2 | CONFESSIONS° HARRY POTTER

10 | DECEMBER

ACT TWO, the returned
CHAPTER TEN, december

       If there was one thing that Iris loved, it was December at Hogwarts. They would see wind and sleet and the drafty air would cause the fireplaces to be burning at all times. She loved the cold, but the same couldn't be said for her fellow classmates who stood shivering in the windy pumpkin patch that was located near the trough in the corner of their paddock where the fumes from Madame Maxime's horses were making the entire class light-headed as they dealed with the skrewts. 

"I'm not sure whether they hibernate or not. Thought we'd jus' try an' see if they fancied a kip... we'll jus' settle 'em down in these boxes..." Hagrid said of the ten skrewts that were left. Their urge to kill one another had not yet left them and they were probably the most repulsive looking creatures that anyone in the class, including Iris, had ever seen. Hagrid brought out pillow-lined boxes to put them in. "We'll jus' lead 'em in here an' put the lids on, and we'll see what happens."

Skrewts, as it turns out, do not hibernate nor do they like to be forced into boxes. Hagrid started yelling for the class not to panic, but it was too late seeing as most of the class fled back inside Hagrid's cabin while the skrewts ran rampant. Iris simply stood in her place with her hands buried in her pockets at the chaos unfolded around her. She helped, along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Hagrid collect the creatures. 

"Well, well, well.... this does look fun," A woman's voice said. Iris glanced over and saw Rita Skeeter leaning on Hagrid's fence looking as annoying as ever. Iris immediately rolled her eyes at the woman's presence, a reaction that tended to happen whenever Rita Skeeter came within six feet of anyone. In typical Rita Skeeter fashion, she asked Hagrid if he would be willing to give an interview about the creatures for The Prophet, to which he agreed. 

Double Divination that afternoon was not better either.

Professor Trelawney had been having them predict their own deaths before she got mad at Harry and Ron for laughing when she began explaining the ways that Pluto could disrupt everyday life.

"I would think that some of us," She said, giving  a very pointed look at Harry. "might be a little less frivolous had they seen what I have seen during my crystal gazing last night. As I sat here, absorbed in my needlework, the urge to consult the orbe overpowered me. I arose, I settled myself before it, and I gazed into its crystalline depths... and what do you think I saw gazing back at me? Death, my dears."

Parvati and Lavender reacted by putting their hands over their mouths.

"Yes, it comes ever closer, it circles overhead like a vulture, even lower... ever lower over the castle..."

Eventually, talk of the Yule Ball began to become the only thing that Iris heard other students talk about. Pansy was buzzing with excitement, already saying that her and Draco were going to go together, but Iris was sort of dreading the night to begin with. She could have done without the whole thing really, but she knew she would never hear the end of it from Pansy if she decided not to go.

Harry, on the other hand, had his own problems to worry about with the upcoming ball. As champion, he and his dance partner would be forced to open the ball. There were two people that he had really wanted to ask, but he knew that under no circumstances could he actually ask her, so he was working up the nerve to ask Cho Chang. 

There was another person that wanted to ask Iris, however, and that was Theodore Nott. 

It had come as a surprise to absolutely no one when Nott pulled Iris aside after Snape's class on the last day of term to ask her.

"Are you going to the ball?" Theodore asked Iris as they walked through the halls together. Harry and Ron were walking directly behind them and could hear the entirety of the conversation that was happening. Harry himself had already been asked by three girls and Iris had heard all about them from, well, everyone at school it seemed. 

"I don't think I have a choice." Iris said dryly. She was dreading it, in fact, and hoping that she could possibly sneak away without having anyone notice. 

"Do you, um... you know, maybe we could.... um...." Theodore fiddled with his fingers and Iris' gaze slid over towards him and she narrowed her eyes at him. Harry and Ron exchanged a look with each other as they watched Theodore try and work up the courage to ask her. "...Perhaps we could go together, if you wanted?"

Iris nearly stopped in her tracks. She wasn't expecting anyone to ask her, truth be told, and especially not Theodore.

"Um, okay." Iris nodded slowly. A wide smile stretched across Theodore's face and Harry couldn't help but mentally curse the universe because he couldn't even get a chance of asking her. 

With Christmas fast approaching, the Hogwarts staff seemed hellbent on impressing their visitors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, because the Christmas decorations that went up throughout the castle were the nicest the place has been decorated in the three years that Iris had been at Hogwarts. 

The highlight of the season (not a highlight, rather, but an unexpected moment to say the least) was Iris having to watch Ron ask Julietta to the ball. He had been walking past her when she was in the middle of talking to Cedric when he ran right up to her and asked if she'd go to the ball with him. Iris watched as Julietta just stared at him with an expression that read 'I cannot believe that he is asking me'. She looked downright offended and Iris felt bad for Ron who ended up running off as it dawned on him what he had done in front of everyone. 

The Yule Ball was fastly approaching, much faster than Iris liked, but when she came home to find a package wrapped neatly on her bed with a dress inside, a bit of excitement came over her and she found herself looking forward to the night that she would never get to experience again.