Chapter 32

A few days before the Yule Ball Ginny introduced Neville to the Ravenclaw girl that, for some mysterious reason, had agreed to go to the ball with him. Her name was Luna, she was a third year, and she was odd. Neville didn't mind, since she was also nice and didn't look at him with disappointment nor mockery.

She was strange, though. The first thing she said to him was that his head was surrounded by Wrackspurts or something like that. Then she asked him what was his opinion of Nargles. Since he had no idea what any of those things were, he politely apologized for his ignorance and admitted that he didn't have an opinion yet. He had been hoping for an explanation, but instead she directly offered to make a butterbeer cork necklace for him, if he wanted, and she also advised him not to wear anything of value to the ball. Furthermore, she asked him if he was all right with avoiding any mistletoe they might encounter.

Neville figured that she wanted to avoid the mistletoe because of the kissing tradition. Since he didn't expect to be kissed ever by anyone and the mere idea was terrifying, he agreed to that. He was more hesitant about the necklace, until she briefly explained that it was to keep away Nargles. By the way she mentioned those possible creatures Neville had the impression that they were dangerous, and also that fending against them was important to the girl, so in the end he accepted the offer. It couldn't hurt to be protected, right? And she would be less worried that way. He might look silly with a butterbeer cork necklace, but it sounded like she was going to wear one too, and in any case Neville would look pathetic no matter what.

Luna's last question was whether he minded that her dress was silver. Neville said that he didn't mind at all, which seemed to reassured her for some reason. Feeling nervous and confused, he asked her if she minded that his dress robes were black. She didn't mind.

Then she smiled and went away leaving Neville completely perplexed and wondering how he had never known that there was such an odd person inside Hogwarts. Were all Ravenclaw people that way? He didn't think so. At least those in fourth year seemed... normal.

Ginny had hanged around during that strange first meeting, and she was now smiling and maybe trying not to laugh.

"I think you're going to have a great time," she said, sounding excited.

"Is she always... that way?" he asked hesitantly. He didn't want to judge nor to seem ungrateful for the date Ginny had found for him, but he really didn't know what to make of Luna.

"Well, yeah," said Ginny. "She's special. But nice."

He nodded. She had seemed nice. Just a bit odd, but what of it? Neville stumbled with his own feet several times a day. Professor Snape treated him like a retarded person (which was an improvement) and he had melted six cauldrons so far. At least Luna must be smart, since she was a Ravenclaw. Perhaps she was too smart and that's why Neville didn't understand anything she said. Yes, that must be it.

"Do you think I should get her something?" he asked, suddenly panicky. "I mean, she's going to make me a necklace, does she expect me to...?"

Ginny smiled. She was also nice, although in a different way.

"I don't think you have to worry about that, Neville. She's just happy that you accepted the necklace." She hesitated, suddenly looking nervous. "I wanted to tell you something, Neville."

He felt worried at once, for some reason. Ginny almost never looked so serious.

"What...?"

"I... It turns out that I will be going to the ball, after all," she said now looking guilty. "Someone asked me after you."

"Oh." He didn't know what to say. It wasn't surprizing, of course, although it hurt a little.

"I swear that I truly didn't intend to go to the ball at all," she said. "Else I would have said yes to you. Something changed afterwards. I swear it had nothing to do with not wanting to go with you."

Neville felt better. Not that he had any right to feel bad. He had not expected Ginny to say yes to him, and he now felt grateful that she had found another date for him. Ginny was also being nice by explaining to him, even though she didn't owe him anything.

"It's all right, Ginny," he said. "Don't worry about me."

"Do you forgive me?"

"What for?" he asked, confused.

She rolled her eyes.

"For going with someone else."

"Oh. Yeah, sure. It's fine, Ginny, I'm okay. And I'm going with Luna."

She smiled in relief, but she still looked nervous. Was there more?

"I..." Ginny suddenly turned a little red. "I'm going with Harry. Don't be angry at him either, though. He really needs a date to avoid dying."

Neville stared at her in confusion. To avoid dying? What did that mean? He hoped it didn't mean what he thought it meant, that would be just too...

He decided not to think much about it. Harry had a date, in any case, so he would be all right. It was surprizing that he was going with Ginny, though. Neville had been sure that he would be going with Hermione. She had said that she already had a date, when he had asked her, and he had assumed it was Harry, since they were always together and Harry seemed angry at all other girls in general. He wondered who was she going with, then. Not with Ron, since Ron was going with Parvati.

Could Harry really be in danger of dying if he didn't go with a date? That didn't sound like a real thing, but perhaps the Goblet of Fire was just that mean. No wonder Harry was so angry! Now it made sense that he had ran off with his broom the day that Professor McGonagall had announced the Yule Ball, and it also sort of made sense that Snape was constantly mocking Harry about being too coward to face girls. Perhaps it was the man's way of reminding him that he would die if he went dateless. Although no doubt Snape would be pleased if that happened.

Neville felt relieved that Harry had asked Ginny, and that she had said yes even though she had said she wasn't going to go. Of course it made sense that she had accepted, since she liked Harry. He hoped she would not get hurt, because Harry liked Cho Chang as far as Neville knew.

This whole dance and dating thing was really stressful.

"Neville?" pressed Ginny, looking anxious. Oh. He must have forgotten to answer. Had there been a question?

"Hum... it's all right, Ginny, I'm glad you're going with Harry, really. Maybe he won't be so angry if he goes with someone he knows."

She nodded, looking sad and serious. A lot of people looked that way when they talked about Harry, probably Neville too. Although they all tried not to let Harry see their worry.

"Yeah..." Ginny shook her head and smiled at him again. "I really think you will like Luna, Neville. Don't think that the mistletoe issue has anything to do with kissing, it's just something about Nargles as far as I understand. She said it's full of them, whatever those things are."

"Oh."

That was good to know. Not that he expected to be kissed nor that he would ever gather the courage to kiss anyone, but it was nice that Luna had not been immediately against the possibility. She was just worried about Nargles, which was probably wise considering that they sounded dangerous.

He hoped he would not step on her too much when dancing.

Christmas morning started rather abruptly.

At this point they were all used to Harry's screams when he had nightmares and they often managed to sleep through them, but either it had been several days since the last one or he had screamed really loud this time because they all woke up really scared and wrenched their hangings open to see what was going on. Neville was pretty sure that there had been some loud 'bang' too.

Once his eyes agreed to completely open he saw that Harry was sitting in his bed with his wand drawn and a wild look on his eyes, while across the room there was the crazy Elf that they had met in the kitchens, wearing a Christmas bauble tied to one of those weird hats of his and currently climbing to his feet. Had Harry attacked the creature? Neville hadn't heard any incantations, but it wouldn't really surprize him if Harry could do magic without saying anything, like grown-ups. Or perhaps it had been an accident, like last year with his aunt.

After a moment Harry put on his glasses and seemed to calm down when he recognized the Elf. Then his fear turned to guilt and he quickly jumped out of bed to go fuss over the creature. Neville and the rest stared as both Harry and the Elf loudly apologized to each other almost to the point of tears. Apparently the Elf —Dobby— had gone there to give Harry a Christmas present, but it had had the unfortunate idea of leaning too close over a sleeping Harry, which of course hadn't ended well.

It took several minutes for Harry to stop looking so guilty, and even longer for the Elf to stop apologizing and trying to punish himself, at which point everyone else had already woken up completely and started opening presents. Neville got busy with his pile, but he kept an eye on Harry just in case. He saw that he had finally convinced the Elf of stop worrying, and had accepted a pair of really silly —and mismatched— socks as gift. Seamus and Dean had to cover their mouths with their hands to keep themselves from laughing when Harry tried on the socks, which were really ridiculous. But the Elf was ecstatic when Harry said that he loved them and Neville thought it was nice of him to say so even though it was obviously a lie.

Neville had no idea what was going on between Harry and the creature. Dobby was a Hogwarts' Elf (he had gone back to the kitchens to make Christmas dinner), but he behaved as if Harry were his master (or more as if Harry were Merlin himself) and must be disobeying the Headmaster's orders by coming here and showing himself to people. It also was definitely odd that the creature was giving him gifts. None of the Longbottom's Elves had ever given gifts to their masters, as far as Neville knew, it wasn't a normal thing for them to do. But then, Dobby clearly wasn't normal.

Apparently Harry's scream had woken up most of Gryffindor tower, because not long after Fred and George walked in asking who was being murdered. They were already wearing sweaters with their initials on them, although Neville was pretty sure that they were mixed up as usual. When they saw that Ron wasn't wearing his jumper yet they threatened him with forcing it on him like they used to do with Percy, which led to an argument and ended up in the twins dragging Ron off trapped in his own sweater. They tried to convince Harry of going down to breakfast with them too, but he refused, probably because of Ron. The whole situation was uncomfortable and really sad, thought Neville, since it was obvious that both Harry and Ron were miserable and wanted to patch things up and yet they kept avoiding each other.

Seamus and Dean also went down, leaving Neville and Harry alone in the dormitory. Neville was relieved to see that Harry had received a few Christmas presents besides the Elf's socks. After hearing Hermione complaining about the Hogwarts' owls refusing to take flight when she tried to place an order for a book for Harry, he had been afraid no one would be able to send him anything. He had considered to try himself, thinking that Harry could use a warmer scarf of perhaps a new quill, but since Neville wasn't family nor friend that would have been awkward.

Harry had gifts, anyway, so it was all right. Although he didn't look very happy. He had put aside his Weasley jumper with a sad expression and was now staring at a book in his hands.

"Good gifts?" asked Neville shyly. He had already dressed himself and was ready to go down, but Harry looked weird so he didn't want to leave him alone.

Harry shrugged, reaching for something and showing it to Neville with a wry smile on his face.

"A tissue," he said. "Very useful."

Neville frowned in confusion.

"That's... a present?"

"Yeah. My Aunt and Uncle really went all out this year. Hermione got me a really cool book on Quidditch, though."

He showed him the book too, a different one from the one on his lap. Neville wasn't paying much attention to any books, though. Had he heard right? Had Harry's relatives sent him a tissue? Was that some family joke? Or was Harry messing with him? Neville knew that he didn't get along with his relatives, but...

He was beginning to understand why Harry always spent the Christmas breaks at Hogwarts. This was the first time that Neville stayed too, so he had no idea what presents Harry had received the previous Christmases, but if a tissue was an improvement... Why would anyone send something like that? Wouldn't it be better not to send anything? Harry didn't seem surprized at all by that present, nor very upset by it. He had gone back to staring at the book on his lap, which cover he was now tracing with his fingers.

"That looks nice," observed Neville, trying to cheer him up. It did look like a very nice book, even from a distance. It had some sort of picture on the cover, and a title in elegant golden letters.

"Yeah... It's probably just a prank," said Harry, sounding unsure. After staring a bit more, he put it aside and began preparing for breakfast too.

Neville knew it was none of his business, but after the tissue thing he was curious and even a little concerned, so while he waited for Harry he approached his bed and took a look at the book.

For a moment he forgot to breathe.

The title of the book was 'My Little Mermaid', and there was some sort of half-woman half-fish on the cover, sitting on a rock. Neville had been helping Hermione with her research on Merpeople whenever Harry wasn't around, so he knew that they didn't really look like this, but clearly the book was about a mermaid. Someone had been able to send Harry a clue!

"M-may I?" he asked, his voice trembling.

Harry nodded, so Neville gingerly picked up the book and leafed through it for a bit. It seemed like a children's tale, he realized after a moment, probably a muggle one since the pictures weren't moving.

"Who is it from?" he asked, unable to stop himself. Maybe Hermione had managed after all? She was Muggle-born, so she must know about muggle fairy tales, and if someone could figure out how to get past the Goblet's evil rules it must be her.

Harry shrugged.

"Dunno," he said, finishing tying his shoes and coming over. "Doesn't have a note. It came with this, though."

He picked up another gift and showed it to Neville. At first he didn't understand what it was, but then it became clear and he again had trouble breathing.

It was a pair of swimming trunks.

"It's probably just a prank," said Harry again, putting away his scarce presents and crumpling the paper wraps. "I don't even know how to swim, so it's useless. The book is nice, though." He seemed embarrassed. "I know it's stupid, but I never had fairy tales when I was little. Always wanted some. So... breakfast?"

Neville wanted to say something to Harry, to tell him that it wasn't a prank, that the book was a clue and the swimming trunks definitely would be useful, but the words caught in his throat so in the end he just nodded. He wanted to cry while he followed Harry down to the Common Room, especially when it finally sank in what he had said about not knowing how to swim. And the whole thing about not having ever had a fairy tale was also terribly sad.

Could life be more unfair for Harry?

He found a moment to talk to Hermione after breakfast, and he was surprized to see that she was just as shocked as he had been about Harry receiving those presents. She assured him, with a frustrated expression, that she had not been able to send him anything useful, but she agreed in that someone must have found the way. Then she lost herself in thought for like five minutes straight, like she sometimes did when she seemed to be reviewing the entire contents of a really complicated book inside her head.

"All right," she said at last, looking deadly serious. "Don't tell anyone, Neville. Let's keep this a secret, just in case. Cheating is against the rules, so the Goblet must not know, and the judges either."

"But who's cheating?" he asked in confusion. "I mean, Harry had no idea..."

"I don't know," admitted Hermione, looking even more frustrated. "But clearly someone is trying to help him, and that can only be good. Hopefully he will realize and... Did you say that he doesn't know how to swim?"

Now she was alarmed. Neville felt like crying again. All right, perhaps a few tears escaped.

"Don't worry," rushed to comfort him Hermione. "I don't think knowing how to swim is all that important anyway. There are magical means to help with that. Harry will figure it out, don't worry."

She didn't look convinced at all, but Neville agreed to try and not worry so much. What else could they do? Teaching Harry how to swim would be impossible, he could already feel it inside. Perhaps Harry would at least read the book, if only because he seemed to like fairy tales. Neville would like to read it himself even though he wasn't a little kid anymore.

The rest of the day passed quickly enough. Harry didn't seem to be in a Christmas mood at all, but that didn't stop the twins from making sure he participated of Christmas at least a bit. After making sure he was not going to cast the Killing Curse on them, they proceeded to force his jumper on him just like they had done with Ron, which in Neville's opinion was a nice thing to do. Harry had always liked his Weasley jumpers, but clearly he had felt guilty about wearing one being things as they were with Ron.

As he watched them all laughing and, in Harry's case, grumbling, Neville felt a tiny pang of envy. Even Hermione had a Weasley jumper, and there was something about those sweaters that made anyone with one look like part of the same family. There was obviously so much warmth and love put into them! Neville knew that Mrs. Weasley was a really kind person, motherly in all she did (although she could also send really frightening Howlers), and part of him would wish to have a mum like her too.

Of course Neville had his gran, and Uncle Algie, and his parents were alive if somewhat damaged, but there had not been a warm sweater in his pile of presents.

Maybe it was just that he missed home. This was the first time that he spent Christmas away, without his gran. She might not be too warm, but she was family and they had their little Christmas traditions. Like going to St. Mungos to visit his mum and dad.

Neville was a little sad. But he was glad that at least Harry had gotten a jumper. He didn't have parents at all, and apparently he also didn't even have relatives who cared in the least.

Life was unfair for some people.