Year Four: The TriWizard Tournament

Part 15

It was near the end of Transfiguration class when Professor McGonagall announced some exciting news.

"The Yule Ball is approaching----a traditional part of the TriWizard Tournament and an opportunity to socialize with our foreign guests. On Christmas night, we and our guests will gather in the Great Hall for well-mannered frivolity. As representatives of the host school, I expect each and every one of you to put your best foot forward, and I mean this literally because the yule ball is first and foremost......a dance."

Groans emerge from the boys. The girls, however, seem a lot more excited.

"The House of Godrick Gryffindor has commanded the respect of the wizard world for nearly ten centuries. I will not have you in the course of a single evening besmirching that name by behaving like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons."

Anne and several girls laughed quietly glancing over at the boys who looked nervous and uncomfortable.

"Now to dance," McGonagall continued, "is to let the body breathe, inside every girl a secret swan slumbers longing to burst forth and take flight. Inside every boy a lordly lion prepared to prance." Her gaze lands on Ron. "Mr. Weasley, will you join me?"

She grabs Ron and pulls him up. "Now place your right hand on my waist."

"Where?" he asked uncomfortably.

"My waist."

He reluctantly did so.

"Now bend your arm. Mr. Filch..."

Off to the side, Filch turned on the phonograph and music started to play.

McGonagall started to lead Ron in dance. Poor Ron clearly had no idea how to dance. He seemed to be tripping over his own feet or trodding on McGonagall's robes. McGonagall didn't appear to notice his struggle.

"Everyone come together," she instructed.

The girls instantly stand and walk forward but the boys remain seated.

"Boys on your feet!"

"Why do they always have to travel in pairs?" Harry complained as he looked over at a group of girls walking past him in the corridor.

"Blimey Harry, you slayed dragons," said Ron. "If you can't get a date, who can?"

"I think I'd take the dragon right now," said Harry miserably.

Anne paid no attention to their conversation. She was thinking about the Yule Ball. She never imagined she would be attending a formal event this year where she would be wearing dress robes and like other young girls wear makeup. This wouldn't be just a social event like the Hogwarts feasts, it would be dancing.

Dancing! Anne had read about it in so many books. It sounded almost like flying. Another thought then crossed her mind. It would be wonderful if .....if I could go with Cedric Diggory!

She smiled at the thought. Her going to the ball with Cedric would be a dream come true. Imagine all the jealous stares and envy she would get when she entered the Great Hall with Cedric on her arm!

She knew he was bound to ask her once word of the ball got out. She saw the way he looked at her sometimes making her blush. He also admired her ability as a Keeper on the Quidditch team. She had never forgotten how worried and concerned he was with her last year after Harry's accident and at the Quidditch World Cup.

Now all she could do was wait with anticipation for him to ask her to go to the ball with him.

The week of the last term became increasingly boisterous as it progressed. Rumors about the Yule Ball were flying everywhere, though Anne didn't believe half of them----for instance, that Dumbledore had bought eight hundred barrels of mulled mead from Madame Rosmerta. It seemed to be fact, however, he had booked the Weird Sisters. Exactly who or what the Weird Sisters were Anne didn't know but deduced from the wild excitement of those who had grown up listening to the Wizarding Wireless Network that they were a famous musical group.

The Hogwarts staff, demonstrating a continued desire to impress the visitors from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, seemed determined to show the castle at its best this Christmas. When the decorations went up, Anne noticed that they were the most stunning she had yet seen inside the school. Everlasting icicles had been attached to the banisters of the marble staircase; the usual twelve Christmas trees in the Great Hall were bedecked with everything from luminous holly berries to real, hooting, golden owls, and the suits of armor had all been bewitched to sing carols whenever anyone passed.

Anne was a bit surprised that Cedric had not asked her to the ball. As it started to draw near, she got up the courage to ask him herself thinking he was probably too nervous to ask her.

She encountered him as he emerged from a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. However, what she wasn't expecting was seeing him turn red and flush with embarrassment.

"Gosh, Anne, I'm so sorry but I've already invited someone else."

"Oh," said Anne, her face also red. "Who're you going with?"

"Cho Chang," he said.

"Oh," replied Anne awkwardly, wishing the floor would open up and swallow her. "Okay. Bye." She turned away, hoping to get back to her dormitory without anyone seeing her red face.

"I really am sorry, Anne," Cedric said again. "I had no--"

"Forget it," said Anne, hurrying away.