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xiii.damsels in distress
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Despite the very heavy load of homework that the fourth years had been given for the holidays, Matilda had managed to get through it all quite easily, and so she was able to spend the week leading up to Christmas enjoying herself as fully as possible along with everyone else. Ravenclaw Tower was hardly less crowded now than during term-time; it seemed to have shrunk slightly, too, as its inhabitants were brought so much rowdier than usual. It seems as though Fred and George Weasley had great success with their Canary Creams, and for the first couple of days of the holidays, students who bought from them kept bursting into feathers all over the place. Before long, however, students learned to treat food anybody else offered them with extreme caution, in case it had a Canary Cream concealed in the center.
Snow was falling thickly upon the castle and its grounds now. The pale blue Beauxbatons carriage looked like a large, chilly, frosted pumpkin next to the iced gingerbread house that was Hagrid's cabin, while the Durmstrang ship's portholes were glazed with ice, the rigging white with frost. The house-elves down in the kitchen were outdoing themselves with a series of rich, warming stews and savory puddings, and only Fleur Delacour seemed to be able to find anything to complain about.
"It is too 'eavy, all zis 'Ogwarts food," they heard her saying grumpily, as they left the Great Hall behind her one evening. "I will not fit into my dress robes!"
"Oooh, there's a tragedy," said Hermione snappily, as Fleur went out into the Entrance Hall. "She really thinks a lot of herself, that one, doesn't she?"
"You don't like her," said Matilda, having taken notice to Hermione's sour expressions when Fleur is brought up. "Why?"
Hermione turned to Matilda, wearing a look of surprise, "It isn't that I don't like her. She just complains a lot is all. Also, she is quite full of herself."
Matilda shook her head with a chuckle, knowing that Hermione wasn't telling the truth, "So? I complain all the time. And I've been told I'm quite the narcissist."
"It's different with you," Hermione argued.
Matilda didn't carry the topic with Hermione any further. She was smart enough to be able to tell that Hermione wasn't being completely honest. It wasn't only the complaining and conceitedness that made Hermione dislike Fleur, it was the beauty that Fleur had, and the attention that followed. It was the reason many other girls at Hogwarts seemed to dislike her.
