It was now only four days to the Yule Ball, the preparations had already begun and now the school had been emptied of the younger students, the older ones held parties to celebrate upcoming Christmas - or it could have just been an excuse to get intoxicated, and heavily at that. Mainly the only people who had stayed had dates to the Yule Ball. Even Ron and Harry did now, they were now going with the Patil twins; Harry with Pavarti and Ron with Padma, the Ravenclaw.
But it wasn't all happy days for everyone at all, in fact Cho Chang was stomping down the corridor in a rage; her long, silky black hair falling down her back. She was very upset, particularly at Rachel but Cedric too. It was just a matter of who would she bump into first before she could yell at the given person.
Her friends had tried to calm her down, but had failed in persuading her to just go with someone else. There attempts were in vain for Cho just left and was closing in on Rachel who was talking with Hermione by the library.
"You!" Cho hissed as she approached Rachel.
Rachel, comically, looked over both shoulders before pointing to herself, which made Hermione giggle. "Me?"
"You're going with Cedric?" Cho gasped angrily.
Slowly raising an eyebrow, Rachel said nothing but nodded causing Cho's face to get redder by the second.
"But y-you can't!" She exclaimed. "I was going with him!"
"No you weren't." Rachel said with a small laugh. "He asked me. I said yes. Cedric wouldn't have asked me if he was planning on going with you."
Cho's lips were set in a dead line and her eyebrows knitted together in anger.
"Unless, of course, I mean this reason is highly plausible." Rachel carried on speaking. "Perhaps he didn't want to go with you but he wanted to go with me."
"You're such a bitch Rachel Potter." Cho seethed to which Rachel smirked.
"I'm honoured." She said. "But you should have spoken to me sooner, then I would have told you Harry didn't have a date. Well he has one now. So it looks like there's no one else to go with."
Having had enough, Cho stormed away in a flurry, her Ravenclaw robes billowing out from behind her. Eyeing each other, Rachel and Hermione burst out laughing before walking into the library where they quickly fell quieter.
"You're so harsh Rachel." Hermione sniggered.
"I can't help it if someone's being an irritating brat." Rachel said, sitting at a table. "She's like an crazily, obsessed ex! I feel sorry for Cedric."
All though Rachel often played down her feelings towards certain things, the Ball being one of them, she would never get over the fact she was attending with Cedric. It had only been recently that she had admitted to herself that she liked him, so the thought of attending the Ball with him made butterflies fly in her stomach and a smile appear on her face.
Now, more than ever, she was excited for the Ball. She had a beautiful dress, Hermione and herself would be getting ready together, she had an absolutely brilliant date and the Weird Sisters were going to be there. In Rachel's opinion, you couldn't get much better than that.
Not to mention the fact Christmas was so soon! Secretly, on the last Hogsmede trip and whilst sending letters to and from Remus, she managed to get presents for her friends. They were fairly simple but she still knew her friends would appreciate them.
Ron had a Chudley Cannons scarf, she knew Harry bought him a hat so it would make a nice little set.
Hermione had a fancy quill writing set, several sheets of the formalist parchment, wax seals and personalised pressers. It also came with a beautiful peacock feather quill.
Harry's present was simple to say the least. But to the eyes of the unknown, practically everyone besides the Potter twins, it seemed something to be ridiculed. All it was, was a simple cage. It was for his little dragon he had kept since the first task. It had a nasty habit of escaping and causing damage, so Rachel forked out for a lovely small cage for his dragon. But of course, she threw in a broom caring kit just so it looked a little more than metal bars.
The presents were hidden under her bed, for weeks she practised an undetectable extension charm; failing multiple times and creating some horrific accidents. But she eventually did it. So tucked under her mattress was a large bag stuffed full of presents.
Rachel was sat on the common room floor with Harry, demanding his help while she wrapped her present for Remus. Of course she could have used magic to quickly wrap the deep green robes but she wanted to do it by hand. Harry was sat boredly, his finger on some ribbon as Rachel tied a bow, her tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth in concentration.
"You're a witch and have a wand yet you choose not use magic to do this?" Harry rolled his eyes at Rachel.
She looked up briefly at him before looking back, and with a smile, tied the bow properly so it sat proudly - if not slightly wonky - on top of the present. Harry noticed this and smirked.
"Don't you dare say a word." Rachel shot him a glare.
He held up his hands in surrender with a smug look, but instead of making sly comments - which was what the two siblings were all about - accompanied Rachel to the owlery to send the misshaped parcel. With any luck, the school owls might reach Remus in 3 days for Christmas. Maybe even back to school the next day with a letter in response. The school owls were very slow it seemed.
Apparently, judging the pathways outside, Filch had given up the task of sweeping them clean from the constant fall of snow. In all fairness, Rachel admitted it must have been a bit strenuous even with magic, let alone a squib like Filch. And as the twins walked side by side, their footsteps left behind them, Rachel took the moment to say how grateful she was of magic.
It was a blessing, sure it was curse many times too but magic opened your eyes to the world. It seemed you could accomplish so many things and all you had to do was believe in it. A wand in your hand, set determination and you could do anything you wanted.
Beside Rachel, Harry looked at her with wide eyes as she rambled on without even realising what she was saying. She, in fact, did not stop rambling on until she had reached the stairs that ascended to the owlery; talking about nothing other than how impressed she was when wizards had the ability to create new spells.
"Howler, as much as I love our talks, you are bloody boring." Harry exhaled stepping over to a school owl, casting an eye over for Hedwig.
"Says the one. All you ever talk about is that stupid firebolt of yours." Rachel retorted, walking next to him with a smirk and carefully attaching the present to the owls legs.
"Just because you don't have one." Harry laughed.
"You think I'm jealous, green eyes?" Rachel sniggered, releasing the owl and hinting at Harry's eyes. "What good is it that I have a firebolt? I have no need for one. A nimbus is great for a chaser."
"Ooh, sorry." Harry shook his head with a smile.
The two than began to descend the stairs, shoving each other playfully, when at the bottom of the icy steps they bumped into Cedric. Harry eyed him slightly, he was still unsure of how to feel about the other Hogwarts contestant.
"Hello." Cedric said slowly and without a doubt awkwardly too.
"Uh.. hi?" Harry said, before giving him a funny look and walking back to the castle.
But before Rachel could follow him, Cedric quickly caught onto her arm pulling her back slightly.
"Hello." Rachel laughed at him.
"Sorry." He rushed, a pink tinge on his ears.
She stood there looking at him before quickly flitting her eyes to Harry and back; waiting for what Cedric wanted to say.
"Um, I'll meet you outside the Ball at half seven?" He said slowly, checking Rachel's face for a response.
"Yeah, sure. I'll see you there." Rachel nodded with a smile before jogging after Harry.
*
Today, at long last, was the day. It was the Yule Ball, and of course Christmas. In the morning that Rachel woke up, she practically threw her presents at Hermione, Ron and Harry in excitement. She loved Christmas and it was even more fun to spend it with her best friends and in the magical grounds of Hogwarts.
The empty metal suits of armour sung songs as people passed by which was a lovely thought at first, but for the hungover older students stumbling back from house parties it wasn't. Who exactly wanted to have 'Good King Wenceslas' playing in their ear?
Also, mistletoe started to spring up in areas which everyone assume had been the teachers. But now, if you walked underneath it with someone, you'd be glue to the ground and unable to move unless you gave a kiss to whoever you were stuck with. Although no one knew who it was, there were rumours that actually it had been Fred and George, of course.
It was slightly awkward being stuck under the mistletoe with someone, especially if you didn't like them. Yet despite how long this had been going on for, no teacher pursued to stop the sticking mistletoe. Nor did any student find a way out of getting stuck.
Rachel was lucky and hadn't been stuck. But Seamus had when the two were walking, joined with Dean and Aspen Collins one day. Luckily, Rachel and Dean were a little to the side, unintentionally avoiding the mistletoe. Aspen and Seamus got stuck underneath, not that they didn't mind anyway.
But back in the common room, in front of the crackling log fire, Rachel, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat opening they're presents.
All of them received a scarf off Mrs Weasley, Rachel's was a deep green which was her favourite colour so she was beyond happy. The day was going great and there was nothing that could have brought her day down to the fiery pits of inferno. It was amazing how joyous she was. But the day did not last long, in fact it seemed to be over before it started.
They had their brilliant Christmas feast made by the elves, which Fleur obviously moaned about, and Rachel could say without a doubt that it was better than last years.
"It totally is." She was saying, shoving some turkey into her mouth.
"No, no, no. It's too... fancy. It's not a proper Hogwarts feast with these foreigners around." Ron mumbled.
"Ron! You can't say that!" Rachel scolded, looking at him with wide eyes. "Hogwarts is never too fancy my friend."
The gang, Rachel, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fred and George decided they'd have a snowball fight outside. Rachel was avoiding Fred as much as possible without making it obvious whereas Fred was doing the opposite. He was trying to chat with Rachel, offering to be on her team, making her extra snowballs etc. It wasn't working.
Entirely.
They had barely been outside half an hour when Hermione had decided it was time for her and Rachel to go in.
"But it's only half five." Rachel exclaimed. "Why do we need two hours, we're not that ugly."
It earned a snicker from Fred which Rachel chose to ignore. But Hermione stared at Rachel with big eyes, begging her to get ready instead of frolicking in the snow with the boys. So with much persuasion and moaning, Rachel trudged behind Hermione; flicking snow at her with Rachel's boot.
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