Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Sixty-Five

Here's Ash's complete Yule Ball look. Enjoy!

I woke up on Christmas Day and saw the small pile of presents on the foot of my bed.

"Hermione!" I exclaimed when she woke up to her own pile of presents. "We should do that thing we did last year with the ribbons on Jab and Crookshanks!"

"Oh, I forgot about that!" Hermione exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" Parvati asked a bit sleepily.

"Look," I took the red ribbon from the package that most likely contained my Weasley sweater and tied it loosely in a bow around Jab's neck.

"He looks so cute and festive!" Lavender cooed.

"I know, right?" I grinned and unwrapped my new sweater from Mrs. Weasley. Red with a gold letter A. I put it on over my pajamas and moved on to the next present: Little Women and Pride and Prejudice from Hermione.

When I held it up to show her, she smiled and nodded. "I was hoping you'd read them so we can talk about them together. I need to talk to someone about the March girls." She unwrapped my present, a pantload of sugar quills and a few fictional novels I'd found in Hogsmeade. "Ooh, are these by wizarding authors?"

"Yeah, you mentioned you'd never read any, so I got those. I've read a couple of them, so we can talk about those books and the ones you gave me."

"We'll have a little book club," Hermione agreed, nodding.

"Ooh, Ash," Parvati said quietly, holding up the golden butterfly hair pins I'd given her. They were enchanted to flutter whenever the wearer moved.

"Yeah, I thought you might like those," I replied, grinning. "I made sure they went with your dress!"

"You are an extremely good gift-giver," Lavender said. "Where did you even find this? A necklace that can change color to match what you're wearing? What?"

"My Grandma'am took me to this jewelry shop in Hogsmeade when we got my dress," I told her. "I can show you where it is the next time we go. Hermione, they also do custom badges — five sickles for a dozen. I was thinking of getting you some S.P.E.W. badges, but I didn't know what you'd want them to look like, so... yeah, I thought I'd just let you know."

"We'll definitely have to go there all together, then," Hermione said. "Make it a girls' trip."

"Oh, Morrigan, look what Harry got me," I said, laughing as I held up an Ireland Quidditch Team scarf. "The note he wrote says 'I got you a belt.' "

Hermione laughed. "He remembered what you said in the library."

"Now I don't know if I should wear it as a scarf because that's what it's supposed to be, or a belt, just to be ironic." I shrugged and wrapped it around my neck. "Anyway, what did he give you?"

"More Sugar Quills," she replied.

"Ash, open mine," Parvati urged. "It goes with your dress for the ball."

"Ooh, okay," I said eagerly. I unwrapped a golden headband with sparkly gems arranged in flower shapes. "Oh... Parvati... I'm scared to wear it now, I don't want to break it..."

Parvati beamed. "I know you won't, Ash, and you'll look positively radiant in it."

"Thanks so much, Parvati." I carefully set the headband on my nightstand and moved on to my next gift from Lavender, which was a load of pumpkin pasties.

"You mentioned you liked them," she said. "Yours kind of put mine to shame, but—"

"It's food," I said matter-of-factly. "Food is my favorite thing in the world. Especially anything pumpkin-flavored," I added, with a longing look at the pasties. I patted the container and set it aside. I would eat them while we were getting ready for the Ball. "Soon, my darlings. Soon."