Healed & Broken (HP) {Book 4 of the Wild & Free Series}

9. Slughorn's Christmas Party

Snow was swirling against the icy windows once more; Christmas was approaching fast. Hagrid had already single-handedly delivered the usual twelve Christmas trees for the Great Hall; garlands of holly and tinsel had been twisted around the banisters of the stairs; everlasting candles glowed from inside the helmets of suits of armor and great bunches of mistletoe had been hung at intervals along the corridors. Large groups of girls tended to converge underneath the mistletoe bunches every time Harry went past, which caused blockages in the corridors; fortunately, however, Harry's and my frequent nighttime wanderings had given us an unusually good knowledge of the castle's secret passageways, so that I was able to help Harry, without too much difficulty, to navigate mistletoe-free routes between classes.

Ron, who might once have found the necessity of these detours a cause for jealousy rather than hilarity, simply roared with laughter about it all. Although I much preferred this new laughing, joking Ron to the moody, aggressive model we had been enduring for the last few weeks, the improved Ron came at a heavy price.

Firstly, we had to put up with the frequent presence of Lucy sneaking into the Gryffindor common room, who seemed to regard any moment that she was not kissing Ron as a moment wasted; and secondly, I found myself once more the best friend of four people who seemed unlikely ever to speak to each other again.

The only relationships that seemed intact were my relationships with Harry, Rowan and Hermione. I felt deeply sorry for both Rowan and Hermione and I was maybe a little annoyed with Lucy for behaving like a giggling school girl again.

Ron, whose hands and forearms still bore scratches and cuts from Hermione's bird attack, was taking a defensive and resentful tone.

"She can't complain," he told Harry and me, since Rowan and Hermione were refusing to speak to him. "She snogged Krum. So she's found out someone wants to snog me too. Well, it's a free country. I haven't done anything wrong."

Harry and I did not answer, but pretended to be absorbed in the book we were supposed to have read before Charms next morning (Quintessence: A Quest). Determined as we were to remain friends with both Ron, Rowan, Hermione and Lucy, we were spending a lot of time with our mouths shut tight.

"I never promised Hermione anything," Ron mumbled. "I mean, all right, I was going to go to Slughorn's Christmas party with her, but she never said... just as friends... I'm a free agent... Luce has asked me to come, anyway..."

I scoffed at his little nickname for Lucy, since she would have hexed anyone else who dared calling her that.

I turned a page of Quintessence, aware that Ron was watching me. Ron's voice tailed away in mutters, barely audible over the loud crackling of the fire, though I thought I caught the words "Krum" and "can't complain" again.

Hermione's schedule was so full that Harry and I could only talk to her properly in the evenings, when Ron was, in any case, so tightly wrapped around Lucy (who had snuk in again) that he did not notice what Harry and I were doing.

Hermione and Rowan refused to sit in the common room while Ron and Lucy were there, so Harry and I generally joined them in the library, which meant that our conversations were held in whispers.

"He's at perfect liberty to kiss whomever he likes," said Hermione, while the librarian, Madam Pince, prowled the shelves behind them. "I really couldn't care less."

Rowan remained silent, as he had done for so long now; he took it differently than Hermione, maybe even worse. He rarely spoke and when he did, it was to snap at Ron. He completely ignored Lucy's presence, but I saw him glancing at her occasionally in classes. His usual confidence and calmth seemed to have faded away and I saw him more and more often spending time with Hermione in the library, trying to avoid Lucy and Ron.