Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Sixty-Four

The Hogwarts staff, clearly still wanting to impress the guests, seemed determined to show the castle at its best this Christmas. It was even more fancy than last year. Everlasting icicles had been attached to the banisters of the marble staircase. The 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. It was kind of funny to be heading to class and hear "O Come, All Ye Faithful" sung by an empty helmet that only knew half the words. Several times, Filch had to extract Peeves from inside the armor, where he had taken to hiding, filling in the gaps in the songs with lyrics of his own invention, all of which involved the most obscene swear words.

Harry still hadn't asked Cho to the ball. He and Ron were getting very nervous now, though as Harry pointed out, Ron would look much less stupid than he would without a partner; Harry was supposed to be starting the dancing with the other champions.

"I suppose there's always Moaning Myrtle," he said gloomily, referring to the ghost who haunted the girls' toilets on the second floor.

I rolled my eyes. Harry was in Dramatic Grumpy Idiot Mode.

"Harry — we've just got to grit our teeth and do it," said Ron on Friday morning, in a tone that suggested they were planning the storming of an impenetrable fortress. "When we get back to the common room tonight, we'll both have partners — agreed?"

"Er... okay," said Harry.

Later that day after Divination, he told Ron and I that he would meet us at dinner, then dashed off upstairs. Ginny found and joined us a few staircases later. We'd made it all the way to the Entrance Hall when Ron stopped abruptly in front of me, causing me to crash into him.

"Ron!" I complained. "What're you —" Then I noticed what he was looking at — or rather, whom he was looking at. Fleur Delacour stood across the hall with Cedric Diggory, flicking her hair and acting all flirty. Maybe she was trying to ask him to the ball.

"I'm gonna do it," Ron murmured.

"Do what?" Ginny asked.

"I'm gonna ask her."

I winced. "Uh, are you sure you should — oh, okay, you're not listening to me, you're gone."

"I can't look," Ginny said, looking even more intently at the scene. We watched as Ron tapped on Fleur's shoulder, and, as Fleur turned around, froze.

"Oh, Morrigan," I muttered.

Ron blinked a few times and straightened up. I held my breath. He was actually going to do it. Ron took a deep breath —

"FLEUR WILL YOU GO TO THE BALL WITH ME?"

Ginny wheezed and dissolved into a fit of silent laughter as everyone else in the room turned to see who'd just bellowed their Yule Ball proposal.

Fleur looked at Ron like he'd just asked her while dancing and wearing a banana costume and Dobby's tea cozy. She didn't even answer, she just stared at him. Ron stood stock still, his hands covering his mouth, full of shock at what he'd just done.

"Let's go rescue your brother," I said, torn between laughing and cringing at how he'd screeched at the French girl.

Ron decided to rescue himself, however — he shook himself out of his stupor and darted out of the Entrance Hall and up the marble staircase towards the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Never mind, let's go console your brother," I amended, heading after Ron. Ginny followed me, trying to curb her laughter.

Ron was sitting, ashen-faced, in a distant corner when we got there. Ginny took a deep breath to dismiss the giggles, and sat next to Ron.