Chapter 1
“Oh, girls! The post has just arrived! I think there’s invitations here for just about everyone,” Molly Weasley bustled into the drawing room where Ginny and Hermione were sitting, making poor attempts at sewing. Hermione’s sampler was fastidious, just like she was, but Ginny’s- Ginny’s was another matter. Haphazard stitches, knots in the threads on the back - clearly not a product that was going to pass the Molly Weasley sniff test for achievements in needlework.
Molly sighed and just handed the invitations to the girls, who had unceremoniously dropped their embroidery hoops and needles on the ground in their excitement to grab the expensive parchment envelopes. Ginny ripped open the envelope as if she was tearing sheets for bandages. Hermione delicately slid her fingernail under the seal and pulled out the first of two pieces of engraved stationery and started reading aloud:
Christmas Eve Supper and Ball
Miss Hermione J. Granger
Is requested to attend the Supper and Ball,
At the Malfoy Family Manor
On Thursday, 24th of December current,
at 9 o’clock p.m.
Lucius, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy, hosts
“Oh my goodness! We’ve never been invited to that ball! How exciting!” Ginny quickly looked over her own invitation making sure that it said the same thing. Satisfied, she dug into the envelope and pulled out the second piece of parchment, a smaller booklet that had embossed on the front “Ladies Dance Card”.
“Oh, Hermione, look, we get to fill out our own dance cards!” Ginny was positively giddy. “See, here is the list of dances and the line next to it is where you put in the gentleman’s name.” She could tell by the look on Hermione’s face that she was confused by the booklet.
Hermione’s eyes widened as she read the list of dances. “But Ginny, I don’t know half of these dances. What am I going to do?” She sank back down in her chair with a disappointed look on her face. “I can’t go.”
“What? Of course you’re going!” Ginny said. She sat down and leaned conspiratorially into Hermione. “You know you’re going; you probably only have to write down one person’s name,” she said, winking at her.
“Shhh!” Hermione exclaimed. “Don’t let your mother hear you! She’ll want to know immediately what you mean. She’ll be like a dog with a bone; we won’t be able to leave the room until she knows all of our secrets.”
Briefly, Ginny looked embarrassed. She stood up and walked to the doorway and looked in both directions.
“She’s probably in the kitchen, so we’re safe. Now, tell me: did he ask you before he left?”
Hermione blushed a light pink. “He did. He wanted to make sure that I knew he would be coming back home for it. Seeing his name on the invitation makes my heart leap. It has been too long since we have seen each other.” She stared out the window dreamily.
“Well, we have two months to teach you the dances you do not know. It will be a nice surprise. Now, let us look at these dance cards.” Ginny grabbed Hermione’s hand and dragged her into the hallway and up the stairs to the room they shared.
Later that evening at supper, everyone at the table was talking about the ball. The only one not attending was Ronald, as he was part of the Royal Navy and out at sea. Hermione felt guilt about being happy that he wouldn’t be there; she had been rebuffing his advances for the past twelve months when he was at home. If he attended, he would insist on defending her honor and the evening would dissolve into a brawl, which absolutely could not be allowed to happen.
“I received an owl from Bill today,” Molly said to anyone who would listen. “He explained that he had received his invitation early since he was in France. He wanted to inform me of his intention to bring a young lady whose acquaintance he had made during his work at Beauxbatons breaking a dark magic curse somewhere on their grounds. She is a professor there and an alumna as well. I believe he called her ‘Fleur’,” she finished.
Ginny took one look at Hermione and the two girls burst into peals of laughter. Ginny’s brothers looked at them like they were fish from the pond behind the house who had sprouted legs and decided to walk out of the water, breathing air and everything.
“What, pray tell, is so amusing that you must guffaw at the supper table like a couple of miners at a pub?” Molly was quite disgusted by their giggles.
“Oh Mother!” Ginny dabbed her eyes with her napkin, before taking a sip of water. “He’s bringing a girl from Beauxbaton? They are tres horrible ! So vain and high-handed! Oh, she is going to be unbearable!” She rolled her eyes at the thought.
“Now, Genevra Molly Weasley, when that girl comes to this house, you will be courteous and polite and make her feel comfortable. If you do not, you will not go to the ball,” Molly admonished Ginny.
“Oh alright, fine. I’ll just have to give Bill a piece of my mind when he comes home. Doesn’t he know he’s not allowed to fall in love? He is supposed to come home and teach me more about curse breaking, not follow some snippy chit about like a lovesick puppy,” Ginny sniffed. Bill was her favorite brother, and she did not want him to be smitten with anybody, let alone someone from “that french school”.
The twins laughed at the thought of Bill following anyone around like an infatuated boy; as the oldest, he always set the example for the rest of the Weasley children and the bar was high. They looked up to him in such a way that he could do no wrong.
“You mean—”
“—like this?”
George immediately turned into a simpering girl while Fred pretended to fawn over “her” and give beseeching looks of love.
Ginny and Hermione fell into paroxysms of laughter once again. All Molly could do was stand up, put her hands on her hips and say, “Well, I never!” and begin clearing the supper plates.
“Girls! Come help me with the dishes,” she called from the kitchen.
Arthur Weasley, ever silent the entire time, covered a smile and, trying to keep a straight face, said, “You’d best do what she asked, girls, or there will be hell to pay.” He shooed them away and turned to his twin sons. “Boys, do you never stop poking fun at others?”
The twins didn’t even have to look at each other. “Never,” they replied in unison. Arthur merely shook his head and focused on getting Hermione and Ginny into the kitchen.