𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 | harry potter

⏤ 14. clandestine promises

Snow was swirling against the icy windows once more; Christmas was approaching fast. The Great Hall was already being decorated with the usual twelve Christmas trees that Hagrid single-handedly delivered, garlands of holly and tinsel that had been twisted around the banisters of the stairs, and everlasting candles flowed from the inside of the helmets of suits of armors.

There were also mistletoes that hung across the corridors of the castle. Some students felt excited to get caught under one of those, while some were repulsed by the mere idea of them.

The first kind were Ron and Lavender, who couldn't find time to untangle themselves from each other, Ginny and Dean, who had accidentally walked under them many times.. and Amelia and Daphne, who had overtime turned into the sweetest couple in all of Hogwarts.

The second kind though.. were Hermione, Blaise, Seamus (who seemed to miss his best friend and rumoured to have a girl in Ravenclaw he fancied), Luna (who seemed disinterested in all this and more interested in conspiracies anyway), and Theodore (who was rarely around, these days).

Some rare cases were people like Haynes and Bonheur— who didn't care but didn't want to be caught up with each other in any instance.

Ria, who of course, had many other things to occupy her mind with instead of some bunch of grass.

And Harry, who took different routes every time because large groups of girls tended to converge underneath mistletoe bunches every time he went past. He thanked his frequent nighttime wanderings and the Marauders' Map for giving him the knowledge of the castle's secret passageways.

Ron, who once might have found the necessity of these detours a cause of jealousy rather than hilarity, laughed about it all once he learned. And Harry found out he very much preferred this new Ron to the moody, aggressive one he had been enduring for the last few weeks.

But it came with a price.

Firstly, he had to put up with the frequent presence of Lavender Brown, who seemed to think that any moment she was not snogging Ron was a moment gravely wasted. And secondly, he found himself in a situation once again, where two of his best friends were on the verge of never speaking to each other ever again.

Ron's hands and forearms still bore scratches and cuts from Hermione's bird attack. And he held quite a resentful tone while talking about her.

"She can't complain." He said. "She snogged Krum. So she's found out someone wants to snog me too. Well, it's a free country. I haven't done anything wrong."

Harry did not answer, pretending to be absorbed in another book of ancient magic he had taken from the Restricted Section. Determined as he was to remain friends with both of them, he was spending a lot of time with his mouth shut.

"I never promised Hermione anything," Ron mumbled. "I mean, all right, she did propose taking me to Slughorn's Christmas party. But it was probably in the spur of the moment. It wasn't anything serious.."