Merely Misunderstood

Chapter Nineteen

Christmas morning arrived, and I was awoken by excited squeals coming from the girls I dormed with.

Mirah was chatting excitedly with one of them as they opened their gifts, and when the three of them saw me awake, they pulled me out of bed, urging me to open my gifts with them.

Half-awake, I slowly opened the first gift, which turned out to be from Harry, and was immediately awake as I laid my eyes on the handsome ruby-studded quill.

Mirah gave me a hand in opening the pile of gifts at the foot of my bed — evidently, I was being too slow — and by the time I finished, I'd received a book about magical beasts from Ron, a lovely pair of diamond earrings from Hermione, and a delicate silver chain necklace from Mirah alongside the quill from Harry.

I got up to pack these items away when Mirah stopped me, saying, "Wait, there's more," she handed me two boxes, one considerably large, and the other about half the size.

I took the smaller one first, opening it to find an attractive white chiffon shawl and a pair of dainty elbow-high white gloves.

"Mum and Dad told me to give it to you," Mirah said, and I assumed she had a part in this gift from the twinkle in her eye.

I thanked her, my heart soaring, and moved on to the final box.

It was rather boring in appearance; it had no label, and no wrapping.

I opened it carefully, assuming it was a prank gift from the twins, or maybe a lame gift from my parents.

But once my eyes landed on what was inside, my heart stopped.

"What? What is it?" Mirah asked impatiently, watching my expression.

I set the box down on the floor and reached into it with both hands, gently pulling out a stunningly beautiful emerald green ball gown, suitable for a princess.

It was long — it skimmed the floor when I put it on — and it was made out of silk, or satin. The top half was tight, and clung to my skin, accentuating every inch of my torso, while the bottom half flowed out elegantly from the waist, and rippled with every move I made.

"Who on Earth sent you that?!" Mirah squealed as I stood before the mirror wearing the dress, speechlessly staring at my reflection.

Mirah searched for a name, coming up with nothing but a tag attached to one of the off-the-shoulder short sleeves, which read a simple, "Happy Christmas".

All three of the Slytherin girls were speechless, as I was, and they couldn't figure out who it could possibly be from, but I stared at the "Happy Christmas" written on the tag, having seen that handwriting before, only a year ago from today, when I'd received an unlabeled box containing a seemingly-empty jar.

The day wore on as we waited anxiously for an acceptable time to start preparing for the Yule Ball.

At some point, Mirah and I got caught up in a snowball fight with Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the twins, and we had to rush off in the middle of the game when we realized it was getting late.

We spent nearly three hours putting on makeup, fixing our hair, and coordinating our outfits.

I paired my gown with the necklace from Mirah, the earrings from Hermione, the gloves and shawl from Mr. and Mrs. Holland, and my own strapped, silver heels that I'd brought from home.

I had been planning to simply leave my hair down, but one of the girls in our dorm — her name was Raylee — was excellent at styling hair, and insisted that I needed a hairdo that would match the elegance of my "mystery dress" as she called it.