The Weeks Before the Christmas Ball
The weeks leading up to the Hogwarts Yule were filled with excitement at the school. The students were busy finding partners for the most anticipated evening of the year, and as expected, Harry Potter was the center of attention. He had received invitations from virtually every corner of the school, from students in his own home to students from other schools in the tournament. Yet Harry, true to his unconscious nature, had paid no attention to any of these invitations, or even noticed the looks charged with admiration or desire.
The Weasley twins, who had always been in love with Harry, found themselves in an increasingly difficult situation to manage. Seeing Harry being solicited by all kinds of girls and boys, they couldn't help but feel jealous, a feeling they had never really anticipated.
Fred and George, although used to joking with anything and anyone, were in a delicate situation. They found themselves unable to compete with all these other contenders. Invitations rained down on Harry, and each time, the twins felt their hearts tighten a little more. The idea that someone other than himself could win his attention put them in a state of fury.
So they decided to play one last shot to express their frustration. But instead of approaching him directly, they opted for a vengeful prank, a daring joke meant to make life a little more difficult for those who allowed themselves to invite Harry to their ball.
One icy morning, before the invitations were delivered, Fred and George launched their evil plan. They placed magical explosives in the invitation cards intended for all those who had invited Harry, turning the innocent act into an explosive trap. The cards would ignite the moment they were opened, creating explosions of blue smoke and deafening noise, leaving their recipients in a state of utter dismay.
Chaos soon invaded the corridors of the castle. The students who had taken care to prepare their invitations found themselves with fragments of paper in their hands, while the teachers reacted immediately to the incident. However, what happened next was far more surprising.
Harry, who was passing by, did not immediately understand what had happened. All he knew was that a sudden explosion had just occurred around him. After checking the damage, he turned his puzzled gaze to Fred and George. Their taunting smile did not escape him, but he still did not grasp the extent of the situation.
"BUT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU TWO?!" cried Harry, furious. He rebuked them, his voice tinged with palpable anger, but he was anything but aware of the meaning of his words to them. They were oblivious to the unconsciousness he was expressing at the moment, the striking irony of the situation completely lost on him.
Harry, seriously angry, hurled a round of curses at them in an attempt to restore order. He hadn't even noticed that by doing so, he was reinforcing the love the twins felt for him. It was as if he had no idea of the strange dynamic that existed between them.
Fred and George, although they had expected a reaction from Harry, found themselves caught up in their own prank. They had never thought that Harry would react in this way. They exchanged a disillusioned look, a sense of loss invading their hearts.
"He's really... impossible!" grumbled Fred. It's like that all the time with him!" added George, frustrated.
Their jealousy overwhelmed them. They couldn't understand why Harry didn't see them as anything other than friends, why their attempts to flirt or seduce seemed to dissipate in the wind. No matter how much they tried to capture his attention, he remained insensitive, as if their relationship was of no importance to him.
On the teachers' side, the reaction to this new farce was mixed. McGonagall, who had been wondering about the twins' attitude toward Harry, seemed almost hopeless.
"How is it that he doesn't see what's going on around him?" she wondered, shaking her head.
Lupin, still in absolute denial, did not even seem ready to admit the reality of the situation. When he learned the extent of the prank, he shook his head, convincing himself inwardly that it was just a distraction.
— "That's right... It's just a game, isn't it?" Lupin whispered, his gaze turned to Harry, who, though angry, showed no awareness of the impact of his words. "He can't understand... He's too young for that."
"Too young?" McGonagall turned to him, his eyes stunned. "Remus, you have to accept reality... He is anything but oblivious to the situation."
But Lupin, faithful to his role as protector, remained in denial. He refused to believe that Harry could understand anything about love or flirting, even though all the clues pointed in the same direction. Harry was in a world of his own, and he didn't seem to understand anything about the situation.
To everyone's chagrin, he continued to focus solely on his studies and adventures, leaving behind the twins' desperate attempts and the others' misunderstanding.
"Love is a friendship that has caught fire. It's quiet, it's serene, it's soft. It's watching over the one who sleeps." — Ann Landers