Katie awoke slowly to the sound of happy whispers on Christmas Day. Her eyes blinked open and she sat up, stretching. A small pile of presents sat at the foot of her bed and her dorm-mates — Pansy Parkinson, Daphne Greengrass, Millicent Bulstrode and Tracy Davis — were all wide awake and talking in hushed voices.

"Merry Christmas." Katie announced groggily but merrily.

Pansy beamed at her. "Oh, good, you're awake! Come on, I'm starving."

Pansy grabbed Katie's arm and dragged her out of bed, to which Katie giggled.

"You lot go down without me," she told them. "I just want to get dressed. I'll follow you down in a few minutes."

The girls cleared out of the dormitory. Katie pulled open her top drawer and searched for the least-tackiest Christmas sweater that she could find. She settled on a red one that lit up like a Christmas tree anytime someone spoke the phrase 'Merry Christmas.'

Despite the fact that is was Christmas morning, Katie actually woke up quite late. Usually, her sleep was broken multiple times a night when she woke up in a cold sweat to the sound of s shrill voice casting the Killing Curse, but she had just gotten her first full night's sleep in weeks and was feeling very refreshed.

There was not a single person in the common room. Everyone was probably enjoying a filling Christmas breakfast in the Great Hall. Katie had just started making her way to the common room door when she heard footsteps coming from the staircase to the boy's dormitory. The door creaked open and Draco's head appeared in the crack. Katie smiled at him.

"Merry Christmas." she said. Her jumper started flashing wildly. Draco burst out laughing and, although she was blushing from embarrassment, Katie laughed too.

Draco stepped into the common room and Katie noticed that he was also blushing slightly. He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, refusing to meet his housemate's eyes.

"You too — uhm..." he paused. "I have something for you, actually... Wait here."

Draco disappeared inside the boy's dormitories, returning a few moments later carrying a white garment bag. He was holding it carefully and kept his eyes fixed on it at all times, as though he was sacred that it would burst into flames if he made one wrong move. Katie eyed him suspiciously when he handed the bag to her.

"What's this?" she asked curiously, taking the garment bag from Draco.

His cheeks went pink again. "Err — it's a dress for the ball."

Katie almost dropped the garment bag. Her mouth fell open and she let out a string of noises that perfectly expressed her surprise.

"Oh, Draco, you didn't have to—"

"It's OK," Draco chuckled gently. "You said you didn't have a dress so I wrote to mum — asked her to knock something off my Christmas list and get a dress instead. I do hope I got the sizing right—"

But Katie wasn't listening. She placed the dress down on the couch and attacked Draco with a hug. He stumbled back from shock but still awkwardly pat Katie on the back — unsure of what else to do.

"Thank you so much." Katie breathed, and she meant it.

Draco grinned. "Yeah, well, we couldn't have you showing up in a flimsy sundress, now, could we?"

Katie chuckled.

"I also got you something," Katie told Draco. "One minute."

Katie carried her dress up to her dorm room and, like Draco, treated it as though it was made of glass. She hung it on her four-poster bed then kicked open her trunk and pulled out Draco present. When she got back to the common room, Draco was still stood in the exact same place where Katie had left him. She handed him the small, neatly wrapped box and blushed in embarrassment.

"It's chocolate frogs!" she cried exasperatedly. "You got me a dress for the ball, and I got you chocolate frogs!"

But Draco was smiling. "I'd take chocolate over fancy dress robes any day."

Katie spent most of the day engaged in a snowball fight with the rest of the Slytherins, but at five o'clock, she announced that she had to go and get ready for the ball.

"What, you need three hours?" Draco called after her.

"Yep!"

This was a lie. Katie was sure she could've gotten herself ready for the ball in twenty minutes, but she was far too excited to see what the dress Draco had gotten for her looked like, and she couldn't wait another moment to find out.

Needless to say, she was not disappointed.

***

Despite the fact that she had given herself three hours to get ready, Katie still arrived at the Entrance Hall for the Yule Ball a few minutes late. Everyone was gathered here, waiting for the doors to the Great Hall to open. She felt very self-conscious in her dress — she wasn't used to wearing clothes as elegant as the gown that Mrs Malfoy had bought for her, so she walked with her arms timidly wrapped around her torso.

Katie spotted Harry amidst the sea of people. He was glancing around, searching for someone. Taking a deep breath and cursing under her breath at the fact that her heart was pumping wildly, Katie started making her way over to Harry. Her legs were trembling uncontrollably, and she cursed at that too.

Harry's eyes peered through the crowd, and they lit up when he saw Katie making her way over. They trailed down the dress and his breath got caught in his thoat.

It was a vintage style dress with long, silky sleeves that slightly dipped off the shoulders, and a green skirt that slightly shimmered in the candle light. Small silver detail melted down from the waist and formed swirls on the upper part of the skirt. The silver shimmer made it almost impossible not to ogle at the dress. But it wasn't only the dress that looked breathtakingly stunning. Katerina herself looked extraordinary. Her hair fell below her shoulders in loose curls, long wisps dangling down in her face. Although she wasn't wearing much makeup, Katie's face was almost glowing.

"You look — I — wow..." Harry stammered nervously. Katie felt a blush rising on her cheeks. She bit her lip to stop herself from grinning like an idiot.

"You look great, too," she said sheepishly. "Did Mrs Weasley pick the robes?"

Now it was Harry's turn to blush. "Er — yeah — I know they're a bit tacky..."

"Tacky?" the exasperated voice of Ron Weasley cried out. "Yours are all right! I look like a bloody idiot!"

Ron's robes were quite the sight. They were deep maroon in colour and looked more like a velvet dress than robes. They had a moudly-looking lace frill at the collar and matching lace cuffs. Katie clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle the loud laugh that she had just let out.

Ron glared at her, but his facial expression quickly changed when he fully took in the sight of his friend.

"Bloody hell," he breathed. "You really do clean up well."

"Wish I could say the same." Katie teased, making Harry snort in amusement.

"Who did you come with, then?" Harry asked Ron.

"Padma Patil," Ron replied. "She's Parvati's sister — Ravenclaw. Where's Hermione?"

Katie knitted her eyebrows together. "Is she not here yet?"

"Champions, over here, please!" McGonagall shouted over the bustling crowd.

"See you in a minute." Harry said to Ron, then he took Katie's hand and walked towards McGonagall. She was wearing a dress of red tartan and had arranged a rather ugly wreath of thistles around the brim of her hat. She told the champions and their partners to wait by the doors as everyone else went inside; they were to enter the Great Hall in procession when the rest of the students had sat down.

Fleur Delacour was accompanied by Roger Davies — the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, Cedric Diggory had brought Cho Chang, and Viktor Krum... was alone.

"Mr Krum," McGonagall said curtly, "where is your date?"

But Krum merely nodded towards the marble staircase. Everyone looked up to see a girl walking down the steps. Katie and Harry let out simultaneous gasps.

It was Hermione.

But she didn't look like Hermione at all. Her usually-bushy hair was now sleek and shiny, and twisted up into an elegant knot at the back of her head. She was wearing a dress of a floaty, periwinkle-blue material. She was smiling — rather nervously — as Krum linked her arm.

"Hi, Harry!" she beamed. "Hi, Katie!"

Katie couldn't bring herself to respond. She gazed at Hermione, her mouth wide open in surprise. Hermione noticed this and her cheeks went red.

Once all the students in the Great Hall had seated themselves, McGonagall ushered the champions inside. They walked in a row: Cedric and Cho first, Fleur and Roger next, then there was Katie and Harry, and lastly, Hermione and Krum.

Everyone in the Great Hall applauded as they entered. Katie felt her face grow hot and her legs turn to jelly.

The walls of the Hall had been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The house tables had vanished completely and were replaced by about a hundred smaller tables that were scattered around the outskirts of the Hall, framing a large area for dancing.

"Do you know how to dance?" Harry whispered to Katie.

She gulped. "No..."

"We're so screwed." Harry sighed.

They paused when they reached the centre of the Hall. Everyone was watching them intently, still clapping, as the lanterns went out and candlelight bathed the dance floor. The faint hum of music started up and the other champions started preparing themselves for dancing. Katie looked at Harry with wide, fearful eyes.

"What do we do?" she hissed frantically.

"Uhm... take my waist?" Harry said, sounding uncertain. "Or do I take your waist...?

"Here, grab my hand."

"Alright, OK, I think I take your waist."

"Yeah, that seems right. Now, where does my other hand go?"

"Er—"

The music had begun to play gracefully, and the other champions and their partners were gliding around the dance floor. Panicking, Harry jolted to the side. Katie let out a yelp at the sudden movement and Harry had to grab her tightly to stop her from falling over in front of the entire school.

"Sorry!" Harry cried. "Merlin, I'm so sorry!"

But Katie was giggling hysterically. "Bloody hell, we're a mess." she grinned.

Katie and Harry made their best attempt at dancing (they swayed mindlessly around the hall, stomping on each other's toes every few minutes).

Not too long had passed when other pairs had decided to file onto the dance floor. Neville led Ginny Weasley up to dance, and Katie spotted Chris awkwardly dancing with Oscar. Like Katie and Harry, neither of the boys seemed to quite know what they were doing, but they looked to be enjoying themselves nevertheless.

Katie heard the final, quavering note from the band and let out a sigh if relief, as did Harry.

"That was a nightmare." she chuckled.

Harry was smiling. "Tell me about it."

The band struck up a new song, which was much faster.

"Want to go sit down?" Harry suggested.

Katie nodded. "Please."

Harry grabbed Katie's hand and led her over to where Ron and Padma were sat. Ron was glaring at Hermione and Viktor, and Padma was sitting with her arms and legs crossed, jiggling one foot to the music.

"How's it going?" Harry asked as he opened a bottle of Butterbeer, handing it to Katie, before taking another one for himself.

Two songs later, Hermione came over and sat down next to Katie. She was a bit pink in the face from dancing.

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

Ron gave her a withering look.

"Viktor?" he said in disgust. "Hasn't he asked you to call him Vicky yet?"

Hermione looked at him in surprise.

"What's up with you?" she asked accusingly.

"If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you."

Katie stared at Ron, then at Katie and Harry, who just shrugged in response. "Ron, what the—"

"He's from Durmstrang!" Ron spat. "You're fraternising with the enemy, that's what you're doing!"

Hermione's mouth fell open.

"The enemy? You're the one who's been wanting his autograph!"

"Oh, come off it, Hermione!" Ron grumbled. "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!"

Hermione jumped to her feet and stormed off across the Hall, disappearing into the crowd.

"Are you going to ask me to dance or not?" Padma asked Ron.

"No." Ron snapped, still scowling after Hermione.

"Fine." Padma bit angrily, and she got up and whisked away. Ron stood up too.

"I'm going to the bathroom." he grumbled.

Katie looked at Harry. They were both very confused as to what had just happened.

"Want to dance?" Katie asked with a glimmer in her eye.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "We're both useless at dancing."

Katie merely shrugged. She took Harry's hand and walked him to the dance floor, spying Fred and Angelina dancing so exuberantly that people around them were backing away out of fear of injury.

Katie and Harry tried to dance — they were really only hopping around, tripping over their own feet, and laughing at their own horrible dancing until their stomachs hurt. Katie lost track of how much time they had spent dancing, but it must have been at least an hour, because her legs were trembling from exhaustion, her chest was tight and her face was very red.

"I think I should go find Ron. He's not back yet," Harry panted. "Is that alright with you?"

Katie nodded, still trying to catch her breath. "Of course. I'm going to go outside for some air."

The huge oak front doors of the castle were wide open. Katie glimpsed an area on the lawn that had been beautifully decorated. It had been transformed into a sort of grotto. Hundreds of fairies were sitting in rose bushes that had been conjured there, illuminating the area, and fluttering over the statues of what appeared to Father Christmas and his reindeer.

Katie stepped out into the cold December night. Instantly, the winter wind engulfed her, and icy shivers ran through her whole body. Goosebumps protruding on her skin, Katie rubbed her hands up and down her arms as an effort to warm herself up.

She found herself surrounded by twinkling rose bushes, winding ornamental paths, large stone statues and carved benches, all of which were empty. No one seemed to fancy the idea of being out in the cold.

Snow had begun to fall lightly, dropping flakes into Katie's curled hair, melting on her dress. She shut her eyes, allowing snowflakes to gather in her eyelashes and eyebrows, and she giggled at the sensation.

"You'll catch your death out here."

Katie spun around. Draco Malfoy had appeared outside. He was sat on one of the benches, looking at Katie with a twinkle in his eye — or maybe it was just the fairy lights reflecting in his eyes — and the hint of a smirk on his face.

"What are you doing out here?" Katie asked as she stepped towards the blonde.

Draco quirked an eyebrow. "I could ask you the same question."

"I just needed some air. Dancing wore me out." she told him.

"I wouldn't call hopping around like a headless house elf dancing, Blair." Draco simpered. Katie slapped the back of his head, making him wince but laugh gently.

Draco shuffled up on the bench, making space for Katie to sit. They both sat in silence for many peaceful minutes; they gazed up at the stars through the thin snowfall.

"That dress really suits you." Draco said, breaking the silence. His voice was quiet but very clear against the stillness of the Hogwarts grounds. Katie looked at him. He was smiling warmly, and she mirrored his expression.

"Thanks," her cheeks tinged a dusty pink. "Your mum has great taste."

"I have to admit," Draco said, chuckling. "I was worried when she said she was getting a vintage dress, but she really knows what she's doing."

"Thank you, again." Katie smiled, breaking away from Draco's gaze to admire the stars once more. Draco nodded.

"You look... really nice." he said shakily, hesitation laced through his voice and painted on his face.

Katie met Draco's eyes and let her smile grow. "Thanks."

"Katie?"

Katie and Draco's heads snapped up, looking for the source of the third voice. It definitely sounded like a girl.

"Katie?" they called again.

A shadow of worry glossed over Draco's eyes. He gulped and studied Katie's face, as though he was having an internal debate on whether he should or shouldn't do something.

"Katie!"

Draco gulped once more and slid up the bench so that he was even closer to Katie. She watched him, bewildered, but didn't move.

"Katie!"

Draco's eyes flashed towards the direction in which the voice was coming from.

"Merry Christmas, Katie." he whispered, and then he was gone.

And not a moment too soon. The second that Draco had disappeared among the rose bushes, Ginny Weasley rounded the statue of Father Christmas. An expression of relief washed over her face when she spied Katie sitting on the bench.

"There you are!" she sighed out. "I've been looking for you everywhere. Harry was asking for you."

Katie stood up, brushing the snow off her skirt, and walked over to Ginny, who started leading her back to the castle.

"Were you out here all by yourself?" Ginny questioned.

"Yes." Katie lied instantly, naturally, without even thinking about it. She wasn't quite sure why she had lied, it just sort of happened.

Hermione was in the Entrance Hall with Viktor Krum. She was teaching him how to say her name properly; he kept calling her 'Hermy-own."

"Her — my — oh — nee." Hermione said, slowly and clearly.

"Herm — own — ninny."

"Close enough." Hermione caught Katie's eye and grinned. "Hi, Katie! Hi, Ginny!"

Ginny gave Hermione a friendly wave then waltzed back into the Great Hall to find Neville. Krum took Hermione's hand and kissed the back of it softly, announcing that he was going to use the bathroom. Hermione flushed a deep shade of scarlet and watched with a smile on her face as Krum walked away. She then faced Katie, beaming, and eyed her dress.

"I've been meaning to ask where you got your dress. It's beautiful!" Hermione said.

"Thanks," Katie replied, running her hands down the silky skirt. "Draco gave it to me."

Hermione froze. She gave Katie a cynical look.

"Draco?" she repeated, suspicioun dripping from her voice. Katie picked up on Hermione's tone of dubiousness and rolled her eyes.

"Relax," she said casually. "It was a Christmas present."

But Hermione's eyes were still twinkling with skepticism. She didn't say anything else about the matter, though, and instead suggested that they rejoin the ball. Katie agreed and, spotting Harry talking to Fred and George, went over to join their conversation, leaving Hermione by the door to wait for Viktor Krum to return.

Hermione's eyes scanned the Hall and the huge grin on her face didn't falter — that was until she spotted Christian Blair slouched over on a bench, looking extremely downhearted. Frowning, Hermione stepped over to him.