Author’s Note: This chapter coincides with my one-shot, Three Shifters Shifting, which focuses on Remus, Sirius and Tonks’s Christmas Eve.
Ask Me Later
Megan wanted to ask Cedric to the Yule Ball in a creative way. She figured that, if she was too busy remembering what she’d planned on doing, she would act like a normal person. He would go with a normal person, right?
So Megan enchanted the two small figures to dance atop the fairy cake. She nervously made her way down to the Ccommon Rroom, and over to where Cedric was studying. He would want to be asked while he was alone, after all.
But just as Megan approached Cedric, three of his friends appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
“Hey, Ced,” Bronson Phillips began, “You’ll never believe what—”
Cedric and his friends noticed Megan, who thought her feet might have frozen to the floor.
“Megan!” Cedric smiled.
“I want to be the yule to your balls,” Megan blurted nervously.
Cedric looked alarmed, and Megan realized, with a flash of horror, what she had said.
“Oh — no,” Megan said quickly, shaking her head. “That came out wrong. What I’m trying to ask is, willy — will you—”
Cedric’s friends were howling with laughing now.
“Put a sock in it,” Cedric hissed at them. “Let’s talk—”
But Megan wasn’t listening; she had dropped the fairy cake on the floor and was running out of the Hufflepuff common room as fast as she possibly could.
Trying
(Note: While I was reading the scene in GoF where Madame Maxime and Hagrid drop the giant bombshell, I realized Fleur and Roger were also present, if a little busy snogging in the bushes. However, I wondered how much they might have heard themselves…)
Fleur ushered Roger away from where Madame Maxime and Hagrid had been talking. They hurried towards the castle, both smoothing their robes.
“D’you think it’s true?” Roger asked.
“What?”
“Is Madame Maxime really half-giant?”
Fleur searched his face. “Would it matter if she were?”
“Well…” Roger bit his lip. “She’s half-giant.”
“And I’m one-quarter Veela.”
“You are?” Roger grinned.
“Yes, I am. Do you know what people have said about me?”
“That you’re beautiful?”
“Flawless beauty makes people assume things. And Veelas… have not always been much better than giants. People who know that care what I am.”
“It’s just… blimey.” Roger shook his head. “Last year we had a werewolf, and
now—”
Fleur cut him off. “Did you not defend Hagrid earlier tonight when the Slytherins were making fun of his speech?”
“That’s diff—”
“No, it’s not.”
To his credit, Roger seemed to be considering what she’d said.
“You’re really something,” he finally said with a smile.
Fleur smiled back. “I know.”
He wasn’t perfect; Fleur knew that. But he was trying, and judging by the looks on the faces of several girls they’d passed, that was more than she could say for the majority of the boys at Hogwarts.
Home for Christmas
It figured that the one year Bill did make it home for Christmas, intending to surprise his family, no one was around.
Percy worked Christmas Eve, and was at Hogwarts filling in for Barty Crouch; Tonks and Hestia were busy with their families; Aunt Muriel had a new gentleman friend; at least Bill had known Charlie wouldn’t be around. It was just him and his parents, watching the fire and drinking eggnog.
“Maybe you should surprise your brothers and Ginny at Hogwarts,” Molly suggested to Bill.
“I wouldn’t see next Christmas if I did that, Mum. They’re all with dates.”
“He’s right,” Arthur agreed. “Think how we would have felt.”
Bill watched his parents giving each other loving looks. He’d forgotten how in love they were, just like he’d forgotten how much Ginny was growing. He missed so much when he was away.
It didn’t really bother Charlie; Bill could tell. But sometimes it bothered him, as much as he loved Egypt. Charlie had made Romania home, but Cairo wasn’t home to Bill, and he wasn’t sure it ever would be.
But as he could see, everyone had moved on. And anyway, he would be mad to give up a chance of a lifetime.
One Last Dance
Megan had left the Yule Ball early, then stayed up when almost everyone else went to bed.
She’d gone with Ernie MacMillan, because Hannah Abbot was insistent on playing matchmaker.
“Are you in charge of his love life?” Megan had asked her.
Hannah nodded earnestly. “We’re just friends, so we owed it to each other to find — well, not ‘just friends’ for one another, didn't we?
“Er — I guess?”
But as much as Megan liked Ernie, and wanted to make Hannah happy, she wasn’t in the mood. She couldn’t stop watching Cedric with Cho Chang… of course he’d gone with her. Cho was gorgeous, she was smart, who wouldn’t want her?
Just as Megan had decided she really ought to go to bed, Cedric came into the common room.
Oh, Merlin.
“Oh, good, you’re here,” Cedric said.
“You were — looking for me?’ Megan asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.
“Not right this minute, but I know you’ve been avoiding me. You’ve done a good job of it too, I must say.”
Megan couldn’t help but laugh, and Cedric sat next to her.
“I promise I don’t make a habit of asking weird questions,” Megan told him.
To her immense relief, Cedric laughed. “I know. I’m sorry, my friends… I reckon they were hit in the head with one too many Bludgers.”
“It’s fine. You were going with Cho anyway, and you looked happy.”
“I was. Cho’s really—” Cedric hesitated. “You probably don’t want to hear it.”
“No. Go ahead. I’m glad one of us had a nice night.”
“Okay, well, I like her. She dances like a Seeker.” Megan wasn’t really sure what that meant, but took his word for it. “And we have loads in common. We were always friends, I guess I never realized…” Now Cedric had flushed.
“I forgot you were friends,” Megan said.
“That’s how a lot of couples end up together. They become friends, then realize they might want something more than that.”
Megan shook her head. “Do your stupid friends know you’re this sentimental?”
“Are you joking? They’d never let me hear the end of it. They’re still teasing me over—” Cedric stopped.
“Over my demonstration of boundary issues?” Megan asked sheepishly.
“Enough about them.” Cedric stood up. “How about one last dance? As friends,” he added quickly.
“There’s no music.”
“Professor Sprout left the wireless for us, remember?”
Cedric turned the wireless on, just loud enough for the two of them to hear.
“One last dance, Miss Jones?” Hhe asked.
Megan rolled her eyes playfully and extended her hand. “Just one, if you insist, Mr. Diggory.”