Lemon Ginger Milk Tea
There will be no Christmas tea today because there is a feast at the dance.
At seven o'clock, the sky became dark and it was not easy to aim, so the others gave up the snowball fight and returned to the common room together. The Fat Lady sat in a frame with her friend Violet downstairs, both very drunk, with several empty boxes of booze thrown at the bottom of her portrait.
"Brilliant Light, yes, that's right!" She listened to their password, giggling, and turned away to let them in.
Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville all looked awkward as they changed into their dress robes in the upstairs dormitory.
"I don't understand how you two managed to get the prettiest girl in the class," Dean muttered.
"Opposites attract," Ron replied sullenly, pulling the thread out of his cuff. The common room looks weird, the people inside are no longer all black robes, but colorful dress robes.
Parvati was waiting for Harry at the bottom of the stairs. She looked very pretty indeed, in a garish pink gown, her jet-black hair braided with gold ribbons, and gold bracelets gleaming on her wrists.
Harry was relieved to see that she wasn't giggling. Ron looked around and asked, "Where's Hermione?"
Parvati shrugged. "Padma will be here soon. Let's go down, shall we, Harry?"
When Harry came out of the portrait hole, he met Fred who came in, and Fred gave him a mischievous wink with a paper bag in his hand.
The foyer was also full of students, all circling back and forth, waiting for eight o'clock, when the doors of the auditorium would open.
Some people want to meet their dance partners, so they squeeze sideways through the crowd, looking for each other's figure. Parvati finally found her sister, Padma, and brought her over to meet Harry and Ron.
"Hello," said Padma, who was as pretty as her sister in a bright green gown. She didn't seem too interested in Ron as her partner, though.
Her dark eyes looked up and down at Ron, resting on the fuzzy collar and cuffs of his dress robe.
"Hello," said Ron, but instead of looking at her, he looked around the crowd. "Oh, shit..." He bent his knees slightly and hid behind Harry as Fleur Delacour approached. She was stunningly beautiful in her silver-gray satin gown, and by her side was Roger Davies, captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.
When they were far away, Ron straightened up again and looked over the crowd into the distance. "Did you see Hermione?" he asked.
A group of Slytherins came up the steps from their underground common room. Malfoy was at the front, wearing a black velvet gown with a high collar, and Pansy Parkinson next to him was wearing a frilly, breastless pale pink gown, hanging tightly on Malfoy's arm.
Crabbe and Goyle were both green like mossy boulders, and neither of them could find a partner. Harry caught sight of the nearest stone pillar, and George, in a white morning coat, was talking to his dance partner, Olivia, with a rare serious face.
Today, Olivia wore double braids and a lovely bright yellow skirt. Facing George's gaze, she was lowering her head and fiddling with the little cotton sliver on the skirt.
The oaken front door was opened, and everyone turned to see Durmstrang's student walking in with Professor Karkaroff. Krum walked in the front, wearing a black and red knight uniform and a bright red cloak, and beside him seemed to be a girl from Ravenclaw, she was wearing a blue square collar mermaid skirt. Over their heads, a lawn in front of the castle was transformed into a grotto, dotted with fairy lights - meaning there were hundreds of living fairies, sitting in enchanted rose bushes , or flapping their wings over statues that appear to be Santa Claus and his reindeer. The candlelight and firelight gradually dimmed, and the noise in the crowd gradually weakened and became quieter.
The walls of the Great Hall began to shimmer with silvery frost, and from the ceiling a starry night sky hung with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe sprigs and ivy. Gone were the four house tables, replaced by a hundred small, lantern-lit tables, with a dozen people sitting at each table. The warriors and dance partners were led by Professor McGonagall to get ready outside the auditorium gate, and the symphony orchestra under the frosty Christmas tree was ready to play at any time. They filed in and walked towards a large round table with referees sitting at the front of the auditorium. Everyone in the auditorium stood up and applauded enthusiastically.
Harry was pulled like a pet dog by Parvati, and greeted the cheering crowd. Suddenly his gaze fell on the girl next to Fred in a casual suit. He opened his mouth wide in surprise.
It's Hermione.
Even though Harry had known this earlier, he was taken aback. Because now she didn't look like Hermione at all.
Hermione had done something to her hair, and it was no longer shaggy, but smooth and shiny, and it was pulled back into a very elegant bun with pearly pearl flowers embedded in it. She was wearing a gown made of a flowing pale pink-purple fabric, and somehow she had a different air—she looked so relaxed.
She was smiling charmingly, and Harry wondered how he hadn't noticed it before.
"Hello, Harry!" she said, "Hello, Parvati!"
Parvati stared at Hermione with unabashed suspicion. She is not alone in doing so. Pansy Parkinson glared at Hermione as she passed on Malfoy's arm, and even Malfoy couldn't seem to find a word to insult her.
Ron, on the other hand, walked right past Hermione without even looking at her.
After the queue of warriors was seated, the candlelight in the hall brightened again. In a soothing and peaceful tune, Dumbledore announced the official start of the dinner and immediately ordered pork chops on his plate with great excitement.
Glancing at the small menu, Hermione at the round table ordered lamb and potato stew for herself on a shiny golden plate. Fred leaned over beside her.
"Little Hermione, would you like some exotic delicacies? I heard that the elves have specially prepared all kinds of dishes from various countries."
A dish of braised eggplant and a small piece of sesame naan immediately appeared on the plate in front of Hermione.
"Let's start with the most popular Chinese food." He gentlemanly folded the napkin at hand and placed it in front of Hermione, and the same dishes were on his own plate.
Hermione's eyes were drawn to the sesame naan. She broke the naan in half, looked at it, and creatively dipped it in the oily eggplant juice and put it in her mouth.
Much harder than buttered bread and softer than the tough baguettes and pizza sides. Thought Hermione. Moisturized by the oily eggplant juice, the sesame seeds in the naan are more fragrant.
Fred smiled softly: "Is it delicious?"
Hermione nodded, her lips have the color of crabapple petals smeared with oil.
Fred mysteriously took out a paper bag from under the table, took out a drink from it and put it in Hermione's hand.
"Try it."
Hermione sniffed it cautiously, picked it up and took a sip.
"What do you think?"
"It's delicious," Hermione frowned slightly, "truth time, did you steal it from the kitchen again?"
"Don't worry, Miss Granger, those poor cute elves didn't have to work too much," Fred said with a serious face, "They are already busy enough, aren't they? George ordered the drink for Olivia from Diagon Alley. Lemon Ginger milk tea for birthday, it just so happens that that guy owes me money for a meal, and he just made it up with this."
Hermione laughed when she heard the words, "Talking about meals, then imagine how much I owe you."
"Not a single meal," Fred said, twirling the joyful golden fork in his hand, with a suppressed laugh in his voice, "because little Hermione and George can't be compared."
"Then thank George for me." She took another sip of the milk tea, "It's really delicious."
"Drink it slowly, I just warmed it up. Wouldn't it be cold to wear so thin?" Fred said as he took off his ice lake blue suit jacket and draped it gently on her shoulders.
Hermione froze for a moment, thanked him in a low voice and couldn't help but look sideways.
He was looking up in the direction of the symphony orchestra, under the bridge of his nose, the corners of his lips were slightly raised. Without the cover of the suit jacket, a white dark pattern shirt was revealed, without a tie. The neckline buttons are slightly open, leaving a gap of two buttons.
"Do I look handsome today? Hmm?" His voice suddenly came out, even a little hoarse.
Hermione's face flushed red again.
"I like when you're looking at me." Fred tilted his head, blinked his clear eyes, and smiled nonchalantly, "I always do."
Only then did Hermione see a small spike earring protruding from his left ear amidst the unruly orange-red hair.
She found herself having a sudden urge to touch Fred's ear.
Calm down.
Please.
Hermione hastily scooped up a spoonful of soup and brought it to her mouth. At this time, there was already rich French onion soup on the plate.
"Little Hermione, I've actually always had an opinion on your organization and maintenance of house elves."
Hermione stopped what she was doing and turned her head.
"I think instead of forcing them to be a free elf like Dobby," the napkin turned into a flower in Fred's hand, "it's better to do it step by step, after all, they need a process. The concept of freedom needs time, right?"
"Why suddenly? Don't worry, I won't drag you into what Ron said about 'vomiting'—"
"That's not 'vomit', someday George and I will have to teach him a lesson. George left a couple of magic toys and clip art magazines on the kitchen stove last weekend, and he swore he saw two house-elves showing a conflicted and curious look."
"Didn't see that you and George cared so much about them."
"Next time I will take you to the kitchen and show you around."
Everyone seemed to have finished eating, Dumbledore stood up and asked the students to stand up too. Then with a flick of his wand, all the tables whizzed away to the wall, leaving an open space in between. He also conjured up a high stage, attached to the right wall, on which stood a drum kit, some guitars, a lute, a cello, and several organs.
The dance is started by the warriors, first a solo dance with a partner, and then a collective round dance.
The Weird Sisters in the middle of the stage played a slow, sad tune.
Harry was sweating as he nearly stumbled over his dress robes as he walked onto the brightly lit dance floor, Seamus and Dean waving at him and snickering. Parvati grabbed both of Harry's hands, one was around her waist, and the other was tightly squeezed in her hand.
Krum's Ravenclaw partner's beautiful mermaid dress drew admiration from the crowd, but Krum looked sullen.
Fleur and Roger are doing a very difficult acrobatic dance. He seemed to be in disbelief that he was so lucky to get a dance partner like Furong, and he couldn't take his eyes off her for a moment.
Cedric and Qiu danced in a more traditional way, and Qiu's bright-colored cheongsam showed her curves to the fullest. Cedric's hands clung to the hem of her tube skirt.
Soon, many people also entered the dance floor, and the warrior was no longer the center of everyone's attention. A few Beauxbaton girls danced their glittering open-back gowns, to the sound of whistles.
"Would you like to dance with me, my little Hermione?"
Hermione raised her head and bumped right into Fred's shinny eyes with a handsome smile.