The Potter Twins and the Half-Blood Prince {6}

13. The Christmas Party

"They danced through the day and into the night through the snow that had swept the hall. From winter to summer than winter again, till the walls did crumble and fall" - Jenny of Oldstones, Florence and the Machine

Snow is now swirling against the icy window once more; Christmas is approaching fast. Hagrid has already single-handedly delivered the usual twelve Christmas trees for the Great Hall; garlands of holly and tinsel have been twisted around the banisters of the stairs; everlasting candles glow from inside the helmets of suits of armour and great bunches of mistletoe have been hung at intervals along the corridors. Large groups of girls have taken to converge underneath the mistletoe every time Harry passes; fortunately, however, we're well versed with the castle's hidden passages, so we're able to, without much difficulty, navigate mistletoe-free routes between classes.

As I suspected, the night of the Gryffindor party caused more problems than it solved. Similarly, it appears that love was indeed in the air that night; Ron snogged Lavender Brown (of all people) prompting Hermione to storm off in tears. Harry tells me that Hermione sent a flock of tiny conjured birds onto him later on, evidenced by the cuts and scrapes he's still exhibiting now.

Nevertheless, he's happy and laughing again, which I much prefer to the moody, aggressive Ron we've been dealing with for the last few weeks, the new Ron comes at a heavy price. Firstly, Harry and I have to put up with the constant presence of Lavender, who seems to regard any moment she isn't kissing Ron as a waste of time; and secondly, we find ourselves once again the best friends of two people who seem unlikely to ever speak to each other again.

Ron is taking the defensive and resentful route.

"She can't complain," he tells us. "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."

Neither of us answers; Harry pretends to be absorbed in his book, while I shrug half-heartedly. We're determined to remain friends with both Ron and Hermione, which means a lot of our time is spent with our mouths shut tight.

"I never promised Hermione anything," Ron mumbles. "I mean, all right, I was going to go to Slughorn's Christmas party with her, but she never said...just as friends...I'm a free agent..."

Meanwhile, Hermione's schedule is so full that I can only talk to her properly in the evenings, when Ron, is any case, so tightly wrapped around Lavender that he does not notice what Harry, Hermione, Riley, and I do. She refuses to sit in the common room while Ron is there, so we spend a lot of time in the library with her, which means our conversations are held in whispers.

"He's at perfect liberty to kiss whomever he likes," says Hermione, while the librarian, Madam Pince, prowls the shelves behind us. "I really couldn't care less."

She raises her quill and dots an i so ferociously that she punctures a hole in her parchment. I frown slightly, continuing to take notes from my Potions textbook, ignoring Harry's tattered copy.

"And incidentally," Hermione says, after a few moments, "you need to be careful, Harry."

"For the last time," Harry says, speaking in a slightly hoarse whisper. "I am not giving back this book, I've learned more from the Half-Blood Prince than Snape or Slughorn have taught me in - "

"I'm not talking about your stupid so-called Prince," Hermione says, giving his book a nasty look as though it has been rude to her. I stifle a snigger. "I'm talking about earlier. I went into the girl's bathroom just before I came in here and there were about a dozen girls in there, including Romilda Vane, trying to decide how to slip you a love potion. They're all hoping they're going to get you to take them to Slughorn's party, and they all seem to have bought Fred and George's love potions, which I'm afraid to say probably work --"