Obliviate My Heart {Book 2}

24. Yule Ball Revelations

Despite the very heavy load of homework that the fourth years had been given for the holidays, I was in no mood to work when term ended, and spent the week leading up to Christmas enjoying myself as fully as possible along with everyone else.

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 Gryffindors had learned to treat food anybody else offered them with extreme caution, in case it had a Canary Cream concealed in the center.

The house-elves down in the kitchen were outdoing themselves with a series of rich, warming stews and savory puddings, and only Fleur seemed to be able to find anything to complain about. I honestly liked her, but her insults of Hogwarts got irritating.

"It is too 'eavy, all zis 'Ogwarts food," they heard her saying grumpily as they left the Great Hall behind her one evening (Ron skulking behind Harry, keen not to be spotted by Fleur). "I will not fit into my dress robes!"

"Oooh there's a tragedy," Hermione snapped as Fleur went out into the entrance hall. "She really thinks a lot of herself, that one, doesn't she?"

"She's alright," I defended, thinking of the kind words Fleur had said to me after I was chosen.

"Hermione - who are you going to the ball with?" said Ron.

He kept springing this question on her, hoping to startle her into a response by asking it when she least expected it.

However, Hermione merely frowned and said, "I'm not telling you, you'll just make fun of me."

Hermione had told Gennie and I, that she was attending with Viktor Krum. While shocked, we were happy for her. He seemed to like her, and that was all that mattered. I was prepared to jinx anybody that messed Hermione around.

"You're joking, Weasley!" said Draco, behind them. "You're not telling me someone's asked that to the ball? Not the long-molared Mudblood?"

I stared at him. He'd been ignoring me since turning my invitation to the ball down. He knew I was going with somebody, as Alia had told Blaise (but didn't specify a name) . This seemed to make him more vindictive than ever; which confused me to no end.

Harry and Ron both whipped around, but Hermione said loudly, waving to somebody over Draco's shoulder, "Hello, Professor Moody!"

 He went pale and jumped backward, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew.

"Twitchy little ferret, aren't you, Malfoy?" said Hermione scathingly, and she, Harry and Ron went up the stairs laughing. I looked at Draco once, but he looked away.

Git. Right now, I was glad I wasn't attending the ball with him. Arthur had been popping up a lot more, lately, and he was ever so kind. He kept saying it was to check on Cole, but he often ended up talking to me.

I was quite pleased that I was going with Arthur. He seemed so happy about it, and I was sure we would have a lot of fun.

"Hermione," said Ron, looking sideways at her, suddenly frowning, "your teeth ..."

"What about them?" she said.

"Well, they're different. . . I've just noticed. . . ."

"Did you expect her to keep those fangs Draco gave her?" I asked him.