Courage

-53-

Book: Courage
Chapter 53
Word Count: 4785

Despite the very heavy load of homework that the fourth years had been given for the holidays, Layla managed to finish all of her school work quickly after she, Hermione, Lavender, Parvati, Ginny, and two of Ginny's friends had formed a study group, hoping that they could get their homework out of the way before Christmas, which was a massive relief since as soon as it was complete, Layla spent the week leading up to Christmas enjoying herself as fully as possible along with everyone else.

Gryffindor Tower was hardly less crowded now than during term-time; it seemed to have shrunk slightly too, as its inhabitants were being so much rowdier than usual. Fred and George had had a great success with their Canary Creams, and for the first couple of days of the holidays, people kept bursting into feathers all over the place. Before long, however, all the Gryffindors had learned to treat food anybody else offered them with extreme caution, in case it had a Canary Cream concealed in the center, and Fred confided to Layla that he and George were now working on developing something else. Layla made a mental note never to accept so much as a crisp from Fred and George in future.

Snow was falling thickly upon the castle and its grounds now. The pale blue Beauxbatons carriage looked like a large, chilly, frosted pumpkin next to the iced gingerbread house that was Hagrid's cabin, while the Durmstrang ship's portholes were glazed with ice, the rigging white with frost. The house-elves down in the kitchen were outdoing themselves with a series of rich, warming stews and savory puddings.

"Hermione," Ron spoke as he, Layla, Harry, and Hermione left the Great Hall, "who are you going to the ball with?"

He kept springing this question on her, hoping to startle her into a response by asking it when she least expected it. However, Hermione merely frowned and said, "I'm not telling you, you'll just make fun of me."

"You're joking, Weasley!" said Malfoy, behind them. "You're not telling me someone's asked that to the ball? Not the long-molared Mudblood?"

Harry, Layla, and Ron all whipped around, but Hermione said loudly, waving to somebody over Malfoys shoulder, "Hello, Professor Moody!"

Malfoy went pale and jumped backward, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew.

"Twitchy little ferret, aren't you, Malfoy?" said Hermione scathingly, and she, Layla, Harry, and Ron went up the marble staircase laughing heartily.

"Hermione," said Ron, looking sideways at her, suddenly frowning, "your teeth..."

"What about them?" she said.

"Well, they're different... I've just noticed."

"Of course they are — did you expect me to keep those fangs Malfoy gave me?"

"No, I mean, they're different to how they were before he put that hex on you. They're all... straight and — and normal-sized."

Hermione suddenly smiled very mischievously, and Layla noticed it too: It was a very different smile from the one she remembered.

"Well... when Layla took me up to Madam Pomfrey to get them shrunk, Madam Pomfrey held up a mirror and told me to stop her when they were back to how they normally were," she said. "And I just... let her carry on a bit." She smiled even more widely. "Mum and Dad won't be too pleased. I've been trying to persuade them to let me shrink them for ages, but they wanted me to carry on with my braces."

The four of them then headed back to Gryffindor Tower.

"You have still got two tasks to do," said Hermione the second that they had all found seats around the fireplace. "You really ought to have a look at that egg, you know, and start working out what it means."