The Golden Son

Christmas 1994

While the situation with my grandfather had been awkward, he quickly turned it into a conversation about the dragon incident from earlier.

He was happy about the fact we'd found the dragon but when I told him about the chain link, showing him the damage to it as it was literally snapped in half, he was far from impressed to say the least.

Taking the broken chain link from me, he finally said something.

"You'd think the dragonologists would've been a little more prepared than this" my grandfather's tone was definitely accusatory

"I think they were prepared, if there had only been the original 3 dragons this probably wouldn't have happened. They hadn't been expecting to be told to bring 4 at the last minute." I replied

He nodded, seemingly realizing I was right given that the chain hadn't broken earlier, before leaving, taking the broken link with him.

The next event wasn't until December 25th, it wasn't a task for the tournament but it was still an important part of the tournament as a whole.

The Yule Ball is an important aspect of the tournament, it's meant to bring the 3 school's together, thus helping with International Magical Cooperation.

While I wasn't actually involved in the event itself, my grandfather had asked me to go in his absence as he wanted to visit my grandmother's grave like he usually does on Christmas.

This meant having to buy a formal dress.....

I went dress shopping two weeks before the ball, inviting Sirius to join me on my search for a decent dress.

I didn't actually need help finding a dress, I knew the basics of what I wanted, but I invited him in an effort to better our relationship. I really wanted a decent relationship with him, even if I never felt comfortable calling him 'dad' again he was still my father.

After fetching a very grumpy, half asleep Sirius, I apparated us to a little shop in downtown London.

"What are we doing here again?" Sirius asked

"I need a dress for the Yule Ball, grandpa can't go, he always visits Gran's grave on Christmas Day. Thus I have to fill in as a chaperone for the dance in his absence." I answered

"And why exactly do I need to be here?"

"You don't need to be, I asked you to be because I wanted to spend time with you."

He seemed slightly shocked at this revelation.

"You wanted to spend time with me?"

"You're my father, I'd like to try and have a decent relationship with you. If you'd rather leave, you can. I'm not going to make you stay, I just thought this would be something we could do together."

He shook his head, deciding to take the opportunity to spend time with me by sitting down and waiting patiently.

I tried on numerous dresses, all of them being in the general vicinity of what I was looking for, but I wasn't having any luck so far.

The employee helping me had brought yellow dresses, green, blue, gold, pink, purple, along with numerous other colors.

Sirius's face when I walked out in the emerald green dress however was priceless, he looked like he'd just sucked on a lemon.

Then the employee walked back with a floor length red dress.

"Your dad got tired of waiting for this color apparently, he picked this one out." He stated, handing me the dress.