Baked Ravioli
In the early morning of the next day, Harry got up early with a heavy heart. Just happened to see Parvati and Lavender coming in through the hole behind the portrait. So he decided to do something this time, and decisively invited Parvati to the dance together.
Harry waited for her burst of giggles to pass before helping Ron extend an invitation to Lavender.
"She's promised Seamus," said Parvati, and they both laughed harder.
Well, at least he tried.
"How about Hermione Granger?" Parvati said.
"She has promised someone else."
Parvati looked very surprised.
"Oh—who?" she asked eagerly.
Harry shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know.
Finally Parvati said slowly that she could ask her sister Padma in Ravenclaw for help.
Although the professors gave the fourth graders a lot of homework during the holidays, after the half-term was over, there was no mind to do homework at all.
The people in Gryffindor Tower were almost the same as before the holidays, and the tower seemed to have shrunk because the people living in it were noisier than usual.
Fred and George's canary biscuits were selling well, and every now and then, during the first day or two of the holiday, someone would suddenly start to grow feathers all over their bodies. But soon the Gryffindors learned their lesson and were very wary of the food being handed, in case there was a canary biscuit hidden in the middle.
George confidently told Harry that he and Fred were working on another new product (while winking at Hermione, who was digging through her notes, who pretended to ignore it).
George entered the bedroom door with the few remaining stocks.
"What takes you so long?"
Fred had just come back, too, and was taking off his cloak and hanging it on the coat rack by the bed.
"Of course it's because the sales have been so good recently." George kicked off his shoes and fell on his back on the bed. "Big thanks to your little Hermione. Absolutely 100% quality assurance and zero after-sales service needed."
Fred walked over and kicked George's calf, picked up the tall glass with half a glass of water on the desk and drank it in one gulp.
"Hey, brother, you need to speed up a bit. I'm telling you, I saw that guy Krum peeping at Hermione in the library several times, and they talked. You have to speed up."
"You? In library?" Fred put down his water glass, rolled up his shirt sleeves and sat down beside the bed. "It can't be about homework. Oh, let me guess, Olivia is probably there."
"Why can't you admit for once maybe I like reading books or something……Anyway, pay attention to the key points," George said in a tone that was obviously experienced, "The point is that Hermione agreed to your invitation is just the first step. If you don’t strike while the iron is hot, there will be risks, understand？”
Fred untied his tie and tugged at the neckline, "Wow George, you know a lot. Then tell me, what step have you progressed to？"
"The current plan is to wow Olivia at the prom with my glamorous moves and then have her fall for me before the end of the school year."
"I bet one Gallon you will fall for her before she falls for you." After finishing speaking, he paused, "No, ten Galleons haha."
"Impossible."
"Anyway, help me think about what to wear to the dance. Can you believe it, I has suffered from insomnia for this whole week."
George laughed back and forth, "What are you worrying about？Just like the last time in the swimming pool, you can just be naked." He smirked, "Can't you tell already? Hermione can't talk to you without blushing now, obviously she likes your body haha."
"Do you think if it's that simple, I won't be naked already？"
George suddenly looked over with interest and inquiring eyes.
"Wow, I didn't see this in you, Fred," he squeezed his voice sharply on purpose, "You're a pervert！"
When Lee Jordan came in to the dorm, he found them rolling dramaticly on the ground.
Snow fell heavily on the castle and grounds. Beauxbaton's light blue carriage looked like a big frosted pumpkin in winter, and the little gingerbread house next to it was Hagrid's hut. There was a layer of ice, and it became smooth and translucent, and the rigging was also stained with a layer of hoarfrost.
The house-elves in the kitchen below were too busy preparing hot stews and sweet puddings in a variety of flavors. According to Fred and George, the menu even includes baked ravioli. Only Fleur de la Cour is able to find an excuse to complain a few words.
"The food at Hogwarts is too greasy," Hermione heard her say, frowning as they left the Great Hall at night (Ron hid behind Harry so that Fleur might not see him). "It's not healthy."
"Oh, that would be too bad," said Hermione bluntly, watching Fleur come out of the Great Hall and into the foyer. "She thinks about herself all the time, doesn't she？"
"Hermione - who are you going to the dance with?" Ron asked.
Recently Ron always asked her that question out of the blue, expecting her to be surprised and tell the truth when she was least prepared. But the witty Hermione just smiled and said, "I won't tell you."
"Are you kidding, Weasley!" Malfoy's voice suddenly sounded behind them,"Why would someone invited her to the dance? That big-toothed mudblood?"
Harry and Ron turned sharply, but Hermione waved to someone behind Malfoy and said loudly, "Hello, Professor Moody!"
Malfoy paled, jumped back, and looked around in panic, looking for Moody, who was still sitting at the staff table, eating his portion of the stew.
"You're a twitching little ferret, aren't you, Malfoy?" said Hermione tartly, and laughed happily as she walked up the marble stairs with Harry and Ron.
"Hermione," said Ron, looking sideways at her and frowning suddenly, "your teeth..."
"What's wrong?" said Hermione.
"Oh my god, they're different...I just noticed..."
"Of course they're different—what, you expect me to keep the tusks Malfoy gave me?"
"No, I mean, they're not the same as they were before Malfoy put that spell on you... They're all... very neat and - and normal in size."
Hermione laughed very mischievously all of a sudden, and Harry noticed it too: Hermione's smile was indeed quite different from what he remembered.
"It's like this……When I went to Madam Pomfrey to shrink those enchanted tusks, she held up a mirror and said to me, tell her to stop when the teeth return to their previous normal state." Hermione Said, "I just... let her overdo it a little bit." She smiled wider. "Mom and Dad won't be happy. I've been trying to persuade them to let me reduce my teeth for years, but they want me to stick to it. That set of orthodontic wire frames. They're dentists, you know, and they don't think teeth and magic should be—look! Piggy's back!"
So the three hurried back to Gryffindor Tower to read the letter. Everyone in the common room is too busy blowing off some excess energy from the holidays to watch what everyone else is doing. They avoided the crowd, sat at a dimly lit window that was slowly being covered by snow, and discussed the letter.
"He speaks exactly like Moody," whispered Harry, stuffing the letter back into his robes, "'Stay alert at all times!' As if I've been walking with my eyes closed all day, bumping into walls..."
"But he's right, Harry," said Hermione, "you've got two projects to finish. You should really look at that golden egg and figure out what it means……"
"Hermione, it's still early!" Ron pushed her back. "Want to play a game of chess, Harry?"
"Okay, no problem," said Harry. He saw the expression on Hermione's face in a blink of an eye, and quickly said, "Okay, okay, how can I concentrate in such a mess here? I can't even hear the cry of the golden egg amidst all the noise."
"Oh, you're right." Hermione sighed, and sat down to watch them play chess. In the end, Ron used a pair of rampant pawns and a cruel bishop to check Harry to death, and the scene was thrilling.
On the morning of the Yule Ball, Harry and Ron met Hermione in the common room and went downstairs to breakfast together. But she didn't come. On the way back after breakfast, they saw Hermione and Ginny whispering in the corridor on the second floor.
"...you have to hurry up and help me choose a decent evening dress, the ones I wear seem to be too short..."
Ron looked in horror at Harry, who was still eating half of the pumpkin pie in his hand: "Well...Harry, you are absolute sure that my partner will show up right？"
But once in the Gryffindor common room, he changed his tone and whispered to Harry again: "Well, I think it's kind of sad, Hermione must make all those excuses up because no one invited her to be a dance partner. It's a pity, I wanted to help her before."
Harry nodded wildly in silence (Hermione had actually told Harry about her dance partner the day before), waiting for Ron to shoot himself in the foot later.
Most of the students stayed in Gryffindor Tower almost the whole morning, admiring the gifts they received. They then returned to the Great Hall for a sumptuous lunch of at least a hundred turkeys and a heaping pile of Christmas puddings, with mountains of Cribbage wizard crackers.
In the afternoon, they came to the field outside. The snow was white, and almost no one had stepped on it, except for a deep footprint made by the students of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons when they returned to the castle.
Hermione only wanted to watch Harry and Ron have a snowball fight, but she refused to participate. At five o'clock, she said she would go back upstairs to prepare for the dance.
"What, you need three hours?" Ron asked, looking at her incredulously. When he was so distracted, he was hit hard on the cheek by a big snowball thrown by George.
"Who are you going with?" he called to Hermione's back, but Hermione just waved her hand and walked into the castle on the stone steps.