On the Saturday before the first task, all students in the third year and above were permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade. Hermione told Harry that it would do him good to get away from the castle for a bit, and Harry didn't need much persuasion.
"What about Ron, though?" he said. "Don't you want to go with him?"
"Oh... well..." Hermione went slightly pink. "I thought we might meet up with him in the Three Broomsticks..."
"No," said Harry flatly.
I groaned. "Harry, this is so stupid —"
"I'll come, but I'm not meeting Ron, and I'm wearing my Invisibility Cloak."
"Oh all right then..." Hermione snapped, "but I hate talking to you in that cloak, I never know if I'm looking at you or not."
"At least you won't be trying on stuffy dresses all afternoon," I said.
"Oh, that's right," Hermione said. "I forgot you'd be shopping with your grandmother. I was wondering why you decided to wear a skirt when it's cold outside."
"You have to look your best when you're with Grandma'am," I said.
"But you're just going shopping, right?" Harry asked. "Why do you have to dress up to go shopping?"
"In Grandma'am's opinion, you should dress up just to go and check the mail every day," I told him. "Let's just go."
So Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak in the dormitory, went back downstairs, and together he, Hermione, and I set off for Hogsmeade.
"Harry, I think you're being stupid," I said as we came out of Honeydukes Sweetshop later, eating large cream-filled chocolates. "Just take off your cloak for a bit. No one's going to bother you here."
"Oh yeah?" said Harry. "Look behind you."
Rita Skeeter and her photographer friend had just emerged from the Three Broomsticks pub. Talking in low voices, they passed right by Hermione and I without looking at us. When they were gone, Harry said, "She's staying in the village. I bet she's coming to watch the first task."
"She's gone," said Hermione, looking right through Harry toward the end of the street. "Why don't we go and have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, it's a bit cold, isn't it?"
"You don't have to talk to Ron!" I added irritably, correctly interpreting his silence. "Besides, that's where Grandma'am said to meet."
"Fine," Harry muttered.
"Thank you," I said, throwing up my hands. "Morrigan."
The Three Broomsticks was packed, mainly with Hogwarts students enjoying their free afternoon, but also with a variety of magical people I rarely saw anywhere else. I supposed that as Hogsmeade was the only all-wizard village in Britain, it was a bit of a haven for creatures like hags, who were not as adept as wizards at disguising themselves.
Harry edged slowly toward a spare table in the corner while Hermione and I went to buy
drinks.
"Oh, there's Grandma'am," I said. "I won't be needing a butterbeer, then."
"I'm going to look like such an idiot, sitting there alone," Hermione muttered.
"I can ask Grandma'am if you can come, too," I offered.
"No, no, it's fine, I brought some things for S.P.E.W. to do," Hermione said, waving me off. "Good luck with the shopping."
"Thanks," I said, hugging her before departing.
"Aisling," Grandma'am said when she saw me. She looked me up and down, taking in my outfit. Apparently it was suitable for her, because she nodded approvingly. "Excellent. I came in here to warm up a bit, but it's far too crowded for my taste. Let's begin, shall we?"
"Of course, Grandma —" I cut myself off, remembering she didn't like that nickname. "Um, Grandmother."
I tried on practically every dress in that shop, feeling guilty as the shopkeeper grew steadily more distressed and exasperated by Grandma'am's inability to decide. Finally I just pointed at a white, floor-length dress with a gold neckline and shoulder straps that I thought looked cute and said, "How about that one?"
Suddenly, miraculously, Grandma'am's indecision disappeared, and she bought the dress, along with some heels. She had me try on the full ensemble and walk around in it so I could make sure I didn't trip over anything.
"Why do I need these dress robes, anyway?" I wondered as we left once both my grandmother and I were satisfied with the dress.
"Oh, they still haven't told you?" Grandma'am asked. "Every time the Triwizard Tournament is held, there is also a Yule Ball on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I bet you're glad I had Luther teach you how to waltz, aren't you?"
A ball? That's what the dress was for? I frowned. Hogwarts didn't normally do schoolwide balls or parties. We had post-match parties for Quidditch victories, and we had feasts, and that was the same thing, only better, because all you had to do was show up and eat food. That was it. No dancing, no worrying about whether you should even bother trying to get a date, no fretting that the other girls would giggle maliciously at you if you decided to go without one.
And yes, that last part was what school parties and dances were like at Ilvermorny. We were very modern American. We dressed in normal school uniforms instead of robes, used pens and notebook paper instead of quills and scrolls. And, of course, we had prom and homecoming every year for those who were in fourth year and up, plus a Valentine's Day dance for the first three Years. Probably the only difference between us and any other private school in the nation was the fact that it was a school for magic.
"Don't look so disappointed," Grandma'am said, then, continuing as if she'd read my mind, "It won't be like those parties at Ilvermorny. At Hogwarts we do things the civilized way: A dignified dinner followed by pleasant dancing. And since two other schools will be there, your teachers and headmaster will expect you to be on your best behavior."
Of course.
"So, how about a quick break for some drinks at the Three Broomsticks, and we can get the rest of our shopping done?"
"The rest of it?"
"Of course, dear. I saw a necklace in another shop earlier that I think would go great with the dress and cloak, and perhaps we can find some matching earrings."
"But Grandma'am, I don't have pierced ears."
"Oh, I suppose we'll take care of that, then. And after that, we'll get anything else you'd like. I think there is a bookshop somewhere around here."
I was about to say no and head back up to the castle, but I'd never seen her looking so excited about something before. She must've really enjoyed shopping.
"Okay," I said. "I was hoping to look for some new books."
A few hours later, I headed back up to the castle with my new things. Grandma'am had no sense of restraint when it came to shopping, so I'd had to say no to several books and the pierced ears. Grandma'am did get the necklace she'd spotted for me, though I didn't plan on wearing it to the ball.
By the time I'd made it up to Gryffindor Tower with my dress and other things, it was dusk. Harry informed me after I'd finished putting away my dress that Hedwig had returned.
"It's from Luke," he said, grinning and elbowing me.
"You're a moron," I informed him, rolling my eyes and taking the envelope from him, elbowing him back. I retreated back to my dorm and opened the envelope to find two letters inside — one from Luke and one from Annabeth.
Annabeth's wasn't really a letter — she'd drawn a picture of me, Luke, and Grover standing beside her and holding hands near the Athena cabin (I could tell it was the Athena cabin because it looked like a house with an owl on it). Underneath the picture was her name and the words "I mis u Ash" with a bunch of hearts. My own heart melted at the sight of it — I don't think I'd ever gotten a drawing from a little kid before — and I immediately tacked it up beside my bed.
Next I opened the letter from Luke. Luckily, it was written in Ancient greek, so I wouldn't have to use my dyslexia glasses. I unfolded the paper and read,
Hi, Ash.
I got your letter (obviously, or I probably wouldn't have written to you so soon).
Things have been going okay. Annabeth is so strong for someone her age, I don't know how she deals with everything that's happened.
To answer your questions, yes, yes, I think so, and only every other day.
"Wait, what?" I muttered. I didn't remember the questions I'd asked him. How hard would it have been to reword the questions and answer them that way? I rolled my eyes. Harry and Ron did the exact same thing sometimes. Harry was usually better at answering questions, but literally every letter I got from Ron was like, "Oh, and that thing you asked about — yeah, sounds great." But I couldn't remember what the thing I'd asked about was.
Maybe it was a guy thing.
I read on.
That picture you sent of Malfoy as a ferret was hilarious. I showed it to Annabeth and a few of my siblings and they couldn't stop laughing. Maybe you could do that spell on us for a laugh sometime during Winter Break when you come visit us.
I winced, realizing now that I wouldn't be able to visit Camp Half-Blood after all because of the Yule Ball. I'd have to tell him the next time I IM-ed him.
Anyway, IM me as soon as you're done reading. I don't care what time it is, even if I'm sleeping.
Talk to you soon.
Luke
I folded the letter back up. Apparently the next time I IM-ed him would be now. I put the letter in the pocket of my cardigan so I could show him how ridiculous he was with his half-answered questions, grabbed a drachma, and headed down from Gryffindor Tower. I decided to go to that spot by the lake where Harry, Hermione, and I had hung out a while ago, eating toast and talking about Harry being entered in the Tournament, before the article had come out.
When I got down to the shore of the lake, I looked at the back of my hand to remember the rainbow-summoning spell I'd found randomly a few days ago. I hoped it worked because being able to just make a rainbow without needing both water and light would make it easier and quicker for Iris Messages.
"Irides," I murmured. A rainbow streamed out of my wand like a trickle of water. I grinned and tossed in a drachma. "Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Luke Castellan at Camp Half-Blood."
The rainbow shimmered, and Luke appeared in front of me.
"Are you trying to break into the camp store?" I demanded. Luke jumped and turned around, nearly losing his balance.
"Shh!" he hissed, looking around. "What are you doing?"
"You're the one who said to IM you right away, regardless of what time it is."
"I know, I know."
"So, what's up?"
"I asked for a quest yesterday," Luke said. "Chiron said no."
"Sorry," I said, though I really wasn't. As fun as our summer adventure up the east coast had been, it hadn't ended well. I didn't need any more friends getting hurt or killed. "If it makes you feel better, I've been going to camp for almost ten years, and I have never been assigned a quest."
"You found Annabeth, Thalia, and I, and tried to get us to camp."
"It wasn't assigned, though. I found you guys on my way back from Hogwarts."
"I guess that's true."
"So how's Grover? Is he doing alright?"
"I thought I answered that in the letter.'
"I couldn't tell," I said, getting out the letter, and reading it to him. " 'To answer your questions, yes, yes, I think so, and only every other day.' That's what you wrote."
"I thought you'd remember your own questions!"
"I can't keep up with that and all of my assignments."
"Okay, fine. The first question was you asking if I was alright. Yes. The second one was you asking if I was getting enough sleep and food. Yes." He smirked at me. "Mom."
"Well, excuse me for being concerned for your wellbeing!"
"Okay, okay!" He laughed. "The third question was you asking if Grover and Annabeth were alright. I put I think so because they both look happy, but every now and then I'll find Annabeth sitting absolutely still and staring at the ground and I just know she's thinking about Thalia. And Grover kind of got worse after I sent the letter. Then the fourth question was you asking how often I was practicing swordplay. Every other day. Boom. You're welcome. Don't forget to put your name on your test."
"Okay, Professor Stupid." I grinned and rolled my eyes. "So, what's going on with Grover? You said he kind of got worse?"
"Yeah, the Council of Cloven Elders had his searcher's license revoked."
"Oh," I sighed. As if losing Thalia wasn't hard enough on him. "Did they say whether he could find a way to get it back?"
"They said it was possible, but it definitely sounded like they didn't think he could do it."
"Tell him that I'm rooting for him," I said. "Poor guy deserves all the support he can get."
"I'll definitely tell him."
"Is Annabeth... no, never mind, I doubt she'd be shoplifting when she could be reading or something better."
"Ouch," Luke deadpanned. "But no, Annabeth's not here now."
"Okay, well, you should tell her that I really liked her drawing and that it was really sweet of her."
"I mean, it's no Monet, but..."
"There's nothing more precious than a small child giving you a drawing," I said. "So, with that reasoning, it's better than Monet. Period."
"Okay," Luke laughed. "Oh, gods, you should've seen her last Friday. We were on the same team for Capture-the-Flag and she practically won the whole thing for us. She had us send a couple of the older campers in one direction as a decoy, then had me go and steal the flag and hand it off to Kris."
"Nike's kid?"
"Yeah. He got all the way to the boundary and decided to let Annabeth carry it across. Madison, you know, the Head Counselor of Athena, was so proud of her."
"I wish I'd seen all of that! Look at Annabeth, climbing the ranks. She'll be conquering the world in no time."
"Yeah, but I've got some mad skills, too," Luke said. "Took a lot of stealth to snatch the flag."
"Well, kudos to you, too."
"We'll have to join forces when you come back for Winter Break," Luke said. "Apollo, Athena, and Hermes — we'll be unstoppable."
"Ah," I said sheepishly. "Yeah, about that... I found out today that after the First Task we're going to be having this..." I winced at how stupid it would sound. " This Yule Ball on Christmas... you know, because of the Triwizard Tournament, all in the name of international cooperation, yada, yada, yada."
"So you won't be coming?"
"Unfortunately, no. It's not mandatory, but Grandma'am went out of her way to buy me this really nice dress and she made it sound like she'd be extremely disappointed if I didn't go."
"So who are you going with? Harry?"
"Well, the teachers haven't announced it yet, so people haven't started asking each other yet. But I guess it would be nice to go with Harry... though, now that I think about it, there's this girl that he likes, I'm pretty sure he's going to try and ask her."
"I wish I could go," Luke muttered. "It would be cool... you know, to meet your friends and hang out all night."
"It would be cool," I agreed. "Do you think Chiron would let you come?"
"I'll ask him," Luke said doubtfully. "So what's this Tournament thing? I think you mentioned it in your letter, but you didn't really specify—"
"Oh, right." I explained everything to him; the two other schools, Harry's name being drawn from the Goblet of Fire, the first task coming up soon, the stupid reporter who made Harry look like a tragic moron.
"What did this dude do to deserve all this crap?" Luke wondered incredulously. "The teachers didn't even try to get him out of the Tournament?"
"No, something about a binding magical contract. I don't know what happens if he doesn't compete, but apparently Dumbledore made it sound like there was no getting out of it."
"I don't trust this Dumbledore guy. First he takes your friends' memories and keeps them for an indefinite amount of time, and now he's allowing a kid to compete in a supposedly deadly tournament. Oh, and the fact that he's making Harry stay with his nasty relatives? The man is shady."
"I agree," I told him. "I don't trust him half as far as I can throw him."
"Good," Luke said, nodding. "So, I'll tell Annabeth you liked her fake Monet and Grover that you're in his corner, and I'll also ask Chiron about coming to visit you since you can't visit us... anything else?"
"Um... Oh, yeah! Tell Dan that—" I was cut off by the sound of a stick breaking, and Luke and I both jumped. "Uh, never mind, you should probably get out of there before someone catches you trying to sneak in."
"I'm pretty sure that was on your end," Luke said. "Everyone's having dinner right now."
"It was? Oh, crap. Bye, talk to you later!"
"Bye!"
I swiped through the vision, whipped out my wand, and turned around, one hand on my bow and arrow keychain, scanning the treeline. A few yards away, I noticed something rippling and saw a foot. Literally just a foot.
"Harry?" I demanded.
There was a much bigger ripple, and Harry pulled off his Invisibility cloak.
Wow, this took way too long to write. I finished the mood board for Ash's Yule Ball look, I'll include it with the Yule Ball chapter. Also, I changed Ash's faceclaim back to Taylor Swift. Why? Because Taylor is an absolute goddess and everytime I think of Ash I just think of Taylor during the Fearless era. In fact, Ash's dress is going to be one of the dresses from Taylor's Fearless Tour. See if you can guess which one!
I also switched Annabeth's fc to Mckenna Grace because I think she looks closer to how I picture 7-year-old Annabeth. I redid the cast gifs in the prologue, so if you're interested in that, go check that out. And... yeah. That's all I've got for now.
Enjoy and comment what your favorite Taylor Swift song is (if you have one. I know it's impossible to choose when all of her songs are amazing. In that case just comment your favorite album/era) for more!
~~~~ Kingfisher ~~~~