Yule Dream of Me

Yule Dream of Me

'Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!' Hermione turned on her heel and stormed up the girls' staircase to bed.

Ron spluttered out a response for Harry's benefit, as he'd just entered the common room. It didn't seem worth waiting for Hermione to come back down again; Ron went up the stairs to his own dormitory, not noticing if Harry followed or not. He undressed, and lay in bed thinking of all the great retorts he could have come up with, if he'd only had a day or so to prepare. It didn't seem likely he'd get any sleep at all.

*

Ron dreamt it was a few hours earlier, and all the Gryffindors except Hermione had gone down to the Entrance Hall to wait for the start of the Yule Ball. Parvati brought Padma over to him, looking beautiful with her bushy brown hair pulled back into a single plait. He bowed exaggeratedly deeply, making her giggle, and told her how beautiful she looked, but then hid by crouching behind her, so that Fleur couldn't see him, as she walked past with her own bushy brown hair falling almost to her waist.

When he stood again, Hermione was just walking past with Viktor Krum. She looked beautiful, with her hair done up in some sort of elegant style he'd never seen her use before; a style he'd never imagined would suit her; a style he would not have expected her ever to have tried.

Everyone entered the Great Hall, and sat down, but Ron realised that one of those at the champions' table was Percy -- and it seemed he'd brought a cauldron with him, to show people how important their construction was. He groaned at how boring it must be for anyone near Percy.

After dinner, the Weird Sisters began to play. First the champions danced, Hermione and Krum being particularly energetic and looking very much involved with each other. No other couple was spending quite as much time gazing into each other's eyes, and no other couple seemed to be dancing quite so closely, nor holding each other quite as tightly.

Everyone else began to dance, joining the champions and their partners on the floor. Ron invited Padma to dance, and they danced so well that everyone's eyes were upon them, as they showed everyone how it should be done; everyone's eyes except Hermione's and Viktor's. Those two continued to gaze into each other's eyes, oblivious to all else, and still dancing like a couple very much in love. After another five dances, Ron gave up, and led Padma back to the table to recover. He opened a Butterbeer for them each, and she went off to look for her sister.

Hermione came over to their table and sat down with him and Harry. Harry handed her a Butterbeer too. She opened it and drank deeply from it, her eyes glowing with love for Viktor.

Ron glared at Hermione. 'Viktor only invited you so he can make you help him with the tournament! You don't care if Harry loses it! You don't care about what happens to Harry! And you certainly don't care about me, and what happens to me!'

Hermione glared back. 'You invited Fleur! You'd have quite happily danced with her all evening instead of Padma, if she had said yes! She's also Harry's rival in the tournament, remember? And don't tell me you only asked her because she's part-Veela. Harry isn't affected by her, is he?'

She stormed off to rejoin Viktor, and they began to dance together again, at least as close together as they had been before. Ron watched them; Hermione was telling Viktor something that Ron couldn't hear.

*

Ron woke during a particularly loud bit of Neville snoring. All four other boys seemed to be asleep. After a moment, he got out of bed, went over to the window, and sat there watching the Forbidden Forest, lit by the setting moon.

He thought back to the dream, and realised every girl in it had basically had Hermione's hair. He was becoming obsessed with her. The dream Hermione had even turned his accusation about Viktor back on him; the real Hermione didn't know that he'd invited Fleur, so had missed her chance to do the same thing. In the dream, she'd also provided a voice for his concerns about the Veela -- Harry had only been affected the first time he saw them, and never again. He worried that his will was weaker than Harry's, as he'd never managed to resist even a part-Veela.

An owl flying over the Forest caught his attention -- was it just hunting, or bringing a late Christmas present to someone? He supposed it didn't really matter which; it was there, and it added to the atmosphere.

Ron grinned, trying to imagine Hermione just sitting like this and looking quietly out of the window. No big books of reading to catch up on, no sheets of parchment waiting to be filled with essays; just sitting and looking. He couldn't imagine her doing that.

He suddenly thought: this was the third Christmas Day Hermione had spent at Hogwarts, and the first one on which she hadn't come into their dorm to see him and Harry first thing in the morning. He glared at the three beds where Neville, Seamus and Dean were sleeping. There probably wouldn't be a Yule Ball next year though, and if Sirius cleared his name, and Harry spent Christmas with him, and Hermione were to come in and find Ron alone in the dormitory ... he sighed.

'This is stupid,' he said quietly to the window. What did he really think would happen? They'd swap presents as usual; whatever he felt for her, she didn't feel the same back. If she did -- well, she was a fourth-year too, and this wasn't the nineteenth century. She could have invited him to the Ball, instead of waiting to be asked. He wouldn't have minded.

He looked back at the owl. It was now flying low over the Forest, apparently hunting, but as he watched it, he wondered about sending an owl to Hermione with either an apology or a love letter. Then he chuckled quietly. His imagination was running away with itself, if it thought Hermione would want a love letter from him.