In the shadow of Hermione Granger.

The yule ball:

Friday December 25th

It's the morning of the yule ball I am on my way down to the bathrooms to take a bath before getting ready, when I arrive at the bathrooms I see Ginny undressing herself, I stop for a second to admire her, but I don't want her to notice so I quicky snap out of it and then start to undress myself, Ginny hasn't seen me, not yet. I pretend I haven't seen her either. I sit down in the bathtub on the opposite side of Ginny, I close my eyes and enjoy the silence and then I hear Ginny's sweet voice: "Hi Harlow, didn't see you there."
"Oh hi, didn't see you either, exited for tonight?"
Ginny: "Yeah I'm so excited, are you?"

"Yeah, I am, you are going with Neville right."
Ginny: "Yeah, how did you know"
"Xavier told me"
Ginny: "Xavier?"
"Yeah he's my friend"
Ginny: "Right, but who are you going with?"
"I'm actually going with Xavier, since Sebastian left"
Ginny: "Right I'm sorry about that, his sister is sick"
"Yeah, and if she dies then he's alone with all his brothers"
Ginny: "How many does he have?"
"Eight I think, they are ten siblings"
Ginny: "And nine of them are boys"
"Yeah"
Ginny: "Poor girl"
"At least you only have six brothers"
Ginny: "And they are more than enough"
"Yeah I only have Hermione but that's all I need"
Ginny: "I get it"
--
After my bath I follow Ginny to her room to get the dress. She leaves the door open, and I hear her talking with one of her roommates, that I can't identify by the voice. She comes out after a minute with the dress and says: "Sorry about that, it was just Charity"
"What about her"
Ginny: "She's just a bit too much sometimes."
"Oh okay"
Ginny hands me the dress and says: "Here you go, you are going to look absolutely beautiful"
"Thanks" I reach to take the dress and my hand accidently lay on Ginny's for a second.
"I better get Going but thanks again"
Ginny: "You are welcome, see you tonight"

--
A few hours later I am fully dressed and I'm just waiting on Hermione, a few minutes later Hermione is ready and says: "Let's go"
"Great"
She takes my hand and we walk outside the room and to the stairs, Hermione has a beautiful light pink dress on and her hair tied back with half of it down. As we reach the stairs I see Victor Krum waiting on Hermione on the side of the stairs. I see Ginny with Neville, and I feel a little jealous, but then I see Xavier at the end of the stairs. I let go of Hermione's hand and go down the stairs to Xavier.
Xavier: "You look absolutely beautiful"
"Thanks, you don't look too bad yourself"
The rest of the night we eat, talk and dance, but while dancing with Xavier, I look into his eyes and briefly they turn white, but just as quickly as it appeared it was gone again, I think nothing of it and we keep dancing.
After Xavier and I have been dancing for a while I go over to Ginny and say: "I saw something wired with Xavier earlier"
Ginny: "What did you see?"
"His eyes turned white for a brief second"
Ginny: "Like Hermione's did in the dream"
"Exactly, but it was only for a second, maybe it was just the light"
Ginny: "Maybe, but be careful, I don't have a good feeling about him"
"What does that mean?"
Ginny grabs my arm and says frustrated: "I don't know, just don't trust him,please. I beg you"
"But he's my friend too"
Ginny: "I get that put please just listen to me"
I try to grab her hand, but she pushes me away and say: "I can't, Harlow, not right now" and then she walks off.
--
I feel the tears run down my face so I storm to the bathroom, on the way I run into Hermione and Ron, I just keep running, I hear footsteps behind me and Hermione yelling: "Harlow, Harlow please stop"
When I reach the bathroom I break down crying, Hermione sit down beside me  lays a and on my shoulder and looks worried at me and says: "Are you okay?"
I cant get any words out because of the crying so I just shake my head
Hermione: "What's wrong?"
I'm sobbing, struggling to get any words out: "I-it's G-Ginny. I-I ruined everything"
Hermione: "Hold on, how did you ruin everything?"
I dry the tears from my face: "Our friendship"
Hermione: "But nothing can break your friendship"
"But I just did"
Hermione: "How?"
"By trusting Xavier"
Hermione: "Xavier, Xavier Rothley, but he's so kind, I know Ginny doesn't like him but that's between them"
"But by trusting him, I ruined everything between Ginny and me"
Hermione: "Where is Ginny now?"
"I don't know, she ran off"
Hermione: "I will find her and I will talk with her okay?"
"Okay"
Hermione: "Everything will be fine, but you just have fun okay"
"How can I?"
Hermione: "Go out, dance, find someone"
"Who, Ginny is mad at me, and I don't want to make things worse by going backto Xavier"
Hermione: "Then go to Neville, he's your friend right?"
"I guess,"
Hermione: "Or Luna, either of them. Just go have fun okay"
"Okay I will try"
Hermione: "Good"
She hugs me and then helps me up from the floor, hugs me one last time andsays: "Everything will be fine."

--

The past few hours I've been dancing with Luna and Neville, I haven't seen either Hermione or Ginny, they are probably still talking. I don't know, I have a wired feeling about Xavier, I looked at him once an hour ago and his eyes were white again. I don't know if I should trust him anymore.
While dancing with Luna someone taps me on my shoulder, I turn around to see that its Ginny, her eyes are red a poofy, like she's been crying. She takes myhand and drags me behind a curtain, and says: "I'm sorry, it's not your fault that I'm mad at Xavier, I just don't trust him, he's your friend, and I can't keep that from you. I just wanted to say I'm sorry, can you forgive me?"
"Of course Ginny, I'll forgive you, but I think it's time we give the pages to the ghost"
Ginny: "Why? Have you seen something"
"I think so, I have the pages in my room, and I think we should do it right now"
Ginny: "Then we'll do that"
We run up to my room and put the book out on the bed, the ghost flies up andsays: "Did you get the pages?"
"Yeah we did"
Ghost: "Good. Place them exactly in the middle of the book and they will sort them selves out"
I do as he says and then he says: "Okay the pages tell me to send you on another quest. I'm still missing seven pages, but the next quest will give youfive more."
Ginny: "Great, then where are we going?"
Ghost: "You'll have to go far, the pages are hidden in an old magical cherry-blossom-tree"
"How far should we go"
Ghost: "The tree are on a field, surrounded by millions of lilies and tulips. You'llhave to pick five of each, before going to the tree, when you find the tree youwill see a handprint on the bottom of the trunk, and another on the top of thetrunk, you will each place your right hand on the handprint, but it will onlywork if you completely trust each other and only if you place your hands on theexact same time, else it won't work and you won't get the pages"
"And then what"
Ghost: "Then you can't complete your quest"
"And we'll never find out what's going on with my dreams"
Ghost: "And that won't be good, I just need to know, are you the same age?"
Ginny: "Not exactly"
Ghost: "How long are there between you"
Ginny: "A year and a month"
Ghost: "Are you at least from the same season?"
"Yeah I'm from July and Ginny's from August"
Ghost: "That's good, then it will work if you trust each other and do it at the same time"
"Then we will do that"
Ghost: "One more thing, as soon as you have the pages you will need to place them in the middle of the book okay?"
Ginny: "Okay"
"Then lets go over the break, then we don't miss any school"
Ginny: "And that break starts tomorrow"
"Then lets pack and lets get going"
Ginny: "Yes, we just have to be back by the 10th of January"
"And we will be"
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