Sirius's Letter

The Yule Ball

If an unsuspecting onlooker happened to pay attention to Ron during the few days leading up to Christmas, it would be easy to assume that Ron seemed to be making quite an exuberant effort to get into the spirit of things. Despite this, Harry knew that Ron was still feeling miserable. Every time that Harry noticed this, he felt guilty knowing that the reason that Ron was so upset was because he wasn't going to be the one who will be taking Hermione to the Yule Ball. Harry wished more than once that the Yule Ball will just finally come and pass already.

At long last, Christmas Day finally arrived. After waking up his whole dormitory with a surprised yelp due to Dobby's unexpected appearance (who gave him a rather interesting pair of mismatched socks that he had knitted himself in exchange for Ron's new Weasley jumper and a couple of pairs of their socks), he finally sat up so he can open up his presents.

'Cheers Harry!' said Ron gratefully. Harry turned around to see Ron wearing the Chudley Cannons hat that he bought him. Its vibrant orange hue contrasted quite horrendously with his red hair.

'No problem,' grinned Harry. Deciding to open Ron's first, he unwrapped what turned out to be a bulging bag of Dungbombs. Rolling his eyes in amusement, he dug through all the rest of the presents that he received from Hagrid (a large box of all his favourite wizarding sweets), Sirius (a penknife that can unlock all locks and untie all knots) and Mrs. Weasley (a generous number of homemade mince pies and a green Weasley jumper adorned with a dragon). Snorting derisively at the Dursley's present, which consisted of a single tissue, he finally unwrapped Hermione's gift; a book called Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland. Smiling widely at how thoughtful her gift was, Harry cracked open the first page and began to read. He was soon interrupted by Ron, who demanded that Harry get up so that they can make their way downstairs for breakfast. Hermione sat waiting for them as they made their way to the Common Room. Harry thanked her profusely for her gift, which earned him a very wide smile in return.

The rest of the morning was quite peaceful. After breakfast, they decided to laze about in the Gryffindor Tower before heading down to an awe-inspiring Christmas lunch; complete with about a hundred roast turkeys and Christmas puddings with piles upon piles of Cribbage's Wizarding Crackers just waiting to be opened. Later on, Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys' decided to head to the grounds wherein a rather enthusiastic snowball fight took place between Harry and the Weasleys'. Hermione elected to watch them rather than join in, and at five o'clock announced that she was going to head back to the castle to start getting ready. She then gave Harry a wave, which was the perfect moment for George Weasley to use this little distraction to hit Harry rather hard on the side of the head with a snowball.

It was another two hours before they all made their way back to Gryffindor Tower to finally get changed. Harry, Dean, Seamus and Neville all changed into their dress robes whilst Ron sat lazily on his bed. Seamus and Dean were looking very smug since they somehow managed to land Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil as dates, whom many considered to be some of the most attractive girls in their year. Neville, on the other hand, was going with Ginny. Harry noticed that he was shying away from Ron, probably so he won't get an earful for asking out his friend's sister. They had all given up asking Harry who he was taking since Harry made it clear he wasn't telling. Instead, he kept trying to persuade Ron to come with them to the Yule Ball.

'It's fine, Harry!' said Ron nonchalantly after he asked him to reconsider for the umpteenth time. 'I rather stay here and get some quiet time. Besides, you've seen all my dress robes. They're an embarrassment!'

With a sigh, Harry turned to his mirror and tried desperately to try and tame his unruly hair with a comb but realised very quickly that he had almost no hope. Still, he kept at it until he somehow managed to get it looking half-decent. Realising that he was the only one left in the dormitory apart from Ron, he straightened up and was about to make his way to the door before Ron cleared his throat indicatively. Puzzled, Harry turned to face him.