Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
Harry McGonagall - Chapter 36 - I'm Dreaming of a French Christmas
A/N Italics in dialogue will usually mean that the speaker is using the French language to express the message I've written in English. As previously stated, I don't speak French and have no desire to butcher that language.
--HM-
"Harry," a voice called to the teenager as he walked into the living room of his house in America. He looked around to see the house was decorated for Christmas, including a large pine tree covered in lights and ornaments. However, no wrapped packages were under the tree. Instead was a beautiful English girl with bushy brown hair. She was wearing a green robe fastened around her by a large red bow. She smiled at him and said, "Happy Christmas." His mouth went dry as he started walking toward her for about five seconds until he heard a male voice calling his name.
"Wake up, Harry," the voice called again, causing the Boy-Who-Lived-In-Secret to open his eyes. Now, instead of looking at Hermione, he was looking at Cedric Diggory. He glared at the evil monster who'd just pulled him away from his wonderful dream.
"Just five more minutes," he muttered before grabbing his pillow and putting it over his eyes.
"Alright. I just thought you'd want to know your girlfriend is outside, but I'll just tell her you thought sleep was more important." Cedric laughed as a now fully-awake Harry jumped out of bed.
"Tell her I'll be there in ten minutes." Even though he was anxious to see Hermione, he figured she'd prefer he shower first. `And brush my teeth,' he added silently, remembering her greeting the month before, when they'd snogged in front of everybody.
"I will," replied Cedric. "And Happy Christmas."
"Merry Christmas," Harry managed to say before closing the bathroom door.
--HM--
Nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds later, Harry, with messy wet hair, pushed the door to the temporary Hogwarts boys' dormitory open to see, "Hermione!" sitting on a stool reading. She was wearing jeans and a winter coat with her hair in a simple ponytail, but as far as he was concerned, she was wearing the most exquisite outfit in the world. She looked up and smiled radiantly at him. Before she could even say anything, he'd put his hands on her cheeks, bent down and kissed her. He hadn't even noticed the plant Hermione had sat under, but followed the tradition anyway.
How he missed that simple, yet amazing sensation of touching his lips to hers. He forgot all about the pressures on him to open the Yule Ball, to figure out the clue for the second task of the tournament, even the tournament itself, as he let himself get lost in this glorious moment, until a bright flash caused them to pull apart.
He looked around to see a woman, who he guessed was a reporter, putting down a camera. She had long straight black hair that was just showing hints of going gray. If he had to guess, Harry would've said the woman was in her early fifties. "How stirring," she commented in French. "The youngest champion has a brief moment under the mistletoe with his girlfriend. I'd imagine you miss him, Miss Granger. Especially knowing how many French girls much prettier than you have been propositioning him."
Before Hermione answered, Harry angrily remarked, "I'm sorry, but I haven't seen one French girl who's half as beautiful as Hermione. We were just leaving."
He didn't even notice the bright smile on his girlfriend's face, but he did hear her whisper into his ear, "Happy Christmas, my love."
--HM--
After a delightful breakfast, during which Harry realized that in his rush to see Hermione, he hadn't even noticed the stack of presents by his bed, the couple returned to his dorm and he began opening presents. The way he'd realized his oversight was when Hermione thanked him for the present he'd gotten her - a book on the history of Magical France, written in French, along with a bottle of genuine French perfume, charmed to protect the wearer from minor hexes.
Upon opening his presents, Harry found he'd gotten a few new Game Boy games from Brianna and a few his Hogwarts friends. His parents had given him some books on magical and muggle defense while his Aunt Minnie gave him a book on advanced Transfiguration. He had been making significant progress in his attempt at becoming an Animagi, but still was nowhere near completing a transformation. He figured he'd put off studying his new book until after he'd mastered that. Finally, he opened his present from Hermione as she watched him nervously.
It was a relatively small package wrapped in gold paper which Harry carefully removed to find a black velvet box. He opened it to find a gold chain with a small, flat ball with tiny wings. Fortunately, in his opinion, it wasn't moving.
"It opens," said Hermione while her boyfriend was inspecting his golden Snitch necklace. He looked more closely and found that moving the wings in a certain way unlocked it to reveal that it held two magical photographs - one of him and the other of Hermione - that appeared to have been taken on the day of the first task. However, at the moment they were in the same frame, in the middle of a passionate snog. He chuckled at that, causing his girlfriend to inspect what was amusing him. She giggled as the couple broke up and looked at them, clearly annoyed.
"At the rate they're going," said Harry with a smirk, "there'll be a baby in the picture soon."
Her face completely red, Hermione replied, "Of course there won't be. Magical photos can't reproduce." As Harry laughed at her reply, she changed the subject. "Can I see your cube? I think I've figured it out."
Harry looked surprised. "You didn't say anything about that."
"I only got the idea yesterday and thought it could wait until I actually could test it out myself."
He opened his trunk and took out the cube he'd been given at the end of the first task and handed it to his girlfriend.
While she was adjusting the order on the Rubix Cube type puzzle, she explained, "I think we were going about it all wrong using the simplest solution. It's like a trick question where they wanted you to guess that. I've found another set of runes, much rarer, that uses the same symbols in a slightly different pattern - this one." She held up the cube to show a different pattern when it began glowing with a white light floated and floated out of her hands to about a foot below the ceiling. The two watched in awe as a voice began singing out of it.
Searching high above the clouds
Where flying creatures do abound
To find what's taken is your goal
You'll sorely miss what we have stole
An hour long you'll have to search
To find the correct natural perch
And if your treasure isn't found
Whatever goes up must come down
The song repeated four times before it slowly descended back to Hermione's hand and stopped glowing. She said, "Obviously, this task takes place in the sky, so you've already got an advantage."
"That I'm pretty good with a broom," added Harry.
"Exactly. The question is what they're going to steal from you."
"Something I'll sorely miss," said Harry. "They'd better not take my broom!"
With her eyebrows furrowed, Hermione replied, "Somehow I doubt it would be something like that. Your treasure would have to be…irreplaceable."
"Irreplaceable? But nothing I own is…Oh no! They'd better not!" Harry's expression was getting angrier by the moment as he turned and walked toward the door. "Come on. Let's see about this!"
Despite the exercises she was continuing at Hogwarts, Harry's girlfriend still had a difficult time keeping up with him as he marched straight to Professor McGonagall's temporary office. He opened the door to find her standing right in front of him, smiling. "Ah, Harry, Hermione. Happy Christmas. I was just going to find you. I think that family…what's wrong?" She'd finally noticed his expression.
"Is Hermione going to be the treasure that gets stolen from me for the second task?" he asked without preamble.
Minerva's lips thinned as she took on an irritated expression. However, her nephew could tell she wasn't irritated with him. She sighed. "Yes. I fought those idiots tooth and nail, but they would not be turned. They insisted that human being be used as hostages! I explained that the prize awaiting the champion would have nothing to do with the difficulty of the task, but they wouldn't listen. They think it'll be more entertaining for the crowd and more stressful for the champion if someone they love has been kidnapped."
"But couldn't you keep Hermione safe. If they couldn't find her…"
"They'll just use another person. Brianna, perhaps, or one of your parents…even me. If they can't find any of us, they'll use your friends. Perhaps Padma or Michael or…"
"I get it," Harry snarled at her.
"Don't worry," said Hermione reassuringly. "I'm sure I'll be perfectly safe."
"But the poem said…"
"That was just for dramatic affect," interrupted Aunt Minnie. "The hostages will be perfectly safe where they will be kept, and they most certainly won't be dropped down sixty-one minutes into the competition." She paused for a moment before adding, "However, the hostages will be at risk during the actual rescue. Anything that attacks the champions while they're holding the hostages is just as likely to injure them, especially as the hostages will be…defenseless."
"So Hermione will be safe until I free her, but then if I drop her…" There was no need to finish that statement.
"I'm afraid so," Minerva replied, her Scottish temper beginning to show again. "I told them it's complete madness, but those fools wouldn't listen. I'd suggest you work on finding a way to secure and protect Hermione."
"I will be able to bring my broom, right?"
"Naturally."
"If it weren't for the hostage part," Harry commented, "This would've been a great opportunity to use my hoverboard."
"Don't even think about using it during that task, Harry Mark McGonagall! Hoverboards are for one passenger only!"
"Could I bring the hoverboard as well? That way I could let Hermione use the broom…"
"The hostages will be unconscious," she interrupted, "until they are returned. So she wouldn't be able to fly."
"That sucks."
"Perhaps we could set that problem aside for the rest of the day," suggest Aunt Minnie. "It's Christmas."
The rest of Harry's day was spent with Hermione. After a few hours with Minerva, the young couple joined his French friends. Hermione mentioned that she and Brianna would be starting an enchanting club at Hogwarts in January, where they'd teach the skills they'd learned at the workshop they'd been to during the summer. Finally, at about five o'clock, Hermione left to get ready for the Yule Ball.
--HM--
It was at precisely seven p.m. that Harry McGonagall, wearing dress robes that matched his emerald eyes, emerged from the boys' dormitory and walked to the nearby school. Hermione was dressing in the Beauxbatons girls' dorm with Harry's new female friends. He wasn't alone in his trek as nearly half the Hogwarts boys were attending the Ball with a French girl. Although he wasn't really friends with any of the older Hogwarts students that had come for the tournament, he was getting along with them based on the `live and let live' principle. He didn't cause them trouble and they didn't cause him trouble.
The only one of them he talked to at all was Cedric Diggory, the `real' Hogwarts champion, and they weren't really friends. However, he did know that his rival for the Seeker position on the Ravenclaw team - Cho Chang - had come to the school to be Cedric's date for the Ball.
As Harry stood amidst a crowd of boys waiting for their dates, time passed very slowly. He watched girl after girl appear and leave with her date as he continued to impatiently wait. In actuality, only about ten minutes passed, but it felt like ten hours. Finally, the door opened again, this time revealing a brunette beauty with a light green dress that matched his robes. Her hair was fixed in a French braid and she looked flawless. When she smiled at him, he swallowed nervously. He'd been dating this girl/woman for more than a year, and had known her longer than that, but she had never looked as lovely as she did at that moment.
He forced himself to speak as she approached. "H-Hermione, y-you look…wow! B-Beautiful!"
"Thank you, Harry. You look quite handsome." She held out her hand, and it took him about three seconds to realize he should take it. When he did, he gently pulled it to his lips and kissed it before they walked toward the Ball, hand-in-hand.
--HM--
After the doors to the Dining Chamber were opened, allowing everybody entrance, all the students and guests of Beauxbatons stared in wonder at the decorations, including Harry and Hermione. Every table had been moved closer to the walls in order to allow a large, empty center of the room for dancing. Each table appeared to be made of snow, and it appeared to be snowing heavily underneath each table, although when Harry touched the surface of the Champions' table, it felt perfectly smooth and warm, and his legs and feet felt no snow under the table. He therefore concluded that the snowy look was an illusion.
There was a large Christmas tree in each corner of the hall, with colorful fairies flying all around it. They could hear Christmas songs in the background as they sat down in the round table designated for the Tournament participants. It seated eight people, which included the four Champions and their dates. Harry was with Hermione; Cedric was with Cho Chang; Fleur was with an older boy that was obviously French; Viktor was with a French girl who was obviously a fan-girl and in complete awe of him. Harry could tell by looking at Krum that he was annoyed with his date, but trying to be polite. They had some small talk for a few minutes, during which Harry noticed Viktor looking admiringly at Hermione, who seemed to be impressing the French occupants of the table with her knowledge of their culture. When they were told to speak their order to the menus that were at the table, he ordered the same thing Hermione did - not because she'd ordered it but because it had become one of his favorites during the past few months.
When the band started playing ballroom music, Harry was the first to ask his date, "May I have this dance?" to which Hermione happily complied. Before they'd even stepped from the table, the other Champions had joined them, and together, as was the custom, they opened up the dancing for the Yule Ball.
Harry was smiling brightly as he held his girlfriend close to him as they swayed to the music. "You really do look incredible," he commented. "You've always been beautiful, but tonight…"
She blushed. "Thanks. I tried to look alright. It wouldn't do for a Champion's date to be Hermione `Plain Jane' Granger. I had to…"
"You are NOT plain, Hermione. How many times do I have to tell you you're beautiful? You've even read it in my mind." He was referring to when she taught him French through Legilimency, where she'd seen how he sees her.
She beamed at him. "I know how you see me, be-because of your love, but…"
"I am not the only one who thinks you're gorgeous. Viktor Krum was looking at you."
"He was just politely paying attention while I was speaking."
"He was wishing you were his date. Trust me. I know how a guy thinks. He wishes he was the one holding you right now."
"He does no…" She stopped talking when she glanced at the Quidditch star in question to see that he was staring at her rather than his date, who appeared to be chattering away, oblivious to the fact that her dancing partner was ignoring her.
"I told you," said Harry. "I'm just glad we started dating before he even saw you. Otherwise he'd have been trying to…"
"Viktor Krum would've never asked me to the Yule Ball."
"I'll bet he would've, and I certainly wouldn't blame him. You are, without a doubt, the most wonderful girl here and I'm the luckiest bloke."
She blushed even redder than before. "You're delusional, but I love you anyway."
"And I love you, too, but you're the one who's delusional if you don't think that other guys would love to dance with you." At that moment the song ended and he gave her a quick kiss before the next song, a faster one, began playing. They continued dancing through five songs before stopping for a bit while Harry went to get them drinks.
"Pardon me," said an attractive blonde French girl wearing a pink dress while Harry was asking his menu to provide him with two drinks. "You are Harry McGonagall, aren't you?"
"Yes," he replied emotionlessly. He had a feeling he knew where this was going.
"I'm Emma Watson and was wondering if you'd like to dance."
He sighed. "I'm sorry, but I'm here with my girlfriend that I love very much, as you and every student here knows very well. For the past few months I haven't gotten to spend nearly enough time with her, so I intend to spend as much time with her as possible. Happy Christmas." He then walked off with the two drinks that had appeared on the table during his conversation.
At the same time Harry was talking to Emma, Hermione was approached by a boy from Durmstrang with dark brown hair and blue eyes. "Hello," he said with a thick accent. "My name is Daniel Radcliff."
"Er, hi," she replied, not wanting to be rude as she watched a girl who was much prettier than herself approach Harry. "I'm Hermione."
"Hermy-own is a very beautiful name. Also, I could not help but notice that you are very attractive."
"Um, thanks," she replied, getting more uncomfortable and annoyed as she could tell the blonde girl was flirting with her boyfriend.
"Would you care to dance with me?"
"Er…" she grinned as she saw Harry walk away from the tart, leaving her looking very disappointed. "No. I'm with my boyfriend. Here he comes now. Harry, over here." Daniel glared at Harry for a moment before walking away.
"Who was that?" he asked while giving his girlfriend her drink.
"Don something."
"I'll bet he was trying to get you to dance with him, wasn't he?" He asked. He sounded amused, not jealous. She blushed and nodded. "See. I told you that any bloke with eyes would ask you out."
"If you believe that, then why aren't you jealous?" she countered smugly.
"Three reasons," he replied without skipping a beat. "First, I believe you would never go behind anyone's back like that. Second, I believe you love me like I love you. Third, if I had to worry about you cheating on me, then you wouldn't really be my girlfriend even if you claimed to be. And I wouldn't want to date a girl like that anyway. I picked a girl that I could trust even if I'm hundreds of miles away, but I'm really glad you're here tonight."
"So am I," she replied before getting on her tip toes and kissing him.
They danced a few more songs before Harry gave Hermione a tour of the broom closets of Beauxbatons. At midnight, Harry and Hermione shared one last passionate kiss before she had to leave. Overall, it was a perfect Christmas.
--HM--
Please review. Thank you to those who have.
Sorry it's been so long since I've updated, but I've had a very hectic last couple of months.
As I post this chapter, it is still Harry Potter's 29th birthday, so I wish him and J. K. Rowling (who coincidentally shares his birthday) a Happy Birthday.
By the way, it's hard to get in the Christmas spirit to write the Yule Ball at this time of year.
Sorry about the chapter length, but I think the Yule Ball deserves its own chapter. The next one will cover the second task.
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