The Beast Within

Christmas

Christmas day arrived. I awoke to Ava waking me up to open our presents. I knew one of them. Sarah had sent me a letter back with Armin when I sent her present explaining that she had bought me some shoes for the ball. However, I didn't know what anyone else had got me. When I arrived in the common room, Ava had already opened her presents.
"Sorry... I couldn't help it." She said, grinning sheepishly. I sat down next to her and opened Sarah's present first. As I expected it was a pair of high heels to match my dress. I put them next to me and opened my present from Brendon. It was a photo of our parents. They were dancing and laughing. They were at the Yule Ball. I smiled. My mother looked beautiful in her purple, glittering dress. She gazed into my fathers eyes, laughing as they danced around the photo. Usually Brendon would just give me sweets or something he'd stolen years ago, so it was weird getting a meaningful present from him, but I was extremely grateful. I put the photo to the side and opened Lorcan's present. They were a pair of gold earrings. They glistened in the light and looked expensive. I got my ears pierced as a young child, but had never really worn my earrings.. I showed them to Ava. She examined them closely.
"They're beautiful." She said, looking up at me.
"Wait here, I've got a present for you." I said, running to the dorm with my presents. I set the photo down on the side beside the other photos I had. I lay the earrings down on the side along with my locket and ring and put my shoes under my bed. I pulled a box out from under the bed and ran back down. Giving it to Ava I sat back down.
"It's amazing!" She said, opening it. It was a white gold bracelet with gems and a raven, wolf, german shepherd and a hippogriff engraved into it. "How did you even get this?" She asked.
"I had to get it hand made, it cost a lot but it was worth it." I explained.
"It definitely was worth it, I love it!" She exclaimed, hugging me.

I got changed into black jeans and blue hoody. We had breakfast, meeting up with Remus and Brendon, and left to go into the courtyard. It was snowing. We built a snowman. Suddenly, I was hit in the face by a snowball. Slowly, I turned around to see Sam grinning. Scooping some snow up, I threw a snowball back. He stopped grinning and leant down to get more snow. Just before he threw it, I hid behind the snowman.
"Argh!" Remus had been hit in the face. "That's it!" He exclaimed, collecting snow and forming a snowball. He threw it and soon we were pelting Sam with snowballs.
"Stop! Stop! I surrender! Sto-" He cried, stopping when a lump of snow landed in his mouth. He raised his hands. His face was covered in snow. We stopped and laughed. "Thank you." He muttered.
"You started it!" I exclaimed, chuckling.
"True." Sam said, shrugging. He walked over to us. "Truce." He said, seeing our sceptical expressions. The snowmans head had fallen off in the the snowball fight so we put it back on before leaving for lunch.

We sat down and picked up a cracker. I turned to Remus who took the other end of the cracker. We pulled with all of our strength. Boom! The cracker exploded, surrounding us in a blue smoke. Coughing and spluttering, we waved our hands trying to clear the air. I had won. I looked in the cracker. I had a pirate hat and mice. They ran out of the cracker and scuttled across the floor towards a crack in the wall. I put the hat on and pulled out the joke.
"What do snowmen wear on their head?" I said, grinning at the answer. I loved Christmas cracker jokes, they were always so cheesy.
"I don't know." Everyone said.
"Ice caps!" I cried. Everybody groaned and chuckled at the cringey joke. Once everyone had pulled a cracker, the food appeared. It was the traditional roast turkey. I helped myself to some potatoes, some peas, two yorkshire puddings and some pigs in blankets. We ate our food and went to the common room. We sat by the fire, talking about the Yule ball. Brendon explained that they would meet us in the great hall as they were going early to help the teachers set it up. At 5 o'clock, Ava dragged me upstairs.
"It doesn't even start till 8!" I cried.
"It'll take a long to get ready." She said. "They're doing makeup in the common room when you're ready. Meet me back here when you're done." She added.

Climbing into the dress, I zipped it up. However, I couldn't zip it all the way up so I decided to worry about it later. I applied a drop of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion to my scalp and worked it into my hair. I didn't need too much as my hair wasn't too unruly. I put my locket and ring on before grabbing a mirror from my trunk. I styled my hair into an elegant updo and put the phoenix hair clip in. Standing up, I left for the common room, taking my shoes and earrings with me. Elsie was standing by a table with a mirror. I walked over to her
"Welcome! Welcome young lady to Miss Young's Makeup Parlour! You look absolutely stunning dear. Do sit down!" She cried, curtsying and doing an exaggerated gesture inviting me to sit down. I laughed and sat down in the seat. She began doing my makeup. I had no idea what most of the things were. She applied some mascara to my eyelashes and held up some different lipsticks. "Which one would you like madam." I chose a red lipstick and she applied it to my lips. "Beautiful darling!" She exclaimed, laughing. I looked in the mirror. It was like looking at a different person, all my spots and imperfections had been concealed. All but the scars on my arms. I didn't care. They were part of who I was. I put my earrings and stood up. Walking into the dorm, I heard a loud gasp.
"Phoenix! You look amazing!" It was Ava. She was wearing her dress and had her hair up in a complex but beautiful hairstyle.
"You look stunning Ava!" I beamed. I sat down on my bed and put my shoes on. It had been a long time since I last wore high heels but I managed to figure it out. It was time to go to the ball.