In the last
week of term Prof. McGonagall came to Gryffindor Tower to see who would be
staying for Christmas.
‘Remember,’ she said. ‘All
who are staying will be having another ball on New Years Eve and you must have
your dress robes to attend. If you do attend the ball are obliged to
be accompanied by a partner.’
Few people
stayed however. Recently there had been a lot of news in the Daily Prophet about
Voldemort killing more and more people. Already it had amounted to thirty-seven
according to Hermione since the previous July in the U.K. alone and people
wanted to be with their families where they felt safer (even though Hermione
continued to point out that Dumbledore is the only person that Voldemort
feared). Harry, Ron and Hermione however stayed. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going
to visit Charlie in Romania again and Hermione wanted to do study in the library
because there she could look up extra information and somehow fit them into her
answers for her O.W.L. exams – that way she hoped that she might earn more
points and get more OWLs. as a result.
‘Who are you going to invite to
the ball?’ Ron asked looking as though he hadn’t a clue who to ask. Harry
had already made up his mind though. He had been feeling something strange for
the past couple of months, which he found hard to explain even to Ron.
Ignoring Ron, Harry walked over to
a group of fourth years just as Prof. McGonagall had finished taking their
names. Ginny Weasley walked away from the group and towards Harry.
Harry knew he must say this now or
he wouldn’t be able to say it again.
‘Do you want to go to the ball
with me?’ they both asked at the same time and then laughed.
‘Sure,’ they both said
together, casually, but knowing that this ‘sure’ meant a lot more than just
going to the ball with each other. Ginny took Harry’s hand in her own and
walked over to Ron and Hermione. Ron was bright red and Hermione was looking
very pleased.
‘So, who are you two bringing to
the ball?’ asked Ginny brightly.
‘We’re bringing each other,’
replied Hermione, just as happy as Ginny. ‘I see you two have both crossed the
line. It’s about time too. I never thought it would take four years for this
to happen.’
‘Look who’s talking,’ said
Harry. ‘I’ve been waiting for five years for both of you two to cross
the line.’
‘We’ve been waiting for the
right moment,’ replied Ron defensively.
‘So have we,’ said Harry.
For the rest of the night and long
after the Gryffindor common room had emptied Harry and Ginny sat talking in
front of the fire about anything and everything while Hermione and Ron did the
same opposite them. Harry told Ginny all about Sirius and how he was innocent,
however, the one thing Harry never mentioned and never would was, of course, The
Order.
When Harry finally went back to the
dormitory with Ron and got into his four-poster all he could think about was
Ginny and how glad he was that she felt the same way towards him as he did
towards her.
***
The next day
Harry was walking back from the Care of Magical Creatures class towards the
Great Hall for dinner. Ron and Hermione were walking hand in hand. Hermione and
Ron’s new relationship hadn’t jeopardized Harry’s friendship with them at
all. Just then Ginny came out of her Transfiguration class.
‘Hi,
Harry!’ she called happily running over to him and giving him a big hug.
‘Hi,’
said Harry back with a smile and returning the hug while going slightly red as
people looked at the pair.
‘Well,
well,’ came a drawl from behind them. ‘Looks like famous Potter’s got
himself a girlfriend. But even you could do better than that thing, Potter.
Maybe one day he’d buy you a new shoe, Weasley. You’ve obviously never had
one before by the looks of what you’re wearing.’
‘Eat dirt,
Malfoy,’ said Ron almost smoking at the ears.
‘Oh! Looks
like Weasley’s got himself a girl too,’ said Malfoy, his grin widening.
‘Never thought you’d stoop as low as Mudblood though, even if you are a
Weasley.’
It seemed as
though Ginny had had enough. She whipped out her wand pointed it directly at
Malfoy and shouted ‘Roceto Oriel!’
A huge burst
of fire shot out of Malfoy’s right ear and the force propelled him straight
into the corridor wall where he slumped onto the ground unconscious.
‘Where did
you learn that?’ asked Ron amazed.
‘Figg
taught us it in Defence Against the Dark Arts,’ said Ginny. ‘She said it
could be used on Dark wizards as a defence mechanism. I figured that Malfoy is
as Dark thing we’re ever going to find and I wanted to defend our minds from
the rubbish he was talking.’
They then set
off towards the Great Hall while people stared at their backs and Crabbe and
Goyle tried clumsily to lift Malfoy to his feet. Hermione and Ginny went ahead
because Hermione wanted to hear more about the spell and Ron and Harry followed.
‘You have
got to be careful of yourself, Harry,’ said Ron. ‘You don’t want to make
Ginny angry.’
***
Christmas Day
came and the Hogwarts grounds had a blanket of the whitest snow covering them.
Harry woke to find a pile of presents at the end of his bed.
‘Merry
Christmas!’ he called to Ron who woke with a start. The rest of the Gryffindor
fifth year boys had gone home for Christmas, so Harry and Ron had the dormitory
to themselves.
Harry went to
the end of his bed to the presents and picked up a large heavy box rapped in
scruffy wrapping paper. It was from Hagrid. He tore off the wrapping to reveal a
wooden crate half filled with straw. Resting on top of the straw was-
‘He
wouldn’t,’ said Harry fearing the worst.
‘He
wouldn’t what?’ asked Ron. Harry pulled what was resting on top of the straw
out of the box. It was a large speckled egg. He laid it on the bed.
‘A dragon
egg?’ asked Ron. ‘What are you
going to do with that? What happens when it hatches?’
Just then
Hermione and Ginny came in smiling and both wearing a Weasley jumper.
Hermione’s was lemon yellow and Ginny’s was purple. Their smiles soon faded
when they saw what was lying on the bed.
‘Where did
you get that,’ asked Hermione but by the look on her face she already knew and
didn’t want to hear. Just then it started to shake. A tapping noise came from
inside. They stared at it waiting for the thing inside to pop out. Finally the
shell cracked and broke. A large, brown baby dragon burst out. It looked around
at the faces that were staring horrified at it.
‘What are
you going to call it?’ asked Ron his voice shaking. ‘Norbert II?’
Harry
didn’t have time to answer. The dragon had just turned to him. It spluttered a
bit and then a great big flame shot out of its nostrils straight at Harry. Harry
ducked out of the way just in time and felt the fire singe his hair. But just as
the flames had reached the hair on Harry’s head they turned brown and solid.
In fact the whole dragon stopped moving.
‘It’s
chocolate,’ said Ginny sounding overjoyed at the fact that the dragon wasn’t
real.
Harry felt
like cursing Hagrid at that moment although he was sure in a few days he would
look back and laugh. It looked as though there was enough chocolate in the
dragon to last him a month (though he was certain that it would be a day if he
was helped by Ron).
Harry then
opened the rest of his presents. Mrs. Weasley had sent him another green jumper
with the head of the Gryffindor lion on the front and a large slab of Christmas
cake, loads of sweets from Ron, Hermione and Ginny (Bertie Bott’s Every
Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Fizzing Whizzbees, levitating sherbet balls,
Drooble’s Best Blowing Bubble Gum, Pepper Imps and Cockroach Clusters) and
Sirius had sent him a book of hexes, invisibility and animagus’.
‘What’s
he doing sending you that,’ said Ginny wondering if their was something Harry
hadn’t told her.
‘Oh, you
know what Sirius was like when he was in school,’ Harry lied. ‘He probably
just wants me to have the same fun he did.’
Just then
Fred and George came in. ‘Got our present, Ron,’ said Fred smiling.
‘Oh, no,’ said Ron. ‘I’m
not opening one of your presents. I’m not that stupid.’
‘It’s nothing bad. Just
something we decided that we thought you could do with,’ said George.
Ron reached down under all the torn
wrapping paper and pulled his hand back up holding a present wrapped in paper
with a moving Father Christmas on it. He tore open the wrapping and pulled out
dress robes of a dark blue. They had no frills on the cuffs and they weren’t a
bit mouldy like his last dress robes. They were brand new. Ron seemed very
pleased and relieved that he didn’t have to wear those horrible maroon robes
again this year.
When they went down to the Great
Hall for their Christmas dinner it was decorated in the usual twelve Christmas
trees. Fake snow was falling from the cloudy ceiling above and fairies flew
around whistling Christmas tunes (fairies can’t talk the same language as
humans and converse in a high-pitched buzzing noise).
***
The week
passed quickly and Harry, Ron and the Weasley twins spent most of the time
having snowball fights in the large grounds of Hogwarts while Hermione and Ginny
spent most of the time talking or joining in. Hermione also studied a lot in the
library (‘You two should be doing the same – there’s only six months until
we have to sit the OWLs’ with which Harry and Ron replied by throwing
snowballs at her).
Soon the week was up and it was
time to get ready for the New Year’s Eve Ball. After a last snowball fight
Ron, Harry, Fred and George headed up to the Gryffindor common room (Hermione
and Ginny had headed up and hour before them) and got ready for the ball that
would start at eight o’clock and, as with last year, they would have their
dinner there as well.
Harry headed down from the
dormitory to the common room wearing his bottle-green dress robes with Ron
wearing his new dark blue dress robes. Hermione and Ginny weren’t finished
getting ready until five minutes to eight and came down to the common room
together. They both looked very pretty. Hermione in her robes of periwinkle blue
and her hair once again straightened. Ginny was wearing long robes of beige.
Every other Gryffindor had already
headed down so the four of them made their way quickly down to the Great Hall.
When they got there Dumbledore was just opening the doors to the Hall and then
he led Prof. McGonagall through and sat her down at one of the five round
tables– one for the teachers and one each for the different houses. These had
replaced the four long house tables that usually stood there.
And so the feast started followed
by the ball. Once again the Weird Sisters had come to play and Harry got up with
Ginny to dance along with most of the other students. They spent most of the
night dancing under the starlit ceiling and then they went outside for a walk
around the white grounds of Hogwarts.
It was cold outside but Harry
didn’t mind. He was with Ginny now and nothing was going to stop how he felt
towards her. They had walked all the way to the greenhouses when Ginny did
something quite unexpected. She kissed him quickly on the lips. Then she smiled
at him and walked back towards the great oak front doors leaving Harry stunned
and astonished back at the green houses.
Harry quickly came to his senses
and walked after her but when he got to the Entrance Hall Ginny wasn’t there.
He went into the Great Hall and found the whole congregation holding hands and
counting down to the New Year. He found Ginny, Ron and Hermione at the other end
of the Hall and squeezed in between Ginny and Ron.
‘Ten, nine, eight,’ everyone
shouted. When they called out one everyone cheered and Dumbledore started
everyone off on a chorus of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ while Dr Filibuster’s
Fabulous No-Heat, Wet-Start Fireworks were set off by Fred and George and
streamers fell from the night sky.
When the party was finally over,
well after mid-night, everyone went back to their dormitories. Ron seemed to
fall asleep immediately but Harry couldn’t stop thinking about what Ginny had
just done down at the greenhouses.