Christmas at Hogwarts

In this chapter I used JK Rowling's brief descriptions of the Hogwarts grounds and of the events on Christmas day. (US GoF p 404, 410-411) I've also used two quotes from the snowball fight 'scenes' in GoF, and thus they are borrowed. However, this is about Ginny's experience and from her perspective of the events leading up to and including the Yule Ball itself, and not Harry's. Therefore, I felt compelled to include what was given to us by JK Rowling to keep the story as close to canon as possible. Since I don't know Mrs. Rowling to ask her permission, I hope she doesn't mind. Please forgive me.

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Ginny awoke Christmas morning with a large pile of presents at the foot of her bed.

As usual, her mum had sent her a jumper along with several mince meat pies. This year her jumper was a nice blue one with a pattern of trees along the bottom. Her father also sent her a funny Muggle card with a handful of shiny Sickles to spend and a pair of beautiful narrow cards with tassels attached. Bookmarkers, I suppose... Dad must have bought them from a Muggle store. He's so funny about Muggle things, she thought as a warm smile spread across her face as she mentally thanked her parents.

Even before she opened the present from Hermione, she knew that she had given her a book. Quite a shocker, Ginny thought, smiling as she looked at the first pages of The Great Wizards of Muggle Fairy Tales. A large, bright fuchsia and chartreuse wrapped package from Fred and George contained boxes of chocolates and Chocolate Frogs. She eyed the box of assorted chocolates, wondering if she dare try them, remembering the Canary Creams and Ton-Tongue Toffees they had invented.

Percy had sent her a tablet of nice parchment sheets and a new rubber. His card contained a list of things she should do if she ever expected to be a prefect. First on the list was to not get too involved with Fred and George's antics. He is such a stick in the mire. As if I want to be like him! Like my brothers – I know where to draw the line.

Charlie sent her a very nice pair of new black mittens, something she had strongly hinted that she needed, along with a beautiful pair of dragon scale combs for her hair. More importantly he had actually written her a letter... several long pages! She set it aside to read later.

A small flat bundle was wrapped in a large cloth that she immediately recognized as Egyptian, and that she could wear as a scarf. Inside the soft silky fabric, Bill sent her some Egyptian beads and a picture of him standing next to a newly found chamber, according to his card. The picture waved at her, and patted the dust and dirt from his shirt and swept his arm indicating his find. The room behind the smiling image of her brother was full of ceramic jars and jugs, statues and stone... they look like stone boxes. He had also written her a long letter on several sheets of Egyptian parchment. She set his letter aside with Charlie's to read when she could curl up and really peruse them at leisure.

Ron's card said that the large box of assorted Honeydukes sweets were from him and Harry, which gave her a bit of surprise. Harry has never given me a present before!

She opened the gifts from her dorm mates next. Tamara and Lisselle gave her some pretty white quills that she had admired once when they were in Hogsmeade together. Ginny laughed softly. How sweet. They remembered! Juliana gave her a glittery snowflake pin, and Brianna gave her a box of 'stationery note cards,' or so the label on the back of the box said. Jaclynn and Kimberly both gave her Chocolate Frogs and Peppermint Toads. I'll have enough chocolate for months, she thought happily. At least these will be safe to eat without having to test them first, unlike my brothers' sweets! A nice drawstring bag contained a card from Luna, tied to some bath gels with a nice floral scent. She inhaled their scents, hoping that Luna liked the color-change ink she sent her.

Ginny found the last package hidden under all the others. It was a tiny box from her Great Aunt Muriel. She opened it apprehensively since Aunt Muriel still considered her a child, and her gifts usually reflected that. She was completely stunned to see a shimmering, opaline star pendant, suspended by a delicate gold chain, sparkling brightly in the box. The shaky writing on the note said that it was "for a lovely young lady for her first ball." Ginny stared at it, her eyes misting – barely believing what she held in her hands. She carefully set the beautiful necklace in her trunk to keep it safe.

Ginny put on her new jumper and pin, pulled on her jeans, and then headed down to the common room.

Fred and George were already downstairs, standing over a chair by the fire, busily wrapping chocolate and vanilla custard creams and toffees in bright paper. Ginny was amused, watching them as she approached. That's a fairly clever way to disguise their Canary Creams and Ton-Tongue Toffees for the holidays. Her brothers both had on new matching dark green Weasley jumpers, and it looked like her mum had tried to do a cable pattern on them this year.

"Good morning, George. Happy Christmas," Ginny called as she walked over to sit down next to him, eyeing the large 'F' on his chest. Mum must have tried the letters again this year. She remembered watching her mum knit similar ones four years ago. She turned to greet Fred and smiled when she saw the 'G' on his chest. They've... those jokers – they've switched sweaters again! Ginny noted, which made her laugh at them. Oh, how funny – just to confuse everyone... "Hi, Fred. I like your jumper this year!"

"He's not Fred; I am! See?" teased George, puffing up his chest to show her the large 'F.' "Honestly, and you're our very own sister!"

"At least you should be able to tell your own brothers apart..." Fred shot George a wicked smile. "Right Forge?"

"Gred, she can't be expected to keep it straight if our own mother can't, can she?" George teased, shaking his head. "Mum's finally gone mental. She's back to labeling us just to keep us straight! I guess she never considered the fact that we share clothes?"

"It may make it easier for our dorm mates to keep it straight, though! Right, George?" Fred said. "All they have to do is read our chest. Unless, we go and wear the wrong one!"

"Right, Fred! It isn't that hard after all – I mean, I don't have a problem knowing which you are – ever!" George added. "But, you'd think our favorite little sister could learn to tell the difference – wouldn't you?"

Ginny was busting up, laughing at them. "I thought that I was your only sister!"

"That only makes it worse – I'm hurt," Fred said dramatically and mimed fainting, smiling at her.

George quickly grabbed his arm as if to steady him, but pushed a little too hard, nearly toppling Fred into the first years. "Hey, Gred, watch it – 'ittle firsties," he said, smiling at the first years, who went scrambling out of their way.

Regaining his balance, Fred shot a slight scowl at George. "Oi, thanks a bunch Forge!" he exclaimed, sarcastically.

"What Gred? Afraid to scrunch a few 'ittle firsties?" George said, laughing.

"Could be bad for business, Forge," Fred countered, collecting up all the wrapped candies into an empty box. "Potential customers, you know. If we 'scrunched' them too hard, they won't buy our chocolates and creams!"

Ginny laughed at his logic, watching George consider what Fred said. "You're right of course," he said, and turned to watch the first years huddle together on the opposite side of the room. "Maybe we should go and apologize... and see if anybody is up for some sweets?"

"Right behind you, bro," Fred said, and together they moved from the table to trying to sell their brightly wrapped trick creams and toffees. As they made their way around the common room, they kept calling each other either Gred and Forge or George and Fred, switching and swapping their names back and forth as the other housemates wished them a happy Christmas.

Those two nutters, Ginny thought, watching her twin brothers. It's amazing, though! Even though everyone knows about those sweets of theirs, so many of our housemates still trust them enough to buy them! If Fred and George ever do get around to opening Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, they just might be a smash. Two third year boys bought handfuls of her brothers' creams, eagerly biting into one each and promptly bursting out in feathers and then laughing at each other.

Ron and Harry came down and wished Ginny a happy Christmas before plopping themselves in chairs next to hers. Oh, so Mum made Harry another Weasley jumper, a green one with a Horntail dragon on the front, cool, Ginny noticed. He looks really good in it, actually. So why isn't Ron wearing a new one? He's wearing his old maroon jumper from last year. Between the maroon jumper and that new orange Chudley Cannons cap, he looks ridiculous – really charming with his hair! He would have to pick a team whose colors looked dreadful on him, she mused. Why in the world doesn't he follow Ireland, like me?

Hermione came down shortly sporting a jumper in Gryffindor gold with white snowflakes across her chest. "Happy Christmas," she said to the three of them. "So are we off to breakfast, then?"

"Okay, sure," Ron and Harry responded in chorus, getting up.

With a mischievous smile and a wink at Fred, George handed Hermione one of the newly wrapped Canary Creams. "Morning, Hermione, how about a..."

"Oh, no you don't! I am not eating one of those!" Hermione interrupted, holding up her hands and shooting George a scowl.

"Aww, it won't hurt you, Hermione. Where is your sense of fun?" George asked, mimicking her pose.

Fred came up holding a wrapped sweet. "Christmas special! Three Sickles, just for you."

Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to go. "I wish you'd stop trying to push that stuff off on the students."

"We can't help it if they want to buy them, can we?" George asked, following her through the portrait hole. All the way down to the Great Hall, George or Fred tried slipping Hermione a wrapped sweet, until finally Hermione took one with a simple, "Thank you." However, Ginny noticed with a quiet chuckle, she transfigured the sweet into a Christmas bobble and left it hanging on a suit of armor they passed.

In the Great Hall, Ginny sat down next to Hermione and across the table from Fred and George. Hermione looked more cheerful than the night before, although she was speaking more to Harry and Ginny than to Ron. As the food appeared before them, George tried to mix some canary cream into the porridge. "Hey, knock it off! Don't put that in the porridge!" Hermione admonished, grabbing the bowl from him.

"But Hermione..." Fred and George said simultaneously.

"I'll take ten points from Gryffindor if you do," she warned, shaking her finger at them. She promptly spooned out a large serving for her and Ginny before passing the porridge to Harry.

Fred and George tried to look incensed. "You wouldn't!" they exclaimed.

Hermione helped herself to the sausages. "Oh, just try it and see if I won't," she snapped, and took some eggs.

"Aww, come off it, Hermione!" Ron snapped. "It's just harmless fun, after all. We've all tried it and it only lasts a few seconds." Hermione glared at him, but kept her peace.

"So, how about it Hermione?" Fred asked, reaching for the bowl.

"No. No – don't you..." Hermione started to admonish him, and then looked past Fred. "Oh! Hello, Professor..." she said, smiling. Both Fred and George turned around to see who she was addressing, then rounded on her with identical scowls. "We are in the Great Hall and all the professors are here... by all means – you know Snape would love to..."

"Fine," Fred and George snapped, digging into their plates.

However, Ginny noticed that they weren't actually upset at Hermione, just amused that she outwitted them. If I didn't know my brothers better – well, I do, and I bet that Fred and George will be plotting to prank her all morning. Thankfully the conversation stayed light and playful. A few bits of toast were flicked across the table at Hermione when she wasn't looking, and Ron found a sausage in his juice.

After breakfast they all returned to the common room. Fred and George managed to get a few people with their Canary Creams and Ton-Tongue Toffees, including Neville, who once again burst out in feathers. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione sat together by the fireplace showing off their presents to each other. Harry was reading his new book Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland. Ron, who was playing Exploding Snap with Ginny, kept asking Hermione every few minutes, "Who are you going with?" as if Hermione would slip up and tell him!

Every time Ron asked her, Hermione swished her wand and hit Ron's jumper with the color-changing charm, changing his jumper to splotchy maroon-blue, to a reddish color, then a sick kind of plum and finally managed to turn it a dark burgundy. He was so distracted that Ginny won the game with the most points she'd ever achieved – ever! "Okay!" he cried, holding up his hands in defense. "I won't ask you again! So can you leave off my jumper now?"

"Well, at least it looks better than it did maroon," Ginny said, picking up The Great Wizards of Muggle Fairy Tales, which she found pretty interesting and actually fun to read.

When the lunch toll sounded, they all went down to the Great Hall together. For the first time the Great Hall was crowded on Christmas, as everyone had stayed at Hogwarts this year rather than going home. Huge glistening snowflakes drifted from the ceiling and dissipated before ever touching anything. Thousands of silver and gold candles floated above the tables, and Professor Flitwick's Christmas trees glittered with thousands of fairy lights among the glowing ornaments on the branches.

The six of them sat together at the Gryffindor table with Fred and George on either side of Ginny. When the platters and bowls magically filled with food, she was momentarily surprised to see about a hundred turkeys appear on the tables, each with a different stuffing, and large bowls of all her favorite Christmas dishes. There were several dishes that Ginny suspected were traditional favorites made especially for the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students as well. Ginny sampled a few of them just out of curiosity and found that she liked quite a bit, although she wasn't exactly sure what they were.

Scattered all along the table were thousands of Cribbage's Wizarding Crackers. Ginny had fun popping them with Fred, George, and Hermione. Their crackers burst open with all sorts of crazy hats, whoopers, bangles, self-tying shoelaces, small birds, gobstones, non-explodable luminous balloons, and fake wands. Fred and George had a brief wand fight as Fred's wand erupted into a sparkling fountain of confetti and George's wand burst into a parrot and back. Ginny popped two crackers with Fred; his exploded with sparkling strings of crystal beads, which he promptly traded with Ginny for the comical jester's hat that had popped out of hers. She also got a set of wizard chess pieces that looked as if carved from white marble and a pair of miniature Abraxans.

Colin Creevey popped a cracker that made his brother Dennis fall off his seat when a sailboat burst out and almost landed on his head. Dennis immediately tried a cracker and a miniature hippogriff flew out at Ginny. She caught the little animal and handed it back to Dennis, who set it next to his plate, amazed as the toy figurine walked and flapped its wings.

Stuffed full from lunch, Ginny, her brothers, Hermione, and Harry all went back to the common room to grab coats, hats, and cravats and headed out to the grounds together. As they were heading down the staircase, George tried slipping Hermione a sweet. "Hey Hermione, would you like a toffee?" he offered, as casually as possible. Hermione took the toffee, looking at cautiously.

"I'd be careful; you never know what these two would do with toffees." Ron warned her as Fred shot him a scandalous look.

Harry paused momentarily on the step and looked back Fred and George. "That wouldn't be one like the toffees you slipped to my cousin Dudley, would it?" Harry asked.

"Nah, we've improved them!" Fred said proudly, "but yes, they have the same effect, only it doesn't last as long."

"Your tongue stays swollen for only ten minutes and then deflates," George added proudly.

"Just long enough to be sent to the hospital wing," Fred piped in.

Hermione handed back the toffee. "I think I'll pass. And quit trying these things on students!"

"Can I help it if they are willing participants?' Fred asked, trying and failing to look innocent.

"Besides, we do pay them for their input." George tried offering the toffee to her again. "Go on, it won't hurt you."

Harry was clearly interested in the toffee, although Ginny hoped that he wasn't going to actually eat one. "So how big does the tongue get with your new and improved version?" he asked.

"Oh, about the same size as it did with your cousin," Fred said, and winked.

"So that would be about four feet, then?" Harry asked, nodding.

"Something like that, yes!" George replied proudly. "So, Hermione, how about a go? Want a try?"

"No," she answered back. "I think I'll pass, thank you."

As they passed through the oak doors and out onto the grounds, Ginny's breath caught, astounded. The grounds looked picture-perfect with the snow lying over everything like glittering white frosting dusted with shimmering confectionary sugar. It is breathtaking! I've never seen anywhere so – beautiful... except in pictures!

Everything was smooth and pearly white in the warm sunlight. All the trees were frosted, shimmering, and sparkling and looked like they were hung with thousands of icicles. The Beauxbatons carriage stood like a light blue frosted cake sitting next to Hagrid's hut, which resembled a frosted gingerbread house. Even the lake was trimmed in ice. The Durmstrang ship appeared as if the Durmstrang students had decorated it, as the ship was covered with frost and the rigging covered with icicles. The only thing that distracted from the beautiful scene were the two deep channels that had been made by the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students as they came and went from the castle.

Fred and George were the first to run into the snow and fall over on their backs, making snow angels with their arms and legs. Ginny quickly ran down the stairs and copied them. When she stood back up to see her angel, George threw a snowball that missed her face by a finger length and exploded on Ron's chest instead.

"Hey!" he cried and quickly grabbed a fist full of snow in a pathetic attempt to hit him back. His aim was terrible, and Ron hit Harry instead. Harry grabbed a handful of snow and chucked it at Ron in friendly retaliation.

Fred packed a snowball that he threw at George, and within minutes, it was everyone for themselves. Hermione was the only one who managed to remain fairly unscathed as she chose to just sit on the sidelines and watch, laughing at their game.

At five o'clock Hermione waved Ginny over to her. "Ginny! We should head back up!"

"Yeah, sure." Ginny threw the snowball she had just finished at Harry. "See you all later! Don't get too wet!" Ginny called as she ran, dodging the snowball Harry threw at her, to catch up to Hermione.

"What? You need three hours?" Ron yelled after Hermione and was pelted by both Fred and George for not paying attention. "Who're you going with?" he called after her as the girls jogged back to the castle together to get ready for the Ball.

Hermione cast a disbelieving glare at Ron just before opening up the huge oak doors. "He just doesn't give up, does he?" she asked, smiling at Ginny.

Ginny passed through the door, taking one last look at the boys playing in the snow. "Nope, and he's a whiz at interrogation, too. He seems to think that you'll lose your senses and tell him if he just asks enough times."

"Well, you are always telling me how thick he is!" Hermione responded, laughing. Ginny was feeling a bit excited now and eager to get showered and dressed for the Ball. Together they practically ran up all the stairs to Gryffindor tower, through the portrait hole and into the common room. Ginny could hardly contain her excitement now.

She was going to the Ball!