Wish Upon A Star (Cont.)

Slughorn's Christmas Party

Ashlyn woke up early and skipped downstairs with a bright smile. She sat in front of the fire, just gazing out of the window, watching the sky slowly lighten.

Guess it was true, colours do seem brighter than usual when you like someone. The snow looked so beautiful that day, so did the Forbidden forest in its white snow coat. And by heavens, she felt like she was flying with every step, her feet feeling so light.

As per tradition during the week coming to Christmas, the Great Hall was decked with decorations. Hagrid's twelve Christmas trees stood in the corners, mistletoes and holly clusters hung from the bannisters and Peeves was entertaining everyone with his usual rude versions of carols, hiding inside the suits of armours, scaring unsuspecting first years. 

Ashlyn couldn't help but smile slightly when she saw the various reactions of the students. First years would scream and jump out of the way. Second years would have a jump scare. Third would threaten to hex Peeves, which never ended well for them. Fourth years would just look extremely exasperated. Fifth years would launch into a swear battle with Peeves. Sixth years would look extremely done with Peeves and his pranks. Seventh years couldn't be bothered to give a flying rat's ass about any of Hogwarts eccentricities. 

Such a wonderful day~

Ashlyn hummed softly as she made her way to class.

"Have you asked Malfoy yet?" Ginny said, and Hermione glanced up from her newspaper.

"You should really get a move on," Hermione nodded.

"I already did," Ashlyn said simply, pulling the sugar bowl towards her.

"You did?"
"That was quick,"
"What did he say?"

"He said he'd go with me," Ashlyn sighed. Hermione and Ginny grinned. 

"When did you ask?" Ginny said.

"Last night," Ashlyn answered. "I wrote to him,"

"Wrote? You asked him in a letter?" Hermione spluttered.

"Guess, letters can be romantic too," Ginny shrugged. 

Ashlyn couldn't really be bothered with the rumours and whisperings that surrounded them, especially when she was the Harry Potter's BFF circle, and with recent events taken into account, their popularity was on an all-time high. Two days with a reporter from Daily Prophet back during summer and Ashlyn had decided that she ain't gonna give two shits about the codswallop people came up with.

Ashlyn had no idea how in the fresh hell it had happened, but by lunch, the news that Ashlyn Clarke and Draco Malfoy were going to Slughorn's party together had spread like wildfire.

"I should've kept my mouth shut," Ashlyn muttered defeatedly as she sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"It's not that bad," Harry said. Ashlyn scowled at him. 

"Who could it be though?" Hermione mused. 

"We just speak too loudly at the table," Ron said as he loaded Hermione's plate.

"At least Skeeter's not writing," he continued.

"No," Ashlyn cried. "You gone done it now, jinxed it! That's it, we're done for,"

"Oh, stop being overdramatic," Hermione said waspishly. "Rita Skeeter's lost her charm,"

It was true that no one paid much attention to Skeeter's articles anymore and they always had very little space in the Daily Prophet. Hermione liked scoffing at the little pieces Skeeter wrote these days and commenting rather loudly. Ashlyn did enjoy it, but only for a while, after that, it became nothing but old news. However, Skeeter was vibrant as ever when it came to Witch Weekly. She specialized in gossip. Ashlyn and Ginny enjoyed reading her comments on the Chosen One's love life and laughing about it.