since the dawn of time, it took fifteen minutes to get aspen to even just stir in her sleep, and twenty more for her to open her eyes. but now, aspen was jabbing elara in the sides quite harshly.

"merlin, aspen!"

"oh, shush. it's christmas!"

aspen dove back onto her bed and began tearing open her presents. elara took a moment to recuperate before she started opening her own. dobby, apparently, had knitted a bunch of socks, and gifted elara one purple sock with stars and planets stitched into them, and another, brown sock, with coffee mugs. hermione had given elara a tin that had different coffees from around the world in tiny little boxes. from ron, a tiny handbook that detailed every up and coming astronomy event. from ginny, a vinyl record of 'the weird sisters', which elara had been hinting at for ages. and from harry, a delicate necklace with a gemini star sign charm. mrs. weasley's usual package, including a new sweater (navy blue, with tiny gray stars stitched into it), and a large quantity of homemade mince pies.

elara met up with harry, ron, and hermione in the common room, and they went down to breakfast together. ron was wearing the blanket with crookshanks' face all over it, much to elara's joy. hermione threw her arms around elara and almost started crying as she thanked her for the 'soul sisters' bracelet. ginny was sporting the muggle shoes called 'vans', elara had gifted her. harry, surprisingly, was nose-deep in his 'how to survive extreme situations: wizard edition', and already had the candle that was enchanted to smell like wherever home was considered alight. they spent most of the morning in gryffindor tower, where everyone was enjoying their presents, then returned to the great hall for a magnificent lunch, which included at least a hundred turkeys and christmas puddings, and large piles of cribbage's wizarding crackers.

they went out onto the grounds in the afternoon; the snow was untouched except for the deep channels made by the durmstrang and beauxbatons students on their way up to the castle. hermione chose to watch harry, elara, aurora and the weasleys' snowball fight rather than join in, and at five o'clock said she was going back upstairs to get ready for the ball. elara, ginny, and aurora went too.

"what, you need three hours?" said ron, looking at them incredulously and paying for his lapse in concentration when a large snowball, thrown by george, hit him hard on the side of the head.

"beauty takes time, ron!" elara called.

"not that you would know that," said ginny, and the girls lapsed into a fit of giggles.

aurora went off with angelina and katie to get ready for the ball, ginny went off with her friends, and aspen and elara decided to join hermione, parvati, and lavender in their dorm to get ready.

lavender had cornered elara with a hair brush in hand. elara had insisted she just change her hair, because it was easier, but lavender wanted to braid it. after seeing the maniacal glint in lavender's eye, elara decided with was safer to just do what she said.

"i wish i had your hair," said lavender wistfully, as she pinned the braided crown to elara's head.

"you don't have to deal with everyday," elara grumbled, and aspen laughed.

hermione managed to tame her bushy hair and pin it up into a sleek, elegant knot. after half an hour of laughing and good nature, lavender was finally able to tie off the end of elara's hair. every trace of frizziness was gone, and elara's wavy black hair was in soft waves cascading down her shoulders like oil.

"bloody hell, lavender," said elara, reaching up to touch her hair. "you're a genius."

lavender only shrugged and sat down to begin working on her own hair. elara was cornered once again, but this time by parvati, who insisted she wear heels instead of flats.

"elara lestrange, you are not leaving this room until you put on these heels!"

groaning, elara shoved on the heels. by that time, aspen, lavender, hermione, and parvati were all dressed and ready to go downstairs. hermione had left in a dash, hoping to avoid ron. parvati and lavender had dates from beauxbatons and durmstrang, so they went off, giggling. aspen was going with seamus, much to elara's surprise, beacause she thought seamus would have never worked up the nerve.

aspen had to shove elara around the corner. elara's eyes found seamus, harry, dean, and ron, who were all staring at the two girls as if they were the veelas from the world cup. elara had to prevent herself from laughing at ron's horrible dress robes.

they descended the stairs, all while listening to shocked whispers.

"who is that?"

"don't be daft, it's elara lestrange."

"bloody hell, i'm jealous of her date."

they reached the bottom. seamus had taken to sputtering while he tried to get a compliment out. harry's mouth was moving, but there was no noise. elara laughed slightly, which seemed to pull harry out of his stupor.

"you -- you look... you look stunning."

"you don't too bad yourself, either," elara said, winking, which seemed to send harry back into a state of stupor. "padma's going to meet you in the entrance hall," she added to ron.

"right," said ron, looking around. "where's hermione?"

elara shrugged. "you'll see. should we go down, then?"

"okay," said harry, still in his state of stupor.

the entrance hall was packed with students too, all milling around waiting for eight o'clock, when the doors to the great hall would be thrown open. those people who were meeting partners from different houses were edging through the crowd trying to find one another. elara found padma, and led her over to harry and ron.

"hi," said padma, who was looking just as pretty as parvati was in robes of bright turquoise. she didn't look too enthusiastic about having ron as a partner, though; her dark eyes lingered on the frayed neck and sleeves of his dress robes as she looked him up and down.

"hi," said ron, not looking at her, but staring around at the crowd. "oh no . . ."

he bent his knees slightly to hide behind harry, because fleur delacour was passing, looking stunning in robes of silver-gray satin, and accompanied by the ravenclaw quidditch captain, roger davies. when they had disappeared, ron stood straight again and stared over the heads of the crowd.

"where is hermione?" he said again.

a group of Slytherins came up the steps from their dungeon common room. malfoy was in front; he was wearing dress robes of black velvet with a high collar, which in elara's opinion made him look like a vicar. pansy parkinson in very frilly robes of pale pink was clutching malfoy's arm. crabbe and goyle were both wearing green; they resembled moss-colored boulders, and neither of them, elara was pleased to see, had managed to find a partner.

the oak front doors opened, and everyone turned to look as the durmstrang students entered with professor karkaroff. krum was at the front of the party, accompanied by a pretty girl in blue robes elara recognized as hermione. she nudged harry, who looked at hermione in bewilderment. over their heads she saw that an area of lawn right in front of the castle had been transformed into a sort of grotto full of fairy lights — meaning hundreds of actual living fairies were sitting in the rosebushes that had been conjured there, and fluttering over the statues of what seemed to be father christmas and his reindeer.

then professor mcgonagall's voice called, "champions over here, please!"

the chattering crowd parting to let harry and elara through. professor mcgonagall, who was wearing dress robes of red tartan and had arranged a rather ugly wreath of thistles around the brim of her hat, told them to wait on one side of the doors while everyone else went inside; they were to enter the great hall in procession when the rest of the students had sat down. fleur delacour and roger davies stationed themselves nearest the doors; davies looked so stunned by his good fortune in having fleur for a partner that he could hardly take his eyes off her. cedric and cho were close to them too; but harry was looking at hermione, openmouthed.

she had done something with her hair; it was no longer bushy but sleek and shiny, and twisted up into an elegant knot at the back of her head. she was wearing robes made of a floaty, periwinkle-blue material, and she was holding herself differently, somehow — or maybe it was merely the absence of the twenty or so books she usually had slung over her back. she was also smiling — rather nervously, it was true — but the reduction in the size of her front teeth was more noticeable than ever.

"hi, harry!" she said. "hi, lara!"

"feeling okay, hermione?" said elara.

"i'm feeling a bit nervous," hermione admitted sheepishly.

when the doors to the great hall opened, krum's fan club from the library stalked past, throwing hermione looks of deepest loathing. pansy parkinson gaped at her as she walked by with malfoy, and even he didn't seem to be able to find an insult to throw at her. ron, however, walked right past hermione without looking at her.

once everyone else was settled in the hall, professor mcgonagall told the champions and their partners to get in line in pairs and to follow her. they did so, and everyone in the great hall applauded as they entered and started walking up toward a large round table at the top of the hall, where the judges were sitting.

the walls of the hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. the house tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern-lit ones, each seating about a dozen people.

elara concentrated on not tripping over her heels. harry seemed to be trying not to do the same thing. she caught sight of ron and padma as she neared the top table. ron was watching hermione pass with narrowed eyes. padma was looking sulky.

dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table, but karkaroff wore an expression remarkably like ron's as he watched krum and hermione draw nearer. ludo bagman, tonight in robes of bright purple with large yellow stars, was clapping as enthusiastically as any of the students; and madame maxime, who had changed her usual uniform of black satin for a flowing gown of lavender silk, was applauding them politely. but mr. crouch, elara suddenly realized, was not there. the fifth seat at the table was occupied by percy weasley.

when all the food had been consumed, dumbledore stood up and asked the students to do the same. then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clear, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the right wall. a set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and some bagpipes were set upon it.

the weird sisters now trooped up onto the stage to wildly enthusiastic applause; they were all extremely hairy and dressed in black robes that had been artfully ripped and torn. they picked up their instruments, and elara had to yank harry out of his chair, because he had been so interested in watching them that he had almost forgotten what was coming, suddenly realized that the lanterns on all the other tables had gone out, and that the other champions and their partners were standing up.

"c'mon!" said elara. "just like we practiced"

harry tripped over his dress robes as he stood up. the weird sisters struck up a slow, mournful tune; elara walked onto the brightly lit dance floor. harry placed a hand on elara's waist, and they began dancing.

it took a moment, but soon, harry got the hang of it again. he had only stepped on elara once, but now they were moving gracefully around, trying not to laugh as they looked at each other. dancing turned out to be quite fun, and soon it turned into a competition of who could make the other laugh first. elara and harry were so focused on each other that they almost didn't notice that others had joined the dance floor.

neville and ginny were dancing nearby — she could see ginny wincing frequently as neville trod on her feet — and dumbledore was waltzing with madame maxime. he was so dwarfed by her that the top of his pointed hat barely tickled her chin; however, she moved very gracefully for a woman so large. mad-eye moody was doing an extremely ungainly two-step with professor sinistra, who was nervously avoiding his wooden leg.

"nice socks, potter," moody growled as he passed, his magical eye staring through harry's robes.

"oh — yeah, dobby the house-elf knitted them for me," said harry, grinning.

"he can see through robes?" elara whispered as moody clunked away. harry chuckled.

the last note of the bagpipe faded away, and the weird sisters started playing a new, faster song. elara let go of harry, and began to jump up and down. he stood for a moment, before joining in with her. harry didn't know the lyrics, so he just watched as elara screamed them out over the noise of the crowd.

"you're wearing the necklace?!" harry shouted over the noise.

"yeah! i like it a lot!" elara shouted back, grinning.

george and aurora neared them, and they were doing a wild two-step that people had to back away from them to avoid injury. elara tugged at harry and they began doing a two-step dance that uncle ted had taught her. soon, many people were joining in, switching partners left and right as they danced around each other.

the fast song ended with harry and elara back with each other. they were both smiling and panting heavily. they didn't have a chance for drinks, though, as another song started immediately, and the pair were swung into a new dance. this time, however, the weird sisters played a famous muggle song, so both elara and harry were able to yell out the lyrics.

soon enough, the pair felt as if they were going to faint, so they went to join ron and padma, who were both looking very disgruntled.

"how's it going?" harry asked ron, sitting down and opening a bottle of butterbeer.

ron didn't answer. he was glaring at hermione and krum, who were dancing nearby. padma was sitting with her arms and legs crossed, one foot jiggling in time to the music. every now and then she threw a disgruntled look at ron, who was completely ignoring her. padma, within minutes, was asked to dance by a boy from beauxbatons.

"you don't mind, do you, ron?" padma said.

"what?" said said, who still watching hermione and krum.

"oh never mind," snapped padma, and she went off with the boy from beauxbatons. when the song ended, she did not return. hermione came over and sat down in padma's empty chair. she was a bit pink in the face from dancing.

"hey, hermione," said elara, casting a teasing sort of look at her.

"hi," said harry. ron didn't say anything.

"it's hot, isn't it?" said hermione, fanning herself with her hand. "viktor's just gone to get some drinks."

ron gave her a withering look. "viktor?" he said. "hasn't he asked you to call him vicky yet?"

hermione looked at him in surprise. "what's up with you?" she said.

"if you don't know," said ron scathingly, "i'm not going to tell you."

hermione stared at him, then at harry, who shrugged. then to elara, who gave her a knowing sort of look, but hermione, as frusterated as she was, didn't pick it up."

"ron, what — ?"

"he's from durmstrang!" spat ron. "he's competing against harry! against hogwarts! you — you're —" ron was obviously casting around for words strong enough to describe hermione's crime, "fraternizing with the enemy, that's what you're doing!"

hermione's mouth fell open.

"don't be so stupid!" she said after a moment. "the enemy! honestly — who was the one who was all excited when they saw him arrive? who was the one who wanted his autograph? who's got a model of him up in their dormitory?"

ron chose to ignore this. "i s'pose he asked you to come with him while you were both in the library?"

"yes, he did," said hermione, the pink patches on her cheeks glowing more brightly. "so what?"

"what happened — trying to get him to join spew, were you?"

"no, i wasn't! if you really want to know, he — he said he'd been coming up to the library every day to try and talk to me, but he hadn't been able to pluck up the courage!"

hermione said this very quickly, and blushed so deeply that she was the same color as ron's hair.

"yeah, well — that's his story," said ron nastily.

"and what's that supposed to mean?"

"obvious, isn't it? he's karkaroff's student, isn't he? he knows who you hang around with. . . . he's just trying to get closer to harry — get inside information on him — or get near enough to jinx him —"

hermione looked as though ron had slapped her. when she spoke, her voice quivered.

"for your information, he hasn't asked me one single thing about harry, not one —"

ron changed tack at the speed of light.

"then he's hoping you'll help him find out what his egg means! i suppose you've been putting your heads together during those cozy little library sessions —"

"i'd never help him work out that egg!" said hermione, looking outraged. "never. how could you say something like that — i want harry to win the tournament, harry knows that, don't you, harry?"

"you've got a funny way of showing it," sneered ron.

"this whole tournament's supposed to be about getting to know foreign wizards and making friends with them!" said hermione hotly.

"no it isn't!" shouted Ron. "it's about winning!"

people were starting to stare at them.