The Letters to No One - Romione

Chapter 33

Decorations flooded the great hall in the lead up to the dance and Hermione thought that it looked even more magical than it had at Halloween. There seemed to be a Christmas Tree around every corner and they were all at least ten foot tall. The ceiling in the great hall had been bewitched to look as if it was constantly snowing and garlands of holly hung from all of the banisters. As if to match, the grounds outside were completely covered with a thick blanket of white snow the next morning when Hermione woke up, only a few hours away from the ball.

She had never considered herself a particularly girly girl, but the past few weeks had shown her that maybe she didn't know herself too well. She couldn't remember the last time that she'd been this excited for anything in her life and she was going to spend it with the people she loved most and after it was done she would get to go home and spend the next two weeks with her parents. It couldn't be more perfect.

'It is so cold out there,' Ginny said as she barged into Hermione's dormitory, not bothering to knock. She sat down at the foot of Hermione's bed a scarf wrapped tightly round her neck and a hat pulled down over her ears. Her cheeks were flushed red and it looked as if she had snow in her hair, although now it was melting and dripping over Hermione's bed, she didn't particularly mind. 'So... When should we start getting ready?' Ginny asked, pulling her hat off a huge smile spreading across her face.

'Should we go for breakfast?' Ron suggested from his bed, to Harry who was awake, but still had his eyes closed. 

'Yeah,' Harry muttered from across the room and Ron dragged himself out of bed, pulling a maroon jumper over his pyjamas and pulling on some jeans.

'Do you reckon the girls already had breakfast?' Ron asked once they'd reached the hall to notice that the girls were no where to be seen.

'They're probably getting ready,' Harry muttered, taking a bite of his cereal. 'Ginny mentioned something about starting to get ready around lunch time. I have no idea why it takes so long.'

'So Ginny?' Ron said, although he phrased it as a question.

'What about her?' Harry replied, suddenly becoming much more interested in the bowl of cereal in front of him, although Harry knew exactly where he was going with this.

'Do you like her?' Ron asked and Harry muttered something that Ron didn't quite catch. 'Because Hermione told me that you did and I just wanted to say...' Ron muttered. He couldn't remember having a more uncomfortable conversation in his entire life. 'If you do like her, then I'm okay with it. Just don't go snogging her in front of me. I'm not that okay with it.' 

Harry looked up in surprise, he had expected Ron to put up more of a protest about this, but he had a feeling that Hermione had had a large influence is this. He would have to thank her later. 'I'm gonna go and visit Hagrid,' Harry said, quickly changing the topic. However accepting Ron was, this was not a conversation that he wanted to have. 'Do you want to come with me?'

'Sure?'

'You should've seen the dress robes that Mum bought for Ron to wear last year,' Ginny said, tears of laughter forming in her eyes at the memory of Ron's face when he had opened them. 'It's a shame that he got some new one's this year, these ones are much nicer, but his old ones had white lace around the collar. It's a shame you missed it, although if you had seen him in them, then you probably wouldn't be going with him to the ball tonight.' Ginny had spent the last hour curling Hermione's hair and she felt wonderful. It was mostly tied up in a neat bun, with a few strands hanging down either side of her face and at the back. 

Her dress, a periwinkle blue, made her feel even more like a princess than the hair do and she couldn't wait to go downstairs to meet everyone else.