Chapitre 107: Christmas E've

As Christmas arrived, 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, and George confided to Chris that he and Fred were now working on developing something else.

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.

Early in the Christmas morning Leon woke Chris up. He was very excited to show her something. Everyone else was still asleep in their room. Chris got up and pulled the letter which was tied on his leg. It was from Sirius.

Dear Chris,

Merry Christmas. I hope you like the gift I sent. I was trying to catch you both of the times I went to Hogwarts. I've been investigating about the matter you told me for sometime now. I've found many things. I've talked with Dumbledore but I also want to talk to you about something serious. I was trying to tell Harry about this but Dumbledore stopped me. So I think we can meet in Hogsmeade, on your next Hogsmeade visit. Please inform me the date.

Sirius

Chris opened the gift Sirius sent, it was a very thin and small oval shaped box, the box can fit into Chris's palm easily. There was another note with it.

It's an undetectable extended box. You can put your entire house things in it including your friends(though, don't try that).

Chris grinned and grabbed a big book from her bedside table and opened the box. The box looked normal but as soon as Chris lightly pushed the book on it, it went inside it. She smirked and hold her hand in front of the box.

"Accio." She whispers and the book came flying back in her hand. "Cool."

She got out of the bed to open her other gifts. Mr Norton had sent her a new beautiful dark purple robes for Yule Ball; Luna gave her a beautiful quill; Ginny gave her a pair of gloves; Colin gave a lion hat; Hermione gave the Quidditch through the ages book; Harry gave a red scarf; Shawn gave a advanced charms book; Hagrid gave a vast box of sweets including all Chris's favorites: Chocolate Frogs and Drooble's Best Blowing Gum; Mrs. Weasley gave another new sweater like last year, it was blue and BRAVE written on the center, Chris supposed Charlie had told her all about the Horntail incident as there was a note in it, (Thanks for saving Ginny, my dear. But now on you also stay safe.. Take care.. Love Mrs Weasley..), also a large quantity of homemade mince pies; and at last a anonymous package, it was a hand written Potion recipe book. Chris knew exactly who sent it, she smiled looking at the book.

After Ginny finished unpacking her gifts and both of the girls wore Mrs Weasley's sweaters (Ginny got a red one) they went down to to meet Colin.

"Merry Christmas Colin! Dennis!" Chris said sitting with them.

"Thanks for the Fizzing Whizzbees, Chris." Dennis said grinning as he found Chris's Christmas gift.

"Cool sweater." Colin said looking at Chris.

"We should head out for breakfast, Luna should be waiting for us." Ginny said.

After breakfast four of them spent most of the morning in Gryffindor Tower, discussing about their Christmas gifts.

"So Sirius gave me this." Chris said pulling out the tiny box from her robes. She attached it with a long chain and wore around her neck. It looked like a silver pendant.

"It'll fit anything?" Colin asked looking impressed.

"Yup. I already put many things in it." Chris grinned.

"Hey Merry Christmas." Hermione said as she, Harry and Ron came towards them.

They sat together talked about many things, Fred and came and discussed their new ideas of weird toffees, then they all returned to the Great Hall for a magnificent lunch, which included at least a hundred turkeys and Christmas puddings, and large piles of Cribbage's Wizarding Crackers.

After that they went out onto the grounds in the afternoon; the snow was untouched except for the deep channels made by the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students on their way up to the castle. Hermione and Luna chose to watch Chris, Colin, Dennis, Harry and the Weasleys' snowball fight rather than join in. Chris loved to play with his father in snow, as winter his father's favorite season. At five o'clock Hermione said she was going back upstairs to get ready for the ball.

Finally at six o'clock, Luna informed them the time and Ginny dragged Chris for getting ready.

"Why you girls need so much time to get ready?" said Ron, looking at her incredulously and paying for his lapse in concentration when a large snowball, thrown by George, hit him hard on the side of the head.

"Because we're beautiful and you're not." Ginny replied as they climbed the stone steps into the castle.

Luna said she'll meet them at the Entrance Hall and left as Chris and Ginny made their way to the Gryffindor tower. The Fat Lady was sitting in her frame with her friend Violet from downstairs, both of them extremely tipsy, empty boxes of chocolate liqueurs littering the bottom of her picture.

"Lairy fights, that's the one!" she giggled when they gave the password, and she swung forward to let them inside.

Chris and Ginny get ready, Ginny was wearing a light green robes and Chris the silky dark purple robes. Chris pulled her half hair in a light bun on the back of her head and the other half fell on her shoulder.

When it was almost half past seven, someone knocked on their door. It was Hermione. Her hair was sleek and shiny, and twisted up into an elegant knot at the back of her head. She was wearing robes made of a periwinkle-blue material. She was smiling nervously. Her teeth was looking very different now, as she made them shrink after that incident with Malfoy.

"How do I look?" She asked.

"Beautiful." Chris and Ginny said together.

"You too." Hermione grinned. "Who're you going with Ginny?"

"Michael Corner. Fourth year Ravenclaw." Ginny blushed.

"I'm about to meet Victor outside the Entrance Hall. See you at the Ball." Hermione nervously smiled and went downstairs.

After sometime Chris and Ginny made their way to the common room. The common room looked strange, full of people wearing different colors instead of the usual mass of black. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown were waiting at the foot of stairs of boys' dormitory.

"Hello Chris." Parvati smiled. She was wearing pink robes and Lavender was wearing red robes.

"Hi." Chris replied. "Who're you going with?"

Both of them giggled.

"I'm going with Seamus." Lavender replied.

"Harry." Parvati said.

All of them waited for the boys to arrive. In between Chris and Ginny talked with Angelina and Fred. George also asked Katie Bell and he was waiting for her.

At last Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville came down.

Neville looked more nervous as he saw Chris.

"Sorry Chris. I wasn't trying to be late."

"Relax Neville. It's cool." Chris smiled. "You're looking good."

Neville went pink. He was wearing deep blue robes, which almost looked black.

"... er... Harry why're you staring at me?" Chris said, as she noticed Harry's face.

"Oh.... er.... umm... gorgeous... you're looking..." Harry said looking away. "... sorry... you're looking nice."

"Thanks." Chris replied. "Who's Ron's partner?"

"He doesn't got any." Harry whispered. Chris suppressed her laugh. "Don't laugh please, he's already upset."

"Hello." Colin came downstairs. He was wearing black robes, just a little different from school ones.

"Shall we go down then?" Ginny asked Chris and Colin.

"Sure." Chris replied and she, Ginny, Colin and Neville climbed out of the portrait hole.

The entrance hall was packed with students too, all milling around waiting for eight o'clock, when the doors to the Great Hall would be thrown open. Those people who were meeting partners from different Houses were edging through the crowd trying to find one another. Ginny found Michael Corner, and led him over to Chris and Neville.

"Hi." Chris said. He was wearing high collar robes.

"Hello." He replied.

Colin found Susan Bones and she introduced herself to Chris and Ginny. Fleur Delacour passed them, looking stunning in robes of silver-gray satin, and accompanied by the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, Roger Davies.

A group of Slytherins came up the steps from their dungeon common room. Malfoy was in front; he was wearing dress robes of black velvet with a high collar. Pansy Parkinson in very frilly robes of pale pink was clutching Malfoy's arm. Soon as their group passed, Ginny slightly nudged Chris. Chris looked around and found Theodore coming with Daphne and a another fourth year girl, who was clutching Jason's arm tightly. Jason was wearing expensive, deep green, high collar robes.

He caught Chris's eyes and Chris looked away.

The oak front doors opened, and everyone turned to look as the Durmstrang students entered with Professor Karkaroff. Krum was at the front of the party, accompanied by Hermione. Then after them was Shawn holding hands with Luna. Luna was wearing sparkly silvery robes. Over their heads Chris saw that an area of lawn right in front of the castle had been transformed into a sort of grotto full of fairy lights — meaning hundreds of actual living fairies were sitting in the rosebushes that had been conjured there, and fluttering over the statues of what seemed to be Father Christmas and his reindeer.