December 24th arrived.
The snowstorm that had battered Hogwarts for nearly a week had finally exhausted itself during last night, leaving behind an eerie silence that seemed almost unnatural after days of howling wind and snow.
The castle and its surrounding grounds lay buried beneath a thick blanket of white that turned their landscape into something like a sugar-frosted cake.
However, the atmosphere inside the castle was vastly different to the peaceful, frozen scene visible through the windows. The Yule Ball was scheduled for tomorrow evening, and the castle's interior trembled with anxiety, and excitement as students scrambled to finalize their preparations.
After considerable internal debate, Harry had finally chosen a dance partner: Parvati Patil, a pretty girl from his own year.
It didn't sound particularly romantic or chivalrous when he admitted the truth to himself, but faced with limited time and rising pressure, he had basically chosen the girl he found most attractive from among those who might possibly accept his invitation.
He first wanted to invite Cho Chang who was a year ahead of him and had occupied far too much of his thoughts during recent months. Unfortunately, Cedric had asked her on the very first day that the ball had been announced to the students.
The speed and decisiveness of Cedric's approach had been impressive or perhaps terrifying, depending on one's perspective.
As for Ron's situation:
"I completely forgot about this entire partner situation!" He wailed with panic in the Gryffindor common room early in the morning. "How could I have let this happen?"
"I remember reminding you about this deadline at least two days ago," Harry replied with patient helplessness, having anticipated exactly this scenario for several weeks. "I specifically mentioned that you needed to get a partner before all the realistic options were partnered by other students."
"I reminded you as well," Hermione added from her favorite armchair near the fireplace, turning around to fix Ron with a look that combined sympathy with frustration at his typical inability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously. "But clearly, your attention has been completely absorbed by other concerns lately."
Harry naturally understood the nature of those consuming concerns.
Ron had been dedicating almost every waking moment to preparing for his upcoming rematch with Malfoy, throwing himself into duel and spell practice with resolute intensity that was almost obsessive. Nearly all his free time between classes and meals had been spent on wand work, spell memorization, and dueling technique fine-tuning.
When someone committed themselves so fully to a particular goal, everything else inevitably became trivial or forgotten. The upcoming duel had consumed Ron's entire mental energy, leaving no room for trivial concerns like finding a partner for ball.
"What am I supposed to do now?" Ron said to his two closest friends with desperate urgency, his face showing panic now. "Every decent girl in our year has probably already been asked by someone else. I'm going to end up standing alone in some corner like a complete social outcast."
"I honestly assumed that you two would attend the ball together," Harry observed, glancing between Ron and Hermione with an expression that said this pairing had seemed obvious from his external perspective.
Hermione immediately shook her head.
"Absolutely not—that would be far too strange and uncomfortable for everyone involved,"
"I completely agree," Ron added with a grimace. "It would feel like we're excluding you... Wait a moment... Hermione, your teeth look straighter than usual. Have you done something different."
Hermione instinctively raised one hand to cover her mouth, but quickly forced herself to lower it again with forced casualness, refusing to appear embarrassed about her appearance modifications.
"I had to make certain preparations," She explained with apparent nonchalance. "This is the Yule Ball, after all, one of the most important social events we'll attend during our time at Hogwarts. Presenting oneself appropriately is simply common sense."
"Who asked you to be their partner?" Harry inquired with genuine curiosity, realizing that Hermione had never mentioned having gotten an invitation despite clearly planning to attend the ball.
"That is a secret," Hermione replied with a mysterious smile. "Besides, we should be focusing our attention on resolving Ron's crisis instead of discussing my arrangements. Attending the ball without a partner would be genuinely awkward and quite miserable for him."
Harry scratched his messy hair as his mind raced through the remaining available options, then experienced a sudden flash of inspiration that seemed almost too obvious to have escaped his notice earlier.
"Ron, you should try asking Padma!" He suggested with enthusiasm. "She's Parvati's twin sister. I'm fairly confident that she probably doesn't have a confirmed partner yet either, given how late we are in the preparation timeline."
"Padma?" Ron repeated with hesitation, his expression showing doubt about this proposal. "She's in Ravenclaw House, and I've barely exchanged more than a few words with her during our entire time at Hogwarts. Won't it be incredibly awkward to suddenly approach her with such a request?"
Hermione released an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes at Ron's constant reluctance to take decisive action.
"This is not the time to be excessively picky about potential partners, Ron. Unless you genuinely prefer the alternative of standing alone in some dark corner tomorrow evening while everyone else is dancing and enjoying themselves."
"Besides, Padma is as genuinely nice and easy to talk to," Harry added supportively, drawing on his limited personal interactions with the girl. "Last week in Potions class, when I accidentally knocked over my ingredient container, she immediately helped me collect all the scattered porcupine quills from the floor without any hesitation or complaint."
Ron scratched at his messy red hair with both hands, his expression showing conflict he typically showed when facing a disastrously failed potion brewing attempt. His face cycled through doubt, resignation, and tentative hope in rapid series.
Of course, his conflicted feelings had absolutely nothing to do with Padma herself, who by all accounts seem a perfectly acceptable person. Rather, his anxiety came from the intimidating scene of approaching a relative stranger with such an invitation.
"Alright then," He finally agreed. "I'll make the attempt and see what happens, though I'm honestly not very confident about my chances of success. My track record with this sort of thing has been spectacularly poor."
About one hour later, Ron returned to the common room.
"She said yes," He said to Harry and Hermione. "Padma actually agreed to attend the ball with me. I'm not certain why, but I'm definitely not going to question my good fortune."
Harry was genuinely surprised by this positive outcome.
The next day arrived with the special atmosphere that only Christmas morning could provide at Hogwarts.
Early in the morning, Harry and Ron sat cross-legged on the floor beside their four-poster beds in the Gryffindor dormitory, surrounded by an impressive collection of wrapped packages in various sizes and colors.
The ritual of opening Christmas presents was one of the few genuinely carefree moments in what had become a complicated school year.
Ron pulled a medium-sized package toward himself and carefully unwrapped the plain brown paper to reveal a leather-bound book with gold-embossed title that immediately caught his attention.
"Charm Your Way to Style: Transform Your Clothes with Magic?" He read aloud with an expression that said he couldn't quite decide whether to be grateful or insulted by such a practical gift. "Why couldn't he have given me this several days earlier when I might have had suitable time to actually master some of these techniques?"
"Because it's specifically a Christmas present rather than emergency assistance," Harry replied with obvious amusement, leaning over to examine the gold lettering on the book's cover more closely. "Who gave you that?"
Ron checked the gift tag attached to the wrapping paper once more, squinting at the handwriting as if uncertain he had read it correctly the first time.
"It's from Professor Westeros," He confirmed.
"You could definitely try applying some of the spells described in that book," Harry suggested helpfully. "Or instead, you could ask Hermione to help you work through the instructions—she picks up new magical spells quickly and explains them in ways that actually make sense."
"Oh, come on now," Ron protested with a wave of dismissal, though his tone lacked genuine conviction. He moved to sit more comfortably at the foot of his bed, already flipping through the book's pages with growing interest.
"Let me at least see whether I can manage to transform my shabby dress robes into something presentable before tonight's event. It can't be that difficult if there are clear instructions."
Harry gave a shrug and turned his attention to examining his own large pile of Christmas presents, which seemed to grow larger each year as his fame continued to spread throughout the wizarding world.
Ron had given him a large bag of the latest edition of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans where the colorful packaging prominently advertised that the manufacturer had added even more unusual and disturbing flavors to their already controversial lineup, including exotic options labeled as "Rage," "Bitterness," and "Existential Dread."
Well... he was definitely interested in that.
Hermione's gift was naturally practical and thoughtful: a book titled "Advanced Defense Charms Illustrated," with detailed diagrams and step-by-step instructions for protection spells considerably more complex than anything covered in their current curriculum.
Hagrid's gift was equally typical: a batch of rock cakes that were literally large enough and hard enough to serve as shields in combat situations, should such desperate measures ever become necessary.
Beyond these expected gifts from close friends and acquaintances, Harry discovered quite a few packages from students he barely knew or recognized only by name and house association.
This was one of the more awkward troubles of being famous within the wizarding world as complete strangers felt entitled to send him presents, creating social commitments that he had no idea how to properly reciprocate.
He didn't dare open those mysterious packages without supervision, keeping a healthy paranoia about the possibility that they might be enchanted with harmful curses or embarrassing jinxes. After all, there were plenty of people throughout the magical community who wanted to make his life more difficult, and some who secretly wanted to end it too.
It would be wiser to let someone with more experience, perhaps Professor Westeros examine these suspicious gifts.
However, as Harry sorted through the various packages with cautious hands, he noticed a small, crumpled piece of parchment that had been tucked among the wrapped presents.
He carefully unfolded the wrinkled paper and read the message written across its surface in sharp, hurried handwriting: Beware of Karkaroff.
The letters were slightly uneven and pressed hard into the parchment, as if the writer had been eager to convey critical information.
Upon closer examination, Harry noticed there was another fragmentary sentence added below the initial warning: ...and everyone from Durmstrang.
When combined, the full message read: Beware of Karkaroff and everyone from Durmstrang.
Harry stared at this sentence for a while.
Who could have written it to him?
Headmaster Dumbledore? Professor Westeros? Or Hagrid?
"Ron," Harry said in a deliberately lowered voice, glancing toward Neville's bed to confirm that their dormitory mate remained peacefully asleep.
He passed the mysterious note across to his friend. "Take a look at this and tell me what you think."
Ron accepted the parchment and scanned its contents quickly, his face showed concern as he processed the sentence.
"Beware of Karkaroff?" He repeated in a confused whisper. "What exactly does that mean? Isn't he the Headmaster of Durmstrang Institute? Why would we need to be wary of someone like that?"
"Keep your voice down," Harry cautioned, casting another nervous glance toward the sleeping Neville before explaining further. "Sirius sent me a letter several weeks ago that contained some disturbing information about Karkaroff's background. Apparently, before becoming a headmaster, he was a Death Eater who served Voldemort during the first war."
"So, you think this anonymous warning came from Sirius?" Ron asked, keeping his voice above a whisper while studying the handwriting more carefully.
Harry shook his head with growing certainty, examining both sides of the parchment for any additional clues about its origin.
"Definitely not from Sirius," He concluded after careful consideration. "His handwriting is considerably messier and more chaotic than this— you've seen his letters before. Besides, if Sirius were sending me important warnings, he would absolutely include his signature or some identifying mark so I'd know the information was trustworthy."
"Then the source is probably one of the Hogwarts professors," Ron suggested, scratching his head as he tried to imagine which Professor might use such mysterious communication methods. "Regardless of who sent it, being cautious certainly can't hurt anything. Better to be overly suspicious than dangerously naive."
"You're absolutely right about that," Harry agreed.
As he spoke these words, small flames suddenly appeared dancing across his open palm, consuming the parchment note completely and reducing it to harmless ash within seconds.
Witnessing this casual display of advanced magic, Ron jumped backward with obvious surprise, his eyes widening dramatically.
"How did you... what kind of magic was that?" He said with a mixture of awe and envy.
"A wordless, wandless Fire-Making Charm," Harry explained with barely concealed pride.
"I've been practicing this particular technique during my spare time recently, and I can finally generate flames reliably enough to function as a makeshift lighter.
Oh, do you know what a lighter is? It's a common Muggle tool for creating fire— you simply press a button or flick a wheel, and it produces instant flames without needing matches or tinder."
"That's absolutely brilliant," Ron said with genuine admiration, though his voice carried tones of envy too.
The demonstration gave yet another reminder that the gap between his own magical capabilities and Harry's abilities was growing rather than shrinking, despite his intensive practice sessions. He remained considerably more than just slightly behind Harry's level.
After completing the present-opening ritual and disposing of all the wrapping paper through a combination of magic and mundane tidying, the two boys made their way down the stairs from their dormitory to the Gryffindor common room.
Hermione was already there sitting in her favorite armchair near the crackling fireplace, apparently having risen earlier than usual to enjoy the peaceful Christmas morning atmosphere before the common room filled with other students.
"Merry Christmas to both of you," She greeted them. "So... what exactly are we planning to do with ourselves today while we wait for tonight's ball to begin?"
"Absolutely nothing at all," Ron declared as he collapsed into the sofa beside Hermione's chair with relief. "Just relaxing and trying not to think too hard about making fools of ourselves on the dance floor later."
"That sounds like an excellent plan," Harry nodded in complete agreement, sitting into his own comfortable position on the opposite end of the sofa.
And so, the three friends sinked deeply into the, comfortable sofas, surrounded by the sounds of crackling fire, savoring these final hours of peace before the pressure of the evening ball would need their attention and best behavior.
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