Sirius's Letter

Ron's Reaction

The next few days were some of the most interesting for Harry. As usual, Hermione was right. Ever since he had asked her to the Yule Ball, a handful of girls had approached him in the hopes that he'll take them to the Yule Ball. Harry tried to turn down these hopefuls as politely as he could whilst being careful to not let slip that he had a date already. He had hoped to at least tell Ron first before the entire school found out that Harry Potter already had a date to the Yule Ball.

He had originally thought about telling him the very day he had asked Hermione to go with him (after first making sure if Ron could be an exception to her favour, which she immediately agreed to). He had to put this on hold though, as Ron had picked that day to ask out Fleur Delacour to the Yule Ball. Harry did not witness the scene personally, but he had it on good authority that Ron managed to horribly embarrass himself in front of half the school. In between Ginny's good-natured laughs at a very mortified Ron's expense, Harry explained that Fleur was part Veela and that her spillover magic is probably why Ron had felt such a strong urge to scream an invite to the Yule Ball at her.

Unfortunately for Harry, this incident made Ron act very sullen and refused to have any say in the subject matter altogether. Occasionally, Harry would try to casually bring up the Yule Ball over the next few days, but he was almost always met with grunts or sniffs in reply. He finally decided to take his time until Ron's demeanour was altogether less mopey before telling him whom he was taking to the Yule Ball, despite the fact that Ron's surliness seemed to be never ending.

Instead, Harry turned his attention towards the egg in the hopes of take his mind off things. With Hermione's encouragement, he tried to channel all of his focus into making sense of the atrocious wailing noise that it constantly emitted. Numerous listens later, Harry was nowhere closer to guessing what he will be facing in the Second Task; not that he was putting much effort into finding out what the noise is supposed to be. Truthfully, he didn't really care about the egg as he was only using it as an excuse to just be around Hermione. Throughout these sessions, he'd often find himself unintentionally watching her and, to his surprise, wondering what it would be like to nuzzle in her bushy brown hair. More than once, Hermione would catch him and blush slightly while giving him a shy look in return that makes his insides turn into mush. The two of them had silently seemed to agree to act as if nothing is happening between them, although Hermione did seem to act a little less bossy around him. This suited Harry just fine, as it helped him feel more relaxed around her, but he still couldn't help feeling nervous at the thought of dancing with his best friend. Sirius's letter didn't give him advice on dancing and the thought of asking him or Hermione for help made him cringe in embarrassment. It certainly did not help that at night, alone in his four-posted bed, he'd find his thoughts drifting towards Hermione. Before he'd fall asleep, he would unconsciously touch the spot where she had kissed him and feel his stomach tying itself in a knot; one which only got tighter when he reminded himself that Ron still didn't know that Harry was taking Hermione to the Yule Ball.

As the event drew nearer, Harry hastily put together a plan in an effort to try and put Ron in a good enough mood to talk about the Yule Ball. One afternoon, he made up an excuse about feeling rather peckish and asked Ron if he wanted to sneak down to the kitchens for some food. Never one to turn down good food, he agreed immediately. After feasting on some delicious roast chicken legs and a few mince pies, both Harry and Ron felt remarkably full. When they made their way back to the Common Room (Fairy Lights), they found it unusually empty. At Ron's suggestion, they started playing some wizard's chess. Harry was never particularly good at chess, and this was quite advantageous to him since he wanted to get Ron in a good mood so that he can maybe finally be open to talk about the ball. Finally, after a couple of entertaining matches (Harry lost both times), he cleared his throat and attempted to casually strike up a conversation.