Upon returning to the castle, Harry first sent a letter to Sirius. Then he and his friends returned to the Gryffindor tower, where they were greeted as champions. The Gryffindors celebrated their champions' victory all evening until late at night, and only returned to their dormitories at midnight. As he lay down to sleep, Harry looked at the miniature Hungarian Horntail he had extracted from the red silk bag earlier that day. The Horntail yawned, curled up and closed its eyes. Harry was slightly surprised in that moment. Indeed, Hagrid was right when he called it a cute creature. It truly was a lovely creature.

December brought clouds, wind, and snow. Sometimes, eerie sounds could be heard in the castle corridors caused by drafts. In the classrooms, glassware tinkled softly during lessons, and the wind whistled in the corridors.

During the first care of magical creatures class in December, Rita Skeeter unexpectedly showed up and began writing yet another article. Watching her, Harry immediately realized that her next masterpiece would be anything but kind and aimed at Hagrid. To his own regret, he knew he couldn't do anything about it and could only hope that the article wouldn't be as devastating as her usual ones.

But then, something unexpected happened. One day, Professor McGonagall announced that there would be a Yule Ball this year. A week earlier, Harry would have thought the need to invite someone to the ball was nonsense, as battling a dragon for the right to possess the golden egg was much scarier. But now he had doubts. How does one invite a girl to the ball? Who should he invite?

However, all of Harry's questions were answered when he and Jeanne started receiving invitations from completely unfamiliar girls, sometimes even from other houses. He noticed that everyone suddenly began to show respect towards him and Jeanne, perhaps influenced by their victory over the Horntail. Most of the badges supporting Cedric disappeared, and no one even asked Jeanne any questions when one morning, ten Slytherins woke up with their underwear in the toilet or hanging from the gargoyles. Harry thought, upon hearing about it, that she was already getting the hang of it with this trick. Little did he know what was really happening in the depths of her soul and what, according to her, those Slytherins truly deserved.

Throughout these days, he always remembered Rita Skeeter and eagerly anticipated an article about Hagrid. He was very pleased when no such article appeared.

Time passed, demanding that he invite a girl to the ball. Harry thought about Cho Chang, a seeker from the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. When he bumped into her in the corridor, he blurted out something incomprehensible. Recovering in time, he invited Cho to the ball, but then became disappointed when she said she was going with Cedric. Feeling sad, he unexpectedly met an even more crestfallen Ron in the Gryffindor tower. It turned out that Ron had invited Fleur Delacour to the ball. Unsuccessfully, of course. After discussing their problems, they discovered that the two of them, as well as Neville, didn't have partners in their year.

"Do you know who he asked? Hermione!" Ron said.

"It can't be..." Harry couldn't believe his ears.

Ron tried to dismiss his doubts by telling the story of how Hermione went with Neville. Ron found that moment in their friend's life funny, but Ginny reacted angrily.

"Don't you dare laugh!" she snapped.

Meanwhile, Hermione entered the entrance hall, wondering why her friends hadn't come for dinner in the Great Hall. Following her, Jeanne walked into the common room. And suddenly, after all the discussions about Neville and Harry and Ron's failures, Ron viewed his friends completely differently.

- Hermione! Jeanne! - Ron's eyes widened. - You're girls!

- Wow, how perceptive. - Jeanne waved it off.

- How did you figure it out? - Hermione asked with obvious irony in her voice.

- Could you go to the ball with me and Harry?

- I couldn't!

- Oh come on. - Ron said in a friendly manner. - We need a couple. It's embarrassing for us! Everyone has someone, except us...

- I can't go with you. - Hermione suddenly blushed. - I'm already going with someone else.

- You're not going with anyone. You just said that to get away from Neville!

- Get away? Is that what you think? - Dangerous sparks danced in Hermione's eyes. - Ron, you never noticed for three years that I'm a "catch". But there are people who noticed!

- Well, I'll go. - Jeanne suddenly spoke with a particular sneer in her voice and a look. - But I'll go with Harry.

At that moment, the conceit on her face reached such a level that Ron expected to see her making faces with her tongue sticking out. But looking at her, Ron realized - she didn't need to. She didn't need to make faces to tease someone, she didn't even need to sprinkle with numerous words and come up with sharp epithets to make fun of someone. Jeanne was one of those people who only needed to keep the same expression on her face, regardless of the situation.

- Is that so? - Ron flared up, jumping up and coming face to face with Jeanne in one swift motion. - And why weren't you invited, I wonder?

Inside Ron, everything was raging, he felt as if a fierce battle of two armies consisting of the deadliest scorpions and snakes was taking place in his heart. Jeanne looked at her angry friend as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. It seemed as if she was used to seeing people in anger. Harry, looking at her, thought that she had already crossed the line and could cross it even more if she simply changed her facial expression. The slightest change in her facial expression, and she would surpass Malfoy, humiliating Ron with just one look.

- You know - nobody wants to be friends with me and only you, Hermione, and Harry make up my circle of acquaintances. Who would invite me? Boys who couldn't walk properly for a week after their disastrous dates in their own traps?

She remained calm and even erased the usual proud smirk from her face. During the conversation with Ron, she - and this was rare - did not look like a person who was ready to trample the whole world at any moment.

- But then... why Harry? - Ron puzzled.

- Remember that article by Rita Skeeter? - Jeanne turned to Harry. - I don't think you want to get the same one the morning after the ball.

- Oh... I see. - Ron reacted. - Are you afraid of Skeeter the reporter?

- She's right, Ron. You'll wake up famous without even knowing about the mysterious love triangle, where Granger wasn't invited. - Ginny was extremely unhappy.

- Forget about Skeeter! - Ron clicked his tongue in annoyance. - Now we can't even invite a girl to a ball because of her.

- Don't despair, Ron. - Ginny comforted her brother. - There are still the Patil sisters.

On Christmas morning, Harry accidentally woke up Dobby. The house-elf looked at Harry with such attention and interest that he wondered if Dobby had seen a speck of dust in his eyes. As it turned out, Dobby had come to give Harry a Christmas present, which turned out to be socks. Harry accidentally woke up Ron with his exclamation, but the friends did not panic and together gave the house-elf two pairs of socks: Harry - his uncle Vernon's old yellow socks, and Ron - a maroon pair. Both examined their gifts, among which Harry found a present from Sirius - a folding pocket knife with lock picks for all locks and a needle that unraveled any knot. Shortly before this day, he received a response from Sirius to his letter, in which Sirius congratulated his godson on successfully completing the task and told him about his method of defeating the dragon. Sirius was impressed with the method chosen by Harry and warned him to stay on guard: according to him, the conspirator behind Harry's placement in the Tournament is somewhere nearby and will reveal themselves. The enemy will surely strike from behind at the first opportunity - Sirius warned. Sirius's gift seemed more than symbolic - he undoubtedly believed that Harry would find such a versatile tool useful to avoid trouble or get out of it. Harry understood this and felt immense gratitude towards his godfather for his care.

In the evening, the Gryffindor common room was filled with students dressed not in black, but in their formal robes. Everyone was ready for the ball, excited and happy. However, Harry couldn't see Jeanne nearby, and Ron was looking for Hermione. Ron had even met Parvati already, and various couples passed by, including Fleur with Roger Davies, and even Malfoy with Pansy Parkinson. Harry felt very awkward. The ball was supposed to start any minute now, but Jeanne was nowhere to be seen.

"Participants of the Tournament, please come this way," Professor McGonagall's voice sounded.

Two girls immediately came forward, and Harry's jaw dropped. Hermione's appearance surprised him the most, as she had never dressed so beautifully and femininely before, her usually protruding front teeth even vanishing, making it impossible to recognize her. When she approached Krum, the Bulgarian seeker's fans wanted to kill her on the spot. Pansy Parkinson stared wide-eyed at her, and even Malfoy was speechless.

Jeanne looked just as disheveled as always, but in combination with her lilac-black dress adorned with roses, any thoughts about her hairstyle disappeared. She approached Harry.

"You... uh... look great," he said.

"Thank you," she replied, took his hand, and then whispered challengingly, "Let go of my hand - I'll break all your fingers so Madam Pomfrey can't help you."

"What? What are you talking about?" Harry didn't understand. "I wasn't planning on letting go of your hand!"

"And your feet," Jeanne continued. "Step on my foot - you'll have to learn to walk again."

"Oh... I mean..."

"Let's go already!"

The doors to the Great Hall opened, and the crowd poured into the hall.

For the first time, Harry danced with Jeanne. He gazed into her huge amber eyes and caught glimpses of the ballroom, the festive lights, and her genuine interest in dancing.

"Well, Harry?" she asked him with a slight smirk. "Was it scarier to ask a girl to dance than to defeat a dragon?"

"Either way, it's all behind me now - the invitation and the dragon," he replied.

Jeanne burst into her bright, rolling laughter in response.

"Couldn't have been any other way, Harry."

As they spun in the white dance to the beautiful music and looked into each other's eyes, Harry couldn't help but realize that this moment in his life would never repeat. Whoever he meets in this life, the words, the looks, the dances, and the touch of hands will never be the same. Everything will be different, so Harry tried to capture the inevitably fleeting time in his memory forever, cherishing every moment.

Even the argument between Hermione and Ron couldn't erase this impression from his mind. Not even the accidental secret he had witnessed between Karkaroff and Snape contributed to it. Ron and Harry accidentally noticed the two of them when they went for a walk near the castle after the ball. They also accidentally saw Madame Maxime and Hagrid from a distance. Harry was still so caught up in the ball that he didn't pay any attention to the bug on the stone deer. There could be all sorts of bugs not hibernating in the wizarding world in winter. Meanwhile, Hagrid was inquiring of Madame Maxime about which relatives of hers were giants.

Returning to the Hogwarts common room, Harry ran into Cedric. He called him for a private conversation, and when Harry parted ways with Ron, Cedric advised him to open the golden egg underwater in the prefects' bathroom. Cedric kindly shared the way to get to the Room of Requirement and the password.

When Harry entered the Gryffindor common room, he found Ron and Hermione arguing. The argument ended with Hermione storming off to the girls' dormitory. Harry wasn't in the mood to say anything to his friend or explain, as he had just made up with him not long ago, but he didn't agree with Ron in their heated argument.

Harry saw a young woman in black armor standing in front of an unfamiliar hunchbacked man with strabismus. The man's eyes looked in different directions from his nose, and his unpleasant twisted appearance immediately reminded Harry of the popular hunchback from the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. The man laughed loudly, holding a golden cup in his hands, in which the rainbow flame slowly died down. The dancing multicolored light of the flickering flame cast sharp shadows on the man's face, distorting it. Looking at him, Harry could say - in the past, he was a tall, handsome man of noble blood. He wouldn't even dare to guess what had caused such a terrible metamorphosis. Harry looked into the face of the girl standing in front of the man and recognized Jeanne. He caught himself thinking that he had already seen this image in an accidentally vivid vision during their first meeting, but he didn't attach any importance to it at that time.

The dream changed. The girl was staring at her exact replica, clad in polished armor with a blue cloak. The resemblance between them was absolute. It seemed like she was standing in front of a mirror, admiring her reflection. With each passing second, the girl's face in black armor distorted more and more with anger and fury.

"I hate it!" she yelled and struck her copy with her fists, but it remained unscathed.

In an instant, the girl in black armor was lying on the floor, while her copy stood over her with a look of regret.

"I just wanted to prove who the real Jeanne d'Arc is!" she said.

"Is that so?" her copy asked.

The dream abruptly changed again. This time, the girl led a small group of loyal soldiers into battle against an countless army. Her banner with black symbols fluttered behind her, a pitch-black sword lay in her hand, and her bloodstained face gleamed with satisfaction. A whole city was on fire, with bonfires in the streets and people tied to posts, some with multiple individuals. A swarm of cruel wyverns flew overhead, setting houses ablaze and snatching people. Cries filled the air, children cried somewhere, unruly dogs growled, and battle cries resounded from both sides. But if one looked closely, they could see the most intense hatred and indescribable fear in the eyes of the young yellow-haired warriors who had taken up swords for the first time to defend their city. The bold and self-satisfied girl in black blood-stained armor ran through the corpses of the city's residents and ruthlessly beheaded anyone in her path. Her strikes were precise, her movements agile and fast, unlike the unfortunate boys who dared to challenge her. One swung his sword and faltered, another tripped over a bump, a third slipped on smooth stones, the fourth was snatched by a wyvern, and the fifth was just as close to victory as to death, which the tempted old woman with a scythe could not resist and took him along with her after a swing of her black sword.

Harry watched all this and horrified, mentally prayed to leave this nightmarish dream as soon as possible, but awakening remained astronomically far away from him.

In the end, Harry saw the heroine of his nightmare enter a house where a family of three was hiding. The father of the family, who had stood up to protect his loved ones, was the first to die. He shouted something to his wife, and she, taking the child, fled into the next room. He took up a sword and swung at his opponent several times. She advanced resolutely and didn't change her intentions, only laughing mockingly at him. The clash of metal was heard, and he lay at the doorstep, his eyes reflecting the smoke-covered sky. The deadly girl silently stepped over him. With a kick, she knocked down the massive oak door. In the room, the wife of the slain man and her child were hiding. The mother knelt before her, clasping her hands in front of her. In tears, she begged for mercy. The villainess only laughed and with a graceful movement of her hand, pushed the defenseless woman away. She let out a short scream in mid-air. The blow. The woman gently slid down the wall and fell silent. The baby started crying. The villainess looked at the crib. She approached and raised her sword to strike.

"Harry, wake up!" Ron's voice woke him up from his sleep, and Harry felt tears streaming down his face and a shiver running through his entire body.