Unofficial Portkey Archive

A/N: Given that it's been nearly 2 years, (2 years!) since I last updated this, I'm not even going to bother apologising for how long it's taken me. Life got in the way then the story got pushed into a tiny cupboard in my mind, accidentally locked itself in then fell through a secret trap door into a basement where it was swiftly set up by a Devil's Snare. A particularly nasty one at that.

For those of you who have endeavoured to bother continuing with this tale I'll provide you with a short recap of events, it seems only fair!

Alice and Harry spent the summer living with Sirius in their new family cottage (or most of the summer in Harry's case as he had to go back to the Dursely's. After being thrown their first ever birthday party they went to the Quidditch World Cup whereupon Ireland won, Death Eaters burnt down most of the campsite, Hermione was nearly captured and the whole lot of them were save by Cedric Diggory. (Swoon!) The gang returned to Hogwarts for the start of their 4^th year (no surprises there!) and Alice found herself to be something of a celebrity, complete with her own fan mail. Gringotts was blown up by masked wizards unknown and our heroes lost 40 points in Potions for discussing it. The foreign students arrived for the start of the Triwizardd Tournament and Rita Skeeter wrote an enlightening article about Alice going out with Cedric Diggory. (Which she most decidedly was not, much as she'd like to.)

After the First Task the dragons escaped in an incident of suspected foul play, Harry and Alice saved some ickle firsties and Harry has been happily conjuring conspiracy theories about it ever since. The Yule Ball was announced. Harry and Hermione fell out over Victor Krum, whilst Alice got teary when Cedric told her he was going to ask Cho. Our favourite Hogwarts couple made up again with a little kick from Alice whilst Fred and George saved Alice from Malfoy and Fred asked her to the Ball. (Does small dance of happiness!)

May the story continue...

The Yule Ball

Alice would have dearly loved to crawl under her blankets, pull the curtains around her bed and never come out again, well perhaps not never, but until all the Yule Ball palaver had subsided at any rate. She had hoped to escape the worst of the Ball fever on Christmas day since all the other girls were busy getting ready, Hermione too had been closeted away with some potion she was using on her hair for the last few hours. After determining that her friend had neither needed nor wanted any assistance with this Alice had snuck down to the common room and tucked herself up in a corner with a good book as chaos unfolded around her. Unfortunately, about an hour before the Ball was due to start, Lavender, who had been on a mission to locate some hairpins at the time, came across her hiding place. The shriek the other girl had let out when she saw Alice hadn't even begun to get ready yet had been piercing. When she had then dragged the redhead back up to the dormitory, Alice had decided it would probably be better for her ear drums if she complied.

As she had known it would it take her all of two seconds to slip into her robes, midnight blue with a gold sash at the waist and tiny, golden stars embroidered along the hems. What she hadn't accounted for were the rest of the girls descending on her, wielding hairbrushes and bottles of potions like weapons, in an effort to make her `presentable'. It had been horrific.

Thankfully Ginny had come to her rescue, just as Hermione emerged back into the room. All the other girls had been distracted by the transformation in Hermione's hair, Alice had been a little impressed herself, but it had given Ron's sister the opportunity to help Alice wipe off a little of the make-up that Lavender and Parvati had applied rather liberally to her face.

"There we go," Ginny patted the hair piled on top of Alice's head with satisfaction, "that's much nicer. Oh, hang on," she tugged at a curl halfway through the process of escaping and twisted it into a ringlet by Alice's ear, "there. All done." She handed her a mirror.

Glancing into it Alice couldn't believe that the girl staring back, surprise written plainly across her face, was herself. She looked older, more sophisticated somehow and Ginny had managed to make her hair appropriate for the Ball without seeming to try too hard, little tendrils hung around her face and neck and the whole lot was held up with a gold clasp that Ginny had produced from somewhere. "Wow… thanks Gin," she smiled at the other girl, who as usual looked radiant in her dress robes even if they were second hand.

Alice plopped the mirror back down on her bed and the two girls went over to rescue Hermione from the others, reassuring her that yes she did look fine, in fact she looked beautiful and that of course Harry would like it. Eventually they were all ready and had to make their way back down to the common room to locate their partners.

"Wow, I… Merlin, Hermione you look… amazing," Harry managed eventually; his eyes seemed about ready to fall out of his head. Alice caught her blushing best-friend's eye and winked

"You two don't scrub up too badly yourselves either," she informed her brother and Neville who was hovering behind him and smiling nervously at Ginny, his partner for the evening. "Where's Ron, he hasn't set fire to his robes or something has he?" She had seen him earlier bemoaning the vast quantities of lace which seemed to be attached to his outfit.

"No," Harry chuckled, "he's gone to the Ravenclaw common room to fetch Luna" - Alice had finally managed to persuade him to take the girl - "he's going to meet us down in the Great Hall."

"Speaking of my brothers," Ginny squinted around the brightly coloured hubbub of people swirling around them, "where are -"

"Gred and Forge at your service." As if from nowhere the twins popped up. Alice would have said it was just like magic if she hadn't known it would sound ridiculous in such company.

Both were dressed in black dress robes and despite the fact that they had obviously belonged to other people at some point - their older brothers she assumed - and had been quite liberally unpicked and adjusted, they managed to look presentable. It was quite possibly the first recorded incidence of this in their entire lives Alice speculated. At least they hadn't been burdened with the same lacy monstrosity as Ron.

"Looking good, Granger," George winked at Hermione who blushed as she tried to scowl, but gave up after a moment as the expression melted into a rather pleased smile. "You too, Gin."

"Of course, being related to us, we understand it's almost impossible for you to look any other way. Of course everyone knows I'm going with the prettiest girl at the party, eh Evans?"

Before Alice had even decided how to take this last comment from Fred the twins had begun bickering over who was going to have the better looking partner and would have probably carried on for hours if Harry hadn't gently reminded George that he actually needed to find his partner as they all needed to be getting down to the entrance hall.

As they processed down the main stairs Alice had to admit she felt slightly ridiculous being escorted along on her friend's arm; even if all the other couples around them were doing the same it still felt foolish. She was terrified that at any moment she would trip on the hem of her dressrobes and catapult herself head over heels to land in an ungainly heap at the bottom and she told Fred so.

"Don't worry Evans; I'll be here to catch you."

"You make me sound like the flu," she groused though as his laughter echoed around the Entrance Hall she couldn't help but smile too.

"I don't think the flu would look as nice in that dress as you do," he informed her with a sly wink as she rolled her eyes. "In it you are radiant as a thousand suns, you are perfection, you are a heavenly, divine being, you are queenly, you are -"

"- going to bash you in a minute if you don't cut that out."

"Sheesh," Fred whistled with a grin, "a person can't even give you a little compliment now without the threat of physical violence. You know, you may have a problem with that Evans."

Alice was saved from having to compose a tart response to his ridiculousness by Professor McGonagall emerging from the Great Hall and telling them that everyone apart from the Champions could now go inside. Reminded of something she glanced around in search of Cedric and soon spotted him looking handsome in his smart, black dress robes. Beside him was the diminutive figure of Cho Chang. Alice sighed when she saw her; no matter what Fred said when he was being idiotic, she could never ever hope to look even a tenth as beautiful as the Ravenclaw girl. No wonder Cedric liked her so much.

Giving herself a little shake and trying not to dwell on things she couldn't change Alice followed Fred into the Great Hall and focused instead on marvelling at the décor. Hogwarts really had pushed the boat out this year. Enormous ice sculptures glittered from every corner of the Great Hall round the edge of which an entire forest of holly bushes seemed to have sprung up. In the corner a wizarding orchestra played stately music on an assortment of instruments she was familiar with and some which were just plain bizarre, there was even one witch who seemed to be playing the spoons. Real fairies danced around the ceiling and flitted between the various Christmas trees and rather than the usual House tables there were many smaller ones. At each of these instead of the empty tureens and bowls that filled the tables normally at the start of a Hogwarts feast each place had a menu set at it. As Alice and her friends went to commandeer a table and she began perusing hers.

"Wow," Ron suddenly appeared at the table with Luna trailing absent-mindedly behind him. "They've really outdone themselves this - ooh, look menus! Give us a look, what's for dinner?" He grabbed one as he flopped down into a seat and began reading it avidly. Alice smiled encouragingly at Luna who didn't seem at all put out by her partner's behaviour. She actually looked quite pretty Alice thought, in a dreamy, ethereal sort of way. Her dress was made of some long, floating, grey fabric that shimmered slightly when it caught the light reminding her of pearls. Some might say that the vividly orange sash and beads she had added clashed garishly with this, but Alice thought it was endearing and the holly in her braided hair was a nice touch.

"Here, Luna, sit down." She pointed to the seat between herself and Ron.

As it turned out, dinner was a lot less complicated an affair than it had seemed at the outset, all each student had to do was declare to their dinner plate the selection of meal they had made and moments later it was before them, steaming hot and looking more delicious than almost anything else she had ever eaten at Hogwarts. The most peculiar part of the whole experience was sitting at circular tables instead of the usual long house ones. Although this meant that she could better see the people sitting next to her, it was difficult to speak to those at the opposite side of the table without hollering across and given the sophistication of the occasion she felt this might be more than a little indecorous. Typically Fred had no such compunctions and frequently bellowed across to his brother who was sitting across from them with Angelina.

When dinner was over and speeches made, Dumbledore invited the champions to begin the dancing. As they all watched Alice could hear the other girls at the table cooing over how beautiful Fleur, Cho Chang, and the Beauxbatons girl Krum had invited looked with their robes swirling around them. Glancing sideways she could see that even Luna was watching them with wide, captivated eyes humming tunefully to herself as her feet sketched out the steps beneath the table. Reaching into the pocket of her robes she drew out her wand and slipped a napkin from the table into her lap. Around her there was an increasing murmur as students, Harry and Hermione amongst them, began to get to their feet and lead their partners onto the floor. Under cover of this commotion Alice muttered an incantation and sketched out five bold words on the napkin.

ASK LUNA TO DANCE, IDIOT!

Scrunching the piece of cloth up she threw it over Luna's head and hit Ron squarely in the face.

"Ouch!"

Alice rolled her eyes at her friend's complaint although thankfully Luna was too absorbed in the dancers to notice. Once he had read her note a momentary look of panic swept across Ron's freckled features and she was convinced for a moment that he was going to throw up right there and then at the table. Thankfully for all involved he steeled himself and meeting Alice's eye he took a deep breath before focusing on the blonde girl next to him.

"Eh… Luna?" Her name came out as a squeak several octaves higher than usual and as the pale eyes turned to look at him his cheeks immediately began to boil. Nevertheless he impressed Alice by clearing his throat and trying again. "Luna… would you like to dance?"

Alice couldn't see the expression on the girl's face, she was only aware of the long beat of silence during which Ron looked as though his dearest wish was to crawl under the nearest Christmas tree and spend the rest of the evening doing his best impersonation of a plant pot. Eventually however, she answered.

"Alright, Ronald."

Without waiting for him to get up Luna stood and floated out onto the dance floor before turning twenty paces out and watching him expectantly. After a surprised moment during which Ron seemed stunned, though whether this was at the prospect of dancing or his invitation having been accepted Alice couldn't say, he scrambled to his feet and rushed after her.

One by one the rest of Alice's friends began to follow suit. Harry was already leading Hermione cautiously round the room and as she watched Neville and Ginny got up soon to be followed by George and Angelina. She was beginning to get itchy feet herself when Fred, who had been unusually silent, spoke up.

"So," he asked, glancing around nonchalantly at the students swirling in front of them, "if I wasn't allowed to compliment you before, am I allowed to ask you to dance now? Or are you going to be prickly about that too?" There was something odd about his voice that made Alice glance at him inquisitively, but whatever it had been she must have imagined it for in the next moment he was grinning mischievously at her again.

She grinned back, but then quickly straightened her face and attempted to look pained. "If you really have to I suppose. Don't stand on my feet though."

For some reason which she couldn't quite fathom Alice was startled by the discovery that Fred could actually dance reasonably well. She wasn't particularly sure why this was so shocking; although having attempted to recall a prior occasion on which she had seen him dance she found that she couldn't. Within seconds she found herself being slowly, but surely, spun around the floor in his arms.

"See?" He asked, a knowing grin spread across his impish, freckled face. "It's not so bad now is it?"

A smart retort slipped to the edge of Alice's tongue, but something made her hold it back. She cocked her head to the side and regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. "No, I suppose it's not."

"By the way, thanks," Alice added suddenly after a pause.

"What for?"

She could feel her face turning red and was mentally kicking herself for having begun this particular conversation, but she had started now so she might as well finish. "For taking me to the Ball. I know you only did it because of what Malfoy was saying, so thanks."

There was a long moment during which Fred just stared at her as they revolved on the spot. The expression on his face was so peculiar that Alice wondered if she had said the wrong thing. She wasn't sure what, but it must have been something. Puzzlement, amusement and irritation all seemed to chase each other across his freckled features for a moment before he gave up with a wide smile.

"Not a problem, Midget. Just call me your knight in shining armour."

Alice chuckled and rolled her eyes before they lapsed into silence again. As they moved around the dance floor she found her head turning every which way as she took in the sight of all the other couples, the Christmas decorations, the splendid setting of the Great Hall. It was all like something from a fairy tale. She gave a wry smirk at such fanciful notions.

Fred noticed and glanced at her questioningly. "Share the joke then."

"It's nothing," Alice laughed properly now. "I was just thinking how nice everything was."

In response to this very girlish remark, the two of them burst out laughing.

For the next half hour Alice enjoyed herself immensely; she danced again with Fred, then with Neville who as it turned out was a surprisingly accomplished dancer, then with Ron who spent the whole time counting out the steps and watching his feet closely, then with Harry who did perfectly adequately but who kept worrying he would make a mistake. By the time it was her turn to dance with George the music had picked up so that it was tripping along at quite a rapid pace. That, of course, was part of the trouble.

"Ouch!" George managed to grab her arm before she clattered to the floor - his erratically flying feet being the obstacles she had connected with - but it didn't stop her twisting horribly over her ankle.

"Sorry, Alice! Are you alright?"

"Fine." The hastily concealed grimace and the way she leant to one side whilst keeping the weight off that same foot suggested otherwise. Either that or she was attempting to impersonate a flamingo; George doubted it.

"Liar. Here, let me help you," he helped an obviously limping Alice over to one of the chairs now shoved haphazardly around the edges of the room. Before she had even managed to sit down on it Harry, Hermione were hovering anxiously with Fred, seemingly less concerned although not far behind.

"What have you done now, George Weasley?" Hermione demanded, attempting to catch Alice's foot and examine it as her friend tried with equal determination to swing it away from her and place it firmly on the floor. She winced at the throb this action induced.

"I always did tell you that you were the clumsier twin." Fred remarked sardonically. He seemed to be the only one of the four of them not fluttering anxiously about as though her leg were about to fall off. She smiled at him gratefully and he winked back.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake," she exclaimed upon hearing Madam Pomfrey's name mentioned. "I am perfectly fine, or I will be the minute you lot stop twittering on about it. It's only bruised; I just need to go and walk it off a bit." She stood up determinedly to further make her point. "Now, George, go and find Angelina and for pity's sake get her to teach you to dance properly before you do someone a serious injury!" She glared at him with mock severity until, with a roll, of his eyes he sloped off in search of his partner.

"We'll come outside with you," Hermione insisted after watching him go with a grin. "It's getting too stuffy in here anyway."

"Don't be silly," Alice was horrified, "I don't want to interrupt your evening, or Hermione's, I'm sure the two of you were having fun before George decided to use my foot like a trampoline."

"I don't mind accompanying you," Fred sighed, making it sound like a chore for all that Alice could see a mischievous gleam in his eye. "I can make sure you don't fall into a bush or get carted off by the centaurs."

"It's alright," Harry joined in, "we can all go." Alice wondered if he noticed the crestfallen look on Fred's face as her brother uttered these words. She observed him curiously for a moment; perhaps he had some joke or prank to fill her in on that he didn't want the others hearing about? Regardless, the four of them made their way through the crowds towards the Entrance Hall.

"Has anyone seen Ron?" Harry asked as they reached the door, he turned back on tiptoe to peer over the milling heads around him.

Alice shook her head. "Last time I saw him he was dancing with Luna again. They seemed to be enjoying themselves." The others smirked and when it became obvious that Ron was nowhere to be seen they continued on outside.

They had only been walking for several minutes, or hobbling slowly in Alice's case, when Harry suddenly grabbed Hermione's arm and her's. "Quick, it's Snape!"

With reflexes born of consciences more often guilty than not, the four of them ducked speedily around a corner of the castle. From there they peeked back to watch as Snape stalked through an ornamental garden that had been set up especially for the ball, blasting miniature Christmas trees from his path and deducting house points from anyone he spotted misbehaving.

"Well someone's in a foul mood," Ron remarked.

"How can you tell?" asked Hermione with a smirk as they turned and continued their walk in this new direction.

Ron and the others laughed. "Fair point."

"You'd think he'd cheer up a bit. Since it's Christmas," reasoned Alice for whom there was no more magical a time of year.

"But that's just it, Evans." Fred informed her sagely. "It's Christmas, a time of good will and general cheer; it's probably giving him an ulcer!"

Alice had a sudden mental image of Snape being forced to wear a large, scarlet Santa hat whilst listening to a seraphic choir serenade him with Christmas carols in the Great Hall. For some reason the thought was hilariously funny and she began to giggle uncontrollably, choking as she tried to describe it to the others. Midway through her disjointed and bewildering explanation Hermione suddenly interrupted her.

"What's that?"

"What?"

"Where?"

"It's not Snape again, is it?"

"There," she pointed. "Down by the edge of the forest. It looks like there are some people."

"Maybe they're students?" Fred hazarded.

Alice squinted, it was difficult to see in the dark, but then the forest was so far away that it was difficult to see anything clearly anyway. "They don't look like they're wearing dress robes, do they? So they can't be students, can they? I mean… are those hoods that they've got on? And what are they doing?"

"Something they shouldn't, by the looks of it." Harry was on his tiptoes, though how this was meant to improve his vision Alice couldn't quite tell, peering vainly in the direction of the lurkers. "They've disappeared into the Forest." She could hear a familiar tone creeping into his voice. As, apparently, could Hermione.

"Let's not follow them. Please, Harry!"

"What?! Who said anything about following them? Why not?" Alice couldn't help but smile a little at her brother's last, all too innocent sounding, question.

"The look on your face said it, screamed it more like, and I know you too well. Please, can we just have this one normal night to enjoy the Yule Ball without going tramping off through the Forest looking for trouble? This will be the only time we'll ever get to go to the Ball and I, for one, want to enjoy it. It's probably only students trying to hide from Snape anyway." Alice couldn't be sure who looked less convinced by this argument: Harry or Hermione herself. The brunette stood her ground however until finally, and predictably, Harry relented.

"Fine, all right! We'll go back milady," he delivered a mock bow, extending his arm with a grin which Hermione accepted with a delighted smile. "Admit it though," Alice could hear him saying as they turned to walk back to the castle, "you just want to fit in another dance with me!"

Laughing along with them Alice made to follow only to hesitate when she sensed that Fred, who was next to her, hadn't moved. Glancing up at him she saw he was still staring suspiciously at the Forest, eyes, for once serious, flickering back and forth along the tree line.

"What's wrong?" She went to stand beside him. For about half a minute she thought he wasn't going to answer.

"Nothing," he replied eventually, "I just thought I saw… a flash… or a light…" he continued scrutinising the spot where the group of people had vanished. Then as though suddenly a spell was broken his wicked smirk returned. "Nothing compared to your radiance, of course."

"Of course." Ignoring his foolishness Alice took a closer look herself, but everything appeared to be in order, barely a breath of wind disturbed the dark bulk of the forest now.

"Come on, let's go back inside. Don't mind me."

"I rarely do," she quipped in response, unable to help herself.

"Hilarious, Evans," he took hold of her shoulders and steered her back in the direction of their friends. "My sides are splitting. See?! I'll probably need to go to the Hospital Wing."

"You will in a minute if you don't stop pushing me." Alice tried to sound annoyed, but she wasn't really, she never could be for very long with Fred. Instead she pushed what they had seen to the back of her mind, filed it under unexplained and set herself to enjoying the rest of the evening. As Hermione had said, they would only have this evening once.

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