucretia while he felt Alice move to rest her head on top of his. When she didn't ask the question, he yawned and then did so himself so that Lucretia wasn't left high and dry.
"What do" — Harry yawned again, cutting himself off — "we need?"
Lucretia smirked at him and got to her feet in an aggressively fast manner. Her hands on her hips and her eyes on something that was over Harry's shoulders, she declared exactly what it was. "Snacks."
"Wait just a moment, please," Alice said quickly, her arms surrounding Harry and pulling him back to the couch. "There is something we must still discuss and have put off for far too long, no? It is what we must go to tonight and is the reason we can't enjoy our day to the fullest — it is also the reason for our wonderful dresses."
Harry swallowed as the memories he'd been blocking out came back to him; there was a ball that he had to go to, and it was something that he absolutely dreaded thanks to the two beautiful witches before him. One of them could go with him, but the other wouldn't be able to. At the same time, did Alice even want to go with him? Did Lucretia?
Merlin, life was so much better when there wasn't outside interference. Hogwarts would have been brilliant if it wasn't constantly trying to get him killed, bind him into magical contracts like the tournament or, like now, interfere with personal matters. He already had it explained to him that he couldn't forego the dance or a partner. If he could have, he would have absolutely chosen to do so.
Lucretia and Alice, the two of them were just as in favour of the Yule Ball as Professor McGonagall was. Professor Dumbledore was probably completely for it too, but the man seldom spoke to him nowadays whilst Hermione tried to, but was either too aggressive or with too many people for him to want to speak with her in the first place. Ron, the bloke meant well most of the time but he felt too easily swayed.
Harry's two new friends had shown him what real, honest companionship was and it went at odds with Ron's 'fair-weathered' friendship as Lucretia had called it or Hermione's bossiness that Alice had said was never a good thing to have amongst friends. Support and love were the words Alice had used when it came to friends. Those qualities, she claimed, came with true friendship.
"Do we have to talk about the Yule Ball?" Harry asked, his voice now exaggeratedly tired in the hopes that he could escape the conversation.
"I'm afraid we do, as the day has come for us to discuss it lest you end up in trouble due to a lack of a date," Alice said as she sat up, forcing him to do the same lest he falls forward. "Lucretia or I will go with you for the opening dance, and don't worry, it will not be a decision that you have to make. That would be unfair of us to do to you, no?"
"You're going with him," Lucretia said, seemingly without a second thought as she continued towards the exit of the room. "I'll take his next two dances after you've finished the opening dance. I've known you for years, long enough to understand that attention is something you're very familiar with and adept at dealing with."
"My affinity for dance has nothing to do with it?" Alice asked with a teasing, beautiful smile shot towards the other girl.
Lucretia looked away and muttered something. He didn't hear it, Alice didn't either, based on the look she shot him when their friend left the room; those snacks she was after would most certainly be destroyed by the time he and Alice caught up to her. Still, that didn't explain her weird behaviour. Lucretia wasn't nearly as shy or whatever emotion that had been before she made her exit.
Maybe she likes me.
Harry very quickly pushed that thought to the back of his mind. Lucretia, like Alice, was a friend of his. They were years older, though how many exactly he didn't know since he hadn't asked them their ages — Ron had said that was impolite, but why Harry still listened to that advice despite their ruined friendship was a mystery to him. Regardless of the advice, he hadn't dared to think his little crushes on the either of them would develop into anything else.
Not after the way they had seen him at his lowest. All of the help they provided from that point on, especially in facing his first task, had to make them think of him as weak. If that weren't the case, if he was totally inside of his own mind, then that would be par for the course. Witches…the bloody girls were impossible to read, much less accurately guess what they were thinking.
Blokes, Harry liked to think they were simple. His personal bias for being a bloke definitely wasn't clouding his judgement when he thought about how simple it was to keep him happy and moving forward.
"It looks like I am your date if you'll have me," Alice finally said in a soft tone of voice, ending the silence as she brought him in front of her and pulled him close so that she could massage his shoulders. "You were nervous that we would make you pick."
"That didn't sound like a question," Harry said, swallowing at their proximity thanks to his recent thinking.
Alice leaned forward so that he could see her smile. "It was not. I can read people incredibly well, Harry. Muet— my mother, she tells me it's not a part of our ancestry but something she was equally as good at whilst growing up," Alice paused and at that same time, he felt a shudder run through her body as a satisfied groan exited her mouth. "Stretching feels nice after laying down for so long and yes, that was a thought that struck me when I felt you sink further back in your seat. Speaking of that seat, you will need to stand up, we have a lesson to do."
"Lesson? I thought you and Lucretia said we had Yule off?" Harry asked, stubbornly waiting for a second or two until Alice started to tickle his sides. As soon as she did that, he ceded the seat and did a one-eighty so that he could face the older girl.
Her smile, the typically beautiful and charming one that always seemed present on her face greeted him. There wasn't any way he could be mad at her once he saw it, and so he settled on a pout. It wasn't nearly as good as hers, but he knew that his youth and the way they looked after him were advantages in his corner.
"You dislike the word cute but go and do that," Alice said, exaggeratedly exasperated as she pulled one of his hands towards her mouth. "Sweet enough to eat, aren't you?"
"Lucretia would probably call you shark girl from here on out if she found out you bit me," Harry said with a laugh as Alice brushed her teeth against his hand before she joined him in laughing.
"Lucretia would call me whatever she can if she thinks it annoys me, we know that already. Her and I, we have come up with many nicknames for one another across the years and don't tell her I told you this, but it is 'gill girl' above all of the others that get me," Alice finally stood up and as she did so, she pulled him closer so that only a foot separated them. "Our lesson will be simple and at the same time, very difficult for you if it is something you have not done often. We will dance."
We will dance… good bloody luck with that!
There wasn't a chance in the known world, be it Magical or Muggle, that he would willingly dance in front of hundreds of people. The fact that it'd be with Alice in front of all those people would only make it worse, and that wasn't because of her, but him. She was pretty beyond measure, beautiful didn't even fit in his opinion, and because of that alone she may have well been far beyond any witch he deserved a date with. When one considered her personality, he only became all the more undeserving of her as his partner for the night.
"Can we, uh… is there a way we don't have to do the opening dance?" Harry asked after a pause in which he swallowed — or at least attempted to — his nerves.
Alice smiled widely at him, her dimples on complete display and her hair looking brighter than it previously did. In other words, that angelic appearance that was similar and at the same time different from Fleur's was on full display. He felt it, the tendrils in his mind of her comforting aura and the hints of music on the air, music that eased his sore muscles as well as her earlier massage had.
"You are more relaxed," Alice said, her tone matter of fact as she moved forward to place a kiss on his forehead. "There is no reason to worry about what others may think of you, me, Lucretia or anybody else with whom you call friend. Those matters are yours alone and they will always be so. The girl Her-her… you know the girl I'm mentioning, she and any of the others that dislike our friendship won't matter either. Our dance tonight will be for us and any who causes issue will be thoroughly dealt with."
"What if it's all those Slytherins? Your housemates sit with them, even you and Lucretia occasionally do when we have to eat in the Great Hall from time to time," Harry said, his resistance lowering as another thought came to his mind; the other blokes, all of them will see him dancing with Alice and they'll leave her alone because they'll think he's with her.
Now, that might not be necessarily true, not in the slightest, but his teenage mind that found itself clouded by his first childhood crush couldn't be reasoned with.
"We are united within our school and only after those bonds do we create new ones with those from Hogwarts or Beauxbatons. It is hypocritical because of our friendship, yes, but you are a… special case. One as sweet and deserving of our company such as yourself does not come around often," Alice paused and then she fixed him with another dazzling smile after a second of silence passed. "This shark girl would say that one like you comes around once in a lifetime."
Harry couldn't help but grin when she referred to herself as shark girl and that grin turned into short, barking laughter when she brushed her teeth across the top of his hand. Really, the more that he thought about it, she was right. He didn't care what the others thought when they saw him dancing with her. Malfoy or Hermione, Ron or his Quidditch teammates, all of them had scorned him because they thought he'd stolen a chance at glory.
Some were friendlier than others, a few weren't openly hostile at all, but very few spoke with him openly. Luna Lovegood, the occasional words from Neville in Gryffindor tower, it was only those few that bothered to see how he was doing. Merlin, if it weren't for them before he'd met the two Durmstrang girls, he may very well have considered withdrawing to the Chamber until the first task. Dobby wouldn't let him starve and there wasn't anything else of note down below.
"You said you'd teach me how to dance, right?" Harry asked tentatively, his hand slightly headed towards Alice's before his entire body was pulled into a tight hug.
"I did and now that you have agreed, we begin," Alice cut him off before he could point out that he hadn't agreed, and as she continued, especially to the hand-placing part, he didn't find it in him to say anything more.
One dance.
One dance in front of everybody was fine if it meant he could stay as close to her as he currently was.
"You can stop staring at her any second, Harry," Lucretia said, her arms crossed as she stared between him and Alice.
Lucretia wore a slightly more revealing dress than most of the witches he had seen. It was dark blue, a colour that fit her darker hair colour really well and one that accented her eyes. The makeup she'd used was stronger than usual too, enough so that her eyes were nearly entirely encircled by an equally dark blue border.
It made her look a bit more aggressive, all of those darker colours and makeup. He wasn't intimidated as he'd initially been of her though, that had passed after a good few weeks of time spent in her presence. Lucretia, tough as she acted and often was, could be very nurturing as well as generally kind. Those initial nerves around her thanks to her bold nature and abrasive way with words were finally gone… mostly.
"I thought it was rather flattering," Alice said as she did a small twirl, showing off and finishing with a stuck-out tongue at Lucretia.
"Don't you hate the extra attention? I know it's not the same as a Veela's, but Merlin, having half as many boys follow me around throughout all of our school years that followed you would have made me crazy," Lucretia huffed, shook her head, and pointed at the door. "Let's get going already. Harry can't be late and I want my dance while my makeup still looks perfect."
"You're that convinced people are going to take photos?" Harry asked, his hands wringing in a mixture of nerves and annoyance; Skeeter had to stop with her borderline spying on him. It was an invasion of privacy, horribly bothersome and thoroughly unhelpful. "Alice, Lucretia?" Harry asked, a devious smirk coming to his face as an equally devious thought came to his mind.
"What?"
"What is it, Harry?"
Lucretia's response was hard, spoken huskily, and straight to the point. Alice's was the opposite, as it was spoken softly and with more words than were truly needed. Instances like that highlighted their differences the most.
"Could we take care of something before the dance starts?" Harry asked, his mind coming up with one idea after the other when it came to thinking about dealing with Skeeter.
This'll be wicked if they help.
And Merlin did they.
Eyes were on them from the moment they stepped out of the Durmstrang ship, and the number of them only grew with each step towards Castle. Once inside, the closer they moved as a trio towards the location of the ball, the more gossiping lit up the halls around them as more pairs of eyes joined the others.
It was thoroughly annoying, a bit nerve-racking and incredibly stupid considering most of them dislike him thanks to one accusation. Merlin, he'd beaten a dragon and he'd been cool for a few days, but people were convinced thanks to the magic he'd used that he was 'turning bad' because of these two 'dark witches' from Durmstrang. Now obviously the Durmstrang contingent knew better, but they didn't come to his defence any, that wasn't who they were.
"Harry?" Came a voice, one that was very familiar and at the same time, one that he hadn't wanted to hear.
He turned, his tenseness blocked by Alice and his feelings secure thanks to Lucretia. "Hi Hermione," he greeted with words and expressions as warm as he could manage. "You look brilliant… are you here with Ron or?"
Hermione blushed and shook her head almost immediately. "No. Ronald has his date and it's not me, I'm actually waiting here because this was the spot we were told to do so until the ball officially starts. That should be within the next few minutes if you're curious — as for my date, Viktor asked me and I said yes."
That's not very Hermione-like.
"Wicked, I hope you have a good evening with him then. He's a pretty good bloke based on my very limited interactions with him in the tent," Harry then smiled and dipped his head, hoping to end the conversation before it devolved any further.
He should have known better, especially with it being Hermione. She wasn't one to let something go, not when it was a point that she felt had to be made and especially not when it was one she was convinced she was correct in thinking.
"Could we talk until it starts? I have a lot I'd like to ask after watching you be rewarded with first place," Hermione said as she took a few steps towards him while the nearest students made their exit; two more chose that time to arrive too, those being Fleur and a bloke he didn't care enough to remember the name of.
"Is it going to be along the lines of our last conversation?" Harry asked, a bit of his annoyance at the idea edging into his tone even as he tried to keep it from doing so.
He couldn't help it, truly. With Alice and Lucretia beside him, silent while they watched the interaction, he couldn't let Hermione speak or insinuate poorly regarding them. Hermione was meant to be his friend just like the other two girls had recently become, and he absolutely hated it when friends fought with one another.
"I won't be as frayed, but I'd still like to learn how the three of you came to be such a, a… close group of friends," Hermione very clearly paused to pick her words better than she normally would have, and when his lips raised into a small smile, it was the first genuine one he'd sent towards her since she chosen Ron's side over his.
"I guess we could talk a bit about it then, as long as it stays nice," Harry nodded towards a darker portion of the hall, one that had fewer loitering students and far less traffic. "Alice and Lucretia will come too — I don't want to leave them before it starts."
Harry felt it was necessary to say that before Hermione wondered why the two other girls joined them in conversation. He knew she likely wanted him one on one, especially since they'd be directly discussing the other girls, but it wasn't something that he wanted to do. Hermione was working towards repairing their friendship back to where it'd originally been tonight, but if that were to keep up, it had to be genuine.
"That's fine. I have questions for them too," Hermione responded, her eyes flickering briefly to the other two girls before they returned to Harry's, silence dawning until they made it to their destination at which point Hermione spoke up again, though with words he hadn't expected to start with. "Congratulations Harry. It was rude of me not to say that the same day that you won, but I know we haven't exactly been on speaking terms but I still feel it's something you deserve to hear."
Again, he smiled. "Thank you…you said we didn't have too much time though, so what did you want to ask us?"
Hermione swallowed and stood a bit taller. "The spells you used, some of them were known to be dark and while you're allowed to do what you need so long as it isn't illegal… is it smart for you to get into that magic?" her eyes flickered between the older girls again, this time with a glint that he didn't appreciate all that much. "They're teaching you too, we know it an—"
"We?" Alice asked innocently from beside Harry, her fingers brushing the back of his hand.
"When I say we, I mean collectively Hogwarts, as there have been many theories as to where Harry found tho—" Hermione was interrupted again, but this time by Lucretia with nought but a scoff.
"Lucretia and Alice helped me learn the necessary spells to face any challenge. While you were with Ron since my name was pulled, I had been alone. Professor Dumbledore didn't come to check on me, Ron scorned me with most of the school including our Quidditch team and you stuck with them," Harry saw the doors open and Professor McGonagall step out whilst Krum looked about in front of her. "I took your side in our first year, you remember that still, don't you?"
Hermione's eyes took on a quality that he didn't understand and one that he wasn't given the time to, for within the next few seconds, Lucretia had pushed him and Alice towards Professor McGonagall's gesturing arms. It was time for the opening of the Yule Ball by the Champions and their dates. That meant it was time for him to dance in front of everybody… with Alice.
"You have nothing to worry about, Harry," Alice whispered to him as they approached his Professor. "Dancing is fun when done with the right partner, and I can assure you, a better fish out of the water, you will never find."
He couldn't help the wide smile that formed on his face and it was with that look, as well as one mirrored on Alice's face, that they would greet the rest of the Yule Ball with.