Oh hai Reader, welcome to the next chapter of Cruel Angel Thesis. I hope you enjoy it as much as I had writing it and now on to the review.
girani4: Really? I thought Charles acted more like Kyle/Ciaran/Ren, but I can see it a little. As for the other question, no, Crossingfields is not cancelled, it's just on-hold for the moment.
Now story time.
"Okay that's enough for today. I have something to say to you all." Jeager said through the Combat Class, "The Yule Ball is approaching, a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above, although it isn't against the rules to invite a younger student."
Lavender let out a shrill giggle. Parvati nudged her hard in the ribs, her face working furiously as she too fought not to giggle. They both looked around at Alex.
"Indeed, Miss Brown. Anyway, dress robes will be worn." Jeager continued, "And the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to let our hair down."
The Gryffindor Six shared a knowing laugh among each other. If everything they heard about Jeager from Snape and Flitwick, their Combat Professor had experience with letting his neatly combed hair down.
"But that does not mean, that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we expect from Hogwarts students." Jeager said with a roll of his eyes as the bell rang, and there was the usual scuffle of activity as everyone packed their bags and swung them onto their shoulders.
"Harry! Claire! A moment, please!" the teacher called above the noise.
Harry and Claire proceeded to the teacher's desk. Professor Jeager waited until the rest of the class had gone, and then said, "So McGonagall asked me to inform you that as champions, you and your partners will open the dance at the Yule Ball."
"Dance partners?" Harry said, looking at Claire, who looked just as surprised as him.
"I can't dance..." Claire mumbled, "Can I go for another round against the dragon?"
"Unfortunately no, Girl of Steel, and believe me, I asked for you." Jeager said, knowingly, "It is traditional, you are a Hogwarts champion, and you will do what is expected of you as a representative of the school. So make sure you get yourself a partners. I am so sorry..."
Never had so many people to put their names down to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. Tis 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 that weren't named Claire, and it was amazing how many girls Hogwarts suddenly seemed to hold.
Girls 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.
"The girls are acting sneaky." Neville said as he was sitting with Harry, Alex and Ron at just a random spot.
"Why do they have to move in packs!?" Harry asked as a dozen or so girls walked past them, snickering and staring at Harry and Alex, "How're you supposed to get one on their own to ask them?"
"Lasso one?" Ron suggested, "Got any idea who you're going to try?" turned to his friends, but none of them gave an answer.
Harry knew perfectly well whom he'd like to ask, but working up the nerve was something else, then there was another fact.
"You know I have a notebook filled with girls who aren't hot enough for me." Alex said, folding his arms behind his head, "But might just be good looking enough for you."
"Alex... Your a bit of a playboy, right?" Neville began.
"I prefer the term charmer." he pointed out, stopping his friend, knowing where this was going, "Alright! I can see that I will have to teach you how to pick up girls! Just! Do! It! Make your dreams come true!"
"I don't think we can..." Ron mumbled, looking to the floor, "It's impossible."
"Yes you can! Nothing is impossible!" Alex said as he started to pace around, making extravagant arm gestures, "Your going to the girl you want, and you get to the point, where everyone else would quit and your not going to stop there! You just do it!"
"I think someone didn't take his pills this morning..." Harry said, rubbing the back of his messy black hair, "Well your not going to have any trouble. I bet they'll be queuing up to go with you."
"Oh please, they already are." Alex said, puffing out his chest just as a curly-haired third-year Hufflepuff girl walked over to them.
"Uhm... A-Alex." she asked, her cheeks lighting up, "W-Would you go to the ball with me?"
"No, sorry." Alex said, the girl walked off looking rather hurt, "See? Just wait Harry. You'll get a taste of tis too."
The following day, Alex had proven corrected, two girls asked Harry, a second year and (to his horror) a fifth year who looked as though she might knock him out if he refused.
"Tis is the best thing ever!" Alex said, after he, Ron and Neville had stopped laughing.
"She was quite good-looking." Ron said fairly.
"She was a foot taller than me." Harry said, still unnerved, "Imagine what I'd look like trying to dance with her."
The last week of term became increasingly boisterous as it progressed. Rumors about the Yule Ball were flying everywhere, 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.
"You know, I think one of Bills friends actually played with the Weird Sister's once." Ron told them one afternoon.
Some of the teachers, like Professor Flitwick, gave up trying to teach them much when their minds were so clearly elsewhere; he allowed them to play games in his lesson on Wednesday. Other teachers were not so generous. Nothing would ever deflect Professor Binns, for example, from plowing on through his notes on goblin rebellions. It was amazing how he could make even bloody and vicious goblin riots sound boring.
Professors McGonagall, Snape and Moody kept them working until the very last second of their classes too. Staring 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."
"You're not exactly straining yourself, though, are you?" Hermione said, looking at him over the top of her Potions notes. Ron was busy building a card castle out of his Exploding Snap pack.
"It's Christmas, Hermione!" Alex said, doodling on some spare parchment. Ron placed the last two cards on top of the castle and the whole lot blew up, singeing his eyebrows as Alex continued to talk, "Anyways, got a date for the Yule Ball yet?"
"Nope." Ron said.
"Well, you'd better hurry up or all the good ones will be gone." Alex said wisely, leaning back into his chair.
"Who're you going with, then?" Neville said.
"I am going to ask her tomorrow, but I want to do it perfect." he said throwing his arms up, "Hermione, help me get dressed tomorrow."
"As painful as it sounds, Alex is right." Neville said, ignoring the offended yell Alex gave, "We should get a move on, you know... ask someone."
"Yeah, don't want to end up with a pair of trolls." Ron added.
Hermione let out a sputter of indignation, "A pair of... what, excuse me?"
"Well... you know." Ron said, shrugging, "I'd rather go alone than with... with Eloise Midgen, say."
"Her acne's loads better lately... and she's really nice!"
"She's gross!" Alex said, agreeing with Ron, "Don't care how nice she is, I rather stick my dick in an ant hill!"
"Oh I see, Alex." Hermione said, bristling, "So basically, you're going to take the best-looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"
"No... I rather have someone who has both. Like Tracy." Alex said, grinning at her, "Or you Hermione!"
"W-wha... I..." Hermione said, looking surprised, "I-I'm going to bed.", and she swept off toward the girls' staircase without another word.
"Ah..." he said with a smug smile, folding his arms behind his head, "Alex wins!"
The Hogwarts staff, demonstrating a continued desire to impress the visitors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, seemed determined to show the castle at its best this Christmas. When the decorations went up. Everlasting icicles had been attached to the banisters of the marble staircase; the usual twelve Christmas trees in the Great Hall were bedecked with everything from luminous holly berries to real, hooting, golden owls, and the suits of armor had all been bewitched to sing carols whenever anyone passed them.
Harry and Claire where walking through a corridor one afternoon, a unusually quite between the two.
"So... You have a date for the ball yet?" Harry said.
"A few guys asked me." Claire said, "...But I turned them down. Not sure why." seeing the relieved look on Harry's face.
"I see... If you don't have a date..." he started but the words kept stuck in his throat. For some reason, he could imagine the voice of Alex in his head, "Harry! You idiot! Just do it! Nothing is impossible! Yesterday you said tomorrow! Just do it! Don't let your dream be dreams!"
A surge of confidence flows through him but he was cut off by Claire. "Say, uhm Harry. If you don't have a date yet, why don't we go together? I mean as friends, since we both need a date..."
Harry let out a slight gasp when he heard that, Harry failed to realize that she was blushing.
"Yes!" Harry said a bit too enthusiastically, feeling his cheeks heat up.
"R-Really!? I-I mean cool." she said quickly. They both smiled awkwardly at each other.
Hermione meanwhile was sitting in the library, adding some finishing touches to an essay she had to write for Professor Vector, but her attention was caught by a small cough. Turning around she saw that it was Alex, but instead of his usual confident mood, he actually looked quite nervous.
"Alex? What are you doing here?" she asked a bit confused, "Weren't you going to ask that girl to the Yule Ball?"
"I am." Alex said, sitting down next to her, "Hermione Jane Granger, would you go to the Yule Ball with me?"
Entering the common room, Harry and Claire looked around, and saw Ron sitting ashen-faced in a distant corner. Ginny was sitting with him, talking to him in what seemed to be a low, soothing voice.
"What happened?" Claire said as she and Harry joined them.
Ron looked up, a sort of blind horror in his face, "Why did I do it?" he said wildly, "I don't know what made me do it!"
"What?" Harry said.
But as Ron was about to explain, his sentence was interrupted when the portret hole swung open and running in came Alex, hands waving in the air as he loudly proclaimed, "She said yes! She said yes!"
He stopped running when he saw everyone sitting around Ron, and the express of horror Ron had on his face. "What's up with him?"
"He... just asked Fleur Delacour to go to the ball with him." Ginny said. She looked as though she was fighting back a smile, but she kept patting Ron's arm sympathetically.
"I don't know what made me do it!" Ron gasped again, "What was I playing at? There were people! All around everyone watching! I was just walking past her in the entrance hall, she was standing there talking to Jeager and it sort of came over me and I asked her!"
"What did she say?", Claire asked.
"She said no of course." Alex said crossing his arms, but Ron moaned and put his face in his hands, "She said yes!?" his eyes widening with shock.
Ron kept talking, though the words were barely distinguishable, "She looked at me like I was a sea slug or something. Didn't even answer. And then... I dunno. I just sort of came to my senses and ran for it."
"Maybe it was the old Veela charm." Claire pondered, "But why would she use it on..."
"This is mad." Ron interrupted, "I am the only one left who hasn't got anyone... well, except Neville."
But then the portret hole opened and Neville came running in, yelling "She said yes!"
"Oh bloody hell." Ron groaned, hiding his face behind his hands again.
"Nice going Neville!" Alex shouted, slapping his friend on the back, "Now who is the girl that has stolen your heart?"
Neville blushed furiously, mumbling something very quickly that they couldn't hear.
"Did anyone understood that?" Ginny asked.
"Luna Lovegood? Nice going Neville!" Alex said, apparently having understood Neville's mumbling as he slapped him on the back again, "How did you accomplish that?"
"I just took your advice, Alex." he admitted, "I went to Luna, I got to the point where everyone else would have quit, I didn't stop there. I just did it!"
"And that's why you should always ignore the advice from Claire and do what I say." Alex said, puffing out his chest as the portret hole opened once again, and this time Hermione entered.
But Ron was staring at Hermione as though suddenly seeing her in a whole new light, "Hermione... you are a girl..."
"You don't say?" she said, "You just figured it out?"
"Well... you can come with one of us!"
"No, I can't." Hermione said, now blushing, "Because I'm already going with someone."
"No, you're not!" Ron said.
"Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a girl!" Hermione said, and her eyes flashed dangerously, and she stormed off toward the girls' dormitories.
"Hermione is a girl?" Alex said smirking cheekily, "I always thought she was the third most feminine boy at Hogwarts... second being me and first being Claire, of course."
"Can I punch him?" Claire growled, but Harry kept a hold on her arm.
"Not yet." he whispered.
"She's lying." Ron said flatly, watching her go.
"She's not." Alex said.
"Who is it then?" Ron said sharply.
"I'm not telling you, it's her business." Alex said with a smirk, "Though I have a feeling he is a tall, handsome young man, with dark hair..."
"Is it you?" Neville cut him off.
"Maybe..." Alex said, having just seen Parvati and Lavender come in through the portrait hole, "Just a sec, Ron.", and he stood up, walked straight up to Parvati.
Snow was falling thickly upon the castle and its grounds now. The pale blue Beauxbatons carriage looked like a large, chilly, frosted pumpkin next to the iced gingerbread house that was Hagrid's cabin, while the Durmstrang ship's portholes were glazed with ice, the rigging white with frost.
Despite the very heavy load of homework that the fourth years had been given for the holidays, they spent the week leading up to Christmas enjoying themselves as fully as possible.
Gryffindor Tower was hardly less crowded now than during term-time; it seemed to have shrunk slightly too, as its inhabitants were being so much rowdier than usual.
Fred and George had had a great success with their Canary Creams, and for the first couple of days of the holidays, people kept bursting into feather all over the place. Before long, however, all the Gryffindor's had learned to treat food anybody else offered them with extreme caution, in case it had a Canary Cream concealed in the center, and George confided to Claire that he and Fred were now working on developing something else. Claire made a mental note never to accept so much as a crisp from Fred and George in future.
The house-elves down in the kitchen were outdoing themselves with a series of rich, warming stews and savory puddings.
"The food is great, but it's a little too heavy for my taste. If I eat more will not fit into my dress robes.", Fleur said one day during diner. Ron had been trying and failing to not making eye contact with Fleur, "I wish I was more like you Claire. You can eat anything and still have an amazing figure."
"Oh, thanks Fleur." Claire said, putting her fork down while eating her fifth serving, looking a bit guilty.
"Yeah, seriously, your lucky." Alex said, "Anybody else would look like a whale if they ate as much as you."
"Bugger off, Alex!" his cousin shot back.
"It bother's you when I say it? That means you have been thinking about it!" he said with a knowing smirk, "If you keep eating that much, you will never get a guy and you will live alone and adopt a bunch of cats and eventually become a crazy cat lady!"
"I don't even own one cat!" Claire protested.
"Give it time..."
"Leave her alone, Alex." Harry said defensively, turning to Claire, "Well, I find your large appetite attractive."
"Thanks, Harry." she smiled at him, while Alex and Adri both had huge smiles on their faces.
"He's defending her." Adri whispered to Alex.
"I know!" he whispered back.
"Hermione, Ronald wants me to ask who you are going to the ball with.", Amelie said suddenly, before continuing eating her soup, not looking up from the book she was reading.
Ron had kept springing this question on her, hoping to startle her into a response by asking it when she least expected it or asking other people to do it for him. However, Hermione merely frowned and said, "Tell him I'm not telling."
"Ronald, she is not telling you." Amelie responded dryly.
"Hermione." Neville said, looking at her, suddenly frowning, "Your teeth..."
"What about them?" she said.
"Well, they're different. I've just noticed, they're all straight and normal-sized."
Claire and Hermione suddenly smiled very mischievously.
"Well... I asked Claire if she knew a spell to fix my teeth a little. And it worked." she smiled even more widely, "Mum and Dad won't be too pleased. I've been trying to persuade them to let me shrink them for ages, but they wanted me to carry on with my braces. You know, they're dentists, they just don't think teeth and magic should go together."
"Dentist in England?" Adri shouted surprised, "That's like being a dietitian in the U.S.A!"
That's another chapter, hope you enjoyed it. Many thanks to everyone who read, review, favorite or follows this story.
So a quick question to those who did read my other HP story. Which is the better couple, Harry and Claire or Harry and Kara? Leave your comment in a review or PM.
For now I wish you all a fantastic day, if you enjoyed my work don't forget to leave a review and I hope to see you ladies and gents next time. Mischief Managed.